❗Mention of suicide and swearing❗
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"操りの領域において、真実は蜃気楼であり、信頼は最初の犠牲となる。"
(In the realm of manipulation, truth is a mirage, and trust is the first casualty.)
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During the night, Yokohama takes on a different persona, its bustling streets transforming into a shadowy realm where the ordinary and the extraordinary intertwine. Neon lights cast an ethereal glow upon the cityscape, illuminating the dark alleyways and labyrinthine streets with a surreal brilliance.
Right now, we were inside a diner. I had taken the seat next to the window while the others were sitting on the next table. While I was admiring the view outside, Atsushi-kun had just finished god-knows-which numbered bowls of Chazuke. My trance was interrupted when a voice, other than clinking of bowls and chopsticks, filled my ear.
"You're unbelievable. Who says, 'What a nice river!' & then jumps into it in the middle of the work?! Thanks to you look, See how off-schedule we are right now!?" Kunikida-san looked like a mother scolding her child for wasting her time.
"You sure like your schedules, Kunikida-kun" Dazai said in a matter-of-fact tone.
*BAAM*
"This isn't a schedule! This is an ideal! My guide in life! And nowhere in this book is it written that my work partner is a suicidal maniac!" Kunikida-san slammed his 'Guide of life' on the table and continued admonishing Dazai.
"Suicidalmaniac?" Atsushi-kun interjects in the drama, his mouth full of Chazuke.
Why is he looking like that?! I was about to burst of laughing.
"Urusai! Nowhere in my projected expenses page will you find written that I will buy a million bowls of Chazuke for a snot-nosed brat!" Kunikida-san said sitting back on his chair.
SNOT-NOSED BRAT?!
"pfffft- HAHAHAAHAHA" I burst out laughing.
"That also includes you, Kamaguchi-san! No one told me that I had to pay for someone who ate 20 bowls of ramen along with this brat!" Kunikida-san shouted at me.
"Well, who could resist the opportunity of eating ramen with a colleagues money? You are such a nice person, Kunikida-san⁓ Wait....I know! Maybe you are the reincarnation of the god himself on Earth!" I tried to flatter him while calming my breath due to laughing.
"DON'T TRY TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT!" Seems like this time the 'Flattering-Technique' didn't work.
But who cares?
"Snotnosedbrat?" Atsushi-kun, yet again, interjected in the drama. Once again his mouth full of Chazuke.
"Like I said, it's a job!"
"Whatkindofjob?"
"Our job today? It involves the military."
"How exactly are you two communicating?" This time Dazai interjects the drama.
To be honest, I completely forgot he was there for a moment.
"Hmmmm?" Both the communicators looked at the one asking the question.
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"I'm so full⁓" Atsushi-kun said happily, as he patted his stomach. "I don't want to see another bowl of this for at least ten years."
"Why, you little-! How dare you be so shameless after eating on my dime?" I swear I could see an irk mark appear on Kunikida-san's head.
"You are a real life saver. I think Kamaguchi-san was correct saying you are a god." Atsushi-kun kindly said.
"After leaving the orphanage and coming to Yokohama, I had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep. I thought I would have an untimely death." Atsushi-kun said, rather sadly.
Orphanage?
"You are from an Orphanage?" I asked the boy. "Maybe, I can find if I was correct earlier or not..."
"Well you could say that. But they chased me out." He replied, whilst smiling sadly.
"That's some Non-profit there." Dazai said coolly.
"Oi, Dazai!" I glared at him. Can he read the room for god-damn sake?
"Kamaguchi-san, we are not some philanthropists going around helping brats down on their luck, okay?". Let's get back at our task." Kunikida-san reminded me, slowly raising his 'Guide of Life'.
"Now that I think of it, you mentioned earlier that your job involves the military.....What exactly are your line of job?" Atsushi-kun asked us.
"Oh, we're just detectives" Dazai answered his question looking smug.
"Detectives?"
"That's not to say we only handle lost pets & infidelity, of course. The Armed Detective Agency. An organization of Gifted Detectives. Perhaps you have heard of us." Kunikida-san explained to Atsushi-kun.
"What? The Armed Detective Agency!" Atsushi-kun seemed to be surprised quite a lot.
"Yeah. If you don't know, They compromise of people, who are gifted, to complete different tasks which can't be handled by the military or police. It's a twilight armed force positioned between the world of day & night." I bragged about it to Atsushi-kun, as it was my turn to look smug.
Bragging is such a beautiful thing~
"Stop bragging about it, will you? Only idiots brag about such small things. Wait! I'm Sorry~ It must have wounded you to be reminded that you are an idiot, didn't it?" Dazai responded to my bragging.
He smirked and looked down at me.
"Is it just me? Or your death wish get's stronger every time you open your mouth?! Huh, Dazai?" I responded to his comment, while smiling dangerously.
"Oh~ Is it that hard to swallow the fact, that a certain white-haired lady is so dumb?" Dazai leaned at my face while smirking.
"You wanna take this outside?" I also leaned, as I pointed towards the exit.
"Why? Are you that scared of being alone?"
"Why you little-"
"Stop it, will you two!"
"....Hai!, Kunikida-san/kun."
.
.
.
"Hey! Look! Check out that nice beam!" Dazai referred to something above Atsushi-kun head, his eyes sparkling.
"Don't analyze whether you can hang yourself in random teahouse we just found!" Kunikida-san reminded Dazai.
"We're talking about the hanging health method."
"What's that about?"
"What? You don't know about it?! It's so good for shoulder cramps!"
"What?! Such a thing exists!"
"Hey, write this all down!"
Kunikida-san quickly took out his notebook and started writing in it.
"Hanging...health...method..."
"Kunikida-san, you know that Dazai is messing with you, Right?" I asked him.
Hearing that, he slowly turned towards Dazai, also breaking his pen in progress.
Poor pen.
"Hee-Hee, I got you there" Dazai smirked.
"MY PARTNER GET'S WASHED UP IN A RIVER, & THEN A BRAT STARVING ON THE DEATH DOOR AND MY COLLEAGUE STUFF THEMSELVES WITH NO SHAME!" Kunikida-san shouted, while holding Dazai's shirt collar and shaking him continuously, who seemed to be...enjoying it?
"Don't forget to give him at least five hit blows on the head, Kunikida-san." I cheered for the drama while Atsushi-kun sweat dropped at the action being done in front of him.
"So... about your job today..." Atsushi-kun trailed of.
"I'll ensure that the job would be finished on schedule- YEAH!?"
"EEE! SORRY, I SHOULDN'T HAVE ASKED! R-Right of course your job is classified!" Atsushi-kun stuttered.
"Nevermind these two, Atsushi-kun, you continue. Today's job doesn't really require much privacy" I told him.
"So what was you job today? Did you complete it?" Atsushi-kun asked me.
"Well answering your first question, you see, we're looking for a certain tiger on behest of the military. And answer regarding your second question, no, we've not completed it."
"A Tiger? If it's okay for you all, can you explain it to me more?"
"A man eater who's recently appeared in these part." Dazai continued on my behalf. "Well, we're still not sure if that tiger has devoured anyone or not, but it's ransacked warehouses and eaten farm produces and the like, doing whatever it wants. It's been spotted around here lately."
*BOOM* *CLINK*
Atsushi-kun fell from his chair, his face showing signs of fear and surprise. My eyes widened as I sensed some faint trails of understanding coming from him towards the incident mentioned by Dazai.
"He's hiding something!" I thought. I quietly peeked inside him, again peeked inside him to confirm my suspicions, which was proved correct there.
Shit. He is-
"What's wrong, Atsushi-kun?" Dazai asked him, calmly.
"I... I... I'll be leaving now. G-Good bye." Saying this Atsushi-kun crawled towards the doors.
But too late.
"Oi, brat!" Kunikida swiftly went and blocked the entrance while I quickly caught Atsushi-kun and tackled him on the ground, preventing him from leaving. Dazai remained seated, unfazed by Atsushi-kun sudden decision of departure. As if he was expecting it to happen.
"Does Dazai already know?" I thought during the procedure.
"Too slow, boy! What are you hiding?! You know something, right?" I demanded.
"You can't! No one can take it on!" Atsushi-kun replied to my demand while struggling under my grip.
"You know off the man-eating tiger?" Kunikida-san asked him.
"It's after me! It's going to kill me! If it's around here, I have to run. Now!" He kept on struggled under my grip.
I gripped his hand even harder resulting him to scream.
"Tell us everything you know, or say goodbye to your hands forever!" I threatened him.
"Now, now Yuki-chan, Whenever your ask anything to anyone, you make them traumatic the next day. Even Shaichō, is concerned about that." Daichi said while approaching us.
Who is he to lecture me?
I huffed and let go of Atsushi-kun.
"So, what do you know about the tiger?" Dazai asked the silver-haired boy on the ground.
Atsushi-kun slowly stood up and he sat on the chair.
He first wondered a little then he started explaining.
"......You see......my orphanage was thrashed by that tiger. It ravaged our fields, it destroyed our chicken coop, and even our warehouse. No one died, sure, but our orphanage was already on shoestring budget. They kicked me out so that they had one less mouth to feed."
He looked sad while explaining it to us.
Poor boy.
"Now, that's weird. Kicking out one child wouldn't help them to feed all the kids in that orphanage. " I pondered.
"Now, that's tragic" Dazai said.
"So, what's all this talk about that tiger almost killing you?" Kunikida-san questioned the boy.
"Since that day, The Man-Eater always shows up wherever I go."
"Can you tell me about any such incident that happened to you recently where you spotted the tiger?" I requested him, kindly smiling at him.
"W-What? O-Oh...Yeah... Just a while ago, when I was walking around Tsurumi, I happened to be near a traffic mirror & when I looked at it, I saw the tiger just behind me. Everyone became aware of it, and while everyone's attention was towards the tiger, I ran from there"
"Now that I think about it, there was a news of spotting of a tiger near Tsurumi region." Kunikida-san said.
"And not only at that time. I happened to see the same tiger plenty of time from the corner of my eyes."
"Can you tell, did you see anything similar that you may have found on the days you spotted it?" I asked him.
"W-Well...As much as I remember.... most of the time I saw it at night, during full moon..." He told me as he tried to remember.
"If you might have noticed, that today is also going to me full moon." Dazai shared the information.
"So, you're saying that the tiger will come today too?!" Atsushi-kun panicked.
"Don't worry, Atsushi-kun! We are going to catch him tonight."
"What do you mean? Have you found out where that man-eating tiger is, Dazai?" Kunikida-san enquired.
"Of course. Right, Yuki-chan?" He glanced towards me.
"What? Oh... Yeah..." I trailed off.
Were we both on the same page?
"So.. Atsushi-kun, Are you free tonight?" Dazai asked Atsushi. (That sound gay-)
"Okay great! You being the man-eater tiger's target gives us a beautiful opportunity." Dazai continued, WITHOUT even hearing Atsushi-kun's response.
"HUH?" Atsushi-kun seemed somewhat scared as well as confused.
"Please help us find the tiger." Dazai asked the boy as if he was asking Atsushi-kun to buy an ice-cream.
"This guy is mental."
"NO WAY!"
"Kunikida-kun, please go back to the agency and give this to the Shaichō." Dazai said handing Kunikida-san a note he seemed to have written during the conversation.
"And Yuki-chan, you will come with me." Dazai told me.
"W-What...Ok?"
"Hey, don't tell me you plan to catch the tiger with just three of you? We should first confirm if the information is correct or not." Kunikida-san said.
"Atsushi-kun's telling the truth, so don't worry..." I reassured him.
"It's fine." Dazai also reassured him.
"I'm not going, Okay! This just means you are going to use me as a bait, right?"
Atsushi-kun seemed to be troubled.
"Don't worry, Atsushi-kun. You are going to be safe." I told him.
"How can you be so sur-"
"There's a reward." Dazai chirped in.
"I see how it is..."
"What?! Reward? A reward? No, no...You're not going to tempt me with that!.... B-But just for a reference, how much will the reward be?....."
"About 1 billion Yen." I showed him the check.
"WHAAAAAT?!"
"So, now that's settled, let's go for some Tiger-Hunting!"
Without waiting for Atsushi-kun's reply, he dragged him outside the diner. I said goodbye to Kunikida-san and followed Dazai outside the diner.
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"So, do you think the tiger is 'you-know-who' ?" I asked Dazai, using our own code words, after some time as Atsushi-kun was out of earshot at that moment.
"Who knows?" Dazai said playfully.
"Yeah, Yeah." I rolled my eyes. "So what will you do with it? Kill it or what?"
"We'll see that after our theory is proven correct, you know. For that we have to go & confront the Tiger first!" He told me
He suddenly held my hands and dragged me toward Atsushi-kun who was ahead of us.
He seemed pretty calm for the current situation. As we kept on walking, he didn't leave my hands.
Meanwhile, my mind was like:
"HOW THE FUCK CAN HE BE SO CALM ABOUT HOLDING MY HANDS?!"
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