Chapter 42: Slow down
"Here I thought you were paying me a long overdue visit, but I see you are only abusing me as a safe haven," the crab laughed and Shizuo offered an apologetic smile.
"Forgive me, but your presence is the only option to bring me some peace." Stones cracked in the surrounding walls and the moss layering the ground moved softly at the amusement of the guardian. Almost like the stomach of a creature. Izaya didn't really know what to make of the guardian. His behavior spoke of no ill will, but his sheer size was unsettling nonetheless.
"There is nothing to forgive. Time passes awfully fast these days and it delights me to see a new face," it spoke slowly and suddenly the creature moved- or rather, its eyeball did. Stretching like a piece of gum it flew from its socket, connected by a string of blood only as it approached Izaya in childlike excitement. "You have an awfully interesting presence to you, human," it said and Izaya tried his hardest to not flinch as he faced the sticky orb of black and red in the size of a volleyball. Disgusting.
That's what it was, 100%.
Twisting around itself the gross body of water and slime circled Izaya's body as it looked at him from every angle possible.
"The name is Izaya," Shizuo told the guardian in Izaya's stead. "He lost his memories but believes he came from a different world," and his expression turned curious, "What do you mean when you say he has an interesting presence?"
That's what Izaya would have liked to know as well.
Iris flipping left and right the crab peeked at Shizuo before devoting his attention to Izaya's body once more.
Growing longer, broader and most importantly even more disgusting he rose above Izaya's head, to his right, to his left, "It's the way he exists," the guardian mumbled with its mouth still stuck in the wall and the floor reverberated at the sombre sound. "He is here. Yet he is not. It's almost as if he were far away but close all the same," he mumbled further and Izaya swallowed slightly at the guardian's assessment. His analysis didn't sound too positive and only left room for more questions.
"Am I unstable or something?" he tried to joke and looked at his hands as though he expected them to vanish on the spot. "Am I going to disintegrate at some point?"
The answer he sought was a definite no, maybe even a bit of offense or teases about him not being able to see what the crab did, but instead the guardian's eye retracted back into the wall.
"You might," it surmised, half to itself, half to Izaya and the watery fireflies circling the cave danced around its face as if they were trying to provide some form of comfort. "But not before shedding your body."
Shedding?
Raising an eyebrow Izaya looked at the skin of his arm but of course it had remained the same it always had. Beige, maybe a little pale from the previous days, but overall it was simple human flesh.
"As far as I am aware I am not a reptile," Izaya tried with a smile, hoping that the guardian was just confusing his body with that of some demons' anatomy, but he was disappointed.
A laugh was all that followed as he apparently had told a very funny joke.
"Not your physical one," the crab explained and Izaya glanced towards Shizuo, a little lost in the analysis the guardian provided.
"Do you know what he means?" but Shizuo seemed equally lost as he tilted his head sideways with an expression that searched for understanding. "I wished I knew."
Nodding to itself the cave shook for a second, "Riddles are a wondrous thing, pleasant in every way and too scarce to find," it spoke awfully amused and Izaya found himself wondering if that was the way he made people feel when he dangled the answers to their questions in front of their noses without telling them what they needed to know on the spot.
"Please, proceed with your study of magic and I will try what I can see," the crab continued and Izaya sighed.
Either the guardian didn't know the answer either or he decided that holding out on it was somehow beneficial to both of them.
But both options meant at least one thing, he was not going to tell them the way they were now.
"You heard him," Izaya announced and closed in on his personal demon.
Surprise was the only emotion offered as Shizuo looked at Izaya.
"Don't you want to rest?"
Rest.
A funny activity that Izaya had skipped for the longest time.
Realizing just how long he had spent walking around without sleeping, Izaya glanced down at his own body, almost as if he were expecting it to turn into that of a demon.
He was… fine? Or was he?
The last time he slept was… - he couldn't remember actually. But he didn't feel tired.
It was then that he remembered the fruit Shizuo had handed to him. The one revitalizing his body. Was it working like an energy drink and feigning the absence of fatigue? Or did it heal his body so effectively that it didn't only regenerate any exterior wounds but also his normal physical functions?
Either way he felt no need to rest but bounds of energy instead.
"I think I'm fine actually," he voiced his state aloud, only earning a glance of doubt.
Of course Shizuo wasn't about to believe what he had said after everything that happened, but it seemed the crab had seen Izaya's state as it suddenly raised its voice again.
"I do think he is, if my humble opinion matters," it confirmed what Izaya had concluded and a sense of relief filled Izaya's mind.
Hell and its interior functions were still a vast mystery to him and seeing how he had almost died once already it was good to know that his feeling well didn't act as a harbinger of an early death.
Shizuo seemed to feel the same way as he sighed relieved.
And suddenly the crab moved.
"If you excuse me, I will retreat to rest for now." The waterflies stirred as the wall suddenly crumbled and as if having been sucked inside a vortex, the crabs face disappeared beneath the simple pretense of a wall that Izaya had seen upon entering.
Amazing.
Izaya couldn't help but grow more and more astonished by hell's workings. This place, the creatures, the sanity graciously split across all kinds of living entities-
"How did he know you? And why is he sane?" Izaya whispered. "I mean, the serpent seemed anything but conscious." According to Shizuo the crab was a guardian of hell and so was the Serpent, so why did their level of consciousness vary to this degree?
"It's a difference in age. The serpent counts only a few hundred years if at all, but the crab has been here for several millennia."
Millenia.
Again the word that was unfathomably hard to grasp, not to mention a couple of them.
The level of insanity coaxing into demons' minds after such a long time of simply being alive somehow suddenly explained why they were described as madness and evil.
If Izaya were alive that long, who knows what time would do to his mind?
But looking at the way the crab had retracted Izaya couldn't help but wonder whether going to sleep was what had kept his sanity.
"Does he like you, or your status as the demon lord?" Izaya asked and Shizuo snorted.
"Me, I guess," brushing across the wall that the crab's face had warped into his gaze turned into a gentle one. "He is not serving the demon lords since generations or anything if that's what you are thinking."
Shizuo's tune had turned awfully gentle and Izaya realized what it was that he had seen in his expression.
Care.
Shizuo liked this crab.
"How did you meet?" Something about his expression told Izaya that it had to have been within the past year of memories that Shouuo retained.
"Coincidence," Shizuo sighed and tilted his head up to the ceiling. "Ironically it was exactly here, roughly a year ago, that I fell down in this pit," he started to explain and pointed towards the opening they had come through earlier. Now it was closed and a batch of waterflies gathered to snuggle up in a wall of glittering orbs. "I had no memories. Not of myself, not of the area, of nothing at all actually," Expression growing a bit mellow Shizuo's expression turned into a light frown as he ruffled through his hair.
"He could have consumed me for all I was worth, but instead he took interest in me. Most knowledge I have about hell is from him. And everytime I ran into something I didn't understand he would know the answer."
So that's why.
"I was wondering how you knew so much about hell despite your memory loss," Izaya hummed, "So you spent the last year in this area? Traveling around with the guardian close by?"
Shizuo snorted and his nostalgic expression turned to into a fond smile.
"More or less, yes."
So the coincidence to meet him hadn't been that coincidental after all.
Shizuo was where the mountain headed and Izaya headed towards the mountain for different reasons but with the same destination in mind.
For a second he had thought some kind of ulterior move executed by the goddess had brought them together in order to create some kind of grand scheme that would torture Izaya in ways he couldn't imagine, but it seemed his idea had been wrong.
It was after a minute of silent thinking that he noticed Shizuo's gaze.
Eyes resting upon him he seemed to be contemplating something.
"What?"
Shizuo blinked, torn out of his thoughts and quickly shook his head, "No, it's just," he sighed, "I never taught anyone anything before. I'm trying to think of where to start."
Ah, right.
Izaya needed to learn to fight demons one way or another if he truly wanted to consider staying inside hell.
"Maybe a spell? A simple one?" he guessed as those were the only acts he deemed himself capable of.
He was by no means weak, but when it came to comparing his parkour skills to the speed and strength of demons he clearly lost by far.
A soft sigh was all that followed upon Izaya's suggestion, however, and Shizuo declined.
"As if you would be able to cast it."
Izaya snorted, honestly mildly offended as he had almost managed to work a human spell without any additional knowledge before.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, and Shizuo blinked, realizing the misunderstanding on the spot.
A soft smile spread across his lips and he unlocked his arms from their crossed state.
"Say my name."
A bit confused by the order, Izaya blinked.
"What?" but no further information was given.
Shizuo simply stood there. Waiting. And Izaya couldn't quite help but feel like a mouse in a trap.
What was his name going to trigger?
He didn't know.
And so his lips moved.
"Shiz-"
Fast.
Faster than Izaya could finish a single word, faster than it took for him to blink, Shizuo was suddenly there.
Face to face, eyes slit and his claws brushing across Izaya's jugular vein in an almost loving fashion.
"That's how easy it is to kill you," Shizuo whispered, gently, but the threat was genuine.
Izaya understood.
What Shizuo had doubted wasn't his ability to work a spell, but the chance to even voice one in the first place.
Living in hell.
He thought it would be fine, but this wasn't going to be any easier than fighting the goddess was it?
"Okay I get what you mean," Izaya swallowed, "But then what do you expect me to do?" he whispered closely and Shizuo's eyes shifted back to their natural flair of gold as he carefully retracted his hand with s contemplating expression.
"First you need to learn to protect your body," he mumbled, more to himself than to Izaya and Izaya nodded in agreement.
"When those critters attacked you you had not even the chance to react. No matter the spell or power you possess, if they get to you faster than you can act then it's over."
Made sense.
Even if it was mildly unsettling.
"So what should I do to get faster?"
And suddenly it seemed enlightenment graced Shizuo with its presence as his expression lit up.
"Slow down," he said, and he seemed to miss the paradox his words caused.
"Huh?"moving over Shizuo quickly grasped Izaya's arm before biting his own. Demon blood quickly splurted from his veins and Izays blinked in even more confusion as Shizuo dipped into the liquid and started dragging his fingers across Izaya's skin.
"What are you doing?" he asked but made sure not to move his arm.
"Placing runes onto your body," Shizuo simply answered as his hand moved upwards.
Symbols appeared, one after the other and started to emit a soft glow before fading into Izaya's skin.
It was only when Shizuo had inscribed up towards the entire arm that he stopped and let go of Izaya again.
"I don't know if this will work but-" a soft glimmer streaked through his eyes and with a whisper too soft and unfamiliar to recognize a light sensation of warmth spread across his entire arm. All around.
And the waterflies suddenly flocked to him with curiosity.
"And this will slow me down?" Izaya asked, half jokingly and Shizuo snorted.
"Not you, but others."
Drifting midair the waterflies seemed to be the easiest method of examination as Shizuo caught one floating in front of his face.
With more force than needed the poor creature was tossed towards Izaya and he squeezed his eyes shut for a second as it aimed right for his eyes.
But the impact never followed.
Glimpsing forth, Izaya half expected the creature to be waiting so it could catch him off guard, but the opposite seemed to be true.
Glowing in slow successive blinks the waterfly's legs struggled against the unintended direction of flight.
Slow.
Awfully slow.
As if it had entered a different space entirely.
It took Izaya a second to notice the glow of the runes on his arm and the connection to the creature's speed.
Stepping aside with ease it was as if some kind of locking mechanism had become undone and the waterfly accelerated before racing past him with protesting noises.
Only then did Shizuo's words make sense.
Slow down- not himself, but whatever charged at him.
Or in other words, Shizuo's runes manipulated the time around him.
to be continued~
Yo the mini trainingsarc is starting xD Now that we have time to cast a spell, let's see what Izaya can do C: xD
See you next friday~!