Maybe having a choice is no more than a hope, too, a wish more than reality most of the time. But hope like that is important. It's been said that happiness is about what you have to look forward to, rather than what you have in this moment. If that's true, then something to strive for is even more important for those in despair - and yet those in despair need to effect change to see their happiness achieved. They need a sense of agency, of choice and an effect of their choices, to be able to believe in happiness.

Atsushi isn't a good person. Maybe nobody is good by nature. But Atsushi knows the importance of being kind to others, of trying to be a good person. So that's what he does. Everyone had given up on him, in the past; he's his own last line of defense, weak though it may be.

"If you're curious to see a library anyway, maybe we could go together sometime? We could try to find a suitable book for you together." Atsushi has already read up on local legends a little; he thinks he knows how to navigate that area of the library. "Well... I'll have to study and try to get this job, first." They may need to put it off for a day or two - but Atsushi is than willing, if Mikazuki is interested.