Disclaimer: Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn and Durarara! belong to the wonderful Amano Akira-sensei and Ryogho Narita-sensei. The author does not gain anything in writing this fanfiction, well, except having fun screwing with the characters. (^Δ^)v

APPOINTMENTS

CHAPTER 4 : Setting Up the Pieces part 1

He had decided long ago that peaceful everyday life was something he wouldn't want for his life.

After graduating from Raijin Academy, Orihara Izaya had been giving valuable information most especially to Yakuza, thus, his job as an information dealer. His involvement with the "underground world" was, of course, something not-very-normal for a person's life. Each day, he was dealing with different groups that continue to seek him for the information that he could give for their own different purposes. He did not care how these groups used his information; he was actually glad because after obtaining their desired facts, interesting things would definitely be there for him to observe.

And he loved to observe. Especially humans, as he called them as if he was not of the same species, their emotions and interactions were his source of entertainment; his cure of boredom.

As time passed, his business with the local Yakuza became more normal to him, like he predicted. His attention then shifted to Ikebukuro and its happenings. Ikebukuro had always been his favorite city; offering so much eccentricities. Such things were the existence of the dullahan as the city's resident, the fighting doll or rather the only human he had so much dislike, Heiwajima Shizuo, color gang wars and the 'colorless gang' namely DOLLARS.

He did not have any reason to stop being an information dealer so he still worked as one while creating little disturbances in his favorite district. However, he spent more of his time in wandering the always crowded streets of the city and 'pushing a little'/encouraging/shoving docile-looking gang leaders, head-searching fairies, evil sword-wielding girls, past-impaled shoguns into something that would turn his going-back-to-the-boring-normal world into his ideal 'abnormal' one.

Of course, Ikebukuro did not fail him. Rather, the occurrences of the past one year happened to attract someone's attention and opened a new door to a much more exciting world for Orihara Izaya.

That someone was none other than Reborn: number one hitman of the underground world, tutor to the heirs of prestigious Italian Mafia families, most trusted confidant to the Ninth boss of the Vongola Famiglia and known as the 'sun arcobaleno'.

Inside an abandoned warehouse, somewhere in Ikebukuro was a small room occupied by five men. One of the men, a huge guy with a purple bandanna around his neck, was sitting on a tattered couch placed in the middle of the room. Around him stood the other four, his lackeys, the useless people who were with him when 'that' incident happened. He winced at the memory of that afternoon, the scene of a brunet dragged by a raven-haired teen and the insolent boy who had the guts to- to- kick him. He looked at his lower middle part and then glared at his lackeys. His face showed the rage he felt because of the embarrassing incident and the four lackeys could only gulp at the man who was giving them the rage-filled look and who was also tapping his foot impatiently.

The door to the room suddenly burst opened and revealed another man, a skinny guy whose hair looked like a mop. The skinny mop-haired man immediately went towards the man on the couch and was panting heavily. However, the sitting man did not give any considerations and welcomed the newcomer with a loud outburst.

"Where the fuck have you been? Are you so slow that it took you two hours just to know who and where those kids are?" a vein could be seen bulging on the man's head as he spat his words to the skinny mop-haired guy who shivered at his leader's fury.

"I-I'm soo- sorry boss. But it was really hard to find those kids. Every time we approach people to ask about them, they actually run away."

"Of course they'll run away, you idiot! We are the Purple Limascon Gang!" the man was already preparing to stand and punish the idiot guy. The four other men looked at their fellow member and pitied the newcomer but they did not bother to stop their boss' actions. When the boss reached the skinny man, he spoke again hurriedly in his defense.

"But- but- boss! We managed to discover the identity of the blonde kid who- er-" the skinny guy looked at his boss' lower middle but the man already grabbed the poor guy's collar.

"Fucking say it already! Then continue searching for those bastards!"

"Well, the guy we cornered was previously part of Blue Squares and told us that the blonde guy matched the description of the former Yellow Scarves' shogun."

Upon hearing this piece of information, the angry boss suddenly stopped his harassment on his lackey and released his hold on the poor guy's collar. The guy slumped on the floor and looked up to his boss once more. He sighed to himself in relief when he saw that his group's discovery had calmed the boss down. He got up and with a little courage continued his report. It looked like the boss was not-so-angry anymore and was expecting more from him.

"Apparently boss, the shogun went missing for months after that incident one year ago. Then, a rumor spread among the inactive color gangs that he had joined the DOLLARS ranks. But, the rumor was never confirmed so it didn't last long and was not able to reach us."

No one spoke after that and silence filled the room. The four men who were there all along and the skinny mop-haired guy who delivered the report held their breaths as they anticipated the next move of their boss.

The boss faced his lackeys and opened his mouth. He spoke to them, calmly and schemingly.

"So, the kid was the former Yellow Scarves boss. Pathetic. Groveling at his enemy's feet after the defeat of his own gang. Che-"

"So, what do we do now boss?"

At this, the Purple Limascon leader went to the tattered couch and sat on it comfortably, a menacing grin could be seen in his face.

"Send some men and target the bastard." he ordered and looked at his lackeys "Aside from his debt to me because of what he did earlier" there was a tone of hate when he said this. "if the rumors are true, there's a big possibility that he knows the identity of the DOLLARS leader since it was his gang and DOLLARS conflict a year ago that stopped the activities of other colour gangs in this city. It has been our goal ever since to find out who is behind that disgusting goody-goody gang and present him to our benefactors."

The lackeys nodded to themselves when they heard this. It was the primary reason why their gang was not yet confronted by the authorities with all the things they're involved with. It was part of the deal that Purple Limascon would be under their benefactors care but they also demanded that the gang present them the DOLLARS leader. They never knew why they had so much interest to the DOLLARS boss but then, they also never cared so the boss accepted the deal. However, they discovered that the identity of the DOLLARS' leader was seriously hidden that even its own members did not know who started their now very large group. This lead to more and more entrapment of suspected DOLLARS which caused unnecessary encounters with the more active and stronger members of the said group.

"When we present them the fucking leader, there will be no one in the path of Purple Limascon's ascension in Ikebukuro. DOLLARS will seriously fall like the Yellow Scarves and the Blue Squares. We will crush other colour gangs, active or inactive and our reputation will greatly spread throughout Tokyo and even throughout the country."

A laugh followed the declaration and shuffling noises of five Purple Limascon members leaving the room were heard. They were contacting their own groups to find the Yellow Scarves shogun: their ticket to the DOLLARS leader and to their rise to power.

Tsuna was already far from the small tea shop he and Orihara Izaya had stayed for almost one and a half hours. He did not realize the time he spent there because of some interesting things the information broker had shared with him. He had not believed it at first but somehow, his intuition told him that the man was not lying when they were talking so it looked like all of the things the man had told him was the truth.

He was now clutching the strikingly yellow envelope that the information dealer had given him after their talk. Apparently, it was the files that Reborn had demanded from the information dealer and the thing he needed so that he could go back to Namimori. Of course, he was not able to see the contents of the envelope as it was sealed and he was threatened by Reborn to not look at his tutor's files. Before, he actually did not care what would be in the envelope but after hearing the stories of a certain Orihara Izaya, he was not so sure if he could contain his curiosity about Reborn's files.

He remembered what had happened in the small tea shop and wondered how related the information dealers' stories were to the files of Reborn.

"So, what would you like to know Tsuna-kun?"

Tsuna looked up at the grinning information dealer in front of him. He was still confused with the man's actions and could not think of any move that would get him the files quickly. The first part of their conversation was spent with the usual getting-to-know-you questions but Tsuna knew that Orihara Izaya knew more about him than he pretends to. And now that they had reached the part of their conversation wherein Tsuna would have a chance of asking the man anything that would interest him (Izaya told Tsuna that this would be the payment he promised before), Tsuna was already at a lost on what to do next. As of now, the only thing that he could do was play along and chat with the talkative guy.

'But what should I ask him? I don't have something that I particularly want to know from him.' the brunet searched his head for any topic so that after talking, the man would be satisfied and just give him Reborn's files already.

"Hmmm... You don't have any particular question for me that really interest you huh?" As usual, Izaya had analysed the boy before him. "I'm sad that the Vongola Decimo does not want to talk to me any longer." Izaya pouted in his mock hurt. Tsuna's eyes bulged guiltily and told the information dealer that that was not the case.

"But it would rude of me if I do not fulfill my promise to the Vongola Decimo!" Tsuna groaned to himself with this. "So, I will just choose the topic for you Tsuna-kun. Who knows, maybe you would make use of this information real soon." There was a knowing look in the eyes of the information dealer and Tsuna suddenly felt that somehow, maybe it was alright to stay a little longer to hear about Izaya's topic.

A sigh then the Tsuna spoke up. "Okay, Izaya-san. I'll listen to it."

The information dealer grinned widely and leaned closer to the young Vongola. "Well, this is about the colour gang incident that happened one year ago..."

Tsuna sighed was surprised that he was already near one of the main streets of Ikebukuro, Sunshine Street. He looked around and saw more people than in the morning. It seems like its already the time when people are already rushing to their homes.

However, what he had noticed was the number of people who somehow had something purple in their attires. This worried Tsuna as he remembered that members of colour gangs wear anything associated with their gang colours. And what gang is associated with the colour purple? Of course, it was the Purple Limascon gang, the gang he had had an encounter with before meeting his two Ikebukuro friends.

And it looked like the gang members who moved in groups were looking at every person who passed by them. Then, they would approach the person who would discreetly walk away quickly from the approaching group as to prevent any contact. This pissed off the members but they did not make any big move yet, as there was too much of a crowd to start a disturbance.

Then, Tsuna saw in an alley way about five Purple Limascon members and a girl wearing a black hat and a long skirt. The girl had a fierce look in her eyes but was uncharacteristically obeying the five men. Tsuna went to the alley way's direction, avoiding the other Purple Limascon members so that no one would notice him planning on helping the girl.

Author's Rants:

I am still alive.. yeah.. Eventhough I have very good reasons for the update delay (2 months! 0_o how pathetic is that!) I won't bother telling you about them. I just hope you would enjoy the chapter, and that it may not disappoint you... Chapter 4 was rewritten four times actually so I hope you like the one I chose to settle with. Also, I assure you guys that I will NEVER abandon this story..

And to all the people who had spared some of their time to read the last 3 chapters(the alerters, the favers, the reviewers, and silent readers), a thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really hope it was worth your time and this chapter is to make up for all those weeks that I had been a bum to write. As you can see, its part 1 so you can expect a much shorter period of update (1 week perhaps? dunno too... XD I hope I could actually do that) If there are details that confuse you or needed to be elaborated, please tell me. And plot holes! Please tell me if you see any, especially MAJOR ones. And OOC-ness, too. I want my characters to be as IC as possible.

And yes, I'm looking for a beta. Anyone? Pretty please? T^T

PS. When I was rereading this story, I just realized that Kida kicked the PL boss at his most crucial body part. And I said to myself, 'hey! That brilliant move is usually done by girls to harrassing men right?'. So, did anyone realize this too?

PPS. Limascon? anyone who knows what it is? if you do, there's no special meaning in using it for the Purple Limascon gang! hahaha..