𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈: 𝐀𝐜𝐭 𝐈
𝐖𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐧𝐞𝐝
𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟑,𝟓𝟎𝟑
𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬: 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝟓/𝟏𝟕/𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒
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"Chinatown...?" Dazai rose a brow as the two passed under the large sign that read 'Yokohama Chinatown' above the entrance to the bustling foreign community.
[Name] gave an affirmative nod. "That's right," was all she said.
With no further comment, Dazai could feel himself becoming more stressed by the minute, and that was saying something. For someone who didn't normally bother with this sort of thing, it really felt as if [Name] was intentionally trying to keep him on his toes, and somehow... it was working.
That uncomfortableness refused to go away as just about every person on the streets turned to greet [Name]. He walked alongside her awkwardly, watching as she returned their greetings earnestly, switching between Japanese and Chinese depending on the person. Though still a bit stiff, Dazai could not help but become somewhat intrigued. "You know Chinese?"
Though the same could not exactly be said about Dazai, [Name] was quite a sociable person, and she was good at, well, interacting with people. Even while casually waving at someone all the way across the street, she did not neglect him for a moment. "I do." She nodded. "I lived there for quite some time before moving back here."
Not only was Dazai not very proficient in the art of idle chatter, he was even worse at conveying his emotions. Thankfully, he was, simply put, a genius. Thus, he did not attempt to lengthen the conversation, and simply nodded as he was able to understand her implications: she had been born in Japan before moving to China—presumably when she was very little—for a few years.
"Don't worry, just a bit farther and we'll be there," [Name] chimed, breaking the silence between them that had lasted for nearly half a minute. Though it was not an awkward silence, it could not exactly be called a "comfortable" silence either—perhaps it was somewhere in between.
Either way, Dazai followed along until the two came across a small metal gate that lead into what appeared to be a courtyard of sorts. A note had been left taped above the gate's handle, and Dazai could only watch her read it due to the fact that it was written in Chinese (he could faintly make out the characters he recognized from Kanji, but that was all). The note didn't appear to be much more than some kind of reminder for something, as [Name] didn't seem too bothered by it, and she simply folded and pocketed the small piece of paper before walking into the yard, holding the gate open for Dazai to enter behind her.
The two walked further inside (which wasn't very far, as it was kind of small), yet there were no kids to be found. Dazai deadpanned for a moment before he understood. And judging by the small smile on [Name]'s face, she certainly knew what was going on too.
"Oh no, where have those little troublemakers run off too?!" She let out an exaggerated gasp, making a show of looking around dramatically. "Don't tell me..." She covered her mouth, a horrified look appearing on her face. "They've been kidnapped!! Waahhh, what am I supposed to tell their parents?? They'll be so sad..." she cried, her face falling as crocodile tears appeared in her eyes.
All at once, four little kids practically jumped out from various places and tackled [Name].
"Nooo!!! Don't tell our parents we were hiding!!"
"Right! It was just a joke! A joke!!"
"Don't make them sad... And please don't be sad either..."
"Hey!! Stop fake crying! It's obvious you're trying to trick us!!"
Dazai couldn't stop his eyebrow from twitching. This whole interaction was just... wow. And not in a "wow, this is so sweet!" or "wow, that was a good one!" way.
The four small gremlins had crowded around [Name], who was squatting on the ground while covering her eyes with her hands and letting out overdramatic sounding sobs. The one that had called her out on her bullshit was attempting to pry one of her hands away from her face to no avail before she suddenly removed them, leaning forward slightly with a "Boo!" and successfully making them all scream in fright before falling over.
Now that, Dazai couldn't help but find some amusement in.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." [Name] shook her head disapprovingly as she stood up. "Ai ya, such problem children. All you think about is playing pranks and causing trouble." She sighed dramatically. "Ahhh, whatever will I do with the four of you?"
The group of four, which was comprised of two boys and two girls, each had different reactions. [Name] had naturally not forgotten about Dazai, and took the opportunity to introduce everyone.
Starting from the left, a dejected looking boy with short dark hair and green eyes no older than the age of seven sat. "This is Jun." Next to him was a little eight-year-old girl with frustrated tears in her eyes. She had short, auburn hair tied into two low pigtails and brown eyes. "Jia." Another little girl was seated next to her, sniffling, her golden locks and big baby blue eyes accurately matching her status as the youngest of the group at six years old. "That's Minako." The final and oldest child was a pouting ten-year-old boy with brown hair and fiery red eyes. "Annnd, uh, what was your name again?"
"Hey!!!"
[Name] laughed. "Nah, I'm just kidding. This one is named Yijun."
After going through the children, Dazai couldn't help but raise a brow at the seemingly odd one out. "Minako?"
"Ah, her mother is Japanese, and her father is a Chinese immigrant," [Name] explained. Dazai only nodded in understanding.
"Big sister [Name], you won't... really tell our parents about this, will you...?" Minako softly asked through teary eyes.
[Name] was quick to wipe them away, smiling at her reassuringly. "Of course not." She chuckled. "I was only joking with you all."
The little girl visibly relaxed, and her tears disappeared in an instant. It really went to show just how fickle children were...
"C'mon, Minako, [Name]'s always joking around, she'd never actually rat us out!!" Jia exclaimed proudly, puffing her chest out and sticking her nose up. "She's way too cool for that!" Both Jun and Minako nodded their heads enthusiastically in agreement.
"Ugh, stop talking like that. I makes it seem like you're bragging about yourself," Yijun sneered, rolling his eyes at the three, only to get smug looks in return.
"You're just jealous [Name]'s way cooler than you," Jun quipped back with a smirk.
"Wha—Hey!!" Yijun was quick to shush him before coughing loudly, looking back at [Name] and pointing at Dazai. "So anyways, who's that?" Not bad at trying to divert attention away from himself.
Dazai (although not really surprised) was surprised. He had gotten used to just watching things play out with these kids and had half-expected to just be a spectator the entire time. Now that his existence had been called out though, he couldn't get away from having to interact with them...
It was clear [Name] could sense his hesitance, yet she brought him next to her anyways. "Oh, this guy? This is my friend, Dazai," she patted his shoulder, maintaining eye contact with the kids.
Though on the outside Dazai seemed completely fine, on the inside, he was not. When [Name] said she was going to make sure she salvaged some of his childhood, he didn't think this was what she meant. Moreover, she addressed him as her "friend". He didn't know how he felt about that.
"Ooooo!" The three younger children awed, gazing up at Dazai in amazement. This person was one of [Name]'s—the coolest person in the world—friends!! In the presence of someone as awesome as the big sister they looked up to so much, Dazai, by association, was equally as great in their eyes.
Unfortunately, Yijun didn't seem to see things the same way. "...You have friends other than us?" he remarked, his classic sass once again surfacing.
With closed eyes, [Name] patted his head calmly while nodding in understanding. "It's okay to be jealous, Yiyi."
...
"Stop saying that I'm jealous!!" The poor boy could never get away from being teased, even Minako never spared him! Though their teasing was not without foundation. Like the other three, Yijun also looked up to [Name]. Like, a lot. He just had a different way of showing his admiration.
[Name] only ruffled his hair and gave him a reassuring smile, and he, in return, angrily swatted her hand away before fixing his hair with a huff. "So, my little problem children, what shall we do today? It'll be a few more hours before your parents get back, so let's come up with something to do in the meantime, alright?" [Name] spoke to them casually, and the children who had crowded around her nodded obediently, including Yijun.
Without a word, Minako ran to the corner of the yard, reaching behind a box that rested by the fence before pulling something out and running back up, presenting it to [Name] with big eyes and a light tug on her skirt. In her hands was a colorful jianzi.
"Oh? You want to play jianzi?" [Name] asked curiously, gingerly taking the item from Minako's small hands as the child replied with eager nods.
"Whaaaat? Jianzi? Bo-ring, let's play something else," Yijun groaned, looking away with uninterested eyes.
"Tch. This party-pooper," Jia commented, turning to Jun and speaking in a gossip-like fashion before looking back to Yijun. "If you don't wanna play, go play another game by yourself, hmph!" she huffed, turning her head away with crossed arms. Next to her, Jun and Minako nodded in agreement, copying her actions.
Yijun's mouth fell open, and an offended look appeared on his face. Adding fuel to the fire, [Name] just directed the three away from Yijun. "There, there—ignore the bully. Who needs him anyway?" she spoke to them with a confident nod, to which they immediately agreed.
And so Yijun was left to sulk in the corner by himself as [Name] called out for Dazai to join their game. He didn't know what to do, and walked over awkwardly, standing cluelessly as [Name] talked.
"Have you ever played Jianzi before? It's basically shuttlecock. Y'know, like playing with a hacky sack. Just keep it from touching the ground with your feet. No hands allowed," she graciously explained. Dazai was quiet, but nodded nonetheless. In truth, he wasn't sure how he felt at the moment. He wasn't against the idea of engaging in the game, but at the same time, he wasn't overly enthusiastic about playing, either.
"Ooh! Ooh! I wanna start!" Jun jumped, raising his hands in an attempt to get [Name]'s attention.
She nodded at him, tossing the shuttlecock in his direction which he caught with his foot before bouncing it up in the air. Showing off a few tricks, he passed it over to Minako, who fumbled for a moment but, with surprising skill, managed to put on an even more impressive display than Jun before allowing Jia to get a turn in. She was not exceptionally good at the game, but kept the shuttlecock up in the air nonetheless.
"Your turn, newbie!" Jia shouted at the end of her average show before passing to Dazai. He had been so focused on silently watching the other three that he was unprepared for the pass, but with sharp reflexes befitting of a mafia agent, he caught it with his foot.
It was his first time playing the game, yet almost expertly, he tossed the shuttlecock up in the air, rotating between his left and right foot to keep it in the air and outperforming even the Jianzi expert herself, Minako!
Jun, Jia, and Minako watched with sparkling eyes, marveling at Dazai's astonishingly spectacular Jianzi ability with "ooh"s and "ahh"s. And though he was silent the entire time, Dazai seemed entirely focused on the game, something which [Name] found amusing. In just a short amount of time, he had already become in tune with his inner child.
Figuring he had showed off enough, Dazai wordlessly looked up, meeting [Name]'s eyes and kicking the feathered toy in her direction, which she effortlessly caught, performing a series of tricks much like his own. It naturally garnered the attention of all the children, and they couldn't help but feel extremely fortunate to witness such awesome "big kids" up close.
And Yijun. Poor Yijun. He had been watching the entire game with longing eyes, wanting nothing more than to go up and ask to join the game. Alas, his pride was too big, and it took all his might to keep himself from approaching the group.
Fortunately for him, [Name] knew the boy all too well. She was also never one to leave others out, especially children, who she wanted to experience all the joys in life before being inevitably exposed to the cruel, real world. But of course, she had to tease him a bit first, and so without warning, she shot the shuttlecock over towards him, only making an effort to call out when it was already halfway to him. "Yijun, catch!"
The three kids and Dazai all turned to look to the corner where Yijun stood, the former watching on with curious looks while Dazai seemed to remain indifferent. He had not forgotten about Yijun's existence, but felt as if he couldn't be bothered to concern himself with the sulking child. To him, seeing [Name] acknowledge the ten-year-old was surprising; she had not once forgotten about him, and even went out of her way to make sure he could still be a part of the group, just as she had shown to do the same for him. It was a thought that left him feeling confused and conflicted.
At first, Dazai may have felt a little... offended by the way she was treating him. He felt as if he was being reduced to a small child, or that she was maybe even patronizing him in some way. But seeing how she was acting towards Yijun made him reconsider.
...Was she really trying to help him?
Once again, Dazai had no idea how to feel. Part of him was saying "What the hell are you doing?" while another, small, portion of himself was, well... enjoying this. Maybe [Name] was right about him still being a child...
In his corner, Yijun was quickly on alert from hearing [Name]'s shout, snapping out of the daze he was in. Luckily, the boy had pretty good reflexes, and he was able to catch the shuttlecock with his foot, but unfortunately his hand-eye coordination (or foot-eye coordination, in this case) was no good, and he ended up losing the toy and watching with a frozen face as it fell to the ground (much to his horror). Just when he had the chance to make up for himself earlier, he had to go and embarrass himself.
And how embarrassing it was. His defeat was so crushing that the others could only stand and stare at him in silence. The game was going so well and then—boom! He had to mess it all up with his terrible coordination.
"Pfft—!! So that's why Yijun hates playing jianzi!!" The first to speak was Jia, and the look on her face was enough to tell Yijun that he was the only one who felt the way he did. After all, Jia was not laughing out of malice, and in fact looked rather sympathetic, the kind of genuine sympathy children seemed to have great understanding of.
"Hey, Yijun, if you didn't wanna play because you sucked, all you had to do was say so!" Jun added in. Like Jia, his words were not meant to hurt Yijun, but kids didn't exactly have filters.
"Wh—What?! I don't suck at jianzi!!" Yijun shouted defensively, crossing his arms with an embarrassed flush.
"Yeah, yeah! We would have picked a different game!" Minako chimed in with a cute smile. The three's innocent looks were ones that Yijun really couldn't stand up against, and he could already feel himself cracking.
Of course, it was [Name] who was Yijun's last straw, as she walked up to him, crouching down and patting his head lightly. "There's no shame in not being good at something. We all have our strengths, you know?"
Yijun, though thickheaded, was, at the end of the day, still a child, and children were both fickle and emotional. [Name]'s words were the final push for Yijun to finally be able to put aside his pride and admit defeat. "Okay... So I'm not good at jianzi!! Or cup stacking, piano, soccer... or any games that involve any kind of bodily coordination, really, but still!! I'm..." He clenched his fists, a look of genuine remorse painting his face. "I'm sorry..." He sighed. "...For being kinda mean to you guys..." He looked directly at Minako. "And I'm sorry for calling jianzi boring. I know it's your favorite game."
Minako was an understanding child, and was arguably the most empathetic among the four, thus she gave Yijun a bright smile in return. "It's okay!! How about we play your favorite game next!" she suggested eagerly, and both Jia and Jun agreed with the same vigor.
This caused Yijun to become embarrassed at the kind attention he was getting, and he couldn't help but look to [Name], as if asking for her permission. She chuckled internally at his cuteness, but nodded at him nonetheless, and he took that as his cue, smiling back at the three children he called his friends. "Okay!" He may have been the oldest of the four kids, but he was still the same as them—a kid.
Dazai looked upon the scene with an almost dumbfounded expression. For one, [Name] was really good with kids; that was something he had to give her credit for. Second, as much as he hated to admit it, even he was moved by her ability to convince Yijun to set aside his pride for the sake of being included. He no longer felt as if [Name] had been patronizing him earlier, and instead could feel her genuine desire to simply let him act like a kid, just like the rest of them.
Was he a changed person? No, no he wasn't. This was only one instance of [Name] trying to help "free" Dazai from the mafia's chokehold on his entire being. However, his interest in [Name] had skyrocketed quite a bit after this event. And even after he (admittedly) had fun playing a game of jianzi with the other kids, Dazai found himself sitting out the next game—foot racing, which, ironically, Yujin excelled at—and instead watching [Name] until the children's parents came to retrieve their kids. Dazai didn't stick around once they arrived, but he caught [Name]'s gaze looking at him from the corner of her eye, letting him know that she knew he was leaving, but didn't seem bothered. After all, she was satisfied with the outcome of the day's little excursion.
*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:
That day had left Dazai with a lot to think about. For one, he felt very conflicted. In the beginning, Dazai was, in all honesty, merely putting up appearances. Mori had ordered them to become acquainted, and so he did just that. It didn't mean he genuinely wanted to get to know [Name]. Sure, he considered it at the start, but then went back to the same reasoning he used for why he didn't have friends.
And then [Name] just had to start talking to him.
Their first interaction did indeed leave an impression on Dazai, and he was curious as to what kind of person she really was. And so, when [Name] roped him into going to Chinatown with her, he didn't really put up much of a fight. Though he was a little off-put by her saying "I'm gonna make sure you get to at least salvage some of your childhood."
Dazai, being someone who didn't know sympathy or kindness, initially reacted negatively. Surely she was doing it for her own benefit, right? Or she was doing something akin to taking pity on him, and as a result, looked down upon him. That thought annoyed him at first, but after seeing the whole Yijun interaction, he realized that perhaps [Name] really was trying to help him out of genuine kindness.
...But why?
It was just something he was incapable of understanding. Still, while [Name] may have been trying to do good, Dazai's initial contemplation over whether or not she was someone belonging in the mafia was starting to lean towards the "not" answer. Playing with kids, taking care of them, trying to help others, trying to help him—all signs pointed towards [Name] being someone who belonged in the light, not the Port Mafia. And yet, part of him still felt that his assessment was not complete. Like he was missing something.
And he was determined to get to the bottom of it.
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tbh... I don't know how I'm going to end this interlude arc LMAOOOO like, I feel like it needs some sort of conflict, but I'm not really sure what it's going to be. The first two chapters were ones I already had planned out, like I had a vision and everything, yk, and the first part of the next chapter is also one that was planned, but this chapter and the conclusion, literally winging it and going with the flow HJDHKJSAL
Anyways as things are now, this might actually be a 5 chapter arc, which is more chapters than the main storyline has so far 🧍♀️ But we'll just see ig
See y'all in the next chappie hehe