Leafing Through The Pages, I Found You
Summary: An Ability traps the ADA certain PM members in an illusion that shows them Dazai's life, before and as he became the man they know today.
8yo
"Do you feel comfortable telling us what the hell all of that was?" Yosano more or less gently asked, referring to the night that had taken the Tsushima couple, a military base and half the industrial complex with them. "And why you said this is ironic?"
"It's ironic because my birthday is supposedly April 29th, the day I apparently killed Dazai's parents-"
"Chuuya-"
"It happened, it was my power that did it, let it go, Ane-san."
Kouyou glared at him. "I'm going to be talking with Dazai about this, so he'll annoy you into accepting that it was not your fault."
Chuuya returned the glare tenfold. "Yeah? And what if he just ends up hating me if he realizes what happened?"
"Chuuya-kun, Dazai-kun is already aware of the fact that Rimbaud and Verlaine technically caused the explosion in Suribachi. He was there when you found out, remember?" Mori pointed out logically. "If he was going to hate you, he'd hate you already."
"But don't they, like, already hate each other?" Tachihara asked, only to have Gin slap him over the head. "Hey!"
Hirotsu sighed, exasperated. "No, Dazai-san very much does not hate Chuuya-san, nor vice versa. The matters of Soukoku are not comprehensible to us ordinary mortals."
"So, you were the one that caused that explosion, that much is obvious," Kunikida cut in before they could get too far off topic. They all idly watched as nurses and doctors fussed over Shuuji, who just stared at them dispassionately, even when he overheard a couple of not-so-subtle nurses discussing whether they should inform him of his parents' death, unaware that he already knew, that he had pretty much witnessed it. "But what was that? No Ability I know acts like that. So much power ... How was that even possible?"
"Shitty Dazai really never told you?" Chuuya asked the Agency in general but they all just shook their heads. That left a warm feeling in Chuuya's chest that he would rather not think about right now. "What you saw was Corruption, the true form of my Ability. Depending on whether or not this thing shows us more of Dazai's life, like after we met, I guess you'll find out more about that who shitshow, but for now, let's just say that I am technically a vessel to a god of calamity."
"Shut the fuck up," Yosano instinctively said, eyes wide and mouth agape. The rest of her coworkers, Higuchi and Tachihara were no better, the agency never having ever known scientists were sticking supernatural beings into humans in the first place and the latter two having joined the Port Mafia after Soukoku's reign of terror that ended with Dazai leaving. "You're serious?"
Chuuya shrugged. "How do you think Dazai and I destroyed an entire Gifted organization in one night, thus ending the Dragon Head conflict? Or how we defeated Lovecraft, who was some monster from the deep? How do you think I beat up that stupid ass dragon when Shibusawa decided to dabble in self-necromancy and tried to make Yokohama ground zero for collecting all Abilities?"
"That was you!?" A stunned Atsushi asked and Chuuya just shrugged.
"Eh, the dragon was easy peasy. Now, the Guivre, that was a fucking challenge. Fuck Verlaine, fuck N, fuck Pan, fuck the government."
"Guivre?" Ranpo asked.
"Yeah, that huge Godzilla-wannabe from six years ago, before the Dragon Head conflict? Yeah, that was it, my stupid 'older brother'," the ginger haired Executive said with air quotes and rolled eyes.
Fukuzawa's, Kunikida's, Ranpo's and Yosano's jaws all dropped to the floor. "That was you!?"
"Yup," Chuuya replied, popping the P. "Half the reason Soukoku was so lethal was because we could just, you know, decimate our enemies. The other half is that, usually, Dazai was able to reduce an organization to shambles from the inside and then he just needed me to pick him up from the dumpster-fire he created."
"But if you're so powerful, Chuuya, san, why would you even need a partner?" A perplexed Higuchi asked and Chuuya looked in the blonde's direction.
"I'm completely incoherent and out of control when I use Corruption. I can't tell enemy from ally apart, I just destroy everything and then some. Corruption is also tough on my body, as the full force of a singularity was not meant to be shoved into a human, let alone a god that just wants to destroy until nothing's left. Without control and with such an effect on my body, I could die in minutes."
"And Dazai's No Longer Human prevents that," Ranpo finished for him, having come to this conclusion as soon as Chuuya admitted to having no control. "He's your off switch."
"Yep, pretty much. He's also the one who decides when we would usually use Corruption," the fedora wearing man said. "Apparently, he doesn't trust me not to overuse it if I don't think I can save my subordinates otherwise."
"I wasn't aware Dazai was forbidding you to use Corruption," Kouyou interjected, a pleased smile on her lips. She'll have to get something real nice for Dazai just for this. Chuuya did not reply to that, nor did he look at anyone, instead pointedly watching as the doctors and nurses finally filed out of his partner's hospital room to contact Matsuki that Shuuji was awake. Getting the hint, the others watched, too, as Dazai stopped a nurse before she could leave. She smiled sweetly at him and asked him if he needed anything.
Shuuji's answer stunned not just the nurse, but the watching audience, too. "When you found me ... Did you find another boy? I think he was around my age, orange hair and I think blue eyes? He was pretty hurt, too."
The nurse's face had a troubled look. "I ... No, sweaty. You were the only survivor brought in."
Shuuji's face, if possible, turned blanker. "So he's dead?"
The poor nurse flinched. "No, Shuuji-kun. You misunderstand. You were the only one brought in. There ... There were no human remains found in the wake of the explosion."
"Oh." Shuuji turned his head away, looking out the window. 'So he left, then. Good. That way, the government won't be able to find him, though I would have preferred to offer him shelter instead of him being out there alone. Tou-chan always was uncomfortable with me being out with him or Kaa-chan, let alone by myself.'
Needless to say, these thoughts more than stunned Chuuya, while Kouyou, Hirotsu and Mori looked smug for having told him so and having been proven correct.
The thought of his parents left a dead look in Shuuji's eyes. 'What will happen to me now? None of Kaa-chan's siblings like me, but they liked our home. Will they keep me just to take our things? I doubt Kaa-chan would leave me in Ojii-san's care, either; she never liked him spending time with me, despite loving him. Tou-chan had no family. If Kashimura survived, which is doubtful but not impossible, would i go to him? I don't think I want to; I didn't like the way he looked at Kaa-chan and Tou-chan. And what would happen to the staff? Matsuki-san especially; he'd always showed disdain towards Kaa-chan's family. Even Chibi, what will happen to him? He was Tou-chan's dog and disliked everyone outside our family.' He was, however, brought out of his thoughts by footsteps coming closer to his door, soon followed by two voices discussing something. 'That's odd. The other medical staff's footsteps didn't sound like that.'
"Wait, what? He could distinguish them that easily?" Kunikida asked, but no one answered.
'And Matsuki-san has a slight limp due to age. Besides, none of the Tsushima servants ever walks that loudly. This is someone else entirely, but the nurse said I would receive no visitors without my legal guardian. None of my relatives wear shoes this loud and I doubt Ojii-san has the strength to walk like that. So it must be someone else.'
"Okay, yeah, if there were any doubts this was Dazai remaining, that proves it."
Akutagawa shot Kunikida a very dry look. "You say that now instead of when we saw No Longer Human in action? I'm started to question Dazai-san's choice of employment."
"Shut up, Akutagawa."
"Make me, jinko."
"Save your flirting for later," Ranpo interrupted, causing both young men to sputter in denial that he wasn't listening to. Chuuya just sighed in exasperation, especially when Higuchi jumped to Akutagawa's defense.
Gin was the real MVP, though. "Yeah, no, Ryuu-nii is gay. Hard not to be when you have Dazai-san as your sexual awakening."
"GIN!" The scandalized Rashoumon user squeaked and Yosano cackled. Chuuya went rigid while Higuchi wilted. "It is not like that! I have never had romantic feelings for Dazai-san! Gin, he practically raised us, are you an idiot!?"
Gin gave her brother a deadpan look, even going as far as taking off her mask to do it better. "Dazai-san was the first person you ever called pretty."
"Atsushi, you have some tough competition," Kyouka told the weretiger, making Atsushi turn even redder than Akutagwawa currently was. "Dazai-san is indeed very pretty."
"Poor Atsushi!" Croaked Yosano gleefully. "I've never known a person once go for Dazai and ever recover from it!"
"Ain't that the truth," huffed Chuuya to himself.
Little Shuuji spared Shin Soukoku further embarrassment and torture when he started clearly hearing what the voices were saying, causing him to search for an escape route immediately. It definitely drew attention to him when they all noticed him using a cupboard full of medical supplies to climb up towards a vent.
"So you're saying that this kid was the only one who survived?" Chuuya stiffened as he heard the familiar voice, blood boiling over his own past and the implications this man's presence had for Dazai's. "And you think it has something do with an Ability he may have?"
"No doubt about it," came the distinguishable voice of none other than Kashimura Kansuke. "Gen'emon had a very powerful shielding Ability. If anyone should have survived that blast, it should have been him and whoever he was touching. Tane and that brat were with him, so why is it that only the brat survived? Nothing and no one else was left standing in the debris, just Tsushima fucking Shuuji," Kansuke said bitterly, he and the other man coming to a stop in front of Shuuji's hospital room. Shuuji narrowed his eyes at it as he unwrapped the bandages around his wrists, sliding them in between the loose vent cover and the wall so he can wiggle it free, doing it as silently as he can. Noiselessly, he slithered up into the vent, holding back a cough at all that dist, before wrapping a bandage around one of the bars in the cover, closing the vent behind him.
"What the-?"
"Well, shitty Dazai always did have incredible instincts for danger," Chuuya said with a smirk, feeling a bit smug that he knew the brunet better than his current partner.
"Are you suggesting-"
"That the boy was somehow immune to it all? I wouldn't be surprised. Nullifiers are extremely rare, but not nonexistent," Kansuke was saying. "If we wish to continue our research, we'll greatly benefit from having the brat on hand. Furthermore, we could use him to either replicate his Ability or clone him, as we did A-258."
"The cloning wasn't the most successful with A-258. One of them weakened the other, if you recall."
"Yes, but I have a feeling darling Shuuji-chan will fare better."
They were watching from within the room, so they couldn't see the men, but they could just imagine the cruel smirk on his face. More than one set of eyes turned murderously cold at what they were hearing and Shuuji himself, who was straining to hear them due to the distance and the barrier that was the door, frowned.
"Bastard," growled Kouyou the thought on everyone's minds.
"To think you'd sacrifice your late best friends' son for a developing research project. You truly are a cold man, Kashimura-sensei." The voice Chuuya hated the most commented with a clinical chuckle. "Then again, you did do the same with your own boy."
"WHAT!?" The Agency thundered and the Mafia seethed. Kouyou especially, as she held onto Chuuya with a bruising grip. None of them had missed the resemblance between the man and the Executive. None of them liked the implications of that resemblance.
Chuuya himself, on the other hand, wasn't even sure what to think.
He had thought he had seen his family that day, so long ago, but had it really all just been an illusion, a trick to keep him loyal?
"N-sensei, you say that as though both you and I wouldn't do anything to achieve our scientific goals," Kansuke said, confirming Chuuya's dread of the other speaker's identity. Kouyou, Hirotsu and Mori grimaced as they heard it, too. "After all, you're here with me today, when we both are only alive because my Ability managed to protect us enough that we survived, even if we were basically in pieces, and because I had connections with that shady doctor."
"Shame we couldn't take his protege. She was suitably broken, she would have been perfect to assist in the labs."
"Wait a minute," Mori suddenly said, eyes narrowing. Yosano was frowning, too. "No, that can't be, right?"
But then the door opened and Kansuke and N walked in, friendly smiles on their faces with Kansuke now sporting a big scar across the left side of his face that looked like it was a combination of a heat burn and debris shredding his skin, the cheek having healed unevenly. Mori's eyes widened at the sight of the man now blind in his once brown eye, not bothering to cover up the milky white emptiness that made even his healthy, blue eye seem eerie.
"It is him. Them."
"Mori-sensei, explain," Fukuzawa demanded and for once, Mori agreed without putting up a fuss.
"Years ago, after our regiment was disbanded and I was facing being potentially dishonorably discharged, I set up the underground clinic in neutral territory, as you know. I still had Yosano-kun with me and when valuable enough clients on the verge of death arrived, I would charge extra to save them. One day, shortly after the incident in Suribachi, a couple of men came to my doorstep. I think it was actually four of them, but one was already dead when they dragged them to my clinic, one died despite getting treatment and two survived, but their wounds were so bad not even Yosano-kun's Ability worked fast enough to heal it all before they were dragged back to full health from the verge of death. They paid their dues but I faced some retaliation, so I had to leave the clinic for a while for another one, the one where you guarded me, Fukuzawa-dono. I never saw them ever again. I could not have imagined they were the ones responsible for Chuuya-kun's ... condition," he finished with a look at the ginger, who couldn't even really blame him, or the other doctor.
Really, how were they to know they were some evil scientists experimenting on children, Abilities and singularities, of all things.
"I don't even remember the other times I healed people," Yosano muttered to herself. "But I distinctly remembered that man, how I couldn't heal his blind eye and the scars left behind ... My Ability had never before left a scar ... It was hard to forget him."
N's and Kansuke's smiles dropped and eyes widened when they saw that the hospital room was empty and N immediately went to snap at a nurse, making sure they had gotten the right room number and then raising the alarm that an eight year old disaster victim had disappeared. Shuuji watched it all from the vent, studiously keeping away from the light coming into it, blending with the shadows, lest they notice him. At one point, perhaps he shifted or breathed too loudly, but Kansuke's attention snapped to the vent and he pulled out a gun, and he shot, causing the nurse to scream in fright and N startle. Shuuji steeled himself and did not jump as the bullet whizzed past his head, instead ripping a button off of his hospital gown and sending it loudly bouncing down the vent's tunnel.
"What is the matter with you!? Are you insane!?" A nurse of a higher station ran over and started yelling at Kansuke, who chillingly calmly informed them that it seems that they have rats in the vents.
"Holy fucking shit," Tachihara whispered, amazed by how calm and collected the boy had acted, how quickly he'd come up with a distraction. They could tell that Kansuke wasn't entirely convinced, but that was when Matsuki arrived and coldly informed the hospital staff that 'these two gentlemen' had not received permission from him as Tsushima Shuuji's primary legal guardian to visit the boy. The hospital security was also there now, too, and the two were more or less politely but insistently escorted out of the hospital with a warning not to return again unless they had actually, legitimate business in the hospital. The nurses still snapped at each other to go find the boy, but now that the danger was over, Shuuji let go of the vent cover he was holding with his bandages, the slam of it on top of the cupboard startling the staff and his caretaker below before he deftly climbed out, a little dusty but otherwise safe and sound.
The nurse who had witnessed Kansuke shoot at that same vent, however, fainted on the spot at the knowledge a madman had nearly killed a child almost literally under her nose.
"Shuuji-kun!" A worried nut relieved Matsuki exclaimed, running over to help the boy get down, though he did not put him on the ground once he had him in his arms, instead scolding the Tsushima for doing something so dangerous. Shuuji wasn't really listening to him, focus trained on the men he could see out of his hospital window. The audience turned their attention out there, too, and froze when they saw Kansuke looking straight back at the little brunet. Atsushi dared look back at the child version of his mentor and froze as he saw the expression on his face. Akutagawa, noticing his reaction, did the same and straightened up, rigid and at attention, as he realized the eight year old could make the exact same expression Dazai made at eighteen when he was murderously displeased.
It was not a pretty expression, especially on a kid.
"So he was always like that," Kouyou mused with a frown, not sure how to feel about that. To think Dazai's Demon Prodigy expression came so naturally to a little boy definitely made her uneasy, but now that she knew his origins, she supposes it wasn't surprising, at the very least. Neither the demon princess nor the ghost in black were exactly nicknames one would earn for having a happy-go-lucky disposition and a sunny smile on their face.
"Matsuki-san."
"Yes?" The elderly man stopped his fussing at the serious tone.
"I don't know what will happen in the future, or if I can still ask things from you-"
"Of course you can ask things of me, Shuuji-kun. Or rather, Bocchan."
Shuuji finally looked away from Kansuke, turning his attention to his servant. "Bocchan? You've never called me that before. Didn't Kaa-chan insist on it because she didn't want me to grow up with a skewed perception of the working class just because I was born wealthy?"
"I swear, the more I learn about the Tsushimas, the more I hate they died," Naomi said mournfully and Chuuya grit his teeth until his jaws hurt, wondering just how different his partner would be had he had a normal childhood with such caring parents. Had he robed Dazai of the chance to see the world for all its splendor and beauty?
No, this Shuuji still looked fairly okay, all things considered. He has not expressed a desire to die yet so, despite everything, becoming an orphan hadn't been the thing that brought him over the edge.
"Well, yes, Tane-sama did," conceded the servant. "However, I'm afraid things are different now," he said gently as he finally put the boy down. "Due to these unfortunate tragic events, you are now the head of the Tsushima estate in Aomori, as well as the heir to Tsushima Corp once you are of age. I'm afraid that, at least in these settings," he looked around the not so private room with disdain. "I will have to be at least a little formal with you."
"I see," Shuuji replied with a nod. "Then I must ask you to do four things for me before we leave Yokohama."
"Of course, Bocchan," the older male said with a small bow.
"First, I need you to find out if there's really no other survivors from the explosion. Particularly a boy, probably my age, with really bright orange hair," Shuuji said confidently, startling Chuuya at the prioritized request. "Everyone keeps saying I'm the only survivor, but both of those men you chased off were in the facility maybe a dozen meters away from my own location when it happened. They were even in ground zero, so they should have been the first to die, yet here they were." Matsuki got a severe look on his face but nodded to acknowledge the first request. "Should you find him here, or somewhere on the streets, offer him a home with us."
"Bocchan?"
Chuuya couldn't breathe.
"He just escaped being a government lab experiment," Shuuji said by way of explanation, looking away. "If I can prevent that from happening again, I would like to do it." Besides, there was just something that called to him from the boy and Shuuji was both intrigued and a bit annoyed to have found something like that at such an inconvenient time.
"Then I shall do my best to find him," promised Matsuki.
Shuuji gave a small, grateful attempt at a smile, pitiful as it looked. "Second, I need to get out of here. I also want to leave Yokohama as quickly as possible. I don't trust what this city will became in the wake of such a tragedy. I imagine Ojii-san isn't doing well, either." The pursing of Matsuki's lips said it all. "I want to leave in a week. We can't leave the estate unsupervised for long. The third thing I'd like to ask you is to compile a list of unwanted guests for the manor, first among them Kashimura Kansuke and that weird colleague of his. Whether that ginger boy comes with us or not doesn't matter, I don't want to see Kashimura's face ever again if I can help it."
"Yes, Bocchan. And the last one?"
Shuuji looked Matsuki dead in the eye, making the man shiver at the sheer emptiness he encountered there. "Don't ask or encourage me to visit whatever grave you made for my parents. I don't need empty caskets; I've seen my parents' fate with my own eyes. I will not cry at a symbolic headstone." Then, in his mind: 'Can I even cry at all? Shouldn't I be sobbing and screaming? Isn't that how a child would normally react? Instead of just feeling ... numb?'
Matsuki had a sad, complicated expression on his elderly face, but he conceded to Shuuji's wishes. "Yes, Bocchan."
On Shuuji's insistence, they managed to get him discharged from the hospital later that day, after some tests, the results of which the doctors found miraculous since Shuuji's muscles didn't atrophy from being still for a whole month and since none of his mostly healed injuries required physical therapy for a full recovery. They went back to the city estate belonging to the whole Tsushima family and Matsuki got Shuuji settled before going about the tasks Shuuji had assigned him.
The Tsushima Yokohama estate was of a more traditional style than the one Shuuji grew up in. Tane and Gen'emon had both preferred a more modern, even Western style in their decor, thus making a house with wooden floors, concrete and brick walls. Here, though, a lot of the rooms were covered in tatami mats and shoji walls and doors, not affording as much privacy as Shuuji was used to. There were a lot more people there, too, which made it even harder to get privacy. Most of the Tsushima family was stationed here, living under the same roof and fighting for their place and piece of inheritance Shuuji's grandfather might grant them. Tsushima Kiye, Tane's eldest sister, was actually the head of this estate, since the Mafia Boss lived in a separate location guarded by his men he trusted the most. Kiye was one of the rare people from the Tsushima family that Gen'emon, Tane and Shuuji liked. She'd always been the one to visit them the most and she always got Shuuji some small gifts to show that she thought of him. She'd never had children of her own and probably never will.
Infertility in women seemed to, unfortunately, run in the family. Gen'emon had told Shuuji that he was truly a miracle because all the doctors used to tell them Tane will never be able to carry to term. It's why they had always been so lovingly doting on the boy.
Tane's second older sister was lucky to have one son, Shuuji's second eldest cousin. Unfortunately, Bunji Tsushima thoroughly despised Shuuji, as was evidenced anytime there was a family gathering and he'd try to lock Shuuji into odd rooms and places. He had probably wanted the young boy to get scared, but Shuuji wasn't afraid of the dark and would either enjoy the silence as he waited for his parents, aunt Kiye or Matsuki to find or he'd find ways to entertain himself if Bunji was stupid enough to trap him somewhere with books or office supplies. Or, once, in the lounge, where there was a pool table, a dart board and a table set up for card games, along with decks. That time, by the time they found Shuuji, he'd mastered throwing darts to always hit bullseye, or the circle just outside of it, he'd played several pool games by himself and had built a veritable castle of cards from all the decks he'd found. His grandfather had been amused but his parents had been on the verge of killing Bunji for leaving their six year old son locking in a room with sharp and dangerous objects.
At some point, though, Shuuji got bored of staying in rooms he was locked inside of, so he started experimenting with the locks. He knew it was possible to pick them, so he started carrying around things that might be useful to help him do it. It had taken him half an hour the first time he tried, but he's been honing his skills since. He was still slow, just under five minutes, so he needed a lot more practice until he could do it in seconds. Putting in the effort would be letting Bunji win, so Shuuji did his best to learn before he has to find himself in such a situation again.
That said, Bunji wasn't the only Tsushima not fond of Shuuji's existence.
Tane leaving had left quite a few of her siblings and cousins very bitter, especially when her's and Gen'emons combined intellect, talents and skills helped them create a powerful, legal company that had no connection to the Port Mafia or the Tsushima wealth. Sure, Tane and Gen'emon had used the dowry her father gave them to start their company, but they had paid off that debt early on and bloomed way beyond it on their own. Thus, Tane's share of the wealth was not a share at all, but rather her own personal wealth for her and her little family and greed was not an uncommon trait in the Tsushima family. Shuuji was not surprised at the glares he was getting as he walked around the estate from place to place in the week or so he and Matsuki stayed in Yokohama. He wasn't affected or offended at the snide comments his cousins and uncles made, because they were all insignificant and irrelevant to him. He spent most of his time with Kiye when Matsuki was out fulfilling the tasks he'd given him or in his assigned room, trying to make plans for how to run his own manor once he returns home.
Matsuki and Kiye were the ones getting angry on his behalf for the treatment he was getting.
Matsuki drew the line when Tane's eldest brother, the one Shuuji had first met when he'd also met his grandfather, snidely commented Gen'emon should have been the one to survive instead of Shuuji, the 'useless waste of space and resources that he was'.
"He comes from a family of dicks," Yosano said with a glare, angry at the treatment of a eight year old boy from his own flesh and blood.
"No wonder he had no attachment to them," commented Mori, always having been curious as to how a smart kid like Dazai had ended up on the streets and than in his care. No parent wouldn't try to ride on the coattails of his intelligence to get either status in society because of their prodigy son or get rich if he ends up becoming a super successful businessman, doctor, lawyer or whatever else. Well, he guesses some parents would, but even they would like to enjoy the profit more than anything. Though, the problem here were not parents, seeing how loving the Tsushima couple were, but rather the rest of the family.
"I'm glad Dazai-san just had someone to take him out of that toxic environment," Gin murmured and Hirotsu beside her nodded.
They watched as the boy returned to his home, all the servants gathered outside to wish him a warm welcome, watching him with worried eyes as he seemingly blankly stared at the house he will be living in alone now. The servants all watched him worriedly and Matsuki looked like he wanted to comfort the boy. The watching audience was no better, getting the urge to just wrap him up in the softest blankets and keep him away from the cold, cruel world, despite knowing that this boy would one day grow up to be one of the most dangerous men in Yokohama, if not beyond.
Shuuji's gaze was averted from the house when none other than Chibi crawled up to him, sorrowful, intelligent eyes meeting the child's, the dog whining to him and bringing itself up only just enough to nudge Shuuji's hand with his snout. Shuuji had never actually pet Chibi before, had always viewed him more as his father's dog. He'd watched Gen'emon play with Chibi outside in all sorts of weather and his mother had always encouraged him to join them, but Chibi would always jump all over him if he even came close to the dog. His parents insisted it was because Chibi loved him so much but Shuuji hated getting slobbered all over so he avoided the German Shepard if he can help it. Especially after rainy or snowy days when Chibi came in soaking wet and often very muddy. Even after a thorough bath, he still smelled of wet dog. Shuuji didn't like it.
But he hadn't seen Chibi for over two months now and Chibi was all he really had left of his father. Chibi was Gen'emon's dog. Gen'emon had trained and raised him, had taken him in despite, supposedly, being the runt of his litter. You could never tell on Chibi today, since he was actually larger than an German Shepard. Gen'emon had dearly loved this dog and Chibi had loved Gen'emon, and Tane, and Shuuji.
So Shuuji pet his dog for the first time in his life, slightly fascinated by the soft fur. Chibi really was a pampered dog ... But Shuuji remembered well Chibi's barks and display of strength and possessiveness when his eldest uncle had tried to strike him, the ferociousness of the noise summoning his father to his rescue. Chibi's loyalty had earned him well all that pampering ...
Shuuji looked up at the servants watching him and he noted only three faces were missing out of the thirty that had worked here. Those who remained ... Well, it was safe to say he could trust them, if Chibi had never reacted poorly to them.
So Shuuji politely and gratefully bowed to his staff. "Thank you for the warm welcome. I will do my best to keep he household going as it has before. I hope you will lend me your strength to do so."
The Agency and the Mafia watched as a good part of the servants did their best to hold back their tears, but they all enthusiastically returned the bow, deeper and just as genuine. "Yes, Tsushima-dono!" Even Chibi perked up, giving a single bark and gently swaying his tail.
Shuuji didn't quite smile, because he wasn't really the type, but the look on his face was gentle. "Let's go, Chibi. It seems we have a lot of work ahead of us."
With that, Matsuki hot on his heels, followed by the rest of the staff, Shuuji entered his manor.