"Sh… Shizu-chan?" Izaya's voice is barely a whispered exhale through the trembling fingers slowly uncovering from his mouth. The brunet drops to his knees like a rock with a shuddered inhale, scuttling up to the blond's body on the floor. His tremoring fingers timidly reach out to touch the blond's face. Shizuo's eyes are open but wholly unresponsive like with the rest of his body. His neck's clean of any injury, so whatever happened must be internal, right? Shizu-chan can't be dead. No matter what Izaya's thrown at him, he's survived. Shizu-chan can't die to this mess, Izaya's mess. Izaya never meant for him to get this involved.

Tears are welling up in his eyes, clouding the brunet's vision. His entire body feels numb and every other shallow inhale is choked. If he were not managing as much, Izaya would be certain that his heart had entirely stopped.

"If I'm not dead, then why the hell am I here?"

"Dēloun sent you," Subarashi answers simply, "as Hachimenroppi stated."

"Why?" Shizuo stresses while motioning forward with his arms. Someone shushes him and he startles backward when a head jerks towards him with an open glare before zipping away.

The golden creature hums, lifting a white gloved finger to poise against their chin in thought. "Without being intrusive, my thought is that they acted in regards of Psykhê."

Shizuo's eyes narrow dangerously. He opens his mouth to speak ill of the blond demon, but the brunet creature interrupts. "No. As in to prevent Psykhê from gaining energy from yourself."

"So the bastard kills me so I can't be spelled again?"

"Psykhê does not gain energy from those they charm. They feed through the consumption of souls. You are not dead, as I have stated. Your soul has been detached from your body, but that is the interesting aspect I wish to inquire about."

The blond looks down at himself. He's in his usual clothes, he feels okay aside from that aftershock of chills. But that cold, it was the same he felt when that fucking thing charmed and violated him. So, it's been trying to eat him? They didn't kill him the first time, is it a slow process then? With how the two demons are going at it as they are in the human realm, both of them must be running low on energy. Delic's likely acting in his own interest, but Shizuo guesses he at least owes him thanks for something. Assuming he can even get back. "I don't know anything about any of this bullshit," he says with a shake of his head.

"As expected," Subarashi frowns down at themselves.

Shizuo runs fingers through his hair as he thinks. "...Why is that bit interesting?"

The brunet creature displays one spread hand, "Dēloun does not have that ability; to separate souls from their physical body. Hachimenroppi and Psykhê do." They fidget in place, changing which foot they're leaning their weight on to and putting their other hand under their elbow. "Dēloun could not reach Hachimenroppi from the human realm, so I theorize that they must of allowed more of Psykhê into themselves to access their powers and send you here."

Shizuo watches the creature with Izaya's face press their lips together and their brow dip. "You're worried about that demon," he states. Subarashi looks back at the blond with slightly wider golden eyes. They're not denying it and Shizuo's not sure how to feel about that.

"Dēloun is not the only one in prospective danger when they takes that risk." Their fingers intertwine, held up against their chest. "But I fear most for Dēloun and what might become of them."

The blond's stomach churns like an agitated ocean. Something about seeing concern on Izaya's face for someone that looks like him makes him feel uncomfortable and downright weird. "You're a demon, right?" He's pretty damn positive, but he's gotta be sure.

The brunet nods, re-straightening their posture as they introduce themselves. "My name is Subarashi Hibi. My apologies for a postponed formal introduction, sometimes in my haste I overlook them."

Shizuo nods to himself, glancing around and noticing more and more heads zipping down the rows of bookshelves and hallways or hovering around certain books on the shelves. "You wanna help Delic by helping me, is that right? That's why I'm not dealing with that grumpy asshole, yeah?" He gestures a thumb over at one of the floating heads. They appear to notice the action, glaring and baring their teeth back at the blond.

"So, how do I trust you? To me, both of those fucking things aren't even remotely trustworthy. Even if Delic saved me form being eaten, I still saw what that piece of shit did to Izaya."

"I..." Subarashi trails off as their eyes drift downwards, unsure of what to say.

"What does it even matter?" Shizuo's head turns to one of the floating Hachimenroppi heads. "Is it not 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?" Another parts from peering at a shelf to join the other. "Subarashi is so weak for Dēloun that they'd assist a human that hates them. It's pathetic." A head zips from behind the golden demon to glare at them face to face. "You're pathetic."

Subarashi freely glares back, reaching out a finger to prod the head. Their gloved finger glows a bright yellow before making contact. The head shrieks at the poke, bursting into a mass of faded yellow dust or sand. Which exactly, Shizuo is unsure. "You speak ill of me as if you do not act in favor of Tsukishima," they retort authoritatively.

Hachimenroppi's full body quickly rears a corner, not stopping their strong gait until they're in the face of the other demon. "That is different!"

"Do tell," Subarashi's yellow eyes narrow, their posture firm despite the other demon trying to physically impose themselves on them.

"Tsukishima does not go prancing around the human realm!"

"Well how could they? They're the size of a natural satellite."

Hachimenroppi's form shakes with displacing gray ash, heads rapidly returning to surround their shoulders. "You-!"

"Oi!" Shizuo yells to cut into their ridiculous bickering.

"I said no disturbances, human!" The scarlet demon roars, swinging an arm towards the blond and freezing when their head turns to face him. Subarashi stills and looks in sync, prompting Shizuo to realize that they're not starting directly at him. He turns slowly, eyes snapping open when he's met with his own face directly behind his shoulder.

The doppelganger appraises him with a neutrally angry expression before their lips split, grinning broadly and displaying sharp, serrated teeth. Shizuo's frozen, stuck staring at the shark-like maw and vibrantly red eyes of his monstrous self. Their hand reaches out, grasping his neck and lifting him into the air, their pointed and elongated nails biting into his flesh with the force. Shizuo grabs their wrist, his grip slipping and hands pulling away stained with blood. He tries again, digging his fingers into their skin, but their flesh softens and oozes more viscous red liquid at the attempt. Their lips quirk upwards with Shizuo's struggling, grin opening more and stretching farther than humanly possible.

"Cease and desist, Yubiwa." Subarashi demands, stepping away from one red demon to the other. "You are forbidden from consuming that human."

The demon leans in towards the wounds by their fingers on Shizuo's neck, their nose twitching. "Smells pretty good though." Shizuo watches their tongue slowly run over the sharp tips of their teeth, cutting the appendage without a care. "I've been hungry for a long time."

One of the decapitated heads floats towards their shoulder. The head's eyes begin to glow, the red of their iris bleeding out over their sclera and pupil. Lines form like knife slices along their cheekbones and temple, opening and exposing more eyes. The demon grits their teeth as more and more heads surround them and mimic the first's actions.

With a sudden full body shudder, the demon releases Shizuo and claps their hands over their ears. The blond lands on his feet easily, stepping back with a slight stumble. Their head curls forward with an inhumanly guttural growl. Shizuo gets a good enough view of how sharp their nails actually are as they digs into the flesh of their own head to deal with some of the pain they're experiencing. Desperately, they swing an arm out, shredding one of the heads with their claws and causing it to bleed and disappear. Their pain intensifies, causing them to collapse to their knees on the floor, as Hachimenroppi steps forward. The demon looks back at the other angrily, glaring back at their five glowing eyes with their own two.

"Fine," they hiss out before their entire form goes deep red in color and begins melting. Blood pools into a puddle on the floor before slowly vanishing as if pulled down by an invisible drain.

Shizuo soothingly rubs his neck while gathering his breath and evening out his breathing. Hachimenroppi's eyes recolor back to normal. Their numerous eyes dart over to the blond once realizing that he's staring at them.

"I did not save you for you." Their head cocks up and to the side, chin in the air and all five eyes closing. "I did it for Dēloun's favor."

Subarashi steps towards the blond to assess his wounds. The cuts are minor and don't pierce any arteries, the human should be in no danger from the damage. They lean in to snidely whisper, "Tsukishima would be upset with them, they mean."

Shizuo's head whirls to Subarashi, causing them to blink owlishly and reel back a step. "What the fuck was that?"

"Rubi No Yubiwa, best to stay away from them."

"No shit."

"Even in Hachimenroppi's realm, your presence must be noticeable." Shizuo opens his mouth but the brunet interrupts yet again and irking a growl out of him. "Have no fear, the remainder of us have no interest in you in that manner."

"If you keep doing that, I'll punch you. Demon or not."

Subarashi raises their fingers to their mouth nervously, "P-Punch?"

Hachimenroppi snorts loudly. "Hibi can't stop themselves, but I say do it anyway."

"Why not?"

"For fuck's sake, you do know nothing." The red demon snarls, crossing their arms. Their overly long sleeves hang limply and make them appear more childish than imposing. "Subarashi sees the future, all the time. How else would they know what to say or when to be right here before I sent you back?"

"My apologies again. Have I not introduced myself?"

Hachimenroppi growls with a heavy, exasperated shrug, their sleeves swinging with the force and slipping up enough for Shizuo to see that the demon's got more than one arm hidden in there.

Celty's the first of the two of them to return to her senses. The flooding of thoughts in her mind halts when she notices the minute rise and fall of the blond's chest. She falls to her knees, fingers frantically moving to his pulse point to feel for his heart. It's there, to her relief, steady and subdued slightly. Shizuo's eyes are still empty and lifeless and his body is far too cold to be simply paralyzed again, but if his body is otherwise fine then perhaps he is too? At the very least physically.

Izaya croaks out a gasp and recoils his fingers as indent-like cuts bloom open across the blond's neck. There's a phantom pressure on his skin in the shape of a hand grasping his neck. Celty summons a blade to slash at the air by Shizuo's neck, but it doesn't appear to do anything. The strangulation last for moments far too long for the duo, but disappears all the same. The dullahan's helmet turns as she looks over the two demons for any indication that it was due to one of them, however they're both still figuratively at each other's throats.

"[Izaya,]" Celty squeezes the brunet's shoulder comfortingly. "[I think Shizuo's okay, he's just not here.]" His body appears dormant, his consciousness elsewhere, not unlike her own situation with her head and body. Whatever Delic did sent him somewhere else and, more importantly, out of Psykhê's reach, which had made them furious.

The informant sees her message through his teary eyes but still trembles like the last leaf in winter, retracting his hands to wrap his arms around himself. Celty isn't certain if he's still in shock or just cold, but regardless, Izaya swallows and starts to calm down with the action. His eyes narrow after a quick wipe as he regathers himself, something cueing the brooch to spark in that instant. Izaya's head sharply turns towards the two demons still fighting amongst themselves and rises back onto his feet with the help of one hand on the floor to keep his legs straight.

There's a faint noise of glass chipping against the point of a nail, followed by a loud crack. More of the skin around Delic's eye has broken apart, the lines in his cheek fully cracking open like two halves of earth during a quake. The chipping skin fades and disappears with a rush of static, revealing more translucently contained electricity underneath. The cracks spread and multiply as more breaks apart.

"It's been so long since I've seen you, Dēloun," Psykhê casually jokes with a vicious grin. They rear their hand back with a twirl of their wrist before swinging it back down, summoning a new horde of needles and sending them flying at the blond demon. With the distraction in place, Psykhê's lingering fog coils around the blond's ankles, intending to tighten and drag him at their first opening.

Delic jerks his partisan in front of himself, rapidly spinning it between his fingers and deflecting Psykhê's weapons elsewhere, numerous stabbing into the floor around his body. The weapon continues spinning as he rotates his arm back to his side. His fingers tightly snap closed around the staff and his hand jolts down with the momentum, stabbing the spearhead into the floor a centimeter next to his foot and dissolving the fog with a surge of sparks. Psykhê recoils into themselves for a second as Delic's eyes refuse to leave them, even in favor of aiming his weapon.

"You're out of ideas," Delic says smoothly, both voices reverberating in sync. A crack that cuts into his mouth splits the skin apart as he talks, showing no alternate mouth underneath. "I know this for a fact, Psykhê." He tugs his spear out of the floor easily, giving it a twirl to right its head upwards, and begins walking forward slowly. "You could give up now-"

"I refuse!" Psykhê exclaims, almost shrieking with contempt for the thought.

Delic stills, his neutral expression disappearing for a petite smile. "I believe that...I'm happy to hear that, because I wouldn't've allowed you to."

When Psykhê speaks next, Delic does so as well. Their voices harmonize together, oozing with their variously pitched hatred for one another. "I'm not leaving without you."