ai | s. manjiro & m. takashi

じゅういち

italicized means flashback

cw: violence, mentions of beating up and mentions of death

A twelve year old boy was walking down the unfamiliar neighborhood while his hands were holding a single rose, attached to it was a little pink teddy bear and a bar of chocolate that he heard from his friends were Ai's favorite.

However, as he continued to walk down the path towards her house, he was greeted by a group of men who all wore a similar white uniform with the letters B and D in bold, cursive font and a dragon design behind. The air around this particular area was thick and a little heated. Because there was so many guys in the said area, he didn't know which one was Ai's house.

"Excuse me" the boy shyly asks as he approached a man with light and dark blue hair color, wearing a red uniform similar to the ones the other men wore. "Do you know which one is the Shiba Ai's house?" He boldly asks to him. What he didn't know was that the sixteen year old boy he asked for directions was the older brother of the girl he wanted to court and give the gifts in his hands to.

Suddenly, the twelve year old boy's eyes widens as he felt a shiny, pointed object pressed onto the skin of his neck from behind.

"State your business" Said the boy behind him

The twelve year old's mind went into haze, the man wearing a red uniform looked at him with a maniacal expression on his face when he couldn't find the words to say.

"Bold of you to ask me where my house is." He says, laughing loudly as he watches the fear slowly creep into the boy's eyes.

"I-I didn't know!!" He reasons, beads of sweat trickling down from his head, dangerously sliding down onto his skin.

"Look boss! He even has gifts for your sister!" The boy with curly hair says.

Taiju averted his eyes into his hands. Suddenly, anger coursed through his veins. When Inui saw the change in his boss' eyes, he removed his knife from the boy's neck before Taiju could land a punch on his jaw. The gifts in his hands flew up and landed on Kokonoi's feet.

"Pathetic" He mutters, his nose scrunching at the sight of measly gifts on the road pavement. "The amount of this doesn't even match up her worth." He says, stepping on them before walking to stand behind Inui.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The boy pleads. But Taiju couldn't hear anything. All he could see was rage as he continues to beat him up, resulting his knuckles to be bloodied.

The aftermath of what happened that day was no good. The twelve year old boy was left bloodied and dying in the area, when the people living in the same said area found him and called the ambulance, he was already pronounced dead. His family was heartbroken and devastated upon hearing the news. Resulting to them moving away from the city and into the quiet, provincial area of Japan.

And no one was an eye witness when everything happened.

. . . . . . . . . . ♡

"I'm glad Pah got out from the police. What they did to his friends were horrible." Ai says, slightly swinging herself in the swing in the playground of her neighborhood.

"Me too. Meanwhile, my other friend Kazutora is still in house arrest." Mikey says, chuckling.

"Hm? House arrest? For what?" Ai asks, turning her head to look at him.

"Dumbass thought all the keys to their apartment were the same, so he tried stealing one but got caught. Bold of him to even threaten the authorities by ripping their nails off." Mikey laughs as he recalls what had happened that night. "So, he's on house arrest until next week."