I'd like to thank those of you who alerted/favorited the first chapter, and I'd like to especially thank shadowxgirlxion, Panasonic6, helpaqueen, blackflames101, omgpink, and TTY7 for reviewing!

Chapter 2

Arisa flew down the stairs the following morning, hoping her enthusiasm would pass off as excitement for a new school. Grabbing a lollipop from her secret stash of candy on top of the refrigerator, she quickly unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth. The gratifying rush of sugar convinced her to snatch another handful of candy and dump it into the pocket of her backpack.

"Later, ojisan," she sang, her hand on the door handle.

Her uncle looked up from the newspaper he was reading. "Aren't you going to eat breakfast?"

Arisa frowned at him. "Well, considering that school started more than twenty minutes ago, I don't think there's time for that, do you?"

Her uncle gaped at her, immediately jumping to his feet. He was at her side in seconds, ushering her out the door. "Have a good first day! Don't go looking for trouble," he warned.

The door snapped shut behind her, and a grin fought its way across her lips. School started twenty minutes ago? That was such a lie. Her uncle was really out of it, or he would have realized that his own work began at the same time as Raira. She still had an hour before she even had to be there. Sighing to herself in sinister amusement, Arisa stretched her arms above her head and marched purposefully down the streets of Ikebukuro. She stared unashamedly at the hordes of people whose eyes focused straight ahead, as if they were watching goals that were receding before them. It was just so funny.

A pastry shop caught her eye. Her honey brown eyes widened as she regarded the assortment of sweets. As her mouth watered, she did not even notice that her blue raspberry lollipop had fallen out and was now sticking to the sidewalk. Barely sparing it a mournful glance, she threw open the sweet shop's door and marched up to the counter.

A smiling woman greeted her. "Ohayou gozaimasu, dear. What can I get for you today?"

Arisa gave a small, innocent smile before she began to rattle off a long list of items. The lady across the counter frowned in either disapproval or concentration as she hurried to take down the order.

"Would you like a drink with all that? Coffee, perhaps?"

Arisa made a face, scrunching up her nose. "No coffee. Just hot chocolate, please. With four times half the chocolate plus another third."

If there was anything she hated, it was coffee. It was just so bitter whatever you put in it. Unless it was one of McDonald's McCafés, there was no way she would drink it. On the other hand, she found great amusement in confusing people. She watched with innocent round eyes as the woman tried to decipher her last order.

Even though her track coach warned her never to eat sweets, she had never obeyed him. Of course, she told him she only ate legumes, fruits, and protein-filled meats. It was just a white lie, anyway. Besides, she was the quickest runner on the team, so he would not dare complain.

Arisa was torn from her thoughts when the door to the shop jingled and a new customer entered. Grabbing a chocolate covered strawberry, she observed him from the corner of the room.

The new customer was a blonde boy dressed in a blue hoodie that covered his school uniform. She frowned; it was the same uniform she was wearing, so she guessed he went to Raira Academy as well. He looked to be around her age, or perhaps a year younger.

She cringed as he ordered a piece of chocolate fudge cake, looking down at the last three slices she had purchased. Don't tell him, don't tell him…. Crap.

The clerk was pointing absent-mindedly in her direction as she explained the cake had just been sold out. The boy put his hands in his hoodie pockets and looked over at her. Arisa smiled sheepishly and put her hands up in a "Who knew?" gesture.

To her surprise—and slight annoyance—the boy simply grinned and ambled over. He took a seat on the wooden chair across from her and placed his chin in his palm as he surveyed her.

"Well, hello there, darling. What brings you to Ikebukuro?" he said very confidently. She noticed he had said this in English, probably not realizing she was wearing his school uniform and, therefore, spoke Japanese.

Arisa made a "tchh" sound in the back of her throat. She licked the rest of the chocolate off of the strawberry before realizing he might take that as an invitation. She swallowed before replying in English, "Just got here a couple days ago."

"A foreigner! If there's anything that puts the icing on the cake for a chick, it's foreigness," he said needlessly. Obviously, he knew this already if he had first spoken in English. So he was one of those types, hm? "I'm Kida Masaomi. And you are?"

"Uhh…" she stared at him blankly.

"Don't worry," he said courteously, waving a hand. "Chicks always get tongue-tied when I talk to them. I'm pretty used to it by now."

The way he said it made Arisa want to punch him in the face. But no, she had promised her uncle to not resort to violence like she used to. She would occasionally get in fights, but that was only because the opposing gang members instigated it. She herself had never been a member of a gang, but she had somehow incited the wrath of half the gangs of New York. She honestly had no idea what was so offending about her personality.

All right, so maybe that was a lie, too. And maybe she had provoked the gangs first….

She rudely slurped her hot chocolate, hoping to disgust this amateur Casanova enough to leave. Instead, he reached over and grabbed a piece of her chocolate fudge cake.

As he was pulling it towards him, Arisa threw out a hand and curled her fingers around his wrist. "Just what do you think you're doing?" she barked.

"I knew you'd warm up to me," he said smoothly, twisting his hand so that his fingers were entwined with hers. Arisa scowled and ripped her hand away, absent-mindedly rubbing it on her skirt.

"You stole my cake."

Kida looked at her in an almost fond way. "You're really going to eat all of this?" he gestured to the table that was still covered in sweets.

She grunted and decided to let it go this once. "Whatever."

She tried to not cry as she watched Kida eat her last piece of chocolate fudge cake. It was her favorite….

"You know, you still haven't given me your name," Kida goaded, and Arisa smacked a hand down on the table in annoyance. Trying to cover up her outburst, she grabbed some chopsticks and went to grab another chocolate-covered strawberry. Unfortunately, she missed; instead, she stabbed the red fruit, effectively crushing the chocolate and the fruit to mush. She mournfully blinked at it, pondering her situation.

Perhaps a fake name would suffice? He'd find out sooner or later anyway.

"Toyama Junko, but please call me Junkie," she told him, hoping he didn't realize the English meaning of the name. Honestly, she had laughed about it several times on her own. Yes, she was a cruel, cruel person. She looked at the clock on the wall. There were ten minutes left until she had to be at school. "Well, I gotta bounce. It was nice meeting you, Kida!" she told him disrespectfully, totally ignoring the standard honorific and flouncing to the exit. He thought she wasn't Japanese anyway.

"Likewise, Junkie-san!" he hollered, turning around in his chair to watch her go. He completely missed her snort of laughter as the bells and deafening crowd muffled her splutters.

He watched her blonde hair disappear into the crowd before grinning to himself and turning around. He gaped at the assortment of sweets he had to finish. Waste not and you'll want not, eh? The only problem was that school started in a few minutes. Ah, it was totally worth being a few minutes late for this….

"I'd like to introduce a new student to our class," the old man said in a scratchy voice. Arisa had just sat down in her seat after getting lost when the building was right in front of her. She had purposely ignored Kida's shocked stare as she walked into the classroom, sitting in the back corner beside him. Unfortunately, it was the only remaining seat. "Kagami-san, would you please come to the front and write your name on the board in English and Japanese. Then tell us something about yourself."

Arisa couldn't help but let out a bark of laughter as Kida's mouth dropped open when her name evidently was not Toyama Junkie. She patted his shoulder mockingly before she skipped to the front of the room, popping her cherry lollipop out of her mouth as she wrote the chalky white characters on the black board.

"The name's Kagami Arisa. I like to stuff dead animals and skin roadkill before cooking it for dinner. It's an American tradition, you could say," she said seriously, enjoying the looks of horror that crossed many of the girls' faces. There were some chuckles that indicated that the students did not know if she was sincere or not. Well, they would find out for themselves sooner or later. At least her gruesome statement would keep the inevitable nosy questions at bay for a while.

Taking her seat, she noticed Kida staring at her. "That was a lie, wasn't it?"

"No," she quipped sarcastically.

"And you speak Japanese, too?" Kida said weakly. "Your name isn't Toyama Junkie?"

Arisa turned to him, holding out a hand to shake. "Kagami Arisa."

He took it, and she noticed his self-confident manner returning. Rolling her eyes, she turned back to the front.

"Trolling is a art," she murmured to him.

"You mean an art," he returned smugly.

She grinned creepily at him, and he frowned. Laughing to herself, she popped a green apple lollipop in her mouth.

Arisa decided that computer and technology would be her best class by far. She had managed to finish the assignment before the rest of the students; that had left her plenty of time to hack into the school system and message teachers with instructions for a fake meeting tomorrow after school. Beside her, Kida and Mikado were struggling with the difficult programming assignment that she had finished in about ten minutes. Since it was nearing the end of the first semester, the teachers had decided to base her grade on the remaining two weeks; however, she was required to complete two months of school during the holidays. She scowled at that. Therefore, in retaliation to such unfair treatment, she changed the passwords to the school's security system.

She was happily entertaining a chat room of gullible elementary school students with absurd tales of her life as a samurai (honestly, didn't they know the Bushido had died out more than a century ago?) when Kida interrupted with his usual complaints.

"Man, this is hard," he whined beside her. "Arisa-saaaaan!"

"What the hell do you want?" she demanded rudely, pausing her explanation of the time when she—or he—had killed sixty-seven ninjas when they attacked the home village.

"Who's talking back there?" the teacher suddenly called from the front.

"No one!" Kida responded in reflex, before realizing his mistake. The teacher shook his head at them, muttering "Kida" under his breath.

She exhaled and closed her eyes, leaning her head back and trying to block out the offensive light.

She had met Mikado Ryugamine at lunch when Kida threw an arm around him.

"Risa-san, this is my best friend," he said proudly, grinning as he rubbed Mikado's head in a brotherly gesture.

The black-haired boy bowed politely to the new student. "It's nice to meet you. My name is Ryugamine Mikado."

He seemed like a sweet kid, Arisa decided; or anyway, much better than Kida. "Has anyone ever told you that your name sounds like an air conditioner?" she asked pleasantly.

Mikado looked speechless as she sucked on her lollipop. "Yes, once," he said honestly. "How did you—"

In surprise, Arisa abruptly pulled the lollipop out of her mouth. Really, she had just been pulling his leg. "Huh, I'll have to meet him," she commented.

"Ehh, there are actually a few people you should stay away from in Ikebukuro, Arisa-san," Kida interrupted.

She raised her eyebrows. "Oh? Like who?"

"Well, for one, you should probably steer clear of the Dollars. They're a new color gang, except they don't exactly have a color. Pretty weird, isn't it?"

She stared at him thoughtfully. "A color gang with no color. Maybe it's just me, but something doesn't match up here. What's the point?" she said bluntly. "How am I supposed to stay away if I don't know who's in it?" she pointed to the two students in front of her. "You could be a part of it and I wouldn't even know, now would I?"

Mikado stiffened slightly in what Arisa guessed was defense. Rolling her eyes, she hit him on the shoulder. "I'm only pulling your leg, Mikado," she assured.

He laughed and a stain of red tinted his cheeks as he rubbed his shoulder. Whoops, maybe she had hit him a bit too hard.

Kida watched their exchange with a half-smirk on his face. "You should also never run into Shizuo Heiwajima. He's the tall, blonde bartender you see a lot in central Ikebukuro."

"Why?" she asked, thinking that was a pretty weird combination. A bartender to stay away from?

"Let's just say this. Whenever you see flying vending machines, walk the other way," Mikado said. Kida glared at him like he had stolen his lines.

"Huh," Arisa said skeptically. Honestly, how true could that be? Aha! She was being trolled, wasn't she? She waited for the classic "You just got trolled" line, but their expressions were completely serious. Fine, if they really wanted to keep this going….

She crossed her arms, keeping her incredulity a secret. "Who else?"

"There's also the slasher. He's some terror with red eyes that sneaks up on people in dark alleys and attacks them. He never kills them, though," Kida went on. "Don't go walking late!" he joked, wagging a finger at her. Arisa grabbed it and twisted it around in annoyance, reveling in the "Owww" that escaped the blonde as he wriggled to get away. She almost scoffed at the sheer stupidity of his statement. Did he really expect her to believe that?

"There are also a lot of kidnappings of newcomers to the city. Apparently, the kidnappers believe no one will notice their victims' disappearances," Kida stated, staring intently at her.

She shuffled on her feet; so now they were trying to scare her, hm? Well, at least she was ahead of their game. She internally smiled. She had to give them credit; if she weren't well-informed in the topic of lying, she may have believed their ridiculous tales.

"Then there's… Izaya Orihara," Kida said slowly.

Arisa watched as his eyes lowered to the street below, and he gripped onto the metal net of the fence. Something seemed to go out in his eyes as he watched the cars drive by.

"Izaya Orihara," she repeated, prompting him to continue.

"Yeah, just stay away from him. He's dangerous," was the bodiless response.

"Why?"

"He's an information broker. He thinks of people as his pawns," Kida said. "But he's usually not around; he lives in Shinjuku."

"He's the one who said the same thing about my name," Mikado offered, pink staining his cheeks again when Arisa's calculating eyes moved to his.

Izaya Orihara. What a strange name he had.

"Someone's a hypocrite," she stated thoughtfully, biting down on her candy.

Walking out of Raira later that afternoon with Mikado, Kida, and another girl named Anri, Arisa was hoping to make a quick excuse for slipping away. Her meeting with Kanra was in at eight, and she wanted to be at least an hour early.

Anri was a quiet girl with round glasses who was currently the object of affection for Kida and Mikado. It was pretty obvious, Arisa mused as she observed their interactions. Well, she supposed Kida was just being his normal self, but Mikado seemed to blush at every brush of the shoulder.

"Hey, do you three want to go get ice cream?" Kida suddenly asked, his hands behind his head in their usual position.

"Sure," Mikado said. "What about you, Anri-san?"

"I—I'd like that, too," she replied softly.

"Arisa-san?" Kida turned to her.

She looked at his hopeful eyes and actually felt bad about her impending negative response. "Kida, I already told you I feel like an old woman when you call me that. It's Risa."

"All right, all right," he said nonchalantly, waving his hand in a similar fashion as that morning. "So how about it, Risa?"

Arisa shifted her backpack and looked up at the clouds that floated by. Fluffy. "Uh… I'm actually meeting someone in a few minutes. Maybe next time?"

"Who? A friend… who's a girl? A boyfriend?" he demanded.

Was he jealous? Oh please don't say she was now on his list of thirty-eight girls to go out with. Inwardly groaning, she quickly denied it. "No, no, I'm going to pick up my uncle, actually."

Kida shrugged, as if that were okay. "Oh, yeah, that's fine."

"Good-bye, Risa. I hope you like Raira so far," Mikado said politely, bowing in his usual way.

"It was nice meeting you, Risa-san," Anri said sweetly. She really was sweet, wasn't she? Sweet like cake.

"Later, Risa!" Kida waved obnoxiously as he shot ahead.

She saw Mikado and Anri exchange knowing glances, and she internally snickered.

Arisa waved her hand in response, smiling in spite of herself.

Exulting in the cheer of doom that now automatically switched on in her head whenever she was about to troll someone, she skipped down the sidewalk heading toward the hotel they had agreed to meet at. It was time to meet Kanra-chan. She had been looking forward to this all week.

I apologize if Junkie really is a nickname and I just offended someone! I almost did not add it in fear of that actually happening.

I hope the OC is not too annoying. This is the first time I've tried writing a story, so please give me any pointers you may have. Thanks!