This chapter is from Izaya's POV.

To be honest I actually had no idea how I wanted to end this chapter until my fingers decided to act on their own. So this ending may be a bit weird, but please bear with me!

And remember to leave a review about your thoughts, particularly on this chapter. It's my favorite one to date, but it may not suit everyone's palate. Enjoy! :)

"Seitarou Yagiri, president of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, and the honourable guardian to my secretary Namie-san. To what do I owe this pleasure?" said Izaya, with arms splayed out and displaying his characteristic smirk as he walked towards his desk, accessing the man sitting on the sofa in front of him, his cane by his side, his suit immaculate, and his trademark monocle perched on his frowning nose.

By the looks of it, thought Izaya, he isn't very happy to be here. Perhaps coming to me was his last resort.

"Aren't you the sort of person who likes to declare why I am here before I do so myself?", he said a bit irritably. Izaya blinked, astonished.

Contrary to popular belief, which portrayed him to be a mastermind and control freak, he actually wasn't the latter. He loved humans, and loved it even more when they surprised him. If he predicted a move and a human would not adhere to it, instead choosing to carve out their own path from the erstwhile ordinary, it would delight him to no end and he would then dedicate hours and hours on researching that particular human, trying to find out what made him tick.

This was what enamoured him most about humans – their unpredictability. Except Shizu-chan, however. Anytime he would make the statement,"I love humans," it was always accompanied by the sub text, except Shizu-chan. I really hate him.

So this information broker, who was, one of the very few times in his successful career taken by surprise, smiled widely, a genuine one. Namie, who looked at him from the galley above, sighed in annoyance. She really wanted to go home earlier that day, take a bath and scroll through the Seiji's cell phone messages, which she had obtained by placing a bug on it, but that would have to wait.

Her uncle had amused Izaya. Now Izaya would stop at nothing to get to the bottom of his business.

Terrible day to have not taken the sick leave.

He had not predicted Seitarou to make an appearance anytime soon. Had he figured out that Celty's head was with him? A quick glance to the book case indicated a slight reflection of light – he sighed inwardly in relief. The jar was still there. Then about Namie? No, that man was too obsessed with his company profits to look at his niece as nothing except his successor. Oh, my. Something big has happened in Ikebukuro and he hadn't been on the loop. Either his skills were rusting, or he was up against someone who was as skilled as him in the art of deception.

Seitarou coughed twice to gain Izaya's attention, and continued. "You seem not to know. Ah, alright then. I won't make a derogatory comment about your callousness this time, considering that she has indeed taken many precautions to ensure her entry in the country was unnoticed."

Izaya blinked again. Just who was he talking about? He was an information broker who worked independently, not a government-allied agent who would have details on all the foreigners who entered Japan. However, his curiosity was piqued about this mysterious foreigner. He leaned forward, wanting to know more.

Seitarou sighed at Izaya's ignorance. Judging all that he had heard about the informant, it was hard to believe that he had not the slightest idea about the whereabouts of his former high school classmate. Nevertheless, he persevered, " She was in your high school, in your class too."

"That's not being fair, Seitarou-san." Said Izaya irritably, crossing his arms, "there were a lot of exchange students at Raira. Not to mention that a few of my own classmates left the country to study abroad once they were done with high school."

Seitarou raised his eyebrows. This was serious. If Izaya himself did not know about that woman, then she must've hidden herself quite well, especially after what happened five years ago. A lot of his time was currently being spent on researching the dullahan and her head, but a small fraction of his mind had always been dedicated to that telekinetic and her powers.

He clenched his cane, struggling to maintain his temper. She was good, he had to admit. Good at hiding herself and her daughter, even from the informant. He had arranged to kill off her mother in a car accident, blaming the young girl and her uncontrollable powers for her mother's untimely death, and had almost gotten her to volunteer for experimentation six years ago. Almost. Before that blonde brute showed up. After that she'd refuse to come to the labs, preferring to stay with him, attend that high school, live with him, a supposedly happy, normal life.

But she ran away alone. He satisfied himself with that piece of information. She destroyed his dreams of being foremost in the research areas concerning mutants, and in his mind, he had simply repaid the favour by taking away everything that was dear to her.

He prodded the informant for some more time, without mentioning her by name, or her hair colour. Once or twice, in desperation he debated on dropping Shizuo's name, but decided against it. If the informant realized that Shizuo was involved, he'd go all out to search her, and if he found her before he did, there was no telling what Izaya would hold leverage above him in exchange of the information.

He finally gave up after half an hour of gruelling, paying Izaya the designated amount and asking him to never prod in this matter again. He then left with his escorts, but not before throwing a few jabs at the man regarding his skills. Izaya simply smiled, as said what he always did, that he loved humans, and the more they defied his expectations, the more he loved them.

After Seitarou's departure, Izaya looked up at the galley and asked Namie to leave. Namie was a bit confused, it was generally she who had to ask him for permission to leave, and even then he'd coax her into working an hour or two longer. No, scratch that. She always had to ask him for permission to leave. This was the first time he had asked her to go early. She decided not to waste the golden opportunity and left quickly.

After Namie had left, Izaya bolted the door from inside, and sank down on the sofa. He mentally ran through the events in the previous two hours, starting with Shizuo being shot. At the time he genuinely had no clue what would've caused it, he was merely thankful and intrigued by the organization who had undertaken this task. But now that he did, everything clicked in place.

Initially he actually had no clue about what Seitarou was talking about – a female foreigner who had entered Japan recently. He'd thought of the Transporter, but she had come to Japan twenty years ago. There were way too many people she could be categorised into, from a student to a tourist. But he began suspecting the latter wanted something more specific when he spoke very vaguely of her, and his suspicions were confirmed when he had said she was his former female classmate.

Natasha Ascott, the telekinetic.

Of all the people whose routes he he had decided never to trace, the president of Yagiri pharmaceuticals wanted her. After five years. Was she stupid to re-enter the country that had threatened her sanctuary so terribly that she had to leave abruptly without even completing her college degree?

No, she wasn't stupid, he corrected himself. Natasha was in no way stupid. She was, in fact, the only person he had met of his calibre. The only person who could argue with him on equal footing, the only one who could catch up to him.

The only one he considered equal to him.

The one he'd let go to the brute. The one he had help leave the country, unbeknownst to her. The one whom he'd saved today. The only woman, whom, he daresay, thought of higher than his beloved humans.

The one he'd loved enough to let go.

AAAAAANND THAT'S WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT.

Liked it? Hated it? Either way, please leave a review!