Extraits

"Why did you want to take photos all of a sudden, Dazai?"

"I just felt like if we don't take a picture now, there'll be nothing left to prove we spent this time together, I guess." He grinned brightly.

It turned out Dazai was right. That ended up being our last opportunity to photograph that invisible something among the three of us-the only thing to make us aware of the void left behind once we lost it. We never got another chance to take a picture together in that bar.

Because one of us died soon after.

"Dazai, maybe you should get a hobby before you start meddling in other people's work," continued Ango. "Something more wholesome than attempting suicide."

"Hobbies? Hmm..." Dazai pouted boyishly. "Chess and Go are too easy, though. They're boring. What else is there ?"

"What about sports?"

"I hate getting tired out."

"How about studying, then?"

"Too much work."

"Then how about cooki-? Wait. Forget it."

Ango lowered his head and covered his mouth. He must have remembered when Dazai made us that "peppy hot pot". It gave us plenty of pep, just as the name suggested, but we had no memory of what happened the next few days after we ate it. When we grilled Dazai later about what was in the hot pot, he just giggled.

"Oh yeah, I created a new hot-pot recipe. Would you guys be up to trying it next time we hang out? I call it the 'superhuman stamina pot'. You can run for hours without getting tired after eating it. It's a dream of a-"

"Not in a million years," Ango sternly declined.

"If it keeps you from getting tired, then it might be pretty useful before a hard day's work," I added.

"...Odasaku, that's exactly the problem right there. You're enabling Dazai. You don't speak up, and that's why he goes off the rail."