Lost Paradise | BOOK 1

𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕 (23)

Spoiler warnings: JJK manga (implications), slight Dark Era, Finding Paradise (book 2)

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The ambience of bar Lupin was quiet and calming. That is, to Sakunosuke Oda that is. It was almost midnight and it seems like two of his friends weren't going to their usual bar that night, but Oda doesn't mind.

He knew Dazai Osamu could get busy with executive work despite being eighteen, and Sakaguchi Ango is often preoccupied as an intelligence agent.

Suppose, tonight will be just him, the bartender and a glass of whiskey. It really gives him the time to enamour himself in his thoughts but the bell at the door ringing garnerned his attention.

"Excuse me, hi..." A fairly young girl's voice croaked weakly, making Oda turn towards the figure laying weakly against the doorframe.

"I know I'm not supposed to be here, but can I have a bottle? Soju will do I suppose."

Raising a brow, Oda stood up and helped her to a table. The one beside him where Dazai usually sits.

"Aren't you a little young to purchase alcohol?" The bartender asked kindly. Seemingly noticing how the girl and Dazai Osamu looked closer in age— same hair color too. What a coincidence.

"It's not for me to drink you see..." She smiled weakly. "I need to sanitize this knife..." from the scabbard attached to her belt— Oda noticed— was a bronze and silver knife, similar to what Nakahara Chuuya— Dazai's partner— often carries with himself.

"To perform an emergency surgery..." The girl explained.

"Emergency surgery?"

Now the bartender and Oda grew alarmed.

"Where is the patient?" The bartender gently asked. "Did you call the ambulance yet?"

"On myself..." The girl painstakingly smiled. "The bullet hit deeper than what I originally thought... And I can't heal nor walk properly if... It's lodged in my knee..." She chuckled

"Bullet—!" Oda's eyes widened. "Are you... From the Port Mafia too?"

The girl tilted her head at him, and Oda was met with a suspicious pair of oddly familiar blue eyes.

"No..." The girl said carefully. "But my parents are..."

"Don't tell me you got caught in a crossfire?" Oda spoke urgently, looking at the bartender and gesturing him to get the soju the girl is asking for.

"Have you called your parents at least?"

"I did not get caught in a crossfire." The girl answered. "And even if I could call them, it's not like they could answer." She frowned.

"My battery's dead." She remarked.

"How would you perform surgery on yourself?" Oda asked as the bartender handa him the opened bottle of Soju and a pair of long stainless steel chopsticks.

"I did not binge enough medical dramas to not know the courtesy of emergency surgeries." The girl joked.

"I have two doctors as a tutor." She assured after seeing the unimpressed look Oda gave her (not that he changed his usual expression, she just noticed how his frown deepened and his eyebrows furrowed slightly more at her response)

"One from my school, and the other a private doctor where my uncle works at."

"I'm experienced in basic first aid." Said Oda. "I think it's best if I help you."

"Nah. I go solo most of the time mister." The girl Huff's snatching the soju and chopsticks from him and rolling up her skirl slightly.

Oda frowned at her and the wound. Watching as the girl doused the chopsticks with the alcoholic drink and— as gently as possible— jabbed it towards her knee to get the bullet out.