Jokes, Whims, & Coincidences

Chapter Two, In Succession

Orihara Izaya: He That Retaliates


I really shouldn't bother, but for the sake of consistency I will introduce myself as Orihara Izaya.


I won't bother talking about my past. I won't bother bringing up any of the nitpicky details that lead me to this point in my life. All you need to know about me to continue the telling of this story is that I hold a job as an information broker, I also share an interest in playing around with humans, and my original plan for the girl I only knew then as Kakkoii-chan took more than a few diversions along the way.

At the risk of sounding like a "creeper" (as she would so blatantly state to me on many an occasion later), I will admit that I watched the entire thing. I watched as Kakkoii waited with her timed nervous ticks, and I watched as she acquainted herself with the person standing in for me. I followed when they left their meeting place, and I listened as the girl was taken hostage. And it was at that moment I had a consideration.

I had no plan to pick her up myself, but the moment pushed me into it. The way she had regarded the man posing as Nakura with suspicion had piqued my interest, and I felt a much more personal touch was required. And while it was really much more of a hassle for me overall, I figured it would be worth it in the end. So instead of calling an associate of mine to run pick-up, I made my way to the drop off location myself.

Anything she didn't account for in detail was of my doing: it was really a simple process of taking out the kidnappers. The first two I dispatched with basic melee (which really wasn't my style, but I digress), and the driver was drugged by his own chloroform that had been sitting idly on the back seat when I entered the car. It was at that point that my focus shifted to Kakkoii-chan herself, mostly on the issue of where to take her that wouldn't mind an unconscious body for a while. I could have gone to my apartment, but that was far too much travel time for something like this. That concern was negated when fingers took hold of the hood on my jacket.

She inquired if I was the real Nakura, and I told her as such. I even extended an offer to relocate ourselves, but she gave no answer, only released me from her hold. I turned around to make myself comfortable against the back seat, and looked down at her. Her dark brown bangs were haphazardly tossed together, parts of her forehead visible in the gaps. The two locks that fell off either side of her head extended slightly past her chest, but the rest of it was cut off so that it barely made it to her shoulders. Her eyes stared up at me, and in the parking garage lights I perceived them to be orange.

I really questioned the type of idiots they were hiring to traffic humans nowadays. She had obviously faked passing out to be conscious now, though depending on her acting skills they may not have noticed. But natural fainting was nowhere near as reliable in terms of time, and I would have drugged her anyways for safety. They hadn't even restrained her, and I considered telling their employers to really think about who they put on payroll. By the time this was over, these three would need to find some other illegal way to make their living.

"I'm okay with going somewhere else," she answered in response to my offer, and I launched myself over the back of the seat, past her head, and landed smoothly on the pavement. She turned around and slid out of the trunk with grace. If she was impressed by me at all, her expression gave no indication. Nor did she react to the unconscious kidnappers on the ground, let alone the small puddles of blood that formed around them. I would make sure the bodies were gone by the next morning, but the stains would definitely give the office workers something to talk about.

I began the assent up the side stairwell, and she followed me without question. Eventually we reached the top level of the parking complex, and I spun in a circle on my way over to the edge. I leaned against the small cement wall, and Kakkoii took a spot against the side of the structure that sheltered the stairs. She looked me over in earnest before asking the question.

"Well then, care to tell me why you did it?" Her voice held no hostility or even fear towards me, which was unusual. This definitely wasn't the first time I had done such a thing, but no one had ever taken it so calmly. In fact, the only emotion I could even place on her at the moment was a morbid form of curiosity.

"Judging from how you're taking things, I'll assume you'll understand what I mean, so I won't mince words," I stated. "I love humans, every single one of them, no real exceptions." I neglected bringing up the exception, since I highly doubted she would care. "I love them because they're fascinating. The way they react, the way they cluster together, the way they fall apart… The list goes on and on, really." I shrugged as Kakkoii paused to consider what she had just heard.

"Well, that's my reason in a nutshell. But you obviously had some other intention since I highly doubt you want to kill yourself. So then, why'd you do it?" She tilted her head, thinking some more. Eventually, she replied.

"Well, if you love humans, I guess it's safe to say I hate them," she said, no real hesitation. "I mean, they're fascinating from afar, but once you get into close range, they're truly disgusting creatures. They claw over each other for their own desires, and then when things fall out from under them, they wonder why. When things get bad they collapse and whine and bitch, but they hardly ever do anything about it. I honestly can't stand how useless they are when you break it down.

"They're still fun to mess with, though, I'll admit that. They're toys; it's as simple as that. So in answer to your question, I did it to have something to play with."

She wasn't lying, or if she was, she was pretty good at it. But I believed it, because who would want to lie about having a mentality like that? Who would want to pretend to be something so obviously out of even the deviant bounds of society? Not even someone desperate to be different would go that far.

"What's your real name?" I asked. I held my own curiosity about this woman, and calling her by a name given through a false relationship didn't do her justice.

"How rude," she remarked, "tell me yours first." I could feel my smirk turning into something more like a smile and took no means to stop it.

"Orihara Izaya," I provided without hesitation. I didn't particularly enjoy the thought of being called by my false name either. That was a name for people to remember when I had destroyed them, not when there was a form of similarity. Besides, I wasn't about to let the owner of that name take credit for this. "Forgive my impatience. May I have your name now?" I wasn't irritated in the slightest; I was having far too much fun for that.

"Tekichu Sosa," she told me, and I blinked. Was she serious? Who had a name like that? It just seemed far too convenient with the circumstances. But she must have had that reaction quite often since she was giving me a highly stern look; almost like question me, I dare you. I did no such thing, only testing it out in my brain, taking the name to the person.

"Well, that's only a bit unusual," I commented, and her eyes narrowed in my direction.

"Look who's talking," Sosa shot back. "'Orihara Izaya,'" she repeated, rolling her eyes. "Let's just get the fact that we both have weird names out of the way and deal with it. By the way, I'd wash that chloroform off your hands; it seriously stinks." I gave no response, just stared, because I had gotten adjusted to it by now, not to mention there was a slight breeze that should have blown all other traces of the scent away.

I was just about to question what kind of unnatural sense of smell she had, but there was no time. Sosa had already started to walk towards the stairwell, tossing a small wave in my direction before she turned the corner. I thought about following her, but the sound of the door slamming deterred me. I remained where I was, my initial concern being that the kidnappers many floors down might have started to wake up, but I doubted it. I slumped down against the wall, exhaling a heavy sigh into the night air.

"Who names their kid manipulation, anyways?"


Within Ikebukuro, all of Tokyo really, there are groups known as "color gangs."

The concept is relatively simple. They're just like gangs you can find anywhere. They use a color as their symbol, and that's how you know who they are. They essentially died off after two gangs faced off in what could be considered war between their heads. I'll admit that I had a little bit to do with that one, but that's a story for a different time. Not many gangs gather anymore, mostly because the police are more than a bit wary of groups of people hanging around in the same color. But that's not really a problem if you're colorless.

There is a gang known as the Dollars, though calling them a gang is a bit crude. When you get down to it, the Dollars is a group of people who predominately know each other only through their website. It's a password protected thing, but once you get that, you're essentially in. They don't go around trying to expand their power. They don't take on other gangs. Most of the members don't even know who the leader is, and that leader doesn't give orders. Even so, rumors go around that say a number of untrue things about the organization, and they're quite a formidable force in the eyes of many people.

It wouldn't be untrue to say I had something to do with that.

It started off as a small organization, but soon enough plenty of people found their way to the password. The member count went up as people passed the information along to their friends. It can almost be considered as its own society; the members act as parts of the Dollars because they want to. They aren't forced into membership. They accept of their own free will. They can leave of their own free will. No one is stopping them from doing otherwise. But most people stay, and the amount of members continues to grow to this day.

It wouldn't be untrue to say I had something to do with that particular detail either.

I say this because, as an active member of the Dollars, they're obviously going to play a part in this. Not to mention, if it weren't for them, there really wouldn't be a story to even tell.


Decent amounts of the people I associate with personally on a regular basis possess Dollars membership. This isn't really a coincidence, but what can I say? Putting them in the Dollars ultimately benefits me, so why not? That was the reasoning behind the invitation that I sent to Sosa roughly a week after our meeting.

The invitation is a relatively simple one. It poses the question of Do you want to join the Dollars? and you have your choice of answering yes or no, or just ignoring it altogether. It does almost seem like a practical joke when you look at it, but people respond to it, so it doesn't really matter in the end. If the person answers "yes," they're given the link to the site and the password. If they answer "no," I send their reply to the trash.

Which is why when I came back to the email interface I had sent the message from after going through some work, I was utterly confused to see Sosa's reply of one word, and it wasn't an answer to the question.

Izaya?

I stared down my own name written on the screen, not knowing how to react. It was true I used the same email as the Nakura account for most of my Dollars affairs, but I had taken into account that she already knew of it and used an alternate account. It wasn't that I particularly cared if she knew about my membership. I had been planning on meeting her through the message boards anyway, assuming she would have the same username as our previous talks. And even if she didn't, I still used the same name, anyway. She'd be bound to recognize me.

I tried to think of a suitable reply, and while I failed at that, another message presented itself on screen.

What? No response? I know it's you, Izaya. You're the only one that has this address, and anyone else I've talked to through it has been blocked.

I picked apart the logic in her statement. If no one else had the address, that meant she had started a new account to do things from. That was reasonable, but from our talks I knew she had used the text interface, meaning she had probably purchased a new cell phone to front it. I didn't understand why she would bother. Why would you go through so much trouble for something only considered a game?

After a moment's consideration, I realized that I would have done the exact same thing if I had thought about it differently.

Are you not going to talk to me until I answer your question? Fine, I'll join the Dollars. Happy now? Now respond to me, dammit.

I sent her the Dollars information, then logged out to re-sign in as Nakura.


This time, I was the one standing in the middle of the crowd waiting for her to show up.

She had caught me, which in relative terms meant that I had lost. And if you were talking about things with that logic, I guess you could say I had lost our first meeting, too, since she had gotten the last word. And now I was waiting for her because she had insisted that we meet again. She wanted to talk to me with no other prerequisite than we were of similar minds, the rest of our former lies forgotten.

I had complied with this because I did want to keep in contact with her, though I hadn't planned on doing so this soon. But the opportunity to get into this woman's mind was there, so I took it. Plus if I needed her assistance in anything else, even if that assistance was just using her to further something else, making some more of association with her definitely wouldn't hurt.

"Oi!" a voice called, and I turned to see Sosa running over to me. My eyebrows shot up on sight, mostly because her attire was completely different than what I had seen before. Sure, I had expected something different, but I didn't understand where this came from at all.

Her top was a dark purple, sleeveless and form-fitting, the thin layer of cloth covering two-thirds of her neck as well. Her pants hugged her hips in black, the entire ensemble giving me a better view of the figure she had tried to conceal in our previous encounter. The odd thing was both her torso and legs held host to bright red cords that twisted their way around her form. Her lower arms also sported smaller versions of the accessories, marking crosses on dark blue backdrops.

"What are the cords for anyway?" were the first words out of my mouth, skipping straight over the greetings. Sosa kept hold of her smile, but I figured she was probably used to that question.

"What do you think the cords are for?" she cheerfully asked, avoiding giving me an answer.

"I'm not answering that." I wasn't about to give her something she could use against me. I had enough of being at a disadvantage around this woman from the last two sets of interactions. She may not have fully viewed things with the same air as I did, but I wasn't about to go home without being overall victorious.

I refused to lose at my own game anymore.

I watched as her smile turned into smirk much like my own. "Why not? I already know you're an ass, Izaya-kun." I ignored her casual use of my name and the "kun" that followed in favor of observing her bluntness. Depending on how she used it, she could really hurt someone like that. Not me, of course, but there were plenty of weaker humans that would fall apart if forced to face down something like that.

"I don't know why, but I actually think that's an attractive quality," she continued, and I must have made a face since she cocked her head to the side. "What? Oh, I get it; you're used to people being afraid of you, so when someone compliments you it's a surprise. Darn shame, considering you're an attractive man. Then again…" She trailed off as her hand reached towards me, though I think it was subconscious. When I stopped her hand in mine, she stared at where they met like she didn't know how hers had gotten there.

"Enjoying yourself picking me apart, Kakkoii-chan?" I questioned, the nickname coming from my lips with ease. Her expression automatically soured, and her eyes narrowed at me. I still had no idea where that orange could have possibly come from; it had to be colored contacts.

"That's not my name."

Her tone actually seemed angry, which was a first. It appeared as if I had the upper hand at the moment.

I did consider her name, though, and wondered what it was that stopped me from saying it. Her parents had obviously been mental to name her that, but I knew that was nowhere near the issue. It was just its meaning that threw me off, the thought of giving someone a title like Manipulation that almost signified that she was better than me.

And that was ridiculous. Not calling her by her name because it seemed like I was admitting she had won. My competitive side was taking things way too far.

"Sosa-chan…" I relented, mostly because I couldn't take the thought of having a name stop me. Her expression lightened up instantly, her features smoothing out, just like nothing had happened. I decided to keep conversation moving as to stay in control. "What were you saying?"

"Oh, not much, really," Sosa stated, and I watched as a grin formed that probably unnerved lesser people than me. "I was just saying that with that horrible personality of yours goin' on, I'll probably be the only person willing to put up with you."

I suddenly remembered that my hand was holding hers and pulled it away.


First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their support on this story, even though it's only had one chapter posted. Specifically, thanks to alwaysblu, FoxGoddess2416, and Meenah D. Starcross for your respective reviews, favorites, and follows.

Also, to guest reviewer "R": Thank you very much for your support! I had hoped to make a character and world worthy of the Durarara! universe so I'm glad you think I accomplished this! Hopefully you find your way back to this story and let me know how this goes.

Yes, this will be one of those flipping perspective stories (as a pain in the ass as it is for me to do this and keep everything straight). Izaya may seem OOC at times but I'm trying my best to avoid that... I've come to understand him a lot better then the time where I first started writing this.

Considering how much of this I wrote a long time ago, I hope it's still okay in terms of quality... It seems to hold up, though, so I'm going with it until I actually have to start writing new content... Oh dear, this story has a long introductory arc. Just think of it as the first nine episodes of the anime (which this will cover) and hopefully it will be alright...

Next time Sosa and Izaya babble about their philosophies of the world and we start to involve the rest of the canon cast in this mess. Please look forward to it!