"Neat thing, this hotel even has an infirmary."
"Heiwajima-san, I can't afford not to take into account new information."
"Yeah…?"
"Did someone hire you to keep me alive?"
Shizuo blinked a few times.
"No one hired me, I've told you that already."
"I thought that someone had hired you to kill me. By Occam's razor it explains much apart of course from the fact that you have not killed me. Yet. However, it flies in the face of what you just did."
"Can't ask you questions if you die on me."
Izaya took a step in his direction.
"That doesn't cut it. No matter how much you may like to throw your silly questions at me there is no rational explanation for risking your life for my sake. Even if you were hired. So what is going on?"
It annoyed Izaya to no end how Shizuo slowly lit up a cigarette and proceeded to blow rings of smoke.
"For the time being, we should stay away from windows. This typhoon is the real deal."
"Forget that! Answer me already!"
Shizuo smoked in silence, aware that with each second Izaya was closer to snap.
"You know, you're all about, how would you put it, 'dismantling human behavior'? Yeah, sounds like something you'd say-"
"Get. To. The. Point."
"'kay, getting to it. Why do people save others from dangers?"
Izaya sighed deeply. He felt uncomfortable in a brand new way that he disliked immensely.
"All sorts of reasons, I don't care for general reasons at the moment. I want to know why you acted the way you did."
Shizuo nodded as if he was pleased.
"Looks like you're beginning to get it. Maybe. But you still haven't answered it."
Izaya counted to ten in his mind. They retreated to a longue screened from the window by a wall. By the time they sat down on a plush sofa of a jarring peach color Izaya was on an encyclopedic mode. Trying to fill up his gap with knowledge with information even if it did not cover it.
"Humans often act apparently selflessly. However, the keyword here is 'apparently'. All those stories of mothers going into burning buildings to rescue their children, that is only apparently a selfless act. In fact they were simply ensuring that their genes got carried by assuring the survival of offspring. This can be broadened to wider circles of interaction so that it goes beyond kin, villagers often act apparently counteractively to their security to rescue other villagers. Ever wondered why such a thing hardly ever happens in big cities?"
"Bet you're going to tell me."
"Indeed I am. The reason why you look the other way if you see some poor bastard being literally kicked to the curb is because you don't need that poor bastard for anything in your life. Imagine he works at the Family Mart you usually go to but that because thugs get to him he ends up dying. How does that affect your life? It doesn't. You won't even notice it. They'll just get someone else to replace him and you'll buy your cigarettes as if some poor bastard had not met some untimely end. In villages there are still some vestigial traces of the times when human groups needed everyone just to get by. If you let the poor bastard that works with you at the fields die in a fire then guess what, your work load will suddenly double."
"Makes sense. Not too sure what that has to do with this."
Izaya glared at him.
"It has everything to do with it. What reasons could you possibly have for risking yourself for my sake?"
Shizuo blinked again.
"You think too much, you know. You're complicating stuff."
Izaya slammed his hands on the low table before him.
"No, I am not. Empathy has developed along the evolutionary process-"
Shizuo tossed away the cigarette when Izaya began to ramble and made sure that he never reached any brilliant conclusion with a kiss.
"You sure take a lot of time to get to the point yourself."
"Don't go kissing me without my permission."
Izaya was aware that he was irrationally upset. That only added to the feeling of being off kilter.
"You're kinda missing the point."
"What point? What do you know that I don't! And how can you know it!"
"How do you know your emotions?"
"Through neurological receptors of chemical reactions in the brain- why am I even answering this!"
"'Cause you got in the habit."