Chapter 1

**"Reborn"** (リボーン, *Ribōn*?) is the first chapter of the first volume and the first chapter overall of the *Tokyo卍Revengers* manga series, written and illustrated by Ken Wakui.

## Summary

Takemichi is first shown lazing about in front of the TV within his messy and rundown apartment and eating chips when he suddenly hears news about a gang dispute involving the Tokyo Manji Gang resulting in the deaths of Naoto Tachibana and Hinata Tachibana. He suddenly remembers that Hinata was the only girl he ever dated in his 26 years of life. His neighbor is irked by the noise emitted by the TV and tells him to lower it down.

At his work as a DVD shop employee, Takemichi gets scolded for not doing his job properly by his manager 6 years his junior and it makes him dejected and dispirited. On the way to the train, he damages an expensive car, cursing the rich while doing it. At the train station, someone suddenly pushes him and he falls on the tracks as the train comes. He expects his life to flash before him, but only the visage of Hinata appears. He regretfully recalls the failure he calls his life while also wistfully remembers his middle school years being his life's peak.

Takemichi opens his eyes but is shocked to see his friends from middle school are on a train with him and then sees his face in the mirror and realizes this is him from middle school. He sees the phone date is July 4th, 2005, and realizes that he is exactly 12 years in the past. Despite this, he thinks these are just extremely realistic flashbacks. After prodding his friends a little, he finds out that they are heading towards Shibuya Middle School to fight some second years because they were looked down upon and if someone gives them trouble, they plan on using Takemichi's cousin's name, Masaru, who is the ruler of the school. Takemichi ponders and recalls something like this indeed happened in the past. As he hasn't fought in 10 years, he gets scared.

As the friends wait for the second years at a local park, Takemichi tries to recall what happens at this time when some Shibuya Middle third years appear. Led by Masataka Kiyomizu, they heard someone was looking for their second years, but as they are on a "school trip," the third years came to beat them. It is implied that the "school trip" was really just the third years beating the second years up. Yamagishi tries to intimidate them by saying they have connections with Masaru, but that just makes the third years laugh as they call out Masaru and order him to go buy them some drinks, revealing him to be merely a gofer. Realization dawns on Takemichi as he realizes that it is the day "hell" comes to them. The third years proceed to beat up Takemichi's group and tell them that they are now soldiers in the Tokyo Manji Gang. Takemichi recalls this is the moment when his days as slave for him and his friends started. As he screams that he is sorry to the third years, he reveals that after he graduated, he escaped, abandoning his friends in the process, and went living on his own. He took on a variety of jobs, but as he was always incompetent, he kept apologizing again and again. He realizes that his life was spent apologizing everywhere he went.

Takemichi then remembers Hinata and that Tokyo Manji Gang killed her in the present. As he can't remember how she looked, he ran to where he lived. As she sees his beat up face, she questions him if she got into another fight. Takemichi starts to cry and attempts to leave, but Hinata stops him and wants to know what happened as she is his girlfriend. They talk a little and Takemichi remembers how precious she was to him. Takemichi leaves to sit on the swings to reminisce, but sees a boy getting mugged by some kids. Getting annoyed that they are ruining the melancholy atmosphere, he knocks out one of them and uses a broken bottle to threaten them. He gives the boy some advice about how to stand his ground with the boy listening attentively. He asks the boy for his name and realizes the boy is Hinata's little brother, Naoto. While talking to Naoto, he confesses how much he loves Hinata. He tells Naoto to protect his sister, and that in 2017, he fell onto the train tracks and ended up here, making Naoto excited that this is a time leap. Takemichi tells Naoto to remember July 1st, 2017, as on that day, both Naoto and Hinata die.

As Naoto agrees, he shakes Takemichi's hand and Takemichi blanks out, waking up at the train station's medical center on July 4th, 2017. An employee informs him that he was saved by a certain individual. That person turns out to be a grown up Naoto, who introduces himself and tells Takemichi that he changed his destiny and that Takemichi really had performed a time leap. Naoto explains that he took Takemichi's words seriously and studied hard to protect his sister, becoming a detective. However, Naoto's efforts were for naught as Hinata still died. Naoto then asks Takemichi to work with him in order to save Hinata.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

1. Takemichi Hanagaki
2. Hasegawa
3. Naoto Tachibana
4. Makoto Suzuki
5. Kazushi Yamagishi
6. Atsushi Sendo
7. Takuya Yamamoto
8. Masaru
9. Masataka Kiyomizu
10. Hinata Tachibana

## Trivia

* "Reborn" is the only chapter in the manga series that has a Japanese title.

## References

 "Tokyo Revengers, Volume 1". *Kodansha USA*. Retrieved on November 3, 2022.