Stormbringer: Bungou Stray Dogs

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Excerpt from Rimbaud's notes:

------ day of the ------ year
Log of a DGSS agent from the tactics team of the Counter Terrorists Unit
Clear weather, right before dawn, new moon

I'll leave a slightly longer entry since it's the day before I infiltrate the military base of an enemy nation.

This mission won't have any backup, logistical support, or internal collaborators. Our target is a new model of gifted weaponry. Although it's said to be in the shape of a boy, it's a hidden calamity that has enough power to destroy the world. It's a dangerous mission, and I very well might not come back alive.

But if there's anyone out there who can successfully steal a global disaster from an enemy nation, it's me and my partner Verlaine.

I've been thinking for a while now on what I could do for my reliable partner, Verlaine. The answer only came to me yesterday.

We'll celebrate his birthday.

Of course, he technically doesn't have a birthday. But I considered it to be yesterday, for on that day four years ago, he killed Faunus and attained his freedom.

I ordered a small pudding from a pâtissier in Paris and went to Verlaine's hideout with wine underneath my arm. Verlaine was more suspicious than surprised, so I explained it to him. Celebrating your birthday gives off one simple message. "Your birth is worth celebrating". No matter what anybody says, there is value in you being born.

And there is something absolutely vital you have on birthdays. A birthday without this is like the night sky without a moon.

A birthday present.

I gave him a black bowler hat that had a visor on it. It wasn't particularly expensive, and it wasn't made by a well known craftsman. But the sweatband that wrapped around the inside of the hat was made from a very special material.

10% platinum, 10% titanium, and 80% interwoven rainbow colored metals, mainly gold, made from the ability of Faunus. I remodeled a nearly complete item he had at his research facility into the shape of a hat.

When he puts the hat on, the cloth acts as a coil and prevents any interception of his consciousness by instruction from the outside. On the contrary, it'll be possible to heed to instructions from the inside, AKA he can obey his own will. With this hat, Verlaine can be one step closer to a free willed human.

His reaction was a little strange. He wasn't overjoyed or surprised; his quiet eyes only seemed to say, "I guess I can take it". He didn't say a word about it. The two of us drank the wine, said our goodnights, and went our separate ways.

Even a day later, I'm still not sure if that was the right thing to do. Verlaine's eyes were as frozen as the land beyond the North Pole.

But I'll get my answer soon enough.