the beauty of water | o. dazai ✔

chapter eight.

The next morning, after the horrid incident, (Y/n) was walking down the street to the Agency for the day. She had her hands stuffed in her pockets, her boots making a slight squishing sound as the collided against the ground.

She heard footsteps quickly approaching behind her, followed by the clack of rocks. She turned around, Dazai slowing down his slight run. She noticed a rather large rock, one still small enough to throw, on the ground behind him.

"Did someone try to throw a rock at you just now?" she inquired, looking up from the rock to him as he stood in front of her. "Or am I just imagining things?"

"Actually, that was the second time I've had someone try to throw a rock at me," he told her nonchalantly, as if having rocks thrown at oneself wasn't a big deal. "What about you? Anything happen to you?"

"Surprisingly, nothing like that," she responded, turning on her heel as they continued their walk to the Agency. "I got catcalled three times though. I don't know if they were just staring at my butt from under the raincoat or if they were trying to mock me."

Dazai quickly looked from (Y/n)'s butt to her, causing her to blush and push her raincoat down in response. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"I don't think they were mocking you," Dazai simply told her, causing the blush on her face to deepen. "You do have a nice butt..." He said the last part in a sing-song tone.

(Y/n) narrowed her eyes, snapping at him, "Stop staring."

They continued to walk down the road, casually chatting as they attempted to put the disturbances and complaints behind them for the moment. But that was quickly shattered when a kid, a boy that was probably only sixteen or seventeen, ran by.

(Y/n) hadn't noticed him since he had such a light step, only noticing him when he just about rammed into her. She turned around, finding that Dazai gripped his wrist tightly, stopping the teenager from slapping (Y/n)'s butt at the last moment.

"Get lost," Dazai hissed in a terrifying tone, letting go of the kid as he nodded, running off while muttering and apology to (Y/n) as he basically crapped his pants in front of the detectives.

Woah, was that kid about to smack my butt? I mean, I've been getting catcalled, but this is ridiculous. I am SO glad Dazai is here...

(Y/n) let out a breath of relief. "Thank you. I didn't even realize that kid was coming up here."

"Well that kid needs to learn to respect women." He pulled his hand back, shoving it in his pocket. "Especially women as beautiful as you."

(Y/n) looked up at him, a smile coming across her face. "You mentioned that we should go somewhere to talk after all of this is over." He looked away from the direction they were headed in, looking back down to her. "We still on for that?"

A grin spread across his face as he nodded. "We certainly are."

After carefully avoiding a group of protestors in front of the Agency, Dazai and (Y/n) were finally able to make it inside. The Agency had been getting calls all morning—filled with complaints against them after their escapade from the night before went public in most newspapers.

(Y/n) sat at her desk, rubbing her head as she worked at her computer. Most of the calls were going to Kunikida—one of them was eventually hung up upon by Dazai as he picked up the phone just to put it back down again.

"Looks like this is exactly what the enemy wanted, huh?" Dazai said in a cheerful tone. He then picked up a nearby newspaper, pointing to the photo of Kunikida on the front cover. "You look very good in this picture."

Kunikida tried to take it from him, Dazai pulling his arm away before continuing, "Why don't you take the rest of the day off? You look awful."

"...No," Kunikida responded, turning back to his computer. "There's work to be done."

I can't say I'm surprised, (Y/n) thought, turning in her chair towards them. Kunikida's always done a lot of work—inside and outside of the office or during shifts. Something like this, despite the harsh feedback, wouldn't stop him from working.

"Wow. You're not gonna take a day off even after all this? You know, someone tried to throw a rock at me on two separate occasions while I was coming into the office today. Not to mention some punk teenager tried to slap (Y/n)'s butt once we started walking together—"

"What?!" Kunikida cut him off, turning to (Y/n) with a worried expression. "Are you alright? Did anyone touch you?"

"No, Kunikida," (Y/n) assured him, shaking her head. "No one touched me. Dazai was able to stop them before they could do anything, thankfully. If they did though..." (Y/n) looked to the glass of water on her desk, letting out a small sigh. "...it wouldn't have been pretty. But Dazai's right, you need to take a day off."

"'Take a day off'? Have you two lost your minds?" Kunikida's more serious tone returned. "We have a mission of utmost priority: Find the criminal behind this."

"Well... Yeah. You're right," Dazai agreed with a rather expressionless face.

"Where's Miss Sasaki?" Kunikida asked, furthering the mission.

"She's in the infirmary getting examined by Dr. Yosano," Dazai informed them. "Sounds like she's going to be okay."

Kunikida stood from his chair, walking to the door. "Let's go pay her a little visit."

(Y/n) stood up from her seat, following the two to the door as they began to walk to Yosano's room. Thoughts on the situation ran through her head, some of the dots not connecting as she tried to make sense of what she had been given.

It's very odd that Sasaki is the only one who ended up surviving despite everything. Why would she be in a separate tank from the rest? Could it have been because she'd have been the only female out of a large group of males? Theories and questions raced through her head as they walked down the hallway, her boots squeaking slightly against the hardwood floor. Besides, it's strange that right after she yelled for Dazai not to touch the lock that the gas began to leak out. It could've been a coincidence—but that's highly unlikely given the situation. No matter the cause, Sasaki is clearly not innocent in this situation...

And I intend to find out why.