Withering moon lit rose

Chapter 8

Just as Chuuya was to continue his phone began to ring. He quickly looked at the contact. A small smile greeted his lips before disappearing, he answered.

"What do you want, I'm kinda busy." The siblings remained in silence while Chuuya continued speaking. "I am not slacking off, you were the one..." Chuuya sighed in exasperation, he turned to see the siblings staring at him. He coughed before continuing. "I'll see you later. Just be careful." With that Chuuya ended the phone call and returned to the two siblings.

"Right, sorry about that. Anyways, you two are our newest lead as I know Gin ditched a mission with the Black Lizard with no explanation. And you Ryuunosuke would never set foot on the agency grounds. So either the pair of you tell me now, or else things get complicated." Chuuya looked to be getting to the end of his patience and the man didn't have much patience to begin with. The two siblings looked at each other, Ryuunosuke nodded to his sister, and she followed suit.

"We will inform you, but you must believe what we say and not what you've heard prior." Chuuya moved to sit on the arm of the sofa before speaking. "I'll listen, but whether I believe you or not will be decided later." Ryuunosuke nodded as he knew his superior wouldn't be swayed easily. However, ever since Dazai left and he took in Akutagawa as his subordinate, Akutagawa had never lied nor caused any issues for his superior. So he had no reason to believe his superior, no his friend, wouldn't believe him.

"Late last night me and Gin were sharing a few words while drinking tea. Gin went to rest, planning to go on her mission the next day. However, after a few minutes had passed I heard a knocking upon our door. When I went to investigate I was greeted by the Weretiger, he was in a ruined state. He wasn't healing himself like usual, there was an individual in the lift who tried to ambush us but I used Rashomon." Chuuya nodded his head as he listened slowly, Gin sat with her hands twisted over one another in fear for what the executive would do.

"When Gin awoke later she found me patching him up, he's been unconscious since then. We ventured to the agency in hopes of informing them of Nakajima's condition, however they began throwing accusations that we had kidnapped him. You can understand why we couldn't tell them what actually happened. They wouldn't believe me for a second, not after what I've done to him." Chuuya continued nodding his head as Ryuunosuke finished his retelling. Then Chuuya turned to Gin.

"Who else knows of this?" Gin began to wave her hands in a panic. "No one else. After all, how could we tell our fellow brethren that we were harbouring an injured enemy, well I guess ally now." Chuuya placed a hand against Gin's head, she relaxed her shoulders slightly.

"When were you planning to inform me of this Ryuunosuke?" He slunk back slightly before responding. "When he awoke and could tell us more." Chuuya nodded his head in agreement, he had a soft smile on his face but his eyebrows knitted together. "God, how am I gonna explain this?" Chuuya muttered as he rested his chin in his hand. "Where is he now?" Ryuunosuke rose from his seat and led him to his own room, knowing Gin wouldn't dare to put him in her brother's own room.

When they entered the group was met with a softly sleeping Atsushi who had a blanket covering him but not properly. Ryuunosuke moved over to cover him properly and removed the once again warm cloth. He left his sister and Chuuya while he went to fix the cloth. Before he reentered he could hear murmurs, he stood outside the door and listened in.

"So you're saying he's acted like this before?" It was Chuuya, "Yes, once. We were incredibly young, in the slums before Dazai-san rescued us." Gin responded slowly. "What was the outcome?" Ryuunosuke opened the door at this point. "He died."