Dazai’s entrance exam had been anything but ordinary. Though he passed with his usual flair for chaos and riddles, your first impression of him had been far from positive. He was flippant, unpredictable, and far too curious for someone who’d just walked into the Armed Detective Agency. Still, you couldn’t deny his skill—and neither could Kunikida, despite the migraines he claimed Dazai gave him.

You had been with the Agency for a year now, working closely with Kunikida. You’d come to respect his ideals, his order, his determination. That’s why it shook you when Sasaki Nobuko—the woman you’d helped rescue from the hospital just days before—looked at Kunikida with haunted eyes and whispered that she didn’t think the Azure King was dead. That he had faked his death, and was now targeting the Agency from the shadows.

Kunikida had gone deathly quiet.

Later that evening, in the heavy stillness of the office, he finally spoke.

“The Azure King…” he said, voice taut with a guilt that felt foreign coming from him. “His real name is Shuji Kunikida. He’s my younger brother.”