Why did life hate him? What did he ever do wrong? Okay, maybe being in the mafia implied kinda doing wrong things, but he wasn't, like taking over the world or any villain shit like that. So yeah, he did nothing worse enough to justify being stuck in a mission with shitty Dazai. This was extremely unfair and that jackass even dared to complain as if Chuuya was the unbearable person here.

"Come here, Chibi, come here," Dazai's voice was a few octaves higher than normal, bending his knees and hands happily slapping his thigh in a mocking manner, to mimic calling a fucking dog. He was standing maybe five meters ahead of him and Chuuya already wanted to lose his shit. But killing Dazai right now would certainly interfere with their mission. Sadly.

"Shut the fuck up," he gritted through his teeth as he caught up with the detective and decided to hit the bandage waster. Because he had to do something to let out his inner rage.

"Ow, bad dog!" Dazai declared with a fake pout. The redhead tried to hit him again, but this time the taller one easily dodged the attack, laughing a little.

"So where is this ability user hiding?" Chuuya decided it would be for the best if he just talked about  work-related stuff. The sooner they finished this shit the better. For both of them. Because if Dazai kept going on like this, Chuuya would kill him eventually in a very, very painful way.

"He has a little cabin in the woods." And of course the fucker had one, because nothing bad ever happens in a cabin in the woods. This mission just kept getting better and better. "We aren't really sure what his ability does so it's just a safety measure that we are tracking him down here, in order not to involve innocent bystanders." It was disgusting to hear Dazai declare that it was safer that way for bystanders, because he used to not give a shit about that. He used to shoot someone again and again even if they were already dead just for the feel of it. So this felt so wrong, to say the least. A smaller part in Chuuya was glad for this development, but he pushed that part down, together with other thoughts and feelings he didn't want to think about, that only ever surfaced when he was completely wasted.

"Cabin in the woods, huh? Just great," he commented and knew it was a mistake, even before Dazai decided to open his stupid mouth.

"Naw, is Chibi scared?" He teased and the redhead didn't even need to see the smirk, because it was audible in his voice. "Don't worry, you are so small, he can't even see you!" He declared as if that was supposed to make Chuuya happy.

"I hope you get killed—"

"Oh, Chuuya, that's so nice—"

"—in a very painful and agonizing way," he finished and couldn't help but smirk slightly as he saw the happy expression on Dazai's face morph into a frown.

"—You are so mean," the tall idiot next to him cried and Chuuya already felt a headache coming.

"You started it."

"Did not."

"Did do."

"Did not, I am an absolute delight," he stated and Chuuya failed to suppress a laugh, which earned him an insulted little scoff.

"You being a delight, damn, that's the funniest shit I have ever heard," he managed to bring out between laughter. Dazai was surprisingly quiet after that. Not that Chuuya was complaining, oh no, this silence was a dream come true. They walked for what felt like five minutes silently until they could see the cabin. "So? 'Flower in the pond'?"

"Oh my, that hat really did eat all of your brain cells, didn't it?" Dazai slowly shook his head in a mocking, disappointing manner, as if Chuuya just told him that the sky was green. "'Clouds in the mountains' is the way to go here, Chibi," Dazai declared with a smirk.

"Are you insane? 'Clouds in the mountains' isn't—"

"Chuuya, please remind me: Did my tactics ever fail?" He asked with a way too smug grin plastered on his stupid face.

"Dammit," the redhead just cursed out and Dazai chuckled.

"That's what I thought."

____

The ability user didn't notice that they just sneaked into his little cabin. He was humming joyfully, while cooking a meal. It smelled good. It made Chuuya realize that he hadn't really had breakfast. He did eat, but it was just a small piece of the pizza he didn't finish yesterday, therefore not really nutritious. But shitty Dazai told him they had to move fast and early and he knew that Dazai didn't joke about stuff when it meant he had to get up early. Not that he liked sleeping, he rarely slept, but simply because he thought it was bothersome leaving or getting up early. So Chuuya really couldn't be bothered to stand up earlier than he already had just to eat. He kinda regretted that decision now.

"So, the Port Mafia and the Agency are really working together?" The man suddenly asked without turning around. "To be quite frank with you, I don't really know why you think I'm a threat. My ability is really not scary." He sighed and then finally turned around. He looked like the classic image of a grandpa: White-grayish hair, big glasses on his nose, wrinkles from laughing and smiling a lot and his frame was not slim, but also not very large. He didn't send off a threatening aura at all, but Chuuya knew better than to let that lure him into false safety. Nothing is worse than to think the enemy in front of you isn't a threat. They didn't know what his ability was capable of. They just knew it was somehow dangerous.

"So people screaming in horror, being completely lost and rummaging through the city on a killing spree is not scary?" Dazai asked, his voice as calm as his entire body language. But his eyes seemed to glow, not in the light the Agency had shown him, no, it was the glow of sunlight being reflected on a frozen lake. A cold shine, seemingly harmless, but step on the lake and you drown in ice water immediately. Seeing Dazai having that look again didn't really ease Chuuya. On the contrary: Now he was even more on edge than he already had been. The old man let out a sigh.

"Really. That's not my fault at all. I'm not controlling whatever they see and I'm not controlling what they do," he explained, sounding really tired all of the sudden. "The only thing I can control is choosing the first person. And honestly, it is to help them."

"A strange way to help," Dazai commented, icy stare still fixed on the ability user.

"They know nothing, right?" The man asked. He clearly meant the Port Mafia and the Agency. "That's why they send you two of all people. Should I take it as an honor that the feared Double Black is standing in front of silly old me as if I'm some sort of real threat?"

"What should they know then, hm?" And as soon as Chuuya said those words, he could feel Dazais cold eyes on him. He knew exactly what he thought: Way to go, Chuuya. Just let him know we know nothing, excellent work. But he really didn't have the nerve for Dazai's interrogation techniques at the moment. Not when he was wearing that beige coat instead of the black one. Not when he was not covering one eye with a bandage. Not when it wasn't the old Dazai. He pushed those thoughts away before they could spiral in an even worse direction. Still the core essence of it all lingered in his thoughts. Not when it wasn't his Dazai who held that icy stare.

"My ability simply shows people what they couldn't puzzle together on their own."

"Care to elaborate?" Chuuya pushed, but the man just smiled.

"Why try to explain when I can just show you?" He lifted his right hand and showed his palm to Chuuya and—

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Dazai's voice contained a smirk. He probably had that smug facial expression that he always had when someone was about to behave exactly as predicted.

—he still held his palm directed at Chuuya. "And why shouldn't I?" He lifted an eyebrow as Dazais smirk probably grew. God, that bastard loved showing off his genius predictions.

"Well, you need two people for your ability to work and, as you just said earlier, you only choose the first person. That means the ability does look for another complementary victim and as of right now, that would be you."

"Oh?" Now the man started to grin, amusement clear in his voice. "Why's that?"

"Well, we are the only people here. Nobody could get caught up in your ability except us three. But I nullify abilities, so basically it's just you and Chibi over here—"

"Bastard, drop that name already."

"—so in other words: You would just target yourself." The man started at Dazai for a few seconds and then he straight up laughed. Loudly. He crouched in on himself, used a hand on the counter to support his frame as his belly began to ache from all the heavy laughter.

"What's so funny?" Chuuya interrupted the laughing fit with a stern voice. He hated being laughed at.

"Nothing really," he said after a while, still fighting against the laughter that bubbled up inside of him. "It's just, you think my ability is restricted by distance. If it only were as simple as that," he looked a little dreamy as he said that, but then he started to laugh a little. "I choose the first person and this first person is technically choosing the other one. It's connected to memories, but really showing you is easier because you may be able to nullify abilities, but only if they directly touch you. But if I activate my ability on your little partner here, it will definitely affect you too, because you two do have a lot of history together, don't you?"

"What does that have to do with anyth—", Chuuya couldn't finish his sentence because light hit him and everything went dark.

____

Well. This wasn't how he wanted to spend his early morning. He sighed and just kept moving the small body in the bed, next to the taller one. They probably had backup or at least a set time for a short report, so he should definitely get the hell out of here. Really, his ability wasn't that harmful, it just depended on what the people did with all the new information they got out of it.

____

He had a fucking headache. He opened his eyes and saw a clear blue sky. That shitty Dazai probably solved everything and left him lying in a fucking field; again.

"I'm going to kill him," he muttered as he got up from the ground and looked around. Strange. He was in the slums. This didn't make any sense. He should be on a clearing in the woods next to the cabin.

»There were a lot of witnesses. I guess he wasn't done with this awful world,« he heard a familiar voice say. But it shouldn't be familiar, because it was way too young. Chuuya's gaze followed the sound of the voice. Dazai stood in the middle of the path between the little houses. A black coat around his shoulders, a bandage around one eye. The old Dazai was standing a few meters away from him. What the hell is happening? Why is there a young Dazai? »Anyways, I'll head back and report in detail—,« something hit Dazai with a lot of force and speed and sent him flying till his back collided with a roof and left him in debris. Chuuya didn't move, but he was somehow standing next to them. He was standing next to the younger versions of Dazai and himself. Dazai was on his back and looking up at Chuuyas younger version, who held Dazai in place with a foot on his stomach, while grinning madly.

»Hahaha! This is good!« He heard his younger version declare, full of mockery and pride. »It's a kid! The Port Mafia must be really desperate for people.« What the fuck is happening? He knew this. It's his own memory. It's his first meeting with Dazai and—

Seems like things suddenly got exciting.

Huh? That was Dazai's voice. Sort of. It sounded a little...clouded? It wasn't as clear as it should be. But Dazai didn't say that back then, no, he said—

»That hurt. I don't like pain, you know.«

—Yes. That's exactly what he said back then. What is happening? Why was he reliving this memory? The younger versions continued the talk that Chuuya already knew. Okay. Maybe touching Dazai could send him back? It was unlikely because the younger versions didn't acknowledge him, therefore he probably couldn't interact with them at all, but it was worth a shot at least. He squatted down and touched the young Dazai. His hand went right through him. Chuuya sighed frustrated. This was that fucker's ability, huh? Sending him back to his memories. Great.

»I'm 15 years old, I'm still growing!« His younger version shouted.

Yeah, he definitely is fun to tease.

Again. Chuuya had heard Dazais clouded voice say something he couldn't remember being said. Are those... his thoughts? Is Chuuya inside of Dazais memories?

»Fufu... I'll give you a curse. I'm also 15 years old, but I'll continue to grow and you won't grow much.«

»There won't be an annoying curse!« His younger version shouted angrily and Chuuya sighed. Maybe Dazai really did curse him. Hopefully that bastard was already working on getting Chuuya out of this fucked up ability.

____

He was in pain. Disgusting. When he opened his eyes, the sky had a clear blue color and he flew through the air.

Stupid Mafia, I'm going to kill them all.

Huh? That was Chuuya's voice, but it sounded off. Something wasn't right. This was probably the control the ability had over people,huh?  Were they already being weaponized? And why was he flying over the slums? This didn't make any sense. He had to think fast, Chuuya could be very dangerous and— Wait. Is that, he squinted his eyes, himself, standing in the slums, talking on his old phone, in his old Mafia attire? Then the kick happened and he was standing next to them. A younger version of Chuuya stood over his own younger version, that lay in the debris of the roof and the wall he just crashed against.

»Hahaha! This is good!« The young Chuuya declared with all the pride and confidence he possessed. »It's a kid! The Port Mafia must be really desperate for people.« The young Chuuya sounded amused.

Why a kid? This isn't— I shouldn't— Maybe the Mafia is forcing him? He looks around my age. Maybe if he gives me a few inside information, I'll spare him and he can join the sheep.

Was that— Was he hearing Chuuyas thoughts? And if so, the younger one really could act totally different to what he was thinking. Because he sure kicked him a lot that day for having thoughts of sparing him. The younger versions started the conversation he already knew. This was his first meeting with Chuuya and when he was stuck in this memory, hearing the Chibi's thoughts, then that meant that the real Chuuya was most likely stuck inside of Dazai's memories and was probably also able to hear his thoughts. He was so screwed. Chuuya would know everything.

Now he really understood why people went berserk after they were hit with the ability. Dazai just wanted to drown himself before Chuuya could talk to him about this shitty experience.

_____

So. He already lived through a lot of their memories. He was watching their younger selves screaming at Mori, because they were supposed to be investigating the former boss thingy. He saw how Dazai walked ahead of him to Randou's house, that was going to explode before they got there. Hearing Dazai saying his weird ass line about liking him when they got along was even more weird with his thoughts being like No, you idiot. Why did you say that? He saw the fight where they -well, younger Chuuya- disposed of the enemies and when Chuuya looked at the younger Dazai's face, he could see past the cold stare of boredom and realized that Dazai low-key stared at him in awe. So weird. Luckily, this time, there weren't any thoughts. Shortly after that, they were talking to Randou. He told them the story and this time he could hear Dazai's thoughts, that it didn't add up and that Randou clearly was lying. Stupid bastard knew from the start.

Right now, he was standing in the arcade. They would come to play against each other so often in this arcade that Chuuya felt a strange feeling of nostalgia wash over him. Right now, Dazai was already setting up that stupid bet when the sheep showed up. They found Chuuya because someone couldn't keep his mouth shut. But the weird part was the thoughts he could hear. He couldn't hear every single thought, thank god, because Dazai was already infuriating without knowing his thoughts. But...his thoughts were...

Disgusting. They are just using him? Can't he see that?

...strangely not that awful? Chuuya thought that he only called them over to make it his end goal to spread mistrust, but apparently Dazai actually, at least to some small amount, cared? The main goal of the bastard was still the mistrust -he had a plan, after all- but it seemed that he was kinda angry at how easy it was to do so?

Those are supposed to be his friends, right? Why are they so naive? Why are they believing anything I say? This is too easy. They cannot be his real friends.

"Lay off him already, Sheep." The young Dazai said and now Chuuya could feel the masked anger. "Chuuya-kun decides how to use his ability, he doesn't need your approval." This is what Dazai really thought. He wasn't patronizing him and he didn't say that for his stupid intrigue, no: this was real. "I found something more important to your talisman, so I'll be taking your blessing." Okay, that last part was definitely for his master plan. But still: Dazai cared and Chuuya wanted to throw up because of it.

____

The memory had faded to an annoying white a long time ago. He could walk around, but nothing changed and it seemed that he always stayed in the center of this abyss. Dazai really didn't know how time worked in this ability, but he counted to 1260 seconds, therefore he had been stuck for twenty-one minutes without anything to see or do. This was fucking boring and also really stupid.

____

He relived the memories of the fight against Randou and it was so fucking weird to hear the thoughts of that bastard again. His thoughts were rather -dare he say it- soft? Well, at least soft for that jackass. But Dazai thinking things like maybe I can give life a little shot if Chuuya continues to be interesting or Chuuya isn't as stupid as I thought was not unpleasant. Especially seeing Dazai back a step away after the young Chuuya said he was Arahabaki, seeing that surprised look on that bastard's face, damn, that was incredibly satisfying. And the way the young Dazai watched him fight Randou in awe? Chuuya couldn't help but taking it as a compliment since it was accompanied by the sweet little thought he's so strong. Jup. That was like oil to the burning fire of Chuuya's ego. That idiot actually liked his fighting style. Oh, he would never let Dazai live this down.

And then he saw Dazai walking through a forest, stopping at a shore, jumping on a stone. So that asshole really stabbed him. Probably in the back. Disgusting. It was sort of funny how worked up Dazai was over this, especially if you kept in mind that it was his own master plan that led to this situation in the first place. And there was a little pride in that smug face as Dazai watched young Chuuya realize that he had been dragged along from the start. You'll get real friends in the Mafia. That was the last thought he heard after they made their deal and Dazai left Chuuya on the shore.

Real friends, huh?

____

He was in the boss's office. Well, not really. He was in Chuuya's memory of being in the boss's office with the younger one pledging his loyalty to Mori. It stung how Mori told Chuuya he should be afraid of Dazai because of what he might do with the documents Chuuya wanted to have so badly as soon as he became an executive. Sure, he would tease Chuuya with the documents, but he would never dare to burn them, no, he would burn anyone who would try to destroy those important papers to Chuuyas past. But could he really blame the Chibi for being afraid of what the boss suggested? It would align with Dazai's personality, and if it were about anyone else? Yeah, he'd memorize the documents and burn them so that the person had no other choice but to submit to him. But he would never do that to Chuuya. Sure, he took the dog bet very seriously and it annoyed the shit out of the redhead, but that was just teasing and not in an actually hostile way. Friends. That was what he wanted them to be back then. Twisted friends, who didn't really know what friends were in the first place, because one got stabbed in the back and the other one never made a friend, because everyone was scared of the demon prodigy.

____

Author's notes

So, this is my first published story in english. It's not my mother tongue so bear with me, pls.

»...« Everything in those bracelets is actually just copied and pasted out of fan-translations of the mentioned light novels. I did that to show that's it isn't my wording, because I'd feel weird if I'd predented it was. I hope that does make sense.

Anyway this chapter is probably going to be the shortest one. Honestly, I wrote this as a one-shot but it quickly got out of hand, so I decided to break it into chapters.

This story will probably take a while to be completed. I have the plot written down so all I have to do is write the chapters, but I'm pretty sure that my life is going to rudly prevent me from doing so. But I'll try my best!

This is also cross-posted on ao3 and I'll also linked my beta-reader there. She doesn't have Wattpad but you can find her on Ao3: nolongerlis 

The next chapter contains:
-Parties
-Monologues
-Texting