[BSDOC] Can't See In The Dark (ENG)

Chapter 6 - Before the Storm

Michiko sat at her desk. Her gaze was fixed on the laptop screen all the time, her palm resting on the computer mouse. Her hoodie was hanging on the arm of the chair and the pistol holster she always kept close at hand was now safely stored in the top drawer. It was useless for office work after all.The circles under her eyes had deepened since yesterday, and she kept her lids open only by force of will. After everything that happened with the Port Mafia, she couldn't really concentrate. They even called an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the upcoming threat, throwing the agency into chaos. As soon as they left the meeting, Kunikida began making preparations to limit the possible damage that could happen in two days. Michiko had never seen him so determined.

With all this, she barely had the time and especially the desire to deal with ordinary reports. Because of that, she only finished the report on yesterday's robbery at the last minute and worked on the documents she promised to finish for Ranpo through the night. She had placed them on his desk early in the morning and since then she had been trying to find information that could be useful to them in protecting Atsushi.

She silently looked at Dazai, who was sitting across from her, humming while listing his way through his suicide manual. There was no one in the office except the two of them. The fact that she found him here at this time was also strange. Not that it would change his motivation to work.

However, unlike Kunikida, who was all tense and working more fervently than usual, Dazai's nonchalant attitude was comforting for some reason.

Sighing, she turned her gaze back to the monitor. Her eyes burned unbearably. She was sure that most of the coils in them were cracked. But the sad thing was that she slowly got used to it. After all, it wasn't the first time she didn't sleep all night. And probably not the last. The coils will soon regenerate so that they can crack again later. And so on.

"I wonder if Atsushi would turn himself in if he found out what the bounty was on him," she muttered more or less to herself as she clicked on the next bounty article. Unfortunately, she didn't find what she needed this time either. In the past hour, she found a number of similar messages, but none of them were about Atsushi. She had hoped that if the culprit posted it on the Internet, they could trace it to the source, but apparently it was an internal request directly from the mafia.

Dazai looked up from the page he was reading and looked at her in surprise. "Bounty hunters are very serious business, Ishihara-chan," he admonished, causing Michiko's cheeks to flush. He rose from his desk, walked over to her, and looked over the article she had just come across. He rested one palm on the top of her table, the other on the arm of the chair.It startled Michiko. "I-I know, I didn't mean it that way...!""When Atsushi-kun finds out about the reward, we will not only protect him from the mafia and other hunters, but also from himself. It's enough for him to hear what the amount is, and he'll catch his own tail to offer it on the black market," he interrupted her, but the corner of his mouth twitched into a smile. He probably just imagined it.

"Eh?" Michiko blinked a few times. So this was his problem?! She too had an image of a gray-haired youth with tiger ears chasing his own tail in circles. She tried her best not to laugh. "Sometimes I don't know if you helped that boy for his own good or as punishment, Dazai-kun," she pointed out.

"Of course I always have the good of others at heart, Ishihara-chan. And now that you'll excuse me, I have to go make some arrangements." He smiled at her and left the office with a brief wave."So much for his work commitment." Michiko leaned back with a sigh and resumed her search.

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When Michiko opened her eyes, the stinging subsided a bit, but her eyelids felt just as heavy as before. In addition, her shoulders were also suffering. She slowly raised her head.