A/N: I'm really sad about what's going on in the new chapter and the story in general so I wrote this. If I'm sad, I'm dragging you all down with me. (⁠༎ຶ⁠ ⁠෴⁠ ⁠༎ຶ⁠)
Have fun reading.

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Dazai gasps as the room starts filling with water. This was not part of his plan. He was not supposed to be trapped here. There was not supposed to be a placement reversal. Where were the gravitons? The screaming? The holes in the ground? What happened?

All these years, not once has this happened. Every plan worked. Every plan made sense. Every plan ended well. Dazai had seen Chuuya's eyes through the glass as he hunched over the microphone. He saw the darkness leaving them, the human behind it coming back. Surely, Chuuya heard the signal. Surely, he was conscious.

Dazai looks up, and sees the raven-haired man corroborating with his old partner, leaning over the same microphone. Dazai hates the smile on his face. 

Fyodor opens his mouth, bearing an even more sinister grin. "Honestly, you've surprised me."

Dazai puts his hands to the wall, standing on his toes, trying his best to stay out of the water. This is not where it ends. This is not how it ends. He doesn't want to lose. He doesn't want things to go this way. Where did Chuuya go?

"Not even by the flooding thing, but by how shallow your bond with that partner of seven years of yours is..."

Dazai grits his teeth. How dare Fyodor say something so absurd? He doesn't go away back with Chuuya like Dazai does. Fyodor wasn't there. Fyodor wouldn't understand. There is no bond like that of Soukoku.

"...for you to think that his gravity manipulation could not deal with the flood."

Dazai wishes Fyodor could hear him right now so he could tell him that's where he's wrong. Dazai knew that Chuuya could get out. He knew Chuuya wouldn't die. He knew what he was doing.

But why isn't Chuuya following through with his side of the deal?

The water keeps getting higher, getting to Dazai's chest. It's thick and tight, and it's suddenly much harder to breathe. Dazai whips his head around and sees Sigma isn't doing much better. This is not at all how Dazai wanted this to go. He was hoping they could both get out of here alive. It's not supposed to end this way, he thinks. His predictions are never wrong.

Suddenly, Dazai hears a loud boom come from above his head, and he sees a fist glowing red come through the ceiling, and his hopes start rising again. He recognizes that red glow anywhere.

He knew he could rely on Chuuya. He knew he always could. He hasn't been this happy in a long time.

Dazai watches Chuuya meticulously slide in through the hole in the ceiling and smash a hole in the wall, one he could sit in. He reaches his hand out, locking eyes with Dazai. Dazai is so relieved and happy, he could cry. So happy, he doesn't even notice how blank the look on Chuuya's face is.

Dazai trudges through the thick water until he can reach Chuuya's hand. He reaches for it to grab it, but Chuuya moves it away, instead grabbing Dazai's collar and pulling him up by it, and Dazai is once again amazed by Chuuya's strength.

"Ah, Chuuya, thank you so much for coming back for me!" he exclaims. Normally, such claims would be used to taunt Chuuya back in their partner days when Chuuya had taken far too long to clean up the mess that was their opponents. But this time, Dazai's words are genuine. He is endlessly happy that Chuuya came back for him.

Chuuya, however, just stares at him silently, holding him there. A very unusual Chuuya behaviorism. In fact, Dazai cannot recall a single time Chuuya did such a thing.

"Chuuya…? Why are you just staring at me?"

Silence. It sends a shiver down Dazai's spine.

"Why aren't you doing anything? We talked about this…"

He looks down as the water rises. He can barely see Sigma anymore.

"Will you at least save Sigma, too?"

"Oh, to hell with Sigma."

Dazai's eyes widen when Chuuya finally speaks. He's used to Chuuya having a bite to his tone, but is not used to it actually sounding threatening. Something about it has him worried.

"I don't give a shit what happens to him. He didn't do anything. I'm here for you."

Dazai doesn't like the sound of that at all. The way Chuuya says it makes Dazai wish he could run away. "What do you mean? What happened to Operation Goodbye?"

"Fuck off with your dumb-ass operations and plans and all that bullshit!"

Dazai's eyes widen more and he freezes up as Chuuya's grip on his collar tightens. "Wh…what are you talking about…?"

I am fucking done always coming to your rescue! Your stupid plans are always so needlessly intricate and fanciful and—just so stupid!! But I never got to say anything because you were the strategist and I was the executor! Well, that ends here. I'm done with your shitty plans and stupid rules."

Dazai is—for once—perplexed. Chuuya was never afraid to voice opposition to anything he's done before. Dazai has no idea where this is coming from. "What do you mean…?"

"I'm done with you. No more fucking plans. No more Double Black. No more anything involving you and me."

Dazai feels a prickling behind his eyes, and he forces himself to keep it there. He cannot allow himself to show how truly upset and confused he is by this. "So…" he whispers, "are you breaking up with me?"

Chuuya growls and punches the ground beneath him hard, causing the entire area around him to splinter. "That! That right there! Your stupid fucking jokes and comments and all of it! I'm done putting up with it!"

Chuuya pulls Dazai closer, putting his free hand on Dazai's throat. Dazai gasps as he's apprehended.

"I hate you. I really, truly, have always hated you. Not one second did I feel any fondness for you."

Dazai's lip would quiver if he wasn't struggling to breathe. "B-but…what about all those times you…you would hold me close and…and you would rescue me and tend to my wounds, and…and you'd be so gentle to me? Those moments…certainly felt like fondness…"

"Well, it wasn't. Those were moments of necessity. Tending to your wounds so you wouldn't get infected and bleed out and die on a mission. Holding you close to keep our body temperatures from dropping on cold days. Gentleness only because it was the mood. I never did anything for you that was ever just meant to be sweet. My sweetness is reserved for people I actually care about."

Dazai feels a pang in his heart at that last sentence. He can't believe what he's hearing in the slightest. "But, Chuuya…I like you. That speech I gave…? I...I meant it."

"And then at the end, you were all, 'Sorry, there were no nice moments!'" Chuuya bites, pitching his voice to mock Dazai. "I'm suuuuure you meant it."

"Th-that was just to mislead Dostoyevsky…"

"Well, he saw right through you. Just like I did. I don't give a shit whether you genuinely liked me or not. You've been such an asshole to me for all these years. It makes sense why nobody likes you."

Dazai feels the tears start creeping out of his eyes. Of all the people he thought would be saying these things, he never thought it would be Chuuya. Surely this is just a bad dream?

"I hate you, Dazai. I've always hated you. I can't believe you ever thought I liked you. I never did."

Of course, this isn't a bad dream. This is reality, because life is never that kind. "But Chuuya…I…I really do care about you…"

"Shut the fuck up. I don't give a shit! What part of that don't you understand?! Stop fucking talking! Nothing you have to say matters. Nothing you have to say is going to change this situation."

Chuuya's hand moves from Dazai's throat to his chin.

"I've been waiting for this moment for seven years. I can't believe it's finally here. Say goodbye, Dazai, and bite your tongue."

Chuuya's hand on Dazai's collar moves to the top of his head. He doesn't have much time before Dazai slips out of his grasp and into the water for good. If only he truly could savor this tiny moment as much as he's been wanting to, he thinks. Nevertheless, the moment is finally here, and he's elated.

"Fine. I'll just say it for you. Well then...goodbye."

And Chuuya twists with both hands in opposite directions, snapping Dazai's neck.

Chuuya watches the light fade from Dazai's eyes and his arms fall to his sides, the tears the brunette held back finally dripping out of his eyes now that he no longer has any strength to hold them back, now to be plastered on his pale face as the last thing of him his old partner will remember. 

Chuuya can't believe he actually did it. He can't believe this finally happened.

He moves his hands around to hold Dazai's limp body, and stares at it just for a moment, registering that he just killed Dazai. Killed the man he grew up with. The man who teased him, looked out for him, saved his life on multiple occasions, somehow managed to return to his life—managed to be the one constant in his life.

And now he's gone.

Chuuya takes a deep breath. Part of him does feel a bit sad that he killed him. It does feel strange to hold Dazai's dead body in his arms after he spent years protecting Dazai. After all the closeness, all the trust, after everything—

Chuuya can't deny that Dazai's speech did hit him hard up until the very end. He was surprised to hear Dazai being so vulnerable. He'd spent years trying to get him to show that side of himself. And his last words were insistence that he cares for Chuuya—and judging from his desperation, there is no way he was kidding. Not even Dazai would feign something so emotional on a dying breath.

Oh well. That's all in the past now. It doesn't matter anymore. Chuuya finally got what he wanted.

He closes his eyes and throws Dazai's body into the water, watching it sink to the bottom, to sleep underwater like the mackerel Chuuya has always known him to be.

Chuuya flies up from the hole in the wall and through the ceiling. Part of him feels like a burden got lifted off of him, but another part feels like he has a whole new one to carry now.

"Oi, Dostoyevsky. Got Dazai taken care of. Victory is yours. Let's go find Gogol."

Either way, Chuuya didn't lie. He hated Dazai. He always did. Part of him can't believe that Dazai possibly didn't hate him. He feels a bit bad knowing that he could've liked Chuuya. That maybe Chuuya even could've broken his heart.

Regardless, it's all over now. The past can't be changed. What's done is done.

Chuuya takes one last glance at where Dazai's body lay, then turns away to follow Fyodor, never to turn Dazai's way again.