In response to Freddie4153: I choose to live!

Fear

11

The project had taken quite the interesting turn. Kasuka had volunteered to be a recruit actor, and ended up playing the part of a rather convincing Hitler, storming about in front of the camera with a mustache hanging awkwardly under his nose. Shizuo and Hikari ended up playing the parts of Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini, respectively, with Shizuo mumbling his lines and staring off at the corner of the room, and Hikari, hands held stiffly at her sides, stared directly at the camera and spoke much too quickly for anyone to even understand. Even Shinra was more than willing to join in on the festivities as a German general, prancing alongside Kasuka and flinging his arms into the air every chance he could get.

The teacher, insisting that the entire production was lazy, and that the information provided was minimum (as well as relatively inaccurate), awarded Shizuo and Hikari with a C-. As neither of the two even had good grades in their history class in first place, both teenagers accepted the grade without any fuss.

The day after the video project, however, Hikari had vanished once more. Shizuo had thought little of it, already knowing that she'd be sitting at her usual street corner, but Shinra had seemed concerned about this turn of events.

"I was hoping we could all walk home together today," Shinra sighed as they walked out the school gates. "Boy, I hope she's not sick..."

"She's out all the time," Shizuo responded gruffly. "Never bothered you before."

The bespectacled boy frowned, looking up at his much taller companion. "How heartless!" He exclaimed. "Hikari-Chan is our friend now, after all!"

Friend? Shizuo tossed the thought around his head. It wasn't every day that he made one of those; he only had three, counting Kyouhei and Kasuka, and he hesitated to call Shinra one. He wasn't quite sure that he was ready to lump Hikari into this category.

Instead of voicing this, however, Shizuo turned his head to look ahead of him.

And standing there, with that smug grin plastered on his face, was the very bane of his existence.

"Hey, there, Shizu-Chan!" Izaya waved and slipped his hands into his pockets. Shizuo clenched his fists. "Hikari-Chan, did you say? Strange; I wasn't aware that brutes like you could actually make friends."

And with that, fists went flying, and Izaya was already slipping his way through the crowd.