Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam (Bungo Stray Dogs 1)

It’s a fountain pen and a blue cloth.

“Looks like I couldn’t fool you. Too bad it’s just an ordinary fountain pen.” Dazai cheerfully grins. It’s the same pen he showed the receptionist at the embassy, the one he claimed was his favorite or something.

“Anyone else would have believed you, but it’s going to take a little more than that to fool your partner.”

I unscrew the pen top and take it off, revealing not an ink cartridge but a long, thin electrical device with an exposed circuit. It’s a small transceiver.

“Is this the detonator?”

“…I’m impressed, Kunikida. Nothing gets by you, does it? Incredible.” His smile is cold, inhuman. “I’m so glad you were my partner.”

Those words have me boiling.

“Shut up!”

I point the pistol down and shoot, sending a bullet into the floor by his feet. Dazai doesn’t even bat an eye.

“What do you want?! Why did you threaten the detective agency?! What was the point of killing the missing people and setting the bomb?! You… You were…”

You were so talented.

I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.

“This is my final warning. Tell me everything, or I’ll shoot.”

Who is he? Who is the Azure Apostle? He has others do his bidding before disposing of them without so much as lifting a finger…all while getting the victims involved as well.

Kill the criminal—

—“Then let us realize an ideal world…”

—“Not by the hand of a god but by our own imperfect bloodstained hands.”

It can’t be.

I glance at the blue cloth I swiped from Dazai’s pocket. Have I seen something like this recently?

—“I heard they never found the Azure King’s body, either.”

—“What if he faked his death to escape and is now in hiding somewhere?”

We know who the Azure King was. He used to be a high-ranking government official. However, changing one’s face or background isn’t impossible with the help of a specialist. Even fooling the military police’s forensics unit and faking one’s death isn’t entirely unfathomable. Could it be that…?

—“We looked into his past but found nothing. It’s completely blank.”

Then could Dazai be…?

“Are you— Are you the Azure King? Was this grand scheme of yours all just to get back at the detective agency?”

“Shoot me.”

He grins mirthfully from ear to ear. There’s tranquility in his smile.

“You win, Kunikida. Sho

ot me. You must have received orders to, yes? This is how it should be, and you have every right to.”

“What do you mean I have ‘every right’?!”