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“You’ll need to guard the perimeter completely, no one sli-” something catches in his throat suddenly, and he clears it before finishing his orders. “No one slips through, is that understood?”
“Yes,” the lower-ranking mafia member gets out around a cough, “understood.”
Chuuya watches as the man’s eyes widen, focusing on something behind him before nodding at Chuuya and quickly walking away. He turns to find Akutagawa coming towards him, and he sighs, crossing his arms over his chest and staring him down until he finally makes it to him.
“Mori has requested your presence,” he says, coughing into his hand a second later, and Chuuya tips his hat at him before silently walking away and towards the Boss’ office.
It doesn’t take him long to get there, but as he’s walking, he notices a persistent itch in his throat and chest, one that won't go away despite the fact that he’s been coughing in an attempt to get rid of it. It's strange. He wonders if he’s coming down with something, though he can’t even remember the last time that he got sick in a way that wasn’t a result of using corruption.
When he enters Mori’s office, he’s not surprised to see Kouyou there as well, and he shuts the big doors behind him quietly, coming forward to stand next to her and tipping his hat towards the boss.
“Thank you two for coming. As you can probably guess, I have an important matter to discuss with you,” he says, coughing into a tissue wadded up in his hands, and Chuuya and Kouyou both nod.
“So, it seems that our city is in danger once again,” he sighs, and Chuuya resists the pressing urge to immediately groan. “A rogue ability user, Ayaka Kimura, has decided to unleash her ability over the entirety of Yokohama. I’m sure that you’ve felt some of her effects already.”
Chuuya recognizes what he’s talking about immediately and clears his throat quietly, his hand moving up impulsively to rub at the base of his neck, and he has to suppress a shiver at Mori’s grin. Seven years of work with the bastard has yet to change the fact that he still manages to get under his skin.
“Unfortunately, a sore throat and persistent cough isn’t the extent of the symptoms everyone in the city will experience. Soon, people will begin to cough up blood along with petals of all different shapes and colors, a show of flowers growing in the lungs. The illness is deadly, and it only takes about a day for the victims to pass from both blood loss and asphyxiation. Or, so I’ve been told.”
Chuuya sees Kouyou move from the corner of his eye, her hand coming from where it was hanging at her side to rest against her chest, and he can’t help the way he gasps silently, secretly making sure he can still take a breath.
“Thankfully, there is a cure for this horrible disease that has been placed onto our people. It’s simple. Easy, even,” he says, and Chuuya highly doubts that that is true. “All you have to do is confess your untold love, and the flowers will leave you.”
Chuuya lets out a breath, a horrible feeling settling in his stomach, and Mori smiles at him again, his eyes dark. “There will be fatalities if we allow this to go on, of course, so after you both inform the members under your command, I expect you to go after the ability user, as she is still in the city. I suggest joining forces with the Armed Detective Agency. I’ve already spoken with their leader, and they are willing to work with us once again to save our people.” Mori pauses, turning to cough into his tissue, and when he pulls away from it, there are specks of blood on the white sheet, making Chuuya’s eyes widen while the boss chuckles to himself.
“Though I trust you two will do what you can to protect the people of this city, I suggest curing your own illness before taking down the enemy if possible. This disease is… debilitating. To say the least. I wouldn’t want it to impede your work.”
“Understood,” Chuuya nods, tipping his hat once again before walking out of the office, Kouyou behind him.
Once they’ve walked far enough that the members guarding Mori are out of earshot, Chuuya turns to his higher-up, tucks his hands into his pockets, and says “If you go ahead and inform Akutagawa about the illness and instruct him to tell his associates, feel free to try to cure your disease. I will visit the agency. Hopefully they’ll have more intel on where the ability user is hiding.”
Kouyou sighs, placing a hand on his shoulder that he just barely manages not to shake off. “Thank you dear, though, I figured you’d be needing to go to the agency anyways.”
“Heh?! What is that supposed to mean?!” He steps away in confusion, and she chuckles to herself, shaking her head.
“Nothing, nothing. Now go on, you have a city to save.”
Chuuya nods, decides to refrain from asking questions, and turns away to start his short walk to the agency.
When he arrives, there’s only chaos. Papers are flying everywhere, and he hears screaming from at least two different people. In the middle of it all, there’s Dazai, taking a nap on the couch.
He stalks over to him, his ability making tiny craters in the floor as the papers settle and screaming stops at his appearance.
It's not hard to lift Dazai by the collar of his shirt, even without his ability. He yanks the earbuds out of his ears, waking him up instantly.
“Oh Chuuya, lovely to see you here,” he says, voice monotone, and Chuuya throws him harshly back down on the couch, crossing his arms over his chest as the remaining members of the agency in the room watch.
“How are you just sitting here doing nothing? The city is in danger. I knew the good guy thing was an act-”
“Chuuya, Chuuya, Chuuya, you know we have all day and night to save everyone don’t you? Besides, Ranpo is on his way back from an assignment now, and I’m sure he’ll know the location of the ability user.”
He groans, throwing his head back in exasperation. “When is he supposed to arrive?”
“In just a few more minutes,” Kunikida cuts in, handing a small stack of papers to Chuuya, “This is all the information we have on Ayaka Kimura. It’s not much, but as soon as we pinpoint her exact location, it should be fairly easy to take her down.” Kunikida gives Dazai a pointed look, and all he gets is a shrug in return.
“I don’t know if you’re enjoying the thought and feeling of flowers growing in your lungs, but I’m not,” Chuuya growls, grabbing Dazai by his hair, pulling him close as Kunikida moves to the side, and all Dazai does is laugh in his face.
“I can’t be affected by others’ abilities, I know you know that,” he says, swatting Chuuya’s hand away, and he drops him on the floor harshly.
“This isn’t another one of your dumb games,” he grumbles, kicking him while he’s still down, “People will die.”
He wants to keep berating him, but before he can, he hears a loud, grating cough from the side of the room, and both he and Dazai turn to see Kunikida coughing violently into his handkerchief. When he finally pulls away from it, there's a petal soaked with blood left behind. Everyone is silent for a moment until Ranpo clamors his way into the room loudly, the president close behind him.
“I’m heree-ee!” Ranpo trills around a cough, and Chuuya chuckles a little under his breath before seeing Fukuzawa behind the shorter man and stopping. He looks rougher than he’s ever seen him, and he immediately realizes that Mori’s intel wasn’t completely correct, and people are definitely going to die before the day is up.
“President,” Atsushi says suddenly, coming out from seemingly nowhere, and Chuuya jumps a little, ignoring Dazai’s snicker. He hadn’t even known the kid was here. “You need to go and cure your illness. Leave this to us, we can handle it.”
The president sighs, “Unfortunately, I do believe that mine may be incurable, though I will try. Thank you all, for everything you’ve done for this city and its people. Everyone’s lives are in your hands.”
He turns away to limp out of the room, coughing into his elbow as he goes, and once the door shuts behind him, nearly everyone in the room lets out the breath they’ve been holding.
“Is he going to be okay?” Atsushi asks nervously, holding his own stack of paperwork against his chest, and Dazai nods, assuring him with his completely serious look.
“He’ll be fine. He knows exactly where to go.”
Everyone in the room seems a bit confused at that, but after a short moment Ranpo steps forward towards Kunikida, hands held out. “Information, please! Clearly we need to get this done fast,” he says, and Kunikida immediately rushes to hand him the copies.
As Chuuya’s watching him look over the papers, he suddenly feels the urge to throw up. He pushes it away, not quite knowing where the Agency’s bathroom is, but can’t help the way he has to cough to the side, and his eyes widen in surprise when he sees a petal fly out of his throat and blood splatter with every cough. He quickly moves his shoe to cover the evidence, but not before Dazai catches a glimpse of it, and Chuuya looks up to see guilt in his eyes, and he averts his own gaze quickly, his heart dropping to his stomach at the sight.
“I see,” Ranpo says suddenly, pushing his glasses further up his nose, thankfully taking Chuuya’s attention away from both the itch in his throat that is only getting worse as well as the disgusting human being sitting on the floor next to him. “The ability user is…'' he trails off, leaving them on a cliffhanger as always, before “She’s in a shipping container near the docks. And she's watching everything using the Yokohama security cameras she has hacked into.”
They all take in the information, quickly devising a plan, and once one is fully fleshed out, Chuuya is immediately leaving the building in search of Akutagawa, and it doesn’t take long to find the man hunched against a wall in an alleyway near the agency, coughing up so much blood that there’s a puddle beneath him. It would make sense that prior illness along with age speeds up the progression of the symptoms, but the sight of it still makes Chuuya sick to his stomach.
“Akutagawa,” he says quietly, and he immediately whips around, wiping the blood from his mouth with the sleeve of his coat.
“Chuuya, what can I do for you?” he asks, bowing his head slightly, and Chuuya steps closer to him.
“I need you to get in contact with Hirotsu, tell him we need all hands on deck at the docks as soon as possible. We don’t know the exact location of the ability user, but we know a general area, and that will be enough.”
Akutagawa nods, turning away from him and getting out his phone to call Hirotsu, and Chuuya turns away too, heading to the docks where he knows the agency is waiting for him.
When he arrives, the first thing he notices is the agency's president and Mori standing at the forefront of the group, both seemingly in perfect health, discussing the plan of action.
“Most of my men should be here shortly,” Mori says, nodding towards Chuuya coming up to the group, “Though we should go ahead and begin searching for the user. I suggest that we split up into groups of two.” He pauses, looking over to Fukuzawa, who nods. “When the Black Lizard group arrives, if we haven’t found her already, her location should be made known to us almost immediately with the help of at least a hundred men. All of you have your walkie-talkies?” No one protests. “Good. The second you find Ayaka, restrain her, and send your location. Dazai should be on the scene shortly after that, and then, everything will be over. There have already been many deaths due to the effect this is having on the old and sick. We need to do everything we can to stop her.”
“Is that understood?” Fukuzawa questions once the boss is done, and everyone nods. “Good. We’ll split you all into pairs. Once you have your partner, begin searching immediately.”
Everyone agrees once again, and they all get to work.
“So Chuuya,” Dazai starts, and he groans as they walk by the docks, not understanding why Fukuzawa and Mori are preying on his downfall, sticking him with the most idiotic and insufferable person available. “Who is your hanahaki for?”
“What kind of question is that?!” he replies angrily, stomping away from him to check the closest shipping container. Empty.
“It is a fair thing to ask, considering it's what we’re dealing with,” he reasons, and Chuuya just shakes his head, turning to the side to cough up some petals. “So, who is it?”
“How am I supposed to know?!”
“Oh Chuuya,” Dazai says, voice full of false pity, “You don’t even know who your untold love is for? I truly thought you were smarter than this.”
“Can you just fuck off so we can-” he coughs a little in the middle of his sentence, blood coming out of his mouth and splatterring onto the ground. “So we can finish the mission!” When he’s done he has to fully turn away from Dazai in a coughing fit, several whole red carnations coming up.
“Of course,” Dazai sighs as Chuuya continues to cough up his lungs, “You want to get this over with as quickly as possible, because you cannot cure your disease if you do not know who it is for. If we do not find the user by tomorrow, you will die.”
Chuuya wipes his mouth with his sleeve silently, and Dazai’s somber look turns quickly into a grin.
“Well let's get moving since you're finished!” he exclaims, and Chuuya doesn’t have the energy in him to argue.
That’s what scares Dazai the most.
“Where is she?!” Chuuya yells during their fourth hour of searching, ripping open his millionth shipping container after coughing up his hundredth flower with no luck while Dazai hangs back, acting so tired despite having done no work at all, “We have been searching for hours! How many goddamn shipping containers can there be! Are we completely sure that Ranpo was correct?”
“One hundred percent,” Dazai hums, unconcerned, and that only makes Chuuya angrier. He’s tired, weak, sick, and his throat is completely raw from coughing and screaming in his partners face. “There's thousands of places to hide around here, including underground, so it makes sense that we haven’t found her quite yet, even with the hundreds of members of the Black Lizard searching as well. She most likely knows that we’re here and is moving with us.”
Chuuya grumbles to himself, walking to the next unit quicker than he walked to the last, and peers inside to see absolutely nothing.
When he turns back around, Dazai is two inches away from his face, and he can’t help the way he nearly flies backwards with how hard he flinches.
“Huh…?”
“Say it,” Dazai says, stepping closer to him as he takes a step away, his back hitting the hard metal of the shipping container.
“What??”
“Just say it,” Dazai smiles. “I know you’re not near death quite yet, so you don’t think it's worth it, just in case we manage to take Ayaka down before you die. Honestly, though, I’m getting tired of hearing your disgusting coughing. So say what you need to say. I won’t laugh. It is life and death, after all.”
That last line itself sends a shiver down Chuuya’s spine, and he tries to take a step back again only to quickly remember that something is in the way and cursing himself in his mind. He stays silent.
“Come on Chuuya,” Dazai teases, towering over him. “You know you want to. You’ll feel so much better when it’s done.”
He sighs, defeated, and slams the back of his head against the metal, closing his eyes to steel himself while he feels Dazai lean further into his space.
“Fine.” He grits his teeth, and even though his eyes are closed, he knows Dazai is grinning. “I’m…” he trails off for a moment, desperately trying to think of a last minute way out, and failing. “I’m in love with you, you fucking asshole.”
It’s only quiet for a moment before Dazai starts laughing in his face, and his eyes snap open.
“You said you wouldn’t laugh!” Chuuya yells, jabbing his finger into his chest, before there is a sudden urge to vomit everywhere that has him shoving Dazai as far away as possible and turning around to lean against the side of the shipping container, coughing up at least a dozen carnations along with lots of blood and even some stems.
“Wow,” Dazai chirps when Chuuya finally finishes and collapses onto the ground. “That was disgusting. At least we know I wasn’t wrong!”
“You weren’t sure you were right?!” Chuuya tries to yell, but it barely comes out as a whisper, his voice nearly completely gone.
“Well, look at that,” Dazai starts with a smug smile, walking back over to help him up, “All of us are finally going to get some peace and quiet with your voice out of commission. I’m sure your colleagues will thank me when I see them.”
Before Chuuya can respond, or punch him, or push him away, both of their radios beep, and they go quiet, hoping for the best.
“We have found Ayaka Kimura,” Gin’s voice comes in through the walkie-talkie, and they both sigh in relief. “She has been restrained. Sending location now.” The radio beeps again, followed by silence, then there’s the ding of Dazai’s phone.
He opens her message, giggles to himself, and turns the phone around to show Chuuya that the location of the ability user is only a few minutes away.
“To think that we could have avoided this entire past interaction by searching a little closer to the left, or waiting just a few more minutes.”
Chuuya groans, shoving his head into his hands. “You knew this was going to happen.”
“Somehow things always just seem to go my way,” he shrugs, turning away from him and starting the short walk towards the location Gin sent, and Chuuya freezes for a moment before quickly running to catch up with him.
“What do you mean ‘go your way?!?’ How did this ‘go your way??’ Explain.”
Dazai sighs, “If I did that, I’d just have to laugh at you again, and both of us know that you don’t want that.”
“What does that mean??”
“Chuuya, Chuuya, Chuuya,” he starts, patting the top of his hat before he can swat his hand away, “You’re interfering with the mission. Let me do what needs to be done and then we can have a discussion after the city has been saved.”
Chuuya pauses once again. “We can?”
“We can.”