Hi again! Two chapters in one day! Wow I have tons of free time!

thanks and bonus pointo to Shan-kun for reviewing and getting the password right!

Disclaimer: sad to say I still don't own DRRR

Chapter 6

"Idiot insect. What does he know about how important Shi is to me anyway?"Arlua muttered under her breath as she stalked through the door of her apartment that night and locked it behind her.

She leaned against the counter in her small kitchen with a sigh.

It had only been two days since she had seen him last. Two years since she had introduced him to Natsuki. Three years since she met him.

Three years...

It hadn't been Arlua's first day in the area, but it was the first time she got into trouble. She was looking for a job; she already had an apartment in Shinjuku, but wouldn't be able to keep it unless she found work soon. None of the companies she had tried in Shinjuku had been willing to take and untried technician, so she had decided to try her luck farther away. Her search had eventually led her to Ikebukuro, and she ended up staying later than she planned.

As she walked toward the station, dusk was falling, and she walked a little faster, not wanting to be out alone at night, knowing Ikebukuro's reputation. She was nervous, uncertain, in unfamiliar surroundings, and so didn't feel like the Arlua who would hurl verbal abuse at anyone who crossed her.

"Hey there," an unfamiliar voice rasped. "What's your hurry?" She didn't turn around to see who was talking to her. She picked up her pace, wishing she had her tool kit with her; it would have made a much better weapon than her purse.

A bellow had drowned out anything else the person following her might have said.

A large vending machine shattered on the street in front of her, metal flying everyhere.

Arlua flinched when it hit, and felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.

As the roar and sound of the machine breaking faded, the person behind her grabbed her wrist.

"That's one monster you don't want to meet," the person told her. "Come on." He had black hair and dark clothes, she noticed as he tried to tug her sideways, away from the crowded main street.

Arlua panicked and tried to pull away. She was not going anywhere with a stranger. She was NOT.

Just as she was realizing that the stranger was stronger than her -she was being hauled toward a dark side street that looked decidedly sinister- someone grabbed the back of the stranger's shirt.

"You. You're not the flea," someone snarled. "But you kind of look like him, and I don't think the lady will be upset if I take my anger out on you."

The man screamed and let go of Arlua, thrashing wildly. Arlua stared at the person as he hoisted the black-haired man into the air and hurled him down the street.

She heard a crash as he landed on something breakable and turned to the blond man in a bartender's outfit who had thrown him.

"Thank you," she said. The blond just grunted and turned away. Feeling some of her confidence return, she reached out and grabbed his sleeve. "Hey! Hold on!" He turned back, a frown on his face, his eyes hidden by blue glasses. "I don't know who that person was...so thank you for getting rid of him," she told him. "I'm Arlua Teki."

"Shizuo Hiewajima," he replied. He hesitated, then said, "Are you hurt? You're bleeding!"

Arlua stared at her shoulder, which had been getting more and more painful since the vending machine broke. She had shoved the discomfort to the back of her mind, distracted by the man trying to haul her off.

"Thanks for that brilliant observation, Captain Obvious," she muttered, wincing. "Must've happened when the bending machine shattered." The man looked away.

"Sorry..."

"What?" she looked up at him curiously.

"I'll tell you later. Lets get you to a doctor," he decided. "I know a guy who can patch you up. He doesn't live too far away, closer than the hospital," he told her.

"You've already helped me; I can make it to the hospital," she replied.

"This guy is closer. Come on," the man -Shizuo Heiwajima, he'd said his name was- urged as he turned to lead the way down the street. Arlua hesitated; she'd just been saved from one stranger, only to be led away by someone else.

But he had been the one to help her, she reminded herself. Besides, there was something about him that made her want to trust him.

So she followed him.