Part 3

Episode 10

"You shouldn't have come..." Doppo said quietly, he didn't actually want her to hear him.

Junko sat silently besides him with bated breath, eyes glossy and twinkling with tears, but fixed straight ahead at the moving ship they were headed towards.

He was already too late. He made her suffer. He should have known, Junko already considered Atsushi her friend, he shouldn't have objected to rescuing him, that valuable time he wasted could have been valuable.

"Do not fail your precious friend ever again" are the words he wrote in his notebook two years ago, he wanted to live by those words. He wanted to make up for things, he wanted to fix everything. If he could take it all back he would. But he couldn't.

It occurred to him that maybe her reaction didn't just have to do with Atsushi, maybe seeing how the office staff reacted to one of their members being kidnapped... maybe she was imagining that was how they reacted when —

And he was going to fail her again.

No, he can't let this happen. If something happens to the kid, she will never trust him again. He will never trust himself either if he fails another mission.

It wasn't just for Junko, though. That kid didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to be thought of as just an extension of Junko or Osamu, he was a human being, he was a member of the agency, and he needed help. And as much of a pragmatist Doppo was, he wasn't heartless. If there was a fighting chance to save the kid and he didn't even try, his heart would never let him let it go. He didn't just have to save Atsushi.
He wanted to.

"BRAT, WHERE ARE YOU!" He shouted as they neared the ship.

An explosion.

Oh no, are they too late?

Junko flinched, ducked and covered her ears as another explosion tore another hole in the ship. Doppo sheltered his eyes with his arms to avoid the gust of air that followed the loud "boom".

He brought the boat as close to the ship as possible when he noticed a figure crawling towards the edge.
It was undoubtably Atsushi's white hair.
"Brat, over here!" he called out to draw his attention, "this is as close as I can get, get over here!!!"
Atsushi stared down at Doppo and Junko but didn't jump.
"What are you doing, moron! Hurry up and get your ass over here before the ship sinks!"
Doppo then noticed Atsushi's eyes drifted back to where he came from.

Was he seriously thinking what Doppo thought he was thinking?

"Don't even think about it, idiot! How much trouble are you going to cause the agency, everyone is working unpaid right now!"
"What about her...?" Doppo didn't hear what Atsushi was saying but he could see his lips moving and took a guess that he was asking what to do about the girl.
"Forget the girl. Not everyone gets saved. I have also failed many times. That's the kind of city this is, that's the kind of job this is!"
"She can't be saved?"
"We aren't heroes, we can't always save everybody! No matter how much we want to, no matter how much we wish we could! But we're not!"

Another explosion. Another shockwave of hot air blew in their hair.

"She said the crêpe she had with me was delicious." Atsushi finally raised his voice enough to be heard, but just barely. "she was told worthless humans have no right to live... I don't think so. Because Dazai-san, the agency, you guys didn't give up on me!!!"
"Are you out of your mind?!"