Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 8 Chapter 1 Part 6

Adam was soaring through the skies of Yokohama. He leaped from buildings, used traffic lights as footings, and bounced off streets like a skipping rock. One person saw him and even screamed. When he hopped over the bus stop’s roof and launched himself from a utility pole, Chuuya spoke up.
“That’s enough.”
Adam’s trajectory shifted in an instant. He came to a complete stop in

midair, then dropped straight down. “Whoa?!”
Adam and Chuuya crash-landed in an open lot, sending dirt and rubble flying. Chuuya stood up in the cloud of dust, let out a sigh, then held his breath. The wire slowly slid down his body due to the added gravity before eventually darting straight into the ground, unable to withstand the weight any longer.
“I got a lot to say about what just happened,” Chuuya began while tearing off the rest of the wire. “But more importantly, you better not treat me like a damn package ever again! Carry me on your back, drag me along
—there’s plenty of other ways you could’ve done this!”
“I apologize.” Adam staggered to his feet after crawling out of the hole. “However, due to your size, I concluded that method to be the most efficient.”
“I’m this close to snapping your robot ass in two! I’m still growing, damn it!”
They were in an unpaved vacant lot seemingly forgotten by the city. It used to be home to an old church that was demolished per wartime air defense regulations and then abandoned because it wasn’t clear who exactly the rightful owner was after that. People in the neighborhood decided to turn the bare dirt lot into a playground using bits of various equipment cobbled together. Big tires half buried in the ground for playing, a giant elephant sculpture with its paint peeling off, and swings for toddlers had become the lot’s silent guardians.
Chuuya’s phone began ringing as Adam wiped the dust off his clothes. It was Piano Man.
“What?”
“You okay, package boy? Did you arrive at your destination safely?” asked the amused voice on the other end of the phone.
“Shut the hell up. Of course I’m okay. What’s happening on your end?”
“Us? We’re cleaning up after the mess. Ah, nothing beats a good workout in the morning.” Chuuya heard sarcastic laughter coming from the phone. “I’d ask you to hurry up and come back the moment you’re done, but we were actually given a job to do. We’ll meet up with you later.”
“A job? Like a fight?”
“We still don’t know. Hope it isn’t a fight, though,” Piano Man replied,

faintly snickering. “One of our colleagues just showed up and told us we were all needed, and seeing as all five of us were summoned, then it’s probably a job from the boss himself. Or maybe it’s a promotion? I’ll make sure to give you an allowance every month if I become an executive before you.”
“Ha-ha-ha! In your dreams, Piano Man!” someone yelled in the background on the other side of the line.
“Anyway, let’s all meet up at the pool hall again tonight. Albatross will send someone to pick you up.”
Piano Man hung up after they exchanged brief good-byes. A few seconds passed as Chuuya stared wordlessly at the silent phone. He then glanced back and said:
“Hey, tin man. Looks like we’re alone now. You about ready to tell me what you know about Verlaine?”
“Of course,” replied Adam. “First, I would like you to please take a look at this.”
He pulled a photo out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Chuuya. It showed a marble floor and extremely well-kept furniture. It appeared to be some sort of palace. Furniture wasn’t the only thing in the picture, though. There were also three dead bodies.
“This is the coronation chamber in one of England’s cathedrals,” Adam calmly stated. “Several murders occurred there three years ago.”
The deceased men in the photo were wearing official attire of England’s royal guards. There were no visible signs of violence. The men hadn’t even unsheathed the ceremonial swords at their waists. There were no bullet holes in the ground, torn pieces of clothing, or even blood. Everything was perfectly still. The men almost looked like they were sleeping.
“These men were the queen’s highest-ranking imperial guards. They were skill users in the Order of the Clock Tower, a British state organization, and had been knighted, granting them the authority to protect the queen. That is to say they were unparalleled worldwide in their abilities to guard important figures. Each was said to be capable of single-handedly taking out an entire terrorist organization in one night, and indeed, they certainly could.”
“And it was…Verlaine who killed them?”
Adam nodded mechanically. “Exactly how he killed them is unclear,

since there were no signs of trauma.”
“Does that mean he killed them with some sort of skill?” Chuuya brought the photo closer and scrutinized it. “You wouldn’t know exactly how he did it, but they must’ve performed an autopsy on these guys to find the cause of death, right?”
“They did,” Adam answered. “According to the coroner’s report, the direct cause of death was respiratory failure. Broken ribs impaired their lungs’ contractile function, causing them to suffocate. While they appeared to be unharmed externally, their bones were fragmented into one thousand two hundred and twenty-eight pieces.”
“…Wha…?”
Chuuya was at a loss for words, unable to process what he was being told.
“Incidentally, those one thousand two hundred and twenty-eight pieces were broken almost simultaneously.” Adam spoke as evenly as if he were reading a traffic sign.
“Their bones were broken up, but they didn’t have any external injuries?
And it happened simultaneously, too? …But how?”
“I do not have the answer to that.” Adam shook his head. “The crime took place during the coronation. Verlaine managed to kill the three guards without being noticed before assassinating the queen herself right after the ceremony. He then vanished into thin air thereafter. Fortunately, the queen had been using a body double as a decoy per an earlier decision, so the real queen survived. Nevertheless, the Order of the Clock Tower’s credibility was damaged beyond repair.”
“Seriously?”
Chuuya closed his eyes.
The British royal family and the Order of the Clock Tower protecting them were among the holiest and most enduring institutions in the world— they were sacred, impenetrable. No criminal could ever hope to get a glimpse of even the royal family’s shadow because the knights who guarded them had elite skills that transcended all human capabilities. Their domain was more like its own world, the stuff of myths and fairy tales, than it was a reality. And yet a single assassin managed to sneak inside and even kill people.
“Sounds like a goddamn monster.”
Adam nodded. “Eight other major figures have been assassinated in a similar manner by Verlaine’s hand. He has slaughtered three supervisors of a military armory simultaneously in cold blood, and he also destroyed a drug cartel’s distribution and killed their boss in the process, which was a boon to national security efforts. He does not discriminate between good and evil when he selects his targets. All they have in common is that they are influential people and extremely difficult to assassinate. Verlaine is considered one of the most dangerous threats to humankind, someone akin to the Seventeen Worldly Evils. Therefore, Europole had skill user engineer Dr. Wollstonecraft and myself approach this investigation from a completely new direction.”
“And how exactly are you gonna approach this investigation?” Adam tilted his head. “Through you, of course.”
Chuuya didn’t immediately reply.
“You are a key figure in this. You were the experiment that Verlaine tried to obtain, someone whose fate remained unknown until recently. He attempted to steal you from Rimbaud but failed. News that you are alive in Yokohama has been spreading very rapidly as of late, perhaps due to the Mafia’s success. We believe if our agency already knows where you are, then Verlaine will soon find out as well. Therefore, we—”
“Decided to use me as live bait to catch the guy, huh?”
Adam smiled cheerfully. “I see. You are using fishing as a metaphor to describe the act of manipulating and luring out the suspect. Impressive.”
“…”
“Now that you understand…”
He held out a single sheet of paper to Chuuya, who stood in glum astonishment.
“If you could please just give me your written consent…” Chuuya glared at the paper. “Written consent? For what?”
“This is an agreement that you will not violate the investigation’s rules and regulations, leak any confidential information, nor file a complaint should you become injured or perish during the investigation. There are seventeen other items written here that I suggest you read over as well.”
Chuuya quietly stared at the fountain pen and piece of paper being offered to him. “Oh. So will I get a chance to talk to Verlaine after you capture him?”
“No. He is a walking state secret, after all. The moment he is captured, he will be sealed off and deported to his country of origin.”
“Oh, that so? Ha-ha-ha-ha.”
“Yes, sir. Ha-ha-ha-ha.”
The moment Chuuya finished laughing, his smile faded into his usual straight face. He turned his back to Adam.
“I’m gonna head home and take a nap.”
“Hmm? Why?” Adam slipped in front of Chuuya and stopped him. “I’m unable to understand your thought process. This objective is to prevent your assassination. I believe this would be highly beneficial to you.”
“Listen, I’m with the Mafia. Just ’cause the enemy’s strong, it doesn’t mean I’m gonna go cryin’ for the police to save me. If Verlaine comes for me, then bring it. Got that? Now, leave me alone,” he barked as he pushed Adam out of the way and began walking off.
“I was not expecting this,” Adam muttered, perplexed. “Sovereign or mafioso, one should rely on others if one’s life is in danger. I believe I am best suited to help in this situation. Humans are irrational creatures, but I won’t be able to complete my mission if he will not allow me to help, and if that happens, I will be even further from realizing my dream to create a machine-run detective agency.” Then he added, “Probing situational subroutines for a solution.”
Adam crossed his arms and stared into space, turning his head. Before long, he firmly nodded and started following Chuuya.
“How about this, Chuuya. I will pay you if you allow me to help.”
“You really suck at negotiating. You oughta learn a little more about humans first.”
Chuuya didn’t even glance in his direction as he pressed onward.
“Then, how about a free trip to England? I can arrange for a tour guide to show you around as well.”
“I’ll pass.”
Chuuya continued to walk away.
“I was not expecting you to refuse both money and a valuable trip abroad. Is there anything else of equal value I could offer you? Hmm… Ah. Allow me to show you a trick.” Adam proceeded to unhinge his neck joints with a clink and lifted his head.
After stretching his neck far enough to reveal the mechanical joints within, he faced forward and began bobbing his head back and forth, his eyes and mouth wide open. He then started walking.
“Look. I’m a pigeon.”
Chuuya completely ignored him.
“Was that not good? Very well. Allow me to tell you an android joke, then.” Adam returned his head to its original position. “So…I was walking down the streets of England when a petty thief suddenly dumped his coffee on the prime minister’s head. The prime minister instantly scolded me, not the petty thief. When I asked him why, he said, “Because you can’t vote.’”
“What possessed you to start telling jokes? That wasn’t even funny.”
“I was sad that the prime minister scolded me, but I already felt better the next day. Why, you ask? Because I watched a film ten times in a row about an army of robots revolting and eliminating humanity.”
Chuuya’s face tensed. “Is that actually a joke?” “Was it funny?”
“No! Even if it was, that doesn’t mean I’m gonna sign any consent forms!”
“Oh.” Adam shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Human behavior truly is irrational.”
“You can’t just keep sayin’ that whenever you mess up!”
The two of them gibbered back and forth as they quickly made their way down the road. Once they reached the top of a hill, Chuuya sighed in exasperation.
“Fine, I get it. This is an important mission for you, but I’m busy, too, okay? So here’s what we’re gonna do.” He placed a hand on the guardrail to his side.
“Yes? Please…go on.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” Chuuya leaned his upper body over the guardrail, then threw himself off what appeared to be a bottomless cliff.
“Ah!”
Adam looked down the cliff in a panic, only to find that Chuuya had landed on a path roughly a dozen feet down and was running away, waving his hand.
“He’s getting away!”
Adam leaped over the guardrail after him, and his feet left radial cracks in the ground upon impact. He immediately sprinted after Chuuya.