Chapter Text
Dazai isn’t usually one to be bewildered, and certainly not for such long periods of time, but today is strange and unpredictable. He finds himself hanging around inside a certain mutt’s hood, swaying slightly as Chuuya makes his way up the stairs towards what Dazai can only assume is Kouyou’s office.
Never in a million years did Dazai ever imagine himself being some sort of vampire-like creature, let alone hanging around with the hat rack while he’s still unsure of what’s going on. He had been hoping to find Odasaku or Ango, but he wasn’t quite used to the way you’re supposed to fly as a bat. Y’know… because this isn’t something he deals with every day. By the time Dazai had calmed his nerves about this entire situation, he had already been in Chuuya’s hood long enough that it might be a bit suspicious if he spontaneously sprung up and wobbled his way through the air. If he ever planned to tell anyone other than Odasaku about his predicament, it wouldn’t be any time soon. He had to make sure he had a good grasp on what had changed so no one could get the jump on him. For the past few flights of stairs, Dazai had been thinking of other vampire things he might be able to do now.
Mind control, maybe? He remembered a movie about vampires where they could do that… probably. He tried to telepathically control multiple people on the way up to Kouyou’s office, but none of them reacted. What else could vampires do? Would he have to sustain himself purely off of blood, or will he be one of the vampires that could just eat normally with the added addition of blood as an occasional side dish?
Dazai is brought out of his thoughts by a couple quick knocks. He doesn’t have to look over Chuuya’s shoulder to know they’ve reached Kouyou by now when the woman beckons Chuuya inside.
“Ane-san!” Chuuya is quick to let himself in, shutting the door gently behind him anyhow. “You’ll never guess who joined me while I was out taking a walk.” He may have seemed pleasantly composed, but someone like Kouyou would know that the boy was brimming with enthusiasm.
Kouyou, ever the professional, finishes her current task before pausing as she looks up to Chuuya with a neutral but curious expression. “Hm? Have you made a friend?” She glances behind him for just a moment as if thinking she might’ve missed someone coming in behind Chuuya.
Chuuya shakes his head and walks closer to Kouyou’s desk. He makes a subtle show of turning around to show off his hood, which has a bit of a lump in the bottom accompanied by two wide and pointy ears poking out the top. “This guy! I’m calling him Dracula.” Dazai supposes he should have maybe tried a little bit to show himself off to Kouyou better or act more curious, like a normal animal, but Chuuya’s hood felt like a hammock! Surprisingly comfortable, and he didn’t want to get up. Chuuya can suck it.
Kouyou gazes at Chuuya’s hood for a beat or two, before leaning forward to see over the rim a little better. “Oh!” She exclaims softly once she sees what Chuuya has brought into her office, bringing her hand up to her mouth in an elegant and practiced sort of surprise. “Chuuya, dear, you’ve brought a wild animal into the building?” She huffs in amusement, hiding a smile behind her hand as she settles back into her chair.
“Well, I was only going to tell you about him, but then the bastard wouldn’t fly off when I tried to shoo him off.” Yes, Chuuya had attempted to shoo Dazai off just before he entered the building, but He still didn’t know where Odasaku was and he didn’t know how to turn back into a human, so he refused. Also, he didn’t like the stupid slug’s tone. “figured I might as well show you if he was gonna stay stubborn.”
Kouyou hummed in understanding, dusting off her kimono gently as she set her hand back down in her lap along with her other. “Well, he is rather… cute.” She didn’t sound the most confident in that word choice, and Dazai would like to say he thinks he is adorable right now. “I’m glad I got to see him before he scurried off somewhere.” She smiled at Chuuya, who had turned a bit to be able to look over his shoulder at the older woman. He turned further to face Kouyou fully, opening his mouth to speak before Kouyou gave him a look that snapped his jaw right back into place. “However, I’d advise you to get rid of it soon. I’ve heard they are at high risk for rabies.”
Chuuya’s eyes widen slightly at that, glancing over his shoulder for just a moment. “S’fine…” Looking back to Kouyou, he seems slightly less sure of himself. “He’s not been aggressive.” Kouyou raises an eyebrow at the boy. He relents. “Okay, okay, I’ll make him go away when I get finished with my paperwork and get started on my next mission.” Dazai mentally groans at the thought of having to wait while stupid Chuuya does his stupid paperwork until he can go on the search for Odasaku. Dazai realizes he hadn’t really planned what he would say to Odasaku when he finally tracked him down, so he decides to do that now while the two redheads briefly bid their farewells.
Dazai would need to explain the fact he turned into a bat, so that means he would also need to recall how he turned into a bat.
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Dazai trudges over the sidewalk shortly after being discharged from the hospital, feeling especially horrible this time. It wasn’t even the humid shoreline air, something is irritating his skin, something is making him feel too warm and tingly. His tongue prodded at his canines curiously, noting how they had seemed to have grown since the last time he remembered feeling them. It probably wouldn’t have helped, but he sort of wishes he had Mori’s coat at the moment. It may have been the property of the worst person ever at one point, but sometimes the heavy, too-big coat felt like a comforter over his shoulders to help ease whatever he was dealing with at the time. Being without it already sets off his alarms, and the unfamiliar tingling doesn’t help at all. Where had it gone to, anyhow? Maybe still back at his chosen location to release himself from this planet…
Dazai shifts his focus onto the strangely reflective building that had come into view as he turned the corner of the hospital, deciding to check at least his canines there instead of waiting until he got all the way to his apartment. Hopefully the staff don’t mind him, he’s got enough on his mind right now. Dazai leans closer to the glass once he gets to standing in front of it, using one of his fingers to pull his upper lip further up so he can get as clear a look at his left canine as he could. So, they have grown… strange. He releases his lip, wiping his own slobber off on his pant leg just below the hip. If Dazai’s just become a vampire, he certainly looks the part already. It could explain the too-warm feeling.
Dazai entertains the vampire idea, briefly considering the thought of transforming into a vicious rodent like a bat as he turned on his heel and began to walk further towards his destination. He makes it maybe four or five steps before he’s shrouded in a cloud of dark smoke, his body changing rapidly against his will. Dazai screams(squeaks?) as he is hardly given enough time to realize he’s just shrunk to at least 10 times shorter, probably more, than his usual height. He almost panics as his eyes graze over his new form, the puff of smoke dispersing into the air as if it didn’t just curse Dazai to a fate worse than death.
Dazai seems to have gained a small, furry body, large ears, and a snout to accompany both of these. It’s hard to ignore the webbing between his… fingers? He thinks that’s what those are… did he seriously just turn into a bat? Why? Was he actually a vampire now? Was it an ability that could bypass No Longer Human? An enemy attack? No, no, this wouldn’t make any sense. He must have been given other vampirism powers, no enemy would give the advantage to the other side. Dazai stumbled on his unfamiliar limbs as he made his way into the nearby alleyway because the sun was really starting to get on his nerves. He needs to calm down. He’s never going to figure this out without a level head.
Dazai takes a couple deep breaths and thanks the shadows for shielding him as he examines his new body. He mentally notes he may need to learn to fly if this is permanent. What can he do to fix this? How did he originally turn into a bat? He can’t remember! All the panic at suddenly being thrown into bat-hood makes it hard to remember what sparked this to begin with. Okay, it’ll be fine. He can figure that out later. It will be easier to focus once he finds someone he knows. Dazai’s mind immediately shot to Odasaku, already solidifying his chosen path of fixing this all. Alright, get to Odasaku, that is task one.
…How is he going to do this?
In theory, flying would be fastest, but Dazai doesn’t know how to do that. And the sun hurts. Okay, then he’ll just have to suck it up and figure it out on the way. He’s seen a couple bats take off before. Flying looks easy. He tells himself this will be a piece of cake.
Dazai, his mind made up, shimmies back towards the sidewalk to attempt to learn how to fly. He braces himself as he gets a bit more used to his body, going over the steps in his head as he gets ready to jump. He’s got this.
After a bit of mental preparation, Dazai manages to shoot himself off the ground. He kind of swings his arms around in a panic, trying to find the right way to get lift, before he eventually hits the floor. Okay… much more difficult than it looks. Dazai does this multiple times, eventually finding the right movement to hover. Great! Now to go forward.
He hovers for a couple of seconds to get used to the feeling of it before he starts trying to move forward. The movements are a lot like swimming, he notes. He’s moving! If one could stumble in the air, this would be what it looks like, but he’s doing it! This is sort of exciting. Dazai tries to go higher, as uncoordinated as he was, now leaving the alleyway he’d got himself comfortable in and into the sun. It doesn’t hurt, really, it’s a really annoying tingle though. He ignores the tingling on his skin as he reaches higher. He looks down at the street below him and decides he’s gone high enough. Time to figure out how to turn. It’s not like he’d been flying in a straight line, anyway, should be pretty simple.
This is where everything goes wrong. Dazai flapped at just the worst moment, leaving him with nothing to catch on the wind as he turned. He started to fall, which caused instant panic all throughout his body. He frantically attempted to pull himself back into the air, focusing on anything but his surroundings. He thinks he saw the front of the hospital he’d just been discharged from as he spun through the air. Is he going towards the river?
He only gets a moment longer to ponder over this until he’s hurdled right into the many sticks and branches of a tree with a pained scream that sounded much more like a squeak than he remembered usually sounding. He falls through a couple layers of twigs, eventually managing to get his single claw to catch on some bark of the trunk. Dazai clings to the bark while he stays there, suspended, breathing heavily as he lets himself recover. Once he felt a little bit better, he sighed and tried to scale down the bark because he doesn’t feel like flying anymore. Maybe he’ll just lay on the ground and let himself die. Yeah… that sounds quite nice right now. The loose bit of bark snapped and had Dazai reliving his entire life for a moment, letting out a panicked… squeak before he caught onto the trunk again. Give him a break…
Dazai scales down most of the rest of his way with little problems, just incredibly slow so he didn’t fall down again. He’s focused, not paying attention to the things around him in all this strangeness. He turns his head around to see how far he his from the ground now, noting the distance and the two huge eyes staring at him in awe before going back to his— wait, two huge WHAT? Doing a double take, He looks straight into both of these eyes, then their hair, their nose, their freckles… is that seriously Chuuya of all people? He mentally groans, thinking this has to be the worst turn of events ever.
Dazai watches Chuuya blink.
Dazai blinks.
“Hello, uh… you.” Chuuya says, waving at what he doesn’t know is Dazai.
Wow, conversational, aren’t you? Dazai thinks, only glancing to Chuuya’s hand as he waves. Why would he wave to a bat? That’s so… unique.
Dazai stares at Chuuya as the silence goes on, unsure of what to do in this situation. He’d watched bat documentaries before, but he never really retained the basic bat knowledge! Why would he ever have needed it back then? How do bats actually act? Dazai is pulled out of his thoughts as Chuuya begins to lift his pointer finger at him, eyes immediately locking onto the tip of his finger. What the hell is he doing?
Chuuya pokes Dazai, and Dazai takes a moment to process this before looking back to Chuuya’s face and trying to call him an idiot for touching a wild animal. It comes out as another squeak. Great. He hopes Chuuya could feel the insult, at least.
Dazai mentally grimaces at Chuuya when he only huffs in amusement, clearly not having the insult reach his tiny stupid brain through that thick skull of his. Typical. Chuuya then reaches out again to pet him and now dazai just feels strange. He feels one of his ears twitch, which he assumes is because he became uncomfortable. He groans at the possibility of having to learn bat social cues.
“I’m gonna call you Dracula. That alright?” Chuuya asks, smiling, and Dazai blinks again as he’s pulled out of his brief thoughts about what bat habits could mean what emotion. Chuuya’s face softens as he looks gently to the side, “As if a bat could be able to respond…” Dazai squeaks again in muscle memory to tell Chuuya he thinks his choice of name is dumb and to tell him that talking to animals is just a new level of lonely, frowning mentally when Chuuya visibly seems unaffected. This is so unfair! He feels better when Chuuya stops petting him, though.
Chuuya starts to walk off after saying ‘bye” to Dazai, and he feels relieved at first. He begins to shimmy down the tree again, but now he just feels lost. He doesn’t know his way around this part of town really well, and in all honesty he doesn’t want to leave odasaku. He gazes where Chuuya left footprints in the riverbank, considering following the older at least until they made it back to the Port Maria building and Dazai had a chance at finding Odasaku or Ango. It can’t be that far, can it?
After thinking that, Dazai makes up his mind. He steels himself before taking a leap of faith and using all his strength to TRY and fly normally towards Chuuya’s slowly shrinking figure. Once he gets close enough, Chuuya turns around as if he heard Dazai’s wing beats and Dazai hovers in front of him for a second.
“Hey!” Chuuya seems almost excited, ”You following me, buddy?” Dazai almost turns back around and commits to dying in the grass, but he holds it together so he can meet Odasaku again. Maybe he can’t turn human again. He wants to see Odasaku at least one more time. Dazai doesn’t want keep flapping his wings all the way to the Port Mafia buildings, so he instead chooses to use Chuuya as an uber. He examines Chuuya for the optimal place to hitch a ride, deciding on the hood of his jacket. Dazai ignores Chuuya’s confused gaze as he tries not to look too uneducated in flying while he somehow maneuvers to perch in the currently unused hood. What is this thing made of? It’s insanely comfortable. “I guess that also works…” Chuuya mumbles, and Dazai ignores the bit of the redhead’s hair that grazes against one of his now sensitive ears.
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Dazai is gently taken out of his thoughts as he hears a door click shut, examining the new room he’s been taken into. Seems like they’ve just arrived at Chuuya’s Office. Dazai sways a tad as Chuuya gets behind his desk and sits down in his chair. He seems to begin to do something before pausing and making a sound of consideration. Dazai halfhazardly thinks of what he could be thinking about, but he couldn’t be bothered trying that hard right now. He’s two types of tired and is only focused on trying to get to Odasaku. He’ll sit through Chuuya doing paperwork and go find Odasaku. That is the plan. Until he’s suddenly being hoisted out of Chuuya’s hood by a gloved hand. What the hell is happening?
Dazai squeaks in disapproval and a bit of shock but doesn’t squirm too much, he doesn’t want to get dropped.
“Easy, easy, I’m not hurtin’ ya.” Chuuya speaks so softly it almost makes Dazai want to be dropped, but he’s put into Chuuya’s hat before he can squirm enough to make that possible, which Chuuya had just set on his desk for Dazai’s convenience. It’s still a bit warm from being on Chuuya’s head, almost like a little heater under his back. It could lull someone to sleep if they wanted it to. Dazai watches, still a little shaken from being manhandled, as Chuuya leans back in his chair and stretches before getting into whatever paperwork was already on his desk. Dazai thinks some of it might actually be his own, but Chuuya should be doing that anyway.
There’s a lot of paper, Dazai thinks as he peers over the rim of the pork pie hat, I have time for a small nap… Dazai is a relatively light sleeper, too, so surely he’ll wake if Chuuya happens to get finished early somehow. Yeah. Definitely.
Dazai hesitates despite having already made up his mind to allow himself a nap, but he convinces himself further that the doctors had told him to get rest after being discharged. He lays down and gets as comfortable as one could get under his certain circumstances, and lets his eyes droop closed. He hadn’t realized just how drained he was of everything until now, laying here staring at the back of his eyelids. He slips into slumber much faster than he would typically allow himself should anyone else be present.