“Since I was thirteen,” he said bluntly. “I know the risk.”

Probably better than Katsuko did. Ryuichi had seen his sensei, had seen what alcohol and bad missions had done to her. The person it turned her into, who was very different from the woman who had taught him how to fight. It hurt, sometimes, but she always came back down. Of course drugs caused damage, but it faded. Kaede-sensei always came back.

Ise came back, too. No matter how much heroin she shot into her veins, Kurosuki Ise came back down from it. It helped that she never got as far away as sensei. The damage was always justified. The missions were completed. Team Twelve came back home. They survived.

Only one of them had stayed clean. Hoshi had played by the books, a straight-laced ninja. He’d been strong, but it hadn’t saved him from the enemy’s genjutsu or Ryuichi’s kunai.

And then she asked if he’d overdosed before. He looked at the wall instead of Katsuko. “Does it really matter?”

The answer was yes. Yes, he'd overdosed before. Yes, he'd come close to dying before.

Yes, it had turned out alright.

Every time, the action was justified by the ends. The mission was completed.