Chapter 238 The Third Player
Oda Sakunosuke has a pen pal whom he has known for three years.
...No, to be more precise and if one-sided "acquaintance" is included, he has actually known that "pen pal" for five years.
Ever since he...read a novel and decided to give up killing and become a novelist.
--Five years ago, Oda Sakunosuke was 15 years old[1] and was still a killer whose life was filled with killing and only killing. However, a novel he came across by chance and the author of a novel he encountered by coincidence changed the trajectory of his life and made him think about giving up killing and becoming a novelist - "I would write a novel about the story of a killer who appeared in a novel and stopped killing people"[2].
Why did the unknown killer give up killing people? What was his life like after he gave up killing people? It was because of such doubts and the desire to clarify these questions that Oda Sakunosuke was tempted by the writer's words "Continue writing it yourself" and thus came up with the idea of "writing it myself".
Although due to some cautious reasons, he has not actually started writing even after five years since he gave up killing, Oda Sakunosuke has indeed maintained this determination and has never wavered.
During this period, although he had the idea of "continue writing", Odasaku still couldn't help but develop some curiosity about the prototype of the "killer who no longer kills" - yes, he inadvertently learned from the writer he met by chance that the "killer" who appeared in the novel had a "prototype" living in reality.
Although he never thought that he would actually meet him in real life, it was still difficult for Oda Sakunosuke not to be curious about him.
And the "pen pal" he had known for three years was exactly the "prototype" mentioned by the author.
Oda Sakunosuke discovered this only half a year ago, two and a half years after he became friends with him.
The pen name of that "pen pal" is "Mochizuki Kurumi", and her real name is "Mochizuki Kaoru". She is a well-known mystery novelist in Yokohama, no, even in Japan.
He regarded the opportunity of meeting Oda Sakunosuke as an accidental "necessity" that came from a whim - that was a cutting-edge mystery novelist. He first noticed the name "Mochizuki Kurumi" in the teahouse he often visited and read books there. His name was printed on the cover of a novel placed on an idle bookshelf in the teahouse for guests to view, and on the book in the hands of the writer who reminded him to "write it yourself."
The writer referred to Mochizuki Kurumi as “a younger generation.”
As a result, Oda Sakunosuke developed the curiosity to "read the novels written by him."
Then he was naturally attracted by his writing style and stories. His novels did not have any characters like the "killer who gave up killing" in another novel he had read, but they were still vivid and shocking, with a different kind of vitality. From his novels, Oda Sakunosuke got a feeling similar to that of the other book, but different from it. It was a very subtle emotion, and it seemed to have a little "empathy" that he was not aware of. At that time, Oda Sakunosuke had not yet realized what that emotion was.
After reading the novel, Oda Sakunosuke hesitated for a year and began to try to send letters to the other party as a reader.
Then, a lucky thing happened - the already famous writer sent a reply to this unknown "lucky reader".
After receiving the reply and reading the contents of the letter, Oda Sakunosuke naturally sent a reply to Mochizuki Kurumi.
After that, the two of them communicated with each other through letters in the relationship of "author" and "reader" for a whole year.
Sometimes even Oda Sakunosuke himself finds it incredible - for some reason, although there was a situation where they didn't send letters to each other for a long time, they didn't really lose contact completely. Instead, after that period of time, one day they suddenly reconnected through letters and never lost contact since then.
Not only did they not lose contact, but from one day on, Oda Sakunosuke's contacts with the other party suddenly began to become regular... After a long time passed, the two of them had unknowingly developed a relationship where they could casually chat about interesting things in each other's lives in letters and could call each other "friends" without hesitation.
This change was subtle and silent. It was the result of the accumulation of countless letters between them. It was made up of various small events until one day, the sand gathered into a tower and the water gathered into an ocean... The quantitative change gradually gave rise to a qualitative change, and Oda Sakunosuke finally discovered these changes belatedly.
But the first time I really felt the reality was last year, when Oda Sakunosuke saw in a letter from Mochizuki Kurumi that she mentioned her past in a vague way.
Perhaps it was something like "empathy between killers", coupled with some of Oda Sakunosuke's still sharp and not completely rusty intuition, and after reading the letter, the information exchanged in every letter between them in the past gradually emerged in his mind...all these clues came together, and he suddenly realized that "Mochizuki Kurumi" was not only the "descendant" of the author of the novel he read, but also the prototype of the killer who appeared in the novel and chose to "give up killing" at the end of the novel.
——Before receiving the letter from the other party, Oda Sakunosuke also inadvertently mentioned his past in a letter sent to the other party - his past as a "killer".
From this, he suddenly realized that the relationship between him and "Mochizuki Kurumi" had leaped to such a distance without him knowing when.
They can share and talk about each other's past lives frankly and without any scruples, and will not have any hesitation or regret about talking about it.
Is it because they have only ever communicated through letters and have never met in real life or exchanged real contact information, so even if they passed each other on the street they would only regard each other as strangers, so they would open their hearts to each other?
Oda Sakunosuke thinks that this is probably not the case.
Although he knew this information, Oda Sakunosuke's relationship with the other party remained the same as before, without any change, and he did not ask the other party more about his past and present thoughts... Perhaps for Oda Sakunosuke, the only change was that the curiosity about "what the prototype of the killer looks like now" that occasionally appeared in his mind before has since sunk into his mind and has never appeared again.
"Author and reader", "close friends who have never met" - this is how Oda Sakunosuke positioned the relationship between him and Mochizuki Kurumi.
...a week ago.
Because of this relationship, it was suddenly broken one day a week ago.
It all started with a letter from Kurumi Mochizuki, a sudden and unexpected letter in which she expressed the wish to meet him.
For some reason, in the three years before this, as if they had maintained some kind of inexplicable tacit understanding, neither he nor Mochizuki Kurumi had ever mentioned the topic of "wanting to exchange real contact information" or "let's meet" in any of their letters. Oda Sakunosuke had never even had such an idea, as if such an idea had been subconsciously deleted from his mind and ignored...
But after Mochizuki Kurumi suddenly mentioned it to him, Oda Sakunosuke never thought of refusing or hesitating, but chose to accept it naturally, as if it was just an ordinary and natural thing. Just like they chose to send each other every letter in the past three years.
The time when Oda Sakunosuke met with the other party was a relatively sunny afternoon. Whether it was Oda Sakunosuke or Mochizuki Kurumi, whose real name was "Mochizuki Kaoru", neither of them had any awkward situation of "pen pals dying in the open". Oda Sakunosuke thought about it and if he had to describe it... it was probably an ordinary meeting and communication, just like every communication they had with each other on letter paper.
They completely and directly crossed the stage of "from strangers to friends", just like meeting a friend who was already very familiar with them... No, they were indeed very familiar friends.
After meeting for seven consecutive days to discuss novels, and after gaining new insights into "novel writing" from their conversations, Oda Sakunosuke had a rare feeling that he was "probably very lucky."
However, the other party did not seem to agree with his behavior of not writing after he had the idea of "wanting to be a novelist" - "The best time to start writing is now, the most handy tool is your own mind, and the best technique is the countless words you write down from your heart, so why not start now?"
This is what the other party said to him.
"Sakunosuke, you certainly have the qualifications to write." - Then he said the same thing as another writer whom Oda Sakunosuke knew.
...Perhaps all writers have some similarities?
作為一名成功從“殺手”（雖然望月薰本人似乎并不怎麽認同于他的這一身份）轉型為知名作家的“成功代表”，織田作之助覺得，對方的建議或許對他也有着很大的參考性。
于是，在望月薰的建議之下，織田作之助也開始對自己遲遲未曾動筆的行為産生了動搖，開始思考是否要同樣進行寫作的積累。
而今日在咖啡廳與望月薰的相約，也同樣是為了這樣的想法。
而望月薰本人最近則正在進行一本新的推理小說的書寫。
那本書的名字叫做《讀者來信》，是以部分讀者向他寄去的信件作為部分內容為原型的推理小說，“裏面大概會有很多情節來源于你過去曾寄與我的那些書信中所交流談起的內容，不知道作之助你是否會介意”——對方是這麽詢問他的。
或許也正是基于這一問題的考慮，望月薰才由此産生了與他見面的想法——見面交談的話，顯然會比用信件交流的速度更快、也更為便捷，不至于在來回的等待上浪費太多時間。
織田作之助自然沒有什麽好不同意的。
而最近一周的見面，對方也同樣是出于“為自己的新書尋找更多的靈感與資料”的目的，而且——
“與作之助的交談，會讓我對于新作産生更多的靈感，也會讓我從‘讀者’這一方面獲得更多的啓發，總之，對我來說很有必要——當然，就算不是因為新書的原因，單從‘與朋友見面’這一角度來說，與你的見面也同樣會讓我的心情感到愉快。”望月薰對他說。
“當然，除了作之助你的來信之外，有關這本書最初的靈感來源，也來自于我的另一位……‘友人’。”比他稍長幾歲的青年遲疑道，像是對“友人”這一關系感到不太确定。
織田作之助點了點頭：“想必對方也是一位很有趣的作家吧。”
織田作之助頓時對望月薰口中的那位“友人”肅然起敬——居然能夠想到以讀者的來信作為推理小說的靈感來源，真是一個了不起的想法。
“不，作之助你這次猜錯了——對方并不是作家，而是一位……Mafia。”
望月薰臉上的表情有些奇異，他說：“他是一個年僅15歲的，少年Mafia首領。”
聽上去好像更厲害了……織田作之助神色凝重地想，甚至還産生了一些奇奇怪怪的壓力。
“望月老師，真是了不起。”織田作之助說。
“抱歉，稍等——我好像見到他了。”
似乎看見了什麽，望月薰忽然從座位上起身，快速往咖啡廳外走了出去，走到了一個腦袋上纏繞着繃帶、身穿黑色大衣的黑發少年的面前。
他就是那個望月薰剛才所提到的“年僅15歲的少年Mafia首領”——織田作立刻反應了過來。
其實織田作之助有注意到，那個黑發少年在剛才出現的時候就有向他們投過來目光，但與望月薰讨論小說內容太過專注，以至于他完全将那個少年當成了陌路人……沒想到他就是望月薰的那位友人。
不知道說了些什麽，望月薰很快就将對方重新帶進了咖啡廳裏，坐到了他們的旁邊……雖然那個少年的表情看上去有些奇怪的樣子。
像是想要說些什麽、但是卻又說不出來的欲言又止的感覺。
但望月薰臉上的神情看上去卻相當自然，于是織田作之助就沒說話了。
“作之助，這就是我之前和你談到的另一位給予我靈感的人，太宰君。”
望月薰為他介紹。
“望月老師有和我提起過你，你是他的朋友。”
織田作之助換上了一副鄭重的表情：“你好，我是織田作之助……目前大概是一位預備小說家。”
在望月薰溫和的目光下，織田作之助猶豫着加上了後半句話。
然後織田作之助就看到那個少年臉上的表情變得更奇怪了。
“望月老師是這樣說的麽？”良久，少年忽然開口了。
織田作之助理所當然地點了點頭。
少年的臉上似乎帶上了某種類似于“驚訝”的神情。
……是他說錯話了麽？織田作之助看向他。
“将目前的港口Mafia的首領擅自稱之為‘友人’，似乎的确有點冒犯……”望月薰若有所思地出聲道。
——居然還是那個港口Mafia的現任首領！更了不起了！
“不、當然不是！”織田作之助聽到少年快速地出聲反駁道，甚至有點像是着急，他以相當認真且陳懇的語氣說：“我是說，望月老師當然是我的朋友。”
然後織田作之助便從望月薰的臉上看到了微笑。
是他很少在他臉上看到的、從容中帶着些許狡黠的微笑。
“那麽，就如同你所說的，太宰君，我們是朋友了。”望月薰從容說。
他又轉而看向織田作之助，為對方介紹道：“這是我的另一位朋友，織田作之助。”
于是太宰治的目光也跟着從望月薰的身上全部轉移到了織田作之助的身上。
“織田作……我可以這麽稱呼你麽？”對方猶豫着，一雙黑眸中閃爍着有些晦澀的光芒，問道：“我是太宰，太宰治。”
非常奇怪的，在這一刻，織田作從這個少年的身上感受到了某種像是緊繃的情緒。
雖然從一個年僅十五歲就當上了Mafia首領的家夥身上感受到了這種情緒讓人感覺似乎有點奇怪，但介于對方是望月薰的友人，出于對望月薰的信任，以及從望月薰之前所說的話中感受到的對于對方的印象，織田作之助還是選擇了對他釋放出了一些友好信號。
“聽上去有點奇妙，像是農民的稱呼一樣。”
織田作之助糾結了一下，還是決心為自己稍微争取一下：“我有變更權麽？”[3]
太宰治飛快地眨了眨眼睛。
“這個稱呼不可以麽？”
“如果你不願意更改的話，那就沒辦法了。”織田作之助嘆了口氣。
太宰治于是微笑了起來，他的聲音也變得輕快了許多：“那麽我以後就這麽叫你了，織田作。”
織田作之助甚至能夠感受到，原本萦繞在他周圍的緊繃的情緒也松弛了下來。
這樣的他看上去就有些像是一個真正的十五歲的少年了，甚至有點讓人想象不出來他作為港口Mafia的首領會是什麽樣子的。
港口Mafia的首領的性格原來是這樣好相處的類型麽？
看來他和望月薰的關系的确很好。
“是把織田作之助（Oda Sakunosuke）的名字裏的後面部分省略，直接讀作織田作（Oda Saku）麽？”
望月薰好奇道，莞爾微笑：“這個稱呼聽上去确實很有趣，而且也比‘作之助’的稱呼要更為簡單好記。”
“啊，對了……說起來，現在的這個天氣，不用把你的那位部下也一起叫進來麽，太宰？”望月薰忽然又出聲問道，“作之助，你會介意麽？”
——現在的天氣正值秋季，但夏天的尾巴仍在，此時的外面溫度依舊很高。
如果一直待在外面的話，很快就會熱得冒火吧。
如果将人一直放在外面的太陽底下暴曬的話，會中暑也是有可能的事情，在這點上，即使是港口Mafia的部下也是一樣的。
織田作之助搖了搖頭。
于是飛快地，織田作之助看到太宰治唇邊的微笑僵住，然後轉瞬變成了不甘不願。
——像是很不想讓望月薰口中的“那位部下”也跟着進來一樣。
但他還是朝着望月薰點了點頭，沒有拒絕他的話。
他沒有起身，而是淡淡地隔着咖啡廳的玻璃牆向外面比劃了一個手勢。于是沒過一會，織田作之助就看到一位身穿着西裝三件套、帶着圓眼鏡、梳着背頭，俨然一幅學者打扮的青年從外面走了進來，然後站到了太宰治的身邊，恭敬地向太宰治微微彎了下腰，喊了一聲：“首領。”
然後又微微轉頭，對着織田作之助和望月薰分別禮貌地打了個招呼。
距離很近，織田作之助看到他的額頭上已經冒出了微微的汗珠，大概是在外面冒着太陽被高溫所曬出來的。
“真幸運呢安吾，就算是一個人待在外面那麽遠了也會幸運地被望月老師看見，甚至請你坐進咖啡廳裏，完全不用遭受到陽光照射的苦惱。”
太宰治微笑道，但織田作之助覺得那個笑容莫名地奇怪，他說：“要坐到我的身邊來麽？”
他們面前擺放着的是一張小型的圓桌，大概能坐四五人的類型，織田作之助坐在望月薰的左邊，而太宰治和他們兩個之間都隔着一個椅子，看上去就像是坐在了他們兩個的對面。
“不，首領，我坐在旁邊就好。”
The young man named "Ango" said respectfully. He did not choose to sit next to Dazai Osamu, but sat on a chair in front of another table next to them. His back was very straight, and his expression was still gentle with a hint of seriousness and nervousness.
——It was not until this moment that Oda Sakunosuke finally had some sense of reality that "the young man in front of him was indeed the leader of the Port Mafia."
Then he saw Dazai Osamu's gaze return to him and Mochizuki Kaoru beside him, and his expression seemed to become a little nervous again: "Teacher Mochizuki, Oda Saku..."
He called both of their names hesitantly, but suddenly stopped talking.
"What's wrong, Dazai?" asked Mochizuki Kaoru.
"No, nothing." Dazai blinked and asked, "I want to ask, why did Mr. Mochizuki suddenly invite me in?"
"Didn't you, Dazai, just now want me to invite you in outside?"
Mochizuki Kaoru looked at him strangely and said in a matter-of-fact tone: "Just passing by... This excuse is too lame, Dazai. If you really want me to believe it, try another reason next time."