Dark Side of Wonderland

Hakkan-Jigoku

Halo Twenty-Two: Hakkan-Jigoku:

The following are the last few days of Orihara Izaya's life. Details vary from witness to witness. However, they could all agree on three things. One, Orihara hadn't been in his apartment for days. Two, he had been acting strange. Three, he went missing three days before his estimated time of death. Here is what we could gather.

Arbuda Jigoku

Kururi says...

"He kept saying weird things. He kept talking about how we should get our sister and get out of Shinjuku. We don't have a sister."

Why would he think something like that?

"Shit, if I know."

Language!

"Sorry. I don't know."

When was the last time you heard from him?

"The eleventh. I don't know."

It started with the old hags. Izaya had locked himself away in a cheap hotel room. She wasn't done with him. That barricade wasn't going to hold over the door. But it was still better than ending up in the hospital. He knew what going to happen next. They've done this before. Still, that didn't make it any better.

She could be out that door right now. Izaya held up a knife he stole from a soup kitchen. That wasn't going to do much.

This was not going to do. She was going to smoke him out. This was going to be the grand finale to her game after all. She knew what she had to do.

Izaya lifted his head when he heard scratching at the door. No... The information broker, or rather former information broker, shook his head.

"No... No, no, no, no," he muttered to himself. The scratching at the door grew louder. It began to sound like someone was kicking at the door.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Izaya held out his knife. He tried to breathe to get himself to calm down. Don't give in. Don't give in.

Suddenly, his phone rang.

Izaya whipped his head around. No... Don't tell him...

His hand seemed to move on its own. Izaya tried to resist but to no avail.

"H-H-H-Hello?" he asked. The laughter of a little girl filled his ear. The former information broker looked confused.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"I'm right behind you!" a childlike sing-songy voice said. Izaya's eyes widened as he froze. He turned his head.

She grinned at him. Her mouth was nothing but teeth. Teeth that just got bigger and bigger. Izaya stumbled backward.

"Gah!" he cried. His nerves felt like they were on fire. Izaya huddled up into a ball on the floor. He whimpered in pain.

"Ow," he said through gritted teeth. But then he froze.

He wasn't alone.

There went that giggling again. Izaya whipped his head around. There she was again. This time, she looked like the murder victim of J-chan.

"Hey," she said. "It's me." Izaya scrambled to sitting up. J-chan gave him a little pout.

"What's wrong, Izaya-chan?" she asked. "Aren't you having fun?"

"No!" he shouted. He covered his ears and lowered his head.

"Please leave me alone!" the man pleaded. "Go away! Go away!"