The sun was setting by the time Miyako Fukanora and Sumire Kaneshiro walked through her front door, backpacks dragging behind them, conversation already halfway into chaos.

“Hi, Sumire!” her mom called from the kitchen.
“Dinner’s at seven. Don’t blow anything up!”

“No promises!” Miyako yelled, yanking Sumire up the stairs.

The moment they hit her room, she slammed the door, threw her bag aside, and flopped dramatically onto the bed.

“We need to internet the hell out of this.”

Sumire pulled out her phone.
“Still don’t think we’ll find anything. But go off.”

They started with the basics:
Dajikana Gang.
Sakuraji.
Renjou Kaito.

And then it hit.

Sumire paused, then scrolled slower. Her face shifted.

“…Oh, shit.”

“What?” Miyako asked, sitting up.

Sumire turned the screen.

“They’re real. But they’re not now. They existed in the 1700s. Edo period. The Dajikana gang controlled illegal trading routes in the city. Sakuraji ran rival territory. The last record? 1788.”

Miyako’s breath caught.

“Kaito?”

Sumire typed again.
“Dead. Age seventeen. Cause of death... stabbing. Found alone near the docks. 1788.”

And that’s when it hit her.

A sudden wave. A flash in the back of her mind — uninvited, sharp, and too real to ignore.

Blood.
Screaming.
Not hers.

A boy, maybe fifteen or sixteen, eyes wide with fear, gasping as a blade tears across his chest.

Kaito — not dead — holding him, screaming for help, face twisted in something deeper than rage.

Desperation.
Loss.

Then—
snap—

The memory shifts—

Kaito’s room.
Empty ramen cups. Dirty blankets. The same mess.

And there, in the corner — a chair tipped sideways. A rope.
Kaito.

Neck limp. Feet dangling.

Silence.

Just silence.

Miyako gasped out loud, stumbling backward.

“Miyako?” Sumire looked up fast. “What just happened?”

She couldn’t answer right away. Her chest was too tight.

Then, voice cracking:
“I saw him.”

“Kaito?”

Miyako nodded, hand shaking slightly.

“His friend… he died. Got stabbed. I think it broke him. I think—” she swallowed, “—I think Kaito hung himself. After.”

Silence.

Sumire sat still. Her sarcasm was gone.

“Holy shit.”

Miyako sat down slowly, hand pressed to her chest.

“I don’t think I’m just here to stop Kaito from dying in a gang fight.”

She looked at her best friend, eyes wide.

“I think I’m here to stop him or his loved ones from dying”