No Longer Human

The scenery outside the car window changed again and again, and the summer breeze finally dispersed the gloom inside.

I sat back on the right side of the rear seat, resting my head quietly beside the window and feeling the warm breeze brush over my hair.

I had no particular preferences, nor anything I especially liked. Of course, it would have been better if the weather were cooler.

Sōsuke Mizukawa and Nozomu Sakai both kept silent, as though by unspoken agreement, giving me a little time to reflect on everything I had encountered since coming to this world.

The sudden transmigration, the inexplicable Cursed Technique, the mostly decent people I had met.

Thinking of it that way, my luck was actually pretty good, wasn't it?

Osamu Dazai could always teach me so much, even though his own consciousness no longer existed. No, rather, Osamu Dazai's consciousness had never existed here in the first place.

This was still my body, yet it was not the body I once had. I was Osamu Dazai, and I was not Osamu Dazai.

His body had brought me so many useful things, and his mind had carried me into territory I had never set foot in.

I had once been utterly ordinary, but now, as I merged with this body, perhaps I had become a little less so.

Sometimes I really could not tell who I was: when I looked in the mirror, when those dark thoughts surfaced, when I desperately resisted suicide, when I tried my hardest to avoid the world.

To be honest, I really did not have the willpower to resist becoming Osamu Dazai.

I was already doing everything I could to keep myself from committing suicide, to stop those dark thoughts that suddenly emerged, to stop myself from turning completely into Osamu Dazai.

At the same time, though, I knew perfectly well that no matter how much I struggled or suffered, I would probably no longer resemble myself in the end.

Was I Osamu Dazai?

I no longer knew.

But I thought I didn't want to become Osamu Dazai.

It was an utterly ridiculous wish, something I wanted to fight desperately for even though I already knew how it would end.

Using Osamu Dazai's methods, thinking with Osamu Dazai's mind, working toward Osamu Dazai's goals, yet telling myself that I had never wanted to become him.

Utterly ridiculous...

Yet that ridiculous, pitiful thought was what gave meaning and value to my resistance against all this pain and sorrow.

Still, as time passed, even these things would eventually fade from the world.

After all, life was unpredictable.

Time passed quickly. In this dangerous world, I would not allow myself to sink completely into my thoughts, so I always retained a little vigilance, a little clarity, to deal with anything unexpected.

That was fine, apart from being a little tiring. Just a little.

The car's tires skidded a long way across the road. Amid the screeching, I felt the person beside me topple onto me.

Then came the assistant supervisor's apology. "I'm terribly sorry. A Cursed Spirit is causing trouble. This is the place, Dazai, Sakai, Mizukawa."

The assistant supervisor lowered his head slightly, then watched the three of us get out of the car, a trace of guilt spreading through his eyes.

He was far too obvious, so obvious that I could not possibly ignore his little scheme.

Fortunately, I did not care about his scheme. After all, he had no future left. Those higher-ups would not let him off. As for why-ah, I would explain that later.

I had no intention of warning him. What did his life or death have to do with me?

Expecting a Mafia boss to save someone who had tried to harm him? That joke was not funny at all.

I shook my head lightly and, while my two classmates could not see me, slowly walked alone into the woods beside the road.

"Let's head over."

As I spoke, I felt the two of them hurry up behind me. Without looking back, I continued slowly forward, perfectly calm.

Until, under the influence of the fog, my two classmates and I became completely separated.

No, more precisely, I simply watched calmly as my two classmates walked farther and farther away, gradually stepping into that Cursed Spirit's embrace.

Suddenly, I understood a little of why Osamu Dazai observed humans.

Perhaps it was a little interesting.

Still, compared with the way he observed humans, I thought I was very gentle. No, to be precise, exceptionally, exceptionally gentle.

Though the endings were much the same.

In any case, I did not stop the two of them. Instead, I found a relatively secluded spot and watched them unleash their Cursed Techniques at the empty air before them.

Nozomu Sakai's hand-to-hand combat skills were truly abysmal, to the point that even I could beat him into paralysis. So I could clearly see him running all over the woods with the Cursed Spirit chasing him, yet, as though trapped in a supernatural loop, he never escaped a fifty-meter radius of that spot.

In short, I simply watched the two of them quietly as they fought the Cursed Spirit before them. Finally, as though it had tired of toying with them, the Cursed Spirit decided to kill them outright.

At the same time, it wanted to kill me too. Though I had never believed this thing could kill me, how should I put it? I was still a little disappointed.

After all, this much-vaunted Special Grade now seemed rather ordinary, just as I had expected.

So boring. Truly so boring. Was there anything that could make this a little interesting?

I sighed softly and slowly stepped toward the Cursed Spirit's true body.

A Special Grade, huh? Had I done something? Why had it planned to keep us here forever right from the start?

No, that wasn't the right way to put it. After all, Cursed Spirits hated humans from the outset. Probably?

I silently shook my head, raised a hand to touch Nozomu Sakai lightly, then, ignoring his stunned expression, moved in front of Sōsuke Mizukawa.

And at last, I saw the Cursed Spirit before me. It seemed to cover half the sky, countless tentacles surging toward me.

The tentacles were coated in slime, and each bore an eye. Slime splattered messily over the ground and leaves, while every yellow-green tentacle that passed a tree trunk corroded a massive hole through it.

"Hey, sorry to disturb you, but this ends here."

As I spoke, I touched one of the tentacles lightly with a finger, utterly disgusted. In an instant, everything vanished without a trace, as though it had never appeared.

"Dazai..."

"Dazai."

A voice came from behind me, and only then did I suddenly remember what I had felt I was forgetting. Oh, right. Those two classmates of mine.

At some point, the two of them had come up behind me. Sōsuke Mizukawa's expression was difficult to describe, and Nozomu Sakai was not looking much better.

I could understand what the two of them were thinking.

Simply why I had not saved them from the beginning, and why I had chosen to deal with this only when they were practically half dead.

After all, if I had arrived a moment later, neither would have survived, while all I needed to do was touch it lightly.

It must have felt like being betrayed by a companion, a partner. I entrusted you with my life and my back, but you never gave me the answer I wanted.

But so what?

I was simply that kind of awful person. The best thing to do was stay away from me. If they did not want me to hurt them, they should not entrust their backs to me.

I did not need sunlight shining in, much less that self-righteous concern. They should never trust me. I had never needed anyone else's trust, either.

Anyone who came close to me would eventually be cut, and I would rather never have received anything at all.

Whatever anyone might say, I had absolutely no interest in any concern or emotion. I never cared. Never.

They were silent, and I said nothing either. I merely continued smiling faintly, just as cruelly, looking down on them as though I were a god, and cast them a contemptuous glance.

Then I turned and left.

I thought Sōsuke Mizukawa probably wanted to punch me, but that sort of thing did not matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

As I thought this, my long blood-red scarf traced an arc around me, and I disappeared entirely beneath the shade of the trees.

The sun was too bright today, and too hot. I didn't like weather like this. If I had to go on another mission, I really should choose nighttime.

Since I had chosen to head for the assistant supervisor's car, the two boys, who had remained standing there and received no explanation from me, only a contemptuous look, lost their tempers as well.

Ultimately, they were exceptional, gifted young men. Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerers were rare by any measure, and support-type jujutsu sorcerers were rarer still. Both were only seventeen or eighteen. How could they stand being treated like this?

So they chose not to take the assistant supervisor's car and hailed a taxi back instead.

I did not care. Really, what was there about them worth caring about?

Amid the rustling leaves, I slowly made my way out of the woods. The ground was scorching hot, and I stood quietly waiting beneath the shade of the tree nearest the road.

"Aren't you coming out yet, Teacher Sato?"

I sighed, silently shifted my gaze to the right, and stared unblinkingly at the figure moving in the tree.

These days, apparently anyone could try their hand at stalking someone. He practically seemed afraid that people might fail to notice him.

Of course, trying to hide from me with a Cursed Technique was completely inadvisable. This had nothing to do with No Longer Human. Boss Dazai had not become the boss of the Port Mafia through No Longer Human alone.

Still, none of that was particularly important at the moment.

Upon hearing those words, the man who had just been in the tree suddenly appeared in front of me.

Once again, I put on my inscrutable smile. Being with my two classmates earlier had been fun, so I had not been in boss mode.

But now, faced with these boring adults, I had no such enthusiasm for continuing to play the good student to his good teacher.

"Dazai, your ability truly is astonishing."

Sato Ichima said this, but even a two- or three-year-old could easily have seen the greed in his eyes.

Another person coveting my ability. Fine, fine. I had to admit that No Longer Human really was a very useful ability.

But not just anyone was qualified to get their hands on No Longer Human.

"Really? Thank you for the compliment, sir."

I still wore the same smile, the curve of my lips not shifting in the slightest, but my eyes were filled with menace and darkness.

He seemed frightened by the tiny hint of pressure I had just let slip. After a moment of silence, he recovered the solemn demeanor he had worn when we first met.

"Then, Dazai, I may need an explanation from you regarding this incident. And I'll also have to ask you to visit the jujutsu higher-ups' headquarters."

Sato Ichima said this, but he did not seem inclined to leave me any room to refuse. After all, that assistant supervisor was one of his people.

More precisely, one of his family's people. Still, none of that mattered much to me.

"Of course. I don't mind."

I nodded and carefully adjusted my red scarf in the car, chatting with Sato Ichima while sorting through the information I had gathered.

In truth, drawing information out of someone without their noticing was far too easy. Especially with Teacher Sato, it was so easy that I could hardly muster any interest.

Hopefully, there would be someone a little smarter among the higher-ups.

At least, I hoped those rotten old higher-ups wouldn't tell me they wanted to keep me penned up or something. That really would make me sick.

After all, even Chūya as a newborn would not have indulged in such ridiculous, boring talk.

Speaking of which, Chūya seemed to be only about ten! I seemed to have discovered something I'd overlooked. I'd tell him later...

Ah, honestly...

No! I had never even met him.