Crowds of people, lights filling the night sky, the random scream that followed a mugging. This was the average background for Ikebukuro. Average for the people within its hidden and twisted underground.
Two men that could only be described as "gangsters" to the common civilian, were walking down the dimly lit streets of backstreet Ikebukuro. "You hear about the bloody rope murders lately?"
"You mean the ones the news is saying that some crime syndicate calling themselves 'Royal Court' are responsible for, right? I thought it was the dollars personally but something that fucked up has to be something else."
"Nice to see you get the idea, those psychopaths led by some fucking psycho called the King of Humans or some shit, there worse than the yakuza, last week on the news, it said the cops found bodies, if you could even call them that. All were covered in bite marks, majority of the flesh and organs gone with a whole lot of blood missing. Just nasty and bizarre"
"I think it's a bad idea to talk about this in the alleys of bukuro"
"Agreed, let's get the hell out of here." The two men increased the speed of their walking as their paranoia got the better of them.
A dark brown haired male in his late-twenties, wearing a thick grayish silver jacket over a dark blue shirt and black cargo pants chuckled as he walked down the sidewalk overhearing the two men talk. Hands in his pockets, earbuds in his ears.
"Seems his work gets around. I wonder when Nana will report back. She only needs to give a skull to 'the headless rider'. Not that hard of a task…. Oh, I'm close to the meet-up point. Time to have some fun." The young man thought as he walked towards an alley.
The alley was In between an apartment complex and a photography agency. Behind the apartment complex was as the man would say "the oh so sweet sounds of a pawn being mugged for a purpose."
A man in a business suit was being held to the ground by a suited blonde man in a leopard mask and a woman in a white blouse with a rose motif and reddish black dress pants with long blood red hair covering the majority of her head and face. Only the twisted grin on her face seeable.
"Please! Please! Stop! I don't know anything. I just run inventory on their supplies. I don't know anything that will help you. I'll won't say a word of this if you please, just let me go!" The man just around thirty begged as his neck was wrapped with the woman's barbed red rope.
"That's a disappointment. I would have let you go, if you had something to share…besides the blood of a hanged man is always the best for my palette anyway. What do you think Ose?" The scarlet haired woman asked to the leopard masked man.
"He's not worth all this noise, but I think our majesty should decide his fate." Ose said motioning his head towards the jacketed dark brown haired man, grinning at the "interrogation".
"I appreciate the attention, Ose. But this mere human is not worth our time…and he isn't of the caliber to ascend to my court… Scarlet, you can have your blooming… meal." As soon as the words were said the barbed rope tightened around the man's neck and lifted higher into the open air of the alley, within moments drops of red poured on the ground under the corpse's shadow.
The woman sat under the red rain almost bathing in it, the barbed rope coiled around her arm as it extended and she moved the body around to make the blood drip like rain.
"Did you two get anything out of this?" The "king" asked to the two "muggers".
"Seemingly, this pointless endeavor had some bad habits, he was a prone thief. He stole spare keycards. Good for us, eh Lord Brannigan." Ose said as he rubbed the drops of dried blood off his fingers.
"The pawn is dead. The King isn't here, Ose, no need to be formal." Brannigan declared
"Understood, Itsuka. With how everything is going. We'll need to have an insider to achieve his goal.
"Good, I have that already in place, Ose. Let's discuss this step of the plan with Nana. The meet up point is that Russia sushi place."
"What about Al-nevermind" Ose replied as he started at the half devoured hanging corpse. The two men walked out of the alley, like salarymen venturing towards a nice meal after finishing a job.
K.O.D
"Simon! Booth for three!" Itsuka announced with pride. Ose and a woman with a bird like helmet wearing a custom silver and blue sky-diving suit walked through the double doors. The restaurant strangely emptier than usual.
The trio passed a booth with a man in a medical coat and a woman in a biker suit with a cat styled helmet on her head. Eating a strange assortment of sushi that probably shouldn't exist on a menu. The woman twitched her head towards the trio, like she sensed their special "qualities". Itsuka only grinned at her as he sat at the adjacent booth.
When the trio sat in the booth, Itsuka smiled as he stared at the woman in the sky diving suit." Nana…What do you have to report?"
"Always straight to the point, your Majesty." Nana retorted, Itsuka only blankly stared unamused.
"Okay, Okay. I saw someone assault Yagari pharmaceutical with a belt full of firecrackers. Yelling something about his amnesiac girlfriend being kidnapped and only remembered that place. The guards shot him full of tranquilizer rounds and lit the firecrackers on his body…wasn't a pretty sight." Nana conveyed, obviously trying to not talk about a subject as she pulled her helmet off her head, long knotted black hair sliding down the back of her head.
"What about the gift, Oiseaus?"
"I gave her the skull like you asked. Fit perfectly inside that helmet of hers. I don't think it's a good idea to talk about it...when she's right behind me, she could notice it's me."
"That's something with no downside to it, Nana. If she hears us talking…let's eat first. I have a plan." Itsuka clasped his hands together as he chuckled. The command that meant" time to be quiet and wait." The trio stayed in silence.
"The King's special with the usual twist, just like you asked Brannigan-San." The large black man wearing an Itamae uniform announced to the quiet trio as he put the trays of sushi and bowls of rice on the table.
"Thank you, Simon." Itsuka politely mentioned as Simon walked away, Itsuka started to eat the meal at surprisingly rapid speeds. Ose and Nana just stared.
"What. I haven't eaten anything today. Walking around town, checking up on the council is a trying job." Nana started to laugh, while Ose could only smirk.
"Itsuka, you moron…"
"Ose, you haven't said a word since we got here. Something on your mind." Royal court's adviser said to the head of personnel management.
"That man in the doctor's coat…I think I know who it is. I was looking into getting a personal doctor for the court. I looked through some files that Sonozaki and Cynthia made with findings over the Internet and their...'friends'. One of the best candidates is an underground doctor famous for his ability to access and treats wounds without failure and will keep his mouth shut about any positive shady dealing he's involved with. Shinra Kishitani!" Ose reported with pride and unexpected vigor.
"It didn't get one…" The white coat wearing man stood out of the booth to avoid his current discussion and walked in front of the adjacent booth, curious. "Hello, you three were talking about doctors of sorts, correct? He asked the trio, staring at the bird helmet on Nana's lap.
"Well…yes. A friend of mine was in need of some medical assistance. But the kind that needs to be not on any records." Itsuka retorted coyly.
"Well…this isn't really the best place to talk about that kind of stuff…but I do know someone that can help you. You willing to let me borrow your phone for a moment?" The "Friend" explained and then asked, his friendly tone shifting into a monotonic serious one, his glasses gaining a layer of glare, covering his eyes.
"Hmm…Sure." Itsuka slid his phone across the table towards the lab coated man.
The spectacled man picked up the smart phone and rapidly typed in an email address. "This should be his email." He handed the phone back to Itsuka while looking back at the helmeted female that's waiting for him in his booth. "I apologize for interrupting your…date" Ose apologetically muttered.
"No, it's fine. Enjoy your food, my precious Celty is waiting for me." The "Doctor" declared, almost in a burst of sudden happiness as he sat back in his booth. "I'm sorry about that Celty." To which the biker only responded with a seemingly confused glare.
K.O.D
The Trio watched the doctor and the biker walk out of the restaurant. "Nana, follow the doctor back to his place. The King is going to want to talk to him about his… 'Date'" Itsuka said in a slightly twisted tone. Nana nodded in acknowledgement and ran out of the sushi restaurant, following the two.
"Brannigan, I've been thinking. The group has too much public identity. We need to consider being cleaner and quieter with the court's actions." Ose voiced with authority.
"Our Majesty has a plan; this city can reform its order after chaos on its own. We take the king of Ikebukuro's reaper and then the court will fade out of the public's memory after everything settles." Itsuka stated to Ose as the two walked out of Russian sushi, pulling his smartphone out of his holster.
"Ose, I'm going to take a walk, and talk to a new…friend. You have some meetings with Masao and Anat, about The Foul's removal and Ashura-Kai's reorganization, remember."
"I…I remember Brannigan. Have a safe walk, tell the Kings. I wish them luck with managing the Court." Ose added as he walked away from the quiet sushi restaurant.
Itsuka's smartphone lit up with a moving map, pinging a high-class apartment complex. "Nana. You, amazing bird." He smirked as we walked towards to the apartment complex.
The dark hallway filled with the light of the opening elevator, Itsuka walking out. "Nana said they were at this floor. She's probably on their balcony or something." Itsuka looked around the hallway, noting the stairs and a short ramped passage that was looked to go out of the building. "Why is a vehicle exit ramp built on the top floor? Oh…charming. My assumptions were correct." Ituska clicked his smartphone out of his holster, taping on it in a routine motion.
[Deathless]- "You at the balcony? Can you open the front door? If not. Assign Yatu or one of the Tabis Siblings to this place."
Itsuka leaned against the wall near the apartment's front door, seeing his phone buzz.
[Falconess]- "I left. I'm not committing burglary for you. I'll have Lune be there in ten. In the meantime, try knocking. Don't negotiate and threaten for too long, you need to make me my coffee for the morning."
Itsuka stared at his phone's screen, his face blank but slowly shifted into a grin. "Obedient, yet reasonably stubborn. Best assistant around."
Brannigan stepped in front of the door and knocked. No response came from inside.
He knocked again, and again. The door opened after the third time. "Yes? It's late, is there something you want?" The glasses wearing man behind the door muttered, fatigue starting to show in his voice.
Brannigan smiled a wide grin as his eyes connected the man's.
"Doctor Kishitani I presume. I have a job for you. One that I think… Truly fits your style."
Her dreams always returned to this moment. The hazy sense of time, the abandoned mansion and the missing part of her very being sitting in a glass canister in front of her.
She would always slowly try to pick it up to finally make that dwindling sense of emptiness go away, only for a shadowy figure to destroy it in a flurry of slices…but this time the figure never came.
She grabbed the head out of the container, its face one of never ending sleep, a strange star shaped mark blatantly on its forehead.
The part of her that she has spent years searching for was within her hands…but the feeling was hollow…like it wasn't truly her anymore…
Her melancholy was shattered by the discovery of where she now was. The center of a large room (maybe one for government or council meetings), rows filled with shadowy figures of varying shapes and sizes.
One figure stood in front of her, its arms in gesture of waiting for something to be given to it. She looked at her head, its eyelids lifting to reveal a lifeless yet bright sunset red glow. The mark glowing in tangent to the eyes.
Despite every desire and urge in her mind to not let go of what she has missed, her body stepped forward and handed the head to the figure. The head's hair and flesh rapidly disappearing into shadow as it left her hands, leaving an obsidian skull in the figure's own.
Before feelings of loss and dread filled her body, the skull was given back to her. Beyond her own understanding her own shadows surrounded the skull, giving form to her head's flesh and hair but all the color and texture were of her shadows, she could feel the overwhelming happiness that was from finally having what was supposedly her true head, holding it close to her body to prevent it from getting away.
The figure in front of her bellowed an order that caused all of her surroundings to disappear into an endless void of shadow. Her head smiled at her before fading away with the rest.
Leaving Celty alone, awake in the lonesome of her room with only the question to ponder.
"By order of your god, reveal to the council, what is truly your name. Headless Rider!"