Chapter Text
As a professor of the garrison, one of the most elite space academies in the country- no, the world- Kunikida had seen plenty of cadets even if he was one of the youngest professors. Some cadets were promising, shining beacons amongst the twinkling void of space. Some were so sharp that even Kunikida at times wondered if he was cut out to be a professor.
And then there was…
Osamu Dazai.
“Whoo!” the cadet shouted gleefully as he made borderline dangerous maneuvers with controls that should most definitely not be trusted in his hands.
Kunikida pinched the bridge of his nose as he forcefully placed his palm down on the intercom system connected to the training simulation. “You do realize that this is a major grade, correct?” He sounded much more composed than he felt.
“We haven’t crashed as of yet!” Dazai shouted back, though Kunikida begged to differ. Cadet Atsushi, the engineer of the group, had already puked in the gearbox, looking a deathly green color as he sat back in his chair, rendered useless. Ranpo, the third of their trio, matched Dazai’s energy as he circled around in his swivel chair, encouraging the sharp turns and loops.
Kunikida’s fist clenched and he could feel his nails digging crescents into the fleshy part of his palms.
He needed a damn nap.
No, he needed at least a week off.
“Your vein is popping from your forehead,” an unwanted voice pointed out, and Kunikida looked over his shoulder to see the Garrison counselor, Odasaku, approaching. He was well respected and a strong support system for the students and professors alike. Kunikida had remembered hearing that he owned an orphanage.
“Your problem child is being as such- a problem,” Kunikida sighed as Odasaku came to a stop next to him, observing the screen with an unreadable face. The other cadets distantly judged the group from the observatory, chatting amongst themselves.
“He’s a good pilot,” Kunikida continued, “very skilled, but he just doesn't take things seriously. Nor does anyone in this little group of theirs.”
Odasaku’s lips quirked upwards into a fond smirk, “ah, don’t lug Atsushi in with those two, he’s just got a weak stomach.”
“Yes, but does the Garrison actually want an engineer who can’t do their job?”
Odasaku clapped his shoulder, “go easy on them, no one starts off perfect. Atsushi will find medication that’ll work for him… eventually, and Ranpo can be the sharpest tool in the shed when he wants to.”
“And what of Dazai?”
A beat of silence.
“Just threaten to take away his crab for dinner, that’ll get him in order. And take away Ranpo’s candy while you’re at it.” With that advice, Odasaku turned on his heel and waved over his shoulder.
His… crab?
Kunikida sighed heavily and turned back to the intercom system. Atsushi appeared to be out cold and Ranpo was now standing up in his seat like some kind of deranged surfer. “Dazai, your grade will suffer and so will your diet. The repercussions for failing this mission will be a change in food. Two words… no. Crab.”
Almost like a switch had been flipped, Dazai’s flying suddenly became much more steady.
“And Ranpo?” Kunikida added, “candy.”
It was safe to say that the rest of the simulation without a hitch, as it should have gone from the beginning.
If Kunikida had known that teaching a bunch of world-class Garrison cadets would be akin to babysitting a group of five-year-olds he would have never taken the offer in the first place.
By the time night fell, the instructor was absolutely exhausted. He’d been reviewing the simulation videos for grades and it had taken hours. Watching basically identical videos over and over was tiring, though he supposed it was a good thing they were similar. (Unless you count Dazai and his crew's near-catastrophic run. He would give them a 60.) He despised staring at a screen for so long, unfortunately, it was his job as a garrison professor.
At least Odasaku never had to deal with this, though he was unsure he would be able to personally deal with little delinquents like Dazai on a daily basis. The man was a saint. Distantly, Kunikida eyed his watch. Sakunosuke should be back at his orphanage by now reading his children bedtime stories.
Kunikida pulled his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, color flaring behind his eyelids. He never got that nap. He noticed the lights in the hallway shutting off. Must be time for curfew.
Suddenly, as if planned, three barely visible blurs shot by the large window, seemingly… crawling. If the cadets thought they were being slick, they certainly were not. Kunikida sighed, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, standing from his chair to investigate the blurs.
When he discovered where they were heading, his first thought was, why the roof? Truth be told, it wasn’t unusual for cadets to be caught up there, but it was still against the rules. Sneaking out after curfew, however, was a different story. It was smart, he’d give them that, if they were looking for a quiet time to not be caught. Garrison security never bothered to check the rooftops, instead stationed on the inside and outside of the building.
Though, it was even more dangerous as no one would notice the cadets were missing in case of emergency. Kunikida had a gut feeling that instead of following a group of troublemakers, he should just go to bed and pretend he didn’t see anything, he was off the clock, after all.
He followed anyway.
As the trio exited the hallway onto the rooftop, he decided he’d wait for when the cadets came inside to bust them. If they didn’t appear in the next twenty minutes, he’d go out himself to make sure they were okay. Unfortunately, the plan went south the second the PA went off.
“Attention, students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown.”
Lockdown?
“Security situation Luz Three. All students are to remain in the barracks until further notice.” A Luz Three? That would mean an intruder was near the campus. It was unusual, considering the garrison was in the middle of a goddamn desert.
Either way, he needed to get the students inside. Kunikida quickly opened the door, ready to yell at them until he heard their conversation.
“Look, it’s the slug!” A boy exclaimed. Kunikida recognized the voice, immense dread flooded his body. Of course it was these three.
He couldn’t catch a break, could he?
“Let’s go follow him!”
“But isn’t that dangerous, Dazai?” The instructor recognized the voice to be Atsushi’s. “The commander just said we’re on lockdown!”
“I’m pretty sure Dazai’s friend is the intruder,” another voice said. Ranpo. Kunikida felt a stress headache coming on. He regretted not carrying around his Advil today.
Kunikida heard a small stomp. “Chuuya is not my friend,” he protested, “He is my doggy and I want to go follow him. Like any loyal owner would!”
Wait, did Dazai say Chuuya? As in, Chuuya Nakahara? The ex-cadet who was kicked out for engaging in a fight against a few other boys? Kunikida had been wondering what happened to him, especially seeing how he was an orphan.
Then the four of them heard the revving of an engine—it sounded like one of the garrison’s sand cruisers. “Look, Chuuya’s getting away!” Dazai shouted, pointing a bandaged hand down below to the surface of the desert.
“Let’s go get him!” Ranpo cheered, already bouncing up for some action, but Kunikida was quick to swiftly end this little late-night run devoid of theirs.
He cleared his throat, crossing his arms.
Atsushi jumped out of his skin, yelping in surprise as the two others looked backward at him.
The smirk on Dazai’s face fell, it was almost gratifying to watch.
“Oh shi-“
Kunikida grabbed the back of Ranpo’s collar, lifting him clear off the ground, doing the same with Dazai.
“You lot have some explaining to do, plotting to leave the Garrison after an intruder?“
Dazai flailed In his grasp like a fish out of water, kicking his feet, “but it’s not just any intruder, Professor Kunikidaaaa, it’s Chuuya!“
Kunikida shot him an unimpressed stare.
“And what do you know about his visit to the garrison?”
If he could recall, the kid went missing a while back, he ditched when he got suspended and learned that the Garrison was planning on releasing him from their custody to send back to an orphanage… and apparently, Dazai had been his roommate while he was here.
Dazai was quick to shut his mouth like he had spilled too much information.
Kunikida grew irritated, “well? I’m waiting for an answer, cadet.”
“That may have to wait, Professor!” Ranpo said around the lollipop in his mouth, pointing to the laptop he had set on top of the concrete roof. Kunikida realized the three had all been gathered around it before the drill.
The laptop screen was flashing wildly, and Kunikida did not know much about technology, but he did know that it wasn’t supposed to do that.
He gently set Ranpo down but kept a firm grip on Dazai. “What’s happening here?”
Ranpo turned back and eyed Kunikida narrowly. “Well, I would explain that, but you see, you would simply call me delusional and throw me in a ward!”
Kunikida scoffed indignantly, “I would not!”
“Hmm,” Ranpo doubtfully hummed, tossing his chewed lollipop stick onto the floor. “Aliens are approaching Earth, you see.”
Kunikida felt his eye twitch.
“Yeah… let’s go to that psychiatrist now.”
“No, no, but it’s true!” Atsushi held his hands up defensively, “I come up to stargaze and those two like to mess with the laptop, and it always talks about a weird alien robot!”
Kunikida took a step back, ignoring the word ‘Voltron’ on the constellation-like screen. “Yes, the garrison therapist is always at our disposal if we need it from her, it is very convenient-“
“Professor,” Dazai turned to look at him, dark eyes more dangerous and serious than Kunikida had ever seen them. “Something is going to occur tonight, something that will morph human existence as we know it. You can either actively be involved and come along with your dear cadets as a guardian or…” he shrugged Kunikida’s hand from his collar, “you can leave us unattended to escape the desert in search of alien life until we shrivel up from dehydration now. Do you want that?”
Dazai blinked at him with innocent eyes and Kunikida felt bad for his dentist because cadet Dazai made him grind his teeth to the nub.
Atsushi made the noise of a dying cat in the back of his throat when Kunikida sighed and bent down to close Ranpo’s laptop.
“As a Professor it is my job to report any misconduct but as a guardian… I must see to your safety.” He shot a glare at Dazai, “and you know that.”
Dazai giggled.
He giggled.
Kunikida’s teeth were done for.
“Oh, calm down, teach. It’ll be fun!”
And it was not, in fact, fun.
He pulled out his phone to shoot a farewell text and location to Sakunosuke, along with a digital copy of his written will.
Atsushi didn’t know how he got dragged into these situations, but it seemed he was along for the ride now.
He stared in horror at the garrison hoverbike. He had never been in the hangar at night before. It was creepy.
“Guys,” he shifted anxiously, eyeing the shadows around them. “I think I should just go back to my room, I just wanted to stargaze-“
“Nope!” Ranpo said, popping the ‘p’. “You’re coming with us, we can’t have any witnesses.”
“Uh huh uh huh,” Dazai nodded in agreement, looking much too happy for his current predicament of being attached to the leash that was Professor Kunikida’s hand on his collar. “Now, everyone choose a hoverbike, and let’s go explore!”
“Not an option,” Kunikida yanked on Dazai’s garrison uniform, “we all get on one bike, check what the source of this delusion of aliens is about, and return by sunrise.“
Ranpo pouted, “but it’s no fun that way!”
“You,” Kunikida turned to him, “can’t even operate a hoverbike!”
Atsushi swallowed.
Yeah, he was really in for it now.
After an extremely cramped ride out to the middle of nowhere led by Dazai, Atsushi was highly second-guessing his decision to trust the brunette and Ranpo.
When Atsushi had tried to clamber on a smaller hoverbike, Kunikida grabbed all three of them by the collars like some weird litter of cats and dumped them all on the largest bike. Atsushi may not be the pilot of the group, but as the engineer he knew that the bikes were only meant to withstand two people. Not three cadets plus a professor.
The tail of the bike hit the concrete with an obnoxious thud and Kunikida took his position in the driver's seat, powering on the engine. Atsushi cringed at the ruckus they were making so late into the night.
“Don’t worry,” Kunikida grumbled under his breath, adjusting the side mirrors and the seat to accommodate him. “If someone finds us out here, I will simply say you kidnapped me.”
Dazai sat up from his perch directly behind Kunikida with Atsushi and Ranpo on each wing respectively. “But Professor, why won’t you let me drive?”
Without even answering the question, Kunikida revved the engine and shot off from the hangar, kicking stray particles of sand around them in a mini hurricane as they jetted off into the dry terrain.
Atsushi vaguely wondered where the hangar guards had been and why it was so easy for them to leave after curfew.
“The guards were busy chasing after Dazai’s little friend,” Ranpo answered, as if reading his thoughts, and really, Atsushi found it very unsettling.
“...Thanks,” he replied, though his voice was lost in the whipping wind around them as Kunikida sped up. Atsushi would have never originally marked his professor off as a reckless driver, and he still wouldn't, but the way he squared off his turns and twists to properly and robotically jerked the hoverbike without the crazy fluidness that Dazai had.
Atsushi could only open his eyes for a few seconds at a time to see Dazai instructing Kunikida, giving him directions gleefully. Where were they going? Atsushi didn’t know. Why he tagged along in the first place? Atshushi didn’t know. Why had Kunikida agreed to accompany them on a hopeless wild goose chase?
Well, Atsushi just figured the guy wanted to get out of the Garrison every once in a while, and this was just as good of an excuse as any.
His stomach did backflips, dangerously twisting itself in knots.
Something annoying and nagging poked his shoulder. Atsushi poked out from his hiding place (with his arms folded in front of him, holding onto the wing for dear life.) “What is it, Ranpo?” He didn’t mean to sound so irritated, he really didn’t, but he was sick, wanted to be in bed, and in a bad mood from the no doubt imperfect score they had gotten on the simulator today.
Ranpo patted his shoulder “look at the horizon, not the ground. You’ll feel less dizzy.” he instructed.
“Oh… thanks.”
It helped… until they came to a stop.
Atsushi didn’t have the peace of mind to actually look at where they had stopped, blindly stumbling off of the death trap until hands grabbed his shoulders.
“Atsushi?” Kunikida asked, frowning in concern. “Is everything okay?”
Bile crawled up Atsushi’s throat.
“Yeah,” he smiled, “everything just peachy-”
Well it was, until he threw up all over his professors shiny leather shoes.
It wasn’t funny. It really wasn’t, but Dazai laughed anyway at the look of pure disdain on the professor's face and the embarrassment on Atsushi’s.
“Please don’t suspend me!” Atsushi pleaded, wiping his mouth on his sleeve as Kunikida stared down blankly at his brand new shoes. Dazai should have thought of using this as a scheme much sooner, it was very gratifying.
Ranpo cackled rather loudly.
Ignoring the rest of the scene, Dazai faced the shack they had pulled up to. If there was working electricity inside, Dazai figured that the lights would be on because Chuuya’s normal red striped hoverbike was poking out from the back of the questionable structure. Dazai had been inside many times before, had even spent the night, and he knew that the inside was enough to house one college aged student with a small kitchen, restroom, and living room.
The desert wind howled, brushing past his garrison issued uniform and Dazai couldn’t help shiver slightly. Typically, it was frigid during the night.
He would almost feel bad for Chuuya being shacked up in such a wasteland, but he was like a cockroach, therefore he could live in the worst conditions possible. Dazai stole the Garrison hoverbikes enough to pay him visits because even cockroaches could get lonely.
Not that he cared or anything symbolic like that..
He just liked to see the way Chuuya’s face lit up with annoyance when he pushed through the corroded wooden door.
Dazai huffed to himself and Atsushi, still rather green looking, side-eyed him. “...Why’re you giggling like that?”
“Whatever do you mean by that, Atsushi.”
“Is this where the alien is?” Ranpo interjected, already hopping to the front door eagerly, yanking it open with a tug. It fell over onto the sand next to them, and they all stared down at the unsalvageable piece of wood before Ranpo shrugged and continued into the barren place. Kunikida followed after him, yapping like a chihuahua.
“Yes, something akin to an alien lives in this very building, I suppose,” Dazai shrugged, following behind them. Atsushi immediately started to shiver, grabbing the back of Dazai’s uniform and hanging off of it like a little caterpillar.
The inside looked much like the outside. Sad and desolate.
“This place is haunted,” Atsushi squeezed his eyes shut as if to will away the demons, “i-it has to be.”
Kunikida nodded in agreement and Ranpo started to explore.
Dazai frowned. He knew Chuuya was short, but he didn’t think he’d have to bring his microscope to find where he was.
“Why did you take us here,” Kunikida demanded, “and how do you know about this place? Is this where the… computer… told you to go?”
“Not necessarily,” Dazai waved them off nonchalantly as he headed to the back door of the shack where the hoverbike was located. Atsushi, the little cicada, made some questionable scared noises against his back.
Oh well. It really wasn't his fault if his engineer had a panic induced heart attack.
The three piled behind Dazai to look over his shoulders as they exited the shack, catching sight of the hoverbike. A sound split through the silent night, the frustrated growl of an animal. The others squealed as something dark and scary rose from the other side of the hoverbike. It was blue and didn’t have a solid body.
Atsushi was practically purple.
“You didn’t say it was haunted-”
“Dazai you idiot-”
“Is that an alien?”
The blob tripped over itself into the sand and a very disgruntled looking Chuuya rolled out of a blue tarp, cursing and climbing to his feet. “Damn tarp, getting all caught up-” he slowly faced them when he realized he had an audience, turning bright red. ‘
A thud sound from behind him.
Dazai clasped his hands together, “Ah, there is my dog!”
“Uhh,” Chuuya pointed a gloved hand to Atsushi’s unconscious body, “shouldn’t you help him out?”
Dazai waved his hand, “Nah, it’s okay.”
The redhead raised an eyebrow but dropped the subject. “Right…” Chuuya held Dazai’s gaze, an intense, yet familiar, look that sent pleasant shivers up his spine. “So what exactly are you all doing here?” he asked.
Kunikida cleared his throat, gathering the unlikely group's attention, “don’t you two think this is a better conversation for inside?”
Dazai scowled “...right.”
It didn’t take long at all for the four to drag the unconscious cadet to the rickety couch that looked to almost collapse under his weight. While Kunikida worked on rousing his student, Dazai watched closely as Chuuya worked on lighting the candles, giving the interior more of a warm glow than a bright one.
He pondered when the last time Chuuya had seen anyone else but him was, afterall, ever since he was kicked out, to escape the thought of being stuck in a foster home and filled with determination on the search for his missing sister, he wasn’t willing to be tethered down and had ran. He was reported missing, though had been living under the Garrison's nose the entire time.
Dazai recalled that night when Chuuya had hastily gathered his personal belongings to escape from their shared dorm. He remembered the subsequent conversation between them. He remembered the late night visits for the following year. Just to make sure his dog was alive, of course.
Dazai’s musing was interrupted when Chuuya stomped on his foot. “Start talking.”
Something was awfully strange about the two of them, Ranpo noted. He watched the scene play out in front of him as he munched on the chocolate bar he found after rifling through the redheads deserted kitchen. It was mostly empty, and he was sure the candy bar was expired, but sugar was sugar.
“So you’re telling me that… aliens are communicating with you?” Dazai’s ‘friend’ brushed a hand through his hair in a stressed out manner. If Ranpo wasn’t mistaken, he was their age. When he heard there was a drop out, Ranpo had excitedly expected a yakuza member. He was mildly disappointed, but at least he had expired chocolate.
“Uh-huh!” Dazai confirmed. They had all found places to settle down in the shack. It was so small they were all still in eyeshot in separate rooms.
“You’re on a search for aliens and I'm the first person you ask? That could be considered offensive, y’know.”
“But Chuuya you have it wrong, we found the real alien and it was you all along!”
Ranpo blinked as the two nearly engaged in a fist fight.
Yes, strange.
In the end Kunikida had been the one to settle the argument and explain formally that they had seen Chuuya driving away and connected him to the current situation.
“Why were you breaking into Garrison property anyway? I’ll have to report this and let the staff know where we have gone, as I refuse to drive you lot back in the dead of night. It’s too dangerous-” Kunikida tapped on the screen of his communicator aggressively before grinding his teeth. “There’s no signal, they’ll have to wait until we return.”
Ranpo thought this was all quite silly, because obviously Kunikida was asking all of the wrong questions.
“So, mr. dropout,” he swung his legs off of the wooden table, the furniture creaking as he pushed off to stare at Chuuya. “What did you take and what do you have to do with aliens?”
The two stared at each other for a long moment before mr. dropout shoved Dazai to the side from where he sat close to him- annoyingly close. “The only thing I snatched from the Garrison was documents, none of your business.”
Ranpo could relate on that half, as he too had taken many confidential documents from the garrisons rather lax security.
Chuuya stood and everyone tracked him as he took a candle and held it up to a bulletin board that at first looked quite boring to Ranpo, so he had ignored it, but now…
He was delighted!
“This may have something to do with your alien problem, weird readings in the canyons around here. If you think it’s worth checking’ out, then by all means go, but I haven’t seen a thing.”
“What do you mean ‘your’ alien problem?” Dazai whined, “It’s our alien problem. You’re taking us on a tour tomorrow to the canyons!”
“Tour!” Ranpo chimed in, “if there’s a lot of walking though, Kunikida can carry me.”
Kunikida let out a long and suffering sigh, but Ranpo never felt bad for him. He was the one who chose a professor at the garrison as his occupation, afterall. “I never agreed to this.”
“We know,” they all groaned.
It had been decided that after nightfall, upon sunrise, they would embark on their little journey before Kunikida dragged all of them back to the garrison to dodge kidnapping charges, though Ranpo had the nagging feeling that they would all be in deep trouble anyhow. He wouldn’t live like mr. dropout, shacked up in the desert, he would become a freelance detective and everyone would know his name.
He would…
Ranpo gazed up at a crack in the roof above him, the stars twinkling through the gap distantly, just out of Ranpo’s reach. They had always felt a bit too far from him, anything Ranpo wanted should have been within reach.
The others all snored around him, shuffling around and making sleepy noises.
Ranpo’s intellect never lied, and if it took him to the stars, and past this universe, then he would follow it, because years ago, the great vastness of the galaxy had swallowed him up.
Ranpo would find him.
When the morning had come, Chuuya had forgotten that he had an unwelcome intruder plus three guests. It was a dream at first, it was rare and he never had them, but when he woke up to idiot Dazai’s bandaged hand slapping him in the face the distant snickering of the other kid- Ranpo, if he remembered correctly- he knew it hadn’t been a dream.
He wasn't accustomed to being with this many people at once, nor was he used to sleeping in the same building as people, resigned to his solitude.
Occasionally Dazai would come and knock his door down to visit him, but Chuuya never counted him as a proper guest. More of a proper annoyance.
When the same bandaged hand came and smacked him again, he was tempted to bite it off. Chuuya swatted it away, sitting up. “What do you want?” he croaked out, his voice still raspy from sleep. “Let me sleep, damnit.”
“But Chuuya needs to give us a tour of the canyons for our alien problem!” Dazai exclaimed. Chuuya was sure he was trying to annoy him, especially when Dazai said ‘our’. “Come on, we don’t have all day~” he sang in an annoying sing-songy voice Chuuya knew Dazai knew he hated.
The redhead rolled his eyes. “Oh my fucking god, fine.” Anything to get Dazai to leave sooner. Chuuya grabbed his hat from a cabinet—Dazai wasn’t as slick as he thought he was, the dropout saw him trying to hide it up there before he went to sleep last night—and fixed his jacket.
“Come on,” Chuuya barked at the unwanted guests in the abandoned shack. “The sooner I show you the cave, the sooner you guys can leave me alone.”
It seemed Kunikida had the same idea. He nodded at Chuuya, heading toward the sand cruiser. “And the sooner we finish whatever this alien business is, the sooner we can get back to the garrison.”
Chuuya watched Dazai roll his eyes at his professor’s words. He raised an eyebrow when the bandaged teen looked his way, to which the boy blew a kiss back at him. Chuuya was not impressed. Can’t he just leave already?
The dropout decided to take his own sand cruiser, having told Kunikida to follow behind him. Dazai, of course, announced very loudly he wanted to ride with Chuuya, to which the redhead glared at him. Before Chuuya had gotten kicked out, the duo would steal sand cruisers in the middle of the night and ride around the desert. More often than not, Dazai wouldn’t get one himself and would just ride with Chuuya on his. The redhead hated it whenever Dazai rode with him because he would always complain about how fast Chuuya was going and how much of a danger it was, then he would cling to the shorter’s body as tight as he could. It was annoying and suffocating.
Though he never told Dazai to stop because he liked the contact.
Once they got off the hoverbike and onto the hiking portion of the trip…
“It’s hot here,” Ranpo complained, “Where is the air conditioning?”
“There is none,” Chuuya said.
Later on, in the middle of their trek.
“My feet hurt,” Ranpo complained, “can we stop for a break? Maybe some water?”
About thirty minutes into their hike.
“Where is this voltron thing? Why don’t we turn back an-”
“I,” Chuuya growled, whipping around to point a finger to Ranpo’s chest, “Have had it up to here,” he lifted a hand, far above both of their heads, “with your bullshit complaining. I need you to shut your mouth-”
“Uhhh, mr. dropout?” Ranpo said, looking innocent even though he and Chuuya both knew damn well he wasn’t. “I think we’re here!”
Chuuya turned to look at the rest of the group, who had already descended into the canyon, looking around in awe. Chuuya didn’t blame him, during his search he always found himself back to this place, whether it be the strange atmosphere or simply because it was as beautiful as it was.
They caught the canyon at the perfect time, just when the sun was rising over the edges, filtering in and lighting shadows with a luminous elegance that could only be found here.
Suddenly, Chuuya wasn’t as angry anymore.
“I don’t think this place is on Garrison maps,” Kunikida mused once they reached the cave system. He gently put a hand over the lion carvings etched into the wall. “If there was, I'm sure I would have known of it.”
“I doubt it,” Chuuya scoffed, “the Garrison keeps a lot of shit secret.”
Kunikida scowled at that, and Chuuya could tell he was about to open his big professor mouth and inquire just what Chuuya was implying before Dazai’s voice sounded from next to them, echoing off the cave's walls.
“Oooh, look at mama lion!” As he brushed bandaged fingers against the hieroglyphic, the patterns around them slowly began to glow a soft blue color, and at first Chuuya thought he was imagining things until they brightened in intensity.
“They’ve never done that before,” Chuuya had time to say before the cave ground gave in from underneath their feet, sending them tumble through a dark abyss.
Well, Chuuya figured, they were well and truly fucked.