Bungou Stray Dogs 55 Minutes

Part 7-8

Entering the cabin behind Kunikida, he saw the detectives from the Agency inside.

Tanizaki, Naomi, Yosano, Kenji. Each, in their own way, was killing time spent in transit on the boat.

Atsushi was not seeing the scene in front of him. Everything in his field of vision slid off the surface of his brain like water off a duck's back, and did not stick in his head. Atsushi's sights were set not on the cabin, but on the memories that he never physically experienced.

—The total number of people who were burned to death is approximately four million.

—I will send you back in time to find the criminal and take the weapon.

"We will now start the meeting. Attention, everyone!"

Not a single person reacted to Kunikida's shout. Tanizaki was in a nightmarish state, Yosano was absorbed in selecting photos, Kenji was sleeping, and Naomi was unaware of anything that did not have to do with her brother.

Kunikida's words did not reach Atsushi's ears either.

If all that had not been a delusion, but events that had occurred in reality—

He only had 55 minutes left. Just 55 minutes.

"Atsushi, what are you spacing out about?"

Suddenly spoken to by Kunikida, Atsushi returned to his senses.

"Ah...... right, I'm sorry," Atsushi replied, flustered. "What was that, again?"

"Hey, hey," Kunikida frowned. "Please, I know you're in the mood for a pleasure trip, but I need you to focus."

"I'm sorry," Atsushi said in a timid voice, like he was about to vanish. "Um, Kunikida-san. Actually......"

—Do not tell anybody else about the future that you are aware of.

—If your friends' activities differ from what they were and the criminal changes his mind, the possibility is high that the weapon will be detonated much earlier than noon.

"Um...... forget it," Atsushi forced himself to swallow the words he was about to utter. "It's nothing."

"Come now... don't be too concerned. The job request is for us to catch some thieves. Our client is on the island where this ferry is headed."

"Right," nodded Atsushi. Of course, he knew this well. Including how the thief capture would turn out in the end.

"To begin with, the reason they called for civilian detectives like us instead of the police is because the island where we are headed has one major defining characteristic," said Kunikida, opening his notebook. "The massive floating city on the water, Standard Island. It was built to be the Sailing Island, designed and governed jointly by a collaboration of three European countries — Germany, England, and France. Capable of steering and navigating autonomously—"

Having heard Kunikida's speech once already, Atsushi was not paying attention to it the second time around.

Listening to the sounds of his explanation like he would to a distant sea roar, Atsushi was deep in thought. Stopping the weapon from detonating would not be as easy as he had thought. First of all, he did not know where it was located. Wells had said it was in the basement level five, the lowest level of the highest-security classified area– that is, the gold coin sector,– but Atsushi would not have a gold coin, so he would not even be able to enter the weapon's vicinity. He knew full well from his 'previous' confrontation with the thieves just how difficult it was to even get close to the gold coin area. Fully-armed soldiers and surveillance cameras. If he did not do something about that first, then infiltrating and looking for the weapon was out of the question.