Durarara!! - Volume 3 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Never Gonna Realize How They’re Feeling…

The next day, Raira Academy

The end of the school year ceremonies were over, and the classroom was full of the air of liberation only found around students.

Some were reminiscing with their classmates before next month’s class reorganization, and others were chatting about their spring vacation plans—but only Mikado chose to be alone and stare at the rain through the window.

It wasn’t that he didn’t fit in within the class. He was one of their representatives in the student council, so if anything, he was one of the more sociable members of the classroom.

But at the moment, he was not in the mood to be social. His two friends, who normally sat on either side of him, were not at school.

“Both absent for two days in a row…,” he mumbled to himself as he stared at the sky.

He had tried reaching out to both of their cell phones, but hadn’t succeeded in getting through.

What if they’re on a date together…?

He didn’t want to imagine that possibility, but it wasn’t out of the question.

What should I do if that is the case?

If Anri had chosen Masaomi…that would be sad for him, but he wouldn’t stay too down about it. In fact, he might even support them.

But if that meant that their friendship trio fell apart, that would be miserable. If they were ditching school to go hang out, they could have invited him.

Mikado slapped his cheeks to straighten out his mind.

Wait, wait, they might just be sick. No use imagining wild scenarios like that.

He would go and visit Anri and Masaomi on the way home from school today. He ought to anyway; he’d received her report card from the teacher.

Is it even within the rules to have a classmate give an absent student their grade report? he wondered—and decided to take a peek at Anri’s card. Whoa…

I’ve never seen someone get perfect 10s across the board…

Anri had the look of a model student, and he knew she always got high scores on their regular tests. But even then, he hadn’t anticipated the impact of those pristine numbers.

She’s even got a 10 in gym…

“Hey! Hey, Ryuugamine!”

Mikado was so absorbed in spying on his friend’s report card that his heart nearly stopped when someone called for his attention.

“Oh, h-hi, Harima. And Yagiri, too. What’s up?”

“Actually…Mika wanted something.”

It was a romantic couple consisting of two of his classmates: Seiji Yagiri and his girlfriend, Mika Harima.

The trio of Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri was well-known throughout the school, but they were no match for the infamy of these two.

They were together not only when they arrived and left school, but during break time as well. It was almost unthinkable to see them individually with other friends.

Of course, they didn’t have many friends to begin with—the only person Mikado knew as a friend of Mika’s was Anri Sonohara. And after these two had begun going out, even Anri had almost no contact with her old friend…

“So…what’s wrong with Anri?”

Mikado was so surprised to hear Anri’s name that he could only stare at Mika with curiosity. “What’s wrong…? We were all wondering that ourselves. Maybe she’s sick,” he said politely.

Now it was Mika’s turn to look curiously at him. “Huh? Ryuugamine, didn’t you notice?”

“Notice what?”

“Anri’s been dealing with some pretty big problems. Especially two days ago, right?”

“…Huh?”

Mikado was so taken aback by this sudden news that he turned to face them directly, chair and all.

“I asked her about it during cleaning time, because I was concerned for her, but she just claimed that everything was ‘fine’ and wouldn’t say a word about it. She’s always been the type to keep her worries to herself, after all. I thought maybe you’d heard something from her!”

“Er, no… Nothing at all,” Mikado replied, though a sense of anxiety was quickly blooming inside of him.

He hadn’t noticed even an inkling that Anri might be acting differently than usual. It came as a shock to him that he hadn’t perceived any difference despite the time they spent together, yet Mika noticed Anri’s change from a considerable distance.

“W-well, I’m going to pay her a visit today, so I’ll ask her about it…”

“Hmm. Well, I’m worried about her, so tell me if anything happens. We’ll visit when we’ve got the time.”

“Okay,” he mumbled.

With an uncertain look back, Mika took Seiji’s arm and started walking off. But Seiji stopped after a step and turned back to tell Mikado, “Maybe it’s not my place to say…”

“Huh?”

“But being shy and turning your back to the other person is never gonna help you realize how they’re feeling,” he said without hesitation, right within earshot of his girlfriend.

“…You’re right. Thanks.”

Feeling a kind of jealousy for his forthright and outspoken classmate, Mikado was ashamed at how little he had truly been paying attention to Anri.

Seiji had a view of romance that was the polar opposite of Masaomi’s, a fact that Mikado was painfully aware of. He was hoping to speak to the boy for a bit longer, to hopefully learn something new.

“Kya-ha! And Seiji’s always watching me! Always has, always will! It’s all right, I’ve never bothered with watching anyone but you, either!” Mika bubbled like a character in a comic book, as soon as the words were out of Seiji’s mouth. She leaped onto him and clung for dear life.

The teacher was still cleaning up his desk and looked ready to say something, but he ultimately decided it would be futile. He left the room.

Next, Mika dragged Seiji after her out into the hallway, suggesting that they should make their spring vacation plans soon.

The classroom was suddenly empty, plunging Mikado into a lonely mood. He glanced back up at the sky.

For an instant, he felt like he caught a glimpse of blue sky.

But the rain still showed no sign of stopping.

Apartment building, near Kawagoe Highway, Ikebukuro

When she awoke, Anri encountered a strange, foreign sensation.

This must be a dream.

Normally, she had the same dream every time: one of her family when they were still alive. But she could tell that she was having a different dream this time.

As with any dream, it was set in the old house where her family lived happily. Everyone wore smiles that existed only in her imagination, chatting and laughing away. It was the kind of dreamy dream that could never be anything but a dream.

But today, it was not her father and mother who were with her, but Mikado and Masaomi.

Why is it Mikado and Kida…?

As she lay under the blanket with her eyes closed, Anri thought about this dream and the events of the last few days.

She found out that Masaomi was the boss of the Yellow Scarves and was embarking on a massive war because of her—and then she escaped.

How much better it would be if that was the dream.

As she slowly opened her eyes, the sadness settled in. The light that reached her eyes was different from usual. It wasn’t just the light; it was the color of the walls, the pattern on the ceiling, the blanket draped over her, and the many expensive pieces of audio equipment and game consoles around her.

For a moment, she wondered if she was still dreaming. But then she remembered what happened before she fell asleep and realized that this was Celty’s apartment.

When she got to the apartment last night, she wasn’t really in any state to have a conversation. Celty saw how Anri worried about how to tell Masaomi and Mikado about this, and how to apologize for getting them involved, and told the girl, “It’s fine. You can stay here and relax until it all blows over.”

She remembered agonizing all night until the dawn, at which point she got loopy with fatigue. She must have fallen asleep here and been left since.

Anri’s glasses were on the shelf next to the bed, so she put them on to take a good look at the room and confirm that it was indeed not a dream.

I ought to thank her, she thought, sitting up.

It was an unusual awakening for her, but the cursed chant of I love you still rang throughout her body like always. The madness-inducing curses put her mind at ease somehow—a fact that made her sad when it registered on her.

It was normal not to hear voices like that, so how could she feel at ease with them?

I’m…a monster.

She had a cursed blade making its home within her body and mind, and despite its presence, she wasn’t going insane—she was making good use of it. She was a creature far removed from proper society.

Maybe that was why she had that dream. Perhaps yesterday’s events were a punishment she had to bear. Perhaps it was the price she ought to pay for wishing that a monster like herself could lead a normal, happy lifestyle with Mikado and Masaomi.

I shouldn’t bother hoping for a human life, like other people have…

She got to her feet with this thought in mind and slowly opened the door to find…

A headless monster watching a variety show on TV as she challenged a man in a white lab coat to a handheld video game.

“Go easy on me, Shinra.”

“You want me to go easy, in a block-dropping game? How would I do that exactly?”

“Don’t press any of the buttons.”

“That’s not going easy, that’s committing suicide!”

Celty and Shinra were enjoying a head-to-head video game battle, bickering away in their usual style. Celty had her laptop set up at her side and was using her body shadows to type at the keyboard so that both hands were still free to use the handheld console.

“Argh, I lost again! Damn…I hate you, Shinra.”

“You do?! Wait, wait, wait! Fine, I won’t hit the buttons this time!”

“Ha-ha-ha, I’m just kidding. I’m not that childish.”

“Oh good… I’m so glad to be alive!” Shinra rejoiced for some odd reason. Celty set down her handheld and watched the TV screen.

There was a young actor on the LCD screen—he was at a press conference announcing his starring role in an upcoming film. His features were still boyish; his height was average, but his face looked like it belonged to a high schooler or even a middle schooler.

“Ooh, it’s Yuuhei Hanejima. He’s really turned into a big star lately. I like his acting, he’s very good.”

“I hate to interrupt your attempt to change the subject by watching TV, but…I wouldn’t get too infatuated with him.”

Celty was confused for a moment—Shinra rarely ever turned his attention away from the celebrities on TV.

A few seconds later, she typed out a teasing response. “Why? Will you be…jealous?”

“That’s Shizuo’s brother,” he said. Silence followed.

Celty was still for a few moments, unable to break down the meaning of his words. Eventually, she typed a hesitant question: “Huh?”

“I’m telling you, he’s Shizuo’s little brother.”

“No way!”

Celty increased the font size to depict the impact of her reaction.

“If you read the ‘feather’ kanji in his name as wa instead of hane, what happens? Yuuhei Wajima, Yuuhei Wajima, Yuu Heiwajima… His birth name is actually Kasuka Heiwajima, based on a different reading of ‘Yuu.’ Just like his brother, he doesn’t live up to his name. I mean, Shizuo is anything but ‘quiet,’ while Kasuka has way too much of the spotlight to be considered ‘dim’ or ‘faint.’”

“I had no idea…”

“Then…did you know Izaya has little sisters? Two of them. Twins in middle school.”

“No way!!”

Celty was completely flustered to learn such huge details about the siblings of people she thought she knew well. Shinra grinned, ready to deliver the finishing blow.

“Did you also know I have an older sister?”

“What?! Why haven’t I heard that before?!”

“Because it’s not true… Oush, oush, oush, don’t puwl my sheek, thiff hurf but itf vewy shweet!” Shinra babbled, his cheek twisted out of shape. The movement caused him to turn and notice that the door to the adjacent room was open and a girl’s face was poking out of it.

“Hey, so you’re finally awake.”

“Ah…s-sorry to intrude like this!” she yelped timidly, as Celty hastily removed her grip on Shinra’s cheek. The dullahan typed a large-font message into her laptop so Anri could see.

“Oh good. I was almost afraid you might have fallen into an eternal sleep.”

“Th-thank you… I’m afraid I’ve been a huge burden…”

“Not at all. We were going to wake you up, but you really seemed exhausted, so we waited… We were just saying this morning that if you didn’t wake up by this afternoon, we ought to take you to a proper hospital.”

“I guess that means that playing games and watching daytime TV instead of caring for her makes us pretty wretched people,” Shinra laughed ironically.

Anri had one question based on what they’d just told her. “Um…the hospital? How long have I been sleeping?”

“Over an entire day… About thirty hours, I’d say. Oh, you did wake up once to use the bathroom, but it was pretty much sleepwalking. You collapsed right back into bed after that.”

“Don’t talk to a girl about using the bathroom, or we’ll sue you for harassment.”

“Why, Celty, you’re as punitive as a certain litigation-happy world superpower.”

Shinra and Celty were their usual glib selves, but Anri’s mind had gone completely blank. Part of it was shock that she had missed two whole school days, including the end-of-year ceremonies. But what would Masaomi think of it, too?

After what had happened at the factory, did her absence cause him to suspect that she might be the intruder after all?

Celty noticed the fear on Anri’s face and approached the girl to gently embrace her shoulder and display her laptop screen.

“It’s all right, I’m on your side. And this suspicious fellow in the white lab coat can be trus… Well, he’s with us.”

“Why did you start writing that I could be trusted, then change your mind?”

Hearing that the headless being was on her side brought a bit of calm to Anri’s mind. A normal person might have found that alarming, but given that Anri had just considered herself a monster, it was reassuring simply to have company.

Celty seemed to be even more human than human, and despite the lack of a face to see, Anri sensed that the rider was quite happy, which made her jealous.

So hearing Celty proclaim that she was “on her side” filled Anri’s heart with a warmth that she hadn’t felt in a long time. It was the kind of warmth she felt the first time she met Mikado and Masaomi. Anri decided she wanted to seize what was in her dreams and bring them back to reality.

Her parents were already dead, but Masaomi and Mikado were alive in the real world.

Anri made her up mind and stared at Celty, ready to speak.

About the various events around her over the last several days…

South Ikebukuro Park

A boy walked through the rain alone.

Beneath the hammering of the rain against his black umbrella, he clenched his fist wrapped in a yellow cloth.

The school ceremony had to be over by now. He hoped that Anri had noticed his absence from school and was at least concerned for him. And what was Mikado thinking?

Masaomi peered up at the rainy sky from beneath the lip of his umbrella, envisioning his childhood friend’s face. Drops hit his face between the spokes of the umbrella, but he didn’t even feel the chill of the water.

“The boss of the Dollars is Mikado Ryuugamine.”

The instant the truth he wanted to know came into his grasp, it sank to being the truth he didn’t want to know.

“Why…?”

He wanted to believe it was a lie, but Izaya never lied to his clients about what they paid for. Masaomi knew that through personal experience.

Even still, it was hard to swallow.

“Why did Mikado’s name pop up there?”

Izaya explained everything in detail, including the fact that the Headless Rider was one of the Dollars as well. But hardly any of that reached Masaomi. He barely even remembered leaving Izaya’s apartment and wandering around the town.

“What have I been doing all this time?”

The longer he looked up at the sky, the more something soft and airy began to wriggle inside his head. It felt like reality and dreams were mixing together into a complex cocktail.

If he reached out, he might be able to grab the sky—anything he wanted might appear before his eyes if he wished for it. Either he was low on sleep or the stress was having a toxic effect on his mind.

Now that he had the information from Izaya, there was one thing Masaomi needed to do: talk to Mikado. All rational thought told him that it was the shortest path to a resolution, even if it didn’t get there on its own.

But Masaomi never doubted Mikado during the whole slasher incident. He’d known Mikado since they were kids. He wasn’t the type of person who harmed others, and his affection for Anri seemed real. Which meant that if the Dollars were involved, it had to be in some way that Mikado didn’t know about.

What if Mikado had a secret side to his personality and actually hated Masaomi and hurt Anri because he wanted her all to himself? What if he was putting all this pressure on Masaomi, knowing that he was the leader of the Yellow Scarves? The thought crossed his mind for an instant, but oddly enough, he didn’t give it much serious thought.

“If it’s really that untenable a situation, then nothing I do can resolve it. I’ll have to give up.”

It would mean that he’d been fooled by Mikado’s smile for the entire year, but on the other hand, he’d been fooling Mikado since middle school and encouraged him to come to Ikebukuro for entirely selfish reasons. He’d have to suck it up and assume they were even—whether he got crushed by his old friend or decided to fight.

But Masaomi had a firm confidence that Mikado was not the one responsible for this. If he had wanted to do it, he could have destroyed the Yellow Scarves in a much simpler way. If he knew that Masaomi was the leader of the Yellow Scarves and had a grudge against him for that, there were ways for him to deal with the situation. He would have made use of Izaya, another member of the Dollars.

If there was any other reason that he did not suspect Mikado, it was simply the vague and baseless faith that Mikado wasn’t that sort of guy.

If there was any reason that he might be irritated with Mikado, it was that he had never once told him the secret of the Dollars.

But that goes for me, too.

He recalled that he had never once told Mikado about anything to do with the Yellow Scarves, and his irritation turned inward upon himself.

With that irritation at its peak and turning to desperation, Masaomi found himself agonizing over a question: Whom did he want to see most?

Once the chaos had calmed down, where would he go back to?

He wanted to speak with Mikado and get things cleared up.

Or perhaps he could go after the slasher again, for Anri’s sake.

It wouldn’t be bad to hang around with Kadota, Yumasaki, and Karisawa, either.

And then…there was Saki.

Why do I bring up the name of a girl I broke up with?

He shook his head self-deprecatingly to clear the name.

The closing ceremonies had to be over by now. The options for what Masaomi could do next swirled through his head as he wandered around the park.

Suddenly, his cell phone rang.

He’d gotten a call from Mikado the night before, but he wasn’t ready to talk at the time.

That’s right, I can’t keep running.

Masaomi thought of what Kadota had told him two years earlier and made up his mind to answer the phone. But the number on the display was an unregistered one and totally unfamiliar to him.

Based on the number itself, it looked like a cell phone. An ugly sensation came back to Masaomi’s mind.

That vague unease that plagued him when he formed the Yellow Scarves.

That fear that shocked him when the Blue Squares’ boss called him to taunt him with Saki.

The mix of these two emotions filled him with a sudden, intense resistance to answering the call. But without a concrete reason not to pick up, Masaomi had no choice but to hit the button and bring the receiver to his ear.

And the voice he heard was…

Apartment building, near Kawagoe Highway, Ikebukuro

“Ah…I see how it is, then,” Celty typed into the laptop on the table once she had finished listening to Anri’s story. “So neither of those two you’re always with—Mikado or that Masaomi boy—know what you really are.”

Anri read the flowing text and quietly nodded. It felt like she was having a conversation with a computer screen, but since she didn’t know sign language, there was no other way for her to communicate. Plus, she had met Celty a number of times since that first incident for lessons in using a computer, so she was getting used to the idea.

“Let’s see, we’ll need to think of a way to stop the warfare. Don’t worry—a plan started forming in my mind even while you were describing the situation,” Celty typed confidently. Anri felt a note of relief creep into her mind. It was the first time she could truly reveal everything about herself to another person—and not in the mind-control way—and she’d never considered that it could be such a powerful buoy to her spirit.

Maybe it would work out after all. With that spark of hope inside her, Anri began to consider her options.

But there was one thing that weighed on her. Celty had referred to Masaomi as “that Masaomi boy,” while Mikado was just plain “Mikado.”

It was a very minor distinction, but Anri decided that it wasn’t wise to leave the issue unresolved to nag at her mind, so she asked Celty directly, “Um…do you know…Ryuugamine?”

“Uh. Ohhhh… Um, let me just ask you this: How much do you know about Mikado Ryuugamine?”

“Huh…?”

Anri wasn’t expecting the question to be thrown back her, and she panicked slightly. Why were they talking about Mikado now? She didn’t know why, but she trusted Celty implicitly, so she answered the question despite her hesitation.

“Um, he’s a very good friend of mine… He’s as important to me as Kida, and we both serve as our class representatives. It’s been a long time since I just had normal friends like them…and…”

“Okay, Celty? She has no idea,” Shinra said, cutting Anri off before she spent any more time searching for words to answer the question. “It’s very strange how despite spending every day around someone—or perhaps because of that—you’re so close that the most important things actually stay hidden… But that’s only natural. I hid things from Celty for years. But I don’t hide anything anymore.”

“I know that.”

“Um, did I say something careless?” Anri asked worriedly, but Celty shook her hand back and forth to indicate that it was okay.

“No, it’s just fine. You’ll learn everything before very long.”

“Um, oh.”

Anri had no idea what she meant, but she trusted in Celty’s confidence and didn’t inquire further. Celty, meanwhile, picked up the helmet off the corner of the table and stuck it onto her neck the way one would attach a robot part.

She was clearly getting ready to go somewhere, so she pointed the helmet at Anri and typed out a message meant to put the girl at ease.

“Don’t worry about it. If all goes well, this will be entirely wrapped up by the end of today. I’m going to go bring an acquaintance along. Just wait here for now.”

“Um, okay… I’m sorry to be a burden on you for two days running…”

“Don’t let it bother you. This apartment is pointlessly huge, anyway.”

She turned to Shinra this time and sent him a message very different from what she’d been telling Anri. “Don’t put any weird ideas in her head before I get back. This kind of thing is meaningless unless it comes straight from the horse’s mouth. And don’t interrogate her or try any weird experiments.”

“I know. Trust me!” Shinra replied, grinning painfully. Celty looked into his eyes and tapped out a quick message.

“Trust placed. I’m going to go get Mikado. At this point, his school either gets out before noon, or he’s on vacation, right?”

She deleted the message promptly so that Anri couldn’t see, then tucked her trusty PDA into her shadow and rushed out of the apartment door. Anri watched her sudden exit, sitting in place with a confused look on her face.

The man left behind in the apartment with her was wearing a white lab coat at home, for some reason. It reminded her of the man with the white gas mask she’d met two days earlier.

“Um…I really appreciate this… You even gave me a bed and everything…”

“Huh? Oh, it’s quite all right. Celty’s friends are my best friends. What would you say to being our foster daughter? Celty doesn’t even exist on paper, so she can’t be your official mother, but still,” Shinra said easily without much thought. Anri was relieved that she wasn’t being a pain, but something in what he said struck her as odd. She stared at him.

When he noticed the girl’s mystified stare, Shinra returned it, taken aback. Her reaction was curious to him. Eventually, he understood her unspoken question and clapped his fist into his palm.

“Ohhh. I don’t think you understand, so I’ll just tell you straight…”

He laid out the truth, flat and simple, without embellishment or artifice.

“Celty’s a girl, okay?”

South Ikebukuro Park

“Hello?”

“Wha—? Yo. You the shogun? Kida? Masaomi Kida?”

The voice coming from the other end of the call was that of a throaty man, crude and vulgar. He sounded older than their generation. Just like Izumii of the Blue Squares did.

“May I ask who’s speaking?”

“C’mon, don’t be like that. I’m a pal. We’re friends.”

“Huh? No idea what you’re talking about.”

“Fine, whatever. Listen, we’re at that old factory right now. Everyone’s already here, in fact.”

A chill trickled through Masaomi’s spine. The factory he was referring to had to be the abandoned lot the Yellow Scarves used as a hideout. So was he one of them? But he’d never heard this voice before…

“Listen, I’m Horada. You know me?”

“…Oh.”

The unique sound of the name brought Masaomi back to several nights ago, when he heard it first mentioned. “The one who got his head split by the Black Rider’s pal…”

“The hell? Is that all I am to you? The guy who got his ass kicked?”

“Uh…I didn’t mean it that way…”

Why would a man he’d never met before call him out of the blue? And at this precise moment, of all moments? The questions floated through Masaomi’s mind, but his silence worked to his advantage, as it prompted Horada to proclaim one relevant bit of information.

“Umm, so anyways, listen. You don’t gotta come no more.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sayin’, you’re fired. No more shogun. Beheaded. No more head.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Masaomi demanded, the overly familiar tone of the other man grating on his nerves. But the next moment, he heard something that made him completely forget about his anger at his phone partner.

“Is it Mikado Ryuugamine? The name of your little friend.”

“Wha…?”

The instant Horada said Mikado’s name, Masaomi’s entire body froze solid.

Why would Mikado’s name come up at this exact moment?

“What a shocker, huh? We’re all shocked over here. The boss of the Dollars, friends with our boss?”

“Wait a second… Where’d you hear that from?”

“Does it really matter? I can’t believe you were lying to us this whole time, yeah?”

“Wait… I only just learned that yest…,” Masaomi started to say, then swallowed his tongue. Who in the world would possibly believe that he’d only just learned the truth himself?

He got the exact kind of answer over the phone that he expected to hear.

“Yesterday? You’re not gonna tell me you just found out yesterday. You were best buds and classmates with this guy for over a year, and then you act like you didn’t know he was Dollars? You know that ain’t gonna fly, right? You little traitor.”

“I didn’t…”

“You should see everyone’s shocked faces over here. Well, I got chosen to be the new leader; I’m the oldest, after all. I’ll put out a death sentence on you, too. Don’t got time for it today, but you ain’t gonna be strollin’ around Ikebukuro starting tomorrow.”

“I said wait! I want to talk with… What about today?” Masaomi asked.

Horada snorted and challenged his former leader. “Now that we know who the boss of the Dollars is, we gotta spend today finding and crushing him, obviously.”

A cold sweat broke out on Masaomi’s skin, combining with the humidity of the rainy air into an unpleasant dampness. “Wait, the Dollars aren’t…Mikado, at least, has nothing to do with the slasher, I think…”

Masaomi wasn’t trying to clear up his own innocence—he was vouching for Mikado’s.

But Horada’s ugly, crude voice cut him off. “But that don’t matter no more. The slasher’s just an opportunity, ya know? Either way, the Dollars and Yellow Scarves want the other side out of their way. So it works out fine.”

“Doesn’t matter…? What do you think you’re doing? Getting revenge for your head getting busted?”

“I don’t care about that, either. It gave me an excuse, and someday I’ll kill that guy in the gas mask, but the important thing is…we can’t turn back now.”

“Can’t turn back…?” Masaomi caught a clear note of malice in the other man’s words, and he turned on Horada, his pulse racing. “Why…? What did you do?”

“I’ll let you in on one last little secret. The Dollars are done for. And I’ve already finished off Shizuo Heiwajima.”

“Huh…? Finished? What did you do to Shizuo…to that monster?”

“It ain’t your business no more. You just better pray the police believe your side of the story—assuming the police find you before we do. Hah!”

And with that final snort, the other man hung up the phone.

Masaomi hastily tried to call his other longtime companions in the Yellow Scarves, but no one answered. The high school closing ceremony should be long over, and few of them would be diligent enough to attend a school ceremony in the first place.

But every single number that Masaomi dialed was not in use. Either they were powered off, they rang incessantly without answer, or they went to voice mail after the very first ring. The responses were varied, but the uniform absence of anyone to answer was cruel in its unanimity.

Masaomi clutched his useless phone and thought back to two years earlier.

The present situation was very similar to when Saki was abducted.

This wasn’t his girlfriend being kidnapped. But the same kind of guilt racked him, tied his body down to the spot before anything actually happened.

It would be a lie to say that he had no fondness for the Yellow Scarves. But at this point, that meant nothing. If Mikado wound up targeted by the Yellow Scarves, the way he was targeted by the Blue Squares two years ago, and if Anri was taken hostage as a tool to draw Mikado, just like Saki had been…

He would end up losing two of his dearest friends, his “home to return to.”

“The past is lonely. You can’t escape it.”

Izaya’s quote from the past lay heavy on Masaomi’s heart. If the past was going to come back to haunt him like this, maybe he shouldn’t have been running around to start with.

Everything matched up with his situation two years back.

The only difference from back then was that this time Masaomi raced out into the unknown without any hesitation.

Run.

Run, run, run.

Just run.

His goal was clear: He had to settle with the past that had caught up to him.

He urged his nearly cramping legs onward, onward.

The boy only wanted to know what he could do, if he could overcome his past.

He ran to find that out.

On his way toward the ruined factory, Masaomi plunged into a crowd. It was the shopping area known as Sixtieth Floor Street, on the way from Ikebukuro Station to Sunshine City.

Masaomi came to a stop there, standing in the middle of the road to survey the area. It was the place where he had spent the most time hanging out with Mikado and Anri. The same went for Saki and the members of the Yellow Scarves when he was active.

He remembered how he’d showed Mikado around the area the first time his friend had visited Ikebukuro. He looked around to burn the image into his eyes one last time.

With a kind of determination in his heart, he headed for the Yellow Scarves’ hideout, swearing that he would never stop again.

But he was almost immediately stopped by a familiar voice.

“Hey, Kidaaa. What wrong? Your face, very depressing. You hungry again?”

He looked overhead at the source of the voice and saw a black man standing nearly seven feet tall. He was ushering in customers from the crowd with an old-fashioned oilpaper umbrella overhead and his usual smile, but he approached Masaomi in a different way from normal when he noticed the boy’s demeanor.

“Kida no happy. Very strange lately. Say crazy things, like before. Your head sick? I buy you cucumber roll, cheer you up. Kida now, you look like with Izaya.”

Masaomi wanted to brush him off and continue with his pressing business, but then he remembered the previous day’s events and stopped to face Simon.

“Listen, Simon… Thanks for the sushi yesterday. It was crazy good! Five stars? If I had the right, I’d give it all fifty stars and stripes! You can have the entirety of America from me, Simon. That’s how good yesterday’s sushi was—but not just that time. Russia Sushi is awesome every time I eat there.”

Considering what was about to happen, Masaomi might never be able to visit the place again. That meant he would never be able to repay what he owed them for their generosity yesterday. He decided he could at least give them his thanks.

“Give my compliments to the chef. His knife work was incredi…”

“Oh, Kida. You go fight now? You kill someone, get killed? Izaya put you up to something again?” Simon interrupted, as if he read Masaomi’s mind.

“Wh-why would you say that? What are you, a psychic?” Masaomi laughed to hide his surprise, but he did not deny either Izaya’s involvement or the possibility of a fight.

With his usual expression but a more serious tone than before, Simon said, “I hear from Tom. Shizuo shot yesterday. Bang, bang from gun.”

“Huh…?”

“Kill and be killed, very bad. Where I was, when people fight, someone always die. Masaomi, you look like person ready to die. No good. This Ikebukuro. Not my hometown. Much warmer, people give food even to homeless. Not everyone die when sleep in street without vodka. Kids like Masaomi, no need to kill.”

“Simon…”

There was a serious look in Simon’s eyes that Masaomi had never seen before. He realized that he knew nothing about the man’s past. Rumors in town were colorful—they said he was a former Russian mobster or a mercenary. Masaomi had never asked him directly.

But he didn’t think Simon was lying. He must have been through serious troubles before he came to Japan. If he took that story at its word, then Simon had experienced things that no one living in Ikebukuro would ever know for themselves.

And that was exactly why he was giving Masaomi this precise, serious lecture.

But Masaomi still couldn’t stop.

“Sorry… I’m sorry, Simon. I’ve got to go…”

He felt that standing around and listening to Simon would only make his mission harder, so he bowed and raced off.

Simon didn’t chase after the boy. He only watched him go, a complicated, conflicted look on his face. Even after Masaomi had vanished into the crowd, Simon stood in that spot for a while. Eventually, he closed his eyes and shook his head, then resumed soliciting for customers.

He still turned in the direction Masaomi left from time to time, however.

The town just showed him its usual, ordinary nature.

With one minor difference, perhaps.

There was absolutely no sight to be seen of any youngsters wearing yellow scraps.