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Dazai prances into Chuuya’s office.
“I got a new mission, and you’re gonna hate it!”
“Wonderful, have fun with that, bye.”
“No, Chuuya, the boss wants us to work together on it.”
“Damn it. Fine, sit down, and tell me about it. I’m going to keep working on this report, but I’m still listening.”
Dazai throws himself down in the other chair, which immediately breaks, throwing him to the floor.
“Ow, why did that happen?”
“Probably because that chair was getting a bit loose, and you just threw your whole body weight into it. I was planning on getting a screwdriver, and checking the screws, but now it’s broken. So, I’m probably going to have to put new screws in entirely. Thank you.”
“Whatever, that was totally your fault, and I didn’t even break my neck, or something fun,” Dazai mutters, sulking on the floor.
“Whatever, just tell me about the mission.”
Dazai nods.
“Ok, well, we’re going to break into the Special Division for Unusual Powers’ main headquarters.”
Chuuya looks up.
“What? Why?”
“Because we’re going to be stealing a bunch of their files. In fact, we have a list. Mori wants to poach a bunch of the ability users that the government is forcing to register their powers, so he wants us to steal their files. Also, we’re supposed to make sure that there are no other copies, or digital files. Nothing about them is supposed to be left in case they do say yes.”
“Wait, didn’t you tell me that you were going to be doing something today?”
“Yeah, which is the other part that you’re going to love. I was actually going to be teaching someone today. You haven’t met him yet, but he’s going to be coming with us. His name is Akutagawa.”
“You want to bring someone else on our highly dangerous mission, which is already going to be hard enough? You know I don’t trust the idiots in this organization not to screw everything up. You don’t either, so why can’t we just put off his training?”
“Because I actually do trust him not to mess things up. He’s been training under me for a while now, and he knows what happens when he screws things up.”
Chuuya raises one eyebrow.
“Wow, you’ve been training him for a while? That’s new, but fine. If you trust him, I do too. You don’t trust anyone. So, what time are we doing this?”
“We’re leaving at eight tonight. Where do you want to meet?”
“Can you pick up the guy, and come back here? We’ll meet in the lobby.”
“Yep, we’ll be there.”
Dazai stands up, glaring at the broken chair for a minute before walking out. Chuuya sighs as he puts his head into his propped up hand. He continues his work, heading home a little earlier to get ready. Chuuya ends up waiting an extra half hour for Dazai to walk in with a literal child. He looks like he can’t be older than twelve, and he looks like Dazai just woke him up.
“Why are you late? Also, why do you have a child with you?”
“Well, it turns out that I forgot to tell Akutagawa that we were doing this, and he was asleep. Also, I got lost while going to get him.”
“This is Akutagawa? This is who you’ve been teaching? How old is he? He looks like he’s twelve!”
“He’s not twelve. Tell him how you are.”
Akutagawa avoids looking into Chuuya’s eyes.
“I’m fourteen, sir.”
His bangs hang into his face as he looks down at Chuuya’s shoes. Chuuya looks over the kid with a more critical eye this time. He’s thin, thin enough that you can count his bones. He has a small frame, and big eyes set into a small face. He’s wearing a t-shirt, loose fitting jeans, and a jacket around his waist. Nothing that could hide how small he is. All of it makes him seem younger, but now that Chuuya’s looked him over, it also looks like he could just be poorly taken care of.
“Ok, where did you get a child from, and why?”
“That’s not important. The important part is that he’s a member of the mafia, and my protege. So, we’re going to teach him how to do real missions.”
“Dear God, ok. Did he explain what we were doing?” Chuuya asks, turning back to Akutagawa.
Akutagawa shakes his head. Dazai grips Akutagawa’s arm.
“He did, but I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening. Can you please explain again?”
Chuuya glances between them.
“Yeah, sure.”
He gives Akutagawa a brief overview, but Akutagawa doesn’t look up at him even one time.
“You are being so rude, Aku. You’re not even looking at Chuuya. Doesn’t he deserve a little more respect than that?”
“It’s fine. Though you do need to keep your eyes peeled while we’re on this mission, ok?” Chuuya cuts in as quickly as he can.
Akutagawa nods quickly, and Dazai lets go of his arm.
“Put that jacket on, and we’re going to get a move on,” Dazai says, then turns to walk out.
Chuuya grabs his backpack.
“Yeah, it’s getting late, and I want to be able to get at least a little sleep tonight.”
The drive is horribly quiet with Chuuya driving, and Dazai sitting in the back with Akutagawa. Surprisingly, neither of them talk the entire drive, and Chuuya is left questioning his life choices. Eventually they get close, and have to ditch the car. Dazai turns to Akutagawa.
“Make a distraction for us, and then come meet us in the file room.”
“Have you seen the rough sketches that we have? I want to make sure that you can meet back up with us without issue,” Chuuya says.
Akutagawa shakes his head. Chuuya pulls them out of his backpack.
“Here, take those with you. I have them memorized already, and they’re not a lot of information in the first place.”
Akutagawa takes them with shaking hands, and a wide eyed look. Dazai rolls his eyes.
“You don’t need to coddle him. He’s only a year younger than we were when we started working together.”
Chuuya ignores him, and gives Akutagawa an encouraging smile. Akutagawa looks between them, uncertainty in his eyes before he takes off. Chuuya and Dazai wait until a few of the guards walk away, then they take out the rest of them. It’s not hard to get into the building after that.
“That was the quietest distraction I’ve ever seen,” Chuuya says as they try to find the file room.
“Eh, it was ok.”
“You don’t know what he actually did,” Chuuya reminds him.
Dazai shrugs.
“Is there something that I need to know about this kid, or your relationship with him?”
“No, he’s just a grunt.”
“Just a grunt? You took on a grunt?”
“I thought he had potential. I was wrong.”
Chuuya hums as he finally opens the right door.
“Ok, this way. Grab the list that Mori gave you.”
“I don’t have that.”
“What? Why not?”
“I didn’t grab it. I didn’t even grab my backpack.”
“Do you have any idea what we’re supposed to be stealing?”
“No, not really.”
“Dazai, how many times has your laziness ruined our missions?”
“Never, we always figure something out.”
“Sir,” Akutagawa pops up behind them, and Dazai immediately swings around.
Both of them go to hit him, but Chuuya pulls back. Dazai’s fist slams right into Akutagawa’s face. Akutagawa leans against the wall, holding his face.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that! You could have been anyone.”
“Sorry, sir. I got done with my distraction, and set up traps around the entrances to this part of the floor just in case.”
“Good job, just try not to sneak up on us next time,” Chuuya says, patting Akutagawa’s shoulder. “Now, back to the issue at hand.”
He turns back to Dazai with a raised eyebrow.
“What issue?” Akutagawa asks.
“Dazai didn’t bring his backpack, or the list.”
Akutagawa slips a piece of paper out of his back pocket, and offers it to Dazai. Dazai takes it, and opens it.
“Oh, here it is. Let’s start looking.”
“Good job.”
“He put it down when he first started talking to me, so I assumed it was important.”
They’re almost done finding the papers for every name on the list when they hear clamoring outside.
“Shit, that must be Akutagawa’s traps. We need to hurry, then figure out a way through a window.”
“We still have to wipe the computers,” Dazai reminds him.
“Damn it. I forgot about that.”
“I just finished that,” Akutagawa calls from the other side of the room where the computers are located.
It’s only a few minutes before Chuuya stuffs the last paper into his bag.
“Let’s go. I’m going down first, then I’ll either set something up to catch you two, or just do it myself.”
“I don’t need help,” Akutagawa replies, shifting from foot to foot quickly.
“Ok, then you can just follow me down. I’m going to catch Dazai then, cause it’s not worth the time to set something else up.”
Chuuya punches the window, shattering it instantly. He jumps down, and Dazai pokes his head out of the window. Chuuya gives him a thumbs up after situating himself. He jumps out, and Chuuya has no issue catching him. Chuuya puts him down, then turns back to the window, but Akutagawa is already on the ground floor.
“Come on, we have to get out of here before-” Chuuya starts, but an alarm starts blaring all around them. “We have to get out of here.”
Something blows up to their right, and the blast is enough to throw Akutagawa and Dazai off their feet.
“The alarm wasn’t for us,” Chuuya says as he pulls Dazai up.
“You think someone’s attacking them, and we’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time?”
“Yes.”
“I completely agree. That means this place is going to be locked down, and we don’t even know who-” Dazai is cut off by another explosion, this one is from inside. It blows out the wall that they’re standing right next to.
Akutagawa blinks hard, trying to remove the spots from his vision. His hearing hasn’t fully come back yet either. Blood drips into his right eye from his bangs. He tries to wipe it away to no avail. There are armored men swarming the place, and they don’t look like government, so they must be the terrorists.
His hearing is starting to come back, and Dazai is talking to Chuuya. He can’t make out what they’re saying yet, but they’re talking very fast. Chuuya is glaring at Dazai, but they seem to argue all the time, so it doesn’t really tell Akutagawa anything about the conversation. It’s only a few minutes before Chuuya starts walking towards the armored men, who are shooting anything in sight.
Akutagawa can hear just fine now, but he still doesn’t catch what Chuuya says as he’s walking away, because he’s speaking under his breath. Akutagawa turns to Dazai, but Dazai is just watching Chuuya. Red marks crawl up Chuuya’s neck to his face, and down his arms to his hands.
Akutagawa stares with wide eyes, wondering what in the hell is happening. He starts flinging red orbs around like it’s nothing, killing everyone in sight, and destroying everything else. Dazai puts a hand on Akutagawa’s chest, and pushes him back a few feet as he also steps back.
He waits a few minutes for all of the terrorists to be dead, and all the government workers to be inside before marching up to Chuuya. He puts a hand around Chuuya’s wrist, also using it to catch Chuuya before he hits the ground. Dazai pulls Chuuya over to Akutagawa, and tosses him at Akutagawa.
“You’re going to bring him back to the car. I’ll drive.”
Chuuya is shaking like a leaf, and there’s blood dripping down his face.
“Jackass,” he mutters, still glaring at Dazai.
“Are you ok?” Akutagawa asks, realizing that his voice is shaking.
“I’m fine, kid. Let’s just get to the car, ok?”
“Ok, what was that?”
“That was Corruption.”
Akutagawa’s eyes widen again.
“I’ve heard of that.”
“I assumed you had.”
Akutagawa helps Chuuya to the car, completely silent. He gets Chuuya settled in the backseat before climbing into the passenger seat. The drive back is quiet aside from Chuuya’s soft snoring. They stop at his apartment first, and Dazai takes him inside.
Akutagawa rocks back and forth, anxiety filling his chest while Dazai’s gone. The drive back to where Akutagawa’s staying is quiet too, but Dazai follows him inside. Dazai takes him to his room, then handcuffs him to his nightstand.
“Next time, you’re not going to make me look bad. I told Chuuya that you were reliable, and he believed me. Instead of being helpful, you got knocked out by a rock. So, you’re going to stay here until I come back, then we’ll discuss your punishment for failing.”
Akutagawa nods, looking down. He feels hate well up to join the anxiety, but it’s not pointed at Dazai. It’s just for him, almost enough to choke him. He forces the tears back, even after Dazai leaves, but he can’t stop his hands from shaking.