Durarara!! - Volume 11 - Chapter 3.6

Intermediate Chapter: Nowhere (Wo)Man

An excerpt from Shinichi Tsukumoya’s closed blog

Let me tell you about Kasane Kujiragi.

She is undoubtedly and unashamedly a perpetrator, but she is also a victim.

However, being a victim does not make it okay to be a perpetrator. She is a criminal who deserves to be judged by human beings for her actions.

I say “by human beings” for a reason, of course.

Kasane Kujiragi.

This is not her real name, but bringing up her old name would only make this story more complicated. So within the posts of this blog, I will refer to her only by that name.

Kasane Kujiragi might be human, and she might not.

To be precise, her mother was something not quite human.

A folklore yokai?

A monster?

Some evil spirit?

A demon?

I can only guarantee that she is not an angel, but the precise label is not important, really.

The point is, Kasane Kujiragi was born to a human man and “something” not human.

But there’s no need for me to go on and on about her mother here. Such stories are best left to rats who reek of blood.

In any case, she has inhuman blood running in her veins.

And though they are separated by a generation, Ruri Hijiribe contains the same blood.

Yes. Kasane Kujiragi and Ruri Hijiribe are relatives. Ruri’s mother and Kasane Kujiragi are sisters from different fathers. That would make Ruri the niece of Kujiragi.

Does that seem weird to you?

Kujiragi doesn’t look that old, does she?

Well, her mother’s blood does confer certain things, but as a matter of fact, she really isn’t that old. Though sisters, she’s over twenty years apart from Hijiribe’s mom.

But enough talk about middle-aged childbirth.

Kasane Kujiragi.

To make a long story short, she was sold. Right after birth.

Ruri Hijiribe’s grandmother did some hanky-panky after she left home, and when she gave birth to her daughter, that child got sold off to an old man named Jinnai Yodogiri.

What kind of a mother does that, right?

Okay, maybe she had some circumstances, but I don’t know about that. It all happened years ago.

Anyway, this guy Yodogiri teaches the little girl all kinds of tricks of the trade, even at her age. That’s probably around the time she got Saika.

And after that old man died, out of convenience, she kept the name of Jinnai Yodogiri alive by using appropriate doubles as she went.

Her life is spent devouring people and monsters, as Jinnai Yodogiri.

She didn’t ask for it.

She just didn’t know any other way to live.

I bet the talent was always there. As long as she lived that way, she never struggled to support herself. In fact, if she’d lived any other way, Kujiragi would no doubt have starved to death as a child.

Her mother sold her, and Jinnai Yodogiri broke her down as a person and fit her into his mold.

If Izaya Orihara is a natural villain, then Kujiragi is a miscreant built by human hands.

That’s what I meant when I said she’s a perpetrator and a victim.

Again, it doesn’t excuse her actions, by any means. That’s what I wrote above.

And when it came to the way she treated Ruri Hijiribe, there might have been some personal sentiment involved.

Just think about it.

A woman who has the same blood as her, chasing her dreams and leading a brilliant life in the spotlight.

It makes sense that she’d want to torment and toy with such a woman, right? Just roll her right down into hell.

But only if Kujiragi still has the very human emotion known as jealousy.

Now, I happen to know more things than the average person. I know things, and then I know things.

But I can’t read people’s minds, and I certainly can’t read monsters’ minds.

Maybe if you searched all across the entire world, you’d find some person or monster with the superpower to read minds as if they were transparent—but it ain’t gonna be me.

So I can’t really imagine it.

I can’t foresee what Kujiragi will do next, broken free from the shackles of Yodogiri.

She’s been completely released from Jinnai Yodogiri.

While still possessing the “power” of Jinnai Yodogiri.

Freedom.

If Kujiragi tastes this to her heart’s content and tearfully reforms herself to live for the sake of others and the betterment of the world… Well, that’d be nice, but I’m not counting on it.

There’s only one thing I can say to you, intrepid discoverer of this blog.

Just be careful that she doesn’t drink the blood flowing fresh from your veins, that’s all.