What if I perhaps asked for Hanma Shuji angst. What if reader and himself was fighting a rival gang and the reader protects him from someone who tries to get him when he ain’t looking 🤨
Bruises
Hanma x GN!Reader
Sorry this is so fucking late oh my god
You winced when Hanma's finger touched your bruised knuckles during the walk back home. Your head still spun, a massive headache incoming as well. To make matters worse, your body was sore as all hell and you could barely remember anything.
"What...what happened?" You ask, voice raw and raspy.
Hanma said nothing as he arrived at your house. He managed to grab the key out of your pocket and pushed the door open. Thankfully no one was home. Quietly, he walked upstairs to your room. You got down to sit on your bed while Hanma went to the bathroom to get the first aid kit.
Looking in the standing mirror was a mistake since your eyes widened at the person staring back.
That...that can't be me, you thought to yourself. What the hell happened?
"You shouldn't have jumped in," Hanma says once he gets back.
The lost memories suddenly come back to you.
Hours earlier, you two got ambushed by some members of a rival gang during a date. You managed to take down a few of them with ease when you saw another trying to attack Hanma from behind. You instinctively jumped in, thinking you were going to only take a few punches. Unfortunately, it turned out to be something much worse. The last thing you remembered was vomiting blood and weakness in your legs. "Y/N!" being the last thing you heard before your vision went white.
Tears swelled in your eyes. "I'm sorry," you mumbled. You balled your fist in frustration. If only you were a bit stronger. "I was just trying to protect you."
"Just forget about it." Hanma tried to gently dab a cotton ball with alcohol on your injuries. "What matters is that you're still here."
You did your best to dry your falling tears. "I guess you're right."
[SYNOPSIS] ˚⁀➷。 what more is there to hate when life takes away the one you loved the most?
[NOTES] ˚⁀➷。 for my bae @insomniac-jay <3, took so long because i tried to do the best research i could, and because i never liked what i wrote until today. also! if you squint, it’s slight naoto x reader but it doesn’t really matter. i hope you like it!!!! not proofread
you still can’t grasp it, it sort of feels surreal.
just like this morning felt, when you put your kimono on, and did your hair. hina loved the way you looked in traditional clothing, she said it made you shine.
and albeit you two’s pictures flooding the tachibana home, you were still surprised when her mom rang your doorbell to gift you a box, feeling slightly heavier than the last silk garment they had given you while you and hina were still in high school.
“please wear it, y/n-chan, ” ryoko’s voice was just as gentle as you remembered it growing up, but it was sad, “they make you…shine.” and full of anguish.
you could only nod, swallowing back the thick saliva that was gathering in your throat, blinking back the tears with the same eyes ryoko knew how to read as if they were her own daughter’s. reaching out for your hand longer than usual, she only smiled.
you still didn’t quite grasp it, not even when you put on your pearl necklace, and locked your front door, heading down the apartment block’s stairs, like usual.
it was like your normal way to school, and later, uni, and even later, work, walking exactly 100 meters and riding for 7 minutes and a half, before switching lines at otomachi, and riding for another 5 minutes. this time only, you had to take the south exit instead of the north one, and stroll for thirteen minutes, passing by a park, a bakery, two liquors shops and some sky-rise towers.
“welcome.”
it was different, because you entered the funeral home, where the assistant, ready to guide you to the high-school colleagues category, was interrupted by naoto. he simply took your hand and walked you over to the rest of the family. you were used to seeing naoto on saturdays, not fridays or the both of them. you had seen him yesterday, at the wake, when it was friday, so it almost went like any other day. or that’s at least how your mind put it.
and when you were sitting down, eyes glued to the monk’s back as he chanted out the prayers, naoto’s hand still found a way to get to yours, firm touch against glass skin, afraid he’d break it any minute now.
and now you sit between your younger brother and his mother that took you in when you were at flourish in your heydays, deafly listening to a monk chanting a sutra for hinata. you glance over at her and can’t help but think how beautiful she looks in the matching kimono, and how much hina resembles her. resembles, not resembled, she’ll now forever keep her beauty.
you heard japanese people experience three religions in their lifetime: birth as shintoism, marriage as christianity and death as buddhism, but you didn’t even go through one. hell, hina herself only went through two.
and whereas ryoko always told naoto to stop hurting the table because even the piece of wood had its own life itself and the boy silently complied, you were stuck figuring out what it is that you believed in. you believed in kindness. the kind of kindness hina showed you, that was the firm conclusion you accepted, so now you could only pray that the afterlife was going to show her the same gentleness and love she gave the world, her journey smooth in crossing over the sanzu river and mind clear in choosing the paths she takes, making it easy for her soul to find serenity.
you wake up once you’re signaled to join the incense rite. with slightly shaking fingers you pinch up the dry fragrance, touching it against your forehead. amidst blurred vision and hours of unslept time, you see masato wipe a ghost of a tear with the back of his crisp black suit. you set the incense in the flame bowl, and walk away, next to the parents, pupils blown and face puzzled, as if you don’t know what the world you live in is. you see familiar faces; old classmates and family friends of the tachibanas’ that you got to meet long time ago, cousins, teachers, and ex-coworkers. you think you notice some of them staring at you, what is she doing here? — what is she doing there? — next to your best friend’s family.
naoto definitely sees them, he definitely notices their judging looks, but today he can’t do justice. he won’t, because he likes to think he’s partly come to terms with his sister’s death, but no matter what, police academy never prepares you to lose your sister when you least expect it.
he throws a quick glance over his shoulder, reassuring himself you’re still there although you don’t look or feel like you’re there at all, bones wrapped in flesh, wrapped in soft black silk. you start to think maybe there is something wrong with you.
grief is a weird emotion with no textbook manifestation. there is no right or wrong way to feel following a loss. but why don’t you feel anything? why do you know that it’s happening, but you’re not fully in yet? why can’t you scream or cry or whimper or fake a smile. why has your whole face been frozen this whole time?
people come and people go and like an old charlie chaplin movie on repeat, the same action you have done repeats itself a million of times fast forwarded until your mind goes blank. you feel black-and-white.
naoto taps your shoulder. “do you want to see the body?” he eases you into it. he was always such a gentle soul.
you try to say something but choke on the words. he sees, eyes widening as his muscles tense. you only nod, and he walks with you to the casket.
maybe if you see it, your mind will take on it. you’re given a flower, the white chrysanthemum you dreaded to even think about, and the same happens to naoto.
the people in front of you all put their flowers in the casket, small step by even smaller step allowing you to approach her face. it’s just the same, except it isn’t glowing, or happy or doing anything. she’s not singing, she’s not moving. she’s dead. you know it. but why can’t you acknowledge it?
you reach into the deep inside pocket of the kimono, a neatly kept, small picture grazing the white coffin. you don’t ponder, and lay it next to your friend.
naoto freezes when he sees it. he took it, the day is burned into his memory so deeply that if he were to ever lose his reminiscence, this is the only recollection he’d have. it’s you and his sister. you’re dressed in kimonos — that was your first time wearing it — and you were excited. just fresh into spring, you both chose to wear pink: hina’s dress had delicate camellias on it, scattered playfully all around the fabric, while yours had orange blossoms intricately all across. it also was your first time wearing getas; your feet hurt so bad he had to call his dad to carry you home by the end of the festival. he didn’t mind it though, because you had fun that evening.
he reaches for the picture and looks at the back.
“doesn’t this kimono make her shine, naoto?”
“yes, it definitely does.”
scribbled on the thin paper are some almost unrecognizable kana and kanji, but naoto knows what they say by heart. he slips the square into his sleeve and puts his flower in his sister’s casket instead.
not long after everyone is done saying their goodbyes, the tachibanas and you head to the crematorium. ryoko holds your hand as she picks up the bones and sets them in the urn, and you try your best to soothe a mourning mother’s aching heart.
once everything is done, you pass the envelope to the receptionist. it’s a little over a million, and you see it on the woman’s face that she knows it too, by the width of the wrapping. you didn’t notice how much money it was until you recounted it, half an hour before leaving your apartment, so you just left it all there. no 10.000 bills, no crisp bills, at least that.
she hands you the little bag with salt, tea and snacks and you bow before leaving the crematorium.
“y/n, wait!” a voice you know very well shouts after you, tall silhouette speeding from the building into the same darkness you’re headed into.
“mom said to walk you home.” naoto looks down at you gently, as if he’s your big brother and not the other way around.
“you know you’re not actually my older sister, right?” he interrupts your exact thoughts, “we’re the same age, you were fortunate enough to be in the same grade as hinata, that’s all.” he taunts, taking you back to your salad days.
you smile approvingly and he doesn’t hesitate to take the gift bag from your hand, and walk right beside you.
the air is grim and you still feel a little bit unreal. you feel limitless, but like a void, rather than the young shoujo manga protagonist you always dreamt of being, and you can feel it in naoto’s breath too, how he tries to not let the anger drown him out. you know it’s unbearable for him too.
halfway through the walk, he breaks the silence.
“i’m glad you finally learned how to walk in getas.” he admits, and you look up. a genuine laugh stifles from your throat and his face lights up.
“naoto,” you say, “these are zoris. i wasn’t going to attend a funeral in geta sandals.” explaining, you watch his face drop in embarrassment.
“yes, i totally saw that…!”he stutters but continues to joke, hinting at the past, talking of hina as if she’s still there, next to you. in passing moments of silence, you feel overwhelmed, guilty.
faith’s a game of cat and mouse, and you play it just like you want. you laugh with naoto and you realize it’s nice to feel this sense of .. belonging. in between numbness and denial, he made your day a little better. he took some of the burden off, he ripped some of the weeds growing between your lungs, letting you breathe normally again, granting you a peaceful moment in what felt like a lifetime since your best friend died.
you step foot into the apartment building, giddy and smiley, but it all vanishes once you look around. it’s dull, it’s ugly. and you feel like you’re right next to hinata. that’s how she made you feel every time you came back from a night out in the city, arm slung around her shoulder laughing at everything she said, almost knocking over the both of you.
you look around as you climb every step and somehow, the laughs and the joy all seem to disappear in the place you spent some of the most time with her.
when you reach your front door, it feels almost surreal again, because instead of hina behind you, it’s the boy you grew up with. he looks nothing like her — he takes after his father — but he feels so familiar that when he stops you from entering your home your breath hitches a little.
“don’t forget to throw the salt.” he reminds with a slight lecture in his voice, like his sister once said “don’t forget to change your shoes.”
so, when your wrist brushes past your shoulder-blade, your zoris break under the memories you shared along the way and the ones etched into the walls of the hall.
you tug at your necklace as you finally let yourself cry.
you finally know it’s real, even more so, because you feel not one, but two familiar presences engulfing you in warmth.
one strokes your hair with the palm that keeps you pressed into his shoulder, while the other hand looks at an old photograph, and the second hugs you both, wanting to lecture you with the love and gentleness of an older sister that didn’t get to say her part.
currently thinking about : a guy who's defo not thinking about me💀
current favourite song : verdwaald - makar
currently reading : book lovers by emily henry
currently watching : jigokuraku, one piece
current favourite characters : kunigami rensuke, nanami kento, baji keisuke, thoma (and many more but those are the ones I'm currently thinking about the most)
current wips : uhm... 3 kunigami wips that I need to finish. 1 for atsumu. and many more that I don't have motivation for hehe
thankuuuuu 4 da tag moniiiii < 33333 ! ! ! @monirei
★ current time . . . 8:54pm
★ current mood . . . hm , a leetol . . crestfallen ? i guess but mostly chill :3
★ current activity . . . watchin tv , textin mi bestie , listenin to music < 3
★ currently thinkin abt . . . mi upcomin cruise trip & how i need to buy a couple more pair of sandals 。°૮꒰ྀི°´ᯅ`° ꒱ྀིა°。n how i'll never give mi heart to anyone ever again :D
★ current favorite song . . . got to get my heart back - keyshia cole
★ currently reading . . . leetol fanfics here n dere frm all diff types of fandoms i dunno , 'm dabblin in dem all
★ currently watching . . . jus got done watchin the bear s3 today so now 'm jus rewatching modern family
★ current favorite characters . . . ellie williams , eren jaeger , carmy berzatto [ mi bbiez ]
★ current wips . . . yandere eren fic + another eren fic [ dis one's a secret c: ]
Born: June 29, 1990
Zodiac Sign: Cancer
Height: 1.65cm
weighs: 49kg
blood type: O
Image color: Light orange
Favorite Thing: Hakkai’s face at a 45 degree angle. It’s her wallpaper.
Dislikes: Insects, especially cockroaches.
Role model: Her mother
Dislkes/Fears: Attractive guys
Special Ability: Archery (She is the leader of the archery club).
Dream: Hakkai to be independent
Favorite place: A cafe near her house
Pride or Shame Story: Girls at her school started a Shiba fan club, Yuzuha thought it was for Hakkai, but it turned out to be a fan club dedicated to her.
EDIT: Her image color is light orange and she dislikes/fears attractive guys. (That’s probably why she fell for Takemichi)
OH MY GOD ASDHSHDJKSAKJFHAKJHKAJSHDKSJDKJ OH MY GOD I CAN’T EVEN THINK RIGHT AT THIS FUCKING TIME HELP WAKUI JUST MADE ME SIMP FOR THIS WOMAN 500 TIMES MORE THAN I ALREADY DID
Kisaki said he was fighting demons but the demon he was fighting was bisexuality bc why was he obsessed with both Michi AND Hina? Live in your truth king💜