TBETW Chapter 20

Chapter 20 – Bone-dry

Main Story 2, Chapter 1, Part 1

Novel Title: 獣はかくして囚われる (The Beasts are Ensnared This Way)

Author：風結子 沙野 (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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Upon arriving at Narita Airport from Ho Chi Minh, Kagura headed straight to Kasumigaseki with Sanae Suguru. After verbally reporting to Takizaki, the head of the International Crime Countermeasures Division in the Organized Crime Department at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters, he began drafting documents. It was then that Aizawa approached him.  

“Taking down organizations in Dubai and Vietnam in just three months? That’s quite the impressive streak.”  

“If I don’t pick up the pace, I won’t be able to keep up.”  

Kagura responded while typing away even faster on his keyboard.  

“Hey, Kagura. You’re not actually an eight-headed, six-armed monster, you know.”  

“Still, the other side has a thousand arms like Avalokiteśvara.”  

Foreign criminal organizations affiliated with the Eastern Alliance were proliferating daily.  

In the current situation, it felt like Kagura was hacking off the arms of Avalokiteśvara, with Toono Ryouji at its core. But Toono himself had vanished after June’s incident in Macau. Most likely, he was hiding in some country’s ‘Invincible Castle’, being sheltered by Li Azhar.  

Aizawa, sensing the tense atmosphere, tried to lighten the mood with his relaxed tone.  

“By the way, where’s my mentee?”  

“I sent Sanae home. He wasn’t feeling well.”  

“That guy risks his life being your little follower.”  

“I’d get things done much more efficiently if I could work alone.”  

After a brief pause, Aizawa muttered as though to himself, “I thought you’d regained your momentum, but it seems like something’s different now.”  

Kagura hit the Enter key with unnecessary force and glanced up at the senior detective.  

“I’m just back to how I was before.”  

The ‘hesitation’ that had been holding him back until three months ago was gone.  

Now, he functioned like a machine, moving solely to dismantle Toono Ryouji and the Eastern Alliance.  

Aizawa shrugged in mock disbelief.  

“You’ve always been a bit cold, but not as bone-dry as a desert.”  

At the mention of the desert, what came to Kagura’s mind wasn’t the scorching desert heat but rather the blue moonlit desert he had seen in Dubai two months earlier.  

Something cold and solid stirred deep within him.  

Shouldering his business bag for travel, he left the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.  

Instead of taking the train, he walked to his apartment in Kamiyacho, letting the fading summer night breeze wash over him. He was aware he was being tailed. Considering how well the person blended into the government district, it was likely Kataware.  

Near his apartment, a black sedan was parked by the roadside. As he approached, the rear door swung open.  

Kagura walked up to the three-piece-suited head of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office Special Investigations Unit as he was about to step out of the car. Grabbing the man by the collar, Kagura pressed their lips together before Kiriyama could fully stand.  

Counting five seconds, Kagura released him and turned to enter his apartment.  

In the elevator hall, Kiriyama caught up, his deeply chiseled face devoid of any expression.  

Kagura, equally impassive, entered the arriving elevator.  

Unlocking the door to his sixth-floor apartment, he found Kiriyama following him inside.  

Kiriyama removed his jacket and hung it on the wall hanger. He then took a bottle of mineral water from the fridge, and sat on the sofa, phone in hand.  

Kagura went to the bathroom and took a shower.  

Dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants, he returned to the living room, towel-drying his hair. He retrieved another bottle of mineral water from the fridge and perched himself on the stool by the sliding glass door.  

Kiriyama cast a fleeting glance his way before returning his attention to his phone.  

“You seem to be making good use of the information.”  

The criminal organizations in Dubai and Vietnam, which had effectively been under the Eastern Alliance’s umbrella and repeatedly targeted Japanese citizens, had been dismantled thanks to Kiriyama’s shared intel.  

Kagura had severed ties with Zero and Kiriyama promised to help Kagura take down Toono Ryouji if they worked together. True to his word, he acted accordingly.  

“We’re definitely cutting down the Eastern Alliance, but there’s no intel on Toono himself.”  

“I’m proceeding cautiously when it comes to Toono. Besides, it was you who ruined the perfect setup I had prepared, all because of some petty romantic feelings.”  

“…Romantic feelings are utterly useless.”  

Kiriyama looked up from his phone, scrutinizing Kagura with a probing gaze.  

“Have you completely severed ties with Zero?”  

“Yeah.”  

“I thought you kissed me for the tail to provoke lingering feelings.”  

“I just made it clear who my current partner is.”  

Yet, Kagura’s relationship with Kiriyama was fundamentally different from the one he had with Zero.  

With Zero, they mutually restrained, risked, and ensnared each other.  

The thrill that ripened body and soul, the indulgent sense of melting into one another, the restless desire to draw closer and be enveloped entirely in the other’s world—to the point where even their objectives blurred.  

Just as Kagura felt that way about Zero, Zero, too, had begun to succumb to such a state.  

During their ‘last supper’ in Macau, Kagura recognized this and knew they had to part ways.  

Everything had gone exactly as Kiriyama had intended.  

While Kagura didn’t enjoy that fact, he had to acknowledge Kiriyama’s skill in exposing how fatal his bond with Zero truly was.  

Kiriyama’s peculiar mix of depravity and fastidiousness was something Kagura could exploit.  

Moreover, when the time came, Kagura could let Kiriyama die without the slightest emotional reaction. In fact, he might even feel relieved.  

If Kiriyama were gone, it would become easier to conceal that Zero was the leader of Enwu and the details of Zero’s origins.  

As these thoughts crossed Kagura’s mind, he lowered his gaze, and Kiriyama’s legs came into view.  

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*GLOSSARY: 

• Avalokiteśvara is a Mahayana Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, revered as the “Lord who looks down” or “the Regarder of the Cries of the World”.

Next update: 2025.12.06

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