HELLO GUYSSSSSS IT'S BEEN A WHILE, whoa I know it has been quite a while since I updated but you know circumstances and stuff. AAAAANYWAYS, I've been ccross publishing Lycoris on AO3 and I'm quite happy that you guys are enjoying it!
Anyways I just wanna say thanks to everyone who has been giving Lycoris a lot of support! I'm so happy with the good reviews, I'm shocked to see that Lycoris was being recommended over Tumblr as well! Thank you guys you have no idea how happy that makes me. Sometimes you know I feel really down but when I open my account and see so many positive vibes I just feel much better! I hope Lycoris makes you guys feel the same.
I kinda wanted Lycoris to tackle something about change and struggles. I didn't know what came to me but that was the first thing I wanted to do with it, at first I was really challenged by the the idea of writing a mute character. I've always saw Izaya as a very ironic character, he's very interesting because of his paradox-like personality. He's so strong and seemingly omnipotent, and yet he's so vulnerable. When I first watched and read DRRR, I was really captivated by his character, somehow I wondered if he was really the antagonist of the story, then I realized everyone in DRRR are protagonist of their own side of the story. I grew more engrossed with Izaya's character as the end of the series drew and Shinra provided the insight of Izaya's past.
Lycoris was like my version of reintroducing Izaya's persona in a manner of how Shinra saw him on Volume 13, also this goes with Shizuo as well. I think Shizuo though mostly adored by many fans looks like a lonely kind of guy to me. To me they both had more similarities than differences this is probably why I think Shizuo sees pass Izaya and Izaya hated Shizuo because he reminded him of his own humanity, his own needs and weaknesses(in the canon series).
Ahahaha I know I've said a lot, I apologize for that but yeah. I'm just so glad that there's lots of people waiting for every update and telling me what they feel about it. Thank you for everyone who are making fanarts for Lycoris btw, I've seen those really beautiful Geisha!Izaya arts and doodles you guys posted! Feel free to create fanarts and all those stuff! Don't be afraid to make any suggestions as well, creative criticism or just tell your side of the story. If you feel shy about it you can go to PM me!
Also I know this is sooo random but if you have anything you want to share that you can't tell others, personal problems and so on, if you want anyone to pour your heart out you drop by and PM me. They will be kept confidential at all cost, I just don't want anyone reading this to feel that they are alone. If you need anyone to just listen, I'm your friend.
Again before I go, just wanna say I LOVE YOU GUYS! Never forget that okay?
Chapter 14 : Licking Fire
They say that there are only two universal truths, first is death second is change. There is nothing more certain than change. However, the change just like time can only be perceived by select species—humans.
Humans are highly dynamic, their impulsive desires for something new allow them to create, modify and transform. Humans like no other creatures have more than needs. They have ambitions and motivations, and these pushes their change. Nobody could truly say for certain what a person can do for something, or how and when this change will occur.
Shinra may have believed in many things, he may have seen all things in the category of peculiar but he don't think destiny actually exist. If it does, he is quite sure he or she definitely does not govern humans—if destiny exists, he or she must be a slave to human will. The dark haired bespectacled doctor crosses his arms over his chest as he looks at the scene before him.
The past two weeks after Izaya's birthday is surprisingly uneventful. Izaya stayed quite a while in the okiya to continue his lectures with Kujiragi, he returned two days ago and since then every morning the doctor wakes up to this scene. He remembers very well, the first time he woke up to this shock and concerned quickly filled him, he was about to run and grab Izaya away from the blonde mercenary when the headless woman stopped him.
The sound of the thin blade slashing through the thin air is quiet like a cat swiftly leaping.
"You're leaving your right side blind again." Shizuo says as he takes a fluid step.
The blonde ducks from Izaya's attack and hits the brunet's side—as softly as he possibly can-with the palm of his hand emphasizing his words. The hit obviously though was Shizuo's softest still hurts. Izaya steps back quickly and nurses his side. The brunet frowns.
"Do not leave any blind spot when you attack." Shizuo says standing straight. "Use that big head of yours that you're so proud of."
Shinra chuckles at the side watching them practice, this is their fourth day. Shizuo explained to Shinra that he has volunteered to teach Izaya some basic skills in handling a weapon. It is quite amusing to watch someone of Izaya's status to topple down on the dirt helplessly, the prideful, ever righteous, Orihara Izaya helpless when it comes to battle.
Humans are very defiant creatures, they are rarely ever contented and that makes them both amusing and spiteful. They strive for more than what they have, they seek for greater power, they climb higher refusing anyone to stop them.
Shinra feels a tap on his shoulder, he turns and smiles at Celty.
"Shouldn't you stop them?" Celty asks showing Shinra her notepad, "They may start hurting each other."
"Izaya knows what he's doing." Shinra says glancing at the two. "And Shizuo will stop when he knows Izaya has enough."
Celty moves her neck as if shaking her invisible head.
Shinra watches the two again, Izaya has changed tactics, his movements have less power but more speed in them. His feet move as if he is dancing, there was a sort of rhythm and grace in them. Shizuo notices this change and smirks, Izaya charges again but this time he doesn't seem careless of his movements. His hands moves swiftly, and his feet are quick. He was able to quickly dodge Shizuo's attempt to disarm him, using Shizuo's own weight, Izaya sweeps the taller male's feet and successfully puts him out of the center of his weight making him fall to the ground. To prevent him from getting up, Izaya sits down on his abdomen and with a quick motion raises the dagger right above Shizuo and he freezes.
Shizuo stares at Izaya and sees the hesitation painting the other's eyes. The blond grabs the other's hands and flips him down to ground.
Izaya soundlessly gasps as Shizuo pries the weapon out of his hand and without a moment of hesitation the monster of Ikebukuro slightly presses the cold metal of the blade against Izaya's neck just enough for the blade to graze his skin.
"Last and most important rule in battle." Shizuo says with a low voice, his amber eyes stares right at Izaya's, "Never let your guard down and when you strike do not hesitate."
Izaya purses his lips.
"No matter who it is, when you are endanger do not hesitate, do you understand me?"
Izaya nods and Shizuo lets him go, he stands up and pulls Izaya up with him. Shizuo returns the weapon back to Izaya with ease.
Shinra claps his hands making the two look at him, the jolly smile in the physician's lips is almost unreal it made Izaya frown.
"You look like shit Izaya-kun!" Shinra cheers making the brunet frown even more.
"Fuck off Shinra." Izaya signs to the doctor.
"Towels?" Celty asks as she hands Izaya and Shizuo each a towel.
Izaya wipes of his face with the dirt and mud that has been mixed with his sweat now. He looks at the dirt stained towel in his hands, he has never allowed to get this messed before. His father has always dressed him in the finest clothes, his feet has never once touched the ground bare, his hands has always been smooth and pale and now they were full of blisters and callous. If anyone has told him before he'd become like this he'd call them crazy.
But maybe now he's the one who's crazy.
"This is enough for today." Shizuo says as he combs his sweat slicked hair back.
Izaya turns to Shizuo to say something when words died out from his brain at the sight of Shizuo and his perfectly styled hair. Izaya almost chokes in his own breath as he thought of Western men, the young princes and knights with beautiful corn blonde hair basking in the glory of the morning sun. The brunet feels his face heats up at the thought—ridiculous!
"W-What's up with your hair?" Izaya says.
"I feel hot, so what?"
Izaya rolls his eyes at Shizuo and signs again, "Makes you look more like an idiot."
"What the—"
Shizuo doesn't complete his words when Izaya marches away like the prick he is. Shinra merely laughs and looks again at Shizuo before winking.
"I don't understand what the hell that means Shinra."
Shinra just laughs.
.
.
.
"What is it?"
Mikado turns his eyes from the papers sprawled on his desk to the young woman standing there in the middle of his office. His blue eyes fell quickly at the pair of dark brown eyes behind a thin frame of eyeglasses. Her black kimono paired with a midnight blue obi almost looks like clothes made for mourning. The only details the simple clothing had were the small petals of cherry blossoms scattered all over the clothes. Her short hair is accented with a red chrysanthemum pinned in the side of her head.
"I feel as if I need to be worried." She answers his question.
Mikado smiles at her, "I assure you there is nothing you should be worried about Sonohara-san."
Sonohara Anri doesn't smile or changes her demeanor her lips still press in a tight line. The young lady was introduced to Mikado when he was only a child, Sonohara Anri was about the same age as him. She is an orphan from an infamous case of murder, her mother and father were killed by an unknown assailant with a katana. At first Mikado didn't know why his family took her in, she is after all like any other people. It was easy to find someone like her in the streets of Ikebukuro, a poor orphan with a shady pass.
However times taught Mikado a lot of things.
Sonohara Anri is not like anyone.
Sonohara Anri is the cursed blade Saika.
There was a legend that a blade was once forged for a beautiful lady, the blade was made with the sweat and blood of a famed blacksmith as a gift. When the lady received the blade she loved it with all her heart, she polished the blade day and night, she would kiss the blade before she sleeps and she placed it in her room to gaze at its beauty whenever she can. Until her love blooms and wakes the spirit of the blade, but the blade has no arms and limbs to embrace her, nor does it have lips to speak and kiss, it only has its blade.
To express its love the blade possesses the beautiful lady and cuts everything. It is said to be able to cut anything even those that is out of the realms of humans. The sword cuts, and cuts, and cuts until there were none left but itself and the beautiful lady. It needed her to know its love and so she cuts her as well.
The cursed blade became quite a story when the sword was never found at the scene, it was said to have gone into hiding finding the vessel it fits most so that it can speak of the world of its love.
And that vessel…is Sonohara Anri.
When the Mikado family took upon the orphaned Sonohara Anri fortune blessed them, their power grew until they became landlords themselves. However more than a vessel of fortune and power, Mikado saw the cursed blade more than that.
Sonohara Anri was his aegis.
"I trust you." Sonohara says with a small smile, "I wish you do not tire yourself, however."
Mikado laughs and shakes his head, "This is nothing, I can do this much I hope."
Sonahara nods. Her gentle and kind expression never seems to change, a façade to such a dangerous existence.
Mikado smiles at her to reassure her, however inside a small crippling voice whispers to him. His eyes shifts to the papers in his table, information written in ink with a foreign tongue in a scroll with a penmanship of a poet. His gullible expression fades quickly, a few days ago, the son of Orihara Suichiro slipped the scroll containing the information he gathered few days before.
The curse of eyes of the Orihara and the cursed blade did not go too far from each other. They were sought like commodities, a trophy to show power. Perhaps objects as trophy had become too cliché and they decided human parts and slaves are better.
"You are making that expression again." Sonohara comments.
Mikado sighs, "It seems that I may have to ask you to stay here more often."
"Then there really is something wrong."
The least of things Mikado wanted is for Sonohara to know the truth, a truth he had tried to conceal since he had become a shogun. He decided to acquire the power himself to do this, to sought and extinguish the fear from Sonohara Anri. The woman had done nothing wrong except become the perfect vessel to a mythical sword that could cut anything in existence. There was no reason for her to hid herself, nor no reason for anyone to sought her. However fate seems to have a different plan, just as he thought things were going for the better for them, Orihara Suichiro died from a very suspicious fire that engulfed his home just like the one that killed his wife and almost took his special son.
The death of Orihara Suichiro signalled the restart of a long forgotten story of the damned.
Not many knew the truth of the death of the lady of the Orihara manor, Orihara Kyoko. The lady died in a fire and that was what the public was made to believe but there was a deeper truth. Orihara Kyoko died trying to fend for his then ten years old eldest son from two unknown men who set fire to the manor to take the heir of the household who was killed later by Orihara Suichiro.
There were suspicion but there was no evidences, no words were squeezed from the heir of the Orihara who was said to have acquired some sort of illness that unable him to leave their new home. The former head of the household since then had never mentioned his son in public again, nor was the boy ever seen again.
As Mikado's fingertip grazes the ink against the papyrus, he is reminded of the bewitching red eyes of thee young heir of the Orihara.
"Smoking the den to get the rat out." Mikado murmurs to himself. It is an old hunting technique wherein the hunter would smoke or set fire to the den of the animal and whilst it is rattled and confuse, they will strike it down.
"Pardon?"
Mikado sighs before looking up at Sonohara again. Sonohara's identity wasn't really a secret, many people knew the existence of the bearer of the cursed sword unlike Izaya's identity. However the daredevil stunt meant not just for Izaya.
It is a warning for him as well.
"I understand your worries." Sonohara says, "however I hope you know I can perfectly take care of myself."
Mikado smiles, "I know."
He knows but no strength would be enough for a cunning mastermind.
.
.
.
.
.
"I-I'm s-so sorry I-I will pay now!"
Shizuo lets go of the man's collar and puts him back on the ground. The man scurries into his belongings to get his purse. Two days ago, Shizuo agreed for a small part-time job to a man named Tom who runs a money lending business. It was a good job for someone like him, especially when Izaya is away.
Tom has known Shizuo for quite a bit however circumstances always led Shizuo away. The man is kind and often soft spoken which makes collecting loans quite difficult for him, and Shizuo is just exactly the opposite which makes this partnership quite symbiotic.
"Thank you for your patronage!" Tom says to the quivering man as he pat his back.
The man makes and indignant shriek before bowing his head to the two men. He quickly runs away after Tom receives the payment.
"Thank you for your help Shizuo-kun!" Tom says as he walks towards Shizuo.
"It's no problem, I wasn't busy." Shizuo tells the man.
Izaya has left for a small banquet in a nobel man's new home just outside the town. Recently, Shizuo has become more confident in Izaya's self-defence skills. He wouldn't admit out loud but Izaya's quick learning has an excellent use in this sort of things.
Tom leads the way and the two walk in the streets of Ikebukuro again. It is as usual busy and full of life. Foreigners can be seen here and there, Ikebukuro is a very rare place in Japan where foreigners can dwell without fear of getting deported or persecuted. It is a safe haven for many.
"You look better." Shizuo hears Tom say without looking at him.
"Hm?"
Tom stops and turns to face Shizuo a smile in his lips, "The last time I saw you, you looked as if you were hungry for blood."
"I was a mercenary—"
"Really?" Tom asks before chuckling, "I thought you've had a lover and was thinking of settling down."
Shizuo almost chokes from his own breathe at Tom's remarks.
"I mean that face," Tom gestures to his face, "is the kind of face I see men wear when they have found that person."
Shizuo looks away, "Don't be absurd senpai."
"What?" Tom chuckles, "It's not impossible right?"
"I'm not normal."
"So?"
Shizuo sighs and walks pass the man, "There's no one who will be able to handle a monster like me."
"You know I'm starting to think that the reason why people treat you like that is because you see yourself like one." Tom says making Shizuo stop in his tracks. "It's as if you purposely make yourself hard to love."
Words left Shizuo and he stands there as Tom walks ahead of him.
Was he purposely pushing people from the beginning? Was it really just his fault that he felt miserable and alone? Is he the only one who thinks he's a danger to everyone he meets? Clenching his hands to a fist in his side he feels a strange sensation creeping in his chest.
How can he not think like that when he grew up knowing everything he touches cracks under the weight and strength of his hands?
Shizuo follows Tom.
"You have seen me, all I have ever been good at is making everyone shiver in fear at the sight of me."
Tom laughs and shrugs, "Surely not everyone." He says making Shizuo's eyes wide, "Not everyone is apt for you, not everyone would understand and that's alright. But there are some people who do, there are some who cares no matter what, maybe you'd hurt them, maybe you will hurt them, but to stay and keep up with you is not your decision to make. Hearing this from you somehow makes me certain that you don't really mean to hurt anyone, you don't mean to push people away."
"If I do not push them away there's only one thing they'll end up with." Shizuo replies.
"Hurt?"
Shizuo nods, "Yes, I hurt them, I-I'm not as reliable as they think."
"But doesn't that happen to everyone?" Tom says, "Everyone gets hurt, we're all been hurt, had hurt, and inflicted hurt."
Tom puts a hand on Shizuo's shoulder with a sympathetic look.
"Don't get me wrong Shizuo, I hope you're not offended too but…you're not as different from us as you think."
Shizuo quiets down as those words sinks in. His mind reels back to his childhood, despite the difficulty of their lives because of Shizuo, his parents never shunned him, they didn't treat him any less than Kasuka. They clothed him and fed him like any other kids. His brother too never once made him felt feared. And then there was Shinra, despite the way he is, Shinra treated him no better than he would treat any ordinary people except for the occasional proposal to be his experiment subject.
Then there was him. Izaya. Izaya might have called him names, but he never let go of his hand, he stabbed a man and jumped over a bridge when Shizuo fell over. He sat beside his bed when he almost suffocated with the smoke during the fire. Izaya was scared but he didn't left him.
A part of him was happy about this fact, and a part of him was guilty. He thought that perhaps if Izaya went away with his sisters, perhaps he has a better standing to be protected properly, that perhaps Izaya didn't need to work so hard for himself.
Decision, huh.
Izaya made a decision just like him, somehow he wonders if it was the brunet's punishment for his. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, he decided not to leave his post as Izaya's protector and Izaya decides to learn to protect himself and unravel the truth in his own abilities. It was two contradicting force but both are decisions which they decided to respect for each other.
It was stupid but…
"Mister?"
Shizuo blinks out of his reverie as he feels a tug in his yukata. He turns around and finds a little girl. Tom turns as well raising a brow.
"Do you know her?" Tom asks.
Shizuo shakes his head, "What is it?" he asks the child.
The little girl hands over a small white envelope that seems to have something heavy in them.
"There was a guy who said to give it to you."
"Thanks." Shizuo says before the little girl dashes away.
Tom walks to look at the item, "What's that?"
Shizuo shrugs before opening the envelope and pouring the contents in his hand. His eyes widen as the objects fell in the palm of his hand. His heart pounds loudly in his ears and his body freezes in shock as he stares at them.
Two marbles…two scarlet marbles.