Chapter Text
This mission was supposed to be easy.
Their only job was to gather information on a specific ability user that’d been sighted on Port Mafia territory one-too-many times. Mori-san had told the both of them that there wasn’t any chance of said ability user working with a rival organization.
He was wrong. Obviously.
At some point during their intel-gathering, the enemy had caught on.
Dazai knew that, of course. He’d even informed Mori-san of the possible danger, but the Port Mafia’s boss had simply shook his head, “I’m sure you and Chuuya-kun can figure this out!” He’d said. Gosh, sometimes the Boss was even more of a slacker than Dazai himself..
It goes without saying that the Demon Prodigy immediately began working on plans to oppose the other group as well as the ability user, who, apparently, had a sort of Time manipulation gift.
Oh, well. It wasn’t as if it’d make much of a difference; Chuuya wasn’t stupid enough to get close enough to an enemy capable of activating a gift like that, and it wasn’t like any ability would have any effect on Dazai.
Soon enough, the enemy decided it was time to attack, all according to the teen’s plan.
—
The final plan was simple, allow the rival group to corner Chuuya where Dazai would be hidden nearby, and then have Chuuya deal with the grunts—and other ability users if there were any—to make an opening for Dazai.
It started off well enough, his the Chibi was always efficient with his work. It was one of the things Dazai could say he loved admired about him, annoying as he was. The younger teen was more than content to watch his partner decimate their enemies while he watched and waited for his opening. It was so difficult to not be mesmerized by Chuuya’s skills on the battlefield, so why would Dazai even try to not be.
Plus, it wasn’t like he was totally distracted, he kept a close eye on the Time ability user, making sure he could keep Chuuya as far away from them as he could.
The ability user hadn’t seemed very intimidating anyway, simply waiting around with a pencil behind their ear and honey-blonde hair held precariously inside a messy bun. They wore average civilian clothes and clutched a mid-sized spiral-bound sketchbook in their arms, close to their chest in a protective manner. Although Dazai found it odd at the moment, there wasn’t much time to dwell on it.
Chuuya shouted the code word they’d discussed the night before, he was finished with the other enemies. Dazai was quick to leap from out of his hiding space to join the fight—
But their final enemy, somehow, was faster. Within a flash, they’d flipped open their sketchbook and ripped the pencil from their ear in two practiced motions.
The page they’d flipped to was a hyper-realistic drawing of their surroundings, and they quickly mapped out Dazai and Chuuya’s locations; being sure to capture the space around the bandaged teen as well, lest his ability attempt to cancel his own. They had a theory, and they really hoped that it worked, because the whole plan’d be a bust otherwise. The Time-weilding ability user slapped a hand down on the drawing just then, allowing themself to grin at the two teenagers as a bright flash of light and lettering surrounded them
The ability wasn’t touch activated. shit! Dazai had underestimated the enemy gifted, believing themselves to be safe as long as they stayed out of reach, he was so, so stupid! He didn’t even have the chance to yell a warning to his partner before the bright light bloomed and surrounded both of the teens.
For a moment, Dazai thought he’d be immune.
Yet another moment later, he realized just how wrong he was.
—
It was a quiet night at the UA dormitory, er..well.., as quiet as what was basically a house full to the brim of dramatic and slightly-traumatized teenagers could be.
Nobody noticed anything unusual, not at first; the sudden silence of the outside drowned out by their conversations.
Then, a bright flash of white light was suddenly shining through their windows, contrasting with the darkness of the evening sky and gone almost as quickly as it was noticed and followed by two almost-simultanious groans of pain.
the classmates on the main floor looked between eachother with determination before rushing out of the dorms and towards the noise.
—
Chuuya carefully stood from where he’d stumbled and fallen on the grass. He might’ve rolled his ankle..dammit. The redheaded teen turned to his partner with a glare,
“What the fuck was that!?” His voice came out harsher than he’d wanted, but it would have to do, because even if the shitty Mackerel was a manipulative and coniving bastard who found joy in annoying Chuuya to no end, he wouldn’’t ever just not warn him of this possibility somehow. This wasn’t part of the plan, they both knew this.
In any case, Chuuya didn’t get a reply, sighing deeply as he noticed the faraway look in Dazai’s eyes. So..he really was caught off guard? After the thought crossed his mind, the older Mafioso cursed himself because it was so obvious and not worth mentioning; his partner always needed a moment after something doesn’t go as he plans it.
After a moment of contemplation Chuuya resumed his usual spot on the mackerel’s blind side, keeping a watchful eye as Dazai updated and reviewed information in his head. Chuuya took this time of pleasant-yet-slightly-unnerving silence to try and piece together what had just happened and where the two of them were right now.
He remembered the bastard mentioning something about the gifted they’d been tasked with deaking with having a Time-related ability, so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that they were either in the past or the future.
The real question was: why was Dazai here with him? How was he effected by their enemy’s ability? No Longer Human was flawless, Chuuya would know. There shouldn’t be any way around it…
Fuck this, the mackerel would probably have an answer when he got back from inside his head.
The next big issues were 1, when they were, and 2, had people the Time-wielder had worked with traveled to the future as well and were now coming after them?
This could certainly be a trap to decommission them from the Port Mafia, after all.
The loud sound of clumsy footsteps startled chuuya out of his thoughts; he quickly stepped in front of his partner and activated Tainted, the red glow and thrum of energy bringing a sense of familarity. He swiftly linked himself to a few rocks that were near him, lifting them in preparation for a fight.
However, instead of the grunts he’d expected, he came face-to-face with four high-school students, unforms and all. But why would students be at a school this late in the evening?
Apparently, this was the moment his idiot of a partner decided to emerge from his idiotic genius haze; Dazai placed a hand on where shoulder met neck, the skin-to-skin contact both deactivating Chuuya’s ability and making him shiver. The stupid bastard always did this, touching him in unnecessary ways when it was clear he could’ve made do with another. It made chuuya let out an annoyed huff, hoping the darkness hid the heat he felt in his cheeks.
“Hehe, Chibi’s such a threatening little dog~ scaring highschool students so easily!”
Chuuya bit out his typical ‘I’m not your damn dog!’ comment before looking ahead at the younger teenagers in front of him, two guys and two girls, all but one of them had odd hair colors, and one of them seemed rather.. animal-like?
Chuuya had never heard of a transformation ability like that before. He shot a pointed look at Dazai, who simply shrugged and looked towards the one normal-looking kid of the bunch; she had her phone out, and was obviously calling someone. A teacher, maybe? But still, what type of normal teenager would still be at school this early at night?!
The most normal-looking girl nodded solemnly to the voice on her phone, and started conversing with her other friends. After a moment, one of the boys, a(chuuya held back a grumble) tall, uptight-looking kid with bright blue hair and what looks to be..metal coming out of his calves? Chuuya felt a little sick at what that implied to him(flashes of the other child—other him—in that tube full of odd liquid; of their pained noises when the water was drained; of how Chuuya had held them when he—)
The annoyingly tall blue-haired kid started talking and succeeded to dismantle Chuuya’s uncalled for trip down memory lane.
“Excuse us, but who exactly are you two and what are you doing inside UA grounds?” The teenager lifted his hand almost robotically before continuing. The two Mafiosi exchanging questioning looks as he did so.
“If you knew enough about our school to break in, you will have to understand how little tolerance the school has for intruders, considering recent events!” he continued to raise and lift his hands in a robotic motion(it almost reminded Chuuya of Adam, the android that had been the only person close to him other than Dazai to escape Verlaine).
The shorter of the two whispered to his partner, “What the hell is he talkin’ about?”
Dazai shook his head, currently just as confused as his partner was. Chuuya was certain it wouldn’t be for long; his bandage-waster of a partner always caught onto this sort of thing faster than he could, as much as he loathed to admit it.
The highschooler continued to rant to the two partners, who weren’t obvlivious about how he was trying to distract him but went along with it anyway.
Seconds later, they were being hoisted into the air by some sort of odd scarf held by a tired middle aged man who looked nothing like a teacher.
Ugh.. What had they gotten themselves into now..?