Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 6 Chapter 3 Part 2

Chapter 3 Part 2

Akutagawa and the tiger were falling from the sky. “Tsk…!”
Akutagawa unleashed Rashomon’s cloth in midair. They were thirty stories high. A direct impact against the ground would be too much for even the strongest body. Akutagawa’s only option was to pierce the building with Rashomon’s blades to support his weight. However, he was thrown out the window with significant momentum, so he was a few yards away from the outer wall. Akutagawa shot every blade he had at the building’s exterior… but it was still slightly out of reach. All of a sudden, the tiger kicked off the

wall and slammed into him. “Gwah…!”
Akutagawa coughed up blood, and his bones creaked. The white tiger, which weighed close to ten times more than him, had knocked him even farther away from the wall. The building was now but a distant mirage to Akutagawa. He looked in every direction, but there was nothing left for him to grab onto. All that was left was air.
It was evening as Akutagawa fell under the burning twilight sky. Rashomon was a powerful skill, but its range was limited, since he could only change the shape of the clothes he was wearing. Putting everything into his skill and stretching his overcoat as far as it would go would be a gamble, but he had no other choice. He decided to give it a try. But the tiger’s fangs dug into his shoulder, preventing him from doing just that.
“Gwaaaaaah!”
Its massive jaw bit into Akutagawa’s flesh. Blood shot into the air as bones crunched in its mouth. Vital blood vessels snapped. The tiger could easily rip his shoulder off if it shook its head with a little force. Akutagawa slipped his skill’s fabric under his skin to create some spur-of-the-moment armor. The tiger’s extraordinary masseter strength and Akutagawa’s skill, which could even cut through space itself, vied for dominance as the two boys continued to free-fall to the surface. They had under twenty stories left until they reached the bottom.
“Damn it!” Akutagawa cursed.
The tiger—Atsushi—would probably survive if he hit the ground because of his tough body and regenerative abilities, but Akutagawa would undoubtedly die.
Rashomon could tear through space and prevent the impact from colliding into the ground, but that didn’t change the incredible speed at which Akutagawa’s body would crash-land. Such a sudden change in speed would be too much for his brain or organs to handle. The result would be like dropping a sturdy box with a cake inside onto the floor.
It seemed his only choice was to hook a fabric blade into the wall before landing…but he couldn’t do that, either. The tiger would snap his shoulder right off if Akutagawa removed his only line of defense for even a single moment. He’d be dead before he even hit the ground.
In conclusion…death was the only answer.

“Like hell…,” growled Akutagawa with blood in his throat. “Like hell…! I refuse to die! I refuse! I’m going to live and save my—”
“The reason why I never went to see you was because you’re not capable of having loved ones in your life.”
Akutagawa paused midsentence. “Save my—”
“You’ll never be a good person. It’s clear as day.”
“You’re wrong.”
“A man who took a girl hostage to threaten someone and only cares about what benefits him… A man who doesn’t even realize his mission has transformed into nothing more than an appetite for destruction… That’s you.”
“No, no, no! You’re wrong!”
“You just wanted revenge? Even if it killed you? Did you not even think of what would happen to your little sister if you left her all alone in a place like this?”
“I—”
“Because you were born to do evil.”
Akutagawa whispered as if he were gasping for breath, “I…”

Oh.
It finally all makes sense.
So this was what Gin was trying to tell me. This was why she couldn’t be with me anymore.

The tension vanished from Akutagawa’s expression. His fingers gripping the tiger’s fur loosened. A man and a beast continued to fall, approaching the eternal abyss.
A swift turbulence in the air broke the silence. A steel beam shot right past Akutagawa’s side and pierced the Mafia headquarters.
“What…?!”
Akutagawa stared at the beam with evident bewilderment.
It was just any ordinary steel beam, but unless he was seeing things, it looked like it came from the opposite direction of the building. But how could something like that—?
Wait.
There was someone standing on one of the middle floors of a high-rise building being built a few streets back, and they were holding a steel beam under their arm.
“Please…! Grab—on—to—thiiis!” they shouted. It was Kenji Miyazawa from the detective agency.
After raising the steel beam into the air, he rested it on his shoulder like a javelin thrower, then broke into a run.
“Don’t tell me he—” Akutagawa’s eyes bulged from their sockets. “From that far away?”
“Haaaaaah!”
Kenji hurled the steel beam. The hunk of metal, around the size of two adults, sliced through the air and across the street. It flew like a speeding bullet before slipping right under Akutagawa’s legs and piercing the Mafia headquarters’ exterior. The impact sent concrete flying, and the entire building shook.
I…should be able to reach that.
Akutagawa focused his hazy mind and extended his overcoat toward the beam. By using every last fiber his clothes had, he managed to just barely reach the tip. Bending the fabric like a set of claws, he latched onto the beam and anchored himself, then swung his entire body. His skill started pulling him toward the wall.
The tiger roared. It opened its jaws and aimed for Akutagawa’s neck to keep him from getting away.
“Rashomon: Ibara.”
Numerous thorns immediately emerged from Akutagawa’s overcoat, which he was using for defense, and crawled into the tiger’s mouth. They rapidly multiplied until they pierced its face from the inside of its jaw. The beast roared in agony. After Akutagawa grabbed onto the steel beam, he swung himself like a pendulum before landing on the exterior wall. He used his overcoat like cushioning to absorb most of the impact while piercing the wall with his blade to anchor his body in.
Akutagawa let out a short sigh after barely escaping certain death by the skin of his teeth.
If the tiger kept falling at this rate, he might have enough time to grab his sister and escape.
Akutagawa turned around to check on the tiger, but it was gone. It was nowhere to be found.
“What?!”
At the very next moment, something started to drag Akutagawa’s body in the direction he’d just come from. As he held on to the blade stuck into the wall for dear life, he looked in the direction of the force pulling him, only to find someone at the other end of his overcoat.
“I won’t let you escape.” It was Atsushi. He had turned back into a human and used Akutagawa’s attack to his advantage by grabbing onto the fabric. “I won’t let you get away, Akutagawa. Not you.”
He yanked on the overcoat. Atsushi was pulling Akutagawa with the entire weight of his body, but all Akutagawa could do was resist. Atsushi started to swing like a pendulum until he landed on the wall as well, digging his toes and fingers into the concrete to anchor himself after transforming them into tiger claws. Two skill users were hanging face-to-face on the Mafia’s headquarters building exterior: Atsushi, who was clinging to the wall with his four tiger claws, and Akutagawa, who was dangling at an angle with his overcoat’s blades piercing the wall.
“I can’t…allow you…to live…for a second longer.” Fear wavered in Atsushi’s eyes as he glared at Akutagawa. “Because I have to…keep my promise…to the orphanage director.”
His severed arm had already regenerated thanks to the tiger’s extraordinary healing powers.
“You can…completely heal your wounds…even after…being stabbed so many times?” panted Akutagawa while applying pressure to his wounded shoulder. “So this is…the Port Mafia’s…White Reaper…”
Akutagawa had taken emergency measures to stop his shoulder from bleeding using his skill’s fabric, but that wouldn’t restore all the blood he’d lost, nor would it heal his broken bones. His body was as fragile as any other person’s. He didn’t have unlimited regeneration capabilities like Atsushi, so if they kept fighting, he would eventually die once he started to lose concentration due to the blood loss.
He’s strong.
The foundation of Atsushi’s strength was manifold. He had a powerful skill, he had been training and gaining experience for the past four and half years, and most of all, he had a motive. It was a call from his past, no different than a curse. It was the cardiac stimulant known as regret.
Did Akutagawa have that in him?
I wanted to save my sister. I thought I did. My vow to save her was righteous and powerful. I could tear down even the strongest of fortresses by the power of that vow alone.
And yet…
“Tiger, you are my enemy. I want to kill you,” began Akutagawa, his expression stricken with pain. “But if my true nature, which only allows me to wish death on my enemies, is the ‘evil’ that my sister spoke of…then what should I do? What should I do with myself?”
“Do not pursue the beast within you.”
Oda told me that. He knew that a colossal beast lived inside of me—that a wicked beast was born the moment the Heartless Dog gained emotion on that day four and a half years ago. That beast abandoned my sister, lured me into the jaws of death, and destroyed everything.
That was why the man in black did not choose me.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!” howled Akutagawa as he sprinted forward. Atsushi kicked off the wall while Akutagawa charged, concentrating his overcoat’s blades onto the soles of his shoes, until he and Atsushi clashed at a beastly speed. His overcoat’s sleeve transformed.
“Rashomon: Bite of the Silver Wolf!”
After his forearm transformed into the head of a giant wolf, Akutagawa swung his arm, hurling the beast in his opponent’s direction. Atsushi immediately held up both of his arms to block, but the beast simply bit down on them and buried its silver fangs in his flesh.
“Gwah!” Atsushi moaned painfully.
The silver wolf wriggled as it gradually grew larger. Akutagawa only had one option if he wanted to win before he bled out: purposely throw himself right in front of his opponent, where Atsushi would be in his element, and use every last bit of his skill’s power to end the battle as quickly as possible. There was no other way.
“Gr…!”
“Mn…!”
Akutagawa pushed his skill past its limitations, loosening the fabric that was wrapped around his wounds and causing blood to pour from his body. But even then, his ferocity didn’t wane. The wolf only grew in size and produced more fangs. The beast’s jaws creaked.
“…?!”
Its mouth opened wide as Atsushi began prying it open with both hands from the inside.
“Stop getting in my way.” Atsushi’s eyes glinted with a piercing amber light. “I won’t be able to…keep my promise…with the director…if you keep getting…in my wayyyyyy—Ahhhhhhhhh!”
Atsushi’s arms broke through the wolf’s jaws while destroying them in the process, causing the skill to vanish like mist.
“Impossible…!”
“Stop getting in my wayyyyyyy!”
Atsushi’s right fist flew straight toward Akutagawa at point-blank range.
Spatial Break—No! I won’t make it in time!
Atsushi’s fist tore through the three layers of overcoat being used as cushioning before knocking his opponent skyward. Akutagawa’s body crashed through the building’s concrete, hollowing it out while shattering glass as he continued soaring upward.
The impact knocked him unconscious before the excruciating pain of hitting the wall woke him up again. Akutagawa repeatedly went in and out of consciousness as his body continued to grind through the building’s exterior.
After he reached close to the tenth floor, he saw it out of the corner of his eyes as his vision began fading. It was Atsushi dashing up the wall like an animal after its prey.
The White Reaper roared.
“This…ends…nowwwwww—Ahhhhhh!”
Atsushi swung his fist into the air…but Akutagawa’s fabric reacted a split second before it connected. It pierced the wall with its blade, using the recoil to push his body far away from the wall. Countless fragments of concrete and debris shot out as Atsushi’s fist slammed into the wall where his opponent once was.
“I must…keep my promise!” shouted Atsushi. “She will never die…as long as I keep…my promiiiiiise!”
He screamed at the top of his lungs, shaking the air around him. It even caused Akutagawa to faintly open his eyes as his overcoat suspended him in the air.
“Rashomon…,” he murmured in almost a whisper, raising his arm and closing his eyes almost completely. “…Misty Rain.”
Countless fine, threadlike blades immediately shot out of Akutagawa’s entire body. The extremely fine needles had the power to cut through space itself. They clustered together and headed right for Atsushi, who promptly dodged with his extraordinary reaction speed. The shower of needles pierced the building’s exterior beneath his feet, and the concrete burst like a splash of water.
As Atsushi continued running upward to escape the needles, Akutagawa followed him using his skill’s thread to support his weight and suspend him in midair as if he were flying. His eyes were still almost completely shut; he looked like he was dozing off.
The two ran until they reached the summit of the building. The rooftop had a helipad, but there was no helicopter in sight. It was completely flat with only red guide lights and painted signs for landing.
Atsushi grabbed onto the edge of the roof before hurling himself up and rolling forward onto the rooftop. Akutagawa appeared right under him in pursuit. Numerous threads punctured the building, which allowed him to gracefully float, woodenly expressionless, as if he was asleep. His skill’s threads writhed around him like an eerie mane. The sky behind him was dyed crimson as the burning setting sun melted into the horizon. He was a demon—a harbinger of worldly doom.
“Akutagawa…” Atsushi glared at the demon. “I will…defeat you…!”
Atsushi jumped into the air, heading straight for Akutagawa before throwing a right punch into his enemy’s face with breathtaking speed. Akutagawa blocked the punch with Spatial Break, just in time to keep his skull from cracking.
Spatial Break produced a tear in space itself that could block anything from getting by, no matter how powerful an attack.
However.
“Uwooooooh!”
A crack appeared on the tear in space. Every muscle in Atsushi’s body swelled as he focused all his skill’s powers on his fist in an attempt to break through the strange phenomenon.
“Uwoaaaaaah!”
Both Atsushi’s and Akutagawa’s clothes fluttered under the pressure of their powers colliding. As Atsushi’s overcoat flew off, his handheld transceiver fell out of its pocket and bounced off the rooftop. The crack spread throughout the tear as it slowly shattered.
“Uwooaaahhh… Wha…what…?”
Atsushi couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Akutagawa, who had pursued him all the way to the roof, had his eyes completely shut. His breathing was extremely shallow, and his entire body was limp. He wasn’t the slightest bit worked up from battle.
Akutagawa was already unconscious.
He didn’t have even an ounce of strength left after pushing his body far beyond what it was capable of. It was his drive to fight and nothing more that was powering his skill.
“You went…that far…?”
Utterly amazed, Atsushi’s eyes opened wide, but almost immediately, they glowed with battle-ready ferocity once more.
“Then…let’s end this…!” His muscles swelled even further. “Ahhhhhh!”
With a high-pitched crack and flashes of dazzling light…the Spatial Break was destroyed, and Atsushi’s fist finally reached Akutagawa’s face, sending him flying back with a meteorite-like shock wave. Akutagawa immediately crashed into the ground. Concrete shot into the air as his body skidded until finally coming to a stop at the edge of the rooftop. It was a perfect hit—the most damaging hit that Akutagawa had ever taken.
Atsushi slowly approached his unconscious foe. Even Akutagawa’s autonomic defenses had far exceeded what they were capable of as they writhed to form blades, only to disintegrate due to the lack of power.
“It’s over.”
Atsushi’s fingers suddenly extended into tiger claws. Right next to Akutagawa’s body was the sky, which extended to the surface far below. There was no longer any distress on Akutagawa’s unconscious face. All he could hear was the gentle sound of the wind.

“Kunikidaaa! Can I throw another one?”
“Kenji, wait! They’re too high up! You’ll hit Akutagawa if you throw one from here!”
Kenji and Kunikida were shouting on one of the middle floors in the building under construction across from the Mafia headquarters. Kunikida was looking through a pair of binoculars to check where exactly Akutagawa was positioned, while Kenji was waiting for his next order with a steel beam on his shoulder.
“Damn it! Akutagawa isn’t moving! But there’s no way we can back him up from this distance…”
The detective agency’s president had ordered Kunikida and Kenji to come here and provide Akutagawa with backup, but Kenji wouldn’t be able to accurately throw another steel beam all the way to the rooftop. Clenching his teeth, Kunikida growled.
“Is there…really nothing we can do…?!”