Double Black

minus four years

This work was prompted by Noor1508 on wattpad. Thank you for the prompt <3

Disruption in peace came to the Armed Detective Agency under the guise of a a client in need of their services.

A woman in her twenties, along with her butler, asked for a meeting with Kunikida and Dazai. They wanted to hire the Agency to supposedly retrieve an heirloom- a garnet pendant- which had been stolen. As usual, Dazai had taken the woman's hands to compliment her on her ethereal beauty.

The woman had been very flattered and offered a piece of candy to the bandaged detective, who had eaten it promptly. As expected, eating candy from strangers never ended up well, and Dazai fainted in front of them promptly. While Kunikida was distracted by his colleague's sudden collapse, the woman and her attendant had made their quick escape through the window.

Kunikida decided that finding those two culprits could wait. The first priority was to get Dazai checked out. So, presently, all the Agency members were gathered in Yosano's infirmary, Dazai lying down on a bed amongst them.

Atsushi asked nervously, "So? Is Dazai-san going to be okay, Sensei?"

Yosano sighed as she finished her check up, "It's definitely an ability. Because he's Dazai, I can't work my ability on him to heal him, so I don't really know when he's going to be up."

Tanizaki asked, "How did this even happen? Shouldn't he be resistant to all abilities?"

Kunikida corrected him, "He's resistant to abilities that work by touch or have a physical manifestation. If my deductions are correct, that woman's ability was imbued in the candy she personally hand-fed to Dazai. Since Dazai didn't touch the candy, I assume the ability took effect."

Yosano muttered, "Seriously, what a stupid, loophole-filled ability. Why did Dazai even-"

Her sentence was cut off by the gasps of everyone else in the room. Dazai Osamu had started stirring up. As much as everyone was concerned and wanted to know what was going on, they soothed their curiosity and stayed back so Yosano could do the needful.

In the next half minute, Dazai had sat up on the bed properly. But... Let's just say he was very different now. Of course, he still looked the same. But his eyes were dull, dark and cold. His face, which everyone was used to seeing with an annoying grin, portrayed no expression at all. To make a poor comparison, he looked like a dead person who has just been breathed some life into.

As soon as Yosano tried to touch him to assess any possible injuries, her arm was swatted away immediately. Dazai had stood up by now, and when he spoke, his voice was a low, deep growl. Nothing close to the cheerful, goofy voice they were used to hearing.

The detective glared at Yosano first and then at everybody else, "Don't touch me."

He then looked down at himself, assessing his arms and legs, before looking up and speaking again, "I'm taller. How old am I now?"

Kunikida started, "What? Oi, don't mess around-"

Yosano cut him off with a subtle glare before responding to Dazai, "Twenty two. You're twenty two."

Dazai looked at the people around him before speaking again, "I'm eighteen. Mentally. It looks like I've lost my memories of the past four years."

Yosano turned to Kunikida and Ranpo, "That's it! That's the ability he was hit with. Do we know who possesses such an ability?"

Ranpo thought for second before nodding, "KJ Parker. Her ability is called 'The Last Witness'. It either traps or destroys memories from a specific time frame. There's no way of knowing which it is, so the memories might be recoverable or lost completely."