Chapter Text
Another mission.
Gunfire cracks overhead.
Dazai ducks lazily behind a crate half a second before a bullet passes where his head had been.
“Careful, Chuuya,” he sighs into the comms. “You can't destroy the entire building again. Ango will make us fill out paperwork.”
“Can you shut the fuck up?”
The floor caves in from one of Chuuya’s gravity kicks and Dazai drops straight through.
A crash. Dust. Silence.
The silence hangs for a moment longer before Ango’s voice is heard in Dazai's earpiece. Something he says to Dazai makes him frown slightly for a second and mumble something in response.
“One hundred and twelve. Still alive.” Ango speaks into the general communication line.
“…What?” Chuuya asks, not hearing, and gets a mild “Nothing. Continue.” in response.
Then from the rubble below:
“Chuuuyaaa… if I die… there’s something I must tell you…”
“…Don’t you dare.”
“I really admire your taste in shoes-”
A chunk of concrete smashes centimetres from Dazai’s face as Chuuya lands beside him.
“I’m going to kill you myself.”
Dazai laughs it off.
Chuuya is irritated the entire rest of the mission.
Ango continues to occasionally say strange things or numbers without any explanation, which distracts and irritates Chuuya, while Dazai does not react at all. Chuuya understands that something is going on, but he can't quite figure out what it is exactly. It pisses him off that no one wants to explain anything to him, and the nagging feeling that they're hiding something important from him doesn't go away.
But what irritates him most is that this might cause the mission to not go as planned, and it would be somewhat understandable if it was Dazai playing genius and as always doing whatever he wants, without even warning his partner about a sudden change of plan, but Ango is involved in this too.
That's why after the mission Chuuya decides to directly ask Ango (considering him the more normal of the two) about what's going on.
It was, of course, bold of him to assume that he would easily get the answers... so he has to grit his teeth and go to Dazai for them.
***
After a couple of knocks that remain unanswered, Chuuya kicks the door open and enters a small windowless office, lit by a single yellowish light on the ceiling. He carefully keeps his hands in his pockets, trying to control himself and not hit Dazai right away, giving him a chance to explain himself.
Dazai is sitting on the edge of the table and fiddling with his phone with a dissatisfied look. He looks up when Chuuya enters and this idiotic, annoying smile appears on his face.
"Oh, what a timely moment you came, Chuuya, lend me your phone for a minute." He holds out his hand in anticipation.
Chuuya takes a deep breath and tosses his phone to Dazai with some reluctance.
"Eh, you need to be more careful Chuuya, your phone is falling apart." Dazai scolds and clicks the back cover of the phone back into place. Then he fiddles with the phone for a few seconds and returns it to Chuuya.
Chuuya takes the phone back and clenches his fists in his pockets tighter.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" He says before Dazai can open his mouth and piss him off again.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Chibi~" Dazai fools around without even changing his expression. Chuuya imagines his fist meeting Dazai's face.
"What's up with you and Ango? If it affects the mission-"
"It won't affect the mission." Dazai interrupts him.
"So now you admit that something is wrong." Chuuya frowns.
"Everything's just fine~"
Chuuya, barely holding back from exploding, grabs him by the collar, pulling him closer. "Stop playing dumb and answer my question, jerk."
"Ask Ango, since you're so interested." Dazai shrugs dismissively.
"I'm asking you."
"Hah, you already asked him." A statement, not a question.
"Yeah, and he told me to ask you, since it's related to you specifically. Maybe you'll finally answer me?"
"It won't affect the mission." Dazai repeats again.
Chuuya clenches his fists on Dazai's collar, barely holding back the urge to hit him.
"Ango is constantly counting something."
"My heartbeat. You already know that."
"Why would he say it out loud?"
"You know, Chuuya, Ango has a very strange sense of humor."
"Humor." Chuuya echoes as if he heard something ridiculous.
"Well, anything can happen." Dazai shrugs again, waving it off.
For a moment, Chuuya stares blankly at Dazai. He lets go of him and takes a step back, as if trying to take a better look at him.
"Something's wrong with the device? Or your heartbeat?"
After a moment of silence, Dazai responds with a strangely serious tone.
"It's your fault. For someone so small you're too big of a distraction...an inconvenience."
"The hell did I do?" Chuuya snaps. "Quit blaming everything on me, asshole, how am I even-" Oh, did he finally get it? He really is smart, impressive.
"...no." He finally speaks after staring at Dazai for a long time. It comes out somehow weak and distrustful, nothing like usual Chuuya.
"Yes." Dazai says flatly.
"No." Chuuya repeats more firmly. "Don't you dare joke like that, Dazai." He speaks through his teeth.
Dazai smiles slightly. "This is not a joke, Chuuya."
Chuuya is silent for a painfully long moment, unsure of what to answer. And is there any need to answer at all? When he came here, he wanted answers, but he wasn't ready for this answer. Not yet.
All his feelings, from surprise to fear to anger and something not entirely clear, boil up inside him, becoming insufferable.
Unable to properly express his feelings, he punches the nearest wall, opening a window in it.
Chuuya leaves without further ado (because he'd explode otherwise), slamming the door loudly.
Then they don't get any missions together, and soon after that Chuuya takes off on a mission outside of Yokohama, while Dazai is dealing with other matters at the agency.
Everyone is busy with their own business, and there's no necessity for them to communicate, so they simply don’t do it.
***
After about four relatively calm months there's a sudden onset of strange events.
First, the “small rats” start disappearing from the radars, and then one by one, ability users start disappearing in unknown circumstances, leaving no trace. Literally.
They are removed from all information resources, leaving behind only gaps, errors and inconsistencies in information, as if all traces of their existence have been erased.
And perhaps the ADA could have handled it without the help of the Port Mafia, if something unexpected hadn't happened one day, forcing the armed detective agency and the Port Mafia to work together again.
"I can't get any information. There's nothing. And the device doesn't work either." Ango says, constantly refreshing the data from the device, trying to find at least something. "Either he's out of range due to a device malfunction, or...he's already dead."
Dazai disappeared too.
"What the fuck do you mean he disappeared?!" Chuuya yells into his phone. "Just vanished into thin air in broad daylight? What good are those devices of yours if they stop working with every gust of wind?"
"Chuuya, we don’t know what's happening either..."
"Then figure it out. It's Dazai, that idiot can't just disappear without leaving a trace. I bet he foresaw this happening a month ago."
"We've already searched everywhere, even all of Yokohama and the surrounding area, but he's nowhere to be found, we have no clue."
"So what am I supposed to do? People go missing and no one seems to care. The detective agency fucked up so hard, all of you are just useless."
"Chuuya..."
Chuuya throws his phone at the wall without listening to the end. The phone shatters into pieces and in the blur of anger, Chuuya suddenly notices something that is clearly not a part of the phone.
That idiot really can't disappear without leaving a trace. When was the last time they saw each other, four months ago? Four months. And he already knew something was up and left something that would help him later.
Chuuya picks it up and realizes it's a tracker.
That damn Dazai even predicted this.
Chuuya flies out of the office. The tracker needs to be connected to a computer as quickly as possible, and he needs to find that idiot Dazai before he does something stupid and ends his life.