Culmination [Tokyo Revengers]

Chapter XII - A Forced Smile

"Move, move, move, big bro Take!" At the last minute, Takeomi ducks his head down, avoiding the nine year old that jumps over him, across the couch that he sat on.

"That's dangerous, Mikey!" Takeomi warns the little boy that carried his toy airplane with pride, showing it off, once again, to him and Shinichiro.

"Isn't it cool!" Mikey strikes a dramatic pose while holding it between two of his fingers. "This Concorde plastic model! The supersonic airliner!" Takeomi is unimpressed by a mere toy, not thinking of it as a prized possession compared to Mikey.

Mikey's first friends, Baji and Haruchiyo, run into the living room, trying to catch up to him. They were just as eager about the toy airplane, both of them wanting to play with it.

"Wait up, Mikey!"

"Let me play with it too!"

Mikey goes on ahead, refusing to let anybody touch it. "You idiots! You'll never lay a finger on this!"

"Kids, man." Takeomi chooses not to do anything, seeing as though it nothing but a typical behavior that boys have.

Senju, who was eight years old at the time, accompanied Baji and Haruchiyo, her eyes glittering at the sight of the toy airplane. "That model looks so cool! I want one, too!"

"Hey man, that's not girlish of you!" Takeomi depicts this kind of language in belonging to a boy, rather than a girl like Senju. Though it seemed too stereotypical of him to enforce an environment that he sought to be "feminine," he simply thought it would help her not stand out to her classmates, and fit in today's society as someone normal.

"Oi, Harychiyo!" Before Haruchiyo leaves the room, Takeomi calls out to his younger brother, the closest of the brothers to Senju. "Have you realized that you've been teaching Senju the wrong words?" The two brothers make eye contact, and he adds. "Since I'm not leaving home anymore, you have to set a good example for her!"

For Haruchiyo, this wasn't out of the ordinary for Takeomi to say. Certainly, there were times that he got scolded by Senju's boyish actions and tendency. And somehow, every time, he'd feel bad, too. "I'm sorry, big bro Take..." He says rather sheepishly.

~•~

(Y/n) subconsciously interrupts the story that Senju was sharing to her. "So he really is your brother..." She struggles to even imagine of Sanzu being anything close to respectful. Before the Kanto Manji Gang, she'd always been rather keen about him, given how quiet he was. "And, in his own way...he took care of you?"

"Yeah." Senju reaffirms. "We were raised by a single father, but he was always busy...so he left us at grandma's. That's why Takeomi plays the father role for us." She goes as far to admit that she had a contribution in Sanzu's hatred and sadness. "Because of my mistakes, Takeomi got mad at Haruchiyo. Even so, Haruchiyo was always nice to me." She never fails to forget what Sanzu had told her that same day that particular incident happened.

"But on that day..."

~•~

Senju looks at Haruchiyo with disbelief, his back turned to her as he curls up at the edge of the porch. "I don't want to talk to you anymore..." She hears her older brother say this in a shaky voice, fear present in his tone. "Because of you, I'm always the one who gets yelled at! Do you understand?"

Even a young child like Senju can see that Haruchiyo wasn't saying this out of genuine hatred, but sadness. The look on his face was enough for her to see that he was in pain; he was sick of getting abused by Takeomi. And just taking those scoldings just made him feel so weak and helpless to the situation.