Ragnarok

By: Aviantei

1

Cover

"Is it just me, or does each one of these freakin' things get bigger every time?"

The blond man reached for his pocket—and the pack of cigarettes inside—before a hand caught his wrist. The man's companion sighed before letting go and giving a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Now, now, you're not allowed to smoke in the lobby of this hotel or almost any hotel for that matter, how many times have I told you that?" he remarked before pushing black bangs out of his face. "Focus, honestly." The blond growled before dropping his hand to the side, forgoing the cigarettes for later.

The brunette's slender fingers traced down his neck, and the blond mimicked this action in a slightly rougher manner. Ultra-sensitive and voice activated microphones that worked on a broadcasting signal incapable of being interfered with or giving hint of transmission to outside sources rested under a layer of custom made skin imitator. There wasn't even a bump indicating the mike as it was less than the thickness of the average micro SD card, and the artificial skin even felt like real skin. The brunette would have liked to see someone find the microphone without him peeling off the coating and showing it to them.

Not that he would do such a thing. That would defeat the purpose.

"Test," he barely whispered, not even concerned by the fact that he could hardly hear himself.

"All voice systems broadcasting properly at designated time, confirm." This time the voice was that of the blond. The sound came from both beside the brunette and the speaker in his ear at the time; the blond still couldn't whisper as quietly, although the brunette wasn't going to take the fact of a deeper toned voice an excuse. Not that it mattered, considering the speaker was even smaller than the microphone and put under the same protections as well.

Despite its size, it adjusted the volume of the speaker to a standable level within a specified range, and still produced high quality sound. They were completely unable to be heard by others, unless the noise coming through was horribly loud, and even then it was nothing more than the noise you could hear coming from headphones some kid had turned up too much.

And that, the brunette thought, is what happens when you provide developers with only the best in worth materials and million dollar yearly incomes. A chorus of responses filled his ear at once, in perfect synchronization. It sounded like the right amount of people, but one could never be sure. Besides, check-in protocol was protocol, no matter how annoying.

"Any difficulties in receiving audio transmission of orders as of now, confirm," he stated on time, almost out of habit. Even though he had not even been doing this job for a year, he took to things quickly, and instinct and expertise guided him.

"Any difficulties in sending audio transmission of response will be dealt with immediately; please stand by if that is the case," the brunette continued. The allotted period of time passed in silence, meaning there were no difficulties so far, so the blond had continued with the perfectly timed script. Every action and move in this mission was timed, although things loosened up after the initial check. When the formalities were passed, there was free movement until you were in the critical parts. Then, the things you ran over and over again in drills until you could perform them in your sleep within near impossible time requirements were given high priority. Only in the field were you excused for running over these limits, and that was only when the situation could not be helped and you merely added a few extra seconds to the clock.

"Mission parameters correctly set; focus lies only in current location. Additional entities that do not arrive in this vicinity will be dealt with in future. Do not, under any circumstances, go after targets if they flee the vicinity. Those will be dealt with by the mobile force. Unless you have those difficulties addressed earlier, report to your posts. Time until observation and Command is up: estimated twenty minutes. Time until mission begins: one hour, unchangeable, even in the event of emergency. Dismissed."

As the brunette finished the only non-verbatim from the latest protocol handbook (and that was only partial at best, since the words were similar to what he said every time, just with different add-ons based on specifics) section of his speaking, there was a slight surge. The group of people that the two males had been standing in the middle of moved away bit by bit, their motions so natural would have needed to expect it to see it.

Despite the suspicious-sounding intentions, the entire group had been dressed in casual clothes. Various television and cartoon characters and pop culture stars were just as common on t-shirts as the slogans and simply color designs, and many of them were in jeans. There were even a few skirts on some of the female members, varying lengths, and, for all purposes, the twenty-some people that had just begun their navigation through the beginnings of a crowded yet expansive hotel lobby looked like ordinary people that almost seemed like they weren't associated at all. And that, of course, was the point.

The only two who could be classified as 'unusual' were the superiors, the blond and the brunette, who were in suits. However, they could get away with it, but not because they looked like businessmen.

"Oh, wow, you guys' cosplay is amazing!" a voice exclaimed, and the two turned to see a particularly short teenage boy with glasses smiling up at them. "The hair, the faces, everything! Are you guys even wearing wigs, 'cause that looks natural. Oh, wow, your hair even has a tiny bit of brown at the roots, like you bleached it, but not quite. Is brown your natural hair color, or did you do a double dye job for authenticity?"

The blond shifted, shoving his hands in his pockets, looking away from the boy. The brunette laughed as a light side of pink covered the latter's cheeks, showing his embarrassment. "Ah, thank you very much," the brunette responded. Comments like this were common, especially when they worked the anime conventions, and the brunette was used to doing all the talking. "We've worked very hard to perfect the look, although we started cosplaying as them since we were similar in looks to begin with." It was a partial lie, but the boy didn't need to know that. The brunette smiled for effect.

"Oh my god, you even sound like him," the boy stated in awe, his eyes growing slightly wide. "Hey, hey, Krys, come here!" A girl on the edges of the slowly growing crowd surrounding the elevators turned her head, and the boy waved her over. She pointed at the crowd, but the boy wouldn't let up, so she heaved a sigh before walking over.

"If we're stuck walking all the way up to the top floor, Jared, I will kill you," Krys threatened, crossing her arms over what appeared to be the female Gakuen Hetalia cosplay. Judging by the styling of her hair, it looked like she was cosplaying as Poland. "So tell me just how important this is, and then I'll decide your fate."

"Aw, come on, Krys, walking up stairs is good for you!" Jared protested, but the glare aimed in his direction made him quickly get to the point. "Look at these guys; they couldn't be any more authentic unless they were trying to kill each other! And I don't think they're willing to risk losing their hotel room by destroying the lobby. Their Izaya even sounds like Izaya!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the 'Izaya' remarked in smooth tones. The expression change on Krys's face was nowhere as extreme as Jared's, but she did raise her eyebrows in response.

"Damn, that's impressive," she remarked. "Did you steal Johnny Yong Bosch's voice box or something?"

"He kind of sounds like Kamiya-san at the same time, too," Jared added in. "I mean, Johnny and Kamiya's voices are close, but his is like the perfect blend between the two…" The boy was clearly one of the overly obsessive types, completely worthy of the title of 'fanboy.'

"Hey, what about you, does your voice do that?" The question was directed towards the blond, who only made a sound similar to hmph in his throat. "Is that a no? Come on, I just wanna hear of you sound like Shizuo or not, what's so wrong about that?" When 'Shizuo' still gave no answer, 'Izaya' grinned before nudging his companion in the ribs with his elbow.

"Come on, Shizu-chan, talk for her," he insisted, voice almost a taunting song. "I know you're not used to all the attention we get, but you should at least try to show off for the ladies." The blond twitched.

"Shut up, Flea, or I kill you!" he shouted, though keeping his voice still at a volume where it wouldn't be too much of an attention grabber over the noise of the ever forming crowd. Before all of this, he would have just roared it out, and chunked one of the hotel's potted plants at him to boot. But now, with this job… He had a purpose and wasn't willing to ruin it over banter that had once been their only form of speaking to each other.

"There, Shizu-chan, was that so hard?" 'Izaya' chirped, letting out another peal of laughter as he tried to reach for 'Shizuo's' hair. His attempts were interrupted by both his hand being batted out of the way and a question from Krys.

"Are you two a Shizaya cosplay duo or…?"

'Izaya' let 'Shizuo' shout his protest—a very loud and resounding "NO!" that no one took notice of, thanks again to all the chatter—before giving the explanation he had said so many times before. "No, we are not. To us, the pairing doesn't really seem canon, although people think we are just because we're friendly towards each other," he stated. It was more than the 'canon' concept, though; the idea of acting that way, even for cover, made both of them feel sick. "There are certain limits we can go to on hating each other, so we opt for slightly more friendly interactions. Otherwise, we try our best to stay in character as much as our acting skills allow us."

"Okay, so what gave you inspiration for the suits?"

"Krys…" Jared whined, pulling on his friend's sleeve. "You don't have to ask so many questions. What'll I do if you if you piss them off? I might not be able to talk to them again…" Krys rolled her eyes at his paranoia.

"No, no, not at all, it's a valid question," 'Izaya' assured, shrugging it off. "We've just seen some fanart with the concept in it, not to mention it fit really well with this AU fic I read once. We figured we'd mix it up a bit, show something different for cosplay. Not to mention, a lot of girls really seem to like the suits." He smiled a little bit, even though his logical brain knew the extra attention he was alluding to wasn't really what they needed. "We even have fake guns that kind of complete the image, but those are still up in our room. We wanted to keep them in good condition for tomorrow, since there's going to be more people."

Of course, the weapons were real, although they worked in a different way than firing bullets. More of that specialized technology for you, which meant that it would pass the con's weapons guidelines without even the slightest trace of suspicion.

Krys nodded in approval, letting a smile onto her face. "Sorry 'bout the interrogation there, I just like getting all the questions out of the way." The grin forming was slightly sheepish, but it suited her." The only problem with that is that I always come off sounding antagonistic when I do that. I'm trying to work on that, though…"

"Hey, can I take a picture with you two?" Jared asked, eyes shining, the potential crisis passed. 'Shizuo' shrugged, and 'Izaya' nodded approval for the both of them. A few minutes passed of Jared's digital camera flashing and trading hands (even into those of a passing member of the hotel staff, for the sake of getting all four in the picture), and then the boy uttered nearly thirty 'thank you'-s and clung to the camera like it was made of gold when it was done.

"Oh, do you think we could meet up sometime tomorrow? I really wanna see you guys with the guns, maybe get a few more shots…" Jared's voice sounded like he was dreaming as he made the request, and 'Izaya' couldn't help but chuckle. This boy's reactions were so much like those of the hordes of fangirls he had entertained in the past few months.

"Sure, not a problem. We generally just get dragged into photo shoots and the like, so just ask around and you'll find us." Going to the convention was essential in keeping up the act as mere cosplayers, and was actually part of the mission specs, too. They would conduct a similar operation to the one in the hotel tonight in the halls of the connected convention center tomorrow.

Even so, 'Izaya' could sense 'Shizuo's' irritation directed towards him on this concept. That wasn't even something that took practice, since the latter was irritated a good percent of the time, but that didn't change the fact that he was just so attuned to it.

"Well, it's almost past Shizu-chan's bedtime, so you can imagine that he's getting cranky," 'Izaya' said, not helping out his situation at all. He was quite sure he'd be strangled for that one when the time came. "Well, crankier than usual." Still not helping. "We were gonna use the stairs, so we'll part here. Good luck with that elevator and good night."

"Bye," chorused Krys and Jared, both smiling and waving.

'Shizuo' made a straight beeline for the door leading to the stairwell, not even bothering to acknowledge that he had even talked with the two otaku. 'Izaya' spared them a wave back to make up for it. Once he reached the door (a good five feet behind 'Shizuo'), he looked back into the highly crowded lobby, now filled with the many anime con goers preparing to return to their rooms, most clustered around the elevator.

He saw Krys smack Jared in the back of the head for this, and let out a laugh.

'Shizuo' was already near the top of the first flight of stairs when 'Izaya' caught up to him. Although the brunette had just ran up the stairs to now walk beside his companion, he was none the worse for wear, and wasn't even having problems breathing. This wouldn't have seemed that off, if he had not just ran up there in the time frame of a few seconds, something even the others under his command couldn't do, no matter how many of them tried to do so in their training sessions. The blond was completely unsurprised by this fact, and continued his trek up to the fifth floor. The shorter of the two wasn't even looking for praises, and instead checked something on what appeared to be his cell phone.

Because the fact that these two had just cemented themselves in Krys and Jared's brains as 'Izaya' and 'Shizuo' had nothing wrong with it, as they truly were Izaya and Shizuo.

"No more," Heiwajima Shizuo declared before scoffing. "At least that's what I'd like to say, but we can't do that, can we? We gotta put up with it so we can find that source of 'Chaos' from back then. It's the only way to get us home." The proceeding silence was soon filled with a heavy sigh from the man. "I'm smoking when we get into that hotel room, you got me?"

Orihara Izaya shrugged indifferently at this obvious disregard for the law, returning his phone to his suit pocket. After all, he wasn't one to talk. "Fine, fine, I'll just shut down the smoke alarm, like I always do," he replied casually, as if he was talking about doing the laundry. "You really should loosen up a bit more, though, Shizu-chan. You really just need to have fun with it."

The fist in Shizuo's pocket almost tightened, but he stopped himself for the sake of the cigarette pack in his hand. "I really wish you would stop calling me that, Flea."

"The chances of me stopping calling you 'Shizu-chan' are the same as you stopping calling me 'Flea,' which is never gonna happen." Izaya amused himself by jumping over the guardrail from one section of stairs to the other, saving himself the turn. He made his way up the stairs backwards, looking down at Shizuo all the way. "Besides, the fans love it, not to mention people will think it's strange we're not calling each other that when we go back, since we don't know if time will pass there or not…"

"Fine. But it's not gonna matter, since I'm going to enjoy killing you when we get back. Now that'll be a show we can't put on for these otaku."

"Which is just a bit depressing since I'm sure they'd probably pay us to watch," Izaya said, thinking about the extra cash. Not that he needed it, but with the Agency, you still had to fill out a lot of annoying and meticulous paperwork when it came to money, despite the fact that you could still spend it on something completely non-work related without a good reason. Realizing that they had reached their destination floor, Izaya pushed open the door.

"Hey, Flea, about what that kid said," Shizuo started, catching up with Izaya who was holding the door open for him. "Are my roots really starting to show? I kind of lost track of how much time's passed since we've been on so many jobs for the summer season…"

"Only a little bit, but you might want to get it bleached again before the next job," Izaya replied, skipping down the hall to their room. It was the one at the exact center of the hotel, so they could personally respond to any potential emergencies in the best fashion. The Agency bought out these rooms for operations nearly the entire year in advance. "Then again, some of the girls might like it; the only time they've seen you officially with brown hair was since you were in elementary school."

"Whatever, I'll take care of it when this is over." Shizuo didn't see the point in appealing to anyone, as they would probably only get in the way. Besides, the only time that was useful was when you were seducing your targets, which he had no interest in doing if Izaya could take care of it in his place. Not that he liked letting the flea doing that either, targets or no.

Izaya knew this was his partner's thought process, and sighed as he slid the card key into the slot below the door handle. "Honestly, Shizu-chan, you need to put more consideration of the concept of 'cover'; it's quite important." The door handle beeped, and the two entered the room, only turning the lights on after the door closed behind them. The two desks in the room had been moved together and now hosted one of the simpler versions of the Agency's operation command stations. Shizuo went to start everything up while Izaya's hand went back to his neck, prioritizing his voice communication amongst the agents who had dispersed earlier.

"Sorry, everyone, we're having a bit of a delay in Command set up. New estimated time stands at ten minutes; operation execution time is unable to be changed. Please be prepared for anything. Specific operations briefing will begin almost immediately after Command is established, please stand by."

(Falls over because this writing is old and I still don't think I fixed it up enough, but I guess it's presentable so here it is anyway.)

Ragnarok is a project that started two and a half years ago and was inspired by a dream I had. I wrote the first two chapters back then and a bunch of notes... It ended up on my queue of things to post and so I decided to start working on it again.

As with all my stories I'm looking for ways to improve them, so if you find something please let me know!

When the next chapter of this will come out is not planned, but the new Jokes, Whims, & Coincidences is estimated to be out within a few months. Other projects are currently the priority, but there's a blog thing I have where I sort of talk about updates and such...

On a silly side note: I do ship Shizaya, but I honestly think that both respective parties would gag if they realized people wanted them to date. As such, Izaya's comments are really more his theoretical perspective than mine.

I haven't had much time to write lately...Hopefully my spring break will fix that.

Next Time: ACTIVE

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