This time, their meeting place was not a teahouse, but a bar tucked away deep inside a narrow alley.
The Shibusawa family's car stopped at the entrance to the alley instead of driving any farther in, observing an unspoken rule. Having already gone through two trials, everyone in the Shibusawa family attached great importance to this meeting.
After all, if the third trial was successfully completed, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko would finally be accepted as a disciple.
It was both a final hurdle and a sign of the respect one ought to show a true teacher.
At eight o'clock that evening, beneath the dim glow of the streetlights, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko arrived as promised.
The white-haired youth resembled a hazy white apparition emerging from a dream.
Today, he wore an elegant Western-style cape coat over a finely tailored silk shirt, its collar neatly tied with a ribbon. At first glance, he looked like someone who belonged beneath the spotlights of a fashion show, not in this cramped alley cluttered with odds and ends, stained by age and overflowing with the ordinary atmosphere of everyday life.
He raised his eyes.
Within those usually devoid of ordinary human empathy crimson eyes, a rare trace of nervousness flickered.
His gaze rested on the bar's sign.
Lupin.
His mind immediately filled with speculation about what awaited him.
A bar...
Was he expected to drink?
His tolerance for alcohol wasn't particularly good.
Or perhaps the test was meant to gauge his knowledge of liquor?
Before coming, he had hurriedly studied up on the subject just in case.
When it came to Asou Akiya, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko could never predict what he was thinking.
That only made him more reluctant to act rashly.
For the first time in a long while, he had lost his confidence.
For a genius with an exceptionally high IQ, that was an enormous blow.
Without even realizing it, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko had lowered himself.
He no longer looked down on others with the same arrogance as before.
Especially after the way he had fulfilled the second requirement.
The method he had used could be interpreted as cheating—or as cleverly finding another path to the same goal.
Everything depended on one question:
Did this man genuinely intend to accept him as a disciple or was he merely agreeing to meet because of pressure from the government?
Passing through the entrance, he descended the staircase leading underground.
From the basement bar drifted the sound of gentle jazz.
Its leisurely melody soothed the weary nerves of people who had just finished a day's work.
Dressed in his Port Mafia attire, Asou Akiya sat on a barstool with his body turned slightly toward the staircase while facing the counter.
One foot rested lightly on the floor, the other propped on the stool's footrest. He held a glass in one hand, lazily swirling the liquor inside. His dark eyes were fixed on the ice cubes and the endless stream of bubbles rising through the drink, as though that simple sight could amuse him forever.
The moment Shibusawa Tatsuhiko stepped into the room, he felt himself immersed in the atmosphere of the underworld.
Something deep within his cold, restrained nerves stirred.
It was anticipation.
Anticipation for the trial to come.
For observing this man...
And for obtaining his power.
"Akiya-san."
Hearing the voice, Akiya turned his head.
Just as expected, he found himself looking at a beautiful white-haired youth whose indifferent expression carried an unsettling hint of the uncanny.
Some people became more beautiful the more poisonous their hearts were.
To neutralize that poison one needed the right medicine.
At present, the best remedy was writing.
To use literature to untangle the knots within one's heart.
"Have a seat."
Akiya gestured toward the empty stool beside him before turning to the owner behind the bar, who looked every bit the part of a bartender.
"He's eighteen now. Is he allowed to drink?"
After polishing a glass and setting it down, the owner replied,
"Japanese law says you have to be twenty to drink."
"What a pity," Akiya said with a smile. "It seems Shibusawa-kun is still underage."
The owner added,
"...Although, if it's a request from Akiya-san, I don't mind. I won't tell anyone."
The stern-looking bartender had apparently learned how to joke.
"Besides, Akiya-san was already coming here before he was an adult. It's a little late to start worrying about that now."
Resting his chin on one hand, Akiya smiled gently.
"You're right. Back then, I was just a kid."
As Shibusawa Tatsuhiko listened to their conversation, he quietly pieced together another fragment of Asou Akiya's past.
These were the trivial details that would never appear in any official file.
Before reaching adulthood, Akiya had already been drinking in bars.
The owner turned to Shibusawa Tatsuhiko.
"What would you like to drink?"
"I'll have the same thing as Akiya-san."
Shibusawa Tatsuhiko chose to go with the flow.
"Smart choice," Akiya teased with a chuckle. "I ordered something with a low alcohol content. If I go home smelling too strongly of liquor, it'll be hard to explain myself."
"Does your... significant other keep you on a tight leash?" Shibusawa Tatsuhiko asked, seizing the opportunity to probe their relationship.
"That's called concern."
Taking a sip of his drink, Akiya answered casually.
"When concern is born out of love and willingly accepted, it isn't restraint. A person who has no roots and no home drifts through life without ever finding their center of gravity."
He turned the question around.
"Shibusawa-kun, you have both a family and a clan. So why has no one been able to hold you back?"
This time, it was Akiya who was curious about him.
Shibusawa Tatsuhiko did not dismiss the question. Recalling his own life, he answered honestly.
"Probably because I've never fit in with them."
"Was it because of your power, your intellect, or something else?"
"My personality."
A faint smile touched his lips.
What he pursued in life was the ultimate expression of humanity itself—beauty, good and evil intertwined. The pursuit brought him a spiritual ecstasy akin to glimpsing heaven while still standing in the mortal world. It was something detached from ordinary society, something people could neither understand nor accept.
"Akiya-san, if you're only here to lecture me, then the people hired to counsel me have already said everything there is to say."
"Were you tired of hearing it?"
"Yes."
"And did it ever occur to you that I might simply tell you to get lost?"
"No."
Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's crimson eyes met his.
"You understand me. You see through what I seek. And you don't despise me."
Before coming here, that had been his greatest concern.
But the moment he arrived and saw Asou Akiya's relaxed demeanor—and the clarity in his eyes, still untainted despite living in the darkness—he immediately sensed a kindred quality.
This man, too, possessed beliefs that transcended the rules of society.
Beyond good and evil...
Lay one's true heart.
Edogawa Ranpo was not inherently a man of virtue, yet he had chosen to stand on the side of the light.
Chuuya Nakahara was kind and righteous, yet he had chosen to stand on the side of darkness.
Shibusawa Tatsuhiko said, "The fact that you were able to nurture those two already says everything."
After a few drinks, Asou Akiya was completely at ease. "So, you figured it out."
Behind the bar, the owner finished mixing a cocktail and slid it over to Shibusawa Tatsuhiko before turning to Asou Akiya.
"Akiya-san, would you like me to step out for a while?"
Akiya waved him off. "No need. We're just talking about some ordinary matters. There's nothing worth making a fuss over. Please, carry on with your work."
The owner glanced at the infrequent visitor. Akiya had once financially supported this bar, so naturally he respected the man's privacy. As for the other guest—the pale, aloof youth who looked as though he had been carved from lifeless ivory...
With his years of experience serving every kind of customer imaginable, the owner knew at a glance that this was someone who was absolutely not to be provoked.
"Ordinary matters?" Shibusawa Tatsuhiko murmured.
Resting the rim of his glass against his lips, Akiya gave him a half-smile.
"Don't make things sound so serious. At the end of the day, it's not as though I was your only option. You simply thought my abilities were rather good."
Once again, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko had seen his true objective laid bare. A faint flush spread across his cheeks, though it was not born of embarrassment. Outside of his obsession with "black magic," he simply wasn't capable of that sort of emotion.
He looked directly at Asou Akiya, delight at finding someone of the same kind intertwining with the cruelty lurking within him.
Sometimes, having someone see straight through you could be its own kind of happiness.
"You truly are one of my own kind."
"No, I'm not. Go tell Ranpo that instead."
"Ranpo-kun is too childish."
"So are you."
Asou Akiya couldn't help but scoff. This guy had come seeking a master while secretly intending to kill him and seize his treasure. Fortunately, Akiya had already read the script. Otherwise, he might have been fooled—and by the time he realized it, he would already be dead without even knowing how it happened.
Strangely enough, he had never considered rejecting him.
Once he concluded that even if Shibusawa died, he could still obtain what he wanted from the corpse, Akiya decided to properly discipline the young man instead and see whether he would still walk down the same doomed path.
Danger and exhilaration had always gone hand in hand.
Many years ago, he had already fallen in love with the thrill of testing his balance on a tightrope.
Danger and exhilaration had always gone hand in hand. Many years ago, he had already fallen in love with the thrill of testing his balance on a tightrope.
"Shibusawa-kun, let me make one thing clear first—I am not a good teacher."
"May I start calling you Sensei now then?"
"No. Keep dreaming."
Asou Akiya shut him down without hesitation. The White Qilin had spent so long playing the obedient, well-behaved young man that even his attempt to seize an opportunity and push his luck came across as awkward and naive. He still had a long way to go.
The smile at the corners of Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's lips slowly faded.
If he had to endure one more humiliating experience on the same level as writing, even he would find it unbearable.
"As for the third condition..." Beneath the warm amber glow of the bar's lights, Asou Akiya seemed to have thought of something amusing. He fixed his gaze on Shibusawa Tatsuhiko with the unmistakable look of someone searching for entertainment.
Absentmindedly, he ran his tongue over an ice cube in his glass. The chill spread across his mouth as the alcohol stung his taste buds.
It had been a long time since he had spent an evening at Bar Lupin.
In the future, would this become the gathering place of the Buraiha Trio? Or would it turn into a favorite haunt for literary figures to sit and chat? No one knew. Everything lay in the not-so-distant future, waiting to unfold.
"Your family holds quite a bit of power, doesn't it?"
"...Yes."
"I heard the day the awards were announced happened to be your birthday, so I'll let that incident slide. As a small punishment for abusing your family's influence, this time I'll be testing your patience and your learning."
Asou Akiya had never once abandoned his determination to persuade these literary geniuses to pick up their pens.
He lightly clinked his glass against Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's.
"Go teach a child how to write. The theme is 'Love for Life'. Have that child personally write a novel that satisfies me. The minimum length is ten thousand words. I want to see you use relatively normal methods to guide someone into discovering the beauty of life."
"...All right."
Since he wasn't the one being asked to write, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko felt that fortune had finally smiled upon him for once.
Love for life?
Even if they didn't love life, he could still make them write about it!
Countless methods for accomplishing the task flashed through Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's mind. His eyelashes trembled, and a gleam lit his crimson eyes as he asked in a tone that struck Asou Akiya as astonishingly innocent and guileless,
"Isn't that a little too easy?"
Looking at the White Qilin with almost affectionate amusement, Akiya smiled.
"It is. It's practically a free point."
After all, the last person who had received such a "free-point question" had been Edogawa Ranpo.
"One more condition. You're not allowed to tell anyone this assignment came from me."
"That has nothing to do with me."
"I wish you the best of luck."
...
After their casual conversation at the bar, Asou Akiya left Shibusawa Tatsuhiko behind and returned home alone.
Randou was playing the piano, his back resembling that of a romantic French pianist.
The quiet night possessed a charm all its own.
Only...
There was an unmistakable sadness woven into the music.
It was only after Akiya drew near that he noticed Randou's hands had turned pale from repeated washing, carrying a lingering chill. He gently enclosed them in his own and breathed warm air over them.
"Why didn't you wait for me in the bedroom?"
Feeling the warmth of his lover's body, the unpleasantness Randou had carried home from work gradually melted away.
"I killed someone today." Leaning against Akiya's chest, Randou spoke in a quiet voice.
"I know." Akiya regretted not coming home sooner.
Saying nothing more, he wrapped his arms around Randou, who worked in the Black Lizard unit, while his thoughts raced, trying to determine which organization had clashed with them this time.
"I killed children today... Boys about the same age as Ranpo-kun, and some even younger. I gave them deaths that spared them any suffering."
Randou murmured softly.
"I don't like killing children. They have futures waiting for them, lives in which they could grow. To have those futures cut short by my own hands... what a waste."
Asou Akiya gently stroked Randou's hair, silently offering him comfort and strength.
Catching the faint scent of alcohol on Akiya's breath, Randou felt a trace of grievance well up inside him. His emerald eyes seemed ready to mist over, his handsome features clouded with melancholy. Even the melody beneath his fingers had become subdued and sorrowful.
"Akiya... you came home so late."
Akiya's heart softened.
"I'm sorry."
Randou shook his head. "I don't want an apology. Tell me something that will make me happy."
Akiya racked his brain.
"I'll take some time off, and we'll go traveling together."
Randou refused to be placated so easily. Toying with the black necktie at Akiya's collar, he said, "You would have done that anyway. Don't use it to coax me—it won't work."
After a moment's thought, Asou Akiya said, "I won't let you keep doing things you hate."
Randou immediately stopped fidgeting with the tie and looked embarrassed.
"I wanted to help you. Actually, I was just joking..."
Akiya smiled.
"I wasn't belittling you, Randou. Everyone has their own limits. The fact that you can face the darkness head-on and still complete your missions already makes you remarkable."
"Randou, the Port Mafia is becoming more and more chaotic. The Black Lizard keeps getting dragged into one dangerous situation after another. Let's leave Yokohama for a while."
"How would we leave…?"
"On a business trip. We'll find a convincing excuse and go together."
Holding Randou close, Akiya lowered his voice.
"When we come back, I'll figure out a way to have you promoted to Sub-Executive ahead of schedule. Haven't you always wanted to be my personal bodyguard? This time, my entire trip will depend on you. We'll work together, and we'll bear the price of climbing higher together."
As he spoke, Akiya glanced upstairs.
Edogawa Ranpo and Nakahara Chuuya were secretly peeking down at them from above. Asou Akiya silently gestured for the two of them to go back to their rooms.
Edogawa Ranpo pulled Nakahara Chuuya into his room and shut the door behind them.
The moment the door closed, Chuuya blurted out, "Why wouldn't he let me go comfort Randou-san?"
"It wouldn't help," Ranpo replied. "If Randou-san saw us, he'd only feel worse."
Chuuya recalled the conversation downstairs.
"The Port Mafia..."
Ranpo deliberately tried to scare him. "If you joined the Mafia, Little Orange Cat would definitely be terrified. You'd probably end up crying! You'd be much better off sticking with Ranpo-sama!"
Chuuya answered without the slightest hesitation, "I wouldn't be afraid!"
Wherever Akiya and Randou-san were, no matter how dark that place might be, that was where he wanted to be.
Seeing his unwavering resolve, Ranpo couldn't help feeling a little envious.
"When I first met Akiya, I wanted to go where he worked too. But no matter what I said, he absolutely refused to let me."
Chuuya blinked in surprise.
"Why?"
Ranpo lowered his head.
"Akiya told me that I was going to become the world's greatest detective. For the sake of that goal and so my parents could be proud of me, I must never step into the darkness."
Chuuya reached over and patted him on the shoulder.
"Do your best."
"Yeah," Ranpo replied with a nod.
After a long silence, Chuuya slowly realized something and asked, "If Akiya and Randou-san go away on a business trip... what happens to the two of us?"
Ranpo froze.
"I... I'm going to be left in someone else's care again."
Fukuzawa-ossan was absolutely terrifying in private!
If he didn't go to bed on time, he'd get scolded. If he didn't eat properly, he'd get scolded. If he lazed around in bed and refused to get up, he'd get scolded.
This was Akiya's "scheme" all along—to make sure the two of them were properly settled, with food to eat and a roof over their heads, so that even if he one day kicked them out into the world, he would never have to worry about them starving on the streets.
"No, I have to go talk to Akiya!"
"Talk to him about what?"
"My allowance needs to be doubled!"
"..."
Is that really all the ambition you have, Ranpo?
Nakahara Chuuya, who has many companions back in Suribachi City and never having to worry about food or shelter, looked at him with undisguised contempt.