Author's Note: Happy birthday Chikage Rokujo! I have been sitting on this idea for quite some time now. It comes from the story called My Mom and Aunt June I heard on the NoSleep Podcast and the 2020 movie, Mother. (The latter is going to make you mad. Don't bother.) I love how this turned out. I might come back to Shuhei in the future. I will have to see. The next two birthdays are the Orihara twins on Valentine's Day. You are going to get a double feature with some spice to that. I can't wait to get started. So, look forward to that. The season finale for Dark Alice is coming next Wednesday. For now, enjoy this fresh bite.

My Mom and My Mentor

In another alternate timeline…

-Shuhei-

I used to live in Japan. That country is now dead due to the virus. I live in Thai with my little sister and grandparents. We're all struggling to survive in this new world. From what I hear, my family and I are better off. Those who went to Korea have a miserable time there. They are treated lower than garbage. Thailand is a little more forgiving here. The people here won't talk to us Japanese. It's more like they tolerate us. Some of them don't want us here. But what can they do?

I don't have time to let that get me down. I have to take care of my family. However, I don't really relate to people. However, I do have one friend.

Ryugamine and I stood in a booth in a noodle restaurant. Where do I begin about him? Ryugamine could be described as a man from nowhere. I have seen him around the city with a young woman with long red hair and a little boy who looks like him. Other than that, Ryugamine is usually alone. He keeps to himself. I don't really know anything about him. All I know is that Ryugamine is Japanese like me. I have tried to ask about him, but he shut down fast.

I met him when I started working at a local garage. (I won't tell you where.) I don't know what drew me to him. He wasn't here to have any car maintenance done. Honestly, I don't what he was doing there. I was closing up at the time when I noticed someone standing outside. A confused look came over my face. We were about to close for the day. This guy stood out too. It was summer and he had on a long black coat. I walked out to him.

"Excuse me?" I asked. "Excuse me, sir?" He turned his head. A cigarette hung from the side of his mouth. I froze for a moment. There was a stoic look on his face but it gave me chills. I put up my hands.

"Look, I don't want any trouble," I said. This guy cocked his head to the side.

"Trouble?" he asked. I stood squinting at him.

"You're not here to rob or kill me?" I asked.

"No…" he said. "Why would I do that?"

"I don't know," I said. "You're not supposed to be here. We're about to close." He didn't respond. Damn it, the manager already went home for the day. I was just stuck. Then he asked me something that threw me off.

"Would you like to get something to eat?" this guy asked. I looked so confused.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Do you want something to eat?" he asked me again. What the hell? What the fuck was this?

"Listen, I don't know what you are playing at," I said.

"I'm not," he said. I could feel my right eye twitching. He said it so seriously too. I started looking around for cameras. Was I on a prank show?

"No, this isn't a prank show," this guy said. I about stumbled backward.

"Geez, will you just calm down?" he asked. "Yes, I heard your thoughts. It's something that I can do." From there, I became confused.

But I didn't stop running into him. I still haven't figured out what it is about him. When I am with Ryugamine, I feel… intrigued by him in a way. He doesn't ask me for anything in return. Sometimes, we meet up in restaurants and just talk. Ryugamine-san always looks so sad when I see him.

Ryugamine-san flicked out his cigarette.

"So how is school going?" he asked.

"Good," I said.

"And work?" he asked.

"Good," I said again.

"I see," Ryugamine-san said. I never know what to say to him. Something about him is overpowering me. I don't think that he means to. It's just…

He flickered out his cigarette ashes.

"Come on, we've been over this," he said. "I'm not going to hurt you or anything." I lifted my chin.

"Heh," he said in a flat tone. He snubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.

"You kind of remind me of a little story that happened to me when I was still in Japan," Ryugamine-san spoke up. I lifted my head.

"Huh?" he asked. He leaned back in his booth.

"I was eighteen at the time," he said. "There was a man named Orihara Izaya. Not many people liked him. No one liked him, really. I was okay with him. Anyway, Izaya had been acting strange lately. He thought that somebody was trying to kill him. Nothing out of the ordinary. Besides, we had other things to worry about at the time. I had my own problems as well. However, I started to think there was some merit to his beliefs on one occasion.

"It started after Halloween. Now to preference this, Izaya used to troll people looking to commit suicide. Mostly, it would end in humiliation for them. You can see why someone would be angry about it.

"Her name was Yukimura. I remember her so well. Always had bags under her eyes. I don't think she ever got any sleep. Her clothes were always a mess. Not many of our peers paid any attention to her, really."

A waitress came by our table.

"Are you ready to order?" she asked. Ryugamine-san waved her off.

"Could you give us a few more minutes, please?" he asked. The waitress bowed her head and walked away. I haven't even looked at my menu yet.

"Anyway, Yukimura was the one to approach me for some reason," Ryugamine-san said. "To be honest, I'm not sure why. I was walking home alone when I had the feeling that someone was watching me. I turned and looked to see someone peeking around the corner.

"'Hello?' I asked. The head peeking around the corner quickly disappeared. I ran around the building for a better look. That's when I saw her. For a second, I thought it was a shinigami. At first, I don't know who this was.

"'Um… who are you?' I asked. This girl smirked at me.

"'I want to show you something,' she said. I looked confused.

"'Okay… What is it?' I asked. She put her fingers to her lips. That alone told me that something was off.

"'What?' I asked. Yukimura didn't speak at first. I didn't like the way she was staring at me. She was trying not to laugh either. By this time, I debated rather I should back away or not.

"'Later,' Yukimura said.

"'Huh?' I asked.

"'I will show you later,' she said.

"'Why can't you show me now?' I asked. Yukimura didn't answer me." Ryugamine pulled out a fresh cigarette and lit up. I want to tell him to stop but he won't listen to me. I know that he's like immortal or something, but that doesn't stop me from worrying about him. Like that one time he oded on heroin in a seedy downtown motel. He was fine the next day, but I was still scared. I made him promise not to do something so reckless like that again.

"I'm going to be fine," he said in front of me. I about jumped back.

"Stop doing that!" I shouted.

"Sorry about that," he said. "That's just how I am." The waitress walked up to our table. By now, we were ready to order. I ordered a spicy Pad Thai. Ryugamine-san ordered drunken noodle. The waitress wrote down our orders.

"Okay, I'll be back with your orders," she said. She turned and walked back to the kitchen. I turned back to Ryugamine-san.

"Then what happened?" I asked. "What did Yukimura show you?" Ryugamine-san took a drag of his cigarette.

"Nothing happened for three days. In fact, Yukimura didn't show up for school. There was the rumor that she dropped out of school. I didn't know much about her because she was a grade and a year younger than me. What she wanted to show me was in the back of my mind.

"That was until I got a text in the middle of the night.

"I was on my computer at the time. My phone buzzed. Now, I don't know how she got my number. I should've ignored the text but I didn't. I guess I was more curious to find out what she wanted.

"'Meet me at the West Gate Park.' That's what it said." He took another drag before flickering out his cigarette.

"So I went out to the park in the middle of the night. I still had so many questions. Why did Yukimura come to me? What did she want to show me so much? I didn't like any of this at all. And yet, I just had to know. I thought I would just get this over with and go home.

"Suddenly, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned to see her grinning at me. I can't get that smile out of my head if I tried. That same goes for the rest of the night. I tried to play it calmly.

"'Hi!' she said. I blinked at her at first.

"'Um… hi?' I said. She was holding something behind her back.

"'Okay… what did you want to show me?' I asked. Her grin grew wider." He leaned back in the booth. I could tell that he didn't want to tell me the next part.

"'Do you know who Orihara Izaya is?' she asked. I am really confused now.

"'Why?' I asked.

"'Do you know who he is?'

"'Yes.'

"'Two years ago, I wanted to die.'

"'Huh?'

"'He was supposed to die with me. He told me he wanted to die. When we met up in an abandoned warehouse in Shinjuku, he laughed at me.' Her right eye started to twitch. I didn't like where this was going and I didn't know why she was telling me this. I should've run away but I am glad I didn't.

"'He made me look like a fool!' she shouted. 'So now, I am repaying the favor.' She drew out a knife from behind her back and stabbed herself in the neck. I screamed as I ran over to her.

"'What are you doing?!' I shouted at her. Yukimura broke down laughing as the blood ran down her neck.

"'The internet is an amazing thing!' she shouted as she drew out the knife from her neck. 'I studied many occult and curse websites. I turned myself into a human voodoo doll! Every time I stab myself, it will happen to him!' More stabs went into her neck. 'I followed that bastard around and took some of his hair!' She laughed as she kept stabbing herself in the neck. She had this crazed look in her eyes the whole time. Izaya could be a jerk but he didn't deserve this."

"I just moved with you thinking. I remembered grabbing her by her hair and shoving her face into the fountain."

"Six minutes. That's how long it took before she stopped struggling. I didn't think about it. She fought me but I didn't let up. It was the only thing I could do."

"Wouldn't that have killed this Izaya guy too?" I asked. Ryugamine-san shook his head.

"Only the damage inflicted by her own hand would affect Izaya. When I was done drowning her, Yukimura just lay there in the water with blood seeping into the fountain. I called for some help to get rid of her body. Let's just say that I knew some people that could make her death look like an accident." He snubbed out his cigarette.

"Izaya didn't say anything about it. But he did feel along his neck where the scars were. I don't even want to picture what everyone who was there to witness him bleeding out had to deal with."

I didn't know what to say at first. "I… I don't understand." Ryugamine-san raised an eyebrow.

"Understand what?" he asked.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

"Heh," was all he said. By that time, the waitress came back with our food. I dug in but Ryugamine-san sat there, watching me eat. He does take little bites, but that's about it. I don't know why he doesn't eat much. He doesn't look so thin but then again I think it's his coat that throws things off. However, his story rattled around in my brain.

Ryugamine-san paid for both of us. By now, it started to rain.

"I will see you again," he said before we parted ways. I just bowed my head. We turned and walked away. I had gotten ten paces away before I remembered something about my mother.

My mother wasn't a good person. She didn't really care about me. All she did was party and sleep around. Back in Japan, we were homeless. She sponged off of different men, friends, and her family. She had a con man boyfriend who was the worst. (I don't know where he is now.) Nothing changed when we had to move to Thailand.

One night, she went out to party with some of her new friends. She never came home. Apparently, my mom had died of an overdose of heroin. No one noticed that she had died until hours later. At the time, it didn't make sense. My mom never did heroin. At least not that I know of. At least not from what I knew.

It didn't don on me until Ryugamine-san told the story. I turned and ran after him. It didn't take me long to track him down.

"Ryugamine-san!" I shouted. He turned in time for me to run up and hug him tightly. He just patted me on the back of my head.