Mistress Of The Shadow | Bungo Stray Dogs

Chapter 7

Chuuya sat on the gravestone that marked where Rando had been buried and he sighed.

"Even in death you're a real pain in the ass," he grumbled, staring out at the sea as he complained. "Of course, the Port Mafia confiscated all the records you'd collected on Arahabaki. So I'm back to square one."

He just closed his eyes and slumped a bit. He felt so lost.

"Well, even if you were alive, you probably wouldn't have told anyone about that stuff anyway." Chuuya swung his legs around to turn away from the water. He jumped off the grave and began walking away from the pier. "I'll be back."

He kept his hands shoved deep in his pockets as he watched ground while he walked.

"There you are, Chuuya," a voice came and Chuuya looked up to see his friend from the Sheep.

"Shirase? What are you doing here?" Chuuya questioned as he stopped in his tracks.

"I wanted to come and apologize to you," Shirase spoke with a warm smile as he walked towards Chuuya slowly. "We did some soul searching after what happened. We have a good handle on what the Sheep's problems are now. So we all talked it over and agreed on what the solution was."

As Shirase walked past Chuuya, the ginger looked over his shoulder and began to turn around completely.

"If you decided it together, I won't-"

There was a sharp pain that erupted in Chuuya's side and he grunted as he stumbled backyards, landing on his butt.

"We'd wait until you let your guard down, then go ahead and move in for the kill," Shirase explained the plane as his lips pulled into a malicious grin. "That way you wouldn't have time to use your ability. That makes sense, right, Chuuya?"

Chuuya grit his teeth as he glared at Shirase. "What are you doing?"

"It's no use struggling," Shirase remarked. "I rubbed rat poison on the blade. You'll go numb soon and you won't be able move. It's only because you're so damn powerful. Otherwise we wouldn't have had to do it this way!"

From behind Shirase, armed soldiers popped out of the bushes. Chuuya counted seven of the men and he realized that he was in a really bad position. Then the members of the Sheep came forward beside the armed men and Chuuya felt the betrayal sink in.

"All of you?!" Chuuya cried, sweat dripping from his temple.

"This is the answer we agreed on," Shirase spoke as he glared down at Chuuya. "We're teaming up with the GSS. We all came to realize the terrible truth- that if you were really gonna join the Port Mafia, it'd end up getting each and every one of us killed!"

"I would never betray the organization!" Chuuya cried out before wincing in pain.

Shirase simply ignored his former friend. "The GSS doesn't change its alliances on a whim like you do. They can be trusted as long as they make money. This is the smartest thing that we can do! It's the best way to wipe out the Port Mafia!"

Chuuya thought back to what Sayuri had said to him. He should've taken her advice and just walked away when he had the chance. But these were his friends. His family. At least he had thought so.

Tears pooled in the ginger's eyes as he stared at the ground. He felt more alone than he had ever felt before. "It looks like... I was just a fool."

He activated his ability, increasing his own gravitational pull against the earth which broke the ground beneath him. He went sliding down the side of the cliff towards the sea as the GSS members opened fire, trying to finish him off.