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Atsushi didn't know what he was expecting when his mentor, Dazai, and his senior, Kunikida, dragged him along for their newest emergency case.
He knew it started not even a full hour ago, he knew that the person with the ability was really stressed out, and that the ability was kinda like Demon snow, but also apparently like the Port mafia boss's ability?
What he wasn't expecting to see when they had first arrived was a guy around his own age sobbing his eyes out on a vaguely familiar bridge, hugging his knees and swamped in a large black tattered coat, as his ability flew around the air as people had scrambled to evacuate the bridge.
Said ability was like a poltergeist, a red glowing, ghostly, vestige of rage.
But for whatever reason Atsushi was more so shocked at the appearance of the ability.
It's probably because of their appearance, other than looking like an angry ghost. it looked like the user, if not a couple years older, but also if he was furious, and had been running around a forest.
Atsushi couldn’t exactly see the user very well but the ability was a lot easier to see, but from what he could observe from this distance, it was like the man made a clone of himself. Both had a big mop of messy dark hair, black for the ability and a dark brown for the person, tangled and in the politiest term: gross. The person themselves looked cleaner, but as he had said before, the ability looked like it had been surviving the wilds, especially with their hair full of rocks and dirt.
His outfit was odd, but in a few ways made sense. The man had fled from a nearby hospital, but labeled as an unknown person, no form of identification to be found. They both wore a hospital gown, which Atsushi couldn’t see well on the person, but could see well enough on the ability. He just hopes that the man’s gown was not as torn, frayed, and dirtied as the ability. It was in a variety of monotone grays and blacks. Luckily wearing a pair of shorts that the man had apparently stolen from a laundry cart in the hospital, at least from what the Agency was told.
And lastly, they were covered head to toe in bandages, much like Dazai but somehow worse.
His binds were wrapped around his finger tips to what he imagined was all the way to his shoulders, he couldn’t be sure as the large dark trench coat also covered the ability. His neck was also covered, again, reminding Atsushi of his mentor. The medical clothes went from under his knee length black pajama shorts, all the way to his feet like a pair of depressing socks.
The last bandage was wrapped around his head, not hiding disturbing his sight, but nonetheless bandaging a wound that the doctors believe gave the ability user severe amnesia. Going as far as not knowing his name nor age.
From what Atsushi could see of the man, his bandages were mostly clean, the bottoms of his feet and his hands picking up some grime, which was understandable for a city like Yokohama. And he was glad to see no bleeding from the outside of the bandages.
But for the ghost, as Atsushi has come to label him, their bandages were grimy. If the ability was a person he’d worry about an infection of some kind. Some places the cloth sagged, in others it looked like it cut off circulation, all in all it was torn and looked as if the ghost had crawled out from an imaginary grave. The part that worried him a lot was all the blood that seemed to soak from out of the binds, but what truly got him scared when he first saw the ability?
The gaping hole in the middle of the ghosts chest that the man had gratefully been reported to not have.
But in the end, it was all spooky—
-Atsushi jumped out of the way as the ability flew forward and almost landed a hit, because while it was ghostly, it landed devastating blows when it could.
Right; he was fighting the very spooky poltergeist.
The concrete that had been underneath Atsushi: shattered to pieces as the ability missed, as if to showcase how strong it was.
‘This ability had crazy spatial awareness!’ Atsushi thought as he watched the ghost swoop out of Dazai's reach gracefully and speedily with a spin, “aren’t you tricky!” Dazai snarked, his cheerful tone leaning almost a tad bit annoyed for a rare moment, which made since…
They’ve been fighting for almost 30 minutes now, none of them able to reach the ability, nor the weeping man, without being: pushed, punched, or kicked in one way or another.
So in the meantime Kunikida had advised to observe the ability, see what it could do… which was an impressive amount.
Other than the Ability being what seemed to be a master at hand to hand and in mid air combat, it had a few other abilities other than the obvious flight and on occasion in-tangibility.
Yep, it was like a scary ghost in more ways than a spooky appearance and flight.
The ghost ability can also lift what seemed to be anything while tangible, throwing chunks of concrete and railing at them three with ease, and was unfortunately able to think very fast, especially as it threw any of Kunikida's weapons right back at them….
It was also kinda of a asshole-
“And aren’t you a sneaky twat!” The ability responded to his mentors taunt with an insult of their own, an odd sounding accented Japanese that he’s still not sure where it’s from (maybe the UK? He thinks that Twat was a European insult?), and then kicks a piece of the bridge into Kunikida to make the man recede from approaching the ability user that continued to shake.
He heard Kunikida sigh as they were all back to where they started: right beside the stairs back off the bridge.
“We can’t keep doing this, the ability is stronger then we had estimated,” Kunikida pinched his nose with a free hand, “and we still have no clue why it’s attacking before we can say anything either,” Atsushi muttered out, putting his hands on his knees with a defeated sigh.
“Hmm,” Atsushi looked up to Dazai at the sound of his hum, the man putting a finger to his chin, an exaggerated thinking expression on his features. This meant that either Dazai was going to correct Atsushi and give Kunikida and himself an explanation, an explanation that would only be given if he was given something, or fake ignorance.
Atsushi had no clue which one it’d be, Dazai was like gambling machine when it came to whether or not he’d actually answer something.
For once, Dazai was being merciful… but that might just be because he wanted to get to his next attempt, again, a human gambling machine.
“The ability isn’t letting us get close for more than one reason,” Dazai said with a hand in the air and the other on his hip, as if he was having a eureka moment, “for one, they don’t trust us in the slightest,” Dazai brought his hand down to his eye level, one finger out as if to count, “they also think we are something dangerous,” oh he was counting, Dazai pointed his middle finger out along with his pointer, as if to show each reason, “and lastly, they just don’t like people in our Jane do’s personal space, and or, their job as a ability is to protect him,” Dazai counted to three, a smirk on his face,
Kunikida then spoke up, “it also seems they have a certain range they are limited too,” his hand on his chin with a genuine thoughtful expression, brows more furrowed than usual.
Atsushi stood up straight, looking back to the person and the ghost, and yeah. Atsushi couldn’t argue to say they were wrong, not like he had any to begin with, but he also had a thought of his own…
The ghost does try to hurt him too, but… the ghost never throws back Kunikida's weapons to Atsushi specifically. He’ll throw it to the other two easily, but not to him, even going as far as to avoid throwing parts of the bridge to him. Only attacking the tiger when he was using his ability, and throwing the young man when he got too close…
Tuning back into conversation when he heard a choked,” what-t -cha thinking Atsus-shii?!” A Dazai being choked out by Kunikida asked, Atsushi was really getting to good at tuning out their fights, Kunikida dropped the other detective to the floor as he looked back to the weretiger, he almost flinched when the spotlight was on him, “wel-ll…” He fiddled with his hands, “I just noticed that the ability doesn’t seem to attack me as harshly,” Atsushi nearly mumbled, but did his best to keep it clear, “huh,” he heard Dazai say from his spot on the ground, pointing a lazy finger at the young detective, “good catch!” The mentor said with an enthusiastic chuckle.
“Yes, I didn’t even notice,” Kunikida said as his face returned to that same thoughtful expression, “good job,” the man said as he patted his shoulder, Atsushi nodded and looked back to the identity-less ability and man, a risky thought planting itself in his head.
He turned back to his older co-workers, “I want to try something,” Atsushi said with determination, Kunikida raised a brow, and Dazai only tilted his head with what seemed to be curiosity, “just wait here, and don’t do anything unless I get attacked,” Atsushi said quickly, already out of Kunikida's reach before the man could even utter his loud exclamation of “WHAT!?”
Once Atsushi got to where he believed the Ability’s range started, he walked instead of running, willing himself to not activate his ability while he entered the area…
The ability stood tall on the bridge, posture rigid as ever, and glowing the same violent red. Instead of running past the ability, or attempting to fight, he asked a question,
“Is there anything I can do to help?” His voice was gentle and ever so slightly wavered, doing his best to look the ghost in their eyes. The ability tilted their head, kinda like a bird and reminiscent of Dazai's own head tilt, “if there isn’t, we’ll leave, but you and him are causing issues in a public space by attacking innocent bystanders,” Atsushi continued, despite feeling absolutely frightened, this kinda reminded him of when he had first met Kyoka and her ability.
The ghost once again looked to him almost curiously, but in a surprising twist of fate, their posture softened and their fists unclenched.
“Okay…” the ability said gently, wide eyed as Atsushi thought his own eyes were when they stepped up the side. Atsushi walked passed them slowly with a nod, still not sure what he could do to help.
Once past him, the ability returned to its original spot and regained its rigid spot, probably ready to attack his colleagues without hesitation. Atsushi could spot a Dazai with a delighted expression, hands clasped together, Kunikida on the other hand looked absolutely gobsmacked…. Atsushi felt similarly.
He turned back, and started walking up to the shaking figure on the bridge, stopping only a foot away. Again, completely unsure what to do, he sat down, and looked in the direction that the man was facing. It was to the river itself…. Oh
This is where he met Dazai and then Kunikida.
Atsushi subconsciously took on the same sitting position as the man, his knees to his chest, but instead of burying his face he rested his chin and admired the soon to be sunset….
“I met my co-workers here,” Atsushi still had no idea what he was doing, so he was just going to talk,” I was having a bad day, because I was kicked from my childhood orphanage and wasn’t given anything to survive, so I was terrified of how unsure I was of everything,” Atsushi explained with a sad smile, “the only thing I could come up with was stealing, not like I think I would’ve been successful, but it’s what I could think of,” he nearly coughed up a chuckle, but he only let out a sigh, “a little pathetic of me huh?” Atsushi mumbled out, not even sure the man could hear-
“I don’t think you're pathetic…” Atsushi looked over, suppressing a flinch at the man that even shared a voice with his ability, but instead of pound and violent or even hollow.
It was gentle and fragile.
the young man had his head lifted, his eyes puffy and red from an nearly hour long cry, the color of them a starting blue unlike his counterpart that had a gruesome red, “you..” the man swallows, looking to the horizon like Atsushi had been, “you were put into a corner and-d-d you were coming out of that place… and yeah..” the foreign accented man trailed off with a quiet sniff.
Atsushi turned back to the approaching sunset with a small more genuine smile,” thanks,” Atsushi said gently as before, after a waiting a moment for the man to say anything and only being met with silence, Atsushi continued the story of how he’d met his seniors and coincidentally when he realized he was more than a simple orphan.
When Atsushi did, he actually got the man to start talking to him, especially when he got up the part about how his ability technically had a mind of its own.
“So you can’t control her?” Atsushi smiled at the use of his abilities pronoun being used, “not when I’m fully transformed, I can control parts of her though,” Atsushi clarified, the man he’d come to know as Ghost (funny how he’d called the man’s ability ghost huh?) fiddled with his thumbs in a much more comfortable position of sitting criss-cross instead of huddled into himself, “Wilbur has a mind of his own too,” Ghost mumbled, after Atsushi had mentioned his own abilities name the man offered his own, he didn’t wait for Atsushi's response before continuing, “he kinda just does whatever he wants, which isn’t bad, he’s nice to me,” a soft smile rising on his bandaged face, “he guides me to safe places and does his best to comfort me…,” he looked to atsushi kindly but a tad bit embarrassed,
“sorry about causing a mess, I was just really stressed not knowing anything and I just…” Ghost looked at his squeezed hands and his voice was frustrated, after a moment of hesitation, Atsushi rested a hand on his shoulder, “it’s alright, I’d be scared too, and Wilbur just was trying to help, right?” Atsushi reassured taking a glance in Wilbur’s direction, his posture less battle ready than before but still turned toward Kunikida and Dazai, who were now back into another argument that Atsushi is happy to not be included in for once.
The ability had their head tilted to the side like when Atsushi had first approached, no doubt as confused as he is about Kunikida’s and Dazai's relationship, like most are.
“Yeah,” the ability turned their head to them two, before looking… a little guilty, “sorry for trying to hurt you and your blonde haired friend,” they shoved their hands into their pockets, looking into the sunset with a huff, Atsushi couldn’t help the amused smile that appeared on his face, “Dazai made quite the impression?” The tiger also could y stop his amused tone, Wilbur gave him a raised brow, “I stand by the fact that’s he’s a Twat,” they deadpanned.
Atsushi chuckled, before doing his best to look to them both, “is there anyway I could take you two the agency so I can help you two get pardons from the…”Atsushi gestured as he asked his question, the bridge still majorly damaged.
Ghost and Wilbur looked to one another as a silent conversation, or maybe they could hear each other's thoughts(?), took place. After a minute or so of expressions and gestures Atsushi could only imagine Ranpo successfully translating, Ghost looked to Atsushi with another smile, “we’d appreciate the assistance,” the tone nervous but genuine overall.
Atsushi internally celebrated, he did actually help!