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“Hey, don’t you think it’s time to stop?”
Wide blue eyes swirl to him. “Oh. It’s you again.”
Five jumps down the ledge, hands in his pocket. “If you don’t go through with this, I won’t have a reason to eliminate you. You can go on with your life and I can tell the Commission that you aren’t an anomaly, just a chink.”
Just like every time Five tells him this, he smiles.
“It’s okay. As long as Mikey lives, I don’t mind.”
Past. Present. Future. His answer is always the same.
“If it’s by your hand, I don’t mind.”
Bonten comes knocking.
Five has been there since the beginning. When he woke up in that restroom, twelve years displaced, the man in a child’s body was right behind him, smiling
“You travelled through time. I have to kill you.”
Takemichi ran as soon as he saw the gun. But he never forgot about him.
The next time he saw him, he just saved Draken. Five was there in his room, waiting for him to return.
“You changed the event. He should have died tonight.”
Takemichi sits down. “Are you a time-traveller like me?”
“Pretty much,” he says, bony shoulders shrugging. “But I’m a bit different, you see. I traverse through time.”
That’s the beginning of Takemichi’s weird relationship with time and the boy who traverses through it.
“I was tasked to eliminate you before you change the history entirely,” Five said, as Takemichi was bedridden from his encounter with Taiju. He’s completing one of the puzzles Takemichi had forgotten he had, and it felt like a company of two. “But you see, I’m in my rebellious phase right now, so I want to see how far you can push this before the headquarters sends me a warning notice.”
He always carries a briefcase and a knife with him. Takemichi asked once what the briefcase contains, and he grins in that infuriating way that always leaves Takemichi feeling fluttery.
“It’s my ticket.”
Takemichi couldn’t save a lot of people. Every time, Five is there to remind him to give up.
“Don’t you think that’s enough?”
It’s not enough. Not until he saves Mikey.
Five is weird. He says he’s here to kill him when the time is right, but it seems like the right time is far away.
“When is the right time?”
They’re in the best future right now. And Five was there when he opened his eyes in the restroom, as he always is.
Five doesn’t answer immediately. He’s always quiet at the strangest times, and overly chatty at inappropriate times.
“When you save Sano Manjirou.”
He inhales shakily. “Will you bury me somewhere or will you carry my body around?”
Five grins. “I carried the body of someone I loved once. Wouldn’t mind doing it for a second time.”
When Tenjiku arrived, Five finally tried to stop him.
“You cannot change tonight’s event, and you will have to live with it. You can live with it.”
Takemichi looked at him. “What are you saying?”
And then Emma died, then Izana, then, finally, Kisaki. That’s when Takemichi realized although Five has been somewhat of a friend, he’s never been on his side. He has his own selfish reasons.
“One last leap, Takemichi,” he said with a smile. He looked sad. “One last leap, promise me.”
“Why?” he’d asked.
“I don’t want to kill you.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to.”
“But why?”
Five kisses him, and says, “That’s why.”
Takemichi wakes up in the best future with Five by his side as always. Then he slips away unnoticed and Takemichi cannot go look for him. He has a wedding reception to attend.
And it truly is the best future. Takemichi can’t believe it’s real.
But of course, it’s too good to be true. He sees the tattoo and he immediately recognizes it. Five is there by the door when he tries to leave.
“Don’t,” he says.
Takemichi stares at him. “Why?”
“You promised it’s the last time.”
Did he? He can’t remember. “Out of my way, Five. This is none of your business.”
That’s when he realizes he’s never seen Five angry, and his anger is malicious. “Stop playing the hero, Takemichi. People didn’t die for you to play god. Stop trying to jeopardize what your friend has worked for.”
Takemichi doesn’t listen to him. He searches for months and months, and Five never gives up.
“If you go through with this, I can’t help you anymore.”
“Then leave me alone.”
Five upturns the table between them. “You know I can’t! You know why!”
He does. But they’re both living on borrowed time. It’s nothing new.
“I’ve already died since the first time I was pushed onto that train track.” He meets Five’s burning gaze. “This is all a pilgrimage, to do the right things before I move on. I don’t mind dying, as long as I can save all of them.”
“Fine!”
This time, Takemichi wakes up alone.
Five knows there’s only one way to save Takemichi from the Commission’s persistent gaze, and that is to write all the wrongs. He engineered Draken’s death, and he got what he wanted. It’s inevitable, anyway. To use Takemichi’s words, he’s been living on borrowed time. He’s a man who’s long expired.
What he didn’t foresee was the consequence and escalation.
He stays where he is, on top of the building where he can see everything. He sees Takemichi running to tackle Senju. He sees Draken arriving and taking the bullets meant for Takemichi. He sees the moment Draken falls and breathes his last.
He sees it all, except this.
Sano Manjirou arrives, and he knows he has to get Takemichi out of here.
He should have stayed close. He should have whisked Takemichi away once Senju’s cronies arrived. He should have killed Sano Manjirou when he had the chance.
Takemichi is dangling from the man’s grip when he gets there. He ignores the consequences of revealing himself and points a gun to Mikey’s head. The bloody battlefield turns into a quiet graveyard at the appearance of the boy with a gun.
“Put him down,” he grits out. He turns off the safety, and the click is a death threat clearer than anything else.
“Mikey!” Sanzu screams, runs towards them. Five takes only a second to shift the gun to him and shoots right where he’s about to step before turning it back to Mikey’s head. Sanzu stops in his tracks, wild eyed and terrified.
“Nobody moves! Or I’ll blow his head off!”
Takemichi opens his bruised eyes. “Five. You came.”
This idiot. “Of course I came. Did you think I’d leave you alone after everything I did to keep you alive?”
Koko comes forward with his hands up. He watches Five carefully as he approaches. “Please don’t do anything rash,” he says.
Five laughs. “Rash? I’ll show you rash if he doesn’t put him down in five. One!”
Mikey throws Takemichi to the ground harshly and turns around to meet Five’s gun head on. He’s crazy, this bastard. Five should have put him down long before Takemichi got attached to him.
He grins. “Go to hell, you piece of shit .”
Bang!
They’re in an apocalyptic world, somewhere, somewhen. The Commission will never find them here.
“You killed Mikey-kun.”
Takemichi has been repeating the same words for days now. He thinks he prefers the anger in the beginning.
Five kisses his forehead, tucks him closer to himself. “I did.”
“You killed Mikey-kun.”
“For you. I did it for you. He’s supposed to die, no matter what, unlike you. Aren’t you happy, Takemichi? We can be together forever now. As long as I have the briefcase, we can go anywhere, whenever.”
Finally, he’s not alone anymore.
“I love you, Takemichi. Don’t ever leave me.”