But his eyes were glued to his phone screen.
He was busy reading as he walked, but despite the very crowded environment, he somehow never bumped into anyone.
Some kind of chat room was displayed on the screen of his phone. He watched the list of users with names like Bacura, Kuru, and Mai leave the room, then smiled gleefully to himself.
It’s just about time.
He tapped the power button on the phone and shut down the Internet screen.
As soon as he did, the phone began to vibrate with a call from someone.
The name on the screen read “Masaomi Kida.”
Bingo.
He flicked the screen playfully, then reached for the ANSWER button.
“Hello?”
“…Hello.”
“Ahh, it’s you. What’s with the sudden call? Didn’t we finish talking this morning? Or did you start to miss the sound of my voice? That’s a lot of baggage for me to deal with. In fact, I just don’t have time to cheer you up, so let Saki do the heavy lifting in that department.”
“And I don’t have time to listen to your stupid jokes.”
“What’s the matter? You sound angry to me,” Izaya taunted.
Masaomi’s response was thick with rage through the speaker. “What did you say to Mikado?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were the one logging in with my username in the chat room, weren’t you?”
“Where’s your proof?”
“Nobody else would do something like this.”
“It could be a conspiracy by Kuru and Mai. We don’t know what kind of person Setton might really be, either, and Saika has a history of trolling our chat room, if you remember.”
“That’s my proof, just now: I accused you, and rather than directly saying no, you tried to distract me with other answers.”
“And you think that’s going to persuade a jury? But I suppose I can give you a passing grade. Sure, it was me who used your name online. I’ve got to admit, it’s very tough to pull you off accurately.”
“…What did you say to Mikado?”
“Why do you think I said something to Mikado? You were just talking with Kuru and Mai in the chat room. Did they suggest that they had seen you talking with TarouTanaka?”
“If the Izaya Orihara I know is fraudulently using my name to achieve something, I can’t imagine what else he would do. If you were trying to screw me over, you would just do that in real life.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. So what do you intend to do about this?”
“Answer my question…”
“If only we had the time for that. Aren’t you aware of what’s happening in Ikebukuro right now?”
“…Huh?”
“Ah, right. You’ve been shutting out all Dollars information ever since that big brouhaha. Well, I don’t blame you, I suppose.”
“What are you talking about…? Is something happening in Ikebukuro now?”
“Why don’t you just call Mikado and ask him yourself?”
“…Izaya, you son of a…”
“Why can’t you? You’re great friends, aren’t you? Just call him and clear the air. Tell him Izaya Orihara’s a terrible, evil man, and everything you heard from me yesterday came from him, so forget all about it… Probably too late at this point, though. But let him hear your voice. Why don’t you just do that? Assuming that you’re really bound by irreplaceable friendship.”
“…Knock it off.”
“However you might see it, that’s definitely how Mikado does. He’s just too soft for his own good. There’s no helping him. But that’s what makes him so worthwhile. The perfect sacrificial lamb.”
“I told you, knock it off—!”
Midbellow, Izaya hung up.
“I don’t like being yelled at. Besides, I’m already at the station.”
He reached the station for his connecting train. He had a pass card, but he went out of his way to buy an individual ticket. Once he had checked the arrival time of his train, he started fiddling with his phone again, checking messages.
“Well, it’s no fun to have the Dollars kicked around continuously like this…so…,” he muttered, then removed a second phone from his pocket.
He began to hit the buttons on this new phone—with fingers full of certain malice and twisted love for humanity.
One hour earlier, all-girls’ academy
On a major street running under the Metropolitan Expressway from Ikebukuro Station to Sunshine City, two men faced off in front of an all-girls’ school.
One was a dashing young man wearing a thin beanie, while the other young fellow had a straw hat and bandages on his face and arms.
The injured man, Chikage Rokujou, wore a confident smile on his face, while Kyouhei Kadota, in the beanie, scowled as if chewing on something bitter.
“…Son of a bitch.”
Kadota’s phone had just gotten a message. The text on the screen was an emergency warning.
The Dollars were under attack at locations all around Ikebukuro.
“What are you…what are you people doing here?” He glared.
“I just came to pay you back for the fight you started,” Chikage replied, all smiles. “Take it all—no change needed.”
“So…this is vengeance for the guys who me and Shizuo beat right here? Then, you got a crazy misunderstanding. We didn’t do that as the Dollars. I was just pissed off and had a personal argument.”
As he stared down his opponent, Kadota paid close attention to the sounds around him and Chikage’s line of vision. Perhaps this man was just a decoy, and others would ambush him from the sides or rear.
But he didn’t detect anyone around them except for ordinary pedestrians. A few of them glanced at the two men oddly facing each other in the middle of the sidewalk, but as soon as they detected the gang member nature of the two, they would look away and distance themselves.
Chikage leaned back against the wall of the girls’ academy where it bordered the sidewalk, his eyes glinting wickedly through the bandages. “Well, in that case, it was our fault to start with, so I don’t blame you for that. But I did go after that Shizuo Heiwajima guy for takin’ it overboard, though.”
“…Oh. Did Shizuo do that to your face?”
“He kicked my ass. What is that guy, a supervillain?” Chikage grunted. He fiddled with the brim of his straw hat and asked, “So we closed the book on that matter… But do you know what your Dollars did in Saitama?”
“?”
“…That look on your face is telling me no.”
Kadota’s brows were furrowed. Chikage collected himself and began to explain.
“Man, what a loony gang y’all are. Don’t even know what your own mates are getting up to.”
“…”
“If you only went after our guys, then I might be able to write it off as payback for what we did in Ikebukuro…but you beat up others who just happened to be there at the time, like some of our little brothers. You can’t expect us not to retaliate for that.”
Chikage twisted his neck, cracking the vertebrae, and lifted his back from the wall.
“Plus, you burned our bikes up and even threw a tag on our symbol, spelled ‘Dalars’ like a real smart-ass. How long do you think it took us to put up that tag in the first place? We found somewhere outta the way so it wouldn’t get erased, and they tracked it down and got rid of it.”
“Beats me, man. Besides, tagging itself is being a pain in the ass to society as a whole,” Kadota snapped.
“…Well, fair enough. Forget that part.” Chikage grinned. “I never expected to get a lecture from one of the Dollars about ethical behavior. You’re kinda fun.”
“So what do you want with me? You’re the head of Toramaru, right?”
More messages poured into Kadota’s phone. He didn’t divert any attention to them, but he continued glaring at the other man.
“If you came seeking me out, and it wasn’t for payback against Ikebukuro,
then what is it?”
“You’re one of the big shots in the Dollars, right?”
“Huh?”
Hang on, since when have people been saying that? Kadota wondered, aghast.
Chikage blazed straight ahead with his question: “Who the hell is the boss, then?”
“…”
So that’s what this is about.
Kadota sighed. He finally realized that the situation around him—not just this man here, but everything going on with the Dollars—was a much bigger pain in the ass than he thought it was.
“I’ve got business with him, so drag that guy out here now.”
“Dunno.”
“Come on, you can do this for me.”
“No, I’m saying…I dunno who leads the Dollars.”
This time it was Chikage’s turn to come to a halt.
Huh? No way… You can’t tell me you don’t know the guy who runs your entire gang. On the other hand, I had trouble figuring that out using the Internet…
“Don’t bullshit me, man. You gotta know,” he insisted.
“You know much about locusts?”
“Is this a joke?”
“Just hear me out. You know locusts? Travel in swarms. They eat up all the wheat and grain in swarms of thousands, millions, even billions,” Kadota explained, reaching out to touch the academy wall and stretching his shoulders. By moving to the edge of the sidewalk, foot traffic could pass much easier now. People flowed by, no longer curious about the conversation happening between the two young men.
“You think those locusts know who their leader is? I don’t know if they even have leaders like queen bees or ants. The Dollars do apparently have some kind of leader, but I don’t know who it is, and I’ve never taken orders from ’em.”
“…”
“What I’m sayin’ is that the Dollars ain’t bees or ants. They’re locusts or those schools of ocean fish. Or if I had to make it simpler… Well, maybe this ain’t the best analogy, but they’re like a country or a tribe, possibly. If a guy from one country kills someone in another country, all the people in the first guy’s country look like enemies to them. So what you’re doing right now…it’s like if they decided to blast ’em with air strikes or terrorist bombings, innocent civilians be damned. Get it?” Kadota explained, with more than a bit of irony. He waited for the other guy to react.
“I don’t think you’re right about that,” Chikage argued. “Pretty much all of the Dollars are there because they want to be, right? If anything, it’s more like a school club or athletic team.”
“…Maybe.”
“Think about how often you hear about someone on a sports team causing a scandal and taking down some of his teammates when he gets kicked out. If you’re calling yourself a member of the Dollars team without considering that possibility—whether it’s fair or not—that just makes you an idiot,” he argued, responding to Kadota’s jab with what he meant to be a challenge. But instead of having the intended effect, Kadota actually smiled.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“What?”
“It’s true—if you’re gonna rep a team and enjoy the benefits of their reputation, you can’t just turn around and say, ‘Not my problem, peace!’ when things go bad. At any rate, I’m ready to hear out and accept the truth…but just because others don’t get it and mess around doesn’t mean I wanna laugh at them and say they got what they deserved,” Kadota muttered, somewhat resigned.
Chikage sensed some change in Kadota’s attitude, turned to face the other man directly, and asked, “What are you trying to say?”
Kadota just grinned a bit.
“I’m saying that I accept your fight.”
“…Hah!” Chikage gasped, delight coloring his features. “I like you. You’re old school. Not a gang member, more like one of those classic schoolyard bosses.”
“We’ll stick out here. Let’s find somewhere else to do this,” Kadota suggested.
Chikage shook his head, smiling. “Nah, no need.”
“Oh yeah?”
“It’ll be over in a second.”
Chikage was airborne before the last words were even out of his mouth.
Just as he had done when sneak attacking Shizuo Heiwajima, he leaped off a guardrail.
This one was not a dropkick, but a side kick as he twisted diagonally. The sole of his right foot closed in on Kadota’s temple.
But the perfectly timed kick hit nothing but air.
Kadota swayed out of the way just before the blow, backed up a step, and waited for his opponent to land.
The passersby stopped in astonishment when they saw a young man abruptly leap into a kick attack on the sidewalk and hastily pulled back to keep their distance.
“How many hours does a ‘second’ take for you?” Kadota taunted. He noticed the murmuring around them and said again, “Let’s go elsewhere.”
“…Good idea,” Chikage said. He had noticed from Kadota’s smooth evasion that the man was an experienced fighter. He decided to accept his opponent’s suggestion and followed obediently.
Is there even a good place to fight around here, though? There are police outposts all over the place…and as far as I can tell from all the shrines and parks I visited with the honeys yesterday, they’ll all be crowded during the day…
Chikage began to wonder if they were heading for the roof of some office building. Instead, right at the intersection with Sixtieth Floor Street, near the Tokyu Hands building, Kadota hailed a taxi next to the light.
He opened the door and slid right inside. Noticing that Chikage wasn’t following, he looked out and asked, “What are you doing? Get in.”
“We’re gonna take a taxi to the place?” the other man asked, stunned.
Kadota smirked.
“Listen, I’m a working man. I can afford a taxi, so get in.”
Raira Academy Field Two, behind the storage shed
The athletic field at Raira Academy, not too far from Ikebukuro Station, was covered in green grass.
There was a field next to the school building, too, but it was too small for baseball, soccer, and lacrosse teams to practice on at the same time, so a number of the school’s sports teams headed to this secondary field for their activities instead.
At the moment, the kabaddi and girls’ soccer teams were having practice, so the sounds of activity echoed around the storage shed, most notably with odd chants of “Kabaddi, kabaddi, kabaddi…”
Chikage marveled from the corner of this secluded field. “Never expected to see a place like this in the middle of Ikebukuro.”
The shed was surrounded by trees, giving it the appearance of a park. There was a good amount of space between the fence and the shed building and plenty of cover to keep the rear hidden from anyone in front of the shed.
As Chikage looked around the place, Kadota did some easy arm stretches. “They were originally going to put another storage building in this spot, but once they started using the first one, they realized that was all they needed.”
“You seem pretty well-informed.”
“I used to go here.” Kadota snorted. “At the time, this was one of our favorite fighting spots. I’ve seen a lotta people laid out here, thanks to Shizuo. Not a bad place for a nap, what with all the shade.”
“Gotcha. So you feel like taking one right now, you’re saying?”
“Sorry, not interested. Now that Raira’s all settled down, this is more of a date spot for couples looking for a quiet, private place at night.”
“Damn, that’s a good tip. Gotta take the honeys here sometime.”
They looked at each other and laughed. When the laughs cooled down, their faces tightened.
“So, shall we start? You sure you’re not gonna use that weapon you’re packing? It’s a short wooden sword or something like that, isn’t it?” Kadota asked.
Chikage put a hand to the thing stashed under the back of his jacket. “Oh, so you noticed?”
“I caught a glimpse of it
when you jump kicked at me. You’re injured already, so I’ll give you the handicap of a weapon.”
“How about I lend it to you to give you a leg up, old man?”
“I’m not even twenty-five yet, you brat.”
And after those simple insults, without further signal, the two started running at each other. Arms and fists collided, and the sounds of the kabaddi and girls’ soccer teams’ voices were joined by the dull thudding of flesh.
But they did not realize that the Dollars were truly everywhere in Ikebukuro.
Kadota did not even know that he was considered a big shot among the Dollars.
And they also did not realize that at this point in time, an e-mail was already making its way around the Dollars, sent by the student manager of a certain girls’ soccer team on campus.
“Kadota just walked around back at Raira Field Two! He was with some scary-looking guy—it could be those people attacking the Dollars now! I doubt Kadota would lose in a fight, but I can’t help but worry! (> <)/”
Along with a helpful cell phone snapshot of the two walking along.
At that moment, somewhere in Tokyo, abandoned factory
“…Man, that was a hell of an interruption,” Aoba sighed.
He was still in the factory building after Mikado and Celty left. The squabble was finished now, and his Blue Squares comrades laughed and joked around him—while men in leather jackets and biker uniforms lay prone on the ground.
The Toramaru bikers were all knocked out, surrounded by bloodied pipes and broken two-by-fours.
The delinquent youths hadn’t escaped unscathed; many of them had suffered some kind of injury in the fight. Aoba himself had a scratch on his face and a little trail of blood coming from the corner of his mouth.
Still, he surveyed the scene with confident, undamaged pride and said, “I’m glad you’re all doing well. If nothing else, you guys can take punishment.”
His tone was quite different than when he addressed Mikado. The younger boy’s comrades laughed off his snarky compliment and said, “Hee-hee! Easy-peasy. These guys are just pussies.”
Durarara!!, Vol. 6 Page 10