Please, release me ✩ Dazai X Reader

Chapter 8

It's been some time since the Christmas party at the agency, and at last, you got to see Tanaka; as expected, he was overjoyed to see you after some time, as he worries for you a lot. For whatever reason, Dazai had left you with him for the day, disappearing before Tanaka could see him, which only makes you more suspicious of his behaviour, not that you could do anything about it as you were still at the mercy of his whims. While he was acting pleasantly towards you, you couldn't help but worry how long the act would last.

Both you and Tanaka were currently walking the streets doing some shopping together as he made sure to have the free time for you as he very much wanted to spend some time with you, not that he would admit it to you. It wasn't that he was too proud to admit it. Instead, it was the opposite: he was too anxious to disclose it to you.

"Y/N...while I support your decision to temporarily move out since it's the first time you've asked me of something..." he tries to tell you while he fumbles with his words, clearly unsure how to put across what he wants to talk to you about. Before he can find the rest of his words, you scribble your response as you can guess what he's trying to tell you. [It's alright, they're eccentric and at times strange, but they're good people] you write down, and he sighs in relief as he finishes reading it. "As long as they're good to you," he adds, still unsure about the sudden decision to move out and how little he gets to check up on you.

You go to place a hand on his shoulder to reassure him; however, before you do, the smell of cigarettes fills your nostrils, and you instinctively cover your nose in a feeble attempt to block out the smell. While you did smoke as a teen, as some attempt at a teenage rebellion, the smell of cigarettes has long become a foul smell. The reason, like most of your problems, goes back to one man, Dazai, as he would occasionally use you as a drug guinea pig and would usually smoke while watching your reactions. It's why most poisons and medicines no longer work on you. However, while you could smell smoke, you couldn't see anyone nearby who was nearby. "Y/N, there is something I must do, could you please return home?" Tanaka asks as you nod and turn around to head back 'home'. You knew what he meant and headed towards the agency as he had never referred to it as home and always as the house. For some reason, he seemed a little unnerved, almost as if something had spooked him, not that you could ask about it, so you did as he asked.

However, where there's smoke, there's trouble, a truth you had to learn the hard way.

Not long after you left the park, you had an uneasy feeling while you couldn't clearly see anyone following you; the feeling refused to go away. However, despite your instincts, you continued completing Tanaka's request and persisted towards the agency. Unfortunately for you, this feeling you had was correct as it usually was; out of sight atop the buildings was someone following you. The male is short with a petite yet muscular build. He has blue eyes, striking orange hair that frames his face, and an uneven cut with a section that falls just past his left shoulder. He wears a black hat with a red hatband and a thin silver chain that hangs over the brim. His outfit consists of a white button-up shirt under a dark red vest, a black choker, a black ribbon bolo tie held together with a small silver buckle, an open black cropped jacket with the sleeves rolled up at the elbows, black slacks, a black belt hanging off his right hip and black low-arch shoes. He is almost always seen wearing black gloves. He's sporting a long black coat with light-coloured lining and lapels that he wears around his shoulders like a cape. The undercoat is a light shade of red. As he continued to jump from the rooftops from one building to the next, he put his hand to his earpiece to speak to whoever was on the other side. "She's on the move corner her but stay out of sight it looks like might have caught on," he orders, removing his hand from the earpiece and jumping down a nearby alleyway. The same alleyway you eventually find yourself cornered in, having 3 men behind you preventing your escape, you're now forced to face the man following you this whole time.

He's also the last thing you see before being knocked out and falling to the concrete floor.

When you awoke, your nostrils were filled with the smell of both dried and fresh blood, causing you to open your eyes and notice the chains around your wrists as you stood against the wall in some cell. Once again, the smell of smoke surrounds you, and you see the same male standing in front of you with a cigarette in hand while he scowls at you. There was something about him that made your instincts yell escape. For a moment, you couldn't help but think of your fear of Dazai, but this felt different. You couldn't help but feel like prey under the watchful eyes of a predator; however, unlike Dazai, who felt like a venomous snake with no humanity, this individual felt more like a wolf. "I knew you looked familiar you're that brat that would cling to Dazai years ago," he comments, and it was then you realised who he was. You had only seen him a few times back when, as he put it, when you would cling to Dazai, they would fight whenever you saw him. Even now, you could hardly believe it; even when he's not directly involved, most of your misfortunes led back to him. And for the first time, you had started to feel pure hatred with various emotions you had long since felt. "That expression of yours is starting to piss me off, how the hell are you so calm right now, don't you know this is the Port Mafia you're dealing with!?" he yells, mistaking your empty expression for a calm one. Naturally, your lack of response irritates him even further, leading him to kick the wall behind you and take a chunk off the wall in the process. And there it was, the reason he felt so dangerous; his brute strength: even without an ability, he destroyed some of the walls as if it were nothing.

But of course, you knew what kind of person you were dealing with; you couldn't possibly do anything about it and resigned yourself to whatever fate you had.

As time went on the more his temper grew, and the many blows that followed after until he finally stopped and stood over you as you lay on the floor silently. Despite the several broken bones he had caused, you couldn't even cry or writhe in pain, which only irked him once again. While you had gotten used to the level of pain Dazai would cause you physically, this individual hit so much harder and swiftly. "What the hell even are you?" he asks as he grimaces, clearly showing disgust towards you. During the somewhat peaceful years with Tanaka, you pondered, what are you? Only one answer ever came to mind.

You are simply a puppet, and Dazai is your puppeteer.

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The wait was long but here it is! All this time I was fighting my fiercest enemy Writer's block, I could never decide on a chapter idea I was happy with until this one came along so I hope you all enjoy it~