One / The Bad-Ass Dude of Ikebukuro /

Shizuo /

"IZAYAAA!"

He's always the one that starts it. Always.

"Get the hell back here! I'm gonna freakin' kill you!"

"Ha ha. Catch me if you can, Heiwajima."

"Aaarrghh! That's IT!"

This is what I go through on a day-to-day basis. When I'm not pummeling poor saps for Tom, I'm chewing out this guy.

There was luckily a row of vending machines nearby. Uprooting one from its pathetic restraints, I lifted it, aimed, and hurled it with all my might, straight at Izaya. He, of course, dodged the projectile with a certain ease that I'd always found irritating. That guy pissed me off.

"You'll have to try better than that," he taunted.

Today, we were downtown near the bar. People were out, it was sunny and busy. Which only pissed me off even more.

I ran past passersby in an effort to catch up with Izaya. I was gonna kill that guy. He was just ahead of me, laughing his head off, the little bastard. I followed him into a small alley, where conveniently, no one else was around. Ripping a drain pipe from a wall, I came after him.

Finally, with nowhere else to go in a dead end, he stopped running, and just stood there with his back against the wall, a smirk on his evil little face. He chuckled.

"So what're you gonna do, beat me up? Go ahead, try." His eyes narrowed challengingly, voice as smooth and calm and icy as ever.

I clenched the pipe, and ran straight for him, raising it above my head and screaming. And BAM, I brought it down upon him. Except it didn't hit him because he sidestepped me. Ugh.

No, instead, the stupid flimsy pipe smashed through the wall, sending bricks and rubble flying every which way. Izaya ran past me in the other direction, shrieking with crazy laughter.

"IZAYAAA!" Again, from me. I shot after him again. Making my way out of the alley, I was about to turn the corner onto the street, when boom. Something hit me. Well, not really. It was more like I collided with something. And vice versa.

My momentum kept me going, and so I just toppled down like a domino. I cursed myself for this; Izaya was probably long gone by now.

Well, I fell face-first on the ground, but I realized there was someone underneath me. Then I was on the ground- no- I was on top of someone on the ground- swearing with every colorful phrase I could muster.

And then. "Hey, get off of me, you jerk!"

It was a girl. I propped myself up on my hands to see who was under me, who I'd knocked over, and holy crap it was a girl.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Get off of me!" she shouted.

Realizing the suggestive position we were in, I quickly scrambled to get up. I offered her a hand as well, my face probably something close to scarlet, but she waved it away.

"I can stand up on my own," she snapped.

"Jesus, I'm sorry," I said, trying to apologize. "I didn't even see you around that corner… Really, it was a complete accident-"

"No, it's okay. It's not like I broke a limb." She scowled deeply, brushed herself off, and then inspected her clothes like I'd contaminated them or something. Man, was this girl stuck-up or what?

"Damn, I'm really sorry. Are you okay?" I offered.

"Just peachy," she said, voice dripping in sarcasm. She looked up at me then, and her face registered something like recognition. Her eyes widened slightly.

"Oh. You're that Shizuo dude I've been hearing about. Hm."

I raised an eyebrow. "You've heard of me."

"Well, duh. One of my classmates told me about you."

Classmates. I thought she looked kind of young. Probably in high school. Well, that might explain the uniform under her oversize jacket. Hey, wait, that's a Raira uniform.

"Oh yeah? Well what did they say?" I shoved my hands in my pockets. Why was I even wasting my time talking to this chick? Still, though, I was slightly curious as to what her classmate thought of me.

The girl looked me in the face, and, sneering slightly, said, "He told me that you're the strongest guy in Ikebukuro, so strong you could chuck a car if you wanted. And from what I can see… maybe even the clumsiest. He said not to piss you off."

Who did this girl think she was, spitting out comments like that? That almost set me off again. Almost. But I had to admit, she had some brutal honesty.

I smiled at her. "Well, then. Whatever that guy said was completely true, so don't forget it."

"Yeah, God forbid I should ever have you fall on me again." She rolled her eyes.

Grr. Okay, this was getting boring.

"Riiight… well, if you're sure you're not in serious need of medical attention, then I should get going. Sorry for banging into to you like that. 'Bye now." I turned around and started to walk away, but the girl stopped me.

"Wait!" she called behind me. "Where are you going?"

I didn't stop walking. I said, "Anywhere you're not."