Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 8 Chapter 4 Part 8

Time flew by.
He was in a back alley at night. The moonlight diagonally cut through the sky. The buildings were shoddy—made from blocks of wood sloppily stacked together. Rimbaud was jogging slightly ahead through the alley, a military alarm blaring somewhere far in the distance. Someone had realized Verlaine and Rimbaud had infiltrated the base.
That was when it hit Chuuya. This was a memory of nine years ago— when Verlaine and his partner, Rimbaud, broke Chuuya out of the military research facility.
But why? Why am I being shown this memory?
Chuuya thought back to the sensation of being swallowed by something powerful right after Verlaine pushed him in the woodlands. It was something dark—different from gravity. Perhaps that was why he was seeing this.
His head started hurting when he tried to focus. Something bigger than him was trying to engulf him, making it difficult to maintain his presence of mind.
But he had to hold on. There had to be a reason why he was being shown this memory.
Rimbaud was walking briskly ahead. “Our escape submarine is only five kilometers away. We have to throw them off our tail before then, or we’ll be swimming back to France,” he said, never letting his guard down. He possessed the kind of focus found only in seasoned spies.
The distance between him and Verlaine began to grow. Verlaine had slowed his pace before eventually stopping.
“What’s the matter, Paul?” Rimbaud turned around. “Hurry. The enemy is catching up.”
There was no response.

Apparently, Verlaine was carrying the young Chuuya on his shoulders, most likely because he could make the boy lighter with his skill.
“I’m not giving this child to France,” Verlaine declared succinctly. “What?” Bewilderment colored Rimbaud’s face.
“I’m not giving him to anyone. He won’t be going back to the research facility, either. This boy is going to grow up in a quiet countryside village somewhere in secrecy, never having to know what he truly is.”
Rimbaud blinked a few moments as if he couldn’t process what was going on. Before long, however, he began walking back to Verlaine.
“Not a step closer.”
But Verlaine’s sharp voice stopped him.
“What are you talking about?” Rimbaud continued to express confusion. “This child should be taken care of and educated by the government just like you were.”
“That’s the problem.” Verlaine’s tone was tense and hostile. “Rimbaud. Just once, I want you to imagine just how much it could affect a person if you told them they weren’t human. Imagine how it feels to be told you weren’t born with God’s love, that you are nothing more than a character set someone suddenly came up with. Imagine the depths of a person’s heart pierced by those words. It’s a pitch-black abyss where the moon can’t be seen. There is no hope. There is no salvation. Do you get it? Even those feelings of despair are merely something someone designed!”
“We’ve been through this many times before, Paul.” Rimbaud took a step forward. “You’re human, no matter what anyone else thinks. The process by which you were born is inconsequential compared to how you’re here now, existing and thinking for yourself.”
“Oh, right,” Verlaine said bitterly, nodding. “”You’re human.’ I’ve heard that countless times as well. There’s nothing I hate more in this world than hearing you say that.”
“Paul…”
“I told you to stay back,” Verlaine sternly repeated as Rimbaud tried to approach. “You can twist things however you want in your mind, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not human! You, a mere outsider, dare say I should calm down, that everything’s okay because I look and act just like a human? I’d feel better if you told me I’m just like a frog!”
Rimbaud frowned and shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said before turning around. “At any rate, we need to return to France. We can further discuss this matter once we arrive.”
He started walking again. Verlaine stared at his back.
“It’ll be far too late to talk then,” whispered Verlaine. “Once we’re back, our comrades from the organization will come in droves to restrain me. This is my only chance to get my way—while I’m in enemy territory.”
He raised his gun. It was an ordinary pistol, but Chuuya immediately came to a realization. To someone like Verlaine, who could manipulate the speed and weight of an object, a pistol was no different than a cannon. Its bullets could pierce the body of any skill user, even someone with a transcendent skill such as Rimbaud. That pistol was pointed at Rimbaud’s back.
“Do you really think you can shoot me, Paul?” asked Rimbaud, back still turned. “I’m the man who saved you. I granted you human life.”
“I’m sorry, Rimbaud.” It was a whisper so faint that it melted and disappeared in Verlaine’s mouth. The pain, however, was real. “But I want to save myself—I want to save the other me.”
He pulled the trigger.
The bullet soared toward Rimbaud’s back beyond the speed of sound. But before it hit him, Rimbaud swiftly turned around and activated his skill, creating a crimson cube to shield him. The bullet, however, twisted space itself with its gravity, then pierced the cube and struck the base of the hand Rimbaud was holding up to block. It went even farther, shooting through the subspace behind his hand before eventually stopping.
There wasn’t a trace of anger on Rimbaud’s face. “So that’s what you’ve decided, Paul.”
His eyes were quiet and dry as a wasteland as he gazed back at the man who was once his best friend and partner.
“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me,” Verlaine admitted quietly. “But surely you now understand the horrible mistake you made: bringing to life a man who should never have been born.”
Gravity expanded like a blooming flower, warping their surroundings. “It wasn’t a mistake, Paul. I am going to take you home with me, even if
it means tearing off an arm or a leg first.”
Rimbaud’s subspace grew until it engulfed the back alley. The tense air of battle scorched the earth and sky.

This was no ordinary battle. It was the battle of two Transcendents with the might of a thousand trained soldiers, a battle to the death that would erode their souls. The two extraordinary powers clashed.

“Master Chuuya! Please open your eyes!”
Chuuya’s consciousness was dragged out of the past.
He was immediately plunged into darkness. Amid that raging torrent of uncanny darkness, he found himself floating. There was no telling which way was up. The contradiction in space lorded over this dark torrent.
Darkness passed by his ears along with a roar. Rainbow-colored metallic powder occasionally soared past his eyes with unbelievable speed.
He felt a strong grip on his shoulder and looked to his side to find Adam grabbing his shoulder. His grip alone was keeping Chuuya from being dragged away by the violent flow of darkness. He was so close, and yet his body was a blur beyond the swirling gloom. It was as if he were a dozen miles or so away.
Adam pushed the back of his ear and pulled out a semicircular device that he then placed on Chuuya’s ear. He could hear Adam’s voice coming from what seemed to be some sort of receiver.
“I almost thought you were not going to wake up.” “…Where are we?” asked Chuuya as he looked around.
It was a raging stream of darkness—a space so large it completely distorted his spatial awareness.
The receiver seemed to function as a microphone as well, allowing Adam to respond to his questions.
“We are most likely inside Verlaine.” Adam’s voice was full of static. “His singularity has been fully unleashed, transforming him into a singularity life-form known as Demonic Beast Guivre. We were dragged in here when this event occurred.”
“Ah,” said Chuuya, stone-faced. “So we’re inside Verlaine. I had a feeling that was the case.”
Something whooshed past his ears, but he could no longer tell if it was matter, wind, or even the flow of time and space. One minute inside here felt like a month on the outside and yet it also felt like the blink of an eye. The concepts of distance and direction didn’t exist in this space, either. All

Chuuya could do was endure the incoming, overpowering waves of energy so he didn’t lose consciousness.
“The logic of geometrical space does not apply here. The flow of time in a black hole moves like a whirlpool, and the flow differs between each location. If we get separated, we will probably never see each other again. Here. Use this.”
Adam placed a hand on the connecter at the base of his skull, then pulled out some sort of white wire. He tightly tied it around Chuuya’s waist before bringing it around his back and over his shoulders and neck. The metal wire had a clean, stable glow, even within the raging darkness.
“What is it?”
“It is an emergency axial fiber known as a time-proof cable,” Adam answered with a smile. “It might look like any ordinary string, but the inside is packed with countless connected vacuum capsules. Put simply, its structure is akin to a tube. Inside that tube are gluons—a type of boson— that move at the speed of light while triggering quantum tunneling. Generally, the flow of time slows down the closer that matter gets to the speed of light, so time will hardly move inside that cable full of gluons. That will not change regardless of whatever is happening with space-time in the outside world, so it acts as a space-time insulator.”
An incredible torrent of darkness rushed past Chuuya’s ears even while Adam explained things. The wire holding Chuuya in place slightly relieved the spatial agnosia-like discomfort he was feeling.
“In other words, you can rest assured that wire is not going to break, despite the unforeseen circumstances you are in.”
“I don’t really get the details, but…” Chuuya knit his brows. “Why the hell did you even have a wire for a situation like this in the first place?”
“Because I was designed in preparation for something like this from the very beginning.”
Chuuya’s expression stiffened. “What?”
“I remembered just a little while earlier.” There was an earnest glow in Adam’s eyes. “My knowledge on the subject was protected until the moment I recognized the situation. This cable is one of the things I remembered. European HQ predicted that the singularity inside Verlaine would go berserk, which was why they sent me, since I know how to stop this. However, we do not have much time left. I am executing Final

Protocol—my secret mission—before Yokohama becomes the largest crater in the world. Do you think you could help me?”
Chuuya stared at Adam for a few moments before eventually smiling.
“I don’t have a reason not to,” he replied. “But what exactly are we gonna do to stop it?”
“We are going to use the skill weapon built inside me.”
Adam opened the loading bay inside his chest, revealing a peculiar antique camera. Connected to it were shock-absorbent resin, circuits, and a piece of parchment with strange words written on it.
“This was created in Great Britain during the final days of the war. It acts as my power source, but it originally served as a thermal weapon of mass destruction.” Adam smirked. “We are going to incinerate Demonic Beast Guivre in its entirety with this.”
“Huh?” Chuuya’s eyes opened wide. “Incinerate? In its entirety?”
“Yes. Allow me to briefly explain the protocol,” began Adam before detaching his right arm from the shoulder. “First, connect this arm to the time-proof cable’s port. I only have one arm, so I cannot do it myself.”
“Like this?”
Chuuya grabbed the arm and inserted the cable into the port in the wrist. “Please make sure it is properly secured,” said Adam. “Next, hold on to the cable, manipulate its gravity with your skill, and throw it as far as you
can.”
“How far do you want it?” “Until it is outside this area.”
Chuuya was silent with a stern expression. He looked at Adam, peered into the darkness, then snorted. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t even know where this place starts and where it ends. The strong torrent isn’t doin’ us any favors, either. There’s no guarantee I could even throw it straight. It’s pretty obvious Verlaine’s skill’s more powerful than mine.”
“Even then, I need you to do this.” Adam shook his head. “Do not worry, Master Chuuya. I know you can do it.”
“Because nothing makes me more confident than some baseless encouragement from a computer,” Chuuya said with a strained smile. Suddenly, his gaze turned serious. “Is this even long enough?”

“It should be.” Adam held up a bundle of cable he had pulled out. “All right. Here goes nothing.”
Chuuya closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. He then raised Adam’s arm while holding the glittering wire in his other hand and peered into the emptiness ahead.
He applied lateral gravity to the arm, squeezing it until his knuckles turned white. Chuuya manipulated its gravity as much as possible, then let go. It shot forward like a meteor before being swallowed by the torrent of darkness and vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Chuuya clutched the time-proof cable as it swiftly retracted while using his skill on it. The cable and attached arm continued to accelerate, since his skill allowed him to modify the strength and direction of the gravity of whatever he touched.
The cable rapidly unwound. “Farther!”
Chuuya’s face was covered in sweat. He had to pierce this gravitational space of absolute darkness, which swallowed even light itself, with only his own strength. It was like trying to send something into space using his skill alone.
“Haaaaaah!”
Sweat dripped from every pore in his body. Each drop was blown away by the gale of darkness before immediately disappearing into the void. Just when Chuuya was about to fade out of consciousness, and the cable was about to run out, the resistance at the end of the cable suddenly vanished.

Adam’s arm shot out of the beast’s torso. It looked no bigger than a tiny needle compared to the behemoth. The glittering cable followed like the tail of a shooting star. The arm swam through the sky, falling in an arc in the opposite direction the beast was moving.
The moment it struck the soil among the trees, Adam’s arm shot out four harpoon-like protrusions in a radial pattern. They skewered the ground to keep the arm fixed in place. Once the sturdy cable tightened, it immediately started pulling Chuuya, who was tied to the other end.

“Whoa?!”

The abrupt tug took Chuuya by surprise. The fully extended cable started winding, pulling Chuuya forward at a terrifying speed like a winch tugging a car. Adam’s arm, which acted as an anchor, was dragging Chuuya outside in the opposite direction of the moving beast.
“Heh. Now I see how we’re getting out of here.” Chuuya smiled with evident satisfaction. “So? What are we gonna do once we’re outside, and
—?”
But when Chuuya turned around, he saw something strange: Adam, smiling dolefully.
Adam cut the cable tying them together. “…Huh?”
Chuuya reflexively reached out, but Adam was blown away by the
torrent of dark time, disappearing almost instantly. Chuuya, whose entire body was wrapped with cable, was still being quickly dragged outside.
“Adam! What are you doing?! Didn’t you just say we’d never find each other again if we—?”
“This is how it has to be.”
Chuuya heard Adam’s lonely voice through the receiver in his ear.
“The name of this weapon is the Shell. Its incineration range has a twenty-two-yard radius. The internal temperature is six thousand degrees Celsius. An intense heat equivalent to the temperature of the sun’s surface will erupt around me, ionizing the singularity life-form even on a molecular level. Only white smoke will remain.”
“Around…you?” A bitter realization warped Chuuya’s expression. “Hold on. Tell me you’re not planning on—”
“This is the real reason an android was sent instead of a human detective.” Adam’s voice was tender and weak. “My core, which now contains state secrets, will be incinerated along with Verlaine.”
“Don’t!” Chuuya shouted into the receiver as he was dragged through the torrent. “Are you stupid or something?! There’s gotta be another way we can do this!”
“Perhaps there is. However, I cannot protect you while simultaneously completing the mission any other way.”