Disclaimer: I don't own Durarara! or it character. All original characters are of my own design and creation.
"Hello little rabbit." The sickeningly sweet voice, laced with madness, flitters through the ear piece of the phone and Nausika's blood runs cold.
"Hello Vitalia." She greets fridgely, ignoring Shizuo dramatic flinch at the mention of her name. "Where's Cowboy?"
"If you're asking if he's dead, the answer is no. Although I did propel the mongrel into a wall pretty hard, so the answer maybe yes." Vitalia replies casually. Nausika can just picture her sitting somewhere looking positively regal in her opinion of superiority, looking at her manicured nails or twirling her inky black hair as if she doesn't have a care in the world.
"So you weren't trying to kill him, otherwise he would be dead. So what do you want?" The blonde asks sharply. She doesn't want to play into her hand.
Vitalia wasn't like the rest of them, who were quick to settle things and move on. No, she was much more like a housecat. She could kill you, but she would much rather play with you first. She thinks her greatest achievement to date is when she drove a man to madness to the point that he just killed himself to get away from her. In hindsight, maybe that had been the first sign that something was off about the raven beauty.
There's a little chuckle over the phone before Vitalia speaks again, "Oooo…Onee-san is so stingy."
"Don't you dare say that!" Nausika snaps angrily and she know, she knows, that it's a bad idea to get so worked up over that with her. But it's already too late.
"Ooops pushed a button." Vitalia was found her crack. And like the ice that runs through her veins, she'll worry at it until the wall in Nausika breaks. "Does it bring back painful memories Tokyo-san? 'Onee-san, Onee-san, I'm cold. I'm dying Onee-san. Help me!' "
The mocking words send Nausika over the edge and she growls in rage before when she smashes the cell into the coffee table in blind fury, the weak sound of plastic being strand almost to breaking echoing back. At this rate, her new prepaid won't last long.
"What happened?!" Shizuo asks in concern and the blonde at his side takes a moment to literally scrub the anger off her face with her hands before shooting up.
"Vitalia got Cowboy." The blonde replies and Shizuo balks in surprise again. "She says he isn't dead, but he's probably damn near close. I have to find them." She continues while throwing on her jacket.
"Ok, let's go." The bodyguard says and is prepared to head out the door with her when a hand shots out to his shoulder.
"I'll call you when this is over." She tells him coolly, and Shizuo's brow furrows in confusion.
"Nausika I can help-"No." She cuts off quickly and her hand drops from his shoulder and into her pocket. "I can't have you around me right now. You'll honestly be more of a problem than help."
Her voice is cold and devoid of emotion, blank like her eyes. It hurts those teal eyes that he loves so much cold and lifeless staring back at him. It hurts almost as much as being brushed aside like he's useless and that she doesn't give a damn.
This must be Tokyo. He thinks. But distinguishing between the two personas doesn't help the ache he feels. Useless, unwanted….
Nausika's mouth opens as if she had planned to say something but loses the thought. Shizuo thinks for a moment he she's her eyes flashes with a spark of regret or the Nausika he knows, but it's quickly washed away in hard steel again.
They leave together, but the space between them seems light years apart rather than just a few feet.
Outside Nausika spots Celty's yellow helmet and she dashes over to her quickly.
"Celty, did you see a guy this tall with sandy brown hair come out this way?"
The dullahan seems startled for a moment by the blonde's sudden appearance, but starts typing. :Nausika?! What are you…Yeah, I think I saw him head that way.: Celty tells her, pointing down the street and the blonde spares her a quick nod before dashes off in that direction.
The black rider and the ex-bartender watches as a yellow jacket fades away, until finally Shizuo speaks with a gruff, "Come on lets go." He then he's back on Celty's bike behind her, not caring about his helmet or personal safety right now.
He hears the taping of Celty's keys before she half turns around toward him. :Is everything all right?:
Shizuo looks down from the PDA then off into the distance again briefly. "No, everything's fine." He assures, but he's not really sure who he's trying to convince. Himself or Celty.
The dullahan says nothing, but revs up the bike and speeds off into the night.
Shizuo is too lost in thought to care about the blurred scenery.
It's weird, he thinks, this distance that is suddenly between them that wasn't there before. That had never been there before. But this is a pretty big thing that she's kept from him. He gets why, but now that it's out there his perception of her has still changed. Yes, she's still Nausika. Yes, he still loves her. But can he continue to love her knowing what she's done? He wants to think that when this is over they'll go back to the way things were, but can't seem to hope for that.
The ever pessimist in him keeps wondering: Could things go back to the way that they were? Could they?
Suddenly, Celty's helmet turns to the side and the bike makes an abrupt sharp u-turn in the middle of the street.
"What now?!" Shizuo asks in mid turn, but gets no response as the bike roars in the odd mixture of engine and horse before it barrels back the other way. "Hey, where you going?!"
Nausika dashes down the street, sharp eyes darting around looking for any sign of Cowboy or Vitalia. She tries very hard to not think about how she just shoved Shizuo aside like he was garbage.
She knew it was a harsh move. But it had to be done. He wouldn't listen any other way and he couldn't be near her right now. He would be too much of a distraction; she's worry too much about keeping him safe. And she couldn't risk it when she was dealing with Vitalia.
Vitalia had already gotten to him once, so she had to know his importance to her. And until Nausika knew what she was after she couldn't risk her using him as bait. She had already once lost the most important person in her life that way. She wasn't going to let it happen again.
The blonde stops suddenly as she hears a groan coming from down the street. She zeros in on the slumped over hump of a man attempting, and failing, to stand. Until she recognizes the tribal lotus on the man's wrist when he finally sits up right does she snap into action, shouting "Cowboy!"
The junior looks up through his bangs at her as she runs over to him, swiping a hand over his face and groaning when he comes back red. "Aww fuck…Is that my blood?" He asks stupidly, one eye closed from the blood running down his face as he looks up at the wall his back is against that is also bleeding his blood. He suddenly groans again and uses one arm to grasp the other limp at his side. "She broke my arm."
"I'm sure she broke more than that, but don't be a baby. Can you stand?" Nausika asks seriously, holding out her hand to him. The brunette glares up at her, but takes the offered hand with a repressed moan as he's hulled to his feet.
"You know, you could be a little more sensitive to those of us who actually have to suffer injury and not just fools." Cowboy mutters snarkily. A sharp, painful howl cuts through the night and the man clutches his broken arm with grit teeth as he doubles over in pain.
"Oh no, looks like I accidently punched you in your broken shoulder. My bad." Nausika drones stoically.
"Bitch!"
"Excuse me, is he alright?" The blonde whips around to see a meek looking girl with thick glasses staring at them peculiarly. She remembers her as the girl in that high school group that always comes into Russia Sushi. Anna, Aki, Able….
"He'll be fine. He's stronger than he looks." She replies in a friendly front. Knowing her name isn't important right now. They're about to leave and forget about her in a second.
"Hey boss, my spidy senses are tingling." Cowboy suddenly mutter in English behind her and Nausika spares a look back at his serious face before his chin juts ahead to a haphazard looking man in a trench coat.
"Can we help you old man?" Nausika barks towards the intruder.
As the man comes further out of the shadows she can see he was a knife in his hand and glowing red eyes looking back at them.
Red eyes…Saika! There's more than one?! No, no, no! Nausika fretful thoughts are cut off just as abruptly as the man when a van slams into him.
"The fuck!" Cowboy shouts for the groups' collective thought.
"You guys ok?" A voice asks from the van as it's riders step out into the street.
"Kyohei?" Nausika asks in confusion and the man in question gets a confused look when he sees her.
"Nausika? What are you doing out here? Is Shizuo around?" Kyohei asks while looking around but seeing no bartender.
"Uh no, he-"Aw man, he dead." Erika suddenly interjects as their group head down to where the man had skidded to stare at the seemingly lifeless body on the ground.
"Aw man, Kyohei! Now look at what you've done! What's gonna happen to that sweet beautiful life I just told you about?!" Walker rants in panic. But he has every right to. They did just run over someone in their van.
Conversation goes back and forth for a bit, but Nausika can't hear and doesn't pay attention.
This guy….I know I saw red eyes. And this feeling is the same as with that girl. But Shinra said that Saika was the culprit behind the Slasher's craziness. Could there be more than one? Do they pass it back and forth? Could this blade have the same abilities as that girls and when it cuts me-
Nausika's thoughts are suddenly cut off when the man is back on his feet. His knife is also back in his hands, swinging it wildly. Not wildly like the girl on that night had been, but really just all over the place. Perhaps getting hit with a van wasn't the best thing for him.
The man then bursts through Kyohei's group, none of them try to stop him with his knife swinging like that, and dashes at the three of them.
"Run!" Kyohei shouts but Nausika can only think to side step in front of the terrified girl as the man jets toward them.
She thinks if she times it right she can get a good kick into him and regrets not having brought any kind of weapon from the hotel. And it's the first time since she's moved here that she wishes she had her guns.
But before she can land a strike, the man is suddenly upper cutted by the wheel of a bike that seems to come down from space and he's suddenly back from where he came.
The small crowd slowly turns to see Celty and Shizuo silhouetted in the bright light of the van's high beams.
Nausika stares in awe of them, surprised once again that Shizuo is suddenly there for her.
"You ok?" The gruff words come back over Shizuo shoulder, but he doesn't look back at her. She can tell he's still angry, still hurt, by her. And it aches in her chest, but she can't afford to feel remorseful right now.
She'll make it up to him later when this is done. If he still wants her when this is done anyway….
"Dotca-chin look!" Erika cries in terror as the man makes another impossible recovery and stands to his feet.
"Hello, you're Shizuo Heiwajima. I was looking for you. Shizuo, Shizuo, Shizuo, I love you so, so, so, so much Shizuo." The crazed man says while wildly swinging his knife.
Shizuo steps forward, unswayed by his words and mutter a rough. "Fine, you're dead."
The man laughs manically and the corner of Shizuo mouth juts up a little as he walks back to the group.
"Kyohei, I'm borrowing your door." He announces before gripping his fists into the metal of the sliding door and pulls it free from the van. He steadies himself and, using the door as a battering ram, dashes at the man in full force until his body crushes into the light post behind him.
"Whoa…changed my mind. You can have him." Cowboy mutters in English to Nauiska in terrified, bewildered awe of the blonde's strength.
The blonde smirk pointedly at him, "He's not you're type anyway." He replies proudly. Of what she isn't sure, but she'd really hate to have to break something else in her longtime friend if he kept trying to make moves on her man.
"So, what are we supposed to do with this guy?" Kyohei asks finally
"I'm a little more concerned about me at the moment. Crazy bitch found us way too quick. But, boo for that guy." Cowboy, in trademark self-centeredness, announces.
"You know what; somethin' just doesn't feel right to me. Why is that?" Shizuo says from a distance, getting everyone's attention as he takes a long drag of his smoke. "I'm off to Shinjuku to kill Izaya." He says in departure as he heads down the street.
Nausika look at him dejectedly, resisting the urge to go after him. Shizuo…
"Oh man! This is so cool! Shizu-chan totally has the hots for Izaya! Boy on boy love is so much fun, I love it!" Erika gushes in starry eyed glory, much to everyone's cringe.
"Not happenin'!" They collectively shout.
"Besides, a major plot hole in that delusion of yours is standing right behind you." Kyohei mentions while jutting his thumb to Nausika, who waves.
"Nausika-chan doesn't mind do you?!"
"Yeah, Nausika-chan, you don't mind do you." Cowboy repeat with a cheeky grin after Erika's gushing before doubling over in pain.
"Oh no, seems I accidently punched you in your broken ribs this time. My bad."
"Hey man, you ok? You look like you took one hell of a beating." Kyohei says seeming to just realize Cowboy was there. But the man in question just shrugs with his good shoulder.
"Wasn't so much of a beating as a lift and a twist and a toss into a wall." He replies and though Kyohei doesn't get it, he decides not to ask.
:We should take him to a doctor. Or maybe Shinra-"Out of the question." Nausika interrupts, startling Celty with her coldness.
"What's a Shinra?" Cowboy asks again in English, getting Nausika's attention.
"He's not a what, he's a who. He's a doctor." She corrects.
"So why can't I see him?" The light brunette asks with a miffed sort of pout, like a child told he can't go to the zoo.
Nausika sighs heavily. "I don't want them to get involved." She tells him and Cowboy just smile cryptically at her.
"I think it's a little late for that love." He tells her and a silent conversation passes between the two before she finally gives in.
"Fine…." She mutters back in Japanese. It really is for the best to go to Shinra. With what they're dealing with, and who they are, his profession is what's required. Besides, hospitals do keep surprisingly detailed records of their patients.
"We can give you a lift if you want." Kyohei offers, ignoring Saburo's shouts of 'in what?!' since his precious van has been brutalize.
"Thanks. It would be a great help." Nausika replies and is startled when a black helmet comes into her line of vision.
She gives Celty a long look before taking the gear and putting it on. The inside smells like Shizuo hair and his cigarettes. And she wants to believe that the dullahan didn't do that on purpose.
It's a long walk to Shinjuku on foot. But Shizuo decided that it's for the best. He needs a minute to cool off some before he sees Izaya. If he had met him at the level he had been at when he had left, coupled with the most definite level of pissed off he'll be when he actually sees the flea, he really would kill Izaya.
"What up? Izaya buddy!" Shizuo says up at the building the infamous informant lives when he gets there. The automatic doors swish open when he walks into the lobby. But he's too angry to worry about the nice building the flea lives in. "Why don't 'cu come on out and play?!" About to kick the door to something in, Shizuo freezes when a cold object is placed against his neck.
The blonde flips around, the cold can against him plummeting to the floor, and the man himself smirks back at him.
"Tell me, to what to I owe this pleasure Shizu-chan?" Izaya asks in a cheeky manner, hands in his ever present jacket.
"I'm obviously here to kick your smarmy little ass!" The bodyguard snaps, encroaching on the shorter man.
"And why do I deserve to have my ass kicked?"
"Cause I'm pissed off!"
"Now don't you think you're a little too old to be acting the part of the playground bully…Shizu-chan?" Izaya scolds, gaining the desired effect when the blonde bristles.
"Shut the hell up!" Shizuo snaps, watching Izaya like a hawk as he saunters away. "So, how involved in this are you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Izaya replies, feigning innocence.
"You're in with the Slasher, but I want to know how deep. And I know it was you that gave that psycho Nausika's address to try and blow her up!" The blonde barks, but the flea merely chuckles.
"That's a horrible accusation." Izaya replies with a grin, but distinctively not denying it.
"99% of the time whenever violent, random crap happens you're somehow involved!" The tall blonde retorts.
"And you can't have a little faith in that last one percent?" Izaya asks, while his blade similtaniously falls from his sleeve into his hand. "Guess that's..a no." He says with a wink as the blade his flicked open.
Shizuo grins murderously at him and the two takeoff out onto the street.
Izaya flitters back, blade draw to cut Shizuo should he come closer. But to the brunette's surprise the ex-bartender calmly walks past him and to the guard rail by the street. Then the taller man his yanking at the metal object forcablely.
At first, nothing happens. Then the bolts in the railing pop out like tiny bullets as the metal gives and Shizuo has the whole thing in his hands.
"Seriously…" Izaya mutters to himself in surprise, but quickly steels himself and his blade again as Shizuo turns to him with a roar and railing in hand.
But before he can swing the large piece, that Izaya is sure even at that distance would send him flying, a black bike zooms in between them and breaks up the fight effectively.
"Well now,"
"Celty? What are you here?" Shizuo asks after Izaya, his anger forgotten. Celty dismounts her bike and jogs over to him to show the taller man her PDA and the continuous, maddening scrolling on it from user Saika. "What the hell is this?" He asks in concern. "Is this part of your plan too?" He asks the informant who shrugs.
"Look, if I knew this was all it would take to get Celty to show up on my door step, then trust me I would have dropped a meteor on your house a long time ago." The brunette replies truthfully. Had he a meteor to drop, he would have dropped it on his house just for kicks. But sadly, he had none.
Shizuo huffs angrily, but accepts the black helmet when Celty tosses it to him. And then the two are off like a black streak into the night.
"Unbelievable," Izaya mutters as he watches them go. "One moment, he's dumb as an ox. And the next, he's sharp as a whip. And it's for that very reason that I hate him so much." He says to no one with a vicious smirk.
The informant then returns into his apartment building and flops himself into the elevator, using the toe of his shoe to summon his floor. 'My, what an interesting turn things have come to.' The informant this with a twisted grin while he hums a cheery tune before the elevator chimes and the doors whoosh open.
The dark haired man continues to hum as he exits and enters his apartment/office, but stops once his coat has been removed as humming not in tandem with his echoes back.
"You seem in a very chipper mood." Izaya comments he slips his hands into his front pockets and further into his apartment, not bothering to bring up the fact that when he had left earlier the place had been empty and locked. At this point, as with dealing with her he's learned quickly, it was pointless.
The welcomed, but uninvited guest seems to pay him no mind as her finger tips dance on the game board in front of her. Until finally, she feels the need address him. He also won't comment on who this is his house that she's treating him like an intruder in. "Well, I am in a chipper mood. You seem pleased with yourself too." The red eyed sprite on his couch coos, as if they are old friends that hadn't just met a few days ago.
"Hmm…Shiz-chan just came to play with me." Izaya says, sliding up against the back of the couch to stop behind her. If this is how he wants to play, so be it. "He accused me of being involved with the Slasher and some lunatic trying to blow up his precious Nausika-kun." Izaya continues in a thoughtful manner, fiddling with the busted cellphone he's discovered on his entry table. Left there like a cat that puts dead birds on the stoop to be praised for their conquest.
Vitalia hums in amusement. "My…what a mystery…" She drones cheerfully, placing the black queen chess piece in front of its white counterpart before resting her chin in her hands in childlike glee at the board. "I like this game."
"You don't know how to play." Izaya reminds her, but the red eyed raven just beams.
"Sure I do! I just made up the rules, isn't that the point."
Izaya chuckles low in his throat and leans in on the perched brunette, brushing the thick mass of black hair to one side so that the side of her neck is exposed. "Aren't you a clever little peach." He praises against her ear and can sense the smirk that stretches her ruby red lips.
"By the way, I need another favor."
The informant frowns slightly and leans back. "Another favor?"
"Hai, just a little one." Vitalia says, squinting one eye through the space between her thumb and forefinger. "I can pay you your real fee this time, since I've run out of interesting information about Tokyo-san. Or perhaps you'd take another type of payment for your services." The pixie is suddenly up on her knees on the couch with her arms around his neck, back arched provocatively, and smolder in her eyes as she leans into him.
Izaya smiles. "Cash will do." He says, dislodging her arms and ignoring her exaggerated pout. "Though I am surprised you need my help again. I was under the impression that, since you were a 'higher being' you didn't need the help of us 'silly mortals'" He adds while taking his seat behind his desk. He was quoting the terms verbatim from her. She had been very forthright in her declaration of being a 'higher being' upon their meeting.
Vitalia merely chuckles. "I'm god-like, not God. I'm not all knowing and all powerful. Unfortunately my abilities only extend to superior intelligence, impressive skills in mayhem, and exquisite bone structure." She tells him while sashaying over to him.
"What do you want?" Izaya asks at his screen and isn't surprised when her arms wrap around his shoulders from behind.
"Everything you know and can find about a sword called Saika."
Sorry for the delay in updating...again.
Thanks to Emerald Gaze, Amaya rawrz , flyfly246, gzillafan, and guests for reviewing the previous chapter (not a lot last time but every review is special!) and those that favorited/followed previously ^_^.
I would greatly appreciated feedback on this chapter as with all chapters. I need to go pass out from my flu-aids now.
Thanks for reading!