Chapter Text
This was the end.
From the moment Takemichi passed out on the ground, Chifuyu knew that himself might have received a smaller dose of sedative compared to his friend… That, or Chifuyu had been drugged too many times over the last decade, when people needed him not to stand up against them but he went through it. Must have happened half the times he thought he was sick coincidentally on an important day… in any case, either he must have built up some resistance to drugs, or Kisaki intended to have him aware.
But that instant of seeing his friend fall to the ground comatose was the only moment of speculation he was allowed before himself collapsed on his knees, only held up by two guards that just appeared out of nowhere. He was roughly manhandled to another room, all the while glaring daggers at Kisaki.
From the moment Kisaki had served them those drinks in Baji’s memory, he had known.
For a second, the image of Kazutora flashed in his mind, and he felt regrets. That man who had become his friend and to whom he had promised to return Toman to its true root together… I’m sorry, I’m leaving you alone again. That drink had been a death sentence. Whether he drank it or not, even not knowing where the trick was, wouldn’t change the outcome of this meeting. So he had.
He wished Takemichi didn’t have to pay for his mistake too.
He was harshly thrusted into a chair, tightly tied up to it. The same was done to the blue eyed man next to him. When Chifuyu could finally raise his head again without the vertigo giving him nausea, he saw the blurry figure of Kisaki in front of him, eying him with some sort of disdain. To Kisaki, Chifuyu was an inconvenience, a nuisance that shouldn’t even be alive, and somehow that weak fly had managed to thwart his schemes to the point where the police even got involved, through Tachibana Naoto. And oh, Chifuyu glared back at him neutrally, without an intense feeling of satisfaction inside. He was damn proud of that.
But for now, it was worth playing dumb.
“What’s… the meaning of this, Kisaki!”
The bastard smirked. Snapped his fingers.
And Chifuyu’s eyesight snapped to the side. His internal balance swung in every direction, he felt as though he had been swapped up underwater by a violent sea wave. His focus was all over the place… It was swapped by to the front by a fist closing in his hair, forcing his head forward once more.
“Don’t make me say it, Chifuyu. You know what you did.”
Chifuyu swallowed the blood from where he accidentally bit his cheek, forcing himself to retort.
“I know a lot of things… But I can’t decipher anything from your codified remarks… Ugh!”
Kisaki kneed him in the abdomen. The only reason the chair didn’t fall back was that the guard behind him held on it strong. Chifuyu’s stomach didn’t appreciate the punch mixed with the drugs, but Chifuyu was an ex delinquent, vice-captain even, he could tank punches and remain standing all night. This wasn’t a knee from that coward Kisaki that would break him down.
“Don’t want to admit it, do you? It’s fine, I’ll help you refresh your memory.”
The guy behind him drew on his hair, holding his head up, and Kisaki signaled something too precise for Chifuyu in that moment. The next moment, he felt an agonizing hit of electricity run through his body, shocking the nerves up his neck when something cold pressed against his skin.
Not the nice kind of electricity.
“Argh!”
The shout escaped his lips without his consent.
“Truly,” he couldn’t even distinguish Kisaki with his annoying manners right now, “who else could it be but you?”
Something solid and cold hit his head, then was thrusted in his cheek. A gun.
“I should have gotten rid of you earlier, twelve years ago… at the same time as your dear captain. Was that other captain of yours in the know too?”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”
Chifuyu gasped sharply when he felt an explosion in his ankle.
He felt hot, and cold, underwater and on fire.
Had he just been shot?
Kisaki hit him again. Twice, thrice. But Chifuyu focused on breathing, as much as he could.
“Remember, a decade ago? You looked at me with such hatred in your eyes… I thought you had some sense when you attempted to stop him from going against me… But I was wrong, just like a sheep you always follow his direction don’t you… No, not a sheep. You, are a dirty rat.”
Kisaki had gotten closer, Chifuyu didn’t remember when. He grabbed his head with both hands and pulled him down, then he repeatedly bashed his knee into his face, over and over again. Chifuyu simply took it with gritted teeth, unwilling to give up even a single whimper.
Baji punched meaner than this, asshole.
Those kicks didn’t even begin to make his skin swell. Of course, Chifuyu didn’t bruise as easily as Takemichi, but he still counted it as a win, something to ridicule Kisaki over.
Everything else was being, had been taken away from him during all those years. Chifuyu had nothing else but his pride.
“So? Who’s your contact?”
“What… contact-”
Chifuyu had his silence.
The canon of the gun was whipped at his eyes, Chifuyu closed them just in time, with just enough room not to lose his eyes entirely.
“You’re lucky I don’t have a pole at hand. So?”
Chifuyu spat blood at his feet.
His right eye was met with a fist forward.
If Chifuyu could remain silent while taking Baji’s final beating… he would be defiant in the face of Kisaki’s games. He owed it to himself.
Even if there was no chance he could survive to see the moon.
The gun was tainted red at some point, in the next few hours of endless torment. Kisaki gave him to one of his followers to be cleaned. Until then, he was merciless in his methods. Chifuyu’s ankle was killing him. His face was beaten so much that blood flew to his white collar. All Chifuyu could do, through the constant ocean of pain, was to conserve his composed breathing, and blink through the nausea. It felt like an eternity, before he could see clearer once more. Not perfectly though, because he had gained a concussion in the meantime. Never once did he stop glaring neutrally.
“Who’s your accomplice? You can’t have been alone.”
“Did you lie to your friends too? Nasty.”
“I looked you through, Matsuno Chifuyu. You were always called a loner, I heard.”
“You think you can lie to me and not suffer the consequences?”
“Why are you always so stubborn? Even now, uptight as ever.”
“Who can I threaten, so that you start talking?”
“What did you reveal to him? What other hideouts? Which operations?”
“Who did you rat out?”
“I bet it’s me, heh? You hate me so much, after all.”
“Come on, say something, kitty cat!”
Chifuyu conserved his dignity, if nothing else.
Goddamn, Baji wouldn’t recognize him if he saw him today, with the neutral features Chifuyu had perfectioned over the years to hide his deep resentment. He was never like this before. He was a wild boy, never giving up, always having faith in others, wearing his emotions on his sleeve like a damned stupid mama boy. How he had changed. Where had he gone?
In the middle of everything, he did his best to disconnect himself from reality. He went back to a decade in the past, when it was only Baji, Ryusei, Chuu and Chifuyu. Better, even, just the three of them in that old classroom, even as Chifuyu reviewed Baji’s letters to Kazutora.
His eyelids moved the slightest inch as the thought floated to him again. Kazutora who was there, a fragment of the past, of Baji, when no one was. Then later, something that was only Chifuyu’s, because it wasn’t about Baji. It was about them, and what both of them brought to each other and together to this hellish world. Just a bubble of peace where Chifuyu could be Chifuyu again. Kazutora had given him that.
Where had he gone? He’d gone into that dream. A pet shop? Baji said that… -Yeah… You’d help, right? -Of course. Sounds cute. A pet shop sounds like you, you’re sure it wasn’t your dream instead? Chifuyu had gone into the daydream that one day everything would be alright, that soon he would open that shop, and be surrounded with cute fluffy balls of fur, and the smell of their messes, and kind customers. Perhaps some crying when people went to give pets for stupid reasons.
He went into a world where his only problems would be dealing with his horrible sensitivity, where his friends would tease him for the tears in his eyes. Regular problems, like how much climatization would cost this year compared to the previous one, and if it was worth changing it, whether they should paint that room in purple, or keep it in warm yellow. He imagined whoever, perhaps Draken or Mikey? Hesitating because it’s a long life engagement, to take a dog or a cat back to their home. A world where hearing Baji’s laugher would mean dying of embarrassment because everyone was out to tease him every day, and not cry of phantom pain because that laugher was but ghost sound now.
To Chifuyu, it was his fantasy. The nicest one, the warmest one. But deep inside, he always had known how this would end.
Mikey had disappeared, Draken was going to die, Mitsuya just went off on his own, Baji was already dead, Kazutora was as lonely as him, and there would never be a pet shop, never be again Draken’s motorcycle shop, never again the meetings at the shrine, never again the window open to their two apartments in that small building, never again Peke J either, nor the restaurant in the corner… Never again the sun. Chifuyu had long lost contact with Ryusei, and he couldn’t even decide if that was a regret or one of his best choices in his life. No one deserved that kind of life.
Strange.
Life was only supposed to flash in front of one’s eyes at the very end, right?
Chifuyu was immersed in memories.
This was the end.
For hours on end, he was punched and kicked, and kneed, and hit with tools, jacked with zaps of electricity. It didn’t stop. It was cold. This room was his prison, and no one would come to save him. Just like no one had saved his friends. Is this how it felt? Who… He felt cold, and lonely. But soon this would end. But not in warmth.
Chifuyu had fought to the very end, hadn’t he? He had never given up. He should take comfort in that. He may not have succeeded, but he went through it all. He did it. Time to rest?
Not yet.
Chifuyu took it. And he took it, again and again, and all he ever gave them was the neutral blank glare that was his trademark now.
Eventually, Chifuyu didn’t know how much time had passed, perhaps, the entire night had gone by in this space cut out from everything… Takemichi woke up.
Chifuyu didn’t react to his exclamations, his surprise. To Takemichi, everything might be new, but for Chifuyu, this was the conclusion of the path of a lifetime.
Takemichi was a weird guy, honestly. When they first met, he was a coward, but a brave coward. A weak boy that Chifuyu didn’t mind helping, because he could feel his honesty in every of his actions, of his expressions and words. But that had changed. Then, there was confusion. Takemichi was still Takemichi, but there was a difference. There was… a cold barrier, that separated the other boy from the rest of this world. Takemichi was his friend though, they remained close, and even though Takemichi was corrupted by this Toman just like the rest of its members that didn’t leave, except those that couldn’t leave in time… Takemichi, deep inside, preserved his childhood soul, his very own naivety somewhere deep inside, slowly ebbed away at from all that darkness. Chifuyu had done his best to protect him too. But he failed.
Today too, Takemichi had acted weird. Like he’d just arrived in a new era, like some kind of tourist visiting someone else’s life. It had almost made Chifuyu laugh. What the heck. He acted just like he did twelve years ago, when they first met. It’s… There was something unnatural about it. Something that gave some hope to Chifuyu again.
No hope to survive, no.
Kazutora was out there. And Takemichi was here too, whatever it was that brought him back. Even if Takemichi died today, Chifuyu felt like there was something being born again, something that he needed to nurture, even in those last hours of existence.
Chifuyu stared at Kisaki, firm. Deeply anchored to his own roots, never faltering.
Finally. Kisaki was going to finish this farce. And Chifuyu would face him without another regret.
“Matsuno Chifuyu. You’re quite the irritating man. You’ve been taking jabs at me, never forgetting what happened twelve years ago,” he began his speech.
Kisaki had had enough of not extracting any confession from Chifuyu. He was confirming his own information to both his prisoners, it was his conclusion that, in the end, he didn’t need to prove.
This was a goodbye speech. Chifuyu almost laughed in sarcasm. It was a blast, he thought, that he’d somehow, without trying, grew on Kisaki enough to deserve a farewell lecture. Like he was some kind of rival.
Yeah, no. That was all wrong. It was Kisaki’s last attempt to demean him into nothing. For all the trouble he had given him over the years.
Get your closure, Kisaki. My legacy will live.
“Is this revenge for Baji Keisuke?”
“Huh?”
Now Takemichi was beginning to understand who was the spy. The traitor.
Just like Chifuyu thought earlier. He looked surprised, but not betrayed. Like a lost child, who didn’t know what they were doing here.
Kisaki kicked him again, and once more, again, violently, no one to hold the chair anymore behind him. Chifuyu was too tired to hold back his grunt.
“Stop it, Kisaki!”
“Confess already,” Kisaki ignored the other.
It was his final victory. Kisaki was looking for a win here, but he would lose. Because Chifuyu would not let himself be beaten down. Never.
“You two are the traitors, aren’t you?”
He attacked at the neck, dangerously, with no mercy.
“Damn it!” He was getting worked up. “How dare you report us to the police! It was pointless anyhow.”
But he at least had to try one more time. For Takemichi.
And maybe, also, just for the sake of yelling one more time, just like old times.
“You’re wrong, the police jumped the gun! All I wanted was for you to be driven out of Toman!”
To be honest again, shouting like they would in those fights.
“How long have you been chasing Baji’s delusions? What a small minded bastard you are.”
Go to hell.
“The current Toman is rotten. All I wanted was to change that.”
He wasn’t speaking to Kisaki. Kisaki wasn’t important. The key here was his friend, who didn’t deserve to die like this, least of all without understanding.
But he would understand. In the depths, the heart was the same. And Chifuyu swore he would nurture it one final time.
It was time.
“Kisaki. It’s just as I said.”
He stared up, determined. This was the end.
He would face it.
Hope my eyes will haunt your sleep.
“I’m the traitor. Takemicchi isn’t involved at all!”
He couldn’t see the slow realization in Takemichi’s eyes, caught in the stare-down that would cost him his life.
Kisaki called for the gun again.
“I’ll be the one to decide, whether or not he was involved.”
Chifuyu knew hopelessness.
“Hey, Hanagaki. This whole time, you’ve had a look on your face that says “this has nothing to do with me”,…”
“Huh?”
“Haven’t you?”
Kisaki shot again.
“Argh! My leg!!”
“I told you that Takemicchi had nothing to do with it! He doesn’t know anything!”
“Jeez,” the man had the gall to complain, from very far away, “you two are so noisy. Aren’t we all friends here?” He ignored the yells of agony and finally…
“…You freak.”
That gun went to Chifuyu’s forehead. He felt its bite, cold and solid in the nightmare of his life.
“Well then. Any last word?”
Takemichi was in pain. If Kazutora or the police couldn’t get to them in time, this would be a complete game over for him. There were other people in the room. Their final moments could not even be private. Chifuyu had known that. He had accepted it a long time ago.
But Chifuyu wasn’t looking. He was staring ahead. His goal, his idea, his everything… just up ahead. Unreachable, just there… Waiting for him. Even as Takemichi screamed in pain. To Chifuyu, his requiem was happening right here and then, in this room, hidden from all those gazes, all the ears.
Chifuyu would die, in a few seconds. He was resigned. But also resolute.
Chifuyu lived a warrior.
And he would die a warrior.
“Takemicchi.”
He couldn’t even hear himself.
But Takemichi had to listen. He had to. Thes last mark of himself in that hellish world. All he could give. All of him. It had to go somewhere!
Because this was reality.
And oh. Truly. It felt like a revelation that he had already had a thousand times before.
This was real. It felt like a nightmare… because life was a nightmare that would never end. It was a fight, that Chifuyu had taken to the bitter end.
Chifuyu had lost.
“Takemicchi!”
Now. Now. It was time, finally, now. The last notes of his symphony.
“Listen to me… Takemicchi. These are my last words.”
Only his breath sounded. It was all he could hear.
Time to grieve the lost.
“Lots of stuff happened these last twelve years. Mikey-kun disappeared. Draken was given the death penalty… Before we even noticed, our hands were stained in the filthy things we were doing. We’ve made so many mistakes.”
So many. So many regrets.
But in between these regrets, were a thousand and one joys.
Chifuyu knew hopelessness. But hopelessness wasn't what he wanted to leave behind. Even if it was just a delusion...
Time to hope for the future.
“But the heart should remain the same!”
That was it. Chifuyu had done it.
He had made it to the end.
…
He had nothing left to add. To this world. Except perhaps a few words.
The legacy he wore, and today held up for the next one to brandish.
Chifuyu to the world, now. Just a boy. And the gone wishes of the boy. There was nothing else.
It felt so precious.
“…Take care of Baji’s wish…”
One last time.
One last time he held himself upright and stared at the living before he joined the dead.
“Take care of Toman, partner.”
Everything, I give it to you.
This was the end.
Chifuyu won.
The next moment didn’t exist.
Because…
There was no after the end. Or at least there should not be.
Chifuyu woke up.