Tsushima Shuuji, who is now known as Dazai Osamu, stayed in Mori's clinic for a few more days.
He did not even want to stay there. But his body was too weak and Mori simply ignored every attempt he made to get up and walk out.
"You will collapse again." Mori said each time.
"I don't want any patients dying in my clinic. That's also bad for this business and my reputation."
Dazai didn't know if he was joking or telling the truth. But he spent most of his time lying in the bed and staring at the stained ceiling an listening to Mori mutter to himself while writing things on messy papers. The clinic was quiet except for machines beeping or Mori humming as he worked.
But one thing was clear for him. Mori was not an ordinary doctor.
Dazai had spent years in the Port Mafia. He knew the smell of danger, the feeling of hidden violence and the weight of secrets someone tried to hide.
And Mori had all of those.
He sometimes looked harmless with his white coat and ditzy looking hair. He also smiled too easily. His voice was always calm and warm.
But under that gentle surface, Dazai felt something dark that reminded him of a knife. It was thin, cold and always ready to cut.
In fact, Mori was the shadiest doctor Dazai had ever met. Even the mafia doctors who stitched him up in the past knew when to back off. With one glare and one quiet threat, those doctors would flinch away and suddenly remembering another room they needed to check.
But Mori did not flinch. Not even once. No matter how coldly Dazai looked at him, Mori just smiled, leaned closer and continued checking his pulse like nothing was wrong.
It was both impressive and extremely annoying.
One afternoon, Dazai tried to sit up and the door suddenly opened. When he looked up, he saw a little girl walked in. She looked around seven or eight years old with long blonde curly hair and a bright red dress that swished when she moved.
"Oh, Dazai. You're up." Mori cheerfully said. "Let me introduce to you to my dear Elise. She is my adorable assistant."
Elise immediately pouted because of his introduction. But the moment Elise saw Dazai, she puffed her cheeks, glared and crossed her arms.
"I don't like him." Elise loudly complained. "He's creepy."
Dazai blinked once.
"Elise, manners please." Mori said with a sigh.
"No!" Elise protested and stomped her foot. "I already met him yesterday! And I'm telling you, Rintarou! I always disappear whenever I touch him! And I hate that! Tell him to stop being like that!"
Dazai stared at her without emotion. So she figured it out too. Well, it wasn't surprising anymore.
He had already noticed something strange about her from the first day. Her steps made no sound. Her presence felt so artificial. And every time she got too close to his bed, her body flickered like a broken light and disappearing for a few seconds before reappearing again with an angry little yell.
Dazai had met many unusual things in the mafia. But this was the first time he saw an ability shaped like a child. And of course, Elise clearly hated him for ruining her existence.
But honestly, Dazai couldn't blame her for it.
"Anyway, Dazai..." Mori said. "Elise is my special ability. And she helps me a lot with my work."
The doctor smiled like he was talking about a cute pet.
"As you can see, Elise has her own personality. She complains, whines and gets spoiled all the time. But don't underestimate her, okay?"
Elise, who was still glaring at Dazai, puffed her chest proudly.
"My special ability is called Vita Sexualis." Mori explained.
"...Sounds like a perverted ability to me." Dazai commented.
"Hey! It's not!" Mori complained. "But you see, it lets me summon Elise and manipulate her. She has strength far beyond a normal human and super speed that surprises even me."
"I could beat you up if you weren't so skinny." Elise told Dazai with a huff.
But Dazai did not react. Instead, he raised his arm and touched Elise with the tip of his fingertips. In an instant, Elise disappeared once again. When she reappeared after a minute, Elise let out an angry shriek.
"Stop doing that!"
"Stop complaining." Dazai quietly replied.
"And stop being annoying!"
Seeing their interaction, Mori softly laughed before patting Elise's head.
"Now, now. Don't be so mean to my patient, Elise-chan."
"Hmph!"
When Dazai looked at Mori, he could see the curiousity in the doctor's eyes.
"So now that I explained my ability to you..." Mori said. "Do you mind telling the name of your ability to me?"
Dazai knew this question would come. And to be honest, he did not want to answer it. His ability was the only thing he had left. It was the only part of himself that he still kept hidden. It somehow protected him and erased some of the danger in his life.
Dazai looked at Mori again. He did not trust him. Not even a single percent. Maybe he would never trust him until the very end.
But...
Dazai stayed silent for a moment and Mori patiently waited for his reply. He looked like a cat watching a mouse without rushing and pushing it.
After a long moment, Dazai finally spoke.
"...No Longer Human."
Mori tilted his head and repeated it as if he was tasting the words in his tongue.
"No Longer Human." Mori slowly said. "How interesting."
Dazai looked at him and continued in a flat voice.
"...There's no need to explain it. You've seen it already anyway."
Mori hummed and nodded toward Elise who quickly hid behind him with an annoyed expression on her face.
"When she touched me, she vanished." Dazai simply said. "That's all there is to it."
Mori's eyes sharpened for the first time since they met. Dazai could see the interest flickering in it like a small flame.
"A nullification ability, huh..." he murmured. "Such a very rare ability."
Dazai did not answer to that.
"Hey, idiot Dazai!" Elise called in a tiny voice. "Stay away from me. I don't want to disappear again! That's very annoying!"
Dazai scoffed. As if he wanted to deal with a brat like her.
Still, Mori smiled warmly again.
"Well then, Dazai." Mori said. "It seems like you and I will get along very well."
Dazai looked at him with an empty expression on his face.
And somehow, those words didn't sound like a good thing.
-/-/-
Weeks quickly passed and Dazai healed faster than he expected. His body was still thin and weak. But the sudden dizziness and the constant pain in his chest slowly faded. He could move around the clinic easily now although Mori still made him drink strange medicines from time to time that tasted like rusty metal.
But even after healing, Dazai didn't leave.
Maybe it was because he had nowhere else to go. Maybe it was because his body wasn't the only thing that was broken. Or maybe it was simply because Mori didn't tell him to leave.
And Dazai was too numb to care.
While staying in this sketchy clinic, Dazai slowly learned more about the man who saved him. Mori Rintarou was a military doctor. Or at least he used to be. Dazai learned about that when Mori spoke of it casually while disinfecting tools or writing on medical charts.
"I was good at treating soldiers." Mori said once with a soft smile. "Although they never liked my personality."
Dazai did not comment.
Mori was good in his chosen field. Dazai couldn't deny that. His hands were steady and his methods were effective. But he was also cold in ways Dazai couldn't fully understand. Mori spoke of patients as if they were puzzles he needed to solve and not lives he needed to save.
"To me, the human body is the most fascinating machine." Mori said one evening. "I want to see what it can do and what it cannot."
That statement alone was enough proof for Dazai to know that Mori was dangerous.
But Dazai stayed anyway.
He did not feel fear anymore. Maybe because fear belonged to people who still had hope.
Sometimes, Dazai helped Mori with simple tasks when boredom hit him hard. He sometimes held his tools, passed the bandages and pressed on wounds to stop the bleeding.
That was when he learned small things like how to stop bleeding from a severe cut, how to treat gunshot wounds and how to help someone breathe again.
Dazai did not know why he bothered learning these things. He had no reason to save others. But maybe deep inside, he just could not sit still.
Doing nothing gave him too much time to think. And thinking always led him back to his tragic past and to the fact that he already lost his only family. So Dazai learned medical first-aid, did monotonous tasks and different things that stopped his mind from crashing into his grief.
One late afternoon, Mori was wiping blood from his gloves when Dazai suddenly confessed his inner desire.
"I want to die." Dazai said. "I want a quick and painless death."
Mori paused. But he did not look surprised. Maybe he already knew after he stayed with Dazai for weeks now and he was just waiting for him to say it out loud.
"A painless death, huh..." Mori calmly said.
Dazai nodded.
Mori removed his gloves and threw them into a bin.
"I just saved your life, you know."
Dazai said nothing. He just stared at him with dull eyes. So Mori tapped his chin while pretending to think.
"Hmm... What a waste. I worked very hard on healing you."
Then Mori smiled.
"But if you do something important for me, I might be able to make a medicine that kills you quickly and without pain."
Dazai stared at him for a moment before he sighed.
"Fine."
He doubted Mori could make such a thing.
And even if he could, Dazai wasn't sure Mori would actually hand it over. But he still agreed because his world had become nothing but dull gray since the day he saw his sister's lifeless face in those blurred pictures.
Maybe dying could add a little color back into the endless gray in his life.
-/-/-
One quiet morning, the clinic door opened with force. Soon, three rough-looking men wearing black suits quietly walked in. Their movements were too disciplined to be normal thugs. Dazai looked up from the chair he was sitting in.
They were Port Mafia grunts.
His muscles tensed but only for a second. They did not look at him. They did not sense him either. It was probably because half his face was covered in bandages and his hair was a bit longer now.
To these grunts, he probably looked like a random injured kid that Mori found somewhere.
"Doctor Mori." one of them said. "You need to come. Now."
Mori did not flinch. He even calmly put his stethoscope back in his drawer.
"Is it urgent?" Mori calmly asked.
"The boss's condition worsened since last night."
"Oh."
The shortest grunt wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"If you don't come now, the situation will get worse. He is not acting rational anymore."
Dazai looked at them from the corner of his eye. He already knew this. His network had told him weeks ago. But hearing it from the mafia's own mouth made it real.
The Port Mafia boss, his so-called grandfather and the man who took Mariko, was now losing his control.
But Dazai felt nothing about it. Not anger. Not fear. Not even satisfaction.
Just emptiness.
Mori looked at the grunts before he straightened his coat.
"Very well." he said with a small smile. "Lead the way."
The grunts nodded and turned toward the door. Before Mori followed them out, he glanced at Dazai with a mysterious smile on his face.
"Let's go, Dazai. You should come with me."
Dazai met his eyes for a moment. He had a feeling Mori was about to step into something dangerous and something that would soon drag him in too.