There is more than one of him

Chapter 5

When the president said this, Itsuki's heart broke a bit further. He knew, likely, terrible unimaginable things had happened to his brother, but having someone, an outsider, say it like that, made him afraid.

And then the way Shuji had answered it.

"The man who brought me away from you was Touson Dazai, the previous port mafia boss. He gave me my name and I worked under him until I was fourteen, then Mori, the current port mafia boss, killed him, I was used as whitness, that Mori was the rightful heir, not that it was acctually true, he promoted me to executive at fourteen. A couple of years later he indirectly killed Oda Sakunosuke, Oda told me to save people and now here I am." Dazai said, with a very neutral, untelling expressioin

Well, we're getting there Fukuzawa thought

But apparently it had been enough for Itsuki, his face turned into something undestinguishable, but clearly horrified. The infomration hadn't been much and the acctual bad parts were left out only the main information, which lead to where he was now was important.

"Why are you saying this, like as if you're telling me about every other tuesday? You were kidnapped and forever taken away, this is a severe thing, how can you speak so casually about it" Itsuki asked, he was getting angry again

Fukuzawa wanted to tape both their mouths shut, Itsuki's because he just wasn't thinking, nor getting his emotions under controle and Dazai's because he was too good at both thinking and controling emotion, aka. completely lacking empathy for anyone including himself.

"Because it is" Dazai stated and Fukuzawa wanted to bang his head onto the table. Dazai didn't say much, didn't justify any of his words, was quite obviously not in the mood to be here and really didn't know how to carefully give someone the information, that in the mafia kidnapping was an everyday thing, it happened all the time, more than half of all members had joined through kidnapping.

"No! No it is not! Kidnapping is a severe crime, often worse than murder, kidnapped people are tortured, mentally, physically and sexually. It is not an normal everday thing, it is one of the worst crimes one could commit, how can you say it so impassivly?"

And fukuzawa wished the room had a window, he'd be very willing for double suicide with Dazai right now.

After hearing this, Dazai began to laugh, it was less of a laugh than a heartless, bitter giggle, but it was irritating and confusing all the same. Fukuzawa dawned what his employee was going to say next, he really wished his perspective of such things would be different.

"One of the worst crimes one could commit? *laugh* I can on the spot tell you ten others that seem much worse to me. Kidnapping is really just tranferring a person to a different location without asking for their permittion. It happens every day, do you know how many people have been kidnapped simply in Yokohoma in the past week?*laugh*" That strange thing was, DAzai really seemed to think it was entertaining, that someone would think kidnapping is bad.

If Fukuzawa had ever wished for Mori to pay a surprise visit, then now would be the perfect time.

Itsuki was silent at that, for the first time, realizing, who he was talking to and how different he was to the child that used to go by Shuji. Because just like Dazai had said, Dazai Osamu was not Tsushima Shuji.

"You reall think that? You really think, what they did to you was just putting you in a different place? Were you not forced to stay? Did they not forbid you from contacting any of us? Have they never hurt you, whether it was mentally or physically?"

How about suicide by stbbing himself with his sword? Fukuzawa was debating his options.

"Yes, I really think that. They did simply put me in a different place, yes they forced me to stay, but they didn't hurt me, they didn't torture me for no reason, it was for jobs or for failing, simple training, just like receiving a bad grade."