Chapter 2

Anri ended up telling Masaomi that Mikado was doing temporary home schooling. Masaomi believed her, but she could tell that he found this odd. Anri so did not look forward to the hoops she would have to jump through to keep this secret.


Izaya didn't skip around Ikebukuro smirking anymore. He was still an information broker, but something was definitely different about him. He no longer smirked like he used to do. Now he wore a look somber contemplation.

His new short sword that he got from the institute in New York was in its sheath attached to a belt strung around his waist. This was his new mostly permanent weapon accessory he would carry with him all the time, but it didn't completely replace the flick blade.

He was thinking about the battle that occurred in New York like he seemed to always be thinking about. He was thinking about Mikado again. Ever since he'd been freed from Izaya's father's curse, which had controlled him, Mikado had been...different.

He was a shell of the young man who he was. He was now broken. Izaya could barely visit him because seeing the state that Mikado was in just hurt Izaya. Izaya could clearly tell that Mikado's mind was not what it was. He was always in pain, usually mentally. Izaya was just glad that Mikado wasn't alone.

He and Anri were living together. Even though Izaya finally admitted to himself that he cared for Mikado, he still wouldn't be able to bare taking care of Mikado. Even though Izaya wasn't the one who cursed Mikado, he still couldn't shake the feeling that it was all his fault.

He was the one who suggested they all go to New York. It was his father who placed a dark mark on Mikado which bound him to do whatever he said. Of course, this wasn't the first time Izaya was even close to being at a fault. But still, something was different this time.

This was a problem caused by rules of a world he didn't fully know he had in Ikebukuro. Izaya didn't like what this world thought it could do with what he used to think of as his humans. But no, he didn't think of people as his humans anymore. No one belonged to him, and they were better off that way.

He was walking through the town rather normally, although that wasn't normal for him. He looked straight ahead trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone, hoping no one would notice how he was acting different. After all, he had become pretty infamous in this city. Seeing that nobody had noticed, Izaya allowed himself to relax slightly.

Almost a second later, Izaya's battle instincts came in as he quickly sidestepped to dodge a flying vending machine that crashed where he just was. Izaya groaned to himself and turned around to face who he knew had thrown that object at him. Izaya was not amused by Shizuo's antics anymore. Shizuo was marching over to him (surprisingly not running). He clenched his fists tightly and his angry face growled ferociously.

"IIIZAAYAA!"

Izaya looked at him with a bored expression, really not wanting to deal with this now.

"What do you want Shizu-chan?" His tired annoyance clear in his voice.

Shizuo seethed, finally standing in front of him. "What do you think I want! STAY OUT OF IKEBUKURO!" Shizuo pried a nearby street sign out of the ground and swung at Izaya. Izaya just dodged it again and sighed.

"Whatever Shizuo. Look, I have somewhere I need to go and don't really want to fight with you right now. I'm not trying to bother you right now so if you don't mind I'm leaving." Izaya turned around without waiting for a response and continued in his original direction. This just made Shizuo even madder. "Hey! HEY! Oi, Flea! I don't care if you have business, every time you're in this city all I want to do is beat the **** out of you!" Shizuo threw a few more heavy objects at Izaya, which Izaya dodged without even turning around.


What the hell? Shizuo thought to himself. He wasn't even looking at me. How could he have dodged those?

Shizuo was getting very frustrated with Izaya's weird behavior.

"HEY!" Shizuo easily ran in front of Izaya blocking his way. Izaya just stopped calmly not even reacting to this.

"What?" Izaya asked, his voice filled with utter annoyance. Shizuo grabbed Izaya by his shirt collar and growled at him.

"I want you to tell me why you're acting so damn weird today! You're not even trying to provoke me today! What gives!"

Just then as Shizuo glared he noticed something in Izaya's expression. Not only did he look uncharacteristically bored around him, but there was a look in his eyes like something was missing. Shizuo couldn't place what it was, or how he would notice such a small vague detail.

Izaya furrowed his brows slightly, but he didn't seem into it.

"Well I don't know why on earth I would share that with someone who doesn't care a damn about me." He pulled himself free from Shizuo, having sensed the brute loosen his grip.

"Not that I would expect you to care at all anyways. It really doesn't matter. Maybe I'm just done with our juvenile fights, hmm? It really is just petty stupidity. I can't believe we ever were really so childish. So, as long as I avoid you could you please not throw heavy objects at me every time you see me? I can manage either way, I'd just rather not have to."

Shizuo wasn't really sure why this didn't anger him. He was still frozen as he was. Izaya just walked around the frozen Shizuo and continued on his way. His pace was slightly faster than before. Shizuo turned around and couldn't help staring at the informant who wasn't skipping like a child.

Shizuo began to wonder why he even cared. Something was definitely off. Shizuo was just really confused. The flea never acted like that. For a second earlier Shizuo had been able to see through the crack in the informant's mask. He could see that behind it the man was truly human. It completely caught Shizuo off guard.

I mean, obviously Shizuo knew that Izaya was technically human, but the man never acted it. He never seemed to care before. He never seemed to feel remorse or even show that any sadness had gotten to him. Shizuo couldn't get over how strange this was. Did this mean that he actually cared about the flea now?

In that moment where Shizuo caught Izaya slip, he saw something Shizuo felt that way all the time with his violence. When he would hurt someone innocent by accident he would feel so guilty. He had seen remorse fill Izaya's eyes.

What was happening here? He always knew that the flea was weird, but this was more so even for him. What could get him to feel that way? Shizuo knew that Izaya had done plenty of horrible things, but Izaya had never seemed to care about what he'd done. This was something else.

Shizuo didn't know what to do with this unnerving feeling. He had a really bad feeling about all of this. Shizuo realized he had stood like that for so long, that passerbys were trying to snap him out of his daze.

As he noticed this, he growled at who was waving their hand in his face. The couple quickly ran away. Shizuo sighed and shook his head. He thought of who he could talk to about this (Celty, Shinra). After all, this situation was unmarked territory. He wondered what affects this would have on all of Ikebukuro.

A/N: I feel uncomfortable putting most curse words in my writing, so I don't like to write cursing. However, I did imply that a character cursed to try to stay true to that character's personality.