Chapter 53
Thus, the conflict between ability users and ordinary people was brought to light. Suehiro Tecchou, following the list, arrested many high-ranking officials who participated in the meeting on the spot. To save face, the government had to reopen investigations into the aforementioned incidents and publicly announce the progress.
And as an accomplice, before the trial, Asuka Kazuya was temporarily placed under the custody of Sakaguchi Ango, also a member of the Special Abilities Division, with special personnel from the military police assisting.
“You cause trouble the moment I take my eyes off you.”
Glancing at the military police outside the door, Ozaki Kouyou entered without any weapons. She smiled faintly, her gaze falling on the half-finished Sudoku puzzle Asuka Kazuya was working on.
“Asuka-kun, you’re truly impressive.”
“You’re welcome,” Asuka Kazuya twirled his pencil, replying without looking back. “Don’t worry, they have no time for your illegal activities, I’ll probably be transferred soon.”
Ozaki Kouyou: “You’re a bit too optimistic.”
“Just in case, do you really know what kind of place Meursault is?”
“…What else could it be?”
Asuka Kazuya raised an eyelid.
“A prison no one has ever escaped from. Look on the bright side, if I escape, wouldn’t I be the first in history?”
Ozaki Kouyou couldn’t help but laugh.
“Announcing the crimes of several countries to the whole world, Asuka-kun, don’t you think that’s enough to go down in history?”
“Can’t be helped,” Asuka Kazuya feigned regret, filling in another number on the newspaper. “If I didn’t do this, they would try to kill me. You know, I haven’t lived long enough, I don’t plan on dying yet.”
Ozaki Kouyou raised an eyebrow, looking at him for a long moment.
“What about Dazai?”
Seeing her silence, Asuka Kazuya finally remembered to ask about the missing Dazai Osamu through the bulletproof glass.
“He’s alive and kicking, for now,” Ozaki Kouyou replied casually. “He and Chuuya dealt with the White Kirin yesterday—why don’t you ask about Chuuya? Feeling guilty?”
Asuka Kazuya rested his chin on his hand, the pencil in his hand pointing at the surveillance camera above: “Can we not talk about Chuuya? I’m trying to appear less threatening to the military police.”
Ozaki Kouyou didn’t reply directly.
“When Ougai-sama and I mentioned your past, for those two children’s sake, I truly hoped you would join the Port Mafia.”
“Hmm?”
Asuka Kazuya tilted his head, humming in question.
Then he deliberately raised his voice, yelling at the military police outside: “Help! Golden Demon is trying to silence me! The one on the left! I’m reporting you for negligence!”
Having heard “the wolf is coming” too many times, the military police outside glanced at the surveillance camera, not even bothering with him.
Asuka Kazuya, finding it boring, turned his attention back.
“I know, I know,” Asuka Kazuya waved his hand, interrupting her, obediently picking up the pen he had just thrown. “So you think I drove a wedge between Chuuya and the Port Mafia or something, I admit I was slightly at fault, but you don’t have to specifically mention it now, do you?”
Ozaki Kouyou remained impassive, looking directly into his eyes: “That’s not why I’m here.”
As an executive who had been in position since the previous Boss, Ozaki Kouyou knew better than Dazai and the others what kind of hell the Port Mafia was before Mori Ougai.
Pure violence, no profit, costing the lives of many of her friends and subordinates.
“You’ve already broken the balance,” Ozaki Kouyou folded her sleeves, replying calmly. “To maintain the current state of Yokohama, if there’s a war, I will do everything in my power to ensure Ougai-sama’s safety. But on the other hand, if the peace you mentioned between ability users and humans can truly be achieved, Ougai-sama said that the Port Mafia will also shoulder its responsibility.”
Asuka Kazuya was stunned, hearing Ozaki Kouyou say, “Before becoming the Boss, Chuuya must first learn how to be an executive, mustn’t he?”
Asuka Kazuya blinked slowly, hesitating before asking, “Did Chuuya say that?”
“…”
Ozaki Kouyou sighed, then smiled slightly.
“If he hadn’t asked me to, I wouldn’t be here. Asuka-kun, your trial will conclude in two days.”
“I wish you good luck.”
Asuka Kazuya didn’t actually care about his fate, he was someone who could entertain himself, even talking to himself in Meursault.
Unfortunately, others didn’t think so. As his former companions, Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji were asked by the MPD to submit information about Asuka Kazuya within a day, so that high-ranking officials from other countries could assess him during the meeting.
“Don’t they need to assess themselves?” Matsuda Jinpei sneered, watching the replay of the video on his computer. “That guy is annoying, but the main culprit seems to be still running around in the news.”
“That being said…” Hagiwara Kenji put one hand in his pocket, casually glancing at Matsuda Jinpei’s draft report. “Actually cursing the higher-ups for a thousand words, Jinpei-chan, aren’t you afraid of being arrested too?”
Makino Haruki, writing furiously beside them, poked his head over: “How do you know he wrote a thousand words? I only wrote eight hundred.”
Hagiwara Kenji: “Of course, it’s…”
“No chatting!” Superintendent Adachi, also writing a report, stormed out from his office a few meters away. “Hagiwara! Supervise these two! Write seriously, finish it by this afternoon!”
Superintendent Adachi slammed the door shut.
Hagiwara Kenji hesitated, seeing Matsuda Jinpei holding his report. Although the curly-haired officer didn’t say anything, his half-lidded eyes spoke volumes.
Hagiwara Kenji wasn’t exactly a rule-follower either.
“Why don’t they have his mafia friends write the report?” Matsuda Jinpei tossed the paper aside, sitting at Asuka Kazuya’s former desk, noticing the unicorn doll behind the computer. “If that idiot hadn’t exposed this, the MPD would be awarding those manipulative bastards as model police officers this year.”
“Mafia friends?”
Hagiwara Kenji thought for a moment.
“Kazuya is currently being held by the mafia, right? Is he really not going to escape?”
“Kazuya probably won’t deliberately escape,” Makino Haruki propped his chin, imagining the scene. “But if they confiscate everything, he might escape to get some things before going back.”
Hagiwara Kenji was silent, exchanging glances with Matsuda Jinpei.
“Adding insult to injury. Should we…remind the guards?”
There were many people in the military police who upheld justice like Suehiro Tecchou. Perhaps because of this, one faction believed Asuka Kazuya should be imprisoned for life, while the other believed that although he exposed a truth that should never have been exposed, his crime wasn’t that serious.
Ability users didn’t have freedom.
The military police didn’t have freedom either.
Take the military police’s special forces, the Hunting Dogs, for example. To ensure absolute obedience to the military, they would die from whole-body decay if they didn’t undergo surgery with an ability technician regularly every month.
Even Suehiro Tecchou was the same.
After recovering from food poisoning, hearing that his partner arrested a bunch of politicians after a meeting, Jouno Saigiku felt like the sky was falling.
As a member of the Hunting Dogs, Jouno Saigiku was once a mafia executive. But unlike Asuka Kazuya, he accepted the military’s offer, becoming a high-ranking officer.
The military police officer guarding Asuka Kazuya had once been indebted to Jouno Saigiku. He didn’t have strong hatred towards Asuka Kazuya and would occasionally turn a blind eye to visitors.
Like now, he looked at his unconscious companion, negotiating with Dazai Osamu, even reminding him that Jouno Saigiku was downstairs, and Captain Fukuchi was outside, so escaping was futile.
“He’s talking to you, Chuuya,” Dazai Osamu said, shifting the blame to Nakahara Chuuya beside him. “I’m not that stupid.”
Nakahara Chuuya glanced at him, not in the mood for jokes.
The Port Mafia’s surveillance cameras would be off for five minutes at midnight. Nakahara Chuuya walked steadily into the room where abilities couldn’t be used. Asuka Kazuya was still working on his Sudoku.
A pen and a stack of newspapers, within safety regulations, this was all they could give him.
No touching greetings, no heated arguments.
The light above flickered, probably due to a power surge. Asuka Kazuya stared at the swaying bulb for a moment before noticing Nakahara Chuuya standing behind the glass.
“Chuuya?”
That was the first sentence.
“Why are you here?”
That was the second sentence.
Nakahara Chuuya silently stared at the young man, recalling Dazai Osamu’s words when he stopped him.
[“What can you even do if you go back?”]
[“There are many things that can’t be solved with brute force, Chuuya. Are you going to ruin Kazuya-kun’s plan, dragging ordinary people down with you?”]
So there was no “why did you do this” question. Nakahara Chuuya realized, ridiculously, that he was too weak.
Ozaki Kouyou said he didn’t want Asuka Kazuya to grow up, but the latter had already left him far behind with his schemes.
“Couldn’t you have said goodbye properly back then?” In the limited five minutes, Nakahara Chuuya finally asked his first question, his voice slightly hoarse.
“Can’t we say goodbye properly now?”
Asuka Kazuya smiled, his slightly dilated pupils constricting.
“Is that so?” Nakahara Chuuya scoffed, the hair on his forehead swaying, his hat casting a shadow over his eyes. “When will you change your habit of always thinking about others?”
“You’re not ‘others’,”
Asuka Kazuya said casually.
“Besides, Dr. Shelley won’t keep my secret for long, might as well drag some people down before I’m doomed.”
Dr. Shelley should have taken him back to Britain. Asuka Kazuya lamented that he wouldn’t have experienced other emotions if she did.
So, in exchange for sharing data, Asuka Kazuya bought some time from Dr. Shelley.
“Now?”
Unexpectedly, Nakahara Chuuya guessed about their deal.
The Port Mafia’s Gravity Wielder wore a black trench coat, Asuka Kazuya’s amulet in his pocket.
“Kazuya, what are you feeling now?”
“…”
There was a knock on the door, the five minutes were up.
Asuka Kazuya didn’t have time to think. He looked at Nakahara Chuuya’s back, seeing Dazai Osamu leaning against the door, straightening up lazily.
The latter didn’t intend to speak to him, only teasing his newly promoted partner.
“I didn’t expect to hear the word ‘please’ from Slug’s mouth in this lifetime.”
Asuka Kazuya perked up, telling Dazai Osamu, “If you bully Chuuya, I’ll chase you with paintballs again when I get out.”
Dazai Osamu waved without looking back, saying, “Chuuya asked me to teach him, Kazuya-kun, you’re quite biased.”
“You’re also biased.”
“Not really, I equally dislike you and Chuuya.”
“…Wow, that’s mean.”
The intermittent power supply resumed, and the room fell silent again.
Asuka Kazuya watched the door close, waiting for a moment, then lowered his head and filled in the last number on the newspaper.
He asked Verlaine: “Oniisan, is this what regret feels like?”
Verlaine didn’t understand either.
Rimbaud sighed, answering him seriously.
“Your body temperature has risen by one degree, your heartbeat is eight beats per minute faster than before. This is basic human physiology, Kazuya, this isn’t regret, it should be happiness.”
Asuka Kazuya: “I’m always happy for Chuuya, what’s so strange about that?”
“Improving yourself for others, humans call this emotion ‘love,”” Rimbaud said. “You felt Chuuya’s emotions, this is a good thing for you.”
Love between friends.
Love between family.
Asuka Kazuya still couldn’t tell the difference.
“Okay,” he said, accepting Rimbaud’s knowledge. “One more thing to think about in Meursault.”
As Ozaki Kouyou said, Asuka Kazuya didn’t consider the dreaded Meursault a big deal. His adventure had come to an end, and Meursault was just a new adventure.
So what if he was sentenced to fifty or a hundred years?
Asuka Kazuya made a bet with his older brothers that he could escape and attend Date Wataru’s wedding without their help—or at least Chuuya’s seventeenth birthday.
Thinking this, he folded the finished newspaper. Ozaki Kouyou noticed, and Nakahara Chuuya noticed too, he wasn’t doing Sudoku, but writing code with numbers. If converted with a computer, it would become letters.
Asuka Kazuya marveled at his own cleverness.
[Dr. Shelley,]
He wrote at the end of the last letter.
[It’s rare for me to write something that isn’t a will, but a beginning, I’m still not used to it.]
[This is my last night in Yokohama without blood and gunpowder. Unlike what you said, my friends sent me many messages through the military police, and Chuuya wasn’t angry about it.]
[Strangely, in this familiar darkness, I don’t feel lonely like before, but unprecedented happiness.]
[And, thank you for the antidote, the data you need has been delivered through your companion.]
[Your sincere collaborator, Asuka Kazuya.]
