Chapter 19: The Double Black
While Chuuya Nakahara was arguing with Osamu Dazai, he didn't notice that the reflection on the water's surface subtly changed its movement without Dazai moving.
Dazai Osamu's peripheral vision precisely caught this subtle anomaly on the water's surface. A wicked sense of excitement quietly rose within him, and his arguing with Nakahara Chuuya abruptly ceased. His face instantly switched to an exaggerated expression of astonishment, his eyes wide as he pointed at the water and exclaimed, "Chuuya, look at the water!"
Nakahara, who was in the middle of an argument, was startled by his abrupt interruption and tone. He subconsciously looked in the direction he was pointing and saw Dazai Osamu reflected on the water, looking at him with his head turned to the side. The face in the reflection no longer had the exaggerated expression that Dazai Osamu was deliberately making, but instead had a playful smile on it.
Chuuya stared for two seconds, then suddenly realized something. He turned to look at Dazai Osamu, whose face still wore that deliberately surprised expression, and whose finger was still pointing straight at the water, as if afraid that Chuuya wouldn't see the difference—his actions and expression were equally exaggerated.
He looked down at Dazai Osamu again. The reflection didn't reach out; instead, his arms hung loosely at his sides, his posture relaxed, his head tilted to the side, his eyes still fixed on him, and the corners of his mouth still curved in an ambiguous arc.
It's not an illusion.
The actions... were completely inconsistent.
Chuuya Nakahara's cobalt blue pupils contracted sharply, and he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He kept turning his head back and forth, first looking at [Dazai Osamu], then looking at Dazai Osamu again, repeating this several times, finally confirming: it wasn't his eyes that were wrong, but rather the world itself. [Dazai Osamu] and his shadow could indeed perform different actions simultaneously.
In other words, the shadow of Dazai Osamu... seems to be alive, and it is even detached from the subject and acting independently.
In his lifetime, Chuuya Nakahara never imagined that a person's shadow could exist independently of the main body.
Having spent years navigating a dark world rife with gunfire and supernatural abilities, he considered himself to have nerves of steel. Yet, this scene, defying all logic, still sent a chill down his spine like never before. He believed this was a phenomenon that no known supernatural ability could explain, but rather something akin to supernatural forces or mystical phenomena.
Thinking about ghosts, Chuuya Nakahara felt a chill run down his spine from being exposed to the sun. He couldn't help but rub his arms and take a few steps back until Osamu Dazai was closer to the water than him before he stopped.
Seeing that he looked like he had to accept reality, Dazai Osamu's smile widened. Then he squatted down, stretched out his long fingers, and suddenly poked them into the water.
Whoosh!
The calm water was disturbed, and ripples spread rapidly. The reflection in the water was instantly torn apart and distorted, breaking into countless shimmering fragments of light and color, and the face with the enigmatic smile also became fragmented.
[Dazai Osamu] withdrew his wet fingers, watching with great interest as the water gradually returned to calm. When the reflection solidified again, the face on the water, identical to his, still wore an expression different from his own, and continued to make different movements, as if his touch had had no effect on it.
"See that, Chuuya?" [Dazai Osamu] stood up, flicking the water droplets off his hands, his iris-colored eyes gleaming with a strange light. "It doesn't react to my touch at all! And—" he deliberately dragged out the words, with a hint of inexplicable smugness, "My [No Longer Human] is ineffective against it. So, this doesn't seem to be some silly prank by a bored ability user."
These words struck Nakahara Chuuya like a heavy hammer, hitting his already tense nerves.
Based on the unique nature of Dazai Osamu's ability, No Longer Human, which nullifies his powers, Chuuya Nakahara ruled out the possibility that this accident was man-made.
To be honest, when he discovered that the shadow of [Dazai Osamu] really had its own consciousness, he felt extremely horrified. For a long time afterward, he would turn around from time to time to stare at the mirror image behind him and observe it carefully to see if it had also developed consciousness and was quietly observing him from some corner.
This also caused him to suffer from mild shadow PTSD for a considerable period of time afterward. Whether he was reviewing documents in the office, taking breaks from tasks, or even when he was alone late at night, he would unconsciously turn his head to glance at the wall and the ground behind him, or any place that could cast a shadow.
He couldn't help but stare at the blurry black outline at his feet, his heart pounding uneasily in his chest, while he wondered suspiciously whether his shadow also possessed consciousness, whether it was lurking in that darkness, quietly observing his every move in some way he couldn't perceive.
Even the black shadow cast on the ground worried him so much, let alone looking in a mirror. To him, tangible things could be dealt with by punching them, but what was most frightening was this intangible existence, linked to ghosts and monsters, which was likely beyond the reach of physical attacks.
Just imagining the scene, such as his own shadow staring at him from some corner and then silently cracking a smile, was enough to make his hair stand on end and goosebumps uncontrollably crawl all over his arms.
However, even if they discover this, there's nothing they can do until they figure out the reason.
"This matter..." Chuuya Nakahara took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly, "must be reported to the leader immediately!"
Although we haven't yet seen any aggressiveness in this thing, unknown things often need to be restricted to the greatest extent possible in order to control it in time when an accident occurs.
“Wait, Chuuya.” Dazai Osamu’s teasing expression vanished instantly. He reached out and pressed down on Chuuya’s shoulder, his voice suddenly becoming deep and carrying an unquestionable tone, “Leave this to me for now.”
Those iris-colored eyes stared directly at Chuuya, devoid of their usual frivolity, filled only with a bottomless calm, and some complex emotions that Chuuya could hardly decipher.
With just that one simple sentence and one glance, Chuuya Nakahara's doubts and urge to report it were strangely greatly calmed down. He stared intently at Dazai Osamu, trying to find more clues on his face, but to no avail. So in the end, he just clicked his tongue in annoyance and shook off the other's hand on his shoulder.
"...Do as you please. But don't mess it up, you bastard." He ultimately chose to trust. This trust was built upon countless battles fought side by side and the mutual reliance on each other's backs on the brink of life and death; it was heavy and unwavering.
Later, when Chuuya Nakahara couldn't contain his curiosity and privately asked Osamu Dazai what was going on with this strange shadow, Dazai simply spread his hands innocently, his face full of bewilderment, as if to say, "I don't know either: Who knows? I woke up one day and found that it seemed a bit disobedient. Maybe I'm just unlucky enough to be haunted by something unclean?"
He even maliciously leaned closer to Chuuya Nakahara and teased him in an amazed tone, "Chuuya, aren't you scared? I thought a shorty like Chuuya would be terrified, thinking it was a ghost, and would be screaming and jumping around!"
The eerie shadow did indeed seem to be associated with ghosts, and Chuuya was initially terrified, especially the moment he first discovered it; the fear stemming from the unknown almost made him hold his breath. But the shadow only followed Dazai, and it always resembled Dazai. Furthermore, Dazai was always by his side whenever he saw the shadow, and having two people together was always better than being alone; over time, he became immune to it.
Chuuya Nakahara once tried to communicate with the shadow of Osamu Dazai. He found a clear full-length mirror and pushed Dazai in front of it. When the shadow of Dazai in the mirror began to move differently from the real person, Chuuya knew that it had arrived.
The shadow stood silently in the mirror, its lips slightly upturned, moving silently as if telling a story, but Chuuya Nakahara heard no sound from it.
He tried to communicate to no avail, and was finally told by Dazai Osamu that the other person's voice seemed unable to be transmitted through the mirror.
"Of course, if Chuuya can read lips, then your communication won't be difficult."
Of course, Chuuya Nakahara understood lip reading. He held his breath, leaned closer to the mirror, and focused intently on deciphering the silent language.
He was an expert in lip reading, one of the essential skills for a mafia executive. However, no matter how hard he tried to decipher it, the movements of Dazai's lips in the mirror resembled some meaningless random combination of letters, completely incompatible with any known language or vocabulary. He even tried to imitate those bizarre lip shapes, but all that came out of his throat was a series of incomprehensible gurgling sounds.
"...What's going on?" Chuuya Nakahara frowned, a sense of frustration welling up inside him. He even began to doubt whether his lip-reading ability had declined because he hadn't used it for too long.
Just then, a burst of unrestrained laughter suddenly came from the side. He turned his head and saw Dazai Osamu clutching his stomach, laughing so hard that he was doubled over, tears almost streaming down his face. The exaggerated laughter sounded particularly jarring in the quiet room.
In an instant, Zhongyuan Zhong understood.
He'd been tricked, completely and utterly tricked! He'd been tricked by the bastard in front of him, and by the equally bastard's reflection in the mirror!
The so-called "unreadable lip reading" was simply meaningless mutterings deliberately made by the shadow at the instruction of Osamu Dazai.
(At this point, Chuuya Nakahara was unaware that the shadow of [Dazai Osamu] and he were essentially the same person. If he had known, his anger at being tricked would probably have been even greater.)
"Damn you, Dazai!!"
Enraged, Chuuya Nakahara punched Dazai Osamu, but the latter skillfully and nimbly dodged the punch. Then he punched the mirror, shattering it into countless fragments. Each of these fragments wore a pleased smile and stared intently at Chuuya, which only fueled Chuuya's anger.
If he wasn't mistaken, that bastard's mirrored eyes were clearly full of mockery!
He heard Dazai Osamu's merciless mockery in his ears and saw Dazai Osamu's glaringly mocking expression in front of him. He felt extremely angry. In the end, since he was not able to pass through the mirror and hit the reflection, he could only settle for second best and vent all his anger on the bastard partner in front of him.
They passed the time playfully fighting, their fists whistling, stones flying, and shouts echoing in the fading sunlight. Dazai, as an observer, could only watch as it all unfolded.
Even if he caused this, it seems like he has nothing to do with it. He will always just be an observer.
As Dazai Osamu left the mirror and lost the vessel through which he could be seen, he returned once again to his own dark corner, occasionally observing the world from a distorted perspective.
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