Chapter Text
"A weretiger?" Dazai says, sat down in his seat lazily, making a paper aeroplane.
"Yes, a weretiger," Kunikida begins, "it's been set loose and is now roaming about Yokohama terrorising people and places, it's going through people's garbage and making a mess of it, or killing animals whether it's birds on the pavement or people's housepets. We need to capture it before either it gets itself or the port mafia take it in."
"Port mafia? Whyd they wanna take it in" Dazai raises a brow, assuming this weretiger isn't just some tiger set loose as Kunikida had made it in appear in the conversation."
"It's an ability user, Ranpo told me so."
"An ability user.... and port mafia would take it in if they found out about this weretiger.. alright then," Dazai stands up, stretching out from being sat down for so long, "ah~ let's go capture it then!"
And so Dazai and Kunikida leave the Agency and make their way towards every place they believe the weretiger may be lounging at. People's garbage, small parks where children play, coops that house chickens, alleyways where people's cats sit, etc.
Eventually, they come across a boy sat at the river drinking greedily from it, the water is definitely dirty.
"That boy," Dazai crosses his arms, "it's the weretiger, I know it."
"How do you know that?" Kunikida asks, raising a brow.
"Just.. trust me. It's hard to explain." Dazai shrugs, then walks up to the boy with confidence.
"It's not good to drink dirty water like that in a river, it's full of bacteria and you'll get a stomach ache." Dazai says, smiling as his coat blows in the wind.
The boy slows turns his head to look at Dazai, swallowing the water hastily. The boy's mouth is coated in blood, and therefore Dazai pales.
"I-" Dazai is cut off by Kunikida pushing Dazai out the way and looking at the boy.
"Hey! Who are you and why do you have blood on you!?" Kunikida yells pointing at the boy, which in response the boy looks terrified and begins to shake.
The boy's clothes are stained with red, his mouth painted with dried up blood and traces of the dirty water he was just drinking.
"K-kunikida! Stop that, you're gonna scare him away." Dazai puts a hand on Kunikida, then looks at the boy, "Well, I think it's proven this boy is the weretiger. What's your name?"
The boy doesn't respond, just sits there shaking.
"I dont think he can talk, Dazai." Kunikida says, looking the boy up and down.
The boy crouches over a little, looking down at the pavement beneath them all.
"He looks like he's in pain, probably from that water he just drank," Dazai crosses his arm, "ahah, I told ya."
"What are we supposed to do??" Kunikida looks at Dazai.
Dazai then picks up the boy by the waist and rests the boy's head against his shoulder, "We'll take him in. He has no idea what's going on anyways."
"I.. isn't that dangerous!?" Kunikida says.
"Look at himmm ku~ni~ki~da~! He's a good boy!" Dazai smiles as the boy rests contently on Dazai's shoulder, seemingly too tired to try squirm out of Dazai's grasp.
Both men bring the young boy back to the agency, and Dazai lays him down on the couch to rest.
Ranpo looks over from his desk, "is that the weretiger?"
Dazai nods, "we found him covered in blood drinking dirty water, he has a stomach ache now, he was too pained and tired to try repell against us! Poor boy!"
"And what if he vomits everywhere?" Ranpo says, knowing Dazai didn't think twice about that outcome.
"Uhh.... maybe.. he'll be good and hold it in?" Dazai smiles.
"He's still an animal, he's definitely just going to vomit whenever he feels like it." Ranpo huffs, annoyed at Dazai's stupidity.
Dazai grabs a trash can and places it next to the boy's head, then sits down and lifts up the boy's shirt to place a hand on his stomach, "oh– shit, he's really bloated. He's definitely got a stomach bug from that water in the river," Dazai says, beginning to rub the boy's belly gently to ease any discomfort.
"He should be glad we found him before he drank anymore, poor boy probably has no idea why he's in so much pain and would continue drinking that until he puked his guts out.." Kunikida sighs, crossing his arms.
"He's acting quite compliant, is he drugged?" Ranpo asks casually.
".. it wouldn't seem unusual if someone were to have drugged him while he terrorised around Yokohama. That must be why he's so calm and not trying to attack us.
The boy whimpers, and Dazai pushes the can closer to his head just incase.
"Do you know his name?" Ranpo asks, "you can't just keep referring to him as his gender."
"I tried asking him, though I'm not sure he can speak. He looks quite young." Dazai replies.
"Well, it probably won't be that hard to figure out who he is, he's an ability user and his hair sticks oit loke a sore thumb so i could try both those things to find his identity." Ranpo suggests, referring to the boy's white hair with black stripes, probably from his ability.
Dazai hums in agreement and continues gently caressing the boy as he occasionally whimpers.