14. "Hey, Taniyama?"

"Hm?" She's sitting on the front steps of her office with a disassembled camera across the sidewalk, her brow scrunched up in concentration as she soaks piece after piece in a bowl of rubbing alcohol and looks for any other damage before she puts it back together. According to her, she was investigating a local high school last week when a couple of students late for class crashed into her and she dropped it. He asks why she's doing this outside as a side note and she mumbles something about better lighting.

He watches her work for almost a minute, a little fascinated by how precise her fingers move, then asks, "When you said you're proud to be different from everyone else, did you mean that?"

"Without a doubt." She purses her lips, then sets the parts aside and looks up at him, propping her elbows against her knees and resting her chin in her hands. "What's wrong?"

And just like that, she somehow knows something's bothering him, so he recounts the events of that afternoon: an encounter with Izaya, a few leftover members of the Yellow Scarves, Simon breaking up the conflict. As usual, Taniyama listens with an open ear and solemn eyes, then states quite abruptly. "I see death."

"Huh?" And she goes on to describe the power she has but has never told him about, telling stories where a cold knife opened her throat, where she was beheaded by a katana, where she fell to her death from a cliffside, and countless others. She starts strong, nonchalant, but slowly he notices the sick, ashen color in her face and her hands are no longer steady. "Taniyama….?" This is the first time he's ever seen her like this.

She takes a breath and calms down. "For a long time, I wished I didn't have to have an ability like that. Anything would've been better than living out final memories that weren't mine. But then I realized something one day." She smiles up at him. "I don't have any control over the power I was born with, and if there's nothing I can do, I might as well accept it. And then, eventually, I learned to be proud of it. It still hurts having these kinds of nightmares, but if a moment of my pain means a lifetime of peace for another, then I think it's a fair price."

Part of him wants to say she's a dumbass for just taking the shit fate threw at her, but her smile keeps him quiet. However sad or happy it makes her, she's found peace with what she can do and doing so has given her a certain strength he rarely sees in people. They're a lot alike, he realizes. Both of them were born with an ability they saw as a curse that brought nothing but trouble, and yet she was still able to see daylight, even when she's buried alive, murdered in the darkest alley of Shinjuku, or freezes to death one stormy night in the mountains. She's always able to see daylight.

Is that what she was trying to tell him?

Shizuo opens his mouth to speak, but then suddenly that kid from Raira-Mikado or whatever his name was-steps out of the office door behind the ghost hunter. "Hey, Taniyama, where did you want us to put the notes from the Osaka case? The one with the Fujimoto family. Hm, Shizuo?"

Taniyama turns to look at the kid. "Backroom, put them the F File on the Cursed Articles shelf. And don't get it mixed up with possessed dolls. Those are filed under Inanimate Vessels."

"Got it." The high schooler ducks back inside.

Shizuo raises an eyebrow. "You hire on some part time help when I wasn't looking?"

"It's only temporary until he works off his and his little girlfriend's debt for breaking my camera last week."

"I thought you said those fancy cameras of yours were insured."

Taniyama grins impishly. "Remind me to someday tell you the full story of how I started working for SPR. But I gotta ask you something first. What are your plans for Christmas Eve?"

-0-0-0-

Author's Notes: This comparison is one of the main building blocks of this pairing. Mai's acceptance of what she can do comes from her analysis of Ubusuna in After School hexer. 'If having powers makes you as sad and crazy as that, then I don't think I want them.'

As for the appearance of Mikado, I could totally see mature, savvy Mai giving him a hard time in the ghost business. She probably views it as a form of personal therapy for Naru's method of training her in.

Also, 694 words! This is officially the longest chapter I've posted for this story!

Ghost Hunt is owned by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada.

Durarara! is owned by Ryohgo Narita, Suzuhito Yasuda, and Akiyo Satorigi.