red string || sano manjiro/ mikey

chapter li: kurokawa izana

two days after kazua had a sleepover with mikey, she focused on training takemichi every morning. she's been having him spar with chifuyu every end of their session to record his progress, and she even advised him to eat healthier foods and more protein to produce muscles and have more energy when they train. he will need a lot of it, after all.

fighting isn't a joke, nor is it something that can be taken so lightly. if kazua will train him, then she will do it in a manner where takemichi won't get himself beaten up badly.

today, however, was different.

"ah, so this is why you told me you're coming over my house instead."

she stands outside her house gates, an eyebrow raised as she eyed the cb250t that mikey and draken gifted the blonde. he's definitely putting it to good use.

kazua pulled on the collar of her oversized sweater and whistled at the sight of the bike. the two really did a good job making it look good, and takemichi looks great using it.

she should have expected that from two people who watched shinichiro tinker with bikes all day.

"we're going to mikey-kun's house to confront him about kurokawa izana." he says.

kazua hops on behind him and held on the handle behind the bike. "oh, okay." she decided to stay silent about her unexpected encounter with the man the other day. mikey will bring it up later when he tells him. "wait, how do you open the topic to him?"

"like how i did before." takemichi kicked the kick stand and drove off. "i'll have to play dumb. you should too."

"i'm already dumb. i don't need to pretend." kazua huffed.

"you sound so proud, sada-san..."

***

they stumbled upon draken on their way to the sano household, and it was mikey's trusty vice commander that led them inside.

"mikey! i'm here!"

draken pushes the gates open and let kazua get in first, following right after to lesve takemichi getting in last.

"go wait in my room, ken-chin!"

"i met takemitchy and kaz just now! i'm bringing them in!"

"SAZU?!"

"mikey, don't eat too fast! you're gonna choke!"

takemichi chuckles at emma's distant scolding, walking alongside kazua as draken led them to the garage that now serves as mikey's room.

"this is mikey's room." draken says, stopping in front of the door.

"oh! it's a different building!"

takemichi wasn't kidding when he said he's going to act dumb. kazua sent him a look saying, "oh, you actually meant that."

"this was originally the garage, where shinichiro-kun tinkered with his bike all the time."

"i see..."

"mikey, kaz, and i would always come here and watch him all day. well, kaz would be reading, but she looks up every few times to check on progress."

"i never learnt anything from it, though. i just run my motor at the shop for maintenance."

"you could just come over to me, you know? i'll do it for free."

"really?! but that's handiwork. i should pay you."

"then pay me any amount you want. i don't mind."

"ah, you're so nice, ken."

draken merely laughs at her and opened the door to the garage—mikey's room. it was redesigned on the inside, and it looks more like a mancave than a garage now.

a bed, television, air conditioning...it looks like a small house. there's even a bathroom for mikey to use instead of the family bathroom at the house.

"mikey's room looks so cool! his stuff looks kinda mature, though." takemichi gawked at the place while kazua walked around and picked up a controller.

"well, most of it is shinichiro-kun's stuff." draken says.

"i only own the bed."

and alas, the owner of the room arrives with a massive bedhead. kazua looks over her shoulder and snorted when she saw mikey's half-lidded eyes fighting to stay awake. "good morning, sleepyhead."

"sazu!"

mikey leaped right towards her and hugged her tight, nearly making her drop the controller, which she thankfully didn't. kazua sighed, patting his back the best she could since he also trapped her arms.

"i missed you!"

***

"i see...kurokawa izana."

mikey sits on the sofa with crossed arms and legs, his hair being styled by none other than draken who was standing behind the sofa. takemichi and kazua sat together across him.

"so it was him the other day."

"huh? you met him?" draken asks.

"yeah, with sazu!" mikey nods. "so he's tenjiku's captain."

"he used to be black dragon's 8th captain, and now tenjiku's. maybe he has a connection to shinichiro-kun."

"what do you know? draken can actually use his head!" kazua gleamed. "definitely more than baji could."

"takemitchy, our discussion stays here."

takemichi glances at kazua, who nodded back at him in response, and agreed to draken's terms. kazua leaned back against the sofa and raised one leg up to her chest, her elbow resting on the armrest. she already knew about shinichiro's affiliation with the black dragons.

she knows everything that has to do with the sano siblings. she grew up with them, after all.

"shinichiro-kun is the founder of black dragon."

"what, really?!"

"gotta hand it to him. he's good at playing dumb." kazua amusingly watched the yellow-haired male.

"yeah. the only people who know about this are me, mikey, baji, and kaz. we decided to keep it as a secret since kazutora got into trouble with black dragon."

"before i confronted the 9th generation of black dragon, i talked to my brother." mikey explained how black dragon changed after the 8th generation leader took over, tying kurokawa izana into the situation perfectly.

"so the person who corrupted the black dragon was him, huh?" kazua mutters. she lowly played with her sweater paws. "what a twist."

knock!

knock!

"i brought you guys tea." emma arrives with a tray of tea on her hands. kazua smiled and waved the girl over.

"hey, emma."

"kazu-neesan! as you can see, my brother's morning routine is the same as before. draken became his personal assistant this time, though."

the raven chuckles as emma walked over and placed the tea down.

"kurokawa izana...just who is he?" takemichi wonders.

"my brother."

the room was filled with silence, and kazua raised an eyebrow. she didn't know this part of kurokawa izana.

"who?" mikey asks.

"like i said, he's my brother." emma repeats.

with the three (mikey, draken, kazua) confused, mikey points at himself, questioning whether or not his name really is sano manjiro.