And now starts the slowing of uploads. Enjoy this chapter, and try to figure out the meaning behind it!
As soon as the door closes behind the small teen, she drops her kind happy demeanor and a cool look enveloped her entire being. Threading her fingers together with her arms behind her back, Rei starts down the hallway, opting to take the stairway instead of the elevator. As she takes her time down the steps, the bright fluorescent lights above her start to flicker.
Once out on the street, she takes a quick stop in a 24 hour convenience store to grab a bottle of water and some aspirin as well as her favorite off brand candy to snack on later. The cashier, who looks only a year or two older than Rei herself, wishes her a good night and the girl conjures up a small smile and a wave for her. A job like this couldn't be easy, especially with the recent gang wars. The men who had lost were still out for blood, and now, it didn't even matter if they were in a rival gang.
"'Eyyy what'sa li'l girl like you doin' out so late, all alone?" A man, probably a year or so older than Shizuo sauntered up to her, letting her catch the strong smell of alcohol coming from his clothes as well as his breath. Two of his buddies follow suit, the latter being bulky and brawny and much taller than the teen.
"Excuse me sir, but can I help you?"
The man smirks deviously. "Nah, bu' I can help you. Why don't I escort you home, li'l girl? You mus' be lost if you're wanderin' round here. Don' worry, I'll keep ya safe." Rei rolls her eyes and starts to walk away, but ringleader grabs her wrist and pins it against the wall, making her face him. She fearlessly stares into his dulled out drunken gaze with calm, cool eyes.
"But, ya know, why can't we 'ave some fun first?"
Rei blinks once, then again, then a soft giggle bubbles up and the man's grip slackens in drunk confusion. Using the momentary hesitation to her advantage, she twists her wrist, grabs his, and pulls him closer, bringing her knee up.
The man's falsetto voice crying out dramatically in pain brings tears of laughter to her own eyes as she bolts away, taking back roads and using her knowledge she learned in middle school to pull herself up onto a ledge and free running across the tops of lower buildings to get to her own apartment window on the top floor.
Rei smirks slightly as she slides her one window open from the outside. It was good that she had stayed out so late, for now the dark cover of night hid her dangerous stunt from curious eyes. 'It's funny, really' the teen thinks to herself, 'how little people actually see unless it's pointed out to them.'
The death defying girl swings one leg into the room and sits on the sill, gazing out into the glowing city. Down there, the people look like ants, cars look like nothing more than toys, and the neon signs of the shops below are blobs in her vision.
Rei sighs, pulling her leg in and taking the few steps to her makeshift cot with one holey blanket haphazardly thrown over it. Flopping down on it fully clothed and letting her grocery bag fall out of her slackened grip, she starts drifting off to sleep. Her mind avoids the events of the day in order to stay calm and let it drift off into peaceful slumber.
She opens her eyes, squinting at the sudden sunlight and shifting when hot blacktop burns against her exposed skin. A loud, angry yell gets her instincts to kick in and she rolls over and sprints towards the large shadow cast by the building a few yards away.
And as expected, the shot she had just been laying in is suddenly fractured by a bent stop sign, no doubt a product of another fight. Rei sighs, rolling her eyes as another shout echoes around the yard and a smirking raven-haired teen drops down in front of her, having vaulted over the brick wall surrounding the yard with ease.
"Why hello, Rei-chan~ Enjoying the weather while you should be in class?" Her death glare doesn't affect his cheeriness.
"How long have you been out chasing Shizuo-kun? Because class ended a half hour ago."
"Oh, is that so?" His playful smirk tells Rei that he knew exactly what time it was. Rei sighs again.
"Iza-kun, honestly. I don't see how you get such good grades when you skip so many lessons to chase around your high school crush-"
Izaya Orihara, nothing more than a pale skinny teen at this point, never appreciated someone, especially a 5'2" redhead claiming something like that. In a flash, all happy pretenses disappear and his hand appears on her neck, slamming Rei against the brick wall.
I remember this. It was here that my head started spinning and my heart was pounding and I sputtered some half-assed apology. Heh, but now...
"You know, I would hate to see such an interesting human die, especially by my own hands, but if another comment like that escapes your mouth, that pretty little throat of yours will be my knife's new holster," In this dream of hers, his eyes appear more blood red than they really had been, burning with uncharacteristic fury. But instead of cowering in fear as he so obviously wanted, she mirrors his smirk and grabs his wrist.
"I don't think you're fast enough to hit it, Iza-kun," With that, she twists, bringing her elbow up to slam him in the jaw, sending him off-balance for a split second, and she gives him a slight push which lands him on the ground.
"So tell me, why are you so angry? It's so unnatural for you," Rei plops herself down right on Izaya's chest, looking sideways to see his expression had melted into one of confusion.
Maybe it's only because I've known him for a while that I can see these emotions from him. That and my special sense for this has heightened considerably since I've come back to Ikebukuro.
"I don't take kindly to someone implying that I could care about any human above the others, especially since Shizu-chan-"
"Isn't even human, he's a monster. You've said that before. But, you know, Iza-kun..."
"Doesn't that make him a perfect match for you?"
And the last thing she sees before her vision fades away into darkness is the look of utter fury and rage in the raven-haired teen's eyes.
And that, boys and girls, is a surefire way to guarantee yourself a one-way ticket to the afterlife.
There it is! I'm starting to run dry for ideas between the beginning and the big climax, but if you review, maybe it'll help me think of some more stuff? Please?