(July 06, 2005)

"Wait-!"

"HIYAHH!"

Takemitchi suddenly receives a hard punch to his face and he falls down onto the ground. He could hear cheering and booing at the same time, and there were people who were complaining about "losing money". He sees Masaru at one point, but he didn't like what he was seeing and was looking away from him.

Wait... did he actually manage to travel back in time...?

"You okay, Takemitchi?" His vision clears up again and he sees Akkun, Yamagishi, Makoto, and Takuya looking down on him. At the question, Takemitchi just nods. "So... I'm really here." He muttered quietly.

Makoto sighs. "Of course you are," He says and he pulls him up, helping him stand. "We have no right to refuse."

"HEY HEY!" He hears one of the members scream at him. Takemitchi recognizes the person as Manba. "Don't help the fucking idiot! I bet all my money and he just lets himself get punched!"

Takemitchi was about to retaliate but he already receives yet another punch to the face, the last thing that he heard were the concerned yelling of his friends before blacking out completely.

"Hey, Hanagaki's awake."

"Masaru, you said he was a fighter... he didn't really budge much when we first saw him..."

Takemitchi's consciousness starts to come back to him, his vision clearing. 'Did I... pass out?' He thinks to himself. He could smell the smoke coming from a cigarette and a condescending voice starts to ring in his ears. "Why did you get knocked out from one punch, dumbass!?" The voice asks, a bit frustrated. Takemitchi recognizes the guy as Akaishi. If anything, he remembers that Akaishi was... in Masaru's own words before all of this, was a "piece of shit".

Masaru was just in the corner, still looking away. "Everyone bet money on you! Don't show us that kind of lame-ass match again, you dumb fuck!" Akaishi added, throwing his cigarette to the ground.

'A match?'

"Right, Kiyomasa?"

Kiyomasa Masataka. The real leader of Shibuya Middle. He had a cigarette in his mouth as he was counting the wads of yen that were probably from the match that he was forced to participate in earlier. "Even though I gathered up all those spectators, I had to end the underground fight," Kiyomasa says as he puts the wads of yen in his back pocket.

Takemitchi remembered Kiyomasa and the rest of his members were a bookie kind, meaning that they would organize underground fights and people can place their bets on who would win. Now that he thought about it, he did remember that Toman did secret (or in anyone's case, illegal) underground fights back in 2015. Maybe learning about Toman wasn't as senseless and useless after all...

"For now, teach that piece of shit a lesson." Kiyomasa ordered, and Akaishi was already stepping on his back. Takemitchi had to shield his face just in case he could get hit there, despite this being an unlikely scenario.

'Why did I even forget this...?' Takemitchi tries to blink away the tears that were starting to fall from his eyes. The realization that he was Toman's slave in this timeline—it hit harder than anything else.

It was no wonder he ran away after graduation.

Takemitchi found himself waking up again, only this time his shoulders were in a position where someone was trying to help him stand. "Man, your cousin's fucking lame." He hears Akaishi mock, and the other members just laugh.

"...shut it," Masaru muttered quietly, hoping no one heard him.

Wait... Masaru was helping him?

"I'm taking you home," Masaru says to him, and there was genuine worry this time. "It's the least I could do for putting you in this situation."

Even if this was said in good faith, Takemitchi didn't believe it. He can remember those times where he would call Masaru for help. But did he ever help at all? No. All that Masaru did was leave his phone on voicemail, never replied to any messages, and just straight up left the country. "...let go of me."

"Takemitchi—"

"I don't need your fucking help!" Takemitchi manages to get out of Masaru's grip before he stumbles back down to the ground, and the rest notice. "Man, you're persistent." Akaishi mocks, smirking. "You're still awake? Pretty sure I beat the will out of you."

"Please, don't make this worse than it already is." Masaru says to him but Takemitchi was already done with his cousin's bullshit. "You're the one who made in worse in the first place!" Takemitchi retaliated, facing his cousin with a glare. "Once I get a hold of Sano or Kisaki, I'm going to—!"

His sentence was cut off when Takemitchi had felt something hard; A wooden bat. And Kiyomasa was the one who was holding it. "Oi, Kiyomasa! He already had enough—!" Masaru was swiftly hit with the bat as well, causing him to fall down. Takemitchi was still feeling the pain from Akaishi's hits, now he was getting more bruises because of Kiyomasa's abuse.

"H-Hey, shouldn't we stop him now?"

"Kiyomasa, stop it! He'll die!"

It was already eight in the evening when Takemitchi felt something kicking at his stomach. What was the last thing he remembered before passing out again? He couldn't tell. When he did decide to open his eyes to see who it was, Takemitchi almost lost his balance at seeing Kiyomasa's face so close to his. "The next time Sano-kun's name comes out of your mouth..." He grabs a fistful of Takemitchi's hair. "I'll fucking kill you."

As soon as Kiyomasa and his gang left, Takemitchi stumbles upon standing up and he was already running away. Just like he always had years ago. He didn't care if he was being cowardly or being stupid.

He just had to run away.

"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Takemitchi shouts, and he didn't care if people were starting to stare at him. "IT'S IMPOSSIBLE, NAOTO!!!"

Just as Takemitchi was about to make a left turn, he bumped into something—or rather, he bumped into someone. "Sorry..." Takemitchi's instinct to apologize never really left him. Or maybe he just never stopped apologizing because that was already implemented in his daily life. 

"...the hell? You look like you've been through some shit." The voice was gruff, as if annoyed. Takemitchi manages to get a good look at the person he bumped into. White hair (or silver, he couldn't tell), and a muscular physique, and for some reason, was wearing orange-colored fingerless gloves. "And why are you the one apologizing? I was on my phone, I wasn't looking where I was going," the man added. Takemitchi could see that his left hand had a bag of groceries and his right hand had a phone. "Oh. Sor—My bad," Takemitchi shook is head, sighing. "I was in... a bit of a hurry," 

The man just shrugged. "Just try not to get into trouble, alright? I already dealt with Imaushi for getting into another fight without backup." He added with a scoff before heading off in the other direction. Takemitchi sees something fall out of his grocery bag, and he picks it up.

Muguruma Training Gym
"Instead of giving up, turn your struggles into strength"
>Open 24hrs
>Specializes in boxing
>Partnering with B & W Gym

"Hey, you forgot your—!" Takemitchi calls out, but the man was already out of sight. He decides to hide it in his pocket, and drags his body along the road.

He just needed to get to Naoto and go back to the future. 

Besides, in Takemitchi's mindset; A useless guy would still be useless either way, no matter what you do.