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Kunikida stumbled down the corridor, clutching his bleeding stomach with one hand, holding his gun aloft with the other. He and the other members of the Armed Detective Agency had managed to infiltrate the headquarters of the terrorist organization Black Roses, but someone had tipped them off about the ADA's plan and they'd been ambushed and separated.
Kunikida knew exactly who the traitor was.
He had hoped and prayed with all his belief that it wasn't true, but it all fit too perfectly. The sneaking around, the suspicious emails, the uncanny knowledge of how the Black Roses operated-they were all pieces of a jigsaw puzzle unveiling the ugly truth:
Osamu Dazai had betrayed everyone.
Kunikida cursed himself over and over again for not realizing it sooner. He knew Dazai better than anyone. Dazai told him once that he taught the demon prodigy how to love again, and maybe, just maybe, find meaning in life.
How could he have been so wrong?
At the end of the corridor, there was a dark grey metal door, unguarded. Kunikida suspected that Dazai was in the room behind it, as that was the main control room of all the Black Roses' operations. The others had managed to draw the guards away. He took a deep, shaky breath and steadied himself. He swore that he would confront Dazai himself. He holstered his gun. He couldn't use that one, as it was created using his ability, so it wouldn't work on Dazai. He pulled out another one, a sleek black pistol. It would find its mark, no matter the target. Kunikida prepared to kick down the door, but found that it was already unlocked. Standing in the centre of the room, arms behind his back, was Dazai.
His first and only love, now a traitor who he had to kill for the safety of the world.
The ghost of a smile flickered on Dazai's lips. "You......" began Kunikida, struggling to find the words. He shook his head in disbelief. It couldn't be true, could it? Even though Dazai stood in front of him, so clearly on the wrong side, Kunikida still couldn't bring himself to believe it. "Why'd you do it?" he finally managed to say. He looked Dazai dead in the eye, looking for some signs of remorse. But his eyes were cold, like a candle blown out on a dark winter's night. "Why did you betray us, you bandage-wasting bastard?"
Dazai simply shrugged. "I guess I just want to watch the world burn. That includes you."
His words hit Kunikida like a dagger to the chest. His vision suddenly turned blurry with tears. Had Dazai's heart finally turned dead and cold? Or was it always like this? Were all of the nights spent together staring at the stars from atop a hill bathed in moonlight, insisting that they couldn't outshine their partner's radiance, long walks along the pier, their hands interlocked, the sea breeze ruffling their hair and carrying their tender conversations, the quiet moments where they sat at the kitchen countertop drinking sake in silence at 2a.m. after one of them had a nightmare, just threads in Dazai's web of deceit?
Kunikida had fallen for Dazai and every one of his lies.
Did everyone else know that Kunikida was a helpless insect trapped in Dazai's web, too intoxicated by his deep brown eyes which hid sadness even when lit up by laughter, by his soft, gorgeous locks tumbling down his face, his smirk and mysterious charm, his humour, which Kunikida claimed to be exasperated by, his determination and hidden bravery? Could everyone around him see through Dazai's mask except him? Did he want to believe in Dazai's better nature so badly that he tricked himself into thinking that the demon prodigy had a human side to him?
Kunikida raised his gun with trembling hands and aimed it at Dazai. "Shut up!" he yelled, his voice cracking. "That's not true, I know it isn't. What happened to the Osamu Dazai I fell in love with?" Dazai pulled out a gun from behind his back and lazily held it aloft. There was no change in his expression. "A word of advice, Kunikida-kun. Don't try and fix something that's been broken beyond repair."
At the back of his Dazai's mind, a small voice would whisper to him, "Don't do this. Remember Odasaku. Remember how you promised him to become a better man? Is this how you do it?" Over the course of the past few months, when he joined the Black Roses, that voice had gotten quieter and quieter, drowned out by the eternal black void of his apathy and exhaustion with the world. But it still grew a bit stronger every time he was with Kunikida. Kunikida had made him a better man, or tried to-but Dazai's inner darkness, his urge to destroy everything he sees, had foiled his partner's efforts. A small part of Dazai wanted to drop his gun, he wanted to tell Kunikida that he was a double agent, sent by Fukuzawa to infiltrate them, or that they forced him to join their ranks, threatening to hurt Kunikida if he didn't. But that was a lie. He joined them because, like them, he wanted to burn the world to the ground. The world was too horrible a place to preserve, and life was too meaningless to live. Dazai's hand didn't quaver even slightly as he aimed a gun at the man he thought would finally make his life worth living. His eyes never left Kunikida, whose hand was trembling with the gun aimed at him. He watched the desperate tears run down his face. He felt no sympathy, nor did he derive any pleasure from it. He'd once sworn to himself that he'd never make Kunikida cry, that he wouldn't hurt him, wouldn't let this wonderful idealistic ideal man be broken and shattered by him.
He'd broken that promise, but he didn't feel anything. The shards of that shattered promised pierced his mind, but caused him no agony, just dissolving into the dark numbness that consumed his whole being. He just wished that he hadn't deluded himself into thinking that he could actually care for someone for so long. It'd taken him long enough to realize, and when he did, he answered the Black Roses' call for new members in their ranks.
Kunikida forced himself to steady. He forced the pragmatic, responsible detective in him to come to the fore, to push away the heartbroken lover to the darkest corners of his mind, to be locked away and dealt with later. His aim steadied, the gun staring at Dazai's chest. He's just a traitor who works for an enemy terrorist organization who needs to be eliminated, Kunikida told himself. Don't waste your tears on this treacherous rat. His strength was sapping fast, and he felt the wet and sticky bloodstain across his entire stomach. Kunikida's shock and grief hardened into steely, cold rage, and he gripped his gun more tightly, glaring at Dazai.
Dazai raised an eyebrow. "Are you really going to shoot me, Kunikida-kun?" There was the ghost of a smirk on his lips. "You have no idea what I'm capable of doing, Osamu. No fucking idea." Dazai raised his gun, with a grip as tight as Kunikida's. "What's stopping me from lowing your brains out right now?" "A bullet to the heart." A single tear running down his face, carving a new path over dried tear tracks slipped down Kunikida's face. His finger tightened around the trigger, and he sent a bullet flying into the heart of the only man he'd ever loved.
There's just no time to die.
~THE END~