Chapter Text
“Chuuya, you stupid dog, just trust me on this!” Dazai snarled as he and the chibi rode up to Mori's office. It was an argument they had had a million times before. As always, Dazai had to be careful not to let his trepidation show, or Chuuya would never be able to do what he had to do. Dazai resentfully considered how he couldn’t even protect his dog anymore without help. Damn Mori.
“I'm not just going to let you take the blame, you waste of bandages!” Chuuya returned, jabbing a finger into Dazai's chest. “You always take the blame, and I’m sick of it!”
I'm concerned about you Dazai heard.
He scoffed. “It’s my choice,” he sneered back. “Or are you saying you want to take my own choices from me? Take advantage of that control you have–”
Chuuya slammed a fist into the wall beside Dazai's head, snarling in his face. Dazai knew it had been a low blow, but he couldn’t let his dog take the fall. Chuuya didn’t even know what the cost of failing a mission was; Dazai had always kept him shielded from that.
And he and Chuuya had definitely messed up their previous job. Chuuya had lost his temper and killed one of the bastards that was gloating about having killed those children. Dazai loved Chuuya for his human heart, but he was supremely stupid sometimes.
“You piece of shit, you can’t just say that every time,” Chuuya growled.
“Chuuya, he still holds my Hoshi no Tama,” Dazai said gently, switching tactics. “We can’t kill him. And I can’t just leave. I swore an oath to a friend centuries ago, and I do not intend to break that promise.”
Chuuya scowled.
“Besides,” Dazai whittled, “you have people in the Mafia who actually need your protection.”
Chuuya didn’t say anything, but Dazai could practically hear his thoughts. Mori had made it very clear that Chuuya was ‘in charge of the well-being of his subordinates.’ Dazai had translated for Chuuya the threat: Betray me, and your subordinates will take the fall.
The doors slid open, and they stepped out, Chuuya shoving his hands deep in his pockets and ignoring Dazai beside him. Dazai just sighed. His temperamental chibi, too human for his own good. How ironic that such a god was contained in such a mortal.
“Ah, Chuuya-kun, Dazai-kun,” Mori greeted as they entered.
“Mori-san.” Dazai greeted, making sure to sound utterly bored.
“Boss,” Chuuya said, barely keeping back his venom. But Mori, ever the slick bastard, noticed. Mori grinned.
“So, I assume the mission went well?” he asked, and Dazai scoffed.
“You know that it didn’t, Mori-san. That’s why you called us up here,” he said disinterestedly. His stomach was turning, already dreading whatever punishment Mori would come up with, but Chuuya was still here, and Dazai was nothing if not a great actor.
Mori chuckled. “Ever the sharp mouth, Dazai-kun. Very well.” He leaned forward on his desk, clasping his hands together.
“I am responsible,” Dazai reported at his silent question. “I found the man rather annoying, so I instructed Chuuya to kill him.”
Chuuya scuffed his feet on the ground. Dazai rolled his eye.
“I see. Well, Chuuya-kun, do leave Dazai-kun with me for a while,” Mori said, smiling.
Order him to listen to me for the rest of the day was the unspoken request. A request that had been made multiple times over the past few months.
Chuuya ground his teeth. Even talking about him like this felt dehumanizing. Just leave ‘the package’ with Mori, just decide that his partner be forced to obey. But he held his tongue. Mori's threats against his subordinates sat heavy in his throat.
He looked at Dazai, who didn’t look back, but inclined his head ever so slightly. Dazai never told Chuuya what happened, always just laughing him off and asking if his dog was worried about him. He never seemed any different when he returned; it can’t be that bad, then, right?
“Fine,” he grunted, “Shitty Dazai, stay with the boss and listen or whatever the fuck.”
Chuuya could see the command settle on Dazai's shoulders, and he felt his own stomach turn.
“Thank you, Chuuya-kun,” Mori said happily. “You are dismissed.”
His mouth burning, Chuuya left without a word. He may not be able to openly defy Mori, but he would show that he had lost all respect for the man. It was the least he could do, he thought furiously, the doors closing behind him.
Dazai heard the doors shut behind him, and focused back on Mori, who had stood up from his desk and walked around it to stand in front of Dazai.
“It is funny,” Mori commented, reaching up and taking a strand of Dazai's hair, twirling it around his fingers, “how, despite being a fox, you act like such a loyal hound to your owner.” He suddenly tugged on Dazai's hair, jerking his head to the side.
Dazai held his tongue, letting his mind settle somewhere far away. His dog wasn’t here, he didn’t need to pretend anymore.
“No, no,” Mori tsked. “Don’t drift, Dazai-kun. Focus on me.”
Dazai bit his tongue as his mind suddenly came crashing back to the present.
“Today, I really just want to test the limitations of the control I can exert,” Mori purred.
Dazai suppressed a shiver.
He couldn’t see, he couldn’t see, he couldn’t see—
Another cut was imprinted along his arms, and he whimpered. He couldn’t even speak, he had been ordered silent. He had been ordered blind. He had had to cut his own eyes after he failed to obey the command to not be able to see with open eyes. If it had been his master, his body would have done so, but this man – who was he again? – was not his master, and could not control him so well. But that did not stop him.
“Answer me, Shuuji,” someone said above him, and he shivered at his name, “Would you mind losing your ability to speak?”
The command opened his mouth, “Y-yes,” he said, biting back a whine.
“I thought I told you not to speak, Shuuji,” the voice sneered, and Shuuji’s stomach twisted. But you ordered me to answer, he wanted to deny, to scream, but defiance was not tolerated, he had learned that when he was just a kit.
“Lets help you with that, shall we?”
Someone grabbed his mouth, forcing his jaw open. Shuuji’s eyes widened and he started to push away, he didn’t want this, he didn’t want—
He screamed as something dug into his right eye.
“Why are you resisting, Shuuji? Don’t you want me to help you be good?”
Shuuji panted, body trembling as he tried to escape the pain.
“Stop fighting me, Shuuji.”
He felt himself go pliant. A doll, waiting to be positioned, he waited, dread filling him up as the man – a mortal, who must have been assigned to punish him. His true master must be too busy to deal with him – gently caressed his cheek. The man hooked his finger under Shuuji’s chin, moving his head up. Shuuji was still breathing heavily, groaning every time the thing in his eye shifted.
A finger gripped his bottom lip, pulling his jaw open slowly. “So obedient,” the man intoned with awe, petting Shuuji’s hair before reaching delicately into his mouth. Shuuji shivered at the praise.
Shuuji cried out as something sliced cleanly through his tongue, severing it.
The man let go of him, and he collapsed, curling around himself, sobbing and choking, blood pooling around his face as it dripped from his mouth.
“I think I’ll keep this, what do you say, Shuuji?”
Shuuji didn’t respond to the honey poisoned words besides contorting tighter into himself, desperate to protect himself from the man.
“Tell me, how long until your eyes heal and your tongue grows back, Shuuji?”
Shuuji choked, trying and failing to speak. His mind spun, he had to answer, he had to answer, but he couldn’t—
Desperately, he held out one finger.
“Ah, so a day.”
He tucked his arm back away, relieved that he didn’t get his fingers crushed.
“Well, I suppose its almost time for you to return to your master,” the man said, suddenly far away from him. There was some shuffling, and then the man was right next to him again. “Sit up, Shuuji.”
Shuuji sat up at once, fighting the urge to push away from the man. “We can’t let the Demon Prodigy be seen in such a state, now can we?” the man mused.
Demon Prodigy? That sounded strangely familiar to Shuuji. Where was he? He was – he was at the Port Mafia. This was Mori Ougai, and he was Dazai Osamu. He wasn’t with his god, and he wasn’t a kit anymore.
He felt something being wrapped around and around his head, and then his mouth being roughly squeezed open. He didn’t resist, exhaustion heavy in his veins. When his tongue was fully wrapped, Mori let go of him.
“Don’t forget what happens if Chuuya goes rogue, Dazai-kun,” Mori whispered in his ear.
Dazai didn’t answer. He hardly needed the reminder. He knew full well what Mori would do. He would hold Chuuya's subordinates hostage, forcing him to give himself up, and then Chuuya would be the one getting tortured.
Mori stepped away, footsteps getting further and further until a door could be heard opening and closing. Dazai stayed where he was, not sure what was going on, his mind clouded with pain.
And then another door opened, and another set of footsteps could be heard.
“What the fuck?!”
Ah, his chibi, ever so eloquent, Dazai thought as his mind finally was permitted to drift.