Chapter 45: The Double Black

Dazai Osamu was walking on the way to Lupin Bar. He knew this road by heart; he could find the door hidden in the alley with his eyes closed.

He walked slowly, holding a black umbrella, his figure seemingly melting into the shadows of the road.

A few hours ago, a continuous rain fell on Yokohama. At this moment, fine raindrops were still falling from the sky, and the air was filled with the salty smell of rain and seawater.

His black trench coat swept across the slightly damp ground, and his figure appeared exceptionally long in the flickering light, like a ghost wandering on the edge of reality and dreams.

Just then, a familiar figure came into his view. It was a man wearing a simple sand-colored coat, walking steadily forward.

It was Oda Sakunosuke.

A glint flashed in Dazai Osamu's eyes. He quickened his pace to approach Oda Sakunosuke, breaking the silence that had enveloped the street with a light, cheerful voice:

"Oda Sakunosuke, what a coincidence! We just happened to run into each other."

The tone carried just the right amount of surprise, masking any possible deliberate intent.

This was his first meeting with Oda Sakunosuke in this life—of course, the other party was unaware of this and probably just thought it was a chance encounter like any other.

Oda Sakunosuke stopped at the sound and turned around. He saw Dazai Osamu standing in the halo of the streetlight, a small smile on his face, his iris-colored eyes reflecting a bright halo like shards of glass in the dim light.

He slightly widened his blue eyes, which always seemed a little sleepy, and said in his usual calm tone, "Ah, it's Dazai. What a coincidence."

There were no further questions, no pleasantries, just a simple confirmation of each other's presence. This was their usual pattern.

"Are you just about to go over for a drink?" Dazai Osamu took a few quick steps and nimbly approached Oda Sakunosuke's side.

"Yes." Oda Sakunosuke nodded.

Without needing any further words, the two naturally walked side by side toward the steps leading to Lupin Bar. Their shadows, stretched long by the streetlights, intertwined from time to time, then separated with each step.

The air inside Lupin Bar was filled with the aroma of alcohol and the lingering scent of cigars. The bartender behind the counter remained silent as always, focused on his work, only nodding slightly when customers took orders.

The two sat down in their familiar spot and each ordered their usual drinks. Dazai Osamu ordered whiskey on the rocks, while Oda Sakunosuke opted for a milder distilled spirit. The glasses were quickly served; the amber-colored, pure liquid shimmered with a soft sheen, reflecting their two different faces, which twisted and distorted with the current, yet their original forms could be glimpsed through the gaps.

“Odasaku,” Dazai Osamu said, tracing the cold glass with his fingertips, his voice a few decibels lower than usual, “I had a really scary dream recently.”

His gaze wasn't focused on the drinks, but rather drifted vaguely to the row of dazzling bottles behind the bar, as if he were peering through them at something.

"What is it about?" Oda Sakunosuke turned his head, his tone devoid of surprise, only pure inquiry.

“I dreamt that Ango turned into a caterpillar,” Dazai Osamu’s tone became somewhat ethereal, with a dreamlike quality, “and a green caterpillar wearing a suit and round glasses crawled onto your shoulder and threatened to eat you!” As he spoke, he even shrank his shoulders to make an exaggerated expression of fear, but deep in his eyes was a profound silence.

Oda Sakunosuke blinked, thought very seriously for a few seconds, and then replied in a tone as casual as if discussing the weather: "Is that so? Caterpillar Ango, do you also have very dark circles under your eyes?"

"Eh!" Dazai Osamu seemed amused by the novel angle of the question. The fake fear on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a more genuine smile. "I didn't observe carefully... Maybe not? Otherwise, wouldn't it be too pathetic to turn into a caterpillar and still not get enough sleep?" He picked up his wine glass and gently swirled it, the ice cubes making a crisp clinking sound.

Almost simultaneously, in a secret base filled with sophisticated instruments and flashing screens, Ango Sakaguchi, buried in a mountain of documents, suddenly sneezed, nearly spilling his coffee. He adjusted his glasses, glanced at the air conditioner vent with a puzzled look, ultimately attributing it to a weakened immune system from consecutive all-nighters, before plunging back into his seemingly endless work.

In the bar, the conversation shifted from bizarre dreams to everyday life.

"What has Oda Sakunosuke been up to lately?" Dazai Osamu continued to ask.

“As usual, I do whatever mission I’m given.” Oda Sakunosuke took a sip of his drink. “I just resolved a relationship dispute a few days ago that almost escalated into a crime of passion.”

“That sounds interesting. What exactly happened?” Dazai Osamu rested his chin on his hand with great interest, as if listening to a distant and peaceful story.

Oda Sakunosuke then began his straightforward narration, his style dry and lacking in cadence, but Dazai Osamu listened with great interest, occasionally interjecting with a few comments or letting out a faint, enigmatic laugh. Time slipped by quietly in this casual conversation, like ice cubes in a glass, silently melting into the wine.

Late at night, accompanied by slightly hurried footsteps, another person appeared on the steps at the entrance of the bar.

Ango Sakaguchi, adjusting his glasses, walked down the street with a somewhat hurried gait. His signature dark circles were more pronounced than ever before, and even the mole near his nose conveyed a deep sense of weariness typical of a corporate slave.

Before Ango had even fully descended the stairs, Dazai Osamu's slightly raised voice reached his ears: "Ango, I didn't expect to see you today."

Oda Sakunosuke turned to the side, watching his friend sit on the empty bar stool next to him, and calmly said, "Has the recent mission finally come to an end? It feels like you haven't been here for a long time."

Ango let out a sigh, placing his briefcase at his feet. "Yeah, I recently took on a big mission—" he paused, then added habitually, "but I can't reveal the details because I've signed a confidentiality agreement—in short, it's a mission that will give me two weeks of rest once it's completed." This was less of an explanation and more of a self-comforting statement; even he himself was skeptical.

“That sounds really good,” Oda Sakunosuke said sincerely.

The bartender tacitly served Ango his usual drink. However, Ango merely accepted it, thanked him, and placed the glass aside without touching it. His fingertips unconsciously tapped on the bar counter, revealing the anxiety that had not subsided within him.

"I've been having some really strange dreams lately."

The topic of work, which had come to a close after Ango's arrival, has shifted again.

"What kind of dream was it?" Anwu asked, following his words, maintaining basic politeness and concern despite being tired.

"I dreamt that even when Ango turned into a caterpillar, he was still working hard, and he even wanted to eat Odasaku!"

This is Dazai telling Sakaguchi Ango about the dream he had shared with Oda Sakunosuke in another form.

"Huh? Why am I a caterpillar in your dream? That sounds disgusting. And why do I still have to work even as a caterpillar?!"

This is Ango Sakaguchi, whose expression began to brighten after hearing what was said. Although he still looked tired, he no longer appeared as lifeless and exhausted as he had at the beginning.

His protest lacked conviction, which only highlighted the bitterness he was expressing.

“I don’t know, but—” Dazai Osamu drawled, a sly smile spreading across his face. He raised his whiskey glass, seemingly wanting to take a sip in the relaxed atmosphere. The dim light overhead cast a hazy glow on the ice ball in his glass.

He opened his mouth, about to utter the next sentence, when he suddenly froze, his expression visibly blank. His fingers, holding the glass, instinctively loosened their grip, and the glass, still half-full of liquor, crashed heavily onto the bar with a dull thud. Liquor splashed everywhere, wetting his cuffs and the bar counter. Fortunately, the glass was sturdy enough not to shatter.

Ango Sakaguchi's eyes suddenly sharpened. As one of the Port Mafia's top intelligence agents, he knew quite a bit about Osamu Dazai. He knew that his young friend suffered from some unknown illness, with random onset and bizarre behavior. In the past, due to their busy missions, the three of them rarely saw each other, and he had never witnessed Dazai's illness so closely before.

At that moment, the information in my mind quickly matched the scene before me—this must be the symptom of the "loss of consciousness" mentioned in the report about Dazai.

Dazai Osamu's eyes were completely vacant, devoid of any emotion in his iris-colored pupils. He narrowed his eyes slightly, his facial muscles relaxed, showing no signs of being controlled. He remained frozen in that posture, motionless, as if time had stopped flowing around him.

"Dazai?" Oda Sakunosuke, sitting next to him, tried calling out a few times, but when he got no response, he reached out and carefully poked Dazai Osamu's arm. But the other man still didn't react at all, nor did he suddenly jump up and shout something like "Were you scared?" as he usually did when he played pranks. It was as if this body had lost its soul.

"Is Dazai asleep with his eyes open?"

After a moment's thought, Oda Sakunosuke arrived at the above conclusion. His worldview was simple and direct; when faced with phenomena that defied common sense, he would only try to understand them using the most basic experience.

As an peripheral member of the organization, he was far less well-informed than Dazai and Ango, so he knew very little about Dazai's secrets. Moreover, they rarely saw each other, and after so long, he had only heard about Dazai from others before, but it went in one ear and out the other, and did not leave a deep impression on his mind.

The Dazai in the past had never mentioned or revealed this side of himself to them, which made the current situation even more complicated.

Upon hearing this, Ango Sakaguchi rubbed his temples helplessly, feeling even more exhausted for no apparent reason: "This abnormal state can't possibly be due to being asleep, Mr. Odasaku."

He stood up from his seat, walked around behind Dazai Osamu, and first tentatively patted Dazai on the shoulder. Seeing that the other party still did not react, he stood there for a moment and pondered. While muttering to the unconscious Dazai, "I didn't touch your phone on purpose. Oda Sakunosuke is here to testify for me. I just wanted to find someone to take you away." At the same time, he carefully took out Dazai's phone from the inside pocket of his signature black trench coat.

When he turned on his phone, he was surprised to find that there was no password lock set. Sakaguchi Ango didn't look at any other messages—as a matter of basic respect for his friend—he went straight to the contacts and browsed through the bizarre nicknames with Oda Sakunosuke, discussing who to call.

Since neither of them was currently comfortable accommodating their friends at their current accommodations, the bartender, who lived closest to them, quietly organized the liquor shelves behind the bar, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings, serving as a silent backdrop.

Ango Sakaguchi and the others eventually found a phone number named "Partner" in Dazai's phone contacts and called it. Unlike the other numbers with their bizarre nicknames, such as "Wandering Ghost" or "Kimchi Head," which made it impossible to understand the other person's identity, this was the only normal nickname, and thus became the most trustworthy option at that moment.

[Beep beep beep—]

The call was answered in less than three seconds. Before they could even speak, the person on the other end said, "Hey, Dazai? Why are you calling me all of a sudden? Did you do something wrong and are feeling guilty, so you want to tell me?"

It was a young, penetrating voice, tinged with impatience. From the content of the words, it was clear that Dazai and this person had a good relationship.

Ango Sakaguchi and Sakunosuke Oda exchanged a glance, silently discussing who should speak to him. After several exchanges of glances, Ango finally gave in and chose to explain his purpose himself.

He cleared his throat, but before he could speak, the person opposite him, upon hearing the sound, asked who he was and whether he was Dazai Osamu's subordinate.

That's very perceptive.

With that in mind, Ango Sakaguchi didn't hesitate any longer and quickly and concisely explained the situation: "Hello, we are Dazai's friends and are currently at Lupin Bar. Dazai has suddenly fallen into an abnormal state of unconsciousness and cannot be woken up. Considering that it is inconvenient for us to take him back to our respective residences, after searching through our contacts, it seems that you, who are marked as 'Partner,' are the most suitable person to contact. So, if it is convenient for you, could you come and pick him up?"

The person on the other end of the phone listened quietly to Anwu's speech without interruption. Only after Anwu finished did the other end reply crisply:

"Okay, I'll be right there."

The call was immediately disconnected, leaving only a busy tone.

The wait wasn't long. Soon, footsteps echoed again from the stairs leading to the bar entrance.

This time, the voice was firm and powerful. A ochre-haired youth wearing a black top hat and a leather jacket appeared in everyone's sight with the sound of footsteps. He was not tall, but he stood upright, and his azure eyes were as pure as sapphires. His sharp gaze swept across the scene, carrying an undeniable and powerful aura.

The moment Sakaguchi Ango saw the other person, the identity immediately popped into his mind: this was Nakahara Chuuya, known as the "Port Mafia Gravity Manipulator".

Chuuya Nakahara quickly spotted the target of this trip—Osamu Dazai—and headed in that direction.

His gaze lingered briefly on Ango and Odasaku for a few seconds, during which he politely nodded slightly to them as a greeting. Then, his attention focused entirely on Dazai Osamu, who remained seated motionless.

He first walked around Dazai, carefully examining his current condition, his movements as practiced as if he were performing some kind of routine checkup.

Then, he reached out and patted Dazai Osamu's cheek, not very gently, his tone carrying the provocative questioning usually reserved for Dazai:

"Hey, Dazai, are you still conscious?"

The tone was familiar, indicating that the two had a good relationship, or at least a close one, which was quite rare for someone like Dazai Osamu.

However, his inquiry received no response from Dazai Osamu; the other party didn't even flinch.

Chuuya Nakahara clicked his tongue, seemingly not entirely unfamiliar with the situation. He turned to Ango Sakaguchi and Sakunosuke Oda, who were standing silently to the side, and said in a businesslike tone, while still maintaining basic courtesy: "I'll take him away now. Thank you for informing me and for taking care of him."

After saying that, he bent down and smoothly hoisted Dazai Osamu onto his shoulder, as if he were carrying a sack, completely ignoring the inconvenience caused by the height difference between the two of them. For example, Dazai Osamu's toes were almost being dragged on the ground because of this posture.

But Chuuya Nakahara clearly didn't care about these details. For him, being willing to personally pick up this troublesome person was already more than enough. Asking him to take care of Dazai Osamu as carefully as if he were a fragile item? Absolutely not.

So he carried the person out like that.

Dazai Osamu, who was being carried, still did not react on his own. However, his empty iris-colored eyes seemed to focus for a moment when his body was moved. His gaze fell on Nakahara Chuuya's signature ochre hair before losing focus again.

Ango Sakaguchi and Sakunosuke Oda remained seated, watching with subtle expressions as the two departed in a manner that was both extremely incongruous and strangely harmonious. Once they had both disappeared through the doorway, they both silently turned back.

Oda Sakunosuke picked up his sake cup, took a sip, and said calmly, "I hope Dazai gets better soon."

Ango Sakaguchi nodded approvingly, raised his hand to adjust his glasses, and tried to dispel the shock of what had just happened from his mind: "Ah...yes."

This was the first time he had ever seen Dazai being carried like this, and he found it strangely comical, but he dared not say it out loud. Otherwise, if that guy found out, who knows what kind of tricks and revenge he would play on him in the future.

The two quickly changed the subject, talking about trivial matters, such as the novel Oda Sakunosuke had recently read or the places Ango had visited on his recent business trip. The bar returned to its previous quiet, the only sounds being their conversation and the bartender wiping glasses. Because it was late, there were no other customers present.

Dazai's half-empty glass of whiskey still sat forlornly in its place. The murky liquid soaked the mostly melted ice ball, reflecting a dim luster under the yellowish light.

No one touched it, as if its owner had only left temporarily and would return after taking care of it.

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Author's Note: This chapter's note is a correction: Dazai's annotation for Chuuya implies a precaution against a relapse. [This is because the original work used a different word for the annotation.]