The elevator finally began moving again and reached their floor. Izaya sailed down the plush corridor holding on to Shizuo's arm and smiling beautifully. Izaya unlocked the suite but stopped at the threshold.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

Shizuo blinked.

"Like what?"

"Like carrying me to bed, obviously. Why must I tell you everything?"

"Bloody annoying."

With that said Shizuo picked him up and strode into the very spacious and luxurious room. He deposited Izaya in the kingsize bed and stared in awe at massive mirrors, sleek furniture and endless windows. Izaya took a turn for the lazy and rolled around, his skirts swirling about. He turned on the television and right away Aoba appeared on screen, complete with his Miku outfit.

"Oh my, Aoba is a hit now! A shame he's such a loser."

Aoba sneezed but hid it beautifully. Someone was probably badmouthing him and he blamed Kida Masaomi entirely even though he knew full well that Izaya was much more malicious.

All and all, the day was a disaster. He had been dragged to a Miku cosplay contest and much fawning followed as so many otaku shot pictures of him and made themselves obnoxious by default. With so many cosplayers portraying the same character he expected to blend in and then slip away unnoticed but no such luck.

Walker had made a big fuss and right away Aoba found himself standing on stage with a bunch of Miku wannabes. It was quite a surreal feeling, as if he was surrounded by clones all sporting the same unlikely hair and highly unpractical clothes. And Izaya had a point, Aoba was indeed a hit. All the attention made him doubly nervous so much so that he felt his legs almost giving way under him and the tremendous footwear clearly did not help.

He cursed himself. On top of everything Mikado was holed up with Kida and the very thought depressed Aoba even further. He had to find a way out of this predicament. Aoba formulated a plan: he was going to act ever so moe and if asked to sing play a silly!incompetent!me card. He was confident that he could improvise a dance routine on the spot. Aoba decided to kyu-kyun his way out of this.

When his turn came he had a moment of panic. Imagine these rabid loonies were to find out Aoba's true identity and gender. Fortunately Aoba trusted his trap skills to carry him through. No one could possibly guess he was male and if Walker had not disclosed this far he was unlikely to disclose it at all.

So Aoba stepped forward into the spotlight and gave them all his best, brightest smile. He opened his mouth to utter silly platitudes of the sugary kind and said,

"You people are rather pathetic, you know? You have no social skill at all, have let yourselves go to the point of slovenliness, you have no life to speak of all because you crush on a fictional character. I mean, come on- what am I saying! Oh no! No! It's happened to me!"

Indeed it had. Somehow, for reasons Aoba could not even begin to conceive, he was suddenly unable to lie. And equally unable to shuffle away as he should.

"I don't want to say any of this but you guys really are the worst. What an embarrassment to yourselves and the world! Do you actually live in basement? I can very well believe it. And will you get a job already! Living at your parents' expense, don't you have any sense of shame? Personal pride? Anything at all? It's just gross. And 'pig 3D is disgusting'? More like, 'I couldn't score with actual girls to save my life'.

Honestly, the only good thing about you is that you'll never get laid and so won't impart your genes to the new generation. Less fuckups that way, I'm sure, for all we know your issues are hereditary."

Aoba felt more than a bit queasy. He could tell all too well that the audience was beginning to react and imagined that any moment they would lynch him. And still he could not help himself and rattled on.

"And you're clueless, too. 'Miku, Miku, Miku'? Guess what, I'm actually a guy. That's right! You'll probably go mob crazy on me now and I wish I could shut up but there it goes, it's the truth. I'm as male as it gets!"

At the hotel Izaya bounced and burst into a fit of giggles.

"The irony, oh the irony! Aoba-kun, it was great knowing you. We will never forget you, never!"