The next morning, Midori woke up with a start. She rolled over in her bed, closing her eyes for a minute. The dreams were awful.
Sighing, she got up, ready to start the day.
She took a bath, brushed her teeth, and then heated up the leftover sushi. There was an unused TV set lying in the corner, so she dragged it over and turned it on. She finally sat down cross legged on the small table and was having her breakfast when her cell phone chimed.
She swiped the screen and opened up the text message.
'Sector 8 Building 12 Apartment 3B'
Midori blinked and read the rest of the message. She quickly got up and went to her room for a change of clothes. She smiled to herself. The morning was hot but she'd already gotten a lead!
She quickly got dressed. Applied a bit of makeup for good measure and picked up her bag.
Closing the door behind her she made her way to a bus stop.
As she boarded the bus, a jet black bike raced down the road. For a split second, the driver to the bike turned towards her. A yellow helmet and black jumpsuit. In a flash it was gone. 'Huh.' Midori wondered 'Odd.' But she didn't dwell too much on it and got on.
She got off in an area near the Shinjuku Station. This reminded her, maybe she should call Mikado-kun and meet up. She'd heard that Ikebukuro was beautiful at night; maybe they could show her around.
Walking up to the apartment complex, she felt slightly nervous. She didn't know who she was getting with. She hadn't told either of her parents what she was doing or why she was here. She'd told mother she was going to live with father for a while. And she'd told her father that she needed to be alone for a while.
The advantage of having barely-there parents is that they don't meddle in your affairs. Sure, this makes you feel like they don't care either; she sighed.
She walked up to the correct building and got in the elevator. She got off on the seventh floor. She walked down the hallway and stood in front of the door. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the bell.
After a moment, a tall woman opened it.
"What?" She asked with a scowl.
Midori blinked and for a split second thought she'd gotten the wrong address. Quickly, she took out her phone to double check as the woman stared her down. Finally, she answered.
"I'm here for Orihara Izaya."
~~~~
The city was bustling with crimes, and so was the city's main police station.
Among the busy officers coming and going, a woman sat behind her desk. Her desk plate read 'Police Detective Watanabe Rize'.
She was writing up work reports, and absently toyed with her red hair in boredom. She was interrupted, however, by the sound of a file being dropped on the desk. She look up to see the Lieutenant staring down at her.
"New case, Watanabe." He said and sat down on the opposite chair.
"Oh. What about?" She promptly picked up the case file and opened it. Skimming though the first picture she said, "Suicide?"
"Murder." Lieutenant Korosuke corrected.
Upon further inspection of the file, Rize observed that the victim had a skull-with-flowers tattoo on his neck. She raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, that's the same one-"
"It is. Same tattoo as the two bodies we found last month."
Rize sighed a she read through it. "Same cause of death too. This is beginning to look gang related."
Korosuke nodded. "There's also this." He handed her another file. In it were several convicts, mostly juvenile, arrested for minor charges. What was common though, was that all of them wore a green colored bandana.
"The Green Sticks." Rize said. She's arrested a couple of them a while ago. They weren't your run-of-the-mill schoolboy color gang. They'd been dealing with hard drugs but no definite lead had been traced as to where they'd been getting them.
"So you think these murders have something to do with the Green Sticks?"
Kurosuke nodded. "They were both found in their territory. Dealing the same drugs."
Rize frowned and cupped her chin. "Ever since we busted the Green Sticks their hold has been diminishing. This could just be new gang trying to take over and them retaliating."
"Could be. It's your job to find out."
Rize shook her head. "I'll get right on it."
Kurosuke got up. "Alright. Keep me updated." He headed back to his office.
Rize nodded and flipped through another page of the file.
And stopped.
Near the murder scene, smiling in the background was Orihara Izaya.
"Lieutenant." She called. He stopped in his tracks.
"What's Orihara doing there?" She called, voice laced with annoyance.
The Lieutenant sighed. "He's a suspect. You're going to have to bring him in for questioning."
Other officers who overheard this winced. A couple of them even sent sympathetic looks her way.
It was no secret that Orihara Izaya was a pain in the ass for the police department. If he was ever a suspect (which was often) he's lead them to wild goose chases. Interrogating him was just awful. He'd make them go round in circles for hours, dangling just enough information so that they couldn't let him go but not before he made the interrogators bang their head in frustration.
Rize slumped in her seat. So that's why the Lieutenant himself had come to give her the file. It was also no secret that Rize absolutely deplored Izaya. He had once greatly obstructed her investigation back when she was a new recruit and trusted that Izaya was telling the truth.
She sighed angrily and got back to work. This was going to be a long day.
~~~~~
Midori exited the apartment building.
The meeting with Orihara Izaya had been interesting.
He was an interesting person.
The woman, Namie-san, had invited her in, giving her a skeptical look.
The apartment, Midori had observed, seemed solely for work purposes. Lots of bookshelves with lots of files. A lavish sitting area and Izaya-san was sitting in front of a large desk, legs crossed over it.
It reminded her of a super villain.
"She's here to see you." Namie-san said. The way she spoke made Midori feel that she wasn't quite a secretary.
Izaya regarded her with a cool, almost subdued enthusiasm. She blinked, there was something unnerving about this man.
'Well of course there is' she mentally chided herself. He dealt in underworld information, of course he was unnerving.
She stood behind the opposite chair. Namie-san climbed the stairs to the upper area and went about her business.
Midori stood there awkwardly for a moment hands entwined.
He had a lazy smile on his face and didn't speak.
Typical tactic for dominance, she observed. No matter, it was useless. He couldn't intimidate her anyways.
"Konichiwa." She cleared her throat. "I'm Nakahara Midori."
"Nakahara, you say?" Izaya grinned.
He straightened his legs. "Well, take a seat, Nakahara-san."
She sat down, spine erect. She expected as much. For Izaya to know about her family.
Placing her hands on her knees, she got down to business.
"I'm looking for a man." She said. After a pause she continued, "I was in New York when I encountered him. Right now I have reason to believe he is here in Ikebukuro."
She breathed. This was the hard part.
She had never told anyone about this, and telling it to an information dealer was just disconcerting.
She had practiced over and over what she would tell him, and what facts she would omit. Just enough that he would be able to find the man, but would have no idea of her own agendas.
(Little did she know that's what Izaya did on a daily basis and could see right through her)
"I see." Izaya said. "Well there are about 7 million men here. So it might take me a little time."
Her eyes flashed in annoyance. She cleared her throat. "The man's name-I'm not sure if it's his real name or not-is Nisha. And he works for Yagiri Shining Pharmaceuticals."
Namie stopped organizing the files. She leaned over the railing.
"Yagiri." Izaya crossed his arms over the desk. She could tell this had interested him.
"Ah. You just made my job much easier, Nakahara-san."
She almost sighed in relief, but he spoke up. "I do have a question though." He laced his fingers together. "Given your, uhm, connections, you could've just found it out yourself."
Midori nodded. "I did."
"But there was no one by that name there. I know what he looks like. And there was no one matching that description there either."
Izaya raised an eyebrow. "If there isn't one there. Then maybe you're looking at the wrong place."
Midori huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms. "He's there. I know it. At the very least I know that. I want you to look into them-Yagiri Pharmaceuticals. I want you to look for this." She took out a piece of paper from her bag.
She passed him the paper and leaned back on her chair. It had a roughly hand drawn picture of a hydrangea with a name on it.
'Batou-kai'
Izaya looked at it for a full heartbeat, then looked at her, and smiled.
"Interesting." He stared at the picture for another minute.
Finally, he stood up and placed his hand on the table.
"Very well, Nakahara-san. I will find this man." He held his hand out.
Midori stood up as well and shook his hand. "Thank you for your time, Orihara-san."
"The pleasure's all mine, Nakahara-san." He grinned.
She nodded and then turned to leave.
"Oh." She almost forgot. "About the payment. Will you take credit or-?"
"Cash will be fine." He replied. "Namie-chan can tell you about the, uh, rate. Ah, and she'll have your details too."
She nodded again.
Namie came downstairs. She gave all the details she needed and Midori headed for the exit.
"Oh, and Nakahara-san." Izaya called after her. "Enjoy your stay in Ikebukuro."
What an odd, idiotic man, she thought. "Thank you." She wondered if he really was going to be worth it. She didn't want to waste her time, she wanted to find him-Nisha. She wanted answers and she hoped this eccentric information broker would be the one to lead her to them.
She exited the building and stood for a moment to take a breather.
The hard part was over, now all she could do was wait.
She opened up her phone. Now would be a good time to call up Mikado.
As she dialed his number, a voice called out to her.
"Midori?"
She looked up.
A face. A woman. She froze.
She didn't recognize her at first. Her mind stopped for a moment as she stared, like looking back into the past. That same fiery red hair and striking blue eyes.
The woman approached her and whispered. "Midori, is that you?"
Her phone clattered to the ground.
"Rize?"
To be continued
..next chap: reunious, Ikes night life and vending machines.