Chapter Text
“Alright everyone, let’s head out and take care of the trash,” a bandaged boy said as he hopped off the rock and headed off with a large group of armed men. “And remember, don’t hurt the kids~”
Chuuya glared as they left his sight and checked for any signs of someone watching him. ‘Now’s my chance,’ he thought to himself when he found no one was watching. He grunted as he held his side and moved away from his spot underneath the hole he made to escape the Sheep and GSS, although a bit sluggish as the rat poison was making it hard to keep his eyes open.
Still, he endured it, and he managed to call out to his ability in order to fly into the air undetected. His vision was getting a little hazy, which made it hard for him to keep track of where he was going. Truth is, he didn’t know where he was going, but he found that he didn’t really care. All he cared about was getting as far away as possible.
Far away from the Port Mafia.
Far away from the Sheep.
And far away from him.
He fell on his knees and gasped out as he thought he could see concrete. Was he in the city already? How did he get this far without passing out? Doesn’t matter. He needed to keep going. Though it was slow, he was able to stand on his feet again, but he stumbled as his stamina got lower by the minute thanks to the damn rat poison. So it was no surprise when he crashed to the floor after pushing a hard surface. Was that a door he pushed? He didn’t know. His mind was gettin fuzzy.
He could’ve sworn he started to hear a worried voice in the background, but his mind was going in and out of consciousness every few seconds. After that, more muffled voices started calling out to him, but eventually…
He finally passed out.
Chuuya woke up with a groan, reaching his hand up to rub the sleep out of his eyes and he opened them to take in his surroundings. It looked like he was in the infirmary, but how on earth did he get here?
“Well, look who’s finally awake.”
The ginger blinked the blurriness away to see two people a few years older than him on the other side of the room. One was a young man with black hair and… looking like some sort of detective? The other was a young girl with dark hair and a butterfly hair clip, wearing a long black skirt, a white blouse and black gloves.
“Morning, sleepy head~” the boy sang.
Chuuya rubbed his face a little more before sitting up. “The hell… where am I?” he groaned.
“The Agency’s infirmary,” the girl answered. “You passed out in the cafe downstairs. You gave the waitress quite the scare.”
The ginger looked around and sure enough, he was in an infirmary. The question was--
“How did you manage to get to a cafe, you ask,” the boy said with an amused grin. “Well, you were so delirious that you didn’t know where you were going, and eventually lost your footing and crashed into the cafe. That was when the waitress called for us, and boom! Here we are!”
Chuuya looked at the boy, blue eyes wide in shock. Did this guy have some sort of mind reading ability!? He looked down to see that he had no bandages, which confused him. He should’ve at least had some on his torso. How…?
“I fixed you up with my ability,” the girl explained. “You were poisoned, but it wasn’t enough to bring you to the point of heading for death’s door. So I had to dissect you.”
Chuuya choked on that. “The fuck!?”
“My ability only works if someone is on the brink of death,” the girl responded with a shrug. “I had to heal you somehow.”
The ginger’s eye twitched at this knowledge, but he had to admit that he did feel a little more energetic than he had been earlier. “How long was I out?”
“A few minutes,” the girl answered. “It didn’t take long for the rat poison to flush out of your body.”
The ginger hummed and swung his legs over the bed before getting off. He half expected to feel dizzy, but he didn’t feel any of that. “Um… Thanks for helping me, I guess,” he said. “Uh…”
“Akiko Yosano,” the girl said. “This is Ranpo Edogawa.”
“Hey,” the boy said, popping a lollipop in his mouth.
Chuuya nodded. “Chuuya Nakahara,” he said. “Well, thanks for the help, but… I’ll be going now.”
He started heading for the door when Ranpo spoke up. “Just stay here,” he said. “It’s not like you have anywhere else to go.”
The ginger flinched at this and he couldn’t help but turn to him with a glare. “And how would you know if I don’t have a place to go?” he demanded.
“Well, for one, you wouldn’t want to go outside, since you were on the run and everything,” the other boy said as he sucked on the lollipop. He watched as the younger tensed up. “Your silence says that I’m probably right.”
Yosano frowned and looked at Chuuya. “How did you get poisoned?” she asked.
The ginger shifted from one foot to the other, suddenly feeling vulnerable for being put on the spot like this. “It’s a long story…”
“I don’t have a case, so I’ve got plenty of time,” Ranpo said with a grin.
“As a doctor, I’d like to know too,” the girl said, arms crossed over her chest.
“Well…”
It took a little longer than he’d liked to get the story across to them, but surprisingly, they were patient enough to listen in on the whole thing. It hurt to recall how he ended up getting stabbed in the back, quite literally, by the people he called his friends. And it was all thanks to that stupid bastard, Osamu Dazai. Both seemed to have rather sympathetic looks.
“Wow, that sucks,” Yosano said with a frown. “This Dazai guy sounds like a total master manipulator.”
“All the more reason why you should stay here,” Ranpo said, being serious which surprises Chuuya. “The Port Mafia has probably noticed that you’re gone by now and are already looking for you. And considering how smart this Dazai really is, it wouldn’t take long for him to map out your location, though he more than likely wouldn’t want to waste his time doing that.”
“How do you figure?” the ginger asked curiously.
“Well, the two of you strongly disliked each other the moment you met,” the green eyed boy explained. “The only reason he would be looking for you is by the orders of the Port Mafia’s boss, and because of that power that you have which will probably make the Port Mafia ten times more powerful than they already are.”
“.... How do you know if I’ll be safe here.”
“Simple. Port Mafia has never once come to the Agency solely for looking for a runaway gifted. All you have to do is lay low for a while until everything has settled down and they’ve given up on their search.”
Listening to this kid, Chuuya acknowledges that he has a point. If this Agency can be a good place to hide, and if the Port Mafia never came to this place just to look for a gifted, he may be able to stay in the clear. But there was still one problem…
“This agency has a boss, right?” Chuuya asked.
“It does, but we call him ‘President’ and not ‘Boss’,” Yosano answered.
“Will he… be okay with me staying here?” he asked hesitantly.
The two agency members blinked at this before both gave a smile.
“Course he will!” Ranpo said enthusiastically. “He’s not the type to turn away a person in need of help!”
“That’s what the Agency is built for anyway,” Yosano agreed. “Just talk to him as soon as he gets back from a meeting, okay? He’s a pretty understanding man.”
'.... neither of them are lying, ' Chuuya thought to himself. 'And I hate to admit it, but that Ranpo kid is right. I don't have anywhere to go, and I can't just wander around aimlessly until the Mafia eventually finds me..'
"You hungry?" The girl asked, cutting off the ginger's train of thought. "Why don't we head down to cafe Uzumaki? The waitress can fix you something to eat."
Chuuya was about to protest, but when his stomach growled, he blushed in embarrassment. "Food… sounds good…"
If Dazai was angry, he never showed it. He hid his emotions behind a blank mask of indifference as Mori stared him down with a calm look. The room was silent for a moment, neither speaking and simply staring at one another. However, if anyone else was in the room, they probably would’ve noticed how tense it was.
“You let Chuuya Nakahara get away.”
That.
That was the source of Dazai’s hidden anger. That damn shrimp had gotten away right when he and his men were in the middle of taking care of GSS and the Sheep. Port Mafia lost its chance at a talented ability user, but that didn’t matter to Dazai. What mattered to him was that Chuuya had gone back on their deal, and now he’s lost his dog.
“I didn’t predict this,” the teen said simply. “I knew the Sheep were going to betray him and pair up with the GSS, and I knew Chuuya would agree to joining the Port Mafia if I went and helped him out.”
“But you couldn’t predict that he would escape the moment you took your eyes off him,” Mori stated. “I assume you’ve already mapped out where he could be.”
“He doesn’t have anywhere to go,” Dazai responded automatically. “He’s probably just hiding out in the slums.”
“Bring him here the moment you find him, Dazai-kun. If Chuuya-kun ends up in the hands of an enemy, we’re surely doomed.”
The brunette couldn’t care less, but he simply nodded before turning to leave the office.
“One more thing.”
He stopped and looked at the boss one more time.
“Failure is not an option.”
Two weeks later
It seemed so surreal. Staying in a dorm of an agency building just to hide away from a criminal organization for the past two weeks. Surprisingly enough, Yukichi Fukuzawa was a really generous man for agreeing to hide him in the Armed Detective Agency, and to be honest he felt rather antsy. Chuuya had never been the type to sit still, and he wanted to stretch his legs. The only thing that’s prevented him from doing that is the thought of the Port Mafia finding him, especially that suicidal brat, Dazai.
On the bright side, he got to know Ranpo and Yosano a little more. He learned that Yosano’s ability Thou Shall Not Die allowed her to heal anyone who was on the brink of death, and Ranpo’s ability Ultimate Deduction helped him solve a case in a millisecond. He helped out occasionally on paperwork and they explained that they handle cases the police don’t stand a chance against. Mainly cases concerning other gifteds, which is what this agency consisted of.
Blue eyes blinked when he heard a knock on the door.
“Chuuya!” Yosano called on the other side. “You busy!?”
The ginger stretched out his arms before getting up from his futon. “Nah! Just give me a sec!” he called back before approaching the door and opening it up. “What’s up?”
“The president wants to have a talk with you,” the doctor said. “It’s about something important.”
Chuuya blinked in confusion before nodding and grabbing his shoes to slip them on. “Did he say what it was about?” he asked.
“He did, but I think it’s best if you find out for yourself,” Yosano said with a slight smile as she and him walked away from the dorms and headed for the agency.
He didn’t know what she was smiling for, but Chuuya simply shrugged it off. She was probably just in a good mood. When they arrived, Ranpo greeted him with a wave and a smile of his own, to which the ginger simply waved back and headed straight for Fukuzawa’s office.
Sure enough, the elder male was inside and sitting behind his desk.
“You wanted to see me, sir?” Chuuya asked.
When he first met the president, he’d taken to calling him “sir”, since he was the one who let him stay at the agency to hide. Fukuzawa allowed him to stay, and the ginger felt it fair to show the man respect.
“Yes, please have a seat, Chuuya,” he said calmly.
The teen did as he was told and sat in the chair in front of the desk.
“Chuuya, I’ve spoken with Ranpo on the current status of the Port Mafia’s search for you,” Fukuzawa started. Chuuya held his breath at that, a little on edge of the information. “They have finally stopped searching for you and put their attention elsewhere.”
The ginger let out a breath of relief. “Thank God…”
“Now, my next concern is, what is it that you plan to do?”
Chuuya frowned. He hadn’t really thought about what he was going to do once the Port Mafia stopped looking for him. He had gotten used to living in the dorms and helping the agency out that he didn’t think of what he was going to do when it was all over.
“I… hadn’t really thought of a plan,” he said honestly.
Fukuzawa didn’t say anything about that, and Chuuya simply assumed that the man didn’t really know what to say to him. But then everything stopped when he said this.
“How would you like to stay at the agency as a full member?”
Blue eyes widened in shock. “Wh-what?”
“I understand that you lived in the slums of Suribachi City before you got into this predicament,” the president said. “You’ve explained that you have no living relatives as far as you knew, and you don’t remember anything of your past. I also understand that you have no intentions of joining the Port Mafia, given the fact that you hid yourself from their sights for the past two weeks.” He gave a serious expression. “Considering the circumstances, why don’t you come and work at the agency?”
“I…” Chuuya honestly didn’t know what to say to that. “I’m not sure…. Would I even fit in?”
“You have already made yourself at home, and Ranpo and Akiko seem quite taken with you,” Fukuzawa looked him in the eye. “I assure you they would welcome you with open arms.”
He won’t lie, Chuuya did kinda get attached to Ranpo and Yosano during his stay at the agency. Sure, Ranpo’s childishness and Yosano’s sadistic tendencies is a bit nerve wracking but,... They have grown on him a little bit.
“Is there something you are afraid of?”
There was. And it’s been bothering him for a long time.
“I’m a vessel of a god,” Chuuya said. “That’s the only reason the Port Mafia was after me in the first place. Hell, it was the only reason Sheep even took me in.” He knew for a long time that was the reason, and it took a lot to admit it to himself. “What if… someone other than the Port Mafia comes after me?”
Fukuzawa gave the boy an empathetic look before getting up from his chair and walking around the desk to stand in front of Chuuya. “Stand up.”
The ginger stood up as he stared at the ground, and tensed a little as the man placed his hands on his shoulders. That caused the boy to look up at him.
“This agency takes care of one another,” Fukuzawa explained. “If you fear being alone to face all of that, you won’t be alone.” He caught a twinge of doubt in his eyes, and considering what the boy went through, the president couldn’t really blame him. “In order to become a member of the agency, we’re going to put you through a test. It will determine if you will be a fit for the agency.”
Blue eyes blinked at that. “Will I know what my test will be?”
“You will know when it happens. I assure you. Just give it some thought.”
Chuuya stared up at Fukuzawa for a few moments longer before nodding.
“Okay…”