Title: Things that change for better or for worse
Chapter 26: Unseen by Change 4
By: Sissy

Disclaimer: DRRR shall never belong to me otherwise there'd be more yaoi.
Warning: Sudden fast pacing! Fear me! Also, mentioning it late, but do NOT imitate what Mikado did!

"Is Mikapuu okay?" Erika asked first the moment they arrived with the group. Aoba asked a second later, simply because he had wanted to be the one to ask. Saki rolled her eyes to the side and headed to join Masaomi.

"Yes, the injury wasn't as deep as we thought. It just continued to bleed since Ryugamine-kun had kept moving. The doctor said he'll be fine." Anri replied and both Erika and Aoba sighed with relief. They were feeling a little guilty for having started a party when a lot of dangerous things had happened.

"Then anyone care to explain what happened in the end?" Erika was curious as she brought out her laptop to show them that the whole forum they were using was now devoid of any pictures. "When Mairu-chan called Yuucchin and told him they had Ruka-kun, I checked to see the status of the chase and someone had erased everything."

"What?" Walker was surprised as he looked over to see his wife had been telling the truth. Kyohei and Saburou had found it interesting too. When Walker stepped away, he had a confused look. "But wait, Erika is the only one now with the admin code. And even if Izaya-san hacked the site again, he was too busy with Shizuo-san, right?"

Chikage eyed Shizuo, who had been quiet the whole while in a depressing corner of the hallway. He knew the man was pretty angry, especially due to all that had happened while he was busy with the aforementioned informant. Masaomi also felt pretty angry that it had come to this and he knew they should've never left Mikado alone. They didn't know, but Anri felt the worst since she had allowed Mikado to go alone. But no one dared blamed anyone else aside from themselves.

"Please don't worry about it so much. It doesn't matter now, does it?" Kasuka arrived with Ruri and Ruka in tow, the star family looking pretty pleased with themselves.

"Kasuka, you…!" Shizuo was about to yell something to his brother but the other cut him off.

"Brother is my family and I will always care for you but Ruka-kun is my son and it is my duty to protect him. If you have a problem with Ruka-kun then the fault lies with me." Kasuka sounded serious and no one else knew what to say. They never imagined him to be so unyielding or loyal like that. Erika somehow imagined him as a samurai and thought the image suited him very well.

"Can I ask just one question?" Kyohei raised his hand and Kasuka nodded in return. "Ryugamine was controlled by Ruka, right?"

Kasuka nodded again and spoke up, glancing at his son who was smiling at him. "I'm afraid it's because Ruka-kun enjoyed Mikado-kun's sweets. I suspect he wanted Mikado-kun to make him some personal ones with the sweets that were bought."

"So that's why we got chased? Wait, were those guys controlled by him as well?" Saburou was confused as he tried to rack his brain around the situation.

"I won't go into details. Just know that Ruka-kun can hypnotize people, or more specifically, males. So to ease your worries, it's not that everything has been erased. It's just that you can't see it." Kasuka explained, leaving them all shocked before adding just one more thing. "By the way, I also can't see it."

"Whoa, whoa, wait…" Erika closed the laptop and tried to think it through. "I can't see it either."

"That's because the effects aren't limited to males when you view the pictures on the page." Ruri cut in with a soft smile. Her son was currently looking for a way to get down on the floor. "But I've scolded Ruka now so he'll be mindful of what he does."

I somehow doubt this will not repeat itself. Most of the others kept that thought to themselves. Kyohei realized that's probably why Mairu had ended up knocking him out yet it didn't explain why they hadn't been controlled from the beginning or why Simon hadn't been either. Aoba now knew why the twins insisted he stay behind and felt slightly embarrassed of the care they had given him.

"Although… I really should apologize to you, brother." Kasuka came forward and placed his hand on Shizuo's shoulder. "Ruka-kun really liked Mikado-kun's sweets so anything that he felt placed Mikado-kun in danger was a threat."

"Wait, hold on a second!" Masaomi stood up in shock. "Are you saying that even while he was under Ruka-chan's control, Mikado STILL didn't want to talk to Heiwajima-san? That…! That…! That idiot!" Saki felt like praising him since Masaomi managed to stop himself from saying any curse words.

Before anyone could say anything about it, Masaomi grabbed Shizuo's hand and burst into Mikado's room where he had been resting. The doctor had given them the okay to go in but they wanted to wait a moment before going in. Most of them had been afraid to go in alone.

"Oh, dear. I probably should've mentioned that Ryugamine-kun is most likely sore all over his body due to the overuse of his muscles." Ruri looked over to her husband with a worried glance.

Anri quickly followed after Masaomi and Shizuo, hoping to stop anything terrible from happening. Erika realized this would be interesting and decided to sneak a peek from the outside. Mairu joined her out of curiosity while Aoba was held back from bursting into the room by Kururi. Kyohei sighed to himself and sat down next to Chikage and Saki who decided to wait it out. Saburou headed out to check on his van while Walker stood to the side, keeping an eye on his wife. Kasuka, Ruri and Ruka stayed where they had been and kept to themselves. They had done the best they could to keep out of it in order to not aggravate the situation but they were done now.

It wasn't long before Masaomi screamed out at the top of his lungs, "WHAT?"

… … …

"Namie-san, please be more gentle. I'm hurt, you know." Izaya told the woman as she slapped another hot pack over Izaya's back. Simon had gone back to pick him up after both Masaomi and Chikage beat him up.

All Namie knew was that Izaya couldn't remember anything beyond the moment he saw Mikado standing in front of the group back at the supermarket. Next thing the informant knew, Simon was carrying him away towards his apartment. The two talked for a small while and Izaya learned about how he had been apparently acting weird and finally got caught the moment his senses came back to him. Simon almost made fun of him by saying how Izaya had been looking for trouble.

As curious as Izaya was about what had happened, he couldn't do anything at the moment. His whole body was in pain and was sore, which was something pretty weird to him. Izaya knew he was fit and it wasn't old age, as much as Erika would probably comment. It was as if he had passed the capacity of his current strength and was feeling the aftereffects of it. Like when someone exercises for the first time and feels the effects the next day.

"Don't be such a baby." Namie slapped another hot pack again, this time on his leg. She didn't really want to do it but had to since Izaya was going to pay her for her services. "Besides, you're the one who wanted to kidnap the brat in order to keep him away from the protozoan."

"Namie-san… I'm hurt by your words." Izaya joked and kept his pained cry to himself in order not to give the woman some pleasure. "But I'll stop for a while. I'm sure Mikado-kun will have Shizu-chan as a bodyguard now."

Namie didn't really care about Izaya and his stupid obsession with bothering the bouncer and simply placed the last one with as much force as she could before leaving for the kitchen. There were better things on her mind than what happened today.

To Be Continued…