Shadow Reaper - Soukoku - What if Dazai stayed in the Port Mafia?...

Training?

The group walk to the training area in silence, heading for one of the basements, the soldiers still present on the underground levels as well. They all clutched an automatic weapon but each also had at least one more weapon hidden in the folds of their clothes. The lower levels had more guards stationed than on the building's middle floors due to the... unsavoury occurrences that needed to be well hidden from prying eyes.

                                                                                                                        

Dazai stays in step with Atsushi, speaking to him to distract from the hints of criminal behaviour. If needed he could always pass it off as government work instead which, strictly speaking, wasn't an outright lie. They had their roots in many political circles in Japan and internationally. The best lies always held a glimmer of the truth. "He's not that bad...Just don't piss him off and you'll be fine. Besides, if I'm still alive you'll be fine." His tone is light hearted and joking, trying to put Atsushi at ease, it was better he was less vigilant of his surroundings on these floors.

"Yes but I'll inevitably get things wrong and, to be frank, I wouldn't be surprised if my mere existence is an irritation to him!" He quietly whisper yells so his fears can't be overheard. His gaze anxiously darts from Dazai to Chuuya's back to Dazai again as he wrung his hands restlessly.

"Well if you're gonna be like that then I guess you'll have to learn to dodge pretty fast. You'll get used to his patterns after a while. He's quite predictable." Dazai smirks to himself, satisfied and confident in his own ability to read Chuuya's movements and behaviour patterns.

Chuuya stomps heavily down the steps the sound echoing off the walls. "I can hear you ya know asshole?" 

They come to the bottom of the steps and Dazai opens the door for them to enter the rather bleak training area. 

It was predominantly concrete with a few boxes, punching bags, mats whose padding had long since been flattened and dummies who had seen better days. As Chuuya walks past making his comment, Dazai cheerfully announces 'Ladies first~'. To his mild surprise the comment didn't warrant an immediate response. Instead, Chuuya waits for Atsushi to enter after him, waiting for Dazai to close the door. The brunette turns around to face the training hall only to feel a sharp smack on the back of his head. As expected he whines a protest, feeling his comment wasn't deserving of a 'physical attack' but his quibbling was in vain.

Chuuya turns to Atsushi, sharp gaze assessing. "Hands up, Tiger-Boy." 

Hesitantly raising his fists Atsushi adjusted his stance as though he was about to defend himself.

Chuuya raises an eyebrow, gaze critical. "That's how you defend yourself? That's absolute shit. Legs should be shoulder width apart and on a diagonal. Weight needs to be evenly distributed and tuck your elbows in. You're not a chicken."

Atsushi adjusts his stance and arms according to the brusque instructions.

"Mmm.... Better... hand should be by your head, not your throat." He eyed the new recruit's weak frame.

"Right, try hit me."

"What?!"

Chuuya rolls his eyes at Atsushi's response. "You're not gonna do it anyway, so just try."

The training went on for some time. It was proving difficult to train Atsushi because his permanent hesitation caused him to always hold back. So he was asked to focus mainly technique. To the boy, fighting feels incredibly unnatural. He didn't like the idea of having to attack another person. He'd much rather focus on learning to dodge and defend but his grumpy instructor was trying to get an idea of his baseline skills which were currently nonexistent. Dazai sat on the bottom step watching with interest as the two worked through the basics. He was occasionally used as a demonstration if Atsushi didn't understand something but it frequently dissolved in bouts of bickering.