There's a lot of chat dialogue in this chapter. If the line is just bold, then it's in the regular chat with the entire group. If it's bolded and italicized, then it's a private message between two people. Just so you know~!
Thanks to those reviewed/favorited/followed!
~FR242
[Acquaintance]
Chapter 3: Welcome Back
"I–za–ya–kun!" The informant's assailant took a few menacing steps forward, making Izaya take a step back, switchblade still held high.
"Shizu-chan." Izaya's mouth twitched into a crooked smile. The special smile that always seemed to infuriate the taller man standing across from him right now. "As violent as ever, I see."
"Don't call me that!" Heiwajima Shizuo growled low in his throat as he took off his blue sunglasses and tucked them into his bartender jacket. "I have a name, and it's Heiwajima Shizuo! What the hell are you doing back in Ikebukuro anyway?"
Izaya sneered as Shizuo lifted a vending machine with ease and hurled it at the informant. The shorter male dodged the heavy object and was nearly smacked in the face by a stop sign that the other uprooted. Luckily, Izaya had fast reflexes, and he ducked, feeling the sign graze the tips of his hair by a millimeter.
"You really should try to control your temper, Shizu-chan." Izaya straightened up, still wearing a smirk on his face. Shizuo had already ripped up another stop sign and was swinging it around. Izaya readied himself to dodge the inevitable blow. "Who knows when you might hurt someone you care about?"
"You would know, flea!" With a roar, Shizuo swung the sign at Izaya's torso, forcing the informant to step back to avoid it.
"I'm afraid I'll have to deny that, Shizu-chan." Izaya's smirk turned cruel. "I never cared about you."
The stop sign came spinning around again with greater force than last time. Like always, Izaya evaded it with ease.
By now, most people that had been walking on that street had retreated and were watching Izaya and Shizuo fight from a safe distance away. There were many kinds of emotions in the spectators' eyes: fear from a young woman with long black hair, annoyance from a blond high school student, and interest from a short, red-haired person who watched the two from a nearby coffee shop.
Izaya and Shizuo were both accustomed to these stares and expertly ignored them. As Shizuo swung the sign around for a third time, Izaya turned and dashed away, leaping over benches and dodging around cars. Shizuo pursued him, lifting the stop sign high above his head and roaring like an enraged lion.
A shadow fell on top of Izaya, and the informant swerved out of the way just in time for the stop sign to come crashing down on the ground, leaving a fissure where it struck. As Izaya continued to run, he heard the crunching sound of Shizuo uprooting some other street object to throw. Soon, a vending machine went flying over his head, shortly followed by another street sign that whizzed past and embedded itself in the ground in front of Izaya.
Izaya quickly swerved to avoid the sign and skidded to a halt as a car sailed past his face, missing his nose by a few inches. A swift glance behind him told him that Shizuo was steadily catching up, and Izaya couldn't allow Shizuo to catch him. It wouldn't be very pretty.
Izaya leaped over a stone bench and ducked into an alleyway. Without breaking his stride, he scrambled up a wall and rolled onto the roof of the building, staying low to hide himself from Shizuo's view. He heard the taller man's footsteps stomp into the alley. The angry gnashing sound of the blond's teeth reached Izaya's ears, and the informant braced himself for the enraged cry that followed soon after.
"I–za–ya–!"
Every single one of their fights ended this way. Even after several years of not seeing the other man, Izaya remembered clearly how a major portion of their fights would start and how all of them would end. After yelling his lungs out because Izaya escaped, Shizuo would punch something with a tremendous amount of strength and then go back to whatever he was doing.
Sure enough, there was a loud crack, signaling that Shizuo had slammed his fist into a wall or something like that. There was a scuffing sound as the blond turned and left, no doubt heading back to his boss to apologize and continue his job.
Izaya waited a few more moments before he carefully got up. Shizuo was nowhere in sight, but the informant decided that it would be easier to get home if he traveled on roofs. With his parkour skills, staying off the ground wasn't very difficult to do.
As he neared the subway station, Izaya allowed his feet to touch the ground again. He knew that Shizuo rarely used the subway, so he chose it as his method of transportation between Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. Yes, the subway was crowded, and truthfully, it was always crowded. Japan was just like this. Izaya didn't particularly mind, however. He found it a great opportunity to observe the humans that he claimed to love. Except for Heiwajima Shizuo.
But then again, Izaya pondered to himself as the subway began to move, did he ever consider Shizuo human? Perhaps he did, a long time ago in the past. Now, he couldn't recall a recent time when he referred to Shizuo as a person. In fact, he doubted that there were more than five people who thought of Shizuo as a human.
Wait. Why was he even thinking about this? Izaya exited from the subway and walked to his office. He unlocked the door and immediately headed for his desk. What he thought of Shizuo may have mattered several years ago, but now, it held little importance. The informant needed to focus on his mission at hand, and couldn't afford to think of the man whom he undoubtedly had a different relationship with many years ago.
With a sigh, Izaya shrugged off his fur coat and hung it up before plopping himself down in his chair, letting it make one full rotation before pulling himself toward his work desk and logging on to a chat room that he frequently visited.
–Kanra has logged on–
Izaya scanned over the messages of his fellow chat members, chuckling at some of the things they said. At last, he placed his hands on his keyboard and began typing.
Kanra: Hello, everyone~!
Soon, messages from the others began popping up.
Tanaka Tarou: Ah, hello, Kanra-san.
Setton: Hello.
Kanra: Ne, ne. Did you guys see Orihara Izaya and Heiwajima Shizuo fighting again earlier? It was scary, wasn't it?
Tanaka Tarou: Eh? Well…I didn't see it but I heard a loud commotion a few blocks away from where I was. I guessed that Heiwajima-san was in a rage again.
Setton: The day Izaya and Shizuo don't fight is the day the world will end.
Izaya threw his head back and let out a great 'ha' of laughter. Frankly, he couldn't imagine a day where he and Shizuo would stop fighting either, but it was still amusing to hear it coming from others.
Kanra: I agree with you, Setton!
Tanaka Tarou: So, what's been going on with you guys?
Kanra: Oh, nothing much. Work, take a walk, watch Orihara and Heiwajima fight… ^3^
Setton: Work. Nothing new, really. How about you, Tanaka Tarou?
Tanaka Tarou: Ah, there's nothing new going on with me either. It can be boring sometimes…
–Red Rook has logged on–
Izaya sat up straight. Who was this Red Rook person? A new member of their little chat group? Either Tanaka Tarou or Setton had invited Red Rook because Izaya had no recollection of sending an invitation to this person. In fact, this was the first time he had ever heard of such a pen name. His hands moved to the keyboard, ready to type a message, but Red Rook beat him to it.
Red Rook: Setton.
Setton: Ah, Rook-san. You got the chat to work?
So it was Setton, or Celty, who had invited Red Rook. Izaya was interested and quickly entered a message.
Kanra: Oh, fresh meat? Hello, Red Rook-san!
Red Rook: I just didn't feel like logging on until recently, Setton. And yes, I am rather new.
Izaya smirked. He turned on his second computer with the intention of tracking down this Red Rook and finding out who he or she is. As he typed away on his other computer, Setton and Tanaka Tarou continued to make conversation with Red Rook.
Tanaka Tarou: Welcome to the chat, Rook-san.
Setton: Glad to see that you're back in the world of the living.
Red Rook: I never died, Setton.
Izaya let out a puff of laughter. Red Rook had a strange sense of humor, which was good. He couldn't bear having to deal with uptight and serious people all the time.
Kanra: Hahahahaha! That was a good one, Rook-san! ^_^
Red Rook: Your comment is appreciated.
Setton: I didn't mean that literally.
Red Rook: I know.
Izaya took a moment to set up a private chat with Celty. He needed some information.
Kanra: Celty, you invited Rook-san to this chat, right?
Setton: So what if I did?
Kanra: How did you meet Red Rook?
Setton: Are you trying to plan something, Izaya? Don't you ever get tired of manipulating the humans you claim to love?
Getting information from Celty was proving harder than Izaya would have liked. Luckily, Tanaka Tarou was unintentionally keeping Red Rook distracted, so neither of them would immediately notice his and Celty's absence.
Kanra: Aww, Celty. That hurts, you know. I don't spend every second of my life coming up with brilliant schemes…
Setton: Then why do you want to know how Red Rook and I met?
Izaya paused. Perhaps telling Celty the reason wouldn't do much to harm his goals. He really wasn't going to plan anything. Yet.
Kanra: I'm curious as to who he or she really is. Don't tell me you're not curious, too.
Setton: Why don't you just track and hack Rook's account? It's what you did to me and Tanaka Tarou.
Kanra: Well, the more information I have on my target, the easier it is to catch him. Come on, Celtyyyy~!
Setton: …..I met Red Rook on this chat website several years ago. He chatted me first, asking about how the chat system worked. I helped him out, and we talked many times after that. Then, he just disappeared one day and I only just heard from him again a couple days ago.
Kanra: So Red Rook's a guy?
Setton: I don't know. I've never asked.
Kanra: Okay, okay.
Izaya got out of his private messaging with Celty to see that Tanaka Tarou and Red Rook were still chatting away. Well, Tanaka Tarou was actually doing most of the talking while Red Rook added the occasional comment. As their conversation came to a pause, Izaya tapped a quick question and entered it into the chat.
Kanra: Ne, Rook-san. Are you male?
Red Rook: Are you?
Kanra: Nope. 3
Setton: Kanra, why are you being so creepy all of a sudden?
Red Rook: I thought not. But yes, I am male.
Kanra: Ah~, Rook-san might be a predator, coming onto this chat to find some little girls to prey on~ O_O
Red Rook: …
Setton: Rook-san, I'm sorry. Kanra is a little crazy sometimes.
Tanaka Tarou: Oh my God, Kanra-san…
Izaya couldn't help but snicker at the reactions of the other three, even if they were rather predictable.
Kanra: Hahahaha…Yes, I was just playing around. But Rook-san, you aren't really a predator, are you?
Setton: Kanra!
Red Rook: It depends on how you define predator.
Kanra: Ooooh, good answer! Oh dear, look at the time. I'm afraid I must go now. Work to do, places to be…Ja ne!
Setton: Bye.
Tanaka Tarou: Talk to you later, Kanra-san.
Red Rook: See you.
As Izaya was about to log off, his computer let out another ping, signaling that another message had come in through the chat. A private message that made him pause and read it over and over until the message was embedded into his mind.
Red Rook: Welcome back to Ikebukuro, Orihara Izaya.
Ana: Thanks.
LostFairyMantic: Thank you, and I hope you continue to support me throughout the story! ^_^