Koko was conflicted. For the first time in a while he didn’t know what to do. He had been agonizing over Hanma’s offer the whole day and was no closer to coming to a solution. Inupi or Hanagaki? Which one was it?
“Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
“Hah? I’m not looking at you Hanagaki!”
Takemichi gave him a wry look. “This is the fifth time you’ve looked over at me all sadly in the past ten minutes. I don’t think that’s a part of you doing your homework.”
One thing that Koko didn’t appreciate from their stint with the Haitanis? Hanagaki learning sarcasm. Anyway maybe it was best to talk about it. It’s not like he was getting too far with his homework anyway.
“There’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” he began. Slowly the whole story came out. Hanma asking him to join Moebius, having a spot open for Inupi, how he didn’t want Takemichi to join them too despite Koko’s requests.
“I asked him to reconsider, I really did. I don’t want to join a gang without you Hanagaki. But Moebius is an incredible opportunity. Once Inupi takes it over we can help you with your mission too.”
Takemichi had a complicated look on his face.
“So you want to join Moebius then?”
“Yeah. And once Inupi is the leader you can join us too.”
“I don’t think I want to join a gang though. Especially Moebius. They were rotten the last time around; don’t you remember what I told you? Kisaki was controlling them.”
“Well yes but Hanma wasn’t friends with us the last time around! For all we know he hasn’t even met Kisaki yet because he has been spending all his free time with us and the Haitanis.”
“Why are you so insistent on it? It’s not like you Koko-kun.”
“Because it’s a good idea! This way I can help both you and Inupi at the same time!”
“Koko-kun, you don’t have to help me and Inupi. You’ve already made me a better fighter. You helped me get trained properly for the first time ever in my life. You’ve already done so much for me. That’s more than I could have asked for. Shinichiro-san is alive this time around too. Things are already different than they were before. Don’t worry about me. I’ll find a different way to save Mikey. Help Inupi if you have to. But don’t join Moebius to do it. I really don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Hanma is a fool for not accepting you right now. I don’t know what his problem is. I’ll try my best to convince him tomorrow. Don’t worry.”
“You’re not listening to me Koko-kun. I already told you I don’t want to join any gang.” Said Takemichi his voice strained.
“What? What about Toman? You wanted to join them didn’t you?”
“I-I don’t know. I thought that was what I wanted too. But the more I think about it, maybe joining any of these gangs is not the right step for me right now. I mean I refused Kazutora-kun’s offer of joining Toman a while back and ever since then I feel more confident that I have made the right decision.”
“…….Hanemiya asked you to join Toman?” whispered Koko.
“Yeah a few months back. I said no though.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I-it didn’t seem important. I was going to say no anyway. I didn’t tell you about it because it wasn’t like he was asking you to join-“ Takemichi paused, cheeks flushing.
