Walking In Your Fleeting World || Dazai Osamu

Chapter-51: The days continue in a blur

I'm Not Asking

-Neutral POV-

"Hai, hai!"

Dazai clicks out of the call before Riki can say another word. It's obvious what she'll say anyway. "Don't kill!" "You promised you won't kill!" "If you go against your words, I won't love you anymore!"... well, maybe not the last one, but sentences that basically mean such, right?

Good grief, she's always so paranoid. What makes her think he'd go against his words and kill someone? Is he that violent in her eyes? Preposterous! If anything, he's the least violent mafioso she knows of!

A bitter sigh escapes his lips as he looks down at the scene. He's where Riki was moments ago, neutralizing the rearguard of the military convoy. He has to clean up the scene so traces of Riki cannot be detected— and plant evidence that points to Kanda Fumio. Seems pretty simple, right? Standard procedure, he can trust his subordinates to handle it while he sits inside his car, fighting the cold of mid-February.

Well, not exactly.

The scene is a total disaster. Fuel is scattered all over the asphalt, glinting under the streetlight. The first thing an investigator would ask here is: Where did the fuel come from? They'd check the tank, and there would be no hole or damage that could explain the mysterious fuel leak. And this is just the beginning.

Riki was in a hurry, so obviously, like any simpleton trying to do something within a time limit, she became extremely careless. She stepped onto the fuel, leaving footprints all over. Now, footprints in crime scenes are like hitting a jackpot. It can tell a lot of things: sex, height, weight, entry point, exit point, number of attackers... basically enough information to create a criminal profile. In addition to that, Riki's fuel-soaked footprint cleanly disappears four steps away from the scene. Unless the investigator is an idiot, they'd assume there's some sort of ability that made the attacker vanish suddenly. Meaning the case would officially become the SDUP's interest.

Next are the darts poking out of her victims' bodies. The angle, the trajectory of the shot, and how haphazardly she aimed and shot clearly give away her inexperience. And the victims aren't dead, so they will wake up and testify. Her fast reloading, dodging of the bullets... It's enough to assume she had a speed ability. And who else in Yokohama has a speed ability?

In other words, Riki has gifted him a rather cluttered canvas to draw on. If he weren't so skilled with the brush, he'd think the mission is a lost cause and drop an ignited matchstick onto the fuel.

What? It's not him being violent! He's being efficient here. Just think about it. Riki was mostly transparent. Whatever visibility she had to these men inside the minivan is insignificant. All he needed to do was pluck out the darts, and there would've been no evidence that Riki was ever here. The cameras on this street don't work since evening. Sure, there's a chance the military would guess what caused the fire, but that wouldn't prove anything. It's a strategically foolproof plan, not violent.

But she just had to figure it out...

"Let's get to work, gentlemen," He mutters quietly, pocketing his hands.

His command mobilizes the three men standing behind him. His trusted enforcers. Have been with him since day one as an executive. They follow him around almost all the time, so they know one or two things about dealing with situations that involve Riki.

Take last night's event, for example.

One of the enforcers wiggles under the car with a toolbox. He has to create a clean hole in the tank so nobody becomes suspicious about the mysterious fuel leak. Another gets busy wiping Riki's footprints, replacing them with new ones that resemble a grown man's. The other is tasked with extracting the darts and disposing of them, including the gun. Then, plant a burner phone with manipulated call logs and fabricated messages that implicate Kanda Fumio.