Chapter Text
Smoke curled into the dark night sky, and a faint scent of tobacco and destruction permeated the air. Cicadas emitted a shrill and constant cry. If you listened closely, a thing that no one really does, you could hear the faint muttering and kicking of stones. Footsteps crunched against loose gravel, unnaturally loud in the stillness of the night.
Flies circled around the corpse of a man who had been brutally murdered until he was unrecognisable.
Once again, an organisation was destroyed. The reason? Betrayal. Oh, the bitter scent of betrayal hung in the air. One would think they'd know better. Such low and unimportant subordinates still thought it was a good idea to betray the port mafia when they should know best what the puppets of the highest could do.
Soukoku, double black, twin black – whatever you chose to call them – were a criminal duo famous in the city of Yokohama for destroying every person and organisation that tried to betray the mafia.
Subtle voices could be heard, and the scent of blood mixed with dust and sweat was no longer ignorable.
There, a tall, thin boy, dressed in formal black attire and a black overcoat thrown over his shoulder, sat on the corpse of one of the members they had just wiped out.
He rolled a cigarette between his fingers before bringing it to his lips and inhaled deeply, his lungs filled with intoxicating bitterness – a feeling that brought a smile to the boy's face.
as if self-destruction were simply a game that he could keep playing until he died.
Which in his eyes, it quite literally was.
Life is a game you unwillingly play; no matter how often he tries to quit, he always comes back, voluntarily or not.
Next to him, a short red-haired boy was kicking stones and idly chewing the filter of an unlit cigarette with his hand pushed deep into his black tailored dress pants.
Just like the boy next to him, his clothing was formal, even though the place they were in was filthy to no end.
Corpses, blood, missed bullets, and boxes full of illegal substances were scattered all around.
That duo were none other than Double Black. They were, unbeknownst to the world, children, not even out of puberty, and yet, killing like they were made for it.
And they were made for it. Made to destroy, made to kill without remorse.
“Hey, bastard. I’m going to leave without you if you don’t get your ass moving soon." One growled with annoyance clear in his tone, muffled by the cigarette in his mouth, his eyes sharp and annoyed.
The taller one chuckled. "Oh, Chuuya~ You never would! You love me too much to leave me!” He replied, pulling the cigarette out of his mouth and blowing the smoke towards the night sky. “Keep your dirty dreams to yourself, asshole." The redhead – now known as Chuuya – snapped back, though no real anger lingered in his voice. They stayed there in silence for a few seconds, seemingly relaxed, but they were never. Always on guard, always ready to fight. To hurt, to kill.
The shorter one looked around, seeing dead people with crushed heads, bullet wounds, and rolled-back eyes. Any normal person would be disturbed by this sight. "Hey," Chuuya called out, breaking the silence.
The other did not respond.
"Oi," he said, louder, spitting the cigarette from his mouth and turning to the other. His eyebrow twitched; he kicked up a stone and caught it and aimed it directly at the other's head. “OI!” He yelled louder, the stone rippling through the air.
The other simply dodged and looked up with a smirk that was meant to make anger rise in the other's body.
“Oh Chuuya! Did you say something?" He said in that disturbingly sweet voice. Chuuya did not shiver and did not feel a chill rush over his spine. No, unfortunately for him, he was way too used to this boy to feel disturbed.
“Don’t fucking ignore me when I am talking to you, Dazai!” He snapped again, and Dazai didn't react.
"Oh? You called me? I didn’t notice; you'll have to speak up. You're too short for a normal-sized being to hear you!” Ironically, Dazai was the shorter one at the moment, who was using the back of a corpse like it was his personal chair.
“That’s it! I’m going to kill you, you fishy bastard!" He screamed and lunged at the taller one. Who, conveniently, got a call. He sighed and pulled his phone from his pocket and held his hand up to signal Chuuya to stop after he checked the caller ID.
"It's the boss.” He informed the other, letting it ring a few more seconds, just to be understandable. He picked up and held the phone to his ear.
”Mori-san, to what do I owe this displeasure?” He asked cheerily. The person on the other line chuckled sweetly.
”Dazai, if I am correct, you finished your little game with Chuuya, no?” He guessed correctly.
The silence told him so.
"Awh, Osamu~ Why so cold? You’re giving me chills!” The boy he was talking to remained silent, obviously in no mood to reply to his boss's cheery comments; the man cleared his throat. ”Well then. Come back, I have a new teeny tiny mission for you two! I expect you to be back in ten minutes.” Dazai's expression stiffened for a second until he snapped out of it and hid his emotions behind his perfect mask once more.
Mori's ‘teeny tiny’ usually meant a long, annoying mission. This was worse than eliminating organisations or torturing individuals for information.
Isn't that wonderful? Dazai thought.
”Awesome.” He said, his voice lacking any real emotion that could indicate he was excited for this. He took the phone from his ear just as Mori started speaking again and hung up.
"Well, slug! "It's our lucky day!” the brunette said, standing up and ‘accidentally’ stepping on the head of the corpse he sat on. “We have to be back in ten minutes, and we’ll get a new mission! Exciting, isn’t it?" He said cheerfully.
Chuuya groaned and replied sarcastically, "*Yay*."
Dazai threw the cigarette on the floor in a puddle of blood left by his victims and began walking. Chuuya, hands pushed deep in his pockets, stomped on the lit bud so that it would not cause a fire and burn down the boxes and important files hidden in the warehouse. Chuuya walked after the taller one, mumbling curses under his breath. “Dazai, where are you going?” He asked bluntly after the mention passed the motorcycle Chuuya had come on.
“To the headquarters," he replied in an obvious tone and turned around. Chuuya grabbed the keys from his pocket and dangled them in front of himself. “Oh no, no no no!” Dazai answered with a smile that seemed a little panicked and fake.
"Oh yes! How do you think you can get to the headquarters in 10 minutes on foot? That's going to take an hour at least!” He said, walking towards Dazai.
"No, no, I am not stepping a foot on that… that murder machine!” He said, shaking his head violently.
"You're going to sit on it, not stand, so basically, you’re not setting a foot on it." The redhead replied with a smug smile, and Dazai shook his head.
Not two minutes later, the former reluctant boy was sitting on a shiny pink motorcycle.
Chuuya placed the helmet on Dazai’s head and hopped on.
The moment Chuuya sat down, Dazai wrapped his arms around the shorter one's shoulder, as if he were his lifeline, the only thing keeping him alive. And in a way, he was.
But in this moment, he was more like the lifeline that was most definitely going to kill him. "Dazai. Tell me exactly how you expect me to start this goddamned thing with you clinging to me like a koala!” He snapped. Grabbing Dazai's arms and putting them around his waist instead.
badump
Huh? Did Dazai's gun go off? He thought, turning his head, he saw the mentioned boy's face pressed against his back. He shook his head. “Must be the adrenaline rush." He mumbled and put his keys in the ignition and started the engine.
He twisted the handle and drove off at approximately 40 km/h over the limit.
-
A short and illegally quick drive later – not counting the time Dazai complained about never riding that ‘murder box of metal’ again – they arrived. Chuuya fixed his vest and choker, dusted himself off, and scanned his ID at the entrance. The doors opened automatically, and they walked inside, with Dazai still whining off Chuuya's ear. Chuuya walked inside, back straight and hands out of his pockets.
He walked like a man with purpose, a child who has seen and done way too much to still be nervous in this setting.
They went down the long, dark hallway to the office of the person waiting for them. Along the way, members of the mafia sent them nervous looks, turned back around the corner, or greeted them with nervousness clear in their voice.
Soon, two tall, black doors leading to their boss’s office came into view. Dazai stopped talking as Chuuya knocked.
“Come in~” Their boss called out, knowing which of his employees it was just by their knocking pattern alone.
Chuuya pushed open one of the dark doors, and both stepped inside.
There he sat.
The man who knowingly ruined and saved both of them. The man they could never escape.
Mori sat straight in his chair, eyes closed as if he were completely relaxed, with his hands on the table. Elise, a blond little girl, sat on a small chair in the corner of the room, holding a creepy-looking ceramic doll with straight black hair and wearing a ripped floral dress. One of the dolls' eyes was missing, and the other was looking upwards. Knowing her, she probably liked it better that way.
Creepy and unsettling. A thing most girls her age despised, but she drew it in and held it close. Was it because she was only an ability and couldn’t feel scared, or was it because she simply enjoyed it? Who really knows with that girl and her horrible user?
“Boys, how nice of you to come~” Mori said with his eerily high-pitched voice that could intimidate every one of his underlings in one word. The duo walked towards him. Chuuya bowed slightly – out of fear or respect?
Both most likely.
Dazai, on the other hand, stood there, looking bored out of his mind. They both sat down in the chairs in front of the wide, black marble desk their boss was sitting behind.
“Tell me, Dazai, how did the mission go?” The man asked sweetly, with a big smile on his face. Dazai started talking with the sole purpose of getting it over with faster, matching Mori's expression and tone. “Oh, perfectly. We destroyed them. Went at them when they least expected it and with success, of course. We found several of our weapons; they stole from us and illegally smuggled cocaine and meth.” Mori nodded.
“Such good boys you are.” The man praised them as if they were children who needed appreciation for everything they had done. Mori leant forward in his chair. “Now~ Let’s continue.” He started, finally opening his sharp black eyes, which glittered with excitement.
“Recently, these oh-so-rightly heroes decided to snoop around our precious city. I, of course, cannot take that lightly. They are getting bolder day by day.” He told the duo slowly... He smiled even wider. How it was possible is a mystery. “So now, I have a fun little mission for you!”
Chuuya leant forward in the chair, which he looked too young to be sitting in, listening intently, since he knew that Dazai did not care to listen to Mori. The latter of the boys was sitting in the chair, one leg over the armrest, as if he were in his personal living room instead of a mafia boss's office.
“I want you two to make a YouTube channel and act like sweet boys, enjoying life to its fullest. Then, when you gain a following, which I am completely sure you will, you slowly start dropping hints about your lives here. Act like you are civilians living among the chaos of Yokohama. Let your viewers pity you. Make them think this city is slowly killing you.”
He told them, his voice still high-pitched but more serious than before.
“Gain the attention of the heroes, and use it to destroy them.”
Chuuya glanced at Dazai; he looked like he pieced it together, just like Mori expected him to, like everything was making sense, but for Chuuya, it didn’t.
at all.
He opened his mouth to express his confusion. “How could a YouTube account help us gain the attention of heroes...and why?” He asked. Mori looked at Dazai, and the boy sighed, as if it were the most obvious thing ever said.
"Oh, my dear Chuuya~” Dazai started as if explaining things to a toddler. “If we act like traumatised civilians, the heroes are going to go crazy, because finally something was revealed about Yokohama. They are going to try in every way to get us, and that's the plan. We want them to take us."
"To pity us." “Let them think they saved us from this city." He smiled creepily. But the only thing on Chuuya's mind was the nickname Dazai gave him.
“Don’t call me dear, asshole!” Chuuya said with bared teeth, and Dazai ignored him and turned to Mori instead. “And…I am guessing you want us to follow them, like traumatised children that finally get a chance to escape…and judging on that…you want us to go to that prestigious hero school in Musutafu, no?" Dazai less asked and more knew that this was what the boss wanted. He was correct, as always. He wasn’t called the demon prodigy for nothing.
“What a smart boy you are~" Mori praised the younger, and to Chuuya, he looked seconds away from patting Dazai's head like a dog.
"Yes. I want information. I want to know what they plan. A YouTube channel sounds pretty good for that, don’t you think?" he drew out and grinned.
Mori opened his drawer and grabbed a thick yellow file out of it. He slid it over the table towards them. Chuuya picked it up and flipped through it. It contained information about UA’s infamous class 1a and several heroes who taught at the school.
“You can leave now. Create your account and have fun!” Mori told them, and both boys stood. Chuuya gave one more respectful bow and left quietly. Dazai walked slower to the door, quiet footsteps on the marble floor.
“Oh, and Dazai, dear. Don’t disappoint me~” Mori's eyes had a dark shadow over them. Dazai looked back at him silently and then tilted his head with a grin and lifted his arms slightly in a shrugging motion.
“Do I ever?”
-
Chuuya's eyebrow twitched, his teeth bared and his jaw clenched. The redhead's fingers curled on his thighs in annoyance.
"Chibi, why so stiff?” The boy sitting next to him on the black leather sofa asked innocently, as if he weren't the sole reason for Chuuya's annoyance.
-
The moment Dazai left Mori's office, he walked to the elevators and rode them to Chuuya's apartment. The redhead was the sole resident on this entire floor, with no other apartments, so it was more a penthouse than an apartment.
The brunette stepped off the elevator, grabbed a bobby pin he always kept hidden under his bandages and flexed it to his delight. He put it in the lock and swiftly unlocked the door of his partner's apartment.
"Chuuyaaaa!" He called out and pushed his shoes off by the door, threw them wherever and did the same with his black overcoat.
He strolled down the hall, not even trying to act like he wasn’t supposed to be here. He looked in the kitchen, in the living room and even in Chuuya's bedroom. Yet he was nowhere to be found.
Hmm
He shrugged and plopped down on the sofa and grabbed his blue bedazzled laptop from under the couch, where he had hidden it the last time he was oh-so graciously invited – he broke in – by his dearest partner.
He began loudly humming the lyrics of the song ‘Michael in the Bathroom' by George Salazar while logging in on his laptop. While his screen loaded, he started singing loudly instead of humming.
"I wished I had stayed at home in bed watching cable."
This was the moment Chuuya had decided to walk into his living room, hair wet and wearing his pyjamas, a plain white shirt and black sweatpants.
Oh, so he showered.
Dazai looked at him with a grin, and Chuuya just glared, not sure what he should do with Dazai just sitting there cross-legged on his very expensive leather couch in the clothes he previously killed and sat on a bloodied corpse in.
“You know what – I am not even surprised anymore." The boy said, rubbing his temples with his knuckles. He walked towards Dazai and pushed him so he’d scoot over and sat down himself. “Didn’t I throw that thing out of the window?”
He asked when he saw that sparkly blue bedazzled laptop on Dazai's lap
.
Dazai giggled and put his finger to his lips. "Shhh, a magician never reveals his secret, Chuuya!”
Chuuya ran his hands over his face. "Just shut up..."
-
“What are you doing anyway?” Chuuya asked, leaning towards Dazai to get a better look at his screen. Not unsurprisingly, it was YouTube.
Dazai was just about to create their account. The redhead sighed again, as if just remembering that this was their mission. He stood up and grabbed the file Mori gave them to look at while Dazai created their account. The boy sat down next to his partner once more and opened the file to look at the first kid. Chuuya pulled one leg to his chest and leant his cheek on his fist.
“What should we name our account, Chibi?" Dazai asked after a bit. “Dunno, just choose whatever. Dazai thought for a second and then grinned. “So, DazaiAndHisLoyalDog23?" He suggested it, and Chuuya slapped him over the head.
“Fuck no!” He cursed and looked at Dazai as if he’d gone crazy. Awwh! But it's so good!”
“Choose something else or I am going to throw you out of the window next," Chuuya said sternly with an ice-cold voice. Dazai clicked his tongue and mumbled under his breath. “Chibis is such a brute ..."
Chuuya resisted the urge to hit him again and kept quiet, his fist clenching around the file. Dazai kept coming up with horrible names that either earned him a punch or a stern no.
-
“Oh! Oh! What about DoubleBlackOfficial?”
Chuuya gritted his teeth and put the file on the coffee table.
"They aren’t supposed to know we’re double black." He argued, already regretting ever having agreed to this.
Not that he had a say in this. The boss's commands are words, and not complying could end up with him dead.
"Right...then what about yokohamashotties?” He asked in a serious tone, and never in Chuuya's life has he felt the urge to kill himself as much as now. How does the person people call ‘the demon prodigy’ even come up with these kinds of names? He’s supposed to be a scarily intelligent genius, not…this!
"Do you want me to kill you?” He asked, glaring at Dazai, a glare that could freeze a burning flame. Dazai was already used to these glares since he got them quite often on a nearly daily basis; the only times he didn’t were only when either of them was on a mission without the other. Which also wasn’t very common. Dazai just shrugged and leant back with his chin between his fingers.
"Then ykhm.diary?” he asked, clearly running out of ideas. Chuuya thought it over for a bit and sighed for the millionth time just that evening. "That's…okay…I guess," he said.
“Well then! Ykhm, a diary it is!” He grinned and typed in the name. He went on to Pinterest and found a picture with a black and orange cat and downloaded it to use as his profile picture.
"One…handsome…tall…magnificent boy and his…pet…dog…" Dazai typed into their account description. “OH NO YOU AREN'T." Chuuya screamed and kicked his leg once again. The brunette whined and grabbed his leg. “Chuuya~” he complained but still deleted it and wrote something else. "Two bored yokels and their life, how's that?” Chuuya glared at him but nodded. “Still bad but better.”
“Hey, give me the file,” Dazai said, already reaching for the yellow folder before Chuuya even had the chance to answer. The redhead let out an annoyed click of his tongue but didn't bother fighting him for it.
“Asshole.”
Ignoring the comment completely, Dazai flipped the file open and lazily skimmed through the pages. Every now and then he'd stop, hum to himself, then continue turning another page as if he were looking through a cheap magazine instead of confidential information. Suddenly he paused, staring at one page a little longer before snorting.
“Wow... this guy looks like a Pomeranian.”
Chuuya glanced up from where he was stretching on the couch. “Which one?”
“The angry one.”
“That doesn't narrow it down.”
“The really angry one.”
With another sigh, Chuuya pushed himself off the couch and wandered into the kitchen, not being able to continue like that. A moment later he returned with two cans of Red Bull, tossing one towards Dazai without warning. The brunette barely looked up before catching it one-handed, earning nothing more than a quiet tsk from Chuuya.
The redhead leant over the back of the couch, resting one hand on the cushions while reading over Dazai's shoulder.
“Katsuki Bakugou...” he read aloud. “Explosion.”
Dazai cracked open the can with one hand, taking a sip before humming thoughtfully.
“He has potential.”
“So does a bomb,” Chuuya muttered. “Judging by that picture, I'd bet he blows things up because somebody looked at him the wrong way.”
“I was about to say the exact same thing.” Dazai tapped Bakugou's photograph with one finger. “Look at that face. That's not just annoying, that's a future headache.”
“Hm.”
They flipped another page.
“Todoroki...” Chuuya read this time. “Uses only half of his ability because of family issues.”
Silence settled between them for a second.
“How unbelievably stupid,” Chuuya finally grumbled before taking another sip of his drink. “Imagine limiting yourself because of something as pathetic as that.”
“People do strange things for their family.”
“Hm.”
Dazai's eyes lingered on the profile for another moment before casually turning the page. Neither of them seemed interested in discussing the subject any further.
“The green-haired one, did you read about his...*quirk*?" Chuuya said after a while, the word 'quirk' rolling off his tongue like something unpleasant and bitter. “You know which one I mean?”
Dazai found the page almost immediately.
“Midoriya Izuku...” he murmured. “Apparently he only developed his quirk about a year before the entrance exam.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
Chuuya bent down slightly to read the rest of the page. In response, Dazai stretched his legs across the couch, moving the file out of Chuuya's sight.
“Tch.”
Without a word, Chuuya shoved both legs off the cushions.
Dazai looked mildly offended for all of two seconds before placing them directly across Chuuya's lap instead.
The redhead stared at him.
Dazai smiled innocently.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Dazai.”
“You're comfortable.”
“I'll throw you out the window.”
“You'd miss me.”
“I'd miss the peace and quiet.”