[AllTakemichi] Control

Chapter 68

"Idiot."

"Oh, and you're any different? Why the hell are you crying too?"

"I'm gonna smash your mouth in sooner or later."

"Yeah, I know."

"I can punch you right now, you know."

"I know Takemichi time-leaps here from twelve years in the future."

It takes Chifuyu thirty seconds to load those words into his brain, another thirty to understand them, and thirty more to react. His face shifts from blank confusion to wide-eyed shock, like he's about to scream.

"Your reaction's way too dramatic," Kazutora says. He's in a bad mood, so let him be blunt.

"The hell?! How do you know?!"

"Damn it, he's been acting weird as hell. He knows everything before it happens. Only an idiot wouldn't get suspicious. The others probably just don't want to ask. And you and Baji are real slick too - knew the whole time and kept quiet. I had to dig like crazy to figure it out."

And now he gets the consequences for it.

He understands Takemichi has his reasons for not saying anything. Great. Just great. Now he's heartbroken too. A grown man crying twice in one day before twenty-four hours even pass - and both times, someone cries with him.

"You can say whatever you want, but you'll never understand everything he's gone through. Just think about it - time-leaping until your mind's so wrecked you split into multiple personalities. He doesn't even tell me everything. Bet I'm real lucky, huh? So lucky I could die from the misery."

Already irritated, Chifuyu lets it all spill out at once.

He carefully avoids mentioning the things Takemichi personally told him. He shouldn't say them. The hatred between Mikey and Kazutora has only been quiet for a short while. If Kazutora learns the reason Takemichi returns to the past this time, who knows whether he'll stay calm.

Honestly, probably not.

Even Chifuyu felt hatred toward Mikey back then - so Kazutora would be even worse.

Chifuyu leans against the bedframe and stares at the ceiling, though his eyes seem fixed on somewhere far beyond it.

In that future, after Takemichi dies... does he have any life left in him at all?

Or is he nothing more than an empty shell?

Chifuyu can't imagine a life where Takemichi disappears from it.

We're partners.

What meaning would life even have if the person you love most is gone?

Kazutora drops back beside him in the same position.

"So if things go as planned, once he beats Kisaki, he goes back to the future, right?"

"Yeah. He goes back to marry Hinata. That's what he wants."

After that, the two of them fall silent for a while. Two fools suffering the same heartbreak sigh at the exact same time.

"I want him to go back soon. He looks completely worn out right now," Chifuyu says.

"Yeah."

"And one more thing. Since you know now, help me out."

"Hel what?"

"Stop whatever's going on between Mikey and Takemichi."

That makes Kazutora sit bolt upright and frown at him.