Double Black

He's just... Dazai. You know?

There was a lot of controversy regarding the kind of relationship Dazai Osamu and Nakahara Chuuya had. Everybody knew that the two of them used to be in the Mafia together. They used to be partners; and their partnership came to be known as the most devastating rivalry in the history of Yokohama's Underworld. They were dubbed as Double Black (or soukoku in Japanese) and pretty much everybody knew about the duo.

The Armed Detective Agency, who had hired Dazai two years after he'd left the mafia, came to know about his partnership with Chuuya years later. They weren't exactly connected to the darker side of the Underworld. But after the Shibusawa incident, they had slowly learnt about that aspect of Dazai's life in the Port Mafia.

The Agency members had met Chuuya quite a few times, but funnily enough, never when Dazai was present. Back when the Port Mafia and Agency were enemies, the detectives had fought against all the well-ranked Mafia members. They had fought against Chuuya too. In fact, their President had fought it out one-on-one with the Mafia boss, Mori. Atsushi and Akutagawa had tried to kill each other on several occasions. But as Kunikida noticed, Dazai and Chuuya had never actually fought against each other seriously.

They claimed to hate each other, but the Agency members had heard way too many stories of the duo in action. They have remarkable faith in each other, some had said. Nakahara-san is the strongest martial artist in the city; he could easily kill Dazai-san even without his ability. Chuuya-san must trust Dazai-san with his life; there have been incidents before. 

Nobody knew why exactly Chuuya depended on Dazai, but they had heard from the Special Abilities Division that he could actually die if Dazai didn't get to him in time. The Agency members didn't understand it, but there seemed to be truth behind these statements. 

So, they figured that Dazai and Chuuya were merely ex-partners. But then, how did they still trust each other so immensely? They claim to be rivals; surely rivals wouldn't trust each other with their lives? At first, Kunikida was worried. If Dazai was so close to somebody from the Mafia still, wasn't there a chance that he would betray them for their sake? 

Over the span of a few weeks, the Agency members saw Dazai and Chuuya interact on several occasions. During joint gatherings or joint missions, for example. Chuuya even dropped by sometimes because he claimed "he needed to ask Dazai something". Their relationship dynamic certainly seemed strange to the Agency. 

Over time, the Mafia members joined the curious gang. They had noticed several things different about Chuuya too, and were positive Dazai had to do something with them. They wanted to know too; what exactly were they to each other? Apart from their work life, did they have something to do with each other in their personal lives as well? It was a question that bothered most ranked members of the Mafia, and almost all the members of the Agency. So, both the groups decided to casually talk tot heir respective employees about it, trying to get an answer to the question they wanted.

1.

The question was asked for the first time by the Agency. They had discussed beforehand to carry out their little plan during lunch hour on a work day. That day, Dazai had shown up to work and the first half of the day had been just fine. When lunch hour finally arrived, a single glance at the rest of the group was all it took for everyone to confirm the 'go-ahead' on their plan.

Everybody was busy eating, and about ten minutes into the hour, Yosano spoke up, asking Atsushi about Akutagawa. How it was like to fight along side him, did they feel like partners yet, things as such. Atsushi was a little flustered but he answered the questions nonetheless. Fighting alongside him was alright, he was at least reliable if nothing else, and no they didn't feel like partners; they'd tried to kill each other way too much.