"Fine. I'll bring him down on my own if I have to."
"He's got plenty of enemies as it is."
Mikado got up and made as if to leave but something made him halt.
"How do I defeat him?"
"You don't. You can't."
"He must have some weakness. What about his sisters?"
"Don't go there, kid."
Mikado took a step in his direction.
"I have to fight fire with fire!"
Shizuo seemed to really look at him for the first time.
"You do that and Izaya wins. That's what he does, he brings out the worst in people. There's no bloody way I'll become a bastard like he wants."
Mikado took a deep breath. Alcohol still stung in his mouth.
"Aren't you afraid he'll kill you?"
Shizuo took his time sucking in the smoke and spewing it out into the air.
"Izaya won't do that."
"How do you know?"
"Because I'm 'Shizu-chan'."
Mikado sensed something to this.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Only Izaya knows for sure but I got an idea. Things aren't as simple as you think."
"Perhaps not but I can't just sit and watch my friend ruin his life completely. I can't, I won't, I can't."
"That's why I sympathize with you. But you're going on as if this Kida-kun was some little lamb or some shit. He led one of the most violent gangs in 'bukuro, hell, in the whole country."
"He's still my friend. I've told you this before, don't you have any short-term memory?"
Mikado was aware that he was venting out deep seated frustrations that did not concern Shizuo at all and that this was not a man one should exasperate but he was too angry. Shizuo puffed impassively enough, cigarette tucked between two fingers so that it dangled, a growing bit of ash haloed in fire.
"I know that this city can be bad for you. Everyone's done shit they wished they hadn't. You can't pick and choose, ya gotta take the bad as well as the good. Think you can help him shoulder his sins?"
Mikado was forced to rethink his idea of Heiwajima Shizuo.
"He just needs to turn his back to that."
"You can't pretend that shit didn't happen. The past creeps in on you. Why do you think I'm stuck doing shitty jobs? Cuz I've been fired from all the decent ones. In the adult world you don't just get recession if you fuck up."
Mikado considered this and sat down again.
"Can you give me anything to use against Izaya? Anything at all?"
"I can tell you not to bother with the shit on his computer. Half of it is just made up. The other half needs decoding or encoding or some shit."
"How do you know this?"
Shizuo smirked.
"Izaya told me. And I believe him. Orihara Izaya never lied to me and he never will."
Mikado nodded.
"Anything else?"
"Pay attention to what Izaya says. He's into games. At times he tells his pawns how to escape from the board. By then it's usually too late."
"You mean he might kill me?"
Already Mikado was thinking about how vulnerable he was in his shoddy paper-thin walled apartment. Shizuo downed another glass.
"Nah, too easy. No fun. He won't kill you but you'll end up dead I bet."
"He must have hitmen at his beck and call."
"Sure. But that ain't it."
"What do you mean?"
Mikado was not used to this abrasive way of speaking. There was a ring of honesty to it but Mikado resented it at the same time. He did not make a connection between the two.
"Izaya would get Kida-kun to kill you. So be prepared for that, kid."
Mikado reached for the whiskey glass himself this time around.
Kida crossed the second square on his calendar. Two days into his sex ban and he was already slightly fidgety. At first he could hardly believe how a mere month could have such an impact on him, as every teenage boy he was a riot of ranging hormones but his hand alone had gotten him through many lonely nights. But he was realizing all too clearly that his craving was on a whole different level now. Maybe because he was no longer a virgin, maybe because Izaya just had a way of making himself literally addictive.
Whatever the reasons were the fact remained that Kida was struggling to keep his mind clear amidst the turbulence of lust that clouded it. And the timing could not be worse. Kida did not know how he should 'dispose of' what needed to be disposed of.