Seven Ghosts

Part Two

Chapter Eight

One Ghost

[{Orihara Izaya]}

The breeze is nice, so I know it will whip around wildly up that high as I look upon the massive structure that is Sunshine 60. Shizuo is nervous, as he lights his third cigarette in a row. I am evaluating the surface, debating which maneuvers would be best in order to scale the enormous skyscraper. My guess is a series of Dynos and Muscle Ups followed by a Kong Vault to reach the roof. Getting down will involve a lot of Cat Grabs, Thiefs and Rolls.

Six months ago, this would have been nothing. But I feel my body dread the exertion, despite how light and loose I feel from the barrage of narcotics in my system. I tried to take enough to keep me at optimum functionality without needing to pass out from sheer knock-out factor. But I am still nervous. And yet …

"I'm excited," I tell Shizuo, approaching the wall and leaning my foot against it, eager for the thrill of Parkour once again.

"You're crazy," he replies. "If you fall, you're dead, you realize that, right?"

"Worried?" I tease.

He mutters something I think is an affirmation and takes another drag. "What am I doing here, pest?"

"You're to take me to Shinra if I fail, or drag me back to Shinjuku if I succeed. Neither of which will be pretty." I chuckle, as if my failing strength and speed, not to mention vision, is only a small obstacle to overcome. It isn't. It is massive. Unless I am looking head on to something I can barely make it out, and even then it's a little blurry. I'm hoping any handholds I find are close together so I can fucking see the things. The possibility of falling to my death is becoming more real by the second.

And I'm relishing the opportunity.

"Your Ghosts," Shizuo mumbles, as if he is reminding himself that this is MY choice, MY ghost to put to rest, not his. No say over this, none whatsoever. It makes him uneasy. He crosses his arms. "You're hoping to fall, aren't you?"

"Ne~?"

"That way you won't have to face your other Ghosts."

Despite being a devilishly hansom ogre with no brains, Shizuo is remarkably intuitive. "Why yes, that is what I hope for. But I won't do it on purpose if that's what you mean. If I can overcome this, then the other Ghosts don't stand a chance!"

Shizuo doesn't believe me, but he nods. "Sure. So you're going up an over? Or up then strait back down?"

"Up and over," I decide, preforming a few stretches to make sure I'm as limber as I can be for this.

"I'll meet you on the other side, then."

"Sounds good."

I start a few yards away, then sprint up the wall, cat grabbing window ledges and fire escape ladders, muscle-upping and preforming Dynos to scale higher and higher. It is just as exhilarating as I imagined it to be, and a feeling of immense thrill and satisfaction overwhelms me. A heady laugh escapes me and I push myself harder, scaling faster and doing more dynamic leaps and climbs to challenge myself.

Then the world starts to spin.

I'm about forty stories up when I pause, suddenly winded and dizzy. I am hanging off a ledge with one hand, the rest of my body free in the air, and I breathe in slowly. The wind is whipping and a bit cold, as I had predicted. The handholds which had been instinct to find are now impossible to see – I'll have to feel them out from here on.

Good. I didn't want this to be easy. I wanted to hurt by the end of this.

Yanking myself upward, I continue, forcing my body to comply with my taxing commands. At last I Kong Vault up over to the roof and immediately vomit.

BODY: stop it, you idiot! ME: no way! BODY: I'll make you, you bastard. ME: I'd like to see you try! BODY: here goes!

Another few minutes of heaving and gasping for air as spots bloom in my vision and I briefly consider taking the elevator back down.

No. That's not what I came here for. I came here to push myself farther than I have ever pushed myself before, and that's what I'm going to do. These Ghosts are to be put to rest. Forever. If I can't handle the first hurdle, then I can't do any of them.

And … I really needed to speak with my father one last time.

I spit and start to sprint over the roof, pop vaults and cat straddles punctuating every movement to get around what is in my way. This is the easy part.

The city below looms out beneath me once I reach the other side. I am dizzy, and the adrenalin shock courses through to my feet and makes my heart pound even harder. My mouth is dry, my eyes are bleary with tears and my hands and feet are tingling from that beautiful chemical fear that gives me a kick every time.

I'm addicted, and I love it.

Had Shizu-chan not been below, awaiting my return, I might have just thrown myself off the top, setting my spirit to flight as my body would plunge downward and break into a heap of blood and splattered innards below. But I have Ghosts to chase away. I have Shizuo to love, even if he won't love me back. It's nice that he's pretending anyway – endearing. I can't end it today.

I reverse vault over the side and make grabs and swings on the way down. It is significantly more difficult than the way up, as my balance is all out of whack, and my feet are leading the maneuvers now, not my head or hands.

I pause and catch my breath three stories from my goal of the street below, Shizuo watching not so patiently for my safe return. "Not bad," he calls up to me.

"I … I don't feel good..." I manage, holding my chest as it tightens. So close... not here...

"Come on, I'll take you back to your loft. You're not even thirty feet away!"

"I … I need to breathe for a second," I tell him, squeezing my eyes closed to try and shoo away the dancing spots and vertigo.

"Come on, pest, just do it." He is wracked with anxiety, I can tell. He wants this over with. So I do something stupid and reach for the next platform before I'm ready.

My foot slips, and I cannot grab a hold of anything to stop my descent. My body automatically saturates me with adrenalin, but my mind is strangely serene. So this is what it's like before you die... I remember thinking as gravity wraps itself around me and pulls me to the earth at a lethal speed.

I don't hit the ground.

I hit something, and it hurts, but it's not pavement. It's a pair of ridiculously strong arms, and I knock the owner of said arms to the ground. My wrist hits the sidewalk from the awkward roll and I hear a crack before pain shoots through to my shoulder in a blistering wave … but we survive.

There is a moment of silence between Shizuo and I as we lay on the sidewalk for a moment, wee-hour pedestrians giving us curious stares. There is blood spilling out onto the ground and I feel giddy. "Are you okay?" he finally breathes.

I stumble to my feet and hold my forearm, grimacing. "Um … ow."

"Sweet Jesus, Izaya!"

Shizuo is up in an instant, unphased by a little under 100lbs ramming into him from thirty feet up. I lean into him, completely inebriated on the high of pain, post-vertigo and success. "I'm fi~ine ..." I drawl, in a daze.

"Come on, the hospital isn't far from here –"

"Nuh-uh. We're going to Shinra."

"The hospital is closer."

I grab his vest with my good hand and go nose to nose with him, squinting so he knows I'm dead serious. "I'm NOT going to a hospital. We are going to Shinra for this, understand?"

Shizuo sighs, knowing he's not going to win on this one. "Fine. Come on, can you walk?"

"No, not really..."

He hefts me over his shoulder and I drift off into the land of unconsciousness, relishing the smell and feel of him beneath me in a benign manner.

My first Ghost is dead.