forget who i am today. + soukoku, fyoya

heal the evil within

Dazai can hardly believe what is in front of him. He doesn't know what he was expecting but if he was expecting anything, it certainly wasn't this. 

Chuuya — no, Arahabaki — was tall but it wasn't the height that shocked him so much as it was the fact that the extra height was due to bones that had hit a growth spurt. Which resulted in ripping through flesh, tendons dangling and globs of blood dripping on the floor. 

Arahabaki grew fingernails that were as sharp as claws and coated in blood from slicing the wailing man's face. Its cheeks were ripped as if to accommodate the hysteric grin that the beast wore, showing off all the rows of teeth. 

There was so much blood in this room that Dazai's stomach was coiling with nausea. Dried out blood and fresh blood - so much that Dazai can't even see what color the floors and walls are supposed to be. With how strong the smell is, he feels like he's swimming in iron and he can practically taste it in the back of his throat. 

Eyes that don't belong to Chuuya look at him and the brunet suppresses a gag. Chuuya's body looks mutilated and as if something kept tearing his flesh apart and putting it back together in hopes to make a new bodysuit. Tears are burning in the back of Dazai's eyes as he fully processes what and who it is that he's looking at. 

Will his ability even be enough? 

To return Chuuya to what he once was?

Dazai doesn't know.

And he's so fucking terrified.

But he has to try. For Chuuya. He needs to try—

"Dazai Osamu," the beast speaks, its jaw unhinging itself, "we've been waiting a long time."

His heart constricts with guilt and his eyes are glossing over, his hands were curled into fists so tight that his knuckles were turning white. He knows, he knows how long Chuuya has been waiting and he knows that Chuuya probably felt like he was in this hellhole for years. 

"He once hoped you would come but time had passed," Arahabaki turns its body fully as to face the two frozen men, "and with the monster, that hope had vanished."

"We're here now," Fyodor speaks up next to him, voice steady but Dazai can tell that there's something else underneath that eerie but practiced calm.

Arahabaki's shoulders shake as it laughs before it changed into a high pitched whine that had Dazai wincing, "so you are, but can you fix the mind that is my host?"

Dazai swallowed the urge to cry down, "we just want to take Chuuya home, Arahabaki." 

The beast seems to mull over this before turning to look at the whimpering man at its feet. Whatever it was that Arahabaki was looking for seemed to have been found because unknown eyes looked at them again. "Yes, you will take us home," Arahabaki agrees, "after the monster has perished."

Before either Fyodor or Dazai could respond, there's a sickening crunch echoing in the room. Dazai watches as Arahabaki's leg, made of bone, flattens Joseph's head with the help of gravity. Joseph's eyes had bulged and popped out of his head just like a cartoon and he thinks that there are brains splattered everywhere but Dazai doesn't check to see nor does he want to. He already has his answer by the splatter of blood by his feet. 

"Despite what you think, I am not all that monstrous," Arahabaki says, somewhat proud, "I will return my host to you once we return a favor." 

"A favor?" Fyodor questions, intrigued by whatever favor that a God of destruction possibly had. Meanwhile, Dazai was a little more skeptical to what this favor could be considering the blood and guts that have been shed in this room.