𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄━━━S. Manjiro

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘆-𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗿

The blonde boy, sat up immediately after he turned his gaze upon you, who entered the room. You closed the door behind you and looked at him, "Hey, Hanagaki."

"[Last Name]-san...!"

You approached the nearest table and placed down the plastic bag you brought. You opened it and looked inside. "So, do you know what's happening on Toman right now?" You asked first, glancing over your shoulder to look at him, who nods in response. You smiled, taking out an apple from the plastic bag and tossed it towards him, which he caught messily.

You sat down on the chair beside his bed, putting a leg on top of the other as you place your hand on your lap. "There's no need to worry about Mikey and Draken. In the original timeline, Toman split into two factions, with the two against each other but it won't happen now. They just need a bit of nudge and they'll get along again." You took out your phone from your sling bag and turned it on. "Well, anyway..." You turned your gaze back at him.

"Tell me what happened in the present now."

Takemichi cleared his throat nervously and nod. "Just like what you told me, Mikey-kun and Draken-kun really did fight and torn Toman apart. I and Naoto met Osanai from the future and Naoto concluded that the conflict with Moebius was simply just the trigger... He said someone is plotting to tear Toman apart from inside and Osanai was used as the trigger."

You hummed and nod in response, "Well, I already know who is that 'someone' you are talking about." Takemichi raised his head, looking at you curiously. "Who...?"

"It's Kisaki Tetta. The next following events that are connected to Toman will be all planned by Kisaki, including the conflict with Moebius. In the original timeline, it was also like that after all." You turned off your phone and placed it back in your pockets. "We just have to interrupt his every plan, and everything will be fine." You sighed, "Everything will only go well if there's nothing troublesome will happen. So Hanagaki, about what I told you before going back to the present, did you have Naoto look it up?"

He nods, "Well... About that, [First Name]-san, the person you betrayed was-"

"Ah, Takemichi-kun and [Last Name]-san? You came to visit too?"

"..." You glanced over your shoulders, looking at the people who just entered. Hinata and Takemichi's friends, the Mizu gang. 'We're always getting interrupted at important times...' normally, you would scold those who intrude in the middle of your conversation but, since it's them, you could let them off for now. You sighed, standing up, "Yeah, I'll get going now though. I don't want to make the atmosphere awkward."

You were aware of how your mere presence makes everyone tense up in fear. Although you did try to be more friendly than your past self, you still can't change how unsociable you are originally in the present.

You raised your hand and pointed at the other table, where you left the stuff you brought earlier. "There are snacks inside, you guys can take it." You smiled, and you immediately noticed how their expression softened. "But you bought it, [Last Name]-san..." Hinata hesitantly replied. "I bought and brought them as a gift anyway so it's alright," you walked towards the door and walked past them.

"Then, I'll take my leave now." Just as you were about to close the door, you looked back at Takemichi and silently mouthed a few words.

"Call me and explain later."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[First Name], you in the past would never betray Toman or Manjiro in the first place. She would also never sell any information about them because if she did, she would only reveal her friend's weaknesses and put them in danger.

Although with a trashy attitude, she still sincerely cared about her friends. They were her only friends after all.

Even with the changes you made in this timeline, [First Name] didn't seem to change at all. Still left with that attitude and her way of protecting her friends. 'I don't know if that's a good thing or not...' you awkwardly laugh to yourself.

You were long aware of that fact. Though, when Kisaki suddenly mentioned something about you betraying someone, you unconsciously thought of Manjiro. Since Kisaki mentioned the betrayal at that exact moment, you assumed that it might be related to Manjiro or Toman. But now that you've calmed down and are pretty much thinking logically, you could pretty much sum up that it was not Manjiro or Toman.

You opened your wallet and placed down the bills on the counter, while the cashier packs the item you bought inside the plastic bag.

"Will you take the receipt ma'am?"

"Yeah."

The cashier stuffed the long piece of paper in the plastic bag and handed it to you. "Thank you for purchasing here." She smiled. You nod, taking it from her hand, and casually walks out of the convenience store.

You sighed, placing your other hand inside your jacket's pocket and holding the plastic bag in the other hand. You were heading towards the park.

'But, well, betrayal is still betrayal. If Kisaki mentioned it, maybe it was still a big deal. I've already betrayed a lot of people by leaking out information so, well...' you chuckled. "It's not my first time so it's alright," you told yourself. The only concerning thing is that you probably became the enemy of the one that got betrayed.

'... That's dangerous though.'

You've already decided to stop being an information broker. The contacts you have in your phone that are from your former customers, you've already deleted and blacklisted them all. You wanted to live your life properly this time, so you obviously wouldn't want to get involved with them again. A lot of them are dangerous people, to be honest. To describe 'dangerous people', you meant real yakuza. You were good at gathering information so they 'asked you to help them.

A middle school student helping out adult yakuza.

That's some real weird connections. They paid you a million yen once and you were unharmed, all's well that ends well.

You sat on one of the swings upon arriving at the park. You placed the plastic bag on your lap and took out your phone from your pocket. You stared at certain someone's phone number and pressed the call button. It didn't even take five seconds until he accepted.

"[First Name]...? Why are you calling so late?"

"Were you sleeping? Sorry."

"Nah, I said you can call me anytime so it's fine."

"I'm sorry for disturbing you though. But uh... Can I ask you a favor?"

"... Of course!" He suddenly raised his voice and that startled you a bit. You chuckled, "You're going to disturb the others if you yell like that."

"It's alright, I wanted you to hear loud and clear that whatever you ask me to do, I'll do it. So? What do you want me to do? Oh crap, I just checked and it's way past midnights."

Your expression softened and you smiled, you won't be able to call this a favor if he puts it that way. "Well then... Can I stay over at your place for a while, Mikey?"

woof woof.

Published: July 20, 2021