YOUR GUESSES ABOUT WHO IT WAS WERE WRONG. (Except Immi. She got it.) XD I'm sorry, but I have to throw this loser in here a bit more. It'll only happen one more time. :P

…~-~…

"So what the hell is this guy's name again?" Shizuo asked as the pair approached Izaya's apartment building.

"Tsukumoya Shinichi." Izaya stated, "He's one of my most reliable sources. If anyone can find information on something like Saika, it'd be him."

Cautiously, they made their way up to the apartment, prepared to fight just in case Saika was still there, waiting.

However, when they opened the door, the place was completely still. There was no sign of Saika whatsoever other than what was left over from their fight.

Izaya headed directly over to the computer, turned it on, and logged in to the familiar chatroom.

Orihara Izaya, reborn!

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Hm. That's strange.

Orihara Izaya
What?

Tsukumoya Shinichi
I just got a tip saying you were spotted heading for Saitama, but you entered the chat from your home computer…

Orihara Izaya
Saitama? When?

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Two hours and twenty-three minutes ago.

Orihara Izaya
That's good to know. Thanks. But I have something else I need to ask you about.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
I must say I'm curious about this. Because if you're somehow multiplying, that could prove to be a problem that I wouldn't know how to handle. One of you is bad enough.

Orihara Izaya
Listen to me for a moment, Tsukumoya. This is very important.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Alright, what is it?

Orihara Izaya
I need you to look into a demon known as "Saika".

Tsukumoya Shinichi
"Saika"? Since when have you been interested in anything other than humans?

Orihara Izaya
I don't have time to explain everything, okay? Just hurry up and tell me if you can figure out how to kill it.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Kill it? Orihara, is everything okay with you? If I didn't know any better I'd think someone hacked into your system.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
But alas, I'm the only one who'd ever be able to do that, am I right? ;)

Orihara Izaya
Would you just stop messing around and tell me what I need to know?

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Temper, temper! I may as well be talking to Shizuo right now!

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Ah, so he is there, isn't he?

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Hello there, Shizuo-san! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tsukumoya Shinichi. Of course, if Orihara had any manners, he would have introduced us properly when this conversation started, but I guess he's just hopeless.

Orihara Izaya
Tsukumoya! I don't have time for this! Just start looking!

Tsukumoya Shinichi
I am! It's called "multi-tasking". I'm sure you're familiar with the term.

Orihara Izaya
Are you finding anything?

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Not necessarily on Saika in general. All I'm seeing is that it supposedly loves humans, and shows its love by hurting them.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Hm. I bet you two would get along just fine.

Orihara Izaya
That's where you're mistaken.

Orihara Izaya
Keep looking.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Hm… I'm not finding anything directly on how to kill Saika specifically, but I did find something that might be useful.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Saika seems to be categorized as a parasitic type entity, using a host to survive and become stronger. Once it's strong enough, it can separate completely from the host's body and create its own. Does this sound like what you're looking for?

Orihara Izaya
Yes. Very much so. What else can you tell me.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Apparently, the only way to injure it would be to use a weapon covered its hosts' blood. But even then, it wouldn't die completely. If it were to get too weak, it could just enter another body and repeat the cycle.

Orihara Izaya
And how might one prevent that from happening?

Tsukumoya Shinichi
You've really got me curious as to why you need this information, Orihara.

Orihara Izaya
Just hurry up and tell me what my options are.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
I can't tell you for sure if this particular method would work on something like Saika, but in theory, if the demon is weakened, it can re-enter the original hosts' body, and since it's already been separated, it won't fuse with the person immediately. There's a window of approximately three minutes in which a weakened demon's soul can be channeled into an object, and forced to fuse to the object rather than a human. When this happens—in theory, mind you—the object would then literally become the demon; thus, breaking the object would kill it.

Orihara Izaya
Is there anything else you could find?

Tsukumoya Shinichi
No. That's it unless you want to try a good old-fashioned exorcism.

Orihara Izaya
I doubt that would help at all.

Orihara Izaya
But thank you, Tsukumoya. You may have just saved my life.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
In that case, is it too late to take back the information I gave you?

Orihara Izaya confirmed dead!

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Ahh, the cold shoulder. I see how it is.

Tsukumoya Shinichi
Good luck, Orihara.

…~-~…

"What the hell's with him?" Shizuo asked.

"Don't know. I barely know anything about the guy." Izaya said, immediately opening the top drawer on his desk and searching through a few documents.

"Thought so…" Izaya muttered to himself, looking back at Shizuo, "Saika took my credit card, some cash and a fake ID that I keep in here."

"I wonder if it took anything else… I mean, it would know where you keep everything, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I really have anything it might want. It's not like I own anything that would make it stronger, so why would it—SHIT!"

In that moment, Izaya had shifted his gaze momentarily towards the bookshelf just long enough to notice that something was off.

Leaping over his desk, Izaya began pulling books off the shelf, shoving them haphazardly to the ground.

It wasn't there.

The head.

Celty's head was missing.

"What's wrong? What's missing?" Shizuo asked.

Izaya hit his head against the edge of the shelf, cursing his own stupidity for not thinking to have grabbed it before he left. Who knows what the hell Saika planned to do with it, but whatever it was, it couldn't be anything good. He slowly sank to the floor, mind a mess as he tried to sort out ever new piece of information he'd learned tonight.

"Izaya…?"

"I… Celty's head." he began, looking at Shizuo who had knelt on the floor next to him, "Saika took her head."

Shizuo's stare was blank for a moment as he put the pieces together. "You… You had her head…?"

"For a few months, yeah… Are you mad…?"

His eyes closed as a hand ran through blonde hair. "Am I—? Of course I'm mad! Why shouldn't I be?! How the hell did you even get it anyway?!"

"Namie." Izaya responded quickly, "She ran Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, and they had been doing research on it. When her company was taken over by Nebula, she came to work for me, and gave me the head for safe keeping."

"And you've just been keeping it here? Why wouldn't you tell Celty? She's been so worried sick about it!"

"Because if I told her, Shinra would get mad at me! And he's the only real friend I have!" Izaya admitted, "And until Saika got out, it was perfectly safe with me, so how about we stop arguing and go find it before Saika does something to her!"

"Why do you think it took her head with it?" Shizuo asked, calming down a bit.

"I'm not sure. Saika never liked Celty. Whenever it saw her or the head, all it did was mutter to itself about how she's not human. Whatever Saika has in mind for the head, it won't end well for Celty unless we hurry."

"Fine," Shizuo agreed, offering his hand to help Izaya up, "Get whatever you need to get and let's go."

…~-~…

They hadn't said much to each other since deciding to leave, catching the next train to Saitama. Neither of them knew what might be waiting for them when they arrived, but Izaya had prepared himself. He'd grabbed a couple of knives, strategically placing them on his person so that he would be able to reach one at all times.

Also, he'd grabbed a glass bottle, so that he might be able to use it to trap Saika. The easier the object was to break, the better he'd guessed. The bottle was strong enough to hold up on its own for a while, but he'd still be able to smash it as soon as he could trap Saika.

He could only hope that what Tsukumoya said would work, and that he wouldn't be going into this fight blind.

After nearly twenty minutes, the train came to a stop at the station. Not even ten seconds after the train had stopped, Izaya could feel that all too familiar presence of Saika. And from the way Shizuo's hand tightened on his shoulder, apparently he felt it too.

But they weren't the only ones.

Shizuo was practically immune to Saika's influence. That was a fact. Izaya was simply used to the feeling of suppressing it.

But the passengers on the train weren't so lucky.

Within seconds, about fifteen passengers' eyes began to glow red, all turning towards Shizuo and Izaya.

"You took much longer to find me than I thought you would, Izaya." one man said, taking a few steps towards the pair, "Isn't this great? I don't even have to cut them for them to listen to me."

"You're still as cowardly as ever," Izaya retorted, "Using other people as your messengers. Show yourself!"

"In due time. That's half the fun, isn't it? Come find me. That is, assuming you survive long enough."

…~-~…

I'd always wondered what Shizuo would do if he found out Izaya had Celty's head… I probably would have gone further into it in this chapter if I hadn't been so hell bent on getting to this part…

Are you all ready? This is the start of the final battle between Izaya and Saika. LET IT BEGIN.