Chapter 3

Izuo: Izaya X Shizuo

Warnings: None.

Rating(This chapter): K

Note: Hello! I'm really pumped for this story! Thanks for the reviews and all the ones who added this to their favorite/ subscribes list.

July 22, 1998

No matter what anyone said Wednesdays were the most boring slowest, and horrible day in the week. Not only was it the middle of the week, a day that meant the week was half way done or half way started depending on how one looked at it, but it also meant that a stupid drama Orihara Izaya's family loved would be on. Consequently meaning they would force him to watch and listen to them gush about it. Even if it was on at five in the freaking morning. And that was why when said male awoke on the third day of his class being in Kamikitayama, he was quite gleeful to see his watch read 7: 54 a.m.

Fully rested, despite his group not getting back last night until 8 and not sleeping until two in the morning, the raven haired teen was even more cheerful to see he was the first one awake despite needing to be at the food hall by 8: 05 a.m. Izaya liked watching his classmates rush to be on time, some would say he was sadistic for loving to see their struggles, but to the teen he was simply observing different human reactions to tardiness. 'For example,' Izaya thought as he went through his morning rituals, shivering a bit at the cold, 'Tanaka Hiro will awake in less than a minute and once he sees the time he will scramble and trip over his bedding.'

Indeed, just as Izaya was brushing his teeth, a mousy brown haired boy was tumbling into another teen as his foot had caught on his bedding. The other boy, Yamada Bon, shot up in pain mixed with surprise and in doing so, throwing Tanaka off him. The two loud groans of pain woke three other occupants and Izaya watched in amusement as those three had different reactions. Their reactions lead to a domino type effect in waking others, each teen with varying reactions to the time, 8:01. Izaya was dressed, uniform and all, by the time everyone was awake. Almost red orbs observed this almost chaotic room, watching as Shinra lazily moved to get ready, the only other calm person besides Izaya.

At exactly 8:05, Izaya strolled into the food hall. He was a bit surprised to see that more than half the room was full, though the raven haired male chalked it up to Inoue-Sensei(1) being there. The teacher was both creepy and strict, most students fearing him as he seemed to take pleasure in punishing any wrong-doers. The raven haired teen was glared at a bit, said teacher's swallow black eyes shooting daggers but didn't say anything as Izaya was not late.

Less than a second after Izaya had taken a seat at one of the long tables, Shinra plopped next to him. The raven haired teen did not question how his glasses friend was able to even get ready and to the dining hall in under four minutes, partially due to being used to it and partially from watching his classmates get their punishments from Inoue-sensei.

"But Sensei! We were not even a minute late! This is not fair!" Izaya was pleasantly surprised to see it was Moto Hibiki, a usually shy and skittish teen that spoke up.

"And what made you all so late? Lights out was at 9:30 and so you all should have gotten a lot of sleep. All of you have cleaning duty and Moto-san you also have detention." Inoue-sensei all but loomed over them, his words were spoken like acid and no one complained, all just nodding.

Izaya turned back to his breakfast, bored once again as he realized that everything he expected, other than Moto Hibiki speaking up, happened. There was no point in engaging Shinra in conversation as the other teen was still half asleep and Izaya felt no need to converse with anyone else.

'Seems like another boring day.'

For Kishitani Shinra his day had been anything but boring. Okay so it may have started out as boring, with nothing really interesting happening and no discoveries, but currently he was having the time of his life. Even if he was lost in the middle of a forest with rolling fog all around and it felt like it was below zero. Oh and his foot was stuck under a root that he had tripped on. The dark brown haired teen had been collecting samples for the project his class had been assigned when he realized he had wandered deeply into a forest. A dark, foggy, cold one at that. Barely any light came in from above, the towering trees made sure of that. Not only was the forest dark but quite too, almost too quite; no birds chirping or rustling of leaves. Anyone else would have been scared shitless, yet Shinra found he couldn't be. "Why?" You might ask.

The answer was in the form of an almost translucent teen in front of him. With long almost flyaway blond hair, the roots just a bit brown, Shinra almost thought he was a foreigner. However, the brown eyes and notably Asian features made Shinra able to deduct that the teen was Japanese. The blond was tall, almost six feet, with not exactly milky white skin but not tan either and was neither overly muscular nor skinny, leaner. He was wearing a black and white hakama(2), with no sandals or any type of foot wear. A type of feather light seemed to surround him as the two engaged in a staring contest. Shinra could tell this teen in front of him was not human. How? He wasn't sure but it was just instinct.

"Leave." The blonde's voice was soft, a bit rough, yet, in the quite of the forest it seemed to be loud.

"You're not human." Shinra stated, not paying much attention to the order he had been told.

"Yes. Now leave." The blonde's voice was still soft but a bit firmer.

"I'm Kishitani Shinra. Can you do anything? Like magic or make things appear?" Shinra was almost bouncing on the dirt ground, excited to meet someone that was like Celty, not human.

"Are you even listening? Leave. Get out of this forest." The blond was starting to sound frustrated, his brown eyes narrowing. And with it the air seemed to grow a bit stiff.

"Fine, Fine. But..um..I'm kind of stuck under this root." The glasses teen pointed to his trapped left foot. The blond male's eyebrows knitted but he came closer to Shinra. The brown haired male watched in fascination as the spirit, Shinra decided to call him that for now, gripped the root and easily pulled it out of the ground.

"Now get out." The blond turned his back, thinking the teen would leave. And Shinra would.

"I'll be back!" But that didn't mean he wouldn't come back.

July 27, 1998

Five days. It had been exactly five days since Izaya noticed Shinra's odd, odder than normal, behavior. The brown haired teen was excited, so much that he had not mention Celty as much as he usually did. In fact, the teen had actually not mentioned her without prompting from Izaya. Shinra had also been disappearing and reappearing at odd times, sometimes coming back a two in the morning or disappearing during an outdoor activity. Izaya had tried to figure out, follow him, but each time he had been blocked by other's need; things he couldn't escape if he didn't want to seem suspicious.

Finally, after they ate dinner, Izaya cornered Shinra in a deserted hall way. The sun was just starting to set and so the halls were a bit shadowed, though it was light enough to see the others face.

"Hello Izaya." Shinra seemed to be trying to look anywhere else but his friends face, he wasn't the best liar.

"I know you know what I want to ask you." Izaya watched as the younger teen tried looking anywhere but him, knowing that the teen would try to lie.

"I have no idea-"

"You have not mention Celty or exclaim how much you would love to find someone like her, a supernatural being."

The two teens stared at each other, Izaya could see the brown haired male was trying to come up with a response. However both knew he didn't have a solid, good excuse. Unless….

"You met one?" Izaya blinked at Shinra, his friend blinking back and slowly nodding. It wasn't that Izaya didn't believe in anything other than humans, he had met Celty, it was just he never actually thought Shinra would meet another supernatural being, especially in this tiny village.

"Yes! You have to meet him Izaya, he's super strong, though he has a bit of a temper." Shinra's eyes were practically glowing with excitement, "I wouldn't mind taking a blood sample or even dissecting him. I wonder if I can even do that, I mean he seems pretty transparent but at the same time I haven't seen him past through things."

"Then let me meet him. We can go tomorrow when we have that free period before dinner." Izaya said. He was starting to grow a bit excited, a spirit was just a human that had died and so technically this spirit was one of his lovely humans. How exciting.

Shinra agreed and so the two friends continued on down the hall, the glasses teen enthusiastically speaking of the spirit. Of his amazing strength, blond hair, and his ability to navigate through the confusing forest surrounding the small town.

From the five days Shinra had known Shizuo, as the spirit had told him, he found the male to be quite volatile. And with Izaya's teasing and chaos-loving attitude, Shinra should have realized that the two would be like water and oil. But right now the teen was more excited about introducing Izaya to Shizuo to really think about it.

Heiwajima Shizuo curled up on his bed, a torn and tattered thing that didn't provide much warmth, but then again since 1903 he didn't need the warmth as much as he used to. Actually, he didn't really need sleep either; but Shizuo found himself liking to just curl up on his bed. It made his life, afterlife, seem much more bearable. To pretend just for a moment he was back in 1899, with his little brother and before his hell began. Just for a moment he could almost feel his brother's hand in his as they walked back from the store, could almost smell the mochi(3) from an old obaa-san's(4) little shop, could almost hear Kasuka's soft laugh that actually sounded more like a hiccup, could almost-.

Shizuo's mocha eyes snapped opened, he didn't want to remember those things. The after-times as he called the years after 1900, in fact he didn't even know what year it was. The blonde's, an effect from his revenge, flowing hair shifted as he sat up; he wouldn't be getting sleep for he knew that if he tried to it wouldn't be fluffy dreams he would have. Instead, Shizuo found his mind wandering to that Shinra kid. A really odd one.

Most beings; children, adults, elderly, animals, didn't seem to like him. They were weary of the blond, and he couldn't blame them. Who wanted to be near a monster? One that had the stains of blood from over 600 people, even though he didn't regret it, and monstrous strength he couldn't really control. Most living creatures sensed his bloodlust that was still with him. Oh and someone who was dead and shouldn't even be on this plane of existence. Yet, Shinra didn't seem to even sense (or care) the presence of bloodlust the blond still carried with him. In fact the brown haired teen seemed fascinated by his strength, always asking questions.

Shizuo found he couldn't really dislike the teen, despite denying it he was in fact, lonely. Mizuko wasn't much company as she seemed to sleep a lot, saying something about how housing all the souls exhausted her. Shizuo didn't quite like going into the village, too many memories and new things that brought much pain. And no native humans would come into the forest as stories of ghost kept them out. No animals resided in the forest, at least not near the shack that Shizuo called home, as they sensed the curse ground and probably his cursed soul.

The mocha eyed teenager curled his legs into his chest, resting his chin on his knees as he gazed at the waning moon. It was a clear night, the moon casted lights into his small room and almost fragile looking form. Shizuo smiled slightly at a memory of his brother asking for his to tell the story of Kaguya-hime, telling him bluntly, even at the age of 4, that their mother sucked at the story but his Nii-san was much better. Shizuo had only been seven at the time and was actually very proud that his brother thought he told the story so well.

"Nii-San, tell me the story of Ka…Kaguya-hime." A four year old Kasuka asked his seven year old brother. This was before he became almost emotionless looking and so his eyes were wide and practically begging.

"Why don't we ask mom? She knows the story better than I do." Shizuo offered, he didn't know the story too well and wasn't too sure he could even make it sound good to the four year old.

"Her voice is horrible when she tries to tell a story, I like your voice better." Kasuka was always blunt but this statement made Shizuo's eyes widened. He felt a swell of pride and so he swiftly nodded.

"Ok…let's see..One day a bamboo cutter found a shining stalk of bamboo. Once he cut it open he found a baby girl the size of a thumb nail. The bamboo cutter, who was childless and old, was overjoyed to find such a beautiful baby girl and took her home to raise her with his wife. His wife and he named the girl Kaguya-hime. The bamboo cutter found that after he adopted the girl, every time he cut bamboo a tiny nugget of gold was found. The bamboo cutter soon became rich and Kaguya-hime grew to a woman of ordinary size and great beauty. The bamboo cutter tried to keep her away from outsiders but the word spread of her beauty. Soon five princes came and asked the bamboo cutter for Kaguya-hime's hand in marriage. Eventually the princes managed to convince the bamboo cutter to tell a unwilling Kaguya-hime to choose from them. And so Kaguya-hime told them to bring back some impossible items. Three prince's tried to deceive her but she saw through them, another gave up after he encountered a storm, and the last one became very injured.

Eventually the emperor came and asked Kaguya-hime to marry him and she rejected his offer, telling him she was not of this world. The emperor left but the two stayed in contact, Kaguya-hime rejecting him every time he asked her to marry him. That summer, whenever she gazed at the moon, her eyes would fill with tears. Her parents worried greatly but Kaguya-hime could not answer them until one day she finally told them she was not from Earth but from the moon and had been sent to earth for her protection. She cried because soon it would be time for her to have to leave. Guards were placed around the Bamboo cutter's house but when the heavenly beings came to get Kaguya-hime the guards were blinded by the light. Before she left she wrote sad letters to both her parents and the emperor, leaving her robe for his parents and a small bottle of the elixir of life for the emperor that she gave to the guard at the door. When a feather robe was placed on her all her compassion and sadness for the people of earth disappeared as did she.

The guard took the items back to the emperor and as he read the letter he became sad. The emperor asked where the highest mountain was in which the guard answered it was the Great Mountain in the Suruga province. The emperor ordered his guards to take the letter to the top mountain and burn it in hopes its message would reach Kaguya-hime. He also ordered the elixir to be burned as he didn't want to live forever without her. And thus Mount Fuji was name from the kanji for immortality."(5)

Shizuo smiled at his little brother's soft even breaths, pulling the blanket higher over Kasuka before he crawled back in his. He remembered Kasuka's words and another swell of pride rose in his chest. The seven year old smiled to himself before falling asleep, dreams of princesses and forests.

Shizuo smiled sleepily at the memory, one of this better ones, and softly laughed when he remembered what Kasuka had said the next morning.

'The princess didn't really love the people of earth if she so easily forgot her love for the people she left behind.'

Even at that age, Kasuka could speak almost fluently and was very smart. Shizuo felt his eyes closing involuntarily, feather memories of that night in his dreams.

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Notes:

(1)-Sensei: teacher, doctor, professionals like lawyers.

(2)- Hakama: Traditional Japanese clothing. I would look them up as I can't really explained well.

(3)- Mochi: Japanese rice cake. And a must try! especially with Azuki bean or peanut butter. Be careful and chew well.

(4)-Obaa-san: someone else's grandmother.

(5)-The whole story on Kaguya-hime was from what my parents told me and Wikipedia since I couldn't remember everything. The story will have a slight impact on this story.