The screen goes black.
"Atsushi, won!" said Kenji, jumping up.
"Damn that was easy, well let's g–" Tanizaki rubbed his hands together.
"It's not over." Ranpo in a deep voice with his hand in the air signal for all to wait.
A loud choking sound is heard, along with something wet.
All the tense music is gone, left with the hollow silence of a flashback. Purple light hits the floor of an abandoned warehouse.
"Shit." Dazai let out. 'This show just won't let up.'
Blood drips onto a cold floor. A person is on their hands and knees, coughing wetly.
Atsushi heard that and knew he wasn't going to like this. Everyone else felt uncomfortable with the tone change.
"Your ability is slow to activate," says a cold voice to the person on the floor, "Your opponent's not gonna be polite and wait for you."
They cross their arms and the camera pans up to reveal the Demon Prodigy.
"Ahh." Atsushi let out.
There was something wrong, it felt wrong. The show was always pushing it with how much background it gave but this... It was different when it was Atsushi but this wasn't Atsushi memory.
"You look–."
He's in all black and decorated in more bandages than ever. One strand of them covers his right eye. The other eye, the left one, is just as cold and dead as Akutagawa's.
He looked like he belong in the dark. It all matched what was once glimance was now a full picture of what Dazai was–is a black pity that absorbed everything it came in contact with until nothing was left.
Sensei's words came back to the forefront, 'the human beings probably won't mind it too much if I remain outside their lives.'
"On your feet," Dazai's voice is full of disgust, "Answer back with your ability."
"Is this why you are so hands-off with Atsushi?" Ranpo phased like a question, it wasn't a question. Dazai turned to him and his eyes were that void again. The light from the projector did nothing to change how eerie his face was. Ranpo was pissing Dazai off. Ranpo didn't care.
The other person rises to meet Dazai, though they are clearly weakened. They also seem to have trouble breathing, their breaths are raspy and quick, and desperate.
This person is revealed to be Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, though much younger. Still, he has the same fury-filled gaze as his future self. He unleashes Rashomon with a scream that tears the still air apart.
Atsushi was processing what he was seeing. It didn't match his picture of Akutagawa. It didn't match his picture of Dazai. 'if I remain outside their lives.'
Dazai merely lifts a hand and nullifies it, closing the distance between himself and Akutagawa in a heartbeat and kicking Akutagawa in the stomach.
He wanted to leave. The weretiger turned to the theater door. As the sound of Akutagawa spewed blood from the impact of the kick.
"That won't be enough to survive in the Port Mafia," Dazai tells him with a snarl as Akutagawa struggles to get up from the blow.
It wasn't normal to hear Dazai raise his voice and to be fair he wasn't it still felt like nothing was there like someone could walk right through him a ghost–a spectator on the outside of others' life. The perfect tool for the monster that is the mafia.
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Welcome to the In-Between | BSD: Watch the Show
FanfictionThe gang is stuck in the in-between a place between realities. All that's left to do is watch their stories play out. And hopeful it won't break them in half. -------------- Atsushi's ability manifested in his right arm. Dazai proceeded to touch Ats...
