Each Other's Gravity
Unbelievable. Un-be-lie-va-ble!
Did he just hear Mori right? Did he honestly want him to team up with… that damn guy again?! He couldn't be serious, could he?
There was no way Mori would ever agree to cooperate with the Armed Detective Agency, let alone with that traitor of a man, who had left the Port Mafia, sneaking out at night without so much as a notice.
(Who had left him, sneaking out at night without so much as a goodbye.)
"I would like you to join forces with Dazai one more time to defeat our mutual enemy — to bring back to life the magnificent duo that was 'soukoku'!" Mori chuckled at his words.
Chūya just stared at him incredulously, refusing to believe the words that just came out of his boss's mouth.
He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly. His whole body shook with suppressed hatred and anger.
Did he not know what Dazai did?! Did he forget what he had done to him — to all of them?!
"Do you have a problem with that, Nakahara?" Mori turned to look at him.
At seeing Chūya standing there, fuming with anger, he cocked his head and grinned. "Careful, careful, you don't want to singe your pretty hat with that anger of yours, do you?" He laughed.
Chūya huffed and balled his fists. "Alright, I'll do it — but only for tonight! And I don't wan't nothing to do with this traitor ever again!"
He swivelled around, making his coat swish behind him and stomped out of the room, not even trying to conceal his outrage.
Iconic duo… destructive force… deathly partners… There were many names the two of them had been called in the past. And they may have been one of the most dangerous and deadly duo to ever exist but that didn't mean they were partners.
What kind of partner would just up and leave in the middle of the night?
What kind of partner would do what Dazai did without so much as a second thought?
Dazai had basically left him to die.
Without Dazai there was nobody and nothing that could get him back from the brink of death if he were to use his 'ability'. Dazai had been the only one who could save him from himself.
Some people had even whispered that it was like they had been made for each other.
Without Dazai Chūya's ability was deadly — it could, no it would, kill him in a manner of minutes if it wasn't stopped.
Likewise, Dazai's ability was kind of special, too. It wasn't exactly a fighting ability, it wasn't even much of a defensive one. Dazai's ability was the death of every other ability, everything he touched would turn to nothing.
Rather than saving someone, it would strip them off a part of themselves — Dazai would only ever be able to take something from somebody.
Except for Chūya.
Chūya was the only person whom he could save by touching him. Rather than depriving him of something, he returned a part of him — he made the demons go away and freed him from the chains of his ability.
But of course, that was nonsense.
Soulmates didn't exist and even if they did, he and Dazai would never be that. For God's sake, he hated that guy!
(…)
However, Dazai leaving the Port Mafia like that… — he either didn't think about what consequences him leaving would have for Chūya or he did think about it but decided that it wasn't worth staying for.
Chūya didn't know which was worse.
(Probably the second one.)
"They're too strong! We need to get backup, right now!"
"There's no time," Dazai replied calmly. "We'd be dead before they arrive. You know that, Chūya."
Chūya was fuming.
Dazai was the one who was lying on the ground, injured, while the enemy didn't even seem to have a single scratch. Yet he was the one who was analysing the situation completely rationally.
It has always been like that — Dazai being able to keep a cool head while Chūya was always the one who wanted to act on impulse and rage.
(They were like fire and water, like day and night, like black and white.)
"Well, we don't have any other choice, asshole! As long as you don't want to die here — which would be fine with me! — we either need to call backup or abandon the mission!" Chūya shouted while glaring down at Dazai.
"There might be. Another choice that is…" Dazai said slowly while peering up at him. "Or did you forget what it was that made them call us invincible?"
The cheeky grin on Dazai's face made Chūya want to slap him — no, rather just punch him right in the face until he could no longer give him that stupid grin.
"You expect me to trust you after what you did?!" Chūya gave an angry snort and glared at him. "Who's to tell that you're not just gonna leave me to die again like you did the last time?!"
Fuck.
Chūya stopped dead and clenched his fists.
"Leave you to die like last time?" Dazai asked and furrowed his eyebrows.
Chūya could hear the seriousness in Dazai's voice — Fuck, why did he have to say that!?
It wasn't even like he cared about it, in fact life had been much better after Dazai wasn't there any more to annoy the shit out of him.
"Tch! Forget about it! We have other problems at the moment." Chūya turned around abruptly without looking at Dazai and slowly began to remove his black, leather gloves while walking confidently towards the enemy. He knew of the deadliness of his ability.
Here he goes again — how long has it been since the last time he had used "Corruption"? He'd almost forgotten what it feels like… In fact, he could never remember what it felt like while using it; the only thing he does remember is the pain and exhaustion afterwards. When he feels like his body has been used and trampled on. It feels like being on the verge of dying— which made sense, he supposed, seeing as it was true.
"You stop me as soon as they're finished, understood?!", he bellowed over his shoulder.
(He tried not to think about how easily he seemed to trust Dazai with his life again, even though he knew he shouldn't.)
"O grantors of dark disgrace,
do not wake me again."
Chūya was raging.
Of course, Chūya was always a raging mess of anger and fury but Chūya using 'Corruption' was different.
It wasn't Chūya.
This person mercilessly destroying everything and everyone in its path, hurling balls of compressed gravity like it was nothing, wasn't Chūya.
It was only a manner of a few minutes until the enemy had been defeated. But even though the goal had been achieved, Chūya was not stopping.
Laughing maniacally he, no it, made his way towards the forest, all the while continuing to randomly fling balls of destruction at his surroundings.
(Somehow there was a kind of beauty in the way his body moved so powerfully, so efficiently.)
After noticing the trails of blood dripping down his face, Dazai awoke from his trance of observing Chūya and quickly scrambled to his feet.
He had to save him. Chūya had trusted him to get him back from the edge and he wasn't gonna break that trust.
Just as Chūya was preparing another attack, Dazai grabbed his wrist and stopped him mid-chuckle. It only took a few seconds for Chūya's eyes to turn back to normal but it was like time had stopped for a moment.
Dazai, firmly holding onto his wrist, stared into Chūya's eyes and watched them turn from this other person back to the Chūya he knew.
It was only him and Chūya in that moment, the destruction and the fire all around them seemed forgotten and far away — like they were in the eye of a storm.
Eventually, Chūya broke the spell and fell to his knees, exhausted.
"You jerk! I told you to stop me as soon as…" Chūya wheezed. His breathing was ragged and his body was visibly shaking.
Dazai knelt down beside him. "I did all those things… Why did you still trust me?"
His brown eyes were gazing intently at the panting and shivering mess before him. Dazai's eyes held a certain seriousness and sorrow, that would have surprised Chūya had he been able to see his them.
"I don't, asshole! I just didn't have any other choice!"
(But deep inside, Chūya knew that choice didn't have anything to do with it.)
Dazai chuckled and reached out to reach for Chūya's hand. "Well, up you get then! That's what we do, isn't it? You defeat the bad guys and I make sure the princess gets home safely!"
(He didn't care to correct himself to past tense.)
Chūya growled. "Who… you calling… princess… asshole…" His eyes were fluttering and his struggle against Dazai's hand weakened. "Just… get me… to base… alright…?"
Dazai picked up Chūya's limp body from the ground and chuckled. Just as he was about to leave he spotted something lying near the forest — Chūya's hat.
He looked at the unusually serene sleeping form of his former partner, Chūya Nakahara, and chuckled to himself.
"Well, we can't have you losing one of your precious hats, can we?"
(Needless to say, Dazai went and picked the hat up to bring it back with them.)
It has been five years since the last time they'd fought together, since the last time Chūya had used 'Corruption' — and yet Chūya had trusted him again in the blink of an eye.
As Dazai looked at Chūya's exhausted form, he silently wondered if what people said was true.
With neither of their abilities being useful without the presence of one another, it wasn't that far-fetched of a conclusion.
Without Dazai, Chūya's ability would slowly consume and kill him.
Without Chūya, Dazai's ability would always make him feel like he was depriving people of something.
No matter how much they denied it, no matter how much they pretended not to, the times when they were together, were the times they felt the most alive.
(One could say that they were each other's gravity, each other's oxygen, each other's life.)
Please tell me what you think about it, I'd love to improve my writing style! ^.^