WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Tokyo 24th Ward Episode 3, "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
Aoi Shuta and his friends Koki and Ran once failed to save Suido Asumi's life, but Asumi's disembodied voice later gave the three boys the power to see the future so they can become heroes who will change that future for the better. Asumi can only do so much -- it's up to Shuta and his pals to make the most of this and realize their potential as young heroes.
Already, Shuta, Koki and Ran saved Sakuragi Mari's life from a runaway train, and this time, Asumi's voice warns the boys with a vision of a sudden tornado tearing through the GourFes event one afternoon. Shuta and his friends leap into action, but this time, it might not be enough, and that may drive the three boys apart.
Shuta and Mari's biggest concern is the upcoming GourFes event, where Mari's family restaurant must go up against the shady antics of their biggest rival, Mon Jungle. Shuta tries to relax and enjoy himself, but he and Mari are both still haunted by their memory of Asumi's death, and then Asumi's digital ghost returns once again. Halfway through GourFes, Asumi's disembodied voice calls Shuta, Ran and Koki, providing a vision of a sudden tornado that will soon strike the small island where GourFes is taking place. She explains that the RGB boys must choose one of two routes while saving the day -- although no matter what they do, many people will die to save the rest.
Shuta and his friends used their physical strength and hacking skills to save Mari's life from that runaway train without consequence, which led the boys to believe that they can create a third path into the future without having to choose from Asumi's options. Shuta and his friends launch an urgent but badly coordinated evacuation effort as the storm arrives, and to the boys' horror, their evacuation plan falls apart. A handful of people perish in the storm and many more are injured. This time, the boys can't cheat the future, and this failure proves their fallibility as amateur superheroes. They are weaker than expected, and the boys might soon turn against one another to assign blame.
Shuta, Ran and Koki all feel terribly guilty for how the evacuation effort proceeded, and during the storm and after, the three friends clash over what exactly they should do. Ran and Koki, who are already at odds over the controversial Hazard Cast system, each tries a different evacuation method in Episode 3, and the resulting compromise proves to be a shoddy one. Shuta does his best to mediate between his friends, but that doesn't save the day, and no doubt Shuna's inner demons will grow even stronger from this. First he failed to save Asumi, and now a handful of strangers are dead because he and his friends aren't strong enough. This may weaken Shuta's resolve in the future, preventing him from keeping his team together.
The GourFes debacle also proves that the RGB team lacks a strong and decisive leader. Koki wants to take command since he is connected to SARG and the police and has experience working with authority figures. Ran, meanwhile, is used to leading his own hacker group and doesn't like taking orders, and Shuta has trouble mediating between them when things go wrong. Without a firmly established leader, RGB may fail once again, and even more people may die next time. That's not what Asumi's digital ghost wanted for her friends at all.
