Chapter 50

The wind on the rooftop felt like someone's faint, lingering sob.

Takizawa Sei noticed that the young man standing near the edge seemed to twitch. It was an extremely slight tremor, but Takizawa Sei stubbornly refused to dismiss it as an illusion.

The green-eyed young man approached silently, a hint of a smile bleeding into his tone, "No way, you're really not going to answer me? Am I that completely dispensable to you? Especially after I went out of my way to come see you—"

He spoke in a lighthearted, complaining manner that sounded self-deprecating, but Takizawa Sei was deliberately trying to provoke him.

"The person talking to you isn't a ghost, you know. Ghosts can't be seen by people, and their voices can't be heard either, so you can't just ignore me."

A crimson scarf, looking as though it had been stained with blood, fluttered in the wind. Right now, Takizawa Sei only needed to reach out his hand to hook it.

After a slightly anxious wait of a few seconds, Takizawa Sei heard a soft murmur.

"How do you even know I was looking at the sunset?"

Why did that voice feel...

Takizawa Sei frowned slightly.

Why did it feel so frail?

As if he were about to breathe his last in the very next second.

Although it was a slightly exaggerated description, Takizawa Sei felt as though Osamu Dazai was suffocating at that moment.

It was as if he were contracting his heart and pressing tightly against his throat, unwilling to disturb anything, making an already soft voice even more ethereal.

"Actually, looking at the stars is a pretty good choice too," Takizawa Sei said, stepping closer to him step by step. "But are you really not planning to turn around and look at me? I'll be genuinely heartbroken, you know. Seeing how completely, utterly indifferent you are to me right now—you definitely figured out that I was resurrected a long time ago, didn't you? I have so many things I want to ask you."

Takizawa Sei's persistent questioning finally seemed to shake the dark-haired young man's stance.

He had walked countless steps closer, and on the very final step, Osamu Dazai—standing at the edge of the rooftop, right at the extreme boundary where one could brush past the Grim Reaper—dared to pivot his toes and turn back around.

As he turned his face, the rising updraft lifted his messy hair, and the neon lights below reflected his pale cheeks and a pair of russet eyes that looked almost on the verge of shattering.

In a trance, Takizawa Sei thought he saw shades of dark red within those eyes.

He stared blankly at Osamu Dazai's face—the other man had changed far more than he had imagined. Maturity was one aspect; the young man's facial features were already delicate to begin with, and with age, they would only grow more enchanting. He naturally possessed a pitiable, melancholic aura, yet the Osamu Dazai of his youth had been a figure of absolute terror, someone whose mere mention made people in the underworld envision red flags stained with mountains of corpses and seas of blood. However, Takizawa Sei's very first reaction wasn't that he had become even more handsome, but rather... that he must have—he simply must have—failed to take proper care of himself.

He had originally thought their reunion would be far more vivid and dramatic... like suddenly bumping into each other by chance on the street, neither of them prepared, thus falling into an awkward staring contest. Yet the shock of reunion would surely be overturned by the joy of breaking through reason, and Takizawa Sei had imagined himself excitedly rushing forward to give Osamu Dazai a passionate embrace.

After the initial panic, Osamu Dazai would quickly adjust his mood, and although there would inevitably be a round of questioning, the distance between them as they embraced would certainly be heart-to-heart.

Instead of ending up like this...

Like this...

Takizawa Sei speechlessly pressed his lips together.

Like this, silent, like a pool of stagnant water.

What is this? I was looking forward to it so much.

Takizawa Sei opened his mouth, "Dazai, you—"

"Takizawa," Osamu Dazai's voice made Takizawa Sei instantly snap his mouth shut. "You look truly... completely unchanged."

Completely unchanged.

Astonishingly, completely unchanged.

He was just like the night before his death: smiles still lingering at the corners of his eyes and brows, his features handsome and youthful, radiating a gentle and warm aura as though he were composed entirely of bright hues. Even those eyes seemed untouched by any despairing winds or frosts, gazing at you with the same focused and profound devotion as always.

Yet Osamu Dazai knew clearly that Takizawa Sei had followed him through every single shade of darkness in the underworld.

The world displayed to him was hollow and rotting, yet Takizawa Sei remained unfazed even when deep in the mire. It was only later that Osamu Dazai understood: that was because he possessed a "pillar."

The companionship the other person had constantly chased was the candle he had lit for himself long before despair set in. He nurtured that candle day after day, and as long as it did not extinguish, the road ahead remained bright.

"Just when on earth did you find out I was resurrected?" Takizawa Sei took another step forward in a fit of pique. He opened his arms, loosely wrapping them around both sides of Osamu Dazai's body as if to catch him. "Get down from here quickly. Why are you standing in such a dangerous place? Didn't I tell you before, this kind of thing is only allowed when I'm present."

Takizawa Sei saw the frail young man offer him a somewhat dazed smile. "Well now, aren't you right here."

Ah, ah, ah... figures.

Takizawa Sei chewed on the inside of his cheek, swallowing back the reprimand-like words that had almost slipped out of his mouth.

He would straight-out curse Gojo Satoru as a "lunatic," but Osamu Dazai was different.

Instead of blind persuasion and obstruction...

"Takizawa..." The black-robed young man, who felt somewhat unfamiliar to Takizawa Sei now, opened his arms. He looked as though he were feeling a heartfelt sense of happiness, the smile at the corners of his lips deepening slightly. "We made a promise. This kind of thing... as long as you're here, I can—"

Whoosh—

It sounded as though a fierce gust of wind was sweeping past.

Osamu Dazai tilted backward right in front of Takizawa Sei's eyes.

His moment of weightlessness was exceptionally brief, and he fell without a shred of reluctance, but Takizawa Sei's gaze remained locked onto his, never leaving for a single second.

Without the slightest hesitation, the green-eyed young man dove down right after him.

Instead of blind persuasion and obstruction, wouldn't it be fine to just accompany him instead?!

No matter how tall the Port Mafia building was, the descent wouldn't take all that long, but the surge of adrenaline made the time they perceived stretch out infinitely. Takizawa Sei could clearly see the fluttering of every single strand of Osamu Dazai's hair.

This guy—making such a grand entrance for a reunion!

Takizawa Sei thrust his hand out toward him with all his might, and he thought he saw Osamu Dazai intend to respond, because the other's fingers, unbound by bandages, twitched slightly and reached out toward him.

Great, just a little more!

Osamu Dazai gazed into his eyes.

That was a vibrant shade of green, clearer than any gemstone, brighter than the starry sky.

And so, when meeting those eyes, even his own gaze seemed to grow exceptionally bright.

This is fine...

When the intelligence operative monitoring Mori told him that the former battlefield doctor had impetuously dragged someone back from the seaside, he had already had someone look with their own eyes.

The Port Mafia's sharp-eyed scout, a young man whose Ability was named [Peephole], had quietly punched a hole through space at the coordinates of the orphanage and pressed his eyeball against it. What he saw was—

"A man," the scout reported respectfully to his boss. "A man with... a familiar face."

His expression was one of absolute astonishment, as if he had witnessed something utterly impossible, and even his voice trembled out of composure. "Boss, I saw him... Sei, Takizawa Sei!"

What?

When Osamu Dazai heard that name back then, it was the first time he experienced what it felt like when the entire world was stripped of all sound.

After a chaotic flurry of ringing came the sound of his own heartbeat. Absurdity, suspicion, disbelief... These surging emotions were stabilized and controlled as his subordinate's descriptions grew increasingly detailed. Osamu Dazai listened as the scout provided a meticulous evaluation of the young man Mori had saved, covering his appearance, temperament, voice, and actions.

What this Takizawa Sei did every day, what he said every day.

What his behavior implied, and what emotions drove it.

Everything—he was instinctively analyzing all of it.

Just as he had once tried to analyze Takizawa Sei as a person countless times before.

In the end, all that remained for Osamu Dazai was furious resentment.

The scout didn't dare to speak recklessly in front of him for days on end, exercising the utmost caution. He had been ordered by the boss to monitor every move at the orphanage—or more accurately, to monitor every move of Takizawa Sei. Yet what was the point of this? The boss looked utterly furious, endlessly radiating a dark aura.

That dark, gloomy gaze that seemed to flow with the magma of hell—the scout found himself refusing to meet it.

Truly terrible.

He thought,

With the boss this furious, whoever resurrected Takizawa Sei must have paid a horrific price.

That's right, that anger was aimed at whoever was pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Obviously, there were no unprovoked resurrections in this world. If one were to believe in such a miracle, it would be more sensible to believe the Yokohama government would bow in submission to the Port Mafia.

—Takizawa Sei had been forcibly dragged back to the human world.

Who did it, and why?

Judging from Takizawa Sei's social network, the answer was obvious: they were targeting Takizawa Sei's close confidant, the current leader of the Port Mafia, Osamu Dazai.

Figuring this out was not difficult, and it only made Osamu Dazai even more enraged, inevitably plunging him—helplessly—into an intense state of self-loathing.

His existence had dragged a distant soul into a conspiracy.

That person hadn't wanted to come back.

That person knew their body had been scanned and replicated, turning into such a bizarre, walking corpse—the feeling of being manipulated by an Ability must have been utterly sickening.

Just thinking about this—

Amidst the rapid descent, Osamu Dazai reached out his hand toward Takizawa Sei.

Come on...

A mystical, blissful smile hung upon his lips.

Come on...

Heaven had let him see Takizawa Sei once more, and the young man still retained the infinitely perfect appearance of his memories.

All the hidden surveillance, all the unspeakable conspiracies, were cast entirely behind.

Together, they would rush toward the feast of death.

This was no parting.

This was clearly a reunion.

The moment I touch you—the two of us will vanish together.

Takizawa Sei's other hand reached behind his back—

Abruptly, Osamu Dazai's eyes widened.

He immediately jerked his hand away, refusing to clasp hands with Takizawa Sei, his gaze turning resolute in an instant. Consequently, Takizawa Sei could only stretch his arms out hard, trying to grab hold of the other's waist and abdomen.

His whole body's blood surged with tension, and his ears were filled with nothing but countless roaring sounds and his own ragged breathing. The moment his arm grabbed hold of Dazai's clothing, his hand behind his back gave a fierce pull.

Rip—

A massive hang glider suddenly appeared behind his back.

Hugging Osamu Dazai tightly, Takizawa Sei raised his voice excitedly, as if he had claimed a victory, "Haha, Dazai, I caught you again!"

Unable to conceal his excitement, his voice sounded utterly sincere, "Don't worry... I'll catch you every single time."

They managed a narrow, perilous balance in mid-air, abruptly transitioning into a glide.

Looking down, Takizawa Sei saw a frozen expression on Osamu Dazai's face—had he just made a decision?

Takizawa Sei asked, "How does death feel?"