Chapter 287 The Third Player
Dazai Osamu learned about the publication and release of "Good Bye" when Keifansha announced the official release.
The title of "the final work" of the famous mystery novelist Kurumi Mochizuki is still very convincing, especially with this name, so it is understandable that this book would be a big seller.
Different from other mystery novels before "Mochizuki Kurumi", this book is a rare novel with a "warm" flavor. The story is not difficult to summarize. Simply put, it is about a "clone" named Hikage Ren who lost his memory at the beginning and was destined to die. He gradually sought the truth about the mystery of himself, and finally chose his original fate of death for his "lover".
The reason why I put double quotes around "lover" is because this "lover" was originally the lover of the "clone" of the protagonist, Hikage Ren.
In addition to this, to some extent, the protagonist can also be regarded as a real-life self-reflection of "Mochizuki Kaoru".
Although the setting of a "lover" in the book seems a little strange compared to reality, but from the perspective of the novel's storyline, there are only a few identities that can serve as the protagonist's "important person" and can cause the protagonist to change at critical moments. They are nothing more than the parents who gave birth to the child - this is of course even more inappropriate; the elders and close friends who occupied the growth path of life - this is also inappropriate compared to reality; and then there is the identity of the "lover" - at least they are of the same generation.
In a general sense, the role of "lover" in various film, television and novel works refers to love, and sometimes it has a more idealized and abstract meaning... So they should be able to understand the meaning of the characters he created in the novel, right? ... At least Odasaku should be able to understand it, right? He must be able to, right?
——Xihai Haruto swore that this setting must have nothing to do with his occasional mischievous thoughts.
The first half of the novel is more like a note recording daily life than a mystery novel, until the plot suddenly takes a sharp turn in the middle, revealing the true identity of the protagonist, and the seemingly warm daily interactions in the past are also revealed one by one to reveal the dusty truth... Even the final BE ending is the same.
However, what makes "Mochizuki Kaoru" better than "Hikage Ren" is that he guessed all the truth from the very beginning, so there is no such thing as "being kept in the dark".
Of course, the book that Saikai Haruto handed over to Dazai Osamu was not entirely identical to the one that he handed over to the publisher. Although the names were the same, the contents were quite different. To put it simply, the protagonists were named "Hikage Ren" and "Mochizuki Kaoru" respectively. One was a novel, and the other was a "diary" belonging to "Mochizuki Kaoru". There were also some words that were not suitable for publication, which were left by "Mochizuki Kaoru" to a few friends, and were also written separately in the unpublished book.
...Otherwise, the "Mochizuki Kaoru" alias would probably really experience a real social death.
It is even unclear whether the book can actually be published.
It was not until he saw a banner on the street announcing the sale of the novel "Good Bye" that Dazai realized that he had been deceived by Cointreau again.
At this moment, Saikai Cointreau Haruto, who was already far away in Tokyo, sneezed silently.
At this time, more than two months had passed since he left Yokohama.
After all, under normal circumstances, it would take at least three months for a book to be published and distributed. Even if this book could be considered a "special case" in a certain sense, and even Saikai Haruto had explained the situation to editor Maeda in advance... no matter how fast it goes, it can't be faster than more than a month.
Saikai Haruto did not forget to send a box to Edogawa Ranpo and Fukuzawa Yukichi of the Armed Detective Agency as well - after all, "Mochizuki Kaoru" had promised to do so in the past, so he did not forget that.
By the time the novel was officially released, coincidentally, the last chapter of Saikai Haruto's manga was also updated.
[I've been waiting for so long... It's been several months. The last time you didn't update for so long was when you were doing emergency maintenance because the forum crashed due to an upgrade.]
Xi Haiqing Dou silently complained in his heart, still a little bit unbelieving: [System, you tell me, it's not really because the novel has been published that the manga is updated, right? ]
[This...] The system froze for a moment: [It's not impossible? After all, the system has never crashed during scheduled maintenance recently!]
It even specifically highlights it.
Saikai Haruto's reaction was quite cold: [Oh.]
If that was the case, he would have handed the book over to the publisher long ago. Why did he waste so much time? ?
Angry.
Saikai Haruto opened the comic.
It was a little different from what he expected, as the comic did not begin with the new book of "Mochizuki Kaoru" as he had imagined, but with Dazai Osamu - what he saw in the "book", about the future where "Dazai Osamu did not pick up the book".
If we look at it from the perspective of the main story's Dazai Osamu, or the BEAST line's Dazai Osamu, that future is not actually a bad future. But for Dazai Osamu who knows nothing about other parallel worlds, that future is not a good future either.
The difference from this future is that in that future, Dazai Osamu and "Mochizuki Kaoru"'s acquaintance originated from the "Dazai Osamu being kidnapped" incident that had never happened in this world...or if you look deeper, it can also be said that it was a "mystery novel copycat murder" incident that also happened in this world.
Mochizuki Kaoru, who was Gwendolyn's real target, and Dazai Osamu, who was kidnapped by Gwendolyn in order to use the port mafia, met in Gwendolyn's "base".
One is an adult man with a calm and indifferent expression, who shows no murderous intent or bloody aura even when killing someone; the other is an underage boy with a slightly wolfish look on his face and a strong aura of darkness on his body; next to him is a mysterious blond-haired quasi-leader of the Port Mafia who has connections with both the Port Mafia and Mochizuki Kaoru, but is wary of Dazai Osamu... The futures of these three people have been intertwined since that day.
Xi Haiqingdou flipped through the pages of the comic book with great interest.
From the "Mochizuki Kaoru" in the comics who was entangled by Dazai Osamu's curiosity and developed a desire to explore, to him choosing the supernatural spy department because of the influence brought by Gwendolyn and becoming a special non-staff intelligence officer; then he moved, temporarily cut off contact with Dazai Osamu, and met Sakaguchi Ango; because of the "Resurrection of the Former Leader of the Port Mafia" that occurred in the area under the jurisdiction of the Port Mafia, he went to investigate, and in that incident, he gave Rimbaud intelligence about Verlaine and solved the incident. He also reunited with Dazai Osamu, drank together, and talked about some of the past things that belonged to "Mochizuki Kaoru" that Dazai Osamu was particularly curious about...
What Dazai Osamu and "Mochizuki Kaoru" experienced in that future was presented page by page in front of Saikai Haruto in the comics.
The barrage here also swept away the previous collapsed and decadent state, and jumped particularly lively and cheerfully.
[Ah… So this is how Dazai and Mochizuki-sensei met each other… I feel so emotional. By the way, is this considered as Mochizuki-sensei descending from the sky to save Dazai?]
[Hero: Kaoru-chan; Beauty: Chi-chan, why not? Vision Kaoru-chan picked up the stray cat Chi-chan (?) and brought him home, and he got some...]
[Rambo, you really... don't love me too much... but between your new love (Xunjiang) and your old love (Brother Wei), who do you love, please tell me now! I promise not to tell anyone else (quietly raising my ears.jpg)]
[Very good, it's another day that I'm hooked by this man. Teacher Mochizuki, you are really, really beautiful. You are worthy of being my wife!! ... I won't tell you who was hooked]
[Special agent Kaoru Mochizuki has successfully unlocked a new play... ah, not a new ID card, yay! ]
Xi Haiqing Dou continued to turn over.
Next, Ango Sakaguchi infiltrated the port mafia as an undercover agent.
Then, around the time of the Dragon War, Dazai Osamu, Odasaku, and Sakaguchi Ango met.
One day when I was drinking at Lupin Bar, I happened to talk about "Mochizuki Kaoru"... Then coincidentally, I ran into Mochizuki Kaoru in the bar while she was collecting materials for her new novel.
The comic is very interesting in that it depicts the expressions of the four people in great detail when they meet.
Dazai Osamu was purely curious and happy to see his friend; Mochizuki Kaoru was also surprised and calm to see his friend; Sakaguchi Ango and Odasaku looked like the same type, except that they felt indifferent and unfamiliar with each other as if they had met someone they had never seen before. The difference was that Odasaku's posture was relaxed, while Sakaguchi Ango's hand holding the wine glass was tightening.
[Okay, okay, the future now is that Dazai and Mochizuki-sensei pretended not to know Ango's undercover identity. The original future was that Ango and Mochizuki-sensei concealed Ango's identity from Dazai. It's one person at a time, and no one loses out. A new balance has emerged.]
[Teacher Mochizuki: Dazai and Ango are both my good friends (无义.jpg). The master of keeping things balanced is indeed never wrong, Teacher Mochizuki is worthy of you]
[My goodness, at this time, Dazai didn’t know that his best friend (織) and his other best friend (月) actually had a very good relationship and had known each other for a long time. He thought they were strangers. I laughed my ass off when I thought about this.]
[The previous part made me have some visions of Kaoru chatting with Zai in public, Ango and Odasaku watching from the sidelines, but in fact, they have been secretly having an affair with Kaoru behind Zai's back (?) dd, Kaoru-chan: There are so many people, it's so exciting (not really)]
[Everyone I meet for the first time at this time is so green, young, and delicious... I can't bear it anymore. My eyes are about to pee just thinking about our first encounters and farewells.]
[No knives allowed here! ! Angry**]
After the four people formally met, there were a few frames of them getting along with each other... From those frames that flashed by like fleeting glimpses, one could also see the relaxed and happy atmosphere when the people were together.
But not long after, just like the current "future", in that "past", not long after the Dragon War incident, a "Dazai Osamu" with a changed heart also appeared.
However, unlike this "future", the first time Dazai Osamu saw that "Dazai Osamu" was at Odasaku's house.