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A/N - I highly recommend that you press play on the song above and let it run throughout this chapter! ;)
Dazai stood by the window and watched the world outside; sighing softly. One leg was crossed over the other—a strange habit that he tended to have whenever he was standing, with one hand resting in the front pocket of his sand-coloured trench coat, and the other hand holding a lollipop. He sucked mindlessly on the lollipop—the once blue raspberry taste was now slowly beginning to evaporate; leaving streaks of bright blue all over his tongue, matching the azure sky above.
The sky was so beautiful—that sometimes, he could even just stand there for hours on end watching the sky slowly change colours. It was one of his favourite ways to pass time, actually. When he was not being a complete and utter nuisance on a daily basis and annoying the other members of the Armed Detective Agency for his own personal entertainment, especially Kunikida; he was usually watching the endless sky above. From time to time, a flock of birds would cross the sky. He would lean his tall body against the table to watch, as if he were watching a coming of age movie. On occasion, the lead bird would fall back and let another take on the strain of being the one at the front. They were very interesting to watch, and he could never put his finger on why. Their wings beat the air as if it took no effort at all, each movement precisely on time as it should be. Inside their fragile bodies their hearts were beating, lungs expanding, muscles moving. Sometimes, he'd watch them until they were merely specks on the horizon, until that moment just before they blended into the faraway sky.
Their white bodies soared across the skies. Dazai watched; transfixed; something that he usually did; the lollipop in his mouth now losing all taste completely. He took it out of his mouth, the once round ball was now as small as an atom. He looked back up at the sky. The silver linings of the clouds were being sliced by vast, beautiful wings. Their figures stood prominent in the bright blue above, with only small pockets of clouds to hide them. They were birds in the sky.
And freer than he'd ever be.
Dazai may have been a current member of the Armed Detective Agency—but he was, in fact, a former executive of the city's worst underworld organisation, the Port Mafia. Dazai was a mysterious person, his true intentions were never revealed unless he revealed them. The only person who had ever gotten closest to the truth of his personality, as acknowledged by Dazai himself, was his friend Sakunosuke Oda, who had said to him, "it can't be found. You should know yourself. No matter whether you're on the side of killing people or saving people, there will never be anything that can surpass your mind. No place in this world that can fill your loneliness. You will linger in the darkness forever."
And these words—these words had stuck with him ever since.
