Bungo Stray Dogs Vol. 7: Dazai Chuuya Age Fifteen Read online

  He’d slit the previous boss’s throat with a scalpel, then covered the murder up by claiming the leader’s illness had brought on convulsions and he needed a tracheotomy to open his airway. Dazai, then only fourteen years old, had witnessed all this firsthand.

  “Someone who must never rise from the grave, huh…?” Dazai muttered. After a few moments passed, he heaved a reluctant sigh and stood up. “Looks like I really am the only one you can go to for help,” he said before snatching the piece of paper from Mori. “You’re gonna get me that drug, then, okay? You better keep your word.”

  Mori smirked and replied, “This is your first job. Welcome to the Mafia.”

  Dazai began briskly walking to the door when he stopped all of a sudden.

  “By the way, who’s the person you said I reminded you of?” he asked.

  Mori smiled faintly. Then with a hint of melancholy in his expression, he gave his answer:

  “Me.”

  He’d needed an assistant—a secretary, a confidant, a right-hand man of the highest caliber. But as a doctor, a traitor, and a usurper, what he needed most of all was someone he could trust. He needed a subordinate with whom he could share everything, someone who could understand him as he alone stood at the organization’s apex, leading his subordinates.

  It was an error on Mori’s part to take in Dazai. But not all errors are bad. This stone he’d picked up—which he’d planned on disposing of eventually—turned out to be a giant diamond in the rough.

  Perhaps Mori was asking for too much as someone who followed such a bloody path. But this was Dazai, after all. So perhaps…

  “Dazai,” Mori began while still pondering that question. “I may not be able to comprehend your answer, but I nonetheless want to know: Why do you want to die?”

  Dazai seemed puzzled as he looked back at Mori, like he genuinely didn’t understand the question. Then, eyes full of youthful innocence, he responded:

  “Let me ask you something instead: Do you truly believe there’s value in living?”

  Suribachi looked just like it had sounded: a city built within a crater created by a massive explosion years prior. The original inhabitants perished in the mile-diameter blast along with any notion of who each section belonged to. All that remained was a wasteland in the shape of a Japanese mortar—a suribachi.

  It wasn’t long before people arrived and decided to build their own city. They were society’s outcasts, or perhaps society never even acknowledged their existence to begin with. Suribachi bordered the Yokohama Settlement, a designated conflict zone, and anyone could take up residence there regardless of legality. That drew people to create huts, build stairs, and even lay electrical wires. The site of the explosion soon became a haven for those scorned by prosperity and luxury. It was a gray city for gray people. And, of course, it was outside the authorities’ radar, which naturally made it prime real estate for illegal organizations such as the Mafia.

  Dazai was heading down a path in Suribachi.

  “Oh? So drinking metal-plating solutions is an extremely popular method of suicide abroad, huh…? Interesting.”

  He was reading a book as he walked, his expression the epitome of serious. Dazai had never looked at someone with such solemnity.

  “Hmm? What’s this? It’s only popular because it’s the easiest chemical for industrial painters to get their hands on, and it’s not a quick and easy death. Anyone who drinks the solution dies after spending hours in agony as their organs dissolve inside of them… Ack! I’m so glad I didn’t give that a try!”

  Dazai lifted his head and glanced at his Mafia escort behind him. “Hey, did you know that? Be careful next time you plan on killing yourself, uh…”

  “Hirotsu,” the escort answered, looking like a small dog backed into a corner. “I will…be sure to keep that in mind.”

  A middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair and a gentlemanly appearance, Hirotsu was a mafioso Dazai had chosen for his knowledge of the area. He wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about having to be this boy’s escort and guide.

  Dazai was just a fifteen-year-old kid. He wasn’t even in the Mafia. And yet, he had a Silver Oracle. Everyone, long-standing Mafia members included, had to be careful around him. Not only that, Dazai was one of the two people who witnessed the former boss’s final moments, and now Mori had entrusted him with a top secret mission. There was clearly something more to all this.

  Hirotsu knew instinctively that he had to treat Dazai with respect. These were instincts only someone who’d survived many years in the Mafia possessed.

  The two of them had left that morning to ask around if anyone had seen the Port Mafia’s former boss. They went from the slums to the most popular tourist sites, following the rumors to their source. A boy and a middle-aged man made for a bizarre investigation team, but nonetheless, Dazai’s uncanny ability to weasel information out of people proved useful. He managed to get most of the sources to tell him what he wanted without them even realizing it. Even the more stubborn individuals changed their tune the moment Dazai gave them a peek of the wad of bills Mori had provided him for this very purpose. Once they obtained all the information they could get their hands on, Dazai and Hirotsu started making their way back to headquarters.

  “Dazai… Please do not walk too far ahead of me,” said Hirotsu. “I am your escort, but this is nonetheless a conflict zone. There’s no telling what could happen.”

  “‘Conflict’?”

  Hirotsu nodded and continued, “The Mafia is currently at war with three organizations: Takasekai, Gelhart Security Service, and a third group located here in Suribachi that shows no signs of letting up. They are an extremely eccentric group, nothing like any enemy we have ever faced… They have no official name, but simply go by ‘the Sheep.’ This week alone, they killed two of our squads. The unofficial leader is especially difficult to deal with. They say not even bullets work on him.”

  “Ohhh… No wonder I heard explosions and gunfire coming from over there. Doesn’t make much difference to me, though…,” Dazai grumbled in boredom. All of a sudden, there was a beep coming from his pocket—his phone.

  “It’s Mori.” Dazai placed the phone against his ear. “Hello? …Yeah, we’re done here. I learned a bunch of things… Huh? ‘How’? …Who do you think I am? Anyway, to get straight to the point…” Dazai sounded like he couldn’t care less. “The previous boss was here. He came back to life from the pits of hell, covered in black flames.”

  “What?” came Mori’s shaky reply.

  “There were a lot of witnesses. I guess the old man had a lot of regrets and couldn’t let go of this world?” Dazai’s lips curled into a cold-blooded smirk. “At any rate, I’ll give you a detailed report when I get back—”

  All of a sudden—without any warning—something hit Dazai squarely in the torso, sending him flying through the air like a flower petal caught in a gust of wind. He smashed through a zinc-coated steel roof, causing the wooden hut underneath to collapse, then rolled farther into Suribachi while demolishing a well’s fencing in the process.

  “The Sheep!” He heard Hirotsu’s shouts slowly fade into the distance. “Dazai!”

  Dazai bounced down the hill until he went right through a shed, kicking up a whirlwind of dust and plywood…and then he finally stopped. He found himself atop a simple stucco building. However, something was on top of him: the shadowy male figure who had hit him moments ago.

  “Ha-ha-ha! Now this is rich!” The figure roared with laughter. “A kid! The Port Mafia’s so hard up for lackeys that they’re hiring kids!”

  It was a small-framed boy around Dazai’s age dressed in a dark green biker jacket. He looked like a crow amid the dark of night.

  “That hurt, you know?” Dazai, collapsed on his back, said emotionlessly. “I hate pain.”

  “I’m gonna give ya a choice, kid,” the boy told him, hands still in his pockets. “Die now or die after givin’ me the information I want. What’s it gonna be?”

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nbsp; “I like those two choices. Both very tempting offers,” Dazai replied unflinchingly, despite having been hit in the torso and knocked through several buildings. “Okay. Kill me now.”

  The boy in the biker jacket fell silent for a brief moment, then looked down at Dazai as if realizing he’d finally met a person of character.

  “Hmph. I thought you’d just cry and run away. You’re a surprisingly gutsy kid.”

  “You’re a kid, too.”

  “Yeah, everyone I fight always says that at first, but they immediately realize their mistake. I’m no ordinary brat like you.” The boy clenched his fist. “Now talk. Tell me everything about this Arahabaki you’re lookin’ into.”

  He then stepped on Dazai’s wounded hand, cracking the bones under the sole of his shoe.

  “…Oh. Arahabaki? I see… Arahabaki,” Dazai muttered. He stared at his hand being crushed as if it were someone else’s.

  “So you do know, huh?”

  “Nope. First I’ve ever heard of it,” Dazai replied flatly.

  The boy grinned, then swiftly kicked Dazai. The ball of his foot struck Dazai’s bones with an agonizing creak. Dazai moaned in pain.

  “All right, then,” the boy said. “Wanna go for the record? Longest someone’s ever lasted without talkin’ is nine kicks.”

  Dazai’s face twisted in agony as he answered, “You’ll let me go…if I talk?”

  “Yeah. I don’t pick on weaklings.”

  Dazai fell into silent thought for a few moments. He then quietly stared at the boy above him with a serious expression and replied, “Okay… I’ll talk.”

  His voice heavy and tense, he said:

  “You ought to drink more milk. You’re really short.”

  The boy kicked Dazai in the stomach once more, sending him rolling off the roof until he crashed into the fence below.

  “I didn’t ask, ya little shit!” the boy shouted. “I’m fifteen. I’m still growing!”

  “Heh… Then I’ll put a little curse on you. I, being fifteen as well, will continue to grow while you’ll stay the same height.”

  “You’re really startin’ to piss me off!”

  The boy had already made his way over to Dazai’s side and kicked him in the face. Dazai’s neck audibly creaked.

  “That…hurt…you know?” Dazai groaned with a slight chuckle. Blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth; he must’ve cut the inside of his lip. “But thanks to you, I remembered something… The Sheep is one of Yokohama’s most influential support groups, and all its members are kids and teens. I heard it got its start after a bunch of kids created a self-defense force to fight back against gangs, looting, and human trafficking. They’re strictly defensive and nonviolent—and yet, hardly a soul dares to oppose them. The reason is simple. Anyone who steps on their turf pays for it dearly. And the one who makes them pay is none other than the Sheep’s leader himself. Now it makes sense. You’re the Sheep King—Chuuya Nakahara, gravity manipulator.”

  “I’m not a king,” the boy, Chuuya Nakahara, spat. “I just happen to have something no one else does: power. I’m simply fulfilling the responsibility I have.”

  Chuuya paused, then looked down at Dazai and added, “You sure know a lot about the Sheep.”

  “I got invited to join a while back. Obviously, I refused.”

  “Ya made the right choice. I woulda killed you within the first five minutes.”

  “I’d have assassinated you before that.”

  Dazai met Chuuya’s glare. Chuuya then took a few steps back.

  “Doesn’t matter. I’m still gonna kick ya to death in the next five minutes, regardless, so nothing changes. As if a little punk like you has any useful info anyway. I’m gonna send your head in a box to those Mafia sons of bitches. Consider it a declaration of war.”

  “You won’t get that far.” Dazai didn’t move an inch. He simply stared quietly back at Chuuya. “Don’t you hear those footsteps?”

  “Footsteps? What footsteps?”

  All of a sudden, Chuuya was surrounded by angry shouting. “Don’t move!”

  Numerous Mafia soldiers had their weapons aimed at him: rifles, pistols, submachine guns, machine pistols, and shotguns.

  “Ha-ha.” Chuuya looked around. “Interesting. You’re a lot more popular than I thought. Wasn’t expectin’ anyone to come for your dumbass.”

  “Give it up, boy,” Hirotsu demanded quietly from the back of the crowd. “You are far too young to find out what your organs look like.”

  “Your threats don’t scare me, old man. Guns don’t work on me. I’m gonna kick all your asses and go home without a scratch just like I always do.”

  Hirotsu calmly watched Chuuya. “This brings back memories,” Hirotsu began. “I had a similar phase when I was younger. I was rash and deluded, thinking I was invincible. I thought my brute strength alone could break the world to my liking.” A faint smirk played on his lips. “Guns don’t work on you, you say? There is nothing special about that. Plenty of other skill users could say the same. At any rate…you’ve had enough warnings. Now it is time to repent. You’ll have plenty of time to rue your foolishness and ignorance in a pool of your own blood.”

  Hirotsu’s shoes clicked audibly as he took a step forward. His gaze was more chilling than death itself.

  “You’ve got powers, too, huh?” Chuuya’s eyes sharply narrowed. “I like the look in your eyes. You seem at least a little tougher than everyone else I’ve fought,” he said. “Come.”

  He readied himself for battle, hands still in his pockets.

  “Hirotsu… You should probably sit this one out.” Dazai winced with pain as he continued, “He can manipulate the gravity of anything he touches… Your skill’s a bad match.”

  “Hmm… Gravity, you say?” Hirotsu replied as he removed the white glove on his right hand. It was a very elegant action as if he were royalty. “Then it is only fair that I tell you my skill, young Sheep. I can repel anything my hand touches.”

  “Ha-ha! How kind of you to share,” Chuuya said with a laugh. “But don’t expect me to go easy on ya just ’cause you’re old.”

  “No need.”

  Hirotsu nonchalantly tossed his glove at Chuuya. The moment Chuuya knocked it away, Hirotsu was already right in front of him. He grabbed the boy by the collar with his left hand and pulled, but Chuuya didn’t resist; instead, he leaped off the ground and spun to dodge Hirotsu’s approaching right hand. He then launched a kick. Hirotsu pulled his right hand back and hit the bottom of Chuuya’s shoe with his palm. Their gravity and repulsion collided, creating a flash of light. Once again, Chuuya didn’t resist the impact. He flew backward and landed on his feet with feather-like gentleness.

  “Man…wish I could say I’m impressed, but I’m just not feeling it. Your skill’s worthless against mine, old fart.”

  Chuuya could manipulate the gravity of anything he touched. The Earth maintains a constant gravitational force of one g, but Chuuya’s skill allowed him to change the direction and force of the gravity of whatever he came into contact with. Meanwhile, Hirotsu’s skill could only repel a target in the opposite direction by touching it with his right hand. There was a clearly superior skill of the two. And yet, Hirotsu didn’t so much as bat an eye.

  “No need to concern yourself, young one. When I was your age, I, too, believed that the stronger skill always won out. I was fortunate enough to realize my mistake before it cost me my life. That is why I pity you.”

  Chuuya sneered. “You’ve piqued my interest.”

  This time, Chuuya charged forward, hands still in his pockets, and threw a roundhouse kick. Hirotsu held out his right hand to stop it…until Chuuya changed the direction of his kick, aiming straight for Hirotsu’s neck. Hirotsu promptly blocked with his pistol, which groaned under the weight of the heavy kick. A moment later, Hirotsu grabbed Chuuya’s shoulder with his right hand.

  “I’ve got you now,” said Hirotsu.

  “So what? Your skill won’t work on me.”
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  “I dunno about that,” came a voice.

  Chuuya looked back, clearly surprised. Dazai was standing right behind him. He placed a hand on Chuuya’s neck.

  “Sorry, but gravity is no longer yours to control.”

  Dazai’s skill also activated when he touched his target. He had the power to halt and nullify all skills.

  It was the ultimate anti-skill, no exceptions.

  “I can’t…use my powers?”

  Hirotsu had his right hand on Chuuya’s chest. “Now it’s time to pay your tuition.”

  A white shock wave blasted Chuuya’s small frame backward with such force that it looked like he’d been hit by a truck. Dazai was almost simultaneously knocked back as well, bouncing off the ground until he hit the plaster wall behind him.

  “Dazai!”

  Confusion briefly clouded Hirotsu’s face. He’d only used his skill on Chuuya; why did Dazai get knocked back, too?

  “He got me…” Dazai groaned as he clutched his stomach. “He kicked me…right before we crashed…and I let go of him. He used his skill to fly backward.”

  Chuuya landed sideways against the building behind him and grinned fiendishly. “Ha-ha-ha! Yes! That’s what I’m talking about! Nothin’ like a little fireworks to get the party started!”

  And with a shout, Chuuya kicked off the wall so quickly and powerfully that he destroyed it in the process. He was like a cannonball charging straight for Dazai and Hirotsu. There was no way Hirotsu could block the attack with only his right hand; even if Dazai were to nullify Chuuya’s skill, the force of the crash would tear him apart. But at the very next moment…

  …black flames blasted everyone backward.

  “Gwah?!”

  The black shock wave sent the entire group flying. And not just the people themselves—buildings, utility poles, and even trees were blown away, too. Everything on the surface was torn asunder, as if the air itself had suddenly lashed out.

  It was a black explosion.

  A massive explosion had just occurred near the center of Suribachi. But it was no ordinary blast—this was a colossal fireball large enough to swallow an entire neighborhood. Dazai’s vision spun while he flew like a dead leaf in the wind, and that’s when he saw it: