Chapter 2 – Interference
Main Story 1, Chapter 1, 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 knoxt.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
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There was a forewarning of the attack―――it was all part of the plan.
Threatening messages had frequently been sent to his smartphone, though it was unclear where they’d leaked from. Anonymizing software was used to hide the origin, but the culprits targeting a detective from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s Organized Crime Division, Section Two, were quite obvious.
It wasn’t the yakuza.
As of now, the only ones bold enough to provoke an organised crime detective in such a childish way were semi-organized crime groups known as semi-gang (han-gure).
The structure of these semi-gangs was fluid, their connections hard to trace, and the police struggled to gather information on them. Taking advantage of this, semi-gang crimes were escalating in intensity.
And so, Kagura thought of deliberately using himself as bait.
It wasn’t out of frustration or recklessness.
At thirty, he was still considered young as a detective, but Kagura had a purpose stronger than most of his colleagues. He’d judged this to be necessary for that purpose.
That’s why lately, Kagura had frequently been venturing alone into areas where the semi-gang, belonging to the Eastern Alliance―――known to collaborate with foreign mafias―――was active.
The Eastern Alliance, already irritated by Kagura’s persistent surveillance, must have grown increasingly agitated at his intrusion on their turf.
And tonight, it seemed they had finally decided to strike.
While walking down a back alley lined with restaurants, he suddenly heard the echo of multiple footsteps behind him. They had likely burst out from a back entrance. Judging from the footsteps, there were five―――or maybe six.
The frigid November air suddenly filled with heated tension.
Kagura glanced at his wristwatch.
9:31 p.m.
Turning slowly, he caught sight of a young man in a knit cap, grinning smugly. The man held a black, baton-shaped object in front of Kagura and switched it on.
Sparks crackled in the darkness like a small lightning bolt.
A stun gun. Judging by the size of the sparks, it was a powerful, modified one.
They wouldn’t kill him right away.
No, their aim was likely to inflict as much pain as they could on the troublesome detective. They would try to make him spill useful information, perhaps even hoping to turn Kagura into a continuous source of intel.
He had already instructed the rookie detective, assigned to the team just this year, to use the transmitter signal to act if they hadn’t heard from Kagura by 11 p.m.
All he needed to do was keep them occupied for about two hours.
The baton-shaped stun gun pressed hard against his neck.
Suddenly, a crackling sound, like lightning slicing through the air, roared near his ear. His body jolted as if thrown back, and he collapsed to the ground.
“Look at the high-and-mighty detective now!”
The man laughed loudly as he pressed the stun gun into Kagura’s neck once again.
His entire body seized up, arching backward.
“We can play with him all we want later―――get him in the car, now!”
Just as the men grabbed Kagura’s arms and legs, something that looked like a can flew into his field of vision from the side. He instinctively closed his eyes and held his breath.
“What the―――? Smoke…?”
“Ugh…my eyes!”
Hearing the men stumbling and sensing their presence falter, Kagura tried to get up, but the aftereffects of the stun gun left his body numb and tingling to the point where he couldn’t even tell where his hands were.
Who on earth would interfere, and why?
The object that had been thrown was probably a canister of tear gas.
Whoever would carry something like that around was certainly no ordinary civilian.
Suddenly, he felt himself lifted from his facedown position and swiftly slung over someone’s shoulder in a fireman’s carry―――an emergency technique for transporting the wounded or unconscious. This wasn’t something just anyone could do.
Moreover, this person had no trouble running while carrying Kagura’s considerable height and muscular build.
Their movements were different from those of a trained professional.
Not a colleague.
Who was this person?
When they had put enough distance from the tear gas area, Kagura cautiously opened his eyes.
However, the electric currents still coursing through his nervous system blurred his vision, making it impossible to focus. It also seemed they were running down a dark alley, leaving him with very little to see.
He strained to find some source of light, eventually catching sight of a crescent moon glowing faintly against the night sky.
The footsteps of the pursuers faded into the distance.
Only the muted sound of his rescuer’s footsteps and their strong breathing filled Kagura’s ears.
Not knowing if this man was friend or foe, Kagura fought to stay conscious.
His sense of smell was beginning to return, and he noticed a faint, bitter scent filling his nostrils. He looked up again to study the man’s face, this time managing to focus.
The profile he saw had a distinctly strong brow and nose, a sharpness unusual for a Japanese face. His lips and jawline carried a rugged intensity, teetering on the edge of wildness.
His deep-set eyes, with a double-lidded gaze, had a stern look, and the whites held a faint bluish glow.
Kagura had no recollection of this man.
He was certain the man wasn’t a police officer, and it was clear he wasn’t just an ordinary civilian.
Then, who exactly was he…?
Just as Kagura tried to think it over, the man abruptly stopped and leaned forward.
“Damn it.”
Kagura’s body was dropped to the ground, rolling across the surface.
The pain he felt was a sign that his numbness was wearing off.
Groaning, he pushed himself up and took in his surroundings. They were on a riverside bank, with a bridge looming overhead. Leaning back against one of the bridge’s supports, Kagura looked up at the man standing before him.
Now that he had a proper view, he realised the man was even more imposing than he’d thought.
Around 186 to 187 cm in height, early thirties.
He wore a black leather jacket, black cargo pants, and black ankle boots―――a look that blended seamlessly into the night.
It wasn’t just his clothes.
The man’s hair, his eyes, his very presence seemed ready to dissolve into the darkness. And yet, he lacked the haunted air of a sickly person.
Instead, he exuded a natural ferocity, like a predator stalking the night, merging with the shadows.
“Who are you?”
Perhaps half the reason he asked that question was out of genuine curiosity.
In his line of work, he’d encountered many people from the underworld, but this man didn’t fit into any category he knew.
“Hm?”
The man tilted his head slightly, smirking from the left side of his mouth.
“No thanks for saving your life?”
Amid the noise of a large truck passing over the bridge above, the man’s low voice somehow came through clearly to Kagura’s ears.
Kagura smirked faintly as he replied, his lips curving slightly.
“I don’t need to thank you when all you did was interfere.”
Then the man blinked and knelt down on one knee, positioning himself between Kagura’s legs. The space between them suddenly shrank.
“Interfere?”
―――Too close.
Kagura’s body tensed, as if they were in a standoff, like in kendo when blades clashed.
Precisely because of this, Kagura deliberately replied in a relaxed tone.
“You really went out of your way to meddle.”
“―――”
The man scrunched his nose in annoyance.
“Then maybe I should just kidnap you right now?”
“Are you with the Eastern Alliance?”
“No.”
“In that case, I’ll pass on that.”
As Kagura replied, he gave the man a firm shove to the chest with his fist, but the distance between them didn’t increase.
If anything, it got even closer.
The man placed his hands on either side of Kagura, leaning forward as if to envelop him.
“What?”
Irritation seeped into Kagura’s expression, but his eyes narrowed as he listened to the man’s words.
“Kagura Jinya. Detective in the Organized Crime Division, Section Two, Tokyo Metropolitan Police.”
“…So you know about me.”
“Graduate of H University’s law faculty, promoted to detective at the young age of 25, assigned to Organized Crime Division Section Two three years ago. Runner-up in the National Police Kendo Championship four years back. Haven’t participated in competitions since transferring to Organized Crime―――too busy?”
―――Who exactly is this guy?
Kagura stared unblinking into the man’s dark eyes, close enough to feel the intensity.
“Who are you with?”
“I am…”
Suddenly, the hardness in the man’s expression faded, and laugh lines appeared at the corners of his eyes.
“I’m a freelance writer. Been writing articles about the Eastern Alliance for the past few years. It’s a treasure trove of stories.”
Kagura’s expression faltered, feeling thoroughly caught off guard.
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*Translator’s Note: I suddenly remembered the video I saw on tiktok of this guy going to a fireman’s drill practice as a civilian of some sort. He was carried by the fireman like that and he said he never felt the same afterwards hahahaha. Anyway, I don’t know if you guys feel what I feel, but Zero’s existence made me unable to put the book down, you know? I’m hooked after reading only the first few pages of the novel. -K
*GLOSSARY:
- Kendo (剣道) is a modern Japanese martial art that means ‘the way of the sword’. It evolved from traditional kenjutsu (swordsmanship) practiced by samurai, and today it’s both a sport and a discipline for personal development. Practitioners, called kendoka, wear protective armor (bogu) and use bamboo swords (shinai) to spar.
Next update: 2025.09.05
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