It’s R18-rated, easily classified into Mr. Mori’s lonely private life perversion category in minutes.

Port Mafia leader, Mori: “???”

So, why did you have to mess with the adult collector’s items?

At night.

There was no black doctor Mori in the clinic, no golden-haired girl Alice. Dazai pushed aside the medical bedside table, pushed two single beds together, and laid out new white sheets and blankets.

Without the Mafia’s luxury conditions, nor soft mattresses, neither had any complaints. Because Hyakki could see living things in his mind, Dazai placed a pot of “definitely able to survive” cacti promoted by a business in the ward, serving as both decoration and food, killing two birds with one stone.

Even now, Dazai couldn’t forget the cactus that Hyakki had plucked, stripped of spikes, and eaten.

That thing… is it tasty? He should try it himself next time.

[“Does Dororo grow vegetables indoors?”]

Hyakki gradually learned to express joy under the illusion, easing his facial paralysis. Pupils deeper than Dazai’s looked at the cactus, emitting a green glow in his mind’s eye’s view of the plant.

In his perception, there was never an option to raise flowers and plants; growing vegetables was the only practical choice.

Shou Kai even took him to farm once.

“Go to sleep, you’re not in the Port Mafia anymore.” Dazai went to untie his hair tie, inadvertently touching his hair, causing Hyakki’s body to stiffen momentarily as he subconsciously reached for his back.

[“My spine… just felt like it froze for a moment.”]

In half a month, Hyakki’s height had increased by another 0.5 centimeters.

“Hyakki is growing so fast!”

Dazai held Hyakki’s hand, pulling him in front and comparing their heights.

“I’m 160 centimeters tall now, and Hyakki is 168 centimeters.”

The teenager, eight centimeters shorter than Hyakki, seemed oblivious to any anomaly, enthusiastically sharing various tips to grow taller, immersed in fantasies of being taller than Hyakki in the future.

In this future, there was no option where Hyakki would be immobilized.

—None.

At this moment, Dazai resonated emotionally with his parallel selves across time and space. In some parallel world, the “Dazai” holding a “book” sat in the Port Mafia headquarters, his eyes devoid of light, gazing towards the Armed Detective Agency, spiritually probing memories of other worlds.

Though he couldn’t see Hyakki, he could occasionally glance at his parallel self in other timelines.

To sum it up in one sentence: You don’t understand the joy of screen licking the screen.

The “Dazai” from the parallel world closed the blank literary book, and the “book” disappeared from his palm.

“Among so many parallel universes, only me and another version of myself encountered Hyakki. The world I’m in is like a reflection on the surface of that world’s lake, an inevitable branch of fate.”

“He met Hyakki when he was thirteen…”

“But I…”

“It wasn’t until I found the ‘book’ at fifteen that I learned of Hyakki’s existence, and by then, it was too late.”

In the darkness, the lonely ‘Dazai’ closed his eyes, imagining Hyakki lying beside him in Mori’s clinic, like a child seeking warmth. His puppet wasn’t following Ranpo around or raised by Rokodu President; instead, it quietly embraced him, overcoming the darkness within with resilient humanity.

“Hyakki, just wait a little longer.”

“I don’t know about Kusuo Saiki and Saiki Sosuke in my world. Shiran may be unreliable, but he possesses the most advanced technology across parallel dimensions…”

“You will recover… in this world without Dororo.”

In this world, ‘Dazai’ never encountered Hyakki. Instead, Hyakki met Ranpo, who wasn’t Dororo, and realized Hyakki knew a little Chinese and very little Japanese. Thus, Ranpo taught him how to write his name, and Hyakki no longer sought the missing Dororo and lived earnestly at the Armed Detective Agency.

Fate thus deviated, but the world still cherished Hyakki, allowing ‘Dazai’ to find the ‘book’ and gain memories from many parallel dimensions overnight.

“Hyakki… Leibo Street… Nakahara… Oda Sakunosuke…Sakaguchi Ango… Mimic’s attack… Defection…”

“The Armed Detective Agency… Kunikida Doppo… Newcomer Atsushi Nakajima…”

“Parallel dimensions… Shiran, who destroys worlds…”

Countless memories blurred the memory of the fifteen-year-old ‘Dazai.’ He and his parallel selves were no longer separate, greedily yet cautiously absorbing the joys and sorrows within those memories.

“He” remained himself.

But “he” already had his own goals, achieving unimaginable redemption.

【Protect Hyakki, cure him.】

【Let Sakunosuke live in a world where he can write novels.】

You see, they will all be happy, allowing “him,” this coward, to imagine a future in the darkness and feel joyous.

This is his very own Happy Ending.