That Lonely Bridge

One-shot

Kuroko looked across the dark water, breathing in the crisp night air and the smells that rolled off the river. His stomach grumbled, its empty yearning a painful reminder that he hadn't eaten in two days. Instead of responding to it, he tilted his head upwards, gazing at the few stars that managed to shine through the awful light pollution from the nearby city.

How nice it must be, to stare down at the world from above, never fearing, never hungering, but just being.

He sighed lightly, then dropped his head to stare at his haggard reflection in the water. Its surface was clear and still, faint ripples breaking the tranquillity only where the water lapped at the shore.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a slight movement, a person walking with his head down, hands tucked in pockets. He turned away uninterestedly, trying to melt into the shadows.

Such people were not an uncommon sight at this bridge. It was one of the more isolated bridges in all of Japan, and people usually visited it just to look at the stars and lament about their pitiful lives.

Kuroko could relate. He was one of those devotees, drawn to the bridge because of the tragedies it had heard, the mournful sobs of its visitors forever embedded in the worn stone.

He was about to turn away for the night when he heard a loud splash. Whipping around, he scanned the bridge, but it was empty. The man from earlier was gone too. Out of curiosity, he peered over the side of the bridge, wondering what it was that caused such a splash.

He saw large ripples spreading out from a point in the water not too far from where he was standing, and thought he saw something disappearing into the depths of the river. Kuroko shrugged to himself, and was about to turn away, but something made him turn back. The nagging feeling made him think a little harder to link fragments of half-formed thoughts into a plausible explanation.

Did the man from just now jump? He must have.

I should save him.

The thought came from nowhere, and though Kuroko tried to push it away, it stayed rooted in his mind. He had no reason to help a stranger. If they wanted to commit suicide by drowning, it was not his problem.

Can you continue to stand here day after day, knowing that you could have saved him but let him die instead?

Can you live with yourself being a murderer?

Kuroko growled softly, cursing his logic. Of all days, it had to wake up today and reprimand me.

He ran towards the point of the bridge where the man was most likely to have jumped off from, pulled himself up on the railing, and let himself fall.

His feet hit the water first, and the impact of hitting the liquid's surface was lost on him as he sank rapidly. Logic, 1, me, 0. Sigh. Now, where's that guy?

He shook his head, strands of his hair waving about his face as he squinted into the darkness. The silt from the bottom of the river had risen up from his and the other man's entrance, obscuring his vision. The dirty water was irritating his eyes, and he kicked off, unable to remain still.

He pushed at the water awkwardly, the weight of his clothes dragging him down even though they were made of the thinnest cloth. The river's currents were pushing him backwards, and he let himself get drawn along by it, kicking to the surface for air.

He gasped and drew a shuddering breath as his head breached the surface, and rubbed at his eyes before scanning the water around him.

There! Several metres ahead of him was a patch of water that looked darker than the rest, and he dived towards it eagerly. His clothes really were a hassle, and his limbs were weak from the lack of nutrition. Nonetheless, he kicked and scooped water as best as he could, praying that he would reach the dark patch in time.