Chapter 73: Jump

Silence returned to the library, but not enough to call it safe. The tension was high and so was the probability of a member of Jo's hoes having stayed behind to listen in on their following conversation.

A glance was cast towards Shizuo and his wish thankfully quickly understood as the blond headed for the window.

The school's entrance was on the west side of the building, just as the window.

Eyes glued to the zombie infected street below Shizuo searched for the bastards.

And sure enough they turned up.

One after the other they slipped out of the door.

Kadota was slowly but surely heaving himself up from the ground. Judging from the way he was holding his shoulder Izaya figured the members of Jo's hoes had done something with it.

Maybe they kicked him or something similarly cruel.

Namie had yet to move. Neither her limbs nor her eyes had dared to execute even the slightest motion. It was odd for the usually so proactive scientist and caused Izaya's guts to churn.

Vorona was still on the ground.

Knocked out? He couldn't tell.

And Karisawa- Walking over quietly Izaya looked at her strained face.

She was still out of it.

"They are gone." Shizuo suddenly announced, and it was as though someone had blown the life back into the empty vessel that was the library.

Kadota rushed over to Vorona. Careful hands slipped across her head and turned it with as much care as possible.

"Vorona, hey-"

"What happened?" Izaya asked what used to be his sarcastic secretary.
"Izaya-" she started, but her voice and consciousness seemed to fail in feeding her words as she returned to deafening silence.

Namie seemed lost.

"Kadota?" Izaya called, redirecting the question into a more fruitful direction.

Glancing across his shoulder he quickly acted on his duty.

"They were suddenly there. I didn't see them enter the building. The bastard from the bridge wanted to shoot Namie, talked about how hard a life without a cocksleeve was, and Vorona got in the way-"

Hurried motions jerked Izaya around as he steered towards the knocked out assassin.

"Was she shot?" The question was answered quicker than Izaya liked. Having seemed so peaceful earlier he now saw the true horror of what had happened here.

"It grazed her from what I can tell, but she is losing blood-" The angle in which Vorona had laid on the ground had both restricted Izaya's sight as well as luckily put pressure onto an otherwise profusely bleeding wound.

She had been safe as long as she laid down with the floor pressed to the wound, but now that had changed.

"Shizuo the tools from yesterday, get them for me," Izaya called quickly and Shizuo moved without question.

"But Jo's hoes-" Kadota tried, but Izaya negated his doubts straight away.

"They already stated their conditions and took Shinra as security, they have no reason to watch or contain us in any way."

Hands flew across the wound, the torn skin was inspected and the head moved with utmost care.

Shizuo returned faster than Izaya expected and within seconds he held bandaids, a string and needle as well as disinfectant in his hands.

"What happened then?" Izaya inquired further while Kadota proactively kept Vorona's head still as Izaya stitched the wound.

"I wanted to check on her and the bastard kicked my shoulder," he announced between tight lips and Izaya's eyes flickered upwards for a second.

"Bad?"

"I will survive."

A serious glance scanned said shoulder and spotted blotches of blood slowly but surely staining the inside of the bandaid.

How did things get this out of hand?

A soft hint of frustration grazed Izaya's mind as he looked at the despair around him.

Kadota was injured worse than he let on, Vorona suffering a concussion at least, Karisawa was down and Namie-

"Hey, now would be the time to save your lover, don't you think?" he called a bit bitterly, but the scientist didn't even do as much as flinch.

"Izaya-" Shizuo called his attention back to the really important matters at hand and he refocused on the wound he was trying to close.

From what he could tell this woman had been exceedingly lucky.

A bullet to the head, even a graze could end up deadly. The fact that she was still breathing came close to a miracle.

"Will she make it?" Worry read in Kadota's eyes and Izaya's lips tightened into a thin line.

"From what I can tell she passed out from the force of the bullet hitting her head. She most likely has a concussion- we can only hope it's a light case."

When it came to Vorona, Izaya was done. The wound was taken care of as well as he was capable of.

Now it was Kadota's turn.

Swift as a breeze his hands moved over, tearing at the top layer of the bandaid.

"Ah, I'm fine," Kadota quickly argued but Izaya knew better.

"Shut up, he kicked you. I know Shinra had to sew the wound in your shoulder shut."

Layer after layer became undone and all too soon Izaya looked at what he had expected. The kick to the healing wound had torn the stitches apart and offset the skin where it was supposed to heal.

Sometimes Kadota was too good for his own good.

Quickly reaching for the disinfectant he poured some over the needle he had just used before touching up what Shinra had sewn.

This was bad.

This entire situation.

The only doctor they could count on had been taken. Namie was here but out of it. Vorona, Karisawa- hell even Kadota was useless when it came down to it.

The priest had been right when he said he didn't need luggage to carry around. This ground was anything but glorious.

"Why?"

Namie suddenly whispered quietly into the silence of the library. Izaya wasn't even quite sure if he was the one being addressed, but turned nonetheless.

Stare shifting she finally met his eyes, but hers seemed awfully dead compared to Izaya's.

"Why did you return?" She repeated but Izaya didn't need her to specify what she was talking about.

The shot.

His injection of a possible antidote and, or, infection with the exact same virus.
"Are you going to shoot me again?" The question was of a sarcastic nature of course. Neither did he want to give her any weird ideas nor was he expecting her to act on his suggestion.

Would be odd right now to shoot the only one apart from her that had not sustained critical injuries, and she seemed to recognize the stupidity of her question as she kept quiet.

"... what do we do now...?" Kadota whispered into the dead silence of the room.

Wrapping the last layer of the fresh bandaid he had just adjusted on Kadota's freshly sewn wound, Izaya cast a short glance towards his old friend.

"You mean because of the hoes?"

"... let's leave, just leave this place."

The whisper came as quiet as it was unexpected.

Freezing in their entirety both Kadota as well as Shizuo seemed quite disturbed by Namie's suggestion.

The woman was done.

Physically. Mentally.

Something in her had simply broken ever since Karisawa was shot and now after Vorona had enacted a similar sacrifice it seemed even worse.

"We can´t." Izaya stated, perfectly sober- but that only seemed to flare Namie's madness.

"Why the hell can't we?" It was scary, the amount of life that the rage called to her face the moment Izaya spoke against her idea.

Shizuo seemed mad too. Izaya could see the way his palms curled into fists and his voice dropped low.

"Are you seriously going to abandon Shinra?" Shizuo asked, and it was not a question. It was a statement, one that should have shown her what it was that she was suggesting.

But it seemed she was fully aware of the consequences of her words as her eyes merely glared. "Then what do you expect us to do?!"

She was loud. She was freaking out. Within a glance all three of them knew what her state of mind was, and Izaya raised from the ground.

One, two steps were executed as he didn't need much more to approach Namie.

The slap across her face came unexpectedly.

Palm raising to her cheek Namie's expression mirrored an awfully shallow one as she glanced at the floor like there was nothing more interesting inside this room.

"Get a grip." Izaya hissed lowly. Anger was an emotion he barely felt, frustration, yes, a kind of annoyance over not working plans, sure, but actual anger, the one that made him backhand Namie across her face was something he rarely enjoyed.

Pure malice must have reflected in his eyes.

He was not having this bullshit.

Not now.

Everyone was down, he could deal with physical wounds, with psychopathic enemies, but a mental breakdown was something they had no resources left for.

Slowly, as if trying to pat a stray kitten, Izaya crouched down in front of the woman.

"So what if Vorona got shot? She will wake up again. We are five people. Able to act and think. There are thousands of possibilities to handle this situation and you know it." Words, words, words- Izaya wasn't really sure if Namie was even listening.

Her gaze was far.

Much farther than he liked it to.

It wasn't even like he couldn't understand Namie's situation, but they couldn't afford this right now.

Rising to his feet he walked to the window.

"But if you want to keep drowning yourself in self loathing-" he continued, and pried it open. Curtains waved and brushed across staples of books next to it as he turned to look at his secretary. A hand was lifted and pointed towards the street. "There is the exit."

"Izaya-" Kadota called and his body moved, but a simple hand, not holding much force, kept him back.

Shizuo.

Looking out the window Namie seemed to have understood the assignment at least. Disbelief and mild confusion grazed her face as she glanced at Izaya and the window respectively.

Shizuo remained silent.

Izaya was obviously provoking her.

He knew Izaya didn't want her to die. After all this time taking on her hatred for killing her brother Shizuo knew he wasn't just about to tell her to kill herself. He didn't really know what Izaya's goal was by asking Namie to kill herself, but at this point in time he trusted Izaya.

He trusted that he had a plan that needed this kind of action.

A few agonizingly slow seconds passed as Namie neither talked nor moved.

"What are you waiting for? Your brother is waiting for you on the other side. I'm sure he would be happy to have you join." Izaya's voice was the only instance filling the room.

And Namie, Namie was just lost. The idea seemed somewhat tempting. All of this- everything that had happened and what might still happen- she could end it. Right now.

It was a tempting idea, really- and yet… it was not what she wanted. It wasn't what she was going to do.

"Close the window you psycho." Namie whispered before getting up from the ground. Whipping at her cheek as if she could eradicate the backhand across her face she glared at Izaya.

"Before or after you jump?" Izaya asked, and Namie frowned.

"Before."

Karisawa had sacrificed herself for her well-being. And now Vorona too. Namie was a woman made of logic and convenience- ending her life now when two people had almost lost their own to keep her safe seemed like an awfully foolish choice.

"You sure that's a good idea? I would rather bury your corpse than dragging a living one around with me." Involuntary goosebumps traveled down her back as she glared at the former informant.

"You sound like that goddamned priest."

"He wasn't too wrong."

Her eyes narrowed at the comment- but at the end of the day she was a rational person- and if anyone understood Izaya's words as simple facts, then it was her.

Because he was right.

Taking a deep breath she skipped on retorting anything in return and moved over to Vorona. Knees hitting the cold ground she inspected the amount of blood that had collected on the ground.

It was a lot. But less than what Karisawa had lost the day before at least.

"How is Vorona?" she asked, as she couldn't really tell anything from the already covered wound. Izaya had been the one to treat her and so the question was directed at him.

"Stable from what I can tell. She lost a fair amount of blood but the bullet only grazed the side of her head." Pointing to his own temple Izaya gave the exact location and Namie nodded.

"Good." Looking towards Kadota next her eyes stuck at his shoulder. "And you are okay?"

Kadota nodded quickly. "How about you?"

A funny question.

Touching her cheek once more the woman swallowed before showing a tired smile.

"I just hope people don't make a habit of punching me in the face." She didn't even need to look at Shizuo for him to understand that she wasn't only talking about Izaya's backhand but also the way he had punched her the previous day.

Despite his rage he had held back somewhat or else her head might have gone flying. But there was still a bluish yellowed bruise to be spotted right across her cheekbone.

But funnily enough despite Shizuo's reluctance to hurt anyone, this time he felt not a shred of guilt when looking at what he had done.

"If you remain sane I see no issue," he announced coldly and Namie snorted.

She was aware that she had tried to kill Izaya, and no reason in the world would have been an acceptable one for such an action.

"You were enjoying this weren't you?" Namie asked, addressing Izaya now.

A glance was cast and his arm raised to show the grazed wound on his skin. "View it as payback for my arm," he announced with a smile that didn't really suit the situation, but fit Izaya unlike anyone else.

He had been lucky.

All were aware of that.

If Namie had aimed any better, or the show had been slightly adjusted to hit an important vein-

"... why did you return?" the woman asked awfully affected. "I shot you."

But Izaya merely shrugged- "And?"

It was an answer only Izaya could give and Namie felt her own lips curl into a disbelieving smile.

"You truly are a psycho," she sighed, "But that's a good thing for once."

Seeing as Namie was still wearing nothing but pants and a bra whose left strap had been cut, Kadota made an effort to sheath himself out of his shirt.

"How so?" he asked, while handing the fabric over.

It seemed it was only then that Namie noticed her attire as she took the piece of cloth with a glance of gratitude. A sigh played along her lips as she pulled it onto her frame. "Because it's usually psychos and borderline autistic people that try the unthinkable."

Buttons were closed and the woman returned to her professional state.

Her palm was extended towards Izaya and Izaya looked at her.

He knew what she wanted.

She wanted to take a look at his arm. At the spot he injected himself with. Probably take some blood samples too.

She was a scientist after all, Izaya was currently the most interesting subject in the world when it came down to it.

And yet-

"Before that, can you promise me you won't freak out?" Izaya asked, and Namie's hand twitched with hesitation. Same for Kadota as he had rarely heard Izaya warn someone before he said the most ridiculous things.

Even Shizuo shifted, but more because he already had a rough idea of what it was that Izaya was going to show them.

"They took our gun so she can't shoot you again at least." Kadota suddenly announced while side eyeing Namie and the woman shot him a quick glare.

Izaya merely snorted, "Good to know." and with that he scrolled up his sleeve.

The area of injection was nothing visually astounding, really.

But the bite wound was.

And the moment Namie and Kadota laid their eyes upon it they froze.

to be continued~

Well, well, well good thing she can't shoot him anymore lmfao