Piggy Bank and Candy
A small clinic on Leibo Street.
After dinner, Tsurumi Kawakami and Dazai Osamu played rock-paper-scissors, and the loser had to wash the dishes.
Originally, the game was supposed to be decided in one round, but someone cheated, so after two out of three rounds, Tsurumi Kawakami looked at Dazai Osamu with his right hand raised.
"Dazai, you lost again. This time, you have to honor your bet and go wash the dishes." Tsurumi Kawa said smugly to Dazai Osamu, whose face was long and sullen, and quickly ran out of the kitchen and upstairs.
When Dazai Osamu finished washing the dishes and went upstairs, he opened the door to his room and saw Tsurumi Kawakami sitting cross-legged on the tatami mat, holding a piggy bank.
Dazai Osamu stared at the pink piggy bank he was holding for a few seconds, then gave a disgusted look: "When did you buy this? Your taste is terrible."
Tsurumi Ryu was sorting through the change he had received that day, including the two thousand yen left over from buying groceries and the twenty thousand yen he had taken from robbing Nakahara Chuuya.
Hearing Dazai Osamu's comment, Tsurumi Kawa blinked, looked down at the adorable piggy bank, and held it high in front of Dazai: "I saw it when I was buying groceries this morning. I bought it because I thought it was cute. Doesn't Dazai think it's pretty?"
Dazai Osamu tilted his head back to avoid it, and disdainfully pushed aside the pink piggy bank in front of him. Hearing Ryu's question, the corner of his mouth twitched: "Huh? What's cute about it? This chubby pig?"
The black-haired, golden-eyed boy lowered his head, his fine hair obscuring his cheeks and dazzling golden eyes. He carefully examined the piggy bank he had chosen and decided it wasn't as bad as Dazai had said.
"It's clearly Dazai's own fault for having poor judgment," Tsurumi Kawa said softly, turning to block Dazai's view and stuffing the scattered items he had just tidied into his piggy bank.
Dazai Osamu: "You idiot, I heard you. Watch out or I'll steal your piggy bank."
Tsurumi Kawa immediately hugged the pink pig tightly, turned around warily, and raised his fist to threaten, "No, if you dare to steal, I'll tell Dr. Mori that you also stole medicine from the medicine cabinet yesterday."
Dazai Osamu rested his chin on his hand, his left eye, which wasn't wrapped in bandages, staring intently at Tsurumi Kawaru. After a few seconds, he raised his hands: "You little tattletale. But if you dare to say anything, Mori-san will know that you let me steal the medicine."
Tsurumi Kawakami looked away guiltily, paused, loosened his fist, ignored Dazai Osamu, and hid the piggy bank in the closet.
Seeing his guilty look, Dazai Osamu smiled silently, but he didn't let Tsurumi Ryu off the hook, following behind him and drawing out his words: "Eh—Ryu, aren't you going to tell on him?"
Tsurumi Kawaru hid his piggy bank and almost bumped into Dazai Osamu when he turned around. He looked at the grinning Dazai, his eyebrows furrowed, and after thinking for a while, he reached out his hand to him: "Then give me the medicine you stole yesterday."
Osamu Dazai: "?"
Tsurumi Kawaru: "Give me the medicine, and I'll put it back. That way, I won't tell Dr. Mori."
After spending some time together, Dazai Osamu still sometimes couldn't understand or keep up with Tsurumi Kawakami's thoughts.
He squinted at the righteous and indignant Tsurumi Kawakami in front of him, took a few steps back, clutched his coat pocket, and said in an exaggerated tone, "Eh? I don't remember where I put it, maybe I should just forget about it."
Looking at his slightly exaggerated expression, Tsurumi Kawaru stared at Dazai Osamu suspiciously for a few moments, and then withdrew his hand as if he had breathed a sigh of relief.
"Then let's forget about it."
Dazai Osamu paused, looking at Tsurumi Nagaru who had quickly given up, and felt that this performance was somewhat pointless.
So he looked at Tsurumi River with a resentful gaze and said in a low but audible voice, "Ah, the pills were right in the coat pocket, how could you not find them, you idiot."
After saying that, Dazai Osamu quickly took out a white bottle from his pocket, opened the cap, and poured the contents into his mouth in front of Tsurumi Kawaru.
"Dazai!"
Upon seeing this scene, Tsurumi Kawakami's pupils dilated in shock, and he rushed forward, punching Dazai Osamu in the stomach.
"You've taken Dr. Mori's medicine again! Throw it out right now!"
Caught off guard, Dazai Osamu was punched in the stomach and bent over like a shrimp. The sharp pain from the punch made him vomit instinctively.
Unexpectedly, this turn of events led Dazai Osamu to look at Tsurumi Nagaru, who was about to deliver another punch, with horror, and quickly called out to stop him: "Wait—"
He raised his right hand and showed the white bottle from before. The small, thumb-thick bottle had an unremarkable outer packaging and looked very similar to the bottles used to hold pills in pharmacies.
Dazai Osamu twisted open the bottle cap and pointed it at Tsurumi Kawa: "This isn't medicine. It's candy I bought this morning. If you don't believe me, you can smell it. It has a cloyingly sweet industrial saccharin smell."
He shoved the bottle in front of Tsurumi Kawaru's nose, and Dazai Osamu straightened up, clutching his stomach. He wiped his mouth as he watched the other take the bottle, sniffing it with a hint of disbelief.
"See? I didn't lie to you, did I?"
Tsurumi Kawakami put down the bottle, stared at Dazai Osamu suspiciously for a few moments, and then his gaze fell on Dazai's coat pocket, from which he had just taken the white bottle.
Dazai Osamu paused, then reached into his pocket: "No, I didn't hide anything."
Tsurumi River looked away and handed the bottle back to him: "Why do you like taking medicine randomly?"
Even though she wasn't sick, when she saw the medicine in Dr. Mori's medicine cabinet, she was like a child seeing candy in a store, always excitedly looking through it, stealing some, and then secretly eating it.
Although Tsurumi Kawakuri rarely gets sick, he knows that medicine should only be taken when he is feeling unwell or sick.
Although at first I thought Dazai Osamu was injured when I saw him wrapping bandages around his body, Tsurumi Kawakami later realized that Dazai Osamu was not injured and did not need to wrap bandages, just like his eye that was always wrapped in bandages.
Dazai Osamu tightened the cap on the bottle, then put it in his coat pocket, saying in a casual and lazy tone, "Maybe it's because I'm bored."
Tsurumi Kawaru frowned, trying to explain the dangers of taking medicine indiscriminately: "But it's not good to take medicine casually when you're not sick."
Seeing his serious expression and the earnest look in his golden eyes, Dazai Osamu twitched the corner of his mouth, lowered his eyelashes, and his iris-shaped eyes were filled with indifference.
He glanced at Tsurumi Kawakami indifferently, and said sarcastically, "Do you think living is a valuable and meaningful thing?"
Tsurumi Kawakami frowned, looking at Dazai Osamu with disapproval and incomprehension. In his world, because of monsters and demons, the outlying villages and towns were always plagued by these things. But in order to protect their families and homes, every time a monster tide broke out, people would pick up any weapons they could find and fight alongside the heroes.
The education and experiences Liu received from a young age instilled in him a kind heart towards all living beings, and a heartfelt appreciation and cherishment of life.
Therefore, he could not understand Dazai Osamu's misanthropic thoughts. He recalled the descriptions of the beauty of life in his mind, trying to make Dazai Osamu understand the beauty of life.
Dazai Osamu realized what Ryu was thinking, raised his hand to yawn, and interrupted him in a casual tone: "Ugh, that idiot Ryu is so annoying with his chatter."
Tsurumi Kawa pursed his lips, looked at the unyielding Dazai Osamu, and swallowed the rest of his words.
-
Another spring rain fell, and the sky was still overcast and gray.
The continuous drizzle lasted for several days, and the air was filled with the smell of grass and earth. Leibo Street was full of potholes, and when it rained, the rainwater gathered together to form muddy puddles.
The air was exceptionally humid; taking a breath, Tsurumi Kawaru felt his lungs fill with moisture. Staring at the gray sky, he sneezed, rubbing his slightly itchy nose, finding rainy days utterly distasteful.
The rain not only made Leibo Street look even more dilapidated, but the garbage piled up in the corners also began to ferment after the spring rain, and various small flying insects became active.
The number of people coming to the clinic has increased again in the past few days, and Tsurumi Kawakami is busy with all sorts of things. While he was helping Mori Ogai, he overheard them talking about how the world in Yokohama was changing.
After cramming on Yokohama's underworld for a few days, he was able to match the organizations they mentioned with the ones in his mind.
News of the Port Mafia leader's illness has spread, and GGS and Takase will put aside their grudges and unite to suppress the Port Mafia.
In addition to the skirmishes between their respective subordinate groups, a few days ago the Port Mafia attacked an armory at the dock, several other warehouses nearby were destroyed, and the armory was looted.
It is said that the Mafia leader at the port was furious and not only sent a large number of people to investigate the attackers, but also deployed the Black Lizards.
Tsurumi Kawakami listened intently, but he didn't quite understand the term "black lizard." He looked up at Mori Ougai, who was disinfecting, and asked, "Dr. Mori, what is a black lizard? A black lizard?"
"Haha, how could that be? The Black Lizards are the armed forces of the Port Mafia." The tattooed man, who was sitting and waiting for his wounds to be treated, laughed as he explained to Tsurumi Nagaru.
Tsurumi Kawakami nodded and asked him, "Have you found out who attacked us?"
The tattooed man was very easy to talk to and didn't mind his interruption. He just pondered for a while and said, "Although I don't know exactly who did it, it's definitely one of the other two organizations."
Tsurumi Nagare thought about it and agreed that it made a lot of sense, so he nodded in agreement and was about to ask some more questions about the port Mafia.
At that moment, Mori Ougai came over with sterilized supplies and interrupted them: "Alright, Ryu, go check on Dazai. Also, remember that if you're going out in the next few days, it's best if you two go together."
Tsurumi Kawakami shut his mouth, put down the bandage in his hand, nodded to Mori Ougai in agreement, and turned to leave the room.
Outside, Dazai Osamu was nestled on the sofa, fiddling with a scrambled Rubik's Cube. When he saw Mori come out, he beckoned him over and asked, "What did Mr. Mori say?"
"Dr. Mori said that if he goes out, we should go together." After repeating this sentence, Tsurumi Kawa looked around, then leaned close to Dazai Osamu and whispered what he had overheard inside.
"So the explosion we heard the night before last was probably the Mafia's weapons depot at the port that was bombed."
Dazai Osamu paused in his actions, looked up at the outside, and turned to ask him, "Are we going to the supermarket today?"
Tsurumi Kawakami: "Eh? I'll go check the refrigerator."
He ran into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, glanced inside, and then shouted back to Dazai, "That's enough for today. Let's go tomorrow."
Dazai Osamu stood up and stretched. He placed the restored Rubik's Cube on the table, tugged at his coat, and walked out.
Tsurumi Kawakami ran to his side, shared half of the apple in his hand with him, and the two stood at the door with their backs to the gate, looking at the Leibo Street shrouded in dark clouds, chatting idly.
"Dazai, will it be sunny tomorrow?"
"have no idea."
"Dazai, I want to watch TV."
"Go."
"Dazai, do you want to watch it with me?"
"Tch, only kids watch cartoon channels."
Are you going?
"……go."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
