A/N: Please read this starting note—there will only be one other in Focus 10, and there's some important data here readers need to know!

First, if you haven't read PrettyWilde's story 10 Seconds, this one won't make any sense to you, so go read it, first! Updates will be every Tuesday, though because this is a shorter story than my Catalyst Array series (I wasn't trying to build a world landscape in this one), I may not bother with any double posts besides the first one to kick off the story. And maybe the final chapter and epilogue, though I also might just post them separately.

Also, obviously, I don't own DRRR!, and I'm not going to post this notice again, since it won't change between now and the last chapter.

Second, it's been several years since I first wrote this, and it was supposed to have been a collab between myself and PrettyWilde wherein I would write the story line, she'd make edits and changes, I'd do a final polish, and she'd post it on her account with 10 Seconds. She helped with the first couple chapters, but when she realized where the story line was going, she informed me she couldn't post something which could create controversy. So, it didn't get posted, and for a long time, I set it aside, not knowing what I should do.

About three months ago, I found this again in my computer files and decided, "What the Hell?" I've re-read and made some edits to it, but other than the noted couple of chapters, none of this is PrettyWilde's work. I'm still giving her the title (Focus 10 was her choice to tie it in to 10 Seconds), but all responsibility for 'controversy' is mine. She and I notably have different ways of presenting data, including word choices, so this won't have the same flow and vocabulary as 10 Seconds did.

To be clear, unless PrettyWilde is still on FFN and wants to endorse this as the 'official sequel' to 10 Seconds, this counts as an 'unofficial' sequel. And even if she endorses it, the 'controversy' is still all mine!

Also, even though this introduces several new characters, not all of the DRRR! cast shows up, so if someone's not there, it's just because they didn't really fit with the story line after the changes which came with 10 Seconds. I'm also not going to use most of the Japanese honorifics, because they weren't used in 10 Seconds, so it would be strange if I started using them now. There is one notable exception, which will come up a few chapters in and will be in effect with the particular character.

Most of DRRR! Season 1 still happened in this story, but you can scrap everything past that. I'm stipulating that fact because otherwise a few points in this won't make sense.

Now, on with the story!

Cold Proposition

It was a quiet day in Orihara Izaya's office...And said information broker couldn't have that being an enduring term to describe things. The man's auburn eyes shifted from Yagiri Namie, working quietly on filing at her desk, to Ryuugamine Mikado, lounging in a chair, working on a project on his spare computer across the room. Izaya sighed inwardly as he halfheartedly checked his multiple cell phones (he had three currently) for messages, requests, and reports while he spun on his office chair at his desk. The man periodically let his gaze settle on the woman and the boy, musing over ways to get them to...interact again between checking his cells. That should solve his problem of a 'quiet' day.

It wasn't that they didn't talk with each other on occasion, or even help each other out—which was the real shocker—but no matter how hard he tried, lately Izaya couldn't antagonize them into more entertaining outbursts, as had occurred before. For about three months, the two had seemed to be hyperaware of the other's presence, delightfully so, and the older male had been almost guaranteed some kind of conflict, even if he hadn't actually instigated it. Namie had invariably won those rows, either by Mikado running to Izaya for protection or by the boy just opting to return to Ikebukuro. After that, for another two months, the boy's personality had inexplicably altered, and to a severe degree; Mikado began winning their 'fights'. For the past three months, the pair had stopped responding to any subterfuges to incite their past antagonism and regarded one another in an urbane manner, though such civility retained great tension.

The dark brown haired, brown eyed woman still had a short temper, and clearly still held on to her past vilification towards the boy, but it was as though Mikado had grown on her during those two months. The first signification of change had come when Mikado had gotten to the apartment-office early and only Namie was there. Izaya had yet to find out what had happened, but it had left the woman staring at the boy with wide eyes and lips pressed together when he'd arrived. On the other hand, Mikado had been studiously ignoring the secretary's look, reading a book off one of Izaya's reference shelves, like the one from which he'd gotten the book about the Midnight Man eight months ago now.

For his part, the black haired, blue eyed boy was actually completely uninterested in Namie, ignoring her dislike of him, and pretty much had been like that since the first day he'd bested Namie in their verbal quarrels. It wasn't that he completely flouted her presence or any such thing, but to him, there was no longer any dislike, apprehension, or uncertainty. Effectively, he'd found a balance with her, and as a result, complete indifference in regard to his opinion of Namie. Most of their arguments since then had ended with Mikado basically telling her not to push him, and she had capitulated.

Pausing in his spinning, Izaya sat facing his beloved panoramic window, staring out over the cityscape as he smirked at the phrase in his own thoughts to 'not push' Mikado.

He'd started teaching the boy a bit of knife fighting for his own protection soon after they'd met Shiki about seven months ago, much to Mikado's chagrin. Of course, Izaya knew the boy hated it, since he hated anything physical, but it was a way both to help assuage his worry for Mikado's safety and to 'play' with him in the meantime...Only, it hadn't quite turned out as the man had expected (as usual when Mikado was involved), and the boy had begun revealing an 'aspect' Izaya had never before encountered in their time together.

The most spectacular emergence of that 'aspect', now that he thought about it, had announced itself three months ago, while he'd been training Mikado in how to fight in the delimited quarters of a building—his own apartment—while Namie was there:

Mikado & Izaya

As Mikado fell to the floor with a yelp, Izaya smirked, "Tch, you must be messing with me. You took down the Midnight Man after all; someone capable of accomplishing something so imposing as that could surely handle themselves with a blade."

The taunt made Mikado look up despondently and say, "But I'm not athletic! I hate physical stuff! You know that." He was clearly trying to get out of the lesson. It was quite amusing, since he did it every time, and it never made any difference to Izaya.

Knowing he could goad the boy back into focus by cutting his skin, Izaya jumped forward and sliced, putting a minor wound in the boy's shoulder. It drew blood, though wasn't deep or dangerous—but it had the desired effect and a foot impacted with his gut hard enough to throw the man back. Mikado, whose eyes now held a bland iciness, rose as Izaya braced himself against his desk, switchblade in one hand while the other gripped the edge of the desk. When the boy was standing straight with his knife in his 'damaged' hand, Izaya smirked and shifted his position to be ready to move on a moment's notice.

"See, that was so much more impressive, Mikado," the information dealer chuckled, meeting the boy's cold gaze, even as Namie stared at them without shame, frozen across the room.

"You must have a death wish, Izaya," the boy replied with a faint, vacuous smirk.

"I think we both know just how ludicrous that notion is. I've only provided you with little more than the basics, so behaving with such incredible arrogance is quite an unwise decision. The only thing you've manged to do thus far, aside from complain, is kick me in a knife fight," the man chuckled haughtily.

"Did it ever occur to you I'd develop my own tricks and skills from your basic teachings—ones which could take you down?" Mikado questioned with a now-very-prominent smirk, though the eerie counterpoint to said smirk was how his eyes still held that bland iciness which gave nothing away.

An instant later, a deeply frowning Izaya had his switchblade to Mikado's throat as he as much as hissed, "Don't count on your skills being effective against me. I am on the path to divinity, after all."

And before he could blink, or even twitch, a blade was cutting the skin at his own neck hard enough to draw a drop of blood. "Why? Because then I'd also hold the status of a God, Izaya? Does that thought actually scare you?"

With his lips drawn into a fine line, the man answered, "You'll never reach such a status, so I have nothing to fear. You're just an impressive, entertaining human, slightly better than the majority of the populace." The very idea was entirely preposterous, and Izaya almost wanted to laugh—almost. For some reason, he couldn't do so.

"Oh, I hit a nerve, didn't I?" the cold Mikado asked in pure, smirking amusement, the first actual expression Izaya had seen in his eyes, then shifting to a more dangerous expression—as a hard point dug into the man's belly in warning.

A glance down showed that the boy had placed a second knife blade's point to his gut, and Izaya realized he'd been had this round—it had never occurred to him the boy would be prepared enough to have a second blade during their spars. With a little not-so-light laugh, he said, "Now, now, cheating isn't a very attractive quality for you, Mikado. Aren't you the one who harps on doing everything fairly?"

"What's 'fair' in the Underground?" the boy asked curiously, his expression rather thoughtful. "You're the one who taught me the only way to survive in this world is by any means necessary, and to have multiple tricks up your sleeves to deal with anyone who gets in your face, so...Thank you, Sensei. I took the lesson to heart. And neither you nor I would be here now if I'd 'played fair' with the Midnight Man, so you don't actually have a right to complain. This one's my Checkmate."

After a drawn out moment of stodgy silence, Izaya laughed and withdrew his blade, taking a step back as he relented, "Well, I guess you've got me there. This time. Don't assume that this will become a common occurrence. This seems like a suitable point to end today's lesson."

"Of course," Mikado agreed—and his eyes became wide with his usual worry as he asked, "Are you okay? Let me get the first aid kit to clean your neck!"

"Take care of your shoulder, first," Izaya replied nonchalantly, going to his office chair and sitting. He turned the chair away from the room to—he hated to admit—pout as he mentally nursed his slightly wounded pride.

Across the room, Namie stared with her jaw hanging open and her face pale, then quickly went back to work.

Izaya & Mikado

Yes, it had been immediately after that when the woman had also begun resisting Izaya's ploys to draw her into a conflict with Mikado, the man realized. In other words, she had also likely seen that 'aspect' before, but never in so much glory—or whatever you would call Mikado claiming to take Izaya's place as God and threatening to stab him in the neck and gut. Well, more accurately, he supposed Mikado had claimed to become one alongside him, not usurp it from him entirely, but the fact really didn't lessen the sting. At all. It still felt to him like he was being usurped, but no matter how hard he attempted to define the reason for his reaction, it resulted in nothing.

Still, that 'aspect' of Mikado was singularly unique, because it did things it technically couldn't, and it created an aura exactly opposite to Mikado's usual self. Especially when one 'aura' threatened to kill a person and the other worriedly fussed over the injuries he himself had caused only seconds earlier. The pace at which the boy slipped into and out of these two 'personae' was alarmingly quick, almost to the point that if it were someone other than Mikado, Izaya would assume it to be an indication of underlying mental incapacitation. More interestingly, it couldn't be defined as 'multiple personality disorder', as Mikado remembered everything which occurred in both states.

The result of this combination of odd occurrences had been that Mikado's piece on his chessboard, originally the Black Queen, had been replaced with the White Queen. He could have chosen another piece entirely or left the Black Queen, he supposed, but the one which represented the boy best in the current situation was the White Queen, the polar opposite of the Black Queen. It wasn't looks he was basing the choice on, or it wouldn't actually have mattered; rather, it was the symbolism of their colors, as well as their functions.

In Europe and European-based societies, white was the color of purity and innocence, but that also wasn't how Izaya meant to reference the boy, otherwise he would have chosen white to represent the boy previously. It was a completely superficial view outsiders had of the situation, and nowhere near the truth, as Mikado had proven several times how 'impure' and 'wise' he was—he was on a completely different level from any other human, and that fact was becoming truer with the passage of time. It came in spurts and turned the boy cold, hard, and overly efficient and observant, and more athletically capable, even as he expertly became a Queen protecting its King from all threats, right down to the distant and highly dangerous ones and the very close and minor ones. No, 'purity' and 'innocent' weren't words befitting Mikado as he truly was.

Izaya idly wondered if, perhaps, Mikado was threatened by their difference in 'status' caused by Izaya proclaiming himself a God while still regarding Mikado as a mere human...Certainly not a train of thought he wished to dwell on at the moment.

As such, the more appropriate symbolism was that of the color white in Japan—it was the traditional color of death and mourning, a color speaking of spirits, demons, and all manner of highly unnatural beings and occurrences. The longer Izaya worked so closely with Mikado—coming up on nine months now—the more certain he was that Mikado was no normal human. Rather, he had the general volatility of some kind of wraith, what with his instantaneous shift between his normal self and his cold self. Yes, the cold Mikado was very dangerous to him, but that was part of the fun—and ultimately, it meant the boy fairly 'died' every time he switched, only to be replaced by another, and the only real option the information broker was starting to think it could be was some form of possession. The boy was tied to the spirit world, after all...It was beginning to seem as though the supernatural just flocked to him.

Maybe that was why the Midnight Man had taken so much interest in him, and not just because of his rule breaking?

Turning the chair to let his gaze fall on the younger male, Izaya gazed at him thoughtfully, musing about exactly what the deal with that chilling 'persona' was—only to blink as it looked like Mikado shuddered. A moment later, Mikado reached up to rub his arms with his hands like he was cold, and a moment after that, he got up, took a few steps away from his seat, and turned around to face it, looking worried and abashed. It was so odd an occurrence the man rose and headed towards the boy.

"What's wrong, Mikado?" he asked as he approached, curious over what had suddenly gotten to the boy. All he knew was that it was apparently 'the chair', not something on the computer screen, because it clearly wasn't the screen Mikado stared at—it was something in the space above the chair.

"...This might sound really...strange...but I feel like I'm being watched, and I'm getting chills like you wouldn't believe," Mikado answered shyly, moving around to different positions and distances around the chair. Both Izaya and Namie watched him in total confusion, Izaya pausing where he was so he didn't interfere with the boy's odd movement.

"I was staring at you earlier, on and off," the information dealer offered. He was fairly certain that wasn't the case, as he often observed the boy and his observation had never before had such a result. On the other hand, he was quite intrigued by what the mysterious cause could be. Interesting.

And, as he'd thought, the boy immediately shook his head. "It wasn't you—when you stare at me, it feels...assessing and somewhat warm. This feels...like ice and death. And whatever it is, it's right above my chair, and it's watching me from that one, stable spot, not from your direction." He then held his hand out above the chair—and gave a startled blink before he said, "I know there's air conditioning in here, but this chill isn't from that. Just—it's not. Whatever this cold is, it's stationary."

Joining the boy at the chair, Izaya held his own hand over it, not expecting to find anything—but his hand suddenly turned ice cold! He gave a puzzled frown, almost glaring at that undefinable space and the 'empty chill' coming from perfectly still air right there. Mikado had it right—either both he and the boy were absolutely, officially crazy, or there really was something there. Well, there was one way to test the theory, and he wasn't sure if he wanted it proved or disproved—for as much as he didn't want to be officially labeled as 'insane', he also didn't like the implication that something else was watching Mikado. Then again, he had just been musing over how the supernatural element seemed to flock to Mikado...and it seems it was proving itself again.

"Ne, Namie, come over here and hold your hand out over this space," he called to his secretary with a slight smirk.

With an audible sigh of annoyance, the woman got up and moved over, holding her hand out over the spot—and blinking, not in surprise, but in recognition!

"It's cold, all right. Standing cold," she said in a bored tone.

"Namie...Have you experienced this before?" Izaya asked her, a dangerous glint in his expression which told her not to avoid the inquiry or attempt to lie.

She paused, then said, "You may not have realized this, but both Mikado and I have felt it before, a few times over roughly the last two weeks, but never this stable or strongly, and never for such a long time—it would be a burst of cold which would last less than a minute, then disappear completely."

"Ne, Namie...Did it not cross your mind that perhaps it would be best to inform me of such strange things occurring in my own apartment?" the man had to ask with a cold smirk which made her shudder slightly.

"Because it was so odd, and you wouldn't have believed me unless it lasted long enough for you to feel it for yourself," the woman replied as coldly as she could.

The man's eyes then went to the boy, who still stared at the cold spot, and used the same tone and smirk on him, only to get no reaction at all, "And you, Mikado?"

"Honestly? I thought I was imagining things—it reminded me of the Midnight Man, so I basically put it down to something like a recurring nightmare, chills I was getting as a kind of 'memory' of that," the black haired boy answered absently, eyes still focused keenly on the phantom cold.

After a moment of silence, the information dealer asked completely seriously, "It reminds you of the Midnight Man? Do you think it found some way to regenerate or recapture some of those souls to stay alive?"

Giving his head a shake, Mikado replied, "I don't know. I don't think so, but I guess it's possible...But you saw, it definitely didn't look like it was able to do much of anything. No, it's probably something else? A Taker has to have ties to its victims, anyway, and since the Midnight Man got detached from its previous souls—all of them—it couldn't really access this world anymore, even if it somehow survived. And I'll admit this feels 'like' it, but not 'the same as' it, so it's probably something else."

With a sigh, the man took a few steps towards his desk as he began, "Let's see if we can—" Before he could finish, however, his door burst open, revealing...Shiki!

And as Shiki walked in, Izaya realized it wasn't just the man in the white suit, it was also two other men, one in a blue suit and one in a red suit (1). Just what he needed—a full-on Awakusu-kai interrogation! Well, he also couldn't avoid it, and it was exceedingly rare for them to visit him at his office, so it must have been an emergency. Normally, the only member of Awakusu-kai he had contact with directly was the man in the white suit, so for others to approach him at Shiki's sides also indicated the severity of the situation. As soon as his moment of assessment passed, Izaya immediately reacted in kind, smirking in false cheer as he headed for his desk chair.

"Well, well, well, this is an honor, isn't it? For three of the top Awakusu-kai men to visit me at my office, it must be important. So, what can I do for you, Shiki, Aozaki, Akabayashi?" the slender man asked, dropping extravagantly into his chair—and noting how Mikado had followed him to his desk while Namie returned warily to hers.

"What kind of progress have you made on the case we gave you two weeks ago?" Shiki asked in a cold, hard tone.

"Progress? I gave you the report two days ago, and there was no activity. As far as I know, nothing has changed since then," the information dealer replied with a quick blink, then a smirk. "So I gather something happened with Asuki Group?"

"'Something' is one way of putting it," the man in the blue suit, Aozaki, fairly ground out.

"Somehow I find it hard to believe you don't know what happened," Shiki added with another deep glare at Izaya.

"Eh?" the auburn eyed man had to frown in puzzlement. "The only thing I know about is that Dragon Zombie (2) planned on trying to 'get you off their turf', but I figured you'd be able to handle them just fine, and that was assuming they went against my advice to leave you alone. As far as I've determined, Asuki Group isn't moving at all, just gathering goods, weapons, and so on."

"You—" Aozaki began, fist clenched.

"It may seem odd of me to say this, but I suspect we may be the only ones who know about it, and that only because I was present when it happened," the man in the red suit, Akabayashi, put in suddenly, smiling a clearly false smile which no one, not even Izaya, could read through. He seemed cheerful, but the way he gripped his cane warned Izaya not to move, or he'd be skewered by the blade hidden in said cane.

"Are you talking about the attack on Mahoutou Company's office, or gallery, or whatever it is?" Mikado asked suddenly, making everyone turn to stare at him in shock, even Izaya and Namie. Realizing he probably shouldn't have said anything, he quickly waved his hands in something like distress and explained, "There's kids at my school who are in color gangs, and two of them are in the area of Mahoutou, so they knew there was a fight going on there in the evening two days ago. I heard them talking about it at school, and it's probably the first and only time the Blue Squares and Yellow Scarves talked with one another, rather than fighting—I mean, my best friend is one of the Yellow Scarves, so it's easy for me to overhear things they do. I just didn't know an attack on a company had anything to do with Awakusu-kai."

With a snort, Aozaki said, "Why don't you just tell us you found out about it on the Dollars website? We know you're a member, and probably its leader."

Mikado stared at him for a moment, then turned and glared at Izaya as he said, "You promised not to tell!"

"I didn't," the man replied, lips pressed into a fine line as he gazed at the three men across the desk from him and Mikado. "At least not this time. They found out on their own."

After a moment of silence, the boy sighed and nodded, then looked back at the men and said, "That's the thing—it's not on the Dollars site, even though I know at least some of those people are also Dollars members. It's like they're scared to write it down, but maybe that has something to do with how it wasn't on the news, either."

"Impossible!" Aozaki scoffed. "You'd be better—"

"Aozaki, I think it would be best to take young Ryuugamine at his word for the time being. We'll be able to take action against him later if we find he was lying," Akabayashi suddenly cut in—and Aozaki deflated, turning his attention back to the information dealer, instead.

"So, what happened at Mahoutou?" Izaya asked, a faint smirk on his face as he met Aozaki's gaze—he knew not to go overboard with Awakusu-kai, however.

"In short, a two-way massacre," Shiki said simply, and a long, stunned silence followed the words.

Notes:

(1) In the anime, Aozaki was portrayed as wearing a black suit with a red shirt and Akabayashi was portrayed as wearing a black suit with a blue shirt. Not only is this not how they were described in the original light novels, but it's the exact opposite, and WRONG, color associations (aka = red, ao = blue). As such, as in the light novels, I have Akabayashi dressed in a red suit with a black shirt and Aozaki dressed in a blue suit with a black shirt. Similarly, Shiki, who almost everyone reading this should be passingly familiar with, wears a white suit with a black shirt.

(2) Dragon Zombie is a motorcycle gang in Ikebukuro who Izaya hired to protect him at one point in the original story line. That never happened in the anime, though (unless it was just glossed over), and in this story, they're largely only made reference to, though they're present. This fact will actually be important in an incident later.