There was just too quiet. And still, people were talking more than ever. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. And something was missing. Something important. Or someone. The city was definitely not the same.

Crimson red eyes went from one person to the other, searching through the crowd to find what or who was missing. The small voices between everyone was almost too much whisper for this man to understand. He stood completely still, frozen to listen very carefully to the large crowd of people, listening to their every whispering word that came out of their mouths.

"Heiwajima..."

Crimson red eyes locked on a group of students standing not far away in a split second, when that one word made it through to him. He now focused completely on those students, blocking everyone else's voices out of his mind, listening as careful as possible to whatever the students said to each other.

The whisper from everyone else made it almost impossible to hear every single word. He only caught a few words clear enough but those words were enough for him to create a meaning of what they were talking about.

"Dead..."

Crimson red eyes widened in a split second, his heart making a sound, a sound he hoped he was the only one to hear. He didn't realize it, he didn't even think about it. He just did it. His legs moved on their own, slowly moving closer to the group of students. He tried to stay calm, tried to return to the person people knew him as; Orihara Izaya, the informant and the flea.

The student's words became clearer as he approached them slowly.

"Heiwajima Shizuo?"

The boy sounded surprised as he spoke, but his surprise was soon taken over by an even bigger one, when he laid eyes on the raven haired informant slowly approaching him and his group of fellow students. He tried talking but his mouth went dry and his mind went blank in a split second, making him unable to utter a single word to warn his friends. Instead, he just stared terrified at the man not far away, making the other students curious in a split second and making them turn to look at whatever made their friend so speechless themselves.

They all stuttered, trying to find words when their eyes laid on the raven haired informant now standing in front of them, the curiosity showing in the man's entire face.

"Ne, you caught my attention. All I'm asking for is information about whatever happened to Heiwajima Shizuo. Don't worry; I will pay you."

The wide Cheshire smirk spread slowly across the known informant, making him look as sneaky as ever. This always happened whenever he found something extremely interesting, something that made him lock all his attention to that subject. It was only a few things that made him do that. But one thing was sure; when it was about the monster of Ikebukuro, he would always be interested.

One of the braver boys in the group stepped forward, pulling enough courage to himself to actually speak loud enough, so his voice wouldn't drown in all other citizen's. The city was noisy, way more noisy than it had ever been and yet... it was so quiet.

"How much will you pay us for our information?"

The fear in his voice was obvious, making the smirk on Izaya's face grow wider. It was almost fun and he almost forgot how important this actually was to him. Moving his hand down the one pocket on the fur coat, he pulled his wallet up and quickly searched through to find how many money he was willing to give for the information. He handed the money, after finding enough, to the boy, who was brave enough to speak. His surprised look in his face didn't make the informant's smirk grow wider. No, it had the opposite affect. It faded.

"If that is enough, I would like to have my part of the deal. Information please. Now. I'm a busy man."

The boy quickly moved the money into his pocket and nodded. He swallowed thickly and prepared to tell everything he knew. It was, after all, more money than he ever had had in his entire life.

"Well all we know is that Heiwajima hasn't been seen outside for pretty much a week now. People are saying he's been shot and may or may not be dead. We don't know much else, other than he's probably dead."

Izaya froze after the word 'dead'. That was all information he got? That the great Heiwajima Shizuo might be dead? Izaya knew him better than anyone and he knew he couldn't die from only being shot. But since the monster hadn't been seen outside for a week, something definitely had to be wrong. Something horrible.

Without thanking them or even say anything else to the students, he turned on his heels and quickly walked in another direction. His heart was beating like mad, his crimson red eyes widened just a bit as he walked down the streets of Ikebukuro, his legs shaking slightly. Why was this bothering him so much? It wasn't like he liked the man. No, in fact he hated him more than ever. That man wasn't human; he was a damn monster that was never supposed to exist. Then why the hell was this bothering him so much?

Finally reaching his destination, he quickly knocked on the door, several times to make sure the people inside would have heard it. Why was he shaking? Why did he feel this way? It was only a god damn rumor and he was still nervous? Tch... this was really not like him, not at all like him.

The door finally opened after what felt like forever and revealed the brown haired and glass wearing underground doctor, Kishitani Shinra. The doctor didn't open the door completely, keeping it just open enough for his head to peep out and look at the informant. A wide and cheerful smile tried to spread across his face, but his face showed how nervous and somewhat sad he was.

"Ah, Izaya-kun. What brings you here?"

The suspicion was already build up around the man, making Izaya think he had some kind of big secret hidden. Which only made him interested, his crimson red eyes narrowing slightly as he took a step forward, the door slowly closing just a little bit, signalizing he wasn't allowed to enter.

"Shinra~ I simply wanted to visit my old friend. And also..." His expression quickly turned serious, making a few sweat drops appear on the man's forehead "...you know something about what happened to Shizu-chan. I've asked around and apparently he's been shot. So now, I want to know exactly what happened and you, my friend, are going to tell me everything. Down to last piece of information."

Shinra swallowed thickly. He had to lie to the man. He had to keep everything a secret. But either way he had to let the man inside. Letting a deep sigh pass his lips, he finally opened the door to let the impatient informant inside. But no matter what, he couldn't let the man know the truth.

Izaya entered within a second. His curiosity had awakened and he was insanely curious. And for some reason... worried. It was so weird and he didn't feel right. He gave the first room a quick looking. Empty. He then turned and looked at the underground doctor, giving him a serious look.

"Now then... Tell me everything and don't let out any details. I want to know everything."

Shinra hesitated for just a moment before he quickly walked into the living room instead, taking longer and quicker steps as he passed the patient rooms and making sure the informant would follow him all the way. He forced the raven to sit down on the couch and fixed his glasses just shortly, before he did the same; sat down on the couch next to the raven haired informant.

"Okay fine. I will tell you everything I can." He paused, collecting his hands in his lap and turned to look seriously at the informant. "Yes, it is true that Shizuo-san was shot. It happened 6 days ago and since then no one has seen him outside. Now, I don't know who shot him or where but I do know he has to be either extremely wounded or... gone, since he hasn't been outside. But that is all I know. I don't know anything else."

Of course he was lying about the last thing. He knew much more. In fact, he knew everything. But he couldn't tell the whole truth to anyone; especially not to this man.

Izaya listened carefully, taking note of everything the man said in his mind. There had to be more than that. It just couldn't be true that no one knew anything about what happened to the monster of the city. Someone had to have been digging deeper or someone had to know everything. Someone like Shinra.

"Shinra... is that really everything you know? I can feel you're keeping something a secret and I want to know what it is. Please tell me. I'm even willing to pay you for your information. I just really want to know everything."

"Why?"

Izaya froze. The question was bound to be asked. But he didn't know the answer. Why did he want to know? Of course, he could always use the excuse "Because I'm an informant and it's my job to know everything about everything and everyone". And so, he used that excuse, saying it with as much of a convincing tone as possible.

Shinra sighed and lowered his heard, a light from the window making his glasses almost turn white. Of course he had to expect that answer.

"I'm sorry, Izaya-kun, but I'm afraid I can't tell you."

Izaya stood up quickly, making the man jump in surprise. He knew the underground doctor wouldn't take money if he offered him any so it was just not worth a shot. He couldn't get any other information... right now. He could come back and investigate himself. Yes. That would be worth a shot.

"Fine. If you won't tell me, I will just leave. But I will come back and bother you until you tell me everything you know."

And by that he turned and quickly walked out of the living room and moved towards the exit. But something caught his attention when he passed one of the few patient rooms. The door was just slightly closed, leaving him to be able to just quickly look inside. He stopped right in front of the door and looked inside, his crimson eyes searching for whatever caught his attention.

And that was when he saw it. Something familiarly blonde...

A/N: I know, I know; I should really stop making new stories. I just had this story in my head and I have pretty much the entire story from start to end in my head... sort of. Anyway; please review and tell me what you think? ;3