Chapter Text
A hashihime, youkai that was told of in old legends. A youkai that was so consumed by envy in their heart that they performed a curse, becoming a guardian of a river. Any who cross in love shall be killed, out of spite.
Atsushi knows this, because the man before him is one.
A few moments ago, he was finding a place to sleep, settling his sights under a bridge, a simple, cold floor. Atsushi tentatively crossed, looking around for any passerby.
He felt a hand ghost on his shoulder.
Atsushi whipped around, “W-Who’s there?!” Despite it being late at night, he considered himself someone with good night vision, a survival-of-the-fittest trait he picked up from his orphanage. Eyes waited, the grip tightened, but nothing felt.
He sighed, “I must be getting delusional from hunger pain.” His body dragged itself further, disregarding a flicker of light from the river. Atsushi clamoured down, wincing at his weakening strength, as he collapsed on the ground with a yelp.
Atsushi groans, and feels himself get raised up, out of his collapsed state, he feels water splash onto his hand, as he shifts himself into the cover of the bridge with a sigh.
His eyes flutter open, the soft rain obscuring shilouettes. A flicker of flames is muffled in the rain, his mouth opening for words. Words failed him, dry lips coughing.
“/What are you doing here?/” a question that popped into the open of Atsushi’s head. His face tightened, looking down.
“I don’t know…I’m not meant to be here.”
“You’re right. You know you should never cro-”
“I know I shouldn’t be alive.”
The gray ground Atsushi set his eyes open had white trickling in his vision. His eyes slowly moved up the white robes…
“W-What are /you/ doing here?!” Atsushi stammered, his eyes looking at another set of tired ones, pools of brown that were more like voids of an escaped humanity, where light may never enter.
Speaking of light…embers that billowed a ghostly glow set atop the other figure’s head, five candles dripping wax that never seemed to fall anywhere.
“Y-You’re going to set yourself on fire!” Atsushi reached a hand to knock it away, as the other took a step back.
“I wouldn’t worry about that…after all, we’re right next to a river.” A misty laugh, unsettling but comforting to Atsushi’s ears. Even more so as thin pale hands set the candle sticks down.
The figure murmured, words echoing though muffled with the soft rain. “I thought there’d be a warning sign or rumours about this bridge, right…?” Those eyes draw out words.
“Atsushi. And well…yes, but I figured that there’d be less people here.” A sigh, “and…I’m on my last legs here, really.” Guilt reminded Atsushi not to guilt trip him, “Do you live here? I mean I don’t want to impose or any-”
“I’m the reason that no one’s supposed to be here.” Words that sent a further chill up Atsushi’s spine, but were stated as if they were merely the weather.
“Because here is the resting, place of Osamu Dazai, who cursed all and drowned himself.” Dazai glances back, a smile. “In this very river.”
Atsushi felt a hitch in his throat, nervous laughter. “So uh…how did that work out for you, Dazai?” He was alive, right? Or dead?
“Rather poorly I have to admit.” Dazai’s arms stretched out, revealing their bandages. “Instead of going ‘upstairs’ or ‘downstairs’ I’m still here. As a demon, no less.” A glance to the flames.
“D-Demons, you say?” Of all the times Atsushi was half-dead, this was the most…interesting. Surprisingly, not the most terrifying. Shockingly, he could probably name ten more horrifying incidents.
“Demon, youkai, vengeful spirit.” He hummed in thought, “a hashihime.”
“Hashihime?”
“Well…I can’t be a ghost, right?” Dazai pokes the other man’s shoulder. “See? Didn’t go through. And I didn’t exactly drown myself while wearing candles on my head, because that would be counter-intuitive. I…used to be human, just barely. So that’s the only option… right?”
Atsushi slowly nodded, “Right…”
“That and I feel a greater urge to kill couples walking across more than ever…” Dazai shrugs. “Well, it can’t be helped.”
“Ummm… yes it can?!” Atsushi called out, completely incredulous to the whole situation.
“How so?”
“…” Atsushi’s face tinged red, mind scouring for some idea. “Jeez…I don’t know…true love’s kiss?” A sheepish smile. He remembered some long forgotten stories in the orphanage recounting such tales, that even in a loveless world such as that place love would supposedly prevail.
“A loving kiss?” Dazai raised an eyebrow.
“You didn’t exactly give me much time here.” Atsushi defended.
Dazai stifled his laughter, waving a hand dismissively. “No, no! I mean… one has to exhaust all the options, right?”
“I guess…?” At the very least he wasn’t going to die, and come to think of it…actually not being treated like scum by someone actually felt rather nice, if only it had the side effect of having Atsushi’s heart beat more prominently in his chest.
“Then that settles it!” Dazai claps his hands together. “You, Atsushi…”
“Nakajima.”
“You, Atsushi Nakajima, will assist me to get out of this state! Do you think you can do that for me?”
“If I don’t die of starvation, I don’t see why not.”
“A dead man’s bank account means nothing to him anymore, so that’s a yes.”
A man close to death and a man who desires it, like constellations west of the night sky ebbing together with the sea when one closes their eyes. Two people who fancied that this would be the harbinger of the end of their lives.
Little did they know, it was the beginning of another.
And as they rested with the stars and rain above them, the candles dimmed, kindling a different ember in ones soul, if there is such a thing.