To conduct the singing misfortune [Dazai and Reader]

An Angel

The café was much more mundane and draining than usual. However, it could just be the exhaustion from the past few weeks finally catching up to me.

Atsushi wonders in, the jingle on the door and his boots sheepishly tapping as he approaches the table we sat at. I was leaning on Osamu as his head was tipped back over the top of the seating. Tanizaki was beside me and my brother and the only one who's managed to keep his head up, albeit propped on his palm. Yosano lay against the seating, Ranpo's head on the table beside her and laying on his cap as if it were a cushion. Kenji was in a similar state, lying beside him on the table. It was a sorry sight.

"We have a new job, everyone! Is anyone interested?"

"Pass..." It was a unanimous vote for no, and we could barely push out the words. "I guess this is our reaction." Tanizaki began.

"Yeah, our reaction."

"Definitely our reaction." Ranpo and Yosano agreed, and I hummed along.

Atsushi muttered his confusion, one hand holding the job and the other scratching his temple. Osamu summed it up for him, "We're burned out. The Guild battles were the biggest since we were founded." Atsushi looks around the quiet café, then at Osamu, "Oh? Speaking of which, where's Kunikida?"

I point upstairs, "Overworking himself upstairs as usual. I admire the amount of energy he's got." Osamu agrees, "He's more gung-ho than ever." He lifts his cup to the café waitress, "I'll have a refill, ma'am." I nod, sliding my glass to the table edge, "Please."

"Sure thing!" The cheery woman takes our cups, and the rest of the table orders things of their own to keep us from passing out. Ranpo orders curry specifically made sweeter, and Yosano orders something for her hangover. Oh yeah, the party. I never went – We came home from the museum and went straight to sleep. Not even Osamu's insomnia kept us up.

Atsushi apologises for the situation, to which the lady says, "The only trouble is Dazai's tab. At least buy life insurance before you die, please." My brother sweats out a smile, "Your will to live... You're an amazing lady." The older woman laughs, "Oh, you! You say that to all the ladies!" She smacks her hand across the back of my brother's head, and his hand holding his cup slips. I giggle, patting my brother's fluffy hair, now covered in tea.

"Also, we had a report from the military police. Foreign organisations are coming, hoping to take what the Guild left behind when it collapsed."

"I doubt they're anything interesting." Ranpo sips on orange juice dismissively. Atsushi continues, "Still, I saw a Guild straggler in this area yesterday, too. She got away, but she was holding a metal box. I hope she isn't teaming up with the criminal organisations to take revenge on us by bombing this building or anything." Atsushi always overthinks the most extreme outcomes despite their impossibility. I think it's something everyone can relate to, but he has the guts to admit them out loud as if they don't sound ridiculous.

"Is this café in danger, too, then?"

That's not too extreme, however. Especially not after the recognition Atsushi got in the papers. For whatever reason, we could become a target. "Danger is like the bitterness of coffee. For those ready for it, it is savoury." The café owner poured a teapot over a coffee filter in circles. "That's the café owner for you. You can believe he's been making coffee for these many years." Tanizaki leans over the table, watching him, and Ranpo excitedly adds, "The smell of coffee doesn't come off his hands, even with soap."

"That's all I've got going for me."

Osamu chimes up, "I'm so glad we managed to keep the Moby Dick from crashing into Yokohama. Not to mention," He pulls out a newspaper article; Atsushi was in the main headlines, and Akutagawa swiftly avoided the camera as Port Mafia members were trained to do, "Thanks to that, you're famous."