Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era

by Kafka Asagiri

  I took half a step to my right. One bullet hit me between the eyes, the other through my heart. The assault weapon’s soft-point bullet broke through my cranium and into the back of my skull, sending me flying from the impact.

  The vision ended there.

  My skill showed me the future. While suppressing the panic flashing through my mind, I swerved to the left, contrary to what I did in my vision. However, the moment I dodged, a bullet was buried in my skull. The inside of my head shook from the impact, sending a soft, damp sound through my skull.

  The vision ended there.

  I stood in a daze. Gide hadn’t moved since he got there. He was still aiming his gun right at me and hadn’t even pulled the trigger yet. I was suddenly thrown into a deep pool of confusion.

  What’s going on?

  “Your confusion is my confusion as well,” Gide said after lowering the gun. “Because you can do exactly what I can. You have the skill to see danger that involves you seconds before it happens. I saw a future where you moved right, so I adjusted my aim accordingly. However, you ‘saw’ that future and swerved left instead. And I saw that future as well… Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  We have the same skill?

  “Your ability to observe the future is omnipotent. No one in this world can kill you…with the exception of me.” Gide’s cheeks tensed as his lips vaguely stretched to the sides. It looked as if he was smiling. “And the only one who can bury me is you. You are the sole person who can end this war.”

  His smile was truly from the heart. It was as if someone had injected ice-cold poison into my veins. I almost reflexively pointed my gun at him.

  “Yes. Just like that,” Gide replied as if he were begging for it. “That bullet alone can stop this war. You’re a member of the Mafia. You should want nothing more than the head of your enemy.”

  The muzzle of my gun was pointed at Gide. Everything he said was true. There was no telling who would win in a match between two people who could see the future. But there wasn’t anyone else in the Mafia who could even make him sweat.

  I took in a deep breath before exhaling with the muzzle still aimed right at the enemy. Then I lowered my gun.

  “I’ll pass,” I replied. “I came here to save my ally. And honestly, I haven’t killed anyone in years.”

  “………What?” That was the first time I heard a note of surprise in his voice. “Are you…not with the Mafia?”

  “The Mafia’s full of all different kinds of people.”

  “Guns are tools to kill, and this is a battlefield.” Gide gradually raised his voice. “So let us fight! Let us fight with all that we are—a battle that tears away at our souls! All a war needs is a single bullet. Even if you don’t shoot, you will have no choice but to fight back if I do!”

  He aimed his gun at me. Only moments prior, I “saw” him fire.

  “Everyone’s obsessed with fighting. They can’t get enough of it,” I said. “But not me. I’m interested in living. What interests me is how you guys live and what drives you to war. And if you die, that information will be forever lost.”

  “There is no life more important than death!”

  Gide pulled the trigger.

  I had a vision.

  The bullet hit me as I bent backward to dodge. I ducked, yet I was still hit. I tried swerving to the side, but the bullet connected. Each condition was superimposed as it played out through my head.

  Foreseeing the future wouldn’t help me in the least like this. I plunged forward in an attempt to decrease my area of damage. The enemies’ bullets soared by, slightly grazing my temples. The Mimic soldiers shot their automatic rifles in tune with their leader; however, I was able to easily foresee it. Rolling over the dirt, I avoided their bullet shower, then fired back with both of my weapons. They were mere warning shots, purposely aimed to not hit anyone. After rolling to Akutagawa’s side, I got on one knee and raised my guns.

  “You purposely…missed?” Gide’s expression darkened. “Do you…really believe this is the battle we have yearned for? What, what is it we’ve been fighting for until now…?”

  “Sorry you came all the way to Japan for this, but I have my reasons for not killing anyone. Please find someone else.”

  “Why?!” Gide yelled. “After that battle, we searched for a place worthy of death. We wandered the world like specters! You are our only hope! Shoot! Shoot us! If you don’t…”

  His howls floated unheeded into the atmosphere. He sounded like a man deep in his grave, but also like someone who desperately wanted to live. It appeared I had no choice but to answer him. In hushed tones, I replied:

  “The reason why I can’t grant your wish is that I have a dream. When I quit the Mafia and am able to do anything I want, I will sit at a desk in a room with a view of the ocean…”

  —“Then you write what happens next.”

  —“That’s the only way to preserve its perfection.”

  “I want to be a novelist,” I continued. “I want to throw away my gun. All I want in my hands are a pen and paper… A certain man once told me that writing novels is writing people… You cannot write about someone’s life after you rob them of it. That’s why I will never kill again.”

  All noises vanished in an instant. The sound of the wind, the sound of leaves rubbing together—they all disappeared, filling the world with only silence.

  That was something I had never told anyone before, not even Dazai or Ango.

  “Is that your answer?” Gide asked in a low voice. “Is that the reason why you refuse to stand on the battlefield before us?”

  “Yes,” I answered.

  I looked at Gide, and he looked back at me. Our gazes quietly crossed as we tried to read the emotions hidden deep in each other’s eyes. That was when I realized the negotiation had failed. Gide aimed his gun at Akutagawa, who was still unconscious, and pulled the trigger.

  It would’ve been impossible to pick up an unconscious body and dodge a bullet at the same time, so I threw myself in front of Akutagawa. The impact hit me right in the middle of the chest. I’d jumped to the side, and the force spun me around before I collapsed onto the ground and rolled back even farther.

  “To live? We are already dead. We are but soulless masses of flesh controlled by the spirits of the departed. We are nothing more than empty shells waiting for a skill user like you to reduce these bodies to ash with your gunfire.”

  Each cough brought an unbearable pain in my chest. I ripped my jacket and checked the bullet to find it stuck in my bulletproof vest. Even then, my sternum ached as if I’d been hit with a hammer.

  “You’re not dead.” I slowly strung my words together. “I don’t know what happened to you in the past, but you can take your time to think about how you’ll die.”

  “Why don’t you understand…? You’re the only one who can…!”

  As he wrung every last bit of anger out of his voice, all emotion suddenly faded from Gide’s eyes like a candle going out. And just like that, his gray eyes were empty, as if I were staring into endless ruins.

  “If that is your answer, then there is nothing that can be done. You will not kill me because you do not understand my desire. Also, I will not kill you because you are the only one who can guide us into the battlefield’s sacred fire.”

  Without making a sound, the personnel carrier from earlier stopped alongside the artificial forest’s entrance behind Gide. Then he and his men quietly got into the truck to the very last man. The grave tone reminded me of a funeral. As they were about to take off, Gide looked back at me once more, then said, “I will make you understand.”

  His expression was pale. There was a note of sorrow in his voice that sounded like something not of this world. I couldn’t even tell where it was coming from.

  “I will make you understand me. I’ll show you…,” Gide said while sternly pointing at his temple, “…what is in here. Then you will know the truth. You will understand that one of us must die.”

&n
bsp; He silently walked away, got in the truck, and disappeared. However, at the final moment before he left, he cast a glance at me that chilled my blood. At last, he spoke.

  “Look forward to it.”

  Ever since that day, Mimic stopped attacking us. After getting the injured the help they needed, I talked with Dazai a little. Then I locked myself in my room and cycled through my thoughts. In that dim room, I listened only to my heartbeat as I observed the emotions bubbling up from within me like foam. I had a feeling something was going to happen, and soon. Something big. Like the violet sky before nightfall, like faraway thunder before a downpour, I had a faint sense I was about to face something colossal. This foreboding had nothing to do with being a skill user; it was the small tinge everyone gets before something’s about to happen. But realistically, there was virtually nothing I could do about it until it actually occurred and slapped me in the face. The world isn’t kind. You have to be tough.

  Night fell. Dazai contacted me and asked if I could meet him to discuss our plans going forward. I grabbed my coat and left my room.

  “I like the night,” Dazai said. “Nighttime is the Mafia’s time.”

  The two of us took a walk through downtown Yokohama. The city residents were calmly roaming the streets. Buildings old and new equally bathed in the moist sea breeze. The golden stars in the sky flickered just like the lights on the earth’s surface.

  “Where are we going now?”

  “To meet someone.” Dazai smiled. “Anyway, I feel for you, Odasaku. Not only did you run into the enemy’s boss, but he made some serious advances toward you, too. At this rate, you guys will be married by the weekend.”

  “That’s not what happened.” At least, I hoped not. “They’re just a group of weirdos who start wars for the sake of it.”

  “Oh? I think it’s kinda cute, going to such lengths to plan another person’s death. I never would’ve thought of doing that.” There was more than a hint of amusement in his tone. “But I can’t ignore what he said to you before he left. They might try to switch up their strategy before attacking again. I need to have my men keep an eye on you.”

  “How much longer is this conflict gonna last?”

  “The Mimic soldiers don’t bother me so much, but the leader’s skill is a real pain. Surprise attacks won’t work, which means we need some inside information. Got any ideas?”

  The Mafia was making every effort to get intel on Mimic, but so far it had been all for naught.

  “Ango’s the only lead I’ve got,” I said. “He was working as a double agent for the Mafia and Mimic for years. He ought to know a lot more than what he told me the other day.”

  “I agree.” Dazai nodded.

  “Is there no way to find him?”

  “There is,” he plainly declared.

  “Oh, there is?” I nodded. Then I found myself surprised. “Wait. There is?”

  “More precisely, there’s no need to search for him. He’ll be waiting for us. All right, we’re here.”

  I looked up in the direction Dazai was pointing in.

  “Here?” I asked.

  “Where else?” Dazai wryly smirked.

  Before me was a familiar bar with a white sign and a small light glowing in the darkness of the night.

  Dazai and I went down the dimly lit stairs to the basement. I could hear the faint voices of people conversing as my feet were enveloped in a white cloud of cigarette smoke. Thinking back, there was always someone there. Whenever I came by, I would always mysteriously run into a friend who would immediately greet me, even if we hadn’t made plans to meet or if I’d just stopped by on a whim.

  And that still hadn’t changed.

  “Hey, nice to see you. I’ve already started.”

  In the exact same seat, ever his usual self, Ango raised his glass and greeted us. After giving the bartender the signal with my eyes, I raised a finger. Immediately, he gave me a quick glance of acknowledgment. Dazai and I then took the seats by Ango’s side.

  “You could’ve at least tried to get in touch with me,” I said.

  “It took me a while to throw the pursuers off my trail.” Ango let out a bitter laugh. “I’ve had a lot of difficulties that prevented me from talking. But now there are no wiretaps, and nobody followed me here. I can drink to my heart’s content. More importantly, how did you know I was here?”

  “I found a handkerchief at the site of the explosion.” Dazai grinned fiendishly. “There was a napkin from this place wrapped inside. It was completely obvious. Who would’ve thought spies used such dated methods, huh?”

  Now that he mentioned it, I remembered lending Ango my handkerchief before I passed out. That must’ve been when he slipped the napkin in. I just thought I’d lost it.

  “We’re the only ones who would pick up on something like that,” Ango said before letting out a small sigh. “I thought I’d never get to drink here again. I’m lucky. And I want to share this luck with my two friends.”

  “Well, aren’t you being rather sentimental for an undercover agent,” Dazai coolly replied.

  I looked at Ango. He didn’t immediately react to what Dazai had said, but his lips seemed to faintly curl.

  “…I’m impressed,” Ango quietly admitted after a few moments went by.

  “Ango, you were already somebody before you joined the Mafia. You were an agent for the Home Affairs Ministry’s Special Division for Unusual Powers, a secret government agency. Your mission was to keep an eye on the Mafia and report back to headquarters.”

  “……Yes,” Ango replied after a deep sigh.

  “While you may be part of a secret organization that presides over the skill users in this country, you wouldn’t make it out unscathed if you took on the Port Mafia head-on. Plus, the mission of the Special Division for Unusual Powers is to manage skill users, not wipe them out. That’s why they sent an agent to infiltrate the Mafia to keep an eye on things. It was an unavoidable measure of action. Am I right?”

  That would mean the entire mess that got Ango into the Mafia was set up by the Special Division for Unusual Powers.

  “That’s when Mimic came up. This criminal organization of skill users planned on coming to Japan, and they would prove to be another headache for the Special Division for Unusual Powers to deal with. Therefore, they got you to keep an eye on them…as a double agent for the Mafia. Of course, those black-clothed Special Forces—the Division’s task force—would come to your rescue if needed.”

  “Being a government official was a thankless job for little money,” Ango claimed with a scowl.

  “So that would mean Ango wasn’t a double agent, but a triple agent,” I said.

  “Yep.” Dazai nodded. “Well, that’s about the extent of my research. Anyway, enough boring stuff. Let’s drink.”

  Glasses were then gently placed before our seats. Usually, we would say cheers after that, but not this time. Perhaps that would never happen again.

  Nobody spoke for a while after that. A bitter silence, more bitter than anything on the menu, filled the air between us.

  “So…” Ango reluctantly spoke up since no one else would say anything. “Did you come here to affirm our abiding friendship?”

  “As if.” Only the corners of Dazai’s lips curled. “We came to get information on Mimic. You knew that.”

  “It’s strange. This is the same liquor I always order, yet it has no taste,” Ango muttered while staring at his glass as if he was talking to himself. Then he turned his gaze to me and asked, “The Division’s surveillance group informed us that you met Gide. Did you see his skill?”

  I told him I saw that Gide could predict his enemy’s attacks.

  “Even the Special Division for Unusual Powers has no way of dealing with that skill.” Ango shook his head. “The only option would be to drop a massive bomb on him…but he’s elusive. We can’t pin him down. The higher-ups apparently intend to let the Mafia deal with this case. After both crime syndicates take each other out, the Special D
ivision for Unusual Powers can just manage whichever group survives, thus never having to sacrifice one of their own.”

  Such a brilliant maneuver would be like killing two birds with one stone for the Special Division for Unusual Powers.

  “How convenient.” Dazai tilted his head to the side. “But even the Mafia would have a hard time dealing with that skill.” Dazai then looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “…With the exception of one lowest-ranked mafioso, of course.”

  “He’s a military veteran in command of countless powerful soldiers,” I mentioned as I stared at my reflection in my drink. “Besides, our skills merely allow us to see a few seconds into the future. Who wins depends on whoever’s more skilled in battle and with a gun.”

  Being more skilled with a gun means being able to shoot your opponent from farther away with more accuracy.

  “Odasaku’s marksmanship…” Dazai broke into a meaningful grin. “There’s a lot of uncertainty. Plus, there’s also the problem of a skill singularity.”

  “Skill singularity?”

  “Did anything unusual happen when you used your skill against Gide?”

  After thinking about it for a moment, I told him something unusual did, in fact, happen. I saw multiple futures stacked on top of one another.

  “It’s a phenomenon the government has started to research only recently.” Ango’s expression was stern as he spoke. “They’ve observed that when multiple skills interact, on rare occasions they’ll careen off into a completely unexpected direction. The details are unclear, but for example…let’s imagine two people are fighting, but both have the skill to always strike first… Or one has the skill to always deceive their opponent while the other has the skill to always see the truth… What would happen? The answer is we don’t know until we try. Most of the time, one skill ends up winning. However, in some rare cases, it leads to a phenomenon that isn’t initiated by either party. The Special Division for Unusual Powers calls this a singularity.”

  Maybe what I saw then was a singularity. Or was a singularity something even beyond that?