Warnings:

- canon-typical violence and injuries

- lots of cursing

- OC's because they are needed for the plot

- not a particularly thought out story, to be honest.

The sound of metal crashing into concrete could be heard all over Ikebukuro. Most of the locals had learned by then that when someone screamed 'IZAYA' at the top of his lung, there was no viable option than to give that person a wide berth and hide, hoping for the best. Especially if that someone was a raging blond dressed like a bartender and hurling public property all over the place.

"IIIIIIZAAAAAYAAAAAAA!"

Simon sighed in the distance, shaking his head in disapproval. Those two were at it again. Would he have to stop Shizuo from outright murdering someone (most probably the informant) yet again?

A few streets away from him a bench was torn from the park and hurled through the air, barely missing the target by an inch.

"Hah, you have to try better than this, Shizu-chan," came the taunting voice of Izaya, who dodged said public property and continued to run from his archenemy.

"I'll fucking kill you," Shizuo seethed, more than ready to prove that he meant it. The answer, as usual, turned out to be a mocking laugh and the flicker of something metallic. Knives.

The first one Izaya threw his way would have been easy to dodge, but he ignored it in favor of keeping up with the annoying informant. The second, however, he caught between his teeth and broke with the sheer force of his teeth. Izaya had not seen that, but the sound of metal giving way to Shizuo's teeth must have let him know either way.

The chase continued through several more streets and a dozen innocent lamp posts had met their end that day when the strongest man of Ikebukuro tore them out of the ground to use them as baseball bats and javelins.

Izaya heard the familiar neighing sound in the vicinity, but paid little mind do it. At the moment he was being chased by a certain monster that demanded a little too much attention for him to care for anything else. On the other hand, it would have been interesting to know what the headless woman was up to…

In hindsight, he really should have only concentrated on Shizuo. The informant learned that the moment he reached a dead end with a wall to high to scale and a murderous blond hot on his heels. Was it time to start worrying? Absolutely. Izaya was many things, but suicidal wasn't one of them.

He reached for his last folding knife as he turned around, facing Shizuo. Was that… Ah, right. A motorbike. Nothing special, just Shizuo damaging public property – although the prospect of being crushed by a Yamaha didn't seem to appealing either way.

"Caught you, flea," Shizuo declared in a voice that bordered animalistic. If Izaya had been anyone else, he would have cried for dear life, in spite of the obviously slim chance of getting spared. He was, however, not one of the most dangerous men in town for nothing.

"Well, well, it seems that you did, Shizu-chan," he said, fingers slightly shifting on the handle of the blade beneath his coat sleeve. "What will you do now, hm?"

The grin on Shizuo's face was unsettling to say the least as he lifted the bike higher up in the air, ready to throw it.

"Kill you." Simple as that.

Things happened too fast. So fast in fact, that even Izaya couldn't comprehend the events that led up to both of them being covered in something dark and unnatural. Then everything turned pitch black, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on grass.

Grass, as in, actual vegetation, which was a tad bit confusing, because, you see, the last thing he remembered was his feet lifting him off concrete. It didn't really help that all around him were trees instead of the several story buildings of the dead end street. Just where was he, and what had happened?

Next to him on the grass laid his switchblade. Izaya quickly grabbed it and looked around while still holding on to his weapon. The place looked abandoned, except…

"Argh…" that groan. That groan that could only belong to a certain monster he despised with every fiber of his being. Shizuo was near.

Moments later the blond emerged from the cover of the trees, scratching his head with one hand.

"Fuck… where – oi, shitty flea!"

Izaya rolled his eyes at the blond.

"A very eloquent greeting on your part, protozoan. Has the bleach finally destroyed the rest of your brain cells? It would seem it's doing a great job at it…"

"Shut the fuck up," the debt collector grunted in irritation, although neither his tone, nor his body language seemed murderous, unlike the last time Izaya saw him lunge forward, with a vehicle in hand nonetheless, "more importantly, where the hell are we?"

Where indeed? There was no sign around that they could have used to tell. Were they still in Ikebukuro?

Izaya ignored the blond, trusting that he would not attack for at least a few seconds, and started looking for an exit. He found it soon enough and walked out to a street he had never seen before.

No, hold on, he had seen this one before. Except there was supposed to be a restaurant in front of him (the one in which he had threatened a guy to show his wife the photos of him getting way too close to his secretary) and not some official looking building. In fact, many things were off about that street. Ikebukuro sure had its own weird style, but what were those oversized ads all over the place with such ridiculous names as "Landslide Man" and "Miss Machete"? Was there a new anime craze on the rise?

It didn't take long for Shizuo to catch up to him and have a look at the part of Tokyo that resembled what they knew, but was very different at the same time.

Someone who looked like a cosplayer with his green cape and matching mask walked past them, giving the two a small nod. Both Izaya and Shizuo were staring back at him motionlessly, although not necessarily for the same reason.

And then there was the sound of something breaking. Shizuo turned his head in the direction of the noise, and Izaya was a bit baffled at the fact that the main source of destruction was actually standing right beside him. Who was on a rampage then? Or was it a daylight robbery with someone breaking the window of a jewelry store?

"Quick, call for heroes!" a man in a suit shouted as he ran down the street.

"What the hell…" Shizuo muttered, starting to get irritated at both seeing and hearing bullshit.

Another crashing noise was heard, and it repeated for two more times. Being the curious person that Izaya was, he wasted no time running towards the source, completely ignoring everything common sense dictated about survival.

What he saw was some of the most ridiculous sights he ever laid eyes upon, and that came from someone who had a Dullahan's head on his bookshelf and fought a monster hurling vending machines at him on a regular basis. Rust colored eyes widened upon seeing people flying, seemingly without any gear, shooting beams of fire out of their hands and… was that guy over there seriously barfing up a hand grenade? It was gross, but intriguing in its own right.

The four-five weirdos gathered in the otherwise busy crossing (the cars had made a U-turn long ago though) were all concentrating their efforts (or flashy tricks, depending on your point of view) on a figure with a dark grey cape standing on top of a statue.

Crack. CRASH.

There was the sound again. One of the people who looked like a cosplayer let out a scream as something hit him. Izaya glanced that way a second too late, so he only caught sight of the person bleeding through his bright yellow suit.

A beam of fire shot through the air, targeting the grey clad figure. Judging by the way the cloak rested against the body, Izaya assumed the stranger to be a woman. A woman, who apparently had just as much experience in jumping from one place to another, because she was not only quick enough to dodge the attack, but also managed to jump to a nearby building. At first Izaya thought that she was going to crash against the second story window of a skyscraper – those glasses were really thick, he would know by experience.

Apparently, experience, just as logic, didn't seem to have a place in that fight. She flew through the window as if it had been no stronger than cardboard. Was there something in the soles of her boots, perhaps, that was heavy enough to break something that strong?

"After her!" a woman dressed in a full body suit shouted, and the guy who had just recently barfed out another hand grenade (how on earth?!) hurled it after the mysterious person. The explosion happened a second later, shaking the whole area.

"Did we get her?" the man wielding fire asked while clutching right right arm with a pained expression on his face. That was a question Izaya would have liked to know the answer to as well. A spectacle like that was sure to be material for the chatrooms for months, but if the target of these people was caught and the informant learned about her identity… well. That would have been the story of the year.

Also, these people were either owning some really high-tech gear that normally belonged to movie sets or were some really wicked magicians that tricked the whole area into thinking that there was a fight. Both of these scenarios were more favorable to Izaya than coming to terms with the fact that he had seen people doing things… he really shouldn't have. People had called him crazy before, but this? No, there had to be an explanation…

A bit further away, Shizuo was watching the events in a similarly confused fashion. What the hell was going on?

Much to his surprise, a girl about eight years old tugged on his shirt sleeve.

"Let's go! The pro heroes will handle it."

Okay, for one, he didn't know that girl. And two: pro heroes? Was she talking about those weirdos attacking someone? Because they looked more like those drunk cosplayers he scared away a couple of weeks ago just by growling.

"Uh, okay," he muttered, feeling kind of lost. If she wanted him to move away, then whatever, he might as well do so.

Following her lead, he ended up in front of a huge gate that belonged to the school. Yaoku Elementrary? He had never heard of it, but then again, the last time whose name he bothered remembering was his own.

"In here," the girl told him and practically dragged Shizuo into the small grass covered area separating the fence from the school building.

Looking around, he saw three kids talking to each other next to a tree, all of them wearing the same uniform as the little girl, and a woman in her early thirties rushing up to the two of them with a frown on her face.

"Hikari-chan, what do you think you are doing?" she asked in a voice that reminded Shizuo of his own high school teacher. The one who accused him of breaking the legs of some guy from the other class that he had actually never seen.

"But Ookami-sensei!" the little girl protested.

Oh, and on a side note, the teacher had grey hair, in spite of being young, and eyes bordering on yellow. Were those things on the top of her hair actually ears?

Whatever. At least she had a head. Shizuo has seen weirder things in his life.

"You can't just bring strangers in here!"

"I know, but that villain looked dangerous! And he seemed lost!"

Shizuo blinked in surprise. Was the little girl actually talking about him? Had he really looked lost out there? Sure, he was confused, but the strongest man of Ikebukuro was more than ready to fend for himself if needed.

Yellow eyes slanted.

"There's a villain attack two streets away right now, and there was one at the train station this morning!" Weren't those canines a little too long for a human? "And you are just a little girl, Hikari. How could you know if someone means harm?"

Hikari, the little girl with dark blue hair and eyes so light they almost seemed white, pursed her lips.

"I just know. He's a good person." The hold on his sleeve strengthened and Shizuo was somewhat reminded of Akane, except this little girl had not yet tried to kill him. Her teacher seemed to consider it though.

"Is your quirk mind reading?" Ookami asked sternly.

"No…"

"Did you suddenly develop a soul seeing quirk?"

"No, but-"

"Then I can't trust you to make that decision."

"Look," Shizuo finally spoke up, feeling way too uneasy about the whole exchange, "I don't want to bother, I'll just take my leave now and-"

He was interrupted by the woman raising her hand in the air, silencing the blond immediately. What? What was going on?

Those grey ears atop her head were turning towards a direction that had nothing to do with the mess they had just ran from.

"Someone's coming," the woman whispered, and it made Shizuo shiver. Who was coming? What was going on? He was sick and tired of not knowing what was going on.

"All of you, inside," Ookami ordered, and the children nodded, quickly making their way towards the main door. It was only Hikari that stay outside.

"You too!" the woman growled, and for the first time she actually reminded Shizuo of a wolf more than a human being. Hikari only shook her head though.

"He's coming for me, I know it. I don't want to see anyone else die because of me," she said sadly. Shizuo looked at her as if she had grown another head. Was someone out for her? Why would they be? Did she have a wealthy family? Maybe yakuza, like Akane?

"Inside. Now."

The order was clear as day, and the claws that the woman's nails turned into seemed threatening enough, but the little girl was unfazed.

"I can feel that it's one of them. If I go in… more people will get-"

She never got to finish that sentence because all of a sudden the earth started shaking underneath them. The three people still outside watched as four earth walls rose from the ground, separating them from the outside world.

"What the hell?" Shizuo grunted, looking for the cause of the ruckus. He still had some pent up frustration from the fight with the flea, and the bastard trying to trap them was going to regret messing with him for the rest of his life.

Seconds passed, and the culprit had yet to show himself. Shizuo was getting impatient, fist ready to rearrange someone's face.

"Crap," the woman on his left hissed looking up. Above them, steel rods were materializing out of thin air, creating a grid, and effectively trapping the three of them inside.

Now that was fucking annoying.

"Oi, fuckers, you've pissed me off," Shizuo declared, his vision dangerously close to turning red. He felt two pairs of eyes watching him, but he paid them no mind. Instead, he charged forward and aimed his fist at the earth wall. It shattered into pieces as if it had been nothing more than paper.

On the outside he spotted two guys, both of them dressed in black from the bottom to the top and looking very confused.

"Got something to say, shitheads?!"