Durarara!! - Volume 4 - Chapter 5

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of the police and authorities, local citizens, and other clients of the talent agency, and thus the bounty was promptly withdrawn.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.