The whole of Yokohama thought we were together

"jingle--"

In the middle of the night, the door of the bar in the alley was pushed open from the outside, the bell rang, the air in the house was disturbed by the cold wind, and the floating layer of smoke gradually became thinner.

The young man sitting by the bar was wearing a black windbreaker, and the red scarf inside was faintly visible under the light, giving people a sense of decadence for no reason.

Hearing the sound of footsteps, he turned his head and looked over, the bandage passing through the black hair completely covered his left eye, but the visitor could still see a flash of his expression on the rest of his exposed face The astonishment and helplessness that passed by.

"Why are you here again?"

He spread his hands, and the bandages wrapped around his wrists were exposed from his sleeves, "Let me guess, is it because the lack of progress in the entrusted case made you anxious, or the novel you were writing got stuck and lost your inspiration?" ?”

The person who came did not speak, and his face remained expressionless as usual, but he acted as if he was familiar with the road. He sat down at the bar next to the young man, and nodded to the bartender inside as a greeting.

And the black-haired youth continued on his own.

"It can't be... Yokohama is going to be destroyed, right?" He frowned, but there was no tension in his words, "If that's the case, you shouldn't have come here, pack up your things early, and take your children with you." It’s business for us to leave.”

The bartender put the prepared distilled wine on the bar counter, and the drink in the glass only swirled a couple of times before subsiding quickly.

The visitor looked at the wine in front of him, and finally said aloud the first sentence he came here tonight:

"I do not know."

The three-flowered cat lying on its stomach not far away yawned, and the black-haired young man suddenly smiled.

He rested his jaw on his hand, his eyebrows relaxed and stretched because of this smile, the warm yellow light of the bar was reflected in his iris-colored pupils, his state showed a kind of softness besides his usual laziness.

"You always say that—" he whispered, "Odasaku."

The person he called "Oda Tsukuru" also turned his head at this moment, his short red hair dazzled a little under the light, but his eyes only fell on the young man for a moment, and then quickly looked away.

He silently took a sip of the wine in front of him.

The young man said leisurely: "Usually at times like this, I would ask you what happened in the detective agency recently, how the two children I sent out are doing now, or whether your new novel has a good theme. Don't need me to provide ideas..."

He paused, and then said: "And every time you have questions and answers."

"Oda Saku" looked at him again at this time, tilted his head slightly, as if asking "what are you going to ask today".

Seeing this, the young man's lips curled up slightly, and his eyes were soft.

"I don't plan to ask any more questions today, that's enough." The long eyelashes as black as crow feathers fell, and the color in his eyes was instantly covered by shadows, "Oda Zuo, it's been long enough."

The other party was startled, and looked back at the unfinished distilled wine, looking a little aggrieved: "I just came here."

"But you shouldn't be here anymore."

The young man bowed his head and sighed deeply, the content of his words was not known to be directed at the person in front of him, or someone else.

He didn't look up again, only his voice echoed in the quiet bar.

"You never owe me anything."

Oda Sakunosuke opened his eyes from his sleep.

The moonlight passed through the window glass and drew a clear line of light and shadow not far from the bedding. He turned his head, and the brown pupils were stained with a little silver brilliance, which completely eliminated Fang's confusion after waking up from the dream.

[Ah, I forgot to draw the curtain last night. ]

He sat up, ruffled his hair, and sighed silently.

[It's just a dream...]

After that, there was no sleepiness, and when it was almost time, Oda Sakunosuke got up to wash, cleaned up and opened the door, but was startled by a bit of coolness mixed in the cold wind.

It snowed last night.

However, the first snow has never been able to accumulate, and the thin layer on the ground has been destroyed by someone's footprints before it can show the beauty of winter.

Oda Sakunosuke looked down over the railing of the dormitory building, but before he could think about who the footprints belonged to, his scalp suddenly exploded!

The image of being pierced through his chest by the blade of his clothes flashed before his eyes. He quickly turned around, took a step forward, and then supported the railing with his palms, and jumped directly down the stairs.

The thick coat brushed against the railing, and the fine snow was rolled down. When this series of movements stopped, exactly five seconds had passed.

Oda Sakunosuke looked up, and the boy was wearing a light gray overcoat, coughing and retracting the edge of his clothes, and nodded slightly to him as a greeting.

"Akutagawa."

Oda Sakunosuke was used to this for a long time, and when the other party slowly walked down the stairs, he asked, "How is your body?"

"I don't think there is any problem." Akutagawa Ryunosuke said flatly.

"I remember the doctor advised you to take good care of yourself and not to overwork yourself." Oda Sakunosuke walked down with him.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke nodded: "Yes."

Seeing him like this, Oda Sakunosuke couldn't say anything more, even if the other party was brought back to the detective agency by him, but now he is a colleague, and he is not his adopted son, so he can't take it easy.

But after thinking about it, he still urged: "Drink more hot water."

Akutagawa Ryunosuke still looked calm, "Well, I understand."

Neither of them are talkative people. When they were not familiar with each other before, Ryunosuke Akutagawa would ask Sakunosuke Oda about his experience in attacking and dodging. After getting familiar with them, they only communicated with movements, so they talked less.

and……

Oda Sakunosuke glanced at him imperceptibly.

He always felt that the other party had become more reticent after he came back seriously injured by the mafia who forcibly broke into the port a year ago, as if he had something on his mind.

He has no position to ask, and... dare not ask.

Walking all the way from the dormitory building to the Armed Detective Agency, seeing the red building in front of him, Oda Sakunosuke finally dug out something serious from his memory, and asked, "I remember you are going on a business trip with Mr. Ranpo recently?"

"Yes." Akutagawa Ryunosuke said, "To Tokyo."

He coughed twice, and after his breathing calmed down, he continued: "There was a serial murder case in Tokyo, and the police haven't made any progress. It has been delayed until now, and the government put pressure on it, so they sent a commission to Mr. Ranpo. The power of attorney was sent to the detective agency yesterday. Kunikida-san asked my subordinates to go together—ahem—to lead the way for Ranpo-san."

"Serial murder case..." Oda Sakunosuke looked up at the gray sky, his voice seemed to be mixed with sighs, "There have been a lot of cases recently, I wonder if it's because it's almost the end of the year..."

Akutagawa Ryunosuke was noncommittal.

The two were talking and were about to enter the building where the detective agency was located. At the same moment, a voice behind them stopped their footsteps in place.

"Hey wait! Mr. Oda! Mr. Akutagawa!"

When the two turned their heads, they saw a young man with orange hair running towards them in panic.

One side of his sideburns was pinned up with a hairpin. If one ignores his expression at the moment, at first glance, he looks very handsome.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke: "Tanizaki."

"Tanizaki," Oda Sakunosuke asked, "what's wrong?"

Tanizaki Junichiro was sweating profusely from running, but he didn't care about it at all. When he stopped, he pointed to the alley next to the building, and said in a trembling voice: "There is...a man at the garbage dump... "

Akutagawa Ryunosuke and Oda Sakunosuke looked at each other, both showing confused expressions.

According to Junichiro Tanizaki, he came early today and planned to take out the garbage in the club first, but he didn't expect to bump into a fainted person there when he was throwing out the garbage.

Hearing what he said, Oda Sakunosuke had planned to pull the other party out of the garbage, but when he went there, he found that the other party's situation was much better than they imagined.

The man was sitting in the corner of the alley, with his head down, his long forehead hair hanging down, covering his face.

He is tall and thin, with a beige wool coat on his upper body and a pair of ordinary slacks on his legs. The clothes on his body can't be seen to be expensive, but he must be a person who is good at dressing up.

If it wasn't for his hair and body already covered with a layer of snow, the people present might have thought that the person was taking a nap at the first glance...

Hmm... nap not far from the dumpster.

But at present, it seems that this person must have some accident and faint here.

Oda Sakunosuke looked at the other party for a few times, and was about to step forward, but the person beside him walked over one step faster than him, squatted down, supported the other party's chin, and raised his head.

"Mr. Akutagawa..." Tanizaki Junichiro suddenly said, the trembling in his voice increased instead of decreasing compared to before.

Oda Sakunosuke gave him a surprised look.

But soon, he understood the reason why the other party behaved so weirdly.

——The face of that person is exactly the same as that of the former leader of the port mafia, Osamu Dazai.