What a lovely and interesting question…

No, actually, aside from being close friends with Higuchi and a fateful first meeting many years ago en route to the airport that would be the beginning of many tales to come, I stay far away from the Port Mafia as anything other than our enemies… (Even though at times, they have proven to be unlikely allies as well!)

But, once upon a time, in a setting and stage not too different from the one you and I already know… There in the strange city unfolds a different tale, one where the Earth is off its axis and the universe is ever so slightly askew, where things are broken and there is no better, only worse.

And all that remains that is the same is that Dazai and I find each other, and we fall in love, and everything burns around us as we burn for each other.

How different can a story be if you only change one thing? After all, this universe is close to ours, it touches and spills over and sometimes there are visions and misplaced memories… A feeling of emptiness, a painful longing, a missing person in the sunny spot of an agency – gone for just a moment, then back again, all of a sudden.

One man doesn’t die. That’s good, yes? Except… One boy’s life is ruined. He sinks deeper into darkness and danger, into doing deeds unspeakable. In turn, one girl fails a simple test, one she’d have passed were he there. She ends up by his side once again, but as the Lady MacBeth to his lord, her hands are stained to her elbows with the blood they spill.

And all the while a little tiger cub goes lost and hungry, dying on the brink of a river, unfound.

Or perhaps he is found, but by the wrong people… Or, alternatively, the same man who found him before, but now he comes from the wrong place.

But with all those changes, I trust him with my whole heart. And that is why I drew it ♡