Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 8 Chapter 4 Part 5

Under no circumstances could the two of them afford a direct hit. No matter how they tried to evade—even if Chuuya managed to increase his gravitational output tenfold—there was no way they could survive that many gravity spheres. They’d be lucky if even a small fragment of bone somehow survived.
Chuuya and Adam were prepared to die.
But the orbs of gravity didn’t come their way…because they were heading in a different direction.
Sniper bullets, grenades, and balls of fire were being launched from the surface. The black orbs reacted by raining upon the earth, wiping out the Mafia members in droves. The terrain transformed until the dead mafiosi were sucked into the spheres.
This strategy was meant to keep the enemy’s attacks off Chuuya. The Mafia fighters were purposely being reckless, throwing their lives away.
“Those idiots…,” Chuuya moaned.
The Flags weren’t special. This was just how the Mafia was.
The only way they were going to prevent their boss’s assassination was to have Chuuya kill Verlaine with the poison he was carrying. That was why they threw their lives away, even if only to distract the enemy for a mere second.
Everyone in the Mafia felt the same way. They were a cruel, proud group. They had each other’s backs.
“Let’s do this!” shouted Chuuya as Adam closed his wings.
They began to accelerate even more with some added gravity, closing in on the enemy like a bullet.
Anticipating a collision, Verlaine automatically moved to the side. Right before they passed him, Adam shot an anchored wire out of his elbow and slung it around Verlaine’s neck. It was the same wire he used to restrain Chuuya the first day they met.
Verlaine briefly howled. The three of them were now clumped together while descending to the surface.
The monster that was Verlaine automatically went on the defensive, creating a jet-black orb, even bigger than the others, around the center of his body. The incredible suction force began swallowing Adam’s wire. His and Chuuya’s descent quickly lost speed.
“We’re gonna get sucked in, too, at this rate! Cut the wire!” Chuuya hollered.
“I cannot do that. If I cut this wire, we will never have another chance to get this close to him!” Adam hollered back. “Do not worry. Everything is going according to my calculations!”
Adam then cut the cord tying him and Chuuya together before pushing Chuuya away.
“What…?!”
Chuuya looked at Adam in astonishment. Adam simply smiled back as he was sucked into Verlaine’s black orb.
Chuuya landed on the surface, using gravity to rapidly break his fall. The sudden deceleration caused his vision to turn red. He quickly looked up.
Adam and Verlaine were entangled inside the orb of gravity as they continued descending.
The thunderous roar blew away the trees. When the cloud of dirt had cleared, it looked as if a meteorite had just created a crater with someone lying in the center. That was where Verlaine was curled up, not a scratch on his body. He’d fallen to his knees, his eyes gently closed as if he were taking a nap. The ancient runes on his body swam across his skin and shone.
There was not much left of Adam. His body from the chest down was gone in addition to his left arm, and his internal machinery was completely exposed. Artificial muscles and nerve conduction cables dangled out of him as white functional fluid leaked into the dirt. Only Adam’s gaze moved.
He looked at Chuuya. His eyes were strong. It was as if he was trying to tell him something.
Do it.
That was what his faint nod was telling Chuuya.
Chuuya made a decision. He quietly walked down the hollowed earth with neither hostility nor malice as if he were simply taking a stroll in the wilderness. He moved slowly with firm footsteps, making sure Verlaine would not consider him a threat.
The man who called himself Chuuya’s brother reflected in Chuuya’s eyes. There was no reason to hold back any hostile feelings because he strangely didn’t feel any bitterness in his heart when he looked at him.
This Verlaine was no longer human. He wasn’t even a character set anymore. He was merely a vessel of raw energy, nothing more than an automated machine that returned hate with more hate.
This is sleeping within me, too. We’re the same once you strip us of our outer shells. I finally understand why Verlaine came to me and why he invited me on a journey with him.
But I’ve gotta put an end to things once and for all.
Chuuya stood right by his brother’s side. To his own surprise, Chuuya was quite calm. Verlaine still hadn’t reacted.
Chuuya pulled the pouch out of his pocket. It was clear, disc-shaped, and roughly the size of his fingertip. Once the poison touched the inside of Verlaine’s mouth, it would quietly dissolve. Darkness would come, and then it would all be over. This was the only way to end things.
His brother’s lips were faintly parted. Chuuya didn’t resent the man. He didn’t even consider him to be a living being. This simple action was like putting an envelope in a mailbox. Like finishing a puzzle with the very last piece. Like a farewell to a memory of someone dear.
Chuuya slipped the pouch into Verlaine’s mouth in a detached manner, then let go.
He felt a sharp pang.
Not emotional pain—physical pain. Chuuya’s fingertip was bleeding. “Heh… You never cease to surprise me, Chuuya.”
Verlaine was laughing.
Chuuya’s blood stained the corner of Verlaine’s mouth, and the next moment, Chuuya was knocked backward. He hadn’t been sucked into the gravity sphere. This was Verlaine’s typical skill that he could use to manipulate the gravity of whatever he touched. Chuuya spun through the air until he crashed into a tree trunk without even a moment to defend himself.
“Gwah…!”
“The first day we met when I opened your Gate, I left a command sequence inside you,” Verlaine revealed. He spat the poison out of his mouth and into the weeds, where it disappeared. “That command would close my Gate the moment you touched me again. You automatically closed my Gate. This is the only way to stop me, since I lose consciousness during Brutalization.”
“”Brutalization’…?”
“It’s when you strip the persona model’s control and temporarily unleash the singularity beast. You know, what happened with me just now. Rimbaud took the name Brutalization from the verse used to break the persona’s seal.”
Verlaine slowly stood, then looked at Chuuya.
“He was the one who came up with the idea of how I could return to normal after becoming a singularity. He was always thinking about how he could help.”
“And yet you still betrayed him,” Chuuya said while staggering on his knees. “Didn’t you?”
Verlaine didn’t immediately reply as he opened his eyes wide and stared at Chuuya. His eyes were dry. He didn’t even blink.
“I did it to save you,” he eventually answered.
Chuuya managed to keep his wobbling legs straight enough to stand back up.
“Fine,” he said with a quiet gaze. “We did everything we could, but you won. There ain’t a single person left in the Mafia who can beat you. I’ll go wherever you wanna go, whether it be back to Europe or to the ends of the earth.”
Verlaine’s eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to trick me?”
“Unlike Dazai, I’m not twisted enough to do something like that. Plus, I don’t think lying to you is gonna help me, either.” Chuuya chuckled in self- derision. “Besides, I might start hating the world like you one day, too. So I figured observing you up close could help prevent that from happening.”
Verlaine gazed fixedly at Chuuya’s face as if all answers to life were written there. He then replied, “Does that mean…you do not yet resent this world?”
“There’s people I hate, but not all of ’em,” replied Chuuya as he stared off into the distance. The stars glittered in his eyes. “I know better than to try to live a solitary existence. You used to feel the same, right?”
“…”
Verlaine didn’t respond. It was as if his silence itself was his answer. “Anyway, that’s settled, so let’s go. The Mafia’s gonna be here any
second. They’re not gonna give up, even though the most powerful attacks don’t leave a scratch on you. The only kind of attack that’d work on you wouldn’t be a powerful one.”
Chuuya gestured with his chin for Verlaine to look back.

“It’d be a surprise—a real joke of an attack, one you’d never see coming… Like this.”
A hand suddenly touched Verlaine on the shoulder, and he swiftly looked behind him.

And as he turned his head, his cheek bumped right into someone’s index finger.
“What—?”
“Would you like to hear an android joke?”

A fine needle protruded from the index finger.
Adam, whose body was gone from the waist down, had one hand on Verlaine’s shoulder, injecting a solution into Verlaine’s cheek. The drug immediately triggered a neural reflex due to the sudden drop in blood pressure.

Verlaine stumbled before collapsing backward onto the ground and losing consciousness.
Adam shrugged his remaining right shoulder with a mischievous smirk. “The king of assassins was defeated by a silly children’s game. Get it? That was the android joke.”
An excerpt from Rimbaud’s journal:

Date:
DGSS Operations Division, Special Operations Command Undercover Agent:
Fair weather. Predawn. New moon.

I am writing a slightly longer entry today, since I will be infiltrating the enemy’s military base tomorrow. There will be no backup nor logistical support. We won’t have any insiders helping us, either.
Our mission is to steal the newest model of skill weapon. It is said to have the appearance of a young boy but is powerful enough destroy the entire world.
It’s an extremely dangerous mission. Our chances of returning home alive are slim.
Nevertheless, if anyone was to do it, you could not find a better pair than my partner, Verlaine, and me.
What could I possibly do for my partner who has always been there for me? This question has been on my mind for so long. It was only yesterday when I found my answer.
I celebrated his birthday.
Of course, he does not have an exact date of birth, but I decided to make yesterday his birthday. Exactly four years ago yesterday, Verlaine killed Pan and gained freedom.
I picked up a small pudding from a pâtissier in Paris, then headed over to Verlaine’s hideout with a bottle of wine under my arm. He seemed more suspicious than surprised. Therefore, I explained things to him.
Celebrating birthdays is a simple gesture that suggests one thing: Your birth is something worth celebrating. No matter what anyone says, you deserve to be here.
And there’s one element a birthday cannot go without. A birthday without this would be like a night sky with no moon.
That one element is: a birthday present.
I gave him a black hat. A bowler hat, to be precise.
It was nothing expensive, nor was it made by some famous haberdasher. However, the sweat-absorbent fabric lining incorporates some rather unique materials. One-tenth of that material is platinum, and another one-tenth is titanium. The rest is a rainbow-colored skill metal made primarily from gold, and it allows one to harness Pan’s skill. I took one of his experiments from his lab that he was on the verge of completing and modified it into a hat.
Once Verlaine puts on the hat, the fabric lining acts like coils, deflecting any external command sequences that could tamper with his mind. In other words, the wearer can control command sequences at will.
With this hat, Verlaine is one step closer to becoming a human with free will.
His reaction was curious. He appeared neither happy nor surprised. His gaze quiet, he simply said, “Sure, I’ll take it.” He didn’t say another word after that. We drank wine together, said good night, and went our separate ways.

Even though an entire day has already gone by, I still wonder if I did the right thing. Verlaine’s eyes were as cold and as distant as the north pole.
But I imagine I will learn the answer very soon.

Tomorrow, at the enemy’s base.
I would gladly walk through any hell for my partner’s sake. So long as there is a god in the heavens, this bond in my heart, and a future within reach.

(This was the last entry in his journal. There was nothing more written after this.)