Work Text:
Shinra finds out through the internet.
Shinra had known that Shizuo and Izaya'd had a bad fight that infamous evening - a really, really bad one. Hell, he'd patched Shizuo up afterwards. But, despite Shizuo's fears that this was it, he was a murderer, he was finally the monster that Izaya had always suspected him to be, Shinra was unconvinced. Because Shizuo and Izaya had fought before, and Izaya had always ended up fine. So there was no way he was dead this time.
Shinra can't understand why Shizuo gets so upset when Shinra dismisses his fears with flippant, unconcerned comments.
That is, until he logs onto the dollar's website and sees the front page. His face furrows in concern - it's not uncommon for a few of the top threads to be about Izaya, but it's always just a few. Not a few dozen.
And the threads titles are even more worrying than their high numbers.
Orihara Izaya, missing after Friday's fight - presumed dead!
Orihara Izaya confirmed dead at Tokyo District Hospital!
Orihara Izaya killed in infamous battle with Heiwajima Shizuo!
The death of a god -Orihara Izaya's final fall!
It's the same damn thing for every post. Izaya, fight, dying, death, dead.
Stunned, Shinra clicks into one of the posts.
Original Poster: "Orihara Izaya was confirmed dead at 1:51 AM Saturday morning at Tokyo District Hospital."
Guest: "Hell no he's not! I saw him on Monday, around Shinjuku park!"
Guest: "He's definitely dead. There's no fucking way he could recover from this: link"
Shinra follows the link and then clicks away from the photo as fast as he can, but what he's seen he can't unsee - twisted arms beneath black cloth, the white trim of a coat dotted with red - like rose petals on snow.
And yes, unfortunately, that image stays with him. But that's not the only one. The best comparison Shinra can think of is his aunt, who died when he was twelve. At her funeral, he had gone up to her casket and looked inside, and saw her lying there; looking more like a wax figure than an actual person. But when he thought of her now, his memories weren't of her lying inside a coffin - he remembered her reading to him when he was five - a book about a boy who planted a beanstalk that grew into the sky, he remembered her pulling a piece of hard candy out from behind his ear and giving it to him. He remembered her alive.
Similarly, he remembers Izaya, in his mind, as the teen he had known in his school years.
The Izaya he remembers is healthy and active. He's always scoffing at something lame that Shinra's joking about, or laughing at the humans that mill all around the school. He's always running from Shizuo, or watching the blond fight his way through the gangs of Ikebukuro with a morbid fascination.
He's always so in-focus, so vibrant, so alive. So there.
And now, he's just so not. So...gone.
It's jarring.
Even more so since Izaya's name - or more specifically, news of Izaya's death - is plastered all over the internet while Izaya's missing from real life. Shinra's staying off the dollars website now, after finding that link, but the dollar's website isn't the only website that's talking about Izaya. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr - every site has "Orihara Izaya" as a trending tag.
Izaya was infamous, and everyone knows he's dead, and everyone has their own two cents to say about it.
It makes Shinra many different forms of upset.
It makes him Nervous, because he's always afraid that he may unintentionally click another link and be sent to another picture of Izaya lying on the pavement, his arms twisted into terrible shapes and his face unrecognizable because of his injuries. That he might be sent to a video of Izaya flipping through the air from the force of a punch, and hear his friend cry out as he hits the pavement, hear his bones crunch as they shatter.
It makes him Angry, because everyone is talking about Izaya. Everyone. And the majority of people are saying that Izaya...that Izaya deserved to die. They call him heartless, call him a monster, call his death a blessing.
Shinra's known Izaya a long time. He knows that Izaya, though he might have tried not to be, was human. He had a heart - it might have been cold, but it was there. He felt, he hurt, he bled. He wasn't a monster. Shinra knows that.
Perhaps even more infuriating, then, are the commenters - few though they are - that seem to think that they knew Izaya. Most only ever met him once or twice, and not the real him - one of his masks. These are the people whom "stand up" to the people saying that Izaya's death was a good thing, saying things like "No it wasn't! I met him once - he was a really nice guy!"
Shinra knew Izaya, and no, he wasn't a really nice guy. Not even close to it.
The ones who make Shinra perhaps the most angry are the ones who act all tore up over Izaya's death - the one's posting "I'm going to miss the legend of Ikebukuro. Rest in peace, Orihara-san."
Izaya was more than a legend. He was Shinra's friend. These people - they don't have the right to say Izaya's name. They don't have the right to feel peaceful over telling Izaya to find peace when Shinra is in this whirlwind of turmoil.
The most prominent type of Upset that these trending tags makes Shinra, though, is Sad. Because Izaya's face and name is plastered all over the internet, while he's gone from real life.
And his inescapable presence online just reminds Shinra over and over - each time he sees "Orihara Izaya" - that Izaya's gone.
Izaya's gone.