Daily Life : Not Available

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Chapter 7

Posted: 21/10/2020

Status: Ongoing

“So, where are we going?” Shizuo asked, nonchalant.

“The nearest medical facility. I’ll show you the way, so just be a good dog and follow directions, alright?” Izaya sing-songed, then squeaked when Shizuo squeezed his legs painfully in retaliation.

“Why there? There probably won’t be anyone there either you know, you can’t get yourself checked out.” He said but started walking in the direction Izaya pointed out anyway.

‘How obedient’ Izaya thought with a smile.

“I know that, you idiot, I’m going to steal a wheelchair.” He said matter-of-factly with a shrug.

“Ah…” Shizuo wasn’t really into stealing stuff, he didn’t know how to feel about Izaya’s idea, but… Well, the guy did need some reliable form of transportation that didn’t need to depend on Shizuo’s failing strength. The man wasn’t particularly heavy for someone his height, but Shizuo still felt like holding him all day long would be pushing it in his current physical condition.

Moreover, they were put in this place against their will anyway. Their captors should have expected some payback, even if in the form of petty theft.

Though, theft would be the least of their problems once they got a hold of said captors.

The trip to the hospital was fairly quiet, the silence only being broken by Izaya giving directions and, occasionally, insulting Shizuo for good measure. Shizuo would always pinch him in retaliation.

Not that it’d stopped the pest.

“That the place?” Shizuo asked as they stopped in front of a tall building.

“Yes. Go in, not-so-noble steed.” He patted Shizuo’s arm condescendingly and the blonde was very tempted to drop him on the ground. Instead, he entered through the automatic doors into the hospital lobby.

Izaya looked around for any stray wheelchair, but found none, so he pointed to the stairs. “Let’s look in the patient’s rooms. The rest of the city was furnished, so there must be some wheelchairs somewhere in there.”

The first rooms they passed were, of course, empty aside from the bare minimum when it came to furniture: a bed, a nightstand, a wardrobe, and not much else. Like the rest of the pretend city, it looked like nobody had ever even set foot in there.

The next were all identical. Sometimes they’d see more specialized medical equipment, but it was once again completely unused as well as useless for them. They almost skipped the last rooms to look for some medical storage instead.

It was a good thing they didn’t, however, because they did find a wheelchair.

The only problem was that it was currently in use.

Shizuo was standing in the doorway, speechless. Izaya’s expression was carefully neutral, which was proof enough of his surprise.

Indeed, in front of them sat a young child in a too-big chair, looking idly through the open window, swinging their legs absent-mindedly.

“Um,” Shizuo started, ignoring Izaya’s hissed ‘Don’t, protozoan!’, ”…Hey?”

The child didn’t move at first, they slowly turned their head to look at the two men. Piercing red eyes stared right at them, framed by short, messy brown hair. They appeared to be wearing hospital robes, though seemed in perfect health.

“Hello.” The child answered softly with an indifferent expression that reminded Shizuo a lot of Kasuka, then got up from the chair. “You were looking for this…right?” The child gestured to the chair.

It didn’t look like your usual hospital chair, was that titanium? The design was quite unusual as well, looking custom-made, although…

…Izaya thought the chair looked familiar, but he couldn’t figure where he’d seen it before.

“Ah, yeah.” Shizuo nodded dumbly. “This is fine, right, flea?”

Izaya observed the child and the chair intently. He narrowed his eyes, but nodded.

“I can’t afford to be difficult right now.” He spoke. “You, what’s your name?” He asked the child.

“Mirai.” The child answered simply and stepped away from the chair to let Shizuo deposit Izaya in it.

Izaya kept silently observing the child, then moved his gaze to take in the details of the chair. It looked quite high-tech and solid, on top of being pretty comfortable. So unlike normal hospital wheelchairs. He slid his hands over the armrest, then went to touch the wheels with a thoughtful expression.

Shizuo quirked an eyebrow at the informant’s strange attitude and instead turned to the girl (or so he assumed. Mirai was usually used as a female name, but it could have been a young boy with a feminine name…) with a smile.

“Nice to meet you, kid. I’m Shizuo.” He got to his knees to be at eye level with Mirai and extended a hand towards her. She stared blankly at the hand then at Shizuo, and tilted her head to the side curiously.

“Nice to meet you.”

She didn’t take his hand. He felt awkward. The quiet snickering behind him informed him Izaya had seen the scene and was thoroughly enjoying his suffering.

That bastard. If he wasn’t in front of a child, he’d hit the annoying pest.

Mirai looked absolutely confused.

“I believe dear Shizu-chan here wants you to take his hand.” Izaya piped up with a composed smile.

“Oh.” Mirai said then, gently, cradled Shizuo’s hand in hers as if trying to comfort him.

Alright, that was precious. Not really the handshake Shizuo was expecting, but he’d take it. Next to him, Izaya appeared to be having the time of his life, if the wide grin on his face was any indication.

Shizuo slowly shook their joined hands and released them to get to his feet. Mirai’s expression hadn’t changed once since they’d met. Shizuo didn’t think much of it, he knew a few inexpressive people, including, but not limited to his own brother as well as one of Izaya’s sisters.

Izaya, on the other hand, was still scrutinizing the child.

She looked like she didn’t have much social contact, if her oblivious reaction to what was supposed to be a handshake was anything to go by. Not only that, but the girl’s appearance was suspicious as well.

He knew those eyes too well, from seeing them in the mirror every morning since he was a child, and then seeing them on his sisters’ identical faces.

Author's note: For those curious about Mirai's appearance, I doodled her!

Check it out!

Also if you wanna (gently) yell at me or just talk about shizaya...feel free to drop into my inbox on Tumblr ;)