HIS PRIDE ⇀ Manjiro Sano

Part 39

"Guys?! Why aren't you talking? Was it Kisaki-" Takemichi asked staring at the two with confusion,

"Takemitchy, shut up." Creed sighed from beside the group, kneeling next to the corpse of the former Toman member.

"Wha- why?" Takemichi asked, looking over to Creed who patted his hand on Kota's hair. The two had only met a few times, but he'd seen Kota re-enter the circle of trust of his two captains. He'd watched as they began to hang out more and more, laughing together, living together. Asahi patted Akira's back, sighing as he knew he'd need to be the one who commanded their division during this.

"Fuyu, Get Akira out of here, take him to Mikey's. I'll join up with them tonight, I'm gonna get Kota out of here." Asahi mumbled, It was clear to Asahi that Akira blamed himself, Kisaki designed it that way. No matter who died, Akira would blame himself for their death. Akira's eyes widened as he stumbled forwards onto his hands and knees, making his way over to Kota, crawling through the pool of his blood.

Akira stared down at him, tears streaming down his face as he let his hand shakily reach out, stopping just before he reached the pink hair. He didn't want to touch him, what if it hurt him even more. Asahi reached out, lightly grasping Akira's wrist and guiding it down to Kota's head. Akira felt Kota's soft pink hair make contact with his hand, Asahi laying his hand over Akira's. The black-haired boy stifled a sob as he felt warm tears pour out of his face faster.

"I-I for-give yo-u, Kota... I'll s-settle your sc-ore." Akira sobbed out, remembering what Kota used to say to him when the two would spar different people at the gym. He shut his eyes before he felt a hand on his back, the boy looking up and finding a worried-looking Chifuyu.

"Let's get you home, captain," Chifuyu mumbled, Akira slightly nodding before looking down to Akira, placing a small kiss into the boy's hair before touching him one last time, saying his goodbye to Kota.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

The two boys stood in front of the Sano home. The ride over there had been silent, Chifuyu hadn't said a word to Akira, simply not knowing what to say. The blonde knocked on the door, glancing at Akira who's eyes were still wet, his tear stains being the only parts of his face that didn't have dried blood or dirt on it.

"Hello?" A feminine voice asked out, opening the door to the home. Chifuyu looked up to Emma who smiled down at her friend before her gaze shifted over to the bloody, bruised, dirty boy standing next to him.

"Akira? What happened?" Emma asked, worry lacing her words as she took a step forwards, reaching out to wipe some of the blood from his face, yet the first division captain of toman, the feared Demon of Toman flinched away from the touch. Chifuyu's eyes widened at the site, Akira beginning to tremble as he stared to the ground.

"Mikey- where's Mikey?!" Chifuyu asked, looking up to Emma who thought for a second before telling him that he said he'd be down by the river, waiting for Akira for their date. Chifuyu nodded, grasping the keys in his hand tightly.

"Can you take him up to Mikey's room?! I'm going to go get him!" Chifuyu asked causing the Sano girl to nod, opening the door wider, letting Akira slowly walk in, not saying a word to either of them, trudging up to Mikey's room.

Mikey sat on the ledge of the bank, looking down to the river with his fish cookie in hand, perplexed by the interaction he'd just had. He felt the ground begin to rumble as the roar of a familiar-sounding bike approached him, the blonde smiling as he realized that it was Akira's bike.

He looked over his shoulder, finding the book racing towards him. Mikey's smile dropped when he saw it was Chifuyu driving it, looking around frantically for his commander's face. He finally found it, pulling the bike over right next to him and turning it off.