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On the chessboard Dazai and Fyodor played, all ability users, all their coworkers and friends, had their places. Dazai, well, he was not the King. His side would survive without him. That place was reserved for Natsume-sensei. On Fyodor’s side the King was shrouded in mystery but Dazai with his intel would figure out who that was soon enough.
Fukuzawa and Mori were the Rooks, with almost unlimited moves but only in one direction thanks to their convictions. The same held true for Ango and his government agents who all represented the Bishops.
Atsushi and Akutagawa were the Knights. One would say they were less valuable than other pieces but Dazai considered Knights more flexible and unpredictable, even if slightly limited. Besides, the chess was still only a metaphor. For Knights, the new Soukoku was pretty much unbeatable.
The rest were only pawns. Some more valuable than others but still pawns.
In his chess set, however, Chuuya took the obvious place of the Queen. As the most powerful ability user and Dazai’s former partner – the only one who could actually predict his moves – Chuuya was the most valuable. Dostoevsky knew that.
It had only been a matter of time before the battle for the Queen begun. Dazai would laugh at Dostoevsky’s attempts at pulling Chuuya to the other side if they didn’t make him so angry. Chuuya was too loyal to the mafia to betray them. He loved Yokohama too dearly to destroy it. He trusted Dazai too deeply to go against he. He knew his former partner to well and was too clever to fall for any tricks.
What angered Dazai most was when Fyodor tried to win Chuuya over with kindness. For how loyal, how caring and how smart Chuuya was, he was exceptionally weak when it came to people caring about him. Living on the streets, being experimented on by the government, Chuuya never experienced much love and care as a child and as such, he was quick to care for any and all who showed him kindness.
Fyodor was kind to Chuuya. He was gentle and caring. Supportive. Loving.
Chuuya did not betray Mafia for Fyodor. Did not destroy Yokohama. Did not distrust Dazai. But he did try to save Fyodor. He did try to convince the Russian man to give up on The Book. He even offered him an easy escape.
It was clear that Chuuya cared deeply. And it made Dazai’s emotions flare. On one hand it only showed how human Chuuya was despite him believing otherwise. On the other, all Dazai could see was the smug smile on Fyodor’s face the first time and every next one, when Chuuya smiled at the rat.
As such, it was extremely satisfying to finally kiss Chuuya when he broke Dazai out of his prison, leaving Fyodor to rot in the cell across. Extremely satisfying indeed.