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Despite knowing that he can travel freely back and forth between the two worlds, Dazai doesn’t visit the library much.
Accessibility is the main reason, and the only one he’ll admit to if asked. Cell phone signals don’t cross over to other worlds - once he’s there, he can’t be reached even in an emergency. Yosano is the only other agency member who can travel freely, and she gives the same reason for staying: it’s too dangerous to go when the agency could need her at any time.
The other reason: if Dazai walked into that library, he’d see another Dazai. Another Odasaku, still laughing with that Dazai - another Ango, still linked arm and arm with them both. Three men who only had to be reunited after their deaths to fall back into step with each other, whose friendship was never so much as scratched, let alone torn to pieces.
He’ll pass.
Aside from in the agency, the other two in Dazai’s world who can travel freely are Chuuya and Akutagawa, and he knows they won’t visit even once. Mori does not like not being able to reach his subordinates, and he does not like them having somewhere to hide where he can’t find them. If he were to find out that there was somewhere even he couldn’t track them down…
If Mori discovers that library, it will no longer be safe. As little as those two might care for the safety of authors who have never killed a human and cannot even imagine doing so - the Chuuyas are friends, and Akutagawa has not experienced unselfish kindness so much that he would destroy a source of it if he doesn’t have to. Those two won’t go.
But from the other side, visits are easier. Atsushi and tiny poet Chuuya are both capable of traveling on their own, and while Kyouka can’t pop over by herself, they’re both more than happy to bring her over if she wants to see her friends again. Even if they’re out of reach for a while, nothing catastrophic will happen to the library in the meantime.
So while Dazai could visit Atsushi and Kyouka any time he wanted to, it’s easier to just wait for them to stop by. He doesn’t come by often - Atsushi’s fear that if he leaves he won’t be able to return to that peaceful life is unfounded, but understandable, and Kyouka just doesn’t like travelling without him. Dazai sees them every few months at most, usually with the even tinier Chuuya in tow.
Today they have a party of three: Atsushi, Chuuya, and an older man Dazai doesn’t recognize. Next to Chuuya, he’s a towering giant; next to a normal person, he’s reasonably tall.
While Atsushi is being hugged by Tanizaki and Chuuya is chatting away with Kenji, Dazai asks, “And who’s this?”
“Forgive me for intruding. I’m Ibuse Masuji, one of the writers at the National Library.” Ibuse inclines his head politely towards Dazai. “Nakahara and Atsushi graciously allowed me to come along to meet you.”
That seems like a ‘you, singular’. Dazai points to himself. “Little old me?”
“Ibuse has the bad luck to be that other Dazai’s teacher,” says Chuuya, glancing towards them. “Behave.”
“I’m always on my best behavior!” Dazai says, grinning even wider when Kunikida sighs. “Aaah, but it’s too bad, my shift was just ending anyway~”
“Oh, that’s even better,” says Ibuse. “Do you know how to fish?”
“...Eh?”
Sometime later, Dazai finds himself on a pier being instructed on how to tie a hook on his line.
“You know, I’d rather be sleeping with the fishes than reeling them in~” he says, cheerfully as ever.
Ibuse doesn’t even blink - the sign of a man who’s had plenty of dealings with someone named Dazai Osamu. “Well, right now you have a good start for that - your line isn’t tied tight enough to reel anything in.”
Ibuse, as Dazai discovers while he’s being taught how to bait his hook and cast his line, is difficult to get a rise out of. Suicide jokes get no reaction, comments about how boring a hobby this is are answered with only, “Relaxation is healthy for you,” and Dazai intentionally messing up casting the line receives patient instruction and encouragement no matter how many times Dazai does it.
Eventually, he does it correctly, more because he can’t think of any other way to ‘accidentally’ do it wrong than because he’s giving in.
“Very good,” Ibuse says. “And now you sit back and wait until you feel a tug or see the bobber move.”
Dazai watches the bobber for a moment. It might get a bite, or it might not - Dazai’s always been better at predicting people than fish.
“Could you not get anyone in the library to fish with you?” Dazai asks, not looking to Ibuse. “Having to go to another world to get someone to fish, how sad.”
“There are a few other fishermen,” Ibuse says. “Kouda prefers to fish alone, but now and then I can convince Tatsuo to fish with me, and your Atsushi’s learning from me now - he’s a natural.”
Of course a cat would catch fish, Dazai thinks, and his smile turns a little more genuine for a second. “He’s an excellent student. Not like that Dazai, so troublesome~”
“He is a bit hard to handle,” Ibuse says. Despite his words, he sounds… fond. “He’s an attention seeker, and I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to deal with him, but… he does mean well, and he’s incredibly talented. As his teacher, I’m proud of him.”
...Ah, isn’t that nice? A Dazai Osamu who means well, whose teacher is proud of him for things other than killing people. Dazai’s grip goes tight on his fishing rod for a second before he makes himself relax. “I see, I see. Then he and I really aren’t that similar, sorry to disappoint!”
“I know,” Ibuse says. “Nakahara warned me about that, and a few other things. ...Actually, you’re more similar than I thought you’d be.”
That gets Dazai to turn his head towards Ibuse, though he doesn’t let go of the fishing rod. “Really.” How many ways can he be similar to a novelist with an easy life, that someone could have noticed within the span of an hour?
“You’re both terrible at being direct,” Ibuse says, looking straight at him without flinching. “You’ve wanted to ask me for the last hour why I came out here to teach a stranger to fish, but you haven’t actually said it. You don’t like being ignored, and when you don’t get the reaction you want you get more and more obvious about trying to get it. I knew you were miscasting on purpose, by the way.”
Fishing is not Dazai’s most practiced area of subterfuge, but still, that’s a little embarrassing. All of that’s embarrassing, but Dazai doesn’t let it show on his face, keeping up a smile that should say nothing. “Oh, you noticed? You must be quite the fisherman.”
“It’s not because of your form,” Ibuse replies. “You don’t care about fishing or want to be here. You looking apologetic every time you make a ‘mistake’ is trying to convince me that it was a mistake in the first place.”
...Overdoing it. He hasn’t made an error like that in ages. He knows better. Such an elementary mistake would receive a harsh punishment from Mori, indeed.
But Ibuse only smiles, warm and genuine. Even when he mentions his student’s flaws, he says them in the same breath as that Dazai’s virtues, as if those flaws are inconsequential.
“...Ibuse Masuji.” Dazai’s smile drops. “Why are you here?"
“I asked Nakahara what it was like to get to know a different version of himself and the writers he knew. He told me that he’s never felt so helpless.” Ibuse looks out over the water, rather than at Dazai. “Because there’s no reason he should get a quiet life and not that Nakahara, or Tsushima and not you, and because even though you’re still alive and there should be something he can do to help, it’s already too late for you to live peacefully. I don’t know anything about detective work, and Nakahara was cagey about the rest… But I do know how to fish, and I think knowing how to fish is good for anybody. And now you know too, so you’re a little better off than when I came here.”
It’s a sincere answer - Dazai knows that for certain. It’s a kindness with no strings attached, from someone who owes him nothing and may never see him again. It’s teaching passed down not for the purposes of making him useful to someone else, but just for his own sake.
Dazai opens his mouth to say something in reply when he feels a tug, and his attention turns back towards the ignored line. “There’s something-”
Despite Ibuse’s coaching, that fish gets away with the bait. Dazai almost feels disappointed about it, but Ibuse tells him that he’s a lot closer to catching a fish than he was before, and that he doesn’t have to learn everything instantly.
And when Ibuse praises what he did well, Dazai thinks that maybe this is how it’s supposed to feel to have a teacher.