女面 - Bungo Stray Dogs Fanfiction

Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam - Six -

"Let us begin the company-wide briefing." announced the chairman of the meeting, who had a notebook in his hand.

Shortly after we received the bizarre message, an urgent email was sent to everyone from the Agency. The night had passed, and it came the following morning. Detectives and office staff assembled inside one of the reception rooms which often doubled as the company's meeting room. We sat about the long table placed in the centre, with Kunikida standing at the front with a large board behind him that had a few sheets of documents pinned onto.

"Please refer to the documents you have on hand for the particulars of this incident." he said. "Excuse me for this summary, but the Agency has received a targeted threat and is presently also under attack from a cruel and thorough scandal."

"Everyone here knows about the Agency's poor press." Yosano, our company's doctor, spoke up. "Tell us about the bomb case."

"Very well. We received this threatening email earlier." Kunikida glanced at me before a curt nod followed. On cue, I got up and distributed copies of the email to everyone. "Please read it so we may determine its sender."

After sitting back down, I picked up my copy and read the email; so polite, yet subtly contemptuous written as such:

Dear Sirs and Madams,

I pray this letter finds everyone at the Agency in good health.

I am deeply grateful for your most expedient efforts in the matter of investigating that building a few days ago. I apologise for making another request so soon after the first, but I really must ask this one thing of you.

I have placed a rather large-scale explosive at a certain location in the nearby area. I would like to employ you to please locate and remove the bomb for the sake of the city's safety.

Furthermore, the bomb is programmed to detonate by sundown tomorrow, so I do hope you will resolve the matter within this time limit.

The bomb I have manufactured is the twin to a bomb in a certain case that robbed some hundred people of their lives. These casualties were an extremely sorrowful thing.

There will be an unquenchable white flame as bright as the fallen Sun. Nearby buildings will crumble to their foundations; people will attempt to flee while on fire. The roads will melt, and fragments of exploded cars will lodge in the ruins of blazing buildings. The world will become like Hell. I beg of your Agency to put in your best efforts so that Yokohama will not be reduced to this nightmare.

Forgive me for my redundancies, but as in my previous request, I will have images recorded of your actions. If in the unfortunate situation that the bomb is not disabled in time, the images will be released in order to place the blame on your company. My apologies for this, but I do hope you understand.

In closing, I pray for your continued health and good fortune.

Yours,
The Azure Apostle

"What a revolting letter." spat Yosano.

"Exactly, so." Kunikida agreed. "If you recall the surveillance equipment we found in the ruined hospital a few days ago, it's apparent that this 'Azure Apostle', as they call themselves, is the person who leaked those reputation-ruining images and the person behind this bomb threat. It appears their goal is to broadcast our failure to the world at large if we cannot find and defuse the bomb."

"Then they mean to destroy our good-standing?" presumed Yukichi calmly.

"I would say as much." was my colleague's response.