Chapter Text
Akutagawa walks into his apartment, tossing his keys onto the hallway table. He locks the door, then goes into the kitchen to make some tea. Gin is in the kitchen already, doing something over the stove. Her eyes widen when she turns around.
“Who are you?”
Akutagawa opens the fridge with a small, humorless laugh.
“That’s funny,” he replies sarcastically.
“What are you talking about? Who are you, and why are you in my apartment?”
“This is my apartment, and why are you being so weird? This isn’t some kind of weird prank is it?”
“No, and stop dodging the question!”
“Akutagawa.”
“That’s my last name, and this is not funny anymore.”
“Right, what the hell are you going on about, Gin? I can agree that this is not funny.”
“How do you know my name? Also, I swear I am going to slit your throat if you don’t tell me who you are.”
“Ryunosuke.”
“What?”
“That’s my name, Ryunosuke.”
“Ok, and why are you in my apartment?”
“I already told you, this is my apartment. Yours is like fifteen minutes away from here.”
Akutagawa grabs a sports drink out of the fridge, and walks over to Gin. She tenses up, and he puts his hand on her forehead. She’s not running a fever, but she swipes at him with a knife.
“Get away from me!”
Akutagawa takes a step back, his eyes wide too.
“Sorry. Ok, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to let you cool off. I’ll be at work if you need me.”
Akutagawa grabs his keys and backpack before quickly leaving. He heads back to work, sure that there’s something useful he could be doing.
Maybe she needs to sober up. I have no idea what else it could be if she’s not sick.
He walks in after scanning his work ID. The lobby is mostly empty, so he ends up making eye contact with the receptionist. She looks a little confused, but looks away quickly. Chuuya walks out of the stairwell, slipping past the front desk. He cocks his head at Akutagawa before walking over. Akutagawa waves even though he does feel like socializing right now.
“Hey, are you new? Mori didn’t tell me we were getting any new transfers.”
Akutagawa frowns.
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh, I just haven’t seen you around here before, and normally I get told when someone with your clearance gets transferred,” Chuuya replies, motioning towards Akutagawa’s work ID.
Akutagawa just stares at him.
“Is someone playing a prank on me today? Did everyone just decide that today is the day to try to screw me over?”
“What are you talking about?” Chuuya demands, sounding a little offended.
“I mean we’ve been working together for four years even if it’s only on an occasional basis.”
“Oh, shit, I’m sorry. I don’t really remember the names of everyone I work with. Especially ones that don’t work in the main office building, that’s my bad. What was your name again?”
Akutagawa grits his teeth, slipping his ID back into his pocket.
“Ryunosuke Akutagawa.”
“Akutagawa? Like Gin Akutagawa?”
It takes everything in Akutagawa not to bang his head into the nearest wall.
“Nevermind, I’m going to get some stuff from my desk, and go home.”
Chuuya looks at him like he grew a second head, but Akutagawa ignores him, and keeps walking. He walks to his office, and unlocks the door. He has no issue picking up some paperwork and stuff to work on somewhere else, even though he can’t go home right now.
Maybe I should just go to her apartment, and stay there until she decides that this isn’t funny anymore.
Tachihara is packing up to go home too, putting some papers in his backpack. He looks up when Akutagawa comes out of his office.
“What are you doing in there?”
“Grabbing my paperwork. Now, if you could stop talking to me, I would appreciate it.”
“But this office is just for the Black Lizard. That office is for the boss, even though one hasn’t been picked yet.”
“Tachihara, I will slit your throat if you try this with me right now. I am not in the mood, and I would love to tear someone to pieces,” Akutagawa growls, clutching his backpack as tightly as he can. His joints are already starting to hurt, and a stress headache is building pressure in his head.
Tachihara looks taken aback, and quickly races out of the room. Hirotsu comes in after a minute. He looks confused and concerned.
“Hello, young man. Do you happen to know what happened to Tachihara?”
“I threatened him again. I’m sorry, but he was grating on my already frayed nerves.”
“Why were you talking to Tachihara? Did you need something?”
“No, he started the conversation. Wait, you know who I am, right?”
“No, do you work for the Boss? I’m sorry, but he didn’t say anything.”
Akutagawa doesn’t respond, just pushes past him. He walks straight out of the building, his mind spinning.
Hirotsu would never prank me. He thinks pranks are juvenile. It’s even less likely for him to prank me than for Gin to. Ok, it doesn’t matter. I’m just going to get a hotel for the night, and figure out what to do tomorrow morning.
Akutagawa ends up getting a room at the nearest motel, but he doesn’t sleep much. He spends most of the night trying to figure out what in the hell is happening, and how it happened so fast. He talked to Hirotsu right before he left to go home, and Gin half an hour before that when she was going home. Somewhere between him leaving work, and getting home everyone forgot him.
He goes out early that morning, and gets coffee before going for a walk. It’s while he’s walking that he sees Dazai and Atsushi. He’s too tired for confrontation, but he’s completely prepared for Atsushi to start yelling. He doesn’t, in fact, he hasn’t even looked up from his shoes. Akutagawa just stops walking, but then Atsushi runs into him while he stands there completely still. Dazai looks up from his phone while Atsushi locks eyes with Akutagawa.
“I am so sorry. Did I spill your coffee?”
Akutagawa stares at him with a look of disgust and dread.
“What do you mean? It’s fine, just keep walking,” Dazai says, rolling his eyes.
“No, I’m sorry, Mr…” Atsushi looks at Akutagawa’s coffee cup. “Akutagawa. Do you want money to replace it?”
“You don’t remember me either?”
“No, should I? Were you one of our clients? I’m sorry for being so rude.”
Dazai looks in between them.
“No, I work for the mafia.”
“Oh… ok.”
“What about you?” Akutagawa demands, turning to Dazai.
“No, I unfortunately remember you. We did spend years working together, so it would be hard to forget you, and I would know, because I’ve tried. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. I went home from work last night, and some time while I was in the car, everyone forgot about me. Though since you didn’t and Atsushi did, then I guess it was an ability of some sort.”
“Wait, what time did you leave work last night, and what time did you get home?”
“What are you two talking about?” Atsushi asks.
“Nothing, Sushi. You should go get Akutagawa another coffee at the coffee shop down the street. He likes his coffee with cream and stevia.”
Atsushi looks baffled, but nods. Akutagawa rolls his eyes.
“I left work at five, and got home around five twenty last night.”
“I think I might know what happened. Atsushi was working last night, and he ended up cornered by an ability user with an unknown ability. He told Atsushi that he was going to take something from Atsushi that Atsushi never wanted to lose.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
“Well, it coincides with when Atsushi was out dealing with this, and the man might have picked a target through Atsushi’s memories. That would have pointed to you over a lot of other people. He was messed up after the fight on the boat.”
“You think that this man looked through Jinko’s emotions and memories, then erased me from everyone’s memories?”
“Yes, I do. It makes sense if you really think about it.”
“What was his name? Who was it? How do I fix it?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t one of the people that was filled in, and either he never gave his name to anyone, or he made them forget it already. Atsushi said he didn’t get a good look at his face, but it could be the same reason.”
Akutagawa turns around, and walks away. He ends up spending the entire day wandering around the city even as his lungs burn, and his feet ache. Eventually he goes back to his motel though he ends up spending the entire night on the roof. He just sits there, staring at the stars until the stars eventually fade into the dark blue that settles for about an hour and a half before sunrise.