No one is born kind, and no one is born righteous.
Nakahara Chuuya was born amid the open and covert struggles of nations, the ruthless scramble of French intelligence agents, and the cold steel of a Japanese government military facility.
Countless lives were lost; a sea of blood on the scale of a full-fledged war laid the foundation for the name "Arahabaki."
At the same time, he was lost and sorrowful, wandering through Suribachi City, helping the weak. No one understood what thoughts stirred in his heart when he gazed at the ruins of the former Yokohama Foreign Settlement. His companions believed he was mourning the parents he had lost. Only Chuuya himself knew—
[This is what I destroyed.]
[After I was born, so many people died. If humans learn the truth, they will turn against me.]
[The Japanese government might come for me too—!]
Chuuya's joy lasted less than half a second before his gaze brushed against the core of his fear, and his nerves snapped taut.
His pupils shrank to pinpoints. The eyes that had once shone like the surface of Yokohama Bay lost their brilliance, becoming suffocatingly repressed. From their depths surged something dark and crimson, mingling with that beautiful blue, like a painter's palette overturned, colors spilling and bleeding into one another. These hues formed Nakahara Chuuya's singular soul: purity and complexity, confidence and unease, emotions raging within like a violent sea.
An innocent child, cradling power beyond compare, descended into the world.
It was both a blessing and a curse.
"What are you even saying?!" Chuuya shouted sharply, sensitivity breaking through as he cast aside the refined manner of speech Asou Akiya had taught him. "Being born like that, appearing out of nowhere for no reason—how could that possibly be something to celebrate?!"
Asou Akiya's hand closed on empty air as Chuuya staggered back several steps, his emotions spilling over.
"I don't have a father!"
Asou Akiya watched the boy before him, shrinking back, bristling like a frightened animal.
This child—this child who might once have become his younger brother, or his son, who might have been raised by his own hands.
Unfortunately, he had chosen Arthur Rimbaud instead, and that choice had led to the situation before them now.
"Ranpo, I need you to do me a favor," Asou Akiya said to Edogawa Ranpo, who was completely lost. "I don't want my conversation with Chuuya to be interrupted. Please draw away the people and animals nearby for me."
Ranpo wanted to hear secrets; the more interesting the secret, the more irresistibly it drew him in.
Asou Akiya cut him off before he could speak, his tone turning stern. "Today's mess is your doing. Because of you, I can't even go home. You don't have the right to bargain with me."
Ranpo had no ground to stand on. The sense of morality instilled in him by his parents made him choose to admit fault. Reluctantly, he agreed to help the uncle concentrate on resolving this father–son conflict, walking away with frequent backward glances, unwilling to let go.
Once Ranpo was far enough away that he could no longer possibly hear them, Asou Akiya curled his fingers and flicked Chuuya squarely on the forehead.
Caught off guard, Nakahara Chuuya's head jerked back, and for an instant he nearly lashed out in reflex.
"Ugh!"
The red light did not appear.
"It seems you did take my teachings to heart after all," Asou Akiya said, abandoning the gentle, indulgent tone he had used to placate him earlier. He straightened, and the presence of an adult instantly pressed down upon the much younger Chuuya. "Do not abuse your power. Once you cross the boundary of 'Upon the Tainted Sorrow' that separates human from nonhuman, even someone born as strong as you will not escape death."
Chuuya's eyes flew wide open. "You know about that?!"
Asou Akiya looked at him with the expression one reserved for a foolish child. "If I didn't, do you think I'd be able to stand here in front of you?"
"Your 'switch' hasn't appeared yet. Before that happens, you cannot use your full strength. Gravity itself will even compress your height. In front of me, you are nothing more than a child who has been born for only two years."
A switch?
Being pressed shorter by gravity or anything like that—there was no way that could be true!
Nakahara Chuuya became acutely aware of the enormous gap in information between himself and Asou Akiya.
"I'm the one with power. You don't have any, Mr. Asou," Chuuya shot back, his tone sharp as he searched for a flaw. "Even if you know a lot, don't think you can fool me by claiming to be my father. I'm not some easy-to-trick little kid."
Asou Akiya replied calmly, "The power you inherited does not come from your parents."
The moment those words left his mouth, the spikes of hostility around Chuuya softened, just a little.
"And besides," Asou Akiya continued with a faint smile, "what do you think I've been secretly taking care of you for all this time? Out of boredom? Because I had nothing better to do than put you through harsh training? Didn't Ranpo tell you that I've been protecting you all along?"
Chuuya stubbornly held his ground. "I don't need anyone to protect me."
Asou Akiya abruptly changed the subject. "You don't really know my partner, do you?"
Chuuya's nerves tightened for no clear reason, his breathing turning shallow.
"Your Japanese really isn't very good," Asou Akiya said, pressing a hand to his forehead. "I've mentioned my partner in front of you several times, and every time I used the masculine 'he.' So how did you manage to imagine a 'she' instead? The two of you have never even met, you don't know each other at all—does he come with some kind of built-in maternal halo buff in your head?"
Chuuya blinked in shock. "Huh?"
With an easy smile, Asou Akiya said, "My partner, Randou, is a French man."
The unexpected revelation of a same-sex relationship stunned the simple-minded Chuuya into silence.
"Not a woman?!"
Then what about the mother he had imagined?!
"Who ever told you it was a woman?" Asou Akiya said lightly, as though the matter were trivial. "Chuuya, let me teach you a lesson today: don't jump to conclusions about things you don't understand. Randou is indeed a man. I would at least know the gender of my own partner. I've been with him for over two years now, and you are his child with his former partner."
Nakahara Chuuya felt his breath catch in his throat. "...I want to speak with him face to face."
Asou Akiya answered cleanly and without hesitation, "Impossible. Don't even think about it. He knows nothing."
Chuuya froze.
Kid, did you know you have a whole row of question marks floating over your head right now?
Asou Akiya laughed inwardly, rediscovering the peculiar joy of raising a child. Chuuya, at this age, was ferociously adorable—once you saw through the bluffing bravado he put on, it was obvious that he didn't actually dare to hurt anyone.
Adult methods were, indeed, dirty.
"He lost his memory."
The truth that followed was even more terrifying, enough to shatter Chuuya's train of thought entirely.
"Before the amnesia, he and his former partner had a falling-out. In a moment of anger, he accepted my pursuit. Later, when the Yokohama Settlement exploded, I had no choice but to temporarily leave you behind in order to save the severely injured Randou. For that, I'm sorry. I left only because I was certain someone would find you, and because I was confident I could retrieve you afterward. I know a little about your origins—you're a product of a hidden military base beneath the Yokohama Settlement. That's why you were seven years old the moment you were born."
Asou Akiya's expression darkened. Leaving a seven-year-old child in the middle of an explosion scene was, frankly, indefensible.
Fortunately, that child was Arahabaki.
"If you don't believe me, crush the longevity amulet. It has a layered structure. Inside, there are gold beans crafted with a special technique—New Year's money I prepared for you in advance. If any of it ever enters circulation, I can track it."
His gaze dropped to the necklace at Chuuya's throat, waiting for his reaction.
Chuuya closed his fingers around the longevity amulet, unwilling to damage it, and his voice dropped unconsciously. "I know it has a hidden compartment."
That alone made him believe three parts out of ten, and he ventured a cautious question.
"I remember the day I was born. Do you remember what you said to me back then?"
What???
You have memories of that? How did I not know?!
Asou Akiya masked the stiffness in his expression and fell into thought, racking his brain to recall exactly what ridiculous things he might have said that day.
"I'm sorry."
The orange-haired boy's blue eyes rippled like the surface of the sea.
Their memories resonated.
And then Asou Akiya's next sentence extinguished the emotion welling up in Nakahara Chuuya's chest.
"I could only save your mother first."
"..."
Nakahara Chuuya's gaze went dead.
Seeing how hard the blow had landed—how thoroughly Chuuya had muddled the distinction between father and mother—Asou Akiya burst out laughing. "Don't find it strange. Randou is my wife. In my eyes, he is your mother. I'm your current father."
"And oh, right. I kissed you back then, put the longevity amulet on you, and before I left, I said one last thing."
The black-haired young man spread his arms wide. There was an inexplicable romance to the gesture, laced with the mystery of past and future intertwining. In his eyes lay a height ordinary people could never see, a certainty that made escape impossible.
"Chuuya, see you in the future."
Those words, spoken at the moment of parting, were the final farewell—
and today, they had been fulfilled.
...
At an izakaya on the outskirts of Suribachi City.
Asou Akiya sat down to dinner with two children—one of whom was the "overgrown child," Ranpo.
Nakahara Chuuya felt uncomfortable all over. He kept his head down and ate in silence. Even after he and Asou Akiya had untangled their misunderstanding, countless questions still drifted through his mind, unresolved. Watching Ranpo eat with unrestrained delight made him inexplicably irritated.
Some stranger wanted to be his older brother—so what if he had helped him before?!
"Asou—sir…"
"If you use that form of address," Asou Akiya said calmly, "you won't get any answers."
Edogawa Ranpo chimed in cheerfully, clearly eager to watch the drama unfold.
With Asou Akiya's tacit approval, what he wanted Chuuya to call him was obvious without being said. Heat surged from the soles of Chuuya's feet straight to the top of his head. He nearly bolted on the spot—but unfortunately, his seat was trapped on the inside.
The two brainy schemers worked together in perfect, unspoken coordination, hemming in the orange-haired boy.
Arahabaki is scared.jpg
Nakahara Chuuya had grown used to being an orphan, and now, all of a sudden, he had a father—no, two male fathers, both at once.
It was far too much stimulation.
The news of the day was so explosive that it left his mind in complete chaos.
"Call him Dad~."
Edogawa Ranpo, who could see straight through people's hearts, spoke up in place of the uncle who was too embarrassed to say it himself, piercing straight through Chuuya's defenses at the crucial moment. If Ranpo wished, no one's thoughts could escape his gaze.
Chuuya jolted, meeting Asou Akiya's gentle black eyes, which overlapped with the image of the person who had kissed him in his memories.
In his dreams, replayed thousands of times, there had been nothing but the filth and darkness of the past.
"D–Dad…"
Will you pull me up?
Will you take me out of this loneliness that words cannot describe?
Asou Akiya picked up a piece of grilled mackerel and placed it into Chuuya's mouth, smiling as he spoke.
"I'll take you to meet Randou in the future."
He raised one finger and whispered conspiratorially to the son he was raising in secret.
"Randou is writing poetry now. The poetry collection I gave you was his work. His mental state hasn't been very stable since he lost his memories, so Chuuya can only meet him privately and must not let him realize it. Otherwise, you'll lose me as your father."
"Eh? Why?"
Chuuya chewed the fish in his mouth absentmindedly, finding that he did not particularly like the flavor.
Edogawa Ranpo raised his hand enthusiastically. "I know! I know!"
He was the smartest of the two little cats!
"The uncle's boyfriend is still entangled with his ex, and if the boyfriend regains his memories, the uncle is totally finished!"
"..."
"..."
Such an adorable green-eyed boy—how did he end up with that mouth?
Asou Akiya cast a dark, lingering look at Edogawa Ranpo, who immediately wiggled his eyebrows at him, silently striking a PY deal.
[Uncle, we're accomplices now! I helped you keep your wife and your son!]
[…Fine.]
In the future, if the seaside cemetery in Yokohama ever ran a discount, he could consider buying three plots at once.
Surrounded by cats.
The feeling of finally being in agreement with the scriptwriters was truly wonderful!