Mai: It’s a mystery.
Setton: I’m back. Evenin’.
Setton: Wow, very intense people.
Setton: Oh no. My username is just a play on my actual name.
Kuru: My goodness, I did not realize it was such a simple reason. Oh dear, I just called you simple. Please accept my deepest apologies and recognize that it was a harmless mistake. But do you realize that you have given us an angle to decipher your identity? What wrinkle did you use to hide your original name? You could be Sanpei Seto… Anna Setouchi… You have made yourself an even greater mystery to me.
Mai: Jiro-Saburo-Tonpei Serata.
Setton: Tonpei?
Mai: —(This message contains an inappropriate word and cannot be displayed)—
Mai: Huh?
Setton: Whoa, what function is that? I’ve never seen it before.
Setton: …And seriously, what did you think my username was short for?
Mai: —(This message contains an inappropriate word and cannot be displayed)—
Mai: Oh, you can’t type that word.
Mai: Ouch.
Setton: ?
Mai: I got pinched.
Kuru: Please forgive me. We are using separate computers next to each other, and I noticed that Mai was entering a terribly rude word and took it upon myself to punish her in real life for soiling the mood. Please be reassured that I am in control.
Setton: You two seem to get along.
Bacura has entered the chat.
Bacura: ’Suuup.
Kuru: Oh, it’s the playboy who plays the recorder.
Mai: Good evening.
Bacura: Are you still on about the recorder thing?!
Setton: Evenin’.
Saika has entered the chat.
Bacura: Ooh, just one minute off.
Setton: You’re in sync.
Saika: good evening
Bacura: Did Tarou already fall asleep?
Bacura: It’s only ten o’clock still,
Bacura: How much of a healthy little mama’s boy is that guy?
TarouTanaka: Whoa, I was on the phone and went to the bathroom, and now everyone’s here!
TarouTanaka: Good evening, everybody.
Bacura: Speak of the devil.
Setton: It’s synchronicity.
Bacura: In Japanese that sounds like the last level of a video game: Shin Kuroni City!
TarouTanaka: I honestly couldn’t care less.
Setton: Kuroni City, huh?
Saika: what does it mean
Kuru: One wonders what possible thought process could have produced that comment from Bacura… The human mind is truly an unfathomable thing. Perhaps the human mind is in sync with countless forms of madness. I only hope that madness does not threaten all mankind.
Mai: Scary.
Setton: See, you shouldn’t have picked on him.
Setton: Now Bacura’s gone silent.
Bacura: Oh, sorry.
Bacura: I’m going to fix some dinner for a bit.
Bacura: I’ll be in the chat, I just won’t be able to respond for a while.
Setton: Have fun.
Kuru: By the way, does anyone here have plans for their extended vacation coming up? We are surprisingly domestic, so we prefer to stay indoors and cherish our love.
Setton: Love? Are you and Mai married or something?
Mai: Secret.
Saika: i will be at home
Setton: I’m guessing I’ll be playing video games with my partner.
Kuru: Oh, you have someone with whom to grow your love, too, Setton?
Mai: Together.
Setton: Er, uh, love… Well, I guess you could say that, lol.
Saika: love?
Kuru: If we were to leave, we’d probably just walk around Ikebukuro. Nothing more exciting than shopping at Parco and seeing a movie on Sixtieth Floor Street.
Mai: I want to see a movie.
Setton: Oh, but sometimes I wish I could go riding through the forests of my old home with my partner.
Kuru: Well, we have this vacation coming up. Why not take the opportunity to visit home?
Setton: Unfortunately, it’s too much distance to just stop by.
Setton: Are you going anywhere, Tarou?
Setton: Oh, no response. He must be afk.
Setton: Oops, it looks like I’ve got a visitor, so I’ve got to go.
Kuru: Oh, I suppose that will be our parting for this evening. I am exceedingly sad to see you go, but I choose to savor the loneliness that is fate’s work. For I am certain that I am not the only one to sip that bitter liquid now. Have a pleasant holiday, Setton.
&nbs
p; Mai: Buh-byes, Setton.
Bacura: So long.
Saika: thank you
Setton: Saika, I haven’t done anything that deserves thanks, lol.
Setton: At any rate, so long, everyone.
Setton: Night!
Setton has left the chat.
Bacura: Well, folks, I’ve got some business to take care of. Gotta go for today.
Bacura:
Bacura has left the chat.
Kuru: Good evening. May the true Kuroni City appear in your dreams.
TarouTanaka: Good night.
TarouTanaka: Huh? Setton’s already left.
TarouTanaka: Oh no, now it looks like I totally ignored Setton.
TarouTanaka: I’m sorry.
Saika: i dont think setton minds
Kuru: Oh, what a twist of fate. At the start of this chat, TarouTanaka was beleaguered by the missing Setton, and now it is Tarou who has left Setton out to dry… What is it that the cyberspace purports to teach us, one wonders!
Mai: To love each other.
Kuru: I would appreciate it if you didn’t respond out of mindless reflex, Mai.
Saika: love?
TarouTanaka: …Gosh, I’m sorry.
TarouTanaka: That reminds me. Kanra didn’t show up today.
Kuru: He is very busy with his wicked plottings. If only he were always wasting time in this chat room, the world would be a much more peaceful place.
Mai: Evil bastard.
Saika: kanra doesnt seem bad to me
TarouTanaka: Have you met Kanra in person, Saika?
Saika: only here, sorry
TarouTanaka: Well, I don’t think he’s a bad person, just a little eccentric.
Kuru: Alas, it seems that even here, we have more unfortunate souls taken in by Kanra’s honeyed lies…
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Interlude or Prologue A, Chikage Rokujou
May 3, night, Itabashi Ward, a certain place
On a pedestrian crossing bridge over Route 254, also known as the Kawagoe Highway, stood a young man wearing a medical eyepatch, surrounded by a flock of young women, watching the car lights coming and going below.
“Hey, Rocchi, does it still hurt?”
“It hurts like hell. But as long as I’m with you all, I feel amazing. The breath of hot girls is like an anesthetic that melts me into goo,” Chikage said, rubbing the bandage on his cheek.
One of the girls looked at him with deadly seriousness. “Hey, Rocchi.”
“What is it?”
“That’s creepy.”
“Wha…?!”
He stumbled and lurched as if he was traumatized but did not seem particularly upset. He smiled at the group of women.
“Listen, thanks for showing me around Ikebukuro today. It’s been a huge help.”
“It’s totally fine, Rocchi. I know you’ve hardly ever left your hometown.”
“But you scared me, the way you showed up so badly hurt like that!”
“You shouldn’t get in over your head, Rocchi. You know you’re bad at fighting.”
Chikage grimaced at their comments and retorted, “No, I’m not.”
“Did you win, then?”
“…No, I lost.”
“See? I knew it.”
The girls sighed. He grumbled back at them.
“Only because the other guy was way too tough. But it was the first real, straight-up fight I’ve had in ages. He turned out to be nicer than I thought, actually,” he said wistfully.
The girls were not amused.
“I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.” “Why would you fight him if he’s so nice?” “Guys never grow out of being children…” “And you’re especially childish, Rocchi…” “He’s only adult below the waist…” “That’s gross.” “And who invites eight women out on a date at the same time?” “You know he actually asked about ten more?” “Most of them got mad and left.” “Yeah, it’s sickening.” “Why are we even hanging out with this philanderer?” “Because we’re weird?”
As the onslaught of chirped insults and slanders jabbed Chikage, he scowled and looked away.
“You girls say whatever comes to mind, don’t you? Well, the other day I saw a thing on TV about a nobleman who loved, like, thirty different maids. At least I’m better than him, right?”
“Really? You said you were super-jealous of him.”
“…Look, just forget about that. Take care on your way home. Stick together until you get to the train station,” he said, eager to change the subject.
The girls rolled their eyes but gave him smiles.
“We know, we know. You’re such a worrywart, Rocchi.”
“So long.”
And with that, the girls trotted away down the bridge.
After sending the girls off with a smile, the young man returned to gazing at the highway alone in the dark of night.
Chikage stood there silently for several minutes in the breeze. When he spoke at last, his monologue melted in the sound of the traffic below.
“Still, it’s the first time I’ve been beaten to a pulp so solidly like that. And he even helped me get to a doctor. Total defeat. Weird doctor, though.”
“You, losing in a fistfight? Go figure.”
The voice came from straight behind the young man.
It was a rough, blunt man’s voice, nothing like the chirping of the young women who had just been there.
Chikage did not turn to face the voice. He continued watching the lights of the city.
“Yeah… But he wasn’t human. I never wanna fight him again.”
“That dangerous?”
“Well, it was our guys who started it by picking a fight with him in the first place, so there’s no need to do anything more. It’s more of a selfish desire of mine.”
“It’s not like Heiwajima was our goal for coming here to start with.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Chikage chuckled. He spoke to the expanding aura gathering around him. “Shizuo Heiwajima was nothing more than a bonus. The ones we’re about to face tonight are the real reason we’re here.”
He looked up slowly, pulling his eyes away from the center divider of the highway and looking around him at last.
He saw a lineup of familiar faces.
Glares.
A crowd of piercing glares shot through Chikage Rokujou.
But the hostility of all those eyes was not directed at Chikage himself.
There were a few dozen men all around in leather jackets and biker uniforms.
Despite being obviously underage, there was a powerful foreboding in the image that seeped into the air around them.
There were so many that they couldn’t all fit on the walkway, so some of them gathered on the stairs and the sidewalk below.
Chikage Rokujou let himself fuse with the aura of the menacing group around him, his words growing sharper by the moment.
“An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. An obligation for an obligation… If they play dirty, then we’re more than happy to stoop to their level. It was our idiots who started it all by causing trouble in Ikebukuro, and I forced ’em to make things right…but what happened next ain’t cool.”
“Three more of us got knocked out yesterday. It was a total ambush,” one of the young men reported.
“…Tsk! So I guess none of the rules apply with these guys, huh?” Chikage spat. He gritted his teeth—then grinned. “We ain’t exactly saints, either… Who says we gotta play fair against pieces of shit like them?”
And Chikage Rokujou—leader of Toramaru, biker gang from Saitama—spoke with quiet menace of the dark emotions that ran through him.
“I understand wanting payback, but
I take offense at their methods. Coming all the way to Saitama and ambushing not only us, but also others who had nothing to do with anything. If they’d stuck to just attacking our team, that would make sense, since we started it.”
The leader stretched and cracked his neck before finally identifying their target.
“I don’t know how people see ’em here…but it seems to me like these Dollars are a real sick bunch.”
“It don’t matter who these guys are,” said one of his followers. Despite their leader’s admission that he lost his fight, their resolve had not diminished in the least. These were not the ones who had gone on a joyride rampage through Ikebukuro—they were bound by firm determination and camaraderie.
“Well, these Dollars, or whatever stupid name they call themselves, are gonna find out what we’re all about now,” Chikage announced to his silent squad.
Dark flames began to burn within them, rising to face a singular purpose.
Revenge.
An unknown gang had ransacked their neighborhood.
Their pride had been crushed.
Perhaps their friends or family outside of the gang had been hurt.
Chikage Rokujou faced the crowd with thick rage waiting in its throat and uttered the words that unleashed the fury into the air.
“The Dollars are gonna get a lesson…about which gang is truly crazy!”
A wave of roaring anger rippled through the night.
The gathering broke up at once, the members trickling into the night before they could draw more attention.
Chikage continued watching them from his spot on the bridge.
Unlike when he had fought Shizuo, he wore a truly cruel and villainous smile now.
“Oh, and I’m sure all the guys in my personal group know this already,” he added, just in case.
“But anyone who hits a woman, Dollars or not…is gonna get his skull personally bashed in, courtesy of me. Keep that in mind.”
The Black Market Doctor Gets Sappy, Part Two
Hey, Celty. Sorry about the wait.
It’s been quite a rush around here, hasn’t it?
It looks like you had to cut off your chat session. Is everything okay? I know you like checking in regularly. The chat room with that Saika girl, right?
Durarara!!, Vol. 5 Page 3