Durarara!!, Vol. 1 (novel) by Ryohgo Narita Page A

to make a good living by selling information he picked up to organized crime or the police for cash.
    But his name was known far and wide, and Izaya understood that. The kanji in his name were not typically read as “Izaya”—the name was a combination of Isaiah, the prophet in the Bible, and “one who approaches.” He did not live a holy life fitting of the holy book, but on the other hand, he did exhibit an extraordinary capability to face new and different phenomena. That skill brought him to the life he now led.
    He treasured his life as any normal person would, understood his limits, and spared no expense for his own safety. Thus, he had survivedin the criminal underworld and was able to spend his days pursuing his interests.
    Izaya left the rest of the chore to Celty, having fully enjoyed his first visit to Ikebukuro in weeks, and went home happy.
    What had the women he met today looked like? How did they dress? Were they pretty, were they ugly, were they stylish, were they awkward? What did they sound like? Why did they want to die? Did they, in fact, even want to die? Izaya forgot all of these things.
    Izaya Orihara was an absolute atheist. He did not believe in souls or the afterlife—which is why he wanted to know people. He found interest in others at the drop of a hat and trampled them just as quickly. When Izaya no longer needed to know a person, his lack of interest was absolute.
    Barely ten yards from the scene, he had even forgotten the names of the two suicidal women. Unnecessary knowledge served no purpose to an information broker.
    Two things were on his mind now.
    One was the identity of the mute courier who always wore a helmet. The Reaper-like thing with the black scythe, riding a silent motorcycle.
    The other was the group called the Dollars that had been at the center of rumors in Ikebukuro lately.
    “I can’t wait. I can’t wait. I can’t wait. Despite being an information agent, there’s still so much of this town that I know nothing about being born and then disappearing. This is why I can’t help but live here where all the people are! I love people! I just love human beings! I love ’em! Which is why people should love me back.”
    Izaya pulled his PDA out of his breast pocket. He turned it on, opened up the address book, and scrolled until he found the entry he wanted.
    The name of the person was grandiose and ostentatious.
    “Mikado Ryuugamine,” the boy he had just met earlier that day.



Chapter 6: Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, Upper Management
    Somewhere between Ikebukuro and Shinjuku, in a location outside of the pleasure district of Mejiro, there was a quiet laboratory building. It was a three-story complex surrounded by fences and trees, the grounds quite spacious for Tokyo real estate, even when the long distance to the nearest train station was factored in.
    This was the testing and research facility for Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, one of the elite corporations in that industry in the Kanto region around Tokyo. But the “elite” status was now a relic of the past, and the company’s share was steadily shrinking with little sign of improvement.
    Around the time their stock began slipping, an American business came with a merger offer. It was a conglomerate named Nebula, with a century of history behind it, active in shipping, publishing, and even biotechnology. Thanks to the bedrock of their business acumen, rumors abounded of unspoken understandings between Nebula and various politicians, but everything was kept secure through legal power.
    For a merger, Nebula offered quite favorable terms that promised very little in the way of layoffs and restructuring, but some within the company—particularly the members of the Yagiri family itself, including the president—balked at certain conditions.
    The most resistent member of the company was the young lab chief of the Sixth Development Lab, aka Lab Six, Namie Yagiri. She was only twenty-five years old and was the niece of the