["It wasn't a coincidence that you investigated Arahabaki. We heard that rumor too, so you were looking into the truth, weren't you?"
Ōgai Mori stood before the bright floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing up at the sky as he spoke.
"There were plenty of drifters in that area, so there was no way to trace the rumor to its source. As for what appeared in the video, we couldn't verify it at all."
"In short, if that footage isn't fake, we're finished."
Osamu Dazai said this flatly, seemingly utterly unconcerned.
"This is troublesome. Now then, Dazai, I have a task for you. Find the real culprit today, before the previous boss's faction sees this footage. Understood?"
"There isn't much time. Am I supposed to do it alone?" Osamu Dazai raised his hand, still wrapped in bandages, steel plates, and a plaster cast. His head dipped slightly as he spoke in an almost wooden monotone.
"Not alone. Chūya will help too," Ōgai Mori said, glancing at Chūya Nakahara beside him.
"Huh?"
"Absolutely not! Why do I have to work with him?"
The two protested almost simultaneously, looking so disgusted that neither would even glance at the other.
"What did you say, you bastard?! Watch it, or I'll beat you up, brat."
"You're a brat too. You're even smaller than me! I suggest you drink more milk."
"Mind your own business, you bastard. I'm only fifteen. I'm still growing."
The two boys, forcibly assigned to work together, launched into a furious argument.
"Both of you, shut up."
Listening to their argument, Ōgai Mori called a halt, feeling a headache coming on.
The two who had been arguing furiously just a moment earlier instantly called a truce and stood straight.
"Chūya, you understand that you can't disobey my orders, don't you?"
"The same goes for you, Dazai. We're accomplices. If the previous boss's faction finds out, you'll be tortured too. Is that the kind of death you want?"
Ōgai Mori calmly regarded the two standing on either side of him.
"What makes you say this is the optimal solution? There are several reasons I'm having you work together. Someone outside the Port Mafia will have an easier time gathering information. Someone needs to keep watch over Chūya to prevent him from betraying us. And besides..."]
"Besides what? Go on, say it if you dare."
This part had successfully sparked a flicker of excitement in Gojo the Cat's expression, only to extinguish it a moment later.
He muttered softly, but he didn't seem to care in the slightest. He was merely making a snide comment.
"Speaking of which, I never imagined Dazai could have such a... hmm... lively side."
Suguru Geto watched Osamu Dazai arguing with Chūya Nakahara over their heights, then thought back to the Dazai he had first met.
By then, gentleness and gentlemanly manners seemed to have been etched into Osamu Dazai's very bones, yet he maintained a strong sense of distance. Although his actions weren't always easy to understand, he never put anyone in an awkward position.
He had already been fully an adult.
"When Dazai first came to Jujutsu High, he wasn't much different from how you saw him later."
Masamichi Yaga thought back, then realized that, if he had to find a similarity, it seemed they had all first met Osamu Dazai because he had hanged himself from that crooked tree at Jujutsu High.
But purely in terms of personality, even when Osamu Dazai had been closest to Nozomu Sakai and Sōsuke Mizukawa, he had never been like this.
Most of the time, the other two would be making a racket while Osamu Dazai quietly sat nearby reading a book, looking at his phone, or doing something else.
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