Jokes, Whims, & Coincidences
Chapter Five, in Soviet Ikebukuro
Tekichu Sosa: Plethora Affected Chance
The next exhibition that I was taken on happened to go through Ikebukuro.
Now don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic as hell about meeting Celty. The fact that something like a dullahan could even exist would have been enough to put me on a proverbial sugar high, but meeting one was almost too much. It was probably good that I didn't see her without the helmet, cause that much excitement would have probably killed me on the spot. My heart would have exploded, or something.
No, the point is that I was now in the middle of Ikebukuro, Izaya long gone out of sight. We had accidentally gotten separated earlier due to my lack of attention, and I was still roughly in the same area. I had contacted him via text to bring up the situation. He had pointed out that it was nearly time for lunch and that we should just meet up at Russia Sushi. I actually knew where that was, having eaten there multiple times, but there was only one more problem.
I had no idea where I was.
So, essentially, I was lost again. The rational thing to do would have been to text Izaya and ask for his help, but I wasn't exactly inclined to the idea of having him save me from my own stupidity. Sure, he would do it, though if I had hired me, I would have been fired for not knowing my way around my place of residence.
I didn't know why I cared so much about the damn job, but there was no denying I did. I didn't need the job, I didn't need the money. I could probably still hang around with Izaya anyway, though the job made that easier. Plus it was the essential equivalent of getting paid to hang around with someone. But the truth of it was that I actually liked having a job, just because it gave me something to do all day. And I liked this job because it gave me much more options than any other profession I could think of.
Not to mention I had way to much pride to admit that I was lost.
My pride did go a little too far, I will admit, mostly because I refused to ask anyone for directions. I was more miffed at myself than anything, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this. Even so, I almost wished that I would run into Masaomi so he could show me the way. Or at least I wanted to run into someone nice that would help me without really having to ask.
The Universe did grant me my wish, albeit it was only the running into part. I literally bumped into someone, distracted by my internal bitching. I pulled back and bowed, quickly stating my apology. I may not have liked humans, but at least I would apologize when my own humanity got in the way. Then I thought that maybe I had gotten my entire wish and just might be able to get some help out of the situation. So I straightened myself up to look at the person I had encountered.
He didn't seem happy, and I couldn't blame him. Having someone run into me for apparently no reason would have pissed me off, too. But at least I had apologized, right? That should have been worth something. He was a big guy as well, and I wouldn't be lying if instinct wasn't acting up, sending fear through my brain. This was the type even my deviant mind couldn't dismiss, no matter what logic I applied.
Something about him just oozed animosity.
I shook the thoughts off, actually taking an observant look at him. His hair was blonde and slightly tousled, the almost wavy strands going wherever they pleased, but not sticking up. Brown eyes rested under the yellow, and I vaguely wondered if dye or bleach was involved. The pair of dark blue tinted sunglasses that had formerly adorned his face had been tucked into the collar of the man's… bartender uniform?
I blinked, the odd choice of attire giving me pause. Just because it was unusual didn't make me consider him as a weirdo, cause, hell, who was I to talk, but it piqued my curiosity. Anyone that went around dressed like a bartender in the middle of the day had to be interesting. Either that or it was some weird ploy to attract customers to a particular bar. I turned my head around, seeing no such establishments in the area. My immediate reaction was to grin.
This place was like a market for fascinating toys.
Then I remembered I had a certain sushi shop to get to soon, and tossed the ideas in my brain. Both reaching my destination and gaining entertainment could be done together, though it almost seemed far too easy to do. Even so, I decreased my grin to a normal smile, figuring I'd scare him off otherwise.
"I really am sorry," I said, making sure my voice sounded apologetic. I had to tilt my head back in order to look at him properly; he was at least ten centimeters above my height. "I wasn't paying too much attention to where I was going. You see, I've kind of gotten myself lost, not that wandering aimlessly was helping." I performed a nervous laugh in an attempt to dissolve any tension. "I know I'm in no situation to ask favors since it was my fault, but would you mind telling me how to get to Russia Sushi?"
I stared at his face, considering running away if things went bad. "I could tell you, but I'm not sure that's the best idea," he remarked, voice deep. I gave a slight glare at the comment, because I had even asked nicely and apologized twice. Then I realized his brown eyes were different from Izaya's, the comparison coming from apparently nowhere. Not only was their color deeper, but they gave off a friendlier vibe than their unforgiving counterparts. All former traces of annoyance were gone from his expression. "If you have no idea where to go now, you'd probably just get lost on the way there. I'll take you."
"That's not necessary," I retorted, reigning in my own irritation. If I wanted to accomplish either of my intentions, I had to keep calm. It was just his choice of words that irked me, not his tone. "I mean, I've caused you enough inconvenience. No need to go out of your way."
"Nah, it's no trouble. The place is just a few blocks from here."
I ignored his smile, which made him look pretty attractive, to be honest, in favor of my internal turmoil. Just a few blocks? Just a few motherfucking blocks?! I was that close and I didn't know it! I decided on the spot that I would spend my days off memorizing this goddamn town, no exceptions.
"Well, if it's not too much trouble…" I agreed, no acting required to make my voice come out as pathetic. I was far too exasperated with myself to even try to handle things on my own. Plus, the travel time (short as it may be) would provide an interval to further acquaint myself with my subject of interest.
"Not at all," said subject of interest assured. He then turned around, gesturing for me to follow. "Come on." I tailed closely behind, determined not to get separated again. At least this time I had an easy target to focus on; the blond hair stuck out above other's heads with ease due to its owner's height. In comparison to Izaya, who had probably perfected the art of melting into his surroundings, this was a definite improvement.
I started to recognize where we were, familiar buildings lining the streets. I also realized that I still knew nothing about my escort, which put a damper on my second set of intentions. Any worry I had about this man was gone, since he seemed a nice enough guy. I mean, he was helping out someone who had bumped into him. I figured trying to attain his name wouldn't hurt.
"Um, thanks by the way," I said, now walking beside him. He shrugged it off, signaling that it was no big deal. "I'm Tekichu Sosa. That is, if you give a damn." I watched as he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, taking one of the items to his mouth. Smoking wasn't my favorite habit in the world, but I didn't say anything as the small flame from his lighter lit it up. He took a drag, exhaling the smoke before answering.
"Heiwajima Shizuo."
I blinked in recognition of the name, though I was unsure of the source. After mulling on the topic, I realized I had come across the name on the Dollars message boards, subject of many rumors. However, I couldn't remember any of the rumors for the life of me at the moment. That and I knew I had heard it somewhere else. Just where was the question…
"Shizu-chan!" I exclaimed, the pieces coming together in my brain. Izaya had been muttering to himself earlier about how 'Shizu-chan would just have to deal with it' earlier, albeit I had no idea what "it" was. Obviously the two knew each other if a nickname like that had come into existence. I was just about to ask the connection when I noticed Shizuo's expression.
There was no denying he was angry—utterly fuming, really—and I wondered just what I had said wrong. Shizuo was glaring at me with such intensity that it was a wonder I hadn't combusted yet. He opened his mouth to speak, but another voice interrupted him.
"Sosa-chan~!" Izaya sang, and I whipped my head around. Shizuo and I had come to a stop in front of the restaurant, and Izaya was now hanging out the door. "Took you long enough to get here; I'm already done eating. What'd you do, get lost?" He laughed before appearing to finally take hold of the scene in front of him. "Oh, looks like you met Shizu-chan, now doesn't it?" His smile didn't waver in the slightest.
Shizuo's expression, however, had definitely altered significantly. If he had been angry before, he was lucid now, though his gaze had shifted to Izaya. The cigarette he had barely begun to smoke had been subjected to torture: snapped in half before being crushed under Shizuo's shoe. I stared in morbid fascination.
Instinct told me to run, but I told it to fuck off.
"Hey…" I started when I realized Shizuo was talking to me. "You… Sosa is it? You know this bastard?" All the earlier friendliness has dissipated, and the words were growled. However, I remained confused.
"Yea, why?" I asked innocently, mostly because I technically was. I had done nothing wrong towards this man. All I could consider was the fact that if I was going to be hated simple for being associated with Izaya, he must have done something overly horrible. I wasn't surprised in the slightest by that concept.
"That's not a good idea, Sosa-chan," Izaya remarked. Before I could even get my mouth open to question his statement, he spoke again. "Catch," was his command, and I fumbled to grasp the take out box he had just hurled at me. By the time I finally had a decent hold on it; Izaya had taken off in a run down the street. Shizuo rushed past me to follow.
"Get the hell out of Ikebukuro!"
"Take a lunch break, Sosa-chan! I'll find you when it's safe!"
I stared in awe at the scene before me, particularly because Shizuo had chosen to pick up a sandwich board that had been idly advertising one of the nearby shops. The poor thing was now being hurled through the air, its target seeming to be Izaya's head. Izaya dodged and soon turned a corner, Shizuo following out of my sights. The only remnants of the sandwich board were the scattered wooden fragments sprawled across the sidewalk.
I soon realized how hungry I was and ignored the commotion in favor of sitting my ass down on a nearby bench to eat my free lunch.
Long dark brown hair that was the same shade as mine and reached to the waist, straight short bangs. A highly unusual dress-looking piece of clothing, probably homemade, though no less appealing than anything you would see on a department store rack. A hemline that went in a low-angle diagonal cut across the chest to below the opposite shoulder, and pastel dies of yellow, green, and purple in defined chunks of color. Highly contrasting black ballet slippers with their ties extending up to the knees, and yellow eyes as impossible as the orange ones I held.
Izaya was still nowhere to be found, but at least I still wasn't lost. I had actually taken to memorizing some of the nearby streets after eating my sushi bento (which oddly mostly consisted of otooro, but whatever; food was food), and was progressing quite nicely. And on the latest street that was mostly devoid of people, I had happened to find this.
The young girl, who couldn't have been no older than fifteen if her height and breast size were any indication (which wasn't exactly fair, but I digress), appeared to be waiting for someone. She leaned against one of the railings that surrounded a grouping of plants, wistfully staring into space.
I never took it for granted that I would find someone of interest every day, because that was a mentality that would only lead to my disappointment. But that didn't mean I wouldn't take advantage of discovering more than one fascinating subject per day, either. In my eyes, something like that enticed a feeling akin to that of a child receiving extra presents long after the initial occasion was over.
But anyway.
The young girl was most certainly interesting, and I wanted to play. It was a natural reaction considering that my first new toy had effectively been stolen by Izaya.
I thought about how to get myself involved without seeming like a creeper or something along those lines, but eventually decided to be straightforward. I was going to be viewed as "odd" at the least, and I had stopped caring what people thought about me long ago. Even if she had a more extreme reaction to me, what did it matter? One little schoolgirl's opinion really didn't matter.
"Hey," I greeted, simplicity at its finest.
The girl paused and considered me, obviously surprised that I was speaking to her. "Hello," she calmly answered back, and said nothing more. No 'Should I know you?' or 'Who the hell are you?' was uttered. Only an abnormal combination of calmness and curiosity was reflected back at me. Sure, I gave the own reaction often myself, but seeing it from someone else seemed surreal. Like someone was stealing my lines or somthin'.
"Tell me something," I requested casually, though I was waiting for something to go wrong any second. The people I had tendencies to encounter seemed to share the factor of quirks that went far beyond the imagination. "Are you interesting?"
Her head cocked in a fashion similar to my own, and I wondered if I was looking into some odd form of mirror. Then again, if she was anything like me, that would have been fantastic. I had always wanted to play with someone even similar to me (meaning Izaya was a terrific discovery), but if there was some other entity that embodied all of my intentions, I could only be dreaming. At least that was what I thought. Her cool voice didn't waver in the slightest.
"What do you mean?"
What did I mean? When people were interesting, I knew it, but explaining it was hard. If you asked a child why they liked a particular toy, they would more than likely come up with a nonsensical reason, meaning they just did. That could be used to describe my preferences in people. But I felt a need to apply logic to the situation, if only for the reasoning that it would make explaining things easier. The only questions I didn't truthfully answer were the stupid ones. This was no such question.
"Well, let's start off simply," I stated, feeling like I was about to give some form of lecture. "What I say may waver into my personal opinion rather than fact, but that doesn't really matter. Sometimes the things you conclude can be viewed as fact simply for that reason, depending on your mentality. But where was I? Oh, that's it. Anyone that's human holds the potential to be interesting!"
Her face showed consideration, but she spoke much quicker than what I thought she would. People usually took a little bit to get adjusted to what I was talking about, granted I hadn't given too many people this explanation. "What if you're not human? What if I'm the little white rabbit that leads you down a hole?"
Her honesty was audible in her voice, meaning she was actually curious. Whether this marked her as something un-human (my experience with Celty ultimately had made me consider the possibility) or simply someone with a different consideration process, I didn't care. Either way, even both, would have been just fine with me. All the more fun that way that was what I thought. That and hearing a reference to Alice in Wonderland so casually like that was naturally going to confirm my initial suspicions and catch my attention.
Figures when I went to open my mouth to say so, my conversation interrupted again. In the exact same manner as before, nonetheless.
"Sosa-chan!" Izaya's voice resounded again, happy as usual. There were no angry shouts or flying objects trailing after him, and he wasn't even bothering to run, so I could only guess that he had safely escaped from Shizuo. I was about to tell him to go away so I could continue playing, but then I remembered something.
He got it. Why was I thinking that he needed to be shoved out of it?
"Izaya-kun!" I replied with a brightness to rival his. I turned the girl around quickly, a sound of surprise coming from her throat. I swung around her thin form; hand on one of her shoulders to support myself in the process before leaning most of my weight on her. Despite its slight build, her body supported me fairly well. I grinned at my boss. "I think I found us someone interesting!"
My little girl's face had gone from apathetic to some form of terrorized. The yellow eyes were open wide as she stared at Izaya like he was the worst thing on Earth, which may or may not have been true. I pouted. Why did he have to know about all the fun people before me? He could have at least told me. No, it seemed like he didn't know her, since he was looking her over as I had done none too many minutes ago. So why...
"You think so?" Izaya remarked casually, as if we were discussing dinner plans, and I was set to nod when it happened.
The word I think she screamed was "Senpai," though I honestly had no clue what that had to with anything. The other point was that she had disappeared as my support, running away with a speed that would probably have her tagged for the track team in an instant if a recruiter saw it. Her form had jerked away without my expectation, leaving me collapsed on the pavement with no other option than to just watch her desperate sprint in the opposite direction Izaya had approached from.
"You wouldn't happen to be dead would you?" Izaya questioned at my lack of movement, no real concern in his tone whatsoever. So he wouldn't care if I died, huh? I nonchalantly flipped my employer the bird. The concrete felt exceptionally comfortable at this point in time. "Get up…"
"Hai…" I complied, quickly regaining my position in the vertical alignment of the world. I stretched my arms into the air, feeling the bones slide into place. My fall hadn't really made anything dislocate, just ended in some less than comfortable positioning. "She seemed really scared of you."
"Indeed she did," Izaya remarked, shrugging afterwards. "It beats me what that was about, though. I've honestly never met her in my life. I just suppose something about me inspired a form a fear. It's odd; people usually don't run away from me until after I've done something."
"Smart girl…" I muttered.
Hehe, this chapter is one of my favorites. Though, oddly, despite the title, I don't include Simon at all... My bad.
A thanks to Alwaysblu and PhoenixBreaker90 for your reviews! I promise that i don't abandon stories, I just put them on hiatus/take breaks to work on other things to keep my creative momentum going. This story has a long. long way to go, so I hope you'll stick with it.
But really now, who is this mysterious girl and why is she so afraid of Izaya? She's really one of my favorites to write, so you can expect to see more of her in the future~
Next time, questions are asked, humans are discussed, and a certain chat board is introduced! Please look forward to it!
