Durarara!!, Vol. 11
Page 5
100% Pure Water: Whoops, I just remembered something I need to do.
100% Pure Water: Gotta go!
Kuru: Let us meet again, whether in real life or on this side.
Mai: Seeya.
100% Pure Water has left the chat.
Kuru has left the chat.
Mai has left the chat.
The chat room is currently empty.
The chat room is currently empty.
The chat room is currently empty.
.
.
.
Chapter 5: Like Father, Like Son
The next morning—Raira General Hospital, Ikebukuro
When the sun rose again after a day of many events, there was one difference in Ikebukuro.
As Anri reached the hospital where Kadota might be waking up soon, she ran across a young man who had come to pay a visit, all the way from Saitama.
“So do you know where Kadota’s hospital room is?”
It was a man named Chikage Rokujou, speaking just outside the door to the surgical ward. Both his tone of voice and his general appearance suggested “light and breezy,” but in fact, he was the commander of a large motorcycle gang in Saitama named Toramaru.
In a similarly breezy tone, Erika Karisawa replied, “Sorry, Rocchi. They’re only letting family see him at the moment. One of those ‘no visitors’ things, I guess. Anyway, it doesn’t sound like his life is in any danger, but he’s not waking up yet.”
“Oh, gotcha. Well, dang, this backfired. If he was awake, I figured I’d get him all pumped up by showing off how hot my girlfriend is,” he said, shaking his head sadly. Behind him, a number of young women reacted in a variety of ways. He was practically a walking harem, and he spoke to anyone on first meeting as though they were already on comfortable terms.
“Hey, y’know, it’s pretty friendly of you to call me Rocchi at our first meeting. Wanna exchange numbers so we can text?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.”
None of the gaggle of women raised any complaint about Chikage hitting on this unfamiliar woman; they seemed to be used to it. But their eyes were full of the intent to gang up on him as soon as they left this place, since they didn’t want to raise a fuss in a hospital.
Standing behind Karisawa, Anri Sonohara wasn’t sure if she should join the conversation or not. She didn’t know this man very well, but she understood that he’d seen her swinging Saika. On the other hand, all she knew about Chikage was that he was the person who stopped her sword fight with that mysterious woman, and if he was a friend of Kadota’s, then he probably couldn’t be a bad person.
“Erika Karisawa, huh? That’s a cool, cute name,” Chikage said. Then he favored Anri with a nice smile; he clearly recognized her. “And, uh, may I ask your name, too?”
“Huh?! Umm, it’s…Anri Sonohara…”
“Anri Sonohara! Nice! That sounds like a celebrity’s name.”
“Huh? Umm…”
She wasn’t entirely certain how she should act around this young man, who was just so casual about everything. Fortunately, Karisawa stepped in to help her out.
“No, no, you can’t go after her. She’s in the midst of a competition from her very close and precious suitors already.”
“Oh, really? And I’m not allowed to throw my hat into the ring?” Chikage mourned. The girls behind him laughed, but their eyes went even colder. Anri could only imagine the fate that awaited him as soon as they left the hospital grounds—but if he acted like this all the time and they still hung around, it had to be a sign that they had a special bond of trust with Chikage Rokujou.
A part of Anri almost felt jealous of that relationship—but that was the kind of weakness that Saika could exploit.
And in fact, right after seeing Chikage and the girls with him, new words began sneaking through Saika’s endless internal “words of love,” directly to Anri:
—You’re jealous, aren’t you?
—Which do you want to be, Anri?
—Do you want to be the boy?
—Or one of those girls?
—Do you want Mikado Ryuugamine and Masaomi Kida to wait upon you?
—Or do you prefer to serve one of them?
—Do you want to be dependent?
—Or depended upon?
—Do you want to bind someone to you?
—Or be bound yourself?
Saika’s toying, manipulative messages punctured the usual wave of praises for humanity. Anri tried to push that voice into the picture frame within her mind, but it wasn’t quite working. And she had a feeling she knew why.
Saika was already in the process of being on this side of the frame. It all started after the incident involving Shizuo Heiwajima and Haruna Niekawa resolved, and one particular sentence had struck a chord within her.
I cannot love you, but I do not hate you.
Maybe it was just my imagination, she had thought.
But at this point, it was less that she hoped it was her imagination and more that she was fine with it as long as it wasn’t her imagination.
Since then, there were times that Anri felt like Saika was speaking to her directly.
Saika’s parasitic presence filled her mind with words of love for all other people. But Anri never found that to be all that troubling or agonizing. In a sense, Anri even felt a kind of respect for Saika, who was at least capable of strongly loving someone else.
But now that relationship was evolving.
She knew the reason why. It wasn’t something she wanted to face, but she was certain she knew.
Saika hadn’t changed. It was her.
Up to that point, she’d been unable to feel love and stayed hidden insi
de her own shell—until she began to accept other people into her side of the picture frame.
It was a major change.
Mika Harima was a good friend, but to Anri, she was a symbol of longing and aspiration, so rather than being a person on this side of the frame, she was more like the central figure of the painting itself. Occasionally, she did come back through that frame, but Mikado and Masaomi had been on this side almost since the very start.
Perhaps another big event was seeing how Celty—a dullahan, not a human being—had found such a strong partnership with the human Shinra Kishitani. She didn’t think much of it at the time, but the steady accumulation of so much normalcy had slowly but surely brought about change in her as a person.
Now Saika was neither some foreign object, nor a host that she was reliant upon, but something she could commune with, something like a companion—whether anything you could call “love” existed there or not.
—Go on. Use me.
—Swing me.
—I will love anyone and everyone!
—I will love! In your stead!
—All you need to do is hold me!
—Which of them do you really love?
—Is it Mikado, the calm and gentle boy who will tend to your wounds?
—Or will you boldly attempt the adulterous Masaomi and go down in flames?
—If you let me love him, Masaomi’s body will be forever yours, even if he is promised to another.
Anri considered these booming, echoing sentiments from Saika to be no one’s business but her own. She would not let the blade harm Mikado Ryuugamine or Masaomi Kida.
But Saika reacted to that thought:
—Well, well… You’re stronger now, aren’t you?
—Now you’re actually answering my voice. It has been so very long.
“…!” Anri tensed up.
—Don’t get so defensive. Why don’t we talk for a bit?
—Remember what I said? I cannot love you, but I do not hate you.
All the while, the words of love echoed in the background like musical accompaniment. But the voice Anri was hearing was crystal clear, and it functioned just like any conversation.
—In the past, I once told you…
—That as long as you hold me, I can only ever love those you want to cut.
—So why do you think that I was able to love the man named Egor?
Because…
—It’s not because you fell in love with him at first sight.
—I fell in love with his strength at first sight. Not as badly as Shizuo Heiwajima, though.
—You understand, don’t you? At the start, we each rejected the other…
—But now we are growing slowly closer, aren’t we?
That…might be true, but…
—I’ve become just a little bit you, and you’re just a little bit me.
No.
—That’s all this is.
No. I am…me.
—You don’t have to reject it. I’m not trying to take you over.
—I’m just suggesting that we understood each other.
—I think your mother and I reached quite a good understanding, if not a mutual love.
Please…stop.
—It’s how your mother was able to use me better.
—She could do a number of things that you cannot.
—Want me to tell you? Do you want to know how she felt when she…
Stop!
“What’s up? You look bad. Oh, sorry, did I frighten you?”
The sound of Chikage’s voice brought Anri back to her senses with a start. The words of love continued to echo as they always did, but she couldn’t hear the words directed toward her anymore.
Anri looked around in a daze for a few seconds, then bowed to Chikage. “I’m…sorry. I just feel a little bit dizzy…”
“Hey, you okay? Good thing this is a hospital—maybe you should ask for a checkup? Dizziness doesn’t seem like much, but it can often be a sign of more serious illness. Forget about me; cute girls like you need to live nice, long lives, until you’re adorable old grandmas.”
Something in Chikage’s lackadaisical tone struck a chord in Anri.
Oh. He’s just like Kida.
Masaomi’s face flitted through her head, followed by memories of when the three of them had been together with Mikado.
They were fun times. Not dreams, not fantasies, but times that Anri had truly held within her grasp. Irreplaceable times that accepted who she was.
A part of her was gripped with a vague fear that they might never return.
But Anri did not sit back and cower beneath that fear. She had come here to meet Karisawa for the purpose of erasing this worry. And then she met this strange man…
He knows that I have a katana…so why is he treating me so normally?
His entrance had caused her to delay her original purpose for coming. If he knew Kadota, then perhaps he might know what was happening around the city.
But her hopes were dashed right away.
“So anyway, I got no idea what’s happening with this one,” Chikage said to Karisawa, his voice gentle and soothing. “They caught the guy who ran over Kadota, right?”
For a moment, Karisawa’s smile wilted but only enough to make it a bit sadder, not to eliminate it entirely. “Nope. I assume the cops are working on it, though,” she admitted.
“Huh…? So it was a hit-and-run?”
“Oh, you didn’t know that already. Yeah, a hit-and-run. No idea who did it, though.”
Rokujou fell silent for a while.
“Got it,” he said. “Then I’ll leave for today. I’d appreciate a message once he wakes up, though.”
“You’re going back to Saitama?”
“Nah, me and the honeys are going to Namco Namja Town today. And once I’ve seen them off back home, I plan to wander the night streets…”
The girls behind him started beating on him, and Chikage practically ran out of the scene. With a brief good-bye, he left the hospital grounds. Anri felt a strange disquiet as she watched him go.
I could have sworn…
That in the moment when Chikage Rokujou learned from Karisawa that it was a hit-and-run—she felt the briefest bit of a dark emotion exposed in his psyche.
Outside the hospital
“You looked a little scary back there for just a moment, Rocchi,” said one of Rokujou’s entourage, Non, after they left the hospital.
“Hmm? Oh, sorry about that. Did I frighten you?”
“I wouldn’t be here now if you scared me, Rocchi.”
“Oh…oh, right. Thanks.”
Something about Chikage’s manner suggested that his mind wasn’t entirely present. The girls glanced at one another and exhaled through wry smiles.
“You’re thinking of something violent, aren’t you?”
“What’s up, Rocchi? You gonna get revenge for your friend?”
“Of course, he’s gonna stick his head in there. God, that purehearted side of him is so embarrassing, isn’t it? Not that I mind.”
The girls didn’t bother to hold back in their assessments. Chikage readjusted his hat to hide his embarrassment and said, “Look, I won’t deny it. I owe that guy a lot, and I haven’t paid up yet. But don’t worry, I’m gonna make sure none of it comes back on you girls.”
“We’re going to worry unless we know you’re safe, Rocchi. What if you get hurt really bad, like recently?”
“If I do, will you peel my apples and feed them to me again?” he asked blithely. Then he went silent and mentally continued his earlier thought.
If I’m gonna get our revenge on Ikebukuro while I’m still leader…I at least gotta pay back my debt to Kadota first. It’s just the right thing to do.
He was so absorbed in this thought as he walked that it took him a little while to realize there was a strange man approaching them.
The man glanced at Chikage and his entourage for a split second, then passed by them with a thin-lipped s
mile—and disappeared into the hospital grounds.
The man gave off an unsettling aura, but that was the extent of Chikage’s reaction as he continued on his way.
Who was that guy? Isn’t he hot, wearing all black in the summer?
Within the hospital
For a while after that, Anri and Karisawa kept talking about Chikage Rokujou, until Karisawa remembered something in a flash.
“Oh, what did you want to talk to me about? What did you mean, you want me to know everything about you?”
Anri looked away awkwardly. “Oh…right. Um, I’m not sure how to explain this…”
“Look, I have a general idea. It’s about that katana, right?” Karisawa said, getting right to the point.
“Um…y-yes! That’s right…”
“Is that something you can talk about here?”
Anri glanced around her. Everyone in the vicinity was a visitor for one hospital patient or another. It wasn’t crowded, but it was far from empty, too.
She gave it a little bit of thought, then decided, I can’t drag her away from this place.
Karisawa had a very specific reason for being here: to let Yumasaki and her other friends know the moment that Kadota awoke at last.
“…Yes, we can talk about it here. And if anyone accidentally overhears us…well, I don’t think they would believe it anyway,” Anri said with a self-deprecating smile.
She sucked in a breath, willing herself the strength to push forward—
“Ooh, do you mind if I listen in, too?”
—when a very lackadaisical voice appeared from beside where they stood.
“?!”
Anri spun toward the voice—and felt a tremor run through her entire body.
This was not the spasm of delight from Saika that she felt when Shizuo Heiwajima was present. It was a shiver of fear from Anri herself.
“Whoa, it’s been forever. What’s up? You here to visit Dotachin in the hospi— Hmm, yeah, I guess not, huh?” quipped Karisawa, whose reaction was casual and friendly, not at all like Anri’s stunned disbelief.
“By the way, are you familiar with Anri already, Iza-Iza?”
Thirty minutes earlier
“Ms. Kujiragi never did show up last night.” Izaya Orihara chuckled as he lounged on the house’s sofa.
He must’ve been bruised all over his body, but nothing in his demeanor suggested any pain whatsoever. He continued monologuing to himself for the benefit of all present.