Changing a family from within was far more difficult than pressuring it from the outside.
Once Shuuji was taken away from the Tsushima household, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's situation changed completely. No longer frustrated at every turn, he single-handedly forced Tsushima Gen'emon into submission. Though seething with anger, Gen'emon didn't dare voice a word. He had never imagined that the courteous young heir of a prestigious family who had always treated him with respect would suddenly bare his fangs, cornering him so completely that he no longer even had the courage to demand the return of his youngest son.
Politically, economically, and in terms of influence, the Tsushima family was already a setting sun, teetering on the brink of collapse!
Gen'emon watched dejectedly as Tatsuhiko walked away.
The only people qualified to call Tatsuhiko an "honest fellow" were Asou Akiya and Edogawa Ranpo. To everyone else, the White Kirin was every bit the dangerous individual his reputation suggested.
"Tsushima-dono."
"Let's end today's business here."
Tatsuhiko smiled faintly and personally slid the meeting room door shut behind him.
A few seconds later, the sound of a body collapsing came from inside.
One of the ability-user bodyguards hidden beside Tsushima Gen'emon had died at the hands of his own ability. Until the very last moment, he had shown no sign of distress. Terror still lingered on his face, as though he had witnessed something utterly unimaginable.
Gen'emon stood frozen.
An ability user... had died?
Just like that, right before his eyes.
Without the slightest chance to resist.
Killed in an instant.
Since when had the world become so terrifying?!
Over the next two days, Akiya continued arranging meetings between Tatsuhiko and Shuuji. This time, however, everything took place under his watchful eye instead of leaving Tatsuhiko to his own devices.
And, contrary to his previous behavior, Tatsuhiko devoted himself wholeheartedly to teaching Shuuji, no longer treating the task halfheartedly.
Shuuji wore an expression of complete indifference.
Writing? You want me to write a novel about loving life?
Is that Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's apprenticeship assignment? Did you really think I'd let you succeed?
During the day, Asou Akiya and Randou would tour museums and sightsee around Aomori Prefecture, returning at noon or in the evening to check on Shuuji's progress as a writer. It quickly became obvious that Shuuji's interest lay in reading novels, not writing them. Everything he produced was little more than perfunctory nonsense meant to brush them off.
Thanks to him, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's patience was increasing at an astonishing rate.
Tatsuhiko's inner monologue:
Don't lose your temper.
Don't strangle him.
Akiya-sensei is watching. I have to make him cherish life... I have to make him smile happily.
In mid-May, on the final day of the first week, Tatsuhiko received Shuuji's latest manuscript.
Every page overflowed with sarcasm and mockery aimed squarely at him. There was even a crying stick figure doodled in the margin, as if it were dancing across Tatsuhiko's last remaining nerve.
He finally admitted defeat.
There was no way he could change Shuuji in such a short time.
Gentle guidance wasn't working.
He needed stronger medicine.
The darkness lurking within Tatsuhiko also began to stir. Carrying a hint of melancholy, he walked over to Akiya.
"Akiya-sensei, may I use other methods?"
Akiya let out a sigh.
"Before you do that, you should discuss it with Shuuji-kun."
Tatsuhiko frowned.
"Discuss what?"
Akiya looked at him—the Tatsuhiko who had always acted on his own and had only recently begun to change.
"What you want to do isn't something that concerns only yourself."
Taking his teacher's advice to heart, Tatsuhiko turned and walked over to Shuuji.
"...?"
Shuuji was busy folding paper airplanes out of his manuscript pages.
A paper airplane sailed through the air, bumped into Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's nose, and was casually swatted aside with a slap.
"Shuuji-kun, would you like to 'play' a game with me?"
"Play what?"
"Your family, your relatives; everything you hate."
"..."
The idle Shuuji fell silent.
Tatsuhiko waited for his answer. As the silence dragged on, a trace of contempt crept into his expression.
Just as he was about to give up, Shuuji tilted his head and asked lightly,
"Does playing games make people happy?"
"I don't know," Tatsuhiko replied. "The unknown is what makes it interesting."
Shuuji smiled.
Tatsuhiko watched that smile and maliciously remarked, "I'd advise you not to smile so much. You're missing a tooth. Want me to describe what you look like when you smile?"
Shuuji's smile vanished instantly.
The fate of the Tsushima family was decided in a conversation between two boys who were barely more than children themselves.
Asou Akiya did not interfere with their discussion. Instead, he organized the shopping bags piled up in the living room. No matter where they traveled, Randou's urge to shop was always irresistibly awakened.
"Akiya, how much longer are we staying here?"
"It should be over soon."
He had absolute faith in the scriptwriter team's ability to stir up trouble.
Lounging on the sofa and idly scrolling through his phone, Randou suddenly asked, "Akiya, are you related to the Tsushima family by blood?"
Asou Akiya shook his head.
"You really do look alike," Randou said.
Asou Akiya smiled. "TV dramas have to follow logic, reality doesn't. You never know just how absurdly coincidental and downright ridiculous life can be."
Randou looked away from the video playing on his phone.
The footage showed, from beginning to end, the glorious moment Akiya had been bitten.
"You sound like you've given this a lot of thought, Akiya."
"I have."
He, too, had wanted to travel back in time and become Shuuji's older brother, changing the boy's life from the very beginning.
The problem was...
He hadn't been given that choice.
"Just like you, Randou. Maybe one day you'll suddenly recover your memories. There's no logic to these things."
"Really? Then I'll look forward to it."
Randou replied cheerfully.
As he spoke, he accidentally pressed the volume button.
The video immediately filled the room with the sound of a man's agonized screams.
The instant Akiya recognized it, he lunged over in a panic.
"Don't keep recordings like that! That was an accident! I never expected him to bite me!"
Randou promptly hid his phone inside his subspace, refusing to hand it over.
"My exclusive collector's item~."
After all, it captured the rare sight of Akiya actually failing.
Beginning that very day, the Tsushima family started to unravel.
Rival families learned that the Tsushima household's ability-user bodyguard had died, leaving their security drastically weakened. The first to suffer were Tsushima Gen'emon's children living outside the main residence. His three sons were struck by mysterious bouts of "illness," while scandals surrounding his four married daughters surfaced one after another.
The retaliation Tsushima Gen'emon had feared most had finally arrived.
His political enemies had made their move.
"No...! I reached an agreement with the Shibusawa family! With them backing me, how could these people dare attack me so openly? They're testing me, I can't lose my composure, t-they wouldn't dare...!" The man in his sixties grew so anxious that his hair rapidly turned gray.
Dizzy spells came one after another. His blood pressure climbed, and even his own body began to feel unwell.
"Shuuji..."
He was his only remaining lifeline.
Tsushima Gen'emon had completely lost contact with his youngest son. All he knew was that the boy was staying at a hotel somewhere in Aomori Prefecture, and the Shibusawa family had forbidden anyone he sent from approaching it.
When Heaven intends to destroy someone, it first drives them to madness.
Tsushima Gen'emon grew desperate to see Shuuji. Resorting to emotional manipulation, he ordered his three sons to return to the family estate overnight and try every possible means to meet their younger brother.
Standing by the hotel's window, Shuuji silently watched the three relatives being stopped downstairs.
Their faces were utterly ordinary, yet the desperation with which they clung to life made them look like dogs crawling on the ground.
They wanted him to heal them, to use what they believed was a healing-type ability.
There seemed to be a hole in Shuuji's chest, through which an icy wind endlessly blew. Unlike the anger he felt toward Akiya for inadvertently ruining his life, he had never possessed enough strength to truly hate his own family.
Hatred? Why would I waste my energy hating them?
A bunch of idiots.
"Didn't you all tried your best to avoid me before?" Shuuji murmured, "But now that your lives are on the line, suddenly the shame of seeing your little brother doesn't matter anymore."
He didn't know what it felt like to desperately want to keep living.
But he knew they were pitiful fools.
From behind, Akiya gently covered Shuuji's eyes with his hands.
"Don't look anymore."
He felt no pity whatsoever for the fate awaiting the Tsushima family. All he felt was heartache for Shuuji, because the rot in that family ran all the way to its roots.
"No, I want to watch. I want to see every last detail."
Shuuji pulled Akiya's hands away and leaned closer until his forehead rested against the cold windowpane.
"They're begging me."
"My brothers and sisters, they're all begging me to come back."
"Hehe."
The brown-haired boy smiled, looking every bit like a little devil.
"I'll wait a little longer—I'll wait until Father comes. How will he beg me?"
Asou Akiya listened to the cheerful sound of Shuuji's voice and frowned ever so slightly.
Will you really be happy?
...
Under Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's guidance, every dirty secret the Tsushima family had concealed since the war was dragged into the light. The entire clan descended into panic, everyone fearing for themselves. Their former allies either backed away in terror or eagerly kicked them while they were down, afraid of being implicated in the family's impending downfall.
"My youngest son is a precious healing-type ability user!"
The Tsushima family finally woke from the illusion of protection cast by the Shibusawa family. They no longer pinned their hopes on them, desperately reaching out to other influential families instead, offering whatever they could in exchange for survival.
"Please save the Tsushima family! We aren't finished yet—my son is an ability user!"
"I can trade him... in exchange for the family's survival..."
"I haven't lost—!"
"The war is over! What right do you have to judge me for things that happened in the past?!"
"No, no, no—you have no authority to investigate the Tsushima family!"
Tsushima Gen'emon was imprisoned.
The charge was financing war criminals during the war and undermining the nation's peace and stability.
His chronic hypertension caused repeated attacks, but driven by paranoia, he became convinced he had fallen victim to an enemy's ability and would die just like his eldest and second sons.
He went mad, demanding to see his youngest son.
The once foremost family of Aomori Prefecture collapsed almost overnight, never to rise again.
The mountain of evidence nailed Tsushima Gen'emon permanently to the pillar of shame.
Before the trial began, Tsushima Shuuji went to see his father.
The man was clutching his head in agony, his mind clouded and delirious. He no longer trusted a single word from those around him, rambling incoherently that he had been struck by an ability and demanding an ability doctor to cure him—or else he was going to die.
In his dazed state, Tsushima Gen'emon caught sight of his youngest son's figure.
"Shuuji— Shuuji!"
Tsushima Shuuji stopped in front of him. His father's hands and feet were shackled, leaving him unable to break free. He stared at his son with a desperate, twisted longing to live.
"Father, no one has cursed you. You're just sick—sick in your heart."
Drawn by his father's frantic calls, Shuuji reached out and gently touched the old man's weathered cheek.
It was covered in wrinkles—and consumed by desire.
"See? I touched you, and you're still not getting better."
"You're beyond saving."
With that, Shuuji started to withdraw his hand.
But his father pleaded, "Just let me hit you one more time— I will recover! And your brothers and sisters will recover too..."
Shuuji looked at him in confusion.
"What about me?"
Tsushima Gen'emon gazed back with clouded, uncomprehending eyes, unable to grasp what his youngest son meant.
Shuuji asked quietly, "Then... who will heal me?"
Who... will save me?
...
Tsushima Gen'emon was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
After speaking with Natsume Souseki over the phone, Asou Akiya confirmed that the man would not be getting out anytime soon. The political influence backing the Tsushima family had finally been exhausted.
At last, he had seen this matter brought to its conclusion.
The resentment that had weighed on his heart had finally been laid to rest.
"Next, let's take Shuuji back to Yokohama. It's about time he met Ranpo and Chuuya."
"Sounds good."
Randou was looking forward to seeing how those two would react when they met Tsushima Shuuji.
A parent's mischievous sense of amusement.
Asou Akiya asked, "Where's Shuuji? Where did he go?"
Randou replied, "Tatsuhiko took him back to his family home. He said he wanted Shuuji to finish his revenge and, hopefully, finally smile again."
He teasingly turned to Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's "teacher".
"You know, the way you phrased that assignment makes him sound like some shady creep with ulterior motives."
Akiya shrugged. "That's just Tatsuhiko's terrible way of expressing himself. No one ever taught him how to make friends. I can tell he's wholeheartedly trying to carry out what I asked of him."
It was rare to meet someone capable of turning a good deed into something that looked downright suspicious.
Fortunately, as time passed, Shuuji came to understand Tatsuhiko's true intentions. He had even taken to provoking him whenever he could, looking more energetic and full of life each day.
The thought of the boy's bright, lovable smile made Akiya's heart waver.
Shuuji, who had grown up sheltered within the house, possessed an innate fragility. His eyes were clear and innocent, leaving an impression completely unlike Dazai Osamu's.
This should help him leave the shadows of his childhood behind...
Provided, of course, that he wasn't just putting on an act in front of him...
...
A text message appeared on Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's phone.
[Tatsuhiko, watch out for him trying to kill himself.]
...
The Tsushima family's ancestral estate.
Tsushima Shuuji returned here for the last time.
Skipping along with light, carefree steps, he went to see the "cage" that had imprisoned him for seven years.
He was free.
No one would ever force him to become a good child again.
He had taken his revenge.
He watched that man go to prison with his own eyes. He watched his relatives descend into panic after losing the family's protection, no longer able to enjoy the wealth and privilege they had once taken for granted.
"Don't follow me."
Just as Shibusawa Tatsuhiko was about to follow him inside to keep an eye on him, Tsushima Shuuji stopped him.
Turning back, Shuuji said, "Writing is out of the question, but if you don't get in my way, I'll give you the smile you want as a gift."
Tatsuhiko looked at him. "Will you keep your promise?"
Shuuji lightly hopped over the threshold without taking off his shoes and walked into the room.
"I always keep my promises."
Hearing that, Tatsuhiko chose not to follow him inside. Hidden from Shuuji's view, an unreadable expression crossed his face as he took out his phone and replied to a text message.
In a way, Shuuji thought, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko is even more innocent than I am.
Still, he truly had no intention of breaking his word. Wouldn't that make him nothing more than a despicable liar?
How ugly.
He would never become the kind of person he despised.
He went to his father's room, then his mother's, rummaging through much of the house. He smashed a few things along the way before finally making his way, in high spirits, to the room where he used to live.
He pulled open a drawer.
Inside lay a small paper knife.
"So it's still here."
Picking it up, Tsushima Shuuji casually traced the blade across his wrist a few times. The gesture was almost playful, yet chillingly dangerous.
"I look so pathetic like this..."
"But..."
"I still want to try."
How could he smile from the bottom of his heart?
It was so difficult.
He really had been trying.
Closing his eyes, he drove the blade down.
The image of the hanging figure beneath the cherry blossom tree flashed through his mind.
Death...
Tsushima Shuuji lay on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. A faint smile curved his lips—the quiet joy of realizing he no longer had to keep struggling to live.
He had wanted to do this for so long.
He had wanted to leave this world for so long.
Goodbye.
This… was the only thing he could offer in return.
...
That same day, an ambulance rushed to the Tsushima family's ancestral estate.
Covered in blood, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko walked outside to meet Asou Akiya and Randou, who had hurried over after receiving the news that Tsushima Shuuji had attempted suicide at home.
"Akiya-sensei, I've completed the extra task you gave me."
"..."
"He smiled."
"..."
"He just doesn't seem very fond of living."
"...Tatsuhiko, where is he?"
"He's still alive. I stitched the wound shut with the needle and thread I carry with me."
Shibusawa Tatsuhiko calmly held up the bloodstained needle, his expression perfectly composed.
"It was his first suicide attempt. He lacked experience and didn't cut deeply enough. Before he could lose enough blood, the wound had already begun to clot."
Then, with unmistakable admiration, he added,
"Akiya-sensei, you're amazing. Did you foresee this as well?"
Asou Akiya: ...
Randou: ...
The couple shared the exact same thought at that moment:
We really could've done without this!