[FIN] Death and Discovery

[Suudonym]

The words he heard confused and disoriented him, and he turned instinctively to follow the gaze that fell behind him. A vague memory of Seraphine and a Zorua and an illusion that looked identical to himself. Dizziness swayed him, but an immense anger steadied him once more. He rounded on Izaya, not caring that he was unarmed, and poured all his strength and frustration into a driving fist. <******** off!"  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Although many others had aimed to hit, slap, and punch the obnoxious man before and a few had even succeeded, Izaya learned from his past experiences. As he did not fancy getting a black eye, he narrowly ducked the retaliation he had been expecting (though he hadn't been sure in what form it would manifest itself) and took a couple of hops backward, laughing. If Luke's punch was as forceful as it seemed, he expected its miss to result in the teen losing his balance and possibly falling over. He did not want to be in the way if that happened.

"Temper, temper!" he chided lightly, flicking his blade closed and putting his hands up in surrender. "I only wanted to talk. Maybe pay my respects. There's really no need to let your emotion get the better of you. If you're not careful, you might even strain that heart currently beating in your chest. Let me tell you, Asch-kun did not go easy on it; it must already be pretty tired out."

At the sight of tension, the girl in the back had looked disconcerted, but when actual combat came into play, she hurried to Izaya, looking more distraught than ever. He held up a hand to indicate to her to stay where she was. Hesitantly she obeyed, frowning.

"It really is a good thing I managed to catch you here," the talkative man continued, leaning back against a pillar. "You're really out of sorts if you're so easily ready to believe in illusions. I thought you were smarter than that, Mr. Fon Fabre."  

[Suudonym]

Luke staggered to maintain his footing, glaring at Izaya. "Shut up!" he demanded, seething. "Shut, up!" Stupid. He was so, so stupid.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Don't worry about it too much~! It's said that a lot of twins kill their weaker counterpart while still in the womb," Izaya continued speaking, keeping at a safe distance. "It's all just a matter of survival of the fittest. You survived. That's all that counts."

He gestured enthusiastically as he continued to talk, obviously unwilling to obey Luke's angry orders. "You are the light and he is the ashes. Probably quite literally, now. Or did you decide to bury him? Either way, it doesn't matter. It's only right that you rise from his ashes, mm?"

Leaping up onto a pew, he started to walk along it, balancing carefully with his arms out to his sides. Forward, then back. "So what the real question in the end is - and this is something only you can answer - do you think the life he saved was worth the sacrifice he made?" He giggled. "Because it sure didn't seem that way just now."  

[BlackPidgeot]

"Yes, it was," a voice suddenly echoed throughout the church. A lone figure standing in the doorway and glaring over at Izaya. A sheathed sword resting on one shoulder as he stared the other man down.

For that question wasn't one that only Luke could answer, and thus Yuri was more than happy to answer it as well.

"Stop listening to this garbage, Luke. Let's get out of here."  

[Suudonym]

Izaya's words meant little to Luke in the infuriation that consumed him, and Yuri's presence went similarly unacknowledged. "What the hell do you get out of this?!" he shouted, all uncertainty gone from his tone and posture and replaced with bitter hostility. "You think this is funny?! I should kill you!"  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Yuri-puu, you too?" the informant laughed as round-faced young man appeared. "So glad you could join us!"

"Eh?" He glanced back to Luke, who was now pelting him with angry questions and threats, both spoken and unspoken. "Well you're welcome to try if you think you can; just ask Yuri-puu for his fancy sword. You know how to use one, right? I thought you had one with you the first time I saw you."

"But really...after all that's happened to you, can you really get yourself to take another's life?" Izaya wanted to know. "In cold blood, without any good reason other than your own, boiling emotions? Like I said, I just want to talk, but you want to kill me! How's that for unfair?"

Despite his words, the informant seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. His blade was still in his hand, though still sheathed, and he kept an eye on Yuri's weapon.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri's eyes narrowed as he listened and watched. He wasn't liking this one bit. And really, he was surprised to see Luke so worked up. What had happened in here? Well that didn't matter. At the mention of killing though, the darker part of Yuri's mind was not adverse to the idea. This guy was pretty annoying, and a low life too it seemed.

"Do you get some sort of sick pleasure out of taunting people?" Yuri asked.

He then took his sword, and with one flick of his wrist, the scabbard flew off to the side. Revealing the blade as it was lifted up.

"Cause I can end this right now if you don't get the hell out."  

[Suudonym]

Luke was aware that he was unarmed, but he had no desire to request any assistance from Yuri now. His anger fell between himself and Izaya, and he loathed the idea of having to rely on anyone else to execute it. Logically that left him without a leg to stand on, but he wasn't concerned about logistics in his present state. "You think I care?!" he seethed. "I have had enough. I'm not going to tolerate your bullshit on top of everything else!"

The clatter of the scabbard as it was shed from its weapon drew Luke's attention, and his posture tensed, "If you're going to do that, then let me." Green eyes, dark with unabating fury, returned to Izaya. "I'm not going to forgive this."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya sighed heavily. "You really are blinded by your rage. 'Seeing red' is another term for it, isn't it? How ironic." He remained where he was. "Listen, think about this - it's good you hate me, truly. If you have the passion to hate, you have a reason and motivation to live. But if you really kill me now, then what? You'll end up feeling as hollow, empty, and purposeless as you did before. And what then?"

"Let me let you in on a little secret. Asch-kun may not have liked me any more than you do, but he felt the same way you're feeling now. Doubtless he was looking for a purpose to his life and he must have convinced himself it was giving his up in exchange for your own." He waved a hand. "But really, that was just an excuse - a way out. He didn't really know what to do with his life. The real conflict came when what he had strove for all this time clashed with what you and your friends wanted to do. He found he cared for you and wanted to support you, but he couldn't just leave what he had started. The pain of that conflict just sort of welled up inside him, eating away at his interior."

"Don't be like him, Luke Fon Fabre," Izaya advised. "When you die, there's nothing. You don't even have a consciousness to experience nothingness, because you simply cease to exist. Once you're done, you're done. There's no afterlife, no heaven or hell or purgatory, nothing. So why not live life to the fullest while you can instead of throwing it away like that idiot twin of yours?" He smirked. "Unlike him, the only conflict you harbor is the guilt of living while he died, and that wasn't something you could have controlled in the slightest, so let it go. Take it from someone who knows."  

[BlackPidgeot]

"No," Yuri replied immediately to Luke. "You'll only get yourself killed the way you are now." And he would be damned if he let Luke end his life, whether by suicide or doing something stupid.

There was then silence from Yuri as Izaya continued to speak. He didn't really know Asch very well at all, so he couldn't really dispute what this guy was saying. But... how did he apparently know him so well?

He kept those questions to himself though and simply waited.  

[Suudonym]

He couldn't recall another time he had been so plainly angry, and Yuri's immediate refusal, though he understood that his friend was right, did little to stanch the frustration and bitterness that had taken up residence within him. Izaya's words as he spoke, however, were confusing, confounding even in how much sense they made, but Luke knew better than to trust or believe any of it. "What are you trying to accomplish in telling me this?" he said, the fire of his tone dying into embers in his puzzlement. "If you're trying to get my trust or whatever, then you're out of luck. Asch told me that you're a Rocket."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

Izaya's face slackened into a blank look for a moment, caught off-guard by the relay of information. But within an instant his sly smile had returned. "Trust? Oh, no no no, that's not generally my goal. People just tend to trust me because I'm usually right, even if it makes them angry because they don't want to admit it." He shrugged. "Hated and trusted at the same time...odd, I know. But see, I never said I wasn't a Rocket. No one ever asked."

"That being said, I have to ask..." There was a sinister look in his eye as he ambled casually toward the church doors. "...do you have any proof? Because you really shouldn't trust everything you hear. Even from a dying person. People will just say just about anything to put others at ease while taking the real truths to their deathbeds."  

[BlackPidgeot]

A Rocket? Yuri certainly hadn't expected that, but it didn't really surprise him either. Luke's words causing the dark haired swordsman's eyes to narrow as he continued to watch Izaya like a hawk. His sword grasped firmly, ready to strike should the guy make a wrong move.

However, he remained silent for the time being.  

[Suudonym]

"There's your face, for one thing," he said, watching the slow path Izaya traced towards the exit; he hated the idea of letting him just walk out, but there wasn't much he could do to prevent it. "Not really selling the part of the falsely accused, as far as I'm seeing. But here's a tip: If you think I'm going to believe you over my brother, then you're gonna be really disappointed."