Durarara!! - Volume 1 - Chapter Ep1

Epilogue: Ordinary Days, Light

Like a grade-schooler on the day after watching the latest episode of the hottest anime, Masaomi’s face was plastered with an enormous grin.

“Mikado, you won’t believe what I saw on the Net… Get this, there was a Dollars meetup yesterday! Turns out Simon and Shizuo are both in the Dollars! And the Black Rider showed up totally headless and swinging a scythe and went like vwoww! right down the wall!”

“I don’t understand a word of what you just said.”

School hadn’t vanished off the map, even following a night like the one before. The clock on the wall ticked away the seconds as though nothing had ever happened, and a perfectly boring, normal day passed by.

When the lunch period began, Mikado headed for the roof of the main school building. Nearly everyone else went to the school cafeteria, which was as large and deluxe as those on a university campus—or else they ventured out into the nearby neighborhood to order a quick lunch. Only a few weird students who brought home-cooked lunches bothered to eat up on the roof.

Mikado stared up at the sky, the same sight as it was anywhere else in town, and had the utterly ordinary epiphany that this was the exact same sky he saw back in his hometown. It was strange to think that after such an abnormal experience, he could find such a sense of relief and peace in his heart. It was the peace that came the day after a long-awaited field trip.

The day after the incident, Mikado came to school rubbing sleepy eyes to find Seiji Yagiri sitting in his seat, perfectly matter-of-fact. He did not look at Mikado during class, but when their first break started, he turned and briefly said, “Sorry for everything,” before returning to his seat.

More surprising was Mika Harima’s sudden attendance. Anri was surprised at the slight changes to her face, but since most of the students had never seen her until this day, she didn’t strike them as strange in the least, if you ignored the bandage around her neck.

Mika gave Mikado a brief word of thanks from the seat next to him. When the break started, she immediately started clinging to Seiji.

“Damn, so that’s Seiji’s girlfriend? No way! No wonder he lives in love, then!” Masaomi remarked. Mikado put on an uncomfortable smile—he knew more of the truth than his friend did—and muttered an affirmative.

But it seemed that after the latest turn of events, Mika no longer hung out with Anri. Each time they had a break between periods, Anri sat alone in the corner of the classroom. Mikado watched her, feeling conflicted.

Whether or not this was a good thing for her was something that only she knew. But…was that really true? Was there no way for him to understand? Perhaps no one really understood the heart of another.

“You’ll simply need to keep evolving,” echoed Izaya’s words in his head.

Fine, then, I will evolve. I’ll find out just how much I can evolve within the ordinary world I’ve been given—and then I’ll show it to him.

At this point, he had no idea if it was up or down that he’d been looking all this time. As a matter of fact, whatever the answer, he was still looking that way now. The only difference is that he’d made a little wiggle room for himself, front and back.

Mikado stared out the classroom window at the sixty-story building overhead and reflected on his own feelings.

After his experience with the absolutely unreal and extraordinary, he was left with an odd mixture of fulfillment and emptiness.

I bet now I can stare reality right in the face. I can accept it.

And once he decided that he was ready to be honest with himself, he knew what he needed to do.

Mikado was on the roof. From what he heard, she ate lunch here every day.

After such a bold maneuver, he thought that he was capable of anything. He thought nothing could scare him anymore.

He didn’t expect to get tripped up over something like this.

It was so easy to reach out and talk to people on the Internet…

He never in his wildest dreams expected that it would be so hard to achieve his desires in ordinary, real life.

Who knew that it took so much courage just to ask a girl in your class to hang out?

The boy will find Anri in thirty seconds.

The boy will spot Masaomi attempting to woo Anri in thirty-five seconds.

The boy will kick Masaomi to the ground in forty-five seconds.

The boy will suffer Masaomi’s rolling sobat kick in fifty seconds.

The boy will ask Anri to a café in seventy-three seconds.

The boy will be rejected by Anri in seventy-four seconds.

The boy will be invited to eat lunch on the roof by Anri in seventy-eight seconds.

The boy will fall in love with Anri in—

The boy will profess his love for Anri in—

Chat room

At the end of the day, Mikado turned on his computer. He was curious how the Internet was reacting to the previous night’s events, but it didn’t seem to be spreading much. A few people had posted about the dullahan, but no one was taking them seriously.

Figures, Mikado snorted to himself, then took a look in the chat room he visited just about every day—the chat room that Izaya had invited him to, using the nickname Kanra. The only other person in the room was his friend under the name of Setton.

Another person invited to the chat room by Kanra. I wonder if Setton has some secret identity, too…

—TAROU TANAKA HAS ENTERED THE CHAT—

{Good evening.}

[Evening. I’ve just been waiting around.]

{Okay. I’m pretty tired tonight, so I won’t be around for long.}

[Lack of sleep? Did you pull an all-nighter?]

{Kind of.}

[Kanra’s not online yet, I guess.]

{Do you suppose he’ll show up?}

[Uh-oh. Sorry, something’s come up that I need to take care of.]

{Oh, is that so?}

[Sorry, bye.]

{Okay, good night.}

—SETTON HAS LEFT THE CHAT—

“Sorry to interrupt your fun,” said the man in the white coat, smiling apologetically.

“No big deal,” she typed on the keyboard. Celty popped up out of the chair.

“Just be careful—tonight’s job could be pretty dicey. Here’s the deal…”

She listened to the description of her mission and left the apartment without a sound.

It was the start of another day for Celty.