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The whole setup is quite complicated, though nothing he can’t manage. He is an informant after all, he knows how to find out where people and other creatures are. A gift of milk and fruit is bestowed upon every monster he knows of in this city: Celty, Hijiribe Ruri, Saika, Kujiragi Kasane, left for them in a pretty box in front of their door.
Izaya figures the one for Tsukumoya Shinichi can just go in front of his own computer, provided it’s connected to the Internet.
The final one is meant for Shizuo.
Having sent his employees to all these other locations, Izaya takes the final box and leaves. The city is busy celebrating Halloween, to the extent that’s done in Japan. Izaya’s celebrating Samhain, in his own way.
He goes to Shizuo’s place, the lion’s den, his pockets full of knives so he can throw some in a pinch, and puts the box down in front of the door.
He wonders what Shizuo’s going to do with it. He has a mouth, unlike Celty or Tsukumoya, so he could just eat the food, but he probably won’t because he’d think it’s something poisoned Izaya had arranged to be delivered to him. Of course, Izaya wouldn’t do something like that. Not on the holiday.
“What are you doing here, flea?” Shizuo asks from behind him all of a sudden before Izaya can walk away, his voice already sounding angry. “What's that? Some kind of a bomb?”
“No, it’s food, Shizu-chan.” Izaya picks the box up quickly and shows Shizuo what’s inside before he can grab it and destroy it. “An offering for you. A gift,” he corrects himself.
“I don’t want it,” Shizuo says indifferently. "Get lost. I don't want to fight in front of my place."
“It’s nothing sinister, Shizu-chan. Please take it. You don’t have to use it for anything. You don’t have to eat it. Just accept it.” Izaya puts the box at Shizuo’s feet, kneeling down with a certain reverence to do that. “It’s a special night. One shouldn’t hunt monsters tonight, one should appreciate them.”
“I’m not a monster, flea,” Shizuo’s quick to point out.
Izaya straightens back up.
“Whatever you say. I will listen to you tonight. I will try to learn from you if you give me something to learn.”
“You sure are strange, flea,” Shizuo says with a shrug. “Can’t you just go home?”
“I would have. But you showed up when I presented you with that gift. Just like you were supposed to, I guess.”
“Is it some Halloween tradition?”
“Samhain, Shizu-chan. Though I think it’s more like my own thing. I decided to look at you lot, the monsters of this city, as favorably as I always do at humans for one night. Show my appreciation for what you do for my beloved humans for once. How you change them when you meet them. For better or for worse. And I also mean myself.”
“You sent these to other people then, too?” Shizuo asks, touching the box with the tip of his shoe in a measured move of his leg, lightly enough, thankfully.
“Not people, Shizu-chan. But yeah. Celty, among others.”
“Why did you send her food?” Shizuo asks incredulously. "She doesn't eat. And you know that."
“Because that’s what one does. For a Dullahan, as well.”
“I’ll tell her it was you. So she doesn’t get scared,” Shizuo says and reaches for his phone.
Now that Izaya reflects on how Celty is he imagines what she might think and how paranoid she can make herself over something like that and he figures it's a good idea to let her know it's him.
Then he thinks about the others. How Ruri will assume another stalker knows her address. How Saika may presume it was her yakuza guardian. How Kujiragi will figure out it was him. Tsukumoya is a whole different can of worms. Who knows what he’ll do. What he can even do about a box of food left over in Izaya’s office. He hasn’t stolen any groceries from there before, that’s for sure.
“It’s nothing useful either, flea,” Shizuo says after picking up the box and looking inside it.
“You don’t eat fruit? And I’ve heard you were fond of milk. You can mix it together, you know, make a smoothie,” Izaya suggests.
“Sure,” Shizuo says but doesn’t seem convinced. “ Bring me cigarettes next year, flea.”
“I’ll remember.” Izaya nods. “If there will be a next year. I’ll be back to trying to slaughter you in the morning. I may yet succeed before next Samhain,” he says with a smile.
“What about the night?” Shizuo asks with the box in his hands.
“I told you already. You get my love for the night. Make of that what you will.”
