Painted Red (Dazai Osamu x Reader)

15 | Missing Identity

It was noon when you woke up, and you currently have a hangover. You grimaced at your uncomfortable position on the couch, you don't even remember getting on it. The last thing you remembered was drinking the rest of the night with Dazai and then you passed out. Speaking of Dazai, he's nowhere to be seen. No brown mops laid scattered everywhere, you checked behind the coffee table, behind the couch, took a peek at the kitchen, and listened for any sound from the bathroom. Nothing.

It was just you, again.

Golden rays crawled out from the cracks of your curtain and you suddenly felt the need to shift away from it. Although the warm glow of the sun is nice to basked into, your hangover says otherwise. Dazai must have let the curtains down before he left. The coffee table is also clean, not a single bowl of leftover ramen or the box of mochi is in sight.

Ah shit, I'm super late for work. You thought to yourself as you massaged your temples.

Shifting to sit up, you suddenly felt cold and something slipped off your body. You look down, only to blink in confusion when you saw Dazai's coat wrapped around you. You suddenly felt heat travel up to your cheeks and you quickly placed your feet on the floor, regretting it as the floor felt cold and your sudden movement caused another wave of headache. Dazai's coat remained on the couch beside you.

It smells like him.

You dared to glance at it again, and then a feeling of urge swell inside you. The urge to touch his coat again and memorize his scent.

And then you glance all over your apartment, sensing any signs of life or whatsoever, just making sure that you're indeed alone. When you're satisfied and hundred percent sure you were alone, your hand crawled all the way to the black coat. Then slowly, you lift it up closer to you and laid back down again. Dazai's coat wrapped around you again, it covered mostly entire of your body, only then you were reminded of how tall Dazai is. You lifted it again, this time to cover half of your face.

It was there. The scent of the lingering cigarette smoke, although unpleasant, you were reminded of him. There's also the scent of alcohol which Dazai consumed most of the day and last night. The fresh smell of white bandages. And then the most distinct one is the leftover scent of gunpowder. It was stronger than the others. It seems, violence has followed Dazai, enough for him to smell like it.

How you differentiate all those, you never know.

'RINGGGGGG'

"I'm not-!"

Quickly, you shot up and pushed Dazai's coat away from you once more. Your head whipped around to see the cause of the noise. The dreadful headache coming back again, you flinched, but so distracted looking around. Then, your eyes landed on your phone.

You flipped it open, saw the caller ID, then answered. "Katsuki, good morning!" You greeted rather unusually cheerful.

"Nothing's good in the morning, and it's already noon." He grumbled causing you to chuckle.

You sat up straight back on your couch as you remembered the job you gave him yesterday.

"Do you have it?"

"Yes, please come here immediately. With the discussed payment, and a dozen windex."

"Understood."

It seems you'll be much later for work.

--

As usual, Katsuki's basement or what he likes to call 'computer room', was dark and cold. You wonder if he spends the whole day here, doesn't he get sick?

"Twelve bottles of windex, and your money." You chimed as you placed it on the table beside his many computers. Katsuki stared with his eyes half-lidded, heavy bags under them obviously indicating he hadn't slept a wink.

He must have work all night on the job I gave him. The thought of that caused you to smile fondly at him.

He raised a brow at you as you smiled then shifted his gaze to your payment, he counted the bottles of windex and proceeded with the money. Seemingly satisfied, he nodded and turned back to his computer. "Say, do you have someone working with you in your case?"

Now it was your turn to raise a brow. "It's just me, and maybe I can count you since you're helping me right now."

"I see." He nodded again. "You told me to gather more information about Nobuhiko Arata."

"Yes."

When you found out that Mori had let Nobuhiko go after you rescued him, you immediately went to Katsuki to gather information about Nobuhiko. You had to pay Katsuki double because he had a hard time finding out Nobuhiko's information and you rushed him to do it, the only information Katsuki was able to get was his name, occupation and what organization he worked with in the past. You haven't got the specifics, like the information about his family, his life before he became an underground doctor, and if he was more than a doctor in the Mizushima's.

After he told you his story, you had your suspicion. That's why you asked Katsuki to dig further to see his real connection or job with the Mizushima's.

"I searched everywhere last night, even sneaked my way through the Port Mafia system." Turning, Katsuki stared at you. "I could no longer find Nobuhiko's information. It was gone."

"What?" Your heart fell. "What do you mean? A few days ago you were able to gather a bit of information about him, and now it's gone?"

Katsuki nodded. "Yes, even that information I gathered about him few days ago was gone. It mysteriously vanished. As if someone knew you're searching about him, and that they took care of it."

Now it's not just your heart that's hurting, you could feel a slight headache pounding it's way up to your head. You look so lost, your mouth open but no words are coming out of them. You forced yourself to speak, to ask Katsuki if he's really sure, to ask if he searched well enough. But no, nothing can be heard from you.

"You know what I think?" Katsuki stared at you. "I don't think Nobuhiko Arata exists at all."

The word 'exist' seems to be the only one you heard from Katsuki, you heard it and imprinted it in your head, but your current shock didn't allow you to even comprehend what it means.

"Don't exist...what do you mean by that?" You managed to let your voice out, now you're breath seems to get ragged as your words got caught up between it.

"Exactly what it means, (F/N)." He sighed.

"But..." You laughed nervously. "That's...then who was the person I met with yesterday?" The question is more of directed to yourself. "Do you even have proof that Nobuhiko Arata doesn't exist at all?" Now it was for Katsuki.

Katsuki's stare is getting uncomfortable, thankfully he averted his gaze as he turned to grab something from his desk. He held it up and you saw a folder. "While I was going through every system to find him, I suddenly received a mail. No sender, no location, I tried to trace it but found nothing. It's an anonymous mail."

"What does it say?" You asked as you walk forward to grab the folder. Katsuki handed it to you. Then you flipped the folder open and what met your eyes, broke your whole being.

"Instead of finding Nobuhiko Arata, I found out his real identity."

In the folder, a dozen of papers pile together, and in one of them had a picture. A picture of Nobuhiko Arata, but with a different name.

Mizushima Arata
CEO of Mizushima Inc.

"There is no Nobuhiko Arata, only Mizushima Arata."

--x