Double Black

the bonds we didn't break

A/N: BSD Manga Chapter 105.5 spoilers, very very slight 15 and stormbringer references (but all of it is like common knowledge at this point so?)

Leaving a trail of water behind him, Dazai stepped into one of the many storage corners of Meursault. 

He'd parted ways with Sigma shortly before, claiming he had some important things to attend to personally. The casino owner had seemed curious and perplexed, but he appeared to be clever, for he'd already learnt that Dazai did not answer questions he didn't want to.

Having assessed the prisoner's expression, Sigma had chosen against asking the question that poked at his brain. After all, what could possibly be more important than continuing with the plan? More important than making their escape, and going ahead to save the other Agency members at the airport?

As far as Sigma knew, Dazai wasn't even aware of the statuses of the other members. He wasn't sure if they were still, okay, in the first place. Yet a practical, sly man like Dazai claimed he had something else to focus on before going ahead to do any of that? 

To be fair, if Dazai assessed it to be important, it probably was. It was probably yet another one of his countless, intertwined schemes. Something that Sigma was a part of; and it didn't matter if it was voluntarily or not. 

So, after they managed their escape from the flooded room, they parted ways.

As for their escape,  that was something Sigma still couldn't wrap his brain around. One moment, they were staring up towards the direction of Fyodor's voice; panicked, even if it was just a little, as the room they stood in slowly but surely welcomed the water pouring in.

One moment, the water was above their heads and they were struggling to breathe. The very next moment, Sigma was woken up to breathable air all around him. The way he choked back to life was a sign enough that he'd definitely passed out back in the flooded room.

When he came to, the first thing he noticed was that he could breathe again. Second, his eyes fell on Dazai's figure standing in front of him. Completely drenched, and out of breathe, he didn't look like he'd taken any injury. When inquired about how they'd managed to get out of there, he simply said something about how explaining it all would be bother and how he had an urgent matter to attend to. 

As soon as Dazai had ensured that Sigma was okay, he left the place immediately. It was only after his departure that Sigma noticed where he actually was. At the very least, he could deduce that he was a few floors down from where they were originally trapped. Now how that came to be, that's something he doubted he'd know anytime soon.

Back in a storage room on the same floor, Dazai had finally taken a seat on the floor, allowing himself to catch his breath and focus on his thoughts. Piecing it all together was effort, no matter what was said by whoever. 

Fyodor wasn't dead. There went the plan of extracting information from his corpse using Sigma's ability. Fyodor wasn't dead, and he had control over Meursault. The time-stopping ability-user was killed. She wasn't there to do Dazai's bidding anymore. What an unfortunate trade, really.

Fyodor had managed to escape. And he did so with his aide.

...

More importantly, Chuuya wasn't dead. It was because Dazai had "underestimated" his skills as a gravity manipulator that he failed to take proper precautions to prevent the survival of the very two people he was trying to kill. 

Chuuya wasn't dead, and-

His thought process was interrupted by a gloved hand smacking him right in the shoulder. This was followed by the owner of the hand taking a seat right next to him. Curses were muttered in a raspy voice, "Fuck this shit. I am so tired."