“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?”
Durarara!!, Vol. 4 (novel) Page 17
