Untapped Emotions

By: AtomicKokoro

Storyline

A virus is released and spread all through Ikebukuro, effecting all her people. It spikes emotions that aren't commonly shown, more often depression or blood-thirst, causing a change in personality. Everyone works in their own way to get to the bottom of it.

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Before You Read

Inspired by I'm Not Here Looking For Absolution by PrettyWilde. Really good fanfic, especially for a Kizaya one. I love Kizaya...Oh, there's no Yaoi in this. Just a lot of OOCness, but that makes sense considering it's about people going OOC...Ha ha.

Anyways, I hope you guys like it. I'm hoping it will center around the very, very unlikely team-up. Not Shizuo and Izaya. Not Masaomi and Horunda. No, much more unlikely. It makes sense, don't worry, but I bet you never, not once, thought of these two working together.

I'm excited to see how you guys react! On with the story!

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Chapter 1

Flavor Of The Air

"Oh, Masaomi-kun! You come eat at Russian Sushi today?"

Masaomi chuckled and shook his head. "Not today, Simon." The Russian man tilted his head but his grand smile never faded. It was the looked of, not today? How about tomorrow? Masaomi passed Simon almost everyday. It wasn't shocking Masaomi knew the man well. Even Saki had gotten close with him. It was sort of...well, if Masaomi had to choose a word, cute, how the interacted. "I was just on my way to pick up some cold medicine for Saki. Man, she's got it bad this time. Can't smell a thing."

Simon shuffled through his fliers and handed Masaomi some coupons. "Tell her feel better soon. Then come eat at Russian Sushi!"

Masaomi laughed again and folded the fliers into his pocket. "Thanks, Simon," he said. He turned his head slightly. Simon's smile faltered for a second. Seeing Masaomi's eyes caught in the wrong light made him seem depressed and fake. Simon knew the day Masaomi had made the stupid choice to fight, which resulted in him becoming injured and admitted to the hospital. Ever since then, Masaomi's eyes were dark and sorrowful, tainted windows to the very painful secret he kept still, whatever it was.

They exchanged goodbyes and Masaomi continued on his way to the nearest drug store. Simon turned and continued to yell out to the people and hand out fliers. The day was dreary, moist, but it still had yet to rain. The city always seemed so mournful and quiet yet busy. Sad. When the skies were gray, the city lost all it's color. Everything felt serious and sad. The atmosphere was heavy and dreadful. Less people talked and it always seemed as though more people cried.

That was what Izaya found so exciting about Ikebukuro! Wasn't it amazing how the weather could effect people's moods? How it could change everything? On the sunny days, Ikebukuro seemed like a happy city, full of colorful, exciting people. More of them came out to play. More people to watch. More people to examine. More people to play with.

Izaya smirked, watching the people pass below his windowed wall. He spotted a certain blond staring up at him, but neither of them did anything and the man on the ground went on with his day. Izaya had to keep himself from smiling too wide. The days were it rained, the days where it shined...

But the night! The nighttime was the most exciting time of Ikebukuro. Everything seemed so much more...different. There wasn't exactly a way to explain it, but it was exciting. Perhaps that was when the far more interesting people came out. Trouble was stirred, police sirens rang...and a certain bike rider would fly in and out from the apartment building's parking garage.

This time, she was riding in from her last job of the day. Her horse-turned-motorcycle rode up the side of the apartment building. No one really seemed to notice here in this part of the town when someone rode up the side of a building, but the rider could care less. She entered through an opened door and landed on the fifth highest floor of the building. Quietly, Celty got off her bike and pushed it into the garage, where a young doctor was standing.

"How was your job today?" he chirped, leaning forward as she pushed the bike passed him and closed the garage door. Shinra almost seemed to happy that moment, but it was probably because he knew she had finished for the day. If Celty had eyes, she'd roll them, but when she removed her helmet, all that was there was black smoke. Shinra, however, was unfazed. If anything, his eyes lit up more. "Your last one, right? C'mon, let's watch a movie!"

The eager doctor grabbed Celty by the hand and lead her inside. Celty stumbled after him, trying to type in her PDA, but Shinra allowed no time for that and quickly rushed inside with her behind him. It was obvious he missed her while she was gone and, she would admit, she missed him, too, but, dammit, he could be so clingy! Celty gave some form of a sigh but chuckled as she hurried after him. Love was such a strange thing.

As it was, love was a strange thing. "A-Anri-san," a Raira student, Mikado Ryūgamine, stammered as he stood before a rather pretty girl that made him blush like mad when she wasn't looking. "I was wondering...w-would you like to..." He stopped, blushed, and glanced away rubbing the back of his neck. Anri blushed, too, but she kept his eyes on him, waiting for what he was going to say. "N-nice day, isn't it?"

No, it wasn't a very nice day. It was humid and it was going to rain any time soon. If anything, they should have probably been considering going home to study or maybe to the Russian Sushi shop. Anri didn't say any of this, though. Instead, she said, "Yeah. I suppose."

Mikado sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "Let's go find Masaomi," he sighed. Anri simply nodded and the two went on towards the blond's house, passing a second blond. Not Shizuo, but Walker, who was on his way to meet Erika after they agreed to split up to find Kyohei's missing hat, which he had in hand.

Walker quickened his step to a jog, trying to recall where they parked the van, muttering to himself a plot line of a magic hat discovered by a lost, young boy. "The mysterious hat grants the boy one wish. The boy does not know what to wish for. What does he wish for? Hm..." Before he could think of a decent wish for his protagonist to ask for, he spotted Erika by the van. "Hey! I found it!" He waved it in the air.

Erika gasped and rushed up to him, snatching the hat from his grasp. "I don't believe it! You actually found it! Where was it?" As Walker told his story about the lost boy who found the magic hat, Kyohei wandered over, took the hat, and left the two okatus to their Anime talk and Manga references.

After a while of waiting in the van, he turned out the window and hissed, "Guys! Will you get in here already?"

Which, in turn, earned a loyal, "Yes, sir!" from the couple who gladly jumped in the back of the van. Togusa backed the van out of the parking spot and drove down the road. There was more ignored Anime talk and light radio music before Walker and Erika gasped, "Oh, my God! It's Heiwajima Shizuo!" Kyohei sighed and glanced out the window. The two twenty-four-year-old's caught each others gaze for a moment before the van rode on down the road.

Shizuo hummed in a form of displeasure and lit a cigarette. He stood, inhale on the cigarette, and stared at the sky. Something wasn't right. Izaya had noticed it, too, he saw. For the moment Shizuo and Izaya met eye contact, they simply ignored each other, but Shizuo had done so simply because he didn't feel like climbing a load of steps to throw a desk at the idiot.

But something wasn't right. The flavor of the air was...off. He puffed the cigarette again, and continued down the street. He didn't pay attention to the two teens entering a third blond's apartment, although he might of recognized the girl if he looked and maybe the boy if he thought hard enough. And maybe even the blond, but only if he was told the name. It was all irrelevant, anyway. He had to find out what was wrong.

The blond in the door, however, was beaming, completely oblivious to the new flavor in the air. He invited his two visitors inside and they each kicked off their shoes. "Sorry, guys," Masaomi chuckled. "Gotta be quiet. Saki isn't feeling well. She's in the bedroom, but you know how thin the walls are."

Oh, yeah, Mikado knew just how thin the walls were. He had made the mistake of wandering into Masaomi's apartment when he heard the weird noises from Masaomi's rooms that sounded like gasps and things that Mikado which he never heard in his life. No doubt, Masaomi scored, but Mikado wasn't exactly sure of the details. How long ago did Masaomi lose his virginity, anyway?

"It's fine," Anri whispered as she follows the boy's into the living room. It was nicely spaced. There was a TV to one wall and a three seater couch that managed to fit all four teens (Masaomi, Mikado, Anri, and Saki) just a few meters away. A computer on a wooden desk was half-shoved into a corner, messy of papers and plates. Opposite from the TV was the entrance to the kitchen where a tea was seeping on a granite counter. Mikado and Anri would be honest; Masaomi and Saki managed to find a good apartment. But...where did they get the money?

Masaomi half-dragged himself to the couch and sat down. Mikado and Anri hesitantly joined him. "So, what brings you here?" the blond asked, turning on the TV but keeping the volume low so he could hear his friends. He flipped through the channels, trying to find something decent, but there seemed to be on.

"Well," Mikado begin, inhaling. "Anri and I were wondering...if you could...if you would like to return to school." It was a plea more than anything. Masaomi had dropped out of school a little while back. He ran away with Saki to some place unknown. Perhaps it was a vacation of some sort, escaping from Ikebukuro. Mikado could see it, especially since both Saki and Masaomi ended up in the hospital due to the gangs (well, Mikado assumed for Saki it had been the gangs, but he had yet to know the whole story). Then, they returned and went on, pretending that life was as it should be, but there was still the dark spark in Masaomi's eyes and the loss of innocence in Saki's...

But Mikado and Anri, Masaomi knew, had also lost innocence. Masaomi hadn't noticed it for Mikado much, not until after he returned and Anri never seemed to have any childishness or innocence about her. Mikado seemed different when Masaomi got back. He seemed distant, lost. A darkness that almost absorbed Masaomi. Of course, since Masaomi had spent so much time staring at Mikado's "darkness", Saki began to tease that Masaomi may have had a small crush on Mikado. Masaomi, to deny this, had to keep himself from staring.

And then Anri's eyes could glow red, but no one knew anything about it. No one brought it up, no one asked, no one wondered. They simply accepted it and let it pass as though it were nothing. But, then again, that was how it was for most changes. They simply accepted that someone had lost innocence or seemed distracted or could change their eye color to red. They never asked because they didn't want to pry, but after what had happened in the abandoned warehouse, they felt if they didn't ask, it would seem like they didn't care and something terrible would happen. They almost lost Masaomi; they weren't going to risk it again.

"Nah," Masaomi muttered. "I'm fine for now. Saki and I have a good job and a good life. We have more time for each other without school being in the way. We would much rather prefer this than going to school. But thank you anyway. I appreciate you asking me." Mikado frowned and dropped his chin a bit. Masaomi knew that Mikado and Anri weren't going to give it up. They would continue to try to get Masaomi back to school. Masaomi would continue to decline and drop the subject.

Anri spoke next, adjusting her position on the arm of the couch, folding her legs since her skirt was so short, but neither boy seemed to care. "School is important," she said, leaning forward. "It's not good for you to drop out. You need a high school diploma to get a job nowadays. You need the education, Masaomi. What did you want to be when you grew up again? I forget, but you probably need a high school diploma for it? ...Masaomi, are you listening?"

No, he wasn't. He had stopped on the news channel and was listening intently to what the newscaster had to say. Anri read the title underneath and inhaled slightly. Severe Change In Tokyo Causes Disturbances. "Turn it up," Mikado insisted, snatching the remote and pressing the plus sign where it said, Volume.

The newscaster seemed worried and serious as she held her papers before her, staring into the screen intently. "Authorities are warning severe changes in personalities and reactions," she said, leaning forward a bit. "Early this morning, several cases reported an increase of deaths and crimes committed in Tokyo, ranging from rapes to murders. There was also a spike in patients being emitted into the hospital, receiving counseling for depression and murderous intent. There is no explanation as to why this is occurring but authorities are working to get to the source of the problem."

The three teens blinked as the story changed to something that happened on Main Street the day before. Masaomi shut off the TV and leaned back. "Huh," he sighed. Mikado scratched the back of his head and leaned back as well, deciding that what Masaomi did was a good idea. "Must be flu season."

Mikado blinked with a gentle, What the hell? face loud and clear but Masaomi didn't notice it. "Masaomi," he sighed. "The flu has nothing to do with depression. It's not even close to winter!" It was near the middle of May.

Masaomi shrugged. "I didn't take psychology," he muttered. "I wouldn't know."

"It has nothing to do with psychology, Masaomi!" Mikado gasped, leaning up and waving his arms, as though trying to get Masaomi's attention. "It's common sense!"

Masaomi giggled. "Pennies."

Mikado sighed in defeat and gave up, leaning back on the couch again. Then, he smiled a bit and glanced at Masaomi. Masaomi glanced back and smiled. Both boys chuckled. Even if Masaomi seemed stupid sometimes, he was still a good friend who knew how to make people laugh. Even if he had a dark look in his eyes, he was still a cheerful, happy boy. As long as all three of them were still the same as normal, it didn't matter what the look in their eyes were, as long as they still smiled.

But that was the problem.

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After Notes

Long ass intro chapter. Not sure if I should put this in the teens or in mature...I think it'll stay in teens for now, and then if things get heated, I'll put it up a rating.

Anyways, loved it? Hate it? Wanna read it again? Let me know! The review button is right there!