What happened? Last thing I remember, I was just caught at the Cafe by Shizu-chan... but he didn't look mad at me or like he hated my existence, he... looked... happy to see me... No one has ever looked at me and been happy, let alone Shizu-chan...

Izaya looked around at his surroundings, everything completely black. He looked down, trying to see something, anything, as he tried lifting his hands to look at them, but saw nothing... Then, suddenly, a light turned on, and Izaya could see his hands, but his eyes went towards the light.

"Sh-Shizu-chan! Wh-What are you doing here? Where am I?"

"Well, for starters, we're in your mind... Surprisingly blank, huh? The reason why? You're in a coma. And as for why I am here, I'm hoping to help you remember our past. I am not exactly the 'Shizu-chan' you know... But I have been with him since you two met... I am Akikou, another soul that shares Shizuo's body... Do you follow so far?"

"I suppose that makes... some sense... Why do you want to talk to me? And another thing... what do you mean our past? I do not know anyone named or even nicknamed Akikou..." Izaya questioned.

"Heh... So I am a bit late, aren't I. As I said, our past, meaning the other soul hidden in this vessel somewhere... That of my lover, YonaKushu. So, in all technicality, not your and my past, nor yours and Shizuo's... But mine and Yona's. He's in here... somewhere... But, thanks to-"

"Ha! You actually think I'm going to believe this nonsense? Shizu-chan, I never pegged you to be bright enough to come up with such ridiculousness..." Izaya interrupted the Godling. "Now, why don't you just get out of my head now, since I'm sure you're the one who put me in this coma anyways, you've always wanted to kill me, after all."

"Izaya... I am not lying. Izaya, eta zu nadja airusto." 'Akikou' Shizuo replied. When Izaya heard the last part of the sentence, although he didn't even remotely know what had been said, he felt, deep down that he could trust that this person was as he claimed, he was not lying. Izaya was confused. How could words he didn't even know give him such reassuring feelings?

Izaya looked at Shizuo again, skeptical emotions all over his face. He needed to know why such things, such pure emotions could make him feel he could trust another living being, especially Shizu-chan. "If you are not lying, convince me that this other being is inside me. If you can make him come forward and you can convince me that you are actually 'Akikou', and he is actually YonaKushu, then maybe, just maybe, I'll believe you... Try your best, I dare you." Izaya answered, finally, after many moments and thoughts on how to handle the situation.

"I intend to. After all, we both like games, now don't we. Where should I start... With Yona and my past, or with what I know about you? Your choice, Izaya."

Izaya's surprise was visible for a flash of a second before his mask was up again. Now he was curious, as to just how much this other being knew about him, so he answered in kind. "Just what do you think you know about me, Akikou... No... Calling you that while you look like this is wrong... I'm going to stick to calling you Shizu-chan. When I trust you enough, then I'll call you Akikou..."

"Fine by me... But... I will warn you... I know more about you than you'd be likely to guess, and I also know more about why it happened to you than you'd imagine, because your past plays into Yona's and my own, and that of a certain organisation... But I'll get to that later, Izaya..." Shizuo replied.

He cleared his throat, then began. "You were born into a rather high society family, but despite that, you spent your days locked in a room-no bigger than a bathroom stall at a convenience store-and chained to the 'bed' in the 'room'. From the first days you can remember, you were used and abused in any manner of way imaginable, by whoever payed to have their way with you. You honestly had done nothing wrong. No one showed you any kind of love, you were left to starve for weeks, and relied on the leaky ceiling above you for any water. You never understood why those things were forced upon you, but not your sisters when they were born."

Izaya was panicking. This... whoever he was... knew... he knew everything... he knew every last deep dark secret Izaya had spent years covering up, hiding from the world he sought to control, how... How! How does this other being know!?

"Even your own parents seemed to despise your existence, even though you were their own making, they seemed to hate you from the moment you were born, and you guessed they probably hated you before then too... Your sisters saw you as a spawn of something purely evil, and treated you as such. All anyone would do to you was leave you broken, breathless and feeling dead inside. They hurt you physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and sex-"

"Stop! That's enough!" Izaya interrupted. He couldn't stand the emotions that stirred inside him when he was listening to everything he'd been through just in his childhood. He didn't even want to think about how much this person knew of his pre-teen, teen and early-adult life. He stood up, making his way over to the person wearing his precious Shizu-chan's body. He grabbed the taller man's clothing and pulled him down to his own height. "How... HOW! How do you know all of that?! Where did you learn it from?! Who told you!?" Izaya broke, he felt as all his carefully crafted masks cracked, crumbled and fell away as his true panic showed plainly to this stranger in familiar skin.

"Because... I have been trying to get to Yona for the past fifty-two nights, and have had to sift through your memories to find each and every scattered piece of him in your conscience. You've put up so many masks and facades just to protect yourself, and rightly so. But that's also made it hard for him to help you, which, considering who he is, at his very essence, he can do. I guess I should fully explain who we both are... I am Akikou, the God of Calamity, and he is YonaKushu, the God of Peace, Emotions, and Knowledge. We are from another world, and creation as your world's humans put it... well, it's not exactly accurate... Our father's and my mother are part of the group of Gods and Goddesses who built the worlds as you know them. I know, it may seem hard to believe, but as I said... Eta zu nadja airusto."

Again, Izaya felt he could trust what the... God... was saying, just by him saying those words again. "So... Where do Shizu-chan and I fit in with you two?" Izaya asked, releasing the taller man, who sat down on a chair that suddenly appeared. He patted next to him, and Izaya realised it was actually a couch now, not the chair it had been seconds ago.

"Sit, Izaya... I'll begin explaining Yona's and my past, and then finish with an explanation on why all of that happened to you." Izaya sat cautiously next to the God. "As a favor from one of Yona's Fathers. When we second generation Gods, also called Godlings, die, we go through only one of his gates, then we are reincarnated into the bodies of just conceived fetuses, once we are put into the bodies, they are genetically coded to be fit for us, so for instance, your red eyes and black hair, all of Yona's reincarnations have had it, just as all of mine have had blonde hair and honey-mocha eyes. Although, with Shizuo, I had to Gene code him myself because for some reason my past two reincarnations have been off, last time, me being a girl, this time, the hair being not naturally blonde until this past year when I finally got tired of the smell of bleach and fixed it. Also, being fit to hold our Magick Orients and types. Orients are either Order, Neutral, or Khaos. I am Khaos, Yona is Order. The only problem is we, as Gods take time to awaken in our vessels, so in order to keep them from being possessed, Death also puts a human soul into them, to take up residence until we either meet our mate, or just naturally awaken. So, what that says, is the moment Shinra introduced you and Shizuo, I was awakened, though it took me a few days to fully be present, and even till this day, I am unable to fully take over, simply because Yona hasn't been awoken yet. Another reason for the human soul is to protect the mothers and all others present during birth, because if we just awoke when the vessel was born, we'd kill the mother and seriously injure or kill any others close by because they aren't used to the power of a God... That's lesson one... Heh... Usually Yona ends up giving the lessons to the human souls, but this time I'm giving it to both of you. Shizuo got his after he was hit by the truck you set up for him. To be honest, I am the reason he despises you, when I was awakening, I was dreaming of all of the bad cycles with Yona, how much I hated him, how much he pissed me off... It affected Shizuo greatly when he met you... I knew straight away that you had to be Yona's human soul, because of how he reacted to you, but for all this time, until fifty-three nights ago, I didn't know why Yona hadn't awoken yet... But after getting to know you through your memories, trying to call him forward and reach him, I know why, I completely understand..." He paused and looked away as if hiding an upset face or something.

He faced Izaya once more, looking a little less than okay, but took in a deep breath and started up again. "I guess I should start with our original bodies, our Godling forms. This is probably the longest cycle we were alive, honestly. And ironically, it's surprising that we lived so long with the way we were towards each other. Saying we were rough is quite an understatement. Heh."

Shizuo picked up a remote that was suddenly beside him, pushing one of the buttons on it, and suddenly, where Izaya had been standing earlier, there was a screen that turned on, showing what Izaya presumed were facial shots of their 'Original Bodies'. The one on the left was a blonde with honey-mocha eyes that seemed to glisten like amber and citrine. He had shaggy, spiked hair and wore a red choker with gold and copper bands going up and down it, as well as similarly coloured buttons of a sort, and a black star at the center of the choker. He had a strange symbol marked on his left cheek that went up over his eye and a little passed his eyebrow. On the left side of his lip, he had 'XIII" stitched in his bottom lip. To say he reminded Izaya of his precious Shizu-chan was a mild understatement. He was also all too different. Shizuo didn't usually have an unbearably cocky look to him, he was always too angry for that, not to mention, that was usually Izaya's job.

His counterpart on the left was eerily similar to Izaya, but also identical to the young man Izaya had dreamed of often as a child. But the more walls and masks he put up over time, the less he dreamt of the young man. His hair was black with whitened tips and big red eyes, but his pupils were shaped similar to 'stigmata' while his irises were diamond shaped. He too had a strange marking on his cheek, but it was on the right side. It had two red scythes, a red and silver stigmata under them, and swirls around the scythes. His choker, for he too wore one, was black with silver and gunmetal coloured bands going up and down, and also had buttons similarly coloured to the bands. He wore a gentle smile, just like the one Izaya had seen on Shizu-chan before he'd been crushed from his right side.

"I will start with more of YonaKushu's past. He is the son of Death, God of, well, Death, and Erabus, God of Shadows. Yes, believe it or not, it was entirely possible for them to have a kid of their own. They used Magick to create him, while Death became the host for his Magick and energy, as well as LifeForce." Then the screen switched to show who Izaya assumed were Death and Erabus. Death having black hair left down on the left, gelled back on the right where his marking was, three scythes circled around his right eye, the handles black, the blades a shimmering silver. Erabus having silver hair all brushed to the right side of his head, his marking on the left, having the stigmata that YonaKushu had, but five above his brow, five on his cheek, all strung together, and hanging from three of the bottom ones were moons, the other two, stars, going every other, and the middle moon one, having another moon dangling from the first, further down his cheek.

"YonaKushu spent a good three thousand or so years in existence before I was born. He lived alone, quietly studying anything he could about anywhere and everything. He enjoyed his solitary life, but he was a little lonely from time to time, leading him, like his parents, to venture out among humans for a time. He never was as risky as Death and Erabus, who often chose to live among humans for a few decades, in the same place. Yona more preferred to move constantly all over the world, but to nonetheless stay hidden in the crowd rather than seek a home or friends or even attention. He just enjoyed seeing any new place he could."

He paused, the screen switching scenes as Shizuo pushed another button. It showed Yona talking a woman through what appeared to be childbirth. She had brown hair, vines and flowers spread and woven through it, and rich green and copper eyes, and tanned skin. While they were busy, a near-zombie looking dark-skinned man stood in the corner, his purple eyes wincing as he held his chest, looking ill. "Then after, as I said, three thousand years, I was born, and at first, my parents, Komana, the Earth Goddess, and my father, Deus X Machina, God of Space and Time, asked him to help raise me, as Deus has been weakened tremendously ever since Bakuoh's rebellion and the price Deus paid for helping my now dead uncle." The screen switched when Shizuo mentioned 'Bakuoh' and showed a spiky blue and black haired man with heterochromia. He had some sort of weapon on his back. His eyes were green and gold, and the marking he wore was on the left.

"Kuran, my more-or-less grandfather, the God of Creation and Magick, took a price from each God or Goddess who helped Bakuoh in any way. My mother, for example, was whipped with her weakness Magick, Darkness. Death lost a leg, and Erabus an arm, both being removed with Life Magick, which also weakened Death. My father, however, had his heart removed, so in essence, what I am trying to say, is he is dying very slowly and very painfully, as Erabus reattached his arm, Death's leg, sewed Komana's wounds, and for Deus, he made an artificial heart, just to keep blood flowing, as shadows can do most anything so long as you have an imagination for it. It is 'slow and painful' because Shadow Magick is Deus's weakness, because it defies the very concept of 'Space and Time', but it worked well enough."

He paused and offered Izaya a drink. Izaya smelled it. "Chill out, it's just some orange juice. Due to being Deus's kid, I can bend space and time very minimally. Just drink it. I've got wine, but I don't think putting alcohol in your blood is necessarily a good idea, given your current state." He finished his drink then waited for Izaya to at least take a sip.

When Izaya hesitantly sipped at the juice, Akikou continued, "Anyway! Komana asked YonaKushu to take me in and care for me, and for a long while, like two hundred years, he raised me, until one day, he came back from one of his midnight walks along the river, and I was nowhere to be found. He contacted Komana and Deus, and they didn't know where I was either, the as a last resort, he asked Death and Erabus. Death confirmed I hadn't died, and Erabus sent his shadows about Yona's place searching for any hint of who had taken me or where I had gone. I still wasn't very matured. I would have been the equivalent of a seven year old. Erabus told him it seemed to be humans who had taken me. So YonaKushu, accompanied by Erabus's shadows tried to search for me, but I was already too far out of their reach. To be honest, they weren't normal humans. They were all working for an organisation that went by, and still goes by 'V'. They have a single goal, for Yona and I to either be enemies, or for us to wipe each other out enough that we don't reincarnate. However, now that we're on the same team, they send people from their group who can take us on, and kill us when they get the chance. But, I'll explain that later. Anyway... 'V' kidnapped me, and tortured me in anyway they thought would work, made me grow to hate Yona, by saying he sold me to them, that everything I went through was at his order. They bent my mind and beliefs to their will, making me believe that it was Yona.

Then when I was a fully matured Godling, they sent me to kill him, saying he'd betrayed them so they needed him dead because he knew too much about them. I went to the cottage he always eventually went back to, and waited. Ironically, he had been on another midnight walk."

Shizuo switched the screen, showing Akikou as a child, then switched again shortly after, and Izaya saw Akikou and YonaKushu in a battle to the death, their surroundings destroyed and the cottage in the background in ruins. "Needless to say, a battle between us ended in mass destruction, including the place he'd called home for more than seven thousand years.

But, I was not strong enough to beat him, and fled back to 'V', telling them I was no match for him. It lead to mental and psychological torturing I had never experienced before, they explained it was them finding out my limits and how much more training I'd need to kill him. But because I hadn't killed him, they now had to re:find YonaKushu over again, which they also 'punished' me for.

However, I had managed to wound Yona quite terribly, and as it turned out, 'V' discovered he was now staying with his parents while healing, because as both a 'Khaos Orient' and a God Of Calamity, I was more or less his Bane. His wound had trouble healing, taking more than three hundred years. When he was well enough and left his parent's, I struck not ten days after, and that time, he had went to my aunt Hikori's realm seeking refuge when I went after him.

After wrecking yet another area, he went to the river there that Metzaka use to connect the realms and get from one realm to another with little trouble, and dove in, knowing I wouldn't be able to follow without taking damage as it is typically damaging to Khaos Orients. I followed anyway, not wanting to upset my elders by losing him again. However, despite expecting to be injured by the water, apparently Yona hadn't wanted to risk me following and become injured, so he cast a protection spell specifically for me. What an idiot. Protecting his enemy, rather foolish, ne, Izaya?" He showed another screen showing what he'd described.

"We ended up in my father's realm, and I cursed Yona, for taking me there of all places, because, since it was his realm, I couldn't use any of my Magick inherited from Deus. I could either flee or fight, and my idiot self decided to stay and fight. It was our last battle in those bodies. And we managed to destroy a small uninhabited landmass.

Our strikes were mutual, we killed each other at the same time with the same type of strike. A blade of Magick through the center of the chest, formed with our hands. He used Order Orient, and I used my purest Khaos Orient. We both landed facing each other, and he told me he didn't do as they told me he did. I had of course, during times of rage, told him what he made them do to me. I had trouble believing the young man who had cared for me like he had during those few hundred years, would ever do that, and I wanted to believe him, but by that point, I was so far past caring whose fault it was that I just wanted to kill him again. As we both simultaneously coughed and aspirated blood, too far gone to save, Death, Erabus, Komana and Deus arrived and must have conversed on how to keep us from dying as Gods normally do, as we both reincarnated."

He showed the last slide, then shut off the screen. "Now, that is enough for now, I am going to try my damndest to get Yona out here, but I am also needing to give your mind, as well as body, proper time to rest and recover. So I will only tell you one cycle a day. We're on number thirteen now, and I hope I can get him out here without having to tell you every single one of them... But, given how many walls and masks you have, he may have trouble coming forward, so part of this relies on you trusting me enough to lower them. Can you do that, Izaya?" Shizuo asked, gently smiling, just as Izaya had seen before he ended up here.

"I-I don't know... I feel like I can trust you, but... I don't know if I can after having them all these years. I don't want to have to remember all of those... I don't want to remember any of it. I can't... I can't put myself back there again, and not having these walls and masks exposes me to them day and night! They'll haunt me and... I can't go back to that! I can't!" Izaya had his head in his hands, shaking as one of the walls unintentionally cracked as he was forced to remember things he couldn't bear to think about.

Shizuo reached over and hugged Izaya, pulling the smaller framed raven into his arms, Izaya's head pulled to his chest and Shizuo's head resting gently on Izaya's. "Sh-Shh-Shh. It's alright. You don't have to force them all down. I know it's hard. Just take it easy, m'kay?" He gently kissed Izaya's head as he passed a sleep spell onto the broken body and mind he held so tenderly. "Rest easy now, love. I'll be back tomorrow, I promise." He lay Izaya down on the couch, pulling a red and black blanket out of nowhere and resting it on the boy who was now suddenly on a bed. Shizuo kissed Izaya's forehead, once more giving energy and LifeForce to his lover's body-link. Then, Shizuo turned off the lamp he'd turned on, making it disappear just as how he'd brought it. From there, he departed from the mind he'd been in, leaving it to rest peacefully for a the night.