Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 6 Chapter 1 Part 6

Chapter 1 Part 6

It took around four straight weeks for Akutagawa to collect every stamp. The first to comply was Tanizaki. He didn’t require anything in return. After hearing about the card, he immediately stamped it right in front of Ranpo.
“If I were in your position…” Tanizaki grinned as he spoke. “If Naomi were ever kidnapped, I probably wouldn’t be able to wait until I got all the stamps. I bet I’d try to beat it out of Ranpo if he knew where she was, so I really respect you, Akutagawa. That’s why I don’t need anything else in return.”
Akutagawa calmly watched as Tanizaki bashfully stamped the card. He then glanced down at it before looking back up at Tanizaki.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Can I offer you some advice, though?” Tanizaki’s eyes were completely serious as he handed Akutagawa the card. “When you do find your sister…don’t hold back if the man in black tries to get in your way. Forget about your duties as a detective and what’s socially acceptable. And if you end up killing him, remember that it’s not your fault. No justice or morals are more important than your sister.”
“Hey, now,” Kunikida interjected with a frown, but he didn’t say anything else after that. After accepting the card, Akutagawa replied, “Understood. If I manage to safely rescue my sister, you will be the first person I notify, Tanizaki.”

The next person to stamp the card was the youngest detective in the agency: Kenji Miyazawa.
“I don’t mind stamping the card right now, but…,” Kenji began in his cheerful, boyish voice. “Ranpo said to come up with some sort of requirement first…and there is a small task I need help with… Ms. Maeda mentioned she has some simple farmwork she wants done. Do you think you could help me? And you don’t need to worry if it’s your first time because I can teach you! It’s all really simple. Anyone can do it!”
The task was rice planting.
Akutagawa’s expression as he stared at vast fields of rice paddies would become the stuff of legend at the detective agency. It would be the first and last time Akutagawa, who was typically expressionless, appeared utterly lost.
“Now let’s get started!” Kenji cheerfully suggested. He was in his workwear and long boots. “Don’t worry! If we wake up early and work until the agency opens…we should be done by next week or the week after that!”
It wasn’t a mere one or two rice paddies. In the valley surrounded by mountains were beautiful paddy fields as far as the eye could see.
Are two weeks even enough?
Akutagawa’s lips mouthed those words, but he did not speak—or perhaps couldn’t.
“Hey, uh…? Are you sure you want to help?” Kenji apologetically asked. “I know you’re probably in a hurry, so…do you want to do something else instead?”
Akutagawa sternly glared at the rice fields for a few moments until eventually saying, “I was the one who said I would work in exchange for your stamp. Besides, where I come from, those who didn’t treat food with respect were the first to perish… I can do this.”
He then faced the fields and took a step forward.
“Ack! You can’t work dressed like that,” Kenji said with a laugh. “You should definitely change into the work wear and long boots I got you. Oh, and this straw hat, too! You’re gonna look great! I promise!”
“…”

The first day, Akutagawa simply learned the process from Kenji and prepared for the tasks ahead. The second day, he hurt his lower back doing work he wasn’t used to. He rested on the third and fourth day. On the fifth day, he learned how to transplant rice seedlings with his skill, so his efficiency increased exponentially. Kenji mirthfully clapped his hands together and praised him.
Akutagawa spent his days testing his skill’s speed against a borrowed rice transplant machine, keeping watch to make sure there was no flooding on rainy days, and eating the rice balls the fields’ owner made for him. He quietly worked away without showing so much as a hint of displeasure.
“This takes me back to when I grew potatoes behind my place in the slums,” noted Akutagawa while he gazed at the fields.

He ran into trouble on the tenth day, though. When he headed to the fields that day, more than half the rice they planted had turned black and died. After examining the rice for some time, Kenji mentioned that the service water was most likely the cause. When they headed over to the main irrigation canal to check, they discovered factory waste that had been illegally dumped upstream and had leaked harmful soluble organic substances into the water.
The detective agency almost immediately uncovered who was behind this criminal activity after thoroughly investigating the containers the waste was in. It was a drug manufacturer with a large-scale factory. Around half the fields were ruined now. Unfortunately, the only paddies affected were the ones Kenji and Akutagawa had already worked on.
“Well, there’s no use crying over spilled milk. At least we can still finish the paddies that haven’t been ruined yet,” said Kenji.
Akutagawa wasn’t having it, though. The next day, he marched right into the drug manufacturer’s factory alone, choking the guards unconscious with his skill as he headed for the office floor. It was clear who planned the illegal dump the moment he checked the management chart, but he wanted to figure out who gave the orders, so he planned on beating that information out of the employee responsible. Akutagawa had every intention of doing this until he figured out who was truly pulling the strings behind the scenes. But right as Akutagawa was about to open the door to the office and go inside, someone called out to him from behind and stopped him. Standing
there were Kenji, Tanizaki, and Oda. “Let’s go home,” suggested Kenji.

“This is nothing, really,” Kenji assured Akutagawa as they walked back home. “Natural disasters are far more brutal and unfair: flooding, cold- weather damage, drought, pests. Sometimes, you spend years working on something, only for it to be wiped out in a single night. But half the crops survived this time. Plus, the agency will be able to sue the criminal for damages once we prove who was behind the illegal dumping. It’s not like we can get any compensation from the sun or insects, so we should consider ourselves lucky.”
“It still doesn’t sit well with me.” Akutagawa fixed Kenji with a piercing gaze. “Compensation? So you’re permitted to do evil as long as you pay for it? That means the rich can do anything they want. Perhaps there’s only one thing in this world that can deter acts of evil: retaliation. Display your enemy’s head by the roadside for all to see. Punish and instill fear into your foes. There is no other way to protect yourself…and there never was.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. You’re probably right,” replied Kenji after pondering for a brief moment.
Neither of them spoke for a while after that. They continued walking in silence until eventually, they found themselves back at the rice-field paddies. The reddish-orange evening sun glittered off the water filling each paddy as the shadow of night slowly crept over the mountains’ ridges.
“Night will fall, and morning will break,” began Kenji while gazing at the paddies. “Spring will come, then autumn. Everything happens in halves: Plants grow; then they wither away. Animals produce offspring, then perish…becoming the soil that we live on. I’ve gradually learned over time that nature works in halves like that. When something awful happens—like a storm or mudslide—it sometimes feels like the bad stuff is never going to end. But nature is both the good and the bad… That’s what it means to live. At least, that’s how we view things in my village.”
“It doesn’t make sense to me,” admitted Akutagawa as he gazed at the same scenery. “Blessings and misfortune are divided equally in halves? Tell that to my friends who died in the slums.”
“You’re the other half, Akutagawa.” Kenji looked at him. “You survived, and you developed an incredible skill. Everyone passed the good half on to you. That’s why…”
Kenji paused and smiled as the evening sun glowed in his eyes.
“That’s why I just know you’ll get your sister back. A lot of good things are waiting for you now. That’s what nature’s all about.”
Akutagawa stared at Kenji for a few moments as if he was scrutinizing those words before eventually turning his gaze at the setting sun.
“I see,” Akutagawa replied in a hushed tone. “My friends who perished gave me their half.”
The ridges of the mountaintops were slowly swallowed by the violet night. Nobody said another word. It took both of them four days to finish the rest of the rice planting. Kunikida paid them a visit on the last day to see how things were going, but when he arrived, he found them chatting while covered in mud.
“If you ever want to check whether the crops are doing well, then that’s the bug you want to eat! These little guys taste great boiled if your field’s healthy.”
“Interesting. When I was struggling to find food, I used to dig up insects and eat them. The mountains in the untouched countryside always had far tastier larvae than any man-made forest or farmland.”
“Let me treat you to some salt-grilled ones next time you’re free!” “I look forward to it.”
As he watched their exchange, Kunikida muttered in blank amazement, “They’re…getting along…”

Akutagawa received Kenji’s stamp after they finished transplanting the rest of the rice.
“The owner’s going to give us a whopping ten percent of the rice when it’s ready, so I hope you’re looking forward to gaining some weight,” Kenji joked in the agency’s hallway with a smile.
“It appears I won’t need to worry about starving for quite some time,” replied Akutagawa.
Kunikida happened to be passing by just then, so Akutagawa asked him how the investigation on the illegal dumping was going.
“We’re on the verge of solving it,” replied Kunikida. He then quietly stared at Akutagawa for a few moments and asked, “Did…you get a tan?”

“No,” replied Akutagawa.
“But I can see the outline of your shirt on your nec—”
“I didn’t get a tan,” Akutagawa answered shortly, his expression blank. “Are you sure? Well, if you say so… At any rate, you don’t need to
worry about the illegal dumping case—it’s essentially over and done with. The carrier who transported the waste confessed to everything. All that’s left is to obtain an arrest warrant for the drug company responsible.”
“That is excellent news. But what made the carrier confess to the crime so easily? Selling out your client is supposed to be taboo among career criminals.”
Kunikida’s lips curled into a faint smile.
“It’s simple. Nobody in this city is going to make Kenji angry if they know what’s good for them.”

It was Kunikida’s turn next. He had already decided what he was going to request from Akutagawa the moment he heard Ranpo explain the OK Card. It was something that he had originally envisioned over a year ago, so when everyone heard about Akutagawa having to earn the stamps, they thought: Yep, I can already imagine what Kunikida has in mind.
Early the next morning at six thirty in the Armed Detective Agency’s dormitory:
“Hey, new guy! It’s time to leave for work! Get up and get dressed!” Kunikida’s bellow echoed throughout the dormitory.
“You’re already two minutes and thirty seconds behind wake-up time! You’ll be following my schedule for the next two weeks starting today! You’re going to set a precedent and put an end to our detectives’ overly lax work ethic!” shouted Kunikida while he pointed at his watch. “Now get up! You have twenty-two minutes for breakfast, eighteen to get dressed, sixteen minutes and thirty seconds to arrive at the office, and six minutes and ten seconds of preparation before you start your work! Plans only have meaning when they’re flawless! Got it? Now hurry and—”
“Up here,” came a voice from above. Akutagawa was gazing at the morning sun from atop the roof. His gray overcoat fluttered in the brisk morning breeze. He watched unblinkingly as the warm sunlight slowly illuminated the rooftops of the buildings below, his motionless figure reminiscent of a king gazing upon his kingdom.
“You’re…already awake?”
“I’m a light sleeper,” replied Akutagawa while he continued to watch the morning break. “Therefore, I spend early mornings taking in the city like this, awaiting any hints of impending dangers or trouble that may appear along with the morning sun: the sound of a getaway car screeching off, the smell of spilled fuel oil floating through the air, overcapacity transport ships’ steam whistles…”
He paused for a moment and looked down at Kunikida standing in front of the dormitory.
“Time to head for work, you say? Let’s go.”
Akutagawa used his skill to lift his body into the air and nimbly lower himself to the surface.
“All right… Did you already finish breakfast?” asked Kunikida. “I’m fine.”
“What? Absolutely not. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Without it, you won’t be able to jump-start your pancreas to its fullest potential, which would further inhibit your body’s ability to regulate your blood sugar during lunch and dinner. In other words, missing one meal could hinder your performance for the day. Therefore, you need an ideal breakfast for the ideal work—”
Without even blinking, Akutagawa suddenly walked past Kunikida in the middle of his lecture.
“Hey, wait! Akutagawa! Ever hear about respecting your elders?!”

The issue on Kunikida’s mind could be summarized in one sentence: The detectives at the agency lacked discipline.
The other detectives’ free-spirited work style was always a cause of anxiety for a stickler for infallible business operations like Kunikida.
The Tanizaki siblings, who were always touchy-feely whether they were in the middle of work or even meeting with a client…
Oda, who was always late because some old lady in the neighborhood stopped him for a chat…

Yosano, who always took her patients apart three or four times under the guise of treating them…
Kenji, who would suddenly disappear after saying his cow went into labor…
The great detective Ranpo, who doesn’t want to solve any cases that don’t interest him…
Of course, there was good reason why everyone was allowed to be so lax—hence why the president let them and why Kunikida had no right to suggest they correct their ways. Therefore, he had no choice but to acquiesce.
However…
Kunikida’s favorite phrase was “Everything according to plan,” and he disliked phrases such as “Eh. It’ll work out.” He was constantly, tirelessly yearning for the ideal, and he wasn’t going to stop until he obtained perfection—which, in his mind, was something far different from the detective agency’s current status quo.
“Akutagawa, I am appointing you as the agency’s disciplinarian!” declared Kunikida.
There is nothing worse as an adult than being called out for lazy work by a newbie. And knowing Akutagawa’s personality, Kunikida figured the boy would be able to denounce others’ transgressions regardless of any hierarchical barriers at the workplace. He was the perfect person for the job. The OK Card was like a gift from god to Kunikida.
And yet…
“Listen, Akutagawa. Disciplinarians must first set an example for others. In other words, you need to stick to your work schedule and be punctual. When you arrive at the office, you must first file your paperwork from the previous day and finish all internal communications. You’ll have to regularly check if there are any new cases every day and follow your schedule on a per-minute basis. Optimally allocating your time and executing your plan is the first step to achieving your ideal—”
“I am not interested in offices or paperwork.” “Excuse me? No, you—”
“More importantly, where is the enemy? I would function better at disposing of the agency’s enemies rather than struggling with cumbersome office work. I shall tear every last one of your foes to shreds.”