Rearranging Fate | Tokyo Revengers x OC

93 • Dear Brother

"Do you like it that much?" Izana finally asked when Reina kept staring at the bracelet, almost dazed and in wonder. Sitting at the opposite end of the backseat, he leaned against the window. "It's just a bracelet."

"Maybe it is." The maneki neko's smiling face seemed to smile back at her. "They say the black maneki neko wards off evil. I wonder if they did it on purpose." Letting her hand fall onto her lap, she leaned against the seat. "That's sweet of them."

Truthfully, Izana didn't know how to act. He had spent a good period of his recovery mulling over how to act around Reina, someone who apparently shared his blood. But he still hadn't reached a conclusion. Reina had seen almost every side of him; as a stranger, as the leader of Tenjiku, as the worst person to exist. There was almost no side of him Reina hadn't seen.

Ah, there was. The depressed him after Shinichiro's death. She hasn't seen that yet. She would also likely never see that side of him. He would make damn sure of it.

"How can you like something so shabby?" A click was heard and next thing she knew, a red-black rectangle with a white circle in the middle was dangling in front of her eyes, scratches littering the little rectangle, evidence of usage and filled with untold stories. "At least have some taste."

Blinking at the hanafuda earring, Reina stared at it before lifting her gaze to Izana, then lowering her eyes back to the earring. There were a lot of things she could say. For starters, how Izana's hanafuda earrings were his identity in the delinquent world. His symbol, of sorts. Or maybe how she wanted to know why he was offering his earring to her. But all Reina asked was, "You fixed it?"

She swore she broke it.

"You broke it," Izana confirmed, tucking her hair behind her ear, glad her ears had already been pierced even if she refused to wear jewelry. "Your assistant had it fixed," he told her, clipping the earring to her right ear. It was a good thing Reina already had her ears pierced. Otherwise, it would've been awkward. "But it's your trophy. Your sign of victory against me." Brushing his finger over the earring, Izana tilted his head to the side. "I suppose it suits you."

"Suits me." Toying with the earring, Reina let it dangle, finding the one-sided weight uncomfortable, but not entirely unbearable. However, that wasn't what made her tilt her head and smile at him with half-knitted eyebrows. "I'll thank you for the gift, but I don't like the idea of someone 'marking' or 'claiming' me." Her hand moved to clip the earring off. "So, if that's your intention, I—"

"It's not." Holding her wrist, Izana stopped her from removing the earring. "I told you, it's your trophy. Your victoire."

Blinking, Reina fiddled with the earring. "My victoire, huh?" Sighing, she leaned her head against the window, watching as buildings and vehicles blurred by. "Harui...well, I don't really care if the whole world knows my history." She let out a short and bitter chuckle, pushing her hair back as she sighed. "He did, after all, say he'd use any means necessary to keep up an act."

Even if she or Mirai were to die, Harui would still keep up the act until the curtains closed. That was his way of survival in that house that he, and only he, could do.

"Thank you. I'll keep it." The dangling earring would be a hassle in a fight, but she was strong enough to not be disadvantaged. "Anyway, I wonder what the Haitanis are doing." Closing her eyes, she sighed. "I hope they're being nice to Mirai."

While it might be an exaggeration to hope for the Haitani brothers, of all people, to be nice, she hoped they would be just a bit soft with Mirai. She was, after all, their blood-related sister. And they did try to 'hang out' with her, if Reina wasn't reading them wrong.

Feeling a knuckle pressing between her knitted eyebrows, Reina opened her eyes, staring into bright orchid purple. "Is this what they call 'sisterly instincts'?" Izana asked in a mutter, smoothing out the creases between her eyes. "Is this what Shinichiro felt with Mikey and Emma? Is this what I'm supposed to feel?" He pressed his palm against his chest.