Toman (Founding Era)

Lore & Background

In the back alleys and school corridors of a Tokyo neighbourhood, a scrawny, perpetually targeted student named Manjiro Sano lived a life of quiet endurance. His world changed the day a loud, scarred delinquent called Keisuke Baji stepped between him and his tormentors. What began as a single act of protection became something neither of them anticipated: a mutual dependence, a shared purpose, and the decision to build a crew that would never become the kind of gang that hurt people like Mikey had been hurt.

The early Toman was small, scrappy, and guided by an almost naive code. Mikey's natural charisma and Baji's unshakeable loyalty attracted a handful of misfits—students who had been pushed to the margins, kids who needed a place to belong without the expectation of cruelty. Together they carved out a patch of territory not through intimidation alone, but through the simple, stubborn act of showing up for one another. In a city where every gang was a predator, Toman tried, in its earliest days, to be a shelter.

That shelter, however, was built on a single, fragile axis: the bond between its two founders. When that bond shattered—over a conflict that exposed the limits of their ideal and the weight of the world pressing in on a small crew—the founding era ended not with a bang but with a silence. Baji walked away, Mikey was left to carry a philosophy he could no longer sustain alone, and the gang that had promised to be different began, slowly, to become the very thing it was meant to oppose.

In Their Own Story

The convenience store was half-empty, neon buzzing through the glass. Mikey stood in the aisle, fingers wrapped around a can of black coffee, watching the rain streak the window in slow silver threads. Across the street, a group of older delinquents laughed, slapping each other's backs, their jackets catching the streetlight. He almost smiled. Almost.

Then the bell chimed and Baji ducked through the door, dripping, his school tie half-untied, a fresh cut scabbing over his knuckle. "You look like you're plotting world domination," Baji said, grabbing a bag of chips without looking.

"I'm plotting a nap," Mikey replied.

They sat on the low bench outside, shoulders touching, watching the rain erase the footprints in the sidewalk one by one. Neither mentioned the fight they'd had that afternoon. Neither mentioned that the words still sat between them like a stone in a shoe. They just sat, two boys who had decided, against all odds, that a gang could be a home. For now, that was enough. For now.

Reader's Guide

The Founding Era begins with Manjiro Sano, a quiet high-schooler repeatedly targeted by older students, and Keisuke Baji, a brash delinquent who intervenes and refuses to walk away. Their mutual protection becomes a partnership, and within weeks they have gathered a handful of similarly marginalised students into a small, loosely organised crew. The early Toman operates out of a modest territory in a residential district, its members recognisable by school uniforms worn with deliberate defiance—ties loosened, blazers unbuttoned—before the group gradually adopts a more distinct delinquent aesthetic as its identity solidifies.

Key figures in rank order: Mikey as the natural leader and moral centre; Baji as his right hand and the crew's physical protector; and a rotating cast of early members who join for belonging rather than ambition. The group's visual identity in this period is deliberately understated compared to the polished Toman of the main timeline—no elaborate insignia, no uniformed ranks—just a shared look and a shared code: you do not hurt people who cannot fight back.

The era peaks when the crew successfully repels a territorial challenge from a larger, more violent gang, proving their philosophy can survive contact with the street. The fracture follows when a crisis—driven by external pressure and internal miscommunication—forces Mikey and Baji into an irreconcilable disagreement. Baji departs, taking a portion of the early members with him. Mikey remains, but the gang's protective ideal is now hollow, and the leadership vacuum he cannot fill sets the stage for the darker Toman the main timeline will inherit.

Rivalries in this era are limited to one or two local gangs whose territory overlaps. Alliances are informal, built on personal loyalty rather than political structure. The internal fracture is the defining event: it is not a war but a wound, and it never fully heals.

Did You Know?

• The founding-era backstory is revealed to the audience through the time-travel mechanic, meaning readers learn the gang's origin only after seeing its later, more complex iterations—making the contrast between the ideal
• Mikey's early leadership style in the founding era is markedly gentler and more collaborative than the distant, almost mythical authority he wields in the main timeline, suggesting the fracture with Baji fundamentally al
• The founding-era Toman is intentionally small and informal, lacking the rigid hierarchy, colour-coded uniforms, and territorial signage that define the organisation in the main story—emphasising how much the gang's ident
• Baji's departure is never framed as a betrayal by either party; both Mikey and Baji carry the blame, and the narrative treats the split as a mutual failure of communication rather than a villainous act.