Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 3 Chapter 2 Part 1

Chapter 2 Part 1

Kunikida’s scheme was extremely simple. Fake slips of paper.
The pile Dazai drew from was not the same as the one everyone else drew from.
Of course, this was only possible because they had prepared multiple copies of the old newspaper and tinkered with the envelope. As one might expect from someone who had worked with Dazai for so long, Kunikida was able to predict that the roles for the entrance exam would inevitably be decided through drawing lots and that the point of compromise would be using an old newspaper to make the slips of paper to prevent cheating.
If they were unable to use the old newspaper or envelope, Kunikida had claimed, then that was that. His skill, The Matchless Poet, and Tanizaki’s Light Snow would be powerless before Dazai’s No Longer Human, since it could nullify any skill simply by Dazai touching them. Their only choice would be to prepare for the worst and pray to the god of chance to make the right decision.
But everything went well this time. Just as planned, Dazai drew from the dummy pile.
First, Tanizaki’s job was to get eleven old newspapers the day before,

then make numerous folded slips of paper with the same page number and dates. Which is why yesterday, he asked an acquaintance who recycled old newspapers to bring him multiple copies of an old paper with the same date. He used these newspapers to create slips of paper with numbered pairs starting from “1” and “2” all the way to “39” and “40” (page numbers were printed on both sides of the paper as mentioned above, so each slip of paper had one number on each side of it).
Next, his job was to collect all pairs of “1” and “2,” along with pairs of “3” and “4,” before putting them into a small envelope. It was ten newspapers’ worth of “1 & 2” pairs and “3 & 4” pairs, thus coming to a total of twenty strips of folded paper. In short, this was a fake pile of lots, twenty strips of paper, to replace the original pile of everything from pairs “1 & 2” to pairs “39 & 40.”
The plan was to force Dazai to draw from this pile, giving him only the chance to get a number from “1” to “4.” Whoever got the smallest number would lose, which meant Dazai’s loss had already been decided. In other words, he was going to get the role of the bomber. After that, Tanizaki would only have to switch piles again before everyone else drew a lot. There were nineteen slips of paper in the other pile, which started from the pair “5 & 6” and went all the way to “39 & 40.” Any number would end up being higher than what Dazai drew.
The piles needed to be switched out only twice. As long as that was done, then the rest of the scheme was extremely simple and extremely hard to discover—cheating with a high chance of success. That was why meticulous training was necessary for switching out the piles. That was where Naomi and Kunikida would come in. In the conference room, Tanizaki would pretend to mix the pile of twenty strips of paper, but he’d actually switch them out with the “1 & 2” and “3 & 4” pairs. After Dazai drew a slip, Kunikida would then switch out the pile to the “5 & 6” through “39 & 40” pairs when he had his turn.
Nonetheless, the envelope itself was prepared with a false bottom before the meeting, so switching out the pile itself wouldn’t be that difficult.
It was a rather simple mechanism. The false bottom with the fake pile had a string attached that would just need to be pulled to switch the piles. This was Kunikida’s ultimate weapon against Dazai that he had been laboriously preparing for well in advance.

All the traps had now been set.
Each detective—Dazai, Kunikida, Yosano, Kenji, and Tanizaki—was holding a slip of paper. Whoever had the smallest number got shouldered with the most burdensome work, which in this case would be the role of the bomber.
Tanizaki recalled the entire course of events. So far, everything had gone according to plan. Nevertheless, they were up against Dazai—a man who had been playing people, friend or foe, like a fiddle ever since he joined the agency. He was clever, and his behavior always made his intentions unclear as he led those around him into confusion and panic. His past was almost a complete mystery, and before anyone even realized it, everything was going down the path he laid. He was like a certain folkloric trickster.
Would such a trick work on Dazai? “Okay, we’ll start with me.”
Dazai unfolded the old newspaper scrap. “3 & 4”
“Huh…” Dazai frowned.
It worked. Tanizaki caught himself before those words slipped off his tongue.
“Looks like you’re finally getting what you deserve,” Kunikida said to Dazai.
Despite being dragged into this scheme, even the self-proclaimed “average guy” Tanizaki felt good seeing the plan go so perfectly. Dazai often led Tanizaki around by the nose and pushed his responsibility onto him, albeit not to the degree that he did with Kunikida. While saying this was revenge would be an exaggeration, it still did feel good to think of this as a little payback.
Next, Kunikida unfolded his slip of paper: “7 & 8”
The mechanism he created to switch piles was working like it should. In other words, the second switch was successfully carried out before Kunikida drew his numbers. Kunikida waved his paper in the air while boasting.

“I beat you, Dazai! This alone has already brought me all the satisfaction I need.”
“Darn, I was really looking forward to seeing you cry while holding a bomb and acting like a madman…,” Dazai muttered in abject disappointment.
Yosano then opened her slip of paper: “27 & 28” Next up was Kenji: “33 & 34”
Kenji, the youngest detective and most recent hire, had the best luck out of everyone. From Tanizaki’s point of view, while Kenji was the only agent younger than him, not once did he ever honestly believe he could beat him. Tanizaki was the only one left who hadn’t unfolded his slip of paper yet.
“Let me tell you a little something before you open that, Tanizaki,” Dazai abruptly commented.
“Yes?”
“At this rate, there’s no doubt I’m going to end up with the lowest number. Perhaps this is payment for my wild lifestyle. So I’ve accepted my fate and will come up with a story for a man who has lost hope in humanity and excitedly dreams of blowing himself up while taking everyone with him. But first…I need a favor.”
“A favor?” Tanizaki curiously tilted his head to the side.
“When you think of bombers, you think of people barricading themselves in buildings, and when they do that, they always have a hostage. If possible, I’d really like someone sweet and passive for that role— someone whose appearance screams hostage. I thought I might ask your sister to play the part. Would that be all right with you?”
Tanizaki looked at Naomi to his side. Neither startled nor puzzled, she placed a hand on her cheek.
“I would love to, if you don’t mind,” Naomi replied while staring at her brother for some reason. Tanizaki had the feeling that something wasn’t quite right, but he nonetheless gave a noncommittal “I mean…as long as Naomi’s fine with it” and nodded.
“I’m glad you’re on board. Now, go ahead, Tanizaki. Unfold your paper.
Your glorious numbers await you,” said Dazai.
The faintest of smiles played on his face.
Kunikida stood up almost simultaneously, knocking over his chair. “Impossible,” he muttered. “Tanizaki, open it!”

At Kunikida’s pale-faced urging, Tanizaki unfolded his slip of paper in a panic.
“1 & 2” “Wha—?”
“Oh, what do we have here? What are the odds?” Dazai grinned. “It
appears the god of drawing lots is a mischievous one. I can’t believe you drew a number even smaller than mine, Tanizaki. You have the worst luck.” Flustered, Tanizaki checked the date on the slip of paper. It was from two months ago, the same as all the other ones. This was without a doubt the same as the others Tanizaki had prepared. The way it was cut out was no different from how Tanizaki had cut out the others, either. This was clearly made from one of the eleven newspapers. But that couldn’t be possible. There were only two piles. One contained twenty slips of the numbers “1” through “4,” and the other contained nineteen slips of the numbers “5” through “40.” Kunikida, Yosano, and Kenji most certainly drew from the latter with the bigger numbers, as did Tanizaki. There was no moment that the piles could have been switched out again. So how did Tanizaki get a slip
with the number “1” on it?
Tanizaki instinctively looked over to see Dazai’s reaction—a faint smirking. It was as if that smile could peer right into Tanizaki’s heart—as if Dazai knew that Tanizaki knew that he knew.
“This is—”
Impossible. But Tanizaki couldn’t say that. After all, the numbers were drawn at random. The only reason a person might make such a claim would be because they cheated.
But who leaked the information? There was no way Kunikida would do something like that. Nor would Tanizaki himself. Which left them with—!
Startled, Tanizaki looked over at Naomi, who gazed back at him teary- eyed.
“I just…”
Tanizaki could see the hearts pulsating in his sister’s eyes. She covered her slightly crimson cheeks with her long, delicate fingers, then said, “I just wanted…to be your hostage so you could tie me up and threaten me, my dear, sweet brother…”