When Nakahara Chuuya found this damn place, he thought his intelligence was wrong again.

How could that dry, salty and black mackerel be in such a place? Maybe this was another joke played by Shirase to play a trick on him.

He spat harshly, but based on the principle that he was already here, he pushed the door open and walked in after a little hesitation.

This is somewhere in the war zone of the Middle East.

If it weren't for work or something important, Nakahara Chuuya would probably never come here in his life.

As luck would have it, he had to come here on a business trip last year due to the expansion of [Sheep]'s business, so after getting the intelligence and rushing here, he was particularly skilled in asking passers-by for directions.

But this time he wasn't here for work.

After all, the guy who once patted his chest and swore that he would be his "tutor" didn't teach him anything else in a few years, but he taught him clearly how to slack off.

So saying bye to work during the holidays is a form of self-cultivation for Chuuya Nakahara.

This time he came here because there was someone he was looking for.

This is not a secret. Almost half of Yokohama's underworld... and even most of Kanto's underworld, know that the Sheep King has been looking for a gangster for a long time.

As the leader of the Sheep, an organization that is almost as powerful as the overlord of Kanto and the Port Mafia, those who can enter the eyes of Chuuya Nakahara are naturally not ordinary people.

Mafia members with a little more experience all know that Chuuya Nakahara is not looking for anyone else but Dazai Osamu, a now-defected cadre of his old rival, the Port Mafia.

Even in the mafia where demons and monsters are rampant, Dazai Osamu is a unique existence.

The youngest cadre in the history of the Port Mafia, a person with special abilities, but what is even more outstanding is his brain. There was once a time when someone put a bounty on that head on the black market, and the price was extremely high, it could be said to be worth a fortune.

However, the bounty had not been posted for a month before they shamelessly changed it in the second week - according to the rules of the black market, a bounty cannot be removed before a year has passed.

In the blink of an eye, the price of Dazai Osamu's head became nine pounds and fifteen pence.

Anyone can guess that it was definitely Dazai Osamu who knocked on the window of the person who announced the bounty in the middle of the night.

No matter how many rumors there were after that, at least no one wanted his head so blatantly.

At the beginning, countless people speculated that if the Crown Prince of the Port Mafia had not been there, Dazai Osamu would probably have become the next boss of the Port Mafia.

The only disciple of the current leader, he has an excellent mind and a strong ability to control his subordinates, and the most important thing for a mafia is "battle record".

Even the most strict mafia would have to sigh that Dazai-sama of the Port Mafia was born for darkness.

The result is that this person, while his fame and reputation as a port mafia were growing, suddenly disappeared from the public eye.

The port mafia issued a wanted order for the defecting former cadre Dazai Osamu, and the bounty was exactly the same as the price written by the person who had put a bounty on Dazai Osamu's head - nine pounds and fifteen pence, almost saying that it was just a formality.

On the other hand, everyone thought that Dazai Osamu had found a good buyer, and the leader of the "Sheep" who once had close ties with the Port Mafia said that whoever could come to him with Dazai's head, he would fulfill the visitor's wish in his personal name.

That's the king of sheep.

Everyone was in a state of panic for a moment, and when the mafia started circling around like sharks smelling blood, they realized that there was no trace of Dazai Osamu anywhere.

This person seemed to have completely disappeared from Yokohama and vanished into the darkness of Yokohama.

Also disappearing at the same time was the man named Sawada Tsuneyoshi, who was once the second-in-command of the Port Mafia.

Therefore, there was a rumor in the inner world that these two people had secretly communicated with each other for a long time (?), but they were unfortunately beaten by their leader Mori Ougai, so they had to defect in tears and fly away together.

The rumor spreaders even produced evidence from the port mafia forum that two high-ranking members were opposed by their leader and committed suicide by jumping off a building. The evidence was so damning that it brought tears to the eyes of thousands of girls who were deceived by Dazai Osamu's appearance.

After hearing this rumor, Mori Ogai said:

The leader of the port mafia silently took on everything.

If you think in this way, then you can understand why the Sheep King has such strong hostility towards the former leaders of the Port Mafia.

——Although only a few people know their true relationship, the Sheep King has a close relationship with the Sun of the Port Mafia, so close that it is not an exaggeration to say that they are like family members or lovers. In fact, when the Port Mafia was expanding crazily in Yokohama and even in the Kanto region, there were no organizations as large as they are now. However, the Sheep King was able to become the only organization that could escape from the liquidation of the Port Mafia and gain a firm foothold... No one would believe that there is no nepotism.

There was even a rumor that Sawada Tsunayoshi was preparing to defect to the Port Mafia for his mistress outside (wait, how did this become a mistress?).

But if you think about it this way, in the end, Lord Sun of the Port Mafia did not defect to the hostile organization, but was instead digested by the cadres within the Port Mafia... Could this also be a trap set by the Port Mafia's wise and cunning leader?

Then the defection of these two people was naturally within the leader's expectations...hiss, did they know something extraordinary?

Mori Ogai: ...

In the end, it was the silent leader who took the brunt of everything.

Back on this topic, Nakahara Chuuya stood in this simple place, which was probably a chemical factory in the past, but became a place for people to live after the war and is now occupied by ordinary civilians, and looked up.

Creations in such a harsh natural environment cannot be considered high-end. Zhongyuan Chuuya experienced such difficult times when he was young in Leibo Street. Later, when conditions gradually improved, he moved to a better place with everyone else.

So standing here, he actually had a familiar feeling.

The ochre-haired young man pressed his hat on his head and took a step forward to go in.

A head popped out from between the cracks in the door.

"Who are you?"

The other party asked in unfamiliar Japanese.

Zhongyuan Zhongya didn't expect that a head would grow in such a place, and was stunned for a moment.

He clicked his hat again. No matter how emotional he was, he was still very polite when facing the children.

So he answered seriously: "I'm here to look for someone."

The dark-skinned, curly-haired kid ate his fingers for a while and then showed a look of sudden enlightenment.

"Are you here to see the teacher?"

"teacher?"

The door opened a little in front of him.

In the sandy courtyard, many children dressed in white sack-like clothes surrounded a young man with short black hair.

In his memory, the guy who always yelled "The little brats are so troublesome" and even showed a "troublesome" expression when he was with the children of Oda Sakunosuke's family was now surrounded by this group of little brats that he had always hated, with an expression on his face that he was not familiar with.

What kind of look is that?

Zhongyuan Chuya just felt strange.

This kind of serious, almost gentle expression with drooped eyebrows on the face of a creature like Dazai Osamu is like a fox wearing a rabbit mask, which makes people's skin break out with goosebumps.

That's disgusting.

Zhongyuan Zhongya couldn't help but mutter and rub his arms.

Then I saw the guy surrounded by children leading a group of other guys approaching a red electric car.

This scene was indeed a bit weird, even Nakahara Chuuya, who was in great force, couldn't help but be stunned.

"What is he doing?"

He asked the little carrot beside him.

Little Radish also looked at the courtyard with envy in his eyes.

"The teacher is leading us to play games together." He answered, "The teacher bought some cars from outside for us to play with."

Even though he said that, it seemed that the black-haired young man was having more fun than the other kids.

At least during the time when Nakahara Chuuya was talking to Little Radish, the black-haired young man had already straddled the electric car.

The red car, which should have been a remote-controlled electric car, was not being operated by anyone. Instead, after he sat in it, the children cheered for joy, ran to the front of the car, and picked up the rope from the ground, chattering.

They began to run circles around the courtyard with the red electric car like sled dogs.

The only adult who should be reliable in theory not only did not stop the game, which could easily lead to a stampede, but instead clapped his hands and loudly directed the kids where to run.

Nakahara Chuuya was silent for a moment.

He looked at the child beside him with a sense of purpose, and sure enough, he found that the child's eyes were radiating envy.

Nakahara Chuuya: ...

After so many days, he still felt heavy in his heart, but when he saw this scene, he still felt a little disappointed.

The ochre-haired young man let out a breath and stepped into the courtyard.

The black-haired young man who looked like a mother hen driving her chicks to pull her sled looked over.

"What? It's the slimy little dwarf." He said this and clapped his hands to make the children stop.

Dazai Osamu stood in front of him.

In fact, Nakahara Chuuya hasn't seen him for quite some time.

Since that incident, he rarely met with Dazai Osamu, and sometimes even ignored Weilan who wanted to talk to Dazai Osamu. Occasionally, he would maliciously think that the guy would rather die outside like a stray dog.

But after all, it can be considered as a bond of growing up together. That person probably didn't save Dazai Osamu in order to let him exchange his beautiful head for nine pounds and fifteen pence, so Nakahara Chuuya just endured it.

He endured it for a long time, because murderous intent always emerged when he suddenly touched food related to that person, so he simply stopped meeting Dazai Osamu... Anyway, this guy slipped away like a loach after a while, and even Verlaine couldn't find any trace of him.

So the two of them haven't seen each other for a long time.

But the atmosphere now does not seem like that of a reunion of old friends. Instead, it has a slight sense of stagnation, similar to the suffocating pain of this scorching area.

Nakahara Chuuya opened his mouth, not knowing what he wanted to say.

The guy who always caused chaos when he was with him was surprisingly silent at this time. He walked side by side with Nakahara Chuuya, as if he wanted to send the uninvited guest back to where he came from.

In the end, it was Nakahara Chuuya who spoke.

“Verlaine already knows you’re here,” he said. “I won’t help you stop him this time.”

I didn't expect the first sentence would be this. Dazai Osamu's eyes widened for a moment.

Then he burst out laughing.

"I see. I was wondering why that guy hasn't come to my house after being here for so long. It turns out that you, Chuuya, have been entangled with him." He said with a smile, "That's great."

It is indeed very good.

After all, being targeted by the Assassin King is equivalent to the end of your life, and you have a VIP service - the ability to predict your own time of death. It is said that if the Assassin King meets a mission target with similar interests, he will generously give the other party a schedule and let him choose when he wants to die.

But Dazai Osamu thought that he probably wouldn't have that kind of schedule...that guy probably wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible.

Not only Verlaine, but even Nakahara Chuuya...

The black-haired young man turned his gaze away from Nakahara Chuuya.

"So, what are you doing here, Chuuya?" There was a smile on the corner of his lips, and his temperament was completely different from the "Dazai Osamu" in Chuuya Nakahara's memory.

The ochre-haired young man paused and pressed his hat.

"I..." The cobalt blue eyes dimmed for a moment.

Yes, what is he here for?

Nakahara Chuuya was actually also confused about this question.

If they came to Dazai Osamu specifically to remind him that Weilan was coming, that would be too disgusting, and it would make both of them disgusted to the point of vomiting the food they had yesterday.

But if he was asked to give a reason, Nakahara Chuuya would be a little confused.

Perhaps realizing something from his bewilderment, Dazai Osamu lowered his eyes and suddenly smiled.

The two were neither friends nor enemies, and after a mutually boring interaction, Nakahara Chuuya hurriedly left—or rather, left Dazai Osamu's sight.

He watched from afar as Dazai Osamu returned to the group of children and was surrounded by the little devils. He watched him bend down and touch the children's heads one by one with his bandaged hands. The smile on the corners of his lips was not the familiar smile that seemed to show who this guy was plotting against again, but another kind of strange yet familiar smile - just a smile that didn't seem to belong on the face of a creature like Dazai Osamu. He couldn't help but wonder if he had taken the wrong medicine.

But for some unknown reason, he turned around and looked again and again, until a long time later, he suddenly remembered the same smile.

Perhaps it was because it was once the thing he was most familiar with, so whether it was suddenly lost or suddenly discovered, it didn't seem to cause any waves in Nakahara Chuuya's mind.

Because it is too familiar.

Every morning during the holidays, when that person lived with him, Nakahara Chuuya could see that smile every day.

The man would turn around and greet him, holding a cup of coffee and taking a hot sandwich out of the sandwich maker.

【“Good morning, Chuuya, what would you like to eat?”】

It seemed that Nakahara Chuuya had lost nothing in his life from the very beginning.

Looking back now, many things that seemed to be on the verge of being lost - such as the sheep and the brotherhood with Verlaine - were transformed into his possessions due to the interference of a guy talking to himself.

Therefore, the only thing he lost was particularly unforgettable, like a scar carved into his heart that could not be touched or healed, but the slightest thought of it made him feel so painful that he was unable to express it in words.

But he always couldn't remember this incident, and when he called out casually, the name that came out of his mouth was that person's name.

Or rather, it's not that he never remembers, but that he always remembers - because he always remembers that person, no matter when or where he is, he wonders if he will suddenly appear like he did in front of him, holding a cake and saying "surprise" just like on that birthday when he thought Tsunayoshi Sawada had forgotten.

But in fact, Nakahara Chuuya hadn't seen that person for a long time. When he was at home, he didn't even want to mention his name, let alone see what that person looked like at the end.

But when he stopped in a foreign country, turned around as if realizing something, and looked at the guy who was once again surrounded by children and was welcoming the red electric car, he actually saw the shadow of that person on the other person.

The curved pupils, the helpless look, the gentle smile, and even the details of the occasional bent fingers made Zhongyuan Chuuya feel familiar, all of which were engraved with the mark of another person.

And he was willing.

Nakahara Chuuya stood there for a long time, and finally pressed down his hat.

He had to go back, he thought.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, maybe that person will come back.