Hi everyone! This is my first fanfic. I watched the first episode of DRRR, got hooked, and then found myself writing this without even realizing it. OCs are tricky, tricky creatures to write about, especially since it's really easy to make them seem either really pretentious or too insignificant or both. I know it's always a risk to write a story with an OC, but I really can't resist. I have to.
This chapter is kind of an introduction, so there's no real drama or action happening yet. I hope you enjoy reading it, though!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the DRRR characters, much to my displeasure, nor do I own the original plot of DRRR. My OC is mine. No stealing her. Heh.
Izaya Orihara was perfectly content with his unscrupulous lifestyle. He loved the thrill of it; adopting various personas to disguise his true intentions from others, calculating the myriad ways to manipulate his acquaintances, setting up people like pieces on a chessboard and watching his games play out before his eyes – all of it was simply exhilarating. When asked to explain his actions, he gave only one response, always without hesitation: he did what he did because he loved humans.
Of course, his love went unreciprocated. His precious humans would never appreciate his "loving" actions, nor could they. While he wanted to be loved in return, he didn't let it bother him; in fact, it made his love for them stronger. How elusive the human mind! Humans were so trusting, so malleable, so willingly deceived. He loved to gain their trust only to abandon them when they most needed him, he loved to manipulate their emotions, and he loved to watch them destroy themselves. How fitting. Izaya couldn't imagine a more perfect relationship.
"Izaya, don't you think there are more productive things to do than staring at that chessboard?"
He looked up gleefully, his features distorted into a twisted smile. "Oh, Namie-chan! Don't you just love it?" He stood, placing his hands on the coffee table and leaning towards her. "Don't you just love humans?"
Yagiri Namie was, once again, confounded by Izaya's sudden outbursts and "love" for humans. With a disinterested sigh, she placed a stack of papers on the table and bluntly declared, "Not particularly." Elaborating any further would be a waste of her time.
"Oh, Namie-chan, you're really too cruel!" Izaya retorted, undeterred by Namie's indifference. "Humans are such fascinating creatures. You can pretty much predict everything they're going to do, with the exception of Shizu-chan and Simon, of course. And when they're so easy to predict, they're easy to manipulate, too!" He laughed, twirling about on his heels in giddy excitement before falling back onto the couch and sprawling his slender limbs across it. "They'll come to love me at some point. I'm sure of it," he muttered, half-jokingly. He was happy enough with his unrequited love.
Namie sighed again, this time out of agitation. "They hate you."
Izaya leaned his head back over the armrest and laughed. Namie simply could not bring herself to understand how he could laugh as if something was funny and shook her head.
Having recovered from his paroxysm, Izaya lifted his head and gazed at her. "It doesn't matter whether or not they love me back. I love them anyways." Suddenly finding his position to be uncomfortable, he sat up and crossed his legs, draping his arms over the back of the couch. "Surely you love them, too," he purred, his eyes glinting. "You're almost as twisted as I am."
He was, in a sense, the closest thing she had to a friend. As much as his sadistic love for humans disgusted her, she knew her own love was similar to his at the most basic level: it was a love that would never be reciprocated. She'd had enough experience dealing with Izaya Orihara to know better than to make any attempt at tricking him or outsmarting him. Honesty was always the best way to go. "I love only my brother. It isn't the same kind of sick love you have for your humans."
"Mm," Izaya responded, closing his eyes and resting his chin on the back of his hand. It was a brief moment of quietude; in the next instant, he planted his feet on the floor and leaned forward in his seat, waving his hand as if to dismiss the topic. "Anyways, Namie-chan, you've been looking out of it since you came in. What's troubling you?"
She cast her eyes upon the stack of papers. "That."
Seeming to have finally taken notice of the official-looking documents, Izaya reached over to pick them up. "My, this is some hefty paperwork you have here," he commented, leafing through the pages and skimming their contents. "Authorization forms? Abstracts? Procedures? Are you trying to get your old job back?"
Namie smiled bitterly at the thought. "If only it was that easy, Izaya," she sighed, gently lifting the papers from his hands and straightening them on the table. "Even if I was applying for a job under the new management, it'd take me years to get my old position back. All that hard work gone to waste," she grumbled under her breath.
Izaya raised his eyebrows inquisitively. "It sure looks like you've got some projects in mind."
"Not really. My career is over."
"Aren't those project proposals?" Izaya asked. "You're planning on submitting them to the company chair, right?"
"Oh. Not quite," she muttered, flipping through the stack. "They're proposals, but they aren't mine." Her fingers stopped at a particularly wordy page, which she pulled out and placed at the top of the pile. "I never actually left the board of experimental scientists, so I still get stuck with reviewing proposals before submission. They come from all over."
"Ah, I see," Izaya nodded in comprehension. "So whose are those? Let me guess: some novice in the pharmaceutical industry hoping to follow in your footsteps by experimenting on human bodyparts? Oh, but maybe instead of a severed head, they'd have a severed pe - "
"Izaya, that's disgusting!" Namie snapped. "No, these are actually from the psychological division." She clarified, pointing out the words "Department of Psychology and Neuroscience" printed in bold at the top of one page. "Looks like there's a new independent psychoanalyst hoping to conduct some studies on emotional triggers."
"Oh?" Izaya smirked, nimbly swiping the first page of the stack from Namie's hands. He looked it over, his eyes rapidly moving across the document. "Psychoanalysis, huh? And what business is it of yours?"
She sighed again. How many was that? Three? Four? Izaya wore her out, she realized. "It's not. They just want me to read it and submit my opinion as to whether or not it meets ethical standards."
"Booooring," Izaya yawned, stretching his arms above his head before hopping to his feet and making his way to his computer. "But you're quite the twisted one yourself, so your own experiments couldn't possibly have passed, right?"
"Right," she mumbled, moving towards his desk and snatching the page from his hands once more. "You'd think they would have learned by now that nothing can stop a mad scientist from doing what he or she wants. We'll always find ways around their restrictions."
After waiting a few moments, Namie realized she wouldn't receive a response. Izaya had already lost interest in the conversation and was gleefully chatting away with his online "friends", completely disregarding her presence. While this exasperated her, she was glad to have held a semi-serious conversation with him at all; they were so rare. She sank into the couch and pulled out a pen from her coat pocket, preparing to review the seventy-four pages of pretentious scientific crap that lay before her.
... ...
... ...
God Dammit! Celty Sturluson thought to herself. The sky was rapidly darkening as she sped down the road. Her thoughts were turning almost as quickly as the wheels on her motorcycle. It seemed that pesky traffic cop was on her tail again, and she just couldn't shake him. Persistent bastard. Why won't he leave me alone?!
Kinnosuke Kuzuhara would not leave her alone. He had a mission: track down and arrest any traffic dissenters, no matter what the cost. He leaned forward, grinning devilishly as he chased her. She caught sight of his maniacal expression in her rearview mirror and nearly had a heart attack. He's so scary! She thought. This guy was some serious trouble. She knew she had to find some shortcut, some street she knew and he didn't...
She rounded a corner and spotted a narrow pathway between two buildings. She could probably squeeze through it if she kept a straight path, so she decided to take the risk. She hurriedly made the sharp turn into the alleyway and sped towards the other end. She watched in her rearview mirror as officer Kuzuhara zipped right past the alley, completely unaware of its existence, and immediately felt herself calm down. If she had a face, she would have been smiling.
She didn't take immediate notice when a door to the building on her left opened in front of her and a young woman stepped out. When she did notice the woman, she squeezed the brakes with great vigor, but she knew that there wasn't enough time to come to a complete stop. Had the alleyway been a little wider, she would have been able to steer around the woman. Unfortunately, it wasn't,and Celty found herself barreling towards the poor woman. She could do nothing morethan prepare herself for impact and hope the woman did, too.
SLAM!
... ...
... ...
Chiharu has entered the chatroom
Maki: hello, chiharu-chan
Chiharu: hi...
Nakura: Chiharu-chan~ Is that nasty boyfriend of yours still cheating on you?
Maki: Nakura-san...you're too bold...
Tomo has entered the chatroom
Nakura: But it's true, right? ^.^
Nakura: Welcome, Tomo-chan! It's so fun to have newcomers here~
Chiharu: nakura-san is right, i just caught my scum boyfriend screwing his secretary again
Maki: how are you, Tomo-san?
Maki:oh, i'm sorry to hear that, chiharu-san...well at least you know now
Maki: my husband just disappeared so i have no idea what he's out there doing.
Tomo: hi everyone
Tomo: i'm depressed
Nakura: Welcome to the club.
Chiharu: sorry to hear that, Maki-san. that's rough. what a scumbag
Chiharu: what about you, nakura-san? have they caught the murderer?
Nakura: nope, they haven't caught the bastards yet...I can't believe they got away with killing my angel...
Tomo: i just got hit by a bike
Tomo: and my boyfriend killed himself last week because he thought i was too demanding
Chiharu: …
Maki: people are stupid
Tomo: i wish i could just die
Chiharu: me too
Maki: yeah.
Nakura: The world is just a nasty, nasty place...
Nakura: Oh, I know~ How about we met up IRL?
Tomo: okay. i have nothing else to lose...
Chiharu: IRL? why..?
Nakura: Since we're all unhappy with our current situations
Nakura: perhaps we can meet up and end our suffering together
... ...
... ...
"Christ, Shizuo!" Tom Tanaka shouted at the reckless blond before him. "Don't kill the poor bastard!" He hollered. Yet there he was, lingering on the sidewalk with little more than a mildly concerned expression as he observed yet another one of Shizuo Heiwajima's temper tantrums. He was acutely aware of the growing crowd of spectators, and, to be entirely honest, he was a little embarrassed. How many times had Shizuo made a scene in the last week? Too many times to count. Still, he knew better than to interfere.
Shizuo was lifting a man by the shirt collar, shaking him and hollering into his face. "What the hell is 'I don't know' supposed to mean?! Tell him where the goddamn money is!"
"I-I swear to God, Heiwajima-san, I really don't know what you're talking about!" The man replied feebly. His face was drained of color as he stared, blankly, into Shizuo's face.
This answer, it seemed, was not good enough. In the next instant, the man was sent hurtling through the air at a dizzying speed. He hit the building across the street headfirst and fell to the pavement with a dull thud.
Tom smacked his own forehead with the palm of his hand. "Shizuo...You really need to keep your damn anger in check..."
Shizuo straightened and nonchalantly reached into his back pocket. "Sorry boss," he huffed, lighting a cigarette. "He was pissing me off."
"That doesn't mean..." Tom trailed off. His eyes moved to the fallen man, now lying limp on the sidewalk. He shoved a few people aside as he moved across the street, then knelt down and took the victim's pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief upon feeling the quick but steady heartbeat, but shook his head nevertheless. "Jesus, look what you've done this time. You really could have killed him. This goes without saying, but we need him alive in order to collect his money."
Shizuo felt a pang of guilt when he noticed the trickle of blood running down the man's forehead. "Look boss, I'm sorry, but -"
"Shizuo, here," Tom said, cutting Shizuo off. He held out a small piece of white construction paper. "I've been meaning to give this to you for a while, but I've been irresponsible about it." His voice was calm. Shizuo knew calm was bad. Calm meant serious shit. He guessed he'd been expecting this day to come for quite some time now; he couldn't really have hoped anyone would put up with his temper forever, could he?
Shizuo reached out and meekly tugged the card from Tom's hand. It was blank. He turned it over. "Dr. Akio Akutagawa...?"
Tom had one of his men carry the unconscious man away. He slowly stood and turned to face Shizuo. "Dr. Akutagawa is an extremely capable and well-known therapist. You might benefit from paying him a visit."
Did you make it to the end?! Didja?! I hope you didn't get too bored...
In case you didn't notice, my OC doesn't actually appear in this chapter. I'm trying out this new kind of storytelling style in which the OC isn't an attention whore and is a little more low-key. But don't get frustrated, she'll show up soon!
Liked it? Review! Didn't like it? Review! There's always room for improvement!
Thanks a ton!
SUPERSLOUCH