"Dazai, I have an order for you. Before the previous Boss's staunch supporters catch wind of that message, find the one responsible. Understood?"
"Will I be working by myself? It seems time may be running out."
"You won't be alone. Chūya will be there to assist you in your mission."
"WHAT!?"
"ABSOLUTELY NOT! Why in the world would I have to work with that little punk!?"
"You wanna run that by me again? I'll beat the shit out of you kid!"
"Stop acting like you're older then me! You're still a kid! A very small one at that!"
"Why you-!"
"You really oughta drink more milk, it might help you get bigger!"
"Lay off about my size jackass! I'm only fifteen! I'm still growing!"
"Thats enough from both of you! Chūya, I trust you understand you're in no position to refuse my orders. You to Dazai. If the boss's supporters discover the truth, as my accomplice you will surely be tortured. Death will not be swift."
"You really think pairing us together is wise?"
"I have a number of reasons for doing so. Interviewing whitnesses will be far easier if done by an outsider. Chūya also has to be monitored in case he tries to betray us and the rest...is a secret."
-the birth of Double Black 'Soukoku'
Dazai, Chūya, Fifteen Years Old
Not originally as planned again BUT I had to post this chapter because I love it too much. Also this next chapter is looooooooooong with a toooon in it. While this is a quicky chapter because I didn't feel like putting this at the end of the last one. Trying to prevent overloading you all with too much. Enjoy! Think of this as the part at the end of episode 2 of the first season where we get a glimpse of Higuchi and Akutagawa before their big debut next episode.~
The end of the cigarette burned a bright yellow-orange in color as the butt shrunk. Smoke rising into the air forming curling streams as he reclined back against the side of a building. Legs crossed and arms drapped over his chest minus the gloved hand holding the butt. The hat-wearing Gifted tucked away in the shadows of one of the allyways criss crossing all over Suribachi City...someplace he thought he'd never find himself again. Each darkened passage holding memories from his first eight years of exsistance as himself. As Chūya Nakahara. Not as some science experiment floating aimlessly sealed away with whatever the military was able to seal him away with. Then again he supposed he never expected a lot of things. Being a father, for one, or being partners with a certain sucidal maniac again at all let alone in every sense of the word. Yet both those once unlikely things were part of his new reality. A new brighter reality that was being threatened by his less then glamorous past...by this place and what it held in regards to murky secrets better left forgotten like they'd been for years.
"I ever tell you how good you look when you're actually trying to use that tiny brain of yours. And in your old colors to boot. I think I might feint."
It wasn't a question even though it sounded like one.
It wasn't a jest even though the words themselves said differently.
The voice was too low. It was too monotoned dripping with a combination of acid and liquid nitrogen to be joking around despite the otherwise playfull words leaving that silver tongue. It was a voice that would have sent everybody else scurrying for the hills. A voice that would have caused even the members of the Armed Detective Agency who the man called his friends and collegues to back up to the other side of the room. No doubt they'd draw their weapons or prepare to use their abilities, as useless as it would be ultimately, out of sheer reflex upon seeing this side of the man they thought they knew.
But not him.
The Demon Prodigy didn't scare Arahabaki.
Taking one last drag off the cigarette, the god let the remainder of his third favorite vice fall to concrete before being crushed under his foot. Picking up his head, narrowed blue zeroed in on the darkness across the alley where the all too familiar emotionless voice had come from. Most people could squint forever and never notice a thing. But the dark god wasn't most people. So for him picking out the subtly moving shadows within the darkness was child's play if that at best. "You're one to talk about old colors. You didn't have to be so dramatic and trade your brown for your black coat Drama Queen.", ice blue met old blood brown peering at him from the opposite darkness. There was a pregnant pause before, "I don't like this." He was of course talking of leaving the girl in their hotel room alone. Let alone by herself under such circumstances with nothing but a cellphone to contact them with. He could only hope they'd get lucky and the kid wouldn't wake before her parents returned again, which she probably wouldn't. The young ability user had been through a lot today both physically and mentally. Still he was enough on edge without worrying about Yukiko and he was worrying about her.
The demon quirked an eyebrow, "You'd rather she find out about you? That being said...are you sure about this? You did swear never to use Corruption again when she was born." 'And I'm not happy about it either.' went unsaid yet was silently understood between the two. That was something that had changed from that first twist of fate when they were nothing but loud mouthed runts shouldering superiority complexes too big for their bodies. What was once awe inspiring and fascinating to the demon, now left behind an emotion he still wasn't used to after all this time in his mouth. Fear. Anything that could take his god away from him was the only sort of thing which could successfully induce fear in him without fail.
His god though, of course, knew this. He also knew the demon was most fearsome when he was being effected by that very emotion and it was just wrong. The Demon Prodigy was FEARED not FEARFUL. Yet the times the personification of destruction saw that emotion in deep brown through his vessel's eyes upon waking after a display were burned into his memory. That pissed him off more then anything no matter how needed his power was. 'I know.' Sticking his hands in his pockets Arahabaki closed his eyes heading for the alley exit, "Yeah well I also swore my life to protecting her and the Port Mafia. Besides we're Double Black aren't we?"
The demon grinned smugly as the ancient entity passed him, the darkness shifting as he turned on his heel to follow. "That we are.", he said falling into synced steps at the god's side.
'I have you, don't I?'
'Yes. Yes you do, always.'
Arahabaki and the Demon Prodigy stepped out of the shadowed alleyway turning out onto the dark Suribachi City streets.
