01000100 01100001 01110010 01101011 00100000 01100101 01110010 01100001

Chapter 2 part 3

Does the leader know about this?"

"It's already been reported to him," Dazai's replies with a helpless expression, "In the end, I was appointed as the battle strategist and frontline commander to tackle Mimic. I've already settled some matters and set up a few simple mousetraps. It shouldn't be long until the war begins to show signs of activity.

Mimic went through all the trouble to steal weapons and plan a trap - they wouldn't just leave with a tip of their hat and a 'Good work.'. As Dazai says, there will be a war, and the scale of it will be even greater.

"But the root of all questions is," I pause, "Shouldn't the government bodies have investigated and acted against a gifted criminal organization like Mimic?"

There are many people gifted with abilities in this world. Dazai and I are two of those people. The kinds of abilities differ from person to person, but there are a proportion of ability users with highly lethal abilities as well.

To secretly monitor such dangerous ability users, the government specially set up a department that works day and night. Of course, these government agents are all ability users, a force to be reckoned with.

"Are you referring to the Ministry of Home Affairs' 'Special Ability Department'?" Dazai tilts his head. "The problem is that the Special Ability Department is a secret organisation that rarely shows its face. On that note, the Port Mafia would also one hundred percent be classified as a gifted criminal organisation. For all we know, wouldn't they think that having the Port Mafia and Mimic to kill each other off is a great opportunity, while they sit on the sidelines to watch?

It is as Dazai says. If the Special Ability Department committed themselves to taking out gifted criminal organisations, they would be coming for the mafia first.

Ango once mentioned that the Special Ability Department does have very powerful gifted government agents, but because their policy is to have only a few elites, if they were to enter an all-out war with the Port Mafia, their forces will not succeed unscathed. The Special Ability Department will also suffer casualties. To avoid such a situation, they have kept to monitoring the Port Mafia's activities and avoid head-on clashes. Of course, if regular citizens get hurt, they will act as necessary.

I still have one more unspeakable question.

"What about Ango?"

Dazai doesn't reply immediately, silently sipping freshly brewed coffee. Dazai needs some time to prepare for this question.

"We can pretty much say for certain that the code to the weapons store was leaked out through Ango." Dazai says quietly, gaze remaining on the coffee mug. He eyes me for a moment, as though trying to read my expression.

I don't say a word.

"To avoid internal conflict in the organisation, individual codes are given out. And then-"

"When Mimic raided the store, the code they used was the same as Ango's code, right?"

I cross my arms. The missing pieces of the puzzle are slowly starting to fall together, revealing something I couldn't even begin to imagine.

"Hey, Dazai." I take a seat beside Dazai. In that moment, it felt like I was sitting in the bar with Ango when it was the three of us drinking together, as though nothing had changed. "Is there any possibility that someone is playing the situation to set Ango up?"

"The percentage isn't zero. That sort of possibility always exists," Dazai replies, although his tone suggests that he doesn't believe his own words. "If someone within the mafia joined forces with Mimic, it might be possible. But I can't think of anyone else who would stand to gain from doing that."

Dazai shakes his head. As for myself, I am of a similar opinion.

The only thing we can do is to find Ango as soon as possible and ask for the truth. We have no way of predicting if this will end well or not.

The mafia's intelligence agent - Sakaguchi Ango.

Why would Ango want to betray the organisation?

During former intelligence wars, in order to get a member of the enemy organisation to betray them, money, sex, family, self-esteem, a sense of belonging could all become an obstacle. As long as all of these are struck down, the other party would agree to defect. So what is Ango's reason for defecting and seeking refuge with Mimic?

To find the answer, I look beside me at Dazai.

Dazai continues to keep his head low, in deep thought. His expression-

Dazai is-

"-Hahaha!"

Laughing.

"I initially thought it was just a normal criminal organisation - but if it's an organisation that Ango would seek refuge in, that means they're not the sort of people to come crying and begging for forgiveness after a little lecture. On top of that, Ango as an enemy won't be an easy adversary, not at all. Isn't this exciting? It'll definitely force me into desperation, and then-"

"Dazai!"

Hearing my call, Dazai stops talking. It's not that I want to say something, but just to get him to quit it.

There is no one who knows Dazai's inner self.

In the mafia, no one will look at what's in their colleagues. This is an unspoken rule. They will not open up the lid over one's chest to look at their heart and comment at the darkness stuffed within. This is a merit of the mafia.

But maybe that is wrong. At least it is for the man sitting beside me. Perhaps someone should persistently tie Dazai up, open the lid over his chest and stuff the head of a vacuum cleaner in. They have to let Dazai, who should be screaming in pain and resisting, settle down. Following which, the difficult things in his heart must all be dragged out under the sun and stepped on mercilessly.

However, there isn't a vacuum cleaner like that, neither is there something like a lid over one's chest, much less a person like that. Everything only exists as shapes that one's eyes can see, simply brushing past us.

The only thing mankind can do is to silently stand before the ravines between others.

"Then, I should be heading off." Dazai stands as he finishes.

"Dazai!"

I speak towards Dazai's back. Dazai turns his head.

I rub my hands together, gaze falling upon the empty plate and coffee mug, before raising it again, and say, "For you to think that way, is it because-"

Just as I am getting to it, Dazai's phone suddenly rings.

Dazai apologises softly and raises the phone to his ear, "It's me."

After a long while of Dazai listening to the voice from the phone, he suddenly smiles. With a reply of "Understood", he hangs up the phone and turns to me.

"The mouse has fallen into the trap."