Chapter Text
Oda woke up wanting nothing more than to clear his mind and a nice plate of curry.
That was how he found himself heading to the curry shop where the orphans he decided to help out so long ago lived. Spending time with them had always felt like a reprieve from his own life. Their worries always seemed much simpler than his own, as he had never had a chance for his main worry in life to be what game to play next or an upcoming spelling test. The kids’ lives were so normal and carefree compared to his, and deep down, he craved that. They had no idea what was going on in Oda’s life, and they had no idea what he had done in his past. When he was with them, he could forget about the Port Mafia and everything that came along with it.
He needed that right now.
The Mimic investigation had really started to get to him, and he just wanted to get away from it all. He wanted to forget about Gide. He wanted to forget about the Port Mafia. He wanted to forget about Ango.
Oda walked toward the curry shop, a paper bag of snacks and other goodies in his hands. Cars whizzed past him as he cleared his mind and got into the mental space to just relax and have fun for a couple hours. With everything that happened with Mimic and other smaller jobs within the Port Mafia, he hadn’t gotten the chance to visit the orphans in a couple weeks. In his mind, he promised to spend more time with them after things calmed down a bit.
Once he reached the shop, he opened the door and saw a horrifying sight causing him to drop the bag he had been carrying. The place had been ransacked. Chairs had been overturned. Holes were in the walls. Part of the bar had been smashed to pieces.
“What?” Oda vocalized in shock, his eyes widening in fear.
He ran up to the bar, looking down he saw Pops, the kindest man he had ever met slumped on the floor, blood coming from a hole in his chest, dead. There were two frying pans in his hands that he used to try and defend himself, but clearly, he failed. The simple dishware that he served curry on and took pride in keeping clean was smashed around him.
But where were the kids?
“Kosuke!” Oda screamed in desperation as he sprinted toward the stairs that led to their room. They just had to be alive. There was no way. He was a lowly grunt in the Port Mafia. Who would kill kids just to get to him?
“Katsume!” Oda screamed once more. He was scrambling up the stairs when a realization came over him. Mimic, no Gide, would do this to him. He wouldn’t fight him on his terms, so maybe he was just trying to make Oda so mad he would fight him all by himself. But Oda couldn’t fight him. That would just be giving him exactly what he wanted.
“Yu!” He reached upstairs and saw their shoes, but they weren’t answering him. Something was wrong. Oda thought back to the vow he made to himself when he first decided he wanted to write. He couldn’t kill. If killed he wouldn’t be able to write about people. He wouldn’t be able to write the third book. He had spent so much time trying to better himself from the barely human killing machine he was as a teenager. He had tried so hard to become better. He had become better. He couldn’t throw it all away now.
“Shinji!” He was almost there. These kids meant so much to him. Oda had spent so much time watching them grow up. He had played with them. He had taught them so much. They had taught him so much. They taught him how to play their favorite games. They taught him how to be a better person. They taught him how to enjoy life. They taught him what it meant to be human. They taught him what it truly meant to be alive.
“Sakura!” Oda slammed open the door. The room was destroyed. The chair to the desk was toppled over. Toys were in disarray more than usual on the floor. Blakents seemed to be pulled off the beds as if someone had forcibly removed people from them. There had been so many signs of struggle. They were gone, but clearly, they hadn’t gone peacefully.
Oda continued to search the room for any clue he could get.
“A map?” he noticed. After looking at it for a few moments he realized it was left by Mimic. Gide was behind this. That caused another realization to come over him. He pulled open the curtain covering the window and looked out toward the minivan in the parking lot in front of the shop. Oda saw the kids screaming and banging through the window of the van. They were alive, but they were in trouble.
So he jumped out of the second story window. He faltered as he fell, but quickly got up and sprinted toward the van, but it was too late.
Boom.
It exploded.
Oda was knocked back and off of his feet.
The van went up in a massive explosion that turned into a blazing inferno. There was no way anyone inside could have survived. They were all dead.
Hey laid there for a moment before pushing himself up to his hands and knees. He heard someone screaming.
Oda remembered when he had taken all the kids to the park, and Kosuke was showing off to the others how he could get through the monkey bars using only two of the bars. He did so successfully four times, before his hands slipped and he fell, scraping his left knee on the rubber below. Kosuke’s teeth clenched as he hit the ground, but he told the others around him it wasn’t a big deal. He only protested a little when Oda took him off to the side to clean the scrape and put a bandaid on his knee.
But Kosuke was gone.
Oda could hardly remember a time when Katsume didn’t have a ball in his hand, but Oda noticed that none of the kids ever wanted to play any kind of ball game with him. Oda felt a bit out of place at the sports section at the local store, but the smile on Katsume’s face the day that Oda came with a catching mitt made it all worth it, even if Katsume was teaching him how to throw and catch rather than the other way around.
But Katsume was gone.
Oda remembered seeing Yu with his handheld gaming device countless times before he realized it was the same one that Dazai had. After making a promise with Dazai that Oda was sure to regret, Oda brought the device over and ended up playing a driving game with Yu for hours. No one needed to know that Oda picked up the game extremely quickly but kept losing on purpose in order to make Yu smile.
But Yu was gone.
Oda remembered the day he made the mistake of bringing over a bag of craft supplies that included glitter. He knew that Shinji really enjoyed coloring and thought it would be a fun and easy activity that he and the kids could do together. However, the moment Sakura got her hands on the glitter, he knew he was mistaken. Oda was still pretty certain that there was still some of that glitter stuck in his hair, but it was all made worth it when right before he was about to leave Shinji tugged on his sleeve and showed him a drawing he made of the two of them. Oda still had that drawing in his jacket.
But Shinji was gone.
Oda remembered the day that the boys were all occupied with their own hobbies, and Sakura had him all to herself. She didn’t let any of this time go to waste. Within ten minutes, she had a small table set up with five tea cups and saucers with Oda, herself, and three stuffed animals surrounding it. She had put Oda’s rather short hair up into two pigtails and had lent him one of her tiaras which he wore with pride. Of course he returned the favor by braiding her hair to the best of his ability before they started their tea party.
But Sakura was gone.
His throat ached. He couldn’t breathe.
He realized his throat hurt so much because he was the one screaming.
Tears started to pour from his eyes.
----
Oda felt like an empty shell for the rest of that day. His entire world had been taken from him in such a short amount of time. Well almost his entire world.
“Odasaku,” Dazai called to him.
He was all that was left of Oda's world.
“I know what you’re thinking, but don’t do it,” Dazai warned him. “Even if you do it, even if I do it, it won’t bring the kids back. They still have numbers, and they are at…”
“I’m not going to do it. I’m not giving in to him.”
“What? I know those kids meant a lot to you. There’s no way you aren’t at least considering…”
“I can’t do it,” Oda started to tear up. “I need to get out of here.”
But where could he go? It’s not like he ever really wanted to be a member of the mafia. His life had led him to a point where he believed it was his only real option in order to survive. He didn’t choose the mafia. He chose survival. But now, after everything that just happened, he didn’t feel like he was surviving anymore. He had to leave.
He remembered the business card in his suit pocket. Maybe it was time.
“It’s almost been a decade now,” Oda stated.
“Oda you're not making sense,” Dazai chuckled, very worried about Oda’s clearly rapidly declining mental health.
“Long ago, I was given this offer,” Oda recalled. His hand slipped into the breast pocket of his jacket, and he took out the business card Fukuzawa gave him nine years ago. It was extremely worn and tattered. He always carried it with him just in case, and now was just the case.
“A man asked me to join him and his acquaintance in starting an agency for ability users. I didn’t join them. I didn’t feel like I could. I have been keeping an eye on them though. They’ve actually gotten a good start with it.”
“The Armed Detective Agency?” Dazai asked. Oda nodded. “Oda, why are you telling me this?”
“Come with me.”
“What?”
“We can get away from all of this. We can live normal lives.”
“Oda, I know you were close to these kids, but this is a little ridiculous,” Dazai laughed.
“It’s not about them anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Dazai was normally very good at reading people, but Oda truly was acting irrational right now. Those kids meant a lot to him. He hadn’t talked about them too much to Dazai. However, everytime Oda mentioned them his face lit up a little. Anytime Dazai saw him with them it looked like Oda was where he belonged. What could possibly mean more to Oda than them?
“I can’t lose you too,” Oda admitted.
“Oh,” Dazai spoke. There was a few seconds of pause, but it felt like minutes. “Oda, we’re part of the Port Mafia. We can’t just switch to a rival agency at the drop of a hat.”
“It’s not just this, Dazai. I want to help people. I need to help people, and I can’t do that as part of the Mafia. The Agency helps so many, and I’ve finally realized I want to be a part of that. I deserve to be a part of that.”
“But I don’t. I’m not like you. I just cause destruction wherever I go,” Dazai confessed.
“You don’t!” Oda shouted. “I saw how you spared Ango yesterday. You care about people even if you don’t like to admit it. You have a soft spot. It’s up to you if you want to show it or not.”
“But what about the Mimic conflict? We can’t just like the Mafia alone to deal with that.”
“We don’t owe the Port Mafia anything! They didn't do anything to protect the kids when they were demanding I help stop Mimic. They let them die. I doubt they’d do anything to help you when you really need it either.”
“Oda, you’re being blinded by emotions,” Dazai claimed.
“No,” Oda declared. “They’ve allowed me to see. I have to join the Agency, but I don’t want to leave you alone here.”
“But there’s no way they’d want me,” Dazai protested.
“They would,” Oda insisted. “I didn’t spend too much time with him, but the leader was really accepting of my past when I was younger. I’m sure he’d be understanding of you too.”
“Oda, are you sure about this?”
“Please, I need you,” Oda cried. “You’re all I have left.”
Silence.
“Okay,” Dazai gave in.
“I have to give him a call,” Oda stated.
“Don’t.” Dazai stopped him. Oda’s heart froze. Was Dazai changing his mind? “Your phone could be tapped. We should just head there directly.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Oda admitted, silently breathing out a sigh of relief.
----
The Port Mafia occasionally had scuffles with the Armed Detective Agency, so both Oda and Dazai already knew where it was. They walked briskly toward the agency in silence. Oda’s mind was deep in thought. What would he say when he got there? Would Fukuzawa like him? Would Fukuzawa be okay with Dazai? Maybe they should just turn back now.
No, he can't. They’ve already come too far. If they try and go back to the Port Mafia now they’d surely be in trouble. He can’t risk it.
They reached the building of the agency. After entering, there was a door to the left that led to something that appeared to be a cafe and forward there was a staircase that Oda believed led to the Detective Agency.
They continued forward up the staircase and reached a door. Oda raised his hand to knock on the door and froze. He was scared. Should he do this? Was this really the right choice?
He didn’t get the chance to doubt himself anymore.
“I knew you’d be here,” Fukuzawa’s acquaintance from so long ago swung the door open. He looked far less serious than he once did. His garish detective costume greatly contrasted from the uniform he wore so long ago. He looked happier now. “Oh yeah, I’m Ranpo by the way. I don’t think we ever really had a chance to meet back then.”
“Yeah, I don’t think we did,” Oda recalled. “I’m Oda.”
“I know, and that’s Osamu Dazai,” Ranpo noted, gesturing to the teenager next to Oda.
“I told you he’d come today!” Ranpo called, swinging open the door to the office, before Oda nor Dazai was able to say anything.
“Follow me,” Ranpo beckoned, walking into the office before he turned toward a door leading to a smaller room. Ranpo opened the door, and Oda saw him.
Fukuzawa.
It had been so long, but the older man looked nearly identical to how Oda remembered him. He seemed to have barely aged. His grey hair had not changed in style at all, and he still wore traditional clothes. The only difference Oda could notice was that the man’s kind eyes had somehow grown even kinder.
“Welcome home,” Fukuzawa smiled.