Durarara!!, Vol. 4 (novel)

by Ryohgo Narita

  “The security cameras have footage of me bringing you in here. You’re in the footage, too, of course.”

  “…!”

  “The camera footage is saved somewhere, but you don’t know where, do you? So killing me to keep me from talking won’t really do you any good,” he said calmly.

  Ruri muscled her chills into submission and asked, “What if I just feel like killing you?”

  “Then, I can’t help that. I’d rather not be killed, though,” he said simply.

  He was certainly more than a little successful in his life, but Ruri still felt like something was off in his confession.

  “I’m surprised to hear that. You’d rather not be killed?”

  “Not really. I would have a little regret left if I died here.”

  “…”

  Her eyes went wide. She felt like she was watching some odd, eccentric creature dance and couldn’t help but chuckle. The shivers and nausea didn’t stop, but she couldn’t keep herself from chuckling at him, herself, and everything.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Ha-ha… Oh, it’s just…so strange to hear a total robot like you talk about ‘regrets’… What in the world could a mannequin like you care about to regret losing it?”

  “Well, there’s some movie stuff I haven’t finished filming yet…”

  He paused, his face blank, as he searched for the right words.

  Eventually, he found them.

  “I suppose the biggest regret would be having a girl about to cry right in front of me and being unable to help.”

  As soon as he said those words, devoid of any kind of facial or vocal emotion, time stopped between them.

  “…”

  “…”

  There was nothing in Yuuhei’s eyes. But that also meant there was no hint of a joke or self-aggrandizing pretension, either.

  After a long silence, Ruri spoke, her hand still raised in the chopping position.

  “Are you hitting on me…? Or are you just desperate to survive and trying to get on my good side?”

  “Good question. Even I don’t really know. People say that I don’t understand others, and they say they don’t understand what I’m thinking. I agree. I don’t understand myself. But I do know some things.”

  “…”

  “Like a man who watches a girl asking for help and doesn’t try to stop her tears is the worst.”

  The young man’s face was so blank and cool that he transcended being a robot and reached the realm of some kind of transcendental being. Ruri began to wonder if he was just a hallucination. She was barely able to wrench out the words, “That’s a line…from Carmilla Saizou…”

  “Yes, he’s one of the figures I respect most.”

  “Respect? A character that you play…?” she asked in exasperation, thinking of the movie that they had once worked on together.

  But that accusation didn’t faze Yuuhei in the least. “That’s right. I’ve played an insane killer, an idiotic criminal, a gay man in love—and I respect each and every character I’ve acted.”

  “…”

  “My brother was overemotional, so I used him as a negative role model, and now I think I’m missing a number of important things for a person to have. And I understand that—which is why I think I became an actor.”

  “Uh…”

  “Each and every person I play in a movie gives me a little piece of their humanity,” Yuuhei said with little emotion but even less shame. Even facing death like this, he did not beg for mercy but laid his heart bare. Ruri couldn’t help but lower her hand.

  He’s the opposite. The very opposite of me.

  I’m a human trying to be a monster. But he’s a monster.

  A monster who wants to be human.

  He didn’t possess terrible strength. He didn’t blow fire, and he wasn’t immortal.

  And yet, Ruri could sense that the man before her was mentally alien.

  It was at this point that she realized her eyes were leaking tears. But whether they were tears of sadness or some other emotion was beyond her.

  Which must be what makes him…so much more human than me.

  This man wanted everything that she was trying to discard. What should she think about him?

  Pity? Empathy? Disgust? Or just label him a resident of another world and ignore him?

  She didn’t even have the answer to that question now.

  It was all confusion.

  All the emotions she’d been trying to get rid of swirled and churned, washing away her monstrous mask.

  “…I’m sorry. I never thanked you for saving me,” Ruri mumbled, getting off of Yuuhei and sitting next to the bed. “Thank you. You…saved my life.”

  “You don’t have to thank me.”

  “Why…? In fact…why did you save me to begin with?”

  “Well, I mean…I did it whether you were Hollywood or not.”

  That’s when Ruri realized that, for just one instant, Yuuhei’s face contained a hint of trouble.

  “I was wondering what kind of person could do this to someone as nimble and powerful as you…and…I came up with one possibility.”

  “?”

  “Does this have anything to do with…a man in a bartender outfit and sunglasses?”

  Ruri looked up in shock at her savior’s question. In her mind, she saw the true monster, who had slammed her into the sky with a bench.

  “Do you…know him?

  “…I had a feeling it was him…” Yuuhei sighed, then quietly got to his feet. “I can tell you more about him in the future. I need to apologize to you.”

  “Apologize?”

  She gaped at him in total bewilderment, but Ruri did not receive an explanation on the spot. The actor turned toward the computer monitor in the room and said, “By the way, there’s one thing I’d like to retroactively confirm.”

  “…What is it?” she asked. She wasn’t sure whether to be polite or open and frank with him. She decided that it would be best just to avoid displeasing him.

  “As a matter of fact, while you were passed out, it seems like we were followed. According to Kishita…the doctor earlier, they didn’t seem to belong to proper civilian professions.”

  “Uh…”

  “So I took it upon myself to get some insurance.”

  Entrance, Yuuhei Hanejima’s apartment building

  “Hey, there she is.”

  “There’s a man with her. What’s the plan?”

  “Just knock ’em out.”

  “And do it quietly… Let’s move.”

  Four men dressed in handyman uniforms peered out of a shady alley. They snuck through the darkness without a sound, carefully approaching their targets. Once they had flanked the pair and were ready to knock them over from behind, certain of their victory—the raucous flashing and clicking of cameras stopped them in their tracks.

  “?!”

  The four men squinted, blinded by the sudden light. They eventually saw well over a dozen cameramen and reporters filling the street. And right in front of them, the man and woman were now embracing.

  No way… Wh-when did they get here?!

  Hey, they just got us in the picture!

  The men had been very careful. But so had the cameramen who were waiting to get the perfect scoop.

  Ruri looked down shyly as the storm of lightning flashes continued, while Yuuhei turned to a nearby reporter and asked in monotone, “How did you know?”

  As if on cue, all the reporters raced forward to ask questions. They had to know that Yuuhei was the only person who ever came in or out of this building. The raucous deluge of questions and camera flashes continued despite the very late hour.

  “We just had an anonymous tip!”

  “What’s the deal?!”

  “How long have you been a couple?”

  “Where did you two meet?”

  “Any plans for a press conference?”

  “Does your agency know?”

  “When’s the
wedding?”

  “We noticed a man wearing a white lab coat leaving earlier.”

  “Is he involved in this?”

  “Damn, missed him!”

  “Find him!”

  “Call another team to go look for a guy in white!”

  The four men who were supposed to abduct Ruri went completely pale. With this many people, there was no way they could retrieve the film that showed them. Not to mention that an abduction was out of the question now.

  As the men gritted their teeth in frustration, Yuuhei calmly answered, “I’m sorry, but it’s very late, so I will have to explain another day. We’re going to go for a nice relaxing drive together now.”

  After a few more comments of explanation, Yuuhei took Ruri back into the building with a hand around her shoulder. A few minutes later, a car emerged and sped off.

  A few reporters tried to follow them, but most of the reporting vehicles were already being used to cover the Black Rider incident, following Daioh TV’s lead.

  And so, in full sight of the reporters and would-be kidnappers, the star actor and serial killer disappeared into the night.

  At present, tunnel, Ikebukuro

  Celty had fashioned a shadow version of an actual kind of net that was used to subdue motorcycle gangs in real life. It was meant to gently tangle and stop the bikes, ending their rampage.

  Setting up such nets was rather difficult, as the timing of deployment and the possibility of the gangs scouting out the locations in advance were both exploitable weaknesses. But Celty’s shadow had no such weaknesses and admirably trapped the riders.

  “Gaah! What the hell is this?!”

  “Daaagh!”

  The bikers plunged one after the other into the net of shadow. As the rear vehicles saw what was happening, they slowed and stopped, leaving a huge logjam of motorcycles at one end of the tunnel and splitting it into safe and unsafe halves.

  She could freely go and escape now, but that would not solve anything. Celty considered whether she should truly plant the seed of terror in them or allow them to capture her and get their ten million yen.

  At the very least, the top priority of allowing Kadota’s van to go free was a success. Now that the van had escaped around the west side of Ikebukuro Station, Celty decided she would surrender herself to fate.

  That was the moment that Ikebukuro decided to truly get the most out of its holiday.

  At that moment, inside the van

  “All right…you guys get out and either race through the station or pile into the police building nearby… As long as you tell them you just got wrapped up in this through no fault of your own, you should be fine!” Kadota said to the rest of the group once the tunnel was no longer in the rearview mirror.

  He threw open the side door so the passengers could get out. Mikado tried to stay in but was forcibly pushed out by those behind him.

  “What about you, Dotachin?” Karisawa asked.

  Kadota looked away, then sighed. “You know Celty? She’s with Shinra, right?”

  “Uhh, yeah. She’s such a tsundere with him. It makes me embarrassed to watch them.”

  “No, Karisawa! I keep telling you, she’s an ‘older younger sister’!”

  Kadota ignored the two bickerers and quietly turned to Togusa in the driver’s seat.

  “Damn. I barely had anything to do with him in high school…so I don’t really know what Shinra’s like in person…but I gotta admit, I’m kinda jealous,” he said, then smiled happily and continued, “Celty…she’s a babe. Yeah, she’s a good woman. Right, Togusa?”

  “Huh? The Black Rider’s a chick?”

  “…Anyway, that settles it. Can’t go having a girl save my ass. You know?”

  Togusa seemed to understand what he meant and put his hand to the stick, wryly observing, “So, we’re gonna find and retrieve the Black Rider, then escape? Or help her out?”

  Kadota grinned wickedly, and Togusa gunned the engine.

  In the tunnel

  So, what now?

  On the other side of Celty’s shadow net, a small riot was unfolding.

  A number of the bikers were attempting to rip the shadow, and due to the fact that multiple rival gangs were involved, some of them appeared to be starting a fistfight.

  “Dammit! I thought we had more guys than this! Get everyone in here for backup!”

  “We can’t! Out in front of the station…some monster cop is wipin’ everybody out!”

  “Shit! What’s happening here?! Have you called the chief…?”

  “I can’t reach him! Maybe he’s mad that we jumped off on our own without permission…”

  “Gaah! We gotta at least kill that Black Rider and get some damn money outta this!”

  What?! That bounty wasn’t “dead or alive,” was it?!

  At this point, there was no room for negotiation. Celty turned back, prepared to flee—but then she saw a different biker gang group coming up from the other direction. It had to be the remnants of the various gangs alerted remotely.

  More and more bikes began to approach, the lucky ones who had escaped the motorcycle cops.

  Damn… If I put up another net on the other side of the tunnel and lock myself in…then once the bikers are gone, I’ll be surrounded by the police! There’ll be no way to explain away the cargo I’m carrying!

  Then, from behind the oncoming swarm of bikes came a single van.

  Is that them?! I told them to run for it!

  Most likely the middle schoolers had been let loose, but Celty wanted Kadota and the other adults to find safety as well. She paused for a brief second, unsure of what to do…

  Then saw that some of the bikers were starting to work their way through the net on their own and turned back to the original direction.

  Celty fashioned a dull black scythe and tried to use it to fight them off—but something struck her as wrong.

  Right to the side of her bike stood an unfamiliar shadow.

  As she slowly, fearfully turned toward it, she saw a man like a mummy, his face wrapped in thick bandages.

  He was standing in her sidecar. His feet were inside the now-empty black bag she was ferrying.

  The man who had been her cargo spoke.

  “…Leave this to me… You should escape.”

  Half a day earlier, inside Russia Sushi

  “…Hell of an injured patient you brought to me, damn you.”

  Inside a sushi bar run by two Russians, which was quickly becoming a familiar sight to Ikebukuro residents, the after-hours interior stank for reasons other than fish.

  A sheet was placed over the tatami booth in the back, so that a doctor in a white coat—Shinra Kishitani—could tend to a man whose face had been shattered.

  “My visit will cost you two hundred thousand yen.”

  “Cut me a deal.”

  “Can’t do that. I lost the golden opportunity to spend time with Ruri Hijiribe on account of this patient.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  Simon butted into the argument between the white owner and Shinra. “Oh, no good, you two fight. First, you make Egor’s boo-boo say bye-bye. Please to do it, passing marks one hundred percent!”

  “Fine, fine. Just make sure you arrange the money… May I assume that Egor is the patient’s name?”

  “That’s right. We were in the same organization back in Russia, but… Oh, what the hell am I telling you for?”

  As this conversation continued in the back, Mairu Orihara sat at the front counter with her sister, placing a call on her cell phone.

  “…Oh! He picked up! Hello, Iza? Listen, I have a question for you! Hey, do you recognize the name Celty Sturluson?” she excitedly asked, reading the name off of the thick envelope. But she didn’t get the answer she wanted.

  “…Huh? What do you mean, none of our business? So you do know something about this person, Iza! I knew it! Holy crap! No fair, no fair! No! Fair! Huh…?”

  Mairu looked down at her phone in disbeli
ef and began to stomp on the floor in frustration.

  “…What happened?”

  “I can’t believe it! Iza just hung up on me! Um, well…I guess I have no choice… Here goes…”

  She quietly sulked down at her phone, looked up a different contact from the last one, and grinned to herself as she hit the send button.

  At present, outside Ikebukuro Station

  “Aww, man, where did Mr. Ryuugamine and Ms. Sonohara go?”

  Immediately after they were let out of the van, Mikado had said, “Take care of Sonohara and the girls,” and raced off. The next thing Aoba knew, Anri had also vanished.

  “…I guess Mr. Ryuugamine really is…oh, never mind,” Aoba muttered as he looked around. Meanwhile, Mairu and Kururi stood holding hands.

  “…What should…we do?”

  “Hmm, I guess we can just watch for now? I don’t know what will happen, but I sure didn’t expect to see her up so close!”

  “…”

  Kururi looked down the street that headed to the tunnel with a serious look in her eyes. Meanwhile, Mairu cackled to herself. Amid the cool breeziness of her laugh was a note of poisonous malice.

  “So…I wonder if we’ll be able to introduce ourselves to Celty properly.”

  Half a day earlier, inside Russia Sushi

  “Nngh…”

  The man in the tatami booth opened his eyes and stared vaguely at his surroundings.

  “Oh, he’s awake.”

  The man glanced at the first figure to enter his view and, through the fog in his head, said the name, “Shingen?”

  “Huh?”

  Shinra was momentarily taken aback by his father’s name. He examined the man’s face—not that he could see much, covered in bandages as it was.

  “…Oh, pardon me. I seem to have confused you for someone else…”

  “…”

  Shinra leaned over the prone man, thinking hard for several seconds. Eventually, he bolted upright, took out his phone, and walked toward the seats at the front counter. Two girls trotted over to take his place and stepped into the tatami booth.

  “…Are you…all right?”

  “Yoo-hoo! Feeling better? Good for you, buddy! It’s all okay! Reconstructive surgery can work miracles these days! You even look cool in those bandages, if you don’t mind me saying so!”