Eleutheromania [A Bungou Stray Dogs Fanfiction]

Chapter One

(as this is a Stray Dogs fic in which Dazai is involved to some extent, there will be mentions of suicide)

There are times when Emily Machen wishes she could have a simple life, or at least a means to pretend it was simple. Unfortunately for her, she has no such luck, especially now that she's stuck in a strange country, no connections, friends, or anything of the like. However, she is fairly certain she can figure most of it out... Hopefully.

At least she is free and, to her, that's all that matters.

She stands on the pier, a mild wind was blowing through the harbor. Her skirt softly brushing about her knees, she feels that she may look rather picturesque, standing there with her hideous carpetbag in hand and a slight frown on her face as she observes the water with slight disdain... Of course, a good bit of her curly hair gets blown into her mouth and she's forced to slap it away in a very undignified manner before, once again, eyeing the water before her.

There was once a time when she'd loved the ocean, the sound of waves, the smell of the salty air... Yet, in an ironic twist of fate and a few weeks on a cramped, creaky boat, she has come to thoroughly loath all of it. Emily narrows her eyes at the offending vessel, and the water it oh-so-innocently sits on, before whirling about on her heel and sticking her nose in the air.

"Tch."

What a bother.

Stuffing her free hand in her pocket, she marches away. Presently, three major goals occupy her mind, and she makes it top priority to accomplish all of them.

First; get away from the blasted water.

Second; eat as much as she possibly could.

Third; sleep for three days straight.

It was a warm, Saturday afternoon and the streets of Yokohama were fairly busy, filled with people going about their daily business. Parents with their children, friends, couples holding hands, loners. All sorts.

Once Emily had gotten far enough from the harbor, she started to pay more attention to her surroundings... More specifically to possible dining options and finally she could feel some excitement. Japanese cuisine had always fascinated her, and she would finally be getting a taste of the real deal.

Oh, how she loved her food.

Soon enough she was seated in a promising, diner type restaurant. She wasn't quite sure what it was exactly, and certainly wasn't in the mood to be picky, since she'd been eating nasty ship food for weeks and was, quite frankly, too desperate to care. Anything would be better than that garbage.

As Emily ate her (absolutely delicious, in her opinion) tonkatsu and sipped at her water (ah, the joys of fresh, cold water), she finally allowed herself some time to marvel at the success of her plan. She honestly hadn't been expecting it to go through so smoothly, and now she was free. And in Japan, of all places! She'd wanted for a long time, and though she wished it would be on better circumstances, she wasn't going to complain.


Even though the three weeks on that horrid boat scarred her, she was exhilarated to be away from America and her... job. Her only fear was that they would seek her out, if only to kill her...

But she wouldn't think about that just yet.

-oOo-

It was a longstanding fact in Emily Machen's life, that there were few things more satisfying than a full stomach. While it didn't exactly improve her thinking and made her ten times more exhausted, she was certainly in a much better mood. She leaned against a wall, arms crossed, and a foot on her bag as she smiled happily to herself, blatantly ignoring the strange looks thrown by the occasional passerby.