yokohama gangster paradise (part two)

2.7K 129 187
                                    

you glanced around the cubicle you sat in. dazai, kunikida, atsushi, and both the tanizaki siblings were in the room along with none other than higuchi.

"now then..." jun'ichirō interrupted the silence tentatively, "you mentioned wanting to request an investigation, but what manner of investigation are we speaking of here?"

"so beautiful..." typical of dazai to completely disregard the actual topic of focus. though you'd let him get away with it. you needed him to plant the bug now if you had any hope of being alive by the end of the day. "you remind me of a lotus blossom. all at once elegant and ephemeral. would you care to join me in a double sui-"

it seemed that while you were perfectly capable of sitting still and watching the events unfold, not everybody here was. that became apparent when kunikida suckerpunched dazai across the entire room. you sometimes forget how strong these people are, it's almost frightening.

"allow me to apologize for the distraction." kunikida walked calmly to the area where dazai had landed. with little effort he grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the electrical room. "please continue on, i'll take care of this." the door closed behind them.

you cringed at the sound of slaps and spewing of curses from behind the door, but higuchi didn't seem to mind all that much. if she even viewed the situation as odd, she didn't let it show. simply pulling her gaze away from the door and continuing like nothing was wrong. it made sense, you supposed, she didn't have time to break character or gape at the strange behavior. she was here on business.

"please let me expand a little on my request." and as soon as the words left her mouth, the yelling faded into mere background noise. the attention of the group was once again solely focused on higuchi.

"oh! of course!" jun'ichirō's response prompted higuchi to continue.

"you see, there's recently been a group of seedy looking individuals loitering in the back alley of my company building."

"could you give us more details?"

"they wear clothes that are very old and tattered. we've heard some of them speak in a foreign language, but none of us can identify it."

with a click the electrical room's door opened up. revealing kunikida and a very disoriented dazai. while kunikida stepped out of the room, dazai was left behind and the door shut once again.

"if i had to guess, i'd say they sound a lot like smugglers. they're unavoidable in a port town like this one and with their numbers the police can't do much to stop them." kunikida casually strolled back towards the group.

"right..." higuchi confirmed. "if we had empirical evidence of their activities, we could shut them down for good. that's why..."

"you want us to get that evidence for you, right?" kunikida completed the sentence for her. "hey kids, you're on port." kunikida turned to you and atsushi. the latter of which genuinely squealed at the prospect. "relax, it'll just be a simple stakeout job." kunikida continued on, "smugglers are rarely violent, so you just need to keep watch in case they try to make a break for it. it's really the perfect first job for a rookie."

"yeah but..." atsushi prepared to speak before you placed your hand over his, stopping his words dead in their tracks. he turned to you, looking incredibly shocked by the small gesture. you gave him a gentle smile, trying your best to calm his nerves.

"it's okay, we've got this." you hoped your few words could provide some semblance of comfort to him. atsushi paused for a second before returning your smile, though with notably less confidence and notably more dread.

"jun'ichirō, i want you to accompany him." kunkida looked up in jun'ichirō's direction as naomi wrapped her arms around her brothers torso.

"if the big brother's going, then there's no way i'm staying behind!"

you only live twice - bsd x readerWhere stories live. Discover now