Chapter Text
Atsushi was currently sitting in what had appeared to be an abandoned building, considering the amount of destroyed furniture and broken windows.
Dazai sat across from him, his face passive, like he was trying to avoid scaring him off, though there was another emotion hiding underneath his facade. His eyes screamed that he was scared. Or Atsushi’s reaction or something else, he didn't know.
“So… you’re telling me that you’re a ghost?”
Dazai sighed, turning his head away briefly, seemingly contemplating his answer, before looking back at him.
“I suppose so. Everyone in my family is too,” he said. His voice sounded cheerful, but it was strained. “But I promise-”
Dazai was cut off by the sound of a door slamming shut. Atsushi startled when an angry looking red head stormed into the room, followed by a shorter man with black hair.
“Damn it Osamu, you’ve been out for three days! I was getting worried you wouldn’t come ba-”
The red head stopped his rant, his eyes locking onto Atsushi, immediately putting the younger one on edge.
“Osamu. Please tell me you didn’t kidnap a child.” the red head said, a look of pure anguish on his face. The way he said it made it seem like this was a regular occurrence, and Atsushi was really beginning to regret his decision to follow Dazai.
“CHIBI! You wound me! What did I do to deserve such slander?” Dazai exclaimed, smacking the back of his hand to his forehead dramatically.
The red head looked at Dazai exasperated, before directing his gaze to Atsushi once again.
“This dumbass didn’t kidnap you did he?”
Atsushi just stared at the man. He wasn’t sure what kind of face he was making, but judging by the wince that came from the older(?) man, it probably wasn’t great.
“Ahh, no. Dazai didn’t kidnap the kid!” the darker haired man said, walking forward confidently to inspect Atsushi closer.
The red head sighed, before looking back to Dazai.
“Alright, well. Yosano- sensei asked to see you, to make sure you hadn’t somehow managed to… injure yourself.” he said hesitating when he looked back at Atsushi.
“He knows.” Dazai said simply. The red head looked at Dazai with a look of disdain “You know what? This is a great time to introduce you all!” Dazai said, far too energetically.
He jumped up, throwing himself around some of the debris towards the other two men.
“This , my dear Atsushi, is Chuuya! He’s an annoying slug-” Chuuya smacked him over the head shouting indignantly, but Dazai ignored him other than the small ‘ouch’ before continuing on, “but I love him! And this is Ranpo Edogawa, the world's greatest detective! Or well he used to be…”
The brunette, Ranpo apparently, grumbled something but got distracted when he noticed a bag that had been left on one of the more intact desks.
Chuuya groaned, looking out towards the doorway he came from.
“Yosano-sensei still wants you.”
“Ahh right!” Dazai said, grabbing Atsushi’s wrist, practically dragging him through the doorway. “This is a great chance for you to meet everyone else!”
Atsushi let out a yelp as he was thrown through yet another doorway.
In the next room, there was more people standing around a destroyed desk. There was a rusty gurney in a corner and the lights were blown. In all, it looked genuinely haunted. It looked exactly how Atsushi would imagine a haunted hospital room.
There was a purple haired woman sitting next to two younger people, children he was assuming. There was a red head with a ravenette sitting beside him and lastly a tall, lanky man standing in the corner, anxiety written on his very being.
“Ahh, boss isn’t here? Neither is kunikida?” Dazai said, disappointment evident in his tone.
“I was really hoping to introduce him to Atsushi-kun with the rest of you!”
Atsushi noticed Ranpo move over to the tall man in the corner, gently holding his hand. The majority of the people in the room looked at Dazai, varying degrees of “another one?!” on their faces.
“Atsushi-kun! This is almost my whole family! The scary lady is Yosano-sensei, the two kids beside her are Kenji-kun and Kyoka-chan. Then there's the Tanizaki siblings,” he gestured to the redhead and the ravenette before continuing. “And finally we have Poe-san!” the man nearly jumped out of his skin at being addressed.
“Of course there's also Fukasawa-san but he doesn’t appear to be here right now… Anyways, everyone, this is Atsushi-kun! The kid I found on the streets! I already told him we’re all dead anyways so don’t worry! Do you have any questions, Atsushi?” the man said, looking towards him.
Atsushi finally found himself able to think again, matching everyone’s name to a face. Suddenly, a question appeared in his brain. One that he was almost scared to ask. It could be insensitive, or rude.
It appeared as though his body didn’t agree with his brain though, or at least didn’t hear it, because he was blurting out;
“How did you die, Dazai-san?”
Tension seeped into the room, and Atsushi suddenly felt as though he had to apologize immediately.
As he was about to get the words out, Dazai seemed to snap out of a daze, looking at Atsushi.
“Ahh- well, I killed myself. When I was in my twenties, I was going through a hard patch, and despite the fact that i had the lovely Chuuya to help me through it, nothing really worked,” when he said this, Atsushi noticed how Chuuya, who had slunk into the room at some point, flinched, a pained expression flashing over his face.
“So yes, I hung myself shortly after my twenty-second birthday… if only I had known it would result in me being stuck on the earth for all eternity instead.” Dazai ended in a complaint.
Chuuya seemed to think this was a great time to chime in;
“Not long after, I was drinking my feelings away and wound up in a car crash. My neck broke and I died instantly.”
Chuuya sent a look towards Ranpo,
“Ahh, I was a detective when I was alive, and one of the criminals I cornered shot me. I knew he had the gun, I just wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way.”
Ranpo gently nudged Poe.
“I um… I suffered a psychotic break and was killed as they attempted to apprehend me.”
Yosano contributed next;
“Well, I was a doctor. Someone broke into the hospital with a knife, dead set on killing off a patient under my care. He stabbed me in the neck when I tried to apprehend him. I was able to pin him down long enough for security to come get him, but even in a hospital, it was too late.” she concluded with a shrug.
Kenji joined the conversation, in a far to cheery voice.
“Well, I was really sick when I was younger. The doctors tried all they could, but I passed away peacefully in my sleep.”
“I was executed.” Kyouka said, her voice relatively void of emotion.
“We were killed in a drive by.” the redhead Tanizaki explained.
Atsushi was speechless. These people around them all died painful, gruesome deaths and they spoke about them so nonchalantly like it didn’t even bother them anymore.
“Wait? If most of you died such… bloody deaths, why don’t any of you have blood on you?” curse him and his stupid brain.
“Ahh,” Yosano started, “well-”
“If we dont wanna show the blood, we just don't?” Ranpo cut in, his eyes cracking open slightly.
“We- we can show you, if you would like?” Poe said, his timid voice cracking slightly.
Atsushi Assumed he nodded, though in all honesty, he was numb, looking at the dead people around him.
“One at a time,” Chuuya said, when everyone began crowding around him. “ We don't want to scare the kid off already, Besides, I’m pretty sure Dazai’s already attached.” the shorter mumbled out the last part.
They ordered themselves into a hasty line, Ranpo finding himself at the front.
Suddenly, Ranpo began to glow, a green light emitting from just above his heart. It covered his whole body, encompassing all features the man held, before suddenly dissipating, leaving a very pale Ranpo standing in front of him.
He was slightly hunched over, and blood began dripping from his chest, from the hole where the green light had started. Blood started to drip out of Ranpo’s mouth, and with a loud cough, he said:
“Ta-daa!” he said, voice bland, lacking emotions.
With another long cough, Ranpo began to glow green once again, before he was back to normal.
They slowly made their way through the line, Yosano next, her glow was purple, emanating from her neck, showing the nasty gash that made its way almost straight across her throat.
Next came Dazai, the view was mostly the same, except his face was tinted blue and there was a large bruise fully covering the perimeter of his neck.
Kenji was a bit paler, Poe’s neck was broken, Chuuya had blood dripping from multiple wounds, shrapnel from glass still pierced his skin and Kyouka had a hole that made its way all the way through her head and the Tanizaki siblings had multiple bullet wounds all over their bodies, soaking their clothes deep crimson..
As they went through each person, one by one, Atsushi found himself feeling more and more nauseous.
The sounds of cars outside the agency started to fade, and he could feel the blood rushing to his head.
All of a sudden, blackness took over his vision and he was on the floor.
All heads turned towards Dazai, who sighed, looking down at the boy on the floor.
“Well, I can say, almost for certain, that he fainted because this was all too much for him… Yosano-sensei, do you think you could help him out?” came the brunette's almost tired reply.
The woman in question let out an affronted gasp, looking down at the white haired boy.
“Do I have to?”
“Come on Akiko~ It’ll be fun” Ranpo said, before suddenly shoving a small chocolate in his mouth, one that seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
As Yosano stood up, gesturing Dazai and Chuuya help her, a door slammed shut downstairs, with the sound of Kunikida yelling up through the building.