Jokes, Whims, & Coincidences

By: Aviantei

Chapter Twenty-Three, Somehow Not Dead

Tekichu Sosa: Stuck in Transition

What's that? You want to know what I was up to while everyone else was chatting away? I was hanging out with Linda-chan of course!

Huh? Of course doesn't make sense unless what you're talking about is beyond obvious? So picky. What was so out of the ordinary about checking in with my best friend's younger sister on my day off?

"But how cool is it that I ended up in the same part of Tōkyō, though?" Linda asked, sharing in my enthusiasm. Praise be to the little coincidences that worked out. "When I called William, he super freaked out. Hm, that sounds a little weird in Japanese. Do you think he's the Aniki type? Nī-chan just doesn't sound right."

"I'm sure that if you went around calling him that all of a sudden, he'd freak out even more." Which was to say I approved with all my heart. Will-kun's freak-outs were one of the things I missed the most about being in America. With a nostalgic smile on my face, I sipped on my milkshake. The combined bliss of the sweet taste with the memories was perfection. "Besides, it's not like he has any room to talk about you getting into anything wild. He was a punk when he was your age."

"Right? Right? That's what I told him and he yelled at me. So rude!" Linda sighed, and I felt for her. I could get away with a lot more with Will-kun involved since I was an adult and made my own damn decisions, but things got a bit dicey with the older sibling card involved. I, for one, couldn't relate. "You're not gonna snitch on me, are you? 'Cause that would suck!"

"My dear Linda-chan, I would never snitch." That could kind of defeat the point, considering that I'd been the one that had even invited her out, despite knowing well and good that she had school that day. Of course, if Will-kun were to ask, I would say that I'd intended for her to take me up on my offer when classes weren't in session, though I doubted he would believe me. And it was true, too! "But all that sort of talk is boring-boring, Linda-chan. Let's get into the good stuff and talk about that missing classmate of yours!" That was the real reason I'd wanted to chat, after all.

One Harima Mika, having gone missing from before school even started. A classmate (who, according to Linda, was a super cute, glasses-wearing girl, with big boobs) who was worried. Confirmation of said missing girl also being a stalker of Yagiri Seiji—a name I just so happened to have on my radar thanks to both the recent kidnappings and the fact that Yagiri Pharmaceuticals had also contacted Izaya's office to pick out said kidnapping victims in the first place. And, more important than anything:

Izaya was keeping secrets from me. I had no doubt he knew something about Harima Mika, too. Figuring out what was going on there without being told—was it more of a test, or a game?

Didn't matter. Either way, I hated losing.

But playing around and having fun is way more important than any of that, so I guess if I lose, I can just let it slide!

"Did you manage to find anything?" Linda asked, pulling me back to the present. I slurped up more of my milkshake before it could get too melty. "I know it was kinda a weird request, and it can't be easy to go around hunting one kid down in a big city like this. I still get lost half the time."

It seemed like it wasn't a good time to admit that I happened to find getting lost lots of fun. Then again, I was an adult with a flexible job, whereas Linda was a foreigner and a high school student and had all sorts of concerns. As someone who just done whatever I wanted at that age and let my parents' money take care of the problems, I couldn't relate. "I don't think it's too bad of a job. After all, there are plenty of eyes around if you know where to look."

Linda nodded. "That's true. I tried to ask around on the Dollars, shared a pic with some people I trust and everything, too. It didn't manage to get anywhere. You think she happened to leave Ikebukuro?"

"Judging by her family's situation, I don't think that's likely." Sure, Japan's public transport was pretty decent, but there wasn't a lot a kid could do to afford living without money. Not to say there weren't ways, but nothing about Harima Mika's profile convinced me of that one. "Besides, she's obsessed with this Seiji-chan guy or whatever, right? The one who ditched after the first day of school? Hm, I guess being connected to a pharma corp means he might have better pocket change…"

There were options there. Nothing I could confirm in a chat like the one we were having, but I didn't think it was that bad of a hypothesis. Not sure if Izaya would agree, tho.

"Whoa. You think she followed the guy, and that's why she's missing?" Linda's eyes had gone wide, and she'd even forgotten all about her milkshake. Couldn't be me, I thought as I sipped on mine. "But she's been missing before the start of the school year, and it sounds like that Seiji guy at least showed up then, which means…" Linda scrunched up her face, deep in thought before heaving a big sigh. "I have no clue! I'll leave that stuff to you, Sosa!"

"Yup, you can leave it to me." I was pretty damn good at sticking my nose where others would say it didn't belong, if I had to claim so myself. "Will-kun always used to say that, 'Sosa, no one knows how not to mind their own business as much as you,' so you know I'm perfect for the job!" And, yes, I knew Will-kun didn't mean that as a compliment. Didn't stop me from taking it as one, though.

Now for the best part of my job: having a bit of fun while I did it!

"Boring. Boring, boring, boring. Izaya-kun, don't you have any better jobs for us to handle? I'm going to die from utter boredom over here!"

"If either of us could die from boredom, we would've been long gone by now," Izaya said without any sort of pity. It was a fair point, but that didn't mean I had to like it. Where I'd been planning on digging around while on the job, we'd ended up with a job from the Awakusu-kai, which was not the sort of shit one wanted to slack off on. And while it was a job from the yakuza, it was just a bunch of boring expense tracking for one of their partner companies. I may have loved the beauty of math, but even I hesitated to enjoy something like budgeting. "The longer you whine, the longer this will take."

"I know, but that doesn't change my opinion on the matter!" Ugh, I hated wasting my focus on things I didn't care about. "Why are they having us do this anyways? They've gotta have in-house people who can handle making sure all this is in order." If I were in charge of a criminal organization, I sure wouldn't trust my bookkeeping to some dubious info broker office if I could help it.

"Be that as it may, half of our job is seeing if anything here lines up with other sources." Which, yeah, the prospect of someone being dumb enough to sneak money out of the yakuza sounded exciting, the reality was too much for my brain to care about. We wouldn't even get to watch anyone get shanked if that was how everything ended up going! "I'll take you out to that cake buffet that just opened up if you shut up and get back to work, Miss I Was a Math Major."

"Math! Not accounting!" But, still, Izaya-kun footing the bill for cake. I clicked my tongue. "I want the extended time package, you hear me?"

"Yes, yes, now do your damn job please."

To my immense dissatisfaction, we found nothing enjoyable. It was just concrete numbers, all the way, though. You could tell something was awful whenever it took away any joy I could feel for a well-organized spreadsheet. The whole process had taken up so much time that I hadn't even gotten to slack off by digging into the whole thing for Linda-chan, which just made it even more unbearable. The whole point of working for Izaya was supposed to be the flexibility of it.

"Boo, Izaya-kun, booooo," I said, scowling at him as I sent him my last files via email. "You're lucky you promised me cake, otherwise I would've rioted. There's so much else exciting going on in this city, and you decide to waste an amazing day on paperwork for other people." I didn't care if the client was the yakuza; I'd complain to Shiki-no-danna myself if I had to. "Also, I swear, if you even try to say we can't go out and get cake today—"

"Even if an amusing job is right on our doorstep?" I paused. One the one hand: cake. On the other hand: something fun, but also with the caveat that Izaya could be pulling more shit out of his ass. Noticing my hesitation, Izaya smirked. "Come now, Sosa-chan. Don't you trust me?"

"After the shit you just pulled today? I think you know the answer to that." I hopped up onto the corner of his desk anyways, attempting to peek onto his computer screen. He'd minimized everything so that I couldn't see anything but his desktop, though. "Alright, go ahead, Izaya-kun. Impress me, otherwise I'm doubling your payment to me."

Izaya chuckled. "How terrifying. I shudder to think of the damage you can cause with that much sugar in you." He spun once in his chair, bringing himself to a stop with a hand catching onto the edge of his desk. "While we were finishing up the job for the Awakusu—" I did not bother to contain my snort at the descriptor "—I got a request for an appointment. She should be here any minute."

Someone who wanted information from Izaya of all people had to at least be involved in something interesting, right? At the very least, people with trivial sorts of requests had plenty of other options before they got to us. I could play ball, at least a little bit. "If they're boring, I'm kicking them out myself."

Izaya just had on his broad smile instead of any form of protest, which I took as tacit approval. What with working for the yakuza and the like, he had enough money to be selective with his clients, so it wasn't like tossing someone out was going to cause a problem. Not after too long, though, said appointment appeared: a tall woman with long dark hair dressed in a tight-fitting combo of a two-toned green turtleneck and a maroon pencil skirt that showed off her figure. She even went for the black tights look, which put her in crossfire of sexy yet professional. She did have a pretty bad case of resting bitch face, though, and the look she gave me at my seat on the desk was anything but friendly.

Hm, she might be fun to mess with, now that I think about it.

I flashed the woman a grin; she ignored me in favor of looking at Izaya, who had gone into one of his "dramatic host" modes, which I happened to find entertaining as fuck. "This is the first time we've met, correct? I hope that list of illegal aliens was useful. I'm glad to see you. Sosa-chan, this is the chief of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals' Lab Six, Yagiri Namie. It's an honor to have you come visit my humble abode. So please, have a seat, Yagiri-san."

Yagiri? The woman didn't bother to take the offer, instead placing a photograph on the desk. In it were two people: the woman herself and a boy in a gakuran. Thanks to Linda's assistance, I'd been able to snoop into Raira's student directory, so I was able to recognize Yagiri Seiji with his short cropped brown hair and square features in an instant. Whoa. Isn't this what they call a jackpot? Well, it looked like I'd just walked right into a super awesome lead that I could share with Linda-chan. We were cooking with gas now. All the boring number crunching had been worth it!

"I need you to find my younger brother. It's urgent," Namie said. While her voice was overall steady, it was still straining at the edges. "I'm willing to pay however much you ask. He hasn't been answering his phone since last night, but he should still be in Ikebukuro."

Yo, a real life case of brocon? Couldn't be me. My younger brother was fun enough as a toy, but I'd already set him aside in favor of other things. I was pretty sure that, if asked, he would report that he hated my guts. Neither of us had any intention of changing said arrangement.

"Since last night?" Izaya asked, displaying no concern whatsoever. "That's not so long at all. I'm sure he'll be back in no time. What has you so worried about him?" I nodded along. That just sounded like some helicopter shit to me. I had half a mind to find this lady's brother and help him run away if that was what he had to put up with.

"It's not him I'm worried about. It's the girl he's with. She has a distinctive scar around her neck."

Wasn't that intriguing? I was starting to think I could forgive Izaya for the snore fest of the workday (though I was still gonna cash in on my cake offer!). Still, that didn't mean I couldn't have some extra fun, so I grinned. "Well, you know how kids that age can be. I'm sure he's just run off to have some fling for fun." Namie's expression darkened, which had been my intention. All you had to do to piss people off was poke at their buttons.

"What the hell do you know about anything?" she asked me, a surprising amount of vitriol in her voice for someone that wasn't shouting. "I don't know who you are, but if you aren't going to help, keep your mouth shut!"

"Whoa, whoa," Izaya said, holding both his hands to get her to calm down. I could recognize the absolute amusement in his expression, though. "Yagiri-san, don't you think that there are far more important things that we should be looking into first? The foreign entity Nebula has been making serious advances towards acquiring your company. Now that would make your current position…"

"Orihara Izaya-san. I don't have time to chitchat right now. I know you have the ability to find my brother, so get started at once."

Izaya and I exchanged a glance. I'd already guessed it, but to see a brother complex out in full force like that was wild. I was all for poking the bear, but since she was a Yagiri, I didn't know just how much Izaya wanted me to at least try and maintain friendly business relations. Even I could put off some immediate gratification if it meant more interesting returns in the long run, so I was willing to follow his lead just a little.

Which is why it was so gratifying to watch as Izaya said with the most casual of airs, "Hm, surprising. A woman like you falling for her brother. Who would've thought?"

While I'd expected another explosive reaction, Namie kept her composure well. "You don't know a single thing about me."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, unable to resist. We were informants, after all, even if Izaya kept me in the dark half the time just to see how I'd react. I would've done the same thing in his position, so it was all fair. "Your uncle was the former head of Yagiri Pharma, right? But he took some risks, got shit returns, and lost the family business. Now it's got some boring guy up at the head—and yet there's plenty of shady rumors going on about you anyways, which we know are true."

Izaya nodded along, then picked up where I left off. "And that would be because of one Yagiri Namie-san. Despite losing your family's influence in the company, you came into the company on the ground floor and worked your way up the ladder, where you've been doing all manner of shady things to meet your ends. Even without that information being public knowledge, your accomplishments are still rather impressive. You've got brains and beauty."

The bit of flattery at the end softened Namie's expression. "I guess you do know me pretty well. If that's the case, locating my brother shouldn't be any problem at all."

I rolled my eyes at her one-track mind. "It's always the brother with you, huh? Have you considered that maybe you should just leave him to his own devices instead of meddling so much?" While I wasn't the younger sibling, the thought of someone hovering over me that much (even without the romantic feelings involved) was enough to make my skin crawl.

The pleasant expression vanished as it sharpened to a glare. She was too easy. "What I'm doing is not meddling! No one else can protect him but me!"

"It's always so hard to see the obvious when you're stalking someone," Izaya said, adding more fuel to the fire. "The stalker thinks that they're protecting the victim—"

Namie's hand met the desk with a slam. "Don't you ever compare me to a stalker again!"

"Scary," Izaya and I said together with matching amounts of sarcasm. Still, I had to hand it to her; she may have been easy to get a rise from, but she was determined enough in her mission that she hadn't barged out the door yet. Izaya seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as he at last turned to his computer to start typing. "Okay, we'll help, but in the way we see fit. We informants don't work the same as cops, you know. Sosa-chan, do me a favor and follow through on what I'm about to send you."

"Roger, roger." Even if it wasn't for an official job, finding out where Yagiri Seiji had run off to was nothing but beneficial to me, so I focused on my phone while Izaya jumped between his own and the desktop—but not without one more pointed question in Namie's direction about whether or not she was jealous of the girl her brother had run off with.

Her non-answer spoke plenty.

That said, it didn't take us long at all to find the answer Namie was looking for (even if it wasn't the one she could've wanted): Yagiri Seiji had been picked up by the cops. Whenever she received the call from the police to go pick him up, Namie tore out of the room without another word, though Izaya was already sending her an invoice that I was pretty sure had an inflated price tag on it, but it wasn't like the woman couldn't afford it with all the dirty money she had floating around. Izaya pulled himself up to update his game board, and I was about to bug him about the cake he promised whenever my phone started to ring, blasting a magical girl theme. That made the recipient more than clear, and I slid my phone open and pressed it to my ear soon after. "What can I do for you, Aiako-chan?"

"Um, well, I wanted some advice since you're involved in all this stuff. I know I'm supposed to be your protégé, but I wasn't sure what to do."

"No sweat, no sweat! One of the benefits of being my protégé is that I'm here to help! Lay it on me."

"Well, um… what should I do if someone I'm trying to help might be hiding something from the police?"

[Author's Notes]

Hey, look, me putting updates on my other stories I've left be for ages. What a shocker.

Thanks to Morgan Arthur, Soumina, AnjuVermillion, Nina3KPop, frailityofgenuis, Grim Tranquil, h8rt4u, and GinryuFox for the faves, follows, and comments, and the same to anyone else who might've left stuff on this story while fanfiction dot net was down, and general thanks for hitting 100 favorites. Thanks for the patience while I got distracted writing other things!

One of my goals I set last year for my birthday was dropping at least one update on all my fics. What I did not anticipate was getting a big burst of focus on you could have my heart (and i would break it for you), so I finished that massive draft up. My birthday has already passed this year, so I didn't get it done on time, but I did get all these updates drafted, so I'm gonna get them online while I'm feeling like it. Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for those.

Next chapter of this got some words on the ground, but I'm not making any update promises yet. It will be Aiako POV tho. I'll try not to take two and half fucking years.

-Avi

[18 July 2024]