Is Something Wrong with Their Inner Thoughts?

As a senior member of the port mafia, Kirishima Mitsuki’s name is synonymous with terror. The moment he steps into headquarters, everyone within three meters gives him a wide berth. Then one day, Kirishima Mitsuki accidentally becomes bound to a mind-reading System and hears what his subordinates are thinking. [Got chewed out by Officer Kirishima for ten minutes after failing a mission. What a joke.] [When Officer Kirishima throws a punch, the scent reaches you first. Though you’d probably die if he actually hit you.] [Zero people care that you’ve spoken to Officer Kirishima. Hilarious. I’m totally not upset.] Kirishima Mitsuki keeps a blank face and glances at his subordinates, all of them bowing their heads and treating him like a monster. He assumes he’s hallucinating because he’s been working too hard. But the inexplicable voices only grow louder, until one day they suddenly turn into [Mitsuki really does love taking Chuuya on missions. I wonder what Chuuya did to manage that. Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell him Chuuya went to the police station alone in the middle of the night to turn himself in, and plans to leave the port mafia and rot in prison.] [Where did Q learn to act so pitiful? Hey, there’s no way Kirishima can’t tell that he inflicted those injuries on himself… Oh, he really can’t tell. Is Dazai planning to just stand there and say nothing forever?] [Hehe, I’ll frame Dazai first, then Chuuya. Then Mitsuki will belong to me alone.] “Dazai.” After a moment of silence, Kirishima Mitsuki narrows his eyes, trying to determine whether what he heard is credible. “Are you in touch with the police?” The boy blinks and innocently replies, “Nope.” “Oh.” Kirishima Mitsuki breathes a sigh of relief. “Then it’s fine.” System: How is it fine?! There’s obviously a problem! Why is that what you’re focused on?! Wake up! Please, wake up! - Kazami, who works for Public Security, has heard that during his time at police academy, Superintendent Amuro had a partner who excelled at both sniping and hand-to-hand combat. They graduated from the academy together and joined Public Security together. Though the partner broke the rules by keeping his silver hair long, he repeatedly delivered perfect results on missions, and no one questioned whether his hair might hinder him anymore. “Then what happened to him?” “He died protecting a hostage.” Amuro says this nonchalantly, then slips back into the expression he should wear as Bourbon. “The forensic examination of his body revealed that he’d lied about his age. He was not yet twenty when he died.” Looking at the photo in the file, Kazami feels profound respect for the officer named “Kirishima.” Then one day, Kazami spots Kirishima Mitsuki at an operation site, with one foot planted on someone’s head. The young man’s expression is indifferent. His long hair slides from his shoulders as he bows his head. Senior members of the port mafia stand around him. Seeing Kazami frozen in place, Kirishima is just about to frown when [!! Wait, Superintendent Amuro! Kirishima isn’t dead!] Kirishima Mitsuki: … [He hasn’t attacked anyone yet, and he even stopped the criminals beside him from doing so. What does that tell us?!] Kirishima Mitsuki: …That I still have a brain, and for now I don’t feel like going to jail? [He’s one of us! Officer Kirishima is a fellow undercover agent!] Kirishima Mitsuki: . I mean, could you at least show some respect for my villainous identity? - “We’re friends.” “No, we’re not.” “Kirishima, don’t deny what you feel. What good does being stubborn do you?” “I’m not being stubborn. Please politely deliver the line, ‘You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say may be used as evidence in court.’” [Oh, so Kirishima likes making everyone afraid of him.] Born into a mafia family, with his whole family in the mafia, and working at a mafia outfit, Kirishima Mitsuki listens to the thoughts of the person in front of him: … [But come to think of it, we really aren’t just ordinary friends.] Seizing the opportunity, Kirishima Mitsuki raises an eyebrow. “Ah, yeah, exactly what you’re thinking. That’s the kind of relationship we have.” Not friends! We’re enemies / superior and subordinate / a senior who simply appreciates his friend’s younger brother! “…” “Hey.” “…” “Why are you all suddenly crowding around me?” ^_^ *2025.06.22 *The cover and character designs were commissioned for commercial use. Cover artist: @Shangqinglian; chibi artist: @Zhutongfan Content Warnings ●For various reasons, the protagonist has trouble understanding normal human emotions. The story is slow to develop, and early on he genuinely has no concept of “men liking men.” ●He only seems cold because he doesn’t talk much and looks that way. In reality, he often has question marks in his mind because he can’t understand what other people say or do. You can use the chibi illustration in the character section as a guide to imagining him. ●The author loves beautiful, strong, tragic characters, so there will be battle injuries. The protagonist is very strong, but not the strongest. Don’t expect him to defeat everyone effortlessly; things will get complicated along the way. ●Multiple endings! Multiple endings! Don’t ask me who the pairing is. ●Contains some personal world-building that won’t affect your reading. ●Please read the tags carefully. If anything bothers you, don’t read it. - Coming Soon: Huh? Aren’t We Enemies? Relying on his pretty face, Chi Kuo has never had to suffer the hardships of life. Then one day, his family falls into ruin, and he finds himself inside a chaotic comic-book world. In this comic, he bullies and torments the legendary protagonist. But the protagonist is like a little white flower growing through a crack in the rocks: the more Chi Kuo bullies him, the more he draws the attention of the friends who used to gather around Chi Kuo. Naturally, doing something so stupid leads to a miserable ending. After the people around him successively become semes number one, two, and three, the supporting uke character number N, played by Chi Kuo, is destined to be abandoned by everyone and die a wretched death. It does seem rather pitiful, but Chi Kuo thinks it’s fine. After all, as long as the protagonist kills him, he can go home. - While bullying the protagonist according to the original plot, Chi Kuo manages to try a hundred different ways to die in a single day. Chi Kuo figures that, given how vicious he is, the protagonist must hate him more than anyone else in the world. If the plan goes smoothly, the protagonist might even cut off his fragile head tonight, without waiting to send him to prison. But while waiting for the protagonist to lose his temper and finally kill him, Chi Kuo discovers a forum post from two months ago. [Why does my roommate always like to leave me locked outside?] […A crush? You don’t understand. He could never like me. My roommate is a really nasty person. Whenever someone talks to me, he pretends to fall into the water and then says I pushed him.] [Oh, so he’s trying to get my attention. Is that what liking someone means?] [But why do you all think the protagonist has to kill the supporting uke in volume twenty-one? I think he actually likes him quite a bit.] [What do you mean I put a fatal dose of poison in his water to kill him? It was a harmless new sleeping drug. I only resorted to that because he won’t let me near him when he’s awake.] [He says my family background is too trashy for him to talk to me. But since he likes me too, this will be easy, ] All the signs point to the idiot posting this being the very protagonist Chi Kuo is waiting to kill him. Chi Kuo keeps a blank face, suddenly understanding why the protagonist sat motionless beside his bed, staring at him, when he woke from a nightmare two days ago. - The comic Golden Kingdom is being serialized to great acclaim, but a certain forum post is even more captivating than its increasingly deranged plot, which is impossible to pull back on track. Protagonist: [The only thing that has kept me alive until now is revenge.] Protagonist: [Men are disgusting. Men who like men are even more disgusting.] The protagonist again: [Even if that hand hits someone, it should only hit me.] Still the protagonist: [Look at him again and I’ll gouge your eyes out.] The protagonist, who was originally supposed to love and hate the semes in turn, genuinely wants to kill the so-called semes from the original story. The semes, who were originally supposed to fall in love with the protagonist, genuinely want to kill him for trying to steal the man away from them. Seme 1: [Who do you think you are? You think you deserve to stand beside my brother?] Seme 2: [Slut! Slut! Slut!] Seme 3: [You’re too noisy. I’m not like the rest of you. A man should know his place. I don’t care if I’m the fourth, fifth, or sixth, as long as I can stay by his side.] Chi Kuo thought he’d been handed the role of a universally despised, malicious uke. But when one haughty head after another bowed before him, he realized that these people had gone mad long ago. And they were actually willing to offer him everything, wholeheartedly. Theme: Seek the light in the darkness.