The days pass and Kunikida finally feels like things are coming back to normal. He dismisses the events of the last few days like one would forget about an annoying fly. Mori Ougai is long gone, but the Port Mafia is still as strong as ever. Kunikida resolves that one day, they will receive their comeuppance.

For now, the blond blissfully grades paperwork and makes new examinations for his students. It's dull. It's practiced. It's ideal.

And in a stroke of bad luck, the tedium is broken once again.

"You're here." Kunikida's voice is hoarse, but resigned. He takes a seat on his chair, and stares at the Shinigami. There is no hostility, no fear. Kunikida has only been acting with the normality of a schoolteacher to bide his time.

"I am." Dazai agreed. He, too, is resigned instead of the deep anger that he has felt ever since Kunikida burned the Death Note.

"Are you finally here to kill me? Because I accept my fate. I'd rather die than murder another person."

Dazai nods, a grim look in his eyes. Within seconds, he retrieves a new Death Note. This one has been embossed with kanji instead of Roman letters—it's from Ango.

"You're awfully self sacrificing for a human," Dazai mutters. For some odd reason, he's stalling for time. Maybe he wants to draw out Kunikida's death—it's a desire that twists Dazai's stomach.

Odasaku wouldn't want him to act like this.

Kunikida nods.

"I like to live up to my ideals."

Ideals.

Was what Odasaku had been living an ideal? Suddenly, Dazai wants to ask—wants to talk more with the blond. He wants to start anew, perhaps find and reconnect with this human who is just as noble, just as kind as his Odasaku.

Would Odasaku approve of Kunikida?

Dazai's pen twirls lazily in Dazai's grip.

The seconds tick by.