Chapter 22 – Smoke-like Rain
Main Story 1, Chapter 8, Part 2
Novel Title: 獣はかくして交わる (The Beasts Intertwine This Way)
Author：沙野 風結子 (Fuyuko Sano)
Illustrator：小山田 あみ (Oyamada Ami)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 鹿倉 陣也 (Kagura Jinya -MC) & ゼロ (Zero -ML)
*Please read at freenovels.net, the original site of translation. TQ*
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He had been scammed in both body and spirit, effectively ensnared.
Zero asked him.
“Do you regret getting connected with me?”
He didn’t have the motivation to answer that he didn’t. He remained silent instead as Zero began to answer the questions Kagura had asked.
“On that day, it was I who urged Enwu to attack Rong Lan’s base. Xuan is currently doing work that doesn’t involve selling her body. The same goes for the other women aside from Xuan. Enwu won’t make anyone do something they don’t want. The reason I didn’t contact you afterward was that I was contemplating whether it was okay to get closer to you.”
Kagura processed each answer, his face contorting.
“What was that last part? You were the one who approached me forcefully.”
“Yeah, that’s true. But I hadn’t grasped what it meant to interact with someone like you.”
Narrowing his eyes without blinking, Zero continued.
“I read everything on the memory card you gave me. I understood why you chose that job and your obsession with the Eastern Alliance. I also realised why you completely lost your composure over Xuan.”
His words and expression were devoid of sympathy or empathy.
“Are you saying that partnering with someone who loses their composure is too big of a risk?”
Zero neither confirmed nor denied that.
“In the end, you live in the light. So, you remain trapped in that point of light. However, my world is a collection of points in the darkness.”
Kagura felt a sense of frustration, as if he were being pushed away.
“…Are you saying that someone like me can’t understand your world?”
“That’s a fact, too.”
Zero’s eyes shifted slightly.
“If a point of light is born in a place of only darkness, I will continue to be ensnared by it.”
“…”
Kagura stared intently at Zero’s face.
“Are you saying that just like I’m trapped by Haruka, you’ll end up trapped by that point of light too…?”
It felt like he was close to understanding what Zero meant, yet still just a step away.
―――That point of light, in other words…
Just then, Kagura thought he heard Zero click his tongue as he grabbed Kagura’s tie.
“Get it over with already.”
He pulled the tie hard.
Their lips collided. Kagura bit his lip in irritation.
In that instant, understanding exploded within him.
―――Am I that point of light for him?
The lip that was bitten became heated, almost burning.
“Ugh…”
As their lips parted, they both let out ragged breaths.
Kagura’s head throbbed, pounding with a heartbeat.
As he zoned out, Zero grabbed his arm and sat him down on the sofa. In turn, he stood up and went to the kitchen, opening the refrigerator.
When he returned, he held a can of beer against his cheek. Then, he pressed another one against Kagura’s cheek. Kagura felt the coldness of the can contrasting with the heat of his cheek as he accepted it.
“It’s hot, isn’t it?”
He murmured this and stepped out onto the balcony through the open window.
Kagura followed him outside.
Dark clouds hung low in the sky, obscuring the moon and stars.
As he opened the pull tab on his can of beer beside Zero, he suddenly recalled something and asked,
“Why do you have Alcor as your wallpaper?”
Zero looked at him with a surprised expression.
“You figured it out?”
Apparently, it wasn’t surprising that he’d seen his wallpaper. He must have glimpsed at it while he was napping on the sofa.
Zero pulled his smartphone from his suit’s inner pocket.
The part of the Big Dipper that was missing appeared on the screen.
“This is a family photo.”
“…A family photo?”
Zero pointed at the faintly visible star that represented death.
“This is me.”
Then, he continued to indicate the star at the bottom of the handle.
“And this is my mother.”
Since he had looked into the other stars of the Big Dipper, Kagura knew that the star he was pointing to was Benetnasch, which means ‘weeping woman’.
Since he didn’t mention his father or siblings, it seemed likely that he grew up in a single-mother household and that his mother was a woman who often cried. Or maybe it held a different meaning altogether…
Kagura contemplated the meaning of Alcor once more.
Something faint, something forgotten, something rejected.
Why does Zero project himself onto that star?
…A breeze blew, and his cheek was lightly moistened.
“Is it raining?”
As he looked around, the misty rain blurred the scenery.
Beside him, Zero murmured, “It’s Enwu.”
“Huh?”
“The ‘smoke-like rain’ is called ‘Enwu’.”
Kagura’s heart skipped a beat.
Enwu―――this was the force connected to Zero that had attacked the base in Rong Lan.
Kagura stared at Zero’s profile.
While keeping his gaze fixed on the smoke-like rain, his thick lips moved.
“There was still a question I hadn’t answered―――who I really am.”
Kagura’s hand gripping the beer can stiffened with tension.
“I established Enwu.”
A group whose true nature had been elusive, uncertain even until just recently.
Slowly, Zero looked back at Kagura.
“My real name is Zero. My mother gave it to me. She’s the only one who calls me that.”
Kagura understood that this wasn’t a lie.
“I have a different name on my official documents, but that’s not the real me.”
Kagura struggled to comprehend what that meant.
―――He acquired someone else’s identification… This meant that only his mother named and called him Zero…
“A child without a legal identity, huh?”
Zero acknowledged it with a faint blink.
While living in Japan, he existed as if he were nonexistent. It’s said that more than ten thousand children lack legal identities, but the reality and the total number are impossible to grasp.
He was like the smoke-like existence of night rain.
Each faint raindrop dissolved in the night, existing merely like smoke.
“…Was it okay for you to tell me…?”
Zero turned his gaze back to the smoke-like rain.
“Now it’s your turn to answer. Whether you want to connect with me even deeper.”
“…”
―――I had already connected with this man.
That meant connecting with a collective of dark points that spread across the depths of Japan.
―――Even deeper…
For my own purposes. For this man’s purposes.
Kagura shivered and looked down at the city showered with the smoke-like rain.
The cherry trees along the Meguro River wore a delicate sash that was almost melting away. Yet it was undeniably there.
“Shall we look at the cherry blossoms together?”
From this vantage point, Zero must have spotted his figure walking along the Meguro River. That’s why he had sent him that message.
And the answer was already clear.
―――I want to see the place where those cherry blossoms bloom with this man.
Drawing in the smoky air deeply, Kagura pressed his arm against the man’s upper arm.
“Zero.”
Kagura spoke in a low voice that was barely audible.
“If your dead body floats in Tokyo Bay, I’ll identify it for you.”
Kagura could hear laughter transmit along their connected arms.
“…Now that’s quite thrilling.”
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*Translator’s Note: That’s the end of main story 1. We’re moving on to main story 2. I don’t know why this volume was divided into two parts though. Probably to introduce our (kinda/sorta) second male lead, maybe? -K
*GLOSSARY:
Next update: 2025.09.25
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