Letters. || Baji Keisuke

ACT I. | Sano manjiro

Mikey,

how's it going? if you're reading this, i wish this letter finds you well. hehe. i learned that from chifuyu. did i end up laying bloody on the ground? if i did then that sucks. if i didn't, find me immediately, we'll talk comfortably then. I'm writing this for the worst case scenario. old school, i know. but it feels more real like this.

mikey, don't try to blame yourself for what happened. i did this to myself. don't blame kazutora, don't blame anyone. put it on me. i wanted to do it myself. but look, i ended up kicking the bucket. i don't regret anything, i don't regret being in toman. mikey, im sorry. i heard kisaki talking to you back then. i never told anyone. now that i think about it, i wish i told you. i always found kisaki suspicious. i had a gut that he was scheming something, so i couldn't just stand here watching his plan of evil unfold.

i joined valhalla not to betray toman, but to investigate about him. i even ended up beating chifuyu for that.. even so, i will never betray toman. you guys are my treasure. remember the charm with our picture on it? the one you thought you lost? its with me. i hung onto it. but that night, when kisaki was crowned 3rd squad captain, i lost it. regardless of wherever that charm is, i believe that it will find its way back to you. im sure it will. when it does, i want you to look at it fondly. we're all happy there, after all.

in the future, i wish everyone well. look back to me with love and hope in your eyes. visit me with smiles plastered on your faces. the ones you had when we would do the things we like. i don't regret meeting you guys. visit me when you feel like it, okay? i may not be around, but im always here. im never going to leave.

i never got the chance to tell you how much i appreciate you guys. i never got the chance to say im sorry. but im gone now, and i dont want anyone to be sad over that. thank you for being there for me, mikey. it means a lot to me. i don't want you to treat this as a goodbye, because we'll definitely see each other again. but until then, please be happy. lead toman in the way you want to, in the right way. fulfill your promise in making a new era for delinquents. i still have a lot of things to say to you, but i'll save it until we meet again. i wish you all the best, mikey.

sincrely,
baji.

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a good 5 minutes has passed. mikey has not uttered a word. he simply got of his chair and placed the letter down. walking near the window, mikey saw a group of birds pecking the little food they can get from the ground. as he observes, one leaves the group to join another. the other birds just continued pecking the ground. he flinged his eyes at the other bird, it was fighting the other flock of birds. it took the food from the other flock, then bought it back to his former group.

but to his surprise, the bird was wounded. it was losing blood. mikey hurriedly came out of his room in an attempt to heal it. he stopped in his tracks. a thought hit him. the bird reminded him of baji somehow. getting hurt for the sake of friends, trying to do it all by himself? yeah, that's baji alright.

mikey stares into the sky. "baji.." he says, wiping a tear that rolled down his cheeks. he walks back into his room, watching the bird slowly being robbed of its conscious. "i can't do much about it now.." he says. sitting back down on his couch, he smiled at the small piece of paper and placed the charm next to it. baji was right. the charm made its way back to him. leaning into the soft cushions of his couch, mikey sighs. he picked up the letter from baji once more and scanned through the words. he lets out a soft chuckle.

"baji.. it's sincerely."