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Strolling together under the sun is something that could be expected from a pair of friends. There’s no friendship between him and the bastard beside him, however.
“Careful there, twig.” He slants a look towards the brat who’s wearing a full suit, along with so many bandages, at the height of summer. Full of sarcasm, “Wouldn’t want you to keel over so soon, no?”
“I’d like to say that I’m touched by your concern.” Tsushima Shuuji, heir to the Tsushima Conglomerate, shakes his head snootily. Well, he’s now named Dazai Osamu, a name chosen with the same care one would use in naming a video game character. “Unfortunately, the thought of being touched by such a nasty little slug makes me sick.”
“Sounds fair, since I’m sick of looking at you.”
“I know I’m good-looking, so it’s only expected that you can’t quit looking at me.”
He rolls his eyes, eyebrows ticking at this guy’s antics. “I’m watching you because I don’t trust you at all.”
“Worried that I’ll steal something from your little group?” Eyebrows raised, “There’s no need to worry, there isn’t anything here worth taking away.”
Even as he claims that he doesn’t trust this guy, something tells him that his read on this guy’s moves and motives is fairly accurate. Prone to half-truths—it’s true that he mostly looks down on Sheep, despite agreeing to the invitation sent out by Shirase. Boredom and disinterest hang on his face like carefully-curated décor, but it’s mostly for show when it comes to him.
There’s a glint in the other’s stare, one that hungers for a beating. Dazai looks at him like he can’t wait to peel open his skin and see if he’s as acidic on the inside.
“No thief would declare their intentions ahead of time,” he replies eventually.
“No? What if I’m a gentleman thief of the moonlight, sending out a card to declare what I plan to steal ahead of time?”
He turns on his heel, looks back at the road they’ve just traversed. At the end of it, a convenience store where they’ve bought some water from, along with the part-time cashier that Dazai has flirted with. The red on her face made her seem like she experienced a heatstroke, just from being complimented by this shady mummy.
“If someone like you is considered a ‘gentleman’, the world is truly doomed.”
“Fufufu, you strike me as someone who doesn’t know how to handle smooth interactions.” One bandaged hand raised to his lips, failing to cover his provocative laughter. “How about it? As a new member, I could do you a favor and teach you how to flirt, oh brutish slug?”
He clicks his tongue. A split-second, and he’s kicking Dazai to the nearest alleyway, pinning him to the wall via a knee to the waist. Eyes narrowed, “You’re not yet a new member. I refuse to accept someone so troublesome into the fold.”
The shadows seem to embrace the other person into its folds. For someone who claims to hate pain, he’s unperturbed by the sudden attack. He smiles like someone who’s always gotten his way. “Your little organization invited me to join, and now you want to test me?”
“It’d be best if I killed you instead.” His instincts tell him that this person is bound to give him so many headaches if left unchecked. If he wishes to avoid the fate of suffering from high blood pressure at the tender age of fifteen, he needs to make sure to cut ties with this person.
Unfortunately, such a statement only makes the weirdo twinkle in delight, bright in the shadows. “Oh, what a surprise!” He slips past his hold, holding his wrists in a vice-like grip, a manic smile blooming on his face. “I didn’t expect that you’re such a nice person, shorty! To even want to do me a favor and help me attain my dream!”
He makes a face, “Oi, oi, oi, don’t tell me that you’re some suicidal brat?”
“Why else would I have agreed to join a tiny organization that’s lacking in organization, but not in ambition?” Dazai’s smile widens. “Of course, it’s to be sent to dangerous tasks and increase the chances of me dying!”
See, during the last meeting of the council, he has opposed the idea of inviting this man. Shirase and the others wanted him for his wallet: a loner heir to a billion-yen corporation is bound to have a lot of pocket money. Chuuya opposed to it in principle: the few surveillance photos they’ve managed to get on this guy has him feeling strange, like hearing phantom funeral bells. Despite the lanky frame and sickly pallor, this one exuded so much fishiness and deadliness, that it’s unthinkable for him to be some person who’s easy to get along with.
Even if he’s suspected ulterior motives from the bastard, it’s still irritating to hear him talk about it so brazenly. Bristling, “A random stranger like you has no right to judge Sheep like that.”
Amping the provocation, “Pfft, as if someone so emotionally invested in the situation would be able to look at things objectively.”
He considers the man in front of him. As part of Sheep, he’s witnessed all sorts of people try to pick a fight with him, but this person’s methods somehow rank as the most insidious of them all. “Someone who’s deliberately sowing discord has no right to preach to me about objectivity.”
“…Hmm. You’re accusing me of sowing discord to your little group?” Shadows dance on his face. No tinge of worry at having his motives revealed. “What makes you think I have interest in doing such a thankless thing?”
“Because you’re a bored dumbass.” The answer comes easy to him. It baffles him that such an obvious thing has escaped the eyes of everyone, that they’ve welcomed this little shit so excitedly. “And you think that it’s interesting for others to have problems.”
“You have to admit that it does make one curious,” Dazai adopts a cajoling tone, tilting his head to the left. “How can such a small, disorganized group manage to attain such a stronghold in a city teeming with all sorts of forces?”
“Haven’t you heard about the saying?” He raises his eyebrows, just as he raises his knee once more to dig a little deeper to the spot under his ribs. “Curiosity killed the cat.”
Slowly, Dazai raises a hand and bats it towards his cheek, “Meow.”
He’s overcome with the urge to bite him, but he’d probably get infected by whatever’s causing this man’s brain circuits to be so strange. He presses his knee harder, holds it just as he holds the other’s gaze. Then, he pulls away. “If you wish to be a cat so badly, then we’re currently dealing with some pesky rats. Your entrance exam would be to deal with those things.”
Once he’s walked back to the mouth of the alley, Dazai skips towards him. They return to the main road, bright sunlight making him squint.
“Do I get an allowance while I work on this matter?”
“You’re the sole heir to the Tsushima Conglomerate and you want to ask for an allowance?”
“Mm, but I’m Dazai Osamu already.” He speaks of abandoning his pile of billions like he’s simply talking about the weather. “Plus, you’re giving me such a troublesome job, so you should be compensating me properly.”
Hands on his pockets, he directs them towards a hundred-yen shop. “You should already consider yourself grateful that I haven’t gutted you for being so annoying.”
“Are you about to claim that my compensation would be to spend time with you?” A wrinkled nose. “That’s too disgusting, Chuuya.”
“Oi, you’re the one who said such a thing, so blame yourself for thinking up disgusting shit.” He elbows him to the side.
The shop has narrow aisles, shelves bursting with all sorts of trinkets. The ceiling has obvious water stains, the light bulbs emitting a dull glow. There’s only one cashier by the front, an old man who turns a blind eye to the fact that his shop is used as one of Sheep’s strongholds and drop-off points. Whenever their members have smuggled something that cannot be directly transported to their base, they drop it off amongst the many products crowding the store.
“But a certain organization has learned of this, and has started poaching the things that your little sheep leave behind,” Dazai says, directly connecting to what he’s been thinking. Bandaged fingers caress the shelves, particularly one that has various Doraemon and Pokemon keyrings.
…Tsk. He may be annoying, but he at least is observant and fast with the pickup. “Our policy is to provide a tenfold retaliation to those that encroach upon our territory.”
With a sigh, “One, torture the old man and make him cough up all the details about who else is running around in his shop.”
“Rejected.” This old man wouldn’t be able to stand a single one of his kicks.
“Two, you haven’t even suspected that your little sheep is staging a rebellion, trying to steal from within the organization?”
“Sheep is a family.” With no room for argument, “They wouldn’t do something like that.”
Dazai gives him a look that calls him stupidly naïve without the need for words. Then, his lips curve up with a, “No family is complete without a pet. Once I formally join, I’ll call you my dog.”
He clenches his fists and shakes them at the other’s face. “I’m gonna strangle the hell out of you once we leave here.”
“Promise?” Suddenly invading his personal space, while batting thick lashes at him. “I’ll be motivated to work hard in exchange for such a lovely thing.”
“Sure. I’ll make sure to make it very painful.”
The bubble of flirtation pops immediately, Dazai sticking his tongue out in disgust. “Eh, I hate pain, so I’ll have to pass.”
Their mini-confrontation ebbs away, just like that. They spend a few more minutes in the shop, Dazai touching this and that, needling at him to buy random trinkets. Due to his experience with hearing cries from abandoned babies and toddlers they pick up and house momentarily, before dropping off at certain orphanages—he’s experienced in ignoring grating noises delivered directly to his ear.
Things are easier to handle when he treats Dazai as just that: a messy brat who’s shitting all over the place. As soon as that thought comes, he frowns. It’s unfair to babies to be placed in the same league as this man. At least babies are cute and have lovable faces that are begging to be pinched.
He squints at the fishy bastard. There’s no cuteness at all, and all he wants is to punch his face.
Sensing his stare, “Hmm? Suddenly realizing that I’m handsome?”
“You’re just like a baby mosquito,” he says, earning a sneer from the other man.
A flippant flick of his wrist. “I don’t even want to know where did such a line come from.”
The moment they step out of the shop, Dazai yawns right into his face. “I already understand the whole case,” then he leaves his statement hanging.
He waits it out.
“But I’m too hungry to explain to a slug like you, so buy me a meal first.”
Flatly, “We’re not accepting mooches who make no contribution to the organization.”
“I forget that you’re very poor,” is such a thick-faced statement coming from someone wanting free food. “Come here then, tiny doggie, I’ll show you how to get so many things without doing much work.”
Unsurprisingly, Dazai brings him to posh clothing shops and hotel lobbies. It turns into a game—Dazai whispers an introduction to a person they spot, includes a list of their crimes, then makes a bet with him as to how much money he can swindle from them by acting like a pitiful Casanova.
After swindling ten people with some exaggeratedly fake sob story, Dazai turns to him and asks, “Not going to get snippy about me lying to others?”
“You’re obviously lying but they’re stupid enough to fall for it.” A shrug. “It’s not my policy to educate stupid people.”
The smile that Dazai gives him is positively demonic. “Pfft, a chibi like you is so stupidly protective of his sheep, but you have no loyalty to protecting the interests of those you consider as ‘outsiders’. How interesting.”
“You have no deep-rooted interests at all, oi.”
“Who’s to say that I wouldn’t want to dedicate myself to causing trouble for your little organization?”
“Try it, asshole.” Even in broad daylight, he doesn’t have any compunctions about beating this guy up if he becomes too unbearable. “I’ll make you taste the despair of fighting gravity.”
Instead of being cowed, Dazai’s back bows, arms around his waist as he laughs. “Uwaaaa, that’s so embarrassing, which cartoon did you lift that line from?” He rubs his eye using his thumb, wiping tears away. “Did you forget that I have a nullification ability?”
His family background aside, one of the main things that make Dazai an attractive recruit is that he has a troublesome ability. While Chuuya’s the only Ability User from Sheep, the same cannot be said for all the other organizations surrounding them. It would make for a good defensive move, in attaining an extra ‘shield’.
“I don’t need to use my ability to defeat a beanpole like you.”
Dazai grabs his hand, then brings it to his waistline. His fingertips meet smooth cotton, and the warmth of another person. The Ability that simmers inside him goes quieter, that strange feeling inside him mellowing down. He feels the other’s nullification ability washing over him like a mountain stream sluicing across pebbled paths. “If you’re this concerned about my body, you should feed me often, Chuuya.”
His fingers twitch, before he abruptly pulls away. “Quit acting so familiarly, oi.”
“Now, you really don’t want to let me join, but you still went ahead and gave me an entrance exam that you already know the answer to.” Dazai grabs his hand again, thumb pressing down on his pulse. “You already know that the old man sold you out, used Sheep as collateral, because some organization wanted to lure you to their base.”
He stares at the other man, cold despite the blazing sun above them.
“You simply wanted to judge my way of doing things. And if I pass—forget about joining Sheep, you want to get my help to investigate something you can’t involve your little organization in, hmm?” At this angle, that single eye looks like mottled blood. “I wonder what kind of mystery is it? Is it related to the recent news about Port Mafia’s old boss rising from the dead?”
Something that he’s been wanting to investigate, but unable to, out of considerations for possibly inadvertently dragging Sheep into a mess. Just who and what is he? He’d like to investigate it on his own, but he also knows that his movements are too-limited if he’s going through it alone. This man who has connections and has a rumored genius mind, plus a nullification ability—he’s the perfect candidate as a helper, if one ignored his personality.
He narrows his eyes. “I still don’t trust you.”
“A smart choice,” and there’s provocative laughter. “Investigating something dangerous would mean that there’s an increased chance of me dying, so consider me interested in helping you out for now, Chuuya.”
The hand shifts so that they’re shaking hands instead.
Chuuya breathes, and grips the other’s hand tight enough to threaten breaking his fingers. “Fine. But if you’re too annoying, I’m going to end you, shitty Dazai.”
Under the bright sun and the clear blue sky: the start of cooperation between two boys who’d eventually be known as the kings of sheep.
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