Summary: Ougai Mori—Yokohama's most infamous underground doctor—is a formidable genius with a reputation on the same level as the Port Mafia's. His clientele and contacts range from the aforementioned Port Mafia to the Japanese government's Special Abilities Department. Ougai Mori's least known trait is his proclivity to somewhat accidentally adopt children with special abilities. Dad!Mori.

O-Gin

—Ryuunosuke Akutagawa

Yokohama, Japan

Tonight, dinner was stir fried rice with peas and steak. It was Mori's own twist on the dish, with cilantro and canola oil.

"Dazai-kun, Chuuya-kun," Mori waited for them to look at him, "You two are going to attend school alongside Yosano-chan starting next semester." He watched the eyes of the two boys widen. "I will forge papers for you to go, that won't be a problem," he explained further as he further divided his piece of steak. "I want you two to get at least a high school education."

Chuuya and Dazai opened their mouths to argue.

Mori cast the two boys a stern look. "If you plan to stay in this house, this is not negotiable."

Dazai closed his mouth with an audible click.

Chuuya traced the lines of the old wood that made up the kitchen table. The surface was smooth and lacked any splinters or things for his gloves to catch on.

Something unknown slipped into Mori's voice. "Chuuya-kun?"

The table lapsed into silence after the question, waiting for Chuuya's response.

"Am I really welcome here?" Chuuya asked. "I got your ward involved in a gang war. You helped me free my old friends." He fiddled with his chopsticks. "I've been free-loading this whole time."

"There is a place for you in this house if you want that," Mori paused before continuing, "If you want, it can be your home." He had already thought it was, honestly.

"Thank you, Mori-san. . ." Chuuya whispered. He kept his voice low, as if he was afraid that being loud would change Mori's mind.

XXX

Kouyou walked down the street. Her sandals quietly slapped against the old, broken down concrete. She spotted the house with white paneling; a small smile slipping onto her face without her noticing. She managed to enter the yard of the house before she was noticed.

"Ane-san, you're back!" Chuuya exclaimed. His eyes lit up with excitement at the surprise.

Kouyou clicked her tongue. Her voice grew miffed. "Ane-san? I'm not that much older than you."

"But you're like our older sister," Dazai chirped, "So you're Ane-san."

Chuuya nodded in agreement.

Yosano opened the door of the house. She smiled upon seeing their visitor. "Ane-san, how are you doing?"

Kouyou sighed.

XXX

One Year Later

Chuuya and Dazai ran errands for Mori when needed. As they were teenage boys with oft destructive tendencies, getting outside was good for them. Mori kept an eye on the two by estimating their route times and not being shy about making sure they checked in if they were running late.

Most of the errands involved putting medicine or envelopes at drop off locations that ranged from mail slots to hollowed out bricks. Chuuya and Dazai also picked up envelopes. They never peaked inside for fear of Mori finding out after explicitly telling them not to. Dazai theorized that some were filled with a stack of money and some contained letters with unknown messages on them.

This was an urgent delivery to an ailing client which was why they were up so early in the morning on the weekend. The location of the dead drop was in the slums, behind a rundown laundromat.

Dazai held up a hand to his mouth as he yawned. He trailed behind Chuuya, who was a few steps ahead of him.

They entered the alleyway.

A mass of red and black moved towards them. It was shaped vaguely like the head of a snarling beast.

Chuuya flipped backwards and Dazai skipped to the side.

The ability tore a hole into the damp stones before reappearing at the end of the alleyway.

Dazai took the lead as it was an ability with unknown capabilities except swallowing things. Kouyou's Golden Demon was not affected by gravity. . .it was possible this one wasn't as well. This knowledge was what made Chuuya hand over the frontline without protest.

Instead of focusing on the ability, Dazai focused on the user.

The ability belonged to one of the two children. They were grimy, with dead eyes and black hair. Both were likely orphans since they were in that condition.

Dazai traced the tail of the ability back to the boy's coat. The ability leapt for his throat as he appeared lost in thought. Dazai's No Longer Human activated upon contact, dissolving the red beast.

The boy glared viciously at Dazai. The girl, on the other hand, was clearly shocked.

"Do you want to try that again, or. . .?" Dazai provoked.

"Dazai, shut up," Chuuya interrupted before the two younger children could respond.

The two slum dwellers stiffened, having forgotten about Chuuya being there. The boy was injured. It was a head wound-not that deep, but bleeding over his face in unquenched rivulets. The girl was holding a rusty butter knife. It had been stolen from an antique set of silverware when the shopkeeper hadn't been looking.

"You're injured, right? We can patch you up," Chuuya offered.

"Why?" The boy's voice was harsh and gravelly, probably from screaming.

"Ability user solidarity?" Dazai joked.

"Ignore him." Chuuya slugged his brother in the arm and ignored the hiss of pain that followed. "See, we were a bit like you two not long time ago. I used to live three streets over, actually."

The two younger children held eye-contact with Chuuya and Dazai for a long minute. The boy nodded, hesitantly, and the matter was settled.

XXX

Mori rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had not been able to catch any sleep after helping a client early that morning.

He heard the many feet patter into the kitchen behind him. He cast a gaze behind him and checked off his mental list that Dazai and Chuuya had come back home after the errand that morning.

Chairs were pulled out from the kitchen table and island-the wooden legs scraped against the tiled floor.

Mori didn't realize he had five children in the kitchen until he had pulled out two cartons of eggs-one of them was half empty. He wouldn't need an extra five eggs if not for the two new mouths that he had subconsciously calculated for. He kept facing the stove and casually asked, "So, who are you? And by that I mean the newcomers."

Chuuya and Dazai exchange a look behind Mori's back.

Mori dropped an omelets worth of eggs into the pan. It bubbled and popped as it settled down to cook, becoming the only sound in the kitchen.

"We'll leave," Ryuunosuke Akutagawa, the boy from the slums, said. He had been washed up and given new clothes, as had his sister, Gin.

Mori tilted his head to the side. He still wasn't looking at them. "You can stay," he softly suggested. He had to handle this carefully or they would run off.

The Akutagawas stiffened. Gin tightened her grip on the silverware in her hand. Ryuunosuke steadied his suddenly hurried breathing, trying to focus in case he needed to use Rashomoun. He didn't notice how Dazai's hand slid closer to his in case he attacked someone.

The omelet cooked slowly, unaffected by the tense atmosphere.

Moro shrugged. "You don't have to, of course. But you're children who would otherwise be on the streets tonight."

Mori had gone to his office to drop off his doctor's bag before heading to the kitchen. He remembered the medical supplies missing from his office. Chuuya and Dazai had looked fine when he had gotten a brief look at them. He pondered the thought as he broke up the omelet and scooped it into a plate. Mori picked up the plate with eggs and pulled two plates from the cabinet. He put them on the table and got a more clear look at the Akutagawas, confirming his suspicions. He walked back to the stove, tossing a comment backwards, "How is your injury?"

"Fine," Ryuunosuke replied. His was mixed, half-hostile and half-wary.

Dazai and Chuuya immediately split the large omelet between them. Both of them liked their eggs with sausages and ham.

"Yosano-chan, mushrooms and sausage?" Mori suggested. Him and Yosano usually split one together as they both liked mushrooms. He cracked a free eggs.

"Yeah," Yosano said. She tacked on a half-muttered, "Please."

Mori nodded and dropped bacon into the bowl of eggs for the next omelet. He poured in the eggs. "Now, where was I?" He muttered, lightly tapping the pair of chopsticks against the edge of the pan. "Ah, yes. About having an ability and living on the streets."

Ryuunosuke glared at Chuuya and Dazai, sure they had sold him out.

"Oh, don't be mad at them. I figured it out myself." Mori waved a hand as to dismiss the idea. He flipped the mushroom and sausage omelet cooking in the skillet. "Anything you two want in an omelet? I do warn that you'll be sharing it."

"Bacon?" Said an unfamiliar, dainty female voice. Gin immediately bite her tongue to keep herself from saying anything more

Mori hummed thoughtfully. "I think we have some." He summoned Elise. His ability walked to the fridge and started looking for the requested ingredient.

The Akutagawa siblings stared at Elise, surprise, uncertainty, and awe mixing together to create a feeling of being rooted to their seats. Ability users were rare. And as rare things often were, lethal and dangerously fascinating. This was the first adult ability user they met on top of that. Who knew what the man could do with a supernatural power and possibly decades to have polished its use.

Elise found the bacon and put it on the counter near Mori. Mori acknowledged that he had seen the action with a nod.

"Back to having an ability, you may think that it gives you an advantage. You aren't wrong. But having an ability comes with its own set of problems. The moment a gang sees you, you'll be pressed into joining them. If you refuse and bloody your hands, you'll attract a lot of unwanted attention." He flipped the omelet again to check if both sides were evenly cooked. Satisfied, he cut a quarter of the omelet for Yosano to have.

Elise got out two plates from the cabinet. She placed one on the island for Mori, as there was little where else he could sit in the kitchen with the Akutagawas taking up the other seats. She put the other plate in front of Yosano. Her eyes crinkled slightly at Yosano's thanks—the brief show of emotion mirrored in the slight twitch of her lips—before she disappeared.

Mori's brows knitted together as he watched them. Elise had shown emotion without any instructions again. He frowned to himself as he cracked eggs for the Akutagawas's omelet.

Ryuunosuke was curious, but definitely not sold on whatever this man was trying to sell him here. A rebellious tone slipped into his words, "And what's so different about being here?"

Dazai interjected, "For one, this place is neutral territory." He almost took a bite of a large piece of egg but Chuuya glared at him. He rolled his eyes at his brother but cut his egg up further regardless.

Ryuunosuke narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Who's?"

Mori nonchalantly replied to the question, as if admitting to something mundane, "Mine."

'Ougai Mori, the underground doctor.' The sentence ran through the Akutagawa siblings's heads-a broken record that kept cycling through the same part-the most important part of this situation. The offer seemed to be: if you're here, no one will force you to join anything.

Ryuunosuke frowned, skeptical. "You won't make us do anything?"

"Nothing bad. There's ground rules for the house because I'd be left without one of not for them." Mori smirked. "Such as, Dazai-kun and Ranpo-kun not being allowed to experiment inside."

Chuuya and Yosano started grinning at the last part.

Dazai stuck out his tongue.

"Okay," Gin agreed.

Everyone looked at her.

Ryuunosuke looked at his sister then nodded, reluctantly.

XXX

That night, Ryuunosuke slept in Chuuya's and Dazai's room.

Gin stayed in Yosano's room.

Yosano was happy to have another girl in the house. It didn't take long for the two to become friends.

Instead of sleeping, they stayed up late. Yosano coerced Elise into letting them braid her hair.

XXX

"When do we have to leave?" Ryuunosuke asked.

Mori closed his book. He looked at the boy and said without reservation, "You don't. You can stay if you want."

They stayed.

XXX

Two Years Later

"Wrong," Dazai sang.

"Bullsh*t," Chuuya snapped back.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, Yosano and Gin were talking about something. . . Mori really didn't know what they were talking about. Something to do with whatever K-Pop was?

Mori opted to remain silent and eat. He watched Dazai tease Ryuunosuke, a bit cruelly but not irregular for them.

Dazai enjoyed getting as close to crossing lines with other people as he could. He crossed them in order to find them. It was as much something he enjoyed as it was a precaution.

The effect this had on the other boys was interesting. Ryuunosuke was far too volatile, snarling and glaring at Dazai whenever provoked. Chuuya controlled his anger with the same iron will Dazai exerted over his own emotions. He couldn't mask his emotions, but he controlled them. He definitely understood his emotions better than the other children, with the possible exception of Yosano.

It took another minute before Dazai crossed a line with Akutagawa.

Chuuya elbowed Dazai, hard. He shot a look towards Ryuunosuke, both sympathetic and a command to calm down.

Ryuunosuke growled something under his breath, but otherwise ignored Dazai.

Mori looked at Dazai. Disappointment swam in his violet eyes.

Dazai clicked his tongue and turned his head away.

XXX

Chuuya and Dazai were in the living room. They were on the floor, instead of sitting on the couch like normal people. Why? They just felt like it.

Chuuya was staring up at the ceiling. He was depending in thought, gaze unfocused.

"Thinking about how to teach Gin-chan and Ryuunosuke-kun?" Dazai guessed. It would make sense, since the Akutagawa siblings had wanted to start doing errands tomorrow.

Chuuya smirked. "That was really, really wrong." He took some pleasure in being able to have thrown off Dazai's predictions that much. He rolled over onto his stomach. "Actually, I'm thinking about whether you could use exercise and muscle soreness to measure time in solitary."

Dazai was in confusion for about four minutes. It was the longest he'd ever been silent around Chuuya. He sat up. "It's not practical for people in general or that reliable-each person has their own subjective standard of how much is needed to make their muscles hurt. And, that will change as you exercise over several days. Your fitness will probably increase." Curiosity entered his tone. "How'd you even come up with this?"

"Keeping a routine and keeping busy is what you do if you're stuck in a bare room like that. Exercising is a common tip for when you're stuck in prison."

Dazai raised his eyebrows. "And?"

"And in solitary, losing track of time is one of the worst things." Chuuya shrugged. "But it's going to happen because the body's internal clock gets thrown off by not having the sunlight to tell what time to get up and go to sleep."

"So you combined a tip with a problem in order to try at a solution," Dazai concluded.

"Yeah."

"It's stupid...but kind of ingenious," Dazai begrudgingly admitted.

Chuuya started at his brother in surprise. "I think that's the first time you ever complimented me."

"You took that as a compliment?" Dazai got punched in the shoulder for that comment.

XXX

The government's bid to stop the massive turf war in Yokohama, referred to as Dragon Head Rush failed—Shibusawa had gotten out of control.

Chief Taneda of the Special Abilities Department sat with his head bowed and his hands clasped together.

Both knew Mori could drive whatever bargain he wanted out of this. Chief Taneda had no one else who could help unless he wanted to get other countries involved.

Mori repressed the wish to smile broadly, in order to keep a neutral look on his face. This was a serious matter. "I want to alter the records kept on several individuals, including myself, as I see fit. We can mete out the details later." He extended his hand.

Chief Taneda fiddled with his glasses before reaching out for Mori's hand.

They shook on it.

XXX

The legend of Soukoku, Double Black, started that day. It was said that two people had found the group behind the Dragon Head Rush and crushed them, that they were responsible for the several city blocks that had completely gone missing.

While the rumors spread Chuuya was carried to the house by Dazai; Yosano healed Chuuya with her ability; Chuuya woke only to throw up on the toilet; and Mori held Chuuya's hair back so it wouldn't be covered in vomit and rubbed circles into the boy's back.

XXX

Dazai had to heal the old-fashioned way. Due to his own ability, No Longer Human, Yosano's ability, Thou Shalt Not Die didn't work on him.

"Ughhh," Dazai complained.

"Is the pain really that severe?"

Dazai's act wavered under Mori's inspecting gaze. "Not really," he muttered.

Mori kept a careful eye on the prescriptions in the house. He didn't want any of the children to get addicted or overdose. "No. You can have another in an hour."

Dazai pouted, but didn't waste time protesting.

XXX

Dazai and Chuuya pressed themselves close to a bakery window, almost smashing their faces against the glass.

"You two want anything from there?" Mori asked, contemplative.

"Yes," Dazai and Chuuya replied without missing a beat.

Mori chuckled. "Okay. We can check the bakery out in a minute."

Dazai and Chuuya lingered as much as they could before following Mori down the street. They suggested what they should get to each other, but that discussion quickly devolved into an insult match.

Gin and Yosano were checking out phones at a street vendor. While Yosano had a phone, same as Dazai and Chuuya, the Akutagawa siblings did not. The one Gin liked was dark blue.

Elise kept an eye on them, sometimes being included in the conversation.

Ryuunosuke stood a few feet away, watching his sisters.

"Do you want that?" Mori asked Gin.

The two girls started at the question, having been too absorbed in their own world to notice the man.

Gin blushed. With her pale complexion, blushing turned her entire face a deep red.

Mori took that as a yes. He smiled at the girl then turned his head to the silent spectator nearby. "Ryuunosuke, pick out one."

Ryuunosuke approached the vendor stall in a manner not dissimilar to a wary dog. The recently bought black coat he was wearing fit him well. He picked a red phone with the precision and intensity of someone defusing a bomb.

Mori paid and the group of six walked back towards the bakery.

Dazai challenged Chuuya to a race and immediately took off. Chuuya muttered something—likely along the lines of, "Cheater"—and sprinted after his mischievous brother.

Mori sighed and sent Elise after them.

"Why did you get us phones?" Ryuunosuke asked.

Mori raised an eyebrow at the boy. "If you're in trouble, you can call for help."

Gin and Ryuunosuke shared a look. Gin smiled gently. Ryuunosuke huffed, but his mouth still twitched upwards. They got the message: they didn't have to depend on just themselves anymore.

XXX

It was raining gently. The storm would likely continue for a few hours considering the weather forecast.

Mori had no umbrella but the rain wasn't bothering him. It was the memories that came along with the storm that was the problem.

Mori opened the door to the house. He toed off his shoes and closed the door as quietly as he could. His hair dripped water onto the foyer floor.

It was night time, so Elise and Yosano should have gotten everyone to sleep by now. Mori would check their bedrooms to make sure no one had snuck out. He crept down the hallway.

And it looked like he didn't need to check the bedrooms, as the children were all on the couch.

The scene was honestly rather cute.

Yosano had been reading a book. The book had stayed open and was resigned to staying on her knees. Her head was on the sofa's arm. She had cocooned herself in a yellow quilted blanket covered with purple butterflies. The lamp on the table that she had been using for light still on.

Chuuya was leaned against Yosano's shoulder, his elbow was digging into Dazai's side. The only part of him visible was his face. Half of his blanket—with a sky blue and bright red, dog pattern—had made its way onto Dazai. Dazai had fallen asleep with his head tilted back and mouth open slightly.

Gin's shoulder brushed against with Dazai's. She and Ryuunosuke were smooshed together on the remaining cushion. They shared a dark blue plaid blanket, a good portion of it threatened to touch the floor.

Mori ran a hand through his wet hair, trying to keep himself from getting water onto the living room carpet. He used his other hand to pull the end of the Akutagawa siblings's blanket up, double layering it over their laps. He couldn't help the smile tugging at his lips as he turned off the lamp.

A/N

Timeline note: Mori is 33, Yosano is 17, Chuuya/Dazai are 15, Akutagawa is 13, and Gin is 12 by the end of this chapter.

Chapters:

1-Mori

2-Yosano

3-Fukuzawa

4-Dazai

5-Chuuya

6-Akutagawas

Next: 7-?

-Silver