Chapter Text
The air around Takemichi was suffocatingly thick.
Everything around him was in absolute chaos.
Rowdy delinquents were fighting left and right trying to satisfy their twisted feelings of pride to overpower the other.
The battle of the three deities they said?
It was no more than a glorified kid’s brawl than anything.
The only thing is, as immature as they come, they decided to take it too far.
Takemichi could only stare at his friend lying before him.
The aftermath left Draken soaked to the bone in the rain, his body riddled with holes and stained red with his own blood.
Just what fuck was happening?
Grunts and shouts of the commotion behind him fell deaf on his ears
He came back to fix everything right?
Draken tried his best to stay awake, but was over all resigned to his fate
Why was this happening to him?
Was wishing for everyone’s happiness too much to ask?
He couldn’t understand.
Why?
Why?
Why?
Takemitchi wracked his brain for answers. He dwelled into the inner workings of his mind to find out why, but his panic and inner hysteria left him empty handed.
He couldn't process anything anymore.
It was too much even for him.
Takemitchi was helpless against his own despair yet again.
—---------------------------
Draken craned his neck to look at Takemitchy, heaving small shallow breaths.
This was it for him. He was at the end of the line and he knew his time was up.
He thought that Emma would scold him for being so reckless….
Getting himself shot like this in the middle of the street.
It has been two years already, but Draken thought she’d definitely cry over him. But he did not regret his decision. Takemichi saved his life after all, so he supposed it was the right thing to do.
Draken blinked once, twice, his vision was getting blurry.
Memories flashed before his eyes. It was a short yet eventful life, Draken pondered with smile.
His glory days during Toman were the happiest he has ever been.
What he found there was something more than friends.
It was family.
Toman was his treasure, and the memories that they shared will be with him even in the afterlife.
Draken just hoped leaving them behind would not affect them too much.
He knows they would understand his choice, of laying down his life for their crybaby of a friend.
He has honorably repaid his life debt.
And so, Draken supposed, it was his time to go.
He has lost the feeling in limbs.
It was just a matter of minutes now, with the amount of blood seeping out of him like an oil spill, it was a no brainer that he was, in fact, about to die.
He was just thankful that what little adrenaline left in his body distracted him from feeling the bullets in his body.
It was quite a peaceful way to go, Draken thought, despite it all.
His eyelids were getting heavy.
With the last of his energy, he looked at Takemitchi.
It was now or never.
"Take care of Mikey for me." Draken muttered to Takemitchi beside him. His worried voice muffled in his ears.
He gave his last long meaningful stare at his friend, smiling gently, before closing his eyes for the last time.
He had no regrets.
He’s had a good life, and like they always say, all good things must come to an end.
Ever so slowly, against the will of the people that cared about him the most, Draken embraced his death.
A vision of the woman he loved appeared before him-
Emma
She was still as beautiful as he remembered.
There she was, offering him her hand like she always did, beckoning him to rest with her in the afterlife.
Draken can’t really deny her anything, and so, he took her hand, eager to be with her again.
Smiling at each other, the two departed into the light.
At long last, they were finally together.
—---------------------------
It was cold, Takemitchi decided.
But not as cold as Draken's lifeless body.
His wet clothes clung to his body like glue, chilling even the deepest crevices of his soul.
Somewhere, something within Takemitchi snapped.
The tears just wouldn't fall from his now dead eyes.
He's done and fucked up again. In the worst way possible.
How was he supposed to look at his friends anymore? Knowing that he was the cause of this?
If only……he wasn’t selfish.
If only……he made the right decision.
If only he didn’t drag people into his suicide mission to somehow get Mikey to understand reason and stop this nonsense, then Draken would’ve still be alive.
Takemichi was slowly losing his grip on reality.
Everything started morphing around him, nauseating him to the core.
Right here, right now,
For the first time in a while,
Nothing mattered.
Takeomi’s screams of vengeance, Senju’s worried calls, and the whole stupidity of the shitshow in front of him was tuned out from Takemitchi’s head.
He didn’t care for anything else except the blood on his hands.
Another mark of his irreversible failure.
There was no going back, and now, he had to face the consequences of his actions.
Takemichi can't take it anymore.
Just how many times must he repeat this endless cycle?
Why was he even given the power to go back, if the things he so desperately tried to change for the future just turn for the worse
Every.
Single.
Time?
What was even the point anymore?
It was starting to get real tiring.
“How about I just end it all?” Takemichi thought, entertaining the idea that screamed at the back of his head.
Creaking his tired joints he stood up from what felt like hours sitting and staring at his friend’s corpse.
He could vaguely hear Senju asking him if he was alright, as he was being unresponsive for the last five minutes now.
“Minutes? It definitely felt longer than that.”
He felt as if he was in a state of limbo, blanking in and out of consciousness, but not exactly.
He just.
Didn’t want to think anymore.
He just wanted to be stuck somewhere he could run away from everything.
Like he has always done.
Or maybe he already was,
The idea of time was no longer as fixed as he thought it to be.
And that way of thinking was what led him to his downfall.
Takemitchi has grown accustomed to the mentality that he could always fix things with his ability, with zero repercussions.
That there would always be a way to change the future, and that if he ever did find a happy future, it would stay that way even if he decided to go back.
Oh how wrong he was.
Did he not learn from his previous mistakes?
Baji.
Emma.
Izana.
And now, a new addition to the group, Draken.
Has the feeling of death not solidified his fears of failure anymore?
Apparently not.
And so, one Hanagaki Takemitchi will learn his lesson today, for the very last time.
—---------------------------
Senju was seriously regretting her decisions.
Her carelessness caused someone's life.
Sure she left those on the receiving end of her kicks with bruises, or broken bones at most.
But losing a life?
That scenario was something that was unprecedented, yet at the same time, highly probable.
It was a situation involving ruthless gangs such as Rokuhara Tandai and Kanto Manji Gang after all.
So maybe death was the anticipated ending of this war.
But what Senju didn’t expect was the death being Draken’s.
She could only watch as her brother lost composure and started raising hell towards the opposing gang.
Voice loud and seething in anger.
Rough punches, deadly kicks, and spiteful shouts all thrown against those involved with the shooting.
Senju tried to get her brother to calm the fuck down and think but no, of course not. He doesn’t listen to her at all.
Her concerns were growing by the second, as she glanced at the still boy a few meters away from her.
Hanagaki Takemitchi was his name.
They’ve only been friends for a short while, but she was very fond of the boy. He went along with her antics, and provided good company.
He even promised to eat choco mint ice cream with her again.
She found his determination charming, quite the character really, which is why she was feeling very anxious looking at him.
He stood as still as a rock unresponsive to anything and everything around him.
He looked paralyzed.
A part of her understood the shock of death, she herself was very unfamiliar with it. But what scared her the most was his eyes.
The difference between his eyes a few days ago compared to now was as different as night and day.
They looked so lost- so……
Lifeless.
Their shine long gone and was left with the empty husk of the character he used to be.
Funny how people change in an instant.
“Hanagaki! Are you……..alright?”
There was no response. Takemitchi only stood there in a daze, uncaring of her concerns.
Senju approached the forlorn boy tentatively.
Takemitchi looked relatively volatile right now. She didn’t want to push his buttons. He’s gone through so much, it was the least she could do.
She put her hand on his shoulder turning him towards her, still no response.
Senju gently shook his shoulders to effectively snap him out of it, which thankfully worked.
“Hanagaki, are you alright?” She asked him once more, this time actually earning a response.
“Huh, uh, yeah I guess….?” Takemitchi whispered, now looking at the white haired girl emptily.
It sounded more of a question than an answer really.
She wanted to ask him if he truly was, but he interrupted her before she could speak.
“Hey Senju..?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m tired”
“I know.”
Takemitchi looked so defeated, and yet, somehow relieved at the same time
He looked as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he was no Atlas.
Takemitchi walked away from her without a word, and his destination was something that really set off alarm bells in Senju’s head.
He was heading towards the devil himself.
Mikey.