*Manga Spoilers *
Takemichi runs to Koko while Chifuyu goes for Inui as they try to keep them away from Taiju. Hakkai and Mitsuya stand side by side.
"It's been a while since we teamed up." Mitsuya patted Hakkai's back for support.
"Hmm? Don't tell me...You're actually trying to stand against me?! Taiju began to intimidate his brother.
"Hakkai, we got this. You're stronger than him!" Mitsuya encouraged Hakkai.
....
Takemichi had wrapped his arms around Koko's stomach to prevent him to move. "Whoa whoa. You gonna keep on clinging?" Koko said not doing anything to stop Takemichi.
"Mitsuya! Hakkai! I can't do this for long! Please hurry up!"
"Now I see. You're stalling for time." Koko said amusingly.
"Don't worry Hakkai, I know you can win this! Let's do this!" Mitsuya finished and ran up to Taiju, fist in the air. Taiju stood his ground and laughed, halting Mitsuya's attack. Confused, Mitsuya glanced behind and saw Hakkai who hadn't moved from his spot.
"Hakkai?"
"I'm sorry Taka-chan..." Taiju is now in front of Mitsuya.
"What were you expecting Mitsuya?" And swings his fist to Mitsuya's face.
"Mitsuya-AH!" Takemichi yelled as his stomach was kneed by Koko. Hakkai seeing everyone down, picked up the knife and yelled,
"TAIJU!" He starts panting. "Even I...I can do this!" Hakkai starts running up to Taiju. "I'm gonna kill you!" Takemichi comes running to Hakkai, headbutting him with force. "Agh! Outta my way Takemichy!" Takemichi grabs the knife by the blade, startling Hakkai.
"Don't you get it Hakkai?! If you go through with this, you'll become an irredeemable bastard! You know this isn't right!" He lets go of the knife and walks up to Taiju. "I'm gonna show you what it means to fight back!"
"Huh?!" Taiju growls. "Still haven't learned Your lesson you little shit?!"
"I haven't learned my lesson?! That's my only redeeming quality!" With that he swings at Taiju but he quickly dodges it and punches Takemichi. Takemichi continues to try and hit Taiju despite the many repeated punches to his face.
"How many times do I have to punch you until you're satisfied?!" Staggering, Takemichi says,
"Not..gonna lose."
Hakkai not bearing to see Takemichi all beaten to a bloody pulp shouts, "why?! Why won't you give up?! You're too weak for this! You've done enough! Please just stop already!"
Takemichi takes a hold of the necklace around his neck, "Taiju, I'm gonna defeat you and take control of the Black Dragons!" Hearing this, Taiju became even more furious and continued to punch him. Despite being hurt, Takemichi continues his attack on Taiju.
"Stop it Takemichy! You can't change anything!" Takemichi continues to do some damage to Taiju, but gets hurt more than Taiju does. Chifuyu laying in the floor from his fight with Inui yells out to him.
"You've done enough Takemichy! You're gonna fucking die!!!" Then both Taiju and Takemichi punches the other, Takemichi is sent flying back while Taiju has trouble standing up.
"Even the smallest chance..."
"Takemichy..please stop..."Hakkai begs him.
"That I can change the future..." he stands up, "then isn't it worth risking my life for?" Hakkai, fighting on isn't painful..What hurts more than anything is loneliness." Takemichi gives him a reassuring smile. Hearing those words causes both you and Hakkai to cry. "You can talk to me about anything Hakkai. We're friends aren't we?" Hakkai falls to his knees,
"Takemichy...please help me!"
"Leave it to me, Hakkai."
Hearing their interaction left you in tears. Not wanting Ran and Rindou to notice you crying you rest your head against the palm of your hand and use your free pinky to wipe away the tears from your eyes.
"What's wrong boss?" You look down again and see that Taiju is on his knees.
"He made the boss take a knee!" Shouted Koko.
"Toman captains are just that badass!"
"Holy shit partner!" From the corner of your eye, you see Yuzuha slowly sitting up from the bench seat of the church, Shocked to see Taiju on his knees.
"Hakkai, I'll protect Yuzuha for you." Hakkai looks up at Takemichi. You can tell he wants to say something else, he looks down,
"Takemichy... You're wrong.." with tears in his eyes, he looks back up. "My face doesn't have a single bruise on it, right? Even though Yuzuha is beaten and bloody. I wanted to protect her, but I didn't have the guts to face Taiju." Even more tears spill out. "Instead I've been protected all this time!"
"Huh?"
"I...lied to you! The one who protected me was Yuzuha this whole time!"
"Yuzuha...?" Takemichi said with shock. "Hakkai.. so you mean you were always the one being protected? Everything you said about protecting her was a lie?!
"I...told you what Yuzuha had done for me, but made it sound like I'd been doing it for her." He finished with his head down, ashamed of what he confessed.
"That's..really shitty of you." Chifuyu commented.
"Lame." Inui said bluntly.
"A loser and a coward." Rindou said beside you.
"Hey young master. It's bad enough a girl took hits for ya. But lying about protecting her? Now that's low." Koko added in, making Hakkai feel even worse.
"Its none of your business!" You looked towards Yuzuha. "It's something I decided! None of this is Hakkai's fault!"
"Forgive me Takemichy. This all happened because of me. You all got dragged into this because I lied."
Takemichi looked at Hakkai and then away. "Hakkai. You suck!" He looked down. "But don't think you're the only one who sucks. I suck even more." Takemichi smiled.
"You really suck, Hakkai" Mitsuya said as he stood up. "I told you not to hate the situation you were born into, like a show-off. In reality, I hated mine."
"Taka-chan.."
"Once, when I couldn't stand it anymore, I left my two little sisters and ran away from home. When I came back next morning, mom slapped me real good. Then, mom gave me a hug, cried and said "I'm sorry you have to put up with this."" Mitsuya walked to Hakkai and squatted down to his eye level. "Hakkai. You're not the only one who wants to run away. We're all weak."
"That's why we've got family. We won't abandon you!" Chifuyu and Mitsuya stand up, readying to fight. "Over a lie like that! That's what Tomans about!" Takemichi shouted.
~I already had made progress before I got sick and continued the rest when I felt a bit better~
+I'm better! Thank you for the Get wells! 😁😊