“…”
“So…so stop this, Mikado… Don’t waste your life for such a horrible reason…,” Masaomi pleaded, tearing his lungs out, slamming his bandaged hand against the ground. The agony was horrible, but he never took his eyes off Mikado.
“…”
“…”
Silence surrounded the two for a moment.
Mikado briefly closed his eyes, then said sadly, his face joyful, “Thank you, Masaomi… I’m sorry.”
“Mika…do…?”
“Even at a time like this, I have to admit…I’m feeling a bit excited by it all… Wondering what will happen when I’m dead. Maybe I’ll get to visit a world I’ve never seen before.”
He kept the gun pressed against the side of his head, smiling to put Masaomi at ease.
“Celty exists, the Headless Rider…so maybe there is a world after death. In fact…maybe I’ll end up being like the Headless Rider after this,” he muttered to himself before looking at Masaomi again. “And the fact that I’m thinking about this stuff…makes me crazy.”
“No…stop! Don’t say that! You’re normal! What’s crazy is how we all did this to you!” Masaomi argued desperately, summoning all the strength he could in an attempt to stop Mikado.
He felt as if he might be able to get to his feet—but Mikado sensed it, too, and so he said, “Masaomi…I’m sorry.”
He placed his finger on the trigger and pulled it without hesitation.
The third gunshot of the night went off.
Mikado Ryuugamine’s world was enveloped in total shadow.
Intersection near Tokyu Hands
It was a battle to the death that defied the imagination.
Shizuo Heiwajima and Izaya Orihara.
There was an overwhelming imbalance between their respective physical capabilities. Izaya had been treated as an equal combatant up to this point largely because he focused on escape and evasion and attacked Shizuo in the resulting openings.
Sometimes he got Shizuo hit by a truck; sometimes he dropped him into a hole; sometimes he lured him into the midst of an Awakusu-kai battle. When Izaya used his knife to attack directly, it was usually as a preemptive measure, a kind of how-do-you-do to get Shizuo into a furious mood.
That was the only thing it would be good for, because the best he could do was get the blade about a third of an inch under his skin. Then again, a normal human being would never even bother to fight Shizuo, much less try to stab him with a knife.
At this time, Izaya had given up on his usual style of fighting.
He had chosen to use his knife as a serious weapon against this monstrous dinosaur of a man.
When the first vending machine blow came down, Izaya leaped not backward or sideways but forward. That actually put him inside, closer than the machine’s attack range. But it meant that he was now close enough for Shizuo’s arms to reach him, and a single misstep could easily get his neck broken.
Sure enough, when he passed inside of the vending machine’s trajectory, Shizuo’s other hand reached for him. Izaya dodged it by a hair and swung consecutive knife attacks.
With each piercing of Shizuo’s body, Izaya felt the physical sensation of trying to stab the tires of some ultra-heavy-duty construction vehicle. He could puncture the outermost, weakest layer of skin, but no matter how much force he used, there was nothing getting past the layer of muscle. In fact, if he stabbed too deep, he might not be able to pull the blade back out.
Fly like a butterfly; sting like a bee.
It was a nice sentiment to emulate, but in reality, he was neither butterfly nor bee—more like a gnat trying to challenge a human being. A single good blow would easily destroy him, but Izaya still fought and fought.
Every single attack Shizuo made was deadly. But Izaya evaded them all by the skin of his teeth and countered with little nicks and cuts on Shizuo’s body several times for each punch.
It seemed as though his plan was that even if he got Shizuo to shed only a single drop of blood each time, Izaya would eventually drain him dry.
Without planning on it, Chikage found himself in the position of observer of this duel. Upon witnessing Izaya’s reckless-in-the-extreme combat style, he muttered, “Is he…trying to get killed?”
“If he wins, great. If he loses and dies, he probably also considers that a victory,” Aoba said.
Chikage looked over his shoulder at the boy, frowning. “What? What do you mean, dying is winning?”
“Why don’t you beat a man to death in the midst of an enormous crowd? You’ll get arrested for murder. That’s how Shizuo Heiwajima gets recognized by the world at large as a true monster. He’s not a violent hero with an abnormal amount of power. He’ll just be known as a bloodthirsty, unthinking beast,” Aoba said with a sigh. He gazed at Izaya with mockery and pity.
“Izaya Orihara… That guy in black there hates the very notion that Shizuo Heiwajima can be treated as human. That’s why he wants to trap him, to lower him to the level of a monster. So that no matter how much he might want to be human, humanity will reject him.”
“How do you know that?” asked Chikage, so enraptured by the bizarre duel that he spoke to his enemy as though having an ordinary chat. Aoba gave Izaya a spiteful look.
“Because there are parts of him that resemble me. So I have a hunch.”
Outside of Russia Sushi
“There you go! You’re almost through!”
Despite his hand-clapping enthusiasm, Nasujima’s face was still pale with fear.
For one thing, Shizuo Heiwajima was raging within visual range. Nasujima was beside himself with terror at the thought of that power being used on him.
On the other hand, if he was fighting over there, that meant that Nasujima could do more over here without worrying about attracting attention. So despite his fear, he chose bold action.
As long as he could gain control over the man inside the sushi place named Tom Tanaka, he could use him as a hostage and possibly even as a stepping-stone to taking over Shizuo himself.
The rest was just a battle against time.
But Nasujima was unaware that the door to Russia Sushi that he had his Saika-possessed tearing down at the moment was something like the entry to Pandora’s box.
After many body blows, the front door to Russia Sushi finally broke.
“Good! Get in there and take control of everyone inside!” he said, a greedy smirk on his lips, as he approached the doorway himself.
In the next moment, the shine of that smile was completely overshadowed by literal light from the sushi restaurant’s interior.
A few seconds before that, when the Saika-possessed made to pile through the open doorway, they heard something spilling onto the floor.
Before anyone could identify them as flashbang stun grenades, they were overwhelmed by light and sound, momentarily robbing them of vision, hearing, and the ability to think.
Suddenly, one of the low tables from the private booth areas of the restaurant was rushing upon them like a giant shield—and pushed the confused dolls clear out of the building like a bulldozer.
“Gaaaah!! Wh-what was that?! What happened?!” Nasujima yelped in a panic, hands over his eyes, as a number of canisters hit the ground around him.
He was blinded, his ears full of roaring echoes.
All around him, light and sound assaulted the shadowy portion of Ikebukuro.
Outside of Tokyu Hands
There was a flash in the corner of his vision.
And the momentary loss of concentration had tragic consequences for Izaya Orihara.
When he recognized it as the effect of a stun grenade, Izaya’s knowledge and experience taught him to instinctually be on guard.
The problem was, he was already dealing with something far more dangerous than a stun grenade and deadlier than potshots from a gun.
It took less than a second to refocus his every nerve on the superhuman creature before him—but even that was a fatal lapse in concentration.
“Gah…”
It was what you might feel if an express train passing through the station clipped you on the shoulder. The astonishing transfer of energy to Izaya’s body sent him spinning. By the time he had recovered his balance, Shizuo’s fist was careening toward him again.
“…!”
The timing made it impossible for him to evade it entirely. He crossed his arms to block the blow and jumped backward in hopes of deadening some of its force.
But this was not the kind of punch that commonsense actions could nullify. You don’t put your hands up to block an oncoming cannonball or jump backward with the impact, expecting the result to be any different.
The instant Shizuo’s fist met Izaya’s arms, everyone in the vicinity clearly heard the sound of those arms breaking.
Shizuo swung through, bringing his fist downward and throwing Izaya against the ground, which he bounced off several feet in the air, as though he’d been struck by a car. If it had been an uppercut instead, Izaya might have flown to the height of one of the surrounding high-rise buildings—or so it seemed to the witnesses, such was the power of Shizuo’s blow.
Izaya’s resistance was not entirely in vain, however. If he hadn’t given up his arms to the punch, it might have broken his sternum and obliterated his heart beneath it.
For the cost of his arms, Izaya Orihara stayed alive, leaving him capable of standing before Shizuo. But to everyone watching, it as if looked only he’d given himself a few more seconds to live.
I’m still alive.
Izaya’s arms weren’t just broken, they were also dislocated and dangling from his shoulder joints, but he was conscious.
He stood on the strength of his legs alone, but the shock of being struck against the ground left him hardly able to breathe.
It was a stronger blow to his system than when he’d been struck by the metal beam and knocked into the building across the street. Blood spilled from his mouth as he stared at Shizuo.
His opponent’s body was trickling blood all over as well, and the overall damage seemed more than trivial. He approached, covered in red stains, step after purposeful step.
So if I’d just fought him like this from the start…I might have actually had a chance to win? The irony is rich, Izaya thought woozily as he observed his bloodied opponent.
At this point, the endorphins had kicked in, so that he barely even registered the pain in his arms and everywhere else.
Despite his frustration, Izaya smiled. He simply smiled.
More important than his own coming death was knowing that by sacrificing his own life, he would succeed at expelling Shizuo Heiwajima from human society, making him a monster.
The fact that he could prevent a future in which a monster wearing human skin strolled around society as if he were one of them was all the victory that Izaya could hope for.
This was all Izaya thought about as he stood—for standing was the only thing he could do.
Shizuo picked up the vending machine lying nearby and took another step toward Izaya.
“…Do it, monster,” Izaya said with the last bit of breath from his lungs.
A shock ran through his body before he could even tell whether Shizuo heard him say it.
But the impact was not from Shizuo. He was still holding the machine. If anything, seeing what just happened to Izaya made him stop.
“Huh…?”
Izaya finally realized that something else had happened to his body. Something was sticking into his side.
At the same moment that he recognized the silver flash of a blade, he saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye.
There, standing inside the ring of bikers and punks watching the fight, was the figure of Vorona, holding the handle of a knife without its blade.
With cold eyes, she tossed aside the handle and brought her now free right hand up to support what she held in her left. When the crowd recognized the gun, they began to murmur uneasily.
The muzzle was pointed directly at Izaya. The people around her and behind Izaya screamed and darted to the sides to get out of its path.
“Vorona…?”
When Shizuo slowly turned to look at her, there was a troubled light in his eyes, mixed in with his battle fury. She glanced at him, then at Izaya, who was now on his knees.
“Sir Shizuo is human,” she said to Shizuo. She did not know what Izaya was thinking, but through sheer coincidence, she ended up contradicting his opinions. “Necessity to become a beast is nonexistent.”
Vorona pointed her gun at Izaya.
She was going to shoot him in the head and heart and eliminate him from the world forever.
When he understood the situation, Shizuo’s eyes calmed, becoming clearer with reason—and he shouted at his coworker, “Stop, you idiot! Why would you let yourself be a murderer?!”
She smiled when she heard his voice, but she did not take her eyes off Izaya.
“I request your relief.
“I have always been a beast who loves killing.”
Outside of Russia Sushi
“Hey…isn’t that Shizuo?!”
Tom emerged from the restaurant, making his way through the crowd of Saika-possessed who were alternately slumped to the ground holding their eyes or just plain unconscious.
The plan had been to toss stun grenades in the hope of blazing a path to escape the building, but once they were outside, it was hard to believe what they saw. As they scanned the area for the direction of least resistance, they noticed an odd clump in the crowd with a vending machine on the ground between them.
Which meant that the person in the bartender’s vest beside it had to be Shizuo.
“Oh, I see Izaya, too,” said Simon, whose sharp eyes were scanning the intersection. Then the crowd abruptly scattered left and right. With the sudden increase in visibility, Simon made out the figure of Vorona pointing a gun at Izaya.
“!”
His next action was lightning fast. Without a word, Simon pulled the pin from the stun grenade in his other hand. He waited a beat to time it, then hurled it with all the force he could muster toward the intersection.
“Hey!”
The grenade quickly reached the open square on the fly.
Intersection, Tokyu Hands side
No…the end can’t be this ridiculous.
The sight of Vorona’s gun pointed at him filled Izaya with powerful disappointment.
But he smiled, half-resigned, and gave Vorona a direct look.
Fine, I forgive you. I love humanity.
“…You are human. Just a human like any other.”
Vorona paused, puzzled by what Izaya had said—but unlike when she pointed the gun at Shizuo, she did not feel any hesitation about pulling the trigger. She was going to end Izaya before Shizuo could get to her and stop her.
But then something entered her vision that she didn’t expect to see at all.
Before she could recognize it as the kind of stun grenade that her father’s company dealt with, that she loved using—the object burst in midair barely above the ground, blinding the vicinity with light.
Outside of Russia Sushi
After Tom and Simon rushed off in the direction of Tokyu Hands, Nasujima was left behind, his mind a toxic mix of fury, humiliation, and fear of Shizuo, whose approach he could not sense with his eyes blinded.
“Dammit…cut them! Just go and possess every last one of them, even the bikers! No more holding back! Possess every last person in this city!”
“Yes, Mother,” replied Haruna, the first to respond. Because of her distance from the stun grenade, her sight was already recovering.
The crowd of Nasujima’s and Haruna’s Saika-possessed victims, who had previously been merely watching the events happen, now converged on the Dollars.
Major chao
s began to erupt around the area in front of Tokyu Hands.
First, a flash went off in front of the biker gangs watching Shizuo and Izaya’s duel from a distance; then a group of people with red eyes rushed up on them. The bikers, plunged into the kind of terror only witnessed in zombie movies, fought back wildly with metal pipes and whatever else they had on hand.
This quickly went beyond the level of a simple skirmish. It was clearly going to end in major bloodshed, possibly death.
But then a miracle happened.
Though perhaps it was too visually ominous to be labeled a miracle.
A “shadow” began to descend from the sky like rain, touching and tangling up the motorcycle gangs and Saika dolls alike and freezing them in place.
Instantly, the entire crowd was nearly under the sway of this black substance—and all those people heard “her” voice in their ears.
“I understand the situation.”
It was as though the shadow itself was transmitting words, a woman’s voice hitting the eardrums of the entire crowd at once—and simultaneously reaching directly into their minds. Few of them had ever heard this eerie voice before.
She continued, “Before I leave this city, I will eliminate all the trouble stemming from my body.”
It spoke clearly and briefly but with a power that resonated inside the minds of all who heard it.
“It is what little atonement I can provide for the confusion my body has wrought upon this place.”
The rooftop of a mixed-use building
All space that could be perceived was covered in shadow. It had poured down from the sky above the building, instantly coating Mikado and Masaomi.
This happened at nearly exactly the same moment as the gunshot—so it wasn’t surprising that Mikado initially thought he was dead.
Ah. There isn’t even any pain…
But it’s so dark.
I wonder…if it’ll always be this dark, forever…
Durarara!!, Vol. 13 Page 17
