The sky was a canvas of gradients. From deep prussian blue at the highest point it melted down to cobalt, sparing little space as it became azure only to clash with the rising sun. The thinnest layer of green kept the soft, dusty yellow from bleeding into the fading night sky, but the world below the horizon remained dark save for that which belonged to twinkling cities. This was the realm that belonged to the creeping dawn.
Even so, not everything was asleep at this peaceful hour.
One transporter sped down sleepy roads on her way home, the wind ripping through her suit in excitement. At that same time a trail of flames was running her routine rounds before subjecting herself to a tortuous place known as school. Neither had been expecting their meeting to begin at a crossroad.
{| = |}
The darkness seemed to gather around her, yet as she urged her familiar forward towards greater speeds the surrounding shadows also seemed to be repulsed by her presence. Cool morning air, which would have been pleasant if she were on a walk, bit like a sharp lashing of the whip through her thin body suit. Shooter whinnied occasionally into the silence and the motor based voice would echo back in disjointed tones.
Celty enjoyed this time of day most. Everything was either still asleep or just beginning to wake up. It meant just an edge of peace for her in her life in Ikebukuro. And if there was one thing Celty Sturluson was always quick grab a hold of and hoard, it was just that, peace. Every minute of it counted, no matter how quickly it came and went.
She rounded a bend and saw up ahead an intersection. Celty began to slow down upon seeing that she was nearing a red light. Though she wasn't an ordinary resident of Ikebukuro, ordinary being a fairly broad description given her case, she tried to live by the laws of the land as much as she could. Though she found that being an urban legend gave her a little more leeway when it came to, ah, bending the rules in tough situations.
Shooter came to a halt just at the white line, barely making a sound. The moment her familiar stopped then the silence bombarded her. With nothing to do during the small window of waiting she casually glanced around the empty streets before looking down at her hand. A flick of her wrist projected her phone out of her sleeve and she checked to see if she had any messages. To her surprise there were several missed calls. Not so much to her surprise they were from Shinra.
That idiot. Doesn't he ever sleep?
Her fingers flew across the keyboard and in a few seconds she was sending out a message scolding the young man for staying up so late just to wait for her return. It was quickly followed up with another message saying that she would be home soon, and wishing him to have a good day at school. Shinra's reply was instantaneous and more than just a few sleeps short of delirious.
Just as she was about to respond the sound of an engine from behind her purred into existence. Seconds later another person, also riding a motorbike, pulled up on her left.
Celty cast a discreetly curious glance to her temporary road neighbor, wondering who else was insane enough to be up so early riding around Ikebukuro. By the light of a street lamp the most notable feature was the long reddish-brown hair, which bore a glinting orange-ish halo upon the crown of her head. The second most eye catching feature was the blazer of a school uniform with a long, flowing matching skirt. It wasn't an unfamiliar uniform to her either. She just so happened to know a couple of people that also attended Raira Academy.
The girl glanced at her momentarily before turning away, only to do a double take and openly stare at her. Celty groaned. Being an urban legend in these parts was also practically a curse. Even if someone has never met her they'd be able to recognize her on the spot. She wasn't known as the Black Rider for nothing.
"Holy sherbert that is an awesome bike!"
If Celty had eyes, or a head for that matter, she would have blinked in surprise. Repeatedly.
"What kind of model is that? Hmm, it looks kinda like a lowrider. Whoa, it doesn't even have a riser or even a headlight! Dude, that's incredibly dangerous, but like, also really fucking cool. But no, seriously, I gotta know- What kind of bike are you riding?"
Words poured from the strange girl's mouth faster than a waterfall could tumble from a cliffside, leaving Celty almost breathless in a way. When she had finally fallen silent then Celty could only stare at the girl. In that time the stranger waited patiently for an answer, even as the light turned green.
Finally, with a shake of her helmet, she pulled up her phone and opened up her notepad. Her fingers hesitantly fluttered over the keyboard as she argued with herself as to just what she should say. Clearly she couldn't say that the bike was a mythical creature the same as her. But she couldn't exactly spout out some random name and hope it would pass as a brand of motorbike. Or maybe she could? No, this girl seemed to know her motorcycles. Perhaps she could…
Before she knew it her fingers were steadily tapping out an answer, her arm extending out to hold the device closer to the other person. The girl leaned forward and read it with a contemplative look. She gripped her chin and squinted at the screen, occasionally tilting her head from side to side. Celty slowly retracted her arm and the girl leaned back.
"A horse, huh?" she asked slowly. Celty strained to hear the skepticism in the girl's voice, only finding the barest minimum of traces in it."So then if you ride a horse, would that make you some kind of knight? Or maybe a messenger? A rogue? Uh, who else would ride a horse?"
What exactly was she babbling about knights and messengers for? Now Celty was completely lost. It wasn't often that a human, and a stranger no less, could stump her like this within just the first few minutes of meeting. The only person that could top this girl would be Shinra, whose very existence defied the meaning of logic.
[ Knights? Messengers? What? ]
She held out her phone once again. It also slightly unnerved her how medieval this girl was classifying things, and just how close she had actually to guessing Celty's job. Messenger was practically kin with Transporter.
The girl grinned, an action so unsettling due to the way the orangish-gold lighting cast shadows along her rounded face.
"You can't expect me to not want to find a place for the Black Rider in my system. It practically demands it as a must."
[ System? ]
The girl shrugged, turning so she faced forward again. "It's just how I view the people of the world, including myself."
There was a subtle note of melancholy clinging to her final words which caused Celty to cock her helmet to the side. One moment this girl was a bubbling fountain of excitement and then the next she was a calm glow of embers from a dying fire. It made it impossible to place her finger on exactly what kind of person this girl was. A person that was constantly in motion, able to fit into any mold that they were placed in, was a person who needed to have an eye kept on them.
"Well, the name's Blaze, and it was nice meetin' ya, but I gotta run," The girl saluted before revving her engine and propelling forward. "See ya 'round Black Rider!"
She sped up, turning left and dipping her bike precariously to the side. Celty almost swore that, in the wake of the disappearing biker, she saw a trail of flames.
{| = |}
"Be~st Bu~ddy!" Shizuo froze with one foot hovering above the next step on the stairs. His head swiveled around slowly, eyes procrastinating for him the inevitable moment of eye contact with his psychotic… friend. He was still a little hesitant to be using the term when it came to Blaze.
Why is it that whenever she calls out to me I feel like I'm in a horror film? He wondered as a shiver traveled down his spine.
Blaze stood at the foot of the stairs waving exuberantly at him. With one hand she hiked up her long skirt just a little and sprinted to catch up with him. In moments he was viewing her devilish grin up close.
"Dude, you won't believe who I ran into this morning!" She bounced around him excitedly, forcing him to keep moving in order to not get knocked down the stairs. "I met the Black Rider at an intersection and even held a conversation with her! She's got this rad as hell bike, ya know. I laid my eyes on that beauty and knew I needed one instantly. But then she said it was actually a horse and then I got distracted by something else, but now that I'm thinking about it again I need to know where she got that bike, horse or not!"
Shizuo scowled lightly in frustration as the words flew out of her mouth faster than he could hear them. It was really fucking annoying when she did that. Unfortunately for him that seemed to be a constant speed for her.
"So you ran into Celty and now you want a horse? How the hell did you reach that conclusion?" He asked, turning down a hall. His irritation caused his already long stride to double and Blaze had to jog in order to keep up. Despite the obvious hints via body language that stupid grin was still beaming at him and she continued to talk like nothing was wrong.
"Huh? Her name's Celty? Wow that sounds… what- Irish? Scottish? Welsh? Man I was never good at telling the difference between those three. But anyways, no she said that her bike was actually a horse. Well, she didn't actually say anything, just typed it up on a phone. Hey, does this mean that you know her?"
He really hated how she could bounce between multiple topics in one go. It was like there was no filter telling her to take a breather before continuing on! Of course on some rare occasions she actually did seem to be calm enough to be considered normal, but today her diarrhea of the mouth was shaping out to be exceptionally horrible.
Shizuo reached up to scratch the back of his head, only to redirect the course of his hand when they came up on the door that would lead them to the roof. He gripped the handle too tightly, crushing the metal like it was made out of playdoh.
"Yeah, I know her. She's not all that bad because she's quiet."
"Why is that? I mean, I understand not wanting to talk through a thick helmet like that- which, by the way, is a wicked cool helmet- but why not just take it off or something to speak? Does she have a speech impediment? Or maybe she can read and write Japanese, but can't actually say anything in Japanese. Hmm, it truly is a mystery."
And yet another hint bit the dust. Shizuo shoved his hands into his pocket, nearly crushing his pack of smokes in the process. He had just been trying to giver her the benefit of the doubt. To prove that he knew how to be polite when it came to women that irked him. But no more. He never was really all that great with being delicate anyhow.
"Blaze?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Eyy, I was waiting for you to stop beating around the bush," She pranced the last few steps ahead of him, pushing the door open to let bright light from the outdoors filter in. He gaped at her, vexed. At the very most he had expected her to get offended, not… whatever the hell this was.
Shizuo's mouth snapped shut, teeth grinding harshly together as he demanded an answer from her. "If you knew you were being so damn annoying why the hell did you keep doing it?"
"I was waiting for you to outright tell me I was being a nuisance. If something's bothering you, or if you want something from me, then you just need to come out and say it. Subtlety isn't exactly your forte anyways."
"I can concur with that notion."
Blaze whirled around to confront the stranger, her fists held in front of her defensively. Shizuo's face found itself in contact with his hand, a not so concealed groan echoing in the confined space. From the other side of the door came his idiotic friend from grade school, a brown haired, four-eyed nerd whose name was Shinra.
"Who the hell are you?" Blaze asked, just a few notches shy of demanding.
"Now that is an excellent question! My name is Kishitani Shinra. I'm an Aries, almost nineteen years old, and have a deep fascination for human biology. Have you fallen in love with me yet? Well I hate to break your heart, but my own already belongs to someone else, so I'm sorry this couldn't work out."
For a moment all was quiet. Shizuo started to wonder if Blaze had decided to end Shinra's life, and was just about release his face from the palm of shame to see the carnage when she scoffed.
"Oh, so you're a real wise guy, aren't ya? Well then, two can play that game."
Shizuo's groan filled the stairwell for the second time that day and he finally looked up. He wanted out of here before he got stuck listening to a tirade between these two. There was enough space he could squeeze past Blaze and then he'd be home free. Quickly he pushed through, breathing fresh air while drawing out his pack of smokes so he could pollute it with their acrid scent. Shizuo went around Shinra and to the other side of the smaller building, waving to Tom as soon as he caught sight of him.
"Name's Okada Blaze, originally spelled B-L-A-I-S-E but it will get you killed if you do spell it that way. I'm half American, am also almost nineteen, and I know ASL. I've got two adorable little brothers, an awesome bike, and my best buddy is none other than Shi-chan!"
He winced upon hearing the nickname spoken aloud. It wasn't nearly as bad as the nickname that flea bastard had given him, but still. Shizuo quickly lit his cigarette and inhaled deeply. He was gonna end up running out these things again at the rate he was going.
"What?!" Shinra cried in mock outrage. "But I thought I was Shizuo's best friend! We've known each other since grade school. Doesn't that mean anything to you, Shizuo?"
Suddenly Shinra was at his side, forcing him to lean almost all the way back into Tom.
"Pssh. I almost ran him over, that totally trumps years of friendship." Blaze calmly walked around him and crouched in front of Shizuo. Resting her arms on top of her splayed knees, and then her cheeks in her hands, she grinned smugly at him.
"No one's my best friend," he growled. He cast a quick glance at Tom, however, and quickly re-thought his answer. "'Cept maybe for you, Tom. You don't drive me insane like these two morons."
"Ugh! I've been wounded! Denied! Doctor, doctor!"
Blaze dramatically slapped her chest before tipping over, playing dead. Shinra immediately leapt to the call, throwing in some ridiculously heroic line before pulling a scalpel out of his back pocket. The Yankee rolled away upon sighting the sharp object and the mad wannabe doctor went chasing after her.
After a moment of sudden silence, Tom awkwardly coughed. "So… Where exactly did you find this weirdo?"
Shizuo sighed, rolling the butt of the cigarette between his lips until it was nearly hanging all the way out of his mouth. He reached up, rubbing his eyes furiously before moving up and pushing his hair back. Letting out another deep breath he relaxed and leaned back against the wall.
"She nearly ran me over the first time, and then lit my cig the next. And then, for some ungodly reason, she's decided I'm her best friend and has been attached to me ever since. I've been suspecting that she's an escaped patient from a mental institution as an explanation for why she'd do something so stupid."
"Ah," Tom said quietly. "Still, for someone who's insane, she's kinda hot."
"Never thought about it."
"Hey, hey, Shinra! Did you hear about the man who lost his left side? He's all right now!"
He looked up at the change in Blaze's voice just as Shinra burst into raucous laughter. With the upper hand now in her power, she kicked the nerd's feet out from under him. Instead of retaliating physically he chose words as his weapons, laughing so hard he sounded like he was crying.
"Oh yeah? Well I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got over it." Shinra managed to form a coherent sentence through desperate gasps before sending himself into another round of side clutching laughter.
"The man who created knock-knock jokes deserves a no-bell prize!"
"Don't go bacon my heart~!
"I couldn't," Blaze wheezed. "I couldn't if I fried~!"
What the hell has this devolved into? Shizuo desperately tried to wrap his mind around yet another fast paced lunch hour, and failing miserably while he was at it. He stood up, kicking off the wall to propel himself forward, and walked over to the two idiots curled on their sides howling with laughter. His large shadow fell upon them like a tinted, transparent blanket.
Blaze looked up, copper hair strewn across her face like a monsoon had been to town, fresh tears making her eyes shine brightly.
"Hey, Shi-chan. What did the grape say when it got crushed?" Before he could respond she added, "Nothing! It just let out a little… wine!"
His face met the palm of his hand once again.
"What did I do in my past life to deserve being punished like this?" he muttered. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered the sound of a bell tolling, and before he knew it he was turning on his heel and walking back the way he came. Before he was in reach of the door he took a final drag of his smoke and crushed the remains between his index and thumb, tossing it off to the side.
Behind him Blaze groaned and moaned about not wanting to go back to class, sounding stiff as she got up. Shinra made some other ridiculous comment which he chose to ignore, and Tom fell in line with him, even opening the door and holding it in place. Shizuo nodded and took the stairs two at a time. After dealing with that he was prematurely exhausted and wanted nothing more than to just hurry and get the rest of this day over with.
"Oi! Shizuo, wait up!" He looked over his shoulder just in time to see a streak of red barrel past him. Blaze tried to stop with unfortunate success. Her halt brought her too close to the edge of a step and she pitched forward. Without really thinking about it, his hand shot out and wrapped around her thin wrist. For a brief moment, before he pulled her back, she hung suspended above the remaining steps. Hair now darkened like red syrup fell over her face and hid her expression from view.
"Be careful you moron!" he said gruffly. "Common sense says don't run down stairs like a chicken with its head cut off, stupid!"
"Yeah, but common sense is practically cousins with logic and we can't have none of that now can we?" She brushed her hair out of the way with her free hand, and he realized that he still had yet to release her other one. He quickly let her go, the back of his neck and his cheeks beginning to feel unreasonably warm. With a slight tilt of her head she smirked. He scowled and stomped down the stairs.
"That doesn't even make any sense!"
"Exactly! Remember Shi-chan, we're all mad here," She skipped past him at a much slower pace. "Anyways, I also wanted to tell you, before you ran away to class, that I'm gonna give you a present tomorrow."
"Huh? Why?"
He stopped. No one ever gave him presents unless they were his family, and even then it was only on occasions like his birthday or Christmas. He never received anything on Valentines and subsequently never gave anything back on White Day. Girls were terrified of him, and guys were… well guys were intent on killing him. So for him this was a new curveball which he wasn't sure how to dodge.
Blaze hopped down to the landing and turned to face him, her hands behind her back. "We're best buddies now, so why not?"
She turned to go then, leaving him behind in the wake of her insanity.
"Well that seems like pretty sound logic to me," Shinra said thoughtfully as he pushed past him. "But we'll reflect upon that later. Right now we've gotta get to class otherwise we'll be late!"
Shizuo nodded absently and followed after him. The only thing on his mind was how Blaze was just as equally a mystery as she was strange.
{\ = \}
The door creaked open to reveal a shoddy, run down, one room apartment. The opposing wall revealed cracked and flaking white paint, and a mound of pillows and blankets messily shoved into the corner. On another wall was a small tv that belonged to a completely different decade. A drab brown mini couch sat adjacent to it while an even smaller lazy boy touched corners with the couch. Near the tv was a door that led into a cramped bathroom. On the wall across from it was a small stove set and a medium sized fridge. Everything was in poor condition, but it was home nonetheless.
Blaze shuffled inside, letting the creaky door swing shut behind her. Her bag fell from her shoulder and her shoes slipped easily off her feet. She then beelined for the fridge as fast as she could on wobbly legs. As she traversed the short distance the door the bathroom opened.
"Hello, hello, hello! Welcome home Blaze."
"Hey Issa," she mumbled, flinging the door to the fridge open and bending over. Blaze stared blankly at the half empty fridge, blinking quickly every now then to rid the heavy feeling that brought about the strong need to close her eyes. She just needed to find one thing…
"I thought I'd stop by and you know, check up on you," She rolled her eyes, a light smile playing on her lips.
And people wonder where I get the need to crack shitty puns from.
"So?" Issa asked. "Has anything changed at all since the last time we had this discussion?"
She squinted at the fridge, not finding what she was looking for. She cast a suspicious glance at the sink and saw a plate with crumbs in it. Blaze straightened out and slammed the fridge door shut.
"You fucking ate the last of my cake, asshole."
"Excellent deduction, Sherlock. How am I going to die this time and where will you hide the body?"
Blaze spun on her heel and moved to face the man in her apartment.
Though he was twenty-three and stood taller than her by just barely, he still backed down when faced with a glare that demanded a blood sacrifice. Issa ran slender fingers through his golden hair, constantly smoothing down a cowlick on the side of his head, which refused to cooperate. His eyes squeezed shut tightly and he held his other hand up defensively while smiling apologetically. Occasionally he would open one eye to reveal a stark blueness not unlike that of the deep ocean.
For a few seconds longer Blaze kept up the deadly glare, but dropped it in favor of slinking over to the pile of blankets. With zero grace she fell right on top of the pile and wriggled around until she was comfortable.
"Seven accidents, Issa," She finally said, sighing.
"Huh? What?"
"I was almost in seven accidents. These pills you gave me make me tired as hell, and I've had to put more effort into looking like a living crazy person instead of a zombie on drugs."
Soft footfalls treaded across the floor until they stood just in front of her. She forced one eye, both of which had closed the moment her face came into contact with soft material, to take a peek at her unofficial guardian. Issa crouched, bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet, staring at her with a critical eye.
"Idiot, don't you read the labels when I give you these things? Muscle relaxers are gonna make you drowsy. And when you're drowsy you are not supposed to operate heavy machinery! Why didn't you just take the transit like a normal high schooler?"
He reached out and flicked her forehead. Blaze scowled, wrinkling her nose and turning to burrow herself further into the protection of her comforters.
"And leave my bike? Get jumped by Jirou's lackies? I think my chances with traffic were better," she scoffed. She frowned at her own mention of Jirou and his subordinates, briefly flashing back to his offer, which led to an argument that she had thought ended the moment she made where she stood known loud and clear.
Issa sighed, shifting so he sat cross legged instead. "And you still won't ask anyone for help, will you?"
She stiffened. "I don't need anyone's help. I can handle this on my own."
The tone in Issa's voice pitched lower, and she cringed at how much it sounded like his heart was breaking. "No man is an island, Blaze. If you keep doing things on your own, you're gonna get killed."
Blaze rolled over, not feeling so drowsy anymore. A lump quickly grew in her throat and forced an unbearable pressure on her lungs. So quietly that it was almost hoarse, she whispered, "Stop trying to be a Knight, Issa."
"I'm not trying to be a Knight, Blaze, I'm trying to be your friend."
She hated it, because he was absolutely right.
"Knight, Friend, Medic…," A sigh escaped her like a ghost of a whisper. "Whatever the case may be, a Parasite like myself only has a bad end no matter how you look at it."
"Blaze…"
She looked over her shoulder and smiled wistfully at him. "Hey, don't put much stock into it. Those are just the ramblings of a mad woman, like always."
The suspicion in his eyes only heightened at her words, but she had turned away from them once again. Issa sighed, a sound similar to that of a balloon deflating. He leaned over and mussed her hair before getting up and wandering around her small room.
"Can't beat you, won't join you, but I'll be here if you need me."
A real grin stretched across her face.
"Thanks, Issa."
"Yeah, yeah. Now shut up and go to sleep already, dummy."
"Aye aye Captain."
{+ = +}
This was an adventure... I suddenly pity Shizuo's sanity now that Blaze has met Shinra. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments. Best regards,
-Yopū Yuna