leans casually against the storefront of the Animate.

steps out of the store, a bag full of merchandise in hand. She hummed a happy tune as she walked out.

pushes off the store's wall to step in front of the cheerful otaku. With his signature smirk pasted on, Izaya filches a manga

from the top of Erika's bag.

flips open the book and skims through to the last page. "Ah, Erika-chan, I would get your money back for this."

"The main character dies in the end."

blinks at his sudden appearance and takes a minute to register what he just said to her. "Izaya! You're not supposed to tell what happens

when I haven't even read this yet!" She gave him a small pout.

"Oh?" He holds the open manga between two clinched fingertips, raising an eyebrow at the current page.

"I'm not supposed to tell you that the heroine dies, freeing the two male characters to fulfill their yaoi fantasies?" He laughs.

"I wasn't aware that position was possible." He comments on the page, rotating the book to get a better look.

continues to pout " H-hey, part of the fun is actually reading it." she blinked at his comment on one of the pages. " Oh!~ so do those kind

things intrest you, Izaya~?" her eyes glinted mischievously.

Though the informant looked away abashedly, his cheeks remained tintless , and his smirk remained in place. "I don't think Shizu--" Izaya

interrupted himself, waving a dismissive hand at the girl. "I don't think I should talk about such things with a young lady such as

yourself." He crossed his arms, book in hand and his smug grin unwavering.

still has that glint in her eyes " Oh!~ What was that? Were you just about to say something about Shizuo?~ " She bounced a little. "You

know~ if you have some sort of feelings for Shizuo, you should tell him~ I wouldn't mind tagging along~ "

"Shizu-chan? The man is brutish and incomprehensible and /strong/." Izaya covered his mouth and looked down, studying his shoes. "Even if I

had feelings for Shizu-chan, I could never get close enough to tell him before he tried to kill me." Izaya sighed dramatically. Gesturing

pointedly in front of him, flinging the book open again, he shook his head. "It's such a tragedy." He shrugged.

frowns a little "If it makes you feel any better, true love can still be expressed~ even at the time of death~ " she tapped her fingers on

her cheek "It worked for Romeo and Juliet at least~ "

tilted his head, his smirk dissolving into an impassive line. Briefly, he glanced down at the book's open page, the last page. He glanced

back to the anime fan. "Do you really think true love transcends death, Erika?" There, again, his smirk broke across his face. "Do you

really think all stories have happy endings?" He leaned down to match the girl's eye level.

stares at him " Well... not all stories end happy that's true...." she smiled at him " it would be nice if they could though~ "

Izaya. He had been smoking but at the sight of the other male he grabbed the nearest vending machine and heaved. "Izayaaaaaa-kun...."

gestured at the book once again. "Wouldn't it be nice if they didn't e--" Instead of finishing his sentence, Izaya chose to protect his

life. The informant ducked and rolled into the street, dodging an incoming vending machine.

"I hate twist endings." The informant grumbled, reaching a hand into his coat, fingers curling around the handle of his flickbade.

startled by the sudden vending machine flying towards them. She moved out of the way, falling to the ground a little. She watched Izaya

jump back into the street, an angry Shizuo looking like he was about to grab something else to throw. She sat on the ground, watching them.

"Izzzayyya, when will you learn just to stay out of Ikebukuro!"

A feral smirk on Shizuo's lips as he ripped from the ground yet another piece of public property.

In this case a light post and threw it like a spear at the other male.

had been out shopping for Izaya (what kind of grocery shopping involves lighter fluid?) when she heard her boss's name being screamed for

all of Ikebukuro to hear, and a lightpost soaring through the sky. And of course, she was all of twenty feet from the action. "If he gets

injured this time, I am not fixing him up," she grumbled, walking around the two archenemies.

didn't move. His eyes widened, and a devilish grin cut across his face. Seconds before the light post would've collided with his body,

rendering him a twisted mass of broken bones, bloody flesh, and metal, he jumped.

Falling back to the ground, Izaya's feet touched down onto the mid-flight light post and kicked, propelling the informant at the Ikebukuro's

reckless hero. His opened flickblade shimmered in the afternoon sun.

On his way, flying through the air, to attack Shizuo, he noticed his secretary passing between them. He smiled. "Oy! Namie-chan!" He smiled

a full tooth smile and waved.

rolled her eyes. "You. If you hurt yourself, I will let you bleed out," she called back. Curiosity wouldn't let her leave them,

so she got a better grip on her bags of groceries and watched their battle well out of range of flying objects and/or people.