"Baji-san...?"

Chifuyu asked softly, eyes wide as he stared at his best friend in my arms. He started walking closer and knelt down.

Chifuyu sat there in silence and slowly... He started hyperventilating, mouth opened and tears running uncontrollably.

His eyes were softly close, his perfect eyelashes wet with tears. His face was tired and pale and mouth open.

Chifuyu was gasping unstoppably and leaned forward, hugging Baji along with me. "N-No way..!"

I broke down, covering my mouth and crying on Baji's chest, my voice cracking.

"BAAAJI-SAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!"

Chifuyu's cry echoed everywhere.

Mikey gritted his teeth and started beating up Kazutora, taking all his anger and frustration upon him. "I'll kill you!" He growled. "I'll kill you!" He showed no mercy. "I'll kill you!!!"

"I knew you didn't actually betray us." Chifuyu said looking at Baji, as I cried on his chest. H/n was crying on the ground, covering his face while keeping it low. Takemitchy was sobbing behind us.

Chifuyu looked at me, gritting his teeth as the tears spilled. "Baji-san was fighting on his own. I knew it from the start." His body trembled as he leaned down on his neck. "I knew it, but..." He yelled, angry at himself. "I couldn't protect him! I couldn't save him!"

"Damn it! Damn it! I couldn't do anything! I'm an idiot! I'm the worst!"

"Chifuyu-!" I sobbed and grabbed the back of his head, putting our foreheads together as we sobbed. "Please don't say such things... Baji- He wouldn't- he doesn't want to hear you speak like this to yourself! He would kill you himself!"

Takemitchy looked up in the sky, "I'm so sorry, Baji-kun." He let out a loud cry in the air and ran towards Mikey.

I just sobbed and tried to calm Chifuyu down, even if I was terrible myself. H/n was crying, not having the strength to look at Baji.

I looked up with blurry eyes to see Mikey punching Takemitchy from the distance. I hiccuped, staring at them with extreme fatigue, unable to even react.

"This isn't what Baji-kun wanted!" Takemitchy tried to stop Mikey from killing Kazutora.

Mikey kicked Takemitchy in the face. "Don't you dare speak for Baji."

I tried to block all the sounds around me, and stared blankly down with half lidded eyes.

It felt like I wasn't even living at that moment.

 Maybe it was all a bad dream. Some time of fever dream I would wake up from and forget eventually. I couldn't feel my body, my face or my voice.

"Why the hell do you think Baji-kun risked his own life?! It was for both of you! For Toman! Baji-kun chose not to be killed by Kazutora-kun, and took his own life!" Takemitchy started yelling. "Because he didn't want Kazutora-kun to feel responsible for his fate!" He glared at Mikey, standing up straight. "Because he wanted you go forgive Kazutora-kun!" He tightened his fists and lowered his head, tears falling down. "Because he loves all of you guys! That's why he made that choice! Why the hell do you not understand that?!"

I kept my eyes closed, until after a while, I heard Mikey's voice.

"Takemitchy... Where did you get this charm?"

Mikey was knelt on the ground, holding a blue charm.

Takemitchy rubbed his eyes. "I picked it up... at our last gathering at the shrine."

"Charm?" Draken stepped in. Mitsuya widened his eyes, who had gotten closer. "That's..."

H/n trembily brought his face up, staring at the charm Mikey was holding. Slowly, he lifted himself up and walked closer.

Mikey's eyes were wide. "Baji.. held onto it this whole time?"

H/n whispered, "It's the charm from that day."

Kazutora struggled to step up and his eyes widened. He gasped softly and his gaze softened, his eyes tearing up. "Baji..."

Mikey held the charm gently. "That's the charm." He got up and walked right in front of Baji, Chifuyu and I.

"I'm not the one who created Toman. It was Baji." He looked at Baji's face. All Toman members in the backround were grieving, too. It wasn't just us.

Baji was a loved individual. He had people loving and caring for him. Everyone loved him. Toman did, he was cherished.

"If someone's hurt, we all protect them." Mikey's hair swayed in the air. "We wanted to be a gang that protected each other." Draken, Mitsuya, H/n... Kazutora.... everyone had tears in their eyes. "That's what kind of gang we are.

Takemitchy sobbed and kept rubbing his face. "Baji-kun... was fighting on his own... this whole time. All to keep that promise."

Mikey smiled bitterly, and even he in the end let his own tears flow. For the first time after a long time, he showed emotion. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, making a noise.

"I'm sorry, Baji."

Everybody remained there in silence for a while.

From the distance, sirens were heard, alarmjg everyone.

Everyone started speaking and scattering, quickly escaping before they could be seen or caught.

Kazutora approached Mikey. "I'm gonna stay with Baji. All of you, get out of here." He softly said, looking down. He was exhausted. "I did this. I want to be the one to settle it."

".... Alright." Mikey whispered, turning his back on everyone. He looked over my way gently. "... Y/n? Let's go."

"..." I didn't respond or move.

Draken took a deep breath and faced Toman, "Let's get out of here, Toman!"

"Right!" Everyone said, sparing their last looks at Baji, some still crying and sobbing, others in pure silence.. But everyone affected by this.

"Mikey!" Kazutora called for Mikey's attention. He looked up at him, his eyes shining and a calm look took over his features. His hair was pushed back by the wind, revealing his entire face to all. "I can't ask you to forgive me. Not about Shinichiro-kun... or Baji. But I'll carry that burden the rest of my life."

He put his hands behind his back, bowing down at Mikey, not moving an inch.

Chifuyu looked down at me and put his hand on my head. "Come on, Y/n... Let's go." As soon as he said that, H/n walked by my side, too.

I stood there, my face still facing down blankly. With a lot of difficult, I looked at Baji's face softly. I trembily brought my hand to his face, caressing it softly and I gently kissed his cheek.

"I can't..." I whispered. "I'm not leaving anyway without him." My voice was barely audible.

"Y/n..." H/n whispered, gently touching my shoulder. "We need to hurry. We'll have time to grieve for him."

"No." I ignored everyone and everything, closing my eyes and shaking my head. "Let me be."

I gently laid the side of my head against Baji's chest, taking a deep shakey breath and letting it out, wanting to disappear just for a bit.

Be in a universe where Baji could keep on smiling today, right at this moment.

Ba-dum.

Ba-dum.

My eyes opened and they remained open, unblinking for a while. "...."

Ba-dum.

Ba-dum.

My eyes widened and I frowned my eyebrows in confusion, gently touching Baji's chest.

Ba-dum.

"Y/n-"

"SHHH!" I interrupted my brother, frowning and kept opening my eyes and placing my ear harder against his chest.

"...."

...... Ba-dum.

... No way. It can't be...

...... Ba-dum.

Heartbeats.

..... Badum.

Slow heartbeats.

I gasped and shot my head up. ".... hey.... Hey- Guys....!"

Everybody stopped and looked at me in confusion.

I looked at Baji's face. I checked his pulse and I started trembling and panting, closing my eyes and putting my ear down on Baji's chest again.

.....

Ba-dum.

"Y/n?" Draken asked.

I gasped and raised my head up, trembling and my eyes started filling with tears. "Guys-!" I gasped, holding Baji tightly.

"I can hear a pulse!"

Everybody stared blankly at me.

"I can hear his heartbeat! He's-" I shot my face up and yelled out, my tone full of power and hope. "Baji..."

"He's alive!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOO! 👻

Did I scare you? No.....? Oh, that's fine. I'm sure I scared some of you enough with these chapters 🤭 talking about trick or treating!

This was probably the most intense angst I've written. Not gonna lie, I had been crying writing the previous chapter like a baby. I hadn't had a good cry in a while.

Baji is my baby.

I love him a lil' too much to let him die in this place, too. He already suffers enough in the anime and dies in other fanfictions. Poor boy needs a break!

Well- I didn't give him a break with all this happening 👀 guilty? Guilty.

But seriously I NEEDED to write this angst and make it intense and emotional! 😭 it was emotional for me, at least-

It was amusing seeing people afraid for Baji all this time, I got a lot of comments asking me not to kill Baji for a while now, hehe.

From the moment I began writing this story, I planned on day one that I would revive Baji Keisuke and he would be King.

I'm glad and relieved I finally got to this day and made this reality 😌

Our pookie is not dying, babes. Rest your minds and hearts ~

I just knew I wanted to give you guys a little scare :3 I love traumatizing people and then going "SIKE! JUST KIDDING 😘😋" so quirky AHA 🙄💅🏻✨✨

We needed the angst and the tears and the fear for the plot and character development 🤭

Sorry if these lasts chapters felt rusty and for the repetitive vocabulary and phrase use. It got a bit tiring for me to see me repeating stuff, but I felt like I needed to get done with these parts, soon.

I had a lot of things to write and I think I managed to publish like... 3 chapters of +8.000 words within 2-3 days? I don't know exactly but let me tell you- the amount if screentime and time of me writing these chapters within this tiny time limit was INSANE! I have been spending a lot of hours writing these and rushing them within hours, I'm not even going to tell you the time don't want to have you worried 😭 usually I take days or even weeks (while taking my sweet time and having intense writer's blocks) to write a chapter of +8.000 or +10.000 words and here I wrote them within HOURS :D I just took advantage of the free time I have now, cause I don't know how things will be later with my schedule.

I'm just relieved I finally got to get done with this intense battle from the anime. Honestly, I feel proud :)

I deserve some good food and time of realization rn because I have been working extremely hardly on these chapters and have been writing for hours and it's not healthy, but don't worry I AM taking care of myself and so should you 😌

Now I can finally take a break and a breather. Don't expect another chapter within two or three days now or even today, hehe. I'm on fire today and time to relax. I'll take it slowly with the next updates. I don't know if the next update will be in days or even weeks or a month-

But now that we are finishing with the Valhalla arc, prepare for a lot more things to happen- Oh, and we will be seeing more of specific characters from now on now that we moved from the Valhalla arc 👀. To be honest I am very excited with some plans I have and I am so looking forward to this and I hope those continuing to sticking with the story are going to enjoy it twice as much! 

I'm not going to start with the next arc right away, Oh no. I'm going to take a lot of time to continue building Y/n's relationships with other characters and some I have neglected and give a lot of screentime to them. I'll continue following the story plot later on slowly.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed and felt relieved with this. You're welcome for the angst ;)

Happy Halloween for everyone celebrating it! 🎃♥