For ninjou.

[tenimuho]

[For some time now, Dazai had been... the center of unusual occurrences.

Calling them 'supernatural' wasn't precisely it, since Dazai dealt with supernatural abilities on a regular basis. These were on a much smaller scale, barely fit to be called 'disturbances'.

Pens falling off his desk with no apparent cause. Books being closed one moment and open the next time anyone glanced their way, only when in Dazai's presence. In the most dramatic incident, a roll of bandages had caught fire.

No one could adequately explain what was going on, not even Ranpo, although he did shoot down most theories besides Atsushi's somewhat joking "maybe you're being haunted, Dazai-san?"

There's a whiteboard in the agency's planning room, which Dazai is currently occupying by himself. The markers are capped and definitely immobile.]

DAZAI

[But that wasn't written on the board the last time Dazai glanced that way, about two seconds ago.]

Comments

[tenimuho]

[The word doesn't get erased, because that would be impolite. But underneath it:]

THAT'S RUDE
I'M NOT EVEN ASKING YOU TO DO ANYTHING THIS TIME

[ninjou]

[DYING WAS RUDE, ODASAKU. CONSIDER THAT, GOOD SIR.]

I DON'T REALLY LIKE PRANKS UNLESS I'M THE ONE DOING THEM.

[tenimuho]

[...fair.]

I'M NOT PRANKING YOU
DO YOU WANT SOME KIND OF PROOF

[ninjou]

[......wat.]

ARE YOU AN ABILITY USER?

[tenimuho]

YES

[Well, it's true. Although, maybe 'were you an ability user' would be better - but it's more or less the same thing.]

[ninjou]

[......]

HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?

[tenimuho]

I'M A GHOST

[And after a pause, there's an addendum, like he just thought of it.]

NOT A MIMIC GHOST
AN ACTUAL GHOST

[ninjou]

[................o......kay...........]

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

[Time to feign ignorance.]

[tenimuho]

DID YOU FORGET?
I GUESS IT'S BEEN FOUR YEARS SO YOU MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN
BUT I THOUGHT YOU HAD GOOD MEMORY

[Dazai, he'll actually believe you when you say things like that.]

[ninjou]

I REMEMBER.

I DON'T KNOW ANYONE WITH THIS KIND OF ABILITY.

COME OUT ALREADY OR MAKE YOUR POINT.

[Ugh. Oda......... Not that he knows it's you...]

[tenimuho]

[How many people could it be?]

I CAN'T COME OUT

I WANTED TO TALK TO YOU AGAIN
AND FIND OUT IF YOU WERE LONELY
THAT WAS THE POINT

[ninjou]

[He sighs. Looks around. Puts the marker down.]

Can you hear me?

[tenimuho]

YES

[At least you won't get hand cramps.]

[ninjou]

[He's lazy.]

So, you're either someone I used to know, who had an ability I don't know about, which is mostly impossible, or you're a ghost.

[And ghosts should not be a thing.]

[tenimuho]

[You have no proof they're not a thing.]

I ALREADY TOLD YOU I WAS A GHOST
FLAWLESS DOESN'T DO THIS

[ninjou]

[Nope.]

[tenimuho]

[He can also see that expression.]

IS IT REALLY THAT UNLIKELY

[ninjou]

[ N O P E ]

Odasaku...?

[tenimuho]

IT'S ME

SHOULD I HAVE SAID THAT FROM THE START?

[Probably, Odasaku.]

[ninjou]

That would have made this easier.

[HE DOES NOT BELIEVE YOU but he sounds somber rather quickly.]

You think I'm lonely?

[tenimuho]

I DON'T KNOW FOR SURE
I WANTED TO ASK IF YOU STILL WERE

[Even ghosts don't know everything, or read minds. And Dazai is very good at pretending, even pretending to like people.]

[ninjou]

[Well, it's a complicated situation, isn't it? Dazai's life now is full of contradictions and good people and bad people and moderate amounts of hatred but mostly a place where he almost belongs.

For Odasaku, he'll tell the honest truth.]

Sometimes.

[A pause.]

Tell me something only the two of us know. I still don't believe you.

[tenimuho]

HUMANS LIVE TO SAVE THEMSELVES.

[Odasaku's next-to-last words. He thinks that Dazai still remembers the moment, maybe even as well as he does.

After a moment's consideration, another message writes itself: something less full of painful memories, maybe.]

YOU WERE NEVER VERY GOOD WITH THE CURRY AT FREEDOM. YOU SAID IT WAS LIKE IT HAD BEEN SEASONED WITH LAVA.

[They'd never eaten with anyone else there besides the restaurant owner and occasionally the kids.]

[ninjou]

[Oh.

Dazai remembers that moment. It's burned into him like a brand, the words memorized, the truth Odasaku spoke to him at last, after he'd offered so many of his own too freely. What they realized too late.

Friendship.

Dazai gets a chair and drags it in front of the board, faces the back towards it and sits on it in reverse, chin resting on its top.]

It's different now. That's what it really is. I don't have much to say about how things used to be.

[tenimuho]

THAT'S OKAY

[He and Dazai have never shared much about themselves, and there's no reason that should change much now. This question that he'd asked... he would never have asked it in life.]

'SOMETIMES' IS BETTER THAN ALWAYS
SO I'M GLAD

[Odasaku is, and will always be, Dazai's friend.]