#3
My name is Sakunosuke Oda. I’m a detective with the Armed Detective Agency. Some say the quickest way to get to know someone is to find out what they do for work. They may have a point, but that rule doesn’t apply to me. Why? Because I don’t have the mentality or the talent to be a detective. I’m just an ordinary, worn-out guy. Nothing more than a two-bit agent. No different from a cigarette butt on the ground.
Two years ago, I solved the “Azure Apostle” case and joined the detective agency. I can still remember those days like it was yesterday. One moment, everything was leaning to the right, then the next, everything was leaning to the left. The case was rocky, so I grabbed onto the closest thing I could, and it took everything I had just to hold on and wait it out. It was mere coincidence that I was able to solve the case. Beginner’s luck.
Nevertheless, I managed to solve it, which meant I passed the test. Ever since then, I’ve been solving whatever cases the agency throws at me to make a living. I take care of orphans, drink coffee, and on my days off, I do a little gambling before writing novels in the kitchen at night. That’s my life. It’s a humble, cozy life. Nothing to brag about, but I like it.
Today’s work at the agency was a little peculiar, though.
I was walking down the shopping arcade to meet someone. It was almost nightfall. Everyone was quietly coming and going like creatures of the deep sea as the orange evening sun sank into the horizon. There was a stain at the end of the pavement where someone threw up last night. A young man’s silver bicycle passed by me, its wheels lit up like some sort of spacecraft. The townscape was the color of dingy coffee jelly. I just couldn’t bring myself to hate this place.
My job today had to do with the new recruit Akutagawa. He’d broken into the Port Mafia’s headquarters, an underground organization that had spread its roots deep within this city. Saying he had a few screws loose would be putting it lightly. He might as well have smashed his bones with a hammer and fed them to the wolves. That would’ve made more sense than infiltrating the Mafia’s headquarters. Incidentally, I was the one who’d invited him to join the detective agency.
Once again, I’d shot myself in the foot. As always. At this point, it had become a bad habit I just couldn’t shake, so all I could do was accept it. What I needed to do now, however, was worry about the new recruit, since he was a hundred times more messed up in the head than me.
The new guy—Akutagawa—was a powerful skill user who had been through hell and back many times. If anyone was capable of penetrating Port Mafia’s defenses and reuniting with their sister, it was Akutagawa.
But that’s the end of the line for him. Akutagawa would never be able to get his old life back. Port Mafia was like the night breeze that blew through the darkest areas of this city. Not even a single back alley or gutter was out of their reach. Even if Akutagawa managed to get his sister back and escape their headquarters, Port Mafia would find them, hang them upside down, and parade them through the streets. They would slit the siblings’ throats, put them on hooks, and show everyone what happens to those who oppose the Mafia.
That was why the president gave me orders to rescue them—to make sure Akutagawa saved his sister’s life and they returned to the agency safely. My job was to help them after they escaped.
There was no way the Mafia would let either Akutagawa or his sister go. It’d make them look bad. If they let an intruder like Akutagawa go free, they’d just seem weak to anyone outside the Mafia, and if they let his sister leave, they’d appear weak to those inside the organization. Money or privileges weren’t enough to wipe the slate clean. What could we do, then?
After much consideration, I came to a single conclusion: Threaten them. That was the only way. Tell the Mafia that I was going to give the government information on them that would sink them for good. Then, in return for this information, they would promise to leave Akutagawa alone. To do this, however, I needed help from someone on the inside. It couldn’t be just any collaborator, though. It had to be someone who played a pivotal role in the Mafia. Ideally, someone who worked close to the heart of their money. After all, money was like blood to the organization, and a living creature can’t survive if you pump poison into its bloodstream.
I investigated and tracked criminals working underground until I found “the one”: a Mafia accountant who handled their finances. He was an old man who’d worked for years as the organization’s safe keeper by laundering their money. His hobbies included bonsai and chess. He’d asked to meet at an old bar in a back alley.
It was nightfall, and the bar still wasn’t open yet, but the wooden door was ajar—maybe he’d pulled some strings for us. I walked through the doorway and began descending the staircase. The dark, dry staircase to the basement made me feel as if I were going back in time. I could faintly hear jazz music coming from the bar.
The inside was as cramped as a shoebox and quiet. A counter, barstools, various brands of bottled liquor lined up against the wall—but no bartender.
The man I was planning to meet was already sitting in the back. He stared despondently at his liquor-filled glass while running his finger around the rim. I blinked.
“…Who are you?”
It wasn’t the old man who was sitting there.
The person raised his head when he heard my voice and looked up at me through his long eyelashes. His lips curled into a smile so subtle I thought I was maybe imagining things.
“Hey, Odasaku. Long time no see,” said the young man wearing a black overcoat. “Still too early to have a drink?”
I’m scared.
I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared.
It chased me from the darkness. I desperately tried to run away. I didn’t even care if my legs snapped off or my lungs burst. I ran as fast as I could. I tried to get away, but there was no escape—because the monster was inside my head.
“Do not?no matter what, Atsushi.”
A voice from my past echoed in my mind. Whose voice was it? It was Dazai’s. It turned into a black chain and coiled around my body. It was a cursed voice.
“Do not?no matter what, Atsushi.”
I couldn’t escape no matter how fast I ran.
I know it’ll come after me no matter where I go.
I wanted to scream, but I had no throat. I wanted to cry, but I had no eyes. My entire body trembled so violently that it felt like it was going to shatter into a million pieces. I continued to run away from myself.
But you can’t run away from yourself. Nobody can.
Atsushi sped through the Mafia headquarters with his head bent forward, almost exactly how a beast would run. He kicked off the walls while he turned the corners and leaped up the staircase, ascending the building at any angle he could. All he could think about was catching up with Akutagawa—saving Kyouka, in other words. Everything else had vanished from his mind.
He saw armed Mafia soldiers at the end of the passageway. There were around eight of them, and they were blocking Atsushi’s path.
“Move.”
Like a tornado or cannonball, Atsushi thrust himself through the group with a growl. The impact slammed the soldiers against the wall, knocking most of them out before they even really knew what hit them. One of the soldiers noticed Atsushi coming and reflexively raised his gun, but the moment Atsushi passed by him, his pistol had already been sliced into pieces. By the time the soldier realized this, blood had already begun spraying out of his arm and body as well. There were no conscious soldiers left after the calamity passed. Atsushi was hardly even aware of what he had just done. He simply kept moving forward to escape the fear.
“Do not?no matter what, Atsushi.”
Akutagawa’s back finally came into view. Atsushi howled, then sped up. Akutagawa turned around at the sound of the ominous voice. He tried to spread his overcoat like a curtain to create a wall of defense, but Atsushi was quicker. He lunged at Akutagawa’s chest, knocking his overcoat out of the way before he had a chance to attack.
“Do not go to?no matter what, Atsushi.”
Atsushi howled.
“Awooooooooo!!”
“What the—?!”
Atsushi’s fist slammed into his stunned opponent’s face, bending Akutagawa’s neck back as far as it would go. Akutagawa was sent flying as if he had just been hit by a truck; then he lost consciousness the moment he crashed into the wall before dropping face forward toward the ground like a marionette that had its strings cut. But he never hit the ground—Atsushi rushed forward and grabbed Akutagawa’s shoulders, stopping him midair.
The beast roared.
He pinned Akutagawa’s shoulder against the wall and punched his torso relentlessly.
Punch. Punch. Punch. Punch. Punch. It was like a machine gun rhythmically unloading bullet after bullet, shattering Akutagawa’s bones and forming cracks in the wall behind him. His body swung like a pendulum.
Atsushi’s bare hands could slice the barrel of a gun in two. A single punch would be fatal to any ordinary person, and Akutagawa was being barraged with dozens. No matter how many times he hit him, Atsushi didn’t stop. His eyes, opened wide, were wavering with overpowering terror. His hands trembled. His teeth chattered. A cold sweat poured down his body.
I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared.
“Do not go to?no matter what, Atsushi.”
Atsushi didn’t stop attacking. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t. He was a prisoner of fear. His body wouldn’t listen to him anymore.
His fractured soul was screaming. He couldn’t stop; it continued to splinter…ever since that day one year ago.
“…It out.”
Atsushi’s fist stopped. Akutagawa’s lips moved to form words:
“I’ve…figured…it out—What you feel…isn’t fear.”
A terrifying chill ran down Atsushi’s spine, and he ceased breathing.
“That emotion…is guilt.”
All Atsushi could see was a white light as the unbearable emotion consumed every one of his brain cells.
“Ah…”
He could hear a voice. The voice of his master:
“I’m giving you orders as your boss.”
It was a voice of the past. A black chain that bound him.
“Do not go to the orphanage no matter what, Atsushi… Got it?”
………………………………………………
I didn’t follow orders that day. The Mafia’s orders. Dazai’s orders. Orders that I had to obey at all costs.
I attacked the orphanage.
I was already a member of the Mafia’s commando unit one year ago. I was the leader with a few men of my own, and I had power—I had information. I could make investigations into violent incidents go away just by leaking information to a collaborator in the city police.
But I only did it once…to erase my past.
Inside every person’s mind is a small child.
It’s you. It’s your childhood self, sobbing in the darkness—a younger version of yourself whom nobody can ever understand, whom nobody will ever extend a helping hand to. People will do anything to calm that child or to get them to stop crying…no matter how inhumane it may be.
For me, that was burning the prison of my past to ashes and killing the demon within.
It was ridiculously simple, to tell the truth. I sealed off the premises with my men, then began the attack. After cutting the telephone line and destroying all their parked vehicles, I turned into the tiger and rushed into the dormitory.
I was afraid, but it wasn’t the fear of committing a sin. It was the fear that I might lose to the orphanage director. I was afraid that he could just look at me, and blood would burst out of my body as I dropped to the ground. I needed years to overcome that fear. I came up with plan after plan, but I would get cold feet every time.
Today, however, I would overcome the fear. I would win.
There were a few reasons why I was able summon the courage. One was something that would seem to be of little significance to others, but that day was my birthday. That’s why I wanted to make the day I was born, in the truest sense, the birth of something new.
The orphanage, which I hadn’t seen for three years, looked so tiny and miserable. The plaster walls were cracked, the pathways were just dirt that hadn’t been paved, and the well for drinking water had dried up. It was like looking at weather-beaten bones, which had been slowly wasting away.
Nevertheless, every step I took removed a scab from my memories, and I inevitably bled. The alley where I was punched until my teeth chipped and broke, the disciplinary room with fingernails still stuck in the wall where I used to scratch until they broke off, the pantry I snuck into out of hunger but was so afraid of being punished that I couldn’t leave—I had to burn it all, or the child in my memories would never stop crying. It was simple. Something anyone could understand. Today was my birthday. Today was the day I was going to reduce my prison to ashes and be born again.
I ran through the orphanage, which I faithfully remembered to the finest detail, until I arrived at the demon lord’s castle—the director’s office. I kicked the door open, and immediately, my heart froze. The director was staring right at me from the back of the room with his arms crossed.
“You’re late, Number Seventy-Eight,” he snapped.
It was an ambush. There was neither fear nor surprise on his face. All there was, was his usual frigid gaze. They were the eyes of a man who looked down on the orphans and ruled over them.
“D-don’t call me that,” I managed to stammer with as much force as I could.
But he simply looked at me as if he could see right through me.
“It appears you made it to your graduation just in time,” noted the director.
“‘Graduation’?”
The door suddenly slammed shut behind me. The sturdy iron door automatically closed, followed by the sound of it locking. I didn’t know at the time, but the director’s office could automatically close and lock. The only reason I was able to walk inside was because he had unlocked the door in advance for me.
An alarm went off. It was the bell for cleanup time after lunch. My body suddenly wanted to start cleaning, and I had to make a mental effort to stop myself.
“Does it bring back memories?” asked the director as he looked down at me. “It’s the sound of order. It’s the sound that let you all know what governed you.”
“You’re right.” I glared at the director. “There aren’t any clocks here, so this alarm was the only way we knew when to do what. This sound held us hostage because there was only one person in the orphanage who had a clock: you.”
I looked up at the clock on the wall. It was an antique amber pendulum clock. Even now, the second hand marked the passage of time like a god.
“‘Owning a clock is proof of a strong, independent will,’” I recited, since I had heard him say it hundreds of times.
“Therefore…”
“‘Therefore, those of you who were born to be ruled and disciplined have no need for a clock.’” I finished reciting one of his favorite stock phrases. “So you made it a rule that we couldn’t have clocks. One of the older kids tried to buy one once after saving up his money, but he was kicked out of the orphanage…after he was beaten nearly to death.”
“Yes. But you never did something so foolish, Number Seventy-Eight. You were obedient. Submissive,” he added before picking up a white wooden box on his desk. I’d never seen it before. It was a plain box slightly larger than the palm of his hand.
“What’s in that box?” My voice was trembling.
“Isn’t it obvious?” The director spoke in a flat voice. “It’s something you need to graduate from here.”
An ambush. A box. I had a bad feeling in my gut that had swelled all the way up to my throat.
“‘Graduate’? What are you talking about? What’s in that box?! What are you scheming?!”
The director slowly approached me with the box still in hand. Cold sweat began to pour down my entire body.
There was probably a weapon in the box, yet my body wouldn’t move.
I repeatedly tried to convince myself to calm down. I would easily win in hand-to-hand combat. Even if there was a gun in that wooden box, a small pistol couldn’t kill me.
However, the director knew I was coming, and he surely knew about the tiger within me as well. Which meant…
A bomb?
If there was an explosion in a sealed-off room like this, the reflection of the blast waves would increase the lethality severalfold. A high explosive would probably blow my head off before I could heal myself with the regeneration capability of the tiger. I focused my tiger’s hearing, then froze—because I could hear what was inside the wooden box. It was the passage of time. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
This isn’t good.
“Do you remember what I taught you?” The director slowly approached me. “Those who fail to protect others do not deserve to live.”
“Stop,” I begged, my voice trembling. “Stay back.”
The director stood right in front of me and spread his arms. A colossal ruler.
My feet instinctively took a step back. It was fate. I was helpless before him.
No. No. No. No.
Fight it. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight it, Atsushi. Or you’ll die!
The tips of my fingers and toes trembled. My racing heart hammered against my chest.
This was fear—the absolute ruler etched into my soul.
“Today marks the last day of my teachings to you.”
“Stop…!”
Fight it. Fight it. Fight it. Fight it.
Fight it!
Every cell in my body screamed.
“Ahhhhhh!”
I heard the sound of something moist.
My arm had pierced the director’s chest, and my fingers were sticking out of his back.
“…”
He whispered something. I heard what he said, but I couldn’t process it. Red alarm bells rang in my mind as it continued screaming the words Fight it.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
I shoved the director and straddled his body as he lay on the ground.
I punched him. Over and over again. Copious amounts of blood splattered onto the floor. Even though I could feel his skull crack and break, I didn’t stop punching. Only when there was nothing left to punch and my fist slammed into the hard floor did I stop. Just then, I caught a glimpse of the wooden box out of the corner of my eye. The lid had fallen off and what was inside had rolled out. I looked at it.
It was a watch.
Next to the watch was a sheet of paper with the following written on it:
Happy birthday
What?
What is this?
Why is this written here? Why is there a watch inside the box?
“Owning a clock is proof of a strong, independent will.”
It was a brand-new watch. It must have been hard for a run-down orphanage like this to afford such a high-end piece.
“It’s something you need to graduate from here.”
That was when I finally managed to process the director’s final words to me:
“Yes… Just like that.”
The director had held his arms out wide before me…like a father embracing his child. The truth was clear. But no matter how quickly the truth pierced my heart, my brain simply wasn’t trying to understand.
The director was dead on the floor. Never would he say another word.
That was the moment it suddenly hit me. No matter how much stronger I got or how much I grew, no matter how proud I was of myself, he would never be able to tell me “good job” or say “I’m impressed” ever again.
There was a possibility he would’ve said that. One day. If he were alive.
But he didn’t say anything. I would never be able to hear the one thing I wanted the most in this world.
Because I’d killed him.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Looking back, there were a few things that didn’t add up. I had no idea I was a man-eating tiger. The orphanage director and the others kept it a secret from me. There was a fiendish white tiger who ravaged the orphanage and hurt people. And this tiger hadn’t appeared only a few times, so at the very least, my teachers at the orphanage surely knew that it was me. And yet, nobody ever told me.
It wasn’t until much later that I found out why.
There was a researcher who came to the orphanage to secretly investigate the tiger, but it killed him. He had long hair the color of white mist and eyes as red as apples. Had his death gone public, the military police would’ve intervened and killed the dangerous tiger—me.
But the director covered up the accident. He threw the researcher’s body into a river and burned his belongings. He then got the teachers together so they could coordinate their story: “No researcher ever came here.” Then, after checking if I had any memory of what happened when I was a tiger, the director locked me in a basement cell. He continued handling the aftermath every time the tiger went berserk going forward. He locked me in the basement in seclusion so there wouldn’t be any victims—so I wouldn’t hurt anyone.
That was why I always believed that the tiger was a savage beast that came from somewhere far, far away. The director knew me better than anyone else. He even understood that I wouldn’t be able to bear it if I knew that I was the tiger. And he knew that he had to continue protecting me, keeping me from going into the outside world, until I was old enough to be able to control the tiger and accept what I am.
“That emotion…is guilt,” wheezed Akutagawa as his shoulder was pinned against the wall.
“Ah…” Atsushi’s eyes lost their focus. “Ah… Ahhh… Ahhhhhh… Ahhhhhhhhh…!”
He screamed and threw Akutagawa into the air. Akutagawa’s body bent into unnatural positions until it hit the ground; then it bounced once more before rolling by a window near the corner of the building. Atsushi landed on his body as he lay faceup. He straddled Akutagawa tightly with his legs and punched him over and over with both hands like a meteor shower. The floor under Akutagawa slowly cratered as concrete scattered in every direction. Akutagawa was no longer even attempting to use his overcoat for defense. It was absolute destruction, far more than any human could take—like a planet being engulfed by countless meteorites.
“You’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong!” bawled Atsushi as he punched Akutagawa. “I didn’t know! I didn’t know…any other way…!”
“A common excuse used by weaklings,” Akutagawa suddenly mumbled.
There was a dull sound. Atsushi’s arm was severed at the elbow, leaving a trail of blood as it rolled across the floor.
“…?”
Fabric blades wriggled around Akutagawa’s body as if they had sprung back to life before immediately piercing Atsushi’s shoulders, stomach, throat, and thighs like a spear, pinning him against the wall.
“Gwah…!”
Akutagawa slowly stood up like a ghost. Blood was dripping down every part of his body, but he walked with purpose.
“How…?” muttered Atsushi while gurgling blood. “After…all…that…”
“I slit open my own skin before you punched me. I then created a tear in space itself to prevent your attacks from reaching my muscle and bone,” revealed Akutagawa while rubbing his skin. “This was my trump card. My final line of defense. I certainly wasn’t expecting to use it so soon, though.”
The blades piercing Atsushi’s body began to twist and expand, causing him to scream as the fabric raked his flesh.
“A skill user fueled by fear and atonement…,” began Akutagawa as he approached Atsushi. “It’s not difficult to imagine your fear. Nothing in this world is worse than regret. Living one’s life always wondering ‘If only I had done that instead’ is pure hell.”
Atsushi’s face trembled with fear. Akutagawa continued approaching him with a razor-sharp glare.
“However, at this moment, all you are to me is a barrier between me and my sister. I never wish to regret again. That is why I must cut you down and continue forward.”
Akutagawa’s blade turned into a guillotine and rose into the air right before Atsushi’s eyes.
It was the Mafia headquarters’ central control monitoring room on the thirty-fifth floor. Gin opened the door to the dimly lit space and rushed inside, trying to catch her breath. With heavy feet, she tottered over to the wall near the monitoring control board and placed her hand on it. Immediately, her knees gave out, and she feebly dropped to the floor into a sitting position.
“Ryuunosuke…”
She leaned her head against the wall while clutching her knees as if she was stranded all alone on a snowy mountain. The room was empty. Dim. Only the myriad monitors displaying every room in the building illuminated the space, but there was no warmth in their light. Akutagawa and Atsushi could be seen on one of the monitors. Akutagawa, who had Atsushi pinned down with his skill, was about to take his life.
“Ryuunosuke… That’s enough,” she insisted, her voice hoarse. “You’ll never be able to make it out of here alive if you kill any more…”
Gin was trembling but not because she was cold. She staggered to her feet and approached the control board.
“I don’t care what kind of person you are.”
She weakly turned the control key and pressed the numbered switch.
“All I want is for you to live.”
She picked up the intercom on the desk and placed it to her ear.
“Ryuunosuke, stop,” Gin said into the intercom. “Go home.”
“Ryuunosuke, stop.”
Gin’s voice echoed throughout the hall that Akutagawa and Atsushi were in.
“Go home.”
“Gin.” Akutagawa looked around to see where her voice was coming from. “Gin, where are you?”
“Just forget about me and go home.” Gin sounded like she was trying to hold back her emotions. “Don’t you understand? I could’ve gone to see you anytime if I wanted. I wasn’t kidnapped four years ago. I decided on my own to accept the boss’s—that lonely man’s—invitation. The reason why I never went to see you was because you’re not capable of having loved ones in your life.”
“What?” Flustered, Akutagawa looked up in the direction Gin’s voice was coming from. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“The way you destroy things is different from how the Mafia does it. The Mafia’s destruction has rationality and purpose, but you don’t. Even those you love get dragged into your violence as you destroy everything around you. Even yourself. Because…”
Gin paused. Her voice was silent as if she were breathing in the courage she needed; then she confessed, “Because you were born to do evil.”
Akutagawa’s arms dropped to his sides lifelessly. His face was like that of a lost child who got separated from his parents.
“Me? Evil? Is that why you won’t come back with me?” asked Akutagawa in confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense, Gin. Nothing does. What are you saying? I don’t understand.”
There was no reply.
“Gin, answer me! What do I lack? What can I do to get you back?”
And no reply would ever come.
The intercom system had already been shut off.
“Gin, answer me! I beg of you! Gin…!”
The wall suddenly shattered into pieces, scattering bits of concrete and dust into the air. But before Akutagawa could even look back, Rashomon’s fabric was torn off. A beast roared. It wasn’t Atsushi, though. It wasn’t even human.
“What?!” Taken aback, Akutagawa’s eyes opened wide. “A white tiger?!”
A beast the size of a small car charged into him until they crashed into a window together, shattering the glass and breaking right through it. All that awaited them now…was an empty sky.
Akutagawa and the white tiger fell out the window of the Mafia headquarters.
“Long time no see?” I repeated to the man as I approached him. “Have we met?”
The young man, who was waiting for me at the bar, wore a mellow smile that seemed so natural on him.
“No. This is the first time,” he replied while clinking the ice in his glass. “First time I’ve ever been to this bar, first time I ever drank here, and the first time you and I have ever met here, Odasaku.”
I looked around the bar once more. The walls stained with cigarette smoke, the pillars that had turned almost completely black with age, the liquor cabinet and lights: Nothing could escape the long, long passage of time. It was a small bar. Cramped. A customer could barely walk through the place without bumping into someone else. Every piece that contributed to the bar’s ambience was quiet and intimate. It was a space created for spending time alone with someone in secret.
Jazz softly played in the background. It was a song about a heartbreaking farewell. Not a bad place for a drink but not quite the sort of place you’d go if you were about to betray the Mafia.
“Let me ask you a question.” Something was bothering me. “Is ‘Odasaku’ my new nickname or something?”
“Yep.” The young man smiled hesitantly. “Nobody’s ever called you that before?”
“No one,” I honestly replied. Most people I know call me Oda. I would’ve remembered if someone gave me such a weird nickname.
The man turned away from me, lowered his gaze, and smiled. He wasn’t smiling at me. He was smiling for himself. But it seemed forced as if he had no idea what kind of expression to make.
What a strange guy.
“Anyway, have a seat, Odasaku.” He pointed to the counter seat next to him. “What’s your poison?”
“I’ll have a gimlet. No bitters.”
I sat one seat away from where he’d pointed to. Just in case. After staring at the empty spot next to him as if he was reflecting on something, he walked over to the other side of the counter and started making a drink. He then introduced himself as Dazai.
After returning to his seat, Dazai raised his glass into the air as if to say “Cheers,” but I didn’t return the gesture. I didn’t even take a sip of my own drink. After all, I still needed to see if this man was worth trusting.
Dazai drank alone for some time after that. Only the sound of the ice clinking in his glass—a substitute for words—filled the air.
“Odasaku, I’ve got an interesting story. Want to hear it?” he suddenly asked as if he couldn’t take the silence any longer.
“What is it?”
“I defused a bomb the other day. Finally, right?”
The young man fixed me with an earnest gaze. His eyes were strong, staring directly into mine.
“My wish finally came true. I was so excited I started to dance with the unexploded bomb in my arms! I’ve been waiting so long to tell you that.”
“Oh. Huh,” I replied.
Even I thought it was a ridiculous reply, but I had absolutely no idea what the point of his story was or where he was trying to go by telling it to me.
“One more thing: I finally perfected that hard tofu recipe I’ve been wanting you to eat. It’s three times harder and more flavorful now! I made one of my men taste a piece, and he broke his tooth on it. You’ll need to be careful when you try it for yourself!”
“Is it really that hard?” I asked. “How are you supposed to eat it, then?”
“I don’t even know, to tell the truth!” he said with a grin. He seemed genuinely happy. My impression of this smiley young man had completely changed from when I first met him moments ago. He may have been an adult, but his boyish voice made him sound far younger. He smiled like a lost child who had finally found his house.
“Oh yeah. I almost forgot. There’s something important I wanted to ask you, Odasaku… I heard you got the Rookie of the Year award for your novel.”
I was stunned. “How did you know that?”
“There’s nothing I can’t find with a little digging.”
His lips curled into a cryptic smirk. After scratching my head, I replied, “That’s not exactly what happened, though. This guy at some publishing agency just happened to come across one of the garbage stories I was writing for practice. He asked me if I wanted to write a novel, and I said yes. In all honesty, though, I’m not confident it’s any good.”
“Why is that?”
“Because there’s only one story I want to write, and it’s in here.” I tapped my temple. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the necessary tools or skills to bring this story to life. I feel like a lost mountaineer standing before the tallest, most sacred mountain in the world with just a single, tiny ice ax.”
“You already have the tools,” claimed the young man with crystal clear eyes. “If you can’t write it, then nobody in this world can. I guarantee it. You’re much better than you think.”
“Thanks. But it’s hard to take someone’s word for it when you’ve just only met.”
I simply said the first thing that came to mind. The young man’s glass clinked, and I looked over to find him frozen with his drink still in hand. The glass, his boyish expression, even his breathing seemed to be frozen in time. I imagined something completely ridiculous for a moment: I felt as if the young man sitting before me was about to cry. But that wouldn’t make any sense. It wasn’t logical.
And as I expected, his expression instantly returned to normal.
“You’re right,” he agreed. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. Please forget I said anything.”
His cheerful, boyish expression was now gone. After pondering for a moment, I decide to bring up the main issue.
“One of my men is in danger,” I said. “I’m sure you’ve heard the gist of what’s going on, but he’s gotten himself into a little mess at the Mafia headquarters. It’d be a miracle if he made it back out in one piece. Even if he did make it out alive, the Mafia would hunt him down for the rest of his life, so I came here to make sure that wouldn’t happen. I’m hoping we can come to an agreement that’ll benefit us both.”
The young man observed me in silence. It was as if he were staring at me from a thousand years in the future. He then murmured, “Akutagawa’s lucky to have come across a good friend like you.”
“What?”
“You don’t need to worry about Akutagawa. After today, the Mafia will never lay another finger on him. There’s no catch; he’ll be able to live the rest of his life in peace… Besides, this is what I’ve had planned since the beginning…if he makes it out of the Mafia headquarters alive, that is.”
I quietly stared at the young man without moving a muscle. He said he was planning on letting Akutagawa go from the beginning, which gave rise to an idea. It was a wild idea, but everything would fall into place if I was right. I decided to ask a leading question.
“Why did you lure Akutagawa into the Mafia headquarters, Dazai?”
Faint cracks appeared in the young man’s expression. For a brief moment, he seemed as shocked as if he had been stabbed right in the heart. Only for a brief moment, though. His sage smile, like that of a man who had been alive for thousands of years, immediately returned.
“Looks like I can’t fool you,” he quipped.
“It was just a lucky guess.” I shook my head. “But my suspicions were well-grounded. First, you knew Akutagawa’s name even though I never once mentioned the deal was about him. Plus, you said your plan from the start was never to go after him or retaliate. In other words, you knew in advance that he was going to sneak into the Mafia headquarters. There’s only one person who could’ve predicted that: the man who sent the letter and photo to the detective agency—the Mafia’s boss.”
I set my glass on the counter, then took something out of my pocket and placed it by my glass. Dazai’s eyes were naturally drawn to it.
“…What’s that?” he asked.
It was a gun aimed right for Dazai.
“A sign that this negotiation is over,” I explained flatly. “While I don’t feel completely safe even with a gun to your head, I unfortunately don’t have anything else on me today.”
It was an old, well-cared-for pistol. We’d gone through so much together over the years that I basically considered it my partner. I could hit a target with this gun even with my eyes closed.
Dazai didn’t seem too appreciative of my gesture, though. He looked at the gun as if he was trying to restrain himself.
“Put that gun away.”
“I can’t,” I told him while lightly placing my finger on the trigger. “Not when I’m up against the Port Mafia’s boss—especially if this meeting itself is one of the Mafia’s traps.”
“I didn’t become the boss because I wanted to.” His piercing gaze bored a hole right through me. “That’s the truth.”
His eyes were so genuine that I almost started to believe him, but this was the Port Mafia’s legendary boss. Lying to a two-bit detective like me was probably easier than breathing for him. I tightened my grip around my gun.
“Looks like I need to come up with a new plan to save Akutagawa,” I noted. “If I make it out of this bar alive, that is.”
“This isn’t a trap. I would never even dream of doing something like that to you,” Dazai insisted. He still sounded like he was telling the truth.
Damn it. I couldn’t even trust my own eyes anymore. I’d probably do better at negotiating and getting out of here alive if I gouged them out.
“Odasaku, you asked me why I lured Akutagawa to the Mafia headquarters,” he began. “I did it to protect this world.”
“‘This world’?”
“This is but one of countless worlds,” he replied while shooting me a pleading look. “And in another—in the original world, you and I were friends. We drank at this bar and spent time together talking about the most ridiculous things.”
I gave thought to the possibility.
“Even if that were true…,” I said, “…that doesn’t change what you did to Akutagawa.”
The young man tried to say something, but he seemed unable to find the right words. He spoke in a halting tone. “Odasaku, listen. I—”
“Don’t call me that.” Even I was surprised with how sharp my tone was. “My enemies have no business calling me that.”
He suddenly looked like he was struggling to breathe. His face twisted, and his eyes wandered about meaninglessly. He opened his mouth, then closed it. It was as if he was fighting something that couldn’t be seen.
“It was hard,” muttered the young man. “It was really hard fighting Mimic without you in the organization. I had no choice but to take over for Mori and make enemies of everyone around me to expand the business. Everything I did was for this world’s—”
Dazai’s gasping words vanished into thin air with a sigh. Remnant particles of his emotions wandered about the bar. Nobody said anything for a while after that. Only silence. Like a sweet farewell, a melancholic piano tune began to play in the background.
“The reason I invited you here was to say good-bye,” he said after a few minutes passed. “A life with someone you can say good-bye to is a good life, especially when it hurts so much to say it to them. Am I wrong?”
After thinking for a few moments, I told him he was right. Dazai looked a touch relieved as he stood up out of his chair.
“I’m out.” He quietly stared down the barrel of my gun, then locked eyes with me. “If you want to shoot me, then do it. But if I’m allowed one request, I ask that you don’t shoot me here. Not at this bar. I don’t care if you shoot me anywhere else, though.”
I looked at Dazai. I didn’t know why, but I wanted to honor his request. I slipped my gun back into my pocket.
“Thank you.” Dazai faintly smiled before he turned his back to me and began leaving. “Good-bye, Odasaku.”
Dazai ascended the staircase until he was out of sight, never to look back again. The last thing I heard was the door softly shutting behind him.
Akutagawa and the tiger were falling from the sky.
“Tsk…!”
Akutagawa unleashed Rashomon’s cloth in midair. They were thirty stories high. A direct impact against the ground would be too much for even the strongest body. Akutagawa’s only option was to pierce the building with Rashomon’s blades to support his weight. However, he was thrown out the window with significant momentum, so he was a few yards away from the outer wall. Akutagawa shot every blade he had at the building’s exterior…but it was still slightly out of reach. All of a sudden, the tiger kicked off the wall and slammed into him.
“Gwah…!”
Akutagawa coughed up blood, and his bones creaked. The white tiger, which weighed close to ten times more than him, had knocked him even farther away from the wall. The building was now but a distant mirage to Akutagawa. He looked in every direction, but there was nothing left for him to grab onto. All that was left was air.
It was evening as Akutagawa fell under the burning twilight sky. Rashomon was a powerful skill, but its range was limited, since he could only change the shape of the clothes he was wearing. Putting everything into his skill and stretching his overcoat as far as it would go would be a gamble, but he had no other choice. He decided to give it a try. But the tiger’s fangs dug into his shoulder, preventing him from doing just that.
“Gwaaaaaah!”
Its massive jaw bit into Akutagawa’s flesh. Blood shot into the air as bones crunched in its mouth. Vital blood vessels snapped. The tiger could easily rip his shoulder off if it shook its head with a little force. Akutagawa slipped his skill’s fabric under his skin to create some spur-of-the-moment armor. The tiger’s extraordinary masseter strength and Akutagawa’s skill, which could even cut through space itself, vied for dominance as the two boys continued to free-fall to the surface. They had under twenty stories left until they reached the bottom.
“Damn it!” Akutagawa cursed.
The tiger—Atsushi—would probably survive if he hit the ground because of his tough body and regenerative abilities, but Akutagawa would undoubtedly die.
Rashomon could tear through space and prevent the impact from colliding into the ground, but that didn’t change the incredible speed at which Akutagawa’s body would crash-land. Such a sudden change in speed would be too much for his brain or organs to handle. The result would be like dropping a sturdy box with a cake inside onto the floor.
It seemed his only choice was to hook a fabric blade into the wall before landing…but he couldn’t do that, either. The tiger would snap his shoulder right off if Akutagawa removed his only line of defense for even a single moment. He’d be dead before he even hit the ground.
In conclusion…death was the only answer.
“Like hell…,” growled Akutagawa with blood in his throat. “Like hell…! I refuse to die! I refuse! I’m going to live and save my—”
“The reason why I never went to see you was because you’re not capable of having loved ones in your life.”
Akutagawa paused midsentence.
“Save my—”
“You’ll never be a good person. It’s clear as day.”
“You’re wrong.”
“A man who took a girl hostage to threaten someone and only cares about what benefits him… A man who doesn’t even realize his mission has transformed into nothing more than an appetite for destruction… That’s you.”
“No, no, no! You’re wrong!”
“You just wanted revenge? Even if it killed you? Did you not even think of what would happen to your little sister if you left her all alone in a place like this?”
“I—”
“Because you were born to do evil.”
Akutagawa whispered as if he were gasping for breath, “I…”
Oh.
It finally all makes sense.
So this was what Gin was trying to tell me.
This was why she couldn’t be with me anymore.
The tension vanished from Akutagawa’s expression. His fingers gripping the tiger’s fur loosened. A man and a beast continued to fall, approaching the eternal abyss.
A swift turbulence in the air broke the silence. A steel beam shot right past Akutagawa’s side and pierced the Mafia headquarters.
“What…?!”
Akutagawa stared at the beam with evident bewilderment.
It was just any ordinary steel beam, but unless he was seeing things, it looked like it came from the opposite direction of the building. But how could something like that—?
Wait.
There was someone standing on one of the middle floors of a high-rise building being built a few streets back, and they were holding a steel beam under their arm.
“Please…! Grab—on—to—thiiis!” they shouted. It was Kenji Miyazawa from the detective agency.
After raising the steel beam into the air, he rested it on his shoulder like a javelin thrower, then broke into a run.
“Don’t tell me he—” Akutagawa’s eyes bulged from their sockets. “From that far away?”
“Haaaaaah!”
Kenji hurled the steel beam. The hunk of metal, around the size of two adults, sliced through the air and across the street. It flew like a speeding bullet before slipping right under Akutagawa’s legs and piercing the Mafia headquarters’ exterior. The impact sent concrete flying, and the entire building shook.
I…should be able to reach that.
Akutagawa focused his hazy mind and extended his overcoat toward the beam. By using every last fiber his clothes had, he managed to just barely reach the tip. Bending the fabric like a set of claws, he latched onto the beam and anchored himself, then swung his entire body. His skill started pulling him toward the wall.
The tiger roared. It opened its jaws and aimed for Akutagawa’s neck to keep him from getting away.
“Rashomon: Ibara.”
Numerous thorns immediately emerged from Akutagawa’s overcoat, which he was using for defense, and crawled into the tiger’s mouth. They rapidly multiplied until they pierced its face from the inside of its jaw. The beast roared in agony. After Akutagawa grabbed onto the steel beam, he swung himself like a pendulum before landing on the exterior wall. He used his overcoat like cushioning to absorb most of the impact while piercing the wall with his blade to anchor his body in.
Akutagawa let out a short sigh after barely escaping certain death by the skin of his teeth.
If the tiger kept falling at this rate, he might have enough time to grab his sister and escape.
Akutagawa turned around to check on the tiger, but it was gone. It was nowhere to be found.
“What?!”
At the very next moment, something started to drag Akutagawa’s body in the direction he’d just come from. As he held on to the blade stuck into the wall for dear life, he looked in the direction of the force pulling him, only to find someone at the other end of his overcoat.
“I won’t let you escape.” It was Atsushi. He had turned back into a human and used Akutagawa’s attack to his advantage by grabbing onto the fabric. “I won’t let you get away, Akutagawa. Not you.”
He yanked on the overcoat. Atsushi was pulling Akutagawa with the entire weight of his body, but all Akutagawa could do was resist. Atsushi started to swing like a pendulum until he landed on the wall as well, digging his toes and fingers into the concrete to anchor himself after transforming them into tiger claws. Two skill users were hanging face-to-face on the Mafia’s headquarters building exterior: Atsushi, who was clinging to the wall with his four tiger claws, and Akutagawa, who was dangling at an angle with his overcoat’s blades piercing the wall.
“I can’t…allow you…to live…for a second longer.” Fear wavered in Atsushi’s eyes as he glared at Akutagawa. “Because I have to…keep my promise…to the orphanage director.”
His severed arm had already regenerated thanks to the tiger’s extraordinary healing powers.
“You can…completely heal your wounds…even after…being stabbed so many times?” panted Akutagawa while applying pressure to his wounded shoulder. “So this is…the Port Mafia’s…White Reaper…”
Akutagawa had taken emergency measures to stop his shoulder from bleeding using his skill’s fabric, but that wouldn’t restore all the blood he’d lost, nor would it heal his broken bones. His body was as fragile as any other person’s. He didn’t have unlimited regeneration capabilities like Atsushi, so if they kept fighting, he would eventually die once he started to lose concentration due to the blood loss.
He’s strong.
The foundation of Atsushi’s strength was manifold. He had a powerful skill, he had been training and gaining experience for the past four and half years, and most of all, he had a motive. It was a call from his past, no different than a curse. It was the cardiac stimulant known as regret.
Did Akutagawa have that in him?
I wanted to save my sister. I thought I did. My vow to save her was righteous and powerful. I could tear down even the strongest of fortresses by the power of that vow alone.
And yet…
“Tiger, you are my enemy. I want to kill you,” began Akutagawa, his expression stricken with pain. “But if my true nature, which only allows me to wish death on my enemies, is the ‘evil’ that my sister spoke of…then what should I do? What should I do with myself?”
“Do not pursue the beast within you.”
Oda told me that. He knew that a colossal beast lived inside of me—that a wicked beast was born the moment the Heartless Dog gained emotion on that day four and a half years ago. That beast abandoned my sister, lured me into the jaws of death, and destroyed everything.
That was why the man in black did not choose me.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!” howled Akutagawa as he sprinted forward. Atsushi kicked off the wall while Akutagawa charged, concentrating his overcoat’s blades onto the soles of his shoes, until he and Atsushi clashed at a beastly speed. His overcoat’s sleeve transformed.
“Rashomon: Bite of the Silver Wolf!”
After his forearm transformed into the head of a giant wolf, Akutagawa swung his arm, hurling the beast in his opponent’s direction. Atsushi immediately held up both of his arms to block, but the beast simply bit down on them and buried its silver fangs in his flesh.
“Gwah!” Atsushi moaned painfully.
The silver wolf wriggled as it gradually grew larger. Akutagawa only had one option if he wanted to win before he bled out: purposely throw himself right in front of his opponent, where Atsushi would be in his element, and use every last bit of his skill’s power to end the battle as quickly as possible. There was no other way.
“Gr…!”
“Mn…!”
Akutagawa pushed his skill past its limitations, loosening the fabric that was wrapped around his wounds and causing blood to pour from his body. But even then, his ferocity didn’t wane. The wolf only grew in size and produced more fangs. The beast’s jaws creaked.
“…?!”
Its mouth opened wide as Atsushi began prying it open with both hands from the inside.
“Stop getting in my way.” Atsushi’s eyes glinted with a piercing amber light. “I won’t be able to…keep my promise…with the director…if you keep getting…in my wayyyyyy—Ahhhhhhhhh!”
Atsushi’s arms broke through the wolf’s jaws while destroying them in the process, causing the skill to vanish like mist.
“Impossible…!”
“Stop getting in my wayyyyyyy!”
Atsushi’s right fist flew straight toward Akutagawa at point-blank range.
Spatial Break—No! I won’t make it in time!
Atsushi’s fist tore through the three layers of overcoat being used as cushioning before knocking his opponent skyward. Akutagawa’s body crashed through the building’s concrete, hollowing it out while shattering glass as he continued soaring upward.
The impact knocked him unconscious before the excruciating pain of hitting the wall woke him up again. Akutagawa repeatedly went in and out of consciousness as his body continued to grind through the building’s exterior.
After he reached close to the tenth floor, he saw it out of the corner of his eyes as his vision began fading. It was Atsushi dashing up the wall like an animal after its prey.
The White Reaper roared.
“This…ends…nowwwwww—Ahhhhhh!”
Atsushi swung his fist into the air…but Akutagawa’s fabric reacted a split second before it connected. It pierced the wall with its blade, using the recoil to push his body far away from the wall. Countless fragments of concrete and debris shot out as Atsushi’s fist slammed into the wall where his opponent once was.
“I must…keep my promise!” shouted Atsushi. “She will never die…as long as I keep…my promiiiiiise!”
He screamed at the top of his lungs, shaking the air around him. It even caused Akutagawa to faintly open his eyes as his overcoat suspended him in the air.
“Rashomon…,” he murmured in almost a whisper, raising his arm and closing his eyes almost completely. “…Misty Rain.”
Countless fine, threadlike blades immediately shot out of Akutagawa’s entire body. The extremely fine needles had the power to cut through space itself. They clustered together and headed right for Atsushi, who promptly dodged with his extraordinary reaction speed. The shower of needles pierced the building’s exterior beneath his feet, and the concrete burst like a splash of water.
As Atsushi continued running upward to escape the needles, Akutagawa followed him using his skill’s thread to support his weight and suspend him in midair as if he were flying. His eyes were still almost completely shut; he looked like he was dozing off.
The two ran until they reached the summit of the building. The rooftop had a helipad, but there was no helicopter in sight. It was completely flat with only red guide lights and painted signs for landing.
Atsushi grabbed onto the edge of the roof before hurling himself up and rolling forward onto the rooftop. Akutagawa appeared right under him in pursuit. Numerous threads punctured the building, which allowed him to gracefully float, woodenly expressionless, as if he was asleep. His skill’s threads writhed around him like an eerie mane. The sky behind him was dyed crimson as the burning setting sun melted into the horizon. He was a demon—a harbinger of worldly doom.
“Akutagawa…” Atsushi glared at the demon. “I will…defeat you…!”
Atsushi jumped into the air, heading straight for Akutagawa before throwing a right punch into his enemy’s face with breathtaking speed. Akutagawa blocked the punch with Spatial Break, just in time to keep his skull from cracking.
Spatial Break produced a tear in space itself that could block anything from getting by, no matter how powerful an attack.
However.
“Uwooooooh!”
A crack appeared on the tear in space. Every muscle in Atsushi’s body swelled as he focused all his skill’s powers on his fist in an attempt to break through the strange phenomenon.
“Uwoaaaaaah!”
Both Atsushi’s and Akutagawa’s clothes fluttered under the pressure of their powers colliding. As Atsushi’s overcoat flew off, his handheld transceiver fell out of its pocket and bounced off the rooftop. The crack spread throughout the tear as it slowly shattered.
“Uwooaaahhh… Wha…what…?”
Atsushi couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Akutagawa, who had pursued him all the way to the roof, had his eyes completely shut. His breathing was extremely shallow, and his entire body was limp. He wasn’t the slightest bit worked up from battle.
Akutagawa was already unconscious.
He didn’t have even an ounce of strength left after pushing his body far beyond what it was capable of. It was his drive to fight and nothing more that was powering his skill.
“You went…that far…?”
Utterly amazed, Atsushi’s eyes opened wide, but almost immediately, they glowed with battle-ready ferocity once more.
“Then…let’s end this…!” His muscles swelled even further. “Ahhhhhh!”
With a high-pitched crack and flashes of dazzling light…the Spatial Break was destroyed, and Atsushi’s fist finally reached Akutagawa’s face, sending him flying back with a meteorite-like shock wave. Akutagawa immediately crashed into the ground. Concrete shot into the air as his body skidded until finally coming to a stop at the edge of the rooftop. It was a perfect hit—the most damaging hit that Akutagawa had ever taken.
Atsushi slowly approached his unconscious foe. Even Akutagawa’s autonomic defenses had far exceeded what they were capable of as they writhed to form blades, only to disintegrate due to the lack of power.
“It’s over.”
Atsushi’s fingers suddenly extended into tiger claws. Right next to Akutagawa’s body was the sky, which extended to the surface far below. There was no longer any distress on Akutagawa’s unconscious face. All he could hear was the gentle sound of the wind.
“Kunikidaaa! Can I throw another one?”
“Kenji, wait! They’re too high up! You’ll hit Akutagawa if you throw one from here!”
Kenji and Kunikida were shouting on one of the middle floors in the building under construction across from the Mafia headquarters. Kunikida was looking through a pair of binoculars to check where exactly Akutagawa was positioned, while Kenji was waiting for his next order with a steel beam on his shoulder.
“Damn it! Akutagawa isn’t moving! But there’s no way we can back him up from this distance…”
The detective agency’s president had ordered Kunikida and Kenji to come here and provide Akutagawa with backup, but Kenji wouldn’t be able to accurately throw another steel beam all the way to the rooftop. Clenching his teeth, Kunikida growled.
“Is there…really nothing we can do…?!”
Akutagawa’s eyes were closed. He felt neither pain nor anguish. Fighting was something far, far away on the other side of a thick membrane, and not even a single particle of light was able to make its way inside the abyss of his consciousness.
He thought about how he was going to die, yet he felt nothing—not a single emotion.
Akutagawa once told Oda that there were two people he wanted to kill. One was the man in black, whom Akutagawa despised for kidnapping his sister and separating them for years.
The other one…was a boy named Ryuunosuke Akutagawa.
A boy who had lost his younger sister because he was shortsighted. Human garbage who said he was going to avenge his friends while indulging in slaughter and wasting his life. He was a cruel, wicked foe.
He was a beast born on that fateful night four and a half years ago—the night the Heartless Dog first experienced emotion.
Akutagawa thought about how Oda was right. How he mustn’t pursue the beast within him. Because he couldn’t win. No human could defeat their own self.
But one could force a draw.
The tiger’s claws would surely cut off his head as long as he kept his eyes closed. The fight for revenge would finally be over, and he would at last be able to sleep, free from care.
He, who grew up in the slums with no one to rely on and no one who cared about him—he, who spent his entire life writhing in despair and resentment—could finally rest. He would finally be saved. He would at last be reunited with his friends.
Then what reason do I have to…?
Akutagawa suddenly heard a voice.
“Detectives don’t give up. On your feet, Akutagawa.”
He opened his eyes to find a handheld transceiver right in front of him. It was the one that had fallen out of Atsushi’s pocket only moments ago, and there was a voice coming from it.
“I used a wire gun to break into the security office inside the Mafia building. I’m calling you from there.” Kenji’s voice, the sound of things breaking, and gunfire could be heard in the background. “Get up, Akutagawa. Listen—we detectives become the strongest people on earth whenever someone needs saving.”
I am not a detective.
Akutagawa tried to speak, but his voice was gone. He thought someone intrinsically evil had no right to become a detective.
“You’re not evil,” Kunikida objected as if he could read his mind. “You just don’t know who you are yet. That’s all. Stand on the side of good with us. I am officially welcoming you to the agency. You’ve passed. From this moment on, you’re a detective.”
Akutagawa’s eyes opened wide just as the claws of the tiger were swinging toward him. The sharp, sparkling white claws looked like snow slowly falling from the sky.
“The moment you believe you’re a detective is the moment you become one. That conviction will give you the power you need. All you have to do is believe.”
“Mmm…mm…”
Akutagawa opened his eyes with a groan.
“Uwahhhhhhhhh!”
Every fiber of fabric on his body burst forth and twisted around his right arm. He immediately stood up, using the momentum to throw his right arm up. As Atsushi’s fist descended, Akutagawa’s fist ascended.
“Rashomon: Dragon Drill Spear!”
Their fists collided. The powerful torrent that resulted created a storm that tore away at their bodies. Concrete began to violently peel off the ground as it cratered.
“Gwah…!” groaned Atsushi as he unleashed his power to its full potential. “Don’t…tell me…they’re expanding…?!”
The group of fabric blades gathered around Akutagawa’s fist swelled even more and transformed.
“Rashomon…”
Akutagawa’s fist glittered white, and his phase-transitioned skill began interfering with the physical constant of the surrounding space as a colossal shock wave concentrated toward a single point.
“…Silver Torrent!!”
The silver wave of fabric that followed Akutagawa’s fist devoured Atsushi’s hand and swept it away.
“Uwaaaaaahhhhhh?!”
Even the choker around Atsushi’s neck was swallowed by the torrent and shattered. The entire rooftop was engulfed by a silver light as the vibrations spread throughout the building, shaking the furniture inside like an earthquake. The cannon-like sonic boom, with its accompanying ray of light, was so tremendous that it could be felt anywhere in the city of Yokohama.
There was not a single thing moving on the ravaged rooftop by the time the impact had calmed and the scattered debris settled.
Atsushi was lying on the ground. A blade of fabric had destroyed his entire body, starting with his right arm. He no longer even had the strength to stand. His ability to regenerate had dramatically suffered through the loss of his choker that controlled the tiger. It was taking everything he had just to maintain a pulse.
Akutagawa stood completely still. He had lost far too much blood, and staying on his feet was no small task after repeatedly using his skill until he frayed his nerves. Nevertheless, he did not lose consciousness.
Akutagawa somehow managed to drag his wound-riddled body over to Atsushi.
“Kill…me…,” Atsushi repeated while wheezing. “There’s no way…I can keep my promise…with the director now. At the very least…I can atone for it…with my life.”
His expression twisted with an emotion other than pain. He didn’t have the strength left to resist. Taking his life would be a simple task. Akutagawa stood right next to Atsushi and glared down at him icily.
“Very well.”
Akutagawa placed his foot on Atsushi’s throat, then slowly began leaning into it.
“Gw—Ah…!”
Atsushi’s face twisted in agony as the pressure squeezed his blood vessels and respiratory tract, but he didn’t even have the strength to lift up his hand and resist. If Akutagawa continued to shift his weight onto Atsushi’s neck, he could easily kill him by cutting off his oxygen supply and interrupting the blood flow.
“…ector…” A small tear gently rolled down the corner of Atsushi’s eye. “Director… I’m sorry…I didn’t become…a student…you could be…proud of…”
“…”
Akutagawa looked down at him in silence, his gaze faintly wavering.
“Forget it.”
He took his foot off his opponent’s neck. Atsushi immediately started coughing and stared at Akutagawa with evident bewilderment.
“Why…?”
“My job at the detective agency does not include helping those with a death wish,” Akutagawa explained before he began staggering over to the exit. Atsushi followed him with his eyes.
“Running away from your past and being frightened of yourself is a battle of its own… Cough up your blood, Tiger. Spit it out and move forward. One day…should you fall to the ground after your fear and your running conquer you, I shall step over your body and mock you.”
All of a sudden, there was hollow applause.
“Congratulations.”
The uneven clapping whistled in the wind over the rooftop. Akutagawa and Atsushi searched for the voice…and promptly found the source.
“Congratulations! Congratulations, you two. That was brilliant. That was just as good as your match on the ship, if not better.”
Standing nearby was a tall shadowy figure whose black overcoat fluttered in the wind. There was something alien about this person, as if only the space around him had been cut out from its surroundings. It was the ruler of the criminal underworld.
“Dazai.”
“The man in black…!”
The Port Mafia’s boss, Osamu Dazai, quietly made his way over to them.
“It appears the boy fueled by anger and revenge for the past four and a half years won.” Dazai walked over with a faint, indecipherable smile. “I’ve been training Atsushi for four and a half years, yet you beat him. It’s hard to believe. Perhaps this is the power of the Armed Detective Agency. Sigh… This sure puts me in tough spot.”
Dazai continued approaching until he was standing right by Atsushi’s side. Then he said with no emotion whatsoever:
“Atsushi. You’re fired.”
Atsushi’s eyes briefly opened wide in astonishment, but he almost immediately closed them. “…Okay.”
“From now on, I want you to live in the outside world. I’ve arranged for some acquaintances to take care of you. Now, go—to a world of light. Together with Kyouka.”
“Huh…?!” Atsushi lifted his head in disbelief.
“What are you plotting, man in black?” Although staggering, Akutagawa got into stance for battle. “You lured me here today, didn’t you? …Using that letter and Gin as bait. But if you wanted to simply kill me, there were plenty of easier ways to do so. What are you after? What do those eyes see beyond this battle?”
“‘Beyond this battle’? You’ve got it all wrong, Akutagawa,” began Dazai as he kept walking. “It isn’t just about today. This all started four and a half years ago. Ever since I took your sister away from you, every factor was carefully planned for this moment. Training Atsushi, the Mafia’s expansion—everything.”
“What…?”
Akutagawa was taken aback.
“Are you familiar with the Book?” Dazai suddenly asked while he looked at them. “I’m not talking about books in general. I’m talking about a book that’s one of a kind. It’s a book of blank, white paper where whatever you write becomes a reality.”
“Whatever you write…becomes a reality…?”
Dazai replied brightly, as if reciting poetry. “Yes. But ‘whatever you write becomes real’ isn’t exactly how it sounds. The Book is more or less the origin of this world. In this Book you’ll find an infinite number of potential worlds that can branch out into an infinite number of different paths depending on the choices made and conditions set. And the moment something is written on a page in the Book, a world tailored to what was written is ‘summoned.’ The potential world inside the Book and the real world change places.”
Both Akutagawa and Atsushi were stunned and at a loss for words. The scale of this event was far too large for anyone to comprehend. There was only one thing they both understood: Dazai would neither lie nor joke around under these circumstances.
“Simply put, the term world refers to both the single physical reality that exists outside the Book and the infinite possible worlds that are tucked away inside the Book,” Dazai explained nonchalantly as if it were common sense. “This world is a possible world. In other words, it’s merely one of infinite worlds inside the Book.”
Akutagawa and Atsushi were paralyzed with shock, but Dazai’s eyes were rigidly serious and shining with intellect. He wasn’t lying. This wasn’t something they logically understood but knew in the deepest chamber of their minds.
“But reality is still reality. This world holds just as much weight as the outside world. The fact that the Book—which is something like the world’s origin—exists in this world as well proves as much. But this world’s Book is a drain, so to speak. Orders from the outside world can rewrite this world or even destroy it… And very soon, several powerful foreign organizations will begin invading Yokohama to steal the Book.”
“How do you know that?” Akutagawa instinctively asked.
“Because I’m a skill user who can nullify all skills, and I used that trait to create a point of singularity, which forced the worlds’ fragments to connect. After that, I successfully managed to read the memories of the me who exists outside the Book—that is to say, the original me.”
“…?!”
Read memories? Of the other—the original Dazai?
It was such a bizarre concept that they couldn’t keep up.
“The Guild, the Rats, and numerous other powerful organizations are going to come in droves to get their hands on the Book. You two must defeat every one of them and protect this Book at all costs because if they write something, this world will be overwritten and cease to exist.”
“I don’t understand,” Akutagawa claimed with a note of confusion in his voice. “Suppose what you’re saying is even true…what does that have to do with stealing my sister away from me? It doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“Because I needed both of your help,” declared Dazai. “I needed the singularity created when both of your skills merge, and I needed that certain something that goes beyond power—something that only comes to life when your souls meet. But in order to do that, I needed to have you fight. I needed you two to face death to get you to understand each other.”
Dazai walked over to the edge of the roof. There was no fence or wall to prevent him from falling. All that was before him was the sky. There would be nothing standing between him and the surface if he were to fall.
“Dazai,” pleaded Atsushi, his voice trembling. “That’s dangerous. Please come back.”
“I need to warn you of something, though. You can’t tell anyone what I just told you. You two are the only ones who can know. If more than three people know the truth, this world will destabilize, and it becomes all the more likely to disappear without even using the Book. That’s why…I’m leaving the rest to you two.”
Dazai took a step back, hanging his heel over the edge and in the sky.
“‘More than three people’…?” Atsushi’s eyes opened wide after counting the number in his head. “Dazai, wait. Don’t tell me you—”
“The time has finally come.” Dazai slowly smiled as he basked in the breeze blowing at his back. “We’ve finally reached phase five, the final phase. It’s a strange feeling, really. It feels like the night before you go back to your hometown.”
“Man in black.” Akutagawa squinted and asked, “Answer just one thing for me. Why would you go this far? Why are you so fixated on saving this world from disappearing?”
“True… I honestly don’t have a lot of interest in this world. I don’t care what happens to it. At least, I’m sure the me from other possible worlds would say that. However…”
Dazai closed his eyes and grinned almost nostalgically.
“This is the only world where he’s alive and writing novels. I can’t let that world disappear.”
The wind grew stronger, beckoning him, and Dazai slowly leaned back.
“Yes… Yes… Yes…” His eyes were closed and his smile dreamy as he spoke. “The time has finally come. This long-awaited moment. I can’t wait. I truly cannot wait… But I do have one regret: I’ll never be able to read that novel you complete one day. That’s the one last thing I wish I could do.”
Dazai’s body fell past the ledge. Gravity pulled his body from the rooftop toward the ground, far, far away…taking its time.
The sound of the impact couldn’t be heard from the rooftop.
Akutagawa tottered over to the edge and peered down at the surface.
“…”
A strong gust of wind blew by.
The red sunset’s glow.
The red cobblestone.
The man who ruled over the darkness of Yokohama and commanded the Port Mafia.
The man who developed a large-scale plan to control and manipulate the fate of all people and all nature.
That setting sun.
He went where he wanted to go.
To a place far, far away. The point farthest from any place man could ever go.
He had arrived on the other side after stepping across the realm of the living.
Somewhere beyond anyone’s grasp.
Whether that truly had value was something Akutagawa would never know. The only one that knew the whole truth was the crystal clear wind that traversed the Yokohama skies and watched over the city.
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