In Memory of a Dark Era

A Suicide Invitation

You continued to follow Dazai's humming figure in silence. He probably felt victorious after not receiving a reply to which you absolutely didn't mind. It was better than retaliating and having him raise your temperature another 10 degrees.

Not like anything you'd say would be successful in changing his stubborn opinion. He'll only weaken every well-crafted lie you'd make, so for the sake of keeping your feelings at bay and the safety of your frantically beating heart, silence was just right.

After a short while of nothing but Dazai's strangely calming melody, you worked up the courage to ask what you had been wondering about for quite some time, "if you don't mind me asking, why would Mori commission such a bold move against the Armed Detective Agency?"

"Since you can't tell me about the future, I guess you heard about that?"

"Yes."

Revealing the future to Dazai was something you couldn't say even if you wanted to whisper it to yourself. You just couldn't utter a word, your voice seemed to be trapped whenever he tested you to authenticate your claim on being from the future. It was a relief that he was bright enough to believe your disability, otherwise you'd have been subjected to all degrees of mental torture.

"Even he can be unpredictable to me," Dazai admitted in an indifferent tone.

There had to be a clear answer.

Even if the Mafia was brutal and operated illegally, it still steered clear from any actions that would have them tangled up with the ADA or their superiors.

The answer prevailed immediately to your memory when Dazai chose to voice his thoughts: "I believe it has to do with Arata, himself. As far as I know, Mori doesn't hold a high regard towards that executive or his mutated army."

You recalled that Mori had the Mafia signed off as an official special abilities organisation after some time had passed since the end of Arata.

It makes sense now.

Of course, Mori would work up a sweat to convince the Special Abilities Department that his organisation is worthy of being an official one, but Arata, with his abnormally strong mutants, was a nuisance. The department would see them as a threat and most readily reject Mori's request, so he must be cutting off the bad roots by sending Arata and his Mafiosi to their doom.

Though attacking the ADA will never happen, a long forgotten enemy of Arata's will abide by Mori's wishes and end the executive and his members.

You couldn't believe that with or without the flames of that day, your fellow Mafia members as well as yourself would be caught up in a big storm.

Head hung low in despair, you had nothing in mind but resentment.

For a moment, you had hope to change the future somehow by alerting Arata or one of his attentive followers about the incoming attack. That you could save if not all, at least some of the people you had tampered with, but it seems that fate can't be changed.

You hadn't even thought much about the agency's safety, all you cared about was saving him and the others.

"What's with the long face?"

"Just," you turned away from Dazai's prying eyes and cleared your throat to get rid of the sentiments. "Just thinking about this riddle."

"A riddle?"

"The man who brought me back here said something about reality rejecting the presence of two of the same soul existing in the same place and time. So, in response to that, life would erase one of them," you massaged your temple as the words of that man became clearer. "Then, he said something along these lines: eliminate one for the other."

"If I didn't know any better, that seems like an obvious invitation to suicide."