Chapter 1: A new threat
Notes:
Please read the tags. In every chapter I will include tw that are specific to the chapter. English is not my first language so bear with me. All the characters look like they look in the manga. (so Aku has black eyes, not silver, Atsushi has white hair with black piece, Chuuya has brown eyes and chain on his hat, etc.) There will also be references to the manga-only moments and to Beast manga (but no spoilers, dw)
With all that said, please enjoy!
(TW: descriptions of violence, injuries and dead bodies, referenced sa)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The ocean breeze of the noon lunch break was calming and refreshing at the same time as the sun was slowly calming down with the piercing rays of heat. Clouds were rather helpful in not overheating on this beautiful spring day. Everything seemed so peaceful as a pair siblings sat on a bench while enjoying a treat. The bond born in pain is sometimes as strong as the one made by the shared blood. The two of them were the best example of that. Nakajima Atsushi never had any family before he joined the Armed Detective Agency, but now he felt like he finally found one and in his eyes Izumi Kyouka was his dearest sister.
They were enjoying the spring air and their crepes. The conversation they led wasn’t about anything special or important. They simply appreciated each other's company as they ate their food and occasionally exchanged some words. Atsushi was grateful for the moment of peace after everything that happened. It wasn’t so long ago when he and enemy/partner fought against the members of Rats in the House of the Dead. Sometimes he still couldn’t believe that the Cannibalism virus situation didn't end up in major bloodshed between the Port Mafia and the ADA, but instead in a truce. The two organisations recognised that peace and the good of Yokohama had to come before their differences. That didn’t necessarily mean they started to be friendly with each other but rather simply civil. No fighting but no love either. Only helping when the situation would be beneficial to resolve for the other party of the treaty as well. Just like the situation that Atsushi was about to get informed of.
The ringing in his pocket interrupted his chatter with Kyouka, who seemed more interested in the crepes in her hand than the conversation with him. Atsushi begrudgingly answered his phone as he saw who the caller was.
“Yes, Dazai?” he said with a sigh.
“Atsushi, I am deeply hurt by your lack of enthusiasm to see me calling. How could you treat your poor mentor like that?” The fake cry of sorrow in his voice would be convincing, maybe if Dazai put even a little bit of effort into his usual act.
“I am always happy to receive a call from you, Dazai, but right now I’m on my lunch break with Kyouka, so if it’s not important, I would…” he didn't get to finish as the other interrupted him.
“Of course it's important, my dear student! I’m calling you to tell you about the next big mission that’s coming your way.” he said with joy forgetting his sadness that was present just a second ago. “But for more information you would have to come back to the agency.”
“Is there anything that you can now tell me about it?” as saying this Atsushi sight again, unhappy that his bliss was coming to an end.
“Nope!” and with that, the great Dazai had hung up on his favourite student.
All Atsushi could do now was to stare with annoyance at his phone as it made the noise indicating the ended call. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he closed his flip phone. As he turned his head torward Kyouka, he smiled trying to not look irritated. She looked at him as well, while finishing her food.
“Sorry, Kyouka. Dazai just called to tell me to get back to the agency now, so he can discuss a new mission with me. You don’t need to go back right now, you still have some time on your break” he said as he started getting up from the bench.
“It’s fine, Atsushi. I will go with you, I have some paperwork to do anyways. Maybe I will be able to finish earlier so I can work on my homework too.” She got up as well and started to lead the way back.
Atsushi nodded as he followed her and quickly finished his food in two bites. Lately Kyouka and Kenji started having lessons with Kunikida, who tried to give them basic education, despite being forced to grow up so quickly at such a young age. Atsushi was very happy and proud of her desire to learn and her intelligence. He knew that Kunikida used to be a math teacher so he knew her education was in trustful hands. He was sure she would grow up to be a very bright and smart lady. Since joining the Armed Detective Agency she grew so much in such a short time. He was truly amazed by her progress on her healing journey as well as her education. She was finally starting to act like a child her age and not a depressed adult, who lost all will to live. Of course not everything was all sunshine and rainbows, she had her moments when the nightmares and her past were too much, but Atsushi was always there for her, when she needed support. Sometimes he would even envy her ability to put herself together despite the misery her mind was putting her in. He was older than her but she still seemed mentally stronger than he could ever be. His trauma seemed to never leave his side. He still could see his Headmaster following him like the ghost he was. Always there to remind him he didn’t belong anywhere. Always the outcast, always the pun to everyone's joke, always the burden to others. The visions of the nightmare in a human form seemed to appear less and less since the day of the fight against Ivan Goncharov. He could still hear the conversation with his enemy/partner. His words seemed to weirdly calm his mind down. Sometimes it was hard to hate the Port Mafia member. At times it looked like he was the only one to truly understand his sorrow. Most of the time the only thing that was on their minds was to murder the other and hide his body so no one would ever find it, but there were also the rare moments when they had very deep conversations in only a few words and exchanged looks. The big dark eyes of the mafioso always seemed to look deep into his soul like he was looking for something, but never seemed to find anything to his satisfaction. Those eyes were more often than not on Atsushi’s mind nowadays. He couldn’t get rid of the sight of them and the long dark lashes that complemented beautifully the nearly black irises. Atsushi didn’t even mind the dark circles that were under them, which were a clear sign of the sleep deprivation the mafioso was suffering from. Most of the missions they had together were towards the evening or even into the night so Atsushi never really had the opportunity to look at them closely in the full natural lighting. He was always wondering if those orbs were truly black or were there some bright elements to them. Akutagawa and him did not have an exactly friendly relationship so it looked like Atsushi would not get a chance to study them up close. He was left to wonder, but that wasn’t the only part of Akutagawa’s appearance (or rather body) he found himself thinking about lately. He would often wonder about if his hair was soft or how his skin would feel under his touch, about whose hands were bigger or if they would fit well together. All the thoughts always remained in the innocent and pure territory, Atsushi had too much respect and not enough courage to think about anything remotely close to sexual when it came to the mafioso. It didn’t help that he was actively in denial about his own feelings toward the other man. They were just enemies/partners, that was all there was to it and nothing more. It was completely normal for Atsushi to acknowledge the beauty of the mafioso, there was nothing wrong or abnormal about it. That would be true if not for the amount or the frequency of those thoughts “just acknowledging his beauty” that he had. Everyone had their qualities, even people like Akutagawa, who was a cold and vicious mafioso. If there was one technique Atsushi has mastered since he joined the agency, it would be the ability to gaslight himself into thinking that his feelings for Akutagawa were only on the platonic level and that at best he just tolerated the mafioso and nothing more. Atsushi was truly a master at his craft.
The walk to the agency was short and sweet. The weather was still enjoyable as they reached their place of work. When they opened the door the usual chaos was not present, probably because the other detectives had not returned to the office yet. The only ones already here were Kunikida and unsurprisingly Dazai who was the one to request Atsushi’s presence earlier.
“Ah Atsushi and Kyouka! How nice to see you already here! I am glad you came here so quickly as it’s a very important matter. Others are waiting in the conference room already.” Dazai welcomed them with a warm but yet fake smile.
“Kyouka, you are welcome to join us, but there will be a separate meeting after this one to inform everyone else about the details of the situation that we will be evaluating now. If you wish, you can skip it now or enjoy your break time left. It’s up to you, but I feel I must inform you that the current meeting will include some of the Port Mafia members, so it’s understandable if you don’t feel comfortable joining us.” Kunikida added while standing up from his desk and walking over to them. At that moment everyone shifted their attention towards the young detective awaiting her answer.
“It’s fine, Mr Kunikida. I would prefer to work on my homework and paperwork that I have left. I will join the later meeting.” with that she bowed her head to him which he answered with the same gesture, but also with a small smile and she walked over to her desk to start her tasks.
As Kyouka was sitting down at her desk the other men made their way to the conference room. Atsushi was the last one to enter the room and as he was closing the door he looked at everyone present. One person in particular caught his attention. Of course it was none other than his enemy/partner in all his brooding and gloomy glory. With arms crossed on his chest, tapping his black chipped nails on his arm while he was looking at the wall before him and making no effort to acknowledge the staring weretiger, who just entered the room. Atsushi was hoping that nobody noticed the way he looked at the other or how long he was staring before finally sitting down. Luck must have been on his side that day because the only empty seat left was right in front of his enemy/partner. Right as he sat down he finally noticed the other present people. In the row in front of him, left to Akutagawa was sitting the mafia executive Nakahara Chuuya and on the right was Higuchi Ichiyo, who seemed more interested in talking to her boss than the meeting itself. Atsushi sat right next to Dazai, then on his right was Ranpo, who was facing an unoccupied seat by any mafia members. Ranpo was more busy with his snacks than anything happening in the room. Dazai was trying to annoy Kunikida and Chuuya at the same time and judging by their angry screams he was successful in doing so. Only when the President of the ADA entered the room did the chaos stop.
“We are all here to discuss a matter of the highest priority, so I trust that we can all remain professional while the meeting lasts.” he said as he made his way to sit next to the projector screen close to Ranpo, while looking directly at Dazai, who tried to look as innocent as a newborn puppy. “Please Kunikida, begin the meeting as I believe everyone needed is already present.”
With that Kunikida has cleared his throat and begun to open the session, he did not try to welcome the guests from the mafia, but instead he got immediately to the matter at hand.
“Both our organizations have started receiving reports about mysterious disappearances and brutal deaths.” With a click of the remote control, the projector showed on the screen behind him photos of the massacred bodies. They all looked like they suffered from torture and death didn’t come soon enough to relive them from pain. Atsushi was used to by now to the sight of death, but he still felt like his lunch wanted to leave his body the second he had seen the corpses. “Many of those victims were minor mafia members and some small criminals like drug dealers, prostitutes or thieves. Some of the victims were also honest and hardworking citizens, who just were the families of those small criminals or just people who had no other means to have normal jobs. Many of them were from Suribachi city and most of them had already existing criminal records in the Yokohama police database, but the authorities were unable to discover anything of importance about the culprit.” If you looked very closely you could see for a split second the tension on both of the mafia men’s faces. Like the professionals they were, they didn’t let anyone else in the room know that by mentioning the slums, some old wounds in their hearts ached a little. A known dull pain that with every day was getting more annoying than anything. Two different lives, two very different experiences but yet the same old sting in the back of their minds, reminding where they came from. Like a curse they couldn’t get rid of. “We have a reason to believe that the ones responsible for this is a group called The birth of Tragedy. We don’t have much information about them, but we can not let them threaten the citizens of this city. That’s why our respective superiors decided that the best course of action would be to join forces against this group.” He said that while looking at his coworkers as if to explain the presence of the mafia.
When he sat down, he turned his head and nodded to Chuuya indicating that the floor was his. The mafia executive stood up from his chair and began speaking.
“Our intelligence shows that The birth of Tragedy has some ability users with unknown powers, from our intel most likely 2 or 3 members have powers. The rest has just brute strength and hunter gear, like crossbows. Despite how it sounds this makes them even more dangerous. Some of the victims had many wounds that looked like someone used their bodies as target practice while they were still alive, it was mostly seen on the victims who were sex workers. We were not able to find any of the crime scenes and only the places where the bodies were displayed by the killers.” As he was saying that he took out some files from the folder that was laying in front of him and showed them to the rest. Atsushi took one of the photos and started inspecting what looked like a frame from a horror movie. From what he could see in the picture there was a young woman with her hands tied high behind her back to a lamppost, that her head was hanging down so her (what used to be) blond hair, now almost completely covered in blood from a most likely fatal wound to her skull, was covering her face. The hair curtain didn’t do a great job of hiding her face so Atsushi could really see what was done to her. Eyes stayed open in fear and pain. If not for the fact that they were long dry, you could almost see the tears that wanted to form. Her whole mouth was covered in equally dry blood indicating that the perpetrators didn’t bother with releasing her body for some time. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her bloodied and naked body full of empty arrow-like wounds for longer than he had to. The only thought that came to his mind was that he was very happy that Kyouka decided to skip this meeting (not that she hasn’t seen worse at her time in the mafia). On the other hand Higuchi, who had a similar photo in her hand, was wondering how it is possible that a human can have this much blood in their body.
“From the autopsy results we know that most of the wounds were not postmortem. The victims were abused physically and some of them also sexually while they were still alive. From our intel we might have a potential location for their hideout, but it still would be beneficial for us to check it out.”
“Perfect! I purpose that we send our favourite duo!” Dazai turned his head towards Atsushi as he said that with a smirk.
“I don’t think this might be the best idea. This group is really unpredictable and brutal.” argued Chuuya.
“Do you think that Akutagawa is too weak? Is he that much of a failure that he won’t be able to take down some criminal group?” The venom with which Dazai spoke made Atsushi’s skin crawl. He looked at his mentor with a frown surprised at his own disgust caused by what he just heard.
“What?! Of course I don’t think that-!”
“Mr Fancy Hat might be right, Dazai” Ranpo interrupted them both. “They do sound very dangerous and we can’t underestimate them.”
“A simple scouting of the territory around their base should be easy enough that we don’t need to send more people. I say that Atsushi and Akutagawa will be more than enough for that. As long as they don’t come too close to the place itself they should be fine.” Dazai argued back.
“Unfortunately I have to say that I agree with Dazai. We cannot underestimate them, but we won’t be able to stop them if we don’t know more about them. If anything goes wrong, there will be someone nearby to help.” said Kunikida.
“Fine.” Chuuya said, visibly unhappy and annoyed.
“Great! There is no better time like tonight. Kunikida will drive you to the spot and you will have to walk the rest of the way so as to not raise any suspicions.” Dazai said with a smile as he looked only at Atsushi like he didn’t want to even acknowledge Akutagawa’s presens. Atsushi could see that the mafioso was fuming with rage. He was honestly impressed that he didn’t have an explosive reaction to Dazai’s behaviour. He only could hope that later the mafioso wouldn’t take out his anger in him.
***
The ride to the forest outside the city wasn’t as uncomfortable as Atsushi expected it to be. He could still see the anger that was emitting from his partner, but the silence didn’t feel awkward, but more like calm before the storm. Atsushi was trying to enjoy the moment of peace and silence before anything would happen. His anxiety was out through the roof of the car, but he tried his best to calm down his nerves. Doing the breathing exercise that Dr Yosano has taught him, worked surprisingly well. He was really glad that Kunikida was the one driving them to the spot from where they would go into the forest. He was a relatively good driver, so he didn’t have to fear for his life like he did with Dazai behind the wheel. It was really no wonder that said man usually went everywhere by train or just took cabs. It was better for the public safety if Dazai restrained himself from being anyone's driver.
As the car stopped Atsushi took his last deep breath as if he wanted to leave his anxiety behind him. He got out of the vehicle and walked over to Akutagawa’s side of the car where he was already standing and looking at the forest before them. It was already deep into the night and the only thing that was of help in the darkness was the dim light of the first quarter moon. The full moon wouldn’t be here for at least another week. Although Atsushi now had full control over his ability, thanks to the president's power, he still felt stronger under the full mood. He could feel Byakko’s presence closer and saw his late headmaster less. Everything was much more clear in his mind and heart as the light of the full moon brightened his path. He could always feel more like himself beneath the moonlight. Unfortunately this night was not one of the brightest, so his tiger senses would have to pull more weight. Without any unnecessary words he and Akutagawa started walking into the forest. Their target was deep into the woods, so they had a long way ahead of them to try not argue into killing each other.
The silence lasted for nearly 6 minutes before the bickering and name calling started. It began with Akutagawa tripping over a root and Atsushi letting out a small laugh. He was walking ahead of Atsushi but he still could see the angry look in his eyes. If looks could kill, Atsushi would be pronounced dead at the scene.
“Is something funny, weretiger?” He said with such venom that even some snakes would be jealous.
“No, nothing.” He tried to hide his smirk, but clearly not hard enough. “You should watch your step.” He added quietly.
“And you should watch your tongue before I make a tiger rug out of you, idiot.”
“Someone’s clearly still salty about what Dazai said…”
“What did you just sa-?” He started walking furious towards him when a loud metallic and crushing noise made him stop in his tracks and let out a muffled scream.
“Akutagawa…?” Atsushi asked frozen in shock. He wasn’t sure what just happened. He saw as his partner fell down onto his right knee as he hugged his left leg. When he started making his way towards him, he finally saw it. Akutagawa’s left leg was stuck in a bear trap. The horrible noise that echoed through the forest was of the metal jaws crushing his bones in the lower leg. The sight made him sick, but he didn’t have much time to process or even to try to move to help the other when something with a whistling sound hit his shoulder. He looked to the right and saw a bolt sticking out of his body. He turned both of his arms to prepare for combat. He took the bolt out of his arm with a groan and threw it on the ground. Atsushi tried to make his way to his bleeding partner but another bolt flew his way. This time he caught it with his tiger speed, but another hit his back and the other arm. They were surrounded. Atsushi realized that this was a trap all along. He had to get both of them out of this damned forest, but from what he saw there was no way that Akutagawa could walk. They also had no idea how many more traps waited for them. He had to protect both of them while fighting god knows how many enemies that were hiding between the trees. When he tried to run towards Akutagawa another series of bolts flew right towards him. One of them even hit Akutagawa in his right arm. Another groan full of pain made its way out of his throat. Atsushi had to find the enemies quickly before one of them could hurt Akutagawa even more. He charged at one of the attackers that was to his right. With tigers speed was able to punch him with ease breaking the crossbow as a result. They quickly took a knife out that was attached to their thigh and stabbed Atsushi repeatedly into the abdomen. He groaned with pain and growled as he grabbed the other’s hand. He twisted it with such strength that you could almost hear the crashing of the bone if not for the bloody scream the attacker let out. Eliminating one of the enemies, has costed him getting shot multiple times to the back. He could feel each time as the sharp edges of the tip of the bolt were piercing through skin and fur. His white shirt turned red a while ago. It was a miracle that it was still staying on his body despite the amount of holes and tears the shirt had endured. When (definitely not if) they get back from this mission it was for sure going into the trash. He had to make sure that they would go back in one piece and with Akutagawa’s current condition it would be very difficult. He had to call for backup, they were outnumbered and with every bolt piercing his body he was losing even more blood and with that strength. He took out his phone and quickly dialed Kunikida’s number. He tried to hide behind a tree so as not to get another bolt to his back. He could see from there Akutagawa trying to open the jaws of the bear trap as Rashomon was protecting him from the many flying bolts.
“Yes, kid?” Atsushi could finally hear an answer on the other side.
“Kunikida! It was all a trap, we need your help now! Akutagawa, his leg…” He couldn’t finish the sentence as a bolt pierced his phone suddenly. He looked to the side from where the shot was taken and saw a tall person in a camouflage raincoat. What looked like night vision goggles and a neck warmer put on the bottom of their face.
“Looks like we have caught ourselves a tiger. Too bad that we don’t have any interest in you, you would have made for a good rug.” The deep voice said with laughter. “We are clearly in luck tonight. It’s not often that your target walks so perfectly right into the trap. Maybe the boss will let me take you as well although I can already tell that I will have lots of fun with that pretty boy over there.” He nodded towards where Akutagawa was suffering while trying to fight off the two enemies that were holding him by his arms and his throat. One of them took a syringe out of his pockets, the other held Akutagawa harder by his throat while the first one injected the contents of the syringe into the vein on his neck. It happened so fast that Atsushi didn’t have a chance to try to help. As he tried to run towards his partner, who was losing consciousness, the tall man grabbed him by the neck.
“Bad cat! Where do you think you’re going? I can’t just let you take away our prey.” He said as he held Atsushi higher like he was a kitten. “You know how hard it is to get someone his rank from the mafia? But now we finally have the famous mafia’s hellhound.” He said and threw Atsushi at a tree.
As his back hit the tree he could feel as all the bolts tore into him even deeper. He was only hoping that none of them actually went through the other side. Atsushi started coughing as the air was pushed out of his lungs on the impact. With each cough he could feel more and more the metallic taste of blood. He tried to get up but his body gave up under him. He could see in the distance as Akutagawa was getting dragged by his arms. He was almost sure he was hearing him telling them to stop. The tall man was now standing above Atsushi. He could feel the look the other was giving him.
“You’re gonna pay for this.” He said through his teeth, clearly in great pain.
“And what are you going to do about it? You’re clearly too pathetic to save even one person. Thanks to your incompetence I will get to have all the fun I want with that pretty boy.” He said as he put his boot on Atsushi’s chest. The latter groaned in pain.
“Don’t you dare touch him.” Atsushi could feel the rage in his heart growing stronger. He had to do something but in his current state all he could do was to hope and wait for the help to arrive.
“Don’t worry loverboy, we will send you his body when we are done with him. Or more like what will be left of his body.” He laughed as he kicked Atsushi hard in the head. Before he completely lost consciousness he could hear gunshots. That noise reminded him of the usual gun of choice Kunikida used. He only hoped that they were not too late.
Notes:
Thank you for reading! It's been a while since I last wrote something, so I'm a bit rusty.
Please comment if you liked it <3
Chapter 2: The atomic fallout
Notes:
The heavy stuff starts in this chapter so be warned. I also updated the last chapter, some misspellings and I forgot to add last time that Aku has black painted nails. Totally not important (or is it? hihi)
(tw: derogatory language, gore, attempted sexual assault etc)
It has to get worst before it gets better. (I mean it might get better, who knows)With all that, enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The ceiling and the smell of disinfectants seemed oddly familiar to Atsushi as he opened his eyes. His head hurt like he just got run over by a semi truck. The eyelids felt too heavy to keep open but something was telling him he couldn’t just go back to sleep. Why was he in the agency infirmary? What happened? Everything seemed all blurry. He looked around the room and saw that he wasn’t alone. Dr Yosano was sitting at her desk and the sound of her well kept nails hitting her laptop keyboard was quietly echoing through the room. He tried to get up, but he was unsuccessful and only groaned in pain. The clicking of the keyboard stopped and Dr Yosano turned on her office chair to check on her patient. She immediately got up and walked over to him when she saw he was awake. She took out a small flashlight out of the front pocket of her lab coat and put her forefinger in front of his face.
“Atsushi, can you please focus on my finger? It won’t take long.” She said as she flashed the light directly in his eyes and moved from left to right. He was still confused but tried to follow her directions despite the pain. “Alright, now can you try to touch your nose with your finger? Left and then right hand.” He did as she asked while she was looking closely at him. “No permanent brain damage, although I see that you don’t know your left from your right, but that’s fairly normal. You’ve been out for almost 2 hours now. How are you feeling?” She sighed and sat down on the chair beside him.
“Awful, what happened?” He answered with clear difficulty. His voice sounded more rusty than usual, like if he was a chain-smoker or coughed most of the time… “Wait, where’s Akutagawa?! What-” he started panicking and quickly got up.
“Atsushi! You need to rest!” Dr Yosano tried to stop him from whatever he was trying to do that would for sure end up in him hurting himself. “Go back to bed!” but he didn’t listen, he grabbed the curtain separating his bed from the other one. Of course he did that because he expected to see on the other side one broody and angry mafioso. Instead he saw an empty and well-made hospital bed, clearly not used in a while.
“But he-” He mumbled under his breath in shock.
Everything was now clear as day in his mind. He remembered the mission, the bear trap, the bloody scream, the tall hunter who threw him against the tree. All the horrors and his failure flashed in his mind. He could feel his Headmaster's breath on his neck. He almost could hear the words he would say. The touch he suddenly felt on his back was too real and too strong to be of the ghosts of his mind. He didn’t fight as Dr Yosano helped him to sit back on his bed.
“Atsushi, you need to rest. We can talk about what happened later, but now you are in no shape, physically and mentally, to do anything. So please just lay down and breathe.” As she was saying that, she helped him to lay back on the bed.
“Can you at least tell me if he’s alright?” His eyes were closing on their own, he must have been clearly more exhausted than he thought.
“I will tell you everything later, now rest”
The last thing he could feel before the slumber took him were Dr Yousano’s nails as she brushed his bangs off of his forehead.
***
The dark ceiling of the van and the smell of disinfectants that poorly hid the sour odor of old blood, looked unfamiliar to Akutagawa. His whole body was pounding with pain. He was going in and out of consciousness due to the drugs that were injected into his veins. His eyelids felt too heavy, but he had to be awake. He couldn’t let his guard down, not again. He got himself into this position, because he wasn’t careful enough and let the enemy come too close to him. He was too weak, so he got captured. Just like Dazai said. He had to get out of here before it would be too late. He knew that the moment they got to the enemy base his chances of survival would get significantly slimmer. He looked around and saw that his hands were zip tied together in front of him. His right arm was completely pierced through by the bolt, he could even see the tip of the blade sticking out on the other side. Judging by the fact he was still able to move his hand it seemed like it only scratched the bone and not completely broke it on impact. Now he only had to look down to inspect the main source of his pain, the left leg. The pain was only bearable because of the adrenaline flowing in his blood right beside the drugs. From all his time in the mafia and on the streets he has already built up a tolerance to many substances, so his perpetrators probably didn't expect him to be awake already. Before looking at the leg, he made sure that the enemies were not paying attention to him. They were still in the same position as he woke up. Both of them sat in the front with the radio on. He tried to steady his breath as he finally looked down. He was right to try and calm himself down. He saw many dismembered and massacred bodies during his life and he cost many of the bloody sights during his career. But there was always a difference between seeing something tragic happening to others and the same happening to you. His leg, or more like what was left of it, was still stuck in the bear trap, they didn’t even bother to take it off of him. He didn’t want to think that maybe the trap was the only thing keeping the leg intact. The jaws were almost completely closed on his unhealthy slender calf. The thought of his bones shattered into pieces digging into his flesh made him sick to his stomach. He could cry and be disgusted all he wanted when he would make it back home. Now was not the time. He had to focus on getting out of the vehicle. With the help of Rashomon he was able to slowly move towards the back door. Rashomon, just like him, was weak and slow, he was sure that in this state she wouldn’t be able to do anything against the two hunters. He probably wouldn’t be even able to scratch them, so fighting was completely out of the question. He wasn’t even half way towards the door and he already felt exhausted. His movement was slow and sloppy, so much that as he crawled the trap on his leg suddenly hit the floor of the van with a loud clacking sound. Not only did that make a tear of pain appear in his eye, but also it brought attention right to him. He could feel the eyes of the enemies on his back, he looked around to see the one in the passenger seat ready to get up. As fast as he could he rushed towards the door. He was able to open the door with Rashomon as the hunter caught him by the collar of his coat and pulled him away.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” He pushed him against the van’s side and punched Akutagawa in the stomach, making the other yelp. “We can't just let you run away. Richter has other plans for you. But you know what? You don’t need both legs for him to have his fun with you. All you need is your pretty face.” As he said that, he took the hatchet out of his belt and swung at Akutagawa’s left leg.
The overwhelming white pain took over all of his senses. The awful smell of blood even escaped his mind as the almost clean cut flesh was occupying his thoughts. He couldn’t look at the blood gushing out of the wound and the two chopped bones sticking out. The red was slowly soaking through his clothes. He didn’t notice that he was holding his leg right above where the rest used to be just a second ago. He also didn’t notice as the hunter threw the amputated limb out of the open back door and closed it. His eyes were tightly shut and mouth open with an awful twisted expression of pure agony.
“Now we won’t have to worry about you running anywhere.” He laughed and looked at the already unconscious mafioso.
“Hey, idiot! Make sure to stop the bleeding. No one likes necrophilia.” said the driver, who seemed annoyed at all the noise.
“I know, I know…” and with that he took a roll of duct tape to stop the bleeding.
***
The sight of the infirmary ceiling wasn’t surprising the next time Atsushi woke up. He didn’t know how much had passed, but at least his headache got better. This time the only sound that was heard was the city life through the open window and some talking behind the door. He took a deep breath enjoying the fresh air filling his lungs as he tried to prepare himself to get out of the hospital bed. The task wasn’t easy as he still felt the pain going through his body. Slowly he supported his relatively low weight on his arms and sat down properly on the bed. After the years of starving and malnourishment his body still hasn’t fully healed from the abuse, but he was on his best way towards it. Dr Yosano told him multiple times that she was proud of his hitherto progress. With her supervision and Kunikida’s physical training he even started to show some muscles on his torso and arms. The tiger’s strength was extraordinary, but his human half was finally starting to grow as if to one day match with the other. He swung both of his legs off the bed and put his feet on the floor. Carefully he stood up and as he did that the voices coming from the agency behind the door got significantly louder. One step after the other he made his way towards the door and the voices were now yelling at each other.
“What the fuck do you even mean by that?! And you're only telling me this just now?! It’s been fucking hours!” The first voice sounded familiar but Atsushi couldn’t attach a face to the sound.
“Stop panicking, chibi.” The second voice sounded nearly annoyed and the tone reminded him of Dazai.
“Stop panicking?! Stop fucking panicking?! Are you fucking serious?! You-”
“It wasn’t right of us to wait to inform you of this. Atsushi has been unconscious this whole time. We were waiting for him to wake up so he could tell us more about what happened.” The resonant voice was clearly Kunikida, who tried to calm the guest down.
“Then wake him the fuck up!”
“When we found him he looked like a fucking hedgehog with all the bolts in his back!” a voice that must have belonged to Dr Yosano chimed in. “He was nearly dead! Give him some time.” She said clearly exhausted with a sigh at the end.
“I’m already awake, no need to wait.” Atsushi announced his presence as he entered the room.
“Atsushi! You should be in bed right now.” Dr Yosano scolded him.
“I’m fine.” He shook his head.
“At least sit down, kid. You still need rest.” Kunikida added and pushed a chair towards him. “You have been out for 6 hours now and just because the tiger healed you, doesn't mean you’re fine.”
Atsushi gave him a quiet thank you and sat down. He took a look around the room and saw that the first voice actually belonged to the mafia executive Nakahara Chuuya. Most of the agency members were absent and the only present, beside the mentioned ones, was Ranpo, who was sitting at his desk with arms crossed. His brows knitted with concern and with no open snacks in sight. He must have been really serious about the case if he didn't eat anything while thinking. The tension was almost visible in the room, everyone present seemed anxious and stressed, besides Dazai who was pretending like nothing had happened and that was Atsushi’s actual question. He waited for someone to address the elephant in the room, what actually happened on that mission while he was out and where Akutagawa was. Kunikida was the one who broke the silence.
“Kid, do you remember anything that happened in the forest?”
“I remember Akutagawa and I walking towards the target. We started arguing at some point like we always do. I think he was threatening to make a tiger rug out of me.” He said with a soft smile. “He was going ahead of me and then he- he…” He took a deep breath. “I remember a loud clang and the scream, the bloody scream. At first I didn’t know what happened and then I saw him falling to the ground and hugging his leg. His leg was covered in blood and all I could smell was the blood. The bear trap was closed so hard that I thought it cut off his leg entirely.” A single tear fell from his eye and new ones started forming. The mafia executive looked like he was about to vomit and break something at the same time. His knuckles were getting more white with every second he was holding his fist tight. “I didn’t get a chance to take even one step towards him as the bolts started flying left and right. I was able to get one of the hunters but the bolts were just sinking into my fur like it was nothing. I think that one of them hit Akutagawa in the arm. I saw how he was trying to defend himself from the bolts with Rashomon, but as I was trying to call for help they got him from behind.” He was struggling to keep breathing and relaying the story. The tears were going up in numbers with every sentence he said. “Then a big guy suddenly appeared out of nowhere and just threw me around like a ragdoll. The last thing I remember was how he was talking about Akutagawa, like he wasn’t even a person. He said that after he uses up his body, he will send us the pieces that are left of him. I- I’m sorry, I can’t.” He couldn’t keep his tears in anymore. The memory was painful and disgusting. He tried to quickly calm down by slowly breathing. “So please tell me when I can see him? He’s recovering at the mafia, right?” He said, still sadly sniffing looking at the executive.
“Atsushi, we only found you when we got there. There was no one else, they must have taken him with them.” Dr Yosano said and laid a hand on his shoulder.
“What…? But I-” He stopped mid sentence, completely in shock. That must have been a mistake, that couldn’t be true. He remembered all the photos of the corpses, of all the victims and now Akutagawa was going to be like them. In front of his eyes he saw the picture of the blonde woman tied up to a street lamp all covered in blood and wounds, but now instead of the blood covered light hair he saw the black waves and the white tips that were soaked in red, slowly dripping with the blood. The already pale skin turned almost grey and the eyesockets were now empty. The beautiful dark eyes nowhere in sight and the empty socket not able to produce any tears to relieve themselves from pain. Suddenly his mouth opened and as he tried to talk, blood was pouring like a river.
“You’re useless, you couldn’t even help him” The voice with which the body has spoken belonged not to Akutagawa Ryuunosuke like the face on the corpse, but to the monster known as the Headmaster of Atsushi’s orphanage. “He gave you his word, you made him promise something that made him defenceless and you couldn’t even help him. Those who cannot protect others, do not deserve to live. It should have been you. The world would be a better place if you had just died already.”
Atsushi didn’t notice when he started digging his nails, which were slowly turning into claws, into his scalp. Blood was starting to flow down his hair in thin and slow streams, the pain wasn’t even noticeable compared to the mental one he was experiencing at the moment. Suddenly he felt another hand on his shoulder, he looked up to see who it belonged to. He saw the dark eyes of his current mentor looking at him with something close to concern. He felt his claws disappear as he snapped back to reality. The quiet sound of the blood dripping on the floor. A drip, drip, drip and that was all that could be heard in the aching hearts of the audience of the ongoing scene. The cold flow in his veins of the nullifying ability despite its name, made Atsushi feel more human as he took one breath after the other.
“Atsushi, you will not help him if you keep panicking. You need to pull yourself together.” Dazai’s harsh words were what his mind needed to focus on reality.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” His voice was still shaking, but he tried to compose himself. What would Akutagawa say if he saw him like that?
“Pathetic. A scaredy cat like always.” Words as harsh as the voice itself echoed through his mind as if a ghost whispered in his ear. “Is that really how you think you will save me, weretiger? By being a crybaby?”
“No, I’m not going to cry anymore.” He said and abruptly stood up, startling everyone around. “We need to find where they are hiding.”
“Our info was false, we got nothing else” said the executive.
“Ranpo, you must have some idea as to where they are hiding.” said Kunikida turning towards the greatest detective.
“In fact I don’t.”
“What? But how is that even possible? You know everything!” Atsushi’s voice was starting to shake again. If even Ranpo didn’t know where Akutagawa was, how was he supposed to save him?
“Can’t you just do your detective stuff? Is there only one detective in this agency and the rest are just useless?” The executive was getting even more impatient and frustrated with every second.
“I think that Mr Fancy Hat might be right again. You should go back there and do the boring investigating stuff. I have to go over everything again, something seems not right at all.” Ranpo sighed and took his glasses out of his pocket. “You can see it too, Dazai?”
“Yes, certainly. It almost reminds me of an old case.’ he sighed as well and stood up.
“Atsushi, Dazai and executive Nakahara, the four of us will go to search the crime scene as I suspect the mafia would prefer to join the investigation as one of your members is missing.” Kunikida looked at the others he just mentioned with a serious face to see if there were any objections.
“Just Chuuya will be fine.” Said Chuuya and looked at Atsushi. “Tiger kid, go and pull yourself together. We don’t have time to waste.”
“Yes, sir!” Atsushi nodded determined to find his enemy/partner.
***
The sight of yet another unfamiliar ceiling wasn’t as surprising the next time Akutagawa woke up. He had no way of telling how much had passed and the pain in his entire body seemed to be only getting worse. This time there were no sounds, only white surrounding him in the silence. The room was almost empty, only the mattress in the corner, which he was laying on and a metallic toilet in the other corner. There was more space than in a standard prison cell, but he wasn’t the most concerned about the interior design of his imprisonment. The room was almost feeling sterile if not for the stench of almost rotting flesh, but he didn’t see anything that could be responsible for the smell. When he looked at his body he understood where that was coming from. He was only in his underwear and could see all of his injuries. His chest was blooming with purple and green bruises, having an almost like tie-dye effect on his white skintone. His right arm was bandaged with something looking like an old cloth. He couldn’t tell the original colour of the cloth with all the huge blood stains covering almost the entire thing. The “bandage” was completely wet telling that he was still probably bleeding. He could feel the blood loss, the dizziness never leaving his head. If the wounds go without getting treated properly for longer, he would definitely be in serious danger. Of course assuming that they would let him live long to worry about his current wounds. From what he already experienced they wouldn’t be nice enough to care about his health. He didn’t even want to look at what remained of left leg. The cut limb was covered by another completely soaked with blood cloth, which was duct taped to his lean calf. The amount of tape on his leg was generous to say the least. The skin under it was itching like hell, but the pain from the missing limb was much greater for him to even notice the itchiness. If the wound on his arm already looked so horribly, he didn’t even want to know what horrors the duct tape was hiding. Every move hurt more than the last one. He only hoped that he wouldn’t pass out from the blood loss again. He wasn't sure that the next time he would wake up at all, but maybe that would be for the better. He doubted that anyone would be looking for him and especially not the weretiger or Dazai. His ex mentor already told him loud and clear that he was only a failure in his eyes and would never be enough. The weretiger clearly hated his guts and only saw him as a monster. It’s been a month since they made the promise that put a ‘temporary’ stop to his killings, but he knew that the weretiger would never see him for who he was and only as a heartless murderer. He was only ever just a tool to use for everyone as they wished for. Since being a child he only ever had one goal and it was to make sure Gin would be safe and fed. She was now a grown woman who didn’t need his help. She was a top assassin in the mafia, she had a roof over her head, money for food and water, she didn’t need him. He would be only a burden to her. No one in the mafia, besides Chuuya and probably the boss, knew that they were related. It was for safety reasons, having a family was seen as a liability in their line of work. Without him in the way, she would be better off. No more risks, no more liability, she would be free. He had to stop his dark trail of thoughts, when the door to his cell suddenly opened. First entered the room a tall man with dark brown hair almost touching his shoulders and a short beard. His combat boots echoed as he walked in and stopped in front of Akutagawa. After the first one walked in another man in a full camouflage jacket and pants and his face covered by a neck warmer. He was pushing a wheelchair with an older looking man. The man in the wheelchair looked a bit insane to Akutagawa, he was looking at him behind broken glasses with bulging black eyes and his mouth was covered by a huge moustache that was gently curled upwards. The bearded man was first to speak up.
“Ah, welcome our new guest! It’s nice to see that you finally woke up. The boys were starting to worry that something as simple as a cut off leg would be enough to take down the famous Rabid dog of the Port Mafia, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke himself. Unfortunately for you and fortunately for us, you finally woke up just after a day and a half of waiting. I would like to introduce you to the leader of our little organization, Nietzsche! Unfortunately our dear Fridrish doesn’t speak as much nowadays, but he is still able to use his wonderful ability. You see, his ability Beyond good and evil works best if the target is conscious and you were really starting to get on my nerves with sleeping so much. Now be a doll and let him do his thing.” He said and pushed the wheelchair closer to Akutagawa, who was trying to blend in with the wall behind him. He said nothing as the insane looking man stared at him, like he was looking directly into his soul, mind and heart. He felt a weird sense of coldness brush behind his eyes and right around his bones. The sensation was awful but weirdly similar to the feeling of the nullifying ability of No longer human , only more unpleasant. He closed his eyes and a shiver went down his back.
“Get away from me!” Akutagawa growled trying to sound dangerous, but in his current situation he must have looked hilarious to his perpetrators as the bearded man snorted.
“Easy there. I told you to be patient. They are done here for today anyways.” He said and turned to the back to talk to the other man he walked in with. “Take the leader back to his room and make sure he writes everything. I want it by the morning.”
“Yes, sir.” the other answered and pushed out the wheelchair out of the room then closed the door shut behind him.
“What do you want from me?” Akutagawa asked, getting more angry with every second. He preferred anger over fear, but they were always two sides of the same coin.
“Straight to the point I see. Our organisation, The birth of Tragedy, has one goal and that is to get rid of all the filth that’s ruining this world. Ever since that rat told us about how disgusting Yokohama is I only wanted to cleanse this city of all the worst garbage, the Port Mafia. You were our perfect little target, your crime record is through the roof and that face of yours. I will have so much fun punishing you for all the crimes you have committed. I don’t even want to wait for Nitzsche’s report on your life. I came here prepared so I think I will start with you now…” He said as he started to open his belt.
Akutagawa’s eyes went huge. He knew they would torture him, but he hoped that he would never have to endure this type of abuse again. He wanted to run away, he started shaking his head and trying to support himself with his hands as he moved away from him. The bearded man grabbed him by his hair and a small groan escaped his mouth which stayed slightly open with pain. He pulled his head up by the hair so now he had no way but to look him in the eyes.
“And where do you think you're going? I’m only getting started.” He said that as with the other hand, squeezed the other's jaw so it was fully opened and slammed with his pelvis into the mouth. Akutagawa almost gagged from the unwanted sensation, his eyes started getting glassy with every move the man above him made. “There there, now be an obedient slut and do your job. Aw you bitch!” He yelled as he felt Akutagawa’s teeth on his member. He quickly took out his aching body part and pushed the other against the wall. “You fucking bit me! I was trying to play nice with you, but now you made me angry. You will pay for this.” The yelling drowned out the coughing of the injured mafioso. He could see in the corner of his eye as his attacker took something out of his many pockets in the camo pants. Suddenly he felt as the other’s left hand squeezed his throat into the mattress and something metallic sneaked into his mouth. “I told you I came prepared. I will make you regret trying to fight back, you little bitch.” he growled and spit into his face then it started changing. The dark hair started getting lighter and lighter as his complexion. He could see the bones shifting under the skin to match the new look. The eyes were the last to change as the dark started to remind him of the sky as the sun was setting. Above Akutagawa was now the face of none other than Nakajima Atsushi. His eyes widened in shock as the kind face he saw in his nicest dreams was now curled into a sadistic grin. “I’ve forgotten to introduce myself, silly me. My name is Ernst Richter and my ability The man without qualities as you can see lets me transform into whoever I want. I wanted to wait till Nitzsche’s report to show you my ability, but you gave me no choice.” Akutagawa suddenly realized what the metallic thing was as it pulled on his tooth. He sobbed in pain as the pliers were pulling out the tooth out of the root. The pain was awful, especially since his abuser, with the face of his partner, didn’t bother to make it quick, but finally the pliers were done with their job. “Don’t try to fight back again or I will have to hurt and use your body with that face. I heard that tiger boy was fighting pretty hard with my men as you were just a burden to him. Just being all useless and weak. No wonder he didn’t even try to bother and look for you. We have an eye for both the mafia and the ADA and none of them even noticed your absence. I’m sure they won’t even notice when we send them your used up body.” The weretiger’s face said with the same awful grin as he stood up to leave the room. “I’m done with you for now. You should pray so that you won’t wake up again.” The weretiger face said laughing and finally left him alone.
Akutagawa turned his head to the side and spit out the blood that formed in his mouth from the stolen tooth. He curled on the mattress and shut his eyes tight to stop the tears from forming. The tears of pain and of the attempted assault formed nonetheless and few of them dropped to the mattress, but were thankfully quick to stop. He laid there for what felt like hours when the door opened again. He quickly got up to the sitting position and tried his best to give the intruder an angry stare. Fortunately the person that entered the room wasn’t Richter, but another one of the hunters holding a tray. The hunter had ginger hair and brown eyes that had no anger in them, but something close to sadness or maybe even pity. He got closer to the mattress and laid the tray in front of him.
“Relax, I only bring you food and water. No need to stress.” He said and took a few steps back and sat on the floor. “Eat, I will wait here for you to finish to make sure you don’t try anything. You might be without your ability and heavily injured but we can’t risk anything.”
Akutagawa internally smiled at those words. Despite his state they still thought of him as dangerous or at least that’s how he chose to interpret the words. He took a look at the tray before him. On the tray there was a metal bowl of rice with a spoon and a metal mug of water. He really was too tired and hungry to think about if the food was poisoned. Deep inside he hoped that it was so he would be put out of his misery. He took the bowl with the spoon and sniffed the rice. It didn’t smell suspicious, but actually somewhat fresh. He took a small spoon up to his still hurting mouth and tasted it. It was the most normal tasting jasmine rice he had in a while. Not even a scent of mold or anything weird, just a bowl of rice. He took another spoonful and then another. He suddenly felt as if he was starving on the streets again. He ate the entire bowl in no time and then took the mug into his hand. Like before he smelled the liquid inside, but it also seemed just like a normal untempered with water. He knew that it was easier to hide substances in liquids, but he knew that without hydration the wounds on his body would only get worse. He drank the whole thing cherishing the calming cold liquid going down his throat. He didn’t notice before how thirsty he was, but there was no more water. He thought he would have to wait till the morning or till whenever the next meal would come, but the guard sitting on the floor in front of him took out of his inner pocket of the camo jacket a tall bottle of water.
“Here. Richter won’t be happy if I leave it here with you so drink however much you can. I don’t really like treating prisoners like garbage.” he said and poured more water into the metal mug that Akutagawa reached out with.
“Thank you.” He said quietly as he sipped calmly on the water. “How long till he kills me?”
“Usually it takes him up to 4 or 5 days.”
Akutagawa started thinking. Only a few more days till he would be dead. He wanted to fight, to run away, but how. He was bleeding, with only one functioning leg left, without Rashomon or any kind of weapon. He was just useless. All he could do was wait for death to come or a miracle to happen like someone coming to rescue him. After all, the Port Mafia and the ADA made a truce to take down The birth of Tragedy, so maybe if he was lucky enough they would come before they tortured him to death. Luck was never on his side, all he had in his life was thanks to his hard work and not something as ridiculous as luck. He couldn’t just trust others when it came to his life. He never could, but a small and quiet voice in his head was telling him otherwise. After all he did trust someone with his life once. He did put his life into the weretigers hands during the cannibalism incident, he trusted him to defeat the enemy and protect him while he was left defenseless. Maybe there was still hope, but the voice attached to the weretiger’s face was echoing through his mind, how no one cared about him and that no one would even notice his lifeless body on their doorstep and just bashed his skull into concrete like a disgusting bug. Only time could tell, but he didn’t have much left.
As the water ran out, he was done with the meal. He pushed the tray with the empty metallic dishes towards the guard.
“I’m done.” He informed the other as they stood up and took the tray. The guard walked towards the door when a voice stopped him. “One more question. How long does it take for whatever substance that was in the water to start working?” he asked and the guard smiled to himself.
“Around 10 minutes, it was just some painkillers. The lights will be turned off soon.” He said and just walked out of the room. He knew that their prisoner was a high ranking mafia member but he didn’t expect him to figure out so quickly that the sweet aftertaste in the water was supposed to mask the taste of medicine.
The darkness filled the room as Akutagawa laid down on the mattress once more and curled into a ball feeling somewhat hopeful for the first time since he woke up in his imprisonment. He fell asleep as he felt the pain slowly getting better.
Notes:
I'm sorry for not updating sooner but I had a pretty busy week with some uni work and job interviews.
There is one character that is not based on a real author and you might have guessed already why. The character of Ernst Richter is completely made up, because I didn't feel comfortable with giving this disgusting fictional person a name after a real person. His ability has it's name after the novel "The man without qualities" by Robert Musil but he doesn't deserved to be put in such filth as this fic. I'm sorry but the title "The man without qualities" just goes to hard not to use it.Thank you for reading! This week I will be pretty busy again so it might take me a long time to update.
If you liked it, it would mean a lot to me if you commented <3
Chapter 3: The eye of the storm
Notes:
WARNING! This chapter is VERY heavy. All of the bad tags are here so be aware. It is not pretty and it is disgusting. It gets much worse before it might get better.
Enjoy!(tw: rape, suicide, derogatory language, referenced child prostitution, sexual assault, violence, etc)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Before the night could fall and owls could awake, a group of detectives with one mafia member were walking through a forest looking at every tree and laying root with utmost suspicion. The still pale sky was slowly blushing with the nearly setting sun and already welcomed the next moonphase, the waxing gibbous. The full moon was near but despite that the tiger was in distress. The forest critters could feel the presence of the upset predator and remained hidden between bushes and branches. It was noticeable how everything remained quiet and the only mafia member in the group was quite alarmed by that. Something had to have happened or something was about to happen. Chuuya looked around at the others and noticed how the eyes belonging to the tiger were now glowing with a yellow warning. He didn’t know the tiger boy, only saw him a couple of times and never really exchanged words, but he certainly heard a lot about him. Dazai loved to brag about himself and his success and the tiger boy was one of his latest achievements. The person that talked most about him had to be Akutagawa. Every mission or even every time something reminded him of the tiger boy, he would go on rants without end. First they started as just complaining about how weak and stupid the other was and even full on shittalking and vivid visions of how he would murder him and how he would dispose of his body, but as the time had gone by the rants became less and less violent in content. It seemed like he was actually complementing the tiger boy in disguise of complaining and name calling. Chuuya always wondered about who this tiger boy really was since he not only was apparently able to keep up with his dear boy, but also make him feel such strong emotions that seemed almost positive. He watched him grow up and was happy that there was finally someone in his life (besides his dear sister) that he could maybe even call a friend. He could see in Ryuunosuke’s eyes that the tiger boy meant something more than just a friend to him. He did not need to hear him say this to know how the boy felt. Ever since Dazai left the mafia the two of them got closer to each other. They had more in common than they thought. Both of them once called Suribachi city their home, both were “asked” by Dazai to join the mafia or would most certainly face death. Despite their close age it seemed like there was a big age gap between them. It was most certainly because Chuuya was more than anyone forced to grow up in a record time, while Ryuunoske’s major anger issues seemed to leave him in the rebellious phase longer almost like he was a normal teenager. But who could blame the hurt boy who only ever knew pain and never experienced warmth. Everyone in the mafia had their own issues and finding someone with perfect mental state was nearly impossible, maybe some of the accountants or the HR department had some stable people, but that didn’t seem likely as well. The closest to a mentally healthy person that Chuuya knew was definitely Hirotsu. That old man was even going to therapy regularly. Chuuya would have to certainly ask him if he could recommend someone who wouldn’t be alarmed by the mafia background and ability users, so when they get Ryuunoske back he would have a place to safely talk about it. Right, when they get him back and not if. He couldn’t think about the possibility that instead of recovery and healing plans, he should be planning a funeral. He couldn’t imagine telling Gin that her last remaining family was kidnapped and killed under his watch. Despite not being twins they looked so similar to each other. Chuuya was certain that if he put on a wig and drew more prominent eyebrows than the light and soft ones that the boy had, he would look exactly like his sister and vice versa. If they were the same height and Ryuunosuke slept more at night to lose the dark rings under his eyes, everyone at the port mafia would find out about them being related. They even had small matching moles under their eyes, Gin under her right eye and Ryuunosuke under his left. He couldn’t just look in her big pitch black eyes that she shared with her brother and tell her that he was gone forever. He saw the photos of previous victims of the group of hunters, he knew that she would be called in to identify the body and if he looked even remotely close to the other victims, the sight would be terrifying even for one of the best assassins in the Port Mafia. The pain he had to endure in his final moments would be forever stuck with them. He had to know what kind of person, no, what kind of partner was the tiger boy in battle to make sure that his boy would be able to come home. The yellow predator eyes were scanning the forest as if to find their next victim or maybe something dear they’ve lost. When the glowing eyes flickered to Chuuya, he felt a shiver went down his spine, so that’s how it was to look down an angry apex predator in the eyes. Maybe he was wrong to judge the tiger boy earlier based on his panic attack, maybe he didn’t have to worry whether he was competent or not. As the best martial artist in the Port Mafia he knew how to recognise strength and potential. He still was stronger than the tiger boy but it was not fear in him that made him realise the others strength, but respect. Deep down he still blamed the tiger boy for the kidnapping, but he might be useful in the rescue mission after all.
The laying branches cracked under their steps as they were going deeper and deeper into the woods. There were no words exchanged since they got out of the car and just like the last time Atsushi was here, Kunikida drove them. Dazai was trying to argue that he could drive them, but both Kunikida and executive Nakahara yelled in unison at him. He could see the similarities between both of them and saw a pattern. Maybe Atsushi wasn’t the only person with a thing for anger issues and strong personalities.
“We’re here.” The tiger stopped as he announced to the others. He could instantly recognise the spot. He even recognised the root on which Akutagawa tripped to later step into the beartrap. He felt guilty for making fun of him that night, maybe if he kept the laughter to himself then Akutagawa wouldn’t be distracted and he would be fine. No, there were probably more traps on the ground and one of them would probably step in it anyways. Atsushi would have preferred it if it was him that stepped into that trap. He was already used to losing limbs and could actually regenerate unlike his partner. He just hoped that Akutagawa was alright and that Dr Yosano would agree to heal him. “Something’s wrong.” He looked around confused while using his tiger senses to look for a certain smell.
“What do you mean?” asked executive Nakahara.
“I can’t smell anything.”
“Are you sure it’s here?” Kunikida asked.
“Yes! I remember this place. I’m sure it was here. Right where you’re standing, Kunikida was the trap.” He was getting more and more irritated by the second. When Kunikida heard him he instinctively looked down like he just remembered about the traps from Atsushi’s story.
“Dazai, you are useless, just stand and don’t move.” said the mafia executive.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re stupid ability won’t let Yosano heal you, so if you like having both legs just stand there and do not move.” answered Kunikida while rolling his eyes.
“Ugh fine! But I think that they took the traps with them when they cleaned this place up.”
“You’re right. There is nothing here.” said Atsushi, who everyone stopped paying attention to while yelling at Dazai. They all looked at him to explain. “They even cleaned up the blood, not even a single drop soaked into the ground. No traces of the bolts or my claws. Just nothing.” He was clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white as to prepare to bleed.
“How is that even possible? Who the fuck cleans the fucking ground in the forest? Did they vacuum the fucking leafs as well?” said executive Nakahara as he kicked a laying tree trunk.
“I can’t smell a thing, it’s like that mission never happened. Even his scent is not here.”
“Is it possible that it just vanished overnight naturally?” asked Kunikida.
“No, it wasn’t long enough and it hasn't rained here since yesterday. Something is definitely wrong.”
“Like someone with the ability to destroy all evidence at the crime scene.” Dazai said it more to himself, lost in thoughts.
“Exactly.”
“Oy shitty Dazai, what are you not telling us? Do you know something?”
“Nope! Just thinking, not like you would know how to.” He said with his signature smile that was able to make many’s blood boil.
“You little…”
“If anyone here is little, it’s definitely you Chuuya.”
“Both of you, stop it! We should look around anyway to make sure they didn’t leave something by accident and we will go back to the agency.”
“You’re no fun, Kunikida.”
“I have to talk to the boss soon, so let’s get this over with.”
***
The harsh lighting from the fluorescent ceiling lamp was making the black eyes even more restless than they already felt. The thin old mattress made the already aching limbs feel more stiff with every move. The torn bedsheet was like sandpaper against his sweaty and bruised skin. The sleep quality felt weirdly nostalgic in the worst way. The years on the streets and sleeping on the hard ground or maybe if they were lucky some left old furniture were coming back to his mind. His current sleeping arrangement might be more comfortable than the ones in the slums, but he would definitely prefer to be back there than here. He never thought that there might be a day when he will miss those awful times. He was at least grateful that Gin didn’t have to go through this thing with him. The painkillers were stronger than he expected. With his build up tolerance he still was able to feel their effect even now. It gave him some hope and his will to fight was getting stronger even when his injuries tried to overshadow it. He only hoped that that guard would be back with more of them. Maybe if he felt numb enough he would be able to come up with some plan to get out of this place. The only problem was his missing leg. Running was out of the question so he would have to go complicitly unnoticed. He looked around the room to see if there might have been some sort of vent but there was only a small one next to an old pipe that wouldn’t even fit his hands. Another way out of the room was through the door, but that was even more unlikely. That Richter guy was physically stronger than him probably even without his injuries and would definitely not be nice enough to let him out if Akutagawa asked him even with his best attempt at persuasion. The guard was the next option and yet again there was no point in fighting him, but there was a slim possibility that he might be able to talk him into helping him. They all seemed aware of how his ability worked, so crying how cold he was wouldn’t take him anywhere. He might try to manifest Rashomon from his underwear, but she never was keen on appearing from small clothing. That was he had left, but first he had to assess his wounds.
He slowly and carefully sat up and looked at his right arm. The dressing on his wound was looking even worse than before. When he tried to peel it off he could see some pus coming off the wound. He wanted to gag when he saw the state of the wound. It’s been a while since the last time he had an injury that went untreated for so long. Since meeting the weretiger he started to take better care of himself and his injuries. He excused his behaviour as just a way of becoming stronger to win the fight that was now 4 months away and finally kill the stupid weretiger. The length he was ready to go with just to stay in denial were honestly impressive. He made sure to wash his hair every time he knew he would see the other and even started to use cologne that wasn’t too strong smelling so it wouldn’t be too harsh for the sensitive tiger nose. He was letting Gin care and paint his nails regularly. Although he had only variations of one outfit in his wardrobe he started buying new clothes to wear in case he would see the weretiger on his day off “by accident”. It didn’t happen even once and he was getting irritated with every try. If only he knew that his cologne was giving him away more than he thought and one shy weretiger was always intentionally staying in hiding to admire the other from afar, but completely unaware of the ongoing scheme. His abdomen was in full bloom with purply red flowers and little green leaves. The garden of bruises on his skin gained new shades in shapes of little daisies and even his leg shared the same shades now. He couldn’t explain the sensation he felt in the missing leg, but it was like his foot was still there and hurting. He didn’t really noticed it sooner, being distracted with stronger pain and going in and out of consciousness, but it was horrible. The injury looked even worse than it felt. The skin that was above the duct tape was irritated and red even falling into darker shades. He couldn’t imagine the monstrosities the silver tape was hiding. The last injury that was constantly reminding about itself was the missing tooth. His whole mouth was aching from the hole where the second left tooth used to be. He could feel the painkiller slowly wearing off leaving him with a terrible headache that would make thinking impossible. From what the guard said today wouldn’t be his final day and only the beginning, so he had time to come up with a plan but it was extremely limited. He had two choices, convince the guard to help him or find a way to use Rashomon. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his ability. He called and called upon her, but his prayers were not answered. He tried to take a deep breath, but that only resulted in a coughing fit. His ribs hurt like with the next breath they were going to break into pieces. He spit up some blood on the floor beside him and with the semi healthy arm he wiped off his lips.
The noise was probably the thing that unfortunately brought unwanted attention to him. There was some commotion behind the door and they opened with a creak. The same combat boots as the last time made their way across the floor and Akutagawa would be lying if there was no horror creeping into his heart. The memory that led to him missing the tooth had replayed in his mind as he was falling asleep and now when he was awake they were as vivid as when it happened. He knew that there was no way that it would end with only physical violence and the man would try to get what he was deprived from last time. He involuntarily shifted in his position to try and blend into the wall. The boots were not the only thing that made their way across the floor as the hunter was drugging behind him a metal chair. He put the chair right in front of the mattress and sat down on it and pulled some papers from his inner pocket of the jacket.
“Hello again, I have some interesting papers here and I thought that it would be nice to read them together. What do you say?” Richter said and looked at his prisoner with a smile. Akutagawa remained silent, not interested in humouring his abuser. “Right, you’re the silent type, I forgot. But don’t worry, here are some facts about you that I promise I won’t forget.” He said and waved the papers in his hand. That did catch Akutagawa’s attention, he already had a suspicion on what the man was talking about, but still made him nervous. “You remember our dear Friedrich, right? I probably should explain first, you see his ability, Beyond good and evil , lets him see every information about a person objectively and then he writes it down. He worked really hard on this all night, so be a doll and listen.” He cleared his throat and started reading the first page. “Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, age: 20, occupation: mafia member, bla bla bla birthday, bla bla bla height, weight, not important… Oh here! Remaining family: sister Gin Akutagawa, well that’s sad, biggest fear: Dazai Osamu, now it’s getting interesting, the most hated person is also him. You two have some problems. He was your mentor, right? I heard about the Demon Prodigy from the rats, maybe we will get him next or maybe even we will send him a little gift.” He started laughing to himself and Akutagawa wasn’t sure he wanted to know what he meant by “a little gift”, but he had a feeling he would find out. “I didn’t expect to see any names in this category, the person you love romantically: Nakajima Atsushi, didn’t know you mafia members were capable of something like love.” Akutagawa wanted to hide himself and process what he just heard. It wasn’t possible that he actually loved him, right? Sure he started liking him and not just hating, he did find him attractive but that’s normal to just acknowledge someone’s beauty and he was kind, had the biggest smile, his voice always soothed his mind, he was strong and was always trying to protect him in fights… Oh no, he was definitely in love with him. That was probably one of the worst moments to realise his feelings. “Are you listening to me? What, are you thinking about your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend and that Nietzsche person is wrong, I don’t love him.” He finally answered the other.
“Mhm sure, but I will read you some more things here that will definitely convince you that his reports are never wrong.” He said back, uninterested in arguing about it more. “The place you grew up in: Suribachi city, that’s even more interesting, an orphan from the slums, how fitting to become a criminal. First occupation: child prostitute, knew you must have been a whore with those looks and that body of yours. I already wanted to use you but now I know you will like it-”
“I had no other choice, I had to get money so I could feed my sister!” He screamed and wanted to cry from the reminder of these times. “If I didn’t do it, they would hurt my sister. I had no choice.” He started repeating like a mantra.
“You always have a choice, you could have killed yourself and not spread that disease of crime.” Akutagawa looked up at him and saw the face he least wanted to see now. Looking at him was none other than Dazai’s face. Those dead dark eyes felt like they were looking directly into his soul and finding it disgusting. He instinctively tried to curl up and hide from his sight, he made a small noise of pain as he felt his body ache. “Oh I see I’ve finally chosen the right face. It will be so much more fun like this. I don’t even feel like reading the rest, I should just get started with you.” as he said it he stood up and started getting closer to the mattress.
“Get away from me! Don’t touch me!” He put his hands higher and hid his face. He tried to fight but he felt a big hand grabbing his left wrist and pulling it back. “Stop! Get away!” His struggle was pointless. He screamed as he felt something pierce through his hand. He turned his head and saw that his left hand was stabbed into the wall by a knife. Blood was slowly dripping into the mattress. He tried to grab the knife and pull it out of the wall but the pain was unbearable and the knife was stuck in the wall too hard to pull in his current state. He didn’t have any strength left in his right arm as the wound was making it impossible to move efficiently. He felt something sharp slide on his right hip and hissed at the sensation. He looked down and saw another knife cutting up his underwear and the skin under it. Thin streaks of red were now going down his thigh and the same was about to happen to the other side. He tried to pull his legs together to hide himself as he was now completely naked. The other put a hand on his throat and squizzed it, not hard enough to do damage but hard enough for it to hurt and get the point across. He had no choice but to look into the dark brown eyes of his ex mentor.
“Now, now, if you try to pull anything like yesterday or even think about doing anything it will hurt more than it has to. Do you want to disappoint me? Do you want me to hurt you, you fucking whore?” His voice was low like he wanted to whisper the words directly into his brain. Akutagawa shook his head and his eyes were starting to get glossy. He really didn’t want to cry in front of the abuser, but his body didn’t seem to give him a choice. “Good, so show me how you handle your clients.” And with one harsh push of his hips they were in the same position as the last time. A single tear dropped from Akutagawa’s eye as he felt the disgusting feeling of something making its way into his throat. A hand reached and pulled his hair, getting a sob out of him. “I see you need motivation to cooperate. I’m happy to help.” He pulled the same knife he cut the last of Akutagawa’s clothing and jabbed it directly into his pinky of the stabbed hand. The pain made him sob and tears started pouring in thick streams. The cracking sound of his bone being cut didn’t even register as the pain was overshadowing yet another missing part of his body. His head felt light and didn’t even notice as the hand in his hair started moving it. With every harsh push he wanted to vomit and cry even more. His eyes were shut hard, not wanting to see the face that belonged to Dazai that was right above him. He was trying his best not to gag, but the member was directly shoved into his throat blocking his airways. He opened his eyes and tried to make a noise so the other would stop with the torture, but he only saw a sadistic smile on Dazai’s face. He finally took the member out of his mouth and Akutagawa started coughing violently and breathing desperately. He sobbed as the knife was pulled out of his hand. He was looking at the massacred hand, the blood was pouring and he felt as if he was about to pass out. He fell on his side and did just that. When Richter saw it, he just chuckled and picked up the cut off finger with chipped black nail polish.
“We have our perfect little gift for the mafia and the detective agency, so they know to stay out of our way. Next time try to put in a little more effort, why don’t you.”
He finally left Akutagawa alone, but not for long as he returned after an hour or so. Akutagawa wanted to pretend to be asleep to trick the predator into leaving him alone, but the other had other plans for his prey. He walked over to him and kicked him in the bruised stomach and the other started coughing. Akutagawa looked up at him with pure hatred and disgust and spit blood on his combat shoes.
“Still fighting back, are we? I’m going to have to teach you a lesson, bitch.” He said as he crouched down next to him and with one hand he took both of his wrists together and with the other took out zipties to tie him up. He tried to pull his hands from the strong hold, but the other only tightened his hold on him. He let out a groan of pain.
“Get the fuck away from me.” He said through his teeth, but with one missing he didn’t look as threatening as we wanted to.
“Or what? No one is coming for you.” His face changed again but to the one owned by the weretiger. “Who would even come for you? You’re just a disgusting little slut. Nobody loves you and I bet that everyone is now celebrating that you’re finally gone. Do you think he would ever love you back? Do you really think that anyone would care about trash like you? You’re just a weak whore who can’t even get the acknowledgement of its mentor. Maybe he would finally notice you if you would let him fuck you, don’t you think?” He said with a sadistic smile and Akutagawa saw again as the bone structure in his face changed to the one in Dazai’s face. He started shaking his head and tried to close his eyes but he felt a hand tightening on his throat. It was getting harder and harder to breathe as he finally opened his eyes. He suddenly felt another hand sliding down his back. His eyes went wide and his tied hands started to tremble. He wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of begging. He knew all too well that it never worked, only excited the monster above him even more. It was always the same. He just had to wait it out and not engage with the predator so he would get bored faster. Silent crying was admissible, but not encouraged. Ignore all sensation and think about something else, it would be over soon or at least that’s what he told himself. He had to believe that. He didn’t want to focus on the feeling of something touching his rim and sliding inside. Just focus on the dirty spot on the wall and not on the pain of his delicate skin tearing and the blood and spit providing as much moisture needed during the act. The hips slumming against his own and the disgusting words pouring out of the predator's mouth. All the comments about his looks, his body, his tightness, his breathing, his tears, his face, his acting. All the comments were tuned out by his brain but he couldn’t tune out the face above him laughing and using him as nothing more than a flashlight. The face that spoke all the awful words, how he should have killed himself a long time ago, how he was weak and useless to everyone, how everyone would be just happy if he was dead. The face that caused him so much suffering all his life. The face that would be above him for hours. The face of the demon.
***
The sun rays were making for the perfect lighting for drawing. The floor to ceiling tinted windows let in the ideal amount of light so it was still bright in the room, but it kept its dark mysterious aura. The clean and shining tiles made a satisfying noise as the heels of the expensive leather shoes made their way across the room. A soft humming was heard as a blond little girl was drawing while sitting in a big red armchair. The owner of the expensive leather shoes stopped right in front of a wide antique wooden desk and took their hat off. The thin silver chain shimmered in the sunrays and the gloved hand trampled a little, but hopefully not noticeably.
“Chuuya dear, how nice of you to visit! Tell me, what brings you here? I feel like you didn’t just come here to chat with me unfortunately.” Mori Ougai smiled at his guest and trusted executive, but didn’t motion for him to sit down, like wasn’t really happy to see the other.
“Boss, I come to report on the ongoing situation with the enemy organisation, The birth of Tragedy. They dared to kidnap one of our top members and I want to request more resources to take them down. They have proven to be more troublesome than we expected. The agency is in the process of locating their location and we need more men to raid their base.”
“Ah yes, I’ve heard about our little Akutagawa getting caught, he’s causing trouble as ever. Since he started this yet another rebellious phase, there are even more problems with him than before. I preferred when he was just killing mindlessly than now as he’s just become useless and dull. It’s his refusal to kill that probably got him into this situation, so he can get himself out of it as well.” The mafia boss sighed and shook his head.
“But Boss, it’s in our best interest to take down this organisation as they are killing our people left and right. That’s why we started working with the ADA again. It won’t necessarily be a rescue mission but a raid to destroy them.” He hoped that this bullshit would be enough to convince him.
“You might be right, but we shouldn’t waste so much of our time on a group who is only able to catch the lowest and useless members. It’s enough that we are wasting the time of one of the executives. You won’t need so many people.”
“Then I will take the Black Lizard and Higuchi, it’s a small and efficient group. It will definitely be enough.” He informed him more than asked for permission. He was more nervous than he would like to be but the matter was now personal to him and he wasn't going to back down. He hoped that the confidence in his voice would be enough.
“Fine, but you have 3 days and if he’s too injured I expect you to show mercy upon his life.” The red glow in his dark eyes showed exactly what he meant by that.
“Thank you, boss” Chuuya nodded, bowed low and made his way towards the door. As he walked he saw what Eliese was drawing. The page was mostly covered in red but he could clearly make out the face of one Akutagawa Ryuunosuke with Xs on his eyes and dismembered body. The drawing made a shiver run down his spine and he sped up his walk to escape the room. He definitely needed a glass of good wine after this.
***
The clicking of keyboards filled the fresh air of the Armed Detective Agency. The white curtains danced as the pleasant wind moved them slowly. Despite the weather calling everyone outside, all detectives had one of the busiest days in a while. The agency also welcomed a few guests who were working just as hard and one of them arguably worked even harder. Higuchi was so furiously tapping her laptop keyboard that even Kunikida could envy her speed and dedication. Of course not everyone was happy to see mafia members in their agency. Tanizaki was trying to ignore their presence and not shoot them dirty looks (mostly Higuchi) and Naomi was sitting in the President's office. Kyouka was peeking at them from time to time, but tried to look unbothered. Kenji was chatting with Tachihara and laughing at his bad jokes. Hirotsu was talking about the case with Dazai and Gin was passing notes with Atsushi, who was trying to assure her that they would find her brother and apologising over and over. The atmosphere was tense but everyone tried to make the best of it. Atsushi was exhausted and on his 4th cup of coffee with a horrendous amount of sugar. The entire night he was running around the forest to look for even the tiniest bit of clue to where they'd gone, but around 5 am the rain started pouring down, so his hopes for finding his scent died. He was now about to look through some police reports from the last month on the missing cases, but a loud noise stopped him. He looked up from his desk and saw Tanizaki and Tachihara arguing.
“What's your problem man?!”
“What's my problem?! My problem is you! My problem is that the mafia is in our office! Why on earth should we even help you find that monster?! We should just let this asshole die.” Yelled back Tanizaki.
“What the fuck did you just sa-?” But he couldn’t finish his sentence as suddenly Tanizaki fell back on his desk and Gin was standing in front of him. Tanizaki got up after the punch and spit blood on the floor. Gin's eyes were glowing with fury and as she started walking towards him, ready to throw another fist, to probably break his nose this time, Atsushi caught her arm to stop her. She looked at him angry as if threatening that he will be next, but backed down. The door to the President's office opened with a bang and the President turned towards them.
“Everybody should calm down. Junichiro, I understand that you are angry, but we've been working on this case with the mafia even before they took young Akutagawa, so if you want you can just think about it as simply finishing what was already started. As I remember I assigned you a completely different case, so you have another reason to simply ignore our guests. And you two, I expect you to not pick fights with my detectives. I do understand how this may be personal as this is about your friend, but by fighting and arguing you will certainly not help him.” President Fukuzawa scolded them like they were just children and they instinctively answered like said children and they lowered their heads.
“He's not really my friend…” Tachihara mumbled to himself, but Gin heard it and jabbed him hard with her elbow directly into his ribs. “Ow! Fine, fine, he is okay I guess. Geez, I'm not going to say anything bad about him anymore, just stop that already.” Gin just gave him a threatening look like what he said wasn't enough. “Ugh, fine. Your brother is great and all. Better?” Gin just closed her eyes and gave a small nod.
“Wait, Akutagawa is your brother?” Tanizaki asked shocked and Gin gave him a nod.
“What, is there something wrong with that?” Asked Tachihara who was ready to throw hands if needed.
“No, no, I just… never thought that mafia members can have families and all.”
“Most of us are not lucky enough to have someone as that's seen as a liability most of the time, so that's why we do fight for those we have, because that's all we will ever get.” Hirotsu chimed in and the rest of the mafia members nodded to that.
“Oh, I would do anything for my sister if she was in danger. I can’t imagine what I would do if I was in your place. I'm sorry for being so insensitive to that.” He bowed to Gin, whose eyes were now huge as she was not used to someone being so nice to her in her assassin clothing.
“It's okay dude. I guess we are also sorry for yelling and punching. Right, Gin?” He returned the earlier jab and she reluctantly nodded while rolling her eyes with arms crossed on her chest.
That must have been the most peaceful argument in the history of interactions between the Port Mafia and the Armed Detective Agency. President Fukuzawa was honestly shocked that his yelling worked, but after years of caring for Ranpo he knew how to deal with stubborn people (children).
“Hey Tanizaki? Can I talk to you for a second?” Asked Atsushi who didn't say a word during the whole argument, but still tried to give support.
“Yeah sure.” He said and they walked to the agency break room.
“How are you doing? I see that the mafia presence is really getting to you.” Atsushi knew that he had a confrontation with the Black Lizard during the Cannibalism incident and seeing them again must have been unpleasant to say the least.
“I'm just stressed and tired. Just want it all to be over with.” He sighed and shook his head.
“I heard Dazai talking with the executive Nakahara and he said that Mori only let him have Black Lizard for 3 days to take down this group, so maybe you can take some time off if their presence will get too much.” Atsushi tried to lighten his friend's mood.
“This might not be a bad idea. Thank you, Atsushi. I just don't want anything to happen to Naomi and seeing them here being so casual makes my blood boil, but I think I wasn't being really fair to them. Maybe staying out of the office for a few days will do better for us.” He smiled and took a deep breath. “And how are you holding? You look awful, like you didn’t sleep for a week.” He asked, concerned.
“I'm fine, I didn't sleep at all last night so I'm just tired.” He tried to give his best smile to reassure him that he wasn't lying, but he wasn't as successful as he wanted to be.
“You don't really look fine. Are you… um worried about Akutagawa?” He asked unsure.
“Yes, more than I would like to admit.” He chuckled.
“But why? He hurt you so many times and he's just a ruthless killer.” He was getting more confused by every second.
“He did hurt me but I also hurt him a lot. He really gains a lot after you get to know him more. He's not really ruthless but more like angry all the time. He is also very smart, but lets his anger control him too much, so then he does things, at least I hope so, he regrets. I honestly do the same but with words. One time I said something so horrible to him I was so surprised that he still was talking to me after that. If I was in his place I would not want to speak to me ever again. He really did change since the day we met. He doesn't even kill anymore. We still argue all the time but all the venom is like completely gone. He's always trying to annoy me and I'm always trying to make him laugh, which annoys him so much. But he has just such a nice laugh that I really can't stop doing that. Oh and his smile is just something out of this word, I just really want to see him smile more, but now… Wait, what am I talking about? No, no, no, no. Forget everything I just said. Please, Junichiro!” He didn't know when he started rumbling about his partner this way, but there was no way that he could get away from this conversation with his sanity intact. Junichiro was just standing there with eyes and mouth open in shock as to what he just heard. Surprisingly he wasn't mad at all, but relieved to finally understand why Atsushi was so keen on finding the mafioso. He closed his mouth, cleared his throat and smiled.
“Atsushi, I might not be the biggest fan of Akutagawa, but if you really love him then I will be happy to support you.” He said and laid his hand on his shoulder.
“What?! No, it's not like that! I-I don't lo- lo-” He wasn't able to say the L word at all as he was now a blushing mess and was waving his hands left and right. Everything was clear now to Junichiro, why Atsushi didn't stop Gin from punching him the first time despite the fact that he was sitting with them and clearly knew that they were siblings so he knew that they would obviously react this way. From what he knew Gin wasn't an ability user, so the tiger would have no problem sensing their bloodlust and stopping them even before they wanted to move. It also explained why Atsushi looked so exhausted and stressed out. It wasn't because of the mafia presence, but because of the lack of one mafia member. Junichiro knew that Kyouka and Dazai used to be both mafia members and he didn’t hold their crimes against them, so that’s how Atsushi must have felt about Akutagawa. It would be a very long time before he could forgive anyone who hurt his sister, but he might try for Atsushi if they even find Akutagawa alive. Well that was a pretty morbid thought.
“It’s okay, Atsushi. We should go back to work now. I’m sure you will be able to find those bastards.” He smiled at him and patted his shoulder.
“Thank you, Junichiro. It means a lot.” he returned the smile and they started walking back into the office. The scene that they walked in on was quite unsettling. Everyone has stopped where they’ve been standing and was looking at executive Nakahara who has just punched a hole in the wall and was screaming angrily right next to the desk that Dazai was sitting at. His face was greenish pale and he was looking at the box on his desk. Atsushi made his way quickly to see what was in the box that distressed both of them so much. He was definitely not ready for the sight of a cut off finger with chipped black nailpolish. A cry escaped his mouth and he felt that he was about to vomit. He ran to the bathroom, tripping over his own legs multiple times, but he finally made it to the toilet to empty his stomach into the porcelain seat.
Back at the office room Junichiro was wondering what on earth happened during those couple of minutes they had been gone.
~*~
The doors to the Armed Detective Agency opened with a loud bang. The heels of the expensive leathered shoes tapped on the green tiled floor as they made their way towards one particular desk. At the said desk was sitting (or rather spinning) one Dazai Osamu, who looked rather bored. Chuuya only hoped that he would fall from the chair from spinning so much (so Chuuya could catch the bandaged bastard, but that wasn’t important). He shot him a rather uninterested look and threw a pencil at him that was laying on the desk.
“Ow! What was that for? Chuuya is hurting me.” He did his usual frown and finally stopped spinning.
“You were annoying me. Can’t you treat something seriously for once?” The bite was back in his voice, like it always was when they weren’t alone and only concerned about each other.
“Ugh, why are you even bothering me, slug? Can’t you see that I am busy?” His voice was showing his annoyance clearly, but Chuuya wasn’t going to back down.
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“And I don’t care about you, shorttie”
“The fuck did you just call me, shithead?!” He grabbed him by his collar and pulled him up from his chair. Their banter was stopped by knocking on the agency door, they both looked over there to see as a man entered the office. He was one of the local postmen, who usually brought them their mail (mostly death or bomb threats). Kunikida went over to greet him and take the mail from him.
“Dazai this one is for you and weirdly for Chuuya too…?” He said as he read the names on the small package, but the address on it was just the agency.
“Huh? Give me this.” Chuuya took the small box and put it on Dazai’s desk so the other could open it. Without another word Dazai took a box knife and cut the tape, preventing anyone unwanted from opening the box. The first thing that they saw inside was a letter with the words Dear Port Mafia and Detective Agency written on top of it. Dazai took the letter into his hand revealing what was under the paper. The sight of a pinky finger just laying there on a white cloth made their stomachs drop. As he looked more closely Dazai recognised the white cloth as the jabot his ex student would wear. The realization finally hit him, whose finger was laying right in front of him. The black nail polish was chipped and he could see some blood under the nail. A memory came to his mind as he stared at the cut off finger.
Six years ago when he just started training the very young Akutagawa, he didn't use such drastic methods, he even could say he liked the kid and his dedication. His ability was honestly impressive and how he only needed a simple scarf to cause serious damage. It would be a while before he would do any important work in the mafia, but he did small ground jobs to earn some money. Dazai remembered the day when the young boy got his first ever paycheck. He was so excited to finally have enough money that he had some left after buying food for his sister and him. He ran up to Dazai to boast that he was able to buy his sister a small present in the form of a bottle of nail polish. He didn't remember the colour or the brand, but he clearly remembered the face of the young boy. That was the first time he saw him smiling so brightly. He was truly proud of his own hard work and that he could share the fruit of it with his sister. He never saw him so happy again, because he ruined everything after. Instead of being happy with him, Dazai felt something ugly, jealousy. He couldn’t fathom how this brat could be happy while working in the mafia while he was so miserable all the time. The stupid brat had nothing, no money, no status, not even a reason to live, but he could smile from something so small like buying his stupid sister some cheap shit? It was unacceptable. He was in the mafia and he should be miserable all the time as well. He didn't remember what he said to him or what happened to that nail polish bottle (if he threw it out or let the boy keep it), but he remembered his face. His sad little face, as his smile faded away never to be seen by Dazai ever again. He never cried, but his eyes became glossy.
That was the first time he ruined his happiness and certainly not the last one. Now he was sitting in the agency doing nothing as the other was suffering and who knew what they had done to him. He liked to think that he had changed since that night Odasaku died, but what would he think if he saw him now? His last words were telling him to save some orphans and he was letting the orphan he supposedly saved to die under torture. He was still the same pathetic teenager, who bullied others not even for his own pleasure, but just because he could. He only hoped that they wouldn't be too late to save him. If it came to it he would beg on his knees to heal his wounds. He was furious now, not only at himself but also at whoever dared to touch his student. If his suspicions were true, he would have to make sure to exterminate the rats that were causing problems in Yokohama, even if they were already imprisoned. Fyodor won't see another day when he is done with him. Now he had to make a phone call to his dear old friend.
Dazai didn't notice when Atsushi walked up to his desk and saw the insides of the box. He only heard as Chuuya smashed his fist against the wall and Atsushi running in the direction of the bathroom. After the initial shock he finally opened the letter. There wasn't much written there, just a few sentences.
Dear Port Mafia and Detective Agency
Hope this letter finds you unwell. We wanted to send this to the office of C. Nakahara, but it's much more difficult to send something to the mafia so we settled on the agency office and the desk of the Demon Prodigy. You will all pay for your crimes, no matter how young or how old you were. Just like this whore and murder paid for his crimes, you will all pay.
With deepest disrespect
There wouldn't be a single bone left unbroken when he was going to be done with whoever did all this. All 206 will be turned into dust. Demon Prodigy would die for good after the night he kills all of them. I was going to keep his promise to Odasaku. He was going to save some orphans, the one he should have protected from the start. Now he was sure that Ryuunosuke was still alive. If he wasn't there would be his head instead of just a mare pinky in the package. He turned his head towards Chuuya who was still shaking with a mix of anger and probably fear. He stood up and put a firm hand on his back and brushed him reassuringly. He turned around, making the chain on his hat dingle and saw those beautiful brown eyes. They were full of fury and Dazai knew that depending on what he would say those eyes could fill with tears.
“I'm sure he is alive, I promise you Chuuya, we will bring him home.” His voice was serious without even a shadow of mockery. Chuuya knew trusting Dazai was a gamble, but this time he was sure he could believe in those words.
“I will never forgive you, if you are lying to me.”
“I know, I promise I will do everything in my power to bring him back.” As he said that he cupped his chick and brushed his thumb across the soft skin.
The intimate moment was interpreted by Atsushi bursting through the door. He tried to catch his breath and started speaking.
“I know how we can find them or at least I think I know.” He was still breathing hard and almost choked on his own saliva. The room went silent as everyone looked at him, waiting for him to stop choking on air and to finally speak.
***
The dry tears made a broken shell on the pale face. The skin was irritated from the salt of cries, violence and bodily fluids of a monster that finally left him alone. He laid on the even dirtier mattress and was not moving at all. His breaths were so shallow that without looking closely he looked dead. The only movement was him blinking from time to time. Not even his brain wanted to function, as he was in such a deep state of dissociation with reality that he wasn’t sure he was even alive. He hoped that he was dead and only waiting for a reaper to take his soul from the broken body, so he could stop existing. For the first time for hours he moved his body by his own will. He tried to ignore the pain in his insides and bottom as he could feel a liquid flowing down his thighs. He looked around the room and saw a single metal chair that was left in the middle of the room. The predator must have not taken it back after the first “session” of the day and the guard did not bother taking it back when he came to offer him food. Akutagawa declined the offer and was glad that someone took his no as an answer. He looked up to see the only way out that was left for him. The old pipe looked sturdy and that it could handle some additional weight on it. The mattress underneath him was covered by a bedcover and he had some energy left for him to escape this hell. He brought both of his wrists to his mouth and used his teeth to free himself from the ziptie. It took some time, especially with his mouth still hurting from the missing tooth, but he did eventually succeed. With his hands finally free he moved to the cold floor to take the mattress cover. With the cloth in hands he started ripping it apart to create long strands of material. When he was finally satisfied with his hard work to create the strongest rope he could manage he started tying it in the so well known noose. The one thing that he would be thankful to Dazai for teaching him in this final moment. With some difficulty he was finally able to drag the chain fairly quietly towards him. It was tricky to stand up for the first time in days and with one foot missing but he was able to even climb the chair on his first attempt. The biggest difficulty would be attaching the handmade rope to the pipe, but with the additional height from the chair and standing on his tiptoes he was able to throw it up and tie it to the pipe. With a few pulls he made sure that it was a steady construction that should even hold his weight long enough. Only a few seconds and he would finally be free, he would finally escape this hell. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the face of his sister smiling at him. He missed her so much, just like he missed the weretiger. He never got to really talk to him, but maybe in the next life he would get a chance to have a life with him, even as just friends. He hoped Chuuya wouldn’t take his death too harshly. The executive was strong, he would get over it soon as he probably didn’t even care as much. Richter was right, they won’t cry for long after him. No one cared enough about him to mourn for long. They probably even got over him, counting his life as just collateral damage. He knew that weretiger with his stupid big heart would make sure they didn’t go after his sister or even Kyouka. He should have been better to her. He only hoped that in that short time he trained to be better than him, so she would be safe. He opened his eyes and took the noose into his hurt hands and put it on his neck. That was it, his freedom was near. Just one pull of the chair underneath him and the pain would be over. The wonderful relief of death was here. The chair fell down with a loud bang and Akutagawa Ryuunosuke was right for the last time. The pipe was indeed sturdy enough to hold the additional weight of his body.
If only life could be that beautiful. Akutagawa Ryuunosuke didn’t even get the luxury to decide when he was going to die. Luck was not on his side as upon hearing the noise (and probably the devil's whispering) the room abruptly entered the one and only Ernst Richter. He chuckled and took out one of his knives to cut down the hanging prey. The body fell onto the floor and impact threw the remaining air out of his lungs. He started coughing violently and turned onto his back. The cough became laughter followed by some lone tears.
“What's so funny, bitch?”
“I didn't expect to see god after I die, but to see the devil instantly wasn't something I expected either.” He laughed and hid his eyes behind his arm.
“I'm not a devil, I'm just a humble judge of human crimes. God does not exist and will not help you.” He answered back now with a frown on his own face.
“Oh he does exist, he just doesn't love you.” He said coldly, taking his arm away from his face and looking into his eyes.
“You little shit.” He said and then Akutagawa knew he had struck a nerve. The other charged at him, grabbing him by his abused throat and pinning him to the wall. “You know nothing about God. Do not dare to speak of him.” He spat out and slammed his head against the wall. “You wanna see him so much? I'm going to take you to him now.”
The breaths he was taking took utmost effort and not even one could fill his poor lungs. He grabbed the hand that was suffocating him and was scratching him so he would let him go and with the other hand he grabbed his arm covered by the camouflage jacket.
“Get your dirty hands off of me” his voice was even more raspy sounding than ever. The face in front of him again changed into Dazai’s one and fear was once more in his black endless eyes. “Don't you fucking dare touch me with that face on.” He spat out and the fear turned into anger. His nails dug deeper into his skin and that caused him to loosen his grip. When Akutagawa finally felt the air ever so slightly filling his lungs, he felt as if strength was filling his body again. The adrenaline and blood rushing through his veins made him feel like he was finally in control. The hand on the jacket tightened and his nails dug into the material. The clothing suddenly felt familiar as he felt it come alive under his touch. “I will be the one taking you to God today, not you.” As he said that a red glow of Rashomon came from the jacket and sliced the predator's throat. The blood splashed on his face and as the hand on his body finally let go, the body of Ernst Richter hit the floor. Akutagawa’s hands were shaking, he could feel the taste of the warm blood in his mouth and some even got into his eye. He looked down at his hands and saw only scarlet drops slipping through his fingers. He looked back at the corpse and finally realised what he had done. His whole body was shaking, covered in blood. He killed him, he did it, he broke the promise. He didn’t know when he started screaming. He felt like the blood was drowning him. He couldn’t breathe, only scream. His blood covered hands buried themself in the blood covered hair and pulled them. The blood was flowing down from the sliced throat and was making its way toward where his legs were. He could see the red weaves coming towards to swallow him whole. He tried to pull himself backwards so the red wouldn't touch him but it was already touching his toes. He was still screaming when someone kneel in front of him. He did recognise the guard at first and only tried to make himself smaller and become one with the wall. He finally stopped screaming when the guard started shaking him by the shoulders.
“Hey, it’s fine! Everything’s fine.” He repeated over and over until Akutagawa took his hands out of his hair. He looked around and saw there was no sea of blood about to swallow him and only a corpse laying beside him. “The bastard finally got what he deserved.” He sighed. “Listen, here’s what is going to happen. I can’t take his body out of this room now. No one is going to come and look for him while he is here. Everyone knows not to disturb him while he is with one of the victims. So until they think he is with you, no one will come to either finish his job or continue what he was doing. I will move his body away to the other corner of the room, but he has to stay here.” while he was speaking Akutagawa was shaking his head the whole time. He didn’t want the body of this monster to be anywhere near him. He couldn’t do it anymore, he wanted to say all of that but he couldn’t make a noise. His voice was stuck in his throat and all he could was to stare as the guard pulled the dead body by the leg. The red streak was painted behind him and Akutagawa couldn’t look away from it. He killed him, he did it, he broke the promise. Now he was left alone in the room with a corpse and ghosts staring at him and repeating the words.
You killed him, you did it, you broke the promise.
Notes:
Thank you for reading! The finale is near!
I hoped you like this chapter and if yes then please let me know in the comments. It means a lot to read those.
I am so sorry for posting it so late, but I was busy with my bestie's birthday, uni work and then I was on vacation in Italy. I had no time for writing besides in the evening and on the car rides.
I will try to write the next chapter of this story as fast as I can
Hope you enjoyed <3
Also if you're interested pls join our sskk dc server. I yap there a lot so you can catch me there!
https://discord.gg/spvmTr33
Oh and I added to my bio my links to socials so if you would like to yell at he or something then go ahead (my at is the same on most platforms)
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