Chapter 15

Yesterday—or maybe the day before, it doesn’t matter—Dazai Osamu executed a traitor at the Yokohama Minami Port Warehouse.

An ordinary traitor would not have been qualified for him to take action personally, but this person held a high position and was involved in the Dragon War a year ago. This line had been buried for months, but they only discovered it today.

The traitor had found a scapegoat and wanted to pretend that he had died in the melee, so as to stir up disputes between the port mafia and other forces. Someone had already been waiting at the port to pick him up, and he could escape with the heritage map after tonight.

Unexpectedly, before the melee began, Dazai Osamu led his men in and killed all the enemies in the warehouse with a single order. He raised his hand indifferently, and his subordinates threw up the guide whose life or death was unknown.

Seeing this, even a fool could guess that the truth had been revealed. Everyone present knew how horrific the punishments that the Port Mafia would inflict on traitors were.

Especially - standing in front of him was the youngest and most notorious cadre candidate in the entire port mafia.

Rather than being interrogated by Dazai Osamu, it would be better to shoot myself now, at least I can suffer less pain.

The man quickly pulled out the gun from his waist and just as he opened the safety, he heard two gunshots in the silent warehouse, followed by heart-wrenching screams.

A wet stain grew larger and larger on the waist of Dazai Osamu's dark suit. He frowned, threw the gun to his subordinate, and gave a short order: "Take the man back."

The traitor with a broken wrist was taken back to the Port Mafia. The traitor's mouth was looser than Dazai had expected, and before he could make a move, the interrogation team made him confess all the information.

When he received the order to be summoned by the leader, Dazai Osamu was applying medicine in the medical department.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the accidental discharge of the gun hit his coat pocket, where the contactor and the red bean soup he wanted to have for breakfast were contained.

The aluminum can exploded, sticky sugar water flowed halfway over his body, and the sharp metal fragments cut a two-inch long gash in his side. Unfortunately, it failed to penetrate his internal organs - such a non-fatal wound had no effect on him except for the artificial pain.

Mori Ougai was quite surprised that he was injured, and expressed his genuine concern for him before assigning the task to him.

Dazai Osamu accepted the assignment, but he did not leave the chief's office without delay as he had done in the past. He was silent for a while, raised his eyes from the documents, and suddenly said, "Chief, can I choose the accompanying personnel this time?"

"Of course." Mori Ogai raised his eyebrows. As a high-ranking member of the Port Mafia, Dazai Osamu had his own armed forces and the power to deploy them at will. The fact that he asked this showed that the real target of the question was not among them.

Mori Ogai suddenly understood and couldn't help but nodded and smiled: "It seems that you and Gongye-kun get along very well."

Dazai Osamu raised his lips slightly, his eyes as dark as ever, "Isn't this the mission you gave me, leader? I think this is a good opportunity."

Hearing this, Mori Ogai laughed twice and leaned back in relaxation: "I believe you have your own considerations, Dazai-kun."

"You're so cunning, Mr. Mori, for pushing the bad guy onto me."

"Evil people..."

Mori Ogai pondered for a moment, looked at him with a smile, and spoke again meaningfully, "Like I said, Dazai-kun, we are very similar."

——Yes.

Half leaning against the cold stone wall, his body's senses seemed to be assimilated by the stone and slowly numbed, but Dazai Osamu's mind was extremely calm.

According to the common people's definition of good and evil, he was indeed a complete traitor. Even if he died in this dark underground, if people knew about it, they would only say "he deserved it".

Some people hope that he will benefit from living, but even more people hate him and want him dead. He is walking on a bottomless road, unable to tell whether his existence is real or false.

Dazai Osamu looked at the person in front of him, his eyes slowly becoming fixed as if solid.

Gongye Mu's condition was much worse than his. Even in the poor lighting, one could still see that his skin had turned almost transparent due to excessive blood loss. There was a shocking wound from his fragile neck to his collarbone. His joints were red and swollen, and there was no intact skin on his exposed skin. The tiny wounds on his five fingers holding the phone were still oozing blood.

But he was unaware, and a pair of beautiful golden eyes looked at him purely and calmly.

Perhaps it was because Dazai Osamu had been silent for too long, Gongye Mutsu followed his gaze, was slightly startled, and withdrew his hand.

"Sorry, I didn't notice it was a little dirty." He seemed to be relieved. "Luckily I didn't touch you, otherwise it would be bad if the wound got infected."

...What is this?

Dazai Osamu felt a nameless fire blocking his chest. The environment can indeed change a person's character. Just like in this narrow gap where he seemed to be abandoned by the world, his masked smile in the past was shaken off like powder.

He almost wanted to laugh: "Why? We are neither partners nor friends. You simply -" His gaze and tone were as sharp as if he wanted to carve the bloodstains on the other person's body into his eyes, "- there is no need to be so self-indulgent."

Forget it, don't show that expression in front of him again, it was meaningless from the beginning, right? He brought Gongye Mutsu here just to test his special ability, knowing that there was danger but not saying a word, every step was calculated to maximize the benefits - isn't that right?

He has always been like this.

There is no need to be nice to him, he will neither appreciate it nor be grateful. It seems that Gong Ye Mu's behavior is mocking him from a high position as an alien who is unable to establish empathy with the world.

This person would never reject him, always accepting everything with a smile, and always looking at him with gentleness and indulgence, almost... making him feel that he was favored when he shouldn't have been fantasizing about it.

Dazai Osamu seemed to suddenly show some kind of stress response, cold and alert, not knowing whether he wanted to hurt others or himself, wrapping himself in layers of over-defense thorns.

“…Dazai?”

The gray-haired boy froze in confusion, the blurry shadow of the person opposite him reflected in his eyes.

Kono Seira was caught off guard by Dazai Osamu's declaration of independence. He froze in place, his lips opening and closing several times, not knowing what to say.

He subconsciously wanted to refute the other party's overly cold words, but he didn't know where to start.

Dazai Osamu is right.

They had only known each other for a short time and were not familiar with each other at all. Their life experiences, personalities, hobbies, views, and positions were all very different. If it weren't for this "game", Kono Seiryoshi couldn't imagine that such a person would have any intersection with himself.

Does his concern for Dazai Osamu go beyond that of an ordinary colleague?

If compared to other unfamiliar or familiar people in the Port Mafia, maybe.

When he came to this world, he was alone at the beginning. He had been wandering around for several years without making any progress. The few people he could talk to were only met recently.

It seemed that since the moment he entered the prison cell, he had looked at Dazai Osamu differently from other people. It had nothing to do with sympathy or sense of responsibility; it was a kind of willing empathy.

Sometimes, Seiryoshi Kono couldn't help but think about Dazai Osamu and give him a little, insignificant care within his ability.

But he forgot that the other party might not need it.

Gongye Shengliang's eyelashes trembled. After a long while, he raised his eyes and then slowly bent them. "I overstepped the boundaries. If I have caused you any trouble..." He organized his words, paused for a long time with difficulty, and sighed. "I won't do that again in the future."

He slowly turned around, picked out his handkerchief, wiped his fingers clean bit by bit, and took out the keychain from his inner pocket. It was a thank-you gift from the receptionist at the hot spring hotel for helping him organize the brochure. The hand-woven knot was delicate and exquisite, with a cute porcelain dolphin hanging at the end.

However - he had just discovered - the dolphin's tail had been knocked off at some point, leaving only an ugly and funny scar.

It should have been guessed that such fragile accessories should not be brought into the cave where they are prone to bumps and scratches. He was careless for a moment and put the keychain in there casually.

Kono Seira put his phone aside, the light was directed at the stone wall behind him, and darkness enveloped the two of them again. He placed the broken keychain between him and Dazai Osamu, like carving a commemorative symbol, and gently pushed it towards that direction with his fingertips.

He did these things without thinking much, but he felt a little regretful. Even if they were lucky enough to escape from here, they might not be able to go to see the dolphin show together.

…I shouldn’t have gone with Dazai.

A pair of eyes penetrated the darkness, staring at him silently and stubbornly with almost masochistic purpose.

The dizziness caused by blood loss gradually faded away, and Kono Seiryoshi's eyes closed and opened again. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, and even the movement of him retracting his hand seemed like an old and shabby black-and-white silent film.

In the last shot of the silent film, his drooping wrist was grabbed by someone.

Kono Seira blinked away the mist in front of his eyes and looked up in surprise. In the shadowy outline, the black-haired boy closed his eyes and tilted his head to the other side. Fatigue and tiredness spread on his face. He stretched out his right hand with a scratch on it and grabbed him.

In a split second, countless chaotic thoughts entangled Dazai like a ball of wool that couldn't be untied. Time was too short, and he didn't know which thread he had accidentally grasped.

No one told him what to do at a time like this, and no one told him whether it was right or wrong. In an instant, his instinct went against his subjective will, and he attributed all the clamor and sarcasm to the increasingly tight force.

Forget it, Dazai Osamu thought a little tiredly, if all this was due to hysteria before death, then it’s okay to be willful for once.

It's too cold here, and he wants to find someone to warm him up.

The author has something to say:

This chapter is so serious, I am not used to it (squeaky) but luckily, I finally pulled myself back from the edge of a rollover

Dazai is really that kind of (stretches out his hand) (can’t make a gesture) (gives up) very special type!

The guide is not over yet, there is still a long way to go (Cang Sang lights a cigarette) I suspect that the reason why the word count of the wild copy exceeds the limit is all because of Dazai