Dark Side of Wonderland

Jigoku

Dark Side of Wonderland

Halo Zero: Jigoku:

December 16th, 2015.

It all started with an innocuous question from Honoka.

"When was the last time anyone saw Izaya?" she asked. Everyone in the apartment turned to her.

"What?" Haru asked. His sister shrugged at him.

"I mean, when was the last time anyone saw him in person?" she asked. Everyone stared at her. They tried to think. Nobody had an answer to that. It seemed so strange. Izaya had been a fixture in Ikebukuro that they would've noticed if they hadn't seen him in a long time. It was now that they started to really think about it.

"[What are you getting at?]" Celty wrote with her shadows.

"I don't know," Honoka said, shrugging. She sat back on the couch. Her words still had a lingering effect on everyone. Haru looked into her eyes.

Shingo looked at his laptop.

"Guys, come look at his," he said. The tadpoles, Risa, and Celty crowded around for a look.

"He really is dead?" Chie asked.

"Looks like it," Shingo said.

"Think K-sensei knows?" Wez asked.

"[I believe he does,]" Celty typed on her PDA. She typed up a quick text and sent it off. The dullahan's mind seemed to be elsewhere.

"Is something wrong?" a voice asked behind her. Celty turned to see Madoka standing behind her. The tadpole had her glasses on again.

"Are you okay?" Madoka asked. "Is it about Izaya or something else?" The dullahan didn't answer at first. It didn't help that vision tadpole kept staring at her. What was troubling her really? Even without her head, Celty started to remember some parts that led to Ikebukuro's destruction. She even started to guess what was coming next. Or maybe it already happened and they just didn't notice it.

"[I don't know how to explain it,]" Celty typed. She started to type something else but paused. How was she going to break it to the tadpoles in the room? Maybe they already knew but didn't want to say it.

"What are you ladies talking about over there?" Yukio asked. Madoka and Celty looked up.

"[Not much,]" Celty said with her shadows in the air. The dullahan wandered out of the room. The tadpoles looked at each other. Shingo turned back to his screen. They were all gathered here. The only thing that they knew was their guesses as to why. Shingo didn't know why he said this next thing. In fact, it startled him when he said it.

"And then the first trumpet sounded," he said to himself. Shingo covered his mouth.

"What did you say?" Reo asked. The tech tadpole turned his head. He looked so pale as he shook it.

"I... I don't know," he said. "It just came out."

"The first trumpet?" she asked in a low voice. Shingo shifted his eyes away from her.

"Yeah," he said in a low voice. They already knew that it'd already happened. The question was did the others know it?

-Megumi-

I stared at my nails, wishing to be somewhere else. Why did I have to be here now? The others just had to drag me along. And for what? Because we're all up shit's creek? Um... Newsflash. We've been up shit's creak for a long time now. What else is new? I threw back my head and groaned.

I looked up to see Naomi staring at me.

"What?" I asked. She frowned with that worried look in her eyes. I rolled my own eyes.