Izaya stepped out of the water feeling ten times heavier than before. The original plush fur could take on more water than what he'd ever imagined so when he shook himself to get rid of it, the feline basically splashed it on everyone in a five feet radius, earning quite a few noises of surprise and strong disapproval from the people. And worst of all, his fur still remained wet. Just what was cat fur made of anyway? This was insane…
Dragging his still wet body on tired legs while listening to the steady grumbling of his stomach, Izaya felt miserable. What did he do to deserve this? Okay, if he thought about it, most of his acquaintances could have listed a dozen reasons why he should have seen something big coming, but that didn't make it any easier to cope with the fact that he was stuck in a damn cat body for the moment.
Suddenly his nose picked up a familiar scent. His ears perked up instinctively as he turned towards the source. A girl with two ponytails on each side of her head was looking down at him while munching on a few takoyaki balls. Hadn't he been so tired, Izaya would have tried to snatch the small paper plate from her hand to eat those, but as it was, he could only stare at her with a jealous glare.
Moments passed like this, Izaya glaring daggers at the lucky human who had food, and said human staring into space. He recognized her after a short while… this was the girl he had kidnapped some time ago… the one who made such an entertaining face before jumping off the top of a building. Good times… although he was quite sure that she would not give him any food, had she known his true identity. But then again, he had to remind himself that probably there wasn't a text painted on his forehead saying "Hey, I'm Orihara Izaya!".
The girl finally took notice of him and they locked eyes. Hers softened a little at the sight and she picked up one of the balls, holding it out tentatively in the air for the drenched cat to take. Izaya pondered for a moment. He was offered to do the most humiliating thing in his life (well, maybe the second, because what could top falling ass-first into a bowl of wasabi?). His stomach proved to be stronger than his pride though, and he bit into the ball, nearly choking on it while trying to swallow the thing. Okay, how on earth did cats eat without hands?!
"Are you okay?" she asked with genuine worry. Izaya wanted to say "hell no" but for one, a half-eaten thing was blocking his airway, and for two; he could only meow or hiss, not exactly a perfect set of vocal skills to communicate with humans.
Izaya then did something that he knew he would not be proud of later; spat the thing on the ground (yeah, the dirty ground) and ate it bit by bit. It was better than suffocating from trying to swallow the entire takoyaki, but it was still the most repulsive thing he had done in his life as a cat… or ever, really. Where were those fancy gadgets from sci-fi movies that could wipe your memories oh-so-conveniently? He was in desperate need of one at the moment…
"I wonder where your owner is… if you have one" she said while looking at the dripping cat.
Now, that is a question even I couldn't answer, Izaya thought. Besides, I don't need an owner, thank you very much. I need an antidote and that's it.
"Hm, what did you find?" a boy of her age asked after stopping next to her.
"It's a stray. I would take it home but…"
"But?"
"My dad is allergic to cats. He would never let me bring it into the house."
"I know. My little sister has the same thing. She was taken to the hospital two years ago, it was so bad…"
She glanced back at Izaya once more, and then placed the paper plate with the remaining two balls on the ground.
"That's all I can do" she muttered, to herself or the schoolboy, Izaya couldn't tell, but his mind was filled with something more important anyway. He had a golden chance to finally eat something and didn't want to waste it. Thinking back at it, he probably set a new Guinness record for no-hands takoyaki eating then and there, but that was really the least of his concerns. As humiliating as it was to gobble up something from the ground, his survival instincts got the better of him and soon the food was all gone. So was the girl from before. Izaya wondered what her reaction would be, had she known just whom she'd helped out…
Walking a little further down the street, Izaya spotted a flying car rising from one of the small alleyways… and someone who was probably the owner of it, following closely behind. Too bad cats couldn't sigh or snicker the way Izaya wanted to at the moment. Shizuo was quite something, wasn't he? That brute threw things across the street like it was the most natural thing to do… what an uncivilized beast, really.
The cat-turned informant continued his walk in an attempt to find a place to dry. His fur was still somewhat wet, and it felt uncomfortable. At some point though, his instincts told him to turn around… it was a good thing he did. Had he not, the German shepherd behind him would have bitten him in half. The dog tore himself free from its leash and chased after Izaya, who didn't even need to think of his next course of action; run for his life!
Paws hitting concrete every millisecond, the informant dashed through the street with the predator right after him. He might have had the fully functional body of a cat and its instincts as well as his own intelligence, but one thing was missing; experience. His new body was a mystery, and not tripping on his four feet was a task hard enough in itself. He definitely would have preferred to test his speed limit in a less hazardous way, but as it was, he needed to do his damnedest to get out alive because the dog behind him didn't seem like it only wanted to play…
Feeling every frantic heartbeat in his ear, Izaya turned into the closest street, trying his best not to fall and end up mauled to death by a dog as a result. That would have been a very painful and humiliating death as well, something absolutely unfitting for him.
The sounds of heavy paws hitting the ground were steadily growing closer and the informant found himself panicking at the thought of his pursuer catching up… and also very angry at his own weakness. He was a man known for control damn it, and this whole situation where he depended on others and couldn't even get his own body under his command completely, was simply wrong on so many levels…
He had taken at least ten turns and dashed through even more streets with the sole intention of getting rid of the canine following him. Unfortunately it was a very persistent one and Izaya was reminded for a moment of someone equally determined to send him to the otherworld… except he could outsmart and outmaneuver Shizuo in multiple ways. This time though, he felt chained, or more like he was still inside that damn cage…
To his horror, with every turn he felt his muscles slowly getting tired from the chase, about to abandon him…
No, that's not going to happen, he thought while looking for something to make use of. For a while he'd been pondering about jumping on something high, a first story balcony maybe, that the dog couldn't reach. But there was this nagging fact that he had never tested that before. If he failed (which was a realistic possibility, given his clumsiness so far) then he would be completely defenseless when the dog caught up to him. Another option was to run and hope that the German shepherd would finally lose interest, but since they'd been running like that for god knows how long, it was unlikely. Izaya would probably have collapsed in the end, again; mauled by a filthy dog. There was one more option though, and in spite of him having some experience in that field as a cat already, it still sounded like an outright suicide attempt.
In the middle of a random street Izaya stopped, regretting his choice already as he heard his pursuer getting closer and closer… then he turned around to face the beast and clawed at its nose as hard as he could. Crimson blood stuck to his paws for the second time that day, and even if he was pushed backwards from the collision with his opponent, the dog was forced to back down a bit as well. It only took a second for it to decide that it would not back down from a little scratch and Izaya soon found himself facing an even more furious canine.
I've always hated dogs, he though as he skidded to the side to avoid strong fangs aiming at his neck. Those jaws seemed strong enough to snap any of his bones in half. Avoiding two more deadly bites, he moved to the other side of the dog, landing a long scratch on its belly. The sound the shepherd made told Izaya that it was a success but he couldn't rejoice for too long; before he could have moved aside completely, the canine attempted to bite him once more. It didn't succeed in biting his front paw off since he moved sideways to dodge, but the pain and the blood trickling down shortly after signaled that he got hurt anyway. Skidding to the side, he tried to find his balance yet again and avoid the next few attempts of his opponent at snapping him in half, all the while looking for an opportunity to strike back. Because as stupid as it sounded, the only way to get out alive was to beat his much bigger and stronger opponent.
Ignoring the pain from his wound, the next time the dog leashed out, Izaya lifted his left paw and embedded it right in the dog's right eye. Had he been watching from the sidelines, he probably would have felt somewhat sorry for the pain it had to go through. Having his life on the stake, however, he didn't hesitate to add one more paw in an attempt to turn the dog's head into a bloody mess. Yes, going for the head was a risky choice; the sides and the belly were much softer, but with the way this dog moved, they were also much more out of reach. It wasn't like he actually had a choice.
The German shepherd took a step back, halting its attacks for a short while and Izaya did the same, needing to rest for at least a few seconds. Had he tried to attack at the moment, his already strained muscles would have surely given up on him. What would have been the point of fighting so far then?
His little body was shaking with exhaustion and he could only hope to land a critical hit to give him a chance to run away. Apparently leaving inches long wounds on its sides, mauling most of its face and stabbing its eye wasn't enough to deter the dog from snapping Izaya's neck. He had to give it some credit for that…
Suddenly a door to their side opened and a woman with a dog on its leash stepped out to the street, unaware of the battle going on. From the looks of it, she was about to take her beloved pet for a walk. The German shepherd's nose immediately caught scent of his own kind, his focus shifting from the cat to the other dog for a few seconds.
Izaya wasn't sure if he'd get a chance like that distraction again, so he turned around and shot out at an unforeseen speed to finally leave the damn dog behind. One street came after the other and his heartbeat was so loud in his ears, that he probably would have missed the sounds of a carpet bombing in Tokyo. That was probably the reason he also missed the sound of a fridge landing a bit further… or the questionable substances flowing on the concrete from the damaged property. By the time he noticed that something had been wrong, it was already too late to avoid the slimy puddle of god-only-knows-what and he landed right in the middle it. His paws slipping on the thing, Izaya found himself literally spinning past the broken fridge, having a taste of what it might feel like being a pair of socks in the washing machine. The terrible spinning motion ended soon enough, but none too gently; Izaya found himself head-on colliding with something hard. And yes, it hurt a lot.
Izaya was feeling miserable. His vision was blurrier than ever, his head was pounding, his muscles were practically screaming and the teriyaki in his stomach seemed intent on coming back to the surface…
Feeling like a piece of crap, he raised his head to see just what had he managed to headbutt this time. His mind slowly registered a pair of black tailored pants, the end of a belt loosely hanging down, the edge of a back vest and a white dress shirt…
By the time he spotted the messy blond hair, Izaya knew that he was doomed. He had a fairly good chance of winning against the monster of Ikebukuro, but that was back in his own body. In his current state, he was really nothing more than a little bug that Shizuo could crush… much like those 'fleas' the blond would usually call him.
…and to think that he had been through so much shit only to be killed by the brute in the end! What was that, if not unfair? He gritted his teeth and let out a hissing noise (it was still bothering him how he couldn't express himself in any normal way in a cat's body) but it sounded miserable, even for him. Shizuo didn't even look at him though.
"Oh my…" he heard a mildly familiar voice. Turning his head slightly, Izaya spotted a man in a brown suit whom he had known as Tanaka, the boss of Shizuo… or something like that. The two appeared on the streets of Ikebukuro together a lot in the past years, so Izaya guessed as much. The man looked at him with an incredulous expression as if he had never seen a cat covered in slime and spinning through the street before. Well, on a second thought, he probably hadn't.
"Hm? What?" Shizuo asked bluntly, not really understanding what his superior was referring to. Tanaka suppressed a smile as he answered.
"Look down to your feet, Shizuo…"
The blonde did, only to see the dirtiest bundle of something ever resting on his shoes. Upon realizing that his special tailored pants got covered in the same mixture of blood, dirt, and whatever food Izaya had skid through all the way to this end of the street, the man groaned in irritation.
"Not again…! These clothes were from Kasuka, damn it!"
With that said, he stepped aside and tried to shake the slimy mixture off, without much result. Tanaka was torn between feeling anxious for whatever else might be flying in the next second, or to laugh at how childish his high school friend acted at the moment. He didn't have time for either though, as the man Shizuo had been aiming for with the fridge earlier made an attempt to run again. Much to his misfortune, the ex-bartender spotted him and hurled the closest object his way, which happened to be a large trash can.
Tom watched as their client got hit straight in the head by said object. It was filled with paper only, so it wasn't that heavy, but still enough to knock the man unconscious.
"Alright" Tanaka sighed, ignoring Shizuo's curses in the background "I'll wait until he wakes up and convince him in a little… less violent way to hand over the money. You can go now, Shizuo."
"If you're sure…"
"Yeah" Tanaka nodded, thinking that it was best that he took over from there "it's been a long day for you already. Although…"
Shizuo was already walking away when he said that, so he turned around with an eyebrow raised questioningly.
"Yes?"
"That cat seems to be injured… maybe a doctor should take a look at it."
"Cat?" Shizuo asked, looking around for one, but not finding any. Finally his gaze settled upon the highly questionable thing that bumped into his leg earlier "Wait, is that supposed to be a cat?"
Before he could have answered, Tanaka sneezed twice in a row.
"Yes…" he said finally "definitely a cat… I'm allergic to them, as you can see."
"Ah, I see."
The blonde looked down at the so-called cat without much conviction. But if his senpai said it was one, who was he to question the man?
"Do you think you can take it to a vet on your way home? If it has a chip, they will be able to tell who its owner is, and they'll return it to them."
"Alright" Shizuo agreed; even though touching the slimy thing didn't sound too appealing, he owed too much to his colleague to refuse his requests.
"Gross" the blonde muttered as he looked at the unmoving animal on the ground. He couldn't even tell where the cat ended and the slime began. It was beyond recognition. Getting over his disgust, Shizuo reached to grab the creature and even managed to lift it about two feet above ground… when it slipped from his fingers and slammed into the ground accompanied by a sickening noise. The little one made a sound of utter dissatisfaction upon colliding with concrete… which Shizuo could sort of understand, after all.
The debt collector was not exactly proud of himself when he heard his superior sighing a little further down the street. Trying to come up with something even remotely useful, he looked around to see if there was an object he could use. The only thing within his reach (apart from the container for glass bottles, which sounded like a very bad idea) was a plastic bag idly floating by the wall. He grabbed the grey thing and picked up the cat, unceremoniously dropping it into the makeshift carrier.
"Alright, I'll leave then" he said politely to his slightly dumbfounded boss, and then proceeded to walk away.
The last thing Izaya remembered before blacking out was trying to (hopelessly) claw his way out of the stupid plastic bag, all the while cursing Shizuo in his mind.
Thank you all for following and commenting on the first chapter.
I have recently realized that Izaya in fact knows Shinra's father and even talked to him personally in the relative present time of the story, but the informant not having seen Kishitani-sensei for long years is sort of an integral part of the plot that I have in mind, so please let this slide. I might change a few things here and there when necessary compared to the original series, but I'll try my best to at least keep the main cast in character to the best of my ablilites.
With that being said, here's the next chapter. May I ask for your opinion about the rating at this point? I'm not quite sure whether it should be T or M...
