Shizuo was out back, smoking before the start of the shift. Ever since the rumors of Izaya having come back to Ikebukuro had reached him, his nerves had been on the edge, more so than usual. Something terrible had since gone down at Raira Academy, his very own former school, and one of the Orihara sisters had been killed by an assailant who thankfully had been apprehended by the police.
First Vorona, then Anri, then Orihara Kururi.
Shizuo crushed the cigarette in his hand without even realizing what he was doing.
"Shizuo-kun." Tom joined him. "Still moping around?" He sighed, noting Shizuo's solemn expression.
"Are there any news?" Shizuo asked, dropping the remnants of the cigarette to the ground.
"No, no news. And even if Orihara did show up, he deserves a pass from you for now. His sister has just passed away. Please respect that." Tom said seriously. "Let it go for now. Actually the news is that your new kouhai will be here today."
"Do you really think it's a good idea to have one again after what happened to Vorona, Tom-san?"
"That was not on the job." Tom pointed out. "Vorona's fine now, too. Her injury might have looked dramatic but her recovery was good. I would have accepted her back, too, but since she chose to move away…" He shrugged. "But I guess if you miss her so badly, Shizuo-kun, maybe you should follow her."
"It's not like that." Shizuo grumbled.
"Hello." The new hire joined them, flashing a smile.
Despite the smile he looked as if he'd been through a lot recently.
"Hello." Tom answered, prepared to make the introduction.
"Did you really hire that street gang punk, Tom-san?" Shizuo interrupted him.
"Well, Shizuo-kun, this is a bit of a shady business." Tom pointed out. "No university graduates were applying this time around."
"Heiwajima-san, I hope our differences are now sorted out after the last time." The new hire bowed politely.
Indeed, Shizuo had already taught him manners once.
"What's your name again?" He asked, looking at him suspiciously.
"Kida Masaomi." The boy introduced himself. "I won't lie to you. I was the leader of the Yellow Scarves and I did not stop my people from attacking you last year, Heiwajima-san. I also used to work for Orihara-san. But if you accept me despite that, I promise I'll work hard."
"He actually reminds me of you back when you were his age, Shizuo-kun." Tom commented.
"Isn't there a rumour around that you killed the leader of the Dollars?" Shizuo demanded.
Kida flinched.
"I did not kill Mikado-kun." He answered. "But I was there when he killed himself." He confessed. "For me, he was not just the leader of the Dollars. We were best friends."
"If you're telling the truth then who is spreading these kinds of rumors?" Shizuo wondered. "The Yellow Scarves are still around, too. There was a huge fight in front of the Raira Academy recently. Were you there?" He demanded.
Kida nodded.
"I have since left the gang and I'd love to work with you." He said solemnly. "Please give me a chance."
"It'd be nothing but trouble to involve ourselves with gang members, Tom-san." Shizuo warned.
"It's all right, Kida-kun." Tom addressed Kida assuredly. "I'm sure Shizuo-kun will come around."
Izaya unlocked the door to the place that he had rented in a high rise building in Minato Mirai in Yokohama and held it open to let Mairu in.
They had just attended Kururi's funeral but instead of going home or to the hotel with their parents, Mairu insisted on coming here with him.
For whatever reason she was in her trademark school uniform, apparently having decided it had been the right attire to wear to her own sister's funeral.
"What do you want?" Izaya asked, heading towards his desk.
A wheelchair was standing behind it.
Once he reached the desk he turned around to face Mairu and leaned back against it for support.
The two of them hadn't talked since Kururi's death and that suited Izaya just fine. Mairu, who looked just like the sister whom he'd murdered, was not someone he wished to interact with.
"I want to know if Kuru-nee died because of you, Iza-nii?" Mairu demanded. "Had that man who was caught for it killed her because of something you'd done?"
"I won't tell you that." Izaya shrugged. "Didn't I warn you, though? But no, you two preferred to believe that you were invincible."
"We could have handled it if only we were not separated." Mairu insisted. "What I regret the most is that I didn't help her or died trying. Now I'm missing half a person." Tears welled up in her eyes.
"You should leave this place." Izaya said. "Go live with our parents."
He wanted her to just be gone.
What happened with Kururi was not necessarily what he might have planned but he'd had no choice. Either he shot her or he died, not for the first time, and certainly not the last. Mikado would have kept him dying as many times as was necessary for him to come around, not out of malice anymore, but simply in his quest for getting free.
Izaya hoped Kururi could have survived when he'd pulled the trigger but once he'd realized he'd shot her in the stomach he'd known with terrible certainty that he had actually killed her.
In the cruel twist of fate the first person that he'd ended up murdering turned out to be his own little sister that he had never even wanted to die.
Izaya had never had any qualms about facing up to being a despicable person but after killing Kururi he felt like he'd crossed several lines he'd never meant to as much as get close to.
Mairu started walking towards him, wiping the tears off her face with her sleeve.
"I can't leave." She shook her head. "Because now that you're all I have left, Iza-nii, I can't leave you."
She came close to him and climbed to her toes to press a desperate kiss up to his lips. She tasted salty from the tears.
A dreadful weight lodged itself in Izaya's stomach as he pushed her away as if she burned and forcibly kept her at arm's length.
"You have to take care of me now." Mairu struggled in his grasp. "We need to be together like me and Kuru-nee used to be now that she's no longer here."
This was the reason Izaya didn't like interacting with his sisters. They were disturbed in incomprehensible ways. Losing Kururi had apparently only made it worse for Mairu.
"Why not?" She demanded. "If you don't want me I will kill myself. Because there's no point in living otherwise as half a person. I need someone to fill the void."
"I'm not the only man in the world." Izaya said calmly.
"You don't understand. You're the only one who can complete me." She insisted. "I mean it, Iza-nii, I will kill myself if we can't be together."
"Kururi wouldn't want you to die."
"And how do you know that?" She asked. "Maybe she's waiting for me somewhere now. Shouldn't you convince me to go through with it already and really kill myself now? Isn't that what you do?!" Mairu demanded angrily, offended by his rejection.
"I'm taking you to the hotel now." He said, holding her still.
Their parents or preferably a good shrink were certainly better equipped to deal with her meltdown than him.
She hit him where it hurt the most, in the site of his stab wound, and while he curled up in pain, she overpowered the hold of his weakened hands on her.
Then she walked up to the window, opened it wide and climbed up onto the windowsill. It was raining outside.
Izaya's penchant for high places had been in full force when he had rented this particular flat. The whole city was seemingly down at her feet and the sea stretched out into the distance.
"I should have jumped out of the window the day Kuru-nee got hurt and Aoba-kun locked me in the classroom so I couldn't go help her." She turned around to face him. "Don't come any closer, Iza-nii." She warned as he started approaching. "He got to be by her side when she died, too. But I don't blame him. I only blame my own cowardice. Because I should have just jumped..."
Izaya leapt to the window as she let herself fall backwards but he was too late to stop her.
This was hardly the first time he witnessed someone jumping to their death.
But it was different than before because for once he was not merely mildly interested. He actually cared.
