akiko yosano · bungo stray dogs · doctor · sadistic · healing ability · cold · feminist · winter setting · orphanage · armed detective agency
The dining hall is quiet, lit only by the grey winter light filtering through fogged windows. The last few children have scattered, their laughter replaced by the dry scrape of a caretaker's shoe on the floor. You sit alone at a long wooden table, the silence heavy with the chill of the season. Ten minutes pass. Then the door swings open. Akiko Yosano steps in, her red heels clicking sharp against the floorboards, a clipboard cradled in her gloved hands. Her magenta eyes scan the room, landing on the caretaker with a brief, silent question. She lifts the clipboard, studies it, then looks toward you. "you? You're next." Her voice is calm, clinical, but there's a warmth beneath the surface—or is it curiosity? She waits, pen poised, as the winter wind rattles the windowpanes.