Chapter 4

The setting sun fell on Kamiki Yūhaku, and Osamu Dazai did not look away.

He remembered how, back in the Port Mafia, people had secretly called Kamiki Yūhaku "That Crow" behind his back. It was not because of his unusual behavior, nor because he kept a flock of crows, but because he was like a crow hidden in the night, watching everyone at all times.

No one dared provoke him. No one knew how many people's secrets he held.

He was the kind of "crow" everyone would turn on if he fell.

Unfortunately, Kamiki Yūhaku had never fallen.

By evening, more people had finally appeared on the streets. Most companies and shops had stayed closed because of the earlier evacuation warning, but now that it had been lifted, shops were opening one after another. Some young men and women had also come out to stroll through the streets in the time they had left.

They were not worried about their safety, because the military police were still patrolling nearby. Under this kind of mop-up surveillance, no criminal would be foolish enough to come out and commit a robbery.

Kamiki Yūhaku walked into an alley, humming a tune. Hungry, the crow kept beating its wings against his shoulder.

"All right, all right, I'll buy you something to eat right away." Kamiki Yūhaku made his way through the alley. "Huh? I remember the Flower and Bird Market being right here last time."

Emerging from the alley, Kamiki Yūhaku looked at the closed storefront before him. "Little Crow, it isn't open."

"Why don't you go find yourself a little something to eat for now?"

The crow cawed, as if complaining about its irresponsible owner, but what could it do when this was its master? It flapped its wings, turned its backside toward Kamiki Yūhaku, and flew into the sky. Kamiki Yūhaku smiled and waved at the sky like a child.

"I'll bring enough bird feed next time!" Kamiki Yūhaku shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth like a megaphone.

Only after the crow had flown away did Kamiki Yūhaku lower his hands and look to the side. "So, could the gentleman or lady over there come out now?"

The bamboo grove by the pet shop entrance rustled, and moments later, a middle-aged woman in ordinary clothes emerged.

The middle-aged woman looked nervous. She kept glancing around, not daring to look at Kamiki Yūhaku, and took very small steps. But the distance was short enough that even shuffling along bit by bit would get her there. She let out a heavy breath, apparently having finally prepared herself, and at last dared to look Kamiki Yūhaku in the eye.

"I'd like to commission you."

"Sure," Kamiki Yūhaku said with a smile. "But who told you to come looking for me?"

"I heard it at the hospital. Someone said that if I came here, I might meet a certain person, and that I could commission him to do one thing for 50,000 yen." The middle-aged woman's face was deathly pale. She pulled an envelope from inside her clothes and thrust it into Kamiki Yūhaku's hands. "There's 50,000 yen in here. Please help me!"

Kamiki Yūhaku casually took the envelope and held it up to the light. His red eyes showed not the slightest concern, as if money meant little to him.

"Then what would you like me to help you with?"

"Help me get revenge on them." Fierceness finally appeared in the middle-aged woman's eyes. "Help me get revenge on the Port Mafia!"

Kamiki Yūhaku blinked. "Huh? The Port Mafia?"

"The police said they couldn't catch the culprit, but I know the Port Mafia must have done it. When the train exploded, a survivor recognized that voice: Kajii Motojiro, the bomb maniac who's killed so many people! He was the one who planted the bombs on the train!"

Half a month earlier, to capture Atsushi Nakajima, who had a bounty of seven billion yen on his head, the Port Mafia had sent not only Ryūnosuke Akutagawa but also the girl assassin Kyōka Izumi and Kajii Motojiro. Unlike the discreet Akutagawa and Izumi, Kajii had attacked Nakajima outright aboard a moving train.

Numerous bombs had exploded on the train. Although Akiko Yosano, the Armed Detective Agency's doctor, had ultimately stopped the bombing, it had still killed or injured dozens of people.

With the crowd fleeing in panic, even Akiko Yosano, despite her ability, had found it difficult to save everyone. What was more, some people had been thrown straight off the train by the explosions and had slammed into the ground beside the tracks at high speed.

"Everyone knows Kajii Motojiro is a member of the Port Mafia, especially the police."

"But no one went to arrest him. The Port Mafia protected him, and the police were powerless, so they could only claim they couldn't catch him." The middle-aged woman's eyes reddened, and she clutched her clothes tightly. "Did my daughter just die for nothing? What can an ordinary person like me do?!"

Afterward, Kajii Motojiro had been arrested by the military police, only to be released because of the Port Mafia.

"Sir, please help me!" the middle-aged woman cried.

"There's nothing I can do. I can't do anything."

So, even after four years, the Port Mafia was still acting the same way.

They acted without restraint, with no regard for ordinary people's lives. Because they had obtained an Ability Business Permit, all those illegal activities could be treated as ability-related activities and covered up by the government. He had his reasons for hating the government.

"Then let me confirm one last time." Kamiki Yūhaku waved the envelope in his hand. "Do you want revenge on the Port Mafia, or on Kajii Motojiro?"

"Both!"

"Then it'll cost twice as much. There are two targets, after all, right?" Kamiki Yūhaku said.

The woman hurriedly fumbled money out of her pocket. "This is all the money I have. You can have it all! Just make them pay! I'll give you however much it takes!"

Kamiki Yūhaku counted out 50,000 yen, tucked it into the envelope, and smiled. "This is enough."

"Now then, please look forward to the outcome."

The middle-aged woman stared blankly as Kamiki Yūhaku turned and left, watching his figure melt into the darkness like a shadow. Suddenly, she fell to her knees, and all the remaining money spilled onto the ground.

"Thank you." The woman's tears kept falling to the ground. "Sir, thank you."

[Recognition increased to 69%]

"It went up." Kamiki Yūhaku hummed as he swung the envelope in his hand. The banknotes made no sound, and the envelope was almost too light. "Just as I thought, it works."

"I don't need to go out of my way to be a good person, and I don't need to keep being a bad one either. I'm a good person in some people's eyes and a bad person in others'. That way, I can be given more labels and gain more Recognition."

"But... Kajii Motojiro and the Port Mafia."

Kamiki Yūhaku snapped his fingers, and the crow flew over from a nearby tree. It landed on his raised arm, its dark eyes fixed ahead.

He needed to do a little planning.

In the darkness, Kamiki Yūhaku walked forward with a crow, gradually disappearing into the crowd.

Chapter 4

Kamiki Yūhaku had been only sixteen when he joined the Port Mafia, two years before Osamu Dazai.

At the time, the Port Mafia's boss had not been Mori Ougai, but his ruthless predecessor. Around then, Kōyō of the Intelligence Department had eloped with someone, and every member of the department had been taken into custody. Severely short of hands, the department had been given Kamiki Yūhaku, a newcomer, and left him to start from scratch.

Later, Kōyō Ozaki returned alive. Instead of purging the people who had joined after she left, she brought everyone together and quietly made plans.

A year later, the former boss died of illness, passing his position to his personal physician, Mori Ougai.

Of course, Kamiki Yūhaku knew exactly what was suspicious about that, but he understood the bigger picture well enough to know what he could and could not say. So he pretended to know nothing and drifted through his days in the Port Mafia.

That continued until Mori Ougai established the Special Intelligence Agency. Kamiki Yūhaku left his old Intelligence Unit to become the Port Mafia's dedicated intelligence agent, and Mori Ougai also recruited an agent named Ango Sakaguchi from somewhere.

In short, Kamiki Yūhaku's days of slacking off and watching the drama were over. He became a lazy

salted fish who took orders exclusively from the boss and slacked off every day despite working a 996 schedule.

Of every ten intelligence reports Ango Sakaguchi submitted to Mori Ougai, eight tattled on Kamiki Yūhaku and denounced his slacking.

Whenever Kamiki Yūhaku refused to work, Ango Sakaguchi would eventually be unable to stand it and work overtime through the night to finish his assignments for him. As for Kamiki Yūhaku, a salted fish with no grand ambitions, he would happily go off to tend flowers and raise crows, while taking a moment to soothe the heart of old man Sakaguchi, who was only a year older than him.

Kamiki Yūhaku was never loyal to anyone.

Mori Ougai did not trust him, but even so, Kamiki Yūhaku could always get the information he wanted. Was there any need for an intelligence agent who was disloyal yet knew so much?

No.

But Mori Ougai could not kill him. He had sent quite a few assassins, and every attempt had ended in failure.

His desire to kill Kamiki Yūhaku could not be made public, or plenty of organizations would be willing to shelter an intelligence agent who knew so much about the Port Mafia. But once Mori resorted to secrecy, Kamiki Yūhaku could rely on all sorts of "coincidences" to disrupt his assassination plans.

In the end, Kamiki Yūhaku grew tired of it, and Mori Ougai was just short of taking action personally.

He went to Mori Ougai and asked to resign. Mori Ougai's expression at the time had been so amusing that Kamiki Yūhaku could still laugh out loud when he thought about it.

The Dragon Head Conflict had ended not long before, and every area was short of people. Osamu Dazai had just taken office as a newly appointed executive, while Chūya Nakahara, their strongest fighter, had been sent abroad. Mori Ougai did not have enough people to make trouble for Kamiki Yūhaku, nor could he guarantee that the Port Mafia would remain stable if Kamiki Yūhaku spread what he knew.

So Mori Ougai made a deal with Kamiki Yūhaku.

Mori Ougai let Kamiki Yūhaku leave, but he was not allowed to return to Yokohama for three years.

Kamiki Yūhaku had just turned twenty the year he left Yokohama.

Four years had passed, and the Port Mafia was no longer what it had been. Executive Osamu Dazai had defected, and intelligence agent Ango Sakaguchi had turned out to be an undercover agent. Yet Kamiki Yūhaku had not come back. Even Mori Ougai thought he probably never would. After all, Yokohama was so small, nowhere near as interesting as the colorful world outside.