Ritchie's life seemed to have hit an interesting turning point. She'd work her four nights a week, get her usual average of six hours sleep the days following her shifts – maybe a couple more if she'd drank too much – and then spend nearly all of her other time with Ikebukuro's infamous intel broker.

Sometimes Izaya would come and find her at work. But most of the time he'd just send her a message telling her to go and meet him somewhere. She jumped willingly every time. Her thirst for excitement had reached an ultimate high and Izaya seemed to be the only drug for it.

It was like she'd signed a contract with the devil. She was his henchgirl, his minion, his pawn… Whichever way you looked at it her role wasn't exactly flattering. But the truth was she couldn't do it alone. She was still new to Ikebukuro and on her own she was just a lost girl in a city too big. She wasn't streetwise like Izaya yet. He was happy to spend his days roaming the streets, talking to anyone and everyone. And Ritchie would follow him like an obedient puppy, depending on him far more than she would have liked to.

But she was slowly starting to develop her own knowledge of the city and was confident enough to explore certain parts of Ikebukuro by herself when Izaya wasn't around. There were a lot of interesting characters in this city and it satisfied her to find out things herself without Izaya's help. Though the excitement level was never the same. She was only an amateur after all.

When she was with Izaya it was often hard to tell if she was safer or not. Safer because he had the know-how for pretty much everything. In more danger because he had a real knack for finding trouble. Ritchie didn't mind this though. In truth she enjoyed it. The thrill of escaping from danger – which more often than not came in the form of Shizuo Heiwajima – was always the best part.

She'd even bought two new pairs of Karen Millen boots – one in black and one in red. They had only very small wedges and were much more practical for running and climbing, which she seemed to be doing a lot of lately. She kept the red pair at her apartment and the black pair in her locker at work, so she was always prepared wherever Izaya decided to show up.

Ritchie had started to develop her own interests in particular people, places and urban legends of Ikebukuro. The one that intrigued her most was the story of the Black Rider. She'd seen her once. She'd zoomed past Ritchie on her motorcycle the one morning when she'd been on her way home from work. Ritchie had been fascinated by it and had quickly become obsessed with the idea of seeing her again.

She'd asked Izaya about it and he'd told her bits and pieces of the legend. Only parts of a story. Ritchie could tell that he knew more than he was telling her and that annoyed her. Izaya didn't normally give information for free – that was his job after all – but some naïve part of her thought that he should humour her seeing as they were almost friends. If you could call their unusual arrangement friendship.

Subconsciously, she knew she was being silly. Maybe she should have been grateful that he let her follow him around for free. The deal may have been his idea in the first place, but it seemed to benefit Ritchie a lot more than it did him. Either way, she told herself she wasn't going to pay him for more information on the Black Rider – mostly out of principal. She'd find out for herself instead.

She didn't know many people well enough to start asking around about it. Her closest friends in the city were Sei and her boyfriend Reita, but she'd already asked them both and it was clear neither of them knew much about the subject. She didn't want to ask anybody from work. It was always better to keep work and personal affairs separate. With those options out of the question she didn't really have anyone else she could turn to…

Except for one person.

Shizuo Heiwajima's interest in Ritchie had considerably cooled lately. She hadn't seen him at the club since the first time she'd ran out of there with Izaya. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. He obviously wasn't impressed with her new choice of company. She was happy about that at least… But hopefully he'd still talk to her if she was the one who approached him first.

She knew by now a few of the places where Shizuo tended to hang out – mostly because they were places that Izaya usually avoided unless he was purposely looking to cause trouble – so she'd started loitering around those in particular for the last few days when she had time to herself. Eventually she got lucky.

"Hey dancer girl. What are you doing in this neck of the woods?"

Ritchie turned to see Shizuo leaning casually against the wall behind her, a burning cigarette clamped between his teeth as usual. "Just passing through," she said offhandedly.

"So where's your flea of a friend today?" asked Shizuo, not quite able to keep the malice from entering his tone.

Ritchie shrugged. "I dunno. Around, I guess." She didn't know or particularly care where Izaya was right now. It wasn't like she was his keeper and she definitely wasn't going to get into it with Shizuo.

Shizuo snorted and took a drag of his cigarette. "You seem like a stand up girl; you should rethink your company a little more," he advised. "You can do a lot better than a leech like that."

Resisting the urge to tell Shizuo to mind his own damn business, Ritchie promptly changed the subject and got straight to the point. "Do you know anything about the Black Rider?"

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. Clearly he hadn't been expecting that one. "Yeah. I know her." He took another drag of his cigarette. "Who's asking?"

Now it was Ritchie's turn to be surprised. She'd been hoping he would know at least something about the Black Rider… She hadn't expected him to know her personally!

"Really? You're actually friends with her? What's she like?" The words came out in a rush, making Ritchie sound a lot more excited than she'd intended. It was very out of character for her and she silently cursed herself.

If Shizuo had been surprised before it was nothing compared to now. After all, Ritchie didn't really come across as the gushy type. "What's this all about?"

"Well…" Ritchie pointedly looked away as she spoke. There was no way to explain it without sounding like a clueless little girl. "I saw her the one night. I just thought she seemed cool..." God, it sounded even worse out loud.

Thankfully Shizuo wasn't like Izaya – if he was amused then he didn't show it. "So why are you asking me? Your bloodsucking friend seems to know every damn thing that goes on in this city… Why didn't you just ask him?"

"I can do this without his help," said Ritchie testily. She was still annoyed about the fact that Izaya wasn't willing to tell her for free.

Unfortunately Shizuo grasped the situation pretty quickly. "Oh, so he wouldn't tell you unless you paid him, right? I told you, he's an evil waste of space."

Ritchie gritted her teeth. "Yeah, whatever."

Shizuo raised his eyebrows again. "What? Don't like hearing me insult him? Because that's not gonna change any time soon."

"Insult him as much as you want. I couldn't care less," said Ritchie truthfully. "I just don't really like being reminded of the fact that he's an asshole and won't tell me anymore unless I pay him."

"So you're gonna find out for yourself just to get back at him?" asked Shizuo.

"Yeah, pretty much," Ritchie admitted. If anyone was able to appreciate that it'd be Shizuo.

He did. "Well then…" He sucked the last out of his cigarette before tossing it onto the floor and stamping it out. "There's someone who knows the Black Rider more than anyone – I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you anything you wanna know." He pulled a scrap of paper and a pen out of his pocket, scribbled something down and handed it to Ritchie. "That's his number. His name's Shinra Kishitani."

"Err, thanks…" said Ritchie, surprised. Who knew Shizuo could read and write? She'd always seen him as a big, fairly brainless brute.

"And do me a favour… Make sure you really rub it in that rat's face that you didn't need his help." With that Shizuo turned and stalked off out of sight.

Huh. It looked like Ritchie was in Shizuo's good books again. She wasn't sure if she was particularly happy about that, but she was still grateful that he'd helped her. Maybe his hatred for Izaya would come in handy more in the future too.

She didn't waste any time in taking his tip. She pulled out her cell phone and dialled the number Shizuo had given her. Somebody answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Erm, hi. Is this Shinra Kishitani?" Ritchie asked, just to be sure.

"It is. Can I ask who's calling?" came the reply.

"My name's Ritchie Honda. Shizuo Heiwajima gave me your number – he said you may be able to help me," Ritchie explained.

"Oh, so you're a friend of Shizuo's?" asked Shinra happily.

Ritchie gritted her teeth. She wouldn't go that far. But then this Shinra guy might not want to help if she said she wasn't. "Sort of…"

He didn't seem to notice how vague her answer was. "So what can I help you with?"

"Well…" Ritchie hesitated, the feeling of coming across like a little girl was back. "I wanted to know about the Black Rider. Apparently you know more on the subject than anyone else."

Shinra laughed. "You could say that. You're not a reporter or anything, are you?"

"No, I work at a club," said Ritchie, confused.

"Oh, that's okay then. Sorry, the Black Rider actually happens to be a good friend of mine. I don't think she'd really want personal information about her spilled to the media," Shinra explained.

"Oh right, I understand. It was nothing like that. I was actually just… curious," Ritchie finished lamely, feeling stupid again. That part was true but now it was more fuelled by the desire to prove to Izaya that she could get information without his help. Though she could hardly tell Shinra that.

However, Shinra didn't seem to think she was stupid. He actually seemed pleased that she was so interested. "Well I tell you what… How about you come visit me at my apartment? I can tell you whatever you need to know!"

Ritchie was taken aback. She wasn't used to people being nice when there wasn't something in it for them. Everyone always had their own motive. First Shizuo, now this guy? Surely she was being spoilt!

"Erm, sure," agreed Ritchie. "When would be best for you?"

"Any time this afternoon would be fine," said Shinra cheerfully.

Ritchie agreed and he gave her directions to his place. She thanked him again before hanging up, still stunned. Maybe not all people were as bad as she thought.

By the afternoon Ritchie felt like she'd learnt enough about the Black Rider to rival even Izaya's knowledge on the subject. Shinra was quite a jolly character. He was more than happy to tell Ritchie everything he could. He'd explained how the Black Rider was in fact a faerie, a dullahan from Irish folklore, by the name of Celty Sturluson. He confirmed that she didn't have a head – that she'd lost it a long time ago.

Ritchie didn't know what she found more surprising. The fact that the Black Rider was Shinra's roommate or the fact that he was clearly besotted by her. He seemed to think she was perfect even without her head. She couldn't imagine how this friendly, obviously geeky guy could possibly know somebody as bad-ass as Shizuo.

"It's a shame. You might have been able to meet her if she hadn't been working today," said Shinra.

"Where does she work?" asked Ritchie curiously, trying to imagine what a headless motorcyclist would do for a job.

"She works as a courier. She travels around on her motorcycle doing various jobs for people," Shinra explained. "She's working for an information broker at the moment."

Ritchie stiffened. Surely there couldn't be many information brokers in Ikebukuro. "You mean Izaya Orihara?"

"Oh, you know Izaya?" asked Shinra, surprised.

Ritchie frowned to herself. So not only had Izaya known more about the Black Rider than he'd let on – he'd even hired her! Damn him. Would he ever have told her about it? "No, I can't say I know him," Ritchie said shortly.

"Ah, so you've just heard of him. Well I don't think Celty likes him very much," Shinra continued. "But a job's a job. It's not like she can just get work anywhere."

"Yeah…" agreed Ritchie, wondering how well Shinra himself knew Izaya. But instead she asked, "So how do you know Shizuo anyway?"

"We used to go to school together," said Shinra brightly. "We were in the same year."

"No way," said Ritchie in disbelief. She couldn't imagine Shizuo in his school years. He must have got into trouble heaps of times.

"Yeah, Izaya was in our class too," added Shinra.

She definitely couldn't imagine Izaya in school! "Bet they hated each other even back then, didn't they?"

"Yep. Right from the start!" smiled Shinra, who seemed to see it as a fond memory.

Ritchie was curious to find out more about what Izaya had been like at school but she couldn't really ask anything else without showing that she did actually know him. She was already close to giving that away as it was.

She didn't care if Shinra knew that but she knew it would now sound silly since she'd already been petty and claimed that she didn't know him. So she fielded him with some more questions about Celty instead. She was determined to learn as much as possible so that she could really shove it in Izaya's face.

XXX

Author's Note!

I've really gotta say… thank you so much for the support I've had on this story! It was originally just going to be a short piece on how Ritchie and Izaya met but I've had such good feedback that it prompted me into continuing it! So for that, thank you!

No Izaya in this chapter – sorry folks! Also apologies for the shortness of this one… But if I'd included the next scene in this chapter too it would have totally dragged it out.

Also I've had a few people on both here and dA point out my use of non-Japanese music in the last chapter so I feel the need to clarify it. My friend has actually been over there for a while and apparently a lot of the clubs use a multicultural mix of music so you will hear some more Westernised stuff!