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Kida had spent the past few days not only in a miserable mood, but inflicting that mood onto everyone around him. He had decided he needed to sort out everything that was happening and stop being so paranoid. He'd written a letter of apology to Lion and snuck it to her house in the middle of the night. Hopefully she got it and would respond. He understood if it took her a while. He was especially cruel and unkind.

He'd also spoken to Zelos, who agreed to talk to the people at Dagon and try to get them to back off of Lion. Even if Mikado wasn't directly involved in any of it, he couldn't help worrying it would lead to all sorts of issues of miscommunications and misunderstandings because he was with Lion that day and he was learning magic now, too.

He wasn't really sure what else he could do at this point though, so he decided to take it easy at home with his friend and try to relax with his friend. That's why Kida threw a pencil at Mikado's head from his spot lounging on Izaya's couch.

"You spend so much time reading those books, do any of them have a spell for inventing television or the internet in them? Or maybe a spell to summon a super cute girl in a maid's costume who will use -sama and bow and blush in cute ways while she serves us."

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And like a prophet at a catastrophe, Orihara Izaya appeared. So, it was done. And it looked like it had been done like Izaya had hoped for. His only disappointment, then, was missing that moment when Mikado's face changed.

But he got to see it now.

Izaya only spared Mikado's face one glance (and this was Erika? she looked like he expected, he would deal with that later) before he was crouched down beside Kida. "So it's gotten this far, huh? Mikado-kun. There's a way to save him, but we have to move fast. Are you willing to do it?"

Edited 2011-11-21 01:48 (UTC)

More like a vulture after a massacre but ah well. Erika was 'kind' enough to sort through the cultists. The ones who needed put out of their misery and the ones who just needed a swift, hard knock and patted out with her scythe. While it was disobeying Mikado, it meant Mikado hadn't killed anyone.

Well, except for his friend. That was probably enough for one day, wasn't it?

Erika looked at Izaya. Several theories were eliminated and a few truths were refined. She tipped her head before shrugging and talking to herself, loud enough for Izaya to hear - she doubted Mikado was aware of much right now.

"No one will interrupt you." Then she heaved up her scythe and went to guard the stairs.

Edited 2011-11-21 02:22 (UTC)

He wouldn't yell at Erika for her actions. Even if he was aware of them, which was debatable. He simply stared at Izaya, not sure where the man had come from or how. It wasn't, in the wake of those words, worth wondering about.

"What is it?" His words were clear and remarkably calm, but it might have been shock keeping his voice a little remote. He didn't ask how Izaya knew such things, he didn't care, in that moment. Izaya was offering him a way out, a chance to restore something infinitely precious and lost.

Whatever the method was, Mikado would do anything, in that moment.

"Just cut your hand open and mix your blood with his. The cut on his hands will work." Izaya's demeanour was calm, but that was no surprise. After all, Izaya had spent a long time working with people who were not limited by his cowardice. So, this could hardly be said to be the first time he'd dealt with corpses before. "I can say the words. Ah, but this is a pretty big thing. It's the only way I've come across, but if we do this, you and Masaomi will be connected until you both die. There's no other way out of it for either of you."

As the informant gave his words of warning, he took up the ritual knife by the blade. Most of the drug was washed away. He offered Mikado that weapon's hilt. "Please decide."

Izaya did not expect Mikado to be looking at his face, but if he did, he wouldn't see a sly smile. Instead, Izaya's eyes were settled totally on Mikado. Perhaps this was interfering, but even the way Izaya had taken the knife kept his hands clean.

All he wanted was to observe.

Mikado didn't hesitate to take the hilt of the knife. It wasn't that he didn't hear Izaya's words. It was simply that it didn't matter what the price was. What being connected forever actually meant was not an issue, because Masaomi was dead in his lap and Mikado still couldn't accept that. There was simply no way to.

The knife he brought to his palm cut and hurt. But that arm was already in great pain. He only hissed--not because he was particularly tough and able to withstand the pain, but because he didn't even have the energy to cry out. He lifted the hand painfully, tangling his fingers with Masaomi's injured hand until their palms pressed together.

He was still crying, hyperventilating a little from the continuous shocks of everything. He looked up, finally, at Izaya's face.

"What now?" His voice shook, trembling on the edge of something. He felt like there were cracks running through him, invisible and deadly, and he might break if he even took a breath wrong.

"It'll be better if you shut your eyes."

With no more warning than that, Izaya spoke. It was the same language that had brought Kida to the edge of life and death. Izaya pronounced the words perfectly, but even in his own ears, they sounded completely strange, like the words weren't possible from his mouth. It sounded to him like someone else was talking through him.

If he was courting madness, that was a price he was willing to pay for this show. When he stopped speaking, the wounds healed, and Kida Masaomi was breathing once again. At that moment, Izaya lost that second vision that let him see how he was binding together the two people in front of him.

Kida sat up, sputtering and gasping for breath as if he had been drowning and had finally found air. He looked around himself, not ready to take in his surroundings or really anything around him. His hands were bound, he was in a strange place, and he could still hear the echoes of that horrible place where he'd been. Even when he closed his eyes just to blink, he saw the horrible expanses of it all.

He needed his hands free and he needed to get away from this place and he needed those voices to stop and he needed something to fix him, because whatever that place was he could feel it flowing in his blood and crawling under his skin. He wanted to dig it all out and purge himself. He tugged on his wrists, trying to pry them free of whatever was binding them, flailing out of Mikado's arms in the process. He barely even registered that Mikado was there.

His eyes were panicked as he looked around the room, like a child who had lost their parent in the grocery store. There were too many imperatives that Kida was trying to keep them straight. Figure out where he was, break free of the bindings, get away from this place, make those voices stop, purge himself of whatever was wrong with him. The restraints were the most pressing thing though, it felt like they were digging into his skin, like they were alive and moving and twisting tighter and tighter, trying to meld themselves into him, even though the restraints were actually loosely bound. He slammed his wrists against the ground, rubbing furiously, trying to get them off.

"Masaomi!" Mikado winced as he was shoved, but straightened himself in order to reach out with his good hand to catch his friend's shoulders. Not regarding Kida's struggles or blind panic, or his own pain or the strange feelings the words Izaya had spoken where evoking in him--twisting, writhing feelings--he pulled his friend into a hug as best he could.

He was still crying and he didn't care. He was relieved. Nothing else mattered. Not the blood covering Masaomi and now himself, not the bodies around them, not the sickening magic still tainting the air.

He couldn't believe it, even though Masaomi was right here, his friend was alive. It was... He couldn't even sort out his own feelings.

For one moment, there was only one word for the expression on Izaya's face: ecstasy.

If Mikado had turned to see, then Izaya could have covered it up as joy at having Masaomi back to life. But of course, Mikado wouldn't look. The only person who could possibly see was Erika. And for a detective like that, Izaya doubted that his nature would be hidden. After all, he had always been very transparent with it.

But two things had occurred. Izaya had seen human expressions he had never been able to observe before. On top of that, he had seen death cheated. In other words, he had been presented both with something he wanted to observe and one method he could use to observe for all of eternity.

Fearing death more than anyone. Believing that there was no afterlife more than anyone. Desiring that afterlife more than anyone.

Loving humans more than any monster had a right to try to. That's right: he couldn't kill these Great Ones, but he didn't want to share his humans with them if they hoped to love. But seeing what was here today, Izaya was completely certain. The monsters that held onto humanity didn't do so out of love.

Even if they did, he'd be more than content to use those monsters to get what he needed. That was a truth from home: humans had to make compromises in life. And Izaya truly was a human.

The expression which had been so transparently present for a moment disappeared suddenly and totally. This new person wore a tender and welcoming smile.

Izaya got to his feet and walked over to Erika. He said to her, "Sorry we couldn't meet under other circumstances, Furudo Erika-san. I was hoping to talk to you before now, but that's life, right? I've got some friends who will take care of these bodies, so don't worry about it. Now's not good, but I'd like to talk to you later some time."

Then he addressed the pieces. His voice was as gentle as his expression. "Mikado-kun. Masaomi. We need to get you both back home. I'll get Shinra to come over and look at you just in case."

Edited 2011-11-21 03:42 (UTC)

While technically guarding the passage, Erika was more or less just observing the three. Izaya really was pretty transparent. More information would still be needed to fill certain gaps but otherwise, the girl who knew and learned well that there were multiple truths in the world was absolute in the chain of events she had mapped out in her mind.

But no, that wasn't right. It wasn't a chain. Instead, an elegant but simple pattern had been laid out in dominoes. That person pushed one and watched. Perhaps one hit would knock the next domino off ever so slightly as to hit the wrong one next or take a different route. He could follow and watch and if they stopped falling, he could rearrange or push a different one.

In this fashion, though Izaya gave the pieces momentum, in short, the pieces were the ones who carried it. The analogy couldn't fit perfectly with humans, because they had the ability to resist. They could carry that energy towards a different goal. Sometimes they did. But the pattern...was still something Izaya could follow.

Observers were most frightening.

And those two...were complete and utter incompetent idiots. Erika sighed. What a troublesome and fascinating person. What a mess that she really didn't want to deal with and would have to anyway. But interesting, nonetheless.

"I hope to speak to you at length when we have some time, Izaya-san." Erika smiled and glanced back at Mikado and Kida. No this really wasn't going to end well at all. The Detective proclaimed it. "I shall get you out safely."

Though, protecting them from themselves really was another matter entirely.

Kida was slowly realizing who was surrounding him, but his most base instincts were still dominating as he forcefully pried himself out of Mikado's hug. He panted, staring at the people there. Mikado, Izaya, Erika. He stared at the corpses that littered the ground. What happened here?

He spotted the dropped dagger. He could cut through the ropes and free his hands with that. He moved away from Mikado to retrieve the dagger, his arms twitching in choppy motions as he tried to cut through them, occasionally missing the rope and cutting into skin itself. He had no time to respond to Mikado or Izaya or Erika. He just needed to get his hands free.

"Stop it, Masaomi." Mikado grabbed Kida's hand holding the knife with his good arm, started to help with the ropes and tried to do his best to do so without hurting Kida. Once his friend was free of the bindings he tried to help Kida up.

"C-can you walk?" He himself was still far from calm. The progressive instances of the situation had thrown him off his balance entirely. Where, in Erika's dream, he had been calm enough to defend himself, the instance here, when it was his friend he was worried for, his reasoning seemed quite forgotten. He still was calmer, perhaps, then a a normal boy, but he was far from composed about any of it either.

Kida stared at the bodies again as Mikado helped him up, relieved to at least have his hands free. As he stared at the bodies a fleeting memory came back to him, although it was fuzzy it involved Mikado and fire and magic.

"You," Kida stopped to cough, his voice hoarse, before he started again, "you set those people on fire?"

His legs still felt shaky as he felt himself losing his balance, catching himself on Mikado's shoulders.

Mikado didn't make a noise as Masaomi caught himself on his bad shoulder. He just tried to steady his friend. He felt sort of numb all over, and in a bit he knew he'd probably be sick when he reflected on everything. He was too selfishly relieved to have Masaomi alive and talking and moving to give a damn though, at least at the moment.

"Yes." He steadied Masaomi, no real remorse or regret in his voice, but he didn't sound pleased either. Just tired. The relief of Masaomi being alive was overwhelming.

"Come on. We need to go."

It still felt like something was crawling under his skin, and the echoes of that place were still bouncing around the walls, but he tried to put on a shaky smile for his friend.

"Mikado, you really saved me," Kida smiled at his friend. "Do you think we can grab my clothes though?"

There was a coldness that ran through his veins, and he had the misguided thought that perhaps getting dressed might help that in some way. He let go of Mikado, rubbing at his wrists. That dagger seemed more and more attractive. Paint the man, cut the lines. He could purge himself of whatever was wrong with him if he just grabbed that dagger.

Mikado glanced at Izaya and Erika and then nodded. They shouldn't run off with a basically naked Kida. They had long enough to get him dressed. He helped Kida sit again, because his friend looked shaky as hell.

"I think they're right over there. I'll be right back." He strode away to where the pile of clothes were quickly, trying to ignore the bodies around him as he gathered Kida's things. He turned back to bring the clothing to Masaomi, forcing himself to focus and not keep mentally jumping around at everything. He had enough to process he had to take it one at a time.

It wasn't like they were safe yet.

Kida nodded to Mikado and then lowered himself to sit again, grabbing the discarded dagger. He started digging into his own wrists. Paint the man, cut the lines. He could feel something crawling under there. He would just dig it out with this blade and then he'd be okay.

As he cut into his wrists, tiny things, like bugs but seeming much more sinister to Kida's mind seemed to crawl up and down his skin. There were still more in there though. They were the reason behind those horrible voices that echoed in his ear drums, they were the reason he didn't want to close his eyes. If he could just get them out, he'd be okay. That's why he was feeling so woozy.

Of course, this was all just a hallucination, the wooziness caused by the blood loss, which seemed to get worse and worse as Kida's hands shook. He blinked at his empty hand, noticing a strange scar there. He needed to get rid of that, too. Except he felt pretty tired now, so he would do that after he woke up. Detoxification was an exhausting process he thought to himself, still feebly hacking at his wrists with his slowly draining strength. He smiled, despite it all. He would be okay as soon as he was purged of that horror, and then he could go back to how things were before Mikado had interrupted the ritual.

It was hardly any time to get the clothes for Kida, but by the time he turned back to his friend, Kida was digging into his own arms. No, worse than that, he was bleeding everywhere and he was falling over. And what the... What the hell? Why?! Was this something the ritual had done? Powerful magic could induce madness, there was a lot Mikado still didn't know about the magic of this place, but that was a basic rule.

"Masaomi!" This time, his voice raised to an almost yell as he ran and then skidded, dropping to his knees hard enough to jar his own teeth.

He didn't know the exact ritual Izaya had used on them. He'd been trying not to invest his research in blood magic. All the same, with was knowledge he had of other rituals, and a... Sense he could feel when he touched Masaomi's clammy skin, he felt he could improvise something.

Izaya said it would bind them forever. He had some idea how to repeat the resurrection. It probably wasn't entirely accurate. But the power accumulated in this place wasn't gone either, and Mikado felt almost like he could reach out and through Masaomi and drag him back.

He whispered a set of strange words, managing not to stutter as he folded his hands around Masaomi's wrists. If it worked, would they heal? What about the bloodloss? He didn't have time to wonder, as a rush of dizziness and pain overtook him. He looked down to see his own arms bleeding... Not as badly or half as mangled as Masaomi's had been, but the wounds were undeniably the same ones, only as if they had been more shallow. Masaomi's wounds as well seemed half healed, not half as bad.

He felt something else as well. A strange... dissonance in his own mind and heart. He didn't understand it, at the time, but it was the first affects of magic use on his own psyche, and the pressures of the day adding to the pressure in his soul. It was the first sign of cracking beneath it all, and it was not dramatic or even noticeable. Even Mikado himself did not realize the significance of the chill down his spine and through his heart.

Kida felt his heart pound against his chest. The sensation of being brought from that place even more raw, the survival instinct even more dominant. He was unaware of his surroundings, unaware of who he was with or how he got there. All he knew was he couldn't go back to where he had just been, as he blindly lunged for the figure holding him, fingers wrapping around Mikado's throat. The action pained him in a way that he didn't understand, but he couldn't think, he could only act, only do what he needed to avoid that place.

Fortunately for Mikado, Kida wasn't at his usual strength, as his chest heaved and he fought to breath, his own fingers slipping and losing their grip as he tried to choke Mikado.

Enough stupidity. The blunt part of Erika's scythe, where the blade and handle met, cracked down on Kida's head and dropped him unconscious. It was a measured hit, at best leaving a bump that would be sore for a few days. Otherwise, though, he was safe and breathing, alive, despite it all.

Erika swung the scythe over her shoulders and leaned down, heaving Kida up into her arms. Not exactly the easiest solution but she felt, somehow, the need to take care of everything right now. A quick glance over of Mikado. He was all right for now, too.

"Coming back from oblivion is nearly as terrifying as oblivion itself." A simple statement as she looked at Mikado, impassive. "Ah, go get his clothes. I bet he would whine if we didn't."

It was a shock. Masaomi had never attacked him. But what Erika said as she lifted his friend off of him made sense. Of course... He could have no idea what Kida was thinking or feeling. His reaction to being nearly strangled was only to touch his neck, and then to stumbled to his feet and gather the clothing he'd dropped.

He had no words he could thank Erika or Izaya with. He'd just have to do it in actions later.

No, well, he'd thank them with words as well of course. But it would be inadequate. Strangely he felt calmer now that Masaomi was unconscious. Still... unsettled and distressed. But maybe it was shock, it was just all a little muffled.

His cheeks were still wet though, and he wiped them on his sleeve. His voice wavered than steadied as he turned to join Erika.

"Thank you. Let's get out of here."

AND THEN--they all trooped home. Izaya fetched Shinra, who patched up everyone and was generally genki. Mikado asked Erika to stay and keep an eye on Kida and VENTURED BACK TO THE CHURCH OF DAGON--idk maybe he talks to Izaya first. But anyway he's off to join a cult. OTHER THINGS IN OTHER THREADS. The end.

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