Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam (Bungo Stray Dogs 1)
Punish criminals? That sounds just like—
“This is…the only way I could think of.”
“Was there even a point in taking revenge?”
“Detective Dazai, all revenge is meaningless. I just… I had to do it. Even though I knew it was wrong, I had to do it for him or else I felt I might lose control of myself.”
Revenge?
A lot of people hold grudges against the detective agency. The number of those who want to take revenge on us is endless.
“You’re right. Revenge is something you do despite knowing that it’s meaningless. And unfortunately…you didn’t have anyone else to exact revenge upon.”
—“He actually passed away.”
—“He was a man of ideals.”
“Alone, you’re helpless, but with your brain and knowledge of criminals, you were able to punish crooks for their wrongdoings time and time again. That’s why this Azure Apostle plan was something you had to do.”
Dazai pauses, then glances at me before speaking again.
“Every single action of yours was part of a vengeful crusade for your deceased lover—the Azure King.”
The Azure King.
An unusual terrorist who committed crimes to punish criminals.
The detective agency learned of his whereabouts…and now he’s dead.
“There were whispers in the past speculating that he might’ve had an accomplice, given how intricate his crimes were. However, the authorities at the time concluded that while he may have hired some people to help carry out the crimes, there were no signs of an actual accomplice who shared his views. They based their conclusion on the fact that criminals generally band together for two reasons: because they share political views or because they’re splitting the spoils of their crimes. But the Azure Banner Terrorist case wasn’t about money or politics… Nobody even imagined that the Azure King had a romantic partner who was a far better strategist than he was.”
“He was…a man of noble character. The rampant crime pained his heart. He tormented himself searching for a way to create an ideal world where nobody had to suffer. Once he realized that simply obeying the law couldn’t save everyone, he aspired to join those who create the laws—a government official.”
Miss Sasaki continues in a detached manner as if she is releasing pent-up emotions. “And yet, even then, it was a difficult path. The corrupt system, the interference of his colleagues, the misunderstandings from his boss—he was crushed. He agonized over it, and every time he got up, he was knocked back down. Just watching him, I could see that this path he had chosen was no different from walking barefoot over a bed of nails. Then, one day, he simply had enough. He lost his way, unable to realize his ideals, so he tried to slice open his stomach and kill himself. Unable to bear it…I devised an unspeakable plan.”
Dirtying one’s own hands to punish the wicked…
Walking a path of carnage to realize one’s ideals…
“Miss Sasaki, would I be correct to assume that most of the crimes the Azure King committed were your idea? You did it for the man you loved.”
“And I don’t regret it,” she states clearly. “His ideals are my ideals. I would commit acts of pure evil with bloodstained hands just to bring them to fruition.”
“But the Azure King is dead. The detective agency had him cornered, and he killed himself along with Rokuzo’s father. It should’ve ended then.”
“No, it couldn’t be stopped. The plan was only halfway finished back then. There were criminals who still needed to be punished. And…perhaps you will laugh at me, but when faced with the reality of his death, I simply couldn’t live with my own inaction any longer.”
“So you came up with a plan to get the remaining criminals to voluntarily commit crimes so that our detective agency would punish them. You predicted that we’d have to pursue and arrest them if you created a scandal.”
The taxi driver left no evidence of his kidnappings, the bomber Alamta didn’t even exist in Japan as far as the records showed, and the arms dealer was involved in organ trafficking, secretly trying to import weapons. Each case involving these invisible criminals would be extremely difficult to take to court with the current laws and regulations in place.
“The most beautiful thing about your scheme is that you never had to dirty your own hands. In fact, I bet you even had the arms dealers set up the surveillance equipment, prepare an area to confine the kidnapped victims, and make a deal with the bomber Alamta. I bet you didn’t even lift a finger. Even until the very end, the arms dealer and his group believed they were doing everything of their own free will. That’s why there was no evidence. Not even the arms dealers figured out how you, the initial source of the information, intentionally misrepresented the situation. That’s why the only conclusion the authorities could come to was that this was a mishandling of information among arms dealers.”
I felt it when I was pursuing the kidnapper and when I was questioning Dazai: The person behind this will not soil their own hands. A criminal who has committed no crimes cannot be judged by the law.
—Is that really okay?
—Is a world that allows such injustice forgivable?