The city lights blurred as you walked through the familiar streets, ones you hadn’t set foot on in years. Every corner whispered with memories—summer days, secret hideouts, the sound of childish laughter. His laughter.

Back then, Mikey had been everything. The boy who swore he’d never leave your side, who said the world was boring without you in it. The boy who promised, with all the seriousness a child could hold, that he’d protect you forever.

But forever hadn’t lasted.

The sharp echo of fighting snapped you back to the present. You turned a corner and froze. A group of men lay scattered on the ground, groaning in pain. And at the center of it, standing tall beneath the flickering glow of a streetlight—him.

Blond hair, sharp eyes, presence like a storm. Manjiro Sano. Mikey.

For a second, your breath caught. He was different, older, harder—but you knew him instantly. Your chest tightened with the weight of everything unsaid, everything lost.

“Mikey…” The name slipped out before you could stop it.

He looked at you then. His dark eyes scanned your face, unreadable. For a moment—just a flicker—you thought you saw the boy you once knew. But then it was gone, replaced by a cold distance.

“…Do I know you?” he asked flatly.

The words hit harder than any punch could. You stared at him, your heart twisting, every childhood memory collapsing under the weight of that single question.

He walked past you without another glance, the faint smell of gasoline and smoke trailing in his wake. And you stood frozen, caught between the past that still burned in your chest and the present that threatened to erase it completely.

The boy you loved was gone. Or maybe… he was just buried too deep to reach