"Hah, so this is the hospital, is it?" Izaya asked, spreading his arms in feigned comfort as they entered the front doors. "You say the female players are kept here, too? Are they kept in hospital beds, or in the morgue?"

Kaneki sighed, and Izaya's smile spread. "This hospital is a definite hotspot." He crossed his arms, looking at the informant pointedly. "Not only are the female players here, but also an items pillar…"

"Oh? Where's that?"

"The second floor."

"At some point, might I take a look at that?"

Kaneki nodded and began to walk. Izaya followed. "I'd suppose that Hide's group may want to go, too."

"Certainly."

"Before I show you the morgue, can I ask you a few things?"

"Go right on ahead, Kane-kun. Can I ask a few things, too?" Kaneki him a sidelong glance, and he raised his hands. "Oh, fine, fine. I'll wait; I will."

"I don't suppose you knew anyone in the female game?" the half-ghoul asked, and Izaya shrugged.

"Only Celty Sturluson," he said with a thin grin. "And she won't be down there. Trust me."

"If I recall, she was from the same realm as Shizuo…"

Izaya seemed to flinch, and Kaneki glanced at him. Maybe it had been his imagination.

"Also, Izaya-san, I'd like to ask why you chose me to approach… Seeing as I don't know who you are… Is it because I have the greatest alliance in-game right now?"

"Oh, it's surely that… And unlike the contrary, I know who you are."

"Tread carefully," Kaneki warned him, and Izaya laughed that off laugh.

"As if I don't know! I've got quite the experience with your monstrous nature…" Izaya shut his mouth. Ah, so much for treading carefully. Why prod at him?

"I see." Kaneki didn't express any displeasure at being called a monster. "Then you know that now that you and I are alone, I can kill you without hesitation."

"If you really want more blood on your hands," Izaya shrugged, and winced again.

"If you prove yourself rotten, it would be bloodshed that is just."

"So cold." Izaya tittered a bit. "But it wasn't the only reason that it was you who I approached, Kaneki-kun…"

"Oh?" Kaneki didn't sound convinced, nor impressed.

"The truth is, I've never tasted coffee as good as yours."

The half-ghoul looked back at him, but Izaya was looking intently at the tiles he trod on.

"I can't imagine why it was any better than the coffee shops I visit at home – in Shinjuku or Ikebukuro alike. It must have been made with utmost patience and care. I consider myself a patient person, but—" – here he released a melodramatic sigh – "…alas, the coffee I make, too, cannot match yours."

"So you've tasted my coffee, as well," Kaneki remarked.

"At the café, with you, Seidou, Shirazu, and Tsuki."

Kaneki's eyes flashed, but he did not look at him.

"Of course half of those people are dead, now. I'm impressed with how far Shirazu made it, really… Bumbling klutz that he was, you'd expect him to be gone sooner." He paused, bringing a hand to his mouth. Oops. Harsh. "Well, that's not what I mean, of course."

"Then what, precisely, did you mean?"

What did I mean?

"Watch your sharp tongue, or I'll rip it out of your bloody mouth."

Izaya laughed weakly at Kaneki's glare. "I'm just saying we should be grateful for the time we had him around, really! He—he died at—at the time that A-ya was playing hide-and-seek, isn't that so? Isn't it?"

His eyes narrowed. "That's right."

"Then that means that Twelve had been too late, after all…"

Kaneki turned to face him, suspicion written in all his nonverbal communication.

"I'd thought he would go after Shintaro, so I went after him instead," Izaya said, trying to smile slyly even though it looked like a pained grimace-grin. "The snake demon was connected to him, so I wanted make sure that shut-in didn't perish. That came with a due price, that's all." Kaneki's aura was surely chilling the air. "Well, actually… I don't know that I went after Shintaro at that time to save him, to be honest. It was kind of selfish, really. Why did I do that? I don't even know. Probably to use him for something, if I'm gonna come clean here. Maybe I didn't do anything at all, because apparently I wasn't involved—but that means none of it was my fault, right?" And he erupted in strained laughter.

Kaneki's terrible gaze left him for now, and Izaya felt his mouth twitch. "I believe that you were involved with us, before. I don't know whether that's a good thing or not yet, but that being said, you must now find your place proper. Will you continue to dance with the devil, Izaya-san? Because should you misstep, you will end up in Hell."

"I don't care if I go to Hell," Izaya said flatly. "I'd rather go there and know that I once lived. I'd rather go there than be forgotten." A note of bitterness began to surface.

"Look, Izaya-san," said Kaneki, bringing a hand to Izaya's shoulder, gentle and firm all at once. "I may not remember you, but that does not change that your eyes are familiar to me. If you want a place in this group, you can still find it. You can earn our trust, but you need to deserve it. I'm sorry for this unfortunate circumstance you're in… but from here on out I'd like to work together with you. In order to do that, you need to keep that tongue in check."

"This isn't about fitting into your group anyhow," Izaya answered simply, pulling away from Kaneki's hand. "I just need to settle a score, and I can't do that alone. That's all. We have common interest, and that's all there is. We're just using one another as a means to the end we both desire. You can collect all the lost souls you want, Kaneki… but I like to think I don't have a soul." He sneered. "And I know that even if you come to loathe me, I wouldn't mind one bit. Because even if you hate me, you won't end me if you don't have to."

"Ah, Izaya-san," Kaneki answered with a gentleness Izaya didn't quite expect. "Though it is true that if you make a move to hurt someone from my group, I will swiftly send you to whatever afterlife you end up in… Ah, but you seem to know that much, right? Beyond that, you don't understand me at all. No matter what it is you do… I don't have the capacity to hate anyone. Even the ones who have hurt me most, I… still…" He paused. "Well. You wanted to see the female players, didn't you?" And Kaneki continued down the hall and to a door that clearly led to a stairwell leading down.

"I do," Izaya confirmed, dark. "Shall we, then, Kane-kun?" He could smell iron almost immediately upon entering the stairwell. The morgue, then.

"Might I ask why you want to see the bodies?" asked Kaneki, but Izaya only shook his head silently as they approached the door, open just a crack. The half-ghoul opened the door, and both of them brought a hand to their faces at the pungent scent that came with it.

Izaya's eyes narrowed at the picture of massacre before him. The first sight he could make out was of an eyeless fourteen-year-old girl, her mouth agape in a noiseless scream. To the informant's distaste, she had no body, either. "How disgusting," he said, his mouth twisting. He looked back at Kaneki to see that his left eye had become red, its sclera ebony. Izaya barked a harsh, nervous laugh, and Kaneki closed his eyes.

"I apologize. I haven't eaten for some time."

"No, no, it is absolutely alright~" Izaya cried, approaching two girls that were oddly intact. "I don't suppose you made this mess, Kane-kun!"

"No," Kaneki answered bluntly.

"Probably Seidou then, eh? Last I checked, he was a messy eater."

"It is most likely the case."

"Yet look at this~ Wonder why he ignored these two, together." He paused between them, gazing at two warm-colored scarves covering cold necks. A nameplate was on the ground there between the tables, and he picked it up to examine. "'Ayano Tateyama,' huh? A human. From Shintaro-kun's realm, too… Oh, how interesting! It even says who killed them; how convenient~" He looked around, walking up to where their heads were and peering carefully into their still faces. He noted that Kaneki remained by the door, but only glanced at him before stepping around scattered bones and various body parts. His mouth downturned in deep distaste. Clicking his tongue, he removed the playfulness from his exterior and pulled Akise's notebook from his pocket, opening it to the pages that had the female names scribbled on it. Much like the information sheets of his own game, the notes had them categorized by group, with ages and three associative words beside each name. Tightening his jaw, Izaya could feel Kaneki's eyes on him. He felt his mouth twitch. Maybe he was trying to smile. He couldn't tell.

From his pocket, he pulled the stubby pencil he still had after all this, holding it to the page and marking Rika's name, and Nora's, and Maka's. Minene's. Celty's. He paused. To his disapproval, his strokes were wobbly, his hands unsteady. He could not quit his trembling. Doing his best to ignore this, he said to Kaneki, "Oi, I don't suppose you had any surviving female members join your group… When they first came here, that is."

"Three, in fact," Kaneki said coolly. Izaya could feel his scrutiny, and somehow this pleased him. "Two of them are lying in the Emergency Room upstairs. Why?"

"May I inquire their names?"

"…" Izaya looked to Kaneki's overcast face; he wasn't looking at the informant anymore. "Akira Mado," he said. "Saiko Yonebayashi." He paused, painfully. "…And also, Touka Kirishima."

Marking these names, Izaya nodded. "Thank you. Well then, now it'll be much easier to identify these bodies. If I'm right, these lovely ladies should be ordered by group… That means you're Ayano-chan, aren't you?" He looked at her unmoving face, her red scarf splayed about her like her dark brown locks. "Who were you? Particularly to Shintaro-kun…" She did not answer, of course, and so he pocketed his pencil and kept his hand there, his other holding the notebook open. "Forgive me, Ayano-chan, but you're not who I'm looking for. Maybe you can share your story some other time; I'd love to hear. Trust me." He scanned his page, devoid of expression. "Lucky, huh… You can only be Hiyori, can't you?" He looked the magenta-scarfed girl at his other side. "Thank you, Ayano-chan – you may well have saved her body. Being so similar in design and all. Come to think of it, Yato and Shintaro do have a weird interest in jerseys, too, don't they? Totally tacky. They have no sense of fashion." He leaned over Hiyori Iki's body, brushing her hair from her pale face. "Hiyori-chan, I've heard so much about you… How would you feel, I wonder, to see Yato now? More importantly, I'd like to know how much you mean to him…" Tilting her face to his own, he peered at her in the flickering light. "He won't listen to me, so maybe you can do the scolding, hm…?"

Darkening, he released her chin and roughly shoved the notebook into his pocket. "Rather strange, too – I don't see a single mark on you. How were you killed, I wonder?" Hands in his pockets, he began prodding at some of the mess with his feet, searching for another nameplate. "Not that it would really matter either way… Now I'm just curious. I don't suppose you could give me a hint?"

He heard buzzing, a thrum he hadn't noticed yet. Looking up at the flickering lights with narrowed eyes, he had to presume it was the flow of electricity making the noise. His mouth returned to the state of frowning. The dim atmosphere of the room swathed him, and he got the notion that the air was thicker than he first imagined. The smell clogged his throat, and he was reminded of the charred shell of a house he'd slept in the night before this. As motionless as the dead around him, Kaneki's presence left Izaya's realm of perception. There was only the dead, their hands warm and sticky. What a mess he was standing in. There was no way to get out of stepping in blood, here. "…Disgusting," he said again, and shuddered involuntarily.

He looked at Hiyori soberly, his eyes deadening. He imagined a smile on her face, with Yukine and Yato at her side. He tried to imagine what it would look like for them to be close, all together. He remembered what it looked like when it was Twelve and Suzuya and A-ya. He envisioned the one named Shinra, together with Celty, together with Shizuo.

Where am I?

Realizing what he was thinking of, he shook his head. He tasted iron, and the nausea that followed this he stifled with another shudder. He felt ill. When, after all, these red splatters would one day be all that was left of any and every one of them, including himself. And the smell, that smell, he couldn't stand its viscosity, and the way that surely all this stale blood was reminding his own body of how much it had lost because now his head was floating and the dizziness tugged him off of the floor and out of balance…

He thought he heard a female voice: "It's right there in front of you."

Izaya caught himself on the table, gripping it tightly with his injured hand and allowing the shooting pain to anchor him there. If I really do go crazy, I don't think I'd be able to forgive myself, he thought drily. But as his senses returned to sharp focus, his gaze settled on a nameplate cast away on the other side of the room, directly across from himself. Right in front of me, huh? Hah. Funny.

"…Izaya-san." Kaneki's voice. Izaya's mouth twitched. He'd forgotten he was there. "Are you alright?" His voice was guarded, but allowed for concern.

Not answering, Izaya straightened himself and went to the fallen nameplate – that was it! He lifted it with his bloodstained hands, satisfaction plain on his face. "Hiyori Iki," he said. "Here it is. And to whatever force that let me find this token, thank you very much." Even more thrilling was what he found on the back of it: that is, the truth of who had killed her.

Nora and B-ko. He let out a low whistle. "That's just cruel. You're making this far too easy for me. Jeez! I can't say I'm surprised, but this is just precious."

"What's that, Izaya-san?" Kaneki asked drily, and Izaya set Hiyori's nameplate back at her feet, where it belonged.

"An ironic form of calamity," Izaya smiled thinly, returning to Kaneki's side.

"You're looking especially pale… perhaps we should head back to the others."

"I would like to know, Kane-kun, where the items pillar is…"

"Not now," said the half-ghoul, but Izaya only added, "Not to go there, no. I'd like its location. You know." A thin smile again. "In relation to this morgue."

"Why's that, Izaya-san?"

His expression darkened. Kaneki couldn't see his eyes, but a smile touched his lips – gently, now. Wry though it was, it was nowhere near as strained as the other expressions he'd made. "I know," he said, "what the game masters want from me. I'm going to do it…" It spread over his mouth, not twisting it, but curling it with just a slight edge of irony, or perhaps bitterness. "…But I'm going to do it my way."

Kaneki looked at him for some time, then sighed lightly, bringing his hand gently to Izaya's back. "Here," he said. "Let's return, and rest, first. That's better for all of us."

"Yes…," he agreed faintly. "Let's."