Shibusawa Tatsuhiko left that night.
The family conflict brought about by that person finally came to an end.
After bringing an end to that pleasure-seeking encounter that had been initiated of their own accord, Randou lay sprawled across Akiya's chest and teasingly asked one of those playful questions lovers exchanged between themselves.
"Does that boy's name end up being Tatsuhiko or Ryuuji?"
Asou Akiya's face immediately darkened with exasperation. Somehow, hearing it aloud made it sound as though they had wandered into the setting of some wuxia drama.
When it came to being embarrassingly mushy, neither of them feared the other.
Feeling the lingering warmth where their bodies had joined, he comfortably called out to the empress of his harem, his one and only rightful consort:
"Ran-chan."
Randou: "...Ugh."
Goosebumps erupted all over his skin.
Without hesitation, Randou sat upright. He intended to make this man understand that as long as he was here, Akiya only needed to focus on supporting the family. He would make sure the man had no spare energy left to think about anything—or anyone—else.
"Akiya, I'm not satisfied yet."
"Please spare me—we have work tomorrow. I won't be able to take it if this keeps up. Hah... wait, you're serious?"
"When have I ever played around with you, Akiya?"
Damn it. My kidneys are done for.
After a single night, Asou Akiya climbed out of bed in an utterly undignified state, rubbing his aching lower back. His steps felt light and unsteady, as though he were floating. After washing up, he gulped down a large glass of water to deal with his body's dehydration.
Turning around, he looked back at the lazy French cat lounging in bed.
The other man was still stubbornly refusing to get up, looking very much like someone preparing to go on strike.
This was one of the differences between the original story and his own world.
The Randou who had no one to cherish him could only be an overworked corporate slave in the Port Mafia, occasionally warming himself beside the fireplace while wearing a lonely expression.
His own French beauty, however, lived a life of comfort and contentment. He never worried about food or clothing. The quintessential nature of a Frenchman shone through him, and he carried himself with a carefree spirit and artistic sensitivity reminiscent of Arthur Rimbaud in his purest state.
Randou genuinely did not want to go to work.
In winter, the bed was warm, the outside world was cold, and a body thoroughly satisfied and content had no desire to move at all.
"I'll call in sick for you."
Resigned to his fate, Asou Akiya finished getting dressed and sat down at the edge of the bed. Before heading out to prepare breakfast, he ran his fingers through Randou's carefully maintained long curls, lingering there unwilling to let go.
Randou's gaze was overflowing with tenderness, soft enough to seem infused with the morning dew itself.
"Do your best at work, Akiya."
Asou Akiya smiled.
"Alright."
A man supporting his family was both the hardest-working and the happiest man in the world.
After Akiya left for work, much of Randou's drowsiness faded away. He tossed and turned in bed for a while, feeling slightly regretful that he had not accompanied him to work. His body had simply become too lazy and indulgent.
He added another instruction to Nishida Shibashi.
[Protecting Asou Akiya takes absolute priority. Kill anyone who dares threaten his life.]
As for what kind of consequences such an order might cause, the French beauty no longer cared.
He had the ability to deal with any aftermath.
Which was why...
He also believed Ranpo was still not mature enough and needed some further education.
"Yawn—"
Pulling the blanket snugly around himself, Randou drifted back to sleep amid the lingering scent of Akiya. His phone rested beside his pillow, ready at any moment to receive a call from his lover.
As for breakfast for the kids?
Akiya was the best. He was also first-rate when it came to taking care of children.
—Besides, Ranpo didn't like his cooking anyway.
...
Today's work was not particularly troublesome.
What was troublesome was suppressing the Boss's increasingly unstable and deranged moods.
Because he controlled the Port Mafia's purse strings, Asou Akiya's status had risen dramatically after the Boss fell gravely ill. He searched tirelessly for doctors on the Boss' behalf, even seeking out ability users with medical powers overseas. He spent money without the slightest hesitation, using this approach to divert the external conflicts that the Port Mafia would otherwise have tried to resolve through relentless destruction.
However, the internal conflicts continued to accumulate.
Quite a few people were dissatisfied with the way he spent money, despite the fact that he was trying to save the Boss.
Asou Akiya had the will but not the ability to solve every problem, so he devoted himself wholeheartedly to learning instead.
In addition to studying personnel management under Natsume Souseki and learning Mafia methods from Executive Nishida, he also put the combat training course that had been neglected for a long time back onto his schedule.
Thinking about the traditional martial arts course that Teacher Natsume had selected for him, a bitter expression crept onto his face.
Traditional martial arts?
Back when he was a teenager, he would have been more than happy to learn it.
But now he was an adult. He had long since outgrown his chuunibyou phase. He was a mature, sensible grown man who understood the value of finding powerful people to rely on.
And at a time like this, being told to study traditional Japanese martial arts was practically the same as being told to shed an entire layer of skin!
One word: exhausting.
Asou Akiya rubbed his waist and thought to himself, more importantly than any of that, I've run out of medicine.
This definitely wasn't because his body was weak.
It had taken him an entire year to use up medication that was originally supposed to last only six months. That was more than enough proof that he had been satisfying Randou through his own genuine efforts and stamina.
Do you have any idea how adorable a clingy French cat can be?
It was impossible to refuse!
In order to raise this cat into an even more beautiful specimen, even being drained dry was something he accepted willingly!
The Port Mafia's sub-executive and Analyst let out a loud slurp, then wiped away the drool at the corner of his mouth.
"Doctor Mori, you absolutely must import more medicine this year—and better-quality medicine too."
Inside the clinic, Mori Ougai, who was patiently coaxing a young girl, suddenly sneezed.
Recently, Mori Ougai had caught a cold.
The tip of his nose was red, and he had already filled an entire trash bin with used tissues.
This was related to his frequent trips outside and the tremendous effort he had spent to finally rescue Yosano Akiko from the sanatorium.
Unfortunately, despite all the effort he had invested, the girl he had saved was unable to understand his intentions. She looked at him with fearful, uneasy eyes, and, on top of that, she could no longer use her ability.
"Akiko, come have some cake. I bought you a cute cake and a pretty dress."
"I don't want them!"
Yosano Akiko was a fourteen-year-old girl. She looked somewhat haggard and frail, a butterfly hairpin clipped into her hair. Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself as she shrank into the corner of the room, trembling with fear and anxiety.
The battle on Tokoyami Island had left the military medic Yosano Akiko suffering from severe battlefield PTSD.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the soldiers who had taken their own lives.
Her ability, Thou Shalt Not Die, could heal those who were gravely wounded and on the brink of death, granting them strength as though they had been reborn. There had once been a time when she was proud of that power, delighted by it, and had even volunteered to join the battlefield.
Only after witnessing the true horror of that merciless meat grinder firsthand, and after agreeing to the so-called "Immortal Regiment" project, did she realize how naïve and ridiculous she had been.
She could save the soldiers' bodies, but she could not save their despairing hearts.
Battle after battle followed without pause. There was never any rest.
In the end, the exhausted soldiers chose suicide.
Even the person who had treated her the best had died before her very eyes.
Despair!
Collapse!
After the war ended, Yosano Akiko was placed under government supervision and sent to a sanatorium. Her ability, "Thou Shalt Not Die", seemed to have vanished entirely, losing its power to heal others.
Burying her face against her arms, Yosano Akiko trembled as she spoke.
"Please let me go... please let me go... I'm already useless... I'm nothing but trash now..."
Mori Ougai stopped trying to make the girl laugh.
A deep sense of frustration settled over him.
The way things had developed had completely exceeded his expectations.
How had it come to this?
Any hope of promotion within the military was gone. Branded with a stain on his reputation, he could only leave and search for a new path forward. Yet as he looked upon Yokohama City, slowly being devoured by parasites and corruption, he could not help but feel anger rising within him.
He wanted to change the situation.
He wanted to gather more allies and involve himself in the city's dark underworld.
To accomplish that, the power of a top-tier healing ability user was absolutely indispensable.
Mori Ougai gritted his teeth in secret.
"If Akiko's ability can be restored, I'm willing to pay a certain price."
—The Port Mafia Analyst, Asou Akiya?
Suddenly, a name surfaced in his mind.
Back then, Asou Akiya had left a profound impression on him. A year had passed since then, yet traces of the man's influence could still be seen throughout Yokohama City.
Those traces had already become woven into the fabric of everyday life, subtly transforming the city's commercial landscape. The citizens of Yokohama had gradually accepted those changes, and many of them no longer even realized how deeply they had been affected by them.
At the mention of that man, Mori Ougai was filled with a mixture of wariness and admiration befitting someone who had encountered a worthy rival.
When it came to making money, he could only admit defeat.
However, what Akiko needed was a psychiatrist!
Shaking his head, he stepped out of Akiko's room. Elise walked over, rose onto her tiptoes, and peeked inside at Yosano Akiko's condition.
"Rintarou, what are you going to do?"
Mori Ougai replied, "Akiko's mental state isn't good. I want to find a doctor for her."
Elise immediately struck at the heart of the matter.
"Aren't you a doctor yourself?"
Mori Ougai fell silent.
After a long pause, he said bitterly,
"What kind of doctor am I, really? I couldn't save anyone."
After rescuing Yosano Akiko at the end of last year, Mori Ougai had suffered a severe blow as well. He felt utterly powerless. The lively little girl he remembered had become like this.
A moment later, Mori Ogai glanced at the contact information on his phone and shrugged.
"Looks like I'll have to ask an outsider for help."
"Who?"
"A man whose sex life is so excessive that he's developed kidney deficiency because of it."
"Rintarou, you sound awfully sour. Are you jealous of him? Hahaha!"
The clinic once again echoed with the cheerful laughter of a little girl.
...
After work.
Having scheduled an appointment with Doctor Mori in advance, Asou Akiya finally met him.
A year had passed since they last saw each other.
The man now had more stubble on his face, looked even more disheveled than before, and the dark circles beneath his eyes had deepened noticeably. Fortunately, his hairline was still holding strong. Even so, there was no concealing the overwhelming aura of exhaustion and dejection that surrounded him.
If this was all an act...
Then it was an astonishingly convincing one!
"Doctor Mori, I'm suddenly tempted to recommend an entire skincare package to you."
Asou Akiya sat down in the patient's chair. Dressed in a long black overcoat, he slipped naturally into teasing the other man.
"The men's facial masks and skincare lotion I invested in recently have already hit the market and received widespread praise."
Mori Ougai flipped over the clinic's sign to indicate that business hours were over, locked the door, and walked inside.
"No thanks. A small-time doctor like me doesn't have the money to take care of himself."
Asou Akiya looked at him in surprise.
"But you've already started getting wrinkles at the corners of your eyes."
Mori Ougai reflexively reached up and touched the corner of his eye.
Men were the same as women in this regard. They might not necessarily care about beauty, but they absolutely cared about whether they had wrinkles.
"Ahem."
After confirming that there were currently no fine lines at the corners of his eyes and realizing that the other man was merely teasing him, Mori Ougai lowered his hand back to its original position.
"I'm turning twenty-nine soon. Maintaining a bit of maturity makes me more appealing to women."
Asou Akiya gave him a strange look.
"Doctor Mori, how long have you been single?"
Mori Ougai answered as though nothing was wrong.
"...Several years, I suppose."
Asou Akiya sighed.
"People these days all like fresh young grass. The older you get, the harder it becomes to find a partner. You should cherish your appearance while you still can. Be careful, or you'll still be a bachelor at forty."
Mori Ougai: "..."
"Why are we even talking about this?" Mori Ougai said coldly.
Asou Akiya responded with an innocent smile.
He had come to realize something.
Being single was the secret behind the success of the men in the Bungou Stray Dogs world.
At the same time, it was also the reason they aged so quickly.
Asou Akiya straightened his posture. He wasn't sitting with one leg crossed over the other—that was one of Ranpo's bad habits.
"I've run out of medicine. Doctor Mori, please recommend some new products for me."
Mori Ougai nodded and began explaining the effects and prices of several newly available medications.
Asou Akiya waved a hand grandly.
"I'll take all of them. Write me a list."
"..."
"The price will be multiplied by ten. Consider the difference as a tip. Make sure you protect my privacy. If I ever hear rumors outside that I've been buying medicine, I'll assume you're responsible."
"...A-Alright."
That was way too much money!
Mori Ogai suddenly found himself in a daze.
After operating his clinic for an entire year, he had earned less than what he was making in a single day.
Did I choose the wrong profession? So the health supplement industry is actually this profitable?
After swiping his card and paying the deposit, Asou Akiya did not linger. He was preparing to leave when he suddenly heard the sound of a young girl sobbing. It seemed that the door to the neighboring room had been opened.
"Doctor Mori, do you also work part-time in pediatrics?"
Asou Akiya looked at him with the gaze one would use toward a suspicious middle-aged man.
"That's right."
Mori Ougai came back to his senses, silently grateful for Elise's assistance.
"A homeless girl has recently come under my care. She's been left with severe psychological trauma related to death. I don't know what I can do to make her happy again."
Asou Akiya immediately pieced everything together.
A girl. Psychological trauma.
The one crying was probably Yosano Akiko, the future holder of the title "Angel of Death."
At this point in time...
Because of his own interference, Mori Ougai had never become Natsume Souseki's disciple, nor had he come into contact with Fukuzawa Yukichi. Yet despite that, he had still gone and rescued Yosano Akiko exactly as before.
What was true love?
Swearing upon Mori Ougai's ability, his true love was undoubtedly Miss Akiko.
Having spent years dealing with underground doctors who served the Mafia, Mori Ougai stepped closer to Asou Akiya. Remaining just within the range the other man would tolerate, he asked in a weak, pleading tone,
"Does Analyst-san have a solution?"
Asou Akiya turned his head and nearly collided face-first with Mori Ougai.
This guy...
Was he deliberately trying to make him soften up?
As expected of a black-hearted military doctor who had come out of the army. He was good-looking and knew exactly how to use every advantage available to him.
"There is a solution."
Asou Akiya knew exactly what the cure was.
His interest immediately piqued. It was rare to encounter a problem placed directly before him when he already knew the answer, especially when the person posing the question was Mori Ougai, a man famous for being as cunning as an old fox.
The people who could heal Akiko were Fukuzawa Yukichi and Edogawa Ranpo.
Your little girl is very cute.
And in the very next moment, she could become the little girl my family's Ranpo-cat will be raising.
Wonderful!
At this stage, she was an even more valuable gift than the White Qilin.
Curious to see just how far the down-on-his-luck Mori Ougai was willing to go, Asou Akiya reached out and tilted the man's chin upward.
Tsk.
The stubble pricked slightly against his fingers.
Exactly how long has it been since you last shaved?
With Randou resting at home today, the adventurous spirit of a transmigrator was beginning to stir restlessly within him. Emboldened, Asou Akiya decided to name his price.
"What are you willing to give in exchange?"
Seeing that Asou Akiya showed no concern whatsoever for his unkempt appearance, Mori Ogai's violet eyes deepened with an unreadable intensity.
Just as expected, he's a flirt, isn't he?
No matter how attractive the lover waiting at home might be, if a man never cheated, could he still be called a man?
While inwardly criticizing the other man's moral standards, Mori Ougai spoke in a joking tone:
"I'm poor. I don't have any money, nor do I possess anything valuable enough to pay the price you're asking... So what exactly is it that you want from me?"
The implication behind those words was almost blatant.
Yet the danger hidden beneath them was absolutely not something to be underestimated.
"You!"
The answer flew out of Asou Akiya's mouth before he could stop himself.
Come work as my corporate slave, how about it?
You can choose between 996 or 007!
Provided you don't stab me in the back!
After several seconds of silence, Mori Ougai straightened up and stepped back from the distance that had nearly brought their bodies together. The ambiguous atmosphere vanished completely, as though he were an upright and honorable citizen refusing an improper transaction.
The scruffy doctor patted down his white lab coat and said with obvious disdain:
"Don't take it seriously. I was only joking."
Asou Akiya replied with a dry laugh.
"Heh. Me too."
Mori Trash.
You flirt just enough to hook someone, then run away the moment you realize the price is too high.