Chapter 9

"M-Mr. Dazai?!" Atsushi Nakajima stared at Kamiki Yūhaku in shock.

"See that?" Kamiki Yūhaku pointed at a towering building in the distance. "The Dragon's Head. Dazai's there, pursuing his own little agenda as an invited guest."

"Not only did you know a white fog would appear over Yokohama, you also know where Mr. Dazai is right now." Kyōka Izumi quickly summed it up. "But you didn't do anything. You just let things continue to unfold. Atsushi, he's a mafia member with no compassion. Don't expect anything from him."

Kamiki Yūhaku nodded. "That really does sound like a bad person."

He murmured without answering her, "How do I become a good person? It seems just saving people isn't enough. Being a good person is so hard. If only it were as easy as raising a crow."

Atsushi and Kyōka exchanged puzzled glances as they listened to his peculiar muttering.

But Kamiki Yūhaku kept mumbling. "Come to think of it, how's Little Crow doing now? Ordinary people can't get into this damned white fog, and even crows can't get in."

He was genuinely worried. "Will Little Crow get cold? I fed him this afternoon, but what about tonight? Will he have to go hungry?"

"Oh, right, I haven't watered the flowers today either!"

A normal conversation with him was impossible.

Atsushi sighed and gave Kyōka an awkward smile. Then the two continued on their way. The moment they realized their abilities were attacking them, they had thought of going to the detective agency. Everyone at the agency was sure to have a better way to deal with the situation.

Running into Doppo Kunikida on the way was a complete accident. Kunikida was injured: he had been shot in the right side of his abdomen, and blood had soaked through his suit jacket.

Even so, he was wary of Kamiki Yūhaku. No one knew what kind of person his partner was better than Doppo Kunikida. Anyone Osamu Dazai was wary of was definitely no ordinary person, and might be even more trouble than this fog.

But even when treated this way, Kamiki Yūhaku kept smiling. He greeted everyone with a smile, as though greeting familiar friends on a sunny morning.

Doppo Kunikida was utterly bewildered. The person Osamu Dazai was wary of was actually such a gentle, overly familiar guy?

"If you let me come along, I'll tell you Tatsuhiko Shibusawa's weakness," Kamiki Yūhaku said when Doppo Kunikida refused to let him follow. "How about it?"

Doppo Kunikida's eyes widened. He grabbed Kamiki Yūhaku by the collar. "You even know that?!"

"Back when the Dragon Head Conflict broke out, the government sent Tatsuhiko Shibusawa in an attempt to contain it, but that only caused the conflict to escalate. To cover up that mistake, the government secretly sent Shibusawa abroad, but something went wrong along the way and he escaped. In fact, though, Shibusawa did return to Japan."

Kamiki Yūhaku smiled and touched a finger to his temple, his pale hand forming a gun pointed at his head. "And his weakness came into being after he returned to Yokohama that time."

Doppo Kunikida looked at Kamiki Yūhaku. A moment later, he let go. "Come with me."

Since Osamu Dazai had called him the best informant in Japan, Doppo Kunikida believed the man before him had excellent intelligence-gathering abilities.

In any case, if they could really learn Tatsuhiko Shibusawa's weakness, perhaps far fewer people would die.

After entering the floor where the detective agency was located, Kunikida immediately contacted the Special Division for Unusual Powers. Communications were severely disrupted in the fog, and static flickered constantly across the screen.

"Can you hear me?" a distorted voice came through. "Is that President Fukuzawa?"

"This is investigator Kunikida. Is this the Special Division for Unusual Powers?"

"This is Ango Sakaguchi of the Special Division for Unusual Powers." The picture slowly cleared, eventually revealing a man sitting in a chair. He wore glasses and a suit jacket, his tie was perfectly neat, and his expression was serious. One look was enough to tell he was a model corporate drone.

Ango Sakaguchi wanted to ascertain the current situation, but the moment his gaze fell on the person behind Doppo Kunikida, it froze.

What? That person?

Even though four years had passed, seeing that face again still made Ango Sakaguchi's heart race.

Kamiki Yūhaku smiled at him. "I told you I could see someone I knew, didn't I, Ango?"

"W-What?!" Ango Sakaguchi's eyes widened as he stared at the person standing behind Doppo Kunikida, his pupils contracting.

It was as if he had seen something that shouldn't exist.

"Kamiki..." Ango Sakaguchi's voice was slightly hoarse, as though he were struggling to suppress something. "Yūhaku."

"Why are you here?!"

Chapter 9

Ango Sakaguchi and Kamiki Yūhaku had worked together for about a year and a half.

At the time, he had been ordered by the Special Division for Unusual Powers to go undercover in the Port Mafia. Just as he earned Mori Ōgai's trust and became the Port Mafia's exclusive informant, the Dragon Head Conflict broke out. After some thought, he made a record book detailing the life of every person who died. It was around then that he met Osamu Dazai and Sakunosuke Oda.

It was also then that he met Kamiki Yūhaku.

"Recording the dead is part of an informant's job too. You're really dedicated."

That day, Osamu Dazai and Sakunosuke Oda had dragged him to a bar. When he returned, he saw someone else leafing through the half-finished record book of the dead. The man sat casually on the desk with a crow perched on his shoulder, looking especially eerie under the dim yellow light.

He wore a black coat, but his hair was a striking white. When he raised his head, his red eyes were full of innocent amusement.

Ango Sakaguchi also noticed a strange potted flower beside his desk. Its leaves were half curled and looked wilted, and its stem was covered in thorns of various sizes. Was it some kind of rose?

"Are you interested in this?" Kamiki Yūhaku jumped down from the desk and eagerly began telling him about the flower.

Looking at the plant, he said, "Don't be fooled by how unattractive it looks now. It just hasn't adjusted to its new soil yet. Soon it'll produce the most beautiful flower!"

He never once looked at Ango Sakaguchi.

"So, who are you?"

"I forgot to introduce myself." Kamiki Yūhaku tilted his head, and the crow on his shoulder nuzzled his chin. "My name is Kamiki Yūhaku. I've been transferred here starting today. I look forward to working with you, partner."

Ango Sakaguchi knew of Kamiki Yūhaku, the Port Mafia informant known as the "Crow."

Rumor had it that he knew everything and could obtain any information.

Ango Sakaguchi didn't understand why Mori Ougai had transferred him here.

From then on, working with him made Ango Sakaguchi's life a living hell. His partner was a salted fish who did absolutely nothing. With Ango there to pick up the slack, he really did slack off whenever he could. In broad daylight, he would go out to let his crow fly, claiming it was to keep the bird from getting depressed. It had never occurred to him that the crow wasn't depressed, but Ango was close to it!

He spent most of each day tending to flowers and plants, occasionally gathering strange intelligence, such as what dreams Port Mafia members had most often, or who in the Port Mafia was most short of money—useless information like that.

That seemed to be all there was to him. Every day, he neglected his work and made it his mission to drive Mori Ougai to death.

At first, watching Kamiki Yūhaku, Ango Sakaguchi thought he was just an ordinary person whose reputation had been blown out of proportion.

Until...

Kamiki Yūhaku put together a "Port Mafia loyalty to Mori Ougai dossier."

It was an ordinary-looking booklet, left casually on Kamiki Yūhaku's desk. When Ango Sakaguchi found it, Kamiki Yūhaku was watering his precious flower. Under his care, the wilted plant had finally bloomed, producing a large, strange pink-and-blue flower.

Ango Sakaguchi opened the booklet in puzzlement, and saw something that nearly stopped him from breathing.

The first page ranked the loyalty of the various executives, and the second listed important personnel from each department. Under Ango Sakaguchi's name, there was no loyalty rating, only the word "undercover" scrawled in childish handwriting.

Undercover.

He knew. He knew... He knew everything!

Ango Sakaguchi burned the booklet on the spot. When Kamiki Yūhaku looked over in puzzlement, Ango scolded him as usual, saying he shouldn't make things like that because it would make Mori Ougai suspicious of his subordinates. Kamiki Yūhaku listened obediently, his red eyes as innocent as ever.

But in Ango Sakaguchi's eyes, that innocence had already turned entirely into a devilish sneer.

His back was drenched in cold sweat.

Afterward, Kamiki Yūhaku resigned and left Yokohama. Ango went undercover in Mimic on Mori Ougai's orders, and in the end his identity was exposed and he was used.

Sakunosuke Oda died, Osamu Dazai defected, and Ango successfully returned to the Special Division for Unusual Powers, at the cost of the Port Mafia receiving an ability business permit.

"When did you return to Yokohama? Why didn't the Special Division receive any word?" Ango Sakaguchi's face was deathly pale.

"Probably because I didn't want you to know," Kamiki Yūhaku said. "Come to think of it, you're working at the Special Division now, right, Ango? I see. Then we'll be enemies from now on. What a shame."

"No!" Ango Sakaguchi stood up. "The Special Division has no intention of targeting you!"

"Yes," Kamiki Yūhaku replied with a smile, his red eyes full of warmth as he spoke words that were unusually frightening. "It's not the Special Division giving me trouble now. I'm the one giving the Special Division trouble, right, Ango?"

A trace of pain flashed in Ango Sakaguchi's eyes. "Yūhaku, there's really no need for us to be like this."

Kamiki Yūhaku tilted his head. "Do you feel guilty?"

Ango Sakaguchi's heart gave a heavy thump.

"But why would you feel guilty?"

"I..."

Ango Sakaguchi wanted to say more, but the signal began to grow unstable. The three detective agency members beside Kamiki Yūhaku looked increasingly puzzled as they listened to their conversation. At the last moment, Ango Sakaguchi quickly gave Doppo Kunikida and the others the information, continuing until the picture blurred and the signal cut out completely.