After Returning to Yokohama, I Rely on a Mishmash of Secret Identities to Save the World - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Labyrinth (Part IV)

The two men, Murata and his companion, who had been shaken off, did not harbor any suspicion as to why Chuuya-sama—who had always been gentle and tolerant toward his subordinates—held this sort of attitude. They had already been driven nearly insane within this environment where they could neither speak nor see clearly, and simply possessed no mental energy to differentiate whether the one before their eyes was truly the real person.

Or rather, even if this truly were a trap of this ghost place, it would at least give them a swift end; they already did not wish to continue being so jittery and terrified anymore.

Oda Hoshimi wasn’t any kind of demon either. Since he had specially searched his way over, that meant he intended to bring the people out.

He raised the tip of his foot to lightly kick Murata’s shoulder, drawing the attention of the two over, and then gestured a “follow me.”

The two men immediately nodded like chickens pecking at rice, supporting each other to crawl up, following light-footedly behind him.

Just like Oda Hoshimi’s prior experience, the exit of the labyrinth and the entrance of the inner layer were situated extremely close to each other. He brought the duo—who were so starved that their heads were dizzy and eyes blurred, yet still had to brace their spirits and not dare to emit a sound—back to the adjacent lane, walking straight to the stone door at the end.

Behind him, Murata and his companion stared blankly at his path of movement, hurriedly making hand gestures attempting to remind “Chuuya-sama” that this place was not the exit, and then lowering their hands crestfallen beneath his look that seemed to view them as idiots.

That’s true, how could the thoughts of Chuuya-sama be something small figures like them could surmise!

They just watched like this as “Nakahara Chuuya” failed to look at the stone door at all, instead raising his hand to press upon the wall on the right-hand side.

“Creak—”

A piercing sound of pushing a door echoed, a beam of bright sunlight casting over from the door crevice, gradually expanding following “Nakahara Chuuya’s” movements, shining upon the faces of the duo who hadn’t seen light for a long time.

Even though Murata and his companion were stimulated by the light to the point of shedding physiological tears, not a single person closed their eyes, merely looking excitedly and longingly at that door hidden at the wall.

—”Exit! It’s the exit!”

Familiar bone-scraping sounds echoed, the skeletons that had been aimlessly patrolling outside the lanes coming toward the sound, yet appearing to dread this brilliance, not daring to approach.

And at this time, the three people had already crossed through this door, casting everything inside the labyrinth behind their backs.

Dusk, the hour of meeting demons.

Nakahara Chuuya stepped out from the temporary stronghold just as the color of the sky began to turn yellow, standing upon the guardrail to stare down at the coastline from a high vantage point, not missing a single shred of clue.

“Chuuya-sama! Chuuya-sama!”

A subordinate ran over excitedly, carrying the appearance of having an important matter to report.

“Mmh?” Nakahara Chuuya turned his head to signal him to speak.

“The patrol squad discovered two people washed up by the seaside!” The subordinate gasped for breath, “It’s the Black Lizard members who went missing three days ago!”

Nakahara Chuuya’s gaze froze, leaping down from the guardrail to signal him to lead the way: “Go over and take a look.”

“Yes!”

Oda Sakunosuke stood at the school entrance waiting for the children to be dismissed.

The caretaker gentleman, who had adopted over a dozen children at a young age, was also considerably vexed regarding the problem of picking up and dropping off the children.

The oldest few boys in the family were already in middle school. Placed in the past, they not only didn’t require picking up and dropping off, but could also help take care of the younger brothers and sisters. But recently Yokohama’s situation was special, and Oda Sakunosuke truly couldn’t be at ease, repeatedly instructing them that they must wait until an adult came to pick them up.

Fortunately, his younger brother had returned, able to help him share a portion of the kid-picking tasks.

“Hey, Hoshimi, have you reached home?”

Dazai Osamu leaned against a telegraph pole with complete boredom, watching him make the phone call.

“Host, what kind of rules did you see inside the inner layer?”

A chaotic noise came from the other end of the phone, accompanied by the chirping voices of little children: “Not yet, I just picked up Sakura and the others, what’s wrong?”

‘The number of people.’

Oda Sakunosuke checked the time: “Dazai will come back together with me in a moment. If you reach home early, help me take the beef out from the refrigerator to defrost.”

‘The more people that open the inner layer, the fewer the rule restrictions.’ Which meant, ‘A single person entering is just seeking death.’

“Eh? Dazai-gaa is coming? Should I go buy some crabs?” Oda Hoshimi held the children’s hands, casting an unnoticeable glance toward the street corner, meeting the gaze of the ochre-haired man who was half-leaning there.

Little Seven also began to worry: “Then should we open a few more vests?” But they didn’t have enough energy!

‘Tomorrow I’ll have “Nakahara Chuuya” make a trip to the Armed Detective Agency.’

“I already bought them yesterday.” The reliable Oda family head was fully prepared.

Little Seven was bewildered, reminding: “The Detective Agency has Edogawa Ranpo, you know?” Host, weren’t you just afraid of being exposed previously? How come you dare to just rush straight up now?

“That’s good then, I’ll be home very soon.”

‘In this kind of situation, it’s exactly about being more direct and more rapid, making it harder to be torn apart.’ Mainly relying on a total surprise.

The phone hung up, Oda Hoshimi lowered his head to restrain the laughing and playing children, his expression gentle.

‘Furthermore, once I settle this rift, I won’t need the plugin anymore. They won’t even be able to find the person, so what am I afraid of regarding dropping a identity?’

When he was about to walk out of the street, the man at the corner pressed down his hat brim, following up neither near nor far.

Little Seven echoed muddily: “Makes sense…”

For some reason, it always held an ominous presentiment.

On this side, Oda Hoshimi settled the children at a fast yet unsuspicious speed, processed the ingredients in the refrigerator, and then hurriedly went upstairs.

The moment he closed the bedroom door, he rushed to the window side, staring big eyes against small eyes with the person who had been waiting below for a long time, while simultaneously poking the system frantically in his mind: ‘When can the Lord God add a vest deployment and retrieval function!’

The Lord God, who had always been stingy regarding energy, certainly wouldn’t install this kind of function for a plugin. Consequently, in terms of formal application, the vest could only be deployed right in front of Oda Hoshimi—and couldn’t be taken back.

“Urging them, urging them!” Little Seven was also just a working-stiff system, what method could it have.

The moment he thought about how Dazai-gaa was about to come, and the children downstairs were still playing and making noise, Oda Hoshimi couldn’t avoid a headache.

Thus, he fished out from under the table… uh, a hemp rope, tossing it down along the window.

‘Nakahara Chuuya’: “…”

While chanting “sorry, Chuuya-gaa” silently in his heart, he climbed up along the hemp rope like a thief, automatically and spontaneously lying down onto the ground the moment he entered the door.

Oda Hoshimi: “…”

He lightly used his foot to kick him: “Go inside a bit more.”

“Nakahara Chuuya” glanced at the pitch-black space beneath the bed, a bit unwilling: “I was still able to sleep on the bed last night…”

Oda Hoshimi didn’t spoil him. Even though to a certain extent that was also “himself.” He decisively squatted down to shove the person fiercely beneath the bed, the bedsheet draping down naturally, obscuring the situation inside.

“Rest assured, I’ve already cleaned beneath the bed. In order not to be discovered by Dazai-gaa, I can only wrong you for a bit.” Oda Hoshimi began to tidy up the hemp rope, “If you’re not pleased, you can come back first.”

What he meant by “coming back” was extracting the consciousness from the vest. This counted as an ability inherent to the vest plugin itself, able to assist the host in separating a portion of consciousness in order to manipulate the vest; without the host’s consciousness, this body was merely a puppet.

“Nakahara Chuuya” didn’t ponder for even a second, decisively withdrawing from the shell, leaving behind the handsome youth lying beneath the pitch-black bed with a peaceful demeanor.

—He absolutely didn’t want to stay beneath the bed!

Little Seven, who witnessed the entire process, said faintly: “Like this, it truly resembles a corpse hidden under the bed…”

‘…Who is to blame for this? If there were a retrieval function, would I go as far as being this troublesome?’ Oda Hoshimi complained, ‘If it truly won’t do, at least allocate a house to me! I can’t just let Chuuya-gaa’s shell sleep out in the wild, right?’

Little Seven weakly closed its mouth.

—Sorry, it didn’t have money to buy a house either.

By the time Oda Hoshimi finished clearing all traces that could potentially be perceived, he heard the cheers of the children downstairs.

His movements paused, methodically opening the room door.

‘They’re here.’

As early as shortly after getting to know Oda Sakunosuke, Dazai Osamu learned that his family still had a younger brother.

“Previously, I always thought I was an orphan.” Inside the Lupin bar, Oda Sakunosuke recalled that child who had suddenly sought out him—who was still a killer back then—his expression gentle.

“I didn’t expect that I still had a family member existing in the world.”

“Eh? Perhaps it’s a swindler who relied on you to cheat food and drink, you know.” Dazai Osamu lay upon the bar counter gossiping with high spirits, “I’ve seen many of this kind of brat, specially looking for an honest person like you to take over.”

Oda Sakunosuke let out a light chuckle: “It wouldn’t be. We went to do a paternity test.” He pinched his chin to ponder for two seconds, “If it were the me of that time, even if Hoshimi truly weren’t my biological younger brother, I perhaps would still acknowledge him.”

After all, the him of that time was precisely situated within a period of confusion regarding his future career planning. Hoshimi’s appearance allowed him an extra portion of responsibility, while simultaneously making his thought of exiting the assassin world even more resolute.

Oda Xingjian didn’t possess an ability; apart from his brain being a bit smart, there wasn’t any special place. For the Dazai Osamu of that time, he was just like those few children Oda Sakunosuke adopted later, merely an appendage of his friend. It was only that this appendage’s brain was still quite usable, so there was more or less some common language between them.

—Until MIMIC invaded Yokohama.

The “ghosts” whose abilities were similar to Oda Sakunosuke’s attempted to obtain liberation through him, not hesitating to attack innocent children for this purpose.

By the time they rushed over, what they saw was the injured Oda Hoshimi and the completely unharmed children.

The owner of the curry shop said that if it weren’t for Hoshimi perceiving something wrong ahead of time and persuading them to relocate, perhaps they truly would have suffered under the cruel hands of MIMIC. In order to prevent the people of MIMIC from finding them, Oda Hoshimi even stepped forward courageously to actively draw away the enemies, and was injured because of this.

To be able to escape completely from the hands of the military-born MIMIC, Oda Hoshimi was undoubtedly extremely intelligent. This was also the first time Dazai Osamu truly recognized the person “Oda Hoshimi,” and not merely “friend’s younger brother.”

In the blink of an eye, four years had already passed. The appearance of that youth smiling to comfort his older brother despite being injured still clearly existed within his memory.

Thinking up to here, Dazai Osamu’s mind throbbed with pain for an instant.

‘—Hoshimi! Hoshimi!!’ A call of pain resembling weeping blood pierced through his memory, echoing beside his ears.

It was… Oda Sakunosuke’s voice?

The youth, covered all over in blood, leaned powerlessly inside his older brother’s embrace, his expression peaceful, yet he had clearly lost his breath.

He saw himself standing beside, extending a hand, wanting to comfort his friend, yet not knowing what he should say.

“Oda Sakunosuke…”

Dazai Osamu murmured out loud. Oda Sakunosuke, who was being dragged by the children while walking in front, turned his head back, looking toward him inquiringly: “What’s wrong, Dazai?”

Interrupted by Oda Sakunosuke’s voice, that tragic scene from just now instantaneously shattered like a broken mirror, disappearing deep within his memory, without a shred of trace left.

Dazai Osamu’s gaze was dazed for an instant, yet very quickly recovered clarity.

“No, it’s nothing.”

He shook his head, quickly keeping pace with his friend’s steps, sighing flamboyantly: “Work is truly too strenuous! Even my head has begun to ache, you know!”

Oda Sakunosuke didn’t wonder where exactly he was working strenuously when he clearly slacked off every single day; instead, he nodded in approval: “Since that is the case, take a vacation once this case is resolved.”

Dazai Osamu spread his hands: “Kunikida-san will definitely not agree…”

“Should I help persuade him for you?”

“Then I’ll trouble Oda Sakunosuke!”

Dazai Osamu chatted with his friend off and on, his tone cheerful, yet the doubt within his heart didn’t decrease in the slightest.

Thanks to Hoshimi, Oda Sakunosuke didn’t have to endure the pain of losing important family members.

But—

MIMIC… who was the one that resolved them?