Trigger Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence (idk how to say this here but Takemitchi's losing a good amount of blood and his face is all bruised... and also Kiyomasa's way of beating the crap out of him, which is descriptive)

School had already ended by the time a new round in the ring was being announced. Takemitchi saw someone getting dragged over to the side and that's when he knew that Takuya's opponent wasn't going to show him mercy. On the other side, he sees Kiyomasa sitting on the top with the rest of his goons.

Masaru walks up to them holding at least three wads of yen, and they all holler at the large amount. Kiyomasa even sniffed it, giving a sadistic smile. Masaru was keeping a neutral face but even he felt disgusted.

"Greetings to all gentlemen who have gathered here!" Akaishi announces proudly as he was standing at the center. "The competitors today are just as it said in the email!"

The crowd cheers at this while Takemitchi and the rest of Mizo Mid look at them in disgust. The opponents from earlier that got defeated, were only looking at the rest in horror. "From Mizo Middle, Yamamoto Takuya!" Akaishi points to the left side, and standing there was Takuya whose fists were clenched. "And from Shibuya, Kojima Kishino!" Akaishi points to the right side, and Kishino was only hollering with the rest of the crowd.

"Any last words before I beat ya!?" Kishino shouts to Takuya.

Takuya takes a deep breath, readying his fighting stance. "I won't lose to you...!"

"The odds are four to five, in Kojima's favor!

"I wish I could fight in his place," Yamagishi says worriedly. "But if we defy Kiyomasa, we're as good as dead!"

Akkun was still disgusted, but there was evident rage in his voice. "I have to do this," He says suddenly and he begins to walk away.

It was then Takemitchi saw something bright in Akkun's pocket: A pocket knife. Takemitchi widens his eyes, and he quickly follows him. Just before Akkun could climb the steps, Takemitchi already grabs him by the waist to stop him. "Akkun, don't do it...!" He whisper-shouted as he manages to drag Akkun down, grabbing the pocket knife from him. "Takemitchi..." Akkun looked at him, shocked. "How did you even...?"

"Ah, that's Akkun!" Takemitchi points at one of the figures on Naoto's laptop. 

"You mean Sendo Atsushi?" Naoto looks at him with a raised brow. "Did you know him?"

"Yeah! We--!" Takemitchi was about to say but he cuts himself off. He wanted to say that they've been friends, but after he moved away he... didn't really talk to him. Or to anyone else from Mizo Mid for that matter. "We knew each other in middle school." He manages to say to him. "But how come he's...?"

Naoto closes the file before going to one of his documents. "He became a thug after killing Kiyomasa. So far, he's just sitting in prison until the update of his trial comes."

"What trial?"

"For being the accomplice to Matsuno Chifuyu's murder."

"Go back," Takemitchi tells him. "I'll... I'll take care of this."

"Begin."

At Kiyomasa's command, Kishino already starts to charge but Takuya swiftly dodges. Takuya may be a weak fighter, but he has a better reaction time than anyone else. Which was a relief for his sake. Kishino was getting visibly annoyed with Takuya evading each punch and kick. Takuya was already panicking at seeing Kishino's face. And there was one thing he had to maybe escape the situation at hand.

Once he saw an opening, he ran.

The crowd hollered and shouted in anger as Takuya tried to run, but Kishino had already grabbed him by the uniform collar, and he had pulled Takuya so harshly that he hit the ground. "You think that you can escape?" He pulls Takuya's hair, hard. "You think you can escape this!?"

"STOP THIS MATCH!!!"

The crowd stops whatever they doing. Kishino had let go of Takuya and the rest were just staring at Takemitchi. Some where in shock, but most of them were... well, angry. Especially Kiyomasa. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" He asks, his tone sounding much more menacing.

Takemitchi makes his way through the crowd now, shoving the rest out of the way until he reaches the center where Takuya and Kishino were. "These matches are getting boring, aren't they?" He asks the crowd. "Don'tcha wanna watch something more interesting?" He faces Kiyomasa now. "How about a match of King versus Slave!?" 

The crowd's anger heightened. Others were whispering amongst each other in disbelief. Amused, Kiyomasa stood up and made his way to the crowd with a smirk. "You talkin' to me?"

"I don't see any other lame kings around here!" Takemitchi shouts back, earning a few shocked gasps from the rest of the crowd. The others were just glaring daggers at him.

Masaru and Takuya were staring at him in disbelief. Masaru could feel his hands trembling at this. He had seen Kiyomasa kill someone with his bat and hands more times than he could count, and he didn't want his cousin to be next in line. "Don't do it, Takemitchi!" Masaru runs down, shoving people out of the way to get to the center. "Back off before you die!"

"If I don't change, then nothing else can't change either!" Takemitchi yelled back, not facing his cousin. 

Kiyomasa was now standing in front of Takemitchi. With his cigarette still in his mouth, he begins his stance. "Don't regret this later." He says bluntly before immediately punching Takemitchi directly in his stomach, making him fall onto the ground and the crowd cheers in an instant. Masaru managed to get through the crowd where Takuya was, and the both of them were staring in complete horror. Kiyomasa had grabbed him by the head and he uses his knee to hit his face before punching him again. He even had to move back and run forward just to kick his jaw, and Takemitchi was lying down on the ground with blood coming out of his nose and a lot of bruises.

"Takemitchi!" Takuya and Masaru were about to run to him but they were blocked by another one of Kiyomasa's goons. They were both helpless as they see Takemitchi withering on the ground. 

Kiyomasa only lets out a scoff, smirking. "You can run and beg for forgiveness all your life, but you'll still be a worthless piece of shit." 

The crowd was hollering with laugher at seeing Takemitchi trying to fight. They all knew the winner from a mile away, but somehow they were enjoying this feast of violence being fed to them.

"What's the matter, Hanagaki?!"
"You only gonna be in high spirits at the start!?"
"You got one-hit KO'ed again, didn't ya?!"

'I can't win,' Takemitchi thinks to himself as he manages to lie down on his stomach. 'The difference in strength is so great that I can tell with only one punch... This is like a bulldozer against a K-car...'

"Then be a man and be with me ten years from now."

Hinata's words suddenly came into mind as Takemitchi to stand up. "Takemitchi, that's enough!" Akkun, Makoto, and Yamagishi were trying to get through the crowd, but they were being blocked by the other spectators. "You're gonna die at this rate, stop it! Don't do it!" Makoto had to shove one of the spectators faces but was immediately blocked by another hoard of them.

"I'll fight, Kiyomasa!" Takuya and Masaru were still trying to get past one of the goons. Takuya's voice was starting to become hoarse as he kept yelling. "I'll fight, just stop hurting him!"

"I'll take his place if I have to!" Masaru's voice was the loudest amongst Akkun and the rest, tears starting to come out of his eyes. "Just leave my cousin alone!"

Takemitchi manages to stand up, but he was wobbly. "Not yet..." He manages to say, his voice equally as hoarse. "For the first time in my life, I'm not running away." He faces Kiyomasa despite his vision becoming a little blurry and his face all bloody and bruised.

Kiyomasa's smirk turns into a frown, punching Takemitchi in the face again and the rest of the crowd cheers at what they were seeing. Akkun and the other two couldn't look anymore, and Takuya didn't have much of his voice left to plead for him to take Takemitchi's place. Masaru was the only one begging for this match to stop despite being punched in the stomach multiple times. 

Some of the onlookers from the crowd were just staring in both pity and with a neutral expression despite the hollering of the crowd for Kiyomasa to finish Takemitchi off with just a few more punches. 

"Why would he go this far against a guy that's obviously much stronger than him."
"You have to admit, the guy's got cojones."
"Hey, is this still a match or...?"

Kiyomasa was beating Takemitchi, brutally. He had grabbed him by his uniform, gripping his hair tight as he slams his head into the metal bars of the stair railings. Then, he knees him hard in the stomach, and then he throws him to the ground like he was nothing more than a sack of rice. Takemitchi was already bleeding from his nose and was coughing out blood, but he was still standing up like it was nothing. This only shocked the crowd and Kiyomasa was already getting irritated by this guy's endurance. 

"Give up already, Takemitchi!" Akkun shouts at him this time. "You've already showed us enough of your determination!"

"You're the only one that can save my sister."

"I ain't giving up!!!" Takemitchi manages to look at Kiyomasa in the eye, his gaze determined. "I have a reason to not give up!!!"

"That reason's going to be the death of you!" Masaru retorted. "Just stop this, Takemitchi! I know you won't forgive me but you have to stop this before you die!"

'What the hell?' Kiyomasa was staring right back at Takemitchi, and he was... starting to get a little nervous. How in the hell was this guy still standing? Why was he still standing? He didn't know, and he didn't want to find out when he saw the blond smiling.

Takemitchi was smiling.

"Kiyomasa... the only way you'll win is by killing me." Takemitchi says this bluntly, and it sent a shudder down Kiyomasa's spine. Not just him, but for everyone else in the crowd. 

And this angered him more.

"Oi, bring me my bat!" Kiyomasa looks at his goons with rage in his eyes. "Hurry and throw it to me!"

Akaishi was the one who held the bat. He didn't want to throw it, but the look in Kiyomasa's eyes told him otherwise. He threw it on the ground, and Kiyomasa picked it up. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"Oi, Kiyomasa."

Just as he was about to hit Takemitchi, the rest of the crowd turned around to see two guys at the top of the stairs. "You've lost your audience," He says to them, but his eyes were staring directly at Kiyomasa.

"It's him," Akkun says to Makoto and Yamagishi.

"I-It's the boss!" One of the spectators yell in a panic, and they all bow down as they yell, "Good work, President!". The goon that was blocking Takuya and Masaru had to stand up and practically forced the two to bow down. Masaru was confused, since all he knew was Shibuya Middle--He thought Kiyomasa was the fucking boss. But this whole time, he was working under someone else?

'I fucked up. I fucked up, big time.' Masaru thinks to himself as he was staring down at his feet.

"The big boss?" Yamagishi asks as he looks at Akkun with a bit of fear on his face.

Akkun looked back at Yamagishi, then back at the two. "No. That's their number two, Ryūguji Ken. Also known as Draken." He says to him. "The small one's the boss."

Makoto widened his eyes. "He's the unrivaled 'Mikey'!?" He whisper-shouted in disbelief.

Takemitchi was just staring in disbelief as he sees Draken and Mikey walking down towards him and Kiyomasa. 'No way... this guy's the leader of the Tokyo Manji Gang, Sano Manjiro!?' He thinks to himself.

Kiyomasa hid his bat behind his back as he bows down when Draken approaches him. Takemitchi visibly flinches when Draken had used his knee to hit Kiyomasa's stomach, letting the bat fall down. "Remember this angle when you bow down to the boss." Draken says bluntly as he picks up the bat while Kiyomasa was trying to breathe, keeping his balance despite bowing down. "Your head's right in the strike zone," Draken holds the bat in his hands now. "Wanna see what happens if I use this?"

Draken swings it hard, and everyone had to move back because of  the shock and fear. Draken didn't hit Kiyomasa, but he might as well have tried. "M-My apologies!" Kiyomasa shouts his apology, not looking up at the two.

Mikey was just there, unfazed as he eats his dorayaki. He glances over, seeing the bloody and bruised Takemitchi and walks over to him. Takemitchi was rightfully terrified as he tries to move back, but he stumbles onto the ground as Mikey stares down at him. "What's your name?"

"Hanagaki... Takemitchi." Takemitchi responds, feeling his breathing about to shorten. Now that he had finally seen him, he didn't know what to do. He was just staring back at Mikey, his blue eyes staring into Mikey's black ones.

'Wait a minute, his eyes look like-'

"I see," Mikey smiles a little as he squats down to his level. "Takemitchy, are you really a middle schooler?"

Takemitchi didn't how to respond to that question as he was staring at Mikey, but he figured he didn't need to because the next thing he said made his eyes wide.

"Takemitchy, from today onward, you're my buddy! Okay? ♡"

Takemitchi blinked. He... he didn't misheard that, did he? "...excuse me?"

"That's what Mikey said, so that's what it is. Right, Takemitchy?" Draken asks him and Takemitchi couldn't help but think; 'I am definitely screwed right now!'

Mikey was still smiling at him before standing up. "So," He faces the rest of the crowd. "Who's in charge here?"

All of them, including Masaru and Takemitchi, point at Kiyomasa. 

Kiyomasa was staring in disbelief, pointing at Masaru in defense. 

Mikey was still staring with his unfazed expression, putting the dorayaki in this mouth before proceeding to kick Kiyomasa in the jaw twice, letting him fall down to the ground along with Mikey's gakuran.

"You saw that, right?" Masaru whispered to Takuya.

"H-He just kicked him." Takuya says back. "What was there to see?"

"He just used a cartwheel kick!" Masaru whisper-shouted. "Only Saenchai was able to use that in fucking boxing!"

Takemitchi was in disbelief. He definitely didn't expect him to do that. Even the crowd was shocked at the sudden kick.

Mikey had bitten his dorayaki after the kick. "Underground fights are stupid."

Draken then turns to everyone in the crowd. "Don't do things to disgrace Toman's name!"

"We're sorry!" The crowd apologizes and they bow down again.

Mikey was still unfazed for a minute, before looking down at the ground, and lets out a screech.

"What's wrong, boss!?" Some of Kiyomasa's goons go toward him, with one of them crawling on the ground.

"Kenchin," Mikey turns to Draken. "I dropped my dorayaki."

"It's still good!"
"Hey, follow the five-second rule!"
"Pick it up already!"
"Go buy a new one!"

Draken lets out a sigh as he handed him the blazer amidst the somewhat chaotic seen. "I keep tellin' you not to call me that in public."

Mikey didn't seem to pay attention as he held his gakuran in his arms. He turns to Takemitchi, smiling. "Takemitchy, see you later ♡."