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A man wearing a black suit and sunglasses climbed out of the driver’s seat, approaching a ginger wearing a black fedora, who was sifting through a pile of papers as he stood on the sidewalk outside a pool hall.
“The boss wants to see you,” they simply spoke. The man speaking was one of many mailmen within the Port Mafia, known for delivering confidential messages and information to their targets, regardless how difficult it would be to reach them.
“I understand,” the ginger, Chuuya Nakahara, replied simply, following the man into a black limousine, sitting in the backseat and pulling his right leg over his left to cross them as he began to flip through the numerous papers he needed to review for his current station in the Port Mafia, dealing with the black market for gemstones.
It was infuriating to think that he was utilizing systems made by that damned mackerel, even more so when Chuuya had realized just how brilliant they were. In the long run, after handling this job for a little over a year now, it’d been smooth sailing, despite the catastrophe that had occurred mere months ago, leaving the pool hall empty of its former boisterous visitors.
Chuuya Nakahara- experiment A258. Perhaps 2,383 lines of code, perhaps human. No matter what, he was an extraordinary talent within the Port Mafia, and Chuuya had made peace with his tumultuous past when he resolved to unleash Arahabaki to defeat the Demonic Beast Guivre.
Pulling up in front of the Port Mafia headquarters, Chuuya nodded in thanks to the grunt that drove him here, before pulling his coat over his shoulders and exiting the car, walking directly into the building and up the elevator that would take him to the Boss’s room.
Unfortunately, when he arrived there, a certain bastard was also there, talking in a whiney, high pitched voice despite his vocal chords developing to a slightly deeper tenor from when Chuuya first met him.
“-and to make matters worse, I have to work with Chuuya ??” Dazai complained as Chuuya entered the room. “I know we have this whole like, ‘double black’ thing going on, making our enemies fear us, yadda yadda yadda, but again? Didn’t we have that mission last week to destroy an entire organization? Is it really necessary to pair me up with him to do something so mundane?”
“As I see it, this is a good chance for the two of you to hone your skills further, beyond just combat capabilities. The past missions have been fruitful, and why would I abandon a strategy that’s clearly worked?” Mori asked, a tranquil smile on his face as he nodded towards Chuuya. “Oh, you’re here. I assume you know what you’re here for?”
“I got the gist of it,” Chuuya responded, heaving a sigh. “But seriously? Hang out and have fun? What’s the point of doing this at all?”
“Think of it like… a team building exercise!” Mori exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “Ah, I believe it was Kouyou’s idea originally to send you two on ‘something normal teenagers would do,’ so you can ask for her reasoning later on. Don’t stress it too much, I’m sure nothing much will happen.”
Hat Rack today at 10:36 AM
where tf r u
we were supposed to meet at 10:30??
Waste of Bandages today at 10:41 AM
Wait oops my bad!! I just woke up 
Gimme like 15, I’ll be right there
Hat Rack today at 10:42 AM
.
you just woke up??
Waste of Bandages today at 10:43 AM
Don’t judge me, chuuyaaaa :(
It’s saturday
I’m on my way! anyways
On my way!
Omw
I despise autocorrect
Hat Rack today at 10:43 AM
If u dont arrive in 10 minutes im just leaving
fuck you btw
Waste of Bandages today at 10:44 AM
You wound me, chuuya 😔
Chuuya groaned as he dropped his phone to land beside him as he sat in front of an arcade, waiting for Dazai to finally arrive. For a man so accomplished in the Port Mafia, you’d expect Dazai to at least be responsible to some degree, or have some semblance of a routine. Absolutely not. Dazai’s normal sleep schedule consisted of either going to bed at 7 PM or 4 AM, with absolute disregard for if that was healthy for him to pursue or not.
“Whatcha’ thinking about, Chuuya?” Dazai asked him, leaning over him and startling Chuuya out of his thoughts.
“Oh, you actually showed up,” Chuuya replied, raising his eyebrows. “Surprised you did, honestly.”
“I can’t believe you doubted me so much,” Dazai exclaimed melodramatically, throwing his head back and pretending to faint like a sick Victorian child. “I woke up a lil late, so what? You should learn to trust me more, Chuuya~”
“Sure,” Chuuya rolled his eyes as he stood up. “‘Trust me,’ you say, knowing full well you’re the one who planted a goddamned bomb on my car. You’re lucky it wasn’t my bike, or I might’ve actually murdered you and left you to rot on the side of the road.”
Dazai perked up at that comment. “So you’ll kill me if I blow your motorcycle up? Thanks for the intel,” he cackled as they entered the arcade, a small bell dinging to announce their arrival as they were blasted with a stream of cold air from the AC.
Lines of arcade games bordered the walls, with upbeat music from some game soundtrack playing from some speakers on the walls around them as well as from the cabinets themselves. “You suicidal maniac,” Chuuya replied, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the sound of the arcade games, making a face of disgust. “What do you wanna do first?”
“Let's make a bet again,” Dazai suggested, pointing to the fighter game cabinets. “If I win, you’re stuck being my dog for another three months, and if you win…”
“…You’re never gonna prank or blow up my stuff again,” Chuuya said, finishing Dazai’s sentence. “You’re so on.”
“If the last time wasn’t indicative of how this’ll turn out, I suggest you brace yourself Chibi~” Dazai taunted, sitting at the cabinet across from Chuuya.
Chuuya scoffed, raising a cautious eyebrow to stare at Dazai with a look that oozed “ yeah, right. ”
“I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you,” Chuuya smirked, cracking his knuckles. “I’ve been practicing.”
A giant robotic… thing accompanied by a terrified little girl materialized from the void on the left side of the screen, while a character reminiscent of an undertaker with their scythe and skull motif appeared on the right, both getting into their fighting stances. The names at the top of the screen revealed the characters’ names: Bedman and Testament, with Chuuya playing Testament while Dazai played Bedman.
Large numbers flashed on screen, counting down to the beginning of their fight.
DUEL ONE. LET'S ROCK!! An overdramatic voice announced with much theatrics. Immediately, Bedman began launching attacks at Testament, forcing them into the corner without a means of escaping despite Chuuya attempting to play aggressively.
Particle effects, from explosions to parries to red lasers wrecked havoc and chaos across the screen.
Since Dazai had landed the throw on Chuuya’s character, knocking Testament vulnerable for a short period of time at the very beginning of the match, it would prove instrumental to turning the tides in Dazai’s favor.
The fight didn’t drag on for very long afterwards, with Dazai landing a lethal string of combo attacks and bringing Testament’s HP down to zero, despite Chuuya’s best efforts to parry Dazai’s attacks.
SLASH!! The announcer called, proclaiming Dazai’s round one victory, the screen panning to show the final attack. The score was now 1-0, in Dazai’s favor.
“You son-of-a…” Chuuya fumed from his side of the arcade cabinet, in the few seconds before the second round started. “If you win this, I'm going to rip your throat out,” he half-shouted, gaining concerned glances from some of the arcade goers, with most of them just chalking up the action as smack talk.
“You couldn’t,” Dazai said innocently. “After all, a dog doesn’t bite its owner, right?”
DUEL TWO. LET'S ROCK!! The announcer proclaimed, and this time, Chuuya was faster when attacking Dazai, keeping his distance to mid-range to avoid the attacks Dazai was trying to pull while hitting him with his own long range attacks, slowly but surely chipping down Dazai’s HP bar.
Dazai tried to retaliate with counters, but closing the distance proved difficult; jumping above one of Chuuya’s attacks, Dazai slammed his character onto Chuuya’s, effectively breaking Chuuya’s dominance in the round.
Dazai was down to less than half of his HP; Chuuya was still almost completely full. Even so, Dazai had a calm smirk on his face as he began to mash the buttons on his cabinet, combo-ing Chuuya into a corner and forcing the map to shift to another with barely 1/6th of his HP left.
Although Chuuya had gotten a couple more hits in, it wasn’t nearly enough to force a win.
GAME!!!! The announcer called, and the screen went into a zoom in shot of Bedman.
“You surprised me, Chibi~~” Dazai exclaimed as he dealt the finishing blow onto Chuuya’s character and the game transitioned to a victory screen featuring Dazai’s character. “I thought you’d go down as quickly as you did last time. At least you’ve actually damaged me! You’ve been practicing, I see.”
Chuuya was fuming , his expression simply comedy gold for Dazai.
“I’m going to strangle you and throw you off of the highest building in Yokohama.” Chuuya said, voice flat as he stood up, staring at Dazai who remained seated with that goddamned irritating smile on his face . “Chop up your remains and throw them to the piranha fish to eat.”
“You’re such a meanie,” Dazai whined, spinning around in his chair.
“I’ve thought of no less than a hundred other ways to kill or torture you ,” Chuuya said, glaring daggers at Dazai. “This isn’t even the worst of them.”
“You’ve thought of that many ways to kill me??” Dazai asked, batting his eyelashes innocently with the most god forsaken smile on his face. “Aww, I must be on your mind so often!!”
“Oh fuck off,” Chuuya groaned.
“That’s not the team spirit the boss wants us to have!!” Dazai chirped cheerfully. “Now, what’s the first thing I should make you do as my dog…” he pondered, as someone dressed as a staff member seemed to be approaching them.
“Uh, excuse me?” One of them asked tentatively, looking nervous and embarrassed to be seen in their neon pink worker’s uniform. “You’re disrupting the other guests. If you could tone it down…?”
“…Or?” Chuuya asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to escort you off the premises,” they replied, quaking in their boots.
“Let's go then,” Dazai said, standing up from his cabinet to go next to Chuuya. “After all, I’ve gotten everything I wanted out of today already,” he smiled, winking at Chuuya as he resisted the urge to grab Dazai by the neck and choke him right then and there.
“Sure, whatever,” Chuuya replied, and the two of them strode out of the arcade, with the patrons staring at their backs as the bell by the door jingled, barely audible over the sound of the music, and they left.
“So, how was the mission?” Kouyou asked Chuuya as she took a long sip of her tea, blowing over the surface to cool it down so as to not scald her mouth.
“An absolute fu-, I mean, absolutely awful,” Chuuya groaned, stopping himself from swearing too much in front of Kouyou. “I never want to do one of these again. Boss said it was originally your suggestion; what caused that?” he asked, taking a sip of his own tea and savoring the feel of the slightly bitter taste that bloomed.
Humming in acknowledgement, Kouyou sighed. “It’s just that you were so young when you joined the Port Mafia, and even prior to joining, you never really had a childhood. I was… well, nervous you’d never get to experience the teenage years to their fullest,” she admitted, staring into empty space, reminiscing her own past. “I’d never gotten one either, so I wanted you to have the chance to at least have the opportunity to experience it.”
A smile tugged at Chuuya’s lips. Throughout his tumultuous first year in the Port Mafia, Kouyou had become something akin to an older sister to Chuuya, and although she was a bit overbearing at times, she was always coming from a good place.
Chuuya’s phone made a ding! Noise, and as Chuuya picked it up to check what it was, it was a message from Dazai.
Waste Of Bandages today at 1:34 PM
lolol
Reading the headlines, Chuuya started laughing.
Yesterday’s mission was an experience, for sure.