Chapter 36

"Aaaaaah!!!" Nobara Kugisaki was more excited than anyone, screaming, "Did you see that? Did you see that?! That was amazing!"

"When humanity stands together, there's nothing we can't overcome!" Yuji Itadori jumped up too, waving his arms in excitement.

Even Satoru Gojo stood up instinctively. He tried hard to steady his racing heart, then broke into an admiring, unrestrained smile. "Not bad at all. With that kind of resolve, they could even beat me."

The students of both Tokyo Jujutsu High and Kyoto Jujutsu High were still young, and nothing stirred them more easily than such fiery passion. They were all thrilled, as happy as if it were New Year's. They believed humanity would make it through this crisis.

But the adults, especially Principal Gakuganji and Masamichi Yaga, were not so optimistic. They, too, were completely absorbed in the screen, their expressions grave. They knew this was only the beginning of the war.

The Jujutsu Kaisen side was buzzing with excitement, and the Bungo Stray Dogs side was no different. Though most were more restrained, some of the younger ones had already stood up, gesturing wildly in their excitement.

"Long live humanity! Long live life!" Michizo Tachihara clenched his fist hard. "Fight them to the bitter end! We can win!"

Beside him, Gin Akutagawa nodded emphatically.

Even Ryunosuke Akutagawa voiced his agreement. "Such resolve and courage are worthy of my study." If he could do the same, surely he would earn Mr. Dazai's recognition.

Even Ryūrō Hirotsu, who had weathered countless storms, clapped his hands in approval. "Astounding. Truly admirable."

"What beautiful flowers have bloomed," Koyo Ozaki said with a smile. Yet they were not things as fragile as flowers.

Chūya Nakahara's eyes shone. "Yeah. This is humanity." This was the humanity he wanted to preserve, no matter what! That was why, no matter what, he insisted on living like a human being!

This was an unstoppable tide, a wave formed from human hearts. Everyone charged toward danger and despair without hesitation, staking everything they had to proclaim humanity's courage and perseverance.

Within that tide, Osamu Dazai was no more than an inconspicuous drop of spray. Yet, incredibly, his heart resonated with everyone else's. Their courage, their sacrifices, their determination to resist in the face of despair-all of it set his lifeless heart ablaze.

It was incredible. Osamu Dazai found himself in a strange state. There had always been an indescribable divide between him and other people, but for the first time, he became part of the collective called humanity.

Yes, ability users, jujutsu sorcerers, spirit mediums, and even yokai and cursed spirits were now part of this collective called humanity, so utterly inclusive and so utterly exclusionary. In this moment, the same spirit united them.

Then let's fight. Yiyi is there too, after all.

Osamu Dazai broke into a wild smile, unfastened his Safety Rope, and ran toward the recruitment station.

"Go back! You're a kid, go back!" The coordinator was too busy to spare a moment, but when he saw Osamu Dazai, he hurriedly tried to push him away.

Osamu Dazai got straight to the point. "You're struggling with repairing the stabilizer, aren't you? I bet no one can guarantee they can fix it."

The stabilizer was crucial, but it used the latest technology, and very few people knew how to repair it. The only person who did had lost consciousness in the attack.

"I can! An Xinyi, the person on the broadcast, is my older brother. I memorized all the original blueprints!"

Osamu Dazai had never been so grateful for his extraordinary mind. Now it truly came in handy.

The weathered coordinator froze. He did not doubt Osamu Dazai's words, only looked at him with those dark eyes. "Are you sure? This mission is extremely important. Can you guarantee you'll complete it?"

"Of course!" Imitating Chen Zhongming from back then, Osamu Dazai gave him a solemn military salute. "I will complete the mission!"

"Good!" the coordinator barked in a low voice. "Repair teams seven and eight, follow Mr..."

"Dazai. Osamu Dazai."

"...Mr. Dazai and repair the stabilizer immediately. Think of your families. This operation must succeed. Failure is not an option!"

"We will complete the mission!"

No one hesitated. No one doubted. Time was life now, and everyone had only one thought in mind: flood every disaster site with rescue efforts!

Osamu Dazai's mind proved its worth beyond question. He pushed his memory to its limits. Though he had only glanced at the plans a few times, now, as he squeezed out every last bit of his potential, they seemed etched into his mind.

But the difficulty lay not only in the stabilizer's construction, but also in-

"Watch out! It's shaking again!" a worker from Russia shouted. Yet he did not climb down from his precarious suspension rope. Instead, he clung tightly to the wall and kept working amid the violent swaying.

Those who heard his warning also remained wholly focused on the repairs. Even when they were nearly flung away several times, they never took their eyes off their work.

At this moment, time was life.

Osamu Dazai had tied himself to a support pillar nearby and was directing those working above him. But with the violent shaking, everyone was sweating with anxiety, and they still could not work any faster.

After all, even though the great flood had not yet arrived, the hurricane outside had not let up. All of Sea City was like a tiny boat on the ocean, liable to capsize at any moment.

Osamu Dazai knew, and so did everyone else, that they had no idea how much their efforts would accomplish. Whether they could save seven million people from death remained unknown.

But...

"We can't just do nothing," Osamu Dazai murmured. He thought of Yiyi. That was surely what he would have said.

There has to be something we can do.

Osamu Dazai did not possess that kind of strength and resolve. But at the very least, he could imitate it. He could learn.

"This won't work, Mr. Dazai!" A repair worker ran over, drenched in sweat. "We don't have enough people, and the jolting is slowing us down too much. And now we can't reach command."

If they could not finish the repairs in time, something terrible would happen!

They were short-handed, and under these conditions, a communications outage was hardly surprising... Even Dazai could do nothing about that, but he did not lose faith.

The brown-haired boy raised his head, his eyes burning with a conviction much like An Xinyi's.

"Don't worry. Focus on our work. The communications officer should keep trying to reach command. We're not the only ones fighting. Reinforcements will come!"

Yes, perhaps he did not believe in himself, but he believed in you without question.

My big brother Yiyi.

"That bastard Dazai can actually say something like that?" Chūya Nakahara looked as though he had a toothache. The difference between the two was simply too great. "Unbelievable."

It was precisely because he understood Osamu Dazai that he felt this way. Optimism and hope seemed to have nothing whatsoever to do with the man.

"Dazai has grown up too," Mori Ougai said, a touch of wistfulness in his voice. It was like seeing a child of his own grow up somewhere beyond his sight. Whatever else was true, he did care about Dazai.

Even if that affection mattered less than Yokohama's stability.

"Unbelievable. That bandage-wasting machine..." Osamu Dazai's current partner, Doppo Kunikida, also looked as though he had seen a ghost. He snapped yet another fountain pen. "He can actually be this dependable!!!" Only three exclamation marks could express his astonishment.

"Come on, Kunikida. I've always been dependable," Osamu Dazai said deliberately.

"Heh." Doppo Kunikida sneered.

"Send three more teams to C1 District!"

"Seawater has entered the compartments in D15 District! They urgently need support!"

"The situation in A24 District is largely under control. Send half their personnel to reinforce B15 District!"

The leaders in the control room, who had suffered heavy losses, were also hard at work. Every deployment and assignment fell to them. One mistake could lead to another catastrophe.

Everyone concentrated fully, sorting the countless tangled matters into order before passing down their instructions. Though oversights were inevitable, they were corrected promptly.

An Xinyi was handling his own tasks when something suddenly occurred to him. He asked Leo, who was dizzy with work beside him, "Are there enough repair workers at the stabilizer? I remember it uses the latest design. Not everyone knows how to repair it, right?"

Leo let out an "Ah" before catching on. "You were busy earlier, so I forgot to tell you. It's your younger brother. He said he could repair it, so two teams went with him. That should be enough."

"Aji?" An Xinyi's heart lurched, but he suppressed his unease. He understood Dazai's abilities better than anyone, yet he still could not help worrying. At a time like this, however, everyone had to go to the battlefield. "All right. We probably couldn't find anyone else anyway."

"Wait." An Xinyi frowned. "If I remember correctly, the stabilizer is in one of the places where Sea City shakes the most. You didn't account for that when you assigned him two teams, did you? They'll never finish in time."

"...You're right! What was I thinking!" Leo slapped his forehead and hurried to coordinate with the teams below. "Why haven't they asked for reinforcements? Are their communications down? Send two more teams to C57 District. They must repair the stabilizer within the allotted time!"

Only then did An Xinyi breathe a sigh of relief. He had even forgotten to breathe a moment ago.

As an older brother, he desperately wanted to rush over and help Dazai, to stay by his side. But... he looked at the things in his hands and the busy people around him. This was his responsibility. He had to remain here. This was the only place he could be.

An Xinyi took a deep breath and prayed silently, even as his hands resumed their work.

Please be safe, Aji!

"Please be safe!" Those outside the screen were praying too.

With two more teams arriving as reinforcements, Osamu Dazai finally breathed a sigh of relief. But time was still tight, and everyone was working flat out.

The great flood was almost upon them, yet no one had evacuated to shelter. They all remained at their posts, making the final adjustments.

Osamu Dazai anxiously checked the time. We'll make it, right? We should still make it.

Bang! A tremendous crash rang out.

Huh?

Osamu Dazai looked up, his mind blank. Blood sprayed from that person's body straight onto his face, and for a moment, he could not react.

"The great flood is here! Run!"

"Grab something! Hold on!"

A cacophony filled his ears. Before this judgment that had arrived without warning, ahead of its appointed time, human beings seemed so small. They shouted helplessly and ran in vain, as though they could be crushed with ease.

Many had already fallen before they could react. They had been high above the ground to begin with.

Osamu Dazai felt an irresistible force strike him, flinging his entire body away. All he could see was the spinning ceiling of the compartment, and then he felt himself falling.

The bottom of the compartment was still hundreds of meters below. He would surely be torn apart if he hit it.

The thought came to Osamu Dazai instinctively.

I'll die.

I'll die.

His mind had never understood that fact so clearly.

I'll die.

But I don't want it to end like this!

Osamu Dazai reached out in vain. But the framework grew farther and farther away, until hope was beyond his grasp.

Then someone caught him from below.

Osamu Dazai turned in astonishment. It was the repair team captain, a man from China. Osamu Dazai did not know who he was, or even exactly where he came from. Yet now, on the boundary between life and death, he had caught Osamu Dazai.

His face, as dark and weathered as the others', broke into a simple, honest smile. Then the muscles all over his body began to bunch.

"Wait!" Osamu Dazai tried to stop him.

Their position was dangerous. The man himself had only barely caught hold of a protrusion. Sea City was still shaking wildly in the storm. They could not even have stood steady on level ground, let alone this high in the air!

The man paid him no heed. He raised his arm, lifting the boy as though he were holding up a lamp.

That tiny bit of height bridged the distance between life and death. Osamu Dazai instinctively grabbed the framework above him, then whipped his head around.

He saw it.

The nameless man fell.

He was gone from sight forever.