"Shizuo-san, it's certainly been a while!" Shiki welcomed with a rare beam, "Never thought the Monster of Ikebukuro himself would present himself here!"
I shifted, not that I was flattered. I can knock someone's teeth out easily, but sitting in the room of the Awakusu-Kai wasn't something I'd do without good reason. Honestly, searching for Izaya was barely a contender for a good reason, but Shinra and Celty insisted I follow up with it.
Speaking of the odd couple, Shinra sat twitching beside me with his usual sloppy, stupid grin, while Celty figured she'd wait outside – if word got out the Black Rider was seen with the Awakusu, "it just wouldn't be pretty", to put it in her words.
"Really good to see you after all this time, Shiki!" Shinra chirped, "It's a shame that we had to see each other under these circumstances…"
"You know how many times I hear that from every poor bastard who walks through that door?" the man said jokingly, "But, exactly, what circumstances?"
Shinra nudged my arm. I cleared my throat, somewhat hoping the underground doctor would explain.
"Well…we, I guess, are a little concerned that something has happened to Izaya."
The Awakusu member widened his eyes, taking a minute to let the news sink in as he lit a cigarette. Reaching across the table, he flicked another out for me to take, and I accepted when he finally had a response.
"Haaaah…I thought that little Eskimo would be more careful than that, but then again, Nakamura was always extremely slick."
"What's that?" Shinra asked, and the man grunted in slight annoyance.
"Shinosuke Nakamura – he's the sort of tech-y, science-y guy you'd want to back you up in an organization like this. I asked Orihara-san to track him down after he took off with a lot of valuables, but no wonder I haven't heard back from him…damn it…"
He took a long inhale from his cigarette, then motioned towards me.
"Pardon my brutal honesty, but I'm highly surprised that of all people, you'd be out in this part of town trying to find him, Shizuo-san."
I grunted, biting deeply into my own gifted cigarette, "Not particularly…"
Shiki chuckled, but soon regained seriousness, "If you're trying to ask me if I know where he is, the answer is no, but I know for a fact that Nakamura had something to do with it. Orihara-san told me that prior to our meeting here, he'd actually bumped into the son of a bitch. What're the odds, right?"
I sucked in a breath, and Shinra grew wide-eyed.
"You mentioned something about that too, Shizuo!" he yelped.
"Yeah…" I sighed, taking the last good drag from the cigarette before putting it out in a nearby ashtray, "After that little brief encounter, I tried to beat him up some more, but he suddenly seemed, I dunno…completely aloof. Really weird."
"Hmph." Shiki sighed as well, "I can tell you something about weird – Nakamura has a fascination - borderline obsession – with the in's and out's of a human brain. I'm telling you, it's some real freaky shit, man...I mean, I'd hate to worry ya, but…"
He trailed off, and Shinra hinged on every word, "But what?"
"…let's just put it like this - I think it's safe to assume that Nakamura had something to do with Orihara-san's disappearance, and if he's not dead by now, he's probably wishing he was."
…Had I heard that right?
That flea has always seen himself as an almost immortal, divine being, and now here I was being told that in one month, Death would become his savior.
I shook my head, "I'm sorry, but that seems a little too unbelievable...especially for that flea."
Shiki's lips curled into a very slight smile, hardly noticeable.
"Just a theory, really, but you're the one who asked for my input. You wanna find the "flea", you need to find Nakamura. I mean, it's true that he's probably running some elaborate underground laboratory, more than likely with a killer budget, too, but he's got his boys to make sure none of that money goes to waste."
I raised an eyebrow, "'Goes to waste?' What do you mean?"
Shiki shrugged, "If I had that kind of power and I had the money to follow through with whatever that sick son of a bitch is interested in, I'd have to keep a constant supply of guinea pigs. Not small-fry either – guinea pigs like Orihara-san that can actually peak an interest in those deep in the caverns of the human mind. I'm sure Orihara-san could fill up a textbook of stuff on just his frontal lobe."
Shinra glanced at me worriedly, as if to push me to say something.
"…what?" I finally snapped, "Why the hell are you gawking?"
The doctor bit his lip, accompanying an expression fit for making a difficult decision. Suddenly, he burst out, slamming his hands on the table.
"S-So what you're saying is that a possible way to find this guy is to find him an interesting "guinea pig?!" he cried, though completely serious.
Shiki, understandably taken aback by the sudden outburst, regained his composure and answered calmly, "That does seem possible, though honestly, I'd rephrase it…"
"What the hell are you going on about?" I asked, mostly out of uneasiness.
"Shizuo!" the brunette yelped, "Think about it – your inhuman strength! Nakamura would gladly take on a test subject like you!"
"Listen, I dunno why you're even thinking about this but-"
"But you could be able to go directly into the belly of the beast and find Izaya!"
"What?!"
Shiki, again finding the situation amusing, grinned, "Doc has a point. What crazed scientist wouldn't want to run some tests on you?"
I growled, "That doesn't mean I'm willing to put myself in danger just for that goddamn flea!"
The underground doctor didn't back down, "Come on, Shizuo! Can't you put aside your pride for just a month or two? Izaya may be in serious trouble!"
"So?!" I retorted, "Don't I get a say in this, dammit?!"
Shinra groaned, "Trust me, I get it – ya hate him, but I don't. Just please do this for me, for Celty, too. I'm sure she doesn't hate him…completely."
I growled again, ruffling my bleached hair in exasperation. God, why me?
"I mean…even if I did want to find him – and you know that I know that I don't - we don't even know where he is! Do you really expect me to go out in the middle of the street that says 'Shizuo Heiwajima – Come 'n' Get It, Nakamura!'?"
Shiki chuckled under his breath, "Somebody would get you eventually…"
"I heard that."
"Look, Shizuo-san, as far as the exact location of this facility, I don't know nothin' about that, but I'm assuming that Orihara-san was taken straight out of his own home. Perhaps if you were to cause a bit of a, um…"ruckus", you might be taken right to him."
"Why would that help anything?" I asked, "If these guys are trying to be secretive, why would they go after someone like me in the middle of all that noise?"
"You'd be surprised," Shiki shifted, "If Nakamura already has all the money and power he needs to run an underground research facility, I'm sure he's already got some corrupted city workers under his thumb. One of them might notice, call up the ol' "boss", and bam – Shizuo-san's a guinea pig."
"Hey…"
"Relax, man," he waved a hand, "And who knows? Maybe we're assuming too much – he may not be interested in you at all. Depending on his current situation, Orihara-san has probably already mentioned you in some way, shape, or form. We'll just have to play the waiting game for a bit."
"Whatever…" I mumbled, "I just don't want to be wasting my time here…"
He chuckled, "I have a good feeling about this, Shizuo-san – rest assured, we'll find what we're looking for."
"That's great," Shinra beamed, "And as a bonus, ya already got a link to the underground business world~!"
Shiki raised an eyebrow, "You're not even that deeply involved into that type of work, so how're you gonna help find him?"
He giggled in response, "Research in exchange for research has been in the family for generations~"
-xxx-
"Okey-doke, uh…height?"
"185 centimeters."
"One eighty…five. Alright, weight?"
"70 kilos."
"Ohh…um, blood type?"
"This is stupid!" I roared, snapping the pencil in my hand into pieces, "Why do you have to make a fucking profile of me?!"
After our meeting at Shiki's, we were escorted back to Shinra's apartment. Celty was tasked with going out and finding any information she could on either Izaya whereabouts or Nakamura's facility in Shinjuku. Not long after we got home, we got a call from one of Shiki's henchmen regarding some dirt on a possible location. Apparently, the guy had worked with Nakamura while he was still in the Awakusu, mentioning that he often bragged about his work.
Shinra was then told to complete a folder of my personal information, falsifying some things here and there, in case a sort of "sit-down" was to take place with one of Nakamura's goons.
The brunette sighed, "Because, in any sort of deal, you gotta give the other person some sort of summary of what their getting. That includes medical information – we don't want him to accidently kill you…"
My leg bounced in growing irritation, "Uh-huh…O."
"Hmm?"
"My blood type is O."
Shinra grinned, typing in the new information, and I groaned.
"Why are you making me do all this…?"
"Rescuing Izaya has become a main priority," he answered simply.
"But I don't wanna save him."
"I know…"
"So why me?!"
"Because…" the underground doctor swiveled his chair around, batting his hazel eyes mockingly, "Ya love me~"
"I have never wanted to punch someone so hard in the face…"
He cowered, turning back to his work, "Seriously though, without Izaya, you'd be a shell of a man."
Blood began to rush through my veins, making my right eyebrow twitch, "What the hell is that s'possed to mean, huh?!"
"I understand you're a "trooper for peace", but you really wouldn't be who you are now if it weren't for Izaya, and as much as he would hate to admit it, vice-versa."
"Sure…"
"Trust me on this – I'm sure there'll be a break in this soon, maybe even before Celty gets back. I can feel it."
Speak of the devil, only about another half an hour passed before the dullahan rushed through the door, a folder of her own under her arm. Frantically, she fumbled with her PDA to type a message.
[Shinra, Shizuo – you two really need to look at this!]
She practically shoved the folder and its contents into our hands, but opening it up, Shinra and I quickly scanned through the first page, the former's face slowly breaking into a smile.
"Well, well, well…" he mumbled, flipping through the next few pages, "Seems like someone isn't as squeaky clean as we thought. This guy obviously doesn't know the first clue about being careful while kidnapping somebody, but Celty, how'd you get this?"
[On a whim, I swung by Izaya's apartment to see if I could find anything. I did talk with some neighbors, who weren't afraid to open their door, and some claimed to hearing some thudding and sounds of struggle close by about a month ago. I walked to his door to find it unlocked, and I found those documents in shambles on his desk.]
"Huh…" I pondered as Shinra paced the floor with the precious folder in his grasp, "Is there an address or a number?"
She shrugged, [I haven't looked through all of it, at least not thoroughly. I just wanted to get it back here in one piece as quickly as possible.]
"I just don't understand how Nakamura figured Izaya out so soon…" Shinra bit his lip, still flipping pages, "It was only a matter of hours after Shiki's meeting before he had him kidnapped, so how in the world…?"
He trailed off, furrowing his brow.
"Unless…could there have been a whistleblower?"
[A what?]
"There's a possibility that someone within the Awakusu is siphoning information and money to Nakamura. It would more than likely be someone else who had been working with him but stayed loyal even after he bolted."
"You think Shiki knows?" I asked.
"Well, there's two scenarios that could've took place," Shinra explained, "One, this guy is as sneaky as Nakamura and had people covering his tracks, or two, Shiki is fully aware and wanted us to find this out ourselves."
[That last bit seems a little unrealistic.] Celty noted, [Why would an elite member of such an organization just let someone constantly make off with its valuables?]
Shinra chuckled in response, "Knowing Shiki, he probably saw this as a possible breakthrough. This person was more than likely present during Shiki's meeting with Izaya that day, notified Nakamura that they were on his tail, then had it arranged for the informant to be kidnapped. It would make sense not to mention anything about a possible squealer in the meeting with us, otherwise the guy would've caught on."
"So, what does that mean for us then? We gonna kill him?"
"Uh, no, but we're probably gonna confront him – give him a scare, and he'll lead us directly to Nakamura, and thus Izaya. I mean, really – can ya put up much of a fight against the Black Rider, the Monster of Ikebukuro, and the entire Awakusu all at once?"
Celty seemed to giggle.
[Yeah, that's true, but how do we go about cornering this "whistleblower"?]
"Celty, if you can, give Shiki a call and tell him we get it. This double-crosser should have the power to arrange a meeting with us, but if not, he can at least give us a definite location. If we were to get ahold of this information, we can use him to arrange for Shizuo's kidnapping."
"Assuming that I go along with all of this…" I muttered, crossing my arms.
"After that," Shinra continued, "Shizuo will be able to navigate his way straight to Izaya – there might just be a period of holding back and waiting. You think you can handle that, Shizuo?"
He did that stupid thing again, batting his eyes, but I only growled, waving a dismissive hand.
Grinning, he turned to resume filling my profile, "I'm positive Shiki already knows who it is, so we'll hardly have to lift a finger. He'll bring him to us by midnight."
The dullahan glanced at her PDA, shortly before punching in Shiki's number, [But…it's already 11:15…]
Shinra smiled warmly, repeating, "He'll bring him to us by midnight."
I had to laugh at Shinra's newfound "ballsiness" as Celty confusedly held the device to where her ear would be, but he seemed really confident that this plan would work. I hoped so, because I was already too deep in trying to save that flea. Still, if the Awakusu was this involved, then I guess I really didn't have a choice…
Celty gave us the thumbs-up after the conversation was over. Everything had been put into place.
A/N: SO SO SORRY THAT THIS IS SO LATE! Not to mention that the formatting for this is probably so screwed up...I apologize for any errors you guys may see, but for the time being, there's not much I can do about it because my laptop is still crashed. I can't upload this at school because it's blocked, so I had to go through a bunch a email and Google Drive BS just to be able to upload this. Wish I could say more, but I'll fix this stuff next time I get a chance - please review!