"Miss Tokisaki, you look absolutely wretched."
At nine in the morning, inside the Port Mafia headquarters—the Boss's tower.
Mori Ōgai set down the documents in his hand, eyeing Kurumi Tokisaki, who looked about as lively as a frostbitten eggplant, and asked with some curiosity, "Did something terrible happen?"
"Nothing terrible, no."
Kurumi slouched in her chair, her voice dripping with lethargy. "It's just... to maintain this life now, I had to let go of some precious things."
"Ah, I see." Mori wore an expression of complete understanding. "Though I don't know Miss Tokisaki's past, if one wishes to move toward the future, things of the past must naturally be discarded. If you refuse to let go of anything, you'll gain nothing in return."
Kurumi shot him a strange look, baffled as to why this man was empathizing so deeply with what he assumed was her transformation into a beautiful girl.
But then she remembered the persona she'd crafted in Mori's eyes and immediately understood.
To him, she was an Ability user from an unknown country, forced to leave her homeland for Japan to start anew.
So, he must've taken my words to mean something like, 'Because I came to Japan to begin a new life, I had to cut ties with my past.'
And judging by the way he looked at her with such shared sorrow, he'd probably spun some dramatic tale of love and vengeance in his head. Kurumi couldn't help but feel a little exasperated.
Still, she had no intention of correcting him. Let him misunderstand. In fact, this works in my favor.
"My affairs aren't important. My past has no connection to the present."
Kurumi reined in her emotions and straightened up. "Mori-san, I came today regarding the deal we struck last night."
As a Spirit, she didn't need food, shelter, or money—but freeloading at hotels indefinitely wasn't exactly sustainable.
Plus, if the staff caught on, things would get awkward.
So, to avoid that, she'd headed straight to the Port Mafia after waking up.
Last night, before her mission, Kurumi and Mori had made another arrangement: Kurumi would keep silent about the truth behind the previous Port Mafia Boss's death, and in return, Mori would provide her with a legal identity and funds to live in this country.
"What you need has already been prepared." Mori slid a prepped ID card toward her. "Your identity's been entered into the national database. As of now, you're a perfectly ordinary, law-abiding citizen—though I'm certain it won't be long before your face ends up on a police bulletin."
"My, Mori-san, you have such high expectations of me." Kurumi replied airily. "I'll do my best not to disappoint."
"Wanted lists are nothing to fear for Port Mafia members—if anything, they're a badge of honor. Or so Akutagawa-kun tells me." Mori mused. "I've heard many members even compete over their bounty amounts in private. Does that interest you, Miss Tokisaki?"
"I have little interest in others' opinions of me."
"I thought as much."
Mori nodded, then flicked a glance at Elise.
The little girl promptly pulled out a briefcase from under the desk, carried it over to Kurumi, and dropped it at her feet with a heavy thud.
Once her task was done, Elise skipped back to Mori's side, resuming her role as his guard.
"Three million in cash—your hush money."
"How generous of the Port Mafia."
"As for your monthly salary as a squad leader, the base is 800,000 yen. Additional rewards will be given for outstanding contributions."
"800,000 just as a base?"
"Don't misunderstand, Miss Tokisaki. This isn't a personal favor." Mori clarified. "Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, your fellow squad leader, receives the same treatment."
"In that case, my workload must match his, no?"
Kurumi glanced at the briefcase beside her, and in an instant, her shadows swallowed it whole, sinking it into the darkness. "So, what's my first official mission as a Port Mafia member?"
"Glad you asked."
Mori pulled a file from his desk drawer and placed it on the table. "Your first task is to retrieve someone for the Port Mafia."
"Who?"
"Armed Detective Agency member—Nakajima Atsushi."
Kurumi opened the file, and the first thing she saw was the photo of a young man.
He looked painfully thin, his complexion sickly pale—likely from long-term malnutrition. His uneven, jagged bangs only added to his gloomy aura.
Nakajima Atsushi.
Ability: [Beast Beneath the Moonlight].
Raised in an orphanage under an abusive director, his personality had been molded into one of utter timidity.
As he grew older, the clash between his meek nature and his overwhelmingly powerful ability became too much. His subconscious could no longer suppress the Beast, and one day—it went berserk. Atsushi transformed into a White Tiger and destroyed the orphanage.
Yet he remained oblivious. During his ability's rampages, he retained no memory. Neither the ability itself nor its outbursts were known to him.
The orphanage cast him out, leaving Atsushi to wander the streets, drifting from city to city.
All the while, the Beast's persona surfaced repeatedly—ravaging farmland, hunting livestock, causing massive property damage. Ironically, it was only because of the Beast's hunting that Atsushi avoided starvation.
But the destruction drew the government's attention. The rampaging white tiger was classified as an ability-based disaster, and the Armed Detective Agency was commissioned to handle it.
Eventually, agency member Dazai Osamu crossed paths with Atsushi and, through sheer coincidence, deduced the truth—Atsushi was the tiger.
Yet instead of turning him in, Dazai convinced the agency's president and other members to take Atsushi in.
That was his story.
But the Port Mafia's interest in capturing him wasn't due to any offense against their organization.
"We've received a request from the North American ability group [The Guild]—a 70-billion-yen bounty for the capture of Nakajima Atsushi. This was originally Akutagawa's assignment, but after multiple failed attempts, I'd like you to take over."
Mori's tone was calm.
"With your abilities, it should be effortless."
--+--