The First Time Leap (of many)
Hanagaki Takemichi was a man who lived under a rock, or more accurately, his landlord’s dirty roof.
He rarely left his rented apartment, a sorry one-room shelter/garbage dump with an attached bathroom and sink for cleaning dishes, unless it was to leave for work or food. It was therefore no wonder that his only source of information on the outside world’s happenings was the news channel he was watching.
The news tended to be depressing, but that was alright. He was already depressed anyway - what was a little more to his miserable life?
“The escalating dispute between the Tokyo Manji Gang has now claimed innocent victims.” The news reporter started, his voice only serving to put Takemichi to sleep. He would have dozed off if he hadn’t had to go to work that morning. The manager was already looking for reasons to fire him. “A large truck crashed into the Shopping District during the festival, resulting in death and destruction.”
“These people sure are crazy…” he muttered to himself. How did they have the energy to go around killing people? “It’s a scary world out there.”
“Six were injured in this incident - one was sent to the hospital, but suffered from a cardiopulmonary arrest. The police have identified the two people who died during this incident. The first one was Tachibana Naoto-san, aged 25, and the second victim was his older sister, Tachibana Hinata-san, aged 26. Both of them were from Shibuya, Tokyo.”
“....Tachibana…?”
“The MPD is on high alert.”
‘Hinata and Naoto… Those are two names I never expected to hear again.’ Takemichi increased the volume of the TV, hoping it would drown out the noise in his mind. ‘I didn’t think they’d die so early.’
The Tachibanas were the closest thing he had had to a family when he was still in middle school. Hinata and Naoto were his best friends. For some reason, the two of them had latched onto him, or at least, Hinata had, in the first year of middle school. Naoto had popped up like a package deal. The three of them were practically inseparable…
‘...till I ran away.’
No matter how often he thought of his decisions, it didn’t stop the rising sense of shame he drowned under.
His self-deprecation came to a halt as three sharp knocks sounded from the door.
‘Ah, shoot, it’s the demon lady.’
After the landlady yelled at him for a good fifteen minutes, Takemichi decided to get to the rental shop he worked at. He didn’t feel in the mood to apologize for coming late.
Unfortunately, whatever higher power existed decided that today would not be a good day for Hanagaki Takemichi.
The manager had yelled at him for not doing his work properly, and to top it off, some kids had scratched the paint off a rich guy’s car and framed him for it.
Of course, he had apologized for all of it.
Sometimes, it felt that all he had done his entire life was apologize.
As he waited for the train back home at Shinjuku Station, he couldn’t help but contemplate his life.
‘I never expected life to end up like this. Living in a run-down rented apartment with paper-thin walls. Treated like an absolute moron by my manager. Then those punks picked a fight with me and I somehow ended up apologizing. The only time I had people I could consider friends was back in middle school.’
Sometimes, Takemichi wondered if he should just end it. No one would bother if he died, right? After all, he had spent his entire life running away. It wasn’t like anyone would care, and there wasn’t anything to look forward to in his life. He briefly wondered if he ought to take a few steps across the yellow safety line. It would be a way to apologize for a wasted existence.
However, before he could dissuade himself from causing a commotion, someone else decided to choose for him.
A hard shove was all it took for Takemichi to go flying onto the railway tracks. By the time he gathered his bearings, a train was headed straight for him - and it showed no signs of stopping.
In a few seconds, all Takemichi knew was pain.
As he choked on the blood pooling in his lungs, all he could hear was screaming and shouting that seemed to echo across the station.
God, he wished they would shut up and let him die in peace.
He mentally thanked the person who pushed him to his death - thanked them for making the decision he was too afraid to take. It was what he deserved, after all.
Takemichi knew he wouldn’t last long. He wanted to stop the onlookers from calling an ambulance - it was a waste of precious time and resources.
‘At least…at least I’ll get to see those two again…Hinata, Naoto…’
“...I wish I…could make up…for all my mistakes…”
Despite it all, Takemichi smiled.