there is no me without you

i still have not gotten to ketsu itself let alone post ketsu but.... ive seen Sources that say that after ketsu, izaya was left with pretty severe ptsd after shizuo nearly killed him... so a post-ketsu shizaya relationship would probably have izaya's ptsd flaring up- it's not something izaya can control, its just an instinctive thing... shizuo and izaya cuddling in bed but shizuo's hand brushes the exact wrong spot on izaya's back, izaya having nightmares and shizuo grappling over wether or not to wake him up because if he wakes him up, izaya will react on instinct and shizuo cant bear to see him so afraid of him, and he knows its selfish and cowardly to keep izaya asleep but ht just cant bring himself to do it and have his heart broken like that; he entrusted it to izaya and he cant bear the heartbreak, even if izaya didn't mean to break his heart

and of course izaya would know shizuo's thoughts on this and would try desperately to suppress his ptsd, which ends up making it erupt violently when it does flare up. izaya would absolutely hate the lack of control he has over his actions and how the ptsd he never wanted will end up pushing shizuo away from him

(i do still attest that izaya was mentally ill before the ketsu-related ptsd- even to the point of possibly already having ptsd- but the ketsu stuff is overpowering him because its new and the wounds are still raw, and shizuo is right there to give his trauma-addled brain a constant reminder of being so close to death)

do not ask me a thing about durarara sh cuz I don’t fucking know

Is it true that Shiki and Mikiya knew each other during high school…?

Are there any Shizuo Heiwajima / Vorona shippers out there?

Yes? No?

Well, I'm writing a fic so get ready, you seemingly non-existent people.

Never has a "pairing" hit me as hard as these 2 did upon finishing a show, live-action or animated. The way the anime ended was ripe with so much potential for Shizuo and Vorona that I had started jotting down ideas even before i'd finished watching the last 6 episodes of the 3rd arc. And the ending was absolutely lovely and so open for so much potential options.

So yeah, it's set post s2 and during the SH era and afterwards.

I'm writing this mostly for myself but I will have at least one guaranteed reader, @qs63 - who got me into Durarara and has promised to beta it for me.

Oh and there is no Izaya in this fic whatsoever. Haha nope, this is a troll-free, pest-free fic. Umm.. mostly, that is.

So... maybe there are people here in the fandom who might enjoy this pairing? We'll see.

If not, I'll have at least one angst-filled, happy, sad, full of Hurt/Comfort and TLC fic focused on my favorite Durarara character, I.e. Shizuo Heiwajima. My latest anime love! I swear he is the absolute best and I love him so much.

Shizaya and Nostalgia

This is a very personal late night rant. Many years ago, back when I was a thriving teenager, I discovered "Shizaya". I immediately got obsessed with the pair and started watching Durarara. (I've watched s2 and s3 while it was on going)

I was completely in love with Shizuo and Izaya. Especially Izaya. I was smitten by him. I remember even writing this huge ass love letter to Izaya in my note pad xD. I loved him. I genuinely did so. (I love him still. I love shizaya so damn much that it hurts)

It might sound awkward to some of you, but I genuinely care about these "fictional characters". They mean the world to me actually.

Back to Shizaya.

There wasn't a single doujin left which I didn't read back then. I used to read my favourite ones every night. Along with the ao3 fanfics. Separate folders in my phone for the fanarts and doujins. They were my main ship. The real OTP. Eventhough I knew it was very unlikely, I genuinely did root for them. And the consequence? Well. We all know what happened. Especially to Izaya. (Cried for days)

However my teenage self couldn't accept what happened to her one real OTP back then. After many weeks of tears (and desperate google searches including "will shizuo visit izaya?" "will izaya come back?") I decided to end it all for good. that's exactly what I did. With a broken heart I left the fandom after reading the "Sunset with Izaya".

Now 6 years later, I've come to this conclusion, which is:

Once a fangirl, is always a fangirl.

Once you love something, you never really get over it. The best you can do is to pretend you don't care.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a shizaya fanart which immediately reminded me of my past. My obsession. How they used to feel like home. How a fictional ship can become your safe place. A comfort zone. How genuinely happy you become when you find that one good fanfic! That one too realistic fanart which makes your heart shutter! So I said, FUCK IT, I'll just be strong for once and revisit the certainly dead fandom. (it's been too long).

Guess what? I realized the last shizaya fic was uploaded on ao3 a few hours ago...there are countless tumblrs dedicated to shizaya and they even update frequently.....which, really did make my heart ache tbh. I went on to read the shizaya doujins. They were published more than 10 years ago. I've read them countless times. (Brings back memories :""") )

It hurts to go back to them. It fills me with a SAD AF, NOSTALGIC ACHE. IT BREAKS MY GODDAM HEART AND MAKES ME WANNA CRY FOREVER, yet it's fine. I love it. They still feel like home. No matter what happened to them in the novel, doesn't really matter as long as there are still amazing ppl writing about them. Drawing them. Keeping them alive.

You writers, you fangirls, you crazy girls and boys dedicated to their OTPS.. DO YOU GUYS HAVE ANY IDEA HOW AMAZING YALL ARE? You guys deserve the world. Thank you so much for what you guys do. Thank you so much for writing such amazing fics. Thank you so much for giving our boys the love they deserve. For giving them the ending they truly deserved all along.

PS: it's been so long, so, can any of you please update me with the current shizaya news?? Any update after the sunset novel? How's my boy doing?

What's up with Shizuo in DRRR SH? (Please don't tell me he ended up with vorona now lmao)

Is there any chance they might come back...?

Nisioisin constantly writing more sequels reminds me of Narita who upon finally 'completing' Durarara!! immediately started work on Durarara!!SH, a sequel series. The SH stands for snake hands, referring to a chinese idiom that roughly translates to 'adding limbs to a snake', meaning to add unnecessary busywork to a complete product.

This is sums up my feelings for Shizuo in SH 1.

I'm going to assume you've finished the anime and have not gone into anything else Naritaverse wise

So! You can read the novels. Since they're officially licensed by yen press, you can buy the soft cover books or get them as an ebook / kindle from barnes and noble or amazon. I don't really endorse this but I'm sure if you do enough digging around you can find old, still available, free translations like anni_fiesta who did a lot of translating back in the day. Here's the link to their Index of Translation. I still use it since it's the only place I know that has the white day story translated and it's one of my favorites (For Kadota Related reasons haha), plus a couple of other side stories.

(I think the internet archives have the novels if you do some poking around but for Narita Please Write SH 5 reasons, I'll ask you to dig those up lmao)

Speaking of Side stories, Kazinha-726 translated a bunch of drrr side stories But since they haven't updated in a while, you need to change the links from kaedesan721 to their new URL kazinha-726. I'll directly link what you need here

There's ALSO MiniDura which are little gag comics of the durarara cast in chibis! there should be 4 books as of me writing this. Godspeed on finding translations they seem to be around.... but this post is long and I'm scared of losing it so I'll update later on how many chapters there are so you don't miss any, though I'm seeing up to 10 in my cursory search.

Shizuo, Izaya, and Celty are also in uh.... Dengeki Bunko's fighting Climax, which you might be able to find some stuff on on youtube. but since it's Dengeki Bunko you also have other series... I can only remember A Certain Magical Index / A Certain Scientific Railgun / the other titles in this series as being part of it whoops.

So you've done all that, what do you do next?

Well Narita has other series, like Baccano! which had an anime before DRRR did, which is 16 episodes. Since Funimation lost the license back in like... 2012 it's not officially uh licensed for viewing anywhere, so uh. wink wink. message me if you need more help here.

There's ALSO the novels which... there are so many more than there are for drrr, also available to purchase, though these are hardcovers! Last time I checked they had.... around 20 translated? Since I'm more drrr side I'd have to ask about fan translations and if I can still find them around. But again I don't really condone it since we want more written you know?

Narita also has a couple other series, but the one that's my favorite besides DRRR is Etsusa Bridge (It's pronounced Essa Bridge don't make the same mistake I did. )

And i NEED more people to read that one please please please please

Unfortunately, the person who did the fan translation closed their Blogspot to the public so uh. the first 4 books, and really what is the main story, is available on the internet archive here

Though I'm saying thank you to baka-tsuki for my life by having a page of links here, which includes the 5th book, 5656 part two (NARITA..... I NEED 5656 PART 2 PLEASE...... PLEASE)

and Vamp on the internet archive here and baka-tsuki here

I also know about Hariyama-san but i don't actually know... if anyone translated that one..... Narita has also written for Bleach and Fate Strange/ Fake if you're into those. Straight up just linking this wiki page in case you have any interest in other stuff he's written

And finally! Currently, Dead Mount Death Play (often shortened to DMDP) is a manga written (or co written?) by Narita! which is currently getting an anime and all of his attention.

All that being said I've been really into Trigun lately lmao

Anyone else feel free to add on or tell me what I may be missing

Look, I know shizaya is so many Durarara!! fans OTP and all but I once again say. Wow. Like my guy. Izaya really thought "okay, I'll take this fight to the death into this big crowd. Even if I lose and he kills me, I still win. He'll be a monster. He'll go to jail and be a monster."

Disclaimer: I also ship them. I just really find this funny. Izaya is my favorite, but oh my goodness is he depressing. I would really like to know Izaya's feelings after the first series. I don't know yet if he appears in SH. I do know there's at least one novel for a spin-off him after the fight and disappearing. I haven't found where to read a translation of that. I wish the spin-offs and extra material would be serialized in English...

ksldfjasdflk I love that

I expect that he says fuck but god damn do I love Kadota.

I have no idea what scene he may have walked in to but he sure as hell took it in and said what needed to be said and I love and respect him for that.

I finished the final volume of Durarara.

I can understand better now why Narita decided to write SH - he wanted to refocus the story on Celty after it got overtaken some by the Mikado-Masomi-Anri trio. The story definitely meanders at parts. Vol 10, 11, and 12 were probably the worst in that regard.

But, the story definitely feels more fleshed out here than it did in the anime. A number of characters got more deserved focus and time, which allows the dynamics to reach their full potential.

I’d strongly recommend them to anyone who enjoyed the anime, but also perhaps those who liked some of the anime’s ideas and wants to seem fleshed out more.