disqualified hero

9: 21pm

"Kang Dang—" The door of the apartment was closed.

The key was inserted into the keyhole and turned to the right. This action should have been completed within 30 seconds, but before the key was pulled out, Sasaki's hand stopped unconsciously.He thought of Tsushima Shuji's words again.

"Bring a gun." The voice lingered in his ear, and he couldn't forget it. Fragmentary pictures were connected into slender tracks, rolling up and down in his mind. He clearly remembered that the child's face was cut in half, and the left half was The brows of the face are down, and the eyebrow peaks of half of the face are raised again, and the apple muscle on one side is raised high into a hill.

Children should not make such an expression. Sasaki has always believed that it is the privilege of minors to laugh and cry frankly, and ridicule, ridicule, and superficial smiles are only available to grown-ups.He had to admit again that Shuji Tsushima was suitable for it.

It's a little too precocious.

[Intellectually speaking, you should bring a gun. ] He thought of Miss T's address, and he just passed by in the morning. The landscape of the shrine is vivid in his mind, the deep bushes, the towering old trees, the smooth and round tiles of the shrine, and the condescending big roof. Fear, maybe the shrine is too quiet, and the priests and maidens cannot be seen. The sunlight from outside is absorbed by the emerald green leaves and does not reach the top of people's heads.

Sasaki still remembered that at noon, he was about to walk out of the shrine, but he was poked by something. He turned around suddenly, and he was already standing outside the torii gate. Looking in through the vermilion frame, he felt that the shrine was "alive" stand up.It is like a hungry beast that does not know how to eat, it wants to swallow the person who comes in anytime and anywhere.The light, shadow, and air around the shrine were distorted, and he saw an invisible vortex.

"!"

Sasaki was frightened into a cold sweat, he hurriedly rubbed his eyes roughly with his sleeve, the thin flesh around the eyeballs was sore from his rubbing, and then he put down his arms, fortunately the shrine returned to a normal state, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

[Very good. ]

No matter what, the shrine and the surrounding ancient streets left a deep and bad impression on him, as if stepping into it, the world would become grotesque.

As a police detective, everyone is very vigilant and has a keen intuition. If they were not keen, they would have fallen before danger.

[Do you really want to bring a gun? ] His hand was frozen on the spherical doorknob, he was neither advancing nor retreating, and stood there deadlocked.However, after a short period of thought struggle, he still tremblingly put down his hands, and then even put his hands in his pockets.

"Forget it." Sasaki said this time.

He is a bit romantic, you can also say he is a bit stupid, but when he thinks of Miss T, he thinks of her slender neck, the bright eyes that shine when he sees the love of books, the soft and fluffy temples, and a touch of light brown hair. His hair hanging over his ears, blowing up in the wind, was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen in his life.

So he believed that the smiling Miss T was not fake, and the happy Miss T was not fake either. Even if it was against her true side, Sasaki didn't think he needed to bring the weapon of judgment.

He refuses to trust his instincts.

……

9: 40pm

Osamu Dazai's collar was caught, his shirt was buttoned tightly, and he was almost out of breath at this moment. To be honest, the height of around 1.8 meters is considered absolutely tall in this country, but who is called Asuka is almost 1.9 meters tall, So he only touched the ground with his toes.

[Ah, I knew it would be like this. ]

"Speak clearly!" Asuka's emotions suddenly collapsed, and he was strongly stimulated. When Osamu Dazai said "What does it have to do with me", the inhuman aura he revealed frightened him, and he didn't know it was him. The disregard for life stimulated Asuka or something else. In short, at that moment, he thought that what he was facing was not a human being, but an evil spirit that preyed on human beings.

People also have a stress response when facing fear. Some people use violence to cover up their powerlessness and panic. He happened to be this type. Before his rationality came back to his senses, his body had already moved first, and then he reacted and did the following Committed a great act of injustice.

Asuka woke up, but his hand was still clutching Osamu Dazai's collar.

The young man looked at him, but suddenly curled his lips: "Are you awake?" His voice was rustling, as if he had smoked three cigarettes in a row.

"I……"

"Do you know what kind of behavior this is?" Asuka thought he was going to say something wrong, but Shuji Tsushima tilted his head and said, "It's incompetent rage."

[what? ]

"People often do this when they face things that they can't intervene in or understand." He felt that the grip on the neckline was loosened, and the soles of his feet were able to step on the ground, but it was a pity that he stopped talking as soon as he started talking. Can't stop, "Look, it is precisely because I don't know how Kusama died that I will be emotionally broken when I find out that others know that the process of his death has not been stopped, but if I tell you that you should actually know and have a way What happens when you stop it?"

"Is it self-blame, or is it not to pursue it for the sake of peace of mind, and instead blame the victim?"

Asuka was completely silent.

Dazai tidied up his messy shirt and went out. Asuka couldn't understand, so he asked him, "Where are you going?" The latter said, "I need a driver."

"Don't you want to know where Sasaki is?"

As if showing a rare kindness, he wanted to explain the perpetrator's criminal methods, but Asuka finally made no wrong decision, hurriedly followed Osamu Dazai, and spontaneously sat in the passenger seat and drove for him.

"Mr. Dazai." Asuka repented from the bottom of his heart, for his offensive behavior just now, "Where is the address?"

"This year's wife's house."

"What..." He immediately swallowed the rest of the words, how is this possible? !

"Do you think it's impossible?"

The speed of the car was very high. After knowing the destination, Asuka drove the special car of the police department out of the high speed of the sports car, and drove fast all the way, constantly overtaking. The neon lights outside the car window were flickering without gaps. At first, it was the normal color of red and green , after entering a certain area, it turned red, orange, and pink, illuminating most of the night in Tokyo.

Asuka was surprised to find that he had lost the ability to doubt and question Osamu Dazai, and he was almost ashamed of it. As a police detective, the never-fading detection ability is necessary, and he should not completely trust a certain person or a certain artifact , even machines can deceive people, let alone humans themselves.

[I really can't question him. ] He tried several times, but found that he really thought "just trust Mr. Dazai" in his heart.

Because the wisdom of Mr. Dazai is far beyond human beings, and it is beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. He is like a prophet, and human beings have to believe and worship prophets.

There is no room for doubt.

"The previous police officers were all missing, right?" Osamu Dazai said, "There was no trace of them before they died, and the cameras did not capture their images. If I really want to say it, it is actually due to the excellent training of the police academy." Bar."

[Why? ]

"Detection and anti-reconnaissance, everyone has to learn, let alone an excellent police detective working on the front line." Osamu Dazai said, "As long as they don't want to be caught, no one can catch them." He looked at Asuka's eyes imprinted in the rear car mirror, "Can you do it, Asuka?"

"In a short period of time, yes." Asuka replied flatly, "As long as you know where you are going first and conduct investigations, you can avoid the camera lens."

Dazai smiled: "Look outside." The latter had to slow down and pull down the car window. It was Ikebukuro, and it was a custom area. The lights of the shop were all the same, turned into ambiguous red, girls in revealing clothes, pure schoolgirls, Women of all colors walked on the street, and there were quite a few men, most of whom were in suits and leather shoes. Some were drunk from alcohol, and some were full of energy. They got very close to women, and their expressions were not only obscene but also obscene.

Huge signboards stand on both sides of the road, and more intimate small hotels and hotels go deep into the winding and winding lanes. The wind pours into the windows, so he can only hear the bleak wind, and those ambiguous music can't get into his ears.

"It's interesting, isn't it?" Dazai said, "In Japan where sex and trade are legalized, custom shops can openly benefit one of the most prosperous areas in Tokyo. I have seen a survey in the past, saying that more than [-]% of men If there are similar places, some people are because of loneliness, some people are just out of work needs, but the root cause is that the vast majority of people do not reject entering Ikebukuro, and they admit that they cannot withstand the temptation."

"From this point of view, the regulations of the military and police are too strict." Dazai's hair has grown again, and his hair is very soft. At this time, when his right hand is free, he wraps his fingers around the hair, a strand of thin and soft hair The silk wraps around the knuckles, this movement is very feminine, not masculine at all, but it suits him perfectly.

"Things that are not illegal in the whole country, they can't do them. What's more, most of the military and police are young men who are young and have no access to women. It's quite unfair, isn't it?"

"No." Asuka replied sternly, "This is necessary." He said, "The military and police really know too many secrets, and in certain places, secrets are extremely easy to leak."

Osamu Dazai applauded, and his smile was exaggerated like a clown: "As expected of what Asuka said." He turned and said, "But not everyone's awareness is as high as yours. If people can really live within the norms, the world will There won’t be so many tragedies.” Asuka keenly realized that what he was talking about was no longer what was in front of him, “Where there are regulations, there will be resistance, where there is peace, there will be disputes, where there are disputes, there will be evil, and where there is peace, there will be waves. , everything is not absolute. Only by comparing with more evil people can we highlight the goodness of human nature. Only when we are accompanied by desperate tragedy can we know what happiness is. Only when we are in the crowd can we know who is a heterogeneous and who is a monster. We will live In such a world, instead of believing in good human nature, it is better to take precautions in advance."

"It's the same as Mrs. Today, her son died, so the good side of human nature was annihilated. Her revenge method can be called clumsy, but in front of weak women, men would not mention it. Too many precautions, not to mention that the missing military police are just for fun." He pointed out sharply, "Some of them knew Mrs. Jinyue and knew that he was Fujimizu's widow, but they were still hooked If you look at it from this perspective, even the brotherhood that the military and police have been advocating is not solid."

Asuka was silent.

"No." He said hoarsely, "I believe that most people's brotherhood is sincere." His language was pale and weak, but if he couldn't even insist on this, then wouldn't he completely deny the truth of the situation he was in? Humanity in the ranks?

But Asuka couldn't say any more resolute denials, he was really shaken by the examples Dazai gave.

"Heh." He was answered with a short laugh.

"According to what you said, Sasaki isn't worth saving, right?" Asuka began to feel unsure, "But based on what I know about him, he shouldn't be someone who would violate the rules."

"Well, that's right."

[Why? ]

[Wait, what are you talking about? ]

"I said you're right." Without Asuka making a sound, Dazai knew what he wanted to say, "Sasaki-kun's words should be regarded as an exception." He pointed his finger at his thin lips, "If I'm not wrong, He should be the tomb chosen by Mrs. Today."

"From this point of view, he is probably a good person." Dazai said, "Maybe that's why I told you the above things."

"Then—" Asuka's frown suddenly brightened, he finally met the first good thing of the night, "Is he not going to die?"

"No, it's hard to say." Dazai replied, "It's only half the chance, because I don't know what his back move is, let alone..."

He said in softer words than Yunwu: "I don't know if that child will save him."

[Only by comparing with evil people can the goodness of human nature be highlighted, and only by comparing with good people can human malice be revealed. ] He thought of what he had just said, but overthrew their impulse.

[Because, no matter who he compares with, Tsushima Shuji-kun is absolutely evil. ] Osamu Dazai knows better than anyone else what a terrible existence he is without being bound by rules, friendship and morality.

But all this, he is powerless to change.

[I am not human. ] He thought, [I don't have the humanity to change Shuzhi-kun. ]

This may be the thing that makes him most powerless since he grew up.

[It turns out that there are things I can't do. ]

……

21:50pm.

"Ding-dong-"

Sasaki rang the doorbell three times, and a woman in a big shawl came out in a hurry. Miss T was as beautiful as ever. The moment she pushed the door and came out, the quiet night seemed to be covered with a soft light filter.

"Come in quickly."

Sasaki was greeted into the entrance, and immediately handed over the paper bag in his hand: "This is the yokan from Takatsujiya." During the chat, Ms. T said that she likes to eat the yokan from this store, but when she mentioned it, she was caught by him. firmly in mind.

"Ah." She said pleasantly, "You really have a heart."

There is no "creaking" sound when you step on the floor. The furnishings of this year's house are old, but they are all well preserved. The floor is often waxed to reflect light.Sasaki looked up, and saw the warm orange light shining on the wall. At the end of the aisle, there was an antique cabinet made in the last century. The beauty bottle was sitting on the cabinet, and a single red apricot stood alone.

Warmth and old-fashioned are his first impressions of this year's house. This place is warm, and Sasaki's heart just relaxed for a while, but he sneezed several times in a row. The woman looked at him with worried eyes and said, "Are you okay? "

"No, it's okay." He actually wanted to sneeze, but he pinched his nose forcibly, "It's just that the smell of lemon is a bit irritating. I don't have a cold. Don't worry."

He thought that even if there was a dark fragrance floating in Miss T's house, it would be black square fragrance, but he didn't know it was a stimulating industrial lemon smell.

Sasaki was invited to the dining table, and Miss T insisted on getting him some herbal tea to prevent colds. She told him that the tea bags were placed on the second floor with the medical kit, so she put him on the chair behind the dining table, and "Deng Deng Deng" went upstairs to look for it.

Sitting alone is unavoidably boring for a man. He first looked up at the ceiling. The ceiling of Miss T’s house is different from ordinary houses. There are some textured cloths pasted on it. It doesn’t look like wall coverings. It may be another craft, he said. I can't figure out what those lines are, but I think they are so beautiful, and I stared at them for a long time without paying attention.

I don't know when it started, those swirling and roundabout lines suddenly changed, they rolled deeper and deeper, and the surrounding light, shadow, and space were distorted together, Sasaki couldn't help but widen his eyes, wanting to After looking at it, I saw that they had transformed into the appearance of evil spirits.

"Scared!" He stood up in shock, and the wooden chair legs suddenly pulled on the floor, making a shrill sound.

"Mr. S?" Miss T also heard the movement, and the shout came from afar.

"It's okay!" Sasaki responded quickly, and he realized that he was actually sweating.

"Ah." Miss T said loudly, "Please wait a little longer, I'm still looking for tea bags."

"It's okay, it's okay, you can find it as you like."

Sasaki didn't dare to sit back anymore. He looked up at the ceiling again, only to find that they had returned to their original state. The ghosts that appeared briefly before seemed to be his imagination and no longer existed.

[It's so weird. ] However, he couldn't forget the scene he saw just now, and he walked around the house for a week, but he couldn't see anything wrong, but he suddenly noticed a strange sense of discord in the air.

He thought he was in the monster house.

[No no no no. ] Sasaki shook his head again and again, [What kind of monster house is something in ghost novels, how could reality appear?Even if supernatural powers exist, they still belong to the category of science and have nothing to do with weirdness. ]

"..."

A line of sight locked him.

The demon opened his eyes.

Sasaki shuddered again. He didn't want to go back to his original seat, so he just walked around in the restaurant, subconsciously walking lightly. He didn't know what he was thinking, but he didn't want to disturb the T on the second floor out of instinct. Miss.

A brand-new wall breaking machine was placed on the countertop of the open kitchen. The sink was connected to the sewer pipe, but the port was corroded by an unknown acid solution.

"..."

Sasaki wanted to escape, he wished he had never had the keen observation skills he was so proud of.

The sorted garbage was also placed in the kitchen, probably not cleaned up. Sasaki spurned himself like a pervert, but couldn't help untying the knot on the big garbage bag with his hands.

[You are committing a crime. ]

When carrying out search tasks, they will never let go of the garbage bag. Many criminals will throw the tools of crime into the garbage bag for disposal. Smart military and police can also infer the life trajectory of the person involved from the garbage.

He should be living alone this year, and there is not a lot of garbage in the kitchen, but when opening the daily necessities, Sasaki found men's clothes, which made his movements stagnate.

[There are no traces of male life, but there are clothes. ] He was pretty sure there was only enough food for an adult woman.

[And I seem to have seen this dress before. ]

He found a watch in the third trash bag.

It was issued by the military and police.

……

22:03pm.

[It's almost time. ]

This year's wife went downstairs, she took a bag of herbal tea, turned around the door and saw Sasaki sat upright waiting for her, with a watch on the table.

"Please wait a moment." She said clearly, "Wait for me to make a pot of tea."

Sasaki was undoubtedly calm. He watched Miss T put on an apron and work in front of the stove, and then she came out with a tray. On the tray were two exquisite small dishes, containing yokan, and served with a small silver fork.The tea is served in a pot, and hot air is sprayed from the spout.

The two sat face to face.

"Kusama-senpai." Sasaki asked, "Is Kusama-senpai still alive?"

The year-old lady smiled.

"No," she said, "dead."

"..."

"You guys." Sasaki said after a moment of silence, "Do you have any grudges?"

"No." The year-old lady said again, "No."

"You are lying." Sasaki said, "If there is no hatred, why kill people." He recalled the past disappearance in his mind, "Is there hatred against the entire group of military and police?"

"Are you going to kill me?"

Mrs. Year-old hasn't spoken yet, she was wondering if it would be more free and easy if she said "maybe" with a smile, but when she thought of Sasaki on the opposite side, she felt that she couldn't say that.

"Probably so."

"Why expose yourself."

The two sentences were said at the same time, in no particular order. Mrs. this year's complexion changed. She smiled, and the smile didn't reach her eyes, as if she was wearing a mask: "Why did you say that?" She said, "What does it mean to expose yourself?" .”

"It's about exposing yourself." Sasaki was quite neither humble nor overbearing, and his tone of speech was not shy, but he was not high-spirited. He stripped away his reason and analyzed Mrs. Madam's behavior from a more macro perspective. This is what he learned from Shuji Tsushima , "The bones can be broken with a broken machine, but they have to be thrown into the sewer. Yesterday's domestic garbage can obviously be buried in a place. An easier way is to change the time and place of the reading club. You just stayed upstairs for so long. Wasn't it for me to discover all this?"

This year old lady was speechless, she said: "You are asking too directly." She shook her head and said, "I thought you would have some leeway."

"No." He said, "A few days ago, I would not have spoken directly, but since a few days ago, someone taught me that direct words are the most lethal, it is like a knife that can cut through people's soft skin. Inwardly," he said in a low voice, "I have to see myself clearly, and also see other people clearly."

[Would it be possible to prevent more tragedies by seeing clearly earlier? }

He suddenly remembered why he fell in love with Miss T secretly. He was as beautiful as a pool of stagnant water, crossing life and death.

"Why are you looking for me?" he asked finally.

So Miss T said: "Maybe, I hope you kill me."

"..."

"The ghosts on the ceiling, are you using them to kill people?" He asked almost hopelessly.

"What?" The present-year-old lady also showed a puzzled look.

"I mean," Sasaki said, "did you summon those evil spirits?"

……

Red blood, white brains, the blood splashed on the ground turned black, the woman screamed silently, the man's body fell on the woman's body, he used himself as a shield, and at the last moment of his life, he was protecting people in vain .

The door of the closet was opened a small slit, just enough to allow one eye to see. Shuji Tsushima was sitting kneeling in the closet with one opening. He sat in a neat posture, with his back straight, and there were no wrinkles on his trousers.The expression lacked interest, as if watching a boring pantomime.

[That's why I tell you to bring a gun. ]

[The gun is not for killing Madam this year, but for stopping evil spirits. ]

He commented indifferently, because Sasaki didn't understand what he meant until the last moment, his eyeballs turned twice boringly, and stayed on Mrs. Madam this year.

[The last one to take revenge is myself. ] He stared at the evil spirits coming out of the ceiling lines. He had seen them before entering this room. The older the building, the more monsters will be produced. Even the teapot can become a spirit of mourning. The old house It couldn't be easier to attach a few monsters. Shuji Tsushima suddenly thought of the author named Kyogoku Natsuhiko, and his guardian suddenly sent a text message, saying that Kyogoku Natsuhiko is also a person with supernatural powers, and he can control monsters.

[It's none of my business. ] Shuji Tsushima thought, [I have already made a reminder. From a human point of view, the reminder about death is definitely a great good deed, but there are too many people in the world who do not listen to persuasion, maybe they are just being smart. , or for other reasons, oops, it's really troublesome to get to the bottom of it, in the final analysis, he didn't listen to my words, so he died. ]

[It's not a pity at all. ]

He watched the death of the two from aloof, like a god in charge of life and death.