DISCORD [Bungou Stray Dogs]

ELEVEN

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Oda stood before a burning van with the burned corpses of the orphans that were crowded with fire trucks and police cars.

"Odasaku." Dazai calls out to his friend "I know what you're thinking. But don't do it. Even if you do it. . ."

"Even if I do it, it won't bring the kids back."

"They still have numbers. And they are at. . ."

"I know where they are. I got an invitation, see."

"Listen to me. The Boss just attended a secret meeting. It was with the Gifted Special Ops Division. There's something more than this going on."

Oda walks past Dazai "There's nothing more going on, Dazai. It's all over for me."

"Odasaku. Forgive me for putting it this way, but please hear me out. You need to rely on something. It can be anything. You should wait and see what happens next, whatever that is! It will happen."

Oda is silent.

"Hey, Odasaku. Do you know why I joined the Port Mafia?" Dazai turned around to face Oda "I was hoping there'd be something in it for me. If you place yourself somewhere close to raw emotions, where you're exposed to violence and death, instinct and desire, you can brush against man's true nature. I thought that way I could. . . I could find a reason to live somehow."

"I wanted to become a writer. I thought I'd lose my right to do that if I killed again. That's why I stopped killing."

"Odasaku."

"Butt all that's come to a close." Oda steps away.

"Don't go! Odasaku!" Dazai reaches his hand out to grab Oda and stop him from leaving, but Dazai misses.

"I want only one thing."

"Odasaku!" Dazai grits his teeth and yells out to his friend.

Lightening cracks as the sky fills with dark clouds. Rain starts as a sprinkle turns into a pour.

━━━━━━ ⊙ ━━━━━━

Oda walks along a bridge in the pouring rain. A man holding a green umbrella runs in the opposite direction bumping into Odasaku. The man falls to the floor dropping the umbrella. Oda turns to the fallen man finding a head of black hair with a brown hat and a brown poncho.

"Ow. . . Hey! What do you think you're doing. You should look where you're going! You almost ruined the famous detective tools the president gave me." the man yells.

"Detective?"

The man's head snapped in his direction before rushing to his feet picking up the umbrella "Not just any detective! I'm a great detective! Soon, my name will be known in every household throughout Japan. I'm the best detective the world has ever known, Edogawa Rampo."