Izaya skidded to his knees and hooked his fingers under the shelving, his expression one of worry. Shinra wasn't moving and he feared the worst when he noticed a small trail of blood running down the boy's forehead. Izaya gritted his teeth as he pulled against the heavy bookcase as much as he could. "Shinra, can you hear me?" he managed to say as he tried to use his weight to get under the shelving and push up with his back. No good. He wasn't strong enough, weren't human beings suppose to get extra strength caused by adrenaline in situations like this? "Damn it! move you piece of -"

"Izaya!" the raven looked up and over at the one who yelled his name, Shizuo ran toward him and he sighed in relief.

"Shizu-chan, help. I can't lift it," Shizuo pulled Izaya away from the bookcase and with what looked like little effort, he threw the large bookcase up and over and it split in half. Izaya was there again in an instant, pulling Shinra half on his lap, he frowned. "We need to call an ambulance."

Shizuo knelt down beside them and assessed the situation. "I don't think he's badly hurt, I think he's just -"

Izaya's eyes snapped up to him, narrowing. "Just do it!"

Shizuo frowned at him, why was Izaya yelling at him? It wasn't like it was his fault. But the blond wasn't going to get angry, that would only make things worse, and he figured the raven was just worried.

…

Kadota and Shizuo turned their attention to the door as Izaya walked through, looking slightly annoyed. He sighed as he took a seat at the desk, rubbing his temple and then swiped a hand through his hair, wincing when he brushed over a tender spot on the back of his head where the book had collided with it. "How is he, what did the doctor say?"

Izaya glanced at Kadota, acknowledging his question and then turned to the computer. He typed in several commands and then pulled up a file of the footage. "They said he'll be all right, that he was most likely knocked unconscious by the heavier books more than the case itself. He's got concussion and they want to keep him in for a forty eight hour observation, though he hasn't sustained any further injuries. His dad is with him now."

Shizuo leaned against the chair. "So I was right, that's good."

Izaya snorted. "What do you want, a medal? Congratulations Shizu-chan."

Shizuo gritted his teeth, hands clenching around the back of the chair. "I didn't mean -" he then straightened. "Tch. Whatever, if you want to act like an asshole right now then I'm out of here before I kick your ass."

Izaya rolled his eyes, still focused on the screen as he scanned over the previous readings. "My best friend is in the hospital; I'm not exactly going to be skipping around the room."

Shizuo narrowed his eyes. "I get that, but it doesn't mean you can blame other people."

Izaya span around, glaring at the blond, clenching his fist over the keyboard. "Are you saying it's my fault?"

"I didn't say that! how was what happened anyone's fault!?"

Kadota got between them, raising his hands up. "Come on guys, we've got a job to do, we can't let what happened to Shinra get to us."

Izaya turned back to the monitor, stopping any further conversation between them. Shizuo span on his heel and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Izaya tutted and as soon as the blond left he regretted the exchange of words almost immediately. The raven sighed, somehow they had already forgotten that they were meant to be a couple, maybe they had gotten too used to hiding it.

"Anything unusual?" Kadota said as he leaned in beside him to read over what Izaya was looking at.

Whatever Kadota wanted to say about the situation, he was considerate enough not to. "Define what's unusual under these circumstances?"

Kadota gave a light chuckle. "Yeah. all right, I see your point. What did you find?"

Izaya clicked on the footage and then watched the playback with annoyance. I was right there. I should have pushed him out of the way. Izaya furrowed his eyebrows. "Check the temperature readings we picked up during the accident. I'm wondering if there might be two different readings."

Kadota moved over to the other computer and clicked on the playback in sync with the footage. "What makes you say that?"

"Sometimes, objects can become warm during a poltergeist incident."

Kadota checked both readings. "Not sure about two, but the temperature around the room definitely dropped to a low degree."

Izaya scooted over to him and checked the results for himself. He nodded and then swiped over the screen with the cursor. "What about the audio, you said there was static earlier."

Kadota nodded. "Yeah, but that was before the lights when out." Izaya picked up the headphones and plugged the audio jack into the aux socket. He placed them over his head and scrolled back to the beginning when they first were in the room. Static, just like Kadota said, Izaya frowned as he listened - "Something wrong?"

Izaya placed his finger on his lips, asking for quiet. The static got louder and more distorted, but Izaya could hear something else – he lifted the headphones off and gave them to Kadota. "Here, let me know if you can hear that off sound in the background." Kadota placed the headphones over his head and Izaya skipped back a few frames. He watched for the teen's reaction and then Kadota nodded as he took off the receivers. "It's separate to the static right?"

"There's definitely more than one noise going on."

Izaya turned back to the screen and clicked the mouse, quickly typed in a command, and the audio playback split into two waves. "I'm hoping this will highlight the distinction between them, hopefully it will clear up the interference from the static."

Kadota was genuinely impressed, he didn't realise how good Izaya was at all this. "Is there anything you're not good at?"

Izaya shrugged and he placed the headphones back on and then played the second split wave. There was silence for a few moments, and he heard it -

Heavy breathing.

Izaya's eyes widened a fraction as he listened closely, the breathing got heavier and then it stopped abruptly, which might have been when the power shut off. Izaya handed them over to Kadota and played back the same audio. An almost shiver ran through him as he listened, taking them off, he grimaced. "That's kind of creepy."

"It could have been picked up from myself or Shinra, but the audio sounded too distant, if it were us, the sound would have been much closer."

"So what now?"

"We'll just have to keep an eye on the readings. We still have to set up the two micro camera's in the two corridors on each level. I'd also like to get started on asking everyone some questions. We should start with Luna's classmates."

"Good idea. Though I think it might be best if we questioned them here, they're more likely to be descriptive if they're not around others," Izaya nodded. "I'll set up the cameras."

Izaya leaned back in his chair. "All right."

…

Izaya sighed as he stretched in the chair. He'd questioned four students already and so far they'd barely told him anything. It didn't seem like they really paid attention to the girl, which might be an indication that she wasn't all that popular. Izaya looked up as a tall thin girl came in, long brown hair and wearing the school's uniform. She didn't look all that happy about being here, Izaya studied her, even her walk screamed 'look at me wrong and I'll kill you' A small grin graced his features and he motioned for her to sit down. He could have some fun with a girl like her. I should remain professional I suppose. "I just want to ask you some questions about Luna."

The girl popped a bubble with the gum she was chewing and then sat down with a frown. "You're like, a year older than me, who gave you permission to lord authority over our heads?"

Izaya chuckled. "Your principal actually. And for the record, I'm actually two years older." well, he was in a month, but she didn't have to know that. "Anyway. What can you tell me about her? I get the feeling you weren't friends."

She snorted. "Like I would be friends with a weirdo like her. Thinks she was better than everyone else because she got high grades."

Ah the common jealously, so predictable. "Why don't you actually answer my question. What did you know about her?"

"Loner. Always hung out in the library like a nerd."

"Did you ever interact with her?"

She rolled her eyes, popping another bubble. "What did I just say? She was a loner. Like I would even let her talk to me."

Izaya tilted his head with a slight grin. "Of course not. Because that would ruin your, "graceful" attempts to remain popular."

She gave him a forced smile. "Not exactly sure what you're getting at. But I'm not the only one at this school that didn't like her."

"I would presume so. Just one of the many sheep following the herd. Are you the shepherd? Do they follow your example? Do whatever you ask them to do?"

"Where do you get off talking to me like that runt. So what if I ignored her, it's not my fault she killed herself."

Izaya raised an eyebrow. "You keep avoiding my direct questions, and I didn't mention anything about the suicide. But there are many suicides that have been the result of bullying, Miss Ichika."

"Whatever. I ignored her and might have shoved her a few times, but I hardly think that is bullying."

"If you say so."

"You can't just come here and start accusing people of bullying."

"Actually I'm only accusing you."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What evidence do you even have to support that?"

Izaya grinned. "I don't think I need any. Your in-opposition is more than enough," She blinked at him for a second, and the raven knew she was turning that phrase over in her head. "It means you're highly defensive toward the accusations, most people react in such a way because they've been discovered."

"Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot! And I resent the accusation. What you're doing is bullying."

"Bullying is lame. Besides, I'm not here. That is why most of you are isn't it? behavioural problems?" She stood up and then stormed out of the room. Izaya sighed and then muttered to himself. "Well, so much for remaining professional."

….

Izaya glanced up from his laptop when the door opened and then closed again. Shizuo frowned at him and sat down in the opposite chair, Izaya turned back to the screen. "You're an asshole." The blond commented offhandedly, interrupting the silence.

Izaya rolled his eyes. "Noted."

Shizuo snorted and then made his way over to Izaya, grabbing him by the shirt and lifting him up from the chair. "Don't you have anything else to say?"

Izaya's eyebrows rose a little. "Like what?"

"How about an apology?"

"For what? Did I insult you?"

Shizuo frowned. "No…"

"Then what exactly am I apologising for? For being worried about Shinra, or perhaps for not reaching him in time -" Izaya then realised that Shizuo had tricked him into admitting what was wrong, the reasons why he was snippy with him earlier. "Damn it."

"Yeah thought so. It wasn't your fault you know. and I only meant that it was good that I was right, that Shinra didn't come off worse."

Izaya's eyes darted to the side, avoiding his gaze, and then lips were on his. Izaya's arms snaked around Shizuo's neck and then deepened the kiss. Pulling away, Izaya grinned at him. "Apology accepted," Shizuo clicked his tongue. "Wanna put me down now?"

Shizuo returned the grin. "Not yet." they kissed for another minute and then the blond released him.

Izaya chuckled. "Back to work. No fooling around on the job."

Shizuo laughed and then with a teasing tone said, "Come on. The boss isn't here."

Izaya rolled his eyes and then shoved him. "And if he saw that he'd have a breakdown. So hands off."

Shizuo huffed. "Oh so it's ok for you to grope me under the table at school – with your foot, but I'm not allowed to kiss you in a room that's actually empty."

Izaya looked up from the laptop. "Correct. At least when I did it, it wasn't noticeable. Anyone can just walk in here."

"Whatever. What are you looking at anyway?"

"The ones I questioned weren't much help. Luna wasn't very popular it seemed, so neither of them knew much about her except that she was always in the library and that she was quite smart. That triggered a lot of jealously."

"So she was bullied."

Izaya gave a small shrug. "For now, that's what it looks like."

"Kadota told me that we picked up a strange noise from the audio."

Izaya nodded and said, "Heavy breathing. Nothing else; could be nothing, could be something." Izaya then frowned as he scanned over the page he was on.

"What?"

"I'm looking at Luna's file,"

"Seriously? do you ever not do anything illegal?"

Izaya clicked his tongue at the implications. "You make me sound like a criminal. Anyway, it says she was seeing a school councillor."

"Well it didn't seem to help much."

"I would imagine not. Since the councillor she was seeing was Mr Tachigama."

Shizuo growled. "That fucking asshole is a councillor!?"

Izaya shrugged. "Apparently so. He also teaches Math, and he's Mr Uwasaki's second."

"It's a wonder that no one else has committed suicide if he's the councillor."

Izaya chuckled. "You just hate him because of what he said to you."

"Shut up. I also got the impression that he barely liked any of the other kids here either."

Izaya stood up and said, "Well, regardless of that. we should -"

Kadota then burst into the room. "Hey. You should come and see this." Izaya and Shizuo share a glance and then followed their friend outside. Kadota led them down the corridor and into a classroom. The students were staring at the chalk board in horror. "I was on my way back to you after I double checked the camera's, I heard screaming and then this happened."

Izaya and Shizuo stared at the display on the board, the raven stepped closer to it. "Are you saying this wasn't done by anyone here?"

Kadota shook his head. "No. I saw it with my own eyes. A piece of chalk was moving by itself."

Shizuo tilted his head. "What is it?"

Izaya took his phone out and snapped a picture of it for future reference. "I don't know. A symbol of something."

…

It was late now, and the school was empty of students, aside from the three teens that opted to stay behind for further observation. It would be a lot easier to pinpoint any paranormal occurrences now that there wasn't crowds of people around. The school was quiet. Kadota remained in the storage room, keeping an eye on the camera's and the readings.

Shizuo was walking around the school performing small incantations to try and cleanse whatever spirit was haunting this place, though it was mostly likely Luna's. He didn't much like wearing the shozoku, despite what he was trying to achieve; but Izaya insisted and said it 'sets the mood' whatever that meant. He'd been doing this for an hour now and nothing seemed to drive the spirit out, so he wasn't even sure that his attempts at cleansing was working.

Izaya was in the classroom the symbol had appeared, the classroom was actually Luna's homeroom, which made sense that the drawing would appear here. Izaya made his way around the desks, wondering which one was hers. He began checking them one at a time, looking inside and underneath; as he knelt down and ducked under to check another, the door to the classroom slammed shut. Startled, Izaya cursed as he smacked his head on the edge of the desk. he sighed and wondered if he too was going to get concussion by the end of this case. As he stood up, rubbing his head, he looked up and gasped. There she was, or he assumed it was her. Izaya swallowed and backed up a step, the chair behind him moved as he knocked it slightly with his leg. "You're Luna. Right?"

And suddenly, the lights flickered and then blew with a loud pop. Izaya covered his head from the small fragments of glass that showered from the ceiling. He looked up again and she was gone, he ran over to the door and stopped. Slowly, he pulled down the handle, expecting it to be locked, but the door opened. With a sigh, he made his way out into the corridor, only to find that the whole school was in darkness. "Great." he touched his earpiece and said, {Are the computers still running Dota-chin?} Instead of a response, all he got was interference. And then – "Ah!"

A high pitched noise came through the earpiece, causing him to collapse to his knees. He immediately took it off and chucked it down the corridor. "Shit!" covering his ear with his hand, he pulled it away and was relieved when he couldn't feel any signs of damage. Instead, he pulled out his phone and frowned when he realised that it was dead. "What's going on?" standing up, he moved over to the wall and felt his way along, the storage room wasn't that far from his position. "Should have taken my torch." He muttered. Walking past the staircase, he stopped abruptly when he heard footsteps. Swallowing thickly, he took a step back. "Shizu-chan, is that you?" the steps became louder and were almost in sync with his fast beating heart.

A hand touched his shoulder and he let out a yelp, spinning around and threw a fist out of instinct. "Izaya! Whoa, it's me. Calm down," Izaya's breathing was loud in his ears and he struggled to control his heart rate. "Are you ok?" Eventually, he realised it was Kadota, and there was a light shining to the side that indicated a torch in the other's hand.

Izaya let out a shaky breath. "Damn. You scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry. When the lights went, I got worried. Is your phone off too?"

Izaya nodded and then took the other torch that was offered to him. "Did you hear a high pitch noise just now?"

Kadota shook his head. "No. why?"

Izaya frowned. "Never mind."

"Did you?"

Now that there was some light to guide him, Izaya started to make his way downstairs, the footsteps behind told him Kadota was following. "I heard it through my earpiece, it almost burst my eardrum." The two walked down the steps slowly and turned when they reached the first corner. "Have you heard from Shizu-chan at all?"

"No. The whole equipment malfunctioned so I don't even know where he is right now."

"Any feedback before that?"

"Way more static then before. I thought I saw something on camera, but that's when everything shut off."

Izaya shone his torch down the corridor as the two took the last step off the staircase. "I saw her."

Kadota blinked in surprise. "Where?"

"The classroom that the symbol appeared in."

"Did she attack you?"

"No. But that's when all the power flickered out, the lights on the ceiling blew though."

"Damn. I wasn't quite sure that you would even see this one."

"Me either. I sent a picture of that symbol to Shinra earlier. Since he's not allowed to leave the hospital, he wanted something to do. Maybe he can find out what it is."

As the two turn the corner, their torch light shone on the one they were searching for. Shizuo was stood in front of the library, Izaya frowned as they made their way toward him. Once they stopped beside him, the raven glanced up at him, he looked slightly bewildered. "Shizu-chan?"

Shizuo then pointed inside the library. "Look," The two turned their attention from him and then gasped. A few seconds at a time, they watched a book fly off a shelf, skidding across the floor. "I was reciting a chant in here, then all of a sudden this happened. It's only just started, I didn't wanna get hit by a book like Izaya, so I came out here."

Izaya clicked his tongue at the reference. "Well that would explain why the equipment malfunctioned since it's happening in here." The throw of books stopped; Izaya stepped into the library first and then was followed by the other two close behind. Shining his light, the raven began picking up the books that had been scattered over the floor, he felt that there was some significance to the books, and as he took note of each one when he picked them up he began to think he was right. "Notice anything?"

Kadota frowned as he helped shine the light over the ones still on the floor. "They're all Math books."

Izaya nodded and gestured to the other four. "Grab those. We'll keep these with us for now."

…

The three teens were waiting for the power to come back on, they couldn't afford to risk roaming about the school in the dark for too long. Izaya was checking the books they'd retrieved, looking for any signs that might link these books to their spirit. "These books all have one thing in common at least."

"You mean besides being the same subject?" Shizuo said, he was sat with one leg propped up and leaning against the wall, bored out of his mind.

"Yes Shizu-chan." Izaya replied with a little annoyance, he knew the blond was bored, but he didn't have to be so snarky. "All of these were checked out by Luna at some point. Different dates of course, over time."

Kadota was trying to get the backup power in their equipment to work, he raised his head from the computer and said, "You said she was a top student right? Would make sense that she checked out the most books."

Izaya nodded, they could see one another well enough, thanks to their battery powered LED lights. "I also said that Mr Tachigama taught Math."

"Think she was in his class?"

Izaya shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe." All of a sudden the power flickered back on and the room was cast with light, and the computer systems hummed to life. Izaya stood up, scraping his chair. He then walked toward the door, turning to Kadota. "See if the feedback we picked up before the power went is still there. If so, check the audio and split the wavelengths, there might be other background noise like there was the first time."

"All right. but how do I that? split the waves I mean."

"Just highlight the audio's playback, there should be a split option, then type in the command prompt, which is 'silent reduction, wave 1.' the bottom half should playback with no additional static. It won't work though if there isn't another noise."

Kadota nodded. "Got it"

Shizuo then stepped beside Izaya. "Where are you going?"

Izaya smirked. "The councillor's office. I'm feeling troubled."

Shizuo rolled his eyes. "Tch. Is that so. You know it's probably locked right?"

Izaya then walked out of the room as he said, "Not a problem."

Shizuo sighed and briefly wondered if maybe his boyfriend was actually a criminal before making his way over to Kadota.

"Well, here goes. We were able to save the feedback, and the audio split, so it picked up something during all the static." Shizuo stepped closer to listen and Kadota clicked the playback.

Silence.

Silence.

And then – a spout of whispers sounded through the speaker.

'-will suffer.'

'Murderer…'

'Murderer….'

And then the voice grew louder.

'Save me!'

'Mommy!'

Kadota and Shizuo jumped slightly and then the audio clicked off. "Ok. that wasn't nothing." The brunet said as he turned to look at Shizuo.

Shizuo frowned "Does this mean she was murdered?"

"I don't know. I don't think we should jump to that conclusion just yet."

"What conclusion! Didn't you hear what she said!?"

"I did. But the police already confirmed the suicide, if it's true, we need more than this."

"It's solid evidence Kadota!"

"From a ghost. That was only picked up by the audio feed. Who's going to believe that?"

"Can't we just show them, if they hear what we just heard -"

Kadota shook his head. "Even if they do hear it. who are they going to arrest? For all we know, she could just think she was murdered. She might not even remember committing suicide; if she was bullied, then she could be just putting blame to someone."

Shizuo sighed in frustration, he didn't like it, but they weren't in a position to do anything just yet. "What now?"

"Wait until Izaya gets back from whatever he's doing I guess. He might find something else useful."

…

Izaya frowned in concentration as he flipped through the pages of Tachigama's sessions with Luna. Since their conversations were typed and not audio recorded, it was taking a while to find anything remotely helpful. The talks started off with mentions of peer pressure from other students. She wanted to fit in but got shunned because of her too kind personality and her intelligence. There was talks of encouragement in her subjects, and he found out that she wasn't originally in Tachigama's math class. She was transferred. Izaya read the conversation through more carefully after that.

Tachigama: My class is more advanced than the one you're in, but I think you can handle it. This way, you won't be the only smart one in your class, and others won't pick on you there.

Izaya turned the page. Well that explains all the math books that she checked out.

Luna: You can do that?

Tachigama: I can. You know I care about your well-being.

Izaya frowned then, something about that statement had him feeling nauseous.

Luna: Thank you Mr Tachigama.

Tachigama: Not a problem my dear.

Izaya noticed the rest of the pages were blank, which meant that had been the last session recorded. Something told him though, that the sessions carried on longer then what was stated. A loud thud caused him to jump and a small hiss escaped him, he brought his finger to his mouth to suck on the small papercut there. "Damn it." The thud came again, vibrating off the table he was sat at. Izaya closed the file and placed it back in the cabinet where it belonged, Tachigama wouldn't ever know he was in here. The door would be unlocked when the man came by the next morning, but he had confidence that Tachigama would think he just forgot to lock it. Standing up, he decided to make his way back to Shizuo and Kadota, the blond would only start to worry otherwise. The light in the room flickered for a moment. "Not again." It was then that he heard something; no, not something, someone.

'Hush little darling, don't say a word,'

'You won't ever wake up to the sound of birds,'

'And if you do, I promise one thing,'

'No one will be around to hear you sing.'

Izaya's blood ran as the voice echoed inside his head, humming the rest of the tune. He edged closer to the door, slowly shuffling his feet. The moment he turned to run, the door slammed shut, he immediately tried the knob and it wouldn't twist, it was locked. Izaya pounded his fists against the door, pulling and kicking it. "Shizu-chan!"

The raven stilled when he heard a noise from behind him, he span around, backed against the door. The noise was coming from the back of the room, his heart raced, and he took a few steps forward. The moment he peered over the desk, Izaya was thrown backwards when a sudden bout of blames burst forth. Grimacing, he watched as flames licked up the wall and slowly caught the chair behind the desk. Wood burnt easily and the chair went up in an instant, sparks hitting the desk. Stumbling to his feet, he threw himself at the door, banging his fist on it. The room was small, and he knew it wouldn't be long until he passed out and the flames engulfed him. Izaya coughed, trying to cover his mouth, the smoke was getting thick. "Shizu-chan! Dota-chin!" Coughing harshly, Izaya's eyes started drooping and his movements got slower. "I- can't…..stay…awake – help…." He slid down the door and fell to the floor, eyes closing and then he blacked out.

…

Shizuo growled to himself, he was getting worried now, Kadota watched him pace back and forth. "Damn it. he's taking too long; I'm going after him."

Kadota nodded, standing up to gesture he was going to follow. Just as the two prepared to leave, the fire alarm rang through the school loudly. The two shared a concerned glance before cold dread filled them. "Shit."

Shizuo's eyes widened. "Izaya!" And the two ran out of the room just as the sprinklers from above hissed and rained down on them.