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“Oh dear god”- Kunikida standed in the middle of a messy field after the battle ended, it hadn't been anyone especially dangerous, just a guy with a small following that wanted to cause some trouble.
So, if the villain wasn't really that bad, why was everything so incredibly destroyed? The answer was currently profusely apologising to him and looking ready to burst into tears.
”It's fine Atsushi, it already happened, just help clean up”- he sighed, no point in screaming this time, the poor kid was really trying to be better.
Lately when Atsushi transformed into a tiger during fights he couldn't stop himself from turning into a full tiger and ended up losing control and going overboard in attacking. It was relatively normal to attack enemies to a brink of death in this kind of workfield, however, the tiger ended up trying to fight even his own comrades when he couldn't find more enemies around aside from completely destroying any building or location they were in.
Atsushi was always incredibly apologetic and embarrassed when this happened and promised again to stay in his best behaviour but the tiger itself was an uncontrollable force that he couldn't keep in check, so the next fight usually ended up with a similar ending much to everyone's dismay, the tiger’s behaviour was definitely an improvement from his time in the orphanage but it was still not ideal.
So, the agency put their heads together to think of a possible solution, if completely suppressing the tiger had obviously not worked for the orphanage, then, embracing it would be the next plan. Make Atsushi reconnect with his inner tiger, it was a part of him so how hard could it be.
They tried giving him foods that felines like, have him drink milk until he almost vomited and Dazai even threw a yarn ball at his head but it annoyed him more that it did anything.
Finally Yosano came up with a promising experiment- “How about some meditation?”- she suggested- “You said sometimes you can communicate with your ability right? Maybe meditation could help you be more calm when fighting, a way to communicate and fuse with all parts of you.”
Atsushi tried to do what she said that night but spending time alone with his thoughts was scary, when alone his mind could just wander off to dangerous places, thus they decided to do a group meditation, that way Atsushi wouldn't feel alone or at danger of his own mind.
One sunny morning in a day with no urgent cases they pushed the desks to the sides and they all sat on the floor in a circle.
“I'm sorry for making you all do this”- Atsushi said a little down, he kept making trouble for the agency and now he was forcing them to try all sorts of things to try and fix a problem that he kept on causing.
“Dont worry Atsushi, see it as a bonding experience, even if it doesn't work it's still an activity that we can all enjoy together”- tried to comfort Dazai.
“Plus, a lot of us also had or continue to have a complicated relationship with our abilities, this will benefit us all”- added Yosano.
They all put their phones in silence and placed them elsewhere, then Yosano played soft calming music to fill the silence a little.
“Alright then”- started the resident doctor in a calming tone- “I will guide the meditation today, i have done some research but i am no expert so bare with me on this one”.
They did everything according to how Yosano indicated, relaxed their bodies and did some deep thinking. After around half an hour, everyone had their eyes closed meditating.
Feeling a change around him Rampo opened his eyes and noticed a development in a certain someone in the room, he showed Dazai, that showed Yosano and soon everyone except Atsushi had their eyes opened admiring the current situation their lovable coworker was in.
Feeling the multiple stares Atsushi opened his eyes, everyone had a look of mixed nervousness and endearment -“Um… is everything alright?”.
“Dude… do you not feel it?”- asked Tanizaki.
“Feel what?”- he questioned in a slight panic. Naomi pulled out a hand mirror from her pocket and put it in front of him. Standing proudly on top of his head were a couple of fluffy tiger ears- “Huh?”- then he noticed the tail behind him that now was a little puffy due to his panic- “Huh?!”.
“Calm down!”- Yosano stopped him before he could develop into a complete panic- “This is good”.
“It's good?”- he asked confused.
“Yes!”- Dazai added- “This means the meditation worked and you are in contact with your tiger in a peaceful manner outside of a battle setting, this is perfect! How do you feel?”- he excitedly asked with a wide smile.
“I feel.. Fine? I don't feel destructive at all”- he answered, starting to reflect the excitement, a group cheer erupted.- “Soooo what do we do now?”.
“Hmm, I'm not sure…. maybe try to stay like that as much as you can? Try to keep calm and in contact”- Recommended Yosano.
“And make sure to stay close to Dazai, just in case”- Kunikida added quickly.
“Okay, yeah i think i can do that”- said Atsushi taking a deep breath like Yosano had already instructed him to do before in order to stay relaxed.
“Alright then, let's continue the day as we normally would so you can get used to this new form”- added Kunikida eager to start getting some work done, maybe today was the day they finally got up to date with all the paperwork to be done.
Everybody put everything back to place and started working on whatever task they had lying around, even if they were supposed to be working they still couldn't help being distracted by Atsushi, observing him every other minute to see if he would do anything out of the ordinary, of course they didn't think he would hurt them or anything it was pure curiosity what kept their attention, they trusted Atsushi to keep control.
Atsushi on the other hand had his own predicament, his body felt strange, not bad and really nothing hurted but now he moved with a certain… agility... grace... flexibility? He didn't know how to put it in words but it made him feel more confident, a little more comfortable in his own skin, like he was complete, with all of his senses so to speak.
He reached to grab a pen from the desk to start writing but when he finally had it in his hand the little thing exploded in the middle.
Tiger strength.
Right.
He forgot about that.
He could hear the muffled breathing coming from the others, clearly trying not to laugh so as to not make him feel bad, he appreciated it.
He reached to the tissue box that always stayed on the side of his desk and used a couple of them to wipe the ink off his hands and the wood of his desk but part of his hand remained with a light blue stain in the fingers that were holding the pen.
Without thinking he brought the tainted finger close to his mouth and gave it a tiny lick, his tongue felt different now too, he hadn't noticed that yet. The bitter taste of the ink finally took him back to reality and he slowly put his hand back away, he didn't dare look around because he knew his coworkers had totally seen that.
He would just live pretending it didn't happen.
He was starting to feel annoyed, especially that soft rhythmic thudding that came from somewhere behind him, it was annoying him even more, he wondered who was doing it. Then he saw the fluffy white moving from side to side from the corners of his eye, improved tiger sight he guessed, and finally realised that was his tail.
He was feeling so frustrated with the animalistic way he was behaving that the little growl just let itself out of his mouth.
And that did it apparently, the straw that broke the camel's back and made the chuckles and giggles unable to keep down from his so-called friends .
His face red with embarrassment he whined at them to stop which only caused more laughs.
“This is a hate crime, I'm being hate-crimed”- he protested.
“More like animal abuse”- Kyoka added a little more composed than the rest, the comment made Dazai and Rampo full on cackle.
“Betrayal” - he hissed.
Seeing his dear friends laugh so happily made him eventually start laughing too, soon it was all of them with big dumb smiles on their faces.
The ears or tail didn't disappear for another couple hours in which they had time to show Lucy and the other workers from the cafe and to Atsushi’s dismay also Akutagawa that came after a cryptic message from Dazai.
“They suit you”- he admitted after the initial coughing fit induced by the shock calmed down, he couldn't tell if the red in his face came from the unexpected kind words or the almost choking.
He could feel the mocking gazes and the know-it-all look on Dazai's face when his cheeks turned pink from the compliment.
All in all it was a fun time, it would be a treasured memory too. Atsushi barely had any violent mishaps after that and Kunikida classified it as a successful day.