Chapter 82: About the "Golden Feather"

The vibrations were very frequent, one after another.

The underling sent by the boss of the Takahashi-kai to keep an eye on him suddenly had a bad feeling. It sounded like a heavy object hitting the ground... or rather, the footsteps of some large creature.

Could there be a bear here?!

The weak, pitiful, and helpless young man from the Takahashi clan held his breath, shrank further into the treetops, and stared intently down below.

The tremors stopped, and the white-clad man carrying the lantern also stopped.

As he got closer, he could see that it was a young man in a white coat, and that there was a huge shadow next to him. It was so dark that he could only make out the shadows with the help of the lantern's light...

No! It's not a shadow!

"Ho—"

What was that sound? The supervisor, already puzzled by the bird's sudden stop, instinctively looked toward the source of the sound.

Is there anything in the tree?

X reached out and patted the big bird's plump body, asking the bird that was constantly watching everything.

The bird's texture was less than pleasant, even somewhat eerie; its burned-out feathers left only charred remains on its body, coupled with its recent swelling...

It felt like touching a fleshy kiwi with a slightly warm body temperature.

The large bird twisted its body and rubbed against X's hand that was on it, all eyes looked in one direction, and its head was raised.

The faint glow of several eyes, like nightlights, cast a pale yellow light on the trees, illuminating not only the trees but also Takahashi's contorted face.

He never expected that such a monster was under the tree, and why the person holding the lamp could walk so calmly beside the monster.

He could only make faint breaths from his throat. He was like prey locked on by its predator, unable to move, his body no longer obeying his commands.

The little bird darted towards the man hiding in the treetops; it could sense that this man needed its help.

...

Takahashi opened his eyes, his mind blank, staring at the dark night sky, not knowing where he was.

Why am I sleeping in the open here?

"You're awake."

Who is speaking?

The younger brother, whose mind was so empty that he wouldn't even bother with a scarecrow, propped himself up and looked over.

Suddenly, he remembered everything: the monster with many yellow eyes, and the man carrying a lantern…

He turned his head and his eyes met those of the person in the white coat. The eyes were a similar color to the monster's eyes, the only difference being that they didn't glow.

"I was wrong! I shouldn't have come here! Please forgive me!"

The supervisor, who had barely uttered a sentence and hadn't gotten any answers, was startled by the person who suddenly knelt down.

This was actually a young boy, about the same age as Sinclair, who was keeping his head down and not daring to look him in the eye.

If he had known there were monsters here, he would never have come! Xi Chuan cursed his brilliant boss in his heart, and also cursed himself for being fooled.

But what's the use of that? He's the one who's fallen into this person's hands. Naoya Nishikawa did his best to suppress the urge to tremble and awaited that person's judgment.

But... there was no response from the other side for a long time. At first, he could still feel the gaze on him, but gradually the feeling of being watched disappeared. Could it be that he left?

But it's impossible to move on grass without making any noise, right?

He tentatively raised his eyes and saw a pair of bright black, beady eyes. A small, round white bird was standing there, tilting its head and looking at him.

X wasn't intentionally ignoring Xichuan; he was looking up at the forest above, where the sky was brightening, a deep red glow.

It's like a miniature sun rising over there, or... it's on fire.

If it wasn't actually on fire, it seems the last escaped anomaly will be found soon.

"Rimbaud".

Nishikawa heard the sound from before, lowered his head again, and stopped looking at the little bird.

“There’s someone who’s wandered in here. I think I see a Flame Sparrow. Come here and take this person and the big bird away. I’ll go check over there.”

After saying that, X picked up the little bird from the ground and headed towards the light.

He has already collected all three feathers. Suppressing the Flame Sparrow is pointless and could even blind the employees who attack it. He currently only has three employees, so it's not good to send any of them. He might as well go himself.

As for the little bird, it is used to restore the sanity of people who panic after seeing a WAW-class anomaly.

Hearing the sound of grass being trampled, Nishikawa knew that the person had left. If he didn't run now, when would he?

As for X's mutterings, Nishikawa assumed he was on the phone and didn't pay any attention to it. As long as he escaped before that man named Rimbaud arrived, he would be fine.

Just as the footsteps were fading away, the young member of the group suddenly jumped up, intending to run away...

However, he hadn't run more than a few steps when he saw a large bird hidden in the forest. His mind went blank, and he was gripped by panic once again.

When Rimbaud arrived, he saw a stranger running around and a large bird sitting on the ground.

*

Even with city lights, how could those faint lights compete with the brilliance of a bird with such fiery red feathers?

"This is difficult," the brown-haired boy, whose eyes were both wrapped in bandages, rested his chin on his hands and looked towards the person sitting opposite him, relying on his hearing. "Have you contacted Mr. X?"

Mori Ougai looked at the sky outside, which was dyed red, and the "sun" in the middle. He then looked back at his student, who used to regard bandages as a fashion item but was now truly blind, and sighed.

"Lantang-kun said he's already here. What a beautiful yet terrifying bird."

"But did he actually draw this bird?"

Mori Ōgai held the simple sketches left by X, but none of them matched up at all.

Finally, the silent port mafia boss picked up a drawing of a black, long-tailed chicken.

"Could it be this?"

He held the chicken and compared it to the phoenix-like bird outside. "This isn't right, is it?"

Because the picture left by X was completely different from the bird outside, and because of the legend that it was brought to Yokohama by outsiders, they did not initially associate the bird with X.

“I see it, Mr. Mori,” Dazai Osamu, who had gone blind, seemed to sense Mori Ougai’s doubts. “Before it turned into this, the bird did look exactly like the one Mr. X drew.”

He didn't intentionally provoke that chicken, or rather, that bird.

Dazai Osamu simply went back to his home—a container in the port area—and there he saw this dark-colored chicken in a corner.

As a result, the thing caught fire while he was watching it, physically ignited, and shed its unremarkable appearance. Dazai Osamu only saw a golden-red patch before he was completely plunged into darkness.

He was blinded by the fiery feathers.

Then chaos ensued throughout the city. Unlike the previous monsters that couldn't move, it was a flying bird. Ordinary people would freeze in terror upon seeing it, even before they were blinded, and then several different reactions would occur.

The Special Abilities Division initially thought it was psychic ability, but after blinding several agents, they realized it was a monster from X's side.

Dazai Osamu was also discovered by the Port Mafia after going missing, and was given the same look as the Judgment Bird.

Because of this precedent, the Port Mafia did not pursue the legendary "Golden Feather" like the other two local organizations.

Because they probably knew who had taken the money, Mori Ōgai's private treasury simply couldn't withstand the research funding from X and his group.

As one of the local strongmen in Yokohama, and given their cooperative relationship with them, their movements naturally couldn't be kept secret from them.

The highly sought-after "golden feather" could not possibly be a manifestation of the money's supernatural power.

So even though the bird had swaggered into the Port Mafia's territory in a nearly provocative manner, they couldn't make any rash moves. Even Chuuya Nakahara was detained by Kouyou Ozaki.

"I advise you not to keep staring at it."

The leader pointed to the bandage on his face with his sword. Even though he couldn't see, he knew that Mori Ougai would be watching the birds outside.

"I was just wondering where he got all these birds from."

Mori Ougai heeded the advice and withdrew his gaze. Perhaps a healing ability could cure the bird's blindness, but Dazai Osamu was an ultimate anti-ability user, and he could not be healed by abilities.

“These are not products of supernatural abilities. As Verlaine mentioned before, he even has a device that can suppress supernatural abilities. Even you couldn’t make Verlaine directly enter a state of suspended animation.”

A certain purple-eyed black fox suddenly felt a pang of attraction, but alas... neither X nor his subordinates were people he could easily win over. Rather than visitors from a parallel world, they seemed to come from another world entirely.

...

The bright red sky outside suddenly darkened. Has the person who solved the problem finally arrived?

Mori Ougai looked out and saw charred corpses and people rolling around with their eyes covered.

Those were low-level members of the GSS and the Takase-kai; they were probably unlucky souls sent by their higher-ups to scout ahead.

The young man in the white coat was stretching out his arm, and the large, dark "chicken" on his white sleeve was very eye-catching.

"Just as I expected..."

Seeing that the incident had ended before causing too much damage, Mori Ougai was about to express his feelings when he saw the black-haired young man, who had just been acting like someone who had cleaned up the mess, suddenly sway to the side, clearly having been dragged down by the considerable weight of the large bird.

Mori Ōgai's expression froze: "..."

Then he saw the professional bird breeder put the "golden feathers"—no, the "black feathers"—on the ground.

He reached under its wings with both hands and lifted it up, much like he was holding a black chicken.

I even tried to tuck it under my arm, but that failed again. In the end, I held it in my arms like I would a hen incubating eggs.

Instead of leaving with his "hen," the manager said something to it.

The next moment, it spread its wings, regaining its magnificent appearance, but the light it emitted was different from its previous fierceness; instead, it was extremely gentle.

As the light faded, those who had covered their eyes regained their peace; they were no longer in pain, and even their eyes were healed.

Except for Dazai Osamu, who was sitting in the leader's office, because he was sitting too far away and not counted within the scope of the "blessing of light," he was still blind.