Durarara!
Cockamamie
Chapter Fourteen: A Broken Queen
"What are you doing, Izaya-kun~?"
"Hm?"
Izaya looked up and found Rei propped on his head staring at his computer screen. Her hands rested on his dark locks and looked straight ahead, concentrated on the chat room displayed on Izaya's monitor.
"Working," he looked up at her.
"Liar, you're just chatting online," she rolled her eyes.
"Trust me, it counts towards the cause," Izaya chuckled.
'Cause?'
Before she can ask anything, he twirled his chair around causing Rei to stumble backwards slightly.
"And what are you doing still up?" Izaya stood up. "Go to bed, we have to go see the contact tomorrow."
"But I can't…" she grumbled, lounging on the sofa. "There are too many things on my mind…"
"Things like?" he asked.
"Mum," she shrugged. "Dad… Souichi…"
"Are you finally feeling bad about running away?" he wondered with a sly smile.
Rei looked up and scowled at the man by the table.
"Stop it," she groaned. "I don't feel bad about leaving… I'm just confused."
"About what?"
"… Do you think I'm a bad person?"
"No," he chuckled. "You're one of the most interesting people I have ever met."
"But that doesn't mean I'm good," she scoffed. "I've been checking the forums regularly… and I just don't understand why people care so much."
Izaya's smile dropped as he listened to her.
"All I've ever done is cause trouble," she carried on. "I've never once thought about others, so what gives? Why do people want to help find me so bad?"
"… Some people don't need a reason to care," Izaya sighed. "I guess those are what you would call the 'good' people."
"…" Rei rolled onto her side, facing the leather backrest. "I think they're stupid… they should just leave me alone."
"You're tired Rei-chan," Izaya walked over. "You should go get some rest."
"Yeah, yeah," she hopped off the sofa and headed upstairs.
Izaya watched her go, after she disappeared into her room he took a deep breath and sat back down. Unsure of what to think of Rei's previous statements, he continued typing into the chat box.
PAGEBREAK
Maybe asking to come wasn't such a good idea. Rei was following Izaya towards an abandoned warehouse. The surroundings were unsettlingly silent and still, Rei couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched. At least they were meeting during the day and not when it's dark.
"Who exactly are we going to see?" Rei asked.
"Like I said yesterday, I've never met them," Izaya murmured back. "They arrived in Japan just last night. We'll see when we get there."
"Where are they from?" Rei persisted.
"America."
The two stopped in front of the large rusted door leading to the warehouse. Izaya reached towards the handle slowly while turning his head to look at Rei.
"Once we're inside just let me do the talking," Izaya whispered as he looked her in the eye.
Rei nodded wordlessly and Izaya smiled. The door was pushed open and they walked into a dark corridor. She followed Izaya down the eerie hall. Finally after awhile of walking, they reached a lit room.
A man sat on a wooden crate, he stood up when the two entered. Surrounding him were two armed men. Neither looked too friendly. The man frowned when he saw that Izaya wasn't alone.
"Who's the girl?"
Rei didn't understand as he spoke in English, but understood that his question was directed at her when his gaze landed on her. His dark eyes were fixed on Rei. She gulped involuntarily and hid behind Izaya, shaking under the man's scrutinizing gaze.
"My business partner," Izaya smiled, reaching into his coat pocket. "Do you have the information?"
"Yes," the man held out a paper folder. "And mine?"
"Of course," Izaya pulled out a small envelope from his coat.
Izaya handed the envelope over for him to verify, and in return the man handed the folder over. Izaya unhooked the strings and peeked inside. Before Rei could see anything he closed the folder back up.
"Any problems?" Izaya asked.
"No, everything looks to be in order," he replied, placing the envelope in his briefcase. "I'll be going then. Nice doing business with you Mister Orihara."
"Yes, you too."
The man made a move to leave first, and headed for the corridor. The two men followed out obediently and wordlessly. Rei held her breath until they were out of sight.
"What did he want in return?" Rei asked.
"Information for information," Izaya shrugged. "Nothing big, just a list of buyers."
"What did he give you?" Rei eyed the folder.
"A file and a tape," Izaya replied.
"A file and a tape…" Rei repeated. "Let's go then. I've had enough waiting."
Rei shifted uncomfortably as she stared at the daunting folder laid the table in front of her. She hadn't noticed when Izaya returned with a cassette player. Only when he placed it down onto the table did she look up.
"You actually have a cassette player?" she smirked.
"Took me quite a while to find it," Izaya shrugged. "Do you want to listen to the tape first?"
"No," she shook her head. "I'll look the papers first."
"Alright," he sat down next to her.
Rei pulled out a stack of papers from the folder and skimmed through them. There were a couple of colourful pamphlets in there for some sort of exhibition. Once again it was in English and Rei couldn't make it out.
"Can you translate this for me?" she looked up Izaya.
"Sure," she passed the papers to him.
He read through the sheets and his eyes widened curiously. Rei held her breath as he turned to her.
"First couple of pages are just public records," Izaya replied.
Rei took the time to translate every sentence on the first couple of pages to her. Nothing Rei didn't already know about her mother. All were just information about her mother's health records, schools, jobs.
Izaya stopped speaking after the next page, Rei frowned and nudged in closer also looking at the piece of paper. This one was different from the others, there were red letters covering the whole page and the black print looked more unrefined than the public records.
"What does it say?" she demanded.
"… It says here that your mother was murdered."
"What?" she exclaimed. "That's not possible… my dad told me that-."
"Well your family lied to you," Izaya said before she can finish.
Rei frowned at him but said nothing. Izaya carried on reading while she picked up a pamphlet and flicked through it. There was a picture of her father with his research team on one of the pages. It looks like her father's company was to be part of the exhibition.
"Your father's company produces a specific type of medical equipmennt amongst all the basics right?" Izaya inquired.
"Yeah, I think it's meant to be one of those radiation therapy machines, but ten times more precise than the one before it," Rei shrugged.
Izaya picked the pamphlet out of Rei's hand and flicked through it. He stopped and the page with her father and held it out to her.
"Here, this says that at the exhibition there will be a big announcement from Nakata Daichi that will change the medical field," Izaya ran his index finger along the bold letters. "And here on the paper, it says that Taylor Medical Corp. was a large competitor against your father's company ten years ago. Mister Zach Taylor was concerned over your father's new device, and the impact it'll have on his own business. So he had your mother kidnapped and held hostage."
"What did he want?"
"For your father to withdraw his announcement, and for them to announce it as a joint research."
"… And then?"
"It doesn't say much here, but I'm guessing negotiations didn't go as planned," Izaya replied. "Anne Robinson-Nakata was killed."
"What happened to Zach Taylor?"
"Arrested and his company collapsed after Taylor was given a life sentence," Izaya carried on reading. "Your mother's death has been publicized as heart failure."
Rei was speechless. This was a strange feeling she was feeling. After all that waiting this was what had happened? Her family had lied to her about this incident, not just to her but they had lied to everyone about this incident. Though she didn't know her mother, she didn't deserve this.
"This was probably for the best though," Izaya sighed, putting the papers back into the paper folder. "I mean, I'm not sure what happened with the negotiations but your father's business boomed after Taylor's downfall."
Rei's teeth clenched together and her fists curled tightly.
"Your father's company could have been in trouble if Taylor Medical Corp. kept on expanding," Izaya noted, unaware of Rei watching him coldly.
"Izaya?"
"Hm?"
Rei stood up from her seat, she stood right in front of the man. Izaya looked up, surprised by her suddenness.
"What's wro-."
Izaya never got to finish his sentence as she had thrown her fist against his cheek. He yelped slightly and held his swollen face. For a girl her sized, Rei could pack a heavy punch. She gathered the papers and tape into the folder quickly and headed upstairs without another word.
"Wha? Rei-chan?" Izaya called after her.
The only reply he got was a door slam.
XoXo
Rei threw the folder onto her pillow and crashed onto her bed.
'Screw him.'
'Screw Izaya.'
He had no idea what it was like growing up without a mother and with a father that was never there. Up until Souichi graduated, she was taken care by maids after maids. Rei didn't have anyone when she got her first cramps, or when she needed to buy her first bra.
Rei scowled at the ceiling and squeezed her eyes shut.
'Don't cry.'
'Don't cry.'
'I'm not going to cry.'
"I'm not going to cry… I'm not going to cry…" she chanted over and over again.
After the twelfth time, she opened her eyes and sat up. Teary eyes from before now dry. She grabbed the folder and headed for her duffel bag.
PAGEBREAK
That night Izaya woke up after hearing a loud crash coming from downstairs. A burglar? No, not possible. Not with the locks installed. Izaya sighed slightly and crawled out of bed. He walked out and scanned over the balcony, nothing seemed out of place. Looking left, he saw that the guest bedroom's door was wide open.
"… Rei-chan?"
Izaya ran into the open bedroom and found it was empty. Bed was made and looked untouched, as if no one has been in the room recently. The familiar duffel bag that laid on the ground was gone as well. Izaya ran back outside and down the stairs, nothing looked out of place as he walked around.
-Crack-
Izaya looked down and lifted his foot. He realized that he has stepped on a chess piece. And not just any piece, it was the black queen. After further inspection he realized that all the pieces have been scattered on the floor. This must have been what caused the crash: someone knocking over his board, and that someone being none other than Rei-chan.
He bent over and picked up the chess piece and examined it. The wood was chipped from when it was dropped.
'She left…' he thought blankly. 'And she stole my laptop.'
Dundunduuuun…!
Sooo Izaya screwed up a bit didn't he? xD
I apologize for the medical stuff, I'm so terrible at science… lets hope its right :P
Once again I hope readers enjoy this chapter and thanks to those who favorited and alerted! :)
And holy craap! 8k hits…. That's really, really incredible! I want to thank everyone that has been reading this story! Seriously! This really makes my day :')
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