Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chuuya was lying on his bed, bored with his life. It has been a few days since he and his family had moved to Yokohama. The place they rented for the time being wasn’t that big, enough for the necessities. Chuuya was going to start high school in this area.There was noone he knew, all of his friends were left in Tokyo. This place wasn’t really that bad, if he was being honest. There was a lot of shops nearby, his new school was near their house, people weren’t that bad, he had talked with a few neighbours already, and they were pretty kind. But he didn’t know what else to do here. It was still summer break, his father was working, mother was still busy decorating their new place and wouldn’t let him help to pass time telling him to go out while he was still in summer break and make some friends. Their Wi-Fi still wasnt installed and life simply wasn’t going on when lying on bed and looking at the ceiling listening to the cars outside was the only thing he did.

His gaze fell on the bicycle resting against his wall. Then he decided he could tour around the city for a bit. It was almost noon and the sun was pobably burning the asphalt outside. But it was still worth a shot. 

And with that decision he started to cycle around streets and going a little further the more bored he got everyday. He also decided to continue doing his exercises evey morning now that he was starting to settle. He woke up at 6 AM, ran around the park nearby a few times then took his bike to see somewhere else everyday as his new routine.

This time he went all the way down to see the highway taking him to a desolate place. It begin getting quieter the further he went. It was the industrial area near the port. Big buildings left and right, not many plants on sight. He could see the ocean from here. It was so silent, no cars, no human. As he continued to ride he saw a dump, probably the wasted material both the port and the factories he passed left.

He didn’t know where he got the sudden urge but he rode his bike towards the dump. There was a big red shipping container on top of it. The color of it was faded, cracked parts standing out. As he walked closer he spotted an open door on one of it’s sides. It was still being used?

He stopped in front of the door, eyes widening. There was someone inside. Unconsious. Lying on the floor. He slowly stepped closer. Was he dead? Was this a murder? Why was the corpse left here? Was the killer gonna come back to deal with it later? Stop why the hell was he randomly assumming this person was dead!

He bent down on his knees and carefully poked the man’s head. It was was wet with sweat,oily,like it hasn’t been washed for weeks. Chuuya regreted poking the man. He got back up and looked at the man from above. Was this just a homeless man occupying an old container? Then that made sense he lost consiousness in this container boiling him alive.

'I’ll just leave? This isn’t my business.’ He turned around to get down from the trash pile. But his body froze as he heard a click noise coming from behind. Before he could move to turn back and check what it was he felt something press against the back of his head. There was a black figure behind him, the man he thought was unconsious. 

“Don’t move.” Only after this did he finally process that the thing behind his head was a fucking gun. He instantly regreted listening to the urge that took him to the dump. Why was he here again? Curiosity? Hell yeah now he was also curious about the afterlife he never thought of before. He couldn’t move, the only scenarios playing in his mind was either his head getting blown with the gun or being kidnapped to who knows where.

The man behind him moved. Chuuya didn’t know what he was about to do. Was he taking something out of his pocket? No, he felt his hand was empty when he put it on his shoulder. 

“I would say if I was a big, scary, dangerous man, right!” said a cheerful voice next to his ear causing a shiver down his spine. But only then could he finally gain the control of his body to throw a kick to the man’s side. The man dodged his kick rather easily, jumping back with a twisted smile on his lips. The gun was still sitting comfortably in his hand. Chuuya looked at his face. Hell he was young. He appeared to be the same age as him, actually. 

“What the fuck-” Chuuya tried murmuring to himself but he was cut off. “A pretty good fighter are we? So interesting! That was a really strong kick you know! Could break a bone..Would you mind killing me?? It’s a big dream of mine you see!” Chuuya answered before his brain could process what he had just heard. “Damn you really are nuts. Noone on their right mind would lie face down on burning hot steel in the middle of summer.”

The black haired boy in front of him looked somewhat offended, hurt? hearing that. He grimaced his face. Damn Chuuya had completely forgotten about the gun in his hand when he answered. And he mocked him even! Was he going to shoot him now?  

“Rude thing to say about someone’s home you know?” Home? So he was really occupying this place huh? “And I’d really like it if unwanted guests left here.” His smile looked even more innocent than before but his eyes were colder now, no light in them, blending with the dakness of inside the container. Looking right into Chuuya's soul. The black haired boy raised his hand, aiming his gun at him. 

Chuuya didn’t know how to react, he was stuck. If he tried to run could he avoid the bullets? Could he be fast enough to not let them hit? He tried to think clearly. He was scared, he could feel the cold sweat running down on his nape. Taking in a deep breath, he took a step back, and an another one without waiting a second, then he turned around and started running as fast as he can. He could get shot running like this, but he was going to die if he didn't run, too. So he didn’t look back to see the boy with the gun as he ran down the trash pile, grabbed his red bike, and rode back from the way he came. As he passed the first building in font of him, he slowed down a little and looked back to see noone was following him.

He relased the breath he had been holding in. Everything had happened so fast, he didn't even realize what he just did. As he catched his breath everything started replaying in his head. He almost got shot by a fucking psychopath. How the hell did that boy even have a gun?? Did he get involved in illegal business for no fucking reason at all?! Chuuya wanted to beat the shit out of himself. What was he thinking!? 

He replayed whatever happened on that fucking dump in his head while riding back home. He would have never thought that he would be pointed a gun at in a fucking shipping container of all places. It could have been a silent alley, a bar, the port, but a fucking shipping container. The dead silence inside the container as the gun rested against his head still ran chills down his spine. As he rode further and further and calmed down, one thing on his mind became that boy being covered way too much to be living in a steel shipping container in the middle of summer. Even the thought of being inside those clothes made him suffocated. He then again tried to stop his thoughts and forget about it, to not get involved more as it was none of his business. 

After passing the highway and entering the neighbourhood streets, he stopped to take a breath and rest in a park. He sat on a bench, leaning his bicycle against it’s side. As the adrenaline left his body, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back. A dog came after a few minutes and he played with him for a while before going back home. 

    ____

He entered the house to see his mother was out again. Probably for shopping or something. Letting out a big sigh of relief he cleaned the dust off his bike’s wheels and took it to his room. 

He was still sweating from all the way he rode from that dump to here. His shirt was feeling wet and sticky on his chest and armpits. So he took his clothes off and took a shower. 

His mother had came back while he was in shower. By the sound of it she went shopping and was placing the things she had bought to the refrigerator. He wore his robe and went to the kitchen to welcome her. 

"Welcome home, what did you buy?" He took a glance at the bags on the table then inside the refrigerator. His mother was kneeling in front of the fridge, placing vegetables inside the crisper. "Ah, Chuuya dear. Well, nothing much, eggs, onions, milk and a few. How was your day today?" She said as she raised the scallions in her hand. "Uh, not really that bad. Just got tired a bit today. Still boring as ever tho." 

His mother raised her head from the fridge to look at him but pouted after seeing his face. "What happened? You look sick.. " She got up and walked up into his face, held it with both hands and kissed his forehead to check on his body heat. "Uh, mom, Im ok-" "You don't have fever... Am I not saying go sit somewhere near the house, a park maybe, why should you roam the whole city the heat will hit your head, you don't even use sunscreen, your face color will be uneven! And look at your face, you look like all the blood in you was taken! I'm telling you to go make some friends before school starts and you decide to go take a look at the border of the city! The port is... " Chuuya just decided to zone his mother's voice out after that. She liked nagging at him bc he listened and took her words seriously since he knew himself but as he got older her worries started to make no sense to him. Well but of course that is his mother he can't just cut in her speech mid paragraph can he? 

After his mom kicked him out of the kitchen to cook he could finally come back to his room. He got out of his robe and changed his clothes. He layed on his bed and started looking at his phone to distract himself. It was 5 pm and the hours he usually fell asleep was so far from the hour and there weren't much he could do at the moment. 

His pillow was drenched wet from his hair and was touching his neck. It was uncomfortable so he turned it around. He had been lying down for an hour but it was feeling like it had been 3 hours to Chuuya. No matter how much he tried to distract himself, how many videos he watched he couldn't focus. He was so distracted. His mind was somewhere else he didn't want to think about. But he couldn't help but feel the fear of that moment everytime he got distracted from the thing he was trying to busy himself with. The click noise of that gun was still echoing behind his ear. 

He sighed. He wanted to talk and feel the reality of where he was and who he was with right now. Should he call his friends? He could, his friends were.. energetic, not taking anything seriously, quite humorous to say the least. They would exactly be the positivity he needed right now. Well, at least trying wouldn't hurt? 

He called their group chat not being sure who would pick up. The beep noise coming from the phone continued and after a minute stopped. None of them picked up. Throwing the phone into the bed sheets again he sighed and got off the bed. Of course they would be busy, spending time with their family outside their house and not hear the call. Well, he couldn't blame them, could he? 

____________________

Late into the night, streets lighted by lamps and illuminated signs of cafes and shops, a calm music was playing inside a bar. The sound of it echoing through the stairs that connected the small place to the exit door. It was likely the place was empty like most of the time as there wasn't any chatting noises coming. 

Dazai stepped down from the stairs into that bar. There was a man sitting at the counter with a glass in his hand. He turned his head to look as he heard Dazai's steps. Dazai's eyes lightening up at the sight. 

"Odasaku. You're early today? " He sat next to the man. Oda Sakunosuke, a former assassin and an errand man working in the mafia now, was Dazai's only friend in the mafia. They came and chatted under this empty bar's calming music quite often. 

"Hm... What shall I drink today... Hey Odasaku! Why don't you choose for me! " Oda turned his head to the energetic teen. He seemed excited by the thought of the red headed man choosing his first drink. Too bad Oda didn't have the answer he wanted to hear. "Drink juice then." He straightened his back and took another sip of his cocktail. Dazai pretty obviously wasn't pleased with the answer he got. He immediately pouted and leaned back on his chair like he was trying to fall before going forth and slapping his palms on the counter. "Haaaaaah, you have no taste Odasaku.. Who drinks juice in a bar! I'll have a glass of.... No, not really.. I don't like that either, hm... Then.. make me a cocktail like Odasaku's, Mister!" 

They have been coming here for about four weeks now since Oda joined the Port Mafia. He thought Dazai wouldn't hate the place as it was a pretty chill bar, he hadn't thought he would love coming here though. Either way, they had a nice meeting spot they both were fond of to play board games and chat in the end, so it was all good. 

Dazai tapped his finger on the counter continuesly until he had his cocktail and in an urge took a sip too big for his first drink of the day. And expectedly choked as it burned his throat. "Heh, it would be quite absurd if I died choking on a cocktail because I drank too fast wouldn't it. " "I guess so. " Dazai closed his eyes and took another sip. "But, maybe I should try dying this way too. Dying accidentally might work better than drowning or poison, who knows?..." He looked at Oda taking another sip of his beverage silently then his eyes widened slightly, as he had something to whine about again. "Ah, now that I remember, someone broke into my home today, Odasaku! And he even had the audacity to insult it! Can you believe it?? " Oda looked at him with an expressionless face. "How rude. He should say sorry. " But Dazai seemed to be satisfied with the answer he got as he continued to explain with the same fire in his eyes. "Right? But he even kicked me, it hurt you know! I almost got thrown into the wall! Such a barbarian!" 

He was mimicking dramatical poses you would see in theaters to express how that boy hurt him so bad. It was quite the sight to see a mafioso that killed at leasts 2 times more than his age being so offended over another boy kicking him. But he was fond of listening to these dramatics so he continued listening to Dazai until they got drunk. 

__________

Dazai was sitting on a sidewalk. This place was normally silent as it wasn't close to the main streets of the neighborhood, but it was quite noisy right now. The sounds of painful moans and screams for mercy of a man echoing louder than the sounds of 15 mafia men beating him. He couldn't care less tho. It was something normal for him as he was dealing with the traitors since the day he joined Port Mafia. 

The waiting was starting to feel boring as the man wasn't even trying to run away pitifully. He got up from where he was sitting with a loud sigh and walked up to the 15 men in black suits. They stopped what they were doing as they heard Dazai walking and made way to him. Boring, all boring. 15 cowards beating another coward because they were told so by him. 

The traitor he was supposed to kill was lying on the ground limblessly, couldn't even open his eyes to look at him. But Dazai wasn't going to let him catch his breath down there. "Look at me. " The coldness of his voice made the man take a shaky breath in surprise. Dazai put his foot on his chest and put pressure on it. The man gasped for air, a few bones broken by all the kicks he got stabbing into his lungs because of the pressure. He couldn't even try to stop Dazai's foot, his arms weren't moving at all. 'How fatuously did they beat him. How stupid. ' He silently took a deep breath in. Was he supposed to train these wild dogs like Akutagawa too? He took his gun out and shot the ground next to the lying man's head. It was a threat to the 15 men who beat him up, not him, but he couldn't know that. He started shaking, opening his mouth repeatedly but couldn't get a word out of it. 

Dazai moved his foot to the man's stomach instead, for him to at least be able to talk. "I said look at me. I won't repeat again. " The man forced his eyes to open but couldn't afford more than a thin line of sight between his lashes. It was enough to see Dazai's eyes though. The dark color of the pair of eyes that didn't shine with no sunlight hitting them and seemed pitch black. They gave him the chills. He felt like he was stuck in a tiny wooden box with no airway through it, not able to move inside and the oxygen lessening with every breath he took, the heat suffocating him. Dazai could see he was on the brink of having a panic attack. He couldn't talk, he couldn't see, he couldn't walk, he couldn't move, Dazai couldn't find any information out of the man, he was useless. "Sigh.... You're useless." He put a gentle smile on his face for the man to see.

 "But let me tell you something.. I will take all your pain away and give you a nice gift! How does that sound? " The man's face took a confused shape. But before coming to a conclusion he was harshly held by his clothes and the next thing he felt was the cold and dusty taste of curbstone inside his mouth. He knew this was coming. This was what Mafia did to all the traitors like him. "If you weren't so useless maybe I could just shoot you in the head but these guys did you pretty bad y'know?" He was talking really cheerfully, like he was convincing a few toddlers to get along. Like he wasn't about to break a man's jaw open. "I'm sure you'll love the taste of death tho, right! It's gonna hurt pretty badly tho, I wouldn't wanna die like this. You better hang on until you lose consciousness." The cracking sound of the jaw separating from the skull was heard after Dazai stepped on the man's head. The curb painted with the red color of blood flowing down from the nose and thorn muscles and veins inside his throat. Neck broken, teeth fallen from their places. The sound of the man trying to breath his last air in mixed with the sound of gagging. A disgusting scenery even Dazai disliked. 

Though Dazai, not giving any thought to his likes and dislikes, didn't even have a flinch on his face as he looked at this. 

__________

Chuuya puked. He couldn't stop it. Tears were coming down his cheeks, his stomach hurt, but he couldn't stop. He couldn't get what he saw out of his head. That scenery kept replaying before his eyes. The cracking sound and the smell of blood so thick it reached him in matter of seconds. He puked again. 

Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out, close your mouth, breath in from your nose, relax your stomach and let it out, don't think, look at the white wall in front of you. He locked his gaze to the street the cars were coming and going and walked out of the alley. Hold it, don't think, hold it, don't think, focus on the cars, focus on the cars, focus on the cars, focus on the cars... 

He walked into a park nearby with his bike as he didn't have it in him to ride back home right now. His head was spinning, he had puked so much, he was still nauseous and had no energy left after all the adrenaline he used to get away from those men without them noticing. He already knew nothing he saw there would be something good to look at and he could do nothing to stop it from happening, he should have stopped watching the moment he saw the man getting beaten up, but he watched it anyway. He was so stupid. It was always because of his damn curiosity that he ended up in these kinds of situations. It had only been a week and a half since he had a gun against his head and now.... Ok stop thinking! He couldn't puke again. 

He smelled the scent of the trees and flowers in the park to suppress the scent of blood inside his mind. He looked at anywhere but into the space to not think about that damn scenery again. 

He was not going that far in the city ever again. Especially the way towards the Port.  

Chapter Text

 A sparrow landed in front of Chuuya's window to eat the bread crumbs left on the marble. It had the light and dark brown colors shaped in different ways on it's feathers. Chuuya didn't raise his head from where it rested and observed in silence to not scare the bird as it timidly ate the tiny bread pieces.

 It was half past six in the morning, the sun hasn't risen yet and a chilling breeze was running into the room from the open window. Inside his room was dark. He would've gotten ready to take a run outside by this hour normally but he was still in his sleeping shorts and shirt. He didn't have it in him to go out today. No, actually, he didn't feel like going out for the past 3 days too.

 At first he forced himself, thinking he would gain his energy if he felt the shoe on his foot and stepped outside, but when he went out everything bored him. It was silent. The songs in his phone weren't interesting, they weren't fit to hype his mood at all. In the end he ran for 15 minutes then came back. The next day he didn't force himself. And today too, he was just watching the birds waking up and making their living. He heard the sound of a car coming from the other side of the street, because obviously the summer wasn't a holiday for people with jobs unrelated to school.

 It turns out it was pretty relaxing, the silence. Who would've thought. He always liked life more when it was lively, maybe because he grew up in a really crowded city like Tokyo, he was used to the noises of cars, buses, sounds of people chatting and riding bicycles rising so early in the morning. Here, in a modest side of a port city, life didn't start so early for everyone.

 The bird flew away when the car went by the street and caused the branches of the trees to swing.

 Chuuya raised his head from his desk and streched with a sigh. His father was probably up by now. He normally would be outside by this hour or his dad would be having a full night's shift at the hospital so usually he wouldn't get the chance to say goodbye to his dad. But why not today?

 He went to the kitchen to wait for his father to get ready and come there for a coffee. He checked his phone while waiting. Now that he thought, he hadn't talked with any of his friends in almost 3 weeks and they never called once. They haven't fought before he left nor were they upset with each other. But his calls were always unanswered and they didn't call back later, either. Their group chat was unused. No pictures posted of how sweaty they were, neither any pictures of them hanging out in a park, riding their bikes, eating ice creams, any pranks they pulled to each other to make Chuuya jealous because he was out of the city. Did they forget about him or anything?

 The clicking sound of a door closing snapped Chuuya out of his thoughts. There was his dad. He put a small smile on his face and greeted him

 "Morning"

 "Heya, son!  You're not out today? "

 His father, Kensuke, was a happy man in many ways. Being positive, creative and hardworking was a great combination everyone would want in their close ones, and Chuuya loved these traits about his father a lot as he passed these genes to him too. But he was tired a lot, from overworking himself a lot, he was sleepy most of the time he was home and tried to use his time to rest without working his mind, and as well as a workaholic, his father was a quite smart man, quick with capturing things and finding many different ways out in a situation. With lots of other skills he learnt in his past work places. His father used to work for the army in the past after all. Chuuya couldn't remember those times clearly as he was as much as a toddler at the time but he remembered how he used to stay in central cities of Japan, away from the war zone.

"Eh, didn't feel like going out today" He watched his father as he started making coffee for himself. "How is life going, do you like this place? " his father asks. It was getting more boring every passing day. Now that he lost interest in even doing his morning exercises and didn't get any friends in these 3 weeks this place wasn't feeling like it welcomed him at all. "Maybe I could work on finding people to hang out more. " His father turns to him, seems a little surprised by the answer he got. "You still haven't found anyone? I thought you were the social butterfly of your previous school. "

 Chuuya hid his gaze from his father at the question. He was, even though not exactly a butterfly, quite social. He would spend a lot of time in coffees, junk shops, arcades, go to karaoke rooms, gyms, parks, either with his friends or go alone and socialize with other people. He would basically never stay at home as long as it wasn't the finals weeks. At school he was quite the troublemaker, was easily irritable and kicked a lot of people in the ass in a lot of fights. Even though they were the ones who picked on him first he would get punished as he wasn't beaten and was easier to blame. You could say he had got his reputation on the first year pretty fast.

 "I guess... I wasn't trying to meet anyone either... Probably I should get to know a few folks and go back to my hobbies huh? "

 His father smiled at him with the mug in his hand. "Sure, go ahead. Seeing you sitting at home other than for dinner and breakfast feels weird. " He chuckled. It was probably right.

________

Now that he thought about it, why did spending time in different shops never came to Chuuya's mind when he had traveled half the city already? He loved collecting old goods from shops and making whatever decoration stuff with them. Their old garage was full of things he had menaged to put together and make them work. They were still in boxes as he didn't want to stuff his room with all of them and his mother didn't want to touch his work.

An old but pretty large bird cage caught his eye as he was walking around the stuffy shop, trying not to step on any old stuff on the floor while doing so. It was cleaned but rust still remained on it's metal bars. It was it's shape that caught Chuuya's attention. It was a round cage with no floor in it. Couldn't this be a pretty good night lamp if he put more space between the bars and covered them with a translucent fabric with patterns? It was about time he put a few decorations in his room anyway. He took the birdcage and looked for a lamp holder and something to make a base from.

 The junk shop in Yokohama actually had a lot of usefull stuff to sell. In Tokyo there would usually be more electronics he didn't use much or real junk he simply could make no use of. Yokohama was more expensive than in Tokyo though, since not many people would visit these kinds of shops there. It seemed they were more common in Yokohama.

 He was walking back home from a sidewalk next to a library. The bird cage in one hand, other stuff he bought inside a bag in the other, it was around 3 in the afternoon, the sun still shining above the buildings. He glanced at a boy, probably his age, studying inside the library from the window. So hardworking even in these short break times from school huh? Even though second period of schools were going to start in just a few weeks, he still hadn't started studying. He had already realized how dull he spent his first few weeks only riding a bike and coming back home in the evening. He had so many choices but he saw none of them.

 Well there was no need to dwell on it anymore. He couldn't change the passed time. He was going to spend the rest of the time he had better.

 There was a pretty large city park in front of him as he passed the road. He had came from the same way he was going back right now but he hadn't realised how big the park looked before. He observed the wooden stairs as he slowly walked up into the park filled with thick trees.

 While on his way towards deeper into the park, an unexpected sound of a bike's bell came from behind. On instinct he threw himself over the railing onto the soil ground to let the bike pass. And just a second later the sound of the bike crushing and falling somewhere reached his ears. Why the hell was that punk riding it that fast on a wooden and narrow way like this. Its was plain stupid and an accident like that was very much expected.

 Chuuya jumped back onto the path over the railing, and with faster steps than before went to check over the boy. Like he thought the boy had fallen out of the path, breaking the railings, his leg and neck a little misplaced but doesn't look like an extreme injury -Chuuya had fallen off with his bike a lot in the past-, a few scratches on his face and arms from the bushes rubbing on them, thankfully no brach seems to have poked in his eye.

 Placing the bag and cage in his hands on the floor, Chuuya walked off the path again to help the boy up. The boy groaned a little when Chuuya tried to take the bike off of him. "Gh! Why the hell-- were you even riding so fast here... -ah are you stupid? " He was grumbling to himself as he tried to put the boy in a safer posture. He was pretty heavy alright. The boy raised his gaze and looked at Chuuya, he seemed to be still in shock. Well Chuuya couldn't really blame him it was a pretty dangerous fall, he was lucky the only injury he had would be his back aching and the scratches stinging a little.

 Chuuya waited for him to process for a few seconds. The boy tried to stand up, groaning from the muscle ach he had, but he managed himself in the end. "You ok? Not any invisible injuries, are there?" The boy stretched a little, relaxing his waist and shoulders. There doesn't seem to be any pain from moving. "Yeah, no, Im good. " He looked at Chuuya and smiled "Thanks for the help." "Nah, it's nothin'." The boy bent over to hold his bike up and ran his other hand into his hair to clean it from the leaves and soil it caught. "Are you new here? I never saw your around before."

 "Yeah, we moved in a few weeks ago, though I'm walking around the neighborhood only now. "

"Ah, makes sense I guess. Im Shirase by the way, you?" He held up his hand for Chuuya. Chuuya looked at the hand for a second and shook it with a smile as a reply. "Call me Chuuya."

________

"Holy shit, really?? That's so cool!" Shirase said as Chuuya opened the door with his key. "Yeah, wanna see them?" Shirase's eyes widened with excitement as he put his bike against the wall. "Yeah! Not only that, show me how you do it man! I want to learn it too! "

 After Chuuya roasted Shirase on their way outside the park, Shirase asked Chuuya where he lived and Chuuya offered him to come with him. Shirase was pretty talkative, you could say he never shuts up, asking questions, talking about himself, talking about his friend group, giving every detail that comes to his mind. Chuuya appreciated it though, he had missed his mind heating up from the noise around him and Shirase wasn't even close enough to tire him out with his nonesense.

In the end the topic of Shirase's speech became learning about Chuuya. That was when he asked Chuuya what the birdcage was for. After Chuuya told him he was planning on making new decorations for his room with it Shirase was all so excited about the information, asking him if he made any other things like this, in which the answer was yes.

They entered the house together, Chuuya looked for his mother to let her know that he was home, but as there was no comeback to his call both of them just settled in his room. She would probably comeback in an hour or two like usually.

 Shirase was sitting on the desk chair while Chuuya was looking for something to wipe the cage clean.

"When you said you made decorations yourself from old stuff I thought your room would be more... Or should I say, less modern, you know. "

Chuuya raised his voice from under the bed, looking for a towel in where he kept his tools. "Yeah but my room would be so stuffy like that." Then he finally got his upper body out of under the bed with a yellow towel in his hand. "I don't even use my room that much other than sleeping you know? I can't bother dusting all the little stuff so often."

"What does that even mean. You're always outside?" Chuuya thought for a bit about how he usually spent his time while wiping the rust remover off the cage. "Pretty much, yeah. I used to spend time in gaming places with my friends in Tokyo but I can't really say the same thing for here."

 Shirase let the information sink in for a little as he didn't seem to be the social type as much as Chuuya. "You mean literally everyday? Not a day for yourself at home?" He nodded, not thinking it was all that out of the ordinary. Looking at Shirase's expression Chuuya thought about how his father called him a social butterfly again. Was he really that sociable? He just thought he was an extrovert before but he had to debate that idea now.

 "What did you even do for the past three weeks here then?" Shirase's voice cut in his thoughts again. "I didn't see you around the neighborhood once before this and I was usually outside too."  "I was, uh, riding my bike?" "Around here?" "No... I was touring the city... " Only after hearing his own words was Chuuya realising that what he has been doing was, in fact, not a normal daily activity to spend time with. Maybe his mother was right about him tiring himself too much after all. Riding his bike all alone for such a long time in unknown and desolate places wasn't really working on discharging him, too.

 "... " Shirase was looking at his face for Chuuya to continue his speech but Chuuya was just continuing to look him in the eye without a word too. "Wait that was literal? You really toured the whole city?? Dude!! Just how much energy do you have in that body! That's so cool! Are you doing any sports? " "-Uh, yeah. I took martial arts lessons, Im pretty good at fighting." "Where do you find the time to do all of these? They all sound busying as hell!" He leaned back on the chair and let out a long sigh. These weren't weird or 'so many' things for Chuuya. Maybe because he grew up getting used to that kind of lifestyle. Not being busy with anything felt weirder to Chuuya if he were to compare. "That isn't even all I had. If this is your reaction I can't imagine what you would think if you heard with how many things my parents kept me busy." "Wait wait wait wait! Just, how many, dexterities do you have? You do sports, you craft, and what else? I don't think that's all there is, am I right?"

 Chuuya thought for a moment, about things he does that would be counted as a dexterity. His family could be considered one of the wealthy families, his father was making a lot from being a doctor and the times he spent on war had their additional payments. His mother, even if she was from a pretty wealthy family, was working as a designer from home and wasn't the owner of any big places other than her online shop, and his father was a commom citizens if you didn't consider his time on war. They weren't living any special way, like having a big house and spending money here and there, or trying to join the rich societies from his mother's side of the family, a normal neighborhood has been enough for them for as long as Chuuya remembered. But his family never hid their money for him to take courses and develop himself too. They gave him alş the opportunities with the money they had no use of.

 And about Chuuya's dexterities, he knew about cleaning, that's basics though, of course one should know how to clean, rich or not. He thought about things his peers usually couldn't do, he could cook, mostly desserts for himself, and a few other dishes he learned how to make by curiosity. He actually knew how to drive too, his aunt having taught him since he was 13. He could have a dravers license with extra money but there was no need to rush he had 2 years left anyway. He was fluent in English because he had lessons since he was little and his school in Tokyo was a private school that had more language courses than others. Because Japan was in Great War at the time and his father was in military, his age of kindergarten was spent with his mother's side of the family who lived in Europe, more specifically France, and because of this he knew a few things from French. His mother wasn't fully Japanese either, her family all being mixed bloods, hence explaining where Chuuya got his blue eyes from.

 'Seriously what a crazy family I have, what am I? A main character?' Chuuya thought to himself. It was an absurd thought, he almost chuckled out loud. Shirase's eyes widening dramatically the longer he waited for an answer was funnier though. "You seriously have that much to think about?? "

 "No, actually, I don't have that many if you think about it. If I list it down, cooking amd some baking if you count it separately, fighting, you knowr the martial arts, English? If it counts as a talent, and French. Also even if I don't have a license yet because of my age, I know how to drive, and the craftsman things I told you about. Not many things you would consider out of the ordinary except for the driving but I guess these would be considered dexterity."

"You know French?! Don't tell me you're French or anything because you seriously don't look Japanese at all... "

"I- uh, half? Or more like quarter French? I guess, my mother is half French so.. "

"STOP INFO BOMBING ME! You are also rich or something right? Reeeeaally wealthy at that!"

"...."

".... UUGH! I'm starting to hate you! "

________

 The warm night's breeze brushed against Dazai's brown hair. Except the wind was coming from the wrong direction, not letting the hair wave around the boy's head beautifully but making it fall over and cover his face and get in his mouth and nose.

Dazai tried tucking his bangs behind his ear, but the volume and length of his hair wasn't helping him at all. He let out a deep and loud sigh. He was tired of all of this. It was NOT this stupid wind's business making his night worse than normal. His container was far from the port because he wanted silence but the port was extra loud today too, not letting Dazai sit alone in peace.

Today was so dull but busy. Mori-san gave him lots of boring work he didn't want, but his declines weren't accepted as the work contained information that couldn't be trusted with anyone else. He kept going back and forth between the Mafia Headquarter buildings to carry words between Mori-san and other executives, which he didn't have the energy for. He hated how Mori used him like an errand boy because he was, as he said, not doing any work, leaving paperwork to his subordinates and whining about being bored the whole day. But why not call the executives to his office and let Dazai bother their meeting and instead make him an errand boy when between all the executives his rank was the highest one. He just liked tiring Dazai to death so much!

 He plopped on his back on top of the steel roof of his shipping container. Still warm from absorbing the sun light all morning. The night's breeze was still running over his face once every few seconds. He listened to the sounds of all the loudly working machines loading the ships one by one and all the heavy doors shutting after the staff's work was done for how long he didn't know. If he didn't think about all the annoying sounds the port was making, the night was actually calm and chilly, a rare case in summers. Such a perfect night it would be to just go and let his body sink in the ocean between the ships. If he had the energy to even get down from the top of this container, he would try. Unless someone heard the water splashing and tried to save him, there would be no way for him to survive until Mori was suspicious of his absence and sent subordinates to look for him. He chuckled to himself, his low voice sounding awkwardly loud in the empty area he was in. What a sight Mori's face would be, the dissatisfaction of losing his demon prodigy everyone, from time to time even himself, feared. It would be one of his biggest satisfactions to see Mori not being able to do anything in a situation, only if he could be alive to see it when the time comes...

 He was too tired for anything now though. The whole night he would probably spend here, not moving a limb, listening to all the noise ceasing slowly and there being no signs of any living being for hours. 

Chapter Text

› Chuuya
What are we even going to do? (11:24)

›Shirase
Yes I forgot to tell you that.. (11:26)
We were going to go fishing. Does that suit you? (11:26)

›Chuuya
And where are we going to do that? (11:27)

I don't even have a fishing rod(11:27)

›Shirase
We can share mine(11:27)
There's a fishing park across the port I'm sure it's really crowded at this time of summer(11:28)

›Chuuya
No way Im not going to the port. (11:28)

›Shirase
What, why?? (11:28)

›Chuuya
You can say I have some bad experiences there.. (11:28)
Either way Im not going there again(11:29)

›Shirase
But we're gonna have so much fun are you gonna just miss that??? (11:30)

›Chuuya
I guess so(11:30)

›Shirase
I thought you wanted to meet my friend group(11:31)
Do you hate port that much? (11:31)

›Chuuya
I might see someone I don't want to there I 'on wanna risk it(11:31)

›Shirase
It's just someone? We won't even be hanging around the port we'll be crossing the water(11:32)
Im sure you won't see whoever it is(11:32)
Come on Chuuya you shouldn't miss this! (11:32)
Please? (11:33)

-The Next Day-

After Shirase begged for another 15 minutes Chuuya gave up in the end. He didn't have another excuse other than someone he didn't want to see and Shirase, not knowing that guy had the potential to kill them didn't accept the excuse as reasonable enough.

'Damn Shirase of course you wouldn't know what it's like to feel a gun against your brains... '

He didn't want to pull Shirase into that kind of trouble. He just wanted to forget about that time in the dump and never get involved with it again. Who knows what that guy could do to Shirase and him to silence them if he thought information about him was spreading. He didn't want to learn, thank you very much.

He was on the way to meet Shirase and others at the port now. Unusually a little late but not so much enough to make them wait any more seconds than 10 minutes.

While he passed by the road siding to the way that took him to that dump, he couldn't help but feel a little anxious. Would that guy recognize him if they ran into each other? He could still remember the scene from that dark alley, that man that got killed, suffocating covered in blood, it still gave him the chills and he couldn't forget about it no matter how much he tried to.

As he got closer to the port the sounds of people began to reach his ears. At first the sounds of sailors shouting and the loud banging from the containers being dropped on the backs of the ships. Then the slowly raising sound of the crowd on the ground chatting and cleaning the area along with the sounds of water splashing with every movement the weight loaded to the ship caused.

He observed the environment as he stopped his bike and stepped onto the cement ground of the port. The way to the left was blocked with wire netting but he could still see the big shipment equipments from afar shadowing on the sky. He searched for Shirase with his eyes while walking around. The land across the port he was talking about was visible from where he was standing, though no details other than the green color of trees were perceivable.

"OI! CHUUYA!"  A familiar voice, he finally found Shirase. Looking towards the direction Shirase's voice came from, he saw four teenagers with fishing equipment in hands. A pink headed girl and 3 boys next to her. Shirase was there, waving at him in the front as Chuuya ran towards them.

"Yo!" he said before clapping hands with the white haired boy. Though he still wasn't very comfortable being around here, he felt calmer now and couldn't really help the excitement raising in his chest with the thought of trying out something new.

They didn't waste much time waiting there, starting to cross the bridge that connected Sobietatsu and the port of Yokohama. Shirase, being the ever talkative person, talked non stop on the way, introducing everyone and telling the others about everything possible to say without giving a chance to the person in question to talk about themselves.

Apparently the pink haired girl was called Yuan. She seemed to be in between somewhat a shy and "don't think before saying what's on your mind" kind of person. And to be fair Chuuya liked her quite fast, she made him feel tall, not that he was going to say this kind of thing out loud but... There was another boy with brown hair, Akira, also close to his height. He was 2 years younger though so he didn't count.

Shougo, towering over him, almost a head taller. It wasn't only height that made him look like he hit puberty early though. His voice was pretty deep for being a year younger than Chuuya too. Not that he looked like a matured adult yet but genetics always worked in a weird way anyway.

He figured, Shirase was the only one older than him, for a month.

They passed the bridge and chatted until they reached the fishing park. The park was surrounded with trees, like any other he saw before. But they weren't placed as close to each other, the sun could hit directly to the large lake containing fishes. Honestly, the lake shone so beautifully under the sunlight and people surrounding it, fishing in silence, or chatting peacefully with a friend they brought along created a really calming and beautiful atmosphere in the park.

_____

Street fights were rather common in Yokohama. So much so that they could even be considered regular in the eyes of citizens. Students, housewives, workers, elders.. Everyone, and if illegal weapons like guns weren't involved, usually even the police, wouldn't get involved with these fights and ignore them.

These fights most likely would occur between small gangs over dominance. Gangs formed from teenagers who want to be cool, or from foreigners who had no idea who the dominance in Yokohama truly belonged to, the Port Mafia.

Port Mafia was informed on all the things these groups were doing; locations, new members, any deaths, getting caught by the police and even future intentions. Their gang would immediately be dismembered in one way or another the minute they started being a threat to the bigger organization.

And in areas near the port, you wouldn't see these rookies roaming around. Because they were silent, not very crowded and far from gazes, kidnapping, killing, going missing and drug dealer cases would occur in these places.

And his home being near these places, Dazai watching these events from behind like a ghost was a sight you could see often. What you wouldn't see often was, though, people who had no illegal business to do around passing by, without a vehicle.

Now Dazai was sitting on some debris left behind from a factory, watching a boy getting dragged by 3 men, unable to overpower them. He seemed to have a petite figure, looking to be maybe around an average 14 year old. He had a stentorian voice, reaching Dazai's ears quiet easily while struggling, even from such a distance.

He seemed to be giving these men trouble though how small he looked compared to them, one of them even taking out a pocket knife to restrain him.

"These men don't know shit about overpowering someone.." he mumbled to himself. The kid was obviously trained in fighting, with the way he was using his strength with knowledge you could see he was capable enough to catch them unwary and make a run for himself.

He kicked one of the men from the guts away, now trying to free his arms from the grasp of the man behind him. It isn't going to be that easy to make them let go of course, thought Dazai. They were three against one and a kid that size wouldn't be able to reach all of them at the same time. Even an adult, if not a professional, would have a hard time when fighting against 3 people with knives. Though the kid was surprisingly good at keeping his cool and didn't seem to panic, he didn't have many advantages. With the way things were going, Dazai would normally think the kid was bound to be knocked out and taken away. But in this case, he had a feeling that this kid had another move up his sleeve and he had the higher chance to win this fight.

Just as he thought, not even a minute later the kid's lower body seemed to raise into the air in an unnatural way. He seemed to be floating. A red glow he notices around the black shoes, hardly noticeable from the distance but had no chance to be the mistake of the eye. So he was an ability user. Now this was pretty interesting for Dazai.

He observed them, giving more attention into whatever happens from now on. The boy, floating himself higher and higher until it's enough to jump over the man's head, finally frees himself while making the man fall on his back and swallow the dust of the fall. His hand is resting on the man's head, not letting him raise back into his feet. Gravity control. And such a great control over the power to not crush the man's head but not letting him up either.

He waits there, kneeling by the man's head until the other men try to catch him again, and when they do, the man on the ground is glowing red just like the boy. The smaller figure compared to the men is now throwing heavy kicks at the other two and making them fall to the ground with the same red glow surrounding them.

To say the least, Dazai was invested with the fight the moment the boy jumped over the man's head. Power and control, balanced so perfectly, used by the body moving neatly by all means, with no hesitance. Dazai wanted the fight to last longer, to be able to observe more. But the boy was leaving, leaving the men he pastered to the groud there, running back from the way they dragged him from. He was still glowing red, still using his ability on the men so they won't run after him until he went far enough.

He wanted to laugh at the three men's faces, mock them, saying they were so stupid that a child a decade younger than them literally crushed them.

There was one more thing though. Dazai remembered that boy. The reddish auburn hair considered long for a boy. Figures he wasn't wrong by calling him a great fighter that day, the day he got poked by this boy who touched him without his permission and had the audacity to be disgusted from his sweat. Dazai felt less bored now. He was curious.

_____

Chuuya was out of breath from running so fast so long. Why was it always him these people found?  He and Shirase were just going to go back home together because they came from the same direction after spending time fishing. Having said their goodbyes to the others, Chuuya was waiting for Shirase to piss in a nearby toilet for a few minutes and the second he was alone arms were dragging him along with his bicycle, his mouth covered with large hands and voice falling silent compared to the loud noises around the port.

His bike had fallen off from between his legs somewhere while he tried to make the men let go. The further they went the rougher they were with him, not having to mind anyone hearing them. And he was panicking, because he knew the place this way was taking them. The thought of these men being his men he sent for him made Chuuya focus on not letting them go any further, to run away, to struggle non stop. But these men were too unprofessional compared to what he saw that day. And somehow, this tought managed to calm him down. Altough it didn't help with how his arms were still locked between one of the men's arms and his chest.

He was about to get kidnapped, oh what a great opportunity to be calm about it! But honestly, he was surprised with himself too, now thinking it over. He was pretty collected there, the anxiety caught up to him later after he ran away. Maybe it was because the sudden rush of adrenaline didn't let him process the situation enough for him to stress about it, or maybe his "things to be nervous about" list was upgraded to contain only guys with guns, who knows?

Either way he was glad he could run away without having to see that guy with the gun again. He had immediately recognized the area they were in while getting dragged away, it was so close to the place that shipping container resided. And the last thing he wanted was to be seen there again and get involved with that freak.

After running further enough and releasing the gravities grip on them, he found his bike a few meters outside the port's entrance. And when he came back to the place he was waiting before, he found Shirase looking for him. The white haired boy ran up to him the second he recognized his figure, only for his expression to change from relief to unable to understand what happened in the 15 minutes Chuuya was gone.

Chuuya's hair was falling on his shoulders, the hair tie he had on falling somewhere he doesn't remember. The arm and collar of the collared tulle blouse he wore on his sleeveless shirt in the inside being thorn, his shirt misplaced, a few buttons open and out of his pants, and his pants being covered in dust since he hasnt beaten it off yet.

"Holy shit.. " Shirase seemed flabbergasted. "Did.. Did you get....did someone-?? while I wasn't there?? Oh my god what happe-" "NO! Ugh no nothing like that! " Chuuya's eyes were widened with the tought process. God no!

"Just.. Take your bike I can explain while going back. Nothing of that sort happened, Shirase, don't make me punch you. Im already stressed enough. "

Before getting on his bike again, Chuuya adjusted his clothes and fixed his look a litte to be more comfortable. Then he explained what had happened while Shirase was pissing on the basic level. Not involving the fight with his ability. He just said he managed to kick them on the guts hard enough and wiggled out of the man's hands and made a run for himself. It was enough about it. Even hearing this much, Shirase stopped his bike for a second.

"Three men?? Dude they could've all hold your arms, legs and mouth separately with ease and you wiggled out of that?? " Chuuya shrugged at the question. Wiggling out of three grown man's grasp as a kid half their size felt implausible. Hell he wouldn't be able to do it normally if it weren't for his ability but Shirase didn't have to know that. Chuuya was just incredible like that.

After that Chuuya tried changing the topic, which kind of worked. They talked about their day and school years ahead. There was 2 weeks left to school. He was going to be joining as a second year student, being a senior. He learned Shirase wasn't attending the same highschool as him, but they would still all meet after as their class hours matched.

He didn't really tend to feel awkward in new schools, maybe it was his past  spending his first school years in French then moving to Japan as a middle schooler playing a role in it, he was young and it was easy to adapt and get used to new situations for him after all. That's why he thought he would gain more friends at school this year. He was kind of excited. 

Chapter Text

Tomorrow was the first day of school, a new school for Chuuya with thousands of new faces he won't recognize. He couldn't really name the feeling, a little bit of excitement, a little bit of curiosity and a little bit of nervousness, all keeping him awake.

The end of summer break felt rather quick for Chuuya. He went out with the Sheep, they revealed their group name after meeting for the 4th time, they played in arcades, biked around the city, played like little kids in playgrounds, he took out his skates and skated with them after a long while, bought ice creams, he tried teaching them cooking and a lot of other things in the mere 2 weeks they spent together. He felt alive, energetic, happy, full. This was his way of having fun, letting the hours pass by without even noticing the sun was setting. 

The next day, his morning routine went the same it did his previous school years, washing face, getting into his school's uniform and tying his hair into a ponytail. Breakfast, his mom trying to fix his shirt and tie, somehow managing to stylize them and kicking him out the house with his bag. Yeah, everything was the same.

At school though, it felt different from his old one. It was a lot.. louder here. Considering it was still, he checks his watch, 7:38, a lot louder than his school in Tokyo. But well, it was kind of welcoming, everyone minding their own business whilst being comfortable around. You didn't really feel the tension of first day.

He quickly found his class and took his place in an empty seat. Sitting there and checking his phone until it was time to gather in the auditorium. Some people went in and out the classroom, glancing at him for a second then going out with their friends. No chance to start a conversation with anyone. Wow, great luck in the morning. Maybe he should go out and walk around the school?

Someone's voice he assumes to be the deputy director called the students to the auditorium before he could give a second thought to the idea. There starts the second period of school.

________


Whenever a new rumor was going on around Yokohama, the first person to hear it would naturally be Mori as the leader of the biggest underground organization in the city.

Since he became the new port mafia boss 2 years ago, he had been trying to get the organization back on it's feet. His goal was for the port mafia to gain it's dominance over the underground of the city once again.

The old boss letting go of the organization's control to the point they would start to have insider conflicts made him feel obligated to step in for the sake of the mafia.

Being the boss' private doctor and right hand man, he could easily use the trust he had gained for his plans. And, just at the right time, he found the perfect companion to help him through it.

Echoes of the tired sounds of each step coming from the other side of his door, slowly getting closer to his office belonged to that very companion of his.

Mori sat straight behind his desk, resting his forearms on the hard and smooth texture of the wood as the stepping sounds stopped.

Putting a smile on his face, he watched the door get pushed open without even a warning knock.

"Glad to see you again, Dazai-kun. It's been so long I almost thought you really died without a last word for me." He observed the boy from head to toe. Dazai looked like a mess like always, probably haven't eaten for 2 days and had bags under his eyes out of the exhaustion his body was putting up with.

"But I guess there was no need for me to worry." His smile almost looked gentle, if not for the fact that his eyes were so serious in the coldest way possible. The kind of look that would scare most of the mafia subordinates, making them think they were about to be silenced because of a traitorous act, if they were in the place of this brown haired teenager right now.

Of course, Dazai was able to ignore his look very simply.

"Mori-san. What did you need me for?"

"Very straightforward, as always. Very well, then. Even if you hadn't been seen by anyone for the last week, I think it is safe to assume you are still aware of the rumours going around in Yokohama?"

Dazai was Mori's right hand man. He was his right hand man even before becoming an executive. Him being the first one after Mori to know about newfound information was natural, and nearly always (if not for the fact that he avoided any attempted contacts for days sometimes). There would be times he would know about something before Mori and simply not report to him, for whatever reason he thought of. This was most likely one of those times.

The boy continued looking Mori straight in the eye with his single visible one. Like he was saying And? What are you trying to say? Not a single, tiny bit of change in his expression. You would almost think he doesn't even blink with the way his eye was looking straight into your pupils without losing eye contact.

"I heard there's a new ability user seen around. Really close to the place you reside."

Dazai tilted his head, his gaze screams confused. "Really? I never knew! Tho, what does that have to do with me??" Blink. His single eye is observing him. If he cared enough about him, even daring him without giving any care to the fact that the man in front of him is his boss.

"Now now there is no need for acts. You probably saw this ability user too. I know how you spend your time alone. And as I heard, they had a little fight with some members of P Gang, right? You probably watched the fight too."

Mori averted his eyes from Dazai's by closing them at that moment. "But Im not going to ask you to explain what you observed there, though that would be convenient. I just need you to gain some more information about them. Learn their name, family background and any more information you get about their ability in a month, yes? That must be easy for you. "

Normally, Mori wouldn't care about one single ability user without any organization connected to them. But for some reason, all the nerves in his body, and of course Elise-chan, was telling him that ability user had potential and was important. Seeing Dazai's, who had seen the ability user fight, reaction to his new mission having some hidden interest was further confirmation for his feelings too.

Dazai sighed, slowly walking closer to Mori's desk. "I tried 4 different new methods in one week, and even jumping in the ocean didn't work you know? I just got cold and had to sleep with a stuffy nose."

"... " Mori silently watched Dazai taking the files of his new mission from his desk. And right as Dazai was about to leave the room, his voice raised again. "Would you like me to help you make medicine again?"

Dazai puffed through his nose, not taking the man's words seriously. "Your mixtures taste bitter." As the door shut after the boy, the room was silent again.

________

Dazai's misson was, basically, stalking. The redheaded boy was strong, with an ability too. So beating three members of a gang by himself had naturally pulled the attention towards him.

P Gang had still yet to be considered an organization of much value, they weren't stong enough for that. But their main business was illegal trading. They were trying to grow by selling drugs, organs, pirating products. And they were, in fact, growing really fast like this.

From what Dazai knew they were about 60 members by now. And as one would expect from the gang culture, they were probably going to corner the redhead somewhere and gang up on him up as a revenge of sort.

And Dazai would love to see that.

Now, stalking the redhead wasn't even a problem for him because he was going to follow the boy to see those gang members get beaten up again either way. But his own interests lining up with the the mafia's wasn't very tasteful. He didn't like liking the mission given to him. Mori was a boring man, his interests were going to be boring too! He only cared about 'the Port Mafia's sake this', 'the Port Mafia's sake that' everyone either obedient or traitorous.

But well, at least he finally had a mission he could have fun doing.

__________


Punching, kicking and the sounds of two boys insulting each other's mothers' hanged in the air.

"Did I get a curse or something.."

Chuuya definitely felt like he did. The boys in front of him, his seniors of one year, were blocking his way to his next class. If they felt like they had to fight at school, why did it have to be in it and not the schoolyard, and why did they have to specifically fight on this hall if not there.

Chuuya was already late to being in class by 2 minutes, and there were probably seconds until his teacher entered the class. Could he ask for them to make him way for 2 seconds? He didn't want to get into any fights on the first week though, and he was certain these rhinos would say something to piss him off somehow and he would definitely throw a kick in their guts.

He looked around. No teachers were in sight. He was either gonna go to the staff's room and call a teacher, which would mean he was going to get picked on for the rest of the school period, or he was going to flee silently behind the boys, without them noticing.

The boys in front of him probably wouldn't care right? What was one student walking around them without getting involved in their fight. He wasn't even going to tell a teacher, no harm done to them.

But he was wrong as he found out later the next day. Apparently just a minute after he left the hall a teacher found the boys. And also apparently there was another student who was disturbed by this fight. Fair enough, they told the teachers. But as if the coincidence of a teacher hearing their screams through an echoing hall and coming to give them detention wasn't enough for them to remember Chuuya, the helpful teacher told them a student complained about them. Of course he didn't tell the identity of the student, why would he risk his student's safety.

Chuuya was actually glad the student's safety was thought of. He was. But two separate friend groups of the two seniors he saw that day becoming his very little problem he tried to avoid having didn't let him appreciate the teacher's thoughtfulness.

They even found his class the next day somehow.

But hey, at least it was friday and he was going to be free from their childish insults and attempted 'pranks'(which were about to get more violent as each day passed, he was sure.) for two days.

He would say he wasn't exactly getting bullied. Now, of course, if he did care and was effected by whatever they were attempting to do to him, it would be getting bullied. But it was just annoying now because he was holding himself off a lot from being the one to start a fight. Even the first week of school hadn't ended for God's sake.

But he knew there was going to be a line they were gonna cross in the close future, and he was going to have a solid reason to protect himself.

It happened the next week, wednesday, he was chatting with his friends. They were at lunch, just chatting after finishing their food. He was leaning his lower back against the wall under the open window. They were talking about meeting after school, at one of their house, whichever was available.

Ame's mother didn't allow boys in the house, even her boyfriend.

"Mom went to visit our grandparents for the week, she would get mad if we invited anyone in the house in her absence." said Haruki, Ame's boyfriend in question. He was twins with Hikaru, who just shivered while whining "I can't imagine how the rest of the month would go" at the thought of their mom getting mad.

Well, looks like had the chill mom in the group. So his house was it.

"My house is-" he started to invite them, but something hit the back of his head. It felt like a rock, probably not a big one, as it didn't feel like it left a scar. But it hurt nonetheless, enough to have him rub the back of his head with a hiss and turn to check where the rock came from with whispered curses.

They were on the second floor of the building, which wasn't that high from the ground for someone to aim at his head correctly. And his assumption was right, because when he looked down he saw his seniors. Only for a second though.

Because a water balloon popped right on top of his nose the next one. Then before he could clean his eyes from the water and open them, 3 more were thrown.

It was quite childish, as he said before. Throwing water balloons at someone to bully them in school? Yeah, sounds like a summer game he would play with his friends. Preferably outside of school.

Now his clothes and hair was wet, and at least he only had 3 classes left to go. Something accidental? He would tolerate. If the situation had just stayed with him getting his clothes and hair wet as "just a prank"? He would get angry, but he could hold himself back to some extend and walk off. Though it didn't stay as it was.

"Oi, look at that little rat!" They were laughing. "Are you still gonna keep silent? Why haven't you silently run off yo your teachers and complained about us again? Are you scared? Shortie?" Chuuya wanted to laugh too, he wanted to roll on the floor while holding his stomach because they were so funny. He thought maybe he should've gotten into a fight that thursday, istead of piling up his anger into a rage for 5 days. But what was done was done. And he had something else he really wanted to do more than anything anyway.

So he grabbed his lunch box. Maybe it was considered cheating a little that it was glowing red so slightly, but why should anyone know about it. He threw it right into the guys nose, just like the balloons, but there was no water to soften any impacts this time.

The lunch box fell to the ground, with a groan following the sound of it. His senior was holding his face, pressuring his nose to rub the ache away. It was most likely bleeding, maybe he caused a broken nose with how hard he threw the metal box, but he still couldn't care as he wasn't satisfied yet.

He yelled after the senior straightened his back to look up at him with a glare, his hand still covering the lower half of his face.

"That wasn't me you fucker! You're so petty the only way you know how to fuck with someone is throwing children's toys at them! There's only 3 classes left Im not even going to get sick in this weather! Be fucking creative won't you! And don't touch that lunch box Im going to get it back later! "

He hated to admit but the "shortie" comment had pissed him off the most even though he didn't voice his thoughts on it. Ok so what if he was insecure a little, his height had nothing to do with his personality, what did being a snitch had to do with height, and he still had about 5 more years to grow anyway.

"Damn fucker he thinks he's someone so important he has any more rights than a rhino in a zoo. Be fucking glad I didn't jump at your face right after that bento box! Tch-"

After finally being able to curse out in five annoying days, he closed the window, continueing to curse under his breath, making it obvious just how pissed he still was, only to see his friends and a few other students looking at him.

Hikaru bursted out laughing after his eyes met with Chuuya's, followed by Ame, Haruki and 2 other students on the hallway.

"That was so badass!" He glanced out the closed window over Chuuya's shoulder. "Holy shit I think you actually broke his nose, it's fucking hilarious!"

"Let's hope not." Haruki added in between laughter. "But well, I think that's what he got for calling Chuuya short huh?" Chuuya glared at him, "Don't even start." He then let out a sigh and walked in their classroom.

His hair was dripping wet, and his white shirt was sticking to his skin so he caught the attention of whoever was inside. It was his summer uniform, so the fabric was thin, making the water wetting his shoulders easily spread through his arms and causing them to stick on his skin too.

They didn't have PE today, so he didn't have extra clothes or a towel. He had to sit like that for 3 classes until his clothes dried. Maybe the infirmary had something he could use, he could stop by after getting his lunch box back.

Would breaking a nose with a metal lunch box be considered a fight? He just hoped he would get his parents called and this would end like that. Because he had a feeling things were piling up in his stomach and it was frustrating. 

Chapter Text

For your information, yes, the senior's nose was broken. And yes again, breaking a nose in school, especially very intentionally doing so, does get you suspended from school. So Chuuya was naturally suspended.

His mother was expectedly not happy about it, but she was experienced enough to feel calm and as it was an everyday thing. After all, Chuuya has been a troublemaker since forever, how could she not get used to him getting in fights at least once a month.

And coincidentally enough, he was experiencing so many coincidences these weeks, he wasn't alone at home for the rest of the week.

›Chuuya
You too? How the hell (18:07)

›Yuan
Well (18:07)
You could say (18:07)
I got caught (18:08)
Smoking (18:08)
For the 3th time.. 👉👈 (18:09)
LIKE (18:09)
I know it was stupid! (18:09)
But (18:09) _seen

Yuan smoked?? That Chuuya had no clue about. At first glance she seemed like a girl who would despise drugs and such. But now thinking of it again, in The Sheep, Chuuya was probably the cleanest friend in the group because as far as he knew Shirase and Akira drank secretly too. They offered for him to try with them, but Chuuya had tried alcohol before and didn't like the taste of it, so he was keeping his distance with it for now.

›Chuuya
You smoke?! (18:10)

›Yuan
The previous class got too boring (18:10)

›Chuuya
Shirase and now you too (18:10)
Damn my friends are addicts (18:10)

›Yuan
Oh shut it (18:11)
It was one time (18:11)
Well not exactly- (18:11)
But (18:11)
YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN! (18:12)

Chuuya chuckled, looking down at his phone.

›Chuuya
Alright alright (18:13)
Stop suffering (18:13)
Wanna hang out then? (18:14)

›Yuan
I'll be grounded tomorrow. (18:14)
Mom's mad (18:14)
On friday (18:14)
She'll probably soften up though (18:15)
Maybe then (18:15)
If I can sneak out tomorrow (18:15)
That'll do too (18:15)
But I can't (18:15)
Promise anything (18:16)
We'll see (18:16)

›Chuuya
Noway you're gonna sleep till 1 pm (18:17)
Lonely me (18:17)

›Yuan
Hate yourself for getting up early everyday (18:17)
Loser (18:18)

›Chuuya
You're such a bitch_deleted message
Ok nevermind (18:19)
Wanna meet today?? (18:19)

›Yuan
Coward (18:19)
I saw that (18:20)
Yes (18:20)
We should meet indeed (18:20)
I want to smack your ass (18:21)

They continued bickering while Chuuya was getting dressed and only managed to say 'see you' while leaving the house.

They were going to meet at a nearby park, the one with a skating area.

It was the hours the sun slowly started disappearing. The sky would turn from light red to night blue in an hour or two.

Arriving the park they were going to meet at, Chuuya took out his phone again.

›Chuuya
Where the fuck are you (18:48) _delivered

The park was closer to Yuan's house than his, so he thought Yuan would arrive sooner. But seems like he was wrong. She probably went back for some reason. He could wait 10 minutes or so. But if she made him wait till the sun was completely set, she had some torture to get from him.

He waited until his phone's clock showed 18:59. He was getting worried. Ten minutes wasn't even that long, but his message was still on delivered, she didn't even see it let alone answering.

Did something happen? Like what happened the day they went fishing? Yuan couldn't escape from such a thing. No, he was probably overthinking. She probably got distracted by something.

He continued sitting on the bench, waiting for at least a message of reassurance.

›Chuuya
Where the fuck are you (18:48) _delivered
Why aren't you answering? (19:04) _delivered

He wanted to stay positive, but the darkening purplish sky and the calm and silent streets connecting to the park weren't helping stopping his thoughts. It's almost been 20 minutes. And he knew she exited the house, they were still chatting while she was wearing her shoes.

Yokohama was a city with an eventful routine. They weren't close to the more crime related areas, yes, but during a time where the main streets are busy and small ones are empty, what gurantees if anything will happen to her while walking on the small streets or not. What if a few men decided to mess with her? What if someone with a knife, with a gun, or a drunk man-

Ding!
Din-Din-Ding!

›Yuan
My mother caught me T^T (19:06)
Turns out Im grounded today too (19:07)
Poor you! (19:07)
You have to go back (19:07)
Without seeing (19:08)
Your dear friend! (19:08)
Dear me! (19:08)

The relief washing Chuuya's pale face back into color was easy to see. He let out a deep sigh. Even if she was still being a bitch, she was ok.

›Chuuya
Tell your mother you got kidnapped in my mind (19:09)
I thought you died (19:09)

›Yuan
Hah! (19:10)
Noway (19:10)
Im not that(19:10)
Easy to kill (19:10)
Yk (19:10)

›Chuuya
Yeah yeah sure (19:11)

›Yuan
Killer behavior (19:11)
How do you know (19:12)
If Im easy to kill (19:12)
Experienced? (19:12)

›Chuuya
Wrong (19:13)
Im actually a torturer (19:13
And it's not going to be my experience minding you (19:14)
Get ready for friday (19:14)

›Yuan
So (19:14)
Wtf (19:14)
Are we flirting or- (19:14)

›Chuuya
Ew the hell (19:15)
No way (19:15)
What kind of things are you into (19:15)

Chuuya held his phone further, away from his face and looked at Yuan's message with a disgusted expression. Flirting with Yuan? Gave him the chills. That felt like getting assaulted. She wouldn't even be on his list in a million years.

Looking around, he thought he had to walk back home now. He didn't feel like sitting at home though. He could sit here a little longer, no? What harm could sitting 10 or 15 more minutes do anyway.

So he chatted with Yuan a little longer. Until there was no red left in the sky and it was completely dark. Then he got up

›Chuuya
Im going back home now (19:41)
It's getting really dark (19:41)

›Yuan
You're still out?? (19:41)

›Chuuya
Yeah(19:41)
I didn't want to go back home that soon (19:42)

Usually he didn't mind the dark, and thought the night's busyness had this cozy air in it. And even though Yokohama didn't have the amount of busyness Tokyo's streets had, it still gave the similar feeling to one's chest.

While walking back home, Chuuya had to walk through the City park again. It was silent. And empty. There was a calm breeze rushing through the leaves of the bushes and trees, making them rustle. And for Chuuya, all of these gave him the chills.

He had a bad feeling, and was anxious for some reason. He felt like he was being watched, and in danger. And the first thing that popped in his head as his anxiety took over was the scent of blood he smelt that day.

He fastened his steps to get out of the park sooner. His house wasn't too far from there. About 10 minutes of walking distance.

The leaves were still rustling from the breeze of the night, then there was the sound of Chuuya's hard steps into the wooden path, and the sound of another step that didn't belong to Chuuya's shoes.

It was such a slight sound, maybe he was dreaming because of anxiety, or maybe his senses were just sharper because of the same reason and he heard right. He wasnt sure. But the stepping sounds stopped when he stopped walking and continued when he begin walking again, it felt like whoever was behind him continued to walk along with Chuuya. They so obviously followed him.

He tried to calm his mind and took out his phone. 19:50. He's been walking for only 8 minutes. He was almost at the exit of the park and had about 10 minutes to reach his house. But considering how long the previous 8 minutes had felt, the 10 minutes of walking started feeling like a big deal now, so he had to run to get home faster.

He continued hearing the stepping sounds, they kept getting more frequent as he ran faster. Now he was sure he was hearing right. Someone was definitely following him, and they weren't even trying to hide it.

He finally reached the main street connecting the park with the area the buildings resided. Though he felt less trapped now, the stepping sounds stopping just as he exited the park was creeping him out.

He continued walking up the steet towards his house, keeping a cautious eye behind his back to see if anyone was following him. He still felt the gaze watching him, someone was alarming his senses, but he could no longer hear any steps, neither of the facts making him relax the slightest.

As he was walking, something caught his eye. A crowd. Walking as a group in the dark and empty street. Everyone else was in their homes by now, sitting at the dinner table, about eat their last meal of the day. What were these people looking for outside, walking around together as a heap, like a gang.

Oh.

Right. A gang.

He was a genius.

Now he had to change his way so he wouldn't have to get involved with them as his danger alarms gave him more chills than ever tonight.

But seems like they had a different plan than him because one of them saw him, pointed at him, and even yelled "That's him! That's the brat! "

As the man seemed to recognise him, Chuuya also tried to observe his face, while slowly fleeing into one of the alleys he could get lost in of course. He still had to run because more than 15 gang men looking for him at night could in no way mean anything good.

As he ran faster into another street, he tried to remember that man's face. It was familiar, he had seen it somewhere, but where? When? Why would they even be searching for him? Was he seriously under a curse? Why was every bad omen following him through wherever he went?

While the frustration made all the misfortunes he had experienced since he came to Yokohama come to his mind, a certain memory felt important and repeated with his attempts at remembering a certain someone. Yes, three men he got involved, well, more like beat up, with. The man who saw him and yelled that 'he was the one' was one of them.

'Im in big shit this time. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-'

He started running at all his might with the realisation of getting involved with a gang who did illegal trafficking. He had to do something more than running away this time. These were his kidnappers coming for revenge, they would surely come again even if he got to flee this time.

He stopped looking at where the way he took was taking him at one point. The dudes had split into groups of five to catch him from multiple sides, so much dedication over a 16 year old who didn't even tell the police about them. This was what he was getting for trying to not get involved? Was this all a fucking joke?

Every corner of the surrounding buildings had cameras, he couldn't even fly high to make them lose him when he had been hiding the existence of his ability for so long. He was trapped.

Trapped physically, and in more than one way as he couldn't run any further with the high wall in front of him. His way ended here.

(1) He has two options and 7 seconds at most to choose. (2) Could he climb the wall fast enough before 10 men reached him and caught him in a defenseless position, (3) or would he fight without his ability? (4)

5.

One of the men had caught up with him already. Without thinking any longer, Chuuya stepped over the thrash can and jumped to hold onto the top of the wall. Then he pulled himself up, getting a little help from his ability. Yes! He was over the wall. The only thing left for him to do being jumping to the other side.

But something distracted him. As he stood clenching on the wall he could see the roof of the building next to him, and his eye catching a dark figure sitting there crouching down and looking right at him with a hand under his chin had naturally caught his attention.

A hand held and pulled him down from the other side of the wall before he could jump himself.

Right, there were more than 15 of them, f- "UCK!—" He gasped a huge breath in as his back hit the concrete ground. He thought he couldn't breath for a few seconds and tried to force some air into his lungs with pain tingling up from his spine to his ribs.

There were 5 men above him, although the number will most likely increase later. He could barely put together his breathing, how was he going to fight them? Was he supposed to give up and let them, nearly 20 people, beat him up and kidnap him? He couldn't swallow, it felt like his throat was blocked, his stomach felt heavy and he wanted to throw up. He was panicking.

He was scared.

He just wanted to use his ability and fly however high it took him.

While his ability slowly started glowing around him he searched for any cameras around. He didn't see any-

-PANG!—

A gun shot?

PANG-PANG——

Multiple other shots followed one another as Chuuya watched the 5- now 7?- men above him fall to the ground.

The dark figure he saw on the roof. Did he have a gun?

An instant reminder of someone, identical to the shadow-like figure he saw, then a gun pointed to the back of his head and the smell of blood, which was a real scent reaching his nose this time. It was him. The kid from the abandoned shipment container. The kid who broke a man's jaw open and watched him slowly die in pain.

How did he- why did he know where he was? Why was he watching him getting chased by a gang? Did he know he was there when that time happened? Was he the reason why- Why did he kill these men then?

He felt sick again. He could feel the way whatever was inside his stomach was threatening to come up. He pressed his palm against his lips to stop the need to gag and balanced himself with the other one to not fall on his face to the ground.

He closed his eyes, his back still hurt, but at least it didn't feel like air refused to get in his lungs anymore.

"Yahoo! " A voice came from above him. Honestly, it wasn't even a threatening voice. The way he talked, his tone, he sounded pretty cheerful, making his anxiety lessen even if only a little.

So he could ignore the call.

"Oii!" He tried again. No response.

"Hii!" ...

"Helloo~?"...

" Can you hear me?" ...

"Did you pass out or something?"...

" Chuuya-kun?" A flinch. Yes, finally a response, though not something that could be considered an answer to any of his calls, any reaction was enough of a response for Dazai. He smirked.

The boy looked so pitiful. God, he almost felt sad for him. He was probably so scared that someone who just killed 8 guys in front of him knew his name.

"So you're alive still!" He cheerfully shouted at the teen again.

During the weeks he had been observing the boy, he had learned quite a lot about him. He was sure he could bring a lot of fun into this new mission of his with the knowledge.

He turned to the other side, more men were coming. How great! He hopes the boy doesn't just collapse to the ground with more gun voices.

"Oh! Look Chuuya-kun, they're still coming for you, that's too bad isn't it?"

The redhead turned his head up to see the dark haired teenager looking down at him, his head peaking out from the side of the roof. Then he sat straight again and was no longer visible to Chuuya.

"I thought you would beat them up, with your ability, you see, but I guess I was wrong. " Chuuya heard his voice again.

"What..? " was the only word he blurted out while his brain was processing what he just heard.

"I could easily delete the footage if you did. Though, maybe-" He cut in mid sentence to shoot approaching men. The sound of the bullet rang in his already aching head.

"Maybe if I waited a little longer you would've used your ability. But you were being so pitiful I couldn't help it! Aren't I so helpful." He pointed his gun at the men again, his smile disappearing from his face and leaving a blank expression.

The newcoming gang members, hearing the gun shots and seeing their fellow members bleeding out on the ground were finally aware of the situation they were in as they saw the teenager pointing his gun at them.

Their breath hitched in their throat. They didn't have guns, the ones they left behind didn't have silencers and made too much noise, that was why they had left them behind. Though the brunette didn't care about the noise it was making and shot freely without any silencer either.

They tried to run away, but turning their back only caused for a bullet ripping through their backs.

".. No.. Wait! Stop- Stop, you!" Chuuya, having already seeing 10 guys die with painful groans muffled by the ground, didn't want to see anymore of this. He stepped himself up and shouted to the bandaged boy to stop. The anxiety he felt for himself was far, only astonishment and fright remaining. The smell of blood was so strong and his headache was getting more painful every second passing.

"Why?" The bandaged boy asked, his non-bandaged single eye looking at Chuuya. They were without any light in them, even the light of the moon wasn't reaching his eye despite being on a roof. It was like they were dry, and dead. It felt like looking at the eyes of a dead person, no more tears remaining in them.

"I don't know- I- They're already running away! Just let them be, I guess!" Chuuya was pressing his palms onto the wall to not let them shake.

The bandaged boy, surprisingly, didn't shoot the next bullets into the other gang members who saw the manslaughter and backed away.

"Well if you insist, they're probably not coming back for you anyways, not after this." He peeked from Chuuya's face towards the ground. He then turned to the running member and shouted, "OIII! You gotta clean here and take these bodies with you if you want to save their last breaths and don't want the police involved!"

Chuuya held his breath as he looked to the ground. Ten bodies, still breathing.

He heard footsteps from above. The bandaged guy was leaving. He quickly jumped up to the roof with his ability to follow him. That guy, he was following him all this time. Why else would he be there and watch him getting chased on a roof. Damn stalker. Courage built up in his chest as the moments passed and he calmed down. Maybe it was him finally talking with the bandaged stalker of his for the first time, he suddenly didn't seem as deadly as his previous encounters. So Chuuya called out to him this time.

"Oi!" He ran towards the brunette as the slightly taller young man turned to him after hearing his voice.

"Why-" Chuuya tried to grab his collar only for the brunette to dodge it with a single step aside. "-the fuck were you stalking me this whole time, asshole!" He shouted, giving up giving the boy a beating but not his anger.

Dazai tilted the corner of his mouth up in amusement. "Hmm! You noticed? It's been almost two weeks since I've been tailing you, Chuuya-kun. That was a little slow."

Chuuya's eyes widened. "You- for two weeks??!" His first reflex was to throw a punch at the brunette, of course. But this time, surprising even Chuuya himself, his fist met the boy's head, specifically right behind his ear, causing his head to lurch to the right.

The young man's tottering steps as he tried to gain his balance back after the punch came loud to the ear in the calmness of the night. He hissed in a low tone.

"That hurt you brute!" But no, not really, comparing with all the other wounds he has, this amount of pain wouldn't even be worth hissing over.

But don't misunderstand him, Dazai was having so much fun here. Yes, the punch was going to give him migraines, yes normally he could and would punish any mafia subordinate that dared to hit him. But he had been stalking this guy here, how could he even punish him when he wasn't even someone above his status.

And after raising his head and looking at the redhead again, his face was funny, Dazai couldn't even care about his tingling head. The face he was looking at, bruised, lips white and eyes tired and hollowed from all the stress from a few minutes ago, ears and chees all red, heating up with anger and the expression in those eyes seems as confused as him about the punch, trying to hide the feeling behind frustration. He looks so stupid. Dazai could read a whole week of events from the redhead's eyes with how bare they were.

"What are you laughing at, bandaged maniac.." He hadn't even realized that he started giggling with all the thoughts forming in his head. Ah.. He too looked stupid now. How ironic! How comical!

He held his stomach and let out a sigh after his laughing stopped.

"Ah, your face, you should've seen your face! That expression you was priceless, Chuuya-kun. " The redhead just looked at him with a sour expression, clearly annoyed but doesn't have enough energy left to try to punch him again.

"But, anyway, I think it's getting late, am I wrong?" That made Chuuya realize that he had never put his phone in his pocket and was still holding it. He checked the time, 20:16.

"Shit, I have to go home-" He turned back to get down from the roof. He barely spared the bandaged guy a glance, now aware that he wasn't about to shoot Chuuya any second. But as he was about to jump down, he turned his head at the guy back as he saw the bodies of those gang members again. The brunette was also walking away slowly, to who knows where (if not Chuuya's house). He stopped midway and slightly turned his upper body to Chuuya with a cocky expression on his face.

"You won't have police waiting at your house tomorrow, no one will know, if you're worried about that."

"Where are you going?" A little hope inside him, asking for the brunette be going towards his house despite the unease the same possibility gave to him.

"Im going to continue my routine of course. " With that, Chuuya decided, walking down the street for 15 more minutes while trying find the way that went to his house in his state, wasn't as appealing as jumping from roof to roof to go back. He ran back to the teenager that continued to walk away slowly, silently.

...

Their walk was silent at first, none of them making any noise other than Chuuya's stepping sounds. He didn't know how this guy didn't make any sound while walking on tiles, but he didn't.

"Oi, bandages." He was the first to break the silence. He heard a hum without any verbal response and decided he would take that as a response. He then asked.

"Do you have a name?" The answer he got this time was fast.

"No."

The bandaged guy didn't turn to him while answering very seriously, unlike his playful tone previously. But it came back a second later.

"What would you do if I told you no?" The brunette looked at him with a smirk and jumped onto the next roof before he could react.

"You-! Agh! " He jumped after him. "Why do you have to be so annoying! Tell me or no!"

"Geez, you're so boring. Fine. Im Dazai. Dazai Osamu full name. Happy now? Tiny rocks for brains."

"Who are you calling tiny, bastard! Agh, who am I even trying to blame, it's my fault for ever asking you your name. "

"Glad to know you're aware. And Im calling your brain tiny as brains are supposed to be suitable for their owners, chibi Chuuya-kun."

"Stop that! You're asking for a beating aren't ya?"

"Im afraid I can dodge bento boxes very easily, chibi Chuuya-kun." He dodged Chuuya's punch right as he finished his sentence, and ran off to jump to another building with a low laugh.

Chuuya followed after him, obviously. Both because he wanted to catch the guy and make him eat his fist and because he had to reach his house through his guidance through roofs. But as he jumped onto the next roof, he could see his house behind a building. They were finally here.

"And, our journy ends here!"

"Yeah, fuck off now, bandaged maniac."

"Uhhum! Goodbye Chuuya-kun~! Have a nice meal and a good night's sleep! I'll make sure to watch over you!"

A chill ran down Chuuya's spine as he slowly descended from the building's roof, not caring about any cameras this time, choosing to trust Dazai's word of deleting the footage.

"Oi! Don't you ever do that! Weirdo! Fuck off my house!"

He saw Dazai waving at him from above, a cheeky smile spread all over his face.

________

When he entered the house, his mom was inside, waiting for him. His dad wasn't visible around.

"Is dad staying at the hospital today—?"

"Do you have any idea about how many times I called you?"

And his mom was very angry, very much expected. He didn't even dare check his phone now, he couldn't face 15 missed calls from his mom and his mom at the same time.

"Dinner is cold, Chuuya dear. And for what? You were outside again, tearing your clothes and getting dirty again. Not answering my calls. Did you die, are you kidnapped, are you with your friends, still playing, should I eat without you or are you coming in 5 minutes. I have no idea!"

She just kept talking and talking. Turning Chuuya around, picking at his clothes and complaining about how the rust he got on them was going to be cleaned. And after seeing the wound on his back which apparently bled enough to get on his shirt before congealing, she immediately took his shirt off and took him to the bathroom.

No, you're wrong, she didn't stop scolding Chuuya at all. And Chuuya just stayed there silently, as his mother took her frustration out while cleaning him in the bath tub, applying ointment to his wound and wrapping him up in a rob, and throwing him in his room to get dressed while she was reheating the dinner for them.

Well, this was soothing after all. 

Chapter Text

Yokohama was a borderline city of Japan, it's southeast borders saw the Pacific Ocean and had one of the busiest ports in the country.

During the Great War that started 11 years ago, it was the busiest Yokohama's already busy port has ever been. Ships sailed out to send more equipment and soldiers into the battlefield; medical help, more doctors, heavily injured soldiers being sent back wherever there's a chance to, replacements for the lack of men, more trained dogs, reports to and from the government between the center of the country and war zone as electricity went out from the bombs dropped onto the power houses... All of these were carried in and out of Japan from the port cities of the country.

People left their houses to stay away from the borders of the country as much as their budget let them. They moved into more central parts of their cities, to the central region of the country, or completely out of the country to live in one not in a war.

The news talked about the decreasing population in some places, whatever happened in the war and the amount of civilians that lost their lives due to being close to the war zone.

During the mess, no channel had the time to talk about whatever happened in the streets multiple homeless lived, the orphaned children and whatever continued to happen in the daily life of civilians wasn't more than statistics for months.

As time went on, the whole country couldn't give thought to how the mother that lost her kid in an airport felt for too long. After all, many other mothers were losing their kids to the war, her situation was the average.

She was alone when her husband was sent to war and her only child was lost while she was trying her hardest to protect her kid, and she was alone while grieving for the next three years as the war continued.

___________


Chuuya had a stalker. As a matter of fact, he knew the stalker too. He had met the guy, even thrown a punch at him.

It's been about two weeks since he watched a whole gang being shot by a guy his age.

People would be weirded out if a dead eyed teen with a gun was chasing them around on a roof day and night, they would call the police on him or something. Any reason they wouldn't would probably be being threatened by the probably-bigger-than-you'd-think organization the kid was in. But that certainly wasn't Chuuya's reason for being as stupid as he was being right now.

Even he didn't know the reason himself, actually. He wasn't being threatened to not tell the police or anything(not that he thinks that kid cares if the police knows about him or that they'll be able to do anything about the situation he was in but it's just not about that).

He has already been stalked for about two weeks before he learned the existence of his stalker, he wasn't harmed, nor was he creeped out by his presence until that one night.

Yes, now that he was aware of the brunette watching him above the roofs he felt the gazes of the dark coloured eyes every time he walked out of the house, or whenever he simply stood in front of the window a minute too long. But he didn't feel scared about it one bit. That was even more stupid than not reporting a weaponed criminal. That guy had killed almost 10 people in front of him(including the one he watched discreetly)!

Well, trusting the words of the brunette, he knew he wasn't about to get shot midday. He very obviously wasn't interested in that, even if you couldn't, and honestly shouldn't, be sure if he meant what he said back then. Because the only thing he has been doing for the last two weeks was haunting Chuuya everywhere.

Everyday, in the evenings where he would be walking out of the school gates with his friends, he would always be waiting right under the fucking camera outside the school's grounds. And for some reason Chuuya paled everytime he saw the brunette peeking behind the walls, even though he got out of sight before his friends could notice his presence.

Maybe that was the reason, because he could never feel anything beyond annoyed towards him, Dazai. He genuinely felt like he was talking to an annoying brat if it wasn't for the weird and old way the brunette talked. His voice certainly had that tired old man energy in it even if he hopped left and right per second.

That was the weird part of the newly routine he had at first, though he mostly got used to it by now.

And he started caring less and less about the watching gaze as days passed after the... Incident? Fight? Slaughter? Whatever it was anyway. (Though he continued to pull the curtains in front of his windows(why the hell was that weirdo right on top of the building opposing his room everytime he took a shower anyway).)

"That will be 3174¥ sir"

Chuuya paid the amount and walked out the store, wishing the workers a good day.

Its was a sunday morning, his mother had sent him to the store with a list and some extra money he could use to buy himself ice cream or something. Well that he did, he was licking the chocolate particles out of the vanilla flavoured cream right now, two bags filled with rice, eggs, bacon, butter, and whatever else was on the list, in his other hand.

It was weird, as everything else since his first week in this city, to be honest. Observing the streets felt less innocent now. The dark and dry marks of something that probably splashed over the wall brought memories and gave him the chills everytime(though his nauseousness didn't come back again, thankfully).

And something even weirder was, the weirdo following him around wasnt trying to do it secretly at all, not even a little. He mostly chose to ignore the guy because he had the heavy smell of trouble stinking the whole street. The brunette, sometimes walked right behind him on the steet, only 6 meters at most between them, but Chuuya wouldn't even turn to acknowledge his presence when it was like that, because that would be at night. That guy walked like a shadow at nights, no street light ever hitting his figure as only Chuuya followed the sounds of his steps with his ears.

He was trying to ignore him this time too, because he looked way too cheerful for his liking as Chuuya figured he wasn't that much of a morning person in the last two weeks.

For a difference the brunette wasn't behind him this time, he was in front of Chuuya, without his coat. He looked slim like this, really slim in the baggy white shirt and small sized black men's trousers of his. 

He was walking towards Chuuya's house, it almost felt like he was leading him there. Chuuya just followed after him, shotting death glares at the back of the brunette's head, cursing whatever idea is going through inside it.

(Now, you could think Chuuya knows and acts way too much and familiar about someone he's met for only two weeks. But really, Dazai was never the mysterious guy he seems to be at first glance. He makes sure you know when he's planning to make your day shittier than normal just to add a headache into that.)

There was a turn 4 or 5 steps ahead of the brunette. Chuuya continued to walk after him as he disappeared from his vision. And when it was his turn to turn, the next step he took made him bump into someone, a certain someone Chuuya knew was who.

"Yahoo, again!"

He had accidentally got ice cream in nose and bit into the cold cream too fast. The tingling feeling on the tip of his teeth sent shivers straight into his brain, making him hiss.

He glared at the brunette as his lips curled into a content smile, while he licked the ice cream mustache he got off and wiped his nose with his sleeve.

"The fuck do you want. " He scowled behind his arm.

Dazai didn't seem offended by the harsh tone at all. He simply hummed.

"Im bored."

Chuuya answered without thinking much, simply annoyed. Dazai seemed quite humored about the answer he got though, as he didn't break eye contact with his lips curled into a smirk even while he whined with a really dramatic voice that screamed offence.

"So what!"

"'So what'??"

"Yeah! So what. Ya' want me, who you are stalking, to entertain you?"

"So not understanding! I wouldn't expect such a thing from you Chuuya!..My back hurts from looking down all day! And you don't even care about that!?"

"At least wipe that shitty smile off your face if you want me to believe you! "

That makes Dazai simply snicker. Not even trying to look like he's arguing back anymore.

That's it, Chuuya then just scowls instead of dropping anything in his hand to the ground for the sake of punching the brunette and walks around him.

Dazai follows him of course, almost jumping on his tip toes.

"Nee nee, Chuuya!" It feels like he dropped the 'Chuuya-kun' bullshit he had going on far too easily. And Chuuya didn't even notice, now that he realized.

"Im not listening to you any more. Go whine somewhere else."

Nothing of the sort happens, Dazai follows Chuuya, Chuuya ignores him, Dazai says something that makes Chuuya react really loudly despite his attempts at not drawing attention, and they continue on like that.

It makes Chuuya feel like a clown because Dazai isn't even listening the words he's spouting, he just watches his face with a grin saying he achieved what he wanted and Chuuya was just walking right into his silly little games.

It feels very easy to ignore the gazes their sounds catch while they're spouting crap at each other like this though, not a care of disturbing the public peace. Just bickering over stupid things.

___________

It was almost midnight and the cozy lights of the place was kept on only for the two people sitting in front of the counter.

When he entered Bar Lupin that night and took his seat, Oda wondered what had made the boy sitting next to him look this... light? in the span of three days since the last time they met.

The answer he got was usual. Dazai didn't like missions, especially long term ones, and seemingly this one too, was boring. But this one seemed to not tire him as much as the others as the teen could keep the energy to talk about it while he was here for relaxing. An unusual thing.

"I sit on roofs everyday and he doesn't do anything interesting Odasaku! I thought this would be fun! Because he's cocky and has an ability and fights good! But he just sits at home, goes to school and to the park after, with his friends! That's all he does! Can you believe it? "

His whines would echo in the empty bar, if not for the low music filling the air.

Oda hums, his face telling Dazai that he's imagining whatever he's describing.

"But aren't you doing the same thing everyday too? "

"You're supposed to be on my side.."

He makes a face of betrayal and let's his face fall forehead first onto the wooden bar. Then, after a minute or two maybe, there seems to be something that came to his mind as he starts to grin, the offence leaving his eyes entirely.

Oda looks at his face, he tries to guess if it's about the poor boy Dazai seems to be following 24/7 or is he going to change topics. He guesses it's the other redhead again.

"Don't you think he shouts and jumps around a lot, Odasaku? Just like a little chuahua. Pfft- hahaha! "

Dazai is a very positive child, Oda thinks. Because he has always seen how bright the eyes that seem to hold everything inside shine with the wetness of tears that never seem to meet his cheeks. His pupils always look blended in with his dark coloured irises like he carries the weight of the world in his heart, like he always knows too much to hide but even like that, always seems to look for something incredible to see inside everything. He finds fascinating in the most horrific scenes and irony in the beautiful moments but always tries to find something to worth no matter what, even though he never seemed to find something enough for him.

It looks so effortless when you notice Dazai doing all these, like it's a second nature at this point. That's why he is very optimistic. To be able to ignore the weight of knowledge while using it. Like he's been doing it since from the very start of his soul's existence.

Dazai whines again at something, Oda couldn't hear that part. Everyone here would hear how Dazai is very frustrated at something if they were, in fact, here. But they're not, so Oda's the only one to hear it.

He looks at the brunnete's eyes for a few seconds, only to figure out he's waiting for a response. His pupils are locked in his face, observing any nerves he could move with a change of expression. He seems to notice it when the realization of his expectation hits Oda, his gaze moves on to rest on the older man's lips, waiting for a response.

He reminds the redhead of a curious cat, observing a bug randomly fly and stop on things, without any intention of eating it. Simply observing it closely, close enough to get his nose stung if the bug can.

He asks Dazai without that much of a change in his voice, simply apologetic for not listening when he was being talked to.

"Sorry, what was it you said again?"

Dazai doesn't seem pleased nor heartbroken with the response he got, just accepting it with a calm look and turning towards behind the bars to face the alcohol bottles lined up on shelves.

"I was saying.. That creepy old man, not Hirotsu, he doesn't start planning someone's downfall to the glory back from their ashes from the moment he hears about them, anyway, that ugly hag seems so..... "

__________


Chuuya was walking down the path of the city park after stopping by a stationary for the nth time that week, when Dazai caught his eye again. He was hanging from the branch of a tree, his coat is not resting over his shoulders but is worn properly so it doesn't fall.

He looked like a monkey, his—even though skinny— round face visible as a whole for the first time since their first meeting, minus the right side of his face which is covered in bandages.

"What... are you doing there.. exactly..?"

Dazai didn't break eye contact as he hummed slowly, not a thought visible on his face.

"What do you think?" He asked, like it was obvious.

"Sigh.. Why am I even asking at this point.." Chuuya diverted his eyes from the body holding onto the tree branch for dear life.

Chuuya didn't know how the brunette managed to climb that tree with those worm-like limbs of his and could carry his weight for this long, but he didn't really want to question it as he literally met the kid on a rooftop, this was the most normal shit he has ever done until now, be it stalking or climbing things.

As he turned his back to leave the boy be, the sound of something, someone, crashing into the ground with a surprised noise, followed by a painful and cracked whine, reached his ears. Seems like those arms didn't prove themselves to be any stronger than he thought after all.

"You ok? " He asked, looking over his shoulder, curious but not necessarily worried enough to go back and help the guy. Dazai just whined one more time, clearly not because of the pain,  and more dramatic and higher than the previous one but still carrying the ache in his ribs and back in his voice.

Chuuya rolls his eyes at the sight, ok, he's fine enough I guess.

He hears the sound of leaves shaking like there's a strong breeze coming down the highway a few meters down the park. The sounds of wooden bars of the path creaking follows the sound of the leaves. It feels like something is coming their way. He turns to look at Dazai to guess whether it's a danger or not. He seems unbothered, which probably means good, and familiar with the sounds.

Raising his back from the soil ground, he groans, more of an annoyed groan rather than a agh, my back one.

Soon someone lands behind Chuuya, an almost all black figure catching his attention. Black hair reaching his chin with a disinterested scowl-like expression on his. The way he's stanging screams cocky, so sure of himself despite the petit figure of a 13 year old he has. That's a kid, Chuuya thinks.

What he immediately noticed right after the black color that made the kid stand out was, of course, the fact that this kid was an ability user.

This was the first ever ability user he had seen in Yokohama, within everything he's been through until now. He had no idea what the thing that kid used to support himself to jump up here was, which was pretty loud too, but it seemed pretty useful and he seemed to have a pretty good control over it.

The kid fixed his outer coat and stood with a straight back about 2 meters away from Dazai, trying to keep his composure but not quite successful at it due to his inability to hide the expectant glee in his eyes. As it didn't seem like Dazai had any intentions of starting a chat with him, the black haired teen called out to Dazai instead.

"Dazai-san." His voice was strong and respectful, wary of whatever to say next as they weren't alone in the park. Chuuya could see him throwing him a glance from the corner of his eye, weighing the suitability of doing anything to him, or whether the elder teen would approve of that action, as his gaze kept going between Chuuya and Dazai for a few silent seconds. In the end Chuuya could guess that he was chosen to be ignored as the younger one's gaze stayed on Dazai and seemed ready to continue the conversation. One that never seemed to start with the disinterested look Dazai had, but oh well, the kid seemed determined enough to keep it going.

"Dazai-san, the boss sent me to call you back to the headquarters." He looked over to Chuuya once more, seeing the unbothered but confused looks of the redhead, he turned back to Dazai. He continued informing Dazai about whatever else he came for, as the brunette's gaze didn't give him any signs of him talking about the organization's private matters next to a stranger being a problem.

"It's been pretty busy for the last few days. According to boss, your mission had ended 2 days ago. He said you were supposed to give him the necessary reports yesterday the latest but still hadn't. He also said that he better has them by the end of the month because he has another urgent mission to assign you to."

Dazai's expression became more of a frown than indifference as he heard he had another mission waiting for him. He sighed, giving the boy a nod. Supporting his weight with his arms to keep his balance, he stood up and tidied his wrinkled and dust covered coat.

"Ok, you can go back now. Tell the boss he's getting the report sometime before noon tomorrow. I'll hear about the urgency of the mission from himself."

The younger teen gaped his mouth to say something but stopped himself when he saw the 'I didn't ask for an answer' look on Dazai's eye. He nodded without any comment and went back from the way he came from as he was told.

Dazai didn't look behind the kid and walked towards Chuuya, who looked after the kid instead of him until his shape disappeared. He then turned to Dazai.

"Who was that?" He asked. Dazai shrugged, disinterested in the topic.

"A subordinate of mine."

"You have subordinates?" Chuuya scowled.

"How mean! Why can't I have subordinates?! " He whined.

Despite snorting at the answer he got, like it was some nonsense, Chuuya knew Dazai's true colors very well. He knew how easily he ruled the men dressed in black at the time and how much respect he held above them. But he just made fun of him like he didn't know, like everything about the guy was his nuisance of a personality.

"You can't even hold a decent conversation going without whining about something you chose to do. Who would take you seriously?? "  Dazai pouted at that, it wasn't clear whether he was really offended or if it was just one of his extra dramatic faces.

"You weren't saying that while you were trembling under my gun while I was saving you!"

"No don't start with that! That was before I learned about your whiny ass, you're just full of bluffs on the outside and a wiggly worm in the inside!" A gasp followed behind, as Dazai ran after him as he finished talking.

"I am a worm? You cannot be talking! Slug!" Chuuya was sure he popped a vein at the insult. "What?."

"Oh are you offended? Oh you poor thing! C'mon start shouting and yapping at me like a little chuahua now! C'mon Chuuya~"

Chuuya threw a kick at the brunette, and as expected, it was easily dodged. "Fuck you!" He shouted. Dazai's smile was a really big one this time, giving his eyes a crescent shape while they stayed open to observe more. Such a sinister face it was.

He cursed under his breath and started walking away with his hands in his pocket, the bag from the stationary hanging from his right wrist. He didn't have any motivation left to try to beat Dazai after the last comment anyway, it felt like proving the asshole right.

_________

It's been a week since Chuuya last saw Dazai. He didn't feel his presence after going home the day he was called "back" by his boss, and hasn't seen him since.

Maybe his hard work of patience was paying off? Maybe the brunette was bored and got a job? Well not like he was jobless before, it was very obvious that the "mission" that kid was talking about was something about him being stalked. Especially so since Dazai stopped with that bullshit after that day, after it was announced that his mission had ended.

Great, he was the mission of some creep from a criminal organization now, how fluttering to be that interesting. He really didn't know how he kept gaining the attention of all these gangs, traffickers, murderers and organizations he had no idea about the existence of, but they were hard to hide from his mom and were making her worried. He didn't really think he could hide whatever effect has been left on him from the things he saw from his mother from the start, she would notice if he had a fight at school no matter how clean and perfectly he came back home, let alone him throwing up after witnessing a literal murder. (He had been under house arrest for 2 days after that one time on the alley, to "get better" because he had to convince his mom that he threw up simply because he probably let his sweat cool out on his back and got sick, not at all because of the smell of blood.)

Dazai sure made those gangsters go away, and dealing with a creepy teenager was definitely easier than constantly thinking about being kidnapped but now that he was gone Chuuya didn't know whether they would come back or not. Though, considering what Dazai said about them not coming after going through a.. shoot down.. he doesn't think he has to be worried about that.

And the only nuisance left, which was Dazai, was also out of the picture now. He was finally free.

The trauma was still there with him though, he still felt chills on his nape while standing in front of a window and couldn't sleep with curtains being open. But still, he started going out with his friends more again, as there wasn't a certain someone that kept draining his energy.

Until he found out what organization he got himself involved with.

It was one of the rare mornings his father joined them for breakfast before going to the hospital. He loved discussing about whatever was on the news at these times. Today the news were from the city center. There seemed to be an explosion that got the area around the city centre isolated. The voice of the newscaster came very clear from his father's phone.

"There are still suspicions about whoever, or whatever organization has been involved with the reason of the  explosions. The Yokohama and Japan government has sent relevant authorities to look into the matter, but as the police and military agents sent into the area hasn't come out yet, they are unable to enter, because their safety in the still ruined streets and buildings of the area is not secured... —From the reports we got since yesterday, it is a high possibility that the continuous fire and explosions directly aimed towards the civilians are the work of terror related organizations from outside the country. There are also reports mentioning the presence of ability users, highly likely to be affiliated with the Port Mafia, in the streets closer to the area the first explosion happened followed by seven other explosions. Theories made since the information came mention the possibility of this being a war between two underground organizations......."

Well, Chuuya could feel he probably paled at that, because he felt a chill run up from his spine right into his brain and his vision blurred for a second.

"Ah, I never expected the Mafia in this city to be so involved in the life of civilians here. I keep hearing about the corpses the police bring in my hospital's emergency unit. For their autopsy files and such. My coworkes talk about them a lot."

He heard his father comment. His mother also said something but their voices fell in the back of his head as the realization struck.

Mafia, The Port Mafia. A kid dressed in all black, with a gun, tall and well built men in his order, dressed like the edgy mafia fictions from romanticized series made for teenagers, except, they really kill, and an ability user in the same organization. He could feel his brain heating, because, sure Dazai seemed like a highranking member of the mafia and, they were almost friends, at least, they weren't on bad terms, he wouldn't kill, or, at least didn't seem to have any reason to kill him, including for his own pleasure. He could live with being involved with the mafia, he had been living like that for the past month anyway, as he now found out.

But terrorists? They had a war with the mafia? The mafia he was involved with a high rank member of? And it wasn't even only Dazai, he was a mission, he was ordered to be observed for a reason by the boss of that mafia. He so much closer to the events happening in the city center he-

"—Chuuya?" His mom's voice cut his thoughts off. Of course she would notice he wasn't listening.

"Huh?-" He let out, not having heard what his mom had said.

She repeated, her palm resting on the table in a comfortable manner. "Is something on your mind? You look pale, did the terrorist attack scare you? I keep telling Kensuke-kun to not listen these unnerving things on table but he never listens! Turn off that phonescreen, honey! No more death talks on the table!"

"Ok ok, Im turning it off, sorry. I guess you're still young for these kinds of topics right? " He sighed, putting his phone on the table. Chuuya was going to act like all of this was true, of course. He was indeed scared of the terrorist attack and was too young to be hearing about such things, let alone seeing them, yeah.

He gulped, blurting out a whisper-like "Do you think it would reach here too, the explosions?" It wasn't really a lie, though such a thing wouldn't be enough for him to pale as he had ran from a Great War with his mother before, the terrorist attacks reaching the place they were living now was definitely one of his concerns.

"Hm.. That's a valid question... None of the explosions had reached out of the isolated part of the city yet but who knows about the future, it's written that it's a war between the mafia and a terror organization after all, and none of them are known for valuing the life of civilians."

Fuku, Chuuya's mother, looked at her husband with worry. "Do you think we have to move again?"

"We'll see in a few a days, if there's no changes, probably."

Chapter Text

"Akutagawa!"

Dazai scolded with a harsh voice, intentionally deeper than his regular one as he spoke from the back of his throat.

It was about the 20th day of the shitshow they had been making since the first explosion in the area got them stuck inside without any enforcements sent. They were in a tight situation while only 30 of the 70 mafia subordinates remained and five of the rest were injured.

Akutagawa, a subordinate Dazai had been training for the last few months, was one of the strongest forces with a great control over his very clearly powerful ability and Mori had obviously wanted him with Dazai on the field for him to both gain experience and help them out the situation despite Dazai's refusal.

Of course Mori could order Dazai around, he was his boss. And Mori wasn't one of those leaders that had no idea about whatever was going on in the organization other than what their closest people had been doing either. He was far from it, he somehow even remembered a few rookies, simply there for gun power in situations, and ranked subordinates up or down constantly, based on his observations on their skills.

But Mori being informed and involved in his subordinates' skills didn't mean he knew them all personally. The one to know that the most would be who trained them.

Dazai had been training Akutagawa as much as the boy allowed it for the past 6 months and he was sure he wouldn't cause more advantage than damage.

He knew that Akutagawa would be doing his best to show off how powerful his ability was and in how many advanced ways he could use Rashomon to destroy a building with human bodies. How he would like to play the bigger mafioso and order the subordinates Dazai put on corners for them to alert him in case there was an attack to go away so he could capture the enemy and end up killing them again.

Mori had insisted that he'd definitely find a way to make him listen in such a case.

Of course Dazai could, he was very good with words and fluttering or scaring and motivating someone in a way to benefit him. But one thing with Akutagawa was-

"Yes, Dazai-san"  -that he was dense. Or maybe he wasn't and just couldn't accept the fact that he had messed up, too prideful to get scolded by Dazai again.

Of course in either case, no amount of denial changed his fate.

"Who told you to run inside that building without my permission." It wasn't a question, it was a 'how dare you', a 'get out of there now.' , it was an order.

"But Dazai-san, this building is filled with–"

"Go against my orders one more time and you're going back to the headquarters." If they could find a way to get out, he is. Dazai sighed deeply to keep his composure, he was tired too, he couldn't get enough sleep to keep him up during all these fights, and this boy was really pushing him. "Do you think I'm stupid? I already know about that building more than your basic enemy observations. You're going to be one of the peope that lost limbs due to bombs along with how many enemies there are inside if you stay there any longer. Get out."

There was no answer after that. Dazai waited about a minute before he saw his apprentice jump out from the window of the 4th floor of an 8 floored building.

He turned towards another man by his side as Akutagawa landed a few meters behind him.

"Are we able to contact the informant?"

The man's face, already reddened from frustration and lack of oxygen from all the fighting and lack of clean air, hardened.

"No, Dazai-san. There seems to be a stronger energetic field in this area blocking any signals in and out, we aren't able to connect any devices to any satellites from Japan. We can't communicate with the headquarters." He gritted his teeth.

Dazai sighed. Whether they contacted the Mafia or not, Mori would send enforcements either way if the situation was serious enough to last more than 20 days. In fact, the enforcements would be here at least 7 days ago if there wasn't something blocking them from coming here.

Dazai could already guess that the area was isolated. There had been a squad sent by the government two weeks ago and, well, they died. And there weren't any other squads sent, neither to look into the matter more or to see if the previous squad was alive. There was something else effecting both the government and the Port Mafia.

Dazai was pretty sure Mori was trying to make an agreement with the government right now, or maybe he already did, whether it was because the mafia was losing a lot of men outside or because he could benefit from the government another way, he wasn't sure. Though, he could be sure Mori would rather kill his men off than make an inconvenient deal with the government.

Even though it wasn't as thick in the area they were in, a greenish fog spreading around and slowly thickening was present in a wide extent. Dazai hadn't seen any effects of it yet, but he was sure it had some kind of purpuse. He was going to try sending some of his men further into the fog to see if it got stronger in some sense, but that was for after they had enough people to send one or two of them without putting themselves in a disadvantageous position.

Even though they were harmed enough to not be able to get up and fight at the moment, the wounds of the five subordinates laying down on the floor of their base weren't fatal, they could survive a few more days without medical help before their state started to become worse.

He turned towards another man he had no idea about the name of. "You, " he called, pointing directly at him.

"Yes, Dazai-san."

He pointed towards a tower. "You see that?"

"Yes. "

It was an electrical grid centre. All the electronic wires of the area connected there.

"Go up there and start a...."

________

In The Port Mafia Headquarters


Someone knocked on the tall door of Mori's office three times. Strong but not quite urgent small hits. The door was then opened slightly by the guards without a need for Mori's word.

Three people entered through the door, a tall and elegent woman wearing a silk kimono on lead. They all carried the aura of a respected and strong individual as they bowed their heads to Mori as a show of respect. Mori gestured for them to take a seat around the meeting table he had his subordinates prepare.

Executive meetings were a rare occasion in the Port Mafia as there was rarely any problem big enough for a single executive to need help to solve it. Today they were here to discuss such a problem, one big enough to keep the most successful executive in the organization from attending this meeting.

The situation at hand was quite dire. They hadn't been able to contact the subordinates Dazai took with him along with Dazai himself for the past weeks and when they were finally able to, it wasn't for too long. The report they got was nothing less than the Boss had predicted; they were stuck there and there was a power cutting any signals from and to the outside of the area, they needed medical and strength wise backup. It wasn't Dazai-kun talking on line, so until the subordinate finished saying the information the executive sent with him the line was cut again.

Though, one thing had picked Mori's interest. The report contained information about a fog slowly spreading around the area, and even though there weren't any visible effects of it yet, Dazai-kun was suspecting it might be an ability.

When Mori gave Dazai the mission everything that had happened yet was a few explosions and a few ability users going missing. But he had already thought it would turn out to be something bigger than a simple case, there was a huge amount of money involved in the fight between ability users after all, so he had given the mission to Dazai for it to be dealt with smoothly.

But he had miscalculated, it seems. There seemed to be more organizations involved than he thought.

"Our priority for the next few days will be taking Dazai-kun out of the isolated area. Sending backup teams will do nothing if the one on lead isn't able to move freely." He stopped then, giving the executives a chance to give their thoughts after the long talk about the situation.

"This will likely turn into a war between organizations. Wouldn't it be convenient to step back from the conflict?" Kouyou said.

"No, this involves a huge amount of money. It's been only two years since the Port Mafia was on its way to downfall, we can't just step back like that. " Colonel argued.

"Boss, this isn't simply a fight over money at this point, is it?"

Mori, smiled. The youngest executive to come after Dazai, Pianoman as he introduced himself to everyone as, was right.

"Indeed, there doesn't seem to be any records of such an ability able to create a fog, which Dazai-kun is suspecting the fog around the city center to be. Whoever it is, that person comes from outside of Yokohama, or outside of Japan even, as the government isn't able to identify the ability user either."

"So this whole situation can turn benefitting for a terror attack to be planned? We are already almost a month into it... There might even be a plan already put on action!" Kouyou's fingers were curled into her palm, tightly held into a fist. To be unaware of such a terror action for this long, she felt like a newbie in her job all over again. She was too relaxed, that wouldn't do at all, she was supposed to be an assassin.

Mori sighed internally at the tension that built inside the room, this wouldn't do. "However dire this situation may look, I think we aren't too late to do something. From what I understood in Dazai-kun's quoted report, they should be just beginning that plan of theirs as they have yet to involve any other organization inside the fog. Pianoman, Im sure Ice-man wouldn't mind working with Kouyou-dono to find whatever information they may for the next week?"

"Sure, boss. I'll let him know about the mission."

_________

A Month Ago, In Mori's Office


Mori watched as the youngest one among his four executives closed the door behind him and slowly walked towards his desk. It has been 3 weeks since he last saw the young man, since his last report from his recent mission.

"What a surprise to see you reporting early today. Are you that curious about your new mission? That's new." 

The young man scoffed at his bosses absurd attempt at teasing, he was just here to get this over with. Seeing this man's face only made him feel distrust, even to himself.

"I could never, Mori-san, they are always botherful. I'd really like it if I could be done with this by simply reporting my latest mission."

"Well, I'm listening.."

He obviously had no plans of giving the mission to any other executive, meaning it was really a serious matter that Mori thought giving it to Dazai would be the best choice. Missions that required no failure were the most annoying ones, though any opposing threat had a little more brains than on his other missions.

"Nakahara Chuuya, as you already know, an ability user that recently moved into Yokohama. The reason they moved wasn't for anything specific other than his father Kensuke Nakahara, a known doctor in Tokyo, being sent to work in a hospital around here. His ability is called Upon The Tainted Sorrow though Im not sure if he's aware of the fact, I only saw kanji appear while he was using his ability once, because he uses his ability ever so slightly and close to his body to not make it too apparent. It is gravity control if you don't know..." He raises a third finger while explaining, to not miss any topic he had in his mind before coming. Mori just makes a funny face at the bothered disrespect the teens voice and expression holds as he continues on and on reporting.

Once he's done, Mori raises an eyebrow, leaning in behind the desk. "Is that all? "

"Well obviously there is more but they're useless information. The kid is useless to you too, by the way. If you haven't noticed already. He has a healthy life and a happy family, not enough experience in real life bottles and a lot of money. Not anyone you can take advantage of without it causing trouble, everything the mafia doesn't want."

Mori stares, the light in his eyes sparking for a millisecond goes unnoticed by Dazai. "You've found quite a lot, Dazai-kun. Perhaps Kouyou-dono's girls taught you a thing or two?" a chuckle followed his light tone.

There wasn't a response from Dazai, maybe he was offended, maybe he was just in one of his less energetic phases, Mori wasn't sure. He decided to not dwell on the topic at hand and move to the more urgent matter.

"Well, now that your previous mission is officially done, we can talk about the one I've been waitinh ro assign you on." He said, signing on the papers filled with the same information Dazai shared just now.

The expression on the teen's face was easy to understand despite appearing dull; annoyed, like a spoiled child. But Mori was his boss, not father, it wasn't his business whether his subordinate wanted to do a mission or not.

"Have you heard about the death of an ability user this week?" He asked.

"Why is that so important.."

"Well, a huge amount of money he owned is now in the open."

"Oh, that guy? The one that came from Kobe? He's dead?"

"Mhm." Mori nodded.

"And you want the money? That would be convenient, sure. But how many organizations are there, fighting for the same money that you want?"

"There is only one, at the moment, you can understand the urgency better now, can't you, Dazai-kun? This amount of money is really important for an organization like us. Some of the things the old boss caused are still unrepairable." He gave a document to the brunette.

"Five hundred billion.. That's more than what you pay me yearly, Mori-san. I want a raise."

"I give raise to subordinates who work plenty. You just have to do more than not losing your position, and you will get a raise. Now, the money is kept in somewhere near the city center, I want you to prevent any threats before they can get any closer to the money. I'm sure figuring out where the money is would be very easy for you? I don't think you need help in that matter."

Dazai let out a breath at that. He had a feeling this was going to last long.

"Grab a few mafia subordinates and head out, Im expecting news every week this time, do not abondon your duties after a month."

________

"Are the newbies here yet?" A women with a bob cut hair asked. She was wearing a long white doctor's coat and a pair of bone framed glasses, typically seen on people with a high eye degree.

The man she asked the question to didn't look at her for a moment at first, he was busy with checking a few files on the laptop sitting on the desk in front of him.

"Nope, maybe in a few hours. I'm checking their information to check them in and print their ID cards."

"This feels extremely suspicious. I don't trust that government to send actual useful shit. Why do they suddenly want to support us when they already succeeded before? Isn't it weird? "

"Mm... But they are not supporting. Aren't they just putting the project under one single name to work on them together? We get to observe their foundings too. "

"Exactly! Why would they suddenly want to send their project to us to observe!? " She harshly put her palms on the surface of the desk, leaning down to look at the man in the eye.

The man was still disinterested in the suspicions she had, looking back at the screen of his laptop once more. "Ask them yourself when they are here, then. How can I answer that question? We have a chance to observe a finished project and compare it to and upgrade ours, why don't you just take the opportunity?"

The woman then let out a frustrated breath and turned back, walking inside the door that recognized her face and opened automatically.

________

It has been almost a month since Chuuya last saw Dazai, not that he missed having a stalker or anything, but such a nuisance's absence was easily noticeable.

They were moving again, somewhere closer to port than the city center. He still didn't like the port, he didn't have the best memories there, almost getting kidnapped and such, but that place felt less threatening than before.

Port was closer to his father's job than Chuuya's school, which meant the five minute walks to school were no longer gonna be a thing. He didn't mind going with his bike, it was just... he felt much less energetic for the past two weeks, he didn't even want to go skating with Shirase last week and it didn't feel like his motivation would come back anytime soon. So taking a 20 minutes ride to school with his bike everyday didn't seem so alluring, to be honest.

Three weeks ago, when he figured out that Dazai was in the mafia, he waited for someone else other than Dazai to come to him. To do whatever with the information Dazai got on him, or his ability. But noone came, it was just a silent life he continued on, the life he considered fun and full of life before. Was he getting addicted to adrenaline or something? Why was he expecting more criminals and killers in his life? He was losing his mind, he must be, there was no other way.

"Chuuya, are you done there? " His mother shouted from outside.

"Im coming!" He yelled back, grabbing the bag he had his most used stuff stuffed in and walking out.

The car ride was silent at first, turning into chattery a few minutes later. His mother had asked his father if he put enough clothes into his case, listing a bunch of stuff to check if it was enough. He tuned their voice out, plugging his earbuds in.

It was a ten minutes ride, really, he couldn't even listen more than 3 songs at most, but he opened a playlist anyway, hitting the shuffle play button.

....ding!

A notification, who was it from?

›Kai
We're gonna go to a bar (16:24)
Tade said he knows a good place (16:24)
You wanna come?(16:25)

________


"Woah, oi Tade! How do you know a place like this anyway??"

"Im not saying anythin', that's my private source." The buzz cut haired boy said.

There was the hum of a soft jazz music playing in the background, adding a comforting and luxurious feeling into the somehow welcomingly empty place.

Four teenagers stood in the middle of the place, there were four other people individually sitting around the tables, doing whatever. They decided to not pull too much attention and get kicked out, so they settled around a table in the corner. Chuuya sat in the very corner of the square area they got, leaning back against the wall on his right side.

"So, who's getting the drinks?"

"Well, not me." 

"Obviously not you, you look like you didn't hit puberty. "

"Oi! Shut the hell up!" 

"I say the ugly truth!" 

"Tch.. " 

"Hm.. I say we send Rei, he looks at least 20, I'd say!"

"Yeah, me too!" 

"How the hell do you have beard at 16 anyway??"

"How could I know? Geezer's genes I guess."

"That's soo unfair!" 

"Just go get the fucking drinks already, Rei!" 

"Shut up, baby face!"

"I'm gonna break your nose like that senior year's!" 

"Oh-oh! Im so scared Chuuya, don't throw your lunch box at me!"

"I'll make sure your brand new nose will be the dream nose of women, you'll love it!" A filthy smirk with a creased nose and furrowed eyebrows formed on his face.  

"Oh my god I can't imagine the caveman looking Rei with a button nose!" the buzz-cut haired boy said, making everyone laugh.

"Why would tou put that image on my mind!??"

"Because you'd love it, boy-kisser~"

"Eugh- shut the fuck up!"

"I'm going now, what do y'all want?" The taller teen among them asked, pushing his chair back.

They didn't know much about alcohol, other than the sake their fathers let them drink, so just randomly choosing from the menu their tables had, they sent Rei to get the drinks.

They sat there for about half an hour more, chatting and trying each other's drinks.

"BAHAHAHA CHUUYA! YOU'RE A LIGHTWEIGHT??"

"Mmm- i don't.. -know... Im sleepy.." He mumbled without raising his head off the table.

"Look at his face, it's all red like his hair!"

"Dude your face is two times redder than that you don't get to talk!"

"What? What do you mean??"

"Ooh you're gone too, heh-"

"Urgh, my stomach feels so disgusting"

"But- you know, it looks funnier on Chuuya because he has a round face and looks like a tomato!"

"Ooii! Take that.. Hick.. Back!....You look like ketchup anyway...mm.."

"He's totally wasted dude!" He laughs. "Do we send him home like tha'?"

"Fuku-chan would kill us..!"

"Asshole! Stop- crushing on my mom already!!"

"I can't help it! She's so pretty.."

"Disgusting bastard..." He finally raises his head off the table, rubbing his eyes harshly to feel them moving again. "And! I can go home myself..! I 'on't need a babe-sitter!"

"What are you talking about, you would fall asleep standing let alone walkin' home." Kaide said, leaning back on his chair.

"I can walk just fine!" The redhead yelled, the crease on his nose increasing as his friends bursted out laughing again. Mumbling "idiots..." to himself.

Then his eye caught something in front of the wooden stand of the bar. Something or someone, his vision is kinda blurry he can't focus. He stands up from his seat, he needs cold air, it's too hot here.

"Im goin' to the bathroom.."

"You need help going there?" Kai asks, Chuuya feels like punching him every second, but he won't, for some reason. He doesn't know why he just doesn't have it in him to punch the prick.

"I can walk there just fine, asshole!" His voice is a little cleaner now, getting angry at his friends makes his face muscles work again.

Mmm, he forgot about the jazz, now that he noticed. It accompanies him until the bathroom, not hearable inside the smaller place. He splashes a handful of cold water on his face, trying to cool his brain.

The door is opened once again, someone enters. Dressed in a typical black trousers white shirt suit with his coat hung on his forearm. He's smiling.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Chapter Text

When the Port Mafia had successfully entered the isolated area in the city center and found his team, Dazai was on the edge of fainting, his brain barely holding on with the loudest buzzing in his head's core. But he couldn't just relax like that, even though his men were here now, giving reports and information to the mafia subordinates that came to take care of the injured and escort some of the civilians out of under the debris on them was his job too.

After finally getting himself out of that hellhole and visiting Mori's office to get his paperwork for the mission, which he most likely won't do until the next week when his healing break reaches its deadline, he went home in late hours he couldn't remember to just let his body fall on the old hospital bed in the corner, not even bothering to cover himself, he still had his coat on so it got to do the job. Sometimes he regretted not buying himself a penthouse even though he liked the port's lifelessnes and liveliness at the same time. After waking up in maybe 5 hours at most, the suffocating place made him wish he had a more comfortable bed at the very least.

He still had a headache, his brain was still kind of buzzing, but it was an ignorable amount this time, unlike other times.

He smelled, the disgusting acidic scent of dried sweat mixed with the blood dried on his skin was everywhere in the small shipping container without any windows. He had to take a bath, he should drop by Odasaku's house later. Now, he had to find some painkillers from Mori's old clinic before his headache got stronger. God, his nose was already stuffy, he hated letting his sweat cool off on his head.

Mori's clinic was as neat and dusty as ever, everything where it's supposed to be, not a centimeter moved from it's place for the past weeks since he's last been here. It was easy to find any pills and drugs here.

Opening a closet without a locker was enough for the painkiller itself to find him right in front of his nose.

Swallowing one of the pills without water and putting the little cardboard box containing the rest of the pills into his jacket's insider pocket, he left the place.

His next destination was Odasaku's house, he was probably at home during this hour, so he didn't have to sneak in by picking his door lock.

His new house wasn't far from the Port Mafia buildings, because he was a lackey and had orders here and there every half an hour. So Dazai decided to walk for once, it was still dark and silent outside anyway, there's no need to ruin it by calling for a company just to take a 5 minutes car ride.

After 13 minutes of walking he was in front of the redheaded man's house. He knocked once, twice, and waited, glancing through the hole on the door to see if anything inside was visible.

When the door was opened, Odasaku looked like he had slept for only one and a half hour, his hair messy and eyes closing themselves back despite the man's efforts to keep them open.

Odasaku asked him how the mission had gone, his answer was that it still wasn't a finished case, then straight up running off into the bathroom to take his stinky clothes off.

He loved showers more than baths in bathtubs, they were loud and silenting at the same time, blocking any sound that didn't match the rhythm of the waterdrops.

He let the hot water wash the shampoo off his hair, the floor getting covered by the white suds running down his skin as his headache eased with the warmth.

After the shower, Odasaku had asked him to lock the door while leaving, then just gone back to sleep. It made Dazai smile, Odasaku was such a funny and unbothered man, so careless with someone like him.

Like that, he had left the silent house into the darkness and headed to the bar he always went to to relax. Well, he instead just attempted, because he was called from the headquarters on the way, and had to call for a car this time as he wasn't in the mood to have any energy left to walk for 10 more minutes anymore.

So much for Mori-san giving him a break, he was going to ignore him from now on.

By the time his work was done it was around 4pm, he could finally go to Lupin. It was better during dark hours but this could do too, it would get dark in a few hours anyway, they were in the fall season.

He had asked Odasaku to come join him on his way, thinking he would be free by this hour, but he was busy today apparently, so he had to go alone, sigh he needed another drinking buddy.

Entering the place though, he hadn't thought that Chuuya would be there too. Especially with his friends. It was quite the surprise, yes Chuuya didn't seem like the most proper and well mannered teenager out there, but he didn't expect his little friend group here of all places, if he was being honest.

This bar was marked, even though not officially on paper, as Port Mafia property because an executive always hung out with his mafioso friends here, civilians normally would tend to avoid this place in fear of getting involved except for the ones who didn't care or know.

Though he couldn't really say Chuuya had any fear of getting involved with him by this point, he was the type of person to avoid these types of areas if he had the chance.

He seemed already drunk by the point Dazai arrived, and it was quite the sight. All the kicks he dodged while he was on his previous mission seemed nonexistent and impossible with how limp the boy had gone. His friends were laughing, chatting, making fun of each other, it was very obvious that this was their first time drinking any heavy drinks, they were all excited, inexperienced and naive. He kinda wanted to sit with them and make fun of Chuuya too, it seemed fun.

Chuuya glanced at him between chatters with a familiar look, it always amazed Dazai how an untrained teenager managed to find him exactly on his spot simply by feeling his presence, even when he was so drunk he couldn't lift a limb. But Chuuya was always full of surprises.

Chuuya sat up from his seat at some point, his head heated up and a headache was probably to come with the amount he drank for his first time. And Dazai was obviously to follow him into the bathroom, how could he miss an opportunity like this?

As he entered through the door after Chuuya, he was recognized instantly.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Chuuya asked, so feisty, he probably thinks Dazai followed him into this place too, how confident.

"Hmm..! 'Following Chuuya around', don't you think? You are drunk after all, I could do anything with you~!"

Chuuya pinched between his eyebrows and squeezed his eyes shut, "Uugh, stop saying creepy shit.." his voice was still low, he wasn't in control of how he sounded, it seems, he was a lot louder normally.

"Mm, that's boring, you don't even take me serious! What if I kidnapped you and locked you up in my smelly and hot shipping container?? I thought you hated it! " He would definitely hate that place more if he knew how it smelled when Dazai left.

"What the hell is wrong with you-! Weirdo..it doesn't even make sense..."

"Chuuya... You look like you're about to fall on your butt."

"That's because!—" thud! "I.. am about to fall..! You drain all my energy, go the fuck away already!" His voice came out quite high this time, leaning his back against the wall next to the one the sinks are hung on.

"Not a chance! I have to record this!"

"I don't want blackmailing on my 'being a victim of' list! Just.. leave me alone, shitty Dazai!"

"Pff- Chuuya looks so funny like this, you can't even talk~!" He said, taking his phone out of his pocket.

Chuuya tried to kick his leg to prevent him from taking a photo, successfully making him fall on his butt just like Chuuya dropped on his own earlier. He did manage to take a photo though!

"OW!- that hurt!-" He hissed, rubbing the back of his waist.

"Heh! Asshole, not so funny anymore huh?"

"Well, I did take a photo!" Dazai said, raising back on his feet and wiggling the phone in his hand.

Chuuya got back on his foot a lot faster than a drunk person is supposed to, though that wasn't what really mattered in that situation, not when Dazai had to dodge his little grabby hands from catching his phone. Chuuya was a lot faster than he seemed at first glance, it wasn't any easier to dodge him than it was while he was sober.

After a minute of turning his body left and right to avoid Chuuya, his final decision was to run out of the bathroom, the barkeeper wouldn't mind him making too much noise, they were familiar from his previous visits after all!

As he didn't mind closing the door after himself, Chuuya had obviously followed him out. His muscles wasn't as loose as they seemed before, he was running quite fast for a lightweight drunk. Maybe the looser part of him was his brain instead because the redhead wouldn't run after him out of the bar that easily normally, he definitely needs to get Chuuya drunk again later to try other things.

Chuuya probably didn't notice it because he was focused on running after Dazai, but his friends looked so surprised to see him running after a random person that fast when he couldn't even stand properly earlier, Dazai being the complete stranger. He should've taken a picture of them too to show Chuuya later, what a waste he hadn't thought of that before running out!

"Chuuya can't catch me while drunk!" He said, turning right at the corner of the sidewalk. It wasn't completely dark yet, but give it half an hour and the sun would be completely set.

"Yes I can!" Chuuya yelled back after him. Dazai knew he was right though, Chuuya was probably gonna get dizzy after at most a few minutes and run into a street lamp or something, or he would just trip on his own foot and fall face-first onto the ground. Dazai was going to take a picture of that sight in either case, so his camera was open and ready for quick use.

As he had predicted, Chuuya fell after a minute more of running, though the scenario wasn't as satisfying as he had imagined. It was a lot louder for once, and he would like the extra dramatical fall if not for the fact that Chuuya was holding onto him while falling, pulling him down on the process.

Dazai didn't have the strongest stamina, especially while running, so Chuuya had caught up to him pretty fast. Easier than he thought at first too. It was barely by a hand's distance that the redhead was able to grab his shirt, Chuuya was strong for his size but still unbalanced because of the alcohol and Dazai was still running. So he fell while holding onto Dazai's shirt, pulling him down with him in the process.

Dazai groaned but then there was silence and no movement. Chuuya's weight was right on his back like a corpse, preventing him from raising his torso off the ground.

"Chuuyaa! Get up, will you??"

There was still no movements from his blind spot. Chuuya was crushing him, his face was getting red.

"Chuuya! Did you fall asleep or something??" He whined. This was frustrating. If Chuuya was indeed knocked out the moment his body was lying down in some sense Dazai had to do all the job of pushing him off his back by himself, while reaching backwards with his arms too.

Dazai didn't consider himself to be weak. To use a gun you must have strong muscles to not get pushed back by the force of the shoot, and he knew how to fight too, he was in the mafia and before that had training after all. But compared to the average mafia subordinate's physical strength he was quite below what was necessary. He didn't have enough strength to weigh a whole human simply with his arms, not even close to it. So all he could do was struggle until Chuuya slid off to the side.

"Damn slug, if you're going to faint at least do it on the floor!" He said while patting the dust off his clothes.

He looked around, they weren't that far from Bar Lupin but it wasn't really close to the building either. Would Chuuya's friends be able to find him if he left him just there? Well, what was the worst thing to happen anyway, the redhead would just wake up maybe about half an hour later and if he doesn't go straight back to sleep on the floor he could find his house. His phone might be stolen by the time he wakes up though but that isn't Dazai's problem!


_________



It was cold, burning cold at that. So easy to shiver while sitting in the dark all alone. There was no light coming from anywhere, he didn't even know if there was any holes for the light to slip through. He just hoped soon it wouldn't be as silent as now, it was terrifying.

He closed his eyes and hugged his legs tight but it didn't lessen his trembling in any way. He missed the comfort they pulled him out of. It used to be warm and the comforting sounds of water waves used to fill his ears. Now everything was the opposite and even the thought of spending any more time in this darkness made his head spin.

When he felt the light begin touching his face with the sound of a slow creaking he gaped his eyes. He wasn't alone anymore, there were people with him. He knew them, they always wore these white clothes whenever they came to check on him. The last time he was taken out of the comforting place it was painful and it was about the only thing he remembered from that time. He didn't know how much time had passed since then but it wasn't as painful as that time now. He had seen these people that time too. When he couldn't bear the pain anymore they had left him in the comforting warmth once again, but this time he didn't think that was a possibility.

He could hear them talking through a distance, curiousity getting the best of him, he listened their conversation.

"I heard the last time you attempted to try if its powers worked the body almost collapsed. Are you sure this time won't be the same?"

Were they talking about him? Was that what had happened, why it felt so painful?

"Its body should be stronger now. We gave it a pretty long time to heal itself and grow, that should be enough."

He hid his face between his knees. The man was walking closer to him, he didn't want to feel that pain again.

"If you actually fail this time you will have to wait for even longer than the last time, there shouldn't be any uncertainties here."

One of the white clothed men was wearing plastic gloves and a face mask. He wondered why he himself wasn't wearing one, were they wearing it because of him?

"There won't be any mistakes this time."

After saying that the man pulled him by his arm, he didn't even squeeze it but it hurt, he didn't like the touch. He tried to bite back the pained sound he was about to make but his reaction wasn't enough to hide what he felt. This made the man sigh.

"Ah.. Your skin is still so sensitive, we have to toughen you up a little before trying the abilty."

He didn't want to, he wanted to keep dreaming, he missed the warmth of it, he didn't want to toughen up, he missed his family, he– His family? Where was his family? How long had it been since he last saw them? Years? Months? How old was he? He felt weak, but wasn't he strong? Why was noone here for him? Where was the guy he considered his partner? He couldn't remember how he ended up here, but were they even alive?


__________


"They are finally here, professor. Their registration into the security system is done and ID cards have been given."

The professor took the papers handed towards him and looked through them.

"So... From France huh? How ironic..."

They had started the project more than 8 years ago, the first one had failed on the most needed time of all and the second attempt at it had only been put into test 7 years after developing it.

The government wouldn't accept a failure this time, especially when the information of a successful project had been shared with them. They couldn't bear any mistakes, this time it had to be a success.


________


Dazai had actually put his thoughts into action when he finally got Chuuya's unconscious body off of his back. He had just left the guy lying there and walked off to some street to find another bar to drink in.

So why was he carrying the redhead on his back now?

He regretted all the decisions he had made until now. From feeling bad for the helpless chibi lying on the floor to deciding to leave him at least in front of the bar so his friends could find him to thinking his friends wouldn't even notice him lying there if they were drunk enough to not start looking for him by now and deciding to actually carry the boy to his house. He regretted all of them. He should've just left him there like his original plan, alone in the cold floor with a drunk unconscious mind, for people who intentionally roamed in the back alleys to steal from drunkards to empty his pockets.

Yeah he wouldn't even feel bad about it.

His back hurt now and he was tired! And there was still 10 minutes of way left to reach Chuuya's house, he didn't want to carry him around anymore!

He dropped the guy to the floor there and sat by his head, shaking his body in hopes of waking him up. But Chuuya was dead asleep and wouldn't even flinch no matter what he did.

"Chuuya! Wake up, I don't wanna carry you anymoreeee.. Huhhhh, get up and walk by yourself!! Chuuyaaah!!"

So he ended up sitting there to rest his legs a little and carry Chuuya for the rest of the way anyway.

Chuuya's father shouldn't be home today, if he remembered correctly all the people rescued from the city centre had been brought to the hospital he worked in, so he should be busy with them still. As for the mother, she should be easy to avoid. It wasn't so late so she would be expecting Chuuya to be home not so soon.

As he climbed up the stairs with Chuuya weighing him down, Dazai's plan was to leave him by his houses door and let his mom find him later. Any drama it would create would be thrown at Chuuya's friends and Dazai could watch from afar in joy.

But as he reached the apartment's door and before he could drop Chuuya off of his back, the redhead's phone had started to ring, right in front of the door of their house. As they were inside the apartment building the ringing of the phone had echoed through the halls. It must be Chuuya's mom calling but what could the woman possibly want from Chuuya at this hour?

He quickly put the redhead to the ground before she could hear the sound coming from outside and open the door. He had actually done it quite fast too and was able to step down the stairs before any doors were gaped but what he hadn't expected to see as he was going down was Chuuya's mom stepping up the stairs.

Luckily she hadn't seen him with Chuuya on his back but he was sure she was confused why he wasn't picking up the phone despite her hearing the ringing sound of it echoing in the building. She was going to be quite surprised when she saw her son sleeping soundly with his back against their entrance. He would like to watch it but he felt like fleeing would be the best choice at the moment. Hopefully she hadn't noticed him walking by her while she was carrying a few shopping bags up the stairs.