#then he can be a heartbroken government spy missing his friends in this au

[note-boom]

One of the things that has been eating away at my brain is the idea of Buraiha SSK + Kyouka. And I just don't mean them as a second generation Buraiha (that too, but that's another post/tag ramble) but as a sort of...role-reserve/AU of that.

Part of it was inspired by this role-reverse AU that I re-discovered recently (and messed me up once again because guys. It's SO compelling to think about). But part of me has always liked to think about Kyouka, Atsushi, and Akutagawa as a trio rather than a duo.

Spoilers for the linked fanfic, but.

At first, I thought Oda!Kyouka and Dazai!Atsushi with Akutagawa being a sort of Ango who stays in the PM, as it went in the fanfic. And it IS compelling, especially when you see Beast and how well Atsushi fits into the PM. How Kyouka was a former assassin just like Odasaku but got roped into the PM because they didn't believe they could be better. A Kyouka who doesn't kill people, too, also...(I could honestly see her canon arc going like that)

But then my thoughts went to...okay, but what if. Atsushi as Odasaku (aka, dying) with Kyouka and Akutagawa as their own sort of...individual characters that roughly follow the same arc but not really. Because in canon, it's Atsushi that has both the strong bond with either, or its his strong bond with them both that's emphasized. Kyouka and Akutagawa do have a meaningful relationship but I do feel it gets sidelined (sort of like sometimes I wonder how Oda and Ango were canonically like, Dazai-less, though they give me a bit of a Dazai and Ango vibe as well given the whole former superior thing).

So what this is all to say is an Atsushi who adopts a bunch of children and doesn't kill after a meaningful encounter with literature but breaks that oath after the lives he valued are run over, a Kyouka who is lifeless after joining the PM and gets pulled into the light because of her dying friend's request, and an Akutagawa who was a spy for the government after it offered him and his sister protection but didn't want any of this to really happen (from mafia dog to government dog).