Tanizaki Junichirou Port Mafia AU

Shortcut

After only a few seconds there's a soft chime and the door opens out onto another corridor. This one is in stark contrast to the one above, there's no intricately woven carpet, or portraits with mahogany frames, only cold concrete floor pressing in from all sides the darkness broken every few feet by a simple lamp. Still, despite it all, I follow Ozaki-san.

There's a door at the end of the corridor, it looks as if made from steel. This is the true Port Mafia. Ozaki-san scans her palm print again, types in a code and the door opens. For such a heavy metal thing it makes no sound.

The inside of the room is the same as the outside. All concrete. Fluorescent lights bathe the room in a sickly glow like an operating theatre, there's only a single portrait on the wall, of a girl in a poofy red dress with a calico cat on her lap, I swear it looks familiar. It's probably just homesickness for Haruno's cat that always hangs around the agency, I ignore it. There's a metal table with three office chairs on either side and one at the head. I stop, tripping pathetically over myself.

At the head of the table sits a ginger like myself, only with longer hair and striking blue eyes. The Gravity Manipulator, Nakahra Chuuya, and he's just lounging there as if everything is normal. As relaxed as he looks, I can see him watching my every movement, perfectly alert, and I pick the farthest away chair when I sit down.

"Jeez, Ane-san, what's it with you and gingers?"

"Well they say gingers have no soul for a reason, now sit up, you're frightening our new recruit!" She says it thoughtfully, seriously, whacking him on the head as an extra reprimand, like she's his sister. Are they related? I can't bring myself to ask.

"Recruit, eh? Huh? So you actually agreed, I thought you'd wimp out." He looks me up and down, nodding to himself. He frowns, I can't tell if it's displeasure with the way Kouyou admonished him or with me. "I dislike people who don't speak their minds, so whatever you're thinking, say it, get it out now. This isn't the time to play around or hide things." His voice is barely raised but the weight behind the command is impossible to ignore.

"You were with the black lizard at the hospital! Is this what you had in mind all this time?"

"No, but when I saw for the second time the extent of your ability, the solution became clear. Mori-san taught me never to pass up an opportunity."

"So I'm your last-minute plan?" I let my judgment show openly in my tone and on my face, just as he requested.

He snorts at my judgment, but I'm not afraid anymore. They need me, at least for now, they won't hurt me. "We still have 18 hours, and it's the element of surprise I'm counting on. The enemy won't be expecting your lethality." He presses a panel in the wall, so smooth I missed it before, a screen comes into view, and he mumbles something about mackerel as he clicks the screen to life.

"You really did all this just to try and get one over on him didn't you?" Ozaki-san shakes her head, she must be speaking to Nakahara-san because I have no idea what or who she's talking about.

Nakahara-san ignores her, "Your skill is uniquely suited for assassination, and with our resources and lack of legal restrictions, this problem could be sorted quickly. But first, you have to use your stealth to help us acquire information. The virus skill user is said to be a criminal, and with the police and Special Operations Division locking everything down there's no way they'll get out without at least being seen. Besides, they'll want to stick around anyway, to make sure they're plan is working. We have some techy looking into it. We know a bigger group called the Rats is responsible, led by some Russian named Dostoevsky. You already know about his so-called "plan to 'decapitate' our organisations?"

(A/N: By "we" he means him and Dazai who has been sharing information with Chuuya this whole time because double black.)

It's a lot to take in, I take a deep breath. The air smells like anticipation, but I don't mind it. "Yeah, Dazai-san told us. Dostoevsky wants to use us to pick off our own organisations. It's sick."