A/N: I gotta say, I actually planned out how this arc was supposed to go, but as I wrote this chapter, I just...totally disregarded that lol. So many new ideas popped into my head and it was hard to get them to work with the old ones. But that's the fun about writing, I guess! :)

As always, thank you all so much for reading/reviewing/favouriting/following this fic! :)

An empty landscape that stretched into infinity.

Mist that shrouded the area, enveloping it in a thick cloud of white.

Snow that was falling from an invisible sky.

In the middle of it all stood a lone man, his long, fur-trimmed winter coat rustling with the gentle wind. With the hood draped over his face and his hands in the coat pockets, the man raised his head, and then his lips curled into a twisted smile.

"A pleasant good evening to all of you lovely viewers tuning into this programme tonight," the man greeted politely.

"Bringing you this live broadcast is none other than yours truly, Orihara Izaya," he went on to say, placing his hand on his chest.

"Tonight, I will be departing into unexplored territory. One that is fraught with inexplicable danger and infested with hostile forces! Now, doesn't that sound so thrilling?"

The man's face fell slightly.

"Oh, but I wonder... Will you come and find me?" He glanced away. "It isn't any fun all by myself, after all. And it'll be positively frightening to go into such a dangerous place alone."

Then, almost instantaneously, the man made a merry spin on his feet.

"Well~ no point mulling over that! I'm sure someone will come looking for me soon."

A vicious smirk crept its way onto his features.

"Just try not to get yourself killed in the process. That would be so boring."

The man raised two of his fingers, giving the audience a peace sign.

"Well then, I'll be heading off first! Don't take too long in catching up to me, ne?"

Then he leaned forward, revealing his blood red eyes under the hood as he gazed at the screen.

"I'll be waiting for you."

And on that final note, the hooded man took off, venturing further and further into the unknown land that was laid out before him.

And just as his entire figure melted into the curtain of mist and snow...

Peals of maniacal laughter erupted from all around him.

And then the image slowly died away.

April 19, 2013

"Hey, did you see? The thing that came on last night?"

"Yeah, it was creepy, man. The laughter at the end made me sick."

"And it was that Orihara Izaya who was in that creepy programme, too. Damn bastard pissed me off with those freakin' mood swings of his."

"The guy's an unstable freak. Who the hell would ever want to go looking for him?"

"Che. I hope he dies out there, wherever that place is. After everything he did to us, that asshole deserves it."

"...Tch."

The sudden loud clicking of somebody's tongue caught the immediate attention of the group of delinquents were discussing among themselves. Just as they raised their heads, getting ready for a retort, their expressions of anger and frustration flashed to those of fear.

"You guys are so damn noisy it's getting on my nerves..." the newcomer to the discussion hissed, sending them a death glare. "Who the hell do you bastards think you are, talking behind somebody else's back like that?"

The teenagers trembled to the point that their knees were on the brink of buckling and giving way to the ground.

"I-it's H-Heiwajima Shizuo!"

"L-let's get outta here!"

And then they scurried away.

The man who sent them scampering like helpless mice simply watched until they disappeared from his sight before he joined a dreadlocked man and a young blonde who were standing on the opposite pavement. Their faces carried no traces of sympathy for the adolescents who unknowingly challenged the fortissimo of Ikebukuro's temper.

"Sorry for the holdup," Shizuo said quietly, a stark contrast to the harsh growl he had used on the teenagers just a moment ago.

"Don't worry about it," Tom replied with an understanding smile. "I'm a little surprised, though. I didn't think you'd stand up for Izaya like that."

"It's not..." Shizuo paused.

Was it standing up for Izaya that he did just now? It wasn't like it was what those guys said that made him angry, after all. It was more of the fact that they were talking shit about another person behind their back instead of walking up to that person and telling it to their face. If it had been somebody else they were talking about, Shizuo would do the same thing.

Besides, he didn't think he'd defend someone like Izaya either.

"...I just found them irritating," Shizuo finished.

Tom hummed thoughtfully. "Yeah, I know what you mean." He stared after the street, which had been left deserted and quiet after the group of youngsters took their leave. With a light shrug directed at nobody in particular, Tom unfolded the piece of paper in his hands and skimmed through its contents. "Well, we should get back to work. It's a pretty long list today...whew, woulda look at that... Hm?" Tom turned to face Shizuo, giving him a curious look. "Oh yeah, what happened to the girl who helped us out yesterday?"

Vorona sent an equally inquisitive look to her senpai, who stiffened slightly. "Uh...she's busy today," Shizuo answered. 'Busy getting ready to save someone.'

"I see... I have to admit, although she scared most of our clients off, she did help us out a great deal. I'd like to thank her, if possible."

The blond nodded. "I'll see what I can do, Senpai." And the topic was closed.

Putting the incident from earlier aside, the three of them didn't have much else left to discuss about, and so the debt collector and his two bodyguards simply walked towards their destination in silence. There were few cars and people wandering around at this point of the day; so few that they could hear the footsteps taken by one another as clearly as the sound of shattering glass.

It was only a moment after they had departed when Shizuo began giving the entire matter more thought.

Actually, there was another reason why he had flared up at those delinquents from earlier, but it wasn't for what Tom-senpai suggested. No, it was just that when he happened to overhear their conversation, memories of what Shizuo had seen the previous night flashed through his mind; memories which he tried so hard to ignore and forget. And remembering them riled him up.

Because the flea that had appeared on the weird programme last night was definitely not the flea Shizuo knew.

Sure, it had looked like the flea and sounded like the flea, but something about it seemed off. The mood swings were one thing; the crazy laughter, however...

Shizuo had heard the flea's laughs before - which were all damn freakin' annoying - but the deranged laughter from last night didn't sound like it came from the flea at all.

'...Oh right. Didn't those kids say that whoever appears isn't really the person who got thrown in? And it's some kind of...thing that comes from the person?' Shizuo tilted his head slightly upwards as he recalled what the group of teenagers told Shinra, Celty and him while two of their teammates were inside the TV two days ago.

Well, now that he thought about it, it wasn't that hard to believe if the flea-like thing from last night was something that came from the flea himself, actually, even though it still sounded weird. The flea had always been so damn shady about every single thing he did, after all.

But he had to admit, what was hard to believe had been-

"Shizuo-saaaan!"

The former bartender instinctively turned in the direction of the familiar voice calling out to him. A cheerful, bespectacled young girl, dressed in a sailor uniform, whose dark brown hair was tied in two long braids waved at him excitedly as she dashed across the road towards him. Next to her was another young girl, her shoulder-length hair of the same shade of brown, wearing a high school gym outfit and a blank expression as she kept up with her companion.

There was a quiet "Geh" coming from Tom at the sight of the pair of girls while Vorona, tossing them a rather cold gaze, was about to step in front of Shizuo only to be stopped by the man himself. "It's okay, you know 'em too, remember?" Shizuo paused, giving his kouhai a smile. "But...thanks."

Vorona stared at him curiously before taking a closer look at the girls, and then, without a word, stepped aside.

"Sorry, Tom-san, I'll try to handle this quickly."

"Nah, it's okay, Shizuo. Take your time." Despite his own words, however, Tom didn't seem all that supportive of the idea of having the girls linger around for too long.

Shizuo gave a nod and then he walked towards the pair, who sped up at the gesture. "Shizuo-sa-oof!"

Calmly, the blond moved down the pavement until they were no longer within earshot distance of Tom and Vorona before he set the girls down on their feet. "...Kururi, Mairu," he acknowledged. "What the hell are you two doing here? If it's about Kasuka..."

"Buu-buu! You got it wrong, Shizuo-san," Mairu replied sunnily, sticking a tongue out. "We're looking for Iza-nii!"

Shizuo couldn't help but flinch at the response.

"House... Absent... (We went to his apartment but we couldn't find him there.)" Kururi explained. "Arrival... Discovery... (So we came here to look for him.)"

"Yeah! 'Cause we thought Iza-nii might have come over here. Have you seen him, Shizuo-san?" Mairu looked around with a hand over her eyes.

Shizuo's stern expression softened. '...Should I tell them?' he contemplated, keeping his eyes on the twins who were trying to find an older brother that was no longer in their world. 'They might not be on good terms with the flea, but they have the right to know.' Shizuo lowered his head. 'But, still...'

To tell them that their brother had been taken away by a murderer? That they had to rely on just a bunch of teenagers to rescue him? That there was nothing they could do except wait?

"We can't guarantee that we'll be able to rescue you if you were to enter there..." the words of the teenagers' leader suddenly surfaced in Shizuo's mind.

If what the kid said applied to him, then didn't it also mean...?

...The fact that Orihara Izaya fell to some unknown person's trap was still very hard to swallow, let alone the possibility that he might really-

Shizuo shook his head with a sigh. He couldn't imagine how Izaya's sisters would react if they were to know.

"Shizuo-san?" Mairu's voice broke the blond's train of thought.

"...Sorry, I don't remember seeing him," Shizuo answered. While he didn't want the twins to know the truth, he sure as hell wasn't going to cook up some kind of lie for them. "But if he dares show his face around here, I'll make sure to send him flying across Ikebukuro."

Mairu's mouth opened, ever so slightly, for just a brief moment before it turned into a pout. "Not...not if we get to him first! Right, Kuru-nee?"

The quieter of the two simply nodded with a slight frown.

Shizuo's brows creased. Something about the twins' reaction didn't seem right. "Hang on, aren't you two supposed to be in school right now? Why're you even looking for the flea in the first place?"

"That's..." Mairu and Kururi stared at the ground and then at each other, hesitantly, before raising their heads again to meet Shizuo's eyes. "Well, actually...we saw something weird on TV last night."

"...Oh," Shizuo muttered.

"And it's not just us. Almost everybody in school saw it, too. We heard them talking about it. The teachers, too." The younger twin reached for her sister's hand and grasped it tightly. "The more they talked about it, the more we wanted to know what happened last night, so Kuru-nee and I decided to skip."

"Locate... Brother... (And we've been trying to find Iza-nii ever since.)" Kururi added.

"It's still no reason to skip school," Shizuo lightly reprimanded. "Hurry up and run back before you get into trouble."

"Don't wanna~" Mairu didn't even give his advice any thought. "We're not going back till we find Iza-nii."

Shizuo's frown deepened. He decided to try another approach. "Look, I know you're worried about your brother-"

"Worried?" Mairu tried but ended up failing to bite back the series of giggles that escaped her lips. Even the normally stoic Kururi had to turn away and hide a quiet snicker behind her hand. "Yeah right. We just want to know if the thing last night was Iza-nii's doing, that's all. I mean, if he really is in some dangerous place like he said, then all the better for everyone, right? But if he's just messing around, like the Iza-nii we know, then it's up to Kuru-nee and I to punish him~"

"Affirmative... (Precisely.)"

"So yeah, we're not going back until we see Iza-nii with our own eyes!" Mairu sang.

Shizuo sighed. '...Sorry, Tom-san, looks like I'm gonna take longer than I thought.'

The unexpected turn of events from the previous night brought Souji and his team back to Kishitani-sensei's apartment in the cold, rainy afternoon of Friday, after Souji and Yosuke were done with their morning lectures.

If they had a choice, they would have gathered in the food court of a shopping mall with an electronics department as opposed to the relatively smaller living room of somebody else's apartment, but as things had turned out, such a choice didn't exist.

"This is the safest place to enter through," Rise said, the exhaustion from the search still evident in her voice. "The other TVs we've tried led us to places with a lot more Shadows, so this is the best we have right now."

"It's not ideal, but we'll deal with it," Chie added.

Souji and Yosuke, who had been listening to their teammates filling them in, both nodded at that.

"Got it," the leader replied. "Thanks, Rise, Teddie. It's been hard on you."

The two of them protested against that by shaking their heads while flashing Souji rejuvenated smiles.

"Alright. Since we'll be facing some Shadows the moment we enter, we should decide on our strategy now." As he spoke, Souji looked over his team, making sure they were listening attentively. "It's been a while since we've done this, so to be safe, we'll have those with the most experience forming the main team who will be on the frontline." The silver-haired adolescent locked eyes with his former classmates. "Yosuke, Satonaka, Amagi, that'll be the four of us. Are you ready for that?"

"Not a problem at all, partner," Yosuke affirmed. Chie and Yukiko agreed.

Then the leader of the Investigation Team turned to face the others. "Kanji, Naoto, the both of you will form the backup team. Remember, saving the victim is important, but your safety takes precedence over anything else. No rushing into things."

"...Understood," Naoto replied quietly.

"Yeah, we know what to do," Kanji assured.

Souji's unwavering gaze lingered on the detective for a moment before it moved on to the remaining two members of his team. "Don't push yourself, Rise," he murmured, his eyes softening. "Teddie, I'm leaving Rise in your care."

Teddie gave a vigorous nod. "You can count on me, Sensei!"

With redness tinting her already rosy cheeks, the idol let a giggle escape her lips. "Honestly, Senpai, I'm not that fragile from returning to showbiz, you know. So don't worry about me. I'll be perfectly fine."

"I'm not leaving you unprotected when there are Shadows around," Souji said firmly.

Rise smiled. "I know, Senpai."

Souji gave her a look of mild disapproval, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. "Okay. With that settled, let's go through our items. Did you guys manage to find the store?"

"Yes," Yukiko answered. "Satomi Tadashi Drugstore, was it? It had all that we needed." She opened up the large travelling bag that the team had taken with them, revealing some Medical Kits and Chewing Souls, among many other things that were also sold in the Shiroku Store back in Inaba. "We also dropped by the fresh produce section in one of the supermarkets here and bought some of the vegetables there."

Souji and Yosuke looked mildly surprised at that and went on to check the vegetables Yukiko had spoken of. Yosuke's eyes widened slightly. "These crops... Aren't they...?"

The manager of the Amagi Inn nodded enthusiastically. "It's Inaba."

A smile of relief and joy was painted on Yosuke's face. "That's so great. They really did it," he muttered to himself. "Huh? But, wait..."

'Just a few days ago, when I first came here and went shopping for nabe ingredients...' the brunet reminisced. 'Oh that's right. It was Souji who picked them out and prepared the nabe, so I couldn't tell back then, but the vegetables...'

Yosuke looked at his partner, as if seeking confirmation, and he got the answer he needed when Souji smiled at him knowingly.

"Seeing the town so alive and full of energy, willing to give themselves another chance to make a name for themselves... And now they've done it." Chie rubbed her nose absentmindedly, looking slightly teary-eyed. "It really felt that it was all worth it. Solving the case and stuff."

"Yeah..."

Everyone glanced up at the ceiling, smiling fondly as memories of Inaba and her townspeople surfaced in their minds.

"...Alright," Kanji was the first to break the silence. "We've done it before. We can do it again, yeah? Let's crack this case and nab the killer!"

"Together," Yukiko added. Her teammates nodded simultaneously at that.

"Come on," Souji spoke with hope and renewed determination, "let's split our items up."

The team, with the exception of Rise, proceeded to do just that, putting as much as they could in their pockets and the waist pouches which they kept hidden beneath their clothes. At the same time, they checked their glasses and weapons before concealing them from view - a habit of theirs rather than a necessity under current circumstances.

After the few minutes of the final round of preparation, Souji quickly inspected his teammates, and then he said, "Good. Looks like we're all ready. Any questions before we head in?"

"Um...what about Shizuo-san? He's not really in the clear yet, right?" Rise asked, partially out of concern for the man himself, but mostly on behalf of his younger brother whom she had worked with before.

Being an only child, Rise couldn't really say she understood how it felt like to have a sibling in danger, but when she visualised her grandmother being all alone in Inaba with no one to protect her amidst the kidnappings and murders two years back, it made Rise's heart ache with worry. She imagined herself as Risette, away in the city and being flooded by work... Just an ordinary citizen who was separated from her family. Knowing that there was a group of people fighting to protect her hometown where her family lived would certainly have brought her a lot of comfort. The same must go for Kasuka-senpai too, Rise believed.

"Ah, don't worry," Yosuke answered, "Souji already asked Vorona-san to keep an eye on him for us if we're not there. She was a little wary at first, but hey, it was Souji, you know." The brunet gave his best friend a wink.

"I didn't really do anything..." Souji replied sheepishly.

"Well, basically, I guess it means he's safe for now. But we can't let our guard down, so we have to make it back here before it gets too late at night."

"I see." Rise gave a quiet sigh of relief. "Thanks, Senpai."

"No problem," Souji said. Then, with the smile on his face wiped off swiftly, he faced his friends, and waited for the briefest of moments before he continued, "Alright. If there are no further questions, we'll be heading in now." He quickly shifted his attention to the other two occupants in the room he had yet to address all this while - a bespectacled, brown-haired man and a headless woman in a black riding suit - who had been watching everything in silence. "Kishitani-sensei, Celty-san, thank you for letting us use your TV. And...I'm sorry.

"We've been doing nothing but intrude on you since Wednesday, and we got you involved in this...all because of my own carelessness that night." The others, Yosuke in particular, were about to protest against that, but Souji quickly prevented them from doing so, "But Celty-san and Kishitani-sensei have been so kind and helpful despite all that. Really...thank you so much."

Celty did not hesitate to type out her reply. [Please don't apologise or thank us, Souji-kun. It was our choice to get ourselves involved in this.] When she made sure that everyone had read the message, she erased it and typed out another. [Do be careful in there.]

"We will."

"...Souji-kun." Shinra's voice, which had been full of energy and liveliness for the past few days Souji knew him, was now sullen and strangely detached, almost like how Margaret sounded before he first met her alone. "About Izaya..."

When the doctor trailed off, leaving a pregnant pause in its wake, Souji nodded. "I understand. We'll do our best to save him." The leader of the Investigation Team met his teammates' eyes once more before directing his gaze to the television screen. "Let's go," he said as he sunk his hand into the screen and allowed himself to fall through completely.

It had been almost a year since travelling to the TV world, but the frequent trips he made back then allowed Souji's body to adjust to the intimidating sense of falling as naturally as blinking. The cold, stale air whipped around him violently as Souji drew closer towards solid ground. Mist was beginning to shroud his vision, and he reached into the pocket where he kept his glasses.

It wasn't long until Souji caught sight of specks of sickly yellow against a dark shade of brown. In a practised, fluid motion, he spun into an upright position, allowing him to land safely. One by one, his teammates followed him.

Souji chose that moment to put on his spectacles, and they took effect instantly, permitting him to have a much clearer look at the world he had just stepped into.

What could be called a sky was made up of nothing but black, thundering clouds looming over them ominously. When lightning flashed, it flashed a dangerous shade of scarlet.

Unlike the cryptic image of human-like figures and ripples alternating between black and white, the ground here was plain, tainted only by what appeared to be shrivelled up grass and weeds. It sunk in slightly, leaving a distinct print of the soles of Souji's shoes as he walked around the area.

"Sure is foggy in here..." Kanji commented as he set his Aegis Shield down, switching his normal pair of spectacles to the shades he used when moving around in the TV world.

"And there are Shadows around, just like what Rise-chan and Teddie said," Yukiko was quick to point out, readying her Suzaku Feather.

While adjusting her own pair of glasses, Chie kicked a tiny Shadow crawling on the ground into pieces using her Sleipnir boots. "Is it just me, or is it a lot colder than I remember?" As she spoke, puffs of white smoke escaped her lips.

"Chie-chan's right," said Teddie, already in his bear suit and equipped with his Platinum Claw. "It wasn't this cold when Rise-chan and I came here."

"It must be because Orihara-san is here." Souji brought out his Blade of Totsuka and engaged a nearby large Shadow in battle before it could notice their presence. "Rise, can you sense him?"

"...He's in here, that's for sure," Rise replied as she scanned the area using Kanzeon's abilities. "And since it's pretty cold where we are now, he has to be somewhere near here."

"But...?" Yosuke said, casually joining his partner in eliminating the Shadow using his Hattori.

With Kanzeon's visor over her eyes, nobody could notice Rise frowning as she focused on locating the informant. "It's really weird... I mean, I know he's here, but I just can't find him, for some reason. It's like there's something blocking me, just...not completely, I guess."

"Are you able to give us a general direction, at least?" Naoto suggested as she fired her Algernon at another stray Shadow.

"...I think...it's this way," Rise answered hesitantly, raising her right hand to point in the northwest direction.

"Okay," Souji acknowledged, sheathing his katana after the Shadow he was fighting dissipated. "We need to hurry there before more Shadows come here, otherwise we'd never see the end of them."

The others, chorusing their agreements, swiftly finished off the remaining Shadows in the vicinity before heading northwest. Their shoe prints trailed behind them with every step they took across the ground, which looked - and felt - as soft as damp soil. The supposed dirt clung onto the soles, and showed no hesitation in staining the main body of the team's shoes as they bolted towards their destination.

As the distance between that and the team shortened, the clearer the view of a towering wall - made up crystalline bricks and cement - that was, undoubtedly, not a part of this world until a human invaded the Shadows' home. The group only stopped when they felt they were near enough to the vortex of red and black ripples that served as the entrance to the product of Orihara Izaya's mind.

"Is this it, Rise?" Yosuke asked the idol. "It looks kinda...simple. A bit too simple, if you ask me."

"Yeah, after meeting the guy yesterday, I thought he'd make a palace or somethin'. This is just...a wall," Kanji deadpanned.

Though the doubt was evident in her features as well, Rise gave a nod. "I'm positive. It's still pretty weak, but I'm definitely picking up Orihara-san from inside there. And look, isn't it snowing around here? I mean, it doesn't seem as heavy as it did on the Midnight Channel, but Orihara-san was shown in some place that was snowing, right?"

"Hm... If Kujikawa-san has detected the presence of Orihara-san, regardless of how faint it might be, then we should have no reason to doubt the origin of this structure," Naoto responded curtly. "However, I suspect that this wall might be responsible for temporarily limiting the effectiveness of Kujikawa-san's ability. We must proceed with caution."

"I agree." Souji turned to face his teammates. "Alright. Yosuke, Amagi, take care of the sides. Satonaka, you'll be keeping an eye out for enemies that may appear from the back. Kanji, Naoto, move in only when Rise gives the signal. Teddie, I'm counting on you to protect Rise and help her in any way possible." A pause. "It's going to be tough, but we need to rescue Orihara-san today. It'll be storming tonight, so the fog might set in tomorrow. We can't afford to make any mistakes."

The rest of the team didn't reply, and simply nodded with grim expressions painted on their faces.

"Remember, conserve your strength, but not at the expense of your own safety. And don't hesitate to use the items you have. The four of us will be going in first. Rise."

"Already on it," the brunette replied, analysing the interior of the wall through the visor that Kanzeon brought down. "...Naoto-kun's right, whatever this wall is made of, it's blocking me out. Normally, I can tell for sure if someone's been trapped inside, but this time, I can barely sense Orihara-san. It's almost like...he's there and he's not at the same time."

"Like trying to catch a fish in murky water..." Souji mumbled to himself before speaking in a louder voice, "I understand, Rise. Maybe you'll be able to look further when we go through the entrance. But if you still can't detect much, then you'll have to try going in yourself. Are you okay with that?"

"Of course, Senpai."

"Thank you." When no further comments were made by his teammates, Souji directed his attention to the entrance and readily unsheathed his blade. "Let's move off," he said as he dashed forward, with Yosuke, Chie and Yukiko right behind him.

"...Well, this is the place."

A figure dressed in a baggy long-sleeved grey turtleneck and tight fitting pants stepped into the room. Tilting the tip of the black baseball cap on his head, the figure, who looked like a man in his mid-twenties, observed his surroundings.

The room's walls and floor were all painted white. There were no windows nor air ducts; just a normal ceiling fan providing all ventilation by itself. In the heart of this world of white laid a simple, horizontal wooden table that stretched from the left side of the room to the right. A glass panel that was just as long and tall enough to reach the ceiling was attached to the table. It was as if the table and panel had acted like a barrier, splitting the white world into two halves. In each half was a plain brown chair, looking anything but inviting and comfortable.

"Please, do have a seat," the uniformed man who led the way said in such a timely manner that it was almost as if he were making a mockery of the young man. "It shouldn't take very long. I'll go check if he's on his way."

And then he left, leaving the capped figure by himself.

With nothing better to do, the figure sat on the chair and took out what appeared to be a pass from his pocket. Hanging his head low, he stared at it, and ran his fingers across the plastic.

Then, as what the uniformed staff had said, it wasn't long before the door on the other half of the room opened, allowing a man in his late twenties to enter. He had unkempt dark brown hair, and wore a set of white shirt and shorts that hung from his thin body loosely. He looked at the capped figure with dull, lazy eyes as he dragged his slippers over to the chair and took a seat.

It was the capped figure who picked up the phone on his side of the table first and held it to his ear. A long, quiet moment passed before the brown-haired man gave a sigh and took the phone as well.

"...Yeah? Whaddya want?" he drawled, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "I don't like having visitors. Especially when they're strangers like you. So make it quick before I decide to leave."

The capped figure did not respond.

The brown-haired man clicked his tongue. "Look here. I only bothered to come because I was curious to know who was so desperate to see me that they had some row with the guys at the counter and nearly barged in here without getting special permission," he said sweetly yet dryly. Though he could not see it, the eyes of the capped figure narrowed to slits. "But if you came to waste my time, then I'm not playing your game anymore." And with that, he hung up.

Just as he got up from his seat and turned away, the capped figure knocked on the glass twice. "Like I said," the man spat, tilting his head back, "if you're just trying to kill time, then-...huh?" Almost immediately, he sat back down, keeping his now widened eyes on the pass the figure was holding up against the glass. Reluctantly, the man picked up the phone again, and spoke into it, "You... Who the hell are you?"

In a swift motion, the figure kept the pass and turned his cap around, revealing a pair of emotionless brown eyes staring back at the man's own. "Pleased to meet you, Adachi Tooru-san," the figure said coolly, his voice rough and slightly masculine. "I'm here on behalf of the Ikebukuro Police Force concerning the murders that took place in Inaba two years ago. You may call me Nakura."