A/N: Wow... it's been way too long. Really sorry about that. It's been a pretty rough school year for me. I had this chapter ready 4 months ago, but life got in the way. I hope to have at least one more chapter ready and posted by the end of the year. I'll try my hardest!

"Namie-chan~, you're here today~!"

"Don't sound so surprised; I'm here every day. You know that, Haruka," the woman growled, already annoyed with Haruka's antics.

"Yeah, but who knows when you'll be unnecessary to Zaya-kun~! You'll just end up in some alley somewhere when that happens~," Haruka cackled obnoxiously, plopping onto the couch as Namie typed on her laptop. "Speaking of Zaya-kun, where is he?"

The sound of typing stopped briefly before continuing louder than before. "Who knows."

"Where, oh where could Zaya-kun be~?!" Haruka dramatically rolled off the couch and onto the floor before peeking around the couch at the secretary. "You didn't kill him or anything, right?"

The black-haired secretary's face remained impassive, though the small twitch of her lip upwards gave away her amusement at the thought of the informant being dead.

"Oh wait, what am I saying? You don't have that kind of power. You're just a pawn in his game. Kyahahahaha!"

Namie's eye twitched, but she managed to maintain her composure, having dealt with Haruka's lunacy for over four months now.

"You have a brother, don't you? One you love very dearly, right?" Haruka prodded suddenly, sounding strangely serious.

Namie glanced at Haruka, eyes narrowed in suspicion and warning as she momentarily stopped typing. She wasn't sure where the strange woman was going with this and deemed it best not to answer.

Haruka took the silence as a 'yes'. Just as suddenly as the serious Haruka had appeared, the giggling and bubbly Haruka returned once again. "If I were you, I'd take goooooooooood care of him. You never know when he'll be taken away from you. Just like those people you spirited away for your little experiments!" With that, the auburn-haired woman skipped out the door, leaving a slightly disturbed Namie in her wake.

As soon as Haruka saw the large number of upturned signs and vending machines, she knew she was on the right path. She pranced along, seemingly unaffected by the mid-summer heat, and followed the trail until she found the person she was looking for. "Zaya-kun!" she chirped from her spot on the sidelines, watching the informant and the blonde Hulk fight with sparkling eyes.

Izaya's eyes flicked briefly over to her before he jumped in the opposite direction to avoid the yield sign Shizuo was swinging. Neither Izaya nor Shizuo seemed to notice the child chasing a ball straight towards them and into Shizuo's war path.

The child looked no older than five years old and clearly didn't seem to realize the danger he was running towards. He didn't see Shizuo winding up to swing the sign once again. He didn't see Izaya standing some feet in front of him, ready to leap out of the way once Shizuo swung. None of them noticed that the auburn-haired woman was no longer standing in the sidelines until the sign slammed into her side and launched her into a brick wall with a sickening crack. Her motionless body fell to the ground with a dull 'thump'.

"HARUKA!" Two voices cried out, but neither reached her.

The boy was cradled protectively in her now limp arms. He had no injuries aside from the small scrapes from hitting the ground, as Haruka had taken a majority of the blows. He crawled out of her loose grip, kneeling in the slowly growing puddle of blood pooling under Haruka, and started shaking her. "Missy, wake up." The boy said in English. "Missy, up!" When she didn't respond, the boy started to cry.

The sound of an ambulance's sirens echoed the child's wails.