Chapter 11 – Interests Aligned
Main Story 1, Chapter 4, Part 1
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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At the end of the year, Kagura spent his time dashing around the Kanto area.
It was to handle a case where a group of twenty Taiwanese men and women were involved in a specialised fraud case targeting wealthy people from China. Their operations had seven locations, all of which were searched, with ledgers and other evidence seized, along with questioning of nearby residents.
Nowadays, the targets of specialised fraud are global, and the criminals disregard national borders entirely.
A month flew by, during which he hadn’t met with Zero.
Neither Kagura nor Zero made any contact during that time. However, just as things settled down, a message arrived on his phone.
“Sakura112/21”
Their exchanges were coded in a way that no one else could understand even if they saw the messages.
Kagura replied with “/2230.”
Thus, on January 12th at 10:20 PM, Kagura arrived at Nakameguro Station.
Walking briskly along the nighttime riverside path of the Meguro River, he thought that this feeling was reminiscent of something. It was nostalgic―――a sense of leaving everyday life and stepping into something extraordinary.
―――Ah, a secret base.
In fourth grade, he had snuck out of his house a few times in the middle of the night and met up with three friends at their secret base―――a deserted house by the river. There was a thrill, as if they were venturing into an unknown world, when they ran along the riverside path at night. After the rain, the river’s water would rise and roar in the dark, sending chills down their spines with a heightened sense of danger.
However, it ended one night when one of the friends was swept into the river and had to be rescued by adults. Their parents found out, and not only were they harshly scolded, but their bedrooms were checked regularly to ensure they weren’t sneaking out anymore.
Recalling that distant past, Kagura made his way to the apartment.
Inside the room, Zero was sprawled out, asleep on the black leather sofa.
Suppressing a smile at the man who’d summoned him but was now asleep, Kagura glanced around the room.
Compared to the last time he visited, there were more items now. Two stools were arranged by the counter table, a small fridge had been added to the kitchen, and when he opened the closet, there were five hangers inside. He hung his coat on one.
The fridge was stocked with cans of beer. Taking one, he returned to the sofa. Zero was still sleeping.
Sitting down at the low table, Kagura took a sip of beer and watched the sleeping man.
―――What kind of life did this guy grow up with…?
Remembering his own childhood had naturally led him to this question.
He tried to imagine Zero as a child.
…He couldn’t quite picture him with a school backpack.
If elementary school was hard to imagine, he tried envisioning him as a middle or high schooler, but a dark haze obscured the image.
―――What about his family? Father, mother, siblings?
He broke down Zero’s features, assigning some to each parent. The full lips might be from his mother, while the sturdy frame could be from his father. If he had siblings, which parts would resemble him?
“……”
Kagura furrowed his brow, tilting his head in thought.
While he could vaguely imagine the appearance of Zero’s family, when he tried to fit Zero into that picture, he would fade away into a dark mist.
In his line of work, Kagura had come across countless shady people. He’d even interviewed their families. In general, he had managed to categorise them roughly.
Yet Zero seemed to exist outside of any known categorization.
―――Who is he?
This wasn’t about his societal role as a freelance writer; Kagura wanted to understand the very nature of this man’s existence.
If Zero was just a disposable source of information, there would be no need to delve this deeply. He understood that logically, but humans naturally feel an unease toward anything they can’t categorise.
This unease hinted that Kagura was at a disadvantage here.
Staring at the man sleeping with a hard expression, Kagura’s gaze drifted down to the floor. There lay a smartphone.
After confirming that Zero was still asleep, he picked it up.
If it had fingerprint recognition, he could use Zero’s finger to unlock it, but the risk of waking him was high. Still, wanting to glean any bit of information, he powered it on.
The lock screen appeared.
It was entirely black.
―――He doesn’t seem like the type who’d bother setting a favourite image as his background.
Thinking this, Kagura narrowed his eyes as he looked at the screen.
At first glance, it seemed empty, but there were five faint dots. Upon closer inspection, there was a smaller dot close to one of the larger dots.
They were arranged vertically, resembling a squashed trapezoid. He felt as though he had seen this pattern before, but he couldn’t remember where.
As he strained his memory, Zero murmured in his sleep.
Kagura returned the smartphone to the floor. He waited a beat before speaking up.
“How long are you planning to sleep?”
“Mm…ah.”
Zero opened his eyes slightly, a frown creasing his forehead as he irritably rubbed his face with his palm.
“You called me here because there’s some information you wanted to give, right?”
Zero lazily sat up and stretched, adjusting his position to sit facing Kagura. Their knees bumped, but moving away felt like an overreaction, so Kagura left it as it was.
“It’s about Rong Lan.”
Rong Lan―――an organisation of Vietnamese mafia claiming the name ‘Brood of the Serpent’ that Kagura had previously heard about from Zero. They were rumoured to be involved in human trafficking in collaboration with the Eastern Alliance.
Kagura leaned in without thinking. Since Zero was also leaning forward, their faces came very close.
In a low, restrained voice, Kagura asked:
“Is there some new information?”
“I found out the foothold Rong Lan has in Japan.”
“Where?”
Zero picked up the smartphone from the floor.
Having just seen its lock screen, Kagura’s heart skipped a beat, but Zero unlocked it and turned the map on the screen toward him.
It showed an area in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, close to the Edogawa River.
“There’s a Vietnamese restaurant here called ‘Phao Hoa’.”
“‘Phao Hoa’… as in ‘fireworks’?”
“Exactly. Rong Lan’s men have been frequently seen entering and exiting through the back door with young women.”
Without thinking, Kagura grabbed Zero’s hand, still holding the smartphone.
“If we follow the people moving in and out of that back door, we could expose the Eastern Alliance’s involvement in human trafficking too.”
“When I get more information about Rong Lan, I’ll pass it on to you.”
“I’m counting on it.”
After saying that, Kagura blinked once and looked up.
He peered into the man’s eyes, which were very close.
“Did you go out of your way to investigate Rong Lan?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Why are you going so far for this?”
Zero leaned back against the sofa with a grin.
“For you?”
“Don’t lie.”
“Half of it’s true.”
“And the other half?”
The smile disappeared from Zero’s face, and a certain intensity grew in his gaze.
“Our interests align. I want to bring down the Eastern Alliance.”
“……”
Just as Kagura harboured a personal grudge related to the Eastern Alliance’s human trafficking, it seemed that this man also had something driving him strongly.
―――So that’s why he’s so persistent about the Eastern Alliance.
Whether this was something he felt obligated to investigate as a freelance writer or a personal grievance, like Kagura’s, wasn’t clear.
But there was no doubt they were both aiming in the same direction.
In fact, it was precisely because Zero wanted to destroy the Eastern Alliance that he’d shown interest in Kagura, who was persistently pursuing them, and had reached out to him.
A warm feeling flared up in the pit of Kagura’s stomach.
It was probably a feeling of joy.
The joy of finding himself already connected with a true comrade.
It made him a bit emotional, which was unlike him. Calming himself with a deep breath, Kagura released Zero’s hand, which he’d been holding, and asked:
“Even if our interests align, I can’t just keep taking information from you. Is there anything you want to know?”
After a moment’s thought, Zero muttered:
“Right now, Enwu, maybe.”
“Enwu, huh… Their name comes up occasionally, but even we don’t have any solid proof of their existence.”
“So, it’s only that level on your end too.”
Even Zero, who had deep connections with information on semi-legal groups, hadn’t been able to get a lead on Enwu.
Some detectives in the Organized Crime Division had even started speculating that Enwu was just a fictional group created as a cover for something else, and that might not be entirely off the mark.
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*Translator’s Note: Believe it when he says he did it for you, Kagura. He wants that booty so bad hahaha. I forgot what Zero’s motive was since I read this in 2023. The latest volume was just released this year and I had only recently purchased it. I haven’t started reading it yet but will soon. I drafted the translation to this volume along with the next two volumes in 2024 so my progress was kinda steady, but there’s a possibility that you guys have to wait a bit for me to continue with the translation of the final volume. Maybe I’ll do it during my winter break. Work has started again, but I wish I can continue to keep up with my current pace. If somehow, I failed to do so, I apologise in advance. But I will still finish with my translation, don’t worry. -K
Next update: 2025.09.14
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