"As Kunikida had said, the Armed Detective Agency is a collective of individuals with certain abilities. Though hardly public knowledge, some people in this world possess otherworldly abilities. Some use those skills to earn their keep in life... While others, unable to master those gifts, come to ruin by them."

Atsushi listened as Dazai spoke, sealed within his own mind while his body transformed. And he laughs, bitter and melancholy. 'Ruin? I was already ruined long before when I tried to use it for good. It was me trying to earn my keep with my own gift that led me to ruin.' Atsushi hissed in anger. His tiger semed to sensed his anger becaused it lunged forwards with a roar, swiping its paws at Dazai. On the other hand, his demon was silent but Atsushi could feel it seething in fury at the reminder. At its loss and entrapment.

He watched with a strange sense of uncaring detachment, even as the man came close to dying at the paws of his tiger, the one sole ability he had no control over, so used to letting it rampage that he had lost all ability to fully control it. Instead, all his control was shifted to focus on supressing his demon, the creature of horror and destruction more powerful than any being on earth that could never be let out lest he loses control.

"Well, this is a doozy. He could easily take off a man's head." Dazai muttered as he leaped out of the way with an agility and speed that impressed Atsushi. If the teen wasn't sure before, then he was certain that the man had been, in some way, a dangerous figure within some sort of army or organization. It made Atsushi even more curious of the man, if he wasn't before.

The tiger leaped to attack again, claws ready and muscles tensed as it slammed paws first into the concrete ground, creating a crater and causing dust to fly up everywhere. Dazai had just nearly dodged the attack, skidding back to get as far as possible from the tiger.

"Oops", the man mumbled as he was backed into a corner between the wall and the tiger, Atsushi was sure that it would be the end of the charade.

He was right. But it wasn't the blood filled ending he had expected.

Dazai's eyes sharpened, almost glaring in their intensity as he looked at the tiger as if it wasn't a beast capable of tearing him apart, as if it was a weak kitten trying to be a lion it is not. "Death at the claws of a mad predator does possess a certain appeal... But sadly you cannot kill me." The words were stated with such confidence that even Atsushi's demon perked up in interest. The man's hands that have been kept in his pocket the whole time rose up, elegant with long fingers and wrapped in bandages up to his arms. He reached out and lightly touched the tiger's forehead, a mere whisper of contact, just as it leaped for the man. "My power allows me to nullify the gifts wielded by others with merely just a touch."

Atsushi could only feel pain as he was pushed to the front of his mind and his body dropped to the floor. The tiger retreated, an icily furious presense in the back of his mind while his demon purred its amusement and interest at the man with the nullification ability. The teen could feel his body warring between the two states of a human and an animal, the lines blurring as a compulsion urged him to turn into the tiger but was unable to. His bones shift in minute fragments before settling, expanding and contracting with the forceful return to his human body. He hissed and groaned, nails that were partway through transformation of tiger and human scraping aginst concrete while he flexed his fingers at the agony.

"You knew", Dazai stated once Atsushi opened his eyes to a fuzzy shiloutte.

He whined, a low rumbling sound of the tiger's but replied with a hoarse choking sound, "Yes."

"I'm surprised."

Atsushi managed out a laugh as he peered up at the man. "The tiger is me, just as I am the tiger", was the reply. But it was strange and harsh, the soft, lilting voice of the teen turned smooth and cold. Dazai could feel goosebumps erupting across his skin, the words feeling like ice water dripping over him. He took a step back, unsure at the otherworldly tinge of sinister filled echoing tone. But when the teen spoke again, it was gone, making the man wonder if he had imagined it at all.

"Why?"

"Well, I did mention that I was going to kill you. That generally would have people running in the other direction." Dazai moved closer, peering curiously at the teen and Atsushi wondered if he would do the same if he knew how much of a danger he actually was if he had lost control over his demon. And he nearly did when the pain made his demon slip out past his words.

"But you wouldn't", Atsushi huffs, climbing unsteadily to his feet, his clothes ripped by the transformation but still hung onto his body. Like always. His muscles ached with something fierce, but he ignored it and let it heal with the tiger's regeneration.

Dazai blinks in surprise, "No, I wouldn't. But how did you know that?"

Atsushi smiles, a small curl of his lips. "Because I was the one who pulled you out of the river", he rasped, deciding to just settle with something simple to reply. He knew that it wasn't the answer the man was looking for. But it was enough reason for him to believe that he himself was at least aware of the dangerous man.

"Ah, but just because I wanted to die by my own hands doesn't mean that I want to by by the hands of others", Dazai spoke, clearly amused.

Atsushi laughs. "Or that you believe that you can't die." He had met these kind of people before, so sure of themselves that it turned out to be their downfall.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because people who often faced the tiger usually believes that they couldn't be killed. So sure in victory that they never thought that the beast could kill them." The clouds shifted and the moonlight seemed the focus on the teen again, to his consternation. He hears his tiger growling, surging to his forefront of his mind while his body started shifting. But he quickly suppresses it, tightening his control on the tiger while letting his hold on the demon losened.

That was a mistake.

At the minute silver of chance, his demon surged forward but thankfully not taking over. It at least had the mind not to do so and reveal itself. But it fiercely affected Atsushi whose vision began to blur with colours and various shades of life force, intermingled with various shades near the edges to signify various things about the person. It was more focused than the small silver of power that he used this afternoon, which allowed Atsushi to see the man's aura with more clarity. The blue of his aura was brighter than ever, clearly with darker and lighter shades of blue than he'd initially thought. Along with it, his black streaks were clearly more of an iridescent in colour, while the hues of purple are not specks but glowing stars like the real ones in the night sky and the light emerald greens are small camillias with petals edged with crimson red. It was stunning and otherworldly enough for a human that Atsushi felt his breath caught in his throat in sheer awe.

"And how did it work out for the others?" Dazai's voice interrupted Atsushi through his muddled thoughts but allowed the teen to focus on the man again.

Atsushi locked eyes with the man with a past so tainted with blood. He tilted his head a gave the man a slight smile, haunting in its beauty as well as its intent. "Not very well, usually", he added the last part, amused that a person had finally entertained him. It was enough that Atsushi couldn't bring himself to kill the man who knew the secret if his tiger, not that he knew the true significance of it.

He could tell that the man was also intruiged by him. His aura was, after all, flaring up into a light pinkish red near the edges. It signified an intrest, one which Atsushi was sure his aura would be currently mimicking.

His demon purred in content and before Atsushi could stop it, the beast reached out a part of their aura, as black as the obsidian that lined the choker on his throat. It shimmered like a piece of cloth made of stars and was dotted with glowing blood red roses that were surrounded by tendrils of indigo branches of throns. But between the hues of colours, there was also a flicker of light blue that paced between the folds of the brambles and roses while threads of silver wrapped itself around the branches like ribbons. When it made contact with Dazai's own, the pain in his body that was slowly fading was suddenly replaced with a sudden throbbing headache.

'What the hell are you doing!?', Atsushi cried out, alarmed despite that it had no effect on the man, who was still peering curiously at the teen.

'He is ours!' Was the hissed reply of his demon. And Atsushi, with only the barest control over it while he is holding tightly onto the leash of his tiger could only watch in horrified fascination as a small part of his aura suddenly broke away to merge with the man's aura. He had only managed a strangled keening sound before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and his body dropped to the ground. The last thought of the teen was how screwed he was before the excruciating and unbearable pain of tearing his aura, his soul and life force knocked him into unconsciousness.