Dazai's Childish Predicament

Chapter 2

10:37:42 am, 24th September, 6 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days after the accident.

Dazai slowly became aware that he was awake and opened his eyes sleepily. By this time, both the cast on his leg and the one on his arm had been removed and he rubbed his eyes, his vision a little blurry. He took a deep breath and turned his head to the side, looking at the sleeping figure, half of him sitting in a chair, the other half sprawled across the bed. Dazai subconsciously realised he should know this person, but his conscious brain had no idea. His conscious brain decided to wake the man up.

Dazai poked the sleeping man, hoping for a reaction. There was no reaction. He tried again, this time poking a little harder. The man stirred slightly. Dazai poked him three times, hard. Finally, the man woke up.

"Hm, what's going on? Who dared to wake me up-..." Chuuya's protest died in his throat when he saw Dazai staring at him. "Dazai...?"

Dazai blinked. The voice sounded familiar.

"Dazai...you-...I'm not dreaming, am I?" Chuuya bit his thumb. "I'm not...you're really awake..." Chuuya was almost speechless. After all this time, despite always saying to everyone that he'd wake up, Chuuya had begun to think Dazai never would.

Dazai blinked again. "Why..." His voice was quite rough from months of non-use. "Why...did you bite your thumb...?"

Chuuya was puzzled by the sudden question. He would have thought Dazai, being as smart as he was, would have asked the date or where he was or what happened, some kind of relevant question. So when Dazai suddenly asked why he'd bit his thumb, Chuuya didn't really know what to say.

"Well...um...I bit it...to check if I was awake..."

"Why...?"

Chuuya was getting more confused by the second. "W-Well because you only feel pain when you're awake..."

"Why...?"

"Because..." Chuuya had to pause to think about this for a second, "...because...that's...how our bodies work..."

"Why...?"

Chuuya didn't have an answer to that. "Look, I'm not a doctor, I don't know. Go ask one if you're really that curious."

"A doctor?"

"Yes, a doctor."

Dazai thought about this for a moment, processing this new information.

"Where can I find a doctor?"

"Huh? Dazai you're in a hospital. There are doctors everywhere."

"A hospital?"

"Yes a-, hold on, are you saying you don't know what a hospital is?"

Dazai shook his head, paused, then nodded.

"Right...um...Dazai-"

"Who's Dazai...? Is Dazai, me?"

Chuuya was speechless for a moment. "Y-Yes...you're Dazai..."

"I'm Dazai..." He pointed to himself as if confirming the fact. "So...who are you...?"

"Chuuya...my name is Chuuya..." Chuuya had absolutely no clue what was going on.

"Me, Dazai...you, Chuuya..." Dazai smiled, absurdly happy with the fact he knew who he was and who the man sitting in the chair was.

Chuuya decided to call in the doctors and stood up, preparing to go to the door.

"Where you going?" Dazai's face immediately fell.

"Oh...um...I'm just going to call the doctors, ok?"