AN: Well… I don't have much of an excuse for how long it took to post this. I've had it written for a while. I'm debating a time skip after this chapter as I don't have anything written for the interim. All of you who review… I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter. Keep in mind that the plot I have in mind will need the time skip and there are only three scenes I can really see between the end of this one and the instigator of the main plot.
The reason why I didn't post it… I was seriously debating between time skip or not. The other reason why I didn't post it was because I was waiting for Neo-Parasyte to get fan translated. I will be making references to some parts of both volumes, but these will be minor and I don't feel like you'll have to read it for mine to make sense.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the second installment of this fanfic. I thank PinkSaphira for snapping me out of laziness and making me reread everything I have written on this.
RFYS! (Read From You Soon)
Pterodactyl
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Shinichi Izumi left the interrogation room nervously, police mingled around him, offering assistance in finding the exit every few steps. The precinct was busy, full of people, and full of potential parasites, his senses were straining to their limit to keep up with his demands upon them. A policeman bumped up behind him, dragging a morose and handcuffed teenager not much different from him into the interrogation room adjacent to where Hirama still sat, lost in thought.
The job offer was the best thing that could have happened, completely unexpected from a human that had been making his life difficult not even three months before. He wouldn't be able to get into a top tier school with his test scores and terrible grades, but getting a degree from a lower rated school would be doable.
His eyes scanned the bustling room in a flash of paranoia, hairs on the back of his neck and down his right arm stood on end as Shinichi felt attention from something that was not human. There wasn't anybody directly looking his way, of course with those monsters that little detail didn't matter. Carefully he trudged through a maze of moving people and office furniture to get to the main doors.
The feeling never left, even as Shinichi left the building and almost ran to the nearest train station.
Migi was hibernating, probably for the rest of their life. It was hard to watch your back to the same extent as two sets of senses when you only had one to work with, and the parasites had Shinichi paranoid. The nervousness was manageable when he was isolated, but five or more people and he had to start wondering.
Shinichi kept his head moving, eyes darting around to watch everybody as people filed onto the train with the ever present air of mundane regularity that he wished he could share. Quickly he worked his way to a corner of the train car, limiting the area with which to sneak up on him that was available.
Two years of relying on Migi for locating and determining if a parasite was near, or just identifying the monsters, meant that Shinichi was bad at picking them out of a crowd. He wasn't even sure if the hair on end feeling was one watching him or not.
He made a snap decision not to go home until this blew over. Instead he opted to go back to the old abandoned concrete building a couple stops up from where he and his mysterious potential follower were currently. Shinichi watched the crowd get on and off, keeping an eye out for people who stayed put and who got onto the train when he did.
By stop three, the limitless faces of businessmen, stay at home moms, children, gangs, what looked to be a couple yakuza guys, and a gaggle of teenage girls on a tourist trip, had mostly been eliminated as suspects. It was down to a black haired woman not facing his way, a guy in a gray hoodie that was acting funky, and another guy who kept giving him glances whenever he moved wearing an expensive golden watch. The third guy was acting human, Shinichi noticed a few other people giving him odd looks whenever he would twitch to get a better look at someone. His money was on the dude in the gray hoodie acting off.
Shinichi ducked off the train, keeping an eye on hoodie and the woman. She didn't get up to leave the train, but both of the guys did. The gray hoodie guy practically ran out of the train after he had stepped foot onto the platform. Glancer looked down at his expensive metal wristwatch, up at the stop name, and casually stepped off the train.
Worry etched into his posture as Shinichi sped walked out of there, muttering about being late for a date to disguise the odd behavior. Talking to 'himself' wasn't new, but he missed the replies greatly whenever Migi's high pitched voice failed to respond.
The hair on end feeling didn't go away once he was above ground again and in West Tofukuyama City. Hoodie had dropped off, probably to do a double tail, it wasn't difficult for parasites, the psychic link thing that they all shared allowed for rudimentary call signs that were otherwise undetectable to humans. Humans like him, unable to detect parasites without help from his dormant hand, but for whom the monsters could easily pinpoint because of his hand. The paranoia seemed justified.
Shinichi slowed down a bit, enjoying the walk despite everything, and keeping a look out for a weapon he could get his hands on. He passed houses and other buildings with expectant glances, waiting for the parasite to show itself. There was an abandoned metal baseball bat wedged into a fence corner that he grabbed with relish, the thing had a soggy handle that was falling apart and a scratched up surface.
Carrying the bat made him feel a bit childish, and a couple of moms on the opposite side of the street agreed, but the safety of having something to block with helped a great deal. Anything against an unknown parasite.
He paused at the four month old police cordon before ignoring it once again and entering the dingy graffiti filled concrete shelter. The place hadn't changed, the hole he busted in the wall with one of the monsters was still there, the spray paint outlines of where he left the bodies were still there, the tags hadn't even changed, death and superstition kept people away.
Shinichi looked down at his hand, still hoping that Migi would wake up and talk to him again. Tell him what to do, get angry for telling Hirama everything, get rid of the paranoia that had been dogging him for months, heck he'd even take the impotent threats on his life if it meant he'd have his hand back. He sighed when his hand didn't move on its own like it was supposed to.
There was a tap tap tap on the concrete from dress shoes, avoidable noise considering the thing wearing the shoes was most likely a parasite. Quiet, but loud enough to announce its presence. Shinichi grabbed the bat with both hands, holding it steadily in front of him so that he could easily move it to block a tentacle flying at his face.
A shiny metal glint flickered from the wrist of his pursuer, he winced, pegged the wrong guy. It was an expensive wristwatch, Glancer had followed him discretely. Shinichi took in the rest of what he was wearing, a generic business suit, blood red tie, and a nice ring on his left ring finger. Brown eyes, black hair, average features, he certainly looked human, and he definitely acted human, but near the end Tamia Ryoko had managed that feat.
The ring was throwing him off. Parasites were not sentimental, and to most the body was little more than a tool, a ring would hamper movement, and that ring was definitely not bulky enough to be a weapon.
"Dam Kid, as much as I love the sight of entrails in the morning I'd rather not be seeing mine. If I'd wanted you dead you would know it. Shinichi Izumi right?" The tone was light, joking even, casual. Shinichi stood his ground, the bat shifted in his grip, pointing straight at the parasite's head.
"The parasites think that you're dead, you know? Gouto's death rocked us to our core, just knowing that you actually lived through a one on one fight with him is impressive."
"Human?" Shinichi asked, uncertain as it wouldn't be the first one to side with the things.
"No." He said blandly, like mentioning the weather, "I am a parasite. And just to get it out of the way, I've killed roughly thirty humans. It is a low number, I get by through my work, it curbs the blood lust, seeing all the dead corpses laid bare in front of me like buffet platters." he paused, smiling as if expecting a laugh, and holding his arms wide, "Doesn't stop me from wanting your flesh in my stomach, but it does mean I eat mostly human food, my wife is a particularly good cook. She's human, and before you ask, she knows I'm not."
He had to pause, process what this parasite was saying. No two of the things had been alike personality wise, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility for this one to be telling the truth, just very unlikely.
"Your next question is going to be what I do for work, I am a mortician at the Tofukuyama east precinct. The one after that is something along the lines of 'why did you follow me'."
Shinichi nodded, horrified at the situation he now found himself in. He was on edge, poised to dodge and run at a moment's notice, and watching the parasite with hawk like attention.
"That is actually a rather important tidbit of information Mr. Izumi." He smiled, pulling off a happy expression without flaw. "I was telling the truth about Gouto's death rattling even the most aggressive of us to our cores. I caught whiff of your signal at the precinct and had to meet the 'hybrid' that did our greatest warrior in, only to find out that half of you is asleep, quite interesting."
"I did Gouto in Parasite, Migi was incapacitated through that fight. He's not coming back either." Shinichi said, growling the words out to intimidate the monster in front of him, hoping that the mostly true statement would have an effect.
The parasite walked over to one of the window sills and sat on the edge. The motions were slow and deliberate, intentionally trying to avoid provoking Shinichi. "Now that is interesting." He said after a moment of thought, "Your connection to one of us means that you are no mere human, I honestly have no doubt that you could eliminate me if you wanted. But enough of that, I'm not here to fight."
Shinichi slightly lowered the bat from its attack position and into a defensive one, "Why are you here?"
"And we finally get to the hard crunchy bone of the matter." He said with a smile, licking his lips in thought of the meal, "Gouto's death has all of the parasites in the world scared, mostly of you, but the systematic elimination of the Tofukuyama colony by you and the humans has gotten us to realize one thing," he held up his right hand, pointer finger extended. "Humans are dangerous."
"Yeah, what's your point."
"My point is that no matter how succulent your blood, we need to keep better tabs on our own so we don't provoke you. So we decided to form a government system for ourselves, a more formal colony structure that spans the globe. The word's been put out to allow failures like you to be part of our system, once again, because everybody is terrified of you and what you'll do to us if we don't abide by rules that you agree on. Thing is, failures are rare, I only know one other and she's understandably timid. One of the only rules is that a colony has to have five members to be acknowledged. Most parasites don't like me, living with a human the way I do means that I get threats often. The likelihood of forming a colony with ideals that suit me is slim, ideals that are mostly pro-human. I've still been trying, and if you were on board, we would have four..."
Shinichi stared at the parasite for a while, listening to his words, the concept was at least worth looking into. When he trailed off at one member short, Uda popped to the forefront of his mind, "Five. I know a guy. He's infected like me."
"Five then. Three failures and two parasites."
"I prefer the term infected, I don't know, it seems less derogatory than failures even if it still sounds bad."
The parasite nodded softly, "Three infected and two parasites. Wow, a colony. We just need to decide the Head. Rachel has already said that she doesn't want it, Kanon and D-Slicer are in the same boat, I'd be up for it but the way the rules are going Heads have a lot of fighting to do to keep their colonies and for my wife's sake I don't fight, so that leaves you or your guy for the job."
"I have to assume that the Head is the leader of the group, right?" Shinichi asked quickly, trying to clarify the situation. The bat lowered to the floor as the parasite nodded. With a sigh Shinichi put two and two together, "It'll have to be me. Uda and Joe are... not great at fighting."
"Great! Everything's set!" he laughed, pleased over the turn of events, "My name is Yuuma, Yuuma Akiyama." he enthusiastically held out his hand, eyebrows raised in expectation a little too high for a human.
Shinichi hesitated before taking the handshake. Yuuma was still a parasite, and all previous dealings with the things had turned sour with exception of Migi, and even that relationship was strained at worst. Still, this one seemed to be genuine, and the thought of a pro-human parasite was a dream come true. Dimly he noticed that the handshake, aside from being overly long, was also way too lively and firm, even to his parasitically enhanced strength. He smiled back at 'Yuuma', wondering if that was the host's original name or one he had come up with.
"Ahh," Yuuma started after a few seconds, "One more thing."
The handshake cut off, releasing Shinichi's hand from the vigorous motions coming from the parasite. Shinichi gave Yuuma a glare. "What is it?" he asked, obviously irked at the potential of more to the agreement than met the eye.
"There's going to be a big meeting of Heads over in China, kinda a mandatory thing for each colony to send at least one representative to. Odds are you'll be the only infected there."
"Wait, I can't go. I don't have the money to afford a plane ticket!" Shinichi shouted back, the sound echoed through the concrete walls.
Yuuma laughed from his seat in the empty window sill. "This has been brewing for a few months, Rachel and I have pooled resources for stuff like this. The tickets and hotel room are already taken care of. She and I had planned on going together, as I'm not dumb enough to bring my dear Momoko to anywhere so full of my kind even if we desperately need a vacation." his arms swung wide, almost tipping him out of the windowsill and building, before he brought them both into his body in a mock embrace, "Her delicious blood would spill, and torn ligaments would shred like twine at the behest of another parasite's blades." he licked his lips at the thought, but his voice indicated affection.
Shinichi took a half step away from the seemingly mad parasite. "Uhhh, huh..."
"I would never hurt my darling Momoko," he said dramatically, putting emphasis on himself in a striking display, "I just want her to be safe."
"Safe, yeah, I get that." Shinichi said hesitatingly, not quite willing to expose his family to the crosshairs of yet another parasite. "So, who is Rachel?"
The parasite stood up from the window, "Rachel is a parasite I met about a year ago, she runs a bath house. Kanon works there too, although mostly behind the scenes. Don't worry it's a reputable establishment, neither one of the two would let it get seedy."
"Seedy? That's what you think I'm worried about? I'm a human, I have people I care about. People I don't want attacked or worse by you cannibalistic monsters!"
"Hmmm… seediness was what my wife was worried about when I first introduced them." Yuuma trailed off for a moment, "Wow, I guess humans really do worry about different things!" he said as if it was a marvelous discovery.
Shinichi stared at the parasite like he was crazy, and the more he thought about it, Yuuma Akiyama was more than likely insane. Especially for whatever counted as sane for a parasite. He shook his head out of habit, letting his guard down to the monster in front of him.
"It must be like how Rachel prefers soft fatty sections on meals and I prefer shredding tendons, hey how do you prefer your meals?"
"Huh?" he asked back, caught off guard by the bizarre question.
Yuuma smiled his way energetically, "My wife really is a good cook, she knows how to make stuff taste just like human."
"I don't eat human Mr. Akiyama, seriously."
"Huh, weird. Kanon doesn't mind it whenever we pull in a suicide or car crash victim. I just thought that because you and she were infected..."
"I do not eat human." Shinichi said with an air of finality, giving the energetic parasite a dark glare and activating whatever it was that shocked humans in his eyes.
Yuuma sobered instantly, dropping the lively pose for one that was meeker, making him appear smaller and as less of a threat as possible. "No need for that, hey calm down. We're both going to get out of here alive, alright?" he backed away slowly, holding both hands out in surrender.
"What?" he asked quizzically. Shinichi blinked away the glare at the strange behavior.
There was a moment before the parasite stood up to his full height,. "Sorry, reflexes, you just sent out a signal of murderous intent. Quite potently too. And, well, I don't fight. At least my own kind, and especially against a human that has earned more than one title among us. Frankly Mr. Izumi, you terrify me."
"Terrify?" he exclaimed, "Wait, signal? Murderous intent?" he took a step backwards, putting a meter of distance between the two of them and placing his feet directly over where Kana died in his arm, "Title? What are you talking about?"
"You don't know?" Yuuma started to laugh hysterically, cackling like an insane hyena on nitris.
Shinichi shook his head while debating to just run as fast as he could out of the building. Short of a conglomerate like Gouto he knew there was nobody who could catch him on foot. He bit his lip as he figured out the best exit to the concrete maze he wandered into.
The laughter cut off suddenly, leaving only faint traces of echoes for a moment before silence took over the situation.
"The single most important human to the parasites as a whole has no idea about anything that's happened in the few months since Gouto's defeat." Yuuma said without a trace of the previous laughter or liveliness. Shinichi shivered as the words cascaded in perfect parasitic monotone. It was a tone of voice that no human could ever duplicate, sounds that buzzed and twisted around each other through an unchanging lack of melody. "I had not imagined you would be so far out of the loop, Parasite Slayer."
Shinichi felt caught off guard, flat footed in a situation that, while not immediately dangerous per-say, was very obviously a bad place to be in. His left hand clenched the bat fiercely, the wet material of the grip squelched and flattened under his fingers.
"In order then. You are the rumored bogeyman to me and my kind, like any sane organism I fear that which can kill me. Secondly, your hand is constantly emitting a signal."
He cut him off at that. "I know that. It's why I can barely sleep, I'm constantly watching for you things. I don't have Migi anymore, and he's not coming back."
Yuuma nodded while keeping a steady eye on the cornered human. "Well, just then, you sent out an extremely potent signal of your own, it was clearly murderous intent, and oddly enough attuned to human awareness just as much as parasitic. Among my kind, such a signal would normally indicate a fight to the death, something I don't want." he fingered the golden ring, rotating the simple band around the digit.
Shinichi's mouth hung open. "I..." he gulped. "After I killed Gouto I… I hate killing parasites. You have to give me some dam good reasons to go after you before I will. Migi and I agreed on it, everything has a right to live and we have no right to say it can't, even if it's bad for humans."
"You mean..." he paused, "Heh, I'm so glad that was just a threat. Coming from the Parasite Slayer himself it's a shock, but knowing that you're not actually going to hurt me is such a relief." Yuuma sighed, relaxing from his panicked posture, "Most of us assume that you'll just kill us on the spot, we have somewhere around forty parasite deaths associated with you specifically." Shinichi mouthed a silent forty, trying to figure out when he had possibly killed that many. "Tack on the bit where every single parasite you've talked with has ended up dead within the hour with exception of Ryoko and Gouto, both of which were considered the best strategist and warrior among us respectively, and you can start to see why I'm so scared right now."
He took another step back, placing the bat against the wall with a hole in it. Shinichi slowly rose his left hand while putting up three fingers, "Don't kill me, don't kill my family, don't kill around me, and we will not have any problems Mr. Akiyama." he smiled weakly as each finger went down.
The parasite stuck both hands in his coat pocket and stood up straight, "Hey, I relegate myself to suicides, car wrecks, and cadavers at work. No need to worry about me." he said confidently, "And I know Rachel only takes out human traffickers."
"Human traffickers?" Shinichi asked, slightly aghast.
"Yeah, has to do with Kanon, she's quite fond of the little girl. Honestly if Slicer hadn't killed her captors she would have been in a far worse situation. Rachel found her and took her in after that. It's been somewhere in the nine month range since then."
Shinichi winced at the story between the lines. "I'd like to meet them someday, but only if Kanon?" the parasite nodded at the name, "agrees to it. No need to scare her with an unfamiliar face."
"She does pretty good with unfamiliar faces, it's the familiar ones she doesn't trust too much, Rachel, Momoko and I are the only ones that she really talks to aside from customers at the bath house."
"So, ahhh..." Shinichi said awkwardly, his left hand scratched his neck briefly. "When exactly is this 'Meeting' thing taking place?"