Chuuya woke up to the smell of breakfast cooking. He blinked, and looked around, trying to make sense of everything. His head hurt, and it felt like he'd been underwater for a while. "Hey, kids." A familiar sounding voice said. "I made pancakes. You don't have to rush, because school isn't for another forty five minutes." Chuuya was slumped over a kitchen table, like he'd fallen asleep there or something. Something was obviously really wrong here. That's when it all came rushing back to Chuuya. Fukuchi. The person talking was Fukuchi. Chuuya had been using his power to fight him, and then he'd lost consciousness. The last thing Chuuya remembered was Fukuchi killing Dazai. Where were Nikolai and Fyodor?
Chuuya looked around. He was sitting at a round shaped table, with Fukuchi standing on one side and apparently serving pancakes, and two other people on Chuuya's side. Ranpo was on one side, looking terrified, but playing along with this whole thing for some reason. That was when Chuuya knew it was bad. Ranpo was the greatest detective there was. He knew everything. He knew that Chuuya was there, with all his powers. And yet Ranpo was still pretending they were one big happy family having breakfast before heading off to school. Which meant he'd figured there was no way Chuuya could fight his way out of this. Ranpo shot Chuuya a look, confirming his suspicions. This wasn't good.
To Chuuya's side, someone else was asleep at the table, with one of his arms folded beneath his head as a pillow. He was wearing a military uniform, and the red color did nothing to hide the blood stains surrounding both stab marks, and what appeared to be burn marks. He had medium length white hair with red streaks at the bottom, and only wore one earring. Chuuya gently tugged at a strand of his hair, trying to wake him up. Ranpo shook his head, but Fukuchi had already seen what Chuuya was trying to do.
"Let your brother sleep, Chuuya." Fukuchi said. "He stayed up all night finishing that essay, remember?" Chuuya silently nodded along. Fukuchi had clearly lost all grip he had on reality. Chuuya had a really bad feeling that they were in the universe Fukuchi came from, which was why Ranpo hadn't tried to run away. Even if they somehow made it, they'd have no way of getting home without Fukuchi. And there was no way Fukuchi would help willingly. So, they'd have to get creative about this.
The third person started to stir, and when he opened his eyes, Chuuya could see a massive scar bisecting his red irises. "Where am I?" He asked, cupping a hand around his ear to help him listen better. "You're at home, Jouno. I made pancakes. I stacked the blueberries in a circle in the middle, so you know where they all are. I know you get self conscious about eating in front of other people when the food can roll away on you." Jouno didn't react for a few seconds. "Ah." He said. "It would appear that I'm in hell."
Ranpo kicked him under the table. "Go with it." He whispered. "We're in an alternate dimension, Fukuchi is basically holding us all hostage, and if you pull your disappearing act with your ability, you could get stuck here. Then you'd never get back home to Tetchou. So for your sake and mine, please behave yourself." Chuuya got the impression that Ranpo and Jouno weren't exactly big fans of each other. "What's that?" Fukuchi asked, turning around to place a plate of pancakes in front of Jouno. Sure enough, there were blueberries heaped in the middle. "Is everything okay?"
"Just fine." Ranpo replied. He seemed calm and collected on the outside, way more than he should have been in a situation like this, but his legs were bouncing up and down nervously under the table. "We're just talking about heading to school a bit early today. There's some work I want to get done." Fukuchi nodded. "You're always such a hard worker, Ranpo." He said. "Why don't you take your brothers with you, and explore the town a bit?"
Jouno nodded, and headed for the door way too quickly. Chuuya made it look more natural, as did Ranpo. It was only when they were outside that Jouno started talking. "What was that?" He asked. "Why was Fukuchi making pancakes? Was that real? Because that seems way too bizarre to be real." Ranpo sighed. "From what I've been able to deduce, this Fukuchi took over this world, but it killed his whole family in doing so. He lost his grip on reality from the force of his grief, and has been going around trying to find versions of us in the multiverse to replace the ones he's lost."
