Rearranging Fate | Tokyo Revengers x OC

97 • Hiroshi Ryou

"I'm fourteen years from the future!"

The first time she saw Ryou, he was kneeling with his forehead pressed against Shiki's shoe, guns from multiple men aimed at his head. Her grip around Harui's shirt tightened when Shiki threw his head back and cackled.

"Words without action are worthless," the same words he screamed at her time and time again, so often that she remembered the script for the next part. "Give me proof for your claims. You're fourteen years from the future, ya say? It ain't even two thousand yet, much less two thousand twelve, so tell me what ya know about the ninety-nine Hokkyokusei."

"Victoire Marseille, who is in your prison right now." Just like that, everyone stilled; because news about the infamous Victoire Marseille's capture wasn't supposed to leak out yet. "You should kill her as soon as you can. In December, she'll escape, and she'll ruin your drug trafficking business in the process."

Everything after that was tuned out. Reina didn't need a mirror to know that her eyes were shining with hope, desperate hope that she might escape from Shiki without losing her life. Whatever deal Shiki was making with that time traveler was none of her business.

She had a deal to make.

ﾟ❁.｡.:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*卍*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*.:｡❁

"Where I came from, you didn't exist."

Squeaking, the pebbles clattered to the floor. Glancing down, his eyes caught sight of the kanjis written on the pebbles. The names of shogi pieces were scribbled on the pebbles, he realized. This little girl was ruining Hokkyokusei from the inside with shabby handmade shogi pieces.

"Were you behind Victoire Marseille's escape three months ago too?"

Sweat trickled down her cheeks, dripping off her chin and staining the table. She didn't even dare to look back, burning a hole through the table with her glare. Her head spun with reasons, all of them at the tip of her tongue, pushed out of her throat by panic but held back by her rationality.

However, everything died down when she felt a hand ruffling her hair, softly and dare she say, with pride. Snapping her head upwards, she saw Ryou smiling down at her so softly that she felt heat involuntarily crawling to her face.

"Keep up the good work, Reina," he said and for some reason, Reina felt her heart skip a bit. "If you ever need help taking Shiki down, I'll help you."

"Huh?" Suspicion gnawed the butterflies in her stomach. "Why? Aren't you loyal to Father?"

"I'm not." Kneeling, Ryou placed a hand on her shoulder, smiling warmly at her. "I did it to protect my brother." Her eyes went wide, and Reina just knew they were shining with a sense of camaraderie. "The only way Shiki will spare Touma and me is by being useful to him. But if I help you defeat Shiki, you won't do that to us, right?"

Like the dumb girl she was, she shook her head.

"Good girl." Now it was the butterflies that chewed on her suspicion, filling her with fluttering giddiness that had her grinning and bouncing on the balls of her feet, eager to hear more praises. "I'll always be on your side, Reina. You can rely on me."

Oh, if only someone told her she was simply starved of affection.

ﾟ❁.｡.:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*卍*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*.:｡❁

"In the future before I leaped, you three never existed," he told her one day when her curiosity got the better of her. "But after meeting Shiki, I returned to the future and for some reason, you suddenly exist. I'm still wondering what kind of butterfly effect I caused for that to happen."