Original Prompt (Greatly Abbreviated):
There is a group within Ikebukuro with a fascination. The groups very existence is to catalog this fascination. This group is known as THE HEIWAJIMA SHIZUO FAN CLUB!
Disclaimer:
Durarara! and its characters do not belong to me. I merely exploit them for my own fun.
Author's Note:
In case people can't remember, Niekawa Shuji is the journalist that appears briefly in the series. He's in both the light novel and the anime. I don't really know where he appears in the light novel, but he's in Episode 15 of the anime.
Some lines in the first chapter are verbatim fansubs of the episode in question, but the rest is me.
SO THEY SAY
An Exclusive Interview with the Heiwajima Shizuo Fan Club
(Niekawa Shuji)
I'm flying.
… Again.
That is the only thought that passes through my mind before I hit the asphalt hard.
Just like last time, all I wanted was to learn: about Ikebukuro, about the source of energy for this refuse-packed city, about the truth behind this city that continues to swell with desire every day. But mainly… about the strongest man in town.
After the disastrous article-that-wasn't last year, I was once more hired to write an article on Ikebukuro's strongest. The difference was that this time, I knew exactly who I was gathering information about.
Who is Ikebukuro's strongest, you ask?
By nigh unanimous agreement, the title belongs to one Heiwajima Shizuo, ex-barista (and ex- many other things, actually) and current debt collector. Also known as – to me, at any rate – the man in the weskit who won't hesitate to hurl a grown man and a street lamp at the brief mention of his celebrity brother.
The air around him is different. That was the only way I could describe it back then, and it's still the only way I can describe it now. He has a sort of presence. Heiwajima is a volatile man, the very incarnation of the violence he hates. Such a peculiar being, furiously wringing me by the neck one moment then calmly talking about his job the next. I remember the moment with frightening clarity (probably because I thought it'd be my last moment on earth, but I digress).
"You ass, making me resort to violence!" Shizuo had growled while throttling me. "Are you a god? Are you just pretending to be one? Huh?"
"Hey, Shizuo, we're going," his employer had cut in.
Then he had dropped me and had nonchalantly said, "Okay," before strolling away as if he had not nearly murdered me.
Amidst my everyday life of writing gossip articles for a third-rate magazine, he'd revived that pure feeling I'd felt during my younger days. A curiosity. Yes, an intense curiosity. I wanted to know everything about him. And this same feeling persisted months later until the present. Which leads me to my current predicament, that being my possible concussion and broken ribs.
Like for my last article, I decided to start collecting information from those around him. But this time, everyone was highly cooperative. Eerily so.
And thus, I accidentally discovered the existence of the Heiwajima Shizuo Fan Club.