Durarara!! - Volume 4 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: GAO Magazine Special Article “Spotted! Yuuhei Hanejima and Ruri Hijiribe in a Late-Night Tryst?!”

Roots Smile Café, Higashi-Nakano

In a bar fairly close to Higashi-Nakano Station, with walls lined with various bottles of liquor and a pleasant handmade quality to the furnishings, a number of young people bustled, the sound of their merriment a kind of BGM for the establishment.

At a table in the very back sat two men, facing each other. One of them nervously glanced around, while the other drank a virgin cocktail, his face completely expressionless.

The emotionless man drained his glass, his eyes as cold as ice. When he was done, he ordered another from the bartender, still without a hint of feeling.

He turned to the older man sitting across from him and flatly asked, “Aren’t you going to have a drink, Mr. Kanemoto?”

“I have to go back to the office and work after this,” the restless Kanemoto said politely to the younger man. His table partner had a face so smooth and delicate, he could have passed as a boy—or even a woman. His features were handsome and striking, the very manifestation of beauty in the flesh.

His hair was a combination of countless perfect silky strands, as smooth and flowing as a river, perfectly jet-black and softly feminine.

At a glance, he looked like a prince out of a girls’ manga, but there was a chilly personality emanating from him that made him far from welcoming.

Eventually, an order of pasta reached the table, and the young man said in a monotone, “Go ahead, Mr. Kanemoto.”

“N-no, you first, Mr. Yuuhei,” he said, appending a polite title to the younger man’s name. Yuuhei picked up his fork without another word.

It was pasta alla carbonara, the chewy-looking noodles topped with rich cream sauce and fragrant bacon. The young man nimbly rolled his fork until he had accumulated a wad of pasta the size of a golf ball, which he popped into his mouth.

He chewed, carefully and silently, his face a sculpted mask. When he was done, he said, “This is good carbonara.”

The other man slumped and reluctantly grabbed his own fork. “There’s no way for me to tell if you’re telling the truth or not, based on your expression… Oh, what do you know? It is good.”

In comparison to the other man’s lack of emotion, the manager began to eagerly shovel the pasta into his face. He complained, “You know this is right in front of the office, don’t you? I mean…we could have a meeting at a club or someplace else. We’ll pick up the tab. Why here?”

“Because it’s close.”

“Oh, I see… So you’re saying…you don’t have any interest in visiting a club?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never considered it. I’ll look into it if I get the chance,” the young man said.

Kanemoto sighed and continued with business. “Well, in that case…are you up on tomorrow’s schedule?”

“I have an interview at a hotel in Ikebukuro at six thirty, and then I’m going home.”

“…Yes, that’s right.”

The conversation paused again. It wasn’t that the young man refused to speak, he just didn’t show any emotion when he did so. Because of that, Kanemoto was unsure of how to proceed or if what he was saying was displeasing his conversation partner.

“…”

“It’s very good.”

“…I know. I already finished mine… At any rate, tomorrow’s interview is promotion for the movie, so keep that in mind.”

“Okay.”

Yuuhei nodded and continued to eat his meal like an animatronic figure. His professional manager Kanemoto looked at the young man and thought, I only took on this job because Uzuki asked me to… He’s not acting this way because he hates me, is he?

“Um, well…in that case, let’s just get through the next three days, while Uzuki’s off on his honeymoon…”

“Yes, of course,” Yuuhei responded, still cold and mechanical. Kanemoto bowed again.

He had to avoid any displays of rudeness. The attractive young man sitting before him was worth millions—possibly billions—of yen. He was a bona fide money tree.

From the Internet encyclopedia Fuguruma Youki

An except from the “Yuuhei Hanejima” article

Yuuhei Hanejima—an actor and model. Born in Toshima Ward of Tokyo.

His birth date is unclear, as the president of Jack-o’-Lantern Japan, Max Sandshelt, has claimed on different occasions that he is “a cyborg born in the year 3258,” and “a vampire that’s been alive for over a millennium,” and “a warrior of light from the ancient continent of Atlantis who was never reincarnated.” Calculations from his appearance at the coming-of-age ceremonial holiday estimate that he is just around twenty-one years old.

His real name is Kasuka Heiwajima. As stated earlier, his talent agency is Jack-o’-Lantern Japan.

In addition to his parents, his family includes an older brother. He seems to respect his brother and mentions him often in interviews. No other details about his brother are known. There is a record of a bizarre incident involving a particularly persistent journalist’s car being suddenly flipped over after questioning too closely about Hanejima’s family, but the connection between the two things is not certain.

What is known is that his brother is a terrifying individual. He once beat a talent scout half to death, and Hanejima’s rescue of the scout was what led to his show business debut.

After modeling for a number of magazines, his first acting role was Carmilla Saizou, the lead character of the direct-to-video movie Vampire Ninja Carmilla Saizou. He earned cult attention for his good looks and frighteningly polished acting, and his name spread in certain circles on the Internet.

The next year, Daioh TV’s flagship program Money Gamer ran a segment titled “How Much Can You Make in One Month with a Million Yen?” in which Yuuhei used various connections and means to reach a total of 1.2 billion yen, an incident that led to nationwide news before it even aired.

Because the rules of the segment stated that any profit from the experiment went back to the contestant, he was soon known to the public as the extraordinarily lucky boy who won himself a cool 1,199 million yen.

Yuuhei’s reputation as a nouveau riche took the backseat when he exhibited his acting skill in a series of television dramas. His versatility in a variety of roles, combined with his appearance, launched him to stardom.

He is skilled at singing and athletics as well, not just acting. On top of that, his repertoire covers roles from singers to assassins, from cross-dressing to passionate bed scenes. He is known as an actor’s actor.

However, outside of acting, he eliminates virtually all emotion, carrying out conversations like a flat-voiced robot. This makes him an ill fit for talk shows, but many of his fans find this to be cool, and he is therefore known as naturally expressionless. In his words, “I used to cry and laugh as a kid, but I learned by the example of my brother, who had extreme emotional swings, and that’s why I act like this. But I still deeply respect him.”

In one nonfaked hidden-camera prank segment, Yuuhei was accosted by “yakuza” actors, who threatened to cut off his pinkie finger, but he showed no fear and did not resist. Right as they were about to sever his finger with a knife, the program staff had to intervene and cancel the segment.

In another incident, a stalker gave him a silent cold call on a day off, and he stayed on the line for twenty hours, until the stalker gave up. (This is only known because the silent pressure was too much to bear, disintegrating the stalker’s will and causing her to turn herself in to the police.)

This mechanical personality does not endear him to others, and he has virtually no close friends in show business. For this reason, his private life is shrouded in mystery, and the interior of his home has never been filmed.

He owns a number of cars, most notably some foreign sports cars and luxury models like Mitsuoka’s Le-Seyde and Galue, and he recently expressed a desire to own the Mitsuoka Orochi in a TV interview.

Because he chooses his purchases on taste with no thought for price, it is not uncommon for him to wear a cheap accessory from a one hundred–yen shop and an ultrafine million-yen accessory at the same time. He does not seem to find this odd at all. [citation needed]

Due to his ability to seemingly do anything perfectly, he has the Internet nickname “Secret-Shame Curator.” This is because he is considered “a character so perfect, he’s the kind of secret shame that you create in middle school and try to forget about when you grow up.”

When the agency president heard about this, he said, “Then we need to make him even more perfect” and whipped up a poster with angel wings, devil horns, and nonmatching color contacts. He managed to get this image on the cover of a niche magazine, but it looked so good on him that it only made him more popular. Inexplicably, the poster also went viral overseas.

Yuuhei kept a blank expression throughout the photo shoot, but afraid of the rumors that he was “only pretending to be blank to hide his incredible rage,” Max Sandshelt supposedly went back to America for two weeks for his own safety—an anecdote that aptly describes the eeriness of his icy expression.

After he had achieved both fame and fortune, Yuuhei stunned the showbiz world when he accepted an offer to film a sequel to Vampire Ninja Carmilla Saizou, a work that everyone assumed was his own secret shame.

When a celebrity magazine ranked him third on their list of “Actors Who Never Say No,” he responded with, “Carmilla Saizou is a very respectable character. He’s a wonderful ninja who knows the true meaning of love,” in his usual deadpan, leaving everyone else unsure of whether he meant it or not.

He was tabbed by Hollywood director John Drox to play the lead in his pet project Cruiserfield, which films in Japan this spring, leading to increased interest abroad.

And this soon-to-be Hollywood star was causing Kanemoto to come down with ulcers.

A man named Uzuki had been Yuuhei’s manager since his debut, but for these three days, Kanemoto was tabbed to take over as a substitute manager while Uzuki was on his honeymoon.

I didn’t think he really acted like a robot all the time.

Kanemoto had always assumed that Yuuhei’s iron mask was just another act he put on for the TV cameras. Anyone who saw his effortless swing of emotions when he was in character would naturally assume that this blank-faced automaton was the true act.

But this young man was anything but natural.

“Well, I’ll be going, then,” Yuuhei said in front of the Jack-o’-Lantern Japan building after their meal, as he got into his car.

Today he was driving a Ferrari. Kanemoto didn’t know much about the specific model, but he could recognize that it was a Ferrari from the red color, distinct body, and horse logo.

In the passenger seat was a plastic bag from a convenience store carrying a beef bowl inside it, probably for a late-night meal.

A guy with eight luxury cars, buying a cheapo mini-mart beef bowl, Kanemoto marveled as he watched the younger man drive off. He felt like he was watching a hermit in person.

Yuuhei Hanejima was the agency’s diamond, a jewel that shone brighter the more it was polished. As such, Kanemoto was filled to his core by a desire not to see him damaged. Yuuhei himself might be indifferent to his own worth, but his sheer talent in every regard helped him fend for himself.

Kanemoto understood this, but he couldn’t deny the overwhelming pressure not to have that diamond tarnished while it was briefly in his care. He was sick with envy at his newly married coworker in more ways than one.

But to his great misfortune, that very jewel would be dragged into Ikebukuro’s holiday the very next day.

In the darkness

Everything in one’s life could be compared to a story, such as a movie, or a TV show, or a novel, or a fairy tale.

In the blind darkness, she wondered what kind of B movie her life was.

When did it start?

Time itself seemed to twist and stretch. It was all she could do to keep her wits intact as she swam through a sea of vague memory.

Oh, that’s right. It was in my childhood. What I always looked up to as a child.

Giant beasts on the television screen, running and flailing about as they toppled high-rise buildings and the Tokyo Tower.

They weren’t exactly “animals,” more like a cross between people, insects, and something that did not exist in our world. Monsters designed to inspire fear and disgust that rampaged at will, without humility or excuses.

She felt a kind of adoration of these movie monsters, the kaiju.

At the time, she was too young to be able to describe what drew her to those creatures with words. But now, she could.

In her innocent youth, she understood that she could never be like them.

Obviously, no one could be a giant monster that stood hundreds of feet tall. It wasn’t in that sense.

She wanted to be something that was unfettered by anything, doing as it pleased, without regard for anyone else’s opinion. Even if the result of that was destruction.

Unconsciously, she came to a realization—that she could never live outside of the law, and even on the straight and narrow path, she could not expose who she really was.

Her family was one of the richest in an already-wealthy neighborhood.

It was a “distinguished line,” whatever that meant. All it amounted to was that she had to wear the mask of family and continue the act of her bloodline. Her parents, extended family, and others never explicitly said this to her, but the expectation and the atmosphere that existed before she was even born placed a powerful pressure on her instincts.

They weren’t the kind of distinguished line that had political or financial connections or the ability to bend society to their will. They were just a family that happened to have earned a bunch of money at some point a few generations in the past.

It was probably this tenuous connection to dignity that caused them to be so dedicated to the pursuit of “distinguished” behavior—it was the only way they could maintain that dignity.

And now, the estate was gone.

Her grandfather’s business failed, and her father got burned in the futures market trying to make up for that loss. They went bankrupt.

Her mother left the family, and her current whereabouts were unknown.

The house burned for some reason.

Several relatives with hefty debts hung themselves.

Some relatives without hefty debts hung themselves, too.

With hindsight, she could see that it wasn’t the debt that was crushing to them; it was the loss of that pride and honor, the only thing they could rely upon. A true distinguished family would maintain their dignity even if they lost everything, but the nouveau riche couldn’t protect or discard their pride, and the only thing left in between was despair.

As one of the few survivors, she mourned the loss of her family.

But she also gained freedom at last.

After many twists and turns being raised by distant relatives, she finally found what she wanted to do. It involved those movie kaiju that she admired so much as a child.

It wasn’t just her respect of kaiju, but of horror movie killers like Jason and Freddy, emotionless creatures like the Xenomorph, and all other bringers of destruction and murder that transcended both the flesh and society of humanity that led her to enroll as an apprentice makeup artist as soon as she graduated middle school.

Now she could create the monsters she had admired so much with her own hands.

And they’ll do what I couldn’t…

It was at this point in her reflection on her past that she finally realized what she was doing.

Oh. This is my life, flashing before my eyes.

The serial killer Hollywood, her body flying through the air after it was pummeled by a park bench, could sense her own life’s imminent end.

In the midst of that extremely compressed period of time, she shut her eyes.

How had she turned into a killer?

The flashback of her life didn’t need that part.

It was a part of her past she didn’t want to remember.

Still, I’m satisfied.

At the end, at the very end…I finally met a real monster.

Not a fake like me, but a true, true “monster” with monster strength.

And with the second great impact of the last few seconds, her flashback vanished, sending what remained of her wits into darkness.

At that moment

Kasuka Heiwajima, better known as Yuuhei Hanejima, was passing by, out of either coincidence or fate.

On the way home from his interview in Ikebukuro, he nimbly drove his beloved Le-Seyde through the night streets, right under the speed limit. The interview had contained several questions about his brother, so he decided to stop by and say hello, cruising the streets looking for the familiar bartender uniform that he had given Shizuo as a gift.

When this predictably didn’t work, he began to wonder if he should call, or send a text, or if it was even necessary to see him at all—when his car lights caught sight of something odd down a narrow alley.

“…”

It was the twisted sight of a human figure falling from the sky, an eyeball popped out of its socket.

The thing crashed to the asphalt and twitched once, then lay still and inert. Only the silhouette could be described as “human”; in the headlights, the skin was green and covered in crawling insects, the very figure of a zombie from a movie or video game.

Most human beings would scream at this point. But Yuuhei calmly pulled the car over to the shoulder and got out to check if the figure was living or just a mannequin.

The green skin gleamed wet and sticky in the light. There was no blood, but the figure was deadly still, clearly suffering serious medical effects.

Yuuhei considered that it could be a lifelike figure rather than a human being, but the momentary twitching earlier seemed to rule that out. It was an abnormal situation to say the least, but Yuuhei did not show a single sign of panic.

People falling out of the sky was a normal sight to Yuuhei. Usually because his brother had punched them there.

As he got out his phone to call an ambulance, Yuuhei considered another possibility.

The serial killer Hollywood.

Recalling the stories of the murderous maniac who appeared in the form of various monsters, Yuuhei began to wonder if the half-dead, half-living thing on the ground was this very person.

That didn’t change his course of action, however. He took a bold step forward, then noticed that the zombie’s face seemed to be peeling off.

“…”

The effect was so lifelike, it looked like nothing other than rotting skin. But beneath it, Yuuhei noticed a different color—not the red of muscle or blood, but pale, ordinary skin.

An ordinary person would likely have been too panicked by the sight to calmly notice such a detail, but this young man was not ordinary. He silently reached out for the mask.

When he saw the face that emerged from beneath it, Yuuhei stopped to think.

It was only for a few seconds, during which the young man’s handsome face showed no emotion, only an eerie mechanical interest, like a cleaning robot that found a piece of dirt.

Eventually, Yuuhei lifted the mysterious zombie-costumed person into his arms and toward the passenger-side door of his car. He carefully opened the door and sat the monster into the seat.

He then returned to the driver’s seat, called someone on his phone, and when he was done, quietly resumed driving away.

In the darkness

Oddly, I could tell that I was dreaming.

How had it begun?

Why did I become a murderer?

I should never have possibly become a monster, so how did it happen?

It’s what I always wanted, so why do I feel so sick?

I wanted to vomit.

I always wanted to vomit after I killed them.

But I knew that what was truly sickening was myself for being a killer.

Even as I committed the deeds, I asked myself what I was doing.

What a disgusting person I am, feeling sick at my own actions out of regret and guilt.

And even as I did it, I couldn’t stop the feeling of nausea from creeping up on my backbone.

No, no, it’s not right.

A monster doesn’t regret.

A monster doesn’t feel sick.

A monster isn’t plagued by guilt.

Some monsters in the movies were like that.

But they aren’t the real monsters.

They are lovable human beings. Or not human—but humanlike.

If they could share sentiments with human beings, then somewhere, somewhere, they were meant to be loved. No matter how they look.

But I am not.

I can’t be like that.

I can’t be loved by anyone.

I will be a monster.

A monster that no one can fathom.

And only then can I get back at them…

No, wrong.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

There’s one left! Just one! And yet…

One, one, one, him, he is coming

It’s him It’s him kill kill must kill him kill him

kill him them no him kill

kill kill no must kill or be killed vomit he’s coming don’t come

stay away stay away stay away stay away no no no don’t don’t do n’t

don’t touch me don’t touch me don’t touch me don’t touch me don’t don’t don’t

“This is a surprise. She heals almost as fast as Celty and your brother.”

Nooo! Who him no him? No!

No then who ggh hyaaaaa! going to , die ah

different voice no monster

“Amazing. Maybe Celty’s pulling her closer. What do you think?”

Not him whose voice here where is he is he

must kill someone I’ll die yeeek! aaaah!

“At first the syringe wouldn’t even pierce the skin. Then again, Shizuo broke my scalpel. I mean, that’s incredible. There’s no blade more solid and flexible than a scalpel. And he broke it… It felt like I was scraping against a metal washing board or something.”

Who answer who

where he where

Just one more to go can’t end yet hyaa!

“In fact, this isn’t far off… It’s kind of hard to believe it’d be a girl like this. Such a beauty in the prime of her youth.”

Answer answer answer 

Can’t end here no no I don’t want

Help Mother where are you

Help me

Help

And then, her eyes opened.

“Oh, she’s awake. Not only is there no danger to her life, she may be able to walk again in minutes.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Hey, I can’t turn down a request from Shizuo’s little brother. I don’t want him coming to blast me all the way to Mars.”

Her wits still weren’t in focus. Her hazy vision was able to process a milky-white ceiling.

There was some kind of conversation happening around her, but it all felt like it was happening in some distant country. But she’d have to be watching the TV to see something from a far-off land, so it gave her the illusion of receiving telepathic signals instead. Eventually, the information began to get clearer.

One of the voices was devoid of emotion, while the other was cynical and playful.

“Sorry about my brother…”

“Ha-ha, actually, I should thank you, since he’s been a big help to Celty somehow. But I don’t want her falling in love with Shizuo, so could you tell him not to act too cool if he can help it? He’ll punch me if I say so. Oh, and I’m a bit thirsty, so can I have a glass of water?”

“I’ll bring you one.”

“Oh, thanks. And one for her…if she can drink. Well, get one anyway.”

The closer man’s face loomed toward her. He was a smart-looking young man with glasses. Based on his white lab coat, he appeared to be a doctor.

But the background surrounding him did not look like a hospital. Bookshelves lined the wall, and there were decorative plants of the kind found at an upscale, ultramodern restaurant.

The room was certainly stylish, but that sleek look was ruined by the hangers of drying clothes hanging in the entrance doorway. There was also a tropical fish tank, its air pump bubbling away, yet she also heard a cat meowing somewhere else in the room. The whole place had an odd combination of luxury and homey comfort.

Where am I?

She blinked her cloudy eyes, trying to bring the scene into focus.

The next moment, she noticed the dull pain coming from every inch of her body.

…!

It wasn’t enough to make her scream, but she did wonder how it had taken her this long to notice such pain. She clenched her eyes against it, which the doctor-like man noticed.

“Oh, I wouldn’t move around yet if I were you. I gave you a painkiller, and you seem to heal fast—but you took injuries that would normally have you passed out from the pain,” he said flippantly.

She quietly tried to keep her breathing under control. If this was a hospital, there was something very important she’d need to face—but with the circumstances so uncertain, she needed to understand her situation first.

“…”

“Are you all right? Aside from the dull impact, do you have any sharp, stabbing pains?”

“…”

She shook her head. The man in the coat smiled with relief. At the very least, the doctor here did not seem to intend her any harm. She swallowed and managed to emit a voice that was weak and pained, yet driven by strong will.

“Um…where…am I…?”

It was a delicate and beautiful voice for a girl who had been wearing a horrifying zombie mask just minutes earlier, but Shinra Kishitani, the man in white, simply shook his head in ecstatic wonder.

“Ahhh, it’s just like your voice on TV.”

“Umm…”

“Oh, pardon me. But hang on a second. Before I answer your question…please just let me enjoy the bliss of meeting someone I’ve always wanted to meet. Not in a romantic way. Just a few seconds, if you don’t mind.”

“Uh, okay…,” the girl on the bed said, keeping her voice low so as not to set off the throbbing in her head.

Shinra looked relieved and theatrically thrust his arms wide before his injured patient, his voice positively brimming with bliss.

“It’s a cold, cruel world out there, but I’m glad to be alive! This is true enchantment! Oh, once you’re able to move again, may I have your autograph? Two, if possible! I know I’m a shameless fanboy, but my roommate is also a huge fan of yours!”

It was hardly the most gentlemanly thing in the world, devolving into fawning excitement in the presence of an injured patient, but the black-market doctor couldn’t help but bow to his personal hero.

But this wasn’t limited to just him; many men would do the same in this situation. Others might be so nervous that they could barely speak.

“Who would have ever thought that I could have this job skulking in the darkness…”

Shinra spread his arms even wider and identified his patient.

“…and eventually get the chance to treat everyone’s favorite idol singer, Ruri Hijiribe!”

From the Internet encyclopedia Fuguruma Youki

An excerpt from the “Ruri Hijiribe” article

A Japanese actress, celebrity, and model. Affiliated with the Yodogiri Shining Corporation talent agency.

Her birth name is the same as her stage name.

Date of birth August 8, year unknown.

She was originally an apprentice of the special-effects makeup artist Tenjin Zakuroya, then made her modeling debut after she was scouted by Yodogiri Shining Corporation.

Before her debut, she handled special-effects makeup for several domestic films, with her work on Vampire Ninja Carmilla Saizou being especially lauded. The World Film Village Federation listed her along with her master in their list of “100 Juiciest SFX Makeup Artists.”

After that, she made her magazine debut as a model and appeared in her first minor role in a TV drama six months later, winning passionate fans with her unique nature.

Her acting is not expert level; her fans are drawn to her nature underneath. Her pale skin and delicate, melancholy features give her an unearthly beauty, which has landed her a number of roles playing gloomy, weak-willed characters.

She is rumored to be the rare “straight beauty” without the need of cosmetics, but the truth of this is unknown. It’s also said that she maintains the same quiet, graceful nature when the cameras aren’t rolling. In interviews, she has claimed that she’s poor at interacting and has no friends or boyfriend.

Although she is supposedly sold on her looks alone, her rare qualities among celebrities means that she has no competitive rival. Her ghostly nature makes her popular with men and women alike.

She is poor at physical activity and has never appeared on televised athletic segments, such as swimming races. However, because her dark characteristics make her easy to play off of during variety programs, she is often featured on talk shows. Because she speaks so seldomly, most of her character is constructed via comments and jokes from the hosts and other comedian guests. She has mentioned her lack of physical coordination on such shows.

However, due to reports that she placed highly in track-and-field events in elementary school, it’s possible that her weak and nonathletic character might be a ruse. [citation needed]

Thanks to her eerie qualities and exaggerated characteristics, she is commonly voted one of the top celebrities whom manga and anime fans would like to see wear cosplay.

It was none other than the famous idol actress Ruri Hijiribe in the room with Shinra.

She was an unearthly presence there and not just for the reason that she had been wearing bizarre zombie makeup.

Naturally, her face had no cosmetics on it. Yet her skin was as smooth as silk, and her features were as beautiful as a portrait.

You know, if Yuuhei came right out of a girls’ manga, she must be an angel from a classic painting by one of the Western masters, Shinra thought, then regretted the fact that he hadn’t brought an autograph board for her to sign. It was too sudden, I guess.

Normally, Shinra would be cleaning the apartment while waiting for Celty to come home. Instead, his phone rang with a familiar number on the display.

The brother of an old classmate claimed he had a patient he couldn’t bring to a normal doctor, so he paid that acquaintance a visit. As a result, Shinra was grateful that he made the choice to be a black-market doctor.

As Ruri Hijiribe watched the man in the white coat frolic, she wondered, Who is this man, anyway? And this looks…just like a normal room…but it’s so big.

Based on the furnishings, it looked more like an apartment than a house. The problem was, it was much too big for that to be the case.

Oh, right. What happened to me…? That man in the bartender’s outfit hit me with a bench…and then…

Her memory ended there. After that, someone brought her to this place and had this doctor-looking man care for her—at least, based on what she could tell from the way the man was excitedly blathering on.

“…”

Ruri kept her silence, putting her circumstances together in her head.

I wonder if he knows…who I am.

Clearly, he knew that she was Ruri Hijiribe. But more importantly, did he know that she was the serial killer Hollywood?

First of all, it made no sense that she wasn’t taken to a hospital in an ambulance. True, it would have been a bad thing for her to be taken to a hospital and identified, but she was already in a life-or-death situation when she was found.

As her body throbbed in pain, a cat suddenly climbed up onto her stomach.

“Urgh…”

The pressure of the cat’s paws made the pain much worse. Ruri tried to push it off of the blanket resting on her stomach, but when she got a good look at it, she couldn’t do it.

The cat was an adorable Scottish fold with tiny flopped ears and still not fully grown. It was like a ball of fluff that was given life. The creature looked at Ruri curiously and mewed.

It was so cute that the serial killer nearly forgot her pain and all her troubles for an instant.

But another man, who had entered the room in the meantime, reached out from beside the doctor and picked up the cat.

“Stop that, Dokusonmaru. You shouldn’t climb on an injured person.”

“Dokusonmaru?” the man in the white coat asked.

The younger man said flatly, “His full name is Yuigadokusonmaru. It means ‘Mr. Egocentric.’ Isn’t he cute?”

The man held out the cat, but the doctor pulled back awkwardly. “Please, smile when you do that next time. It’s scary.”

“But I am smiling.”

“If Dad saw you, he’d try to dissect you,” the black-market doctor said in resignation as he tried to read the expression of the utterly expressionless man.

Listening to the two men talk, Ruri suddenly realized that the man with the discount T-shirt and the expensive name-brand belt was a very familiar face.

“Are you…Yuuhei…Hanejima?” she mumbled. Yuuhei turned to her without a reaction and set the cat down on the floor.

“Oh, good. You’re doing better than I thought,” he said without moving a single muscle aside from his lips, which made it difficult to tell if he was actually relieved at all. But given that the man shared her line of work, she knew that he was simply the type of person who never displayed his true emotions.

They had actually met on a number of occasions, but they were not friends.

In fact, when Yuuhei was shooting his debut film, Vampire Ninja Carmilla Saizou, it was none other than Ruri who did his prosthetic makeup.

After she began acting, they appeared together just once in a two-hour TV drama. It was a serialized police procedural, with Yuuhei playing the lead detective role, while Ruri was a simple guest as the victim’s daughter. That was the closest connection they shared.

Why?

She was initially more confused than surprised by their reunion.

Why was there a coworker of sorts here in the room?

He couldn’t have been sent…by him…

But she dismissed the thought.

He doesn’t have any connection to Yuuhei Hanejima.

So why? The question floated over the actress’s pretty face as Yuuhei quietly asked, “Can you drink some water?” He held out a cup, his face like a robot’s.

It was the perfect setup for her to be poisoned, but Ruri took it and imbibed the water without question. A dull pain ran through her body when she sat up, but it wasn’t enough to prevent her from drinking.

The doctor noted, “Her muscles were torn to shreds, but it looks like her internal organs are fine. Just in case, once she’s on her feet again, she should get X-rays or an MRI. Some kinds of brain hemorrhage don’t show up until later. If only I had access to Nebula’s research center, I could have done those for you. Sorry.”

“No, you came out in the middle of the night with no notice. Thank you so much.”

“Actually, I came out way ahead in the deal—I got to look at an idol way up close. Oh, and don’t tell Celty I said any of this. She’s a big fan of this girl, too, so she’ll be jealous, just not in the usual way,” the doctor said, chuckling to himself.

Suddenly, the buzzing of a cell phone emanated from his pocket, and he snuck off to the corner of the room to quietly take the call.

The two actors didn’t have much to say, so the room was suddenly plunged into silence. Eventually, Ruri couldn’t stand it any longer and broke the quiet by softly asking, “Why am I here?”

“I was on my way home when you fell in front of my car. I know you didn’t ask for it, but I took you home and called a doctor I know to come look at you.”

“Why here, instead of a hospital?”

“Well, there are a number of reasons…”

He paused briefly and took a breath before continuing, “I thought…you might not want a hospital.”

“…”

“I apologize if my decision wasn’t the correct one. I can even take you to a hospital now, if you want.”

“…No, it’s fine.”

Yuuhei was still totally flat in his affect, while Ruri remained suspicious. Their conversation was distant and polite, but it gave way to more silence.

At that point, the doctor returned, shaking his head.

“Sorry, got another emergency patient! Two in one night—who would have thought? Damn, just when I had a chance to get to know Ruri Hijiribe,” he complained. As he prepared to leave, he leaned over to Yuuhei’s ear to whisper, “Think you could get me an autograph from her? One for Celty, too. Much appreciated!”

“I’ll ask.”

“Thanks! As a sign of my appreciation, today’s visit is free of charge!”

“No, I can’t…”

“I insist! I’ll just charge my next patient out the wazoo for the crime of cutting my time here short! Say hi to Shizuo for me!”

Still smiling, the man in the white doctor’s coat left the room.

The cat followed the other man out of the room, as if seeing him to the door, leaving only two megastars behind.

But here there were no adoring fans, only silence and the fruitless passage of time.

This time, it was Yuuhei, sitting in the chair at the side of the bed, who broke the silence.

“May I ask something?”

“…What is it?” Ruri replied, turning to him from her sitting position. Her eyes bulged.

In his hand was the zombie skin that she had been wearing until just minutes ago. She tensed up nervously, and Yuuhei said what she was afraid of hearing.

“Ruri, are you the serial killer Hollywood?”

His words were fairly certain, so she cast around for some kind of denial, but—

“That doctor informed me that your body is abnormal.”

So…he does know.

Denying it or playing coy would not get her anywhere. Ruri looked down to avoid the iron mask of his face, and neither confirmed nor denied it.

“If that’s what you thought…why didn’t you hand me over to the police?”

“Did you want me to? If that’s the case, I recommend turning yourself in.”

“…No, that’s not what I mean…”

“Then why are you upset about it?” Yuuhei said in his usual monotone, getting to his feet. Whatever conclusion about Hollywood he took from Ruri’s question, he silently reached out to take the empty water cup from her hand.

“…I see,” Ruri said quietly.

Her arm instantly shot out and grabbed Yuuhei by the neck. She threw him onto the bed, ignoring the scream of all her body’s muscles, and spun so that she was sitting on top of him.

With an extended finger pointed right at Yuuhei’s throat, she asked, in a quiet voice thick with pressure, “Then…you couldn’t have foreseen this possibility?”

“…”

Yuuhei remained expressionless. Ruri’s voice grew more irritated.

“I’m going to be honest with you, Yuuhei. I know that this attitude you display is not just another act…but it’s abnormal.”

“Do you think so?”

“Yes. You must be crazy, letting a mass murderer into your own home.”

He looked at her curiously as she sat on top of him. Ruri quietly raised her hand to strike and asked a question.

“Did you never even think it was remotely possible…that you would be killed?”

Two hours later, Sunshine, Sixtieth Floor Street, Ikebukuro

“Good grief. This is what you get for being too good at your job. Two cases in one night!” Shinra lamented as he walked through Ikebukuro at night, the money he earned safely stashed in his doctor’s briefcase. It was a line that a real doctor would rightfully punch him for saying.

“I’ve still got time, so maybe I should stop back in at Yuuhei’s place and get those autographs,” he decided, strolling through the commercial district that was markedly quieter after hours.

“Hey, is that him?”

“Yeah, it is!”

“No doubt about it!”

“Cameraman!”

“?”

Shinra noticed a sudden swell of conversation approaching and looked up to see a sudden blinding camera flash.

“Aaah!!”

“Um, excuse me! You just left an apartment owned by Yuuhei Hanejima about two hours ago, didn’t you?”

“…?!”

It wasn’t until the fifth camera flash that Shinra realized these men were what the world called “paparazzi.”

“Do you have a moment? We understand that Yuuhei Hanejima owns all of the apartments in that building. Are you an acquaintance of his?!”

Gwuh?! No way! He’s that rich?!

Shinra knew the story of how he made nearly 1.2 billion yen for his nest egg, but it was almost impossible to believe that he had enough money to buy an entire building full of the already-expensive luxury apartments that he and Celty lived in. But there was no time to dwell on that.

“About an hour ago, Hanejima and the actress Ruri Hijiribe were seen kissing out in front of the building. What do you know about their relationship?”

“What sort of medical needs were you attending to in the middle of the night?”

“What is your area of medical expertise?”

“Are you an obstetrician?!”

Reporters for a number of different sources deluged him in a waterfall of voices, voices, voices.

“H-hey! Hey, wait!”

What?! What? What happened between those two?! A kiss, just like that?

What about our autographs?!

A number of suspicions arose in Shinra’s panicked mind, but he could tell that the onslaught of questions and camera flashes was robbing him of his ability to think straight.

“All right… In that case, I’ll be answering all of your questions after these quick messages from our sponsors…via airmail!” Shinra said and raced off in a full sprint.

“Hey, he’s getting away!”

“Wait, please!”

“Just one comment!”

And as he glanced back at the pursuing reporters and cameramen over his shoulder, Shinra Kishitani experienced his first serious physical exertion in several years.

Without realizing that on the very same night, Celty was also being hounded by TV cameras.

Twelve hours later, near Kawagoe Highway, apartment building

“Even thinking about it now, yesterday gives me the willies.”

Shinra was still swaddled in black thread, wriggling around on the floor as he waited for Celty to return home.

“Honestly, I wonder what happened there… Once I get free of this, I’m going to watch the news. I was shouting about how I’d sue them for violating my likeness rights, so I doubt they used any photos of me,” he muttered, a giant black silkworm flopping around on the floor seeking the TV remote before the variety shows began.

But just as he had found the remote, the doorbell rang.

Oh, damn. I can’t answer the door. Wait…maybe this thread can be removed with the strength of two people?

He began to wonder what sort of story he could tell this visitor to convince them to help. But before he could call out that he was there, he heard the sound of the door unlocking.

“Oh, is that Celty?! Thank goodness! Your little abandonment fetish thing was quite exciting for a while, but I think it’s finally—” he started, a look of bliss on his face as he greeted…

A number of menacing-looking men led by a gaunt-faced fellow.

It was clear from a glance that they were not in an upstanding line of work, but the thin man at the center of the group, at least, seemed like any other person in his manner.

He strode right into Shinra’s home and coldly noted, “I really don’t get that abandonment kink shit.”

“…Oh, Mr. Shiki. What brings me the pleasure today?”

The man named Shiki looked at Shinra with a combination of caution, relief, and amusement. The group was from the Awakusu-kai yakuza, and Shiki was a chief lieutenant in the organization despite his relative youth.

“I’m guessing you don’t have a sudden patient for me,” Shinra said. As a matter of fact, he had given Shiki a spare keycard for that very purpose.

A black-market doctor’s most reliable and frequent clients came from their particular line of work, so Shiki’s spare key allowed him to ferry patients inside in an emergency, even if Shinra was sleeping.

But none of the people present appeared to be suffering from gunshot wounds. It was rather curious.

Shiki’s face got serious, and he tossed a newspaper on the ground in front of the human caterpillar. It was the day’s tabloid paper with the front headline reading “Hanejima & Hijiribe’s Late-Night Secret Pregnancy Date?!”

The article contained text that clearly referenced Shinra. It claimed that an obstetrician was witnessed leaving their apartment shortly before the two actors were sighted sharing a kiss.

Shinra read the article closely, relieved that at least they hadn’t published a photo of his face. But…

“You do realize…that there are no other guys who wander around this neighborhood wearing white doctor’s coats all the time,” one of the yakuza muttered. Shiki squatted down to Shinra’s eye level.

“We only have one question for you, Doctor.”

“What is it?”

“Did you happen to examine Ruri Hijiribe?”

“Well, yes,” Shinra admitted.

Shiki’s face was a blank, emotionless mask, but in a different way than Yuuhei’s. “I’ll be direct with you—what is she?” he asked, his voice calm, powerful, and demanding.

Unaffected, Shinra remained light and aloof. “Before I answer that…I have a request.”

His face got pale and deadly serious. He had business of the utmost importance to conduct.

“Can you help me get free of these black ropes?”

“I’ve been holding it in for hours, and I really need to go…”

Chapter 5: Ikebukuro Guide Book Ikebukuro Strikes Back II: Tales of Violence in Ikebukuro

In the future

An excerpt from the foreword of Ikebukuro Strikes Back II

Hi.

Just to start with, I am not going to reveal my identity, and you probably wouldn’t believe me, even if I did.

So let me just say that I will not reveal my own existence to you. In exchange, you are free to imagine whatever you like about me.

For one thing, I am almost entirely unrelated to any of the events I will describe in this book. I did have a small part to play in the Night of the Ripper, but it was only within the limited influence of the Internet, which is to say that I was barely involved at all.

Basically…I just watched.

That’s all I did: watched.

I said that I would not reveal my identity, but I can tell you my name.

My name is Shinichi. Shinichi Tsukumoya.

But that doesn’t really mean anything, so you don’t need to bother remembering it.

An excerpt from Ikebukuro Strikes Back II, Chapter 5: The Knight of Shadow Rides in the Sun.

Are you aware of the motorcycle gang incident that transpired one spring afternoon in Ikebukuro this year?

A number of different gangs were fighting for territory and racing through the streets, creating traffic conditions as unsafe as a tornado or Spain’s running of the bulls. For one thing, they were fighting as they rode. It must have been quite a shocking sight to the passing residents, tourists, and shoppers. It’s said that a single police motorcyclist brought the incident under control. But what was the cause of it?

It was the existence of the very polar opposite of that white chopper—the Black Rider.

Shortly before the incident, the Internet was ablaze. Triggered by shocking footage (covered in another chapter) aired on live TV, a major talent agency placed a massive bounty on the man (or woman) who rode the infamous black motorcycle. A bounty worth ten million yen.

For the next several days, many people chased that dream: the ability to earn as much as the grand prize of the nation’s most famous comedy contest or winning a trivia quiz game show, just for following a motorcyclist around and revealing his or her identity.

It only lasted a few days because the ensuing uproar resulted in the outrage of the police and authorities, local citizens, and other clients of the talent agency, and thus the bounty was promptly withdrawn.

This caused quite a stir. The bounty was a big story in the papers the next day and made headlines again when it was removed, and with the startling TV footage of the Black Rider turning the motorcycle into a horse, the nation was gripped with a fresh new supernatural urban legend boom.

Debate still rages about the veracity of that footage—but I know the truth.

I just won’t write it down here.

As I said in the foreword, I will not interfere in the events of this city.

I needed to stick closely to a policy of observing events without taking part in order to write this book.

At any rate, I will not be disclosing the identity of the Black Rider in this book.

I do know it. But whether or not you believe me is up to you, dear readers.

In the same way, the Ikebukuro Motorcycle Gang Incident has its own background.

Based on the results, one might think that it was merely a number of rowdy gangsters from another prefecture that briefly invaded the city, then went back home.

But no. Something happened.

Something that wasn’t reported in the papers or on TV.

I know what it was that happened, but I choose not to reveal it here.

If you really want to learn about it, I invite you to search for the truth on your own.

There is always more to the story.

But you cannot learn that truth without paying a price for it.

Ultimately, if you want to learn everything, you have to be involved in it and experience the truth for yourself.

It was the same for me. I just watched.

So while I know the truth that transpired behind the scenes, I don’t know what the people involved were really thinking. It goes without saying that those who were directly involved know exactly how they felt about it.

That’s what this means. So if you really want to find the secret truth of the matter, you have to spend something—money, time, obligation—and read the world like a book with your own hands.

If you’re strong, you might also be able to wrestle the truth out of those involved, as well.

But I wouldn’t recommend that. The consequences could be fatal.

Of course, if you’re tough enough to beat a debt collector dressed as a bartender, then be my guest.

But that’s a story for another time.

At present, highway, Ikebukuro

“Wait, beeyotch!”

“Mohfgaa!”

“Dshbaaag!”

“Drfthjk!”

The young men on their motorcycles surrounded Celty on the road, screeching cries that didn’t even qualify as language.

Oh no… How did it come to this?!

More and more bikers had flooded out of nowhere, and behind them all was a van that looked to belong to a TV news crew.

Do all of you want that ten million yen so badly?! Just do your jobs and save up fifty thousand every month for two hundred months! she thought to herself, a commonsense bit of advice that was also rather extreme.

Celty squeezed the handlebars and prepared to pump more juice into her partner. Sorry about this, Shooter!

The motorcycle read its owner’s thoughts perfectly and let out a piercing horse bray rather than an engine roar, leaping forward as if on a spring.

“Wh-wh-whaa—?!” one of the bikers screeched. He couldn’t be blamed for his shock; the bike right in front of him leaped upward six feet into the air from a flat position on the street.

The enormous shadow tilted diagonally and cleared the guardrail, proceeding over the sidewalk and the heads of the shocked onlookers. It landed on the side of the building, riding with its sidecar perpendicular to the ground.

To make sure that Celty’s cargo—a human-sized bag with an arm hanging out of it—didn’t fall out of the sidecar, a hand made out of shadow grew out of the bike and held it in place.

The bikers on the street were wide-eyed with shock at the string of unbelievable sights, but their hold on reality was so tenuous that it seemed to snap, and instead they produced a series of threats that almost seemed more indignant than threatening.

“What the hell kinda magic trick is that?!”

“You wanna get sawed in half?!”

“I’m gonna pull a rabbit outta yer ass!”

Aaaah! I knew I shouldn’t have taken on this horrifying cargo!

For a moment, Celty’s thoughts returned to the past.

Thirty minutes earlier

“I’m very sorry about this. It will be a rather bothersome job,” said a tall man with a cold mask covering his mouth and nose, sunglasses over his eyes, and a hat pulled low on his brow.

He was essentially fashioned entirely out of suspicious danger signals. The man pointed out the large bag at his side and said, “I want you to handle this bag for a day.”

“Handle it?”

“Yes, there’s a bit of a situation… I just need you to be in possession of this for a day. Once it passes this time tomorrow, you can just dump the cargo on the side of the road, anywhere you like, or you can return it to this park, where I will dispose of it. Oh, and no inquiries about the contents, please…”

It was about the fishiest job she could imagine. On top of that, Celty had just been tagged with a bounty yesterday. Worried that it might be a bomb or a transmitter of some kind, she made her suspicions quite clear with body language as she typed out, “…I’m sorry, but who introduced you to me?”

“An information dealer named Izaya Orihara.”

“…Oh. That explains it.”

I should have known.

It wasn’t the first (or second) time she’d received such an eerie job offer. A couple times she had even gotten requests like, “One of my men tried to make his own bomb—schlep it out to the mountains and take care of it.” The outcome of those jobs could have been inserted into any action blockbuster.

And nearly every single person whose request contained a backstory that likely involved things she didn’t want to know about had come to her via Izaya Orihara.

Celty thought it over and noticed that the bag was just about big enough to fit an entire person inside. Alarms went off in her mind.

I have ferried a person on tranquilizers…but that was from Izaya himself, she recalled, shaking her head. That was about a year ago. Normally, I would accept it, but given the circumstances…I should decline.

“I’m sorry, but I am a courier. If you need a safe, might I recommend the bank?”

“Yes, I’m aware of that. But could you make an exception?”

“No means—” she started typing, then stopped. The man was holding out a white envelope, looking around carefully to make sure they weren’t being watched.

“Given the nature of the job, I can pay the full amount up front… I only hope the amount meets your satisfaction.”

Inside the envelope, there weren’t as many Yukichi Fukuzawas as she had lost the day before, but 80 percent of them was good enough. Celty erased her half-written sentence and strung together a new one in less than a second.

“I would be happy to do this for you!”

At present, highway, Ikebukuro

I really shouldn’t have taken on that job. I was too happy to make up what I lost the day before. I got carried away.

But it was too late for regret.

The motorcycle officer had already seen the arm dangling out of the bag. Up until then, she’d only been guilty of traffic infractions, which were simply ticketed on sight. But if she became suspected of murder or dumping a body, they would set up a proper investigation. The thought plunged Celty into despair.

I can handle being chased by the police. But I can’t take the idea of not living with Shinra anymore!

What was the statute of limitations on disposing of a dead body? Could she be charged with it if no body was ever found?

Celty leaped off the side of the building and landed on the face of another one. It was the kind of eerie sight one saw only in CG, but the easy skill of the motion only made the whole thing less real to those who saw it.

Shit, I took the job knowing this might happen…and I knew that I wasn’t doing a job that was conducive to a stable life…but I still can’t afford to get caught now! At least let me just leave Ikebukuro so those I care about aren’t affected…

She was thinking as if she were caught already. In her resignation, the faces of those she knew flashed through her head, like her life passing before her eyes before death.

So much happened in the last year… I met Mikado and joined the Dollars… I got to be friends with Anri…and most importantly, Shinra and I…

…

Shinra…

No! Enough of that!

She was swallowed with both love and grief, but it wasn’t the time for emotional reflection.

Keep it together, Celty! Just do…something! Make sure things work out, and things’ll work out!

“God helps those who help themselves,” the saying went, but Celty wasn’t going to rest on her laurels and hope for the best. She focused forward and headed down a side street, hoping to escape her pursuers.

Riding on the side of a building meant she had no reason to fear a collision with oncoming or merging traffic. She spread her shadow over the surface of the structure and shifted directions without a noticeable loss of speed, splitting apart the bikers chasing her.

But she knew it was only a temporary fix. She turned down another street, hoping to return to the main road and put some real distance between them, when a familiar van passed right by her, driving on the road like a vehicle should.

Wasn’t that…?

It was a box van with an unforgettable feature on the side door—a gaudy painting of an anime character.

Kadota, Yumasaki, and Karisawa’s van!

The fact that it was actually Togusa’s would be cold comfort to him. Meanwhile, Celty slowed down—and noticed that something was wrong.

Huh? Wait a minute. What happened?!

The van was dented all over, and the windows were cracked, as though they’d just driven through a minor riot. Celty pulled off the surface of the building wall and sidled up next to the van.

All of a sudden, a storm of voices erupted from the vehicle.

“…Black Rider!”

“Celty?!”

“…Celty!”

“Oh, Celcchi.”

“Hey, that’s Celty.”

“What’s this? What’s going on, Mr. Ryuugamine?!”

“Ohh! It’s the Black Rider! Look, Kuru, the Black Rider!”

“…No way.”

Inside the van, Celty saw several familiar and unfamiliar faces alike, to her surprise. She pulled up and matched the speed of the car, subtly hiding the contents of the sidecar in shadow as she used one hand to steer and the other to type.

“Sorry, I’m being chased by a motorcycle gang! Run for it!”

“…”

Kadota looked at her desperate message and smirked. “Sorry, but…we might be the ones who need to apologize, Black Rider.”

Huh?

An obnoxious car horn went off behind them. Celty turned around and saw, sure enough, a group of bikers.

“We’re being chased, too.”

The fresh mass of violence and anger joined up with the gang pursuing Celty, forming a fleet of over fifty vehicles that bore down on them with the force of a typhoon and the human rage of a mob.

“Is it hopeless?”

“Nah, we got one bit of hope on our side.”

Celty’s helmet tilted questioningly, prompting Kadota to grin wickedly.

“They’re all outsiders, while we’re part of the Dollars, right?”

“When people come and raise hell in your territory…it gives you the justification to fight back.”

Two hours in the past, Ikebukuro

“Hey, you guys,” Kadota said. The young men surrounding the two girls turned to him with disgust.

“Whaa—? Hell are you?”

“Hell you want? Uhh?” they growled at him menacingly. Kadota twisted and popped his neck vertebrae.

“Thought it was kinda funny that you needed four grown men to pick a fight with two little girls.”

“…”

“Lemme see your stickers. I’ll write a new name on ’em. I’m thinking ‘the Pedo Gang’ has a nice ring to it.”

“Shuddup! Buzz off and die!” they retorted. One of the thugs reached out and grabbed Kadota by the shirt. The next moment, Kadota took advantage of the momentum to slam his forehead right into the man’s nose.

“Guh?! Dah…bwlah!”

The thug fell backward, sputtering with rage as blood shot out of his broken nose a second later.

“Damn. That ain’t cool, face-butting a guy’s forehead. What if I have a skull fracture?” Kadota grumbled, rubbing his forehead as he stood over the fallen thug, who was clutching his head in both hands.

The leering smiles of the other three thugs vanished at Kadota’s shameless insistence that he was the real victim, replaced by glares of rage and caution.

“You bi…aaaaaaauugahaaaaaa! —! —! —!”

“?!”

A thug started screaming suddenly, drawing the attention of everyone else present.

One of them was writhing with his hands over his crotch, while the girl in the gym clothes clutched her bag tight in both hands.

One look at the man cradling his genitals with his eyes rolled back was enough to tell the entire story. And as everyone was taken aback by the sight, the other girl with the reserved glasses leaped off a nearby motorcycle to deliver a kick straight to the jaw of the man standing next to her, unconcerned with the billowing of her skirt.

She was wearing safety shoes with metal plates in the toes. Ironically, this made the shoe very unsafe to the target of her kick.

“Fbweh…”

The man wobbled, then lost the support of his legs and fell to the ground.

There was only one left. Karisawa and Yumasaki were already tying up the man with the bloody nose, binding his wrists together with the headband cloth he had been wearing.

The unhurt thug glanced at the two girls for an angry second but settled on delivering his final line to Kadota instead.

“…Y-you…fuckers… You’ll pay for this! You in the bandanna!”

Apparently, he was deciding to blame it all on Kadota, so as to avoid admitting that teenage girls had anything to do with it.

As Kadota watched him ride off, he turned back and noted, “We don’t want him calling the cops, and it’s bad news if he calls his friends, too, so we oughta scram,” to the girls dressed in uniform and gym clothes.

“Huh? And you are…?”

“Kadota. You’re Izaya’s sisters, right?”

“What?! You know Iza?! Oh…actually, I might have met you before!” Mairu exclaimed in surprise. Kururi bowed deeply to Kadota, apparently realizing from the very start that these were acquaintances of her brother.

“…Thank you…very much.”

“Nah, it’s cool. Maybe you didn’t need our help after all…but you do stick out, so if you’re going somewhere, we can call our car around. What do you say?”

“Wow, really?!”

“Just don’t expect any rides to Hokkaido or anything,” Kadota cautioned wryly.

Mairu waved her hands in excitement. “Oh, um, oh! We’re just wandering all over Ikebukuro today! We’re supposed to get a call from someone we know, but we won’t know when and where to go until the call arrives!”

“…What’s that supposed to mean…? Whatever. The other two back there are supposed to be guiding some students from your school around Ikebukuro, so I guess you could just tag along with them. Okay?” he asked, turning back to Karisawa and Yumasaki. They thought it over for a few seconds.

“Umm, I don’t see a problem.”

“Not an issue. Besides, those girls look kinda 2-D to me, anyway.”

“Shut up.”

And so, despite the very tenuous relationship that connected them, the two groups wound up moving around together. Kadota recommended several times that the girls return home, but they were insistent on their task, and he didn’t pry any further.

Well, if it comes down to it, I can call Izaya and tell him to take them, Kadota told himself and called up Togusa. He took the group to a nearby café so they could wait for the van to arrive.

And a while later, when they were ready to pile into Togusa’s van, a gang of motorcycle thugs five times the size of the earlier group descended upon them, kicking off a mad rush for safety.

At present, inside Togusa’s van, highway, Ikebukuro

“So that one thug pretended to run away, but secretly he was following us. That way, his gang was ready to jump us when we left the café.”

“It’s like they were raised entirely on manga about delinquents and street gangs.”

“No way, Karisawa! Delinquent mangas always feature a truly manly protagonist who protects the weak and fights the strong! If they were using that stuff as a textbook, they wouldn’t have been harassing girls in the first place!”

“Maybe they were so dumb that they didn’t understand the lesson the textbook was teaching?”

“…Ohhh! No wonder!”

Karisawa and Yumasaki’s chatter was basically the same as it ever was, despite the imminent danger of dozens of pursuing motorcycles.

“Wh-what should we do about this? Call the cops?” Mikado asked, but Kadota shook his head.

“They’ve gotta know about this by now! And I saw that one guy on the police bike earlier! The question is just if we can stay away from them until the police are finally on the scene in full force. I might be able to handle them ganging up on us with metal pipes, but not you kids.”

“G-good point…”

“Don’t worry, we’re gonna make sure that you students get away, at the very least. I’ll drive you right into police headquarters if I have to,” Kadota growled from the passenger seat. Mikado started to exhale with relief, then chastised himself.

No! We need to help Sonohara, Aoba, and those two girls escape to safety…but I can’t just run with them and leave the other Dollars and Celty behind in danger!

He gritted his teeth against the fear creeping into him and remembered when he charged into the Yellow Scarves’ hideout and when he first met Celty.

I might die…but…I have to do something…

Mikado clenched his fists. Aoba looked over and hesitantly asked, “Mr. Ryuugamine, are you okay?”

“Huh? O-oh, I’m fine. Sorry, you’ll have to make do on your own…”

“No, I mean… You know what, never mind.”

“?”

Mikado wondered what Aoba was trying to say. But then he looked out the window.

There was a black sidecar of sorts affixed to Celty’s motorcycle with some kind of cargo stashed inside of it.

“I guess…since Celty’s under a bounty now…”

He paused. It was just an instant of a pause, and then he said something that didn’t seem very appropriate, given their circumstances.

“I suppose…we won’t be able to just see her hanging around anymore…”

The Black Rider kept pace alongside Togusa’s van as the bikers chased behind them.

Everyone inside the van was also being chased, including some who weren’t originally involved: Celty, Kadota, Togusa, Karisawa, Yumasaki, Mikado, Anri, Aoba, Kururi, and Mairu.

A total of ten people on the run.

If it were only the motorcycle gang, Celty could handle them on her own. The problem was that staying still to deal with them would only give the motor officers time to surround her.

But wait. If I do that, at least it would ensure that everyone inside the van is taken to safety, she thought, looking behind her. There were more pursuers now, and two helicopters that probably belonged to the TV station, hovering overhead.

Damn! I can’t let them all be known associates of a dead-body dumper… At worst, they’ll all be identified on live TV!

Kadota’s group was one thing, but if Anri, Mikado, and the other students were identified in connection to this horrible incident, the consequences would be terrible. If they were exposed as having connections to Celty—or the other gang squabbles prior to this—they could easily be expelled from school.

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.

“As a matter of fact, while you were passed out, it seems like we were followed. According to Kishita…the doctor earlier, they didn’t seem to belong to proper civilian professions.”

“Uh…”

“So I took it upon myself to get some insurance.”

Entrance, Yuuhei Hanejima’s apartment building

“Hey, there she is.”

“There’s a man with her. What’s the plan?”

“Just knock ’em out.”

“And do it quietly… Let’s move.”

Four men dressed in handyman uniforms peered out of a shady alley. They snuck through the darkness without a sound, carefully approaching their targets. Once they had flanked the pair and were ready to knock them over from behind, certain of their victory—the raucous flashing and clicking of cameras stopped them in their tracks.

“?!”

The four men squinted, blinded by the sudden light. They eventually saw well over a dozen cameramen and reporters filling the street. And right in front of them, the man and woman were now embracing.

No way… Wh-when did they get here?!

Hey, they just got us in the picture!

The men had been very careful. But so had the cameramen who were waiting to get the perfect scoop.

Ruri looked down shyly as the storm of lightning flashes continued, while Yuuhei turned to a nearby reporter and asked in monotone, “How did you know?”

As if on cue, all the reporters raced forward to ask questions. They had to know that Yuuhei was the only person who ever came in or out of this building. The raucous deluge of questions and camera flashes continued despite the very late hour.

“We just had an anonymous tip!”

“What’s the deal?!”

“How long have you been a couple?”

“Where did you two meet?”

“Any plans for a press conference?”

“Does your agency know?”

“When’s the wedding?”

“We noticed a man wearing a white lab coat leaving earlier.”

“Is he involved in this?”

“Damn, missed him!”

“Find him!”

“Call another team to go look for a guy in white!”

The four men who were supposed to abduct Ruri went completely pale. With this many people, there was no way they could retrieve the film that showed them. Not to mention that an abduction was out of the question now.

As the men gritted their teeth in frustration, Yuuhei calmly answered, “I’m sorry, but it’s very late, so I will have to explain another day. We’re going to go for a nice relaxing drive together now.”

After a few more comments of explanation, Yuuhei took Ruri back into the building with a hand around her shoulder. A few minutes later, a car emerged and sped off.

A few reporters tried to follow them, but most of the reporting vehicles were already being used to cover the Black Rider incident, following Daioh TV’s lead.

And so, in full sight of the reporters and would-be kidnappers, the star actor and serial killer disappeared into the night.

At present, tunnel, Ikebukuro

Celty had fashioned a shadow version of an actual kind of net that was used to subdue motorcycle gangs in real life. It was meant to gently tangle and stop the bikes, ending their rampage.

Setting up such nets was rather difficult, as the timing of deployment and the possibility of the gangs scouting out the locations in advance were both exploitable weaknesses. But Celty’s shadow had no such weaknesses and admirably trapped the riders.

“Gaah! What the hell is this?!”

“Daaagh!”

The bikers plunged one after the other into the net of shadow. As the rear vehicles saw what was happening, they slowed and stopped, leaving a huge logjam of motorcycles at one end of the tunnel and splitting it into safe and unsafe halves.

She could freely go and escape now, but that would not solve anything. Celty considered whether she should truly plant the seed of terror in them or allow them to capture her and get their ten million yen.

At the very least, the top priority of allowing Kadota’s van to go free was a success. Now that the van had escaped around the west side of Ikebukuro Station, Celty decided she would surrender herself to fate.

That was the moment that Ikebukuro decided to truly get the most out of its holiday.

At that moment, inside the van

“All right…you guys get out and either race through the station or pile into the police building nearby… As long as you tell them you just got wrapped up in this through no fault of your own, you should be fine!” Kadota said to the rest of the group once the tunnel was no longer in the rearview mirror.

He threw open the side door so the passengers could get out. Mikado tried to stay in but was forcibly pushed out by those behind him.

“What about you, Dotachin?” Karisawa asked.

Kadota looked away, then sighed. “You know Celty? She’s with Shinra, right?”

“Uhh, yeah. She’s such a tsundere with him. It makes me embarrassed to watch them.”

“No, Karisawa! I keep telling you, she’s an ‘older younger sister’!”

Kadota ignored the two bickerers and quietly turned to Togusa in the driver’s seat.

“Damn. I barely had anything to do with him in high school…so I don’t really know what Shinra’s like in person…but I gotta admit, I’m kinda jealous,” he said, then smiled happily and continued, “Celty…she’s a babe. Yeah, she’s a good woman. Right, Togusa?”

“Huh? The Black Rider’s a chick?”

“…Anyway, that settles it. Can’t go having a girl save my ass. You know?”

Togusa seemed to understand what he meant and put his hand to the stick, wryly observing, “So, we’re gonna find and retrieve the Black Rider, then escape? Or help her out?”

Kadota grinned wickedly, and Togusa gunned the engine.

In the tunnel

So, what now?

On the other side of Celty’s shadow net, a small riot was unfolding.

A number of the bikers were attempting to rip the shadow, and due to the fact that multiple rival gangs were involved, some of them appeared to be starting a fistfight.

“Dammit! I thought we had more guys than this! Get everyone in here for backup!”

“We can’t! Out in front of the station…some monster cop is wipin’ everybody out!”

“Shit! What’s happening here?! Have you called the chief…?”

“I can’t reach him! Maybe he’s mad that we jumped off on our own without permission…”

“Gaah! We gotta at least kill that Black Rider and get some damn money outta this!”

What?! That bounty wasn’t “dead or alive,” was it?!

At this point, there was no room for negotiation. Celty turned back, prepared to flee—but then she saw a different biker gang group coming up from the other direction. It had to be the remnants of the various gangs alerted remotely.

More and more bikes began to approach, the lucky ones who had escaped the motorcycle cops.

Damn… If I put up another net on the other side of the tunnel and lock myself in…then once the bikers are gone, I’ll be surrounded by the police! There’ll be no way to explain away the cargo I’m carrying!

Then, from behind the oncoming swarm of bikes came a single van.

Is that them?! I told them to run for it!

Most likely the middle schoolers had been let loose, but Celty wanted Kadota and the other adults to find safety as well. She paused for a brief second, unsure of what to do…

Then saw that some of the bikers were starting to work their way through the net on their own and turned back to the original direction.

Celty fashioned a dull black scythe and tried to use it to fight them off—but something struck her as wrong.

Right to the side of her bike stood an unfamiliar shadow.

As she slowly, fearfully turned toward it, she saw a man like a mummy, his face wrapped in thick bandages.

He was standing in her sidecar. His feet were inside the now-empty black bag she was ferrying.

The man who had been her cargo spoke.

“…Leave this to me… You should escape.”

Half a day earlier, inside Russia Sushi

“…Hell of an injured patient you brought to me, damn you.”

Inside a sushi bar run by two Russians, which was quickly becoming a familiar sight to Ikebukuro residents, the after-hours interior stank for reasons other than fish.

A sheet was placed over the tatami booth in the back, so that a doctor in a white coat—Shinra Kishitani—could tend to a man whose face had been shattered.

“My visit will cost you two hundred thousand yen.”

“Cut me a deal.”

“Can’t do that. I lost the golden opportunity to spend time with Ruri Hijiribe on account of this patient.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Simon butted into the argument between the white owner and Shinra. “Oh, no good, you two fight. First, you make Egor’s boo-boo say bye-bye. Please to do it, passing marks one hundred percent!”

“Fine, fine. Just make sure you arrange the money… May I assume that Egor is the patient’s name?”

“That’s right. We were in the same organization back in Russia, but… Oh, what the hell am I telling you for?”

As this conversation continued in the back, Mairu Orihara sat at the front counter with her sister, placing a call on her cell phone.

“…Oh! He picked up! Hello, Iza? Listen, I have a question for you! Hey, do you recognize the name Celty Sturluson?” she excitedly asked, reading the name off of the thick envelope. But she didn’t get the answer she wanted.

“…Huh? What do you mean, none of our business? So you do know something about this person, Iza! I knew it! Holy crap! No fair, no fair! No! Fair! Huh…?”

Mairu looked down at her phone in disbelief and began to stomp on the floor in frustration.

“…What happened?”

“I can’t believe it! Iza just hung up on me! Um, well…I guess I have no choice… Here goes…”

She quietly sulked down at her phone, looked up a different contact from the last one, and grinned to herself as she hit the send button.

At present, outside Ikebukuro Station

“Aww, man, where did Mr. Ryuugamine and Ms. Sonohara go?”

Immediately after they were let out of the van, Mikado had said, “Take care of Sonohara and the girls,” and raced off. The next thing Aoba knew, Anri had also vanished.

“…I guess Mr. Ryuugamine really is…oh, never mind,” Aoba muttered as he looked around. Meanwhile, Mairu and Kururi stood holding hands.

“…What should…we do?”

“Hmm, I guess we can just watch for now? I don’t know what will happen, but I sure didn’t expect to see her up so close!”

“…”

Kururi looked down the street that headed to the tunnel with a serious look in her eyes. Meanwhile, Mairu cackled to herself. Amid the cool breeziness of her laugh was a note of poisonous malice.

“So…I wonder if we’ll be able to introduce ourselves to Celty properly.”

Half a day earlier, inside Russia Sushi

“Nngh…”

The man in the tatami booth opened his eyes and stared vaguely at his surroundings.

“Oh, he’s awake.”

The man glanced at the first figure to enter his view and, through the fog in his head, said the name, “Shingen?”

“Huh?”

Shinra was momentarily taken aback by his father’s name. He examined the man’s face—not that he could see much, covered in bandages as it was.

“…Oh, pardon me. I seem to have confused you for someone else…”

“…”

Shinra leaned over the prone man, thinking hard for several seconds. Eventually, he bolted upright, took out his phone, and walked toward the seats at the front counter. Two girls trotted over to take his place and stepped into the tatami booth.

“…Are you…all right?”

“Yoo-hoo! Feeling better? Good for you, buddy! It’s all okay! Reconstructive surgery can work miracles these days! You even look cool in those bandages, if you don’t mind me saying so!”

“Ahh… I have not thanked you two yet. Thank you for saving me.”

Egor’s eyes were sharp as they gazed through the bandages, but he maintained a gentlemanly demeanor. Relieved that their acquaintance would recover, Simon and the manager kicked up a conversation in Russian with Egor.

“XXXX” “XX”

“XXXXX” “XX!”

As the conversation went on, the manager’s face grew more and more gloomy.

“What’s up?” Mairu asked.

The manager responded, “Well…it sounds like he doesn’t have a coin to his name.”

“…Forgive me. I just failed the job I was pursuing… Now I wish that I had gotten some money up front.”

“So what’s your plan? If we just hand over two hundred thousand yen now, we can’t stock the fish for tomorrow… I suppose we could just close the restaurant tomorrow, but then…”

“Oh, close store, very good. Tomorrow we celebrate Sushi Extermination Day, eat ramen, eat mochi.”

“Get outta here with that bullshit,” the manager grumbled. Meanwhile, Mairu squatted down on the tatami in the booth.

“Hey, you.” She pulled on Egor’s sleeve. He looked puzzled.

“…What?” he asked suspiciously. Mairu gave him an angelic smile.

“Shall we front you the money?”

At present, tunnel, Ikebukuro Station

Celty was in a panic.

The cargo she was ferrying suddenly woke up and began neutralizing the oncoming bikers with his bare hands.

Even the term smooth failed to describe his movements. He was smoke in human form, riding the breeze and flowing between the attacking men.

When they passed by one another, his target would already be fallen. It was as though he were teaching dozens of monkeys how to dance.

Totally unsure of what was real anymore, Celty turned back toward the van. She was concerned about the safety of Kadota’s team—but she found a fresh concern when she did so.

Halfway down the slope leading to the tunnel was a figure sprinting toward them at full speed.

Mikado?!

She tried to send body and hand signals to the boy to warn him to turn back, but not only did she have bigger fish to fry, it would be counterproductive if the enemy noticed Mikado because of her signals.

And behind him, on the other side of the road, she saw a busty girl with glasses.

Anri!

She knew Anri was powerful. If she used the power of the cursed blade Saika to its full extent, the girl could be even more dangerous than Celty.

But that’s exactly what you shouldn’t do!

Anri was keeping the fact that she was Saika a secret from everyone. If she utilized that power right here in the open—possibly with TV cameras pointed at her—it would ruin everything for her.

This was already a bewildering and frightening turn of events for Celty.

Then, Ikebukuro’s holiday made it worse.

A fierce impact echoed through the tunnel, drawing the attention of everyone present. It happened on the other side of Celty’s net, where the motorcycle gang members were trying to break through with dozens of bikes left behind.

The source of the sound was a motorcycle, flying as though it had been struck by a large car. And waving around a motorcycle engine in one hand—

A knight in medieval armor, with no head.

Huh?

Confusion reigned.

Confusion reigned.

Another one…of me…?

At first, Celty thought that perhaps another of her kind had just appeared in Ikebukuro. She did remember that back in Ireland, she sensed the presence of a number of other dullahans lurking somewhere out there.

But why here and now?

A fresh wave of doubt and confusion rolled over her—but paradoxically, the increasingly confusing images only cooled her head down.

No, this presence…doesn’t belong to “us”…

But…there’s something among all the humans…

It was at that point that Celty quietly recalled when she had felt that presence.

Just a few hours ago, when she’d run a job during the morning.

This aura…

It’s who I transported this morning!

Several hours earlier, warehouse, Ikebukuro

There was a warehouse sector quite a ways removed from the metropolitan center of Ikebukuro. One of the buildings, which was currently empty, served as the meeting place of Celty and her client.

The client was a stranger to her and had been introduced through Shizuo Heiwajima.

It’s quite rare for Shizuo to send someone my way.

The client was a woman hiding her face with a muffler, hat, and sunglasses, and the job required Celty to take her to the designated location.

Although she did not provide a more detailed reason, the woman was apparently wanted by the mob, and it was possible that they would have a makeshift checkpoint set up along the way to detain her.

At first Celty wasn’t so sure about her, but once she picked up the woman’s “presence,” she couldn’t help but ask:

“Do you happen to have a bit of a special power?”

“…Huh?”

The woman hiding her face—Ruri Hijiribe—was taken aback. She stared down the Black Rider before her.

Ruri had decided that in order to give her time to think about her future, she ought to return home. But given that she was a very recognizable figure, she couldn’t afford to cause a stir around town.

That white man might be lurking around somewhere.

It was a single phone call the previous night that had lured her out as Hollywood.

“I know your secret. Let’s go watch a movie together. A monster movie from Hollywood,” his message went, along with the location of that park and a time. That was where she met that hit man—and a true monster.

None of it mattered to her now—but according to Yuuhei, there was a good chance that monster was a relative of his.

Perhaps that was why he helped her: a feeling of guilt and responsibility. Meanwhile, Yuuhei introduced this person to her.

He said, “My brother knows a courier who he tells me about all the time. I’ll ask him if he can put you in touch.” And here she was now, meeting the Black Rider.

The rider was an abnormal being in each and every way—but most surprising to Ruri was the way the rider was able to pinpoint that one feature about her.

That her body might not be entirely human in nature.

Late last night, Russia Sushi

A black-market doctor spoke over the phone with his father.

“So will you explain what’s going on here, Dad?”

“…Sometimes coincidence can be detestable. I think I understand how Izaya feels.”

“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.

A few minutes later

The bikers, fleeing with their tails between their legs, sneakily made their way through the neighborhood to avoid the motorcycle cops. From what they heard over their walkie-talkies, many of their friends had already been hauled in.

“Shit…now we can’t even go back home… The chief’ll kill us.”

One of the men in a striped gang uniform, apparently the leader of the expedition, called out to the fifteen or so members still remaining. The police would spot them in minutes if they moved as a full group, but they didn’t have enough power left to implement a better plan.

“We at least gotta show off our power to a local gang to regain some face…”

They forgot about their own damage and headed off through the town, driven by their twisted desire to express themselves through violence. And when they got to a street close to the Sunshine building, they found what looked like local thugs and stopped their bikes on a side road to play tough.

“Hey, you. Got a question for ya. What’s the name of the team that reps this area?”

One of the local toughs thought it over and gave them an answer.

“There’s a bunch around here… For the more organized types, you want the Jan-Jaka-Jan who work for the Awakusu-kai. For the street racers, I guess it’d be the Dragon Zombies? But ever since that crazy motor cop showed up, they’re all keeping it on the DL.”

“Awright. You tell me where to go to find ’em, then.”

“You going to fight ’em?”

“Fuck’s it to ya?!” the leader in ritual garb demanded. The local thug shook his head.

“You guys are in Toramaru from Saitama, right? C’mon, you know your boss doesn’t like this kinda stuff, right? The guy might be a womanizer, but I’ve heard he’s at least got some honor.”

“Shuddup! Chief’s got nothin’ to do with this!”

“We were supposed to catch that Black Rider and get the money, then pass it up the chain so we could go independent!”

“Come on… You’re gonna get ten million yen for nothing, then give it to the yakuza? Seriously? If I got my hands on that kind of cash, I’d use it for myself. You wouldn’t need to be a biker at all with that kind of money. You want to ride, just get your own tuned-up wheels,” the dreadlocked thug advised, whether he was saying it out of sarcasm or honest helpfulness.

“What…? You dissin’ us like we’re a buncha penkoro?! Huh?!”

As outsiders to the city, there was very little concern about fights with the locals following them back home. So without that threat in the back of their minds, frustration had no brakes to keep it from spilling into anger and violence.

“What’s a penkoro?”

“Tom, forget about them and let’s go. I’m getting hungry.”

“Yeah, good point. I just wish the boss would buy us dinner once in a while…”

The local toughs’ utter indifference to them pushed the bikers over the edge.

“You bitches… Don’t ignore us!”

One of them pulled off a metal pipe that was affixed to his bike and swung it with all his might.

“Whoa, watch out!” said the dreadlocked man, cleanly dodging the blow.

But just as a metal pipe had ripped through Celty’s cargo bag earlier in the day—it ripped through the other thug’s bartender-style sleeve.

“Ah!”

“My clothes…,” the man said quietly.

The one with dreads was already sprinting away, signing the cross as he prayed for the bikers.

The next instant: zwip.

If there were visible sound effects in real life, that’s what would appear over the scene: zwip.

That was how easily the man picked up the motorcycle, rider and all, with one hand.

And like tossing a baseball, threw it into the other bikers.

You see, the outsiders did not realize.

That in Ikebukuro, there are people one must never pick a fight with.

People that no one should ever, ever, ever challenge to a fight, no matter if they were a hit man, or a serial killer, or a president, or an alien, or a vampire, or a headless monster.

Then came the sound of thunder.

“You ripped the clothes…I got from Kasukaaaa!”

The man in the bartender getup pulled out a nearby streetlamp and swung it at the bikers like a baseball bat.

There was the sound of thunder, and both motorcycles and men flew through the air.

With that customary sight, Ikebukuro’s holiday came to an end.

Whether the city enjoyed its holiday or not is not for us to know.

But at the very least…

The neighborhood of Ikebukuro was at peace again today.