The Happiest of Man

Chapter 10

“So, I’ll finally find out what’s wrong with me. Can’t say that I’m excited, but it’s better than nothing.” Izaya was always talking big; he never allowed his true emotions to seep through unless no one was able to see him or hear his voice; to see his changing facial expressions and hear the tone of his voice that may as well be marked with anger or even loneliness. He was most comfortable when no one was around to witness the other side of him.

Before the doctor as he sat himself down on a seat that was far from desirable, he smiled calmly, his lips curved in a careful line as he awaited the news that he had been dreading for quite some time. Although he suspected there was a cure, he still felt anxious despite how his appearance told the doctors a completely different story.

“You’ve been here for about a month now.”

“That part is a bit obvious, isn’t it?” The informant forced out a chuckle as the doctor continued; voice slow yet there was a certain unease to it.

“I’m sorry to say that you have Spinocerebellar ataxia.”

Izaya didn’t particularly care for diseases, especially since he never thought he’d ever catch anything serious. When it came to others with such illnesses, he never relatively gotten himself involved, so it didn’t matter. He did a bit of some research before to learn more about the human mind and the body since he wanted to know how fragile they can be. By the end of the day, he shut off his computer, leaned back into his chair, and said, “Well, it’s not me with the disease, at least!”

He didn’t need apologies. He just needed to know one thing.

“There’s no need to apologize. Just tell me if it’s curable.”

“I’m afraid that it’s not.”

“Are you sure? With the advanced technology of this time, I’m sure half of the diseases are curable at this point.”

“Not this one. People have been searching for a cure for years.”

“And they have yet to find one, I see.”

His smile was on the verge of falling apart as the doctor continued to speak, explaining what will happen to his body as the disease progresses.

- -

“Sorry, Tom-san.”

“Haha, it’s no problem. It doesn’t hurt anymore, so don’t worry about it.”

The two were walking down the hallway of the hospital. Tom appeared slightly different as a bandage covered a portion of his nose. Luckily, it wasn’t broken and Tom was very grateful of that. 

Before anything had occurred, Shizuo was looking at the ground of the office. It wasn’t something particularly interesting although there are people in this world who would have screamed at the sight or felt repulsed by what they were seeing. There was a mousetrap set upon the tiled floor right near the corner of a desk in the room and right in the trap laid a dead mouse.

“What is it, Shizuo?” The moment Tom had asked that, Shizuo got up, literally bumping his head against Tom’s nose who was looking downward and over the blond man’s head. His nose bled immensely from the impact as Shizuo was found apologizing and grabbing a taxi to go to the hospital after that. 

“Even just a light bump can hurt.” Tom laughed as Shizuo rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t feel like laughing or even smiling right now. He had hurt the man who has helped him get a job. Without this job, he doubt he would be living as comfortably as he does now.

“I’ll make it up to you.” He said, his tone of voice not carrying a single ounce of joy.

“Accidents happen.” Tom replied, giving Shizuo a reassuring smile.

The blond gave his head a brief nod before he tried to lighten up his mood, however it didn’t work out in the end.

“Tom-san, I’ll meet you outside.”

“Huh? Uh, sure. I’ll see you downstairs.” Once Shizuo could no longer see his head full of dreads, he made his move as he approached the thin man, waiting in front of the elevator. He went against ripping out the nearest door off its hinges. If he were to do anything dramatic, he knew that it wouldn’t affect just him, but the patients who are hoping to recover soon as well. More than anything, he didn’t want to hurt people. Doing anything to disturb their rest would go against his morals.

“Izaya! You came back despite my warning, haaah?”