the beauty of water: deep end | o. dazai ✔

chapter three.

Dazai stood in one of the emptier rooms that the Armed Detective Agency had on their floor—a couple items sitting in front of him as the books Hinami had given him laid out in separate areas of the table he was working at. While one of his arms was still injured from the car accident he had told (Y/n) about on their way to the agency, he didn't seem to care as he continued to work on the electronic that was in front of him.

(Y/n) opened the door, readjusting the jacket she wore as she stepped inside the room. Dazai looked up from his project, a smile coming across his face as he saw that she now wore something a bit more... recognizable.

"Now I like that outfit a lot more," he commented before turning back around to his project, earning an eyeroll from the (h/c)-haired girl.

She walked over to him, kneeling down as she adjusted her sock as it got crumpled up inside her (f/c) rainboot. "What are you working on? Is this why you needed those technical manuals from the Ripped Page?" she questioned as she stood back up, redoing her updo as it got messed up during her changing process and after she put on the (f/c) raincoat.

"I figured for Atsushi's escape, he'd need something like this to get the doll in question to me," he explained without looking up from the egg-like device. "Normally I'd go get this from someone who's more of an expert, but I don't think we have that kind of time. Besides, I think I'll be able to make it much better than anyone I'd purchase one from."

(Y/n) took a look at the object he was working on—the first of many most likely. She picked up one of the manuals, flipping through the pages as she skimmed over the words. Dazai noticed that she had changed her gloves from the fingerless ones to a shinier pair of normal ones.

He gestured to them loosely as he asked, "Decide to go for more coverage?"

"These ones are waterproof, unlike the others," she answered without looking up from the book, knowing exactly what he was talking about. She furrowed her brows, telling him as she pointed to one of the passages, "If you were to make what I think you're making, then you're not connecting the circuitry correctly."

"What do you mean?" he inquired tilting his head slightly as he peered over her arm to see what she was pointing at.

"Here." (Y/n) scooched him aside, taking the tools he was working with and taking over on working on the device he had previously been working on. "You'll need to do this if you plan for remote detonation and any other substance you plan to shoot out of these Easter eggs."

Dazai leaned against the table, watching as she worked diligently and with a steady hand—almost as if she were a total expert on the subject. "I wasn't aware you knew how to handle and create this type of machinery."

"Contrary to what you may be thinking, I'm definitely not an expert on technology and bomb-type making," she responded as she put one of the tools aside, picking up another as she continued to work. "When I was at the academy, I was considering becoming a part of the bomb squad but decided not to and took the detective and cop route."

"That doesn't particularly explain why you know how to create them." He crossed his arms as he spoke. "Normally, bomb squads work more in deactivating bombs—not making them work properly."

"I'm basically moving in reverse," she responded with a slight shrug. "I guess I internalized what I learned at the academy and it resurfaced once I was faced with this situation. I was never that good at deactivating them anyways—that's why I didn't attempt to deactivate that bomb two years ago. You know, the one with the Azure Messenger case."

Dazai nodded as he understood what she was referencing—the last case they worked before she was kidnapped by Fujinuma and offered a position in the Port Mafia by Chuuya Nakahara. A rough time that seemed to be so long ago, yet it wasn't technically too many years prior to the present.