Characters: Kyoko Mogami, Section Head Takenori Sawara, Izaya Orihara, Shizuo Heiwajima, President Lory Takarada

Chapter Two: In Which Shizuo Gets a Job He Didn't Really Want

Kyoko wasn't about to lead the guys to the President right away just because they had asked her to. If they wanted the truth, they'd go the long way around, just like she had.

So she called her advisor Sawara-san, explaining that she owed a favor to them, and they had tea in the café. Just when they got there, Kyoko had a horrible thought and rushed to whisper to Sawara-san while the boys were still out of earshot, "Maria-chan is..."

"Not here. She never watches the men's auditions," Sawara said quietly, and rubbed his forehead, remembering Maria's intrusion on Kyoko's first interview. Hmm. Why not the men's auditions, when her favorite actor was Tsuruga-san? Oh well. He shrugged.

"Oh, that's good, then..." said Kyoko, subdued, and motioned the men over. "Sawara-san, these men are Izaya Orihara and Shizuo Heiwajima."

"Hajimemashite," they said, and bowed properly.

"And this is Takenori Sawara, my manager."

Izaya smiled, knowing that this was just one last step until he could meet the president himself. Shizuo was less patient. His eyebrow twitched. Izaya got to the point. "We were wondering if we could ask you why we failed the tests."

"I should think that would be obvious. Having a fight as your main talent introduction, and then...the President is a sucker for exceptional sappy stories. That's why the phone test is designed that way." Sawara sighed. "Several talented people have been failing it recently. But we feel it was a bit of a waste to let them go because of their sad pasts..."

Hearing herself being spoken of that way, Kyoko's eyes burned and she turned her face sharply to the side, away from view.

Izaya tilted his head. "That style of acting is not what we do best, it's true. However... I decided to apply since I heard of a new section for some of the more talented failures..."

Kyoko turned to ice. The blue spirit immediately converted to a pink fairy out of sympathy and clung to Kyoko, affectionately, trying to cheer her up. She'd known this outcome was an option, but — this was backfiring in a big way...

"Hm, really?" Sawara rubbed his chin. "Yes. Although I should hardly think the section is suited to males. It is called the LoveMe section, after all. You know the uniform is pink, don't you." He was rather surprised, but not precisely pleased. No one had ever volunteered to join LoveMe before, despite their best advertising. That wasn't surprising. The only people actually in the section had been summarily sentenced there. He had been about to talk to Lory about that, in fact—changing the section's image to appeal to boys—this would definitely ruin that plan. With this success, Lory would not be convinced to change the colors for at least another year. Still, it couldn't be helped.

Snapping out of her self-pity, Kyoko thought forcefully, as if that color isn't just as offensive to the women in the section as well! She snorted. Her irritation was lost on Sawara, however, who was now thinking ruefully that perhaps a few more members wouldn't be a bad idea after all, although these new members were hardly ideal.

"We shall do everything in our power to make it into showbiz," said Izaya, smiling widely. Shizuo looked at him alongside, but said nothing.

Sawara considered. "If you don't mind, then...we shall consider it." He launched into his speech. "Here's what you must always remember: If jobs don't come your way, go out and get them! You cannot be passive when your job is to be loved by people! As a LoveMe member, you must anticipate what other people want and do those things with love so that they're impressed with you and ... will ... love you." That over, Sawara breathed a sigh. It was almost word-for-word what the president would say about the section itself, and yet it never sounded as impressive as when Lory did it himself.

Shizuo felt slightly sick.

Sawara rummaged in his work satchel and withdrew the LoveMe pad and stamps. "These are what enforce the system. If you do a good job, to the best of your ability, then you can get positive stamps. Get enough of these, and you will earn yourself a new job in showbiz. Mind you, there are negative stamps, too. Kyoko-san, how many jobs have you had?"

"I've lost count," she said sullenly, then shook her head and pulled herself together. "No. Actually, five or six. There was Bo, the angel, Mio, and Natsu, and other odd jobs." She frowned. "Ah, do you think Kuon counts...?"

"And you aren't a full star yet?" asked Shizuo suddenly.

To her own consternation, Kyoko let her gaze fall to the floor and blushed furiously. She gritted her teeth and bore it, not replying.

Shizuo dropped his eyes, slightly abashed. I should have known better than to say that, with my brother Kasuka... or should I call him Yuuhei?... being in the business. Not that Kasuka cared about my questions—well, he doesn't care much about anything tangible—and never answered anyway... He apologized.

Sawara was unruffled. "Kyoko has had little time to become a full star yet. She dropped in middle school, but now she's taking high school night classes. We are very proud of her. We wish her to continue building her career slowly."

Kyoko sniffed and smiled, as the praise melted away her earlier gloom and she forgot her embarrassment. "Do you really think so? Sawara-san! I'm so glad!" she said, clasping her hands together.

"Don't get a big head, Kyoko," Sawara said, slightly alarmed by the sudden mood swing. Kyoko immediately subsided, however, when she remembered the boys in the room. Izaya's eyes swiveled to reassess her, and came away slightly perplexed.

"So then. Shall we ask the president?" Izaya said smoothly. "Since it has not been decided whether boys can enter the section?"

"Yes. Quite so. Lory won't mind, right now." Unless he's playing with his pet snake Natsuko again, but he should be doing his work, at that. Sigh. Sawara stood. "Kyoko, I believe you can go on home now. I'll see you in the morning tomorrow."

Kyoko sprang to attention, with an abrupt sense of relief. "Yes, sir. Thank you. Good night." She bowed and left. She truly hoped they wouldn't get this job. Although light as a feather, the fairy still clutched her sleeve with quaking intensity. Her thoughts were beginning to churn, and they weren't particularly coherent, but they did tell her one thing: trouble.

A moment later, Izaya left as well. He wasn't particularly interested in seeing Lory personally. Izaya was 95% sure that Shizuo wouldn't let himself get out of hand with the President, but he did not want to be around if that happened, either. His presence exacerbated Shizuo's problems with his temper, and without him, Shizuo had a better chance of holding himself together. And he did want to see whether Shizuo could stick this out. Izaya gave Shizuo and Sawara-san his number, and told them to call him if Lory agreed to let boys join the LoveMe section. Then Izaya went back to his apartment with Namie, and steeled himself for another microwave-reheated dish of revenge, which was somehow worse than last week's leftovers served cold.

And so Shizuo went to see the President. As Sawara had predicted, Shizuo didn't have to wait long: Lory Takarada was seated by his heated Olympic pool in a casual summer yukata, playing with his pet Natsuko the boa constrictor.

"Ah, this young man," said Lory Takarada. Shizuo blinked from the shock and awe. "Yes, I have high hopes for you. Sawara-san?"

"Yes, there is potential," Sawara agreed. With reservations. I never know what exactly you, Takarada-sama, are thinking, and although those auditions were daring and spectacular, even you couldn't have missed that these two are a huge risk.

"Then you want entrance into the LoveMe section," Lory practically sang.

"Excuse me, Lory, but the move is unprecedented..."

"Yes. Indeed, it seemed to me that these young men lacked that which is most essential to their growth as actors: the desire to love and be loved by their audience! And yet they are desperate to join the LoveMe section, you say?"

"Yes. And so I have brought Heiwajima-san to you to discuss the matter. His partner," (Shizuo winced) "Orihara Izaya, has returned home already," Sawara-san summarized.

"Oh? Heiwajima-san, are you related perhaps to Kasuka Heiwajima-kun?"

Shizuo didn't blink when Lory 'forgot' the stage name. "Yes. Kasuka is my brother." Younger brother. But that would probably give Lory pause.

"Wonderful! A brother-duo in the company!" Lory clapped his hands and Shizuo grimaced. "We expect ever greater things from Yuuhei. So, Sawara-san, I hereby grant permission to boys joining the LoveMe section. Is there anything else that you require, Sawara-san?"

A complete image do-over? No, later... it wouldn't make sense after this bizarre success. Sawara said, "No. I think Heiwajima-san had some questions, however."

"Of course." Sawara left, and Lory got up from his lawn chair, carefully disentangled himself from his pet snake Natsuko, and turned to Shizuo. "What do you wish to ask, young man?"

Shizuo removed his shades. "I actually didn't come here to join. My ... partner ... Izaya did." Shizuo leaned forward and growled, "I don't believe in your philosophy. I don't agree."

"Believe in what?" Lory grinned happily.

"Love! Love! What kind of love? What possible motive could move someone to love people one knows nothing about?" Shizuo folded his arms, frowning.

"Yes, indeed!" said Lory, beaming. "It's a human need!"

"Human...need?" Shizuo said derisively, searching his pockets for a toothpick, then gave up and shook his head. "It's the height of folly! A lot of fakery, to pretend to love a lot of people!"

"Nonsense." Lory laughed. "If you trust your fellow human beings so little that they can't tell real virtue from fake, then you have quite a lot to learn, young man."

"You'd be surprised," said Shizuo, smoldering darkly. He remembered some very sordid incidents from his years as Tom Tanaka's enforcer while loan collecting.

Lory took that into due consideration. "Of course there are cases of human foolishness. That is humanity! However, people are usually wise to the real thing."

"I think that's just because they're too trusting in general," Shizuo objected. "If you believe some fake with the real all the time, can you really differentiate just because you always believe in the real? Also, I know some people who wouldn't tell true love if it bit them on the nose. That argument doesn't work."

"I will bet that the people you knew were fooled by romantic love. Ren'ai, koi, or even suki, for example. When one thinks about them, these words for love are rather self-centered, aren't they? People fool themselves all the time. In the words of a famous US president, I forget which..." (Lory flapped his hands lazily) " 'Ask not what your country can do for you. Instead, ask what you can do for your country.' "

Shizuo narrowed his eyes. He remembered that saying.

"An understandable mistake; romantic love is often confused with lust. Romantic love has its place, but in the context of the LoveMe section, it is the wrong focus." Lory waved Shizuo to a seat, and sat down himself. "I mean real love, of course."

Shizuo sat, and crossed his arms. "Explain yourself. Don't you think that saying romantic love is not real is just a bit arrogant?"

"Of course you are right. I misspoke. Strange of me — romantic love is my favorite kind to watch being acted..." Lory shrugged.

Shizuo rolled his eyes. "Which just means that you still think it is a fake. Continue."

"You misunderstand me again. I did not mean what I said," Lory said it smoothly, but inside he was a little frustrated. Passion did not always make him rational; he had to remember that.

"Fine," Shizuo snapped.

"What I have been trying to say, and have been tripping you up with the way I have been saying it, is that the philosophy of the LoveMe section is not romantic. Will you let me explain?"

Shizuo was somewhat mollified, and he managed a nod.

Lory breathed a sigh of relief. He had been about to lose him. Shizuo didn't swallow bait easily, he could see that.

"In the days of the Greeks, there were several words for love. Agape, or sacrificial love, is the one we are talking about here. It does not discriminate by how deserving of love the receiver is. It hopes, yes, but never demands a reward for its efforts. There are no concerns with position, status, family or rank; it can exist between any two people. There is no exact equivalent of the concept in our language, which is a real oversight made by our forefathers, I think." Lory leaned back and steepled his fingers, for once appearing serious.

"Isn't romantic love unconditional?" Shizuo asked cautiously.

Still hooked on that? "Normal people usually lose interest when the other party doesn't love them back," Lory replied, serious, with no trace of scorn. "That is true love, and I have yet to meet anyone in my life with that kind of all-inclusive love that does what is good and necessary for the other regardless of what the other feels for them. It's too perfect. Although such a beautiful concept..." Lory lost focus.

Shizuo coughed, and Lory saw that he was still confused. Lory made another attempt. Maybe the experiential side of the equation would work. "Perhaps an example. Haven't you ever wanted to do something to your utmost before?"

"Of course," said Shizuo gruffly.

"So you have. Who was it for?"

Shizuo's thoughts immediately thrust him into the memory of the milk-woman from the corner store, the one who had inspired, no, exhorted him without a single word to not only get stronger, but to learn to control himself. It was all because of his own damned mistake. His eyes grew moist. He hadn't thought about her for a while, not since he had last been in an irritable mood.

It wasn't really a memory of pleasure; he remembered how hopeful and determined he had been; but the shame at his failure overlaid everything. At that age, Shizuo never knew where to put his strength, but he always longed to use it to do something really good. So when he saw some suspicious guys roughing up the milk-woman, she who had been unswervingly kind to him, he had hit them with everything he had. Even at the age of seven, that was a lot. The bad guys were knocked out — but so was the crushed milk-woman, and her store which she had worked so hard to save had been completely trashed. He hoped that he hadn't been the one to knock her down, but he couldn't be sure, for at the time the only thing he saw was red. He'd made everything worse. Of course, he knew now that he had been too idealistic for his ability at the time. Like the most tragic of superheroes, he in his hubris had attempted to save another, and had destroyed them instead.

If he thought too much, he was going to shed tears, and if he wept, he would snap. Everything that he worked so hard for would be ruined... Get control of yourself, Shizuo. Stop that. It's all in the past anyway. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

Lory continued, "Why did you try so hard for that person? Yes, you loved them—but deep down, you really wanted them to love you back; and so you worked as hard as you possibly could." Lory looked at Shizuo, who was locked in a rictus of grief. "Maybe too hard," he said quietly.

Shizuo glanced aside and Lory waited until his jaw had stopped working, his face had stopped contorting.

Lory began again. "It sounds selfish, wanting that, but you would have done something even if they never had noticed. However, your joy and pride in the work would have more than doubled if they did. This emotion is all the proof you need to know that the state of being loved is both need and want. It can't be helped." Lory leaned forward slightly. Shizuo did not dare to make a sound.

"It is my belief that forgetting this essential need could ruin any person. It will ruin an actor, because the relationship between actor and audience is symbiotic, but anyone will admit that the success of the relationship depends more on the actor's efforts," Lory said, as quietly as he knew how. He waited for a moment before he continued, evenly and lightly, "That is the realization you lack, and that is why the section is called LoveMe." Lory chuckled. "I believe even Kyoko hasn't heard such an exact explanation for the name of the section, so you may consider yourself lucky."

Shizuo's mouth hung open with surprise before he came to himself and shut it with a sharp snap. This — this profound stupidity, it threw around the word "love" as if it were candy and yet —

Shizuo gulped hard, though it was too late to keep this peculiar twisting mixture of abject misery and hope from showing on his face. His hands were shaking. Yes, he knew this feeling. It came from deep within, raw with longing. This was what he had been wanting to do, and never known how to, without hurting... He wanted to correct it, to make it right. It had such energy. Too much energy, in his hands—

Lory said softly, "I can offer you only one condolence. This kind of love is never mistaken. The false is sometimes taken for true, but the truth behind the real thing is never taken for false. Of course, that is only if the reasoning behind one's actions are understood... Communication is important."

"I— I see," said Shizuo at last, still shaking. Every muscle seemed to be quivering. In sympathy, Lory laid a hand on Shizuo's shoulder. Without thinking, Shizuo snapped his arm back, elbowed the President, and whacked him into the Olympic swimming pool. The President made a tremendous splash.

Shizuo threw himself to his knees and touched his head to the ground (though it was wet) and broke out in silent sobbing, shoulders shaking. He heard the splish-splash of water, and then a wet hand patted his shoulder and a river of water flowed from the soaked President, and drenched Shizuo's black vest. For a moment, he couldn't understand it; — the President was laughing.

"Yes, yes, well, if you had very much of that love to begin with, you wouldn't be in the LoveMe section at all, would you," said Lory, half-consolingly, and casually re-adjusted his sopping yukata like it was no big deal. Shizuo bawled all the harder, like a child. Lory laughed again, and kept laughing, a hiccupy hysterical laugh — he couldn't even do that properly, because his sympathy kept getting in the way — because he couldn't quite believe what he saw and yet was delighted and it was hysterical. This poor, poor man. Seeing one's worst fears almost nearly come true and escaping with an almost comical result — Lory thought in his place he would have dissolved in tears himself...

Gasping, Lory managed to say, "You're not alone. And really, you didn't do that badly." He took a deep breath and calmed down — poor Shizuo probably didn't know what to make out of Lory's hilarity — and he did his best to sound unconcerned but soothing. "Did you know that in her first audition, Kyoko actually broke the test phone? She was sure she had failed after that! You weren't nearly as extreme. In one interpretation of your cell-phone drama, you thought you were giving the girl a little tough love, or perhaps a way out — what you lacked was that it was clear that you had no love for her to begin with. Izaya's performance was much more concerning. Reminiscent of Kyoko's disastrous audition," he said, remembering it fondly. "Positively hateful, wanting to be feared as such, and with none of her vulnerability..." Lory could talk about plot, characters, and the movie business for days on end, if one let him.

Shizuo gradually pulled himself together and tuned out Lory's rambling. He sat up and wiped the last streaming tears from his face, trying not to dwell on the loss of his composure, and thought.

Shizuo thought about Tom, his boss, whom he had served with loyalty for — a couple of years now, wasn't it? He thought about Celty, for whom he did favors, and listened to her problems and, at her prompting, shared his own. He thought about Kadota and Togusa's van full of deceptively cheerful ex-Blue Square gang members. He thought about Simon, who always had his back and probably understood his struggles best, although he was equally sure that Simon approached life with a wisdom that Shizuo could never hope to achieve. He even thought of the newest trio of the Raira high-school kids — Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri, for whom he felt a strange fondness and sadness... He hoped they wouldn't make the same mistakes his peers had. Never mind; he was resolved. He wanted to do his best for them, and he would show the world.

He knelt, lifted himself to his feet, and stood. "I'll do it!"

"Good man!" Lory laughed and clapped him on the back. Bemused, he thought, Arise, my good and faithful servant. I hereby dub thee, Sir Strong-in-the-Arm. Shizuo's butler vest now had three large wet handprints on it. "Let's get you hired!"

A half-second — Wait... Wait just a minute... I mean... Shizuo wavered.

Shizuo had meant to say that he believed Lory, that he understood and wanted to take his teachings to heart. That he would never forget, and he had things that he had to make right. But he'd forgotten something else...

"I don't want the job," said Shizuo, wilting suddenly. He couldn't just quit on Tom like this. He wasn't good with people. He didn't understand what he would be doing. He'd never taken an acting class in his life. And what if he cracked on the job, like he had with the President just now? "I have — I have obligations!" He insisted desperately, running his hand through his slick bleached hair.

At this point, that was simply ridiculous. Lory laughed good-naturedly. "Of course you do, Heiwajima-san. You see, someone has to pay for repairs to that vending machine you threw onto the stage..." Lory clicked his tongue. "And your brother has a reputation to uphold, too, you know."

Shizuo turned absolutely sheet-white and clutched his head. Yuuhei—! Kuso, I don't know how much those things cost! I've never had to think about it! I've never been identified as the vandal before...! Not even for the street signs! Oh, and just when Celty warned me to stay away from the police. Shit. And Izaya had actually warned him about this. That bastard. I am going to get him—! But Shizuo had lost the primal heat of his fury, and he knew it. He didn't have the heart, and he was too frightened of what could come next.

"The job is worth a nice sum of yen, Heiwajima-san. Just for one month, Heiwajima-san; I think you can cover it. Just one month." Lory winked. Shizuo had to admit he was a good sweet-talker. "On the other hand, the pay is good, and the insurance is great. I guarantee you won't want to leave... And I don't want to let you go."

Shizuo couldn't bear it anymore. At the moment, from this man, to hear him use his last name (Heiwajima meant "Peaceful Island") was like he was being taunted for all that he was not. "Please, just call me Shizuo." He shuddered in horror and signed all the paperwork Lory pushed at him. Lory was so pleased, he hummed and dithered and drove Shizuo batty, but Shizuo no longer had a sneaking suspicion that Lory was not the pushover he looked at first sight. It was a certainty. The man was positively cunning for all his romanticism.

Kyoko could have told him that.