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In more recent times, there’d been a quietude about the Armed Detective Agency’s office in contrast to the more lively atmosphere it’d borne in history. It was apparent why it had been as such, for recent events had brought the need for an air of recovery from the collective shock that had been experienced, day in and day out. And, of course, Atsushi spending most of his time in the cafe at the bottom of the agency building instead of the office itself outside of working hours had its own effect too, as the happy air about his positive demeanour and inquisitive inquiries in every matter regarding the agency was now absent, at least for half the time of what it used to be. Kunikida claimed to not care much, yet, even he seemed to slip the fact that, too, missed his continued presence.
“Atsushi, that kid…where’s he gone off to, now?”
Tanizaki seemed to not be too impressed by the question, given that everyone in the agency office knew exactly where he’d been, and so he replied with a poker face and his hand scratching the back of his head.
“Well…where could he be?”
Kunikida adjusted his glasses, took his eyes off his computer and sighed.
“...Yeah. I might even force him to do some of the extra work…he’s got a lot to learn, still.”
Tanizaki seemed impressed, or more accurately, positively surprised by what Kunikida had seemed to utter in his unconscious.
“Wow….”
“...What?”
Before Tanizaki could explain, from the other side of the room, Ranpo was the next to jump into the conversation with his unmistakable lack of filter, as he used his messy hands filled with crisp flavouring to open yet another packet of crisps.
“If you miss him so much, you can call him. You know he’s downstairs.”
Kunikida wore his face of annoyance again as he assertively stood up from his chair in preparation to reply in an anger that seemed so at the surface, yet was nowhere near as serious. But before he could do so…
POP
Kunikida flinched and looked to the source of the sound, and so did Ranpo, Tanizaki and regrettably his sister, Naomi. What met their eyes was simply Kyouka, who, much like Atsushi had been spending a lot of time in the café, standing short alongside Yosano who’d held a party popper in one hand, and a plastic bag containing what Kunikida could only guess to be alcohol, and Kenji, who’d already started munching on whatever they’d bought for lunch. As everyone stared in silence and confusion, there existed a few seconds of awkwardness where both sides seemed to trade blows of complete quietude with one another, as they tried to figure out just what was going on. Kyouka, eventually, was the first one to break the silence.
“Happy…birthday…Kunikida…”
And Yosano followed.
“You seem less than impressed, didn’t you love tataki? Or have you forgotten birthdays exist?”
Kenji still munched on, showing an impressive ignorance of his surroundings, as if he’d lived in another dimension. Finally processing what the sudden commotion was for, Kunikida stood up from his chair in an awkward manner to face the lot and broke the news to them.
“My birthday is next week, who told you the date? Who told you…”
His imagination was graced with the visions of a certain workmate of his, almost immediately. Rage filled his veins and sent his limbs into an overdramatic shuffle, he’d even turned scarlet from the mere thought of him.
“DAZAI! YOU BASTARD…”
He attempted to storm out of the room at an unreal pace, but Yosano caught his collar at the very last moment to restrain him from doing so, and with a nervous sort of smile on her face, she came up with a suggestion.
“Hey, hey, Kunikida, why don’t we drink this off? We’ve cause to celebrate anywa-”
“I’LL KILL THAT BASTARD!”
Yosano giggled and came up with a silly retort.
“You won’t have to do that, you know?”
“YOU KNOW HOW GODAWFUL HE IS AT KILLING HIMSELF!”
“Mayyyybeee, but, that’s for another time! Hey, Naomi, would you set the table up? Oh, call President too!”
All the while, Dazai had been quietly-although with much restraint-monitored the whole ordeal, peeking from a nearby room with the widest smile that had ever formed on any face. He’d planned to join them, obviously, but to bring the whole of the agency together he had other plans to fulfil first. Of course, it’d been all too easy to just call Atsushi upstairs from the cafe, yet, it’d simultaneously felt like a cheap, or rather an easy way all too much lacking in the fun Dazai had craved to stir. Besides, the bigger point was that Atsushi only really seemed at his most energetic at the cafe, talking away with Lucy about whatever they seemed to blabber and fight on about for hours on end. Maybe he could’ve just invited Lucy up to the office too since her contribution to the Agency had been nothing short of pivotal, and she’d seemed destined for Fukuzawa’s approval anyway. Yet, once again, it just seemed a cheap way out, too devoid of fun. And so, with a new, malicious smile and a giggle to match it, he flicked his phone open and recorded a message to Atsushi, one to be filled with nothing but falsehood.
“Atsushi, important. I want you to keep this as secluded as possible, there’s something malicious going on…at the Cosmo World, the amusement park. I want you to investigate. I think it’s the Port Mafia, though, their aim seems unclear to me…so, take Lucy with you, I think you’ll need her ability. I don’t think it’s a big threat, but we need to do our job…I’ll be in comms with you if you need any intel.”
Laughing maniacally to himself in a ridiculously, almost humorously evil manner, Dazai then closed his phone and wore a cautious smile on his face as he walked towards the office room of the Agency, knowing what was in store for him. As he walked in wearing a cloak of innocence, Yosano tapped Kunikida’s shoulder and only softly told him about his arrival.
“He’s here…”
Kunikida raised his head and through his glasses saw Dazai with the ever-so-familiar grin on his face.
“DAZAI…YOU…”
Thankfully for him, Kunikida had already knocked himself out, bottle in hand. Yosano only laughed at the two of them as Dazai quietly sat in a corner, trying his hardest to not break into a series of hysterical laughter.
…
Meanwhile, in the café, Lucy had been conversing, or rather, ranting to Atsushi, telling a story of the guild and Lovecraft in particular.
“Well, Steinbeck was really weird to me, really, because I don’t know who would even think of making friends with that…creature. I sometimes used to eavesdrop on the things they talked about and wonder how I’m like the only sane person in that whole group! One’s a creature of all funny terrors and tales, one just locks herself in a room all the time, one is Fitzgerald…you get the idea.”
“Did you ever try to make friends with Lovecraft?”
The innocence of the question was of such unbelievable character, that it was indeed more believable that the question was merely rhetorical. She looked at him with a funny face that hinted at unbridled rage and retorted as clearly as she could.
“Do I look insane to you?”
Atsushi immediately raised both of his hands and waved them at her with a nervous giggle to match the action.
“Oh! No, I didn’t mean it like that, just, I wonder if he was just misunderstood…”
“MISUNDERSTOOD? HE LIVES IN THE SEA!”
Atsushi scratched the back of his head with his right hand as if to show a very slight disagreement.
“I mean, I wouldn’t judge him for it.”
Lucy immediately blew up at him, perhaps influenced both by the stupidity in his kindness, and how endearing she actually found it.
“HE EATS PEOPLE!”
Atsushi’s eyes grew.
“Really?”
Lucy could not take this man seriously anymore. She slammed her head on the table and spoke in a defeated tone, muffled due to her slamming her head on the table.
“No…I actually have no idea.”
“We can’t judge him then!”
“Atsushi…”
The mini argument was broken by Atsushi noticing the message on his phone, and playing it on a speaker for her to hear. Their hidden smiles turned to frowns as their hearts collectively began getting on edge. This was very unusual for Dazai to do, but if he wills it, there shouldn't be any questions.
…
Lucy looked shocked and even hinted at anger, and Atsushi had already shown signs of paranoia.
“The Port Mafia…why?”
Lucy was quick to rid of his paranoia and replace it with action, as she knew they had to make it quick.
“Doesn’t matter why, we need to move, now!”
Before Atsushi could do or say anything, Lucy grabbed his hand with a firm grip and dragged him across and out of the cafe at lightspeed. Through the incredibly fast manoeuvrability of Atsushi’s tiger form, they’d reached the Cosmo World in no time, its awe-inducing Ferris wheel towering above their heads as the place was buzzing with the confabulation and conversation of the hundreds of people that had crowded the place. It seemed a strange place for the Mafia to start anything malicious, but they’d only questioned the Mafia, and not the man who sent the order. Lucy wasn’t exactly fond of crowds it seemed, or rather seemed more stressed by the idea that she’d lose Atsushi in the crowd somewhere, and so held his hand in unconscious decision, and stayed close. Atsushi, whilst not exactly knowing how to respond to her squeezing of his hand, still had his mind transfixed on a mission that wasn’t.
“I think we should split up and look for any signs of them.”
Lucy seemed against the idea, even if it made a lot of sense, considering the scale of the place itself, let alone the immense crowd. Taking a lot more time than she realistically needed, she loosened her grip on his hand and took a step back.
“Well, I’ll be waiting…”
The words stung Atsushi’s heart like a wasp in the summer, the memory of how he’d stopped looking for her past the moby dick’s accident and the fall of the guild, and how he’d regretted doing so. She scanned the abjection on his face which seemed apparent only for a split second before transforming into a comfortable and contagious smile, and felt a little worse herself. Though as quickly as it came, it went, as she took comfort in the fact that he’d met him regardless of what happened afterwards, and how he looked for her aboard a ship that had been burning and crashing down on the city they’d all sworn to protect. Indeed, In her mind, it’d only been something to ignore. Besides, before, they’d split, she had another idea.
“Wait, c’mere”
She grabbed Atsushi’s hand again without warning or hesitation,
“Huh? Wai-”
Hearing his gasps in his reaction, she dragged him onto a lane within the amusement park as if she’d been looking for something, as he’d initially resisted but given in quite quickly, much to the delight of her heart. It always seemed to act a little quicker in scenarios like these, even if she’d deny it as much as she could. Eventually, they reached her destination. It was a claw machine, with a host of cutesy plushes of bears and cats and the like on display for the prize. Atsushi only seemed a little confused, perhaps too fixated on the mission to see her vision.
“Once we’re done, we meet here…”
Atsushi finally seemed to snap out of it and looked into the glass and at the toys.
“You did say you liked plushies! I’ve always wanted to win at this…”
Lucy immediately turned scarlet and turned to her usual tactics when under such influence.
“Huh? Who told you that?”
Atsushi immediately phased into an awkward anxiety, with a hand on the back of his head.
“Well, I…pieced it togethe-”
“WHO TOLD YOU I WANTED TO PLAY THE GAME ANYWAY?”
“You did drag me here…”
“BUT THAT DIDN’T…ARGHHHH”
She seemed to blow some literal steam off in her animated anger, real or not, then proceeded to try and defuse the situation.
“I’ll see after we’re done, we have a mission that you’ve forgotten already,”
Atsushi regained his seriousness too, as he immediately readied to run off in search of clues.
“Right! I’ll meet you here!”
Lucy was almost relieved to see him run off, as it had given her time to breathe, and think about how she wanted to go about things once it was all over. Then, his words replayed in her head, once more. I pieced it together. What did that even mean?
“Wait, Atsush-”
It was too late, as he’d already disappeared into the endless multitude.
At a lightning pace, Atsushi had already begun scouting the crowded alleys and lanes, ratting out the insides of every stall and every crevice that existed within the complex of the park, and yet, he only grew increasingly lost the more he searched. There was no trace of the mafia: as crowded as the place was, it seemed any clue, had one even existed, wouldn’t be visible or traceable at all. The only way to tell that they truly had been up to something strange at the park was if Atsushi spotted them in action, and there wasn’t as much as a hint of a sign of their presence, as if they’d done what they had to do, and left already. Growing ever more frustrated and confused by the lack of any activity, Atsushi eventually gave up, and only with a cautious eye and a slow pace began strolling back to the crane machine where he’d agreed to regroup with Lucy. Lucy, on the other hand, had only mimicked Atsushi’s energy for about five minutes, before slowing down and enveloping herself in her own thoughts, her eyes on the ground and her conscious lost as if all the endless noise around her ceased, leaving her alone with herself and her deepest feelings that she’d been scared to think about. As if she’d used her ability without using it whatsoever. Even if Atsushi’s comment, to any passerby that is, was inherently simple and straightforward with clear and understandable feelings prompting them as such, they seemed a little kaleidoscopic to Lucy. Her train of thought was quite obviously affected by the touchiness and lack of clarity for anything that revolved around Atsushi, a mess resulting from her own inability to really wrap her head around the fact that he could hold feelings for her, too. Nobody could blame her, though. No matter how golden his heart was, Atsushi might have been the most difficult person to fall in love with. And so, she’d wandered aimlessly and unaware of anything occurring around herself, pondering about the words: “I pieced it together.”. Maybe her love for plushies and soft toys was an obvious thing, Anne’s room littered around with many such examples, yet, she’d felt that nobody had ever really paid enough attention to notice even something as trivial as such. In a painful set of debates, she attempted to reach the conclusion that he’d only noticed it out of the same kindness he showed everyone else, no matter how much she wanted it to be something more, like extra care and attention that not everyone received. It was but a dream, however, and she recognized it as such with a deflated sigh to the ground where still she looked, whilst her arms only remained loose, almost as if it were a method for her to signify her disappointment.
It was only then that she’d remembered that she was on a search mission, and when she finally faced forward, the endless crowd and the noise that they generated, filling up a great many lanes and stalls with a loud sense of carefree joy seemed to demotivate and deflate her even more. Not only was the place massive, which meant searching it through and through would take an eternity, the general joy emanating about the place had only made her heart twist and turn with a sudden sadness, undoubtedly deriving from her longing for Atsushi. Her left hand even rose up from its loose stance, as if she were reaching for someone’s hand that wasn’t there. Pulling her hand back and sticking it to her chest, she immediately turned back to return to the claw machine. Her eyes looked to the ground once more and her face formed a frown, as she began making her way at a terribly slow pace at first, maybe to make up time she thought she would realistically have taken had she taken the search operation seriously, yet, the more she thought of him and his infectious positivity and childlike naivety despite having been through the horrors she’d known so well, she’d picked up the pace, more and more with every passing memory. Eventually, in her unconscious, she began running as fast as she possibly could, even running out of breath as she desperately eyed every single place that met her eye in search of the crane machine that she’d lost. And eventually, a sight welcomed her eyes, both peculiar and as joyous as could be. Her face lit up and her frown turned to a wide smile as she immediately rushed toward the claw machine with Atsushi standing beside it, even if he carried a very apparent concern on his face. Once she’d drawn closer, he’d finally noticed her arriving, which annoyingly took longer for him than she’d ideally wanted. He immediately broke out a hint of a smile and waved at her in dramatic fashion as if to say “Over here!”, but, she’d noticed that for whatever reason, however, his flip phone was open in his hand, and he seemed to have been dialling someone.
“Lucy, over here!”
“I KNOW!”
Atsushi immediately turned his attention back to his phone and seemed to regain his professional composure.
“Did you find anything?”
Lucy immediately grew a little nervous, well knowing she hadn’t found anything because she hadn’t searched for anything, yet, she avoided showing it on her face or her body language as well as anyone could possibly do. She only shook her head with made-up affirmation.
“The place is too crowded anyway, we’re not gonna find anyone like this,”
“That’s what I thought, but…Dazai said that I should call him if something like this happens, but he’s just not picking up!”
Lucy raised an eyebrow in suspicion as she crossed her arms as if to signify a state of thought.
“How is that even possible?”
“I-I don’t know…”
The mission could have been an important one had it not been a product of a malicious Dazai, yet, what she saw was only a way out of this hassle and get to trying their hand at the crane machine.
“It can’t be that serious, then.”
Atsushi raised his head from his phone with the most concerned his expression had been in the past few minutes.
“What if they’ve been attacked?”
Lucy seemed to want to raise her eyebrow on every single word that was being uttered in this conversation.
“Why don’t you call someone else before reaching that conclusion? Might as well say they’re all captured by Lovecraft because of…whatever!”
Atsushi grew a little annoyed for the first time in a while, and only looked down in defeat as he uttered the next words as softly as he could.
“...You’re right…”
Lucy couldn’t stop a faint smile from gracing her own face as she looked at the downcast Atsushi finding another number to call. Eventually, he’d decided to call Kunikida. With anxiety forming on his face, he took a deep breath and dialled it, sticking it to his ear in wait, leaning onto the claw machine. Eventually, and indeed, someone did pick up on the other side. Atsushi immediately greeted on the phone with an elated tone, as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders. Lucy often underestimated just how much he’d adored the members of the Agency, that even the mere thought of something bad occurring to them had him a nervous wreck. They’d sort of been to him what he had been to her, but, she knew there were differences in each of the cases. Whatever it’d been, it warmed her heart and placed a smile on her face.
“Hello? Kunikida?”
“Hi, Atsushi. Kunikida is currently in bed ‘cause he drank too much. And where are you, anyway?”
“Yosano? Is everyone okay?”
“Yeah? Nothing’s going on, just Dazai and Kunikida doing what they usually do.”
Atsushi immediately lowered his voice, sighing a breath of relief.
“I see, I’m glad! I’m just on the mission Dazai sent me o-”
“Mission? There’s no mission? Wait…Dazai…to think I had plans to go shopping today…”
Atsushi now seemed more confused than ever.
“...Huh?...”
“You can talk to him when you get back. Oh, and I’ve saved a bit of food for you, and half a bottle of wine.”
Once the phone call had ended, Lucy had pretty much read the entire situation by reading Atsushi’s body language and decided to have some fun with it.
“See, I saved you again! You’re hopeless without me!”
Atsushi only began scratching the back of his head like he usually does, and responded in a way that was too nice for anyone’s liking.
“I guess you’re right…”
Lucy expressed her annoyance at his almost cartoonishly nice character again, even if she found it greatly adorable. Maybe she did express an annoyance because she found it adorable.
“NO! I MEAN…hmph, you really need to start thinking rationally when something like this happens, there will be times when I won’t be here to give you the most basic information, you know?”
Atsushi looked to her with a guilty smile, as if he’d been caught in some nefarious act.
“I hope that never happens…”
Lucy truly had no idea how to respond to this, and thus only turned scarlet to the surprise of the clueless Atsushi, and then proceeded to make a few angry noises before panicking and turning to the claw machine.
“I-uh…mm…HERE! WATCH ME WIN AT THIS!”
Atsushi had only been puzzled at her sudden burst of energy but smiled when she’d turned to the claw machine, knowing how much she’d love a new plush for her already impressive collection. He laughed in a rather dry manner before handing her a bunch of coins for her to use. He then proceeded to watch her attempt to enter the coin into the slot with her hand that shook incessantly as if under some great stress, which was exactly the case.
“...Do you want help with…tha-”
“NO, I DON'T! I’M JUST A LITTLE…COLD!”
Atsushi chose not to question her, despite it being a semi-warm sunny day, and took a step back as he giggled nervously under his breath and watched her finally, after much effort, succeed in inserting the coin, then watched in a nervous predicament of what was to come of her anger once he watched her fail at picking up a plush miserably. She stayed silent the first time she’d failed, and with a parenthesis of a few seconds gone by, she inserted the next coin in, this time with a precision and agility that was unheard of. This time she was serious. But, as Atsushi had regrettably expected, she’d failed to pick up the plush, again. She grunted in anger, and proceeded to insert another coin immediately and proceeded to take a lot more time in hopes of a precise victory, but did no better. The aftermath was as you’d expect: It seemed as if the flames of hades manifested themselves inside her as she quite literally vibrated in anger and annoyance. Atsushi figured he’d say something but didn’t know what exactly would fuse this unstoppable reaction taking place.
“I-it’s okay, I think I did wor-”
“Shut up.”
“Uhhh, okay…”
What Lucy did next was something Atsushi didn’t really expect. Still with the same anger emanating from her expression, let alone her body language, with straightened arms with clenched fists, and feet stomping the ground with every step she took, she turned around and virtually pulled Atsushi in front of the machine by his arm, and pointed the slot.
“You do it.”
Atsushi was a little shocked, and so his first reaction was to decline.
“I don’t think I can do it-”
“You can do it, so do it. You say that stuff and proceed to do it anyway.”
Atsushi gulped, and reluctantly pulled yet another coin out of his wallet.
“Okay, here goes.”
He proceeded to bend toward the machine in focus, as Lucy crossed her arms and observed. His method had a real precision about it, slowly honing in over the plush that resembled the brown bear. But before he could go in for the move, Lucy tugged on his arm and made a request.
“I want that one.”
She said, whilst pointing to the plush of the white cat with the black stripes. It turned Atsushi scarlet as he finally seemed to catch a hint of what she’d been trying for so long. It was as if he’d been frozen in place by the mere thought of the idea that she had liked him, and had enjoyed his company as much as she’d seemed to. Atsushi always had a voice in the back of his head that had always clamoured about how he still wasn’t good enough for anyone’s true love, and it’d shouted at its zenith at this very moment. It sent him into a series of personal debates in his own mind that rendered him completely unaware of any of his surroundings, and indeed unaware of Lucy’s presence, who’d only smiled coyly with clear intent in wait of his response, but she felt it fade into a confused expression as she stared at a completely blank Atsushi, as if he’d retracted into his own imagination.. Eventually, she sighed heavily and tugged on his arm again as if to wake him from a slumber, and spoke to him with a deflated voice.
“Heyyy…Atsushi…you alright?”
Meanwhile, Atsushi had been making significant discoveries in his deep pondering, things that had been laid in front of him for him to see, only to be ignored or looked over due to his inability to process that someone could, indeed, show signs of a longing for him. Her reaction to his comment when she’d returned to him at the Agency’s coffee shop, the way she’d treated him during the crisis, and the first of her kind and considerate words for him before letting him escape off the Moby Dick, it all replayed in his head as if it were a cassette on a player with no pause button. It was as if the factor of ambiguity he’d felt towards Lucy had crumbled as he finally pieced together the feelings she’d hinted at, time and again. Rue filled his heart to the brim as he couldn’t help but imagine how painful it was for her.
“To think I’d asked her why she’d come to the Agency, and not that I was glad to see her…what am I even doing?
Lucy now wore a concerned expression on her face as her first attempt to lull Atsushi out of his turtle shell had failed. He usually wasn’t exactly a daydreamer, let alone one who found himself lost in the confines of his own imagination deep enough to lose any contact with the outside world. And so, she tugged on his arm again with a slightly more powerful, and yet he remained transfixed at whatever he’d pondered. Finally, once she’d lost her patience, she immediately proceeded to grab both of his shoulders and shook him violently.
“Atsushi! What’s gone into you, now?”
Atsushi suddenly gasped for air and even let out a noise as if he’d awoken from a terrible nightmare.
“What happened? Why are you acting all weird?”
Atsushi needed a moment to scan his surroundings, and when he finally came back to his senses, he scrambled to form a response that made sense without revealing the truth of which train of thought he’d boarded.
“Ah-no, no nothing! Nothing at all! You see, I didn’t really eat much-?”
It was not the correct thing to say.
“Didn’t eat well? But I made your breakfast! Are you saying that-”
Atsushi realized that he had messed up, and it was not a mess up on a small scale.
“No-no I didn’t mean it like tha-”
Lucy was not having any of it, whatsoever.
“How did you mean it then? YOU EVEN SAID IT WAS GOOD!”
“It was good! It was-”
“THEN WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”
Atsushi, after much pause seemed to find the correct sentence to diffuse the situation.
“It was great! I ate all of it too, I’m just a little hungry now, is all…”
Lucy looked at him for a second or two before crossing her arms and looking away, as if to try to find a food stall of any kind.
“I can’t believe you sometimes…There’s not a lot to eat around here though. That’s an ochazuke stand here-”
Atsushi loved ochazuke with all his heart, which seemed apparent in his reaction to the information that Lucy had just relayed to him.
“Can we go? Please?”
Lucy looked at him with a tired expression and sighed, a sight not ugly enough to wane Atsushi’s enthusiasm for a bowl of ochazuke.
“After you win me the plush.”
Atsushi’s expression immediately transformed from a childlike joy to one of annoyance and judgment, but he didn’t really question her deal much further. Except, he added a clause.
“If I win the one you wanted, can I get two bowls?”
“Jeez, how do you stay that skinny if you eat that much?”
Atsushi scratched the back of his head once more with a sheepish smile and laughed under his breath as if he’d been caught red-handed. He’d only waited for her response, and was graced with the best possible answer he could’ve hoped for.
“You can have as many as you want, as long as you win me that plush-”
“UNDERSTOOD!”
He immediately turned to the machine with enthusiasm, pulling out a number of coins from his pocket to insert, as Lucy walked forth with her eyes on the prize.
What followed was nothing short of a masterclass of the claw machine: With one confident deep breath, Atsushi controlled the claw perfectly over the white cat with black stripes, and with a few last-minute adjustments over the position of the claw-which gave the impression to any viewer that he had certainly done this a thousand times before-he swooped it in and grabbed the plush with no doubts over if it would remain in the possession of the claw, and with the same confidence he’d pulled it back into the opening for Lucy to collect. All the while, Lucy had only watched on, in complete and utter disbelief at the efficiency that had suddenly graced him at the mere mention of a bowl of ochazuke. What she truly found interesting, however, was how pointless the entire ordeal really was. He could’ve easily just bought the ochazuke for himself, with his own money. Yet, he’d followed her terms without even questioning it at all. It was almost as if he hadn’t done it for the ochazuke at all…or he was just a tad bit silly, as always.
Atsushi then proceeded to pull the plush out of the machine and handed it to her with a vibrant smile on his face.
“Here you go!”
Lucy still couldn’t believe it.
“How did-how the hell did you do that?”
It was at the worst of times had Atsushi actually believed in his ability to achieve anything.
“It was easy!”
“NO? It wasn’t!”
“Doesn’t matter now, you have a promise to fulfil!”
Defeated, but still budding with happiness, Lucy embraced the plush and simply showed Atsushi a wide smile from deep within.
“Yeah. Come on, let’s go.”
After three plentiful bowls of ochazuke, which was one more than Lucy had promised, the two made their way out of the lane with the claw machine with only the Agency office to go back to. They’d silently made their way to the exit, but, something had bothered Atsushi ever since the incident at the claw machine, and needed to clear it out for Lucy. He thought she deserved it from him, after all she’d done for him, and all she’d shown to him. And so, just as they were bound to exit the amusement park, he requested something from Lucy, who’d still held the plush tight against her chest.
“Lucy, can we…?”
Lucy stopped to turn around and face Atsushi, and only found him with a somber sort of expression on his face. It confused her since he’d been as happy as ever after his hefty meal.
“Hm?”
“There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
His question piqued her interest and formed an inquisitive expression on her face, although maintained a flair of annoyance.
“What is it, now?”
“Would you get on the ferris wheel first?”
It intrigued her as much as it confused her, but her curiosity begged for her to say yes. She only laid her eyes on the great big ferris wheel as she responded to him with a tone that suggested that she’d been distracted by its sheer size.
“Huh…? Well, sure, I guess. It better be something important though…”
Atsushi only silently took her to the location of the ferris wheel, which all just seemed out of character for him to do. He’d usually be quite cheerful had he wanted to try a new attraction at an amusement park, yet, if anything he seemed quite sad about something. Garnering worry for him, she only silently followed him into one of the cabins of the wheel. It was a ferris wheel of great size, one could see the entirety of Yokohama from the zenith of its height. Atsushi only stared into the vast and sprawling city he’d helped save, in complete silence, as if transfixed by some great beauty. Lucy felt it was a little off character of him to do once more, and decided to break said silence.
“Hey, I think I can see the Agency office from here.”
It took a few seconds for Atsushi to respond, but he did.
“Where?”
This was followed by Lucy moving and sitting beside him to try and point to where she thought she’d seen it. Atsushi went a little scarlet but kept his composure still. After all, he’d brought her here to talk.
“There.”
“I don’t really…see it. Or maybe I do. I can’t tell.”
Lucy immediately decided to try and cut to the chase.
“So, what did you want to talk about, anyway? I swear to god if it's about food or something again, I will literally throw you out of this cabin.”
Atsushi seemed to take his time, despite her playful threat. He looked to the ground and tapped his feet as if he was trying to form a very difficult sentence to utter. Eventually, he did, and it came out quite simple.
“I’m sorry.”
Whilst she had been aware of Atsushi’s tendency to be honest with his emotions at the most random of times, yet this had seemed too random, even for someone like him.
“Huh? For what?”
“I didn’t…realize anything when I needed to. I’m sorry for not looking for you when I had to, when I had a promise in place I just…forgot about you.”
Lucy didn’t take long to recall what he’d been talking about, and immediately got rid of her own annoyed, or playful tone and replaced it with a very serious one. It was something that had bothered her, too, though with time she’d seem to think of it less and less.
“Oh…that. I hated you for that. But, I mean, It’s fine now, really. You said you looked for me on the burning ship, not far before it would crash into the city. I think that was enough…”
Atsushi wasn’t convinced by it, somehow, and broke into tears as he continued his self-depreciative rant.
“It wasn’t enough. I made you a promise, and I don’t really know why I…I didn’t realize how I felt, maybe, but…I let you down like I alway-”
Even Lucy’s voice garnered a plaintive flair, as she tried to calm him down. No matter what had happened in the past, his own penitent rant had seemed to tear into her heart, too. Why it was, seemed clear enough: she’d simply hated seeing him in such a state of sadness and regretful suffering.
“That’s enough!”
“But-”
Whatever happened next seemed an amalgamation of the unmeasurably strong emotion felt by the pair of them at that moment, which had crumbled all sense of order and replaced it with chaos and unpredictability. Or, it was simply something that was bound to occur at some point, with the pent-up feelings in their hearts losing patience every passing minute. Guided by the wish of her heart at odds with the rationality that existed in her head and aided by an unfiltered and chaotic desire, she simply extended her left hand towards his tear-laden and scarlet cheek, and turned his face towards her own as if prompting him to look her straight in the eye. Immediately doing exactly that, he stared into her eyes without as much a hint of a blink, as his own grew in size and ceased to shed tears, only retaining the shaky nature of plaintiveness as he shivered intensely as if influenced by an icy December gust. She’d tried to keep a serious look about her eyes, yet failed miserably at such, as even a toddler would be able to point out the longing emanating from her eyes. Eventually, with a voice as plaintive as can be without breaking the border of tears, he’d tried to speak to her, yet to no real avail.
“L-Lucy…”
Lucy only replied to his uttering of her name by raising her right index finger and placing it softly on his lips, as if to request him to speak no more. He’d reacted with a little gasp initially, yet, even he found comfort in her gesture as told by his eyes shrinking a little and by his shivering losing its intensity, although not ceasing. Only then did she run her thumb across his lips as if to ready them for some purpose. She’d then spoken to him in a voice with a quietude that he’d never heard from her before.
“It’s in the past, now. You’re here, so...”
And with that, she closed her own lips towards with as much patience and unhurriedness she could muster, as if to give him space, and a choice. She’d expected him to resist and push her away, for that’s how he was, yet, after a second or so of initial discomfort, he only seemed to bring his own lips closer to hers, ever so slightly. Her heart thumped as fast as it ever had. This was it, it was the zenith of her life. When what felt like an eternity finally passed, her lips touched his with as soft and loving a flair as could be, and in that moment it seemed they collectively drowned in their own desire, as they grew more and more comfortable with tasting each other’s lips. A few minutes passed with the pace of a flash of lightning, and only then it was that they collectively decide to break away, an action which was a product of a desire to look into each other’s eyes again, only this time with a true understanding of each other instead of the ambiguity that had plagued their relationship for so long. When they finally did, they couldn’t stop looking. There seemed a newfound beauty that had manifested itself, not only in their eyes but in every aspect of their being. Atsushi only smiled at her with a flair of unbridled joy and closed his eyes as he fell loose onto her chest. Lucy carried a similar expression as she wrapped her arms around the free-falling Atsushi, and tucked her own head on his shoulder. None of them uttered a word, in fear that they’d break the perfect silence that had seemed to manifest itself around them.
Eventually, it was time to go. They exited the ferris wheel cabin with comfortable smiles on their faces, as Lucy subconsciously reached out for his right hand with her left, an advance that was met with equal enthusiasm and contentment, as her right still held on to the plush he’d won for her. And it was just like this that they’d walked all the way back to the Agency office, still in mutual silence that seemed to grant them endless happiness. Entering the café, to their surprise, there sat the culprit, the mastermind behind the entire event. Well, he wasn’t exactly a mastermind, as his plan had undoubtedly failed.
“Good afternoon, Atsushi! Say, where were yo-”
Dazai’s snarky welcoming was met with the sight of them holding hands in silence, and with Lucy holding a very Atsushi-like plush, as they looked at him with collectively annoyed expressions, though they lacked any real anger or intensity.
“Oh, you two definitely had a day, huh! I actually have work in the office, and so do you, Atsushi, so I’ll see you there!”
With this said in a frenzied, or more accurately confused tone, Dazai bolted out of the café as Atsushi and Lucy only followed his trajectory with their eyes. After a few seconds of silence, Lucy looked at Atsushi and broke into an almost hysterical laughter that was clearly brimming with joy, and Atsushi couldn’t help but do the same.
Dazai entered an empty room once more and only reflected in his mind as he looked towards an empty wall.
“What did they even do?”
However, as Dazai always does, he only laughed at it with his trademark unserious tone.
“Maybe I just helped them out! Hehe!”
“Dazai…”
Dazai immediately ceased to ponder and looked to the source of the very unmistakable voice that had interrupted his little reflection of mischief. It was Yosano, and her tone suggested that she wasn’t very pleased.
“What did you do with Atsushi?”
…