Durarara! Fan Fiction!
Drama! Romance!
(Title)
"Life is not a Shoujo Manga"
DISCLAIMER: I do not own 'Durarara!' or any of the characters!
WARNING! RATED M! Language and Violence.
Chapter Six: "My Superhero"
"Friendship is born the moment one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'"
Date: June, 1999
(11 Years Ago)
She wouldn't stop staring. It was beginning to annoy him but he tried to ignore it as he continued to eat lunch. Even after he finished the pudding she still wouldn't stop staring. Eventually he barked out a stern, "What?"
"It's so... so..." she tilted her head and squinted her eyes, "...blonde."
Shizuo rolled his eyes and she gingerly lifted a hand and reached up to touch his newly-dyed, yet still wild and untamed locks and he promptly swatted her hand away. Not even blinking at the rebuffal she ignored how her hand now stung and continued to stare unabashedly.
"Why you dye it?" Katsuko asked curiously.
Shizuo absently noticed that her Japanese has gotten better over the last two months, at least she understood what others were saying more even if she couldn't speak much herself. He suspects that it might have to do with her attempting to hold a conversation with him every day during their lunch hour. Remembering her question he finally answered. "Tom-senpai said it'd help ward off idiots from starting fights."
She frowned, "That work?"
"Has so far." he huffed, opening a sweetened can of coffee and downing it. If he was being honest, he still wasn't used to the color. He had liked his dark hair.
"Chichiue get angry if I do that." Katsuko murmured as her hand reached up to pull on one of her braids, "Hair and martial arts are the only common we have."
He shrugged easily, "Then don't. I only did it to get annoying idiots to stop bothering me."
"Hum... what if I want it pink?" she asked with a smile, leaning towards him and holding out her braid, "What you think? Think pink?"
For a moment Shizuo actually pictured the weird girl with pink hair tied into braids. He pictured it for a whole six seconds. Then he reached up and pulled on one of those braids, causing her to let out a surprised yelp as her hand went up to her scalp. "No. Don't do that, you're weird enough as it is." he told her.
She puffed up her cheeks and pouted petulantly. "Mean, Shizu."
She wouldn't say it out loud (not that she probably could anyway) but Katsuko was excited to have a friend. Even if Shizu didn't talk much and pulled on her braids when she talked too much and more than often used his superpowers to tear apart public property or send delinquents flying through the air at implausible heights.
Even if Shizu was a boy.
Katsuko never had a guy-friend before back when she lived in California. Katsuko attended an all-girls primary school so the only boys she ever interacted with were the ones at the dojo. But she never became friends with any of them because they would all pick on her and call her mean names after she put them down during the spars and tourneys. She didn't know why. She thought that she was always really friendly! The final bell rang and Katsuko gathered up her books and pencils, stuffing them into her bag and heading out. She waited by the front gate until a six-foot tall teenager dressed in a faded blue Raijin uniform walked up to her and planted a large hand on her head, ruffling her already messy hair.
"Eiichirouuuuu…!" Katsuko whined. Her eldest cousin merely chuckled at the pout she aimed up at him.
"Let's go, squirt." he said, already walking off. Katsuko hurried to keep up with his long strides. Her head swiveled around in search of her other male cousin.
"Eijiro?" she asked, wondering after her other male cousin. The older male just shook his head with a sigh.
"Don't know. He'd already left class when I got out of the student council meeting." Eiichirou shook his head again, having a fairly good idea where his troublesome little brother was. He'd been coming home with more and more bruises lately and Eiichirou was afraid his thick-headed brother has gotten himself in with a bad crowd. He suspected it had something to do with that Akabayashi guy his brother has been spending his time with.
"Student council." Katsuko repeated, unfamiliar with the words. She took to skipping instead of fast-walking and Eiichirou was hit with the urge to mess up with her hair again. He quietly bemoaned the fact that Mikage has never acted so girly. He loved his little sister but he wished that she could act a little cuter and... well, bite less. That was a generally good thing, their Mother agrees with him. Speaking of his little sister, they were coming up on her elementary school now. Katsuko ran off as soon as she saw familiar auburn locks saying goodbye to her little friends.
Then the American hug-tackled her unsuspecting cousin.
"Damn it, Katsu-neesan! Stop doing that!" Mikage snapped, reaching up and trying to get a solid hold on the older girl's clothing. Just as the girl got a fistful of a teal blazer Katsuko slipped out of her jacket and escaped her cousin's wrath, running for protection behind Eiichirou, giggling all the while. Said teen sighed as Mikage stalked forward with red cheeks and fiery brown eyes. She really hated when her family embarrassed her, usually it was just Eijiro acting like an idiot but more recently Katsuko has taken to showing more public displays of affection than Mikage was comfortable with. It didn't help that Katsuko treated it like a game of tag when she started getting chased down.
"C'mon girls, we have to be back at the Gym before the class starts. For training." he reminded them, hoping against hope that they'd listen.
They needed to be back at the Gym to prepare for classes, to help instruct other students and better their own fighting skills. If there was one thing Eiichirou knew by heart, it was that the Sharaku men expect no less than absolute excellence from their offspring. He knew that it was harder on his little cousin because she was an only child, unlike himself. The pressure was heavier on her to succeed. He could sympathize, knowing what is expected of the firstborn. It didn't help that his Uncle Eiichi was... stricter than most.
When the girls continued to use him as a barrier, running around his legs and dancing out of reach of each other's grasp he cleared his throat and decided to pull out the big guns. "If we don't make it home soon then Mom is going to wonder why we were late." he drawled.
Both girls froze, one knowing fully well the extent of terror her small-bodied Mother was capable of instilling in someone without even lifting a hand and the other stopped because she was slowly but surely learning to fear her polite and soft-spoken Aunt. A look was shared between a pair of teal and brown iris's.
Then it was a sudden race back to the Rakuei Gym.
Date: July, 1999
He stared at it with mixed emotions.
On one hand he wondered and wanted to ask what she did (or failed to do, like throw the guy) to get it, and on the other he felt like he wanted to punch the person who did this to her through a wall. As he was trying to decide what he wanted, Katsuko was grinning like it was the best thing to happen to her in ever. Shizuo had been mildly alarmed when the girl had come to school today with a foxlike grin and her left arm in a cast.
"How did that happen?" he decided on asking, picking up a pork gun from the overly-large bento. Why did she still bring these big lunches? She did know that he had his own, right?
Her smiled turned a bit sheepish, "Ah, a training accident. But it okay. Stupid Eijiro needed stitches!" she said cheerfully. He didn't want to ask what that meant. Instead he asked why she was smiling so much. That brought her grin back in full force. "Because! I don't have to train until it's better! No training means we can hang out after school!"
Shizuo halted in eating his pork bun, mouth hanging half open, as he scrutinized the strange girl beside him. Sure, he'll admit that over the last eight weeks he's grown used to her constant chattering during the one hour a day they actually saw each other. Even looked forward to having the company, but... they didn't have anything in common. At all. At least he was pretty sure. Now that he thinks about it... he might have not actually asked.
"What would we even do?" he wondered aloud.
Katsuko promptly pulled a flyer out from her pocket. She had been waiting for him to ask that very question. Shizuo gave the girl an unamused look before taking the flyer from her hand and reading it closer. Apparently Shin-Bungeiza, the cinema theater, was having a marathon of American movies, tickets were reasonably cheap. He looked up to see Katsuko had moved closer and almost had stars in her eyes.
"Let's go, Shizu! I don't know my way in town and never been there before! No one in my family will take me too! Please Shizu, please, please, pl-" his eyebrow ticked, "-se, please, please, plea-" he grabbed a braid and pulled. "-Owieeeee! Mean, Shizu! Staaaaahp!"
He narrowed his eyes in annoyance at the girl's badgering but thought to himself that going to see a movie wouldn't be too bad. It's not like he had other plans. He clicked his tongue and released his hold on her braid. "I'll go. Just stop asking." he growled in warning.
Katsuko literally jumped for joy.
'Weirdo.' he thought as he watched her start spinning, continuing to eat his pork bun in silence.
And that is how Shizuo found himself walking through Ikebukuro Station to board the train to East Ikebukuro to see a movie at 5 p.m. They had went home to change out of their school uniforms and met up outside the station. He wore a simple shirt and jeans while she had showed up in a dress that looked like a rainbow threw up on it. He told her exactly that.
Her bottom lip pushed out and she frowned, raising her injured arm, "But... it matches my cast!" and it did. Especially after she took a pack of markers to it and drew rainbows and assorted small and fluffy animals. Shizuo simply shook his head and boarded the train. His patience was already thin and it didn't help that Katsuko was acting like a little kid the entire time, staring out the windows with wide eyes and pointing out whatever caught her attention. The trip there was mercifully short and the duo found the theater easily enough and Katsuko ended up choosing the movie.
They watched 'The Titanic' with Japanese subtitles.
The movie had been fairly uninteresting until the girl had taken off her clothes. Shizuo had then felt extremely awkward when Rose was posing nude for a portrait, and after he had began to het caught up in the story he felt he had to cover Katsuko's eyes when Jack and Rose had, uhm… made love in the car. The blonde had been quite uncomfortable during that but as soon as he swept up in the sinking of the ship the movie had ended and he felt oddly depressed by it.
He had inwardly hoped that they would end up together.
Katsuko sighed dreamily as they waited in line for snacks and drinks before Shizuo choose the next film, "I love the movies. They so awesome. Filled with heroes adventures and villains and it's just so COOL!" she cheered, spinning around to expel some of her energy. The blonde raised an amused brow at the girl, wondering if she'd end up tripping over her own feet.
"I noticed." he said pointedly. Sparing a glance towards the group of high schoolers who were getting kind of rowdy. He didn't give them another thought as he and Katsuko were called up to give their order.
The auburn-haired girl flushed slightly in embarrassment at his tone. She knew she was acting like a kid. But she just couldn't help it! It'd been months since the last time she went to a theater or saw a movie from home. "My Hahaue, she was a movie star in Hollywood. I love movies because her." she confessed, a softer smile on her lips at she looked up at the darkening sky.
"Hollywood?" he repeated after asking for a popcorn and soda. Absently noting the high schoolers moving closer. If Shizuo remembered correctly, Hollywood was where they made all the movies in America, right?
She nodded excitedly, walking up to pick out her soda before answering her friend. "Please, that one. Mm-hmm! My Chichiue and Hahaue met during work. He train her in Naginatajutsu for a movie and they fell in love. They married and then, me! I-Ah!"
It was at this moment that a group of six teenagers from the notorious Raijin Academy had become a bit too caught up in their friendly row and one shove that was a bit too hard, causing the youth to lose his balance and unceremoniously knock into a girl four years his junior.
Katsuko stumbled forward at the sudden impact and whimpered at the pain that shot through her arm, causing her to drop her soda on the ground. The youth was quick to retaliate against his cohort, ignorant of what happened behind him and continuing their squabble with no regard to the people around them. It was on instinct that Shizuo reached out and grabbed the oblivious high schooler's arm, stopping him from continuing their roughhousing and possibly trampling over anyone else. The youth jerked back with a surprised yelp as he was forcibly turned around.
"What the-" he shook off the younger teen's hold, lips turning down into a scowl. Shizuo scrunched up his nose at the scent of alcohol coming off the older teen. Had he been drinking? "What the hell's your problem, man?!"
"You need to pay more attention to your surroundings." Shizuo said very calmly, this caused Katsuko looked over at her friend in alarm. Since meeting the Hulk-like Shizuo, the girl has learned that when he used that tone it meant that buildings were going to be needing repairs. And soon. The blonde superhuman nodded his head towards Katsuko who's eyes widened at the attention, there were suddenly a half dozen pairs of eyes on her as she reached down for her fallen soda.
"You made her fall. You should apologize."
"Ohh?" the Raijin student's eyes traveled the girl's form, she tensed and unconsciously slid her foot into a defensive stance. She did not like that look in his eyes at all. The youth brushed past Shizuo with a lecherous smile aimed towards the girl, Katsuko shrunk in on herself with an alarmed look on her face as the older boy took a step forward. "Well hey there, cutie. Why're you hanging 'round a punk like him? If you want, I bet I can show you- "
And the next thing anyone knew, the teenager was sent flying down the street. He skid and rolled across the ground a couple times before smacking into a brick wall. Presumably unconscious. There was a stunned silence as everyone on the narrow street processed the impossible feat of strength that they just witnessed. Katsuko smiled even though she knew she really shouldn't of. That guy could be hurt! But... that didn't make her smile go away whatsoever or do anything to dampen the warm, fluffy feeling she had in her stomach.
No one has ever defended her before.
After a brief grace period, long enough for people to recover a majority of their senses, one of the other Raijin students present charged at Shizuo. He went flying ungracefully through the night sky as well. It's fair to mention that no one had said that they recovered their good senses. As the fallen youth's friends rushed Shizuo one after another, Katsuko panicked as she lost sight of her blonde friend as he soon became mobbed. She then heard a deep and animalistic roar and the larger teens started flying in different directions as Shizuo punched them all away in succession. One of the guys grabbed a wooden sign from in front of one of the shops and tried to sneak up on Shizuo while he was busy and Katsuko reacted on instinct.
By throwing her soda at his head.
The resulting explosion of fizz and high fructose corn syrup not only set the attacker off-balance but also alerted Shizuo to the poor bastard's intentions. Blazing hazel eyes landed on the advertisement sign still in the youth's hands, "...were you trying to kill me with that?! If you were trying to kill me then you can't complain if I kill you? RIIIIGHT!?"
Sign-guy shat his baggy uniform pants.
Shizuo grimaced, holding into the pole and trying to remain completely still against the constant jostling of the train's movements. Also trying to politely ignore that Katsuko was so close to him he could feel her breaths fan across his face. Katsuko had her tongue poked out of the side of her mouth in a face of total concentration as she stared up at her fingers. The placement had to be perfect. The auburn-haired girl ran her fingers over and smoothed out the bunny patterned plaster across the boy's cheek and smiled in satisfaction. "There! All better!" she announced, wrapping her good hand around the same pole as Shizuo and pocketing the plaster wrapper. Only jerks litter, after all.
"Thanks." he mumbled when she was finally done. The fight hadn't been long at all but one of the idiots had a knife on him and grazed his cheek before Shizuo managed to break his arm.
There was a silence that followed that Shizuo found to be rather uncomfortable. He was no less surprised this time as he was last few times when Katsuko, instead of running away, had stayed after his fight to ask if he'd been hurt, which had led to her producing an unholy amount of plasters from her person. He'd only briefly wondered why she carried that many on her until she pulled out a terribly cutesy pattern with an all too cheerful grin on her face.
She really was weird.
Katsuko was the only one in school besides Tom-senpai that actually bothered to talk to Shizuo on a regular basis, and the only girl period. He was fairly certain that girls didn't usually like violence but Katsuko never seemed to bat an eye whenever some idiot pissed him off and started a fight, further convincing him of her weirdness. Still, even with all her weirdness Shizuo had to admit that he enjoyed her company, even today's misadventure had started off well until they were interrupted. Maybe that's why he found himself caring a little about what she thought of him. With a frown, Shizuo realized what she's seen of him so far wasn't ideal in the least. Nothing but a few, impersonal words during lunch and already over a dozen brawls where he ends up seething, panting mess, surrounded by all the things he'd destroyed in his rage.
"I don't like violence." he blurted suddenly, sparing a glance at the girl standing beside him out of the corner of his eye. Katsuko took her eyes off the sight of the passing city and looked over at him with wide blue-green eyes, blinking once or twice before responding.
"You don't?"
He grimaced already half-expecting that reaction. He didn't know why he felt he had to mention it. Maybe he thought it could excuse his behavior tonight? In the end they didn't get to see another movie because the manager of the Theater had asked them to leave.
"...sorry about ruining your night." Shizuo mumbled quietly.
She looked over at the boy quickly, waving her hand dismissively. "No-no! It's okay! I had much fun!"
He frowned skeptically as he looked her in the eye. "You sure?"
She nodded cheerfully, "Mm-hm! Much sure!"
"But I got us kicked out." he said flatly.
She nodded airily, "Yeah, but that because you can't control your superpower yet."
His breath caught in his chest and he gave the girl an incredulous look. Did her hear that right or did she say it wrong?
"I can't control it. I've tried." he said, his frustration bleeding through his tone. He'd tried for years to control it and he's always ends up ruining everything. Every thing he touches gets destroyed, that's just a fact. One that he's learned to live with.
"All superheroes don't master their powers until after training. Everyone know this! Silly Shizu!" Katsuko said matter-of-factly, shaking her head at Shizuo's dumbstruck expression with a cheeky smile.
He looked at her weird wide smile a moment longer before he felt something very tight, unwind inside his chest. Then Katsuko leaned forward and raised her hand to her mouth, speaking in a hushed tone as if she was confessing some dark secret. Maybe she was.
"...I don't like fighting either."
They didn't say anything more after that until they stepped off the train, having reached the right terminal but before they went their separate ways, Shizuo ran a hand through his messy hair and reluctantly called out to the girl with braids.
"Hey, um... Katsuko-san?"
She turned around and her face scrunched up like she'd just bitten into something sour, "Ugh! No, Kat. Call me Kat, Shizu!"
Shizuo huffed in annoyance at the girly nickname she's bestowed on him. He wished she would stop calling him that. But... "Kat?"
"Yeah?" she was grinning at him again.
"I... had a fun time too."
Chapter Six: "My Superhero"
END
Wuv yew all! 'Till next time!
-Nanami