So right off the bat, I just wanted to let you guys know that I am terrible at writing fight scenes as I had to include parts of the final episode from Maou into this chapter so please bear with me. Not everything is the same though and I hope it's okay!

Also I forgot to note in the previous chapter, but everything in italics are the character's thoughts (in case you haven't picked it up already)

This chapter is much longer than the first one, hope you enjoy it! Once again, comments and reviews are appreciated!

Chapter 2: Unintended

Away from the lone light that illuminated the large storage space, Serizawa stood in darkness as he waited for Naruse's arrival, fidgeting with the hand gun in his pocket. I can do this!

Upon hearing footsteps, he slowly turned toward the sound as Naruse emerged from the shadows and settled right under the light. Serizawa approached the man with apprehension and stood directly in front of him in the spotlight, the final showdown was about to begin.

As Naruse stared into Serizawa's eyes, he saw a fire there that was not previously present, a mixture of emotions were plastered on the young detectives face as he stared back at the lawyer with equal intensity. Anger, hatred, despair, but most importantly despair were evident in Serizawa's features. The engulfing sadness that radiated from his body was one that overpowered all other emotions. Sadness from losing his family and friends, sadness from not being able to save them, sadness from killing Hideo, and sadness that things had to end this way. Naruse didn't even flinch as Serizawa pulled out a gun and aimed it straight at him.

"You caused the death of so many people…even my father and older brother," Serizawa said as tears welled in his eyes.

Naruse was stunned to hear that Serizawa's father had died too and suddenly, at that revelation, he began to realize all the similarities that he and Serizawa shared. They both lived in pain, were alone in the world, worked hard to bury their past, and now they both no longer had any friends or family.

Looking at him now, Naruse noticed that the once energetic and spirited detective was now tired and disheartened. His eyes were red from crying and his appearance was ragged from all the sleepless nights.

His desire to die increased swiftly as he realized just how much he had destroyed Serizawa's life. In the beginning he wanted nothing more than for the detective to feel all the pain in the world, but now, looking at the broken man in front of him, Naruse wondered why in the world he had wanted to bestow his cursed fate onto somebody else. I caused too much damage. If I die now we can both move on. So the lawyer waited patiently for the inevitable and calmly stared down the barrel of the gun as Serizawa struggled with pulling the trigger.

This is what I wanted, this is how I can avenge my friends and family, Serizawa thought as he aimed the gun to Naruse's chest. His hatred and anger had blinded him into taking the gun, calling Naruse, and meeting up with him here, but now that he'd somewhat composed his emotions, he was having second thoughts. His conscience was readily telling him that this was wrong and that killing is never the way to solve problems but he just could not free himself from the all-consuming guilt and hatred that he felt at the moment towards Naruse. It seemed so easy, a pull of the trigger and all his problems will vanish, but is this the way things had to end? He hated Naruse, but does that give him the right to take his life? Doesn't that make me the same as Naruse? As he thought through these questions, Naruse was getting impatient and anxious. He feared that if Serizawa continued his internal debate for much longer, he will die of blood loss before getting shot, so he made a move.

Naruse reminded Serizawa of all that he has done. How he manipulated to have all of his friends killed, caused the death of his older brother by exposing his wife's affair, which lead to his father dying of a broken heart. He also informed him that justice cannot be served as he left no trace behind to tie the murders to him.

"Why won't you shoot me? Don't you hate me? I caused all of your loved ones to die! Just shoot me!" Naruse yelled.

As Naruse hollered at him, something within Serizawa clicked. "All along, that was your plan? You wanted me to kill you. If I killed you, I will finally get my deserved sentence for murder, something that I should have gotten years ago! All of this, all the deaths and now risking your own life was because you wanted me to get the punishment I should have gotten for killing Hideo?" Serizawa exclaimed, finally able to figure out the truth behind the entire plot.

"I no longer have anything to lose," Naruse answered. "With the death of Hideo and my mother, I lost myself and became somebody else. I was fuelled by anger and hatred and lived only to seek revenge," he continued as he began to walk towards Serizawa. "This is the end, the end to my plan, my pain. With this I can find peace and become myself again."

"Chief is seems that Serizawa has taken a loaded gun," Shiori heard a man say in the background.

"He isn't planning on meeting Naruse is?" she heard a woman say frantically.

Shiori's heart stopped at the suggestion and before she heard the end of the police's conversation, she snapped her phone shut and dashed out the doors of the café.

I have to stop them before it was too late, before one of them, or worse both of them, gets hurt!

She knew exactly where they were meeting to finish it, back to the place where it all began, Hideo's school. Although it was pretty far from the coffee shop, Shiori ran as fast as she could as if her life depended. She knew that the normalcy and happiness in her life was largely influenced by one man who was currently in danger, so in more than one way, her life did depend on it. She hoped and prayed that she will make it there in time.

Naruse inched closer and closer to Serizawa with every word and now he was standing directly in front of him. As Serizawa began to lower his gun, Naruse grabbed it and tried to get him to pull the trigger while Serizawa tried to stop his rash actions and get the gun back. As the two men wrestled each other for the gun, they did not hear the sound of footsteps hastily coming towards them. Before they knew it, Shiori appeared and also started to struggle for the gun, presuming that Serizawa was trying to kill Naruse and Naruse was trying to defend himself. The two men were shocked at her appearance, but both did not loosen their grips.

"Stop it! Why are you guys trying to kill each other?!" Shiori yelled, tears flowing rapidly down her cheeks.

Naruse stared at the young girl beside him and felt his heart clench at her tears. It's because of me that she's crying. I am the one who's causing her so much pain, Naruse thought, making him struggle harder for the gun.

Finally, amidst the tangling of limbs, and pushing and shoving from the other two, Naruse's finger came into contact with the trigger. Without a moment to loose, he firmly planted his finger on the trigger and began to squeeze it. Serizawa, realizing what Naruse wanted to do, tried to knock the gun out of the lawyer's hands as he jerked it to the side, but it was too late.

BANG!

The single gunshot rang through the night. Naruse closed his eyes, knowing that his pain will soon end and that peace will finally be found. But seconds later he knew that something was wrong. He didn't feel the excruciating pain he expected from being shot. A soft moan caused him to open his eyes and to his horror, he saw Shiori begin drop to the floor. He reached out and caught her before she hit the ground and saw blood flowing rapidly from her abdomen.

"Shiori-san!" he yelled.

She shouldn't have gotten hurt! Guilt and disgust overwhelmed him for hurting the one he loved, the one he once vowed to never cause pain to again. No! No! No! This shouldn't have happened! What have I done?!

He was so overcome in his own thoughts and despair that when he didn't realize Shiori was moving until her hand suddenly touched his cheek lightly, effectively bringing him back from his trance.

He looked down at Shiori, tears threatening to fall from his eyes. "Please, it is not your fault. Do not blame yourself," Shiori whispered as she saw the guilt, self-loathing, and sadness flash in his eyes. "Please stop this and come back to the light."

Naruse's heart broke upon hearing her words. Still, even after getting shot, she was still trying to stop him from destroying himself, still cared for him. He held the hand that was currently touching his face and tried to say something to her, anything to her. But words just couldn't form as he took in her condition. The warm, delicate hands that once held his in the church were replaced with cold, clammy ones, the pinkness in her cheeks was fading by the second, and she seemed tired as her eyes began to droop. A frightening amount of blood of pooling underneath her and Naruse felt his heart accerlate as adrenaline and fear coursed through him. She cannot die!

He vaguely heard Serizawa calling the ambulance in the background and felt him touch his shoulder to reassure him that help was on the way, but Naruse didn't register any of that. All he could see was the girl he loved, in pain and slowly wasting away. Finally Naruse seemed to have found his words.

"Shiori-san, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I was planning to end my own life to bring you peace. I didn't want to see you so sad anymore, didn't want you to cry anymore," his words came out as whispers but her smile told him that she heard every word. "Please don't die, you can't die," he begged her.

He tried to whisper comforting words to her but most of it came out as sobs. He felt as if he was drowning in his own tears and had to take deep breaths to avoid passing out. Never had he experienced so much despair ever since his family's death, the feeling was new to him, threatening to consume his entire being. He was always able to keep his feelings in check and over the years, was able to control them so that they never reached such a heightened degree. But as he saw Shiori getting paler by the second, all the walls that he built around his heart suddenly came crashing down.

"Naruse-san"

Naruse's breath hitched when she said his name and he tried to wipe away the tears so he could see her clearly.

"You are a good person. I believe that there is good in you. Please stop all of this; it's not too late to turn back. Please love yourself and let others love you," she whispered, her voice getting softer and softer.

Suddenly, the hand that held his face dropped, Naruse not being able to catch it in time as it hit the ground. "Shiori-san!" Naruse yelled. No response.

"Shiori-san, please wake up!" he tried again, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. "Please don't die, please, not you too. If you die too, there will honestly be nothing left for me in this world! Please open your eyes!" Naruse cried as he hugged her close to his chest, willing her to hear him. Please don't leave me, I can't lose you! he wished desperately.

Naruse was so focused on Shiori, that he did not notice the approach of the paramedics. When they tried to take her away from him and onto the stretcher, Naruse violently pushed their hands away in fear of her leaving his sight. "Stay away from her! Don't touch her!" he shouted. Serizawa came up behind him and told that it was okay and that they were going to save her, as he gently held Naruse back.

The time spent in the ambulance, not knowing whether or not Shiori would make it, was definitely one of the worse times in Naruse's life. IV lines were attached to her arm as they placed an oxygen mask over her face. Lots of gauze, towels and other supplies that Naurse had never seen before were being pressed against her wound to help prevent too much blood loss. During the entire ride, Naruse never let go of Shiori's hand, begging her to survive this. Serizawa held her other hand, also willing her to make it through this and silently promising not to hunt Naruse if she lives.

Sitting there holding the hand of the girl he had a crush on, yet also being the one to have hurt her, Serizawa, like Naruse, was overwhelmed with guilt. He began to reminisce about the times when he would go to her for help, how she did not judge him after he admitted to his crimes years ago, and how she always smiled and encouraged him whenever he felt like giving up.

If I didn't jerk the gun away, she wouldn't have gotten into the line of firing. If I didn't bring a gun in the first place, this wouldn't have happened. If I had just confessed to my crimes years ago, everybody I loved would still be here! This is all my fault!

Serizawa sneaked a looked at the man who was sitting beside him. Never had he seen so much emotion in Naruse's eyes. He was one who calculated and planned his every move, one who was always a head of the game and in control, but now in a situation where things were no longer in his control, the result no longer in his hands, he looked lost and for the first time since they met, his humanity shone through the mask he has spent years building. He suddenly looked so vulnerable and Serizawa began to feel pity for the man who has known nothing but remorse and hatred for more than half his life. At that moment Serizawa wondered if he can actually forgive Naruse and seek his forgiveness in return.