Work Text:
The moment was still fresh in his mind as the clock struck.
The bullet grazed his cheek, the bang that followed as his superior fell to the floor with
blood pouring out rapidly. The sight of the shock and pale stricken face of the ADA member still holding the gun, his eyes as wide as saucers. He remembers the contempt on Chuuya’s face as he spoke his last words, his heterochromatic eyes searching lazily for Atsushi’s own as he lay dying in the protege’s arms. The feisty superior that Atsushi always knew, Chuuya Nakahara lay silent in anger as if he accepted death.
His cries were silent as his superior lay cold, limp, and quiet in Atsushi’s arms. Tears rolled down his eyes as he looked at Chuuya’s body. His hat lay restfully upon his face, shunning his eyes from the gray light seeping through the cracks of the walls.
The car ride was silent, the rain was heavy and pounding against the car window. The way that Kyouka –cha n asked for Chuuya’s status, reminds me of the blood on his trench coat, and the tears from Kyouka –chan as he told the teen the ad news. The rest of the ride remained silent and long.
All Atsushi could do was look out the wi n dow counting the raindrops.
plop
drip
plop
His mind was fogged. Quiet for once.
“Atsushi—” Kyouka tapped him softly,
“..Huh?” He slowly replied as he shook the memory of Chuuya away.
“We’re home, Atsushi – kun” She looked at him with red eyes puffy from crying. Kouyka interlocked their hands as she guided the weretiger out of the car and through the Port Mafia entrance.
She let go quickly once they entered. She wiped her eyes as if she was cleansing them with water and stared at Atsushi with a guilty expression. “Kouyou needs to see me…” She said as she clasped her hands and started walking away. “but I’ll return in a bit.”
Atsushi was alone in the entrance as Kyouka – chan jotted off into the long hallways. The walk through the building itself was gloomy, the hallway floor was of dark wood, which matched the widows draped in red cloth. Lackeys and guards bowed in Atsushi’s direction as he walked past them, each nodded to him with hidden eyes. It took a few hallways later but at the end of the hallway stood a big metal door dead in the center. He knocked three times before entering.
He eyed the room widely, the space inside - which was usually clean and organized - was a mess, papers were messy everywhere, some crumpled and others ripped utterly. The two chairs where the singular mission briefing would take place were overturned by the windows, speaking of windows their curtains were completely ripped off the hinges. Only a single occupant had access to the boss’s room and that was them itself. Ah, I guess Dazai already got the news.
Sitting in the center of the mess sat the boss himself. By Atsushi’s gaze, he looked unwell, his skin was paler than usual, and his eyes were sunken even more with dark circles. The most noticeable feature was the lack of bandages on his arms. The bandaged arms itself was a mystery but what was underneath them was sorrowful, many cuts littered his arms, some faded and old but on the wrist were new ones, fresh yet cleaned.
Atsushi quickly looked away with a hand over his mouth, he wanted to gag at the boss’s arm, a sight he did not wish to see.
Dazai caught Atsushi’s eyes, the usual murky brown, almost black within the dimmed light. His stare was anything but kind, his false smile curled upwards as he spoke the boy’s name. “Atsushi-san~”
The tone sent chills over the boy. He was still standing over the boss while the man sat with folded arms. The stare held until Dazai got up and walked towards the overturned desk and sat down in the rather perfectly placed and untouched boss’s chair.
“Tell me your lying.” His tone shifted from falseness to cold in a matter of seconds. “All the compassion and love I have given you. All the time I have given to train you personally. I saved you from hell and this is how you repay me?” His tongue spoke in laced anger, broken anger but not misplaced. He was ready to shout and yell at the young boy. “You repay me with my lover’s death!!?” The question itself was rhetorical but each word punctured the heart.
Dazai felt like breaking. He had to keep his composure but he felt like breaking down that very moment in tears and killing the weretiger no matter how much of an asset he was.
Chuuya Nakahara, whom they had loved since the age of fifteen was dead. The man who had made him feel everything, every emotion, and every touch, was dead. From the moment the redhead stepped on the brunette at the age of fifteen it was love at first sight.
All Dazai could do was breathe heavily as he started to wrap the stretchy white medical tape on his arms. His facade was diminishing. “He is dead because of You..” He spat out as Atsushi remained with his face glued to the desk.
“How shall you atone for your sins?” The man all but questioned with a frown. “Should I have you disposed of perhaps?” Dazai picked up a few papers from the ground and waved them around like a dog waiting on a treat. waved around like a dog. “I have the report - I have the report but no name.”
Dazai leaned and stood up to pace around Atsushi, he held the report tight before reading out the contents. Seconds or minutes passed before he closed the report with an echo from the papers. The grandfather clocked ticked before Dazai spoke again, “Who shot Chuuya? There is no name upon this report so tell me dear Raid Captain~.” he spoke the title with mockery before getting serious once more, he was on a hunt. “Who shot Chuuya Nakahara.”
The man’s tilted head and now bandaged body overpowered him but his eyes gave away the sadness within. Atsushi felt stung and spoke with a mumble. Every time he spoke it was met with constant mocks of ‘huh?’ as if the boss himself could not hear even with perfect hearing capabilities.
He should the person’s name with barred teeth and wide eyes, frustrated with this all, angry at himself. “His name is Oda Sakunosuke.”
Odasaku’s name rolled off his lips and Dazai instantly stilled like a deer in the headlights. “What...” His eyes shot up in surprise at the name drop. “..Odasaku?..” He couldn’t help but chuckle a frown before putting his hands on the overturned desk leg in contempt.
Atsushi seemed surprised in a sense, have the two met before for such a nickname to be spoken? “Boss,” Atsushi said, “I want revenge. Let me kill Oda Sakunosuke.” The room was dead silent before an earsplitting laugh erupted from Dazai’s lips, maniacal and distressed.
“No,” answered Dazai as he continued to laugh at the revelation of everything. “Anything but him…”
Atsushi was flabbergasted, mere minutes ago he sought revenge yet after hearing the name the man shall walk free? It is preposterous. “What?” the weretiger sneered out, anger was turning his words, the gears shifting in his brain as he continued on. “You’re just letting the killer go?! Sir, Chuuya-san is dead and HE held the trigger. Oda should pay for his crime!”
His breathing was unsteady as the laughter came to an end like an old record, Dazai eyed the kid with pride and disgust. He was right but this was the only universe with Odasaku alive and he needed this. Dazai went through every universe and every strain he endured until he found this one.
“My answer is No, It is only fair that we go after the Armed Detective Agency,” Dazai said with an authoritative tone, the tone of the Port Mafia demon was final, he shall have the final say, no matter what matter of state. Atsushi instantly kicked the files that swept the floor up in a haywire and angrily bit his tongue.
“I don’t accept that.” He shouted at the boss, his hands clenched into fists. “I don’t have any heartstrings left for you to tug on,” Atsushi sourly spills to his boss. “You want compassion? Move on. Do you want fair? Tough Shit.”
The boss looked at him with a shocked cold expression, empty was all that could be described on the man’s face, contempt maybe, thoughts and ponderance perhaps, but all Atsushi could see was a cold dead shocked expression behind half-lidded eyes and messy brown hair.
The expression was haunting Atsushi’s mind, it was an annoyance. He walked up to the boss and non then most shoved the boss onto the floor and threw the report onto the floor beside him.
“Time wasting. Pick your side, Dazai.”
“Revenge for Chuuya?” Atsushi said with a wave of his arms, “Or the bitch I’m gonna kill!”
Before a pen could drop into the messy room Atsushi stomped out, before slamming the door he looked back, and there on the floor, was the figure of the boss unmoving with his mouth agape in thoughts.