[Izaya's POV]

Of course. Everything's my fault, it's always my fault. I can never get a break, can I? It's not like I asked to be an informant, I asked to be let go the first chance I got and now look where Shiki has gotten me. With a gun to my fuckin' head by a person I don't even care about and even fucking SPARED for some reason, all because he wanted me to work on a case of miscreants that were encroaching just a bit too close on his lovely, little shithole of a home. WONDERFUL!

Izaya kept on with these thoughts all the way down the elevator, trying his best to not reach down and grab the knife that was strapped to his leg so he could stab the unconscious bastard a couple feet away from him. It was all too tempting.

I have to give him props though, he did go all the way to a different country because of what I did and used their resources to educate himself as needed. Not everyone that was so dumb at the start could improve themselves like that. Izaya spared a glance at Shara through the mirrored wall. I just wish he had used it for a better purpose than spying on me and my boyfriend and corrupting everyone around me. That used to be my job, now will people stop fucking surpassing me? This isn't even fair…

The informant kept his head down with a scowl as they got off the elevator and hurried out of the building, not wanting to be stopped by someone who noticed the blood on Nakura's clothes or the growing patch of it on Shizuo's vest either. That wouldn't be good for them at the moment.

The group continued on until they got into the cover of the park, where there would be less common-folk to notice the same thing, and Kasuka quickly sent a text of where they were so Shinra and Celty could come find them. The headless rider and doctor showed up soon, Shinra with wide eyes as he stepped off of Celty's motorcycle and looked them over, noticing the gun that was no longer concealed and once again pointed at them.

"Are you the doctor they talked about?" Shara asked behind them, getting a nod in response. He's wearing a fucking lab-coat, how could he not be the doctor? "Good. They promised you'd fix him, so get him whatever he needs and quick." the girl ordered, just making Izaya want to scowl more. What happened to the innocent little annoyance that did my hair and got me sandwiches? If I knew this was going to happen, I would have tried to get her to off herself whether I was in the mood or not.

But Shinra didn't scowl, just doing as he was told without hesitation. It didn't happen often, but Shinra did have some sense in him when it came to things like this. He went forward and checked the man's pulse, then his broken arm and the bang on his head from where it hit the bars earlier. "He'll need to be taken to my office, I can't just fix this without equipment.. Celty dear, would you mind taking him back home and getting him on a bed while we make our way there?" Shinra asked calmly, looking back at his headless companion who gave him a nod. Izaya glanced back at Shara, seeing her with a small look of intrigue as she studied the rider, but her gun was still pointed at them, too close to not be of harm to them if one of them attempted to disarm her. He'd have to be patient for another while.

Celty did as she was asked and Nakura was placed onto the back of her bike, the rider securing him with her tendrils before riding off and leaving them with their captor again, plus the doctor.

"Alright, let's go then.. I'll lead the way." Shinra muttered after a tense moment of silence. He began his way through the park again, seeing as his apartment was located on the other side and they all followed, Shara hiding her gun when the occasional passer-by became present. There weren't a whole lot at this time of night and it was obvious that that was the point, but he could tell everyone was wishing it was more around noon instead of midnight, so they could have a larger sense of security at all times.

They finally made it out into the open and Shara put her gun away fully, swapping it for what looked like a steak knife that she hid mostly within her jacket sleeve so no one would notice as she kept it handy. They all exchanged a look after noticing and kept quiet, just following closely behind Shinra and trying to push ahead of Shara as much as possible in the process.

It took the small gang almost half an hour to travel to Shinra's apartment together and for every single person it felt too long, all of them hunched over just a bit more than they had been at the beginning of the journey and all of them trying to sneak glances at Shara as well, avoiding her piercing eyes as they seemed to be able to catch every one of their movements. They got into the building and huddled together in the elevator, this one, sadly, being smaller than the previous one, and just as quickly trying to shuffle out of it to get away from her again.

The moment they were inside the apartment and allowed to sit on the couches, actually instructed to by Shara, except for Shinra of course, they all took a deep breath. They weren't out of danger of course, but they could keep just as close an eye on her as she was doing to them this way.

Shinra hurried off to check on Celty and their 'patient' leaving them without a person to be leverage in the situation. Izaya's ruby eyes traveled over to Kasuka's trying to have one of their semi-mental conversations so they could both calm down, but it didn't work. Both of them just kept looking more and more worried as the moments once again dragged on. Dong-Yul was avoiding everyone's gaze and Shizuo was quiet as well, moving when permitted by Shara to get his own wound treated at Shinra's request.

There was total silence around them until suddenly there was a loud, constant sound that seemed to disturb Shara. What had been a persistent and interval-heard noise, beeping of a heart monitor, had turned into the one that every TV drama would make just too long and too annoying for it's own good, though this time it was real. Shara had jumped when the noise suddenly changed and even turned to go down the hallway, but instead stayed put with both her knife and gun out, worry on her face as she shouted to Shinra, asking what had happened.

Shinra hadn't yelled back, obviously busy with whatever it was he was doing down the hall, but the constant sound made Izaya perk up. The wounds that he'd received hadn't been bad enough to die from, at least not to Izaya's knowledge, and he knew that Shinra had fixed people with a lot worse, them coming out fully healed and ready to go. Which meant... Shinra had helped them instead. He'd let Nakura die.

Chapter 55!

I know, this chapter is slightly shorter than the last one and I didn't tie everything up completely like I planned, but I went into more detail on here than I had anticipated in my head.

Either way, we're really close to the end of this arc and I hope you guys like the little cliff-hanger I left for you~

I know I do these too often, but in this arc there is almost never a good place to stop just because I keep thinking of this as a cliche movie and it just all runs together like one with no stops in my head, so I need to create ones on here.

A much bigger challenge than one would think.

I hope you all liked this chapter! Favorite, follow and review to see more!