It was there when Izaya woke up, a black band around his throat. It was about a centimeter thick and two inches wide and was made of some unknown material that fit to his neck like a second skin. It was a complete unbroken band, not a notch or scratch on it. Not for lack of trying though. Izaya had pulled at it, scratched at it, attempted to cut it with a knife; He'd tried everything. It would not come off. He knew that it must be something supernatural so he was on his way to Shinra's to see if Celty could shed some light on the situation. Izaya did not need this kind of unknown situation in his life, thank you very much.

When he arrived Shinra ushered him in with an overly-bright smile

"I'm very curious about your situation. I'm glad you decided to come to us for help! It could very well be dangerous after all."

Izaya nodded with a sigh

"It's an inconvenience. The sooner it's gone the sooner I'll be out of your hair."

Celty waved at him as he stepped inside

- I'm not promising I'll know much but I'll do what I can. -

Izaya smiled

"Any help you can give would be appreciated, of course the information will be compensated if you wish."

Shinra beamed

"In that case 500,000 yen will do."

Izaya shrugged and shot Shinra an exasperated look

"Only if the information is helpful. We can discuss that later though."

He moved to sit down and Shinra laughed

"Of course, anyway let us see~"

Izaya shrugged out of his jacket so they could get a clear look. Celty leaned in closer and Shinra's face took on a serious look.

Celty studied the band for a moment and looked to Shinra, they seemed to reach a simultaneous conclusion. Izaya frowned

"What is it?"

Shinra coughed lightly and Celty typed a fumbling reply into her phone

- It... it looks like a claim band. -

Shinra smiled

"Well it's not life threatening at least... Well unless the person who claimed you wants you dead."

Izaya's brow furrowed

"What exactly is a claim band?"

Celty looked to the side and Izaya could see she was uncomfortable, his worry and agitation rose

"Well?"

Her shoulders hunched and she fumbled her phone again, Shinra came to her rescue

"Occasionally soulmates have too much trouble in their lives to be properly together. If they are to incompatible the universe picks the least dominate one and places the other soulmates claim on them. If your soulmate gives you an order, you'll feel an intense compulsion to follow it. Eventually the reasons for incompatibility fade away and then the band will fade as well and you won't have to follow orders any more. Well in your case I suggest you stay away from them so they don't find out about this, though it might cause a lot of discomfort in the long run."

Shinra followed this with a bright smile but all Izaya felt was horror

"Putting aside the matter of soulmates, how am I supposed to know who it is to avoid and why am I the least dominate?"

Shinra just shrugged

"If somebody gives you an order and you feel the need to follow it when you normally wouldn't that's how you know. The dominate thing depends on your soulmate I suppose. Well you know what it is and how to get rid of it, we expect payment in less than a week!"

Izaya stood up, he felt numb.

"Is there any way to get rid of it other than to give in?"

Shinra shrugged

"Not that I've heard of."

Izaya turned his gaze on Celty but she just shook her head

- Soulmates are serious business, not everybody has one. You should be grateful! -

Izaya barely held in a sneer as he turned away

"Well I refuse to give in to this so easily. If I find my soulmate, I'll get rid of them for sure."

Shinra laughed

"Good luck with that I guess~"

And Izaya walked out the door. Celty put a hand on Shinra's shoulder

- Shouldn't you have told him that denying it for too long he could die? -

Shinra sighed

"He wouldn't have changed his mind even if I did. I knew the moment I saw it that he'd either change or die. He'll have to figure that out for himself."

Celty nodded. She might not like Izaya but she still hoped his soulmate wasn't cruel enough to hurt him. Izaya would have to follow the orders given to him or experience pain. Celty couldn't help but worry. Shinra grabbed her hand with a gentle smile and brushed a kiss to her knuckles

"He'll be fine, he's stubborn but not to the point of death. Things are bound to become interesting for a while let's just see where things go."

Celty nodded and let Shinra lead her back to the couch. Things would work out for the best. They always did.

Izaya avoided people as much as he could until he got home, he was glad to see Namie was already long gone. Immediately he went to his computer and started research. He searched everywhere, it was supposedly just a legend or fairy-tale like Hanahaki disease so there wasn't much about it but everything mostly confirmed what Shinra and Celty said. There was the part about complete denial could eventually kill him, the part about wild fluctuations between depression and arousal. Mostly the stories all said that the longer the mark was denied the more pain it would cause.

Izaya pushed away from the screen hours later disgusted and anxious. This didn't seem like something he could fight against but like hell he was going to make any of this easy.

He turned his chair to look out at the city lights with a troubled frown, somewhere out there was his soulmate. It went against everything he stood for, humanity was beneath him but here he was being forced by fate to become a plaything to some random person. Izaya's frown fell into a scowl. If there was ever a definition of cruel and unusual it was this. Fate was now Izaya's personal enemy and Izaya planned to make his 'soulmates' life a living hell.

He rubbed his eyes as he felt a stress headache coming on and decided to go to bed early, he wasn't going to get anymore work done today. took some pain pills and changed into pajamas before crawling into bed. He was out within seconds, a soft sigh leaving his lips as he sank into nightmares.