Durarara!!, Vol. 4 (novel) (24 page)

“What? Whatever. So how do you and that Russian know each other?”

“…He’s, well, something of a handyman. He likes to think of himself as the man whose identity no one knows. So it’s quite impressive that Nebula and I have a connection to him. Hopefully, this will impress your father’s value upon you.”

“So he’s a hired killer who likes to puff himself up. Yes?”

“…I don’t know how you were raised to be so devoid of joy. But we can set that aside for now. He was hired to abduct a certain woman.”

“A woman?”

“Yes… I believe you are aware of the serial killer known as Hollywood?”

“…”

“Nebula was investigating this matter, sensing that, like Celty and Saika, there was some supernatural element at play—and eventually arrived at a woman who had some supernatural blood like Celty’s in her family tree a few generations back. This creature lived among mankind and used its power to amass quite a fortune. We’re not sure if it was an atavistic trait, or if the qualities were passed through each generation along the way—but at any rate, the power seems to have manifested itself in her. Rather than have the police catch and execute her, we think
it would be better for us to take custody of her, so we can slice and inject and share all that wonderful time together instead. Got it?”

“…Dad, I hope that someday you come to some sobering realizations about yourself.”

“Well, that’s rather offensive from you, Shinra. But setting that aside…to be honest, Nebula’s observer said that she was knocked flat out by a normal civilian, so perhaps she is not worth the trouble of experimenting on. You can just ignore her.”

“Hey, would that girl happen to have the name…Ruri Hijiribe?”

“How did you know that?! Shinra, you read my mind! You’ve been around Celty so long, some of her inhuman power has rubbed off on—
beep, beep, beep…
”

Earlier in the day

Celty dropped off her charge in front of the apartment building and happily typed away into her PDA.

“Pleasure doing business.”

I’m glad nothing happened while we were on the road. I guess it wasn’t worth freaking out over that bounty thing after all.

If Celty had a nose, she would have been humming. Her client bowed over and over to her.

“Um, th-thank you so much! So, about the money…”

“No, thanks. This one is on the house.”

“Huh…?”

“I’m just happy to meet you. I basically never see
people like you
around the city.”

The topic caused a twinge of curiosity in Ruri’s heart again.

“Um, when you say that…do you mean…?”

She felt shy about bringing up the subject but summoned up her courage and said, “The things the TV said about you…are they true? You’re…not human?”

“Yes. Shall I show you evidence?”
the Headless Rider asked, impossibly frank. She removed her helmet, almost proud to show off that she was a monster.

Several minutes later, Celty was gone, and Ruri was back safely in her apartment, standing in front of the mirror, examining her face. It was pale, but not dangerously so.

The throbbing pain all over was gone, a good reminder that her body was not normal.

She twirled a nearby forty-five-pound barbell around with a pinkie finger, a good reminder that her strength was not normal.

She wasn’t human.

But she couldn’t be a monster, either.

She was
something
in between.

“Ha-ha…”

Until this point, every time she faced that fact, she’d been plunged into a depressive mood…but this time, for some reason, she laughed.

“Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

She laughed loud and heartily, as if it were the first time in her life. She pictured Celty, the Headless Rider, and laughed with tears running down her cheeks.

Oh. So that’s how it is.

The world—the world’s heart is vast and wide.

Even ghosts and monsters can enjoy life.

Even me, and Yuuhei, and that Headless Rider!

Why…why did I never consider this…?

I’ve been so stupid!

Several hours later, Ruri’s laughter and tears had faded away, and she was flipping through the TV.

On a news program, they were broadcasting a segment about a ten million–yen bounty on a freak in Ikebukuro. Meanwhile, street gangs and bikers from all over were piling into the city in search of the bounty, leading to a very touchy situation.

“…”

She got up and headed into the back of the house—to her changing room.

Another hour later, Ruri left her home in full costume. Outside were four men whose appearance left no question what they were.

“You must be Ruri Hijiri…what? Wh-wh…what the fuck are you dressed like that for?!”

With a single weak punch to the solar plexus of each, she dispatched the four men quickly. She might have broken a rib here or there, but that wasn’t her concern.

The monster known as Hollywood, fully refreshed and renewed, leaped from the fifth floor of her apartment building, her heart soaring like never before—laughing, laughing all the while.

Oddly enough, the sight was reminiscent of a Headless Rider who had raced down the side of a building just a year earlier.

At present, tunnel, Ikebukuro

Celty was stunned at the sudden appearance of the thing and slowly turned to face it.

The headless knight turned silently to her and extended a thumb upward.

Before Celty could say anything, the knight said, in hushed tones that only the dullahan could hear, “You did me a favor. Now it’s my turn to repay it.”

“…”

Celty came to a stop—right as Hollywood, in the form of a headless knight this time, burst into motion.

Her action was entirely unlike Egor’s, a mass of metal moving in direct lines. Going easy or not, her first kick blasted a motorcycle into the air, and she carved out the engine with a single hand, using her other hand to block an oncoming metal pipe and twist it.

As she inflicted horrifying fear upon the bikers, Hollywood sang a little song inside her heart. A song just for herself, one she would never sing when she was a star idol.

I am monster, I am human.

I don’t care which. I don’t care which.

You can’t choose your life. Not the start, not the end.

So choose your lifestyle. That’s what I choose.

What the courier did for me this morning is worth more than my entire fortune.

Whether I live until tomorrow or live for a thousand years,

as a monster, as a human being,

whether I fight or accept,

I choose to savor.

Hollywood buried her urge to scream within her and raced, raced through the underground tunnel.

The bartender man.

Yuuhei Hanejima.

Celty Sturluson.

She displayed her gratitude and respect for these three monsters—all of whom she’d met in a period of just twenty-four hours—and danced the dance of Hollywood.

Celty and the bikers weren’t the only ones shocked by the sudden appearance of these monsters. Kadota and his friends, who were about to jump out of the van, and even Mikado and Anri, chasing on foot, were all stopped dead in their tracks by what they saw unfolding.

Two monsters moving in very different ways were neutralizing the motorcycle gangs at a breathless pace. Inside the van, Kadota muttered, “Well, given that these guys are probably all the wimps who weren’t allowed to join Toramaru’s main force…it’s still impressive. What the hell is going on?”

No one could give him an answer.

Unsure quite how to react given the circumstances, Celty settled on just using her shadow ropes to immobilize the bikers. Eventually, the bandaged man was back at her side. He whispered haltingly into her ear, “Hurry, take care, of Mother.”

Mother?

She looked back at him, momentarily confused, then understood his meaning at once. Through the gaps in his bandages, she saw that the man’s eyes were red and bloodshot.

Saika?!

Celty spun around to find Anri standing at the entrance to the tunnel, looking troubled. She confirmed that the two monsters nearby were more than enough to handle the situation, and also weren’t going too far in their violence, and decided—despite still not fully understanding the circumstances—that she could leave the scene to them and escape.

She quickly crafted a message on her PDA and used an extended shadow to show it to both of the monsters.

“Let me give you two pieces of advice.”

She didn’t realize that both pieces would come off as extremely ironic to her audience.

“If you see a cop on a bike, just run away. One of them is a real monster.”

These two pieces of advice were the most crucial things Celty could think to impart.

“The other thing, which you might have already heard about…”

The problem was, her warning was just a day too late.

“Never pick a fight with a guy in a bartender’s uniform. Never!”

Celty sent a safety signal to Kadota’s group and left the danger zone. With Anri at her back and Mikado dragged into the van, they left the tunnel behind.

She undid her shadow net at the very end, but it had already served its purpose. All of the gangsters and their bikes were on the run from the two monsters.

As he watched from a distance, Aoba Kuronuma tilted his head in confusion and wondered, “Um…what just happened?”

But the twins behind him couldn’t answer. They looked at each other, equally confused.

Ultimately, no single person involved in the bizarre incident understood the full context of it.