An Invitation to Dinner
By Minako Tomoka
A Durarara Short Story
It had been about three months since I moved to Ikebukuro in hopes of pursuing my career as a professional violinist. My name is Momiji Kurumi, and I`ve played the violin since I was just four years old. Over the years, I starred in school plays, concerts, choirs, and all manner of other musical performances, and when I turned 18, I decided I wanted to elevate my musical ambitions to a career rather than just a hobby. To do that, I moved all the way from my country home in Saitama to Ikebukuro, Tokyo, to attend the Ikebukuro University of Fine Arts.
My parents were overwhelmingly against my enrollment, since they were afraid of me moving to such a large city to live by myself. Since I was a little girl, they warned me of the dangers lurking in the big cities, like street gangs, yakuza, monsters that eat people in dark alleys, you name it. But I knew that if I ever wanted to be successful in a musical career, I couldn`t do it stuck out in the boonies of Saitama. I had no choice but to venture into the city and chase down my dreams along with the rest of the world. So I traveled to Ikebukuro against my family`s wishes, and although they were pissed at first, I knew I`d make them proud once I was finished studying at the Fine Arts.
It wasn`t even a matter of becoming rich. Sure, I didn`t want to be poor for the rest of my life either, but the main reason I came here was just because I wanted to chase my dream. Like I said before, it`d been a few months since I moved here. By now, I`d settled into an apartment and my new life at the Ikebukuro University of Fine Arts. The big city wasn`t nearly as terrifying as my mother and father made it out to be. Sure, you didn`t really want to be wandering around in the dark alleys asking hobos for directions in the dead of night, but really, that applied to pretty much any city around the world. Contrary to my parents` belief, I had common sense.
When I came to Tokyo, I thought I knew exactly what I was getting into. I thought I had adjusted to city life rather well. But in life, it only takes one moment to make you realize just how small and weak you really are. Unfortunately, I`ve experienced this firsthand. It was a warm summer evening, and I was on my way home from my last violin class. I took a sigh of relief, grateful
I had passed. Clearly I had underestimated my competition at the university. I shouldn`t have been surprised, though. It was a school for only the most talented and gifted artists, writers, and musicians.
Even at night, the city streets overflowed with people going about their business. It was overwhelming, an ocean of humanity as far as the eye could see. I brushed back my short, wavy blackish-purple hair and rubbed sleep out of my tired ruby-colored eyes. My frilly, laced black-and-white dress fluttered in a stray summer breeze. I yawned loudly. All I wanted was to get back to my apartment, collapse onto my bed, and pass out. But fate had a much different event planned out for me that night.
As I stumbled my way home, I bumped into someone. It wasn`t all that unusual, I had probably bumped into about a dozen people each day on the route back and forth to school. "Oh, I`m sorry,"
I quickly apologized. "Didn`t see you there." I got no response. I turned my head. No one was there. I blinked. Maybe they didn`t notice. Oh well. I yawned once again, then stretched out my arms.
I felt a sudden, sharp pain in my side. At first, I thought I had just pulled a muscle. But the pain didn`t subside. It not only remained, but gradually increased in intensity, like a knife stabbed into my body. I got a sick, nauseous sensation in my stomach. I felt liquid creep into my throat.
Not wanting to vomit in front of all these people, I rushed to a nearby alleyway, out of sight of the general population. I hunched over and threw up, coughing and hacking on my own sour-tasting fluids. A million thoughts ran through my mind, trying to figure out why I felt so sick. Maybe food poisoning? I tried to remember what I had for lunch. Maybe I caught some kind of stomach bug.
Meanwhile, the stabbing pain in my side grew worse and worse. I peeled up a small part of my dress, cringing at what I would find. I expected to see a massive, bloody gash, but instead, all I saw was a single puckered, reddened pinprick. It resembled a needle mark. But how? How could I have possibly been pricked by a needle? My mind was wracked with confusion. Before I could ponder it any further, I became lightheaded and dizzy. My vision grew blurry. The world seemed to be spinning around me. My muscles felt like mush. I fell to my knees, crumpling onto the dirty concrete. I desperately clung to my last threads of consciousness, but even those soon slipped from my grasp, and I passed out, falling into the clutches of sleep.
I didn`t know how long I laid unconscious in that alley, but it couldn`t have been too long, because it was still nighttime, and I hadn`t been disturbed. I sat up, wincing at a sharp pain in my skull. I swallowed hard, my throat parched. After I shook off my drowsiness, I glanced around. Something wasn`t quite...right. It was hard to describe. For one thing, my surroundings seemed to be much taller than me. Even things like trash cans towered above me like huge buildings, and the buildings themselves were utterly colossal in my eyes. I staggered to my feet.
I crept out of the alleyway. My jaw dropped. I froze, still as a statue. From what I saw, I was barely a fraction of the size of the people on the streets. They looked like giants.
I gasped with endless shudders. What the hell did I get pricked with? It must have been some really screwed-up drugs. At the same time, I wondered. Was this just a psychedelic delusion...or was I actually this small? I didn`t know, and that terrified me. If I walked out there, I`d surely get stepped on.
Not only that, but I had heard about many of Ikebukuro`s dangerous individuals from my new friends at the university, like Shizuo Heiwajima, the blonde bartender who could allegedly rip a lightpost from the ground and bend it in half with his bare hands. What if he happened to find me at this size? He`d kill me. Frightened beyond all recognition, I spun around and ran back into the darkness of the alley. I ran and ran...until I hit something. Something soft, yet solid. I crashed on my face.
Reluctantly, I looked up, thinking I ran into a hungry vagrant or something. That wasn`t the case at all. The giant monster I ran into was a young man, about 23. He wore all black, including a black jacket trimmed by white fur. His short, wispy hair was black as well, and his eyes shined an eerie reddish color. A strange grin split his features, as if he were pleased to see me in this state. "Who...who are you?!" I spat.
He backed up a bit, so as not to step on me. "So, I suppose you don`t know me," he said. "That`s strange, anyone who`s lived in this city for more than a month knows who I am. My name is Izaya Orihara, and you are Momiji Kurumi, student of Ikebukuro University of Fine Arts, correct?" I stood there, slackjawed. Snaking tendrils of black hair fell over my face. Izaya Orihara. I had heard that name before. He was one of the dangerous individuals my friends warned me about. Apparently he was an informant who sold personal secrets and other information to powerful clients. If I had met him at my normal size, I wouldn`t have thought of him as dangerous. But at this height, he was terrifying. I had never encountered a creature so huge, human or otherwise. The fact that Izaya was indeed human only made that even more frightening. "How...do you know my name? Did you do this to me?" I asked.
Izaya`s blood-red eyes never wavered from me. "Of course I`m the one who did this to you. I`ve been watching you ever since you moved here. I`ve researched quite a bit about you, Ms. Kurumi. You, young miss, interest me very much. So, I recently came across this new serum created by Yagiri Pharmaceuticals. They said it could shrink humans if it were injected into their bodies. Personally, I didn`t believe such nonsense, but curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to take a little for myself while they weren`t looking. But from what I can tell, it looks like they were telling the truth. You do look rather adorable at that tiny size, Momiji-chan."
I could barely begin to comprehend the sheer amount of information this black-haired demon had dumped on me. And from the sinister gleam in his eyes, I could tell that he had no intentions of letting me walk. So I did what any reasonable person would do in the same situation- I whirled around and took off in the opposite direction as fast as my feet would carry me. I knew what danger awaited me on those streets, but at that moment, the risk of being stepped on far were far outweighed by whatever Izaya Orihara planned to do to me. Unfortunately, I didn`t get very far. Izaya`s fingers clamped around my body and lifted me into the air. I squirmed and thrashed about, screaming at the top of my lungs. "SOMEONE, HELP ME! PLEASE!"
My screams were never heard. Izaya raised me up to his face. I shivered as I gazed into his huge eyes. "You should just shut up," Izaya said. "At your size, no one can hear you scream. You shouldn`t be afraid of me. I won`t hurt you. All I want to do is take you back home for dinner. It gets rather lonely eating by myself, you know." I gulped. I knew I could not trust this man.
Every word that escaped his lips was a lie. But now, I was completely at his mercy. "I don`t want to!" I snapped. "Put me down and change me back right now!"
He smirked at me. "Now why would I do that? You`re my new pet human, you`re far too interesting to just let go. We`re going to have so much fun together, I`m sure of it!" He lowered his arm and carelessly dropped me into the pocket of his jacket. Darkness swallowed me like the jaws of a predator as I tumbled into the black void. I clawed at the fabric, trying to climb my way out, but with every trembling step he took, it knocked me back to square one. Tears flowed down my reddened cheeks. What would happen to me? What was Izaya going to do to me? I shuddered at the thought.
The trip to Izaya`s apartment didn`t take as long as I imagined it would. Izaya came to a stop, then reached into his pocket to grab me. A huge hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me from the dark, humid enviroment of Izaya`s pocket. His fingers pried at my clothes as he inspected every minute detail of my tiny body. He appeared to be studying me. "I think I made a good choice taking you home," he sneered. "You look cute enough to eat, Momiji-chan."
My ruby eyes flickered. I didn`t like the sound of that. He made his way over to the nearby couch and dropped me in his lap. I gazed up at him, shaking uncontrollably. "Why...why are you doing this to me!?" I spluttered, my eyes filled with tears. Izaya reached down and wiped my tears with his index finger. "Now, now, there`s no need to cry. You`re perfectly safe in my possession, you have nothing to worry about. I didn`t expect a young girl like you to be so frightened of little old me."
"Of course you did!" I snapped. "What else were you expecting?! You try being kidnapped by a giant monster!" Izaya blinked. "A monster, am I? Now that`s interesting. Just about an hour ago, you and I were on an equal level as human beings. Just because you`ve become smaller than me, you think that gives you the right to call me a monster? See, this is what I love about humans. You`re so inexplicable. Your convictions change every five minutes. If you had met me at your normal size, you wouldn`t call me a monster, now would you?"
I couldn`t contain my trembling. He was right, but I didn`t reciprocate those feelings. "What...are you trying to do? You did this to me for a reason, didn`t you?"
"Of course," Izaya replied. "There`s a reason for everything I do, but someone like you wouldn`t understand it. You see, my hobby is human observation. I love just sitting back and watching how people react in certain situations. It`s fun. I wanted to see how a person would react being shrunk down to the size of an insect and toyed with by a normal-sized human." I shook my head in disbelief. "You`ve got to be kidding me. You`re telling me that you did this to me...just to screw with me for your entertainment?! You`re sick!"
Izaya sighed wistfully. "I thought you`d react this way. Nearly everyone does. But in this case, I would watch my tone if I were you. I`m your master now, and you`re nothing but my toy. I can step on you and end your pathetic little life whenever I feel like it." I shuddered. I couldn`t imagine being crushed by this monster. I decided to keep my mouth shut after that. He plucked me into the air by the collar and said, "But I do intend on making you feel good as well. After all, I don`t get any pleasure from seeing girls crying in pain. You see, I like to make women feel good, and I`m going to do just that."
"Wha...what do you mean?" I muttered. Izaya answered by tearing my clothes off. He just ripped my frilly dress from my body with a single tug of his finger, leaving me trembling in nothing but my bra and panties as I laid in his palm. An immediate blush hit my cheeks. "W-what are you doing!?" Izaya snickered. "How adorable. Even at 17 years old, you`re still wearing panties with teddy bears on them. I suppose you still have some feminine innocence left. It`s too bad I`m going to be taking that from you now."
He brushed his lips against my body. I shuddered as I felt them part on my skin. He gently bit at my panties, ripping them away. I clamped my hands over my crotch in an attempt to conceal my nether regions. Meanwhile, Izaya didn`t spit out my teddy bear panties like I expected him to. Instead, he tilted back his head and...swallowed them. No way, I thought. He did not just do that. "You...you pervert!" I sputtered. The giant chuckled. "You say that, but your face is red as a cherry. I can tell your body is literally begging for me to violate you. What a lewd woman. Oh, and I don`t mind if you call me a pervert. In fact, it can be my new name, if you want. In the meantime...I`m going to keep my promise."
His huge pink tongue emerged from his mouth. I clenched up as he managed a long, drawn-out lick over my naked body, coating me in saliva. He even paid special attention to my chest.
He obviously intended to pleasure me, but I was stuck in a bizarre mix of pleasure and terror. His teeth were right next to my skin. I imagined him sinking those teeth into me at any moment. "Please...please stop," I pleaded. The black-haired giant grinned. "Sorry, no can do."
Instantly, his tongue shifted to my lower areas, slithering directly into my flower. On instinct, I threw back my head and let out a loud moan. He wiggled his tongue, working deeper into my sex. My body was wracked with intense, rippling tingles as my wet walls massaged his tongue. I jerked back and forth, digging my nails into his hand, moaning in ecstacy. The sensation consuming me was indescribable. It was the peak of pleasure. My surroundings seemed to melt away. I didn`t even care that I was being sexually assaulted and raped by this gigantic monster. I just wanted more and more. And he gave me more and more each passing second.
A great heat swelled in my belly. Izaya`s tongue crept inside me ever so slightly, sending tremors of rippling pleasure throughout my body. Sweat pooled up on my skin. I was practically screaming his name at this point. I couldn`t keep this up much longer. Seconds later, I reached my peak, letting loose a deluge of sexual fluids. I hung limply, lying in Izaya`s palm, gasping for breath. I was exhausted beyond belief. I couldn`t stop shaking, not out of fear, but out of pleasure. "I...I`m sorry," I apologized, realizing I had just orgasmed into his mouth.
Izaya simply tipped back his head and gulped down my fluids. "Now, what are you apologizing for? I just did as I promised you. I have to admit, your reaction was priceless. How erotic, Momiji-chan." He paused for a moment. "You know, I`m gonna need a little give and take here. This is a zero-sum world, after all. I did something for you, and now you`re going to do something for me. Another thing I noticed about you is just how delicious you are. Not just your orgasmic fluids, but your entire body..."
Again, he licked my bare skin, making me shiver, this time out of fear. The numbing pleasure was quickly replaced by a growing terror. "W-what are you saying? What are you going to do to me?" When his stomach gave a hungry growl, my question was answered for me. "I did say I was having you over for dinner," Izaya said. "Remember when I said I wasn`t going to hurt you? Well, I wasn`t lying. I`m not going to hurt you...but I am going to eat you."
Those words hit my ears like a sharp knife. I could not believe what I had just heard. Look, I don`t care who you are, even the deafest guy in the room is going to jolt at that statement. "Wha...WHAT?!" I screeched. At first, I might have thought of it as a joke, but it sure didn`t sound like one. He sounded completely serious about it. Buck naked and quivering uncontrollably,
I staggered to my feet and attempted to leap out of Izaya`s palm. My escape was ill-fated, as Izaya simply closed his fingers around me, caging me in his hand. I scratched and pried at his fingers. "Let me go!" I screamed. "Put me down right now, you monster!"
Izaya ignored me and strolled off to the kitchen with me clamped in his right hand. "My, you`re acting quite demanding, even after what I did for you. How ungrateful, Momiji-chan. I gave you the pinnacle of pleasure, the least you could do is let me cook you. I get a bit impatient when I`m hungry, you know." When he whisked me into the kitchen, I shuddered in horror at what I saw.
The stove was decked out with pots, pans, and all manner of other cooking tools awaiting use. "You...you`re just screwing with me, right?" I stammered. "You`ve got to be joking, right? RIGHT!?"
Izaya snickered. "Wrong. You should feel honored, Momiji-chan. After all, it isn`t every day that one becomes dinner for the one and only Izaya Orihara! And out of all the stupid girls out there in that city, I took the fortune of choosing you! Don`t you feel special?"
"No!" I shrieked. "Please, don`t do this! I`ll do anything, anything, just please, don`t eat me!" Izaya pinched me by the scruff of my neck and stretched his arm out, dangling me above a bubbling vat of what resembled stew or fondue. Every nerve in my body bristled. "You can beg and plead all you want, but it won`t save you," Izaya sneered. "This is what I planned to do with you all along. Since I`ve loosened you up and got your juices flowing, you should taste even more delicious!"
He released his grip, causing me to take a dive straight into the fondue pot. The salty liquid was as thick as molasses. I shoved my legs and yanked myself above the solution, rubbing the sauce out of my red eyes. The thick substance was matted in my wavy black hair. I gazed up at Izaya, only to witness him licking his lips. My bowels quivered. "Izaya, STOP!" I screeched. "Please, I don`t want to die!" Izaya was completely unsympathetic. "Well, isn`t that just a shame? No one wants to die, you know. So have faith in knowing you`re not alone in the world."
Rage boiled inside me, bubbling up along with the soup I was stuck in. "Shut up! Shut the hell up! I know damn well no one else in the world is being cooked alive, about to become dinner for a scumbag like you!" Izaya chuckled. "You really are entertaining, Momiji-chan. One moment, you`re prostrating yourself before me, begging for your life, and the next, you`re enraged and furious at the fact that you`re nothing but food now. You`re so inexplicable. And very tasty, at that."
He dove a huge wooden spoon into the mixture, slowly stirring it along with me. I flailed about, clinging to anything I could grasp. The salt and steam in the fondue started to burn my eyes, making them all swollen and bloodshot as tears flooded over them. The heat grew in intensity, stinging my bare skin. My skin had already been dried out thanks to the salt in the mixture, and the creeping burning sensation only made that tight, clammy feeling even worse. This...this can`t be happening, I thought. I really am being...cooked.
I glanced at my reddened skin and bit my lip until a drop of blood dripped out. I wanted to scream. And I did. I threw back my head and let out a soul-shaking scream, a scream that would be heard by no one, aside from my soon-to-be devourer.
Speaking of which, Izaya decided I had been cooked enough, so he slid the spoon beneath my body, scooping me out of the mixture along with an entire spoonful of fondue. He dropped me into a bowl that was way too high and narrow for me to reach or climb out of. He hummed happily as he strolled over to the couch, plopping down and preparing to enjoy his meal. "Bon appetit, Momiji-chan," he taunted.
Apparently, he thought I hadn`t suffered enough for him to just eat me now and get it over with, so he instead started eating the soup, scooping up the thick, sticky substance around my tiny form. Meanwhile, I was still alive, but barely. I rushed back and forth, clawing at the walls of the bowl, trying to reach the edge, trying to grab anything I could to pull myself up and out of this death trap. My lungs heaved as I sucked in shallow, frantic breaths. My heart beat so fast, I imagined it bursting from my chest. Izaya continued eating the soup around me, making dramatic slurping sounds as he did so. He tilted his head so I could see the muscles and tendons working in his neck. "Ahh...I can taste you in this, it`s absolutely scrumptious," he muttered.
I stared at him in disbelief. "You...you bastard! You son of a bitch! You`re telling me this is how I`m going to die...as your...SNACK!?"
"Oh, I`m not telling you anything," he said. "You figured that out on your own. But I`ve had enough of holding myself back...so I`ll head straight for the main course!" Helpless, I could do nothing but watch in horror as Izaya scooped me up beneath the spoon, raising me up to his lips. He opened his mouth as if yawning, revealing a slimy, gaping abyss of a maw. I immediately felt a blast of stale heat. I gagged at the scent of his horrible breath. The back of his throat pulsated a bit. Web-like strands of saliva dripped from his teeth. "Oh, God, NO!" I screamed. "Please, anything but this! I don`t want to be EATEN!"
"That`s just too bad," Izaya said, not showing a shred of remorse. "You know, you`re going to be the first woman I`ve ever eaten. At least you have that privilege. And now...sayonara, Momiji-chan."
He craned his head uncomfortably close to me. I could touch him if I dared, but I had bigger problems. The immense pink tongue emerged, slithering underneath my tiny body. As I squirmed, it curled at the tip, and it retracted, drawing me into Izaya`s maw. I was thrown into total darkness. As soon as I could comprehend where I was, I jumped to my feet and began fighting back. I punched Izaya`s binding tongue, wildly thrashing to escape its grip- and to stay far, far away from the bottomless pit that was his throat. "I WON`T LET YOU EAT ME!" I shouted.
I swatted blindly, acting like a wild animal trying to escape a trap by ripping off its own leg. My body was coated in sweat and saliva, and my feeble attempt to fight back was lessened by the sheer heat and humidity of Izaya`s mouth. As I struggled, I soon realized that I was only still here because Izaya was letting me. He was playing with me. Because a single flick of his tongue was all it took for me to be flung backwards, straight into his throat.
I let out a piercing scream as I slipped into the abyss. The throat muscles latched onto my tiny form, pushing and squeezing me as I slowly slid to my death. I kicked out my legs and stuck out my arms, attempting to drag myself upward or at least hold myself in place, but I was no match for the powerful, rippling walls of muscle squashing me. My breaths were frantic and shallow, not just because of my terror, but also because it was becoming incredibly difficult to breathe in here. A single hard swallow dislodged me, the perstaltic movements crushing my small body. I clawed and scrabbled, crying out in horror, but I could not escape.
In a matter of seconds, I was sent down his throat and straight into his stomach, where I crashed into a veritable pool of stomach juice and half-digested food. It wasn`t much higher than my waist, but it only took seconds for Izaya`s belly to begin the process of digesting me. On contact with the gastric fluid, my skin turned numb. That numbness soon transitioned to an intense sensation, a cross between stinging, burning, and tingling. A harsh gurgle echoed above me, followed by an insidious rumbling.
I whimpered weakly, sobbing into my hands. All the events of the past three months flashed through my dying mind. Why did I come here, to this stupid city? Why didn`t I just listen to my parents and stay home? If I did, I would have never ended up in this situation now. I wished I had never moved to Ikebukuro. Now, it was all over. My ambitions, my dreams, my life- all stolen away by this black-haired monster. I kicked myself for being such a stupid idiot.
This was now my fate, and there was nothing left for me to do but accept it. All that was left now was for him to digest me. A low growl echoed around me. This is how I`m going to die, stewing and festering inside his gut, I thought. The pool of gastric juices flooded up around me, soon creeping above my head. I curled up into a pathetic, sniveling ball, allowing myself to succumb to the intense stomach acids as I lifelessly slumped to my death...
The End...
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