Falling

Bonus 3 - Grudge; Final

"Who are you?"

A voice so deep and flat echoed the empty corridor of the clinic, reverberating through the very silence. A man stood at its entrance, eyes grave, stance rigid. Another one stood in the middle, halfway to his own office.

He turned to behold Dazai Osamu, smiling openly with raised eyebrows.

"Boss? You are later than I expected you to be."

Dazai's jaw tightened.

"A few months late to be precise," doctor Fudo said, a look of feigned pensiveness on his face. The face so akin to one Dazai knew so well. He shivered.

"You know what I meant, Hashimoto-san," Dazai said gloomily, slowly stepping forward. "I know who you are, but I'll give you a chance to confess it yourself."

Fudo looked at him piercingly before giving out a short, bitter laugh. "To confess? As if I'd committed some heinous crime."

"An identity fraud if you want to call it," Dazai said, now almost looming over Fudo, staring down at him with a look that would make anyone fall to their knees and beg for mercy. "You are not who you present yourself to be."

Fudo raised an eyebrow, undisturbed in the slightest sense.

"And who do you think I am?" Fudo said. "Since I appear to not know or at least am not aware of my identity, would you be so kind as to enlighten me?"

Already gloomy and murderous visage dangerously darkening, Dazai took another step forward, Fudo's smirk widening all the while.

Oh how Dazai wished he could slap him across that mouth and watch his lips bleed.

"You... are Mori Fudo. That's your real name," Dazai said with a sharp smile on his own. "It's useless denying it any further, I know it's the truth."

Eyebrows rising impossibly high, Fudo watched Dazai in shock before bursting into laughter.

"What is so funny?" Dazai growled.

"That... that is false," Fudo managed to say, eyeing Dazai with not even an ounce of respect. Straightening himself, he looked his Boss in the eyes. "I expected much more from you, honest to be."

Jaw clenching and anger hotly bubbling through his insides, Dazai reached forward, grabbing Fudo's collar. Fudo yelped in surprise before Dazai dragged him not too far in the corridor. Abruptly stopping, he shoved him towards a large mirror, grabbing his chin from where he stood behind Fudo, nails digging into his skin.

"You... churl," Fudo growled, clenching Dazai's hand around his chin with one hand and Dazai's arm that held him in place around his chest with the other. "Unhand me!"

"Look at yourself," Dazai said lowly, tightening his hand around Fudo's chin to which Fudo winced. "I know the truth and I want to gauge my eyes out for not noticing any sooner."

Dazai's eyes flew over Fudo's face, taking everything in, every detail, every line, every fibre of anger and unrestrained spite and disdain that had finally broken the surface after being held at bay for so long. After being pushed down, his mind and actions devoting to being passive, in control of his sentiments, telling wise advice to others. All in order to get over them. But he could never do it.

He was not Mori-san.

"Your face... your eyes... your hair. It's almost all his."

As Dazai said it, his voice wavered, anger flowing with pain, sadness and shame. This man had fooled him for so long, this man had befriended Chuuya and conspired with him behind his back, this man was Mori Ougai's son who loved Chuuya and cared about him more than he cared for Dazai just like his father did. The thought alone made his hand slide from Fudo's chin to his throat.