Silence swallowed the room. It was heavy, suffocating and thick enough that even Ren's weak breathing sound seemed too loud against it.
Hasegawa set the apple down on the bedside table beside him. "You came here looking for me because of him… didn't you?"
Ren's hand moved again to the jacket pocket, gripping the paper through the fabric. "He told me to find you... before..."
"Before the Crimson Dragons put him in a coma. " Hasegawa said, his jaw tightening.
Ren's eyes snapped up, fire igniting in him. "You know. You know what happened to him!. "
"I know what the streets are saying. " Hasegawa replied looking at the window. "Crimson Dragons. Ambush. Knives. "
He took a sudden pause and then continued speaking. "I know Kaito Ryūhara doesn't quit. He doesn't run. He doesn't back down. "
Bitterness rippled through his voice. "I know his pride got him killed. "
"He's not dead. " Ren snapped angrily.
"He's not alive either. " Hasegawa said bluntly.
The room froze at that moment and Ren felts his chest burning. The words felt cruel and heartbreaking.
"I'm sorry. " Hasegawa said more quietly. "That was cruel of me."
"Why?" Ren demanded.
Hasegawa blinked. "Why what?... Why was I cruel?"
"No. " Ren managed. "Why do you talk about him like that? Like he was stupid. Like he deserved it. Like it was his fault he's in a coma. "
Hasegawa rose from his chair and drifted toward the window, speaking with his back turned to Ren. "Your brother founded Sakuratei on five virtues. "
He lifted his hand, counting them off on his fingers.
"Righteousness. "
"Courage. "
"Benevolence. "
"Respect. "
"Sincerity."
He turned back toward the bed, facing Ren
"Beautiful beautiful ideals.. noble.. pure. "
"They almost got us all killed. " He let out a sharp, bitter laugh.
Ren sat up a little straighter now with an angrier look on his face. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
"Kaito believed in honor. " Hasegawa said. "He believed if we fought fair, protected the weak, showed mercy then other gangs would respect us. That we could change Yugen City from the inside. "
He shook his head, voice tightening. "He was wrong. "
"The Crimson Dragons don't care about honor. The Oni Crows and New Wolves don't care about mercy. They saw kindness and called it weakness. They saw rules and broke them. They saw Kaito's ideals… and they exploited them. "
He stepped closer to Ren's bed. "I... I rebuilt what he broke. This school. This town. This gang. Sakuratei survives now because I made hard choices Kaito wouldn't make. Choices that keep people alive. "
"What kind of choices? " Ren asked.
Hasegawa didn't answer. Instead, he leaned in slightly, enough that Ren felt the weight behind every word. "So here's your warning, Ryūhara Ren."
"If you're here for revenge, you'll die. If you're here to honor his legacy you'll die. If you're here thinking you can fix what happened to Kaito.. "
His eyes and Ren's met directly before he spoke. "you'll die, and you'll take others with you."
Ren tried to stand up his hands firmly held onto the bed rails but the pain that detonated through his ribs was too much for him and he collapsed back onto the mattress.
"Sit down before you hurt yourself. " Hasegawa said, completely unmoved.
"You're wrong about him. " Ren whispered his voice sinking into something cold and dangerous.
Hasegawa studied him for a while. "Maybe I am. " He said softly.
"Or maybe you didn't know him as well as you think."
Ren gritted his teeth. "You think you knew him better than I did?"
Hasegawa didn't answer at first. He sat back in the chair, turning the apple core between his fingers like a coin.
"Kaito talked about you. " he said finally.
"What?" Ren frozen.
"Not often. He wasn't the sentimental type. But whenever he did… it was the same thing."
Hasegawa leaned forward slightly.
"He said you were the only person he trusted to never lie to him."
"That's why he pushed you away," Hasegawa continued. "Why he didn't want you involved. Not because he didn't care.."
He gave a humorless smile. "but because caring makes people weak in this world."
"That's bullshit," Ren muttered.
"Is it?" Hasegawa asked quietly.
"Kaito kept you out of this life because he knew you'd walk straight into hell for him. And he wasn't wrong."
"Then why did he send me here. " Ren asked confused.
"No one knows the working of a dead man. "
Hasegawa stood up and walked to the foot of the bed. His voice returned to that calm tone that he had at beginning.
"You'll stay here for three days. No arguments."
Ren scowled. "You can't tell me what to do."
"I can when you're bleeding internally. " Hasegawa said.
"And I definitely can when you're about to start a war you can't win."
"I didn't start anything."
"No," Hasegawa replied. "But you're about to inherit it."
Ren tried sitting up again but a sharp, tearing pain ripped through his ribs.
Hasegawa didn't move to help.
He just watched.
"You're too reckless. Too emotional. Too raw. " He said.
"Exactly like Kaito when I met him."
Ren glared.
"You gonna insult him every chance you get?"
"That wasn't an insult.. " Hasegawa said simply but before he could continue the door slammed open so hard the frame rattled.
A student stumbled inside, his left hand wrapped in a pristine white cast, right arm hugging his ribs like they were the only thing keeping him upright. Ren recognized the face instantly.
The sucker punch.
The cafeteria.
The moment everything went black.
"Boss, we've got a prob.. " he started, then froze when he saw Ren awake.
His eyes widened. "Oh. Oh shit. He lives."
He let out a thin, nervous laugh. "Uh… no hard feelings, right?"
Ren stared at him with a mean look on his face.
"…Right. Cool. We're cool," the boy muttered, swallowing hard.
"I thought I told you to rest. " Hasegawa said without even glancing his way, his voice sterner than usual.
"Yeah, but Boss.. " the boy tried again, urgency bleeding through. "It's them. The Red Faction. They are moving tonight. The third-years are gathering at.. "
"I said later. " Hasegawa's tone dropped to absolute zero.
The temperature in the room seemed to crash.
The boy straightened up instantly. "Right... yeah. later. totally. "
He saluted awkwardly with his broken hand. "I will just.. I'll go.. going now. "
He backed toward the door, nearly tripped over his own feet, caught himself, and scrambled out.
The door shut with a heavy this behind him.
Hasegawa's tone turned casual again, as if Soma hadn't just burst in. "Where were we? Oh, right. Your future."
He moved slowly towards the door.
"You've got heart, Ren. I'll give you that. And Yuto respects you and that's very rare especially on a first meeting. " He paused with his hand on the doorknob, not looking back. "But heart isn't enough. Not nearly enough in this world."
"Then what is?" Ren asked quietly.
"Understanding," Hasegawa said. His voice softened, almost thoughtful. "Understanding that sometimes the right choice and the good choice aren't the same thing."
"If you're here to survive… if you're willing to learn what this world actually is, not what Kaito wanted it to be… then maybe you're worth keeping around."
He continued. "You've got three days to recover. After that, if you want answers about your brother, about Crimson Dragons, about what really happened to him. " He glanced over his shoulder.
"prove you can handle the truth. Join Sakuratei. "
"And if I refuse?" Ren whispered..
"Then you transfer schools. " Hasegawa answered, facing forward again. "Go home, and pray Crimson Dragons don't come for you the way they came for Kaito."
He opened the door. Warm golden light spilled in from the hallway.
"Three days, Ren. Think carefully about it. "
He walked out.
The door clicked shut behind him, soft and final.