Durarara!! Episode 09

Title: Iirenren (依依恋恋) - Love and Cherish

Japanese Date Aired: 4 March 2010

English Date Aired: 20 August 2011

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Previous Episode → 08

Next Episode → 10

Narrated by Namie Yagiri

Synopsis
Namie Yagiri believes everything is fake, including love. She thinks people only take in relationships but never give, with the exception of her love for Seiji. Seiji Yagiri is on the phone with his sister in the park to thank her for the money. He gets a drink for the redheaded girl he is with, but while he is gone, she throws his cellphone in the fountain. When Seiji returns, she runs up and hugs him.

In her office, Namie complains to her men that Seiji still hasn't been found. He escaped the men following him and can't be contacted by cell phone. Namie insists he cannot be found by the police. She thinks about the past, when she thought showing him 'it' would be harmless. She goes to Izaya Orihara's apartment where he tells her quite a bit about herself, such as her name and that she is the chief of the 6th lab at Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, despite this being their first meeting. He hopes the list of illegal aliens he gave Namie was helpful, but she interrupts him demanding that he help her find Seiji. Rather than assist, Izaya informs her of more pressing matters, like the talk of Nebula buying out the Pharmaceuticals.

He reveals he knew her uncle lost the company after taking some dangerous risks, and Namie entered the company on the bottom level and worked her way up, then tells her not to meddle with Seiji. She insists she is trying to help him, only to have Izaya say the stalker always thinks they're helping the stalker. Namie is furious at being compare to a stalker. He decides to help, but only in the way he sees fit. Upon seeing a mix of chess, shogi and othello pieces with a go board on Izaya's table, she asks what he's playing, but he ignores her and asks if she's jealous of the scarred girl. She denies this.

In the past, Namie's uncle used to send her dolls, which she didn't like. She wondered if he sent her the ones he liked without any regard for her, but she gave the dolls to Seiji anyway. The house was always big and often Seiji and Namie were the only ones in it. She often went into the study where she found a beautiful head in a jar and thought it was complete as just a head. Her uncle would talk to it, completely in love, but it was never more than a doll to Namie, who didn't think twice about letting Seiji into the study one day.

However, Seiji snuck into the study to stare, tranfixed, at the head. To keep him from it, Namie relocated it to the Pharmaceuticals for research purposes and thought that would be the end. Then her security card was stolen and the head was gone. A little while later, Seiji called his sister and thought he might have killed someone. Namie was overjoyed that Seiji needed help and called ''her.' 'When she arrived at his apartment, Seiji was eating ramen on the floor with some girl's bloodied feet next to him. Namie saw the head on his desk and knew he must have taken it, but said she would take care of everything. She did not know Seiji was stalked by Mika Harima, who had come to his house and accidentally saw the head.

Izaya easily finds where Seiji is - in possession of the police. When she receives a call and leaves his apartment, Izaya moves a shogi piece on his gameboard. Elsewhere, the redheaded girl receives a text from Nakura that she is still being pursued and needs to leave. She tries to drag Seiji away from the park, but he wants to know where they are going. Shizuo Heiwajima and Celty Sturluson watch this "lover's quarrel" as the girl runs past them. Celty recognizes her head and grabs the girl, who screams. Shizuo tries to calm her down, but Seiji stabs his legs with pens, demanding they let his girlfriend go. Shizuo tells Celty to go on ahead and leave it to him (a phrase he always wanted to say), so she begins the chase on her bike.

The redheaded girl bumps into Mikado Ryūgamine. Seiji chases after Celty only to have Shizuo grab him and ask why she's acting like this. Seiji begins a story of how they are in love and were reunited by fate and he doesn't know why she's so worked up, so Shizuo says he's a lame boyfriend and throws him across the street. Shizuo asks how fate brought them together, but Seiji states he doesn't know and demands Shizuo let him go.

Mikado and the girl evade Celty in the subway. In an attempt to get away, Seiji stabs Shizuo's hand with a pen. Shizuo, unharmed, assures Seiji he likes him a lot better than Izaya and will let him get away with just a punch. At Celty and Shinra Kishitani's apartment, he recaps her story in disbelief. She had been at the park on Izaya's orders when she had met Shizuo; then, the infobroker called and said he didn't need her to do the job anymore. She wanted to talk to Shinra about why her head was walking around attached to some other body.

Namie narrates that 'the experiment' was all for Seiji's sake and assures him everything would turn out all right. Even after 'she' escaped, she still loved her brother. Celty angrily decides she must recover her head and demands why it ran away. Shinra informs her he couldn't say for sure, but maybe it wouldn't want to come back to it's body. After all, she did shriek upon seeing Celty. This infuriates Celty, refusing to believe all she has been looking for during the past 20 years was all a waste of time, but Shinra assures her it wasn't a waste. Namie asks Seiji why he didn't answer his cellphone, but he doesn't know. He keeps repeating "I must find her" while Namie tells him she would take care of everything. She thinks dolls should stay put and not interfere with her love for Seiji.

At her office, she orders that her men must find the redheaded girl, dead or alive, and bring her to Namie. At Mikado's apartment he makes tea for the girl, who receives a text from Nakura that she's still not safe. He asks if she has amnesia because she can't remember anything, but she shakes her head. Mikado again offers to talk to the police, but she violently shakes her head, accidentally spilling tea. Izaya twirls in his chair, thrilled that there are so many plots in Ikebukuro that even he knows nothing about. He states how much he loves humans and that they should all love him back. He excitedly moves a shogi pawn to be surrounded by Othello pieces.

As Namie and the redheaded girl gaze up at the moon, they whisper their love for Seiji.

Adapted From
Adapted from? which chapter of manga and/or novel

Trivia
-The company Nebula mentioned by Izaya and Namie in this episode, which is trying to buy out Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, is the same company from Baccano! which built the famous train "The Flying Pussyfoot" upon which the Grand Punk Railroad arc takes place on. Both Baccano! and Durarara!! take place in the same universe, though in different settings and time perioids.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * 1) Namie Yagiri
 * 2) Seiji Yagiri
 * 3) Celty Sturluson
 * 4) Izaya Orihara
 * 5) Shizuo Heiwajima
 * 6) Mikado Ryūgamine
 * 7) Shinra Kishitani

Quotes
Namie: It's the girl that he's with. She has a distinctive scar around her neck.

Izaya: A girl? He is a boy with needs.