Chapter 222 The Third Player
"Eight years ago, Dead Souls, a famous intelligence dealer who was still roaming around Eastern Europe, received an investigation commission about a notorious serial killer couple named Lorenzo Hawthorne and Gwendolyn Riemann.
He completed this commission very well, but unfortunately the result was only half successful - because the client who issued this commission to him died at the hands of Gwendolyn Riemann the day before receiving the information.
The client died, but the data had not yet reached the other party, so the completion of the dead soul's mission was discounted, and the final commission fee could not be obtained.
Then, the dead souls began to focus their attention on Gwendolyn Riemann.
Lorenzo Hawthorne and Gwendolyn Riemann were naturally aware of the investigation and pursuit of the dead souls. After realizing that they could not kill the dead souls, the couple began their escape journey together.
But after a week on the run, the only person who appeared before the dead souls again was the injured Lorenzo - an internal conflict broke out between the couple, and finally Lorenzo killed Gwendolyn and begged the dead souls to let him go.
The dead souls rejected Lorenzo's request and eventually killed him.
The story should have ended here, with the death of Lorenzo and Gwendolyn, and the death of the dead souls a year later, and no one knew anything about them anymore.
But no one knew that eight years ago, Lorenzo had cleverly deceived the dead souls. Gwendolyn did not die, but faked her death and escaped from Eastern Europe.
Seven years after Lorenzo's death, that is, a year ago, a mystery novelist wrote a novel called "The Museum of Wax Unknown". Coincidentally, the story and many characters in the novel all bear traces of the killer couple Lorenzo Hawthorne and Gwendolyn Riemann, and the people they have killed.
The subsequent story then brought about new twists and turns.
Gwendolen, who had faked her death, saw the book "The Museum of Wax with No Name", and then she was convinced that the author of the novel was the dead soul himself.
So more than a month ago, she came to Yokohama, Japan under the pseudonym Fukushima Kyoko, trying to find the writer, who was a dead soul in her eyes.
The writer hid his real information very well, and she did not believe that the information given by Jingfan Publishing House was necessarily complete and correct. She also did not think that the lives of the publishing house and editor who seemed to be the only ones connected to him could threaten him...and might even alarm him.
So she planned several cases carefully, pretending to be the same as the plot in "The Unknown Wax Museum", trying to shape her image in the outside world as a fanatical fan of the writer, using "X" as a code name, and leaving love letters at the scene that were actually invitations to death for Mochizuki Kurumi. The pretense was to imitate the crime, but the actual purpose was to catch the writer who she believed was a dead soul.
With her ability, it is difficult to kill the dead soul. However, it is relatively easy to use this to focus the attention of the Yokohama Police Department and the Special Power Division on these cases, and then use these powers to deal with the dead soul, or expose everything about his past to everyone.
Even the people she killed in these cases, who seemed to correspond to the victims in the novels, were carefully selected prey in order to find the dead souls.
No one would have thought that her purpose was these - smart people are always more likely to believe what they have deduced, such as the killer's purpose was to use public opinion to kill the writer himself; or to kill the writer himself directly.
It seems that no one can stop her thoughts except the dead soul himself who appears and kills her.
But once the dead soul reappears, her goal will be half achieved.
This is the script you wrote for the dead souls.
The reason why you chose me is because after your investigation, you found that I had connections with the port mafia. No matter whether I survive or die, it will advance your plan a big step.
So that's what it is. Am I right, Miss Gwendolen Riemann?"
Dazai Osamu was sitting on a chair.
The chair with a backrest was placed on a piece of ruins. There were broken tiles everywhere around it. The ground looked very uneven and the four legs of the chair seemed a little crooked, but Dazai Osamu sat very steadily and his clothes were barely neat.
He was still wearing the black coat that Saikai Haruto had seen before. Due to the height, the corners of the coat naturally hung on the ground, so it was covered with a lot of dust, and there seemed to be some other marks. Next to him was a climbing rope scattered on the ground, covered with black, brown and gray marks.
However, no one had time to pay attention to these trivial things at this time.
The boy with black curly hair crossed his legs obediently, with a slightly heavy book placed on his legs. He lowered his eyes, as if he was concentrating on the contents of the book, and slowly turned the soft pages to the next one. The tone of his voice was extremely calm and steady, and it did not change at all from beginning to end.
The black coat seemed a little too big for him, making him look like a child wearing adult clothes. In terms of age, this was indeed the case - he was only 14 years old, and there was still a long way to go before he became an adult. The baby fat on his cheeks had only just disappeared.
But one look at his eyes and no one would have such thoughts anymore - those iris-colored eyes were like a whirlpool at the center, like a black hole about to annihilate, capable of strangling all a person's thoughts and ideas.
Dazai Osamu looked at the person he was questioning, who was sitting opposite him.
Gwendoline Riemann.
"According to your plan, if everything goes well, the dead souls and the special power department should have arrived by now."
The black-haired woman sat on the same chair as him.
He had a typical Western look, with a high nose bridge and deep features, but his face looked pale, weak and bloodless, as if he was about to faint. His brown eyes were half closed, his long hair was messy, and the black dye at the end of his hair had faded halfway, forming an ugly color of black and gold. There were still traces of a disguise mask on the edges of his cheeks and temples.
Unlike Dazai Osamu who was sitting upright, the woman seemed to be almost slumped in the chair, with her tattered black oversized coat almost burying her entire upper body.
There was a bullet hole on the right side of her waist that she was covering with her hand. It was unknown how long it had been there, and fresh blood was still oozing out of the wound, dripping onto the ground through the gaps between her fingers, forming a circle that was still expanding.
After hearing Dazai Osamu's question, she was raising her head with difficulty, and her body shook subconsciously - as if she was afraid of him.
"What exactly do you want to do?"
A hoarse female voice came from the darkness, so low that it was almost inaudible.
"If you don't deny it, I'll take it as if you've admitted it, Miss."
Dazai Osamu smiled and closed the book in his hand. The words "Nameless Wax Museum" on the cover were particularly clear in the dim space.
"What if I tell you that the dead soul and Mochizuki Kurumi are not the same person?"
"No... Impossible." Gwendolen struggled harder and screamed at Dazai Osamu with a ferocious expression: "He is the dead soul!"
"I saw those messages. I will never admit my mistake!" Her eyes were terribly stubborn, with unseen malice: "That's him!"
When she read the book, she almost immediately connected the heroine in the novel with her husband, her husband and herself. After finishing reading, she quickly connected the author named "Mochizuki Kurumi" with the dead souls.
Only the dead souls themselves could truly know what she had experienced personally.
"You really are a person who doesn't understand what others say, and you are so stupid that it makes people want to laugh."
Dazai Osamu sighed and said, the smile on his lips was light but with a hint of mockery, and his voice was even gentle:
"You stubbornly believe everything based on the so-called 'information'. Have you ever thought about the possibility that you got the information about Kurumi Mochizuki's creation from someone else?"
Gwendolen pursed her lips tightly and said nothing.
Dazai Osamu's brisk voice continued to ring: "You don't even dare to contact him again, or meet him to confirm it, but you are stubbornly convinced that Mochizuki Kurumi is the dead soul...Are you afraid that he will find you and die in his hands like Lorenzo eight years ago?"
"I'm afraid Lorenzo himself will be so angry at your folly that he will crawl out of his grave - oh, no, I forgot, he doesn't have a grave at all."
This was probably what "murder and heartbreak" meant. Gwendoline cared about Lorenzo the most, and she was so angry at his harsh and brief words that she spit out blood. Her face instantly turned red and white, and she looked even angrier than before.
But she moved her fingers, but still couldn't make any other movements - all her limbs had been broken by Dazai Osamu during the previous interrogation.
She closed her eyes, as if to hide her fear of the boy in front of her, and weak words came out of her pale mouth: "Shut up...you devil...I didn't do that!"
It's so scary.
The young man in front of me.
Everything was going well at first...but once she brought him deep into the abandoned factory, everything went wrong.
She didn't understand where he got all the medicines for her, and her special abilities had no effect on him at all.
The interrogation methods he used on her were too sophisticated, and what was even more terrifying was that he treated her as if she were not a human being or a living being.
That feeling was enough to make any living and intelligent human being feel extremely terrified, and even a killer like her was completely unable to resist it.
It is impossible to imagine what he had gone through in the past to become so horrible.
And his eyes... Can anyone really see through a person's heart? In front of him, it was as if she had no secrets at all, and everything was exposed nakedly in his eyes.
Gwendolen felt an indescribable resistance and fear towards him.
"Eh? But I still want to continue talking." Dazai Osamu stood up and walked in front of Gwendolyn, bending slightly, the smile on his lips did not change even a little bit, and his voice was cold and vicious:
"Let me be a kind person and give you an answer, okay?"
"In fact, you are still afraid in your heart, afraid that Mochizuki Kurumi is really the dead soul himself, right? Why don't you admit that Mochizuki Kurumi may not be a dead soul, but is really just an ordinary person? Is it because you have actually thought about it a long time ago? But he must be a dead soul - otherwise how can you overcome your fear of dead souls in your heart? How can you convince yourself not to avenge Lorenzo and not run away from the dead soul again like you did eight years ago?"
"So, Mochizuki Kurumi must be the dead soul. You are even constantly reinforcing this knowledge to yourself. He cannot be anyone else. You just need to turn a blind eye to everything else. Killing Mochizuki Kurumi is killing the dead soul, and killing Mochizuki Kurumi will achieve your revenge. The dead soul will die in your hands, and you don't need to run away anymore. As for the real dead soul himself? Who would care? Anyway, you wouldn't."
The mockery and coldness disappeared from Dazai Osamu's voice, and the smile on his face became empty and cruel, and then disappeared completely from his lips.
He made his final judgment on her: "This is the real truth."
— was completely denied.
Everything she had now, everything she had left, and her entire being were completely overturned and denied.
“No… No, no aa ...
Gwendolyn's eyes widened, and she tried to deny it, but she just let out an inhuman scream.
There was only a hollow fear and despair in those eyes that seemed to drag everything into the abyss and freeze.
It was as if despair and fear rose from the soul.
Everything went wrong from the moment she saw this boy who looked only fourteen years old.
——That’s totally wrong.
Now even she herself was in a trance and couldn't tell whether what he said was true or false? Did she really think so, just like he said? Did she really not think so? Was she really brainwashing and convincing herself with these things over and over again?
Gwendolen's thoughts became extremely chaotic and confused. This feeling made her miserable.
Dazai Osamu's words kept repeating themselves in her ears.
...Really not?
...Is there some?
...Is the writer named "Mochizuki Kurumi" really a dead soul?
...maybe not?
She couldn't tell the difference anymore.
"Is this a complete breakdown?"
Dazai Osamu's voice echoed in the empty space, bringing with it a dull silence.
As if by magic, he produced a pistol and pointed it directly at Gwendolen's forehead.
"What a boring performance. It's about time, so I'll just let you die."
"You're really stupid, by the way." He curled his fingers.
The trigger was pulled.
"Bang--"
The moment the gunshots rang out, a single black bird hanging on a dry branch outside the factory was startled and flew away, flapping its wings.
A few minutes later, when Haruto Saikai and Sakurai from the Special Powers Division entered the long-abandoned factory, the only living person they saw was Dazai Osamu.
The woman, whom he had identified as "Gwendoline Riemann", fell to the ground. Her eyes were empty and her pupils were beginning to dilate. There was a bullet hole between her eyebrows.
What's weird is that there seems to be a hint of... a smile of relief at the corner of her mouth?
Xihai Qingdou was completely stunned.
"We're late, both the Special Forces and Mr. Mochizuki himself."
Dazai Osamu tilted his head and blinked his black eyelashes a few times.
He ignored Sakurai who was standing in front of him with an attitude of facing a powerful enemy, stretched out his hand in front of Saikai Haruto and pulled out a pistol at him, and his voice sounded normal.
"The drama, which was not grand or interesting at all, has now come to an end."
He didn't even take out his gun.
...Are you late?
A trace of confusion arose in Xihai Qingdou's heart.
But this is indeed the fastest speed he can do.
From the time that "Mochizuki Kaoru" got all the information about "X", that is, Gwendolyn Riemann, from "Yuen Chiaki" this morning, to now finding her exact location, and excluding all smoke bomb options, tracking all the way to find here... it has been less than six hours, right?
Of course, if he hadn't had this smart (stupid) and clever (idiot) member from the Special Powers Division who suddenly appeared from nowhere following him, and if he hadn't been able to get rid of him, the time might have been shortened by another hour.
Was this speed considered slow in his eyes? Xi Hai Qing Dou roughly estimated in his mind that perhaps less than an hour had passed since this guy was kidnapped here.
...Even if we calculate it more carefully, if we remove the time they spent on the way and encountered resistance from the port mafia, Xi Haiqing Dou can even shorten this time by nearly an hour...
Maybe Dazai Osamu had just been kidnapped, or even before he had time to be kidnapped, he had already found Gwendoline.
Saikai Haruto now even has the urge to suspect that the guys from the port mafia they met along the way might have been sent by Dazai Osamu.
But how could this be possible? Why would Dazai Osamu be kidnapped and then help the robbers?
There was absolutely no need... and no reason for him to do this.
Normal people probably would have this idea.
but.
...a sense of dissonance.
Saikai Haruto frowned slightly and looked at Dazai Osamu without saying a word, his eyes were clear.
An unprecedented strong sense of violation rose in his heart.
——Something very, very, very important must have happened.
...Keep calm, don't panic. He should be able to hold on.
Saikai Haruto's mood suddenly became unusually calm.
At least it seems that Dazai Osamu has no ill will towards him now.
But that in itself is something wrong.
"Do I know you? Or do you know me?"
After a long while, he suddenly spoke, calmly pushing the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose. Behind the glasses, a trace of genuine confusion appeared in his originally calm peach blossom eyes, but his voice was as calm as dead water and without any ripples.
"This one, from the Port Mafia," he paused, "...an unknown member?"
"...So now we know each other."
Dazai Osamu smiled a strange, gentle smile. "I am a member of the Port Mafia, Dazai Osamu. I know that Mochizuki-sensei is also someone she wants to deal with, right?"
...and even a friendly attitude?
Saikai Haruto blinked rapidly.
And he seemed to be in a very stable mood. But for Dazai Osamu, he was a little nervous, which was not the right thing for him.
Xihai Qingdou seemed to have sensed something.
"Well, Dazai-kun." He nodded at him naturally and asked directly, "Did you kill this man?"
Dazai Osamu nodded slightly.
"I originally wanted to see if the guy who dared to kidnap the Hong Kong Mafia was a newcomer sent by a hostile force, but it turned out that she just simply wanted to... kill anyone who was related to the Hong Kong Mafia."
Dazai Osamu said: "In this case, I will just have to kill her first."
Mochizuki Kaoru looked at him deeply.
"Is that all?"
There was no hostility, aggression or defensiveness in his tone, but Dazai's hand, which was tucked under the long sleeves of his coat, twitched slightly.
He nodded silently, but a sense of uneasiness suddenly arose in his heart, which had been full of confidence.
...Thinking again, was there something wrong with his answer just now?
Why did he react like this?
By the way, is it a problem with his identity?
"She wanted to kill me, so I killed her. Isn't that normal? Otherwise, I would be the one dead here now."
Dazai said: "As for other things, the port mafia doesn't care."
Mochizuki Kaoru nodded to him, and the indifference and vigilance in her eyes gradually dissipated, as if she was affirming what he said.
"She wanted to kill me, and a lot of other people, too."
As he spoke, he glanced at Gwendolyn who was lying on the ground without caring: "It seems that it is good for her to die like this."
Then he looked at Sakurai again and said, "Sakurai-kun, the case can be closed now."
——That’s right.
Dazai Osamu felt relieved and an innocent and well-behaved smile appeared on his face.
That's right…it was exactly the same result as he had imagined in his mind.
...Ah? Really? Is this the end of the case?
Being stared at by the two people, Sakurai looked at Mochizuki Kaoru and then at Dazai Osamu, hesitating to speak, and groaned in her heart——
However, Mr. Mochizuki, do you really believe what a member of the Port Mafia says? What if he is lying to us? And Mr. Mochizuki, your vigilance disappears too quickly. This is a member of the Port Mafia? Didn't he just kill someone?
...Also, the Port Mafia actually didn't even spare 13 or 14-year-old children? In short, it's worthy of being the Port Mafia.
"So we can go back now?"
Mochizuki Kaoru is still asking.
At the end, Sakurai nodded.
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