ᴡᴇᴀᴋᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴠᴇɴɢᴇᴀɴᴄᴇ | ᴅᴀᴢᴀɪ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ ✔️

XIII: Scarred

Dazai tapped the tip of his shoe on the elevator ground. The music was faint, but it was all he had to help distract him from his repetitive thoughts.

He noticed how you were acting differently since he met you at the café the week before. You spaced out a lot and you were able to mask your tired face from everyone but him. He acted like he didn't notice it because you were going to tell him if there was anything wrong.

Although he made sure to remind you that you could tell him anything you had in your mind, you didn't say anything.

He looked up your name everywhere he could manage and there was nothing about you or your family name that seemed suspicious. He had a probability in his mind - a probability he didn't want to admit - that made sense after all that effort.

Yamada was not your last name.

Yet, he couldn't bring himself to state that conclusion. Your conversation on the bridge kept distracting him throughout his scheming. He knew from the beginning that his feelings should not interfere in the plan. It was why he still wanted approval from Ranpo.

。。。

Your breaths were louder in your ear, your hands clutched harder on the menu, and your vision wavered.

"I'll take your silence to properly introduce myself," you lowered the menu to focus on the man's face once again. "Ranpo Edogawa, I know a friend of yours already looked me up,"

"that's not possible," you muttered, your eyes not leaving his. Ranpo's lips curled up into a smirk. "It is, and Dazai is coming at any moment to know about it all,"

You were shaking at this point.

"Though I still wonder, are you still planning to finish this request, or pretend to ignore it?" he said, unraveling doubts buried deep inside of you. It was your signal to prove him otherwise. You glanced down at his hand.

Ranpo Edogawa is a skill-user, Yn.

Hina's words echoed in your mind. You pulled the small needle you had hidden under your sleeve. A drug that lasted exactly for 2 seconds, it was enough to make a person with a skill lose consciousness.

Which in return makes your skill in effect,

Corrupt what the naked eye fails to see.

He had his right hand clutched to the spoon he ate with. You made sure not to break your gaze with his as you got ready to poke his hand. As soon as the drug enters his blood vessels, you must go into his mind.

You moved your hand to his as fast as you could, mentally getting ready to get into his mind. "You're not gonna do that," he mumbled as he grabbed your hand from the wrist before you could poke him. You looked up at him,

but it was all bright, blinding white.

The echoes of a rhymed pulse were faint around as you rubbed your eyes. It was all too familiar. you looked around and realized what just happened.

You were in Ranpo's mind palace.

"How?" you mumbled only for your voice to echo. In the long, huge hallway, Ranpo's memories started playing in front of you. Clones of him stood in multiple places, some of them were alone and some were with other people. You had to look for clones of yourself. and execute them all.

The first clone of you stood in front of him, frightened. It was the memory of what just happened. You altered the memory of Ranpo by changing his conclusion and strangled your clone. Now, he no longer would come to that conclusion. You continued looking around for any other of your clones.

The place was filled with random people, random conversations. It was way noisier than the minds of other people, but you stopped in your tracks as you heard your name in a faint conversation.

You looked around, but you couldn't tell which Ranpo mentioned your name. "I want to know the truth," a clear voice stated, a voice that wasn't Ranpo's. You looked toward the direction you heard it from and saw a Ranpo holding a phone to his ear and leaning on a wall. Dazai stood facing your way with his phone to his ear.

"To do what, Dazai-san?" You approached them slowly.

Dazai fell silent, his troubled gaze focused on the ground. You stood not too close to the scene playing after you, toning out all the other conversations. "Dazai-san, listen to me, telling you the truth sure has its goodies, but you will have to deal with what you've been ignoring this whole time," Ranpo said with a sigh.

"Although we're having this conversation on the phone, you sure know how to read me well, Ranpo-san," Dazai chuckled.

He took a deep sigh and looked your way. You flinched, then realized he couldn't see you. "You're right, I do need to face the truth I've been avoiding, but it's Yn. I know all of this will pay off,"

You were confused, taking a step closer to him at a time. His expression was not masked, his tired eyes lacked a goodnight sleep, and his knitted eyebrows showed a clear sign of worry. "I know you want the best for her Dazai-san, but you gotta remember what she really wants," Ranpo said, making your breath shorten.

Dazai's gaze changed. He was looking at the space behind you, but then he looked down at his feet. 

"They already knew beforehand..." you muttered. Dazai stopped talking mid-sentence. "I'll call you later, Ranpo-san," he said later. He threw the phone away, and it disappeared. You didn't know what he was going to do.

At least you didn't expect what was going to play after your eyes next.

It has never occurred when manipulating memories. No memory has ever recognized you were there, not up until the moment Dazai gripped your right arm, slowly searching for your eyes.

Your breaths were not steady anymore. His gaze showed confusion. "Yn?" he mumbled. "What are you doing in my room?" he asked. you realized where this memory actually took place. He stopped looking at you and looked around. His gaze scanned the huge hallway like he just realized where he was. "What is this place?"

"You can see it?" you said, the thought slipping out of your mouth before you processed it in your head. his confused gaze slowly changed. His grip tightened around your arm as his eyes met yours again.

"Yn? what is this place?" he said, his tone more demanding and sterner. You said nothing and looked away. "What is this place?!" he yelled, making all the other memories disappear like flying dust.

You looked back at him, heart speeding. His gaze no longer showed confusion, but certainty. Like he somehow caught you red-handed. The world around you darkened, and you realized it was almost time for Ranpo to wake up. You had to act quick, but you seemed frozen in place. It wasn't because of his grip, but it was because you were witnessing a different, scary side of him.

"a.." you mumbled. "A what?" he asked, his face getting closer to yours. "A knife!" you yelled.

A knife made appearance in your hand: one thing you were able to do was bring an item to life in the mind of a person by just mentioning its name. The only two downsides of it are that it has to be something that person have seen before and demanding such objects speeds up the process of the person waking up.

You didn't hesitate to stab Dazai in the heart. Ranpo's memory of this Dazai had to be deleted, but you knew you had to get inside Dazai's head to manipulate what you heard from his conversation with Ranpo moments ago. As soon as you kill a memory, it would die and fly like dust in the wind.

but Dazai didn't.

You pulled out the knife out of his chest and the knife disappeared from your hand. His grip loosened from your arm, and he fell on his knees. "Why didn't you disappear?" you took a step back to see his weakened form. He took unsteady breaths in as he looked up at you. with frowning eyebrows, he managed to lip-sync his last words.