Something Lost

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya huffed a bit and leaned back against the park bench. A cute blonde girl, one with freckles, walked past and Izaya watched her casually as she beckoned to park-goers to write on a sign she yet again had hanging around her neck. Every weekend, she roamed the park with a sign like that, requesting information, hopes, fears, drawings. Izaya had observed her before, but she was one of the few people in Ikebukuro he wouldn’t mess with. Izaya had learned long ago that people without a darkness in them just weren’t as… fun to manipulate and that girls was all sunshine.

At the moment, he was waiting on Mikado. The boy had agreed to meet him at the park twenty minutes ago and yet… Izaya was still waiting. He’d received no call or text indicating the boy would be late and he knew Mikado too well to think he’d intentionally skip out on a meeting with Izaya. Izaya was actually almost… well, not worried. It was something akin to worry, but worry implied he cared about Mikado’s whereabouts for Mikado’s sake, which wasn’t the case.

He was... confused or… surprised maybe? Irked? Or maybe he just felt… suspicious. It was something like that. Either way, Izaya didn’t appreciate Mikado not being there, but he was fairly certain that Mikado’s absence wasn’t wholly the boy’s fault. Izaya didn’t know whether it was friend or foe, but someone or something was holding Mikado back from their meeting and it simply wouldn’t do.

After a while, Izaya had had enough waiting (he wasn’t exactly known for his patience, or for his tolerance of being in a useless position) and decided to do something about it, though it took a moment to figure out exactly what he should do. He knew he should at least ask around to see if anyone had seen Mikado, but the question was where to start, and who to ask… Kida was currently out of the city, or Izaya would have thought to blame him first for mikado's tardiness.

The next person that came to mind was that girl, Saika. Or Anri Sonohara, as she was better known. If Izaya was making a mental list of the people who would know of Mikado’s location, she would be second from the top.

He whipped out his cell phone to send her a quick text, hoping the contact would yield some sort of results.

“Anri~ I was supposed to meet with Mikado twenty minutes ago, but he’s not here. Have you seen him? –Izaya”

[Anri Sonohara]

Anri sighed as she stepped out of the shower. She carefully picked up her glasses from where they were sitting on the counter and wiped off the lenses before putting them on. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself, tucking it in so it would stay by itself. Water dripped off her hair and down her bare shoulders before she wrapped her hair up in a second towel. Suddenly, she heard the faint beeping of her cell phone informing her she had a new text message. She opened the door and cool air rushed over her, making her shiver slightly.

She grabbed her phone from her desk and flipped it open. The text was from a number she didn't recognize and debated for a minute about whether or not to open it. She finally shrugged and pressed "Open", she figured there was no harm in just reading the message.

Anri read it and frowned at one particular word on the screen. Izaya? She probably should have been more surprised that he knew her number, but he was an information broker after all. She shook her head and concentrated on the more important part of the message. He claimed Mikado was supposed to meet him but hadn't arrived yet. This didn't particularly worry her, she would skip out on a meeting with Izaya too. She shut her phone and set it back onto the desk, intent on not replying at all to the horrible man.

That was when the doubt set in. What if Mikado was really in trouble? She hadn't heard from him all day, which was pretty unusual. Even if it was just a simple "hi", he usually texted her every day. She bit her lip and just stared at her phone as if it would tell her the answer. It was entirely possible that Izaya just wanted to mess with her and was flat-out lying to her about Mikado. But her worry for him made her pick her phone back up and reply to Izaya.

"No, but I talked to him yesterday, he said he was going to be busy today."

Anri tried to convince herself that Mikado was fine and probably just out running errands somewhere. Even so, she found herself glancing at her phone periodically while she changed into some clothes. She briefly thought about sending Mikado a text when she realized that she had that morning. At the time she had thought nothing of his lack of response but now it just fueled her worry.

Mikado, where are you?

[UndergroundGod]

After the text was sent, his head flopped backwards onto the back of the bench. It left him staring up absent mindedly at the sky. Though blue and mostly clear, dark clouds were creeping along the horizon, hovering on the edges of the city. Izaya thought he could smell a storm approaching. The air had that tense crackling sensation that was generally accompanied by sudden storms. Even though the sky was clear, which most people would take as the sign of a beautiful day, Izaya knew that felt wrong.

There would be a storm and it was going to be bad.

He really hoped to find Mikado before it started raining, but right now, he was a bit helpless. He wanted to wait on Anri’s reply before bothering anyone else, even if he hated waiting. It took a few minutes of feeling the moist breath drift across his face before he felt his cellphone buzz against his hip.

Hmm, it seemed she hadn’t heard from him, which did seem odd to Izaya. The two teens had seemed awfully close and Izaya didn’t doubt that they had daily contact. It was starting to look like something really was wrong.

“I’m a bit worried,” he texted back to her. “Mikado isn’t the type of person to break plans without saying anything, unless something bad happened. Any idea where we could look for him?”

With that text sent, Izaya began to write up something to send to Celty. Today was one of her rare days off (Shinra had been boasting about taking her somewhere), so he didn’t really expect her to answer him, or even get the text, but it couldn’t hurt to send it, just in case. If nothing else, she would then at least know Mikado was missing and could keep her eyes and ears out for him. It was better than not even trying, especially considering that Mikado could basically be anywhere.

[Anri Sonohara]

After receiving a reply from Izaya, Anri tried to focus on everything except her phone. She was still trying to convince herself that this was nothing and to just ignore the information broker completely. She tried everything from doing chores to cooking to reading but the feeling that Mikado might be in real danger still nagged at her.

Finally, she made up her mind. Just because she wanted to look for him didn't mean she had to do so with the help of Izaya Orihara. She picked up her phone and quickly typed in "There is no 'we'. I'm going to look for him by myself." With the text sent, she got up and grabbed her jacket. She stuffed her phone into her pocket and headed out the door so fast she almost forgot to lock it behind her.

She decided the best thing to do was to ask around and find out if anyone had seen him. She hoped it would get her a lead so she wouldn't have to wander the city aimlessly. Anri's fist stop was Russia Sushi to talk to Simon. It was fairly close by and was the only place she knew for sure Mikado frequented. Unfortunately, the Russian hadn't seen him but advised her to check the park, he had seen Mikado there yesterday. Anri thanked him and ran as fast as she could towards the park.

When she arrived, she gave several passersby a description of Mikado but no one had seen him. She wandered around the park a bit longer, questioning strangers but getting no closer to finding Mikado. She figured she should do one last sweep of the park before looking elsewhere. As Anri looked around for any area she might have missed, she spotted something that she hadn't seen before. Izaya, sitting right there on a bench. Had he been there this whole time? Without thinking, she jumped behind the nearest tree, terrified he had seen her. The last thing she wanted was for him to approach her and offer his assistance.

She peeked out from behind the tree at him. He hadn't moved from where he was sitting. Maybe he hadn't spotted her after all. But to her dismay, his gaze turned to her and he took on an amused expression before grinning at her. She pretended not to notice and came out from her hiding spot, there was no use staying there now. She walked right by him without a second glance.

She breathed a silent sigh of relief when Izaya didn't say anything to her as she passed. She continued walking down the sidewalk, trying to think of where else Mikado could be. Then she heard it, footsteps coming from behind her. Of course it wasn't unusual for others to be walking on the same sidewalk she was, maybe it was just a coincidence. She continued her search, popping into several different stores and restaurants, with no luck. Whenever she stepped back onto the sidewalk, the person was still behind her. Finally she got fed up and turned to face him.

"Izaya, are you just going to follow me all day? Don't you have something better to do?"

[UndergroundGod]

He didn’t get a reply to the second text for several long moments, but he knew he would get one. He was also fairly certain, from the tone of her first message, that her next one was likely to be some sort of refusal. Izaya knew the girl wasn’t particularly fond of him—well, actually, Saika had wanted to love him, but he had refused to let her.

So perhaps it was a broken heart that had made her so bitter, he mused.

Either way, he doubted that Anri would be willing to give him assistance, or at the very least would not be willing to accept his assistance. His thoughts were proven correct when she texted him back, claiming that she would lead her own search for Mikado.

Now at that point, Izaya could have stood up and gone home. If Mikado was missing, it didn’t really affect him. The information he had wanted to pass along was for the boy’s benefit, not his own. Izaya’s life wasn’t going to be hurt or helped by Mikado’s disappearance, and if Anri wanted to look for him alone, Izaya didn’t see why he should care beyond that. She would either find him or she wouldn’t, and if she did, Izaya could then pass on what he needed to.

However, Izaya had a few good reasons not to do so. First of all, he had nothing else to do. This meeting with Mikado had been the primary highlight of his day. He’d been planning to get in some teases, maybe allude to some information about Kida being in the area that was only half true and then watched whatever scene that played out before him. It had been his entertainment for the afternoon, but now… well, if Mikado was gone, all his hard work spent dropping clues to various ears was now for naught. If he abandoned this now and just went home, he’d have to go online to stir up some other controversy, or to see if there was any business he could get involved with. Or maybe he would go back to his normal prey and find some new way to infuriate Shizuo. However, none of those ideas held his attention at the moment.

On top of that, it bothered him that someone would go and screw up his plans. Izaya was a master of this game; he wouldn’t be outplayed. He had a meeting with Mikado, and sure, some act of god may have prevented Mikado from being here… but Izaya severely doubted it. Someone or something had interfered with his plans, and Izaya needed to find out who or what it was.

So really, he had no choice but to help Anri. The idea of spending a bit more time with the girl was amusing, and going with her was the only way he’d find out who wanted to go and mess up his day.

But, he thought to himself, instead of getting up to look for her, he thought it best to let her find him.

It took about ten minutes after her text, but eventually, as he sat on the bench, people watching… and there she was. He spotted her before she spotted him, she he got the amusement of watching the shocked expression spread over her face before, suddenly, she threw herself behind the nearest tree.

He nearly laughed outright at that. It was obvious he had seen her, so there was little point in hiding. And the way she’d jumped like that, like he has a big bloody knife in one hand and was giving her a threatening look… it was priceless. He didn’t go after her, wanting to see what she would do, and after a moment, she peeked her head out from behind the tree, then left the thing behind and walked right past him without even looking at him.

Well, that was his cue. He sighed lightly, pushed himself up from the bench and began to walk along behind her. Not too close, but not so far that she wouldn’t know he was following her. He wasn’t trying to hide that fact, after all, he was the one who had wanted to go searching for Mikado in the first place. If it wasn’t for Izaya, Anri wouldn’t even know Mikado was missing, so Izaya had earned this, as far as he was concerned.

When she finally turned to face him, he smiled innocently at her and told her, “Actually, I don’t have anything better to do. I had plans with Mikado for the day so…”

He gave her a light shrug. “Besides, you don’t seem to be doing too well on your own.”

[Anri Sonohara]

Anri's hands clenched into fists as she considered the man before her. She didn't like Izaya, not at all. But the thought of continuing to look for Mikado alone seemed daunting. The city was just too big for her to search by herself. As much as she wanted to turn her back on the information broker and walk away, she knew she needed his help. She let out a sigh of defeat.

"You probably know I'm not fond of you, but you're right and...I need your help." She wanted to sound a lot more intimidating and maybe even threaten him with Saika, but she needed to cooperate with him if she expected him to help her. She didn't necessarily want his help. In fact, part of her even thought he was at least partially responsible for Mikado's disappearance. But if anyone had a lead as to where her friend might be, it would be Izaya. She supposed she could always make him one of Saika's children and force the information out of him and be on her merry way. However, she was certain he would be able to evade her attacks as he did the last time they'd met.

She shook her head and pushed all those thoughts aside. This is about Mikado, not personal grudges. I can tolerate him if it means finding Mikado.

She gave a fake smile and asked, "Where do you suggest looking first?"

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya enjoyed watching her reaction, the anger she felt at having to work with him bubbling to her face, and into her body language. He watched her tense as the thought crossed her mind that she had no choice but to work with him.

For some reason, Izaya always found it amusing to watch people that disliked him. Even when he knew the reactions were out of anger or repulsion, it didn’t bother him. Izaya loved people, after all, no matter how they felt about him, and watching people react to him angrily as he continued to smile and grin at them was like a little show for him.

It was sweet of her to even go so far as to openly admit that she didn’t like him… because in the end, that didn’t really matter; she truly didn’t have a choice. Izaya knew she would let him tag along, no matter what. And even if she did openly deny him, he could go on following her until she broke down and admitted that she needed him. He knew it was bound to happen at some point.

The last time he’d seen Anri, the girl had been confronting him. She’d approached him in the park, Saika at the ready, prepared to take revenge for all the atrocities that Izaya had caused, both directly and indirectly. Unfortunately, her efforts had been for naught, as Izaya’s incredible agility had allowed him to quickly jump out of the way of her blade before she could even think about slashing him.

He was confident that he could do it again, though he didn’t see a reason for such problems to even arise considering they were working for the same goals. Even still, he remained on high alert, on the off chance that she decided to turn on him.

Izaya returned her fake smile with a very real one, looking thoughtful for a moment before finally saying, “Well, with how little progress you’re making, I assume no one has seen or heard from Mikado, so the best course of action would be to retrace Mikado’s steps. It’s still morning, so he can’t have done too much today. We’ll start at his apartment and head towards the park and see what we can find.”

[Anri Sonohara]

Anri simply nodded and said nothing else; she wanted to speak to Izaya as little as possible. She knew he was enjoying himself, it was obvious from the amused grin that was plastered on his face. She hated that he was so entertained by all of this. Mikado could be in serious danger and Izaya had the gall to stand there practically giggling with excitement.

She walked beside Izaya in silence as they headed to Mikado's apartment. She still couldn't shake the feeling that Izaya had at least something to do with her friend's disappearace. Whenever anything suspicious happened in this city, Anri's thoughts always went straight to the shady information broker. Considering all the trouble he had brewed up in Ikebukuro previously, there was certainly a chance he could be behind this as well. However, if that was the case, then why would he be helping her now? That was something Anri couldn't find an answer to.

She glanced up at the man strolling beside her, that amused look still on his face. Then a thought occurred to her. "It's a game to you, isn't it? You enjoy messing with people's lives..." It wasn't really a question, it was more like a realization. This was the type of man Izaya was, controlling people like puppets on strings. Maybe that was why he was helping her now. This could all be a part of some plan of his. Though she couldn't imagine what he would need her(or for that matter, Mikado) for.

She had to get used to the idea of being around Izaya though. After all, she was going to be stuck with him for as long as it took to find Mikado. She was sure she would be able to handle it. Even if he was using her for something, there was nothing she could really do about it. She sighed as they finally reached their destination.

"Should we check to see if he's home?" Anri asked, despite knowing full well he wouldn't be. She couldn't help but hold on to a sliver of hope that Mikado was safe and sound inside. "Maybe he just slept in?"

[UndergroundGod]

The background city noise was the only sound that accompanied them as they walked. The sound of traffic, the buzz of life on the city streets that consisted of movement, music, conversation, and cars, followed them diligently through the streets of the town as the headed towards Mikado. It was a constant, no matter where in the city they may be or what time of the day or night it was… the noise may rise or fall in volume, but it was always there, like the gentle, constant whooshing of a white noise machine imitating the ocean. As they headed towards Mikado’s small, rundown apartment away from the bustle of the streets packed with stores, the sounds around them grew dimmer, but never faded completely.

Izaya remained smiling the entire journey. It was his default expression, the one he’d been trained into keeping. A slightly playful or devious smile was the perfect way to keep people at bay, and to keep people on their toes, both of which were necessities for an information broker. It made him seemed collected and in control of the situation, even when he wasn’t and he only allowed his expression to change when necessity called for it.

Suddenly, Anri spoke up… and what she said made the grin stretch across his lips even further. Well, she was by no means wrong. Most everything he did was hardly more than a game to him; and it was usually a game in which he created the rules and he moved around all the pieces. Which was exactly how Izaya liked to run things, with everything in his control.

However, this, Mikado's sudden and rather annoying disappearance, had nothing to do with Izaya, and the man would consider it a nuisance before he ever considered it a game, even if he would never betray that annoyance to Anri.

He gave a little shrug and replied nonchalantly, “People enjoy their lives being messed with. They get a sense of importance and purpose knowing that they’re significant enough to be manipulated by someone else.”

And it was true, or at least true enough. The people Izaya manipulated, the people he toyed with… they may complain, or claim to hate him for it, but really, Izaya was giving them a tragedy—and everyone loved their own personal tragedy. People built their identities based on those tragedies, they made changes in their lives and sometimes in their behaviors as a result of the things Izaya did. He’d brought a number of people back from the edge of suicide; really, he’d saved lives!

Honestly, the marionette never complained about its puppetmaster, it was just happy to be on stage.

After a short walk, they arrived at Mikado’s apartment building, and the place was looking as sad as ever. It was really quite sad, especially considering Izaya had offered Mikado a few jobs that would have more than happily paid the rent on a nicer place for many months. Why Mikado would choose to live in such squalor was beyond him.

“Go ahead, check. You never know,” he replied, grinning sharply. Of course he knew Mikado wouldn’t be home. Something was wrong, Izaya knew that much, even if he didn’t know the specifics, and it had to be much more than him accidentally sleeping late to ignore calls and messages from both Izaya and Anri. Izaya had a feeling that Anri already knew the boy wouldn’t be inside either, but he supposed he couldn’t blame her for wanting to check.

[Anri Sonohara]

Anri took a deep breath, trying not to get her hopes up. Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest despite her low expectations. She walked up to the door and knocked. As she waited for a response, she realized she had never actually seen Mikado's residence before. The apartment complex looked very neglected and grimy. She could hardly believe anyone lived here.

After waiting a few moments without getting a response, she knocked again, a bit louder this time. She tapped her foot anxiously, but still no one answered the door. Even though she had known there was going to be no one home, she couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed. Well, she now knew for sure that Mikado hadn't just accidentally slept in, so now what? Were they supposed to predict where he would have gone, or did Izaya know more about this whole thing than he was saying?

She returned to Izaya's side and just looked expectantly at him. He didn't need to be told Mikado hadn't answered. He knew as well as she that Mikado wasn't home, so he must have another plan of some sort. Besides, she didn't particularly enjoy talking to the man, so she simply waited for him to explain their next move.

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya languidly watched her climb the stairs up to Mikado's front door, though once she was there, he looked away. He already knew the boy wouldn't answer. There was no way he was home. Anri knocking once, and then knocking again only louder, just proved it. Unless he was dead in there (which Izaya also doubted), there was no way he'd ignore all their phone calls and someone at his door.

While she was away, Izaya took the moment alone to send another quick text to Celty, updating her that Anri didn't know Mikado's whereabouts either. He figured if he was going to try to seek out her help, he might as well keep her up to date. He also sent texts to a few of his more faithful (or more heavily blackmailed) subordinates, in case anyone had seen anything.

After a moment, Anri gave up and headed back down towards him, and then just looked up at him, asking him with her eyes what they should do next. It seemed she wanted to talk to him as little as possible, which Izaya didn't mind. He didn't expect this journey to be a friendly one, though he found it amusing that she could be so irritated with him and yet still need him to help her. He liked putting people who disliked him into positions where they had no choice but to seek his help.

The next course of action was to retrace Mikado's steps. If they could figure out which direction he'd headed in to get to the park, they might find something of value that could lead to Mikado's current location. The biggest issue with this step though, was that there were several ways to get to the park from Mikado's apartment, and Izaya couldn't be completely certain which one he'd taken. At least Anri's incessant pestering of people on the way over here had ruled out one direction… though there were a number of twists and turns Mikado could have taken on his way to the park.

Izaya tapped his pointer finger against his lips in thought, weighing their options. The park was about a twenty minute walk from the house, and the most effective way to do this would be something akin to a grid search. He couldn't determine exactly which street Mikado would have chosen and he didn't know exactly what he was looking for, but at this point, they didn't really have too many options.

But right as he was about to voice his haphazard scheme, his phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out. Nakura had just sent him a text, mentioning that he'd passed someone of Mikado's description several hours ago, about seven blocks from where Anri and he currently were, in a local cafe. Well, there was their first lead. It truly did pay to have eyes all over the city.

He grinned at Anri, "Looks like someone saw our friend this morning. Let's go~"

Pushing himself away from the building, he began to head in the direction of the café. Hopefully, someone there had seen something worth learning—or perhaps one of Izaya's other contacts would report something more recent while they walked.

But Izaya found it was too easy on Anri to just walk in silence. He figured she would reject any casual conversation he tried to create, but he still wanted to try. He eyed her furtively and smirked, "So since we have a bit of a walk ahead of us… seen any good movies lately?"

[Anri Sonohara]

At this point in time, hearing that someone had seen Mikado was a miracle to Anri. This morning she felt as if he had disappeared off the planet and she would never find out where he was. That thought had been very unsettling, to say the least. Mikado had become a very important person to her and she was not going to lose him. The news that someone had seen him made her so happy, in fact, that for a moment she dropped her facade and actually smiled. It was a small one, true, but it was genuine.

She followed Izaya eagerly, resisting the urge to break out into a run (which would've been pointless anyway since she had no idea where Izaya was leading her). She glanced at the man next to her only to find him eying her, with that mischievous grin of his still plastered on his face. She was about to ask what could possibly be amusing about their situation when he spoke.

Movies? There was no way Izaya actually had any interest in Anri's movie tastes. He had to be teasing her. She retaliated by ignoring his question and asking one of her own. "Where are we going?" She didn't really expect Izaya to answer. He just shook his head, chuckling to himself then said something about how he wasn't going to say until she answered him. She stayed silent and refused to play his little game, she was not there for his amusement.

So instead, she tried to guess their destination by drawing a map in her head. There were several places close by (excluding the ones she'd already checked earlier) where her friend could've been spotted. The manga store was a likely place, but they were heading in the wrong direction for it to be there. She furrowed her brow in thought and made a mental list of possibilities, checking them off one by one as she either ruled them out or the pair passed by them.

[UndergroundGod]

As anticipated, Anri brushed off his question and responded with her own more relevant one. He chuckled softly at her return, considering for a moment whether or not to answer. They were only fifteen minutes away from their destination after all, they'd be there shortly so it wasn't as though she'd be in suspense for long. And Izaya was fairly certain that Anri didn't expect him to answer her question at all.

Izaya loved doing things that people didn't expect of him, but he also loved playing games. If she'd just bend to his will, and give in a little to his silly string of pointless conversation, he'd be willing to oblige her questions. Obviously, it wasn't that important to her to know where they were going, as long as he was leading her there, which was fine with him. Because, for Izaya, it was all about having control. If he couldn't make her talk to him, then he was going to stay in charge by being the one to lead them to their destination.

He could help but glance down at her from time to time, stealing mostly subtle looks at her from the corner of his eye. Anri Sonohara was such an interesting person after all. She was born into a violent life, and inherited the legendary sword Saika from her mother. Since, she had grown into a quiet, stoic girl who claimed to be a parasite, to only be able to live by sucking the life from others. She also claimed that she could love no one and allowed Saika to love others in her place.

Though what she didn't seem to realize was that she really wasn't all that different from anyone else; after all, all humans were parasites to some degree. What really set Anri apart was that she was willing to admit it.

Either way, she was an interesting girl, and Izaya was all about interesting humans.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the café Nakura had directed them to. Once there, Izaya approached the employees, asking them if they recognized Mikado (he had a picture of the boy on his phone). Eventually, they found someone who recognized him and happened to remember approaching one of the wait staff for directions to a specific pastry shop across town.

And so they had their next destination. They headed towards the pastry shop in question, which was closer to a half an hour or so from their current location. Izaya was half-tempted to take a cab… but the shop owner had given Mikado specific directions, and Izaya felt it was smarter to follow those directions. After all, they might find something relevant along the path Mikado had taken, something they would be all too likely to miss from the back of a cab.

A few times along the way, Izaya tried to spark up a conversation with his female companion, but he was shot down every single time, usually by being given the silent treatment. He wondered vaguely how long Anri was going to hold this grudge against him and decided that he was all too prepared to test her stubbornness to the fullest.

Once they arrived, the man at the pastry shop claimed to remember Mikado, said that he purchased a few small danishes, and had then headed west from the shop. Izaya was annoyed that they didn't have an actual destination to go off of this time, but any clue was better than no clue and so Izaya followed the lead.

They had a lucky break about two blocks away from a shop when a tiny flashing red light near the corner of a building caught Izaya's eye. It was the sort of light that flashed on a cellphone with unanswered or unread messages and when Izaya turned his attention towards it… it just so happened to be a cell phone and a vaguely familiar one at that.

It was Mikado's cell phone.

"Ahh~" Izaya said with a grin as he skipped over to pick it up, "what do we have here?"

[Anri Sonohara]

Anri caught Izaya glancing at her every so often, a smug grin on his face. She didn't know why he seemed so fascinated by her, she didn't find herself particularly interesting. She figured it must be Saika he was curious about and decided to just ignore his glances.

They soon arrived at a café that must have been where someone had spotted Mikado. She listened quietly as an employee recalled seeing Mikado and proceeded to give Izaya directions to a pastry shop across town. Anri knew vaguely where the shop was, and assumed they would take a cab, as it was a fair distance away. But Izaya had other ideas, and they continued on foot.

Izaya attempted to talk to her many times while they walked, but she always gave him the cold shoulder. He seemed determined to start a conversation with her, and she didn't quite understand why. Wasn't it clear to him by this point that she wasn't going to speak to him unless it was about Mikado?

They got to the pastry shop, where a man said he remembered Mikado and pointed the two in the right direction. There was no real destination this time, but it was better than nothing. Anri was just happy that people had seen her friend relatively recently, which meant he hadn't just dropped off the face of the planet.

They walked a couple more blocks before Anri spotted a flashing light out of the corner of her eye. It reminded her of how her phone blinked when she had unchecked messages. Izaya must have seen in too because he skipped over to pick up the object. Anri followed behind him and gasped a little when she realized what it was.

"M-mikado's phone...he wouldn't just leave it..." she said with concern. A thousand scenarios about what could have happened to him played out in her mind, and most of them did not end well for Mikado.

"Now what do we do?" she asked, trying not to panic. Mikado had obviously been here, but something had happened and he had to leave his phone behind. So now they had no idea where he was headed and no one would be able to track him through his phone.

"Izaya..what if he's..?" she didn't allow herself to finish the question, she couldn't bear to think about the worst possible outcome.

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya first goal was to find some context to their discovery. Mikado's phone wasn't locked, thankfully, so it meant Izaya was free to explore the phone's history.

Of course, Anri's first reaction was worry. She went from concerned to panicked in about thirty seconds, claiming that there was no way Mikado would have just left it there, and what if he was…

She couldn't even finish the sentence.

Izaya knew better than to think something that… extreme. Mikado was more capable of defending himself than he looked, that was for sure, and he doubted anything too serious had happened to the boy. Chances were that he had just bumped into someone and dropped his phone. He'd been carrying pastries or something, so it was possible he just hadn't realized it.

As Izaya began to scroll through the history, he began to formulate an idea of what was going on. At the top of the list were a bunch of unread texts from he and Anri, of course. It meant that he must have gotten their texts after he lost the phone, which explained a lot. However… there also seemed to be a few texts from a restricted number. Two recent ones hadn't been read, but there were a number of them that had been and Izaya opened those first…

The first text from the number that morning claimed… to be Izaya.

Izaya raised an eyebrow at that. So, someone was going out of their way to trick the boy, that was obvious. As Izaya scrolled through the rest of the morning's texts, he found that it had been the texts that were directing Mikado around the city. The last one Mikado had read… told him to go to Sunshine 60 and drop off the pastries.

"Don't be melodramatic," he said evenly as he checked over the unread messages, "I'm sure he's fine. Though it does look like someone's pulling his leg. He's been getting texts all morning from a restricted number claiming to be me. The last message he looked at told him to go to Sunshine 60, so we have a destination."

The next message wasn't sent until nearly a half an hour later, which was more than enough time to get to Sunshine 60. It told him to head to a warehouse on the outskirts of Toshima. Since Mikado didn't have his phone at that point, he couldn't reply, so the last text just asked where he was.

Izaya wasn't quite sure what was going on here, but it seemed like that were on the path to find out.