ᴡᴇᴀᴋᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴠᴇɴɢᴇᴀɴᴄᴇ | ᴅᴀᴢᴀɪ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ ✔️

XXVIII: The pawn and the puppet

Dazai tried his best to maintain his stone-cold face when the girl mumbled nonsense stuff about you. it couldn't be... you couldn't mean bad to Dazai. After all this time with you, Dazai couldn't point out one thing you did that might have caused harm to him, or was he blinded by all his admiration to you?

In fact, he was mad. To him, killing was easier than drinking water, but he couldn't stop thinking about how you would see him if you knew the many souls he had stolen in the past. He tried to keep a firm grip on the gun to conceal his shaking. Only then, Kunikida opened the door, his eyes saying it all.

"Dazai.. the agency, they know where she is.." he said.

。。。

You no longer could resist the Jackals, you warned Dazai and his co-workers, and that's all that mattered. You caught the urge to close your heavy eyelids as they carried you back to your so-called home.

"You dare to go against your promises when I showed you my utmost loyalty?" she said through a smile, it disgusted you. They left you standing there in front of her, leading for your fragile body to swoon a bit before you regained balance.

You looked at the ground, afraid to face the consequence of your actions. "breaking the contract that we had can only lead to one thing.." she said.

You knew she meant to your end.

"Such a waste of your skill... just when you were about to be free..." she said, walking closer. ".. you let love ruin it all?" she continued when she was right in front of you.

"You can kill me," you said, avoiding her question. "I realized that all those who I have loved are gone already," you continued. With everything going numb in you, your eyes met hers again, but this time, it is with your own will. "There's no use from running away," you said.

Your lips trembled as you said the next few words, "Make it quick, please,".

Your words were interrupted by a loud echo. A door squeaked. Hina's eyes narrowed, focusing behind you on the person who came. You wanted to look back as well, but her gaze came back to you. "We'll meet again," she whispered. Then she threw a smoke bomb catching you off guard.

She was nowhere in front of you anymore. You looked down at your hands to see a gun. It wasn't there before, you panicked, forgetting about the person who came in until he spoke.

"Memory manipulator. Is that what you are, Yn-san?"

It was Dazai, all going according to Hina's plan.

。。。

Dazai stood there, looking around, being wary of the area.

You stood there, not facing him. He was sure it was you, but he still had to be careful. "How's the situation, Dazai?" Kunikida spoke into Dazai's earpiece, he could hear the struggle on the other side with his co-workers.

"I found her, but there's something not right," he trailed off. "We'll be there once we finish these.. ughh ... die already!!" Yosano yelled.

Dazai took another step toward you. "Yn, I'm here to get you out of here," he began, hoping that you were listening. "I ... I should've looked harder. I knew you were struggling," he confessed. "I wanted to be of help to you,"

He walked toward you. He made sure no one was around at all times. He had to be wary, even from you. But as he got closer, he was able to see how beaten up you were. A tinge of sadness and fury all lit up in him.

Your trembling body, your messed up hair, all the bruises on your arms. His eyes trailed down to your feet. He clenched his jaw, looking at how horrid your ankle looked like. "Who did this to you?" He asked, the desire of revenge clear on the edge of his voice.

It was when you turned around.

He looked up at your tired face, your eyes were empty,

A flashback of the man in the ATM station came to Dazai's mind, but before trailing on his thoughts, he noticed the gun in your hand.

Hypnotized by Hina, you couldn't do anything but follow the order that she has given you. Only by achieving that order, you could be free from her hypnotization, or on her will she can stop it, if she ever wanted to break you free from being in this nightmare. 

You fired after Dazai, who successfully got into a hiding spot without getting shot.

Only then, you hear the familiar heels, coming closer to you. With your gun still pointed at Dazai's spot, she placed her hand on your shoulder.

Dazai peeked to look at Hina, but you shot as soon as he peeked, so he hid again. "I want to have a final talk with you Dazai. I won't let her shoot you. Now come out so we can finally have this awaited chat" she said through a smile.

She won't let her? Dazai thought, concluding that she is the boss of the Jackals. He stood up, wary of you. She was right. You didn't shoot.

Dazai kept looking at you, knowing she was the hypnotizer.

Your face showed no emotions, but your eyes watered, showing but a spark of sadness. "The long awaited day," Hina declared, the smile never leaving her face. Dazai wanted to pull out his gun, but Hina pointed out, warning him "don't even think about it, there are at least a dozen of my men hiding; ready to shoot at you at the sound of my order,"

The hesitancy in Dazai's face as his eyes searched one more time made Hina giggle. "This is finally it," she mumbled.

Dazai looked back at you, your shaking hands holding the gun making Dazai grit his teeth.

"You know? All thanks to Yn that I finally knew your strongest weakness, the weakness that can finally lead to your fated death" she said.

Dazai was confused, there was no way you knew about it, let alone tell the Hypnotizer about it. Hina was having so much fun seeing Dazai weak and confused for once.

You, under Hina's hypnotization, felt desperate to tell Dazai it is not like that anymore. You wanted to tell him that she was lying about you finding his weakness. You never told her, you never knew.

You wanted to think of a way to break it, to break the hypnotization. However, the way Dazai looked at you, the look of confusion and betrayal all at once, made you break down mentally and cry silent tears as you aimed at him with the gun.

"How did she know, you might ask? I'll be glad to explain," she said, putting her hand away from your shoulder.

Dazai's gaze followed Hina's silhouette as she walked around. "Do you.. perhaps remember the date you two had?" She asked through a wide smile, loving every bit of Dazai's troubled expression. "How do you know about that?" Dazai asked, shooting a look back at you.