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Summary: Dazai ignored the hostile tone, a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. He wasn't entirely surprised at the reaction of the winged youkai. "It's New Years, Ryuu-chan." Dad!Mori, Youkai AU oneshot.

"You're going to the New Years Celebration, right?" Atsushi asked, his expression hopeful.

"Sorry, I'm busy that day," Dazai chirped. "I have a date." He barely kept himself from laughing at the reaction he got.

Atsushi stared. He wavered between believing and not believing his coworker before he settled on indecision.

Dazai smiled and ignored Atsushi's look of disbelief. It was true he was going to be busy on New Years. He had been given the task of hunting down everyone.

—

The sun rose slowly, casting a red glow on the clearing; it enhanced the sense of painting perfect horror. A man stood in the middle of a battlefield, surrounded by mutilated corpses. The blood had been churned into the dirt below to create a sticky, reddish mud. It was the sight of horrible nightmares and honorable dreams, blood chilling to any mortal with common sense.

The habu snake around Dazai's throat hissed a greeting and another snake rose from the grass nearby, replying to its broodmate. Asrar—Dazai's chosen snake—was white and black, while the scales of Chuuya's companion—who was aptly named Chartreuse—were yellow and black.

"Good morning!" Dazai chirped. He looked over the bloody battlefield with an apathetic eye, then promptly ignored it.

"What do you want, Dazai?" Chuuya growled. He looked like he fit in among the carnage, not that he looked dead but that he showed no signs of being ill at ease, as he should. There was a good reason why he was called the title, 'god of destruction'.

"Did you forget?" Dazai asked, teasing clear in his voice. "It's New Years today."

Chuuya rolled his eyes, but sheathed his sword. "And that's relevant why?"

Dazai hummed. "Mori-san wants us all back for New Years," he bluntly informed.

"Did you get stuck playing messenger?" Chuuya smirked. He put a hand close to the ground and let his snake wrap itself around his wrist.

Dazai sighed. "Yes. It's such a hard job, and so, so boring." He put on a sad expression, as if he was about to cry. The fox ears on top of his head drooped down, no longer hidden by the illusion he used around normal humans.

Chuuya pushed Dazai forward, interrupting the kitsune's dramatics. "Yeah, yeah. Let's get moving."

"You're coming with me to find the other two?" Dazai blinked in surprise.

Chuuya stared at Dazai, a deadpan look on his face. "That's the reason you came to get me first, isn't it. You planned on dragging me along and wouldn't stop annoying me until I agreed."

Dazai frowned. "It isn't fun when you guess things," he complained.

"I spent four hundred years putting up with your stupid ideas to anger me. You think I wouldn't be able to predict anything after that?" Chuuya glared until Dazai shut his mouth. "Don't answer that. Now move, or I'll just leave you behind and just go to the mountain by myself."

—

The sun hung high above their heads, a furious light that tried to burn past the wispy clouds but failed.

Gin was selling their wares. Her dark blue paper umbrella was propped against the inside of the small stall, as they had managed to reserve one with a thick enough covering to block the sun.