Chapter 52

Osamu Dazai did not give a definitive yes or no, merely offering an ambiguous response: "We'll see."

We'll see?? We'll see?! In most cases, that was just a polite way of saying no!

Takizawa Sei stared at him in disbelief. Catching that look, Dazai immediately softened his tone further. "The situation in Yokohama has long since changed from what you remember. Over the past few years, there have been shifts in power and the division of territories. Even if you say you want to help me..."

He suddenly adopted a teasing tone. "With a brain roughly the same size as the slug's, you'd definitely end up completely overwhelmed, and by then you'd probably throw a tantrum, flip the table, and ruin all the important documents."

"Not true. I'm much more patient than Chuuya."

Dazai gave a flat, indifferent nod. "Oh, well, that's true."

Ah, that familiar, subtly infuriating attitude.

"But it's a promise, okay? You have to leave a spot for me, a spot where I can always see you."

"..."

Takizawa Sei ignored the young man's silence. "I'm being serious. Don't treat this like a joke."

"......Alright."

His voice was gentle, as though he were indulging a willful child, yet Takizawa Sei faintly sensed a hint of careful hesitation beneath his words, as if he were treading cautiously around every single thing being said.

They did not go to an enclosed space, mindful of the fact that it would hinder the Port Mafia subordinates from providing close protection. After ten minutes, Takizawa Sei gradually noticed that the people around him had been replaced, and those clueless, stumbling drunkards who insisted on barging into them had entirely vanished.

There was a Kikuwafu shop in the commercial district that looked quite appealing. Takizawa Sei found himself glancing at it repeatedly. The habit of wanting to buy sweets whenever he saw them made his feet naturally drift in that direction. However, neither he nor Dazai cared much for sweets, and buying them for others would only seem excessively bizarre, so Takizawa Sei walked past the shop after taking just two steps.

"Not buying any?" Dazai asked, uncharacteristically prompting him.

"Guess not. Did you suddenly want some? If you do, we can go back," Takizawa Sei said, taking a large gulp of warm seafood congee through his straw. The congee had been packed at the storefront and poured into a milk tea cup; since it wasn't sweet, the sensory experience was strangely odd. "I've just never seen this shop before, so I took a second look."

Dazai abruptly brought up a name entirely disconnected from the present atmosphere. "Alice would probably like it."

"Alice? But I'm not planning on heading back tonight."

Sweets wouldn't taste good if left out overnight.

Takizawa Sei shot Dazai a peculiar look. "Dazai, are you trying to get me to go back?"

Dazai averted his gaze. Ever since they met, he seemed fond of looking downward, letting his lifeless eyelids droop to obscure the light in his pupils—a state even worse than sheer listlessness.

Takizawa Sei threatened in a low voice, "You are not allowed to look away. Open your eyes and look at me."

Dazai lifted his chin. "How unreasonable."

"The way you phrase things makes it sound like I'm in some massive rush to leave tonight," Takizawa Sei said with a depressed sigh. "Why would I be? The orphanage is miles away from here, and coming all the way back to see you is such a hassle." He shoved the cup of congee toward Dazai's mouth. "How have you only managed two sips after all this time? Seafood doesn't taste good when it gets cold. Even if you don't have an appetite, at least drink a third of it. I tested the portion for you—this amount is barely enough to be my appetizer!"

Amidst the young man's soft, rapid-fire words, Dazai compromised and guided the food to his lips.

His appetite had always been poor, and ever since becoming the boss, bogged down by endless responsibilities day and night, he paid even less attention to meals. Though the subordinates tasked with his daily care often worried about his health, the logistics-team Port Mafia member was far more terrified of overstepping the boundaries between the two of them, interrupting the boss, and getting reprimanded. In fact, that sort of thing had already happened once or twice.

*The boss really is an unpredictable creature.* — Words of bitter wisdom from a dismissed secretary to a junior.

Therefore, Takizawa Sei's actions at this moment were truly bold... No, they were utterly audacious!

Terrifying, simply terrifying. What on earth was the background of this young man?!

The mobile response team, disguised as ordinary pedestrians accompanying the boss, desperately suppressed the shock threatening to show on their faces. When they occasionally glanced over, their eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets. Yet they couldn't speak recklessly, nor could they let their behavior seem abnormal, leaving them to frantically exchange glances with their colleagues to prove that they weren't the only ones who thought the world had gone mad.

...Look, just look at what they were doing! How dared that young man touch the boss with his bare hands?!

Good grief, not only were they sharing a single serving of food, but they were also heading into a winter clothing store with happy smiles on their faces!

...Wait, was it just one person wearing a happy smile, or both of them? Were his eyes playing tricks on him?

It was simply unbelievable. That young man was actually gesturing and comparing outfits against the boss! What were they talking about? Damn it, if they got any closer, the young man would notice them...!

So... what exactly was the relationship between that young man and the boss?

The member with the most active imagination let his thoughts run wild, only to suddenly realize that the colleague standing next to him had turned pale green at some point.

"Senior, what's wrong with you? Do you really need to use the restroom...?"

The senior replied with an expression that conveyed *you're too young to understand*, "Keep an eye on that young man. If an assassination attempt happens... his life is just as important as the boss's."

A Port Mafia member who had only joined in recent years: "......?"

*Are you joking, Senior?!*

Perhaps the meaning conveyed in his expression was far too obvious, as the senior let out a profound sigh. "Don't ask too many questions. It's all ancient history."

He openly pulled out a cigarette during work hours, exhaling clouds of smoke toward the sky. "Actually, there was a period of time when Dazai-san was extremely happy."

Subordinate: "......"

*That makes even less sense! Did the senior just casually use the boss's first name?!*

The senior was clearly immersed in past memories, his tone tinged with nostalgia and a sense of vicissitudes brought by the passage of time. "Don't look at him acting so decisive and ruthless now. Back when I was just the most insignificant worker ant in the organization, I heard seniors talk about how terrifying he used to be. But such a talented person spent quite a long time being utterly indifferent to mafia affairs, with his mind completely away from work. Looking back now... he must have been thinking about gradually detaching himself from this world during those days... What a pity, things never go the way one wishes."

The subordinate's expression was utterly numb. He knew he was being treated as a convenient sounding board by his senior, but even if the people inside the shop couldn't hear them, wasn't talking about these matters so openly and flagrantly extremely dangerous?

Suddenly, a figure brushed past them and walked straight into the winter clothing store.

The two gossiping men instantly turned serious. Their experience and instincts told them that the person who had just entered was their natural enemy.

"That's..."

"Follow him in. He should just be out for a stroll."

The two employees, who had no desire to interrupt the boss's date, walked into the shop with exaggeratedly casual disguises, lingering openly around their target of protection.

Even so, that natural enemy still noticed their boss.

The reason was the exceptionally eye-catching young man by the boss's side.

His eyes possessed the delicate, translucent luster of gemstones, and his white hair shimmered with a fluorescent glow under the warm lights. The strands of black mixed within it did not look strange at all; instead, they represented the ultimate triumph of a fierce battle with mortality. His skin was slightly pale, yet devoid of any sickly aura, and even the bandages wrapped around his neck failed to bring any gloomy or frail coloring to him. His limbs were intact, and his demeanor was elegant... Like any young man at the absolute peak of vitality, he drew every gaze toward himself.

"How could this..." muttered the middle-aged man as he stared at him. "How could he... still be alive?"

Takizawa Sei naturally noticed his gaze. After all, it was far too obvious; because of seeing him, the man had even forgotten what his hands were doing, standing frozen in place for a long time while holding a selected overcoat.

The jade-eyed young man looked him up and down, and a few seconds later, realization dawned on him. "Detective Murase, so it's you."

Murase was the police detective who had once chased Chuuya all over Yokohama right after the latter joined the Port Mafia. He possessed an overflowing sense of justice and a kind heart that wished to keep young people from straying onto the wrong path. Unfortunately, no matter how he tried to persuade Chuuya, whenever he demanded that the redhead sign an agreement for "assisting in the investigation of matters and evidence related to the port," he only ever received Chuuya's arrogant and wild response: *Go eat shit!*

Hitting a dead end with Chuuya repeatedly, the detective had somehow tracked down Takizawa Sei—that's right, Chuuya was the Gem King, while Takizawa Sei was the luxury goods top sales associate.

Yet Takizawa Sei wouldn't betray the Port Mafia either. Even though the experienced detective instinctively sensed that Takizawa Sei's luxury boutique was suspicious and strongly resembled an intelligence outpost, he could never gather any concrete evidence. Takizawa Sei's mouth was even tighter than Chuuya's; upon their first meeting, he had even sweet-talked the traditionally thrifty detective into buying a beret that cost two months' worth of his salary.

Takizawa Sei hadn't expected to run into him again. The man was alive and well, having long since transferred out of Yokohama, and perhaps he was just back to visit family this time?

His deepest impression of the detective stemmed from a set of "positive persuasion" words that Dazai had accidentally overheard, which subsequently triggered a chain reaction. To put it simply—Dazai had looked exceptionally displeased with Takizawa Sei for those few days, constantly throwing out sarcastic remarks whenever he had the chance: *"Go find a proper job in the bright world to make a living," "Someone like you isn't suited for the mafia."* Takizawa Sei felt he was as sensitive as rainy season weather.

Yet every time, Takizawa Sei would tirelessly reply, "No way, I said I'd protect you from the start."

"......Do you even believe the reason you're saying?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"......"

Ha, Dazai really was such a stubborn, hard-headed person.

Takizawa Sei would always step right up to Dazai with a smile, looking directly into his slightly widened, iris-like eyes, and say, "To me, either side is the same. Wherever you are, that's where I'll be. Don't always keep trying to chase me away. Why would a stranger's advice have any effect on me? I'm not a three-year-old toddler lacking free will; only I get to decide whether I want to leave or stay."

***

"Are you really... Takizawa, Takizawa Sei?"

The middle-aged man, whose face clearly bore the traces of time, looked at Takizawa Sei in shock. "But I clearly remember that you died in a fierce shootout..."

"That was just a smoke screen," Takizawa Sei said with a distant smile. "Though I have no idea how you came to hear of my obituary... I'm actually alive and well."

Murase's gaze drifted over Takizawa Sei's body, as if trying to pierce right through him from head to toe, before the detective's line of sight finally stuck firmly onto Dazai standing right behind Takizawa Sei.