A/N: Thank you to everyone for reading this/commenting/following!
This is chapter 1, by the way, I meant to write a note last time, but I completely forgot, haha. That was indeed the prologue (I've edited it to reflect, as such.)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
_

Izaya awoke one chilly, mid-January morning to utter silence. His room was still bathed in darkness, he could only see a tiny sliver of light shining in from underneath his curtains. He rolled over and checked his phone. The bright screen temporarily blinded him, but after a moment he saw the "6:32 AM" displayed in front of his eyes. It was earlier than usual. He wondered if he should try to fall asleep again. After all, he had some important things to take care of today. He needed his rest.

After a few moments of tossing and turning, he gave up, stood, and meandered into the bathroom. He turned on the bathtub faucet, adding in some mint-scented bubble bath. Izaya Orihara might be one of the most feared people in Japan, but he still liked to smell nice, just like any other human being. Not that he actually considered himself to be human, of course.

After bathing, he dressed himself in his usual black shirt and jeans, turned the coffee maker on, and sat down at his desk. It was now 7:18AM.

The coffee maker dinged, and Izaya poured himself a mug full. No milk. No sugar. He enjoyed the natural, bitterness that the liquid possessed, unlike a certain faux-bartender who undoubtedly made his coffee with milk/sugar to coffee ratio of 10:1. Izaya cringed at the thought of that much sweetness.

After leaving some coffee behind for Namie, he began scrolling through his various email accounts. He began with "Nakura's". A handful of messages, mostly from teenage girls, had been received over the course of the last 10 hours or so. Izaya responded to a couple with a gleeful smirk, and then turned his attention to his own, professional account.

There were far more emails in this inbox. Many were from clients, asking for information, advice, or both. Some were from addresses he didn't recognize, either new, potential clients, or spam. He carefully deleted the ones that had "COnGRAtS! YOu'Ve WOn a FRee IPAd!" and "I am a prince and I need YOUR help!" in the subject line. There were also a couple emails from Tsukumoya, which Izaya deleted without reading.

At that point, Namie arrived. It was 8:00AM on the dot. Izaya could hear the clacking of her heels as she made her way down the hallway.

"Morning," she said, her voice lacking any expression.

"Good morning, Namie-san," Izaya responded, with a grin. She ignored him and poured some coffee, adding only a splash of milk to the dark brown liquid.

A few moments later, Izaya's phone buzzed. It was a reminder for a meeting he had scheduled later that day.

"Well I guess, I better be off," he said, pulling on his coat. Namie didn't grace his with a reply. "See you later, Namie-san."

As Izaya closed the door, a strange feeling suddenly came over him. He braced himself, and slid his flick blade down is sleeve and into his hand. At first he wasn't sure why he felt so uneasy. The hallway looked the same as it always did. There was no one around. It was almost completely silent, except for his own heartbeat. His heart wasn't racing, but it had certainly picked up a bit of speed.

Then, Izaya saw something out of the corner of his right eye.

It was a black line, spray painted across the front door, and onto either side of the wall. He hadn't noticed it right away because he hadn't been looking at the door when he had closed it behind him, but now he wondered how he could have missed it. It was a thick and above it, a series of zeroes and ones had been painted. Izaya took out his phone and snapped three pictures, each from a different angle. After a moment, he slid the knife back up his sleeve.

Hmm, what to do, what to do? He wondered, tapping his foot against the ground.

After a few seconds, he made his decision and left the building. After all, he had a very important appointment to get to.