Chapter 120 Yokohama II

Late at night, lupin.

A customer sat down early in the remote bar. The young man with a mole on his lip folded his suit jacket and put it on the chair and ordered a glass of whiskey.

Sakaguchi Ango worked too much overtime, and his colleagues in the Special Powers Division were afraid that he would die suddenly at his workstation, so they semi-forced him to take a day off.

He was not used to not having to work all of a sudden, and he tossed and turned in bed for a long time but couldn't fall asleep. Finally, he decided to get up and go to Lupin for a couple of drinks before going home.

Today happened to be the day when Oda Sakunosuke finished his business trip. If he guessed correctly, he could also chat with his good friend.

As the glass of wine was slowly finishing, the expected guest opened the bar door.

The visitor was very tall. He bent slightly when he walked in, revealing a paper bag behind his camel-colored windbreaker. The man with dark red hair had a calm face and a short green stubble on his chin, which made him look calm and steady, which magnified his age.

Oda Sakunosuke had no expression on his face, and didn't seem surprised by Ango's appearance. He greeted him calmly.

He had just finished a week-long mission. He had just returned to the detective agency not long ago when he came here, but he didn't look tired at all. His blue eyes were like the calm sea. In comparison, Sakaguchi Ango looked more tired.

Oda Sakunosuke handed the paper bag in his hand to the bar owner, who took it with a smile and thanked him.

Sakaguchi Ango asked curiously, "What is this?"

"I brought the boss a special product, thickly grilled senbei with a spicy mustard flavor." Oda Sakunosuke pulled out a chair and looked at Sakaguchi Ango: "I bought a lot, do you want to try it?"

Sakaguchi Ango felt a slight pain in his stomach and said, "No, that's not necessary."

"Come to think of it, it's a coincidence that you're on a business trip this time." The government official who was trapped in overtime hell sighed, "I'm so jealous of you, Mr. Odasaku."

"I heard about it from Atsushi and the others." Oda Sakunosuke obviously knew about the battle that took place in Yokohama not long ago, and nodded silently, "I heard that the process was very thrilling. Thank you for your hard work."

"It was a scare indeed... but luckily there wasn't much damage."

Sakaguchi Ango drank up the remaining wine in the glass, and the tension in his mind that had been building for days finally relaxed. He ordered two more glasses in high spirits and chatted idly with Oda Sakunosuke.

After three rounds of drinks, the calm and rational counselor's assistant seemed to have a switch turned on. He completely abandoned his image and grabbed his friend's arm to pour out his grievances. He was so excited that he didn't even know where he threw his glasses.

"What's that? 'It's a bit scary to be on the phone, typing, drinking coffee, and then falling asleep with your eyes closed. Mr. Ango, please go home and rest.' I don't want to do that, okay?"

"The brains of those two guys are so scary. Are they really human like me? And when Zhongyuan-kun jumped off the plane, I was almost scared to death by them!"

Oda Sakunosuke, whose arm was held, did not struggle, but nodded from time to time. He was not a very good listener, and did not show strong emotions. Most of his replies were "Is that so?", "Indeed" and "Then what?", but he was serious and patient enough, and his eyes were focused and calm, which aroused the other party's desire to tell.

After venting his dissatisfaction with overtime work, Sakaguchi Ango was already lying on the table with a wine glass in his hand, as if he was drunk and unconscious.

Just as Oda Sakunosuke was about to take the wine glass from his hand, the latter, who was thought to be asleep, suddenly grabbed his hand and uttered a vague sound in his sleep: "Mr. Oda Sakunosuke, do you still remember... remember Kouno-kun?"

The air suddenly became quiet.

——If you think about it carefully, among the three drinking buddies, Sakaguchi Ango was the one who knew the least but got the news first.

At that time, Oda Sakunosuke had not yet woken up, Dazai Osamu was still being cleansed underground, and he was the only one who could still stand openly in Yokohama's territory.

Although he tried his best to avoid intersections with the port mafia, there were still some work matters that could not be shirked. One day, as an official agency to maintain order in the supernatural society, the Special Agent Department captured the abnormal movement of special point values ​​late at night.

It first soared to an extremely dangerous value, and then suddenly fell before anyone could react.

Located just behind the five-building building of the Port Mafia.

Fearing that it was a dangerous supernatural experiment, Sakaguchi Ango disguised himself and went to the vicinity of the port mafia to conduct a secret investigation. He found nothing in the first few days until he overheard two pieces of gossip mentioned by the guard when he changed shifts.

"Really? The casino is closed this month? I just got my paycheck and was planning to go out and have some fun."

"I heard that it was the idea of ​​the top management. Closing the museum for a month will probably result in a loss of business of this magnitude, tsk tsk."

"Hey, you two, stop chatting. The leader has been in a bad mood these days. Even the black lizard was punished and sent to the confinement room. It would be terrible if you were caught!"

"Well, let's not talk about this here."

…

Time was limited, and this was all Sakaguchi Ango heard. After returning, he followed this clue to investigate, mobilizing almost all of his connections and intelligence networks, and he actually found out something.

——The Port Mafia lost a superpower who could be considered a friend to him.

The moment he saw the confidential report, Sakaguchi Ango instantly understood the reason for the strange value of the special point - the supernatural power self-destructed, and it was possible only with extremely powerful supernatural powers.

His hands were shaking and he couldn't help but have wild thoughts: the supernatural power did not run wild, and it was under the control of its owner until it disappeared, which meant that this was not an accident.

Did he defect? ​​Was he hunted down by Chief Mori after the truth was revealed? No, no, the Port Mafia would not gain anything from it. This was not the optimal solution that Chief Mori advocated.

That's assassination? But who would go to the headquarters of the Port Mafia to assassinate their cadres!

All conceivable reasons were ruled out, and Sakaguchi Ango had to accept the fact - he volunteered.

What on earth could have happened that would make Gong Yejun willingly accept death?

He could not get answers from the dead.

For such a large mafia with clear hierarchies, the defection of an official would cause a huge uproar in the inner world, but the departure of another official would be silent in the darkness.

When sealing the documents, Sakaguchi Ango could only smile bitterly and think that it was fortunate that it was him standing here, not Dazai-kun.

...though it can't be kept secret for long.

Ango, who was in a daze, could not withstand the double blow of drunkenness and fatigue. After asking that question, he actually fell asleep and missed Oda Sakunosuke's reaction.

But even if he wasn't asleep, it would be difficult for him to notice anything unusual about Odasaku in his drunken state.

Killers are best at controlling their breath, and former killers who have long since retired are no exception.

His hand remained in the air for a long time, and Oda Sakunosuke placed the glass where it would not be easily touched.

He stood up, walked behind the door, took out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"It's me, Oda. Sorry to bother you this evening."

"Are Kosuke and the others okay? ...That's good. I'll go over there tomorrow. Is there anything I need to bring?"

"Okay, I've got that in mind. Please tell the kids to go to bed early."

Just before hanging up, Oda Sakunosuke seemed to hear the children chattering and calling him "odasaku".

The moment he woke up, he heard the same sound.

The long-disused body was like an engine without oil, with rusty joints making clattering sounds. The sunlight penetrated my eyelids, and my vision, which had not yet adapted to the light, was completely white.

He heard a child's voice excitedly calling him "Odasaku!".

When the white light slowly faded away, Oda Sakunosuke saw many crying faces that looked like little cats, all circling around him nervously, as if they were afraid that he would accidentally turn back into a vegetable.

Attracted by the movement just now, an elderly couple appeared at the door of the room with the same surprised expressions. One of them suddenly clapped his hands as if he remembered something, and hurriedly trotted back to the inner room.

Oda Sakunosuke was stunned for a long time.

He didn't recognize the old couple just now, nor did he know where he was. He wondered in his heart whether this was a dream after death. However, the children's faces, the sparkling joyful eyes looking at him, the warm water handed to him, and the faint smell of food floating in the air were all so real and within reach.

He slowly raised his hand and clumsily wiped away the tears of Sakura, who was closest to him.

"Grown up." He whispered.

Sakura couldn't hold back any longer, burst into tears and threw herself into his arms.

In the next two hours, Oda Sakunosuke was told by the old couple that, based on the speed of time in the outside world, he had been in a coma for a full year and seven months.

During this time, the children were entrusted to the elderly couple who retired from government agencies and lived in seclusion in the countryside. The couple lost their son in middle age and treated the five children as their own. The children also liked their grandparents very much, but they often missed them.

"Those who survive a great disaster will surely have good fortune in the future." The old man said to him with relief, "You should spend more time with your children and make up for your past regrets."

Oda Sakunosuke was speechless and could only nod silently.

No, he clearly remembered that he must have died at the hands of Kidd.

But the reality is that not only are the children alive and well, he was only "seriously injured and in a coma for a year and a half."

After that, Oda Sakunosuke slowly recovered. Given his physical condition, he recovered to the same healthy state as two years ago in just half a month.

He is now an illegal immigrant, and there is still a wanted bounty on the dark web. For the safety of him and his children, the old couple did not allow him to contact the outside world at first.

Although the countryside is remote, it is much more suitable for living than Yokohama. Sakaguchi Ango considered everything very carefully and solved the children's household registration and school enrollment issues.

The oldest, Kosuke, is already in elementary school, and the youngest, Sakura, is also old enough to learn to read and write.

Oda Sakunosuke spent a rare peaceful time in the countryside and almost forgot about Mimic and the Port Mafia.

But when the stream between the farmhouses gurgles down, the unknown red flowers on the stone steps bear fruit, and the pale green hills in the distance overlap in the evening smoke.

When he heard the birds singing, he would often think of someone.

Someone who will not show up and should not show up.

He always felt that the man should not be a member of the Mafia, and he also felt that the darkness was indeed the best backdrop, allowing that faint and lonely fluorescent light to reflect into his eyes.

When not working, those golden eyes are like a transparent curtain, sometimes looking out at the sea through the window; when walking, their sight also likes to move with a cloud in the sky; when they can neither see the sky nor the sea, they simply stare blankly at the passers-by coming and going.

So he thought, maybe he would like it here.

…

When Kosuke comes home from school, he'll ask him questions when he encounters homework problems.

The hands that once held two guns and were used to being killers are now good at sharpening pencils for elementary school students. Oda Sakunosuke put the sharpened pencils back into the pencil case and pointed out a wrong character in Kosuke's Chinese homework.

Yukisuke erased it with an eraser and stared at the question for a long time with a pencil in hand, but he was not thinking about the Chinese question.

The boy hesitated and asked in a low voice, "Odasaku, are you not going to write novels anymore?"

Oda Sakunosuke was cleaning the sawdust on the table. Hearing this, he said, "I won't write anymore."

"Why?" Kosuke couldn't help but stare at him eagerly, "Didn't you want to write a novel before?"

"Someone also said that he would join the Port Mafia in the future. Do you still want to go now?"

Kosuke blushed and defended himself, "What I said when I was a child doesn't count. I'm grown up now!" He paused and asked, "Then, is Odasaku also like this?"

Oda Sakunosuke stopped moving, his ocean-blue eyes showing an inexplicable emotion. After a while, he shook his head and said, "It's because of me."

He just is not qualified to write about other people's lives anymore.

In order to find the meaning of life, the former teenage killer decided not to kill again and adopted five children.

The unsuccessful experiences over the years were enough to provide material for a novel, and he slowly found a reason to live, and his scattered manuscripts accumulated more than 100,000 words.

His life now seemed to be no different from before. The support of life had returned to him again, bringing him the peace and stability that he had never experienced in the past twenty years.

To some extent, he no longer needs to use the goal of "writing a novel" to guide himself.

But only he himself knows that things are different now.

…

"Odasaku, look!"

Sakura ran towards him from the room with a book in his hand, excitedly, "I found this in an old box. Is this something by Oda Saku?"

Oda Sakunosuke reached out to catch the girl's body, and then looked at the book in her hand.

It should be a notebook, filled with excerpts and inspiration fragments, as well as some children's doodles. He had five or six such notebooks, but most of them were burned in the house he rented at the time. Even this one was covered with charred marks.

Sakura held the book carefully, fearing that it would fall apart, and then pulled out a piece of paper from the inner layer and handed it to him like a treasure: "This is so beautiful! Is it drawn by Oda?"

It was an illustration with a childish style but mature brushstrokes. The gouache paper still retained the uneven texture of the oil painting, with the background being the deep blue sea and sky. The lovely little mermaid princess was holding the moon, with her lips curved, and she was sleeping soundly in a good dream.

[“Is it for me…”]

Oda Sakunosuke was a little surprised. [“It’s very beautiful. But why is it a mermaid?”]

[“Sorry, sorry, Alice was reading a fairy tale at the time, and I accidentally strayed from the topic…”]

The boy clasped his hands together shyly, with his fingertips touching his lips. His clear eyes were smiling, and he looked at him expectantly: [“This will be considered a gift to celebrate the birth of Mr. Oda’s first novel in advance.”]

【“Okay.”】Oda Sakunosuke nodded, 【“I’ll keep it.”】

He did not care about external things. He only kept the minimum living expenses from his salary and gave the rest to the curry shop owner who fostered the children.

The living conditions at the rented place were extremely poor. The most valuable thing in the house was a 20-year-old refrigerator left by the landlord, which would rumble in the middle of the night when it was turned on.

In the shabby room, the only thing that caught his eye was a neatly-arranged bookshelf, which contained manuscripts and old books he had found, each of which he had read countless times and was his most important thing.

Now there is one more painting.

But he was afraid of getting it dirty, so he didn't dare to look at it often, so he sealed it in a plastic bag and put it inside one of his manuscripts. When he wanted to look at it, he didn't open it, but just gently stroked the cover of the manuscript, and the painting, in which every stroke was firmly memorized, appeared in his mind.

…

He had been silent for too long. Sakurai in his arms tugged at his sleeve nervously, "Odasaku, Odasaku, someone seems to be coming over there."

Oda Sakunosuke seemed to have finally come to his senses. "Sorry, Sakura, can you lend me this first?"

The girl nodded obediently and ran back into the house.

Oda Sakunosuke closed the manuscript tightly, stood up, and looked in the direction Sakura pointed.

On the path outside the fence, there were indeed two figures walking towards this direction. One of them was wearing a light reddish brown suit and had glasses on his nose.

The other man was wearing a long sand-colored windbreaker, and the wind blew through his empty arms and spread towards the sky.

…

…

The lights were still on in the Lupin Bar. Sakaguchi Ango woke up dazed. His brain suddenly woke up and he opened his phone in horror. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that there were no missed calls.

…I dreamed that my farming boss repeatedly called me to work overtime. When I woke up, I thought about the work piled up for tomorrow and couldn’t tell which was scarier, the dream or reality.

He was sobered up after being scared out of his wits. Sakaguchi Ango looked at the time, fumbled to put his glasses back on his nose, and asked the boss, "Has Mr. Odasaku gone home yet?"

"Not yet. Mr. Oda just went out to make a phone call. His coat is still here."

The boss slowly stopped wiping the wine glass and recalled, "But I was out for a long time. I wonder if I forgot my coat?"

Ango Sakaguchi straightened his suit, said goodbye to his boss, took his coat and went out to look for someone.

As soon as he turned a corner, he saw the figure of Oda Sakunosuke.

But there was another person standing next to that figure, and he looked equally familiar.

He paused and did not move forward.

…

"Would you like to go in for a drink? Ango is in there too."

Oda Sakunosuke asked.

The black-haired young man shook his head, his eyes fixed on the lit Lupin sign.

After a moment, he came to his senses and deliberately dragged out his voice, "If I see Ango sleeping, I can't help but draw a turtle on his face."

Perhaps thinking of that scene, Oda Sakunosuke was silent for a while and then nodded in agreement.

The air between the two of them became quiet again.

After the warmth of the day faded away, the cool night breeze blew through the halls and alleys, brushing away the strands of hair on Dazai Osamu's forehead.

He suddenly took two steps back, leaving the range of the street lights, looked up, and murmured with a hint of disappointment: "There is no moon today."

“Does it have any special meaning?”

"Yes." Dazai laughed briefly, retracted his gaze, and smiled as he replied softly, "If I could succeed in committing suicide, it would definitely be on a moonlit night."

His lips slightly raised, and his expression was gentle when he lowered his eyes, but his dark pupils were slightly dimmed, so that it was hard to tell whether he really thought so or was joking.

"Odasaku."

His murmured, confused voice was carried in the wind, "I don't know..."

I don’t know, he left something behind.

The last of his special powers merged into this city, even though all that was left for him here were memories of pain and hurt.

When he was still in the Port Mafia, Dazai Osamu had guessed countless times what exactly was Kimino Mutsu's special ability.

Time stopped? Immortality? Mind control?

No, it's not that simple.

How could a boy who grew up in a slum and was imprisoned in an underground prison by his previous generation know so much?

In addition to his acting skills, his impeccable writing skills, mature work ability, etiquette and skills in interacting with others, and even his tone of voice all show his abnormality.

He and Sen Ougai both guessed this, but never said it out loud.

For the leader of the Port Mafia, a capable subordinate is always better than an enemy. Even if this person's origin is unknown, as long as it can create benefits for the Port Mafia, he will implement the best solution.

But for Dazai Osamu at that time, he just felt that it would be more interesting if he didn't say it out loud.

When he was bored, he would treat this as a little game to kill time, making random guesses and refuting them one by one. Sometimes he would feel happy when he refuted himself, and sometimes he would get angry. In general, he just wanted to be hard on himself.

Whenever he was in a bad mood, the people involved would always notice it keenly.

There was surprise in his eyes at first, but later he got used to it and even asked him if he wanted to have afternoon tea together.

Go to class.

Sitting in a cake shop with warm and bright decoration that was incompatible with the Mafia, he would always order desserts with excessive sugar content. Dazai Osamu once secretly tasted it.

At the moment when the saccharin melted on the tip of his tongue, Dazai Osamu was calmly thinking about how to "accidentally" burn down this cake shop during the next mission.

But the person opposite him was totally unaware of his taste, and asked him expectantly with blinking eyes: [“How does it taste?”]

If he hadn't known that his acting was poor, Dazai would have really suspected that he was deliberately seeking revenge.

Now that I think about it, I actually feel that it would be nice if it was really revenge.

No one expected that it would be such a supernatural power, and by the time he discovered it, it was already too late.

Perhaps it was destined to be a curse when they first met.

——【“If you wish, I can give you this gift.”】

He knew very well that he had already received too many gifts and should not be greedy and ask for more.

But I can't help wanting to be a little more willful.

God had no mercy on him from beginning to end. He gave him a little warmth with great difficulty, but took it away mercilessly when he was happiest.

The price of willfulness.

Oda Sakunosuke frowned, as if he wanted to say something to him.

But Dazai Osamu shook his head, turned around and left.

After walking out of the alley and reaching a crossroads, he paused and instead of going back to the detective agency's dormitory, he turned and headed for the nearby coast.

The weather was not very good today, and there was fog in the sea in the distance. The bridge of the Bay Bridge was dotted with warm lights, and the sea surface under the bridge piers swayed with the tide.

The slightly damp sea breeze hits your face. People living in Yokohama have long been accustomed to the smell of the sea breeze.

For some reason, Kimino Mutsuki seemed to love this city, or maybe he was just disappointed with the people and no longer missed it.

The last supernatural power, the last blooming flower, he gave his last wish to Yokohama.

After encountering great disaster, you will be reborn.

They also had an informal farewell, like a play that deliberately created suspense, with an excessive blank space at the end. They both knew the many hardships they were about to face, but the moonlight was too quiet that day, so no one said it out loud.

[“If I could commit suicide successfully, it would be on a moonlit night.”]

This is not a joke, but I would like to make a small correction:

On a certain night when the spring breeze was intoxicating, he saw a small moon that belonged to him alone, leaking through the corner of the eaves.

Will he be able to leave this world as he wishes at that time?

Just like an unspoken promise, that day may never come, or it may come tomorrow.