Thumbs is by Sabrina Carpenter

— I don't own Durarara!

- Izaya

Wednesday, eight o'clock in the evening. He stared down at the Othello board before him. City lights streamed through the wall-length window to his left. The taste of bitter coffee filled his mouth, and Namie-san's irritated grumbling could be heard from a room away. Dusk had passed over an hour ago, and the dark sky left Izaya feeling a little creative.
On the Othello squares lay two kings and a queen, a small array of pawns scattered around them. Two othello pieces sat to the side; Shinra-kun and Celty-dono tried to intervene as little as possible.

Anri Sonohara should also be playing by now, Izaya thought, and her Saika will make her Queen.

Anri-chan would be the reluctant White Queen, too afraid to make even a single move. Intent on keeping everyone safe, yet too scared of herself to use her most powerful assets, she would seldom stray from her current square next to White King Masaomi despite the endless possibilities within her reach.

And Shizu-chan, what would he be?

The informant's long-time nemesis had been awfully strange lately. Though the two of them frequently found themselves brawling in the streets of Ikebukuro, Izaya hadn't seen the infamous debt collector since their usual fight several days prior. However, the blond man had far from gone quiet.

Every day for the past three days, Izaya would come home to his current apartment to find a broken-down door, an overall trashed living room, holes punched through the walls, and Namie-san shivering in some corner. Repairs weren't a bother, but he wasn't sure how much more he could take before he decided to sue for property damage.

He wondered, though…

Of all the furniture scattered in plain sight, his hard drive and monitor never sported a scratch, and his game board on the table was always left meticulously untouched. Namie-san refused to tell him what he'd been doing, amused simply by the fact that the great informant was actually stumped.

A brute such as Shizu-chan was hard enough to read, but this was entirely uncalled for! Izaya had no idea what was running through the monster's mind, and he made it his mission to figure it out.

"Namie-san!" he called, "Cancel my one-thirty plans tomorrow!" He took the silence as a 'yes.'

Looking down at the board once more, Izaya decided it needed a finishing touch. He glanced at the unused pieces to the side — black and white rooks, bishops, knights, a few spare pawns, and some more Othello pieces. Which would suit his new player best?

In the end, he settled on a Black Bishop; limited power, but slanted and fearless; never direct. His new pawn stood just outside the chaos, as if watching but never taking part.

Izaya leaned back and took in his masterpiece. "You're old enough to ride the roller coaster now, Kasuka-kun! I hope you have fun~"

"Shut up," groaned his secretary from the hallway.

At approximately one-fifteen the next afternoon, Izaya twirled out the door after bidding a joyous farewell to Namie-san. He hurried out of the building and down the street as if o a tight schedule. Once past a corner, he slowed to a walk and entered a café. Sitting down at a table with a nice cup of tea, he decided he could rest for a while.

Today was the day he would catch Shizu-chan mid house invasion. It'd been too long since they'd talked, and he wanted to know what the protozoan was up to. While he doubted the man had the brain capacity to plan elaborate schemes, it never hurt to be safe— except when it did.

After all, Shizu-chan always broke in whenever Izaya was out, bringing him to two possibilities: 1) Shizu-chan was stalking him, which he didn't have the time of day to do, or 2) Shizu-chan had intimidated the information out of somebody, a far more likely conclusion.

Chances were that the faux blond had gotten Izaya's schedule from Namie-san each time he came to the apartment, and that led to another revelation: the first time breaking in while Izaya had been out informant-ing had likely been an accident. Shizu-chan had probably meant to confront him for whatever reason and entered to find an apartment empty save for one shell-shocked secretary.

All that begged the question: Why did Izaya's dear arch nemesis keep returning to his office every time he left, deliberately now? What happened, what changed? To Izaya, this was a perfect opportunity to better understand and take down the enemy who had eluded his puppet strings for nearly a decade.

Izaya checked his smartphone; it was one-forty-one. Leaving the café, he skipped all the way back to his apartment building and climbed to the top floor. Strangely enough, he didn't hear any cracking windows or crashing chairs.

Cautiously, he approached the gap where the front door used to stand. Still no sound. If Shizu-chan truly was able to pick up his scent, he'd be throwing furniture already.

Stepping in, Izaya made a mental note to buy a new fridge to replace the one currently lodged in the wall just right of him. He strode through the short corridor and was for once taken aback by what he saw.

There amidst the array of sad, decimated furniture sat Shizu-chan on the only still-standing couch, bent over the Othello game board, seeming truly intrigued.

Shizuo Heiwajima got up to leave and, smiling at Izaya as if issuing a challenge, simply said, " I fixed it for you. Kasuka isn't a bishop."

With that, he proceeded to walk past Izaya and out the door, leaving the other utterly stunned.

"Wait," This would be good, Izaya decided, "Shizu-chan should have my keys if he's going to be coming in here so often~"

He threw a spare key at him.

"Thanks," Shizu-chan said curtly, catching it and leaving.

That was, perhaps, the first civil conversation the two had ever had with each other.

Izaya walked over to the board to wee what his home invader had done with the board. As it turned out, only one thing had changed: Black Bishop Kasuka was now Black Knight Kasuka.

Well, if that's how he wants it, Izaya thought. Shizu-chan seemed to think that Kasuka-kun was capable of making a move that wasn't bound by rules; he'd see about that.

But now there existed one more crucial thing: his protozoan might be an intelligent life form after all. If it was so, then that meant he was trying to uncover and interfere with his plans, and by an extent, try to access his computer rather than just destroy it. This was already far more than Izaya had ever expected from him.

"Is he gone yet?" Namie-san squeaked from behind his desk.

Izaya stared out the window at the skyscrapers illuminating the night sky. He was an emperor, and the humans below were his subjects; the city was his empire, and it was being threatened. Something or someone had gained the ability to disrupt his reign and bring about its fall. It was all in the mind, he knew; if one were to just expand their horizons and think as he did the could steal his glass throne or, worse yet, shatter it altogether. Somehow, though, he knew that whoever achieved it would never consider obliterating such a power. They would want it for themselves.

But who could it be? Celty-dono? Despite being a monstrous dullahan, she'd deluded herself into acting too kindhearted and human for that to happen. Perhaps Chikage Rokujo was trying to expand their territory? No, that wasn't big enough. Namie-san wouldn't plot against him for fear of her brother's safety, and Anri-chan didn't have the willpower to. It could be that Masaomi-kun was finally fed up with Izaya's antics — for, what, the fifteenth time now? He could never have been called a threat, and still wasn't. Mikado-kun was a possibility; he might come into the shadows again. If he was the issue, then Aoba-kun would also get dragged into it. Neither of them could operate without the other, and neither of them would be a surprise.

Then there was Shizu-chan again.

Izaya simply couldn't get his mind off of the man after what happened earlier that day. The ex-bartender's actions and attitude had been so out of character that Izaya had the urge to call Shinra-kun and ask if his rival had been diagnosed with a brain tumor recently. Chances were that the blond beast was the source of the burning premonition that had plagued him as of late. For the first time in his life as an informant, Izaya wasn't sure who should be strapping on a seat belt: himself or the populace of his subjects?

"I knew I was right to make Shizuo-san a Queen," the boy smiled to himself, "He's smarter than I thought, smart enough to go against Izaya-san if he's angry enough… I just need to get him to think and plan."

He'd been right to go to Celty-san, but he needed more connections. As a simple high school student, he was at a bit of a disadvantage. He wasn't closely affiliated with the yakuza or any particularly influential associations. Heck, he didn't even have a job yet!

Then it occurred to him: someone who wouldn't take a side unless they stood to benefit, and doing the favor needed to get them on his side was something he could actually manage. The Raira student supposed he'd be paying a visit to Erika-san after school the next day, provided Masaomi was staying in the Art Club — they met every Friday — and didn't intend to hang out right after dismissal.

Mikado adjusted the chess pieces so the two Queens, Shizuo-san and Izaya-san, faced each other in what looked like an epic royal staring contest from across the board. No, they weren't face-to-face just yet.

He then turned off his lamp and made a mental note to get a job without his parents knowing about it.

Whoops, I was deceased for half a year, so sorry. (^_^") But I'm back now!

BTW, if I make any grammatical, spelling, honorific, or any other type of mistake, feel free to let me know! See you all next chapter!