Chapter Text
PROLOGUE
Nakajima Atsushi yawned sleepily. It was 8 in the morning, and he was on the way to work. The sky was a pale grey, stormy grey clouds and flecks of bruised purple darkening the would-be perfect day.
As he reached the Agency's doorstep, he noticed a wrinkled envelope sitting neatly just outside the door. Frowning slightly, he took it and headed inside. Perhaps it was one of his colleague's post.
Kunikida-san was already working on his computer when he entered, despite the gloomy weather outside that made Atsushi want to do anything but work. Yosano-san was huddled in a corner with Ranpo-san, both snacking on...chips, popcorn, and— And was that sake? At 8 in the morning? Ignoring them, Atsushi swept his eyes over to the Tanizaki siblings instead, but they were— No, abort, abort! What about Kyouka-chan and Kenji? He spotted the two talking animatedly while sat on the desks, and his sharp, tiger-enhanced hearing caught the words 'cow' and 'murder'. Nope. He was not involving himself with that. Dazai-san...well, he wasn't even at work yet.
Atsushi held up the envelope high in the air and asked, "Is this anyone's?"
Everyone turned, but no one replied, so he took that as a green light to open it. Yosano-san and Ranpo-san immediately bounded over, the latter reaching inside his pocket to pull out his glasses.
Atsushi unfolded the yellowed parchment paper—
Ranpo-san yelled, "Don't—"
And a bright light engulfed the office in a sickly green—
Atsushi managed to catch a glimpse of the large, loopy scrawl written on the paper before he blacked out.
On it, there were only three words written in kanji:
太宰 治.