another excerpt from vol 4!
"Speaking of which - your sisters too are gonna be Raira students from now on."
"......You sure are very well-informed."
Izaya's expression verged on the uncomfortable.
"Just thought you should know that I've done my research on my head man as well."
"......How should I put it...well, I do that all the time to other people, but..."
It's a different thing altogether to have that done to myself - he laughed bitterly as if to
say. Deciding to abandon the work at hand for the moment, he leaned into his chair and
continued to talk as if to himself.
"I never knew how to deal with those two."
"Really? Are you saying there's something you don't know how to deal with apart from
Heiwajima Shizuo?"
"Stop kidding. I'm human after all. Well, not completely, but still."
Sighing heavily, Izaya began to describe to Namie the environment he grew up in.
"My sisters...are called 'Kururi' and 'Mairu'. ...How should I put it...my parents are
completely ordinary people. Except for when it comes to the taste in children's names,
that is. Yet I grew up in that highly ordinary environment...to be what I am now."
"Alas, so you're aware that you are a freak?"
Namie's sarcasm didn't seem to bother Izaya as he put his hands together, rubbed his
thumbs and continued.
"I didn't turn out like this because of the environment I grew up in...but my sisters, I
think, turned out abnormal because of my influence. That I do feel guilty about."
"Abnormal? In what ways?"
- What kind of children could make even a freak like him call them abnormal?
Namie, now looking intrigued, paused the work at hand and poured herself a cup of tea
from the kettle in the kitchen.
She was really listening now despite the fact that she just stood there in an aloof fashion.
Izaya simply looked at Namie with weary eyes.
"Their goal is - to be 'human'."
"........Excuse me?"
"They want to become sort of a 'humankind in a nutshell' combination...and of all
humankind especially the Japanese."
"I still don't follow."
Izaya smiled bitterly at a perplexed Namie.
"I know it's hard to understand. They simply thought that being twins automatically
meant that they were supposed to be the same person."
"......Ahh, that kind of makes sense. A single twin does strike as an incomplete human
being if not in a set with the other...or at least that's how we feel. But wouldn't it be odd
for the twins themselves to feel the same way?"
"Normally, yes. But like I said...my sisters aren't normal."
Izaya rose slowly from his chair as he shut down his laptop.
As he parted the blinds with his fingers, he narrowed his eyes in the sunshine that poured
through.
"You know how games always come with preset parameters? Like some characters
would have high magical power but very low fighting ability, or excellent fighting ability
but no brains. In an RPG game you would have to form a balanced team to make up for
each other's weaknesses."
"Well, that's what we do in reality as well. Using your personnel according to their
strengths and weaknesses is the first step towards rational management."
"If only it were anything close to rational management..."
Izaya put his hand on the desk as the image of his sisters came back to his mind.
"What they did was that they formed an RPG team, just the two of them. One would be
the martial artist, and the other would be the sorcerer, something like that."
"......I have no idea what you're trying to say."
"It's simple. They consciously formed two completely contrasting human stereotypes.
They became totally different despite being twins - on purpose! Thinking they would be
something more than all other humans by combining their forces like that...just another
way to convince themselves that they're capable of anything, I'd say."
As if observing something truly nonsensical, the stray smile around the corner of Izaya's
mouth never reached his eyes.
"Their respective appearances and personalities - those were settled by a flip of the coin
back when they were still elementary school kids. They weren't aware that there is a thing
called congruency. So Kururi - the older one - is silent and melancholic but wears a
gymnastic suit. The younger one, Mairu, looks like a liberal arts girl but talks and
behaves like there's no tomorrow."
"But...that would just be odd, right? There's no point in divorcing the appearance from
the personality."
Izaya nodded slowly at Namie's bewildered reaction.
"Sure, there is no point. But for those two, there isn't any point in synchronizing the
appearance with the personality either. They end up being the 'same person' anyway. As
long as they think they have all the 'parts', they don't care. They like to think they're
special because of that - what a pair of intolerable Eighth-Grade-Disease* patients."
* Eighth-Grade Disease: a phrase coined to describe typical adolescent behavior stemming from the belief
that one is special and is not understood by others.
"What's Eighth-Grade Disease?"
"Google that up yourself. Whatever...it's at least better than thinking you're an esper or
the reincarnation of a warrior of light or something. But anyway those two stand out too
much...whatever kind of crowd they're in."
"Ah, I see. So as someone who wants to remain the evil mastermind in the dark it's only
natural that you don't wish to be seen with them."
Namie nonchalantly interpreted Izaya's own thoughts for him.
Izaya looked away as if that analysis hit something right on the mark, and replied.
"True. It embarrasses me when I see those two or hear them talk...you'll see what I mean
when you meet them. Keep in mind that even I can't stand them. If I can't stand them,
there is probably no way anyone else can..."
"If you're so aware that you are just as intolerable yourself, why not behave a little bit for
a change?"
"I don't wanna be told by someone who forced an illegal plastic surgery on a girl for the
sake of her brother."
Namie merely smiled at Izaya's pungent riposte.
"Ahh. I have no intention to behave whatsoever when it comes to Seiji."
"......"
"True love needs no brake nor accelerator. When you think about it, it will get you there
by itself."
Namie's cheeks turned rosy as she muttered such completely irrelevant sentences that
didn't even sound like an answer.
If this were the only side people ever saw of Namie, they'd probably think she was some
kind of overgrown adolescent girl.
- If only her brother weren't the one she was lusting over.
Izaya sat back in his chair without another word. Namie's expression returned to normal
as she asked the next question.
"But are you sure they're going to be alright? If they stand out so much, wouldn't it make
them easy targets for all those bullies out there? I heard they are getting pretty nasty these
days."
Though her words looked like they were filled with concern for Izaya's family, there was
not a trace of emotion in the way Namie uttered them; it was obvious that she actually
couldn't care less.
Izaya looked as if he took on the same attitude as he pondered his sisters' situation.
"You have a point. Hopefully no bullies are gonna pick on them...but it's not like we can
avoid it."
Still sighing, the information dealer's face eventually broke into a sarcastic grin.
"Poor things."