Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 4 Chapter 2 Part 3

Chapter 2 Part 3

After following Kunikida into the cabin, Atsushi saw that the other agents were already waiting inside. Tanizaki, Naomi, Yosano, Kenji—each one of them was killing time in their own way. Atsushi couldn’t process what was happening. Everything was in his field of vision, but information slipped over and around his brain, which refused to process anything. Atsushi was not in the cabin. He was inside memories he could not have experienced.
“Around four million people were killed.”
“You will return to the past, find whoever is behind this, and steal the weapon.”
“Attention, everyone! It’s time to start the meeting,” Kunikida announced loudly. However, not a single agent bothered to even look at him. Tanizaki was groaning, Yosano was absorbed in selecting her photos, Kenji was sleeping, and Naomi didn’t even acknowledge people who weren’t her brother.
Not even Atsushi was paying attention. If that wasn’t a dream, and if that really was going to happen…
There were fifty-five minutes until noon. Just fifty-five minutes. “Atsushi. You there?”
Kunikida’s words suddenly brought Atsushi back to his senses.
“Oh… Sorry,” replied Atsushi in a fluster. “What were we talking about again?”
“Seriously?” Kunikida furrowed his brow. “Please focus. We are not on vacation.”
“Sorry,” apologized Atsushi in an almost inaudible voice. “Hey, Kunikida… Actually…”
“Do not tell anyone about the future that you know.”
“But if your friends change their actions, then it’s highly likely the enemy could change their mind as well, thus detonating the weapon even earlier.”
“I, uh…” Atsushi swallowed his words. “It’s nothing.”
“Sigh… This is going to be a long few days. Our job is to capture the thieves on the island this ferry is heading to. Our client will be waiting for us there.”
“Okay.”
Atsushi nodded. Of course, he already knew that, and he already knew how it turned out.
“The reason why our client has asked us, private detectives, rather than the police is mainly because of how the island operates,” revealed Kunikida while flipping through his notebook. “The floating city of Standard Island was jointly designed by Germany, England, and France as a sailing island, and its territory is governed by all three nations. The island is entirely self- sufficient…”

Atsushi couldn’t even process most of Kunikida’s explanation, despite having heard it all before. While thinking, he listened to the information as he would listen to the sea roar from afar. Stopping the bomb from being detonated wouldn’t be as easy as he had previously thought. He didn’t know where the weapon even was, for starters. Wells said it was in the top secret zone, which meant he would need a gold coin to get inside. The problem was he didn’t have one, so he wouldn’t be able to get near the weapon. He’d become painfully aware of how difficult it was to get inside a gold-coin area “last time” when he was chasing the thieves. Atsushi wouldn’t even get a chance to search for the weapon if he didn’t do something about the fully armed guards and surveillance cameras first.
“Atsushi. Are you listening?”
Atsushi lacked information, but there were far too many things he had to check. Perhaps it wouldn’t even be possible to look into everything in only fifty-five minutes. Was meeting up with Wells a possibility? But she was considered a terrorist, so she would surely be acting from the shadows. Plus, she said she couldn’t send herself into the past. In other words, she wouldn’t know that Atsushi came from the future even if they did meet. Trying to make contact with her would be a roundabout way of doing things
—
“Atsushi, you there? So excited to sightsee that you can’t stop thinking about it?”
Atsushi was startled by Kunikida’s voice nearby.
“I need you focused. Did you hear what I said about the job? On that island—”
But before Kunikida could read from his notebook, Atsushi cut in: “While a resort island, it was also jointly designed by Germany,
England, and France, so its territory is governed by all three nations, right?”
Kunikida flinched upon hearing Atsushi practically recite verbatim the notes he was about to read.
“Y-yes. But in addition—”
“In addition, there are zones on the island that cannot be entered without certain coins with embedded transmitters. Even tourists can go inside copper-coin zones, while silver-coin zones are for employees only, and gold-coin zones are secret areas that only a select few can enter.”

“‘Gold-coin zones’?” Kunikida’s hand froze in the middle of turning the page. “There isn’t anything in my notebook about that!”
“But it’s true.”
Kunikida stared at his notebook for a few moments, but before long, he groaned. “Well… Color me impressed. I can see you came prepared and are very enthusiastic about the job. Keep up the good work.”
“Yes, sir.”
Atsushi lifted his head and noticed the ferry was approaching the island. Perhaps calling the massive hunk of metal a floating machine would be more fitting. The flying bridge in the center of the island and the windmills were visible from the boat.
“We’re almost there,” Atsushi said to Kunikida. “…What’s wrong?” Kunikida was slouching in his seat, drooping his head like an ear of rice.
From the side, he looked burned-out, like lifeless ash.
“There was something…not written in my notebook…? That Atsushi knew before me…? My life is over… Just kill me…”
Kunikida moaned like a dying man, then flopped over in his seat.
After managing to get Kunikida’s lifeless body to stand, the group got off the boat. The moment they stepped foot onto the island, they were welcomed by old-fashioned architecture inspired by London. There were brick houses and cobblestone pavement, along with carriages coming and going. But the novelty had already worn off from Atsushi’s point of view.
Apparently back from the dead, Kunikida then mentioned, “Let me give everyone one of these before we go any farther.”
He took a few silver coins out of his pocket and handed one to everyone, including Atsushi. The silver coin dully shone in the sunlight.
Was there no way to get ahold of a gold coin? It didn’t matter if it meant even using a little force. Perhaps finding someone with a gold coin and stealing it would be the easiest way to get inside the secret zone.
Atsushi shook his head. That wouldn’t help him in the long run. He needed to do something about the soldiers and surveillance cameras inside if he wanted to search for the weapon. Therefore, his best bet was to find someone with a gold coin and ask them to help—tell them a weapon was about to go off and destroy the island. But he had no idea who even had a gold coin. Even Dazai said he wasn’t able to steal one. And if Atsushi actually did manage to convince someone to help, the future might possibly change depending on what they did. Plus, the situation would get even worse if the person he asked to help turned out to be the criminal.
If there wasn’t this risk… If there weren’t only fifty-five minutes… If Wells hadn’t told him to work alone without asking for the help of his friends…
That moment, a covered carriage clattered over before stopping in front of Atsushi and the others.
“Sigh… The Armed Detective Agency, I presume?”
Atsushi jumped at the sound of the voice mixed with an exaggerated sigh.
Oh, right. How could I forget? I already knew I would run into him here. It was a young man wearing blue work clothes. He seemed to be around thirty years old, but his mannerisms still made him appear far, far older.
However, Atsushi saw something completely different.
The pistol in the surveillance footage… The blood sprayed against the wall…
“I am the captain of…sigh…Standard Island. You can call me Captain Walston. I am the client who…sigh…arranged for you all to come. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Ah, so you’re the captain.” Kunikida took a step forward. “Thanks for coming to pick us up. By the way…you look extremely tired. Are you all right?”
“Sigh… Thank you for your concern. However…sigh…this is how I normally am. Sigh… Please do not worry about it.”
“At any rate, Captain Walston, could you give us the details of the mission now?”
All of a sudden, there was a dull electronic ring. Atsushi recognized it as the ringtone of the captain’s phone, that of a ramen stall’s shawm flute.
“Hello? Ah, yes! I am so terribly sorry! I’ll find it! …Yes, absolutely! I will make sure nobody is inconvenienced! You have my word!”
The captain hung up after profusely apologizing. Atsushi pondered a bit while observing the captain. He had never put much thought into it before, but why had the captain even been killed? A terrorist wearing a suit shot him. In other words, Wells killed him. But why? Her job was to find the weapon and retrieve it, not kill workers on the island.
Wells’s lifeless eyes were visible in the surveillance footage. Atsushi immediately reached an answer: The captain was a suspect. She believed he was one of the people behind this. In fact, she must have thought, with absolute certainty, that he had the weapon. She must have thought she could prevent the death of millions by killing him.
But she was wrong. Shooting the captain didn’t prevent the weapon from being detonated. He wasn’t the one behind this. Wells couldn’t send herself back into the past to search for the enemy. In other words, that was her first and only attempt, so it could be inferred she wasn’t able to obtain detailed information on the enemy. But if one were to look at this from a different angle…
“Please come inside. This is actually the most popular hotel on the island with an extremely long waiting list. Anyway, please unwind from your journey…”
Right as the captain began walking them into the hotel, Atsushi quietly asked, “Captain, you wouldn’t happen to have…a gold coin on you, would you?”
“Huh?!” The captain was taken aback. “Wh-where did you hear about that?!”
“Atsushi, are you coming or not?” asked Kunikida as he continued to head toward the hotel.
“Oh, sorry. Go on ahead without me! I’ll be right there!” Atsushi yelled back. He was trying to keep Kunikida from hearing anything he didn’t hear during the first timeline.
“So…where did you find out about the gold coin?” asked the captain while fidgeting.
“Oh, uh…” Atsushi used the excuse he came up with earlier. “Those of us with the detective agency did our research before getting here. We learned there was a secret zone on the island, and you needed a gold coin with a special transmitter to get in. Anyway, since you’re the captain of the island, I figured you’d have one.”
The captain had to have a gold coin. The reason Wells assumed he probably had the weapon was because he was at the very least in a position to have one. Not having a gold coin would dramatically separate him from the criminal profile Wells had come up with.
“Oh, uh… Yes. I do…have one. Yes.”
The captain blundered out an answer. All of a sudden, Atsushi thought back to the captain’s telephone call.
“I am so terribly sorry! I’ll find it!”
Last time, the captain’s phone call didn’t even register, but judging by how depressed the captain seemed…
“Captain, did you…happen to lose your gold coin, by chance?”
“Eek!” The captain jumped in surprise. “No, uh…” He looked at Atsushi, then deeply sighed in resignation. “Sigh… Please don’t tell any of the other workers. It is an extremely valuable gold coin, and nobody was ever even supposed to know about it, but…I think someone stole it.”
“It was stolen?”
“I was always extra careful whenever I had it on me, but… Sigh… I’d be lucky if all I got was a demotion… Why did this happen to me…? I pray to the island’s guardian angel every day…”
“‘Guardian angel’?”
“There’s a legendary guardian they say has been watching over the people of the island since its inception. Legend has it that its power can freely change the shape of the island and has been protecting it from foreign enemies all these years. Sigh… I have a statue of the guardian decorated in my room alongside a cross that I pray to every day, so all I ask is to be helped out this one time…”
“I see…”
It seemed every place had their legends. But did it really make sense to have a local god on an island packed with cutting-edge technology? Besides, wouldn’t the real god get angry that he was praying to an island legend and the cross…? At any rate, it was now clear why the captain couldn’t stop sighing.
“That sounds rough.” Atsushi gave a sympathetic smile. “A gold coin is very valuable, so whoever stole it might sneak into the secret zone and—”
Atsushi paused, for he had suddenly realized this meant the enemy wasn’t necessarily someone who worked on the island. He’d originally thought that if the weapon was detonated in a gold-coin area, then the enemy had to be someone who had permission to enter. But if the captain’s gold coin was stolen and if said person had sneaked into the area where the weapon was being kept, then the list of potential suspects would increase exponentially.
“Do you know exactly when the gold coin was stolen from you?” “Sigh… I had it with me this morning when I got dressed, so it was
probably during one of my periodic reports…or when I was walking around the tourist zone… Sigh…”
After letting out a deep sigh with a downcast gaze, the captain lowered his head to Atsushi even more.
“Please let me know if you happen to find it. I beg of you.”

After hearing the details about the thieves they were supposed to catch—the second such explanation for Atsushi—the detective agency members headed inside the hotel the captain had arranged for them. Atsushi went in his room, but he didn’t take another step.
“Atsushi, what’s wrong?” asked Kunikida. “Hurry up and unpack.”
Atsushi looked at Kunikida, but he didn’t know what to say. He knew what he was supposed to do: find and retrieve the weapon. But how was he supposed to do that?
“I’m…going to go take a walk outside.”
“Hey, now. I get that you’re excited that we’re at a resort, but I need you to follow the schedule in my notebook. After unpacking our bags, we’re going to have a meeting with the guards,” explained Kunikida while looking at his notebook. “So do something about that giant suitcase of yours first.”
Atsushi looked down at the luggage by his feet. The moment he heard he was coming to this island, he was so excited that he stuffed his bag with food and games, but now he just felt embarrassed.
“I don’t need to unpack.” Atsushi smiled. “I won’t be using anything in there, after all.”
“What?” Kunikida was puzzled. “Sorry, but I’m in a hurry.” Atsushi began walking to the door.

“Atsushi,” Kunikida called out from behind. “Did something happen to you?”
Atsushi instinctively stopped.
“You’ve been acting weird since we had the meeting on the boat.” Kunikida narrowed his eyes.
“…Really?” Atsushi calmly asked. But he couldn’t look back. Wells told him not to tell anyone about the future he experienced, but—
“Kunikida.” Atsushi turned around. “Have you ever had a secret you couldn’t tell anyone?”
“What?” A quizzical look washed over Kunikida’s face. “Where did that come from?”
“Oh, uh…”
It was information he had to tell everyone, but it was also information that would put them in danger. This secret was tying Atsushi down.
“To tell the truth…” Atsushi contemplated.
Should I tell him? Should I not? I don’t know what to do. The moment I make a decision, millions of lives could either be saved or taken away. There’s no way I can make such an important decision right now.
“It’s nothing.”
“H-hey! Atsushi!”
He ran out the door, ignoring Kunikida’s calls.