"In my hometown, the sky seemed endless . . . but there was nothing to see."
Tokyo- the city of lights, the city of romance, and the city of the supernatural. That evening, Tokyo was abuzz with life and light. Blank faces of strangers passed obliquely by, unnoticed by the endless swirl of person after person, each bearing their own story, their own life, their own tiny candlelight in the darkness.
Dani Madigan and Lemon Emery were two such flickering lights, poring over a map with their eyes straining, hands grasping, fingers pointing. Having just departed the airport, the two of them were jetlagged and travel worn, and it showed in the slump of their shoulders and the shadows under their eyes. They came together, but they came for different reasons. The two old friends' minds buzzed with the excitement of a new place, and a new life.
It had not been easy to convince aloof, daydreamy, clever, and attention deficit Dani Madigan to leave her cozy home far away on a whirlwind adventure across the world. In fact, Lemon Emery had spent the better half of her life working the idea into her friend's brain through emails laden with romantic images of skyscrapers and shrines (and the occasional male model or actor for good measure), and her heart was still brimming with pride at her success. Bright, coarse, and full of dreams, it was Lemon's idea for the two of them to enroll in the English!Go! language program, landing them a spot in Tokyo to teach for a contract of two to three years. They were fresh out of college, just 21 years old, with birthdays coming up fast.
The two were like two sides of the same coin- one nearly sickly pale, dark shoulder length hair, fashionable clothing, taller and buxom; the other short, tan, all hip, long cherry red hair, stockings and doe eyes. A nearly completely online relationship had spoiled them all these years. They shared similar tastes, but never the same opinion on them.
For the moment, however, their excitement was mutual.
"We don't start work until tomorrow, so if you're not too tired, we can explore the area around the school we'll be working at," Lemon suggested slowly, taking every precaution to not overwhelm her friend. She spent so many years building up this trip- it wouldn't do to have her backing out of it just as they stepped off the plane.
"As long as we can get some food on our way to the apartment," Dani replied with an uncharacteristic brightness. With that, the two of them were off, boarding the subway and making their way straight to Ikebukuro.
One might have said that they were lucky, to be stationed in that city. One might have also said that they were the unluckiest pair in the world, to have to live in such a place. One might have also said that it was simply destiny- that they always belonged there, in this small town fraught with gang wars and motorbike monsters of the night. They were only just arriving to their destinies.
But there was no arguing the fact that Dani Madigan and Lemon Emery were the new English Teaching Assistants at Raira Academy, and that they, so drawn to light, life, and excitement, would fall into the desolate and desperate drama of Ikebukuro's every day life.
Their first taste of drama was just outside the West Exit of Ikebukuro Station. Dani was just pointing out a McDonald's excitedly, when, as if the grasping of Lemon's arm and the wild gesturing of her hand in the air had triggered it, the statue of Colonel Sanders flew across the skyline in a miraculous arc, crashing and skidding down the street and narrowly missing them.
The poor, beaten mascot of KFC lay with his face in the hot asphalt, a black skid marking the side of his body. Defeated at last, by his one true enemy- the golden arches.
There was no screaming. The torrent of nobodies, NPCs, stunned into silence by the defeat of the invincible plaster cast of Colonel Sanders tumbled out of the station entryway and off in every wild direction. Their necks were like rubber as they craned them to spot the source of the disruption, even as their eyes glowed with terror. Lost in the sea of faces, Dani and Lemon did not move. They simply stared in disbelief at the mangled body of the Colonel before them.
"IZAYA, YOU SLIMEBALL!" The deep, tiger's roar of a voice blasted down the street like the crack of a shotgun. "WHERE DID YOU GO?" A tall, blond man in a waistcoat, bow tie, and scuffed black shoes slid around the corner, as if in pursuit of Colonel Sanders himself. His fists were clenched, the knuckles taught and white with rage, and his eyes were inhuman.
The snakelike body of a second man draped in a long, fur trimmed coat slipped out from behind Dani and Lemon, out into the street, raising his arms above his head in mock surrender. "Shizu-chan, I told you," he laughed loudly, callously, voice ringing in the ears of the innocent bystanders. "I don't have time to play with you today! Just let me go about my merry business!"
"Oh, don't worry." The great, leering attacker looked around for a weapon. His eyes fell on a metal road barrier welded into the ground. "I'm not here…" One arm shot out, the hand clutching at the barrier. With a great shriek of metal, he ripped it out of the ground with great ease, "TO PLAY!"
This man, Heiwajima Shizuo, was not a normal human. Every inch of his body seemed to tremble with the overwhelming desire to kill Orihara Izaya, the raven haired man with dark, endless eyes like a fox, and a twisted, sinister grin befitting of a devil.
"You've got to be kidding me," Heiwajima Shizuo's target said with disbelief.
It happened so quickly. There was little time to react. One moment, the two men were staring each other down with death in their eyes, while bystanders shuffled in a hurry out of their way. The next, Heiwajima Shizuo lurched into action, diving with malicious attempt at the foxfaced man in the fur lined jacket.
In that same moment, however, Lemon Emery dove forward. Whether her intention was to stop the man, to block him, or if she simply had poor timing in her attempt to move out of the way, Lemon moved between the men just as Heiwajima Shizuo's arms swung the mangled road barrier around like a baseball bat.
A flash of horror and desperation shot across the man's eyes as the red girl cut across his vision, and he reeled, struggling to hold back, willing his body to stop before he smashed the divider- aimed at Orihara Izaya's midsection, straight into the girl's shock-lined face.
He did not hit Lemon Emery.
A moment later, Dani Madigan lay crumpled on the ground, unconscious, her hands clutched weakly at her chest. Lemon Emery stood, unharmed. The wrought metal fell from Heiwajima Shizuo's hands, and the color fled from his face. Orihara Izaya, a cold grin spreading across his face, made his getaway.
Were they lucky, now?
Or were these two perhaps the most unlucky pair in Ikebukuro at that moment?
