Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 8 Chapter 3 Part 6

The incoming storm of bullets was about to land when I released the impact-resistant shield in my forearm. The umbrella-shaped shield’s surface was coated with a superalloy that was both heat and impact resistant and could defend from most lightweight attacks. It was specially created to withstand the high energy of Arahabaki.
The full metal jacket bullets slid off the shield’s surface and soared past me. Three of those shots stopped upon impact. The kinetic energy caused the alloy to peel off the surface, but the damage was minimal.
I leaped into the air with my shield still raised, then kicked off a soldier’s rifle and jumped once more. After landing on the wall behind them, I kicked off it and charged right into one of the soldier’s backs. My sensor picked up the light impact cracking his ribs. One man down.
Still atop the soldier, I swung one long leg like a scythe to sweep another soldier’s legs. When he fell to the ground, I pricked his neck with the needle in my finger and injected him with a drug. Two men down.
However, the third soldier had plenty of time to face me and fire his gun while I was handling the other two, and that was what he was about to do. My hands were on the floor, so I could not release the shield on my forearm fast enough. I rapidly searched for a solution, but nothing I found would make it in time.
I ended up not needing a solution, though.
The soldier’s body was knocked into the air. I heard a burst of electricity, and he then immediately went into convulsions, dropping his gun. Only a few seconds of pained groaning went by before he lost all strength and collapsed.
I hadn’t done a thing.
A savior had appeared from the corridor behind the soldiers. It was a very unexpected individual.
“Well, that was boring,” the individual said, yawning as he lowered the

Taser in his hand. “You kill a guy with electricity, and he just dies. What a snore.”
“You’re with the Port Mafia…” It was Osamu Dazai.
“Nice to meet you, detective. Where’s Chuuya?” Dazai asked upon tossing the Taser to the floor indifferently. He looked to be around the same age as Master Chuuya.
“Master Chuuya has been…”
“Seeing how much time has gone by, I’m guessing he’s been captured? Or did you already save him?” He stepped onto and over the unconscious soldier as he approached me. “Because I’d hate to miss out on seeing a crying Chuuya get tortured.”
“”Tortured’? Master Chuuya?”
Was he really being tortured? It was possible, but how would this boy know that? Why was he even here?
I recalled Dazai could nullify other skills and was going to be our secret weapon against Verlaine, but he never answered his phone, no matter how many times we contacted him. So why was he here now?
“You’re going to ask me why I’m here, and I’m going to reply, “This was all part of the plan.’ Then you’re going to ask me, “What is the plan?’ And I’m going to tell you, “Everything. From the very beginning. It was all part of my master plan.’ After that, you’re going to say, “What do you mean?’”
I tried to analyze the information with my processor as high priority in order to comprehend what Dazai was saying, but his mind was quicker. It took everything I had to keep up.
“Then I’ll tell you, “Everything means exactly how it sounds. Everything. Verlaine’s targets, the detective, the researcher—it was all based on the information I gave Verlaine. In other words, the system he used to assassinate people was my system, too. Next, you’re gonna ask me, “Why would you do that?’”
He was right. That was indeed the question on my mind. What he had just said highly suggested he was working with Verlaine. It was possible that Dazai was calling the shots behind the detective’s death and the danger Master Chuuya was currently in. In other words, this was a betrayal. Another battle could be inevitable depending on what he said next.

However, Dazai’s eventual reply went far beyond anything I imagined. “I did it to buy time before Verlaine reached his biggest target. His final
target is Ougai Mori, the Port Mafia boss. Normally, he would’ve been the first to be assassinated, but after manipulating the intel a bit, I got him placed last in line. And thanks to the time I bought, I’m ready to assassinate Verlaine instead. Just need to make a few final touches to the plan first.”
Dazai then smiled and helped me stand up. After that, he stared into nothingness like some sage who saw all.
“Chuuya’s gonna kill N at this rate and lose his humanity, but I want to see him suffer as a human. That’s why I have to stop him.”
Alarms blared as if the apocalypse had arrived. Red emergency lights flashed, instantly transforming the facility into the belly of the beast. All wireless feeds for general staff were activated, and every line repeated a warning over the radio:
“Intruder detected within the facility. All intelligence officers present are to destroy specified documents, then leave the facility immediately. Ops Division members are to be armed and waiting in position. This is not a drill. I repeat. This is not a drill.”
I specifically blocked out the aggravating alarm from my hearing and continued my preparations. After putting the unconscious Shirase inside the storage room, I closed the door and electrically locked it.
“I switched the lock with an encryption key that changes after a certain amount of time. Shirase should be safe for the time being.”
“Good work. Looks like that just leaves Chuuya,” Dazai said as he began walking off, wholly uninterested in Shirase.
“Dazai, wait,” I pleaded. “You said “as a human’ when referring to Master Chuuya earlier. Do you know whether he is human?”
I was curiously hopeful that he would know the truth. I did not have any evidence to back it up. It was simply how I felt. It was the hubris of man to believe that machines did not have gut feelings or flashes of inspiration. Anything a human could do, a machine could do as well, of course.
“No clue,” he quickly replied, but his eyes faintly narrowed as if he was deeply speculating something. “Both N and Verlaine claim Chuuya’s not human, but I think they could be wrong. At least that’s how I feel after reading this notebook—Rimbaud’s memoirs. In a way, this whole thing started because of what was written in here,” revealed Dazai as he took an old, leather-bound notebook out of his pocket.
Rimbaud’s journal!
I immediately scanned the notebook in Dazai’s hand. Was it real? It was possible. The late spy’s notebook was a sort of diary that he wrote in secret before each mission. It was a book of national secrets in a way, since it contained information regarding his wartime missions. There were rumors of its existence, but nothing about it ever being found.
“Where did you get that?”
“You can try to get me to tell you, but you’d just be wasting your time. All I do is lie. I’m a huge pathological liar.” Dazai’s lips curled into a cryptic smile.
I used my built-in lie detector, but it failed to pick up anything. His vitals were hardly any different from a sleeping human’s. If anything, his level of output was strangely average despite the circumstances. Just who was this boy?
“Looks like we don’t have time to chat over some tea right now. We’ve gotta find Chuuya,” Dazai said drowsily while scratching the back of his neck.
“How do we even start, though?” “With Chuuya, it’s simple, really.”
He smirked knowingly, as if he had all the answers. “We just need to go to the noisiest place here.”
An explosion roared as the wall burst into pieces.
Chuuya rushed through the rubble and dust cloud like a cannonball, and the air-splitting shock wave dispersed the dust a few moments later. Standing before him was a group of armed facility guards prepping for battle.
“I want Shock Squad Pomegranate at the east corridor! Engineer Squad

Bracken, go blow up the west corridor and seal it off! Buy as much time as you can so the intelligence officers can escape! Now, get mov—”
But the commander never finished that sentence. Chuuya’s knee had bent the man in half before sending him flying back.
Eight seasoned soldiers, carefully selected to protect a top secret military facility, immediately got into position with their guns in unison. It would be insulting to compare their skill level with the average enlisted soldiers who were hired to guard rations or equipment. Only those with the highest level of marksmanship, stamina, focus, and battle prowess were allowed to work here.
However, they were only skilled when it came to battling other ordinary humans. Never once did they imagine they’d have to fight a human-size beast that was flying toward them with the speed of the wind and the weight of a truck.
“Don’t let him through! The panic room’s just up ahead! We have to buy time until the top intelligence officers finish evacuating!”
Chuuya, low in the air, rammed his body into one of the soldiers who was about to shoot, which sent the soldier flying like a leaf in a storm. Chuuya then kicked the soldier in the stomach, knocking him into another solider on the opposite side of the room. It was as if a violent gale had passed through the narrow chamber; the soldiers bounced off the walls like billiard balls.
A mere dozen or so seconds went by until only silence and death reigned. Chuuya stepped over the guards’ bodies on the floor as if they meant nothing, then placed a hand on the door to the panic room.
It didn’t open. The door felt heavy and had an electric lock.
Chuuya used pressurized gravity on the door in an attempt to break the lock, but it still didn’t open. The poison had weakened his skill.
“Focus.”
Before Chuuya even realized, Verlaine was leaning against the wall by the door with his arms crossed.
“You’ve been poisoned. So what? You’re the beast who will end this world. Make that skill yours. Because that’s what you’ll have to do if you really wish to destroy the evil behind this door.”
“I know that…!”
Chuuya placed both hands on the door and clenched his jaw. His skill’s output gradually grew stronger.
The door—which was resistant to explosives, chemicals, and skills— was built to withstand intruders’ attacks. Most skill users wouldn’t be able to destroy it, let alone even make it creak.
“Focus. Tame the beast with your will. You will die if you don’t.”
The air distorted. Chuuya’s clothes began billowing as his skill’s glow concentrated around his fists.
Where am I?
That was the first thought Shirase had when he woke up. He was inside a weapons locker. He could barely touch the walls with his arms and legs if he stretched, but there was hardly any light. Shirase couldn’t even see his own nose.
“Chuuya? Adam?”
He called out to them, but nobody replied. He didn’t sense anyone’s presence, either.
That is, until he noticed the emergency alarm going off outside the locker along with rushing footsteps and panicked voices. He heard some people mention an intruder while others were talking about non-researchers evacuating. The facility was clearly in some sort of trouble.
Research facility. Oh yeah.
He had finally remembered what was going on.
Shirase sat up. He’d been invited into the facility and descended deep underground until all of a sudden, it was painful to even breathe, and he passed out. Gunfire could be heard in the distance. He was all alone trapped in this cramped space.
They left me here. They abandoned me.
“Damn it! Chuuya! Where’d you go?! Get me outta here!”
He kicked the door with brute strength, and it easily opened. Shirase was instantly taken aback, as he did not expect it to open, so he closed the door. He then slightly opened it again to see what was happening outside the locker and discovered numerous lockers, just like his, in what appeared to be a dark supply room. It looked like he was the only one there.

Shirase rolled out of the locker then tried to stand, but he was immediately hit by a dizzy spell that brought him to his knees. He suddenly realized he couldn’t breathe, and his heart started to hurt. Most likely poison.
Damn it. They thought I was a deadweight after I got poisoned, so they stuffed me in this room and escaped without me.
Shirase closed his fist, then opened it. He was awake and alert. He wouldn’t have a problem moving like this, which to him meant there was no reason for him to sit around here any longer.
Fortunately, there were a few white lab coats hanging on the wall for the researchers. He stood up and put one on because he remembered the voice on the intercom ordering all noncombatants to evacuate immediately.
I should be able to escape pretty easily if I pretend I’m one of the researchers. But Chuuya wouldn’t be so lucky. All the guards are keeping an eye out for him. No way he’d be able to blend in and escape. He’s probably in danger right now.
But who cares? It’s not my job to save him. It’s not…my job…
“Destroy all documents! Cut off the power to all areas except for Evac Route 8 and buy some time!” N shouted from inside one of the facility’s few panic rooms.
This long, narrow chamber shaped like a rail carriage was supplied with a communications terminal, food, a generator, bulletproof vests, and every other essential for emergencies. There was even a single-passenger elevator in the back of the room for evacuating.
N was yelling orders for each department into the terminal while simultaneously attaching a bundle of chains to a power source and carrying it toward the entrance.
“Notify the Operations Division in the control room to drag the battle out as long as possible! Then contact the general—”
The door blew clean off its hinges, nearly grazing N’s nose before piercing the wall.
“What kind of father tries to run away from his own son? Heh.”

Chuuya was standing at the entrance, glaring at N as his entire body was steaming with rage.
“Eek…!”
After the chains slipped out of N’s hand, he retreated a few steps until his back was rubbing against the wall.
“What were you doing in here? Gettin’ ready to die?”
“W-wait! I didn’t have a choice! Everything I did, I did because it’s my job! I never personally wanted to make you suffer!”
“Uh-huh. I feel bad for ya, then.”
Chuuya strode menacingly toward N, who retreated at the same pace on trembling legs. Verlaine was smiling at the entrance with his arms crossed, enjoying the show.
Chains were lying by Chuuya’s feet. N seemed to be using them for something, so Chuuya picked them up and checked their tips.
The ends of the chains had metal stakes with thick wire that ran all the way down the chains and looped through the holes. These were the electric shock devices that had been used to torture Chuuya.
“So these are what you jabbed in my stomach earlier. Now I get it… Setting up a trap to ambush me, so you could stab me one last time, eh?”
“I—I…”
Chuuya reeled in the two chains connected to a power source in two corners of the room.
“I’m gonna be honest. It hurt pretty bad. Still a valuable experience, though. I was thinking I could have you experience a hundredth of what I did,” said Chuuya while staring at the chains. But N used that brief moment to take off, running toward the door to the elevator in the back of the room until the tip of a chain pierced the hem of his coat.
“Not so fast,” Chuuya hissed with rage.
The tip of the chain went through N’s coat and pierced the wall behind him. Chuuya was already spinning the second chain, the tip almost touching the floor, as he slowly aimed at his next target. There was no way for N to run, let alone dodge the next attack, with his clothes pinned to the wall.
“Wait! You’re making a grave mistake!”
“Don’t listen to him, Chuuya,” Verlaine said over by the entrance. He checked his fingers in a bored manner. “People like him will lie about anything to survive. It was the same with me. The exact same.”

Chuuya’s eyes sharply narrowed as they glowed with transparent, ruby- red bloodlust.
“W-wait! I was only doing it because it’s my job! Really! That’s all this was!”
“Yeah, it was your job,” Chuuya spat as he got even closer to him. “You toyed with my soul because it’s your job. You locked the other me away and killed him because it’s your job. You’d do anything for your job because you’re a piece of shit. So now’s it’s time for you to die for your job.”
Gravity lifted the metal stake on the chain into the air.
Dazai and I were quickly traveling down the corridor.
“There’s no proof that Chuuya is human, but there’s no proof he’s not human, either,” Dazai told me. “All Verlaine did was steal Chuuya from that facility. That means he’s an outsider in this regard. It’s not like he saw Chuuya’s creation as an artificial skill with his own two eyes. That N guy could be lying, too.”
N could be lying?
“What would be his reason for lying?”
“Beats me. But the best liars even lie about why they lie to cover it up, and that guy smells like a first-rate liar to me. Am I wrong?”
Dazai smirked with chilling ecstasy.
However, he had a point. I scanned the vitals of every human I encountered since entering the research facility. I checked infrared intensity, heart rate, the levels of carbon dioxide exhaled, pupils, and the amount of sweat produced. Naturally, I did the same for N. Nevertheless, I did not discover any clear signs that he was going to betray us.
Master Chuuya might be a man-made creation. Or he could be human. It could go either way.
I leaned forward and increased my speed by 40 percent. If there was a 50 percent chance he was human, then I could not let him kill N. There would be no turning back if he did that.