"Ua…"
Let out a weird moan, I lazily opened my eyes. In front of me is a simple white wall with some stain, which I doubt is the remaining of someone before me.
I turned my eyes to the side, where resides a simple stove stitched on the wall, and someone else is cooking with it. Sitting on the table relatively close to it, someone else, who's the original owner of this place, turned to me with a bright look.
"Good morning, Jouno-san."
"Good morning… Atsushi-san.'
Yep, the man sitting in the table just a few steps from me is the most wanted head of the verse, Nakajima Atsushi.
"Good morning, Jouno-san. Breakfast's ready."
With an emotionless voice, the girl who's cooking just now brings out the dishes on the table and resides beside Atsushi. Atsushi then picked up his sticks and started to eat them, which is only a fish, miso and a bowl of white rice, as his eyes widened from the first bite.
"It smells real good, Kyouka!"
"Thanks for your compliment, Sushi-san."
And the girl is, you guessed it, Kyouka Izumi, one of Atsushi close friends, and possibly his love interest, now taking a glint at Atsushi happily eating her food with a distinguished look.
Apparently, after gotten free from the truck, he immediately looked for Kyouka, who's just wandering around after my intervere, and brought her back to the Agency.
After a really long talk, with countless swears and promises from our main protagonist, the Agency finally agrees to let her temporarily join the Agency, but he has to watch over her the whole time.
And with that, she moved in with Atsushi just by this yesterday, which coincidentally the same time as I moved in with him after Ranpo's suggestion.
For me, after reading his long story about how he basically become a "babysitter" for Lala, which honestly could be another story of its own, Aya and I departed quickly after.
And at that moment is when I remember that I have no place to go…
With a sorrowful sigh, I slowly dragged my feet back to the Agency, with the intention of pleasing the Agency permission to stay at the office for the night.
But right when arriving at the stairs, I somehow bumped into one of the most famous main characters from the manga, one that I secretly stole his money from earlier…
"Never seen ya before. Are you a newbie?"
"Yeah… Dazai-san."
"You know my name?"
"Ranpo did tell me a lot about you earlier."
" … I see."
Dazai slightly frowned with a doubting look, one that I should be shaking in my boot all afraid by now, if not for the fact that I already knew about him before and experienced this feeling already…
"Hm… you pass."
With a funny gesture, he knocked on my head. After that, he made a call to someone, to which I immediately realized as Atsushi on the other side, arranging something with him.
"Done, now come to this address…"
Finished the call, he immediately took out a paper and pen, wrote something on the paper and handed it to me.
"… This should solve your problem from now on."
Let out a friendly smile, he turned around and walked away as I let out yet another sigh…
… I'm busted. First Ranpo, and now him…
Lucky me! First step to get in touch with both Ranpo and Dazai, done!
With that, I happily skipped all the way to Atsushi apartment, somehow almost bumped into Kyouka at the door just as Atsushi opened the door to greet me…
"Itadakimasu!"
And that led us to the morning, where I had breakfast along with Atsushi and Kyouka, secretly judging Kyouka's food one by one…
… Honestly, not much to praise for. The fish is decent but just that, the rice is barely over the standard, and the miso… it's tasted a bit down actually. Overall, not really excited in any way.
Oh well, I'll make one tomorrow, not like I'm gonna outright deny a free meal in front of me, especially at this time.
"So… is it true, Jouno-san?"
Atsushi then reluctantly questioned me, and I leer back at him with a confused look.
"What do you mean?"
"Are you really from another… universe entirely?"
I immediately stop my chopstick, looking deep into his eyes with a burning yet surprising gaze, one that makes Atsushi outright look away to avoid.
… Dazai caught on with the wind already?! And he's willing to tell the truth to this tigerboy this easily?!
Damn… should've expected his attitude first. Oh well, if that's the case then I have no need to pretend with him in the future then.
"Yep."
I casually shrugged with his question, as my intense attitude from before mysteriously disappeared. Atsushi then looked at me with a dumbfounded look, confused about what had just happened before reluctantly shrugging it off.
"Sorry for that earlier… Did I frighten you, Jouno-san?"
"Nope ~ Was more of a surprise than afraid."
I quickly responded to Atsushi while slowly drinking the miso, and the guy slightly bit his lips with a difficult look before asking again.
"So it's real, that you know about my future and past?"
"Both yours and Kyouka, yes."
"…"
Kyouka's gaze suddenly became more intense right after my casual response, which I had already anticipated, but still kept quiet watching the scene playout.
She must've been eager to know about her past, the truth about the night, and whether it's true that her "ability" responded to her parents death or else…
"For the record, I suggest you start training with your ability right now, as hard as you can. Or else… I doubt you could actually be alive in the next 4 months."
"Ugh…?!"
I then give him a heads-up while indulging my head in the rice, as Atsushi's face becomes really confused. I don't really want to give him the spoiler, since I doubt he could actually do anything to prevent that, but this should be enough for him to work with.
He didn't mean that Atsushi is dumb or anything, since not even Dazai can foresee such BS in Fyodor ability, but more of a "Atsushi doesn't have a strategize mindset".
"I see…"
Mumbling such words, Atsushi looks into the bowl with a frown along with Kyouka, while he just casually enjoys his free meal here.
They're probably thinking about different things right now, but that's not my concern. My concern right now… is with the Guild and all the things I have accidentally ruined.
Akutagawa is still healthy and has no grudge against Atsushi, Atsushi never got to fight Akutagawa (and win), Kyouka never rescued Atsushi… Dang, I have ruined so much with just one action.
I was even surprised that Kyouka and Atsushi got to live together at this point, since I already ruined their confrontation that was supposed to happen earlier.
But still, that's not a big deal in any way, I could find a way to get Kyouka to like Atsushi later… And after the cargo fight, it's not like Akutagawa's that much of a threat in the end, since he basically pack-up 2 of the Guild members WHILE suffering heavy damage from the cargo fight.
With his current state, the final fight against Fitzgerald won't be that much of a stretch, as he doesn't have to deal with his injury while being able to punch him in his Demon Arms…
The biggest problem to me is Atsushi's now-decimated relationship with Atsushi, and how they progressed in the future. Without that, I'm afraid that they can actually beat either Fitzgerald or Ivan, since either only loses due to both party combination attacks.
And both their ability, The Great Fitzgerald and The Precipice, are basically untouchable without being dispelled by Atsushi ability-tearing aspect of his tiger claw to invalidate the ability, combined with Akutagawa space-distortion ability aspect to tear through their defenses.
… Nah, forget it. I'm sure Dazai can go up with any BS to make the combo work in some way, and even if he can't, the infamous Double Black can just easily tear through them.
Ugh, all this thing certainly makes my head dizzy… Hope I can deal with my mission real soon.
"Ding~"
While I was still running about the future, Atsushi's phone suddenly vibrated and awakened both Kyouka and Atsushi from their thoughts.
He then grabs the phone to inform with the incoming call, and his face immediately stiffened as he listened to the call.
"Jouno-san, we must reach the Agency now."
"What's wrong?"
To my annoyance yet curious question, Atsushi reluctantly mentioned the situation, the one I partially expected as of now…
"Someone has arrived there… they wanted my head."