A/N: Thanks for the reviews.

It was not like Kida hadn't expected things to end like this. Having been stopped by Shizuo once from finishing Izaya off, he had since assumed he might face him again. He just hoped it could be after Izaya was already dead. No such luck though.

Shizuo was bleeding from seven wounds in his arm and side where he had taken the bullets for Izaya but the rage propelled him forward anyway as always.

He had grabbed Kida, used his body to shatter the glass and left the hospital room through the third floor window, his injuries from the explosion radiating with pain when he landed on the ground with Kida in his grasp, not fully healed yet despite the outward appearance.

Once down in the parking lot he threw Kida to the ground, having grabbed the gun out of his hand first.

"I won't stop, Heiwajima-san. Not for as long as I'm alive." Kida declared, picking himself up, bleeding onto the ground from where the breaking glass had injured him.

Shizuo smashed the gun in his palm.

"How did you know where to find Izaya?" He asked, suspecting what the answer might be and dreading it all the same.

"He called a girl I know that he once ensnared and gave her his location." Kida answered.

Shizuo looked down to his bleeding arm and side. Izaya had apparently arranged for this to happen. He was testing his loyalty, Shizuo realized, going so far as to risk his own life to do that.

Shizuo was aware why Izaya might have thought it was necessary after what he'd done the last time around but he didn't like where it was going one bit.

His eyes landed on Kida. The fact that he had shown up at a hospital with a gun to murder a bedridden man wasn't admirable either.

There were so many reasons to be angry. Kida having shot him, Izaya manipulating him, that guy from the yakuza, everything generally going to shit and he let that rage guide him when he picked Kida up off the ground.

"Think whom you're siding with, Heiwajima-san." Kida said softly, looking him in the eye.

It was too late for thinking though. This was the result of not thinking clearly for years. And madness was not something anyone could just walk away from.

"I need to go see Izaya-san." Nozomi insisted even as Kuon dragged her across the parking lot to the place where Heiwajima Shizuo seemed to have landed when he'd jumped out of the window.

"I need to see what's happened there, Nee-chan."

Kuon continued dragging her, refraining from pointing out how seeing Izaya was probably no longer possible, what with the police cars arriving in front of the hospital.

Shizuo was no longer around when they reached the place, Kida's body lying there in a puddle of blood with wide open unseeing eyes.

"It's Kida-kun, isn't it?" Nozomi asked right away upon spotting it, even though she had not seen Kida in four years.

"Don't come any closer." Kuon stopped her. "It will be a crime scene once they find him."

He snapped some photos with his phone from where they were standing.

"We should get help." She said.

"It would just land us in trouble. It's too late for him either way. Let's get out of here."

They went back to the front of the hospital but the policemen there didn't let them inside.

The sight of Kida's dead body stayed etched behind Kuon's eyelids but he was never going to admit that to anyone. The gruesome photos in his phone were nothing more than stuff to put on the Internet. At least that was what he was trying to convince himself of.

Once stopped in her journey to see Izaya, Nozomi started deteriorating instantly. She slid to the ground against the wall of the hospital and hugged her knees, whispering something to herself.

"Nee-chan." Kuon kneeled down by her side. "Call Izaya-san."

"You think I can call him?" She asked as if that would have been some kind of a transgression.

"He told you to come here, didn't he?" Kuon reasoned. "So you can call him. Put it on loudspeaker."

Someone did pick up the phone when she called Izaya's number.

"Izaya-san?" Nozomi asked hesitantly.

"Yes? I'm afraid you can't come visit me at this time." The voice sounded quite cheerful and alive. "There was a shooting at the hospital. I think I will move elsewhere now to recuperate in peace. So, see you some other time, Nozomi-chan. Who's with you by the way?"

"My brother." She answered right away.

"Hello, Kuon-kun."

"Hello, Izaya-san. It's nice to finally talk to you, even if it's only on the phone." Kuon answered without missing a beat.

"Likewise. Say hi to Kuronuma-kun for me."

"Of course."

"See you two around."

With that, Izaya ended the call.

Nozomi hugged her phone to her chest as if it had become treasured by virtue of Izaya talking to them on it before slipping back into her near-catatonic state, unable to process so much happenings all at once after months of isolation.

Kuon called a taxi and escorted Nozomi back to their apartment and to her room, wondering exasperatedly when she might next emerge once he closed the door behind her.

Then Aoba came over.

"So Heiwajima killed Kida-senpai." He reasoned after looking at the photos of Kida's body on Kuon's phone, thinking how it served him right for what he had done to Kururi and not letting himself think anything else. "So it's true Heiwajima's on Orihara's side now. I wasn't sure before if these were just rumors or how much truth there was to it. Kida knew something but refused to talk about it. But this proves it without a doubt."

"Do we let the police know that he did it?" Kuon asked.

"Of course. Just like we let everyone else on the Internet know. We just don't mention Izaya. That might actually solve the problem with Heiwajima, so take care of it now, Kuon. I need to go." Aoba said before standing up. "There's a gang without a leader around."

"You taking over the Yellow Scarves would be a bit too much though, don't you think, senpai?"

"We'll see about that." Aoba declared before leaving.

Kuon noted how Aoba hadn't smiled even once since he'd heard about Kida's death.

Kine smoked after having dug out the hole. He wasn't so young anymore as for this kind of thing to be effortless for him, he thought, looking around the remote area of the forest he had driven to.

Smoking was not going to help with the shortness of his breath but at least it calmed his nerves.

Once he was through two cigarettes he hid the butts, put on plastic gloves, walked up to the car, opened the trunk and retrieved the body, dragging it out holding it under its shoulders.

It should have been a two-man job but summoned on such short notice, he was forced to do it all alone.

He moved the body towards the hole in the ground and pushed it down there, only realizing that its eyes were still open once it had fallen on its back. He had meant to close them but had forgotten about it and it was too late for that now.

He reached for the shovel with a sigh and started burying it. Then he smoked again.

'It's done.' He sent a message to Izaya before getting back in the car and driving away.