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Chapter 1

The Port Mafia has three rules. In order of importance, they are "Always obey the Leader's commands", "Do not betray the organization", and "Attacks received must be returned doubly".
Which is why when I receive a summoning call from the leader that morning while brewing coffee, the bread in my mouth dropped to the ground.
The request from the phone is emotionless, "Sakunosuke Oda, the leader is looking for you." In that moment, three words came to my mind: "used up", "useless goods", and "personnel adjustments". Holding the receiver, my fingertips go numb from the cold.
Hanging up the phone, I swiftly stuff the bread into my mouth. I cut the Canadian bacon and American fried eggs into three equal portions and hastily swallow them into my belly. I pour the freshly brewed coffee into a mug, add sugar and evaporated milk.
While hurriedly changing into a shirt, I finish the very hot coffee in one gulp. The scalding hot water burns my brain, and I momentarily forget any foolish ideas of fleeing Yokohama towards an unknown land. Shave my beard, put on trousers. Fastened leather straps upon my shoulders. Secured 9mm pistols into both left and right holsters. Slipped on a jacket and headed out of the door.
I drive at full speed towards the firm. I don't have any strong recollection of what happened on the way. I only remember speeding over the highway limit twice or thrice.
I make it to the office alive. Walking into the main lobby, I greet my colleagues on guard and squeeze into the elevator heading for the top floor. Be it the European-decorated luxury hotel lobby or the swift moving elevator, everything is spotless with no trace of fingerprints.
The mafia's headquarters sits in the heart of Yokohoma's city center. There are four other similarly sized office buildings. Looking out from the glass elevator, the entire city is within view. Skyscrapers taller than oneself sink until they become nothing before my eyes. The elevator continues to ascend.
Watching the office buildings beneath my feet bathed in the golden morning light, I wonder why the leader summoned for me.
Thinking about calmly, if it was just to "handle" a lower ranked staff, there wouldn't be a need to call me to his office on the topmost floor. If he wanted to silence his subordinate permanently, he only needed to call me to a landfill, kill me, and hand it over to cleaners to handle the rest. This way, it saves money and effort. Compared to the previous leaders of the Port Mafia, the current leader is more logical, especially when it comes to protecting the environment.
If that is the case, why would the leader call for me, a nameless pawn?
The elevator doors open suddenly, interrupting my train of thought. Walking out of the elevator, the wide corridors are lined with carpets that can muffle the sound of footsteps and walls sturdy enough to withstand rocket propelled grenades. Cove lights illuminate the entire corridor, immersing it in a soft, pure whiteness, making it such that people cannot discern the light's presence.
Upon reporting my name to the suited guard standing outside the office, he raises his finger and points to the door behind him.
Standing before the double glass doors,I lower my head and inspect my outfit, touching my cleanly shaven jaw. Clearing my throat, as though delivering a sermon in a church of God, I declare, "Leader. It's Oda, I'm coming in."
"Come, Elise, how about you wear this dress? Just for a bit, for a little while! Just for a second!"
...Suspicious words come from within the office.
I wait three seconds, adjust my breathing, pretending as though I heard nothing. "Leader. It's Oda, I'm coming in."
"Aaa, good, just like that, take off your clothes. Don't drop them on the ground, that's an expensive dress.
...I hear some unsettling words. Hesitating for a moment, I decide that I should play an ignorant subordinate who chose to open the door at the wrong time.
"Pardon me."
I push open the twin doors and the spacious offfice opens before my eyes, as well as two people chasing one another. One is a middle aged man dressed in white, the other, a girl around ten years of age. The girl is half naked, whereas this middle aged male is the leader of the Port Mafia.
"No, no way!"
"Please, Elise-chan, try it on, alright? I picked this one out super carefully. Look at the beautiful deep red floral pattern! They're like a beautiful bouquet, they'd definitely suit you!"
"It's not pretty dresses I hate but Rintarou's desperation!"
"This doesn't come by often, okay? Look, I've caught you now!"
"Leader."
Hearing my voice, the two people turn their heads, smiles from before frozen on their faces, unmoving.
"As per your instruction, I am here to receive orders. Do you have something important for me?"
The leader's smile doesn't fade, intently staring at me. It is the gaze of a person begging for help. Begging me for help will only make things difficult for me, though.
"May I ask if you have something important, leader?"
"Ah... that..."
The leader's gaze flicks from the tables, lights on the ceiling, paintings, candlesticks, and finally comes back to rest on the young girl beside him, "What's the matter?"
"I don't know."
The girl named "Elise" glares at the leader like she's seen trash on the streets, opening a door to the adjacent room and walking in, leaving me at my original position to await my next orders.
The leader surveys the surroundings again before he moves behind the desk in the center of the office and presses a button. Glass windows displaying a endless view of Yokohoma is hidden instantly, turning into a grey wall. The interior of the room darkens considerably. Just as the leader takes a seat in the leather office chair, two guards appear from nowhere, wordlessly standing behind the boss. The lamp on the mahogany table illuminates the leader's face - his narrow eyes, slightly knitted eyebrows, elbows on the table, arms crossed. He speaks with a low but penetrating voice.
"-Now then..."
"Yes."
"Oda-kun, I didn't call you over for anything else." The leader's sharp gaze cuts through the darkness.
"Yes."
"...Oda-kun." The leader pauses, before continuing, "Has anyone ever told you to 'ridicule others more'?"*
How does the leader know about this? "It happens often." My gaze falls on the two suited guards behind the leader, searching for a reason. My colleagues stand staunchly, expressionless, deliberately avoiding my confused gaze.
"Regardless , you have just entered and saw nothing. Understood?"
"Understood." I nod. Indeed, I just entered, and saw nothing. "I entered not too long ago. Leader, you stopped your dress-up chasing game with a young girl to talk business with me, for which I am eternally grateful. What important business do you have for me?"The leader pinches between his eyebrows, deep in thought. As though having thought something through, he nods, "Executive Dazai once told me, "Odasaku is a man who says what he means. Although hard to get along with at the beginning, but once you get used to him, he has the power to heal." ...I'm starting to understand what he meant."
This is the first time I've heard such a comment. Although, it is Dazai - he must be talking nonsense. I'm already over 20, how can I heal others?
The leader clears his throat, as though snuffing out the happy atmosphere. "Now then, back to business proper."
He picks up a silver cigar box on the table, looking it over, then extracting a cigar from within to toy with. He doesn't light it.
"I'd like you to look for someone."
"Look for someone?" I let these words linger in my mind for a long time. I'm lucky he doesn't want me to die on the spot, however, it is still too early to be relieved. "Please let me ascertain a few matters. Leader, you summoned me here to personally make this request, which means the person to be found is no ordinary man. Will it be enough to entrust success of such a task to an ordinary member like me?"
"That's a very good question," the leader smiles slightly. "Someone of your rank would normally be on the frontlines of battle to be a human shield or tasked with the job of charging into a military police station armed with a bomb. However, from the remarks I've heard of you, I thought I should let you take this job."
Upon finishing, he places the cigar back into the cigar box, pulling back his bangs.
"Because the one who has gone missing is intelligence agent Sakaguchi Ango."
If there was someone who could look into my heart, they would be lucky to see the image of a majestic, erupting volcano. Countless question marks burst forth from the volcano's mouth, filling the air.
In reality, I curl my fingers a little.
"How calm. If you were panicked beyond belief, I'd have been worried that you wouldn't be suitable to look for the missing person... Not bad. Let me explain. Ango has been uncontactable since last night. There have been no signs that he returned home. It's not clear if he disappeared of his own accord or was abducted by someone."
That means Ango disappeared last night after he bade us farewell at the bar. He wasn't acting suspiciously at the bar, at least.
At that time, Ango had definitely said he wanted to go home.
If he had been lying, Dazai or I would have noticed. We probably would have noticed.
"As you know, Ango is the mafia's intelligence agent," the leader sighs worriedly. His worry for a missing subordinate's safety is written plainly across his face. At least, that is how I see it. "His head is filled with various highly classified information about the mafia, such as our bill management, our annual corporation expenses, namelists of our corporate managers, contacts of our regular good smugglers. Selling this information to other organisations would indeed amount to a grand sum. He could completely expose our Achilles heel and make us suffer. Even if we ignore these possibilities, Ango is my most important and esteemed subordinates. If anything happens to him, I definitely wish to help him - can you understand my feelings?"