Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume SS - Chapter 1.3

Looking the Gift Tiger in the Mouth - 3

Why me…?

Seated atop a wooden crate with his arms wrapped around his knees, Atsushi was at a loss. They were inside a warehouse on the corner of the wharf. Moonlight peeked in through the window, illuminating dust as it floated through the filthy air. A departing freight vessel’s steam whistle dully hummed in the background, slowly blending in with the waves until it could be heard no more. The breeze blowing through an opening in the building carried the soft scent of the ocean with it.

Dazai was also seated on a wooden crate a few feet away with his legs crossed while reading a book. He must have been really into whatever he was reading; he hadn’t said a word since they arrived. Meanwhile, Kunikida was nowhere in sight; he was most likely still on his way back to the Armed Detective Agency.

Dazai had brought Atsushi to this warehouse over an hour ago. Long gone was any sunlight. Apparently, Dazai was planning on ambushing and capturing the tiger here. Whatever he was trying to do, it was extremely reckless. Atsushi honestly didn’t think it was going to work. How exactly does someone catch a tiger anyway?

The only people here were Dazai and Atsushi. Dazai, a member of the Armed Detective Agency, may have been able to do something, but Atsushi couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag. Nevertheless, Dazai seemed to believe that the two of them alone could pull this off. Obviously, Atsushi wasn’t planning on ever going along with such a reckless, spur-of-the-moment idea, and yet…

He wasn’t blinded by money. Well, okay, maybe he was sort of blinded by money, but only a little bit.

Even if he ran away, the tiger would eventually find him. Furthermore, maybe Dazai and the agency really would be able to capture the tiger if Atsushi used himself as bait.

It was that glimpse of hope that led him here.

Dazai didn’t seem to be preparing to capture the tiger, though. He’d been sitting on that wooden crate and reading ever since they’d arrived. There was no way that book could be his weapon, although it did seem thick enough to maybe hurt somewhat if you hit someone on the head with it…

“…Dazai, what are you reading?” Atsushi hesitantly asked, feeling that talking would somewhat ease the fear and anxiety weighing him down. The silence was giving him too much time to think about the what-ifs.

Dazai, however, didn’t appear to be worried one bit.

“A good book” was all he said before instantly absorbing himself in his reading once more.

“I’m surprised you can read in the dark like this.”

Despite being used to the darkness, Atsushi could hardly see Dazai. He couldn’t even make out his expression.

* * *

“I have good eyesight. Besides, I can basically recite this book from memory by now.”

“…Then why are you even reading it?” Atsushi said with a wry smile.

“Good books are still good, no matter how many times you read them.”

Yet another dead-end reply followed by a long stream of silence.

“…Is the tiger really going to come all the way here?” Atsushi wondered aloud.

He stared at the floor and curled into himself even further. The tiger had been appearing wherever he went as if it was stalking him, but he wasn’t fully convinced it would conveniently show up tonight at this warehouse. Plus, there was a part of him that hoped nothing would happen, although it made him feel a little guilty since Dazai was earnestly trying to catch the tiger. However…

“It will,” Dazai insisted.

Atsushi twitched and let out a small yelp. He then lifted his head and slowly shifted his gaze toward the darkness; it felt like something was hiding there. His heart started to beat even louder and louder as if it were an alarm bell going off, warning him of danger.

I want to get out of here.

The feeling was overwhelming. Being in the darkness made him remember all the things he was trying to forget. He buried his face in his knees and shut his eyes.

I should’ve never agreed to do this.

“There’s nothing to worry about… The tiger won’t be able to get past me. I’m a member of the Armed Detective Agency for a reason,” Dazai assured him, nose still in his book as if he had too much free time on his hands.

How could he be so calm? This was a man-eating tiger they were up against. Although Dazai claimed he didn’t know if the tiger really had ever eaten anyone, it still seemed very likely that such a beast eventually would. Plus, it could be anywhere that very moment, lurking in the darkness and waiting for its chance to strike.

“I wish I could be as confident as you,” said Atsushi. “Everyone’s always told me that I was worthless…and look at me now. I have no idea where my next meal will come from…or my next bed…”

“Get out!”

“You do not belong in this world!”

The voices seared into his memory whispered into his ear. Atsushi lowered his gaze and clenched his knees even closer to his body with his trembling hands.

“I guess they were right. Nobody cares what happens to me. I might as well just let that tiger eat me…”

Nothing good has ever happened to me. That’s probably—no, that’s definitely not going to change, no matter how hard I try. Nothing ever goes right. Things just keep getting worse for me. Why am I—?

“All right, then… Should be any minute now.”

Atsushi jumped, startled by Dazai’s voice. Dazai looked up from his book for the first time since they arrived and stared into the darkness behind Atsushi. The cold wind eerily howled as it crept through the warehouse.

Dazai’s gaze was fixed on a large window. Atsushi timidly turned to look.

Clang! Something suddenly fell onto the ground.

“Huh?!” Atsushi yelped. “I j-just heard a noise back there!” he nervously stammered while frantically trying to get off the crate, only to tumble over and fall.

After hitting the floor, he rolled over onto his feet, then promptly turned his terrified gaze toward a corner of the warehouse. Faintly visible within the darkness were bags and crates stacked all the way to the ceiling, but there were no signs of anything moving. Only a chilling silence reigned over the ever-growing darkness.

“Yep…”

“It’s here, Dazai! I just know it!” Atsushi insisted. His face was tense, and his voice was cracking.

“…The wind probably knocked something over.”

“That man-eating tiger is gonna eat me alive!” he shouted, borderline hysterical. His eyes were frantically darting in every direction. He felt as if sweat were dripping out of every pore.

Dazai slammed his book shut, making Atsushi jump and instantly close his mouth.

“Relax, Atsushi. The tiger isn’t going to randomly emerge from the shadows.”

Dazai faintly sighed. He was still calm even now.

“How do you know that?!” shouted an irritated Atsushi.

It was Dazai himself who clearly said the tiger would be here, and it was most likely already in the warehouse somewhere. Plus, it always seemed to appear randomly from the shadows without Atsushi ever noticing. And yet…

“It didn’t make any sense to start with,” said Dazai.

“…Huh?”

Atsushi, his face stiff, looked up at Dazai, who was still sitting on the crate. But before he could ask him to clarify, Dazai continued in his usual matter-of-fact tone.

“Poor finances or not, would an orphanage really dump its charges on the street, like a family of starving farmers from times past? Besides, kicking out a couple of children would hardly help their financial situation. They’d have to send at least half of their charges to another facility if things were truly that bad.”

He gently hopped off the wooden crate with the book in his hand.

“Wh-what are you trying to say, Dazai…?” Atsushi asked, clearly bewildered.

We have to run.

We have to get out of here.

The tiger’s gonna kill us both at this rate. There’s nowhere to hide inside this cramped warehouse.

Dazai faced Atsushi with a cold glow in his eyes, his expression unmoving. Atsushi flinched and took a small step back.

Clatter.

He stepped on something and froze, then slowly lowered his frightened gaze. Stretching across the floor were the shadows of the window frame behind him and of himself. Maybe his shadow looked as dark and as tall as it did because of the intense moonlight peeking in through the glass.

“You arrived in this city two weeks ago. The tiger first appeared in this city two weeks ago as well,” Dazai quietly explained. His voice sounded like a distant dream to Atsushi, who was slowly looking back at the light as if it was drawing him in.

“You were by the Tsurumi River four days ago, which is exactly when the tiger was seen there.”

Only the pale glow of the moon reflected in his eyes.

Oh yeah, thought Atsushi as he recalled that night. The moon was quietly peering out from the darkness that evening as well. He’d looked up at its pale light in a daze. He had nowhere to go. He didn’t know what to do. All he felt was loneliness and anxiety.

That was when the tiger appeared.

“Do you remember what Kunikida said? The Armed Detective Agency is made up of people with unusual abilities.”

Unusual abilities.

Atsushi’s heartbeat grew louder, his pulse got faster, and he could no longer even move. His eyes opened wide.

The storehouse ravaged by the tiger…

The blood and feathers scattered about the chicken coop…

The remains of devoured crops…

His mind flashed back to the memories of his final days at the orphanage. He could still see the staff’s cold gazes and hear their furious shouting.

“Ah… Ahhh…!!”

Atsushi groaned and leaned forward slightly.

The golden eyes reflected in that rusty mirror suddenly crossed his mind. Then he was reminded of when he saw the tiger in the river’s reflection.

No, this had to be some sort of mistake. That was—

“Ahhhhhh!!”

A powerful roar escaped the depths of his throat as he covered his face with both hands.

“Though hardly public knowledge,” Dazai continued, still staring right into Atsushi’s eyes, “some people in this world possess otherworldly skills.”

“Ahhhhhhhhh!!”

Atsushi hunched over and roared with every fiber of his being, shaking the glass windows.

Fissures ran down his body as a pale light began to escape from within him. It instantly lit up the warehouse, flickering while it engulfed Atsushi.

“GAAAOOOOO!!”

However, Atsushi himself didn’t notice that his echoing roars were no longer human but that of a beast. Unbeknownst to him, the last vestiges of his awareness were being dragged into the abyss of darkness.