Anabiosis -- Dazai Osamu Angst

9

Please read the warnings before every chapter.
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TW/CW: GORE LIKE SERIOUS GORE, Graphic child abuse, graphic violence, surgical abuse/torture, implied pedophilia, Mori Ougai
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Stay safe. Seriously. TLDR at the end.

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The darkness lasted less long, still suffocating and horrible but only moments of torment instead of many seconds like last time. Chuuya landed on his back this time, staring up at the strangely familiar ceiling. He stayed like that, taking shallow, gasping breaths until he didn't feel like he was going to die anymore. He sat up with a groan. He looked around. Like last time, the other three were slowly catching their breaths and they were all in a cold, metallic-smelling room.

This time, however, the metallic smell was poorly concealed with a disgusting, flowery perfume. Chuuya instantly recognized the smell as the one he often caught on Elise. The smell was overpoweringly heavy and the still clear odor of blood made the aroma of the room overall nauseating. Chuuya scrunched up his nose and breathed through his mouth instead.

The room was big and fairly clean. The ground was the same almost-black wood as everywhere else in the mafia headquarters (because that was definitely where this was, one glance out the sprawling, tinted windows made that clear). The ceiling was the same as everywhere else too, patterned with carved wood tiles. Plush, white rugs cushioned the floor. Chuuya's stomach twisted when he spotted faded and fresh red stains in them.

He took a deep breath and turned around, facing the rest of the room. A massive bed was in the middle of the back wall. Shelves and desks lined most of the rest of the walls. A shiver ran down his spine when he spotted the metal table near the bed, clearly a surgical table. He looked back at the bed, taking a closer look at it. The sheets were also stained with blood and plush white but that wasn't what caught his attention.

A tiny, thin figure was sitting on the side of the bed. Chuuya squinted a bit and made out familiar, fluffy brown hair. His heart sank. Dazai, still unsettlingly thin and eerily still, sat on a blood-stained bed in the mafia headquarters. He took a deep breath, turning to the other three. Kunikida was pretty much fully recovered, looking around and breathing fairly steadily. Atsushi was similarly recovered. Akutagawa seemed to be breathing a bit rough, but the black-haired boy had always had issues with catching his breath.

"Dazai's here again. He looks a little older." Chuuya said, drawing everyone's attention to where he was pointing. Atsushi looked sad and his eyes were full of tears. He had cried a lot in the cell. Kunikida looked distraught, concern and anger and sorrow clear on his face. It made Chuuya like the blonde a bit more that he seemed to really care for their suicidal maniac. Akutagawa frankly just looked confused. Chuuya pitied the kid. He knew what Dazai was like while training him. It was probably weird to find out that someone so confident and strict was tortured for like a decade or more.

"Where are we?" Kunikida asked, rubbing his head and looking around.

"Mafia headquarters. From the look of the city, I'd say around 15 years ago." Chuuya responded, still focused on Dazai. "Which means Dazai would be around 6." They were all quiet after that. A 6-year-old looking so...dead, it just seemed wrong.

As they watched him silently, the door behind them creaked open. Dazai didn't move besides a slight flinch at the initial sound. Mori walked past them, going to a desk and throwing his coat over the chair. He hummed giddily as he walked around. After a minute or so, he turned and sat by Dazai. He leaned uncomfortably close to him, tugging on his hair roughly while running his hands through it. Dazai didn't react.

"Osaamuu," Mori whined, voice as sickeningly sweet as ever. "I worked so hard today. I need to relax. You don't mind helping me out, right?" His voice, still sweet, had a sharp edge. Dazai didn't respond. "Osamu," Mori said, tone suddenly cold. "You know I don't like it when you ignore me." After a moment, Dazai slowly lifted his head to face the doctor.