My Real Imaginary Friend: Prolouge
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Change is both constant and unpredictable. You can never be sure when a change is going to occur, or what effect the change will have. The only way to know, is to continue to live and see the results for yourself. The results can show up at anytime after the change. From a minute to a decade. Change is there, and so is its effect.
"Congratulations on your matriculation everyone. At the moment, unpleasant topics like the low birthrate and the widening gap between the rich and the poor are on the lips of the Japanese. However, were those people to gaze upon everyone at this ceremony, I'm sure they'd conclude that Japan's future is a bright one."
A young girl, only in her first year of high school, sat in her assigned seat as she tried to pay attention to her new principle's speech. Her posture was perfect, after long days of practice at keeping her back straight, head held high, and shoulders relaxed it had become second nature to her. Her died brown hair was tied up in two ponytails, held back by pink flower pins. Her brown eyes were locked onto the stage where some of the most important people in the school sat.
"Kami-chan, don't tell me you're actually listening to this guy? He has no idea what people are talking about nowadays." A voice spoke behind the girl playfully. The girl ignored the voice, her face remained perfectly blank like she never heard anything at all.
"Now, now Kami-chan don't be mean. I just want to talk. I know, why don't I tell you all of that guy's secrets! Don't you want to know what your new principle has hidden in the back of his closet?" The voice snickered. The girl threw the owner of the voice a glare, but made no move to reply.
"For starters he's a technophobe. At the least he only uses a computer for quick communication with the staff, owns at the most one tv and phone. It's also easy to believe that he's a traditionalist. You know, the type that believes the woman's place lays solely in the housework and the man should be providing for the family by himself. That's probably why he got divorced. Or perhaps it's because of his mafia connections?"
The girl sighed tiredly at the voice's declarations. By now, she had gotten use to profiles on total random strangers. This girl knew better than anyone how changes were unpredictable and ever constant. Some changes were pleasant, while others where not.
It had been ten years since the girl's life first changed. She was just a kid when it happened, she didn't even realize what is what for. She couldn't recognize how easily her life was changed, and just did whatever she was told- like a dog being led around by a leash. She had no way of knowing if the change was good or bad, but it had happened.
"Don't you want to know how I know, Kami-chan? Come on, talk to me! You can't be still mad about what I said about your family? You know that it's true. Your mother is coward who can't face the truth because she's scared of change. And your father can't face the change in his feelings openly and resorts to unsightly methods to cover it up."
Despite her efforts not to flinch at the voice's words the girl's body recoiled, before she turned her head slightly to look at the voice directly. A young woman who wore a matching Raria uniform. The woman's most prominent feature was not her age, since she was easily old enough to be a teacher at the school. Nor was her foreign looks, tan skin with blue eyes and red hair. But it was her feet, or namely that lack of.
The red-haired young woman floated right above the girl's shoulder. She was strangely transparent, like she was a ghost. The girl thought of her as more of a parasite than a ghost. Living off her life, possessing her, stealing something that could never be returned to her.
'Even if you're right…. No especially since your right, I can't forgive you. Some things are just not meant to be said,' the girl thought to ghost. "And some things need to be said for that exact same reason. You can't just go off living without being aware of those who are closest to you. I won't always be there to make sure you get away alive."
The girl winced again, aware that she was referring to what had happened two nights ago. She turned back to face the stage, but her thoughts were the farthest from the principle's speech. She knew that the ghost spoke from her own experiences. Although the exact details weren't known to her, she knew that someone who her companion had previously trust betrayed her. An act that ultimately led to their current circumstances. A ghost of a woman possessing a teenage girl.
It all started with a change that change from ten years ago. The girl could still remember it clearly. The ghost who possessed her said that it was a flashbulb memory, a memory that was perfectly sketched into her mind and it was unlikely that she was ever going to ever forget it.
Everything started back then, the girl thought, back on that day…
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Orihara Izaya and Heiwajima Shizou. Even when they were still in middle school, the two of them were famous as people who you avoided in Ikebukuro. Especially if the two of them were together. Those two could never stand each, Shizou hated Izaya because he manipulated people for fun, and Izaya hated Shizou because he was 'barbaric'.
Regardless of their own feelings, it was known that if the two of them so much as saw each other on the street that a fight would break out. This day in particular was no exception.
Shizou had been walking around town to cool off, he had almost snapped at his brother again, but stormed off before he could lift anything that would damage his younger brother. It was a little fight that Shizou wouldn't remember by the end of the week.
Izaya was walking around town himself, looking for new humans to mess with and avoiding his family. Or to be more precise, his two younger sisters. Lately they've changed, Izaya openly admits that he was most likely the cause of this change, but he didn't like it. There just wasn't something right about it.
It was by complete luck of chance that Shizou and Izaya ran into each other that day, for them it was just like any other. Shizou would scream and throw anything from trash cans to vending machines to lamp posts at Izaya. And Izaya would just smile, wave, put in a good taunt or two, and then leave. Neither of them knew of the change that had happened that day, which to them was like any other.
They didn't notice the young girl who watched their fight at the edge of the crowd, or her mother standing a few feet away from her. They didn't notice the white cat that had walked in-between them. They didn't notice when Shizou accidentally hit said cat. No one saw the cat limp away from the fight, or the little girl who followed after the cat worriedly.
They didn't know of the change they had apart in. The change in one girl's life. Of the role the girl would have in their own lives ten years down the line. And so with an everyday event that future changed, into something else. But the two brawlers were not the only causes for the change. The unpredictable change.
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Celty Sturluson worked as a courier, she was also known as 'The Headless Rider' and 'The Black Rider'. She was an urban myth, one of the things teenagers whispered about on online forums. She was on a very specific job that day, retrieve evidence that Kihara Heiji is selling company secrets.
Kihara Heiji was a scientist at Viper Industries, a company based in Japan. He was suspected of selling Viper Industries company secrets to a company in America. The CEO's of Viper Industries had already hired a private detective who confirmed that Kihara was selling secrets. The detective had refused to get the evidence himself, because of a personal matter, but had told Viper Industries where the evidence was.
Celty's job was to get the evidence from where it was hidden in a gym locker, and bring it across the city to the Board of Directors of Viper Industries. It was simple thing, no illegal business involved. In fact, when Celty first got the job she had convinced herself that she was actually working with the law by revealing something akin to a thief.
'So then why did something like this have to happen?' Celty asked herself as she turned a sharp corner, ignoring the honking horns at the obvious breach of traffic laws.
The job was going smoothly, Celty had managed to locate and open the locker without any difficulty, but then something horrible -at least in her opinion- had to happen. Kihara Heiji, the man who she was trying to prove guilty, walked into the room to see her with the illegal documents.
Although it would have been easier if Celty had just knocked him out with her shadow -and perhaps in another world she did- the dullihan ran from the angry spy. Out of the building and onto her horse who was in the shape of a motorcycle. She had thought that things would be over then, Kihara couldn't possibly catch-up to her.
How wrong that thought was, for five minutes later a huge RV had appeared behind Celty with a red-faced Kihara at the wheel. And now she has spent the last half-hour trying to avoid the RV that seemed deadest on running her over. It was simple for her to choose to ignore the traffic rules to avoid him, but that didn't mean that she was happy about it.
'I thought that this was just suppose to be a normal job!' Celty thought feverishly as she sped onto the freeway. The documents she was requested to retrieve where stuffed between her hands and the handlebars, crumple as her grip tightened.
With a quick glance, Celty looked over her shoulder, surprised to see no RV trailing behind her. 'Perhaps he gave up…' Celty thought. She sincerely hoped that the scientist had given up and decided to turn himself in.
She slowed down and got off at the next exit, before stopping to properly store the papers from the gym locker. It was impossible for Celty to know, just as it was impossible for Izaya and Shizou to know, what they had set in motion. For five bocks away from where Celty had parked, Shizou and Izaya were fighting unaware of the casualty that had already surfaced. A mother had just noticed that her daughter and only child were missing. A young girl had chassed after a wounded cat. Or that Kihara Heiji was not one to give up.
Even if Celty had known these things, it wouldn't have made any difference, because at that moment an RV trailer had screeched at a corner and was heading straight for her. Without wasting a moment, Celty jumped back on her bike and took off.
'How did he find me?' she looked back at the vehicle the Kihara was driving, glad that the streets were oddly empty- she didn't have to worry that Kihara would accidently hit someone. But that hope was shattered the second she turned a corner, to pass a young girl crumped in the middle of the road.
If Celty had eyes, she was sure that they would have widen in shock. Celty had not noticed the young girl before she turned, so she was sure that Kihara wouldn't notice her either. If that was the case, and Kihara turned the corner at the speed that he had been going, the young girl would most certainly die.
Normally Celty would not even think about using her shadow in public, out of the fear that she felt when it came to people's opinions of her. But this was a special case, you could say that her brain or what passed as her brain, was in overdrive. All of her instincts where telling her to save the girl, and so Celty Sturluson saved a young girl…
… But this story does not end there. How simple it would be if it did, but life does not work that way. Choices where made, and change was the effect. The outcome of this day could have been much better or worse. It is impossible to know, but this surely was just another day in Ikebukuro.
At first what had happened here was the talk of the town, but eventually it faded and only rumors are left of this day. This incident was called many things, but one had seemed to stuck more so than the others, 'The Day that Shadows Covered the City'.
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"Kami-chan? Why did you bother to write that article, when you don't plan on posting it?" The red-head ghost possessing a certain teenage girl asked.
"What would be the point? It's been six years already, not many actually remember what happened and those who do, would just blow everything out of proportion." The Japanese teenager replied out loud. They were alone in her room, no one could hear her, and no one would look at her funny for talking to herself.
"If that's the case then why don't you add your point of view. After all, you played a big role in that incident, didn't you? Ah! I know, you want me to write my side first! Or you want to add some anomaly to 'the girl who the Headless Rider saved'? I bet you want me to write that bit, I don't mind, you know." The ghost giggled as she pulled her legs to sit crisscross in midair. An impossible feet for a normal human, but she was ghost who always hovered in the air.
The teenager shot the ghost a look that said 'you-won't-give-this-up-will-you-?' to which the ghost nodded happily. Normally the redhead didn't get to do anything, her sole communication with the outside world was the girl who she was possessing. But if the teenager would allow it, she could take over the teenager's body. Though they only did this so she could access the internet, never in the public's eye.
"Fine, but don't you dare try to post it online. I don't want to have to deal with any curious readers who would want to know my sources." The teenager sighed tiredly. "Besides it's not like I have anything to do today."
"Now, now Kami-chan. It'll be bad for me to draw attention to our little situation. If some of the shadier people found out that there exists a ghost who is attached to a teenage girl, who knows more than she should, what do you think is going to happen to the teenage girl?" the ghost asked slyly.
"You've already explained it to me. If the world found out about our circumstance, the odds are, we'll end up in a lab somewhere, being dissected. That's why I'm reminding you not to get carried away." The teenager glared at the ghost coldly.
"Yeah, yeah." The ghost mocked saluted the teenager, "I'm going in now." The ghost stretched out her legs, before dipping down into the teenager's body. For a minute nothing happened, then the ghost's aura disappeared from view.
"Jeez, Kami-chan can be paranoid sometimes. I'm powerless as she is in this situation. Being found out, will only bring trouble." The 'teenager' spoke. Her voice was exactly the same as it had been before the ghost disappeared from view, and she looked exactly the same. But something was different, anyone could see the difference, even if they didn't know the girl personally. It was obvious yet at the same time, it was impossible to tell what the difference was.
The 'teenager' moved towards the window, intending to close the curtains, when something caught her eye. That 'something' was a person. A young man who had black hair, red eyes, and wore a fur-trimmed coat. "Orihara Izaya," The 'teenager' identified the young man without a second's hesitation, "So he's moving this soon? No matter, I still have a few years before the game starts."
The 'teenager' watched as the man known as Orihara Izaya walked down the street in front of her house. "Though I probably should have guessed it, after what happened last week," the 'teenager' sighed. Izaya stopped in front of her house, and the 'teenager' made sure to be out of his sight when he looked up- searching to see if anyone had noticed him.
She glanced back out the window a moment later, to see Izaya putting an envelope inside her mailbox. She ducked behind the curtain one last time, knowing that Izaya would scan the windows once more. Then she head towards the laptop that sat on the desk next to the bed.
"Kami-chan's mother doesn't get back for another hour, even then she won't check the mail till tomorrow morning. Likewise, her father won't bother. So while I wait for the informant to vacate the area, I'll write the rest of that article." She planned in singsong voice.
The teenager pulled the laptop into her lap, after she sat down. "Now, how should I write this…?" She asked herself with a wide grin.
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The young girl watched as the two human's fought in the middle of the street. On her left was a blonde teen with severe anger issues, Heiwajima Shizou. On her right was a red-eyed sociopath, Orihara Izaya. A normal person would be terrified at the sight of these two fighting, but this young girl wasn't just anyone. She was a child.
A naïve child who could only feel wonder and amusement at this sight. A child who had yet to conform to the ideals of the society in which, she lived. This child who had stumbled upon this scene by pure accident was in awe at the sight before her. With that awe, came a certain clarity that no one else at the scene had.
Most were terrified. One was angry beyond measure. And the last one was happy at being able to tick a certain someone off. This young child's brain held the most clarity of all of those who watched. That's why she noticed, what everyone else missed, she noticed the strange white cat just before the vending machine landed on him.
At first the young girl wanted to run after the cat right away, but she lost sight of the feline. The girl left the crowd that surrounded the two fighting teens, ignoring the yells and flying machines. It didn't take long for the girl to find the cat, limping in the middle of the road.
Without hesitation the naïve child ran out into the street to get said cat, who surprisingly made no move to escape the running child. When the young girl reached the cat, she proceed to tell the cat that it was dangerous to be in the middle of the road before picking the cat up to take him back to the sidewalk. Or at least that's what she tried to do.
The girl did not hear it, but when she had tried to pick up the cat, a horse had whined from the other side of a nearby corner. The girl did not hear this sound, even if she did, she would not know what to make of this sound. The cat, however, heard this sound and knew to be afraid.
So the cat had tried to run, but the girl wouldn't let him. She didn't want him to harm his leg anymore than it was, afteralll. So the girl jumped on the cat, still with a swift scratch of his claws, the girl let the cat go.
She fell to the ground as she cradled her now bleeding arm. Tears started to form in her eyes as she battled the pain from the scratch. So when a black motorcycle and it's black rider turned the corner at a speed that was defiantly illegal, the girl was in no position to move from her spot on the road.
The black rider was surprised to see a young girl sitting in the middle of the road, but managed to maneuver to evade the girl easily. The girl still didn't move. Time seemed to stop for the small child, she had only chased after a cat that was wounded from a pair of battling teens, and now she was so close to what was considered a nightmare for her…
Rumors about the mysterious black rider, who was also known as the headless rider, were widespread throughout her school. People said that the black rider secretly kidnaped people and cut off their heads in order to find it's own lost head.
The young girl did not want her head cut off and claimed as the rider's, but panic of the thought had sunk in and the child was frozen in fear. Tears now streamed down her face, and her entire body shook like a leaf in the wind.
The rider stopped a few meters away from the girl, knowing that the girl was in danger of getting run over. The rider's name was Celty Sturluson, an Irish headless fairy who really was looking for her head, but would never cut the heads off of others, despite what others might choose to believe.
Celty was actually a kind person, at least she was a kind person for someone who wasn't human. She moved as if on instinct, the shadow that only Celty could control encircled the girl's body before surrounding her in a sphere like shape. The girl let out a screech of surprise, but was to terrified to move. Moments later, a trailer turned the corner, and crashed into the shadow sphere that Celty created.
Sparks flew and shadows danced. The trailer pushed into the shadow sphere which refused to move. The trailer continued onwards, even as the shadows refused to move. Sparks flew as the shadow sphere grew closer to the trailers engine. Shadows danced as they called upon more shadows. Kihara, realizing that he was in danger of being in a serious accident turned the wheel causing the trailer to turn.
For the briefest of moments he had thought that he was safe. And then the trailer started to tip. Gravity pushed down on the trailer and it fell mid-turn, right on top of the shadow sphere that was protecting the girl.
Apparently, Kihara was keeping chemicals of some sort in his trailer and when the trailer tipped over, the chemicals dropped and dripped out of there containers and down the path of gravity. The dripped and dropped until they found their way to the gravel below.
The result of chaos. One of the sparks landed on the spilled chemicals and stared a fire. The few people who saw the whole incident were panicking. The distant sound of sirens, could be heard coming closer and closer. A worried stricken mother looked for her lost daughter. The man who yet to be known as The Strongest Man in Ikebukuro, stormed off angrily. The soon to be informant was already long gone, but he would hear about the event soon. The Headless Rider who saw it all, paused for just a moment before leaving the scene.
She still had a job to finish.
The man known as Kihara Heiji, struggled to get out of his seat, before a well-meaning bystander got the nerve to help him. And above it all, a child screamed in terror and in pain.
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After the incident was all said and done it became a popular topic on online forums and threads. The Day Shadows Covered the City. That was the name that it became known as. The same name was used in one of the first posts about the event, and the name just stuck.
There are so many things that were whispered about that day, so many theories that were candidly discussed between teens and adults alike. Few realized how big of an event like that actually was. Fewer still, for the right reasons.
Because no one would guess what the use of the chemicals Kihara Heiji kept in his trailer were for. Fewer still would assume that they would have any type of success. And no one would even be able to know what effect the incident would have in another universe. Or rather the effect another universe would have on the events that happen in the city.
After all, even if people know that there are other universes out, they have no way of measuring those universe and no possible way to know of the history those universes could possesses. For the public at large it's scientifically impossible to have any idea, even most scientist don't know…
But people like Kihara Heiji and that girl who nearly died, even I know the truth. With the right means it is possible to influence another universe. That's the big secret of what happened on that day. The chemicals in Kihara's trailer were made with the purpose of accessing an alternate universe. Originally, they were supposed to be used in conjunction with a machine. But somehow they reacted to the shadow of the Black Rider.
The result was The Day Shadows Covered the City. No one knows the full story of what happened that day. I wrote this article combining facts that I spent the past six years researching and the conclusions that I reached through those facts. Most likely this article isn't completely accurate, but I fell that it is close enough to the actual events to be called the truth.
Naturally I can't speak for any of the individuals featured in this article. Their thoughts and actions are something that I can only guess upon and I take no credit for them. This is just my own opinion after all,
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The teenage girl pushed away from the laptop and stretched her arms out above her head. "A marvelous work, if I say so myself. Too bad that Kami-chan won't let me post it."
It would be too easy for the teenager to post the article despite the wish of the brunette, but the false teenager knew that it would be more trouble than what it was worth. There was already a same amount of trust between the two, and she didn't want that trust to dissipate just yet.
"It isn't my fault that she reacted so badly to my past. Besides she wanted me to tell her. That just proves my point that humans are horrible individuals." The false teenager stood up and walked to the window. She opened the blinds, allowing natural light to flood into the room. "Eh, so bright!"
"You do know that I can still here you, right Sai?"
The teenage girl turned around to see a familiar figure floating behind her. "Now, Kami-chan, don't get mad at me. We're stuck together for basically twenty-four seven, it's better for both of our sanity if sometimes we act like the other isn't around."
"What sanity? You accurately profile complete strangers who you see walk down the street and then you strategize on how to accurately and effectively make their life hell, just for your entertainment." The transparent teenager yelled out angrily.
"I'm insane because I have sociopathic tendencies, not because I'm observant in my surroundings and make a small number of people unhappy with their lives." Sai rebuked quickly, "By the way, Orihara Izaya stopped by earlier, he put an envelope in your mailbox. Seemed to be overly cautious, almost like he didn't want anyone to see him or something or other."
The translucent teenager rolled her eyes at the sudden topic change. "This doesn't have anything to do with how you apparently know the future, does it? Actually, don't answer that question. I don't want to know."
"You wound me, Kami-chan. Though I'm surprised that you don't want to know more, most people would kill to learn the future."
"Then I'm proud not to be most people. And for the last time, my name is not Kami-chan or anything of the like, it's Kamichika Rio! Now get out of my body!" the translucent girl yelled at her body.
"See? This is what makes me love you so much, you're not like the other idiotic humans." Not a moment after the physical teenager said that, her body went lax and fell to the floor. The translucent teenager lunged forward, aiming to catch her body before it hit the ground, and disappeared after touching the physical teenager.
"Stupid Sai, it's dangerous to just leave my body without a warning," Rio muttered to herself, "What if I hit my head on something?" The teenage girl shook her head. She stood up and walked over to the laptop.
"Lot of help this did." Gesturing to the article, Rio muttered to herself. She had read that one of the best ways to sort out the inner most feelings was to write about them, which is why she wrote the article about the incident six years ago.
It was that incident that led to Sai possessing Rio. The red head had a strong presence, was charismatic, had a strong intuition, and flaunted all of her life experiences like a second skin. She was completely different from the plain and utterly ordinary Kamichika Rio.
Back then, Rio was just a child and although she intellectually knew the differences between herself and the ghost that was possessing her, she wanted to believe in Sai. To her child mind, Sai was her Guardian Angel, someone who would protect her from all of the evil in the world.
In reality, Sai was a ghost who was tied to Rio's life-force. Neither had much of a choice in their pairing, and time had only made things worse for the both of them. With two completely different personalities and ideals, how was it possible for them to get along?
Rio was just a normal girl, with normal parents, and a relatively normal life. Sai was anything but normal. She came from a different universe, with parents who never married, and apparently died in fight between two mafia families. The two were forced to work together in order for both of their survival.
"Is it any wonder that I need some type of closer?" Rio asked herself sarcastically. She looked outside and sighed. "If Sai mentioned it, then I doubt that I can ignore it. Though it really pisses me off, playing into her hands like that."
So Kamichika Rio left her room to check the package that Orihara Izaya left, completely unaware that her life was about to change once more.
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For those of you who are unaware My Real Imaginary Friend is a remake to one of my other fics Poker Face, though it is a remake the only thing that's the same is Sai possessing Rio and some of her back-story. So there's not much of a reason to try and read through the first story. For those who read through Poker Face and are returning to read My Real Imaginary Friend, and should have realized just how different I'm making this. And trust me when I say, that I plan on changing everything.
I thank all the readers for choosing to read this, and would be even happier if you could give me feedback in the review section below. Of course, I don't own Durarara or any of the media I might mention in this fic. If I did well... I wouldn't be writing this, would I?