Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume SS - Chapter 1.5

Looking the Gift Tiger in the Mouth - 5

“Huh…?” Atsushi mumbled absent-mindedly as he got up. “I…”

After blinking several times, he slowly surveyed his surroundings. Although it took him a few moments, he soon remembered that he was in a warehouse at the wharf. Looking down at him were Dazai, Kunikida, and…a teenage boy he had never seen before, squatting by his side and staring at him with curiosity. He also noticed an unfamiliar woman and a man wearing a newsboy cap next to Dazai and Kunikida.

When Atsushi looked around in bewilderment, he noticed wooden crates and boxes that had been viciously shredded and scattered about. There were claw marks on the floor and walls as well. The sight was startling, to say the least.

This had to be the work of that tiger. That was the only explanation.

But when did all this happen? How long was I unconscious? The last thing I remember was waiting for the tiger while Dazai was reading a book in the dark, and he and I talked for a bit. That’s about it. I can’t even remember what we were talking about… I think it was just some random chitchat. What happened after that, though?

Dazai suddenly approached Atsushi in the midst of his bewilderment.

“Atsushi, do you remember anything about when you transformed?”

“…What are you talking about?”

“Oh, hey. Your right hand still hasn’t changed back yet.” Dazai pointed at Atsushi’s arm.

“…My right hand?”

Atsushi shifted his gaze to his soft, fluffy hand. He moved it around a bit, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Wait… Fluffy…?

“Whaaaaaa—?!”

Atsushi couldn’t stop himself from shouting as he threw his head back.

For some reason, his right hand was covered in soft, snow-white fur with black stripes, and he even had squishy pink “beans” where his palm should be. It was as if he was wearing some sort of glove.

“Ahhhhhh! What is this?! What’s going on?!”

Atsushi shook his right hand in a fluster, but no matter how hard he tugged on it, all he felt was the intense pain of his hand about to be ripped off. It was clearly a feline paw, no matter how you looked at it…although it was far too big to belong to a regular house cat. Not to mention, no ordinary house cat’s claws would look this sharp.

It was a tiger’s paw. That much was obvious.

“Wh-wh-what the heck is happening?!”

Atsushi was distraught. Was his hand going to be like this for the rest of his life? Was he going to have to live with this fluffy, soft hand?

Th-this can’t be real!

“Atsushi Nakajima!”

He jumped when someone suddenly called his name, then timidly shifted his tear-filled eyes to Dazai. And Dazai wasn’t the only person staring at Atsushi—everyone there was looking at him.

Dazai flashed a brazen smile at Atsushi’s puzzled expression and declared:

“From today forward, you’re one of us!”

Atsushi stared in bewilderment.

“You’re a member of the Armed Detective Agency,” Dazai added. His tone had somewhat mellowed, and there was a warmth in his eyes.

A member of the Armed Detective Agency…

Kenji was grinning, Kunikida was scratching his head in annoyance, and Yosano and Ranpo both looked like they wanted to roll their eyes.

“………Sorry?”

Atsushi cocked his head all the way to one side and knitted his brow.

What in the world is going on?

Only one thing was clear: Whatever had happened, it had already ended by the time he woke up.

I honestly thought I was going to starve to death until I found Dazai floating down the river. Next thing I know, I was being treated to all the tea over rice I could eat. Then Dazai and Kunikida turned out to be members of the Armed Detective Agency, and they coerced me into helping them find that tiger.

And yet I went to that warehouse fully prepared to be tiger bait.

Life is nothing more than a series of unforeseen occurrences. You might think you had it bad only to realize later that it was actually a stroke of good fortune. On the other hand, something might seem like a blessing at first but end up turning into a nightmare. It’s reminiscent of the parable “The Old Man Who Lost His Horse” or the saying “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”—although tiger would be more fitting in this case. You can’t always tell how things will shake out.

But perhaps this particular series of coincidences was actually calculated and all part of somebody’s plan.

The pale moonlight from the window illuminated Dazai’s face, his hands still in his pockets, while he looked down at Atsushi’s uneasy expression. The detective curled his lips into a cryptic smile, just like he had back at the riverbank.