Authors note: I have nothing to say other than I am sorry.
Sorry both for how long this stupid chapter has taken to get out, and the angst that this story includes.
I'm not even going to bother boring you with why I have left this story for like almost 2 years, or however long it's been and just say I really hope you enjoy it.
To everyone who has commented followed I just want to say, thank you so much, you are the reason I got the motivation to finish this.
So I really hope you enjoy, and this time I can say with certainty that the next chapter will be out soon. No I like actually promise this time. It will be out in the next few days, and I'm not even just saying that, though I don't blame you if you don't believe me.
Anyway, ENJOY!
They all wasted no time getting into the fight, and the numbers of guards began to rapidly decrease due to their growth in numbers. They still didn't understand why any of this was happening, but they fought on regardless.
Soon, in a rather impressive display of strength, all the guards in the room had been dealt with. Leaving the agency members to stand as they all caught their breaths as they observed the scattered bodies around them.
All except Dazai. Whose eyes were firmly fixed on Fyodors.
"Well that was over sooner than I would have liked." Fyodor lamented with false sorrow.
"Oh please!" Kunikida yelled from the corner of the room he had ended up in, a pile of guards in front of him. "Don't act like any of this is a surprise to you!"
"Hmm" Fyodor pondered with a sly smirk on his face, "I suppose you are right, everything is going according to my plan." With that, Fyodor closed his eyes and didn't appear to be planning to elaborate any further.
For a moment, a tense silence spread throughout the room. No one quite knowing whether to take action now or wait for someone else to make the first move.
Atsushi looked towards Dazai but he found him glaring at Fyodor with so much hatred in his eyes that, despite Dazai not even looking at him, Atsushi had to look away out of pure fear of his mentor's wrath.
Atsushi glanced again around the room, this time noticing another man, standing nearer the back of the room. He was wearing a coat that was suspiciously similar to Dazai's, and was looking at Dazai with a strange look of sadness and grief on his face.
This was when Atsushi suddenly realised who this man was. Memories of Dazai sitting in front of a specific grave suddenly came to mind, his serene yet pained expression as he asked 'do I really look like someone who's visiting a grave to you?', and all Atsushi could think was, yes.
Because Dazai had looked like someone visiting a grave of one they considered dear to them. Despite what Dazai thought, Atsushi felt he was sometimes able to sometimes see the emotions that his mentor tried so desperately to hide.
Certainly, in these past few days however he had seen more emotion from Dazai than since he had first met him.
Fyodor's plan to break Dazai certainly seemed to be working so far, as much as Atsushi hated to admit it.
The room remained silent as both Dazai and Fyodor seemed to be in a never ending staring match to the death, with neither one willing to break the tension that encompassed the whole building.
Atsushi however was definitely not going to be the one to intervene here. This was something he knew Dazai had to do.
"I'm afraid that was rather disappointing." Fyodor remarked, finally breaking the oppressive atmosphere that had surrounded all of them. Despite this however, still no one moved from their positions around the warehouse. Too afraid of what was going to come. They all knew that Fyodor had a lot more planned than simply attacking with a few untrained men. He was far smarter than that.
Dazai's gaze never left Fyodor, even when the man turned away himself. For a moment, Fyodor's eyes drifted towards Odasaku, and his eyes suddenly filled with a sick look of pleasure. As if he was privy to some inside joke that no one else around him knew.
This did nothing but further fill Dazai with anger. No one should have ever gone near Odasaku. Not Mimic, not Mori, and most certainly not Fyodor.
Dazai was almost ready to voice these thoughts to Fyodor, one of the rare times he felt his emotions get the better of him. However, it was at this moment that Chuuya and Aktugawa suddenly decided to, quite literally, burst through the warehouse doors. With Chuuya looking as wrathful and annoyed as ever, and Aktugawa trailing along behind him.
"Finally! They arrive." Fyodor suddenly exclaimed. Seemingly, for the first time Dazai cloud recall, genuinely happy. But this only assured Dazai that the final part of Fyodor's plan was about to begin, and that it would include Odasaku in a way that was sure to break him.
Although, how Fyodor decided to do this, Dazai still did not know. Fyodor had clearly introduced the gifted who brought Oda back for a reason, and Dazai had a few theories, though none of them ended well for any party involved. Except for Fyodor of course.
"Now we can finally get down to our proper business." Fyodor stated in his usual thick Russian accent.
"You see Dazai, I have wanted to rid this world of gifted individuals for quite some time now." He continued and as he spoke, he began pacing the room as if he were some kind of cat cornering his prey, and Dazai's eyes never strayed from his movements. Though he did always make sure to stay aware of where Odasaku was. He couldn't risk taking his eyes off him only to lose him again forever. There were so many things he still wanted to say to him, even if he had to go again.
But he became distracted again when Fyodor continued with his speech.
"And your power of nullification, certainly seemed to be the best way to do it. However, with you being the only nullifier in the world, we do lack a lot of understanding of how your powers actually work."
"PFF, what's there to understand?" Chuuya remarked from the other side of the room. "He touches you and nullifies your ability, so what?!"
"Ah, and that is where you are wrong." Fyodor's voice was full of condescension, which only led to Chuuya becoming angrier, and as much as Dazai normally enjoyed the sight of an angry Chuuya. With so much at risk, now was not the time for it.
"I believe his ability can be so much more than that." Fyodor suddenly froze and went back to glaring at Dazai with an insatiable hunger in his eyes. "But to see for myself, I needed a way to test it. So I set up this elaborate game to draw you out."
"And I would say it worked perfectly."
Suddenly all the windows surrounding the warehouse were covered by metal sheets, and the doors behind Chuuya and Aktugawa slammed shut, leaving everyone locked in the room.
"Now Dazai, I'm afraid I held back a small piece of information from you earlier."
"Oh, and what would that be?" Dazai asked, throwing Fyodor off his tirade slightly by the unplanned interruption, so far Dazai had remained silent, content with Fyodor spilling out his whole plan and allowing him to figure out how to counteract it. But he also knew that was what Fyodor was expecting, and doing what he could to derail Fyodor's power may help him, even the slightest bit.
But what Dazai didn't know was that, no matter what subtle mind games he tried to play with Fyodor. He was already too late.
Chuuya was already annoyed at having missed the large fight that seemed to have occurred, so it certainly didn't help his mood to have to deal with both Dazai and Fyodor and their ridiculous way of communicating with each other. As they both seemed determined to say as little as possible, leaving everyone else around them just confused and annoyed.
So yeah Chuuya wasn't in the best mood and this back and forth was not helping.
And what on earth was Fyodor going on about with that mackerel's powers? Everyone knew that Dazai was able to nullify someone's ability by being in contact with them. He didn't see why that warranted all this effort.
Bringing Oda back from the dead however must be more important than just trying to get Dazai off his game. At least he thought there was more to it. But you could never quite know with these self proclaimed geniuses.
Suddenly the warehouse was alight again with Fyodor's disgusting manipulative voice, his full attention remaining on Dazai. Which also did nothing to improve Chuuya's already sour mood.
"Hmm, it would be the fact that, if this man here were to perish," Fyodor said as he pointed towards a slightly muscular man who had positioned himself nearer the back wall, and far away from any of the fighting, "Then I'm afraid this reunion would have to come to an end."
This made Chuuya, and seemingly everyone else in the room, freeze.
Dazai felt his heart stop. His usual control fled from him and he felt his eyes go wide in shock as he finally realised Fyodor's true plan. Something he knew he should have seen coming from the very start.
He knew Fyodor wanted to break him. He had just been so desperate to have Odasaku back, he had placed those thoughts right to the back of his mind and hid them from view. He so desperately wanted Odasaku back, he would use whatever means he could get. He had been naive. Blinded by the temptation of a second chance he ignored one large factor.
He and Odasaku could never exist together in any state of reality and be the friends they so desperately wanted to be. It was simply impossible, and Dazai should have known this.
He was going to lose Odasaku again…
A sense of helplessness clouded his thoughts as he realised he was going to have to go through the pain of losing someone close to him for a second time.
Unless he could find a way to stop Fyodor. But at this point in time that felt impossible.
Fyodor had clearly planned every aspect of this out. Even down to when and how Chuuya would arrive. These thoughts were only solidified by Fyodor's next words.
"Surely you must know by now that this is how your story was always going to end. But do not fear, as I may have further use for you." Fyodor then turned to Odasaku. "Him however…"
Dread filled Dazai as he saw Fyodor looking at Odasaku again with a sick malice. He couldn't lose him. Not again! Not when he just got him back. He had already been forced to fight his friend, he couldn't lose him now.
But it clearly didn't matter what Dazai wanted, as just as Fyodor finished speaking, he had started to walk over to the gifted who was keeping Odasaku alive.
Then more armed men suddenly entered the room through all possible entrances, putting the agency members on edge yet again, as they became surrounded. Though this didn't concern Dazai who, despite being quite a few paces away from Fyodor at this point, began a mad sprint towards him. Determined to stop Fyodor before he enacted the final stage of his plan.
Suddenly however, the men started firing, though none of the bullets seemed to hit Dazai anywhere lethal. Almost as if they had been instructed to keep him alive for some unknown purpose.
No matter the reason, there was still a hailstorm of bullets filling the room, so all the other occupants, who had become spurred on due to Dazai's movements were now hurriedly taking out anyone they could.
Chuuya had run towards Dazai, old instincts of protecting his partner kicking in and protecting him from the whirlwind of bullets. Aktugawa and Atsushi had somehow ended up fighting back to back as Aktugawa shielded Atsushi from any bullets, which allowed Atsushi to then take down the men surrounding them. The two of them fighting side by side as if in some kind of lethal dance.
All the members of the Agency were also fighting to their limit, letting nothing get in their way.
Dazai was distantly aware of all this during his run towards Fyodor, but he kept getting interrupted as he was stopped by more bodyguards who seemed intent on stopping him. However he knocked them out the way quickly and with little difficulty.
He managed to spare a glance at Odasaku and, to his surprise, found that he was also fighting against the guards in the room, and when Dazai looked again to the gifted, he was now being held by two guards and was clearly not focussing on keeping control of Odasaku.
This filled Dazai with dangerous hope, as it clearly showed that it was possible for Odasaku to have control over himself, and one look at his face throughout this whole ordeal would show you that his mind was his own. The grief and anger were constantly there on display, it was only his body that was betraying him. All Dazai had to do was make it to the gifted and stop Fyodor before he killed him, and by extension Odasaku.
Authors note: Cliffhangers... I don't know why I love them so much but I just do.
But don't worry, you will get your answers soon. But whether it's a happy ending, well we will just have to wait and find out wont we.
But I hope though this chapter was at least a little bit worth the wait.
Thank you for reading!
