Mairu Orihara (折原 舞流, Orihara Mairu) is one of Izaya's younger twin sisters along with her older sister, Kururi. Like her brother, she's a troublemaker at school and introduces herself as liking to read encyclopedias, manga, and adult magazines. She also declares that she is bisexual and is looking for girls who are interested. Along with her sister, she is known to be a big fan of Shizuo's brother Kasuka, stating that she would gladly see Izaya die in front of a truck for a chance to meet Kasuka.
Characteristics
Like her sister, Mairu has brown hair and eyes but usually ties her hair into a braid. Her school attire consists of a black sailor uniform which contrasts with the usual Raira uniform. This combined with her glasses gives her the look of a stereotypical bookworm which contrasts with her outgoing nature. Her street attire generally consists of a yellow hoodie with "ears" sticking out of the side along with a green skirt. He sister Kururi usually wears the same but with opposite color schemes.
As stated earlier, Mairu is extremely energetic and outgoing and is a textbook chatterbox in real life. She can also be rather vulgar and usually has no problem going into extreme detail about subjects about sex and pornography even when others are listening, which usually prompts Kururi to calm her down. While usually acting very playfully in most situations, Mairu has been shown to get serious if there is genuine danger, especially if it might pose a threat to Kururi. Online, her personality is almost completely opposite. Mairu usually only replies with short phrases or a single word much like Kururi does in real life. However, her vulgarity still shines through as she occasionally gets blocked for obscene content. Like her sister, Mairu regularly attends martial arts classes and is a very skilled fighter. She tends to use it more frequently than her sister, however.
Background
For the most part, Mairu and Kururi had a fairly normal childhood without any real incidents. However, with their parents usually working overseas, Izaya practically raised the twins on his own. It was Izaya who claimed responsibility for causing their peculiar natures, as he told Namie in Volume 4, Chapter 3 of the novels. Later on, in Volume 9, Chapter 2, Shinra explains to Celty why this is. He says that when the twins were still in elementary school, Izaya told them, in a way that even their five-year-old selves could understand, that as twins they were the same, so what was the point of living if in everything they did, they were the same?
Shinra said he didn't think it was because Izaya was prejudiced against twins or anything, nor that he meant any harm, but that he probably just 'wanted to see' what they would do - if they would feel discouraged or maybe even fight with each other. Instead, Mairu and Kururi decided to make a new purpose for themselves. According to Shinra, he thinks that maybe it was in order to obtain their brother's approval and maybe even affections. He thinks that at first, they might have done it just because they wanted him to like them. Whatever the case, they decided to attempt embodying humankind - the Japanese in particular - between the two of them. What one didn't have, the other would make up for. They thought they could try to compensate for each others weaknesses by adapting opposing personalities.
According to Izaya in Volume 4, the twins flipped a coin to see who would adopt what personality. In Volume 9, Shinra said they rolled a dice to split 'traits' between them. In this way, they could embody humankind with only the best of humanity because they could develop their positive traits as strengths and make up for each others' negative traits to cancel them out.
History
Hollywood Arc
Shortly after the opening ceremonies end, Mairu wastes no time in making a very odd and somewhat negative first impression on her class. In her introduction she freely admits to being bisexual but is more interested in girls, and proceeds to openly read a pornographic magazine in the middle of class. Not surprisingly, several of the girls decide to pick on Mairu and the next day, she arrives to find her desk completely vandalized complete with scratches and poorly written graffiti. Still wearing a bright smile she demands to know who did this to her desk. None of the students answer but the snickering of the girls near the front makes it obvious who it was. Mairu grabs a box of thumb tacks from the back of the classroom and makes her way over to the bullies. She grabs one of them at random and slams her down on the floor, threatening to pour the tacks down her throat if she didn't fess up who destroyed her desk. The girl points to her friend that is trying to leave the classroom. Mairu throws the thumb tacks with amazing accuracy at the door handle which causes the bully to freeze up. Mairu then grabs her shoulder and drags her outside and into the girl's bathroom expressing a sudden desire to "get to know her." The girl isn't seen for the rest of the day.
After Mairu hears about how Aoba stopped the bullies from picking on Kururi, she and her sister show their "thanks" by kissing Aoba on the lips. She warns Aoba that Kururi is actually more aggressive than she is despite how she acts. After seeing Celty in action against the cops on the news, Mairu and Kururi decide to try and meet the Black Rider and go on an adventure through out Ikebukuro to find her. They investigate the area shown on the news but only find an envelope with 1 million yen in cash contained inside. They also run into a heavily injured Egor who politely asks the two of them for directions to a place called Russia Sushi. After getting the directions from Shizuo, they place Egor in Simon and Dennis's care. They call Shinra over (who had just finished treating Ruri Hijiribe) but he charges over 200,000 yen for the sudden interruption of meeting one of his favorite celebrities. With no one else to turn to, Mairu and Kururi agree to pay the 200,000 with the money they found. They also give Dennis the remaining 800,000 yen to pay for him to hire Celty to transport an unconscious Egor for a day. (In short, they effectively returned the 1 million yen Celty lost). Mairu and Kururi also join the Chat Room apparently having received the link from Namie. Unlike her real life personality, which is outgoing and talkative, online she is very quiet and rarely says more than a few words. However, her tendency to mention obscene topics is still present as she is occasionally censored by the Chat Room's content filter.
The next night, the two of them somehow got into a confrontation with a few Toromaru members when they were asking about the Headless Rider. Kyohei notices them and chases the Toromaru members off. Kyohei agrees to drive them to a safer place and calls Togusa to pick them up. As soon as they get in the van, the Toromaru members come back and chase them around the city. They also pick up Mikado , Anri, and Aoba along the way with Aoba expressing shock at the two of them being in the van. After Celty joins up with them, they express wonder and delight at having finally found the Black Rider. Later, when Celty decides to hold off the Toromaru members with her shadow, Mairu, Kururi are dropped off near a police station but head back to the overpass with Aoba to see what was happening. They watch in awe as Ruri and Egor beat up the Toromaru members. Later, they attend the hotpot party held at Shinra and Celty's apartment.
Daily Life Arc
Mairu and her sister were hired by Namie to spy on Mika and Seiji and report back to her on their activities. After giving a very detailed report on their most recent date, the twins accept their payment and leave, seeing that Namie was becoming noticeably more infuriated as they continued their description.
The next day, the two of them make friends with Akane Awakusu, who had just joined their martial arts classes, and decide to hang out once practice was over. Along the way, they manage to run into Shizuo, Tom, and Varona who were in the middle of work. Mairu takes an instant liking to Varona and tries to hug her, but Varona's quick reflexes keep Mairu at bay. Tom and Shizuo decide to tackle the next house they need to visit on their own, leaving the girls to chat amongst themselves. As Varona questions the twins on their relationship to Shizuo, several thugs arrive and attempt to kidnap them to use as hostages against the aforementioned debt collector. The girls make short work of the thugs, forcing them to run away as Shizuo and Tom return. Shortly after the dust settles, Mairu and her sister return home.
Adabashi Arc
With Taro Tanaka and Kanra gone from the chatroom, Mairu and Kururi decide to try and invite new members to join which include Gaki (Akabayashi), Pure water 100% (Aoba), Chrome (Izaya), Shoro (Eijirou) and Saki (Saki).
Dragon Zombie Arc
Izaya passes by Mairu and Kururi's martial arts school where Izaya is told to die by Mairu. Izaya sarcastically expresses that his feelings are hurt only to be attacked by the twin's martial arts instructor, Eijirou Sharaku. The two of them cheer Eijirou on until the fight is interrupted by their other instructor, Mikage Sharaku which allows Izaya to escape. Eijriou laments at having lost Izaya again and also asks if Mikage still had feelings for Izaya despite what he did to her in high school. Mairu and Kururi wait with anticipation for Mikage's answer but Mikage only proceeds to attack Ejirou relentlessly for several hours.
Later in the novel, Mairu is on her way to meet up with Kururi but is being stalked by several members of "Heaven's Slave." The group was intending to kidnap Mairu to hold hostage against Izaya but that plan is interrupted by Eijirou who beats up all of their members. Mairu realizes that Kururi may also have been attacked and calls to discover that Celty protected her under Izaya's orders.
The twins reunited and encounter Izaya alone in the street. They thank Izaya for protecting them and state that when Shizuo finally kills Izaya, they'll cry a little before they laugh about it. The siblings then walk back home from there.
Volume 02: Durarara!! SHx2
Mairu and Kururi, along with Aoba, Akane and two freshmen, Yahiro And Kuon are on a hunt to find the Headless Rider to prove that if she is really behind the sudden rise in missing persons.
Relationships
Kururi Orihara
Main Article: Kururi Orihara
Mairu and Kururi have been shown to have a very close and incestuous love for one another although Mairu appears to be the most outspoken about it. The two of them are rarely seen apart from each other and always make decisions on everything together from fashion to personality traits. The two of them even decided to have opposite IRL and Online personalities. While Mairu is usually the most talkative of the two in real life, online she is usually very quiet, saying little more than a word or two during conversations. However, these few additions to the chat room conversations that she makes are usually some form of innuendo.
Izaya Orihara
Main Article: Izaya Orihara
Due to their parents usually being overseas for work, Izaya ended up practically raising the twins himself and says he feels guilty because he believes they turned out abnormally because of his influence. He claims that he never knew how to deal with them - a trait that they seem to share only with Shizuo Heiwajima - and that he finds them unlovable, even as humans, because of their oddness. He claims that if even he can't love them, then no one possibly could.
The twin's relationship with their older sibling is a fairly stable one. Surprisingly, they are among the few people who can actually annoy him, as he said he never knew how to deal with them while they were growing up. Despite Izaya's mild irritation with them, they seem to get along well whenever they talk however the twins have openly stated that they wouldn't mind Izaya getting injured or killed in some way (especially if it would somehow get them to meet their idol: Yuuhei Hanejima) which would imply that they are indifferent towards Izaya. However, at the end of Volume 09, Mairu admits that if Izaya does get killed she and Kururi would still feel sad before laughing.
Aoba Kuronuma
Main Article: Aoba Kuronuma
While the twins and Aoba get along fine, Mairu's specific relationship with him is a bit of an odd topic. While Mairu does kiss Aoba immediately after Kururi does, it's very clear that the only reason she is interested in him is that Kururi is interested as well. Aoba, while perplexed, doesn't appear to mind this and seems to accept it with very little protest. It can be speculated that she and Kururi might like Aoba due to his similar personality to Izaya, the brother who raised them, and a need to earn his approval.
Trivia
- She is the first person to be censored on the Chat Room for mature content.
- In the English dub, she and Kururi share the same voice actress.
- Mairu is a competent martial artist who fights directly using kicks and punches (unless she feels like using other weaponry like thumbtacks) while her sister, Kururi, defends herself using items such as pepper spray, stun guns or other items in her bag.