"Celty. We both know this is pointless."
Fire, smoke. The room practically exploded into flames, sucking the air straight from his lungs like a punch in the gut. He doubled over and fell to his knees, the heat from the flames scorching from the inside out. Sweat dampened the bleached hair, rolling down his temple and jaw, evaporating before they ever touched the ground. It was so hot, his organs were ignited.
'This is really it, huh?' a familiar voice in his head mused. His jaw clenched so tight, he wouldn't have been surprised if his teeth chipped. It laughed. 'What's got you so worked up?'
Rage boiled over, his first instinct was to pull back his arm, hand clenched so tight that the short , rounded nails bit into his skin like knives. It just took one punch. One punch and the concrete cracked and crumbled, caving into the floor below. The air was instantly clear. The monster growled.
'I didn't change the rules.'
Vorona.
You tried to kill Vorona.
'Isn't that your fault?
The monster looked up, could see him sitting there. Just sitting, watching, that fucking smirk plastered on his face, illuminated by the inferno he started. The growl became a snarl.
'What made you think you could be human?'
It roared.
"Celty. Let's go home."
A cold gust blew through them, pulling her hair, his coat. Everything was so quiet up here. Alone. In the sky. She turned from him, looking over the far-away city. Her eyes could see further than before. It was like she was among them, in the fight. Smelling the violence. Ikebukuro was on fire tasted like iron and salt. In the middle of everything, she could see him. Once upon a time she would have felt the bruises on his face and skin were well deserved. A tinge of red pooled at the corner of his mouth, but still he smiled. All of this was his doing.
Or rather, she onced believed that.
Shinra let his head be cradled by the pillow she had just fluffed for him, sighing in blissful comfort. "Izaya promised to make him pay for it. That was the first time I had seen that look in his eyes. Despite the fear in the foreground."
If she had never influenced Shinra to make friends, he never would have sought out Orihara Izaya. If he had never tried so hard to make her happy, he never would have taken the knife for him. It never would have happened. The club, the gambling, none of it. If only she hadn't existed, his game never would have began and Anri, Mikado, Shizuo… her friends.
"You're right. By leaving now… it won't change anything."
'I don't want him to forget me.'
"Celty." He sounded so hopeful, a small smile graced the head in her arms.
"So selfish."
The shadows hanging over the city grew, an ominous black hole in the sky. The confusion on his face was endearingly bitter sweet. She chose to remember the way his lips parted as he craned his head up, lips parting ever so slightly. How he stared with wide-eyed childish intrigue. "Good bye, Shinra."
Something changed. He couldn't explain it, but there was a paradigm shift that threw everything off. The growing darkness drew his gaze upward, and it was the moment he couldn't take back. Snapped back to the beast charging at him, arm drawn back. He had no time to do anything but brace and hope, kicking backwards to possibly reduce impact. It sounded like a fireplace, the snapping of twigs in the heat of the flames, popping from the pressure. He felt heat, not pain. He could remember reading to Mairu and Kururi in front of the hearth on winter break. He remembered the smell if the wood, the coolness of the pages, the creak of the book's spine as he turned a page, rarely used anymore since his parents were always away. The twins smelt of their strawberries and cream shampoo. Mairu yawned. Kururi leaned her head against his knee.
Was this shock?
Everything rushed back. The city, the head, the war, the monster.
His back slammed into the asphalt, a crater forming around his broken body. The adrenaline kept the pain from registering too strong, but he could tell his arms were useless. Hanging limply by his side, the forearms shattered, shoulders dislocated. His ribcage and spine took most of the trauma from the landing. They had to be bruised at least. His brain slowly caught back up, still seeing the long shadows cast from the fireplace.
'Move!' It screamed at him. Blinking slowly, digging in, he pushed up with all his might. There were humans here, his humans. Watching him, their god. If this was where he'd die, he would do it in such a way that inspired awe. His left eye twitched in a wince, something hot and thick bubbling up his throat, suffocating him. He spat out the clot, blood staining chapped lips as he tasted iron. It was becoming so hard to breathe.
The monster stalked up to him, preparing the killing blow, unaware that if he were to just sit and wait, the same results would be made. This was the end. He was dying. He couldn't help but smile, goading animal in front of him to strike and strike quickly.
This was it.
His vision grew hazy, but from bloodloss or slowly drowning in his own blood, he couldn't tell.
This was okay.
"It is you." A voice seemingly whispered directly into his ear, carried on the breeze. Shivers ran down his spine as the short hairs along his neck stood on end. He could feel something behind him, but no one else seemed to be able to even see it. "The true victim of my existence. You pulled everyone with you."
Darkness covered the world, not because of the shadow overhead engulfing them, but because he didn't have it in him anymore. His body just couldn't take any more.
Shizuo finally realized that something was not right. He blamed being surrounded by strangeness all his life for why he hadn't noticed sooner. Half the city, no, a third? Maybe more? Bit by bit, his city, the whole world, all of it; vanished.
Shizuo fell.
A/N: Oh god. What am I doing? I've had this idea around for a long time and just never felt worthy of posting it. I love Durarara. I could talk forever about theories and character dissections and analyses on Izaya and Shizuo. One thing that always got to me was after the last novel's release, Celty spends all this extra time with Mikado because, somehow, she figures she ruined his life the most. But seriously, Mikado never would have gotten roped into this if not for Izaya, and if it wasn't for Izaya befriending Shinra in middle school, he never would have become... well, this. Meeting Shinra warped him, or at least that was how I interpreted the scene after Shinra was stabbed. Before that, Izaya was a rather normal kid, especially for his upbringing. I just really wanted to play with that. And screw the fact that Dullahans can't control time. I've seen weirder, so if you could just go along with it... I'd appreciate it.