Chapter Text
The office felt naturally quiet. Kunikida can calmly concentrate on his work. Yosano doesn’t have to face the man who reminds her so much of Mori. Kyouka accepts the circumstances easily since the day she was born. Atsushi might be a little sad but he has hardened his heart to face a corpse any day. Kenji’s smile has almost returned to normal. Junichirou has his doubts about defection but he doesn’t want to disagree with the President. Fukuzawa is usually unreadable but Mori is surely making fun of him too much. Ranpo always had a big mystery within that man, he still has a big mystery about that man but he has decided to maintain the way the juniors are coping with the situation by not bringing him up. Dazai Osamu has disappeared into thin air. No one has seen him for four months. The initial worry has disappeared because this is not the first time he has done this. He had betrayed the mafia earlier, and no one knows what that man was planning anyways. He trusted no one.
Dazai Osamu was a peculiar man. He always planned out the ‘incidents’ that would occur in Yokohama. He predicted almost every outcome possible and sometimes his plans rechecked with Ranpo. He was an important member of the agency indeed, but he also liked to keep a boundary. No one knew about his past and probably no one was interested. The Agency was not full of happy people.
“Ranpo-san seems to be thinking again...” Atsushi thought to himself while filing a report.
Nakajima Atsushi had a difficult past. He has gone through in the orphanage things that a child should never know about, he was told that he is worthless. Kunikida’s ideals sometimes haunted him. Yosano had a past with Mori, that itself is a warning. Fukuzawa has killed people, Kenji restricts his meals to use his ability, Kyouka is recovering from her past, and Junichirou probably had a difficult family life. What about Dazai? He was an unaffected man, or at least he looked like one. Yosano probably hated Dazai Osamu. This man was a split image of Mori. She was also disgusted by the fact that even after spending so much time with the monster, Dazai was unaffected and sometimes even sided with him. Ranpo knew a lot but it was still not enough; Dazai was the worst puzzle (with lost pieces and broken images).
It was an autumn morning, work hours just started and everyone was working peacefully. It raised a strange feeling in their chest but none decided to speak about it. There is no one to annoy Kunikida. It was strange but true. They always hoped, just hoped... that maybe the man would return jokingly, laugh about his other failed suicide attempt and be the menace to society that he is. And that was not happening.
It was at this moment that the door of the agency flung open, startling everyone in the office. A man with fiery orange hair and an angry expression stood there. Executive Nakahara Chuuya was easy to recognize by almost everyone, but also a threat. Kunikida pointed his gun at him, “Why are you here?”
“I am not here to fight.” He moved aside the open door and a woman could be seen. She was looking down and her bangs covered most of her features. She was dressed very modestly in a white dress. But most in the agency recognized the brown hair and bandages. That's right, bandages.
“Dazai-san!?!?” Atsushi almost cried at the sight. He couldn’t comprehend the sudden gender change but that woman was certainly their Dazai. Rest everyone went wide-eyed. Their lazy co-worker whom they had expected to be either dead or deflected, was now a woman? And why with Nakahara Chuuya?
“Yaa Atsushi-kun... how are you doing?” The woman spoke up. The pitch was a lot higher but the words and the tone; It was Dazai Osamu. Everyone pointed their guns down when Dazai started walking into the office, still not looking up.
“...I sort of miscalculated.”
Chuuya was sitting on his couch with a bottle of wine. He was too tired to get a glass and probably didn’t want to break any more of those in rage. He knew he had messed up big the moment he returned home that night. It was a pretty normal night for him, somewhat four months ago. He had accompanied his Ane-san for a drink in a bar outside mafia territory after his work and was about to return to his penthouse. That was exactly when his eyes fell on a prostitute. She was probably sedated and could barely even blink. She was dressed in a loose white juban complimenting her chocolate-coloured hair and eyes. The centre owner immediately noticed his interests and along with the tipsiness of alcohol, it happened. She had tried to resist, but the drugs didn’t let her and she would’ve been no match for him even when sober. Now that he remembers, the girl was probably shocked to see him and throughout the ‘night’, she glanced at him with familiar pleading eyes. He was such a fool, he thinks now.
He only realized the horror of the situation when he woke up the next morning on his bed (he returned home of course) and read a mail from his boss. “Dazai-kun has disappeared.”
He immediately went wide-eyed as the pieces started coming together and in the headache caused by the hangover, he realized that he had fucked up. Okay, the bandages were missing, but other than that it was the mackerel bastard and he should’ve seen that! He knew that he was in the mafia and surely wasn’t a nice law-abiding citizen, but something inside him knew that he was so wrong. And since then he’s been searching, through underlings, through everything else, through every available source he’s been searching. He was informed that the ADA fuckers had stopped the investigation and that raged him. Dazai decided to work for these bastards who just decide that he was dead? It felt ridiculous...
He wanted to tell someone about it. Many a time Kouyo worried about him, “Lad have you forgotten that he betrayed us? YOU, of all people, should know that Dazai Osamu is loyal to no one! You are hurting yourself Chuuya, you need to stop this...” He wanted to tell her why he was so sure that Dazai was in trouble (he was the reason for it) but he could not. He was ashamed of himself. How could he tell his Ane-san that his partner (or ex-partner) had turned into a girl and he fucked her? How could he tell her that the next morning when he rushed to the brothel, he didn’t find him there? How could he tell her that HE or anyone else couldn’t recognize those pleading eyes? How would he meet the eyes of his Ane-san ever again? Fucking God! He needed a drink...
And there he was, drinking wine from a bottle instead of a glass. He was thinking about Dazai’s co-workers, he blamed them of course but he wasn't stupid enough to think that they didn't care about the mackerel at all. They did care and if he didn’t meet Dazai that night, he would probably come to the same conclusion as them... and so he shouldn’t blame them too much. While in his thoughts, loud and continuous banging started on his door. ‘If this is some grunt from work I swear I am going to snap someone’s skull open.’ was what he thought. What he said though was not much better.
“Stop the absurd knocking; it's three fucking am!!” he screamed while walking towards the door but the banging didn’t stop and there was no voice heard. Chuuya opened the door with an angry expression and FUCK!!!! He might have made too much of a surprised expression that the woman at the door decided to look away. Yes, it was a woman.
“Dazai...?” he felt a somewhat mixture of shock, fear, a little relief and yet mostly guilt. (He decided not to think any further about the fact that Dazai is still taller than him even when he looks so pathetic.) He was wearing thin tattered clothing, no shoes, and hair grown long. He noticed that his bandages were there and knew that he had been somewhere, with someone, not just roaming through streets....and there were wounds--- torture? He quit thinking for some time. “Do you want to come inside?” he asked almost in a whisper and she nodded, their eyes still not meeting.
Chuuya moved aside and Dazai walked in. There was silence for a few seconds before Dazai spoke up for the first time, “Let me stay the night and take me to the agency tomorrow.” There was a nod from Chuuya and that was that. He obeyed naturally without questioning much but they were still just standing there.
“Can I tell anyone that you’re here?”
“Who?”
“Akutagawa siblings... they’ve been worried and... you will probably need clothes...”
Dazai nodded again and Chuuya handed him a towel, first aid kit and bandages then pointed towards the bathroom. ‘He probably wouldn’t like it if I’m too clingy’ Chuuya thought to himself while he texted Akutagawa.
“Come to my penthouse immediately with your sister, it's about Dazai. Also, tell her to bring a set of clothes and shoes, there’s a woman here who will need those.” Short and simple. He ignored what his subordinates might think knowing that he brought over a woman and boldly told them about it. Well, he wasn't the player kind of guy and they would understand why when they get here. The real player looks like he's dying right now. He decided to wait while Dazai would probably take his time and also saw the immediate reply from Akutagawa, “Yes sir.” (He is questioning why this man is awake at 3 in the morning but it's convenient for now and that’s all that matters.)
“ I need more wine”