LOVE, LOVE UMBRELLA [TOKYO REVENGERS]

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March 16, 2018

 
 
 
You're cordially invited...

    
A few months ago, Hakuhi's parents received a wedding from someone named Hayashida Haruki and Morita Yumi. Of course, they wouldn't know who these people are, but their eldest daughter, Hakuhi, did. It was a wedding invitation to Pah Chin's wedding.

    
Today is his wedding day.

    
Despite the years, he still remembered her and wanted her on his special, happy day. But Hakuhi couldn't find it in herself to attend it. Her mother said that it would be rude not to but her grandma said that politely rejecting the invitation and still sending a wedding gift wouldn't be considered rude. So, Hakuhi did what her grandmother told her to do. She declined the invitation, congratulated the couple on their marriage, and sent a wedding gift to Pah Chin and his wife.

     
It wasn't just Pah Chin who tried to keep her in their life, despite her crimes. Every friend she made in Toman wanted her in their life. Draken, out of respect to his promise to Mikey. Chifuyu, out of respect to Baji. And Mitsuya and Hakkai and Peh Yan and even the twins. Until now, they still think she's their responsibility. Either out of their promise to Baji or their promise to Mikey. But Hakuhi thinks it's mostly out of respect for Baji's memories.

    
Because before she became Mikey's, she was Baji's girl.

    
The memories of the past came flooding back in her mind. She was disoriented for days, suffering headaches  and dizziness and nausea. At first, she thought it had something to do with coming back from the past.

    
She didn't think it would be something else.

     
"Mikey's?"

     
Today, instead of being in Pah Chin's wedding, Hakuhi was in the hospital, having just survived 27-hour of labor and nearly dying.

     
Hakuhi came back to the future, hoping that something had been fixed. Hoping that this future would be better compared to the one where she had been Hanma's plaything. But instead, she came back to a future where she had become so much worst.

      
Pregnant. Two months away from her due.

     
And the father is...

     
"Is she Mikey's...?"

     
Hanagaki Takemichi arrived at the hospital. He had just been told by Draken who had been told by Hakuhi's younger brother, Soma, that Hakuhi had just went into labor. Labor! It must have been shocking for Takemichi. To find that the teenage girl he was just hanging out with literally minutes before was pregnant and had just given birth to a daughter of a criminal.

     
"... Yes," Hakuhi replied.

     
She wanted to abort the child. But then, why? How? Her parents had welcomed her back with open arms when she suddenly showed up to their doorsteps, looking like she's about to burst. And then, she'll go behind their back and kill their first grandchild? They would hate her. If they don't, then they would already have hated her. Besides, she couldn't find it in herself to kill the little baby.

     
It wasn't her fault. Wasn't her fault that her parents are both criminals.

     
Takemichi sighs, sitting down on the chair next to her bed, trembling blue eyes watching the squirming little thing.

     
"Does Mikey know? Who else knows?"

     
Hakuhi tried to search the memory of the "other Hakuhi". He does, she wanted to tell her friend. That's why he kicked me out. The other Hakuhi found work, saving up as much money as she can before she starts showing and before she starts walking like a penguin. Until she suddenly bumped into Inupi. Inupi found out, he told Draken, and Draken confronted me. Then, Chifuyu found out. But her other self was still able to think clearly and told them to tell no one else and she moved back to her parents' house in Kobe. Then, Draken said that he'll support her throughout her pregnancy. He accompanied her on her check ups. If not him, then Inupi. If not Inupi, then Chifuyu. Draken paid, Inupi paid, Chifuyu paid.

     
She fucking paid. For the recklessness of the other Hakuhi and Mikey.

     
"Tell Draken that the bill is settled. There's no need for him to pay such a huge—" she tried to move, making herself comfortable in the stiff hospital bed because the birthing nearly killed her that the doctors decided to get her C-section instead. Because her body and her mind wasn't prepared for the pregnancy. Because it wasn't her that wanted this pregnancy. "—amount of money. And tell him, and Inupi, and Chifuyu that I'll pay them for the money I owe them."

     
Takemichi sighs. "I'll tell them but... I don't think they would accept the money," he says. They might say that she needed the money now more than they do. They might say that she doesn't owe them anything. They might say that it's Mikey's fault, his responsibility. "How are you?"

     
"I'm okay..."

     
Takemichi could say that she was lying. Ever since he entered the room, Hakuhi had never looked at her baby once. She had always had difficulty with children. Even with her brother, Soma. She had always said that she couldn't imagine herself being a mother.

     
"Did Mikey...?" Takemichi was hesitant to ask. He takes a deep breath before continuing. "Mikey didn't force you, did he?"

     
Hakuhi shakes her head. "No," she says. Mikey would never force her. She saw it — what they did. It was a night of loneliness and passion. It was consensual. No one forced anyone. "Hakuhi wanted it."

     
When Mikey found out that Hakuhi was with a child, he kicked her out of Bonten immediately. It's better this way, he said. A pregnant Bonten executive? No way. She'll just get in their way, so she left, refusing the money that Mikey said that he'll send to her anonymously every month.

     
"So, he's in Bonten?"

     
Hakuhi looks at him. She knows what he's planning. "Whatever you're thinking to do, don't," she says and Takemichi looked shameful. "You're getting married to Hina. Everyone else is alive —"

     
"Baji-kun isn't."

     
"— That is all that matters! Everyone else is starting a life and is trying to be happy. And I am too! So, please, I'm begging you, don't mess this up for them. For me! Mikey is not the same Mikey you left behind in the past. He's different, he's dangerous, and he will kill you."

     
"What makes you say that?" Takemichi asks.

      
"Because he fucking bombed the fountain!" She yelled, startling the baby awake but none of them cared. "He doesn't want to be saved, Hanagaki! He doesn't talk to me anymore and he doesn't listen! Even Draken couldn't get through him, so what makes you think that you can?!"

     
Takemichi bites his lips. The thought had crossed his mind — to look for Mikey and have a talk with him. Because before returning here, he had made sure that he set everything right. Everyone was happy when he left. Mikey was fucking happy! And now? He's the leader of the worst criminal gang in Japan?! That's just ridiculous! Something must have happened when he left! Did another new Kisaki popped out of nowhere and made Mikey go dark again?

     
"I thought... I thought I had fixed it," he says, turning to face his friend. "What happened?"

     
Hakuhi had returned to the past a bit after Takemichi. She must have seen Mikey before she returned to the future. Mikey would always go to her. He must have talked to her before then. She must have told him something that made him go dark again. Anything can set off Mikey!

    
"I don't... I can't remember."

     
At the Musashi Shrine. Mikey had fought all of his friends. Hakkai had nearly died. Mikey wasn't Mikey. He wasn't himself! He wasn't the boy who cried to her last night.

     
"Just give it up, Takemichi."

     
Hakuhi reached for her daughter for the first time, grimacing when she instantly saw Mikey on her daughter's face.

     
"Someday, you will have to forget Mikey."

     
All of them will forget Mikey eventually.

     
Except for her.

     
Because no matter where she'll go, no matter how long, in the past, present, and future, Mikey will haunt her like Baji once did.