"Thou Shalt Not Die!" Intoned Yosani Akiko, member of the Armed Detective Agency.
It didn't require any torture tools for Yosano to activate her power this time. The Port Mafia executive in Dazai's arms was probably the closest to death she had ever seen a human be.
She couldn't even tell how he is still alive, but as the purple aura from her hand envelops him she knew he must be, because her ability cannot bring the dead back to life.
The mangled body rose and knitted itself together in midair, Dazai watching fixedly, until the healing was complete and the body of Nakahara Chuuya touched back to the ground, still dirty from the old blood, but otherwise perfectly healthy.
Dazai sank to his knees beside him, listening to his heart and feeling for his breath, as if he couldn't believe the redhead was still alive.
Then, when he had confirmed, without a doubt, that he is indeed alive, he started crying.
To say that Yosano is surprised would be a grave understatement. She had never seen Dazai Osamu cry ever since the day he joined the ADA. And she doubt he had when in the Port Mafia either. In fact, she would have thought that the man was incapable of such a thing.
Yet there he was, hugging the mafia's body like a lifeline, burying his head in the crook of the unconscious man's neck and wailing like a child.
Yosano turned away to allow him some privacy and went to take care of the other redhead kid that had collapsed right where Dazai had touched him and free him from the tattooed Corruption.
That one, too, was barely alive, and Yosano easily succeeded in returning him to health.
The tattoos had disappeared with No Longer Human, leaving the skin of the kid perfectly clear again, and Yosano was struck by the resemblance between Nakahara Chuuya and this person.
She could still hear Dazai's heart-rending sobs from here, since he hadn't run far to meet up with her just now. And it was a good thing he had called as soon as he did, because she had been just about to board a train when his shouting voice out of the phone speaker demanded that she come to help him at once.
If he had been just a minute late, Yosano would never have made it in time to revive that dying lump of flesh.
Job done, Yosano picked up her phone and called Tanizaki.
"Tanizaki. Have you got the transport yet? No need to hurry. Two stable patients and no corpses here, we're lucky today."
She looked back at the silhouette of the embracing couple, and repeated to the phone, "No need to hurry."
It seems like Dazai would need some time to calm down.
Dazai was confronted with the destruction of the Port Mafia's interrogation room some time after he had got Chuuya safely transported to the redhead's own luxurious apartment to rest and recover.
He had indeed set off a time bomb in that room, but it was small, and there was no casualty except the prisoner, so he was let off the hook easily enough.
Officially holding Chuuya hostage, he had given the Port Mafia enough excuse not to attack or arrest him for execution, while in reality he carefully washed and cleaned the sticky blood off Chuuya's still unconscious body and saw him tucked in bed and, completely exhausted, had collapsed into a chair beside him, resting his forehead on their linked hands.
In a way he breathes easy knowing the redhead is safe and sound, that he had been in time this time. But on the other hand his heart was still racing whenever he thought of the closeness of it. Of the possibility that, had he been just a second slower, or Yosano had but hesitated for a minute, his partner would not even be alive right now.
He doesn't know whether to be relieved or what. His feelings were the very definition of conflict.
Seeking to distract himself from staring at Chuuya's perfectly peaceful face, Dazai looked around the neat, clean apartment.
One would not expect the violent, short-tempered Nakahara Chuuya to be capable of maintaining this level of immaculateness, but Dazai knew it was the chibi's very nature to do so. He had always been fond of appearance and 'style.'
Chuuya's apartment was exactly the same as before, same well-stocked wine rack, same furnitures, same feeling. Even if Chuuya hadn't been here for a few months, everything was filled with his presence.
Then, his eyes caught on a detail he had never seen before, a modern-looking glass picture frame on the nightstand.
Curious, Dazai picked it up... and froze at the picture inserted in it. It wasn't a photo of Chuuya, but Dazai, Ango, and Odasaku.
The last one they had taken at Lupin bar before everything went haywire and Odasaku died.
The trace of memory from the only group of friends he had had that excluded Chuuya himself.
Now, of course he has the ADA too, but then, everything was work and what's work had included Chuuya. Outside of work it had been petty competitions at the game arcade between the two of them... until he had formed this friendship with the people at the Lupin.
Dazai's fingers tightened on the glass surface as he wondered what was the purpose of having this picture framed and set beside his nightstand.
It hadn't been there when Dazai was here last, so it must have been set up after he had betrayed the mafia and left.
He suspects it signified anything good.
"Chuuya." Dazai murmured, setting the frame down and turning to look at the sleeping figure.
For the first time he admitted that it might have been a mistake, after all, leaving without a word.
For the first time he thought that perhaps it would have been better, after all, to let Chuuya in on this, and risk his execution from the mafia.
Not for the first time, Dazai's heart contracted painfully in his chest.
He dropped his head back onto their intertwined hands, telling himself to fall into slumber.
He couldn't wait for Chuuya to wake up.