It was a day like any other in the city of Tokyo, a number of frightened pedestrians scuffling from Shizuo's path as the man with inhuman strength uprooted stop signs and other urban landscape objects in an attempt to chase Izaya out of Ikebukuro, the Information Broker's mere presence incurring the monster's wrath. It happened so many times over the years that it wasn't even shocking anymore, the hate the two men held for each other being a well-known fact to anyone who lived there.
"Stop running like a coward, you bastard flea!" Shizuo shouted and threw a stop sign after the disgusting insect he despised from the bottom of his heart, the metal bar flying past the Informant's head and embedding itself into the wall just as Izaya took a right turn.
"No waaay~!" said Izaya in a singsong voice, chuckling the moment he heard the brute roar out his name. It actually annoyed him a bit that he ended up running into Shizuo, but it was a risk he was willing to take each time he went to Ikebukuro. The brute was like a thorn in his side, but it wasn't bad enough that he needed to consider getting rid of the stupid beast once and for all. It was just that it was simply annoying, and perhaps even a hazard to his health, but he was confident enough in his parkour skills to keep him safe from the monster's fury, though it worried him a bit that Shizuo was getting better at chasing him out of Ikebukuro, the man's skills improving over the years from so much practice.
"IMMA KILL YOU!" Shizuo shouted again just as he picked up a vending machine and threw it at Izaya, the ease with which the louse dodged it making him see red.
"Shizu-chan can't even aim properly," Izaya taunted him, a bit breathless from being chased for so long, the relentless beast not giving him any chance to rest.
Shizuo snarled, his whole body trembling in rage, his feet automatically moving by themselves the second the insect started running again, as though his brain wasn't even in control anymore. "I'm gonna rip you to pieces!"
"Scaaaary~!" Izaya gasped in mock-surprise just as he started running again, the world soon tilting to the left as he dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, his only thought as his awareness slipped into pitch black being what the hell hit him.
Shizuo stopped in his tracks, confused as to where the insect had disappeared. One moment he was in front of him, going around a corner, and in the next one he was gone, as though the bastard had vanished into thin air. "IIIIZAAAAAYAAAAA!" he roared out in rage, the sound bouncing off the alley's walls. His eyes roamed all over the place, trying to find something that would reveal where the louse was hiding, but when he couldn't find anything he just stood there for a few minutes, trying to calm down enough to be able to go back to work, already starting to feel bad for bailing on Tom in the middle of a job, never noticing the man peeking at him from behind the window of car parked near the place where Izaya had disappeared.
As soon as Shizuo left, the man drove off with his prize. "Orihara Izaya, I'll soon teach you the meaning of the word silence," he said, brows furrowing in anger, his sneer a clear indication of the abhorrence he felt for the Information Broker.
⁂
Izaya groaned in pain as his eyes fluttered open, his brain working diligently on clearing his muddled thoughts, trying to ignore the way in which his head was throbbing in pain, the wetness he could feel at the back of his head telling him that he was bleeding. "You're finally awake," he heard someone say and he jerked in surprise, only to realize that he was tied to a chair. Most people would've panicked after finding themselves in such a situation, but he was Orihara Izaya, and something as mundane as getting tied to a chair didn't really affect him. Smirking, he looked around, trying to see if he could figure out where he was, and then turned his attention back to the guy standing in front of him when he realized that he had no clue where he'd been taken. "What is this?" he finally asked the human holding his switchblade, the skull painted on the hood mask covering the man's face looking rather sinister.
