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“Ango, you were already somebody before you joined the Mafia. You were an agent for the Home Affairs Ministry’s Special Division for Unusual Powers, a secret government agency. Your mission was to keep an eye on the Mafia and report back to headquarters.”
“……Yes,” Ango replied after a deep sigh.
“While you may be part of a secret organization that presides over the skill users in this country, you wouldn’t make it out unscathed if you took on the Port Mafia head-on. Plus, the mission of the Special Division for Unusual Powers is to manage skill users, not wipe them out. That’s why they sent an agent to infiltrate the Mafia to keep an eye on things. It was an unavoidable measure of action. Am I right?”
That would mean the entire mess that got Ango into the Mafia was set up by the Special Division for Unusual Powers.
“That’s when Mimic came up. This criminal organization of skill users planned on coming to Japan, and they would prove to be another headache for the Special Division for Unusual Powers to deal with. Therefore, they got you to keep an eye on them…as a double agent for the Mafia. Of course, those black-clothed Special Forces—the Division’s task force—would come to your rescue if needed.”
“Being a government official was a thankless job for little money,” Ango claimed with a scowl.
“So that would mean Ango wasn’t a double agent, but a triple agent,” I said.
“Yep.” Dazai nodded. “Well, that’s about the extent of my research. Anyway, enough boring stuff. Let’s drink.”
Glasses were then gently placed before our seats. Usually, we would say cheers after that, but not this time. Perhaps that would never happen again.
Nobody spoke for a while after that. A bitter silence, more bitter than anything on the menu, filled the air between us.
“So…” Ango reluctantly spoke up since no one else would say anything. “Did you come here to affirm our abiding friendship?”
“As if.” Only the corners of Dazai’s lips curled. “We came to get information on Mimic. You knew that.”
“It’s strange. This is the same liquor I always order, yet it has no taste,” Ango muttered while staring at his glass as if he was talking to himself. Then he turned his gaze to me and asked, “The Division’s surveillance group informed us that you met Gide. Did you see his skill?”
I told him I saw that Gide could predict his enemy’s attacks.
“Even the Special Division for Unusual Powers has no way of dealing with that skill.” Ango shook his head. “The only option would be to drop a massive bomb on him…but he’s elusive. We can’t pin him down. The higher-ups apparently intend to let the Mafia deal with this case. After both crime syndicates take each other out, the Special D
ivision for Unusual Powers can just manage whichever group survives, thus never having to sacrifice one of their own.”
Such a brilliant maneuver would be like killing two birds with one stone for the Special Division for Unusual Powers.
“How convenient.” Dazai tilted his head to the side. “But even the Mafia would have a hard time dealing with that skill.” Dazai then looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “…With the exception of one lowest-ranked mafioso, of course.”
“He’s a military veteran in command of countless powerful soldiers,” I mentioned as I stared at my reflection in my drink. “Besides, our skills merely allow us to see a few seconds into the future. Who wins depends on whoever’s more skilled in battle and with a gun.”
Being more skilled with a gun means being able to shoot your opponent from farther away with more accuracy.
“Odasaku’s marksmanship…” Dazai broke into a meaningful grin. “There’s a lot of uncertainty. Plus, there’s also the problem of a skill singularity.”
“Skill singularity?”
“Did anything unusual happen when you used your skill against Gide?”
After thinking about it for a moment, I told him something unusual did, in fact, happen. I saw multiple futures stacked on top of one another.
“It’s a phenomenon the government has started to research only recently.” Ango’s expression was stern as he spoke. “They’ve observed that when multiple skills interact, on rare occasions they’ll careen off into a completely unexpected direction. The details are unclear, but for example…let’s imagine two people are fighting, but both have the skill to always strike first… Or one has the skill to always deceive their opponent while the other has the skill to always see the truth… What would happen? The answer is we don’t know until we try. Most of the time, one skill ends up winning. However, in some rare cases, it leads to a phenomenon that isn’t initiated by either party. The Special Division for Unusual Powers calls this a singularity.”
Maybe what I saw then was a singularity. Or was a singularity something even beyond that?
“I really wasn’t supposed to tell you any of that,” Ango mentioned. “Even the fact that we met here would be a huge problem if the higher-ups in the Home Affairs Ministry ever find out. I’ll need to go into hiding for the time being.”
Dazai looked at Ango, then beamed as he said, “Oh my. It almost sounds like you think you’ll be able to leave here alive, Ango.”
The air froze. Ango’s expression slowly faded away, but Dazai was still smiling.
“I mean, you know what I’m saying, right? An elusive, secret agency of skill users shrouded in darkness—a group of mythical status that sends shivers down the spines of all criminal syndicates in the country—and one of the members from that organization is here right before my eyes. The amount of information I want out of you could create a tome thicker than the dictionary itself. Am I wrong?”
