...
. . . . .
. . . . .
In which the Monster Stays with a Careless Flea and Simon has Good Instincts
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. . . . .
The door to Izaya's bedroom opened. A man in a bartender suit made his way inside silently.
He walked to the bed. He stood staring at the sleeping information broker, then reached out and brushed his hair away from his forehead.
Izaya stirred, muttering.
"Shizu-chan….?"
"Izaya."
Sleepy eyes half opened, catching sight of brown eyes and blond hair.
"Shizu-chan didn't leave?"
Shizuo tilted his head.
"….Yeah. Shizu-chan didn't leave."
"….Ah I see….."
Izaya smiled sleepily and curled up.
"And Shizu-chan's still drunk I see. Well as expected of a monster…."
"…But it's good. Since Shizu-chan is still drunk, he won't kill me. He'll kill me tomorrow, but I'll deal with that tomorrow…."
Izaya muttered to himself. He stretched his arms sleepily, then laid on his side.
"Hey Shizu-chan aren't you going to sleep together with me? It's what Shizu-chan has been saying all along….it's cold…"
Izaya seemed to huddle closer to himself.
"Cold…..humans are. So cold. But Shizu-chan is a monster. So he's warm."
"…Is Izaya lonely?"
"Lonely….I suppose I am."
Izaya yawned, then smiled wryly as if to himself.
"Because I don't have anyone like Shizu-chan. And I don't have anyone except Shizu-chan."
"But Shizu-chan doesn't have to know that. So that's why I'm saying it to this drunk Shizu-chan. Who is Shizu-chan but at the same time not really Shizu-chan. Because the Shizu-chan I know is always angry, not happy. That's the Shizu-chan I know."
"So Shizu-chan who's not Shizu-chan….won't you stay?"
Izaya asked the question in a sleepy tone layered over fragile hope.
"Because Shizu-chan won't remember, and it's cold, and –"
Izaya was cut off when his face was shoved into a familiar hard chest. He raised his dazed gaze.
"Shizu-chan?"
"Stay. I will stay."
"So sleep. Izaya."
Those brown eyes were looking at only him. Izaya blinked, then smiled and closed his eyes, snuggling close to his Shizu-chan who wasn't Shizu-chan.
"Okay….Shizu-chan."
"….."
Shizuo waited until he was sure Izaya was asleep, then sighed, holding Izaya close to him.
"You stupid, lonely, careless flea."
"….You don't even know you almost died tonight, do you?"
...
Two hours earlier, in Shinjuku
...
The Tokyo metropolis was a busy, bustling city. It had a vibrant night life, with roaming gangs, normal people and the feared yakuza. Which was why any immigrants were unnoticed until they stirred trouble. And even then, they would still remain in the shadows.
Such a situation applied to two men in Shinjuku, the metropolis' second centre. They were two men on an agenda, though not a personal one.
"Tell me why we have to do this again?"
"Because the Boss said so."
The first man sighed. He seemed a lackadaisical fellow with a penchant for drawling his words as he spoke –
"Riiiight. Just because some guy pissed the Boss off, we have to travel all the way to Japan to kill him."
"….Oh well at least it's in Japan so we can relax a little, everyone is so serious back there!"
As he said this the first man stretched his arms, inhaling the night air with a grin.
"And I was just beginning to enjoy our stay in America!"
"Yeah. But this is a mission."
"Oh right. Just ruin my fun won't you."
The second man shrugged. He seemed obedient, but one would have to doubt that supposed obedience in his next words –
"It's not like we can disobey."
People around looked at them curiously at the foreign language and the formal suits, but otherwise paid little attention to them. They blended in the crowd, heading towards their destination.
"Why does he need both of us to kill one man? He isn't that strong, is he?"
"The guy's an information broker. He probably anticipated beforehand and hired some bodyguard, the Boss didn't want to take any chances."
The man replied calmly, retrieving from his memory their superior's words.
"There are some pretty strong people here in Tokyo. And there are other assassins besides us as well. Russia I think. I even heard the Killing Machine is here. You know, the 7th strongest assassin in Russia. Along with his protégé the Crow. And the Elephant. They arrived in Japan a while ago. We may have to face them."
As the man spoke, he was unaware that they didn't have to face the Crow and the Elephant or even the Killing Machine –
They had to face someone worse than all three of them combined.
"Yeah, he mentioned some Russian dude at some sushi store, some headless rider – what's with that anyway? It seems there's a lot of weird stuff happening in this city."
"And the man in a bartender suit."
"Bartender suit….oh yeah, bartender suit! Well we won't have to worry about that, he said he's the information broker's enemy."
"True."
"And he's in Ikebukuro anyway – Ikebukuro's Monster. We're in Shinjuku."
"Yeah."
...
...
...
Everyone knew Orihara Izaya was not to be trusted. As the information broker of Shinjuku, he was approached by dangerous people from the underworld. And though he didn't have their brawn, he had brains and he had never failed to escape a sticky situation resulting from divulging misleading information or information to rival syndicates of his clients.
No one trusted Orihara Izaya. And Izaya knew that. But he also knew though no one trusted him, they needed him. He was the only information broker around. The only worthy information broker around for people from Tokyo's dark underworld.
After all, it was he himself who had ensured his place would be uncontested.
Only one being of whom Izaya knew the name but not identity had gone against him.
Izaya prefers not to associate with this being.
Thus, they needed him, and could not get rid of him. Even the Awakusu-kai saw his use. When anyone wanted information, the name Orihara Izaya popped up in mind. Plain and simple. Whether they thought the information was trustworthy or not, it didn't matter. Orihara Izaya of Shinjuku was associated with information and would always be.
So Orihara Izaya happily lived his life in minimal danger – well, as minimal as the job of an information broker could bring him. Especially one who deliberately interfered in dangerous humans' lives and plans.
Until one normal day, he received a foreigner as a client. Although this seldom happened, it was nothing new for him –
What was new was that he had not known the man was a foreigner. The middle aged man had looked Japanese. He spoke Japanese as fluently as a native Japanese. He had curly black hair and fairly pale skin.
And he had lied to Izaya, giving him a Japanese name. And then asked him for information on a rival Yakuza syndicate.
Izaya had only found out later he had been deceived. The rival Yakuza syndicate happened to be involved in another one of Izaya's plans, and he had gleefully taken the opportunity to mix up what he thought was another Yakuza into his already constructed plans by giving him information that was not false, but would suit his purpose –
The alliance meeting, of the most famous Yakuza in Japan, with another Yakuza organization –
Which Izaya was planning to turn into a Yakuza War.
But Izaya was unfortunate. For the man was not a low ranking member of the Yakuza, he was a Mafia Boss. He had come from Italy, to expand his connections in Tokyo, Japan for the Yakuza's power and dealings in the underworld had reached him from Japan. He had asked for information not for a rival Yakuza syndicate, but on his potential ally.
The potential ally of the Mafia Boss had two rivals, one of which was an arch rival. Due to previous circumstances, these two rivals no longer trusted the information Izaya gave. They allowed him to live for they still needed a valuable information source, but were Izaya to take the initiative, they would doubt every single word he said.
But there was a spy within the Yakuza which the Mafia Boss considered a potential ally. He was from one of the rivals, and Izaya knew he was disconnected from them. But he also knew he would not trust Orihara Izaya's information. Thus he waited for the situation which he knew would lead him to seek information from his alias, Chrome – whom Izaya had created as another entity, seemingly another information broker.
And that information soon travelled to the Yakuza which was the arch rival of the Yakuza the Mafia Boss wanted information on.
And at the same time, Izaya was providing another piece of information as Chrome to the other rival – who was not happy their mutual ally was acting despite their agreement. And then he tied up the remaining strings by telling the Mafia Boss's potential ally about their arch rival's plan to take them down in the alliance meeting.
Thus the Yakuza who had a spy believed the Mafia Boss who had posed as a member of a Yakuza organization was intruding upon their territory – killing their arch rival before they did. On the other side, its mutual ally was angry that the other side was acting against their deal to not make any move on their mutual enemy. And the potential ally itself believed it was facing a threat, not an ally.
And so, when the Mafia Boss whom Izaya found too late was not a low ranking member of the Yakuza, met whom he thought would be his potential ally, he was facing not an ally but two enemies. Altogether, there were four underworld organizations in the area, three of which were Yakuza.
The result was a bloody night and the Mafia Boss's desire for revenge.
This would be a case that one slight miscalculation could lead to Izaya's downfall –
But fate never went the way it was supposed to.
Not when Heiwajima Shizuo was involved.
...
...
...
Several hours earlier, in Russia Sushi
...
"What did you do that for, Simon?"
"Experiment, Dennis."
"Experiment?"
"Severino Bassini recently arrived in Japan."
"Right, and what does that guy have to do with anything?"
"He recently landed in the hospital. Gunshot wounds. From a brawl with the Yakuza. He was involved in a Yakuza war. I have a feeling it's Izaya's doing."
"So?"
"Izaya's careless. He doesn't know who that guy is. This could be his downfall."
"And you're protecting him? With Heiwajima Shizuo?"
"Shizuo just happened to come along, I thought it was a good opportunity."
"Why are you protecting that good for nothing information broker?"
"Izaya's not entirely bad, Dennis. Besides, it really is a good opportunity for them to get along, don't you think? Ikebukuro could be much more peaceful."
"….I hope you know what you're doing, Simon."
Dennis sighed as he brought the chopper down onto the fish.
"Though, how did you know Izaya would pass by? And Shizuo -"
He trailed off, but Simon understood what he meant.
"Izaya always passes by around evening time, no? And Shizuo seems like he would be a happy drunk! Shizuo is normally angry, so he should be happy when drunk, yes?"
Simon smiled brightly, the smile lighting up his dark face.
Dennis smiled wryly, shaking his head.
"Tsk, sounds like you planned everything, Samia."
"I didn't plan anything. It's not my forte. I just listened to my instincts."
Simon said, shrugging his large shoulders as he spoke in Russian.
"Yeah those instincts saved our lives quite a few times."
Dennis recounted with a sense of fondness and almost nostalgia as Simon smiled along with him.
"That's right."
"But it's just a coincidence, that's all. Sometimes, destiny just makes an unexpected turn."