No Longer Human

One

       Hello! So, I promised someone a while back- sorry I wasn't able to find the comment again- that I was working on a Bungou Stray Dogs story for around October. And well that kind of fell through since I apparently cannot for the life of me write riddles. But! I have made a different one, in the nick of time, so Yay!

      Anyway, updates will be a bit slow since I'm going to be maybe one chapter ahead of you, and I'll get back to all of you for the other bsd story once I somehow figure out words.

      -T.A.L.A.

       Real quick reminder for those who didn't read the disclaimer- Dazai is the main character of this story. D a z a i. There will be failed suicide attempts and mentions of suicide methods.  And now to the story!!

        Osamu Dazai whistled cheerily, his arms swinging by his side, one clutching a book in his hands, the other lifting when needed to cheerily wave at the few people who lived in the small town he currently inhabited. He wouldn't be there for long, he headed deeper into the forest the town lay on the edge of. He shouldn't have much longer to go. His prediction was spot on as usual and he quickly found the goal of his search. A tall bush resting in clumps around the area, branches laden with dark, round berries.  Ripe and fresh for the taking, just waiting for a person to come along and pluck them!

      Not his usual method to go, but the best one at the moment, and he was always up for trying something new when it came to his two obsessions. He glared at the traitorously flimsy tree branches. None of the nearby rivers were deep enough to drown- they were barely deep enough to get your feet wet in- and to add to the overall disappointment this town was becoming, there wasn't even a local pharmacy, the residents instead relying on harmless herbs.  Absently he supposed that last fact would work to help him instead.

      For now he would have to rely on belladonna, the forest isolated enough and the village primitive he had no worry of surviving. He found a degree of beautiful irony in it, if belladonna was what managed to finally do him in that is. It would seem he might just get to die with a 'pretty woman' after all.

He had always found himself drawn towards death, and yet it wasn't long after he reached seventeen years that his previously all consuming fascination with death- his own specifically- and the constant urge to enact it had been joined with another craving. It was what brought him to this middle-of-nowhere village; wanderlust. He found himself itching for a change in scenery whenever he stayed anywhere for too long, never quiet comfortable in one place.

To deal with this new absolute craving he quickly began planning for his escape the moment he graduated. Never had his insight with others been more helpful, and after several well placed investments he found himself with enough to travel for quite some time in relative comfort. To supplement this as he continued playing the markets like a chess champion dominated the board, he started up a travel advisory site and blog profiting from advertisements from the latter and the subscriptions from the former. Quickly after these endeavors were started, he found another task to distract himself with and give him an excuse to continue traveling: consulting. After several major successes he quickly gained a strong base on that front too. Here however, he had quickly begun to lose interest, pulling away as he searched for a new method to waste his time as he waited for one of his many attempts to be a success.

      Perhaps, maybe, just maybe, it would be the lovely Belladonna to be that success.

He stared at the delicate looking branch he had plucked from the ground before laying his book down beside him; 'The Complete Guide to Suicide. Revised! Edition 3', the title colorfully exclaimed contrasting so sharply with the words it spelt. Twirling the stem he had plucked in his hand for several moments before letting out a sigh, and tossing it to the side selecting a large handful of the deadly berries from the surrounding bushes. He settled down against one of the thin trees that grew out amongst the bushes he found himself amongst. He paused only briefly to admire the dark sheen of the berries before he proceeded to eat most of his handful.

        Making sure he was comfortable one last time, he slowly began working his way through the rest. The handful he'd already consumed should be enough, but he had thought that before and yet; here he was. Perhaps it was true that nobody could predict their own death seeing as despite his attempts in aiding it along, it still proved to be the one thing he failed to ensure happened as he liked.

The headache came quickly, his stomachs cramping horribly and mouth going dry. He grit his teeth, it was too late to back out, but he almost regretted he hadn't been quite on track with the amount of pain this try would cause. His vision had just begun to swim as he popped the last berry into his mouth, through his foggy vision he heard an alarmed shout.

"Wai-! Th...n't ... suming... s.... kay?! Y-!" It seemed he'd miscalculated and he hadn't succeeded quite as flawlessly as he had hoped.... unless it was a hallucination? ...His fixation had caused trouble for someone else. That... was a... sha...me....

Osamu Dazai collapsed as the belladonna he had consumed fully kicked in.

Atsushi Nakajima, moved through the forest with the silence and ease of one who had grown up and lived in one for most of their life and none of the confidence that normally came with it. Purple and yellow eyes glanced sullenly around, his head moving slightly with them until they landed on something out of place.

      He froze.

     It was a person, none of the villagers normally ventured this deep into the area, there was simply no point and plenty of risks even if the forest and its undergrowth didn't get really thick for a few miles yet in this particular area. They person sat against a tree mumbling what sounded like a song quietly in another language, every now and then they'd stop and stare at seemingly random areas or burst into quiet laughter, they were clearly not from the nearby villages as he had first thought. Looking at their clothes it was clear they were not from the area- it was to different a style and material.

      Curious Atsushi crept closer careful to stay out of sight watching as the other carried on, not yet noticing him, they were pulling a few small berries from an open hand before smoothly throwing them, catching them in his mouth. It wasn't until the third time that Atsushi got a clear enough view of his hand to realize just what exactly the other was eating.

"Wait!" He straightened immediately from his crouch, darting forward- although he still did not make much noise as he moved- raising a hand and waving it to get the other's attention. He realized they had slumped some from when he had originally seen them and was not as energetic as before too. Mentally he kicked himself for not realizing it sooner. How had the stranger not noticed it? He should have felt it when he began to get headaches, or stopped when his mouth went dry. Why had he not done anything when his stomach started to cramp or gone for help when the hallucinations or delirium kicked in? Actually... missing the last one was understandable, but the others?

He began calling out louder, rushing the last few feet and falling to his knees- after quite a bit of stumbles and near falls- by their side before the stranger collapsed completely to the forest floor. He hurriedly shook their shoulder, still receiving no response, as their head only lulled to the side. Atsushi's hands hovered unsurely as he tried to think what to do.

The person's eyes fluttered, diluted pupils blearily gazing in his general direction as the mouth opened as if to say something before both closed again and they went slack. Atsushi let out a panicked noise, scooping them up with ease despite their much greater height and rushing off.

He'd take them to father- he always knew what to do.