Durarara!! Episode 09

"Love and Cherish" is the ninth episode of the Durarara!! anime.

Synopsis
Namie Yagiri believes everything is fake, including love. She thinks people in relationships only take 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 she gave him. 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 slipped by 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 her family's company.

Izaya 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. He 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 stalked. Namie is furious at being compared to a stalker, but Izaya innocently says that he's kidding. 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, but she is jealous of something else.

In the past, Namie's uncle used to send her dolls from foreign countries, 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, who liked them. Their house was large and often Seiji and Namie were the only ones in it. They stayed with their uncle quite a bit, and Namie often went into his 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, something that became her biggest regret in her entire life.

Whenever he could, Seiji would sneak into the study to stare, transfixed, at the head. To keep him from it, Namie relocated it to Yagiri Pharmaceuticals for research purposes and thought that would be the end of his odd infatuation. One day her security card was stolen and the head went missing. A little while later, Seiji called his sister, saying he 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 she hugged him and 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 seen the head.

In the present day in Izaya's apartment, Izaya easily finds out that Seiji is in the possession of the police. When Namie receives a call from the police and leaves his apartment, Izaya moves a shogi piece on his gameboard.

The redheaded girl receives a text from 'Nakura' saying 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 (unwisely) stabs his legs with pens, demanding they let his girlfriend go. Shizuo tells Celty to go on ahead and leave it to him, so Celty begins the chase on her bike.

The redheaded girl bumps into Mikado Ryuugamine. Seiji chases after Celty, only to have Shizuo grab him and ask why his girlfriend is acting like this. Seiji begins a story of how they are in love and were united by fate and states that he doesn't know why she's so worked up. Shizuo says he's a lame boyfriend and throws him across the street, where he hits the side of a truck and falls to the pavement. 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 by going down into 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 headbutt. As Shizuo leaves to take care of the pens stuck in his body, he contemplates between using a band-aid or superglue to stem the bleeding from his hand.

A short while later, at Celty and Shinra Kishitani's apartment, Shinra recaps her story in disbelief. She had been at the park on Izaya's orders when she had met Shizuo, and after chase, the info broker called and said he didn't need her for a 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. Images show Mika Harima's body lying on an operation table. Namie continues to say that even after 'she' escaped, she still loved her brother. Celty angrily decides she must recover her head and demands to know 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 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 states that he lost it. 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.

In her office, Namie 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. Mikado 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. In his apartment, Izaya twirls in his chair, thrilled that there are so many things going on 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.

Trivia

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

Character Appearances

 * Namie Yagiri
 * Seiji Yagiri
 * Mika Harima
 * Izaya Orihara
 * Celty Sturluson
 * Shizuo Heiwajima
 * Mikado Ryuugamine
 * Shinra Kishitani

Quotes
Namie: "Everyone is fake. The world's filled with these people. They say they love and adore you, but all they really want to do is possess you. They want you to need them and be there for you, always taking, never giving anything in return. My love is different. It's greater, and more perfect."

Shizuo: "I've always wanted to say this. Go on ahead, and leave this one to me."

Seiji: "All I need to know about her is that I love her, that's all!"

Celty: "I just don’t want to accept that my head and my memories are gone for good."

Izaya: "This'll be fun, this'll be fun, this'll be fun! There's just so much going on in this town that even I don't know anything about! It's an endless sea of entertainment! This is why I love this bustling hotbed of humans! I love them! I love them all! I love them all so much! And that is why my lovely little humans should love and adore me too."