Replay

1 Interlude

A/N: Thank you, people who voted! I hope you (and everyone else reading this) are enjoying the story so far. Honestly, I'm kinda busy with school and can't be bothered to draw illustrations, so I'll release some if I have spare time. 

Each arc will cap off with an 'interlude' from Takemichi's POV where he jumps back into the present/future. Although this one follows canon somewhat closely, the next might not (hint hint).

"How've ya been, Takemichi?!"

The instant they had stepped out into the evening, Akkun had pulled him into a headlock while grinning from ear-to-ear. The same kind of carefree smile he'd had back when they were in middle school. The familiar sight was comforting in this yet-again bleak future, but--

"Ow ow ow, that hurts!" he shrieked. Akkun's only response was a jovial laugh, but he did loosen up his hold.

"I'm just happy to see you again. I mean, it's been, what, twelve years?"

"Yeah." Takemichi met Akkun's smile with his own. "But wow, you've really become amazing! I never expected you'd own such a big cabaret club or become a Toman official. A lot of things can change in ten years, huh?"

"What's that supposed to mean, huh? How'd you think I would end up?"

According to Naoto, Akkun originally became a small-time criminal after stabbing Kiyomasa. But Takemichi had unintentionally saved him from that fate--Akkun still technically was a criminal, but there was a difference! It wasn't saving Hina, but he felt a tingle of warmth in his chest. He'd managed to help a friend.

"Not here." Akkun playfully swatted at his head, and they both giggled like they were kids again. But it was as Takemichi's chuckles subsided that he noticed his old friend was staring out over the city lights from the rooftop they were standing on, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Akkun...?"

"You shouldn't be here, Takemichi. You should be dead."

The night breeze chilled the sweat that had started to form on his skin, despite it being the middle of summer. "Huh?"

"I pushed you off the platform right before the train arrived at the station. I saw you fall onto the tracks. You definitely should've died. But then Tachibana Naoto so readily saved you, as if he'd known it was going to happen. How could he have? And when I thought about it, I arrived at time travel. I'm seriously at my wits' end to be considering it, but it is, isn't it?! It'd be weird, otherwise, wouldn't--"

Takemichi bodily shoved Akkun away, who had clutched his shoulders painfully during his frantic rambling. The other man stumbled and fell onto the ground, thankfully no longer talking but instead looking up at Takemichi with his mouth open in shock. "Weird!? You're the one who's acting weird, Akkun!" Takemichi hadn't understood half the words coming out of his friend's mouth, but he just wanted Akkun to shut up.

"You shouldn't be like this! You were always composed. Kind. Reliable. Thinking of your friends." Takemichi scrunched his eyes shut as they started to water.

"You're lying. You've got to be. There's no way you tried to kill me, because we're friends. And we always will be, Akkun!" He turned away, unable to look at his old friend any longer. Because he had seen how much 10 years could change things. Because he knew that it wasn't impossible. Because he didn't want that niggling doubt in his heart to be proven right.

He heard Akkun slowly climb to his feet and pat the dirt off his clothes. Takemichi kept his ears alert for any sort of response over his own sniffles, but there was no mutter of denial, nor a snort from a joke of poor taste.

"Takemichi. I've changed since you last saw me. You remember that foreigner girl in our class, who was really close with Tachibana Hinata?"

The girl who had transferred in the day Takemichi had first lept back. They'd almost never interacted in his original life to the point that he couldn't even remember Myers, but after recent events, he could. Takemichi, uncertain of where the conversation was headed, peeked back at Akkun. His friend was gazing out at the cityscape again.

"She was sniffing around Toman, so I killed her, too." He said it so casually that Takemichi could feel himself growing less doubtful. "One day I just became like this, you know? Kisaki controls Toman now. I can't disobey him. I've turned into a coward who kills his friends out of fear for his own life."

Kisaki? Kisaki Tetta? So he'd even ended up ruining Akkun, too. It was one more inexcusable deed. But for now, to the friend in front of him who was clearly distressed:

"You're telling me, though. That's not what a coward would do. A coward would take their secrets to the grave, too scared to ever confess. It's not too late to leave Toman, Akkun! There's no shame in backing out of this situation."

Akkun looked back for the first time since his rant. He had a sad smile, a strange kind of helplessness to his expression that looked foreign on his face. It stirred an uncomfortable, unidentifiable feeling in Takemichi. "Thanks for trying. But I'm too scared of Kisaki. I can't leave."

Takemichi didn't know what to say, if there was anything he could to help. Akkun took advantage of the silence between them. "Mikey changed because Draken died." What? "And here I am, getting rich off of dirty money.

"I've always admired you, Takemichi, for being able to stand strong in the face of anything, even while bawling your eyes out," he continued as he hauled himself up onto the ledge. Takemichi watched on as if in a daze. "It's your girlfriend you want to save, right? I guess I'm a bit jealous. You were the only one of the Mizo Middle Five to get a girl." He chuckled to himself.

"Good luck, Takemichi. Save everyone. Our crybaby hero." Akkun had that same wide grin on his face. But it just looked so out-of-place after everything that had just happened that Takemichi snapped back into reality and reached out to snag his friend's legs before Akkun could step off the roof and kill himself, but his fingers swished through empty air and then there was Akkun two-stories below him sprawled on the concrete--

His knees lost their strength and scraped against the ground, but he barely felt it. He just let his tears fall and roared up at the sky, belting out a guttural sound of raw emotions. His frustration at not being able to stop Akkun. His rage at Kisaki for backing Akkun into a corner. His sorrow at losing everyone close to him.

He didn't want to lose them. Draken, Akkun, Hina, even Myers. Not anyone. He had the power to change the future, and he could stop it from happening, couldn't he? If he just saved Draken, this pathetic future would be rewritten. No one would have to die.

"I-I want to save them," he sobbed into the night sky.

A/N: The Moebius Arc starts right after, but I want to first write a few chapters before publishing anything to minimize revisions. I already have the first written up, but don't expect anything for about a month.