Between Yuto's brooding suspicions and the lively atmosphere shared by Akane, Aoyama, and Aki, the dinner ended on a successful note.
A week later, Akane said her goodbyes to Aoyama and Pochita and left for her semester break. Her hometown was in Kamakura, a detail Aoyama only learned during that final dinner. It was also the first time he'd realized she was a sophomore Computer Science major.
A girl in CS? That was still a rarity these days.
Then again, they'd known each other for nearly a year, and it was the first time he'd ever actually asked. He'd never been the type to pry into her academic life, and she'd never volunteered the information.
With Akane gone, Aoyama settled back into his quiet, repetitive routine.
Half a month passed in a blink. The next deadline arrived, the pages were sent, and a few days later, the newest issue of Manga World GoGo hit the shelves.
The latest Edgerunners chapter was a standout. A pure, sweet romantic beat in the middle of the chaos. Even Ito Ayumi, Aoyama's editor and frequent dinner companion, had finished reading the manuscript with a ridiculous grin on her face.
Han Fumito, as always, brought the magazine up along with his father's newspaper and went straight to the Edgerunners page.
He'd been shaken by Pilar's sudden death in the previous issue, but after two weeks of debating it with classmates and online fans, he'd come to accept it. It was Pilar, after all. He'd been crass and a bit of a creep toward Lucy early on, and while he'd softened since, his exit didn't hurt as much as someone else's might have.
The readers of this generation were surprisingly resilient. One death wasn't enough to drive Han away.
He turned to the title page.
Chapter Title: "Growth."
Han didn't overthink it. He just started reading.
The story picked up exactly where it left off. In the aftermath of Pilar's death, the crew was shockingly calm, with the exception of David, Lucy, and Pilar's sister, Rebecca. David and Lucy were both covered in blood; David's was from the cyber-psycho, but Lucy had taken a real hit.
Maine issued orders with surgical precision. "Dorio, take Lucy to a ripperdoc. Kiwi and I will wait for the NCPD. This place is a mess; someone needs to stay and explain so we don't have heat on us later."
"You heard him," Dorio said, nodding to Lucy.
"David, you go with them," Maine added.
"What?" David looked at him.
"We'll say Kiwi and I did it. They'll write it off as another cyber-psycho containment. A teammate is down. It's complicated enough as it is."
David hesitated.
Maine's expression went cold. "You pulled the trigger too. Stop thinking like a rookie."
David had no comeback for that.
The next scene saw David, Lucy, and Dorio at a black market ripperdoc clinic. Lucy walked inside alone, her tone frosty. "I can handle it myself."
Dorio watched her go, then turned to David with a knowing smile.
"David, I'm leaving the rest to you."
She walked out of the panel.
"Wait!" David called out, panicked.
"Maine said you can use his car!" Dorio's speech bubble floated back from off-screen.
A few panels later, Lucy walked out of the clinic, a cigarette already lit. She found David still waiting for her. He drove her back to her apartment in Maine's car.
As they drove, the neon lights of Night City bled across their faces in shifting gradients. Han found himself staring at the panels: the art was so clean, so atmospheric, it felt less like a manga and more like a series of still frames from a high-budget film.
When they reached her place, Lucy's tone remained distant. "You can drop me here."
David tried to look disinterested, his head tilted back. "Right. Okay."
"Goodbye."
She walked toward her door.
David finally broke. "Wait... can we talk?"
"..."
Lucy stopped. She looked back over her shoulder. "Follow me."
The scene shifted. They were on a high rooftop, the sprawling neon landscape of Night City stretched out behind them. They sat opposite each other on an elevated platform.
The city's lights were a brilliant, hyper-modern paradise against the black sky, a dream of a future that looked like heaven from a distance. Above them, the moon, Lucy's dream, was a faint sliver peeking through the clouds.
Han didn't even have words for the art. The composition was just beautiful.
"Clouds are too thick," Lucy said, looking up with a hint of disappointment.
"That moon Braindance you showed me was beautiful," David said, the memory surfacing. "I had a great time."
Lucy watched the clouds swallow the moon entirely. "I actually wanted to talk to you too."
"Yeah?"
"The things I told you that night... they weren't made up." She kept her back to the camera, looking small and fragile in the vastness of the city. "That was the first time I'd ever told anyone."
"I'm glad," David said, a genuine smile on his face. "I didn't want to believe it was all a lie."
"What if I'm lying to you right now?"
"I don't believe you."
"Why?"
"Because I don't want to."
The dialogue flowed back and forth, the "camera" cutting between them. Lucy was always shown from behind, while David's profile was open, his attention entirely on her.
"Idiot," Lucy muttered, though there was a small laugh in her voice. "You should have said something sooner."
The next panel was a massive close-up of David's face, filling the page.
"I couldn't."
"Why?"
"Because you were so mad at me."
"I wasn't mad."
"You were."
"I wasn't mad, I was just..." David looked down, his eyes low. "Okay. Maybe a little."
"See? You admitted it."
"I was mad," David said, his voice earnest. "But I could never hate you."
"Liars."
"I'm serious."
"No, you're not," Lucy said with absolute certainty. "You're the kind of person who sees someone in trouble and dives in without thinking. You'd throw yourself into the fire for anyone."
"Is that a bad thing?" David asked. "Maine thinks I can make it. But you..."
"No," Lucy interrupted. "I think you'll be a legendary Edgerunner. Probably."
"Then what's the problem?"
"The thing that will make you famous won't be the life you lead," Lucy said quietly. "It will be the spectacular way you die."
David went quiet, thinking. Lucy stood up.
"That kind of life... it doesn't suit you."
"I'm not that different from you," David argued. "I have nowhere else to go."
Above the city horizon, a moon shuttle began its slow, fiery ascent.
"Neither do I," David continued.
"We are completely different people," Lucy insisted.
"How?" David shouted.
Lucy reached up and touched the back of her head, her hair glowing in the yellow light of the shuttle's engines. She seemed to be searching for a way to explain the gap between them.
But David didn't wait. He shouted it with the weight of a vow.
"I'll take you there! I'll take you to the moon!"
Lucy froze.
David looked at her with absolute, unwavering resolve. "I promise!"
In the next panel, Lucy's hands were on David's face.
She closed her eyes and kissed him.
Han felt his heart skip a beat.
The art expanded: a full-page spread of them kissing under the massive moon, the shuttle climbing into the dark sky behind them. The clouds had cleared. The path was open.
"I don't want you to die..." Lucy whispered against his lips.
They pulled back just enough to look at each other.
David didn't hesitate. "I won't."
End of Chapter.
Han Fumito sat at his desk, wearing a stupidly happy grin. He was dizzy with it: the relief of them finally being together.
But the dialogue... those final lines...
"Lucy... she's going to die protecting him later, isn't she?"
Han's smile faltered. He was already terrified of the next chapter.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]