Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 7 Chapter 4 Part 2

Chapter 4 Part 2

“Having a personality, a will, or being capable of thought is of little importance,” Randou replied solemnly. “It is a massive force of destruction. Capable of scorching the earth, staining the skies, and rumbling the air. It is not of this world—something that the human mind cannot comprehend. That power is enough for me. Tell me, Chuuya. Where is this being that defies human comprehension? Where is this god that set me aflame?”
Chuuya didn’t immediately respond. He gazed at the palm of his hand, then flipped his hand over and stared some more. He was buying time to think. Eventually, however, he sighed in resignation.
“All right. If you really wanna know, I’ll tell ya.” Chuuya’s eyes were crystal clear as if they could soak up everything in their sight. “Arahabaki…”
He took a deep breath in and out. “…is me.”
Dazai stepped back. “What…?”
Chuuya’s expression was still in every respect. It wasn’t insinuating anything, nor did it have any real motive. He was simply offering the truth.
“It appears I was right, after all.” Randou nodded slowly. “I had a hunch that you were.”
“I only remember part of my life,” Chuuya quietly confessed. “Unlike you, I didn’t lose my memories from a blow to the head. My life started that day eight years ago. Everything before that was darkness. I was floating in that bluish-black darkness, sealed away in some sort of facility. Arahabaki isn’t a god. It can’t resurrect the dead, either. I don’t even know why I as a person exist. All I know is that someone destroyed the seal and pulled me out of there,” Chuuya explained. “It was you, wasn’t it, Randou?”
A bluish-black darkness. A heavy, quiet darkness surrounded by transparent walls. And the strong hand of someone who broke the seal.
“I need answers,” Chuuya demanded. “Where did you find me? Why did you break me out of there? How were you able to materialize Arahabaki’s complete form? I’ve been following the rumors to get those answers. Looks like we finally meet again. Now, come on. Spit it out.”
But Randou didn’t respond. He lowered his gaze, hiding his expression while trembling. However, he wasn’t shivering because he was cold. He was laughing.
“Of course. Of course I’ll tell you… You have every right to know.” He spoke in a low, sonorous voice. “But it would probably be quicker to demonstrate rather than explain… Chuuya, this is what I did to you eight years ago.”
Their surroundings instantly transformed. Space inverted and separated from the outside world. They were no longer in an abandoned shipyard but somewhere completely different.
“Is this your subspace skill, Randou…?” Dazai looked around. “But I never heard anything about you being able to create a portal of this scale…”
The subspace shimmered crimson, expanding until it swallowed the entire shipyard and even the building’s rooftop.
“As you already know…my subspace is a separate world completely severed from ordinary space,” said Randou. “Nobody can come inside unless I invite them.”
“Unbelievable.” Dazai continued to gape. “Power of this magnitude goes beyond the standard for sub-execs. This skill is executive level. No, it’s even greater than that… How have you been able to keep this a secret from the organization this whole time?”
“I haven’t. I simply remembered how to do it recently…along with my real name.”
Randou took a step forward. Even within the crimson subspace, there was something clearly off about him.
“Your real name?” said Dazai. “Randou, who are you?” “My name isn’t Randou.”
The space around Randou wavered as black flames surrounded him like flower petals, burning soundlessly.
“A friend started calling me that after misreading the name on one of my belongings. When I remembered my real name, I came up with a new scheme. I made a decision to impersonate a god and exploit a demon… And I did it all to find and kill you, Chuuya.”
The center of the subspace suddenly burst. The rush of high-density air formed a shock wave—although strictly speaking, this was no wave of air but a massive vibration created when space itself burst. Chuuya was engulfed by the powerful surge.
“Guh?!”
The subspace wave effortlessly knocked Chuuya backward until he slammed through a rusty shipyard pillar and crashed into the concrete wall.
“Gwah…!”
Unable to get back on his feet, Chuuya coughed up copious amounts of blood onto the ground.
“Hmm… So that didn’t kill you. It appears Arahabaki has a strong vessel, albeit one not remotely complete.”
“What…?” All Dazai could do was stare at Chuuya in mute amazement. “Why didn’t you use gravity to block?”

“He couldn’t. I used space itself to create that shock wave. The laws of physics do not apply,” said Randou. “Everything within this subspace is mine to control. Therefore, my skill can only exist inside it. Like this…”
Swish. Swish. The wind howled.
“Damn it… This ain’t good,” Chuuya mumbled as he wiped the blood from his lips. “He’s here.”
A figure emerged from the other side of the subspace’s crimson haze. “What a familiar face… It feels like ages since I last saw you. My boy…
how have you been? Has the good doctor been treating you well?” An old man dressed in a black overcoat was hovering in midair.
“Oh my. Look who it is.” Even Dazai’s smile was tense. “Long time no see. How’s your lower back doing? Your complexion looks a lot better. Maybe dying was actually good for your health, boss—or should I say… former boss?”
The old man’s limbs were frail, and his eye sockets were sunken from age. Protruding veins covered his cheeks, and his eyes burned with the tyranny of yesteryear.
This was the merciless tyrant of the night—the villain of Yokohama. His inhuman desire for destruction had manifested as a curse. He was the embodiment of the Port Mafia’s evil.
“The old boss is dead. What did you do, Randou?”
“He…is my skill,” Randou told Dazai while hunching over. “My skill integrates corpses into its subspace and turns them into skills. I dug up the old boss’s grave. However, I can only control one corpse at a time. That is to say…the old boss now serves me as my own skill-derived life-form.”
Both Dazai and Chuuya were speechless. They had come to know countless skill users over the years, but never before had either of them seen such a mysterious, otherworldly skill: the ability to turn people into skills.
“This is madness,” Dazai uttered, straining his voice. “Just who are you?”
“I was once a European spy sent to enemy nations to steal information,” Randou revealed, his eyes still cast downward. “And eight years ago, I snuck into this country on a mission. I was to investigate and seize an unknown high-energy being that the Japanese government was researching.”
“And that being…was Arahabaki?” Dazai interrupted, grimacing.

“Didn’t you say you were a spy for Europe? There are only a few dozen in the world with similarly unparalleled skills: the Transcendents. Randou, are you—?”
“Allow me to reintroduce myself.”
Randou pantomimed removing a hat and placing it against his chest, then bowed.
“Rimbaud. Arthur Rimbaud. My skill is called Illuminations. Chuuya, my goal is to kill you and absorb you into my skill.”
Numerous explosions suddenly went off. Chuuya leaped into the air, dodging the wall of concentrated red waves before landing against a building and running to dodge each follow-up wave.
“Tsk!”
Every surface Chuuya ran across was immediately shattered into dust one after another. The iron pillars were smashed by the powerful blows as well. Chuuya wouldn’t survive a single hit.
“Not even you can continue to run away from space itself forever,” the previous boss said.
Chuuya kicked off the wall and jumped, only to be met with another shock wave. Even though he could control the gravitational force affecting his body, his mobility was greatly hindered in the air compared to when he was on the ground. He couldn’t run away from all the attacks.
“Ha-ha!” Chuuya laughed. “You really think this is enough to defeat me?”
He spun, then kicked off empty space and dodged the shock wave. “What…?!”
Chuuya had leaped off a tiny piece of the building that was floating in the air, using a fingertip-sized fragment of the wall to dodge while simultaneously maximizing the wall’s gravitational force and minimizing his own. By switching the mass ratios, he appeared to be leaping through empty space as if he were a flying squirrel hopping between boulders. Space waves relentlessly pursued Chuuya through the air, one after another, but each time, he kicked off another piece of airborne debris to avoid each strike.
“You have a wonderful gift, boy,” the previous boss intoned, “but keep running and you will eventually find yourself cornered.”
Another shock wave shot right toward Chuuya. There was no way for him to escape the incoming strikes as long as he was in this subspace. And since space itself lacked mass, he was unable to manipulate the gravity of the attacks. Chuuya had finally found a skill that rivaled his—one that had the advantage.
However…
“Seems like you’re gettin’ forgetful in your old age.”
The next shock wave rushed toward him…and then vanished into thin air. Chuuya had used a shield to block the attack.
“Hey, do you think you could not pull on my collar like that? You’re hurting my neck!” the shield protested.
“Dazai? …Hmph,” Randou scoffed.
“I’ll just have him nullify your skill,” Chuuya explained, still holding onto Dazai. “Even if you’re careful that the subspace doesn’t touch him, your attacks still won’t be able to hit me. So much for being a high-level European spy. You can’t do anything about his nullification powers.”
“Yes…I must agree with you there. Dazai’s existence is bizarre even to me. He possesses the ultimate anti-skill—no one like him exists in all of Europe. However…” Randou raised a hand into the air.
“Chuuya! Pull me back as hard as you can!” Dazai shouted as a silver ray of light shot their way at almost that exact moment.
The space had been severed. A silver flash sliced where Dazai’s head had been only moments prior. The tip of a scythe sliced through his clothes, skin, and muscle. Blood instantly squirted out of the wound.
“Gwah…!” Dazai moaned. Chuuya, who had pulled him out of the way, went wide-eyed in astonishment.
“That’s impossible!” he shouted. “How did that…?!”
The silver flash of light that cut Dazai…was a scythe around the size of a person. The old man holding it gave a muffled laugh.
“Karma… This is indeed karma. I never imagined a day would come where I could behead this boy with my own two hands,” the previous Mafia boss crowed hoarsely. “If only we could chat about old times first, but…this body isn’t even capable of that.”
“Boss, you are no longer human…,” Randou solemnly stated. “I preserved your personality and memories…but you are still nothing more than my skill. And your mission…is to slow Dazai down with that scythe until Chuuya is dead.”

“Very well. Yes, I see… This soul is but a piece of scrap paper stuck to a skill, and this body is merely an empty automaton with no will of its own. And yet…I find it strangely satisfying.”
The previous boss raised his scythe. Floating in the air, cloaked in black fabric, he looked exactly like the grim reaper.
“Well, this is less than ideal.” Dazai painfully groaned as he clutched at the laceration to his chest. “That scythe’s an actual weapon, not a skill. Randou must have gotten it somewhere and given it to the old boss. In other words—”
“It could even kill you, huh?” Chuuya glanced at Dazai.
The cut was deep. His chest had been sliced all the way to his arm, and his clothes were already soaked dark red in blood. He needed treatment soon, or he wasn’t going to make it.
“Tsk. Damn it.” Chuuya grimaced. “This is not lookin’ good for us.”
A shock wave attack with no mass, which prevented Chuuya from blocking it.
A scythe that Dazai couldn’t nullify since it wasn’t a skill. All it took was a single skill to completely subdue them.
“Dazai, I never wanted to kill you. The mere thought of killing a child breaks my heart,” Randou said drearily. “But you know the truth now, and if Mori learned of that same truth, he would have me assassinated… I would end up killing countless comrades I once worked with…and that I want to avoid. Taking your life alone isn’t a bad deal in comparison. My apologies
—I need you to die along with Chuuya,” he added with a hint of genuine guilt. His eyes were tainted with darkness, just like everyone in the Mafia. It was a murky darkness—one that viewed human lives as mere numbers.
The skill user who once called himself Randou took a step forward, his body engulfed in black flames. The late Mafia boss floated high in the air wielding his shining silver scythe of death.
“Yeah… We’re not beating them,” Dazai calmly stated. “Time to just give up and accept death.”
“The hell?”
Dazai suddenly took a seat on the ground. Chuuya stared in evident astonishment; Dazai’s expression was entirely unremarkable. It was the face of someone who wasn’t hiding anything, who simply said what they were really feeling.
“What’s wrong with you?” Chuuya demanded.
“What do you want me to do? It’s hopeless. He’s a highly trained intelligence operative from Europe. There’s no way we can beat him.”
“Stop tal—”
A shock wave suddenly hit Chuuya before he could finish his sentence.
He tried to jump out of the way, but he didn’t make it in time; the left half of his body absorbed the blow, instantly knocking him backward as if he’d been hit by a giant cannonball. His body tore up the soil before he slammed into the rubble of the collapsed wall.
“Dazai is right,” Randou replied, his hand still raised from firing a shock wave. “Chuuya, you should give up as well. I am far too familiar with both of your powers. Fighting back is simply going to make you suffer more.”
“Damn…it…”
Chuuya grimaced, buried in the debris, as blood trickled out of the corners of his mouth.
“My objective cannot be achieved as long as you are still alive,” Randou apologetically admitted. “Eight years ago, I tried to steal you and run away, but…I made a mistake. The enemy had me surrounded, and I was unable to force my way through using the skill-derived life-form under my control at the time. That was when it hit me: Perhaps I could make my skill even stronger if I absorbed you, the destructive god Arahabaki. And that’s what I did. I delivered the fatal blow and made you mine, but…that was when the unexpected happened. What I took in was a safeguard. In other words: you, Chuuya. You, the human identity engraved into Arahabaki, were like a talisman preventing the god from going out of control. Attempting to make Arahabaki my skill removed the safeguard, and its true form manifested in the outside world… The rest is exactly as I explained it back at the mansion. The god of destruction appeared in its complete form and destroyed everything.”
Randou took a step forward. His environs flickered crimson like a flame. “I won’t make the same mistake twice, though. I will cut off your head and make sure to kill Arahabaki, your true form, before absorbing you. I have killed countless seasoned skill users far stronger than either you or
Dazai. Resisting will only delay the inevitable,” Randou quietly insisted.
But that was neither a threat nor bluff. It was clear from the look on his face that he was merely stating the truth.

Space itself began to shake as it gathered around Randou. An unbelievable power capable of cratering and decimating the ground underfoot was waiting to be released.
“Hmm… Randou, I have a proposal,” Dazai said, still covering his wound. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll convince Chuuya to give up.”
Randou briefly glanced at Dazai in silent thought. “How many minutes?”
“Five would be nice.”
Randou closed his eyes. “You have two.” “Thanks.”
Dazai unsteadily dragged his feet over to Chuuya, who was still under the rubble. He then crouched down and leaned toward him.
“Get away from me,” Chuuya spat. “You’re not gonna convince me to do anything.”
“I know.” Dazai glanced at Randou. Then he whispered quietly so that Randou couldn’t hear: “Let’s beat him. Together.”
Chuuya stared at Dazai in bewilderment, seemingly uncomprehending. “…Are you being serious?”
“I have a plan, but I can’t do it alone. It needs both of us to work. Do you trust me?”
Chuuya held Dazai’s gaze for a brief moment and demanded, “Tell me what made you change your mind. I thought you wanted to die.”
“I just felt like it. Is that not a good enough reason?” Dazai smiled, perplexed.
“It’s not.”
He nodded cheerfully. “Then I’ll tell you why.”
Dazai looked at Randou, then the subspace, and finally stared at the city in the distance.
“Working for the Mafia has piqued my interest, albeit slightly,” Dazai began. “In the outside world—the world of light—death is kept separate from everyday life. It’s swept under the rug. People find it unpleasant. But the Mafia’s world isn’t like that. Death is an extension of everyday life. It’s a part of life. And I tend to think that’s more accurate. Death isn’t the opposite of life but merely a function of it. We breathe, eat, fall in love, and die. And you can’t get the full picture of living without observing death up close.”

Chuuya quietly stared at Dazai’s expression as if he were searching for something human deep inside of him. “So you’re saying…you want to live now?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Dazai replied with a resigned smile. “Maybe I won’t find anything, but I figure I’ll give it a try. Once I successfully complete this mission, I’m going to join the Mafia. Gotta defeat him first, though. Besides…”
“‘Besides’…?”
“I got a new dog—you. And I still haven’t given you any commands,” Dazai said with a smirk. Chuuya snorted.
“Yep, you’re still a piece of shit. Your plan better not fail and get us both killed, or I’m gonna kill you, Dazai.”
Dazai smiled back at him. “I’m fine with that. Now, let’s do this,
Chuuya.”