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Izumi Kyouka knelt by the grave, placing a bouquet of flowers down in front of the words A. Nakajima. The grave was in a graveyard near a park, and, more importantly, the Armed Detective Agency.
She sighed, and spoke. “Hi, Atsushi. It’s...it’s been a while. I’m sorry I haven’t come to visit more often. A lot of things happened.” She paused for a moment before continuing, fiddling with the phone around her neck. “For one thing, I figured out why Demon Snow is both my Ability and guardian. She was my mom, and my mom’s Ability, and when she died, she passed her Ability onto me and...well, I guess she fused with it. Somehow. Now that Oda’s back alive, it’s harder for her to communicate since there are no other angels for her to talk to.” Kyouka swallowed. “I don’t blame you for...what happened. Oda either. If I had a sibling and there was any way to bring Mom back for him or her...I would do it. I’m a murderer. She wasn’t. And...well, I’m just saying I get it. I wish you didn’t do it, because you weren’t a murderer, you were a really good person, and I miss you so much. We all do. None of us have had much time to mourn, because...oh! I forgot to tell you! We defeated the guy who hacked the Moby Dick! His name was Fyodor Dostoyevsky and he was the leader of a group called the Rats in the House of the Dead. They brainwashed the Guild’s priest, Hawthorne, and used him to infect Shachou and the Port Mafia Boss with a virus, and Dostoyevsky tried to shoot Dazai, but Oda got to the sniper first and then managed to shoot Dostoyevsky in the leg, so we were able to arrest him. Or, we would have been, but Dazai got angry at Oda ‘interfering’,” here she rolled her eyes with the air of someone who had heard this before and was tired of it, “and just shot Dostoyevsky a bunch of times while Oda was watching. He told Shachou and Kunikida that it wasn’t fair that Oda could show mercy towards an enemy leader but not you. Even though Oda did everything he could to save you, but he just didn’t know who you were until it was too late. Dazai’s really the only person who still blames him...well, Dazai and Oda. Oda blames himself. For basically the same reasons Dazai does, which is just dumb , because it’s not his fault that he wanted to know more about himself. It’s not like he chose to kill you or anything. He’s a wreck, just like—well, just like the rest of us. The whole Agency is grieving, and even worse, since we killed the Port Mafia’s Boss during the whole virus thing, we are now at war with the Mafia. Luckily Nakahara says he understands why we did it. Unluckily he says the war will only stop with either Shachou’s death or the Agency’s annihilation, neither of which we want. Shachou and Kunikida are trying to get Dazai to mend bridges with Oda and his government friend so we’ll have backup there, but it’s slow going, and Shachou’s friend Fukuchi can’t do anything to help us because he’s the leader of the Hunting Dogs, or whatever. So we’re reliant on Dazai’s ability to suck it up and apologize, which I don’t think he’s going to do, and neither does anyone really, except Kenji, because he’s, you know, Kenji . Kunikida thinks showing him your grave so he can visit it would be a nice sign of goodwill, and Lucy and I think it would be common decency, which we know Dazai doesn’t have a single bone of in his body--oh! Lucy joined the Agency! I should have mentioned that earlier. It was during the whole virus thing, or just after. The Mafia attacked the restaurant, and, well, they...basically annihilated it. And the whole building. She survived, and she got the owner and his wife out too, but they were really all she could get to before...anyway. She joined the Agency to help us fight the Mafia, and her test was to see if she’d prioritize rescuing civilians over getting her revenge. She passed with flying colors--I know you’d be ecstatic about that--and we’ve all been hiding out in Anne’s Room to avoid the Mafia. We put Dazai in a morph suit so he doesn’t nullify it and he’s been driving Kunikida absolutely off the wall bonkers but at least he isn’t drunk again. When you died he drank a lot but now I think he’s using the war with the Mafia to distract himself. He and Ranpo are talking strategy all the time. And we keep fighting them because what else can we do? We need to survive, Atsushi. We need to survive and I know we started this war and I know Shachou said not to fight them but--” She swallowed and swiped at her face. “If you were here, you wouldn;t have fought them. You would have probably gone with Kunikida and Dazai to find Katai, and then we would have all maybe gotten to the virus Ability user before this war broke out. Or maybe you would help us defend ourselves better, or--” She paused and sniffled, looking almost like someone her age should, when visiting the grave of her best friend. “The Tanizakis died last week, Atsushi. The Mafia’s assassin--Gin--stabbed Naomi, and Yosano couldn’t get to her in time, and Tanizaki went postal. He took down the entire Black Lizard and also Higuchi and Akutagawa before he died. Akutagawa killed him, though. They both died at the same time. And Gin’s partner just kind of lost it after that and started going after Yosano and only Yosano, so she’s been staying in Anne’s Room and Lucy has connected it to all over the city. We’re trying to find ways to stay open even during this war, but it’s...hard. The Mafia is attacking civilians who come to us. It’s really bad, Atsushi, it…” she choked on a sob. “I miss you so much. I miss you. Why did you have to go, Atsushi? You were my best friend. You saved me. It wouldn’t have hurt anyone if you had stayed. I know that, we all know that. And Oda didn’t know what he’d lost, and Dazai was growing and recovering from his death, and we were happy , and now…”
Kyouka sniffled and wiped her eyes before standing. “But I don’t have time to grieve. We’re meeting with Oda and Mr. Sakaguchi tonight, and depending on how it goes I might be seeing you again soon. So...goodbye, Atsushi. I miss you.”
She turned and walked away, through the park, past the empty Agency building, past a child playing in a park with their guardian angel, laughing as he turned into a tiger. She walked away, and she didn’t look back, and as she approached a red haired girl, she vanished into thin air.