"You and my brother are no longer in the honeymoon phase. Eight months, huh?" Emma says, stirring her red plastic straw around her tall glass of chocolate milkshake. "I wonder if me and Draken would also reach that mark too." She spoke with hope in her voice, sighing softly as she rests her cheek on top of the back of her hand.
"Of course!" Both Ai and Hina said at the same time, a little loudly as the customers around them turned their heads to the face the three friends seated outside of the cafe.
"Don't your brothers get tired of fighting too? I really oppose to violence!" Hina voices out before leaning in to take a sip on her strawberry milkshake. Both Ai and Emma shook their heads together.
"Though Mikey is usually asleep in the morning, there are times where he is awake. And he used to pick up fights with smaller delinquents and gangs with Draken." Emma shrugs her shoulders.
"Hakkai will continue to follow Mitsuya kun like his life depends on him." Ai shrugs as well. "But Mitsuya kun is a really great guy. I admire him a lot." Ai praises him, leaning to take a sip on her vanilla milkshake.
As the three of them departed, Ai was about to walk home when her phone chimed in her hand.
From: Hakkai
To: Ai
Sorry for bothering you, Ai. But can you come to the hospital? Taka chan and Smiley kun are unconscious. Please look after them. I'll drop by after the meeting. pm 7:54
Furrowing her eyebrows, Ai wondered what happened to Mitsuya and why was he in the hospital. Immediately, she started brisk walking, beads of sweat started to roll down the side of her head but she didn't cared. She was worried about what happened to Mitsuya.
Entering the shared private ward, on one side of the room laid on top of the stretcher bed was Smiley, on the other side was Mitsuya. Both wore their gang uniforms and look peaceful despite the loud heart monitor sounds on their sides. Slowly, Ai walked and took a seat besides Mitsuya's bed. Heaving a deep sigh, she extended her hand out to hold his hand.
His hand was cold, but hers were warm.
Gently, Ai laid her head on Mitsuya's bed before closing her eyes. Waiting for Hakkai to arrive as he promises.
But unknown to her, Sanzu had been standing outside of the shared private room the whole time. Carrying a motive in his mind.
. . . . . . . . . . ♡
Takemichi and Inui pressed their hands together, standing on each other's side with their eyes closed as they stood before the grave of Shinichiro.
Takemichi held his hands behind his back and bowed deeply. "I will live up to the first gen's name! I'll make Black Dragon the greatest team ever!!"
As the wind whooshed and whistled, Izana smiled at the sight before him. "So the eleventh generation is born on the founding day of Black Dragons, huh? That's interesting."
Both Takemichi's and Inui's eyes widened at his appearance. Inui running forward to Izana, taking a hold on his red collar uniform. "What did you fuckers do to Koko?!"
Izana sickly smiles at Inui. "Play nice will you? Were in Shinichiro's grave after all!" He says, "And he's the one who wanted to join Tenjiku in the first place." Izana's eyes darted to Inui's hand still holding his collar tightly. "Can you let me go now? I'm only here to visit my brother's grave."
Before Inui could remove his hold on Izana's collar, Izana's eyes glimmered at the sight of the colorful friendship bracelet on his wrist. "Nice bracelet you have." He says, "Koko also wears it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but...a girl is also wearing that same bracelet too, right?"
Blinded by his rage, Inui threw an uppercut to Izana. "Get away from Ai!!"
Stumbling back, Izana lets out a hearty laugh while sitting on the ground. "I'm here, aren't I? You shouldn't say that to me, Inui. Say that to my men who are walking freely in broad daylight right now."
"What's going on?"
Both Izana, Inui and Takemichi turned their heads around, seeing Mikey standing in front of Emma.
"Takemichi. Take Emma away!"
Nodding his head, Takemichi took a hold on Emma's wrist, running away with her from the cemetery.
"Do boys...really know nothing but fighting?" Emma asks as she and Takemichi walked away from the cemetery. "Do you want to walk around? Ai will be coming from this area so let's greet her here!" Emma beams.
Takemichi nodded his head, the two of them walking in silence. But the silence was voided as Ai finally came from the other side.
"Hakkai kept nagging to come with me but I told him not to!" Ai says, jogging towards Takemichi and Emma. "Told him that I'd be fine on my way here!" Ai beams happily, jumping a little as she stood before the two of them. "Why are you two here though? I thought Mikey and Inui would be joining us?" She asks, blinking her eyes.
Before Takemichi could answer her question, a loud motorcycle engine roared from the direction Ai came from minutes ago. It was a black bike with two people sitting, the person at the back holding a wooden bat. Before Takemichi could react, Ai had pushed him and Emma out of the way. Resulting to Ai receiving the blow of the bat on her head, falling behind the concrete ground with a sound. Blood seeping on the side of her head.
"What..." Takemichi turned his head to look at the unconscious body of Ai laying down in the middle of the road. Turning his head to look at the motorcycle that stopped a few meters from Ai, spotting Kisaki as the second person. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO, KISAKI?!"
With his eyebrows turned, Kisaki patted his hand on Hanma's shoulder, telling him to run off and speed away.
"Ai..." Emma whispers, her eyes starting to gloss with tears.
Izana wasn't phased when he saw Ai's unconscious body and bleeding head on the ground. He walked into a different direction like everything was normal. But Inui and Mikey had their eyes widened before Mikey crouched down.
"I'll carry her" Mikey says. Immediately, Inui and Takemichi helped carry Ai's body on his back, his hands securely holding her. "You three can go now, I'll take her-"
"No!" Emma shouts, tears streaming down her face. "I want to go with you!"
"I'll go with you as well" Inui says, turning his body to face Mikey.
Takemichi nodded his head as well. Mikey didn't want to put up a fight, letting out a small sigh. "Ai doesn't like loud noises. So keep quiet!" He says, smiling with his eyes closed.
The four of them walked towards the nearest hospital. Emma quietly sobbed, Inui kept clenching his fists, his knuckles already turning white while Takemichi silently prayed to himself that Ai is still alive.
"Mikey" Ai whispers, slowly opening her eyelids. Emma, Inui and Takemichi gaped upon seeing Ai raise her head a little.
"Are you okay there, Ai?" Mikey asks, slightly glancing to check on her. Ai nodded her head a little before nuzzling her head on his nape.
"I'm sorry for lying, Mikey." Ai whispers, smiling to herself. "But the day you came with me to the ballet academy, they wanted to send me to France. A foreign school found potential in me, they already gave me an application form. Everything will be paid by the school from my flight ticket to lodging expenses." Ai whispers, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly from behind.
Mikey was quiet for a moment, letting Ai's words sink into his head. "What did you say?" He asks afterwards.
Before Ai could reply to his question, she smiled to herself once more. "I've decided...to quit ballet and stay with you."
Those were Ai's final words before closing her eyes, her once tight arms wrapped around Mikey's fell down to his shoulders.
"Takemichi" Mikey begins to say, his lower lip quivering while his vision blurs with tears. "Can you check on Ai? I can't feel her breathing anymore."
. . . . . . . . . . ♡
"I've already cleared your name." Izana begins to say, looking at Kisaki. "Hope you gave her a good blow in the head for me."
"Mikey looks medium, he doesn't look like he's cut above the rest with her around. Her and Toman are what drags away his potentials. Therefore, it is only right that I fix everything for him. After Ai, I will cause a feud between Kazutora and Baji."
Izana scoffs, amused by what Kisaki is saying. "You're really grooming him, huh?"
"My first pawn was Osanai who was supposed to murder Ai, but that completely failed. Shitheadmichi and her two friends were there to save her. I created Valhalla so that I could murder her myself, but there were a group of normies around her that day. I couldn't get a hold on her. I thought, if I manipulated her family, she'd lose herself. But didn't work either." Kisaki says, clicking his tongue as he is reminded of his failed attempts from last year.
"It is only right that I do it myself." Kisaki concludes.
"Hmm" Izana hums, shoving his hands inside the pockets of his uniform. "Say, if that girl is still alive, what would you do?"
Yuzuha and Hakkai ran inside the hospital, desperately looking for their younger sister. When they reached her private room, the sight of her bandaged head had Yuzuha breaking down in tears.
"Who did this to her?" Hakkai says, gritting his teeth before raising his hand to punch the wall besides him.
"....Kisaki did" Takemichi whispers. Turning in his heels, Hakkai started punching the white wall, painting it with red as blood started to pour out of his open wounds.
"I will kill him!" Hakkai growls, continously punching the wall despite Takemichi and Inui pulling him away.
"Calm yourself down, Hakkai. Ai will scold you if she sees you."
Takemichi, Mikey, Emma, Inui, Hakkai and Yuzuha raised their heads, gaping at the unexpected person who came into Ai's room.
It was Taiju.