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Izaya ran as fast as his legs would allow, yet he still couldn't outrun Shizuo for long. He'd have to find a way to escape, quickly. He looked around and found an alley with walls that Izaya knew he could climb.
He ran to the alley. Shizuo smirked, knowing he trapped the flea. When he turned though, Izaya was gone. He growled and threw a sign on the ground in anger, the flea escaped, again.
He angrily marched away, fists clenched. It was strange to be chasing Izaya again, but what was strange was that Izaya was definitely in no shape to be running around like that. He hated to admit it, but he was worried. He was dating him at one point so he tried to use that as an excuse.
As he was walking he heard the rumble of a motorcycle get closer and closer. Celty. She parked next to him and brought out her phone. 'I got the kids back home, Chi refused to go to the hospital so Manami took her to her house and is taking care of her. She probably doesn't have long...'
Shizuo stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I don't know how to feel about that. Sure she was insane but that's all thanks to the stupid flea. But even then she didn't need to go this far." He groaned and kicked a nearby trash can. Celty would have sighed but she didn't exactly have a head. She picked up the trash can and put the trash back in it.
'He changed right? So why is he acting like he didn't? You and I both know he's different. We need to find Sakura and Yuu-chan, oh and please call Shinra for me too. Tell him everyone's okay.'
Shizuo sighed and pulled out his phone. "Shinra? Yeah Celty is with me. We're all fine. Izaya got away....yeah....do you know where your stupid assistant is? Okay, bye." He stuffed his phone back into his pocket, not looking pleased. "He doesn't know where she is, but he's glad you're okay and all that gross mushy crap."
Celty nodded, wearing her helmet helped with being able to say things without actually saying them. 'Well then get on my bike, we'll search for them together.' Shizuo was about to respond but was stopped by a tiny shout.
"Aunt Celty! Mister Shizuo!" Yuu yelled from inside a car. Sakura sighed in relief when she saw the two.
"Hey guys! We're looking for Iza, Shizuo I'm sorry for not telling you about him but he knew you'd hate him if you found out. He really wanted to make amends but didn't know how." She stopped herself from rambling and gestured for the two to get in the car.
Celty pointed at her bike as a way to ask 'what about this?' Sakura just smiled and said, "Strap it to the back." Soon enough the pair was in the car and they were off to find Izaya.
"I don't blame you Sakura, I just feel used. He knew who I was and what he did, it's just hard to think it wasn't a trick or a setup." Celty was confused, it sounded like it went deeper than just Izaya lying about his identity to trick them to be his friends.
"I'm sorry but he really does love- I mean care about you all."
It wasn't hard for the dullahan to connect the dots.
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Izaya waited for Shizuo to leave the alley, he was hidden on a nearby rooftop. He was waiting to make sure Shizuo had stopped pursuing him before he began to head home. His old home, not the one he had created with Yuu and Sakura.
Sure, he felt bad about leaving Yuu, but he wasn't fit to be a father. Someone like him wasn't capable of change. The only thing he was good at was making people's lives a living hell. He was only meant to be a dumb flea. An annoying bug that only brought misery.
He walked down the streets of Ikebukuro and took a few last glances at the place before he left the city. This was the right thing to do. It was the only thing he was good for. He pulled out his phone and dialed a very familiar number. "Hello? Shiki? Guess who's back!"
His tone was happy, he was happy. Even if he wasn't happy, he probably would have tricked himself into feeling happy. He didn't want to suffer anymore, that was why he hated feelings in the first place.
He wasn't going to be held back by his emotions anymore. He was going to go back to being an informant, back to messing with people, back to being Izaya Orihara. To anyone who looked close enough, they would notice that his nonchalant smile didn't quite meet his eyes. He proceeded to tell Shiki that he was going back to work as an informant. He was taking his old job back.
He looked up at his apartment building after ending his call with Shiki. Later that day Shiki would send him an email with information on his first job. He walked into the building and went to his apartment. He already called the landlord and did the proper paperwork, nobody was taking the apartment so the landlord was happy to bring his old tenant back, only asking a couple questions about his faked death.
No body was found so it was very easy to believe that Izaya was still alive. His death was only an assumption, nobody had any proof that it had happened. Izaya hummed as he sat on his chair and unpacked his laptop and logged into his newest account, Himi.
Himi has logged on
Himi: This chat hasn't had any activity since Kanra-san called Chrome-san Izaya. Izaya is that man on the news right? The one people thought had died?
Taro Tanaka has logged on
Taro Tanaka: Yeah...he is alive though. Anyways, how are you? It's been a while.
Saika has logged on
Saika: Yes, how have you all been?
Himi: My son has new parents and my boyfriend finally had enough of me...
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Celty decided to log into the group chat while sitting in the back of Sakura's car with Yuu. You looked over at her phone and said "Ah! I think I saw papa on there before!" That caught everyone's attention. Celty typed a response, 'Really?'
"Yeah! He said he uses it to make friends."
Sakura would have looked back if she wasn't driving but she couldn't. "By any chance are you talking about a group chat? Possibly with people named Taro Tanaka, Saika, Settin, and others?"
Celty typed something on her phone and showed it to Yuu. "Aunt Celty says yes. She wants to know how you know about it."
"Izaya told me about it, we planned on having me take over the Kanra account but someone else got to it before I did. He wanted to see if people wanted him back....I guess we have our answer though." She glared at Shizuo before looking back at the road.
"Wait, which one is the flea? We can see if he's online!" Shizuo tried to ignore Sakura's glare as the spoke. He wasn't going to be intimidated by some doctor.
"He has two accounts, Chrome and Kanra. He refused to tell me his new one...but I'm sure I can figure it out if I scroll through the chats, I can log in as Kanra and look at all of the people to see which one is most likely to be Izaya." She pulled over and pulled out her phone.
Celty watched the current chat as Sakura did her investigation. Yuu decided to play patty cake with Shizuo out of boredom. The wait wasn't long though. "Wow it's so easy to figure out who he is." She pointed at Himi's messages in the current conversation. "Himi said her son has new parents and her boyfriend was tired of her. Who do we know who had a son and a boyfriend?" She looked at Yuu when she said son and at Shizuo when she said boyfriend.
Shizuo looked away at Sakura's accusatory stare. "So this Himi person is the flea, great..."
Sakura smirked and looked at Celty. Celty immediately knew what the doctor was thinking. "Let's see if I can find anything that can lead us to where Izaya is right now. Ooooh, awwww he bragged about how cute Yuu-chan was a lot. Oh what's this? 'My boyfriend is so nice.' and "He's handsome and caring.' Ha! He said you had a temper."
Shizuo got embarrassed with each word Sakura said. "It's not my fault he's a good actor. You can't blame me entirely for not trusting him. I didn't even yell! He made idiotic assumptions..." He grumbled. "Now look at the mess we're in."
Yuu was really confused, what did his papa do to lose papa Shizuo's trust? He knew his dad did bad things but he didn't know what those bad things were. He frowned. "Papa Shizuo, do you hate papa now?"
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Chihiro tosse and turned on the bed she was laying on. She was in agonizing pain but kept refusing to go to the hospital. "They can't save me, I already told my doctor I wouldn't go back." She could barely talk.
Manami frowned and put a damp washcloth on Chi's forehead. "I don't understand why though. You're dying and you don't even sound sad."
Chi smiled and held Manami's hand, her own was shaking violently. "Because I did what I wanted to do. I got to hurt Izaya and manipulate him, just like what he did to us. I got my revenge" She began to cough.
"Don't speak! Please..." Manami was crying at this point, she didn't want chi to die. She wanted to blame Izaya for all of this. It was his fault after all, but she couldn't bring herself to be mad anymore. He changed, he apologized, she knew that he felt bad and regretted what he had done to them.
"It's fine, but don't shed tears for me. I don't want to cry on my deathbed. I want to see your smiling face, we are friends after all....don't cry for me, but please remember me. That's all I can ask of you." She continued to cough, her sickness was getting worse by the second.
Manami tried to smile but was only met with more tears. "I'm sorry, I just can't be happy when someone is dying right in front of me."
Chi sighed, she expected that answer. Manami seemed like she didn't care about people but she felt a connection with the dying girl in front of her. They were both tricked and manipulated by Izaya after all. Chihiro managed to sit up in her bed. "Hey Manami, can I ask you one last thing? Consider it my final wish of sorts."
Manami nodded, "Of course, what is it?"
"I want....I want you to make sure that no girl has to go through what we went through. I want you to protect them from people like Izaya." She was cut off by her own coughing, this time blood came out.
Manami rushed to get a rag and water. "Please don't push yourself, I would have done that without you asking me."
Chi just laughed weakly, her whole body was shaking. "I just want to make sure this never happens again. They were right, revenge is never the answer. Hate only brings more hate after all. It's a never-ending cycle of anger and suffering."
"I wanted revenge too, but why did you do this if you knew it was wrong?" Manami couldn't stop her tears, she kept wiping them away but they kept streaming down her face.
"I was blinded by my own hate. He basically killed me after all. He's the reason we are here right now though. You didn't kill yourself after all, you're alive. In a way, he saved you..." Her eyes slowly closed. Her smile never left her face.
Manami only cried harder. "No, please don't go!" Her voice cracked.
"I'm glad you're alive, stay alive for a long time Manami..."
And just like that, the girl never moved again.
-Sky