It is a lovely summer day as the hustle and bustle of the city rings loud and clear. The sun is shining, a refreshing breeze circulates throughout the air, the birds fly freely in the sky, and the detectives are hard at work solving cases. Well, some of them are at least. The fourth floor of the agency building is largely mute as the faint buzzing of the cooling system lulls over the spacious office. Yosano and Kenji are out doing field work in the central city. Ranpo is lounging about on the sofa eating an assortment of sweets. Kunikida is standing by the other side of the room taking a phone call. And in the center of the room, Tanizaki, Naomi, Haruno, and Rei are sitting at the table "working."
"I'm telling you guys," Naomi whispers in a hushed tone as to not alert Kunikida, "penguins are definitely in the top five of cutest sea creatures."
"Penguins are birds," Haruno clarifies in an equally soft murmur.
"I know that," the black haired clerk retorts in a slightly louder volume, "but they're birds that live by the sea. They go into the water and swim and everything."
"So if moved to the beach," Tanizaki butts in, "and went swimming every day, would that make me a sea creature?"
The chatter at the central table picks up its pace as the agents debate over this pressing issue. Their work for the day remains quite unfinished and largely skewed to one side of the table. Rei and Haruno sit on the right side with tall stacks of papers sat in front of them, while Naomi and Tanizaki sit on the left side with each other sat in front of them. They soon derail into laughter as the conversation leaves its more confined state.
Rei quietly laughs along, half listening to their conversation, half skimming over the report she's supposed to be working on. Her hand mindlessly edits and corrects the paper sat out under it as she muses about the interesting group of people who have entered her life. For the past week or so, she's just been doing paperwork, and as the new kid on the block, her coworkers regularly come over and start up fun "get to know you" conversations with her. This, of course, sends Kunikida up the wall, ranting about being behind schedule and all that. She doesn't mind it at all though, since her coworkers tell her all kinds of fascinating stories about their lives and what it's like working at the agency. The stories always amaze her and make her dream up all sorts of ideas in her head. Even though Rei genuinely enjoys paperwork, she does often find herself fantasizing about what field work is like; she is signed on as a field agent after all.
"Yes, I understand," Kunikida speaks in a collected manner, "we'll be right on it." The four agency members sitting at the table abruptly stop their penguin discussion when they notice the tall blonde haired man walking over to them. "There have been reports of a small youth group wreaking havoc in an area in eastern Downtown. There isn't much known about them, but it's most likely that they're part of a new gang surfacing in the region."
"What if it's the mafia?" Haruno proposes in a concerned voice.
Kunikida shakes his head, "it's not them. This work is way too sloppy and childlike for it to be done by them."
Rei leans her head forward in curiosity. The Port Mafia is an interesting criminal organization – if interesting actually meant disgusting, cruel, and psychopathic. Everyone in the city knows of the mafia and the fact that they rule the Yokohama underground; the sleek obsidian colored skyscrapers in the east are a constant reminder of that. Even still, no one actually knows anything about them. They work largely in the shadows, and the identities of their men are kept a secret. What they are widely known for, though, is being egregiously ruthless; rumors of the acts their higher ranked members have done are often tossed in the wind due to how outlandish they tend to be. Rei doesn't know that much about them, but she knows more than most people do from overhearing her father's conversations from time to time. The mafia primarily stick to their part of the city, but they're not at all afraid to cross over, and when they do they're often indistinguishable from ordinary pedestrians. They're also weirdly hierarchical. The structure is for the most part unknown to outsiders, but at the bottom are the grunts, then in between is some number of worker tiers, and at the top are the executives. There are five executives in total, but that's all anyone really knows about them.
Kunikida folds his arms as he ponders what to do. After a minute or two, he readjusts his glasses and addresses the group sitting at the table, "Tanizaki, go to the area downtown and check it out. We need as much information as we can get. Their last known whereabouts are by an old drug store; I'll send you the directions when you leave."
Tanizaki nods, and the older detective shifts his words over to Rei, "Hayashi, you can go with him."
The dark haired girl blankly blinks at him as she replays what he said a couple times. "You mean as in my first mission?" she asks him slowly.
Kunikida nods in confirmation. Rei jumps up slightly, but her excitement is cut off quickly by Naomi getting up from her chair. "If brother is going on this mission, then so am I." The clerk then promptly latches herself onto her brother's arm.
The serious faced blonde crosses his arms, "did you finish the file on the bandit case from last week?" Naomi pouts in a stance that mirrors his, then dejectedly saunters back to her seat. He clears his throat and turns to Rei again, "this mission should be nice and simple for your first taste of field work. Stick close to Tanizaki and observe what he does." She gives him a nod, then walks with her coworker to the door. "Although the case itself isn't all that dangerous, it is in a bad neighborhood," Kunikida adds as they step out of the room, "do be watchful."
Downtown has always had a reputation of being a notoriously sketchy place. It's infamous for being riddled with a plethora of gangs. Its unruly nature is in no small part attributed to being grounded right by mafia territory. The tattered, run down, gray and brown buildings that run along the sparsely walked streets cower before the shiny, pristine, jet black structures that loom over them more and more as you walk farther inward. Shadows crawl along and animals scatter throughout the area as the agents make their way to their destination.
Tanizaki's full attention remains on Kunikida's directions, barely even checking what's in front of him to make sure he doesn't run into anything. Rei walks behind him, huddled over, scanning the unfamiliar landscape around her. The leading agent comes to an abrupt halt, nearly causing his following partner to crash right onto the street. "This is it."
They stand before an old drugstore; there are no signs on the windows, and there doesn't appear to be anyone in the shop either. They walk up to the door; a hand reaches for the handle. Then it hits them: a smell. A peculiar scent wafts to their noses. It's strange; it's… musky. As their feet step closer to the alley, the smell becomes stronger. In the alleyway there's a line, a clear divide separating where the sun can reach and where it can't. The farther in they walk, the more powerful the stench becomes. It's a foul, repugnant odor. As they step across the line, it hits them full force. It's unusual. It's unidentifiable. It's… bodies. At least six dead gang members lie piled up onto each other at the center point between the two buildings. Six bodies cast away without remorse.
Their feet no longer walk. Their legs no longer stand. They fall, but they don't even notice. No words can find their way out of their mouths. The only things audible are two heartbeats: the only signs of life there. Rei feels herself beginning to throw up, but Tanizaki pulls on her. He doesn't look much better himself, but he's right, they have to get up or they'll be next. They scramble to get up as fast as they can and run back out onto the street.
Their journey is cut short. Five men in suits block their path, each armed with a gun pointed right at the pair. The men stand equally spaced apart in a perfect line connecting the two shops. Wordlessly, their weapons are prepped in unison. They all have the same gun, the same suit, the same stance. They're mafia men.
Tanizaki readies himself, prepared to do what it takes to get the both of them out of there. "Light sn –" Vhoom. A single bullet rips through the air, narrowly missing the right side of his head. He falters back and trips as a result, his eyes closing in the process. They fire again. A barrage of bullets tear their way to their targets, making everything else fall deaf in comparison. The excruciating pain, the cry of his own agonized screams, the sharp metal gashing through his skin. They don't come. He opens his eyes to see a determined seventeen year old girl standing with her back to him, her arms stretched out to her sides. The bullets fly toward her, but they all fail to reach their destination. Each metal casing hits the pavement with an acute clank, not that anyone can hear it. He watches in amazement, but only for a second. He has to come up with a plan. The mafia men will probably end up using all of their ammo, but that still doesn't give them much time. He'll have to – Thump. A single distinct noise tolls from behind him. He rotates his torso.
Thud.
Rei's upper body instantly swerves to look behind her. Lying on the ground is a young man with vibrant orange hair, his face pointed up at the sky, knocked out stone cold. "Cease fire," a calm voice commands, effectively stopping the gunfire. The young woman doesn't even notice as she falls to kneel down beside the newly unconscious body. Her hands tremble as they check his vitals; a heartbeat, a pulse, a breath: he's alive. A sense of relief runs over her, a breath in. Then feelings of anger, fear, and panic crash over them, a breath out. Her head remains unmoved, but her eyes shift upward. At the edge of her field of vision appears to be something like the beginnings of a pair of shoes. She lowers her eyes, her gaze resting back on Tanizaki, not willing herself to look back up. "You may leave now, our business here is done." The words draw from above her like cold concrete in the dead of winter. The stare of a pair of eyes beats down on her as the sun does to the Earth on a summer day. "I'll take care of the rest of this."
Sets of footsteps recede in the background, but they fail to be heard over the beats directly pounding into the dismayed girl's ears. Her hands slowly move away from Tanizaki. One movement at a time, she steadily rises to meet his assailant. Her feet are now flat on the ground: black dress shoes. Her legs unbend: black dress pants. Her back straightens out: a black suit jacket, a white shirt, a black tie. How expected. She stands fully upright. On the opposite side of Tanizaki is a man cut right in half by the divide. A chill runs along her veins like ice crawling across a lake. Clothing wise, the only things that make him distinct from the mafia grunts is the long black coat resting over his shoulders and the bandages that cover up whatever parts of him his clothes don't. The way he holds himself exudes an air of arrogance that tells you that any imperfection on him is perfectly planned. His eyes are like that of a lion that is both apathetic and curious, as if deciding if the prey is worth killing or not. He doesn't appear to be any older than her, and that, perhaps, is the most unsettling part.
Rei finds herself unable to match his gaze. Her eyes shift around to the alley instead. The bodies of the dead gang members stick out from behind him. Their repulsive odor wafts in the air around them. Tanizaki lies on the ground, knocked out, between them. "You did this," her words come off just as icy as his, "you did all of this."
"Not quite," the man states in a casual manner, "the men who killed the gang members left." He looks around at all the bodies without remorse, "although I will admit, I was the one who knocked him out."
"It doesn't matter if it was by your gun or not," she hisses at him. "You gave the orders, so you did it." She pivots her head to the side. "Why?"
It came out so quietly she can't tell if the question was for him or for herself. He takes the liberty of answering it anyway, "well, I can't tell you the details, but, to put it simply, they got in the way." He watches her face contort in revulsion, clearly unsatisfied with his response.
"My name is Osamu Dazai," the man introduces himself, cutting her off before she can say anything further. The agent's eyes silently follow him as he walks around Tanizaki. A new wave of panic rolls over her as she suddenly becomes aware of his increasing proximity. "That's an interesting ability you've got there. It's quite suitable for one as lovely as yourself," he takes a gun from out of his coat and checks to make sure it's loaded. Her brain spins in circles trying to think of a way to get both her and Tanizaki out of there. There is no way I would win a one on one against this guy. She moves to stand between the man with the gun and her inert partner, her breathing frail and irregular.
Dazai cocks the gun, aiming straight for a headshot, "I wonder what it is." Rei ducks her head back slightly. He then switches his aim to the end of her foot. She instinctively steps back, hastily moving her foot behind her. He smirks, "what a fascinating reaction. I aim at your head, you barely move. I switch to your foot and you nearly fall in recoil." He slowly travels around her in a semicircle, "it's obvious that your ability is a protective one, and judging by the bullets lying a few feet away from you, it has an area of effect. Now I would say," he stops walking once he reaches the other side of her, "it only activates when you're in some pretty serious danger." He studies her face to gage a reaction, "am I getting close here?"
Rei stares down the dark alley in front of her, fighting to keep every part of her body completely stoic. She doesn't give him a reply, but her rapid heart rate speaks for itself. "Not one for talking, huh?" he puts his gun away. "That's okay, I have a wide range of methods. I can shoot you somewhere that wouldn't hurt you too much, I can capture you and take you back for further investigation," his silky voice encircles her neck like a snake constricting its prey, "or, I can use my ability." He notices a change in her expression at those words. "Ah, so that got your attention." The young man's grin widens, "well since I guessed your ability, it's only fair for you to guess mine. I'll give you a hint, like yours, it's one that automatically activates." He's met with silence. "Nothing?" he frowns a little but then soon smirks again, "want another hint?" He walks behind her and puts a hand on her shoulder.
Rei's immediate reaction is alarm at a mafioso's hand being on her. But then she feels it. A new kind of terror burns its way through her. A fear different from any other she has felt before envelops her body with ice cold flames. For the first time in her life she knows she can die. "Nullification," she mumbles in an almost lifeless fashion, "your ability is ability nullification."
Dazai clasps his hands together as if he were a school teacher, "ah, very good. You're pretty quick aren't you?" He takes a couple steps to stand beside her. "Normally people can't kill you," she feels the slight pressure of a finger on her arm, "but I can." The cold metallic barrel of a gun now rests against her head. These could be her final moments. The helpless agent fixates on her friend's body sprawled out on the pavement. She closes her eyes.
A poignant crack ruffles through the air. Rei's elbow sinks directly into Dazai's abdomen; her foot springs up, kicking his gun out of his hand. She stumbles back, surprised by her actions. Dazai is crouched against the opposite wall holding his torso, clearly surprised by them too. Adrenaline kicks in and she runs for his gun. Her arm is outstretched; her fingers reach out for it. Her eyes narrow in on it as it lies right under her, then watch as it's lifted up from the ground by a hand coming from the opposite direction.
Her fingers clasp around empty air. She can't decelerate in time and falls hands first onto the ground. The green eyed girl sits herself up and removes her carrying bag. She looks upward to see Dazai, gun in hand, staring back at her. The gun is pointed to the ground next to him. Her breathing becomes heavier as a new sense of tiredness finds itself in her.
"What an interesting tactic," the mafia member muses. "Did you plan on taking the gun and your friend, then running fast enough so that I wouldn't catch you? Or did you just plan on killing me outright? I would greatly prefer the latter, dying by a hand as beautiful as yours would be such a nice way to go." She doesn't say anything, already resigned from the conversation. "Oh come on, don't give me the silent treatment now," he makes a pouty face, "I thought you were just starting to open up to me. Don't you have any questions?"
Rei sits there simply looking up at him. Feelings such as fear and adrenaline have left her by now. Instead, she feels as if she just ran a marathon and now wants nothing more than to take a nap. If he wanted to kill me, he would've done it by now. She stands upright, "who are you?"
"I already gave you my name," Dazai chides in a sing song voice.
Rei grits her teeth, "that's not what I meant Osamu."
Dazai involuntarily flinches. He hasn't heard that name spat back to him in a long time. His grip on the gun handle tightens in agitation. The last person who called him that only lived for about five seconds afterward. Not wanting to detour from his smooth demeanor, he ignores his irritation and instead tosses her another question, "what's your name? Surely someone as pretty as you would have an equally beautiful name."
She doesn't answer.
He shakes his head, "tsk, tsk, you want me to tell you who I am, yet you won't even give me a name? Now I may not be the best when it comes to people skills, but even I know that communication is a two way street. You have to give and take."
She studies him through worn out eyes. What is this guy's deal? He kills all these people, knocks out Tanizaki, tries to kill me, and then speaks as if we're having a casual conversation? Minutes tick by, she lowers her gaze and turns her head in the direction of the light side of the alley, analyzing the way it connects with the street. Dazai leans against the opposite shop, his attention somewhere else entirely. He watches the sky just as she stares at the street, no words exchanged between the two of them.
A weird serenity washes over the area, as if nothing before this moment happened, and they're just two strangers who happen to be standing in the same Downtown alley. The sounds of the city lightly flow over from the west. Static from the telephone lines crinkles above in the atmosphere. It's awfully quiet for Downtown, even if it is the middle of the day; it must be the presence of the mafia.
Rei ignores Dazai's comment and walks over to where Tanizaki is lying. She lifts his wrist to make sure he still has a pulse. As she sits next to him, she finds herself peering into the dark alleyway before her. Her hand slowly sets his wrist down as she stares into the void with no real thoughts coming to her. It's nearly pitch black, but there's something about it that ignites her curiosity. Maybe it's the mysteriousness, maybe it's something else entirely.
"Well as fun as this was, I do have to go," the Port Mafia member breaks the silence around them, his stare also directed eastward. His words bring her back to the alley. Vaguely, she hears his shoes connecting with the pavement. It sounds so far away, even though she knows he's only a few feet behind her. It draws closer to her ears with each passing second. Her focus is distant; her eyes are trained on Tanizaki. She can faintly hear his steps lining up to her, but it's only a second before a retreating track plays in their stead. "Until next time, detective."
His words take some time to dawn on her, and by the time she looks up, he's already gone. Rei turns back to Tanizaki and shakes him a few times. He doesn't budge. She gets up and exasperatedly runs her hands through her hair; there's no way she can carry him all the way back on her own. She gets her bag, walks out from the alley, and stands along the side of the empty street. Her eyes scan the vicinity in a defeated manner; desperate times call for desperate measures. She takes out her phone and calls Kunikida.
It only takes about five minutes of him yelling on the phone, then fifteen minutes of him yelling on the phone while driving, for Kunikida to pull up to the deserted lot in front of the two shops. Rei sits at the edge of the alley, watching him get out of the car and walk toward her. His face says that he's angry, but her brain says that she's too tired to be scared. As he gets closer, his expression changes; his eyes cross and his hands immediately cover his nose. The newest agency member looks back a couple yards to the dead bodies piled up on each other. She'd be surprised that she's acting so unaffected by it, but everything just seems too surreal for bodily functions to work properly. She stands up and bows as Kunikida walks up to her, then walks with him over to where Tanizaki is. The blonde idealist kneels on the ground next to the unconscious redhead as Rei helps him sling Tanizaki onto his back.
They walk back out to the car, where Kunikida can finally uncover his nose. Rei opens the door and he sets Tanizaki down in the back seat. The older man looks over her as she silently sits their coworker up and buckles his seat belt in. "I've alerted the police; they'll be here shortly. They'll take care of the bodies and inform their families," he offers in an effort to get her to speak. She nods. "Since you're the only conscious survivor, you'll have to write the report." She nods again. He takes in the exhausted look in her eyes, her disheveled clothes, the roughed up skin on her hands, "you should take the rest of the day off; I'll drop you off at your house." The dark eyed girl glances up at him and gives a small appreciative smile. He pauses as his eyes wander from her, to the lifeless bodies piled up on top of each other in the alley, to Tanizaki out cold in the back of the car. "Hayashi," his voice hangs over her like vapor, "what happened here?"
She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She then simply shakes her head and gets in the car. He stares at her for a moment afterward, but soon dismisses it and gets in the other side to drive.
The trip back is largely stoic, the only exception being when Kunikida will occasionally ask a question, but Rei simply gives him terse responses as she stares out the passenger window. It all played out like some sort of dream, like it didn't even happen. The buildings on the side of the road pass by in indistinct blurs. I can write the report tomorrow, right now I just want to go to bed. As if I could go to sleep, wake up, then it will all be gone. She inwardly shakes her head. The pain, the sadness, the horror, it's all real, and it'll be there when I wake up. The bodies, their image… and that guy. Who was he? He's obviously some sort of mafioso, but there's something else, something really strange about that guy. He could have easily killed me, and as seen from the dead gang members, he clearly has no trouble killing. So why didn't he kill me? Her eyes glance over at Tanizaki passed out in the back seat. Why didn't he kill either of us? And his parting words: until next time. She closes her eyes and leans back into the seat, God pray I don't run into him again.
Soft elevator music bounces in the background as Dazai sits at his usual seat in the cheerfully somber bar. His fingers dance in circles around the rim of his glass, his mind thinking, waiting. An orange and black cat lays next to his drink. The bells on the front door chime as it swings open, the sound of the summer sucking out the late night air coming along with it. The cat shakes its head and gets up, hopping down from the counter. Dazai turns in his seat; his eyes attentively watch the darkened staircase as two sets of shoes make their way down them.
From out of the dimly lit stairs steps a tall man with reddish brown hair and a slight stubble on his face, and an almost equally as tall man with kempt black hair and a mole on the right side of his face. These three men frequently find themselves drinking together at this same bar in an interesting ladder of command. The author, the informant, and the executive make up the decadent trio within the Port Mafia known as the Buraiha. "Odasaku! Ango!" Dazai lifts his drink in a sort of welcome, "how nice of you guys to join me."
Oda and Ango take their seats next to Dazai as the bartender gets their drinks ready. "Hello Dazai," Oda calls back to the youngest of them with a warm and friendly greeting. The bartender hands them their beverages and Dazai wastes no time in clanking his glass with theirs. He offers them a cheers and gives them both a pat on the shoulder.
"I made this new curry recipe if you guys would like to try it," the young executive proclaims with great enthusiasm. "It has garlic, and onions, and seaweed, and tartar sauce, and…"
"Curry?" the lowest ranking member joins in at the mention of his favorite food, "I think it would be nice if you would make that for us." The younger man's eyes twinkle at the notion of someone agreeing to try his latest recipe. Unfortunately, his other drinking partner isn't as enthusiastic.
Ango takes a sip of his drink as he eyes Dazai with suspicion, "what happened to you?"
Dazai puts on his most innocent face, "what do you mean?"
"You're acting weird, even for you," the intelligence agent observes. "This means that something happened, and that you're doing this to bait us into asking you about it."
"I agree," Oda concurs, "so what happened today?"
Dazai takes a moment to reflect on the events of the past few hours. "Nothing really, just the usual," he sets his glass down and taps against it lightly as he recounts his day. "I got up, had my Wheaties, handled some trades, dealt with some gangs, killed a few people." His hands stop moving and he sits up straight, "have you guys heard of the Armed Detective Agency?"
The two older men briefly give each other a knowing look before focusing back on Dazai. "Yes," the black haired informant answers him, "the new abilities organization? What about them?"
"There was a dispute near one of the shops we were watching today. A local gang thought it was a good idea to try to pull one over and jack it from us." The brown haired executive takes a couple sips from his drink. "Apparently civilians have been complaining about the same group of thugs, and one of them decided to call the ADA. They came by, but of course by the time they got there, I had already dealt with it."
Oda and Ango wait for Dazai to continue his story, but he doesn't. They glance at each other momentarily, then go back to their drinks and regular discussion. Oda picks up the conversation, "so, how was your day Ango?"
As Ango discusses the events of his day, Dazai goes back to tracing circles along his glass. That girl. Who is she? There's something off about her, but I can't quite pinpoint what. His hand stops. Why didn't I kill them? Why didn't I kill her? This could backfire against me big time. A gentle, barely there smile tugs its way onto his face. But why am I glad I didn't?