Chapter Text
The world is boring.
At least, that’s all Dazai can feel about it; even at the ripe old age of thirteen, he’s already come to the conclusion that there’s not really a purpose to living. Death is, in its own way, more interesting, even if only because people seem to avoid talking about it, like it’s some societal taboo; they grieve and mourn and do everything in their power to prolong their life, as if it will matter in the end. As if all the medical supplements and exercise in the world could overcome the body’s natural weakening, as if biology could simply be reversed or ignored if you want it enough.
He’s been called a genius even at his age, but he doesn’t value the title much. It seems like the adults around him only want to heap more responsibility on him because of it, including his parents. They’re wealthy, they have a smart son who can be exceptionally charming when he likes, except, ah, he has that one little bad habit of trying to kill himself whenever he stands a decent chance at succeeding. That isn’t the only thing, really, but it’s the reason he meets Mori, and even though he’s polite and knowledgeable about his job, Dazai can tell he’s not an average person at a glance. There’s just something about him... The way his subtle manipulation of Dazai’s parents is rather similar to Dazai’s own, the way the charming veneer sometimes shifts just enough for Dazai can see something dark lurking underneath.
It doesn’t bother him or anything, of course. If anything, he might be a little curious, but at the same time it makes it rather difficult to trust the “good doctor”, no matter how much his parents and Mori alike try to reach out to him, try to find the cause of his suicidal tendencies. He’s told them over and over it’s because living is pointless, and his parents are now... Rather nervous around him, in some ways, but Dazai doesn’t really care. They’re not particularly abusive or anything, and although they travel often, it isn’t as though Dazai minds being alone - well, mostly alone, anyway, minus the servants who he’s mostly convinced through one method or another to ignore him when his parents aren’t around - so there are plenty of people in worse-off situations than him who surely have more reason to be depressed. But of course, that’s not how it works, and Dazai refuses to take any medications for it, both because he doesn’t believe they’ll make a difference in the long run and because he doesn’t trust Mori.
So, he often... “Wanders away” from his home, one could call it. The first time it happened, his mother had panicked after a day and practically the whole town had been mustered to form a search party; it had been amusing, evading them all for a while before stepping out in front of one group acting perfectly innocent, as if he hadn’t known they were searching for him. His parents had hugged him tight and all of that, but it hadn’t meant anything. He hadn’t been in danger, and he made sure to tell them that, because although he wouldn’t mind dying - well, that is, perhaps, an understatement - he truly had only wished to explore, that time.
So his parents assigned him a driver, which was convenient for a time, but soon enough the knowledge that he was being observed everywhere he went, and all of his locations reported back to his parents... It hadn’t taken much to bribe the driver out of that, though. He was a man who wasn’t particularly fond of children, so Dazai had simply cut to the heart of it and told him that it’d be more comfortable for both of them if the man just took off after dropping Dazai off somewhere and came back a few hours later. He made sure to always be back to their appointed meeting spot on time, never causing any trouble for the man that would make him want to go back to his closer observations, so they never had any trouble.
Until now, anyway.
Because now that Dazai’s discovered more, his unchaperoned escapes having been plenty of time to learn about the seedy underbelly of the city he lives in, and now he’s curious. He’d taken some money from his parents’ safe this morning, as they’re overseas at a conference, and there’s really no better time to explore a little further. He’ll probably still go home at some point, if only because he hadn’t really planned much for running away today, but he’ll decide that later, depending on what he finds, most likely.
What he finds is more than he expected, though.
Stumbling across two gangs fighting down by the docks certainly wasn’t what he had in mind. It’s a secluded area, which isn’t surprising, far from civilians and the police, but that’s exactly the sort of place Dazai was looking for. He’d been looking for trouble, more or less, and it seems as though he’d found it, though he’d hoped for less ‘gang war’ and more ‘drug pushers’ or some such thing.
Not that he’s going to be particularly fussy about the details.
There’s a group of... Well, they look like children, around his age, some a little older, some possibly a bit younger, presumably orphans, and the adults they’re apparently fighting don’t seem to have any qualms about that. It’s clear the children are losing, but Dazai can tell they haven’t given in without a fight, and what strikes him the most is the feeling in the air; he can’t confirm it without either seeing it or touching someone, but he’s quite certain nevertheless that at least some of the people involved in this fight are ability users.
Dazai isn’t one to care about the suffering of others, but, well, he’d been seeking something thrilling, and this is an interesting thing indeed, creating a strange sensation in his chest. He wants to interfere. He could help the orphans, or he could be cruel and help the adults... It’s a good chance to test his so-called genius either way.
So Dazai observes a little longer.
The man is alone and unarmed, which means he must be one of the ability users in the room, because even though they’re children, there’s enough of them that they could still be a threat, especially because Dazai can see that some of them are armed. None of them have more than knives, but those are plenty lethal against one adult, especially with their numbers, so there’s obviously something leveling the playing field here, or else the adult wouldn’t have been stupid enough to take them on.
There’s a tension that builds in the air, just before, and Dazai sees - and takes - his moment to strike, dashing out from his hiding spot, startling the man, but doing so doubly when Dazai grabs his arm, blue light enveloping them as Dazai grins, menacing. The child who was at the front doesn’t miss their chance, the man too surprised - and pissed off - by Dazai’s sudden appearance to keep the children in mind, and it’s his downfall, the knife sliding between his ribs with the ease that shows the kid’s done that kind of thing more times than they can likely count.
The man turns back like he’s going to try and lash out again, but the knife is quick, twisting hard, spurting blood all over the kid - well, teenager, now that Dazai’s getting a closer look - and it’s such an interesting sight that Dazai doesn’t bother looking away even as the man slumps to the ground, Dazai simply letting go of his wrist so he can fall unhindered. It’s not the first time he’s seen a dead body - he’s been to a funeral before, his grandfather having died not even quite two years ago - but it is his first time seeing such a freshly dead body.
It’s interesting.
The teenager springs back, though, agile, clearly on the defensive. “Who are you?”
Dazai blinks, finally turning his eyes away from the red pool spreading around the body, to give the teen a look. “Someone who knows it’s only polite to introduce themselves before demanding someone else’s name.”
The teen bristles at that, and for a moment Dazai wonders if that knife will be turned on him, but then another one of the kids comes up and catches the first teen’s sleeve. “He did just save us...”
“Doesn’t mean anything,” the teen replies, but ruffles the boy’s hair as if to reassure him, still watching Dazai warily. “... Why did you interfere? Who are you with?”
“I interfered... Because I was bored,” Dazai answers, honestly, “and I’m not with anyone.” He could have lied and said he was there to make it so that the children owed him - they must be part of some larger group - but he doesn’t know enough about this underworld just yet to name names or anything. “Shouldn’t you just be grateful?”
The knife lowers at that, although the teen still looks suspicious. “We are, but that doesn’t mean we trust you. If you’re not with another group, and you come in dressed like that... You’re pretty clearly not an orphan, or else you’re lying about not being with another group. What do you mean you’re bored?”
Well, no harm in telling him that much. “The world is boring,” Dazai starts, “but I suppose you’ll probably get mad at me for being so flippant about it when you’re all trying so hard to survive. I have the kind of life most of you have probably dreamed of at one point or another... Decent parents, lots of money, servants that would wait on me hand and foot if I wanted them to, but it’s boring. There’s nothing challenging or interesting, and I don’t care about the money. In fact, here,” he says, pulling out the wad of cash he’d stolen earlier and tossing about half of it to the teenager, “have that. And no, I’m not being a good Samaritan, I considered helping the dead guy, too. I just figured it would be more interesting to see what you would do... You reacted quickly despite not quite knowing what my ability did, or having any reason to trust me. I could have been helping him by pretending like he didn’t know me to trick you to get closer, for all you know.”
The teen flinches, and Dazai grins as he continues. “You hadn’t even thought of it, had you? You seem like a capable fighter and all, but you’re used to just running on instincts, aren’t you? You saw a chance, so you took it, and you didn’t even think of any other possibilities. Are you the leader? That’s pretty reckless~”
The teenager is back to looking pissed off, and now the rest of the kids look more defensive again too, but Dazai merely dusts himself off. “I’m not a fighter, as you can probably tell, so it’s not like I’m really a threat. I’m unarmed. I do assure you that my parents would hunt you down if I went missing, though, so why don’t we make a deal?”
That seems to finally startle the teenager out of his anger, but he only scoffs after a moment, incredulous. “Why the hell would you want to make a deal with us?”
“Well, you see, I’m curious about the underground in this city. I already said my life is boring, right? But I’m good at planning. I don’t particularly care about it, but I’ve been called a genius for as long as I can remember. Why don’t you tell me about the city, and I’ll teach you better tactics for surviving?”
“We don’t need it. This isn’t our whole group, and there’s a guy who could have wiped the floor with this fucker without breaking a sweat. We were just stalling until he came back.”
Interesting. “Should you be telling me that?”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re not a threat to him, and you’re not a threat to us, either. Consider the information payback for helping us out, if you want.” The teen looks at the money in his hands as if he’s considering whether or not to keep it - ah, they must not be quite as badly off as Dazai assumed, then, if he’s even considering it - but then shoves it in his pocket. “And the money.”
“Surely my saving you is worth more than that, let alone you keeping the money.”
The teen mostly just looks annoyed now, which is probably an improvement as far as Dazai’s physical safety goes. Not that he was particularly worried about it or anything, having known he could have talked his way out of it if it’d come down to it. “We’re not just gonna blab to some random rich kid who’s bored, even if you saved us. Just go home. You’re not like us and you shouldn’t want to be.”
“Then, I’ll just have to run away from home, I guess?”
“Huh?!”
“There’s no real reason for me not to.”
That just makes the teen pause, then laugh, like he can’t quite believe what he’s hearing. At least he’s even more relaxed now. “God, you’re seriously screwed up in the head, aren’t you? Fine, if you want to join us so badly,” which Dazai actually hadn’t said he wanted, and wasn’t honestly that interested in, but he’s listening, at least, “then you can join us on a trial basis. You don’t even have to leave that cushy house of yours, at least not yet. If you wanna see what it’s like in our day to day, then fine, keep coming here at around this time... This isn’t our main hideout, of course, but I’m not stupid enough to tell you where it actually is, so just meet us here instead.”
Dazai considers it. He hadn’t really meant to join some random gang, and it wasn’t really his intention to run away from home - at least not just yet - but... If it’s just a trial run, then if it’s boring, he can always just ditch them. “Aren’t you worried that I’ll just learn about you and sell you out to someone else?”
“You’re definitely the kind of guy that’s capable of it, but nah. We’ll keep an eye on you, too.”
Dazai’s not really worried about that; he has security and such at his house as well, of course, and even his chauffeur will immediately report it to the police if Dazai doesn’t return within probably a few hours of their scheduled meeting time. He’s really not worried about it, and as long as he doesn’t give this gang any reason to suspect him - especially given the fact that he’s helping them out, at least for now - he doesn’t imagine they’ll be hostile towards him, or try to rob him or anything. Even if they did have that kind of thing in mind, the security at his house... Is really good. It would be quite a bad idea to attempt it.
Part of him still wants to decline, because it sounds like exactly the sort of thing that will end up becoming more trouble than it’s worth, but, well... It isn’t like he has anything better to do, either, and this will certainly give him more chances to be around the dark side of the city, and see potentially interesting things. If nobody will speak candidly about death, then Dazai will observe it firsthand. “... Hm, alright then, I suppose that sounds reasonable.”
The teenager nods, grinning. “Then, I’m Shirase. I’m close enough to being the leader, but we keep things pretty diplomatic here, so I’ll have to actually talk to some others before I can really extend that offer properly, but I’m sure they won’t object, since it’s just on a trial basis, and they can just kill you if you try something.”
“Well, I do want to die, but that sounds painful, so I’ll pass,” Dazai says, blunt, not bothering to hide that little fact from the others. There’s no point; some of the kids are younger than him, and they’re probably all rather tactless, so it sounds less troublesome to simply get out in front of it now. “My name is Dazai, then. I’m sure I’ll get to know the rest of you over time, so don’t worry about introducing yourselves just yet.”
Shirase nods, and he and the children seem to be completely relaxed now. Dazai still thinks it’s not the wisest of them, but he gives them a charming smile regardless. “With that being said, I should be heading back to the city soon. Do with the money what you will.”
The ragtag group moves almost as one as Shirase tilts his head, the rest of them getting to their feet. “You going to be okay for this time tomorrow? Or wanna make it earlier?”
“This time is fine, I’ll just come out later than I did today.”
“Alright. Tomorrow, then,” Shirase says, finally re-sheathing his knife properly, then flicking his head in the direction of the door, clearly non-verbally telling Dazai to leave first. He doesn’t know enough about this one yet to decide for certain how likely it is that he’ll get a knife in the back, but Dazai steps forward regardless. So long as it killed him, it wouldn’t really matter.
Nothing happens, though, Dazai leaving completely unscathed, with only the feeling of multiple sets of eyes watching him intently.
Well, hopefully this will help alleviate the boredom somewhat, even if only for a while. He’ll decide whether or not to sell them all out later, depending on how much they entertain him. He wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s “looking forward” to it, but… Perhaps there’s a bit of interest, at the very least.
For the sake of their safety, the gang had better hope it lasts.