Chapter 19: Immortal
"Really? You are interested in a boring human?" From what Izaya could tell human lives were awfully negligible to that of demons.
Especially in this realm.
Shitting under the table they ate and indulging in any available drug to be able to escape reality or deflower a young woman seemed like actions that rather spoke in favor of demons.
So far Shizuo had behaved more composed than most of the nobility Izaya met- and that despite slaying monsters with his bare hands.
Crossing his legs Shizuo sat in front of Izaya. A soft breeze had picked up and the lantern-like creatures floating midair struggled to keep flying straight.
"You don't seem that boring to me," the demon announced with his jaw resting on his palm.
Flattering, and much closer to the truth than Shizuo probably expected.
Izaya was no average human- hell considering he had reincarnated into this realm he wasn't even sure if he was human to begin with.
Like a soft flashback the previous days passed through his mind.
He woke up as the new son of Lord Montisquieu, with two sisters, a mother and a bloodlusting goddess to boot.
Magic seemed to be a legit thing, but he had no access to it, so a maniac trying to save the world from its end had sent him to hell.
Even to Izaya's own ears this story sounded made up on the spot, but what use was there to lie to the demon?
He had tiptoed around the demon as if walking on eggshells long enough.
He was tired and exhausted from acting and most importantly second guessing every word he said.
"Would you believe me if I told you I'm from a far away place? Farther than you could ever imagine?"
A simple nod was given by Shizuo without even a second of doubt and Izaya snorted.
"What just like that? I could be telling you all kinds of stories now," he pointed out, but the gullible demon merely shrugged.
"I don't mind a good story."
Right. This demon was bored out of his mind. Lonely as far as Izaya was concerned.
"Are you using me for your entertainment?" A few of the lantern-like creatures descended to the ground as the light breeze had picked up in strength and one landed right atop Shizuo's shoulder.
"Maybe?" Shizuo asked, while grasping carefully what actually were bright crimson wings forming a cylindrical shape.
It were geckos of some sort. Wearing large expectant eyes of black they turned their heads in quick curiosity before tolling up around the two.
It served a pretty sight.
The nacre marble below and the light of the creatures surrounding them like fireflies.
Pushing himself off the crystal Izaya had leant against he propped up a leg and rested his hand upon his knee.
"Well then, I come from a place called Japan. Where vehicles with no horses are driven around by invisible energy and everyone can talk to anyone on the planet in a matter of seconds." Mischief glittered in his eyes and oddly enough despite the crazy character of the human's words Shizuo found himself believing every word he said.
He seemed too confident in the way he spoke of these unheard things to be making them up.
"Fascinating concept, do go on. Is it some kind of magic you are using?"
The human smiled and lifted his finger as if he were explaining the world to a child.
"No magic, electricity. You could even create it in this world if you know how."
Electricity. A word Shizuo never heard before. It was a concept he couldn't quite grasp but fascinated him nonetheless.
"And you know?" he questioned and Izaya shook his head.
"Enough to prove a fancy trick but too little to really get anything worth mentioning done."
Too bad. Shizuo would have loved to see this so-called electricity work.
Taking a second to contemplate his words, Izaya hesitated. "Also we would lack in manpower." He had a rough idea how to create electricity, even memorized some of the grander ways to extract power from a riverside for example, but all of these needed materials were not easily obtained and even harder to process for one human alone.
"How so?" Shizuo asked, and honestly Izaya had a hard time dumbing everything down.
Shizuo was a demon. A demon of a different realm. Explaining electricity and its immanent character seemed awfully tedious, so he decided to stay simple.
"Building all these wondrous things took thousands of years and even more humans to create them. Seeing how most humans in this world seem to prefer fighting over working together, a grand scale project like that would be impossible."
Shizuo barely understood half of what Izaya had said. Project? Scale? All he understood was a size. An enormous one apparently and he stuck with that and the timespan mentioned.
Scanning the human from head to toes he couldn't help but show a frown. He had thought him to be a demon. Not older than a few hundred years maybe. His character, easy offense and lack of understanding of Shizuo's power had led him to think so.
He was tall, fairly thin but with a unique expression. His eyes held a vibrant red to them that Shizuo had rarely seen on earth. Was this due to his original world?
His body too.
He seemed trained, albeit not like the human workers Shizuo had seen in the fields. Teeth and gums weren't rotting away either like it was the case usually, and his smell- he had to notice earlier since the stench of priests clung to his skin like a shield, but this otherworldler carried an intriguing scent. Everything about him was fascinating.
Yet he seemed awfully young to be talking about thousands of years with so much confidence.
"How old are you?" the human seemed oddly flattered by his question and a mischievous smile spread across his lips.
"What? Do you think I'm a demon after all?" he crooned and Shizuo shrugged.
"Or a saint."
"...can priests exceed a human lifespan here?" Right, the human was just as unaware of Shizuo's surroundings as he was about his.
Glancing towards the sprites dancing around them like fire on a pond, Shizuo couldn't help but feel a bit lost.
Heaven.
Hell.
Earth.
He thought he knew everything, had seen everything there was.
And now this otherworldler appeared only to tell him he had missed out on so much beyond his horizon?
"Sometimes," Shizuo finally answered truthfully and Izaya showed delight.
Living beyond a human's limitation- it sounded awfully sweet. Izaya had never been a fan of death or dying in general. The idea of just vanishing seemed like an awful way to waste potential.
"Heeeh, I should try that, I'm not very fond of death you see."
But Shizuo seemed to disagree.
"I think it's overrated."
"What?"
"Immortality."
Astonished to hear a word Izaya never thought to hear in a serious context he went quiet.
Silence took over interrupted only by the sounds of moving leaves and the softest chirps of the lantern-like creatures nearby.
A few moved into Shizuo's direction and he gently brushed them aside. Almost like living liquid they parted midways to form two new separate creatures as they drifted off.
"It's long," Shizuo spoke after an awfully long silence. "Too long. There is only so much one can do or experience without it becoming repetitive."
A certain type of sadness lingered in Shizuo's eyes at the words spoken and Izaya bit back an immediate remark.
Shizuo was old.
He could tell.
They way he sat there, carried himself with confidence, with a power obviously rivaling most and a gentleness only someone who was abundant of life was able to afford told Izaya as much. His infection with what he called human affection also made sense compared to the timespan he had already lived.
Izaya didn't know how old he was, but considering his lonely gaze and obvious preference to travel alone it had to be quite the number.
Thousands of years? Ten thousands?
Their conversation about Crysteria suddenly came to mind and how Shizuo had spoken about the new demon lord. About being elected for the next millenia.
Those words suddenly held much more weight as Izaya realized they implied Shizuo had lived at least through the millennia that came before that.
A millennia.
The concept seemed unreal. Even for Izaya who loved to indulge in hypothetical theories it was impossible to grasp that sheer number of years. The word immortal suddenly lost a large part of its freedom as he looked at the shackled demon.
Immortal, huh?
Envy and slight annoyance surfaced from the back of Izaya's mind.
"I disagree. As long as there are humans, or other living beings you can always experience something new," he argued what he had hesitated to respond earlier.
A brow was raised in amusement and Shizuo showed a smile.
"Confident aren't you?"
"You said it yourself I'm interesting aren't I?"
Shizuo laughed, "And full of yourself I see."
A simple shrug was given, "I just know my worth."
Undoubtedly the idea was interesting.
"What do you suggest then? A demon watching humans as a hobby?" Shizuo asked and seemed to have hit the mark with his assumption as his counterpart showed confident joy.
"Why not? They might prove to be interesting. Not all of course, but some. You took interest in me didn't you?"
Shizuo snorted, "Alright I will give you that. But I wouldn't exactly call you a common human being."
Izaya shrugged, "Well, you aren't the common gruesome demon depicted in our books."
"Takes one to know one I would say."
"Well I now know one now and he isn't half as bad as I thought."
Speechless Shizuo blinked at the guy.
His words, his acts- none of it was a lie.
He could tell. The past few millenia had not served much joy but at least gifted him with the ability to see through humans and most demons.
And that sudden honesty kinda threw him off guard.
It was nice.
This conversation.
He hadn't talked to anyone in ages.
Why was it so easy to converse with this otherworldler?
No demon, monster or human had come even close to this pool of creativity he was presented with. It felt good.
It was refreshing.
Spotting hints of discomfort surface on the otherworlder's expression Shizuo's mood soured a bit.
That was his fault. That he was suffering now. Had he realized earlier he could have skinned one of the lower class creatures and used their blood instead.
It would have been easier on his body even if not quiet as effective.
It was a bit unsettling.
The way this intriguing humanlike man forced his face to show none of the terror his body felt.
"What's your name?" Shizuo asked, mainly aiming to distract from the surge of pain but also out of genuine curiosity.
"My real one?" Izaya pressed forth between tight lips.
He had suddenly started to feel extremely dizzy. Nauseous too. Pain was clutching his head left and right and he hoped this was just a phase he was passing through, because spilling his guts right before Shizuo's feet before passing out was not exactly an idea he fancied.
"Do you have another?" Shizuo continued, still missing the answer to his question and the human shrugged.
"People kept calling me Raphael Montisquieu. Apparently my father is some kind of bigshot in this world."
He was obviously having a hard time speaking. His breath was low and his body temperature had risen slightly. Shizuo could tell.
"Sounds like you didn't like him?" he tried and the human sighed. "I don't know him."
A hint of perplexity tackled Shizuo at the contradiction, but he decided to ignore it for the sake of knowledge. "... and what are you called?"
Vibrant and gorgeous a smile of unrivaled confidence showed on the human's lips as he spoke.
"Orihara Izaya."
Nostalgia of a kind that Shizuo didn't know where to place overwhelmed the demon for a second. That name. He didn't know why nor how, but somehow he had a feeling he had heard it somewhere.
And spoken it.
A lot.
Emotions of conflicting kind welled up in his chest and his brows dipped into a frown. He tried to remember, but as soon as the feeling surfaced it faded away.
Orihara Izaya.
"Kinda beautiful," he mumbled before thinking and Izaya showed amusement.
Exhaustion lingered in his eyes, but he spoke nonetheless. "How so?"
"The sound," Shizuo quickly shrugged, "Like a short poem."
A poem, huh?
Izaya couldn't deny the idea was kinda flattering.
Even more now that he was able to lead a conversation again.
The wave of pain and nausea had passed as quickly as it had come. Izaya was aware that this was just one of many that were to follow considering Shizuo's earlier statement of this phase lasting a few days at least.
But for now he was just glad he was feeling okay.
A bit too warm for human standards, but okay.
Looking at the demon resembling a lost puppy he couldn't quite brush off the hunch that Shizuo was waiting for more inquiry on his part.
The action caused the corners of his lips to move upwards. "What's your name?"
Of course Izaya already knew, but so far he had merely assumed Shizuo's name from a pendant he was carrying around. It might as well have been his son's, friend's or father's possession.
But those ideas were quickly falsified as Shizuo answered as expected.
"... you can call me Shizuo."
Feeling his head's confusion lift for a second Izaya felt something tingle in his mind.
Warmth, along with trust and a certain type of peace steered his thoughts.
What was this impression of familiarity he felt from the demon?
to be continued~
Sorry I took so long for this one xD I was a little bit stuck to be honest haha
Not because of this scene in particular but because of those following after it xD But I think now I got the hang of this xD
With that being said, see you next Saturday :3
PS.: I started another new story called "Angel shot" just now C: If you are looking for lots of flirting, sarcasm and witty comebacks in a club/mafia setting you should check it out haha xD
Sorry for the delay btw xD I was visiting my hometown and completely overlooked that yesterday was Saturday xDDDD At least I have a 5 out of 5 winstreak this week hahaha