Sakunosuke hesitated, “I don’t have a problem with taking care of him, but regarding the work…”

Dazai Osamu responded, “I’ll give you double the salary.”

“No problem then,” Sakunosuke agreed, thinking about the extra curry meal he could afford each week. “But let me make it clear, I’m just an ordinary member and I can’t get involved in the Mafia’s bloodshed. I have a principle of not killing.”

Dazai’s interest was piqued, “A principle of not killing? You were a hitman before, right? Why did you decide to stop killing?”

Sakunosuke replied, “Personal reasons, it’s inconvenient to say.”

Since they weren’t familiar with each other, Sakunosuke didn’t intend to get chummy with Dazai. He was cold and rigid, treating Hyakki in a strictly business-like manner. This made Bai Lan highly amused, almost to the point of wanting to grab some popcorn to enjoy the show.

【A fateful encounter, the best of friends unaware of each other.】

【Sakunosuke, a man who in most parallel worlds with ability users, caused Dazai Osamu to break ties with Mori and defect to the Armed Detective Agency for his sake.】

【A man who exists beneath a gravestone.】

Bai Lan’s amused smile gained a thoughtful edge as he recalled the peculiarities of an adjacent world line. In that world, the Armed Detective Agency had Sakunosuke and Hyakki. The difference was that Dazai Osamu didn’t get to know them; he protected them from a distance, as if he somehow knew that getting close to them would lead to a bad outcome.

Strange, even if “Dazai Osamu” had memories of parallel worlds, he wouldn’t behave like this.

Why not just follow the script for an easy clear?

Bai Lan couldn’t fathom the thought process of “Dazai Osamu,” much like how normal people couldn’t imagine why a powerful, attractive person with fair skin, a slim waist, and long legs would enjoy self-destructive behavior, leading to a bad ending.

What others saw as a bad ending, for some, was a happy ending.

Fortunately…

Currently, the Dazai tightly held by Hyakki still has a chance of salvation and hasn’t considered the outcome of separating.

Dazai arranged for someone to take care of Hyakki, with the wages deducted from his own account. The rest of his money was used for buying information and miscellaneous items, ensuring that his next paycheck would be zero by the time it arrived. Hyakki, unaware of Dororo’s spending habits, mistakenly believed that this place was run by Dororo’s family.

【Wait, if this is modern society… this shouldn’t be a bandit’s den, right?】

Hyakki noticed a flaw in his understanding.

Forgive him, not many people living in modern society have access to an organization full of evildoers.

The Port Mafia is certainly not an “old-era” bandit den. They are a legitimate organization that pays taxes and has port shipping licenses, which externally could be renamed “Mori Corporation.”

【Dororo?】

After Sakunosuke went to prepare for his “new job,” Hyakki tugged on Dazai.

Dazai paused his game and asked, “What is it?”

【You’re not the young lady of a bandit’s den, but the young lady of a Japanese mafia?】 Hyakki, still deeply engrossed in his imagined identity, was uneasy about Dororo’s background.

Seeing that he couldn’t express himself well, Dazai pinched his cheek and said, “Hyakki, don’t overthink things once you’ve recovered. When you have ears and vocal cords, I’ll teach you how to speak…” As for how you will view him as a male, that’s something to think about once you’re fully healed.

Dazai always held a pessimistic view of the future, neither actively reversing it nor optimistic.

Life had temporarily gained meaning.

Temporarily.

Bai Lan, having driven his car to the finish line alone, turned his body to look at them from behind the mirror.

Ah… it seems I’ve eaten another serving of Japanese-flavored dog food.

【What will be the ending for this Dazai and Hyakki? Will they warm each other and continue together, or will they part ways one day in the future, creating a new parallel world?】 Bai Lan waited with a smile, his violet eyes reflecting a soul that observed the world from countless parallel timelines.

【As expected, my world is the most interesting.】

Among eight trillion parallel worlds, only two had Hyakki, with the one he was in being the most special.

Here – there were other secrets.

Suddenly, Hyakki’s body shuddered, making Dazai alert as he reached into his pocket for his gun. Hyakki dared not look out the window. Outside the window of the Port Mafia headquarters, a huge “sun” hung, blindingly bright, only noticeable to those with a heightened sense of perception.

“Bang, bang—!!!” Dazai walked to the window and fired his gun at the outside.

After emptying the bullets, he turned back to the curled-up Hyakki and the astonished Bai Lan, “Bai Lan, do you have any memory of such a peeping tom?”

Bai Lan’s brain scanned through all possible “peeping toms.”

From the first generation Vongola Mist Guardian Demon Spade, the tenth generation Mist Guardian Rikodu, to the Rats in the House of the Dead Fyodor, and many other literary names, he thoughtfully said with Italian romanticism and subtlety, “Hyakki is very special, and with Dazai, there are too many possibilities… I don’t know who the person outside the window is.”

Dazai: “…”

Hiss, has Japan become a place overrun with perverts?

Outside the window, floating in mid-air, a pink-haired high school student, Kusuo, utilized telepathy to read Bai Lan’s thoughts. He was stunned by the sheer volume of information and the rapid mental processing within Bai Lan’s mind.

**This person’s thoughts are incredibly active. He knows so many weird people?**

This was Kusuo, completely unaware of categorizing himself as a peeping tom.

**Saiki Kusuo…■■■God■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■…**

Hyakki had a psychological shadow cast over him by Kusuo, “seeing” the latter peeking at him.

More mosaics flooded his mind.

Kusuo found himself in a dilemma. Why was rescuing one person so troublesome?

**I didn’t have any malicious intent last time…**

Poof, connection lost.

Just as he attempted to communicate with Hyakki using telepathy, Dazai Osamu rushed back to the sofa, grabbed Hyakki, and used his “No Longer Human” ability to nullify the powers of other ability users.

Hyakki caught the first half of the message, his face blank with confusion: **What did Kusuo want to say to me?**

Hyakki greatly underestimated the capabilities of his “girlfriend.”

The God of Two-Dimensional Space was outside the window, and he was inside, both unable to communicate effectively.

To make matters worse, Dazai had anticipated this possibility and pressed a button, causing several spray devices on the outer walls of the room to douse the invisible person floating high in the air with streams of water!

Kusuo quickly erected a protective barrier around himself and zoomed away, biding his time to find another opportunity.

Not long after his protective barrier was hit by the liquid—

Dazai Osamu pulled out a tracker to locate the special liquid’s position!

In less than a few seconds… it was gone.

On the other side of the Port Mafia headquarters, Kusuo calmly removed his transparent barrier, engaging in a guerrilla battle with Dazai. He kept a consistent distance of two hundred meters from Hyakki, using this method to read Hyakki’s thoughts and seek a resolution to ease their relationship.

Kusuo really didn’t want to appear this creepy, honestly. It was just that Dazai’s ability was too abnormal.

**A nullification ability, I wonder how many of my powers it can nullify…**

His eyes, which had a petrification effect, were always covered by glasses to block it out. Deep down, he felt a growing urge to test his constantly accumulating powers on Dazai.

**No, Hyakki needs him.**

Kusuo’s inherent kindness pulled him back to the baseline of a normal person.

**I’ve discovered a new problem…** Kusuo, using his X-ray vision to observe Dazai, found himself unusually puzzled. **Dazai is male, but Hyakki’s inner voice refers to him as ‘she.’ My X-ray vision doesn’t work on Dazai, but I can see his appearance clearly—he’s undoubtedly a young male.**

Could it be… he misidentified Dazai’s gender?

Impossible.

Everyone else’s inner thoughts refer to Dazai with male pronouns, and his profile lists him as male.

**At this point, I have to use my method.**

Kusuo turned his attention to a stray three-colored cat wandering around Yokohama. This cat often observed the duo without Hyakki recognizing it as a human. This suggested that the appearance of an animal offered some disguise.

Seconds later, his body began to shrink, transforming into a gender-neutral white cat.

He tried out his new paws, walking around to get used to them.

To ensure success, he used “Invisibility,” “Transformation,” “Size Alteration,” and “Floating” abilities to infiltrate the Port Mafia headquarters, skillfully avoiding all surveillance.

During Hyakki’s lunchtime, his mind’s eye noticed a peculiar little animal.

The animal was so white it seemed almost unreal.

**A cat?**

**I’ve actually seen an animal that looks like a cat…**

Hyakki was astonished by the specific shape his mind’s eye perceived, as life flames were usually vague and ethereal.

He reached out to touch the creature, noticing something odd.

**Why does the little animal have two round antennae on its head?**

This shape—

It seemed oddly familiar.

Dazai Osamu, sitting beside Hyakki and picking at the Port Mafia cafeteria food, noticed his gaze on the ground.

“Hyakki? Is there something on the ground?”

A god wouldn’t shrink, would it?

**…**

Hyakki was intimidated by the god of the second dimension’s disguise. The white cat jumped onto his lap.

Kusuo the white cat: **Meow… (coldly)**

Hyakki: Should I expose him or pretend I don’t know about his superpowers? This is so hard, Dororo.

Dazai placed a piece of crab meat on Hyakki’s plate.

“Open wide.”

Hyakki, with the chopsticks touching his mouth, opened it and ate the lovingly given food from Dororo. His panicked emotions stabilized—what’s the big deal about having an invisible cat on his lap?

Even so, Hyakki’s heart rate refused to calm down.

Through his clothes, Kusuo read part of the information, falling into deep silence—a knowledge gap.

**This is bad. Your girlfriend…**

**Is a guy.**

Saying this would drive him mad again, wouldn’t it?

Not saying it would be a betrayal of his conscience, letting a dark spirit deceive a blind and deaf person!

This is hard for him too.