A Future Without You is Soon |Mikey x OC|

Chapter Twenty-Five

"What the hell?"

"Get the lights!"

"Who the fuck?"

Takemichi looks around in a vain attempt to get his bearings, but it's much too dark. Hands grab onto the chair.

"Keep quiet, I'm carrying you out of here," a masculine voice says. It sounds oddly familiar. But Takemichi doesn't waste time thinking about it. Very quickly, he passes out from pain.

~*~*~

Takemichi wakes up with a start. He looks around the area, only to find an unfamiliar setting greet him. He moves only a little, but immediately recoils from the pain. "Ow, fuck!"

"I gave you some basic first aid."

Takemichi looks up at the man. His back is to Takemichi. All he can see is long hair. It looks a lot like Baji's did. So much so that Takemichi mutters Baji's name. When the man turns around, Takemichi recognises the face well.

Kazutora looks much older than he did before. Much more mature. "Kazutora~kun?" Takemichi had almost forgotten than Kazutora's sentence was only ten years. "It's been a long—"

Crack!

Kazutora's fist connects with Takemichi's jaw. Takemichi has no time to even breath before Kazutora hit his face again. He continues to beat Takemichi for another minute.

"Recently I saw a group of guys beating a woman like that, and when I went to stop them, I found out they were Touman members. When did Touman become a woman beating organisation?" Kazutora pauses for a moment. "I don't give a shit about you. I wanted...I wanted to save Chifuyu. So we could go find Shiho. He fought alone for years. What the hell were you doing?"

Takemichi couldn't bring himself to answer. This timeline version of him was so shitty Chifuyu couldn't rely on him.

"But you know, Shiho still believed in you." Takemichi looks up at Kazutora. His gaze is still locked elsewhere. "Shiho came to visit me in prison just before she disappeared. Do you know what she told me? 'Don't hate Micchi, okay? He's not himself right now. Could you help him if you get the chance?'"

Takemichi stares at Kazutora. Shiho...she kept hope? Through all of this? She and Chifuyu were both fighting totally on their own while Takemichi was gone. What kind of friend is he...?

But Shiho wasn't fighting. She had stopped and left with Mikey. Chifuyu was on his own.

"Touman got bigger and everything went wrong. Still, you jumped to serve Kisaki like a maid. Our only hope was Draken or Shiho, but Draken got the death penalty, and Shiho ran away with Mikey." There's silence for a moment. "Takemichi, where is Touman going? A long time ago, Mikey said he would make a new age for delinquents. Just like he told me, Touman got huge. Drugs, prostitution, illegal casinos, and underground money lending. Touman's done every crime possible to get larger. But...is this...is this the age Mikey wanted to create? Is this the Touman Baji wanted to protect? Back then, they didn't want Touman to end up like this, right, Takemichi?"

Takemichi doesn't know when it started, but tears flow down his face. He knows Kazutora was right.

"The Touman I loved wasn't like this at all," Takemichi cries. "It was...always shining!"

Kazutora smiles kindly. "Yeah. Let's take our Touman back."

~*~*~

"My memories are a little fuzzy, so I'm going to ask you some weird questions, Kazutora~kun."

Kazutora nods, eyes locked on the road in front of him.