"Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies..."
The sun was descending in the western sky, its light glittering off the windows and signs of Shinjuku and tinting the entire city a warm orange. It made the place seem warm, welcoming; a peculiar atmosphere for a city so utterly packed to the brim with humanity. Warmth wasn't usually associated with things like glass, steel, and concrete. The setting sun cast the illusion of warmth over the whole scene, making it seem like something it wasn't.
That same setting sun had started to amplify the shadows, the ones that turned alleys into foreboding places and lent the denizens of the underworld cover for their illicit activities. The romantic saw only the glow of warmth; the skeptic saw only the increase of shadow. The realist saw both for what they were, and the clever sought to use both of them to their best effect.
Soon the sun would dip far enough below the horizon that orange would turn to purple, then to black; the warmth would give way entirely and leave shadow in its wake. The view from the office window seemed to capture that exact moment, the moment when the balance started to tip from warm to cold, from light to dark. A soft chuckle filled the capacious area of the loft, its sound swallowed up before it could echo by the books along the walls and the rugs on the floor.
"See how they go around and around down there? Swirls and eddies...it's like a tide of humanity. They even work like water, and all you need to do is put the right dams and levees in place to get them to flow the way you want them to, in the direction you want them to." There was no response to the speaker, but that didn't seem to deter him; a moment later, he went on.
"That's what I intend to do. Humans are such beautifully predictable creatures, don't you think? They'll react in the way I want them to, if I just put the events I want them to experience into place. It won't take too much, I don't think. Just a push at the right time...like nudging a ballerina when she's en pointe. It doesn't take a lot of force to get her to stumble, when her balance is so precarious." There was still no answer. A creak of protest sounded as someone pulled themselves out of an office chair; the muffled sound of stocking feet on hardwood floor followed. Slender fingers reached out to begin placing smooth round stones of black and white onto a geometric game board.
"That's one of the many reasons I love humanity, you know. Their utter predictability. They'll do whatever I want them to do, and they're so very, very obedient about it. It's delightful to watch, it really is." The orange light flashed off silver rings as the stones were arranged around a number of chess pieces. The black and white kings, a couple of knights; the black queen in one corner, white in the opposite. Scattered about were shogi pieces in a seemingly random pattern. "If you just nudge them properly...away they go, exactly as desired."
The long pale fingers hesitated over one piece on the board, and the speaker's lips pulled themselves down in a frown for a moment before the white king was plucked up and put in a different position. "It's simply annoying when they get unpredictable and won't do as they're supposed to...but really, only one person - person? Is he human? Probably not, as he doesn't behave properly - has ever given me those issues. One of these days I'll properly neutralize him." The black stones were arranged in a wall around the white king, leaving the black king free to move as it wished.
After a long moment spent arranging, the board seemed complete, at least for the time being. "Look, you see? Rings and rings of people, flowing in whatever direction they're channeled into. It's like a child's game, honestly. Ring around the rosie, pockets full of posies...except in this case, the posies are what I want them to be, and the 'rosie' is me. And in the end..." A lit match fell right into the middle of the board, landing on one of the playing cards that had been added to the mess. The king of hearts smoldered, then burst into flame; the other cards around it followed suit, then the board itself finally caught fire. The orange light of the flames fell on the pale hand that had dropped the match, lending it a warmth it didn't normally have; the flicker turned reddish-brown eyes into an unholy crimson fire. A faint chuckle grew into a cackling laugh of sheer, unfettered glee, bouncing off the walls and ceiling.
Izaya turned to look out the window, settling the Dullahan's head on his shoulder. Its eyes were closed, so of course it couldn't see what he saw, but that didn't matter. It didn't need to see what was going on out there; it only needed to react. He laughed again, watching as the flames on his game board were reflected in the glass of the window in front of him. The effect made it look like all of Shinjuku was going up in flames.
"Ashes, ashes...and they all fall down."