Work Text:
"How is it? Death."
Dazai's eye flickered, an abyss of darkness staring briefly at two hazel pits before returning to observe the dull sun.
"Calm. Everything is peaceful. There's nothing and no one to bother me. It's... boring."
Dazai blinked. "Boring? Being with Odasaku brought the same feelings. It was never boring with him."
The ghost shook his head. "It wasn't. But that's because we were surrounded by the hecticness of life and its fast pace. By people who brought chaos. By the sun."
"The sun...," the man followed Dazai's stare, landing on a bound redhead.
After his boss' death, Chuuya had hone bersek, unleashing Arahabaki Upon the city. The Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia had somehow managed to restrain him after half an hour of continuous rampage, when his body had been thoroughly weakened. Still, Arahabaki remained in control, no one having the means to stop Corruption. Chuuya occasionally twitched, white, hazy eyes looking at things humans couldn't see.
"Why didn't you save him?"
"...what?"
"You know what I'm talking about." Upon being met with silence, the ghost sighed and explained in a blando tone. "You saved Akutagawa, you saved Atsushi, you saved Odasaku, in some ways, you even saved Mori. Why not Chuuya? You could've made it so that he wasn't taken by the government when he was a kid. That way, he probably wouldn't have ended in Yokohama at all."
Dazai nodded. "That's true. But... aah. I'm selfish, you know?"
The dead frowned.
The detective chuckled, "You probably don't understand. If you had my Chuuya, you would get it."
"Your Chuuya?"
Dazai glared at him. "My world's version of Chuuya."
"That's not what you meant." But the living was already walking away, leaving the ghost in a cold, peaceful darkness.
Dazai turned back to Chuuya. "Besides-"
He got up from his crouched position, leisurely walking towards the redhead.
"-I can understand just fine."
He leaned down, pressing a fleeting kiss against fiery hair.
Deep, red, swirly burns faded slowly from Chuuya's skin and bleary blue eyes blinked a couple of times.
The ghost left, the warmth of a rising sun scorching his back.