Chapter Two: Where The World Ends

Summary: Hana is pained by the loss of her mother, but where is she to go now?

There was a frightening peace in the air that night; like everything was confused with the world. The sky didn't have any stars in it, but somehow, it looked better that way. The somber deep blue was serene and calming.

Even the city had been told of the Earth's sleepiness. People were scampering inside, away from the darkness of the night, leaving me alone to the barren streets. That night was almost hypnotizing.

I felt like I was floating as I walked back from work. I remembered that Mother had told me to get some dinner while I was out, but the harshness of my job had left me too exhausted to do anything. At least, that's what I thought.

Where I'd been drained of energy only a couple minutes ago, I was now at peace. The wind felt nice on my skin, and the darkness soothed me of my hard day. I was... happy. I didn't recognize the feeling, and that frightened me.

Perhaps everything would be back to normal at home.

Three Days Later

"Name?"

I was snapped from the flashback by the case worker, staring at me from her office desk. Her beady eyes bore into me, and I could only fight the urge to roll my own at her so-called authority.

She noticed my staring, and blinked, angrily yanking off her horned glasses. "Name, girl, what is it?"

My initial response was to demand another person, but I decided against it. That would be childish. So, instead, I tapped my foot and leaned my head to the side, giving her a very harsh stare.

She bristled, but tried to distract me from her obvious discomfort.

Satisfied with the reaction, I answered, "Hana."

She scowled. "Last name?"

"Kuroto."

"Any relatives?"

"I have a father, but I've never met him."

She looked up from her paperwork. "Is he not in the picture?"

"He doesn't know I exist," I answered simply.

I don't quite understand why, but her immediate demeanor changed. She became frantic, asking all of these very uncomfortable questions about my father. I decided to put a stop to her inconclusive rambling.

"Why are you so anxious to know about my father?" I asked, calculating.

She sighed, leaning back on her chair. "There are no homes open. We were going to be forced to put you in an orphanage but you're a little old for that. Now that we know you have a father, we can find him with some simple tests and blood work."

I tensed. Meet my father... What an odd thing. I'd never even thought about that. Now that the option was in front of me, did my thoughts on the subject truly change?

Nope. They didn't change at all.

"I do not with to meet that man."

She stopped everything she was doing and stared at me. "Wh-why not?"

I smirked at her blunder. "Simple; he lied to Mother, stole her innocence, and left her with a fantasy. After he left, mother went mad with grief and psychologically broke down, coming up with multiple fake symptoms that eventually made living unbearable."

"I..." she stuttered, before sighing and taking off her glasses. "I understand, but we really don't have any other choice. You're just too old for an orphanage, and the homes are all full. You have no other relatives, from what we know of. This is... all that we can do."

I nearly choked. Calm down, Hana, I told myself. You're behavior is disgusting; you're a grown adult, not a child.

She must have noticed my anger, because she tentatively placed her hands on my clenched ones before squeezing. The close contact nearly made me retaliate, but I knew violence would only make the situation worse.

"Just give it a try. It doesn't have to be a bad thing."

I couldn't find a way to talk to her without yelling, so I settled with clenching my teeth and nodding. "If that's all you can do, then please do so."

She nodded, looking accomplished and smug. I let her type away, wanting desperately to just get up an leave. My emotions were on overdrive- and that scared me. I wasn't used to feeling this much anger rushing through my body. I couldn't contain it; my fingernails were scraping so deep into the chair arms that they were cracking and bleeding.

The pain beneath my fingertips wasn't nearly as bad as the aching fear in my heart.

Izaya Orihara skipped through the crowded streets of Ikebukuro with a big grin on his face, twirling into an empty street with his trusty phone in hand. The song blaring rang through the small device as he danced to the music.

"STOP MOVING YOU DAMN FLEA!"

Izaya giggled and jumped aside from the flying trashcan crashing right beside him. The smile on his face twisted into a sinister grin as he turned to give a smirk to Shizuo Heiwajima. The blonde was also grinning, but the rage was evident on his devilish face.

"Now, why would I do that, Shizu-chan? We're having so much fun!"

Shizuo's eye twitched and his jaw clenched considerably. "Don't call me that, Izaya. I thought I told you that. Now get back here and pay for what you broke in my bar!"

"What, that crumbly table? It was trash anyway," he grinned, shrugging.

"DON'T PATRONIZE ME, FLEA! You either pay with hard cash and get a beating or get a beating and I take your cash." For effect, Shizuo yanked a traffic sign out of the ground with ease, twisting it over his hand once or twice before pointing it at Izaya.

The information broker only smiled deviously before waving. "Well, this had been fun, Shizu-chan, but I'm awfully swamped. See ya!" With that, he turned on his heel and ran away.

"HEY!"

The blonde didn't have time to react before the parkour-practicing flea was out of sight. He sighed and rested his body a little before looking down at the watch on his hand.

"Ten thirty in the morning and he's already making a mess of my day."

Izaya Orihara entered his house with a smile still on his lips while humming a tune he vaguely remembered hearing on the internet over a chat site. His secretary, the ever cold and calculating Namie Yagiri, was typing away on a laptop while sipping hot coffee. She visibly scowled, but hid it as well as she could, when Izaya walked in. "What's got you so happy?"

Izaya smiled widely. "Just took a nice run through Ikebukuro. What a lovely place we live in with entertaining humans!"

"So Shizuo chased you around like a rabid dog," Namie summed up.

Izaya ignored her and continued humming to himself before going to his desk and sitting down, taking out his chess board and setting up the pieces with a faint smirk. All of a sudden, his phone started to ring- the number he had listed. Only people who knew nothing about his "activities" would use that number.

Namie grabbed the phone from her desk and put it up to her cheek. "Hello? This is Izaya Orihara's office."

Izaya nearly smiled at the sound, still feeling giddy over his chase, but stopped when he saw Namie suddenly look confused. He didn't wait for her to give the phone to him and grabbed it impatiently. "Hello?" he asked absentmindedly.

"U-uh... where's the woman..." the person on the other end stuttered.

Izaya smirked. "What woman?" Namie rolled her eyes and went back to her computer.

"U-um... this is Ms. Michigo from Child Welfare. Is this Izaya Orihara?"

"Child Welfare?" he mused. "Yes, this is him."

"Well, this is probably going to sound crazy, Mr. Orihara, so I'd like to ask you a few questions to prepare you." The woman sounded a little flustered herself.

Izaya raised an eyebrow. "I'm not easily flustered, Ms. Michigo."

"Well, prepare to be enlightened. Do you remember anything from approximately fifteen years ago?"

He humphed at the weird question but thought about it nonetheless. Izaya was only thirteen at that time, but a hell of a teenager living out his life with booze, sex, and good times. He had resembled an older teenager and hooked up with at least a couple dozen women.

"I remember being thirteen? Can I ask what this is about?"

"Th-thirteen!? REALLY!? That's insane. Well, this is going to be quite a shock to you, Mr. Orihara, but I have someone down here you might like to meet."

"Oh really? Is that so? And who is this mystery person?" Izaya started feeling a sense of excitement swell up in his gut.

Namie raised and eyebrow from her desk. "Oh good," she huffed sarcastically. "He's getting interested. This'll be a big mess of things." Izaya ignored his secretary's words with a smirk.

"W-well... this may sound like a shock but... this young lady here is named Hana Kuroto... And she's your daughter."

There was silence over the phone, on both ends. Izaya's eyes widened. Any other occasion, and he would've scolded himself for showing so much foreign emotion. But, this was an exception. Namie looked at him with surprise evident on her face.

She started to call his name. "I-"

"Shut up," he told her quickly before putting the phone next to his ear. Namie huffed back but watched him with observing eyes, completely curious as to what was surprising him. She'd never seen her employer so alarmed in all the time she'd known him.

"Where? Where is she?" he asked, sounding desperate.

Wow, Namie blinked. What in the hell is going on?

"M-Mr. Orihara, I can assure you that she's safe and sound. Quite alrigh-"

"I want the name of the woman who kept her from me! I'll have that bitch arrested!"

"Th-th-there's no need for that... It's actually impossible... The mother is dead."

Izaya froze in his now insane pacing and sighed lowly, putting his thumb and finger on the inside of his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose with a trouble expression. "Is... Is the girl alright?"

Izaya straightened a bit, the surprise rubbing off to make way for a new emotion- something he had never felt before. All his life he had wanted a child. When he was thirteen, he used his naturally enhanced good looks to try and father a baby because he was so lonely. The want for offspring was the most natural instinct that Izaya first experienced. But when he never had a child with any of the numerous women he was sleeping with, he ultimately gave up on his goals. Sex had always been both meaningless and boring. Now it was just painful.

But not anymore.

The woman laughed a little, trying to be pleasant for the sake of a now-aware daddy Izaya. "Yes. Hana is a completely healthy and remarkably intelligent girl."

Izaya found himself smiling, masking the grin with a chuckle. "Well of course. She's my daughter, after all. If there's one thing that a child of mine will inherit from her father, it is my mind."

Namie choked, coughing loudly before punching her chest several times, utter disbelief running over her features. "DAUGHTER!?"

Izaya waved her off with an amused expression before looking out the window of his office with a big grin. "When can I get her?"

The woman over the phone laughed in relief. "I'm so happy you'll be taking her in. Hana can live with you as soon as the proper measures are done! The Social Worker will go over that with you tomorrow."

Izaya found himself making the biggest grin he had ever had in his life. "Excellent. When can I change Hana's last name? I want her to be an Orihara."

"The paperwork can be sent over to you sir."

"And when will the Social Worker arrive?"

"Well, I suppose anytime near tomorrow morning would be most accurate. She'll be leaving as soon as I receive your address. The Social Worker will come by, examine the house, make recommendations if needed, check your background, make a blood test and, if all works out, Hana can come by after that's all finished."

"Hmmm," Izaya hummed to himself, thinking over her words as he looked at his apartment. Being apart from a daughter he never knew about was hard enough. Now facing the possible outing of his illegal hobbies was going to put a burden on his shoulders. But it was all worth it as soon as he heard the news that he had a child out in the world somewhere.

"Mr. Orihara? I'll need that address now."

Izaya smirked, turning back to Namie (whose mouth was opening and closing like a fish) and taking the phone away from his mouth. "Namie-chan! Get the guest room equipped with EVERYTHING you think a teenage girl would want! Quickly now!"

"Y-y-yes... Of... course...sir..."

He smiled and nodded. "Perfect. I want it finished by tomorrow or you're fired."

Her expression turned to mild hatred and shock before she got up from her spot and ran as fast as she could out of the apartment. Izaya watched her run out with an amused expression before he heard a murmur from the phone.

"Mr. Orihara? Mr. Orihara, are you still there?"

He turned back to the window, looking at the streets and people before him. Yes, like would be a lot better now. With his daughter, they'd wreak and abolish all the craziness that affected his beloved humans. They'd create chaos and fun for themselves forever. All his life, he had been waiting for this moment.

Izaya put the phone to his mouth, a seemingly blissful smile crossing his features. "I live in the city of Ikebukuro."

Hello All My Lovely Readers!

I Apologize for the Obviously Annoying Wait.

Chapter Two Is Up! And There's More To Come!

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To Be Continued...