|
|
Post by Neku Sakuraba on Nov 11, 2012 0:36:02 GMT -5
As we walk, I begin to feel more confident. Clamer, more collected.
I guess I'm borrowing a lot from the me that Nami knows.
He's so much more confident than me. I'm the only one who really thinks of us as separate parts of Neku, because I understand the separation, the split, better than either of the other two of us. We are separate now. We need to be put back together again. And... and I don't like him very much at all.
I didn't used to know who he was because the outer Neku and I were always together, but I"m separate too, now.
But the outer Neku has to be the one to talk to Izaya, so I look at the ground, worried, as Nami and I walk hand in hand.
"Namine," I say, quietly. "When we get there, I might try and send you away again. Because I won't be afraid anymore."
|
|
|
|
Post by Namine Joy LeBeau on Nov 11, 2012 0:43:24 GMT -5
My eyes narrow, "No. I am going in with you whether you like it or not." My tone firm and gaze unyeilding. "I refuse to let you go into something dangerous alone, I refuse to let you... go through this with out me... You keep telling me we're together and that you want to protect me."
I sigh, "Dammit, Neku. I feel the same way about you too!"
|
|
|
|
Post by Neku Sakuraba on Nov 11, 2012 0:55:39 GMT -5
That shocked me out of the place I was. I could... could feel... myself slipping away. It was... it was freaking weird.
"But... but Namine!" I protested, shaking my head. "I..."
You... you feel the same way? I asked, surprised. But... but I don't want you to get... to get hurt...
But... no. I couldn't chase her away now. I couldn't.
".....Alright, Namine," I said, with a little bit of a smile. "You win. But if Izaya tries anything..."
I left the threat hanging. I was torn between two voices.
....you have to get away!
....I'll tear him APART!
They'd alwasy been there.
But never this clear.
Never this separate.
I looked up to Izaya's office.
"Let's go," I told her. And caught her hand, pulled her forward.
|
|
|
|
Post by Namine Joy LeBeau on Nov 11, 2012 1:01:17 GMT -5
I nod and hold his hand tight. We walk in.
|
|
|
|
Post by Izaya Orihara on Nov 11, 2012 1:14:45 GMT -5
THe receptionist's area was empty today; Neku thus led his prize into the main office, where the lanky, lazy dark form of Izaya Orihara reclined regally, reposing in his office chair as if it were a golden throne. There was something different about him today - sharper, cleaner. More in control. As if power were gathering and swirling around and within them.
Red eyes - he wasn't even trying to hide from them - focused on his two new arrivals and he broke into a lazy, satisfied smirk. A fox in the henhouse.
"Well, Neku, I didn't expect you to bring your ladyfriend with you. This is such a pleasant surprise."
He glanced between the two of them, smirked a little wider. "So.... you've come to pay your debts, then, young Neku?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Neku Sakuraba on Nov 11, 2012 1:17:17 GMT -5
My fists clenched, I could feel the dark me rear its ugly head.
"I... I want you to tell me what these 'debts' I have are!" I exclaimed, taking an instinctive step forward. "And I need you to tell me what the hell it is you did to my head! And why there's... why I don't feel like I'm supposed to be me!"
|
|
|
|
Post by Izaya Orihara on Nov 11, 2012 1:23:32 GMT -5
He laughed, spinning to his feet, leaving the chair to whirl for a moment as he walked out around is desk, the usual spring in his step gone, replaced by a purposeful stalk.
And his smile beame malicious.
"So you're starting to notice it, young Neku?" he asked, red eyes meeting blue. "Starting to notice that you don't feel quite right in your own skin as the power starts to fade and crack." He caught Neku's chin in his hand, jerking him closer.
"Naughty, naughty, Neku," he scolded lightly. "You've broken all but one piece of the binding, no wonder you're so confused!" He laughed, letting go of Neku, who glared as he circled, passing only long enough to move the black king over a few white Go stones, collecting them like checkers. "I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yourself..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Namine Joy LeBeau on Nov 11, 2012 1:37:19 GMT -5
My eyes narrow at Izaya and teeth grit before giving Neku's hand a squeeze, "Look, stop yanking him around like you've got him on a leash. Come straight with us... and stop being a jack ass while at it."
|
|
|
|
Post by Izaya Orihara on Nov 11, 2012 1:42:01 GMT -5
He laughed.
"Alright, alright, I'll cut to the chase." He shrugged expansively, spinning around; Neku subconsciously positioned himself between Namine and the demon, which caused him to chuckle again. "So protective, Neku! Really, I won't bite." He chuckled some more. "At least not this little prize..."
He leaned against a wall, smiling. "So, Neku. I'll skip to the good part, since you're so impatient. Just want to know if you know a certain tidbit."
THe smile became predatory, his eyes lazily half-closed.
"What happens, young Neku, when two Halfers have children?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Neku Sakuraba on Nov 11, 2012 2:00:49 GMT -5
I blinked.
How was that relevant?
"I'm the head of the Network, Izaya," I told him harshly. "Of course I know. The kids are halfers."
Then I heard him laugh. Saw those bloodred eyes staring into mine and felt a shiver of memory.
"Ahhhh, yes, normally they are." He chuckled again, I was really starting to hate that sound. "Oh, Neku, if it were Lea I were talking to, he'd understand in minutes. He'd know by now what I was speaking of. It's a fluke, a chance that outdoes all genetic odds because of the powers involved."
I shivered again.
"Do you understand what I'm saying, young Neku?"
"I... I don't know what the hell you're talking about."
"You disappoint me." His pacing and circling ceased and he laughed. "I believe you don't want to think about it. I believe you don't want to remember." His hands never left his pockets, his eyes never left mine, but somehow, it felt like something were wrapping itself around me.
"I wonder," he asked quietly, "if you can read my mind..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Namine Joy LeBeau on Nov 11, 2012 2:12:11 GMT -5
My eyes widen and I glance over to Neku before frowning, "... I was right?" What I couldn't think, what I have been thinking, the news that would brake him. "...Is he really...?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Neku Sakuraba on Nov 11, 2012 2:43:46 GMT -5
Really.... what...?But at his words, I... I couldn't help it. I closed my eyes. And tasted an alien mind. THoughts, memories, ancient ideas and plans that were still in progress even today, the mind of a demon of over a thousand years old. And then, for just a moment, I saw it. I saw the creature that stood in front of me, and I almost cried out as I realized that what was wrapped around me was one of nine trailing tails of shadow. And then.... it took over me. The memory. The full memory of that night, the screaming, the pain. The MAN who had come... come after me. Come to kill me. And I... I just.... ---- “NO!” screamed the black-haired woman, holding the orange-haired child in her arms, shielding him with her own body as the gunshots rang out, piercing into her, but missing the child.
So much blood.
So much pain.
I watched from the child’s eyes as Mommy fell to the ground, taking me with her. The man with the knives and the gun reached for me, but Mommy swatted him aside.
“No!” she cried again, but she was getting weaker. He laughed, then shot me. I fell to the ground, bleeding…
It was the dark man that came upon us, lying there, Mommy using every last ounce of her strength to attempt to drag me to safety, the pouring rain diluting the blood that poured from our open, but in my case, slowly closing, wounds.
Like... like the hole straight through my right wing... I couldn't get away... Mommy was protecting me becasue I ouldn't get away because the knife man's knives burned...
He looked like a dark man, but there was a shadow around him, some large, black beast made of shadows that stalked along as he moved, and I realized that it was his shadow – his real shadow.
“Izaya!” Mommy cried, hoarse. “Izaya…”
Izaya.... you.... it was...
“Well, well, well… what do we have here?” he asked, crouching, smiling as red eyes lit the night, glowing like Mommy’s did sometimes. This man, though, was cold and distant, not comforting. White fur dragged in the puddles as he sat there, grinning like the black fox that showed in his shadows.
“Izaya!” Mommy cried. “Please…. Please, save my son!”
She clutched me tightly; I remember looking up into the dark man’s eyes as he smiled a fox’s grin.
“Save him…? From who?”
“Please, Izaya! Take him away… save him from our curse so that they will never find him!”
He crossed his arms across his knees, rested his head on them as he inspected me.
“You know that my deals always come with a price.”
“I’ll do anything, anything! Just save him… save my son!”
“Aaanything?” His smile stretched, widened, and I could see his form flicker in the shadows. “A dangerous promise to make, to one such as I…”
“I have no future; Neku does! Izaya… please…” Her voice was sobbing, and it was getting weaker.
“Don’t fool yourself; you are already dead, your heart just hasn’t stopped beating yet. You have nothing you can give me that I would want. If you truly wish my help, the price shall be paid by the boy.”
But Mommy was already weakening, just like Daddy had. She could barely move anymore.
“Just save him, Izaya…”
The dark man slowly smiled…----- ........No.... The flashback ripped my brain open. Everything. Everything that was wrong with me. All the things that I should be and wasn't.Daddy's blue eyes, the eyes I wore now; mommy's green eyes, the ones that were mine. Mine, my own, my real ones. The truth, the one truth I hadn't been able to accept. I hit my knees, tears falling from now-green eyes. Scars tracing themselves across my back, and I shook my head, no! But... but the answer was... The answer was yes. I wasn't.... I wasn't human... And not human was... was the person I'm supposed to be. "Do you understand now?" he asked, and I glared up at you. "It was you, all along it was you. You were the one who took my memories, and before that, you were the one who took... who took..." I closed my eyes. "You took me. You took my power. You took my self. And you did it to save my life...." |
|
|
|
Post by Namine Joy LeBeau on Nov 11, 2012 2:53:03 GMT -5
I drop down next to Neku, glaring up at Izaya. But... If what... We remembered... was... Then he... "Dammit." I guess I can't knock him on his ass when this is all over then, huh? Instead I just keep my dark gaze heavy on the demon before us.
I do still loath his very existence though.
|
|
|
|
Post by Izaya Orihara on Nov 11, 2012 3:05:11 GMT -5
Izaya watched as the young demon-turned-human fell to his knees; as his young human prize clung to him, trying to comfort him.
And he smiled. He allowed his tails to retreat, to become solid, and they waved lazily behind him as he crouched, much as he had in Neku's memory.
"And you both saw, that's excellent."
Neku's green eyes came to meet his red ones, shock, anger, fear writhing in their depths.
"So, now we come to discuss payment." He rocked a little on his heels, airy, light, happy and free-spirited as always. "You see, as I said ten years ago, your mother didn't have neough juice to fuel the power. So it's weakening. Cracking, breaking, you name it. The seal's all but spent. So I need you!" and he poked Neku in the chest with an elegant finger, "to pay me for my services." He laughed, rocked some more, ruffled Neku's hair. "That's all I need; that's all you need. And poof! You're just as human as you've believed you were for the past four years and more, permanently, no strings attached. However," and his gaze became lazily hard again, "if you don't pay up, then I'll have to revoke my gift. You'll go back to the way you were. And if you don't make your decision soon, the binding won't hold. It'll come apart on its own." He skipped backwards, back to his feet, tails weaving a dance behind him. "And I can assure you that thaaat," he pointed both hands at Neku, "surely won't be a pleasant experience."
|
|
|
|
Post by Neku Sakuraba on Nov 11, 2012 3:14:43 GMT -5
"Payment," I said, voice flat and numb. I was still in shock.
All my memories.
Everything I thought I knew about myself was... a lie...
"Will... will choosing one way or the other fix what's wrong with my brain?" I asked, quietly. Both halves were rioting.
I'm not! I'm human! I can't be a demon, I just can't!
I need to be ME again! I need to fly! I need to find that man and slice him to ribbons!
I lutched at my head, but Izaya just nodded, nine black tails falling still a moment before taking up their hyperactive swishing.
"Of course," he said. "That's a side effect of the binding. Choose one way or the other... and we'll fix you all up whole."
But... what did I choose?
"What's the price?" I asked.
And then he laughed again.
"Nothing short of the thing most precious to you in all the world," he said. "Nothing short of that will do. After all, this was an expensive transfer... and long, long delayed. I should be charging you interest."
My soul chilled. Because... beacuse the thing most precious to me...
Suddenly, I was on my feet, Izaya slammed against the wall.
"NO!" I yelled. "YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!"
The rage, it felt right. Of course it did. Rage... rage was.... half of who I was.... I took a step back, my grip on his collar loosened.
"Do you want to fight me?" His voice was amused.
"I...."
"If my price is too expensive, I suppose you can haggle...."
BUt I.... I can't..... she's not mine to give...
|
|
