Warning: Contains malexmale relations, explicit violence, sex, offensive language, and alternate characters and themes.

Disclaimer: Durarara! Is not a creation of my mind and neither are the characters of Heiwajima Shizuo, Orihara Izaya or any other character derived from Durarara!

Summary: Shizuo lives his life from day to day but that is about to change when a black rabbit presents itself to him. Feeling an unexplainable urge, he decides to chase the rabbit and ends up in an alternate universe. In this universe, he learns of things he never thought he would ever come to experience. Alternate personalities are peeked in at through unrecalled dreams in an invisible connection that Shizuo has to his other selves.

Author's Note: I will admit right now: this story does not really have a direct plot or point. Things just happen. I didn't write it to lead into specific points or events. It is a philosophical narrative similar towards Alice in Wonderland. I wanted to leave this story very open-ended for interpretation so that it can be up to each individual reader to take away from it what they wish. Decipher it in your own perceptive and apply meaning where you find fit. I sincerely hope you enjoy my story.

Before you wonder, the main characters of this story (Shizuo and Izaya, duh) are alternative versions of Shizuo and Izaya. They are none of the official alternative versions but instead ones I simply made up. They aren't massively different from the original- it's actually more their world that's alternative than them as whole. So if they seem a little out of character, that's why. Hopefully they still seem like Shizuo and Izaya though to a degree!

Character References: There are a lot of alternative Shizaya pairings in this story. It can be assumed that every single time a dream sequence happens; the two men in the dream are (obviously) Shizuo and Izaya. Some are originals, but I've made a list of every single one that's considered an official character in some way- with pictures! I found all pictures on Zerochan/Tumblr and made absolutely none of them.

Just remove the spaces from the links and it should work. If not then..well..look it up on your own?

Psyche & Tsugaru (Psychedelic vol. 1): http: /i51. tinypic. com/2j69rhg. jpg
Hibi & Delic (Psychedelic vol. 2): http: /i53. tinypic. com/16kcpjl. jpg
Tsukishima & Hachimenroppi/Roppi (Drama CD): http: /i54. tinypic .com/244qpw4. png
Shitsuo & Roppi (fandom?/Drama CD): http: /i51. tinypic .com/25h2wyf. jpg
Demon Izaya and his Perfect Creation Shizuo was inspired by this video- which I highly suggest watching both because it's beautiful and demon-Izaya makes a few appearances in my story so it'll be easier to envision him. (fandom): http: /www. youtube .com/watch?v = bo8meEqnLkY

Book mentioned and used indirectly as reoccurring themes

Watership Down by Richard Adams
Peter Pan by J.M Barrie
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Sorry for the long intro! This won't be in every upcoming chapter. Thank you!

There are six parts to this story. It's already complete. It's now just a matter of putting it out!

**Also, I would like to dedicate this story to my mother. I love you and thank you for your support.**

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The Year of the Black Rabbit

The mundane is humanity's suffering in its purest form. A tedious schedule of routine events that plague one's life day after day. Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, go to sleep. Rinse and repeat. Life was one giant shampoo bottle full of disappointments. The unexpected were the extraordinary but when did the unexpected become as listless as the next day?

Meaning, when did changing what you eat for lunch make you realize how pathetic your life has become?

These were the thoughts that consumed Heiwajima Shizuo. He expected nothing of life and in turn was granted just that. Absolutely nothing. The blond Japanese man might as well have been dead. His existence was trivial until he owed money, his emotions weren't pliable until he got upset at work, and his love life wasn't important until he was concluded to be a homosexual.

It was funny how the "little" things suddenly became "big" things when they weren't what people wanted them to be. It was funny how easily a human life could be ignored up until a mistake was made or a difference was declared. The day he was evicted from his first apartment had given Shizuo a flare of hope. It had made him believe that perhaps it was a sign that things were going to change.

It was four years later and nothing had changed except for relocation in living. His brother still visited him every now and then when he wasn't too busy making movies and he still had to re-bleach his hair every few months. He was a walking bombshell. The world deserved to be warned of his anger.

Although lately he felt as though his anger had dwindled down due to his own personal apathy. Even the thugs who followed him home some nights gave him nothing to be furious about. The strongest man in Ikebukuro had settled into the shadows and as far as the city was concerned, he might as well have died.

The city itself was rotting from the inside out just like Shizuo. Since when had he become so depressed? Was that really what it could even be considered? It wasn't as though he felt sad. Lonely perhaps, but not sad. As he trudged through the ally to find his way back home, he contemplated nothing other than what to watch once he got back to his apartment complex.

That's when something caught his eye. It was a cursory movement of black and red. When he looked, he saw nothing. Perhaps it was simply his mind playing tricks on him. He continued to walk yet again. The summer evening was boiling hot and he wouldn't be too shocked if he was hallucinating from it. There was a celebration tonight. He forgot what of. He stopped celebrating Japan's national holidays a long time ago.

As he climbed the steps up to his apartment, he saw the flash of movement again. This time when he turned to look, he caught the fleeting movement of something furry disappearing around the corner of his building. He didn't know what made him chase after it, but he felt a sudden wave of spontaneity. So Shizuo ran.

When he turned the corner, he saw it as clear as day. It was a large, solid black rabbit. It was practically the size of an average dog. When it looked at Shizuo, he was taken aback by two glowing red eyes. They taunted him before the rabbit dashed away again. Did it want him to follow?

The rabbit didn't have a choice now: Shizuo was invested.

So he chased after the rabbit. And what a chase it was. Ally after ally they passed through. The rabbit would stop every now and then and look back at him. It was these actions that made Shizuo quickly realize that the creature wanted him to follow. The rabbit ducked into an old, destroyed building looked like it may have been temple once upon a time.

There was caution tape across the front doors but Shizuo ripped it away carelessly. People did dangerous things every day in this city. It would be no difference to him, a man who could feel no pain, whether or not he partook in illegal things as well.

He ripped open the door and tossed it aside like it was a piece of scrap paper. Inside the building, there was a distinct moldy scent of rotting wood. The paint on the walls had peeled off long ago, revealing termite-destroyed wood. Holes the size of his fists gapped here and there. This building was ready to cave any moment but that wasn't what Shizuo was concerned about.

Where had that rabbit gone?

He kicked down a door to a separate room and stepped inside. The dust was so thick that Shizuo began to cough almost instantly. When the air cleared, he could see a pair of red eyes staring back at him but nothing else.

"What do you want?" Shizuo grunted. Somehow, the red eyes moved up and up. As though the rabbit was suddenly floating.

But then…A man stepped out of the shadows.

His face was delicately handsome, cropped in by black hair and complete with an easy smile.

"Hey."

The voice was startlingly bright and light-hearted, as if the man knew nothing but joy and optimism.

"Who are you?"

"Does it matter?"

It didn't really but the answer irritated Shizuo nonetheless. The man in question lifted the hood of the fur-lined parka he was wearing and it instantly shadowed all of his face but for his two red glowing eyes.

"Follow me."

"Why should I?"

"Because that's what you're supposed to do. You followed me up til just now, didn't you?"

The rabbit, or rather the man, was right.

When he turned around and started to walk, Shizuo didn't hesitate to follow. He blindly tried to search through the darkness for something to grab onto. Anything to steady his unsure steps. The television schedule was no longer on his mind.

Shizuo suddenly tripped. When he fell, it felt as though he had landed into something murky and damp. He lifted a hand and put it close to his face. A grueling smell of fresh tar met his nose and he instantly started to struggle. However, the tar was much stronger than Shizuo and began to swallow his body like quick sand.

Shizuo was too panicked to scream. Instead, he began to try and wrench his limbs free of the sticky substance. It only worsened the effects. When the tar was up to his chin, he knew that it was all over. There would be no way that he could escape this now- not even if someone were to come along. It didn't make his body still any further, despite its exhaust from the struggle.

When the tar began to fill his mouth, he started spluttering. The black substance bit at his throat and made his eyes water. It was suffocation in the worst possible way. The last thing Shizuo saw was a pair of red eyes.

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"Does the jury find this man guilty of first degree murder?"

"Yes, your honor."

The crowd gathered in the court room began to cheer. Shizuo blinked.

"Wait, what?"

He was suddenly being handcuffed. Wait, what was happening? Where the hell was he? And who did this asshole think he was putting Shizuo in handcuffs?

"Get off of me!" Shizuo yelled, already reaching for the police officer's shirt. He broke apart the handcuffs with ease and grabbed the officer by the front of the shirt. The crowd gasped in fear as he whipped the man through the air and into the nearest wall. His head met it with a sickening crunch and blood popped out of the back of his skull like juice from a cherry. The body fell down with a thud and the court was silenced.

"Shoot him!" someone yelled and Shizuo looked around frantically but it was too late. Gunshots scorched his body and he collapsed, throwing his arms over his head. He had been shot in several times. He could feel the sensation of the bullets. Blood bubbled from his mouth and he spat it up onto the ground. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

"I'm innocent!"he screamed over the gunshots, which only seemed to further aggravate the cops. He struggled to stand up and looked into the crowd.

Just like that…everything stood still. The man from before was in the very middle of the crowd. He was watching Shizuo with a serene expression upon his face.

"Would you like to learn how to fly?" the man asked.

Before Shizuo could answer, everything sped up yet again and the gunshots continued. He charged through the aisle of the court room, desperately trying to flee the scene. When he burst out of the front doors, he toppled down the concrete steps and finally landed in a heap at the very bottom.

He rolled over onto his back and was met with a horrifying sight.

The city of Tokyo was destroyed.

The sky was an angry, brilliant red, poisoned from pollution long ago. The buildings of the once grand city were rotten yet the advertisements were still running, only with scratchy quality. Gunshots could be heard in the far distance along with the wails of police sirens.

The stone statues of lions on either side of the entrance to the court yard no longer had their heads. Graffiti crawled over the bases at their great paws and Shizuo felt the sudden urge to be sick.

"You need to stand now, Shizu-chan."

Shizuo's head snapped to the side and there stood the man. His eyes were not glowing as intently this time but rather looked natural. Or as natural as red eyes could look. The man bent down and offered his hand to Shizuo. What choice did he have? He grabbed the hand and heaved himself up.

Due to blood loss, he was beginning to feel faint and the man must've sensed that because he slipped an arm behind Shizuo and helped him start to walk. It didn't take long before they broke into a frantic run, hearing the crowd from the court house start to come out.

"They'll be thirsty for blood!" the man said gleefully. Shizuo wasn't sure if he really liked this guy or not. But he was helping him and the least Shizuo could do was not pass judgment so soon.

"You're leaving a trail," the man suddenly said and when Shizuo looked over his shoulder, he indeed saw a few specks of blood following after them.

They came to a stop and the man began to look this way and that.

"That's no good, hn."

"Who are you?"

"Stop asking such stupid questions, okay? It doesn't matter!"

The man didn't sound impatient. He sounded like he was mocking Shizuo for not understanding. What did this guy expect?

"Do they really think I murdered someone?"

"Of course. It's because you did."

"I think you have me mistaken for someone.."

"Nope. Heiwajima Shizuo. Age twenty three. Citizenship number 00331."

"…Citizenship number?"

"Yes."

What the hell was that?

"Stop acting so stupid, Shizu-chan. Did you hit your head?" the man asked and reached out for Shizuo's sleeve. With ease, he ripped it open and rolled the material up. Much to Shizuo's shock, a neat, black tattoo was placed along the inside of his wrist. It read his citizenship number.

"I..I don't.."

"Shizu-chan, come on."

Right. They were running from an angry mob. The man removed his parka and gave it to Shizuo.

"It should fit you perfectly. Zip it up. It'll help stop the blood from dripping behind you."

Shizuo did as he was told and soon the two men were running again. Shizuo hated to admit it, but it was probably a good thing that he had only been shot in his torso. As they ran, the sound of the mob seemed to become a distant noise.

"Where are we going?"

"Does it matter?"

Why did that sound so familiar?

They eventually reached a building that looked half destroyed. Almost as demolished as the temple that Shizuo had originally entered. Only this time, he wasn't following a damn rabbit.

They headed around the back of the building and the man eventually approached a low window that was smashed in. He gestured for Shizuo to get inside.

"There isn't any tar in there…is there?"

"No, why would there be?"

"Never mind."

Shizuo crawled onto his knees and started to force himself through the window feet first. When he fell down, he landed on his feet and instantly stumbled backwards from the window. Not a second later, the man slipped in gracefully behind him. The man quickly moved to the window and slid a plank of metal over it.

The room they were in was lit by flickering candles. It wasn't until Shizuo turned around that he realized that they were not alone.

There were three kids huddled together on a dirty mattress. Each were dressed in a blue school uniform, but each was equally as filthy and beaten up as the next. Even the girl looked roughed up a bit.

On the other side of the room was a man in a white lab coat, only the coat was a bit blood drenched. His face was distinctly young but there was something about his exhausted eyes that made him appear far older than he probably was. On the table in front of him was a white cloth covering what appeared to be a body. Shizuo didn't want to know whether or not that body was dead or alive.

"Izaya-kun, you're back." One of the kids from the group stood up abruptly. He had blond hair and wide, naïve amber eyes that glowed positively as he ran towards the man that had lead Shizuo here.

Izaya.

"And you brought Heiwajima-san," the girl spoke up quietly from behind the blond boy. She had stood up as well, adjusted her glasses, and approached them.

Shizuo felt so utterly confused. He had never even met these kids and they were acting as though they knew him and had been expecting him for some time now.

Izaya had wrapped his arms around the blond boy loosely, but his attention was yet again on Shizuo.

"He doesn't remember."

"Are you serious?" Now it was the man in the lab coat's turn to speak. He turned away from the table and stormed over to where the small group was standing. He looked distressed about the information.

"But you had programmed him specifically to-."

"I understand what I had done but it failed, Shinra." Izaya sounded unimpressed.

Shinra stared at Shizuo and looked so pathetic that Shizuo almost felt guilty. Until he remembered that he didn't know who any of these people even were.

"Can I get a role call or something…?" Shizuo asked after a moment of hesitation.

"Right, guys- introduce yourself."

"But…"

"He doesn't remember and there is nothing we can do about that for now. Introduce yourselves."

"You can just call me...Kida," the blond boy said, his voice unsure as he stared around Izaya and at Shizuo. Shizuo tilted his head in acknowledgement but was still unsure as to why everyone was so confused. Didn't remember? He remembered perfectly well. He had been going back home when he had decided to chase that stupid rabbit.

"Sonohara Anri, Heiwajima-san," the girl spoke and bowed respectfully to him. She fixed her glasses upon straightening up and peered anxiously over at the third boy on the mattress. By then, he had stood up as well. He looked as anxious as the doctor, especially as he walked over near everyone else.

"I'm Mikado," he said. He stared at Shizuo. Like he had betrayed them or something. Were they insane?

"I'm Shinra. And you're bleeding all over. Come with me." Shinra grabbed his arm suddenly and Shizuo didn't have much of a choice but to stumble after him. He looked over his shoulder at the group and the only one watching him was Izaya. Those observant red eyes made him feel uneasy.

They passed by the table with the body on it, and only then did Shizuo realize it had no head. Where the blanket should have rested over a lump of skull, it only lay flat against the surface of the table. Shizuo quickly looked away, his stomach churning at the thought of what the body must look like under the sheet.

He was lead to a vacant medical table and asked to sit down. He complied and the amateur doctor removed Izaya's jacket then began to clip his ruined clothes off. His bullet-ridden torso was revealed, a total of ten bullets having made it into his body.

"Do you feel anything?" Shinra asked as he carefully touched his finger to one of the wounds.

"No."

"Good. Then you haven't changed completely."

"What the hell do you mean?"

Shinra looked up at him in surprise. He adjusted his own glasses and smiled after a moment. The smile was unsure but more steady than any of the prior looks he had been giving Shizuo.

"Have you ever wondered why you had such impossible strength, Shizuo?"

"How did you know about that?"

Shinra only grinned, looking reassured of something. He got to work quickly. He had to take out each bullet. Luckily, none of them had gotten too far. Shizuo's skin grew irritated with all of the fussing but otherwise, Shizuo only felt sensations.

He watched the others while he was operated on. During the duration of time spent on the slab, he watched Anri and Mikado leave the room. Kida and Izaya sat down at a wooden table and began to discuss something of importance. Or at least Shizuo concluded as much from the intense expression on the kid's face. The man, on the other hand, never lost his composure. Not once.

"Do you even remember Izaya-kun?"

The voice startled him out of his thoughts and Shizuo looked at Shinra.

"The fuck? No! God damn it, don't you get it? I don't remember any of you. Because I've never met any of you!" Shizuo yelled, his temper already boiling. And just like that, Izaya was there.

"Shinra."

That was all it took for the doctor to leave.

Izaya smiled easily and picked up a cotton square. He dabbed it into a small bowl of disinfectant alcohol and began to rub it around Shizuo's fresh stitches to clean up the wounds of blood and bacteria.

"Don't get mad with him. He doesn't understand that you have no recollection. Before you argue, you have to face the truth. You clearly existed within our world. Even if you don't remember. Please try to be gentler with my friends."

Despite the gentle nature of his voice, Shizuo felt something from the other man that had him wary and on edge. He didn't trust him.

"Kay, fine, but you gotta answer some of my questions, got it? I can play all nice and shit but I want some answers."

"Fair."

"Okay…Firstly, who the hell are you?"

"Orihara Izaya. It is nice to meet you." He chuckled as though he had just made some brilliant joke. What an asshole.

"Now you tell me…"

"I didn't want to at first."

"Why not?"

"It would ruin the moment~."

Shizuo wanted to slug that smirk right off Izaya's face. What kind of answer was that?

Instead, he chose to continue with his interrogation.

"Where are we?"

"Tokyo."

This wasn't the Tokyo he recalled.

"What the hell happened to it?"

Izaya's movements hesitated but then continued as if nothing had happened whatsoever.

"War."

War? Since when had there been a war in Tokyo? The man before him seemed almost as though he felt amused by the concept of Tokyo in war.

"Who are we at war with?"

"Ourselves."

The answer unsettled Shizuo's stomach. He didn't like it one bit. He decided that he was done asking questions for now. Even though he was still curious as to why the hell that crowd had thought he had murdered someone. Sure, he got into plenty of fights, but murder? Shizuo was a good man, deep down, and he would never be able to be heartless or violent enough to do that.

Or could he?

Suddenly, everything was susceptible to doubt. Even his own existence.

"I want you to rest. You lost a lot of blood. Come here."

Izaya took his arm in both of his hands and helped Shizuo off the table. Shizuo was ready to argue but when the room started spinning and his vision blurred, he knew that the man was right. He felt dizzy. He was lead over to another mattress that was swathed in black blankets. It looked so comfortable.

"Take your shoes off please." But Shizuo couldn't help but fall onto the mattress. The last thing he remembered was Izaya kneeling down to take his shoes off.

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"He will be complete. And he will be absolute in perfection."

The tube floating before the demon rotated on an invisible axis. It had heard him.

The shadow of a demon approached the tube and placed his hand over the circular window on the very front. He peered in and saw the pristine nothingness of human existence.

"Perfect."