13. I thought she was a shinigami.
Shizuo blinks twice at the PDA screen, then observes Celty's embarrassed posture. "Seriously?" The yellow cat helmet nods gravely. Well, that certainly hadn't been the answer he'd been expecting when he asked the Transporter how and when she met Taniyama. "A shinigami." He repeats skeptically. "Really? You know they work in pairs according to Japanese folklore, right?"
Her partner could've taken a sick day! Celty protests, pulling her phone close to her chest. But since dullahans and shinigami are practically in the same family of paranormal beings and I'm a foreigner, I thought she would be mad about me moving in on her territory or something!
Despite his confusion, Shizuo finds himself laughing pretty hard. "Okay, I doubt supernatural creatures have immigration laws, and even if that's what she was, she'd have tried to toss you out twenty years ago." He grins at the absurdity of the notion. "Besides, shouldn't you have sensed she was human or something? How did this happen?"
Celty heaves a reluctant sigh and begins writing how her story, significantly calmer now but definitely humiliated. I might have been unintentionally stalking her.
"Kay…." This conversation was definitely straying into a territory they rarely ventured. "What happened?"
I was on my way home after a job in Shibuya when I suddenly felt the presence of a spirit. It had been so long since I'd sensed one, I assumed they didn't exist in Tokyo and that I'd have to go north to find beings like that. So instead of heading home right away, I decided to see what it was. That's when I saw her. She pauses. She was standing at the end of a dark alley, holding-well, cradling-this pale blue light in her hands.
It was the strangest feeling, like she was something out of this world and I was the intruding human. She stood there for almost an hour, talking to this soul, and then she smiled and lifted it toward the heavens. In all the memories I have of this city, I'd never seen anything so tranquil or beautiful.
Shizuo tilts his head, perplexed. "And you immediately thought death goddess?"
The dullahan indignantly shoves the phone in his face, Shut up!
"So what happened after that?"
She saw me and freaked out. I freaked out, too, since I thought she was a reaper and everything. It wasn't until she drew herself upright and started chanting this old Buddhist mantra I realized she was just a human woman. Death gods don't need incantations to defend themselves. Celty gives a little shake Shizuo interprets as an sheepish laugh. But we straightened it out. She was really surprised I could talk. No, she was more surprised at how human I was, she said. Down-to-earth or something like that.
"She did describe you as sweet once." Shizuo points out.
A puff of black smoke escapes the bottom of Celty's helmet. Did she really say that? Mai's pretty amazing herself. She just seems to listen with all her heart and knows exactly what to say when you need to hear it. I'm glad to hear you've become friends with her, too.
Author's Notes: Celty's memory of meeting Mai for the first time was inspired by a fanart I once saw on Deviantart.
Ghost Hunt is owned by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada.
Durarara! is owned by Ryohgo Narita, Suzuhito Yasuda, and Akiyo Satorigi.