Chapter 24: Serpent's trail

The last time Izaya had woken up he had been dead. A fact undeniably as much as the soothing breeze of warmth crawling up his spine as he opened his eyes to a scenery that had become more familiar than he liked.

His sleep had been tight and his dreams even tighter. He had seen faces.

People? Acquaintances?

He couldn't tell.

All he knew was that they were there. He heard them, he knew them. But the second he woke up every memory faded as quickly as it had come.

It took only a second to realize that the Serpent from the previous day had disappeared for good. Not because Izaya didn't see it, but because he saw its path of destruction.

With a body larger than the shrine Shizuo and him were holding out in, the landscape had taken quite the involuntary shift towards a piece of cheese.

Rows dug into the sturdy ground and stone marked the guardian's path and served as a pretty decent pointer where it headed to.

Sunlight grazed Izaya's face as it emerged from the brink of a nearby mountain and Izaya lifted his palm to fend off the unnecessarily bright light.

He was groggy. Probably looked like shit considering the comfort they were provided by sleeping on nothing but cold stone.

And yet, despite the back pain inducing surroundings Izaya actually felt refreshed. The nausea stemming from Shizuo's blood appeared to be gone and he cast a glance towards the pendant the demon had handed him the previous day.

Most of its glow had significantly dispersed, making it appear like a simple fancy stone collected at a beach.

Its loss of light could probably be directly attributed to the Izaya's state. He was groggy, but exceedingly refreshed. The heavy weights he had been carrying appeared to be gone. Only peace ruled his body and for the first time in days he took a pleasant deep breath, with no need to prepare himself for a disaster right after.

He had been lucky.

Extremely so.

Looking towards the demon who appeared to be asleep still, Izaya couldn't help but smile. Really.

Especially considering what other specimens of his kind would have done once they figured out Izaya was human. A shudder traveled down Izaya's back just thinking about it and he let his head thud against the stoic pillar pulsing with streaks of red.

"Feeling better?" The question came unexpectedly.

One glance was enough and he met Shizuo's golden gaze.

He had thought the demon had still been asleep, but it seemed that wasn't the case after all.

A heartily stretch followed in which Shizuo moved his limbs in a way that reminded Izaya of a cat and he snorted.

"By far."

An appreciative nod was given and the demon rose from the ground. Was he searching for danger? Or for another route?

Ah.

The mountain.

As if on cue Izaya remembered the small detail about the mountain and the demon lord's residence having been built upon a living creature and so he followed Shizuo's gaze.

It really had moved. But not further away, just horizontally to their right. The path it followed remained awfully intact compared to the Serpent and Izaya wondered how that worked.

After all, a creature of that size should be leaving some footprints, no?

It was when Izaya looked down the ledge of their hideout that he noticed the Serpent seemed to either be visiting Crysteria as well or just happened to move into the same direction.

"We can follow his tracks. Will be clear of any other demons too since no one is particularly trying to run into the guardian," Shizuo announced, only confirming what Izaya had concluded.

"Is that giant snake attending Crysteria too?"

Shizuo didn't know.

A shrug was all that he could offer, disappointing his fellow human.

"I wouldn't know. Maybe?"

Right.

Another important detail Izaya had learned.

Shizuo knew a lot about hell, but less than he was supposed to as he was also missing a great portion of his memories.

Raising from the ground, Izaya followed Shizuo to the center of their hideout.

A simple touch to the crystal settled upon its center was enough to disperse the fleshly barrier of veins and the pulsing heartbeat that had accompanied them steadily in their sleep, disappeared.

"The pendant?" Izaya asked, lifting the object away from his chest.

A glance was spared towards said object, but Shizuo shook his head with a sigh.

"Keep it, who knows what you will need it for."

And with those words he moved towards the opening of the shrine.

Seeing as they had skipped walking the entire way it was Izaya's first time passing it as he quickly followed.

The stairs of marble that had been arranged up the hill were ending right at the top and now served a pleasant walk downwards.

Shizuo wasn't a fan from lingering around too much in areas he didn't know. But considering he had to slow down a little if he wanted Izaya to be able to follow, he found himself oddly enjoying the different pace and sunlight kissing his cheeks.

"What did you do?"

The question came as much unexpectedly as it came out of context.

Closing his eyes in the fleeting moment of peace that was surely going to be interrupted by this human, Shizuo sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"You lost your memory," A few stones were skipped and branches of various vegetation avoided as Izaya had learned to stay away from anything he hadn't been explicitly told wasn't harmful. "Did you try to get it back? Where were you heading this past year?"

Shizuo's reluctance when it came to speaking about the life he had led only seemed to grow with every question asked.

"Nowhere? Everywhere?" Shizuo mumbled, trying to give the answers Izaya sought as he had learned the human wasn't going to let him have his fair share of peace if he resisted.

The only problem was, most of these questions were some of which he had asked himself.

"Any more details and I have to stop you from talking," Izaya snorted adequately and the demon rolled his eyes. But Izaya understood. This demon seemed to be even more lost than himself- which was actually impressive considering he had full on reincarnated and lost half his memories on top.

"Have you tried visiting spots you used to live in?"

An unexpected short stop caused Izaya to gracefully lose his footing for a second as he moved his arms in time with the missing balance.

Moss of various kinds had started to crawl across the scenery and with an involuntary glance of disgust Izaya's palm connected with one of the green pillows.

It was soft, it was slightly damp and it was disgusting.

Quickly retracting his arm Izaya shook it as if he had been touching fire of some sort.

Shizuo had ceased moving without warning.

A heavy expression weighed his mood down and an odd sense of silence filled the air. The complaint that had laid ready on the tip of Izaya's tongue was gracefully swallowed as he waited for the demon to speak.

Shizuo's expression was hard. Serious.

It was a quiet whisper that brought an answer to Izaya's question as it filled the damp forest with a certain kind of sadness.

"I'm not even sure I want to remember my previous life."

And so the steps continued.

The demon moved on.

And Izaya's gaze lowered to the ground.

Right.

He killed humans in spades. Nothing to even waste a thought upon judging from a demon's perspective.

But after catching a heart, remembering the exact way he tore them apart was probably going to be anything but pleasant.

Ordinary people with no screw loose would stop asking questions by now in fear of triggering some kind of unpleasant memory or reaction.

Not Izaya.

"How do you know you killed millions?" A stare ludicrous and disbelieving met Izaya's gaze as the demon turned in slight disbelief. It was funny. But in a way this demon was acting more human than Izaya was.

Sighing exasperatedly, Shizuo seemed to have given up on trying to end this conversation's topic and frowned. "The demon I fought told me."

Izaya hummed.

So that demon had to be a friend. Or someone close enough to know of Shizuo's deeds. No matter which option was the right one, almost killing someone close was probably the number one reason why Shizuo had decided to walk this lonely path.

So far hell's surroundings had been quite astonishing and different to anything Izaya had ever known, but right now he found himself in the rather soothing presence of what almost looked like an ordinary forest.

Lushes of green and yellow merged into beautiful pallets of colors spread across the ground, the moss, the flowers as well as the crowns of the massive trees that were coming into sight.

Smaller examples of those had been knocked over like toothpicks on a table by the giant Serpent, but it seemed the further they got the sturdier the giants of the forest became. The barks made of chocolate and honey grew in size until they exceeded what Izaya could possibly encircle with both his arms.

The breeze carrying on between the millions of leaves served a pleasant background noise as well as a tinge of magic as it carried a few leaves across in intricate patterns that almost looked too beautiful to attribute to coincidence.

Had it not been for the fact that some of the trees held flames of gold at their center, Izaya would have believed he was walking back on earth.

A careful glimpse was cast towards the trees, and the ground they were walking upon as Izaya made his way forward solely by stepping onto a variety of stones and big lumps of moss.

"Anything I should be aware of?" he asked quickly, as the memory of how that flower had disappeared after his touch, to reveal an all out assault by a spider like creature was burnt into his mind.

A simple shrug was given and now it was Izaya's turn to turn to exasperation.

"Beats me, I have never been in this part of hell before."

Clicking his tongue Izaya accelerated his steps and overtook the demon incapable of giving clear instructions. "I thought you were supposed to be my guide?" he complained, but the demon seemed hardly impressed by his words.

"Hey, you started following me, I never said I knew the way."

Confusion appeared on Izaya's expression as he raised a brow. "And the hill with the shrine?"

Shizuo had seemed anything but surprised to find those stairs and using the barrier had seemed too natural to deem it as intuition.

A shrug was given and Shizuo shook his head, "What you call a shrine is more of a temple. One of many. They are dispersed through hell. Any demon can use them by giving some blood."

Ah.

So that's why.

It wasn't like Shizuo had been to this temple before, but to many others that looked the exact same.

Somehow Izaya had been of the impression that Shizuo's usage of blood was some kind of superior demon spell that only a handful of powerful entities were capable of using.

This checkpoint theory made a lot more sense, considering Shizuo had talked about how hell froze over every night with a type of cold that could kill mediocre demons.

It was then that Izaya's ears caught the sound of faint rustling.

Having taken over Shizuo had a clear view on the human, as well as the disgusted expression he showed as soon as his new best friend came crawling back through a cluster of moss.

Happy grunts and noises too crude to even imagine gargled from the human faced worm as it tried jumping up Izaya's leg. In a quick natural reaction of disgust Izaya jerked away from the touch and Shizuo did his human a favor and kicked the worm with enough force to split it in half.

Blood smeared the moss around and the human face transformed back into what it was supposed to be. An ugly insect's jaw.

"Thanks," Izaya mumbled and Shizuo sighed.

"Just saying, but these are more dangerous than they look."

An expression of disgust reflected on Izaya's face as he spoke, "Are they venomous?" The memory of how a similar creature, or was it the same?, had tried to jump up his body earlier resurfaced from Izaya's mind as he tried recalling whether he had touched it or not.

But to his relief Shizuo shook his head.

"No, their claws only make for small scratches. But they remember your face. You saw it too, didn't you? The face of its last victim."

Ah, okay. So until now Izaya had actually come to terms with the idea that hell wasn't as unpleasant as most people in the human realm claimed it to be, but somehow the more he learned about it, the more he understood why people kept their distance from it nonetheless.

"You want to tell me they will impersonate me next?" he concluded correctly and Shizuo nodded.

"They impersonate any creature they deem weak. It's like a signal for their fellow kins to locate food." Tipping the front part of the split worm over Izaya received a pretty disgusting insight onto its belly. "At first it's one that carries your face, then two," Shizuo continued while revealing a set of sharp claws sitting right underneath the creature's chin. "And some day you wake up in the middle of hundreds of rotten heads and those claws turned to a hundredfold dig away at your limbs until you are shredded to mouth sized pieces."

Izaya had never been a fan of worms, insects or anything that would even attempt to somehow invade his body. The medieval torture used in Europe where rats were placed onto their victim's stomach and covered by a heated bucket of iron was one of the worst ideas of death Izaya had ever heard about. They basically forced the rodents to bury their way through his guts in order to escape- the death brought by these worms appeared to have an awful lot in common as Izaya tried to suppress the slight hint of nausea the idea of having worms burying into his body brought.

The slightest hint of a smile grazed Shizuo's expression as his fellow human had for once actually remained quiet instead of asking further questions and he noted the disturbed expression on his face.

"Scared?"

Without sparing the demon even a glance Izaya moved on with no shred of fear.

"Of course not. Let's move on. The sooner we arrive at Crysteria the better, right?"

A mask was what it was, a mask. And Shizuo could tell he was wearing one better than anyone else.

He could tell Izaya was afraid of the worms.

Fear was a very natural emotion and none he was spared.

Be it when this human first saw him, at the fireplace, or when that critter tried to eat him alive.

The Serpent too.

Izaya was obviously very much sane when it came to admitting the dangers of hell.

So why?

Why was there not a shred of fear when he looked at him?

Eyes narrowing just slightly, Shizuo directed his gaze towards the worm's corpse.

Izaya should exert more fear, he should show Izaya what it meant to meddle with a demon, but somehow-

Recalling the words Izaya had used back at the temple- the trust he was putting into Shizuo, he somehow found himself unable to act.

Izaya had said he was willing to bet on him.

Those words filled Shizuo with a long abandoned warmth.

Almost soothing. To be trusted like that- it was a sensation he didn't dislike.

"Are you coming?" Izaya asked, and Shizuo realized he had failed to follow his human onward.

"You think I can't catch up?" he snorted and Izaya shrugged.

"You were the one who told me if I moved out of sight you wouldn't care what happened to me."

Ah.

Right.

That's what he said, wasn't it?

Really now- he was a demon, he should be avoiding humans, or kill them on sight. Not go on a road trip with.

The amusement following that realization wasn't easy to hide and Izaya caught a glimpse of it.

"What's so funny?" He was obviously annoyed, by both Shizuo's pace and his amusement.

"Nothing."

Traveling hell with a human might not be so bad after all.

to be continued~