Work Text:
Despite all the great desire of Kazutora to kill Badji, the highlighted one is only stopped by a miracle. Takemichi — a small thin boy with terrible light coloring and piercing blue eyes — is put under the knife.
Panic overwhelms the criminal: his hands begin to shake, as if a strong earthquake has begun in the city; invisible hands squeeze his throat in a vise and he can't breathe in any way; tears come to his eyes, little legible words are heard through ragged and hoarse breathing: "Sorry", "I didn't mean to", "I'm sorry", "sorry, sorry, sorry..."
Takamichi has a bloody forearm, the folding knife is still in his hand. The man himself is not at ease: he has seen the deaths of his friends so many times, he has died so many times, he has seen blood on his hands so many times that now he himself is shaking. Memories are spinning in front of my eyes like a carousel.
Two abandoned people. Two different, but such identical lives. Two broken children. Two crippled destinies.
Two guys who are sitting opposite each other, and see nothing more than a red thread.
A scarlet ribbon that stretches to the impossible, binding their hands even at a great distance, all wounds are healed by the warm divine light. Gently, like a mother's hands, envelopes and pierces the heart itself.
It seems that the illusion lasts for hours. In fact, not a minute goes by. The knife wound does not disappear anywhere, scratches and blooming bruises, too. It seems that the soul is healing.
Takamichi, overcoming numbness and pain, approaches the potential killer. Hands intertwine in mute support. He wants to cry, but even that is more than enough. It's better than empty words. It's better than tormenting with fists.
October 31, 2005.
The day on which the battle took place. It never got a name
"Bloody Halloween"
Battle between gangs: "Valgala" — three hundred people and "Tokyo Swastika" — one hundred and fifty people.
No one died that day, but no child was detained.
The winner of the battle: the Tokyo Swastika gang.
For the third time, Takamichi meet Hanemia on the playground. They swing together on a children's swing. There are almost no children. The conversation doesn't stick, but everyone is too comfortable in a silent company.
Takamichi is tired and he wants to be alone and quiet, but the guy who sits at arm's length does not annoy him at all.
Kazutora wants to redeem herself. He wants to rethink his life, to understand his desires and actions. He wanted to be alone and quiet, but the guy next to him doesn't bother him.
The red thread still shines and gradually tightens, it grows stronger before our eyes. Cozy and peaceful.
Their meetings are completely random, but quite frequent. They don't talk, but the red thread connecting bodies and hearts continues to grow stronger and warm with an unprecedented radiance.
— I think, after all this series of sudden meetings, we should finally get to know each other properly ... then, let me start first? My name is Hanagaki Takemichi, I am the commander of the first detachment of the Tokyo Swastika. During the Halloween battle, I prevented the murder of your friend, at your own hands," Takemichi pauses for a moment, and then offers Hanemia: "Come on now, are you…
— Well. I-I… I'm Kazutora Hanemiya," the highlighted one hesitates a bit before continuing: "I'm kind of like your senpai. My kohai saved me. Saved me from..." Hanemia hesitates again, trying to find the right words. In the colony for teenagers, dialogues are replaced only by fists. Sometimes they replace whole meaningless monologues: — My kohai tied himself to me with a red thread and saved me from darkness.
That is ... — Hanagaki looks a little dumbfounded at the teenager: — That is, you also saw it, right?
Kazutora just shyly nods.
***
"Hey, Tora-senpai! Takemichi shouts when he sees and approaches Hanemia in the evening on the shore of the bay.
Michi, don't call me senpai! I haven't been one for a long time.
Takemichi only chuckles softly at this and sits down next to his friend. The younger one takes out cherry buns from his backpack and hands one to Kazutora. He smiles gratefully and tears the film.
A casual conversation ensues between the guys. The moon rises higher, building a blurry path on the water.
Takamichi doesn't let Hanemia finish. Abruptly, but gently and carefully, he grabs the elder by the cheeks and turns his face to himself and timidly presses his lips to the lips of ... a friend?
The scarlet thread no longer develops in the wind.
The scarlet thread is stretched to the limit between the hands.
A scarlet thread a couple of millimeters long.
Takemichi abruptly and somehow jerkily pulls away and already wants to apologize and run away. But Hanagaki doesn't have time to look back, as Kazutora already throws him on his back, gently, gently laying him on the juicy green grass, and kisses him.