Oda Sakunosuke never thought that his reunion with Suzumiya Kazuki would be under such circumstances.
The last time they met, the spirited young man pulled him out of the hail of bullets with a smile and gave him hope for a new life.
Today, several years later, Ryomiya Heshu, braving the blizzard and freezing cold, knocked on the door as if grasping at his last straw, but fainted mid-sentence.
Oda Sakunosuke lit the fire, put the soaking wet young man on the clean bed, wiped the water dripping from his head with a towel, thought for a moment, and gently patted his cheek: "Do you want me to change your clothes?"
“…”
Ah, this is dizziness.
Feeling that this was not going to work, Oda Sakunosuke brought over a pile of dry straw, lifted up Ryoumiya and Itsuki, and moved them next to the stove.
With a "bang", the hard object fell to the ground with a crisp collision sound. Oda Sakunosuke picked up the short sword that fell from Ryomiya Kazuki's hand and actually found it somewhat novel.
He remembered that the cadres of the mafia in this port usually used bombs as weapons, but they actually switched to cold weapons?
Just as he was thinking about it, the young man who was half leaning against the straw pile had a frown on his face, his lips turned pale, and his face gradually became hot. Oda Sakunosuke vaguely heard him mumbling something, so he squeezed a bottle of mineral water from the side and passed it to him.
"Drink some water first." His tone was calm and steady.
"The knife..." Ryoumiya Kazuki half-closed his eyes, revealing a tone of grievance, "It's gone."
Oda Sakunosuke stuffed the scabbard into his arms and said, "Here's the knife. Drink some water first."
"The pocket watch... is missing too." Suzumiya Kazuki turned his head while holding the knife. After searching in vain, he looked at Oda Sakunosuke aggrievedly.
Oda Sakunosuke: …
"Take a rest first, and you'll find it when you wake up."
There was no medicine in this place, and he was worried about leaving Liang Gong and Shu here alone, so he could only wait for the night and think about what to do next during the day.
Oda Sakunosuke went to grab a quilt and buried Ryomiya Kazuki in it, then sat beside him, patting the quilt covering him from time to time, as if he was coaxing children to sleep in Yokohama, and reciting the fairy tales he knew by heart in a low voice.
Unfortunately, the big young man in the quilt was different from the good boy he coaxed. Ryomiya Kazuki was like a wriggling cat and worm. After rolling twice, he stuffed his head into the quilt and rolled around in a mess. When Oda Sakunosuke was worried that he was bored and wanted to lift the quilt, he stuck his head out and it was already 180 degrees in the other direction.
Oda Sakunosuke suddenly felt tired, an emotion he had not felt in the past few years.
He patiently picked up Liang Gong and Shu, put the quilt on them again, wrapped them up, and stuffed them next to the fire.
Ryoumiya Kazuki, who was dazed by the fever, raised her head and stretched out her cold hand to grasp his arm. She seemed to be caught up in some intense emotion and said with a choked voice, "Please don't leave."
"I didn't leave." Oda Sakunosuke sat beside him, "I'll be here when you wake up."
"You're lying..." Liang Gong He Shu shook his head, his distracted gaze even more vague under the flickering candlelight, "You'll never come back if you leave."
"I really regret agreeing to you, Kazuki, I regret it." He seemed to be caught up in a more intense struggle, and his sharp nails scratched a white mark on Oda Sakunosuke's arm, "Let's switch back, okay..."
Oda Sakunosuke sighed and said, "Suzumiya Kazuki, you have a fever. How about I take you to the hospital now?"
This man is so feverish that he starts talking nonsense. If we delay it too late, it will be really bad.
"no!"
No one knew which word touched Ryoumiya Kazuki's nerves, but he suddenly shouted loudly, then closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Oda Sakunosuke took a towel, poured water on it, and applied it to his forehead to cool him down physically. After confirming that he was really asleep, he sat beside him and picked up his pen and notebook again.
But he didn't put down his pen for a long time, just left a clear ink dot in the blank space of the notebook.
The emotion contained in the ambiguous nonsense that Ryomiya Kazuki just said was too strong, and it inexplicably reminded him of Dazai Osamu's collapsed expression when he thought he was dead.
On that day, he bought a bunch of things and went home, but found that the doors and windows were closed, and the things in the house were broken into pieces as if a tornado had hit. He hurriedly wanted to go and check on the child, but saw Ryomiya and Shu walking down from the upstairs.
"Your five children are fine, and the owner of this store is fine, but if you want them to live in peace, you have to give something."
Sure enough, in order to force him to take action, Mimic's group extended their claws to his family.
Later, in exchange for saving the children, Oda Sakunosuke made a deal with Suzumiya Kazuki, whom he was not particularly familiar with. He faked his death and left Yokohama, and Suzumiya Kazuki helped him settle everything.
"How are you going to make them think I'm dead?"
"Simple." The seemingly powerless Ryomiya Kazuki showed another power system in front of him for the first time, remaking the things on his body like a replica, and staining it with blood from who knows where. Finally, he tilted his head, "Do you have anything else to prepare?"
"Can't you tell anyone else?"
"Not even Dazai."
Oda Sakunosuke hesitated for a moment, took paper and pen from upstairs, and left a letter for Dazai Osamu.
He doesn't know what the future will be like, but as long as everyone is alive, it's good enough.
——Except for the first time he saw Dazai Osamu’s devastated expression on the remaining surveillance video.
Gathering his scattered thoughts, Oda Sakunosuke sighed and closed the notebook.
The next morning, the snow and wind stopped and it was wet outside. Looking closely, the withered plants seemed to have taken some magical tonic and were sprouting green.
Oda Sakunosuke opened the top window, and fresh air poured in, blowing up the ashes of the extinguished fire.
He touched Ryougiya and Shu's foreheads again and found that the fever had subsided.
"Well, now I should just wait for him to wake up," he said to himself. "By the way, what about breakfast?"
Although he didn't know why Ryomiya Kazuki wanted him to stay in this shrine for five years, Oda Sakunosuke did feel that something was increasingly wrong with him.
At first, I had to ask someone to buy me some curry and rice to fill my stomach, but later I stopped eating. It was as if I was going through some kind of transformation, becoming less and less human.
Well, as long as we are alive, the children seem to be fine from the video, so the rest doesn't matter.
Before Oda Sakunosuke could think of looking for the villagers to bring him food, Suzumiya Kazuki suddenly sat up from under the quilt and patted his head in pain.
"Ah, you're awake now, how are you feeling?" he asked, handing over the mineral water that had been opened last night.
Ryoumiya Kazuki took the water, thanked him, and said without any awkwardness, "It looks like you're doing well here."
"It's really okay." Oda Sakunosuke nodded. "The quiet environment is very suitable for writing. It's just that the weather here is so changeable that it's hard to tell what season it will be the next day."
"What has happened to you?" he asked. "I don't know where the watch you mentioned is, but the dagger is right next to you."
Suzumiya Kazuki took out the scabbard that had been in his arms all night, put the dagger back, and said indifferently: "You should know that I defected from the Port Mafia."
Oda Sakunosuke nodded and said, "I heard about it a long time ago."
Ryomiya Kazuki briefly recounted his undercover work at the winery, and then said, "After completing that mission, I was a little careless and was ambushed by another person in the organization. I was then taken to Singapore, and after I overturned them there, I was planning to return home. Unexpectedly, I encountered a fight between two people from an unknown organization on the way."
At this point, he was a little depressed: "Indeed, a very important pocket watch is lost."
Oda Sakunosuke listened to him silently, and suddenly reached out for his neck. At the last second, Suzumiya Kazuki blocked his hand.
"You're a lot slower in reacting." He said bluntly, "Would you like to have breakfast first? But we have to go to the village to buy it."
Ryomiya Kazuki shook his head: "It has nothing to do with breakfast. How is your novel going?"
"I have already finished writing two volumes," said Oda Sakunosuke. "Sometimes I feel like I have reached a bottleneck, but I am still on the path I want to take."
Ryoumiya Heshu looked at each other carefully with a frown, and said with emotion: "You are becoming more and more like a god."
"Is that so? I do feel that my power is very different from before. Even 'Seamless Clothes' has shown signs of change." Oda Sakunosuke agreed, "It seems that it is more than just the ability to predict. Sometimes I can see the children in my dreams... and Dazai's life."
Suzumiya Kazuki nodded, not seeming surprised at all. "When you feel you have completely transformed, do me one more thing. You can go wherever you want then."
"Who are you?" Oda Sakunosuke couldn't help but ask, "A god?"
Suzumiya Kazuki burst out laughing. "Have you ever seen a god that is so vicious? I am probably half a sorcerer."
"But soon it won't be."
Ryomiya Kazuki and Oda Sakunosuke sat facing each other. Neither of them mentioned eating, and they just chatted about random things for the whole morning.
During this time, Ryomiya Kazuki took out a short sword, injected spiritual power into it, and showed Oda Sakunosuke what it meant to perform a magical transformation.
"...So you still have the identity of a Shinto judge?" Oda Sakunosuke looked at the well-behaved dagger and the tiger cub running around happily, and was a little confused. "Can you really handle so much work?"
Suzumiya Kazuki complained: "Of course I can't handle it. I'm almost dizzy from working non-stop all day long, and retirement seems to be a long way off."
He straightened his face and said, "So, Oda-kun, are you willing to become a judge and lead many national treasure-level swords to farm together? And you can also live with your children."
The Five Tigers were horrified and cried, "My Lord, don't you want me anymore?"
Ryomiya Heshu pinched the short knife's face and said, "I'm tired of taking care of you and Anding. How can I retire after taking care of so many people? Anyway, it's not like I can't let you come back to visit me when the time comes. Don't make it like a life-and-death farewell."
For a moment, Oda Sakunosuke didn't know whether to complain about why a national treasure-level sword had to be used for farming, or how the topic came to him.
"…Shouldn't the profession of Judge be mysterious and difficult to be selected?"
"Yes, that's why I took so much trouble to let you concentrate on your training." Ryomiya Kazuki said as a matter of course, "Just put it bluntly, this business is a sure win."
Oda Sakunosuke subconsciously looked at the tearful dagger and was a little surprised: "Are the sword-fighting gods... all children?"
Wu Hu Tui explained with sobs: "No, it's not! There are also saisha, katana, naginata, odachi, etc. My uncle Shirayama Yoshimitsu is still a sword."
"What do you want the judge to do?"
"Manage the swords and farm happily together, that's all." Suzumiya Kazuki was like a crazy salesman, "How about giving it a try?"
"…If I can live with Kosuke and the others, then it wouldn't matter."
Oda Sakunosuke sighed. He didn't think Ryomiya Kazuki was lying to him. "Then you can tell Dazai the truth, right?"
Suzumiya Kazuki nodded, and pulled out a booklet with a cherry blossom label on the cover from somewhere, and said to Oda Sakunosuke, "I will reach out and erase my name from the book, and you put your hand on it."
Oda Sakunosuke nodded and subconsciously looked at the cover.
Ryoumiya Kazuki's slender fingertips brushed across it, and he reached out his hand and touched it lightly.
In the blink of an eye, "Mizukami Sosuke" was replaced by the neat "Oda Sakunosuke".
Oda Sakunosuke looked at him in surprise, but the young man in front of him raised his index finger to his lips mysteriously and said, "Remember to keep your real name secret."
The author has something to say: Next time I will definitely not set up such a complicated script (lights a cigarette). Seeing you guys confused, I feel very scared too.
In the previous chapter, a cute girl in the comments section guessed it right! That's roughly what it means!
But now it should be clear, right? The real name of the brewery is "Sousuke" and the cursed spirit is "Washu". The rest of the information has been revealed.
Oda Sakunosuke embarked on a path he had never imagined (laughing to death)
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