❝𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐌❞ ✘ kokonoi hajime

prologue

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┐
Oh who is she?
└── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┘

"woah, i didn't expect your room to be this clean."

takemichi hanagaki stood by the doorway with his mouth agape, eyes twinkling in surprise as inui seishu chuckled, rubbing his neck as he awkwardly stood inside his room.

"well, come in?" the blond didn't have to be told twice before entering the room, immediately heading towards the small beanbag chair stationed near a pile of comic books whilst his friend sat himself on the bed.

he didn't even have the time to look through one comic before he was interrupted by the scarred male.

"we can read comics later, first we have to talk about toman's current situation." seishu's tone was serious, making takemichi sit straight as he nodded.

"you're right- we need to go around and ask for more members to join toman... with our numbers, it's impossible for us to go against mikey."

"most of the black dragons joined kanto manji gang the moment word spread about their rise to the ranks. most of brahman followed wakasa's footsteps and joined in as well."

their current situation was nowhere near as good as they hoped it would. sure, they got the former toman leaders to join, but still- fifty against five hundred is just asking for instant death.

and with the fact that most people are joining sides with mikey because of his strength and the current rank of his gang, it's hard to find someone who's willing to go against him.

no matter how much he jumps back in time to give everyone a life they all deserve, he still couldn't save mikey- someone who needed saving more than anyone else.

and this time, it's hard.

no amount of calculation and changing past events can create a future where mikey is actually happy- and it doesn't help that the one who sent him back was none other than mikey himself.

so right now, things are looking as hopeless as ever.

"i would ask others to join but, i think they'll choose to live instead rather than risk dying fighting with fifty against triple the numbers." seishu commented, sighing as he fell back on his bed.

takemichi nodded, standing up from his spot as he walked around the room to try and come up with some sort of solution to their problem.

as he was pacing, he accidentally hit his friends' cabinet, causing a box to fall from the top and landing on the ground with a loud thud. this got seishu's attention, looking at the blond who was apologizing profusely as he tried to arrange the things back.

his actions halted when he came across a picture that seems to be a few years old of his friend and, wouldn't you know it, kokonoi hajime.

he was aware of their friendship, but didn't know the extent of their past as he lifted the photo up to the male with a small smile.

it was a photo of a younger seishu and kokonoi, both of them were trying to hold a serious look on their faces as a blonde girl who looked to be the same age as them smiled at the camera.

there was something about her that he couldn't point what it was- but there was something... unnatural about the way she acted during the photo. her purple irises held no shine in them, and her smile looked strained. although she looked pretty, it didn't help the fact that takemichi felt that the smile she wore wasn't hers.