Keep Fighting

𓊈卍 𝟗𝟎 卍𓊉

⚠️ Trigger Warning ⚠️

Mention of child/domestic abuse, sexual assault, child pregnancy, torture, and murder.

This only comes up when Nakano is talking about her past in her dialogue. I'll bold them so you know. If I missed a part, please let me know.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It's been two days since Nakano woke up. She's currently with only Takemichi, catching up on what happened over the couple of months she's been asleep. It's going to be a short explanation since Takemichi, along with Mikey, has been taking care of Nakano for the past two months. However, there was one time they had to leave her for part of a night.

Takemichi had told Mikey everything they'd been through. The time leaping, the missions, the futures they've seen, all of it. However, this isn't what shocked Nakano, since she already knew this.

"Manjiro disbanded Toman?" The disbelief on her face reflects her true feelings. "When? Why?"

"The night after Izana's funeral." Nakano's heart wrenches and she pries her eyes away from Takemichi. "Mikey-kun disbanded Toman. He said that it would be best for the future."

This was the original plan for Nakano. Take down Toman in the past to protect the future. But after everything she's been through, after finally finding her place in this world, she's conflicted. Everything she's become now started back in the original future when she was fighting them alone.

She found her place in Toman by Mikey's side. She made friends and memories. Something that if she had told herself before this all happened, she wouldn't believe it. When Vincent died, she thought that was when her life ended. But Mikey, Takemichi, her friends, Toman, and the Black Dragons all gave her new reasons to live. To fight. To think she used to want to destroy people like them almost makes her laugh at the irony.

"Nakano?" Takemichi gently grasps her shoulder, bringing her back to reality. "What are you thinking about?"

"Just about my life before this all started. Even before all this, I was at war with Toman. Hunting down their members at night, taking them down hundreds at a time." She heaves a heavy sigh, leaning her head back to stare at the ceiling. "How things have changed since we've joined them..."

Takemichi nods, tears brimming in his eyes. "I'm gonna miss those days."

Nakano scoffs as a thought comes to her mind. "Remember what I was like before we joined Toman?"

Takemichi nods with a tight-lipped smile. "You were terrifying and hated everyone and everything." His smile then drops as he dreads to ask his burning question. "Do you think you could..?"

He ends up being unable to ask, not wanting to pressure her since she only recently woke up. But Nakano catches on quickly and answers without looking at him.

"I will tell you why I was the way I was... If you promise not to be afraid."

"I promise I won't be afraid of anything you tell me." Takemichi marks a cross over his heart with his thumb. "Whatever you went through, I'll help you through it, Nee-san."

Nakano smiles gratefully at him and lays her head back on the bed frame. She begins her story from as far back as she remembers.

"When our parents 'divorced', Dante–who I refuse to address as father and you shouldn't either–brought me to America. At least that's what his mentor told me. I've only ever lived in one area that was just forestry wilderness and a single-lane highway that nobody drove down. In other words, far enough from civilization where no one but I could hear the screams of Dante's victims.."