ᴡᴇᴀᴋᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴠᴇɴɢᴇᴀɴᴄᴇ | ᴅᴀᴢᴀɪ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ ✔️

Ⅻ: Numb, all over again.

Minutes passed ...

or was it already an hour? you couldn't tell.

Kenta's body felt colder against your forearms. Familiar taps of heels echoed in the empty dining room, but you were mentally lost to even notice them.

"Enough grief now. He deserved it," in a dead tone, Hina declared, standing right behind you.

You opened your mouth to yell at her, to tell her how you didn't care about her silly plan anymore. Yet, nothing came out. You didn't know what to say exactly, where to start. You were angry, but it felt different.

A few more men came into the room to pick Kenta away from you. "Wh-where are you taking him?" you managed to say, the cry gasps still appearing in your voice. "To bury him of course," Hina quietly answered.

Your gaze was locked on Kenta's stiff body as he was taken away. Hina kneeled down to your level, so you looked away. "I'm not going to hypnotize you," she explained herself, not that she wasn't aware you weren't going to believe her.

"I may be evil, but I am not a monster," she started. "I am not going to throw away his body in the waters like a heartless boss," she continued. You gritted your teeth remembering his final state. "I've known him for the longest time that-" "don't talk as if you knew him," you spat, which made her go silent.

"This is the only home you've ever known. Being stubborn will get you nowhere," Hina lectured you. Home, you thought. The only sense of home left in this abandoned place was already gone. "don't let your thinking steer you away from what you were supposed to do," she continued.

 "...from what you wanted,".

"What I want..." you managed to say. "I still didn't forget about that bargain we made last year," You looked her way, down at her dress.

"Find Dazai's weakness and you will be free. I will order all the members to not lay a finger on you, and if they do, well... you know what happens next," Her tone was soft, like a mother trying to discipline her child, only her words were poison, pure poison.

"Look what happened to Kenta. it was all because you couldn't get to the mind of a stranger, or you didn't go face to face with a couple more strangers and squeezed the information out of them by force,"

no response.

"There were two more of them along with Dazai inside that animal café. You could've easily drugged them and manipulated their memory," she said, making you linger on that thought. "Maybe if you just did that, Kenta would still be here with us,"

she was right...

Hina was able to see her talk working. She was aware how grief worked and how you were not in your right mind in that moment.

"After all, wasn't getting out of here your brother's last wish?"

You looked down at your hands. They were scarlet red. Hina stood up and started dusting off her dress. "Get up, dear. I'll get you new clothes. You need to go back to your job," her demanding tone was back.

"Last thing we need is to raise more suspicions,"

。。。

"Hey yn-san, you're back!" Mika smiled at your entrance. "Your friends already left when... yn?"

 Mika noticed your tired face. You passed her to the kitchen to put on your apron, so she followed you. "What happened?" Mika asked, grabbing the hem of your sleeve gently.

"I just feel a bit sick. Must be something I ate yesterday," you answered, not looking her way. "Take the day off then," she offered. You looked back at her. Your expression didn't change, "You sure?" she nodded, determined to help you in any way. You faintly smiled.

"Thank you, Mika-san. I owe you one," with that, you left the coffee shop.

Sweat drops ran down your jaw as the afternoon sun burned your skin. You made it inside your apartment complex, and it was the same; hot and itchy.

When you made it inside your room, you got out of the clothes Hina gave you and took a long bath, stalling.

The water dripping from the faucet, the faint sounds of cars outside, it all felt like a fever dream. It wasn't that your mind was busy thinking about all the events that took place that day, it was blank. Your mind focused closely on the sound of the motorcycles outside as their sounds arrive and slowly fade away.

The next few days went in a blur. It was a routine: café job shift, meeting with the agency and hanging out with Dazai. However, you both pretended to ignore what happened in the Puppies Café. 

You managed to mask your grief, and you made up your final decision.

"Luckily, the jackals' hackers were able to cover up the breaching of the agency data system Kenta had attempted," Hina said through the phone. "However, it was confirmed that Ranpo Edogawa is a skill-user, as mentioned in the retrieved data," your breath hitched.

Hina sighed, "If I am being honest, this will be a challenging mission for you, but if you manage to manipulate his mind, everything will be easier for you,"

You placed your phone in your pocket and gazed up at the tall building that stood in front of you.

。。。

"Dazai, are you done with the papers?" Kunikida lined up papers and stapled them together, placed them in the right file and did it all over again. Dazai on the other hand, was gazing out the window at you. "I am almost done with them," Atsushi chimed in and Kunikida couldn't help but sigh.

"How about we look into her situation more ... professionally?"

"I'd rather wait and see what Ranpo-san has to say," Dazai replied, leaning on his desktop when you entered the coffee shop. His phone rang soon after.

"Where are you?" you asked Dazai on the phone as the waitress guided you to an empty seat. "I'll come down soon. Please, order anything, it'll be on me," he replied.

The waitress guided you to the table in the corner. A man whose facials showed that he couldn't be older than you sat eating a cheesecake. "I wanted an empty table, the person I am with hasn't come yet," you said, looking back at the waitress. "aren't you Yamada-san?" the man sitting asked, not glancing your way.

"Come sit. Dazai can join us when he gets down," he continued, and you sat down without saying anything else.

He placed the last bit of his cake in his mouth and said, "So, Yamada-san. You're the infamous girlfriend that Dazai was able to have," you hummed in agreement.

"Did I meet you before?" you asked with a faint smile. "We're getting to know each other now, aren't we? Usually, girls would find him annoying and wouldn't be so patient, but I can tell you're different," he continued. You started looking through the menu feeling like ordering something new that you haven't tried yet.

You were not a difficult one to crack according to him. Yet, he was so intrigued by you that he had to pull out his glasses and clean the lenses with the hem of his jacket.

"You really agreed to the request though... Are you sure you still want to do it?" He asked. You said nothing as you peeked from the menu, holding gaze with him again. You were confused as to exactly what he meant. Your silence was enough for him to rephrase his question as he placed his glasses on.

"Having to execute Dazai in such a short time. Such a daring quest I must say, Yamada - or shall I call you - (Ln)-san?"