Durarara!!, Vol. 5

by Ryohgo Narita

  But Shiki’s response was surprisingly aloof.

  “Shizuo… Oh, him.”

  Shiki already knew about Shizuo Heiwajima. He looked away.

  “He does collection for a call-girl service, right? They won’t have any connection to a business like ours. I did hear about some idiot borrowing money from us who also tried to shirk his debt to the call service and wound up in a heap of trouble.”

  “I see.”

  “…Do you really think any loan shark wants to use a well-known troublemaker widely recognized by the police for a collection bruiser?”

  “I do not,” she had to admit.

  In that light, she also had to admit that his dreadlocked boss must be quite skilled at handling Shizuo to keep him from getting into trouble with the police.

  “But enough about him. Let’s get down to business,” Shiki said, pulling a photograph from his pocket. “This is not so much of a courier job…but a more unique request, much like the earlier job involving retrieving materials.”

  “I see.”

  Celty recalled another job she’d taken from this man about a year earlier. Some men who stole a gun were on the run, and they needed her to retrieve it before the police could and bring it back.

  It wasn’t the kind of job she wanted to do, but when she learned that the thieves were the type to point a gun at innocent civilians, and given that she owed the Awakusu-kai a number of large debts from when she first came to Japan, she had no choice but to accept the job.

  At the time, I tried to slip the gun to the police by pretending I failed to get it back, but this man showed up first…

  Shiki was not a man to be underestimated, and this job would require careful consideration before she accepted. Her own well-being was one thing, but if the job threatened to affect Shinra and the other people of Ikebukuro she knew like Mikado, Anri, Shizuo, and Kadota in a negative way, she had to consider those consequences very heavily before accepting or declining.

  Warily, she reached out to accept the photo. Examining it through her unique visual sense that involved no eyeballs, she saw a middle-aged man.

  He looked to be somewhere from his midforties to early fifties. In the photo he was smiling in a friendly, gentlemanly way. There were reading glasses on his nose, and his outfit was formal, giving him the appearance of a company president, or perhaps the chairman of a private academy.

  Who is this? I hope he’s not going to ask me to kill him.

  For a brief moment she was going to type her statement about killing the man, but the thought occurred to her that the man might be a higher-up in the yakuza syndicate, so she stuck to a simple question.

  “Who is this man?”

  “Jinnai Yodogiri. The fellow who was representative director of Yodogiri Shining Corporation… Perhaps you’ve heard of them?”

  Oh! From Ruri Hijiribe!

  “Yes, I know.”

  Ruri Hijiribe was the name of a massive star, an up-and-coming actress who had recently caused a stir when her relationship with male star Yuuhei Hanejima was exposed in the tabloids. She was a true actor’s actor, and both Celty and Shinra eagerly followed her career.

  With the revelation of that affair came another bit of personal trouble.

  Jinnai Yodogiri, president of her talent agency, Yodogiri Shining Corporation, went missing under mysterious circumstances, effectively releasing all of the agency’s talent into the wild. Without anywhere else to go, she found herself enrolled with Jack-o’-Lantern Japan, the agency representing Yuuhei Hanejima.

  Rumor said that she got in because of the good word of her paramour, Hanejima, but the disappearance of the agency head was given bigger headlines, and after a month, the whole affair was in the process of being forgotten by society at large.

  “So what happened to this showbiz president?” Celty asked.

  Shiki tapped his right index finger on the desk. “As a matter of fact, we had our own personal dealings with him…and there were some differences of opinion between us.”

  “Ah.”

  “Naturally, we are doing our best with our own resources to search for him…but we could use all the help we can get right now. I’m not asking you to spend all your time on this, but given your job as a courier, you meet people from many walks of life. I was hoping you might be able to let us know about any information you come across…”

  “I don’t know if I’ll be any help to you there.”

  But even then, is this the kind of thing they’d call me for? And if I do somehow find him and let them know, I have a feeling this Yodogiri fellow will wind up feeding the worms in the mountains or the fish at the bottom of the sea.

  Seeing that she was hesitant about the idea, Shiki smiled wryly and added, “Only if you happen to come across anything. There’s no need to overanalyze it.”

  He saw through me again, she realized, suspicious. Based on the way he was talking, there naturally had to be some other job he wanted to ask her about.

  “The thing is…there’s another thing we wanted to ask of you…”

  “This also has little to do with your courier job…”

  May 3, evening, near Kawagoe Highway, apartment building

  Ahhh, I wish Celty would come back soon.

  It was the luxury apartment where the headless fairy and her human companion lived.

  In the midst of this vast living space, boasting over fifteen hundred square feet and five bedrooms, Shinra Kishitani was lounging atop a rug, waiting for his beloved to return home.

  He was wearing his white doctor’s coat as he rolled idly on the floor, which only made him look like a weirdo. As a matter of fact, there was another white coat wrapped in plastic in the corner of the room, meaning that he had separate doctors’ coats for work and private wear.

  But just the idea of wearing a doctor’s lab coat for a personal outfit was weird enough to begin with.

  Shinra was a black market doctor who took in patients who couldn’t see an ordinary doctor for various reasons. But as he didn’t have X-rays or other fancy machinery, he was not in high demand.

  Yet because he was a flexible freelancer, he did have certain regular clients. If he wanted to have a normal, upstanding position, he had the ability, the knowledge, and the qualifications. But he did not want that—he preferred to live his life dishonestly and spend his days with Celty.

  She’s getting a job from Shiki. It’s odd because she tries not to take on jobs from those sorts nowadays. It was much less of a problem for her when she didn’t really care about humans. But I think Mr. Shiki understands that about her now.

  Shinra did not think of Shiki as being good-hearted—he was a man who lived firmly on the underside of society. But because he was so familiar with what it took to do his work, he wouldn’t send the darker jobs to someone like her, whose personal morals were wavering.

  He needed the right person for every job.

  Shiki would send such work to others, people who were more predictable in their outlook. Shinra was reassured that Celty would be fine because he knew Shiki to be a pragmatic man at heart.

  Of course, it was best not to associate with such people at all, but as Celty was not even human to begin with, she didn’t have the luxury of being picky about her income sources.

  She’s the type of girl who would keep working a job for a sense of fulfillment, even after winning three hundred million yen in the lottery.

  …If we had a baby, I wonder if she’d give up her job to be a housewife. I suppose I should find out if it’s even possible for us to have children first.

  We could also take in a foster child. On the forms, it’d have to go down as Dad and my stepmother’s child.

  Wait…I just envisioned myself as a househusband while Celty goes out and works.

  Celty as a housewife… With an apron…made of shadow.

  What? She’s naked under the apron?!

  He rolled even harder on the rug, grinning at the image in his head. Shinra looked like nothing
short of a freak, but his partner was nowhere in sight to make fun of him.

  After spending about thirty minutes like that, the doorbell rang.

  “Ooh! Is she back?” he wondered aloud, hopping up excitedly. The doorbell rang several more times as he raced over to the entryway.

  “I wonder why she’s ringing the bell. Did she forget her key?”

  He was so preoccupied with the thought of Celty that the possibility of anyone else being responsible for ringing the doorbell never even entered his mind.

  He realized his mistake right as he was reaching the door, but it was too late to stop. When he opened it, he saw the very same bartender uniform he’d seen just last night.

  “…”

  At least it wasn’t a gun-toting hit man or a home invader, but in terms of potential danger, this visitor was a good match.

  Shinra closed the door halfway and groaned. “Maybe I should move to a building that won’t even let you in the front entrance without a key.”

  “Sounds to me like you wanna get socked,” Shizuo said.

  Shinra grimaced and waved his hand. “Please don’t. Then I’d have to consider the very real possibility that I would die.”

  “Can I come in?” Shinra’s longtime acquaintance mumbled, scratching his cheek.

  The doctor said, “Fine, fine. What is it now? The kid you brought here yesterday already left; he was in good enough shape to walk again.”

  “Yeah, I know. He was in town earlier, I hear.”

  “Very lively fellow. Especially after taking several hits from you. It’s a wonder all his vertebrae were still in place,” Shinra noted, pulling the door back open to usher Shizuo inside, when he noticed—

  “Huh?”

  Shizuo was not the only person outside the apartment.

  “Huh? Isn’t that your boss…?”

  “Yeah, I’ve never introduced you two. This is Tom.”

  “Yes, I understand that, but…”

  Shinra was not looking at the man with the dreadlocks—but at a little girl of around elementary school age, clinging to Shizuo’s waist by his belt.

  “Who’s the girl?”

  At that moment, Raira Academy

  Whether private school or public school, vacation is vacation.

  Like the rest of society, the private Raira Academy, famous for its close proximity to Ikebukuro Station, was in the first day of the extended break.

  But the school was overflowing with more people than one would expect. The athletic clubs were crowded onto the field, bellowing to be heard over the others, and the humanities clubs were each busy preparing for their artistic contests in June.

  Mikado Ryuugamine was one of these students on campus during the break. He was considered a member of the Going Home club, as he didn’t participate in any extracurriculars. Instead, he was here for a student committee meeting about the class field trip.

  Normally, this would have happened after school, but the meetings had been running long, and so they had to make it up by holding an extra one during the break. The school was reluctant, but since it was the students’ idea, the plan was approved to hold the meeting on campus during break and finalize plans once they’d collected the feedback of those class representatives who weren’t able to make it due to vacation plans.

  “Whew, finally done,” Mikado groaned. He hadn’t expected that planning their own field trip would involve such fierce debate.

  From over his shoulder a tiny voice called, “Nice work, Mikado.”

  “Ah, Sonohara. Wasn’t that tiring?”

  Standing behind him was Anri Sonohara, his classmate and fellow representative on the student committee. But he had known her well before that—they met on the day they started school here.

  Mikado’s crush on Anri never left his own lips but was taken as public fact by everyone else, and Anri often interacted with Mikado, so the school essentially treated them like an official couple.

  But neither Mikado nor Anri was aware of that. All they knew was that they were still friends, nothing more.

  A part of Mikado wanted to confess his feelings and broach that gap, but another part of him wouldn’t let that happen until a different problem was resolved.

  He envisioned the face of his close friend who had recently quit school: Masaomi Kida.

  They grew up in the same town, and with the addition of Anri in high school, they led a fulfilling school life.

  The problem was, each of the three kept a terrible secret.

  Mikado Ryuugamine, founder of the street gang the Dollars.

  Masaomi Kida, founder and leader of a rival gang, the Yellow Scarves.

  And Anri Sonohara, a girl who bore within her an inhuman being much like Celty Sturluson.

  After a recent incident, the three each learned a bit about the others’ secrets—and as a result, Masaomi Kida had left.

  But neither Mikado nor Anri thought of this as a good-bye. They trusted that he would return, and therefore, neither attempted to pry into each other’s half-exposed secrets.

  They would speak openly when Masaomi came back to them. That was what they decided.

  And thus, the relationship between the two neither progressed nor collapsed but maintained an awkward balance as the days passed them by.

  Until yesterday, when a new event threatened to topple that balance.

  In the chat room where Mikado went by the name TarouTanaka and Masaomi went by the handle Bacura, Masaomi reached out to speak not to TarouTanaka, but personally to Mikado Ryuugamine.

  But should I tell Sonohara about that?

  It was too menacing a topic to serve as a wholesome reunion with Masaomi.

  The Dollars were in danger.

  Curious and worried, Mikado checked out the mobile-only chat room and message board for Dollars members but found no particular evidence of the claim.

  But it was true that when it came to such matters, Masaomi had a sharper instinct and deeper connections than himself.

  If he just outright told Anri, it might only cause her to worry. Or was it better to just be open and explain the situation to her?

  He walked through the school building with Anri, unsure of how to proceed, when an excited voice entirely at odds with his own mental state rang out.

  “Mr. Mikado! Ms. Sonohara! Nice to see you!”

  They turned around to see a boy in the hall: Aoba Kuronuma.

  He was new, freshly enrolled just last month, their junior at school.

  Aoba looked even younger than Mikado, to the point that he could pass himself off as an elementary schooler if he dressed the part. He could also pass for a girl if he cross-dressed and didn’t speak.

  He, too, was a member of the Dollars, one of the few who knew that Mikado was a fellow member—but since being dragged into a spot of trouble with Mikado and Anri last month, he hadn’t made any major contact with them.

  “Hi, Aoba… What’s going on? First-years don’t go on the field trip, right?” Mikado asked. He was certain that Aoba had been traumatized by their recent experience and was avoiding him as a result, but the boy’s expression showed no sign of that—it was the same smile he’d seen a month earlier.

  In fact, it was a little too carefree given that a violent biker gang had chased them—but Mikado Ryuugamine did not pick up on that.

  “Nah, I’m here for my club. I’m in the art club.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know that.”

  Was he here just for a little chat? Mikado prepared to respond appropriately. But before he could ask anything else, Aoba cut straight to the point.

  “Are you free tomorrow?”

  “Huh?”

  “After what happened last month, you never got the chance to show me around the area! Since we have this extended break now, I thought the three of us could hang out for a day!”

  “Er, well…tomorrow’s not…”

  Normally, Mikado would have agreed on the spot. But Masaomi’s statement from the day before was bugging him.

&
nbsp; “Don’t get together with the other Dollars for a while,” he had warned. Karisawa and Yumasaki were one thing, but did it really apply to Aoba Kuronuma?

  Masaomi had said to just be a normal high schooler. And if he and Aoba didn’t talk about the Dollars, they really were nothing more than students at the same school.

  Maybe it would be safest to just not go out? If something might happen to the Dollars, maybe I should stay home and try to gather intelligence so I can send a warning message to everyone. Okay, I’ll turn him down for now and make the offer again once this issue Masaomi mentioned dies down. I’d like to introduce Aoba to Masaomi, anyway.

  After thinking it all through in his mind, Mikado shook his head sadly.

  “Yeah… Sorry, I think I might have something going on tomorrow.”

  “Aww, darn,” Aoba said, crestfallen. Right after, he picked his head up again and looked over at Anri. “What about you, Ms. Sonohara?”

  “Huh? Me? I don’t really have anything to do…”

  What?

  Mikado was at a total loss for words.

  “But I won’t be a very good tour guide…”

  “Oh, it’s fine! I did some groundwork of my own, looking stuff up!”

  “But I doubt I’ll be anything other than a bother to you.”

  …What? What?!

  If Mikado and Anri had officially been a romantic couple, or if Anri were a bit quicker and more observant of others’ feelings, she might not have reacted in the same way.

  But since she was on the slow side when it came to recognizing normal romantic advances, she had no suspicions about what Aoba was asking her. She honestly wondered if he really thought she would be a good tour guide.

  “That’s not true! Ms. Anri, you’re so beautiful, just having you around will make everything shine!”

  Ms. Anri?! He’s already leveled up from calling her by her last name?! Without checking first?! That’s cheating! You’re a cheater, Aoba!

  “P-please, don’t tease me.”

  “No, I’m serious. So what time should I—?”

  At that point, Mikado spoke up. He made the mistake of speaking up.