Summary: Hanma Shuji's life was boring, dull. What's the point of fighting if you already know how it's gonna end?
Warnings: spoilers from the manga, a bit graphic.
Notes: angst, introspective, strangers to bet friends, chaotic duo.
Words count: 701
Imagine your life being always the same. You already know what’s going to happen tomorrow, the number of cigarettes you’re gonna lit, how it’s gonna end, the way you’ll crawl to sleep in your bed with bruises on your face and aching hands.
Hanma Shuji’s life was exactly that boring. So dull. It had no taste at the not-so-mature age of 16, no color, no excitement whatsoever. Others would tell otherwise, of course. Being a loner fighting in the streets, making yourself known to the best gangs of Tokyo, that’s impressive.
“Hanma, you’re literally Kabukicho’s Reaper, that’s the coolest thing ever!”
“Hanma-san, how can you fight so many people at once?”
“Shuuuji… would you like your cock sucked? After all, you won again today.”
All those titles and honorifics, Shinigami, The Reaper, Shinjuku’s Zombie, just made him smile a bit as how silly they sounded to him.
If only all those morons knew…
What’s the point of fighting if you already know how it’s gonna end?
That was until Hanma met Kisaki Tetta. With him it was different.
That boy was built differently. Hanma was a “kind soul” at heart, he knew that if he wanted to he could have crushed him in a blink of an eye, but he didn’t want to until he had listened to that boy’s requests. Average height for 13 years old, scrawny, not even great at fighting, bad eyesight. Where was he hoping to go like that?
“Hanma, be my pawn. You’ll help me become the greatest delinquent of Tokyo.”
It was not a matter of fighting power or looks. Kisaki was giving off a weird vibe. And Hanma was all about weird vibes.
The weirder the merrier. Everything thrilling and unexpected was a joy for him, and Kisaki gave himself to him as the best present ever. He didn’t see that coming!
All those hours of scheming, plotting to destroy people's lives, to cause chaos between gangs, to break teeth! Hanma felt reborn after years of boredom, of letting himself go.
“With you, my dull life became a circus! I see colors, Kisaki!”
The future kept changing, and for once he liked being in the shadows, away from the center of attention. That’s what Kisaki taught him. He loved being his tool, being used.
“Hanma you freak, do you know I’m only using you because of your… gifts?”
Hanma always smiled at that statement. Whether that was true or not he didn’t care much. He liked Kisaki, as long as he wanted him by his side he was happy.
“I know, the moon can’t shine on its own.” His abilities were useful for the greater purpose of another being. Just like the Sun’s light hitting the Moon to let her shine.
After a while, he saw that sentiment change. Kisaki laughed with him, was interested in his opinion, stuck more around.
And Hanma grew fond of his friend. Yes, friend. Hanma was sure to call him like that and was even surer to be loved back. In all those years he never saw anyone looking and treating him like Kisaki did.
As embarrassing as it sounds hearing it from Hanma, he was happy to have found someone. For once.
But everything must come to an end. It’s just how life goes, Hanma knew that. He was not new to death, damn.
But for once he thought it wouldn’t happen to him, again.
“What a grand way to die…”
How long since, in all those years of traveling back and forward in time, he shed a tear for someone else? He couldn’t tell.
He didn’t imagine it was going to end like that. He didn’t see that in the many futures he went. Kisaki was always there, conquering his bright future.
What went wrong this time? A plot against him? Something that they didn’t calculate, perhaps?
No.
Bad luck. Wrong place, wrong time. Fate.
Just fate, fooling even the biggest fool of them all.
“Hey, Kisaki… are you gonna leave me alone?”
Kisaki’s corpse was laying on the ground, so badly ripped apart and broken that Hanma was feeling nauseous looking at it.
I have a tokyo revengers headcanon (keep in mind, I only watched the anime (or more accurately, am watching it) not read the Manga):
In the first-ever timeline, Takemichi gets pushed in front of a train and someone pulls him from the track before he can get hit.
In the second timeline, we find out it's Naoto that saved him, but that can't be in the first timeline, because he's dead there. The only reason he's not dead in the second timeline is because Takemichi saved him in his first trip to the Past, after almost getting hit by the train in the first timeline.
But, Takemichi's time leaps are supposed to only happen when he shakes his hand with Naoto, so, how did the first time leap happen? That's where my headcanon comes in.
Basically, it's that Takemichi always had the power to time leap and he didn't have to have any other person to activate the power, but since he was never in this situation he felt like he had to go back he just never manifested it until that first time leap where he would have died if he didn't.
Why did he go back after shaking hands with Naoto that first time then? Because he feels like he was done with his work there and wanted to go back (or... well, he still thought that was just seeing his life flash before his eyes back then but he was basically at peace). After that, because of the first time they shook hands, they believe that's what makes him time leap (that's the trigger) and since Takemichi already knows that he is capable of doing it, and believes that's how he is capable of it, every time he shakes hands with Naoto, he leaps.
Remember the time he wanted to hold Hina's hand while watching the fireworks and accidentally took Naoto's? He didn't leap until he looked and saw he was holding Naoto.
Anyway, that's my headcanon, hope you liked it and hope this doesn't sound too similar to someone else's. Have a great week!
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a movie directed by Mamoru Hosoda. It’s based loosely on the book of the same name written by Yasutaka Tsutsui in 1967. The basic idea is that a girl learns to time travel through short periods of time at will. She ends up doing this frivolously in order to alter events.
he movie came out July 2006, and it was met with great reviews winning a ton of awards. And now, in 2016, the English version was licensed to Funimation and re-released.
I like the story, I love the animation and I love the soundtrack. I think that the voices are a tad wonky, a bit generic, if you will. But all that aside, it was fun to guess what was happening, and how the story would end.
I will tell you, this movie is not for the faint of heart. There were a lot of tears on my end. It really pulled at my heartstrings and by the end, I was yelling at my T.V.
All in all, I recommend this title. It’s really worth it. I hope all of you like it too!
