Durarara!!, Vol. 4 (novel) (21 page)

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 type 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.

“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.