Work Text:
“I told you.” Is the first thing that Oda registers. Next is the smell of old books, the faint whiff of spicy curry. He feels something with scales shift from beside him, and he opens his eyes to look up at the source of the voice.
It’s the detective he saw prior to venturing off, who gave him that warning he didn’t need. A dragon curls around the space, around Oda, as they sit on a book cart, sucking on a lollipop. A falcon sits on their shoulder, staring him down like prey. Their glasses are only half on, and they regard him with an air he can’t quite read.
Smugness? No, it’s not sharp enough for that. Sadness? No, the look is too detached.
“Why didn’t you listen?” They chide. The falcon squawks.
Oda looks down at the dragon. It’s new, but feels familiar, and instinctively he knows her name; Flawless . He looks back at them. “I couldn’t.”
“But you could!” The detective smacks him across the face even as Flawless backs up with her tail wrapped around him. He blinks. “I gave you another way!! And I’m not even s’pposed to do that, y’know…” They scoff and lean back, chewing on the candy. It makes a horrible crunching noise.
“...What are you? Where am I?” Oda looks around. He’s in the back of a well-kept bookstore, moonlight shining through. He can smell the curry, but it doesn’t bring that lovely burning taste to his tongue.
The detective groans. “I tried to tell you! I’m Ranpo Edogawa, the world’s greatest–”
“You told me that part already.”
They pout. Crunch goes the lollipop. “I’m also a reaper. You’re dead, and this is where you could have started again if you hadn’t ignored me.”
“...Where are the kids?” His gaze flicks from them to Flawless. She fixes him with a gaze that feels like a mirror image of his own.
“Not here.” Ranpo’s annoyance drops for a moment. “Did you really just live for them?”
“What?”
“You basically died when they did. Did you have no one else to live for?”
“...No, I did.” He thinks back to a cozy bar and late nights. Opportunities he could have taken but never did.
Ranpo sighs. “Both of you died with regrets. Do you realize that?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” Oda reaches into his pocket, but there’s no cigarettes. Damn.
“You can’t smoke!!” Ranpo hops off the book cart, the bird still sat on their shoulder raising up its wings as if a warning. “Geez… you’re really a blockhead.” They tap at him.
He just lets them. “...Did Gide get to see his men?”
Crunch. The stick crumples under their teeth too. “Some of them. You will get to see the kids. Be patient!!”
Flawless trots off, sniffing at a bookshelf and sneezing when she inhales dust. The falcon squawks at her as if chiding, and she snorts back. It flies over then, landing on a shelf.
Ranpo snickers a little and grabs Oda by the arm. “Come ooon. I wanna explore and you’re gonna have another regret if you don’t.”
Oda lets them pull him along, uncaring as they shove the chewed up stick from the lollipop in his pocket. It’s not like he had anything in it anyway.
The bookstore is bigger than it first looked, and Ranpo drags him to the little built-in cafe after a bit. They can pick up nothing, look in no books, only read the titles and imagine from there.
Similarly, there's no point in going to the cafe. Oda stares longingly at the spicy curry they have on the menu, but cannot order it. Ranpo, however, snatches a cinnamon roll and bites into it.
Oda raises an eyebrow. “Reaper benefits?”
“I come with many benefits, yes!” Ranpo giggles, breaking off a piece of the cinnamon roll and holding it out to him.
He takes it, not really inclined to literally eat out of their hand. “Thank you.”
“I don’t do that for everyone, so you better be thankful!” They grin.
“Why do it for me, then?” Oda raises an eyebrow.
Ranpo shrugs. “I feel like it.”
He feels like there’s more to it than that, but he’s hardly inclined to press and make them decide they don't want to after all.
Flawless pads into the room, the falcon on her head. Ranpo glances at them and laughs. “Aw, look, they’re getting along.”
Oda nods, watching the dragon come up to him. He runs his hand across her snout, scratching her behind the ears.
She purrs, leaning into it, shoving her body weight up against him, but he easily does not fall over.
The falcon chirps, leaning in to try to steal pats as well, and he indulges it. Ranpo watches, stealing another pastry as they do. “That’s Copper, she’s a wyvern.”
Objectively she isn’t, but Oda isn’t going to argue. “I see.”
Ranpo grins and goes over, scooping the bird up under one arm. “Soo! You have a bit of time before you pass on. Wanna have fun?”
The bird gives Ranpo a distinctively disapproving look, but they ignore it. Oda looks from the dragon, to Ranpo, then shrugs. “Sure.”
–
Ranpo breaks whatever rules they’re meant to abide by and drags Oda out for a venture around town. From a candy store to nagging Flawless into flying them both around with Copper following close by, it feels like playing some strange tourist.
Eventually, though, they stop at an unassuming river. The sun is rising, streaming its colors down and melting into the water like a painting.
A shadow stands at the edge of the water, recognizable as it finally lets itself stand in the light. Ranpo pushes Oda over, suddenly rather somber, and does not say a word. They just let the silence settle.
Oda watches the sun rise with Dazai, watches the light in its eyes get illuminated–
And then he’s gone, leaving a reaper and a boy who he can only hope wants to live a little more and die a lot less.