"Shit..." Chuuya grumbled. "I can't move a single finger." He said before passing out.
"I predicted this far. But the rest is on them." Dazai turned to the building, where a yellow spiral was above it.
Ren looked at it silently as Dazai put his arm around her waist, pulling her in. "Do you need anything?" She asked, slightly weary.
"No, just wanted to spend some time with you." He smiled and ruffled her hair. "Who knew you'd be able to control Void?"
"Certainly not me." She shrugged, leaning against his shoulder, and she could feel some of the tension leave her body.
"You did well." He smiled, placing a hand on her head and looking down at her gently. "I know that you did something and you didn't tell us, so spill so I can give you proper credit."
"I knew you were planning something crazy, so I decided to join in the fun. If you want details, Chuuya was tossing black holes at me and I used that to my advantage. Whatever, I don't need credit. You can say whatever you want after this whole ordeal is over. Then I'll get rid of this ability and I can go home without worrying about anything else, but I'm not getting rid of it just yet." She saw a flash of light for a split second, squinting to see if she was seeing things, but shook her head. She sensed something, her eyes flashing open and sat up, looking at the sky. Dazai sensed something as well and looked up.
"Ren." She heard Kawakami's voice as she was back in the white room, turning around to see her smiling. "Thank you."
"Thank me for what...?" Ren asked, puzzled.
"For using my gift to save someone. Something I never did. I ended up killing my husband with Void." A single tear rolled down her face, dropping on the floor and creating ripple effects all across it, and soon they were standing atop a small green island with a cherry blossom tree, branches stretching over their heads, surrounded by a vast, clear blue ocean. "This colour reminds me of your eyes." Kawakami pointed to Ren's eyes, studying them intently. "They can be stormy and dark, but other times can be calm, clear and beautiful. A constant sea of changes."
"That's... true, somewhat." She thought for a moment, pushing her hair out of her face so Kawakami could see both her eyes.
"Well I see you have a large amount of faith in Dazai." She smiled and Ren shrugged, smiling to herself. "Caring and taking care of yourself is beautiful, but don't you think that adding another person to that is even more beautiful?"
"Can people like me do that?" Ren asked. "People who have destroyed others intentionally, people who kill mercilessly? Can I still do that?"
"What makes you think you can't? We're all human, after all." Ren thought for a moment and nodded slowly. "Well, I wish you the best of luck."
"Human..." Ren whispered as the world around her dissolved into nothingness. "We're all... human..."
She stood up, walking over to the abandoned building, producing a blade from her hands. "So you're gonna go beat up Shibusawa?" Dazai turned to her.
"Don't you remember my warning? Though I'm gonna put my normal uniform back on." She grinned and put her trench coat on, disappearing into the fog. "Also, look after my handful of a little brother, ok?"
"I will." He laughed, and she made her way over, watching Akutagawa and Kyouka's special abilities fight Shibusawa and getting thrown into rocks, skidding on the ground. Sneaking up behind him, her turned around towards her, trying to grab her katana. Swiftly moving away, she swung her blade through they air while trying to make sure she couldn't get blocked. Shibusawa had three scratch marks on his face and jumped up in the air, diving back down with long red claws emerging from his fingers. A blue light burst through the air and landed on the ground next to him, and Kyouka, Akutagawa and Ren stepped back, avoiding the smoke.
"Dragon Tiger is a well-deserved name." Shibusawa said as a low growl came from the smoke and a tiger emerged from it.
Ren frowned, preparing her blade as she watched it. "Midnight, do you have-" Akutagawa started.
"I borrowed one." She shrugged and turned back to the smoke.
"The Russian who told me of your existence told me that the dragon is the true form of the chaos of special abilities. Then, as you are the one who embodies the tiger, you are the antithesis of all special abilities." Everyone stood up, looking at Atsushi in his tiger form glowing blue and facing Shibusawa. "Are you going to kill me again, Nakajima Atsushi-kun?"
"I'm simply going to return something to where it belongs." Atsushi said defiantly.
"Don't be mistaken. I'm not stopping you." Shibusawa prepared to fight, and Atsushi did as well, ready to charge at each other.
The land around them was red and barren, with rubble covering the majority of it. There was a thick fog that seeped in, cloaking everyone in a thin veil. Atsushi pushed off his feet and jumped towards Shibusawa, who jumped back into a blade which lodged itself in his back. Turning back with a look of fury, he saw Ren holding it and she stepped away as he leapt back to grab her, skidding to a half on the ground, coughing up blood.
"Good, Atsushi-kun. You are indeed special." He pulled out the sword in his back, which disintegrated, and charged towards Atsushi again.
It was a blur of kicks and punches as they fought each other, and Shibusawa pushed Atsushi down into the ground with his foot, sending him flying across the rubble. Akutagawa brought out Rashoumon and and Ren lifted up pieces of rubble to hurl at Shibusawa. He blocked Rashoumon and the rubble, but the felt the presence of someone behind him. Turning around to kick, the person was already twisting through the air, and he flung Rashoumon towards Ren, who cast a shadow on top of Shibusawa. Attempting to move him, he fought back with incredible strength, and she gritted her teeth trying to move him around, but eventually she gave up and leapt back as Akutagawa was thrown across the ground. Demon Snow's blade crossed with Shibusawa, who punched it back and sent a gust of wind sending Kyouka and Demon Snow flying. Atsushi ran over and caught Kyouka right before she landed into a thick, concrete wall, and Ren sprinted towards Shibusawa, though she had significantly less energy due to the fight beforehand, only just missing Shibusawa's attacks. Flipping over him, she grabbed his head and rammed it into the ground as she landed.
"I told you if someone specific gets hurt, then you shouldn't expect me to sit still, and what did you do? Stab Dazai, so, do you want to find out what if feels like to be consumed by darkness?" She gritted her teeth, shouting out with the most determination anyone had seen in her eyes, her voice echoing across the barren wasteland and sprinted towards Shibusawa, and they clashed a few times, almost equally matched, glaring daggers at each other and Ren started to break the crystal, which now had a crack in it, and narrowly avoided a kick to the face.
Ren leapt around to the point where Shibusawa was starting to lose sight of her, and felt a sudden sharp pain in his back as he felt a blade lodged in there. She was significantly exhausted at this point, panting heavily and was sent flying by a kick to the side of the head, and she was almost ready to pass out, everything starting to spin and her head throbbing with exhaustion.
"The four of us need to combine our strength. Otherwise we can't assure our place of being." Atsushi said, loud enough for everybody to hear as he pried himself out of the rubble he was stuck in.
"You can call Demon Snow, again, can't you?" Kyouka's eyes widened.
"Kyouka, Midnight, weretiger..." Akutagawa pushed himself up. "You understand what you need to do, don't you?"
"Yeah, I know." Atsushi stood up and faced Shibusawa.
"Yes." Ren nodded.
Atsushi leapt forward, attacking Shibusawa, and they fought as Kyouka watched with eyes. He cried out as he prepared another attack, and Shibusawa still seemed calm.
"Your naivete is beautiful." Shibusawa flew up as Atsushi swung his right arm around to punch him.
"Kyouka-chan!"
"DEMON SNOW!" She shouted as a flash of light appeared above Shibusawa's head, stabbing him in the stomach.
"It's no use, give it up!" Demon Snow pinned him down to a piece of concrete in the centre, katana going straight through his stomach.
"AKUTAGAWA! MIDNIGHT!"
"On it!"
"Don't tell me what to do!" Ren and Akutagawa formed a thick barricade made of Rashoumon mixed with almost unbreakable rocks and shadows, wrapping Shibusawa in a giant cocoon along with Atsushi.
They couldn't see anything from outside, but a light started emerging from inside, as if it were breaking apart. "What?" Akutagawa, Kyouka and Ren stepped back, preparing for something to happen.
The outside burst and sent them flying back, with a glowing hot ball in the middle, reminiscent of the sun.
"Show me once more that glimmer that opposes all special abilities!" Shibusawa yelled as Atsushi's crystal began to be extracted from him.
Atsushi slowly turned back into a normal human and watched the crystal float in the air, the bright light glowing a calm blue.
"Beautiful... This is the supreme special ability." Shibusawa reached out to grab it.
"NO!" Atsushi yelled, and a barrier started to form around the crystal, preventing Shibusawa from touching it.
"What?" He reached out further, trying to clasp his fingers around it, both of them reaching desperately, trying to see who would get it first.
"That's not an ability. THAT'S ME!" Atsushi reached out his own hand and grabbed it, his ability merging back with him as he threw his arms out to punch Shibusawa, who blocked it with both hands.
"I understand everything now." They pushed each other, trying to dominate the other. "Why I'm here, why you appeared before me, and what his words mean... You, you must be the angel who saves me." He said as his body began being eaten away into nothing, and the crystal on his forehead snapped, and he exploded, leaving only his skull.
Atsushi continued screaming as he crushed Shibusawa's skull, and the ball of light exploded, consuming the entire city of Yokohama for a brief moment before Atsushi flew down again, now in human form.
He turned around to face everyone. He and Kyouka smiled to each other, and Ren made her blade disintegrate as she put her hands in her pockets, and dawn started to break behind them. They turned around, watching the sun, and Akutagawa walked away. She walked over to the edge of the cliff, looking down at the shimmering blue sea, the same blue ocean that Kawakami had shown her: calm, clear and beautiful with the rising sun.
Taking a deep breath, she said softly, "God in heaven and Satan in hell, oceans of water and land of earth, darkness of demons and lightness of angels, this is where we part." She put her hand to her chest, face softly illuminated by the sun. "Thank you, Kikuko, and goodbye. Forever." The ability crystal came out of her chest, fracturing into a million pieces of light that seemed to glow, and started flying off towards the sky, dissolving into the sun.
A single tear fell to the ground and she collapsed with exhaustion, beginning her descent down the cliff, falling. She could register falling down, the wind running its cool fingers through her hair, the view of the city at sunrise in front of her, mesmerisingly beautiful which had her captivated for a moment. Ren closed her eyes, too fatigued to think properly but heard a faint, comforting voice in the distance calling out to her, reaching out for her to come back. For a split second, her eyes flashed open, but all the energy quickly drained out of her.
"REN!" Dazai screamed out desperately, sprinting at full speed towards the cliff, while everyone turned their heads in confusion.
He felt a sudden rush of panic and he ran as though he had all the energy in the world, as he reached down to grab her leg, but it slipped from his grasp. Eyes widening in terror, he dropped down and grabbed her arm, his heart racing as she dangled above the crashing waves which extended down below. She hung limp, hair covering her face, and he gripped onto her arm, a pained expression on his face. He fixed his gaze on Ren, beginning to attempt to pull himself up, and making sure she was alright and that he didn't loosen his grip. Feeling himself start slip, Dazai felt somebody grab onto his arm. Chuuya grumbled to himself and pulled them up, and Dazai held onto Ren as he lay her down in his lap, watching her sleeping face.
"You're alright..." He breathed, a huge smile of relief on his face and examining her pulse, pulling her closer to him protectively.
"Are you sure she's not dead? She's alive, right?" Chuuya asked, slightly worried.
"Yes. She has a pulse and she's breathing, but it's not that much use to worry excessively. As she put it, 'You don't get to be a Port Mafia Executive and suck at your job.'" He brushed her hair out of her face gently, wiping away her one tear.
"That sounds like something she would say... why did I even bother?" Chuuya stood up next to Dazai, who turned to face the sunrise as Atsushi and Kyouka watched it as well.
"Dazai...?" Ren opened her eyes groggily, sitting up and looking at Yokohama with everyone else.
"It's all over." He whispered into her ear and she nodded, trying to stand up. "You should sit down for a while. You must be exhausted."
"Thanks." She smiled softly and crossed her legs as she heard the rest of the Armed Detective Agency coming. "I should go-"
"No, it's fine." Dazai smiled. "CHUUYA YOU GET BACK HERE TOO!"
"FUCK YOU I'M LEAVING!"
"Boneheads! You're still alive!" Kunikida raised his and as everyone else walked along with him.
"Everyone's safe." Atsushi said happily.
"What's Takahashi-san doing here?" Kunikida pointed to her, raising an eyebrow.
"Is there a problem? We just saved our home, Port Mafia and Armed Detective Agency because we want to protect it. What's wrong with that?" She raised an eyebrow back. "More than anything, I'm not that surprised you all survived. You're the Armed Detective Agency after all."
"And none of us are surprised you survived." Dazai grinned. "You're a Port Mafia Executive after all."
- - -
Welp Ren fell off a cliff.
She wasn't the one to ultimately defeat Shibusawa, that was kinda Atsushi's job and he's the protagonist, even though he doesn't really appear much in the movie? Even with her ability, Ren isn't totally OP and you know, fighting a magic dragon is pretty energy consuming, to say the least.
If you want more details about the Shibusawa/Atsushi thing, then it's in the movie. It's not relevant to this story since the Dead Apple arc is told from Ren's perspective and she's not an actual character in bsd canon so the movie will differ from this story, though the fights are pretty similar.
Dead Apple was fun to write but it's kinda faithful to the movie while adding a few elements.
There's not that much to say lol but there will be like a chapter break-ish before another chapter with a fight.
End of Dead Apple arc