ᴡᴇᴀᴋᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴠᴇɴɢᴇᴀɴᴄᴇ | ᴅᴀᴢᴀɪ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ ✔️

XXIV: Error

"I am pretty sure he was right here helping the injured," Dazai yelled over the noise to a cop. "O-okay then.. What did he look like? Old? Young? Fat maybe?" The cop explained. "Blond hair. He had blonde hair, " Kunikida chimed in. The cop furrowed his eyebrows and looked around.

"Do you know him?" Dazai asked, seeing the confusion in the cop's eyes. The cop looked back at them, and finally said, "we don't have a cop with blonde hair," Dazai took a step back unintentionally, and Kunikida noticed. "The mafia wouldn't do that, would they?" Kunikida wondered out loud.

"Maybe it's not the mafia, Kunikida," Dazai said as he walked toward what he thought was the golden piece of all this intrusion. Kunikida followed as it was becoming clear for him as well.

It was you, this whole intrusion, explosion, the injured people; it was all a distraction.

Dazai opened the integration door with force, only to see you just like he left you; sitting there, alone with your hands locked on the table. There was that same tired look of fear in your eyes, yet,

You looked unknown to him.

"Where is the cop?" Kunikida asked the girl who pretended to be you, walking in. "Someone.. aah, another cop ordered him to go.. outside," you said, your voice shaking. Kunikida took one look at Dazai, and decided he was going to look for the cop on his own. He left, leaving Dazai with the girl impersonating you.

。。。

Just as he turned on his motorcycle, it looked like someone was talking to him through that ear piece. "What?.. yes. Okay. The east door, got it," he said, making it difficult for you to make up anything.

"There is one last job before we leave," he reported. "And that is?" You asked. "You need to manipulate the lieutenant into thinking he actually gave orders,"

The east door was in front of both of you, there was no one there, like it was not in use for a long time. Dust on the handle gave it away. "Over here," a woman whispered. On your right, behind a giant tree, there was a member of the jackals along with the unconscious lieutenant.

"What story should I make up?" You said, holding his hands. "He did order the cop to go help the others, and he just went to the bathroom... or something for a moment, which is now," the woman said.

It only took a millisecond to manipulate his memory of what happened. It was not a problem.

Until another cop yelled after you all. "Hey .. HEY! What are you all doing here!?" You all froze, aware he still hasn't seen the body of the lieutenant. Both of them stood up facing him, "do something," the boy mumbled through gritted teeth to you.

We were talking to you, we are just some street kids going around having fun, you'll tell the cop that I was helping you to get up.

You turned around, "play along," you mumbled back. "Hello there!" You waved. His eyebrows relaxed slightly, but he was still showing confusion. You helped the lieutenant up when he woke up, and he said the exact words you enchanted in his mind.

"I was just having a light-spirited conversation with these kids, I am going inside now," he explained.

"The three of you got on the motorcycle and said your goodbyes as both of the cops were looking at you as you went further away.

Was it over? Yes.
Were you finally safe? Definitely not.

。。。

He stood there, in the still room. To him, it was like the world stopped moving. You didn't even glance at him. He felt as if he knew you, but didn't recognize you at all. "Yn," he called you. You flinched; he guessed you were too deep in your thoughts to be jumped by something so little.

He walked up to you and sat on the chair that Kunikida sat on before. He looked down at your hands, Reddish, irritated skin showed at your wrists and the end of your forearms just above the elbows.

What did the Port Mafia do to you? He wondered as he studied you.

"Dazai, it wasn't me. You believe me, right?" You said, your voice breaking. "What did the man want with you?" He asked, noticing the signs.

Dazai? You called him by his first name ever since he allowed you when you first met him.

"He was one of those sick, drunken men that lived in the same apartment complex. I lived there because I could afford it. I was always careful not to meet those. I didn't know that one day one would attack me with a gun," the girl impersonating you answered.

"Blood tests show that he was not, in fact, drunk," Dazai backed up his evidence. For a second there, he saw what could be the look of breaking an act. "But I thought..." you trialed off, which gave Dazai the chance to ask another question.

"I wonder, yn. You knew I was from the port mafia.." he paused to see any changes in your expression. Your eyebrow slightly furrowed. Any normal person wouldn't notice it, but it only gave detectives like Dazai answers. "Why would you lie about the identity of the man who 'killed himself'?" He asked, making sure he placed enough stress on the lie you kept telling everyone.

"I didn't know.. that he was.. from.. from the port mafia I mean,"

stutter.

You weren't stuttering before that, clearly showing that your lies did not align, but Dazai knew you better than anyone in the police department, including Kunikida.

Something simple like this wouldn't break your act. Therefore,

Whoever sat in front of him wasn't you.

He slowly reached out his hand to touch yours. He studied your face as he was reaching out. However, the door of the integration room opened. A number of cops including the cop guarding you along with a lieutenant came in. So, he retreated from reaching out to your hand.

"Hello there, Mr. Lieutenant," Dazai welcomed him, standing up from the chair. "What exactly happened?" Kunikida asked, cutting to the chase.

"I came here, asking the cop to go out there and help out his colleagues while I sat here with the suspect," he answered. "And then what?"

"Then I went to the restroom, fully knowing she couldn't escape," the lieutenant continued. "I thought you were out talking to those kids?" Another cop interrupted. "Yeah, that's when I- wait. I'm sure I went to the restroom, but I remember speaking to those young lads too," he started mumbling the last few words, like he was asking himself more than he was asking the others.

Dazai took a mental note on that.

"Check the surveillance cameras," Kunikida ordered. "They were somehow reset when the electricity shut down," another cop reasoned. "Did you check if they caught anything before and after the shut down of the electricity?" Kunikida asked again, desperate for any confirmation.

"Nothing, sir. All what the cameras showed was that a cop guarded her before the shut down, and she was all alone after the electricity came back"
"What about the recorders?" Kunikida asked, losing his cool.
"Nothing but white noise sir,"

Kunikida walked back and forth in the room, trying to think of any small detail he wasn't aware of, anything that could lead him to an evidence.

The girl impersonating you tried her best to keep her gaze locked down at the table, realizing the mistake you made when you manipulated the lieutenant's memory;

Two events happening at once, clearly showing confusion within the person themselves and the people around them. It was something you always were careful about.