Withering moon lit rose

Chapter 41

The clicking of heels and whistling continued until it was about halfway across the warehouse.

"Come out Atsushi, I'm here to come get you." It was Nakajima. She sounded so calm, but Atsushi knew that laced within that voice was annoyance. He'd requested her to come fetch him specifically earlier as he'd had Kyoka. But then his memory returned, he didn't know why he called her. Maybe because before he was scared of what was happening. But now all he felt was fear from the woman.

"I'm not spending all night here Atsushi. Hurry up." She was getting impatient and Atsushi was not in a state to confront the woman. Against his better judgement Akutagawa stepped outside to meet her.

"Who are you?" She barked, Nakajima was not in the mood to deal with additional problems.

"He's already gone. He's back at the agency." He had to buy Atsushi more time to calm down or till members of the agency arrived. He knew nothing of this woman so going head to head in a fight wasn't his best option.

"You didn't answer my question. Who are you?" Akutagawa thought she sounded too entitled to be demanding answers.

"Akutagawa. I work at the Detective Agency." She nodded in understanding before continuing.

"Ah, the small fry business in Yokohama." Akutagawa did not appreciate the woman's comment but only curled his fist in annoyance.

"Well it doesn't matter. If you're saying he's gone to that place I'll just tear it down till he appears." She said it with such a calm tone as if she was discussing what she's had for lunch.

She was about to turn and leave but Akutagawa trapped her with Rashomon.

"You're not going anywhere."

"Oh and why's that? When I can do this." It didn't make sense at first Akutagawa watched the woman stand strangely still apart from her wrists moving.

He started to think she was bluffing after a minute however he had to release Rashomon from binding her as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. His lungs felt weaker for some reason, they hadn't felt like that since before Yosano's treatment. However it was only temporary.

"Mother stop it!" Atsushi cried as he raced to Akutagawa's side in order to help balance him. Akutagawa didn't really need it but appreciated it.

"Ah, so this man here lied. I'm willing to ignore that fact if you come with me now." She really was an impatient woman.

"And if I don't?" This was thin ice Atsushi was treading on but he wanted to test how far she would go.

"Then this." Nakajima pulled a gun from a holster hidden beneath her coat. It was a simple pistol, it wouldn't pose much of a threat to either of them. But Akutagawa remembered the bullets. Memory manipulation, render an individual unconscious for a period of time. And ability cancellation.

Before Akutagawa had a chance to warn Atsushi, she fired a bullet. The elder shoved Atsushi aside and took the bullet in his right shoulder.

How ironic that's where Shirase had shot him last time.

"Akutagawa!" Atsushi cried while checking the wound. It wasn't even in a lethal spot. Atsushi questioned why she had even bothered to shoot him. But Nakajima burst into laughter.

"You know about the bullets don't you?" She managed to say before laughing even more. Eventually she stopped but a cruel smile was plastered on her face. Ryuunosuke gave a curt nod.

"What about the bullets? What's going on?" Atsushi exclaimed he really was at a loss.

"I'll spell it out for you darling." Both men felt disgusted by that nickname. "Your friend here took a bullet which contains manipulated blood. My blood to be precise. For the past five years I've been experimenting with my blood as my ability is imbued within the blood. The first effect I managed to develop was the ability to render an individual unconscious. It didn't matter how strong they were, one bullet would render them unconscious for a set period of time. However a side effect would be the individual would repeat memories, incredibly strong ones for an unknown reason." It reminded the pair of Atsushi's state from three years ago. Constant nightmares, and was only released once Dazai's ability came into play.

"There was a test run three years ago," She shrugged her shoulders at the statement. "It was used on a single individual. It gave amazing results, didn't it?" Akutagawa felt sick. This woman would use her own son to test her sick weapons.

"You're cruel!"

"Why thank you. I do try my best." She bowed with her statement she was loving this.

"Anyways I also developed a memory manipulation bullet but that one was more tricky. I have to know what I'm trying to manipulate in order to change it. It took over 100 bullets for you. You have such a strong mind you know. You just didn't want to let certain ones go." Akutagawa felt his stomach sink. 100 bullets... Dazai had only predicted a rough seventy. Atsushi didn't seem as appalled at the mention of this as Akutagawa was. He already knew.

"So it wasn't training." Was all he muttered.

"You really are so gullible sometimes." She complained while still waving her gun around.

"Why are you telling us all this? We work to stop people like you mother! We could run right now and stop your entire operation." Nakajima began to burst into laughter once more, this made Atsushi nervous. What didn't he know?

"We can't run." Akutagawa answered instead of the crazed woman.

"At least I can't." Atsushi raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"That bullet I just took. It's an ability cancellation bullet. You could run but it would mean leaving me behind. And all three of us know you won't." Fear began to set into Atsushi. They were trapped like mice in a cage. And she was the cat ready to play.