Chapter Text
“Why did they give me this assignment?” Watanabe Ichika moaned. She pulled up her halo screen looking at the area she was standing in. 20 years before, this had been a gang-riddled area. She looked around and was mildly shocked. It seemed so peaceful. You would never even know that a gang fight had happened here.
“Then again it was around the time the media went all nuts,” she chuckled. She was right about that. It was around the 2020s at the time. So either the media was reporting on the world ending or wanting equality on steroids. “Idiots.” That was what she thought about every time she was even reminded of that period.
Which was yet another reason why she was moaning about this assignment. She never wanted to deal with this sensibility at all. She even hated dealing with the people that lived through it. The old timers that moaned about the old timers that came before them. She sighed. She then started to type on the halo screen, writing the article that she was told to write for the anniversary of the final fight between the gangs.
She found it easier to write stories like this while actually in the place where they took place. She could add a little of surroundings if there was anything left most of the time. This place held up remarkably well in comparison to other locations she had worked stories.
“What are you doing?” She jumped at the sound of a voice. She turned and saw what looked like a rather attractive young man. He was dressed rather old-fashioned. But still attractive in a nostalgic chic way.
“Oh, uh,” she stammered. She could have sworn that there was no one here when she flew over in her car. “My name is Watanabe Ichika and I’m writing a story.”
“Hino Junpei. What’s it about?” he asked with a smile. She thought the name sounded familiar. But she couldn’t place it right now.
“Uh, well, the gang fight that happened here 20 years ago. They want a story for the anniversary of the fight.” She smiled at him.
“Has it been that long?” he asked, looking away from her and at the abandoned building falling apart.
“Excuse me?” she asked, confused.
“I was...around when it happened,” he said with a smirk.
“Really?” she asked, amazed. He must have been a little kid when it happened. He didn’t look more than in his 20s or 30s at most.
“Yup,” he said with a sigh. “I knew a lot of the guys fighting in the fight.” He looked like his eyes glassed over.
“Really?” she asked again. This was a rare thing in her line of work. Randomly finding someone that lived around the time she was writing about. And he was cute. So she might get something out of this for her enjoyment too. “Do you mind if I pick your brain...for the story?” she asked with a smile realizing she had been eyeing him up and down.
He just smirked at her wandering eyes. “Sure. Wanna do it here?” he asked.
“No. I know this great restaurant where we won’t be disturbed while we eat.” She smiled at the thought of people thinking that they were out on a date. He returned the smile, but it was sad.
“Not hungry,” he said walking past her. “I have a better spot where we really won’t be interrupted.”
She thought about it for a moment. Should she follow this stranger someplace? She didn’t feel threatened by him...and she was still thinking about what she wanted after she picked his brains. After a split second, she ran after him to catch up to him.
“Follow me,” he said with a smile.
After a minute she found herself standing in a run-down cemetery. “A-A cemetery?” she asked him.
“Yup, no one comes here anymore. So we can talk until the dead rise again. So what is your first question?” he asked.
“...Okay,” she said thinking about what she should start with. “Uh, you said you were here during the time of the gang fight? How long have you been here?” she asked.
He considered the question before answering. “All my life. I was born here. This is my town. Even though it’s changed.”
“So you would be amazed to see how it looked at that time in comparison to how it looks now?” she asked, showing him the halo images from the archives.
Several emotions flitted over his face as he watched- nostalgia, amusement and finally--was that sorrow? “I see this brings up a lot of emotions for you...” She couldn’t picture a young boy remembering much from his time here. But this was...more. “How old were you when all of this happened? I can’t imagine you being more than a few years old.” she said with a smile.
He gave her a look she couldn’t name. “Let’s just say I’m older than you think. Next question.” His eyes turned to gaze over the short rows of headstones and his hands slipped into his pockets.
“Okay, I understand. If you were old enough to be recruited...did they try to recruit you?” she asked cautiously.
Now he had that amused look again. “Tried and succeeded. Although there was only one gang around then. And we didn’t call ourselves a gang.”
“R-Really?” she asked, amazed and thinking about how she thought he was cute. She never really went for the bad boy thing. “I wouldn’t have guessed that someone like you would join a ga...what did you call yourselves then?” she asked catching herself before she called it a “gang” again.
“We were just friends who liked bikes. It was only later when it turned into a gang. Then things happened and there were five true gangs.” He answered, his face taking on a wistful expression.
“ ‘Friends who liked bikes’ ? How many were there in the beginning?” she asked. She had never heard how this had all started. And was beginning to get into finding out more about the start as she talked about the end.
“There were seven of us. Just riding around with the wind in our faces and joy in our hearts. It was so different then, no worries or fighting.” His voice was soft, his eyes far away.
“When did it...change?” she wanted to say go to shit having the final battle in her head but didn’t want to make light of bad memories for him.
“Tatsuya left. Kohaku changed bit by bit until he was almost unrecognizable. Then-” He took a deep breath before continuing. “Tatsuya got murdered and Tsukumo ended up in a coma. After that, everything changed.”
“Tatsuya...I should remember that name. It feels like I should. But everything I found was about the gangs fighting over something. I guess it wasn’t big enough news for the idiots to report on...” She smiled at herself more than the facts presented to her. “What caused him to leave before he was murdered?”
“He started a restaurant. He was an amazing cook.” Junpei chuckled. “We gave him so much grief about it.” The humor vanished as fast as it appeared. “His death wasn’t big enough for the papers, I don’t think. Even we didn’t know its importance until much later.”
“ Restaurant ? THAT’S IT!” She yelled. “My grandma would take me to this restaurant when I was a little girl. They said that the original owner was someone named Tatsuya...I was going to suggest that we go there.”
Junpei had raised an eyebrow at her yell. Now his face showed such an expression of nostalgia, but it was mixed with pain. “I wonder who runs it now? It’s been a long time, right?”
“For you? Maybe...I normally take the guys I find cute there...” Then she realized that she just called him cute when she put together everything she had said.
The amusement and smirk were back as he looked at her directly, his brown eyes twinkling. “Cute, huh? I never did date much. Too many things were happening.”
“...Fair I guess.” Trying not to blush so hard people would think she was beet red. “Uh, moving on. Was his murderer caught?”
“You could say that.” He answered quietly. “Still scared?”
“I haven’t been scared of you...just...okay I’m going to be honest.” She breathed. “I think you're cute. But please I don’t want people to think that I am a girl who falls easily. It’s just...I didn’t want this assignment before I met you. Now I am learning about something that affected this area. I guess I just wanted you to not think I was scared of you...even if you might have killed him. I caught the wording by the way.” She smiled a little.
“I’ve never killed anyone. Not that I didn’t want to, but I have a code.” He answered wryly. “Even though Yamato and Muryama could strain God’s patience sometimes. And Dan’s bullshit made me pray for death more than once.”
“Okay,” She said smiling. “Good to know. The final battle was about something but the reports never really clarified what. Can you tell me what that was?”
“Which final battle are you talking about? The first or the second?”
“T-There was more than one? SERIOUSLY COULD THESE SHIT FOR BRAINS NOT TRY AND TERRORIZE PEOPLE AND REPORT THE DAMN NEWS!” She roared.
He raised his eyebrow again as a small smile flitted over his face.
“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath to calm down. “What started the FIRST final battle then we’ll move on to the second.” She tried to smile while still mad at past reporters.
“Pretty sure the first one did make the papers? A major triad organization being arrested and an ecological tragedy in the heart of town? If it didn’t, I’ll give my bike to Doubt for free.” His lips twisted in disgust as he spoke the name.
“You’d be surprised what got archived during that period of time.” She sighed. “But that is MY problem not yours. Anyway, I had no idea that the arrest caused a gang warfare fight.”
“The second fight was only slightly tied to it. It had more to do with Kohaku and his dive off the deep end after Tatsuya.” Junpei kicked at some leaves, frowning deeply. “Chanson and Li couldn’t let it go.”
“You have said that there were five gangs? And you bring up these names- Kohaku, Tsukumo, Chanson, and Li. Were they the leaders of some of the other gangs?” she asked, trying to understand where each of these men and women came from.
“Kohaku led Mugen after Tatsuya left. It disbanded shortly after the Amamiya’s fought us. Tsukumo was close to Kohaku. Chanson was, maybe still is, a foreign triad-type group. Li is the leader’s son and a real dick according to Tsukumo.” Junpei sighed and kicked at the leaves again. “I didn’t meet him until later and that was only briefly.” He unconsciously rubbed the left side of his chest with one hand.
“Um...if you want, I can look these people up and see what they are doing now on this?” She held up the halo screen again.
“It’s unlikely you’d find anything on Kohaku or Tsukumo. I would be interested in what happened to Li, since I never saw him again.”
She typed in the names into the search engine her bosses paid for. And she got three images, all of old men. One Kohaku, one Li, and one Tsukumo. For the most part it looked like each one had lived a peaceful life after what they had been through in the gang warfare.
Junpei growled at the sight of Li, but his face softened at Tsukumo and Kohaku’s pictures. “They deserve peace. I’m glad.”
“Kohaku? Yeah it looks like he has had a big family. They all have. Li’s son actually is my boss...that’s a bit weird right?” She asked him with a smile.
“Li must have had a coronary at the idea. I bet he wanted him to run the organization after him.” Junpei’s voice grew sad. “So many changes..”
“Well...now knowing this it explains something from his past. My boss told me he got into a fight with him about this career choice. But in the end he bought the website for him. So they don’t hate each other but don’t talk much unless he is having problems with money...or wanting him to cover something. Which also explains this story.”
“Li should know exactly what happened! He caused it!” Venom coursed through the words Junpei shouted.
“ARCHIVES REMEMBER.” She said matter of factly. “Most of the reports about this are gone. And not because he made them disappear. It is a common thing everywhere. The media of the day kept everything from ‘equality’ to the world ending. And they didn’t see this as the world ending even if you and those that went through it did. I’m sorry.”
Junpei went silent, his eyes looking back at the cemetery. “Some things never change. Kuryu made things disappear too, until they couldn’t. I shouldn’t have come back..”
“Where have you been all this time?” she asked.
“Around. Riding my bike. Doing everything I never had time to.” He shrugged. “It’s not important. Next question.”
“What were all of you fighting for? The ultimate goal that if all of you got it you would think it was your ‘Happily Ever After’ ending.” she asked, trying to keep him talking after the last exchange.
“Peace. Happiness for the town. It was always about the town. Even though the gangs all had their own reasons and objectives, we all wanted the same things. It's why we had the agreement in the first place. Doubt was never a part of the agreement. They were the ones we fought with the most.”
“And the death of Tatsuya and the arrest were the things that broke the agreement that led to the gang warfare?” she asked, thinking about everything that she had learned so far.
“The arrests of the Kuryu Group was the first thing, but then again Li was more than happy to join them in trying to kill us. He was set back by the arrests, but not thwarted.” Junpei shook his head. “And Doubt was always causing trouble. It was just easier when Li put his backing behind them.”
“We have talked about the start and what caused the final BATTLES , thank you archives for leaving out the second one, but what was it like immediately after they were over. Was there a moment of peace for all involved?”
“There was after the first one. We went back to our lives. There were squabbles, but there was more peace. There was love, and marriages, laughter and tears, but most of all, peace. After the second? By your thing there, it seems like it. I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t here.”
“...Why weren’t you here? I would have thought that the man that I have been talking to all this time, you, would have been here to help whomever that you viewed as a friend or family.” she said looking at him.
“There was..an issue.” He fidgeted before speaking again. “Do you mind if we continue this later? I just remembered an appointment.”
“Sure.” She looked at her watch. “I can look more into the archives and see what the idiots left me to work with or dig things up on the net. Meet you back here sometime tomorrow?”
“Okay. Ja naa.” He waved, walked around a corner and disappeared.
She was a little surprised by how fast it seemed. “Does the man have a Master’s degree in illusion?” she mused, thinking about how he had appeared and disappeared.
“Anyway,” She grumbled. “I have my work cut out for me right now.” She groaned as she thought about having to go through the damn archives again. “Maybe I should just go ask Papa?” she sighed. “He was in the area around that time. But Yamato Asahina would never have anything to do with gangs.” She chuckled to herself as she called her father for help.