Chapter 4

Izaya's POV:

After Izaya had shut the door behind Akira, his face frowned. This had probably been one of his worst days ever. He couldn't even remember, when the last time had been that his pride had been hurt so much - and this time even by a little girl.

The raven went to the big window behind his desk and looked down the street. Dozens of people were passing by, not noticing that he was watching them from above. He almost expected Akira to show up under his window again, but she had been rather gone pretty fast or had just gone into a different direction.

Maybe I should do some more research on her. Just like she did on me. Izaya thought while a smile appeared on his face.

Though their meeting was still frustrating him, it was nonetheless a funny and unexpected part. He had never thought about the possibility that the girl could actually be able to challenge him, not only in intelligence, but also in human observation.

He had underestimated her and the fact was causing the blood in his veins to flow a bit faster. It was thrilling. And the way Akira had found out everything about him, reminded him a lot of himself when he had still been young - actually the way he was still acting when it came to humans.

Finding out everything about them and then confront them with their little dirty secrets - or otherwise let them fall, if they were just too boring.

But Akira wasn't boring, and she just announced that she was also highly interested in him- not as a friend, but as a human being.

Even if the fact was still going on his nerves, by now Izaya knew that he and Akira were a lot alike each other and he was sure that this was the way to find out more about the girl - and probably even beat her in this exciting, dirty game they were playing.

The smile on his face widened even more, slowly growing malicious, before he turned around and sat down in front of his computer.

"If she's like me, maybe I should rather find out how to fight myself~" he giggled taking the switch blade lying on his desk and flicking it open. His eyes followed it's glowing sharp side.

On the other hand: Izaya had never had an enemy as clever as himself.

His smile vanished, when he put the blade back and began tipping on the keyboard.

There was no way he was letting this girl win against him.

Akira's POV

"Hello again Heiwajima-San, Tanaka-san" Akira greeted as she joined the two on their rounds debt collecting once again. She had been doing this for the past week and she hadn't gathered that much data but she hadn't come up empty handed either.

"Still not going to school brat?" Heiwajima-san greeted as usual while Tanaka-san gave her a happier greeting. He hadn't really seemed bothered by that fact that she had joined them, and seemed to have gotten rather used to it quickly. Akira was relieved about that seeing that if he had minded, she would have had to find another method to observe him, and she wasn't very stealthy when it came to that.

"It's no big problem. I have no major exams for now so I can afford to miss classes." Akira said, answering Heiwajima-san's usual question with her usual answer. While he didn't vocalize it, Akira knew he didn't like being followed much. Probably due to Orihara-san. She had read up on it, and even asked Tanaka-san when Heiwajima-san wasn't around. They had a bad history due to a simple clash in personality and beliefs. She had also managed to deduce that someone was keeping him in check, due to the fact that he had never dated before. Without previous relationships it would be obvious that he would very elated. Though on that note it wouldn't have to specifically be a romantic relationship, but friendship. Either way he was talking to someone he had recently met that caused these weird...mood swings, for lack of better words.

There were days when he would check his phone very constantly, his mail to be more exact. On these days he would usually be very grumpy and there would be a lot of property damage and injured people. From what she could tell, these were the days that this one person was online. Heiwajima-san probably got cranky without being able to talk to this person. Then there were other days when he did talk to the person. It was pretty obvious. He was on cloud nine those days. He was very happy those days, no one got hurt, no property damage. This mysterious person was a miracle worker.

A sudden ring brought her from her thoughts, and she looked over to Shizuo. He had a soft smile on his face as he typed on his phone. Today was a happy day then. She spent the whole day up to lunch time observing Heiwajima-san. She usually stayed the whole day but she had something else to do today.

Akira to Orihara: [Hello. I hope you haven't forgotten about today have you?]

Orihara to Akira: [How could I, what kind of person would I be if I did. Especially since you took it upon yourself to volunteer my home. It'd make me a terrible host don't you think, Kira-chan?]

Akira to Orihara: [I see, you're in a good mood today. Anyways, I'm close by so I'll see you in a few minutes.]

Orihara to Akira: [Take your time~]

She got there in a matter of minutes, just like she had told Orihara-san. He looked less than pleased to see her, despite his cheery greeting.

"Hello again Kira-chan~" he said in a sing song voice.

"Hello again to you, Orihara-san" She said as she walked in, putting her bag down by the door, making sure her phone was inside her pocket. She didn't trust Orihara-san around it, even if she didn't have much she considered to be incriminating. He was childish sometimes. He could simply mess with her stuff to bother her.

"So what part of my privacy is it that we'll be invading today?" He asked as Akira took a seat on the couch.

"You know that your relationship with Shou is in my highest interest." She answered nonchalantly. "Speaking of that, did anything change lately, Orihara-san?"

The raven observed her with his eyes, but Akira didn't give way to his piercing look. After a while he just sighed, muttering something about that she could already start calling him "Izaya", before he took a seat opposite to her.

"What should have changed in your princess opinion?" He gave a mocking response, still not causing any emotion to show on the girl's face.

"I'm talking about your attachment to that special person. Did it grow by any chance?"

Izaya hesitated, a while too long as it seemed, because shortly after Akira added: "Would you rather like me asking the people around you about your daily behaviour?"

The girl wasn't thinking about being mean in any matter, but she knew that Izaya was trying to avert their conversations or to talk about his emotions. Seeing him as a cowardly person, she kind of understood why he was hesitating to trust her, but even her patience knew its limits.

"I guess, it did." The raven suddenly answered, causing her to bring her look back into his face, which she had directed to the bottom just a second ago. "I indeed feel a lot at ease, when he is talking to me." Izaya added.

"So, what do you intend to do?" Akira asked.

"You mean about Shou?" Izaya's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "I seriously don't know."

"How long are you two chatting by now?"

"I guess, it must be around 2 weeks. Maybe even more …" The raven answered, his head falling to the side when he was thinking. Akira observed the raven, lost in thoughts with an irritated look on his face. Apparently Izaya wasn't used to not having a feeling for time. If it was like that, Shou was already consuming a lot of the raven's time. And with "time" she didn't necessarily only mean the time he was chatting with the other man, but also the time Izaya was spending thinking about him. Akira wasn't experienced in this kind of thing, but she knew the human kind enough to know that it was time for the next step.

"Why don't you two meet up?" She vocalized her thought, causing the raven's head to shoot up and look into her eyes.

"I understand that you're maybe kind of … nervous to meet him. But we both know, that you will have to meet one day, don't we?"

Izaya nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's just … you know ... when people get to know me personally, they kind of start to not like me."

"I guess, I understand why that is." Akira responded. Immediately an ironic smile appeared on the raven's face. "Thanks for the compliment." He answered with a slightly angered tone .

"You're welcome." The girl replied bluntly before standing up. Izaya raised his eyebrows at the sudden movement.

"I'm only giving you an advice. So take your time and think about it." She added, before leaving his office. She heard a little "yeah" behind her, but apparently the raven didn't bother to stand up and lead her out. Instead she just closed the door behind her.

Stepping out of the building she noticed that the day had gotten a lot colder. She shivered wrapping her scarf around her, before going off into the direction of the train station.

Having her back to the alley near by, she couldn't see the person hiding there. Swiftly the shadow hid behind the wall and observed her while stepping out. Only when she disappeared behind the house, the person started to follow her further. And though she never noticed, the dark silhouette was following her until the very end.

Nakura: Hey Shou-chan!

Nakura: I just had a great idea!

Nakura: Lets meet up!