Chapter Text
Osamu Dazai didn’t want to be in America. He would much rather be in Yokohama, where he could be peacefully slacking off on paperwork and annoying Chibi, wearing normal clothes. This, however, was not what was happening. Dazai was in Connecticut, wearing a black long sleeve shirt underneath a graphic tee that had a picture of a cat on it, and jeans. He hadn’t worn anything other than his mafia attire in literal years. But Mori had told him that he needed to go to America, as apparently everybody in Japan with a good ability was “either dead, captured, or in an organization already.” A month ago, a rival gang had bombed one of the Port Mafia’s ships, causing Kouyou and a couple other mafia members to die. Mori needed more ability users in the mafia after what that had done to their numbers, so Dazai was sent to America to find some. He was wandering a random street, contemplating how to go about this. After all, he couldn’t just go up to somebody and ask if they had an ability, right? That was when he saw a random girl stuffing her arm into a trash-can rather vigorously.
“Where is it? Where is it!?” She looked rather distressed. Dazai continued watching, amused. He spotted an owl in front of her, but something about it wasn’t right. It looked almost as if it was made of wood! The girl, yet to notice, continued digging, until she looked up and saw something in its mouth that Dazai hadn’t seen. It was a sack, and inside the sack was a book. He wasn’t the best at reading English, even though he could speak it quite well, so he could only make out the cover, which appeared to be of a witch holding up a staff. The book couldn’t have been very good, but the girl must have had a different opinion. “Tiny trash thief!” The girl yelled, running after the owl. Dazai was certainly intrigued. He would have moved on with his mission except…
That owl was an ability. After all, it was a bird, made of wood, following somebody’s command (that was his theory anyways). It had to be an ability, right? It’s not every day a wooden bird figures out how to use a sack and steal a book. Unless that’s a common occurrence in America. Dazai didn’t really have a clue. He took after the girl, excited to maybe get the mission done early. However, he stepped on his new, slightly too long jeans, startling the girl into looking back at him.
“Sorry, sorry!” he apologized, putting on a fake smile. “I noticed that bird stole your book and wanted to help.”
“Oh, thank you! Well, if that’s the case-” the girl suddenly grabbed his shirt, dragging him up before bolting into some sort of abandoned building. Well, that didn’t go as planned. Dazai sighed, annoyed, before sprinting off to follow the girl. He ran into the house.
“Stop adorably hopping away, you… Huh??” The house had turned into a tent of some sort. Dazai stopped, making eye contact with the girl before they both heard a voice.
“Finally, you’re back.” The voice belonged to a female, and sounded like an adult. Perhaps she was the ability user. The girl next to Dazai let out a cry of alarm and dropped the weird puppet-doll thing she had been inspecting. Dazai was peering out of the tent they were in, looking at the lady. The owl landed on a long stick, and the new lady twisted it around until the owl’s eyes closed, but there was no kanji. It wasn’t an ability. He paused to think for a second,
Fuck. Where am I? There was a forest in front of that house, but this isn’t a forest. It almost looks like a… market? Is it a teleportation ability? That makes sense, perhaps the owl lady is working with somebody. Why didn’t my ability nullify theirs then? Wait, why is the lady doing this? It’s a market, they’re probably stealing stuff and reselling it. I don’t see anybody else out there… It’s not an ability.
Dazai looked back, and sure enough, there was a door. It had a large yellow eye, and engraved on it were bird wings. Did the lady have bird-related powers? Probably. The girl beside Dazai gasped and ran out of the tent. “Excuse me, sorry, that’s mine, thank you!” Dazai internally groaned. He had realized that the woman, who on closer inspection was probably in her 40s, probably wouldn’t hurt them, but it might have been better to eavesdrop a bit longer. He glanced out of the tent a bit further, realizing what had driven her to such a reaction. The bird lady tried to burn the book. If it was that good then perhaps he should see if he could get a Japanese copy, but if Chuuya caught him reading a YA fantasy novel about witches, he was not going to live it down. Dazai readjusted his focus, realizing only a few moments had passed. The girl had just grabbed the book and was grabbing Dazai’s hand to pull him through the door and back to Connecticut. However, the Owl Lady pulled out a key from a pocket and clicked on a button similar to the yellow eye on the door, and suddenly, it closed and folded into a briefcase.
“You’re not going anywhere.” The girl shrieked, going under the tent and running. Dazai, on the other hand, stood his ground. He wanted to know more about this woman. What would be the best approach though? She didn’t look like somebody who would attack without reason, so maybe he should act all friendly.
“Hello! Sorry about her, I just met her. Could you tell me where I am?” He smiled at her, pretending to let a bit of fear show. He wasn’t scared, but if she thought he was, she would trust him more.
“Welcome, human, to the Boiling Isles! I’m Eda the Owl Lady, and this is Owlbert.” She patted the wooden bird on her staff with a toothy grin.
The Boiling Isles? Is this… another planet maybe? I need more information.
“Human? Aren’t you human too?” She wasn’t, this was obvious. Not only did she have what looked like a fang, but her skin was pure white. Not in a pale way, but her skin looked like a corpse after all the color had been drained out of it. White as paper.
“Oh, dear child. I’m not like you.” She ripped off the bandanna she had been wearing to reveal pointed ears. From outside, Dazai heard the girl scream again, and then Eda continued, ignoring the her. “I’m the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles!”
That might actually be useful. If she’s that powerful, perhaps she’d be of use to the mafia. She would definitely be able to replace Kouyou, she seems powerful enough. Perhaps Chuuya would like her, and then he’s shut up about Kouyou’s death already.
Suddenly, Dazai heard a shrill voice from outside, screaming “give me your skin!” The woman Dazai now knew as Eda walked out and Dazai followed, looking at this strange new place with something he had forgotten existed. Curiosity. (and a bit of fear, but he wasn’t going to admit it.)
“Where am I? Did I die? Am I in the bad place?” The girl looked genuinely frightened, which Dazai didn’t understand. Sure, she was a year younger than him, and sure, she probably had a “normal” upbringing, but toughen up. A year ago he had seen things much more life-threatening as a weird bug monster, not to mention the countless other weird monstrosities around them. Eda, however, seemed amused.
“You wish.” Eda grabbed the girl’s hand, and then turned to grab Dazai’s, but he stepped out of her reach. Shrugging, Eda motioned for him to follow as she led the girl to a stool in front of her market stand and sat her down.
“I’m sorry! I just wanted my book! If you’re gonna eat my skin, just make it quick, just do it now!” An hour ago, Dazai would have laughed at this girl. However, eyeing the fairy that was literally trying to eat somebody’s skin not far away from them, he understood her fear. He, personally would not have reacted that way, he was trained to never show an ounce of emotion, especially fear, but he could see how an average teenager might.