Chapter Text
14 Chuuya
It was a hot, lazy summer day. One of those days where people spend it on the beach. Or doing chores. Something along those lines.
But I spent it with my group, the Sheep. We were one of the most formidable groups, made up of just teenagers and children. And I was the unofficial leader of it. Or the face, really.
Me and Shirase, another member of the Sheep who was also my friend, were walking around a supermarket, evading the heat of Yokohama.
"Hey, Chuuya. Wanna steal some bread while we're here?" Shirase asks.
"Hell no, moron. We're gonna be kicked out of here and never let in again. Unless you know some other place that lets kids get AC for free." I shot back.
"Okay, okay. You got a stick up your ass or something? It's not like it's gonna hurt anyone."
"Just- shut the fuck up and enjoy the AC." I reply, annoyed and sick of Shirase's bullshit these days.
As we walked around, I saw a ton of things the Sheep would kill for. Cake. Frozen pizzas. Pickled radish. We kept browsing but never taking anything off the shelves due to having no money.
Until some rude passerby rammed into us.
"Hey, watch it, damn it!" Shirase yells.
The guys stays quiet. He's a kid too, from what I can see. Dark brown hair and eyes, collared shirt and slacks despite the heat outside.
"Ah! So sorry, don't mind him, boys!" An older man, presumably his guardian, says.
"Well-" Shirase is cut off by a young, European girl.
"Rintarou! You said I could get candy! And I don't want to eat your stupid home-made meals!" She whines.
"Yes, Elise, let's go. You too, Dazai." He says, and they leave promptly, with the boy looking back at us one more time.
The older man. He looked very familiar. He had this aura like a doctor, a very experienced one, at that. He was in full black with a red shawl.
When they're put of sight, Shirase says quite loudly, "Damn it! Shoulda told them I got hurt or somethin' so they had to pay us!"
"Shut the fuck up, Shirase. You know they can probably still hear us, dumbass? Do you even have a fucking brain?" I say.
And so, I spent the rest of that year wondering who the hell that boy was, and why that older man looked so familiar to me. Honestly, worst fucking summer and year ever.
A year later...
"Hey, Shirase?" Yuan asks.
"Yeah, what do you need?" Shirase answers.
"Why do you think Chuuya's so angry and cold toward us these days? What could we possibly have done to him to make him like that?" ...I think I just walked into a conversation that I probably wasn't supposed to hear.
"I don't know, damn it. Maybe it's all the work you guys make me do? You guys seriously need lessons on how to fucking clean up your own messes. In fact, do you guys even know how to do that?" I interrupt Shirase.
"Okay, Chuuya, calm down! We're trying our best to get away from those places unsuspected, alright?!" Shirase says, while Yuan looks at him skeptically.
"Y-yeah, calm down...!" Yuan says, not believing that the Sheep really are doing its best.
It was whatever, honestly. If the damned Sheep doesn't fix itself, they'll lose all of their land within a week. Not my problem.
However, that boy from last summer. Who was he? The man next to him, I had concluded, wasn't his guardian but was probably his boss. That boy sparked interest in me. But why? He wasn't anybody special, he was just another face in the crowd. But yet I remember him so clearly. Those hollow brown eyes and that messy brown hair, his unemotional, spaced-out look. God, he was just so-
"Hey, Chuuya? You good, man?" Shirase snaps me out of my train of thought. Well, good thing he did. I had work to do.
"Oh, uh, yeah, just need a moment for myself. Imma go get fresh air." I responded.
"Okay, Chuuya! Stay safe out there!" Yuan says.
I leave, and decide to just wander for a bit, since it wouldn't hurt anyone, right? As I walked through the alleyways I've walked through hundreds of times, I think about that boy and work. Honestly, it's all I've been able to think about, starting from the start of the summer. The Sheep, and a fucking boy who probably doesn't even fucking remember me. It's pathetic, really. And earlier- I was sure to be thinking annoying, rude, ignorant, anything mean, honestly. Right?
I keep walking around the alleyways, thinking about the last year. Because it shouldn't have sucked, honestly. If Shirase didn't fucking evoke the Port Mafia shits and like five other illegal groups it would've been an amazing year, actually. Well, maybe not.
Thoughts keep haunting me and I just keep walking. Until I see something glimmer in the corner of my eye. It's shiny, and it's speeding toward me, closer every second. A bullet. Oh fuck my life, honestly. I have to use my skill outside of combat for the Sheep now, too? IT'S SUMMER, for god's sake! Why I have to use my skill is beyond me.
I use my abdomen to level my body and use my skill, gravity manipulation, to slow down the course of the bullet before it does any damage to me.
As I contemplate if I should send it back, I hear it. More guns, and they're pointed toward me. I'm circled.
"Nakahara Chuuya. Skill user of gravity." One of the men says, pointing his pistol at me. Honestly, that's sad. Just a pistol? It seems that his men have sub-machine guns.
"Well, yeah, dipshit, that's me. Honestly why are you the only one with a pistol? Your budget too tight, hmmm?" I taunt.
As I open my mouth again, I'm interrupted by every. Single. Fucking. Sub-mach gun firing at me.
God, they've got either no time or no fucking decency. I stop every bullet right before my body, and as they lower their guns, I do a quick (and unfortunately very sloppy) roundhouse kick, sending every bullet back.
They all collapse one after another.
Somehow, and by some chance, the broke leader doesn't get hit critically. A small piece of his bicep is torn off, but he it seems that he doesn't care, or is well-trained enough to only focus on his target.
Which was me.
"Aaaaah, what a pain," I say, a tad bit annoyed, "seems like you're still alive, huh?"
I walk towards him, and he backs away.
However, it is quite unfortunate for him, because I've backed him into a wall.
"Stay away, Nakahara." He says my name with such hatred I think I could've seen the hatred drip off of them if it weren't so dark.
"And, what if I don't, huh?"
"I'll shoot." Tch, his hand is visibly shaking. It's likely his first time even pointing a gun at someone who isn't a soldier. I mean, he is from the GSS, even a five year old could tell. The GSS freaks have been all over us, trying to take us down since a few years ago.
I move closer to the gun, basically telling him to shoot.
"So be it. Shoot me, if you even can." Now my forehead is right on the guns barrel. He is shaking, about to pull the trigger-
"GAH-" He screams a strangled cry, and is spasming on the ground. I can see little electricity sparks around him.
He was electrocu- wait. We're in a backed off alleyway. He was cornered. How did he-?
My questions are suddenly answered from above.
"Hey, redhead." A voice. Too high to be a man's, but too low to be a woman's. A boys voice.
I look up, expecting probably one of the Sheep members who I don't even know, but it's someone else.
A very specific someone else that rammed into me and Shirase in a supermarket a year ago, last summer. However, it's too dark to see his face, but I just know it's that kid.
It's unmistakeable.
"Huh? Don't I know yo-" I cut myself off, not trying to give it away that I've seen him before.
"Hmm? Who am you? I don't think I've seen you in my life before, honestly. Do I know you by any chance?" He says with a hollow voice, indifferent to what was happening like he was out for a stroll.
"Uhm, no! I-" Ugh, I can't form words. Fuck! "No, I don't, I think I saw you somewhere or something."
Oh, fuck my life. That's awkward as shit, honestly.
"Hm. Okay." He just accepted my pathetic excuse? Well, damn. He looks around the alleyway.
"Well, what got you into this situation, grocery store boy?" Oh, damn him to hell! So he does remember me.
"Well, uhm, to be fair, I don't fucking know either." Well, yeah I do, actually. Shirase and his stupid fucking posse decided to mess with a criminal organization, and now their after my fucking head for some reason.
"Hmm? Aren't you from that group? What was it again? The Ram?" He speaks up, and takes a picture out of his pocket. He looks at it and back at me.
"Found you."
My vision goes black.
Uuugh, fuck, where am I?
My eyes open slightly, and I realize I wasn't left in the alleyway. I was kidnapped. How that boy did that is beyond me. He had his taser away, right?
Oh my fucking god. He distracted me while someone came from behind.
"Well, hello, young man. Or, should I say Chuuya Nakahara?" A man in full black with a red shawl. It's the man who was right next to the boy! The one with the little European girl! The one who accompanied both of them. How he knows my name is a mystery. But that's not the point here.
"MFFFMMGKMCKK" I try to talk, but they've duct taped my mouth and tied me onto a chair. I can't fucking move at all. I'd wouldn't be surprised if at this point they put some device on me so that I couldn't use my skill.
"Oh, yeah. We put a gag on you. Hirotsu, take it off." The man says. Or, perhaps should I say, the Port Mafia fucking BOSS, says.
An older, dignified man comes over to take the tape off my mouth.
"OH I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL YOU DAMNED PORT MAFIA PIGS!!!" I scream the second my mouth is free, murderous intent practically visible around me.
The boss just goes to sit down in his chair, smiling at me. It's uncanny, really.
"Well, Chuuya. That's very expressive, but we need you to cooperate here." He says, not a bit bothered by the comment. He's indifferent to the bloodlust I exert.
I grit my teeth, pissed off.
"Now, do you know why you're here?" He asks.
"No, I don't." I do.
"As I thought. You do. Let's get to the point and not beat around the bush, shall we? Your little group of teens and kids, the Sheep, are causing problems here." I nod.
"Yeah, what 'bout it?"
"Well, at this point, they've been stealing from us. Now why is that a problem? It's not for you little sheep, but we need all of our assets."
"Uhm, 'kay?" I'm confused.
"Well, the more they steal, the less we, the Port Mafia, will have. The next time we get attacked, we won't be using guns and such, we'll be using kitchen knives to fight. Do you get what I'm saying?"
"No, asshole. You sound like you're still beating around the bush. Also, why am I tied down? I'm not a fucking dog." I answer, and the boss sighs deeply.
"We'll be losing all of our land and businesses, that's what. We won't be here next time we get into a serious fight. We'll be gone. Do you get it now?"
Oh.
"Uhm, well. Yeah, I do now."
"Your sheep are causing problems for us. That's all." He says.
"So, can I-" I'm interrupted by the boss talking again, but this time he's not talking to me.
"Hirotsu, get ------- here."
The man, Hirotsu goes to get the mystery person, and comes back in with him.
It's the boy.
"Hey, you! Fuck are you doing here!?" I yell, but he ignores me, and looks at the boss.
"Mori-san. Why'd you call me here?" He speaks to the boss, Mori.
Mori motions to me with his hand, as if the boy is meant to talk to me. Well, that's what he's supposed to do. And the kid complies.
"Hey. You're Chuuya, right?" He asks.
"Yeah, dipshit, it is." I shoot back at him.
"Wow, no need to be so rude." He looks at me with his brown eyes, catching the sun outside, disinterested.
"You're in Port Mafia headquarters right now. Impressive, this place, isn't it?" He says, "Oh, and I forgot. My name's Dazai Osamu."
Oh, that's his name. I mutter, "Nice to know."
Then, he goes behind me, and catches a stray piece of duct tape. He rips that shit off my hands.
"YEOWCH, BITCH!!!" I scream, and he starts ripping even slower now. And it's as if he wants me to be in pain because it hurts like shit and it's agonizing.
When all the tape is off of my wrists, he starts on my ankles. But this time, he goes even. Fucking. Slower.
"WHAT THE FUCK JUST RIP IT ALL OFF, BASTARD!!!" I scream at him, unable to use my arms to attempt to hit him because my wrists fucking sting.
When he has it all off, I rise from the chair and do a straight kick into his stomach.
"Owiee-" His stupid little cry of pain is interrupted when I slam my foot down on his hand. Hard.
"That's payback, bitch." I tell him, and yeah sure, it's pretty petty. But, he was making me go through three full minutes in hell, with how slow he was taking the duct tape off. And it hurt like a bitch, too.
"Haaaah, you're petty, you know?" Dazai sighs.
"Fuck you." I lift him up and slam his abdomen and he crashes into the wall, spittle and blood flying out of his mouth. "Gah!"
And just when I go in for the finishing blow, Mori says, "That's it, boys. Settle down. I wanted cooperation, not a fighting ring"
Oh. I forgot he was watching us the entire time.
And conveniently, there are two chairs in front of his desk. One for me and Dazai.
I sit in one, and Dazai basically staggers over. God, I didn't think I hurt him that bad, did I?
Well...I kind of did.