Toman's Little Sister

3 | A Delinquent and a Criminal

You sat in the grass as you stared into the pink tinted sky with the sunset above you. You, Mikey, Draken, and Takemichi had gone through town after Takemichi's school ended and were now hanging out.

"It's sunset. Do you promise you'll actually sleep once it gets night?" Draken asked. You sighed and brought your knees to your chest. "Possibly. I have some work to do."

It was Mikey's turn to sigh and he looked away from you. "You should really sleep more. Baji says that you're nodding in class."

"Baji-chan reports to you?!"

Takemichi laughed and the three of you looked over at him. "What's wrong?" You questioned.

"It's just... I wasn't expecting a gang to care so much for each other. You guys seem scary in other people's eyes."

You smiled and brushed your hair out of your face so you could look at Takemichi properly. "Takemichi, what do you think a gang member is like? Do you think they're all like the ones on TV? Vandalizing everything, killing innocents, crashing cars in the middle of city?"

You patted the area next to you and Takemichi sat down. "There's a difference between criminals and delinquents, Takemichi. Delinquents are the ones that act bad, but in the end, they're a good person. Criminals..." You gripped the grass beneath your hand. "Well, at the end of the day, they couldn't care less about the people around them."

Mikey sat on the other side of you and leaned his head on your shoulder. "Delinquents do something and clean up afterwards." You nodded in agreement and put your hand on the other side of Mikey's face, where his head wasn't touching your shoulder.

"The people in the Tokyo Manji are very caring people." You chuckled. "Aggressive... but... caring."

Mikey lifted his head and you got up, lifting your arms so you could stretch. "Anyways, I promised Baji-chan that I'd help him study, so I've gotta go." You began walking off and Mikey waved as if he were a little boy. "Bye bye!"

You glanced back and grinned, waving back and turning around. Your grin faded and you looked at your phone.

July 8, 2005

With a deep inhale, you tilted your head back and looked at the darkening sky, letting your eyes focus on the singular star that twinkled in the sky.

"Three weeks." You whispered to yourself. You stuffed your hands in your pocket and balled your hands into a fist. What were you planning on doing once the fateful day came?

You looked back at where Takemichi, Draken, and Mikey were once standing to see that they had already left. You don't remember Takemichi ever standing up to Kiyomasa. He was just a little pawn as far as you were concerned in the past.

Maybe...

Your thoughts were interrupted by your phone ringing and you picked up. "Hello?"

"Y/N, I thought you promised we'd study together after school."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Just give me two minutes."

You hung up and put your phone in your pocket and sighed. "Just live in the moment, Y/N." You instructed yourself. And you went sprinting down the path towards Baji's house.

•••

"Finally done..." Baji sighed. You glanced over at the last question and underlined one of the words. "My, not I." You corrected.

He looked at you with an annoyed glint in his eye and held out his hand for your eraser since he was busy biting the eraser on his pencil while you tutored him. "You've really got to stop doing that." You placed the eraser in his hand and he erased the "I" and wrote "My."

"Why do we have to learn English, anyways?" He muttered. You straightened out his papers and placed them in front of him. "A lot of people speak English. Great Britain's taken over 173 out of 195 countries in the world, so it's natural."

Baji looked up in thought as if he had forgotten there were numbers that high. "Damn, that's a lot." He finally concluded. "But why do I need to know that?"

You shrugged and looked at the time. "It's still early. You did that earlier than I thought you would."

"'Early?'"

"Tsu-chan said he'd pick me up at 9:00, but it's only 8:00. I still have an hour." You smiled at him. "Looks like your intellect is reflecting into your academics."

You still remember his amazing sixth sense of knowing the gang's enemies and the gang's allies, despite it never being said aloud. He was smart... just, not in his studies.

"I just have different priorities." He held a strand of his hair, then looked at yours. "Do you know how to braid hair?"

Your eyes lit up. "Yes. Do you want me to?" He deadpanned at you and moved his hair behind his shoulder. "Do whatever. You have nothing to do, right?" You grinned childishly and scooted behind him, separating his hair into three parts.

"Ow! Hey!"

"Do you have a brush in here? I found a tangle." He handed you a brush and you slowly combed it through his hair as he grunted quietly from the tugs of the brush against his scalp. "Sorry, does it hurt?"

"Not as bad as breaking my nose, I guess." He looked back at you with a smirk. "Or cramps, according to you."

"Oi!" You smacked his head. "I will personally buy a period cramp simulator and make everyone in the gang try it, do you really want to test me?"

"Alright, alright!"

You hummed a song that was released about 7 years after the Moebius situation, and Baji looked back at you. "I've never heard that song before..." You froze and chuckled. "Aha... Y-Yeah, it's just something I made up in my head."

"Hm. Just now?" He looked down at his work. "Sounds good."

"Th-Thanks." Is this plagiarism? "Okay, I'm done." You pulled out your phone and showed the front camera to Baji. "See?"

"I always wonder how the heck girls do that."

"I wonder how the heck all boys think that glasses make them smarter."

"Mikey said it, not me."

"Yeah, but you believed it." You tapped your chin. "And... didn't you have to go to the mall twice because you got into a fight? And they're not even real glasses, are they?"

"Dammit, give me a break!"

As he said that, a knock at his front door echoed through the home, followed by the sound of the door opening and, "Keisuke, your friend says he's here to pick your tutor up!"

You and Baji looked at each other and stifled a giggle. "Seems like Tsu-chan's here. See you around, Ba-chan."

"Don't call me that."

You smirked at him and walked out of his room. "Hey, Tsu-chan!" You greeted and you followed him out. "Thank you for having me." You bowed to Baji's mom and bound after Mitsuya.

"Did you have fun?" Mitsuya asked as if he were your mom. "Baji-chan let me braid his hair if that counts for anything."

"Ah, so that's why you look like you're in a good mood."

You were silent for a moment before nodding and seating yourself on Mitsuya's motorcycle. "Do I really?"

"Yeah. You look like a little girl during her birthday party."

You leaned your head on Mitsuya's back and wrapped your arms around his torso, feeling the engine of the motorcycle start up beneath you.

"Is something on your mind?"

"No... nothing other than the meeting on Moebius tomorrow." You hugged him a bit tighter as the gang's name felt bitter on your tongue. "I'm just worried about what Pah-chin might do. He isn't a gentle soul, mind you."

"Yep, not arguing with that."

You exhaled and turned your head so your cheek was rested on Mitsuya's back. "I'm tired..."

"Don't fall asleep on me now. We're almost there."

"Yeah, yeah."