Alex pondered over his dinner. His fork clinked against the plate of food that didn't seem as appealing anymore. He couldn't get that last conversation with Anni out of his head. She'd been so kind as to wake him up with a call at some awful hour, crying.
"I remember it now. Alex, I remember Mom. I remember the accident, how could I…" she started off, barely audible past her muffled whining. He'd stayed up to talk with her until his alarm went off to wake him, but the loss of sleep wasn't what was bothering him. What bugged him was that he couldn't be there to console her in person, or smack her upside the head when she kept insisting it was her fault. He knew that this was coming, especially with how things had been going recently, but he still wasn't quite prepared for the rush of returning memories, or his sister's renewed anguish.
Alex simply did his best to stay calm, and support her. He'd had nearly a year longer to deal with this, and she was reliving it all over again. Anni sometimes managed to calm herself for a while, but it never lasted long before she just started bawling again. It never escalated again to the hysterics she called him with, but it was beyond maddening to listen to his little sister's wails, and be helpless to comfort her. By the time he had to leave and she hung up on him, she sounded like herself again, but there was probably another sobbing mess just under the surface. Such is how it was with her.
Alex cleaned up the remains of his dinner and decided to go to bed early, exhausted from his long day. She handled it better than before she left he decided as he tried to close his eyes. Hopefully she'll finally be able to accept it and move on.
-!DRRR!-
Varona, Shizuo, and Tom were sitting on the steps of the shrine, still talking as the group of girls came wandering up.
"Shizuo-san!" Mairu shouted as she ran at the trio of coworkers.
"Kururi and Mairu? Anni too? Huh? Akane?" Shizuo counted aloud.
Akane ran up first, shouting "Big Brother Shizuo!" Varona was visibly surprised as she watched him get up to greet the group, accepting Akane's hug.
"What a beautiful lady…" Kururi offered, admiring the russian blonde.
"Who is that? Can I hug her?" her twin asked, jumping excitedly.
"Better not" Shizuo answered.
"Thank you so much for yesterday" Akane said, pulling Shizuo's attention back and earning a smile.
"Ah, don't worry about that. It's more endearing for little kids to forget favors right away" he consoled, patting her head affectionately.
"Shizuo-san… Akane-chan… you know each other?" Kururi realized quietly.
"Ya! Who knew?" Mairu added.
"How about you? What are you doing together?" Shizuo asked of the little group before him.
"Akane-chan is Mairu and my junior at our dojo" Anni answered, seeing her small chance to get a word in.
"Mairu's dojo, so it's self-defense, huh? Good idea, it wouldn't hurt to learn that, I guess" he offered.
"Y-you think so? Then I'm gonna work hard at it!" Akane said with newfound determination.
"Anni, how are you holding up?" Shizuo asked, finally turning his attention to her.
"Well enough, don't worry about me. That's an order" she dismissed.
"Ya sure then? That's fine. We can talk at home" Shizuo agreed. Varona shot him an odd look from the side.
"Come to think of it, have you watched the news, Shizuo-san?" Mairu demanded in her usual excitement.
"News? About what?" came Shizuo's confused response.
"What the heck, he hasn't seen it" Mairu mused with her sister.
"Izanii barely survived-" Kururi reflected, only for Tom to finally step in and interrupt her.
"All right, why don't we get going?" he offered as he started walking.
"Ok" Shizuo agreed without hesitation.
Tom stopped for a moment before Varona on his way, saying "This next one has a wife and kids and could be tricky, so could you wait here for a bit?"
"Understood" she agreed just as quickly as her elder coworker.
As they walked away, Akane called "I'll be waiting till you come back, Big Brother Shizuo!" to their retreating backs. The girls left behind took up seats on the steps of the shrine again, save for Varona, who stood leaning against a pillar.
"I have a question" the russian blonde informed the lounging Anni.
"Ask away" came her lackluster response.
"Inferring from previous statements, is it true that you and Shizuo live together?" Varona inquired bluntly.
"Indeed. We're dating, so it shouldn't sound too strange" Anni answered with a shrug.
"Understood. I shall keep a note of this. Thank you for your cooperation" Varona said, seeming to lose herself in thought again.
"Any time. I'm more than happy to help, if I can" Anni continued. Mairu decided to take a chance to ask her own questions.
"If you're a friend of Simon-san's, does that mean you know Egor-san too?" she asked.
"I am astounded. I never expected you to be aware of Egor" Varona said in return.
"Wow… What a coincidence, huh?" Kururi added, silence falling.
"Are you a friend of Big Brother Shizuo's, Miss?" Akane broke the silence, only for quiet to fall again as Varona considered the answer.
"I deny being friends with him. Shizuo and I are merely colleges, nothing more" she finally decided.
"Hah? Is that right?" Akane wondered, her words drowned out by a sudden screech of tires. A small mob of about eight delinquent looking punks climbed out of their cars with masks on to approach the girls. They all stood in the presence of this new threat.
"What's this? This doesn't look good, y'know" Mairu chattered on.
"Kidnappers" her sister delivered as a verdict.
"We'll take care of the big ones" the first punk announced to his crew.
"You guys get the little brats!" the second instructed, approaching Varona and Anni with bags. Varona sighed. She seamlessly kicked both of those who'd spoken, one to the chin, and the other was swiped off his feet with a kick to the side of the face. Anni found herself under attack as well, so she flipped one of them over her shoulder as they made a grab for her. Those who had been designated to go after the twins and Akane weren't having any more luck. Kururi pepper sprayed one in the face, her sister finishing him off with a kick to the balls. Akane pulled out her stun gun to take down one of the fatter members of the attacking punks.
"A stun gun?" Varona asked, taking a moment to notice the little girl's toy.
"Nice work, Akane-chan" Anni complimented.
"Dammit, who are these people? Who said we could use them as hostages against Shizuo?" yet another of their attackers yelled. A punk tried again to land a hit on Varona, only to face her counter, which left him slammed into the ground. From there the fight was hers. The russian beauty went about breaking down the kidnappers, kicking their faces into pillars, weaving through their attacks, and disabling them with a ferocious grace.
"Th-this is bad! We're pulling back for now!" one of the smarter punks declared, starting to run. He found he was a little too late though, as some of his comrades had already climbed into the vans, and were screeching away just as they had shown up. "You morons! Hold up! Why…" he shouted at them, he and the other two left behind running after the retreating cars. They stopped in the road, with a clear view of who was returning. Tom and Shizuo were coming back, strolling around the corner a ways away.
"It's… It's… It's Shizuo!" one of the punks stuttered.
"We're gonna make you pay" another threatened as they all scurried away in terror. The girls were quiet for a moment. Varona was the first to speak.
"My answer to your earlier question… I was mistaken. Heiwajima Shizuo is my prey. Eventually, I will crush him myself. That is a fact" she said with her back turned to the rest.
"You can certainly try" Anni challenged quietly as Akane sputtered out her response.
"You… You can't!" the little girl yelled, running up to Varona.
"Akane-chan?" Mairu asked.
"You doubt my-" Varona tried to say, before Akane interrupted.
"Big Brother Shizuo… is gonna get taken out by me! I have to kill Big Brother Shizuo! But I don't want to kill him, so… uh… um… I-I've got to figure out a way to deal with Big Brother Shizuo!"
"You're being unclear. Please advise me how you can claim ownership over my prey" Varona ordered.
"I don't get hard stuff like that!" Akane explained, shaking her head. Her fists balled in frustration.
"Hey" Tom greeted as he arrived, alone.
"Huh? Where's Shizuo?" Mairu asked of him as Varona and Akane continued their argument.
"Shizuo is mine" Varona asserted curtly.
"He went for some smokes" Tom explained.
"He is not!" Akane objected in the same instant. "You can't lay a finger on Big Brother Shizuo, all right?" she shouted, taking everyone's attention.
"Huh?" Tom said in surprise as Shizuo jogged up.
"Sorry about that, Tom-san" he apologized.
"Oh! Big Brother Shizuo!" Akane greeted, running up to the new arrival.
"Hey, did you all get along ok?" Shizuo asked, giving her another fond head pat. Akane looked back at her rival, smug.
"I would say so" Anni answered.
-!DRRR!-
Anni wrapped herself snugly in her blanket and made a fluffy-one-armed-ball on the couch. Her head was pinned between the couch arm and her own ringing cellphone. Patience drained quickly as she waited for her brother to find his cell.
"Calling back so soon? Did something else-" he started in a panic, only to be clipped short.
"Shut up."
Abrupt silence fell on his end.
Anni burst into quiet giggles, though they only lasted a moment. "I seriously didn't expect that to work. Look, if you start freaking out, I'm gonna lose it again too, so get a grip, would ya?"
"Fine. I'm calm again, see? Now what's going on?" he sighed at her, finally with a somewhat steady tone.
"I want to come back home for a while."
"Are you sure? You don't have to, I can still come-"
"No, you don't understand, I want to visit Mom's grave" Anni asserted, cutting him off again.
"So you really are getting back on your feet" he mused quietly, relieved.
"I… I think so. Maybe. I might just be taking the first steps to get there…" she mumbled.
"Do you really not see how much better you've gotten? Little Anni, you wouldn't even talk about it before you left" Alex reminded her. She could all too clearly hear his proud smile.
"I guess I have gotten a lot stronger since I came here…"
"Hell yes you have. I didn't want to tell you this, but you terrify me sometimes. Seriously" he asserted, earning a giggle. "Now. Do you have any more clothes from home to make your trip back here?"
"Aahhhhh…" came her hesitant answer.
"Fine. I'll mail you some of the clothes you left here. You'll have to wait for them to arrive before hopping on any planes, alright?"
"Got it. Thank you, Alex. I don't want to think about what would happen if I tried to pass through the link wearing clothes from this universe…"
Alex burst out laughing. "You'd be trapped, naked, in a Japanese international airport! Even I couldn't put together a prank that perfect."
"Shut up" Anni shot back, muffling her own chuckle.
-!DRRR!-
That evening, Anni had the mind to get on Kanra's chat room and leave Izaya a slightly sarcastic belated birthday wish in private message. There was no way he would pass up looking over the logs, right? Either way, even if Anni disliked him, and enjoyed seeing him stabbed for the first time in the anime, she couldn't quite enjoy it after she found out it had been on his birthday. That just seemed a step too far, even for her grudge. So, she gave the most genuine well wishes she could manage, considering her own state of mind and who she was talking to. It wouldn't make him feel any better though. Maybe it would amuse him to see this odd behavior from her, but he certainly wouldn't take it the way she wanted him to. What prompted her to be so sympathetic to someone she hated while she was enduring her own little hell then? Was it really just a consideration for him being human? Was it some kind of guilt for not stopping it when she had so desperately wanted to stop Shizuo being shot? Even she couldn't figure it out. Izaya's going to have fun with this one then… Anni decided as she put her laptop away and traded it for her sketchbook. This time, though her eyes watered over repeatedly, she restarted work on her unfinished family sketch.
-!DRRR!-
Anni did something that surprised her best friend the next day. She pulled Maya aside after work and told her everything. From her past to the stabbing to her plans to visit home to how she felt about it all, she spilled her guts in an uncharacteristic burst of chatter that left Maya speechless. Then they were back to their meaningless banter and chatter. The skink found them, and the couple forcibly dragged Anni with them to karaoke for the evening, instead of allowing her to go back home and fester.
By the time she got home, her guardian was already lounging in his sleepwear, watching wrestling. She went right to bed, and slept dreamlessly.
-!DRRR!-
"Your package is here" Shizuo announced, walking in carting said package.
"Thank goodness" Anni sighed, gently taking it from him. "Any later and I would need to postpone my flight again."
"It's been a week, hasn't it? Took it long enough."
"I still have no idea how Alex managed to get this here at all, considering the link and all. I'm just not going to question it. I'm just happy I'll get to make my plane tomorrow…" Anni mused, cradling her box of clothes.
"And you're sure going home will help you?" Shizuo asked. Anni just nodded, pondering the packing tape. She was out of it as usual. "Hey."
"Oh, yes?"
"I'm going to miss having you around, so get better quickly, ok?" he instructed.
"I'll do my best" Anni promised, finally giving him a small smile.
-!DRRR!-
Shizuo fell into his couch, all too aware of how quiet it already was. He did enjoy the quiet, but now it somehow seemed stifling. It was lonely. He didn't think he would start missing her so soon, her plane had probably only just taken off…
It wouldn't do any good to sit here and mourn her leaving, so he started flipping through the channels. Annoying report after loud show, nothing seemed to catch his attention. Nothing except the jingle of someone outside unlocking his door. He flipped the TV off again and stood. Anni stumbled in, looking like she'd been through hell.
"Anni? What happ-"
"Y'know, I was warned about it. I'm just too stupid to see it. 'You're a part of that universe now' Alex said. 'It probably could use you to counteract your own' blah blah blah" she started to explain as she closed the door, before she did something that really unsettled him. Anni started giggling quietly.
"You're not making any sense again. Warned about what?" Shizuo demanded.
"I'm part of this universe now, see? I've been here long enough, haven't I? I've become a part of this world's dynamics, haven't I? Ha! And here I wanted to LEAVE. How dare I" she rambled on, laughing.
"Anni…"
"The link rejects even ME now! It doesn't matter where I was born! I've made my choice, now I have to live with it! It's ironic isn't it? Isn't it?" Anni finally lost herself to crazed laughter. Shizuo was simply shocked into silence. "Now I can never-!" she started to proclaim, throwing her arms out. What stopped her was a sudden convulsion as she vomited blood all over the floor.
"ANNI!" he shouted, crossing the few feet between them quickly enough to catch her. She hung limply in his arms, and never finished her proclamation.
-A/N-
The fun I have writing things like this is usually proportional to how messed up Anni gets, even if chapter 27 still is my favorite. I'm not going to apologize for this one.