Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part 5

Chapter 1 Part 5

“I would never abandon my men.” “…!”
Kunikida screamed:
“Bomb! Get down!”

A flash of light flooded the hallway.

After promptly leaping back with the reflexes of a tiger, Atsushi pushed Kunikida and the others to the ground to cover them. Immediately, a thick gust of smoke and wind blew across the hallway over their heads.
“Cough…! Hack…!” Atsushi spluttered as he stood enshrouded in the smoke. His ears were ringing. The powerful explosion made it feel like he had been stabbed right in the head. He wasn’t even able to see what was happening around him thanks to the white smoke.
The thief utilized his skill to walk through walls. By reversing it, he was able to hide a bomb inside his body. No physical examinations or observations would ever be able to find something hidden within his flesh. He probably did this to smuggle other tools to the island as well.
Atsushi didn’t have any major injuries or feel any pain. He quickly checked his body, but he wasn’t bleeding anywhere. If a bomb made to kill people exploded this close by, there would have been casualties.
“Damn it! It’s a smoke screen!” screamed Kunikida from the other side of the smoke. “They ran away! They probably went through the wall!”
Kunikida was right. Atsushi groped around and searched for the thieves where they should have been standing, but there was nobody there. Only the cold floor remained. They got away.
“I’ll go after them!” Atsushi yelled back.
Blinded by the smoke, Atsushi used his hands to examine the wall. The walls in the basement were thick. If Nemo was planning to grab his two men and run, he must have already had his eye on a wall that was less than two inches thick.
It didn’t take long before Atsushi found it—an automatic door. While it was sturdy and painted the same color as the walls, it appeared to be less than two inches thick, judging by the sound it made when Atsushi knocked on it. It was highly likely the thieves fled this way. However, the door wouldn’t even budge no matter how much Atsushi pulled or pushed it. “Kunikida! They’re probably on the other side of this door!” he yelled
amid the slightly thinning smoke. “Tell me how to open it!”
“It probably needs clearance.” Kunikida came running over. “Hold your silver coin up to the door’s authentication panel.”
Atsushi suddenly remembered the silver coin he was given when he arrived on the island. Embedded in the coin was a transmitter that was supposed to give them access to places that tourists with copper coins couldn’t get into. Atsushi hastily yanked the silver coin out of his pocket and held it over the panel. However, the machine gave a dull beep, and the door showed no signs of opening.
“Let me try.”

Kunikida approached the door. The air in the hallway had almost completely cleared up.
“…That’s strange. Mine doesn’t work, either.”
“Please step away from the door,” said a security guard. The guard walked over to them and continued, “You do not have permission to enter.”
“What?” Kunikida turned around and furrowed his brows. “What do you mean?”
“The area past this door is top secret. Only those with permission can enter. I must ask you to leave.”
“‘Leave’?” Kunikida’s eyes narrowed with rage. “Excuse me? You hired us to capture the thieves who escaped through this door. This is not the time to be worrying about secrets or permission. We will come back once we catch them, so open the damn door.”
“Not even we security guards are allowed in here.”
The situation seemed to be getting serious. Atsushi and the others were never told there would be zones off-limits when they got here. Even if they were, this was no time to be worrying about rules.
“We’re getting nowhere talking to you! Atsushi, call the captain! We have to get this door opened immediately!”
“The captain has not been granted permission, either,” said the guard with a blank expression. “But feel free to call him if you want to make sure.”
Atsushi pulled out his cell phone. Even though they were in the basement, the phone surprisingly seemed to be getting a signal. He tapped the captain’s phone number, which he had previously saved. However… “Kunikida,” Atsushi said, phone still to his ear. “He’s not picking up.” “What?”
No matter how long he waited, there was no sign of the captain answering. Not only that but…
“Hey, do you hear something?” Kunikida asked while looking around. Atsushi immediately heard something as well. It was a flat beeping sound similar to a shawm—the flute street vendors play outside at ramen stalls.
“That’s the captain’s ringtone…isn’t it?”
“I think it’s coming from the other side of this door…,” Kunikida commented while placing a hand on the wall.
All of a sudden, the automatic door opened without warning. “Whoa?!” Kunikida jumped back in surprise.
Standing on the other side of the door were soldiers. Not any ordinary soldiers, though—these ones were armed with large submachine guns and covered head to toe in bulletproof armor. They were fully equipped infantry soldiers. There were at least a dozen of them, each wearing a bulletproof mask that concealed their expression.
“This zone is off-limits. You cannot be here.”
The soldiers stood before the door to block anyone from getting in while preparing their submachine guns so they could immediately fire if necessary.
“Excuse me?”
“Get out. This is your last warning. Insubordination will be seen as a sign of hostility, and we will have no choice but to open fire.”
The submachine guns’ black muzzles had a dull gleam to them. The dozen fully armed soldiers were pointing them at Kunikida so they could respond as needed. It felt like sticking one’s head in a lion’s mouth. Nevertheless, Kunikida didn’t flinch. His tone remained calm as he declared:
“This is my last warning as well. Move. We are detectives given orders to catch the thieves. This island may have extraterritorial rights, but don’t you dare think you can threaten civilians at gunpoint on my watch.”
Antagonism radiated from Kunikida’s entire body. He seemed to be angry that some ridiculous reason was stopping him from catching those criminals. Kunikida and the soldiers stood on each side of the doorway, glaring at one another for a few moments.
“Well, what do we have here? It looks like our guest has some backbone,” came a sudden voice from behind the soldiers. “Lower your weapons and stand back. You won’t be able to scare him.”
Like perfectly ordered machines, the soldiers immediately lowered their guns as the hoarse voice directed. They then moved to the side, allowing an old man in military attire to approach the door. The man was of small stature, and standing next to such brawny soldiers only made him look even smaller. His expression was warm, and he had fluffy white hair hanging above his wrinkled face. If he weren’t wearing a military uniform, he would probably look like a professor from the countryside.
“Are you the leader of these armed soldiers?” asked Kunikida indignantly. “We need to catch some thieves who went that way. I would like to request permission to enter this top secret zone.”
“Hmm… You’ve got guts, my boy. You would make a great soldier if you worked under me.” The old man gently smiled with the eyes of a teacher. “However, I cannot give you permission to enter. I’m sorry, but only those with a gold coin can come inside.”
“‘A gold coin’?”
“What you two are holding are silver coins given to general staff. However, there are zones on this island that require something more—a gold coin. If someone were to enter this area without a gold coin, or if someone were to leak the information they obtained on its premises to an outsider, then we have permission to shoot them on the spot. These are the absolute rules of the island. Even your country’s leader signed the agreement.”
Atsushi looked at the silver coin in his hand. Normal tourists were given copper coins. Therefore, it seemed that copper, silver, and gold represented how many zones you were allowed to enter, with copper being the least and gold being the most.
“But with some respect for your sense of heroism, allow me to inform you that the thieves have already been caught.”
“Really?” Kunikida said in shock.
“This top secret zone has very high security with numerous surveillance cameras. Furthermore, these here are seasoned soldiers—they’re in another league compared with the guards out there. You have nothing to worry about.”
After glaring at the old man for a few seconds, Kunikida calmly replied, “Very well. If what you say is true, I will just contact my client and confirm through him. What is your name?”
“People around here call me Colonel. That’s it.” “Colonel… So you are an army civilian.”
Atsushi looked at the old man’s face once more. While he had the mannerisms and expression of a schoolteacher, a closer look showed a few faded white scars running across his face. He may have been short, but his shoulders were broad and muscular. He must have trained hard when he was younger.
All of a sudden, a faint scent tickled Atsushi’s nose. His five senses were even sharper than usual, since he had just used his skill, so he was able to pick up on smells and sounds he usually wouldn’t even notice. The senses of a tiger must still have been lingering inside. It was a familiar stench that made his nose twitch. It was…
“No…!”
Atsushi swiftly dashed forward into the top secret zone without even thinking and forced himself past the soldiers.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
Ignoring their yelling, Atsushi looked around. It was another hallway leading somewhere. It didn’t look that different from the hallway they were already in.
“Get away from the door! Do you want to die?!”
The soldier’s warnings went in one ear and out the other. Atsushi caught sight of something at the end of the hallway in the top secret zone— something red. A sticky crimson liquid was spread across the floor and was splattered on the walls and ceiling as well. It was certainly where this queasy stench was coming from.
“That’s…!”
Atsushi’s eyes opened wide. It was as clear as day. The white walls were freshly covered in the crimson liquid, which also surrounded a person lying on the floor. It was blood and a dead body.
“Get back!”
The soldier pushed Atsushi back and hit him with the stock of his gun, knocking him off balance and onto the ground. Kunikida immediately rushed over.

“Atsushi, are you okay?”
“…Kunikida,” Atsushi said in a daze. He’d only caught a glimpse of it, but there was no doubting what he’d seen. “There was…a corpse on the floor.”
“What?” Kunikida’s eyes opened wide. “Don’t tell me the thieves are dead.”
That was what Atsushi thought, too, when he smelled the blood, but… “…No, it wasn’t them.” Atsushi unsteadily lifted his head. The image
was burned in his eyes.
“Hmm… So you saw it.” The old man called Colonel frowned. “As I mentioned earlier, all things that happen within the top secret zone must be kept secret at all costs. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go anymore.”
“What? Atsushi, what did you see?”
A blue uniform similar to that of a repairman’s… A weary expression… A ringtone that mimicked a shawm…
Atsushi replied, his voice hoarse:

“It was our client… The captain is dead.”
Surveillance video: camera number 15B.
Filming location: second basement floor, top secret zone, west hallway. Time of footage: 11:28 AM, the thirteen seconds between 15 s and 28 s.
Displayed on the surveillance footage was a sterile white hallway. It was a linear shot from the right front side to the left back side. The area was almost spotless due to people rarely entering this zone. It was basically sterile.
A person’s back appeared on the front right side of the footage. It was a young man in a blue uniform exhaustingly walking ahead while restlessly looking around—Captain Walston, the client who invited Atsushi and the others onto the island. There was no sound, but based on the constant dropping of his shoulders, it was clear he was sighing as he always did.
The captain walked to the center and faced ahead. All of a sudden, a shadow appeared before him. The moment he said something, the shadowy figure pulled out a pistol and shot him, giving the captain no chance to run away or even to react. Numerous flashes of light illuminated the hallway. The captain’s blood splattered against the walls as his body flew through the air from the impact before falling to the ground. The mysterious shadow got even closer to the captain’s still body and shot him even more. Twice. Three times. Before long, the captain completely stopped moving, and another life had parted from this world. The walls and floor were painted crimson with the splattered blood.
The shadow then faced the camera. It was a man wearing a suit with a camera hanging from his neck. He had British features but was wearing a felt bowler hat that hid the color of his hair and the shape of his face. He seemed to be between twenty and thirty years old. Despite having just murdered another human being in cold blood, his gaze was emotionless. His quiet blue eyes were as calm as a lake’s surface as he stared straight into the surveillance camera. Then all of a sudden, he pointed his pistol at the camera and fired. The footage cut off with the impact, leaving nothing but black-and-white static.
The footage ended there.
Atsushi and Kunikida quietly scrutinized the video from start to finish. They were shown footage of the captain’s murder. There was no room to doubt what happened. He was killed by a British man in a suit.
“And that’s the last bit of footage we have of the captain’s murder,” mentioned the colonel as he turned off the screen.
Atsushi and Kunikida were tied up in a narrow hostage cellar. In the center of the room were chairs and a metal table bolted to the ground. There were no windows, and the lone exit was a metal door with iron bars. The only other things in the room were an incoming-calls-only landline telephone, a ventilation hole in the dead center of the ceiling, and a large garbage can in the corner of the room. That was it.
Atsushi and Kunikida were tied side by side to the metal chairs. Both of their hands were handcuffed together, and the chains were fixed to metal

fittings connected to the middle of the table. They would have a difficult time escaping, let alone even scratching their noses like this. Sitting across from them was the elderly colonel wearing a faint smirk and holding the book-sized video terminal.
“‘Colonel,’ was it?” Kunikida spoke up. “I’ll say this one last time. We came to this island as private detectives after going through the proper formalities. We even have a permit issued by the Japanese government. I have the utmost respect for your wishes, but I request that you free us from these unjust constraints immediately.”
The colonel listened to everything Kunikida had to say with an unfading smile. After a short pause, he replied, “I see.”
Then there was silence. All that could be heard was the quiet roar coming from the island’s engine room far away. Ten seconds went by. Twenty seconds.
“…Hey.” Kunikida finally spoke up after thirty seconds had passed. “What’s with the silence?”
In a gentle voice, the colonel asked, “Did you know, my boy, that this island sails the seas?”
“Of course,” Kunikida immediately replied. “How would I not know?” “Hmm… Then are there any other islands in the world that can do the
same?”
“No,” Kunikida said, his reply once again immediate. “It says in my notebook that this is the only island ship in the world.”
“Exactly.” The old man’s smile deepened. “This island is one of a kind. The standards on lands don’t apply here. Permission from your government, claiming being tied up is unjust—everything you think is reasonable and common sense means nothing here, like the fevered imagination of a child.”
“But even then…! As a human being, the bare minimum—!”
Fury burned in Kunikida’s eyes as he began to scream before suddenly cutting himself short as if he were handcuffing his emotions. He then calmly said, “Very well. Let’s hear your reasoning first. I also want to know why you showed us the footage of the murder. I can wait to make my argument until after that.”
“I like your attitude. Allow me to explain.”
After handing the video terminal to one of his subordinates waiting against the wall, the colonel continued, “We are part of the French armed

forces and assigned to monitor this top secret zone on the island. In addition, we must capture this murderer at all costs.”
“Yes, I would hope so.” Kunikida nodded. “A man of considerable importance to your island just got killed, after all.”
“That’s not all,” added the colonel in a curiously suggestive manner. “The murderer has already been identified. We got a hit in our country’s database. The murderer is an internationally wanted terrorist.”
“A terrorist?” Kunikida replied with clear astonishment. “…”
Atsushi didn’t say a word. He wasn’t surprised, after all. While he still tried hard to make sure his expression remained the same, he had a feeling this was the case. He had an idea who the terrorist was. The murderer in the footage was an Englishman with a camera around his neck. Atsushi thought back to what Dazai said.
“Those thieves are nothing but a small part of the catastrophe that’s to come.”
“If you see a man wearing a suit with a black briefcase and a camera hanging from around his neck, you tell me.”
While he didn’t have a black briefcase, he fit all the other descriptions. In other words, Dazai knew who this man was. He knew that he was a dangerous individual and a much greater threat than the thieves ever were.
A terrorist…
Dazai said there was going to be a catastrophe. Was he talking about the captain’s murder? Or was it something more—?
“He is an extremely dangerous skill user. They say he lurks in the shadows of most major disasters and accidents of the world. As a result, he’s a regular on the blacklist of every intelligence agency around the globe. Of course, every country’s government is desperately searching for him, but…”
“Never heard of him.” Kunikida wrinkled his brow. “The idea of terrorism is nearly alien to our country, so I have to wonder what that terrorist has to do with us being tied up.”
“He has been dodging the attempts of various governments to pursue him for over ten years. He is most likely using some sort of skill to do this, but it is unknown exactly what that is. He was given the nickname the Foreseer—the man who could see into the future because he somehow always predicts what his pursuers are going to do. Just catching this elusive man on tape was a miracle to begin with. In addition, it isn’t easy to arrange for a ship to come in and out of the island. In other words, this island is like a giant closed chamber. We ended up unexpectedly trapping the elusive terrorist on the island… Surely you can imagine how high the head of the DGSE’s blood pressure was when I reported this back to my government.”
Atsushi groaned. While it was tragic that the captain was dead, this really was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to catch the terrorist.
“At any rate, that’s all the information we have—a terrorist who appears in unexpected places at unexpected moments, a murder with the motive still unclear…” The colonel paused, then quietly stared at Atsushi and Kunikida. “And…two foreign private detectives who were near the scene of the crime for some reason.”
“Wait,” demanded Kunikida, a hint of ire in his voice. “Don’t tell me you think we had something to do with that?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”

“This is ridiculous!” Kunikida hollered as he slammed a fist against the table. “We are detectives who received an official request from you people to come to the island. Ask the Japanese government about the Armed Detective Agency and see for yourself!”
“Yes, it appears the Armed Detective Agency is a real organization,” admitted the colonel with a voice void of all emotion. “But there’s one problem if what you’re saying is true. There are no records of the Armed Detective Agency coming to this island at our request.”
Atsushi and Kunikida gasped. “Wh-what…?”
“Nobody hired you to search for any thieves, and that includes the late Captain Walston. He never mentioned to his home country or the executive department on the island that he was inviting detectives here. There is no trace of him transferring payment, either. The silver coins you have were for painters to repaint corroded walls, but of course, there are currently no walls that need to be repaired.”
“That’s absurd!” yelled Kunikida as he stood out of his chair. The chains around his wrist jingled. “We were invited and came to this island through the official procedures!”
“Perhaps you were. But how can you prove that? The man who hired you is dead, and you just happened to be on the other side of a single wall when the well-known terrorist, the Foreseer, killed him. To make matters worse, each member of your detective agency is a highly accomplished skill user. There isn’t a human alive who wouldn’t find this suspicious.”
“Wait. What did you do to our friends?” asked Atsushi as he leaned forward in his chair.
“The others are being held somewhere else,” answered the colonel while stroking his chin.
“Y-you think…we’re terrorists?”
“If you are working with him, then I am going to do whatever it takes to get you to talk. Why is the Foreseer here? What does he plan on doing?”
“But…”
The colonel stared right at Atsushi with a piercing gaze. “What is he after?”
Atsushi and the others were slowly getting mixed up in something even they didn’t fully understand themselves.
“The terrorist…is after…”
Destruction. A dangerous skill user. The Foreseer.
Atsushi thought back to what Dazai said.
“Don’t even think about trying to capture him.”
“You know something, don’t you? Why did he come to this island?”
“One wrong move, and the entire city of Yokohama ”
“‘The entire city of Yokohama…will be destroyed,’” Atsushi involuntarily muttered.
Kunikida looked back at him in surprise. “Atsushi… What are you…?”
The colonel crossed his arms and smirked. “It looks like my gut was right.”
“Huh?” Atsushi panicked. “N-no, I wasn’t… That was…”
“It appears I’ll need to take more drastic measures here. Sit tight, boys. I’m off to get permission from the homeland in regard to how we’ll deal with you all.”
The colonel slowly stood out of his chair.
“It looks like we might have to take a slightly more…physical approach to make you cooperate.”
The sun was shining down on the southernmost tip of the island. The pleasant ocean breeze brushed against the chalky white monastery under the seabirds flitting through the blue sky. The stacked granite walls shone bright as they reflected the gentle sunlight. Elaborate designs were carved into the arches that towered over the alabaster floors, which looked antique. Four businessmen were walking inside.
“Ya better pay me back for the entrance fee when we get back to the hotel.”
Each man was wearing a worn-out white collared shirt and leather shoes. They walked side by side through the monastery, looking as if they had seen better days.
“Yeah, sure. I don’t care. Twenty-four bucks, yeah?”
“Nice try, asshole. It was twenty-five and thirty-eight cents. Ya better pay me back every last cent ya owe me.”
“Fine, fine… Tsk. Everything here’s ridiculously expensive. I mean, twenty-four bucks to walk around a run-down dump like this?”
“Twenty-five dollars and thirty-eight cents, numbnuts. Sigh. The rich have it all.”
“Well, we were gonna be rich until…”
The four of them commiserated while they strolled around the building
—with their shoulders drooping and downcast gazes. Poor, discouraged, and depressed, they trudged through the light and shadows created by the pillars lined up. After a few moments went by, one of the men suddenly noticed something under his shoe.
“…? What’s this cloth?”
He’d stepped on a piece of black fabric. It looked no different from any other worn-out rag, but two things about it were bothering him: One, it was oddly long, stretching out to the shadows in the corner of the building; and two, since this building was a tourist attraction, the entire area was spotless. This cloth was far too conspicuous.
“Yo, guys. Wai—”
But he was unable to finish his sentence. In the blink of an eye, the man’s body was dragged into the shadows. The other three men walking

ahead turned around. “Hey, uh…?”
They looked about, but their friend was nowhere to be found. They instinctively squared off. They lived in a world positioned between legal and illegal, so they knew to keep their guards up when they felt fear on an instinctive level. However, fear alone wasn’t enough to protect them this time. A black cloth smoothly descended upon them from above. Making no sound and showing no sign of coming, it was like a snake striking its prey. The three men were so focused on looking for someone in the shadows that they didn’t even notice. The black cloth stopped right above their heads. And then—
“Argh?!”
—one of the men was suddenly pulled straight up into the air. The other two men turned around, but there was nobody behind them anymore. There was only sound—a moist squishing echoing from the darkness near the ceiling above.
“Wh-what the…?! Where’d you go, guys?! Say something!”
They frantically called out to their friends, but the only thing they heard was intermittent screams coming from the ceiling, until eventually the final cry of a soul resounded. Blood poured down from above.
“…!”
Without even attempting to check what happened, the two men started to run away. However, a dark, shadowy figure stood in their way.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
He was a man of short stature with black hair and robed in a black overcoat. Only his piercing eyes were white, and only the area around him was engulfed in darkness, as if the sunlight had run away in fear. The Port Mafia’s hellhound—Akutagawa.
“What?! We’re not even safe from the Port Mafia’s assassins on this island?!” One of the men took a step back.
“Silence. Your pathetic whining grates on my ears,” scoffed Akutagawa in a voice like ice. “The goat pursued by the hound does not cry. It appears that even a goat has more sense than you.”
Akutagawa’s black overcoat began to writhe on its own. Seeing it fluttering without any wind would look like nothing short of a paranormal phenomenon to the ignorant. A monster with sharp fangs, a hungry

predator, a poisonous insect, a python—it was as if countless evil life-forms resided in the coat itself.
“But there is something you do deserve praise for—turning tail and running away the moment you realized you had crossed the Port Mafia. Your lives would have been one day shorter if you hadn’t.”
“You’re… You’re the Black Nightmare of the Port Mafia!” the man yelled in almost a shriek. “Damn it! Like hell I’m gonna die just yet!”
The two men pulled switchblades out of their pockets and faced Akutagawa, ready to fight.
“Excellent.” Akutagawa gave a slight smirk even at the sight of their weapons. “While killing one of our accountants may have been a coincidence, you will still get to take that heroic tale with you to the grave. At least having the courage to turn your blade on me is praiseworthy.”
“Die!”
The two men took a step toward Akutagawa—but that was the only step they would ever take. A black cloth projected through the floor. It grabbed on to their legs, then coiled around their bodies like slithering snakes. The cloth expanded as it covered their entire bodies until it pierced the ceiling, constraining the two men’s legs, arms, and necks.
“Gwah…!”
“Mn…! What is this…?!”
No longer could they run away as they hung high in the air, nor could they move a single arm. Only half of their faces were barely exposed, but the rest of their bodies were completely restricted by something far more powerful than iron handcuffs or restraints. After stealing their knives, the black cloth effortlessly bent the blades like crumbling fine paper.
“It’s over,” Akutagawa emotionlessly declared while looking up at his two victims in the air. “You only have one task left in life: scream in pain and misery while showing the world what happens when you oppose the Port Mafia.”
“W-wait!” pleaded one of the captured men. “We didn’t just come to this island to run away!”
“Y-yeah!” desperately screamed the other man. “There’s an amazing treasure here!”
“Begging for your life?” Akutagawa didn’t even blink. “I used to bend an ear to people pleading for their lives, but I have grown tired of the blatant lies and gibberish. Save your begging for the demons in hell.”