Bungo Stray Dogs: Dazai's Entrance Exam

Chapter 3

The twelfth.

The morning after a night spent in transit.

I spent half the night alone without slumbering, squatting in my anger under a solitary light.

The innumerable dead, and yet the even more innumerable living.

There is no difference between them and myself, and although each man is given one corner of heaven to himself, there is no man who has ever returned once vanished into the infinitude of heaven.

God, I beg of you to return them to me.

“Let us begin the company-wide debriefing.”

I addressed those seated at the table before me.

This was a reception room which doubled as the company’s meeting room. Office staff and detectives alike sat about the table with a total of seven of us in attendance. We were not quite at our full strength, as it was extremely rare for our full lineup to meet in a single room.

I consulted my papers and then began explaining.

“Please refer to the documents you have on hand for the particulars of this incident. Excuse me for this summary, but the Agency has received a targeted threat and is presently also under attack from a cruel and thorough scandal.”

The Agency’s exclusive doctor, Dr. Yosano, spoke up. “Everyone here knows about the Agency’s poor press. Tell us about the bomb case.”

“Very well. We received this threatening email earlier. Please read it so we may determine its sender.”

I distributed copies of the email. The letter was written in the polite manner as follows:

Dear Sirs and Madams,

I pray this letter finds everyone at the Agency  in good health.

I am deeply grateful for your most expedient efforts in the matter of investigating that building a few days ago. I apologize for making another request so soon after the first, but I really must ask this one thing of you.

I have placed a rather large-scale explosive at a certain location in the nearby area. I should like to employ you to please locate and remove the bomb for the sake of the city’s safety.

Furthermore, the bomb is programmed to detonate by sundown tomorrow, so I do hope you will resolve the matter within this time limit.

The bomb I have manufactured is the twin to a bomb in a certain case which robbed some hundred people of their lives. These casualties were an extremely sorrowful thing.

There will be an unquenchable flame as bright as if the sun had fallen to Earth. Nearby buildings will crumble to their foundations; people will attempt to flee while on fire. The roads will melt, and fragments of exploded cars will lodge in the ruins of blazing buildings. The world will become like Hell. I beg of your Agency to put in your best efforts so that Yokohama will not be reduced to this nightmare.

Forgive me my redundancies, but as in my previous request, I will have images recorded of your actions. If in the unfortunate situation that the bomb is not disabled in time, the images will be released in order to place the blame on your company. My apologies for this, but I do hope you understand.

In closing, I pray for your continued health and good fortune.

Yours,

The Azure Apostle

“... What a revolting letter,” Dr. Yosano spat.

“Exactly so. If you recall the surveillance equipment we found in the ruined hospital a few days ago, it’s apparent that this ‘Azure Apostle’, as he calls himself, is the person who leaked those reputation-ruining images and the one behind this bomb threat. It appears his goal is to broadcast our failure to the world at large if we cannot find and defuse the bomb.”