Equilibrium: The Peace of Ikebukuro

All throughout the world, Valentine's day was a day of love and peace. A place where masses of people separated into isolated couples, focused only on their own lives for the day. Well... everywhere except Ikebukuro. Here, a storm of chaos was waiting to burst free. A tangle of connections, isolated from nothing, was woven into a destructive web by the self proclaimed "god of Ikebukuro".

But first, there is the calm before the storm, the setup for the act: Valentine's Eve

Disclaimer: This entire story is based on the anime Durarara! I do not own Durarara! It is owned by Brain's Base, Aniplex, and some guy named Narita


Shinra was working in the operating room that day. Valentine's Day eve meant nothing for him. In true doctoral fashion, he had already finished all preparations for the big day a week in advance. He had even invited his true love to the premiere of Yuhei Hanejima's newest romantic movie. To him, today was just another boring work day, with nothing special to do...

Cutting open a bloody gangster's bullet pierced chest, he wondered why anybody would think of today as special; there was no cake like Christmas Eve, and no special concert like New Years Eve. Yet everybody around him seemed so agitated and nervous… particularly Shizuo and Celty.

The doctor chuckled dryly, pinching the bullet carfully out from his patient's left ventricle wall, "What does Shizuo care of Valentines Day!? Not like Mr. Violence is going to have a date tomorrow!" He then worked silently for a while, swiftly stitching the portion of the Cardiac Vein the bullet had grazed. Suddenly, a creepy grin came onto the pale doctor's face, "But I think I know why Celty's nervous. She's going to have a very … very special night tomorrow!" Thus Shinra's mind drifted toward his usual perverted thoughts as he finished the "2 hour surgery" in 69 minutes flat.


In the lazy streets of Tokyo, the Headless Rider rode through the streets on her loyal steed. The deep black motorbike usually sped like a flagship supersport racer through the crowded streets, yet stayed stealthy with absolutely no engine sound or headlamps. Today, however, the majestic legend of Ikebukuro looked more like a classic steam locomotive lumbering about in a black chaotic stormcloud.

Celty Sturluson was panicking about Valentine's Day. The Irish goddess of death was actually the most anxious person in the entirety of Ikebukuro.

{How am I supposed to go on a public date with Shinra?} She worried.

{How can I walk freely through the streets without attracting nosey watchers and annoying policemen?}

{What should my outfit be to please him? I can't just wear my black bike suit… Nothing black will work… Besides, how can a nonhuman relate to the humans' love holiday?}

{I have no head, no face. How can I possibly show love without it? I can't smile, I can't laugh, I can't kiss…}

Stupid thoughts like these floated in her mind as she roamed aimlessly in agitation.

Although she had looked forward to tomorrow for months, she didn't realize how hard it would be on her until now. She wished to escape from this anxiety by returning to work, but she had foolishly left today and tomorrow free to focus on the holiday.

As more and more problems sprouted in her mind, she at last decided to seek help from her best friend. He could understand her position and help her figure out a good plan, she was sure.

Thus, Celty rode away in a relatively smaller cloud of worries toward the brighter side of town.


In a crowded corner across town, a heart shaped billboard landed with a crash in the middle of the street. Witnesses sprinted away from the site immediately as a ticked off bodyguard stormed toward the wreckage.

Shizuo Heiwajima was in the worst mood today. He hated all the fru-fru lovey-dovey stuff of Valentine's season that violated into his simple stoic private life. It was simply unbearable to listen to intrusive salesmen trying to sell him flower scented deodorant.

"Now you see how much I care about your fake love toy?" he yelled at the frightened man crushed under the sign.

As he received no response, the blond superhuman left him while muttering "I will definitely murder the next man who tries to market to me..."

This was the 8th consecutive year that some stupid salesman couldn't tell the difference between his true hatred of the holiday and the anxiousness of some dateless loner. If only he could escape from society during this time… he thought. But alas, this was a busy work season with all the poor losers coming to his boss Tom to ask for a loan.

He stormed toward his next client, lighting a cigarette to ease some of his anger. He swore under his breath to brutally slay the next person who came to talk to him about their puny love issues.

At this time, he heard the high pitched neighing of Celty's bike. He looked over, and saw that the deeply troubled Dullahan wanted to talk to him. Usually when she was this troubled, she would ask him to "take care of" some violent thug interfering with her job. This made Shizuo happy, as he could escape from all the Valentine's crap and expel his contained anger toward an enemy without guilt. Also, he always liked to help out a friend.

Turning to his boss he said, "Hey Tom-san, can I catch a break? A friend wants to talk to me."

Tanaka conceded, already tired from the day's work, "As long as you don't destroy another quarter of the city…"

Shizuo thanked his boss for his generosity, and cheerfully walked toward his depressed friend.


"Hahaha this is just perfect!" screamed the man surrounded by 5 computer screens. "For the past few months I've only been diligently working as an information broker, and the world's best love story is unfolding on its own right in front of my eyes!"

The self proclaimed god of Ikebukuro hummed joyfully to the Ikebukuro citizens' inevitable love disaster as he spun around like a kid on his big office chair. "Namie-san, why don't you participate in the fun tragedy too! You have a lover waiting for you somewhere right?" he shouted gleefully to his assistant managing the books, but only received a look full of lethal intent in response.

He continued on anyway, "Woooh this is going to be so dramatic. Maybe if I add a few more parties, things could get REALLY nice…"

Suddenly, Izaya jumped from his desk to the client table across the room in one glorious leap. Taking out his favorite twisted chess board, he started to arrange some Go pieces around traditional shogi and chess pieces. He muttered excitedly to himself, "Saika needs some love too you know? How about Taro Tanaka… Bakyura could make things fun… These three gangs will make a magnificent love triangle…"

Namie Yagiri shuddered at these words from his boss. The last time that he had arranged those three parties on that board, Ikebukuro had become a warzone. If something like that happened again, some people very close to her could be in danger. Silently, she pondered how to save her favorite brother from Izaya Orihara's wrath.


The gang leaders Izaya had referred too were roaming through Ikebukuro together that day. The founder of the Dollars casually made fun of some lame joke told by the leader of the Yellow Scarves as the master of Saika chuckled at their energy. All three of them were content on enjoying Valentines Day together as a band of friends rather than as isolated couples with their lovers. Masaomi Kida had even left his girlfriend to spend her time freely so that he could be with his buddies again.

"Oh Anri, I do not wish to disturb your delicate life… but if you insist, I will be your Valentine!" he said, badly imitating a romantic play that was on TV the day before.

"Dude, it's the other way around… the girl asks the boy to be her Valentine stupid" cut in his best friend Mikado Ryugamine. "Besides, don't blame me if Saki murders you for that comment."

"Hey, you better not put strange thoughts into her head! Was it you who told her…"

"I just said to calm down man. I never said that I would let her know. Just if…"

"Hey hey hey"

The group stopped walking as Masaomi, becoming very red, started to wrestle Mikado. Anri Sonohara blushed silently, enjoying the attention given to her, yet knowing that she could never return any love given to her.


Just one block down the street, Shizuo Heiwajima stood shocked and speechless. He had approached Celty to escape from the suffocating frivolousness of Valentine's Eve. Yet he found himself listening (reading?) to the normally stoic Dullahan list an endless stream of the same stupid questions and topics that he had tried so hard to escape from.

But Celty was a friend, and the annoyed bartender-suited bodyguard tried to answer to the best of his abilities.

"I dunno, but I bet that if you do as much as hug him and hold his hand for a while, El Perverto Stupido would be ecstatic" he answered to a dozen or so questions about Shinra that seemed to ask the exact same thing.

Surprisingly, the headless rider took offense to this answer and glared at him, saying (writing?) the angry and misspelled retort: {INSOLT SHIMRa AGIN AAND I KILLL YOU}

Ignoring her, Shizuo took out another cigarette, hating every second of their conversation. "Besides, why are you bothering me with stupid stuff like this? If you're really concerned that you'd disappoint Dr. Creep, show him some of your skin and sleep with him, now do you have anything serious to ask me?"

In an angry cloud of black smoke, Celty leapt off her bike, visibly furious. {I DON"T CARE IF YYOU INSULT ME, BUT I TOLLD YoU TO LEEVE SHNRAALONE!}

"What are you going to do, fight me!?" yelled Shizuo, stamping on the cigarette that fell from his mouth, as he couldn't hold his anger any longer as well...


Night fell on Ikebukuro, as the iconic neon lit culture of the city roared to life. Simon Brezhnev of Russia Sushi happily handed out special Valentine coupons to the odd passerby. He loved this time of year, as the masses of usually dark depressed people lit up with the energy and joy brought about by love. (There is no need for hatred and violence here!) He thought. There would be no stopping of drunken brawls today, nor tomorrow either; everybody can enjoy the peace.

Just as he thought this, a hopelessly angry and beat up Shizuo limped into view. The man had just lost a fight to a love-crazed girl and was in no mood to talk. "Oh, Shizuo, fighting not good man. Brighten up! No need for anger in season of St. Valentine! Eat sushi! I give you discount. Good food let you…"

He was cut off by the blood curdling yell of the blond fighting machine. The peaceful Russian watched as Shizuo rushed at him with the angriest look he had seen on him in years.

"SIIIIIMOOOOON! How many times do I have to tell you that I absolutely despise Valentines daaaaay!?"

Thus, at 7:45 PM, a small quick fight outside a sushi stand ended the major events of the day before the storm.