He still didn’t have an answer. He even felt inexperienced. Fukuzawa had hidden behind his skills as a martial artist, grown frightened of the thrill of killing, and distanced himself from others, choosing to live out his years alone. He was weak and unable to reject these desires, and it even felt as if that weakness coagulated and swelled over time.
But Fukuzawa had undergone a significant change over the past year solving cases with Ranpo. He’d been thrown for a loop, what with Ranpo pulling him every which way while people praised him and begged him for help. It was a chaotic year spent solving cases, sometimes willingly, sometimes not. But he did it all together with Ranpo, and he learned something: what it meant to be a leader, what it meant to help others as a team.
Over the past year, Fukuzawa discovered something he never expected: He still wanted to help others. He wanted to be the shield that protected the weak and the sword that vanquished the unjust. He wanted there to be fewer people who grieved over the death of a loved one at another’s hands. He didn’t want to pretend as if he didn’t notice that the weak were being unfairly exploited. He wanted to be someone who would quietly stand before those who do wrong and scare them, dissuading them from committing misdeeds.
For lack of a better word, what he wanted in the end was justice.
He still wanted to be just. And to not repeat the same mistakes, he needed Ranpo by his side. But not only Ranpo. He needed far more allies who could fight. He wouldn’t be able to protect Ranpo forever, after all. He wanted to create an aria of righteousness that would live on in this violent yet beautiful city for when he or even Ranpo was gone. And for that, he needed a team—people who were strong but kind—an armed, never-ending group of detectives based around Ranpo.
Is this an inordinate ambition, too big for me to handle?
“I beg of you.” Fukuzawa lowered his head. “It wouldn’t be possible to receive permission from the secret government organization, the Special Division for Unusual Powers, through half-hearted efforts. No money, connections, or abilities would ever be enough. That is why I need the help of the man rumored to know everything about this city. I need your help, Souseki Natsume.”
“I see.”
The man took a few steps before stopping in front of Fukuzawa. He quietly gazed into Fukuzawa’s eyes as if he were peering right into his heart, and then…he smiled.
“It won’t be easy.”
That moment…
That moment was the start of it all.
It was the start of an armed organization from Yokohama whose name would soon be well-known even abroad. Standing in the twilight, a group of skill users with extraordinary talents who fought for justice and struck fear into the heart
s of the wicked.
A legendary detective organization that would save countless lives under their president, the skill user Yukichi Fukuzawa.
This was the Armed Detective Agency’s first step forward.
AFTERWORD
How time flies. It feels as if it were only yesterday when the second Bungo Stray Dogs novel was released. I spent too much time writing this novel sitting under the kotatsu, so I ended up hurting my back. Also, I learned I didn’t have any clothes to wear to go buy clothes for meetings, and I lost yet another sock to the abyss. But I’m doing well, despite that. I also have my heart set on never wearing mismatched socks again.
I don’t leave the house much due to the nature of my work, but the other day I went to the zoo for a change, where I saw a bird called a shoebill. It lorded over its surroundings with a piercing gaze befitting of a monarch. “Surrender and serve me or die resisting,” it seemed to say, to which I instinctively responded “Your Excellency!” and bowed. His Excellency’s expression didn’t change; he simply stood still all day, barely even moving every now and then. That’s when I thought to myself, I wish I could exude such a powerful aura and spend the rest of my life doing absolutely nothing, just like His Excellency!
At any rate, that was what I did during the time I wrote this novel. I hope you all enjoyed the two stories.
I would like to take this time to thank everyone for reading this book, and I would also like to extend my gratitude to illustrator Sango Harukawa and Editor I. for their help once more. Well, until we meet again!
KAFKA ASAGIRI