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Jouno is just about to complain at how abruptly Tecchou stops the car, when he freezes. Raindrops drum on the vehicle, the smell of the rain fills his senses when the car's door opens, but it quickly changes to something else. Fresh blood. The smell Jouno will always recognise.
His head snaps towards the driver's seat, when he hears Tecchou unbuckling his seatbelt and rushing out in the rain.
"Captain!"
When the scream fills the almost empty area near the ruined airport, Jouno gets out of the car in an instant. The rain quickly covers him too, but he doesn't brush away his hair that starts to stick to his forehead. The smell of blood makes him nauseous even if it has become a part of his life. Jouno frowns when he hears Teruko's sobs. Quiet, yet painful—as if she's barely holding herself together, biting her lower lip to tone down her desperate crying.
Jouno takes a few hesitant steps towards the sound and the smell, when Tecchou stumbles over his own feet. Jouno isn't sure he's ever heard his heartbeat being so fast and erratic. He doesn't think twice before surging forward to catch him. His own breathing becomes unsteady as the realisation engulfs him completely. Jouno clenches his jaw as he overtakes Tecchou and supports him right before he collapses.
He doesn't hold him tightly—just an arm under his chest. Jouno doesn't turn around to face whatever is happening behind his back. Everything is obvious and despite his mixed feelings towards Fukuchi, he can't bring himself to turn his face towards his dead body. He knows he won't see it, but opening his chest and bare heart to the death of somebody who once made him realise that he was more than just violence feels impossible.
"Captain!" Tecchou screams again, and Jouno has to take a sharp breath to stop his own heart from racing. The sounds of these devastated heartbeats of his comrades were supposed to bring him joy. But instead, what he feels is pure horror.
"Let go of me, Jouno!" Tecchou begs, but Jouno only tightens his hold on him. His fingers gently, yet firmly dig into the fabric of his uniform, as he tries to keep his partner from falling both down and apart.
Jouno can feel his shoulders tremble, but he isn’t sure if the cold wind and rain cause it or if it's something else. His teeth start to hurt from how hard he's clenching his jaw. Teruko is still crying in the distance, and even though he's heard her sobbing a lot of times, he's never expected to hear so much pain in her voice. Jouno exhales slowly and finally notices two more heartbeats: they're vaguely familiar, he guesses it's people from the Detective Agency, but he doesn't think much about it.
"Why?!" Tecchou cries out and Jouno can swear his own heart stops when he senses the salty smell of tears right beside him. Tecchou is crying.
Tecchou is crying.
"Why did it have to end like this?! Captain!" Tecchou calls him again, while Jouno can't bring himself to be annoyed at how loud he is. Tecchou, who's always irritatingly calm and reserved, is now crying in his arms.
The whole situation feels unreal. Jouno thinks he's supposed to be happy that the traitor has died. He's known for a long time that Fukuchi has been using them for his own goals which didn't match with what the Hunting Dogs were made for. He tried to kill Jouno. He fought Tachihara. He betrayed two people who respected him the most: the vice-captain and the strongest swordsman. Both of them are more familiar with what war is than Jouno and Tachihara together. They've been chasing justice under his command, fighting to death to protect the innocents and make this world better than it is.
Jouno thinks about Tachihara. It's been a while since they last talked. Fukuchi told them he had betrayed them and chosen Port Mafia, but Jouno has a pretty good guess of what really happened. What would he feel seeing the leader of the Hunting Dogs dying? Would he be happy or would he also have these mixed feelings Jouno is experiencing right now?
He swallows hard, trying to keep himself together. He can't let his mind wander when out of three of them he's the only one left to be strong. However, Jouno doesn't think Tecchou or Teruko are weak for crying. In fact, he thinks he should've shed a tear too. But life has taken away his ability to cry from sadness or grief which he isn't even sure he's experiencing at the moment.
Jouno barely opens his mouth to say something, when Tecchou falls down on his knees, the moment his hold on him loosens just a fraction. His head snaps to the side, but he can't move. He can hear Tecchou's sobs growing louder, until they turn into screams of pure agony. This is when Jouno allows his shoulders to slump.
He tilts his head up, facing the rain and letting the water drops fall right on his eyelids. He doesn't care that his uniform is drenched, that his hair sticks to his face, that his hands tremble. Jouno can only focus on the painful cries of his comrade and Teruko's now quiet sobs. Still, he doesn't cry. But he lets the unexpected sadness fill his heart, as he tilts his head down and bites his lower lip.
Jouno just wants everything to go quiet so he can think of what's going to happen now.
He has thought about their captain's death. But he never expected to actually witness it. Yes, he fought him; he'd kill him back then if he got the chance. Now it feels different, though. At that moment Fukuchi was nothing more than a traitor to him, and Jouno'd lie if he said he felt just disappointment and anger. It hurt to find out that the person who had always been the main representation of justice turned out to be something completely different. Even Jouno managed to find peace with justice and accept that he had changed. Why did he have to be the one to betray them all?
But now, when Fukuchi is actually dead, he can bring himself to feel happy about it. Not when the two of his close people are falling apart, shattered with the pain and grief they feel.
Death is something that comes unexpectedly even if you persuade yourself that you know it's near. Jouno has killed a lot of people, he was and is the one to end the lives of hundreds. But it's hard to get used to losing people, when you can do nothing to save them. Jouno swore to himself that he wouldn’t get attached to any of the Hunting Dogs. Yet, even the demise of the traitor makes his heart clench.
When he hears someone slowly standing up, he turns his head to the side. Jouno doesn't say anything and only listens to Teruko slowly approaching them. Her steps are heavy, he can almost hear the tremor in her body. Jouno doesn't move from his place, nor does he crouches down to Tecchou to help him to stand up. His heartbeat is still fast, faster than it's ever been.
"I'll be your new captain," Teruko's voice is quiet, a bit hoarse from crying. She stops in front of Jouno and Tecchou, not daring to take a step further. Maybe she's afraid to start crying again, Jouno thinks. "I'll meet you both at the Headquarters," she adds in the same tone, filled with poorly hidden sorrow.
Jouno shortly nods in response, still not saying anything. He can't believe that he himself has run out of something to say. Jouno is known to always be the one who has an opinion, who isn't afraid to speak up his mind, to be direct with whatever thoughts he has. But now it's hard to even put together what’s going on in his head: there's too much and nothing at all at the same time.
Teruko doesn't move for a long moment and Jouno doesn't rush her, letting her say what she wants to add, but not asking anything. He simply stands there, shoulders slumped, wet hair covering his forehead, lips pressed into a thin line. Tecchou's sobs start to quiet down, but he also doesn't make a move to get up from his knees. Jouno can hear his erratic heartbeat, which suddenly is a lot quieter and weaker—has Jouno missed the change?
When Teruko steps aside and starts walking away, without saying anything, Jouno doesn't stop her. He listens to her steps, to her unsteady breathing and sniffling, to the way her heart is still trying to break out from her rib cage and tell everyone about the pain it feels. Jouno lets out a long sigh and finally raises his hands to rub his face and run his fingers through his wet white strands. It seems as if the world around him and Tecchou has stopped. Jouno hasn't noticed when the heartbeats of the Detective Agency members disappeared too. He's been too focused on his thoughts and mixed emotions to acknowledge the reality that suddenly hit them.
He turns his head to the side and inhales, now smelling mostly only the rain. Is Fukuchi still somewhere there? Jouno isn't sure. He could miss and the way his corpse was dragged away. He swallows and rubs his closed eyes, trying to collect himself. Tecchou isn't crying anymore—that he can tell. But his distress is still so obvious, Jouno starts to think he's able to be empathetic.
When he thought about the captain's death before, he thought about the Hunting Dogs' reactions too. Hearing Teruko bawling her eyes out wasn't a surprise: Jouno'd be shocked if she was calm. As for Tecchou… He definitely didn't expect this kind of reaction. Jouno's always known that Tecchou's loyalty and respect for Fukuchi are tremendous. Tecchou is the strongest Hunting Dog, he's been a soldier since his childhood, justice is the meaning of his life (or it used to be; Jouno is still not sure what to think about his partner abandoning his moral principles and goals for him).
But Tecchou has always been relatively reserved. Even though Jouno has learnt to read between the lines and figure out what the man feels even when he doesn't show it openly, Still, Jouno used to consider him mostly… Impassive, to put it nicely. Of course, he knows how distressed sounds. Jouno has heard him being angry, annoyed, puzzled, and uncomfortable. Even afraid—though that happened only once or twice, if he remembers correctly.
As much as he claims to hate Tecchou, hearing him break down has never been on his waiting list. Maybe it was once, when they just met, but back then Jouno wanted everyone to break into pieces in front of him, so it doesn't count. So, when he thought about Tecchou's reaction to Fukuchi's death, he predicted hurt, perhaps anxiety, and maybe anger.
Nothing of that came. Instead, he got a trembling and sobbing swordsman, who most likely hasn't cried in a long time.
Jouno gives himself a few more seconds to calm down his thoughts before finally paying attention to Tecchou. He slowly crouches down next to him, not touching him yet, but being close enough for Tecchou to feel his presence.
"Tecchou," Jouno speaks up quietly, but in the silence of his place his voice sounds like thunder.
When the man doesn't react and Jouno can hear him biting the inside of his cheek, he sighs softly and puts his hand on his shoulder. "Tecchou, look at me," Jouno asks, briefly squeezing his shoulder.
It takes a few moments before he finally hears Tecchou shifting. He straightens up only to sit on his heels. Jouno waits patiently, and when he hears Tecchou sniffing quietly and turning his head to him, he speaks up again, "It'll be alright."
"Will it?" Tecchou answers quietly, and the sound of his small, hoarse voice makes Jouno swallow. He can still sense the faint smell of his tears and Jouno has to hold himself back from reaching out and wiping them away.
"I don't know," he decides to answer truthfully, gently squeezing his shoulder again. If somebody saw them now, they wouldn't believe that just an hour ago they were beating the living shit out of each other. "But we'll make it work, okay?" Jouno adds, trying to reassure Tecchou to the best of his abilities.
Tecchou doesn't answer for a few seconds, looking away. He wipes away his tears, staring at the bloodstain on the spot where Fukuchi was just a few moments ago. "It won't be the same without him," he forces out barely above a whisper.
Jouno sighs and nods, "It won't. But it doesn't mean there won't be anything. We still have Teruko. You still have me," he murmurs, allowing himself a moment of vulnerability and honesty.
At some point, Jouno cringes at himself for being so open with Tecchou. But he also knows that this is what his partner needs right now, and as much as Jouno dislikes all these sappy, in his opinion, conversations, he can let himself let his guard down for a moment and be there for a person he trusts with his life. His own grief is still growing in his chest, almost making him overthink the future, but he forces it down to focus on the reality.
"Thank you," Tecchou whispers, looking down at his hands. Jouno can hear them trembling, so he reaches out with his free hand and covers one of Tecchou's palms. His long fingers wrap around it, giving a reassuring squeeze, before Jouno slowly stands up and tugs Tecchou with him.
"Let's go now. We need to go to the Headquarters," he says quietly, letting go of Tecchou's hand, but still guiding him by his shoulder. Life will bring a lot of unexpected events to them, and they most likely will have to do a lot of paperwork tonight, but for now it doesn't matter. Now, they only need to get back into the car and escape the pain of this day.