It was hate that had brought Izaya back. A feeling gnawing at his insides even as he was leaving this world, keeping him back like a lead weight, demanding things of him and not letting him go. Dying like that, having made the offer to Shizuo but not having followed through with his plan to corrupt him just didn't feel right. As reassured as he'd been by the Dullahan's offer he figured he could take it some other time. When asked, she had told him it would stand as long as he died a natural death.
And so before his middle school self could forget everything and go on with his pitiful little existence forever in the afterlife, he did what felt like forcing himself to live fueled by hate, his eyes shooting open, the machines he was hooked up to blaring off their alarms and the tracheal tube starting to suffocate him. At least that was what he chose to believe in about his health improving so suddenly. He was already used to getting jerked back to life and the sudden onslaught of pain didn't surprise him at all this time around.
His parents stayed by his side until he was taken off the mechanical ventilation in the wee hours of the morning. He was instructed to breathe mostly through the oxygen mask from then on but allowed to speak a little if he needed to. It took just a few appropriately hurtful words to make them leave.
Later in the morning he called Kotonami Nozomi, gave her his location and asked her to visit him. Then he waited for things to run their course, bedridden and too weak to sit up or breathe on his own but still as dangerous as ever.
Kida's insides were twisted with hate. It made up the very core of his being. He had never wanted or planned to end up like that but it was how it was.
He had hated Izaya even before Mikado's death, for obvious reasons, but the fear in Mikado's eyes after he'd pulled the trigger and before he'd died had made it so much worse. There had never been any doubt in Kida's mind about Izaya having manipulated Mikado into taking his own life. That was the kind of thing he did. And Mikado had obviously not died willingly, despite the outward appearance of having chosen to kill himself.
Kida's attempts at revenging him followed, as terrible as they had been unsuccessful, until he had nothing left to live for but hate.
This was the day everything might end, he thought, retrieving the gun from the kitchen cabinet. Thankfully Saki had let it be when she'd found it even though he wouldn't have put it past her to try to get rid of it.
"So, you'll go to the hospital and finish him off." Aoba's voice emanated from Kida's phone's loudspeaker. "You will probably be caught, though. And it's likely a trap considering Izaya himself gave this location to Nozomi-san. Though he's actually there for real. I called to check."
"I don't care what happens to me after it's done." Kida declared while removing the pieces of tape from the gun.
"I would have sent Kuon if he were up to it, really, Kida-senpai, but I can't. He's Saika's child just like me."
"You don't get it, Kuronuma. I will be happy to kill him myself."
"Well, I don't care either way as long as he's dead." Aoba remarked casually. "It's fine by me if you get caught, too."
"I know." Kida admitted. "But if that happens, please take care of Anri."
Aoba snorted over the phone.
"I'm afraid she's not interested." He said.
"You'll be the only one left, though. You have to take care of her for me and Mikado." Kida insisted.
"Well, I'll do my best, Kida-senpai. And good luck, I guess."
"Look at us, Shizu-chan. I didn't get to enjoy you being worse off than me for long." Izaya said before putting the oxygen mask back on.
Shizuo looked fine already. No problems moving around, no trembling, no visible scars. Izaya wondered exasperatedly if it was of any use hurting him at all. And in that moment on the stairs of the Awakusu-kai headquarters, had it been really worth it to let him live?
"Me and Shinra..." Shizuo spoke up. "...We thought you were going to die last night, flea."
"I'm sorry for disappointing you then." Izaya replied cheerfully after taking the mask off again.
"I don't want you to die." Shizuo confessed.
Izaya smiled.
'We'll see about that, Shizu-chan.' He thought to himself, breathing through the mask. 'Sooner than you may expect.'
"You had visitors last night." Shizuo said after a while, though maybe that was something he shouldn't mention at that moment.
"Yes, my parents."
"That yakuza boss came here."
"Shiki-san? I guess Shinra must have let him know. I have been working for him for years. It's heartwarming he showed up. Though I presume you don't like him."
"He kissed you, flea." Shizuo pointed out, his body tensing at the memory.
Izaya started coughing and put on the mask to take several breaths.
"I guess you shouldn't talk so much." Shizuo relented. "I shouldn't bother you."
He headed towards the door.
"Shiki-san was ready to kill you to protect me." Izaya spoke up before he could leave. "You, the strongest man around. And when you didn't die, he let me decide what to do with you. Even if he didn't agree with my choice. Those are the kinds of things you never did for me."
He had to put the mask on at this point but took it back off right away.
"Shizu-chan, stay with me for a bit longer, will you?" He asked before Shizuo could leave. "We'll talk later."
Shizuo hesitated but came back in the end, sat down on the chair by Izaya's bedside and sat there staring at the wall gloomily.
Izaya closed his eyes and seemed to have fallen asleep, breathing through the mask.
Then the door opened and Kida entered the room, retrieved a gun out of his pocket and started shooting right away.
Kuon sat down at the table at his place with Aoba to discuss things.
"Me and Nee-chan, we went to the hospital, too." He said.
Aoba noted how Izaya's knife Kuon had been constantly playing with before was nowhere to be seen.
"I thought whatever might happen, I wanted to see it with my own eyes, maybe get some photos for the website, too." Kuon continued. "And Nozomi left her room to go, so you realize how important it was for her. And look." He said before showing his phone to Aoba.
In a video, a man in a bartender suit jumped out of a third floor window of the hospital, dragging another person behind him. He disappeared from view among the parked cars and the video ended.
"Then we found him, you know." Kuon said. "Kida-senpai's dead. Do you want to see the photos?"
