Notes

When Celty arrives home, he isn't sure what to tell her. On one hand, she and Izaya never quite saw eye to eye -- Celty is too compassionate to have ever gotten along with someone like him and Izaya had always resented her for having what he was never able to. On the other, he was one of her main clients and rarely antagonised her directly. If it were anyone else, she would want to know.
She can tell immediately that something is off. Today, he doesn't greet her at the door like he usually does. That's probably the first thing that she considers strange. Then there's the fact that he finds looking at her very difficult all of a sudden. It feels like his emotions are written all over his face.
[Shinra? What's wrong?] She holds out the phone in front of him.
"I..." he begins, and then stops. The words are far more difficult than he expected them to be. "I got a phone call earlier from the police in Fukushima."
Celty takes a seat next to him on the couch. [Fukushima?! Why?!]
"They were calling because--They said they found Izaya dead in his hotel room." He takes a breath. Ripping it off like that is supposed to make it hurt less, not more.
[Oh, Shinra...]
"They want me to go up there and answer a few questions about him," he says.
[But you haven't spoken to him in two years... How could you possibly know what happened?] she asks.
"Well, I'm listed as his emergency contact so they think I might know something about what happened, or be able to put the pieces together for them." Truthfully, he would rather not go. To sit there and answer questions about Izaya from someone who never knew him, someone who is not interested in the inner workings of Izaya's mind... He struggles to see the point in it.
[When do we have to leave?] she asks. She doesn't say sorry, which he's grateful for. After all, he and Izaya hadn't been close since high school. They spoke only when Izaya needed something--most often, medical care--and even when he got stabbed by Yodogiri Shinra had all but ignored him. They hadn't been close since high school, and yet Shinra feels like a gaping hole has opened up in his life. It's as if Izaya is a phantom limb.
"As soon as possible," he says.
[I'll go get ready,] she types quickly.