...
CRASH
BANG
Wild laughter and furious roars –
CLANK
"Aww Shizu-chan, you missed!"
BAM
"Shut up!"
CLANG
"Hey Shizu-chan, that guardrail looks like a pretty good weapon to hurt me, eh?"
WHOOSH
"I SAID SHUT UP, DIDN'T I SHITTY FLEA?!"
SCREEEEEEEECH
HONK
"Haha! We're on the road again, don't you feel a sense of déjà vu?!"
THUMP
"GO DIE!"
Swish
"Then come and get me. …Eh? What's wrong? Are you afraid?"
"…Who's AFRAID?!"
SWOOSH
"Woah, that was a close one. But really Shizu-chan, I leave you alone for a while and your aim has gotten from bad to worse! Did you rust in my absence?"
Whizz
"Speak for yourself, shitty flea!"
CRASH
Izaya smirked at Shizuo, then turned and ran with the wind as the monster chased him.
CRASH
Whish
CLANK
Swish
CLANG
Such destructive sounds wouldn't leave Ikebukuro for hours.
And if the male who had provoked them after weeks of peace wasn't a pathological liar –
He might have said he had missed those sounds of destruction and mayhem –
Even if only to himself.
...
...
...
CHAPTER 3
CONFESSION TO THE DEVIL
...
...
...
Somewhere in Ikebukuro
...
...
...
The sun was slowly sinking over the horizon, painting the sky in orange, yellow, red and fading blue -
As the two most dangerous men of Ikebukuro flew across rooftops and signboards, leapt on telephones and signposts and ran up walls with their parkour skills –
In the wake of destroyed public property left behind by the man in a bartender suit and the knives embedded in solid surfaces by the information broker in a fur trimmed jacket which defied society's fashion sense.
Spotting a vending machine below the building, Izaya leapt off with flawless confidence, landing onto the heavy metal with practiced ease and hopping off before the monster bent metal with the superhuman muscles in his feet.
"I-Iiiiizaaaaaayaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Izaya grinned tauntingly. He dodged the vending machine thrown at him, and continued on his destination, to that alleyway which would take him to the other side –
Only to realize that one of his humans had placed another dustbin at the entrance of the alleyway so that both identical looking alleyways had identical looking dustbins marking them.
There was a monster roaring behind him and in a split second, Izaya decided on the direction of the analytical side of his brain.
He took the alleyway to the left –
And ran and ran –
Until he met a dead end.
- Well, I guess that information about the left-right brain being a myth was true.
Izaya thought airily, as he turned to face the monster who had him trapped.
- Or should I have chosen the right – creativity? Fits with Shizu-chan's unpredictability.
Izaya considered using his smaller body size to duck under Shizuo's arm and make a run for it, but Shizuo slammed his hands on the wall, blocking his way and preventing him from any chance of escape.
"I finally caught you, fucking flea."
Shizuo's voice was eerily calm.
But Izaya just smiled and shrugged his shoulders as best as he could.
"So you did! Looks like we've both gotten rusty, right Shizu-chan?"
His hand slipped to his switchblade in his pocket.
"That's why – this isn't a fair fight, is it? So, won't you let me go?"
"No."
Izaya's smile faltered. He tightened his grip on his switchblade.
"Oh I see. Then, what are you going to do…..Shizu-chan?"
The ironic nickname he had given the monster dropped with his low tone, wrapped in a warning.
"…..You."
Shizuo said, and tilted his head at Izaya, as if seeing him for the first time.
"I could kill you."
"So you could."
The angle between Shizuo's head and the left side of his neck grew larger as the blond tilted his head more, as if shifting his vision would give him the insight he needed.
"….Aren't you afraid of me?"
"Eh? Since when was I afraid of Shizu-chan?"
Izaya said, that smug smile back on his face. Shizuo had removed his hands from the wall and he felt more relaxed.
"Why would I ever be afraid of Shizu-chan? Shizu-chan's just a monster after all."
Shizuo stared at him silently from behind his sunglasses, so Izaya continued on.
"Shizu-chan's so naïve. Shizu-chan's a monster so he wants me to be afraid of him, right? That's why he's been chasing me around and trying to kill me all these years."
"Monsters want everyone to fear them. It was an experiment, you know? To test my hypothesis. I wanted to see if Shizu-chan would react as I had expected. And I was right! Shizu-chan was so happy I didn't disturb his peace anymore because I was scared of him –"
"That's why….I had to take Shizu-chan's happiness away. Because Shizu-chan is too naïve, I was just pretending to be afraid of you. Haha! Shizu-chan's so naïve! Just like a kid! Right…..Shizu-chan?"
Shizuo would never know what was going through Izaya's head.
He would never know that Izaya had actually pretended to fear him for the exact opposite reasons –
That his hypothesis was the exact opposite – he wanted to see if Shizuo would suffer when he realized the only one who didn't fear him feared him now –
Since consciously or not, Izaya was aware of Shizuo's true nature – that he was a man who wanted not to be feared and wanted peace.
That was one of the reasons why Shizuo pissed Izaya off.
But it was only one reason.
Nevertheless, it was Izaya's own pride that kept him from telling Shizuo the truth, to admit that he had once again defied his expectations by his happiness at Izaya being afraid of him, and Izaya would be hard pressed to admit another defeat to Shizuo.
Unbeknownst to Izaya, his lie had caused something to click inside Shizuo's head.
Silence reigned in the air for a moment.
Feeling the atmosphere had changed, Izaya shifted his gaze to Shizuo's face.
Shizuo was smiling.
"...?!"
And Izaya was the one left staring.
He didn't move as Shizuo moved closer to him, until he had to, to avoid the monster crushing his foot with his.
Alarm bells rang off in Izaya's head when his back hit the wall – and he brandished his knife from his pocket at that moment, his survival instincts lunging the knife in his hand towards Shizuo's face –
Even if he knew the knife would either be swiped out of his hand or his wrist would be twisted until the pain made him let go of the knife.
As it happened, the latter happened, and Izaya allowed himself a wince as the pain made him release his grasp on his weapon, where it dropped onto the floor and was crushed into irreparable pieces by Shizuo's foot.
Crack
- That can be my foot.
Izaya thought in sudden clarity, even as he smiled a crooked smile tinged by pain overlaying suppressed panic.
"Ouch ouch, Shizu-chan it hurts you know?"
"Shut up."
Against Izaya's expectations, Shizuo released Izaya's wrist. Izaya rubbed the sore patch of skin, as the monster leaned in close -
"I could kill you."
He voiced the same words of before, but murmuring in a low voice Izaya had never heard him use before.
"….So you could."
Izaya repeated his words, though his smile had faltered somewhat as his mind raced to figure out Shizuo's intention and at the same time escape from this rapidly looking to be dangerous situation.
But before he could come up with a solution, Izaya's body moved automatically, but was pushed back by Shizuo's hand on his shoulder. He withheld a pained gasp as his back crashed against the hard wall, the pain stinging down his fragile spine.
The information broker's hand twitched.
- Well, looks like I can still move
Izaya thought as the possibility of paralysis from Shizuo's harsh shove faded away from his mind. This time, his survival instincts forced him to remain stationary as Shizuo loomed over him.
"Don't move."
Shizuo was still smiling.
He was smiling even after he had sent Izaya crashing against the wall.
Izaya almost wished Shizuo had used more strength, and broken the wall to open an escape route for him.
But the monster was unpredictable and hadn't used as much strength, and thus Izaya remained trapped by Shizuo against the not completely broken down wall.
And as Izaya looked at the smile on Shizuo's face and his eyes hidden by his sunglasses, he couldn't help but think of a serial killer.
For serial killers always smiled before they massacred their victims.
- ….Well, I guess this is the end for me.
- To be killed by Shizu-chan of all people…..pathetic.
A twisted smile curled Izaya's lips.
"Don't I even get dying words, Shizu-chan?"
There was no reply, and Izaya's eyelids lowered.
The smile didn't leave his lips.
- Hey. Before I go to hell, can you at least let me stay on earth for a while? Just long enough to see Shizu-chan's reaction after he's killed the only one who isn't afraid of him –
- And to see my humans of course – then I would be able to die happily.
- If you're going to send me to hell that is – whoever you are who's in charge of this cruel world
The twisted smile on Izaya's lips widened to the ends of his dry mouth.
- Ah, is this what they call hysteria? Where are those flashbacks to the past?
- What happened in the past anyway?
Nothing important.
A sensation shook him back to reality.
There were fingers curled around his wrist.
- Ah I see. He's going to torture me first. Break all my bones, one by one.
- It seems I underestimated you, Shizu-chan.
- You really are a monster.
Izaya didn't flinch as he looked the god of death in the eye.
- Yeah, I really am hysteric. Calling Shizu-chan of all people a god. Like my humans do.
- Haha. Hahahahaha!
- Ahhhh, I always wanted to die laughing-
- So why aren't I laughing?
It's not like I'm scared.
The thoughts in Izaya's mind paused for a moment.
...Well to tell the truth I'm really afraid of dying but I guess there's no choice, hm? Since it's Shizu-chan after all.
But it's dying that I'm afraid of, not Shizu-chan.
The fingers on Izaya's wrist trailed to his hand.
Izaya swallowed.
A drop of sweat made its way down his face.
It was not as if he was afraid, it was merely his basic survival instinct as a human inducing an instinctual reaction in his body.
Even a mastermind like Izaya could not control the natural reaction of his body.
- He's going to break my fingers first?
But Izaya's fingers did not bend. They merely touched the monster's skin.
-What -
Shizuo had captured his hand in his.
Izaya's hand was touching Shizuo's. His fingers to Shizuo's fingers, his palm to Shizuo's palm.
Shizuo lowered his other hand, and now the back of Izaya's hand met with the palm of Shizuo's other hand, his fingers over Izaya's fingers.
- Is he doing?
- He doesn't need both hands to crush my hand.
Izaya stared as his hand was held in between both of Shizuo's hands.
He was no longer pinned to the wall, but he was too stunned to move.
There was no pain as Shizuo held his hand in both of his -
As Shizuo raised his hand, his hand clasped in both of Shizuo's hands, the blond's eyes undecipherable behind his sunglasses.
- Maybe he's going to bite my fingers off?
Izaya thought, even though he knew it was highly unlikely –
Because Shizuo's touch was not at all brutal –
But exceedingly gentle.
"What….are you doing?"
Izaya's voice sounded as if he hadn't drunk water for days. Or as if Shizuo had poured bleach down his throat when in reality he was just holding his hand –
Without breaking it.
A sense of inferiority hit Izaya as the question left his lips –
The question he never thought he would ask someone –
The question that told someone he, Orihara Izaya, information broker of Shinjuku –
Was lacking information on the situation.
But Izaya was feeling too lost, and though it felt as if needles tinged with deadly poison were stinging at his pride, he could not help but ask the question which was a favourite amongst his beloved humans.
Because he wasn't talking to a human, but an unpredictable monster.
In front of Heiwajima Shizuo, Izaya felt as if he was just one of his beloved humans who could never tell what the monster was going to do or why he was doing what he was doing.
Shizuo's expression was impenetrable, even as he lowered his sunglasses with one hand to look at him with inscrutable eyes as he intertwined his fingers with Izaya's using his other hand.
Shizuo's eyes did not give Izaya the information he wanted.
From the moment Shizuo had grabbed Izaya's wrist, he had been entirely silent.
And he was still silent, the only thing that gave any indication to what he was feeling was the wry little smile on his face.
- Dangerous
- This man before me is dangerous
- This situation is dangerous
- I have to get out
- Now
No one had been able to make Izaya feel as nervous and unsettled as Heiwajima Shizuo. None of his humans whom he toyed with had smiled at him that way. None of his humans had made him feel as if he had no control over the situation.
For The God of Destruction in a bartender suit was not destroying anything –
When Orihara Izaya was in his presence.
Indeed, the situation was so unbelievable that there seemed to be a clandestine sort of unrest and danger stirring in the situation, an invisible swirling vortex of restlessness that Orihara Izaya could not decipher the reason for –
One even more dangerous than the monster's usual vortex of destruction.
For was that not what Heiwajima Shizuo was? A vortex of destruction that drew in everything around him and enacted senseless violence mercilessly – which was why people scattered out of the way in the wake of his rage, fearing they would be drawn into the dangerous vortex.
Thus the current situation was illogical to Izaya –
He was mere inches away from the vortex of destruction known fearfully as The God of Destruction in a Bartender Suit, and he was not being destroyed.
It was as illogical as it would be if he were a Star in the Milky Way facing a Supermassive Black Hole, and yet he was not drawn in into its vortex of destruction.
It was as illogical to Izaya as the laws of physics and science that governed space and time being defied.
He could not find any reason for the God of Destruction defying his natural impulse for destruction.
Especially towards the one who had encouraged his destructive tendencies and was the trigger for his violence.
Placed before Heiwajima Shizuo, Izaya suddenly felt helplessly human, not only in terms of physical strength but mental fortitude.
It was thus his survival instincts that were running those thoughts through his head, screaming at him that he had to get away from the unpredictable monster who had suddenly surpassed him mentally.
To put it simply, Orihara Izaya was panicking.
Because Heiwajima Shizuo was being silent. The monster who chased him and yelled his name for everyone to hear and whom constantly declared he would kill him was being silent when he finally had the chance to kill him.
Shizuo was being entirely silent as his untouchable fingers were intertwined with the fingers of Izaya's trapped hand.
… …
… …
… …
There are several ways to get information out of a person.
Without asking questions.
This would be more commonly known as being able to 'read' someone.
In casual situations, people would commonly exclaim at a coincidental shared thought:
"You read my mind!"
Indeed, there was one person who was an expert on reading minds –
His charge, a teenage girl, had once jokingly called him an ESPer.
ESPers are those with psychic powers, such as mind-reading.
But this person was not an ESPer. He did not have any psychic powers –
Merely an exceedingly sharp and intelligent mind -
And unconditional love for humans.
Orihara Izaya, a man who could read humans' minds without any psychic powers.
Who could forcibly extract information from them without them even knowing.
Izaya prided himself on this ability.
He loved humans, and he would examine every part of them –
Their eyes –
Their facial expressions –
Their voices –
Their body language –
Their reactions. And from these reactions, he would then be able to read their thoughts.
This reading of people's minds was not done in a step by step procedure.
For Izaya, it was done simultaneously, almost unconsciously.
The emotion in humans' eyes and expressions, the tone of their voices and the nuances in their voices, the shift in their body language – he would internalize all this unspoken information in less than a second to culminate in a conclusion that was as accurate as if the human had told him their true feelings.
This act of reading people did not require energy for Izaya at all, it was merely instinctual for him.
Even the questions Izaya directed to his humans was instinctual – his mind knew what exactly to ask to get the information he wanted without the human even knowing.
He knew how the human would react even before the human reacted.
That was one of the reasons Izaya loved humans – he loved how they were so predictable, so easy to read.
Thus knowing more about humans than humans knew about themselves made Izaya see himself as a God.
Of course, there are humans who are exceptions to Izaya's mind reading abilities.
One of them is the human being named Kishitani Shinra. He is an underground doctor and Izaya's only friend whom he met in middle school. Izaya had been unable to read Shinra to the point that he was almost envious of him.
This is because Shinra is in love with someone who is not human. That someone is the only being he cares about besides himself. Having been in love with that inhuman being from a young age, Shinra shunned all contact with other humans. Shinra was thus unaffected by the shift in a human brought about by human interaction.
This is the reason why Izaya was unable to read Shinra like a normal human.
Because Shinra was not a normal human. He was a human who disregarded the existence of humans.
However, Izaya grew to not be disturbed by this, as Shinra was his only friend –
And because he was satisfied at discovering the reason why he could not read Shinra –
The Headless Rider - who would play a huge part in Izaya's plan for the city of Ikebukuro and his personal goal.
Another of the humans Izaya could not read would be evolving humans.
Although Izaya's aim in being an information broker was to allow himself to be used by humans for information so that humans could evolve from their boring everyday lives, he was not omniscient. He wished for his beloved humans to evolve, but there were times when he did not know a human was evolving. Nor did he know the extent to which the human was evolving.
One example of this human would be Ryuugamine Mikado, the leader of the Dollars which Izaya is part of. Unbeknownst to Izaya, Mikado is evolving – at a rate that would take even Izaya aback. He was evolving from a high school boy who was the leader of the Dollars to a high school boy who was the leader of the Dollars and was pulling the strings behind the scenes on the color gangs, Yakuza and Japan's underworld, as if they were all puppets who didn't even know they had strings attached to them.
As the one who hates humans had said, he and Izaya had most likely underestimated Ryuugamine Mikado and his rate of evolution. That is why Izaya was not able to read the evolving human accurately -
Or had he?
But Ryuugamine Mikado and Kishitani Shinra are not as relevant to Orihara Izaya at the moment. The one relevant is the third human whom Izaya could not read –
Heiwajima Shizuo, the Monster of Ikebukuro.
It is unknown whether Izaya had labelled Shizuo as a monster as he could not read the unpredictable human and he did not know the reason why.
Nevertheless, although he called Shizuo unpredictable, he was at times predictable. These were the times when Izaya would provoke Shizuo intentionally and Shizuo would chase him and try to kill him. These were the moments with the monster Izaya enjoyed the most.
However, now was not one of those moments.
It was the end of such a moment with the advantage for once in the monster of Ikebukuro's favor, and Heiwajima Shizuo was being unpredictable once again.
He had not killed Izaya. He was touching Izaya but Izaya was not feeling any pain.
If there was a word to describe 'unpredictably unpredictable', Izaya would use it to describe Heiwajima Shizuo.
He was unable to read Heiwajima Shizuo at all.
Less than Kishitani Shinra, less than Ryuugamine Mikado.
Less than even himself.
… …
… …
… …
Eyes - Shaded with no decipherable emotion. Eyebrows are unmoving.
Facial expression – Facial muscles unmoving.
Voice – Lacking, as he was not speaking.
Body language – Constant, unchanging. He had not moved, not twitched a muscle, except to take his hand.
Smile – Present, but with no observable emotion. Wryness present, but reason is unknown.
Throat – Completely still. No sign of swallowing, of hidden nervousness.
Hands – Unmoving – even the one which was holding his.
These were the steps normal people would take a while to go through, but Izaya simultaneously expended when he read humans.
These were the steps Izaya had gone through with Heiwajima Shizuo.
For the first time in his life, Izaya went through a step by step procedure to read a human, and arrived at the same conclusion –
Heiwajima Shizuo is unreadable.
Heiwajima Shizuo is so unreadable he is not even a closed book.
Heiwajima Shizuo is a closed book with no title, no words on the front and back.
Heiwajima Shizuo is a closed book bound with the strongest chains and with glue stuck between its pages.
Heiwajima Shizuo is a closed book, that even when forced open –
When the chains are cut and the pages are torn -
Reveals that there are no words within.
That it was never meant to be read.
.
.
(To be continued in Part II)