Durarara!! - Volume 7 - Chapter Pr

I’ve written about the city’s holidays in a number of books before this.

Today, I’m going to change tacks and talk about human holidays.

A day of rest for a person is meant in a literal sense: to rest one’s body.

But in practice, it doesn’t work out that way.

During a holiday, people actually go out of their way to travel, to celebrate to the point of exhaustion, to throw themselves into their interests or otherwise expend their physical stamina.

Do you have personal experience with this?

You do, don’t you?

You don’t?

Fine. I lose.

I apologize.

I’m sorry.

I was ignorant of people.

I made assumptions about people.

Forgive me…! Forgive me!

……I suppose that’s enough apologizing for now. I’ll now continue speaking to those of you who answered my question in the affirmative.

It’s possible that those who use their holidays to tire themselves out are the ones who seek the extraordinary. While it might break from the dictionary definition of the word, a temporary break from the everyday schedule could be considered a form of “rest” for this type of person.

It’s not resting the body.

It’s not resting the mind.

It’s not the body or the mind that relaxes…but the entire “state” of everyday repetition.

By doing this, one is able to enjoy the flavor of ordinary life when it returns.

You know how it works.

It’s like taking a sip of water to cleanse the palate when eating good food.

So what do those who lead extraordinary lives do for their day off?

Do urban legends such as the Black Rider even have holidays?

It’s tough to answer.

Does someone who always eats extremely rich food take a holiday by drinking water, or do they chug even richer soy sauce instead? That was an example—don’t try that at home, or you’ll regret it.

You’ll…you know…die.

Perhaps those who truly submerge themselves in the extraordinary simply surpass that level and have a certain kind of death wish instead.

Do those folks actually have holidays, or is every day a holiday for them?

We can only learn the truth by asking them.

But the city itself does not differentiate between their ordinary or extraordinary lives, between work and holidays.

Ultimately, it’s human beings who view these things and judge them.

The city does not differentiate between its humans. It simply envelops all our actions.

If only it knew that, like soy sauce, it’s dangerous to drink too much.

But I suppose that a city’s stomach is much stronger than a person would imagine.

—Excerpt from the preface of Shinichi Tsukumoya, author of Media Wax’s Ikebukuro travel guide, Ikebukuro Strikes Back 3