"Damn it, which fucking one is it?!" Shizuo smashed his fist against the wall of the house they had just finished checking, bits and pieces of the porch ceiling falling on his head as the entire building shook violently from the impact. He was so frustrated that he wanted to cry; it felt like they'd been searching this goddamn neighborhood for hours now, but none of the homes they'd investigated so far had any sign of the two men they were trying to find - and nobody that lived in the area remembered seeing anything suspicious within the last 24 hours. It was starting to feel hopeless.
"There are only a few homes left on this block. If we don't find him in one of those, it's likely that we won't find him at all... at least, not in time to stop Hiro from - well, you know." Shinra did not consider himself a squeamish person (in his profession, you couldn't be), but even he didn't enjoy thinking about what Hiro was planning to do... besides, he didn't think Shizuo was in a mental place where just hearing the word wouldn't send him into a frenzy.
"So what the fuck are we supposed to do, huh?" Shizuo demanded, his entire body shaking from a mix of rage and panic. He couldn't stop obsessing over the "what if's" of the situation: what if they were too late? What if, by the time they got there, that sick fuck had already had his way and then some? What if this wasn't even the right area? What if this was just a distraction, a trick meant to keep them busy while Hiro engaged in his sadistic fucking fantasies?
He felt like he was going to be sick.
"For now, we keep looking. If he is in one of these houses, there's no way we won't find him."
Despite how calm Shinra seemed, Celty could tell that Shizuo wasn't the only one he was hoping to reassure. He liked to pretend that he didn't care about anyone but her, but she knew better... other than her, his friends were the closest thing he had to family (well, there was also his father - but their relationship was rocky at best). Besides, only a complete and utter sociopath could look at this situation and think it was anything other than absolutely horrifying... she didn't even like Izaya, but she was still more scared for him than she had ever been for herself. There was an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach... an uncomfortable, yet strangely familiar feeling that pulled at her like a magnet, drawing her attention to a house at the very end of the block. She started to walk towards it, the feeling growing stronger and stronger with each step; when she finally realized what it might be, she wasted no time in hopping onto Shooter and driving up besides the two men. [Get on, now!]
Neither of them even bothered to ask why, Shinra climbing into Shooter's sidecar so that Shizuo could have the other actual seat. As much as he would have loved to have an excuse to wrap his arms around the love of his life and hold on tight (especially right now, when he couldn't stop thinking about how he'd feel if he were in Shizuo's shoes), the sidecar was awkward to get in and out of and he doubted Shizuo had the patience (or time, for that matter) to deal with that at the moment.
As soon as both Shinra and Shizuo were ready, Celty revved her steed's eerily silent engine and took off speeding in the direction of the corner house. She didn't even stop when they were a second away from crashing into the front door, instead using her scythe to slice through it like paper. While Shizuo didn't seem at all perturbed by the almost-collision, Shinra was very glad that his bladder had already been empty. It wasn't until they'd reached the kitchen that Celty finally came to a halt, immediately jumping off of the bike so she could start searching for a way to get down to the basement. Realizing that the feeling seemed to be strongest near a closed door at the very back of the house, she opened it to find a set of stairs leading down to yet another closed door.
He's definitely down there...
She was about to inform them of that when Shizuo pushed past her, not needing to be told to know what she was going to say. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he grabbed hold of the doorknob and used it to yank the whole entire thing off of its hinges... only to be greeted by the sight of an incredibly surprised Hiro on top of a naked, unconscious Izaya. The shocked man didn't even have enough time to scream before Shizuo could grab his head and bash it against the hard floor, red clouding his vision as he channeled all of his fury into his fists and began to punch the disgusting bastard over and over and over again until there was nothing left that even slightly resembled a human being.
Die, die, die, die, die!
When Shinra was finally close enough to see through the open doorway, it took him a second to process the scene before him. It looked like something out of a horror movie... the entire room had been splattered in a bloody, pulpy mess that Shinra was fairly certain used to be Hiro, a shaking Shizuo kneeling in the middle of it with angry tears streaming down his cheeks. A few feet away laid Izaya, who had been stripped bare and covered in nasty bruises, vicious bite wounds, and various bodily fluids; Shinra had to force himself to move, rushing over to him so he could check his pulse. "Oh, thank god." He breathed - it was weak, but it was still there.
[Shinra, we need to hurry.] Celty told him. Izaya was on borrowed time; it was only by sheer instinct that she'd managed to "freeze" him before he could slip, her lack of memories (thankfully) doing nothing to hinder her magical capabilities.
"Believe me, I'm aware." Shinra informed her, his hands trembling as he opened up his medical bag and dug through it for his suture kit, a box of alcohol wipes, and a package of hospital-grade bandages. In all his years as an underground doctor, he'd never encountered a single situation even a tenth as disturbing as the one he was in right now.
Please, please, please let me be able to make a difference...
Pulling on a pair of surgical gloves, he took a deep breath and got to work doing everything he could to keep his friend alive.
