Rememberance

Chapter 9:

*Several years have passed and Akutagawa has grown up...*

"Get up. The enemy won't wait for you to retaliate. You'll die if you stay down too long in battle,"

Akutagawa immediately leapt up and lunged at Dazai with his Rashomon attack, but Dazai nullified the ability and kicked him in the face, sending him crashing into a pile of boxes behind. Akutagawa coughed up blood and trembled, fighting against the immense pain in his body.

It had been several years since Akutagawa first joined the Mafia. Ever since he found a reason to keep living. Or so he thought. A lot of time had passed. Long enough for people to change...long enough for people to forget...to reveal themselves from within. Long enough to drift away from others. Over these years, Akutagawa had lost his sense of righteousness, and all the fear and sadness was kept inside. It was all replaced with a burning desire for strength and approval. These events had all happened to Akutagawa and Gin, who barely spoke with him these days. Ever since Gin joined, she began training with Hirotsu, another powerful gifted in the Mafia, and his other young subordinate, Tachihara. These days they barely got to interact outside of home, which Akutagawa still had not truly found yet. When Dazai reached out to him, he gave him the strength that carried him through his painful years. But it came with a large cost. Dazai's training was pure hell, and Akutagawa was often criticised for how he used his ability.

Dazai threw another kick at Akutagawa and knocked him even further back, and Akutagawa fell onto his head hard, blood flowing from his mouth, and he struggled to breathe.

"Tch. Are you already giving up? Pathetic. If this was a real battle, you would have been dead over two minutes ago," Dazai muttered, pulling a gun out of his pocket.

"You need to use your ability in more creative ways. If you make your moves predictable, the enemy will be able to attack quicker,"

Akutagawa took in a deep breath and weakly sent another Rashomon attack at Dazai, which he dodged and kicked back towards him. Akutagawa felt a hard blow on his face and he collapsed.

I never thought living would be so painful...so hard. Dazai-san's training has only gotten worse every day.

Dazai walked over to Akutagawa, bending over his bruised and injured body. He slowly aimed a gun at his head and whispered softly.

"When I found you all those years ago...rotting away in the world with your sister...I saw something in your eyes that made me consider taking you in. Do you want me to forget that? Do you want to go back to the slums? Because men like me...do this...to weak beings..."

BANG!

***

No...I'm not weak...

Dazai shot Akutagawa three times, but Akutagawa quickly summoned a shield at the last moment, deflecting the bullets.

I never thought I would have to be a vicious killer in order to receive approval. To truly deserve life...I could always just surrender...succumb to the darkness that threatens to overtake me...

Akutagawa used his shield to push Dazai away from him, and he slowly trembled, standing on his shaking legs. He looked up over at Dazai and gave him his most determined look. Dazai looked right back at him, his deadly brown orbs piercing through Akutagawa's empty gray ones, not showing any emotion.

And yet...

"Good. Try again,"

I have to keep trying.