Chapter XXXIV
2017
"You don't know how you're driving me crazy, (Y/N)."
Your eyes shoot open as you chase for breath. You are now laying on the bed and you whimper in body pain when your muscles start aching. It is from the fight that happened last night. You sighed and looked at the wall clock beside your bed. It's already 11:00 am.
It is Manjiro's house, certainly. With a heavy body, you slowly sit down and your eyes get fixated on the side table beside your bed. There are painkiller medicines on it with a glass of water. There is also a plate with a sandwich and pancake on the table. You reach for the medicine and take it with the water. You sigh heavily as you lean on the headboard and close your eyes for a moment.
What happened?
The sunray from the window touches your skin and you groan a little as you try to move towards your room's bathroom. Despite your body aching heavily, you walk towards the bathroom to look at yourself. You smiled bitterly as you saw some bruises on your body and some bandaids on some small cuts. Manjiro seems to mend your wounds while you are asleep which is quite impossible since he didn't care about you at all.
You sigh and take a bath, brush your teeth, before wearing a white oversized shirt and pajamas. You tie your hair into a messy bun as you whispered an 'ow' when your body aches again in pain.
After doing all of those, you eat the breakfast that someone prepared for you and go downstairs to see if Manjiro is there or not. Most of the time, you're all alone in his house since he's busy with his organization work but your feet freeze when you see him sitting on the sofa with a calm look on his face like he's waiting for you to come down.
He's wearing a black v-neck shirt underneath his black leather jacket. He looks fresh and good, like he always does—not that you mind. He caught your gaze and he gently looked at you before he spoke.
"Have you eaten already?" Those are his first words and you just nodded before you walked towards the sofa in the living room, near him.
"Thank you for preparing them." You mumbled and your jaw clenched when you remembered how he was kissing someone last night, you immediately pushed that thought away.
"Why did you have to fight with someone last night?" He suddenly asked, and that caught you off guard.
Manjiro doesn't like opening a topic himself. Most of the time, you are the one who opens the topic and starts the conversation but him acting this way right now doesn't bother you much. What bothers you is the fact that you don't know how you would answer his question.
"I feel bored..." You answered and thought of a possible reason,"...And realized I want to exercise by beating someone into a pulp."
It actually means, 'I saw you kissing someone else last night and I'm damn frustrated, that's why I decided to just beat someone and get myself beaten up as well to forget about you and the girl sitting on your lap.'
His lips are pressed calmly as he observingly looks at you, "Where does it hurt?"
"I'm feeling fine." You lie and groan when the side of your stomach aches again. It was punched hard last night, "I-I swear, I'm alright."
"You shouldn't do it again." Manjiro stated calmly and you don't know if it's just your imagination, but you can feel his concern voice glimpse a little.
"I know. I should've knocked before opening the door to avoid disturbing you kiss someone so rough—"
His eyebrows curl in slight confusion, "I'm referring to the fight."
"Oh."
Suddenly, you see the side of his lips curve a little and your heart starts beating weirdly fast once again. You hate this feeling of anxiousness again... or is it really anxiety?
"You haven't told me you love me this morning," He started with a calm voice and it made your eyes widened, "Is it because you saw me kissing someone else last night?"
You're calm, you know you're good at concealing your emotion, but right now you can feel your face heating up because of what he says. He's not wrong, though. Everyday, you would greet Manjiro saying, 'Good morning, I love you!' and stuff like that, but you are shocked that he's actually waiting for you to say it today.
Wait... is he really waiting for me to tell him I love him?
"How would I know if the one you're kissing last night has already greeted you with an I love you today? She might be your girlfriend, and I don't say such words to someone who's already committed to someone else." You replied and leaned on the sofa before exhaling gently.
"Girlfriend?"
"You don't kiss someone that rough unless they mean something to you. That's cool, though. You can... kiss whoever you like, and I..." You breathe deeply, "...don't care."
You remember what he told you yesterday and now, you're saying it back to him. You didn't kiss Ran Haitani because you only want him, but he can kiss someone hot and sexy without wanting you. What a terrible feeling.
"She's the one who kissed me first." Manjiro stated calmly and you want to just sigh heavily.
"Hmm." You mumbled tiredly.
"She delivered my drink in that room and sat on my lap before she started kissing me." He continued, and you want to smile with how cute he sounds while explaining those things. He doesn't sound dangerous, he sounds... calm and gentle.
"Ok." You responded.
"I was about to push her away when you opened the door and saw us." He added again and you finally opened your eyes to meet his gaze.
You tried to conceal the pain in your heart and just fake a smile, "You have nothing to explain. Again, you can kiss anyone and I wouldn't say anything. It's your choice. Your decision."
He calmly looked at you as he stayed silent. You, on the other hand, smile at him in assurance. You want to as much as possible forget the pain he caused you last night. If you can do it right now for this damn mission, then it's good.
You are about to ask him something when his phone rings inside his pocket. His eyes turn cold as he answers it. You caught how his jaw tightened when he heard the call, and you also caught how he looked at you while answering the call. After a while, he ended it and looked at you calmly.
"Are you alright?" You asked in concern as you saw him look a little angry at something.
"I have something to work on." He whispered and stood up before walking away from you.
His emotion really looks cold but annoyed, and you can't let this slip. It feels as if it has something to do with you.
"Manjiro, what is the call about?"
He stopped walking for a while and faced you, "The gang that you fought last night wants revenge and they're hunting you, aiming for your head. They are burning some of the hideouts just to find you."
Your eyes widened a little as your mouth parted, "W-what?"
His ranging expression suddenly turned gentle as he stared into your eyes, "I will take care of them. Wait for me."
"Wait..."
"I never wanted to kiss that woman last night. Not her." He whispered in almost inaudible tone before he left you alone in the living room, shocked with what he stated with your heart beating fast again.
2008
"Where are you going, (Y/N)?" Izana asked while he was checking his motorcycle.
He sees you went out of the house with a comfortable black shirt and jeans. Underneath the shirt is a bandage wrapped around your stomach. You are also wearing a black cap to hide a portion of your face, for necessity. You look back at Izana and give him a calm look.
"I'll just buy some milk and bread in the grocery store." You replied and walked away, leaving Izana confused since there is a lot of milk and bread in the refrigerator already. You can't also use your motorcycle since Hiro-san brought it in his shop today for some modifications and maintenance.
When he can no longer see your face, your eyes turn serious. Today, some members of Leepon Fang who are in extreme range because of what happened with Draken and the White Phoenixes will start a huge chaos and fire in a city. Later on, they will blame the White Phoenixes, Brahman, and the Bonten Gang for that mess. Those damn human beings.
You know it will happen because you know what will happen. That is why you need to stop it as much as possible. After all, stopping that chaos won't affect the ending for everyone. If you won't prevent it from happening, it will just cause chaos for everyone.
You remained silent as you sat inside a train station. Since it's still early, there are few people inside the train. You lean on your seat and stare at your hands calmly in silence. The train stopped in a certain place and a bunch of men wearing the Leepon Fang's jacket entered inside the train.
You remain calm as you look down to hide your face through your cap.
You're going to do this alone. You are used to working on shadows, and through doing all of these, you won't cause Takemitchi and the others more burden. The train continues to move and you are breathing the same air as the members who will supposedly cause a great chaos later if you won't prevent them.
From your seat, you can hear their words and whispers.
"Some members of our gang have been beaten up badly after the thing with Ken Ryuguji. Are the White Phoenixes behind those?"
"Maybe. Those shits! Leon and Tiger are immobile right now and if we are going down, we will pull all of them with us in the pits of hell."
You sigh. White Phoenixes are not behind it at all. It is the Bonten Gang, more specifically, it is Mikey's fault. After knowing what happened to you and Draken, he started terrorizing the Leepon Fang little by little.
The train finally stopped in the final station and the gang went down it. You silently followed them without being noticed. They keep on talking about and whispering about their plans, and you are doing what you must as well. The gang went towards a certain location. You followed them and your eyes narrowed when you saw a pickup truck filled with gallons of gasoline at the backseat. There are three of them and it is also filled with Leepon Fang members.
Your jaw tightens as you see their numbers. There are so many of them.
Their trucks start moving and you immediately call a taxi. You are not panicking at all that you will lose sight of them since you already know where they would use those gasoline. A taxi stopped in front of you and you can see that it's already taken by someone else.
You don't know who it is but it seems like the man in the passenger's seat is sleeping. He has a thick black jacket covering his face and other upper body parts. You just ignore it and ask the driver.
"**** town, please. Will that be alright?" You asked and the taxi driver nodded.
"Yes, ma'am. My other passenger's place is located near that location so you can hop in."
You thanked the taxi driver politely and went to the back seat. You feel a weird atmosphere for a moment but it doesn't bother you. You relaxed yourself as your fist clenched. After a while, you finally arrive at the destination and you pay the driver before you leave.
This place is filled with houses and such. There are also small stores at the corners. You gritted your teeth. If the Leepon Fangs are trying to cause fire in this town, a lot of innocent people will be victims and will lose their houses. You started walking in a narrow slump area with your cap still hiding your face.
After a while of walking, you arrived in a spacious court that seemed as if it was in the middle of the town. There are no people there except the Leepon Fang members who are bringing down the gallons of gasoline out of their trucks. The people, the normal citizens near this location are being threatened by the members thus they might go away temporarily. The place looks like an abandoned one with these bunch of Leepon Fang members filled with arrogance.
As they are focused on the gasoline, you go out from where you are and look at them calmly. It's still around 10:00 am thus the sun is still there but the atmosphere is calm as well. You take a deep breath and shout something so that all of them can clearly hear it.
"You're not going to burn this place down!" Your voice is loud and firm as you stand alone in the court with a bunch of them who look at you in annoyance.
"Get out of here miss or we'll burn you, too." Someone replied from one of them.
You remove your cap and throw it near where most of them are. They stopped from whatever they were doing as they looked at the cap on the ground, then to you, and after a few seconds their eyes widened.
"You're the girl who knocked Tiger—"
Someone spoke from one of them again, "Lucky! We're gonna get our revenge and burn this woman with the houses here!"
All of them agreed. You are still standing there alone and you see them leave the gasolines temporarily before they get their own knives and baseball bats inside the truck. Your jaw tightens as they surround you.
They have their weapons and there's just a lot of them. There are around 60 to 70 men and all of them are looking arrogant while staring at you like you are their little prey.
You didn't really bring any sharp tools or weapons except the two brass knuckles that are inside your pocket. It is metal shaped to fit the hands for hand to hand combat and you're sure that it will bring real damage to whoever you'll punch later on. You look at the clouds as you wear those brass knuckles..
"I won't let you do whatever you're planning. If you want to settle this in a peaceful way, stop this." You started in a dominating voice.
"Who are you to dictate what we are going to do!?" The man smirks and shows his knife, "We'll kill you, or even use you, before we bring your head to Tiger and Leon."
You didn't show a threatened expression. The wound at the side of your stomach is still hurting, and Leon was the one who inflicted it. You curse silently as you move your fingers in comfortably with the brass knuckles.
"The people here are innocent. They have nothing to do with any of this delinquent war." You muttered and looked at them seriously, "If you'll pull them into our world's mess, I'll kill you."
"Can you?" They teased but they seemed to realize something, "How do you even know about our plan in the first place!? Nevermind. We'll kill you anyway."
They are watching you as one of them runs towards your direction while swinging his baseball bat. You readied yourself for an intense fight but before the man hit you with the baseball bat, a crack sound was heard when someone kicked his chin effortlessly.
Everything happens so fast. Before you know it, someone is already beside you and the man from the Leepon Fang is already unconscious on the ground. Your eyes widen a little as you look at whoever it is, and your heart skips a beat when you see him standing beside you.
"Manjiro." You whispered.
His eyes are cold and emotionless as he looks back at you. Your heart is having a riot inside your chest and it seems as if Mikey knows you'll be here. His penetrating gaze left you speechless for a second.
"Why do you always handle these kind of burdens all by yourself?" He whispered in a serious manner. He's serious and his jaw was clenched tightly.
You tried to speak despite your heartbeats and shock on what he is doing here, "What are you doing here?"
For a moment, the time stopped. You clearly see how his lips formed into a small smile for a few seconds. His eyes are staring at you, too.
"I will never let anyone hurt you again."
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