[FIN] Death and Discovery

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

A dark-clad figure with flowing red hair stood staring up at the ruins of the old chapel. Beside him stood a fellow in a fur-trimmed parka, and beside him, a teenage girl with jet black hair and a stiff posture. Both the red-haired guy and the girl juvenile sported thick, fluffy tails, though the red-head's was hidden behind his curtain of hair. The man with the parka whistled once and meandered about the area; twirling and skipping here and there, hopping over pews and perching on the alter like a grinning gargoyle.

"Nice place, isn't it?" he asked the two others. "Wish I'd had time to properly check it out earlier."

The pair looked at the man with blank expressions, the male's slightly more perturbed than the female's, but said nothing.

Izaya let a leg dangle from the edge of the table, bringing one knee up to hug it to his chest. He laughed, the sound echoing hollowly off the ruin walls. "How ironic that their meeting place was a church of all things..." His tone turned cold. "Don't they know that there's no afterlife when you die...?"  

[Suudonym]

Luke couldn't in good conscience just walk past the overgrown church when it appeared in his line of sight, and he slowed his progress to a stop, regarding it hesitantly. He recognized the building too easily, knowing it as the place he had first earned Asch's acknowledgment and as the last place he would ever have seen his brother. He knew there was no kind of merit in this kind of sentimentality, but even so…

"Yuri," he said abruptly, perhaps even a bit surprisingly given his recent speak-when-spoken-to demeanor. The confidence that had inspired the address wilted from him almost immediately, dragging his eyes to the ground. "That building," there was only one thereupon visible, "for a few minutes, I…" It felt rude and selfish to make demands about altering their course when they were only just starting out, but he couldn't ignore it; the thought of passing by without regard was an uncomfortable one.  

[BlackPidgeot]

When Luke came to a sudden stop, Yuri slowed his pace and came to stop as well. Dark eyes turning towards the boy questioningly. Repede also haulting and folding his haunches to sit at his partner's side.

Luke's request though, drew a blink and he lifted his gaze to the old run down church. Huh. He had no idea what the significance of that building was. But if it was important to Luke...

"I'll wait here," he told the boy with a small smile.  

[Suudonym]

Luke gave a small nod, a small thanks, and started towards the chapel. The idea of the building was gravitating: His brother had always appeared in that place when he had requested to meet him, as rarely as that had been. But Asch wouldn't appear there now, and it felt important to show himself that. He paused briefly at the top of the steps to pull open the groaning door, moving into the chamber to meet the emptiness and the silence - but neither of those things were there.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Hm?" The crimson-eyed man's head whipped up as the door to the dilapidated structure reluctantly opened. The two teenagers - the boy and girl - turned their heads as one to look over their shoulders at the newcomer. It seemed almost as if they'd been expecting him. Their expressions did not change.

Izaya, on the other hand, was not so impassive. "Lukey-chan! Hello," he cried, waving an arm vigorously in welcome as his leg continued to swing back from the edge of the table. "Hehehe...long time no see, neh?" Resting his cheek against his knee, he hugged it closer to him, grinning as he regarded the other red-head with careful consideration.  

[Suudonym]

Luke paused within the doorway, the weather-worn door swinging shut behind him. Somewhere in his consciousness existed the idea that he should acknowledge that this person was familiar - not just familiar, but confirmed to be dangerous - and the idea that he should turn around and warn Yuri that there was a Rocket there who likely had no good intentions in being there. Rather than thing about any of those things or produce any kind of response, he merely stood there stiffly as though rooted to the floor, green eyes trained on the redheaded figure.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost," the info broker said with mock concern. He pushed off the alter to land on the ground, stuck his hands in his parka pockets, and began to walk towards Luke, passing the two other figures on the way. The long-haired red-head turned around fully, meeting the other's eyes while wearing a look of slight contempt. Still he said nothing.

"But that can't be right; there's no such thing," Izaya continued as he strolled past the Asch look-alike. "Save for ghost pokemon, and those are just feral spirits; not people." He halted a few feet between the two similar young men.

"You know, Lukey-chan," he said with a grin, "Asch-kun here was just telling me how he tried to fake his death so that he didn't have to have anything to do with you any more. Can you believe that? I know some siblings hate each other, but you two must have reeeally had a strained relationship."

Izaya gestured to the stern-faced male. "He was just showing me around this place and telling me about how you two used to meet here on occasion. I guess he didn't expect you to show up if you thought him dead."  

[Suudonym]

"That's…"

Don't let him approach you. Call out a pokemon or something. Better yet, leave.

No logical thought processes were occurring, though. The words seeped into him like rainwater through dry soil, easily poisoning him. The memory of the letter didn't come to him. The knowledge of the reason he didn't have to take immunosuppressants didn't come to him.

"That's good," he said at length, his voice distant, his eyes unfocused. "That's good." He didn't care if any feelings of friendship or brotherhood he had had towards Asch were one-sided. It was fine if all of that was a lie. But if the fact that Asch had died was also a lie, if he was alive and breathing and standing right there staring at him with an expression like that he had worn when they had first met, then it was fine. That was ideal. That was more than he had ever dared to hope.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya's grin broadened as he realized that Luke was, indeed, convincing himself of the delusion he was being fed. Humans were such delicate things, their emotions allowing their faith to be so easily shifted and doubts so easily overcome. Obviously this couldn't last forever, but the informant enjoyed observing the phenomenon while he could.

It somewhat reminded him of Faleen's silence as they had walked down the hall, her hope as fragile as a cobweb. Like Luke now, she hadn't seemed to want to dare doing anything to test their beliefs of reality. Better to leave it a pretty illusion than to reach out and touch it, causing it to dissolve at their hands.

The info broker flicked his wrist, withdrawing his hand from his pocket in a singular, fluid motion. In the same arc of motion, a flickblade flipped open and glinted in the dim church light. "You know, he said he never forgave me for that stylish hair cut I gave him last spring...so I told him he could try his luck with giving me one in return."

At the sight of the blade, the Asch imposter turned sharply and glared at Izaya, gritting his teeth. His hand went to the blade at his belt as he took up a fighting stance. By the look on his face, he didn't appear to have expected the crimson-eyed man to draw a weapon on him.

"...But you know Asch-kun," Izaya sighed. "To him that translates to a duel. That's why he showed me this place - somewhere out of the way. Probably hopes to kill me. Do you think he'll win?" He spread his arms, the flickblade still shining in one hand. "I have to say...I don't play fair. Not when my life is on the line. But a duel to the death it is!"  

[Suudonym]

He shook his head in defiance, "No." Within the next moment he moved to place himself between the two, standing in defense of the individual he believed to be his brother. "No, no, no. He's alive. No." He was alive, and damned if Luke was just going to stand there and watch someone try to kill him.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

The Asch look-alike blinked at Luke in surprise. His hand remained on the hilt of his sword, but he didn't draw it.

"I'm sorry, Lukey-chan, but he insisted," Izaya said, tilting his head with a sympathetic smile. "Are you saying you don't believe in his strength? He's got a sword and I've just got my meager little flickblade. Why don't you be a good innocent bystander and stand off to the side, mm? It won't take long."  

[Suudonym]

"No," he repeated, his volume raised, "I don't care about strength or whatever. I'm not just going to stand here and let you attack him!" Though he stood in all resistance, he trembled. Something was wrong, but he didn't know what it was - or he knew what was wrong and couldn't understand it.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

The informant chuckled and shook his head. Dropping his arms to his sides, he slowly walked up to the teenager until they were almost touching. "Then what is it you plan to do? You want us to fight through you, is that it?" Luke's trembling did not escape the observer's keen eye. Ahh, humans...this is why I love you so. Making the most stupid decisions all because you let your feelings get the best of you... "Or do you plan to kill me in your brother's place?"  

[Suudonym]

"If I have to," he said, adamant in spite of an absence of confidence. He knew too well that he couldn't fight now, but if the choice fell between fighting or standing down, he sure as hell wasn't going to take the latter.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya studied Luke carefully for a minute. Then he clicked his tongue in disapproval and shook his head. "Tsk tsk tsk...throwing your life away so readily. Didn't that whole fiasco regarding your illness teach you anything? First you wanted to live, now you want to die... Even if Asch-kun was still alive, he would have disapproved. And not just because his sacrifice would have been in vain, either."

He looked to something over Luke's shoulder, where the Asch imposter had been standing. In its place now was a disgruntled-looking blue Zorua with the same expression that he had worn on his human illusion.