The Identity of Tachihara Michizou

Question

The manager of the casino had refused to shut it down. Tachihara sends him his silent condolences as they leave the room, slightly disturbed at the peace right there and then.

The calm before the storm.

Long story short, Teruko blew up the entrance after that.

Tachihara makes a mental note not to be around later when she unleashes her wrath on the poor manager. They split up to find the terrorists, and to find out their next motive too.

He can't wrap his head around the fact why the Boss so strongly believed that the Armed Detective Agency was innocent. It was really strange. True, they had the whole truce and all, but Mori Ougai wasn't the type of person who just trusted his gut feeling. There had to be something different.

Tachihara abruptly stops his thoughts, sensing an all too familiar path he was going down again. A sigh escapes him.

How many times have I questioned the Boss's intentions? Gramps told me multiple times already not to do that.

"That's the law of the mafia," he quietly chides himself for forgetting that again. "We just have to act."

It takes a few seconds for what he'd just said to sink in.

Tachihara can't do it. He can't close his eyes without seeing them, lying limp and bloody and unconscious, by the work of his own hands. There's just so much guilt and remorse and shame and responsibility and-what is he supposed to feel?

It reminds him of when he was younger, fresh from hearing news of his brother's death. He couldn't do anything back then. What about now? Would he always stay the helpless younger brother, unable to prevent all these horrible things?

It doesn't matter. Tachihara is all grown up, now. Right? He is a strong Hunting Dog now. He simply can't waste his time dwelling on weaknesses.

Hey, big brother. Would you have done it any better?

Because Tachihara doesn't know. He'd ended up caring for the Port Mafia, a grave mistake for any infiltrator, really. He's grown far too attached. To Hirotsu. To Gin. No matter how much he tries to forget them, tell himself that those emotions were faked, he can't truly do it.

He had meant for that time to be his last.

A final goodbye.

"Duty first."

The whisper curls around his mind as he races to the hospital, a warning from himself as a hunting dog. But Tachihara just runs to their ward, slamming the door open.

He knows the wounds he gave them were shallow, but nevertheless, a wave of relief crashes into him so hard, like a tidal wave, when he sees them alive, staring back at him.

"So you're safe too...Tachihara."

The words drop onto him like a ton of bricks that he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at their state.

He's sorry, he's sorry, he's so sorry but duty came first but he's sorry anyway.

All those Mafia years seemed so far away, and Tachihara wishes, almost guiltily, that they could be real right now. That none of this is pretend. Because everything with them was just pretense, and he's a fraud that shouldn't deserve their sympathy.

They don't know who he is.

And he doesn't quite know, either. Not anymore.

"Do you think the agency members are really terrorists?" He asks just before he leaves. An image of Yosano surfaces into his brain, apologising for his brother's death. Tachihara grits his teeth. Why was this all so complicated?

His comrades, however, think otherwise.

"It's absolutely impossible for that detective agency to be terrorists."

Maybe he just didn't want to admit it to himself. Maybe his grudge had just blinded him, or that he had just acted without thinking clearly, but the answer suddenly became so clear. The answer was right before his eyes.

Realisation strikes him as he returns from his thoughts back into the casino, and Tachihara's eyes slightly widen. What was he even doing? There had to be a greater mastermind behind all this, and he had to find it before everything went downhill.

---

Everything did, in fact, go downhill.

Vampires. An infection-type ability. It all happens too fast. Higuchi. Then Gin. Then Hirotsu, who saves Tachihara in the nick of time, which was the sole reason why he'd been able to attend the Hunting Dogs meeting one day after.

He constantly steals glances at his captain, who sits in silence. It sort of reminds him of the Boss, which then makes him remember what had happened earlier too.

Even now, he still could remember the creeping chill down his spine when the words were spoken.

"You dropped this, Tachihara."

Tachihara swears his heart almost stops and plummets to the floor. The shiver down his back was ice-cold as he turns to look at Mori. It would have been pretty obvious and self-explanatory if he had died right there and then by his hand. But a few seconds pass, and Tachihara finds himself still standing. Odd.

His boss then tells him everything. How he'd known Tachihara's betrayal from Yosano, how the detective agency was innocent, and how Fukuchi Ouchi was the leader of the Decay of Angels.

After he finishes explaining, Mori smiles at him. Then he gives Tachihara, still wide-eyed in shock, an order.

Destroy the enemy of the world.