31 Days Of Dazai

ransom 2/2

It's funny, how all it takes to send an entire, complete and well oiled criminal organization into utter chaos is a little, folded note.

Mori would have found it amusing.

Kouyou didn't.

~~~~

Kouyou is pacing. It's unsightly, but recently the stress has been truly immense, and thus she allows herself the moment of vulnerability in the presence of the Black Lizard squad leader to let loose.

Mori's reign had been so short yet successful, and the progress he had brought to the Mafia had been immense, the damage done by the previous boss, the rotten man, just beginning to heal.

And than a wrench was thrown in.

Dazai Osamu.

Her interactions with the boy had been minimal yet impactful, he surrounded himself with an air of wrongness the permeated his surroundings, spread around like an illness, ready to kill.

She wasn't so sure how much of that wrong came from Dazai himself, or from Mori's influence.

She'd long known of his proclivities, his ability was a blatant, smug show of it, after all, and so seeing the small boy tattering after him, small and swathed with bandages, she knew exactly what was occurring.

It was obvious to anyone with half a mind that their relationship was incredibly inappropriate, and out-- no one did anything. Said anything.

That includes her.

Her mindset was that she had to mind her own business, that trying to damage a good things-- Mori's prosperous rule over the Port Mafia-- would do no one any good. Dazai included.

Plus, Dazai was hardly unique, as much as she didn't want to belittle him. At least he had a solid roof over his head and food on his plate, right?

(Later, as much as she loathed to admit it, but she was still young and naive. Men weren't meant to steal from little kids, no matter what material items they gave them in return. While Mori had doted on Dazai, fed and housed him, he also violated him in the most vile of ways.

She knew what men could do at a whim, knew what they could take without guilt, and yet her young mind had minimized Dazai's worth to be just a side note, something only vaguely considered. The Mafia was her job, and so he was a thoughtless accessory, not quite her problem.

Until he was.)

When he had called her room, the surprise she'd felt had gripped her, that he trusted to call her  even though she, at the time, had no clue what had taken place in that room. Even not knowing the gravity of the situation, him calling her at all was shocking and immense.

Mori being dead, though, was what she had least expected. Hell, she didn't know what she had expected in the first place, but Mori's bloodied, cooling corpse strewn in bed sheets was not it.

Wrapping him up in her robe was instinct, like comforting one of her girls after a tough shift, and silence reigned between them.

Silence was something they held in common.

All of this caused quite a stir in the just settling crime syndicate, who were mortified at the idea they were to now be led by a mere twelve year old, no matter how bright said child was. Now, threats against Dazai were a constant, and Kouyou and Hirotsu had stepped up to Dazai's side, to aid him through the process.

Now, a threat against the brunette boy was a threat against them.

They hadn't actually expected someone to make good on that threat so soon.