"You brother is a bit weird"
"Eh? What is that supposed to mean?"
"Dude, haven't you noticed? Something is off about him." Wakasa simply said.
Shinichiro rolled eyes, "Like what? He's a perfectly normal kid!"
Lies,lies, and even more lies. Even Wakasa knows that was a big fat lie.
"Okay, one example," Wakasa stops his bike, " Look. "
Shin didn't even have to turn around to cringe.
He would continue to defend his brother to his deathbed but he really had nothing to say against that statement, especially at a sight like this.
Normal almost six-year olds go off and go play on playgrounds, terrorize old folks, go off and buy monster cards, socialize before the terrorers of teenagehood makes things all complicated and to live carefree. Well, while Mikey does some of those things (well, more less), he sometimes is just a bit off .
Not from the outside as most people think the infamous Sano family is an honorable family or whatever bullcrap because of their Grandpa (used to serve in the military or something). Though people like Wakasa and the rest of the Black Dragon's gang know well, very well actually, that they're not. And so therefore it's getting hard to defend his little brother against them.
Especially when his brother is doing weird things.
Weird things like this .
His little brother was currently sitting in the middle of a field doing absolutely nothing. The field was infamously known as a spot where rowdy motorcycles and rowdy gang members hang out or do rumbles in the middle of it. A clearly unusual spot for a five-year old kid to sit at, alone, staring blankly at the lake near it.
Shinichiro sighs, Wakasa just smiles in the 'he was right' way.
"So, do I go ahead? It looks like your hands are full." Shin just nods as Wakasa gives him an apologetic smile and leaves ahead of him, waving off whenever they meet again.
Shin sighs again, riding towards his brother to see what situation he is in. Wondering if his younger brother was ever normal in the first place.
Shinichiro was ten when Mikey, or Manjiro during this time, came into the world. Even at the beginning he knew something was just off about his brother.
His brother came almost like in a storm coming on August 20th 1990, he clearly didn't need to pinch as he came out crying. For a small baby the noise he made was louder than any other baby in the ward and most stereos at the time.
"Oh hell, even Shin wasn't this fussing as a baby." His father complained, looking utterly tired as if he gave birth himself.
Their grandfather just laughed, "Too bad, I was really hoping for a granddaughter this time around. Another boy?"
"Thank god." His father muttered in annoyance, he muttered something else that Shin didn't catch.
Shinichiro just stared at the baby through the window of the ward, seeing as it's the only baby crying up a storm to the annoyance of the nurse trying to calm him.
Shin got close to the window staring as what is his new little brother. Manjiro was a really tinning baby, as he was born premature. It really surprised him how much noise a little thing could make.
The little baby's eyes were open though, seemingly searching for something. All until Shin thinks he looked at him, his eyes were just like his with being an obsidian color oval shaped. Shinichiro wasn't quite sure what to do, he had never even seen a baby before today. He just awkwardly waved.
The baby just looked at him and finally content with its shouting battle, quieting down and seemingly going to sleep. The nurses looked relieved.
Shin even today is unsure if he helped in that or if Manjiro finally just tired himself out.
(It seems though to be the start of a pattern that has become extremely noticeable over time.)
The first thing he noticed was how Manjiro as a baby hardly cried compared to when he was barely born, or even laughed.
Shin was prepped up to handle nights filled with a crying and fussing infant but nothing, he barely even noticed Manjiro was there often enough.
He was almost like a doll most of the time, just lying around and existing . Though there's one thing that seemed like it brought joy to the little bundle.
"Come on, really?"
"What's wrong with it? It's a bear."
"Your trying to make my son gay? The other day I saw Shinichiro trying to use heels and now this?"
"Just like those were just shoes , this is just a bear ."
"Could you have, I don't know, given him a car? Something manly?"
"He could choke on it-"
"He's gonna choke on something later on if you start treating him as some sissy."
As their parents fighting continued Shin was contently seeing how his usual unresponsive little brother reacted to the object. He looked at it with sparkles, almost the way he looked at Shin or their grandfather.
It was a pretty ugly thing, it was a small all-pink bear with a ridiculous blonde toupee pompadour on top but it seemed like the plush did make Mikey really happy.()
Their father tried to take it away multiple times, though out of sheer stubbornness it was their mother who kept giving it back over and over again. At times she did give up and it was Shin's duty to give it back, like a good older brother should do.
Manjiro loved the thing, and even now still has it.
He was never sure why.
Once he was a couple months older it seemed like he got a bit more fussy, though it was usually because of their parents. As in whenever they tried to hold or even touch him he would wiggle away and run towards him or their grandpa.
Manjiro only seemed to laugh when he was held by Shin himself or their grandfather, but most of the time it was as if he didn't know their parents or acknowledged their presents.
One day when he came back from school he walked in on their mother trying to make Manjiro to take his first steps.
" 'Jiro, come on baby! Come to mommy!" The baby just stared at the blonde women and turned away to his plushy, making their mother somewhat rage inside.
"Fine, if you wanna be that way!" She half-yelled, turning heel back to the kitchen to sulk. (Their mother at the time was quite young, being only in her late twenties, unlike their father who was in his forties.)
Shinichiro took his bag off and walked towards the baby, gaining his immediate attention. The baby cooed and blab, waving his chubby little hands towards him.
Shin was going to go pick him up before being stopped by their mom.
"Wait a moment." Shin listened and stayed put.
The baby stared, looked annoyed almost, before attempting to crawl over. It was clear from their mother's expression that she was soured over it; she got even more twisted when Mikey started to attempt to walk over.
From this it caused a chain of events where his mother ended up sulking the whole day before their father came home, because of the sulking she did not make dinner and that therefore made their father mad. The arguing causes Shin to take Manjiro and leave the house for the day and end up going to their grandpa's for the night.
The lack of any clear bond between baby and parent caused the both of them to take Mikey to a doctor but there was nothing wrong, that it will 'take time' they said.
Since then there was a clear drift among them, all due to the seemingly easy bond between Manjiro, himself and their grandfather. It was soon enough that Shin himself, at the ripe age of 11, was going to be the sole caretaker of Mikey (which he didn't mind as he was only five when he learned to take care of himself due to his parent's clear immaturity, what was one more living being right?)
It was when their mother left when Shinichiro and Manjiro were sent off to live with their grandfather, and it only took a couple months before their father seemingly went to the edges of the earth, to never come back for them.
(He would never admit it but it was good riddance)
When Manjiro upgraded from baby to toddler, the trouble just seemed to have gotten worse.
Mikey didn't talk a lot, staying the same quiet baby. He only seemed to respond with gestures and just chose to ignore you if he didn't care about the subject. He often caught the toddler when he was looking at the sky, he didn't even seem interested in toys or normal things toddlers should have been in, except for the plush bear toy.
"Ap-AppLE, come on say it Manjiro!" Their grandfather would try all day but nothing would make it happen, the toddler just stared at him before turning all his attention to the bear.
Another trip to the doctors and again nothing was wrong, they even took other tests for if Mikey had mental disability but nothing, that is all in due time.
It wasn't until when playing around with Manjiro one day that he was jokingly taking away his bear that Manjiro yelled out his first word.
"MICHI!"
It caught him almost off guard that he fell off his face, Michi the bear still being intact and forcefully taken away by the angrist two-year-old he had ever seen.
His next word was' 'Hungry'', and followed by 'Dorayaki'.
(Shinichiro never really found out why Mikey named the bear 'Michi', just another oddity from his odd little brother.)
Shin expected more trouble to come when Mikey became older but truly nothing really had happened. Perhaps it was just because Mikey was a slow learner, well a slow learner of everything but martial arts, picking it up easier than trying to walk (which made Shinichiro glad because him being the one true successor of their grandfather seem to slimed at every kick and punch he tried to do).
Time passed and Emma appeared and came to live with them permanently, and thus Manjiro became Mikey. He was glad that Mikey was able to get along with their new half-sister, as it seemed like it would take forever for Mikey to warm up to people no matter their bloodline. He was so proud of it.
Though like usual, problems showed up.
"MIKEY-"
"SHE WAS TOUCHING MICHI!"
Possessiveness never seemed like a problem for Mikey, he often shared things like food and other toys with Emma, even clothing. Hell, Mikey even seemed eager to give Emma anything he owned. Once Emma started to live with them Mikey acted extremely protective over her, chasing out neighborhood boys or practically anyone that would even go near her (and oddly enough, baseball and softball related things like bats.) He adores her as did himself.
Until the subject of Michi the bear came around.
Emma was caught playing with it and got yelled at by Mikey, causing the poor three-year-old to start crying.
"It's just a bear Mikey, can't your only little sister-"
"No!" Holding the bear close as if he was going to take it away.
It seemed like a losing battle, though one trip to the store seemed to fix it right away.
And once again, another 'Michi'' the bear came along, just this time Emma referred to them as 'Michi-Chan'.
(Though it followed with another additional plush that Emma seemed possessive over as she did to Michi-chan, named simply as Kenny the bunny.
Though Emma was more generous and allowed Mikey to touch that plushie a total of once a month, and birthdays and most holidays.)
One of the favorite things the younger Sano's liked to do was to play 'superhero'.
"Look out Michi! Saki the ugly is gonna get you!" Mikey yelled. ()
"Oh no! How is Michi gonna save himself!" Emma gasped.
"With a gun!" Shin almost spit his water out, and so did his friends who were visiting.
"But Michi doesn't use guns!" Emma complained. "He's nice and doesn't want to hurt anybody! Not even ugly Saki!" She said, glaring at the stuffed...thing.
Honestly he is not even sure where they got it or why they had that plushie around anyways, they absolutely hated it. He would find it tortured, hanging from places, almost burnt one time if he didn't stop it. Shin tried to throw it away one time but they yelled at him not to. As, and he quotes, 'needs to get punished and what he deserves".
WHAT.
He and his friends could only look on in complete astonishment at the sight of this.
"Dude, I thought my siblings were weird." Takeomi whispered, almost scared.
Shin just nodded, still trying to pick up his jaw. This was one of the first times he ever heard what actually goes on when they play with Michi, it was way more terrifying than he thought.
"You're right! Okay, Michi doesn't kill ugly Saki with a gun. He's too good for that but Saki will still try to kill him! Ugly bastard! He has no honor!" Shin was still too stunned to speak to even comment on his five-year old brother's cursing.
WHO DOES THIS???? HE NEVER DID AS A KID-
"But you know what happens though?" Mikey gave Emma a seemingly knowing smile, "BOOM! FOR BEING A SHIT-PERSON HE GETS RUN OVER BY A TRUCK! WOO~!" He cheers as he runs over the plushie with a toy truck.
"WOO~!" Emma cheered with Mikey.
All the Black Dragons could only look with astonishment and pure fear.
As troubles started to arise with things like school and making friends started coming around, Shin was a bit worried about how his brother would adapt to that world of normal children. A kid holding a stuffed bear almost all the time and also knows how to kick someone twice their weight was bound to have issues having friends.
And he knows this because that is what happened on the first day of school when Mikey became five and went to kindergarten.
The TEACHER tried to take 'Michi' away and Mikey ended up taking her to the ER for a broken leg and getting expelled on his first day.
("Good! If they were to try to take my Michi or Kenny i would do the same!"
Mikey was as good an influence as he is, which just means they are both absolutely terrible older brothers.
If Shin was a worse person,and was decent in martial arts, he would punch that smug smile his brother had. )
It took convincing but Shin managed to make Manjiro (and in addition, Emma) leave the plushie at home to keep him safe.
("Hey if you don't want anyone to touch what you love, why not just leave it at home where you know it's safe?" Even he is surprised that worked, they really treated their plushies as if they were real.)
As tired as he is because of being an older brother, there are things that get easier overtime. Like Mikey finally getting friends! The meeting betweens Takeomi's younger brother and Mikey is going smoothly, though for some odd reason it seems like the younger sister is not quite fond of Mikey (which he is not sure if this would cause problems later on in life) and recently he herd of Mikey talking to a boy at the playground! It's a lot of progress for a kid who seems like his only friend was a bear and his family.
The little things like that made Shinichiro content. Even if his brother is a bit weird, as long as he has friends and lives a good life Shin doesn't care.
Though,,,,,
He does wish his little brother could at least be a bit more normal (at least Emma could pose as normal most of the time).
"Hey Mikey!" Shin yelled,parking his motorcycle before walking towards his younger brother.
Mikey didn't even spare him a glance, he just stared at the flowing man-made lake while sucking on his lollipop. For a five-year old it is so odd to see so emotionless, and almost mature like (even if he knows very well that Mikey is far from that). It was a bit unnerving.
Shinichiro just sat next to him awkwardly, "So how is class? Was it fun today?"
Mikey just shrugged, not even looking at him.
An awkward silence filled the air between them. Mikey wasn't as silent compared to when he was younger, but still there were times where all he does is just stare at the sky as if he is looking for something.
"Shin?"
It was almost a minute past that Mikey finally spoke.
"Yeah?" He said, almost eager for the silence to be over.
"Can I ask you something?" He said cautiously, looking nervous.
Shinichiro almost jumped with joy, maybe they would finally talk about something normal and not 'please don't attack your teacher' or 'please don't try to leave the plushie Saki in the toilet because he deserves it' conversation. Perhaps Mikey has gotten a new friend and needs advice? Or ready to talk about the boy from the playground? Maybe a girl from class?
"Sure, what's up?" Please, anything, he wants to be asked and told things a normal older brother should hear and to give his brother advice on-
"How long did you have to wait for Wakasa?"
Heh?
"What?"
"How long did it take for you to wait for Wakasa?" Mikey repeated, staring at him deeply.
"What do you mean?" Shinichiro scratches his neck, genuinely confused.
"Ya know that one person you meant to meet, like forever. " Mikey explained further, looking confused himself, seemingly looking for the words he was trying to describe.
"Things like that just happen, there is no time for it Mikey. You will know when you met them." Shin said genuinely, this wasn't the question he was expecting but he supposes it's an understandable thing to ask.
Mikey was always alone, and so was he at one point. It would only make sense that Mikey would ask him when he finds someone outside of their family to be close with as he and Wakasa are. Though he would have expected it when Mikey was a bit older.
"But I already know them." Shin just looked in confusion, Mikey continued on, "I-I think i do anyways. It's confusing, Shin."
Mikey hugged his knees closer, not meeting Shin's eyes.
"I feel like I could almost see them but they are so far away from me at the same time." Mikey said, having a conflicted look on his face. It was all scrunched up and sour as their mother once did.
Shinichiro scooted closer to Mikey, wrapping his arm around his shoulder as if trying to comfort the confused kid.
"Mikey, please explain. I am not catching on." Shinichiro said softly.
"I-I don't know. I know one of them is coming soon, but I don't know when the second is coming."
"Unlike the first one, who is warm and nice, the second one is just...his light itself! He reminds me of the sky! More like a superhero flying in the sky! Or the sun! I feel like I am waiting for someone but I don't know where to meet them." Mikey's voice cracked, even though it sounded oddly happy, he waved his hands as if he was trying to describe something as big as the world itself.
Mikey paused and huddled back into a ball.
"I don't even know if they would want to meet me, I feel like I already did things to make them hate me." Mikey softly said almost like he wanted to cry.
"MIKEY! DON'T SAY THAT-" Shin is not sure what he is doing, he is not even sure what his brother is saying (though it does feel somewhat familiar), so he is just going to go on what his gut is telling him, "What you're describing is your soulmate! And of course they would want you! You're amazing!"
"My-my soulmate?" Mikey quietly said, going out of his ball.
"Yea-Yeah!" Oh god he is in too deep, "Your soulmate! What you're describing is that you're waiting for your soulmate!" He continued on with his bullshit, "The first one is probably your platonic soulmate! Like how Benkei and Takeomi are mine! And that you're going to meet them first! How lucky!" Oh god what is he doing-
"W-what about my second one?" Mikey asked, wiping tears with his sleeve.
"Well, uhh, they're your romantic ones I guess! They're strong because it's love! Like kissy-stuff." He is the last person that should be talking about this-
"Have you met your romantic soulmate?" Mikey asked.
"Hey Shin-chan, got rejected again? Hey, I could share some of my chocolate with you if ya want." The white-haired boy said, his Cheshire cat grin turning and his amethyst color eyes glowed in mischief.
"N-No not yet."He said, turning away from his little brother as his face turned a hot red color, "Look you feeling bad is probably just because you feel bad for making them wait, just don't worry about it. You will meet them eventually."
Shin put a helmet on his younger brother and started to run towards his bike, "Come on brat, let's go home, gramps is waiting for us!"
Mikey, looking chipper as ever, just happily nodded and followed right after him, still ever so slightly staring at the sky but this time with a big smile on his face (Shinichiro swears he has never seen his brother so happy before).
God, his younger siblings are going to be the end of him, he wonders if he is truly going to die once Izana joins their household.
Notes:
Soon enough, all memories will appear, just wait :)
Shin is not gonna be a big focus, just thought it would be an interesting to start of the fic like this, also no promises that a chapter this long will happen again
I also updated the tags, they may change overtime again so always keep watch, I also wanted to add Emma and Yuzuha to the harem! Cause I love the girls of TR and they need more love 🥰
(Note: I have no idea how old was Shin when he meet Waka and Kaizo and founded the black dragons, I just assumed around 15)
Suggestions, helpful information, requests are deeply welcomed and needed.
WATTPAD NOTES*
Ello! This is the same person of ao3! I was bored and just wanted to crossposted this, the newest chapter of this fic wil be uploaded soon enough on ao3 ;)
Anyways I hope watpad users enjoy this fic! I'll transfer the rest soon enough lol XP