Work Text:
Chuuya feels his head start to hurt as Mori tells him that he left Akutagawa in charge of a mission down at the port. He hasn’t even told Chuuya what it is yet, and he already feels like his head is about to blow up.
“You know he doesn’t do well with the salt water. Did you at least send him with a team so that he can delegate most of the heavy lifting?”
“No, he should be able to do these kinds of missions on his own if he wants to keep his spot in the mafia. There’s a group that started using one of our smuggling routes so I set up a meeting. If it doesn’t go well, he’s supposed to kill them all. If it does go well, then we wait to make sure that they’re actually done using our territory.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because he was supposed to have the report on my desk an hour ago, and when I asked his team if he got back, they said no. I don’t have time to send someone to check on him, so I called you since you’re off the clock. Feel free to say no. Whatever happened, he can probably handle it. If not, it doesn’t really matter, because there’s no reason for him to work for me if he can’t.”
Chuuya sighs.
“Alright drop me a location, and I’ll head there. I wasn’t doing anything anyway.”
Mori hangs up, leaving Chuuya to just stare at his dinner that’s starting to cool on his coffee table until the pin comes through. He pulls it up via his map, then climbs into his car. The drive down to the dock is tense and quiet. He’s on high enough alert that his own heartbeat and the sound of the engine are the only noises that he can hear.
The streets are quieter than normal except for the distant sound of sirens, though they get louder as he gets closer to the dock. He reaches the dock before the police do, and everything is on fire. The meeting place is in ruins with rubble everywhere, and fires are spreading across the dock. Akutagawa is poking through the ruins. Chuuya gets out of his car and rushes over. The smoke is thick, and he’s covering his mouth by the time he reaches Akutagawa. Akutagawa has a piece of Rashomon loosely covering his mouth, but he doesn’t seem too worried about it.
“Akutagawa, what are you doing? This smoke is so thick, you’re going to choke. Your lungs are not meant to handle this. What happened to the meeting?”
“They had explosives. Also, I have a doctor’s note that says I can do it.”
He pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket before offering it to Chuuya. Chuuya unfolds the piece of paper then just frowns at it.
“This just says ‘Akutagawa can do whatever he wants without medical restraints’ -Mori.”
“Yeah, I can do whatever I want. Mori said so.”
“No. Come on, we’re going home. What are you even looking for?”
“I found it. The last body that I hadn’t accounted for. All of the members are confirmed dead so we can go now.”
Chuuya grabs Akutagawa’s arm and drags him to the car. He starts coughing as Chuuya practically shoves him in the passenger seat.
“Ow,” he mutters, sulking.
Chuuya takes a deep breath as he walks to the driver seat.
“Ok, I’m sorry, Akutagawa. I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you. I just wish you would care more about your well being.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Akutagawa says, though he doesn’t look away from the dashboard.
Chuuya sighs, but keeps his eyes on the road.
Dazai pulls Atsushi along, away from the crime scene that they were supposed to be investigating.
“Where are we going?” Atsushi asks.
“Well, the Mafia is supposed to have someone down here working on something. I’m not sure what, but we can ask them if they know what happened. If they do, then we won’t have to do any work other than confirming their story.”
“Doesn’t that seem wrong?” Atsushi asks.
“Nah, if we get the answer right, it doesn’t matter if we do it the easy way, or the hard way.”
Atsushi rolls his eyes, but lets Dazai drag him along. It’s not long before they get into the shadier part of town, and people scurry around, trying to get away from them. Atsushi’s eyes dart around as he tries to keep up with all of the moving threats. Dazai seems completely unperturbed. In fact, he grabs one man as he tries to leave.
“Where’s the mafia member that’s working down here today?”
The man points to a building a few yards away without a word. Dazai lets him go, and drags Atsushi over. The building is falling apart and concrete dust flies everywhere when Dazai opens the door.
“Is this place safe? Why would they be here?” Atsushi asks, seeming hesitant to go inside.
Dazai drags him anyway.
“Because they were told to, Sushi. Most mafia members would be killed if they didn’t follow orders. Also, most of them don’t have that much concern for their own wellbeing.”
“Much like you,” Atsushi mutters. Then he hears coughing, and immediately groans. “Do you know who that is?” Atsushi asks, and Dazai instantly nods.
“Yup, sounds like Akutagawa. It looks like I know who we’re asking about our crime,” Dazai sing songs as they head up the stairs to meet Akutagawa.
Akutagawa glances over at them once they step through the door separating the rest of the level from the stairs, but turns back to what he’s doing.
“Akutagawa.”
“What is it, Dazai?”
“I want to ask you about a crime that was committed within a few miles of here.”
“It wasn’t me,” Akutagawa responds as he continues rifling through dust covered desks.
He coughs again, loudly enough that Atsushi can’t hear what Dazai responded with either.
“Sorry, what was that?” Akutagawa asks, wiping blood away from his mouth. He wipes it on his pants before opening another drawer.
“I didn’t think you did. I want to know who did it so I can arrest them.”
“How do you expect me to know that?” Akutagawa asks, sounding slightly exasperated.
“Should you be here?” Atsushi asks.
“I have a doctor’s note,” Akutagawa says, even though he sounds annoyed and there’s a slight edge to his tone that Atsushi can’t tell what it means.
“What?” Atsushi asks, and Akutagawa offers him a piece of paper. “This basically just says that you should ignore what your body is telling you and get yourself killed,” Atsushi replies, looking even more concerned.
“You sound like Chuuya. I’m dying anyway, remember?”
Atsushi visibly flinches at the reminder.
“Doesn’t mean you have to die faster.”
“Yeah, shut up.”
“Can we get back to the point?” Dazai asks, sounding annoyed.
“Yes, of course, Dazai. Why don’t you tell me about this crime while Jinko helps me look for a red packet? It’s going to have papers in it, but you’re not going to read them if you find it.”
Atsushi nods, then gets to work. Dazai explains the murder and Akutagawa sighs.
“I know who your criminal is. I’ll email the details including his current safe houses. We can’t deal with him ourselves right now, but he’s a pain in the ass. Also I found the packet. I’ll email that to you as soon as I get back to base with this, and I’ll inform Mori that he won’t be an issue anymore. See you around,” Akutagawa says, then breezes towards the exit without letting either of them respond.
Dazai shrugs, then pulls Atsushi back out.
“We don’t even have to check it. Akutagawa would never lie to me.”
Atsushi hums, rolling his eyes again. They head back to the Agency, but the weird feeling sticks with Atsushi for the rest of the day.