Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 5 Chapter 3 Part 2

3—2

Akutagawa ended up entering some run-of-the-mill Chinese restaurant, the kind found throughout the city. It was a small establishment with a few tables lined up near the counter. The edges of the menu plastered on the wall had turned brown from age. There were woks and dishes chaotically stacked up in the kitchen, but otherwise, the restaurant was relatively clean.
What’s Akutagawa doing in such an ordinary restaurant? And why’d I even have to go with him?
Although bewildered, Atsushi followed Akutagawa into the kitchen. Then, without even a moment of hesitation, Akutagawa grabbed a knife by the sink and started hacking away at the wall. Each time he swung the knife, he almost cut Atsushi, who was standing behind him.
What is he doing?!
Ignoring Atsushi’s startled reaction, he hit the wall once more, but a portion of it crumbled, revealing a hidden, narrow slit. He then took the same knife and jabbed it into the opening. Clang! A mechanical sound began to creak as if two large gears were moving. Pssshhh. The wall before Akutagawa opened.
A hidden door? Atsushi thought while staring at the knife in the wall and the uncovered passage. So this was the mafia’s hidden passage that Kyouka was talking about. It really was cleverly hidden. Atsushi would have never found it on his own. But in the midst of his surprise, he suddenly heard an ear-piercing crash at the entranceway behind him. When he turned around, Kyouka had kicked in the door and was rushing inside.
“Kyouka!”
Behind her was Demon Snow. Kyouka leaped over the counter and sprinted toward Atsushi and Akutagawa. Atsushi then ran to the other side of the wall with Akutagawa, and they waited for her. Demon Snow, however, immediately flew into the restaurant, swinging her sword. After Kyouka ran to the other side of the hidden door, it began to close along with the sound of tableware shattering until it completely shut…only moments before Demon Snow’s blade reached her.
We made it…
When Atsushi let out a sigh of relief, the room instantly started to move.

The room on the other side of the hidden door was actually an elevator. It was as spacious as a service elevator and far drearier. The wires visible under the metal mesh floor made it clear they were slowly heading underground. The orange lighting reflected off the metal walls, and the mechanical operation noises continued to roar.
“This is an emergency passage in case a powerful skill user attacks,” said Akutagawa. “The fog will not be able to reach us here.”
Atsushi glanced at Akutagawa. “Just what is that fog?” “…The breath of the dragon.”
“Dragon?” Atsushi furrowed his brow, caught off guard by the reply.
What does that even mean? A dragon…?
Before Atsushi could ask him to clarify, Akutagawa said, “Kyouka… with your assassination skills, you could easily kill me, now that neither of us has our abilities.”
“…”
But Kyouka didn’t reply to his taunts, and Akutagawa smirked at her expressionless face.
“What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to cut ties with me once and for all.”
“Kyouka doesn’t care about you anymore!” Atsushi promptly butted in, annoyed. He turned around and was met with Akutagawa’s cold gaze. He looked positively murderous.
I knew he couldn’t be trusted. He’s still our enemy, Atsushi thought while glaring at Akutagawa. Akutagawa regarded Atsushi as if he were the most foolish creature on earth.
“…Are you sure you want to settle things now while we don’t have our skills?”
It was as if he was implying that they should wait until they got their skills back.
Wait. Does he know—?
Kyouka suddenly turned around and asked the question that came to Atsushi’s mind:
“Do you know how to get our skills back?” Akutagawa nodded. “I do.”
“What?” Atsushi gasped. All three faced one another.
“The skill will return to its user once defeated,” Akutagawa explained indifferently before he gave a snort. “You didn’t even know that?”
“…!”
It was the first Atsushi heard of it. So a skill user could get their skill back by defeating it… Kunikida probably wasn’t aware of that, either.
He may have said this simply to make fools of Atsushi and Kyouka, but Akutagawa had easily offered this bit of information. Atsushi braced himself, preparing for whatever Akutagawa was plotting.
“…What’s your goal here?” he demanded of Akutagawa. “It’s probably the same as ours,” Kyouka said softly.
“No way…” After glancing in Kyouka’s direction, Atsushi turned his gaze back toward Akutagawa. “You’re after Shibusawa?”
“I plan on pulling out his entrails and ending his life,” answered Akutagawa. “Is there any other way to save Yokohama?”
“We’re not going to kill him,” Atsushi replied promptly. “That’s not what the agency does.” He didn’t want to be anything like Akutagawa.
Akutagawa scoffed. “Absurd. You’re naive, Man-Tiger… Kyouka, tell him.”
“…What are you talking about?” Atsushi furrowed his brow as Akutagawa cynically smirked. Akutagawa then pointed at Kyouka with his chin with even greater amusement.
“Kyouka knows what this mission entails. She used to be in the Port Mafia, after all.”
What’s that supposed to mean? Atsushi quietly stared at Kyouka, who was glaring at Akutagawa with a dark scowl.
“I left the darkness for the light,” she stated. “I quit the Port Mafia to join the detective agency.” She continued with a firm, determined tone, “… The agency and the Mafia don’t kill in the same way.”
…Huh? thought Atsushi. Kill?
Is Kyouka planning on killing Shibusawa? But why? Since when? That’s…
Atsushi was unable to put his thoughts into words. “Kyouka?” he squeaked.
Then, it was as if Akutagawa’s cruel voice echoed inside of Atsushi’s befuddled mind:

“Had all this happened before Dazai joined the enemy, he probably could have used his own skill to stop the fog without having to kill anyone.”

“Joined the enemy? Dazai…?” Atsushi couldn’t hide his confusion.
He couldn’t believe it. It had to be some kind of misunderstanding. That just wasn’t possible.
But Akutagawa’s expression didn’t change.
“Indeed…” Akutagawa turned his gaze toward Atsushi. “He voluntarily joined their side.”
“Dazai would never do such a thing!” Atsushi yelled instinctively.
“This is the same man who once betrayed the Port Mafia,” Akutagawa replied calmly.
It was obvious that he truly believed what he was saying. Akutagawa was convinced that Dazai had now betrayed the agency. He apparently knew something that they didn’t. Ango Sakaguchi had also mentioned that Dazai was with Tatsuhiko Shibusawa.
He didn’t mean that Dazai was captured? Then…
“…!”
Atsushi was speechless. He still couldn’t believe it.
“I will be the one to kill Dazai,” Akutagawa announced coldly.
His eyes glowed with firm determination. They were frighteningly sharp as they pierced Atsushi. Overwhelmed, Atsushi felt as if he were being crushed by his gaze, and he unconsciously looked away. Atsushi then asked:
“…Do you seriously think you can kill him?”
Not a chance in hell, Atsushi thought. Akutagawa was terribly obsessed with Dazai, after all—almost abnormally so. Atsushi was convinced he wouldn’t be able to kill the man. But Akutagawa’s eyes were still burning with obsession when he hissed, “Better that he dies by my hand than by someone else’s.”
“…!”
A chill shot down Atsushi’s spine. That was a very Akutagawa way of thinking. If this man said he was going to do something, he would surely do it. That was enough for him to dispose of Dazai. Nonetheless, Atsushi would never allow it.
“I won’t let you kill Dazai!”
He had lifted his gun and pointed it at Akutagawa when the elevator finally came to a stop. The door equipped with various complicated mechanisms opened, revealing an underground passage with countless ducts on each side. Akutagawa got off the elevator without even saying a word to Atsushi. His heavy steps echoed down the dark path. With his gun still pointing at Akutagawa’s back, Atsushi told him, “We can’t go with you.”
The door to the elevator began to close once more, but right before Akutagawa disappeared from sight, Kyouka grabbed the door and stopped it.
“We’re going with him,” she said shortly. “What?!”

Interlude 2—2

On the highest floor of Skull Fortress, Shibusawa slightly smirked before the other two men present. They were in a dark passageway located even deeper than the room decorated with apples that were pierced with knives and the countless tall windows that extended to the ceiling.
“Welcome to my collection room—Draconia.”
Shibusawa was holding an ominous skull. Amid the darkness was a structure that emitted a pale glow. It was semicircular, like a circus tent or a giant conservatory, with a door in the shape of a coiled dragon. In its hand was a red jewel.
The door opened, welcoming Dazai and Fyodor to Shibusawa’s so- called collection room, Draconia.
In the center was a pedestal-like pillar surrounded by display shelves attached to the wall. It was 360 degrees of shelves, and displayed on them were red crystals. The second level of the collection room was no different. Hundreds—thousands—of crystals decorated the shelves.
“Each one of these is a skill, huh?” Dazai muttered coldly as he looked at the wall. “That’s a huge collection you got yourself.”
“Marvelous. Even the devil himself would be envious.” Fyodor smirked, then leaned into Dazai and whispered, “The crystals started clamoring ever since you set foot in the room.”
But Shibusawa only reacted to Fyodor’s first comment. Perhaps he hadn’t heard the second part—or he simply didn’t care.
“Then I guess that makes you the rat of death, here to sell information to the devil.”
Shibusawa regarded Fyodor.
“I found half of this collection thanks to the information I bought from you about skill users. That allowed me to create a fog large enough to swallow an entire city.”
Skill users who came in contact with the fog were split from their skills, which then attacked them. If they managed to defeat their skill, then they would get their skill back. However, what would happen if they lost? One look inside Draconia could answer that. They would be killed by their skills, which would then turn into a crystal, only to be collected by Shibusawa. The red crystals on the skills’ foreheads were proof that they had become a part of his collection.
Little did Atsushi and the others know that the fire-wielding skill user in Taipei who was burned to death, the card-wielding assassin crucified in Singapore, and the ice wielder skewered in Detroit were all people who Shibusawa robbed skills from. Their skills had surely turned into crystals and added to the collection just like the rest. Shibusawa was only able to subjugate all of Yokohama because he had gathered so many skills in the form of crystals. So he was thankful to an extent to Fyodor, who had supplied him with information.
“However…” As if he was testing Fyodor, Shibusawa asked, “How were you able to gather so much information?”
“The city is full of rats.”
After Fyodor shrugged and dodged the question, Dazai muttered a tedious “Meow.”
An empty space on the shelf behind him suddenly illuminated. The light grew stronger and more condensed until it eventually transformed into a red crystal that spun as it filled in the void.
“We have a new arrival.” Shibusawa took notice of the new crystal. “Somewhere in Yokohama, another skill user has died. However…”
There was no warmth in Shibusawa’s indifferent tone. He barely glanced at the new crystal before immediately returning his gaze to the pedestal in the center of the room.
“This is all pointless without that one skill that fits right here.” Shibusawa placed a hand on top of the empty pedestal and whispered, “It doesn’t matter how many I collect, unless…”
His voice was slowly swallowed by the void until it could be heard no more.