Chapter 44

Osamu Dazai has become the boss of the Port Mafia.
Not only that, but he has held the position for three years.

Takizawa Sei was shocked by this news for a long time, still unable to figure out what chain of events had led that increasingly lazy guy, who hated going to work, to seize power and usurp the throne.

"The boss of the Port Mafia... are there any special privileges?"
"...Sei, don't you think this question is entirely redundant?"
"No, what on earth attracted Dazai to take on such—such a massive responsibility of his own accord?" For the past few days, even Takizawa Sei's half-dead, lifeless tone was tinged with incomprehensible shock.

Do you have any idea how exhausted he had been back then, playing a game of cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek with Osamu Dazai all over Yokohama!

Forest Taro looked at him quietly, a dark light slowly flickering in his eyes. The smile on his lips looked like a mask worn for too long, carrying a hint of calculation, yet inexplicably mixed with a touch of sincerity. "You'll have to ask him about that."

He shrugged. "After all, I am a teacher who has been surpassed by his disciple. I lost just by letting my guard down."

Was that power struggle a bloody mess?
It probably was.

Takizawa Sei found it a bit hard to fathom, and somewhat reluctant to even imagine the scene.

He politely declined Yota's invitation and curled up next to the fireplace once again, his gaze fixed blankly on a single point in the air. Forest Taro walked over to his side, stood in silence for a moment, and said, "Whenever Dazai is mentioned, you become so attentive. Your perception of your surroundings and your responsiveness become so sharp, just like an autistic patient gradually recovering and beginning to respond to and explore the world—is he the person you care about the most since you came back?"

Takizawa Sei tightened his grip on the blanket. "That question is also quite redundant."

"Or is it that you actually care more about Chuuya?" Forest Taro wore a troubled expression. "Chuuya and Dazai are both kids around your age whom you've spent a fair amount of time with. But they say a person's heart naturally grows tilted."

"Don't arbitrarily add melodramatic and strange romantic entanglements to this," Takizawa Sei said in a low voice.

The evaluators had judged Takizawa Sei's personality as emotionally stable, fiercely protective, biased, enthusiastic, and sincere.

Takizawa Sei closed his eyes and sighed powerlessly. "Besides, if one really had to rank human relationships by level of importance, that would be a truly cruel thing."

"You and Chuuya were childhood friends who depended on each other back in the Suribachi District, weren't you?"

Takizawa Sei raised his eyes to look at Forest Taro. "Mori, are you trying to take me down memory lane?"

"Because I feel like it might make you feel a bit better." The shrewd doctor seemed to have found Takizawa Sei's emotional anchor. "Recalling happy pasts and loved ones must feel blissful. Your personality matches Chuuya's so well; strictly speaking, the two of you actually share the deepest tacit understanding."

"Mori, speculating and evaluating our relationship like this makes it seem rather boring," Takizawa Sei said listlessly.

"Heh..." The dark-haired young man chuckled softly. "Perhaps you could tell me about those days... After all, you've never mentioned them to me."

Takizawa Sei averted his gaze.

"You could easily investigate all of this while you were the boss... Did you really not look into it?"
"That kind of intelligence can never compare to a personal recounting from the person themselves."

After a few moments of silence, Takizawa Sei stuck out his tongue at him. "Blech."
"..."

Forest Taro suddenly chuckled, a laugh far more genuine than his previous ones.

He said, "Chuuya is doing very well, you know. I suppose you can guess that he's living comfortably." His gaze turned profound. "If you can still remember everything clearly, that is."

Takizawa Sei: "Being passive-aggressive like that is a good way to make people dislike you."

Forest Taro shrugged. "But I'm not wrong, am I... You feel cold because you have wavered at your core."

And what does it mean to have a wavering core? It means forgetting what one was originally supposed to do.

His former quasi-executive, the French ability user Verlaine, had lost all the memories that anchored his personality due to a military base explosion. His mental state had been precariously unstable, leaving him trapped in a perpetual state of coldness.

Ignoring Mori's poetic words, Takizawa Sei pulled out a hot water bottle that had grown somewhat lukewarm and handed it to Forest Taro, his meaning self-evident.

Mori: "..."
Sei: "Hurry up. Every step I take away from this blanket feels bone-chillingly cold."

Resigned to his fate, Forest Taro took the hot water bottle. "Perhaps if you just talked to Chuuya, you could break out of this state? He might just have the traits to combat severe cold."

Chuuya Nakahara, the very first person Takizawa Sei befriended when he arrived in this mission world.

Back then, Takizawa Sei was still quite young, appearing in the Suribachi District in tattered clothes, no different from any of the refugees created by the explosion. He struggled to survive in the slums alone, living in a leaking shipping container—though, in truth, these conditions were already quite decent, considering he actually had a container to live in.

Then, a few days later, Takizawa Sei was targeted by a gang of kids.

That was the embryonic form of the self-defense group "Sheep." At the time, they could only live near the sewer entrances, living conditions far worse than Takizawa Sei's, and they had come to shake him down simply by virtue of having a larger headcount.

Takizawa Sei didn't fight them; he generously handed over his living quarters.

After some discussion among the children, they selected a representative to extend a hand of truce to Takizawa Sei, inviting him to join them.

Of course, Takizawa Sei didn't refuse. Having just finished his first mission and being suddenly dropped into a place with such abysmal living conditions, it took him quite a long time to adapt. At the same time, the words and actions of the people around him were filled with savage, crude violence. Their economic destitution and loss of faith caused them to degenerate into indulgence; even people with a fine upbringing would slowly become walking corpses with no aspirations if they stayed in such a place long enough.

Takizawa Sei took everything in and more than once fantasized about what his target for companionship would look like, what their personality would be, where they would be, and what kind of life they were leading.

The system would assign him the most suitable identity, and one day, he would appear beside the mission target with a proper reason. Until that person appeared, Takizawa Sei could only wait.

And wait he did, for five years, growing from a kid who couldn't find a pair of shoes that fit to a suave young man. The clothes he wore were no longer tattered thanks to the growing prosperity of Sheep, and his living conditions had also improved significantly. Occasionally, he would receive expensive gifts—perhaps a watch of some unknown brand, perhaps a flashy yet useless necklace—courtesy of Sheep's elders.

Sheep's elders were nothing more than a bunch of half-grown teenagers. Whenever they won a turf war against another group, they would confiscate countless valuables. Accustomed to a life of violence and bloodshed, the notion that "resources are seized through plunder" was deeply ingrained in their minds. They held both military might and power in supreme reverence, gradually coming into conflict with the organization's sole ability user, who also happened to be a powerful gravity manipulation master.

This was because Chuuya's methods were relatively moderate, differing from their expectations. They wanted to expand their sphere of influence just like the Port Mafia and become giants in Yokohama's underworld.

When Shirase forcefully shoved a gold pocket watch into Takizawa Sei's hands, it was at a critical juncture when they were rallying influence, winning over hearts, and preparing to stab their comrades in the back.

The watch was gaudily designed, studded with countless diamond chips, practically screaming "I am expensive" on its face. It was probably the exact style nouveau riches were particularly fond of. Takizawa Sei had never seen such a flamboyant and vulgar design; it was practically blinding. Wearing it on the street would be no different from flashing a neon sign telling thugs to come and rob him. He strapped the watch to his wrist, curiously compared it against the mirror, and then burst out laughing.

CASUALLY, he lowered his head to unbuckle the watch, a sudden impulse striking him. For some reason, he raised his eyes to look into the mirror. The youth in the mirror had snow-white hair, pure and translucent green eyes, and a rather endearing, smiling face—then Takizawa Sei shifted his gaze and caught sight of the ginger-haired youth at the doorway turning away.

"..."

Takizawa Sei paused for a fraction of a second, then immediately lifted his feet and followed.

"Chuuya...!"

"Chuuya?"
"Chuuya!"
"What?"

Chuuya Nakahara stopped in his tracks, turned around with his hands shoved into his pockets, wearing a casual expression as if he cared about nothing in the world. Yet Takizawa Sei caught the slight drooping of the corners of his mouth and his slightly stiff posture.

Takizawa Sei took a couple of quick strides to his side and threw an arm around his slender neck.

Chuuya Nakahara froze for a moment, then bristled like an angry cat. "Putting your arm around me again! Do you have any idea how heavy you are, you bastard?!"

"No way, no matter how heavy I am, I shouldn't feel heavy to Chuuya!"

Chuuya Nakahara let out an exasperated sigh, only for his head to be pulled to the side by the arm draped around his neck, resting right against the green-eyed youth's collarbone—Wait, his collarbone?!

Chuuya Nakahara shoved Takizawa Sei's hand away and marched forward with his head down.

Takizawa Sei hurried after him. "Are you mad? Why are you mad?"
"No, you're overthinking it."
"I'm not overthinking it, I saw it with my own eyes."

Chuuya Nakahara pressed his lips into a straight line, forcing himself to tune out the youth's voice. Yet no matter how much he tried to hypnotize his ears, Takizawa Sei caught up and grabbed him.

"Ha, and you say you're not mad! You're the one overthinking things!" Takizawa Sei wore an ingratiating, clever smile, his bright eyes curving into crescents, the arc of his lips carrying a teasing undertone. "Chuuya, where on earth did your mind wander? Of course I'm going to return that thing. Do you really think I'm someone who can be bribed so easily? Besides, my taste isn't that atrocious."

Chuuya Nakahara: "..."

With an expression that betrayed that his thoughts had been completely guessed, his cheeks flushed bright red. He stammered a couple of times, turned his head away, and raised his voice as if putting up a bold front. "He gave you a gift, what does that have to do with me?"

"He hasn't given me a damn thing in eight hundred years, and suddenly showing up with this means nothing good. Either he wants me to help him cover something up, or he wants me to scheme for him. You know what they're like—either stealing booze or smashing up other people's bases to stir up trouble and provocation. I can't stand that kind of behavior just like you, so there's no way I'd be bought off so easily."

Chuuya Nakahara was left blushing fiercely by Takizawa Sei's declarations of loyalty, but hearing so much of it actually helped him calm down slightly. "...Then you?"

"I'm going to return it, of course~"

Takizawa Sei wrapped his arm around Chuuya's neck and laughed. "If our Sheep ever divides into factions, I will definitely stand on your side—though it would be best if a scene like that never happens, because watching former comrades fight each other to the death is just too heartbreaking."

The expression in his eyes when he said those words was deeply cryptic, though it vanished in an instant.

Chuuya Nakahara held it in for a long time before letting out a laugh. When he laughed, he radiated spirit and vitality, carrying a hint of wildness and unrestraint. "If they heard you say that, they'd start a fight with you."

"A fight? Hmph... they couldn't win an argument against me anyway."

***

Unfortunately, Sheep eventually reached the point of complete disintegration.

Takizawa Sei put down his colored pencil, staring fixedly at the drawing he had absentmindedly created.

The children were sitting obediently around a round table, drawing pictures. Crayons were scattered everywhere, and Yota ran around picking up the rolling pigments, unknowingly ending up right beside Takizawa Sei.