Soul Severing
Izaya noisily shifted the pieces around again on his game board, much to Namie's disdain. Ignoring his disgruntled secretary's icy glare, the informant finally decided that, for the time being, all his pieces were in adequate positions. The man was slightly annoyed at things; he usually never had much of a problem putting his pieces into play, but the situation was drifting farther from his realm of control than he preferred, and as such, it was difficult to judge where each player best fit. The possibilities were endless.
His calculating gaze narrowed at the Black King chess piece he had towards the middle in the left half of the board—the Midnight Man. It seemed a fitting piece for the monster, as it was of importance, and if the King fell, then there was likely no need to worry about its underlings, and the game would end.
His attention drifted to the keima piece situated towards the right side of the board. It had taken him a great deal of thinking to settle on the decision to use that particular piece—in fact, he had just changed the piece earlier today. Previously, he had been using the ginshou piece for Mikado, because it wasn't able to directly retreat, though it was able to move backwards diagonally—protecting itself if necessary.
Izaya had changed the piece to the keima because it was able to jump; that is, it passed over any intervening piece—whether friend or foe—without an effect on either. It seemed so fitting for the boy, considering the twist the Midnight Man was throwing into the already complicated ordeal. Auburn eyes now turned their attention to the hisha piece situated near the Black King on the board; it was Masaomi's piece. The hisha was another piece he had only changed today; originally he had just given the other Midnight Game players white Go stones as their assigned pieces.
The abrupt change in Masaomi's attitude between phone calls with Mikado was suspicious enough, and coupled with the fact that the blonde knew about the now-not-so-professional relationship between him and Mikado and the teen's own behaviour at the meeting were enough for Izaya to conclude Masaomi had caught the Midnight Man's attention…Therefore, Izaya was forced to give Masaomi the hisha piece, which was able to move in all orthogonal directions; move forward towards the Black King; retreat towards the keima if it so chose; and, of course, flounder about, only moving right or left—holding its ground in its indecision.
"I haven't seen you put this much thought into that stupid game in a while. I believe the last time was when you set it on fire. If you're going to do something else crazy with it, don't expect me to clean up the ashes," Namie quipped, interrupting her boss from his thoughts. It worried her to see Izaya with such a serious countenance. The man smiled and laughed when he was talking about his plans for the gang war in the past; it worried Namie to think of the magnitude of events unfolding to cause a serious expression.
Izaya smirked at the woman; her expression seemed to have lost its frosty edge. "Worried, Namie? I can't destroy this game board yet, you see. The rules and circumstances in this one are ever-changing." Izaya sighed and looked back at the board before adding quietly, "Besides, who knows if there will even be any ashes to pick up…We don't know which pieces are going to burn yet."
Mikado & Izaya
"Tell me…Are…Are you scared of being all alone?"
"Haha, what? I'm not alone! I have you, Masaomi."
The blonde looked at the girl in front of him and smiled. He loved Saki; she always made him feel so much lighter. That was actually a pretty accurate description; lighter, the weight he felt on his chest eased and he was able to breathe again.
Masaomi heard his girlfriend release a contented sigh before she looked up at him again, "Besides, I have Izaya, too."
The weight returned with suddenness and his breath was forced from his lungs; the loss of air burned his throat. Statements like that made him feel so defeated; no matter what the boy did, Saki always held the 'ideal' of Izaya pretty high on her priority list, despite claiming to not listen to him anymore. Masaomi swallowed, though his burning oesophagus made it difficult. "If he asked you to go back to him, would you?" The answer scared him—if she said no, the blonde felt it to not be truthful, and if she said yes…that was even worse.
Her answer was always the same, though. "I chose you, Masaomi. He wouldn't ask me back! But it doesn't mean he isn't still important to me."
He cringed inwardly and looked at his shoes.
The teen jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, then looked up, expecting to see Saki, but she was no where to be seen; the hand resting on his belonged to someone standing behind him and it bore an all too familiar ring. The blonde roughly shoved the extremity away and spun around with a scowl.
"Heh, it really bothers you, doesn't it? You know you never would have even met her if it wasn't for me. Don't you think you should be a little more grateful?" the sickeningly sweet, sing-song voice said.
Masaomi mustered every bit of his deep hatred for the man into one stare, but Izaya seemed unaffected by the blonde's malice.
"I wonder which bothers you more," Izaya continued, moving to walk around the boy in circles, "That Saki is loyal to me as a pawn or that Mikado is loyal to me, though it's in a drastically different way…"
Gritting his teeth, the teen ground out, "You soulless bastard! You're not God, no matter how much you'd like to think yourself to be; you're just a sadist with a complex, and Mikado is NOT loyal to you."
The black haired man quirked an eyebrow at the statement, then grinned maniacally before leaning over so he was face to face with the teen. "And where, pray tell, does his loyalty lie? With you?" The man was met with silence from Masaomi. The blonde watched as Izaya stepped back from him and looked him over with narrowed eyes.
After a pause, Izaya giggled at the boy, "What, no smart remarks? Is that because you know how laughable the concept is?"
Izaya & Mikado
Izaya snapped his phone shut and grinned. Everything was coming together at last; now that he had received information from his awaited contact, he just had to get the ball rolling, then sit back while everyone else fell into their inevitable roles.
"Namie, you can go home for the night, I have something I need to attend to," he said without looking at her, smirk still in place as he looked out the panoramic window. That monster had better enjoy slinking around his city while it could…a checkmate in Izaya's favour was imminent now.
The secretary peered at her boss over a stack of files; now she was certain something momentous was going to occur with the way Izaya was smiling, carousing in whatever chaos he had set in motion. The man definitely had a screw or two loose.
Mikado & Izaya
Mikado yawned yet again; he had never fallen asleep earlier when he was able to, and now that the sun had set, he had run out of time for any attempts to do so. The blue eyed boy looked over at his blonde friend, a bit envious of how well-rested Masaomi seemed, though he was more relieved the blonde wasn't going to be off somewhere alone and potentially victimized.
Since the normally rambunctious teen had arrived at Mikado's shoddy apartment, though, thick silence had expounded their typically carefree, comfortable dynamic. The teen heaved a sigh, drawing the blonde's attention to him, so he said, "I can tell you're mad about…this, even though you said you weren't, earlier."
Masaomi paused before responding, watching Mikado fidget, "It's not my business who you…are involved with. It's just surprising…I mean, what happened to you and Anri? Who is it you're loyal to?"
"I…Um…I think we both know anything with Anri wouldn't have turned out well if anything happened i-in the first place," Mikado mumbled looking at his twitchy hands; this was so awkward. Also, what was his friend asking about when he said 'loyalty'? Then it occurred to him what the problem was, so he sighed and said, "As for any loyalty, nothing will change my friendship with you and Anri. I'm not going to play games which would pit us against each other, or you and Izaya against each other, either. Anyway...I guess just me saying it is a bit hard to believe, but...it's true."
Both boys jumped when they heard a soft click sound from behind them; Mikado turned around nervously, remembering how he locked the door earlier. Blue eyes met with a very smug-looking informant standing against the door; of course Izaya had picked the lock…again. And had probably heard what he'd said.
"Good answer," Izaya smirked at Mikado, revealing that he'd actually heard the question to go with it, too. "Masaomi, nice to see you again so soon," the man then remarked with a wider smirk. For his purposes, it just made the upcoming events even more interesting, maybe even speeding along his 'checkmate'. The blonde teen merely scowled in response, so the informant ignored it and turned his attention back to the other boy. "I need to talk to you about something, Mikado. I finally received some useful information, and I think our issue with the Takers will be resolved soon."
Mikado felt himself mentally twisting—something was off, there, something he couldn't put his finger on. Izaya's demeanour was too fervent, expectant even; the man was practically impossible to read, but the teen couldn't overlook the fact that the happy façade—while still happy—was alluding to the deviance and lunacy prowling beneath.
Trying to keep his voice even, Mikado looked at the other innocently, "Okay, so what is our next move?" The man crossed the small room far too slowly for Mikado's taste, but didn't reply. "I-Izaya," the teen said nervously as he stood up, "What's going on?"
The informant sighed but continued to smile, "I'm really starting to believe those fainting spells have affected you; do you not remember our previous conversation about this?"
"I…" the younger male started, but paused with a confused expression, trying to remember.
The older man slipped his arm around Mikado's shoulder and said quietly, "I can't tell you yet, remember? Tsk, Mikado, I expected your mind to be a bit sharper than that." Izaya could hardly mask his anticipation at this point, despite his usual patience.
"Then what was the point of coming here and announcing this new information?" the teen wondered aloud.
Mikado jolted as he felt a sharp sting in his upper arm. He looked to the source of the sensation as Izaya withdrew his arm. The edges of the room blurred and his body felt heavy yet light simultaneously. It took a moment for it to register within his scattered thoughts that the informant was holding a syringe. And it took even longer for him to realize he'd been drugged with something really, really strong and fast-acting.
"W-what?" Mikado stuttered with great effort, his own voice sounding strange.
"What the Hell are you doing!?" Masaomi exclaimed, utterly confused by the scene in front of him.
Izaya stayed quiet for a moment as he tossed the now empty needle aside, then gazed at Mikado and said with a light smile, "You said you trusted me 'to a certain extent.' I just hope this is within your limits." He paused, watching the boy sway, so grabbed the non-punctured arm to steady him. "You might want to sit down—that stuff won't knock you out, but I heard it makes one feel quite drunk; not very pleasant to say the least."
"Y-You drugged him!" Masaomi didn't know what Izaya was up to, but the fact he dosed Mikado with something could not lead to anything good. He was already rising, intending to pull Mikado away from that psycho—but a metallic glint made him freeze as Izaya sent him a look which clearly said, 'if you interfere, someone's going to get hurt.'
Mikado then watched the walls climb higher and blinked against the harsh lights; were they always so bright? It was then he realized his body was very numb, hence the heavy sensation, yet it felt light because he couldn't feel anything else outside of his own skin. "'Zaya?"
Izaya chuckled; it had certainly worked quicker than expected, and Mikado was already slurring. He lowered the boy to sit on the floor, then moved the arm he was still grasping to quickly roll the sleeve up. Again, Masaomi made a move to reach for the other teen, but was halted again by the glint of metal entirely too close to his friend.
"Uh-uh, Masaomi, you wouldn't want to do something rash. I need him to stay still, obviously, and if you pull him away, I might slip, and that would be no good," Izaya deliberately flashed his switch-blade as he spoke slowly and calmly as if lecturing a petulant child. Though, he had to admit the comparison wasn't terribly far from the truth, given the blonde's rather dense mind. To his amusement (and partial relief, though he would never admit it), Masaomi sat down hard and just stared at the two.
Turning his mind away from his thoughts about Masaomi, Izaya made sure to keep a firm grip on Mikado's wrist as lowered the blade to the back of the boy's pale hand. He paused a moment before actually piercing the skin, then looked back up to meet heavily-lidded, hazy blue eyes. "You shouldn't really feel this, but don't move, okay?"
Mikado managed to mumble an affirmation of some sort, and despite being so numb, he winced when he saw the sharp edge of the blade break his skin and crimson rushed to the surface. It was surreal to see what he was seeing, but to feel no pain; regardless, just the concept alone was enough to make him wince, something like when a male watched another male take a blow to the—lower regions, and couldn't help but wince along with the man. The boy blinked slowly, feeling like he couldn't open his eyes up completely. He watched blankly as the affliction formed what looking like a plus sign, then Izaya sliced a perfectly straight 'X' across the plus sign, similar to a crude asterisk.
"What is this? Why are you cutting his hand?" Masaomi questioned in a wavering voice, fingering the phone in his pocket as he tried to figure out what to do; there had to be something other than sitting there on the floor. He didn't want to chance anything with Izaya holding a knife so close to Mikado, though…It was just too dangerous...
"Hmm?" Izaya questioned, distracted, as he slowly made a small circle around the point where the lines connected. "The mark...? We have to do something to get rid of the Midnight Man. This is a step in the right direction of accomplishing just that."
The blonde stayed silent and watched with wide eyes as the other dragged the blade around the design to form an inverted triangle; all the lines were straight and touched perfectly; it was quite an impressive feat, considering the 'canvas' was curved.
"Go ahead and use the phone you've been messing with. In fact, call Celty—the Headless Rider—to pick him up," Izaya smirked as Masaomi glared at him with even more animosity than he usually did, if that was possible. "Or do you not know her phone number, yet? Here, I'll give it to you—she can't talk, so just tell her to come over to retrieve Mikado, and whatever else you'd like to tell her—I don't really care about that part. She'll come, since she's Mikado's friend."
Regardless of how much Masaomi hated Izaya, the teen did as he was told and called the Dullahan with the number the man recited to him, and Izaya didn't bother listening to the one-sided conversation.
"I…Zaya..." Mikado attempted to be coherent, but his mouth was not cooperating with him. When he saw the informant looking at him expectantly, he decided his effort wasn't completely in vain. He wanted to ask why his hand had been sliced up, but instead, his thoughts strayed to what Izaya had said to Masaomi about Celty picking him up. In his muddled mind, in midst of those thoughts, he instead said, "Don' leave…please don'…leave me."
Both Izaya's and Masaomi's eyes widened in surprise at the words, the blonde teen's much more than the black haired man's.
To Mikado, it seemed the lights kept getting brighter and the room was further stretched and distorted, making it difficult for him to look at one spot for more than a few seconds; was he high? He quickly decided that, if he was, it felt awful. "Feels…weird," he murmured as he felt an irritating prickling sensation spread through his head and reached his undamaged hand out for something to steady himself on, despite already being seated on the ground. The boy's hand fisted in the front of Izaya's jacket as the man looked on at Mikado in his dazed state.
"It shouldn't last too much longer," he said quietly. Izaya watched intently as Mikado moved closer to him until there was almost no distance at all between them.
It was so cold, and it felt like the temperature in the room was plummeting rapidly, prompting Mikado to start talking again. "S-so cold…Don' leave…You're…s-so warm," Mikado slurred as he pressed closer to the other body, burying his face against Izaya's shoulder as he felt arms wrap around his waist. The the drugged teen, despite the cold, it was like he was suddenly floating on air.
Izaya grinned lightly at the teen's intoxicated display, revelling in Masaomi's open-mouthed shock at the sight. "I'm not going anywhere, Mikado. You are."
The azure eyed teen tried to ask what Izaya meant, but he was suddenly distracted by the lightness he felt; the burden of his own body didn't seem to be weighing him down like before, and his thoughts were coming across with much more clarity. He opened his eyes, wondering when he had closed them—and then felt panic rake across every part of his being.
He was staring out at the expanse of West Gate Park.
No, this was…bad. Mikado's breathing became uneven as he saw the children playing in the park…One child sliding down the slide with an impossibly sluggish momentum, one practically suspended in the air as they jumped off the swing, unable to move at the normal speed gravity demanded to return to the ground. Everything in slow motion.
The other realm.
Izaya & Mikado
Izaya looked at Mikado's sleeping form haphazardly sprawled out on Shinra's couch. The informant sighed, trying to ignore the furore in the doctor's living area, directed at him, of course. Masaomi's form of justice for Izaya's 'stunt', as the blonde had called it, was sicking a worried Dullahan and the van crew on him after Shinra was unable to wake Mikado up. Now he was stuck having to listen to everyone speak at—not to—him. Though, the other side effect was that he had no choice but to stay at Mikado's side, as the teen had requested, or the others would pounce on him.
His attention was called back to the room when a small PDA screen forced its way into his field of vision, impeding Izaya's view of the teen, [Why won't Mikado wake up? What did you do, Izaya?]
The man heaved a dramatic sigh and spoke to the Dullahan in a bored tone, "I'm biding us time. I thought it would be obvious to you, at least, Celty." Finally, the room's inhabitants settled down a bit. Izaya made it a point to be as nonchalant as possible towards this situation; it would probably accelerate his game along even quicker than his antics earlier.
"What do you mean, bide time? It looks like you just helped the Midnight Man by taking out one of your own team," Erika huffed from her seated position next to Walker, both on the floor.
"That mark I cut into Mikado's hand forced his soul out of his body and into the other realm. If his soul is in the other realm, it can't be stolen by the Midnight Man; since the Midnight Man has made Mikado's soul priority number one due to his rule-breaking during the game, it won't come after us without Mikado. Ergo, we're safe to find a more permanent solution," the informant explained in a flat voice while examining his nails.
"But what about Mikado? His soul is just—just stuck somewhere else?" Masaomi sputtered, horrified.
Izaya paused and put on a thoughtful face. "I wouldn't say stuck, exactly, but it's just until we figure out a way to kill the Midnight Man."
"How is his soul going to get back?" Walker asked, genuinely curious.
The informant grinned lightly, "Well, there's the tricky part. It has to find its way back on its own so…" Izaya purposely trailed off, waiting for the reaction he knew was inevitable.
"WHAT! So you forced his soul out of his body knowing there was a chance it might not come back?" Masaomi exclaimed, absolutely seething.
It took great effort to keep his mask in place and not laugh, as he desperately wanted to, at the teen's outrage. "Come on, Masaomi, Mikado is a smart kid. He can manage it." Izaya really couldn't help egging on the gang leader's anger; it was so entertaining, despite being so predictable.
The blonde shook his head angrily. "I knew it, I knew you were just using him."
Mikado & Izaya
Mikado walked around the eerie, slow version of West Gate Park and sighed. He had time to think about his situation since he found himself here; whatever Izaya had done had sent him here. What troubled the boy was that he was scared. He hadn't the slightest inkling how to get back to the normal Ikebukuro; the last time he had been in the other realm, Izaya had woken him up, and Mikado was certain a repeat of last time wouldn't be happening again anytime soon. Another fear he wasn't readily acknowledging was that the Takers had easy access to him here; even if they couldn't take his soul, Mikado was thinking the probability they could still harm him was fairly high.
Also, the Dollars' leader had pieced together the ulterior motives of his being sent here—time. He guessed Izaya's plan was to use Mikado's presence in the other realm to distract the Takers or just relied on the Midnight Man's fixation on Mikado, hoping he wouldn't come after them without getting the boy's soul first. Was there another reason, as well, or just to buy time? He couldn't blame the older man for it, really—like Mikado, Izaya was a plotter, and generally, defeating the enemy took priority over the players' safety, even though Mikado tried hard to balance the two. Izaya, however, wasn't so kind or considerate.
It bothered him; subconsciously as he walked, the teen kept wringing his hands. It bothered Mikado to not have some control over the situation; he was going to have to rely on someone to get him out of the other realm, since he had no idea how to do so himself…If the other realm was how the Takers viewed the human world, then walking around wouldn't really get him anywhere, it would be just like walking around the city.
"Izaya, you better get me out of here," Mikado murmured to himself. Mentally, he was disappointed in himself for not keeping his guard up, for getting so attached to the informant in the first place. It was disgraceful, he mentally berated himself; Izaya had blatantly ignored Mikado's request and forced himself into the entire mess, taunted and purposely flustered the teen repeatedly, drugged him, trapped him in the other realm...
And to his chagrin, Mikado still liked him.
Izaya & Mikado
Masaomi exhaled harshly in frustration, feeling so helpless. The blonde had defected from the group in the living room, mainly to get away from a certain sadistic information broker, and was currently leaning against the sink in the bathroom.
"Is…something…you…can do…"
The teen looked up into the mirror, not entirely surprised to see a black, shapeless mass behind him in the reflection. "And what would that be?" he asked it.
"…One thing for me…then…you…don't have to…do anything. I can…bring…Mikado...back…"
Mikado & Izaya
Mikado glanced around this strange version of the city as he felt a chill rip through the irritatingly calm atmosphere. He had been anticipating some terrible confrontation for hours; however, after standing frozen for a few minutes, nothing had happened.
The teen blinked and looked around suddenly in surprise. What was going on? The slow version of Ikebukuro seemed to be changing; everything was fading to varying shades of white and gray, all motion ceased completely, and everything appeared hazy. He desperately hoped he wasn't about to pass out again. Mikado blinked a few times, yet the scene remained the same, a monochromatic wasteland of sorts. His heart was beating erratically, and he knew something was about to occur.