The man forcefully pushed me against the brick wall of the dark alleyway. My head slammed against the hard surface as I winced. With his hand in a tight fist, he threateningly punched the space beside me.

"How much did you hear?" he asked. His voice was slightly muffled due to the yellow scarf tied around his mouth. Behind him, his henchmen--who also wore yellow bandanas--practiced swinging their bats; probably imagining my head as the ball. When I didn't answer, the man tugged on my hair and threw my head against the wall again. He repeated himself, "How much did you hear? Dammit!"

"L-" I stuttered out, breathing heavily as I felt my blood trickle down my forehead. "Let... me go..."

His eyes adjusted into a glare. Although his mouth was concealed behind the scarf, I could still clearly see his smirk. His free hand rose up in a tight fist. Brass knuckles glistened in the dim light as they wrapped around each of his fingers.

Shutting my eyes, I braced myself for impact. I was completely prepared for a punch to be delivered straight at my face. Where would it land? My eyes? My nose? Cheeks? Lips?

"Whoa-ho-ho~!" exclaimed a voice in amusement from the opening of the alley. The fist didn't come, so I slowly opened my eyes. "My, my..." it spoke again. "What do we have here? Hm~?"

"And who the hell are you?" the man in front of me asked the stranger clad in black. Now he wasn't paying attention to me, and nor were his comrades. He was open.

Sliding a hand into my pocket, I sifted through what was inside and rested my desperate fingers on my crafting knife. Oh, man; I was so damn lucky to have that thing with me. Next, I kicked the guy's shin. In actuality, I was aiming for his... um... yeah. But my foot was closest to the shin, so I subconsciously went for it.

In the midst of his pain, he let go of my hair. I took that moment to stomp on his foot with my heel and twist it in. Pulling my hand out of my pocket, I spun around the man and pointed my crafting knife at his neck while my other arm had him in a choke hold.

I turned my head slightly to look at the person who was watching from the alleyway's exit. Something slid out from under his coat's sleeve and landed in the palm of his hand. When he flicked it, I saw a blade appear, and I suddenly turned defensive. In a flash, the knife was thrown in my direction, hurling straight at my face. I couldn't dodge it.

It took me a few moments of realization to find that I wasn't killed; that the knife was aimed at something behind me instead.

"Little Miss, aren't you a bit reckless?" the mysterious man inquired with a smirk. "You need to pay attention to your surroundings if you want to win in an unfair fight."

I turned around to see the two henchmen quivering in fear. "Crap," I thought to myself, "I forgot about them..." As I took a closer look, I saw that both men had a side of each of their heads shaved. What the hell did this guy do?

Sighing, I hit the top of my hostage's head, and he knocked out pretty quickly. I fixed my attention towards the two frightened ones and scared them into giving me my purse back before pocketing my crafting knife.

Finally, I was able to leave these people and head home. It was getting late, and I had work the next day. However, right when I was about to leave, my exit was blocked off. Looking up, I studied the person more closely.

He had dark hair and reddish-brown orbs. A black v-neck hugged his body accompanied by a fur-trimmed coat, a silver ring on one finger of each hand, jeans held up with a belt, and boots. A metallic suitcase stood beside him, looking extremely shady. His hands stuffed his pockets and his eyes pierced into mine... He was intimidating.

"Do you plan to leave without a word of thanks?" he questioned.

"Oh..." I scratched my head, trying to think of what to say. "Thank you, kind stranger, for aiding me in a dangerous situation by using such fantastically chivalrous barber-skills."

He chuckled and put on a fake frown. "No, no. That won't do. You sound far too sarcastic for my liking."

An eyebrow of mine rose. "And I'm supposed to care...?" This guy was pretty cool at first, but now he was just getting cocky. I was close to annoyed.

"Yes, you are. After all, I had saved your life!" He twisted around on his heel and swayed an arm in the air, dragging the suitcase with the other. "Come! You're going to properly repay me."

I don't know why I listened to him, but I found myself weaving through the streets of Ikebukuro with this hazardous-looking stranger. Seriously, what the hell was I thinking? Minutes ago, I was being beat up for eavesdropping into a conversation, so why am I going along with a stranger to some unknown place? Stupid me.

"Hey, Miss. We're here," he said, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked around on impulse. The sign of the building ahead of us read 'Russia Sushi'. "You're treating me," he stated. "Because I'm hungry, and I like the Fatty Tuna here~"

"I know this place!" I marveled, tugging at his sleeve. "It's not far from where we were!" I babbled with unnecessary excitement. "Wait... If this place was a short walk away, then why did it seem so long?" I pondered.

"Oh. That's because I went the longer route," he explained.

"Why? Isn't that a waste of time?"

He suddenly held my chin in his hand and lowered his head to look into my eyes. "Would you believe me if I said that I wanted to spend more time with you?"

"No."

"Aw. You're no fun~!" He dropped his hand and began to walk inside Russia Sushi, hands in his pockets once again. I lightly jogged to catch up to him. "Actually..." he started, "I was trying to avoid someone. If he saw me, then I would be running around by now, escaping death."

"So, someone wants to kill you?" I asked.

"Precisely~" he confirmed.

...

"Hello?! Police?" I screamed into my phone.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!!" he tried to calm me down, waving his hands around. "It's not like that! Really!"

A deep voice resounded behind me. I knew this man; Simon. "What is happening?"

"Simon! Help me!" I pointed at the man who I was following for the last few minutes. "This stranger is making me buy him food! He said that someone's trying to kill him! Lord knows what will happen to me!"

Simon studied the man. "Izaya! Not good to make woman pay for food! Not good to scare either! Brings bad business!"

"Simon~! I wasn't trying to scare her! Plus, there are no other customers here, so it can't be that bad for your business." He continued to whine, sliding into a rotating stool and motioning for me to sit too. "But it's true; Shizu-chan is always trying to kill me."

"'Shizu'..." I enunciated. A girl...? "Is that a nickname?"

"Yeah. It's Heiwajima Shizuo," he shrugged.

"Shizuo?!" I shouted. "Heiwajima Shizuo?! The strongest man in Ikebukuro?! What did you do?"

"Um... Nothing much. A little of everything. Just a touch of every color in a rainbow, if I may say." He ordered his food, thanked me for it, and ate in silence for a while before I decided to ask a question that I should have asked awhile ago.

"Hey..." I trailed out the word for a bit. "Who are you...?"

Swallowing his food, he grinned and pointed at himself. "Orihara Izaya~," he claimed. "Hey, hey~! You should tell me your name too! Nameless-chan~!"

"(-Last Name-)," I responded. "I'm not giving you any more than my surname."

"Aw! But why~?"

With my chin resting on my hand, I turned only slightly to look at him. "Why? Because you're simply a stranger who I owe a debt to. After this, I probably will never talk to you ever again."

"Tsk. How rude..." he grumbled. "I, on the other hand, think that I will see you more often~"

I shook my head in disbelief and continued to drink my beverage. "There were two," I stated not very loudly. "There were two men who got shaved, and there were two knives on the ground beside them..." I explained. "...but I only saw you throw one... How...?"

He smiled. I could tell that I wouldn't be getting an obvious answer. "Let me ask you a few questions first~!" Turning in his chair to face me, his eyes shifted around the room before resting upon mine. When I took a glance, I noticed that no one else was in the room. Shit.

"Oriha-" I started, trying to say his name, but not being able to finish my sentence. My head became heavy and my vision went on and off from blurry to clear. Blurry to clear. "W-what did you...?"

He let out a deep-throated chuckle. Lifting up his index finger, Izaya spoke with amusement. "Question number one! Why is there nobody here instead of us? Here's a hint: They're busy dealing with a certain bartender outside."

He lifted up two fingers. "Question number two~! Why do I have this suitcase? Hint: It's currently empty. Hint number two: It's exactly big enough to fit your body inside."

Finally, he lifted up three fingers. "Question number three! If you wanted to, you could probably escape, but why aren't you~?" He smiled and spun around in his seat until it began to slow down. He stood up, walked around, and stopped behind me. "The answer is... I drugged your drink!"

I sank in my chair, my body growing limp and numb as it reacted to whatever the hell was in my drink. My back hunched and my head slammed against the table. Izaya began to laugh openly as he slipped his hands into my purse, pulling out my wallet. All he did, though, was stare at it before putting it back.

This. Freaking. Psycho.

My eyes slowly began to shut as I tried forcing myself to stay awake, but I was failing. Unfortunately my brain was losing the battle against my body.

"I'll see you later, (-First name-)-chan~!" he said, using my given name, which he mostly likely discovered by looking at the ID that was in my wallet.

"W-why... are you...?" I managed to slur out.

"Why~?" He hugged me from behind and leaned his mouth over to my ear. "Because humans are so much fun~!"

I cursed him out under my breath as my senses closed off and I passed out.

¤¤¤¤☆¤¤¤¤

"Maybe she was in a gang! Or a victim...

I'm not so sure, but the injury certainly wasn't caused by accident...

But there's no reason to test her blood...

Drugged...? I don't think so...

Ah?! She was brought by Izaya?! Suddenly, it seems possible..."

I opened one eye first before lifting up the lid of my other one. There were two people. One was a male with brown hair that had strands flying in several directions, glasses, and a fairly long, white lab coat. He was exclaiming and saying stuff like "Oh! She woke up! Hooray!"

The other one wore some sort of black fitted suit with a blue and yellow cat ear helmet covering their face. It took me a second or two to confirm the gender, but it was most certainly a woman.

From what I heard while my eyes were closed, it sounded like the guy was having a conversation with himself. His voice was the only one that I listened to in the midst of my confusion. It didn't take long before I saw the reason why.

The woman, instead of talking, typed on a PDA.

[>>Are you okay? How are you feeling?]

I smiled softly at her. She seemed like a nice person. "I'm fine. Thank you." It only took a single look around for me to see that I was in a new location; an apartment actually. "Do you mind telling me who you are? I'm (-Last Name-, -First Name-)."

The man looked at the helmeted woman, nodding as she also nodded in return. "My name is Kishitani Shinra. I'm a... doctor," said the man. Palm up, he motioned his hand towards the woman. "And this... Is my beautiful girlfriend, Celty Sturluson! You see, she and I are extremely in love! One day, we will get married, and she will become the most lovely housewife that ever exis--"

Celty-san punched him in the stomach, stopping him from continuing, but he didn't complain, so I figured that this happens often. I couldn't help but giggle at how cute their relationship was. She then typed on her PDA and held it up for me to read.

[>> What do you remember before you passed out?]

My face turned sour and I frowned. "Orihara Izaya-san drugged me and tried to make me answer questions... That douche."

Celty-san tapped the chin of her helmet, implying that she was thinking hard about something.

[>> How did you get that head injury?]

At first, I was confused, so my hand immediately rose to touch my head. It was bandaged now, but alas, I remembered. "I was in a fight with some gangsters or something like that. Uhm... I eavesdropped... and they caught me... Ehehe... So I guess I was sort of asking for it," I said with another giggle. They seemed really surprised when they saw me laugh it off. Celty-san rapidly typed on her PDA.

[>> Y-you should be careful! It could have been worse!]

Kishitani-san quickly nodded in agreement. "Also, you are most likely to be in quite a few problems at the moment. The fact that you are here probably means that you won the fight. There might be others from the gang that will try to hunt you down, so it's best to be extra, extra cautious!" Kishitani-san warned. "And even if they don't go after you, they'll find someone to put the blame on, so the streets will be dangerous nonetheless!"

"I'll be careful," I promised, bowing my head to them. "Thank you so much for keeping me here and bandaging my head and everything."

Celty-san and Kishitani-san gave each other a look before turning back to me. Kishitani-san spoke up once more. "We didn't wrap your head. You were like that when Celty opened up the suitcase. We thought that you put the bandage on yourself."

I shook my head. "Well, I didn't..."

"Ah! So maybe it was Izaya-kun! You should thank him if you ever see him again. After all, he did send you to us."

I nodded, not wanting to oblige. After all of the warnings I had received, I finally left their home and made my way back onto some familiar streets.

Out of the bustling crowds and roaring car engines, there was a single noise that undoubtedly stood out to me.

It was a shout; a yell of anger. Judging by the voice, it belonged to a man who was either irritated, pissed off, or both. Following his voice was a series of metal clangs, crashes, screams, and other things you'd hear during an extremely chaotic mass panic.

"IIIII-ZZZZAAAAA-YYYYAAAAAAA!!!"

=Author's Note=

Raise your hand if you thought dirty in the first sentence.

You little pervert. I bet at the end of the paragraph, you were like "Wait. Wat?"

Ignore that if you didn't. Now's not the time to let your innocence seep out of your eyes or something.

WELP! This is my first fanfic, so don't be too harsh, but constructive criticism is very much welcome. Actually, you can be harsh; I don't quite care.

And tell me, please, if anyone is OOC! I honest-to-god can't tell, but in my mind, I did fairly well. FEEDBACK PLEASE!

Please read, vote, comment, and follow to your heart's content!

Farewell for now!

-!n@