Sigma (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bornofwords) wrote2023-10-06 03:25 pm
bornofwords) wrote2023-10-06 03:25 pm
Background - Cries in TLDR
Content warnings for: Brief mentions of human traffickers without details, manipulation and violence
Sigma’s earliest memories are not the sight of parents, midwife or childhood homes that most people have. They are instead the memory of waking up in the desert with only the clothes on his back and a train ticket to a station that didn’t exist in the world. He did not know who he was, where he had come from, or how he’d come to be there.
For a while, he was under the impression that he was an amnesiac and had a past that he simply couldn’t remember. Unfortunately, he would later come to find that he didn’t remember his early life because he hadn’t been born the way most people were. Instead, he is more like a story missing its early chapters. He was created on that day by someone writing him into existence using a book created by another ability user. He has never met his creator, doesn’t know who they are, nor does he know why he was created in the first place. Some even question if Sigma could rightly be called human based upon that...
He wandered the desert for three days, looking for civilization and help before he ran into a group that he approached. Unfortunately, it was a group of armed human traffickers who captured him immediately and locked him up. It was during his time there that he (and by default they) discovered that he was an ability user. His ability was decidedly excellent for use in criminal activities, and the group wasted no time in forcing him to use the ability for their own purposes.
After a time, Sigma did finally escape the group, but his life didn’t change much from there. Instead, it turned into an ongoing cycle of him meeting people who only wanted to use him for his ability. All it usually took was someone being nice to him or offering him a home, and he would fall for it. After all, he had never had a family or a home, and at his core, that was all he really desired. A place to belong, a home of his own. Then, once he had done what they wanted, they would attempt to kill him for knowing too much.
After three years, the last person to approach him was Fyodor from a terrorist group called the ‘Decay of Angels,’ asking if he wanted a home. Sigma promised himself that this would be the last time and agreed to join the group to do a job for them. The book that created him had a page removed for study that was protected by the government, and they wanted him to use his ability to get the information on its location from a member of the Special Division for Unusual Powers unit.
Sigma met and cornered Director Taneda, trying to use a knife to threaten the man into letting him get close enough to touch to use his ability. Unfortunately, this backfired, and he accidentally stabbed the man. Still, he had the information the DOA required, and they were able to retrieve the page in order to enact the next step of their plan. To use the page to write a scenario that would alter the world and frame the Armed Detective Agency for terrorism in their place, and to create what Sigma was to be paid with for his work.
This payment being the creation of the Sky Casino that Sigma was given to run, which meant it was brought into this world by the book like himself. It is the only thing that is like him, having been created from nothing more than words on the page. So the man soon got very attached to it and took his job as the manager very seriously.
Sigma spends about 8 days working as the manager, working tirelessly on the floor level with staff and patrons to keep them happy. He goes as far as to memorize the profiles of about 20,000 guests to make sure he knows enough about each to cater to their whims and needs perfectly. As long as he’s useful and well liked, then they won’t abandon him. It’s a poor substitute for a real family, but at this point Sigma seems willing to believe they are as much a family as he needs.
Sadly, the DOA does not waste opportunities or leave anything to chance. The Casino was also created to be part of their overarching plan that involved distributing explosives in the form of coins as winnings among the patrons that could be detonated remotely and generate chaos across the globe. Putting Sigma in charge and ensured that if anyone came snooping (which was part of their plan in the first place) that the man would be desperate and stop at nothing to keep the coins secret and protect the home he finally had and the only thing in this world like himself.
Both the Armed Detective Agency and the government’s specialized group known as the ‘Hunting Dogs’ arrive at the casino on the same day. The ADA for the purpose of capturing Sigma to get him to tell them where the page could be found in order to undo its writings and clear their names, and the Hunting Dogs because they are on the trail of the ADA given their current status as dangerous criminals.
Sigma handles the crisis with a very serious, calm demeanour even as the Hunting Dogs try to insist that he close the Casino for the day and allow them to search the premises. He refuses to close the casino due to the damage it could cause the reputation and income of the establishment, and when they try to press him concerning the ‘dangers of the ADA,’ he calls upon the guards to show just how capable they are of handling ‘dangerous terrorists’ with specialized sonic guns that would be able to handle ability users and even kill them should it be necessary.
The Hunting dogs finally back off, but in all reality intend to take matters into their own hands by exploding gas tanks stolen from the galley at the entrance of the floating building to cut off exit or entry so they can pursue their targets without further trouble.
The manager quickly springs to action to have the staff check on patrons, to send people for the sake of keeping everyone calm and entertained, as well as medical staff to check on those who have health conditions that might be affected by the stress of the sudden situation.
His staff tend to marvel at his dedication and professionalism, as though he were ‘born’ to run the casino... But Sigma knows better, he believes himself to be nothing more than a common man doing his best to stay afloat and hold on to what little he has.
It’s only after he’s closed himself off in the control room that he lets the professionalism mask slip and panic starts to set in he looks ill and freaked out. Hurrying to check all the camera feeds for both the Hunting Dogs and the ADA to try to figure out how to handle things best.
It was during this that he witnessed one of the Hunting Dogs finding the secret safe in the floor of a room that contained the explosive coins, and he was put in the position to make a very difficult decision. He couldn’t let the hunting dog leave with the coin, because if they were revealed then the plot would be exposed and he would lose the home he finally had and likely be lumped in with the framed ADA as a way to prove they were there for to check on the coins for the plot themselves. A loose end snipped neatly without the Decay ever having to try to kill him themselves, really.
Apologizing to the man on screen, Sigma activated the bomb in the coin to silence the man, only to find that the hunting dog had a special ability to manipulate metal and so he wasn't killed by the bomb. In a panic, he weighed the pros and cons of the other option he had. Launching a drone full of the same coin bombs into the side of the casino it would damage it further and potentially cause injuries, but it seemed like the only way to stop this from going further.
And then it went further.
The other member of the Hunting Dogs showed up and stopped the drone as it broke through the wall and both members survived the explosion. The hunting dogs then began to launch a search for both the ADA members and Sigma himself to take them all into custody.
Sigma, still desperate to not lose his home or end up a scapegoat for the plot, calls upon the patrons of the casino themselves. He offered to forgive their debts up to a certain amount depending on how successful they were in stopping (or killing) the Hunting Dogs due to the fact that they couldn’t be held accountable for any crimes committed due to the location of the casino, and the Hunting Dogs themselves were legally unable to attack the patrons or arrest them.
All that was left was to wait and hear of reports involving either the Hunting Dogs capture of demise... But due to the fact that the members Teruko Ōkura’s skill is to alter their own age or that of the person they touch, they were able to disguise themselves and eventually infiltrate the control room to confront Sigma himself.
Armed with an overpowered version of the security member’s sonic gun and the controls for two Gatling guns located in the control room, Sigma attempts to deal with Teruko himself. The fight ends with the realization that even with his desperation and willingness to do anything to save his home, the Hunting Dogs are simply on another level that he cannot combat. As the woman has him by the throat, leaning out of a hole in the wall, she threatens to drop him if he doesn’t surrender. Sigma decides that if he can at least save the Casino, if not himself, then that is enough and he grabs a hold of Teruko as he drops out of the casino to fall.
Teruko kicks off of his chest to save herself, and Sigma continues to plummet to his doom. Until one of the members of the Armed Detective Agency, Atsushi Nakajima, spots him falling and jumps with a rope tied to him to save the man. They still need him, after all, to locate the page and clear their name.
Sitting on a platform outside the casino, Atsushi, Ango Sakaguchi (the one member of the Special Division for Unusual Powers who believes in the Detective Agency’s innocence), and Sigma exchange some back and forth. Sigma revealing he has taken precautions against Ango using his ability to read his memories, and Ango revealing that he knows Sigma stabbed his boss and wouldn’t have any problem extracting the information by way of torture if necessary. Sigma sits down looking exhausted, admitting that he never meant to stab Taneda and that he was tired of this life and confessing to never knowing what he was born for in the first place. He would give them whatever information they wanted.
Fyodor, knowing that Sigma could be a problem if he didn’t die in the altercation with the hunting dogs, arranged for an assassin to kill him before he could reveal any information on their plan. The assassin uses his special ability that allows him to manipulate his own blood into either offensive weapons or defensive shields, appears in the air next to the platform and shoots Sigma in the chest with a blood bullet that sends him falling off the platform in shock.
Atsushi quickly tries to save the man, catching his wrist and stopping their descent by grabbing an exposed pipe with his free hand. Desperately telling him to hold on. Sigma gently tells Atsushi that it’s fine. That he knew it would end this way...
The assassin catches up to them and shoots Atsushi this time, but the boy has a special ability that includes regeneration and as they start to fall again, he transforms into his partial tiger form to use his tail to grab a hold of the pipe to try to hang on until his friend Lucy could get to them.
Sigma doesn’t want to take the boy with him, and tells him to stop. To let go or he’ll die too. Atsushi, however, seems to feel a certain kinship with Sigma given his prior words about never knowing what he was born for and denies the request. Shouting at him that he can’t let someone die with last words like that...
The realization that Atsushi isn’t even trying to save him because the agency wants to use him for information strikes Sigma and he quietly informs Atsushi that he’s a kind person. Before activating his ability to exchange the information he has on the page that Atsushi wants most. Ending with ‘It’s fine, as an ordinary man I did what I could.’ Satisfied with his final act, he lets go and drops from view.
Injured and still plummeting towards the ground below, Sigma notices a man waiting below before passing out.
And when he unexpectedly awakens, he’s faced with Gogol. A member of the Decay who had until now had been thought dead as he was also not meant to survive the phase of the plan he was put in charge of. Gogol has a special ability involving the cape he wears. He can teleport anything through the space up to a certain amount of distance. He used this ability to gradually slow Sigma’s descent and allow him to land without dying on impact, as well as keeping his blood circulating so he wouldn’t die if they got him medical assistance soon.
Sigma is both bewildered and exhausted by the ordeal, the fact that he was still alive, and Gogol, who is the member of the group that he least likes speaking with, given his chaotic energy. Asking why he was still alive and why he saved him, Gogol informs Sigma of his plan to kill Fyodor and that he wants his help. To have him use his ability to learn what the other man’s ability truly is (as no one knows at this time).
And if Fyodor finds out Sigma is still alive, he will never be able to find a place to call home where he would be truly safe from the man.
So Sigma agrees yet again to help, in hopes of finally gaining freedom.
The two break into the high security Meursault prison in order to enact Gogol’s plan, which ends up involving a death game between Fyodor and the Detective Agency’s member Dazai, as both had been arrested and were being held there. The exchange that follows borders on absurd as both men seem rather pleased with Gogol’s plan, and Sigma can only watch with growing anxiety, feeling like even with his unique origins... He’s the only normal person in the room.
After both injected a poison that would take full effect within a half hour if no antidote was administered, he gave them their pick of several useful items he had Sigma bring out on a table. Fyodor chooses first, taking the top level security card that will allow him access to the helicopter pad outside. Dazai waits for his turn, and then instead of moving towards the table, he lifts his hand and points to say ‘That Looks Good.’
He’s pointing at Sigma.
Gogol laughs and accepts it, allowing Dazai to choose Sigma as his 'helpful item' and sends them on their way.
Sigma now finds himself both confused and panicked because here he was, about to be used again. The man couldn’t begin to think of why Dazai chose him, not when there were so many actual useful items that would have helped with his escape. What’s worse, is Dazai doesn’t seem to take the situation seriously at all. Acting as though they were on a tour of the prison, grabbing Sigma to dance around as though in the ballroom and enjoying his overall reactions.
It doesn’t take long for Sigma to have enough, snapping and informing Dazai that he’s leaving because he doesn’t see how the other man could defeat Fyodor and he doesn’t want to stay and lose knowing what it would cost him if Fyodor wins.
Dazia is silent, and then smiles, surprising him again. He drops an arm around Sigma’s shoulders and comments that he’s a funny guy and promises to get Sigma out of the prison alive. The moment is interrupted when they hear a commotion on the floor above, and Dazai explains there is an intruder. When asked how he knows that, he simply smiles and gestures to his ear, cryptically telling Sima he has an angel whispering to him.
Sigma doesn’t understand what that could mean, but decides to ask instead about who the intruder was. Dazai surmises its one of Fyodor’s other pawns, and later they confirm that it’s none other than Dazai’s old partner Chuya, currently infected and controlled by a vampire virus caused by one of the other Decay members’ abilities.
Alarmed and concerned by this news, Sigma points out that they don’t have the offensive capabilities to stand up against someone like Chuya. Dazai is entirely unphased by this, however, casually explaining that he’d spent the last seven years thinking of various ways to kill Chuya and again informing Sigma that he has an ‘angel’ to help him.
Sigma surmises this means an outsider is helping Dazai by somehow feeding him information, and asks if that was what he meant. The other man seems pleased by the deduction and informs Sigma that he is ‘sharp for a three-year-old.’ Offering a jab at the fact that Sigma was only created three years prior.
Dazai then goes on to explain that he encodes the information he wants to relay to his man on the outside (Ango) by recreating the numbers with his own heartbeat that is monitored and recorded by the prison. Sigma questions this because it’s both absurd and doesn’t account for how he would receive information in return. Dazai simply gives him ‘homework’ informing him that if he can figure out the answer himself, he’d be above Fyodor in terms of intelligence.
Being rather gullible and easily enticed by the idea (oddly not unlike Atsushi when Dazai messes with him), Sigma takes trying to figure it out very seriously. It isn’t until he notices Dazai’s relaxed grinning at him that he realizes that this is probably a waste of time and a bad time for a quiz game and reminds him that they had to escape before Fyodor.
... Only for Dazai to inform him that he doesn’t plan on escaping. Instead, before time runs out, they will kill Fyodor.
Sigma can only follow Dazai and listen to his explanation that as strong as Chuya is, he won’t be able to break through the security doors if they’re locked down because they are engineered to absorb the force of abilities. This would effectively trap both of them and contain them with no time to escape before it was too late as the room fills with water to drown them. Dazai continues to lead, shocking Sigma when he finds they’re at the prison’s control room.
Entering would be suicide, considering the armed guards, but Dazai ignores his warning and opens the doors to reveal everyone inside, already defeated. When asked, Dazai informs Sigma that he ‘stopped time,’ which again seems unrealistic given it’s known that Dazai’s ability is to nullify any ability he comes in contact with...
The truth of it turns out to be that another ability user in the prison has the ability to stop time, and for a reduction of her sentence, she agreed to stop time at the same time every day. Since no abilities work on him, naturally he is unaffected when she stops time herself and this allows him to get in contact with Ango without anyone (even Fyodor) knowing. It’s also how the guards were taken out, as Dazai had done so prior to their arrival, while time was stopped.
Sigma is impressed, now believing that Fyodor never stood a chance against Dazai from the beginning. Once Dazai ‘says his goodbyes’ over the intercom to the room filling with water, Dazai leads Sigma onward to an elevator to get to that floor. After some more messing around and getting on Sigma’s nerves, the man confronts Dazai again to ask why he was chosen over the other useful items. It wasn’t like Dazai had needed him at all, hadn’t made use of him. He’d defeated both Fyodor and Chuya at once single-handed without asking anything of Sigma.
Dazai explains that there are 2 reasons for his decision. The first being that Sigma is a stand in for his partner at the agency Kunikida. Sigma, Dazai had observed, is a little like Atsushi personality wise, and also now Kunikida with the way he reacts to things. He jokingly informs Sigma that it would be boring without someone around to react to his antics as he plays with Sigma’s hair.
Sigma gets annoyed (unsurprisingly) and says it’s clear Dazai won’t tell him that it’s obvious that he’s not worthy enough to know the truth. Dazai gets a bit serious again and confesses that it’s not because of that, so much as he doesn’t think Sigma will properly understand given he’s been used continuously since his creation by various organizations. But asked if Sigma would like to try to...
But before going further, wants to confirm something about Sigma’s own ability. He asks if his ability really does work on the dead and Sigma admits that it does as long as their death is recent. Dazai is pleased to hear this, saying that it was one of the reasons he chose him. Because with Fyodor dead, it’s safe for Sigma to touch him to draw information about Fyodor’s plans and secrets using his ability (Fyodor notably can kill anyone who touches him, but there’s nothing more known than that) in order to help the Agency and clear their names.
Dazai was right. Sigma has a hard time comprehending that even here. Even in the face of death and risking his own life, Dazai was trying to help the agency without them asking him to. That, like Atsushi, they were willing to fight and support each other without truly using one another for their own gain. It’s shocking and... Sigma can’t help but think of every time he’d been used before. The words of each person who used him and then tried to kill him before he was lucky enough to escape.
Falling silent, he follows Dazai to an elevator and gets on after the man checks its inner workings as a precaution. After a few moments, he finally speaks again to remind Dazai that he said there were 2 reasons for choosing him, and asking what the other was.
Dazai simply responds that if he hadn’t chosen Sigma, Gogol and Fyodor both would have taken steps to silence him permanently and refuses to say more than that, even as Sigmas asks him why he saved his life. It leaves Sigma again to reflect on the differences between the detective agency and the decay of angel, that the agency isn’t utilizing Dazai for themselves and Dazai wasn’t taking advantage of the agency either even if he could... Sigma again, has always wanted a place to belong that he wouldn’t have to say goodbye to, where he wouldn’t be used by everyone.
But his thoughts are interrupted as the elevator slows and Dazai warns him that something is wrong. The intercom feed opens to the unexpected, frantic voice of the ability user who could stop time before there’s a loud gunshot as she’s killed for helping them, and Fyodor speaks. The man had escaped by utilizing Chuya’s ability to damage the tracks the security doors were on before they shut, thus giving them a way out. He then decides that it’s only fair that they suffer the same trial that he did, activating the security feature of the elevator that instantly begins flooding with water.
Trapped, and realizing the walls were also coated with a flammable liquid, Dazai pulled sigma under the water to avoid them both being burned alive on the surface and gestures for him to try using his gun to damage the door and help them escape. It doesn’t work. The bullets are slowed and less powerful underwater and they’re left with no way out. It seems like they’re condemned to drown as the remaining oxygen above was eaten by the fire. Sigma forgets this and nearly tries to surface when the flames clear only for Dazai to pull him back down. Feeling hopeless as he realizes Dazai just saved him from making a stupid mistake, but still being trapped, the other man gives Sigma a reassuring look before grabbing the gun and swimming up to the surface.
Holding his breath, Dazai shoots the inner workings of the elevator he’d been messing with before and the doors start to open enough for Sigma to push them open the rest of the way to let out the water and let fresh air in, saving them in the nick of time.
Sigma finds himself smiling up at the man in awe, as Dazai responds with a little thumbs up... Only for the victory to be short-lived as the elevator’s backup security kicks in and drops it to plummet to the depths and crash. Unable to even reach the door to jump out, Sigma realizes that there really was no escape...
But Dazai braces himself against the side of the elevator and grabs on to Sigma, reminding him that ‘You and I have a promise, I said I’d bring you back alive’ and then uses the force to shove Sigma out the side of the elevator and onto a platform outside. Dazai uses the last couple seconds before the elevator disappears to tell Sigma he leaves the rest to him, before disappearing from sight.
Later, as Sigma trudges along the hallway of one of the basement floors, drenched and miserable, he finds himself hoping Dazai is safe. Knowing that Dazai had realized where he lost, but was still determined to act. Which was why Sigma was still safe and alive...
Sigma contemplates the man’s last words, wondering what he meant by leaving the rest to him. He doesn’t know what he could possibly do, other than perhaps run and escape on his own... It was then that he happened upon a note left on the floor, written in Russian.
The man ends up both curious about the note, and determined to at least help finish what Dazai started. He finds his way to the control room Fyodor had made it to and draws his gun as he comes upon the moment the man orders Chuya to go kill Dazai, who was injured and unable to walk after the elevator crashed.
Shooting Fyodor in the shoulder, Sigma orders him to take back that command and informs him that if he doesn’t, he will shoot him again and this time he won’t miss. Fyodor, despite being shot in the shoulder, smiles and muses that he had thought Sigma had run away.
Sigma denies that he would, because he promised Dazai to use his ability to get Fyodor’s plans. Which is interesting, since he never openly promised to. The only promise made was by Dazai to get Sigma out alive... Sigma has decided to not run from any of this again, to do what he feels is the right thing and help.
Fyodor tries to manipulate Sigma to giving up his plan by suggesting that Dazai was manipulating him the entire time. That in only ten minutes he could manipulate and bring Sigma under his sway to act so recklessly and confront Fyodor. He brings to light Sigma’s true desire that he hadn’t yet admitted himself. That in observing Dazai’s motivations and actions, Sigma had realized that even if he wants a home where he won’t be used... An empty home isn’t enough. That he needs more than a place, he needs trust. A mutually beneficial relationship not based on favours or transactions.
That Sigma, deep down, wants to join the Armed Detective Agency as well.
Sigma is stunned into silence as he realizes it himself and is cut deep by Fyodor’s next words as he reminds Sigma that such a thing is not in Sigma’s power to make happen. That the very hope was in vain, a trick planted by Dazai to get him to cooperate and that he should put the gun down.
However, Sigma doesn’t fall for Fyodor’s attempt and raises the gun again. Stating that even if it were a trick, Dazai still wagered a lot on Sigma and that it’s the Casino’s style to match the other’s stakes as a call back to his prior employment. He informs Fyodor that the one really trying to manipulate him again was not Dazai, but Fyodor himself, and that he wouldn’t fall for it.
Sigma demands that Fyodor tell him what his ability is, so he can touch the man safely in order to gain the information that the agency needs to win.
Trying to figure Fyodor out, he also draws out the note that he found written in Russian that simply says ‘Help Me’ and shows it to the man to find out if he was the one who wrote it. Sigma is shocked as Fyodor suddenly starts shrieking and shaking, as though in pain, fading to mumbling incoherently. When he stops, he looks up at Sigma with innocent eyes, asking what year it is. Going on to explain that he’s a victim of his own ability that has its own personality, the one who was in control before now. That he was a demon who he could not control on his own, and asks for Sigma’s help to stop him as he draws out a dagger to hold out in front of him.
That it’s the only weapon than can kill him and his ability. Urging Sigma to take it and use it, he tells him that it will explain everything and help him get out... Only for Fyodor to flip the blade in his hand to take it by the hilt instead of the blade with a sinister smirk and stabbing Sigma in a matter of seconds, taunting him that he was ‘just kidding.’
Fyodor explains that while split personalities are rather cliche, he knew that Sigma would be gullible enough to fall for it. So he put on the little show to deal with him and ensure he got the gun, which was now secured under Fyodor’s foot where Sigma dropped it while being stabbed.
Taunting Sigma, he informs him that this is the kind of pain that would follow him forever if he did join the agency, because the agency is Fyodor’s enemy. He asks if, taking that into consideration, if he still wanted to join the detectives...
Sigma glares, before sinking to the floor to bow his head so low as to rest on it... Seeming to have given up. Only to push himself forward quickly to reach for his gun in an attempt to get it back, still resolute in his intent to help the Agency.
Fyodor sees it coming and kicks the man in the face harshly to knock him away, apologizing and saying he was simply testing the mans resolve to see things through before kneeling before Sigma and extending his hand. Fyodor offers to let Sigma read whatever he wanted from him, as long as he had the courage to do so without knowing if Fyodor would use his ability to kill him or not.
Sigma commits to taking the hand, saying he wants to know every single one of your secrets. Fyodor smirks as though this is exactly what he wanted Sigma to do, and Sigma is overwhelmed by a torrent of information. By the time it’s over, he can only look on in dazed horror as he collapses to the floor. His final words being he needs to tell the detective agency, before he falls silent with vacant eyes.
Sigma’s earliest memories are not the sight of parents, midwife or childhood homes that most people have. They are instead the memory of waking up in the desert with only the clothes on his back and a train ticket to a station that didn’t exist in the world. He did not know who he was, where he had come from, or how he’d come to be there.
For a while, he was under the impression that he was an amnesiac and had a past that he simply couldn’t remember. Unfortunately, he would later come to find that he didn’t remember his early life because he hadn’t been born the way most people were. Instead, he is more like a story missing its early chapters. He was created on that day by someone writing him into existence using a book created by another ability user. He has never met his creator, doesn’t know who they are, nor does he know why he was created in the first place. Some even question if Sigma could rightly be called human based upon that...
He wandered the desert for three days, looking for civilization and help before he ran into a group that he approached. Unfortunately, it was a group of armed human traffickers who captured him immediately and locked him up. It was during his time there that he (and by default they) discovered that he was an ability user. His ability was decidedly excellent for use in criminal activities, and the group wasted no time in forcing him to use the ability for their own purposes.
After a time, Sigma did finally escape the group, but his life didn’t change much from there. Instead, it turned into an ongoing cycle of him meeting people who only wanted to use him for his ability. All it usually took was someone being nice to him or offering him a home, and he would fall for it. After all, he had never had a family or a home, and at his core, that was all he really desired. A place to belong, a home of his own. Then, once he had done what they wanted, they would attempt to kill him for knowing too much.
After three years, the last person to approach him was Fyodor from a terrorist group called the ‘Decay of Angels,’ asking if he wanted a home. Sigma promised himself that this would be the last time and agreed to join the group to do a job for them. The book that created him had a page removed for study that was protected by the government, and they wanted him to use his ability to get the information on its location from a member of the Special Division for Unusual Powers unit.
Sigma met and cornered Director Taneda, trying to use a knife to threaten the man into letting him get close enough to touch to use his ability. Unfortunately, this backfired, and he accidentally stabbed the man. Still, he had the information the DOA required, and they were able to retrieve the page in order to enact the next step of their plan. To use the page to write a scenario that would alter the world and frame the Armed Detective Agency for terrorism in their place, and to create what Sigma was to be paid with for his work.
This payment being the creation of the Sky Casino that Sigma was given to run, which meant it was brought into this world by the book like himself. It is the only thing that is like him, having been created from nothing more than words on the page. So the man soon got very attached to it and took his job as the manager very seriously.
Sigma spends about 8 days working as the manager, working tirelessly on the floor level with staff and patrons to keep them happy. He goes as far as to memorize the profiles of about 20,000 guests to make sure he knows enough about each to cater to their whims and needs perfectly. As long as he’s useful and well liked, then they won’t abandon him. It’s a poor substitute for a real family, but at this point Sigma seems willing to believe they are as much a family as he needs.
Sadly, the DOA does not waste opportunities or leave anything to chance. The Casino was also created to be part of their overarching plan that involved distributing explosives in the form of coins as winnings among the patrons that could be detonated remotely and generate chaos across the globe. Putting Sigma in charge and ensured that if anyone came snooping (which was part of their plan in the first place) that the man would be desperate and stop at nothing to keep the coins secret and protect the home he finally had and the only thing in this world like himself.
Both the Armed Detective Agency and the government’s specialized group known as the ‘Hunting Dogs’ arrive at the casino on the same day. The ADA for the purpose of capturing Sigma to get him to tell them where the page could be found in order to undo its writings and clear their names, and the Hunting Dogs because they are on the trail of the ADA given their current status as dangerous criminals.
Sigma handles the crisis with a very serious, calm demeanour even as the Hunting Dogs try to insist that he close the Casino for the day and allow them to search the premises. He refuses to close the casino due to the damage it could cause the reputation and income of the establishment, and when they try to press him concerning the ‘dangers of the ADA,’ he calls upon the guards to show just how capable they are of handling ‘dangerous terrorists’ with specialized sonic guns that would be able to handle ability users and even kill them should it be necessary.
The Hunting dogs finally back off, but in all reality intend to take matters into their own hands by exploding gas tanks stolen from the galley at the entrance of the floating building to cut off exit or entry so they can pursue their targets without further trouble.
The manager quickly springs to action to have the staff check on patrons, to send people for the sake of keeping everyone calm and entertained, as well as medical staff to check on those who have health conditions that might be affected by the stress of the sudden situation.
His staff tend to marvel at his dedication and professionalism, as though he were ‘born’ to run the casino... But Sigma knows better, he believes himself to be nothing more than a common man doing his best to stay afloat and hold on to what little he has.
It’s only after he’s closed himself off in the control room that he lets the professionalism mask slip and panic starts to set in he looks ill and freaked out. Hurrying to check all the camera feeds for both the Hunting Dogs and the ADA to try to figure out how to handle things best.
It was during this that he witnessed one of the Hunting Dogs finding the secret safe in the floor of a room that contained the explosive coins, and he was put in the position to make a very difficult decision. He couldn’t let the hunting dog leave with the coin, because if they were revealed then the plot would be exposed and he would lose the home he finally had and likely be lumped in with the framed ADA as a way to prove they were there for to check on the coins for the plot themselves. A loose end snipped neatly without the Decay ever having to try to kill him themselves, really.
Apologizing to the man on screen, Sigma activated the bomb in the coin to silence the man, only to find that the hunting dog had a special ability to manipulate metal and so he wasn't killed by the bomb. In a panic, he weighed the pros and cons of the other option he had. Launching a drone full of the same coin bombs into the side of the casino it would damage it further and potentially cause injuries, but it seemed like the only way to stop this from going further.
And then it went further.
The other member of the Hunting Dogs showed up and stopped the drone as it broke through the wall and both members survived the explosion. The hunting dogs then began to launch a search for both the ADA members and Sigma himself to take them all into custody.
Sigma, still desperate to not lose his home or end up a scapegoat for the plot, calls upon the patrons of the casino themselves. He offered to forgive their debts up to a certain amount depending on how successful they were in stopping (or killing) the Hunting Dogs due to the fact that they couldn’t be held accountable for any crimes committed due to the location of the casino, and the Hunting Dogs themselves were legally unable to attack the patrons or arrest them.
All that was left was to wait and hear of reports involving either the Hunting Dogs capture of demise... But due to the fact that the members Teruko Ōkura’s skill is to alter their own age or that of the person they touch, they were able to disguise themselves and eventually infiltrate the control room to confront Sigma himself.
Armed with an overpowered version of the security member’s sonic gun and the controls for two Gatling guns located in the control room, Sigma attempts to deal with Teruko himself. The fight ends with the realization that even with his desperation and willingness to do anything to save his home, the Hunting Dogs are simply on another level that he cannot combat. As the woman has him by the throat, leaning out of a hole in the wall, she threatens to drop him if he doesn’t surrender. Sigma decides that if he can at least save the Casino, if not himself, then that is enough and he grabs a hold of Teruko as he drops out of the casino to fall.
Teruko kicks off of his chest to save herself, and Sigma continues to plummet to his doom. Until one of the members of the Armed Detective Agency, Atsushi Nakajima, spots him falling and jumps with a rope tied to him to save the man. They still need him, after all, to locate the page and clear their name.
Sitting on a platform outside the casino, Atsushi, Ango Sakaguchi (the one member of the Special Division for Unusual Powers who believes in the Detective Agency’s innocence), and Sigma exchange some back and forth. Sigma revealing he has taken precautions against Ango using his ability to read his memories, and Ango revealing that he knows Sigma stabbed his boss and wouldn’t have any problem extracting the information by way of torture if necessary. Sigma sits down looking exhausted, admitting that he never meant to stab Taneda and that he was tired of this life and confessing to never knowing what he was born for in the first place. He would give them whatever information they wanted.
Fyodor, knowing that Sigma could be a problem if he didn’t die in the altercation with the hunting dogs, arranged for an assassin to kill him before he could reveal any information on their plan. The assassin uses his special ability that allows him to manipulate his own blood into either offensive weapons or defensive shields, appears in the air next to the platform and shoots Sigma in the chest with a blood bullet that sends him falling off the platform in shock.
Atsushi quickly tries to save the man, catching his wrist and stopping their descent by grabbing an exposed pipe with his free hand. Desperately telling him to hold on. Sigma gently tells Atsushi that it’s fine. That he knew it would end this way...
The assassin catches up to them and shoots Atsushi this time, but the boy has a special ability that includes regeneration and as they start to fall again, he transforms into his partial tiger form to use his tail to grab a hold of the pipe to try to hang on until his friend Lucy could get to them.
Sigma doesn’t want to take the boy with him, and tells him to stop. To let go or he’ll die too. Atsushi, however, seems to feel a certain kinship with Sigma given his prior words about never knowing what he was born for and denies the request. Shouting at him that he can’t let someone die with last words like that...
The realization that Atsushi isn’t even trying to save him because the agency wants to use him for information strikes Sigma and he quietly informs Atsushi that he’s a kind person. Before activating his ability to exchange the information he has on the page that Atsushi wants most. Ending with ‘It’s fine, as an ordinary man I did what I could.’ Satisfied with his final act, he lets go and drops from view.
Injured and still plummeting towards the ground below, Sigma notices a man waiting below before passing out.
And when he unexpectedly awakens, he’s faced with Gogol. A member of the Decay who had until now had been thought dead as he was also not meant to survive the phase of the plan he was put in charge of. Gogol has a special ability involving the cape he wears. He can teleport anything through the space up to a certain amount of distance. He used this ability to gradually slow Sigma’s descent and allow him to land without dying on impact, as well as keeping his blood circulating so he wouldn’t die if they got him medical assistance soon.
Sigma is both bewildered and exhausted by the ordeal, the fact that he was still alive, and Gogol, who is the member of the group that he least likes speaking with, given his chaotic energy. Asking why he was still alive and why he saved him, Gogol informs Sigma of his plan to kill Fyodor and that he wants his help. To have him use his ability to learn what the other man’s ability truly is (as no one knows at this time).
And if Fyodor finds out Sigma is still alive, he will never be able to find a place to call home where he would be truly safe from the man.
So Sigma agrees yet again to help, in hopes of finally gaining freedom.
The two break into the high security Meursault prison in order to enact Gogol’s plan, which ends up involving a death game between Fyodor and the Detective Agency’s member Dazai, as both had been arrested and were being held there. The exchange that follows borders on absurd as both men seem rather pleased with Gogol’s plan, and Sigma can only watch with growing anxiety, feeling like even with his unique origins... He’s the only normal person in the room.
After both injected a poison that would take full effect within a half hour if no antidote was administered, he gave them their pick of several useful items he had Sigma bring out on a table. Fyodor chooses first, taking the top level security card that will allow him access to the helicopter pad outside. Dazai waits for his turn, and then instead of moving towards the table, he lifts his hand and points to say ‘That Looks Good.’
He’s pointing at Sigma.
Gogol laughs and accepts it, allowing Dazai to choose Sigma as his 'helpful item' and sends them on their way.
Sigma now finds himself both confused and panicked because here he was, about to be used again. The man couldn’t begin to think of why Dazai chose him, not when there were so many actual useful items that would have helped with his escape. What’s worse, is Dazai doesn’t seem to take the situation seriously at all. Acting as though they were on a tour of the prison, grabbing Sigma to dance around as though in the ballroom and enjoying his overall reactions.
It doesn’t take long for Sigma to have enough, snapping and informing Dazai that he’s leaving because he doesn’t see how the other man could defeat Fyodor and he doesn’t want to stay and lose knowing what it would cost him if Fyodor wins.
Dazia is silent, and then smiles, surprising him again. He drops an arm around Sigma’s shoulders and comments that he’s a funny guy and promises to get Sigma out of the prison alive. The moment is interrupted when they hear a commotion on the floor above, and Dazai explains there is an intruder. When asked how he knows that, he simply smiles and gestures to his ear, cryptically telling Sima he has an angel whispering to him.
Sigma doesn’t understand what that could mean, but decides to ask instead about who the intruder was. Dazai surmises its one of Fyodor’s other pawns, and later they confirm that it’s none other than Dazai’s old partner Chuya, currently infected and controlled by a vampire virus caused by one of the other Decay members’ abilities.
Alarmed and concerned by this news, Sigma points out that they don’t have the offensive capabilities to stand up against someone like Chuya. Dazai is entirely unphased by this, however, casually explaining that he’d spent the last seven years thinking of various ways to kill Chuya and again informing Sigma that he has an ‘angel’ to help him.
Sigma surmises this means an outsider is helping Dazai by somehow feeding him information, and asks if that was what he meant. The other man seems pleased by the deduction and informs Sigma that he is ‘sharp for a three-year-old.’ Offering a jab at the fact that Sigma was only created three years prior.
Dazai then goes on to explain that he encodes the information he wants to relay to his man on the outside (Ango) by recreating the numbers with his own heartbeat that is monitored and recorded by the prison. Sigma questions this because it’s both absurd and doesn’t account for how he would receive information in return. Dazai simply gives him ‘homework’ informing him that if he can figure out the answer himself, he’d be above Fyodor in terms of intelligence.
Being rather gullible and easily enticed by the idea (oddly not unlike Atsushi when Dazai messes with him), Sigma takes trying to figure it out very seriously. It isn’t until he notices Dazai’s relaxed grinning at him that he realizes that this is probably a waste of time and a bad time for a quiz game and reminds him that they had to escape before Fyodor.
... Only for Dazai to inform him that he doesn’t plan on escaping. Instead, before time runs out, they will kill Fyodor.
Sigma can only follow Dazai and listen to his explanation that as strong as Chuya is, he won’t be able to break through the security doors if they’re locked down because they are engineered to absorb the force of abilities. This would effectively trap both of them and contain them with no time to escape before it was too late as the room fills with water to drown them. Dazai continues to lead, shocking Sigma when he finds they’re at the prison’s control room.
Entering would be suicide, considering the armed guards, but Dazai ignores his warning and opens the doors to reveal everyone inside, already defeated. When asked, Dazai informs Sigma that he ‘stopped time,’ which again seems unrealistic given it’s known that Dazai’s ability is to nullify any ability he comes in contact with...
The truth of it turns out to be that another ability user in the prison has the ability to stop time, and for a reduction of her sentence, she agreed to stop time at the same time every day. Since no abilities work on him, naturally he is unaffected when she stops time herself and this allows him to get in contact with Ango without anyone (even Fyodor) knowing. It’s also how the guards were taken out, as Dazai had done so prior to their arrival, while time was stopped.
Sigma is impressed, now believing that Fyodor never stood a chance against Dazai from the beginning. Once Dazai ‘says his goodbyes’ over the intercom to the room filling with water, Dazai leads Sigma onward to an elevator to get to that floor. After some more messing around and getting on Sigma’s nerves, the man confronts Dazai again to ask why he was chosen over the other useful items. It wasn’t like Dazai had needed him at all, hadn’t made use of him. He’d defeated both Fyodor and Chuya at once single-handed without asking anything of Sigma.
Dazai explains that there are 2 reasons for his decision. The first being that Sigma is a stand in for his partner at the agency Kunikida. Sigma, Dazai had observed, is a little like Atsushi personality wise, and also now Kunikida with the way he reacts to things. He jokingly informs Sigma that it would be boring without someone around to react to his antics as he plays with Sigma’s hair.
Sigma gets annoyed (unsurprisingly) and says it’s clear Dazai won’t tell him that it’s obvious that he’s not worthy enough to know the truth. Dazai gets a bit serious again and confesses that it’s not because of that, so much as he doesn’t think Sigma will properly understand given he’s been used continuously since his creation by various organizations. But asked if Sigma would like to try to...
But before going further, wants to confirm something about Sigma’s own ability. He asks if his ability really does work on the dead and Sigma admits that it does as long as their death is recent. Dazai is pleased to hear this, saying that it was one of the reasons he chose him. Because with Fyodor dead, it’s safe for Sigma to touch him to draw information about Fyodor’s plans and secrets using his ability (Fyodor notably can kill anyone who touches him, but there’s nothing more known than that) in order to help the Agency and clear their names.
Dazai was right. Sigma has a hard time comprehending that even here. Even in the face of death and risking his own life, Dazai was trying to help the agency without them asking him to. That, like Atsushi, they were willing to fight and support each other without truly using one another for their own gain. It’s shocking and... Sigma can’t help but think of every time he’d been used before. The words of each person who used him and then tried to kill him before he was lucky enough to escape.
Falling silent, he follows Dazai to an elevator and gets on after the man checks its inner workings as a precaution. After a few moments, he finally speaks again to remind Dazai that he said there were 2 reasons for choosing him, and asking what the other was.
Dazai simply responds that if he hadn’t chosen Sigma, Gogol and Fyodor both would have taken steps to silence him permanently and refuses to say more than that, even as Sigmas asks him why he saved his life. It leaves Sigma again to reflect on the differences between the detective agency and the decay of angel, that the agency isn’t utilizing Dazai for themselves and Dazai wasn’t taking advantage of the agency either even if he could... Sigma again, has always wanted a place to belong that he wouldn’t have to say goodbye to, where he wouldn’t be used by everyone.
But his thoughts are interrupted as the elevator slows and Dazai warns him that something is wrong. The intercom feed opens to the unexpected, frantic voice of the ability user who could stop time before there’s a loud gunshot as she’s killed for helping them, and Fyodor speaks. The man had escaped by utilizing Chuya’s ability to damage the tracks the security doors were on before they shut, thus giving them a way out. He then decides that it’s only fair that they suffer the same trial that he did, activating the security feature of the elevator that instantly begins flooding with water.
Trapped, and realizing the walls were also coated with a flammable liquid, Dazai pulled sigma under the water to avoid them both being burned alive on the surface and gestures for him to try using his gun to damage the door and help them escape. It doesn’t work. The bullets are slowed and less powerful underwater and they’re left with no way out. It seems like they’re condemned to drown as the remaining oxygen above was eaten by the fire. Sigma forgets this and nearly tries to surface when the flames clear only for Dazai to pull him back down. Feeling hopeless as he realizes Dazai just saved him from making a stupid mistake, but still being trapped, the other man gives Sigma a reassuring look before grabbing the gun and swimming up to the surface.
Holding his breath, Dazai shoots the inner workings of the elevator he’d been messing with before and the doors start to open enough for Sigma to push them open the rest of the way to let out the water and let fresh air in, saving them in the nick of time.
Sigma finds himself smiling up at the man in awe, as Dazai responds with a little thumbs up... Only for the victory to be short-lived as the elevator’s backup security kicks in and drops it to plummet to the depths and crash. Unable to even reach the door to jump out, Sigma realizes that there really was no escape...
But Dazai braces himself against the side of the elevator and grabs on to Sigma, reminding him that ‘You and I have a promise, I said I’d bring you back alive’ and then uses the force to shove Sigma out the side of the elevator and onto a platform outside. Dazai uses the last couple seconds before the elevator disappears to tell Sigma he leaves the rest to him, before disappearing from sight.
Later, as Sigma trudges along the hallway of one of the basement floors, drenched and miserable, he finds himself hoping Dazai is safe. Knowing that Dazai had realized where he lost, but was still determined to act. Which was why Sigma was still safe and alive...
Sigma contemplates the man’s last words, wondering what he meant by leaving the rest to him. He doesn’t know what he could possibly do, other than perhaps run and escape on his own... It was then that he happened upon a note left on the floor, written in Russian.
The man ends up both curious about the note, and determined to at least help finish what Dazai started. He finds his way to the control room Fyodor had made it to and draws his gun as he comes upon the moment the man orders Chuya to go kill Dazai, who was injured and unable to walk after the elevator crashed.
Shooting Fyodor in the shoulder, Sigma orders him to take back that command and informs him that if he doesn’t, he will shoot him again and this time he won’t miss. Fyodor, despite being shot in the shoulder, smiles and muses that he had thought Sigma had run away.
Sigma denies that he would, because he promised Dazai to use his ability to get Fyodor’s plans. Which is interesting, since he never openly promised to. The only promise made was by Dazai to get Sigma out alive... Sigma has decided to not run from any of this again, to do what he feels is the right thing and help.
Fyodor tries to manipulate Sigma to giving up his plan by suggesting that Dazai was manipulating him the entire time. That in only ten minutes he could manipulate and bring Sigma under his sway to act so recklessly and confront Fyodor. He brings to light Sigma’s true desire that he hadn’t yet admitted himself. That in observing Dazai’s motivations and actions, Sigma had realized that even if he wants a home where he won’t be used... An empty home isn’t enough. That he needs more than a place, he needs trust. A mutually beneficial relationship not based on favours or transactions.
That Sigma, deep down, wants to join the Armed Detective Agency as well.
Sigma is stunned into silence as he realizes it himself and is cut deep by Fyodor’s next words as he reminds Sigma that such a thing is not in Sigma’s power to make happen. That the very hope was in vain, a trick planted by Dazai to get him to cooperate and that he should put the gun down.
However, Sigma doesn’t fall for Fyodor’s attempt and raises the gun again. Stating that even if it were a trick, Dazai still wagered a lot on Sigma and that it’s the Casino’s style to match the other’s stakes as a call back to his prior employment. He informs Fyodor that the one really trying to manipulate him again was not Dazai, but Fyodor himself, and that he wouldn’t fall for it.
Sigma demands that Fyodor tell him what his ability is, so he can touch the man safely in order to gain the information that the agency needs to win.
Trying to figure Fyodor out, he also draws out the note that he found written in Russian that simply says ‘Help Me’ and shows it to the man to find out if he was the one who wrote it. Sigma is shocked as Fyodor suddenly starts shrieking and shaking, as though in pain, fading to mumbling incoherently. When he stops, he looks up at Sigma with innocent eyes, asking what year it is. Going on to explain that he’s a victim of his own ability that has its own personality, the one who was in control before now. That he was a demon who he could not control on his own, and asks for Sigma’s help to stop him as he draws out a dagger to hold out in front of him.
That it’s the only weapon than can kill him and his ability. Urging Sigma to take it and use it, he tells him that it will explain everything and help him get out... Only for Fyodor to flip the blade in his hand to take it by the hilt instead of the blade with a sinister smirk and stabbing Sigma in a matter of seconds, taunting him that he was ‘just kidding.’
Fyodor explains that while split personalities are rather cliche, he knew that Sigma would be gullible enough to fall for it. So he put on the little show to deal with him and ensure he got the gun, which was now secured under Fyodor’s foot where Sigma dropped it while being stabbed.
Taunting Sigma, he informs him that this is the kind of pain that would follow him forever if he did join the agency, because the agency is Fyodor’s enemy. He asks if, taking that into consideration, if he still wanted to join the detectives...
Sigma glares, before sinking to the floor to bow his head so low as to rest on it... Seeming to have given up. Only to push himself forward quickly to reach for his gun in an attempt to get it back, still resolute in his intent to help the Agency.
Fyodor sees it coming and kicks the man in the face harshly to knock him away, apologizing and saying he was simply testing the mans resolve to see things through before kneeling before Sigma and extending his hand. Fyodor offers to let Sigma read whatever he wanted from him, as long as he had the courage to do so without knowing if Fyodor would use his ability to kill him or not.
Sigma commits to taking the hand, saying he wants to know every single one of your secrets. Fyodor smirks as though this is exactly what he wanted Sigma to do, and Sigma is overwhelmed by a torrent of information. By the time it’s over, he can only look on in dazed horror as he collapses to the floor. His final words being he needs to tell the detective agency, before he falls silent with vacant eyes.