The first thing that Atsushi noticed as he gained consciousness was that something smelt horrendous. If given time to reflect, he would have compared it to a bird that had been burned to a crisp, feathers and all.

The second thing he noticed when he opened his eyes was a small trail of smoke leading from the kitchen, and haggard breathing. He grabbed an object closest to him- a Hello Kitty mug which Fukuzawa had given him on his birthday- and crept towards the door.

Is that...toast?

As he made his way to the kitchen, he noticed the shadow of a familiar man on the wall. But when he finally came face-to-face with him, Atsushi couldn't help but yelp and stumble back.

"Atsushi-kun!"

"D-Dazai-san, what are you doing? Why are you on the floor? Why do you look like you were attacked?!"

Dazai was sitting on the floor with a toaster in his arms, while munching on buttered toast. His normally sleek, wavy hair was spiked erratically and his eyes were glazed (yet there still seemed to be a bizarre glint in them). It also didn't help that it was sunrise and the orange from the sky landed on him, making him look possessed.

"You see, Atsushi-kun, I was hungry and you happened to be nearby. Kunikida-kun locks his door because he accuses me of stealing too many things from him. Since you're my lovely apprentice, I thought I would drop by and get myself something to eat." Dazai threw him a crooked grin and got to his feet, but not without stumbling. After a few seconds, he straightened his coat and placed the toaster on the counter. Atsushi cautiously inched towards it, because whenever Dazai tried to do something relatively normal, it usually ends badly. Sometimes mildly, other times horrifically.

Let's just say 3:7.

When he was finally in an arm's reach of the toaster, he stood on the tips of his toes to peek inside.

Dazai cleared his throat behind him. "I may have also broken your toaster. It was just so tempting, Atsushi-kun! I took out a knife and suddenly everything went so bright." Turning around, he noticed that Dazai's eyes seemed more focused and were now as enthusiastic as ever. "It was beautiful, but it was too painful. So onto plan 12.1!"

When Dazai met Atsushi's eyes, he could see an unvoiced query in them. He looked almost embarrassed for a moment, but then shrugged his shoulders. As he began to explain, Atsushi turned back around to unplug the toaster- which had chosen that moment to spontaneously spark.

Atsushi launched himself backwards without looking where he would end up and slammed into something hard. It toppled over with him, his elbows jamming into it roughly . Once Atsushi realized what had stopped his fall, he blushed a deep red and quickly rolled over, falling to the floor with a thump.

Next to him, Dazai let out a pitiful wheeze, his eyes wide and his hair even wilder than before.

"I ran out letters."