Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 4 Chapter 3 Part 3

Chapter 3 Part 3

After making it to the fourth basement floor, Atsushi began to hear a nearby roar like the revving of some giant machine’s engine. He calculated that the engine room that moved the island had to be on the other side of the wall, since the documents he reviewed before the mission showed two things this deep inside the island: a blast room that gave it buoyancy and a propeller that doubled as a turbine for wave-activated energy generation.

The fourth basement floor was quiet. There were a few soldiers standing at their post, but Atsushi didn’t see anyone on patrol. Most were probably rushing to the third basement floor to help. After all, the glass had shattered, allowing seawater and an intruder inside. Security headquarters was surely a madhouse right about now. There was no time for them to worry about the other floors. It looked as if Akutagawa’s attack surprisingly acted as a diversion.
This floor had a different atmosphere to it compared with the others. The interior was reminiscent of a windowless office building with a conference room, staff offices, a general affairs room, and a storage room for documents. Atsushi was reminded just how chaotically this island was built. It was as if each floor had been created by a different person without any communication between them and then simply mashed together.
When passing by what appeared to be the conference room, Atsushi suddenly caught sight of the clock. It was 11:45. There were only fifteen minutes left, but his destination wasn’t far. It wouldn’t be long before he reached the armory. But a sudden bout of curiosity convinced Atsushi to take a peek inside the conference room. It was empty. The other three walls besides the entrance were giant screens. In the center of the room was a round table with telephones, sound collectors, and what appeared to be other communication devices lined up in the middle of the table. There were three of each item, with one of each type facing one of the three walls. The screens on the wall were currently turned off and completely black. A small flag was stuck to the top right of each screen: England’s, France’s, and Germany’s.
Atsushi recalled how the island was governed by three different countries. But what was this room? What were these large screens used for? More importantly, what was this gold-coin area even used for? Why was there a place this strictly protected?
But those questions soon disappeared from his mind. These last fifteen minutes—perhaps the most important fifteen minutes in the entire world— were what mattered now. Atsushi shook those questions out of his head, then focused solely on his ears and legs.
It wasn’t long before Atsushi found the stairs to the fifth basement floor. Even though he’d been down here for a while by this point, he was just now thinking about how inconvenient it was that the stairs to different floors were spread apart like this. It would be a long journey for someone if they wanted to go from the second basement floor to the fifth basement floor. Perhaps they made it this way on purpose for security reasons. It wasn’t convenient, but it would definitely prevent intruders from getting inside and escaping.
All of a sudden, Atsushi heard a voice coming from the stairwell landing, causing him to promptly hide. Four guards were talking about something, and one of them sounded very familiar: It was the colonel’s voice. They hadn’t noticed Atsushi yet. The colonel briefly gave his men orders, and they held their guns at the ready, lined up in rows, then began heading up the staircase before disappearing down the hallway.
Atsushi exhaled. It would be reckless to fight them head-on, so he silently descended to the fifth basement floor without being noticed. The moment he arrived, he ran into a wall.
“Uh…”
This wasn’t a metaphor but a literal, physical wall. The shutter was closed right at the bottom of the staircase before the fifth basement floor. Atsushi touched the wall. It was the same type of shutter as the one used earlier to prevent flooding.
Maybe it automatically closed to prevent the hallway from flooding back when Akutagawa broke in? But then why was the shutter not closed on the last floor? Did they know I was coming?
But the problem solved itself before Atsushi could even come up with a solution. The shutter opened right before his eyes like an automatic door. Startled, he leaped back. He thought it was going to be a trap, but there was nobody on the other side. It was far too convenient to have been a coincidence. Perhaps Dazai or one of the thieves remotely opened it for him. It wasn’t clear why it was open, but there was no reason not to enter.
Atsushi advanced with hushed footsteps. The fifth basement floor—the island’s innermost secret—was different from any other floor so far. The first difference was that there were no guards. While the other floors didn’t have many to begin with, this floor had absolutely none. The only sound was the roaring of machinery. It looked like the inside of a military base. In addition, each door in the hallway was firmly closed. They were sturdy, fireproof doors shut so tight that there were no cracks to even slip a thin sheet of paper through. There were no small windows on the door, either, so it was impossible to know what the inside of these rooms was like. Moreover, each door looked exactly the same, so there was no way to guess what room was what.
“This isn’t good,” Atsushi muttered to himself.
Virgo said the briefcase was brought to the armory, but Atsushi didn’t even know where that was.
There’s no time. No way I can search every room and find the weapon.
What should I do?
But Atsushi then thought:
Sometimes one problem can solve another, just like how one problem’s solution can lead to new questions in mystery novels.
The door right next to Atsushi spontaneously opened. Startled, Atsushi leaped back, but there was nobody there, which meant the door had been opened from the inside. The room was dark, so it was hard to see anything. Atsushi had his guard up just in case a trap was about to go off, but the only sound he heard was the sound of the door opening. Other than that, there was the roaring of the engine room in the distance.
It was just like the shutter a moment ago. Was Dazai or somebody opening the door for him? Or was the hacker Katai able to break into the system? Whatever the case, it changed nothing. Atsushi’s only choice was to move forward.
He went inside the room. It didn’t seem like the armory at first glance. It didn’t look like a room for anything, in fact. It was nothing more than a small, square chamber with indirect lighting on the ceiling. Hanging on the wall’s iron netting were a few bizarre gun-like machines that Atsushi had never seen before. Nevertheless, he wasn’t concerned with the room’s interior. His eyes were locked on what was on the desk in the center of the room—a black briefcase.
It had a plain, practical design and was reinforced with metal, and it was average in size. Atsushi would be able to wrap an arm all the way around it. While it was sturdily made and of high quality, there was nothing about it that would make it stand out if one were to see someone carrying it around town.
Atsushi picked up the briefcase. It was light. It felt as if something made of metal was inside, but it was still light enough for him to carry it without even using his tiger skill. The problem was what to do with it now… The surest way to deal with it would be to have Dazai open it and touch the camera inside. His skill allowed him to nullify all skills simply through physical contact. He would undeniably be able to neutralize the skill weapon inside.
The next-best option would be to find the creator of the weapon, Wells. She should know how to disarm it. Atsushi took hold of the briefcase and stealthily began returning along the path he’d come from.

Atsushi ran through the hallway. From here on out, he was going for speed rather than accuracy and force rather than stealth. He needed to get past the enemy’s line of defense even if it meant using a little force. After all, he needed to go through the third basement floor first, which was currently swarming with soldiers, if he wanted to make it back to the surface. Being quiet was essentially pointless. Atsushi ran up the staircase and returned to the fourth basement floor. There were a few shutters closed, perhaps due to water getting inside. The quickest route back to the surface was sealed, which meant Atsushi had to search for another way to return.
After turning the corner and running even farther, Atsushi came to a sudden stop. There was a guard up ahead who was thankfully looking the other way. Atsushi swiftly slipped into the darkness.
Now what? I can’t disappear into a wall and hide without the boss. I could search for another route, but I might get lost if I run around too much. What would Dazai do during a time like this? What about Kunikida? Or the other detectives?
There was only one soldier, and he had his back turned to Atsushi. Time to use force.
Atsushi threw the briefcase low to the floor so that it would slide on the ground. After the briefcase slid between the enemy’s legs, the soldier followed it with his eyes in utter bewilderment. Atsushi wrapped his right arm around the soldier’s neck, making a triangle to squeeze his carotid arteries. He rested his right hand on his left bicep before placing his left hand behind the soldier’s head, thus completely locking his arms. The soldier was slightly taller than Atsushi, so he had to jump on his back. The soldier tried to break Atsushi’s grip, restlessly tearing at his arms, but Atsushi’s tight hold didn’t loosen. After all, it was extremely difficult to get out of a tight choke hold. The soldier struggled to latch on to Atsushi’s arm, ear, or anything he could get his hands on, but he soon lost consciousness before collapsing to the floor.
Atsushi could have killed him if he’d cut off his opponent’s windpipe, but he chose to go after the carotid arteries to simply knock him unconscious. This was one of the moves Kunikida had beaten into him over time during their work at the agency together.
After glancing at the unconscious soldier out of the corner of his eye, Atsushi reached for the briefcase and grabbed the handle. Immediately, he felt a powerful force hit him in the shoulder and was sent flying through the air. Every bone in his body wailed. He’d been shot. Only when he did a half rotation in the air and landed on his back did he realize it. Everything was just a blur. Only a few moments went by before a large, heavy foot stepped onto Atsushi’s shoulder.
“Target down!”
It was a muffled voice coming from behind a bulletproof mask. When Atsushi opened his eyes, three fully armed soldiers were surrounding him with their rifles while one of them was holding Atsushi down with his foot.
“We have secured the target at Point A as planned. He was shot, but he’s still alive,” reported the soldier over his wireless transceiver.
They got me.
It was an ambush.
The soldiers had predicted the path Atsushi was going to take and waited with their guns drawn. It was an obvious trap, in retrospect. They lowered the shutters, forcing him to change routes, and left a defenseless soldier in the hallway with his back turned.
The briefcase—where is it? I have to stop that weapon!
Out of the corner of his eye, Atsushi found the black briefcase lying on the floor away from him. Four million people’s lives were at risk. As Atsushi tried to reach out, he was immediately met with an unbearable bolt of pain from being shot and having his wound stepped on.
“Guh…!”
“Don’t move,” the soldier demanded coldly. “We have the authority to fire at anyone who infiltrates this zone. If you resist, you will be disposed of immediately.”
“There’s no time…for this…!” groaned Atsushi through clenched teeth. “The briefcase… That’s the terrorist’s weapon… We have to stop it!”
“I see. So this is what the terrorist was after…” Atsushi suddenly heard a familiar voice.
“What a shrewd terrorist, sending one of his lackeys to steal the weapon… You wouldn’t expect a loner to pull such a sly trick, but I was completely fooled.”
“Colonel!” Atsushi muttered as he looked at the man’s face.
“Have we met before, young man?” The colonel raised an eyebrow. “The terrorist even knows what I look like… He must have secured quite the source. These are troubling times we live in.”
The colonel drew a pistol.
“Now, we were increasing security in order to capture the terrorist—the Foreseer—when there was a commotion on the third basement floor. Furthermore, we learned that the security cameras had been tampered with and weren’t functioning properly. We realized that just moments ago when the security cameras returned to normal for some reason, and we saw you with that briefcase walking through the fourth basement floor. Do you know what I’m getting at here, terrorist?”
The cameras started functioning normally again? So that was how they were able to ambush me?
Whatever. That doesn’t matter right now.
“I’m not a terrorist!” shouted Atsushi. “The terrorist is after that briefcase! They want to blow this whole place up! We only have until noon to destroy the weapon inside the briefcase…!”
Atsushi quickly racked his brain. The terrorist wouldn’t be able to get their hands on the weapon as long as this well-organized army was guarding it.
“Forget about me—just protect that weapon! Have multiple people guard it at all times, and if you are by chance attacked, then just throw it into the ocean and—”
“You’re talking about so many different things at once. I’m old,” said the colonel as if he were trying to calm Atsushi down. “Let me get this straight. The terrorist is going to use this weapon to destroy the region, which is why you decided to sneak into the fifth basement floor and steal it yourself so you could bring it somewhere safe.” “Exactly,” agreed Atsushi.
Immediately, Atsushi felt a sharp pain in his head. He looked up in surprise and immediately noticed that it wasn’t caused by any physical pain. It was inside his head. A strong sensation was pushing against his head from the inside.
“For goodness’ sake… I thought we finally caught one of the terrorist’s men, but now we’re getting even more nonsense we have to deal with.” The colonel scratched his chin. “You don’t seem to be lying, but how am I going to explain this back to the homeland?”
The cause of the pain was a feeling that something was wrong. The strong sensation grew like a bubble in Atsushi’s head, and it was trying to subconsciously tell him something.
What was it? Something was off. Atsushi didn’t have the brains to engineer elaborate plots or see right through things like Dazai, but he had personally witnessed everything that had happened with this case. That was why it appeared as pain, trying to tell Atsushi something. It went deeper than simply being able to think quickly.
The fifth basement floor—the colonel said it himself.
He also said he noticed the surveillance cameras had been tampered with when he saw me walking through the fourth basement floor with the briefcase.
In other words: How would the colonel have known that this briefcase was on the fifth basement floor?
How was he so sure it was the fifth basement floor? Atsushi looked at the colonel, and the colonel looked back at him. All it took was that brief glance for them to read each other. Atsushi felt as if he could see the colonel’s mind stiffening, while the colonel seemed to have noticed Atsushi realized something dangerous from his expression. There was a clear, cold glow in the colonel’s eyes that wasn’t there before—the heartless glow of a traitor.
Atsushi was in trouble. “Men, lower your weapons.”
The colonel suddenly gave orders to the soldiers.
“Don’t…!” reflexively shouted Atsushi. “Don’t lower your weapons!” The soldiers unquestioningly lowered their weapons as told by their superior and waited for their next order. But instead of another order, the colonel unloaded his pistol’s bullets into his subordinates. Their throats were instantly pierced, and they fell to the ground without even a second to move their fingers.
“What…?!”

Then he shot Atsushi in the torso before he could even react. Atsushi instantly twisted his body to protect his vital organs, but the bullet went straight through the right side of his chest and passed right by his lungs. Atsushi howled a silent scream.
“You never know what’s going to happen when you try to do something big.”
The colonel checked how many bullets he had left, threw the magazine to the ground, and loaded the pistol with a new one.
“I can’t believe you even knew what time the fireworks were going to start. Either you received divine assistance from the island’s rumored guardian…or perhaps you used some sort of skill?”
“Mn…!”
Atsushi groaned through the taste of blood in his throat. His lungs were burning. His arms wouldn’t move. But he had to do something. At this rate…
“I’m not a skill user, but I used to have a subordinate who was. He boasted strength that went beyond the realm of what was considered human and was even called a hero on the battlefield. He’s dead now, though… All heroes die young.”
The colonel slid the breechblock with a practiced hand, sending a bullet into the chamber.

“But…why…?” moaned Atsushi. The colonel looked down at him.
“I have no intention of explaining myself to you.” His chilling voice echoed. “You wouldn’t understand. The only way I can awaken someone who is in a deep slumber is by making a loud noise… That’s it.”
The colonel picked up the briefcase and reached for the lock.
Crap—he’s gonna use the weapon here!
Atsushi tried to get up. He tried to scream while throwing himself at the colonel. But the only noise he made was the sound of his throat gurgling blood as it dripped down his lips.
“You can still move?” The colonel pointed the gun at Atsushi on the ground. “Sorry for making you suffer.”
The bullet went through Atsushi’s throat.