Bungo Stray Dogs: Another Story: Yukito Ayatsuji vs. Natsuhiko Kyougoku by Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa

Author:Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa [Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yen On
Published: 2024-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

Inside Passenger Train / Morning / Cloudy

The black train car transporting Kubo and Ayatsuji made its way forward beneath the suddenly cloudy, gray sky. The railroad tracks screeched, the car wobbling like an elderly herbivore running as quickly as it could.

It wasn’t long before the train found its way into an underground tunnel, making it no longer possible to track from aboveground.

Two men were inside the brightly lit train car, leaning against the wall near the door. One was Kubo, a murderer known as the Engineer, still gleefully grinning as he stared into the darkness outside the window. The second man—the Homicide Detective, Yukito Ayatsuji—remained perfectly still with his eyes closed and his arms crossed. The conductor’s car was empty; instead, there were multiple machines stacked on top of one another, which automatically controlled the train’s speed.

“Hey, Detective. How long have you been at this job?” the Engineer suddenly asked.

“Twenty years,” Ayatsuji replied, his eyes still closed.

“Seriously? So ever since you were in diapers, eh? How many cases have you solved?”

“Fifty thousand.”

“Sheesh. And how many people have you killed?”

“Two billion.”

“…Detective,” Kubo said, frowning. “I get that you don’t want to talk to a criminal, but do not underestimate me.”

“Oh? Why should I?” Ayatsuji asked, opening his eyes a crack.

“I’m just taking a joy ride back to my hideout. You, on the other hand, were coerced into being here. We’re not the same. You should be trembling in your boots trying to study me. Do you even realize that?”

“Yes,” the detective replied coldly. “You’re absolutely right. We’re not the same. I don’t go around committing crimes and acting like I’m special after being spoon-fed information from someone in a well.”

“Excuse me?” Kubo’s expression changed.

“Did you honestly believe that no one else knew about the well?”

Ayatsuji glared back at Kubo, then took out his pipe as leisurely as he would at home before placing it between his lips.

“A well that grants people evil. It sounds like any other urban legend: very cliché and unimaginative. But beneath it is an extremely elaborate, clever selection system for finding someone with the brains and malice to commit the perfect crime.”

Kubo looked flabbergasted. “You’ve…already figured that much out, huh?”

“The trick to breaking a case is to solve the easy stuff the fastest,” Ayatsuji replied. “At the bottom of the well was an ISBN code for the first edition of The Selfish Gene. It’s a very famous book even today. You can find it just about anywhere. But the original 1976 edition has collector’s value.”

The detective lit his pipe and slowly inhaled.

“Of course, that also means it’s not so easy to obtain. I had the Division search secondhand bookstores throughout the country for a copy, but they came up empty-handed. The only other option is overseas auction sites. When I looked into it, I found multiple used foreign-book sites that had been tampered with. This ‘program’ detected people who purchased The Selfish Gene at a specific time and place and sent them certain other information with the book.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.