ᴡᴇᴀᴋᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴠᴇɴɢᴇᴀɴᴄᴇ | ᴅᴀᴢᴀɪ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ ✔️

XVI: A Bargain

Akutagawa and Higuchi both walked with the same pace, a little far from the person they were following in the long, dusty, old hallway. "This place looks untouched for at least 5 years," Higuchi commented. "They sure knew how to fool people into thinking no one is here," Akutagawa explained.

"They?" Higuchi wondered out-loud.

The dusty doors at the end of the hallway opened. Unlike all the other parts of the place, this room was clean. It was filled with sculptures of little heads, some of them were just hands in different poses. One hand had necklaces all dangling from it, but what really stuck out in the room was one thing.
A serpent sculpture, in the middle of the room. It had crystallized eyes, looking directly at whoever enters the room.

This has to be it.

"Don't look at her eyes, no matter what," Akutagawa whispered close to Higuchi. So close that she felt his warm breath against her ear. Her face heated up. She knew it wasn't the right time, but she couldn't help but squeal in her mind because of how close he was to her. Thanks to him, it was all that was roaming in her head at that moment.

"You must be the boss," Akutagawa started, looking at the desk. "And you must be from the port mafia," the boss continued.

Akutagwas's eyes trailed to her body: red dress, showing the selluitte of her perfect body, fur dangling from her right shoulder, and accessorized with sparkling rings and bracelets. beauty...
That's how you lure in your victims, huh? concluded Akutagawa in his mind,

He was able to see why his boss chose him for this mission. Akutagawa was not the type to be easily attracted to women.

"You know what I am, right?" she said, like she read his mind. He didn't say anything back, so she stood up, and walked up to him. "You didn't look me in the eye when you first entered," she continued, tracing her fingers from one of his shoulders to another. "It's usual for men to not really .. resist my charm," she noted in a lower tone.

Having enough of it, Higuchi shot next to her pointy heels with her weapon, leading the man standing next to the door to raise his weapon as well.
"I told you to use the gun when I say so," Akutagawa mumbled through his gritted teeth. "She was all over you!" Higuchi replied. "I can take care of her" He mumbled back. "Lower the gun Len," the boss ordered the man standing by the door.

"You're not the type to be lured anyways," she sat back on her chair, finding no use of her charming skills on a guy like Akutagawa. "Let's get down to business," Akutagawa said.

"I heard about the trade your organization wanted to make, but how much are we talking about?" she said.

。。。

"Uhh... nothing. Of course," Kunikida sighed as he sat on Dazai's office chair. Everyone was gone and Kunikida pretended to work a little later so the president would give him the keys to lock at last.

After looking through Dazai's desk, Kunikida tried to unlock his laptop, but he had no idea what his password would be. He was well aware that Dazai wasn't stupid, but he knew there has to be at least one clue around his desk. He pulled open the drawers again and looked through the papers.

while skimming through a file, Kunikida paused. Then he proceeded to open the drawer from its place.
Just as he expected.

There was a file pushed in the back. He pulled it out, eager to read what was inside. However, to his disappointment, the file was empty.
Kunikida sighed, putting everything back in Dazai's desk, not knowing where to look next. He stood up and picked out his stuff ready to leave, having found nothing useful. Before leaving the room, Kunikida paused at Ranpo's desk.

Come to think of it, Dazai has been talking a lot with Ranpo the last few days... Kunikida thought.
A yawn escaped his lips, and he realized he was too tired to think of anything anymore.

。。。

The sound of the breeze against the grass woke you up. Clueless of time, you looked around to get a grip of reality again.
It was nighttime, and you slept in some public park trying to think of the 'b' plan.

You stood up, brushing all the dust away from your pants, and headed for the direction of your apartment. your mind was too busy recalling everything to notice that someone was following you...

Hina, you remembered her missed calls, you had to go to her the day after, but what lie would cover the truth of the grave mistake you committed?
You moved your thoughts to a different matter, Dazai. You recalled his actions in the ATM station.
It rained, and it thundered loudly, so you fastened your steps and hid under one baking shop.

Dazai nullified the boss' skill by touch only. You thought about how both your skills were somewhat similar. However, he was far superior since his touch also worked on skill-users when they were fully awake.

Only then, realization hits you.
He would be able to nullify your skill as well. You knew the bigger question is that would his skill still work if he was unconscious?
The sound of the thunder was toned out, as you finally were able to hold a new thread, a thread that was attached to Osamu Dazai.

You no longer wanted to wait under the shop's label. You wanted to head home and call Hina to tell her your new plan.

Your plan B.

You sprinted under the storm like a child jumping in the puddles of the rain. Something in you was awakened, something malicious, and you didn't resist it.

The street that led to your apartment complex became less crowded and emptied as it was the abandoned neighborhood. You were too overwhelmed with the thread you newly got a hold of to notice the men that were following you since the public park.