Chapter 10: Watch These Bones Live – You Don't Know Me As Well As You Think
Chuuya couldn't help the whine that escaped his lips when he was deposited on the ground of the cell. He could still feel the phantom movement of his organs, exposed to the air even as his screams were muffled by the gag that was shoved into his mouth before the madman of a scientist began taking him apart. Across the cell, Chizue let out a hiss of pain as she slumped against the wall, then lowered herself to lie down on the ground.
"Don't move too much. The pain will go away eventually." She bit out against gritted teeth. Chuuya cast weary blue eyes over to her, then slid to the ground as well. The cell quieted to the sound of pained breathing until Chuuya broke the silence.
"Does this happen all the time?" He didn't look for Chizue's reaction this time, choosing to stare up at the ceiling. His breath stuttered when Chizue made a sound of affirmation. Fifteen long years of experimentation… shit, he couldn't even stand the thought of having to go through another session like before. His train of thought was cut off when his little sister started speaking again.
"The earliest thing I can remember is of you, telling me that you would protect me. After that, it blurs together – experiments, rest, experiments, rest." She shifted, the sound loud in the silence, then continued, a slight waver in her voice. "Then, there's the training."
"Training?" Chuuya turned his head to look at her and ached. There was a terrible look on her face, reminding him of – of waking up alone in Suribachi City, confused and in pain and angry (scared) and so, so horrifyingly lonely, that he'd clawed at his chest, desperate to get rid of the empty feeling inside him. Chizue looked very much like that right now.
Ignoring the spike of pain, he reached out a hand to touch hers, the chain around his wrist jangling and pulling uncomfortably on his skin. His sister turned to look at him in surprise, then her face crumpled – she grabbed his hand like it was a lifeline, swallowing thickly around tears as she continued, haltingly.
"Training – to be a weapon, a tool. A living gun. Something for the government to aim at whoever they want killed." Chuuya ignored the nails digging into his hand, more worried about how his sister started to cry silent tears, her voice getting choked up even as she barreled on. "A hunting dog, given targets to eliminate and destroy, before being locked up in a kennel to be experimented on again."
"I don't know how people I've killed, nii-san. People who have families, people whose entire lives I've read through reports and destroyed, people who died under my own hands. But I, I don't regret it." Chizue turned to look at him, a wild, terrified look in her eyes. "I don't regret getting missions to kill people, because then I get to go out. I get to escape from this cell for as long as the mission lasts, and I would rather be out there murdering people than be in herewaiting for the next experiment. That makes me a monster, doesn't it?"
Chuuya heaved in a sigh.
"I don't think you should be asking me that question, imouto." He said quietly, squeezing her hand. "I'm not exactly the paragon of morality myself." At her confused frown, he huffed out a laugh.
"I'm a mafia executive, Chizue. I kill and torture people for a living." He cracked a smile at his little sister's gasp of surprise. "If you're a monster for wanting to kill people for the sake of freedom, then I'm a monster for doing the same as well."
The cell lapsed into silence, as the siblings lay on the floor quietly taking in the shared information. Then the elder Nakahara spoke.
"Think of it this way – you're not killing for the sake of killing." Blue met blue. "You're killing because there is no other choice. Whether or not you want to do it, the government is going to make you kill people; might as well hold on to that silver lining whenever you can find it." Chuuya tightened his hold around lax fingers, watching Chizue absorb the words.
"Al-alright." Her voice shook, but the hand squeezed back. "Thanks, nii-san."
"Anytime." His grin matched her tentative one. "Also, I promise that I'll get you out of here, Chizue." The girl's head snapped up, eyes boring into his.
"Really?"
His heart clenched at the earnest look on her face, disbelieving yet desperately hopeful.
"Of course. You've got me with you, after all. I'll make sure that we both get out of here."
Brown eyes narrowed as they flicked through the papers in front of them. Dazai didn't acknowledge Atsushi-kun setting down a cup of coffee, focused as he was on the information that he'd forced out of Ango.
He'd discovered Chuuya's disappearance the day before yesterday when he'd dropped by the chibi's apartment to apologize. Akutagawa-kun had been having a silent breakdown in the middle of the living room, panicked grey eyes meeting narrowed brown when Dazai pushed the suspiciously unlocked door open. It took him a quick scan of the surroundings and of Chuuya's phone in Akutagawa-kun's shaking hands to figure out what had happened, before he'd started making calls to Mori-san, Fukuzawa-shacho, and Ango. Mori-san had been sharply worried, asking for details in clipped sentences before hanging up on Dazai, while Fukuzawa-shacho listened to Dazai's hurried requests, allowing him the time off he'd requested and Atsushi-kun's help.
Ango had been the hardest to get to, the government worker evasive and unwilling to speak. Fortunately, Atsushi-kun had arrived at the apartment by the time he'd made up his mind to force answers out of Ango in person, so the weretiger was left to take care of Akutagawa-kun while Dazai went off to chase Ango down.
His eyes darkened as he processed the information in front of him. An offshore facility, only known to certain individuals in the government. Human experiments. Ability experiments. A program so secret that even Ango hadn't heard concrete details about it, only rumors. Assassinations of numerous people, both in Japan and outside it. Scientists known to be dealing with Ability and Quirk studies disappearing.
It all boiled down to a picture that Dazai didn't like. Especially with the short conversation he'd had with Ango yesterday evening after he'd threatened the government worker.
"He has a sister," Ango muttered, spectacles flashing as he looked surreptitiously to the side. "She's the government's Assassin."
Dazai paused at that, his mind whirling. Chibi had a sister? He tried pressing further, but Ango simply shook his head.
"Look, Dazai, this is really, really classified information. I had to pull a few strings to even get this much, and I'm already getting suspicious looks for even asking about it. Whatever Nakahara's caught up in now, and his sister, it's bigger than just Yokohama – I'm talking about Japan's government, possibly international relations as well. I've looked through some of the information in there, and the things it talks about… there's a reason why Ability users don't openly broadcast their powers. Just, be careful with this, Dazai."
He suddenly stood, chair skidding back to hit the wall. The Agency turned to look at him, eyes wary, but he ignored them, approaching Ranpo. The detective looked up at him, green eyes lidded like a snake's, unflinching even as Dazai slammed the documents down on the desk.
"I need your help, Ranpo-san," Dazai gritted out, aware of the shocked gasps from his colleagues. The detective's eyes locked on his, assessing, then flicked over to meet Fukuzawa-shacho's. The president gave a sharp nod, and Ranpo acquiesced, putting on his spectacles with little fanfare.
The Agency waited with bated breath, watching the detective work through the papers quietly. Then Ranpo-san snapped his head up, glasses flashing.
"Get me a map."
Atsushi hurriedly moved forward, pulling out the paper map of Japan he'd gotten from Kunikida-san earlier. Dazai-san moved to give him space, leaning forward to watch Ranpo-san point at a spot on the map.
"I've narrowed down the location of the facility to this general location," Ranpo-san's finger slid in a circle on the map. "It's harder to deduce this, mainly because of this guy," a hand slapped down on a profile. Atsushi shifted to look at it, purple-gold eyes taking in the smoky form that filled the picture. His eyes slid down to read the rest of the profile, and he made a noise of confusion.
"A warping Ability?"
Yosano-sensei snarled. Atsushi looked up at her, startled. She was standing, fists clenched. "Those are the worst. I remember–" she cut herself off abruptly, then continued, looking stonily at the far wall. "Warping abilities can basically move anything anywhere, and they're dead useful when moving armies from one point to another. If you're stuck in a warp hole when it closes, it can cut you in half. Good when the user is on your side, not so good when you're fighting against the user."
Ranpo-san interrupted with a cough, green eyes warily watching Yosano-sensei. She paused, then gave him a sharp nod, stiffly leaning back against her desk. Atsushi bit back his unspoken question. This was obviously a very sore topic.
"As Yosano-san said, warping Abilities are super annoying." He tapped on the picture of the smoky figure. "Usually, this would mean that Nakahara could be anywhere, maybe even the other side of the world. However," he nodded to the rest of the papers, "my Super Deduction can't be fooled by such a minor thing."
"The part of the government that is involved in this wouldn't want to cause an international incident, so they need to keep it within Japan borders. They wouldn't want to overuse the Ability, and because of the amount of supplies needed to support a facility like this… they'd need daily supplies, rather than weekly. That'd take a toll on the warper, and they need it to transport their people to the next assassination. Hence, this area here." Ranpo-san finished, sitting back. He continued wearing his glasses, though, green eyes watching Dazai-san.
"I know this area," Dazai-san spoke after a while, brown eyes darkened. "Mori-sensei considered buying it up and using it as another base for Port Mafia, but he decided it was too far out to be effective for anything other than an outpost." He stared at the spot for a while, then turned to Atsushi, who jumped. "Get Akutagawa on the line and update him on the situation. I need time to think."
"Wait," Kunikida-san stepped forward, eyes narrowed. "Dazai, you can't just –"
"What?" The brunet whirled on the blond, glaring. Atsushi could see the bespectacled man falter but stand his ground, nevertheless. "I can't do what? I can't go retrieve one of the most dangerous people on the planet from an unknown group, a group that we know is involved in human experimentation, Ability experimentation, and the assassination of political figures? I can't use the Armed Detective Agency's resources to ensure that one of the Port Mafia's wildest cards is no longer under a foreign group's control? I can't save the person that I, that I," Dazai-san faltered, then pressed on, "that used to be my partner, from uncertain danger?"
"No."
Dazai-san froze, then started to clam up. Kunikida-san held up a hand, stalling him.
"No, you can't do that, not alone. You've been working yourself to the bone these past few days, and regardless of how much you annoy me and the rest of the agency at times, you're one of us now. And that means that whenever one of us is in trouble, everyone helps. I don't know how it was like for you in the mafia, and I can't say that I understand why you still hold on to your connections. But," Kunikida-san pushed up his glasses, "I can safely say that everyone here is worried about you. You aren't going to be alone in this rescue mission. We're helping you."
Fukuzawa-shacho stepped forward, drawing eyes. "Kunikida-san is correct. The creation of the Armed Detective Agency was to help save people. By allowing you to take time off and have Atsushi-kun's help earlier, I have already approved of your decision to find and rescue Nakahara-san."
Kyouka-chan appeared next to Atsushi, making him jump. "I've called Akutagawa-san." Her blue eyes were trained on Dazai-san. "He's on his way, with Kouyou-san and Higuchi-san. What are your orders, Dazai-san?"
The man blinked, stunned into silence. But slowly, Atsushi could see a smile work its way across that face.
"We find the chibi in the haystack and get him out. Then," brown eyes glinted in the light, "we burn the haystack."