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Kunikida walked away from the settee, feeling more exhausted than before and he had barely done anything. Convincing Dazai hadn’t been the normal struggle, the older man giving in easily, something Kunikida could only chalk up to his obvious exhaustion. He let out a sigh as he made his way over to his desk, he had something he needed to do, he hoped that it would help wake him up and that when Dazai woke up later he would be able to tell him something good.
He picked up his phone, quickly unlocking it, and went onto his contacts scrolling down until he found who he was looking for. He only hesitated for a second before clicking on their contact and pressed call. He took a deep breath, listening to the phone ring, waiting, hoping that the other person would pick up. His curiosity had peaked at the opportunity to maybe figure out what the fight had been about, but he figured he wouldn’t get an answer, Dazai hadn’t told him anything and Chuuya had even less of a reason to reveal anything.
When the ringing stopped and the call connected, Kunikida waited a second, met by silence before a deep sigh broke it.
“What do you want? I left a few minutes ago. Is the agency so useless you couldn’t even handle me being gone for that short of a time?” Chuuya taunted and Kunikida couldn't tell if he meant it or whether he was just trying to rile Kunikida up.
“Nothing like that, no. I was just calling to make sure that everything was alright and see if there was anything I could do,” Kunikida responded, looking through some of the papers that sat on his desk, trying to give him something else to focus on. Something to focus on other than the fact that other others in the officer were watching him, were trying to listen to the conversation, or his side of it at least.
“What? Did Dazai set you up to this?” The question was followed by another sigh and Kunikida could hear Chuuya’s annoyance at the situation.
“I offered to see if there was anything I could do after the idiot tried to follow you. He’s currently laying down on one of the settees, so you don’t need to worry about him bothering you.”
“Great, well no, there’s nothing you can do to help. I just need some fresh air and maybe let some anger out. Something I can’t do at the agency. I’ll be in tomorrow, probably to apologise to your president and talk about things further, until then I don’t want to hear anything from you idiots.” Kunikida wasn’t given any time to respond before Chuuya ended the call. He put the phone back down on his desk and lifted his hand to his head, shaking it at the stupid situation. Of course Dazai had somehow managed to anger Chuuya, he could only assume that it had something to do with Dazai’s plan for either Monday’s meeting with Mori or the much larger plan for Wednesday.
Kunikida took a deep breath, ignoring the stares the phone call had directed towards him. He knew Ranpo kept stealing glances over to him, probably knowing what was said and other small details that any normal person wouldn’t have been able to figure out. Atsushi was also guilty of staring at Kunikida, but from the way he also kept glancing over to where Dazai was, Kunikida chalked it up more to concern over the situation than anything else, and he couldn’t really blame the kid. Dazai never acted like this, it was a sign of how much everything was affecting him, but he didn’t know if seeing Dazai so exhausted and still trying to help the agency was what hurt so much, or if it was something else. He knew that if it was anyone else that they wouldn’t be doing half as much as Dazai was trying to do, not that he would ever blame them. Stealing a quick glance himself, Kunikida watched Dazai’s chest rise and fall in the steady rhythm that accompanied sleep. The silence in the office wasn’t coordinated, no one had to say anything for it to start, and no signal had to be made for it to continue. They all knew how much Dazai needed this, and no one wanted to be the one to wake him up after everything that happened.
***
The day ended without anything else really happening. There were a few whispered conversations as the agency members tried to piece together the clues they had to find anything else important that they may have been missing from the information they already had.
Yosano knew it wasn’t a good idea to let him help them with this case, but she had to admit that they did need him to a certain extent. The abilities they were up against were still unknown, although from what she had heard of Dazai’s plan that may not matter much. She and Ranpo had been talking it over, trying to figure out if they could find an alternative path to let Dazai sit this out and recover. From what they had figured out Dazai planned to turn the group against each other. They didn’t know how he planned to do it, but they trusted he knew what he was doing.
Kunikida kept sneaking glances over to the settee that he had forced Dazai to rest on, making sure he was still sleeping, or at least that if he was awake that he was still resting. But there was little to no change, at some point someone had grabbed a spare blanket that was kept in the infirmary, Kunikida suspected that it was Yosano, but he hadn’t seen who had done it, and had covered Dazai with it. The brunette had wrapped the blanket around himself further subconsciously while he slept. The agency members had to admit that it was nice to see Dazai act with his walls down, not worrying about trying to maintain his normal masks and attitudes, but they knew it was a matter of circumstance.
At some point Fukuzawa had come out of his office, took in the scene around him and decided that it was time they called it a day. Atsushi’s argument that they hadn’t figured out everything that they had to was easily shot down. They were all tired and were not making any more progress. Whether they stopped there for the night or continued until the end of their actual work day, there would be little to no difference in the final results for the day. It was obvious that he was right. Ranpo had been making the most progress, but even he was getting stuck on some of the facts of the case and some of the more confusing elements of the plan. He was being pushed out of his comfort area, and the rest of the agency were too distracted to be of any major help.
Fukuzawa looked over to the settee where Dazai was sleeping and before he was able to say anything Kunikida jumped in.
“I can stay with him tonight president,” there was no mention of his previous promise. Fukuzawa nodded his head, seeing no reason not to allow Kunikida to stay with his partner for the night. Plus it allowed for everyone else to go home and get a night's sleep. He watched as the other members of the agency filed out, Ranpo standing near the door waiting for him. He made his way over to where Kunikida was standing, grabbing his arm to turn him away from the door, away from Ranpo’s watchful gaze. It may not have done much in the long run, but it helped to settle his mind that there would be some form of privacy, plus he trusted Ranpo to not look into this too much.
“Is everything alright president?” Kunikida asked, clearly confused. The older man gave him a smile before speaking, trying to do anything to calm his nerves.
“Everything’s fine. I just wanted to say that if you needed anything, either for yourself or Dazai, call me. I don’t care what time it is, neither of you should feel like you need to deal with this by yourself.” Kunikida nodded, never dropping his air of seriousness. Fukuzawa felt relieved knowing that all of his employees were taking this current situation seriously, he didn’t really know how he would have felt if this wasn’t the case, and was all too happy that he didn’t have to find out.
“Of course, president, thank you.” Ranpo clearing his throat alerted Fukuzawa to the fact that the detective wanted to leave, but he had to admit that it felt wrong. He already felt like he had failed Dazai with how long it took for them to find him and rescue him, then there was the fact that he felt like he had forced the brunette into making a meeting with Mori, something he knew Dazai wasn’t comfortable on good days, while he was still recovering.
“I shouldn’t have to say this, but remember that Dazai may react differently to how he normally would. Try not to hold anything against him, and remember to not be too hard on him,” Fukuzawa felt bad for having to give this warning. He knew Kunikida only tried to control Dazai’s insanity; he would never hurt his partner just because he felt like it. But he felt the caution was necessary, whenever Kunikida did get riled up by Dazai he always resorted to physical violence. Besides the fact that Dazai was physically not up to dealing with the violence like he normally was, both of his tormentors were male. Fukuzawa highly doubted that Dazai was comfortable with physical contact, a massive drawback of his ability, but given what was done to him a male touching him would be likely to drag up many memories that he was probably trying to bury.
Kunikida nodded his head once more, understanding where Fukuzawa was coming from, he could only imagine how Dazai felt after what he went through. He had worked so hard to not show any major negative side effects to the torture and the rape, but it must have effected him in some way. Kunikida figured they must have just been lucky to avoid any triggers, it would make sense that physical contact would be one though. Fukuzawa left shortly after their little exchange, with Ranpo trailing behind him, leaving only Kunikida in the office with Dazai’s sleeping form. The blonde detective couldn’t help but let out a sigh. He had nothing to do, they were only currently working on catching Dazai’s tormentors, there were no random jobs to work on, which wasn’t the end of the world, but it left him entirely stumped on what to do.
He looked over to the board set up in the main office, the notes and clues that they had been trying to connect, the members' thoughts dotted around. Trying to solve the case had been torture in it’s own right. They all knew that they were working against a time limit. The one set by Ryu and Murakami, the one they could count down to and the one they knew existed for certain. But it didn’t count for the ones they were unaware of, the ones involving Dazai’s health were the first to come to mind when Kunikida thought about the topic. Obviously they had some care for his health, but if his injuries got infected, paired with the lack of proper food and water, could have been much more disastrous. There was also Dazai’s mental state, something that had already crumbled and that they were still struggling to rebuild. Everyone had been exhausted by the work, and yet none of them wanted to give up, they felt like they couldn’t. Failure wasn’t an option they were willing to humour, but it led to where they were currently. They were struggling to solve this part of the case, struggling to plan for the inevitable because everyone was tired, both mentally and physically. There wasn’t just the concern of finishing the job or just recovering, instead the agency had been forced to deal with both of these factors at the same time.
Too lost in his thoughts, Kunikida didn’t notice Dazai, who had woken up at some point, moving over to him.
“Are you alright Kunikida-kun,” Kunikida jumped upon hearing Dazai’s voice, spinning around to face his partner who was laughing at his expense. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Dazai said, his laughter having died down, to a few small giggles as he tried to catch his breath.
“How long have you been awake?” Kunikida asked, getting a small glare from Dazai in response.
“You’re ignoring my question.”
“I don’t think the answer matters, there’s nothing we can do to change how I am. But given the fact that I know you won’t leave me alone if I don’t answer I’m fine, a little tired, but fine nonetheless. Now how long have you been awake?”
“Only for a few minutes,” Dazai answered, moving away from the blonde towards his own desk. Kunikida found it slightly hard to believe him, it didn’t look like he had just woken up, his voice also didn’t sound heavy like it would have been if he just woke up. He watched as Dazai looked at something on his desk, before moving away once more, this time making his way to the infirmary. Kunikida trailed behind him, knowing it was probably a smart decision to leave Dazai alone in the one room containing most of Yosano’s medicine. The entire agency was weary about Dazai being in the infirmary unsupervised on his good days, after all of this Kunikida figured that they would all be less lenient with him and his possible stupidity.
“I’m not doing anything stupid, Kunikida-kun. Yosano just left me some painkillers, and a note on my desk telling me of said painkillers. Could you do me a favour and get me some water?” Kunikida nodded, watching as Dazai carefully lowered himself onto the infirmary bed he had been using. He couldn’t ignore the small wince of pain that Dazai gave just before he reached for his ribs. One of his hands was closed, probably holding the painkillers. He left the room, not saying anything, moving quickly to grab a glass and fill it with water before returning to Dazai. It took him just over a minute, and when he did return Dazai took it with a grateful smile before taking the medication Yosano left for him. Dazai placed the half full glass down on the table beside the bed before motioning to the empty space beside him for Kunikida to sit down.
Kunikida did move to sit beside him, but he faltered, questioning if it was alright. He wasn’t an idiot, he may not fully understand what Dazai went through and he may not be able to fully understand what he was currently going through while recovering. He didn’t want Dazai to push himself into doing things that made him uncomfortable.
“Oh, come on Kunikida you look exhausted, sitting down won’t kill anyone,” Dazai whined, annoying Kunikida slightly, but it was relieving to see him acting closer to how he normally would. Kunikida caved and moved next to Dazai, sitting down on the bed, making sure to leave room between the two of them.
“You asked me this earlier, but how are you doing, Dazai?” Kunikida asked, looking down at his hands that were sitting in his lap and he fiddled mindlessly.
In the silence that followed Kunikida’s question he looked over to Dazai. He had leaned his head back to look at the ceiling, a small smile gracing his features. Kunikida didn’t say anything to push Dazai into answering, being able to tell that the brunette was just thinking, not trying to avoid the question. He had known his partner long enough to know that when he tried to avoid a topic he would move the conversation onto something else, silence meant that he was just trying to think of how to answer, weighing the pros and cons of being honest, anything other than avoiding the topic, unless the answer he wanted to give was silence.
“Honestly. I don’t know. I feel like it’s pretty obvious that I’m not fine, so I can’t exactly try and lie with that. But all things considered I don’t feel as bad as I probably should,” Dazai admitted, finally looking over to Kunikida, who didn’t look away and instead met Dazai’s eyes.
“It’s alright to not feel fine Dazai, you shouldn’t feel the need to lie,” Kunikida said, trying to offer some form of comfort.
“I know, I know,” Dazai laughed as he responded, with how he responded Kunikida found it hard to imagine that the torture had even affected Dazai, but he could see the results of it littered across his body. The extra bandages, the want for even more space between himself and other people, the subtle changes in his body language.
“Then why are you trying to act like this didn’t affect you, that you are fine. Because we can all tell that this is an act. And I for one would prefer it if you dropped it.” He knew that he had come across harsher than he intended, but Dazai didn’t seem too bothered; instead he just gave him a smile before turning away to stare in front of him. Kunikida himself, decided to look down at his hands once more, finding that easier than trying to navigate the minefield that was talking to Dazai.
“Kunikida, can I ask you a question?” Kunikida nodded, without thinking. It took him a few seconds to realise that Dazai still wasn’t looking at him.
“Sure, so long as this isn’t some way to try and prank me.”
“I assure you it isn’t,” there was a small silence before Dazai continued, Kunikida knew this was all a way to try and change the conversation away from the previous topic, but just this once he was grateful for it.
“It’s less of a question so much as I want your opinion on something. If there was a detective out there who killed the criminals they found guilty, what would be your opinion on them?” It admittedly wasn’t the weirdest thing he had ever been asked his opinion on, but it did surprise him. Surely Dazai already knew the answer.
“I would find what they did wrong and deem them as a criminal. In very few situations is it alright to kill a criminal.”
“What if they had an ability?”
“Then I would hold them to the same standard of the other detectives in the agency, minus Ranpo for a few obvious reasons,” Kunikida responded, still not seeing where this was going.
“Obviously. Ok, not what if they didn’t have full control over their ability?”
“In what way?”
“They could activate it, with a set form of criteria, but they couldn’t stop it once it was activated.” Kunikida didn’t respond immediately. His personal opinion on the matter didn’t change. He had his own set of ideals, but he had to admit in a situation like that the criteria mattered. Dazai had made it sound like the ability user had full control over their ability in the sense of activating it, but if they were only unable to stop their ability once it had been activated then in his mind it didn’t change their guilt on the matter.
“I assume that didn’t really change your opinion,” Dazai said, still smiling.
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Then let me add one more detail. Unlike Demon Snow, or similar abilities where there is a way to determine that they were killed by an ability. The ability causes its victims to die accidental deaths. No one can be found guilty in terms of murdering them, because they died in ways that were not set up.” The more details Dazai gave, the more this sounded like he was talking about an actual ability user, but Kunikida didn’t want to pry into that yet. The new details basically helped to separate the main problem he believed Dazai was trying to talk about, to get his opinion on. If an activated ability causes a death, that could have happened naturally and needed no human tampering, could the ability user still be held liable for the death. Legally the answer was both yes and no. The ability user would have caused the death, they would have known what they were doing and activated their ability causing the death. But if there was no evidence linking them to the crime then no they probably wouldn’t be held liable in the court of law. All evidence would be circumstantial. There was also the fact that even if this ability user did exist there would be no way to actually tell if someone died because of their ability or it was an actual accident.
He spent a few minutes thinking over his answer. It hadn’t changed, he still would hold the ability user liable for killing people with their ability. But he was confused as to why Dazai brought it up, even if it was to change the conversation topic, it was too random of a topic for Kunikida to just ignore.
“Personally I would still hold them liable to the same standard as anyone else, so yes I would find them liable for the deaths they caused. But I have to ask, what made you think of this? You seem to know too much for this to have been made up randomly.”
“I was just remembering some rumours of a detective I heard about a few years ago while I was still in the mafia. I have no clue if they’re actually true or not. But I thought it was an interesting thing to think about. I don’t know how I feel about it. In a way I agree with you, but in a way I find it hard to. But I really don’t want to talk about this anymore. The painkillers have kicked in and I feel tired again.” Kunikida nodded, knowing what Dazai was getting at and stood up, letting Dazai lay down on top of the bedding.
“I’ll be in the main office if you need anything just yell, alright?” Dazai nodded in response, and Kunikida left soon after that, closing the door behind him.
He walked over to his desk and sat down. Crossing his arms down on the desk he rested his head on top of them. The entire conversation had him thinking about different things, and now that he was sitting down he realised just how tired he was. Slipping into the peaceful hold of sleep was easy enough to do. When he next woke up it was morning, and as he opened the door to the infirmary, he silently cursed.
Dazai was gone, and he felt like an idiot.