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It was a calm day in Yokohama. Well, as calm as a day in Yokohama could be. The sun was hiding behind calm, white and cotton-like clouds, and a soft breeze traveled across the city.
Everything seemed to be normal, just like it should be, just like it most often isn't. In the Armed Detective Agency's office, most of the agents were just finishing their work before lunch break. Then they'd go grab a lunch from a closeby restaurant, just like they almost always would. Almost nothing was out of the ordinary, and even that in itself should have been a warning sign.
There was however one unusual thing in all of it. That being the absence of a certain loud and obnoxious brunet. The absence itself was frequent enough to not raise red flags, which in itself should be a red flag, like who slips off work frequently enough for it to become a normal occurance? Dazai Osamu, evidently.
One of the newer agents, Atsushi Nakajima, did notice the absence, but didn't think of it much, having already gotten used to his mentor's antics despite it having been barely half a year since his joining.
The whole day went by flawlessly. So did the next day. And the next. By the time four completely Dazai-less days had gone by, everyone at the office had noticed. Even Kunikida seemed to be visibly worried. Last time Dazai had disappeared for this long without a warning, he had gotten himself kidnapped by the Port Mafia, and that had been before their truce.
"Where the hell is that slacker at!?" Kunikida huffed as the fifth day without the suicidal maniac started.
Nobody answered him, nobody having an answer to satisfy the question. Kunikida sighed in defeat, shaking his head before opening his laptop and starting up on paperwork leftovers from the previous evening.
"I have to admit, this is starting to be a bit worrying. I mean, the last time he was gone out this long was when he was kidnapped, right?" Jun'ichiro hesitantly broke the tense silence that had built up in the office without anyone noticing. "And the time before that, he had gotten himself stuck on a rope in the woods, was it?"
Yosano, the agency's doctor, mused thoughtfully, resting her chin on her fist and spinning a small knife in her free hand. "Yeah, that man really has a knack for all trouble."
The tense silence followed again, this time Kenji, the ever enthusiastic farmboy, disturbing the delicate quiet.
"Should we find him? What if he's stuck somewhere again?" and while he did make a point, nobody actually knew where to even start looking. None of them even knew where Dazai lived half the time when he couldn't be found at the agency dorms.
Nobody except Ranpo, probably, since that genius bastard could figure it in seconds. If he cared enough, that is. Luckily for them, the master detective was easily won over with the appropiate amount of sweets, or, in dire cases, getting the President on their side and making him to get Ranpo to oblige.
This time however Ranpo didn't even need that much convincing. And if that didn't speak volumes of how wierd and frankly suspicious the whole situation felt, then nothing did.
And true to his reputation, Ranpo figured out the general area where Dazai would be at in less than eight seconds (and if that was because Ranpo knew about where Dazai lived, nobody needed to know). Even after all the months working with the man, it never ceased to amaze even the longest-standing members of the agency just how quickly every piece fell in place in Ranpo's brain.
And so, they went to search for Dazai. Yosano, Kunikida and Atsushi were the ones chosen for the task, Yosano for if anyone would need first aid, as she was most definetly the best at it, Kunikida for being work partners with the missing man, and Atsushi because he forced himself to the group. He wanted to make sure that Dazai was okay. If not for anything else, to stop Kunikida from berating and possibly slapping Dazai's head, and to stop Yosano from sitting back and watching it like her wierd western romance novels Atsushi had seen her read on the breaks sometimes.
As they walked to the district Ranpo had pointed them to, Atsushi couldn't help but wonder why Dazai would be here, nothing against the upper middle-class housing district they were walking through, but Dazai didn't seen like a person to be in a place quite nice as this. Not that Dazai wasn't well off, not at all, he seemed to be quite well off, actually, despite his looks. Well that sounded bad too. Atsushi gave up, focusing on checking the map again.
According to it, and the small markings made on it, Dazai should be somewhere near, maybe in the park that seemed to be at the edge of the residential district, or perhaps even inside one of the houses lining the street.
Atsushi looked up "Did Ranpo say anything more concrete than just this district? It seems a bit... broad."
Yosano didn't stray her gaze from where she was glaring down at the windows of every house they passed, as if expecting to see Dazai just by the willpower. "He did say that he was more likely to be inside a house than outside. But then again, Ranpo is Ranpo. You'd think he'd stop making our job harder by leaving out information, but oh well." She said, never looking at Atsushi for longer than a second.
In the end it took nearly ten minutes until they found the possibly correct house. The only reason they knew it could be correct at all, was the faint kanji for "Dazai" embedded to the mailbox. The house was small-ish, but still bigger than most apartments. It was a bigger house evidently divided into four, like an apartment building except there wasn't a second floor and you could enter every flat from outside and there wasn't a common area.
When they tried to knock on the door and to ring the doorbell, nobody came to answer. They stood there for ten minutes, and decided to ask a neighbor.
Kunikida was the one to knock on the door. His knocks resonated with the white wood, and it wasn't too long, maybe a minute or so, before someone opened the door, not completely, just enough to peer outside and to speak for the unexpected visitors.
"Do you lot need something?" someone none of the three quite recogniced from the voice, asked, their face fairly neutral.
"Excuse us, but does anyone by the name Dazai Osamu live here?" Yosano asked politely, bowing her head in a silent greeting, to which the other just gtunted in acknowledgement.
"Ah, that wierdo," the man tsk-ed, before nodding his head to the side. "Used to be my neighbor. Moved out recently."
"Ah, I see. Thank you. Have a good day sir." Kunikida thanked him and the trio left, and returned to the agency to report the findings to Ranpo.
"He wasn't there?" Ranpo mused. Ehen he heard Dazai had moved, he seemed contemplative. "Has anyone even chacked his dorm?"
And Kenji had. It had been the first place checked. He hadn't been let in, or in the very least hadn't answered or made a single sound.
Ranpo seemed to decide that he had had enough of the chaos, tenseness and worry that surrounded the days. So, he dragged Yosano and Atsushi with him to the agency dorms with him, and Yosano and Atsushi trusted him enough with this, and complied easily enough.
"Dazai? You better open the door now. I know you are home," Ranpo knocked on the door with the sign 'dazai', getting only heavy silence as an answer. This did little to nothing to deter the world's greatest detective, however, as his fist pounded against the wooden door again, and again, and again. "Dazai, open the door. I know you can hear me and I am going to break this door down if you do not even answer."
This time with the oppressive silence there could be heard faint shuffling noices from inside the dorm.
Ranpo waited for nearly a minute, before kneeling down and holding his hand out to Yosano, who seemed to know what Ranpo meaned, as she took a bobby pin out from her hair and placing it to Ranpo's waiting hand.
Atsushi could just watch in facination as the older man lockpicked the door, as if he had done so times and times before. Actually, knowing him, it was probably true.
After a moment of quiet filled with soft clicks, clacks, rustling and finally, the small noice indicating the door having been unlocked, and Ranpo opened the door to Dazai's apartment.
Now, if it had been any other of Atsushi's coworkers, he wouldn't have cared so much, but this was the Osamu Dazai's apartment, who never let anyone in his space unless necessary.
Atsushi got a glance in, the view opening directly to the living area, just like Atsushi's own did. But Dazai's was much more messy, much more dirty. There was, from what Atsushi could see, a small pile of hastily discarded clothes having formed in a corner infront of a small clithes rack with only a basic coat, pants and a tie hanging from it, everything else seemingly on the pile.
There was only a futon, only partly in view from the entrance, and a small table in the common area. The comforter was in a crumpled mess on the other side of the room and there was the faint smell of alcohol in the air. If Atsushi looked closely, he could see a bottle of something laying on the ground next to the table, partly shattered as if it had been carelessly swiped off it and forgotten about. It was hard to spot in the lighting of the room, the only sources of light being a smaller light from further in the apartment, and the sun barely shining in from the doorway, illuminating the silhouette of Ranpo, peeking in further.
They could hear something being dropped on the ground, and Ranpo and Yosano wasted no time in entering the apartment, Atsushi lagging a bit behind, hesitant of breaching his mentors privacy.
Yosano turned the corner, speed walking, while Ranpo stayed back, with a rare grimace on his face. He stopped Atsushi before he could look around the corner.
"You don't need to see this, kid," Ranpo said, his voice uncharaterically soft and quiet. "He's going to be okay. You can go."
Atsushi stood there for a moment before choosing to go inform that Dazai was not missing anymore. He looked back hesitantly. "You will tell us how he is, right?"
"Yeah, kid. I will update you after. Now shoo."
Atsuhi returned to the agency to report the findings, that Dazai was alive and somewhat alright. He was still a bit unconvinced on that front, but ranpo would tell them if his state got bad, right?