I've decided to put this story on higher priority than Acquaintance because Acquaintance isn't doing so well right now. This one will probably have irregular updates, but if I had to choose an updating pattern, I would say every three weeks.
Hope you guys like it.
~FR242
[Black Wings Rising]
Chapter I: Shatter
Everyone is strange.
But long ago, humanity was unaccepting of things that were strange. Someone who didn't believe in God was considered strange. Someone who spent every day in the house, trying to build something new, was considered strange. Even an exceptionally pretty woman, arousing the jealousy of her neighbors, could be considered strange. But what does the word strange really mean?
According to the Internet, strange means unusual, odd, queer, extraordinary, or curious. Basically, it is used to refer to something that we humans are not accustomed to. For example, most people expect everyone else to be social and talkative, and when they meet someone who is quiet and reserved, they deem the other as strange and abnormal.
The strange and the unusual are feared for the most part. In Frozen, Elsa was the only one who had a unique power: her control over ice. Thus, the people of her kingdom and the guests fled and called her a monster when her power was first revealed to them. Why? Because they were afraid that their queen's power would be a threat to their lives.
That is a legitimate reason. Being a part of nature, humans were programmed with the instinct to survive. Even in industrialization and urban lifestyles, there are still threats to our survival, especially from our own race. Therefore, the survival instinct never died out. When we think we're being threatened, our mind tells us to fight or flight. If we are capable of fighting the threat off, we would be tempted to completely eliminate it until it was fully destroyed. However, 'normal' human beings didn't expect to be able to challenge Elsa to a fight and come out alive. That's when the desire to flee kicked in. Our bodies convince us to run and hide somewhere, hoping that the threat doesn't find us. These are the typical reactions to something that people consider strange.
However, Orihara Izaya didn't fear things that were on the 'strange' list. In fact, he could be considered strange himself. Physically, the only things that were unusual about him were his clothing, his ever-present smirk, and his dark red eyes.
Izaya always wore a black, fur-lined jacket that reached his waist or a coat of the same style that reached down to his knees. No matter what season or time of day it was, he would always be seen gallivanting down the street with fur lining his wrists and wrapping around his shoulders. The only time he shed the furry clothing was when he was in his home.
The smirk that never seemed to vanish from his face was also rather disconcerting. The smirk was the smirk of a man who knew everything, had extreme confidence, and knew what he was doing. Indeed, Izaya was highly intelligent and often demonstrated his perceptive mind by predicting the actions of other people. He was rarely wrong.
His eyes were strange even among the strange. Other than albinos, red eyes didn't exist for people. Yet here was a pair of blood red eyes, and Izaya was definitely not albino. Izaya's sisters, Mairu and Kururi, had a slight reddish tint to their eyes if one looked close enough, but Izaya's eyes were dominated by the color red. The red was equivalent to shining rubies or pure red wine. It was a very pretty color, but Izaya unconsciously turned the color into a tool for intimidation.
Even more unusual than Izaya's eyes was his beloved hobby of observing people. It was not every day that one would see a person standing on the roof of a tall building, staring down into the large crowd of people below. Normal people even avoid going to the roofs of buildings. On the other hand, Izaya enjoyed it. He loved the feeling of observing his humans, the feeling of standing on a high place, and the feeling that he in charge of the people down below.
Despite his obvious eccentricities, Izaya was only one out of the billions of strange people on this planet. Differences don't manifest in the same way: one might be strange because of the black clothes he wears while another could be strange because of the way she talks. In a sense, it would be illogical of humans to make fun of each other because of their differences because then, everyone would have to suffer through mocking words and hurtful jeering during their life.
Surprisingly, these differences also make every human the same. Due to their individual eccentricities, each human possess the characteristic uniqueness. This uniqueness sets people apart and keeps people together. People can understand each other's individuality through this shared characteristic.
Going beyond humans, individuality, uniqueness, and strangeness has even differentiated and connected animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. Those characteristics link organisms within each category and link the categories to each other. Each component to the great connection was important, from the Staph aureus to our informant Orihara Izaya.
However, Izaya didn't belong in any of the categories stated above. Does the connection of individuality still pertain to him?
Of course it does.
~*~Black Wings Rising~*~
Izaya stared at the jagged shards of glass that littered his kitchen floor. They shimmered back at him mockingly as though they were teasing him about catching him slightly off-guard when the glass of cold water exploded in his hand. Water dripped from his black hair and soaked his shirt, pooling onto the floor below. Red swirls mingled with the clear liquid as blood oozed from the cuts on Izaya's hand and face.
"What happened?" A woman demanded from the doorway to the room. Yagiri Namie had obviously heard the crash of shattering glass and hurried to the kitchen to see her employer standing there with a bloody hand and dangerous shards at his feet.
Hearing his secretary's voice made Izaya snap out of his trance and look up with his trademark smirk on his face. "Nothing, Namie. Clean this up." He sauntered out of the kitchen as though exploding glasses were completely ordinary. Walking over to his coat rack, he grabbed his fur-lined coat–the one that reached his knees–and headed for the door.
Namie called out to him before he could close the door behind him. "Did that glass explode in your hand?"
Izaya stuck his head back into his apartment. "No, Namie. I dropped it. Even an idiot should be able to deduce that!" With that, he shut the door behind him and left.
Carefully hiding his injured hand from the public, Izaya made his way through Shinjuku with an air of confidence. As he camouflaged himself into the crowd, he looked around, observing the humans that he claimed he loved. From his position, Izaya could see a high school student stopping at an arcade, a couple holding hands, and a little boy asking his mother for something from the candy store. Izaya saw scenes like these every day, and they were getting rather predictable. However, they weren't boring. Izaya could never get bored of his humans. That was impossible.
Izaya crossed the border between Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, and his steps immediately became more cautious. He sincerely hoped that he wouldn't run into a certain person today since his injured hand would make it more difficult to perform parkour. Unfortunately, that person seemed to have an uncanny ability to sniff him out, just like an animal. Heiwajima Shizuo could find Izaya by scent alone ninety-five percent of the time. Luckily for the informant, this was one of the five percent when he could make his way through Ikebukuro safely.
Skipping up the steps of an ordinary-looking house, Izaya pressed the doorbell with his uninjured hand. A chime echoed from behind the door, and seconds later, it swung open to reveal a young man with a white doctor's coat.
"Ah, Izaya. What's up?" Kishitani Shinra stepped aside, inviting Izaya to enter his house. The informant gladly accepted the invitation, grinning at the underground doctor.
"I cut my hand, Shinra." Izaya held up his bloody hand, waggling the fingers playfully despite the movement sending waves of pain through his arm. "Can you pick out the glass and bandage it up?"
Shinra nodded and motioned for Izaya to sit down on the couch. As Izaya got comfortable, the doctor disappeared into another room and returned after a few seconds, carrying some medical supplies. "What happened?" Shinra took hold of Izaya's injured hand and began picking out the shards of glass meticulously.
"A glass of cold water exploded in my hand." Izaya wrinkled his nose as the removal of the glass shards made his hand burn and sting.
Shinra paused slightly. "Did it just explode or did you squeeze too hard?"
Izaya scoffed. "I'm not Shizu-chan, Shinra. I doubt I could squeeze it hard enough for it to burst. It just exploded."
"I see." Shinra dropped a particularly large piece of jagged glass onto the dish beside him. "You should let me experiment on you. Maybe you have some kind of special power that–"
"Shinra." Izaya's voice held a hint of warning.
The doctor laughed nervously. "Just kidding." He put down his instrument and picked up a cotton swab that was soaked in disinfectant. Izaya grimaced as the alcoholic wipe contributed to the burning and stinging of his injured palm but didn't voice any complaints out loud.
"You're not the only one who has been injured by glass in the past few days." Shinra tossed the bloody piece of cotton in the garbage and reached for another one. "Light bulbs, glass bottles, and even pieces of jewelry that happen to contain some glass have been shattering without warning. Some unlucky people have had glass stuck in their eyes."
"Oh? Well, that's really unfortunate." Izaya's response was indifferent, but his interest was definitely piqued. "Any clues as to why this is happening?"
Shinra shook his head as he began to stitch the larger cuts. "Police haven't found anything, but I've heard that some people are trying to blame it on some undiscovered phenomenon of science."
Izaya nearly snorted out loud. He wasn't mocking science, especially not after science gave humanity so many dreams and hopes, but sometimes, even science was not enough. The incidents happening in Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, and several other places in the Tokyo Prefecture were caused by a different entity. Although science was a pretty good guess.
Suddenly, the front door slammed open and someone in a biker suit ran inside. The newcomer skidded to a halt next to Shinra and thrust a phone into the doctor's face.
[Shinra! Another streetlamp exploded, and it was right in front of me. Geez, it was frightening…]
"Really, Celty? Are you okay?" Shinra momentarily abandoned Izaya's wounds to fuss over the Dullahan. Izaya sat back and looked over Shinra's stitching, patiently waiting for the doctor to finish worrying over his beloved Dullahan.
[I'm fine, Shinra. It just startled me, that's all.]
Shinra reached over and picked up a roll of bandages. He cleaned Izaya's wounds one more time before wrapping the white cloth over the wounds, making sure that the bandage wasn't too tight or too loose. Once the cuts were sufficiently wrapped, Shinra cut the bandage and tied a small knot to keep it from unwrapping. "You should change the bandages once a day. Come back in about two weeks, and we'll see if the stitches can be removed."
[What happened, Izaya?] Celty held her phone in front of Izaya's face. She had removed her biking helmet and plumes of black smoke rose from her neck in concerned puffs.
Izaya waved his hand. "Just an exploding glass of water. Nothing too bad, Celty."
[I heard that incidents of bursting glass were occurring in Shinjuku as well, but no one is certain of why the glass just shatters without cause.]
"It's occurring in other places around Ikebukuro, too. Not just Shinjuku." Shinra cleaned up his medical supplies, discarded the bloody pieces of glass, and wiped down the table. "It's happening all over Tokyo, but based on the news, Ikebukuro seems to be the epicenter of all the incidents."
[What if it's aliens?] Celty's black smoke started to swirl alarmingly. [There could be aliens among us, and they could be causing all this!]
"Celty." Shinra laughed nervously. "Aliens aren't real. They only exist in movies and stuff."
[But I'm real!] Celty angrily pushed her phone into Shinra's face. [If a Dullahan, supposedly only existing in urban legends, is real, then aliens might as well be real too!]
Izaya sighed and stood up as Shinra began to apologize to the upset Dullahan. "I'll be going now." He interrupted the doctor's flustered words as he opened the front door. "Thanks for the help, Shinra."
"No problem. Take care!"
[Be careful.]
Izaya shut the door behind him and left Shinra's house, making his way back to his apartment in Shinjuku. He mingled with the hundreds of people walking around Ikebukuro, casually strolling through the streets. It was so crowded that people jostled him with almost every step he took, but Izaya didn't mind. He was surrounded by his precious humans after all.
As Izaya walked past a park, he noticed a black smudge sitting near the stone fountain that stood in the middle of a grassy field. Curiously, he approached the fountain, and the black creature turned its sleek head and gazed at him with green eyes.
Izaya smiled and ran his hand over its sleek fur. "My, my. What are you doing here, hmm? Waiting for someone?"
The black cat leaned into Izaya's touch and purred, the sound rumbling deep in its chest as it rubbed its cheek along the informant's fingers. Izaya placed his hands underneath its chest and scooped the feline up to eye level so that green gazed into mahogany eyes. The raven tilted the cat this way and that, examining the animal closely. The cat, growing tired of being held up like a doll, let out an impatient meow.
"You're too well-fed to be a stray." Izaya put the cat back down onto the fountain's ledge. "Did you run away from your owner?"
The cat purred again, its tail waving through the air. Izaya reached out to pet it again when a sudden shout interrupted him.
"I–za–ya–kun!"
The informant looked up just in time to dodge the trash can that came flying at his head. He ducked, dropped to the ground, and rolled out of the way. The trash can smashed into the field just as Izaya sprung back to his feet to face the tall, blond-haired man who was stalking towards him.
"Ah, Shizu-chan." Izaya grinned happily despite the murderous aura that rolled off the other man in waves. "You found me again! You know, we really should try switching roles for a day. That would be fun, don't you think?"
"Shut the hell up, Izaya-kun." Heiwajima Shizuo took off his blue sunglasses and tucked them into his bartender vest. "I thought I told you to stay out of Ikebukuro."
"Why yes, you did, Shizu-chan. But why would I listen to a brute like you?" Izaya slipped a flickblade from his coat's sleeve and raised the weapon, the tip of the knife pointing threateningly at Shizuo. "Are you going to use force to chase me out of Ikebukuro again? After all, it's the only method you know how to use."
He threw himself out of the way of the vending machine that Shizuo hurled. With a simple flick of his wrist, Izaya sent his blade flying at Shizuo, who easily caught the piece of metal between his teeth and crushed it. Izaya laughed as he turned and fled from the blond, reveling in the adrenaline that coursed through his body from the chase.
"I'll kill you, you damned flea!" Shizuo ripped up a nearby stop sign and chased after the shorter male. The rest of the people on the streets quickly moved out of the way as soon as they saw the running man in the furry coat. The population of Ikebukuro had quickly learned that if Izaya was running, then an enraged blond man in a bartender suit was most likely following.
The stop sign went sailing past Izaya's head, landing on the ground with an unceremonious crash. Izaya jumped over the piece of metal and made a sharp turn, dashing down a different street. A quick look back let him see Shizuo skid to a halt, stumble slightly, and pursue him down the new street.
"I'm going to wring your neck when I catch you, you stupid louse!" Shizuo continued to yell as the two of them weaved through the streets.
"You should catch me first, Shizu-chan!" Izaya suddenly caught sight of a familiar shop a few yards ahead of him. Smirking, he stopped in front of the shop and took out another flickblade as he turned to confront the virago who swiftly caught up.
"This is the last day you step in Ikebukuro, Izaya-kun." Shizuo had this slightly-crazed grin on his face. His eyes had the look of a predator that had just cornered its prey, but Izaya wasn't about to go down without a fight.
"Oh, really?" Izaya's silky tone made Shizuo's eyebrow visibly twitch. "Are you finally going to carry out your threats?"
Shizuo picked up a garbage can with minimal effort and hurled it at the smirking informant. Izaya didn't move, and for a moment, Shizuo thought that the other had gone crazy and was going to allow himself to get hit.
Unfortunately, Izaya had stopped in front of Russian Sushi, where a dark-skinned man called Simon Brezhnev often resided. Now, the burly Russian stepped in front of Izaya and caught the garbage can, effectively playing his role in Izaya's ploy.
"Shi–zu–o–! Violence not good. Eat sushi. Sushi good." Simon put the garbage can back on firm ground as Shizuo gnashed his teeth angrily.
"Don't interfere, Simon!" Shizuo tried to make his way past the dark-skinned Russian but Simon kept getting in his way. "I need to kill that flea!" He pointed past Simon, his brown eyes zeroed in on…nobody.
Izaya had taken advantage of Simon's arrival to disappear. Shizuo was going to have a difficult time tracking the informant down now.
A crow flew past the crowd from above, letting out a raucous cry as Shizuo let out a roar of fury. "I–za–ya–kun!"
/|Black Wings Rising|\\
When Izaya arrived at his apartment, Namie wasn't there. Instead, two young girls were sitting on his couch. Two pairs of eyes immediately darted to the informant when Izaya shut the door to his apartment. In unison, the girls leapt off the sofa and jumped on their older brother, wrapping their arms tightly around his waist in an embrace.
"Iza-nii!" The younger twin, Mairu, greeted while her sister, Kururi, mumbled the same name quietly.
Izaya mentally groaned at the prospect of having to deal with his younger sisters, but he had expected them to come by anyway. He was somewhat prepared for the conversation they would be having in a few minutes, but no amount of preparation could fully stand up to Mairu and Kururi. His sisters could pass as the Devil's children if they needed to.
"Ne, ne, Iza-nii." Mairu tugged on his coat sleeve. "What happened to your hand?" She and Kururi were examining the bandages that were wrapped around his stitched hand.
Izaya quickly tugged his hand out of his sisters' grip before they accidentally pulled the bandages off. "Ah, it's nothing. Just a little accident with some glass." He walked past the two girls and hung his coat on the stand next to his desk.
Mairu and Kururi followed him like how ducklings would follow their mother. "Yesterday during school, one of the windows in the classroom shattered, and the glass pieces landed on the class. Almost everyone had to go see the nurse." Mairu excitedly retold the story while Kururi stood there quietly.
Izaya nodded as Mairu spoke, but something on her neck caught his eye, and he leaned forward. His mahogany eyes stared hard at the small Band-Aid that was plastered on his younger sister's skin. "You're hurt?"
"Eh?" Mairu's hand flew to her neck, fingers running over the injury. "Oh, it was just a small cut. I don't need this anymore." She peeled off the Band-Aid and tossed it into the garbage can that was next to Izaya's desk. There was no sign of a cut on her neck; the skin was as smooth as though there had never been a wound.
"Iza-nii." Kururi pulled gently on Izaya's injured hand, catching her brother's attention. "Cats?"
"I saw one today." Izaya nodded. "It was sitting near a fountain in Ikebukuro."
"How about crows?" Mairu wrapped her arms around Izaya's shoulders and rested her chin on her brother's left shoulder.
Izaya sighed. "I heard one caw when I was running away from Shizu-chan."
"So it's definitely coming then." Mairu let go of her brother and skipped to the window, looking through the glass to stare at the sky.
"Stay away from the window, Mairu. You never know when that glass will explode and slice your eyes." Izaya sat down on his spinning chair and pushed off with his feet so that the chair in slow, lazy circles. "And yes, it should be here in about a month, maybe less."
A brief silence fell on the trio as Izaya turned on his two computers. The informant typed in his passwords to log himself in and tapped his fingers on his desk as he waited for the computers to load. As he watched his computer screen light up, he could feel a pair of eyes boring heavily into his skull, and when he turned around, Mairu and Kururi were staring at him with expectancy in their eyes.
Izaya blinked innocently. "What?"
Mairu threw her head back and groaned in exasperation while Kururi shifted her arms so she could rest her head on them. "Iza-nii! You know what! What are we going to do?"
"I don't know what gave you the notion that we were going to do something." Izaya couldn't help but tease his sisters as he spun around on his chair. He found it amusing to watch them be distressed.
Unfortunately for the informant, he had briefly forgotten that Mairu and Kururi were his sisters, and that they would also have some kind of twisted trick up their sleeve. Mairu slyly reached into her pocket and wrapped her fingers around her phone.
"Well, Iza-nii, if you won't tell us willingly, I suppose Kuru-nee and I can persuade you." She turned her phone over and over with her fingers, an unsettling smirk resting across her face.
Izaya stopped his spinning abruptly and eyed his sisters with caution. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to like their blackmail material. Then again, he never liked their blackmail material. His sisters always embarrassed him, no matter what they did.
"You know, Iza-nii." Mairu twirled her phone tauntingly. "I have that time when you walked into the refrigerator in your sleep recorded down. I wonder what other people would think of that. I know Kuru-nee and I found it funny." Her eyes flashed mischievously as her older brother narrowed his red eyes.
"You two have no idea how annoying you are." Izaya adjusted his sitting position and glared at Mairu and Kururi.
"You're the one who taught us to be this way, Iza-nii."
Izaya let out a resigned sigh and pointed to his bookshelf. "There's a black book with a pair of black wings drawn on the front cover somewhere on that shelf. Go get it."
Mairu and Kururi immediately hopped up and scampered to the wall of books. They began scouring for the book Izaya spoke of, starting from opposite ends and working their way to the middle. After several seconds, Kururi pulled a thick book off the shelves and put it down in front of Izaya.
"Did you write it yourself, Iza-nii?" Mairu tapped her fingers on Izaya's desk while the latter flipped through the pages of the book, eyes scanning the text.
Izaya hummed in confirmation. "It wasn't as thick when I finished the rough copy, but I've had to add a bit here and there as the years went by. Some of the information is unorganized." He shut the book and handed it over to his sisters, grinning triumphantly. "I want you two to rewrite it and organize all of the information. When you're done, return this book and give me the new copy."
Kururi took the book and looked into her brother's eyes. "Plan?"
"Let's just say that Shinra and Celty will be receiving an early Christmas present." Izaya leaned back in his chair and glanced out the window. "I'm hoping that they will be willing to help by the time you've finished rewriting the book."
"Why can't we just use a few gang members here and there?" Mairu frowned at the thought of all the work and waiting the three of them would have to do. "Just use some people who won't be missed."
"I don't want to attract the attention of the police. You know how meddlesome they can be."
There was a sudden crash from outside followed by several shocked screams. The three Oriharas looked out the window just in time to see people straightening up from crouched positions. The window of a building across from Izaya's apartment had just shattered, shards of glass flying through the air and reflecting sunlight menacingly. A teenage girl stayed in her kneeling position, hands covering her face as she screamed. Thin streams of blood seeped through her fingers, proving that she had been unlucky victim of the glass pieces.
Izaya tsked and got up, making his way to his refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of red liquid. He took out three plastic cups as well and poured the liquid into each one. He brought one cup to Kururi and one to Mairu, keeping the third for himself. The girls brought the cups up to their noses and sniffed, wrinkling their noses slightly.
"It's the only kind I have, so don't complain." Izaya warned them as he looked at the liquid in his cup with slight distaste.
"Fresh." Kururi swirled her drink around a little.
Mairu sighed. "Yeah, at least it's fresh."
Izaya scoffed at his siblings' pickiness but didn't say anything. Instead, he lifted his cup in front of his face and allowed his eyes to glow a bright red. "Cheers."
Mairu's and Kururi's eyes shone red as well as they echoed their brother's words. In unison, the three of them tilted their heads back and downed their drinks, letting the coppery taste of blood wash over their tongues.