Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dazai rolled over in his bed slightly, the warm blankets refusing to move with him. The brunet jolted sightly from the cold, his eyes opening in shock at the cold that had attacked him out of nowhere. He was in a fancy apartment, one that looked kind of like Chuuya’s, the light from the windows had already started to creep across the bedroom floor. And Dazai’s muscles were on fire.

“Dazai?” A voice sleepily asked from his right, “Wha’re you doing in my apartment?”

The chibi must not yet be awake enough to punch him out of the country. Well, that was a plus. On the downside, the way things were going, it looked like he might be that lucid soon. Well, so long life. He wouldn’t miss you.

“I don’t know chibi. Maybe I was kidnapped forcefully last night? Maybe I can ask my kidnapper to kill me!” Dazai’s voice seemed off, but he decided not to care. It was probably just whatever drug they injected to his system messing with his vocal chords.

Dazai looked back at Chuuya, only to be greeted by a surprising sight. “Chibi…” Dazai frowned, “did you, by any chance, cut your hair?”

Chuuya looked at him, and scoffed, “I don’t know what happened to your brains, but if you remember, I’ve spent the past five years growing my hair out. I don’t think I’d just cut it.”

“Then… why is it short?”

“It- wha-?” Chuuya felt the back of his head, apparently checking to see if his hair was still there. Oh, how Dazai wished he had a video camera. This was prime blackmail material.

The sun rose higher across the room, until Dazai could finally see Chuuya’s face clearly. He looked… short. Well, shorter than usual, and his cheeks had more baby fat than they had what seemed like just yesterday. Heck, he looked exactly like he did when he was… when he was fifteen.

Gasping, Dazai put his hand to his eye, which he found covered by light filmy bandages, the same kind he had worn until he left the mafia. He hadn’t noticed them due to the fact that he couldn’t see out of that eye anyway. What on earth had happened? They woke up just as they used to post missions, Dazai wearing his port mafia attire, and Chuuya looking younger, and wearing that scruffy old mafia standard suit. Wow, was Dazai glad that time was over.

Because it was over… right? Chuuya looked younger, Dazai had bandages over his eye, they were both in Chuuya’s apartment…

Jolting out of this thoughts, Dazai assessed the room, “Hey hatrack!” Dazai made a show of searching the room for the teeny tiny now-teenager, only to find that the ginger had left the room.

“Chuuuuuyaaaa.” The brunet called, lazily wandering after his partner, “I think I figured it out. Oh, Chibi~”

“SHUT UP, DAMMIT!” The tell tale shouts of the redhead echoed throughout the kitchen. “…What have you figured out?”

Ha, the slug always has been predictable, Dazai grinned to himself, “Well Chuuuyaaaa, I’d say. Based on overwhelming evidence, that we have been sent back in time!”

“You’re joking.” Chuuya froze, shooting the bandaged boy an incredulous glare, “How did you even come to that- you know what? I don’t want to know.”

“Hey slug.” Dazai draped himself lazily over the counter, smirking as Chuuya hummed in exasperation. Then, with a completely straight face, he paused and said, “Xx@#%—%€♤.”

Chuuya nearly choked on air. “HOW DO YOU EVEN PRONOUNCE THAT!?”

Ah yes, Dazai has missed the days where he could shorten his chibi’s already nonexistent fuse. It had always been one of his few joys in life, and right now wasn’t any different.

“As fun as this is, my chibi hatrack, we should probably get to work before the boss gets suspicious~ And probably figure out this time travel situation.”

Chuuya rolled his eyes, “That’s why I made you food, idiot. Eat.” Dazai instinctively ducked under the food Chuuya had sent flying to the table, getting back into the old routine.

“You do know that if you hit my head, it all would have fallen to the floor, right?” Dazai grinned, happy to be back in their post mission banter. The new hostility he had with his chibi had been foreign, it was nice to be able to fall into old patterns. “I wonder if the plate flying into my head would be enough to kill me~” It shouldn’t be, but sometimes unorthodox methods got good results.

Chuuya grumbled at Dazais shenanigans, dragging himself over to sit at the table beside his partner, “I put crab in it for you, eat.” the brunet rolled his eyes, but did as his partner suggested. If wouldn’t be good for Chuuya to die from a blood pressure induced heart attack now, would it?

Hmmmm, blood pressure… Maybe that would work?

“Hey Chuuya,” Dazai asked, “Do you think Atsushi and Akutagawa were dragged back with us? They were on that mission too.”

Chuuya hummed a little, “I think they might be. We should look for them. The weretiger was in that terrible orphanage at the edge of the slums right?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

***

It was official, this was the worst day in Atsushi’s life. Well, not the worst, worst, but still bad. Passing out in the middle of a mission and waking up here of all places?

The heterochromic boy sat in a concrete room that could easily be described as a cell, chained to the wall. Atsushi was sure that he felt smaller too, but without being able to move, he had no way of telling. His body ached all over, cold and bruised, an especially sore spot being on his left knee, which was strange. Was Atsushi sure that Akutagawa didn’t cut his leg off again?

No? Fantastic.

The sun rose higher into the rapidly lightening sky, and entered the small window he had, illuminating the room with bright white light.

This used to be the time where the headmaster would come and get him, back when he really was in the orphanage. Maybe he was having a traumatic flashback again?

That didn’t work. He was still coherent, and despite the dislike for the place he was in, he wasn’t experiencing heightened emotions or anything. There was not really anything happening. No person telling him that he was useless, no stern words from the headmaster…

It was like a bad dream, except the plot hadn’t started yet, only the parts that no one remembered, because they weren’t worth remembering.

A clunk in the hallway leading to this wretched place had Atsushi on high alert. Was anyone there? Was he maybe put in a simulator that showed him his worst memories?

An ability? Was that what this was? Hopefully not, as Atsushi remembered Dazai being there with them during the- the fight.

The last thing that Atsushi could remember was a joint mission between the agency and the mafia. Dazai, Chuuya, Atsushi and Akutagawa had all gotten taken by the light and then he had woken up back here. So it was an ability. Or it was technology, but with the way things had been going, it was more likely to be yet another evil mastermind.

More noises in the hall confirmed his suspicions. Someone was coming. Slowly going limp and looking at the floor, like all the life was drained out of him.

It was the headmaster, he was sure of it.

“Lets go weretiger,” a voice broke him out of the slump he was in.

Looking up, Atsushi peered quizzically at the familiar poorly cut bangs, “Akutagawa?” He asked, wincing at his rusty, high pitched voice.

“Who else would it be, Jinko?”

Atsushi tilted his head as he furrowed his brow at his reluctant partner, “You look weird.”

And it wasn’t even a lie! Akutagawa seemed out of proportion somehow, he had a dip oh hair hanging between his eyes, kind of like Dazai-san’s. The mafioso’s eyes seemed a bigger as well. He almost looked younger, which Atsushi thought was strange, because the last time that he had checked, the mafioso was twenty and not able to age backwards.

Akutagawa rolled his eyes, “I will explain later, once we’re out of this godforsaken place.”

***

Akutagawa had woken up in a place he hadn’t been in a long time, the slums of Suribachi city, with Gin huddling close to his side for warmth.

Her sweet sleeping face brang nostalgia, the way she mumbled in her sleep and curled closer to his spindly frame. She wasn’t much either, three years younger than him. She seemed tiny.

Thinking about it, even in the present time, she wasn’t this much smaller than him, and he hadn’t been in the slums since he was- oh. Since he was fourteen. Gin certainly looked young enough to be eleven years old.

Carefully, as not to wake up his sister, Akutagawa examined his hands. Unexpectedly, he wasn’t wearing his jacket that he had kept in the mafia, instead, he was clothed in an old, too big shirt, ill fitting pants, a scruffy grey jacket and a scarf that he and Gin were using as some sort of pillow.

This was the ragged outfit he had worn the day that he had met Dazai-san.

The now-boy thought back to his last memory, a joint mission, against an ability user. So that’s what happened. From what Akutagawa could figure out, the others were probably in the same position that he was. Akutagawa sighed. He would have to go find the Jinko, wouldn’t he. Honestly, Akutagawa was starting to think that he was a better detective than half the people at that stupid agency.

Ryuunosuke recalled the way Jinko spoke about the orphanage—curt, bitter, as if just the thought left a bad taste in his mouth. He never shared details, only that the headmaster was dead. But even then, Akutagawa could tell. Some things didn’t fade so easily.

On his shoulder, Gin stirred, waking up with a yawn that Akutagawa had no business finding adorable, “Ryuu,” she muttered sleepily, before sitting straight up. Her hair was cut short, and her large grey eyes blinked slowly, as if getting rid of the sleep.

“Hello, Gin.” Ryuu allowed himself a small smile—so small he almost didn’t notice he was doing it.

Gin blinked up at him sleepily, rubbing her eyes. “What time is it?”

“Morning.” Ryuu paused, considering his words. “I… have somewhere to go today.”

Gin tilted her head like an innocent puppy. “Where?”

He hesitated. “The orphanage. The one on the outskirts.”

His sister looked at him, confused, “I thought you were trying to get revenge for your friends?” she asked, and honestly, Ryuu had almost forgotten about that.

“Later, this is more important.”

Gin reluctantly let him stand up, “Okay, but don’t be too long.” Ryuu smiled slightly at her. He had forgotten how clingy she used to be.

It had rained the night before. Ryuu actually had to concentrate in order to stay upright at the speed he was moving. The Jinko better pray that the orphanage Ryuu was heading towards was the right one, because the coat manipulator certainly wasn’t going to drag himself to every damn orphanage in Yokohama.

Ryuu quickly approached the building, which wasn’t that far from where he had woken up. The metal fence of the building was spiked, hiding a vast building, with a uneven stone path leading to looming doors. Ryuu quickly scaled the bars of metal, letting himself down, quietly landing in the damp, overgrown grass. Dragging himself through the undergrowth, Ryuu made it to the building without being spotted. Maybe being a tiny teenager had it’s perks.

Given the fact the it was eight in the morning, he doubted anyone would see him anyway. The weretiger better be in there because Ryuu was sacrificing a lot for him. Like his dry clothes. And the warmth his small shelter that he and Gin shared brang.

Ryuu shuffled through an open window, landing in a barren room that was seemingly being aired out. What kind of orphanage was this? It was almost like the author needed to advance the plot but didn’t know how. Ryuu shook his head a little, confused. Where did that come from?

The door to the room was open, Ryuu noted as he scouted the cold room for clues. He was turning into one of those idiot detectives.

Walking through the door, the ability user was assaulted with sub-zero heat levels. It shouldn’t be legal to have this little heat in a place for children. He skillfully ignored that he wasn’t in any place to lecture people on what is legal and what isn’t. His only focus should be finding the Jinko. Who was probably in this building.

The black haired boy turned the corner into a colder room, more of a cell. He instinctively grabbed the scarf that hung around his neck. The Jinko better pray that he was in here.

Ryuu looked around the room and sure enough, a small, white haired boy was chained to the wall. Ryuu almost winced. He would have if he hadn’t seen the victims of the mafias interrogation, “Let’s go weretiger.” his sharp voice broke through the cold silence.

“Akutagawa?” Atsushi’s voice was broken and wobbly, rusted from underuse. His head tilted a little, “You look weird.”

Ryuu almost facepalmed. As it was, he rolled his eyes, “I’ll explain after we get out of this godforsaken place.” he used Rashomon to cut through the chains holding the weretiger.

The two children half ran, half walked out of the orphanage, Atsushi stumbling on legs unused to movement, Akutagawa hurrying him. The two left through the same window Ryuu had come in through, helping each other through it. Ryuu couldn’t help but think, almost ridiculously, that the Jinko was a lot smaller than him. If they had truly become younger, he would be around twelve at the moment, while Ryuu was fourteen. The Jinko was only a year older than Gin and- Pay attention Ryuu! He scolded himself, using the nickname Gin had picked out for him.

The two ran through damp grass, the sun breaking through the darkness, shining raw rays of light into their eyes. Outside the iron gates, Ryuu could see two familiar figures, standing close together, in coats. The shorter had a hat and the taller seemed to be wrapped in bandages.

Of course, the Jinko spoke first, voice layered in confusion, “Dazai-san? Chuuya-san? Do you know what happened to us?”

The taller of the two —Dazai-san— sighed, “The current theory is that we have been sent back in time. We don’t know how, but we have been. The other theory is that this is a mass hallucination.”

Ryuu bit his lip, if they truly were back in time, what had sent them there, and how could they get back?

Chapter Text

“Dazai!” bullets stopped before tearing through Chuuya’s skin, then flying back at the shooters, “You idiot!” the redhead snarled at his partner, who was protecting the two children behind him.

The brunet gasped, ignoring the carnage around him, “How could you chibi! I’ll have you know that I had nothing to do with this~”

“You always have something to do with everything.” Chuuya snarked, falling back into old banter, seemingly oblivious to the armed men around him.

Atsushi flinched as his mentor pulled the trigger and shot a few men. Chuuya had forgotten how common these sorts of attacks had been back before Dazai and him had become a known duo. AKA, right now. Chuuya resisted the urge to rub his temples as he kicked down a couple of men dressed in black.

Akutagawa barely blinked as a bullet shot right past his face. Guess he did pick a few things up from his mentor after all. 

“How mean! A small hatrack is trying to insult me.”

“You do that yourself. Idiot.” Chuuya rolled his eyes at his partners whines. Even while he was committing murder he still managed to act like a child.

Well it was either dealing with that or with a full-blown psychopath. The child was definitely easier to deal with.

Chuuya dodged another rain of bullets, kicking the gun out of his attackers hands. The second his foot grazed the side of the mans hand, he froze, unable to move. 

The petit mafioso smirked as he increased the mans density, pushing him into the ground. He was the last one, the others having all been obliterated.

Not a scratch on him, Dazai or the kids, Chuuya noted as he glanced around. Not bad, “Come on.” he gestured for the others to move with him, “We have to report to the boss.”

Blinking at him owlishly, “You have to report to the boss after a mission?” Akutagawa asked.

“He wants to know if Dazai’s managed to kill himself by jumping in front of bullets or something.”

Chuuya didn’t even have to look back to feel Dazai’s pout, “Which is an utterly stupid rule! I’ve already told him! I’m interested in suicide, not pain and suffering. Bleeding out from an injury is painful .”

“At least you’re not a masochist…” Chuuya muttered.

“Was that a compliment Chibi~”

Chuuya whipped around, “NO? The heck did you get that idea from?”

Poor Atsushi and Akutagawa, having to deal with this. Chuuya heaved a breath and turned, “Come on, lets get out of here.”

BANG!

Dazai convulsed, falling backwards.

The world went still. Gunfire silencing as Chuuya watched Dazai stagger backwards, red liquid seeping out of his shoulder.

Chuuya mentally cussed himself out. Dazai was lying on the ground bleeding out in front of him.

Do something idiot, DO SOMETHING!

Another shot, then another.

Chuuya’s brain lagged behind his body, only noticing the shots after Dazai curled into a loose fetal position, coughing, increasing the puddle of red by his mouth.

“Okay, okay,” he breathed, “I-I’ll call Hirotsu. He’ll get you back to the boss. It’ll be fine. Y-you’ll be fine.” 

The redhead was aware of the two younger eyes fixed on him. Atsushi was practically hyperventilating, and Akutagawa was frozen.

“J-just stay with us Dazai. It’ll be fine, we’ll be good.” Crap, Dazai wasn’t supposed to die! Were they messing up the timeline? Would this spiral out of control and end up with the timeline destroyed around them? Chuuya wasn’t speaking from experience, but he was pretty sure that that would be bad. 

“Come on, just a little longer…”

Chuuya’s fingers hovered, trembling over Dazai’s chest.

He was too afraid to check.

Shaking hands found a weak wrist.

No rise or fall of the chest, no pulse.

The brunet was dead.

Silence, stillness.

And then, around them, the world began to shift.

*

Dazai opened his eyes in a void. An honest to goodness void of nothingness that he was just floating in. Was this death? Floating in an endless hole of nothing? In that case, Dazai decided, that he didn’t really want to be dead.

It was probably better to be suffering endlessly but at least having stimulation, then to be floating around in a white space of nothingness, just him and his mind for the rest of all eternity… all alone until he drove himself insane. Or to a suicide attempt to escape life. Which… wouldn’t work in his current predicament of being dead and all.

Maybe he could sleep? Did dead people still have melatonin?

Twenty (minutes? Hours? Days?) later, Dazai could confirm that, dead people don’t sleep. Or maybe that was just his amazing insomniac tendencies shining through into death. 

If that was the case, Dazai really didn’t like being dead.

The white cut into his eyes like a dagger, making him want to cover his face and groan like a dramatic kid on a school morning.

Was this what he wanted? No Mori, no Chuuya, only eternal white covered in silence?

I need to get out of here-

And like the universe had answered his prayers to take him away from this nightmare, the world around him started to shift. Whites turning to blacks turning to greys. Colours popping out of the shaded mess. His surroundings whirled and shaped themselves, his mind transporting itself outside of this grey nothingness.

Dazai closed his eyes, waiting for it all to stop. Shifting shapes, no. Please, this was bad enough as it was. Until-

“Dazai?”

***

Dazai cracked opened his eyes, to find that he was lying on rubble of a broken wall, his body in a considerable amount of pain. Squinting upwards, he could see a blob of red, and underneath it an ugly pea-green jacket.

Chuuya’s face was sharper, younger, angrier. Dazai blinked at the rubble, the smell of scorched concrete.

“Chibi?” Dazai asked, “Where are we?”

Chuuya rolled his eyes a little, “I’m pretty sure that we’re in Suribachi city, and that I just kicked you into a wall.”

“Like when we met?” come to think of it, Chuuya did look younger than the 16 year old he had just been, and Dazai did recognise his surroundings.

The lanky teen climbed to his feet, smiling slightly at Chuuya.

“You know this child, Dazai-san?” 

Dazai almost started at the sudden voice, “Uh- yes, I do Hirotsu-san, he isn’t a threat.”

“Not a threat?” Chuuya snarled, “Like hell I’m not a-” his voice stopped as Dazai laid his hand on the nape of Chuuya’s neck.

“You’re ability is gone now.” he dryly informed the ginger as blue waves of light encircled the two of them, signifying that, yes, indeed, Chuuya’s ability had disappeared. “Come, we need to talk.”

Chuuya glared daggers at the brunet, but sighed and nodded, “You’re right for once. Lets go.”

The two made to find a more private place, neither of them payed any attention to Hirotsu, who was glancing between the two now fifteen year olds with a confused frown on his face.

*

The first thing Chuuya did to his partner when they reached a secluded alley, was punch him.

“Ow, chibi!” Dazai whined, “What was that for?”

Chuuya glared at the bandaged boy, “You know what for,” he hissed, “What was that? Just up and dying? ”

“In my defence,” Dazai started, “that wasn’t on purpose. Besides, being dead was actually kinda boring.”

Chuuya had to resist the urge to slap sense into his partner. Of course being dead wasn’t a fun thing to be! Why would anyone think that? Then he remembered who he was talking to.

“I wasn’t talking about that! I’m talking about how we somehow got sent back in time again!”

Dazai furrowed his brow a little, “That is a little weird, but it could mean a few things. I think I know what this is though.”

Chuuya sighed. This fish wasn’t going to tell him anything, was he. Of course not, Dazai would probably get him to figure it out on his own, or tease him for his ‘inferior’ brain power when he asked for help.

Well, not all of them could be cruddy detectives. 

Chuuya stared at Dazai expectantly, waiting for the explanation that was sure to be incoming. “Well?”

“Oh, I believe, that we may… may be in a time loop of sorts?” Dazai smugly smirked a little, “Think about it, when I died, we suddenly woke up here, and I came alive again. And the setting seems to be where we first met.”

Despite how much Chuuya wants to deny this, he does think about it. He hates to say it, but it makes sense. But was this an ability, or something else? If it was an ability though, Dazai wouldn’t be here. 

So that rules that out.

Maybe wizards had decided that they suddenly existed and wanted to mess with the world a little.

“We should find Akutagawa and Atsushi, they’re still in uh, bad places, right?”

Dazai smirked, “Are you even listening to yourself right now? At this point in time, I’m in the mafia and your in an organization that won’t hesitate to stab you in the back.”

“Which is your fault, you imbecile.”

The idiot shrugged, “Boss’ orders. You’d understand, right? Besides it’s not my fault that the sheep were paranoid and stupid.”

He hated to say it, but he did indeed know what Dazai was talking about. In the mafia, you don’t go against the bosses orders. It’s common knowledge, and Chuuya doesn’t know about workplaces that aren’t illegal, but he assumes that it’s the same outside of the mafia.

“Speaking of the boss…” Dazai raised an eyebrow at the gravity manipulator.

Chuuya sighed, “Fine.”

That was how Chuuya found himself as a fifteen year old, tied to a chair and restrained by a supposed-to-be-dead ability user in a younger version of his bosses office.

***

“So you’re the boss of the Port Mafia,” he sneered, “Do you have any idea what your organization has been doing to this city?” 

As expected, Mori deflected, “Yes, the old boss’ rule had a number of all of us before he tragically passed away from his illness.”

“Don’t act like your all innocent, up there on your throne , I’ve heard some incriminating things about you too. That in an act of treason, you slit the neck of the old boss to take his position.”

“I did.”

That was when Dazai, in the original loop, had sighed at his bosses stupidity. This Dazai didn’t disappoint, sighing deeply and covering his face with his hand. Is this how Dazai felt all the time, predicting everyone's movements?

Despite his internal session of criticising everyone around him, Chuuya understood the double meaning, they would probably have to go through this many times.

Same old script, same dead end.

Better get used to boredom.

Chapter Text

Dazai woke up again, blinking the death out of his eyes. This time he was fourteen, in Mori’s stupid clinic. Again. The loops seemed to like resetting to his teenage years, although there were a few where the reset to when he was in jail, or (he shuddered to remember it) that one where he was twenty-six.

Sitting up and stretching, the teen ran through his list of things to do when the loop resets at this time. 

If this was the Mori’s-clinic-at-fourteen, Dazai knew exactly how the next few days, weeks, years would play out. So naturally, he knew how to make it interesting too.

First thing to do: Get Chuuya to quit the sheep.

It shouldn’t be too hard, they’d done it before in other loops.

***

“Are you insane ?” fourteen year old Chuuya hissed at him. 

Dazai winced, Yeah, that should have been expected .

The bandaged boy explained his plan.

Take Atsushi out of his orphanage, pick up some kids from the streets (yes Chuuya, the Akutagawa’s too) and take over the mafia.

We’re stuck in a time loop. May as well have some fun.

“I’m in,” Chuuya smiled menacingly, “but I have some conditions.” 

Perfect.

***

Several chaotic hours and one minor kidnapping later, Dazai was hiding in an all too familiar empty shipping container with a ten year old boy who was sobbing into his shoulder. The candy incident, they had dubbed it. They had never looped back to the day that it had happened. The days after it- sure. But this was the first time they had gone back this far.

“T-thank you Dazai-san,” Atsushi whispered into the coat of the fourteen year old who was holding him.

Dazai paused, peering down at the scruffy boy he had wrapped in a scraggly blanket, “I’m adopting you.”

Wait-

His mouth had just said something without his permission! That should totally be illegal! 

Am I ignoring the fact that I want to go through with this? The rational side of Dazai sighs in his head. The answer was yes. Yes he was.

Atsushi’s tear stained face turned toward him in disbelief, “Dazai-san wh-”

“You what,” said a very unimpressed voice behind him.

Dazai stiffened, and turned to face Chuuya, who was trailed with a twelve year old Akutagawa and nine year old Gin.

The bandaged teen gave a slightly strained smile, “Ah- Chibikko! Um,” he scrambles to find an excuse.

“I mean, I’m all for it, but you’re currently fourteen and have a crime list as long as the Nile.”

Of course Chuuya was on board with this stupid plan as well, “I mean, technically, I haven’t joined the mafia yet. Mori’s scheduled to off the boss tomorrow…”

“Ah.”

Atsushi freed himself from Dazai, and wiped his nose, “Are we not going to question what Dazai just said?”

Dazai blinked, “The adoption part or the casual murder cover-up part?”

“Uhh, both?”

“I told you, none should try to understand the complexities of Dazai-san’s mind. You would be a fool to try,” Akutagawa scoffed at the weretiger, causing the small ten year old to take a step further towards Dazai, grabbing the side of his coat.

Dazai gave Akutagawa a stern look, and in retaliation, was met with another from Chuuya.

“How are we actually going to do this?”

Dazai shrugs, “I don’t know.”

***

Atsushi hated time loops. They forced him back to the orphanage every time Akutagawa was killed in action. Or Chuuya died of corruption. Or he himself is killed somehow. Or one of Dazai’s attempts actually worked.

Needless to say, it was not fun.

At least this time he got out relatively early.

The weretiger found himself sticking to his mentors side. Dazai was the same as usual, loud, silly, and he didn’t actively hurt Atsushi. And somehow, this was the criteria for gluing himself to the teens side.

“C’mon Atsushi,” the brunet grinned cheekily down at his apprentice, their height difference even more visible with their childlike bodies.

Atsushi gripped the side of Dazai’s black coat, “Where are we going?”

“To overthrow the government~”

Chuuya, passing by them with Gin, sighed, “Don’t listen to this idiot, you’re not going anywhere, I’m going to find more food.”

“Oh, thank you!” Atsushi smiled at the redhead, ignoring the death glare Akutagawa was giving him from across the container. What was that guy’s problem?

The child with the uneven bangs didn’t really care what they were going out to do, as long as he was fed. A plus of all being one ‘family’ was that they all got fed evenly. Before, Atsushi had been malnourished from mistreatment at his orphanage. Gin and Akutagawa never got much food on the streets. Chuuya, from what the grey haired boy could tell, had always given his portion to the younger kids in his old organization. Dazai was malnourished too. Atsushi didn’t actually know why, and his mentor didn’t share. 

***

Akutagawa stood in the corner of the old shipping container they were currently staying in. The Jinko had attached himself to Dazai-san, and Gin was being cared for by Chuuya, leaving him on his own. 

It’s fine , he told himself I’m strong, I don’t need to be cared for by anyone.

Then the twelve year old caught the apologetic look on Chuuya’s face as he tried to wrangle nine year old Gin into behaving, and he felt bad all over again. He should be helping, but all he could do was stand in the corner and try to ignore the noise. At least he could glare at the Jinko, but even that wasn’t as fun anymore as the boy was now just that– a weak ten year old.

So weak and yet Dazai-san still preferred him. Am I the problem? 

The black haired child squashed down the resentment and anger down. He was sure that Dazai-san would acknowledge him soon. He just had to get stronger.

Chuuya had apparently run out of patience for the child he was shushing, and Ryuu found his sister being dumped into his arms.

“Hold her, thanks Ryuu, I gotta go get food.”

Young Chuuya had a vague street accent, strong ‘r’s’ and flatter vowels. It startled Ryuu every time, such a stark difference to the more refined accent he had no doubt Kouyou had beaten into the redhead.

The clothing manipulator sighed as Gin squirmed in his arms, trying to get somewhere.

“Ryuu?” her soft voice whispered to her older brother, “Who are these people?”

Akutagawa’s heart dropped. 

They had forgotten that while they may all remember, Gin sure didn’t. She probably thought they had been kidnapped. The reason she had been fighting Chuuya earlier suddenly became clear. 

She thought that they were in danger. 

He crouched down to her height and looked her in the eyes, “They are friends, and they are helping us,” he reassured her, “we aren’t in any immediate danger.”

The small girl relaxed slightly, but with his hand protectively on her shoulders, Ryuu could feel he muscles were still taught, ready to run in any direction. Muscle memory isn’t unlearned overnight.

***

Gin wasn’t sure what exactly was happening, but she didn’t like it. It had been a normal day, until that red haired boy in the grey jacket had shown up. He was older than Ryuu, and her older brother seemed to know him. They followed him to a shipping container in the middle of a dumpsite, where there was another teenager and a white haired boy her own age. 

The teenager in the dark cloak had announced that he was adopting them? And then they started to talk about murder. Gin didn’t really know, they all seemed to know each other, even her antisocial brother!

Maybe Ryuu had been kidnapped and brainwashed?

No, apparently Ryuu just knew these people. Weird. 

The brown haired one approached them, “Hi, I’m Dazai Osamu! This is Nakajima Atsushi. He’s only a year older than you,” the bandaged teen leaned in and stage whispered, “He’s a little shy.”

“Dazai-san!” the white haired boy squeaked, and despite herself, Gin giggled.

Dazai-san, as he was now named, smiled a little, “Chuuya and I will look after you now, okay?” he smiled and held out his pinky.

Gin tilted her head, unsure of what to make of this gesture, “It’s a pinky promise,” he whispered, “It’s the strongest promise in the world.”

Gin noticed Nakajima and Ryuu making awkward eye contact with each other out of the corner of their eyes, but she was more focused on trying to line her pinky up with Dazai-san’s.

They shook pinkies, and Dazai-san ruffled her hair playfully.

***

Chuuya wasn’t sure what he walked in to. He had just gone to get some canned soup and paper utensils from a close by convenience store. 

They were always easy to steal from.

He had come back into the shipping container to find Dazai and Gin giggling in the corner, and Akutagawa and Atsushi eyeing them, concerned at how well the two seemed to be getting along.

Well… valid.

“I have soup,” he bluntly interrupted.

Dazai looked up, his eyes sparkling, giving Chuuya whiplash, “Thanks chibi! I always knew you were such a good dog!”

“WHY YOU-”

Instead of kicking Dazai in the shin, he opened the can of soup, serving it out into the paper cup. Not environmentally friendly, but they kind of needed to survive.

“Here,” he roughly shoved a cold cup into Akutagawa’s hands, then one into Atsushi’s hands.

The white haired boy looked up at him, eyes wide, “T-thank you Chuuya-san,” he said, holding the soup like it was his lifeline.

The black haired boy, in contrast, politely bowed, and started silently eating his liquidised food.

“Mackerel,” Chuuya chucked the can at the brunet.

Dazai took the hint, and began sharing the soup out between him and the girl, “You not having any chibi?” he asked, something akin to concern lilting in his tone.

“I had some on the way.”

Leaving Gin to enjoy her cold soup, Dazai sidled up to Chuuya, “You know we have to tell Mori about this, right?”

“Shut up,” Chuuya half heartedly grumbled.

“So Chuuya, you gonna tell Mori we took in a couple of strays?”

Chuuya scoffed, “I’m not in the mafia yet, Mori hasn’t even met me. That’s your job. What are you gonna tell him? That we adopted some random kids?”

“No, I’m going to tell him we’re training a new generation of weapons. It's scarier that way.”

***

Mori looked up as the door to his clinic opened and a familiar brunet stepped in.

“Dazai-kun, you’re back,” he curtly greeted.

“Hii Mori-san.”

Mori glanced up at the sheepish teen, “Where have you been?” he would never admit it out loud, but his apprentice had a darkness to him that scared Mori. The potential for destruction was strong.

“Training a new generation of weapons,” the boy’s previously innocent face morphed into a sharks smile.

Mori would be lying if he said his heart didn’t stutter at that– and lying was supposed to be his speciality.

Chapter Text

Atsushi blinked, finding himself by a river as the sun was going down. Orphanage rags encasing his body and hunger swirling in his stomach.

He… recognised this river. It was the river he met Dazai at.

A motorcycle raced past, stirring up leaves and forcing Atsushi’s arms over his head. His mind was reeling. He had been in the middle of a mafia mission with Akutagawa (hey, repeating the same thing over and over got boring!) and now… he was here.

A squad of police or military trainers ran past, and Atsushi sighed miserably. He knew what was coming next, and he knew what he was supposed to do. His cold body shivered in anticipation of the frigid water awaiting him. And… sure enough…

“Glubguksubdjhub!” two legs poking out of the river floated past. Two legs belonging to Dazai-san. Who had probably blinked and found him self in a freezing river.

Atsushi couldn’t say that he was jealous of the man.

Time for business. Sighing, the weretiger dove into the water, and struggled to Dazai. The water surrounded him, wetness freezing on his skin, and sloshing through his ears, threatening to enter his nose and mouth. It made his limbs numb and heavy as he thrashed in the current. Fighting the way the water moved, Atsushi made it to his mentor and hauled him to the surface, half swimming half sinking to the side of the river.

As he lay panting on the bank of the river, surrounded by a puddle of water that had spread from his soaked clothes, Dazai’s eyes rolled forward, and he sat up.

“Oh hii Atsushi-kun!”

Atsushi groaned tiredly and collapsed a little further, his muscles burning and his stomach growling. 

On the other side of the river, Atsushi could see a tall blonde man with a book clutched in his arms. His foot tapped impatiently and a deep scowl adorned his face. 

“THERE YOU ARE, YOU BANDAGE SQUANDERING MACHINE! I’VE BEEN LOOKING ALL OVER FOR YOU!”

Dazai straightened at his blonde coworkers yell, “Oh, you found me! Nice work Kunikida-kun~”

Atsushi hauled himself to his feet, staring at Kunikida, who was quite a bit younger than when he’d last seen him. Stupid time ability…

“So, what do you want to do this loop?” Dazai asked out of the side of his mouth, still smiling obnoxiously at Kunikida.

Atsushi shrugged, “I dunno, do you have any ideas?”

Dazai smirked, “Confuse the agency as much as possible.”

Sighing at the brunet’s idea of ‘fun,’ the weretiger reluctantly agreed.

***

That night, Dazai held the meeting between the agency. He knew that Kunikida had roped Tanizaki into making him work. The paper slips ruse hadn’t worked the first loop, and they wouldn’t work this time either. As he had said in an earlier loop, he had been scheming since Tanizaki was in diapers.

The meeting, like most, was long and mind-numbing. The agency members had many ideas, some of the more eccentric ones being unsuitable, and some blatantly against the law. 

“What are some major problems around the agency?” was the main question proposed.

“Well, the presidents still single.”

“I don’t think-”

In the end, Dazai pulled out a bomb he had procured as a gift earlier that day, before he had met up with Tanizaki and Kunikida.

“It’s from a woman who is absolutely obsessed with me!” he had proclaimed to Tanizaki, who had been sent to investigate at the bar Dazai was at.

The red head had looked scared out of his mind until Dazai had told him it was a fake. A realistic fake, but a fake nonetheless.

Dazai snapped out of his thoughts as Tanizaki spoke up, “Hey, why not we draw numbers? That way the roles will be even.”

They cut up the papers, as they had in the original loop, twenty pieces of paper, each with two numbers. Unbeknownst to Kunikida and Tanizaki, Dazai knew very well what they were planning.

An extra load of papers, only for Dazai, with the numbers 1-4 written on them. They wanted Dazai to actually do the work for once.

The scene unfolded the same as the original loop, Dazai drawing a three and four, and then Tanizaki somehow drawing a one and two.

How the brunet relished Kunikida and Tanizaki’s blatantly shocked faces at how Tanizaki had pulled a piece of paper lower than Dazai, despite them having rigged it to make sure no such thing happened.

The person with the lowest number had to play the bomber, Dazai acted the fool as Naomi confessed her part in rigging the pile. All she had wanted was the acting role with her brother.

***

As soon as Atsushi walked into the detective agency office the next day, he registered Tanizaki sitting on a table, Naomi tied up below him, his eyes filled with fear.

Though Atsushi knew it was a hoax, he had to admit, the two had great acting prowess. 

He strode past the red haired teen, to the ‘bomb’ and picked it up, then looked to Tanizaki expectantly, “Can I have that please?”

“...Huh?”

“The clicker thingy —I don’t know what it’s called— but can I have it?” he held his hand out, fake bomb tucked under his arm.

Kunikida, in the doorway was watching him with something akin to horror on his face. Atsushi finally felt like he had the upper hand at something. Was this how Dazai felt when he manipulated his plans into action?

Stupefied by the dumb actions the weretiger was taking, Tanizaki dumbly handed over the detonator.

“Thanks!” Atsushi profusely stated as he grinned sharply, “Bye!”

“Waitwaitwaitwait–” Kunikida started, “What are you doing?”

“Going to blow up the mafia headquarters? Duh? They’ve been chasing me around the city.”

Now that was blatantly untrue, but Atsushi was having fun, and Dazai was having a hard time keeping his giggles to himself, which was a rare sight.

“...Why would you do that?”

“Think about it! The bomb is away from the agency, and it sends a message to the mafia!”

Apparently, Kunikida decided that keeping up the charade wasn’t worth it, “Kid, the bomb is fake.”

“I know.” Atsushi smiled in a deceptively innocent moment.

“What?” 

“What are the chances that there is a bomber that somehow got a military grade bomb to the agency, and just happened to be there on the first time that I walked in? Besides, you probably have people here that could probably stop this girl from being captured.”

“Oh!” Tanizaki allowed, completely giving away everything Atsushi had said as true.

“I still want to bomb the mafia though.”

“Oh.”

***

In the end, Atsushi did get accepted into the agency as he technically did think about keeping the agency safe, came up with a plan to hit the enemy, and saw through the exam. 

Apparently those are the grounds for being a detective. Who knew.

Well given that he passed…

“Hey weretiger,” Atsushi barely removed his eyes from his work, “PSST!”

“What is it Ranpo-san?”

The man made a beckoning sign with his fingers, lollipop in mouth.

*** 

Ranpo had figured it out the moment Dazai had appeared in the office looking kind of disoriented. Then Atsushi had come in and seen right through the entrance exam. Given that they didn’t seem fazed by anything, there was only one solution. 

Time loops.

But how…? Dazai has a nullification ability? The geniuses eyes flew open as he realised, It’s an ability . It doesn’t work on things that aren’t abilities… So whatevers put them in the loop doesn’t have an ability?

He made beckoning signs with his fingers, “Hey weretiger,” barely any response, “PSST!”

“What is it, Ranpo-san?” the ability user sighed, making his way over to the black haired man. So he has done this before.

“You,” he pointed at Atsushi, “are stick in a time loop. With Dazai.”

The boy suddenly relaxed, “I knoow, it’s a literal nightmare. ” he brought a hand up to cover his poorly cut bangs.

So his mentor had rubbed off on him. And in the worst way, it seemed.

“So what happened?”

Atsushi looked at the detective and sighed, more maturely this time, “We don’t know. Mission. Big bright light. Poof. Wake up in the orphanage.”

Ranpo ignored the jazz hands, “Okay.”

“Are you going to tell anyone?”

Ranpo took his lollipop out of his mouth and smirked, “No. This is funny.”

Of course. Don’t tell people things because you think it’s funny. Classic Ranpo. Atsushi sighed. At least no one else was figuring it out any time soon.

The white haired boy couldn’t stop his mind from wandering a little as he continued with his reports, I wonder how Akutagawa and Chuuya are going?

***

The mafia tower was predictable. The boss was predictable, the traffic was predictable. This was an absolute nightmare.

Doing the same reports over and over, killing the same people over and over, saying the same words to the boss, to the subordinates. The only upside was Ane-san’s face when he said something even remotely out of character. Damn that idiot really has rubbed off on me.

  Well, not too much he hoped. Chuuya hadn’t started beating the living daylights out of Akutagawa yet, and he would very much like to keep it that way.

If Mori was surprised by the ‘sudden’ change in his executive’s behaviour, he didn’t show it, which seemed to be the pattern for all of the loops they had been in. 

If he was surprised at Akutagawa’s sudden halt of mindless killing, he didn’t show it. 

Kouyou, on the other hand, couldn’t quite hold her shock when the red haired executive voiced something he shouldn’t know, or predicted the next chain of events correctly, or when Akutagawa politely sat in on their tea meetings. 

Honestly, Chuuya was starting to enjoy seeing others faces when he did something unexpected. It was fun.

Chuuya had taken to starting competitions with Dazai to keep the loops interesting. The one they had agreed on for this loop: ‘who can make Akutagawa a respectable young man first?’

Of course, it had been Dazai’s turn to choose, and he had chosen something that he deemed impossible, but there was hope for Chuuya. So far he had gotten Akutagawa to actually start behaving, and to not go off the rails on missions.

The mafioso had practically stopped going rogue, and that in itself was an achievement.

Maybe the fact that it had been years upon years upon years since Dazai’s original training of Akutagawa, at least in their point of view, that had softened the mafioso slightly, or maybe it was all the work Chuuya had been forcing Dazai to put in to reconcile his relationship with his mentee, but they both had a much better relationship now.

“Chuuya-san!” a panicked voice called from down the hall.

Chuuya sighed, hand massaging his temples. Time to go and deal with the subordinates… again.

Time loops would be the end of him.

Chapter Text

“Ne, Chuuya,” Dazai says one day, “we should get married.”

Chuuya startled and jumped away from the eighteen year old at his shoulder, “WHAT- oh it’s you … why are you asking me to marry you?”

Dazai blinked, “Well, we haven’t done that before. Plus I made a bet with Atsushi. I’ve got a lot of money riding on you turning me down.”

Chuuya rolled his eyes. So Dazai had bet that he would never say yes. In other words, Dazai would suffer if Chuuya accepted. The ginger ignored the fact that the two had been betting about marriage in the first place.

“Fine, I’ll do it!”

“...what?”

“I’ll marry you, idiot.”

Chuuya couldn’t say that he didn’t enjoy the dumbstruck expression on the mackerel's face. It made up for… agreeing to marry him what the heck was Chuuya thinking?

He obviously wasn’t, but he couldn’t take it back now.

“We’ll have a proper wedding,” he threatened, “I want everyone to see your embarrassment.”

Dazai’s face fell. Of course, the jerk had probably predicted this, but Chuuya still got satisfaction. It would be short lived, as the two were getting married and- seriously, what had Chuuya just agreed to?

***

The proposal that had ruined his life was a week ago. Dazai and Chuuya were officially engaged, although no one other than Atsushi and Akutagawa knew that yet.

Dazai had stopped by a cleanly looking jewelry store on his way to the Lupin bar. Who knew there were shops this nice in this part of the city? It was a first for Dazai. From his and Chuuya’s money combined, the two of them could afford a big wedding ceremony, and of course, Chuuya had insisted on it. So why not go all out and get some rings too.

As he wandered through the shop, idly examining the ring displays, an elderly woman at the till caught his eye. She gave him a warm smile.

“Hello there, young man,” she greeted. “Looking for something special?”

Dazai thought about brushing her off, but returned the smile instead.

“Yeah, wedding rings.”

Her eyebrows lifted, pleasantly surprised. “Well now, aren’t you a bit young for that? But good on you. It’s lovely to see someone finding love so early.”

Love , right. Because that’s totally what he and Chuuya had.

“Just give me a shout if you need a hand deciding,” she added, turning back to her till with a cheery nod.

Dazai smiled half heartedly and continued on his way.

The streets seemed dreary, distorted by the rain pouring down, thudding against roofs and sliding off windows. The streets were covered in puddles. Dazai focused on looking down and kicking the splashing water lying across the alleys. He only looked up when he arrived at the flickering sign belonging to Lupin Bar.

***

Oda looked up monotonically as Dazai entered the bar, his face ajar with emotion, shock and confusion flitting around his figure like small birds.

“What happened?” he inquired, watching as his words got through the smoke that was Dazai’s thoughts.

The bandaged boy stared him in the eyes, the emptiness in them flickering with an unidentifiable emotion, “I got engaged.”

“Really?”

Doubt crawled in through the corners of his mind, this teen getting engaged? The teen filled with nothing but depression, the teen that adults fled away from in fear? Binding his life to another? 

It was an almost unthinkable development.

“To Chuuya.”

The thought slid into place in Oda’s mind. With the look on Dazai’s face when he talked about the boy, you would quickly realise that they were prominent in each other's lives. The younger had once mentioned he owned 27 books filled with things he despised about the one he referred to as ‘the chibi.’

Love apparently had a strange sense of humour.

It was a little confusing, but it seemed that they had been in love this whole time, which made little more sense.

“Congratulations.” the read-head intoned.

Dazai whined, “Nooo, Odasakuuu… I asked him for a bet and as soon as he heard I could lose money through it he accepted!”

Oda nodded along to the younger's complaints. That… actually made sense as well.

“Except I’m not actually losing money. I made up the bet. I wanted to see what he would do.”

…Of course he did. Well, that was Dazai’s business, and Oda didn’t make it a habit to intrude on things that were none of his business.

***

“Lad,” Kouyou scolded Chuuya as soon as the news was broken to her, “You can do better than him!”

Chuuya rolled his eyes, “Yeah, but think about it, I can always get a divorce.”

“You need a valid reason for a divorce and I don’t think they’ll just accept ‘because we wanted to.’”

Chuuya buried his face in his hands, “I knoow, but I’m trying to pretend that I won’t regret this decision for the rest of my life.”

His voice came out muffled.

This reaction was to be expected. Chuuya had always come to her with his complaints about his partner, and now the two teens are getting married? It didn’t really make sense, but then, the two had been different ever since Dazai had turned eighteen. Did something happen on that day that I’m not aware of?

It would make sense if something had happened, especially with the new apprentice the two ‘found’ in an orphanage and taken in. Chuuya was now training a 15 year old that could turn into a tiger under the moonlight. They were making progress on taming his ability, but nothing really worked so far. Kouyou often worried if the 19 year old was too young to be a mentor figure to a 15 year old, completely ignoring that she had been the same age when Chuuya had been placed under her care.

“So what happened?” she settled on asking.

Chuuya rolled his eyes, “He snuck up on me and said we should get married. I was going to say no, but he told me he had some sort of bet.”

He smirked, “He lost money from me agreeing, so I said yes.”

The elegant woman sighed. That was a very Chuuya thing to do.

“So, when’s the wedding?”

“We don’t actually know yet…”

Kouyou sighed again, “Do you need help planning?”

“No?” Chuuya scoffed, “We literally got engaged last week, we’ve had like, no time to think about this!”

“If you say so…”

The doubt in Kouyou’s words could be heard through the thick silence.

***

The day of the wedding bloomed in early June, just a few weeks before Dazai’s nineteenth birthday. The day was sunny and warm, a contrast to the spring storms that they had been subjected to for the past few months. Everything had been going to plan, although Dazai was somewhat disappointed that he couldn’t invite the agency members due to not having met them yet in this timeline.

Dazai walked down the aisle, clothed in a black kimono, instead of the traditional white. On the way down he stuck his tongue out at Mori, who pouted, but couldn’t do anything about the disrespect lest he ruin the ceremony that bound his strongest assets together.

The two had decided that Dazai would take on the role of the bride, mainly because Chuuya wanted to embarrass him, and as according to him, it was Dazai’s fault that he was in this situation, he got to wear the kimono and walk down the aisle.

The kimono Dazai was wearing was all black, defying traditional wedding colouring. It had embroidery all around the hems, red swirls and markings that resembled something, but none of the guests could put a finger on it. Chuuya was clothed in all black as well, although that was the custom for the groom. His outfit had embroidery swirling in familiar blue circles from his left shoulder.

The location that they had chosen was a Shinto shrine that was looked after by the Port Mafia, mainly because most priests refused to marry mafiosos. For obvious reasons.

The two of them stood side by side at the front of the crowd of people, being careful to avoid eye contact. Before the wedding began, they had to go through the purification process, cleaning their hands and mouths.

The two of them may be mafiosos and be getting married on a bet, but they still wanted to partially follow custom.

The next custom they were supposed to be doing was one that was sometimes called the ‘Sake Exchange.’

The idea was that they each took three sips from three cups of sake, to symbolise their past, present and future together. Dazai had vetoed this, because, in his words, “The chibi is too much of a lightweight to handle that much.”

Of course, Chuuya had punched him, but no changes were made to the arrangement, mainly because Chuuya had already gotten Dazai to be the one walking up the aisle.

The rest of the ceremony had continued traditionally, with most of the traditions being followed. Chuuya had been made to pinch Dazai’s arms multiple times to stop his attention from wandering. 

***

Standing around after the wedding was Akutagawa, drink in hand. He glanced around uncomfortably at all the people. His coworkers, all in formal wear and chatting animably. Even his sister!

Meanwhile, there he was, out of place, drink in hand, not even wearing his usual coat.

He kept a careful eye on Gin, who was talking (teasing) a new recruit what was his name again… Tani- no, Tachihara.  

The boy with the bandaged strip was apparently a Hunting Dog undercover, if the last few loops were to be believed, and had just started working alongside Gin as a battalion leader of the Black Lizard. Akutagawa decided that it would be best to keep an eye on him. 

The wedding had been an unexpected twist to this loop, and honestly, Akutagawa could see the Jinko teasing Dazai-san for this for the rest of the loop. 

Speaking of the Jinko, he was coming this way.

A quick glance at Gin showed that she was watching, as she had learnt early on how interesting the interactions between the duo could be.

Atsushi sidled up to him, his drink in hand.

“Hi.”

Akutagawa blinked. If he had expected a different greeting, he was mistaken. Of course the Jinko would be so socially inept as to start a conversation with ‘hi.’ (Akutagawa ignored the fact that this was a standard greeting)

He was about to argue with the 15 year old, when he was stared in the face with those… ugly purple and yellow eyes.

“The wedding was fun,” Jinko started, and although Akutagawa internally agreed that it was an interesting change of pace, on the outside he just narrowed his eyes at the smirking teen.

“You ever think,” the Jinko flippantly asked, “that we should get married?”

Akutagawa choked on his drink. Of all the things he had expected from this conversation, this had not been one of them. 

Did Atsushi just imply that they should get married? Why, how- what brought this on?

At the current moment, they were both underage, did he mean that they should get married when the Jinko turns eighteen in three years, or now, or in a different loop or-

The Black Hellhound of the Port Mafia stole a look at his sister, who was holding in laughter, possibly because she had known this was coming, possibly because she thought it was funny. Gin and Atsushi got along unfairly well in Akutagawa’s opinion.

Of course they had probably planned something like this to see his reaction. They thought it was funny. That was so in character for his sister that he couldn’t even be mad at her. Atsushi on the other hand…

The weretiger smiled a little, and like the jerk he was, disappeared into the crowd, leaving Akutagawa with his thoughts.

***

Chuuya scowled at the menace that had turned up at his apartment at 2 in the morning.

He complained loudly to the man, “Get out of my house!”

“Uh, uh, uh! It’s our house now. Comes with being married.”

“I’m filing for divorce.”

“Under what properties?” Dazai asked.

“I found out that you were in the mafia and wanted nothing to do with you?”

“Chibi, has your hat eaten one too many brain cells? You’re in the mafia too~” Chuuya tried to punch Dazai as the mafioso flicked his forehead.

“Admit it! You’re stuck with me~” Dazai trilled.

Chuuya sank into his seat and screamed into his hands.

Chapter Text

“Aaargh!” Dazai screamed like the dramatic person he was as Chuuya hit him across the face.

“Don’t die, IDIOT!” Chuuya hissed, “We just got used to this loop!” 

Dazai died with a smile on his lips and an angry red head swearing at him.

***

Chuuya blinked himself awake, patterns dancing on the back of his eyelids. 

First things first, he thought to himself , figure out what age I am this time.

He stretched as he hauled himself off… the couch? Why wasn’t he in a bed? Whatever, I can pay attention to that later.

As soon as he was up, he felt the foggy sleep evaporate from his mind. As he walked to the bathroom to figure out what on earth was going on in this loop. He absentmindedly fiddled with his wrist, which seemed to have some sort of itchy material surrounding it. He only realised what he was doing when he hissed and pulled his hands away. 

What had happened?

He dragged himself through the bathroom door, feeling the refreshing chill that always seemed to linger in the room. He flicked the lights on, but hesitated before looking into the mirror. 

Did he really want to know what was going on this time? What if he had somehow contracted a disease and found himself covered in boils?

Chuuya exhaled heavily, and thought about rolling his eyes at his paranoid thoughts. He readied himself to see what was making him feel so terrible. 

Three… two… one … he opened his eyes. And–

“Oh.”

That was worse than boils.

Where was his azure eyes and brightly coloured hair? All he could see was an annoyingly familiar face and a mop of hair that somehow passed as ‘styled.’

Chuuya subconsciously lifted his hand and just let it hover in front of the mirror. Partly to see if this was real, partly out of shock.

Where was him? All he could see was Dazai’s irritating face. Chuuya was sure he was still Chuuya, but what if he wasn’t Chuuya, what if he was actually Dazai and had been…

Been what. 

Chuuya clinked and his reflection blinked back at him with the same stupidly sleepy eye that Dazai usually had. Even the way he was standing was annoying– slouching in a way that just wasn’t him .

Chuuya sighed, smushing his—no Dazai’s— face into his hands. Apparently, the loop had gone from being bearable to being an absolute nightmare. Dazai died, thinking it would play out like normal, well nope that had been crushed by whatever ability had trapped them in here in the first place.

Chuuya was in Dazai’s body, and if Chuuya was in Dazai’s body, that could only mean that–

“Hello!” 

Chuuya cringed at the familiar voice. His voice. He really, really didn’t want to turn around. But he had to didn’t he? Dazai never got up this early, so it had to have been important.

The now-brunet mentally sighed and turned in horror to witness that as he thought, Dazai(?) had woken up. And come out to greet him. 

So Chuuya was the only one having a breakdown over this. Nice. Totally reasonable. He should try to calm down, breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out… hyperventilation? Never heard of it. 

“Wha– how can you be so calm about this? ” Chuuya hissed at the man. 

Dazai looked at him like he had grown a second head, “...Because this is funny?”

It was very much not funny to Chuuya.

“No? Do you know what this means? What is happening with this loop! Why am I in your body? What happened, has there been a glitch in the loop? This isn’t how this is supposed to go!”

Dazai barely flicked an eye, “We’re in a time loop, Chuuya. That’s not a natural thing. I feel like this is the most helpful thing that has happened in a while.”

“How,” Chuuya demanded, glaring at the now shorter man.

“It tells us that the loop is breaking.”

“ And–? ”

“Think about it a little, Chuuya,” Dazai sighed, “The loop is breaking so…?”

Hope returned to Chuuya’s mind, “So we might be able to get out soon? Back to our timeline?”

Dazai nodded a little.

Chuuya exhaled a breath of relief. When they had first started looping, they decided that they wouldn’t take it too seriously, they would try to keep themselves interested, and that they would try to find their way back. But now, the loop was doing it for them, and they finally had a solid clue on how to get back.

Kind of.

“Well, it’s either that,”

Dazai stretched, shrugging.

“…or we all die.”

Chuuya broke out of his thoughts, staring at Dazai dumbfounded for a second. It felt like his thoughts were broken, unavailable. We all–

“HAAH?”

Dazai smirked in a way that looked unfairly like Dazai, even on Chuuya’s face. So Chuuya can only make Dazai-like expressions but dazai could somehow twist Chuuya’s face into his expressions?

The infuriating man then turned and exited the room.

 Chuuya sighed at the idiot, but followed quickly. His body didn’t move in the same way his own usually moved after sleeping in an awkward position. The joints felt… looser and almost agile. Chuuya had to hold himself back from scoffing. As if the mackerel had earned that.

The now-brunet stopped himself from psycho-analysing everything that he came into contact with and looked down (and wasn’t that an experience) at the other. 

Well, he wasn’t wrong when he called me a chibi… Chuuya thought. It appeared to be that they were about 18 years of age, back when Dazai had only been 14 cm taller than Chuuya rather than 21 cm ( yes, Chuuya had paid attention). 

Well, Chuuya could still enjoy it well it lasted. He leaned his elbow on Dazai’s shoulder, watching the realisation flicker in his eyes.

“ Eww , a slug touched meeee,” he whined as he made efforts to get Chuuya’s elbow off where it was resting on his shoulder.

“Deal with it,” Chuuya told him smugly. There was one good thing about this terrible situation after all.

Dazai flailed around trying to push his partners arm off his shoulder, annoyance flickering beneath his eyes.

But Chuuya knew what this was like now, and he was never going to let Dazai forget it.

***

“Dazai-san!” Atsushi had yelled as he watched his mentor die. 

Bracing himself for the next loop, he tensed his body, squeezing his eyes shut, only to be met with… warmth?

He cracked his eye open a little, peering around the dark room he was in. It was a far cry from the stuffy cell he lived in in the orphanage. 

This vaguely familiar place had curtain and heating and doors not barred spaces that resemble an illegal torture chamber more than anything.

This loop- he had never woken up like this in a loop before, in a nice room, warm and rested and–

–And with trouble breathing. Nice. Just great.

So in exchange for decent living conditions he got physical discomfort.

Looking around the apartment, Atsushi felt like scratching his head in confusion. The apartment was distinctly familiar, the peeling red colour scheme, the layout, the breathing coming from the next room… the breathing coming from the next room.

Cautiously, the weretiger climbed from where he was lay. He tiptoed through the room, paying mind to the scarce carpets and eerie feel of the room. The light pouring through the curtained windows creating a glow that wouldn’t look out of place in a horror film. As he steadily got closer to the door, he noticed that he was wearing something a lot heavier than what he usually would. 

Whatever, he dismissed it, can’t be too important if I haven’t noticed it by now.

Yeah, he had learned nothing from being a detective. Always scope out your surroundings.

Well, technically he was investigating the mysterious breathing person next door. 

He reaches the door, and places his shaky hand out.

“Woah!” the door was unlocked. As he had just discovered through the loud creek that echoed through the house the second he touched the door.

Atsushi froze at the sound of something stirring next door, “...Ryuu?”

What, Ryuu? But… that’s what Gin calls Akutagawa? She thinks I’m Akutagawa? Wait… is that why this place is so familiar?

Frantically whipping his head around, Atsushi looked at the room in a new light. The peeling red wall paper, the coat rack that was always there but never used, the scrappy carpets that were probably dug out of the trash despite the man having enough money to pay for new ones.

All the clues were there, but… where was Akutagawa? Why was it Atsushi that woke up here?

But… the trouble breathing… isn’t that something that Akutagawa had struggled with? Something about his ability?

Atsushi tried to respond to the girl in the next room, but his voice caught in his throat, wet and sticky. It was a voice for sure, but it wasn’t his voice. It had a raspy edge, and a distinct feeling of superiority emitting from the sound of it.

Suddenly hyper-aware of his situation, Atsushi moved his hand in front of his face. His fingers were thinner, and his skin tone was more sickly. And now that he thought about it… his bangs felt different, and his (admittedly lopsided) fringe was non existent. 

Had the loop… malfunctioned? That would make the most sense. All Atsushi knew was that he needed to find the others, preferably as soon as possible. He didn’t really know where he was, or when he was. It was a disorienting feeling to be sure. 

And Akutagawa , oh no, the mafioso would be waking up… in an orphanage, in a cell. Guess one of them really got the short end of the stick. Well, that is… if Akutagawa even did swap bodies with him and wasn’t just floating in the void.

Wow, Atsushi thought grimly, look who’s just a ray of sunshine today.

“Ryuu?” a thick voice asked. 

Aaaand Atsushi had forgotten that Gin was there.

After an awkward explanation that had the younger assassin looking at him like he’d just announced he was a human from Mars and everyone else on Earth was a brainwashed alien, Atsushi escaped the house and fled toward Chuuya-san’s apartment.

Hopefully both him and Dazai-san would be there. 

Knocking on the door to the apartment, Atsushi waited, fidgeting nervously in familiar ways that didn’t suit his unfamiliar body. Picking at his too short fingernails, playing with the hem of his coat and tapping his feet when a racket boomed from in the apartment.

So both of them were there. 

Atsushi started pinching the coats fabric between his fingers and playing with it, if only to ignore the shouting from inside the apartment. Surprisingly it seemed to be Dazai-san that was doing the yelling, judging on whose voice he could hear.

Just as Atsushi was starting to lose hope, the door creaked open, and there stood the familiar bandage wrapped man that Atsushi was looking for.

“Dazai-san!” the weretiger winced at the unfamiliar voice.

“Ah, no, Akutagawa-kun, I’m actually Chuuya, there’s been a mix up.”

“Ok, Chuuya-san,” Atsushi took the change in stride, “That’s actually why I’m here. See… I’m not Akutagawa. I’m Atsushi.”

Atsushi could practically see the annoyance in Chuuya-san’s eyes (he was only mostly sure it wasn’t directed at him) “Oi, Dazai,” he yelled, “It’s happened to the kids too!”

As if a switch was flicked, suddenly there was Dazai-san. Or Chuuya-san. One of the two, but from the grinning expression on the short gingers face, Atsushi could confirm that yes, this was Dazai-san. 

“Hi Atsushi-kun!!” Dazai grinned.

Atsushi nervously smiled back, a little scared for whatever his mentor had in mind, already reeling at the complete weirdness of having Chuuya-san make the same faces that Dazai-san usually would. It was completely throwing him off, and that probably wasn’t a good thing when they needed to plan and get Akutagawa away from the orphanage.

“Okay brat, just come in,” Chuuya grunted at Atsushi who crossed the threshold into the apartment quickly, grateful that the two had believed him so easily.

Sitting down at the table, Atsushi looked at the other two in the room with him, “We need to get Akutagawa out of there.”

Daz– Chuuya-san raised an eyebrow at his directness, “I thought you hated Akutagawa?”

It was phrased as a question but Atsushi could hear that it was anything but.

“He’s at the orphanage and- and- that place is terrible ,” Atsushi played with the hem of his coat, twisting the fabric between frantic fingers, “No one deserves that… not even Akutagawa.”

Least of all Akutagawa, was what he thought, and judging by Dazai-sans teasing look, he knew it as well. 

“We need to get him out of there.”