Chapter Text
Yosano stares and stares at the apple on her counter. It is glistening and red and sits perfectly in her hand.
She knows this, because it has never left her side, not once throughout the Hunting Dogs or the airport. It will not leave her side now, when the Agency is disbanded.
The Agency is disbanded, and Yosano, a talented doctor in her own right, even without her ability, is lost. Unmoored, untethered, like a boat in a storm.
The Agency is lost, a court case looming, and Yosano is so awfully tired. Her past will be dragged up, she knows. Exposed for the nation to see, the world, even.
The Agency is lost.
The Agency is lost, and Yosano has an apple.
The Agency is lost, and Yosano has an apple that was given to her.
“Yosano-sensei.” They'd set it in her hand, squeezed to make sure she wouldn't drop it. “You can retry. You can save them.”
She hadn't known what to say. Hadn't known, because just as fast as they'd given it to her, they vanished down the street. But the idea of being able to save the Agency–
Yosano had not told the Agency. Had not told Ranpo, because–
Because some part of her wanted to be selfish. If only as a backup plan. If only to have a way to save them.
She cannot help it. She must stop this. Must stop what has happened. What will happen.
It doesn't matter what she has to do, really. She just has to stop the Agency's destruction. She can't let them be disbanded. She just can't, because the Agency has helped so many people. They've helped so many people. They've helped her.
And yet, she hesitates, for some part of her knows that this is the last time she will be like this. The last time anyone will truly know her.
Yosano holds the apple in her hand, red and warm and glittering under the skin, like stars in the sky.
She must save the Agency. She must.
It glints in the light, the apple. Shining and warm, inviting, too, it calls her to take a bite.
She must retry.
Yosano crunches down. It does not taste like an apple should. Not sweet and refreshing. No, it is cloying and cold. It is slimy and she almost gags, almost spits it out, for it tastes like blood, like ash, like a graveyard in her mouth.
But she must force it down. For the Agency, she thinks, as she forces it down, feels it land in her stomach.
For the Agency, she would do anything, even as the apple rolls from her hand and she sinks to her knees, grasping for her throat.
The apple sticks there, stays there, despite it already being in her stomach. The taste stays.
Oh, she thinks, this is what it means to retry.
It is. This is what it means to retry, as she blinks heavy eyes, but does not truly fight against it.
For the Agency, she would retry. For the Agency, for Ranpo, she would do anything. Be anyone.
The apple is next to her upon the hardwood floor of her kitchenette. That is okay. She only hopes that the Agency will not find her body, if that is how this works.
She couldn't bear to put them through that. Not ever. Not her Agency. Especially not Ranpo.
She will save them. This time, they will not have to disband, if she has anything to say about it.
And this time, she does. She will. She must, for the Agency is the one place she belongs in the whole wide world. The only place she could ever belong.
For them, anything.