AN: So… I'm starting this chapter a lot sooner than I thought I would, but there's actually a reason for that. See, I updated my profile recently, and there are some things I'd like people to check out. First, there's a new poll on my profile relating what story I'll write once Deicide is finished. Yes, it will be a Fairy Tail story. No, this is not negotiable. Aside from the stories I am currently writing and the stories I intend to rewrite, I am officially only writing for Fairy Tail at the moment. I may throw out a oneshot for another fandom, but don't bet on it. Do I still take requests? Of course, but I will not feel obligated to fulfill your request unless you've won a contest or something (or unless you're Novoux and I want you to write something for me in return, in which case I still don't know how to write Izuo, dammit). There's actually a good reason for this – I've lost interest in pretty much all of my fandoms aside from Fairy Tail and Durarara!, the latter of which is not only extremely complicated, but also extremely confusing, as the anime is now contradicting things I believed to be fact. For example, the anime seems intent on getting me to spell 'Vorona' as 'Varona' and 'Slon' as 'Sloan', which I won't do, because I know the Russian spelling of the words (which is the same in the novels as the actual Russian words), and I know how it translates, more or less. Shunji's name is also apparently Maju, and we never got to see Izaya mocking Nakura properly, which was one of my favorite scenes. Also, I'm starting to get really annoyed by some of the cliffhangers in the anime. Shizuo pointlessly getting arrested hasn't been explained, everyone's going to be freaking out about Izaya even though he's going to be fine (he's not even unconscious, guys; Kine and Mikage will save his ass soon enough), and Namie's kidnapping was rendered entirely pointless since they revealed that she's safe but didn't fucking explain it. That's not clever, y'all, it's annoying. Does it work in the novels? Yes. But this is not a book – it's an adaptation, and changes sometimes have to happen, no matter how people complain. It's not dramatic for the people who already know what's going to happen, nor is it exciting for the people who don't. It's basically like dangling your keys in front of a toddler: it might work the first few times, but now it makes me want to stab someone. I apologize for my little rant, and I hope you enjoy the story~
Orihara Izaya lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. He would have preferred to have his arms underneath his head, but he only had one arm and he couldn't actually lift it at the moment. Shinra and Shizuo had left the room (though Izaya couldn't explain for the life of him what Shizu-chan had been doing there to begin with), and Namie was glowering at him from her wheelchair. Hopefully, she would go away soon and let him figure things out for himself, but that was seeming less and less likely.
"Good afternoon, Namie-san," he said, flinching slightly at the sound of his own raspy voice.
"Shut the fuck up, you unbearable asshole," Namie responded. Ah. So she was still mad at him. Good to know.
"I am way too high on whatever Shinra gave me to do that," he told her. It wasn't untrue, either. This wasn't the first time Shinra had pumped his body with some unknown concoction, and he was pretty certain that it wouldn't be the last.
"I don't care," Namie hissed. "Until I get my paycheck, I am not listening to a word you have to say." Izaya pouted.
"But Naaamiiieeee-saaaannnn," he whined. "I'm sick."
"What else is new?" she asked. Izaya hid a small grin. His secretary was great.
-THIS IS A LINE BREAK-
-There is no one in the chatroom at this time-
-GoldenApple has entered the chat-
-Pure Water 100% has entered the chat-
Pure Water 100% [Private]: Are you the one who wanted to talk to me?
GoldenApple: Yes.
Pure Water 100% [Private]: If it's so important that you waited until the chatroom was empty, shouldn't you be using the 'private' function?
GoldenApple: …Yes
Pure Water 100% [Private]: Do you even know how?
GoldenApple [Private]: Of course I do.
Pure Water 100% [Private]: You looked it up.
GoldenApple [Private]: Did not. Anyway, I have a question for you. Are you Kuronuma Aoba?
Pure Water 100% [Private]: Asking an innocent little girl like me for her identity could be taken the wrong way, you know.
GoldenApple [Private]: Where is Orihara Izaya?
Pure Water 100% [Private]: Now why would I know that?
GoldenApple [Private]: I'm not in the mood for games. Where is he?
Pure Water 100% [Private]: What's it to you?
GoldenApple [Private]: Dammit, I don't have time for this.
-GoldenApple has left the chat-
Pure Water 100%: I guess it wasn't that important, then.
GoldenApple: Because I could not stop for Death
Pure Water 100%: ?
GoldenApple: He kindly stopped for me
Pure Water 100%: Hang on, how are you doing that? The screen says I'm the only one in here!
GoldenApple: The carriage held but just ourselves
Pure Water 100%: What does Emily Dickinson have to do with anything? Are you trying to threaten me with poetry?
-Pure Water 100% has been disconnected-
-There is no one in the chatroom at this time-
GoldenApple: And Immortality.
-GoldenApple has left the chat-
-There is no one in the chatroom at this time-
-THIS IS A LINE BREAK-
Mikage thought back to her first conversation with Kadota. It hadn't been particularly fun, but it had been… odd, to say the least. To the best of her recollection, Kyōhei had never been particularly nosy, so it was strange of him to ask such a personal question. It wasn't that they hadn't been on friendly terms, but they certainly hadn't been friends. Of course, back in those days, Mikage had only had eyes for one boy.
Her most recent conversation with the beanie-wearing man had been more straightforward – all she had to do was ask him to be on the lookout and then leave. It should have been easy, but something in Mikage's gut told her that it hadn't been. There shouldn't have been a problem – they had no conflicting history, no conflicting opinions (well, mostly), and no conflicting allegiances.
Shaking her head to get her thoughts away from Kadota, Mikage returned to the task at hand – ensuring that Izaya would hate her forever. Okay, so that wasn't exactly her intention, but it was sure to be a side affect of her actions. Raising her hand, she knocked at Sonohara Anri's door, waited a bit, and then knocked once more. There was no response. Frowning, Mikage turned to leave, but something stopped her. She took a step back, and kicked the door down. Walking inside, she looked around the dingy apartment.
"Come out, Niekawa," she said flatly. The longhaired girl appeared in the doorway behind her. "You followed me." Haruna shrugged.
"You knew I would," the girl pointed out. Mikage looked over her shoulder, meeting the other's eyes.
"Yeah. I was counting on it," she admitted. "Sonohara should be here, since it's so late and tomorrow's a school day, but it doesn't look like anyone's been here for a few days." Haruna walked into the apartment, looking around.
"That's true," she mused. "I haven't been able to feel her for a while, either. I have felt something else, though. Something scary~" Mikage swung around fully.
"Why are you only mentioning this now?" she demanded. Haruna grinned at her.
"'Cause I didn't know what it was~" she sang. "It's been trying to get into my brain for a while, but my love for Takashi is far too strong." Her eyes narrowed. "I absolutely won't let myself lose. I have too much to do." Mikage nodded, frowning.
"Good. Let me know if you figure something out about it," she instructed.
"Sure thing, Captain~"
-THIS IS A LINE BREAK-
The Rotting Man tilted what was probably supposed to be its head as the two women left the building. It wondered if it should kill them, but the one with long hair frightened it. She had the same aura that its Mother and its Great Progenitor had, and that worried it. A shadowy creature pulled itself away from the Rotting Man's body, slinking after the two women. Curiosity sated, the Rotting Man slipped off into the shadows.
-THIS IS A LINE BREAK-
Sonohara Anri was very thankful that her mother had befriended Akabayashi Mizuki. Even Kujiragi knew better than to piss off the Awakusu-kai, and kidnapping Anri was a sure way to get Akabayashi to torture you to death. Still, Anri felt more than a little uncomfortable as she walked to school. It wasn't that she thought she was being watched – she knew she was being watched. The problem was that there were too many people watching her. It wasn't just the Dollars, either. Anri was fairly certain both Mikado and Masaomi had been keeping an eye on her, and it wouldn't have been surprising if Mika had been as well. No, there was a distinctly less friendly presence (not that Kujiragi and the Rotting Man were particularly comforting presences) that seemed to be following Anri. It wasn't malicious, per se, but it was cautious, and that was worrying.
When she arrived at class, Mikado waved at her, and she gave him a small smile as she walked to her seat. The teacher cleared his throat.
"Class, we have a shadow student with us today," he said. Anri looked at the girl and suddenly realized where that borderline hostile presence had been coming from.
"I'm Mikajima Saki," the shadow student said. "Please take care of me."
"Mikajima-san will be shadowing Sonohara-san for the day," the teacher stated. "I do hope you will all treat her with respect." The class greeted Saki in a friendly manner, and she went to sit down next to Anri.
"It's nice to meet you, Sonohara-san," she said, bowing. "I hope we can be friends." Anri blinked, and then hesitantly nodded.
"Ah, yes," she mumbled. "Me too." Mikado glanced back and forth between the two of them, frowning. For a moment, Anri was worried that he'd say something, but the boy remained quiet. Anri took another look at the girl next to her. Saki was looking forward, staring intently at the teacher, but her expression when she'd looked at Anri still lingered in the bespectacled girl's mind.
Saki's mouth had been smiling cheerfully, but her eyes had been sending a death glare that would've sent damn near anyone running for the hills.
-THIS IS A LINE BREAK-
Orihara Izaya, bored out of his mind, checked his emails again. Most of his accounts had nothing interesting in them, and he didn't intend to open anything that was too interesting. He didn't doubt that he was being watched, and it wouldn't do to get distracted at such a critical juncture.
"I bet a lot of people are mad at me~" he hummed cheerfully.
"Wouldn't be the first time," Namie said, wheeling herself back into the room. "I think that could be the title of your autobiography, actually. "People are Mad at Me." You could probably end every chapter with "and then Heiwajima Shizuo threw a vending machine at my head." Pity none of them ever connect."
"They do, sometimes," Izaya said absently. "Shizu-chan gets lucky every now and then. By the way, why was he here earlier?"
"Who knows?" Namie replied. "Could be anything. Maybe he's in love with you."
"You've been spending too much time with Karisawa," Izaya told her, wrinkling his nose. "Or are you the one giving her ideas?" Namie smirked.
"Perhaps its your twisted obsession with one another that gives her ideas," the woman said. Izaya laughed.
"I don't want to hear about twisted obsessions from you, Namie-san." He twisted onto his side to look at her. "Speaking of obsessions, where's my loyal courier?"
"Babysitting."
-THIS IS A LINE BREAK-
Celty Sturluson officially did not like babysitting. Granted, the baby she was currently sitting for was a malformed spastic mini-Izaya, which would have turned anyone off, but she was fairly certain that this experience would scar her for eternity.
"I wouldn't want to live on Venus," Hiro burst out. He promptly curled back into a ball, rocking back and forth. Celty's shoulders slumped. Shinra had done a surprisingly fast DNA test, and had determined that Hiro and Izaya were related, if not the same person. Namie had smacked him over the head with a clipboard and angrily stated that everyone else had already figured that out. Still, Hiro's origins were a mystery. The boy himself was a mystery as well – nothing about him was consistent. It wasn't just his body; his personality, random outbursts, and facial expressions were all inconsistent.
[[Hiro-kun, can you read this?]] Celty tried for what felt like the eighth time. Hiro looked closely at her phone, squinting at the words, before returning to his fetal position.
"Any luck, darling?" Shinra called. Celty really wanted to hit him.
-THIS IS A LINE BREAK-
On a scale of "kind okay" to "crap" to "shit" to "really fucking awful", today was not ranking very high on Kida Masaomi's list of "not awesome days". Aside from all the things that usually went wrong in his life, Saki had left without telling him where she was going. Sure, she'd said, "I'll be back tonight," but that was somehow not very comforting.
"C'mon," Kida muttered, scrolling down the list of emergency contacts Izaya had given him nearly three and a half years ago. His finger hovered above the one he was sure Izaya had put down as a joke. Taking a deep breath, he clicked it. After listening to the dial tone for a couple seconds, someone picked up on the other end.
"Hello?" a female voice, hoarse from cigarettes, snapped. Kida exhaled.
"Hi, mom."
AN: I know this chapter isn't very long, but I wanted to end it here. Partly because of the cliffhanger, but also partly because I haven't updated in a while, and I thought Thanksgiving would be a good day to do that. As I've said before, I've kind of lost interest in Durarara, but I do intend to see this fic through to the end. The thing is, you guys have been so wonderful and supportive, and you really deserve the best I can give you, at the very least. So, while I will finish this story, there will almost certainly be rather long gaps in between chapters. I can't force myself to write, and I don't intend to try. I wish I could update on a regular basis, but I can't, so… thanks for sticking with me all this time, guys. You're the best.