Chuuya and Akutagawa's walk to the Agency was peaceful, almost mocking in the way everything stayed tranquil as their world fell apart around them. Everything they thought they knew, everything that seemed so clear and straightforward ended up being so… convoluted.
Akutagawa didn't know what he would be walking into. He didn't know how things would be or what he would see when he ran into Dazai again. He hadn't seen his mentor since this entire thing started. He hadn't been able to reconcile the Dazai he saw, watched, idolized as a teenager—strong, intelligent, unbreakable, resolute and so sure of himself—with the Dazai he now knew he must have been the entire time—still strong and frighteningly intelligent, but already broken, already so damaged it took everything he had to keep the pieces together, to hide just how far from fine he actually was and how little control he had.
Would he be able to see that now or would he still be unable to glimpse past the facade Dazai displayed to the world? Judging from Chuuya's words, Dazai's mask had fallen apart, showing things he never wanted to reveal to anyone. Akutagawa wasn't sure if he was ready to see that but after the way Dazai had saved him—saved Gin —all those years ago, he owed him. Much more than he could ever possibly repay.
And he owed it to Dazai to accept what was behind the act, beyond the coldness from before and the cheery smile he put on now. Just as much as it was owed to Akutagawa to see who his mentor really was. And despite his fears… he wanted to know.
Knowing wouldn't make everything better for him. It wouldn't remove the mental scars or emotional damage. It wouldn't suddenly cure the anger and disappointment he felt at himself—at everyone —for not being good enough, never being good enough. But… it would help him understand and, hopefully, it could mend the damage and help him start healing from it.
He thought back to a few days ago after he saw the video. He had been so angry, so distraught and confused, he could hardly breathe. Akutagawa brushed past Higuchi with her concerned expression and worried tone and didn't stop for anything until he reached the safety and privacy of his own home. Then he let Rashomon loose and started destroying everything in sight. Gin had shown up shortly after.
"Are you going to tell me why you decided to redecorate our house, Ryuunosuke?"
The words weren't accusing. They never were with Gin. She was the calm to his ever-raging storm, the water to his fire, grounding when he most needed stability.
Ryuunosuke looked over at his sister, fist buried in the wall, and saw that she had taken off her mask and let her hair down. She was watching him patiently with soft gray eyes, waiting for him to answer but not demanding. She moved to sit on the couch across from him and sat down, tilting her head as she looked at the hole his fist sank in.
He removed his hand from the wall, Rashomon detaching itself, and walked the short distance to sit beside her before dropping his head in his hands. Gin remained quiet, allowing him to speak if he wanted or let it drop entirely.
"I learned something about Dazai that I find… distressing," Ryuunosuke stated after a long, unbroken silence.
The assassin shifted slightly in her seat, releasing a small exhale as she turned to face her brother more fully. It was the first show of emotion she had shown in this situation. Although their relationship with Dazai had always been somewhat tenuous, both Akutagawa siblings cared deeply about him. He was the reason they were both alive today and that gratitude remained.
"What did you find out?" It was only because he knew her so well that he heard the slight tremor in her soft voice.
Ryuunosuke looked up from his slumped position and stared blankly at the wall across from them. He swallowed thickly, "Chuuya and I… we found videos. Of Dazai when he was a child. He was being… brutally tortured by his father. He was apparently the mafia boss before Mori. There were… journals as well and in them, his father said he tortured him for training. That he had to learn he couldn't trust people because they would only hurt him. He was only five years old , Gin. And there were a lot more videos. I can still hear his screams ringing in my ears."
Akutagawa paused for a moment to swallow down the rising bile and reorganize jumbled thoughts. He couldn't quite articulate the horror he felt, but he needed to get this out before it consumed him and Gin had always been the one he talked to.
"I never understood him before but now, I think I am beginning to. Thinking back on my training under Dazai, after what I learned… what I saw … I don't think he was trying to be cruel. He would hit me, insult me, call me names, and sometimes when he was angry he'd shoot at me. But the bullets never hit. What I saw, Gin, made me sick . He never broke my legs or burned me with hot irons. He never made me distrust everyone around me just so I'd be isolated. He didn't torture me like he had been in those videos. I don't think Dazai meant to be cruel, he just didn't know how to be kind because no one had ever been kind to him."
Silence once again descended upon the siblings as his words sank in. Gin cared about Dazai but like Ryuunosuke, she could never fathom why he had been so harsh when training her brother. The dichotomy between how caring he could be sometimes with how ruthless he was when training Ryuunosuke never made sense. And that was something she had a hard time forgiving even as they had better interactions with the other man. This revelation presented an insight to the ex-executive they never dreamed of having and suddenly everything started to fall into stark clarity.
"When it didn't involve your training, I think he tried to be good to you. To us," Gin started off slowly, pulling her thoughts together as happy moments with Dazai—moments she tried to forget, had to forget after he vanished from the mafia and labeled a traitor—flashed through her memory, "Do you remember how, a few days after one of your training sessions, Dazai would bring you calligraphy books or new tea leaves to try? Or how he'd take us out to eat and let us get everything we wanted?"
At Ryuunosuke's hesitant nod, unsure where she was going with this, Gin continued. "He always made some sort of excuse whenever he did, saying they were gifts someone gave him that he had no use for or that he had a job in the area and it would be a perfect cover to pretend he was taking his siblings out to eat but… I always wondered how the gifts just happened to be things you liked and why his jobs were around restaurants or bakeries I wanted to go to but never did. We never told him about it and you would have been happy with anything Dazai decided to give you. Yet he brought things you'd actually use and always after he'd been harsh during training."
Ryuunosuke's eyes widened as he remembered all those times Gin brought up. He had forgotten. The mafioso had been so focused on getting Dazai's approval and acknowledgment, he didn't think about the ways Dazai tried . With how erratic Dazai's behavior towards him was, Ryuunosuke had a hard time consolidating the two versions of him.
"I haven't forgiven him for how he hurt you. Not yet, not completely. But he saved us, he gave us a home and a purpose, and I think he tried to take care of us, to be kind. For those reasons, I think I will be able to someday. Especially after everything you told me and the way I have seen him change since he was in the mafia," Gin looked at him with soft eyes, smiling gently as she looked at her older brother, "I get the feeling you want to forgive him too. And if understanding him better, learning more about him, will help you find peace with everything—whether you decide to forgive him or not—you should do whatever you can to help with that."
Ryuunosuke stared at his sister for a moment before nodding his head and dropping his gaze to the floor. He had been thinking about what he should do since he left the records basement and was glad his sister's words went along the same thought process as his. He needed to learn about Dazai, about this whole situation, if he ever wanted to be able to let go of the past.
Seeing the resolve on Ryuunosuke's face, Gin asked, "Do you know what you're going to do?"
Ryuunosuke looked back at the young woman, staring steadily at her, "I need to talk to Chuuya. If there is anyone who knows how to get a straight answer out of Dazai, it's Chuuya."
Focusing back on the present, Akutagawa watched Chuuya as they walked to the Detective Agency, wondering what he found out about Dazai that has his usually squared shoulders and strong posture suddenly seem so… heavy . Like he was carrying the weight of the world. And maybe in a way he was.
None of this could have been easy for Chuuya. In fact, Akutagawa was certain it had been hardest on Chuuya to find out about Dazai's past than on anyone else since he had been the person closest to Dazai. If Dazai was going to tell anyone about this, it would have been Chuuya. But he hadn't. Chuuya had this discovery shoved in his face just like the rest of them and Akutagawa could tell it hurt .
Before Akutagawa could think deeper on this, Chuuya abruptly stopped in front of a building.
"We're here," Chuuya stated, glancing back at Akutagawa with piercing azure eyes, "remember, behave . We are not here to start a fight. So don't , got it?"
"I understand, Chuuya, " Akutagawa confirmed evenly, his voice determined as he finished his sentence, "I came because I wanted to help Dazai. I'm not going to ruin that now by making trouble."
Chuuya stared at him for a good minute to assess the truthfulness in his words. Satisfied, he nodded sharply and turned back to the building, "Good. 'Cause this is going to be a hard day without any unnecessary drama as is."
They entered the building and proceeded up the stairs to the fourth floor. They braced themselves before opening the door with the ARMED DETECTIVE AGENCY plaque. When they walked in, all the chattering and shuffling noise stopped abruptly as the occupants registered who had just stepped inside. A tense silence descended over the room as they watched each other warily before Chuuya broke it with his harsh voice.
"Where's your president? I have something he'll want to see."
That broke the standoff and most of the people reluctantly went back to work as Kunikida and Ranpo walked up to the mafia pair with a dismissive gesture and one of the secretaries went to get Fukuzawa. Ranpo eyed the box tucked under Chuuya's arm with a calculating glint.
"That's the box you told Yosano about?" he questioned even though he already knew the answer.
"Yeah, it is," came Chuuya's deadpan response, "You got somewhere private we can look at these?"
"Yes, we have a conference room that should be fine," Kunikida said, warily keeping an eye on Akutagawa, "Did you really have to bring him?"
Chuuya looked back at the boy behind him, and true to his word, Akutagawa remained calm despite the older detective's pointed words. He turned back to the detectives with a look that dares anyone to challenge him, "He's fine where he is. Akutagawa watched the first video with me. Dazai means a lot to Akutagawa so it's only right that he be a part of this just like the rest of you."
Kunikida pursed his lips, obviously unhappy about this decision but saying nothing against it, "Very well, he can stay. But if he shows even one sign of aggression-"
"I won't," Akutagawa interrupted the older man before he finished his threat, "I only want to help Dazai. That's all."
Kunikida glanced at Ranpo for confirmation about the sincerity of Akutagawa's words. Receiving a nod from the unnaturally serious man, Kunikida sighed in acceptance.
Just then, Fukuzawa and Yosano entered the room. Walking up to the group of detectives and mafia members, Fukuzawa bowed his head slightly in greeting, "Chuuya Nakahara, I presume? Yosano has informed me of the situation. You found something you thought we should see."
"Just Chuuya is fine and yeah. You said there was a conference room? Let's cut it with the pleasantries and just get a move on. This isn't gonna be easy to get through and Dazai doesn't need to see this crap again, so let's finish it before he gets back. Yeah?" the mafioso bluntly stated, raising an impatient eyebrow.
…Yeah, he may have told Akutagawa not to pick a fight, but Chuuya really wasn't in the mood to follow his own advice.
Fortunately, the Agency President didn't take any offense at Chuuya's brusqueness — something he would never get away with in front of Mori and was actually relieved didn't land him in trouble with the Silver Wolf—and gestured to a door with his kimono-covered hand, "Of course, you're right. The conference room is beyond this door at the end of the office."
Chuuya inclined his head in acknowledgement and slight apology for his short temper and walked to the door with Akutagawa in tow. Before he opened the door, he noticed Kenji, Naomi, Junichiro, and Haruno following along with the older detectives. He looked back to the president, giving him a meaningful look.
"This isn't something you want the kids to see. They should stay out here."
Fukuzawa gave Chuuya a considering look. He seemed to understand the severity of the contents in the box by the grim expression on the executive's face because he turned back to the agency members.
"Junichiro, Naomi, Kenji, you three should stay here. Haruno, you might want to remain here as well, keep Kenji company. We'll be back shortly."
The Tanizaki siblings looked as though they wanted to protest, but one look into Fukuzawa's steely gray eyes and they swallowed their complaints.
Kenji was not so good at picking up such cues. "But president, please!" he pleaded. Tears brimmed in his wide eyes, but even the situation could not rid them of their hopeful glimmer. "We want to help Mr. Dazai too! How will we know how to make him feel better if we don't know what made him feel sad?"
Naomi put a hand on his shoulder, and Kenji looked back at her crestfallen expression and immediately deflated. "It really is better if we don't see this, Kenji. I just…" Lost for words, she buried her face into her brother's neck.
Junichiro clutched Naomi tight against his chest, swallowing hard. "Will you tell us if there is anything we should do after? You know, to—to make things easier for Dazai? Or at least show him we care?"
He wasn't the closest to Dazai, certainly not as close as Atsushi was. He didn't spend a lot of time with him or anything, and only really interacted with him when Dazai pushed his work onto him or pulled him into one of his schemes. But he held admiration for the older man. It was the same kind of admiration everyone had for Ranpo—for his intelligence and complete understanding of every situation—but there was a little more to it than that.
Dazai was able to protect people despite his ability not being suited to combat and that was something Tanizaki longed to do. He was strong and confident, never balking in the face of danger. Dazai was competent and the only thing Tanizaki didn't look up to about the man was his work ethic, or rather, his lack of.
He also noticed that Dazai always held himself at a distance from everyone. Even as he seemed to constantly tease and play around with the members of the agency, Tanizaki never felt as though he could see who Dazai really was. After finding out that Dazai had previously been part of the mafia and managed to escape , Tanizaki felt the respect for Dazai grow. He had been awed by how the bandaged man seemed to be able to maintain his smile and playful personality after living in such a horrible environment, especially after seeing how hard it's been for Kyouka to readjust. Tanizaki couldn't imagine he'd handle it the same way if he and Naomi had been part of the Port Mafia.
Now, with this new insight into Dazai's life, into a life full of pain and fear and utter trauma, he couldn't help but feel Dazai wasn't as okay as his personality would suggest. And though he was concerned about the brunette and truly wanted to help in any way he could, he had no idea how to deal with the knowledge.
Looking at his sister, he could see how upset she was at being barred from seeing what the Port Mafia brought with them. He knew Naomi and Dazai had a strange sort of camaraderie—in which they both took glee in scheming pranks—but truthfully Tanizaki felt relieved that Naomi would not be exposed to more horrors than she already was.
It was Yosano who answered Junichiro's question after a moment of pause, "If we come up with anything that will help, we'll let you know."
She gave a small, encouraging smile but it was strained, as though she wasn't confident that any of them could really do anything. With an air of dread and crushing anticipation, the group followed the mafia executive, the door clicking shut behind them.
Stepping into the Agency conference room, Chuuya wasted no time dropping the box unceremoniously onto the table and rifling through its contents for the video. While he did that, Kunikida, Fukuzawa, and Ranpo quietly sat on the opposite side of Chuuya while Akutagawa followed Chuuya and Yosano took a seat next to Akutagawa to keep an eye on him. When he opened his mouth angrily she fixed him with an intimidating stare that just dared him to try and protest. He didn't.
Chuuya masterfully ignored the exchange as he located the correct video and aggressively yanked it out. He spared a moment to glare at the offensive object before shoving it in Kunikida's direction.
"Here, plug this in," Chuuya commanded bluntly, not caring if he came across as rude. He was too drained for that now and just thinking about what they were going to watch made him sick, "I hope none of you ate anything recently."
Kunikida, who had just been about to yell at the executive's blatant disrespect, snapped his mouth shut, the graveness in Chuuya's tone dowsing all the heat from Kunikida's annoyance. He took the VHS from the mafioso like it was a live bomb and set up the projector without any further words.
For 30 minutes, not one person made a sound as the gruesome clip played out the scene in front of them. Fists clenched to painful degrees, cutting sharply into flesh; expressions twisted with hate, disgust and anger and pale with horror; and eyes burned with a need for retribution they knew they could never get.
The silence remained as the video faded to black, leaving the sound of a sobbing child ringing in their eyes and the unfortunate audience fought to process the brutality they'd witnessed. Fukuzawa's hand twitched to grasp for a sword not currently at his side. Kunikida removed his glasses, head bowed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he leaned heavily on the table, trying to regain his composure. Ranpo's eyes remained glued to the screen though it had long since ended by now, expression trapped in wide-eyed horror, for once not calculating anything. Yosano pursed her lips in a tight line to keep herself from biting them and ground her hands together so hard her bones ached.
None of them knew what to say, what to do , that could possibly make any of this better. So many of Dazai's behaviors had been caused by this and there was nothing they could do, no quick fix that could ever make this right. What they just saw—the physical and psychological torture they just witnessed—no doubt left irreparable scars on Dazai's mind and body. He would have found it nigh impossible to ever trust anyone again after what Horiki and his father had done to him.
Though Chuuya and Akutagawa had already seen this video, already experienced the trauma that came with its contents, they were no less affected by it. Akutagawa's gaze blazed with murderous intent, only contained by his promise to behave. Chuuya was right there with him but kept it in check with his rapidly increasing reservoirs of calm.
"There you have it," came Chuuya's hoarse voice once he was sure he was able to control his emotions, "You should read the journals, the guy is a world-class psychopath. Actually justifies what he did as though it could ever be reasonable . I'm impressed Dazai came out as sane as he is after all this crap."
He haphazardly tossed said journal towards the agency members. He continued speaking as Ranpo's reluctant hand reached for the journal and Yosano grabbed the box to sift through the rest of the contents, "There're more journals. More videos, too, but that's all Akutagawa and I looked at. I thought… since Dazai is under your care now, you have the right to know just as much as we do."
Chuuya meaningfully met Fukuzawa's eyes at his last words, eyebrow raised as though to say you are taking care of him, right?
Fukuzawa met Chuuya's gaze head-on, inclining his head to acknowledge the executive's unspoken question, "We appreciate your cooperativeness in this matter, though I do wish it was under… better circumstances. We wouldn't have had access to this without your help."
"Yeah well, I didn't do it for you," Chuuya leaned back in his seat, crossing his legs as he brushed his hair back behind his ear, "I can't be with Dazai all the time and someone on this side of things should know. He's pretty messed up right now and he needs people to watch out for him, though I guarantee he won't be making that easy for anyone."
Akutagawa's expression darkened and he couldn't keep his silence any longer. "I don't see why we needed to involve these detectives at all. I would have been more than enough to watch Dazai when you were otherwise occupied," fixing a glare at each member of the ADA, Akutagawa spat, "They don't seem competent enough to deal with this."
Kunikida's head snapped from it's bowed position and he flung to his feet in outrage, face contorting furiously, "Why you little- !"
"Akutagawa, think ," the older mafioso snapped, expression hard and sapphire eyes cutting, "Dazai left the mafia. You think he wants to be surrounded by members of the organization he fled when he already feels this vulnerable?" Chuuya's voice gentled, he knew where Akutagawa was coming from, but he also knew how Dazai would take it. "You haven't seen Dazai yet, Akutagawa. You don't know how… fragile the situation with him is right now."
Fragile was a word Akutagawa had never associated with Dazai before. Fragile was a word you used for fine china or porcelain dolls. Delicate things that, no matter how hard you tried to take care of them, would break at the slightest touch. Dazai wasn't supposed to be breakable.
But then… Akutagawa didn't really know much about his mentor, did he? And he was quickly learning all the ways in which the ex-executive had already been broken.
"Wait, hold on," Yosnao's voice cut in, disrupting anything Akutagawa would have said in response, "Why are these pictures still here with the rest of them? I have them in my room right now, so how can they be here as well?"
A pale faced Ranpo looked up from the journal he had been scouring, eyes landing on the photos Yosano spread out onto the tabletop. Most of them were photographs they hadn't seen before, but sure enough, the pile Yosano indicated were the same photos the ADA had been sent a while ago. Noticing something odd, Ranpo furrowed his brows as he studied them closer.
"This is strange. Not only are these the same pictures, which could easily be explained away as there being multiple copies, but they also have the exact same markings on them," Ranpo brought one of the photos up to his emerald eyes to examine it more thoroughly, "Same age marks, discoloration, ink smears, and water damage. Even the wear and tear from being handled too much is the same. The only difference between them is the writing on the back of the photos Dostoevsky sent."
"How can that be? Even if it was a copy of the original, there would be differences between them," Kunikida asked perplexedly as he stared only at Ranpo's face, trying to avoid seeing any of the splayed photos as much as possible. Once was more than enough.
Looking up from the photo, Ranpo's piercing green gaze bore into every single one of them. "This is the work of a skill user, one with the ability to make a perfect copy of something they've seen or touched before. That's where things get a little more tricky."
"If it's something this skill user had to have some sort of contact with, that means at some point, they were within the walls of the Port Mafia Headquarters," Fukuzawa interjected as he followed Ranpo's train of thought. He narrowed his slate eyes, his hand on his chin pensively as he watched his ward nod adamantly in acknowledgement.
"Exactly. Not only would they have had to make it in and out of the mafia without being detected or setting off any alarms, they would have had to have known that those files on Dazai existed in the first place. They didn't just randomly wander in and happen to find these secure, top secret documents and formed a plan afterwards." His gaze drifted off to the side, seeing a puzzle that no one else could.
"No, Fyodor knew they were there from the beginning and sent his men to break in to make copies so he could torment Dazai. The question is, how did he get this information?" Ranpo focused his attention on Chuuya, tapping on the journal as he continued. "From just this journal, I can tell Touson Shimazaki was an extremely meticulous and calculating man, and Dazai was a well kept secret, even from his own organization. He would have only allowed a select few to know about Dazai and even then, these journals and videos were private ."
Chuuya's fists clenched harshly around his arms at the word and he broke eye contact to scowl down at the table, anger threatening to boil over. He saw the sick pleasure on Shimazaki's face as he tortured Dazai, the glee at completely breaking someone he was meant to love and protect. The idea that he kept trophies of what he did so he could watch it over and over again so he could relive it? That repulsed Chuuya on a visceral level. Oh, how he wished he could rip that man apart with his bare hands.
Ranpo's voice started up again, "He would have wanted to keep these all for himself, just like he kept Dazai to himself. Not just anyone would have had the privilege of seeing those videos of his precious son. If even Mori, his most trusted confidant, hadn't known about his private collection, who did? Who would have been able to provide Dostoevsky with this information?"
"From what I heard about the previous boss, he didn't really trust anyone. He was paranoid to a fault, so it doesn't make sense for him to share this information with someone," Yosano intoned with her brow furrowed and took the journal from Ranpo's lax grip to read through it herself.
"Unless he had some other reason for doing so."
Everyone's attention snapped to Akutagawa and his unexpected input. He hadn't spoken up in a while, considering Chuuya's words until something Ranpo said stood out to him. Noticing he was now the center of attention, he continued.
"He could have told someone about his… collection if he had some other purpose in telling them. Something he could gain by exploiting his own secret."
Ranpo nodded vigorously at Akutagawa's words, pointing "That's precisely it! Decent job, mini Dazai. Seems like some of his smarts rubbed off on you."
Akutagawa's eyes widened in shock at the comparison and his face flushed a pleased crimson. Being compared to Dazai in a positive light was perhaps the most flattering thing he had ever heard.
"If that is the case, what did Shimazaki gain from sharing his, as you said, most prized possession with an outside party and how exactly did Dostoevsky get involved?" Kunikida brought up, his hand on his chin in thought.
"That's what we need to find out and in order to do that, we'll have to follow the breadcrumbs Dostoevsky has led us to," Ranpo stated as his eyes lingered on the box, "He wanted us to see this and the only way we'll learn why is by doing it. There is more to this than just the desire to hurt Dazai."
Fukuzawa brought his hands back into his sleeves, hiding how hard they were clenched together. A member of his family was being hurt and they still hadn't figured out why , "What could his end game be for doing this? Surely there's an easier way for Dostoevsky to accomplish his goals."
"Maybe," Ranpo acknowledged generously, "but this way is certainly doing a lot of damage."
Before any more could be said on the matter, the sound of leather binding snapping shut pulled everyone's eyes towards Yosano.
"Well," Yosano started, expression drawn tight and exceedingly weary as she placed the worn journal down numbly, "I think we have seen enough of this for one day. If this is what it was like for Dazai at five years old, things are only going to get worse from here on out. Let's just… take the rest of the day to process everything and we'll continue going through the box another day."
"Yeah, fine," Chuuya sighed and leaned his weight on the table in front of him. He wore a heavy frown on his face as he rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, "Dazai will be on his way here soon anyway and seeing more of that's only gonna make me sick." The redhead stared consideringly at the ADA members for a moment, "So, who's taking all this with them? I don't want to bring it with me back to Dazai's."
Kuninida pulled back abruptly, startled, "You're still going to be staying with him?"
Chuuya fixed an unimpressed cerulean gaze Kunujusa's way, the annoyance in his voice palpable, "Dazai just tried to kill himself yesterday, of course I'm still staying with him. I told you, I take Dazai's suicide attempts very seriously and after he fails one is when he's most at risk of trying again. I'm not leaving till I know he's not gonna off himself the moment I take my eyes off him."
From next to him, Akutagawa's face shifted into a concerned frowned at the executive's words, not having heard about this before, and Kunikida paled to a ghostly degree. Everyone else just looked grim, like they should have thought of that before Chuuya brought it to their attention.
"I didn't realize it was so bad. He… never really seemed like he was serious about suicide since I've known him," Kunikida glared down with a grimace, conflicting emotions playing across his face. "He always made a big joke about it that I just… didn't think it was real."
Blowing air out noisily, Chuuya let his annoyance fade away. He had thought the same. At first. Staring off to the side, the mafioso softened his voice, gaining a far away tone to it."Dazai's always been great at pretending everything's fine… There's no greater slap to the face about how real Dazai's suicide attempts are than when you find him with his veins split open and half of his blood coating every surface."
Chuuya's eyes fell to the still splayed arrangement of gruesome photographs. "This is just further proof how not fine Dazai has been this whole time. And how we all brushed aside the warnings because we wanted to buy into the impenetrable mask he put on display."
Chuuya couldn't help but feel like he should have been able to see through it. Should have dug deeper, pushed harder when he started noticing concerning behaviors from Dazai, behaviors that didn't stem from Dazai's need to be as annoying as possible. Hell, he was with him a lot of the time, knew Dazai better than anyone else, but he never tried to find the cause, never looked deeper into why his partner acted the way he did. He had been a teenager, he didn't know how to deal with any of that and a part of him just figured if it was a big issue, Mori would deal with it.
Now though, Chuuya thought Mori might have been part of the problem and he wished he had done more. If nothing else, Chuuya wished he hadn't been so angry at Dazai all the time and saw past the younger boy's attempts to distract him from his concerns by being aggravating. He only hoped he'd be able to help Dazai now.
A commotion out in the ADA offices cut the tension in the room like butter and Dazai's overly chipper voice carried through to the conference room, rapidly getting closer. They all shared a look before scrambling to put the photos, journal, and video away. Kunikida shut down the projector and pulled out the VHS, tossing it back into its container while everyone Chuuya, Yosano, and Akutagawa worked on gathering the abundant photographs into a giant pile.
As they worked, Yosano met Chuuya's eyes over Akutagawa's shoulder, "I'll take the box. I can keep it in the infirmary here at the ADA. Dazai doesn't go near that room unless he absolutely has to, so there is little chance he'll stumble upon it. We'll also have easier access to it… for when we look through the rest of this."
Chuuya offers Yosano a quick nod of gratitude, grimacing as his eyes fall upon a particularly grizzly photo, "Thanks. I wouldn't have dropped this on you if I wasn't concerned about what Dazai will do on his own, so thank you for taking them."
Before Yosano could respond, the conference room door abruptly opened, revealing Dazai with a grin so broad, it was obviously faked with an exasperated Atsushi close behind. Chuuya's mouth pulled down in a sharp frown. If they were able to see through Dazai's masks, then it meant he was doing even worse than Chuuya thought.
"Hello, everyone! Tanizaki told me I could find you here. What are you all doing in here, hmm?" As Dazai spoke, his eyes surveyed the room, smile freezing on his face when he saw the haphazardly stacked photo and falling completely when he spotted Akutagawa between Chuuya and Yosano.
"You told Akutagawa about this?"
All pretense of emotion drained from Dazai's face and tone, leaving only a dispassionate inflection and an empty visage. His dull brown gaze cut into Akutagawa, nothing reflecting off of them as though no amount of light could reach the soul beneath. Only an endless void, swallowing whatever lick of life that may have once been part of him before it was crushed so thoroughly.
Without another word, the bandaged man turned on his heel and left the room and made his way to the exit. Stunned at the sudden change in demeanor, Chuuya sat in the chair a moment before snapping out of it and going after Dazai.
"Dazai, hey! Come back here!"
Akutagawa's expression fell, completely crestfallen, not understanding his mentor's response and watched the door long after he left. Atsushi looked between Akutagawa and the space Dazai once was and felt a twinge of sympathy for the other boy. He knew how much he sought out the brunette's approval—how much it meant to him—and to be dismissed like that… it would be devastating.
"What did I do to make Dazai hate me so much?" Akutagawa voiced, tone just as heartbroken as his face
"That's not it," Ranpo interjected, sharp green eyes also focused on the empty doorway, "I can't tell you exactly what Dazai is thinking, he's hard to read even for me. But I can tell you that that wasn't hatred. It was something… different."
He's gaze turned to Akutagawa and the mafioso was surprised by just how discerning they were, like the emerald orbs could peer into his very soul. "You should ask him yourself. The answer might surprise you."
Glaring down at the stack of pictures, Akutagawa grimaced and gripped them tightly in his hands before putting them in the box. Dazai's answer might surprise him, that was true. But… it might also be exactly what he feared.
After a moment of thought, Atsushi walked up to Akutagawa, putting a hand on his shoulder, "Come on, Akutagawa. I'll show you where Dazai lives."
Akutagawa looked up at Atsushi, trying to determine if he was being sincere. Seeing no deceit in the weretiger's heterochromatic eyes, the mafioso stiffly nodded before abruptly standing up, "Take me to him."
With that, they were off leaving only Yosano, Fukuzawa, Kunikida, and Ranpo remaining in the room.
"Are you sure that was wise?" Came Fukuzawa's imploring tone as he studied the young detective next to him, "This could end up backfiring."
"Akutagawa is unpredictable at the best of times, and this certainly isn't one of those," Kunikida added expression caught in a worried scowl, concern for his partner warring with his skepticism in the wisdom of allowing mafia members so close to one of their own when he was already so vulnerable.
Ranpo waved them off as he stood, reaching for the ceiling as he stretched with a yawn, "It'll be fine. We don't have anything to worry about. Not in regards to that at least." Focusing emerald eyes on Yosano, he continued, "We should take care of these before someone else stumbles about them."
They all stared down the inconspicuous looking box, foreboding in its plainness. They couldn't suppress the rising anxiety and the coldness seeping into their bones as they thought of what deeper horrors were hidden in its confines.
A/N: That's the chapter this time. Tell me what you all thought! Did anything seem too repetitive or like you've heard it before? I hope not, but please tell me if it does. I try to read over what I wrote before just to make sure nothing conflicts with itself and I am staying with my own continuity, but I may have missed something.
Special thanks to rainbowplussome on tumblr who helped me work out some kinks for the characters. You are awesome! I really appreciated your help.
Thank you all for continuing to read this and I hope you all enjoyed it!