second hand (maitake / takemikey)

the one where they talk about fate

Chifuyu and Kazutora's apartment was comfortable. Right as he'd walked through the door Takemichi almost tripped over a black cat (who'd begun to circle around his legs) into the dark brown modern lounge filled with paintings, sculptures, and papers covered in writing strewn all over. There was a stack of books including one on origami, cooking, and photography.

"We do a lot of projects," Kazutora explained, picking up the papers and putting them in one tidy pile. It was sweet, it felt lived in and it had a clear story when you saw it. You knew who lived here even without being told who did, just by the contents of the area.

Besides the looming feeling of anxiety about learning all of these past events, Takemichi felt pretty good overall.

"We should start with Moebius," Chifuyu began, as he placed a cup of tea in front of Takemichi.

Takemichi sat up straight, his chest feeling a bit tighter as he braced himself for however good or bad the information to come would be.

"Mikey had planned to surprise them that day? Before the festival?" Chifuyu seemed to be searching for the info, but coming short. "I wasn't there for most of it.. First, Pah-chin stabbed Osanai for threatening his friend.. Things were calm for a couple days but then Baji and I got attacked-"

Takemichi choked on his tea, "What?" When he heard the last five words, it was almost like the radio in his brain turned slightly off and there was a hint of static.

"Moebius sent people out after the Toman leaders specifically. I don't know the exacts of everyone's situation... I just know Tetta came to us and Draken got cornered by a large group of them."

There'd always been a chance things would go wrong, but for some reason he didn't expect it to be this bad. Maybe he'd started to become a bit too complacent, or maybe not complacent per se but... comfortable. He'd taken a backseat to the changes happening around him and hadn't done anything proactive. Takemichi didn't feel like eating anymore, "When exactly does that happen?"

"Right before we were going to attack them," Chifuyu told him. "Some people thought you were a spy. That didn't end well."

He had to get back soon to stop this. Since he was going to try and change it there was no use in asking about Bloody Halloween, "Where's Mikey?"

They exchanged another look, causing more nerves on Takemichi's end. It was Kazutora who spoke up, "Prison."

Takemichi had an interesting relationship with time, today he was fighting against it. He had to beat the clock. If he and the clock were in the Indy 500 automobile race, he would definitely be losing at this rate. Chifuyu would probably kill him if he made a critique of his driving right now, so Takemichi just retreated further into his head for a while.

He didn't know how Mikey had gotten in jail, but the high and intimidating walls were too ugly for someone like him. He says this knowing Mikey can take down someone 3 times his size with a simple kick, has killed all of their friends in one timeline, and he even killed Takemichi once. Thing is, it's Mikey, and Takemichi would believe in him until the very end.