Namie's relationship with her younger brother was something he didn't like to think about very much.

Not only was it rather gross, it reminded him that no one loved him. Shiki probably was fond of him to an extent, maybe the man thought of Izaya as his son? It didn't really matter though, Izaya thought, I'm not going to get any closer to Shiki than I already am. He couldn't lose anyone else. Never again.

Back to the situation of Namie becoming his secretary, the actual process was rather easy. A little blackmail here, some bribe money there, and soon enough he had the once proud scientist fetching him coffee while he pulled up files on medical journals and back alley drug rings. His reason for taking down Yagiri Pharmaceuticals was simple: to obtain Celty's head and to have access to their files. To get Celty's head was one thing-it turned out that the young chief head was not really fond of it-though Izaya had a hunch it had less to do with the fact it was a head in a jar and more that her younger brother claimed to be infatuated with it. But Izaya didn't want to delve any further in the siblings bizarre and rather disturbing love interests.

Shinra was surely lucky to have such an attractive lover, Izaya decided, looking at the brunette's head floating peacefully in the green liquid. Natural curiosity got the best of him, and at night he'd take out the jar he had kept safe in a secret panel behind his bookcase. He'd set the jar on his desk and just talk to the head. It would seem wierd to anyone else, morbid and horrific to some, but Izaya found it comforting to vent his personal history to a human face. He'd tried talking about his problems to stuffed animals, he had accumulated a small collection of bunny plush toys in a box under his bed that he'd take out and cuddle when he slept. However it wasn't the same as talking to something that looked like it would talk back, to say that everything was okay and that he wasn't alone in his misery.

As he lay one night snug under his sheets, in the dead of winter with his thermostat turned nice and warm, with a teal bunny with pink button eyes curled under his chin, Izaya wondered what others would think of him if they saw him. If someone saw the feared Izaya Orihara, the twenty year old informant extraordinaire-famous for ruining lives and destroying Ikebukuro during romps with Shizuo Hiwajima- snuggled in his bed sheets hugging a stuffed bunny, what would they think? Would they think it a hoax? Would they laugh and point fingers? It hardly mattered to him, he didn't care what people thought of him. After all, they didn't know him in the slightest. They only knew what he wanted them to see-this facade he wore so well and his mask of sociopathic cruelty. What if they knew the real him? If they knew the horrors he had been through and the true monster that he was?

What would Shizuo think?

Izaya broke off that train of thought immediately and closed his eyes to the world.

The next time Izaya went rifling through Yagiri's files, filled to the brim with illegal drugs and studies on supernatural entities that all proved false, he frowned when he stumbled upon a name in the credits section of a certain file that he hadn't expected.

Nakura Okonogi

Izaya frowned and let his reading glasses (that were unneeded in every sense of the word but he wore them just for fun) drop down the bridge of his nose. "Well this is peculiar..." Namie looked up from her desk set far across the apartment with a frown painting her pretty face. "What is it now?" Honestly, even though he took over her company and made her his secretary didn't mean she had to be so cruel with him all the time...at least he paid her.

"Why did you have Nakura Okonogi in your list of drug chemists?" he asked, feeling a chill go down his spine when she replied with, "Because his formula proved key in keeping the dullahan's head from finding it's owner and reconnecting." Izaya resisted an intake of breath and merely shrugged and went on reading when inside he was positively reeling. He had read books on books about dullahans over the last year but none of them said that the head could locate it's owner. He knew that Celty's number one reason for patrolling the streets and searching high and low for her head wasn't because she actually wanted to reattach it, but because as long as she didn't have it there was a chance someone else could hurt it and cause her death. She wanted to be in control of when she died, the memories would just be a plus.

On a small notepad he started to jot down a list of instructions for Namie, knowing that if they were going to catch Nakura it would have to be fast. Since the incident Izaya had kept tabs on Nakura, and as such he knew that the bastard was going to board a train the next day to go to college all the over in Osaka, and he'd rather not have to travel such distances to get the boy. His parents had him home schooled but were dying to get their son out of the house.

"Namie if you would be so kind as to follow these instructions it would be a pleasure." He handed her the paper and she scoffed, "You want me to persuade him to work for you? Why? Do you want him tampering with that head you keep hidden in the bookshelves?" It seems she was more keen than he had thought, but it didn't really matter much if she knew where it was. He smiled mischievously in a way he could only accomplish with years of practice, "Perhaps...or maybe I want him to create something to make you a little nicer, heaven forbid you smile once in a while."

His secretary rolled her eyes but still grabbed her jacket and stormed out the door to complete his "errand". He would pay her a bonus that day, money was no problem for him anymore-being a famous informant who never failed at any task was a plus in the money department.

He swiveled his amazing spinning chair to gaze out the large window panes that made up the south edge of his apartment. He watched his reflection in the window pane, half transparent and the other plainly visible against a backdrop of another building. Lifting his hand to the glass he traced his _ eye and the entire atmosphere seemed to cloy.

"Kanra...back there in that hellish hole could we have ever imagined that I would make it this far? That I would be one of the most famous people in all of Japan? No...what could you have become if you made it out with me? If we had escaped I don't think I'd be in this position at all, actually...perhaps we could have started an orphanage of our own somewhere in the country? A proper one with pillows and good food and warm beds..."

In a few hours Namie came back with a scowl on her face and her hands on her hips. "Well I found Nakura and got him to agree to Skype you in an hour in fear I'd slit his throat or you'd watch him in his sleep or something." Izaya smirked and waved at her dismissively, "Thank you Namie, why don't you take the rest of the day off." Namie just huffed and practically sprinted out the door, leaving Izaya with a pout on his face, "She could at least say thank you, but I guess that's beyond her capabilities." He drummed his fingers on the hardwood desk and clicked his tongue, "Oh look, right on time." He pressed a button on his laptop and a face that was scrunched into the most unpleasant of looks.

"The hell you want Orihara?!"

Izaya leaned back and pressed his fingers together, "Hello to you too, Nakura-kun."

The face on the screen deepened in angry creases, "Let's skip the pleasantries you bastard and get to the point! That bitch of a secretary of yours came to my apartment today and threatened to pluck out my eyes with tongs if I didn't do this skype thing with you! So what the hell do you want from me?!" It didn't surprise him that Namie didn't mention the job he needed from Nakura but it was so very like her to do the littlest work possible.

"I was looking through some files here and it seems you worked with Yagiri Pharmaceuticals for a time."

The other boy picked his ear with a finger and Izaya repressed a shiver of disgust, "What of it? They wanted some of the drugs I was working on so I let em in on it if they paid me. Didn't get a lot from it though so I stopped selling it to them."

Izaya nodded, "Well I need those drugs of yours now."

Nakura wrinkled his nose, "The hell? No way bro, I don't owe you anything."

Izaya raised a slim brow and mentally preened as Nakura writhed under his look, "Y-Yeah that thing with the knife ain't something you can hold over my head forever! You can't use it to blackmail me if it don't bother me!"

Izaya smiled wider, noticing that Nakura melted even more, "That's not the only thing I have on you, you know?"

Nakura scoffed, "So what, now you stalk me for blackmail?"

Izaya didn't say anything and just let his smile almost reach his ears and Nakura instantly paled.

Izaya didn't need to have any more dirt on Nakura for him to do what he wanted. Reverse psychology at it's finest, to be sure. He'd maintained a watch on Nakura regarding his whereabouts in relation to people Izaya cared about but that was about it. The fact that Izaya could turn him in to the police for drug making and dealing, plus the attack on Shinra were things that most certainly worried Nakura, if the looks on the man's flustered face were anything to go by.

"I-I won't give you anything unless you pay better than those Yagiri cheapskates!"

Izaya chuckled and removed his glasses, "Don't worry Nakura-kun, money is not a problem for me. Also, if it would please you to know that 'bitch of a secretary' that came by earlier? She was that head of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals. Bye now!"

Before Nakura could answer he shut don't the call and the image disappeared from his laptop screen, returning him to his desktop photo. At first glance it looked like brown abstract pillars in a see of muddy clolors with flames atop them. However, when one looked closer one could see small dark figures huddled around the fires for warmth.

"Yes...when this is all over...I will surely join them in Hell..."