Momentum
This fic began as a dream, so if it doesn't make sense, that's why. (I blame its existence on a Soukoku calendar I got with an anime magazine.)
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters in this fic except the two unnamed ones.
When Chuuya got summoned by the head of the Port Mafia, he didn't really know what to expect from the doctor.
Elise greeted him at the door, half-eaten sponge cake on a porcelain plate in one hand, the door handle in the other. Chuuya sat down tentatively opposite Mori as he eyed the whiteness of both Elise's cake icing and the plate.
"There's some contraband goods being transported through a shopping centre which you need to monitor. Take Akutagawa with you," Mori ordered him succinctly, handing over a floor plan drawn in magenta crayon.
Mori raised his fork, but Chuuya slammed the table, causing the cutlery to chatter, and demanded, "Why that mongrel? He has absolutely no tact!"
The silence between them became almost tangible as it settled, but Mori smiled a sly smile and sent the redhead on his way.
/
When the doctor finally dug into the cake a little while later, he declared to Elise, "It's too bad Chuuya-san didn't have any cake. It's extremely well made."
/
For some reason that was beyond him, Chuuya had been initially stationed to watch the contraband from inside a cramped petstore, in the section with the dogs. Puppies pawed at the glass enclosures and begged for his attention as he took off his hat and scratched his head. For some reason, the way they panted at him reminded him of that damned Dazai.
"Chuuya Nakahara's in the middle of a bunch of dogs, huh? Nice joke," he muttered to them, trying his hardest to forget he'd even thought of Dazai.
Suddenly, two men in matching olive caps and moving company jumpsuits shuffled past, hauling a grey container with handles between them - that was the contraband he was meant to watch. Upon first glance, the container looked large enough to be a coffin of some sort, but Mori wouldn't stoop so low as to make him watch a corpse...right?
The men kept ahead of him so he kept his distance and snuck through the crowd, holding on to his hat to ensure he wouldn't lose it.
/
Damn it. How'd he lose them so easily?
Those two men had turned to go down the stairs, and he'd been blocked off by a giant glass display. (Since Chuuya was only following the floor plan, he blamed Mori for that.)
Just as he passed where Akutagawa was stationed, setting the Rashomon user into motion, the men came back. They still seemed to be on their set course, so everything was fine.
To speed his pursuit up, Chuuya leapt on to the nearest handrail, the dark metal giving way slightly as he landed. In a zigzag motion, he continued to bound forward from rail to rail, side to side – still behind the men, but faster than he could move on foot, using his gloved hands for support when he almost lost his grip. He kept watching his feet, then ahead at the glass walls of the shopping centre complex, then back down to his feet again. Ahead, back, ahead.
Uh oh. There was a corner in front of him…and an endless abyss below.
Akutagawa seemed to scowl even more than usual as he overtook Chuuya, using a tendril of Rashomon to grab on to the handrail and fling himself over the edge to catch up to the men, who were now one floor below them. (There was a sizable space between the closest wall and the rail that was the furthest from Chuuya at this point.)
Not one to be beaten, Chuuya leapt off the rail he was positioned on, using the momentum of his throw to toss himself to the one below and activating his ability just before he missed the next floor. He then repeated this for another two floors.
Just as Chuuya turned to spot a French-style restaurant, his eye was caught by a girl with flowing black hair and a pink dress sitting alone at one of the tables. Akutagawa seemed to pause in time as he passed her by.
Hmph. Never thought Akutagawa had that kind of taste in girls, Chuuya thought…but what he didn't know was that that girl was Gin.
/
Finally, the contraband neared its destination in the partially dark basement of the shopping centre.
However, a loud BANG! went off in front of Chuuya and Akutagawa.
The jumpsuited men were faced with the ponytail man from the Agency, holding a sheet from his notebook with "revolver" written on it in Japanese. Akutagawa suddenly leapt out from behind Chuuya to tackle the threat, and this caused the bespectacled Agency man to conjure the gun and start trading noisy blows.
There was suddenly a sinking feeling in Chuuya's heart though.
"I'm sorry, Chuuya, but I can't let you do this," came a mocking voice, confirming his suspicion.
Surely enough, there was Dazai, the bandages on his wrists slightly unravelled as he stepped out from the darker part of the basement.
"Dazai," hissed Chuuya before he could think of doing anything else. "What's so important you have to be here?"
"I'm confiscating your contraband weapons."
…weapons? Mori hadn't even told him what the contraband items were, yet Dazai knew?
Suddenly paranoid, Chuuya glanced over at the jumpsuited men, who had been knocked out by Kunikida and Akutagawa during what had already happened of their fight. Surely enough, the container had been opened – probably by Dazai, the redhead guessed - showing a glimpse of the silver and black shine of guns, buried under the wrinkles of a dull yellow cloth that lined the container. Rifles, revolvers, pistols…if they fit in the container, they were there.
While Chuuya was distracted, Dazai was free enough to intercept Akutagawa's ability with one hand. The No Longer Human user's bandages glowed an icy blue for a second as Rashomon became fabric again.
Chuuya darted at his former partner and swung his foot, only for the trenchcoated man to leap out of the way playfully. Next the hatted man flung a punch but the half-unwound bandages of Dazai's arm caught Chuuya's wrist.
"These bandages aren't just an aesthetic object," the bandaged man added. "They're just as much a part of me as any body part, which means if I require it to be so..." He yanked on the bandage stuck on Chuuya's wrist so the redhead was set free, "…I can make them deadly."
Now the loose bandage was stretched over Chuuya's throat. A sinister grin had spread over Dazai's face, which made his eyes become deadly stars in the partial darkness.
"Remember what I used to be, Chuuya. I'm still capable of all that and more," he reminded his former partner.
With that, Dazai removed the bandage from near the redhead's throat and called Kunikida off with a gesture to stop. The Agency duo hauled the weapons container between them as they left.
/
"Damn that mackerel!" Chuuya screamed, so infuriated he grabbed his hat and smashed it into the concrete floor with force. Akutagawa was still stunned by how quickly the Agency had gone and left, but as the gravity of the situation finally sunk in, his shoulders slumped and he hit the floor knees-first. The normally ruthless killer blankly stared at the floor, so thoroughly defeated he had no idea how to improve.
"We will have to report our failure to Mori, you know," the hatted man added to the Rashomon user. Chuuya's eyebrows were still knitted in anger but otherwise he sounded calm, "That's why you can't sit there moping forever. Who knows, Mori might have even anticipated that mackerel's moves."
So they too left, their failure dissipating into the partial darkness of the basement.
The "Chuuya's in the middle" joke is only funny if you know kanji or Chinese – the "Chuu" and "Naka" mean "middle".