Rearranging Fate | Tokyo Revengers x OC

129 • Unwilling

"Reina must not fight."

Ran honestly didn't understand why Izana was saying that. Sure, Toman didn't seem like a threat to Ryujin. But Mikey was there. His presence alone was a threat to them. Plus, it wasn't like the top members of Toman were to be laughed at if their performance at the Kanto Carnage was anything to go by.

Simply put, they mustn't underestimate Toman.

Maybe it was because Ran shared no blood relationship with Reina. Thus, he couldn't care for her as much as Izana did. But he was pretty sure Reina loathed being babied and treated so delicately as if she was made of porcelain. She grew up clawing the dirt and gritting her teeth through every unfairness in her life. She grew up as a guardian guarding her family with everything she could sacrifice. She grew up with violence, blood, and pain. There was no way she wanted to be treated like a damsel in distress.

Especially not when she had willingly locked herself away in an ivory tower because she was too dangerous.

He got his answer sooner than he thought he would. It was during one of those extremely rare nights when he couldn't sleep. Insomnia wasn't something common with him since he coped with stress using sleep, but sometimes things just happened. Having his little brother, whom Ran was convinced never slept, watching some stupid recorded music concert with the volume above zero wasn't helping. That was why he was out on the balcony, taking a drag of his cigarette with something sweet and strong that could hopefully knock him out. After all, it was as someone who probably didn't exist once said, alcohol was the best sleeping drug.

Then, he saw her while he was almost dozing off, and he accidentally dropped his glass of alcohol because what the fuck was she doing here in Roppongi?

Ignoring Rindou's squawk of surprise when he rushed out of the house, Ran sucked in a sharp breath at the state Reina was in. Her head was tilted upwards, staring at the streetlight above her, and her mouth was slightly open. But that wasn't what Ran was looking at.

Blood.

There was so much blood on her that Ran wasn't even sure whether she was injured, dying, or she had just killed someone. It would've been better if there was only dried blood on her skin and clothes, but there was still blood dripping from her fingers.

"Holy shit."

Behind him, Rindou also sucked in a sharp breath. Ran didn't know whether they were being loud, but Reina's head lolled—no, that was an understatement. Her head dropped, and she rolled her neck as if she were an antique doll until she was facing them. Ran wasn't ashamed to admit he took an involuntary step back when she began walking forward.

But when she passed them as if she couldn't see them, Ran realized something was wrong, so he tried calling out, "Reina?"

She stopped, turning around stiffly as she narrowed her eyes into a glare. Her movements were too robotic—no, it was too out of it, too dazed. It was as if she was drunk without actually being drunk, and Ran couldn't understand what was wrong.

"Ryou..."

Ran paled, taking another involuntary step back. He knew who Hiroshi Ryou was, as well as many of the things he had done to Reina. So, why was she calling him that accursed name nobody but her dared to mention?

"Na...Nana?" Rindou suddenly stammered out, using the nickname nobody but the Hokusei siblings had the right to call her by. But Reina didn't glower or show any visible reaction to the nickname. Taking a deep breath, he cleared his throat and repeated, more firmly this time, "Nana, what're you doing here?"

Whatever Rindou was planning, it was working because Reina let her shoulders drop, her expression relaxing ever so slightly despite the furrow between her eyebrows. Ran and Rindou shared a glance, looking equally as freaked out at whatever the fuck was happening.