I Don't Smoke (bsdxmha)

A subtle interrogation, by a student

Dazai waits at his desk, reading his guide to suicide under the pretence of being occupied. Instead, he's going through possibilities of how Aizawa will react when he gets back from wherever he left to after he saw Dazai with a bandage around his right eye. He obviously recognised Dazai from a past experience where he was unaware of his identity before today.

The bandages around his eye are the only differing feature between his time at UA and his time with the Port Mafia. Since they've only met once out of UA, he found Dazai to be a striking resemblance to whoever he met on that rooftop (Since, y'know, they're the same person...) It must have been much too dark to make out any defining features of his, minus the stark whiteness covering half of his face, so it makes sense for him to only realise it today.

He wears the bandage around his eye as much as he can. After an accident when he was ten, he's mostly blind in his right eye. That's what Mori tells him. Dazai is still unsure of what really happened. Since it reflects light in an odd way, he prefers to keep it wrapped up. It also generally unsettles him for some odd reason. His right eye is always worse to look at than his left.

He covers it at every opportunity. UA is the only place he doesn't wear any bandages over his face; It draws too much attention. It's a similar situation with his uniform. If someone were to alert UA about the bandages, it would be bothersome to explain. There have been some circumstances where he takes them off during the day when he's by himself, but it's rare.

So earlier today was the first time Aizawa saw him with a bandage around his eye. It's reassuring to know that at least he hasn't been seen out of school by any teachers besides those few encounters he's aware of. Dazai's surprised the man didn't get it earlier, though. Not many people walk around covered in bandages.

During that encounter, there were no signs that he was connected to the Port Mafia. So he may be a crazy criminal in Aizawa's eyes, but he shouldn't be from Yokohama. So why is he did he so panicked? Surely the smoking wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe it is... but it still doesn't feel like something he would immediately run off about. Aizawa is mostly rational, if he just had a gun, he'd confront him about it in the moment. Dazai just can't figure out what he's missing. It could be one of the many times he'd had to take on a job outside of Yokohama, but what one?

All he can do is try to narrow it down. During the time around his jobs, he's had interactions with heroes twice that Aizawa would know of:

Once was when he met Best Jeanist after he had to take care of a few people who had violated one of their contracts with the Port Mafia. It was an easy job and since it was during the night, he doesn't think the hero would be able to give a good description of him. He may not have even reported Dazai, considering there was no proof of crime at that moment. Sort of... minus the blood. There were no witnesses though, minus the Pro Hero himself.

The other, while not directly, was during that raid in Hosu. He met Midnight earlier that day and was seen with Chuuya, who had a good chance of being recognised at the warehouse. It's fair of her to assume he would be an accomplice. There were also many witnesses during that raid- the children saw him up close. A captured accomplice also could have blabbed about his appearance.

That raises the question: Where did Aizawa leave to? The obvious choice is the principal's office. If Aizawa figured something out, he'd definitely go to Nezu. The less likely options include: He ran off to talk to one of his friends, he ran out to process whatever he discovered about Dazai, he called the police or he needed to take a massive shit.

He flips another page and glances at the door. He still isn't back yet. It's been over ten minutes since Aizawa stormed out. The sun filters through the window onto his page. Death by starvation? Way too painful. It would take too long as well. Death by a really long needle by poking it into his lungs and deflating them? He's sure he could find a needle somewhere. Ugh, but it'll take too long to heal if he survives.