Durarara!! Light Novel Volume 09/Epilogue and Next Prologue

"I'm not trying to do anything with humanity. I just want to watch it. And in order to keep things interesting, to poke them just a little bit now and then."

- Izaya Orihara

Me is the closing of the ninth Durarara!! light novel.

Synopsis
Twelve years prior, when Shinra Kishitani and Izaya Orihara were in middle school, Izaya began using Shinra's biology club as a cover for a baseball betting ring. When Izaya refused to give back money lost by a classmate called Nakura, the boy attempts to stab him. Shinra jumps in the way of the knife, hoping to become a hero who gains Celty Sturluson's respect, while Izaya takes the blame for the incident, planning to blackmail Nakura into working for him for life.

In their senior year of high school, Izaya and Nakura turned the baseball betting ring into a larger ring called Amphisbaena, with Nakura using the nickname "Lizard." Though they stayed largely out of it and abandoned it soon after, a member called Earthworm from the bottom of the group rose to the top and expanded the gambling ring into a complex and exclusive underground casino. Shortly after their college years, a group Izaya and Nakura created to sell legal drugs on the black market expanded into the illegal drug-developing organization known as Heaven's Slave, with Hiroto Shijima stepping up as the group's second-in-command, and Nakura, going by the nickname "Kumoi," stepping out of it entirely. After taking both groups down, Izaya happily informs a despairing Nakura about the growth of the two organizations, and Nakura laments his life and the trouble Izaya always seems to bring him.

Izaya meets with Celty to give her the information she wants on Shinra's assailant and brings her head along. She can sense the presence of her head but is afraid to come into contact with it, worried about how it will change her and affect her current life. Anri Sonohara's life is changed by Erika Karisawa, who introduces her to cosplay, while Masaomi Kida, back in Ikebukuro and sporting a bright yellow scarf, visits Russia Sushi to speak with Kyouhei Kadota, Saburo Togusa, and Walker Yumasaki. That evening, Izaya accepts a job from the Awakusu-kai lieutenant Mizuki Akabayashi to look into Mikado Ryuugamine.

Character debuts

 * Azusa Tsutsugawa