Chapter Text
Izana.
There’s a persistent ringing in Haruka’s ears. His worldview suddenly tunnels to the bright red patches laying on the palm of his hand. He never expected to see this design again, after the last time.
Flashes of a memory play before his eyes.
The gentle clinking of acrylic earrings as they flutter with the wind. A head tilting in slight interest as the person watches the fights below, white hair glowing under the illuminating shine of pier lights. Lavender eyes, flat and apathetic even from the far distance of Haruka’s vantage point.
His brother.
The brother that Shinichiro hid from them. The brother separated from them.
The brother that killed Emma and is going after Mikey next.
Thinking back on it, Haruka knew why he was banned from watching this particular Toman conflict. He was being protected, of course, from the reality of the Sano family. A family cursed to bring tragedy to each other and those closest to them.
But he had to see this through. This is his family, and he’ll see the end of this battle no matter the outcome.
And so, Haruka watched.
He stood by as Peh-yan initially decimated Tenjiku forces, only to be brought down by a single snap of Izana’s kick. He clenches his fists as the Haitani brothers face off against Angry and Hakkai, satisfaction simmering in his veins as Angry defeats them and Mucho in a decisive victory.
He ignores the slight flutter in his heart as he watches Chifuyu protect and support Takemitchy as the first division captain stands his ground against the remainder of Tenjiku’s top fighters.
And he burns in pride as he watches Mikey arrive with Draken at his side, his back straight and strong as he heads for their swaying and bloodied friend. While Sano men may be unstable and stubborn in their ways, they are reliable in their love for their family. And Toman is family, though some are closer to their hearts than others.
He watches his older brothers fight and Haruka wonders, not for the first time, how Shinichiro would have reacted to all of this. He would have cried, maybe.
Shinichiro may have been infamous for his weakness and tears as the Commander of the Black Dragons, but Haruka has never known him as anything other than his reliable and kind brother. Though, at times, he’ll catch Shinichiro with a look in his eyes as he watches his siblings play and laugh.
It was a dark look. Like he would have killed anyone that disrupted their peace.
A sharp sound startles Haruka from his musings. Gun shots, he realized in fear. Multiple ones, as well filled the air and traveled to his sensitive ears. It was the shots that truly sealed the fate of his family.
To this day, many years later, Haruka still dreams of the red that bloomed beneath Izana that night, like a red spider lily.
“Sakura-kun,” a gentle hand lands lightly onto Haruka’s tensed shoulders. Suo’s unexpected touch jolts the Grade Captain from his memories and helps him refocus on the dire situation of the present. Not that anyone in the room would know.
With the presence of the badges in his hand, it’s clear to Haruka that his time is quickly running out. He needs a plan, and he needs it quickly.
With heat creeping up his neck, Haruka softly knocks his vice captain’s hand off his person. “Hands off! You wanna fight or something?” He gruffly questions, refusing to meet Suo’s eyes as his blush finally reaches his cheeks.
“Great, you made it back to the land of the living. Have you been paying attention to the plan, at all?” Kaji asks, gnawing on the empty stick of his lollipop.
Haruka rolls his heterochromatic eyes at his upperclassman’s sass. “No,” he deadpans.
Hiragi sighs at their attitude and downs another one of his stomach medication pills. “Now’s not the time for arguing, you two. Sakura, your class is tasked with asking the townsfolk if they’ve seen those symbols or men anywhere. Kaji’s group will be helping Umemiya and I in questioning the guys who ambushed you.”
At Hiragi’s orders, Haruka feels a muscle in his cheek jump in agitation and he opens his mouth without thinking.
“I wouldn’t waste my time, if I were you.”
The moment the words were said, Haruka wishes he could take them back. It’s suspicious to advise against questioning their attackers and he knows it is. But he couldn’t help it, Haruka needs Furin to stay out of any business that could lead back to the former Kanto Manji gang and his past.
This entire situation was orchestrated by them, he knows it deep within his bones. No other group would be so bold to use this particular calling card on him. Distantly, he wonders if Mikey was aware of his loyal dog’s actions, using their brother’s memory against him. Truly, even in death, Izana is refused his rest.
As he watches his seniors, Haruka feels trepidation grow in the pit of his stomach as Umemiya’s eyes take on a shine of interest as they focus on the Second Grade Captain.
Umemiya tilts his head to the side slightly as he asks, “Why’s that, Sakura?”
Haruka’s mouth twists in frustration as his ears begin to burn from the attention now pinned on him. “These patches,” he reluctantly says as he holds the hanafuda patches up to Umemiya’s line of sight. “I recognize their symbol, so I don’t think those guys will talk.”
With his confession, Haruka observes as his seniors stiffen at his reveal. They have questions, questions he has no intention of answering honestly. He’s lived a number of years holding his secrets close to his heart, he’ll be damned if he gives them up.
Watching as Umemiya shifts his body to further hone in on Haruka, he braces himself for the oncoming interrogation.
However, it’s Suo who steps into his line of sight and peers at his captain’s face. “Are you sure you’re not mistaken, Sakura-kun,” he questions. “Not even Nirei has any knowledge of that symbol.”
Haruka meets his vice captain’s eye with a narrowed gaze of his own. “You saying I’m lying?”
Nirei bolts upright at the tension between his friends and begins to flutter his hands between them in a panic, his concussion and injuries forgotten with a spike of adrenaline. “He-he doesn’t mean it like that, Sakura-san! It-it’s just not like you to pay attention and remember small details like a hanafuda design is all!”
Shutting his eyes and taking a calming breath, Haruka attempts to quell his growing temper. They’re right, after all. It’s a Sano trait to have a shitty memory over things that don’t interest them, on the male side at least.
But that doesn’t make the way Nirei phrased it any less annoying.
“Yeah, well, it’s not like I had a choice,” he snaps. “No dumbass that’s a part of Japan’s delinquent or gang world would be stupid enough to be sewing this shit onto their member’s clothes.”
”What’s that supposed to mean,” Kaji asks with knitted brows.
Releasing a heavy sigh, Haruka barks out a call of Nirei’s name. As the boy squeaks in answer, he asks, “What do you know about the Kanto region’s gangs?”
The temperature in the room drops at Haruka’s question.
“Ah,” Nirei begins to shake in anxiety. “I don’t have anything other than rumors. Definitely no names or physical description, but I’ve heard whispers and stories of the brutality and carnage from the turf wars…”
Haruka lets out a snort at that. Turf wars, my ass, he thinks. Truth be told, many of the Kanto region’s incidents were caused by strained family relationships and conflicts between former friends. To outsiders, though, territory disagreements would make more sense.
“Exactly,” the Grade Captain says. “If I remember right, an old commander from one of the Kanto region’s gangs used to wear hanafuda earrings with this same design. He was extremely strong and cruel, so he was respected and feared by a lot of people. Plus, from what I know, the guy was batshit insane towards his gang and non-members. If those guys who ambushed us are members, they won’t talk.”
If they even stay alive long enough to be questioned, is what Haruka doesn’t say. He wouldn’t put it past Sanzu or Koko to have them use concealed poison as an out if they’re captured. The little white lie, talking about Tenjiku as if it were still an established gang, slides out of his mouth easily. Even if these guys wanted to investigate behind Haruka's back, they'll only be met with dead ends.
This isn't Tenjiku's work after all. Izana and Kakucho were long dead.
“And why can’t we go around questioning people for this group then, huh?” Kaji grounds out, the lollipop stick flattened by the grinding of his teeth.
Haruka feels his face scrunch up into outraged confusion. “What do ya mean ‘why’?” he says in disbelief. “The Kanto region’s delinquents and gangs have pretty much gone underground after all the shit that went down a few years ago. Cops started cracking down on their asses, so everyone and everything gang or crime related went silent.”
It’s only after his hissed rant that Haruka notices the silence pervading the hospital room. His eyes make a quick sweep around the room and his face reddens into a furious shade of fuchsia red as he finally clocks the others’ surprised expression.
“What,” he barks. “Why are you all staring at me like creeps? You wanna fight or something?”
Umemiya lets out a loud laugh, causing Haruka to cover his ringing ears from the unexpected volume. He can only just see Hiragi swallow a handful more pills from his squinted eyes. “No, no,” he chuckles. “It’s just–How do you even know these things about gangs, Sakura? Did you get into trouble before moving here to lovely Makochi,” the former Furin commander teases.
Haruka feels his eye twitch as he pushes back the fleeting memories of fights and gravestones that flashed through his mind at Umemiya’s question. “Screw you,” he snaps. “Whatever. Listen to me or don’t, you’re just wasting your time.”
“Then what should we do, since you seem to know more than us.”
Turning towards the voice, Haruka catches sight of Kaji tossing the abused lollipop stick into the trash finally before the older focuses all his attention on him. “And how do you know all this shit if those gangs have gone close-mouthed, anyway?”
Sensing the slight hostility from his senior, Haruka internally braces himself for this discussion. He loves Makochi more than he loved Shibuya, so he’s willing to part with a small token of his past. One that doesn’t really matter, in the grand scheme of things.
“We should leave it the fuck alone,” is what he says. He stands from his seat and heads towards the door. He pauses just before fully exiting the room and turns back to his friends. “Look, we’re the ones at a disadvantage here with no way to get more information. Just sit tight and see what they do next, all we can do is prepare and wait at this point.”
Finally, he turns and exits Nirei’s hospital room. “And I know because I lived in Tokyo before coming here, dipshit.” With that, Haruka leaves the hospital and the stunned silence of the room.
***
Under the shine of the full moon’s light, Haruka finds himself at the park he chased Anzai to during the Keel incident. He basks in the silence, only the rhythmic creaking of the rusted swing breaking the monotony of the night.
Haruka knew better than to return to his apartment after vacating the hospital. It’s the first place Suo and Kaji would look for him to demand more answers.
Well fuck that and fuck them, he thinks. They should be grateful he was even willing to reveal that little tidbit, especially considering the circumstances.
It puts him in a precarious position, really, and he knows it. Isn’t it suspicious that the only outsider in Makochi for years comes from a region known for its crime and danger. And, not only that, a gang from this area has mysteriously arrived to ambush that same outsider’s patrolling group.
Yeah, he’s screwed.
Fiddling with his phone, Haruka agonizes over his next move. He’s the one at a disadvantage here, not Furin. The former Kanto Manji members don’t care for them, not really. They’re collateral for the actual motive at work here.
Haruka’s retrieval. Or death. With Sanzu, he’s never really sure which it would be. Knowing that crazy asshole, he'd probably decide on a damn coin toss.
Regardless, Haruka’s location is leaked thanks to Hanma and Sanzu made his initial move by sending that group after his vices.
It was a test to gauge the strength of the people he spends the most of his time with. After all, if one wants to capture the king, they must first defeat his pieces.
So, Haruka bitterly concludes, I’m also most likely being watched.
Fucking fantastic.
Coming to a decision, Haruka unlocks his phone and goes to his contacts. This better not be for nothing.
***
WEATHER
Me:
It’s me. Do you still have tabs on S and KM?
WEATHER:
…WEATHER is typing
***
Somewhere in Tokyo, a phone blares with the sound of an air horn on full volume. A man’s droopy, lilac eyes bleary blink in surprise at the noise and nearly decides to go back to sleep before it registers in his brain who messaged him.
Sitting upright, he groans as the world spins around him in a drunken haze. Of all the nights for that brat to contact him, it had to be when he got so piss drunk he could barely make it home in one piece.
Unlocking his phone, he hisses in discomfort at the bright light emitting from the screen. His light sensitivity is through the roof with how much he drank. However, after reading and re-reading the unexpected text, the man can feel himself come back to sobriety at an alarming speed.
Quickly, heart in his throat, his calloused fingers fly on his keyboard. With slivers of moonlight coming in through the gaps of haphazardly closed curtains, a red drop earring glints.