Bungou Stray Dogs fanfiction
The Cheshire's Dance
Description:
[Her heart was torn between two very different men, one who was her obsession. And another with whom she might be genuinely in love with.] No secret can ever remain hidden…[Formerly named The Red Queen.]
A/N:
Alright, folks, this is reshaped story of The Red Queen, which wasn't going anywhere and I pretty much ruined it from the go. This version, however, has been figured out and I know what I'm doing here. I've indulged myself into the series and planning on reading the entire manga series besides watching the anime (seen it now three times). The third season has started out really good, which was what made me shape my OC character into another person fully. So taking Kafka's style and I'm using a known female author's name, but that's as far as she'll resemble the real person in life.
I'm having fun in coming up with this story because it's dark, emotional and full of turns and such. The pairing will be [Dazai O. X OC X Chuuya N.] because that's how I formed her personality and character. I've done so much research before starting the story and double checking facts, but if I miss or get something wrong feel free to correct me.
So, without further ado - I hope you'll enjoy "The Cheshire's Dance".
Chapter 1: 01
Someone, once told me that in order to be a human, I'd need to feel like one.
I remember simply staring at that man with a blank, utterly confused expression. Over the years, I've come to realize what exactly he'd meant. Although, if this was what people put up with in their daily lives, I wish I would've remained as oblivious as I could have - I'd take that over dealing with a pissed off Kunikida Doppo anytime and day.
The dirty blonde-haired man was currently ranting about his dislike towards our suicidal maniac of a colleague, muttering how he was going to kill the bastard once he got his hands on him for ruining his ideal day. It's been over an hour since the said bastard went 'missing', during which Kunikida had resorted to demanding that I help him find the bastard. So far, we'd gone to the most common places, we knew or speculated where Dazai Osamu would most likely be.
No success.
And I was starting to get rather pissed that my peaceful nap had been interrupted because of a man, who couldn't stay put. My eyebrow twitched, listening to Kunikida cursing. It really wasn't anything fun, the words that left his mouth were the same daily threats I already knew by my heart. The idealist hardly changed them, it was starting to become boring (I might mention this to the bastard later, simply to see if anything would change).
"- I swear that bandage waste of bastard will be killed by my own hands!" Kunikida growled, his green-grey eyes glinted with anger. By this point, I was starting to consider killing Dazai Osamu myself. Fast and swiftly, leaving the man no room or space to escape. Yeah, it was starting to become an alluring plan...
"Kida," I called out, knowing full well that he disliked it whenever I called him so. Instantly, the dirty blonde-haired man's eyes glared at me. If possible, he was even more pissed (something I hadn't thought to be possible).
"It's Kunikida-san to you, brat!"
"Oya?" I tilted my head, a smirk appeared on my bright red lips. One hand on my hip, while the other one lazily played with a knife I'd pulled out. A part of me was contemplating ending Kunikida's life right here and now, I may have done it if the rational part of me hadn't whispered he's your colleague. "The one, who is a brat here is you, motherfucker - I'm 23, remember that, BRAT!"
Okay, I admit it. I disliked being called a brat, least of all by the idealist standing in front of me. He may have seniority within the Agency but not in the matter of our lifespan, even if the difference was a mere year. It still mattered to me. I kept spinning the knife around my fingers, and a dark smirk graced my lips. Kunikida looked slightly alarmed, watching me intently before he pushed his glasses up and marched towards the river.
He really should be used to this by now, I thought with sight as I pocketed my knife with an eye-roll. One would think that after nearly three years of 'friendship' he'd know my quirks well, to the point of being able to avoid pissing me off. He didn't, not really. Perhaps, the only one, who had taken his time to know me was my own partner, Edogawa Ranpo.
My eyes glanced up at the clear sky, the weather's too nice to be put up with this shit. My fingers itched for a glass to grab, and my throat yearned for a good whiskey. Dazai just had to go and cause trouble at this time of the day, didn't he (especially, when the President had granted me a week's worth of holiday, one that I had been looking forward to!)? My mood was spiraling downright to being spoiled, and as I followed my colleague, who was pissing me off, I wondered if the President would be kind enough to extend my holiday.
However, unlikely it would be.
"Sorry, Kirino," Kunikida's voice snapped me back to the reality, effectively cutting me off of my musings and plans to murder the two men, whom I had the unfortunate luck to call my colleagues. At the very least, Yosano would be excited to have them both in her infirmary if I were to go through with my plans (well, the suicidal maniac would have to heal the normal way, probably). "I know it probably isn't what you planned on doing during your holiday."
I blinked, "...At least you admit ruining my plans of having some peaceful time away from the Agency."
He pushed up his glasses, again, giving me a long look. "I bet that all you planned on doing was drinking and being a menace to the society, Kirino." I stuck out my tongue at him, before flipping him off. Maybe he does know me, being spot on. "STOP ACTING LIKE A PETTY CHILD, KIRINO!" He shouted at me, as I merely smirked at him. As much as their antics annoyed me, it was fun to rile Kunikida up as much as one could. His reactions were hilarious, I might join in Dazai's tease...
"Ya know very well ya two deserve being told to fuck off by me," I hummed, flipping him off one more time just to stress my point. The dirty blonde-haired man gritted his teeth in a barely contained anger.
"...Let's just find that bastard. Hm? What's with that accent?" He questioned, glancing at me from the corners of his eyes.
The previous smirk was back as I responded, "Ya like it? I'm considering on using it from now on, just to piss Dazai off."
Kunikida sighed, sounding almost disappointed. "It doesn't fit you, Kirino. Nor is it a good idea to mess with Dazai more than you already are. As curious as I am to know the history between you two, I get the feeling that it might be best if I don't know."
I hummed in agreement, "Consider it to simply be Dazai's charm to be able to piss off anyone, who gets too close to him...wouldn't it be fine if we simply let him be as opposed to wasting our own energy to find him?"
I was sure that things would be quieter without the bastard around, although a voice within me whispered 'you need him alive'.
Kunikida didn't look impressed at me, "As long as we're part of the Armed Detective Agency, our policy is not to cause trouble for others, Kirino. You should know it by now, especially when you've been a member for three years."
I shrugged, casting dubious looks at the river we were approaching, "His existence alone is trouble." There was a high possibility he'd tried to commit suicide by drowning himself, it would be something the bastard would do.
My colleague let out a dry chuckle, "Even though I agree with that statement, Kirino, we're detectives. Thus we abide by the rules set for us." I pouted, crossing my arms as I sulked. By now we'd reached an area near the river, where the military members often used as one of their routes for their training sessions. Even now, I could see a group of them about to fade to the horizon's cover.
If I ignored the reason why I'd been dragged away from my holiday, which was cut short, then it was a beautiful day. Beautiful enough to act like Dazai or to simply enjoy it (which I wasn't). And speaking of the devil, guess who stood on the other side of the riverbank. For a moment I considered throwing my set of knives at the bastard, giving him what he desired the most. Before a jab into my elbow caused me to pout at Kunikida, who was giving me a disapproving look, almost as if he knew exactly what I just thought.
"No."
"But!"
"No."
"...Fine."
That, pretty much, was our conversation, although I may have shortened his denial of letting me kill Dazai into one word. So, instead of murdering the bastard, I followed my idealist of a colleague to the riverbank. I vaguely paid attention to what was said, distinctly noticing that both Dazai and a young boy were dripping water. I sweat dropped as I realized my earlier assumptions were correct, and he'd somehow managed to cause trouble to the young teenager, who looked awful.
The kid didn't look like someone, who had a proper housing or otherwise, he wouldn't be out here at this time of the hour. I think.
"THERE YOU ARE, YOU BLOCKHEAD!" Kunikida exploded as soon as he noticed the said idiot. I grimaced at his loud voice, giving him a dirty look before stepping as far away from him as I could, while still in hearing distance.
"Mind your voice, bastard!" The idealist ignored me, that motherfucker.
"Oh, hey," Dazai said, sounding the least bit surprised, as he turned to look at us. He didn't even have the decency to look surprised upon seeing me, probably having long guessed that Kunikida would interrupt my well-deserved holiday to find him. A vein threatened to pop on my forehead. "Nice work, Kunikida-kun, Natsuo."
The way he said my name pretty much confirmed my thoughts, my eyebrow twitched as I watched Dazai to curl his lips in satisfaction. The bastard had whined in protest when my holiday was announced. And to be honest, it's not the first interruption on my second day of supposed to be a holiday. He'd spent the entire yesterday annoying the fuck out of me.
"Nice work?" Our colleague repeated, crossing his arms as he stood his ground. He hadn't noticed the exchange between Dazai and me, nor the fact that I wasn't standing right next to him. "And just who caused all this work, you suicidal maniac?! I've had enough of you disrupting my schedule! I even had to call Kirino on her holiday to assist me, instead of you!"
"Oh, right!" Something told me that nothing good was about to come out of his nonchalant tone, appearing to look non-disturbed at the fact he'd ruined both Kunikida's and my days. He was paying more attention to the kid with him, holding up a finger as he continued with a smile, "I have a great idea."
"...Your ideas aren't great, Dazai," I spoke up, wanting nothing more than to go to my usual bar and drink. I was surrounded by plain idiots day by day, and drinking was one of the few ways I could think of coping with it, at least it was the best way for me.
"Those two are colleagues of mine from work. Let's have them treat you to a meal."
Say what now? "FUCK OFF, DAZAI! Ya two can treat the kid yourselves, I ain't gonna treat anyone after ya lot are ruining my holiday!" I shouted, flipping both Dazai and Kunikida off, ready to bolt from the scene and leave the idiots to be. The silver-haired boy looked aghast at my reaction, almost scared if his body language wasn't enough of an indication.
Near me, Kunikida threw me the look, almost calling me a traitor and not to use that annoying accent. Before he turned his attention to Dazai.
"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME!?"
"Are you an idiot, Kunikida?" My tone was laced with annoyance, nearly face-palming myself. "Obviously, he's not listening."
"You could at least help me pay half of the amount, Kirino," Kunikida said, coming to a realization that our protests were pretty much useless and that Dazai would coerce one of us (or both) into paying their meal.
I raised an eyebrow, "Do you want me to flip you off, again, Kida?"
"It's Kunikida-san!"
Dazai's laughter was what brought our attention back to the two starving men (their stomach growled loud enough to reach our ears), my anger towards the bastard nearly faded hearing his laughter. I didn't want to admit it, but I enjoyed hearing it. It was almost soothing and could calm me down (that was if I wasn't gone too far in my anger for it to work).
There was a sound of Kunikida tapping his leg against the asphalt of the riverbank, arms crossed as he looked impatient. I was picturing myself in a cozy bar, having the best quality of whiskey or wine and enjoying the peace I yearned for the most, at the moment.
"So a boy on the brink of starvation wants to eat tea on rice? Very well, let's have Kunikida-kun treat you to thirty bowls of that!"
I choked on his declaration, isn't thirty bowls a bit too much? I raised an eyebrow, giving the boy my full attention. It was rare for Dazai to pay this much attention to someone, he'd just met. Even if the said person did save his life, considering how that happened more often than not.
"Don't get all generous with my money, Dazai!" I cast Kunikida a look, which promised him extra mouth for him to spend his money on. As if sensing my eyes on him, the dirty blonde-haired man sent me another glare (I'm starting to forget how many times it's been today now), muttering something about ungrateful colleagues.
The silver-haired teenager glanced from Dazai to me to Kunikida and back to Dazai, almost as if he was in a daze or watching some sort of a match. The look on his face was soft, almost scared and guarded as if he was expecting some sort of attack to be leashed on him.
"Dazai?" He questioned, voice timid, turning to look at the bandage wasting suicidal maniac. His segmental heterochromia, consisting of purple eyes with yellow along the bottom curve of his pupil watched the adult in front of him with a strange fascination.
The wind chose that particular moment to dishevel Dazai's brown coat and his dark mahogany brown hair, Kunikida's dirty-blonde hair which he kept in a ponytail and my own knee-length, freely falling on my shoulders auburn-brown hair.
"Yeah, that's my name. Dazai Osamu."