Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume SS1 - Chapter 3.5

INTERLUDE

The Lower Realms / Darkness / The Witching Hour

A crested ibis cawed.

It was an empty abyss, void of all light. Kyougoku awoke in a space outside space in a time outside time. He was awake in a slumber and conscious while unconscious as bubble-like thoughts eventually formed his silhouette.

A crested ibis cawed, followed by the roar of a beast.

Kyougoku stirred. No, he did not even move.

His actions were not actions, for nothing existed in this world. He pondered while well aware that he was not able to think. A thought without a brain. Self-contemplation without thought. I think, and yet I am not—Kyougoku bitterly smirked at the contradictions and fallacies while he sat up.

This place was akin to a womb. Dark, noisy, and the line between one second and the next blurred. The boundary between what was inside his body and outside was ambiguous as well.

Then again, perhaps the darkness was his own thoughts.

The skill user Kyougoku was once a man of many personas. To some, he was an eccentric old geezer who lived in a shack in the countryside. To others, he was a well-read, kind-natured elderly gentleman. At times, he was a climate researcher. He’d even been briefly hired by the government to solve puzzles or riddles.

However, there was one persona Kyougoku loved most of all.

The Sorcerer.

A cunning, wicked man who played with the lives of others and made a mockery of their entire being as he utilized his skill and conspiracies to toy with the world.

He was called evil and targeted by government organizations, which proved to be somewhat troublesome due to their sheer scale. However, it was society’s job to squash any villain who overstood their stay. Just like how the human body’s immune system would remove foreign objects, man would try to remove evil from society as well. Therefore, it would be far simpler to live quietly while being called an eccentric, mysterious man than be called evil for murdering someone. There wouldn’t be much of a price to pay, either.

Nevertheless, Kyougoku was unable to do that, and he chose to become this evil.

Do no evil, Kyougoku thought. Obviously, it was not something to strive for. But why? Because it meant punishment? Or because people would despise you? Or perhaps because you would be condemned in a court of law?

…No—it was the other way around. Evil was wrong; therefore, evil must be punished.

But why was it wrong?

Kyougoku knew the answer to that as well: because evil was the quickest way to profit. In other words, it was robbing someone else for one’s own benefit.

Theft, using one’s position to accept a bribe, killing people who got in the way—the essence of evil was not creating something oneself but stealing that something from others.

For example, what would happen if you gathered a hundred people who believed that stealing was the quickest way to get something, then had them build a village? The answer was simple. The village would be in ruins within a couple of weeks.

Nobody would plow any fields. Nobody would build any houses. In a village where everyone was simply trying to steal the work of others for personal gain, there would be neither progress nor development. Violence would rule all until the chaos spread throughout the entire community, creating a hell on earth.

That was why evil was the bane of society. Society did not prohibit murder because of fear or disgust. Society prohibited murder because the price to pay to protect a system where murder was normalized would be far too much, and the system itself would come crumbling down.

In essence, both punishment and ethics were logical mechanisms for reducing continuous costs. Thus, evil was selfishness. It was prioritizing oneself over others, and that was why it must be eliminated from society. It was why there had to be a threat of punishment for selfishness, and yet being selfish was instinctual for mankind as well.

People would do anything to protect themselves and the ones they loved, even if they were up against the entire world and many people would die. That was what it meant to be human.

Therefore, removing evil was no different from removing what made humankind human, was it not?

Kyougoku shifted around and softly coughed.

Upon reflection, I must wonder—am I evil?

He pondered. Was he selfish? Did he prioritize himself over others?

No. He had never done such a thing. Kyougoku always made himself second or even third priority. Although he instinctively did the bare minimum necessary for self-preservation, nothing he had done was ever to rob others of what they had earned for themselves. While some may have considered Kyougoku a psychopath who enjoyed having control over others for his own amusement, their assumption was incorrect. His actions were always altruistic.

In fact, he had never killed for his own benefit.

The deaths that followed Kyougoku were always the result of someone else killing others. Although evil was in his shadow, Kyougoku himself always maintained his integrity even within the eye of the storm. The only time he became selfish was when he was threatened.

Kyougoku thought back to his first and most selfish act. He had been in utero.

He could still vividly remember the darkness and the warmth, the snugness and the softness. Kyougoku’s mind was already outside the realms of what was normal then.

He was trapped in a narrow room. Inside the womb, there was no exit, no light, and no clue as to where he was. His mother’s heartbeat was strangely loud and unruly. Fear was the only word for it, for he was trapped in some mysterious, dark place. He cried and fought, but his body was far too small to have any effect. There was no air, so he couldn’t even scream. Kyougoku was trapped.

When he was eventually born upon this world, there was still no salvation.

His delivery was met with an unbearable pain that he could never forget. His body twisted in unbelievable directions while he was pushed through the terribly small gate. The world he was eventually introduced to was overwhelmingly bright and a flood of information. The shock simply brought him to tears. Only when he was finally free did he realize just how wonderful his small, cozy cradle of darkness had been.

However, he immediately knew he would never return. He had no choice but to live in this cold world.

His eyes were still closed, but he could tell there were things around him; he sensed them through the light. They were titans wrapped in fabric, looking down at him. The situation was far from normal, yet Kyougoku’s mind remained calm, and he understood that these giants were the same species as him. He knew that he had to survive in this flood of light somehow, now that he was born.

The titans were large and seemingly powerful, so he was instantly able to recognize that he would have no chance of beating them. Therefore, he decided that he had to protect himself by any means from these shockingly violent and threatening ogres.

That was Kyougoku’s first and greatest moment of selfishness.

Not too much longer after that, he learned just how fragile these giants were, how pathetically fearful they were of the threat of violence. Above these titans—these humans—there existed a superstructure.

There were invisible rulers that controlled these weak creatures. Put simply, these were systems: society, populations, organizations, families, companies, local governments, and even entire nations. All these controlled the flesh that was the individual, contained them, and even crushed them. Every individual born into this world was a slave to the system and contributed to it as well. Being altruistic was forced, and being selfish—functioning how humans were supposed to function—was betraying the system, and those who betrayed the system were removed, punished, and at times, given the death penalty. In other words, they were eliminated.

This was a clear contradiction—one Kyougoku believed he could use.

What was good? What was evil? He mused on the concepts over and over again…until he reached a single conclusion.

Kyougoku sat up, a filthy smirk on his face.

“I suppose it’s time to start the game…”

He raised his deeply wrinkled fingers and grabbed the pawn, setting the next ceremony into motion.