Title: Recluse in War and Life
By: Sissy

Scene 01: The Hero is presented in his current life

He held all the information in the world. But he never looked for it. It simply continued to fall in his lap. The fact was that he knew a lot of people that knew him in return. He had a large network of connections that tied him to all the people he knew. Yet in reality, he was only close to a few of them. He was afraid of stepping out into the world and was content to viewing all that information provided by the people he knew and that knew him in return.

"Mikado, I'm home." The blond who entered the small apartment with a bag of groceries spoke softly.

"Welcome home Masaomi!" The black haired youth said with a smile, tearing his gaze away from television set in the corner of the living room.

"Welcome home, Kida-kun." The young girl who sat in the L-shaped sofa behind the youth said shyly.

"Anri-chan! I'm home!" Kida Masaomi yelled out and proceeded to tackle the girl after leaving the groceries on the table near the kitchen. "How was your day, Anri-chan's ero side?"

"Masaomi!" Ryugamine Mikado grabbed hold of Masaomi's collar and pulled him away from Sonohara Anri with a deep blush plastered across his face.

"Don't worry Mikado, I still love you lots!" Masaomi decided to embrace Mikado instead as they fell to the floor. Although Mikado was feeling embarrassed about the motion, he shyly hugged Masaomi back while Anri watched them and slightly chuckled to herself. "Enough about that! How about we get dinner started!"

Masaomi separated with a grin and walked over to the kitchen to put away some of the groceries with both Mikado and Anri trailing behind him. The three seemed to enjoy themselves as they cooked their daily dinner. Once they finished cooking, the three proceeded to sit down on the dining table and eat their meal.

"Hmm?" Mikado looked curiously towards his room and then to the door. "Celty-san!" He proclaimed and ran full speed to open the front door, while his two friends ran alongside him in a hurry.

"…" The person on the other side of the door, who had not even rang the doorbell, had hidden its face with a yellow helmet so it was a bit impossible to see whether or not they were surprised.

"It really is Celty-san." Anri spoke with a surprised face while a man in a doctor's coat appeared from the hallway, causing both Mikado and Masaomi to frown.

"Hello Ryugamine-kun! It's time for your monthly checkup!" The man spoke with a wide grin and came inside the apartment, pulling Mikado with him. "Oh, you were having dinner? Then finish that first!"

"A-alright…" Mikado wasn't sure of what to say to this man.

[Sorry about Shinra, he's always doing the same thing.] Celty Sturluson spoke with the PDA in her hand but Anri simply smiled in return.

"Kishitani-san, would you like me to serve you some as well?" Anri asked politely and received a grin from Kishitani Shinra.

"Ooh, thank you Anri-chan!" Shinra sat down and waited for the food while Celty sat down next to him.

The three sat down and quietly finished their food. As soon as Shinra finished eating, Anri removed all the plates and Masaomi helped her clean them. Mikado sat down on the sofa of the living room and Shinra followed behind him while bringing out his stethoscope.

"Has anything new happened since last month?" Shinra asked Mikado, while measuring his breathing time.

"No. Masaomi and Sonohara-san keep me as healthy as can be." Mikado replied with a grin.

"Mikado almost went out to pick us up on his own. Of course, he never made it to the elevator." Masaomi laughed from the kitchen and caused Mikado to frown and pout.

"Looks like there hasn't been any change in your lifestyle, nor have you yourself changed in any way. I'll draw some blood to test, so let me see your arm." Shinra spoke with a smile and grabbed the equipment he needed from his bag. "But I wonder why Celty chose Mikado-kun?"

All eyes turned to Celty who shook her head. [I can't really answer that either.] She wrote in reply.

"A wimpy guy like this can't be a hero; there should be better candidate, like me! Or Anri-chan's ero side!" Masaomi declared with a grin as he and Anri returned to the living room.

"Masaomi!" Mikado got angry, not because of the insult, but because his best friend was still sexually harassing his other good friend.

"I'm done!" Shinra declared but Mikado had suddenly frozen in place. "Mikado-kun?" Shinra called out to the boy but received no reply.

"Oh, yeah. He does that sometimes. Just simply stares off into space." Masaomi said as he sat down on the sofa.

"He hasn't said yet why. Is it perhaps the change you were waiting for?" Anri asked Celty with a worried face while sitting down next to Masaomi.

[It all depends on him. At the very least, that is what I believe.] Celty replied to her question, revealing that she herself had no knowledge of what might happening to the boy.

"I think…" Mikado suddenly spoke up, looking in direction of his room again. "That the war Celty-san was called here for is going to begin." He stood up and ran towards his room, followed quickly by the other four.

Inside the room, which was filled from top to bottom with computers, server, additional memory drives and about a dozen of computer screens of different sizes, Mikado quickly grabbed the only keyboard on the floor. Shinra stared in shock at all the hardware inside the room and wondered to himself how exactly all this managed to fit in the room and how much were these kids paying in rent.

"Here it is. There were small signs at first, but looks like he made the first move." Mikado showed a forum board with many comments.

"Those comments… They're deliberate, right? Like the ones you post often?" Masaomi sat down on the floor to Mikado's right while Anri sat to Mikado's left.

"Yeah, but it seems like he's trying to get someone's attention." Anri suddenly spoke up and looked back towards Celty. "How many people know about you being here, Celty-san?"

[Aside from rumors, very little.] Celty replied and got closer to one of the screens. [Mikado, you think this is a war?]

"Many people have transcended the net and take actions in the real world. I'd like to do everything I can to make sure no one gets hurt. I'm sorry, Sonohara-san, I'd like for you not to participate as much as possible." Mikado turned to Anri while showing a small frown.

"I'll help if I think it's too dangerous for you. Besides, I'm your guard, remember?" Anri smiled and placed a hand on top of his.

"Don't just forget about me too. There's no way I'm letting you get hurt, Mikado." Masaomi placed an arm over the other's shoulder with a grin.

"Thanks guys." Mikado smiled to them and quickly looked over to the screens, which changed to show different feeds from all over the city. "Isn't that Shizuo-san?" He asked confused as a man in a bartender suit grabbed a street lamp post and swung it in direction of a group of people.

"And those are my people he's attacking! How the hell did this happen?" Masaomi asked with a glare.

[I can take you there.] Celty poked Masaomi in order to get his attention.

"Please do Celty-san." Mikado smiled to her in thanks and the two ran out of the apartment.

"Mikado, did Celty's choosing cause this change in you?" Shinra asked seriously and Anri eyed him cautiously, her eyes slowly turning to a bloody red.

"No. This was done before I met Celty-san. Ah, he's here." Mikado turned to a small screen that was closest to him. It showed a chat room where a user named Kanra had just logged in.

Kanra: The Yellow Turbans and Heiwajima Shizuo are brawling out right now, how scary! DX
Tanaka Taro: Really? How on earth did that happen?
Kanra: I don't know, but it seems that some rumors were being spread about Dollars planning an all-out attack on the Yellow Turbans. How scary~!
Tanaka Taro: People shouldn't really trust rumors so much. It's too bad.
Kanra: Eh? Why do you think it's too bad?
Tanaka Taro: Oh, I have to go now. I'd like to hear more from Kanra-san next time.

Mikado logged out his user, Tanaka Taro quickly with a smile. Anri had already returned to watch over Mikado, her eyes returning to their normal color as well.

"Who's this Kanra?" Shinra had bent down to get a better look at the chat and caught a glimpse of Celty in one of the other monitors.

"The bad guy who started the war." Anri simply told him but Shinra found that hard to believe.

"And you just like to chat away with him? That isn't safe. He could be working with…" Shinra tried to speak out his concern but Mikado cut into his speech.

"They hired him to look for me. I'm pretty sure he knows where I live, but he's interested in creating this war for other purposes. I don't think he knows that I know a lot more about him though." Mikado tried to assure Shinra but the other was now staring at Celty who had arrived at the scene of destruction with Masaomi.

"As long as I can repay you, I don't care what path you take to end the war." Anri assured Mikado herself with a smile and they turned to watch the events unfold.

Scene 01 End

Sissy: First of all, please don't be scared by the number of chapters this story has, most chapters are very short and should take you not much time in reading his story. Now, all name callings (how the characters call each other) was done using anni_fiesta's reference chart located in their livejournal account. A link to the lj post has been placed in my profile. Please give thanks to anni for their wonderful work if you can! Also, in this story (as all my others) I write Ryugamine with one 'u' given as that's how the Japanese write the romanji version of Mikado's family name. And please remember, reviews are always welcomed and Durarara! by no means belongs to me.