Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In a different timeline, Ryusei could have pictured himself happy and living life to its fullest. In a different timeline, he could have seen himself married and living a comfortable life. In a different timeline, he could see things turning out differently. 

Ryusei was quick to shake these thoughts from his head. Daydreams would do him no good. He was too old for such coping mechanisms after all. He had a real job in the real world and that was what he needed to focus on. 

He squinted at his screen. Exhaustion made the characters typed there blur together in a disorganized mass that was impossible to read. He distantly wondered if he would need to invest in reading glasses in the near future. 

“Sato.”

Ryusei’s head jerked up at the sounds of his name. He looked up to find his partner standing in front of his desk. 

“Yessir?” He drew himself up straight (or at least as straight as he could manage without passing out from exhaustion). 

Inspector Tachibana was a good man, getting close to the age of retirement. Ryusei deeply respected the man who had mentored him for the past few years. After all, without this man’s input in his life, Ryusei was sure he would have ended up somewhere decidedly less than savory. Probably somewhere like the gang he was investigating. He still couldn’t believe that Toman, the gang he briefly participated in middle school, could have turned out so horribly. 

“You’ve worked three back to back shifts. Why are you still clocked in?” Inspector Tachibana hummed. 

Ryusei’s brain was far too exhausted to think straight so he said the first thing that came to his brain. 

“I’m fine, sir. S’not a problem,” he suppressed a yawn even as he said this. 

Sure, he had been up for the last forty-eight hours straight, but that was what coffee was for. He wasn’t tired at all. He needed to be here, not at home. It wasn’t like he could solve this case while he was in bed. 

“I beg to differ. I had to call your name for fifteen minutes before you answered,” Inspector Tachibana sighed, “Go home and get some rest.”

“But-” Ryusei was interrupted. 

“I know what happened to your informant and I know you feel responsible, but he knew the risks when he chose to become a whistleblower.”

Ryusei clenched his hands into fists. That was such a professional and detached way to put it. It wasn’t like he had shown up to a pre-arranged meeting only to find his inside man for the Toman gang shot in the head. 

Fuck. That had not been a sight that Ryusei had been prepared for. 

His informant had been shot execution style. Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere. The gruesome scene was set up on purpose to viciously remind the police that Toman was not to be messed with (and no doubt as a further warning to anyone potentially considering becoming a mole). Ryusei had been on duty ever since then. He needed to find who exactly was responsible. He had a guess, but he had no concrete evidence. Yet . He just needed to work harder and not doubt he would find the answers he was looking for. 

“-go home, Sato.” Inspector Tachibana was speaking again, pulling on Ryusei’s arm. 

Quiet without meaning to, Ryusei found himself dragged from his chair to a standing position. He swayed, the exhaustion hitting him with brute force. Somehow Ryusei managed to stay upright.  

“Fine,” he agreed with a sigh, “But I’m coming back in for the morning shift.”

He refused to acknowledge the fact that it was already past midnight. The morning shift wasn’t that far away. If he was lucky, he might get four hours of sleep. 

Inspector Tachibana didn’t look impressed, but he didn’t say anything against it. Ryusei knew that he was just as driven to take down Toman. After all, it was Toman that had taken the lives of both of his children just a month before. The man hardly went home any more and the grief that he was trying to hide was clearly taking a toll on him. 

After being all but shoved towards the door, Ryusei left the police station in a fog. He didn’t remember much of his walk home. All he knew was that suddenly his bed was right in front of him. He flopped down fully clothed with a groan. Despite his exhaustion, sleep did not immediately come to him. He lay on his bed for a while, tossing and turning. 

Every time he closed his eyes he saw his informant’s body. 

Chifuyu. That had been the name of Ryusei’s inside man. The younger man had reached out to the police about five years ago with a desperate plea for them to stop a bombing in a crowded train station. Ryusei had just entered the police force. He was assigned to investigate to see if this tip was real. 

After quite the harrowing adventure, the bombing attempt was thwarted and Ryusei came to the conclusion that, yes, this Chifuyu person could be trusted. 

Since then Chifuyu had regularly passed Ryusei information on Toman’s plans, locations and personnel. Chifuyu knew the risks he was taking, but he did it anyway. 

Ryusei would never allow himself to admit this, but he was impressed by the younger man’s grit and determination. That being said, they weren’t friends. They were business partners at best. It was for the best that they never had any close connection. Chifuyu had all but willingly signed his own death warrant by coming to the police for help. 

And yet. 

And yet, Ryusei felt grieved at Chifuyu’s death. 

It was an odd thing that Ryusei couldn’t grapple with. Maybe it was because he saw in Chifuyu a reflection of a path that he himself almost took. Maybe it was because of the certain level of mutual understanding and trust that they had in each other. Maybe it was because of their connection from a shared background (apparently they had both attended the same middle school, not that Ryusei remembered him, and they had both ended up in the same gang, though at different times). 

Whatever the reason behind it, the grief was real. It was uncomfortable and refused to go away no matter how hard Ryusei ignored it. 

Ryusei clenched his hands into fists. There was nothing that would bring Chifuyu back now. This was Ryusei’s fault. He should have convinced Chifuyu to turn state’s evidence and get out while he could. 

Feeling emotionally numb, Ryusei threw an arm over his face. 

The next time he finally managed to pry his eyes open, he found that the sun was fully up. He glanced at his phone. 

Shit. 

He had overslept. It was nearly noon. He didn’t take the time to change into new clothing. He just darted out of the door. Despite the lingering exhaustion trying to pull him down, Ryusei hurried onwards. 

He needed to be at work already, not because he had a shift today, but because he owed it to his informant to find out who had murdered him. 

The day, however, seemed to have other plans. 

He made it about half way to work when he noticed a man about to step into oncoming traffic. Without a second thought, Ryusei darted forward and yanked the civilian out of harm’s way. They both fell back onto the sidewalk. 

Ryusei checked himself over before checking the other guy over. He was a young man. He gave off hikikomori vibes with wrinkled, unwashed clothing and scraggly, unkempt hair. Ryusei thought he looked sad and lost. He had talked (and attempted to talk) one too many people away from the edge to know that this guy didn’t have a will to live any longer.  

“Thanks,” the young man mumbled. 

“Do you need help?” Ryusei asked, “If you-”

“I don’t. Thanks,” the young man looked away. 

“Are you sure?” Ryusei asked softly. 

At the repeated question, the young man started to cry. Ryusei sighed. He would just be getting in even later to work, but he needed to intervene in this situation now or he suspected he would regret it later. He guided the young man out of the way of pedestrian foot traffic to a bench not far away. 

He followed procedure to keep an eye on the young man while contacting the department that could get this man psychiatric help.

“What’s your name?” Ryusei prompted. 

“H-hanagaki,” the man hiccuped. 

“What happened?” Ryusei tried to find out any useful information he could pass along when the young man was picked up.  

“I liked her,” Hanagaki’s voice was broken and he started to sob again. 

Ryusei hummed noncommittally and waited for the man to say more. It didn’t take long. 

“I liked her and she died. Why did she have to die?” the man’s tears didn’t slow. 

Ryusei felt an aching echo of that question in his own heart. Why did Chifuyu have to die?

“I lost a ….partner recently,” Ryusei offered, trying to provide support in the man’s clear grief, “He died before I got to the scene. I wish I could go back in time and change it all.”

He wasn’t expecting his brief story to impact the other man. Hanagaki hung his head. 

“I’m sorry. I’m sure my own problems are pitiful compared to an office who lost a partner in the line of duty,” he sniffled. 

Ryusei opened his mouth. Then he shut it. He didn't know how to respond to that comment. Chifuyu hadn’t been a police officer, but with how close he had been working with Ryusei, it felt like he could have been. 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” the young man continued to mumble almost hysterically. 

He then grabbed Ryusei in a sudden embrace. Ryusei sighed and started to detangle himself from the man. He was more than a little relieved when backup arrived. The medical team gently started to usher the man away. Before he was out of reach, Hanagaki grabbed Ryusei’s hand and shook it. 

“I hope you get help too,” he murmured.

Ryseui nearly scoffed. He didn’t need help. He needed justice and the prevalence of the law over lawlessness. He nodded respectfully before continuing on his way. 

It was not much later that the second strange thing happened. 

As he was waiting for the crosswalk light to turn, Ryusei spied, in broad daylight, the very man he was sure had murdered Chifuyu in cold blood. Shaking off his exhaustion as best as he could, Ryusei broke into a run after the suspect. He grabbed them by the arm and turned them towards him. 

“Baji,” he growled.

The criminal in question gave no response. He looked rather dazed and with-drawn, like he didn’t know where he was. The grainy photos on his evidence wall hadn’t prepared Ryusei for seeing Baji in person after more than ten years. Baji looked nothing like the person Ryusei had briefly known in middle school. His hair was still long, but it had streaks of blond dyed in it now. A tiger tattoo curled out from under his shirt, running up the side of his neck. Ryusei could see the tell-tale bulge of a gun tucked under his jacket (this detail was concerning and would need to be dealt with soon). 

“I know you killed Chifuyu,” Ryusei could hardly get the words out, “Why?”

Baji met his eyes for a fraction of a second. Then he looked away.

Guilt. 

That had to be it. Baji was guilty. Ryusei was certain of it. 

“Answer me! Tell me the truth!” Ryusei demanded. 

In an effort to escape or maybe just trying to avoid answering Ryusei’s question, Baji shoved him in the chest. Hard. Ryusei was unprepared for this action. As such, he suddenly found himself stumbling backwards into oncoming traffic. He had no chance to move himself to safety. He felt his body impact something and then-

Chapter Text

Black

Then a blur of colors. 

Nothing hurt? 

Ryusei blinked before frantically sitting up so he could check himself over for injuries. He just about rolled off the edge of something. He quickly righted himself and glanced around. It appeared that he was on the roof of some building. He wondered if this was somehow connected to Toman. That must be it, he decided.

The question now was why had they kidnapped him? Was it for ransom? Was it for extortion? Was it for torture? Ryusei wasn’t sure he wanted to know. 

Upon finding himself uninjured, Ryusei scrambled to find a way off of the roof. He leapt off down to the main part of the roof. On muscle memory, he found a door a little to his left. He tried the handle. It turned too easily, swinging open without resistance. Ryusei ducked back out of sight and held his breath. 

Nothing happened. 

He wondered if they were baiting him into escaping. Afterall, they had left him unbound. Ryusei really wished he had his gun on him or, at the very least, his radio to call for backup. He peered around the door and into the building. No guards. This only heightened Ryusei's suspicions. 

Being as quiet and cautious as he could be, Ryusei crept forwards. He more than half expected some violence hardened yakuza thugs to jump out of nowhere and mercilessly take him down. Or maybe he expected a bullet to the back from a hidden assailant. That wouldn't be out of the norm for Toman dealing with people they felt like were threats. Ryusei felt horribly exposed and his whole body was alert. He made it one floor down. Then the next.

That was where he got caught. 

“Sato!”

Ryusei nearly jumped out of his skin. He whipped around to find a man who looked remarkably like his middle school homeroom teacher standing right behind him. 

“What are you doing out of class?” the man sighed, clearly annoyed. 

Ryusei could only dumbly blink. 

What was he .....doing out of class?

What the hell did that mean? Was it code for something?

As he tried to puzzle this out, Ryusei noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He glanced over and nearly choked as he caught a reflection of himself in the windows along the hallway. 

The stupid pink and black hair. The earring. The casually untucked shirt. Oh god. He hadn’t looked like that since middle school. 

Was he really dead and in his afterlife he was destined to be stuck forever in middle school? This was worse than a nightmare. This was torture. 

“Sato. Class. Now,” his teacher nodded sharply. 

Despite the pressing urge to run, Ryusei obediently followed his teacher to class for reasons he couldn’t really put his finger on. He slunk into the room behind his teacher, ignoring his classmates’ stares, and slouched over to his desk. He felt slightly sick. 

What was going on?

He had heard it said once that your life flashes before your eyes as you die. Was that what this was? If so, why middle school? That was an odd place to start his life’s recollection. Nothing memorable had happened in those years. It would make sense if he started at the beginning (his rough early childhood) or if he started in high school (because that was when life felt like it had both fallen apart and into place at the same time). Middle school was neither of those things. 

He glanced around the classroom, taking in his classmates, the teacher and the drab room. He saw details everywhere. This was also far too vivid to be a simple recollection. Ryusei doubted this was his life flashing before his eyes. 

Perhaps, then, he was in a coma and this was simply his brain’s way of coping with that. This theory didn’t hold much credibility either in Ryusei’s opinion for the same reasons as watching his life flash before his eyes. 

The last option he could think of was that, somehow, Ryusei had been flung back into the past. The more that Ryusei thought about it, the more ridiculous that sounded. Time travel was a thing of science fiction, not reality. 

He sat at his desk, trying to puzzle this all out. Should he have left and escaped to a quieter place to sort out his thoughts? Probably. But at the same time, Ryusei found himself missing the nostalgia of his childhood, no matter how troubled parts of it had been. His small comfort was that at least no one was dead yet. 

The final bell eventually came. Ryusei was out of his seat as quick as he could. He hurried along the hallways, desperate to leave the school and make sense of what was happening. In his haste, he wasn’t watching where he was going. That was why he ended up colliding with someone much shorter than him. They both went sprawling. 

Ryusei was about to snap short-temperedly at them when he noticed who it was. He knew that face, though the version he knew was more sharp and drawn with worries. Chifuyu. His irritation was doused in a cold wave of confusion. Chifuyu?

Oh. That was right.

They had attended the same middle school, hadn’t they?

On second thought, this was perfect. If this was Ryusei's life flashing before his eyes (this was Ryusei's most plausible working theory at the moment), then he had nothing to loose by trying to make amends before he passed away. At the very least, he owed it to Chifuyu to apologize for something that he saw as his fault. Without thinking, Ryusei hugged the smaller boy to his chest, not caring that he was probably squeezing the breath out of Chifuyu. 

“You have to forgive me. I’m so sorry,” he cried, burying his face in Chifuyu’s blond hair, savoring the fact that it wasn’t dyed red with blood, “I never wanted you to die.” 

He was unprepared for Chifuyu to push him away and deliver quite the strong punch to his face. Ryusei staggered back a pace, eyes smarting from the sudden hit. 

“Leave me alone, you punk!” Chifuyu cried in indignation. 

“I... what?” Ryusei spluttered. 

“I don’t know who the hell you are and I don’t care,” Chifuyu growled. 

Ryusei observed Chifuyu. Looking closer, he could see that this Chifuyu was completely different from the Chifuyu that he had known. This Chifuyu had a god-awful mohawk-esque hair style, though the color was still the same. This Chifuyu glared at Ryusei like he was personally offended by this whole sequence of events. The only similarity was the fact that both Chifuyus had no problem picking fights they could never win.  

Ryusei blinked, trying to wrap his brain around this. 

“What I do know is that the next time you try to sexually harass me, I will beat your ass so badly you won’t be able to walk straight. I'll let you off with a warning this time since you thought I was someone else, but know there won't be a next time,” Chifuyu sniffed. 

Then he walked away with a decidedly cocky swagger to his step. 

Ryusei was left standing in alone in the hallway, torn between running after Chifuyu and running the other direction. The choice was made for him. As Ryusei was standing in shock. Someone came up and put a hand on his shoulder from behind. 

“Ryusei, I wanted to-”

Crap. Baji. 

In all the upheaval, Ryusei almost forgot that Baji had attended the same middle school too. He couldn’t do this right now. He wasn’t sure he could look at his former friend. For better or worse, he bolted.

He didn’t stop running until he was well and truly winded. The street was empty behind him, but that didn't mean anything. Worried that Baji might still be following him or keeping tabs on him, Ryusei kept to the back alleys of Shibuya until the sun started to set. 

It was entirely on accident that Ryusei found himself in front of a familiar door. The Tachibana’s apartment. It was a location that he felt safe at. After all, Inspector Tachibana had invited him several times for dinner and the man had a good heart. 

The door swung open to reveal Mrs. Tachibana, looking surprised and concerned. 

“Can I help you?” she asked. 

The confusion in her face made Ryusei's gut sink. 

“I don’t suppose you know me?” Ryusei almost didn’t want to ask, but he still did. 

The reaction he got from Mrs. Tachibana was less explosive than Chifuyu’s had been, but it was clear that she was still just as confused. She shook her head and told him she didn't.  

It was becoming painfully obvious that whatever it was that was happening, it was only happening to Ryusei. In the end, Ryusei was left with no choice other than to slink away back the way he had come. He didn’t go far, just to the park at the end of the block. He sat dejectedly on the swing as the street lights started to flicker on. 

His thoughts were too jumbled together for him to make sense of any of them. He leaned forward with a groan. He didn’t understand this at all. What was going on?

Chapter Text

“Mister? Are you ok?” 

The young voice drew Ryusei out of his thoughts. He blinked and looked around. There was a kid sitting on the swing next to him. Well, maybe kid was overselling it. He probably wasn’t that much younger than Ryusei himself. He also looked familiar, but Ryusei couldn’t put a finger on why. 

“Mister?” the other kid cocked his his head. 

“How old do you think I am?” Ryusei snorted. 

“I dunno. You’re really tall though,” the boy shrugged. 

Ryusei scuffed his shoe on the ground. That was a fair enough observation. Ryusei had always been tall. 

“Are you ok?” the other boy asked once more. 

“I’m…..” Ryusei didn’t know how to answer that question. 

He could have bluffed and said that he was fine. He suspected that he wouldn’t be believed. At the same time, Ryusei wasn’t sure he wanted to say anything. He was half convinced he was going crazy.  

“You don’t look ok,” the boy decided. 

“Jeez. Thanks,” Ryusei scoffed bitterly. 

“Do you need help? My dad always says I should help if people need help,” the boy nodded. 

“Do I look like I need help?” Ryusei scoffed. 

The boy shrugged. 

Ryusei sighed and let his head drop forward. He was tired and it was becoming harder and harder for him to make sense of what what going on. His brain felt scrambled. He blamed his loser tongue on that. 

“Honestly, I think my life is flashing before my eyes or something. I got shoved into the street and then I ended up here in my childhood before everything went horribly wrong,” Ryusei laughed hollowly, unable to stop the words from coming out of him once he got started, “I don’t know what is going on and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. And the worst part is, I feel like I could change it all if I tried.”

The kid wrinkled his brow. 

“I’m sorry?” he offered, clearly confused. 

That face. Ryusei had seen it before, but where?

“It’s not your fault,” Ryusei sighed, “Also, what's your name?” 

“Tachibana Naoto,” the kid offered. 

That was an uncommon name and it aligned with Ryusei's sneaking suspicions. 

“Tachibana…” Ryusei mused before asking, “Is your dad Tachibana Masato?”

Naoto nodded. That explained why he looked familiar to Ryusei. Hadn’t he seen the photos of his partner’s kids every time he went over to Inspector Tachibana’s desk? It’s a shame Naoto was dead now. 

Ryusei leaned foward to rest his chin in his hands. 

“I’ll let you in on a little secret, Naoto. Your dad is wicked cool in the future. He helps out a lot of people, including me,” Ryusei said.

Naoto nodded seriously. 

“And… well… just be nice to him. You die in the future and it really breaks him. You two didn’t have the best of relationships and that made him sad,” Ryusei wasn’t sure if he should even be saying this, but at this point he was too emotionally exhausted to care, “Speaking of which, you should probably get back home, it’s getting pretty dark now.”

Naoto looked around with a gasp, like he hadn't realized how dark it had gotten. He dashed off. Ryusei stuck around long enough to make sure that the younger boy did make it home alright. Then he headed off towards his own house. He was slotting the key into the front door (or well, back door as the front door was all the way through the bar and he didn’t feel like talking with his mom at the moment). 

“Why’d you run from me today? Is it related to why you abruptly told me that you're stepping down as vice captain yesterday?”

Ryusei froze, key mid turn. No. Please. No. Not here or now. 

He turned around very slowly. Sure enough, Baji slunk from out of the shadows. It was like he had been waiting for Ryusei come home (he probably had).  

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Ryusei hedged. 

He knew he wouldn’t be able to pull the wool over Baji’s eyes for very long, after all, Baji had a sharp nose when it came to lies. That being said, Ryusei still hoped that he could do it for long enough to escape into the safety of his own house. Baji frowned and came forward several more steps. He looked Ryusei square in the face. Ryusei was hard pressed not to look away and thereby automatically signaling his guilt. 

“You’re hiding something,” Baji accused. 

“No, I’m not,” Ryusei insisted. 

“You are.” It was clear that Baji wasn’t about to leave this alone. 

“Fine! Yes. Something is going on,” Ryusei grumbled. 

“Tell me,” Baji folded his arms across his chest as he waited for an answer. 

“It's not important,” Ryusei turned back to the door to finish unlocking it. 

He was unprepared for Baji to grab his shoulder and spin him back around. Ryusei winced as his back was slammed again the door in the process. 

“Bull. Shit,” Baji growled, “I've never seen you act like this. What's going on? I'm not leaving until you tell me.”

Ryusei was at the end of his rope, exhausted and overwhelmed. He snapped. 

“You want to know what's wrong? Fine. I’ll tell you. Twelves years in the future, you fucking kill Chifuyu. That’s where this started. You killed him in cold blood. He didn't deserve it and I know that you know it. It was murder, plain and simple,” he snarled, shoving Baji away, “And then, when I tried to confront you, you shoved me into traffic and I ended up here, stuck in my childhood. I don’t know what the fuck is going on or how to get back and this is all your fault.”

Baji sat back, staring at Ryusei for several minutes. Usually, Ryusei was good at reading people, but right now what was going through Baji's head was a mystery.

“I'm not really sure I followed that at all,” Baji slowly admitted. 

“Join the club,” Ryusei scoffed bitterly. 

He really just wanted to go sleep. Maybe when he woke up, everything would make sense. 

Maybe. 

“I do have one question. Who the hell is Chifuyu and why would I kill him in the future?” Baji frowned, “Or, well, I guess that was two questions, but whatever.”

“I don't really know where you found him or why you killed him, but he's your next vice captain,” Ryusei admitted.

Baji's gaze sharpened dangerously. 

“Is that why you told me you're stepping down?” he demanded. 

Ryusei shook his head. 

“Chifuyu's got nothing to do with that,” he said. 

“It's Yotsuya Kiaden, then, isn't it?” Baji grimaced. 

That was an unfortunately close guess. Ryusei didn't remember why exactly he stepped down as vice captain and left Toman, but he did remember what had happened next. He remembered rejoining with Kojiro under Yotsuya Kiaden, then the fight between the Hishi brothers that had lead to both of their deaths, followed by Ryusei leaving the delqinent world for good. 

Ryusei shrugged rather than answering. He was wrung out, emotionally and physically. He didn’t want to offer any further explanations that would prompt Baji to ask more painful questions he wasn't ready to answer. 

“Just leave me alone,” he grumbled tiredly. 

“No,” Baji shook his head, “You’re in trouble, so I’m going to help.”

“You can’t help,” Ryusei sighed.

It was true. If this was Ryusei's life flashing before his eyes, then this conversation was meaningless in the end. If Ryusei had some how been propelled into the past, then Baji was the last person who could help Ryusei with these issues. There was no win either way. 

Apparently, Baji didn't see it the same way

“I can, because I’m the first division captain of Toman. You can count on me,” he nodded seriously. 

Without an invitation, he reached out and shook Ryusei’s hand. Ryusei felt his body jolt like before when he had been shoved into oncoming traffic. 

Then he was falling.

Chapter Text

Ryusei’s senses came back slowly. 

He noticed the sound of traffic and pedestrians.

Someone was talking nearby. 

A bit more awareness came back to him. He found himself laying down on something hard. The sidewalk? The road? A cool cloth was resting over his eyes. Ryusei reached up and removed it. 

Sunlight assaulted his eyes and made him blink. 

The world spun a bit as he sat up. 

What was going on? 

“Are you sure you should be getting up yet?”

Ryusei looked to his left. A little old lady was crouched next to him. She looked concerned. 

“What…?” Ryusei’s mouth felt dry. 

“You passed out in the middle of the sidewalk,” the lady explained. 

“I passed out?” Ryusei’s hand tightened on the cloth he was holding. 

That didn’t explain why he felt like he had been hit by a truck. 

“Don’t worry, your partner will be right back,” the little old lady patted Ryusei’s arm. 

Inspector Tachibana was here? Why was he here? Was he really that concerned for Ryusei’s health? Ryusei was just fine. Sure, he had the weirdest dream after passing out, but that was normal.

He staggered to his feet. This was fine. Everything was fine. He needed to stop worrying his partner. The world continued to swim. Strong hands caught his shoulders and steadied him before he could keel back over. 

“You really don’t know how not to push yourself, do you? I step away for two minutes to radio the station and you decide to get up?” 

Ryusei froze. That wasn’t Inspector Tachibana's voice. Still feeling a little dizzy, Ryusei looked up from the ground. Indeed, it wasn't Inspector Tachibana standing in front of him. That being said, the young man in front of Ryusei bore a striking resemblance to him. He looked almost like-

“N-naoto?” Ryusei stammered, not sure if he was correct. 

“Oh good. You recognize me. You didn’t hit your head too hard,” Naoto tutted, gently pushing aside Ryusei’s hair to possibly check a head wound. 

Whatever he found caused him to frown and Ryusei to wince as pain lanced through his head once more. He assumed he had hit his head when he had fallen. Perhaps that would explain the odd dream he had expierienced?

“What happened?” Ryusei asked. 

Naoto glanced over at the old lady. She was still hovering anxiously nearby. Naoto smiled gratefully before waving her off. He then turned back to Ryusei. 

“You passed out,” Naoto sighed. 

Still a little dizzy, Ryusei pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes.

That sounded about-

No.

That wasn't quiet right.

Something was off.

The memories of middle school were shockingly fresh in Ryusei's mind. But before that, he had been here, but also not here in this situation or location. This was all so confusing. He let Naoto guide him away a bit to a bench at the edge of a park. 

“Are you sure you’re feeling alright?” Naoto frowned. 

Ryusei nodded vaguely. He felt far from fine, but he wasn’t about to admit that. 

“Listen, Naoto,” Ryusei wasn’t sure how to ask what he needed to ask, “I think I might be going crazy.”

“And why is that?”

“I… well…. I just… you were dead and then I died, but then I was in middle school and now I'm here and you're not dead,” Ryusei’s voice shook slightly. 

“I was dead?” Naoto frowned. 

Ryusei started to nod, but quickly stopped as the throbbing in his head spiked. 

“I don’t understand,” Naoto's voice was decidedly neutral. 

Ryusei recognized that tone. He had mastered it himself. It was a useful tool to have when talking to trauma victims. The fact that Naoto was using it on him irked Ryusei a bit. He groaned once more. 

“Never mind,” he smiled weakly, “It must have just been a dream.”

Naoto opened his mouth, but then he closed it without saying anything. He sat in silence next to Ryusei, radiating a tense worry.  

Ryusei jerked in surprise as his radio earpiece squawked to life. He was too startled to track the first thing that was said, but he did catch the last bit. 

“-spect in the Toman murder case apprehended. Bringing him in now.”

The reason for Ryusei's manic (and admittedly self-destructive) behavior flooded back. He had been trying to find Chifuyu's killer. Ryusei was on his feet in a flash. That report must be talking about Baji. 

Naoto looked vaguely annoyed. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked. 

“We have to go. I have to question him.” Ryusei didn't bother add detail to his explanation. Something told him that Naoto was already well aware of what he wanted to do. 

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. You’re obsessed with the case,” Naoto sighed in annoyance. 

A thought suddenly struck Ryusei. If Naoto was still alive, then maybe Chifuyu….

“Naoto,” Ryusei asked sharply, “I have to know, is there someone by the name of Chifu-”

A sudden onslaught of memories took him by surprise.

Chifuyu's body, found at the meeting location, shot execution style through the head. 

Ah.

So nothing had really changed there. Ryusei forced himself not to gag. He took several deep breaths to steady himself. When he looked over at Naoto, the younger man was giving him a very concerned look. 

“Right. That’s it. I’m escorting you home. You need to rest after that knock you took to the head when you passed out,” Naoto sighed in a way that was oddly reminiscent of his father’s habit of sighing at Ryusei. 

Ryusei found himself more or less pushed all the way to his apartment. The younger man was stronger than he looked (or maybe Ryusei was just that exhausted?). Naoto glared at Ryusei as he issued a command for him to rest. Then he left. Ryusei waited up long enough for Naoto to be gone. Then he bolted for the door. He was going to question Baji, Naoto’s concern be damned. 

Ryusei flashed his badge, gaining himself access into the police station. He made his way straight for the interrogation rooms. The officers there looked annoyed, but not surprised. Ryusei was a little sad to see that he hadn’t beaten Naoto back. 

“This is why I told you not to announce this on the radio,” he hissed to the man who must have been the arresting officer. 

Ryusei looked into the interrogation room through the one-way glass. Adult Baji looked…. not exactly as Ryusei remembered him. His hair was still long and streaked with god-awful yellow, but there were no tattoos anywhere (at least that could be easily seen). He was slumped in the chair like the life had been drained out of him. He looked shockingly slender and in not a good way. 

That was about all that Ryusei was able to gage before he was dragged out of the room. 

“I told you to rest,” Naoto groaned, “You're no use if your half-dead from exhaustion.”

“I'm fine,” Ryusei tried to push Naoto away. 

“I'm sorry, but this is non-negotiable,” Naoto pushed him away from the interrogation rooms and towards the small breakroom. 

Ryusei all but sank onto the lumpy couch. Alright, so maybe he was tired after three days straight with hardly a wink of sleep. He never really remembered falling asleep. He did remember waking up. The light and the shadows on the wall were all different. 

Ryusei glanced at his watch. It had been the afternoon. Now was midmorning. Hm. That math wasn't adding up. Was he dreaming again? 

“Feeling better?”

Ryusei jolted and looked around. Inspector Tachibana was peering into the room. Ryusei nodded and pushed himself upright. 

“Good. You needed sleep,” the older man commented. 

“How long was I out?” Ryusei asked. 

“Almost nineteen hours,” Inspector Tachibana nodded. 

Ryusei stretched. Getting rest had felt wonderful, but the couch was far from comfortable. As he was trying to roll his shoulders out, he remembered why he was sleeping at the station and not at his house. 

“Baji!” he exclaimed as he jumped from the couch. 

He ran towards the interrogation rooms. Sure enough, Baji was still in confinement. An officer stood on duty, watching Baji, but there wasn't anyone interrogating said suspect at the moment. 

“Has he said anything yet?” Ryusei demanded. 

The officer on guard observed Ryusei closely. 

“Well… um.... not much,” the man eventually admitted, “He said he would only talk with you and so far he's sticking with that. He hasn't said a word.”

That was all the invitation Ryusei needed. He charged into the small confinement room and shut the door behind himself. Baji slowly raised his head as Ryusei entered. 

“You came,” he croaked. 

His tone was surprised. It was almost like he had been expecting Ryusei not to come. Ryusei decided to bypass that comment and launch straight into the questions. The sooner he could get answers out of Baji the sooner he could get revenge for Chifuyu’s death (or at least answers). 

“I know you shot Chifuyu,” Ryusei accused. 

Baji did not attempt to denying the accusation. He just hung his head. 

“I couldn’t stop it,” Baji’s voice cracked. 

That was an odd comment. Ryusei could have taken it as a poorly thought through excuse; an attempt to write off guilt as an accident. That didn't sit right though. 

“You…. couldn’t stop it?” Ryusei frowned. 

“It was just like you said. I killed Chifuyu. This is my fault,” Baji choked. 

Ryusei froze. 

The odd memories he had been reliving from middle school suddenly crammed into his head. He had told Baji that, hadn't he? Ryuei tried to grapple with this idea. The idea that his strange dream from passing out earlier was somehow real. 

“And the worst part is that I’m going crazy. I remember today twice. I’ve killed him twice. I did kill you too, but it must have been in the past. And your partner. He was dead too. I don’t understand,” Baji continued hollowly, “I know he was murdered by Toman. I helped plan it last time. But not this time. Chifuyu convinced me not to.”

Puzzle pieces slowly started to click into place for Ryusei. The time travel theory was sounding more plausible. Even still, there was something that Ryusei had to know. 

“Since I told you that you were going to kill Chifyu back in middle school, why didn’t you stop?” he narrowed his eyes. 

“I couldn’t. I didn’t know. By the time I really remembered, it was too late,” Baji shuddered. 

“And why did you kill him?” Ryusei demanded. 

Baji hunched his shoulder. 

“It was either me or Kisaki,” he choked. 

“What do you mean?” Ryusei narrowed his eyes. 

“I knew that Chifuyu had been passing information on Toman ever since the beginning. I turned a blind eye to it because I wanted to keep being there for Mikey but I knew what we were doing was all wrong. At first is was fine, because Chifuyu was careful about not being caught. But then Kisaki found out anyway. He was furious. He told me that I could shoot him or else he would. I knew I had to do it because if Kisaki did it, he would end up drawing out Chifuyu’s death and torturing him. I…I… I didn’t want that. I killed him. Oh god. I killed him,” Baji gave a dry retch. 

Ryusei felt a stab of pity. It was clear that, yes, Baji had murdered Chifuyu, but it was just as clear that he was torn apart by guilt at this action. Ryusei bit his cheek in thought. 

It seemed that perhaps what he had thought was a dream had some how affected the flow of events. First Naoto and now Baji were proof of that. It still left a lot of unanswered questions on Ryusei's part. 

Was it really time travel (as absurd as that sounded)?

If so, how? Could it happen again?

For some reason, Ryusei felt a tugging in his gut. It was like it knew the answers to these questions, but he couldn't put a finger on what exactly was going on. 

“I’m going to try something,” he decided. 

Baji finally looked up and met Ryusei’s eyes. 

“I need to trust me, though,” Ryusei continued. 

Baji looked mystified, but he nodded slowly. Ryusei angled his body to block what he was doing from the viewing room. With quick precise movement, he shook Baji’s handcuffed hand. 

Sure enough, like Ryusei had suspected, the world fell away.

Ryusei wondered if this had been a wise move...

Chapter Text

Ryusei woke to find himself on the roof of the school once again. 

It was surreal to find himself back here once more. He brought his hand up to his face, flexing his fingers, checking for any incongruence in reality. He didn’t find any. He was certain now. This was time travel. It had to be. And somehow, for better or worse, Baji was the catalyst for him to jump back and forth. 

Ryusei swung his legs down and prepared to jump to the main level of the roof, only to nearly brain Baji as the other boy stepped onto the roof.  

“Watch it!” Baji swatted Ryusei’s legs aside, “Jeez. Is this what I get for fetching your lunch?”

Ryusei blinked, more than a bit startled. What should he do? He hadn’t expected to run into Baji yet. He had expected to have more time to gather his thoughts and poke around. He frantically scrambled to get his act together. He needed to act naturally. That being said, how did he act in middle school? He wasn’t sure he completely remembered. 

“My lunch? Did I ask you for lunch?” Ryusei attempted to go for casual and uncaring. 

He was mostly certain he pulled it off. 

“No. You didn’t ask me. I got something for you anyway,” Baji scoffed. 

Baji tossed up a prepackaged curry bread. Ryusei caught it reflexively. That’s right he had liked these once upon a time (before he entered the police academy and could afford nothing but this leading to his dislike). 

“You’ve been hiding up here all day and, knowing you, you probably didn’t even bring lunch. Now eat,” Baji grunted, setting down against the railing of the roof so that he was staring up at Ryusei. 

Ryusei looked away, unwilling (unable?) to look Baji in the face. The wrapper in his hands crinkled. 

“You got this for me?” Ryusei checked, still trying to get his bearings.  

“It’s a one time thing. Don’t count on it happening again,” Baji started into his own lunch. 

Ryusei hesitated. An odd silence settled over the two of them. Ryusei didn’t know what to say or do. 

“Hey… um… Baji…” Ryusei felt unusually clumsy with his words. 

“Mhm?” Baji grunted around a mouthful of food. 

“Was I weird last night?” Ryusei asked as quickly as he could. 

Maybe he should have gone with a different question. Ah. Well. It was too late now. Baji gave him a suspicious glare. 

“Weird? Ha! You’re always weird,” Baji snorted. 

That was far from helpful. It neither answered the question nor did it fill the awkward silence. 

“Never mind,” Ryusei groaned. 

Baji chewed his food thoughtfully for a moment. 

“In all seriousness, it wasn’t just last night that you were weird. You’ve been acting strange for a few days now. First you tell me you're resigning out of the blue, then you run from me before I can get a straight answer from you, then you tell me not to commit murder and then you act like that conversation never happened.”

Ryusei felt a flash of guilt. It appeared that his younger self had no idea what had happened while his future self was in his body. 

“Sorry about that,” Ryusei murmured. 

“And now you’re apologizing to me. I’m adding that to the list of odd behavior,” Baji frowned, “You gotta tell me what’s going on.”

So Baji was still in the dark. Maybe that was for the best. 

“It’s nothing,” Ryusei shrugged. 

“Seriously? We’re going back to this? I think everyone in the First Division knows that something is up,” Baji scoffed. 

“Really?” Ryusei blinked. 

“Of course,” Baji scoffed, “Are you sick or something? Is your mom ok?”

Ryusei shook his head. 

“Nothing like that. I’m fine.”

“Like hell you are. Come on. Tell me. What do you think I am?” Baji prodded. 

“A dumbass,” Ryusei snorted. 

“Oi! Uncalled for! Just because you can play soccer better than me doesn’t mean that you’re the better person,” Baji growled playfully. 

Ryusei found he oddly enough liked the playful bickering. He didn’t have anyone in his life he could have exchanges like this with anymore. 

At Baji’s pointed glaring, Ryusei unwrapped his curry bread and started to eat. He chewed slowly, looking out over the school yard. 

As he sat there, Ryusei felt a little lost. Now that he knew that it was time travel, what was he supposed to do? He knew what he wanted to happen. He wanted to save Chifuyu from being murdered, but he didn’t know how to make it happen. Perhaps if he had asked Baji about everything leading up to Chifuyu’s death before jumping back in time, he might have a starting place. 

He made up his mind. That’s what he would need to do next. He needed to go back to the future and find out what exactly had happened so that this whole mess could be prevented before coming back here. 

His thoughts then turned to Chifuyu. No doubt the younger boy was somewhere in the school, enjoying his life, completely oblivious to the fact that in a little more than a decade he would be ruthlessly murdered by someone he didn't even know. 

Instead of trying to fix things, Ryusei was up here on the roof relaxing and doing nothing. The thought made the curry bread become gluey and inedible in his mouth. He swallowed quickly to prevent himself from choking. Even still, it was hard to swallow. 

“You good?” Baji grunted. 

Ryuei pondered the curry bread in his hands. It was half finished. He wasn’t sure he could keep eating now. Not with the guilt of staying idle weighing on his mind. 

“Ryusei?” Baji frowned. 

“I’ve been thinking and I think I’ll stay in Toman,” Ryusei said, “For now at least.”

Baji didn’t look at all surprised (which, admittedly, was a little annoying). 

“Good,” he nodded, “I wasn’t gonna let you leave anyway.”

“You were going to force me to stay?” Ryusei snorted. 

At the same time, chill went down his spine. Was this how Baji had kept Chifuyu in Toman for so long? Ryusei didn’t know. There were too many unknown variables. What he did know was that he would need to stay close to Baji to save Chifuyu. The best way to do that for now was to stay in Toman. 

“Naw,” Baji drawled, “You’re just that easy to read. If you left, you probably would do something stupid like joining up with Yotsuya Kiadan again.”

Ryusei threw the rest of his food at Baji’s head. The other teen just laughed and dodged out of the way. 

“I should probably let you know, but if I try to leave or say I don’t remember this, don’t worry, everything is fine,” Ryusei felt like he might have fumbled the wording a bit, but he was certain he got the point across. 

Baji watched Ryusei with slightly narrowed eyes. He finally nodded his agreement. 

“Fine. I’ll let you do your thing for now, but I still want an explanation at some point,” a feral grin spread over Baji’s face, “After all, I am still your captain until you quit.”

Ryusei really wished he had something else in his hands to toss at Baji’s smug face. He settled instead for smoothly hopping down to stand level with Baji. 

“I promise,” Ryusei stuck out his hand. 

After giving him a strange look, Baji shook it. With that, the world melted away. 

Ryusei expected to wake up back in the police station. 

He didn’t. 

He woke up in the hospital. 

This may or may not have caused him to panic.

Ryusei made it halfway to a seated position before hands were forcing him back down. Ryusei gave up and let the people around him guide him back down. Nurses fluttered around him. Ryusei gave no fight as they checked him over. 

“What happened?” he croaked out. 

It was someone else who answered him. 

“You passed out again. That’s twice now in two days,” Naoto’s voice came from the side.

Ryusei turned his head in that direction. Sure enough, the younger man was seated next to his bedside looking peeved. 

“You’ve been out for almost an hour,” Naoto informed him. 

Ryusei blinked. So apparently time travel made him pass out in the future (the real word? reality?). He winced. He could hear the poorly disguised worry in Naoto’s voice. 

“The doctor doesn’t know what exactly is wrong. They are doing some blood work. Nothing really shown up so far. Your blood sugar apparently was a little low, but not low enough to make you pass out like that,” Naoto huffed, “Did Baji do something to you? You collapsed in the interrogation room. Or is this exhaustion? I told you that you should be resting.”

Scratch that. Naoto wasn’t just worried, he was also pissed. Ryusei tried to assuage the younger man’s mood. 

“I’m fine. You’re probably right. I haven’t been resting enough,” Ryusei forced a laugh. 

Naoto narrowed his eyes. 

“What are you trying to hide?” he demanded. 

“Nothing,” Ryusei insisted. 

“Bull. Shit.”

Ryusei really wanted to grumble. Why did the people around him have to be so perceptive about when he was only telling half-truths? Didn’t have better things in their lives to focus on?

“Really, I’m fine. Like I said, I just need to rest more,” Ryusei huffed. 

Naoto seemed unconvinced, but he didn’t press. 

It was about then that Ryusei realized something was on the side of his head. His fingers explored the area. He found that he had a decent sized adhesive bandage on the side of his head. 

“What happened exactly?” Ryusei asked cautiously. 

“You passed out and hit your head on the table in the interrogation room. You worried all of us because of the amount of blood on your head,” Naoto grumbled before adding, “Baji claimed that he didn’t do anything to you, but I don’t believe him.”

“Speaking of Baji, where is he?”

“His confession was enough to put him behind bars. He’s going to be transferred to a high security prison to await trial. You don’t need to worry, we got Chifuyu’s killer. He's not going to escape justice,” Naoto assured. 

But that wasn’t the problem anymore!

“I need to see him,” Ryusei stated. 

Naoto frowned. 

“You are not going anywhere, especially not near Baji,” he shook his head. 

“He didn’t do it on purpose. It’s manslaughter, not murder,” Ryusei bit out. 

It was a desperate attempt to make it a little easier for Ryusei to speak to Baji again. 

“He still needs to be prosecuted. Any further questioning will be done by a legal team now, not the Violent Gang Crime Investigation Unit. We're off the case,” Naoto shook his head. 

Ryusei felt frustrated. He knew that Naoto was right, but that didn’t make it any better. 

He bided his time and waited for the right opportunity. He was released from the hospital the next day. It took another week and a half before Ryusei was able to secure a supervised meeting with Baji (admittedly behind Naoto's back). 

For the first time in his career, Ryusei marched into the prison with anxiety. The room was bare save for a table and chair where Baji was chained hand and foot. It seemed like overkill. Ryusei doubted that he would have run even if he were free. Like Ryusei had suspected earlier, Baji’s will to live was gone. The other man was slumped in his seat and didn’t even bother to raise his head when Ryusei entered the room. It wasn’t until Ryusei took the seat opposite him that Baji acknowledge him.  

“You collapsed,” Baji grunted. 

“I did. Sorry to scare you,” Ryusei distantly wondered why he was apologizing to a known gang member. 

Baji shrugged slightly. His gaze drifted away. A chill ran down Ryusei’s spine. Baji was done with life and as such, Ryusei wouldn’t put it past him to simply end his own life. If that happened, would Ryusei be able to go back into the past any more? He didn’t want to find out.

Ryusei drew a deep breath. He needed information and then he needed to go back. 

“Listen, Baji, I need to know what happened?” he demanded. 

“What do you mean?” Baji sighed. 

“I need to know everything that has happened between middle school and now,” Ryusei paused before emphasizing, “And I mean everything.”

“Why?” Baji frowned. 

Ryusei looked Baji dead in the eyes.

“I think I have a way to save Chifuyu.”

A look of surprise and hungry, urgent desperation flashed over Baji’s face. Then, just as quickly, Baji's expression changed to dejection and sorrow. 

“S-save Chifuyu? He’s dead. I killed him. I fucking killed him. I did that. You can’t save him. He’s dead,” Baji gave a hysterical laugh of disbelief.  

“Baji!” Ryusei barked. 

Baji quieted. 

“I have a way to-” Ryusei hesitated. 

How much should he say? He didn’t know. The conversation was monitored so there would be no passing secrets. He opted for a different approach. 

“You remember when you said you remembered killing Chifuyu twice?” 

Baji closed his eyes in pain. Ryusei didn’t need any further confirmation that it was a yes. 

“What of it?” Baji sighed. 

“Don’t you think is a little odd? Two different memories of the same day?”

Baji shrugged. 

Ryusei growled under his breath. Nope. Apparently Baji did not understand the angle Ryuesi was going for. 

“If you could go back in time, would you do something different?” Ryusei asked. 

“Yes,” Baji’s voice was hollow and flat. 

“I think I can do that,” Ryusei said softly. 

“You can go back and save Chifuyu?” Baji frowned. 

Ryusei gave a sharp nod. Baji studied Ryusei's face for a while, trying to gague whether he was telling the truth.

“Fine,” he eventually sighed, “I’ll tell you everything that happened.”

Baji leaned back in his chair. 

“Let’s see. Middle school. Yeah. I sort of remember what happened at the beginning. You got all weird right before you quit Toman for good. I don’t know what really happened to you. I met Chifuyu around the time you quit. Honestly, he didn’t leave much of an impression on me at first. Then he got involved in Toman and he caught my attention,” Baji sighed, “At first, I will admit, it was pretty selfish of me. He was a little too devoted and did anything I asked without a second thought. He never really thought for himself. I didn’t really want him as my vice captain, but Draken bit the dust and Mikey started acting weird so I didn’t have the time to find anyone different.”

There was a pause and Ryusei waited while Baji collected his thoughts.  

“Chifuyu started to grow on me after a while. He was frustratingly loyal, but he was quick on his feet and he slowly grew out of that annoying habit of not thinking for himself. He stuck with me through all of high school. Or, well, my high school, not his. He was a grade behind me. Toman really took a turn for the worst just after I graduated, so his last year of school, and he ended up dropping out,” Baji’s face grew grim before he continued: 

“Mikey’s new vice captain, Kisaki, well, he was really more of a puppet master than a subordinate. I don't know where Mikey found him, but I wish their paths had never crossed. Kisaki was the one who started Toman down the path of corruption and made sure we couldn’t leave. I knew we were going down the wrong path. Hell, even my mom tried to tell me that before we cut ties. There just wasn’t a way out. I have so much blood on my hands. I think that murder was the last straw for Chifuyu. He killed an innocent woman, the sister of your police buddy I think, and that was too much for him,” Baji looked sad. 

“He tried to talk me into taking Toman down from the inside. I didn’t listen because I didn’t want to lose Mikey. Not after losing Draken, Kazutora, Pah and Mitsuya. I told him he should do whatever he wanted without me. Chifuyu decided to become a police informant, and, well, you know the rest.”

That was interesting and all, but it didn’t help Ryusei plan out his next move. 

“How did you meet Chifuyu?” he pressed. 

“Hell if I remember. That was years ago,” Baji shrugged listlessly. 

“Please. It’s important!” Ryusei urged. 

Baji sighed. 

“I think I saved him from a fight where he was in over his head.”

Ryusei nodded. 

“Anything else?” he asked. 

Baji shook his head. Ryusei felt a flash of disappointment. He had been hoping for more information. 

“Oh. But there was one thing.”

“What?”

“You and him did meet briefly, just before you left. I don’t know if you remember that,” 

Ryusei cocked his head. He did not remember this. 

“It was during the last fight you had as my vice captain. It with the.... um... Yagyo Douji Gang or something like that. He tried to take them all on his own and ran into you.”

Ryusei vaguely remembered that, now that Baji mentioned it. He nodded. 

“So how do you plan on saving Chifuyu?”

“I can’t really explain here, but I will tell you someday,” Ryusei smiled. 

He hesitated. If he proceeded with his plan in the past and it didn’t work, he would wake to find a royally pissed Naoto. Ah. Well. There wasn’t time to thing about that. Ryusei quickly shook hands with Baji. 

Then he was falling. 

This time, Ryusei did not wake up on the school roof. 

For better or for worse, when Ryusei opened his eyes, he found himself face to face with Chifuyu.

Chapter Text

Chifuyu?

Ryusei’s brain seemed to freeze. What was going on? He didn’t understand. Baji would maybe have made sense, but not Chifuyu. Why was Chifuyu here? Ryusei scrubbed his eyes. Chifuyu did not disappear. He continued to stand in front of Ryusei in all of his small, middle school glory, looking just as lost as Ryusei felt. 

“Can I help you?” Ryusei finally croaked. 

Chifuyu blinked as though he too had been in thought. 

“I… um…” then his gaze sharpened, “Yeah. Did you beat up those guys outside?”

At the strange question, Ryusei looked around. He appeared to be in some sort of abandoned medical building. Where the hell was he? He did not recognize this room. Nor did he-

Wait. 

What was it that Baji had said?

He had run into Chifuyu once just before he quit being vice captain, something about beating up another gang. That must be where he was. Through the open doorway behind Chifuyu, Ryusei could just barely make out bodies laying in the hallway. He then glanced at his knuckles. They were a bit sore so it was a fair guess that he had been the one to knock them out. 

“Sure did,” Ryusei nodded. 

He was uncertain of what exactly had happened, why he was here or why even Chifuyu was facing down like they were about to fight. He also didn’t know what persona he needed to adopt to blend in with the situation. In middle school, his mom sometimes scolded for being sassy and flippant. He would go with that for now until he had more information. 

“Why?” Chifuyu demanded. 

“What do you mean why?” Ryusei frowned. 

“It was supposed to be my fight,” Chifuyu growled. 

“Your fight?” Ryusei could only arch an eyebrow. 

What in the world was Chifuyu talking about?

“That’s right. I’m Matsuno Chifuyu, a member of Toman’s first division. I’m the man who will become Baji Keisuke’s right hand man!” Chifuyu proudly declared. 

Ryusei felt his blood chill slightly. He had only been gone a week. How the hell had Chifuyu not only met but also become infatuated with Baji in that short amount of time? While Ryusei was lost in thought, Chifuyu’s eyes narrowed. 

“I know you,” the younger boy sudden said in an accusing voice. 

“You do?” Ryusei blinked. 

“You are that asshole who tried to assault me the other week, at school,” Chifuyu narrowed his eyes, “Let me guess, are you connected to some gang?”

“Sure am,” Ryusei hummed amicably. 

He was unprepared for Chifuyu to swing a fist at his face. Ryusei quickly turned his head and let the blow glance across the front of his face. Chifuyu for his part looked utterly confused why his block hadn’t knocked Ryusei out cold. 

“I turned my face when your hit landed,” Ryusei nodded, explaining his technique without thinking about it, “It kills the momentum of your opponent.”

Chifuyu blinked. Then he looked annoyed. He took another swing at Ryusei. Ryusei repeated the maneuver. He was left mostly unscathed and Chifuyu was left fuming. They continued this impromptu sparring session with Chifuyu attacking and Ryusei slipping away at the last moment for a few minutes. 

Ryusei found that the smaller boy could pack quite a bit of power behind his hits. That made Ryusei feel better. That at least meant that Chifuyu wasn’t completely defenseless. 

“Oi. What’s going on here?”

Baji’s thundering voice echoed through the room. Both Ryusei and Chifuyu froze. 

“A friendly spar,” Ryusei shrugged. 

“Baji-san,” Chifuyu darted over to Baji’s side like a child looking for their parent’s approval, “He said he’s part of a gang.”

“Of course he fucking is,” Baji grumbled, “He’s my fucking vice captain.”

Ryusei sighed. So Baji was in a mood tonight. He wondered what had caused it. Chifuyu glared with jealousy at Ryusei. That was odd. Ryusei wasn’t quite sure what he had done to earn Chifuyu’s ire already. He added that to list of things he needed to factor into his plan. 

“If that's all, I’m headed out,” Ryusei attempted to edge his way out of the room. 

He wanted to escape before he needed to give an explanations when he didn't even know what he was doing here. 

“You could have at least told me you were coming here,” Baji huffed. 

“Ah. Sorry about that,” Ryusei rubbed the back of his neck. 

Baji’s eyes abruptly narrowed. He snapped his finger at a few of the first division grunts. 

“Clean up the place,” he commanded, before glancing at Chifuyu, “You too.”

Chifuyu opened and closed his mouth several times. He settled for grumbling but obeying Baji’s command. Baji then looped an arm around Ryusei’s neck and pulled him along. Ryusei had no chance to escape. He resigned himself to getting dragged along with Baji for the next little while until Baji had a chance to cool down from whatever was going on with him. 

“What is the matter?” Ryusei asked as they left the building. 

“I should be asking you that,” Baji frowned, “You apologized again just like you did last week.”

“Is me apologizing that big of a deal?” Ryusei hummed. 

“Yes,” Baji was dead serious. 

Ryusei sighed.

Baji pushed him a few blocks until they arrived at the sea wall that stood between the city and the river mouth. Ryusei recognized that they were past the edge of Shibuya and way outside of Toman’s usual territory. The two of them sat. Ryusei watched the moon begin to rise and reflect on the surface of the water. 

He felt a poke in his side. Baji still wanted an answer. Ryusei did not feel like giving one (mostly because there was no easy answer to give). 

“You good?” Baji asked once more. 

Ryusei shrugged. 

“You seemed really spooked or something earlier,” Baji huffed. 

“I’ll answer your question if you answer mine first,” Ryusei bargained. 

Baji nodded an agreement. 

“The doctor said that Chuu might end up needing surgery to fix his jaw. It’s not fair he has to go through that,” Baji grumbled. 

Chuu…. Ryusei wrinkled his brow. That name sounded vaguely familiar. He didn’t have time to place it though. Baji was poking him again like a disgruntled toddler. Ryusei swatted his hand away before answering Baji's earlier question. 

“It's about Chifuyu,” Ryusei started before pausing and gathering his thoughts into a more cohesive answer, “I don’t think we got off on the right foot.”

Baji blinked. Then he chuckled. 

“That sounds about right. Chifuyu could probably pick a fight with anyone,” Baji snorted, “I thought I told you about that though.”

Ryusei pinched the bridge of his nose as a wave of vertigo hit him. Now that Baji had mentioned it, he did remember something about a passing mention of the bright-eyed, younger boy who had been asking to join Toman for some reason. 

“Where’d you even find him?” Ryusei asked. 

Not strictly a necessary question, but he still wanted to know. 

“He helped me with my spelling while I was writing ‘Tora’s latest letter. He’s really good at kanji, like really good,” Baji nodded appreciatively, “Then I ran into him a little later and saved his ass. He had taken on some nobodies in a fight and they decided to pull out some weapons. He nearly got himself brained with a baseball bat. I saved him. Then we had yakisoba.”

Ryusei could only shake his head. That was no doubt why Chifuyu was infatuated with Baji. He must feel like he owed Baji a life debt. If only he could convince the younger kid that he was playing with his life and that he should stop messing with fire, Ryusei was sure that Chifuyu would back off and leave Toman. 

“The little fucker is scrawny as hell but he’s also got a good arm and a better heart. I would hate to see him get hurt,” Baji scratched the back of his neck, “That’s why I told him not to come tonight. If he had gotten here before you, he probably would have ended up like Chuu.”

Ryusei really hated to imagine that. It was hard enough to think about Chifuyu’s corpse which he had seen several times. What was worse was thinking about Chifuyu being badly injured and left to suffer.  

This thought wiped away any feelings of exhaustion. Ryusei needed to find a way to save Chifuyu sooner rather than later. 

“There is still something you aren’t telling me,” Baji huffed. 

It wasn't a question. Ryusei bristled. 

“Come on. Spill,” Baji prompted. 

Ryusei knew that Baji wasn’t likely to leave this alone until everything was out in the open. As he would need to be in the past for longer than his previous trips, Ryusei suspected that this was going to be a nuisance. 

Unless, of course, he cleared this up now. 

“Do you believe in time travel?” Ryusei asked on a whim. 

“No,” Baji snorted. 

Great. Just Ryusei’s luck. He should have just kept his mouth shut. 

“Brilliant. I should get home.”

Baji caught his wrist. Ryusei’s heart jumped into his mouth. He jerked his hand away from Baji, not wanting to risk triggering his time leaping just yet. He hadn’t accomplished anything of worth. Baji noted Ryusei’s jumpiness and frowned. 

“Supposing I did believe, what of it?” he had a serious glint in his eyes. 

Ryusei paused and assessed Baji. What it came down to was that he knew logically that he would need allies to keep things from spiraling out of control. That being said, he wasn't sure he could completely trust Baji. After all, the man ended up a criminal. 

Baji stared back expectantly, waiting for Ryusei’s answer. Ryusei ran a hand through his hair before deciding this was probably the best course of action. 

“I’m from the future,” Ryusei admitted slowly, “Twelve years in the future. Or well, my body is from this time, but my thoughts, my memories, my soul, I guess, are all from the future. I don’t really know how or why, but I have the power to jump back in time when I shake your hand. There are some things I want to change, some regrets that I don’t want to have.”

“Like what?” Baji frowned slightly, looking concerned. 

“Stuff,” Ryusei shrugged. 

How much should he tell Baji? What was the balance between telling a known criminal too much versus not enough?

“Is this related to what you were saying to me the other night about killing a guy in the future or whatever?”

“Yeah,” Ryusei’s shoulders dropped. 

Baji turned his gaze back out over the water. 

“That’s a bit hard to believe,” he finally said. 

“I get that,” Ryusei sighed. 

He should have known better than to try to win Baji over in this area. Baji was the least superstitious person he had ever met. There was no way he would have believed that time travel was real. 

“That being said, there are some things in your behavior that just don’t add up, like for instance, you apologizing out of the blue. I’m going to guess that's when you switch?” Baji cocked his head. 

Ryusei shrugged. He didn’t know for sure but that sounded like that might be right. There was another pause in the conversation. Ryusei tried to focus on the steady lap of water somewhere below him in the dark rather than on his racing thoughts. 

“I’m going to trust you,” Baji decided. 

“You are?” Ryusei confirmed. 

He had figured Baji might, at some level, believe him, but he had been expecting Baji to fully commit. 

“I ain’t got no reason not to,” Baji nodded, “And if you are lying to me, then you must have a really good reason.”

Ryusei did not know what he had done to earn such deep trust. Then again, maybe Baji had always been like that. 

“So, how many people know about this time traveling thing or whatever?” Baji pried. 

“Just you,” Ryusei admitted. 

And if he had his choice, Baji would be the only person who would ever find out. 

“Well then, how can I help?” Baji asked. 

“The first thing you can do is help me keep an eye on Chifuyu. He can’t die,” Ryusei sighed. 

“Chifuyu?” Baji frowned, “Why Chifuyu?”

That question hurt. Ryusei didn't want to think about it, but he answered Baji all the same. 

“Because he dies in the future I want to prevent that,” Ryusei admitted softly. 

Baji gave a soft exhale. 

“Alright. We work to keep him alive,” he nodded. 

“I was thinking, in order to do that, we have to keep him out of Toman,” Ryusei decided.  

“I think that’s going to be easier said than done,” Baji scratched the back of his head.

Ryusei did not like the way that sounded.

Chapter Text

“What did you do?” Ryusei groaned. 

“Nothing!” Baji sulked. 

“Liar!” Ryusei accused. 

“Oi! That’s no way to address your captain,” Baji swatted Ryusei. 

“Deal with it,” Ryusei crossed his arms over his chest, “Now, out with it. What did you do?”

“Weeeeellllll….” Baji dragged out the word with clear reluctance, “I’m not even really sure. I went from having no idea he even existed to now having no idea how to get rid of him. He’s kind of become a bit of a stalker. He follows me pretty much everywhere.”

“Right. Because you saved him. It’s called hero worship,” Ryusei huffed. 

“I’m not sure that’s it,” Baji frowned thoughtfully, he then shook his head as though to clear his thoughts, “My mom likes him, though.”

“How is that relevant?” Ryusei snorted. 

“It seemed important at the moment,” Baji shrugged. 

Ryusei ran a hand through his hair. 

“Ok. So, Chifuyu has been stalking you. Anything else?” he huffed. 

“He wouldn’t stop bothering me so I took him to the Toman meeting yesterday,” Baji admitted. 

This caused Ryusei to jerk. Why in the world would Baji have done that? There was an unspoken rule that non-gang members weren’t allowed to just start attending any old meetings. If they wanted to come, they had to come to a whole gang meeting, not a special, emergency division meeting like the meeting that had occurred yesterday.

Taking Chifuyu to that meeting was almost the same as if Baji had stood up and announced to the whole division that Chifuyu was not only their newest member, but also next in line for vice captain. Ryusei was beyond thankful that Chifuyu seemed oblivious (so far) to this implication. 

“You did what?” Ryusei could only splutter. 

“Shut it. It wasn’t like I wanted to. He just wouldn’t go away so I beat him up but then I felt bad so I offered to take him to one meeting and that was it. I figured that once would have been enough to scare him off. The emergency meeting just happened to be the next one. I didn’t think he would go charging off on his own simply based on what he heard last night,” Baji leaned back a bit to stare at the sky, “I shouldn’t have let him come yesterday, should I?”

Ryusei shrugged. What was done was done. There was no changing that. At least now, Ryusei had a better idea of what he was dealing with. 

“Either way,” Ryusei chewed on his lip in thought, “we need to find a way to keep Chifuyu away from Toman.”

“Are you sure that’s the best plan?” Baji's question was unexpected. 

Ryusei scowled. Yes, he was sure. He needed Chifuyu to stay far away from Toman. Otherwise, Chifuyu was for sure going to die. That much Ryusei was confident in. 

“I mean,” Baji continued, “It seems to me that the best plan would be to let him join.”

“And why is that?” Ryusei’s tone was far more critical than he meant it to be. 

“Because then you could keep an eye on him,” Baji shrugged. 

“I can keep an eye on him even when he’s not in Toman,” Ryusei rebuffed. 

“Then why are you staying in Toman?” Baji wrinkled his brow. 

“That’s none of your business,” Ryusei shot back. 

He wasn’t sure he was ready to tell Baji to his face that a secondary objective of the plan was to get Baji out of Toman before shit really hit the fan. He suspected that Baji wouldn’t listen just yet. 

“Alright, alright. No need to bite my head off,” Baji huffed, “I was just curious.”

A brief silence fell over them. Ryusei tiredly watched the moon light on the waves. The quiet was broken when Baji spoke again. 

“What if I just tell Chifuyu not to ever come back,” Baji shrugged. 

“And you think that is going to work? Didn’t you tell me that you already tried that?” Ryusei pointed out. 

“You got a better plan?” Baji scoffed. 

Ryusei did not, in fact, have a better plan. 

“I don’t know yet,” he grumbled, “I just got back here like an hour ago. I need to gather a little more information before I have a good enough plan to act on.”

Baji nodded in agreement. 

“Right. Well, once you know, tell me what I need to do,” he offered Ryusei a smile. 

Ryusei nodded thoughtfully. 

It wasn’t much later that Ryusei and Baji parted ways for the night. Ryusei rode his motorcycle home and let himself inside. It was unsettlingly nostalgic to actually see the inside of his home from back in middle school. 

Part of Ryusei was almost expecting it to be a front building with nothing inside. He was glad to be mistaken. He flopped down on his bed, feeling exhausted. Despite his exhaustion, he didn't fall asleep just yet. He racked his brain trying to figure out a way to save everyone he wanted to save. He needed to keep Chifuyu away from Toman, he needed to get Baji out of Toman, and he needed to find Kojiro a safe place away from his older brother’s manipulations and abuse. 

This was all easier said than done. 

The more he thought about it, the more that Ryusei suspected this would end up more complicated than he had originally thought it would be.  He decided to start with the original reason he wanted to change the past. He would start with saving Chifuyu. 

So how to keep Chifuyu away from Toman?

It was clear that Chifuyu worshiped Baji for saving him. Ryusei didn’t really want to turn Baji into a villain in order to break Chifuyu’s perception, but it wasn’t something he was completely willing to rule out. 

Chifuyu seemed like he would listen to Baji over anyone (or at least, that’s how future Baji had described him). If Baji’s order to leave Toman alone wasn't enough to convince Chifuyu, there must be something else. But what?

Ryusei was no closer to an answer when the morning came. He went to school to gather more information about Chifuyu. His first order of business was to track Chifuyu down. As it turned out, this was easier than he thought it would be. Chifuyu tracked him down. 

Or, well, perhaps the word confronted would be better.

“You!” Chifuyu pointed an accusatory finger at Ryusei. 

The ambush had been set for the moment Ryusei walked in the school doors. Chifuyu had been laying in wait by the shoe locker. He jumped out from the crowd of students arriving at school, body tensed like he was prepared to pounce on Ryusei if Ryusei tried to escape (not that Ryusei was going to escape). Ryusei nearly laughed. He knew that if push came to shove, he could easily escape the smaller boy's hold. It was like watching a feral kitten poised to attack. 

Instead of laughing, Ryusei decided to address the situation at hand. 

“Me,” Ryusei cocked his head, not sure why Chifuyu was this agitated so early in the morning. 

“How did you become Baji’s vice captain?” Chifuyu demanded. 

“Well, that seems like a bit of a personal story,” Ryusei refrained from giving out any details just yet. 

It was less that Ryusei wanted that story to be a secret and more that he suspected he could use it as bait if he played his cards right. 

“Personal, my ass. What. Did. You. Do?” Chifuyu growled. 

Ryusei was very aware of the murmurs floating around them. The other students arriving, and even some of the teachers, were staring at them. Chifuyu, for his part, was completely oblivious of the scene he was creating.

“We should talk somewhere else,” Ryusei smiled. 

He caught Chifuyu by the elbow and dragged the younger boy through the school. Chifuyu struggled the whole way (only cementing the picture of a feral cat in Ryusei’s mind). They ended up, unsurprisingly, on the roof. 

It was here that Ryusei finally let go. Chifuyu spun to face him, arms held loosely in front of him in a fighting stance. Ryusei just sauntered over to the railing, leaning against it to show Chifuyu that he wasn’t here to fight. This only served to confuse Chifuyu further. 

“The first thing you should know, is that Baji doesn’t like gang matters discussed in the open at school,” Ryusei scolded. 

Chifuyu blinked before a hot flush appeared on his cheeks. He was clearly embarrassed. 

“Second, why are you so obsessed with Baji?” Ryusei cocked his head. 

He was hoping to hear the root of Chifuyu’s hero worship. Perhaps that would provide a key to keeping Chifuyu out of Toman. 

“Because Baji-san is cool!” Chifuyu’s eyes sparkled in awe. 

It was almost adorable how emotionally expressive he was. Ryusei had never seen that on adult Chifuyu before (then again, adult Chifuyu had been dragged through hell, so perhaps he couldn’t feel much of anything any more). 

“What does that even mean?” Ryusei snorted. 

“It means that he’s cool!” Chifuyu nodded. 

“Chifuyu,” Ryusei sighed. 

Chifuyu stiffened at the casual use of his first name. 

“Matsuno,” Ryusei amended before continuing, “You’re going to have to be more descriptive than that.”

“Why?” Chifuyu frowned petulant. 

“Because I’m Baji's vice captain and therefore higher ranked than you,” Ryusei smiled winningly. 

Chifuyu scowled when Ryusei said this. Ryusei wasn’t sure why. 

“Baji-san is cool because Baji-san is cool. You wouldn’t understand,” he sniffed. 

Ryusei rolled his eyes. Chifuyu was correct. Ryusei had no idea what he was talking about. 

“Alright. Baji is cool. That doesn’t mean that you should drop everything to join Toman,” Ryusei lectured, “In fact, you should stay away from Toman.”

Chifuyu narrowed his eyes. 

“What did you just say?” he growled. 

If he thought he was being intimidating, the exact opposite was true. Ryusei was amused more than anything else. Apparently Chifuyu picked up on this because his glare only grew. 

“I said you should stay away from Toman,” Ryusei shrugged. 

“You just want Baji-san to yourself,” Chifuyu accused. 

“Why the fuck would I want that?” Ryusei snorted before he could stop himself. 

At this exact moment, thanks to his time leaping, Ryusei counted Chifuyu as a closer friend than Baji. 

“I don’t know yet, but I swear I will figure it out,” Chifuyu declared, “and when I do, I will get to be Baji’s vice captain.”

With that, he left Ryusei standing on the roof alone. 

Ryusei let his head drop to his hands. Middle school Chifuyu was very different from adult, mafia member Chifuyu. Adult Chifuyu, while head-strong and brash, was also convicted and tortured by his wrong-doings. Middle school Chifuyu, while also head-strong and brash, was simply a brat in Ryusei’s eyes. Ryusei couldn’t wait for the younger boy to grow up a bit more so that he could feel more comfortable around Chifuyu again. 

The conversation with Chifuyu did not give Ryusei any more direction forward. That didn’t mean that Ryusei stopped his planning. If anything, he doubled down. Chifuyu wasn’t a member of Toman yet and Ryusei wanted to keep it that way. 

Ryusei was mentally examining his plan on his walk home from yet another wrinkle presented itself. This time, it came in the shape of Kojiro.

Chapter Text

Ryusei was slammed in the face with memories. He hadn’t seen Kojiro in years. In fact, if Ryusei remembered correctly, Kojiro died exactly three months from today in previous timelines, bleeding out from a fatal stab wound inflicted by his brother. While Ryusei wrestled with this unexpected (but not entirely unwelcome) encounter, Kojiro stared back with his usual unimpressed, half-glare. 

“What is your game, Ryusei?” he finally snorted. 

“What do you mean?” Ryusei was taken off guard by the question. 

“I mean, what are you playing at? Are you with Toman or are you with me?” Kojiro narrowed his eyes in challenge, “You told me we would always be friends and when I ask for a simple favor for you to leave Toman, you tell me you will but then change your mind. What gives?”

Ah. Right. That. 

That request was the whole reason that Ryusei had left Toman in the first place. Kojiro had approached him out of the blue with a plea for Ryusei to leave Toman. Ryusei had been ambivalent at first. Kojiro was his childhood friend, but at the same time he knew just how unstable both of the Hishi brothers were and he wasn’t exactly thrilled about plunging headfirst back into that world.

The deciding factor had been Kojiro’s request to help with his brother. Ryusei knew that Kojiro had no chance against his brother and he wasn’t about to stand aside and let Kojiro get injured when he could have helped. In the past, Ryusei had willingly left Toman to help Kojiro deal with Kensho. The resulting incident had claimed the lives of both brothers. This was something Ryusei would like to avoid in this timeline. 

It was then that Ryusei realized that he hadn’t answered Kojiro’s question. 

“It’s a long story,” Ryusei tried to be vague. 

Previously, he had left Toman without any hesitation. In part it was to protect Toman from Kojiro’s attention and in part because Kojiro had been an important person in his life. Now the choice wasn’t so easy. 

“Are you being forced to stay?” Kojiro frowned sharply.

“No,” Ryusei snorted. 

“Then you really are staying with Toman?” Kojiro pressed. 

“I….” Ryusei trailed off, unsure of how to answer. 

His heart screamed to tell Kojiro everything, to save his childhood best friend, to impart knowledge that would make a difference. His head argued back that Kojiro had always been unstable. Who knew what he would do if Ryusei revealed his true plans and intentions.

Ryusei’s lack of an answer seemed to annoy Kojiro. 

“Like I said, it’s me or Toman,” he glared. 

“Why?” Ryusei couldn’t stop the question. 

“Why what?”

“Why does it have to be you or Toman?” Ryusei sighed, “Why can’t you join me instead?”

Kojiro appeared flustered by the question. 

“I can’t,” he bit out. 

Short and to the point

Also completely useless. 

Ryusei glowered. 

“Why?” he pressed.

“I can’t,” Kojiro shifted defensively, refusing to give Ryusei any further answer, “Now, are you going to join me or not.”

“If I don’t join you?” Ryusei was curious. 

He was not prepared for Koijro to lunge at him and grab the front of his shirt. 

“If you join help, things might happen. The new kid that’s been hanging around, you know the one with the undercut and the earring? Well, I would hate to see something happen to him, if you catch my meaning,” Kojiro gave Ryusei an even stare. 

Ryusei was hard pressed not to shiver. He had forgotten just how far Kojiro was willing to go if he wanted something. 

“I’ll give you two more days. You had better decide by then,” Kojiro’s smile was unsettling. 

Then he brushed past Ryusei like the two of them hadn’t just been talking. Ryusei was left watching his retreating back. 

He did not remember this happening. Then again, he hadn’t chosen to stick around Toman after Kojiro’s request.This had to be proof that the past was changing. But was it changing for the better? That was a question Ryusei couldn’t answer. 

His thoughts refused to settle after the encounter. His original plan of saving Kojiro’s life by getting him as far away as possible from his abusive brother was beginning to look inadequate. 

Why couldn’t the people he wanted to save just cooperate and let him save them?

Ryusei was so agitated that he didn’t fall asleep that night. He eventually gave up and lay sprawled out on his bedroom floor. He was still awake when his mother came up after closing the bar. Ryusei didn’t need to glance at the clock to know that it was three in the morning. 

Ryusei belatedly realized he should have turned off the lights in his room so as not to worry her. Indeed, she must have spied the light because there was a knock on his door a minute later. 

“Ryusei? Are you still awake?” His mom asked softly. 

The door cracked open as she poked her head inside. 

“Ryusei?” she called once more. 

“Yeah,” he sighed, “I’m awake.”

His mom came fully into the room and sat on the floor next to him. 

“What is it?” she asked. 

“Nothing,” Ryusei huffed.

“Don’t ‘nothing’ me. What is it? Did something happen?” she sighed. 

Ryusei felt weak in front of his mother’s questions. That coupled with the fact that Ryusei was desperate to have an adult he trusted lend him an ear led to Ryusei answering. 

“I have a few friends who are going to be in trouble,” Ryusei admitted slowly. 

“Going to be?” his mom frowned slightly. 

“In the future,” Ryusei shrugged, “And I’m trying to stop it and I don’t really know how.”

“Have you considered that maybe that isn’t your problem to fix. I know you’re close with Kojiro and his gang, but you shouldn’t be the one forced to take responsibility for his choices.”

His mother had never really liked Kojiro’s influence on him, but she had never stopped the two of them from hanging out. 

“Not just Kojiro,” Ryusei corrected her, “Also a school friend.”

She looked a little surprised. 

“A school friend? Well, either way, their choices aren’t your responsibility,” she shook her head. 

Ryusei wanted to agree……Except they were Ryusei’s responsibility if he wanted his friends to live. Ryusei stared up at the ceiling. 

“Hey mom?” he asked abruptly. 

“Hmm?” she hummed. 

“What would you do if you could save dad?”

Ryusei noticed his mother go still at his question. They didn’t talk much about Ryusei’s late father. Ryusei honestly didn’t remember much of the man. The man had been killed when Ryusei was only five. That being said, Ryusei was well aware that his question was a sensitive one. After all, his father had been a low ranking yakuza member who had died in a police shootout after an ill-advised bank heist gone wrong. 

“Why do you ask?” his mom asked. 

“Just curious,” Ryusei turned to face her, “Would you try to save him?”

He was aware that his father hadn’t been a good person. Ryusei wanted the reassurance that trying to save messed up people wasn’t a lost cause. After seeing Kojiro's mood swings today and remembering where Chifuyu and Baji ended up, this was was a critical question that Ryusei was wrestling with at the moment. The homicide detective in him said that criminals couldn't be changed. His police's sense of justice argued back that everyone was worth saving.

His mother was quiet for several minutes. 

“Yes, I think I would,” she finally said, “I don’t know if he would listen though.”

“Would you make him listen?”

“I don’t know,” she finally sighed, “Is this somehow related to what you were asking me earlier?”

“Yeah. I don’t want to see my friends get killed,” Ryusei sighed. 

That was probably the wrong thing to say. Ryusei could see just how much this comment startled his mom. 

“Are you safe?” she demanded sharply. 

“Yeah,” Ryusei shrugged. 

For now at least . 

“Will you tell me if you ever aren’t?”

“Sure.”

Probably not. Ryusei wouldn’t risk getting her hurt in the messy tangle of gang activities he was ensnared in at the moment. His mom gave him a look like she knew what he was thinking. Ryusei did his best not to flinch (after all, he had police training backing his stoic face now). 

“Alright. Is there anything else?” she asked with a yawn. 

Ryusei shook his head. 

“You should probably get at least a little bit of sleep before school tomorrow,” his mom smiled softly. 

Ryusei nodded. 

“Love you,” he called after her. 

It wasn’t something he had said often in the past, but now that he had a second chance at life, he wanted to make sure that she knew this. His mom’s face brightened with a smile. Then she turned off the lights and left. 

Strangely enough, the talk with his mom quieted his mind enough that he was able to fall asleep. Ryusei woke up with a solid plan in mind. 

Phase one: annoy the hell out of Chifuyu so that he stayed far away from Toman. 

Phase two: get back in Kojiro’s good graces and convince him to get far away from his brother. 

Phase three: get Baji out of Toman. 

He started with the first and most critical phase. 

As it turned out, this was also the easiest part of the plan.

Chapter Text

As it turned out, annoying the hell out of Chifuyu was surprisingly easy.

Middle school Chifuyu was gullible and wore his heart on his sleeve. Ryusei had no problem teasing the younger boy. He dragged Chifuyu into all sorts of uncomfortable situations all in the name of convincing the younger boy to quit Toman. Ryusei did everything shy of putting Chifuyu on house arrest to get through to him. 

Chifuyu reacted how any untrained middle school would. He tried (rather futilely) to get back at Ryusei for each perceived slight. Ryusei was admittedly amused by some of the things that Chifuyu tried to pull. This younger, feistier version of Chifuyu was beginning to grow on him. 

Despite Ryusei’s best efforts Chifuyu would not be dissuaded. He continued to follow Baji around like a duckling (Ryusei couldn’t decide if this was cute or concerning). He refused to be dissuaded about joining Toman or even leaving Baji alone. Ryusei was at a loss as the first stage of his plan fell to ruin. After sulking for a bit, he reconvened with Baji to see if the other teen had any ideas. 

Ryusei arranged for Baji to get to school early so that they could talk without Chifuyu hovering close by. 

“I feel like I’m getting nowhere,” Ryusei growled in frustration into the cool morning air.  

“What do you mean?” Baji frowned. 

He didn’t like to be dragged out of bed earlier than needed. As such, he was more short tempered than usual. Probably the only reason he wasn’t fully scowling was the fact that they were talking about Chifuyu (somehow, despite Ryusei’s warnings, Baji was starting to become attached to Chifuyu). 

“With Chifuyu,” Ryusei glared, “He’s still hanging around Toman. I haven’t gotten anywhere. He’s going to die.”

Memories of Chifuyu’s corpse flashed before Ryusei’s eyes. 

“I mean, you have to be getting somewhere,” Baji shrugged. 

“How would you know that?” Ryusei shot back in frustration. 

“How would you not know that?” Baji scoffed, “After all, you are the one who knows what was supposed to happen. I assume what is happening now is not what happened last time?”

Ryusei conceded that point. This was not what had happened in the past. That being said, he wasn’t convinced this was a good thing though. 

“It’s not enough,” Ryusei glowered. 

“How do you know that?” Baji cocked his head. 

Ryusei opened his mouth. Then he closed it. He had no proof. He only had this ever nagging sense in his gut that he wasn’t doing enough; that he wasn’t doing his best; that despite his efforts it would all be in vain. Of course these were just feelings, but they were powerful feelings that Ryusei couldn’t ever shake.  

“How do you know?” Baji pressed once more. 

“I don’t,” Ryusei hated to admit that much. 

“Great. Well then, stop worrying about the future and just see what you can do right now,” Baji shrugged. 

If only it was that simple. 

Ryusei frowned. Maybe it was that simple? 

He didn't know any more. 

“Fine. Whatever,” he grumbled, a little bit annoyed that the wind had been taken out of his sails. 

“Good,” Baji nodded, “Now I have decided that you owe me a lunch.”

“I owe you a lunch?” Ryusei scoffed. 

“You do,” Baji nodded, “I got you something the other week. Now it’s your turn. Since you dragged me out of bed early, it’s only fair.”

Ryusei just grumbled half-heartedly. 

He stayed out on the roof, even as school started. He gazed out over the empty school yard, deep in thought. 

Ryusei wondered if this really was the right plan. Since Chifuyu seemed to be imprinted on Baji much the same way that a young duckling imprinted on its mother, maybe this was wrong. Perhaps convincing Chifuyu to leave would hurt him even worse than letting him stay. Ryusei had been so sure that the right path was to get Chifuyu to leave Toman that it was a little hard to consider a different plan. 

Ryusei huffed in frustration. 

If only Chifuyu would cooperate with Ryusei's plan. 

For better or worse, all thoughts about his plan to get Chifuyu out of Toman left his head as he noticed something, or more accurately, someone lurking at the school gate. 

Kojiro. 

Ryusei swallowed. 

Right. 

Kojiro had threatened to take action if Ryusei didn’t join him. The deadline for the ultimatum had been two days ago. No doubt he had shown up for his answer. Ryusei acted without thinking. He hurried off of the roof and down to his childhood friend. 

“So what’s your final answer?” Kojiro demanded. 

“It took you a while to show up,” Ryusei attempted to both avoid the question and get answers of his own. 

“I had other things,” Kojiro scowled. 

Ryusei knew that was code for Kensho was being an asshole again. Kojiro took a step forward. Now he was well inside of Ryusei’s personal bubble. Ryusei fought the instinct to take a step backwards. 

“Well? Your answer?” Kojiro demanded. 

If Ryusei said no, not only would he lose his best chance to save Kojiro, Chifuyu was as good as dead. There would be no stopping Kojiro from entering the school and dragging Chifuyu away by force. If Ryusei said yes, who knew what might happen while he was away. 

Ryusei glanced back over his shoulder. Somewhere in the school, Chifuyu was diligently sitting at his desk, none the wiser to the fact that Ryusei had the power to turn his life upside down in the worst way possible. 

After a strained moment of silence, Ryusei knew the answer. 

“Alright. I’ll come with you,” he murmured. 

He couldn’t risk Chifuyu getting tangled up in Yotsuya Kaidan. That would for sure result in his death. At least this way, Baji would still watch Chifuyu’s back and keep him from doing anything too stupid while Ryusei was away. 

Kojiro looked vaguely pleased. He physically dragged Ryusei through the tangled streets of Shibuya, hand tightly gripping Ryusei’s arm. Ryusei let himself be dragged about and offered no fight.  

“Hey, Kojiro,” Ryusei started, “About your brother. Is-”

He was unprepared for the punch to the face. 

“Shut it. I don’t want to hear about Kensho,” Kojiro hissed. 

Perhaps coming with the unstable maniac wasn’t the best plan.

“Alright, alright,” Ryusei tried to backpedal. 

He needed to remain in Kojiro’s good graces to keep him safe. 

“I’ve missed you,” Ryusei offered. 

It was true enough. Not only had he missed Kojiro for more than the last decade, he also missed who Kojiro used to be when they were kids and the world wasn’t quiet as unkind. 

“I know you did,” Kojiro nodded, quickly easing back into a friendly demeanor, “That’s why I had to get you out. I didn’t want to lose you.”

Something about the phrasing was odd. Ryusei furrowed his brow. 

That’s right.

The reason that Kojiro and Kensho had died was over a disagreement about Toman. Kensho, for some reason that Ryusei didn’t remember, had decided that he owed it to someone to take Toman down. The disagreement had been over the course of action. Kensho wanted Kojiro to foot the bill and have Yotsuya Kaidan do all the hard work. Kojiro, for once in his life, had pushed back and had ended up with a knife in his chest for his troubles. How could Ryusei have forgotten that? 

(That was a lie. Ryusei knew how he had forgotten it. He had purposefully blocked it from his memory)

“You can’t.” Ryusei stopped in his tracks as he said this.  

“Can’t what?” Kojiro looked puzzled. 

“You can’t do what Kensho wants. Toman shouldn’t be messed with,” Ryusei shook his head. 

A dark curtain came slamming down over Kojiro’s face. All traces of friendliness were now gone. Ryusei continued talking.  

“Please. Trust me. You don’t-”

“So you aren’t with me,” Kojiro snarled. 

“I… what? No. I just-”

“You want to protect your new ‘friends’ in Toman more than you value your friendship with me,” Kojiro accused. 

He wasn’t strictly wrong. If push came to shove, Ryusei would choose to save Baji and Chifuyu first. That being said, Ryusei was going to try his damn hardest to save Kojiro too. 

“That’s not-”

“I guess I’ll have to remind you that you can’t just decide things like that,” Kojiro glared. 

Ryusei had no time to react before a live taser was shoved in his ribs. His body spasmed and the world went dark. 

Chapter Text

When Ryusei woke, he was firmly tied to a chair. He blinked, trying to get his bearings. He remembered leaving school with Kojiro and trying to talk his childhood friend out of listening to Kensho and then…. Nothing. 

Looking around, Ryusei was startled to find that he appeared to be in some sort of batting center. He wasn’t alone. There were quite a few people hanging around that Ryusei recognized as members of Yotsuya Kaidan. This was not promising. 

“Good. You’re awake. It took you long enough.”

Ryusei looked up to find Kojiro entering the space from a side door. It was impossible to get a read off of Kojiro's face in the half-light, but the base ball bat he was carelessly toting around didn't bode well. 

“Why….” Ryusei swallowed. 

“Like I said, you need a reminder that you aren’t able to to go around making decisions on your own,” Kojiro scoffed. 

Ryusei had never seen this side of Kojiro. Sure he remembered plenty of spats between the two of them, but it had never been like this. Apparently his leaving Yotsuya Kaidan (and Kojiro) to Kensho’s influence had turned out for the worst. 

“Listen, Kojiro,” Ryusei started, “It’s been a little while since we’ve seen each other. Why don’t we just talk through things?”

“We’re going to talk, alright,” Kojiro nodded, “But until you can prove that you’re trustworthy again, don’t think I’m going to untie you.”

“Fine,” Ryusei leaned back. 

He could do this. He could talk anything out of anyone (except for Chifuyu). This would be easy. 

“How have you been?” Ryusei started at casual, trying to get a feel for the conversation. 

“Lonely,” Kojiro sounded a bit mournful. 

“I see,” Ryusei kept his tone neutral, “and your brother?”

Wham!

A baseball bat swung from seemingly nowhere and struck Ryusei hard on the side of the chest. Ryusei curled forward as much as he could, coughing and trying to catch his breath. 

“I thought I told you. Don’t mention my brother,” Kojiro hissed. 

“R-right. Of course,” Ryusei croaked. 

At his agreement, Kojiro untensed a bit.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Kojiro sighed, “You just need to relearn some things.”

“Kojiro,” Ryusei kept a close eye on the bat as he spoke, “If I told you that you were going to die, what would you do?”

“That’s stupid. I’m not going to die,” Kojiro sniffed. 

“But what if you did?” Ryusei asked again. 

“I would take down my killer with me,” Kojiro shrugged. 

Yeah. That fit. Kensho had died not long after Kojiro in part for the simple reason that Kojiro had taken the knife from his chest and buried it in his brother’s back.

Ryusei rolled his shoulders back in an effort to ease some tension from them. 

“Why do you hate Toman?” he asked. 

“Because they stole you,” Kojiro huffed. 

That wasn’t strictly what happened. Ryusei didn't have the chance to interject this. 

“They deserve to die for that,” Kojiro continued. 

“Woah, woah. I don’t think anyone should die for anything,” Ryusei tried to quickly settle things down. 

“You were the one who mentioned death, my death specifically,” Kojiro’s eyes narrowed, “Did your stupid, little captain put you up to this? Are you here to kill me?”

“No! That’s not-”

Ryusei was cut off as the bat whistled through the air and collided with his chest once more. He wheezed as the breath was driven from his body. His ears rang for moment. Police academy hadn't taught anything about withstanding torture. This, Ryusei decided, was a crucial piece missing from their curriculum.

“That’s fine. I can beat the real answers out of you,” Kojiro sounded almost sad. 

Ryusei had no ability to dodge out of the way as another hit struck him, this time in his shoulder. 

That was not according to plan. Ryusei sensed that the situation was spiraling out of control. He tried to get things back on a more favorable track. 

“But I came with you,” Ryusei pointed out, breathing harshly through the pain. 

Kojiro paused, mid wind up with the bat. He lowered the strike without following through. 

“That’s true,” he cocked his head like this hadn’t occurred to him. 

He stepped up to Ryusei and cupped Ryusei’s cheek in an oddly tender gesture. 

“That being said, you still were corrupted. I can’t have that,” Kojiro sighed. 

He stepped back and let the bat fly again. This time Ryusei couldn’t hold back a groan of pain. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Kojiro continued, “But you aren’t making things easy.”

The next chunk of time was lost in a blur to Ryusei. Kojiro continued his beating, only stopping when Ryusei was hanging onto consciousness by a thread. Ryusei’s whole body hurt (his ribs especially) and his mouth tasted like blood. 

That’s how they left him. Bound to a chair, bruised and in pain. Kojiro was the last to leave. He flicked off the lights. The area was plunged into darkness. 

It was almost a full day before they came back. 

Ryusei straightened as best he could. He was ready to put on a brave face. He was unprepared to see Kojiro followed by several Yotsuya Kaidan members who were dragging bodies. The bodies were deposited in other chairs and tied down in the same way that Ryusei was. 

Something like horror crept up Ryusei’s throat as he recognized one in particular. 

Chifuyu. 

Why was he here? Ryusei had specifically left to keep him out of this situation. 

The younger boy was unconscious, sagging limp against the chair. 

“You’ve been making friends behind my back,” Kojiro sighed, poking Chifuyu none too gently with his baseball bat, “This one has been trying to find you all day. I thought I would help him.”

“Leave him alone,” Ryusei hoarsely croaked, “He has nothing to do with this.”

“Don’t tell me that you actually care about him,” Kojiro snorted. 

The bat whistled through the air and struck Chifuyu in the chest. Chifuyu’s chair toppled backwards from the force. Chifuyu gave a faint groan of pain. Ryusei hated it. 

“Kojiro, please,” Ryusei was not above begging in this situation, “Let him go. He’s not even in Toman.”

“Yet for some reason, you’re obsessed with him,” Kojiro sounded like an upset child, “You’ve been taking him everywhere. You’re supposed to be my friend.”

“I am your friend,” Ryusei frantically tried to assure Kojiro. 

Korjiro didn’t listen, too trapped in Kensho’s abuse and manipulations to hear differently. He proceeded to beat up the other two boys who had been brought in with Chifuyu. Ryusei prayed that Chifuyu would stay unconscious and thereby escape most of Kojiro’s attention. 

As usual, Chifuyu did not listen to Ryusei’s wishes. 

He was slow to stir, but he did come to not much later. He looked thoroughly confused by the situation.  

“Hey!” he cried as he started struggling against his restraints, “What the heck? Let me go!”

“Sleeping beauty woke up,” Kojiro smiled. 

“You’re part of Yotsuya Kaidan,” Chifuyu blurted out. 

“I didn’t know I was that famous,” Kojiro’s smile only grew. 

“I don’t know where you’ve stashed Ryusei, but you have to let him go!” Chifuyu declared, thrashing about even more. 

It would have been a sweet sentiment if Ryusei was terrified for Chifuyu's life at the moment.  

“You hear that, Ryusei?” Kojiro turned to face him, “It sounds like he’s worried about you too.”

Ryusei’s mouth was dry. 

“Ryusei?” Chifuyu craned his neck around to look over his shoulder. 

His eyes went wide when he spotted Ryusei in a similar position to himself. Ryusei could only imagine what was going through the younger boy’s head right now. 

“I know Ryusei used to be in Yotsuya Kaidan, but you can’t-”

“Ryusei didn’t just used to be in Yotsuya Kaidan. He helped me found it,” Kojiro snorted as he walked over to Ryusei, “He’s my best friend.”

Ryusei knew what was coming next. 

“As such, I can’t just let him go,” Kojiro sighed. 

Sure enough, these words were accompanied by the beginnings of another beating. Ryusei closed his eyes in resignation. Maybe Chifuyu hadn’t been stupid and had called for backup before coming. 

All of a sudden, there was a grunt of pain. Ryusei opened his eyes. Somehow, Chifuyu had managed to scoot his chair and intervene between the two of them. He had taken the blow that had been meant for Ryusei. 

“I get that Ryuesi is a pain in the ass, but you can’t just go around beating up your friends,” Chifuyu declared, “He’s my friend and I would never beat him with a bat.”

Ryusei did not know how to process those words. Apparently Kojiro didn’t know either. He stood there looking both confused and irritated. 

“I don’t care what you think,” he finally hissed, “I’m going to kill you.”

Ryusei’s heart dropped. He tensed up his muscles to intervene. In the end, he didn’t need to. A baseball flew with startling precision through the air and knocked the bat from Kojiro’s grip. Ryusei craned his neck to see who had throw it.

It was Baji. 

A very pissed looking Baji. 

“I can’t let you do that,” Baji growled. 

Kojiro immediately lost all interest in Chifuyu. Baji was his new target. Ryusei wasn’t worried. He knew that between the two, Baji would win. Apparently most of Yostuya Kaidan also knew this. They started a mob attack. It was almost amusing to watch. 

Baji made short work of the Yotsuya Kaidan goons, easily mopping the floor with them. 

“You think you can just kidnap my vice captain?” Baji demanded, finally making his way to Kojiro. 

“He left Toman,” Kojiro snorted. 

“Until he tells me to my face that’s what he’s doing, he’s still my vice captain,” Baji spat back. 

Kojiro was fuming at this comment. Metal glinted as he drew a wicked looking knife from his sleeve. 

Ryusei needed to intervene now. 

He was more than thankful when one of Chifuyu’s little followers released him from his bonds. He darted forward, placing himself in between Kojiro and Baji. 

“I’m sure we can all agree that this is a very awkward situation,” he started. 

Kojiro attempted to duck around Ryusei’s right side to strike at Baji with the knife. Ryusei’s hands shot out. He just barely managed to catch Kojiro’s wrist before the hit could connect. Kojiro hissed profanities and tried to pull himself away. Baji too seemed to be looking for a way to retaliate. It was clear to Ryusei that neither of the other two was thinking clearly.

“Calm down, the both of you!” Ryusei hissed. 

He might have been ignored if it weren't for the sudden cry of: 

“The police are coming!”

Chapter Text

As soon as the cry of ‘police’ went up, chaos descended. 

Everyone scrambled to make a get away before they could be caught. The main door was soon crowded as the Yotsuya Kiadan goon scrambled for it. With one hand still gripping Kojiro by the wrist, Ryusei grabbed Baji’s sleeve. He then started to drag them towards the side door. No one was there yet. He didn’t need to look behind him to know that Chifuyu and his little followers were coming as well. 

They pushed out into the cool night air. 

Sirens were coming closer with every second. 

As thought on some unspoken agreement, they all took off running. Admittedly, they didn’t make it far. Ryusei was certain some of his ribs were broken and breathing hurt far more than it should. The others that Kojiro had beaten up were also far from fit. 

They stopped under a bridge a few blocks away to gather their wits. 

Or well, everyone except Kojiro. 

After they had stopped, Ryusei groaned in frustration when he realized that Kojiro had taken off on his own. He had the childish urge to throw a fit. None of the past two days was supposed to have happened. His plans were in shambles. 

For better or worse, Ryusei didn’t have much time to wallow in his frustration. Baji grabbed his collar. 

“What the hell were you thinking?” Baji demanded. 

He had a shallow cut on his cheek where Kojiro’s knife had nicked him before Ryusei could intervene. The cut had thankfully stopped bleeding, but the red stood out starkly on Baji’s pale skin and the sight made Ryusei’s stomach churn. If Baij, or heaven forbid Chifuyu, had been killed today, he didn’t know what he would have done. 

“I’m going to need more of a precise question,” Ryusei sighed, “What was I thinking when?” 

“What were you thinking at any point? You could have been killed,” Baji growled, clearly on the verge of shaking him. 

“No. Kojiro wouldn’t kill me,” Ryusei shrugged slightly. 

Probably. 

After the display tonight, Ryusei could no longer say that with certainty. 

“I could ask you the same question. What were the two of you thinking?” Ryusei was quick to turn the conversation away from himself. 

“I was trying to figure out where you had gone when that twat decided to set off on his own,” Baji jerked a thumb at Chifuyu. 

Chifuyu hung his head, looking like a kicked puppy. The younger boy clearly knew that he had been doing something dangerous and was disappointed at being caught. 

“I’m very glad I decided to follow him,” Baji huffed. 

“Me too,” Ryusei murmured. 

He refused to think of the image of Chifuyu’s cold body twelve years in the future. This Chifuyu would not end up like that. He refused to accept it. 

“And you,” Ryusei turned to Chifuyu, “What were you thinking?”

Chifuyu was caught off guard by the sudden question. He glanced at Baji and then back at Ryusei. 

“I was trying to find you,” he mumbled. 

“Trying to find me?” Ryusei blinked. 

Chifuyu’s cheeks flushed slightly. A slow smile spread over Ryusei’s face.

“So you weren’t bluffing about being my friend. I’m so touched,” he teased. 

The blush on Chifuyu’s cheeks darkened into a deeper shade of red. 

“I didn’t do it for you. I did it for Baji-san,” Chifuyu spluttered, “You’re important to him so I figured I would find you for him.”

Ryusei almost laughed out loud. 

“Let me get this straight. You don’t even like me, but you tried to mount a rescue mission on your own because you wanted Baji to look more favorably at you?” Ryusei clarified. 

Chifuyu squirmed. 

“When you put it like that it sounds bad,” he grumbled. 

Ryusei actually laughed at this. He immediately regretted that decision when sparks of pain ignited in his chest as his ribs protested the action. He ended up in a hunched over position, trying to relieve some of the pain. When he finally managed to look up he found that both Chifuyu and Baji were watching him with open concern. 

“I’m fine,” Ryusei waved a hand, “They, on the other hand, aren’t.” 

He pointed at Chifuyu’s little followers. One of them had keeled over and the other wasn’t looking much better. Chifuyu's eyes went wide, like he had forgotten they were there. With a conflicted look on his face, he hurried back to them. Baji grumbled something that sounded unflattering under his breath. 

“Right. They should go to a hospital,” he huffed, pulling out his phone, “I’ll call an ambulance.”

A moment later, it was established that neither of Chifuyu's little followers were in grave danger and an ambulance was called. Ryusei was glad for the break to regain his composure. 

“We should clear out just in case cops come too,” Baji nodded. 

He led the way. Ryusei and Chifuyu followed. It didn't take long before Ryusei started lagging behind. It wasn't on purpose. His chest hurt and if he was being honest, he was less than steady on his feet at the moment. 

“Are you sure you have come? Do you need to go to the hospital too?” Baji's voice came from up ahead. 

“I’m fine,” Ryusei waved off the concern once more. 

He stumbled once again, feeling a little dizzy. He distantly realized that he hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in the last thirty some odd hours. That probably wasn’t helping his busted ribs and concussion. Oddly enough, his arm was looped around someone’s shoulder to keep him from falling over. Ryusei blinked to clear his vision. Then he looked down. It was Chifuyu who had caught him.

“You think you’re really good at lying,” Chifuyu huffed, “But you’re not.”

Ryusei felt an odd wave of relief as he was very suddenly confronted with a version of Chifuyu that he was familiar with; blunt honesty and startlingly correct insight.

“I see. And what led to that conclusion?” he hummed. 

“Everything,” Chifuyu snorted as thought it was obvious. 

Well, the logic was underwhelming, but that was fine. Ryusei could help Chifuyu develop that skill. 

“Baji-san, I think we should take Ryusei to the hospital,” Chifuyu called ahead. 

“I already said I was alright,” Ryusei grumbled. 

Tellingly, he didn't try to pull his body away from Chifuyu. Baji observed the two of them carefully. 

“Hishi did a number on you. You’re pretty beat up,” Baji finally said.  

“I’ve had worse,” Ryusei scoffed. 

“And?” Baji grunted. 

Ryusei quietly sighed. He knew Baji well enough to know that he wasn’t going to escape without getting checked out at one medical facility or another. Baji came up on the other side and moved to loop Ryusei’s other arm over his shoulder. Ryusei pulled away from him. 

“I can walk on my own,” Ryusei huffed, “Besides, I don’t want to accidentally trigger anything.”

Baji furrowed his brow for a second. Then he picked up on what Ryusei was hinting at. 

“Fine,”  he grumbled, “But that's going to help you escape. You’re still getting checked out.”

Then he set off once more. With Chifuyu tugging him along, Ryusei had no choice but to follow. 

“Is it true that you helped to found Yotsuya Kaidan?” Chifuyu asked. 

Ryusei sighed. 

“Yeah. I did,” he admitted. 

Chifuyu seemed to digest this information for a while. 

“You’re kind of cool,” he mumbled, “I mean, not as cool as Baji-san, but you’re sort of cool.”

“That’s so sweet of you,” Ryusei ruffled Chifuyu’s hair. 

Chifuyu squawked in indignation. 

They lapsed back into silence for a little bit. 

Then Chifuyu spoke again. 

“You’re not supposed to do dangerous things like that on your own,” he sniffed, a little bit too self-righteously. 

“Dangerous things like what?” Ryusei frowned. 

“Like confronting your enemies alone,” Chifuyu frowned. 

It was clear that despite what he might claim otherwise, he had been worried for Ryusei. Ryusei tried to ease that worry. 

“Kojiro isn’t my enemy,” Ryusei sighed. 

“Then why did he kidnap you and beat you up?” Chifuyu's frown darkened. 

Ryusei searched for the right words. He didn’t want to tell Chifuyu about the future. He didn’t want to place that burden on Chifuyu’s young shoulders. 

“He’s lost right now. He is so very lost and I was trying to rescue him,” Ryusei sighed. 

That was close enough to the truth. 

“So you were trying to recruit him to Toman,” Chifuyu nodded. 

Actually, that hadn’t been Ryusei’s plan at all. He was just trying to get them out of the gang world, not to switch gangs. 

“I…. what? No-”

“You should have told Baji-san and me because we can help you,” Chifuyu nodded eagerly. 

Ryusei didn’t know what to say to that.

“That’s.... very kind of you,” Ryusei murmured

He meant it. Chifuyu seemed taken aback by the genuine sentiment. 

“Sure. Whatever. It was just an offer,” he mumbled. 

Ryusei decided that middle school Chifuyu was fucking adorable. While he was still the most familiar with (and still wanted) the mature, cynical version of Chifuyu, middle school Chifuyu was also becoming irreplaceable. Ryusei felt the intense urge to protect him and keep him innocent to the real world of violent crime. 

“Chifuyu is right. We would have helped,” Baji rumbled from where he had apparently been eavesdropping, “And we still will.”

“You don’t need-”

“If Hishi is off running amok, you're still going to go after him, aren’t you?” Baji pointedly asked. 

Ryusei hung his head. 

“That’s what I thought,” Baji grunted, “As such, we will be helping you. I will make an exception and let him join Toman if you can get him to chill the fuck out.”

Ryusei floundered. 

“My one condition is that you have to stop throwing yourself into dangerous situations,” Baji continued, “Do we have a deal?”

“You leave me no choice, do you?” Ryusei sighed. 

“Good. Then we work on recruiting Hishi,” Baji nodded. 

The moment was interrupted when a phone started ringing. Chifuyu jerked. 

“My mom! I was supposed to call her!” he gasped. 

He suddenly started fumbling for his phone. Ryusei unweighted himself from leaning on Chifuyu’s shoulders to make things easier for the smaller boy. Chifuyu answered the call and took a step away. Baji and Ryusei waited for him to finish. 

Ryusei felt oddly relaxed for what he had gone through recently. Despite not wanting to drag Baji and Chifuyu in this mess, they were here and they were oddly supportive. Ryusei felt a strange sense of peace. Everything was going to be alright. 

The last of his adrenaline left him. At the same time, Ryusei felt a bout of lightheadedness hit him. He staggered. When it didn’t pass as quickly as he thought it would, he groped for something to help him balance. His hand found someone else’s. 

Ryusei had a fraction of a second to register who. 

Baji. 

“No. Wait-”

Ryusei shuddered as there was a sinking sensation in his stomach. 

The scene before him melted away as he was flung to the future once more.

Chapter Text

Ryusei woke with a jerk. 

He looked around, trying to regain his bearings. 

The fluorescent light over head buzzed and flickered once as though acknowledging Ryuesi’s confusion. 

By all appearances, he was in a small police box, a koban . He frowned. He never remembered working in a koban . He had gone straight from the police academy to his training as a detective. Ryusei turned his gaze back to the man in front of him. 

He immediately decided that this sleazy-looking man was trouble. The name Hanma floated to the top of his brain, but Ryusei didn’t know why. Whether that was his name or not, this man with his oddly dyed hair and tattooed hands was creeping Ryusei out. Ryusei’s detective instincts scream at him to detain the man for questioning. 

“-isn’t that right, Sato-chan?” the other man drawled, finishing what had probably been some sort of monologue. 

Ryusei nodded numbly, having no idea what was going on. His gut told him that it would be safer for now to simply agree for the moment. 

“Good,” the man (Hanma?) purred happily, “Here’s your cut. Pleasure doing business with ya as usual.”

The man slid an envelope towards Ryusei before leaving the koban and disappearing into the night. Ryusei could only sit there in confusion. 

Eventually his senses got the better of him. He picked up the envelope. He didn’t need to open it to know that it was full of cash. A lot of cash. Extortion money? Blackmail? A bribe? Memories resurfaced in a disjointed order. 

There were drug transfers. 

He was supposed to look the other way. 

They had been buying him off for a while. 

He didn’t even know who they really were. 

They had approached him one day with an offer and he had accepted. 

Why? 

That wasn’t hard to imagine. 

The medical bills were expensive and he needed some way to pay them. 

Ryusei dropped the envelope like it burned him. 

So, apparently this time around not only was he a small-time cop, he was a dirty cop too. How had he fallen this far? What had happened?

Ryusei looked around for clues that might help him further untangle this mess. His phone revealed nothing helpful, neither did the contents of his desk drawers. Ryusei turned to his computer. His credentials were hardly enough to get him access to the police system, let alone to the databases he was used to as a detective. Even still, Ryusei was able to perform a search for Chifuyu's name. His one comfort was that he didn’t have any recent memories of Chifuyu’s corpse riddled with bullet wounds. 

He was thankful when his search turned up a result. That feeling faded as soon as he started reading. 

Name: Matsuno Chifuyu. 

Status: Deceased. 1991-2004.

Age: 12 years old

Cause of death: Broken neck caused during a gang assault. Pronounced dead on scene. 

Ryusei felt frozen as he stared at the damning text on his screen. Chifuyu was still dead? Even sooner than last time too. What had happened after he leapt?

He pinched the bridge of his nose, desperate for answers. His mind, still scrambled from the time leaping, refused to give him answers just yet. 

In lieu of having answers, Ryusei tried to think of what gang might have attacked Chifuyu with the intent to kill. While most of the gangs in the Shibuya area were violent, very few attacked with the motive to kill and even few acted on that unprompted. Chifuyu must have accidentally wandered his way into one of these gang’s territories and then tried to fight his way out (Ryusei didn’t think that was quite right, but he didn’t have any other answers as to what had happened). 

Ryusei sighed in frustration. 

Why did Chifuyu have to be this way? Why couldn’t he just leave well enough alone and quit the gang world?

Feeling discouraged, Ryusei looked up Baji’s name in the database. 

Nothing much turned up aside from a birthdate, an occupation listed as ‘manual labor’, and an address halfway across the country in Nagasaki. 

Ryusei leaned back in his chair. 

This was not exactly what he thought he was coming back to. He didn’t know what he was more frustrated with: Baji for grasping his hand and accidently sending him forward before he could change enough or himself for failing yet again to save Chifuyu. At least Baji had escaped Toman. That was progress in the right direction (was Ryusei being delusional? Maybe, but he had to find some way to keep himself positive).  

A thought crossed his mind and he turned to his computer once more. He typed in Kojiro’s name this time. He was surprised and relieved to see that no death date was listed. That little bit of relief was almost euphoric. It was made less euphoric by the listing of crimes after Kojiro’s name and the fact that he was in prison at the moment, but at least he was still alive. 

Ryusei turned his thoughts back to his foggy past. 

The other times when he had lept, Naoto had been there to help him fill in the gaps or Baji triggered the memories. Neither was available at the moment. On a whim, Ryusei pulled out his phone and thumbed through the contacts to verify something. It was a pitifully short list: his mother, a doctor, his boss, Chifuyu’s old number. Neither Naoto nor Baji was listed there. 

That was fine. Ryusei could figure this out on his own. 

He took out his notepad and a pen. After almost an hour of staring at the blank page, Ryusei finally admitted defeat. Fine. Maybe he couldn’t do this on his own. Ryusei made up his mind. He would track down Baji. He needed to do that sooner rather than later anyway. 

He wrote down Baji’s address and upon groping his pockets, he found a wallet but no car keys. Public transportation it was. The detective and over-achiever in him screamed as he left the koban in the middle of his shift. Night had well and truly fallen by this point in time. Ryusei’s watch told him it was already 11:00 pm. 

He managed to catch one of the last trains of the night that was heading the direction he needed. There were very few people on the train, which was nice. As they rode along, Ryusei’s attention was caught by something unusual. His reflection in the window. There was a scar now stretching from up under his hat down his temple to his cheek. His fingers ran over the disfigured skin. He wasn’t imagining things. What the hell had happened to him? He vaguely remembered a fight, but that was it. 

After almost twelve hours on a train, three station transfers, and an exorbitantly expensive taxi ride, Ryusei found himself standing in front of the address he had written down. His watch showed that it was only the middle of the afternoon. Ryusei marched up to the door, and pounded his fist on it. 

“Baji! Open up!”

After almost fifteen minutes of knocking, the door remained firmly closed. Ryusei distantly realized that Baji was probably still at work. Determined to get answers, Ryusei camped out on Baji’s door step. 

It took several hours for Baji to finally make his appearance. Ryusei spotted him, long before Baji saw him. This Baji looked…. different. His hair was shaved close (not a look that Ryusei thought looked good on him) and he was heavily tanned. No tattoos were visible and he was wearing a dirty dock workmen's uniform. Baji stopped in his tracks when he spied Ryusei. 

“Ryusei?” he spluttered. 

It was hard to read what emotion he was feeling at the moment. 

“Baji,” Ryusei nodded tiredly in greeting. 

“And why are you sitting on my doorstep like some kind of creep?” Baji grumbled. 

Ryusei didn’t want to speak until they were out of earshot of the neighbors. He let Baji open the door and then followed him inside. Once the door was closed behind them, Ryusei answered Baji’s question. 

“Listen, this is going to sound crazy. I think-” Ryusei wasn’t able to finish. 

“You just came from the past,” Baji grunted. 

Blunt as ever and surprisingly perceptive. Ryusei was glad to see that part of Baji hadn’t changed. 

“I did,” Ryusei agreed, feeling relieved that he didn’t have to explain that part. 

Baji sighed before leading them further into the tiny apartment. He gestured for Ryusei to sit. Ryusei did so. Baji vanished into the small kitchen and came out a few minutes later with two containers of instant yakisoba. He put one in front of Ryusei before starting on his own food. Ryusei got the hint that Baji didn’t want to talk just yet. He ate slowly, waiting for Baji to start the conversation. 

“So how’d you find me? I cut all ties with Tokyo a long time ago,” Baji eventually asked. 

“I work for the police so it was easy for me to look up your information,” Ryusei nodded. 

“Based on the uniform you work in a koban . As such I would bet that your clearance hardly even gets you access into the police system, let alone anything else,” Baji snorted. 

“I found your address there,” Ryusei was defensive. 

Baji shrugged unimpressed. 

“I assume you're here to go back to the past?” he stared Ryusei down as though daring him to argue. 

“I… yes. How did you know that?” Ryusei paused. 

“It’s hard to ignore the fact that right as I was getting ready for bed, I had several lifetime’s worth of memories shoved into my head,” Baji grumbled. 

Ryusei winced. 

“Sorry about that,” he apologized. 

Baji just shrugged. He was clearly trying to act like the trauma wasn’t affecting him. 

“What happened…” Ryusei trailed off, hoping that Baji would simply fill in the rest. 

His hopes were in vain.  

“What happened when?” Baji grunted. 

“The last thing I remember is you and Chifuyu showing up to rescue me from Kojiro and then the three of us running from the police,” Ryusei told him. 

“Not much to tell. You and Chifuyu schemed a way to get Kojiro into Toman. While you were winning his trust, Kensho caught wind of what you were doing and got mad. He wasn’t about to let his brother go. He ambushed you and beat you up really bad,” here Baji’s gaze drifted towards the scar on Ryusei’s head. 

Ryusei connected that must have come from Kensho. Now that Baji mentioned it, he did vaguely remember the crowbar coming towards his head before a long blank period in his memory. 

“Apparently in the middle of him pummeling the living daylights out of you, Chifuyu showed up. I don’t know what the hell happened exactly, but when I got there, you were unconscious and bleeding heavily. Chifuyu was already dead. Kensho had snapped his neck.”

Ryusei was selfishly glad he had been unconscious and hadn’t seen that. He didn’t want to add another traumatizing death to his memories, particularly another one of Chifuyu’s deaths. 

“You were in a coma for almost six months. Kensho was arrested, Mikey was starting to act weird, and I just…” Baji scrubbed his forehead, “I just couldn’t be around Tokyo any more.”

“So you came here?” Ryusei guessed. 

“I came here,” Baji nodded, “Figured if I stayed alive, you would turn up sooner or later.”

Ryusei’s memories were slow to resolve themselves. He wondered if it was an after effect of the severe head trauma. Ryusei remembered drifting aimlessly through high school before entering the police academy simply because he didn’t know what to do with his life. He had almost flunked out and had barely managed to land his job at the koban .

It was while he was working at the koban that he had been approached by a group of shady people. They had bribed him into looking the other way when contraband shipments came through the area. Ryusei agreed because he needed the extra money to help support his mother whose health was now failing due to the grueling hours she had worked to cover Ryusei’s medical bills. Very little about this future made Ryusei happy. He was eager to go back as soon as possible. 

“I need to go back,” Ryusei informed Baji. 

“Like I said, it’s taken you long enough,” Baji snorted, “This time maybe don’t go pissing off Kensho and getting Chifuyu killed.”

“It wasn’t like I did that on purpose!” Ryusei shot back. 

“No,” Baji’s face softened a little bit, “But it still happened nevertheless. Please change it, I’m begging you.”

“Yeah, that’s my plan,” Ryusei grumbled. 

He had no intentions of letting Chifuyu get any stupid ideas into his head this time around and he had no intentions of letting Baji shake his hand prematurely either. This time he would figure out a way to make things run perfectly. He was sure he had all the variables figured out now. Baji, Chifuyu, Kojiro, Kensho; he could account for all of them. 

And yet…

Something was nagging at him. 

“Baji, do you know a Hanma?” Ryusei felt like he had to cover his bases just in case. 

“Hanma? No. Why?” Baji cocked his head. 

“No reason. Just curious.”

The shady man at the koban was probably unrelated to all of this. Ryusei was jumping at shadows like a coward. He needed to calm down and stay focused on what he needed to do in the past. 

Ryusei stuck out his hand. Baji wasted no time in shaking it. 

The ground disappeared from under Ryusei.

Chapter Text

Ryusei blinked. 

The decidedly bland ceiling above him looked back. He was laying in his bed. This much he knew. This was also the first time he had woken up (returned? been sent back?) at his own house. It was as comforting as it was disconcerting. 

As his senses came back, Ryusei became aware of a low murmuring of voices. Someone else was in the room with him. Two someones actually. Still feeling a little groggy, Ryusei turned his head. He found that it was Baji and Chifuyu. They were sprawled on the floor reading manga. 

“Oi,” Ryusei croaked, “What are you two doing in my room?”

The reaction was nearly instantaneous. The two miscreants on his floor looked up in surprise. Baji looked relieved while Chifuyu looked decidedly embarrassed. 

“We were waiting around to see how you felt,” Baji answered. 

“See how I felt?” Ryusei was mystified. 

“You don’t remember?” Baji cocked his head, concern coloring his voice. 

Ryusei hesitated. What could he say in the presence of Chifuyu?

“You passed out on us. We took you to the hospital and they said you have a concussion. Then your mom picked you up. We came over after school to see how you felt, but you’ve been asleep the whole time. You're mom said we weren't allowed to wake you up, so we've been waiting around.”

Chifuyu nodded his agreement. 

“I see,” Ryusei nodded. 

The concussion probably explained the low level headache he had at the moment and the fact that his eyes were more than a little sensitive to the lights in the room. 

“How are you feeling now?” Baji came over to peer down at him. 

“I feel fine,” Ryusei shrugged. 

“You’re such a liar,” Baji accused. 

Ryusei huffed in displeasure. Who decided that Baji was allowed to make observations like that?

“How do you really feel?” Baji asked. 

“My head hurts and the light hurts my eyes,” Ryusei groused.

“Oh. Sorry,” Chifuyu scrambled for the light switch. A moment later, the room was plunged into darkness. Ryusei gave a groan of relief. 

“Much better,” he murmured. 

“That’s good,” Baji sounded pleased, “And maybe this while thing will teach you a lesson about doing stupid things on your own. You should have at least invited me.”

“That’s your lecture?” Ryusei couldn’t help but snort, “Don’t you mean to say that I should have stayed out of trouble in the first place.”

“We’re delinquents. We are trouble. I can’t tell you to do that,” Baji snorted. 

He wasn't not wrong but that didn't make him right in Ryusei's eyes. He decided he didn't want to argue at the moment. 

“Whatever,” Ryusei huffed, “What happened to everyone else?”

It was Chifuyu who answered this time. 

“The...uh... the police arrested the member of Yotsuya Kaidan who were at the ball park. My... um... followers are still in the hospital,” Chifuyu hesitated even longer before adding, “Your asshole friend-”

“Kojiro,” Ryusei sighed. 

“Him,” Chifuyu huffed, “He hasn't been seen since running off. Baji asked the rest of the First Division to track down our newest recuit. They haven't had any luck yet.”

Ryusei flopped an arm over his face. That was not what he had thought would have happened. 

“You're not going to find Kojiro if Kojiro doesn't want to be found,” he sighed. 

“I can find anyone,” Chifuyu boasted, “I found you and- OW! Baji-san! That hurt!”

Even in the dim room, Ryusei saw that Baji had slugged Chifuyu none too gently in the arm. 

“What Chifuyu is trying to say is that you can take it easy for the next bit while you heal. We've got your back covered,” Baji said firmly, “Rest up. Chifuyu and I will come back later.”

Then he tugged Chifuyu towards the door.

“And don't do anything stupid in the meantime,” he said as they left. 

“You neither,” Ryusei scoffed as the door clicked shut. 

He wasn't sure if the words ever reached their intended recipient. Ryusei found that he was exhausted. His head throbbed still. He turned over and fell back asleep. 

Ryusei was feeling much better when he woke in the morning. His mother was still wary about letting him go to school, so he was forced to stay home. He wanted to call Baji over to talk, but he didn’t want to be the one to ruin Baji’s reputation at school. As such he had to wait until the afternoon, then he called Baji. The first division captain picked up almost immediately. 

“Are you alright?” Baji sounded a little bit breathless, like he was worried or something. 

“Can you come over?” Ryusei asked. 

“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Baji answered before hanging up. 

Indeed, Ryusei did not have to wait long for Baji to arrive. 

“What happened?” Baji demanded as he entered, “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” Ryusei cocked his head. 

“Because you don’t just call out of the blue and ask that I come over,” Baji pointed out. 

“I wanted to talk with you. Is there something wrong with that?” Ryusei shrugged. 

Baji opened his mouth. Then he closed it as something occurred to him. 

“Wait. You came back,” he said, narrowing his eyes. 

“I did. That took you an awful long time to figure out,” Ryusei snorted. 

“When did you get back?” Baji helped himself to Ryusei's desk chair. 

“Last night,” Ryusei sighed. 

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” Baji frowned. 

“I didn’t want to let Chifuyu know that something was up,” Ryusei admitted. 

“He already thinks you are weird. I doubt knowing you can time travel this would make him feel any different,” Baji scoffed. 

“No. I don’t want him to know about anything in the future,” Ryusei shook his head. 

He immediately regretted this action. His head still throbbed if he moved it too quickly. He let the throbbing subside before finishing: “I want him to remain innocent for as long as possible.”

Baji nodded gravely. It was clear that wasn't completely on the same page as Ryusei as to why this was important, but he very agreed with the sentiment all the same. 

“That a noble goal,” he said, “Now, what can you tell me about the future. Something must have gone wrong because you came back.”

Ryusei sighed. 

“That’s one way of putting it. Chifuyu is dead again and this time it’s my fault,” Ryusei admitted. 

“You killed him?” Baji's tone was severe. 

“No, you idiot. My talking with Kenjiro gets Kensho angry at me. He attacks me and injures me pretty badly. Chifuyu tries to intervene. He ends up dead.”

“Right. Then Kensho needs to go,” Baji cracked his knuckles while his eyes flashed dangerously. 

“I didn’t mean for you to take that permission to go commit murder yourself,” Ryusei hissed. 

“Fine. What if I get him arrested instead,” Baji suggested. 

“No.”

“Why not?” Baji's expression was some cross between a pout and a snarl. 

Ryusei leaned back before explaining his reasoning. 

“Three reasons. The first is that getting Kensho arrested probably won’t help Kojiro’s trust in me. The second is that Kensho will be hopping mad when he gets out and since we're playing a long game, I am not going to be happy to find out the Kensho dish out some sort of revenge that Chifuyu gets caught up in ten or even twenty years down the road. Third is that you will for sure do something stupid and get yourself arrested as well.”

“Excuse me? Do you really have that little trust in me?” Baji scoffed. 

“For something like that? Yes. You tend to be a little too zealous to protect your friends,” Ryusei snorted. 

He didn't have concrete proof, but he was sure that Baji would even go as far as to sacrifice his life if it was for his friends. Him and Chifuyu were far too alike in that regard. Ryusei needed to beat that noble and idiotic tendance out of both of his friends. 

“Would you rather have me cold and uncaring?” Baji crossed his arms over is chest. 

Ryusei scrubbed at his brow.  

“That’s not what I meant,” he sighed. 

Baji’s ego seemed a little soothed. 

“Alright. So if I can’t get him arrested, what is your plan?” Baji paused before asking, “You do have a plan, right?”

“I have a semblance of a plan,” Ryusei attempted to side step the question. 

“What do you intend on doing Ryusei? Spit it out,” Baji was clearly suspicious. 

Ryusei hesitated. His plan was vague at best. The detective in him didn't like how loose it was, but he could think of no other way to defuse the situtation. That being said, he was sure that Baji wasn't going to like it. 

“You are going to get him arrested?” Baji accused when Ryusei didn't immediately answer. 

“No! I’m going to talk with him; with both of them actually. Kensho and Kojiro, I mean,” Ryusei told him. 

Baji had the nerve to laugh. 

“You’re kidding me, right?” he snorted. 

“Nope.”

“What do you think talking is going to do?” Baji scoffed. 

Ryusei knew that this would be Baji's hang up on the plan. Baji did his best 'talking' with his fists. Words were never enough for him if actions could be provided instead. 

“I don’t know yet, but I’m hoping I can explain the situation and get Kensho to back off,” Ryusei explained. 

“Kensho as in Hishi Kensho, right? The abusive, power-hungry, violent older brother Korjiro? We’re talking about the same person, right?” Baji arched an eyebrow. 

Ryusei nodded slightly. 

“Right,” Baji rolled his shoulders, “Draken and Mikey both owe me favors and I think I could pull Peh and Pah in as well. Not sure about the others.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Ryusei frowned. 

“Your back up. If this guy killed Chifuyu and badly injured you, there’s no way I’m going to take a chance that he tries something like that again.”

Ryusei had no idea how to feel. On the one hand, it was touching that Baji was so invested. On the other hand, Ryusei was terrified about introducing even more people who he couldn’t predict actions for. 

“No. I don’t need back up,” Ryusei said firmly. 

“Like hell I'm going to let you go alone,” Baji argued back. 

“You have to.”

“No. I’m coming with you at least.”

Ryusei opened his mouth to argue. Then he stopped himself. He would feel better if Baji was with him, so maybe he should let Baji and Baji alone join him. 

“Fine. What about Chifuyu? I don’t want him to catch wind of the plan and showing up,” Ryusei demanded. 

Baji had a very evil grin on his face.

“Draken and Mikey both owe me favors.”

Ryusei had no idea what to make of that.

“You have to make sure they understand that Chifuyu doesn’t leave their sight and run off to do something stupid.”

“Ha! What do you think Draken does all the time with Mikey? Just that. He’ll be great for a job like this,” Baji nodded, clearly pleased with himself. 

Ryusei almost wanted to add 'Yes, but Mikey can defend himself if left alone'. 

“Alright. You set up your end,” Ryusei sighed, “I’m going to reach out to Kojiro and see about setting up some sort of a meeting with Kensho. I’ll let you know when.”

“You had better because I don’t want to hear that you went off and did something stupid on your own again,” Baji scolded. 

Ryusei gave a scornful snort. 

“When have I ever done something like that?” he teased. 

Baji just glared at him. 

Chapter Text

It took three attempts before Kojiro picked up his phone. 

“What do you want?” he sounded off. Ryusei wasn’t sure why. 

“Can we talk?” Ryusei asked. 

“Depends. Are you going to sick your mad dog of a captain on me again?” Kojiro sulked. 

In an open fight on even ground, Kojiro stood no chance against Baji and he knew it. 

“I didn’t sick Baji on you. He showed up on his own,” Ryusei sighed. 

That was true enough. Ryusei had not ever planned for Baji to show up last time he was with Kojiro. That being said, he wasn’t about to complain. He knew that he would be in much worse shape if Baji (and Chifuyu) hadn’t shown up. 

“He had better not show up either way,” Kojiro growled. 

“He won’t,” Ryusei promised. 

Kojiro was quiet for several minutes. 

“Alright. We can talk,” he finally said with a much softer voice than Ryusei was expecting, “Tomorrow morning. The park where we used to play. I’ll meet you there at 6:30 am.”

The line went dead. Ryusei counted this as a small victory. He was so on edge from nerves that he didn't sleep much that night. He arrived at the park a whole thirty minutes early just to be sure that he was there in time. 

Kojiro eventually showed up. He looked much the same as the last time Ryusei had seen him. The only difference in his appearance was the massive black eye he was sporting this time.

“What happened to you?” Ryusei couldn’t stop the question. 

“What do you think?” Kojiro snapped testily. 

Ryusei winced. Kensho must have hit his younger brother. Ryusei had seen it happen often enough when they were younger. 

“Are you alright?” Ryusei asked. 

“What are you? A welfare check?” Kojiro snorted. 

The words were cutting and sarcastic, but the tone was more curious than defensive at the moment. Ryusei took that as permission to continue talking. 

“Listen,” Ryusei sighed, “I just want to help you.”

“What do you mean?” Kojiro cocked his head. 

Again, he seemed cautiously open. 

“You are my friend-” Ryusei was interrupted. 

“Are you?” Kojiro looked unconvinced, “Because it seemed to me like you were refusing my offer of friendship the other day.”

Ryusei opted not to address that point. 

“You are my friend, Kojiro,” he started again, “As such I want to help you and-”

“I don’t need your help. I am doing fine for myself,” Kojiro frowned. 

“Kensho beat you up!” Ryusei huffed. 

That was apparently the wrong thing to say. The mask slammed back down over Kojiro’s face. 

“Leave my brother out of this,” he snapped with a sudden venom in his voice. 

This time Ryusei did not back down. 

“No. Let me talk to your brother,” he said, “I want to talk sense into him.”

“Talk sense into my brother? You think I haven’t tried that before?” Kojiro snarled. 

“You aren’t the best with words,” Ryusei sighed, “Please. Let me try just this once. If it doesn’t work, I’ll never mention your brother again.”

Kojiro glowered for several minutes. Ryusei didn’t know what exactly was going through Kojiro’s head. He hoped that Kojiro would see the sense in letting Ryusei talk with Kensho. Ryusei had talked Kensho out of a few things in the past. There was a chance he could do it again. Ryusei waited for the answer. 

“Fine,” Kojiro groused, “Your funeral.”

Ryusei nodded. This was good. Kojiro, at least, was receptive to Ryusei’s intervention. 

“When can I talk with him?” he asked. 

“Fuck if I know. I don’t keep my brother’s calendar,” Kojiro shrugged. 

“Kojiro. Please,” Ryusei sighed. 

Kojiro was sullen and silent for several long minutes. 

“He’s generally around in the evenings after dinner,” Kojiro admitted. 

“Where at?”

“Where do you think?” Kojiro scoffed. 

Ryusei shook his head. He should have known. Of course there was only one place Kensho would show up at consistently. 

“Right. I’ll come around tonight,” he said. 

Kojiro shrugged before he started to walk away. Then he turned and shot over his shoulder: “Be careful when you come. My brother has been in a foul mood lately.”

Then he was gone. 

Ryusei’s first course of action was to call Baji. He briefly explained what had happened and what he was going to do tonight. He told Baji to hand Chifuyu off to Draken before he came around. Baji agreed. And with that, the plan was set in motion. 

Ryusei met up with Baji after dinner. The summer sun was starting to set. The falling darkness made Ryusei feel uneasy. 

“Draken’s gonna watch Chifuyu until we get back,” Baji nodded. 

“Good,” Ryusei hummed. 

He didn’t want Chifuyu anywhere near this confrontation. If Kensho reacted badly, Ryusei didn’t want to have to worry about Chifuyu getting injured. 

“Lead the way,” Baji nodded. 

Ryusei led them to an abandoned warehouse. He parked his bike. He hadn’t been here since he defected from Yotsuya Kaidan. Sure enough Kensho was there. He looked less than pleased where he sat on dusty broken crate. 

Behind him hover Kojiro, looking tense. Off to the sides, Ryusei clocked several high ranking members of Yotsuya Kaidan. They were rough looking teens with a history of dangerous violence. Ryusei forced himself to don an easy smile. 

“Kojiro said you wanted to speak with me,” Kensho's voice was loud. 

It had been a while since Ryusei saw him. Ryusei had never liked Kensho, even when he was younger and closer with Kojiro. 

“I do,” Rysuei agreed. 

“Then what is it?” Kensho demanded.

Ryusei noted how Kensho's gaze seemed to linger on Baji. He wasn't sure why, but it probably wasn't good. Ryusei would just have to risk that nothing would happen. 

“I wanted to speak to you about Kojiro,” Ryusei forced himself to come back to the conversation. 

“What about him?” Kensho frowned. 

Ryusei took a deep breath. 

“Please turn him loose,” Ryusei said. 

It was best with Kensho to blunt and to the point. At the request, Kensho frowned severely. 

“And why would I do that?” he snorted. 

“Because you don’t want to lose your younger brother-” Ryusei started. 

“I would lose him if you took him with you,” Kensho snorted as he leaned back. 

“No. I mean permanently. You could lose him permanently,” Ryusei shook his head. 

Kensho narrowed his eyes. 

“Listen….” Ryusei hesitated, “I know things and…. If you don’t let your brother course-correct now, he’s going to die.”

This was as close as Ryusei was willing to let Kensho know about the future. Kojiro looked marginally worried for a second before hiding his emotions. He knew that Ryusei had to be very concerned in order to confront Kensho. Kensho, on the other hand, did not seem to appreciate the sentiment. 

“How do you know that?” he demanded. 

“I just do. Please, you have to trust me.”

There was a pause. Kensho seemed to be considering Ryusei. In response, Ryusei straightened his spine. 

“No,” Kensho finally shrugged. 

Ryusei grit his teeth. 

“You would rather destroy your brother?”

He had hoped to appeal to Kensho's attachment to his younger brother and use that to convince Kensho to let Kojiro walk free if he was in harm's way. Ryusei could now see this plan was destined to fail from the outset. Kensho would rather drag his brother to hell than let him walk free. 

“I would. He’s not yours to save. He is mine,” Kensho waved a hand dismissively, almost like he expected the conversation to end there. 

Ryusei bristled. 

“I can see where the younger brother gets it from,” Baji whistled. 

Kojiro looked at his hands in shame at being compared to his brother. Kensho on the other hand bristled. Ryusei felt the situation starting to slip. He felt frustrated. He had worked hard to orchestrate this. He needed this to work in order to save Kojiro and Chiuyu. 

“Please, Kensho,” Ryusei tried to draw the attention to himself once more, “You’ve known me forever. You know that I care about Kojiro. He’s one of my best friends. You have to realize that I wouldn’t be asking this if I wasn’t worried.”

“You have no proof that he is even in danger,” Kensho pointed out. 

“I…” Ryusei hesitated.

That was true. He had no concrete proof. Only his memories of timelines that had already happened. That was far from convincing, even if he was compelled to tell Kensho the whole truth. 

“You are right, Ryusei. I have known you for a very long time,” Kensho leaned foward, “I know that you are manipulative, self-centered and lazy. You don’t care about my brother. You only care about yourself. I’m the only person who cares about Kojiro. You just want to destroy him and me together by separating us.”

“No. That’s not true,” Ryusei attempted to protest. 

He looked at Kojiro for help. Kensho saw Ryusei's pleading glace and scowled at Kojiro. In response, Kojiro ducked his head.

“Isn’t it?” Kensho turned back to Ryusei. 

“No,” Ryusei shook his head, “I am only trying to help you; you and him.”

Mostly Kojiro, but Ryusei would say whatever it took to convince Kensho. 

“We don’t need your help. I think you showed your alliances well enough by bringing back up with you tonight,” Kensho sniffed. 

“Baji is-”

“You should have come alone. You should have left Baji,” Kensho spat the name like it was a curse, “and the scrappy guy at home if you wanted me to take you seriously.”

Scrappy guy?

Ryusei opened his mouth to voice the question out loud. Someone spoke up before he could. 

“I’m not scrappy!”

The voice echoed from somewhere behind Ryusei. It was young and far too familiar. Ryusei closed his eyes in exasperation. 

What the hell was Chifuyu doing there?

Chapter Text

Ryusei turned around, looking for Chifuyu. Next to him, Baji did the same. Chifuyu was crouched on the edge of the rusted upper level decking above and behind them. As he peered down at the open area, he looked like a child caught eavesdropping, a mix of triumph and embarrassment on his face. 

Shit. 

This is not what Ryusei had planned for. Chifuyu was supposed to be otherwise occupied (read: babysat) and nowhere near this confrontation. As much as Ryusei would like to either drag Chifuyu away by the ear or demand answers from the younger boy about how he got there, Ryusei didn’t have time at the moment. 

“Alright,” Ryusei turned back to Kensho, “I’ll have them both leave.”

Baji stiffened, clearly not liking that idea. Ryusei didn’t care. If Baji left, Chifuyu would follow. Then Ryusei would be free to continue this on his own without anyone getting hurt. 

“No, you won't!” Chifuyu snorted. 

He deftly leapt over the railing and landed on the ground with a roll. He marched up to Ryusei and Baji. 

“I’m not going anywhere!” he defiantly told Ryusei to his face. 

Ryusei opened his mouth to reprimand Chifuyu only to have Chifuyu proceed to sidestep him and march right up to Kensho. 

“You are not being a good brother,” Chifuyu declared, “You look like you hurt your brother just like your brother hurts his friends. I bet he learned that from you. Ryusei thinks your brother is his friend, so he came here to defeat you. You should just surrender now.”

The entire room was taken off guard. Ryusei had never met someone with less tact or self-preservation. 

“Chifuyu! Get back here,” he hissed. 

His pulse was going haywire with Chifuyu within striking distance of Kensho. All it would take was Kensho reaching out and Chifuy could end up-

Ryusei quickly tried to shake that thought from his head. He needed to stay in the game to keep Chifuyu alive. 

“Why?” Chifuyu cocked his head as he glanced over his shoulder at Ryusei, “If I take him down, then you’ll stop treating me like a baby, right?”

“I… what… you…” Ryusei spluttered. 

“He’s right,” Baji unexpectedly took Chifuyu’s side, “You have been coddling him.”

Ryusei could only gape at his captain. This was supposed to be the person who was supporting his efforts to keep Chifuyu alive. Ryusei’s only conclusion was that middle school Baji was still more aware of the here and now rather than the what could be (either that, or else it was blatant favoritism). 

At Baji’s support, Chifuyu beamed. Ryusei felt a headache coming on. 

“No. I am not going to argue about this right now,” Ryusei huffed, “You’re both leaving.”

“In fighting in front of an enemy. Toman is weaker than I even guessed,” Kensho snorted.

That got a rise from Chifuyu (possibly what Kensho was intending). 

“Toman’s not weak!” Chifuyu spat, his slender, pre-teen body vibrating with a righteous fury. 

He might have taken a swing at Kensho if Ryusei hadn’t lunged forward and dragged him back by the hood of his sweatshirt. 

“Hey! Let go! Let go! Let go!” Chifuyu squirmed, trying to free his hoodie from Ryusei’s grip. 

It was like having a small child. Ryusei might not be a father, but he felt like one at the moment what with Chifuyu acting like this. 

“Stay back,” Ryusei growled, finally managing to drag Chifuyu to safety behind him. 

“Why?” Chifuyu pouted, clearly unhappy with the arrangement. 

Ryusei was overwhelmed. Perhaps he couldn’t be blamed if his patences snapped. 

“I’m not going to watch you fucking die again,” he snarled down at Chifuyu. 

Chifyuu took a step back, eyes wide and a look of confusion on his face. Ryusei did not have time for this. He turned back to Kensho only to discover that he had risen from his seat. A strangled gasp was all the warning Ryusei got before Kensho lunged. Ryusei brought his arm up to block the blow. The resulting force jarred his arm and left the limb tingling and numb. 

This was apparently the sign that the conversation was over. The other Yotsuya Kaidan guys started pressing forwards. This was bad. Ryusei wanted Chifuyu to be anywhere but here. 

He backed up, trapping Chifuyu between himself and Baji. He kept Kensho in front of him while also trying to keep the other Yotsuya Kaidan thugs in his periphery. Kojiro remained frozen where he stood, clearly torn between his brother and his friend. 

The attacks came simultaneously. Kensho charged at the same time his goons did. Ryusei was quick to react. He knew some of these thugs. He remembered what the fighting style of Yotsuya Kiadan was like. It was brutal and dirty. 

It was also, unfortunately, something that Ryusei felt a little underprepared to fight. It had been far longer than he would have liked since he had fought in a gang brawl. His most recent fight that he consciously remembered taking part in was an aikido competition at the police academy two or so years ago (or was it ten years from now?). 

Ryusei knew that his younger self knew how to fight like this, but he found that the years out of practice affect one’s ability to brawl. There were no rules which was both a blessing and a curse. 

Ryusei ducked a punch and threw a hit of his own in a move that probably would have gained him a penalty point in a regulated sparring ring. His opponent gave a grunt and took a step back while another attack was launched on Ryusei’s other side. 

Ryusei met that one with a dodge and a kick. A step forward allowed him to ram an elbow into the soft skin of a stomach. A fist clipped his ribs sending sparks of pain. Ryusei retaliated with a punch of his own. He felt like he was doing well. 

That is, until he briefly looked over his shoulder and realized that his back was open. He had been forced away from Baji and Chifuyu. Ryusei’s back was wide open. As Ryusei started to change tactics to compensate for this, something swung at him (a hard, booted foot most likely). Ryusei staggered forward as it struck him in the back of the head, knocking him forwards. In the momentary distraction, a fist buried in his stomach and forced the air from his body. Ryusei was forced to double over, choking for breath. The attacks did not stop as he faltered. 

“Ryusei!” Kojiro’s voice was high and panicked. 

Ryusei knew that whatever was coming was bad. He braced himself. Suddenly, there was a loud grunt that did not come from him. Though his vision waivered slightly, Ryusei looked up. Chifuyu had forced himself between Ryusei and the closest Yotsuya Kaidan goon. He stood protectively with his fists raised in preparation for a fight.  

“Chifuyu,” Ryusei hissed, locking his knees as he stood, “What are you-”

Chifuyu looked over his shoulder with a very unimpressed glare. 

“I’m helping you. You’re my friend and vice captain. I can do more than you give me credit for. Just shut up and let me fight already,” Chifuyu frowned as he said this. 

Ryusei opened his mouth to protest. 

He wanted to tell Chifuyu that he was just trying to keep the younger boy safe. He wanted to tell Chifuyu exactly what he had seen Chifuyu go through in the futures he was trying to avoid. He wanted to tell Chifuyu that he wasn’t just doing this to be an asshole. 

Instead, he shut his mouth. He knew that Chifuyu was right, to some extent. The younger teen was not weak. He probably needed less protection than Ryusei was forcing on him. Ryusei knew that, for the moment, he needed to trust that Chifuyu wasn’t defenseless (only extremely self-sacrificial which was a different but equally dangerous problem). 

At the same time, it felt incredibly wrong to let Chifuyu defend him. Ryusei was the one who had been sent back. He was supposed to be here to protect Chifuyu. The fight resumed before Ryusei was given either a chance to firmly object to Chifuyu’s involvement or the chance to reconsider his own course of action. 

Chifuyu attacked with a ferocity that was as worrying as it was heartwarming to behold. The smaller boy had an easy enough time ducking under blows with his short stature. He used that to dart in close and take jabs and under protected ribs and jaws. 

Ryusei could only shake his head and take up fighting next to Chifuyu. The two of them slowly started working their way over to where Baji was fighting. Ryusei was downing another Yotsuya Kaidan member when he noticed Kensho heading his way. 

The older Hishi brother looked annoyed and angry. Ryusei was clearly his target. In an effort to avoid Kensho, Ryusei started forcing opponents he was fighting between himself and Kensho. This seemed to piss Kensho off even further. Most likely because Ryusei was proving difficult to catch, Kensho turned to Chifuyu. Ryusei’s heart nearly stopped. Chifuyu, for his part, was oblivious of the new enemy approaching his back. 

Ryusei ran and dove, shoving Chifuyu to the floor. Chifuyu went sprawling. Kensho’s foot sailed through the air where Chifuyu’s head would have been. Ryusei knew that if the kick had connected, Chifuyu would have been knocked out cold. 

Unfortunately the act of saving Chifuyu had placed Ryusei in a vulnerable position close to Kensho. Kensho knew this. Chifuyu knew this. It seemed Baji also knew this because he shouted Ryusei’s name. It was here that Kojiro darted forward to Ryusei’s side, throwing his brother off course. Kensho pulled his punch, confusion visible on his face. 

“What are you doing?” he growled. 

“You….You can’t. You're going to kill him.” Kojiro panted, “I won’t let you.”

Ryusei was equally surprised and grateful at Kojiro’s intervention. It seemed that this fight is what it had taken to regain Kojiro’s trust (at least for the moment). 

Upon hearing what his brother had to say, Kensho’s face twisted into something ugly. 

“You are going to betray me?” he snarled. 

Kojiro flinched, but he didn’t move. 

“You can’t kill him. I won’t let you,” Kojiro’s voice was even softer, but it was firm. 

Kensho spat something that sound liked his brother’s name and a mix of curse words before attacking his brother. In a one to one fight, Kojiro never stood a chance. That’s probably why Kojiro suddenly pulled a knife from somewhere. Ryusei groaned. Kojiro and his knives. He should have remembered that fact. 

After several traded blows, Kensho was bleeding from a shallow cut on his forearm and Korjio was limping from a blow to his hip. Ryusei managed to drag Kojiro back a few paces. Kojiro was on the list of people he had to save too. Anyone near to Kensho was in danger.

Ryusei didn’t have much to think about anything else as Kensho resumed his attack, reigning blows down on both of them. Distantly, Ryusei registered that Chifuyu was covering his back, knocking down anyone who tried to approach them from behind. 

After dragging on for what felt like several minutes, Ryusei found himself growing winded. He had been fighting hard for a while even before facing down Kensho. Kojiro wasn’t doing much better. Kojiro’s strength was the ferocity of his initial attack, not his stamina. Kensho’s blows reigned down harder. Ryusei prepared to sacrifice himself for Kojiro, Chifuyu and Baji to escape. After all he was the one who had dragged them all here (they were also the ones he wanted to live). 

As Ryusei tried to find the best scenario for that to work, there was a loud cry. Something - or rather someone - flew through the air. Baji had joined the fight. His lip was busted and there was something fierce in his eyes. He was here for blood. 

Without giving Kensho a chance to recover from surprise, Baji’s foot lashed out. His booted foot connected with Kensho’s temple. Kensho crumpled to the ground. Ryusei could only stare in shock. Baji for his part was practically beaming. He smiled ferally as he started eyeing the other standing members of Yotsuya Kaidan. 

Their enemy, seeing their leader defeated, slowly started to back away. Without Kensho, there was little drive to fight. Slowly at first, and then faster and faster, they fled. 

Soon it was just Baji, Ryusei, Chifuyu and Kojiro surrounded by the gang members they had injured or knocked out. 

Ryusei could only sit back on his heels. Somehow, against all odds, they had beating Kensho. 

He allowed himself half a minute to catch his breath before turning on Chifuyu. 

“Where the hell did you come from?” he demanded.

Chapter Text

Chifuyu just cocked his head at the question. 

“What do you mean?” He asked in a decidedly innocent tone. 

Ryusei stalked over until he was towering over Chifuyu. To his credit, the smaller boy did not flinch away. 

“You know what I mean. How did you get here? Why did you come?” Ryusei demanded. 

“I came because you were clearly trying to leave me behind,” Chifuyu folded his arms over his chest in indignation. 

“And how did you find us?” Ryusei pressed. 

“He texted me the location,” Chifuyu pointed at Kojiro, “All I had to do was ditch Draken and then hitch a ride with Chuu. It wasn’t that hard really.”

That raised so more questions than answers. Ryusei gave Chifuyu an unimpressed look. 

“Explain,” Ryusei growled. 

“I already told you, he texted me the location-”

“Why?” Ryusei asked bluntly over his shoulder to his childhood friend.  

Kojiro picked at his nails before responding. 

“My brother was in a bad mood today,” he simply said. 

That was as close as he would probably get at the moment to saying that he was worried for Ryusei’s safety. Apparently Kojiro had counted on Chifuyu to do… something in the event that everything went awry.

“Ok,” Ryusei turned back to Chifuyu, “So Kojiro texted you and that's how you found us, but how did you slip away from Draken?”

“Well, it was more of an escape than anything,” Chifuyu rubbed the back of his neck, “I can climb faster than him, so you know….”

Ryusei filed that concerning bit of information away for later. 

“He didn’t try to catch you?”

“Oh. He did, but I escaped,” Chifuyu smiled a little too proudly. 

Ryusei suspected that no further questioning would get any further answers from Chifuyu about this. 

“Right. And then Chuu drove you here?” Ryusei asked. 

“Yup!”

“He didn’t find that weird at all?”

“Nope,” Chifuyu shrugged, “I told him I was prepping a surprise for you guys and he didn’t ask any questions.”

Ryusei didn’t know if he should be annoyed or proud of Chifuyu. The mixed feeling was something rather like constipation in the pit of his stomach. He must have been displaying some amount of emotion on his face because Chifuyu hunched his shoulders, wincing a bit as that action pulled on some injury. 

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” the smaller teen protested defensively. 

“You showed up at a meeting you weren’t invited to-”

“That’s your fault,” Chifuyu shot back. 

“How is that my fault?” Ryusei frowned. 

“You were acting weird. I wanted to know why.”

“I’ll tell you why,” Ryusei drew himself up to full height, “I was trying to keep you safe.”

“Yes. You keep saying that. What do you mean? Why do you have to keep me safe? Aren’t you supposed to be keeping Baji-san safe? After all, he is the division captain. I’m just the new guy,” Chifuyu pointed out. 

Ryusei floundered for an answer. When it came down to it, he wasn’t sure he actually wanted to tell Chifuyu what the hell was going on. This Chifuyu was still innocently oblivious to his numerous deaths in the past (or was it the future?). 

“I have my reasons,” Ryusei said stiffly. 

“You think you’re awfully sneaky, but I don’t think so,” Chifuyu huffed.

“Really?”

Chifuyu narrowed his eyes. For a moment, Ryusei wondered if the younger teen was on to him. He held his breath, almost dreading whatever Chifuyu would say next. 

“You’re part of a gang, aren’t you?” Chifuyu accused after a moment of thought. 

“Duh. You are too,” Ryusei laughed. 

“No, I mean, you’re part of a different gang or something like that. It’s definitely something shady that you don’t want any of us to know about and you’re trying to protect us all from, but it’s not working out very well,” Chifuyu’s eyes suddenly got very wide, “Is someone evil threatening you?”

“No,” Ryusei sighed, “Nothing like that.”

He was glad to answer truthfully. 

Chifuyu might have fired off another question (or maybe an accusation), but Baji made a strange choked sound. Ryusei, Chifuyu and Kojiro all turned to him. Baji had his phone up to his ear and he appeared to be listening to a message. He finally turned to Chifuyu with very deliberate movements. 

“What did you do?” he growled. 

“What do you mean?” Chifuyu cocked his head in clear confusion. 

Baji thrust his phone out, displaying the call log. Ryusei counted ten missed calls from Draken and two from Mikey. It looked like there might have been more. 

“What. Did. You. Do?” Baji repeated. 

Chifuyu wilted slightly at the sight of Baji’s anger.  

“Nothing?” The fact that it was phrased as a question seemed to indicate that Chifuyu knew this was the wrong answer. Baji’s glower deepened. It seemed that was all that was needed to break Chifuyu. 

“I disobeyed Draken, but I swear, I didn’t mean to do it on purpose,” Chifuyu explained in a panic, “I just wanted to see what you guys were up to, that’s all.”

“What did you do?” Baji demanded once more. 

“He told me to stay put?” Chifuyu fiddled with the hem of his shirt. 

“And?”

“And I didn’t?” 

Ryusei felt like they were going in circles. 

“What did Draken want?” he asked Baji. 

Baji blinked, coming out of his anger a bit as he refocused on Ryusei. 

“He was trying to get a hold of me. He sounded really panicked. He also kept saying something about trying to keep the police off.”

“Police?” Ryusei frowned. 

That didn’t sound good. What had Chifuyu done?

“Apparently the police get called when a kid is spotted climbing out of a window on the fourth story of a brothel downtown,” Baji sighed, “It sounds like Draken was trying to assure them that Chifuyu hadn’t been kidnapped or something. I dunno. I didn’t really follow that part of his messages. All I know is that the police showed up and Draken had to deal with them.”

Chifuyu’s face fell. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled. 

It was clear that he hadn’t expected his actions to have this big of a repercussion. 

“Don’t apologize to me, dumbass. You’re going straight to Draken.”

“Yessir,” Chifuyu looked utterly crestfallen. 

His early pride and excitement drained completely. Ryusei didn’t like seeing the echoes of that first Chifuyu that he knew; the one who’s hopes and dreams had been crushed and who was simply alive because of sheer force of will. 

As they walked back towards the entrance of the warehouse. Ryusei ruffled Chifuyu’s hair. Chifuyu jumped in surprise and promptly unruffled his hair (not that you could tell the difference). 

“I hate to say this, but you fought well,” Ryusei acknowledged. 

Chifuyu’s eyes went wide in what looked like shock. He opened an closed hit mouth several times before saying anything. 

“Are you ok?” the smaller boy finally asked in almost a whisper, a slight frown tugging at his lips. 

“I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“You never given me a direct compliment to my face before....” Chifuyu's frown intensified, “Ryusei! Your head is bleeding. Let me look at it.”

He started pulling at Ryusei’s shoulder as though to climb up his arm. Ryusei just sighed and shook Chifuyu off. The kid was strong, but he was more than two full heads shorter than Ryusei so that wasn’t a difficult task. Upset at being tossed aside, Chifuyu did what he did best: he proceeded to be a nuisance. 

“BAJI-SAN!” Chifuyu hollered, “Ryusei is bleeding.”

That got a reaction. Baji and Kojiro had both been leading the way out. At Chifuyu’s call, they both turned on their heels and hurried back. Before Ryusei could protest, he found himself swarmed. Baji and Kojiro both were inspecting the head wound.

Ryusei tried to push them away. This was stopped as Kojiro and Chifuyu each held down an arm, leaving Ryusei defenseless to Baji’s inspection. Baji prodded at the sore spot on Ryusei’s head. 

“It looks fine to me,” Baji finally admitted, “But we should probably get you home to rest. That is twice in one week you’ve had a head injury. That’s probably not good for you.”

Ryusei knew this. He didn’t think there was anything to worry about though. He felt fine, if only a bit tired and bruised from the fight. 

The walk back to the bikes was an interesting one. Ryusei found that the other three boys were hovering close by, almost like they expected him to collapse (which was ridiculous). After much discussion in front of Ryusei (like Ryusei wasn’t there), they decided that they would all escort Ryusei back home just to be safe. 

Kojiro had his own bike which he rode. Due to their mutual agreement, Ryusei was forced to sit behind Baji on Baji’s bike while Chifuyu took Ryusei’s bike. Ryseu thought this was ridiculous and overkill. He attempted to protest, but he gave up when he saw just how set the three others were. 

The wind whipping past his face felt good and refreshing. Far too soon, they all arrived at Ryusei’s place. Ryusei insisted that he was fine from here, but it seemed that his wishes were not going to be respected tonight. Honestly, Ryusei was too tired to fight the insistence. 

A short while later saw all four boys in Ryusei’s room. Kojiro was cradling an ice pack against his badly bruised hip. Chifuyu had band aids stuck on half a dozen different locations. Baji’s knuckles were carefully bandaged and Ryusei was cradling an ice pack against the back of his head. They probably made quiet the sad sight together. 

Chifuyu was the first to drop off to sleep, still sitting against the wall. Kojiro was next, sprawled out on the floor like when he would spend the night over as a child. That just left Baji and Ryusei awake. 

Baji flicked off the light. The room wasn’t as dark as Ryusei thought it would be. The full moon streamed through the window, lighting the room. Ryusei leaned back in his bed. 

“Hey, Baji,” he finally whispered, “Do you think today worked?”

Chapter Text

There was a bit of rustling as Baji readjusted. 

“Of course it worked. Why wouldn’t it?” he finally grunted. 

Rusei shrugged. He wasn’t sure why, there was a nagging voice that told him he was missing something. He mentally ran through everything from his last trip to the future. The creepy man at the koban. Baji’s exit from Tokyo. Learn of both Chifuyu’s death at the hands of Kensho and Kojiro’s arrest. 

Ryusei clenched a fist in frustration. Something was there. Hovering at the edge of his thoughts. If only he could voice it. 

“Ryusei?” Baji sounded worried. 

“I dunno,” Ryusei finally sighed, “I feel like there is something I’m missing.”

“Like what?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t know,” Ryusei grit out in frustration. 

Baji grunted noncommittally. 

“What if Kensho tries to come after me again and Chifuyu intervenes again.” Ryusei felt like he was beginning to spiral. 

Thankfully, he was distracted from these thoughts when a book came sailing out of nowhere and hit him in the chest. Ryusei knew he had Baji to thank for that. 

“It won’t happen. I beat Kensho. He’ll back off.” Baji sounded very sure of himself. 

“What if he doesn’t?” Ryusei sighed. 

“He will. I beat him.”

“But-”

“Trust me, Ryusei.” Baji nodded, “He’ll back off, at least for now. Or have you forgotten that’s how this works with delinquents?” 

Ryusei gave Baji a half-hearted glare (not that Baji could see it in the darkened room). 

“You know,” Baji hummed, “You never tell me anything about you in the future.”

Ryusei hesitated. This was true. It wasn’t so much that he had anything to hide. Rather it was the fact that he felt that his own life was irrelevant to the whole situation. 

“Most of the time, I’m a cop,” Ryusei finally admitted. 

Baji gave a snort of laughter. 

“I can’t picture that at all.”

“Yeah, well, it’s true.”

“Anything else?” Baji hummed. 

He sounded so genuinely curious, that Ryusei felt like he should answer. 

“Not much to tell. I was a violent crimes investigator the first few times and then this last time, I was staffing a koban.”

Baji laughed again. 

“And how was that? I bet it was boring as hell. How did you stay at that job?”

Ryusei bit his lip. 

“Well, the truth is…” he hesitated, “I think I was a dirty cop.”

There was a pause. 

“You’re kidding me, right?” Baji finally scoffed. 

“No. I’m not. There was this creepy guy who showed up and told me about another shipment passing through before he handed me a fat envelope of money.”

“Why didn’t you arrest him?”

“I didn’t realize what was going on until after he left.”

“So, you’re a dirty cop and a slacker on the job,” Baji scoffed. 

“Hey! That’s unfair!” Ryusei shot back. 

“Well, just know that if anyone approaches you in the future asking you to do a shady job, don’t accept,” Baji suggested. 

If only it was that simple. Ryusei had been suspecting for a while now that when he returned to the future, his younger self had no idea what had happened. 

“You’re going to have to keep an eye out for me,” he sighed. 

“You know I will,” Baji declared proudly. 

Silence fell for a few minutes. 

“What now?” Baji finally asked. 

“I figure I’ll stick around for a few days to make sure that everything is going good, then I’ll head back.”

“I’m going to miss seeing this other side of you,” Baji admitted. 

“You’ll see it again,” Ryusei snorted, “It will just take a few years.”

“True,” Baji huffed, “But it’s annoying I have to wait.”

Ryusei could only shake his head. 

“Go to sleep already,” he teased. 

“You’re the one who won’t shut up,” Baji snorted. 

After a few minutes of bickering, they both dropped off into silence. Ryusei heard Baji beginning to snore not a minute later. Ryusei surveyed his dimly lit room. As he did that, he noticed something odd. For a fraction of a second, he could have sworn he saw moonlight glint off of Chifuyu’s eyes, like he had been watching, listening. Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the glint disappeared. Ryusei was left wondering if he had imagined it. 

The next morning, Chifuyu didn’t seem any different nor did he give the impression that he had been eavesdropping, Ryusei decided that he must have been imagining things. The next few days were decidedly uneventful (after Baji made Chifuyu apologize to Draken and Mikey for the stunt that he pulled).

For the first time in a long time, Ryusei felt like he could sit back and actually enjoy his childhood (admittedly while also dealing with the aftermath of a concussion). He was certain now that everything was fine. 

After a few long discussions with Baji, they both agreed that it was time for Ryusei to head to the future once more. All it took was one more handshake from Baji and the world melted away like it always did. 

Once his surroundings resolved themselves, Ryusei found himself outside a funeral home. 

At first, this scared him badly. The fear slowly left him when he spotted the sign by the door announcing the deceased’s name. It was his grandfather. Ryusei felt the tightly coiled muscles in his back relax. As sad as he was to lose his grandfather, he had never been close to the man. He would prefer this to losing one of his friends. 

A quick check of himself revealed that he was wearing a black suit suitable for mourning. It was a well worn quit that had seen better days, with fraying cuffs and seams that needed mending. His pocket revealed a phone of foreign make and a wallet. Ryusei flipped through the content of the wallet. He found credit cards, foreign money and a French ID. Odd. 

Ryuei returned these things to his pocket before looking around. 

He was the last person still at the funeral home. 

His memory cleared slightly. Apparently he had moved to France, following Kojiro and his brother when they left the country. Relief swelled inside of Ryusei as the picture of a happier Kojiro came to mind. Ryusei remembered that when he moved, he had lost contact with Baji and Chifuyu.

Baji and Chifuyu.

That was quickly what Ryusei decided his next course of action should be. He needed to track them down. He had received no news of any deaths that he could remember, so he was tentatively hoping that any situation he might find would be fixable. 

Without any destination in mind, Ryusei set out. He meandered along the street. The characters on street signs felt muddy yet clear, like he had temporarily forgotten how to read. Ryusei decided that he must not speak very much Japanese while abroad. It was an odd sensation that he didn’t much like. 

The funeral home thankfully wasn’t far from the main streets of Shibuya. Ryusei was lost in nostalgia as he wondered along. He followed the twisting streets, remembering all the different shops that used to be there. He passed the bar that his mom used to run. He passed some of the places he remembered meeting up with friends to ride bikes. He turned several more streets, getting himself lost in his recollections. 

It was here, purely by coincidence, that Ryusei ran into Chifuyu. 

Ryusei felt someone smaller collide with his chest as he turned the next corner. He caught himself on the wall as he staggered after the impact. He did a doubletake as he looked down. Chifuyu. It was well and truly Chifuyu. Ryusei could have cried right then and there. His effort had paid off. 

“Ryusei?” Chifuyu looked startled. 

“Hey,” Ryusei greeted happily, “Long time, no see.”

“What are you doing here?” Chifuyu seemed tense. 

Ryusei paused before explaining: “What do you mean? My grandfather passed away, so I came back for his funeral. I figured I would check up with my old friends while I was in the area.”

“You shouldn’t,” Chifuyu was backing away, “You shouldn't be here.”

Ryusei reached out to stop the smaller man. His police instincts were telling him that something was wrong. Had he relaxed too soon?

“Why not?” he asked. 

“You… You just…” Chifuyu glanced over his shoulder, clearly scanning for something, “You should leave.”

“Chifuyu, what-”

“Go,” Chifuyu abruptly pushed Ryusei back around the corner of the street and into the alleyway. Ryusei stood there, stunned. What in the world? Why was Chifuyu acting like this?

As he was trying to puzzle this out, he heard a footsteps and cold voice from back the way he had come: 

“It seems the rat has finally been caught. You didn’t really think you could run forever, did you Matsuno?”

Ryusei crept to the corner and peered around it. 

A little ways down the street (like he had been trying to run away), Chifuyu had been forced up against the wall by a man with decidedly questionable hairstyle choices and gaudy glasses. Behind that man was someone that Ryusei recognized, but very much wished that he didn't. It was the creepy guy from last time. The one with tattoos on his hands. Hanma. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the part that made Ryusei’s gut clench. 

No. 

That would have to be the gun currently pressed against Chifuyu’s forehead.

Chapter Text

Instinctively, Ryusei held his breath. He tried to work out a way that he could get the gun pointed away from Chifuyu. As he scrambled to figure out what exactly was going on and how to intervene, the confrontation continued. 

“I don’t what you’re talking about,” Chifuyu retorted. 

Rather than fear or terror, which Ryusei was expecting, Chifuyu's voice was resigned yet confident, almost like he expected things to end like this. 

“You know damn well what I’m talking about,” the man with the gun scoffed. “You thought you could turn sensitive information over to the wrong hands, didn’t you?”

“Again, I have no-”

Chifuyu was cut off as Hanma approached with a confident stride. Ryusei wanted that shady man far away from Chifuyu, but there wasn't anything he could do just yet. Clearly enjoying himself, Hanma started to pat Chifuyu down, efficiently feeling through all of his pockets. It was clear he was searching for something, but what?

“I already told you, I-” Chifuyu was interrupted again. 

“Yes, yes, you didn’t do anything and you are innocent. You keep saying that, but I feel like it has lost meaning,” the man sighed, “Come on Matsuno, aren’t we friends?”

Chifuyu’s body stiffened. 

“You and I have never been friends,” Chifuyu spat with venom, his eyes flashing, “We could never be friends. Not after what you did to Baji.”

Something in Ryusei’s stomach started to sink. The more of the picture he received, the less he liked it. Had something happened to Baji this time?

“That wasn’t my fault. That was all Baji’s choice,” the man with the gun scoffed. 

“Fuck you,” Chifuyu hissed, “You were the one to set the whole thing up. That makes it your fault.”

“Yes, but who failed to warn Baji? It certainly wasn't me,” the man sneered. 

Chifuyu’s lips pressed into a thin line. The provocation was very clear. The man with the gun was either trying to get Chifuyu to say or do something. When Chifuyu remained ridged and silent, the man grumbled to himself. 

“Enough with the stupid questions. Where is the flash drive Matsuno?” Hanma asked. 

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” If Chifuyu wasn't pressed against the wall with a gun against his forehead, he probably would have jutted out his chin. As it was, he settled for crossing his arms. 

“Yes, you do know we are talking about. Where is it?” the man with the gun narrowed his eyes. 

“I don’t have it,” Chifuyu shrugged. 

“You don’t?” the man sighed, “Pity, because here I was thinking you might be salvageable. I guess not.”

Ryusei knew what was going to happen next. He watched as the man’s finger started to tighten on the tigger. He would be damned if he let Chifuyu die again. Not on his watch. 

“Chifuyu!”

His cry startled both Chifuyu and his attackers. They looked over at him in confusion. Ryusei was thankful to see a glimmer of understanding in Chifuyu's eyes. Thanks to Ryusei's distraction, the gun drifted slightly away from Chifuyu's forehead. 

Chifuyu lashed out with a vicious kick before sprinting towards Ryusei. He made it almost all the way the alley that Ryusei had stepped out of before there was a sharp retort of a gun shot. Chifuyu staggered. Ryusei could only watch in horror as dark crimson started to stain the front of Chifuyu’s shirt. Chifuyu had taken a bullet to the back that had exited through his chest.

Chifuyu's legs went out from under him. His body made a dull thud as it connected with the ground. Ryusei wasted no time. He darted forward, heedless of the next two gunshots that came, and scooped Chifuyu up. Once Chifuyu was in his arms, Ryusei took off. He was thankful that his memory of the back alleys of Shibuya was still very much intact. He ran as fast as he could while also being burdened with a body. 

Chifuyu was thankfully light and Ryusei was pleased to see that he himself hadn’t lost much muscle mass. Ryusei ran until he could run no more. Gasping for breath, Ryusei hid them in a dead end alleyway behind a dumpster. Here he gently set Chifuyu on the ground. 

It wasn't a pretty sight. Chifuyu’s chest jerked desperately. Blood saturated his shirt. Ryusei started applying pressure to the wound in Chifuyu’s chest. Chifuyu’s eyes were clouded in pain. 

“Hang on, Chifuyu,” Ryusei found that he was babbling slightly, “Give me a sec and I’ll call an ambulance. Everything will be just fine. Just hand on.”

Apparently his words didn’t have much effect. 

“R-ryu…. Ryusei, you…you need…” Chifuyu trailed off as his fight to breathe increased. 

The choked cough that followed sprayed the air with blood. The stench of blood hung heavy in Ryusei’s nose. He tried his best to ignore it. 

Chifuyu was attempting to say something else, but all that came out was wheezing, incomprehensible groans. 

“You’re going to be fine,” Ryusei smiled tightly. 

Chifuyu did not seem to have heard him. His eyes slowly slid out of focus. 

“You’re going to be fine,” Ryusei was sure at this point he was speaking more to himself than to Chifuyu. 

Chifuyu’s fingers weakly tangled in the fabric of Ryusei’s shirt. Whether it was a last ditch attempt to seek comfort or a desperate attempt to cling to life, Ryusei didn’t know. A moment later, Chifuyu’s neck lost tension and his head rolled loosely to the side. Ryusei scrambled to find a pulse. There was none. Chifuyu was dead. Ryusei wanted to scream. He wasn’t sure if it was grief or frustration that choked his senses at the moment. Maybe it was both. 

For better or for worse, Ryusei wasn’t allowed to wallow in his emotions for long. Footsteps were coming this way. Ryusei looked up in time to see Chifuyu’s two pursuers dash into view. Ryusei knew that this was a bad place to get caught. Head still foggy from shock, Ryusei started to run. He was pulled up short when something punched him hard in the side. It was followed a second later by the crack of a gunshot. 

Ryusei’s hand went to his waist where he had felt the impact. His shirt there was quickly becoming soaked with a slick liquid. Blood. He was bleeding. Shit. 

Ryusei had never been shot before. He mentally added to the list of activities never to repeat again. It was somehow burning hot and numbingly cold at the same time. He staggered, trying to keep his footing. In the end, Ryusei lost his balance and he faceplanted into the pavement. He couldn’t hold back a groan of pain as his injured side hit the ground. 

He heard the pursuing footsteps behind him. He groped for a weapon. Anything to defend himself with. His pursuers caught up with him. Ryusei scrabbled for a broken bottle laying a little ways away. He missed. Someone came over to step on his hand, pinning it to the ground. 

Before Ryusei had a chance to react, someone else grabbed his hair and yanked back. Ryusei found himself looking up. His vision wavered slightly. The pain from his gunshot wound choked his voice. 

“Looks like we caught another rat,” the man with the gun snorted. 

“I…. I don’t what…. You’re talking about…” Ryusei panted. 

He wasn't sure if it was it was the shock of his injuries or the shock of Chifuyu's death that was making his hard to breathe. 

“He doesn’t know what I’m talking about?” the man laughed. 

Ryusei found the cold metal of a handgun coming to rest on his own forehead. 

“See. Here’s the thing. I’m good at finding liars,” the man shrugged, “It’s what I do. I think you are lying to me. You do know something, otherwise Matsuno wouldn’t have attempted a hand-off with you.”

“What do you mean a handoff-” Ryusei broke off in a groan as a wave of pain hit him. 

“Just answer the question. Where is the flash drive?” the man demanded. 

“Flash drive?” Ryusei was beyond confused. 

He felt his pockets being turned out. Hanma inspected what he found. The phone was smashed against the pavement. His wallet was turned inside out. Hanma did pause when he found the French ID. 

“A foreigner too? Matsuno must have been getting desperate,” he commented showing the other man the ID. 

The man with the gun grunted in agreement. He looked disappointed when no flash drive turned up. 

“He might have swallowed it,” Hanma suggested. 

“I don’t have time. Find it. Cut him open if you have to,” the man with the gun sighed. 

Ryusei found himself flipped onto his back and his arms pinned above his head by the man with the gun. Hanma was suddenly above him, holding a very sharp looking knife. With a clean swipe, Ryusei’s shirt was cut from top to bottom. Laying bare-chested and held down, Ryusei felt utterly defenseless. Never in his life had he felt this before. He tried to struggle, but his efforts were hindered by his position on the ground and his blood loss. 

“Last chance to cough up the flash drive before I start sifting through your innards,” Hanma warned him.

“I don't have a flash drive. I don't know anything about a flash drive,” Ryusei cried. 

His protests went unheard. Ryusei panicked. The knife started descending. 

At the same time, something shadowy descended from the landing above, striking Hanma with a well placed kick. Hanma stumbled forward, his weight pressing squarely on the bullet wound in Ryusei’s side.

Ryusei blacked out as a new wave of pain consumed him. 

The next but if time was spent drifting in and out of consciousness.

Pain seemed to flow through his veins.

Voices drifted in and out of his ears, the words muffled and incoherent.

Lights came and went.

Nothing of this time in limbo stayed with Ryusei.

Perhaps that was for the best. 

Eventually, he fully regained consciousness. It was slow and painful. The first thing he was aware of was a distant pulsing and throbbing right above his hip. The rest of his body felt slow and sluggish. 

He eventually gained enough courage to pry open his eyes. He found that he was greeted with the bland walls of a medical suite. It was small and sterile. More interestingly though, Ryusei recognized it. This was the private medical ward at the downtown hospital. It was set aside for those involved in high profile crimes or those in need of police protection while they recovered. Ryusei had been here several times, though admittedly never as a patient. What was he doing here?

With painfully slow movements, Ryusei turned his head to the side. There was a man sitting by his bedside. Ryusei did not recognize him. With the yellow-streaked hair and the tiger tattoo on his neck, he looked like a gang member. That made Ryusei’s pulse elevate slightly. The man looked up from the papers he was reading. 

“You’re awake,” he stated. 

Ryusei felt like this was fairly obvious. 

“H'pe -n'd?” he croaked, his throat dry. 

He worked his mouth a few times to get saliva flowing again. Then he re-asked his question a little bit more clearly: “W-what... happened?”

“You were attacked by gang members. They shot you and were going to finish the job. I was in the area and I found you about to gutted alive, so I stepped in.”

Ryusei frowned. There had to be more to the area. No way a random man just decided to face down those ruthless criminals. Was this man from a rival gang? 

“You rescued-” Ryusei was interrupted. 

“Don’t think too hard about it. I wasn’t there for you.” The stranger looked oddly sad as he said this. There was a bitterness in his voice that mystified Ryusei. What had this man been doing then? Who had he been there for?

“So, what do you remember?” the man leaned forwards as he switched the topic of conversation from himself to Ryusei. 

Ryusei had to pause and think about it. He memory was a little hazy, most likely from whatever pain medication he was on at the moment. 

“I…. um… I was walking around and....and....I ran into Chifuyu and then he….” Ryusei suddenly choked on his own voice as the memory of what had happened hit him full force, “He’s…. He…. he’s dead. Chifuyu is dead.”

As he said this, it sunk in just how close he had been to saving Chifuyu. Quiet without meaning to, Ryusei began to cry. 

Chapter Text

Ryusei closed his eyes. All that effort. He had been so close. And then Chifuyu died. Right in front of him. 

He had been so fucking close. 

“Are you alright?”

At the question, Ryusei once again opened his eyes. 

“What?” he croaked. 

“You’re crying. Are you in pain?” the stranger asked. 

Ryusei could only shrug. He was, but it wasn’t the sort of pain that could truly be fixed by drugs. The stranger seemed to understand. He gave Ryusei a sympathetic look. 

“I just have a few more questions,” he said, “How did you know Chifuyu?”

Ryusei hated the past tense of the question. 

“Middle school. I haven’t seen him since middle school. Been living abroad,” Ryusei told him. 

From what he could gather, this was true. It appeared that he hadn’t been back to Japan since he had left in middle school. 

The man visibly relaxed at Ryusei’s answer. 

“I see,” he said. 

“Are you the one Chifuyu was trying to make the drop off to or whatever?” Ryusei grunted. 

The man stiffened again, his eyes going sharp. His hands clenched slightly around the papers he was holding. Ryusei suspected he was on the right track. 

“Where did you hear that?” the stranger asked sharply. 

“The guy who shot me seemed to think that Chifuyu was trying to give me something and he wasn't, which means that it was meant for someone else. Since there weren’t exactly a lot of people around and you said that you were just in the area, you must be the person Chifuyu was waiting for,” Ryusei rambled, thanks to the drugs, his mouth seemed to be moving faster than his brain, “If that’s true, then you only rescued me because you felt guilty for running late. Also, you are in some way connected with the police because the man with the gun is clearly a criminal and if he called Chifuyu a rat that means that he was probably passing information to the authorities or else he was giving it to you and you passed it along. Either way, you are working with the police in some capacity.”

The man sat back a bit looking stunned. 

“And you figured all that while on morphine and also injured?” he shook his head. 

Ryusei wasn’t sure if that was a compliment. 

“Was I right?”

“Close,” the man admitted, glancing towards the window, “Closer than you realize.”

Abruptly he stood and went to the door. When he came back into the room, he was towing another man. This person, Ryusei did recognize. 

“Naoto?” he gasped, before he could stop himself. 

Naoto and the stranger froze. 

“Have we met before?” Naoto asked with a frown. 

Ryusei scrambled to come up with a cover story. 

“Middle school. Do you not remember me?”

Naoto slowly shook his head. 

“No. I don’t,” he admitted.

“See?” the other man hissed in a soft voice, “What did I tell you? He’s like a genius or something.”

Naoto pressed his lips into a thin line, like he was contemplating his next words. Ryusei found himself nostalgically missing the time when he worked with Naoto. 

“You knew Chifuyu.” Naoto finally said. It wasn’t a question. 

“I did,” Ryusei agreed. 

“His death is a loss to all of us.”

“But why? Why is he dead? Why would they kill him?” Ryusei demanded. 

The two men exchanged a glance. The stranger nodded a few times before Naoto gave a resigned sigh and took the lone seat by the bedside. 

“Chifuyu was working as an inside agent for a criminal group. He was passing information, as you guessed, and he was trying to get us the last of the incriminating documents that we needed to get an official warrant of arrest,” Naoto admitted. 

“Oh,” was all Ryusei could say.

“Kazutora was supposed to be his contact,” Naoto gestured to the stranger. 

The man - Kazutora - looked away in what was probably shame. 

“He was running late and that was where the trouble really started. Chifuyu has been a thorn in Kisaki’s side for years now. Unfortunately it doesn’t surprise me that Kisaki wanted him gone for good.”

Ryusei leaned back in despair. Apparently this action was mistaken as exhaustion. 

“Rest,” Naoto sighed as he stood, “I’ll come back to get a full statement once you’re a little more recovered.”

Ryusei was tired, but he was more agitated than anything. After Naoto and Kazutora left the room, Ryusei was left alone with his thoughts. He still felt like there were pieces that he was missing. He puzzled it out for as long as he could. Then he did sleep again. 

When he woke, he found that the sunlight had disappeared and the windows let in the soft city lights of night. Ryusei was still alone. Sort of. 

From where he lay, he could hear muffled shouting in the hallway. Ryusei frowned. He was certain that he recognized that voice. Baji? Ryusei forced his uncooperative body to move. He needed to find out. Leaning heavily against his IV pole for support, Ryusei shuffled to the door on weak legs. He opened the door to hear: 

“-fuyu is dead and you weren’t going to tell me?”

Ryusei was startled to see that he was correct. Baji was standing in the hallway, arguing with Kazutora. The two of them were oblivious to his entrance, too wrapped up in their heated conversation. 

“I wasn’t going to tell you because you might do something stupid,” Kauzotra shot back. 

“HAH?” Baji growled, “When have I ever done that?”

Yes. This was Baji in the flesh, just as defensive as he was in middle school. Ryusei wanted to lunge forward and hug Baji but he found that he was too exhausted. His legs gave slightly and he was left sagging against the doorframe. The motion caught Baji and Kazutora’s attention. They both turned to look at him. Baji’s eyes went wide. 

“Ryusei?” he croaked. 

“Long time no see,” Ryusei smiled faintly. 

Baji wasted no time in manhandling him back to bed. Ryusei, for his part, was more than ready to lay back down again. 

“I didn’t realize you had come back,” Baji’s voice was soft.

“I thought you always knew?”

“Usually yeah, but this time I guess I was….uh…. a little distracted. Sorry.”

Ryusei knew what he meant. Chifuyu’s unexpected death.

“We were so fucking close,” Ryusei grumbled in frustration. 

“I know,” Baji sighed, “I know.”

His shoulders sagged. In the dim light that filtered into the room, he looked haggard and exhausted. 

“Baji, what happened?” Ryusei almost didn’t want to ask. 

Baji leaned back in his seat before answering. 

“You left to follow Kojiro,” Baji finally answered, “Everything was fine here for a while. Chifuyu was my vice captain. The position suited him really well. Then shit really started to hit the fan.” 

Baji sighed and scrubbed at his forehead. 

“This new guy joined Toman and…. Well… it’s kind of a long story that doesn’t really matter, but I didn’t like him. It all culminated in this big fight. I got stabbed. That was gnarly. Almost died from blood loss. Really scared the shit out of Chifuyu.”

Baji pulled up his shirt to reveal a long scar that ran from his low back to his upper hip. 

“Who stabbed…” 

“Kazutora.”

Ryusei felt his heartrate elevate as he looked towards the door where Kazutora was standing. Kazutora didn’t meet Ryusei’s gaze. This did not make Ryusei feel any better. 

“I forgave him a long time ago since it wasn’t all his fault,” Baji huffed, “Kisaki, the guy I was telling you about, set up Kazutora and fed him all these lies. It didn’t work though, because I’m just that strong.”

Ryusei seriously doubted that was the only reason that Baji was still alive. 

“Anyway, after I recovered and was allowed out of the hospital, I came back to Toman. I found that Kisaki had managed to worm his way even deeper. I’m not sure why, but he seems obsessed with two things: Mikey and this one chick named Hinata. I’m not sure if he wanted to replace Mikey or if his plan was to take Draken’s place. Either way….”

Baji trailed off, his eyes grown distant in memory. 

“What then?” Ryusei prompted. 

“That’s when Mitsuya died,” Baji sighed. 

Ryusei didn’t say that he knew Mitsuya all that well. He had interacted with Mitsuya at Toman gatherings, but their interactions had only ever been about Toman. Even still, it was a sad thing to learn. 

“How did he die?” Ryusei asked. 

“Hit and run. A bunch of fuckers from a different gang rode up, brained him with a bat and then left. He was gone before the ambulance arrived.”

Ryusei felt sad. Mitsuya had seemed like a decent guy, someone particularly level-headed for his age. 

“After that things really started to fall apart. Mikey didn’t take Mitsuya’s death too well. He waged an all out war on the gang. We won, of course, but it was brutal. Mikey went too far on most of his opponents. He killed like, ah, I don’t really remember how many, but it was probably close to fifteen or so of his opponents. He had to go into hiding for quiet a while after that to keep from getting arrested.”

Ryusei winced. That wasn’t good. 

“After that fight, the police intervened and Toman was supposed to be disbanded for good. Honestly, after that fight, I think we were all happy to leave. High school was uneventful. The only people I kept up with were Chifuyu and Draken. Mikey just sort of…. I’m not sure what the right word is. He just seemed to retreat into himself after Toman disbanded. It was pretty clear he was missing the comradery but he didn’t make any effort to keep up his established friendships.”

Baji paused once more before continuing:

“It was actually the day after graduation when I found out something that shook my world. I was headed to Mitsuya’s grave when I ran into Kisaki. I asked him if he had been visiting the grave. He said yes, but not to pay his respects. I found out that he had been using Mitsuya’s grave as a place to cache weapons. The ashes were gone and the whole thing was just a front. I confronted Kisaki and he accidentally let it slip that he was the one who had arranged for Mitsuya’s murder. I… er…. Well…. I’m not too proud to admit that I charged him. He had a gun on him and that ended well.”

“What do you mean?” Ryusei frowned. 

“He shot me,” Baji huffed. 

“I’m starting to sense a theme,” Ryusei snorted. 

“It’s not my fault,” Baji growled. 

“You did say that you were the one who charged him,” Ryusei pointed out. 

There was a soft snort of laughter from Kazutora. Baji grumbled for a minute under his breath. 

“Anyway, I ended up in the hospital again. I was talking with Chifuyu and he said that Kisaki seemed to be under the impression that he had killed me. Chifuyu wanted to keep it that way. The only person he told about my recovery in the hospital was Draken, who had pretty much cut ties with Mikey at this point.”

“What happened next?”

“The police contacted me, obviously wanting to take my statement. I told ‘em about what a scumbag Kisaki was. They tried to track him down, but Kisaki vanished. He stayed underground for I think it was about two years. Then he surfaced again. He decided to resurrect Toman. He somehow got Mikey on board as the leader. I’m going to be honest, I saw Mikey once after that he seemed more like a puppet than a person.”

Baji looked sad here. Ryusei felt a pang of guilt for not being around. 

“Anyway, Chifuyu was pissed at the whole situation. He felt like he had been personally wronged on my behalf,” Baji shook his head. “He randomly announced that he was going to find a way to take down Kisaki. He quit college and disappeared for what felt like forever. He didn’t even contact me until after Kazutora was released from prison. Then he started saying that he had found a way to take Kisaki down.”

Ryusei could almost picture Chifuyu's earnest face while saying something like that. It made his heart ache. 

“He gave me all sorts of things, plans, weapons, bank numbers, and told me to take it to the police. I did,” Baji shrugged, “They seemed intrigued by the inside information. By this time, Toman had built up quite the reputation for not only dealing drugs, but also for murder. The police wanted the whole gang off of the street. Chifuyu agreed to provide all the information that the police might need in exchange for erasure of any crimes he might commit on the way.”

“Crimes?” Ryusei did not like the way that sounded. 

“I don’t know what all Chifuyu had to do to stay in Toman. He never would tell me, but I don’t think it was something that he was proud of,” Baji said this with a grimace. 

“Why did he go to such lengths?” Ryusei sighed. 

“Because Chifuyu fucking worshiped Baji,” Kazutora snapped, his voice accusing. 

“I mean…. Yeah…” Baji trailed off. 

“Anyway, he was so close. The police almost had all the evidence and information that they needed to shut down Toman. Yesterday was supposed to be the last drop. Kisaki must have caught wind of it somehow.”

Baji looked dejected. 

Ryusei felt like he had enough information now. He could fix the past again and this time do it right (though, admittedly, this time the Ryusei felt more exhausted than anything else). 

“So, I just have to go back and take down Kisaki?” Ryusei confirmed. 

“Yes. Take down Kisaki,” Baji echoed. 

Ryusei shifted, hating the way that pain sparked down his low back and side where the bullet had gone through him. 

“I’m sorry to drag you into this all over again,” Baji sighed, “It seemed like you were happy this time, away from all of us, all of this.”

“You are my friend, of course I would help,” Ryusei snorted, “And besides, I have to save Chifuyu.”

Baji paused. 

“There is one other thing you should know,” Baji's tone was cautious. 

It made Ryusei worry. What else could there be? 

“What’s that?” Ryusei found himself asking. 

Baji fidgeted for a moment before answering. 

“See....I think Chifuyu ...... well, I think he knows - or rather knew -  you can time leap.”

Chapter Text

“He what?” Ryusei could only spluttered, “How do you know that?”

Baji's announcement had fully taken him by surprise. 

And yet....it didn't. 

Ryusei knew that Chifuyu was smart, smarter than he looked. 

He should have seen this coming. 

“He mentioned something to me in passing; something odd,” Baji said slowly, “He told me that he wanted to take Kisaki down or die trying. I told him that I would be pissed if he died. He just said that even if he did die, you would still fix things. I didn’t have the chance to ever ask him what he meant by that.”

This did make Ryusei wonder at what point Chifuyu had figured this out. He didn't think that Baji would have let something like that drop (for all his impulsiveness, Baji did not share secrets). That meant that Chifuyu had figured it out on his own. Ryusei didn't know how he felt about that. 

“I see,” was all he could say. 

He pushed himself further upright, trying his best to ignore the sparking pain in his back and side. Baji easily caught him ad pushed him back down. 

“The bullet almost hit your spine. For fuck’s sake stay down,” he growled. 

“I’m going to leave anyway, so it doesn’t make a difference,” Ryusei huffed. 

“If, for whatever reason you can’t, I don’t want to see you any more injured,” Baji said softly, his face serious. 

Ryusei finally managed to see the depths of grief and exhaustion that Baji was carrying in this timeline. He hated it. 

“It will work,” he said softly, “I promise it will work.”

“You can’t guarantee that,” Baji looked away. 

This was true, but something in Ryuesi's gut said that this wasn't over just yet. 

“No, but I’m going to anyway. And I’m going to save Chifuyu and everyone else. Just you wait and see.”

“Thanks,” Baji paused, “Please don’t get yourself killed.”

“I won’t,” Ryusei huffed. 

He held out his hand. Baji paused before grasping it in a firm hand shake. For once, Ryusei was actually glad that the world melted away because the worst of his pain went with it. 

Ryusei sat bolt upright, panting hard. His side throbbed with a phantom pain for a bullet wound that no longer existed there. 

“Argh. Fuck Kisaki,” he grimaced, hand gripping his side. 

He couldn't wait to get his hands on that bastard. 

“What? Who’s Kisaki?”

The all too familiar voice of Chifuyu startled Ryusei. He glanced around. He had been laying on a park bench, napping apparently (is that all his past self had done?). It was dark. Chifuyu was sprawled on the grass, watching Ryusei with confusion. 

“N-nothing.” Ryusei forced his best smile, “Just a dream.”

Chifuyu was unconvinced. 

“That must have been some dream.” The younger boy finally shrugged. 

“It was.”

Something in Ryusei’s tone must have intrigued Chifuyu. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” he offered with a slight frown forming on his face. 

Ryusei quickly shook his head. 

“No.”

Chifuyu huffed. Clearly he had expected this answer, but he didn't like it. Ryusei just rolled his eyes. 

“Right well, Baji-san should be here in a minute or two so it’s a good thing you woke up,” Chifuyu finally said.

“Right,” Ryusei echoed. 

Ryusei had no idea why Baji would be meeting the two of them in a dark park. He sat up gingerly, his side still throbbing like a bad memory that didn't want to go away. Chifuyu watched him with narrowed eyes. Thankfully, the younger boy remained quiet. 

Baji did indeed come jogging into view a minute later. 

“Sorry I’m late,” he grinned wolfishly as he came up to them. 

“Timing was never your thing,” Ryusei scoffed. 

At the remark, Baji abruptly came to a stop. With narrowed eyes, he surveyed Ryusei. He must have realized that this was the Ryusei of the future because he furrowed his brow. 

“What-”

“I can tell you about my dream later,” Ryusei sighed. 

“Riiiight,” Baji frowned. 

He kept looking back at Ryusei as they all set off. Ryusei eventually kicked Baji in the back of the knees to get him to stop. 

After a few minutes of walking they arrived at their destination: one of the warehouses that Mikey liked to hang out at. It as here that things finally started to click into place for Ryusei. They were going to discuss Kojiro joining Toman with Mikey. 

Baji immedately took command of the conversation, leaving little for Chifuyu and Ryusei to do, other then stand there with him. In all honestly, Ryusei didn’t pay much attention to what was said. After this most recent trip to the future, he felt acutely aware of Mitsuya’s existence and the closeness of Draken and Mikey; both things which were lost. 

The conversation didn't take long. Mikey was easily convinced that Korjiro, despite his troubled and mixed history with Toman already, was a fit (Ryusei didn't know how he felt about any of that). 

On mission, as ever, as soon as the talking was done, Baji set off once more. Ryusei sighed as he hurried to catch up with his friend. Baji was back to giving him concerned side glances. 

They were about half way back to the bikes when Chifuyu abruptly turned to the two of them. 

“You can time travel,” he stated. 

Ryusei just about tripped himself. 

“He can,” Baji agreed. 

“Baji!” Ryusei hissed. 

“It’s so obvious,” Chifuyu huffed. 

“Is it?” Ryusei blinked. 

As far as he knew, he was very good at blending in with the past. 

“I mean, yeah, if you know what to look for,” Chifuyu shrugged, “You act weirdly mature. You stop teasing me. You actually apologize for things. And you call Baji-san ‘Baji’ instead of ‘Keisuke-kun’. It just doesn’t add up unless you’re from the future.”

“Maybe I have multiple personalities,” Ryusei proposed. 

“Maybe.” Chifuyu did not look convinced. 

Ryusei knew when to give up.

“Yes. I’m from the future,” he admitted. 

“How is it?” Chifuyu nodded eagerly like a puppy. 

“It… um… well…” Ryusei trailed off. 

“It’s bad, because you keep trying to change it,” Chifuyu guessed. 

Maybe Ryusei should have been surprised that Chifuyu had nailed that down, but at this point, he was sure that he had run out of fucks to give. 

“Yeah.”

“What is so bad about it?” Chifuyu cocked his head. 

Ryusei hesitated. He decided to keep it short: “People keep dying”

That was vague, but hopefully enough information that-

“That sucks. Who?” Chifuyu asked. 

It seemed that there was no way to get out of this. Ryusei sighed to himself. 

“Kojiro died a few times,” he said. 

“That explains why you were so desperate to save him,” Chifuyu nodded seriously, “Anyone else?”

“Mitsuya.” 

Baji’s head shot up, concern on his face. Right. He hadn't died in the other time lines (that Ryusei could remember) and he hadn't told Baji of this latest timeline yet. 

“And me?” Chifuyu guessed. 

Ryusei winced. 

“How did you know?” he asked. 

“Because you told me that you didn't want to see me die again when we were fighting with Kensho,” Chifuyu said matter-of-factly. 

Ryusei nodded slowly. 

“Yes. You…” He paused and then took the plunge, “You’ve died every time.”

“That sucks. How?”

Chifuyu was weirdly calm about it. It unnerved Ryusei, but also reminded him so much of adult Chifuyu. It was as comforting as it was unsettling. 

“In a variety of ways, but mostly it’s because you keep getting involved in messes that you shouldn’t.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Chifuyu wrinkled his nose. 

Clearly he wanted to know exactly how he died. Ryusei chose not to elaborate. In part he didn't want to remember. In part, he didn't want to scar Chifuyu (or give Chifuyu an idiotic ideas). 

“So, did I die this time too?” Chifuyu pressed. 

“Yeah. In front of me,” Ryusei agreed bitterly.

Both Baji and Chifuyu looked startled at this announcement. 

“Oh,” Chifuyu looked genuinely sorry. 

Ryusei did not feel like sharing any further details. He hunched his shoulders and started walking again. It took a few minutes for Baji and Chifuyu to catch up with him. 

“So, what are you going to do this time?” Chifuyu asked, refusing to let the topic drop. 

“I am going to make sure that the whole fucking lot of you all stay safe,” Ryusei growled. 

His side throbbed faintly in agreement. 

“But how?” Chifuyu continued his questions without a care for how nosy he was. 

“I….” Ryusei hesitated, “Do you know anyone by the name of Kisaki? Or Hanma for that matter?”

“No,” Baji shook his head. 

“No, but I can find them,” Chifuyu offered. 

That was the last thing that Ryusei wanted. Chifuyu had to stay far away from those people.

“Don’t. I don’t want you to get hurt. They are dangerous,” he repremanded.

“Right. Dangerous.” Chifuyu’s eyes glittered in excitement.

“Chifuyu! No!” Ryusei scolded, “You can’t go after them.”

“Just you try and stop me,” Chifuyu scoffed. 

That was fair. Short of handcuffing himself to Chifuyu indefinitely, Ryusei had no way to keep Chifuyu from going off on his own. 

“They carry weapons,” he tried a different tactic. 

It didn't work. 

“That’s fine,” Chifuyu proudly puffed out his chest, “I’ve fought against people with weapons before.”

“He is pretty good at it too,” Baji confirmed. 

“I'm not talking about broken pipes or even knives. Somehow they have access to guns,” Ryusei said flatly. 

That took the air of Chifuyu’s sails very quickly. Ryusei was glad to see that Chifuyu at least had a healthy nervousness about firearms. 

“I have a plan, I just need the two of you to stay safe,” he said, “The two of you are going to sit back and let me handle things.”

He was not prepared for the vehement protests that followed.

Chapter Text

“We are not going to sit back while you put yourself in danger, right Baji-san?” Chifuyu declared. 

His scrawny, pre-teen body was fully of righteous indignation. 

“He’s right,” Baji growled, equally as annoyed as Chifuyu, “Use your fucking head, Ryusei. We’re not going to let you do this by yourself.”

“Well, I don’t want to see you die again,” Ryusei shot back. 

“How do you think we feel? You at least can do something about it if one of us dies. We can’t. What if you’re the one who ends up dead?” Chifuyu seemed genuinely upset. 

Ryusei relented slightly. That was a fair point. 

“Fine. But I have way more experience than the both of you combined. If I say it’s too dangerous, you leave. Got it?” he glared at the other two. They did not appear to be intimidated. 

“What experience?” Chifuyu scoffed. 

“I went through the police academy in three different time lines.”

“Oh….” Chifuyu blinked and then he cocked his head, “I can’t see you as a police officer at all.”

“That’s what I told him,” Baji snorted. 

Ryusei did not have time for these two idiots. He just shook his head. 

“Listen-”

“No. You listen. We’re going to help you this time,” Baji interjected. 

“Yeah. You not letting us help has probably been the problem before,” Chifuyu agreed. 

Ryusei did not agree. His problem always was these two (particularly Chifuyu) refusing to stay out of trouble. 

“Right,” Baji nodded in agreement, “like I was saying, we’re going to help you this time and that’s going to fix everything.”

Ryusei found that he had no choice but to accept. That didn’t mean he was all too happy about it. The point was to save these idiots and he couldn’t exactly do that while they were going around throwing themselves into trouble just for the namesake of ‘helping’ him. 

“Fine. But if either of you gets killed, so help me I will find a way to make you suffer for all eternity,” Ryusei growled. 

“Seems fine with me,” Baji shrugged. 

“What’s the first step?” Chifuyu asked. 

Ryusei sighed. 

“The best first step would be to find out where Kisaki and Hanma are,” Ryusei decided. 

“I can do that,” Chifuyu immediately volunteered.

“Not on your own,” Ryusei glared, “Baji or I go with you.”

“Jeez. Don’t you trust me?” Chifuyu stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest. His whole body screamed defiant. 

Ryusei hesitated. He did, but also he couldn’t erase the image of Chifuyu’s face as he took his final gargling breath from the forefront of his mind. It scared him to think just how many times Chifuyu had already died. He didn’t want to repeat it ever again.  

“I do trust you,” he finally said, “But also I can’t risk you dying.”

Chifuyu looked miffed, but he didn’t say anything to protest (though, knowing Chifuyu it was always his actions over his words that really told you what he was thinking). 

“Right. So we track down these fuckers and take ‘em out,” Baji cracked his knuckles. 

“Only as long as no one ends up dead,” Ryusei shrugged. 

“Who cares if they die? They killed Chifuyu so therefore they deserve to die,” Baji scoffed. 

That was not what Ryusei wanted to hear. 

“They haven’t done that yet,” Ryusei reminded Baji. 

“And?” Baji shot back. 

It was endearing how protective Baji could be. At the same time it was far from helpful. If Baji killed Hanma and Kisaki, then true, that problem would be cleared up, but another problem would have opened up in its place; namely the fact that Baji would a murder. This was also something that Ryusei wanted to avoid. Ryusei locked eyes with Baji, feeling rather like he was staring down a bear.  

“Do not kill them unless it’s a life or death situation,” Ryusei attempted to assert dominance by pulling himself up to his full height. 

“I thought you wanted to save Chifuyu,” Baji scoffed. 

“I do,” Ryusei agreed, “But not at the expense of losing you to your revenge.”

Baji must have seen some about of sense in this as he sat back muttering unhappily.  Ryusei closed his eyes to regain himself and his temper. 

“We are going to start by finding those two,” Ryusei sighed, “Then, once we know where they are, then we will figure out what we are doing next.”

Baji rolled his eyes, but he eventually nodded. Chifuyu followed suit as soon as Baji nodded. 

There was a pause of silence before the three of them continued the walk back to their bikes. After repeating his warning once more, Ryusei let Chifuyu and Baji ride off. He almost wanted to tail them home, just to verify that they were safe. He talked himself out of it knowing that neither Baji nor Chifuyu would appreciate the hovering. And besides, as of yet, they were still safe. 

Ryusei woke up the next morning with a flood of excited texts from Chifuyu. It seemed that the younger boy had decided that the three of them were now staring in a made up detective tv show that he had decided to create. He had gone so far as to give them all 'codenames' and was now offering to design badges for each of them. Uncertain of what else to do, Ryusei could only roll his eyes at Chifuyu's enthusiasm. 

He skipped school that day. From prior experience, he could guess the approximate area that seemed to be Hanma and Kisaki’s haunting grounds. The day was spent fruitlessly scouring the area. Another day passed. Then another. A week. 

Ryusei was beginning to feel discouraged. The other timelines had seemed easy to fix. Why wasn't the solution to this one easily appearing? Was he chasing the wrong threads?

He was scouring over the old atlas from his mom of all the streets in Shibuya, trying to find something that he had missed when his phone rang. When he picked up, he was greeted by a flood of words of Chifuyu, none of which were intelligible. 

“What? Slow down Chifuyu,” Ryusei sighed. 

“I found him,” Chifuyu triumphant announced. 

“Found who?” Ryusei sat up a little straighter. 

“The Hanma guy. Or at least he looks the way you described him and everyone else is calling him Hanma,” Chifuyu relayed. 

Great. Of course it was Chifuyu who had found Hanma. 

“Is Baji with you?” Ryusei carefully asked. 

“No.”

Ryusei felt a shiver go down his spine. He scrambled to put his shoes on and race out the door. Chifuyu needed back up now. Ryusei was not about to risk Chifuyu putting himself in danger. 

“Where are you?” he demanded. 

“Ummm…. Near downtown. That udon shop that closed like two months ago near Draken’s place. Yeah. That's right next door,” Chifuyu told him. 

“Stay there. I’m coming. Don’t do anything stupid,” Ryusei growled. 

“Whatever,” Chifuyu grumbled. 

Then he hung up. 

After breaking almost every single traffic law that he could have, Ryusei arrived at the place that Chifuyu had mentioned. The building was abandoned. There was no sign of either Chifuyu or Hanma. As he searched around, he called Chifuyu’s number just to make sure he was in the right place. It rang forever before the line was picked up. 

“Chifuyu. This isn't funny. Where are you? I thought-”

Ryusei cut himself off. Something was wrong. There was heavy breathing from the other end before he got a response. 

“S-sorry, Ryusei,” Chifuyu’s voice was hoarse, “D-did something stupid.”

Chapter Text

Ryusei felt sick. 

“Chifuyu? Where are you? What happened?” he demanded. 

There was muffled movement on the other side of the phone. Then a very different voice came on. 

“Don’t worry too much. The little guy is fine.”

Ryusei felt bile rise in the back of his throat. He knew that voice, thought it was younger than the version that he knew. 

“Hanma,” he growled. 

He didn’t know why Hanma was there with Chifuyu, but he didn’t like it. 

“Oh! I’m famous enough that you know my voice?” Hanma sounded amused. 

Perhaps Ryusei should have been a little more concerned about being cautious about letting things slip, but right now he needed to know what was going on.

“Where is Chifuyu?” Ryusei did not have time for games. 

“Chifuyu? Is that this little guy’s name?” Hanma hummed, sounding more like he was talking to himself than to Ryusei. 

“Yes,” Ryusei spat. 

“Well, then he’s right here with me,” Hanma hummed agreeably. 

There was a muffled yelp in the background of the call. A yelp of pain. It sounded like it had come from Chifuyu. Ryusei’s free hand balled into a fist. 

“Let him go,” Ryusei demanded. 

“See, I’m curious, what interest has Toman taken in me that you would send a worker bee to tail me,” Hanma’s tone was conversational, but Ryusei could hear the thinly veiled threat. 

Ryusei worked overtime to come up with something. 

“It’s not Toman who’s interested. It’s me,” he blurted out when he failed to come up with a good story. 

“You?” Hanma chuckled. 

Ryusei decided that his laugh was annoying. 

“Just let Chifuyu go and I’ll tell you everything,” Ryusei knew it was a risky gamble, but he had to. Anything to get Chifuyu free. 

“Mmmh……” Hanma trailed off for a moment, “ Temping, but no.”

“But-”

“I don’t mind a good stalker or two. Who doesn’t? It does make for a fun story,” Hanma sounded like he was smiling, “But, then again I like my privacy. Nosy rats have to be taken care of before they become a problem you can’t get rid of.”

There was another yelp of pain in the background. Ryusei's stomach clenched at the sound. He was having a hard time standing still. He was overwhelmed with the urge to move. He needed to get Chifuyu away from Hanma. 

“You haven’t changed at all,” he snapped. 

There was a pause. 

“What makes you say that?” Hanma sounded genuinely confused. 

“I know you,” Ryusei growled into the phone, “If you do anything to hurt Chifuyu, I will kill you.”

He meant every word of it. He might have warned Baji off of murder, but that didn't mean that it was off the table. He would gladly go to jail if that meant that his friends ended up safe. 

“So my stalker has a protective boyfriend. How cute,” Hanma sneered. 

“Last chance. Where is Chifuyu?” Ryusei demanded. 

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of him,” Hanma laughed. 

Then the line went dead. 

Ryusei pulled the phone away from his face to confirm this. He tried calling Chifuyu’s number several more times. No one picked up. His mind started to go into over-drive. What was Hanma doing to Chifuyu in this exact minute?

Hands spasming slightly from the adrenaline overload, Ryusei dialed a different number. 

“Baji,” he all but barked into the phone as soon as the line picked up, “Chifuyu’s in trouble.”

There was a sharp intake of breath from the other side. 

“What do you mean?” Baji demanded. 

“Hanma took him,” Ryusei started pacing. 

His eyes once again scanned the building for anything he might have missed. He came up empty handed once more. This only agitated his mental state further. He shouldn’t have let Chifuyu be a part of this plan. He should have kept Chifuyu on house arrest. He should have kept Chifuyu far away from anything like this. This was his fault. 

In his entrapping self-blame, he nearly missed Baji’s next question.

“Where is he now?”

“Fuck if I know. We need to find him,” Ryusei’s hand tangled in his hair and he tugged sharply in frustration, “Fuck. I don’t - Fuck. Fuck. This wasn’t -Fuck.”

His thoughts were far from coherent. He felt frustrated, desperate and stuck all at once. He needed to be doing something, but he didn’t know what. Distanty, his police training told him that he was panicking. He couldn’t process that information. 

“Where are you?” Baji’s voice was tinny through the phone. 

Ryusei told him. 

“Stay right there,” Baji commanded, “I’m on my way.”

Ryusei really didn’t feel like staying, but he did. He paced the whole building. He was so on edge that he nearly jumped Baji when he arrived. Baji seemed prepared for this. He easily took a side step and avoided Ryusei’s aborted attack. 

He glanced around the empty building before looking back at Ryusei. 

“Alright. What happened?” he asked. 

Ryusei’s words came out in a jumble. 

His own thoughts didn’t even make sense. 

There was a sharp stinging. 

Ryusei blinked, hand coming up to his face. He realized what had happened. Baji slapped him across the cheek. 

“What happened?” Baji demanded in his captain’s voice. 

Ryusei selfishly leaned into Baji’s insistence of taking over the situation. 

“Hanma has Chifuyu,” he croaked. 

Baji’s frown darkened.  

“Where?” he asked. 

“I don’t know,” Ryusei admitted. 

He hated that this was his answer. He had been in the police. He had been a detective. He was supposed to be level-headed and able to create a plan on limited information. This wasn’t like him. 

He felt exhausted.

He just wanted this never-ended nightmare of looping tragedies to end. 

He needed it to end. 

The stress was breaking him. 

“Right,” Baji stood as he said this, “Let’s look around here.”

He scoured the building like Ryusei had done. He too came up empty handed. Baji then checked out the alleyway behind the building. There wasn’t anything there that stood out. 

Then Ryusei saw it. 

Something dark splattered on the ground a little ways from the back door of the building. 

He crouched down to take a closer look despite knowing what he was going to find. Sure enough, it was blood. Pretty fresh blood too. 

“What is it?” Baji demanded. 

“Blood,” Ryusei croaked. 

He shook his head. He needed to focus. After a bit of struggle to force down his frantic panic, Ryusei called on his police training. Chifuyu needed him to be alert, not panicking. Emotions could wait. 

The two of them followed the trail of intermittent splatters out of the back alley. Once they reached the main street, that’s where the trail ended. Ryusei wasn’t about to give up. He and Baji split up, checking in with the stores along the street to find out any information that they could. 

It didn’t take them long to learn something big. It seemed that Hanma was well known (and disliked) in the area. Him and his gang would terrorize the streets for a few hours every week simply for fun. They also learned of several places that Hanma and his crew seemed to use as hang out spots. 

Armed with information and out for blood, Ryusei and Baji set out. The first few places were duds, revealing little more than graffiti and beer cans. It was about an hour into their search that they finally found what they were looking for. 

It was in a protected back alley, initially hidden from view by stacks of old crates. There were several motorcycles parked around, indicating that people were around. Ryusei wasted no time in throwing open the door. He glanced around the room and found what, or rather who, he was looking for. Hanma. Shoving aside several startled teens, he marched right to Hanma and fisted a hand in Hanma’s shirt. 

“Where. The. Fuck. Is. Chifuyu?”

Chapter Text

Hanma blinked lazily up at Ryusei, looking completely unperturbed by being suddenly attacked. 

“I think the more important question is who the fuck are you?” he huffed. 

“That’s not important,” Ryusei growled. 

“I beg to differ. I want to know the name of someone who was brave enough to track me down and assault me on my own turf. So, I'll ask again, who are you?” Hanma drawled in almost a board manner.  

“I just want to know where Chifuyu is,” Ryusei refused to answer Hanma’s question. 

“Fine. I guess it doesn’t really matter what your name is,” Hanma sighed, “Insects aren’t that interesting after they’re squashed.”

He grasped Ryusei’s arm and began twisting. Ryusei found that his wrist was suddenly being bent in the wrong direction. He was forced to let go of his grip on Hanma or risk breaking his wrist. 

It was here that Baji came crashing in from seemingly nowhere with a stunning fist to Hanma’s nose. Hanma’s head rocked back at the sudden blow. Hanma staggered backwards several steps, blood now trickling from his nose. 

“Now, you,” he smiled, “You I do know. Baji Keisuke. I'm a fan.”

“And I don’t give a fuck if you know who I am,” Baji cracked his knuckles, “Where’s Chifuyu?”

“Chifuyu?” Hanma parroted the name with an innocent look on his face.

Ryusei’s detective instincts said that Hanma was just play-acting. He was trying to get a rise out of Baji. Why?

“Yes. Chifuyu,” Baji growled. 

“You mean the little guy?” Hanma held his hand midway up his chest, about the same height that Chifuyu was. (It really struck home just how short Chifuyu was). 

“Yes. The little guy,” Ryusei affirmed. 

A brilliant smile came over Hanma’s face. He looked deranged with the blood from his nose smeared around his grin.

“I took care of him, of course,” Hanma nodded happily. 

“What does that mean?” Ryusei felt something like horror and panic in his gut. 

“Well, hospitality is our specialty here,” Hanma gestured first at himself and then to the floor. 

Ryursei looked down. He noticed for the first time that there was a dark stain under his own feet. Blood. A lot of blood. At first glance, Ryusei feared that Chifuyu had somehow been gutted at this very spot and bled out completely.

His detective’s eye quickly picked up that not only was this too much blood to be from one person, he also noted that not all of the blood was fresh. Most of it was dried. That was good. That meant that this wasn’t all from Chifuyu. The bad news was that this still wasn’t an answer as to what had happened to Chifuyu or where he was. 

“What did you do?” Ryusei demanded, worry making his voice incredibly sharp. 

“You don’t need to worry,” Hanma huffed. 

“He asked what you did,” Baji growled. 

As he said this, Baji lunged and took a swing at Hanma. Hanma easily side stepped it. 

“Listen. I did you a favor-”

“The only person you did a favor for was yourself,” Baji declared, “Because now we know where you are and we’re going to kill you.”

Ryusei had been fully onboard with the revenge until that point. At the mention of the word ‘kill’, he drew up short. He wanted Hanma gone, but Hanma was just part of the picture. They needed Hanma to catch Kisaki. They also needed Hanma to tell them where Chifuyu really was. The situation was starting to spiral out of control. 

“Baji, wait, I don’t-” Ryusei was interrupted. 

“It looks like your .....vice captain, I assume, has cold feet,” Hanma chuckled, “Typical Toman. It’s a small miracle that your gang is even still around. I mean, look at the little guy. He didn’t even make it through that many hits before it was lights out. Maybe if you all focused on strength a little more, my life wouldn’t be so boring.”

Baji snapped. 

Ryusei could only look on with shock as a brutal fight commenced. Hanma and Baji were well matched. Where Hamna was taller, Baji was well-muscled. Neither was afraid to take a hit if it meant that their next shot was well set up. 

Ryusei didn’t have much time to really consider this. As Baji and Hanma fought, Hanma’s goons must have taken that as a signal to start attacking as well. Ryusei was left fending off multiple attackers trying to join the fight between Baji and Hanma. 

Thankfully, while there were quite a few attackers, they weren’t as skilled as Ryusei thought they might be. It took him less time than he thought it would to dispatch them. As soon as his opponents were downed, turned back to the fight between Baji and Hamna. Both were bruised and bleeding and neither had the upper hand. 

It looked like Hanma must have given Baji a verbal jab because Baji suddenly bellowed a war cry. He lowered his center of gravity and gave a roundhouse kick the likes of which Ryusei had only ever seen Mikey give. 

It was immensely satisfying to watch Baji’s boot connect with Hanma’s temple. Hanma’s eyes rolled back in his head and he crumpled to the floor. Baji went in for the kill. Ryusei stepped in to stop Baji. 

“No. Don’t. He’s down,” Ryusei pointed out. 

It wasn't in Toman's way to continue the attack once an enemy was downed. 

“I’m going to kill him,” Baji was seething, “He said he enjoyed using Chifuyu as a punching bag.”

Ryusei didn’t know of a time he had genuinely seen Baji this angry. It scared him a little bit. 

“We need to find Chifuyu,” Ryusei reminded him. 

“I need to kill him first,” Baji growled. 

“You need to take a breath,” Ryusei shot back, “I want to kill him too, but that won’t help Chifuyu.”

“B-boss had us dump the body out around the side.” 

The voice startled both Baji and Ryusei. They turned. One of Hanma’s goons that Ryusei had taken down had come too. He was inching away from them, clearly trying to save his own skin. 

“What?”

“The little guy. The one you’re looking for. Boss beat him up real bad and then told us to get rid of him. His body is outside,” guy quickly provided. 

Hanma, for the moment, was forgotten. Baji and Ryusei rushed for the side door. Baji got there first and threw it open. Ryusei was close behind. They both immediately spotted the blood trail. It led down the side alley to the dumpster. 

The two of them race there. The dumpster was empty. There was a decent pool of blood on the pavement next to the dumpster. Most concerningly, there was no Chifuyu. 

“Where is he?” Baji kicked the dumpster. 

Ryusei couched. He didn’t know any more than Baji did. It was infuriating.

“Let’s go ask him where exactly Chifuyu is,” Baji declared. 

As he said this, there was a roar of motorcycle engines being started up. Ryusei suddenly realized that they had been played. 

Abandoning Baji he raced back into the hideout. Sure enough, it was empty. The whole gang, including Hanma, was gone. Ryusei cursed their luck. Not only had they failed to track down Chifuyu or learn exactly what had happened to him, they had also lost their only lead. 

Chapter Text

As Ryusei was coming to terms with what the heck had just gone down, he found himself shoved aside by Baji. Baji raced to his own bike and took off in pursuit. Ryusei hesitated for a moment before following. 

They gave chase through the streets of Shibuya. Chasing Hanma’s gang was like trying to catch smoke. They split up, each swerving and peeling off into separate directions. Ryusei lost track of Baji. Rather than waiting around, he chose the person immediately in front of him and set off after them. 

The chase carried on, out of Shibuya and into neighboring Setagaya. Ryusei knew that at this point, it was a race to see who would run out of gas first. 

Unusually, given his previous luck, fortune smiled on him. The bike he was chasing sputtered several times before slowly coming to a stop. 

Ryusei prepared for anything. As soon as the other bike was done for, the teen made a run for it. Ryusei had longer legs and easily caught him, tackling him to the ground. They went down together. Ryusei had the benefit of police training to prepare him for what such an impact felt like. The guy under him had no such luck on his side. After they landed, he lay winded and groaning under Ryusei’s full weight. Ryusei didn’t feel bad. 

“Why did you run?” Ryusei demanded. 

“D…. don’t know what you’re …. Talking about,” the guy under him wheezed. 

“Fat chance. Answer the question or I’ll start breaking bones,” Ryusei declared. 

In a different timeline this would have crossed the line into police brutality. Here, broken bones and intimidation were fair game. 

“Everyone started running, so I did too,” the guy under him quickly blubbered. 

“Where is Chifuyu?” Ryusei wasn’t feeling generous. 

“Chifuyu?” 

“The little guy.” Ryusei was getting tired of calling Chifuyu that. 

“I don’t know where he is,” the guy quickly answered.
Ryusei applied force on the guy’s shoulder, feeling it creak beneath the pressure. 

“Argh! Really! You have to believe me. I don’t know!” the guy frantically wailed. 

“How can you not know? Where is he?” Ryusei demanded. 

“I don’t know! I don’t know! I swear I don’t know!”

“Then what do you know?” Ryusei was feeling irritated by this point in time. 

“All I know is that the boss was beating him up. I left to get us all snacks. When I came back, the little guy was gone. I swear. That’s what happened.”

Ryusei could tell that the guy was telling the truth. That didn’t make him feel any better. 

“Do you have any ideas what might have happened?” he growled. 

“Usually anyone who warrants the boss’ anger that much gets beaten up and then thrown out back by the dumpster. He should have been there.”

“Well he wasn’t,” Ryusei growled. 

He pressed his lips together in frustration. Where the hell was Chifuyu? It wasn’t like the younger boy could have disappeared into thin air. Unless of course Hanma had arranged for that. Given Hanma’s character and clear inclination to his sadistic side, Ryusei could see that being a possibility. 

The guy under him started squirming. Ryusei didn’t blame him. He wanted to move on too now that it was clear that no further information was forthcoming. 

He suddenly had an idea.

“Oi. You,” Ryusei huffed, “Listen up.”

The guy under him abruptly went still. 

“I’ll let you go, but you’re going to get a hold of me if you learn anything, and I mean anything , about where Chifuyu is,” Ryusei demanded. 

The guy nodded frantically. Ryusei got up and let him go. As soon as he was free, the guy took off running. Ryusei didn’t figure that he would ever hear back from that guy, but he could hope. 

He pulled out his phone and called Baji. The two of them met up not too far away. 

“Did you find out anything?” Ryusei asked, almost feeling breathless. 

He noted with worry and resignation that Baji’s knuckles were raw and blooded. 

“No. But I beat the crap out of the guy who lied to us,” he declared. 

“See, that’s the thing. I don’t think he was lying,” Ryusei sighed. 

“Why do you say that?” Baji cocked his head. 

“Because that’s what my guy said too,” Ryusei reported. 

Baji frowned. 

“And?”

“And I think there is something else going on,” Ryusei said, “Chifuyu was there. He must have been. And then he was taken by Hanma or someone else so that’s why we haven’t found him yet.”

“So how are we supposed to find him?” Baji glared in frustration at the passing cars. 

“We’ll start by going back to the scene of the crime,” Ryusei decided. 

He felt like there was something that he must be missing, but he didn’t know what it was. 

They headed back to the hideout and scoured the alleyway where Chifuyu was supposed to have been. Ryusei could confirm that some of the blood outside was fresh. That was about all. 

Baji tried to repeatedly call Chifuyu’s phone. He got no answer. Despite Ryusei’s advice otherwise, Baji even went as far as to call Chifuyu’s mom, just to see if she had heard from her son. 

“What if he’s dead?” Baji ran a hand through his hair in agitation. 

“He’s not,” Ryusei snapped. 

“How do you know that?”

“He’s not because he can’t be,” Ryusei shot back. 

Chifuyu’s death was an unacceptable result. Ryusei refused to entertain any other thoughts. 

Unfortunately, the more they looked, the less of an answer they got. It finally got to a point that Ryusei’s brain started to consider the unthinkable. What if Chifuyu was dead? What if Hanma had killed him, either accidentally or on purpose, and had ordered Chifuyu’s body disposed of? What if Chifuyu, badly injured, had attempted to walk off on his own only to succumb to his injuries? 

It was entirely by accident that Ryusei rounded a corner and ran straight into someone much smaller than him. 

It was a guy who looked vaguely familiar, but Ryusei didn’t know why. His hair was a questionable shade of yellow and he was clutching a convenience bag full of items like his life depended on it. This kid wasn’t the sort of person that Ryusei would have expected to see in this area of town. He watched Ryusei with an unhidden sense of terror. 

“You alright?” Ryusei asked. 

“I…er… yeah.”

He looked everywhere but at Ryusei. Suspicious. Ryusei’s detective senses were going off. He decided to go out on a limb. 

“Hey, you didn’t happen to see what happened in that alley, did you?” he asked, gesturing off to where Chifuyu should have been. 

“No?” the answer came out in a squeak. 

The way the guy hunched his shoulders in fear told Ryusei exactly what he needed to know. 

“Right. Spill it,” he demanded.

The kid tried to run. Ryusei grabbed him by the back of the collar. He wasn't about to let his first lead escape so easily. 

“You got a name?” Ryusei huffed. 

“H-hanagaki,” the kid mumbled staring at his shoes. 

“Right. Hanagaki. You have information that I need so, I suggest you start talking,” Ryusei sighed.

Hanagaki gulped. 

Chapter Text

“What happened? What did you see?” Ryusei demanded. 

Hanagaki looked decidedly uncomfortable at the questions. 

“Answer me,” Ryusei grabbed Hanagaki by the collar. 

Hanagaki opened and closed his mouth several times but nothing came out. He fidgeted. The plastic bag in his hands crinkled. His eyes darted to the side, like he was looking for an escape. 

Ryusei took a deep breath. Hanagaki was clearly scared. Getting answers wasn't going to be easy. 

“I need to find my friend. Please,” he pleaded. 

“Which one was your friend?” Hanagaki frowned. 

“Blond. About your height,” Ryusei told him. 

There was a spark of recognition in Hanagaki’s eyes. His shoulders relaxed slightly. 

“Do you know where he is or what happened to him?” Ryusei hated begging, but he was willing to if it meant he could find Chifuyu.  

Hanagaki still looked uncertain. Ryusei couldn't blame him. Despite his dyed hair, it was clear that this kid was far from comfortable with a rougher crowd. No doubt whatever he had seen had scared him. 

“Please,” Ryusei forced his voice to soften, “Please. I need to find him. He might be in trouble.”

“He’s not in trouble.” 

Ryusei blinked.

“How do you know that?” he couldn't keep himself from asking. 

Hanagaki fidgeted once more. 

“Well… um…You see…We were walking home and we saw two guys drag someone out of that building. They kicked him several times and threw him against the dumpster. Then they left him. He was just sort of laying there.” Hanagaki's gaze slid over towards the dumpster. “He was really hurt. I felt bad so we went over. He wasn't awake at first and then he woke up. I was gonna call an ambulance but he told me not to. I didn’t want to just leave him there so we took him back to my house. Akkun and the gang were bandaging him. They sent me to come grab some more supplies.”

Here, Hanagaki held up the bag in his hand as evidence. 

Ryusei felt the anxiety unwinding in his chest. Chifuyu was safe away from Hanma. This was good to hear. 

“Is he alright?” Baji roughly demanded. 

Hanagaki jumped with a squeak of fear. To be fair, Ryusei hadn’t noticed that Baji had come over to join the conversation. 

“H-he’s fine-ish?” Hanagaki stammered, “He was really beat up.”

“Where is he?” Baji asked. 

This made Hanagaki clam up again. Ryusei could almost watch the smaller kid close himself off. 

“You aren’t going to hurt him, are you?” Hanagaki seemed genuinely worried. 

Ryusei realized what Hanagaki was worried about. He was worried that they were associated with Hanma and were trying to track Chifuyu down to hurt him further. That was a logical concern. Ryusei himself was also worried that Hanma might still try to track down Chifuyu. 

Apparently no such thoughts occurred to Baji. 

“I might beat him for scaring the shit out of me,” Baji grumbled. 

Hanagaki’s face went pale. 

“P-please don’t. He couldn’t… I mean he didn’t…he’s already hurt…” Hanagaki stammered, eyes going glassy with tears. 

“Baji is joking,” Ryusei kicked the back of Baji’s knee. 

Baji grumbled and shrugged. Hanagaki didn’t look convinced. Ryusei kicked Baji once more in the back of the knee, harder this time. 

“Fine. I won’t hurt him,” Baji relented. 

Hanagaki still looked unconvinced. 

“I don’t know,” he bit his lip. 

He started backing up. Thanks to his training as a detective, Ryusei knew that the kid was about to flee. Rather than trying to stop the inevitable, he let Hanagaki run. Thankfully, Hanagaki wasn’t fast by any measure of the word. It was easy for Baji and Ryusei to tail the younger kid. 

More than once, Hanagaki attempted to lose them. After realizing that Hanagaki wasn’t as dumb as he looked, Ryusei held Baji back a few times when they rounded a corner. This allowed Hanagaki to think he had outrun them. 

Hanagaki eventually led them to a house. He dared inside and disappeared from view. Without hesitating, Ryusei walked up to the front door. He tested the door handle. It was locked. Baji wasted no time banging his fist on the front door. After a moment, the door was opened a moment later by none other than Hanagaki himself. 

“You-” Hanagaki got no further. 

Baji shoved Hanagaki aside and charged into his house. Feeling a little apologetic, Ryusei trailed after Baji. Hanagaki spluttered and trailed after them. There were voices coming down the hallway. That was where Baji and Ryusei headed. 

They did find a group of people sitting in the living room. Ryusei ignored all of them in favor of zeroing in on one person. 

“Chifuyu!” he exclaimed. 

Chifuyu turned to face them. 

“Hey guys!” he exclaimed. 

Chifuyu’s right eye was carefully covered with a medical eyepatch. He had bruises and abrasions all over his face and neck. He was propped up on the couch with a few pillows. It was very clear that he had taken a horrible beating.

“Hey guys? Is that all you have to say?” Ryusei growled, his relief making his voice sharp. 

“We thought you were dead or still captured,” Baji followed up. 

Chifuyu blinked in confusion. 

“Why would you think that?” he frowned slightly. 

“Because we couldn’t find you and you weren’t answering your phone,” Baji snapped.  

“Oh. Yeah. Well. Hanma beat me up and I passed out. He must have thrown me out on the street because these other people found me and took me home. They were pretty nice. See? They even bandaged me up and everything,” Chifuyu announced. 

He shifted and then winced, arm coming up to wrap around his torso. Ryusei rushed forward, but his path was blocked. It seems like him surging forward had ticked off the rest of the people.

They were a scrawny looking ensemble. They, like Hanagaki, all had questionable hair choices but looked like they had never actually run with the delinquent crowd. Ryusei knew that even if the whole group tried to take him on at once, they wouldn't stand a chance. 

“Who the hell are you?” one of them boldly declared, puffing his chest up and trying to look intimdating. 

“Ryusei,” Ryusei sighed, “And that's -”

Oddly enough, he was interrupted. 

“T-that’s Baji Keisuke, the captain of Toman’s first division,” the mousey looking guy with glasses murmured with something that was either awe or fear. 

The news caused a stir among the others. 

“That’s right,” Baji cracked his knuckles, “That's me. And further more, Ryusei and Chifuyu are mine so scram.”

The resistance in front of Ryusei melted away and Ryusei was able to make his way over to Chifuyu’s side. 

“Where are you hurt?” he asked. 

It was hard to restrain himself from giving Chifuyu a pat down for any hidden injuries. Something told him that Chifuyu wouldn’t appreciate that. 

“Aside from the obvious bruises?” Chifuyu sighed. 

“Yes.”

“Nothing bad-”

“Don’t lie,” Baji narrowed his eyes. 

Chifuyu immediately looked guilty. He ducked his head slightly. 

“Feels like I broke a few ribs,” Chifuyu admitted, “It hurts when I breathe and it hurts worse when I cough.”

That was concerning, but at least it didn’t appear imminently life threatening. 

“Anything else?” Ryusei asked. 

“I think I might have hit my head too, because I feel nauseous and dizzy,” Chifuyu sighed. 

That was an understatement. Chifuyu had clearly been hit on the head more than once. The most concerning one was the gash by Chifuyu's hairline. 

“And the eye?” Baji leaned in. 

Chifuyu's hand wondered up to the eyepatch. 

“I dunno. I don't remember what happened. It was just dark,” he said. 

Ryusei grimaced. That wasn't good to hear. He decided he would dragging Chifuyu to a medical professional sooner rather than later. Chifuyu wouldn't have a choice. He would be checked out. For right now, the injuries weren't life threatening, so there were other things that Ryusei wanted to know.

“What happened?” Ryusei asked. 

“When?” Chifuyu frowned slightly. 

“From the beginning,” Ryusei prompted. 

Chifuyu fiddled with his sleeve. 

“I… um… well, after I called you, it looked like Hanma was going to leave, so I went to try to follow him and his goons. That’s when I got caught. They dragged me back to…. Um… I’m not really quite sure where we went,” Chifuyu looked sheepish, “Hanma asked me a few questions and then you called. I dunno what you said to him, but Hanma didn’t like it. He stopped asking questions and just beat me up. I passed out at some point. I woke up and they were beating me up again, but outside this time. Then I passed out again. I don’t think I was out for very long at that time. When I woke up again, they were there.”

Chifuyu finished by gesturing to the other people in the room who all looked a little to eager to be eaves dropping on this conversation. 

Ryusei could do nothing more than shake his head. Chifuyu had been lucky. Very lucky. Things could have gone differently very easily. This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to let Chifuyu anywhere near this case. He told Chifuyu as much. 

“Well, if I hadn’t been taken, then I wouldn’t be able to tell you that Hanma does know who Kisaki is,” Chifuyu huffed. 

Ryusei froze. 

“What did you just say?” he choked. 

Chapter Text

“Hanma already knows Kisaki?” Ryusei faintly asked.  

Chifuyu nodded slightly. This motion clearly bothered him because he winced and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“How? What else can you tell me?” Ryusei needed to know just how dire the situation was.  

Were Hanma and Kisaki already plotting Chifuyu's murder?

“I didn’t hear much. Something about….. um…. Kisaki wanting to meet up or something like that,” Chifuyu shrugged. 

Ryusei pressed his lips in a line. That wasn’t a good thing to hear. He needed to know what they were up to. He glanced at Chifuyu. He would be doing that part on his own. He wasn’t about to risk any more injury for his friends. 

He knew that he hadn’t been nearly careful enough in his plans so far. He would need to work harder to ensure that no one else ended up hurt (or worse dead). He also needed to figure out the best plan to deal with Kisaki and Hanma.

He had tossed several ideas around, but he hadn’t landed on one that seemed like it would work out in the long run. Now that contact had been made with Hanma (and potentially soon with Kisaki), Ryusei needed to step up his game. 

He should come up with some sort of-

Ryusei nearly jumped out of his skin when something lightly smacked the back of his head. He whipped around. Baji was standing there looking unimpressed. 

“What was that for?” Ryusei hissed. 

“You were worrying,” Baji shrugged. 

“And?” Ryusei shot back. 

“You do that a lot more worrying when this version of you is here instead of the other version of you,” Baji shrugged as though that explained everything. 

It didn’t. 

“It’s not like I can help it. Not with you two idiots to watch out for,” Ryusei huffed. 

“That’s why we’re helping you instead of letting you go off on your own,” Baji folded his arms over his chest. 

“No. I…. I can’t risk anything worse happening,” Ryusei shook his head. 

“Too bad. Not your decision,” Baji grunted looking unamused. 

“Yeah!” Chifuyu chimed in, “Cause next time I’ll be able to fight Hanma better so I won't get hurt like this.”

“There won’t be a next time, if I have anything to say about it,” Ryusei sighed. 

Chifuyu looked crestfallen. 

“The other version of you doesn’t know how to ask for help either,” he grumbled. 

Ryusei decided that he had enough of this conversation. He wanted to change the topic. Thankfully, he didn’t need to do anything to make that happen. 

“Umm….is there something we can do?” Hanagaki’s voice was timid. 

One of Hanagaki’s friends elbowed him in the ribs. 

“No. Why do you ask?” Ryusei cocked his head. 

“Because you sound like you are in trouble,” Hanagaki’s face was open and earnest. 

He was very easy to read. Ryusei liked that. There wasn’t anything hidden there. He was the ideal witness in a cop case: easy to immediately get a sense of what they were thinking. 

“No. We’re fine and-”

Ryusei was cut off when Baji slapped a hand over his mouth. 

“Listen here, pipsqueak,” he squared off with Hanagaki, towering over the smaller boy, “You ever see that idiot out in the streets getting his ass handed to him, step in.”

“Hey!” Chifuyu cried indignantly, “I can take care of myself!” 

“Clearly,” Baji snorted. 

Chifuyu puffed up his cheeks in annoyance. Ryusei noted the look of hurt on the younger boy’s face. Chifuyu thought they didn’t trust him. Great. Ryusei would need to figure out a way to assure Chifuyu that wasn’t the problem. He didn’t need Chifuyu throwing himself into even more dangerous situations in order to ‘prove’ that he was capable. 

“In fact, if you see that idiot out in the street getting his ass handed to him, help him too,” Baji jerked a thumb at Ryusei. 

Ryusei could only gape at Baji. Why was he getting throw under the bus too? He could defend himself far better than Chifuyu could, thank you very much!

“Yessir,” Hanagaki all but saluted. 

“He’s not part of Toman,” Ryusei reminded Baji, “You can’t order him around like that.”

Hangaki’s friends seemed to share his misgivings about the situation. They shifted nervously and exchanged worried glances. 

“I can and I will,” Baji shrugged. 

“You can’t,” one of Hanagaki’s nameless friends stepped forward. 

“It’s fine, Akkun,” Hanagaki shook his head, “I like helping people.”

“Yeah. And don’t forget to think about yourself once and a while. You’ve already missed out on four dates with Hina-chan because you had to ‘help’ out a senpai with something they could have just done themselves,” Akkun fired back. 

“It was a one time thing,” Hanagaki returned weakly. 

“A one time thing that happened four different times,” Akkun retorted, “And don’t even get me started on the times that they’ve tricked you into fighting other people for them.”

“It’s fine.”

Akkun looked distinctly frustrated. Ryusei could sympathize with that. 

“Alright. How about this,” Ryusei stepped forward, “If you run into some sort of trouble on the streets, don’t hesitate to use Toman’s name. That should make most delinquents pause.”

“Are you sure?” Akkun, unlike Hanagaki, seemed suspicious of them. He regarded them with slightly narrowed, watchful eyes. 

“Yes. After all, we also owe you for finding and helping Chifuyu this time around,” Ryusei pointed out. 

“I… oh… um… it was nothing,” Hanagaki spluttered, his cheeks flushed slightly. 

The clock on the shelf chimed softly. Ryusei glanced at it. It was much later than he thought it would be. They had already wasted the day. 

“We should get going,” Ryusei nudged Baji. 

Baji nodded in agreement. The two of them got Chifuyu to his feet. 

“You can sleep here if you need,” Hanagaki offered. 

Ryusei decided to occasionally send wellness check-ups to Hangaki’s place. It was clear that this guy had no boundaries when it came to helping people. 

“Thanks, but we're good,” he smiled. 

Hanagaki nodded, looking slightly sad. Strangely enough, Chifuyu looked slightly sad too. They said their goodbyes before going on their way. Darkness had begun to fall. Unfortunately, Baji and Ryusei had left their bikes back near Hanma’s hideout. 

“You take Chifuyu to the hospital,” Baji decided, “I’ll go get the bikes.”

He jogged off into the falling evening without giving Ryusei a chance to debate this plan. 

“You don’t need to take me to the hospital,” Chifuyu informed Ryusei, “I’m totally fine.”

Ryusei looked Chifuyu up and down. In the dim light, the smaller boy’s injuries looked even worse. 

“No. Baji’s right. I should take you,” Ryusei sighed. 

“I could just go there myself,” Chifuyu pouted. 

“You would just go home as soon as my back was turned,” Ryusei huffed. 

He knew that Chifuyu would probably just skip the hospital having already received ‘treatment’. It was entirely possible that Chifuyu was fine, but Ryusei wanted to make sure. He could now see the sense in Baji’s plan. 

If he took Chifuyu to the hospital, he would be there to hear firsthand about what condition Chifuyu really was in. 

After a bit of prodding, he and Chifuyu started off. As they walked, Ryusei kept looking behind them. It was probably his imagination, but he could have sworn that someone was following them. He stood guard by the hospital doors after Chifuyu went inside. No one revealed themselves once he was alone. 

Baji eventually came riding up on his bike. 

“Your place was too far, I took your bike to my house,” he informed Ryusei. 

Ryusei acknowledged this with a nod. 

“How’s Chifuyu?” Baji asked. 

“I don’t know yet,” Ryusei admitted. 

“Then why are you out here?” Baji frowned. 

“I thought someone was following us from Hanagaki’s house. I just wanted to make sure that I was seeing things,” Ryusei murmured. 

Baji looked concerned. 

“Someone was following you?” he verified. 

“I don’t know. I thought so, but no one has made an appearance while I’ve been standing here. Either they slipped away at some point and I missed it or else there wasn’t anyone there to begin with.” Ryusei rolled his shoulders to release the tension there. He then shook his head. “It’s fine. I’m sure it’s fine.”

Baji didn’t look convinced, but he followed Ryusei’s lead back into the hospital. 

Chifuyu thankfully had been fairly honest in his assessment of his injuries. He had a bad concussion as well as several broken ribs. The swelling around his eye was concerning as it was putting pressure on the nerves in the back of his eye. At the moment there was nothing to do but wait for the swelling and bruising to go down, the doctor informed them. The best thing for Chifuyu now was to rest and take it easy (read: avoid physical exertion) for then week or so. 

Ryusei was relieved to hear that there wasn’t anything life threatening that he needed to worry about. He was so emotionally drained after the day, he wasn't sure he would have been able to handle it. 

That night he was so exhausted that he was asleep before his head hit the pillow. He woke feeling somewhat rested. That was good because he knew he was going to need it, particularly after looking at his phone.  There was a text waiting from Mikey that was so short it was almost ominous.

It read:  You & Baji. My house. Now.   

Chapter Text

Ryusei had all of five minutes of peace before his phone was ringing. He picked it up on instinct, rather than as a conscience thought. 

“Hey,” it was Baji, “Mikey wants-”

“I know. He texted me,” Ryusei sighed. 

It was too early in the morning for this. There was part of him that just wanted to go back to bed and imagine that he didn’t have to deal with this. He let an arm flop over his face. 

“Good. I didn’t know if you heard. I’ve been waiting out front for a while now,” Baji grunted. 

“You’re at my house?” Ryusei sat up. 

This wasn't what he had expected to learn. Why in the name of everything good-

“Yeah. Just got here. Downstairs in front of the bar. Figured we could go together. You coming down?”

Ryusei grumbled and climbed out of bed. 

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m on my way.”

He threw on the first set of clean clothes he could find. It was mismatched, but Ryusei couldn’t bring himself to care. He opened the front door and sure enough, there was Baji, sitting there on the step in front of the door.  

Baji stared at Ryusei as he came out into the early morning sun. 

“What?” Ryusei frowned. 

“What’s with the outfit?” Baji snorted. 

“Shut up,” Ryusei grumbled. 

He knew his outfit was atrocious. The green and white striped shirt did not go with the navy pants. He was wearing one sneaker and one sandal. Younger him would probably be appalled by this outfit, but older him just didn't care. 

They set off towards Mikey’s house. Ryusei let the wind in his face wake him up a bit more. He was feeling more alive by the time they got to their destination. As they pulled up, Ryusei noted that Draken’s bike was parked out front. That didn’t bode well. 

Baji marched around back to the shack of a room that Mikey had claimed as his own after his brother’s death. He knocked on the door. It was opened a moment later by Mikey. 

“You came!” Mikey seemed usually cheerful. 

Given how cheerful Toman's leader was, Ryusei guessed that Mikey had been awake all night, rather than having just woken up. This suspicion was confirmed once they stepped inside and Ryusei saw the dark circles under Draken's eyes. 

“Course we did,” Baji scoffed. 

“Why’d it take you so long?” Mikey demanded with a huff, his arms crossing over his chest in indignation. 

“Ryusei was still asleep,” Baji shrugged. 

Ryudsei did not dignify Baji with a response. He just helped himself to the couch. He was more awake than earlier, but that didn't mean that he was looking forward to whatever this meeting had been called about. 

“That explains the outfit,” Draken snorted. 

Ryusei briefly glared at the vice commander of Toman. 

“What’s the matter? Why did you call us here?” Ryusei asked Mikey.

“Straight to the point today?” Mikey cocked his head. 

Ryusei shrugged. He had bigger things to deal with than Mikey's trivial problems. He needed to get this over with, the faster the better. 

“See, here’s the thing. I got a message that some nobody gang has declared war on you personally Baji,” Mikey’s face was decidedly blank as he said this. 

“Sounds good with me,” Baji shrugged. 

“Really? That’s all you have to say?” Mikey frowned. 

“There is nothing else to say,” Baji scoffed. 

“There must. They’re claiming that you broke into their territory and attacked them unprovoked. You haven’t done something like that in years. What’s going on?” Mikey demanded. 

Baji glanced at Ryusei. Ryusei took the hint.

“That would be my fault,” he sighed. 

“Your fault?” Mikey seemed genuinely confused, “How is that your fault?”

“It is. Trust me on that one,” Ryusei didn't feel like explaining. 

“No. I will not. You don’t get to act like your superior or like you can have such big secrets. I need to know what exactly is happening so I can decide how much force to respond with,” Mikey crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. 

That was fair enough, from Mikey’s point of view. That didn’t mean that Ryusei liked the logic. They were kids, not militia members. This wasn’t a war. But then he thought about Chifuyu’s bloodied face and injuries the younger boy had sustained. No. This was war. He might as well take advantage of Mikey’s offer to help. 

“They attempted to kill Chifuyu,” he simply stated.

Mikey’s face went dark. 

“Kill him? That’s a serious accusation,” Draken pointed out. 

“I mean, they didn’t try to kill him just yesterday,” Baji huffed, “They've done it before like, what, ten or twelve years in the future?”

The entire room froze. Mikey and Draken each looked both confused. Ryusei could only feel an impending sense of dread. Why in the world had Baji just said that?

“What do you mean?” Draken finally asked. 

Ryusei opened his mouth, but Baji was quicker. 

“Ryusei can time travel, so he’s been trying to stop deaths for the last month or so,” Baji proudly announced. 

Ryusei let his head drop into his hands. Why today? Why him?

“Whose deaths?” Draken asked, leaning forward a bit.

“Mine. His friend Kojiro’s,” Baji paused before adding, “Chifuyu's too.”

“I see,” Mikey hummed. 

Ryusei suddenly found himself pinned under Mikey and Draken’s firm gazes. 

“Is that true?” Mikey asked. 

What use was there to deny this? Mike would believe Baji over him any day, so even if Ryusei thought about denying this, they would never believe him. 

“It is,” Ryusei sighed, his shoulders slumping a little bit. 

“Tell me everything,” Maikey demanded. 

Against his better judgement, Ryusei told Mikey and Draken a small portion of what had happened. This isn’t at all what he had imagined this morning (or any morning) looking like. He just tried to get it over with. 

“Brilliant. Well you’ve come to the right place. I will be making sure you are all safe,” Mikey puffed out his chest as soon as Ryusei was done talking. 

“What?” Ryusei blinked, his brain trying catch up for a moment. 

“Because you’re part of Toman,” Mikey continued. 

“Mikey is right,” Draken nodded, “You’re not alone in this fight. It’s too dangerous.”

“No. I don’t-” Ryusei was interrupted. 

“You don’t have a choice,” Mikey nodded. 

Ryusei saw that he didn’t. The cat was out of the bag and Mikey was a man of actions rather than words. 

“Please be careful. They’re dangerous,” 

“Nothing can hurt me,” Mikey puffed out his chest. 

Ryusei very much wanted to strangle Toman’s leader for this brash and dangerous belief. Draken looked far from impressed as well. Ryusei felt Baji's hand on his shoulder which helped to calm him down a bit. 

“What do you want us to do in the mean time?” Draken offered. 

“I don’t know,” Ryusei wished could give a better answer. 

“Alright. What should we do about this gang?” Mikey cocked his head, “Do you want me to kill them?”

That was not an option. Ryusei wanted them taken out a non-violent way (preferably once he had a chance to take a few swings at Hanma and Kisaki on Chifuyu's behalf). 

“Keep them entertained, I guess,” he shrugged. 

That was the best he could come up with on the spot. He still wasn't sure if that was good plan, but it was a plan to start with. Maybe with Hanma engaged with Toman's top fighters, Ryusei could sneak around and find a way to solve this all before anything else horrible happened.  

“Right,” Mikey cracked his knuckles, “We can do that.”

Ryusei didn’t want to know what he had in mind.