Izaya stretched his arms over his head as he looked at the grey, overcast sky. The weather had been rather turbid the past few weeks as autumn began to bring cooler temperatures to Tokyo.
Sitting on his couch, Izaya stared at his laptop which was currently on a news article about the Slasher's most recent victim.
Much to Izaya's relief, Saika hadn't bothered him in two months since the night he appeared in the window reflection; however, the Slasher attacks continued to increase in number.
Lost in these thoughts, Izaya almost didn't hear Namie step up behind him before a cup of tea suddenly appeared in front of his face.
"Ah, thank you, Namie-san!" Izaya said cheerfully.
The only response he got from his secretary was a fierce glare, which Izaya could only describe as the look one gives to another before throwing them off of a skyscraper.
As Namie returned to her desk, a sinister smile spread over Izaya's face.
"Now, now, don't give me that look!" he teased, "I do pay you after all!"
"Not nearly enough to put up with your bullshit." Namie responded callously.
Laughing lightly, Izaya decided not to continue the conversation in favor of sipping on the cup of green tea in his hands.
Less than an hour later, Izaya had changed his position and was now lying down on his side, curled up in the corner of the black L shaped couch, hugging a pillow to his chest. For the past ten minutes he had been drifting in and out of sleep, unable to keep his eyes open for very long.
He couldn't have been asleep for more than two minutes when Namie had apparently decided he wasn't allowed to take a nap. He woke with a start when Namie dropped a rather large stack of files on top of him. Clearly she had planned this because each file was securely clipped together so that Izaya could get all of the pain of having large stacks of paper thrown on him with none of the mess.
"Jeeze… What the hell, Namie…?" Izaya said while rubbing his eyes.
"I'm leaving now. It's getting dark out."
Izaya turned to look out the window noticing that the sky was much darker than the last time he looked. Maybe he had been asleep longer than two minutes…
"Fine, fine…" Izaya waved Namie off as she headed out the door.
'She's in a bad mood today…' Izaya noted to himself. 'Then again, when isn't she?'
Stretching as he stood from the couch, Izaya began walking over to his desk when he caught the now familiar sight of another Izaya standing behind him in the reflection.
"Very funny, Saika. You'll have to try harder than that." Izaya teased.
As if on cue, Saika moved its hand—which Izaya just realized was behind its back—and pulled out a knife that looked suspiciously like Izaya's flick blade.
Before Izaya had a chance to react, said blade was plunged into Izaya's abdomen sending pain flaring through his system.
When the knife was removed, Izaya collapsed on the floor, desperately trying to put pressure on the wound. He could feel his warm blood pour out between his fingers as he tried and failed to reach his phone. The wound was deep. He didn't need a doctor to tell him that. Every time he went to reach for his phone—which was only a mere two meters away—the pain intensified as he was forced to stretch his body, further opening the wound.
Izaya gave up in favor of keeping what blood he had inside his body rather than spilling across the ground. The red was the same color as Saika's eyes as he watched his precious blood spread over the floor—the red being a stark contrast to the pale grey color.
He couldn't deny it. He was terrified. The sharp pain in his abdomen only got worse as he bled out. He was probably going to die here… Alone… In pain…
'No… I don't want to die…'
His hand grew weak, unable to put enough pressure on the wound to stop it from bleeding. He knew he was shaking from the pain and fear, but he couldn't bring himself to care about that right now. All he wanted was to live.
And then it was gone.
Izaya gasped for breath as the pain instantaneously disappeared. Looking down, Izaya's eyes widened upon seeing that the blood was gone as well.
Still shaking violently, Izaya quickly lifted his shirt, and sure enough, the wound was gone. In fact, it looked as if it had never been there at all.
"It wasn't." Saika answered the question for him. "The human mind is amazing, is it not?"
"What… What did you just do…?" Izaya asked weakly, sitting up on the floor.
"I made you hallucinate again… It was quite easy, actually… Using your mind, I can hurt you without having to bear the pain myself."
Shocked, Izaya slowly managed to pull himself to his feet. He wasn't shaking so bad anymore, but there was still a small tremble in his legs as he made his way back to the couch.
"You've made me stronger, Izaya… Your fear gives me more energy… I should thank you for that…"
"I wasn't scared." He lied. "Let me explain something to you. Here, I'll use the game pieces as a model so you'll understand what I'm trying to say."
Izaya stood and walked over to his game board and cleared it off. In the center, he placed three pieces: the black side of an Othello piece, a Shogi King piece, and a white knight chess piece.
"Let's say this Othello piece is my body, and this King is me." Izaya turned the King so that it pointed to the Othello piece. "The rules here are that I have control of my body and mind, while you—" Izaya turned the knight so that it faced away from the Othello piece "—are not allowed to use either in any way, shape or form. The agreement we came to when I separated us was that you could continue to live in my body because you do not have your own. Therefore, you are like a guest in my body, and as such you are not allowed to use me. Am I clear?"
"Ah, but don't the rules of Othello state that if a black piece is surrounded by white on either side, it becomes a white piece?" As Saika finished speaking, the white knight slowly turned on its own until it faced the black Othello piece.
"Those rules don't apply to this situation." Izaya said sternly, though he was shocked that Saika could manipulate the chess piece, he chose to say nothing of it "The only reason I haven't looked into erasing you from this world is because you've followed my rules since the split. But if you don't stop this, I will be forced to destroy you. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I understand… I apologize for frightening you…"
"Shut up. You didn't scare me."
"But I can feel the same things you do… I felt fear and—"
"I don't want to hear it!" Izaya interrupted, holding his head in his hands, "I'm going to bed."
"Goodnight…"
…~-~…
Poor Izaya… So much denial…
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