Chapter 2
Translator: Kuririn
Editor: Janey
21st
I went home later that night and headed towards the ink stone, silent.
Although this day is engraved into an unforgettable memory, I cannot deem it acceptable to note it down into words.
No matter what hardships, I shall endure; No matter how shamed, I shall laugh.
Silent, again silent.
At the table where I work at the agency, I read the newspaper.
Since this morning, the media is in an uproar, even on TV and on the net, a certain sensational news is spreading wildly.
‘The Victims of Yokohama’s Serial Disappearance, Discovered and Dead’
‘Died Due to A Private Detective Agency’s Arbitrary Judgment?’
And then there were pictures. White smoke, the agonized victims, and me holding on to the steel cage.
Although it’s not on the papers yet, it’s probably only a matter of time until it is.
The phones in the agency won’t stop ringing since morning. Although it’s mostly calls of complaints, lawsuits from bereaved families would probably come in too. What’s more, the whereabouts of the remaining seven missing people has yet to be known.
Just what kind of person took these pictures when the poisonous gas killed the victims and spreads it to society?
The phone on my desk rang with a tone that hits my nerves.
I extended my hand towards the receiver.
Faster than I could reach for it, Dazai picked the receiver up and instantly placed it back on the machine. The ringtone got cut off.
“This is what the enemy is aiming for.” A bright voice. He was holding the pictures.
“At the very least on the bright side; Kunikida-kun, your pictures were taken quiet handsomely.”
I was about to take the pictures from his hands back without another word, but he quickly hoisted his hand up, preventing me from doing so.
“How about if you just went home? You look terrible.”
“…. I am not going home. I have work to do.”
“You’re still so hardworking even under such dire circumstances. Just as I was about to enter the agency’s office, I had stones thrown at me twice.”
I looked outside. A number of protestors were standing outside the agency, creating a disturbance. There’ll be more tomorrow.
“Hardworking? Idiot. There’s a job we have to put first before everything else, right? Finding the criminal.”
“Well….. That’s true, just as you said.” Dazai complied with a blank face.
“Where’s Miss Sasaki?”
“Getting a check-up. Right now, Yosano-sensei is taking a look at her in the infirmary. There seems to be nothing big though.”
“Let’s listen to what she has to say.”
I stand. Miss Sasaki is the only witness who came in direct contact with the criminal and got out alive. From his kidnapping techniques, we might be able to know who the criminal is.
As I stood to go after Dazai who headed towards the infirmary first, my eyes landed on the photos. Mine, Miss Sasaki’s and even the victims’ faces were in the photos, but Dazai only had the hem of his coat taken.
Just how did that guy avoid a photograph taken in secret?
000
“I apologize deeply… I wanted to be some sort of help, but….”
The helpless lady hung her head in shame at the infirmary.
“My body was originally already weak and there are times when I lose consciousness due to anemia. Especially on the day of the incident, my body’s condition was really bad… I am afraid that caused me to lose consciousness at the train station.”
If that’s the case, then we do not know how the criminal looks like or his modus operandi. However –
“Even so, after you fainted there must’ve been someone who abducted you amidst the confusion.”
Kidnapping or whatnot in the middle of Yokohama Station, in such a place where there’s too many people, it’s impossible. Carrying a fainted woman around is all the more eye-catching. Does the criminal work in groups? Or perhaps he uses an extremely clever trick –?
“For yesterday…. I am really thankful. If you didn’t help me at the time, my life would no longer be here. And not only that, for nursing me and helping me in whatever way too… Even if I am not someone you know nor someone that can be depended on.”
Miss Sasaki hung her slender neck down in silence. She didn’t speak after that. That, coupled with her thinness and whiteness made her look like a half-finished doll whose string had just been cut off.
Practically, it’s the same as if her string of life had been cut off. Almost killed by an unknown murderer, without knowing the reason why, not knowing whether even now her life might still be targeted or not.
“Moreover, letting me stay at your residence last night… I’ve been such trouble…”
…..Hm?
“Stayed? Where?”
“My place.” Dazai nonchalantly replied.
………
………Is such a thing acceptable? At this time and age?
“Dazai-sama….. Thank you very much. That is….. I’ve really been…. under your care.”
For some reason, Miss Sasaki’s cheeks turned red.
“What’s wrong, Kunikida-kun? You’re making a really weird face right now, you know?”
“Dazai, no matter how you look at it, aren’t you moving too fast?”
“No, that’s not right. I was the one who asked…. out of necessity.”
“No, no, don’t be bothered by it. It’s just a gentlemanly thing to do. I’ve been frequently asked the same thing from other people I just met too.” Dazai returned a smile.
……….
I am not into frivolous and thoughtless love affairs. A couple should modestly respect each other.
Consequently, I refuse one-night stands, just wanting to be intimate, and an unplanned spontaneous affair cannot be forgiven; those kinds of actions should be criticized.
Consequently, consequently. No matter how popular Dazai is, I am not in the least bit jealous. Nor am I frustrated. I am seriously not jealous.
000
“What an unfortunate beauty.”
Back in the infirmary, while we were preparing the things needed for a check-up, Dazai spoke, grinning.
“You like that kind of girl, huh?”
“Why don’t you go and marry a cicada?”
A relationship between a man and a woman should be pure and innocent. After they ideally complete their spouses, they should remain married for life. That is my ‘ideal’.
The truth is, it is written in my notebook.
“What about you, Kunikida-kun? What do you think of Miss Sasaki?”
“A witness of a case as she is a victim of said case. That is all.”
“Just because I cannot imagine it at all, I am going to ask… What kind of woman is your ideal type?”
“Do you want to read it?”
I opened the notebook to the ‘Spouse’ page and showed him. All my plans were written out.
“Long! Is this everything!?”
Dazai’s face hardens as he reads through the page.
“….Wow. No, no, no, that is to be expected…. Wow, eehh??”
“What kind of reaction is that? Is it weird?”
“Nope, I think it’s good. I think all men can emphatize with such ideals…. With each and every entry written in that page.”
“Right? There’s nothing wrong about aiming for an ideal woman.”
“Exactly, that’s exactly it, Kunikida-kun. But I am going to say just one thing, it is better if you don’t show that page to women. It’s a turn off. Even right now, I am holding back from shouting “Such a woman doesn’t exist!””
Is that so?
“Well, if you understand let’s continue with our job. We have to track down clues about the kidnapper. Dazai, did you notice anything?”
“There’s just one thing.”
“What is it?”
“If you want to be an ideal type to women, first of all you have to do something about those boring glasses.”
Dazai lightly stole my glasses and put it on his own nose. Not suitable.
“Enough with that talk! Return it!”
As long as it’s allowed at work, these glasses are enough. It’s not like anyone will bother whether I changed my glasses or not.
Dazai with glasses is a really laughable look. For some reason, he looks more stupid than usual.
“……. Glasses?”
Glasses. The victim’s pictures. Face. Surveillance camera. Everyone, the hotel’s –
“What’s wrong, Kunikida-kun?”
The missing victims who left the hotel on their own two feet. Everyone was staying in Yokohama alone. The surveillance photos from the hotel’s entrance.
“Let’s go, Dazai.” I stole the glasses back from Dazai and put it on again.
“I know who the criminal is.”
000
The sea wind is blowing at Yokohama Bay. Dazai and I stood by the opening of the estuary at the seaside of Yokohama Bay.
If you look at the sky, the sun is high up there, at the bottom of the blue created by clouds, a white light breaks out and pours over the tops of our heads. However, my heart is not sunny.
A familiar taxi pulled up in front of us.
“Inspector Kunikida! Quickly hop in!” A familiar taxi driver waved his hand this way. We quickly got in the cab. “Sorry, for suddenly calling you.”
“If it’s the Agency’s, no, Inspector Kunikida’s important affair; even through fire and storm, I am there! Well then, what shall we do? Is there a place you have to go to at the speed of light? I will bring you there faster than the speed limit will allow!”
“Don’t go over the speed limit. Actually, it’s about the disappearance case we talked about before, I know who the criminal is.”
“What did you say!? I saw the report on the abandoned hospital. The victims who lost their lives… It’s very regrettable….. So you’re going to capture the culprit now, right? I am with you! We ought to go quickly, lest the culprit runs away. Just where is this place where the brutal kidnapping happened!?”
“It’s here.”
“Huh?”
“You are the culprit. And the place where the kidnapping happened is here, in this taxi.”
“Huh… What did you say? I don’t understand…”
“I’ve thought about it. In this metropolis, who is capable of kidnapping people without standing out? Just where can someone be caught off-guard while being with only another person you don’t recognize in an entrapped room? It’s here. You let them breathe sleeping gas and kidnapped them while they were unconscious. You prevented yourself from breathing in the gas with a mask.“
“No…. no, no, no, no. Wait a minute. According to the investigation, the victims walked somewhere on their own two feet and somehow just disappeared, there were no traces that they rode a vehicle or recordings that they entered buildings, that was what I heard. If every one of the victims did rode this taxi, won’t someone in town notice?”
“That’s right. Every one of the victims did rode this taxi. However, no matter how much the police investigates, they did not find any recordings. That’s because they checked the wrong date. The day they rode this taxi wasn’t the day they disappeared.”
“What… do you mean?”
“Well, well, Kunikida-kun. If you keep answering every last one of his questions, there’s no bottom to this. I am going to explain what happened in order, okay?”
Dazai interrupted halfway and continued with the reasoning.
“Driver-san, while you were doing your daily job, you were also looking for a particular type of passenger. The conditions are simple. ‘Comes to Yokohama alone and is heading towards a hotel’, ‘parts of their faces are covered with hats, glasses, sunglasses and so on’, ‘their physique must resemble yours’ – because you have a small build. As long as they meet these conditions even a woman is okay. That way, the relevance between the victims disappear and puts the investigation in disorder.”
“Just what… do you mean?”
“Keep your rebuttals until the end. You are a driver who goes around these parts. No matter how much you estimate, when two or three days have passed there is bound to be someone who meets your conditions. And when they do appear, just like Kunikida-kun said, you would let out sleeping gas inside the car and let them breathe it in. Then you would take them to a hidden place and lock them up, and take their clothes and things. That’s the reason why the victims in the abandoned hospital are almost naked. Well then, this is the part where you show us your true colours.”
Dazai clapped his hands happily and continued talking.
“You wear the clothes of the victims and disguise into them. Just as you said last night, if you put on make-up, stuff cotton into your cheeks or on the body, it is possible to disguise yourself reasonably well. It goes without saying that you did thorough training, and what’s more, you chose victims that you can disguise yourself into with confidence. On top of that, what you were tricking were not humans, but ‘footage’. You went to the hotels the victims were heading towards to and purposefully let yourself be filmed by the security camera.”
I recall the footage from the security camera used in the investigation. When I think about it now, out of the eleven victims, six wore glasses, two wore sunglasses; a total of eight people is too high of a ratio. The remaining three had hats or long hair, only a part of their faces were recorded in the footage. The reason he can disguise himself so easily is because he chose victims with particular traits.
“The rest is easy. You put the victims’ things in the hotel room and openly leave the hotel the next day. And because in the footage, the person entering the hotel, in the reception and the one leaving is all the same person, the police ended up investigating the traces of the victims only after they left the hotel. It goes without saying that they wouldn’t find said traces, right? You have profound knowledge about the streets of Yokohama, you know the places where evidence will be left behind if you go, places you can run to without being caught on tape. The more we search, it looks as if the victims dodge being caught on camera and disappear by their own will.”
“That is outrageous. Even if you state such a hypothesis based only on reasoning, evidence, that’s right. There is no evidence.”
“I wonder. Just like Miss Sasaki’s kidnapping, it’s a possibility that you are doing this alone.” I continued with Dazai’s reasoning in turn. “Kidnapping Miss Sasaki who lost her consciousness was the easiest, for you it must be an unexpected good fortune. Normally, if there’s someone who is suddenly sick and fainted, the people in the vicinity would call an ambulance. However, it takes time for the ambulance to arrive. But the location was a train station. If it’s a station, there’s usually a taxi waiting who can leave immediately. You happened to volunteer yourself with good intention to the lady and previously decided to let her ride the taxi. Then you openly took her away. The only difference is that you didn’t take her to a hospital.”
“That’s…..”
The driver looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t say anything at all after that. His expression isn’t clear from my angle.
My gaze shifted to the car’s interior. Only slightly sticking in its gaps, were white particles that I picked up with my finger.
“If you’re going to turn yourself in, it’s better to do it quickly. Proof is going to show up soon. For example, in this car…. You might clean all you can after you are done with the crime, but the particles from the gas residue are still left behind. If we do an analysis on it, it’s composition will immediately show up.”
“That’s… I have no recollection. A passenger might have scattered some. Such a thing is possible. There’s no way it can be proof.” The driver denied with a choked voice.
However, his denial is the same as him confessing.
“Even without proof, there’s no one else but you.”
I continued my argument further.
“The modus operandi Dazai said just now can only work in the taxi the victims rode. You said that two of the victims rode your taxi, that’s the same as confessing that the other nine also did.”
“Inspector Kunikida. That is not physical proof.”
Without meeting my eyes, the driver said clearly.
“Everything that you said was only situational evidence. Even if you find lethal weapons in my house, there’s no footage of me from the crime. Even if I could be prosecuted, I can’t be charged guilty.”
It’s my turn to be silent.
It’s just as he says. To charge this person guilty, some sort of physical evidence that connects the victims and the driver – blood, fingerprint, video footage, some kind of confession that no one other than the criminal knows – those kind of things are needed. As of this moment, there is no physical evidence like that yet. What’s more, it’s possible that it might end up being a false charge due to lack of suspicion. From the driver’s way of speaking, the evidence is completely hidden.
He’s a lot smarter that I thought. What to do –
However, his next words completely overturned my expectations.
“Inspector Kunikida… Let’s do a business deal. If you can listen to my condition, I will turn myself in.”
“What?”
“The condition is: to look over me and keep me safe as a client. The time limit is when the investigations are over, until then the completion of protecting me as a witness under the deal we made is seventy-two hours.”
“A witness protection deal? What do you mean?”
“There is no…. time. I will be killed. I will be killed by them.”
“Wait up. I don’t get it. Tell me everything from the beginning. By who, and why are you being targeted!?”
“It wasn’t my intention to make a business deal with such people… It’s because there are those without a backer involved in the organs selling business, I am going to taste their wrath! This is bad…. This is really bad, I can’t even contact the buyer. I am going to be thrown away! Why? I am not supposed to get discovered… Soon, those people are going to…”
“I see – So that’s how it is.” Dazai put his hand on his chin and nodded by himself.
“Oi, Dazai! Just what did he mean!? What is he saying!?”
“It’s exactly as you heard it. He was selling the victims to an organ selling syndicate. But because in merely a month, a large quantity of organs are going around, the price of organs temporarily dropped and the market is in chaos. Let’s say, a large company with a complex management has been supplying a certain market, and a smaller business suddenly cuts in and tampers with it. What do you think will happen?”
“The large company – will get angry?”
“If it’s a clean company it will be fair competition. But, if it’s an underground company that is in charge of supplying internal organs, they’re a bunch that treats blood and violence as currency. If those guys who fear none even their own death gods get angry….”
At that moment, something crashed the car.
And then something hit the car continuously. A high-pitched sound resounded.
The right side of the taxi we are riding shook. The car window shattered.
“We’re under fire! Lower your heads!”
I shouted. The shards from the window glass showered into the interior of the car; it’s like the car shook from the battering of a hammer.
“It’s them! H-help… I don’t want to die!”
“Oi, wait up!” The driver opened the door and ran towards the opposite side of the attack.
“Kunikida-kun, we can’t let the driver get away or let him be killed, we are in the thick of the case’s truth! Catching him comes first before the enemy!”
Dazai, who was lying face down, shouted. I know that without him having to say it, but the situation is really difficult.
“I am going after the driver, so Kunikida-kun, please distract the enemy!”
“Wait, operating alone is dangerous! Dazai!”
Without listening to me, Dazai darted off. I can’t let a new guy like him work alone in his first gunfire attack. But the fact is that there is no other option than this.
While cursing at the enemy under my breath, I looked at them. There are three of them. Black clothes and black glasses. They are armed with a sub-machinegun smuggled from overseas. Suddenly, in the streets that turned into a severe battleground that has no leniency, judging from their clothes and their skills – “Damn it, this is the worst! If it isn’t the Port Mafia!”
The Port Mafia is an illegal organization that has their headquarters based around Yokohama Bay. They are an underworld organization by nature and are cruel and stern, by their code the boss holds absolute supremacy and, with his orders, they will unite to pulverize an enemy. They are the most brutal illegal organization in all of Yokohama.
And there are currently three of the people from that Port Mafia here. With time, I will be crushed to death.
“Doppo Poetry – Flash grenade!”
I spelled it on the notebook, and ripped the page out. I clutched at the piece of paper, and it changes shape to a grenade in my fist.
From the broken window, I threw the flash grenade at the three enemies.
The flash grenade is a weapon that aims to take away the sight and hearing of the enemy temporarily.
If there is a sick person near the enemy where the explosion takes place, the sound and light from the explosion is to the point where it can kill the said sick person. I bet they didn’t expect to be retaliated with a flash grenade, the mafias crouched on the floor and pressed on their temporal lobes.
In that brief moment, I jumped out of the car and dashed towards the enemies.
I hit the neck of the closest mafia with my elbow and he dropped to the ground, and then kicked the other one and sent him flying.
The last one tried to hit me with his gun. I turned my body sideways and evaded with a sway.
With his stance off, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it. I continue to twist his wrist counter-clockwise and threw the enemy away with a move called, the Four Directions Throw*.
The mafia drew an arc in the air before he crashed on the ground, head first and promptly blacked out.
“Oh my, oh my.” After making sure everyone is out cold, I walked back to the side of the taxi.
It’ll be great if things go well on Dazai’s side too….
Suddenly, there’s a colossal thirst for blood coming from behind. Before I could turn around, it’s already on my side. In the place I was standing only until recently, a black stream of torrent ran through me.
The torrent collided with the taxi and just like that, cuts the car into two.
The car splits into two perfect halves, and bounced into the air while screws and rods scattered from the cross-section. I didn’t have the time to be astonished, I kicked the ground and dodged repeatedly. The nearby posts, guardrails, were being torn down to pieces.
I did a 180-degree turn on the ground and from afar saw a small young man dressed in a black overcoat.
“Cough, cough –“
So, he’s the person with the killing intent.
“Cough – I came here to scorn as a side job, but to get the better of three men in just a moment, how praiseworthy. Next, let my Rashomon be your rival.”
Without any weapons or a battle stance, the occasionally coughing young man simply walked over. But a rabid malice exploded soundlessly from his whole body.
A short stature in a black overcoat. With a black torrent as his ability. The black hellhound of the Port Mafia.
“You bastard – You are Akutagawa Ryunosuke from the Port Mafia!”
“I am, indeed. By the boss’s order, I came to behead the fool who dares mess with the mafia’s territory. Where is he?”
“He’s not here. He ran away with his tail between his legs.”
I pointed to the direction the driver escaped to. But my gaze was still glued to Akutagawa. I won’t let him out of sight for even a moment.
The worst of the worst had come. When it comes to the Port Mafia’s Akutagawa, even the underworld’s toughest guys would run away crying when they hear his name.
The Black-Fanged Hellhound. An ability user who brings calamity and disaster. A disciple of tragedy and despair. His name is coloured in darkness.
Although this is the first time I’ve witnessed it, from what I can see when he split the taxi in two, he’s a much bigger threat than the rumours say. What to do?
Simple. Akutagawa’s aim is the kidnapper. If Akutagawa is really such a dangerous enemy, there is no reason to protect the kidnapper with my life. To withdraw meekly is the easiest way out.
“He is a witness. Until I hear where the remaining missing people are, I can’t let him be killed. If you want to go after him, take me down first.”
“Putting your life on the line to protect a murderer. You would go that far, huh.”
Damn it. Me and my stupid personality.
However, as a member of the Armed Detective Agency, I cannot let the witness of a case be killed helplessly by a third party.
‘Do the things you should do.’ I recited the words on the notebook.
Akutagawa’s black cloak wriggled. It’s as if the souls of a thousand vengeful spirits gathered and condensed into one transient form. Something resigned into the cloth before it starts to take the shape of many sharp fangs or nails.
“The hunting dog of the Port Mafia, Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Greetings.”
“A member of the Armed Detective Agency, Kunikida Doppo. Greetings.”
The black fangs that radiated from Akutagawa suddenly comes rushing like a sudden shower. I jumped sideways. A few of them shredded my clothes and the remaining created countless holes in the wall behind me.
Before he could recall the black fangs back and send them at me again, I quickly wrote in the notebook and tore it off.
The piece of paper took the shape of a wire gun again. I pulled the trigger and shot a hook.
But before the steel of the wire gun could hit Akutagawa, it was deflected by an invisible wall.
“What…!?”
He didn’t look like he did any defensive moves. Is this also his ability?
Faster than I could pull the wire that has been shot into the air, a part of Akutagawa’s overcoat changed into the head of a hungry beast. Giving out a roar, the head of the hungry beast rushed forward horizontally. Fast!
I was going to twist my body to dodge, but my left shoulder got pierced by a fang. Fresh blood spurts. However, I didn’t have the time to stop the bleeding. The fangs keeps coming at me and I could only move backwards to dodge it. I could not retaliate, let alone even get close!
“Does the Armed Detective Agency only know how to run away? How boring.” spat Akutagawa and he stood upright.
Cold sweat runs down my cheeks – Strong.
The lethal fangs could fly several meters at a high speed, I can’t do anything except dodge, let alone retaliate. Even my flying weapon was knocked down easily. Even if good luck is on my side, there is that mysterious invisible wall from earlier. There is no blind spot.
Dodging the attacks with no rest in between, the moment I landed on the pavement, an unidentifiable chill runs down my spine.
From under my feet, the spear-like black fangs that pierced the pavement all blow up in one go.
While my attention was drawn into the air, other black fangs were drilling into the ground!
I twisted my body to jump again, but I put too much weight down. I won’t make it.
My side was pierced with a fang and penetrated all the way to my back.
“Guagghhhh…..!” Extreme pain clouded my vision.
Unable to bear the pain, I went down on my knees. This is bad, the next one is coming. If I stop moving now, his follow-up attack will kill me. However, there’s nothing I can do.
Rashomon’s black cloth wrapped around my neck. My feet left the ground. The black cloth flexed like a great snake and strongly slapped me to the wall.
“How foolish, after all you are just an underpaid detective agency. I shall do you a favour and cut your neck right here, right now.”
The black cloth tightened. The world dyed red.
“Every single last person… Don’t get in the way of my work!”
While strangling the black cloth, I shot the wire gun. But my target is not Akutagawa.
The one I am shooting the hook at is what is beside him, the water pipe running along the buildings. The water starts spurting at Akutagawa’s direction.
“Wha-….?”
Akutagawa put his arms up to defend against the water, the road Akutagawa stood on was completely being soaked by the high-pressured water.
“Fool, as if I would be scared by a little water.”
I opened the notebook with my left hand. While making the wire gun earlier, I wrote on a second page.
“Doppo Poetry – Stun gun!”
I turned the high-voltage mobile stun gun on and threw it towards the puddle of water.
Flash. Stars sparked from the ground.
“Aaaaaaaa!?”
Using the body of water as a conductor, the stun gun flashes purple and white.
Like a snake, the purple lightning rushed towards the already wet Akutagawa.
The purple lightning sparked like the second sun leaving the sound of explosion on the ground, then completely disappeared.
The black cloth of Rashomon that wrapped around my neck released me, and I fell to the pavement. While clutching at my hurting neck and sides, I looked at Akutagawa.
Akutagawa is crouching. From his whole body, steam and white smoke rise.
“Ku….kukukuku…. hahaha.”
Akutagawa’s crouching shoulders shook as he laughed. After receiving such an electric shock he could still move.
“So the Armed Detective Agency is not just a collection of buffoons. This is great. This is really great.”
“….If you’re going to come then come (that’s what she said), my notebook still has many pages left I could expend them.”
I forced my limbs to stand and held the wire gun again.
“By all means, I want to test whether a bastard like you has the capacity to actually overthrow me or not… but unfortunately, it looks like some kind of nuisance had come to meddle.”
Akutagawa faced forward, the sound of the police force’s patrol cars and whistles are coming closer. It seems like they received a report on the gunfight.
“Wherever that traitor runs to, I can hunt him down. This time I shall retreat. The continuation shall come soon.”
While coughing, Akutagawa turned his back on me. He left just like that. (Aw he didn’t stay the morning after poor knkd) It’s like he’s going home after a boring walk. To tell the truth, whether we continue fighting or retreat, there really isn’t going to be much difference.
“Don’t ever come back!” While seeing Akutagawa off, I went down on my knees.
Akutagawa of the Port Mafia. He’s no different from the rumours, no, he’s more than the rumours made him to be. I refuse to fight him for a second time.
I want to go home and sleep like a corpse.
000
Or so I say, but there is no way I can sleep. After my short break, I took off to the agency again. It’s to report the details of the case. After receiving quick medication for my wounds in the Agency’s infirmary, I went back to the office and Dazai was already there, sipping tea after his work is done.
“Dazai. You captured the driver, right?”
“Of course. After capturing him I immediately handed him over to the police. Although, I could do happier when this can be over with without the criminal being murdered by the mafia.”
I calmed down. Dazai is not as stupid as he first seemed.
When the mafia attacked, and at the same time that Dazai left to do something else, I doubted him, “Did he run because he sensed the mafia’s invasion?” But he settled everything perfectly, so I am going leave it as needless anxiety.
“Well then, we are going to end it with that driver being the criminal for this serial case?”
We ran around busying ourselves, but there is no reward. The police force will probably just settle it by granting us a meager letter of thanks. Well, well.
“I don’t feel like working anymore today. Let’s go have a drink after duties are over.”
“Senpai’s treat?” A happy and smiling Dazai asked.
“What an unpleasant junior. It’s my treat, so work seriously tomorrow.”
I returned to my desk and finished the leftover work.
I looked over the circulated documents and picked up calls coming from several places. Then I approved the report for the case that just took place.
When I casually took a look at the office’s computer, an e-mail arrived. Without paying much attention, I scanned through it.
The contents caught my eyes.
I read until the end, then read it again from the beginning.
“Dazai.” When I called his name, I just realized that I haven’t been breathing.
“Cancel the drinking plans, work just came in.”
“Ehhh? I was already planning on drinking, my stomach had already taken the shape of a sake cup.”
“A request came. From the same anonymous client as the one who led us into the abandoned hospital.”
My throat parched. My tongue is tied. I don’t want to have to say this.
“A request to dismantle a bomb. If we don’t dismantle it by tomorrow’s sunset, over a hundred people will die.”
–CHAPTER 2 END –
Chapter 2
Translator: Kuririn
Editor: Janey
21st
I went home later that night and headed towards the ink stone, silent.
Although this day is engraved into an unforgettable memory, I cannot deem it acceptable to note it down into words.
No matter what hardships, I shall endure; No matter how shamed, I shall laugh.
Silent, again silent.
At the table where I work at the agency, I read the newspaper.
Since this morning, the media is in an uproar, even on TV and on the net, a certain sensational news is spreading wildly.
‘The Victims of Yokohama’s Serial Disappearance, Discovered and Dead’
‘Died Due to A Private Detective Agency’s Arbitrary Judgment?’
And then there were pictures. White smoke, the agonized victims, and me holding on to the steel cage.
Although it’s not on the papers yet, it’s probably only a matter of time until it is.
The phones in the agency won’t stop ringing since morning. Although it’s mostly calls of complaints, lawsuits from bereaved families would probably come in too. What’s more, the whereabouts of the remaining seven missing people has yet to be known.
Just what kind of person took these pictures when the poisonous gas killed the victims and spreads it to society?
The phone on my desk rang with a tone that hits my nerves.
I extended my hand towards the receiver.
Faster than I could reach for it, Dazai picked the receiver up and instantly placed it back on the machine. The ringtone got cut off.
“This is what the enemy is aiming for.” A bright voice. He was holding the pictures.
“At the very least on the bright side; Kunikida-kun, your pictures were taken quiet handsomely.”
I was about to take the pictures from his hands back without another word, but he quickly hoisted his hand up, preventing me from doing so.
“How about if you just went home? You look terrible.”
“…. I am not going home. I have work to do.”
“You’re still so hardworking even under such dire circumstances. Just as I was about to enter the agency’s office, I had stones thrown at me twice.”
I looked outside. A number of protestors were standing outside the agency, creating a disturbance. There’ll be more tomorrow.
“Hardworking? Idiot. There’s a job we have to put first before everything else, right? Finding the criminal.”
“Well….. That’s true, just as you said.” Dazai complied with a blank face.
“Where’s Miss Sasaki?”
“Getting a check-up. Right now, Yosano-sensei is taking a look at her in the infirmary. There seems to be nothing big though.”
“Let’s listen to what she has to say.”
I stand. Miss Sasaki is the only witness who came in direct contact with the criminal and got out alive. From his kidnapping techniques, we might be able to know who the criminal is.
As I stood to go after Dazai who headed towards the infirmary first, my eyes landed on the photos. Mine, Miss Sasaki’s and even the victims’ faces were in the photos, but Dazai only had the hem of his coat taken.
Just how did that guy avoid a photograph taken in secret?
000
“I apologize deeply… I wanted to be some sort of help, but….”
The helpless lady hung her head in shame at the infirmary.
“My body was originally already weak and there are times when I lose consciousness due to anemia. Especially on the day of the incident, my body’s condition was really bad… I am afraid that caused me to lose consciousness at the train station.”
If that’s the case, then we do not know how the criminal looks like or his modus operandi. However –
“Even so, after you fainted there must’ve been someone who abducted you amidst the confusion.”
Kidnapping or whatnot in the middle of Yokohama Station, in such a place where there’s too many people, it’s impossible. Carrying a fainted woman around is all the more eye-catching. Does the criminal work in groups? Or perhaps he uses an extremely clever trick –?
“For yesterday…. I am really thankful. If you didn’t help me at the time, my life would no longer be here. And not only that, for nursing me and helping me in whatever way too… Even if I am not someone you know nor someone that can be depended on.”
Miss Sasaki hung her slender neck down in silence. She didn’t speak after that. That, coupled with her thinness and whiteness made her look like a half-finished doll whose string had just been cut off.
Practically, it’s the same as if her string of life had been cut off. Almost killed by an unknown murderer, without knowing the reason why, not knowing whether even now her life might still be targeted or not.
“Moreover, letting me stay at your residence last night… I’ve been such trouble…”
…..Hm?
“Stayed? Where?”
“My place.” Dazai nonchalantly replied.
………
………Is such a thing acceptable? At this time and age?
“Dazai-sama….. Thank you very much. That is….. I’ve really been…. under your care.”
For some reason, Miss Sasaki’s cheeks turned red.
“What’s wrong, Kunikida-kun? You’re making a really weird face right now, you know?”
“Dazai, no matter how you look at it, aren’t you moving too fast?”
“No, that’s not right. I was the one who asked…. out of necessity.”
“No, no, don’t be bothered by it. It’s just a gentlemanly thing to do. I’ve been frequently asked the same thing from other people I just met too.” Dazai returned a smile.
……….
I am not into frivolous and thoughtless love affairs. A couple should modestly respect each other.
Consequently, I refuse one-night stands, just wanting to be intimate, and an unplanned spontaneous affair cannot be forgiven; those kinds of actions should be criticized.
Consequently, consequently. No matter how popular Dazai is, I am not in the least bit jealous. Nor am I frustrated. I am seriously not jealous.
000
“What an unfortunate beauty.”
Back in the infirmary, while we were preparing the things needed for a check-up, Dazai spoke, grinning.
“You like that kind of girl, huh?”
“Why don’t you go and marry a cicada?”
A relationship between a man and a woman should be pure and innocent. After they ideally complete their spouses, they should remain married for life. That is my ‘ideal’.
The truth is, it is written in my notebook.
“What about you, Kunikida-kun? What do you think of Miss Sasaki?”
“A witness of a case as she is a victim of said case. That is all.”
“Just because I cannot imagine it at all, I am going to ask… What kind of woman is your ideal type?”
“Do you want to read it?”
I opened the notebook to the ‘Spouse’ page and showed him. All my plans were written out.
“Long! Is this everything!?”
Dazai’s face hardens as he reads through the page.
“….Wow. No, no, no, that is to be expected…. Wow, eehh??”
“What kind of reaction is that? Is it weird?”
“Nope, I think it’s good. I think all men can emphatize with such ideals…. With each and every entry written in that page.”
“Right? There’s nothing wrong about aiming for an ideal woman.”
“Exactly, that’s exactly it, Kunikida-kun. But I am going to say just one thing, it is better if you don’t show that page to women. It’s a turn off. Even right now, I am holding back from shouting “Such a woman doesn’t exist!””
Is that so?
“Well, if you understand let’s continue with our job. We have to track down clues about the kidnapper. Dazai, did you notice anything?”
“There’s just one thing.”
“What is it?”
“If you want to be an ideal type to women, first of all you have to do something about those boring glasses.”
Dazai lightly stole my glasses and put it on his own nose. Not suitable.
“Enough with that talk! Return it!”
As long as it’s allowed at work, these glasses are enough. It’s not like anyone will bother whether I changed my glasses or not.
Dazai with glasses is a really laughable look. For some reason, he looks more stupid than usual.
“……. Glasses?”
Glasses. The victim’s pictures. Face. Surveillance camera. Everyone, the hotel’s –
“What’s wrong, Kunikida-kun?”
The missing victims who left the hotel on their own two feet. Everyone was staying in Yokohama alone. The surveillance photos from the hotel’s entrance.
“Let’s go, Dazai.” I stole the glasses back from Dazai and put it on again.
“I know who the criminal is.”
000
The sea wind is blowing at Yokohama Bay. Dazai and I stood by the opening of the estuary at the seaside of Yokohama Bay.
If you look at the sky, the sun is high up there, at the bottom of the blue created by clouds, a white light breaks out and pours over the tops of our heads. However, my heart is not sunny.
A familiar taxi pulled up in front of us.
“Inspector Kunikida! Quickly hop in!” A familiar taxi driver waved his hand this way. We quickly got in the cab. “Sorry, for suddenly calling you.”
“If it’s the Agency’s, no, Inspector Kunikida’s important affair; even through fire and storm, I am there! Well then, what shall we do? Is there a place you have to go to at the speed of light? I will bring you there faster than the speed limit will allow!”
“Don’t go over the speed limit. Actually, it’s about the disappearance case we talked about before, I know who the criminal is.”
“What did you say!? I saw the report on the abandoned hospital. The victims who lost their lives… It’s very regrettable….. So you’re going to capture the culprit now, right? I am with you! We ought to go quickly, lest the culprit runs away. Just where is this place where the brutal kidnapping happened!?”
“It’s here.”
“Huh?”
“You are the culprit. And the place where the kidnapping happened is here, in this taxi.”
“Huh… What did you say? I don’t understand…”
“I’ve thought about it. In this metropolis, who is capable of kidnapping people without standing out? Just where can someone be caught off-guard while being with only another person you don’t recognize in an entrapped room? It’s here. You let them breathe sleeping gas and kidnapped them while they were unconscious. You prevented yourself from breathing in the gas with a mask.“
“No…. no, no, no, no. Wait a minute. According to the investigation, the victims walked somewhere on their own two feet and somehow just disappeared, there were no traces that they rode a vehicle or recordings that they entered buildings, that was what I heard. If every one of the victims did rode this taxi, won’t someone in town notice?”
“That’s right. Every one of the victims did rode this taxi. However, no matter how much the police investigates, they did not find any recordings. That’s because they checked the wrong date. The day they rode this taxi wasn’t the day they disappeared.”
“What… do you mean?”
“Well, well, Kunikida-kun. If you keep answering every last one of his questions, there’s no bottom to this. I am going to explain what happened in order, okay?”
Dazai interrupted halfway and continued with the reasoning.
“Driver-san, while you were doing your daily job, you were also looking for a particular type of passenger. The conditions are simple. ‘Comes to Yokohama alone and is heading towards a hotel’, ‘parts of their faces are covered with hats, glasses, sunglasses and so on’, ‘their physique must resemble yours’ – because you have a small build. As long as they meet these conditions even a woman is okay. That way, the relevance between the victims disappear and puts the investigation in disorder.”
“Just what… do you mean?”
“Keep your rebuttals until the end. You are a driver who goes around these parts. No matter how much you estimate, when two or three days have passed there is bound to be someone who meets your conditions. And when they do appear, just like Kunikida-kun said, you would let out sleeping gas inside the car and let them breathe it in. Then you would take them to a hidden place and lock them up, and take their clothes and things. That’s the reason why the victims in the abandoned hospital are almost naked. Well then, this is the part where you show us your true colours.”
Dazai clapped his hands happily and continued talking.
“You wear the clothes of the victims and disguise into them. Just as you said last night, if you put on make-up, stuff cotton into your cheeks or on the body, it is possible to disguise yourself reasonably well. It goes without saying that you did thorough training, and what’s more, you chose victims that you can disguise yourself into with confidence. On top of that, what you were tricking were not humans, but ‘footage’. You went to the hotels the victims were heading towards to and purposefully let yourself be filmed by the security camera.”
I recall the footage from the security camera used in the investigation. When I think about it now, out of the eleven victims, six wore glasses, two wore sunglasses; a total of eight people is too high of a ratio. The remaining three had hats or long hair, only a part of their faces were recorded in the footage. The reason he can disguise himself so easily is because he chose victims with particular traits.
“The rest is easy. You put the victims’ things in the hotel room and openly leave the hotel the next day. And because in the footage, the person entering the hotel, in the reception and the one leaving is all the same person, the police ended up investigating the traces of the victims only after they left the hotel. It goes without saying that they wouldn’t find said traces, right? You have profound knowledge about the streets of Yokohama, you know the places where evidence will be left behind if you go, places you can run to without being caught on tape. The more we search, it looks as if the victims dodge being caught on camera and disappear by their own will.”
“That is outrageous. Even if you state such a hypothesis based only on reasoning, evidence, that’s right. There is no evidence.”
“I wonder. Just like Miss Sasaki’s kidnapping, it’s a possibility that you are doing this alone.” I continued with Dazai’s reasoning in turn. “Kidnapping Miss Sasaki who lost her consciousness was the easiest, for you it must be an unexpected good fortune. Normally, if there’s someone who is suddenly sick and fainted, the people in the vicinity would call an ambulance. However, it takes time for the ambulance to arrive. But the location was a train station. If it’s a station, there’s usually a taxi waiting who can leave immediately. You happened to volunteer yourself with good intention to the lady and previously decided to let her ride the taxi. Then you openly took her away. The only difference is that you didn’t take her to a hospital.”
“That’s…..”
The driver looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t say anything at all after that. His expression isn’t clear from my angle.
My gaze shifted to the car’s interior. Only slightly sticking in its gaps, were white particles that I picked up with my finger.
“If you’re going to turn yourself in, it’s better to do it quickly. Proof is going to show up soon. For example, in this car…. You might clean all you can after you are done with the crime, but the particles from the gas residue are still left behind. If we do an analysis on it, it’s composition will immediately show up.”
“That’s… I have no recollection. A passenger might have scattered some. Such a thing is possible. There’s no way it can be proof.” The driver denied with a choked voice.
However, his denial is the same as him confessing.
“Even without proof, there’s no one else but you.”
I continued my argument further.
“The modus operandi Dazai said just now can only work in the taxi the victims rode. You said that two of the victims rode your taxi, that’s the same as confessing that the other nine also did.”
“Inspector Kunikida. That is not physical proof.”
Without meeting my eyes, the driver said clearly.
“Everything that you said was only situational evidence. Even if you find lethal weapons in my house, there’s no footage of me from the crime. Even if I could be prosecuted, I can’t be charged guilty.”
It’s my turn to be silent.
It’s just as he says. To charge this person guilty, some sort of physical evidence that connects the victims and the driver – blood, fingerprint, video footage, some kind of confession that no one other than the criminal knows – those kind of things are needed. As of this moment, there is no physical evidence like that yet. What’s more, it’s possible that it might end up being a false charge due to lack of suspicion. From the driver’s way of speaking, the evidence is completely hidden.
He’s a lot smarter that I thought. What to do –
However, his next words completely overturned my expectations.
“Inspector Kunikida… Let’s do a business deal. If you can listen to my condition, I will turn myself in.”
“What?”
“The condition is: to look over me and keep me safe as a client. The time limit is when the investigations are over, until then the completion of protecting me as a witness under the deal we made is seventy-two hours.”
“A witness protection deal? What do you mean?”
“There is no…. time. I will be killed. I will be killed by them.”
“Wait up. I don’t get it. Tell me everything from the beginning. By who, and why are you being targeted!?”
“It wasn’t my intention to make a business deal with such people… It’s because there are those without a backer involved in the organs selling business, I am going to taste their wrath! This is bad…. This is really bad, I can’t even contact the buyer. I am going to be thrown away! Why? I am not supposed to get discovered… Soon, those people are going to…”
“I see – So that’s how it is.” Dazai put his hand on his chin and nodded by himself.
“Oi, Dazai! Just what did he mean!? What is he saying!?”
“It’s exactly as you heard it. He was selling the victims to an organ selling syndicate. But because in merely a month, a large quantity of organs are going around, the price of organs temporarily dropped and the market is in chaos. Let’s say, a large company with a complex management has been supplying a certain market, and a smaller business suddenly cuts in and tampers with it. What do you think will happen?”
“The large company – will get angry?”
“If it’s a clean company it will be fair competition. But, if it’s an underground company that is in charge of supplying internal organs, they’re a bunch that treats blood and violence as currency. If those guys who fear none even their own death gods get angry….”
At that moment, something crashed the car.
And then something hit the car continuously. A high-pitched sound resounded.
The right side of the taxi we are riding shook. The car window shattered.
“We’re under fire! Lower your heads!”
I shouted. The shards from the window glass showered into the interior of the car; it’s like the car shook from the battering of a hammer.
“It’s them! H-help… I don’t want to die!”
“Oi, wait up!” The driver opened the door and ran towards the opposite side of the attack.
“Kunikida-kun, we can’t let the driver get away or let him be killed, we are in the thick of the case’s truth! Catching him comes first before the enemy!”
Dazai, who was lying face down, shouted. I know that without him having to say it, but the situation is really difficult.
“I am going after the driver, so Kunikida-kun, please distract the enemy!”
“Wait, operating alone is dangerous! Dazai!”
Without listening to me, Dazai darted off. I can’t let a new guy like him work alone in his first gunfire attack. But the fact is that there is no other option than this.
While cursing at the enemy under my breath, I looked at them. There are three of them. Black clothes and black glasses. They are armed with a sub-machinegun smuggled from overseas. Suddenly, in the streets that turned into a severe battleground that has no leniency, judging from their clothes and their skills – “Damn it, this is the worst! If it isn’t the Port Mafia!”
The Port Mafia is an illegal organization that has their headquarters based around Yokohama Bay. They are an underworld organization by nature and are cruel and stern, by their code the boss holds absolute supremacy and, with his orders, they will unite to pulverize an enemy. They are the most brutal illegal organization in all of Yokohama.
And there are currently three of the people from that Port Mafia here. With time, I will be crushed to death.
“Doppo Poetry – Flash grenade!”
I spelled it on the notebook, and ripped the page out. I clutched at the piece of paper, and it changes shape to a grenade in my fist.
From the broken window, I threw the flash grenade at the three enemies.
The flash grenade is a weapon that aims to take away the sight and hearing of the enemy temporarily.
If there is a sick person near the enemy where the explosion takes place, the sound and light from the explosion is to the point where it can kill the said sick person. I bet they didn’t expect to be retaliated with a flash grenade, the mafias crouched on the floor and pressed on their temporal lobes.
In that brief moment, I jumped out of the car and dashed towards the enemies.
I hit the neck of the closest mafia with my elbow and he dropped to the ground, and then kicked the other one and sent him flying.
The last one tried to hit me with his gun. I turned my body sideways and evaded with a sway.
With his stance off, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it. I continue to twist his wrist counter-clockwise and threw the enemy away with a move called, the Four Directions Throw*.
The mafia drew an arc in the air before he crashed on the ground, head first and promptly blacked out.
“Oh my, oh my.” After making sure everyone is out cold, I walked back to the side of the taxi.
It’ll be great if things go well on Dazai’s side too….
Suddenly, there’s a colossal thirst for blood coming from behind. Before I could turn around, it’s already on my side. In the place I was standing only until recently, a black stream of torrent ran through me.
The torrent collided with the taxi and just like that, cuts the car into two.
The car splits into two perfect halves, and bounced into the air while screws and rods scattered from the cross-section. I didn’t have the time to be astonished, I kicked the ground and dodged repeatedly. The nearby posts, guardrails, were being torn down to pieces.
I did a 180-degree turn on the ground and from afar saw a small young man dressed in a black overcoat.
“Cough, cough –“
So, he’s the person with the killing intent.
“Cough – I came here to scorn as a side job, but to get the better of three men in just a moment, how praiseworthy. Next, let my Rashomon be your rival.”
Without any weapons or a battle stance, the occasionally coughing young man simply walked over. But a rabid malice exploded soundlessly from his whole body.
A short stature in a black overcoat. With a black torrent as his ability. The black hellhound of the Port Mafia.
“You bastard – You are Akutagawa Ryunosuke from the Port Mafia!”
“I am, indeed. By the boss’s order, I came to behead the fool who dares mess with the mafia’s territory. Where is he?”
“He’s not here. He ran away with his tail between his legs.”
I pointed to the direction the driver escaped to. But my gaze was still glued to Akutagawa. I won’t let him out of sight for even a moment.
The worst of the worst had come. When it comes to the Port Mafia’s Akutagawa, even the underworld’s toughest guys would run away crying when they hear his name.
The Black-Fanged Hellhound. An ability user who brings calamity and disaster. A disciple of tragedy and despair. His name is coloured in darkness.
Although this is the first time I’ve witnessed it, from what I can see when he split the taxi in two, he’s a much bigger threat than the rumours say. What to do?
Simple. Akutagawa’s aim is the kidnapper. If Akutagawa is really such a dangerous enemy, there is no reason to protect the kidnapper with my life. To withdraw meekly is the easiest way out.
“He is a witness. Until I hear where the remaining missing people are, I can’t let him be killed. If you want to go after him, take me down first.”
“Putting your life on the line to protect a murderer. You would go that far, huh.”
Damn it. Me and my stupid personality.
However, as a member of the Armed Detective Agency, I cannot let the witness of a case be killed helplessly by a third party.
‘Do the things you should do.’ I recited the words on the notebook.
Akutagawa’s black cloak wriggled. It’s as if the souls of a thousand vengeful spirits gathered and condensed into one transient form. Something resigned into the cloth before it starts to take the shape of many sharp fangs or nails.
“The hunting dog of the Port Mafia, Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Greetings.”
“A member of the Armed Detective Agency, Kunikida Doppo. Greetings.”
The black fangs that radiated from Akutagawa suddenly comes rushing like a sudden shower. I jumped sideways. A few of them shredded my clothes and the remaining created countless holes in the wall behind me.
Before he could recall the black fangs back and send them at me again, I quickly wrote in the notebook and tore it off.
The piece of paper took the shape of a wire gun again. I pulled the trigger and shot a hook.
But before the steel of the wire gun could hit Akutagawa, it was deflected by an invisible wall.
“What…!?”
He didn’t look like he did any defensive moves. Is this also his ability?
Faster than I could pull the wire that has been shot into the air, a part of Akutagawa’s overcoat changed into the head of a hungry beast. Giving out a roar, the head of the hungry beast rushed forward horizontally. Fast!
I was going to twist my body to dodge, but my left shoulder got pierced by a fang. Fresh blood spurts. However, I didn’t have the time to stop the bleeding. The fangs keeps coming at me and I could only move backwards to dodge it. I could not retaliate, let alone even get close!
“Does the Armed Detective Agency only know how to run away? How boring.” spat Akutagawa and he stood upright.
Cold sweat runs down my cheeks – Strong.
The lethal fangs could fly several meters at a high speed, I can’t do anything except dodge, let alone retaliate. Even my flying weapon was knocked down easily. Even if good luck is on my side, there is that mysterious invisible wall from earlier. There is no blind spot.
Dodging the attacks with no rest in between, the moment I landed on the pavement, an unidentifiable chill runs down my spine.
From under my feet, the spear-like black fangs that pierced the pavement all blow up in one go.
While my attention was drawn into the air, other black fangs were drilling into the ground!
I twisted my body to jump again, but I put too much weight down. I won’t make it.
My side was pierced with a fang and penetrated all the way to my back.
“Guagghhhh…..!” Extreme pain clouded my vision.
Unable to bear the pain, I went down on my knees. This is bad, the next one is coming. If I stop moving now, his follow-up attack will kill me. However, there’s nothing I can do.
Rashomon’s black cloth wrapped around my neck. My feet left the ground. The black cloth flexed like a great snake and strongly slapped me to the wall.
“How foolish, after all you are just an underpaid detective agency. I shall do you a favour and cut your neck right here, right now.”
The black cloth tightened. The world dyed red.
“Every single last person… Don’t get in the way of my work!”
While strangling the black cloth, I shot the wire gun. But my target is not Akutagawa.
The one I am shooting the hook at is what is beside him, the water pipe running along the buildings. The water starts spurting at Akutagawa’s direction.
“Wha-….?”
Akutagawa put his arms up to defend against the water, the road Akutagawa stood on was completely being soaked by the high-pressured water.
“Fool, as if I would be scared by a little water.”
I opened the notebook with my left hand. While making the wire gun earlier, I wrote on a second page.
“Doppo Poetry – Stun gun!”
I turned the high-voltage mobile stun gun on and threw it towards the puddle of water.
Flash. Stars sparked from the ground.
“Aaaaaaaa!?”
Using the body of water as a conductor, the stun gun flashes purple and white.
Like a snake, the purple lightning rushed towards the already wet Akutagawa.
The purple lightning sparked like the second sun leaving the sound of explosion on the ground, then completely disappeared.
The black cloth of Rashomon that wrapped around my neck released me, and I fell to the pavement. While clutching at my hurting neck and sides, I looked at Akutagawa.
Akutagawa is crouching. From his whole body, steam and white smoke rise.
“Ku….kukukuku…. hahaha.”
Akutagawa’s crouching shoulders shook as he laughed. After receiving such an electric shock he could still move.
“So the Armed Detective Agency is not just a collection of buffoons. This is great. This is really great.”
“….If you’re going to come then come (that’s what she said), my notebook still has many pages left I could expend them.”
I forced my limbs to stand and held the wire gun again.
“By all means, I want to test whether a bastard like you has the capacity to actually overthrow me or not… but unfortunately, it looks like some kind of nuisance had come to meddle.”
Akutagawa faced forward, the sound of the police force’s patrol cars and whistles are coming closer. It seems like they received a report on the gunfight.
“Wherever that traitor runs to, I can hunt him down. This time I shall retreat. The continuation shall come soon.”
While coughing, Akutagawa turned his back on me. He left just like that. (Aw he didn’t stay the morning after poor knkd) It’s like he’s going home after a boring walk. To tell the truth, whether we continue fighting or retreat, there really isn’t going to be much difference.
“Don’t ever come back!” While seeing Akutagawa off, I went down on my knees.
Akutagawa of the Port Mafia. He’s no different from the rumours, no, he’s more than the rumours made him to be. I refuse to fight him for a second time.
I want to go home and sleep like a corpse.
000
Or so I say, but there is no way I can sleep. After my short break, I took off to the agency again. It’s to report the details of the case. After receiving quick medication for my wounds in the Agency’s infirmary, I went back to the office and Dazai was already there, sipping tea after his work is done.
“Dazai. You captured the driver, right?”
“Of course. After capturing him I immediately handed him over to the police. Although, I could do happier when this can be over with without the criminal being murdered by the mafia.”
I calmed down. Dazai is not as stupid as he first seemed.
When the mafia attacked, and at the same time that Dazai left to do something else, I doubted him, “Did he run because he sensed the mafia’s invasion?” But he settled everything perfectly, so I am going leave it as needless anxiety.
“Well then, we are going to end it with that driver being the criminal for this serial case?”
We ran around busying ourselves, but there is no reward. The police force will probably just settle it by granting us a meager letter of thanks. Well, well.
“I don’t feel like working anymore today. Let’s go have a drink after duties are over.”
“Senpai’s treat?” A happy and smiling Dazai asked.
“What an unpleasant junior. It’s my treat, so work seriously tomorrow.”
I returned to my desk and finished the leftover work.
I looked over the circulated documents and picked up calls coming from several places. Then I approved the report for the case that just took place.
When I casually took a look at the office’s computer, an e-mail arrived. Without paying much attention, I scanned through it.
The contents caught my eyes.
I read until the end, then read it again from the beginning.
“Dazai.” When I called his name, I just realized that I haven’t been breathing.
“Cancel the drinking plans, work just came in.”
“Ehhh? I was already planning on drinking, my stomach had already taken the shape of a sake cup.”
“A request came. From the same anonymous client as the one who led us into the abandoned hospital.”
My throat parched. My tongue is tied. I don’t want to have to say this.
“A request to dismantle a bomb. If we don’t dismantle it by tomorrow’s sunset, over a hundred people will die.”
–CHAPTER 2 END –
