"You hate hell. It's not other demons that are avoiding you, but you avoiding other demons because they lack what you look for in a person," Izaya revealed, and Shizuo couldn't have shown a more surprised face than he did at that moment even if he tried.
He hadn't seen it coming. Not from this human.
In a really odd way Shizuo felt naked in front of Izaya. But not in a bad way. He felt understood on a level he had long ago given up to search for.
And somehow he had never quite put his own feelings into words as well as Izaya had.
Hating hell.
Everything that had happened the past year probably pretty much bottled down to that idea.
"Had you met anyone but me you would be dead by now," Shizuo suddenly whispered and his expression churned into one of anger and disgust. "Dead, your corpse fucked until it's barely discernable and eaten afterwards," the demon elaborated further and Izaya's stomach did a backflip at the idea. "The decency you mentioned is heavily understated," Shizuo frowned, "Most demons don't possess a conscience. They may talk but they don't think, except about how to consume you whole."
Not a shred of sympathy or understanding swayed in Shizuo's voice, confirming Izaya's suspicion only further. He understood what Shizuo was saying.
Hell was hell after all.
But it still made his skin crawl.
Glancing to the side Izaya looked at the barrier that Shizuo had set up earlier.
The membrane suddenly seemed awfully thin for Izaya's tastes and the fate of having his corpse fucked by various demons unsettled him more than he liked.
"... any reason we didn't meet any of these so far?" he whispered and Shizuo nodded.
"As you pointed out earlier I'm not exactly trying to run into them."
It was then that the softest sound of shattering glass crept into the silence.
Confused as well as mildly unsettled, Izaya's head whipped around, only to end up staring at the ceiling.
The membrane made of flesh was freezing. From the top to the bottom, much faster than any winter could on earth.
"That happens every night," Shizuo quickly informed to take any unnecessary fear off the human's mind, but it seemed he had discarded that emotion already anyway.
"I saw it on the crystals earlier," Izaya informed, but turned to face the demon again anyway, "Why?"
Struggling with an answer Shizuo shrugged in a moment of stupor. "Beats me. Some say it's the work of the guardian, trying to secure the weak as food. Some say it's a mechanism of hell trying to get rid of weak subjects inhabiting it. Both options lead to the same result I guess. It kills most lower class demons to be out there for more than an hour."
Ah.
So that's why Shizuo had created a fire resembling a campside earlier. Izaya had thought he had grown tired or lost his way.
A streak of ice crawled down Izaya's spine as he realized another important aspect.
Had Shizuo not made that fire for him and told him to come over Izaya would have frozen to death just like that. No warning, no nothing.
Just like that, because hell decided it apparently.
Fingertips raising to his lips Izaya brushed across them as his head sank in a couple of theories as to why that might be the case.
He should feel fear, but honestly, right now he felt nothing but curiosity instead.
A place as hostile like this wouldn't be entered by anyone voluntarily. In other words, considering Izaya had yet to see the goddess down here, she either could not or did not want to bless this realm's world with her presence.
Both worked in his favor.
"Hell has its own mind?" Izaya sighed and let his head thud against the pillar he was leaning on.
"Scared?"
Eyes flickered back to the demon at hand and somehow Izaya found himself awfully obsessed with Shizuo.
"Intrigued," he answered truthfully and his eyes narrowed.
He had never been someone to pray to god or any entity alike, but either he had been extremely lucky to run into Shizuo, or someone had arranged his encounter.
A demon that didn't kill humans, retained his reason and was willing to guard Izaya for as long as he needed to arrive at the demon castle.
Any other would have immediately made a quick job of Izaya's flesh and bones as he was nothing but a weak subject in their eyes.
"What do demons kill humans for?" Izaya asked, "Hunger?"
A suiting gush of wind carried some of the cold traversing the lands inside the shrine and glared at the rising moon like it was his personal enemy.
Izaya expected a lot of answers to that question. Survival of the fittest and the sake of gaining more strength made the top guesses.
But none of them came even close to Shizuo's response as he sighed.
"I don't know."
Brows scrunching into a skeptic frown, Izaya looked at the demon.
"I thought you killed millions of them?"
Bringing the topic up again didn't seem like the best idea as Shizuo's expression soured. A soft groan followed and Shizuo looked at the sky above, as if it were able to tell him the answer Izaya sought.
"Apparently, yeah."
Apparently?
So far Izaya had been of the impression that he was facing a demon who had developed too much empathy to kill a single human soul. Not remembering a single human's life he took rather served an image of a gruesome and merciless specimen than him.
"That sounds like a good guess, not a memory," Izaya mouthed carefully.
A moment of silence bypassed the peaceful shrine.
Only the cracking sounds of the earlier creature's breaking exterior served as a grim reminder of the presence of that serpent guardian close by.
Shizuo seemed reluctant.
Reluctant to speak, reluctant to be there at all.
Glances were exchanged as he looked at the human a couple times before finally sighing.
"I don't remember anything past a year ago."
… huh?
"Demon's can suffer from memory loss? Did you hit your head too hard or something?" Izaya half joked half asked, craving for answers to all these riddles he was presented, but Shizuo merely snorted.
"Is that an actual question?"
Right.
He didn't know. He really had no clue.
A demon suffering from memory loss. How would that happen?
Dozens of explanations came to Izaya's mind, number one being that he had messed with the wrong guardian at one point and received injuries too serious to actually lose his memory.
But another theory replaced that one pretty quickly as he remembered Shizuo's age.
Living for more than a millenia-
He had wondered how Shizuo had retained his reason and not succumbed to insanity. Maybe programmed amnesia was part of a demon's life cycle once it exceeded a certain timeframe.
Coming to a full stop in his mind Izaya realized there were more than one riddle arising from the statement.
"Then how do you know you killed millions?" After all, Shizuo had seemed pretty confident about that matter despite claiming not having any memory of it at all.
The demon sighed, "Someone told me," he whispered, "My name, my deeds, my origins."
The pendant dangling from his neck was carefully grasped within his palms and Izaya put one and one together.
"Don't tell me they gave you the stone in case you forget your name again."
One glance.
That was enough Izaya needed to tell he had hit the nail on the head.
So his idea of demons regularly forgetting their life was either closer to the truth than he guessed or a specific curse only Shizuo suffered from.
And suddenly Izaya's eyes softened as he realized what that meant.
The two of them.
They were suffering the same fate in a way.
Forgetting their past lives to a certain degree united them in a way. It also explained why Shizuo had seemed this empathic when it came to Izaya's memory loss.
He was suffering from a similar experience.
He knew nothing, not even about himself and spent the last year alone to top it all.
Feeling his vision blurr for a second Izaya almost expected another assault of dizziness, except this time it was a natural phenomenon that had caused it.
Exhaustion.
A yawn forced itself onto Izaya's lips and he noticed bitterly that he had not slept a wink the past three days. An all nighter or two had never been a problem for him, but now with everything that had happened it was tearing him down quite a bit.
"Tired?" Shizuo asked and Izaya nodded truthfully.
After all, what use was there to lie to the demon any longer?
"A bit exhausted maybe, sorry."
A meek smile spread across Shizuo's expression as he shook his head. "No need to apologize. You are human, it's only natural."
Finding himself mimicking the smile naturally, Izaya sighed as he closed his eyes for a second. "Do demons sleep?"
"Sometimes. But it's not a necessity."
Heh.
How convenient.
Opening his eyes again Izaya looked at Shizuo. The way he had phrased that sentence opted only for one conclusion.
"Why do you?" Blinking surprised Shizuo met Izaya's eyes. Perception was something that Shizuo would have called one of his best traits. He could spot a lie the second it was spoken.
But the insight Izaya seemed to craft from mere shreds of information was impressive. He was human. He had no supernatural skill, and yet it struck Shizuo as one to be as perceptive as he was.
It caused the demon to feel like he was the prey being hunted upon and his lips formed a sad smile upon Izaya's newest question.
Sleep, huh?
"Reasons," he tried to avoid the topic, but Izaya seemed anything but satisfied with his answer.
Something mimicking mild offense showed in Izaya's expression as he complained.
"Now I feel excluded."
And somehow Shizuo couldn't help but laugh.
This human-
"You are awfully nosey for a human that's been on the verge of dying," Shizuo pointed out, not really meeting even a shred of insight.
"Don't mind my curiosity, it just proves you are an interesting character."
A smile.
That was all that was shown, and somehow Shizuo found himself oddly angered at the reaction.
Why?
"It helps control. You saw my strength," he started and the feeling only increased with each word spoken.
Fading out mid sentence Shizuo looked at his hand. The blood seeping from the creatures had already been burned away but he could clearly envision its sight.
Tearing them apart hadn't even taken him the brink of a second to decide upon, not to mention second guessing his action.
Looking at the human, weak in all aspects, be it body or strength he suddenly realized what kind of fire he was playing with and closed his eyes with a groan.
"I'm an idiot." Rising from the ground, Shizuo looked towards the shrine's ceiling.
The barrier's top had already frozen and they couldn't move away anymore. But in a few hours they would be able to.
"Forget going anywhere. You should leave." Shizuo announced, with no room to argue as he faced the human. "There should be more than one entrance to hell around."
to be continued~
Yo~ This update is a little bit shorter than usual I know xD But bear with me haha I had a little bit of trouble writing this and the following scenes- but! I can tell you things will be getting more interesting soon xD
On a sidenote, as most of you read in my notes, I am actually publishing my Shizaya stories in a re-worked version on amazon :3 But sadly no one seems to notice the novels xD
Even my original work "Yultesra" is barely getting seen TAT (part 2 is coming dec 2024 btw xD)
To improve that I have started an instagram account where I am posting glimpses of the reworked stories in hope someone will notice me but it's not looking good so far C':
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See you next Saturday~! xD