“That’s just Izaya’s MO. It’s like leading a witness. He said a bunch of things that were meant to mislead you and confuse you, that’s all. If it seemed like he was speaking the truth and making sense, that was just an illusion. He’s like a thief who breaks into your house and then lectures you on how sloppy your defenses are.”
“But, Karisawa…I…I really was going to slash him just now…”
“It’s fine, you’re all right. You can tell me all about it later,” Karisawa said kindly, patting Anri on the back. “I may not know all the details, but I can forgive you for everything right now. Even if you’re some vengeful god of the ancient past, and you destroyed the earth once before, I still forgive you.”
It didn’t sound like your typical message of encouragement, but Anri couldn’t help but be heartened by it.
“…”
She couldn’t even find words of appreciation, however. All she felt was the painful realization of her own mental weakness.
And fright at what she was.
When Izaya vanished around the corner, Saika’s voice had begun to speak up again—and it even turned its “blade of love” on Karisawa, who’d been treating her so gently.
She was holding Saika at bay now, but if she ended up slicing Karisawa, if she gave in to Saika’s desires—the very thought of it filled her with terror.
“You’re a monster,” he had said, standing in judgment of her. Those words stabbed her heart now.
Not just that—all the things he had said to her were true.
Karisawa said they weren’t worth bothering over, but the fact that Anri couldn’t come up with a rebuttal meant they must be true. In her confused state, she was close to believing all of it.
If it hadn’t been for Karisawa’s statement of forgiveness, who knows what might’ve happened to her. Anri felt nothing but gratitude to the other woman—and unfathomable loathing for herself.
But realizing that even after all this, she couldn’t take the option of discarding Saika, the truth sank in that she really was no longer human.
The reason she thought and said that she was fine with being a parasite was nothing more than an excuse to avoid examining herself and what she really was.
Kawagoe Highway—Shinra’s apartment
“Are you all right, Celty?”
Despite the crowded state of Shinra’s apartment, they were alone again in the bedroom, now that Shinra had moved back to his bed.
Celty, now the de facto leader of a strange information-sharing organization, had spent half a day, practically an all-nighter, combining and sorting everyone’s stories and collecting information from the Internet to support them.
That was hard enough, but she also had to spend valuable energy calming Namie and Mika down enough to keep them from destroying each other.
They were fairly well-behaved when Seiji was around, but as soon as he left the room—to use the bathroom, say—they would immediately engage in hostilities.
It was an odd sight, two women hurling needles and trowels at each other as the people around them attempted to get it under control. Ultimately, the only thing that worked was Seiji’s return, at which point they behaved as though nothing had ever happened.
The worst of all was when Seiji had asked to use the shower. Because both Namie and Mika casually attempted to sneak into the shower with him, that led to another massive conflict.
As they watched the drama from a distance, Togusa leaned over to Yumasaki. “You know…I figured you were the type of guy who would yell, ‘Blow up to smithereens, normies,’ in this situation, but you’re taking it pretty well.”
Yumasaki’s head inclined at a curious angle. “What? Why would I care? I mean…they’re both three-dimensional.”
“…Oh. Gotcha,” Togusa said, giving him up for lost.
The whole while, Celty just did her best to be the sole peacekeeper of the room.
Eventually, morning arrived.
The clock hands indicated it was close to noon now, but the others were all asleep in another room, and the raucous noise from yesterday was no more. Yumasaki was watching some kind of summer vacation anime special that was airing in the morning, but the sound of it was as soothing as lapping waves compared to the ruckus that Namie and Mika had produced.
Satisfied that all was calm at last, Celty slumped lifelessly next to Shinra.
“I’m just so tired… There’s no other way to describe it.”
“I’m sorry I saddled you with such a huge role.”
“It’s all right. It’s the first time in a while I felt I was doing something worthwhile. The only problem is, I need to cut down on my courier jobs until things chill out a bit…”
“That’s true. I’ll let Mr. Shiki know about that.”
The mention of Shiki’s name caused Celty to recall something. She typed, “Speaking of which, the Awakusu-kai are chasing Jinnai Yodogiri, too, right?”
“Yeah, but I believe they already cleared it up… Maybe they’ve got some information to use. But if you’re going to ask them, you’d better be careful about it. You never want to stir up more trouble.”
“…Good point. This isn’t just our problem anymore. I’d be involving everyone in this apartment.”
Shinra read her sentence and smiled. “You’re so kindhearted, Celty. You’re much more considerate than a normal human being.”
“Flattery won’t get you anywhere.” She shrugged, lying on her side.
“Celty, I’m not flattering you,” Shinra said. “The part of you that’s trying to be more human is kinder than any human. It’s why I’m worried. With how you overestimate humanity, I’m afraid that when you see true wickedness, you’ll be so disillusioned with us that you turn into some vengeful demon out to destroy the world.”
But then his worried expression turned into a forceful smile, and lying on his side as well, he said, “Don’t worry, Celty! If you wanted to destroy all humanity, I would turn traitor on my species and assist you! I would be happy to die in your arms as the last remaining human being.”
“That is a very, very convenient fantasy you have. But at any rate, your fears are unfounded,” Celty typed, stretching luxuriously. “I’ve been dealing with the Awakusu-kai and Izaya all this time. How would I despair of humanity at this point? If you’re talking about some kind of mass slaughter or footage from some far-off war, that’s going to affect a lot more people than just me…”
“…Well, I was looking more for a moving reaction to my sentiments, rather than a pragmatic response, to be honest…”
“So you were using me and hoping to get an emotional reaction out of it?”
Oddly enough, the words on her screen even looked exasperated somehow. Shinra glanced away from them and whistled nonchalantly.
“You’re not some little kid!” Celty gave Shinra’s cheek a flick with her finger. “Anyway, I guess I’ll be playing along with your little scheme.”
“Celty…”
“But if I’m going to play along, I want you to get better soon.”
“Why, Celty, I feel as though I’m walking on clouds! My body is bursting with the feeling of pure joy…ow! Aah!” he shrieked, his bones screeching with pain after he attempted to do a little bedridden dance.
“Hey! Don’t push it!”
“Oooh, oww…I’m sorry, Celty. But thank you,” he said, lying down flat again as his pain eased. “I’m sure a bunch of different stuff is going to happen starting today… What were you planning to tackle first?”
“I think I should start with Kasane Kujiragi.”
“Yeah…you’re probably right.”
“First things first. Either she or Seitarou Yagiri has to pay for hurting you…”
As she lay next to Shinra, Celty thought about her distant foe.
Kasane Kujiragi.
A woman who plays at human trafficking using the name of a dead man, Jinnai Yodogiri. And because most of her products are things like me and Saika, the law is less likely to g
et involved.
Based on the information we’ve got, though, I can’t imagine what kind of person she is. It’s like she’s some evil spirit who lives in a much deeper darkness than we do.
No doubt she’s hiding from the sun right now, plotting her next wicked move.
Ikebukuro—cosplay shop
At the very moment that Celty was thinking, Kasane Kujiragi was indeed staying out of the sun.
But the fluorescent lights were bright enough on their own.
“I’ll take this and this.”
She had brought a very well-made cat-ear headband to the lady at the register. The fur and texture were just like a cat’s, so realistic that if she put it on, the ears looked ready to wiggle.
Because she looked just like a company president’s personal secretary, complete with stony expression and bespectacled good looks, the employee at the register had to wonder if she was actually going to wear it. But the worker was a professional, too, and so did not show a bit of this as she smiled at Kujiragi.
“Thank you, ma’am. Is this a present for someone?”
“No, it’s for me,” Kujiragi said, all business.
In fact, the way she walked around the cosplay shop with her back straight was the personification of the term businesswoman, to the extent that the other customers wondered if she was already in cosplay.
With the cat ears stashed in a bag under her arm, she strode crisply through Ikebukuro’s streets. None of the muscles that formed her facial expression moved, aside from a slight narrowing around the eyes due to the sunlight. She simply walked, in a mechanically steady rhythm, through the crowds on the street.
Her cell phone ringer went off. It was not a custom ringtone or song, just the default setting. When she pressed the button to accept it, Seitarou Yagiri’s voice came through the speaker.
“It’s me. How goes the progress? I can’t connect to Yodogiri’s phone. Do you suppose something happened?”
“Mr. Yodogiri was in a car accident last night. He is listed as in the hospital now,” she said flatly.
The elderly men were nothing more than body doubles to take the place of the real Jinnai Yodogiri, who was long dead. Aside from the body double playing the part of the talent agency president, they didn’t have anything proving their identities, so the man would have been admitted as an unidentified patient.
As far as the Yodogiri playing the company president (who actually possessed the “Jinnai Yodogiri” identity) went, it would likely cause a stir if a man who had gone missing showed up as the victim of an accident, but at this point in time, it meant nothing to Kujiragi.
“What?! What happens to the job I hired him to do, then?!”
“I have taken it over. Our company will make use of all personnel to ensure that the work is carried out.”
“Oh. Th-that’s good, then. You never know if Nebula might interfere, like yesterday. Be careful out there.”
“I understand, Mr. Yagiri,” she said, as professional as she had been over the entire call, and abruptly hung up.
Celty Sturluson’s head and body and Saika.
Jinnai Yodogiri’s final job was to provide all these to Seitarou Yagiri.
Normally, she could’ve simply tossed this piece of work to the wayside, but she wanted a clean cut of all her ties to Jinnai Yodogiri, and so she decided she would see this mission through to its end.
For another reason, she considered that she could use this opportunity to turn the attention of her enemy, the Awakusu-kai, toward another enemy, Izaya Orihara.
Once this was over, and the hostility from the Awakusu-kai had dissipated, what would she do next? It was this question Kujiragi considered as she walked.
She’d been controlling an empty human being named Jinnai Yodogiri all this time and modeling his life. But she wasn’t some perfect machine. She didn’t do all this without any doubts in her mind at anytime.
She just didn’t know any other way to live.
Despite the job being on the seedy underside of society, she didn’t have enough of a reason to seek freedom at the cost of the secure life she was leading now. Plus, her Jinnai Yodogiri system was as solid as bedrock, and she had resigned herself to spending the rest of her life as a machine projecting Jinnai Yodogiri onto the world.
But then something had happened, and the world she’d resigned herself to living in suddenly crumbled all at once.
It was Ruri Hijiribe. The moment arrived when her own niece came into her possession as a “product.”
Upon reflection now, even Kujiragi had her suspicions about whether or not she had any personal emotion in the idea of bringing Ruri into this side of the world. In fact, when she had learned that a woman with the same blood as her was living happily and chasing her dreams, Kasane did feel a slight bit of jealousy—if not murderous, hateful rage.
As evidence of that, even after seeing the girl turned into a “product” and plunged into misfortune, Kasane did not feel any lightening of her mood. Neither did she have any reason to rescue Ruri Hijiribe from her plight while the Jinnai Yodogiri activities continued, and so she figured the situation would continue.
But when the elderly body double and her clients banded together to murder Ruri Hijiribe’s father, that took her by surprise. And she never would have dreamed that Ruri would turn into the masked killer Hollywood in search of revenge for her father’s death.
Yet when the girl who’d been working as a movie effects artist donned her own special makeup on a quest for vengeance, the only thing Kasane Kujiragi felt was a faint whiff of longing.
Despite all the pitfalls, all the personal misfortune, she still clung to that idea of a dream. There was nothing that Kasane ever fixated on that way. Even her position pulling the strings behind Jinnai Yodogiri wasn’t something she got because she wanted it.
As the shell of Jinnai Yodogiri began to break around her, she started to see her own dream through the cracks.
The woman who seemed so much like an unfeeling automaton did indeed have her own dreams. The dream of finding her own dream, in fact—like the punch line of some poetic fairy tale.
So she carried out her daily life, possessed with this recursive idea of dreaming to find a dream. Until half a day ago, when that life was shattered to pieces.
By the introduction of Izaya Orihara, a clearly hostile enemy.
The first thought she had about Izaya, who acknowledged her as his foe, was boundless gratitude.
Now the light of the morning sun that burned her skin and eyes was different somehow. Her flesh was prickling, as though ready to burn, but it no longer pained her at all.
At last, she had time to relax and think about what she ought to do. When she finished Seitarou Yagiri’s job and received her payment, perhaps she would travel somewhere. Another good option would be to finish things once and for all with Shinichi Tsukumoya, the pest who’d been interfering with her work for around ten years now.
However, to fulfill Seitarou’s job, she needed to obtain the dullahan’s head and body. At worst, she could branch the Saika she owned now and hand that over instead.
Shizuo Heiwajima was held at bay by her direct “child” within the police force, but once this was all settled, he could be set free. After all, if guided properly, he might be a very good trump card for her against Izaya.
But based on the fact there’d been no contact from Slon, it seemed fair to guess that the plan to kidnap Izaya had failed. He was still on the loose somewhere.
With that in mind, Kujiragi thought it over and headed to a nearby park, where she picked out a tree at random to lean against. Then she pulled out an Ikebukuro tourism magazine and began to very seriously pore over the information provided about local spots.
She flipped through the magazine quickly, apparently having decided that Izaya’s freedom was no reason to limit her own. She folded the corners of the pages for a café that allowed customers to interact with a bunch of cats, and the butler café Swallowtail, re-examining the co
ntents.
She indulged in two visions at this time.
One was herself, wearing the cat-ear headband she’d just bought, rolling around with a bunch of actual cats.
The other was herself, being called “Mistress” by a variety of smooth and capable butlers.
In those visions, she was completely stone-faced. And likewise, her own expression was just as steely as she imagined these scenes.
Should she play with the cats or head to the butler café and hope that someone had dropped their reservation so she could get inside?
Clearly, the choice was a difficult one. She stayed in the corner of the park, exuding her weird vibe and ensuring no one wanted to get any closer.
Kawagoe Highway—Shinra’s apartment
As her archenemy waffled between the choice of cats and butlers, Celty recalled something else she’d been worried about and rose to a sitting position next to Shinra.
“What is it, Celty?”
“I just realized that I forgot something… There was so much that happened yesterday, it must’ve slipped my mind. But I need to tell you.”
And then she told him what she knew about the situation between Mikado and Masaomi: that the Dollars and Yellow Scarves were set up to clash in a different way than before. That both Mikado and Masaomi were aware of each other’s presence.
But both of them had their own ideas in mind and believed that crushing the other group was an unavoidable part of that. To make matters more complicated, Mikado had received a request to find Haruna Niekawa, and Akabayashi of the Awakusu-kai had added a warning of his own.
That warning from the Awakusu-kai was the worst part of all.
Akabayashi was the most easygoing of the principal Awakusu-kai officers—even approachable, in a way. But that did not mean he was a “good person.” He was a yakuza for a reason.
Celty’s biggest concern was what would happen if members of the Dollars started dealing drugs behind Mikado’s back. Given Akabayashi’s known loathing of drugs, and how he viewed such dealing in his turf, the results were as apparent as daylight.
Durarara!!, Vol. 11 Page 8
