DURARARA!! Vol.4 CHAPTER 2
I busted the word limit trying to add translation notes and ended up losing them (as well as a handful of edits), so sorry for the lack of them and any mistakes. I'll go over this chapter again tomorrow and correct what I can. Also, UNBETA-ED.
CHAPTER 2
MAO, INFORMATION MAGAZINE FOR THE YOUNG "A NEW LIFE IN SPRING! HOW TO MAKE YOUR HIGH SCHOOL DEBUT IN TOKYO, PART IKEBUKURO"
"Now that the spring is here, REFRESH yourself!
A new life starts with new encounters in a new city!
Will you be able to encounter something fresh and new as you start your new life in Ikebukuro?
Some are already ahead of you......but if you haven't started yet, grab this column and earn your experience points in Ikebukuro for the true encounters the future has in store for you!"
♂♀
After skimming through the column, the boy grabbed the magazine and made for the cashier.
His name was Ryuugamine Mikado.
He had only just become a sophomore at Raira Academy, a private high school situated in the center of Ikebukuro.
It was already his second year living in Ikebukuro, but for some reason he was still looking for columns like the one mentioned above. In his schoolbag there were already three magazines similar to this one.
The boy walked out of the convenience store in silence and made for the karaoke right next to it.
The food they served in that karaoke was better than the average restaurant's, and most importantly, they combined multiple online karaoke systems to offer a much wider song selection.
Mikado walked into the karaoke somewhat nervously and asked for the number of the reserved box before he went looking for it.
There were several rooms on the sixth floor. He entered one of them and found the other people already waiting.
"Yahoo! Mikapuu, how's it going?"
"You're so slow that we had to order oolong tea and some other stuff for you~"
The ones who spoke to Mikado first were a man and a woman in casual but hip clothes. They had the looks of fashion models, but the pile of manga, light novels, games, anime DVDs and related merchandises ruined that impression completely.
On the side a girl in the same uniform as Mikado was blushing hard as she held a boldly costumed figurine of a female character in her hand.
The girl let out a small scream as she saw Mikado before hastily handing the figurine back to Karisawa and curling up.
"Ah...um......Sonohara-san, is it OK if I sit by you?"
"......O - Of course!"
The bespectacled and docile-looking girl blushed harder. Her curves, which were on par with the figurine's, stiffened in embarrassment.
"Good to see you here, M - Mikado-kun."
"Thanks, I'm sorry I'm late. Sorry, Karisawa-san and Yumasaki-san."
Karisawa and Yumasaki smiled mildly at Mikado's apology as they replied:
"No problem, we have lots of time on our hands during the day anyway."
"That's right. We're pretty much free during the hours the bookstores are open."
The duo in casual clothes were much more laid-back than the somewhat tense duo in their school uniforms.
After having accepted the drinks delivered to their box, they began to talk business with the door shut.
"So, what were you gonna ask us?"
"I...um...I know it's kind of awkward to ask you this sort of......"
Mikado exhaled deeply and paused for a moment before he could make himself continue.
"Please......teach us how to show others around Ikebukuro."
♂♀
The time was two days ago.
New students had received their formal welcome at the opening ceremony at Raira Academy.
Mikado and Anri ended up in the same class and continued to be class representatives together.
After they were done with the brief Student Council meeting and initial self-introductions -
Mikado was running to catch up with Anri, who had left earlier than he did, when a voice called him from behind.
"......Excuse me! You're Ryuugamine-sempai, right?"
He turned his head to find a boy in a Raira uniform.
"Um...yeah, and you are...you just introduced yourself......Aoba-kun?"
"Yes! I'm Kuronuma Aoba, first-year!"
The boy had sparkling eyes and girly features. In addition, he was short enough to be mistaken for a middle school kid or even an elementary school one.
Mikado knew that his face wasn't the most mature-looking either, but the boy right in front of him looked even younger than he did at that age.
"I was really shocked when I heard you introduce yourself! I didn't expect to meet you here, Ryuugamine-sempai!"
The boy was talking in high spirits while Mikado was left perplexed.
- Who is he?
- That's weird...have we met somewhere before?
Mikado tried desperately to remember since it would be very rude to forget someone's face even if he was your kouhai. But he had no recollection whatsoever.
Aoba smiled softly at him as if he knew what Mikado was feeling bad about and said:
"Ahh, I'm sorry. I don't think sempai has seen me before or heard my name."
"Uh, I see. Um...so why were you shocked?"
It was a natural question on Mikado's part. The boy answered cheerfully:
"Because - uh....."
He closed his mouth as if to check nobody was nearby before he lowered his voice to say:
"Sempai......is in Dollars, right?"
"......Uhh!"
Mikado could only stare with his mouth hanging open as he heard what the boy had said.
"W - What do you mean?"
At that exact moment, Mikado's cell phone rang from inside his schoolbag.
Judging by the length of the ringtone it was a new text message.
"Uh. Finally."
The boy grinned pleasantly as he said.
Mikado pulled out his cell phone in haste - it was a text message sent to all Dollars members on the list.
"I'm recruiting at Raira Academy! Please keep me informed about how things are going at other schools!"
It was sent by one of the several hundreds of people on the mailing list.
As he saw the username "Young Leaf Mark"*, Mikado looked from the cell phone to the boy in front of him.
* "Aoba" is literally "green leaf" in Japanese.
"Is...that...you......?"
"'Young Leaf Mark' is me! I think I joined around No. 600 or so. But you know how the Dollars site was suspended after that spamming incident? That's why my name didn't show up......"
"W - Why do you think I'm one of Dollars?"
The boy gave him an innocent smile as he looked visibly unsettled and said:
"I don't have definite proof. But think about it...about a year ago, at Dollars' first gathering - sempai was arguing with the woman we were targeting, right? I remembered that ever since because it really got me interested!"
Dollars was a special gang that extended its territory online.
Loosely defined, it was a Color Gang except that it had too little resemblance of structure......but its members were all over the place.
It was rumored to have clashed with the Yellow Turbans a short while ago, but somehow peace was restored all of a sudden and the heat of conflict dissipated.
If Dollars was a Color Gang, its color would probably be "colorless" or "camouflage".
That was how Dollars blended itself into this city without boasting their omnipresence with colored attire.
They communicate with each other via cell phone messages or the Internet.
Both were discreet ways of communication that made it hard to trace their real structure.
Even the high school girl or the housewife you pass by on the street could be a Dollars member -
That "suspicion" primed in the people's minds was how Dollars was able to defend itself.
The suspicion could very well prove true, which was how Dollars made its attacks.
Such was the Color Gang named Dollars - so permeating that it spreads suspicion and fear.
Hardly anyone in the gang knew who their leader was. The identity of the founder remained in the dark.
Yet -
The mysterious founder himself was shedding cold sweat right now at his kouhai's words.
"Uhh...uhhh...I...I think you got the wrong person..."
"But the text message...?"
"Ah...ahhh, t - that's right."
"I know, you want to keep it a secret, right? Don't worry, I'm great at keeping secrets! It's like what I do!"
Aoba watched him with eyes full of innocence and respect, which rendered Mikado stiff and incapable of thinking of an answer.
In fact, Mikado did get in trouble with a certain company a year ago.
"But how come Mikado-sempai was talking to the woman that night?......Is Mikado-sempai...some kind of big figure in Dollars?"
"No no no! There's no 'big figures' in Dollars! I'm...I'm just like everyone else!"
"Really? But still! It excites me so much to know that someone close to me is also in Dollars!"
His antics were as childish as his face was.
They probably would have looked like two brothers in middle school to anyone who did not know them. But they were both high school students.
Mikado was at a loss as to how to deal with him, but he sighed eventually and said to the kouhai as he looked around carefully:
"......I see. But it would be better if you don't talk about this at school. I'll be grateful if you can keep this a secret."
It was a somewhat cold reply, but Aoba's smile was unwavered. In fact, he went on to ask Mikado for something in exchange.
"Got it! But I also have a favor to ask of you, sempai!"
"What is it?"
"I'm not that familiar with Ikebukuro. Could you show me around sometime?"
♂♀
He talked to Anri about this right afterwards and they both came to the conclusion that they couldn't do it on their own. That was why they asked their friends - which ended up being Yumasaki and Karisawa - who knew the city better to help them out.
- Really, I wouldn't be having such a hard time if only Masaomi were here......
But Mikado was quick to erase that thought from his mind.
Kida Masaomi had always been his best friend, but he had already disappeared from Mikado and Anri's lives.
It looked like he was the central figure in "Yellow Turbans", the gang that pitted themselves against Dollars. After he and Mikado knew about each other's true identity, he disappeared. Mikado did not find this revelation as disturbing as Masaomi did, but thinking that maybe Masaomi had his reasons, he didn't try to dig further into his past.
- That's not good. I can't rely on Masaomi for every little thing like this one. Otherwise he'll have a reason to laugh at me all he wants the next time we meet.
With these thoughts in his mind, Mikado was still waiting for Masaomi to come back.
Waiting for the day to come when they would meet each other again and Anri would be with them.
"Mikado? Mikado? Are you all right? Oi - "
"Eh......"
Mikado hastened to raise his head as his name was called.
"Are you sleepy? How about we sing some anime songs to repel the sleep bug for you?"
"Huh...eh...ahhhhhh! I - I'm sorry!"
Mikado realized that he had been too absorbed in his memories of Masaomi and the Yellow Turbans. He forced himself to switch his focus back to reality.
Yumasaki and Karisawa were more enthusiastic then he expected after they explained the situation.
They went into a heated discussion about the places they should cover when they show a young person around Ikebukuro.
Though as expected from Karisawa and Yumasaki the first things they mentioned were stores like Animate, Toranoana and Yellow Submarine, Mikado was able to rest assured as they began to mention more or less normal places to visit as well.
With these thoughts were on his mind, he saw Karisawa raise her head and make a suggestion.
"Do you want us to come with you?"
"Eh?"
"The places we're about to suggest that you visit are not all that easy to explain on paper. Wouldn't it be better if we just came with you? Also, we have no idea what your kouhai likes, so how about you let us meet him first and adjust the plan accordingly?"
"Um......"
Mikado couldn't think of a reply to that.
True, it was a wonderful suggestion, but would his completely normal kouhai be able to deal with these two?
They looked normal, but once they began to talk they sounded like ambassadors from the 2D universe - not the most endearing kind at that, either.
He had grown used to their antics, but he had no idea how Kuronuma Aoba would react.
- Anyway. It probably won't be that great a problem. Once they've talked with each other he'll see that these two are both good people.
Mikado, who had a sort of blind faith in the power of communication due to his mellow temper, nodded his head in silent agreement.
"Really? Would it be OK to ask you to come along with us?"
"Of course, we're pretty much free till the evening."
"Don't you have part-time jobs or anything?"
Karisawa looked at him surprised as he asked nervously.
"Eh? Didn't we tell you?"
"?"
"Yumacchi and I are freelancers, so we have fairly flexible hours."
"Freelancers......?"
Mikado tilted his head confused. Karisawa sipped her oolong tea and continued to explain:
"Yeah. Dotachin is more of the specialized type. Togusacchi is living off the rent of the apartment he inherited from his parents. His brother takes care of stuff around the house and Togusacchi collects the rent. We're on good terms with them because we both have a lot of free time on our hands. But until about one year ago everyone was working a regular job except for Dotachin."
After listening to what Karisawa said, Mikado realized that he should have known that they weren't working regular jobs from the very fact that they could meet at this time in the day.
Whenever he saw the duo on the street, they simply hung around aimlessly in casual clothing. Kadota and Togusa were usually with them, but collectively they made the impression that they were either freelancers or jobless.
"I sell hand-carved jewelry online to make money. Yumacchi is something, though! ...He's um, what do you call it, an ice sculptor? Anyway, he takes orders for ice sculptures they put up at parties."
"Wow.....!"
"No no no, I'm not that good. I don't have regular contracts with hotels or anything like that, so I'm still scared that someday I would be out of a job. But ice sculptures of ACG characters are really popular for publishing company parties and photo projects. If I can keep doing those, I will feel like this is what I've been born to do. Someday I'll be working for Kaiyodo!"
Yumasaki sounded somehow embarrassed. Mikado looked at the duo in awe as he listened, surprised that they really had jobs after all. Anri was staring at them with the same astonishment in her eyes, so Mikado was probably not the only one who thought they were out of jobs. But they would have needed pretty stable incomes to afford their daily shopping sprees at the bookstores.
Though he couldn't rule out the possibility that they were putting their food money into their books.
Mikado bowed to the duo solemnly while such thoughts lingered in his mind.
"Thanks for agreeing to help us out! I'll see you tomorrow......!"
But his gratitude turned abruptly into regret at Yumasaki's next words -
"All right! So we'll begin with a tour of the locations that appeared in anime and manga taking place in Ikebukuro!"
♂♀
Two hours later, Ikebukuro West Gate
"It's all on us today, so feel free to sing some songs as well."
Karisawa told Mikado and Anri. Being too timid to refuse their invitation, they ended up being treated to a two-hour medley of anime songs.
Most of the songs they had never heard before in their lives. But Yumasaki and Karisawa sung them as if they had practiced singing them several hundred times.
In fact, Mikado wouldn't be surprised if they did.
They seemed particularly fond of some recent anime songs sung by Hijiribe Ruri. One of her songs they even sung solo separately.
Mikado and Anri walked and talked with the duo around West Gate afterwards before saying goodbye.
"Thank you for coming with us!"
"Mmm, no problem. I owe Karisawa-san and Yumasaki-san some thanks as well......"
"Eh? Why?"
"Some things happened......"
Mikado deliberately avoided thinking about it as he tried to think of a way to change the topic.
As he was about to ask if anything interesting happened during Spring Break -
They saw something strange.
Namely - a white gas mask.
He saw a male in a white gas mask and a white coat talking to a fairly tall white man in a corner in West Gate Park.
Though he felt like it was inappropriate to stare, he couldn't help but look at the duo from afar as he said to Anri:
"What's that white gas mask guy doing......the foreigner right next to him isn't wearing anything of that sort, so it can't be for a gas leak, can it?"
But Anri did not answer.
Mikado, thinking that maybe she didn't catch that, turned around to find a weird look in her eyes.
Her eyes, with a shocked expression in them, were fixed where Mikado's had been a moment ago.
"Sonohara-san......?"
"Ah...I'm sorry. I was just wondering why that guy was wearing a white gas mask...it's so weird......"
"Eh? Ah, I mean, that's right, that's really weird."
Mikado waved goodbye to Anri, who was back to smiling as usual, and began walking back home.
Anri, on the other hand, kept walking in the direction of home for a while before she -
- turned around to check that Mikado was nowhere to be found, and went back where she had come from.
♂♀
"Well...how about we find a café to sit and I'll give you the details?"
"The data you just gave me should contain all the details, da? Then socializing is pointless."
"It'd still be better if you heard it from me. Better than if you went home, checked out the data and immediately thought I was trying to trick you."
"What does that mean?"
It was impossible to read the expressions of the two men engaged in this conversation, albeit for different reasons.
The tall Caucasian's face was just literally expressionless.
The Japanese guy's face was concealed behind a gas mask.
Hard to imagine how anybody would want to approach these two guys; yet Anri kept walking towards them in small timid steps.
Suddenly - as if having sensed her presence, the Caucasian guy silently turned around and looked at Anri, a gentle smile on his face.
"Are you looking for something, beautiful little girl?"
The Caucasian man was obviously a foreigner, but his Japanese was flawless.
Anri froze at the vibe of danger she sensed from the man. But it would defeat her purpose altogether if she just turned and ran at this point. She nodded to the white male at this thought and began to talk to the man in the gas mask.
"Um...actually...we um...hello..."
Anri regretted now realizing that she didn't even know the man's name.
But this man, when talking to Celty last month, had said to her, "You can't be...the daughter of the Sonoharas who ran the antique store, can you?" and she had remembered him ever since.
It was hard to mistake him for anybody else with that gas mask, anyway.
He seemed to have remembered who Anri was after she nodded at him.
The man in the gas mask eyed the Caucasian male; after the latter had said "If it's just an exchange of pleasantries, go ahead." he began to talk to her from behind the gas mask.
"You're the daughter of the Sonoharas who ran the antique store, aren't you? Urgh, I'm sorry you had to see me in such a shameful state last time we met."
"Sorry...did you know my parents?"
"......Sort of. Actually, now that you mention it...right, I sort of know your katana as well."
"......!"
A "sound" came from Anri's right arm.
It was the sound Anri alone could hear, one that originated from deep within her brain.
- 【Look, isn't this my former owner?】
The "voice" was neither a physical nor a psychological one. For once, it did not whisper incessantly its curses as if it were a record playing at the back of Anri's head, but instead said something that made sense.
- 【Though he didn't let me love a single human - he just used me to cut the soul of some strange monster abroad.】
♂♀
Just like Ryuugamine Mikado kept the secret that he was the founder of Dollars -
Or Kida Masaomi who was seriously bothered by his other identity as the leader of the Yellow Turbans -
Sonohara Anri had a blade called "the past" sheathed inside her body.
"Saika" -
It was an existence without a form.
It was a consciousness that whispered its curses to Sonohara Anri from inside her right arm.
Had Anri mentioned it to the doctors, they would probably think that she herself was the reason she was hearing things. But that voice did not come from her own consciousness or her brain.
It was simply an existence that couldn't be explained with physical or psychological knowledge.
The demon blade, "Saika", lay dormant within Sonohara Anri's body and was capable of materializing into a katana at will.
Anri was the central figure behind "Ripper Night", which made headlines some time ago, and the Slasher incidents several months back. But Anri herself was not the Slasher - the Slashers were the children Saika had made in the past.
The demon blade that referred to herself as "Saika" wanted to prove that she was capable of having love children with humans - except that the way she had "children" was by invading her victim's heart and assimilating her host's consciousness with its own. In short, it was like cursing.
Before she used Anri as her host, she had hurt a girl. It turned out that the "child" she planted in the girls' heart began to seek human love like its "mother" - and things began to get out of her control, culminating in the "Ripper Night".
The incident ended with Anri gaining control over all the "children".
She had restored the victims' own consciousness after the Slasher incident had come to an end. The only part about their memories she meddled with was the part about how they had become Slashers.
In other words, every victim would answer "I don't remember how the Slasher looked like" if asked.
But the incident nevertheless became the reason Yellow Turbans pitted themselves against Dollars. Anri, too, was embroiled in the conflict between her best friends without realizing what had happened.
♂♀
Although after these happenings she had accepted the fact that Saika was in her, deep in her heart Anri was still not able to stomach that fact.
For one thing, Saika was one of the most important reasons her parents were dead. But to Anri, it was unsettling enough just to have to live with an existence that knew exactly what she was like.
Saika's "voice" had returned to normal and was now repeatedly whispering her "I love you"-s. After the "Ripper Night", Anri had occasionally heard her say things that actually made sense like what she had just said. Anri had to conclude that Saika was not lying.
She inhaled silently, keeping her guard as she went on to ask the male in the gas mask:
"How...how much do you know...exactly?"
"Hmm. To answer your question: I know some things about you. Is that an acceptable answer? They say 'An eagle never pecks at grain even when it's hungry.'* So a 'powerful being' like you is probably not going to give someone as weak as me a hard time even if you are frustrated."
"......? Sorry...what are you talking about......?"
"Anyway. I'll talk more about it with you next time around. I'm kind of busy right now...I'll give you my name card. Call me if you need me."
[Kishitani Shingen Special Counselor Nebula Pharmaceuticals]
On the name card were the name and title as well as several ways to contact him.
Anri was looking closely at it and falling in deep thought when -
With a "thomp", a hand landed on her shoulder from behind.
At that instant - a disgusting wave of pressure ransacked her system.
The sharp, cold feeling made its way in through her shoulder, and her time came to a halt.
It felt as if she were ensnared in something horrible, something that deprived her completely of her freedom.
It began to gnaw at her nerves and make "Jeeg" sounds -
"Jeeg jeeg" - her mentality began to wriggle and twist upon itself in fear.
Jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg -
Every cell in her body was screaming in unison as the twisted sounds became a march and climaxed.
Screaming how dangerous the man right behind her back was.
Screaming that he was far more dangerous than Anri could imagine.
Anri forced herself to turn around as cold sweat trickled down her body.
It was the smile of the white male who had been watching them for a while.
"I'm really sorry, beautiful little girl..."
The smile was meant to be comforting, but Anri simply stared harder while staying vigilant.
"But we're talking about important business. I'll treat you to dinner to make up for this."
While saying things that sounded as if he were trying to pick her up, the male nodded silently as he placed himself between Anri and Shingen.
"Ah...I see. I'm really sorry."
Anri etched the white male's face onto her memory before turning slowly around to leave.
Do not forget this face.
Both her instinct and her rational thoughts were warning her.
Anri turned around for the last time at the crossing that would lead her to the overpass.
The Caucasian male was still looking at her.
Anri carefully remembered every single detail of his features as she felt something trickle down her spine.
But actually - it would be the last time Anri ever saw this face.
Because -
The Caucasian male was to be beaten up by Shizuo with a park bench several hours later. Even if Anri did see him again, he would have looked like another person.
♂♀
Night, an apartment in Ikebukuro
"It's scary to think that they still haven't caught 'Hollywood'..."
The boy was watching TV and muttering to himself in a cheap apartment close to the station.
Mikado planned on watching TV all day since he had nothing else to do. Now he squinting at the screen on which the news was airing.
The undisputed focus of every recent headline was the mysterious serial killings.
Although the nickname was not used on TV, the magazines and the online communities have long since been referring to the killer as "Hollywood".
The killings took place in Tokyo, but Mikado felt as if they were happening in a distant country the first time he heard about them on TV.
But once he got used to referring to the killer as "Hollywood" online, he began to talk to his chatroom friends about it and look up information webpages on the search for "Hollywood", he felt a definite fear for the bone-chilling killer as well as a tint of curiosity.
Who exactly is this mysterious killing monster?
The general public was more interested in knowing the true identity of the mysterious "Black Rider", but Mikado, who had known it already, was more interested in "Hollywood", whose identity still eluded everyone.
But news about "Hollywood" was too dark for his mood after just having seen Anri.
Mikado thought as he murmured with the remote control in his hand:
"Is there nothing more pleasant on the news?"
As he switched between channels he saw the report about how Hanejima Yuuhei's photo book sold over 20,000 copies in the first week. The young man whose incredibly good-looking face appeared on the screen was certainly someone he would feel ashamed to stand next to.
"That's so cool...20,000 copies, 3,000 yen each...that would be six million yen just in royalties even if he only gets 10%...and his new movie is being talked about way before its release. This guy is simply ultra-cool......"
He could beat him in nothing whatsoever.
Mikado sighed in resignation as he watched the handsome young man who looked like the perfect Superman on TV.
- Speaking of which...
- This Yuuhei guy kind of reminds me of someone I know......
Every time he saw this idol on screen, the same question would surface in his mind. After that Mikado continued to look for more pleasant news on TV.
As every channel proceeded to air the weather report, he began to use the Internet to check the TV schedule.
It was April, the end-of-season period for TV - so not surprisingly, almost every channel had specials scheduled for the slots formerly reserved for TV series.
"Ikebukuro: A Hundred Days at the War Front! Live Commentary of the Dark Side of the Evil Capital, Ikebukuro!"
- The Evil Capital...? That was a little mean......
But it would have been a lie to say that it did not get him interested.
Mikado hesitated for a moment, but convinced himself to watch it thinking that maybe he would see people he knew on TV since it was live commentary.
- Which he did.
But it was certainly not the "people he knew" he had expected to see.
An hour later -
The pitch-black shadow making its flight away from the White Motorbike appeared on the screen before Mikado's eyes.
"Celty-san......"
Mikado's mouth was hanging open at the unmistakable figure.
He turned his gaze from the TV towards the window.
He lived far away from where the scene was being shot, so there was no way that he could see her from afar.
Nevertheless, he thought vaguely that maybe he would be able to hear something if he tried hard enough - which was more or less impossible as well.
As he was about to try, Celty had conjured the black wings and begun to glide through the night like a Magic Thief.
"Is she gonna be...alright...? Should I try to do something for her with...Dollars?"
The boy was as pure as pure could be. As the screen switched back to the studio he began to feel genuinely concerned for the "monster" he would never have known if not for a twist of fate.
"But since it's Celty-san...she'll probably come up with something herself?"
Mikado logged onto a certain online chatroom as the thoughts of the Headless Rider, who was also a Dollars, lingered on his mind.
Somewhere in his heart he was also anxious about but nevertheless looking forward to the tour of Ikebukuro he was going to give the evening of the next day.
CHATROOM
Tanaka Taro-san has joined the chat.
Tanaka Taro
Eh? Why is nobody online?
Tanaka Taro
I'll come back in a couple of hours.
Tanaka Taro-san has left the chat.
No one is in the chat room right now.
Bakyura-san has joined the chat.
Bakyura
Hmm?
Bakyura
Looks like no one's here?
Bakyura
Awesome,
Bakyura
that means I can doodle all I want on this tabula rasa.
Bakyura
Listen, Johnny,
Bakyura
back when I was in elementary school,
Bakyura
a girl used to steal my recorder and blow it.
Bakyura
When I caught her blowing it,
Bakyura
I told her that if she wanted me to keep the secret -
Bakyura
"The recorder you want to blow should be the one on my face, don't you think?"
Bakyura
So she began to lick my whistle instead.
Bakyura
Other boys saw us at it so they blew raspberries at us.
Bakyura
HAHAHA,
Bakyura
Since it's a real story it counts as an American joke!
Bakyura
Good,
Bakyura
Now I'll just have to erase the chat log,
Bakyura
Now I'll count to three -
Saika-san has joined the chat.
Bakyura
1.
Saika
Good evening
Bakyura
2.
Bakyura
Ehhh!
Bakyura
Good evening.
Tanaka Taro-san has joined the chat.
Tanaka Taro
Good evening.
Tanaka Taro
Bakyura-san, what are you doing?
Bakyura
Good...eve...ning......
Bakyura
Laugh.
Bakyura
Everybody, why not just laugh at me!
Tanaka Taro
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Bakyura
You really laughed......
Kyo-san has joined the chat.
Mai-san has joined the chat.
Kyo
I don't feel enthusiastic personally about laughing at someone I've only just met...but since it's what that person wants, I feel like I should laugh as if there's no tomorrow if I want to qualify as a good human being. So let me laugh at you like there's no tomorrow, as God tells me to. Here -
Mai
(LOL)
Kyo
YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! AHAH, AHAH, AHAHAH! PFUUU....PFUUUU...YAHAH! YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAH! AHAHAHAH! STOP IT.......S - T - O - P - I - T! I CAN'T BREATHE! I REALLY CAN'T BREATHE...STOP IT......SERIOUSLY! LET ME LIVE AHHHHHHH....EH...EH...AHAH...YAHAH...YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Mai
(LOL)
Bakyura
Good evening......
Bakyura
Eh?
Bakyura
Who are you......
Bakyura
Uwah, I don't know whether to feel anger or despair at the way you laughed at me!
Tanaka Taro
Good evening.
Tanaka Taro
Have we met before?
Saika
Good evening
Kyo
I'm really sorry. I don't believe we've met any of you before. We will be joining your chat from today onwards so we beg you to remember us. My name is Kyo. I was planning on exchanging pleasantries with you, but it felt kind of rude to Bakyura-san if I were to do so when I'm laughing at his desperate American joke. So this is how it turned out.
Mai
I'm Mai.
Bakyura
Somehow your personality reminds me of Kanra-san.
Mai
I'm sorry.
Bakyura
No, I didn't mean you.
Tanaka Taro
Nice to meet you!
Kyo
Nice to meet you too. Speaking of which, um...if Bakyura-san is a female, I would really be confused as to how to react. If two females are to blow the same clarinet...and kind of kiss that way...it would have been just beautiful and elegant and worthy of a place in my permanent memory. Should I say dreamy or unrivaled? Anyway, that's how I would feel.
Mai
So erotic!
Bakyura
You're free to picture me any way you want.
Tanaka Taro
God, this place's already got more personality going around then it can handle......
Saika
Nice to meet you
Bakyura
Hey, did you guys watch the special report a couple of hours ago?
Tanaka Taro
Ah, the one about Ikebukuro?
Bakyura
That's right.
Saika
Did something happen
Tanaka Taro
They captured the Headless Rider on film with their video camera.
Kyo
Ahh, small world. We watched that report a while ago and thought if we went out we might still be able to see the Headless Rider with our own eyes. We've only just got back. It was a pity that we didn't witness the living urban legend boldly gliding through the sky. But it was an exhilarating experience just to be walking in the darkness with such high hopes in our hearts.
Mai
Too bad.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, so do you live in Ikebukuro as well?
Tanaka Taro
Looks like everyone in this chatroom lives in either Ikebukuro or Shinjuku.
Tanaka Taro
So make yourselves at home here.
Kyo
Tanaka Taro-san, I feel so grateful. An insignificant being like me, who keeps saying things that shock everyone, is like a water stain on a grain of sand in the vast sea that is the Internet. Yet you say such gentle things to me that I almost feel like I'm in love with you. Only on the Internet, though.
Mai
Thank you.
Mai
I like you.
Tanaka Taro
I really don't know what to make of that lol
Bakyura
Still feels like Kanra-san's self-acting to me.
Saika
What is self-acting
Bakyura
It means to pull pranks on people and stalk them.
Tanaka Taro
Anyway, I'm going to show someone around Ikebukuro and at the same time will be shown around Ikebukuro by someone myself.
Tanaka Taro
I'm still new in this city, so I'll have lots to learn from you.
Kyo
What a coincidence. We're planning to walk around Ikebukuro tomorrow as well. Maybe we'll run into each other and even start fighting.
Mai
We're fighting?
Tanaka Taro
If that happens, please go easy on me lol
The next day, Animate Central, Ikebukuro
If you walk from the crossing situated west to the Sunshine building to Route 254 -
You'll be on the "Girls' Road", so called because many doujinshi and merchandise stores were located on it.
Two males and a female were walking on this road on a sunny afternoon.
The female was Karisawa, and one of the males was Yumasaki.
The other was Kadota Kyohei, their guardian figure. He pulled his knit cap lower as he listened to the other two's dialogue.
Or, to be exact, less than half of it since the majority of their dialogue consisted of things he couldn't understand.
"That's why I was saying~exchanging opinions on anime is great, isn't it? Putting forward opinions different from other people's is also in their interest. But if one starts saying 'If you don't realize what's great about this anime, just go back to your pantsu anime." - that's the worst possible way to try to say that the anime you like is good. In fact, you would also be insulting the anime you do like if you said things like that!"
"That's right! I remember someone saying that on the official discussion board of Gun Jaws*. I know he was just mad because others said bad things about the show he loved, but that's no excuse to insult other shows."
"Exactly! I enjoy hardcore shounen stuff where all the characters are male, but I also like moe shows with lots of panty-shots and tits awahhhhhh!?"
"Yumacchi, you dumbass!"
Yumasaki stared at Karisawa perplexed as she hit his face with her palm.
"Wha - what are you doing, Karisawa-san?!"
"It's so misleading to associate 'moe' with only panties and tits! 'Moe' is in the soul of the viewer! Therefore, all show in the world can be 'moe shows' - even traditional Japanese paintings of birds and beasts are moe paintings, but Yumacchi, you - "
"T - That's not what I meant! I mentioned panties when I said moe just as a figure of speech, in which moe is defined as the romantic imagination of - "
" - If you see things the same way I do, you'll know that every male character in Gun Jaws is moe -
" - I think Karisawa-san got a lot of things wrong - "
" - Moe - moe* - moe - MOE - MOE - "
" - Moe - MOEMOE? - moe - "
As their unstoppable dialogue entered the stage of stalemate, he male who had kept silent all along opened his mouth to say:
"Please, you two...save your moemoe talk for when we're off the busiest streets of the city."
Kadota sighed deeply as his right palm made contact with his forehead.
The contents of their dialogue never seemed to change whether in the warmth of April or in the chill of winter. The only thing that changed was probably the titles of the anime and manga they mentioned.
"Hey, you two. Can't you stop talking about 2D stuff for a while?"
"Got it."
"Sure."
Kadota was surprised to see them agree to do it. Anyway, he thought, that probably means they'll be silent for a while -
"Speaking of which, I feel like the recent figures by the designer Youen Zetsumu have even more erotic waistlines than before!"
"Nah nah nah, the best thing about that designer's work is the slightly protruding lines on the abdomen. The ribs of his slimmer characters are the ultimate moe!"
Kadota's angry voice resounded in the space they were in as he heard the completely unchanging dialogue.
"You two......didn't I just tell you to stop?"
Yumasaki and Karisawa looked at the raging Kadota with flustered faces and said:
"Ehhh!? But figurines are 3D, aren't they?"
"That's not right, Karisawa-san! Figurines are 2.5D!"
"......It's hard to tell if I'm really in Japan sometimes when I'm with you guys......"
Kadota said in a tone of resignation as he continued to head for their destination, Tokyu Hands.
After making a turn and arriving at a less crowded street, he asked the duo walking after him:
"So are you going to show Mikado and the other kids around the stores in that area?"
"That's right. Wanna come with us, Dotachin?"
"I'll pass. I'd just scare them if I went."
"Really? I think Dotachin would look like a top student if you take that cap off and comb your hair forwards."
Kadota ignored Karisawa's teasing and kept walking in silence.
However, they saw something unusual ahead of them -
"That's what I was saying~we just wanna hear about it. Ne, you know about the Black Motorbike, don't you?"
"You want money too, don't you little girl? But we want money as well. Share it with us."
"How about you invest on us with your pocket money? If we get that ten million yen we'll pay you back with our bodies. With the interest."
"We're not that much older than you are. It's a very ecological way to do it, I say. Just give it to us for free."
The males who were making their purpose very obvious had two high school girls cornered. Every one of them looked fat and rude and wore bousouzoku clothes - one of them even wore a striped tokko-fuku.
"I got it now! You are the Black Motorbike, aren't you?"
"That's right~"
"That's just awesome."
"So play with us till we feel like it's worth ten million yen."
Even the way they were picking on the two girls sounded vulgar and cliche. They were an eyesore on this otherwise peaceful street.
Kadota looked at the men and muttered to himself:
"......I didn't know such rowdy delinquents still existed."
The trio shook their heads and continued walking.
The men, oblivious to what was happening behind their backs, were still advancing on the two girls.
"Speaking of which, you two must be pretty rich if you're playing around on this street, aren't you?"
"That pisses me off! That really pisses me off!"
"Are you gonna say anything at all? Say something! Say it!"
"Here, here, give them a break. Look, they're scared as it is. Sorry. Where are you headed? We'll drive you to make up for it. Does that sound good to you?"
Kadota said as the delinquents rambled on.
♂♀
Several hours later, in front of the Tokyu Hands
At Raira Academy, students got afternoons off on the first and the last few days of the semester.
It was meant to make the transition into and out of the semester easier for the students. But the students usually don't give it any more thought than "Lucky! Afternoon off!" which was more or less the school's intention, anyway.
The streets were filled with Raira's uniform color after the morning classes had ended.
Casual attire was allowed at Raira, but once the students blend into the crowds on the street, only the ones in uniforms stood out like figures embossed on a multicolor background - like a Color Gang.
Mikado walked leisurely in his Raira uniform.
Anri and his kouhai were waiting for him when he arrived at the meeting spot.
"Ah...eh? You're here already? I'm sorry, did you wait for a long time?"
"No, I only just got here."
"Me too."
Though he felt like Anri and Aoba were just saying it to make him feel better, it did sound like they hadn't had time to talk with each other yet.
So maybe they weren't there for very long - he thought as he greeted them. Aoba bowed to Anri.
"I'm really sorry to take up so much of your precious time because of my childish request......"
"Don't mind that. We have free time on our hands."
Anri nodded in agreement to what Mikado had just said.
After the innocent-looking kouhai had thanked his sempais for their hospitality -
He raised a question with interest:
"Is Sonohara-sempai dating Ryuugamine-sempai?"
Time seemed to have stopped between the two.
But now that Mikado thought about it, it was something one would naturally assume if they had never seen them before.
Aoba had asked Mikado to show him around Ikebukuro, and it was only reasonable that he did not expect Anri to also show up. So the only conclusion would be that they were either boyfriend and girlfriend or something of the sort.
But Mikado was visibly embarrassed at Aoba's question. Anri also lowered her head, blushing.
Aoba, unsure whether to take that for a yes or no, tilted his head sideways and tried again:
"So you're not dating?"
"No...no no no...it's not like that...we're just...um...friends! We're friends!"
"I see~so Sonohara-sempai is still single? Is there any way I can make it into the waitlist?"
"What......?"
His kouhai had said something shocking with ease. Mikado couldn't help but look at him in awe.
- With such incredible ease......!
- And in a more natural manner than Masaomi would have managed, too!
Mikado felt his lips tremble. He tried to say something - but nothing came out.
Losing to his kouhai made him feel miserable, but he was also jealous of his kouhai's straightforward way of confessing to females he liked.
The kouhai, however, looked at his frozen sempai who had such thoughts racing on his mind and said in a troubled tone:
"U - Um, Ryuugamine-sempai......I was just kidding."
"Eh?"
"So don't look at me as if you're despairing about everything in the world...I would feel very troubled."
"......Am...am I looking at you like that?"
Mikado blushed harder out of shame and squinted at Anri's direction.
As expected of her, Anri kept her head low as the two of them talked.
They looked like two elementary students; but the one who looked most like an elementary student smiled and said to Mikado:
"I'm so glad! I thought sempai would be scary since sempai is in Dollars and everything...it's so nice to know that there are people like sempai in Dollars, too!"
"Really? I'm glad you feel that way......"
- Huh? Was that a compliment?
Mikado could only laugh drily to conceal his confusion since he couldn't tell if Aoba was simply being sarcastic.
Aoba, after seeing Mikado's reaction, asked with renewed curiosity:
"Um...so...the people who are going to come with us, are they in Dollars as well?"
"That's right...but don't worry, they're not scary."
- Well, they are at some level.
Mikado looked around for Yumasaki and Karisawa - their guides for the evening - as he recalled the nonstop dialogue between the two.
But the people who were walking towards them weren't Yumasaki and Karisawa.
"Excuse us for a minute, would you?"
"We wish you all the happiness in the world!"
Instead, two males over 180 centimeters tall popped out of thin air and sandwiched Mikado.
"...!? ...? Are...are you looking for anything?"
"Shut up. Let's check out your face."
The tall men grabbed Mikado's hair and ignored his nervous question. They continued to say in cold voices:
"Is he the one?"
"E - X - A - C - T - L - Y! Bingo Pachinko!"
Though there was no way to know what they had just bingo-ed, the men looked at each other cheerfully.
Their lips were pierced, their teeth uneven and blackened from smoking. Mikado believed that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but the appearance of these two men seemed pretty indicative of their personality - he would hardly guess that they were pacifists.
The sudden turn of things left Aoba and Anri at a loss as to what to do. The men did not seem to be paying attention to them. Instead they smirked lewdly and pressed their faces, which smelt of cigarettes, closer to Mikado:
"You~you were there, right? You were there a while back."
"W - where, sorry...?"
"Some time ago, remember~? You were there, right? When Kadota and his dogs were beating us up, you were there in the abandoned factory with the Black Motorbike, weren't you? Argh?"
"Or did you not notice just because we don't have yellow cloths on our arms or anything?"
"......Urgh!"
Mikado began to tremble at the mention of "yellow cloths".
"......You are......"
- Former members of the "Yellow Turbans"......
Though they were "Yellow Turbans", they weren't part of the group that gathered around Masaomi when the gang was founded.
These men were former members of "Blue Square" who joined the Yellow Turbans to take over the gang - except that they in turn were defeated by Kadota and other Dollars members who infiltrated the Yellow Turbans.
"But whatever, we don't give a shit why you were there."
"But we do want the ten million yen. Got it?"
Ten million yen.
At the mention of that Mikado was able to piece the jigsaw puzzle in his heart.
So they were not here to take revenge against Mikado, a Dollars member -
"You know where that Black Motorbike lives, right? Tell us!"
"Anyway~guess we'll be keeping your cell phone for a while. You'll at least have his number or something, right?"
The men grabbed Mikado's schoolbag from him and began to ransack its contents.
"Wait! Please stop!"
"Shut up!"
Mikado wanted to fight back, but the disparity in their physical strength was absolute. He was not a master of any martial art that would have given him some advantage, either.
He could think of no way to stop the two 180-cm men, and was sure that his cell phone would end up being robbed when -
"Hey~Mikado."
An even taller shadow appeared from behind the men's backs.
"!?"
"You...what are you playing at......"
It was a formidable-looking black man in a white T-shirt.
Mikado didn't realize immediately who that was because he was not in his usual Japanese cook clothes, but it didn't take long for him to figure out. He was sort of a man of legends in this neighborhood.
"Simon-san!"
"What's up? Fighting, is not good. Stomach would be hungry. Today, sushi is not open. So if you fight, you die from hungry~"
"You...bastard....let go......"
"Can't...can't move......"
Though Simon's hands were only on their shoulders, the two men felt as if they were deep in the sea - the pressure was threatening to crush them from all sides, and they couldn't even move a finger.
Simon, who was exerting such overwhelming pressure on the two men, was still saying with ease:
"Come, get your schoolbag, sessha* is going to take care of these people, go ahead without me~"
Mikado had no idea which TV series he picked up these lines from. His pronunciation was still weird, but it sounded reassuring nevertheless.
It was a typical "death flag" line, but when Simon was the one saying it, it felt like a death flag for the other party instead.
"B - But, Simon-san......"
"Can't fight when you're with a girl, thirty-six sceneries of Fugaku, you run away, OK, go go~"
"T - Thank you! I'll come have sushi with everyone next time!"
"Oh~thank you~then, I'll let you pay the real prices in return~"
Upon hearing the horribly and eerily wrong Japanese Mikado picked up his schoolbag and took Aoba and Anri's hands in his.
As they began to run along the Ikebukuro street, Mikado lowered his head to apologize to Anri and his kouhai:
"S - Sorry! I didn't mean to get you into trouble......!"
"No...actually...sempai was the only one in real trouble..."
Though what Aoba said made sense, Mikado still couldn't help but feel that in addition to giving him unnecessary shock, he had also exposed a very shameful side of himself in front of his kouhai.
The first kouhai he ever had in high school.
Did the respect in Aoba's eyes send him over the top? Was he being too cocky?
But there was no time for him to recall everything he did even if there was time to regret.
Because -
Men were running in their direction from every alleyway in sight as if they had communicated via cell phones.
"Oi, what about Shinji and the other guy......"
"Don't even try to save them! We'd have no chance against Simon even if we ganged up on him! Plus, if we tried to fight there, Shizuo would show up!"
The youths shouted as they chased after Mikado and the other two.
If they kept up their speed, they would catch up with them in less than twenty seconds.
But - they were really not in the best of luck while Mikado and the other two were, because the people they had been waiting for had come.
"Ehhh!?"
Mikado screamed as the van came to a halt in front of him thinking that it was another group of people after them.
But as soon as he saw the man sitting in the navigator's seat, he broke into a smile -
"K - Kadota-san!"
The next second, Karisawa poked her head out of the van and shouted at them:
"Why are you being chased? ......Anyway, hurry up and get in the van!"
It was so close.
Mikado, Anri and Aoba succeeded in getting into the van and shutting the door just as the delinquents were about to get them.
Togusa started the engine at almost the exact moment.
One of the delinquents reached out for the door on the navigator's side -
Kadota swung his fist at him and silenced him instantly.
"C - C - Can't believe we're safe!"
"No problem no problem. Sorry for being late by the way~"
Karisawa smiled kindly at them as she said.
The van was surprisingly crowded. At the back sat Mikado, Anri and Aoba as well as Yumasaki and Karisawa, and - two girls whom Mikado didn't recall meeting before.
The girls sitting at the back of the van had the same features except that one was wearing glasses and the other was not; they were probably twins.
"Uh...what - what are you doing here?"
The shocked voice came from Kuronuma Aoba.
- Do you know them?
Just as Mikado was about to ask -
Heavy noises were coming from the side of the van as horns blowed somewhat too loudly outside.
"Screw it, did they already find us...?"
Mikado looked around nervously as he heard the driver spit.
He thought it would be the former Yellow Turbans who caught up with them on bikes, but from the darkened van window he saw a group of men in striped tokko-fukus on motorbikes.
"Stand still!"
"You want us to burn you with gasoline?"
"Oi, where's our reinforcement?"
"They said they had found the Black Motorbike so they're not coming! Actually they told us to go over and help them!"
The men on the motorbikes that surrounded the van kept yelling things at each other, but it was impossible for Mikado to hear what they had said.
"W - What exactly is going on? Why are they...?"
"Well...I have some bad news for you. You just escaped from one misfortune, but you're now knee deep in another. How incredibly sad. The world we're in right now is as filled with unrest as a certain Academy City where they study superpowers*. Please wait patiently until...Chapter Someone Arrives and Destroys the Distasteful Virtual Reality with Her Right Hand - !"
"I have no idea what you're talking about......"
"Pay attention when you still can. Do you know any doctor who looks like a frog? If you do, we have an additional 10% chance of surviving. Ah, if we're going for frogs, Hakusanmei-kun is also fine!"
Yumasaki continued to say things that did little but cause confusion. Mikado gave up on communicating with him and turned towards Kadota in the navigator's seat instead.
Kadota looked back at Mikado in the rear mirror and averted his gaze with an apologetic look in his eyes before muttering:
"We...have our reasons...sorry..."
"Eh...ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
Their tour of Ikebukuro formally began with this completely unexpected turn of events for the thrilling.
The boys and girls were forcibly taken for a ride in this Death Race with no destination in sight.
They could not predict what was going to happen next - or didn't want to even if they could -
And the neigh of a headless horse reached their eardrums from far ahead -
CHAPTER 2
MAO, INFORMATION MAGAZINE FOR THE YOUNG "A NEW LIFE IN SPRING! HOW TO MAKE YOUR HIGH SCHOOL DEBUT IN TOKYO, PART IKEBUKURO"
"Now that the spring is here, REFRESH yourself!
A new life starts with new encounters in a new city!
Will you be able to encounter something fresh and new as you start your new life in Ikebukuro?
Some are already ahead of you......but if you haven't started yet, grab this column and earn your experience points in Ikebukuro for the true encounters the future has in store for you!"
♂♀
After skimming through the column, the boy grabbed the magazine and made for the cashier.
His name was Ryuugamine Mikado.
He had only just become a sophomore at Raira Academy, a private high school situated in the center of Ikebukuro.
It was already his second year living in Ikebukuro, but for some reason he was still looking for columns like the one mentioned above. In his schoolbag there were already three magazines similar to this one.
The boy walked out of the convenience store in silence and made for the karaoke right next to it.
The food they served in that karaoke was better than the average restaurant's, and most importantly, they combined multiple online karaoke systems to offer a much wider song selection.
Mikado walked into the karaoke somewhat nervously and asked for the number of the reserved box before he went looking for it.
There were several rooms on the sixth floor. He entered one of them and found the other people already waiting.
"Yahoo! Mikapuu, how's it going?"
"You're so slow that we had to order oolong tea and some other stuff for you~"
The ones who spoke to Mikado first were a man and a woman in casual but hip clothes. They had the looks of fashion models, but the pile of manga, light novels, games, anime DVDs and related merchandises ruined that impression completely.
On the side a girl in the same uniform as Mikado was blushing hard as she held a boldly costumed figurine of a female character in her hand.
The girl let out a small scream as she saw Mikado before hastily handing the figurine back to Karisawa and curling up.
"Ah...um......Sonohara-san, is it OK if I sit by you?"
"......O - Of course!"
The bespectacled and docile-looking girl blushed harder. Her curves, which were on par with the figurine's, stiffened in embarrassment.
"Good to see you here, M - Mikado-kun."
"Thanks, I'm sorry I'm late. Sorry, Karisawa-san and Yumasaki-san."
Karisawa and Yumasaki smiled mildly at Mikado's apology as they replied:
"No problem, we have lots of time on our hands during the day anyway."
"That's right. We're pretty much free during the hours the bookstores are open."
The duo in casual clothes were much more laid-back than the somewhat tense duo in their school uniforms.
After having accepted the drinks delivered to their box, they began to talk business with the door shut.
"So, what were you gonna ask us?"
"I...um...I know it's kind of awkward to ask you this sort of......"
Mikado exhaled deeply and paused for a moment before he could make himself continue.
"Please......teach us how to show others around Ikebukuro."
♂♀
The time was two days ago.
New students had received their formal welcome at the opening ceremony at Raira Academy.
Mikado and Anri ended up in the same class and continued to be class representatives together.
After they were done with the brief Student Council meeting and initial self-introductions -
Mikado was running to catch up with Anri, who had left earlier than he did, when a voice called him from behind.
"......Excuse me! You're Ryuugamine-sempai, right?"
He turned his head to find a boy in a Raira uniform.
"Um...yeah, and you are...you just introduced yourself......Aoba-kun?"
"Yes! I'm Kuronuma Aoba, first-year!"
The boy had sparkling eyes and girly features. In addition, he was short enough to be mistaken for a middle school kid or even an elementary school one.
Mikado knew that his face wasn't the most mature-looking either, but the boy right in front of him looked even younger than he did at that age.
"I was really shocked when I heard you introduce yourself! I didn't expect to meet you here, Ryuugamine-sempai!"
The boy was talking in high spirits while Mikado was left perplexed.
- Who is he?
- That's weird...have we met somewhere before?
Mikado tried desperately to remember since it would be very rude to forget someone's face even if he was your kouhai. But he had no recollection whatsoever.
Aoba smiled softly at him as if he knew what Mikado was feeling bad about and said:
"Ahh, I'm sorry. I don't think sempai has seen me before or heard my name."
"Uh, I see. Um...so why were you shocked?"
It was a natural question on Mikado's part. The boy answered cheerfully:
"Because - uh....."
He closed his mouth as if to check nobody was nearby before he lowered his voice to say:
"Sempai......is in Dollars, right?"
"......Uhh!"
Mikado could only stare with his mouth hanging open as he heard what the boy had said.
"W - What do you mean?"
At that exact moment, Mikado's cell phone rang from inside his schoolbag.
Judging by the length of the ringtone it was a new text message.
"Uh. Finally."
The boy grinned pleasantly as he said.
Mikado pulled out his cell phone in haste - it was a text message sent to all Dollars members on the list.
"I'm recruiting at Raira Academy! Please keep me informed about how things are going at other schools!"
It was sent by one of the several hundreds of people on the mailing list.
As he saw the username "Young Leaf Mark"*, Mikado looked from the cell phone to the boy in front of him.
* "Aoba" is literally "green leaf" in Japanese.
"Is...that...you......?"
"'Young Leaf Mark' is me! I think I joined around No. 600 or so. But you know how the Dollars site was suspended after that spamming incident? That's why my name didn't show up......"
"W - Why do you think I'm one of Dollars?"
The boy gave him an innocent smile as he looked visibly unsettled and said:
"I don't have definite proof. But think about it...about a year ago, at Dollars' first gathering - sempai was arguing with the woman we were targeting, right? I remembered that ever since because it really got me interested!"
Dollars was a special gang that extended its territory online.
Loosely defined, it was a Color Gang except that it had too little resemblance of structure......but its members were all over the place.
It was rumored to have clashed with the Yellow Turbans a short while ago, but somehow peace was restored all of a sudden and the heat of conflict dissipated.
If Dollars was a Color Gang, its color would probably be "colorless" or "camouflage".
That was how Dollars blended itself into this city without boasting their omnipresence with colored attire.
They communicate with each other via cell phone messages or the Internet.
Both were discreet ways of communication that made it hard to trace their real structure.
Even the high school girl or the housewife you pass by on the street could be a Dollars member -
That "suspicion" primed in the people's minds was how Dollars was able to defend itself.
The suspicion could very well prove true, which was how Dollars made its attacks.
Such was the Color Gang named Dollars - so permeating that it spreads suspicion and fear.
Hardly anyone in the gang knew who their leader was. The identity of the founder remained in the dark.
Yet -
The mysterious founder himself was shedding cold sweat right now at his kouhai's words.
"Uhh...uhhh...I...I think you got the wrong person..."
"But the text message...?"
"Ah...ahhh, t - that's right."
"I know, you want to keep it a secret, right? Don't worry, I'm great at keeping secrets! It's like what I do!"
Aoba watched him with eyes full of innocence and respect, which rendered Mikado stiff and incapable of thinking of an answer.
In fact, Mikado did get in trouble with a certain company a year ago.
"But how come Mikado-sempai was talking to the woman that night?......Is Mikado-sempai...some kind of big figure in Dollars?"
"No no no! There's no 'big figures' in Dollars! I'm...I'm just like everyone else!"
"Really? But still! It excites me so much to know that someone close to me is also in Dollars!"
His antics were as childish as his face was.
They probably would have looked like two brothers in middle school to anyone who did not know them. But they were both high school students.
Mikado was at a loss as to how to deal with him, but he sighed eventually and said to the kouhai as he looked around carefully:
"......I see. But it would be better if you don't talk about this at school. I'll be grateful if you can keep this a secret."
It was a somewhat cold reply, but Aoba's smile was unwavered. In fact, he went on to ask Mikado for something in exchange.
"Got it! But I also have a favor to ask of you, sempai!"
"What is it?"
"I'm not that familiar with Ikebukuro. Could you show me around sometime?"
♂♀
He talked to Anri about this right afterwards and they both came to the conclusion that they couldn't do it on their own. That was why they asked their friends - which ended up being Yumasaki and Karisawa - who knew the city better to help them out.
- Really, I wouldn't be having such a hard time if only Masaomi were here......
But Mikado was quick to erase that thought from his mind.
Kida Masaomi had always been his best friend, but he had already disappeared from Mikado and Anri's lives.
It looked like he was the central figure in "Yellow Turbans", the gang that pitted themselves against Dollars. After he and Mikado knew about each other's true identity, he disappeared. Mikado did not find this revelation as disturbing as Masaomi did, but thinking that maybe Masaomi had his reasons, he didn't try to dig further into his past.
- That's not good. I can't rely on Masaomi for every little thing like this one. Otherwise he'll have a reason to laugh at me all he wants the next time we meet.
With these thoughts in his mind, Mikado was still waiting for Masaomi to come back.
Waiting for the day to come when they would meet each other again and Anri would be with them.
"Mikado? Mikado? Are you all right? Oi - "
"Eh......"
Mikado hastened to raise his head as his name was called.
"Are you sleepy? How about we sing some anime songs to repel the sleep bug for you?"
"Huh...eh...ahhhhhh! I - I'm sorry!"
Mikado realized that he had been too absorbed in his memories of Masaomi and the Yellow Turbans. He forced himself to switch his focus back to reality.
Yumasaki and Karisawa were more enthusiastic then he expected after they explained the situation.
They went into a heated discussion about the places they should cover when they show a young person around Ikebukuro.
Though as expected from Karisawa and Yumasaki the first things they mentioned were stores like Animate, Toranoana and Yellow Submarine, Mikado was able to rest assured as they began to mention more or less normal places to visit as well.
With these thoughts were on his mind, he saw Karisawa raise her head and make a suggestion.
"Do you want us to come with you?"
"Eh?"
"The places we're about to suggest that you visit are not all that easy to explain on paper. Wouldn't it be better if we just came with you? Also, we have no idea what your kouhai likes, so how about you let us meet him first and adjust the plan accordingly?"
"Um......"
Mikado couldn't think of a reply to that.
True, it was a wonderful suggestion, but would his completely normal kouhai be able to deal with these two?
They looked normal, but once they began to talk they sounded like ambassadors from the 2D universe - not the most endearing kind at that, either.
He had grown used to their antics, but he had no idea how Kuronuma Aoba would react.
- Anyway. It probably won't be that great a problem. Once they've talked with each other he'll see that these two are both good people.
Mikado, who had a sort of blind faith in the power of communication due to his mellow temper, nodded his head in silent agreement.
"Really? Would it be OK to ask you to come along with us?"
"Of course, we're pretty much free till the evening."
"Don't you have part-time jobs or anything?"
Karisawa looked at him surprised as he asked nervously.
"Eh? Didn't we tell you?"
"?"
"Yumacchi and I are freelancers, so we have fairly flexible hours."
"Freelancers......?"
Mikado tilted his head confused. Karisawa sipped her oolong tea and continued to explain:
"Yeah. Dotachin is more of the specialized type. Togusacchi is living off the rent of the apartment he inherited from his parents. His brother takes care of stuff around the house and Togusacchi collects the rent. We're on good terms with them because we both have a lot of free time on our hands. But until about one year ago everyone was working a regular job except for Dotachin."
After listening to what Karisawa said, Mikado realized that he should have known that they weren't working regular jobs from the very fact that they could meet at this time in the day.
Whenever he saw the duo on the street, they simply hung around aimlessly in casual clothing. Kadota and Togusa were usually with them, but collectively they made the impression that they were either freelancers or jobless.
"I sell hand-carved jewelry online to make money. Yumacchi is something, though! ...He's um, what do you call it, an ice sculptor? Anyway, he takes orders for ice sculptures they put up at parties."
"Wow.....!"
"No no no, I'm not that good. I don't have regular contracts with hotels or anything like that, so I'm still scared that someday I would be out of a job. But ice sculptures of ACG characters are really popular for publishing company parties and photo projects. If I can keep doing those, I will feel like this is what I've been born to do. Someday I'll be working for Kaiyodo!"
Yumasaki sounded somehow embarrassed. Mikado looked at the duo in awe as he listened, surprised that they really had jobs after all. Anri was staring at them with the same astonishment in her eyes, so Mikado was probably not the only one who thought they were out of jobs. But they would have needed pretty stable incomes to afford their daily shopping sprees at the bookstores.
Though he couldn't rule out the possibility that they were putting their food money into their books.
Mikado bowed to the duo solemnly while such thoughts lingered in his mind.
"Thanks for agreeing to help us out! I'll see you tomorrow......!"
But his gratitude turned abruptly into regret at Yumasaki's next words -
"All right! So we'll begin with a tour of the locations that appeared in anime and manga taking place in Ikebukuro!"
♂♀
Two hours later, Ikebukuro West Gate
"It's all on us today, so feel free to sing some songs as well."
Karisawa told Mikado and Anri. Being too timid to refuse their invitation, they ended up being treated to a two-hour medley of anime songs.
Most of the songs they had never heard before in their lives. But Yumasaki and Karisawa sung them as if they had practiced singing them several hundred times.
In fact, Mikado wouldn't be surprised if they did.
They seemed particularly fond of some recent anime songs sung by Hijiribe Ruri. One of her songs they even sung solo separately.
Mikado and Anri walked and talked with the duo around West Gate afterwards before saying goodbye.
"Thank you for coming with us!"
"Mmm, no problem. I owe Karisawa-san and Yumasaki-san some thanks as well......"
"Eh? Why?"
"Some things happened......"
Mikado deliberately avoided thinking about it as he tried to think of a way to change the topic.
As he was about to ask if anything interesting happened during Spring Break -
They saw something strange.
Namely - a white gas mask.
He saw a male in a white gas mask and a white coat talking to a fairly tall white man in a corner in West Gate Park.
Though he felt like it was inappropriate to stare, he couldn't help but look at the duo from afar as he said to Anri:
"What's that white gas mask guy doing......the foreigner right next to him isn't wearing anything of that sort, so it can't be for a gas leak, can it?"
But Anri did not answer.
Mikado, thinking that maybe she didn't catch that, turned around to find a weird look in her eyes.
Her eyes, with a shocked expression in them, were fixed where Mikado's had been a moment ago.
"Sonohara-san......?"
"Ah...I'm sorry. I was just wondering why that guy was wearing a white gas mask...it's so weird......"
"Eh? Ah, I mean, that's right, that's really weird."
Mikado waved goodbye to Anri, who was back to smiling as usual, and began walking back home.
Anri, on the other hand, kept walking in the direction of home for a while before she -
- turned around to check that Mikado was nowhere to be found, and went back where she had come from.
♂♀
"Well...how about we find a café to sit and I'll give you the details?"
"The data you just gave me should contain all the details, da? Then socializing is pointless."
"It'd still be better if you heard it from me. Better than if you went home, checked out the data and immediately thought I was trying to trick you."
"What does that mean?"
It was impossible to read the expressions of the two men engaged in this conversation, albeit for different reasons.
The tall Caucasian's face was just literally expressionless.
The Japanese guy's face was concealed behind a gas mask.
Hard to imagine how anybody would want to approach these two guys; yet Anri kept walking towards them in small timid steps.
Suddenly - as if having sensed her presence, the Caucasian guy silently turned around and looked at Anri, a gentle smile on his face.
"Are you looking for something, beautiful little girl?"
The Caucasian man was obviously a foreigner, but his Japanese was flawless.
Anri froze at the vibe of danger she sensed from the man. But it would defeat her purpose altogether if she just turned and ran at this point. She nodded to the white male at this thought and began to talk to the man in the gas mask.
"Um...actually...we um...hello..."
Anri regretted now realizing that she didn't even know the man's name.
But this man, when talking to Celty last month, had said to her, "You can't be...the daughter of the Sonoharas who ran the antique store, can you?" and she had remembered him ever since.
It was hard to mistake him for anybody else with that gas mask, anyway.
He seemed to have remembered who Anri was after she nodded at him.
The man in the gas mask eyed the Caucasian male; after the latter had said "If it's just an exchange of pleasantries, go ahead." he began to talk to her from behind the gas mask.
"You're the daughter of the Sonoharas who ran the antique store, aren't you? Urgh, I'm sorry you had to see me in such a shameful state last time we met."
"Sorry...did you know my parents?"
"......Sort of. Actually, now that you mention it...right, I sort of know your katana as well."
"......!"
A "sound" came from Anri's right arm.
It was the sound Anri alone could hear, one that originated from deep within her brain.
- 【Look, isn't this my former owner?】
The "voice" was neither a physical nor a psychological one. For once, it did not whisper incessantly its curses as if it were a record playing at the back of Anri's head, but instead said something that made sense.
- 【Though he didn't let me love a single human - he just used me to cut the soul of some strange monster abroad.】
♂♀
Just like Ryuugamine Mikado kept the secret that he was the founder of Dollars -
Or Kida Masaomi who was seriously bothered by his other identity as the leader of the Yellow Turbans -
Sonohara Anri had a blade called "the past" sheathed inside her body.
"Saika" -
It was an existence without a form.
It was a consciousness that whispered its curses to Sonohara Anri from inside her right arm.
Had Anri mentioned it to the doctors, they would probably think that she herself was the reason she was hearing things. But that voice did not come from her own consciousness or her brain.
It was simply an existence that couldn't be explained with physical or psychological knowledge.
The demon blade, "Saika", lay dormant within Sonohara Anri's body and was capable of materializing into a katana at will.
Anri was the central figure behind "Ripper Night", which made headlines some time ago, and the Slasher incidents several months back. But Anri herself was not the Slasher - the Slashers were the children Saika had made in the past.
The demon blade that referred to herself as "Saika" wanted to prove that she was capable of having love children with humans - except that the way she had "children" was by invading her victim's heart and assimilating her host's consciousness with its own. In short, it was like cursing.
Before she used Anri as her host, she had hurt a girl. It turned out that the "child" she planted in the girls' heart began to seek human love like its "mother" - and things began to get out of her control, culminating in the "Ripper Night".
The incident ended with Anri gaining control over all the "children".
She had restored the victims' own consciousness after the Slasher incident had come to an end. The only part about their memories she meddled with was the part about how they had become Slashers.
In other words, every victim would answer "I don't remember how the Slasher looked like" if asked.
But the incident nevertheless became the reason Yellow Turbans pitted themselves against Dollars. Anri, too, was embroiled in the conflict between her best friends without realizing what had happened.
♂♀
Although after these happenings she had accepted the fact that Saika was in her, deep in her heart Anri was still not able to stomach that fact.
For one thing, Saika was one of the most important reasons her parents were dead. But to Anri, it was unsettling enough just to have to live with an existence that knew exactly what she was like.
Saika's "voice" had returned to normal and was now repeatedly whispering her "I love you"-s. After the "Ripper Night", Anri had occasionally heard her say things that actually made sense like what she had just said. Anri had to conclude that Saika was not lying.
She inhaled silently, keeping her guard as she went on to ask the male in the gas mask:
"How...how much do you know...exactly?"
"Hmm. To answer your question: I know some things about you. Is that an acceptable answer? They say 'An eagle never pecks at grain even when it's hungry.'* So a 'powerful being' like you is probably not going to give someone as weak as me a hard time even if you are frustrated."
"......? Sorry...what are you talking about......?"
"Anyway. I'll talk more about it with you next time around. I'm kind of busy right now...I'll give you my name card. Call me if you need me."
[Kishitani Shingen Special Counselor Nebula Pharmaceuticals]
On the name card were the name and title as well as several ways to contact him.
Anri was looking closely at it and falling in deep thought when -
With a "thomp", a hand landed on her shoulder from behind.
At that instant - a disgusting wave of pressure ransacked her system.
The sharp, cold feeling made its way in through her shoulder, and her time came to a halt.
It felt as if she were ensnared in something horrible, something that deprived her completely of her freedom.
It began to gnaw at her nerves and make "Jeeg" sounds -
"Jeeg jeeg" - her mentality began to wriggle and twist upon itself in fear.
Jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg jeeg -
Every cell in her body was screaming in unison as the twisted sounds became a march and climaxed.
Screaming how dangerous the man right behind her back was.
Screaming that he was far more dangerous than Anri could imagine.
Anri forced herself to turn around as cold sweat trickled down her body.
It was the smile of the white male who had been watching them for a while.
"I'm really sorry, beautiful little girl..."
The smile was meant to be comforting, but Anri simply stared harder while staying vigilant.
"But we're talking about important business. I'll treat you to dinner to make up for this."
While saying things that sounded as if he were trying to pick her up, the male nodded silently as he placed himself between Anri and Shingen.
"Ah...I see. I'm really sorry."
Anri etched the white male's face onto her memory before turning slowly around to leave.
Do not forget this face.
Both her instinct and her rational thoughts were warning her.
Anri turned around for the last time at the crossing that would lead her to the overpass.
The Caucasian male was still looking at her.
Anri carefully remembered every single detail of his features as she felt something trickle down her spine.
But actually - it would be the last time Anri ever saw this face.
Because -
The Caucasian male was to be beaten up by Shizuo with a park bench several hours later. Even if Anri did see him again, he would have looked like another person.
♂♀
Night, an apartment in Ikebukuro
"It's scary to think that they still haven't caught 'Hollywood'..."
The boy was watching TV and muttering to himself in a cheap apartment close to the station.
Mikado planned on watching TV all day since he had nothing else to do. Now he squinting at the screen on which the news was airing.
The undisputed focus of every recent headline was the mysterious serial killings.
Although the nickname was not used on TV, the magazines and the online communities have long since been referring to the killer as "Hollywood".
The killings took place in Tokyo, but Mikado felt as if they were happening in a distant country the first time he heard about them on TV.
But once he got used to referring to the killer as "Hollywood" online, he began to talk to his chatroom friends about it and look up information webpages on the search for "Hollywood", he felt a definite fear for the bone-chilling killer as well as a tint of curiosity.
Who exactly is this mysterious killing monster?
The general public was more interested in knowing the true identity of the mysterious "Black Rider", but Mikado, who had known it already, was more interested in "Hollywood", whose identity still eluded everyone.
But news about "Hollywood" was too dark for his mood after just having seen Anri.
Mikado thought as he murmured with the remote control in his hand:
"Is there nothing more pleasant on the news?"
As he switched between channels he saw the report about how Hanejima Yuuhei's photo book sold over 20,000 copies in the first week. The young man whose incredibly good-looking face appeared on the screen was certainly someone he would feel ashamed to stand next to.
"That's so cool...20,000 copies, 3,000 yen each...that would be six million yen just in royalties even if he only gets 10%...and his new movie is being talked about way before its release. This guy is simply ultra-cool......"
He could beat him in nothing whatsoever.
Mikado sighed in resignation as he watched the handsome young man who looked like the perfect Superman on TV.
- Speaking of which...
- This Yuuhei guy kind of reminds me of someone I know......
Every time he saw this idol on screen, the same question would surface in his mind. After that Mikado continued to look for more pleasant news on TV.
As every channel proceeded to air the weather report, he began to use the Internet to check the TV schedule.
It was April, the end-of-season period for TV - so not surprisingly, almost every channel had specials scheduled for the slots formerly reserved for TV series.
"Ikebukuro: A Hundred Days at the War Front! Live Commentary of the Dark Side of the Evil Capital, Ikebukuro!"
- The Evil Capital...? That was a little mean......
But it would have been a lie to say that it did not get him interested.
Mikado hesitated for a moment, but convinced himself to watch it thinking that maybe he would see people he knew on TV since it was live commentary.
- Which he did.
But it was certainly not the "people he knew" he had expected to see.
An hour later -
The pitch-black shadow making its flight away from the White Motorbike appeared on the screen before Mikado's eyes.
"Celty-san......"
Mikado's mouth was hanging open at the unmistakable figure.
He turned his gaze from the TV towards the window.
He lived far away from where the scene was being shot, so there was no way that he could see her from afar.
Nevertheless, he thought vaguely that maybe he would be able to hear something if he tried hard enough - which was more or less impossible as well.
As he was about to try, Celty had conjured the black wings and begun to glide through the night like a Magic Thief.
"Is she gonna be...alright...? Should I try to do something for her with...Dollars?"
The boy was as pure as pure could be. As the screen switched back to the studio he began to feel genuinely concerned for the "monster" he would never have known if not for a twist of fate.
"But since it's Celty-san...she'll probably come up with something herself?"
Mikado logged onto a certain online chatroom as the thoughts of the Headless Rider, who was also a Dollars, lingered on his mind.
Somewhere in his heart he was also anxious about but nevertheless looking forward to the tour of Ikebukuro he was going to give the evening of the next day.
CHATROOM
Tanaka Taro-san has joined the chat.
Tanaka Taro
Eh? Why is nobody online?
Tanaka Taro
I'll come back in a couple of hours.
Tanaka Taro-san has left the chat.
No one is in the chat room right now.
Bakyura-san has joined the chat.
Bakyura
Hmm?
Bakyura
Looks like no one's here?
Bakyura
Awesome,
Bakyura
that means I can doodle all I want on this tabula rasa.
Bakyura
Listen, Johnny,
Bakyura
back when I was in elementary school,
Bakyura
a girl used to steal my recorder and blow it.
Bakyura
When I caught her blowing it,
Bakyura
I told her that if she wanted me to keep the secret -
Bakyura
"The recorder you want to blow should be the one on my face, don't you think?"
Bakyura
So she began to lick my whistle instead.
Bakyura
Other boys saw us at it so they blew raspberries at us.
Bakyura
HAHAHA,
Bakyura
Since it's a real story it counts as an American joke!
Bakyura
Good,
Bakyura
Now I'll just have to erase the chat log,
Bakyura
Now I'll count to three -
Saika-san has joined the chat.
Bakyura
1.
Saika
Good evening
Bakyura
2.
Bakyura
Ehhh!
Bakyura
Good evening.
Tanaka Taro-san has joined the chat.
Tanaka Taro
Good evening.
Tanaka Taro
Bakyura-san, what are you doing?
Bakyura
Good...eve...ning......
Bakyura
Laugh.
Bakyura
Everybody, why not just laugh at me!
Tanaka Taro
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Bakyura
You really laughed......
Kyo-san has joined the chat.
Mai-san has joined the chat.
Kyo
I don't feel enthusiastic personally about laughing at someone I've only just met...but since it's what that person wants, I feel like I should laugh as if there's no tomorrow if I want to qualify as a good human being. So let me laugh at you like there's no tomorrow, as God tells me to. Here -
Mai
(LOL)
Kyo
YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! AHAH, AHAH, AHAHAH! PFUUU....PFUUUU...YAHAH! YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAH! AHAHAHAH! STOP IT.......S - T - O - P - I - T! I CAN'T BREATHE! I REALLY CAN'T BREATHE...STOP IT......SERIOUSLY! LET ME LIVE AHHHHHHH....EH...EH...AHAH...YAHAH...YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Mai
(LOL)
Bakyura
Good evening......
Bakyura
Eh?
Bakyura
Who are you......
Bakyura
Uwah, I don't know whether to feel anger or despair at the way you laughed at me!
Tanaka Taro
Good evening.
Tanaka Taro
Have we met before?
Saika
Good evening
Kyo
I'm really sorry. I don't believe we've met any of you before. We will be joining your chat from today onwards so we beg you to remember us. My name is Kyo. I was planning on exchanging pleasantries with you, but it felt kind of rude to Bakyura-san if I were to do so when I'm laughing at his desperate American joke. So this is how it turned out.
Mai
I'm Mai.
Bakyura
Somehow your personality reminds me of Kanra-san.
Mai
I'm sorry.
Bakyura
No, I didn't mean you.
Tanaka Taro
Nice to meet you!
Kyo
Nice to meet you too. Speaking of which, um...if Bakyura-san is a female, I would really be confused as to how to react. If two females are to blow the same clarinet...and kind of kiss that way...it would have been just beautiful and elegant and worthy of a place in my permanent memory. Should I say dreamy or unrivaled? Anyway, that's how I would feel.
Mai
So erotic!
Bakyura
You're free to picture me any way you want.
Tanaka Taro
God, this place's already got more personality going around then it can handle......
Saika
Nice to meet you
Bakyura
Hey, did you guys watch the special report a couple of hours ago?
Tanaka Taro
Ah, the one about Ikebukuro?
Bakyura
That's right.
Saika
Did something happen
Tanaka Taro
They captured the Headless Rider on film with their video camera.
Kyo
Ahh, small world. We watched that report a while ago and thought if we went out we might still be able to see the Headless Rider with our own eyes. We've only just got back. It was a pity that we didn't witness the living urban legend boldly gliding through the sky. But it was an exhilarating experience just to be walking in the darkness with such high hopes in our hearts.
Mai
Too bad.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, so do you live in Ikebukuro as well?
Tanaka Taro
Looks like everyone in this chatroom lives in either Ikebukuro or Shinjuku.
Tanaka Taro
So make yourselves at home here.
Kyo
Tanaka Taro-san, I feel so grateful. An insignificant being like me, who keeps saying things that shock everyone, is like a water stain on a grain of sand in the vast sea that is the Internet. Yet you say such gentle things to me that I almost feel like I'm in love with you. Only on the Internet, though.
Mai
Thank you.
Mai
I like you.
Tanaka Taro
I really don't know what to make of that lol
Bakyura
Still feels like Kanra-san's self-acting to me.
Saika
What is self-acting
Bakyura
It means to pull pranks on people and stalk them.
Tanaka Taro
Anyway, I'm going to show someone around Ikebukuro and at the same time will be shown around Ikebukuro by someone myself.
Tanaka Taro
I'm still new in this city, so I'll have lots to learn from you.
Kyo
What a coincidence. We're planning to walk around Ikebukuro tomorrow as well. Maybe we'll run into each other and even start fighting.
Mai
We're fighting?
Tanaka Taro
If that happens, please go easy on me lol
The next day, Animate Central, Ikebukuro
If you walk from the crossing situated west to the Sunshine building to Route 254 -
You'll be on the "Girls' Road", so called because many doujinshi and merchandise stores were located on it.
Two males and a female were walking on this road on a sunny afternoon.
The female was Karisawa, and one of the males was Yumasaki.
The other was Kadota Kyohei, their guardian figure. He pulled his knit cap lower as he listened to the other two's dialogue.
Or, to be exact, less than half of it since the majority of their dialogue consisted of things he couldn't understand.
"That's why I was saying~exchanging opinions on anime is great, isn't it? Putting forward opinions different from other people's is also in their interest. But if one starts saying 'If you don't realize what's great about this anime, just go back to your pantsu anime." - that's the worst possible way to try to say that the anime you like is good. In fact, you would also be insulting the anime you do like if you said things like that!"
"That's right! I remember someone saying that on the official discussion board of Gun Jaws*. I know he was just mad because others said bad things about the show he loved, but that's no excuse to insult other shows."
"Exactly! I enjoy hardcore shounen stuff where all the characters are male, but I also like moe shows with lots of panty-shots and tits awahhhhhh!?"
"Yumacchi, you dumbass!"
Yumasaki stared at Karisawa perplexed as she hit his face with her palm.
"Wha - what are you doing, Karisawa-san?!"
"It's so misleading to associate 'moe' with only panties and tits! 'Moe' is in the soul of the viewer! Therefore, all show in the world can be 'moe shows' - even traditional Japanese paintings of birds and beasts are moe paintings, but Yumacchi, you - "
"T - That's not what I meant! I mentioned panties when I said moe just as a figure of speech, in which moe is defined as the romantic imagination of - "
" - If you see things the same way I do, you'll know that every male character in Gun Jaws is moe -
" - I think Karisawa-san got a lot of things wrong - "
" - Moe - moe* - moe - MOE - MOE - "
" - Moe - MOEMOE? - moe - "
As their unstoppable dialogue entered the stage of stalemate, he male who had kept silent all along opened his mouth to say:
"Please, you two...save your moemoe talk for when we're off the busiest streets of the city."
Kadota sighed deeply as his right palm made contact with his forehead.
The contents of their dialogue never seemed to change whether in the warmth of April or in the chill of winter. The only thing that changed was probably the titles of the anime and manga they mentioned.
"Hey, you two. Can't you stop talking about 2D stuff for a while?"
"Got it."
"Sure."
Kadota was surprised to see them agree to do it. Anyway, he thought, that probably means they'll be silent for a while -
"Speaking of which, I feel like the recent figures by the designer Youen Zetsumu have even more erotic waistlines than before!"
"Nah nah nah, the best thing about that designer's work is the slightly protruding lines on the abdomen. The ribs of his slimmer characters are the ultimate moe!"
Kadota's angry voice resounded in the space they were in as he heard the completely unchanging dialogue.
"You two......didn't I just tell you to stop?"
Yumasaki and Karisawa looked at the raging Kadota with flustered faces and said:
"Ehhh!? But figurines are 3D, aren't they?"
"That's not right, Karisawa-san! Figurines are 2.5D!"
"......It's hard to tell if I'm really in Japan sometimes when I'm with you guys......"
Kadota said in a tone of resignation as he continued to head for their destination, Tokyu Hands.
After making a turn and arriving at a less crowded street, he asked the duo walking after him:
"So are you going to show Mikado and the other kids around the stores in that area?"
"That's right. Wanna come with us, Dotachin?"
"I'll pass. I'd just scare them if I went."
"Really? I think Dotachin would look like a top student if you take that cap off and comb your hair forwards."
Kadota ignored Karisawa's teasing and kept walking in silence.
However, they saw something unusual ahead of them -
"That's what I was saying~we just wanna hear about it. Ne, you know about the Black Motorbike, don't you?"
"You want money too, don't you little girl? But we want money as well. Share it with us."
"How about you invest on us with your pocket money? If we get that ten million yen we'll pay you back with our bodies. With the interest."
"We're not that much older than you are. It's a very ecological way to do it, I say. Just give it to us for free."
The males who were making their purpose very obvious had two high school girls cornered. Every one of them looked fat and rude and wore bousouzoku clothes - one of them even wore a striped tokko-fuku.
"I got it now! You are the Black Motorbike, aren't you?"
"That's right~"
"That's just awesome."
"So play with us till we feel like it's worth ten million yen."
Even the way they were picking on the two girls sounded vulgar and cliche. They were an eyesore on this otherwise peaceful street.
Kadota looked at the men and muttered to himself:
"......I didn't know such rowdy delinquents still existed."
The trio shook their heads and continued walking.
The men, oblivious to what was happening behind their backs, were still advancing on the two girls.
"Speaking of which, you two must be pretty rich if you're playing around on this street, aren't you?"
"That pisses me off! That really pisses me off!"
"Are you gonna say anything at all? Say something! Say it!"
"Here, here, give them a break. Look, they're scared as it is. Sorry. Where are you headed? We'll drive you to make up for it. Does that sound good to you?"
Kadota said as the delinquents rambled on.
♂♀
Several hours later, in front of the Tokyu Hands
At Raira Academy, students got afternoons off on the first and the last few days of the semester.
It was meant to make the transition into and out of the semester easier for the students. But the students usually don't give it any more thought than "Lucky! Afternoon off!" which was more or less the school's intention, anyway.
The streets were filled with Raira's uniform color after the morning classes had ended.
Casual attire was allowed at Raira, but once the students blend into the crowds on the street, only the ones in uniforms stood out like figures embossed on a multicolor background - like a Color Gang.
Mikado walked leisurely in his Raira uniform.
Anri and his kouhai were waiting for him when he arrived at the meeting spot.
"Ah...eh? You're here already? I'm sorry, did you wait for a long time?"
"No, I only just got here."
"Me too."
Though he felt like Anri and Aoba were just saying it to make him feel better, it did sound like they hadn't had time to talk with each other yet.
So maybe they weren't there for very long - he thought as he greeted them. Aoba bowed to Anri.
"I'm really sorry to take up so much of your precious time because of my childish request......"
"Don't mind that. We have free time on our hands."
Anri nodded in agreement to what Mikado had just said.
After the innocent-looking kouhai had thanked his sempais for their hospitality -
He raised a question with interest:
"Is Sonohara-sempai dating Ryuugamine-sempai?"
Time seemed to have stopped between the two.
But now that Mikado thought about it, it was something one would naturally assume if they had never seen them before.
Aoba had asked Mikado to show him around Ikebukuro, and it was only reasonable that he did not expect Anri to also show up. So the only conclusion would be that they were either boyfriend and girlfriend or something of the sort.
But Mikado was visibly embarrassed at Aoba's question. Anri also lowered her head, blushing.
Aoba, unsure whether to take that for a yes or no, tilted his head sideways and tried again:
"So you're not dating?"
"No...no no no...it's not like that...we're just...um...friends! We're friends!"
"I see~so Sonohara-sempai is still single? Is there any way I can make it into the waitlist?"
"What......?"
His kouhai had said something shocking with ease. Mikado couldn't help but look at him in awe.
- With such incredible ease......!
- And in a more natural manner than Masaomi would have managed, too!
Mikado felt his lips tremble. He tried to say something - but nothing came out.
Losing to his kouhai made him feel miserable, but he was also jealous of his kouhai's straightforward way of confessing to females he liked.
The kouhai, however, looked at his frozen sempai who had such thoughts racing on his mind and said in a troubled tone:
"U - Um, Ryuugamine-sempai......I was just kidding."
"Eh?"
"So don't look at me as if you're despairing about everything in the world...I would feel very troubled."
"......Am...am I looking at you like that?"
Mikado blushed harder out of shame and squinted at Anri's direction.
As expected of her, Anri kept her head low as the two of them talked.
They looked like two elementary students; but the one who looked most like an elementary student smiled and said to Mikado:
"I'm so glad! I thought sempai would be scary since sempai is in Dollars and everything...it's so nice to know that there are people like sempai in Dollars, too!"
"Really? I'm glad you feel that way......"
- Huh? Was that a compliment?
Mikado could only laugh drily to conceal his confusion since he couldn't tell if Aoba was simply being sarcastic.
Aoba, after seeing Mikado's reaction, asked with renewed curiosity:
"Um...so...the people who are going to come with us, are they in Dollars as well?"
"That's right...but don't worry, they're not scary."
- Well, they are at some level.
Mikado looked around for Yumasaki and Karisawa - their guides for the evening - as he recalled the nonstop dialogue between the two.
But the people who were walking towards them weren't Yumasaki and Karisawa.
"Excuse us for a minute, would you?"
"We wish you all the happiness in the world!"
Instead, two males over 180 centimeters tall popped out of thin air and sandwiched Mikado.
"...!? ...? Are...are you looking for anything?"
"Shut up. Let's check out your face."
The tall men grabbed Mikado's hair and ignored his nervous question. They continued to say in cold voices:
"Is he the one?"
"E - X - A - C - T - L - Y! Bingo Pachinko!"
Though there was no way to know what they had just bingo-ed, the men looked at each other cheerfully.
Their lips were pierced, their teeth uneven and blackened from smoking. Mikado believed that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but the appearance of these two men seemed pretty indicative of their personality - he would hardly guess that they were pacifists.
The sudden turn of things left Aoba and Anri at a loss as to what to do. The men did not seem to be paying attention to them. Instead they smirked lewdly and pressed their faces, which smelt of cigarettes, closer to Mikado:
"You~you were there, right? You were there a while back."
"W - where, sorry...?"
"Some time ago, remember~? You were there, right? When Kadota and his dogs were beating us up, you were there in the abandoned factory with the Black Motorbike, weren't you? Argh?"
"Or did you not notice just because we don't have yellow cloths on our arms or anything?"
"......Urgh!"
Mikado began to tremble at the mention of "yellow cloths".
"......You are......"
- Former members of the "Yellow Turbans"......
Though they were "Yellow Turbans", they weren't part of the group that gathered around Masaomi when the gang was founded.
These men were former members of "Blue Square" who joined the Yellow Turbans to take over the gang - except that they in turn were defeated by Kadota and other Dollars members who infiltrated the Yellow Turbans.
"But whatever, we don't give a shit why you were there."
"But we do want the ten million yen. Got it?"
Ten million yen.
At the mention of that Mikado was able to piece the jigsaw puzzle in his heart.
So they were not here to take revenge against Mikado, a Dollars member -
"You know where that Black Motorbike lives, right? Tell us!"
"Anyway~guess we'll be keeping your cell phone for a while. You'll at least have his number or something, right?"
The men grabbed Mikado's schoolbag from him and began to ransack its contents.
"Wait! Please stop!"
"Shut up!"
Mikado wanted to fight back, but the disparity in their physical strength was absolute. He was not a master of any martial art that would have given him some advantage, either.
He could think of no way to stop the two 180-cm men, and was sure that his cell phone would end up being robbed when -
"Hey~Mikado."
An even taller shadow appeared from behind the men's backs.
"!?"
"You...what are you playing at......"
It was a formidable-looking black man in a white T-shirt.
Mikado didn't realize immediately who that was because he was not in his usual Japanese cook clothes, but it didn't take long for him to figure out. He was sort of a man of legends in this neighborhood.
"Simon-san!"
"What's up? Fighting, is not good. Stomach would be hungry. Today, sushi is not open. So if you fight, you die from hungry~"
"You...bastard....let go......"
"Can't...can't move......"
Though Simon's hands were only on their shoulders, the two men felt as if they were deep in the sea - the pressure was threatening to crush them from all sides, and they couldn't even move a finger.
Simon, who was exerting such overwhelming pressure on the two men, was still saying with ease:
"Come, get your schoolbag, sessha* is going to take care of these people, go ahead without me~"
Mikado had no idea which TV series he picked up these lines from. His pronunciation was still weird, but it sounded reassuring nevertheless.
It was a typical "death flag" line, but when Simon was the one saying it, it felt like a death flag for the other party instead.
"B - But, Simon-san......"
"Can't fight when you're with a girl, thirty-six sceneries of Fugaku, you run away, OK, go go~"
"T - Thank you! I'll come have sushi with everyone next time!"
"Oh~thank you~then, I'll let you pay the real prices in return~"
Upon hearing the horribly and eerily wrong Japanese Mikado picked up his schoolbag and took Aoba and Anri's hands in his.
As they began to run along the Ikebukuro street, Mikado lowered his head to apologize to Anri and his kouhai:
"S - Sorry! I didn't mean to get you into trouble......!"
"No...actually...sempai was the only one in real trouble..."
Though what Aoba said made sense, Mikado still couldn't help but feel that in addition to giving him unnecessary shock, he had also exposed a very shameful side of himself in front of his kouhai.
The first kouhai he ever had in high school.
Did the respect in Aoba's eyes send him over the top? Was he being too cocky?
But there was no time for him to recall everything he did even if there was time to regret.
Because -
Men were running in their direction from every alleyway in sight as if they had communicated via cell phones.
"Oi, what about Shinji and the other guy......"
"Don't even try to save them! We'd have no chance against Simon even if we ganged up on him! Plus, if we tried to fight there, Shizuo would show up!"
The youths shouted as they chased after Mikado and the other two.
If they kept up their speed, they would catch up with them in less than twenty seconds.
But - they were really not in the best of luck while Mikado and the other two were, because the people they had been waiting for had come.
"Ehhh!?"
Mikado screamed as the van came to a halt in front of him thinking that it was another group of people after them.
But as soon as he saw the man sitting in the navigator's seat, he broke into a smile -
"K - Kadota-san!"
The next second, Karisawa poked her head out of the van and shouted at them:
"Why are you being chased? ......Anyway, hurry up and get in the van!"
It was so close.
Mikado, Anri and Aoba succeeded in getting into the van and shutting the door just as the delinquents were about to get them.
Togusa started the engine at almost the exact moment.
One of the delinquents reached out for the door on the navigator's side -
Kadota swung his fist at him and silenced him instantly.
"C - C - Can't believe we're safe!"
"No problem no problem. Sorry for being late by the way~"
Karisawa smiled kindly at them as she said.
The van was surprisingly crowded. At the back sat Mikado, Anri and Aoba as well as Yumasaki and Karisawa, and - two girls whom Mikado didn't recall meeting before.
The girls sitting at the back of the van had the same features except that one was wearing glasses and the other was not; they were probably twins.
"Uh...what - what are you doing here?"
The shocked voice came from Kuronuma Aoba.
- Do you know them?
Just as Mikado was about to ask -
Heavy noises were coming from the side of the van as horns blowed somewhat too loudly outside.
"Screw it, did they already find us...?"
Mikado looked around nervously as he heard the driver spit.
He thought it would be the former Yellow Turbans who caught up with them on bikes, but from the darkened van window he saw a group of men in striped tokko-fukus on motorbikes.
"Stand still!"
"You want us to burn you with gasoline?"
"Oi, where's our reinforcement?"
"They said they had found the Black Motorbike so they're not coming! Actually they told us to go over and help them!"
The men on the motorbikes that surrounded the van kept yelling things at each other, but it was impossible for Mikado to hear what they had said.
"W - What exactly is going on? Why are they...?"
"Well...I have some bad news for you. You just escaped from one misfortune, but you're now knee deep in another. How incredibly sad. The world we're in right now is as filled with unrest as a certain Academy City where they study superpowers*. Please wait patiently until...Chapter Someone Arrives and Destroys the Distasteful Virtual Reality with Her Right Hand - !"
"I have no idea what you're talking about......"
"Pay attention when you still can. Do you know any doctor who looks like a frog? If you do, we have an additional 10% chance of surviving. Ah, if we're going for frogs, Hakusanmei-kun is also fine!"
Yumasaki continued to say things that did little but cause confusion. Mikado gave up on communicating with him and turned towards Kadota in the navigator's seat instead.
Kadota looked back at Mikado in the rear mirror and averted his gaze with an apologetic look in his eyes before muttering:
"We...have our reasons...sorry..."
"Eh...ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
Their tour of Ikebukuro formally began with this completely unexpected turn of events for the thrilling.
The boys and girls were forcibly taken for a ride in this Death Race with no destination in sight.
They could not predict what was going to happen next - or didn't want to even if they could -
And the neigh of a headless horse reached their eardrums from far ahead -