When Takemichi was a child, too young to recall exactly, he went to the temple with his parents to celebrate the New Year. Afterwards, they drew fortunes together. His parents both drew "Middle Blessing," while he drew "Last Blessing."
His parents were overjoyed, feeling as if their family was blessed by the heavens, until they read the interpretation of their son's fortune:
"Destined to wander, never settling down for generations. It may seem like walking an endless road, but there is a place to stop, if you only persevere."
At that moment, Takemichi's mother felt deeply sorry for him. Seeing him on the verge of tears, her heart ached as if someone was squeezing it. So, with emotion clouding her judgment, she told him not to worry about the fortune, that it wasn't true.
Being so young, Takemichi was easily distracted by other interesting things, so he forgot about the fortune and its strange prediction.
However, Takemichi's forgetting didn't mean that reality had forgotten.
When he entered middle school, Takemichi began to act like a delinquent. He dyed his hair, used hair gel, often skipped school to hang out, provoked fights, and even started dating early. Because of these misdeeds, he gradually drifted away from his parents. Over time, no one cared about his studies anymore, or whether he came home or not. Family meals became less frequent and eventually disappeared completely.
In his second year of middle school, Takemichi believed his cousin Masaru's boasts that he was a big shot in the large delinquent gang, Touman, and arranged a fight with Kiyomasa's group of delinquents. As a result, he was not only beaten to a pulp but also forced to be a lackey, a toy to be bullied by those thugs.
This first shock in life was truly terrible for Takemichi. Therefore, after graduating from high school, he left home. Due to the separation and lack of contact, Takemichi's parents were completely unaware that their son had left home and started a wandering life, doing manual labor.
From being a waiter, delivery person, cleaner, dishwasher, to a prop assistant, construction worker, and porter, Takemichi did almost every heavy job at least once. Because he was clumsy and awkward, often carelessly breaking things, he only held any job for a short time. Money was always scarce, so he was evicted by landlords several times.
It wasn't until he was 25 that Takemichi found a stable job, as an employee at a DVD rental store. The salary wasn't high, but it was enough to cover his living expenses and pay the rent.
Takemichi lived an aimless life in the bustling city. He went to work in the morning, bought cheap food on the roadside in the evening, watched TV or surfed the web. He didn't go out, didn't socialize - a life that was indescribably boring.
Then, one summer day when he was 27, Takemichi learned on TV that his ex-girlfriend and her younger brother had died in a gang fight. On the same day, he was suddenly pushed onto the train tracks by a stranger as a train was arriving.
Takemichi thought he was definitely going to die, but in the blink of an eye, he returned to the age of 14, returning to the time less than an hour before he was bullied by Kiyomasa's gang.
After that, Takemichi learned that he had the ability to time travel. Although he could return to the past, he could only return to the exact day he traveled from the future. Past events could not be undone, but Takemichi still tried to change the past, to save Tachibana Hinata, his middle school girlfriend.
In the process, Takemichi traveled back and forth between the future and the past several times. He came into contact with many delinquents, made connections, and became friends with many people, gradually igniting a vibrant fire within him. Although there were times when he almost gave up in the face of unexpected events, he still tried to rise up, using his pathetic and pitiful will to resist.
After the Kanto incident, Takemichi returned to the future, and for him, this was a good future. In this future, everyone had jobs, fame, and brilliant careers. Even he, from an employee, was promoted to manager of the DVD store, which wasn't glorious, but not bad. More importantly, in this future, Takemichi would marry his girlfriend.
Everything seemed like there was nothing to worry about anymore, until Takemichi realized that someone very important to him was missing.
If Tachibana Hinata was the goal that helped him change, then Sano Manjiro - the leader of the once-famous Tokyo Manji gang - was the one who had helped him change and had the greatest influence on him.
Takemichi investigated, as was his habit from previous time travels, and discovered that Manjiro, or Mikey, had formed a new gang in order to protect the old Tokyo Manji members, but eventually became a notorious criminal and the head of the Bonten criminal gang.
Takemichi went to see Mikey and was shot three times by him. When Mikey wanted to commit suicide, Takemichi managed to drag his bloody body to grab Mikey's hand in mid-air. Through that handshake, Takemichi once again returned to the past, but this time only ten years prior, not twelve.
And that trip to the past was Takemichi's last.
Because this time he stayed in the past and died there.
In order to save Mikey, Takemichi returned to the delinquent world, joining one of the three current powers of the Three Deities, the Brahma gang. It was also around this time that Takemichi discovered that he had a new ability: to see a short glimpse of the near future. Later, the three gangs broke out into battle and were defeated, but Takemichi did not give up, gathered his old acquaintances, re-established the Tokyo Manji gang, and challenged Mikey's gang.
This battle was not easy, especially since Sanzu, that crazy guy, intended to drive a train into the group of people in the midst of the chaotic battle. If it weren't for Takemichi's ability to see the future and Kakucho's sacrifice, many people would have died.
The battle continued. Takemichi saw more glimpses of the near future and successfully dodged Mikey's attacks, even counterattacking. Although that shocked everyone, what was even more shocking was the news that Mikey revealed to everyone, or rather, to Takemichi.
Mikey's brother, Shinichiro, was a time traveler.
In order to save Mikey, Shinichiro killed a homeless old man to steal the time-traveling ability. Activating the ability, Shinichiro returned to the past, successfully preventing the tragedy from happening to his younger brother.
However, the price for that success was that Shinichiro died at the hands of Mikey's friend.
And before he died, the time-traveling ability was transferred by Shinichiro to someone. That person was Takemichi. Shinichiro transferred the ability to Takemichi on the day Hinata was bullied by some delinquents, which was also the day Kisaki Tetta - the mastermind who made him suffer and who he had to travel through time several times to defeat - developed his hatred for him.
It was like fate - both ridiculous and bizarre.
But in the end, as a way to repay the favor, Takemichi transferred the time-traveling ability to Mikey after rushing into the katana he was holding, accepting to bear the "dark impulses" and die with them.
In the end, Takemichi's life, a journey through time, came to an end.
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Was it really the end?