Chapter Text
There sits a demon on a ratty couch with whiskey on the rocks and dead eyes.
There stands a foolish man by the door, that never will enter the room, but neither will he leave, as he did time and time again. Always observing, never committing. This man might have been the closest to the core, but never had the courage to do anything about it.
And finally, there lies a performer in the middle of the room, surrounded by bottles upon bottles of sake. The man (man?) is covered in bandages and depending on the angle, may be new or bloodied and burned. Body, mostly covered by the futon, all but striped dress shirt and brown mop of hair visible. No face from this angle.
They seem to be communicating even if time and space shouldn’t allow it.
This, that and their space where the window is always closed and the light from the open bathroom shines red.
“Seems like you have already decided” starts the demon, gently shaking the never melting ice, “weren’t we supposed to wait a year for all this?”
The futon flutters as the body shakes its head. “One can never defy their fate for as long as we had. The light wasn’t strong enough to save us”
“But you tried,” the fool offered some consolation, “you tried for as long as you could, isn’t that already enough?”
For all that it counts, he did save two orphans, helped save the world, said “fuck you” to Mori-san in a way that mattered. He did good, or as good as someone like he could.
It has opened its eyes now, tired and burgundy colored they are or maybe just black and the red light shimmers inside them. We can see its whole expression now, or rather the lack of it.
Stood up, popped some pills and turned on the lights, revealing the hundreds of faces pinned to the walls. Each slightly different, yet all the same, belonging to the Performer. More accurate would be to call them masks, each got its use even for a minute. The Actor parades in them around the land of humans, hoping to be one as well. It never worked but hey, again, at least it tried.
“Did you come to understand people better?” “That’s what this experiment was about, wasn’t it?”
“Are you still scared of them?”
“They are simple beings, and I can never be one of them. But to answer your question, no, fear got lost along the way”
One particular mask jumped towards Performer’s hands. It was cute in a way, if you ignore the snakelike cables swirling around its frame.
Weapon was analyzed and dusted off. All “flaws”, possible expressions were all categorized, dozen usage cases ascribed to each one. Each step perfected and remembered. Empty eyes but soft smiles, an unnerving being in which something unnamed is wrong.
*Ah,* eyes looked up towards the devil, finding him smiling, *so this is how it’s going to play out.* With practiced ease it put the mask on, smoothing all ripples and snakes.
In the background, door closing can be heard. A foolish man has left and is never coming back.
“I have talked with fate and they said there is only one way this can end” The demon says with a curl to his lips.
“Shall we end this charade?” and without waiting for and answer, *dazai* raised his hand, snapped its fingers and all light went out.
---
Dazai wakes up, his angel sleeps 6 ft under and the devil hides behind his right eye, ready for the next stage. No use delaying the inevitable is there?
The man goes on to start the day. Take his pills and wash them away with the leftover alcohol. Eating deemed unnecessary. Clothes in light colors put on. They know what is coming.
While closing the door, he sends a text off to Atsushi that he will join the Agency at the meeting place in couple of hours. He has a lot to take care of beforehand. Pick up a suit he ordered, buy some alcohol, use the spy Mori sent after him and at last, visit the grave.
As he walked through the city, accompanied by warm midday sun, he noticed his beige coat was a bit small on him today. Constraining, uncomfortable, heavy as the life he was forsaking. Beige didn’t suit him, it thought.
But it doesn’t matter, this is this coat’s last day.
The quite expensive looking suit shop came in sight. Before going there, Dazai entered a small shop and came out with two bottles, one wine, one sake.
In the boutique, workers made him put on the suit, in case any mistakes are to be remedied as fast as possible. He went with high waist pants, burgundy dress shirt, simple but shorter than common black jacket. And let’s not forget about the center piece, long dark coat that drags the shadow behind with each step. The heaviness tied to wearing wrong colored coat disappeared for a minute.
But it has to wait as he changed back, workers packaged everything and all was paid for with a card that shouldn’t have been here.
Instead going straight to his last destination before the meeting, Dazai backtracked one street towards an alley, where a familiar face is standing.
“Hirotsu! What a not surprise to see you here.”
“Good to see you too, Dazai-san. Any reason you approach me instead letting me follow you around?” Hirotsu sheepishly said, but deep down he knew, he can never hide from this character.
“Well you see, I am going to visit a grave and would like to be alone. Oh and also, would you be so kind to deliver this suit and alcohol to the headquarters?” He smiled emptily, tone of his words could only be described as an order, not a plea. Of course Dazai wouldn’t do anything to his favorite retainer.
“Mori-san knows that I’ll join today’s meeting, so we don’t have to entertain him, ne?”
“I understand, let me take care of this.” Hirotsu took both things and with a small nod, moved deeper into the alley.
With that done, Dazai resumed his stroll towards a certain grave on the hill.
---
Flowers and incense were set on the marble. Dazai sat with his back to the grave and sighed.
“Odasaku, do you think I did enough for the light to hide back in the shadows?”
Being good is a constant battle, where no clear winner is revealed. Man is a moral animal, so how long he should have worked to be considered the same?
Dazai thinks of the Agency, where each member fights to be a good person, belonging to a good organization doesn’t make them inherently good people.
Rampo and his indifference.
Sadism Yosano exhibits to remind others about the value of life.
Kyouka that tries to reframe her training in the Port Mafia for good.
And Atsushi, dear Atsushi that so strong yet inferior in his own mind. He may never overcome it, but he will fight and he will survive. He will save others before ever saving himself.
*Atsushi is the best of us.*
If given more time, he could have even save Dazai. But this is not the reality we live in.
Dazai turns 23 next week, the age his destiny will be realized.
The life he was meant for since birth, child of empty eyes which have seen too much.
By leaving at 18, he could live something new, and that in and of itself was exciting. Light dripped over him and he did the only thing the moon could do, he reflected it back out. Shine warmed him but never permeated.
*Choke on it,* the demon said, *this is the only light you deserve.*
Lungs warmed a bit for him to spit kindness, trapping the scalding words. Warm never reached the heart, if it was ever there.
It would be too human for him to have a heart. Demon feasted on it long time ago.
Being on the side of light didn’t suit him.
It couldn’t, he tried probably the hardest but failed. Chained to the dark like an abused dog.
*Devil that made me do it, when we were always the devil.*
The chilling breeze brought Dazai back to the surface, where the never changing tree waved to him. Soft meow sounded out from behind him.
“Sensei, to what do I owe the pleasure?” He turned to a cat with a cat like smile. “There is no other soul on this cemetery, as you know”
The cat took a second to shine in white smoke, and within it now sat an older man with a cane next to him.
“Dazai-kun, why aren’t you running away?” cat-man took out a bottle of fine sake from his coat to share and he poured some for Dazai. Dazai gladly accepted.
“And fight the inevitable?”
“You never cared before about inevitability, what changed, young man?” With this question, the Actor drunk the alcohol.
“I’m tired Sensei” *Of life, light and fight* went unsaid. “The experiment failed, both your and mine.”
“I wouldn’t call it a failure, I think the hypothesis was incorrect” “Rather than ‘*can the demon prodigy change for good’* we should have gone with *‘can he survive in the light’*”
“The answer is that he can, but the moon shines only with borrowed light and the sun went out a long time ago.” The shapeshifter stood up, intending to leave. “We’re at it’s grave”.
The air stilled, as to make the point across. The moon takes and takes, hides and acts, visibly changes but it’s always the same.
“Well then, time for us to go, fate awaits us”
“Dazai-kun, I’ll be watching you as you improve the Tripartite framework I set up.”
With that, Natsume shifted into a cat and slinked away quickly
*Don’t get your hopes up, old man.*
---
As he moved towards Mafia headquarters, he felt something sink into his bones. A feeling he doesn’t want to recognize. Readiness with a touch of inevitability.
Surprisingly, he found his co-workers waiting by the entrance to the Mori Corp. They were accompanied by Kouyou in their wait. Dazai wanted to surprise them in the elevator or the office, as he often does. Oh well, the faster is starts the faster he can go get drunk. Let the dance begin!
“Hello~ my dear Friends and Enemies, how are we doing today?”
“Dazai, you are late again, couldn’t you be on time at least on such day?” Kunikida yelled with tension appropriate for today.
“Your bolo tie is missing,” Ranpo said and wished he could take it back, as the demon’s eyes passed through him. He was sure, only he could see the slight void in said eyes. It made his hair stand.
“Ah you know how it is, sometimes things don’t fit you anymore.” dazai shifted his focus towards Kouyou, who hid under usual elegance.
“Ane-san, shall we move inside?”
She knew that he knew how this would end.
“Of course, please follow me.” She turned towards the entrance, Dazai joined her at the front, “Boss is waiting in the *Moon* room,” she whispered to him.
“Sightseeing route, I presume?” a courtesy question, as the man could read Mori Ougai’s tactics like a open book.
*Don’t think about one time you didn’t.*
It was all about showing the power and how mafia still reacts to the Demon Prodigy.
Show of power. To be exact, a show of Demon Prodigy’s rule. Where fear and respect coexist. Said Demon couldn’t care less, only Rampo would notice such atmosphere and it’s not like he doesn’t know. So Dazai met the executive’s eyes with a smile and said:
“We are going the shortest route”
[add a part where goons are looking at dazai with fear with basically his thoughts being “you will never forget how they looked at you anyway”]
Silence overcame the group, each lost in thoughts. Going to the court where verdict was already decided. Everyone had their ideas and fears of how this would end.
Dazai walked in the front, confident, mask firmly in place. It made Kouyou unnerved, but not as much as the guards next to the entrance. Those remember how it was 5 years ago. Dazai basked in those stares, he never forgot how they looked at him, but moves on as how he often does.
Kunikida tried to get his attention, he may be a blockhead but has great intuition, he sees the fear. Dazai ignores him. Razor focused on the task ahead, planning the next moves. The game already has began.
---
The conference room, or the *Moon* room as it was called, reminded the Agency more of victorian dining room from movies. Windows covered with heavy curtains, burgundy with silver details. Light, that was neither warm nor cold, barely illuminated the room besides the center table. You could see some couches in the background and a coffee machine, but to do so you would have to ignore the persons sitting by the table.
Ougai Mori in the middle seat, as well as Nakahara Chuuya to his left, laptop and papers before them.
“Dazai-kun, couldn’t you entertain me a little?”
“Mori-sensei~” Dazai purred in a way that made everybody uncomfortable, “I didn’t want to make you wait, of course.”
After that everybody sat, Dazai found himself between Kunikida and Atsushi to the right of Fukuzawa. Ranpo and Yosano sat to his left.
On the other side, an unknown to most person, sat next to Chuuya and Kouyou went to the end of the table to the right of the Boss.
Nobody mentioned the empty right hand seat.
Rampo noticed, confirmed his theory and started mourning. He won’t claim he knew it from the beginning, of he who is meant to sit there. But he does now and well, doesn’t it sting?
“Well then, to start,” Mori began the conference, “Fukuzawa-dono would you be so kind to remind us of the agreement that we will be discussing today?”
“In exchange for help during the vampirism outbreak, one member of the Armed Detective Agency will transfer to the Port Mafia. The choice of the member falls on the Port Mafia Boss Ougai Mori.” With grief in his voice, Fukuzawa spoke for the first time today.
It felt like death sentence. Atsushi was shaking, not wanting to lose even one person from his family. Kunikida was angry, unable to save somebody and Yosano barely stopping herself from stabbing Mori.
Dazai catalogues all these reactions, something to remember them by.
The air went stale, keeping everybody in place, the chairs were uncomfortable and the room hostile. Mori smiled, sharp and acidic. He looked directly at Fukuzawa, locked in as a hunter is onto its prey. Waiting, watching, being agonizingly slow. All for the drama, checking who is going to break the silence.
But Dazai wasn’t in the mood for that and time waits for no one.
“Mori, can we speed this up, it’s obvious who it is, the torture bores me.”
“You are right, it's not as amusing as I thought it would be, now it's just sad” Mori, still turned to Fukuzawa, has said.
“You can see the empty seat next to me,”
Everybody held their breath,
“and I do need my successor back.”
And these words themselves sounded like a curse.
“My choice is Dazai-kun.” A cry escaped Atsushi’s mouth. “Fitting back in will be easy for him.”
And all hell broke lose.
“No-not him, please…” Atsushi, the one who saw good in his mentor, could hold back his sobs anymore. Dazai found it cute.
“Bastard! I will kill you if you think you can get him again” Yosano screamed. Well, it’s a nice sentiment. When he will kill Mori, maybe he could invite her to the party. But then, if he is dead, Dazai would still have to go back to the mafia.
With that dazai stood, silencing the voices of protest from the agency.
“Hirotsu”
The man standing in the shadows responded.
“The items you requested me to bring are in your office.”
“Thank you, now,” he addressed the whole party, “be civil in the time I go change”. With that he left, to the room he knows best.
---
They sat in silence. The mafia, calm and collected. The other side of the table was going through many emotions. The ADA knew it would be a hard meeting, regardless of who will be chosen. Mori’s smug smile was grating their nerves. He was the one who broke the silence, speaking to his executives.
“Dazai will get back all of his privileges that come with being my right hand” Mori practically giggled. Nobody was amused.
“Are you sure about it boss?” Nakahara Chuuya reminded others of his existence.
“As much fun as it would be to make him climb the ladder, he would get bored quicker and I would be dead faster” Ougai shrugged it off so easily that it weirded out everyone. Fukuzawa met his eyes.
“You talk as if in inevitable for Dazai to kill you” He said what others couldn’t so easily.
“But of course, he is my son after all,” the bait was set, “he would do it much more cleanly than me with my predecessor” Mori let the the words hand, waiting for them to bite. He was bored after all, Dazai takes his time.
“He is not a son to a bitch like you!” yelled Yosano, Ranpo trying to hold her down. “Don’t let him get a rise out of you” he says.
The hostility remains.
When dazai comes back, the atmosphere changed, the man looked different, almost regal. Red blouse emphasized the crimson of his eyes, said eyes were narrowed, sharp and so enchanting. Those eyes drilled everything out of the enemy and terrified the allies. Coat hugged his body, the dark embrace welcoming him back.
Dazai took the empty seat next to Mori.
“Shall we establish the new true agreement?”