The Good Fight
Chapter Two: The Outsiders
Disclaimer: I don't own Durarara!, clearly.
Note: Love reviews and will respond to questions. Thank you to jayrosew and Talye Kendrin for your comments. Much love.
Scared?
No...that feeling I got was different.
It was the first time something so unusual had happened to someone as ordinary as me.
Shivers ran through my body when I saw it.
That's right, what I felt from the bottom of my heart back there...
...was excitement...
EMAS EHT NI ENO
'What a boring day...'
Takanabbi sighed, her shoulders slumping while she was once again silently staring out her store's window.
Business had been light so far today, and she had caught herself looking aimlessly out at the Ikebukuro crowds multiple times. She was not sure why the window and the outside world had been so attractive to her today, but she had a sensation, a feeling that if she took her eyes away from the window for even a split second, she would miss something.
However nothing out of the ordinary had happened. It was as if she was looking for it, that something. But what? Why had she been so entranced with the outside world today? This day had been so routine, so ordinary and controlled.
It had been the same as any other day. And yet, Takanabbi had those feelings, feelings like the ones she had experienced the night she had seen the Black Rider.
"Whatcha lookin' at, Tae-san?"
Takanabbi glanced towards her young employee Kenichi, who had just walked into the store, ready for his shift. He worked minimal hours, mainly after he was out of school for the day or on weekends (he usually threw a fit though if he worked on those precious, school-free days).
"You're late," Takanabbi dead-panned, completely ignoring Kenichi's question.
Kenichi's usually smiling and goofy face fell, "S-sorry Tae-san."
Takanabbi crossed her arms but returned her gaze to the streets.
"Just get to work," she replied. "There are boxes of ramen in the back that need to be price-marked."
Kenichi muttered something under his breath after hearing her orders, and Takanabbi couldn't help but give a small smile. He hated price marking, especially the ramen sets, since they always seemed to escape his hands in the oddest of ways. Kenichi was clumsy, to say the least, and sometimes Takanabbi truly questioned her intentions about why she allowed him to work for her.
Maybe it was because, no matter how cold she came off, he was always willing to come back around for her. She knew he was intimidated by her lackluster and somewhat dry personality, but she was also aware that he put up with it despite her abuse of him. All she needed to do to satisfy the boy was show him she smiled and that even though he was a pain sometimes, Takanabbi did find him accommodating.
But the reason for hiring her assistant was not an important matter at this time. At this moment, this exact second, Takanabbi finally found something interesting to look at.
The crowds that filtered through the street that lay before her store had seemed to have dissipated into thin air, and everything in the outside world, beyond the window, appeared to have frozen in place.
A young man clad in a black coat trimmed with fur was standing casually in the middle of the street, staring straight at Takanabbi. He wore a large and condescending sneer, his canines seeming to sharpen as his lips stretched farther and farther across his face. His dark eyes were narrowed dangerously.
His malicious grin and predatory eyes, Takanabbi knew them. They were familiar.
'Orihara Izaya.'
Takanabbi felt consumed by his presence, and couldn't bring herself to look away, especially when his lips began to form words.
"Better watch out ~"
"Tae-san where do these go –?"
"Get down!"
There was a shout, and the sound of glass shattering erupted in Tae Grocery. Takanabbi heard people yelling, and could feel Kenichi trembling beneath her body as her ears rang loudly from the sound of the broken glass. She picked herself up onto her knees immediately, and yanked Kenichi up by his shirt collar soon after.
"You okay?"
He didn't respond. All he did was sit in front of her, shaking uncontrollably, eyes wide and mouth gaping open. Takanabbi did a once over on him, saw no blood and deemed him unhurt, and then glanced about her.
The front window of the grocery store had been completely destroyed, little shards of glass remained in the frame, but they were sharp and scattered about. As she looked around, the utter chaos that had just occurred began to dawn on her.
Her store looked like a train had ripped through it...that train namely being a gigantic, red vending machine that was now nestled deep into the wall opposite of the window. Several racks and product shelves had been knocked down like dominoes against each other. Various store items were littered across the floor, liquids, splotches of different kinds of solids and many other substances painted the walls, ceiling, literally everything that the eye could see.
Takanabbi stood up, dusting her clothes off with one hand while pulling Kenichi up by the other (which was still tightly gripping his shirt collar). As the young boy staggered to his feet, he seemed to return to reality.
"What the hell?" he shouted in Takanabbi's ear, "What the hell?"
Takanabbi was quiet. She merely stared at the mess that her store had become. Her face was blank and void of any emotion, however her fists, as Kenichi soon noticed as he glanced down at his shirt collar, were clenched and furiously quivering.
"Tae-san -?"
"Shit...is uh, is everyone okay?"
Takanabbi didn't look to the voice and ignored Kenichi's yelp and the way he instantly hid behind her as she released him. She disregarded everything, or so it seemed. The fact that people stood staring, yet were several feet away from the store didn't faze her, the fact that some sticky liquid was seeping towards her shoes didn't make her budge an inch, and the fact that someone was speaking to her, asking her for her wellbeing, did not trigger any reaction from the girl.
All that was there, for a few moments longer, was a young woman with blank eyes, tightened lips, and shaking fists. But then –
"Who...who is going to pay for all of this?"
Although she had nearly died, that didn't matter.
Tom blinked, and almost choked on the cigarette he had been chewing on.
"You want what?"
"I want you to pay for all the damages."
Tom stared at the young woman incredulously, unsure of how to react to her request. It was sort of a shock that he, the infamous debt collector, was being asked to pay for something. Actually, it was just plain out of the ordinary. It was an anomaly.
Now, Tom knew his money. He knew it well. He knew how the whole vicious cycle went. He practically ran that cycle through and through. He sought out customers, received customers, handed out money, got paid back (and if he didn't there would be hell to pay) and then started all over. It was a daily exercise.
But this kind of money dealing, him owing money, him paying a debt, was just plain confusing.
Takanabbi was studying Tom as he mentally argued with himself. She took in his brown, corn-rowed hair and dark skin, his nice suit and ring adorned fingers and couldn't help but think 'he seems well off'.
She shook off her observations and continued, deciding no matter how long he contemplated this situation, her want and need was finalized. "Since your employee literally mutilated everything in my store by throwing a vending machine through my window, I believe it should be your responsibility to cover the costs of replacing my window, products and overall store structure to its original state."
As these words left her mouth, Takanabbi knew she was slowly sealing the deal. Tom couldn't argue anything of which she had said.
After all, Heiwajima Shizuo, the strongest in Ikebukuro as well as Tom's "employee", was the root cause and culprit of the situation.
Tom leaned forward to rest his elbows on his desk. He folded his fingers together neatly, and looked at the store owner over his sunglasses.
"I understand...however, I cannot hire a professional construction crew to fix the window...or wall –"
"But-," Takanabbi began sharply. She was cut off by Tom pointing over to the blonde bartender, who had been standing near his office's door the whole time.
"Shizuo will fix everything instead."
The blonde, who had been fidgeting irritably the whole while, exploded. "The fuck? Why should I have to fix everything? I already told you it was that fucking flea's fault-"
"Shizuo you have no proof of that," Tom said pointedly and the conversation ceased with a large huff from Shizuo.
Takanabbi could literally feel Shizuo's anger. It was smoldering and tense, and the young woman felt uncomfortable, to say the least. She had the deterrent to flat out refuse this offer, but then again, if she said no, who would fix her store? She couldn't necessarily report Tom or Shizuo to the police. Although she had proof and witnesses, who would back her actions against the debt shark and one of the most dangerous men in Ikebukuro? It was practically asking for a death wish. Even her coming to this bar in the first place, demanding payment, was practically a death wish.
She comprehended who these people were. She understood their reputations, after all, she had gone to school with Shizuo (although she doubted he remembered her, she was under the radar for most of her Raira days, and had kept quiet through much of her business days as well while he and her other fellow Raira student Izaya had gone and made names for themselves).
After reviewing her options, Takanabbi became painfully aware Tom was staring at her again. She stiffened in her chair, so much so that it felt as if her back had been broken from the sheer tenseness she had taken.
"I-I guess that's okay. What about my products? And how exactly will he fix my store?" she questioned, her voice surprisingly calm, even though she was practically surrounded by two men one would, should try to avoid while in Ikebukuro.
"I'll figure out how to replace your goods. And how to fix it...well Shizuo can figure that out."
Takanabbi looked at Tom for a moment, and then shot a glance to the young blonde man who was still fuming behind her.
"Fine...but if it doesn't meet my standards, then I'll report you to the police."
Tom smiled, amused and before any more could be said, Takanabbi stood.
It took everything she had to not sprint out of the bar, because really, who the hell/what kind of idiot threatened Tom and Shizuo? Especially with the police? Was that some kind of joke? And for freaking god's sake she and Kenichi were almost murdered by a vending machine, and she was worrying about her store?
Any normal person would still be in utter horror...
'What did I just get myself into?' Takanabbi thought to herself as she busted through the bar door and out into Ikebukuro's crisp night air. 'Is there something wrong with me? There has to be something wrong with me.'
The young woman began to walk hurriedly towards her apartment, mentally cursing at herself for being so irrational concerning her grocery store. Then again though, Takanabbi was serious about money. Especially when it came to her store. She had a family business to maintain after all. Takanabbi would not fail her family, even if it meant sacrificing herself towards a minuscule cause of product replacement and building reconstruction.
Takanabbi rounded a street corner at a quickened, almost jogging pace. Why she was jogging she wasn't sure, and she was so lost in her mind that she didn't notice the figure standing directly in front of her until she smacked straight into him.
"Neeeehhh Tae-kun why are you in such a hurry~?" Orihara Izaya purred out as Takanabbi danced away from him in a frenzy.
"Orihara –"
Izaya threw his hands out to the side, slightly unnerving Takanabbi into silence. "I haven't seen you in so long! I was a bit surprised earlier today when I saw you watching me from your shop."
Takanabbi kept her lips tightly woven together, even though she desperately wanted to deny his accusations of her watching him. She was not particularly pleased to see this man. Although Takanabbi was calm most of the time and Ikebukuro had hardened her over the years (she had faced death by vending machine after all and was not particularly affected), scarily so, she knew better than to play games with Orihara Izaya, another dangerous man one should avoid at all costs in Ikebukuro. The information gatherer was notorious for causing disorder out of his love for humans. Many things had been attributed to him.
Vandalism, kidnappings, robberies and muggings, deaths...he was capable of anything and everything.
"Not talking?" Izaya prompted. The same cannibal sneer for earlier that day laced itself across his face. He shrugged his shoulders, "You shouldn't be so rude, I mean, I practically saved your life today. I did try to warn you about Shizu-chan throwing that vending machine at you."
"If you hadn't been..." Takanabbi stopped herself mid-sentence. That aggressive glare had erupted in his eyes again.
"Go on," Izaya hissed out. He was daring her to keep going. He was screwing with her mind, as always.
"Never mind. I'm leaving," Takanabbi muttered hastily as she tried to weave herself by him as quickly as possible.
As she came to his side, Izaya giggled and then, out of nowhere, asked,
"Have you heard anything about that new colored gang, the Dollars?"
Takanabbi's grey eyes met Izaya's black ones, "Can't say I have."
And then she was gone.