Chapter Warnings: cussing
o^o^o^o^o
By the time he's walking back into the clearing where he left Higuchi and Gin, Akutagawa's limp frame draped over his back, their backup is arriving. There are Port Mafia guards filing into the area with their guns drawn, and more of them with first aid kits, quickly making their way to the people that might still be alive.
As Chuuya makes his way to the truck, he sees a medic crouching over Higuchi, her face bone white with pain. Even from across the clearing, he hears her agonized grunt as the man presses a clean bandage against her wound, her fingertips digging into Gin's arm hard enough to leave bruises. The other girl winces, patting her back. When they see him approaching, Higuchi is instantly trying to push herself up. The medic stops her with a firm hand, and Chuuya quickens his pace so she won't try again. For a moment he stands over them in silence before the medic bows and scurries away, leaving them in relative privacy.
"You found him," Gin says, as he turns and gently lowers Akutagawa onto the ground. "Is he—"
"He's fine," Chuuya says. "I got him on the head a bit, but he's got a thick skull."
He watches as Gin surveys her brother's appearance, the blood drying on his cheek and the lump coming up on the side of his head. Higuchi too drags her way over so she can place her hand gently on the boy's shoulder. She glances up at him. "Was he…?"
Chuuya takes a look around, at all the people who are far too close. Instead of saying it, he gives a nod. Possessed. Or something similar. Controlled. The closest thing he's seen to it is something like Q's power. But even that wouldn't explain the words coming out of the boy's mouth, like someone else was speaking through him, using him as their little puppet.
Just thinking about it makes his skin crawl. Wake up, Noe.
Higuchi's lips thin, and then she's turning back, silently reaching out to smooth some of his hair back. They don't show affection like normal kids, not really. Akutagawa in general doesn't show affection, not like how he did before Dazai started training him. But he watches as Gin uses the edge of her sleeve to clear some of the blood, as Higuchi folds his hand in hers, and a bit of the tension in his stomach unknots itself.
But before he can do much more than take a few deep breaths, he's approached by a guard holding out a phone. "It's the boss," the man says. "He's asking for you."
o-o-o-o-o
Seven dead. Eleven wounded. Half their shipment gone. And not only that, but part of the delegation from Russia was attacked by a rogue Port Mafia member being controlled by an unknown ability. Chuuya sits in the waiting room, replaying every part of the day over and wondering where exactly it all went tits up.
It had been fine. Or at least tolerable. Until it wasn't.
(just another fuck-up on an ever growing list)
After his chat with Mori on the phone, he'd left Akutagawa with the trucks and the medics, and then he'd headed back to the lounge. Tachihara was waiting for him at the doorway, frustrated and near frantic, but he'd at least managed to calm Sergey down enough to keep from blabbing to the rest of the convoy. Chuuya had carefully hidden his bloody arm behind his back as he smiled and explained that there was some unexpected occurrences and he would be leaving Tachihara and Hirotsu to escort the group to their accommodations for the night. After the several glasses of wine, the rest of them took it well enough, but Chuuya could feel Sergey's eyes boring into his head as he pulled Tachihara aside and hissed at the kid, "Keep them calm and just do what they ask. They want wine, you say red or white? They want food, you call the restaurant. They need to blow their noses you better be holding out a goddamn tissue." The boy had given a disgusted grumble but agreed.
Chuuya wonders idly if the boy is actually following orders or if the deal really is a lost cause. He reaches up to rub a hand over his forehead. His arm has been cleaned and bandaged, but there's still blood on his face. Not much, just a bit flecked up over his eyebrow, but it feels like it's burning a hole in his skin where it touches him. He scratches at it through his gloves, feeling the skin turn raw and sore.
Higuchi's blood. Maybe a little of Akutagawa's. He hates how easy it was. How with one thought he summoned that metal sheet, slammed the kid into the ground hard enough to bounce his skull off the fucking pavement. Hates that he ever even had to.
A door opens quietly. Everything in this area of the building, from the walls to the chairs are all harsh white. Fluorescent light leaks through the doorway, haloing Elise as she exits followed by Mori. The boss gives him a small, tired smile when he sees Chuuya.
"How is he?" Chuuya asks.
"He regained consciousness. He's got quite the bump on the head, and a few stitches for his cheek. But overall, he should be fine. We'll keep an eye on him for a minor concussion."
Chuuya nods, finally forcing his foot to stop bouncing nervously. "And Higuchi?"
Mori gives an amused huff. "Not happy with the staples. But a little calmer with some pain killers."
Chuuya snorts, releasing a massive breath of relief. Mori seats himself in the chair next to him, reaching for Elise and pulling her into his lap so the little girl can kick her feet as hums. Chuuya glances at him. Hesitantly, he says, "Did he… remember anything?"
And it's because he's staring at Mori's face that he catches the slightest shift in expression, a furrowing of the eyebrows that could be sympathetic, or even skeptical. The man runs his fingers through Elise's curls as he speaks. "He says he can't remember anything after heading to the trucks." And suddenly Elise's humming stops. She turns to him, her face utterly blank of expression, making her blue eyes seem even bigger, more piercing. She stares at him intently, monitoring his reaction as Mori clears his throat. "Are you sure he was hit with an ability? I couldn't find any evidence…"
Chuuya looks back, trying not to let on how unnerved it always makes him to see the little girl go from playful and childish to lethal. "I'm sure," he replies. "When he attacked me, it was like he was sleepwalking. And Rashouman was purple." He pauses, chewing on the inside of his cheek.
"And?" Mori says quietly.
Chuuya swallows thickly. "They talked to me. Les Fleurs, or someone from their organization… Through Akutagawa. They called me Noe."
There's a silence as Mori processes his words. Finally, he says, "Noe. From the letter."
Chuuya nods. More silence. Enough that it makes his skin crawl, makes his lungs feel like they're constricting.
He suppresses a jump as Mori suddenly rises. The man gives him a meaningful stare. "Let's talk in my office."
o-o-o-o-o
The ride up the elevator is a quiet one, though at least Elise starts humming again, twirling her skirt with her hands. When the door dings open, he follows Mori and the little girl into the office and closes the door behind him. Elise is instantly running to her craft corner, plopping down in a flounce of frills and snatching up her crayons. Apparently, she's decided to make cards for Akutagawa and Higuchi. Normally, Mori would follow her and sit by her side or retreat to his own desk. Instead, he just pauses in front it and reaches for a tissue, then dips it in a glass of water. He offers it to Chuuya with a slight gesture towards his face, and Chuuya takes it with a grateful sigh.
"You don't have to look so guilty," Mori says softly. "You really didn't hit the boy that hard."
Chuuya wipes roughly at his face, eager to get the evidence of his failure off his skin. "I didn't want to hit him in the first place."
"Well look who's finally learning to control his temper."
He gives an exhausted huff of laughter at that and then drops onto the couch, deflating. "Fuck," he groans. "I don't know how it got so messed up and—what a mess."
For a moment, he gets to close his eyes in silence as Mori putters around the office, hanging up his white doctor's coat. Gets to pretend that maybe he's still in bed and this entire fuck-up of a day is just a bad dream (just two fucking weeks. Two weeks where he isn't negotiating or saving the city or moving from one crisis straight into the next. Is that too much to ask?). And then he feels a shift in the space around him and he opens his eyes to a glass of wine in front of his face.
Mori gives him a smile as he takes it, then seats himself across from Chuuya. They sip in silence, Chuuya taking comfort in the familiar dry taste of the wine. It's good. Not what he would normally pick out, but Mori is more of a scotch man anyways. By the time he's halfway through his glass, he's feeling marginally more relaxed. He glances around the room, looking at the conspicuously absent spot beside him that's normally filled.
"Where's ane-san?" he says. With an incident like what occurred today, Kouyou would normally already be here, or at least have sent word of when she would be. And yet her spot is empty and he hasn't heard any buzzing from either of their phones.
Mori glances at her spot and then grimaces. "Ozaki-san won't be able to make it today. It seems she's having trouble as well; some of her workers didn't show up for their shifts unexpectedly, so she's been helping the teahouses rearrange their shifts."
And that's strange too. Chuuya worked in those teahouses for months, and then supervised them for years. The women there love ane-san, enjoy their work. They're treated well and in return they have unwavering loyalty to the woman who sponsors them. They hardly ever miss shifts, and never without warning someone.
"Shit." Chuuya frowns at his wine. First some ragtag group of street thugs showing up, then Akutagawa being ambushed by an ability. And now Kouyou's girls missing. It doesn't add up, doesn't make any sense at all. And yet the more he thinks about it, the more his stomach twists. By now, Chuuya knows not to ignore his gut. If his instincts are telling him that something's off, then all he can do is wait for shit to hit the fan and try to duck and cover in time.
He doesn't get long to dwell on it. Mori finishes his glass of wine in a gulp and then sets it loudly down onto the table. Their eyes meet, and he recognizes that searching, scrutinizing gaze. "So," Mori says, "you said they talked to you? Or one of them did?"
Chuuya nods. He stays silent, not saying anything so Mori can decide where he wants to proceed. Finally, the man settles back into the couch. "Tell me what happened from the beginning."
Chuuya looks at him. And then he sighs, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. "Where to start?" he mutters. "The shipment looked good. It all looked good. Normal. The Russians were minding their manners and even Tachihara kept his fat mouth shut." Mori snorts quietly. "We were loading from the ship into the trucks, so I sent Akutagawa, Gin, and Higuchi to monitor the trucks while Sergey, the delegation and I finished some paperwork—"
"Sergey?" a voice pipes up from the side, and he turns to see Elise peering at him from over the arm of the couch. He feels his cheeks go red when he sees the smile the little girl is giving him that's anything but childish. "Is he your friend?"
Mori reaches over and pulls the kid up to sit on the couch beside him. "Elise-chan, it's rude to interrupt."
She looks from Mori back to Chuuya, her golden ringlets bouncing. "Sorry," she says, not very apologetically.
"It's fine," Chuuya mutters, and when Mori waves a few fingers at him he swallows thickly and continues. "It was fine for a few hours, and they were loading up the last truck when we heard an explosion from across the yard. I ran over to investigate and two of our trucks were already missing. Several of our workers were dead or unconscious. I ended up finding Gin and Higuchi and I left them with the trucks while I went to find Akutagawa. Unfortunately, one of those Russian idiots—"
"Sergey?" Elise interjects again.
"Sergey," He confirms, jaw clenching. "He left the lounge and ended up seeing one of Akutagawa's attacks. Tachihara took him back, but I'm worried they'll use it as an excuse to bail on the deal."
Mori gives a quiet grunt that Chuuya can't interpret as positive or negative. He decides to ignore it all together. "By the time I got him down, backup was arriving, and I got your call shortly after. I left Black Lizard in charge of the cleanup while I brought the kids back, but… Higuchi says she didn't see anything strange. Maybe a few more homeless people near the docks this morning, but nothing too out of the ordinary. And now with Akutagawa not remembering anything…"
He lets out a frustrated breath, rubbing at his forehead. They fall into silence while Mori chews over what Chuuya's told him. Chuuya just waits, replaying the words he's said and trying to see if they make any more sense in his mind than they did out loud. He can feel Elise's eyes tracking over him again, scrutinizing his expressions. Finally, Mori heaves out a sigh. And then he leans forward in his seat, gaze sharp. "I want to know what they said to you. As close as possible, please."
The weight of Elise's gaze grows until he can feel it like a hand on his cheek. Chuuya glances at her with her bright blue eyes, staring at him openly for the second time today. It makes him feel almost like he did in his apartment closet, the hairs on the back of his raised, positive that one wrong move could be his last.
"They called me Noe a few times," he says. "They knew I got the note and flowers and asked if I liked them. Then… it said that something was coming. That it was time, and I needed to wake up."
"Wake up?" Mori asks.
Chuuya chews at his lip, offering a nod. "Yeah. It repeated it a few times, getting louder, and then it just… stopped. And Akutagawa went back to normal."
There's a tense quiet while the both of them think. Elise, seemingly done watching him, gives a huff indicating that she thinks the whole thing is terribly boring, and returns to her color station so she can scribble agitatedly at her paper. Chuuya takes a gulp of his wine, trying to work some moisture back into his mouth.
After the silence drags on for minutes, Chuuya finishes his glass and puts it down, trying to push that strange foreboding feeling from his mind and redirect onto something productive. "How do you want me to manage the Russians? They're bound to be upset over today, especially after one of them almost got attacked. Or worse, they'll think they did business with a weak partner…" He grimaces even as he speaks, trying to imagine how he can possibly smooth this over. He doesn't give two shits about Sergey or that fuckers opinion of him, but he worked hard on the negotiations, and he hates the idea of fucking over his own deal. He remembers the face the man had made as he tackled him to the ground and tries to draw an ounce of joy from it to combat the stress.
But Mori just sets his glass down and reaches into his pocket for his phone. "I'm going to take care of the Russians," he says. "For you, I'm moving up the appointment with the Agency."
o-o-o-o-o
He doesn't panic. Not at first. The words don't really sink in until Mori already has the phone pressed to his ear. But by then it's too late to do anything more than pour himself another glass and down it in three gulps.
This day just keeps getting worse, he thinks. Worse and worse and—what's next? The core of the earth exploding?
It honestly sounds like a more pleasant alternative than having this stupid truce with the detectives moved closer. He pictures how blissful it will be: a moment of terror induced panic, feeling the floor rumble under his feet. And then a deep, final calmness as he and everyone else on the earth perish in a fiery blast.
(now who's the suicidal bastard?)
He's pulled from his mind by the sound of Mori snapping his phone closed and clearing his throat. "Well, they agreed. But unfortunately won't be able to meet until Wednesday."
"Wednesday?" Chuuya's jaw drops, all thoughts of the earth exploding gone. "Sir, that seems—should we really move it so soon? With Akutagawa recovering and our deal with the Russians at stake—"
"Chuuya-kun," Mori interrupts, "please tell me you are not trying to postpone an important meeting because Akutagawa has a scratch."
Chuuya closes his mouth with an audible clack, staring at the man. Mori stares back, his dark gaze steady and unflinching. After all these years, working together, protecting the city, keeping their idiotic little underlings in line… Mori is not quite, but almost something like a friend or a mentor. But he's also Chuuya's boss. And today, under Chuuya's supervision, not only were they attacked by an unknown gifted in front of new business partners, but they lost half their stock in the process.
Chuuya has fucked up. And Mori only gives so many second chances.
Plus… Mori's right. Chuuya himself was attending meetings when he could barely keep himself upright. A few stitches and a bump on the head aren't an excuse for a mafioso to lay in bed.
Chuuya lets out a deep sigh. "Damnit," he mutters. Followed by, "No, I guess not."
Mori gives him a satisfied grin. "Good. It should be a fairly brief meeting as Dazai and I arranged the majority of the contract earlier. But I want you to find out if they know anything about this Les Fleurs. I don't like how bold they got, and we need to be cautious until we figure out who the new gifted is. See if they've heard anything and offer some of our information in return."
Chuuya doesn't respond. Mori lets him sulk for a moment before he leans forward a bit, drawing Chuuya's gaze. "I know it's not ideal," he says. "But you must remember that every threat we encounter, every new faction or organization… Hell, even Les Fleurs may be the one thing that tips the scale of power in someone else's favor." His eyes are very dark despite the sunlight still coming in through the windows. "This truce is in our best interest, and it's especially important until we get Les Fleurs under control."
Until we no longer need them and can turn on them once more goes unsaid. Chuuya frowns idly at his shoes, not sure why the thought is making him so much more uncomfortable now than it did a few months ago.
"You understand?" Mori says, voice deceptively light.
Chuuya swallows thickly, feeling his stomach roil in something like protest as he says, "I understand."
But the instant he does, the weight of the boss's gaze softens, and Mori gives him a tired, almost normal smile. "Remember, only a diamond can polish a diamond."
It breaks the tension that's been pressing on him since he walked into the office. Chuuya rolls his eyes with a soft snort, thinking back to how many times he heard those words as an angry kid, forcibly attached to Dazai's hip. "Yeah, yeah," he says. "Anyways, I should probably get going. Gotta give Hirotsu a call."
Mori gives him a small wave of the fingers, allowing his dismissal, and Chuuya starts pulling on his jacket and his gloves before heading to the door. But just as his hand touches the knob, he hears Mori call from behind him, "Give my regards to Dazai-kun."