Durarara!!, Vol. 4 (novel)

by Ryohgo Narita

  She was wearing safety shoes with metal plates in the toes. Ironically, this made the shoe very unsafe to the target of her kick.

  “Fbweh…”

  The man wobbled, then lost the support of his legs and fell to the ground.

  There was only one left. Karisawa and Yumasaki were already tying up the man with the bloody nose, binding his wrists together with the headband cloth he had been wearing.

  The unhurt thug glanced at the two girls for an angry second but settled on delivering his final line to Kadota instead.

  “…Y-you…fuckers… You’ll pay for this! You in the bandanna!”

  Apparently, he was deciding to blame it all on Kadota, so as to avoid admitting that teenage girls had anything to do with it.

  As Kadota watched him ride off, he turned back and noted, “We don’t want him calling the cops, and it’s bad news if he calls his friends, too, so we oughta scram,” to the girls dressed in uniform and gym clothes.

  “Huh? And you are…?”

  “Kadota. You’re Izaya’s sisters, right?”

  “What?! You know Iza?! Oh…actually, I might have met you before!” Mairu exclaimed in surprise. Kururi bowed deeply to Kadota, apparently realizing from the very start that these were acquaintances of her brother.

  “…Thank you…very much.”

  “Nah, it’s cool. Maybe you didn’t need our help after all…but you do stick out, so if you’re going somewhere, we can call our car around. What do you say?”

  “Wow, really?!”

  “Just don’t expect any rides to Hokkaido or anything,” Kadota cautioned wryly.

  Mairu waved her hands in excitement. “Oh, um, oh! We’re just wandering all over Ikebukuro today! We’re supposed to get a call from someone we know, but we won’t know when and where to go until the call arrives!”

  “…What’s that supposed to mean…? Whatever. The other two back there are supposed to be guiding some students from your school around Ikebukuro, so I guess you could just tag along with them. Okay?” he asked, turning back to Karisawa and Yumasaki. They thought it over for a few seconds.

  “Umm, I don’t see a problem.”

  “Not an issue. Besides, those girls look kinda 2-D to me, anyway.”

  “Shut up.”

  And so, despite the very tenuous relationship that connected them, the two groups wound up moving around together. Kadota recommended several times that the girls return home, but they were insistent on their task, and he didn’t pry any further.

  Well, if it comes down to it, I can call Izaya and tell him to take them, Kadota told himself and called up Togusa. He took the group to a nearby café so they could wait for the van to arrive.

  And a while later, when they were ready to pile into Togusa’s van, a gang of motorcycle thugs five times the size of the earlier group descended upon them, kicking off a mad rush for safety.

  At present, inside Togusa’s van, highway, Ikebukuro

  “So that one thug pretended to run away, but secretly he was following us. That way, his gang was ready to jump us when we left the café.”

  “It’s like they were raised entirely on manga about delinquents and street gangs.”

  “No way, Karisawa! Delinquent mangas always feature a truly manly protagonist who protects the weak and fights the strong! If they were using that stuff as a textbook, they wouldn’t have been harassing girls in the first place!”

  “Maybe they were so dumb that they didn’t understand the lesson the textbook was teaching?”

  “…Ohhh! No wonder!”

  Karisawa and Yumasaki’s chatter was basically the same as it ever was, despite the imminent danger of dozens of pursuing motorcycles.

  “Wh-what should we do about this? Call the cops?” Mikado asked, but Kadota shook his head.

  “They’ve gotta know about this by now! And I saw that one guy on the police bike earlier! The question is just if we can stay away from them until the police are finally on the scene in full force. I might be able to handle them ganging up on us with metal pipes, but not you kids.”

  “G-good point…”

  “Don’t worry, we’re gonna make sure that you students get away, at the very least. I’ll drive you right into police headquarters if I have to,” Kadota growled from the passenger seat. Mikado started to exhale with relief, then chastised himself.

  No! We need to help Sonohara, Aoba, and those two girls escape to safety…but I can’t just run with them and leave the other Dollars and Celty behind in danger!

  He gritted his teeth against the fear creeping into him and remembered when he charged into the Yellow Scarves’ hideout and when he first met Celty.

  I might die…but…I have to do something…

  Mikado clenched his fists. Aoba looked over and hesitantly asked, “Mr. Ryuugamine, are you okay?”

  “Huh? O-oh, I’m fine. Sorry, you’ll have to make do on your own…”

  “No, I mean… You know what, never mind.”

  “?”

  Mikado wondered what Aoba was trying to say. But then he looked out the window.

  There was a black sidecar of sorts affixed to Celty’s motorcycle with some kind of cargo stashed inside of it.

  “I guess…since Celty’s under a bounty now…”

  He paused. It was just an instant of a pause, and then he said something that didn’t seem very appropriate, given their circumstances.

  “I suppose…we won’t be able to just see her hanging around anymore…”

  The Black Rider kept pace alongside Togusa’s van as the bikers chased behind them.

  Everyone inside the van was also being chased, including some who weren’t originally involved: Celty, Kadota, Togusa, Karisawa, Yumasaki, Mikado, Anri, Aoba, Kururi, and Mairu.

  A total of ten people on the run.

  If it were only the motorcycle gang, Celty could handle them on her own. The problem was that staying still to deal with them would only give the motor officers time to surround her.

  But wait. If I do that, at least it would ensure that everyone inside the van is taken to safety, she thought, looking behind her. There were more pursuers now, and two helicopters that probably belonged to the TV station, hovering overhead.

  Damn! I can’t let them all be known associates of a dead-body dumper… At worst, they’ll all be identified on live TV!

  Kadota’s group was one thing, but if Anri, Mikado, and the other students were identified in connection to this horrible incident, the consequences would be terrible. If they were exposed as having connections to Celty—or the other gang squabbles prior to this—they could easily be expelled from school.

  What do I do? What should I do, what should I do?!

  Until now, she had been alone.

  It was years ago that she started working as a courier here, but she’d never been racked by a problem like this before. Back then, everyone else, including Shinra, was just a stranger to her.

  Even facing the risk of being captured, killed, or exposed to the rest of the world posed a limited risk—it was her problem, no one else’s. So she set about doing her job.

  But now, it was different. After the incident a year ago, she and Shinra were no longer strangers.

  She’d met many other people, and in just the span of a year, the world around her changed dramatically.

  She wasn’t alone anymore. And it was only now that she understood the shackles of that truth.

  …

  All she could think about was the many idle conversations she shared with Shinra at home.

  Several weeks earlier, Shinra’s apartment

  “The fairy from a foreign land living in Ikebukuro, Celty! The headless dullahan plunged into Ikebukuro in search of her missing head and memories! But when she fell in love with a man named Shinra, the search for her head became nothing but an excuse for her new life sinking ever deeper into love!”

  “…Which, if you think about it, shows that Celty isn’t exactly a tsundere! She’s an all new t
ype of character, somewhere between the tsundere and the straight-up cool type!”

  “Come on, Yumacchi. Your definition of tsundere is way too strict. Just accept that she’s a tsundere.”

  “Celty’s not like that, I’m telling you. If anything, she’s too efficient at her job… She’s straightforward, but not entirely coolheaded. More like an old-fashioned, empathetic older-sister type! The older sister who relies upon an unreliable older brother… That’s it! She’s an older younger sister!”

  “That is way too complicated.”

  Yumasaki and Karisawa babbled on in debate as they stuck their legs under the heated blanket of the kotatsu that served as a low table. At the nearby dining table, a different man and woman exchanged a much colder topic.

  “Hey, Shinra.”

  “What is it, Celty? You look serious.”

  “Why have they come into our home, and why are they talking about me at length? On that note…how did they learn my personal information?”

  “Well, I might as well come clean, since you’ll find out sooner or later. I ran into Kadota’s group at a bar earlier…and these two were carrying on and on about your incredible rumors, so…”

  “…”

  “So I bragged that you were my girlfriend… And I’ll say this, too, since I’m sure you’ll find out—I also included some rather salacious info about this, that, and the other thing that you did on our dates… I tell you, the power of alcohol is terrifying. Ouch, ouch, ouch! What was that for, Celty?! You see, I knew you were a tsundere-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!”

  “If that’s what you want, I’ll do what a tsundere does. Before I get all lovey-dovey on you, I have to be a bit more pokey-pokey with my shadow.”

  “If that’s what you call poking, I’d say it’s more like stabby-stabby, but—aaaaaiieeee!!”

  As they continued on in their usual way, Yumasaki and Karisawa took note in their usual way.

  “See? She’s a tsundere.”

  “I disagree. They’re too straightforward about their shared love for her to be a tsundere. It’s more like a soft S-and-M relationship, where Celty gets mentally punished, while Kishitani gets physically punished… And neither of them seems to be enjoying it, so they’re both on the sadist side!”

  “That is way too complicated.”

  Celty shook with chuckling laughter as she recalled that silly moment in time.

  “My girlfriend,” he called me. The truth is…that made me really happy.

  I got too carried away over the past year. I was too happy.

  She mentally chided herself on her own softness. And once she was done feeling irritation at herself…

  She thought.

  She cared.

  But still…

  Celty fashioned a third arm out of shadow that typed away at her PDA for her as she rode.

  I mean, still…

  As she paced the van, she tossed the device through the open window to Kadota in the passenger seat.

  That doesn’t mean I can just give up on it.

  “…! Hey, Black Rider…you serious about this?” Kadota asked as he returned her PDA. She held a thumb up.

  “…All right. Listen, Black Rider. I know what your name is, but since I didn’t hear it from you, it didn’t feel right to say it myself. So this’ll be weird, but…”

  Celty had never had a proper conversation with this man before. He looked back at her, deadly serious, and gave her a thumbs-up of his own.

  “Let me thank you afterward, Celty.”

  * * *

  And with that, Celty made up her mind, the silent determination calming her heart.

  That’s right. No matter who, no matter what, no matter when, I don’t give up on my connections.

  I can’t give them up.

  Without my head, what else do I have left?

  And with force of will, Celty silently produced a giant scythe out of her hand. Waving it back and forth to keep the pursuers behind them at bay, she joined Kadota’s van in heading for the same location.

  They stayed fairly close, and they were lucky enough not to get stuck with a light. As a matter of fact, the biker gangs were raising hell here and there, causing the normal traffic to stop for safety.

  Thanks to this bit of good luck, Celty and the van were able to reach their destination in just a minute or so: the tunnel that passed under the railway, connecting the east and west gates of the Ikebukuro Station.

  The van continued straight through the tunnel. But Celty spun her partner around, bringing the Coiste Bodhar to a sudden stop with a horrific screech that was not at all like tires squealing.

  Dozens of motorcycles bore down on her.

  Ironically, the hint came from the motorcycle cop.

  As well as her conversation with Shinra that morning.

  Celty timed the moment and held her enormous scythe aloft.

  In the next moment, like a giant spiderweb, countless tiny ropes extended from the scythe to catch everywhere along the tunnel and form an enormous net.

  At that moment, Medei-gumi Syndicate, Awakusu-kai Office

  The Awakusu-kai was one of the offices of the Medei-gumi crime syndicate, one of several organizations that claimed territory within Ikebukuro.

  The room in the back of the office contained all of the things you would expect to see, based on the televised yakuza dramas: the luxurious wooden desk, the picture frames, the black leather couch. But the entrance looked like any other business office.

  It was perfectly “office-like,” but one would be hard-pressed to identify what kind of business they actually ran at a glance. And it was this place where Kazamoto, one of the group’s officers, listened quietly to a status report.

  “…So it seems like there’s some biker gangs from out of town raising hell in the streets…”

  “As long as they’re not interfering with our affiliated businesses, leave them be. The government employees will use our hard-earned taxes to handle this.”

  The young lieutenant had sharp, reptilian eyes. He followed up his sardonic comment by asking the subordinate, “What’s happening with the Yodogiri situation?”

  “Well, Mr. Shiki’s gone to the usual doctor.”

  Kazamoto steepled his fingers on his cheeks and tapped away at his face. “The thing is, I don’t really care. I don’t care about the Headless Rider, monsters, ghosts, aliens, any of that occult shit. It’s fine if it’s real, fine if it ain’t.”

  “Y-yes, sir.”

  “The problem is…we were hired to take care of a young female star…and now she’s gone and messed up four of our men. Normally, I’d punish them for being soft, then do whatever it takes to eliminate the target, but…”

  The lizard-like man paused. His subordinate nervously prompted, “B-but this is different?”

  “Yes… Our client had the gall to hide something from us and, as a result, exposed our people to danger. Ordinarily, this means holding the client who disrespected us responsible for that outcome,” he said icily.

  The other man tried to ignore the cold sweat breaking out on his skin as he replied, “R-right, sir. But…I heard we didn’t have plans to kill the girl or anything…”

  For a moment, Kazamoto took his gaze off the subordinate, and the temperature of his voice rose slightly. “I hate to mention this, but…while it’s true that the client asked for her to be buried in the mountains, we were actually planning to just ship her off overseas or to one of our ‘special partners’ out in the boonies.”

  “Y-yes, sir. But why would—?”

  “This is absolutely classified information,” Kazamoto said, fixing his man in place with his sharpest gaze yet. He then spun around in his chair to deliver the uncomfortable, awkward truth.

  “The target, Ruri Hijiribe, reminds the boss of his daughter—the one who went off and got married to a civilian. He’s a big fan of the girl…and so are several of the muckety-mucks up in the Medei-gumi…”

  “I…see…,” the subordinate replied awkwardly
.

  Not wanting to leave his bosses the only source of embarrassment, Kazamoto quietly admitted, “And so am I…and Shiki… I mean, she’s just really abnormally hot, you know.”

  The previous night, Yuuhei Hanejima’s apartment

  “Did you never even think it was remotely possible…that you would be killed?”

  A man pressed down on a bed.

  A killer on top straddling him.

  Easily pierced through the heart with the slice of a hand, the news reported.

  It was an absolutely deadly and helpless situation for him—but the young man didn’t make a sound.

  In fact, it was the killer’s raised hand that was trembling uncertainly.

  In just a few seconds, the Hollywood killer, Ruri Hijiribe, felt like several minutes had passed.

  Her wits spaced out several times. Her vision warped, as she battled the momentary sense that she was not herself anymore.

  By the time her lips started trembling, Ruri could no longer bear the silence. So it was the utmost salvation when the man below her finally opened his mouth to speak.

  “…Can I ask one thing?”

  “…What?”

  “If you killed me right now, would it be to silence me?”

  “…I suppose it would,” Ruri said, averting her eyes as she listened to Yuuhei Hanejima’s flat voice.

  No, this is all wrong. I wouldn’t kill someone to silence them…

  Her body vibrated violently, and Ruri realized that it was fear she was experiencing.

  Nausea and chills stole over her. Even her heart seemed to be going solid in her chest.

  Besides, I can’t kill him. Whether through calculation or instinct, I don’t think I can kill this man.

  And not just this man. I don’t think I can kill anyone aside from them.

  What did her face look like at that moment?

  From his position below her, Yuuhei said, his voice still quiet and expressionless, “Then, I think you probably shouldn’t do it.”

  “…?”

  It was an odd thing for Yuuhei to say. She squinted down at him questioningly. His eyes were endlessly cold and dry, completely hiding the true emotions that lingered behind the mask.