"Tomorrow's the second year of high school..." Mitsuya whispered to himself, glancing at Fuutarou sitting beside him. It was just the two of them sitting near the river.
"Got any big plans, Mitsuya?" Mitsuya hummed at his friend's question.
"You study at Asahiyama High right?"
"Yeah I do. What's up?"
"I've been thinking about transferring there." Mitsuya's answer surprised Fuutarou. The black haired man glanced at the aspiring fashionista.
"Really? Why the sudden change? Finally starting to take school seriously?" Mitsuya was a pretty smart guy. He does well in school but here's the thing, he doesn't put much effort into it, usually putting more of his attention on his growing online fashion business he started years ago.
"Since Mikey isn't here, I'm going to speak my mind with you." Mitsuya sighed, his expression serious. Fuutarou raised an eyebrow at his sudden change of mood.
"The gang's growing, no doubt about it. The Kanto, Chūbu and Kansai region is ours. Our name commands respect from most, well mostly yours and Mikey's but whatever, it's respect nonetheless. But... I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that Tokyo Manji is going to bring me a clean future. There's no diploma at the end and no sustainable outcome that doesn't involve prison, death, or corrosion of principles."
Fuutarou scoffed, slyly glancing at him. "So you finally realized huh?" Mitsuya shook his head.
"No, I've realized it ever since we started the gang all those years ago, before we even beat Black Dragon."
"Then why did you agree to join?"
"Because.... it might sound funny, but being in the gang means being friends with you guys. I thought that if I didn't join, I would lose you guys as my friends."
"Huh, didn't know you were on the same boat as me." Fuutarou muttered to himself.
"Really? You looked motivated like Mikey at the time. You'd be the first in line to beat our rivals up."
"You know how I was at the time Mitsuya... I wasn't really mature enough to have the opinions that I have now. Now I know the gang isn't the future..." Fuutarou hummed before continuing.
"Now that I think about it. Mikey's the only one that plans the territory expansions now. I don't even join most of the meetups anymore. The rest, actually what do the others think?" Fuutarou asked Mitsuya.
"Oh, you mean Draken and the others?" At Fuutarou's nod, Mitsuya continued. "They sometimes skip attending the meetings, except for Draken, he has to be there or else Mikey's gonna do something stupid." The black haired man chuckled at that.
"You remember our goal of 'being in top of the gang underworld' thing?"
"Yeah we used to be so obsessed about it."
"Yeah most of us don't even prioritize it anymore, it's not even on our top 5 list of things to focus on. They're chasing normal lives, Fuutarou. They're all finding jobs of their own, studying hard when they didn't before. They don't need the gang anymore..."
"So I guess it's decided then, the gang's going to be disbanded eventually."
"Well, maybe we should be number one first, to make Mikey satisfied and all."
"I think the highest compliment to my leadership is that one day there's no gang to lead. The correct endgame is our disappearance. I am going to disband it, but let's show that we did something before we do."
"You know the gang respects you more than they do Mikey, and I'm not talking about Baji and them, I'm talking about the entire gang." Fuutarou glanced at Mitsuya who nodded at him, a smile on his face.
"It's true. When a gang wants to be recruited, you're the one that shows up and asks them if they're really sure about it. And when a member wants to leave, you personally go and advise them, heck you even give all of them some money." Mitsuya turned to face him.
" You know that in most gangs, quitting is framed as weakness. But somehow you normalized that leaving isn't betrayal, you've killed that myth man. I still remember the time you announced that members with jobs, apprenticeships, or school commitments would be protected from being dragged into conflicts, and if they have a shift tomorrow or an exam coming up, they're off-duty."
Fuutarou smiled as Mitsuya went on. "I'm actually so glad that you organized nightly study sessions for the whole gang. Even if you don't show up sometimes, the gang still conducts it." Fuutarou remembered the moment he declared it to be mandatory. He didn't use the usual talk that education will save them. He said that it raises their options, and fewer options gets people killed.
And now, there was homework help offered without fanfare, university prep, entrance exam strategies and school info passed along like contraband.
"Oh and I'm never going to stop thanking you and Yamagishi for helping me create that website for my fashion business years ago. Now I'm actually on my way to opening a physical store."
"Ah don't mention it. It's not that big of a deal." Fuutarou muttered, staring at his reflection in the river, remembering his work in the gang. For the past few years, Fuutarou had been pushing legal paths and more.
Construction, delivery, mechanics, tailoring, anything basically. It was due to his pushing that Mitsuya's designs become real side work. Heck even his friends were in on it too. Draken, ever the one with tons of social connections, helped introduced people to shop owners. Yamagishi even took the time to help with resumes that quietly omit the spicy chapters.
And there was another thing that earned disdain from the hardcore fanatics of the gang, Fuutarou personally planned exits on a case-by-case basis. People usually joined Tokyo Manji because it offered them something, be it an identity, something to live for, or because they wanted violence.
But Fuutarou knew that was a shallow reason, he'd find that some members need school. Some need money. Some just need distance from certain people. He'd helped them with that without asking for anything back, refusing the overly gratitude and deflecting the credit. If someone succeeded, he'd say that they did the work and it was always possible.
Overtime the gang started feeling less like a destiny and more like a temporary shelter people pass through on the way to something survivable. It was the correct outcome so to speak.
Maybe that was where the respect came from. Not in the flashy, chest-thumping way they respect Mikey, but in a quieter, heavier way that sticks. Under him, there were miraculously no arrests made at the Tokyo Manji members.
Fuutarou had never sent people into pointless conflicts to inflate his authority. If he ordered something dangerous, he's already calculated the risk and stripped out everything unnecessary. And if things did go wrong, he didn't scapegoat, personally taking responsibility.
People respect him, moreso than Mikey because expects more from people. He expected discipline, he expected them to show up, think, and don't waste their respective futures. For a lot of Toman members, that would be the first time an authority figure treated them as someone capable of improvement rather than someone useless or just disposable muscle.
That's why in Toman, Mikey would be the symbol they'd die for, but Fuutarou would be the reason fewer of them actually do.
"I can't help but think that Mikey hates me." Fuutarou muttered. Mitsuya looked at him, intrigued at the sudden ommision. Well, the man understood why Fuutarou would say that. The things Fuutarou did for the each of the members, the help, the planned exits, the push for a normal life, it didn't sit well with Mikey.
Mitsuya wouldn't say that Mikey's dissatisfaction comes from anger, it started as unease. Mikey doesn't want endless violence, but he does anchor his identity, and his emotional survival, to the idea of Toman as a place where everyone belongs.
When Fuutarou started encouraging exits, Mikey felt it as erosion. Not betrayal, but loss. To him, people leaving safely looked like people drifting away. And Mikey had a complicated feeling for it.
"Mikey's just lost, Fuutarou. Give him some time, he'll come around and understand your point."
"He constantly acts like he's in an anime, Mitsuya. That's what's dangerous. I can't help but think that Mikey needs the gang to stay dangerous, because danger is the only thing giving his live shape."
"Surely not Fuutarou... Mikey isn't that type of person."
"The diehards worship the ground he walks on, and his ego increases with it, Every time Mikey acts impulsively and the diehards cheer, he thinks that what he did was the correct behavior."
" Don't tell me you didn't notice it, Mitsuya. Mikey's changed, he's not the silly kid he used to be. Overtime, dissent started to feel like betrayal, not feedback. Advice became an insult. Restraint felt like weakness.And now I'm the mirror he can't stand to look at." Mitsuya sighed, rubbing his neck.
"Well.... I..... Yeah, you're right...." Mitsuya admitted, feeling guilty that he admitted that his friend was bad. It was true, Mikey isn't the same Mikey he was introduced to during elementary school. Mitsuya then continued speaking.
"I was taught by my mother that people will always change overtime, and we can't do anything about it because we can never change somebody no matter how much we try. They have their own time or points in their life to realize and change."
"When he realizes that I'm right in the end, that's when he'll change." Fuutarou muttered.
"Sounds impossible when you consider the fact that there's yes-men all around him all the time. His current way of being would keep working."
"The realization would come eventually, at a damaging price that is. I won't do anything to change him, but I will stop cushioning him. It's far more dangerous that way, no? Some people only change after collapse, and Mikey fits that perfectly."
"Seems like you're making yourself the villain in his story." Mitsuya smirked at him. Fuutarou looked at him, his face expressionless.
"I was already the villain to him when we fought for the leader spot all those years ago, Mitsuya. It just wasn't obvious back then...."
"Damn..." Mitsuya whistled. There was a silence that reigned over before Mitsuya spoke again. "In a sense, you're the villain to gang culture while being a gangster yourself."
Fuutarou shook his head before chuckling his head a little. "But being the villain is exactly what lets me do good, you see. I don't need to be the hero in anyone's story. I don't need the worship. But through me, the gang survives, fewer people get hurt, and the guys get paths out."
"Depending entirely on whose story you're in, you're either the villain or the hero. Wow, that is tragic...." Mitsuya exhaled. Fuutarou's the hero because he's keeping people alive, giving them options, and preventing chaos from consuming the gang, but he's also the villain because he stands in the way of what everyone else wants, glory, loyalty, recklessness, and the comforting mythology of Mikey as untouchable.
"It's whatever, I can't do anything about it. It's better if I focus on myself."
To be continued.....