DURARARA!! Vol.4 CHAPTER 3, PART II
WARNING: UNBETA-ED.
♂♀
After school, stairway
A couple of hours had passed since the aforementioned incident.
"Tomorrow, after school...ah, something to look forward to."
Aoba was just finished with his club activities for the day when he received a message from Mikado telling him the time and place to meet for tomorrow's afternoon tour of Ikebukuro.
Anyway, better be going home now. As Aoba was walking towards the stairway however -
"Oy, you!"
A not-too-well-meaning voice sounded from behind.
Aoba turned to find several girls standing in front of him.
At the center was Tsukiyama, who was in his class and had just been to the teacher's office.
"Something wrong?"
Tsukiyama frowned at the boy who leaned his head sideways as he asked.
"You know very well what's wrong. What do you think you were doing, anyway?"
"What is this, a confession? How sweet but I'd be very troubled. There's no way I can go out with all of you at once..."
The other girls couldn't remain silent any longer at Aoba's airy joke.
"Are you dumb or what? What exactly were you thinking? Would a normal person just turn people in like that? You think it's fun to pretend you're on the side of justice or something?"
"If I were trying to be on the side of justice, I would have stopped you when you were at it. You guys aren't making sense."
"Then why did you turn us in all of a sudden?!"
"Well, it's not like you guys bothered to tape my mouth, is it? Frankly speaking, if I had to choose between your side and Miss Orihara's...not that I know either of you all that well, but, look, you write stuff on people's desks, while she's mature and wears a gym suit and has nice breasts and feels pretty mysterious...you know what I mean?"
"- Shut up! You - "
Just as the girls advanced towards Aoba -
Tsukiyama sensed something strange.
Her olfactory system was sending urgent alarms through her brain.
Something was burning.
"Ehh?"
- A fire?
The girl looked around frantically for the source of that strong burning smell.
But Aoba, standing opposite her, was the first to find it.
"Hey, your..."
"Ehh? ......Arrgh!"
Shocked to see that fumes were coming from the schoolbag on her shoulder, Tsukiyama screamed as she threw it away as far as possible.
Halfway the schoolbag burst into flames, and a fair amount of smoke was released from the hole where the schoolbag had just been burnt through -
The shrill sound of fire alarm on the ceiling began to echo throughout the school.
Later, all students at the scene of fire including Aoba were summoned to Student Affairs and talked to separately.
Aoba simply told everything as he saw it. However, his own schoolbag ended up going through inspection.
He had asked why inspection had been necessary - the teacher, who was hesitant at first, disclosed the reason and told him not to discuss it with anyone else.
Why the fire had suddenly erupted from Tsukiyama's schoolbag remained a mystery. But an inspection of the contents of the bag brought to attention several nutrient beverage bottles that apparently contained paint thinner.
What was more - similar bottles of paint thinner were found in the backpacks of the other girls who had been there talking to Aoba. Though the girls didn't admit it, the whole thing happened right after they had been called to the teacher's office.
"Honestly...first thing in high school they start trying out drugs? ...Well, guess it's not really a surprise if they're also a bunch of bullies. What a royal headache. They were picking on you for turning them in during homeroom, weren't they?"
"It definitely felt like they were."
"Well, I won't be surprised if they get suspended for a while. You never know how they're gonna get back at you...if they try anything, let me know right away."
Aoba ended up being the only one allowed to go home. He was just about to leave school when -
He saw two girls standing in front of the stairway, where some of the remains of the schoolbag could still be seen.
One of them was Kururi, still in that gymnastic suit, her schoolbag on her shoulder. The other was dressed in a way that contrasted with her - but other than the glasses, the girl looked exactly the same as Kururi.
"Yahoo! Good day to you! Or should I say good evening? Anyway, I've never met you before! I'm Orihara Mairu! Kuru-nee* is my older twin sister! Nice to meet you!"
Unlike her sister, the girl was rather chitty-chatty.
"Um, ni - nice to meet you too."
- These are some weird twins.
Aoba thought to himself as he replied. Kururi, who had been standing behind Mairu's back as if trying to hide, raised her face and said to Aoba,
"Thank (Thank you)."
"Hum?...Ah, you mean the thing during the homeroom? That was nothing. You don't need to thank me. I should have stopped them in the first place."
"Know (I knew that)."
"Eh?"
Mairu chirped in merrily as Aoba was taken aback.
"Oh that - actually, Kuru-nee was watching them from the hallway when they were at it! And, when you were talking to those girls a moment ago, Kuru-nee and I were also watching!"
"Huuuhhh?"
Aoba calmed down and tried to continue the conversation despite the fact that these girls had just declared themselves random stalkers.
"Well, in that case there's even less reason to thank me - "
"Kuru-nee was so happy when you said she was cuter than that girl called Tsukiyama! Look, Kuru-nee is the quiet liberal arts type but has to wear a gym suit all the time - people usually just find it weird, right? So Kuru-nee is actually really happy to hear that boys think she's cute!"
"Silent (Shut up)."
Kururi shushed her sister and took a step towards Aoba, her eyes still fixed on the ground.
She said only two words to the boy who was about the same height as she was.
"Indebted (For you)."
Raising her face and closing the distance, she covered Aoba's lips with her own.
- Hhhh?
Aoba's mind turned blank at the incomprehensible situation -
And could do nothing but look as Kururi, cheeks flushed, pulled herself away.
But the situation was just about to get even more incomprehensible -
As Kururi retreated back behind, Mairu stepped forward as if to take her sister's place and suddenly pulled Aoba into a powerful embrace followed by a deep kiss.
- !? - !? !? !?
The female and male roles looked decidedly reversed - an impression not helped at all by Aoba's rather childlike facial features.
Aoba's mind was again reduced to a state of blankness; as he stared at Mairu, however, the latter had already resumed her chirping without even blushing.
"Yay I did it! Indirect kiss with Kuru-nee! Heehee!"
She let go of Aoba and continued in a tone as if nothing had happened.
"Sorry! It's a little surprising to be treated like this by girls who aren't even your girlfriend, isn't it! But don't be fooled by Kuru-nee's looks, she's actually even more aggressive than I am!"
"Negative (That is not true)."
The younger of the twins pretended not to hear her sister, and instead began to whisper in Aoba's ear.
"Ah, forgot to say, if you fall for Kuru-nee sometime in the future, I won't let you have all of her! Because part of Kuru-nee is still mine! Also, for males, I will only go out with Hanejima Yuuhei-san! Ah, Kuru-nee is also a huge fan of Yuuhei-san, so I won't be surprised either if you aren't gonna get anything more than that kiss! Ahaha!"
"Hanejima Yuuhei...that idol?"
"Correct! Anything wrong with that?"
"No, not at all...I...um, what exactly am I supposed to do?"
In Gal-game jargon they would have called it a multi-flagging event. But Aoba's head was way too messed up to think of any of that - he tried to regain his composure anyway, and wondered aloud something completely unrelated to those kisses a moment ago.
"Um...right. It can't possibly have been...that those two...put um...certain stuff in Tsukiyama and the other girls' schoolbags...can it?"
He had asked the most important question of all. The girl - who just kissed a boy she had barely even known for three days, let alone gone out with - replied in a disappearing voice,
"Private (It's a secret)."
With a faint smile forming around her last syllables.
After the twins were gone, Aoba remained leaning onto the shoeboxes at the stairway entrance -
Until he hastened to dial a number of someone he knew on his cell phone as if something urgent had come to his mind.
"Ah, hello? It's me......"
"It looks like I'm now sort of the main character in some horribly made porn."
"Look...if I told you two girls, who were twins, had each kissed me once separately just now, would you believe that?"
"Eh? Yeah, they were cute. Kinda weird, but they looked really...um...cute."
"Why would you wanna kill me? Also I was gonna ask if I should feel led on or turned off...what would you suggest as an unpopular guy? ......Sorry, that was my bad...don't scrape the glass with your cell phone - uwahhhhhhh! S - T - O - P - !!"
♂♀
Night of the same day, Ikebukuro
"That's weird, Kuru-nee, I was sure that glider was headed this way! Ahhh, I hate it! I WANNA SEE I WANNA SEE I - WANNA - SEE - IT - !"
Mairu, who had just kissed that evening a boy she had only just met, was already talking in a loud voice as if she had forgotten about it. They were wearing somewhat strangely designed casual clothes which gave different impressions from their usual attire in the day.
"......"
Kururi, on the other hand, remained silent and looked around calmly.
They had been out on the streets after having watched the live report about the Black Motorbike when they got home from school.
The streets were crowded as ever, but once they wandered off the main road they found themselves in quiet and empty alleyways since it was not a holiday. Mairu was asking her sister with a puzzled look on her face:
"Why are we here? Shouldn't we be looking for the glider on the main street?"
Kururi ignored her sister and continued to observe her surroundings - until her gaze fell on a certain car parked on the roadside and she made straight for it.
"Here (It's here.)......"
Before she even finished talking, Kururi had bent over and reached for something under the car.
"Wahh, what are you doing, Kuru-nee?! Is that a ten-yen coin? Yipee! I get treated to a Umai-bou, don't I? I want the mentaiko flavor!"
She giggled as she continued to tease her sister -
But her sister had risen again holding something that had been dropped under the car.
"......? What is that?"
Mairu asked, surprised. Her sister had at last stopped ignoring her:
"Ago (Some time ago)...TV (on television)...monster (the Black Motorbike)...fell (dropped it)......"
"Ehh? You kidding me? Did he really drop this? I didn't notice at all!"
Mairu said in astonishment as she looked at the item in her sister's hand.
And what she saw was -
"What is this envelope?"
On the light-brown envelope was written "THANK YOU MS. CELTY STURLUSON" in Japanese.
It was surprisingly heavy, and from the touch of it they could only guess that a pile of paper was inside it.
Kururi had already had a hunch as to what it might be when she opened the envelope -
Her eyes popped and looked around wildly after she had seen the contents.
"What's wrong, Kuru-nee?"
As her younger sister was about to peek into the envelope as well -
Something had made its way into their peripheral vision. She turned sharply to face it -
It was standing in the Ikebukuro night.
A monster was standing there as if it were about to kidnap the sisters who had wandered into the godforsaken darkness by mistake.
The monster was tall, thin and very pale.
It hobbled and stumbled as it walked apparently without a destination in mind.
But it face was completely distorted with its nose being the most telltale part; scarlet blood trickled down from its eyes, ears, mouth and nose as it stumbled towards them like a zombie.
"Who (What is that?)......"
"Kuru-nee, get behind me."
Mairu had probably guessed that the monster was not an ordinary person.
She had got between the monster and her sister, shielding her sister with her body.
And - just as the monster was only several feet away from the reach of her back-kick -
The male fell forward on his bloody face, murmuring something.
"......What's with this guy? Should we call an ambulance?"
As he heard this -
The male raised his head and began to talk in trembling Japanese:
"Hospital...is...a little...bad for me...Miss...is there...cough..."
"Healthy (Are you all right?)"
The male coughed some blood before he rolled onto his back and continued in a disappearing voice:
"Sorry...I may not...be able to make it...before I die...there's something...I wanna ask you......"
"What what? This is a rare experience! Tell us what it is!"
"Do you know if...there's a Russian...sushi restaurant...nearby...somewhere......?"
♂♀
Ikebukuro, Sunshine 60 Street
Having bought a new attache case at a discount store, Shizuo walked along the street in a dignified manner.
"Still...wonder what was wrong with those robbers, Tom-san."
"There's no way I would know though..."
Shizuo's boss replied in a lazy tone as he reflected back on what happened earlier.
"Anyhow. Should we go check on them later? That white guy looked like he could die if we just leave him there."
"That filth robbed us, meaning he wanted us to starve to death. He was asking to be killed so he should have been ready to be dead."
"...You sure do speak pretty aggressively at times..."
Tom decided that saying anything more would very likely make himself a target. Wiping the cold sweat off his face, he sighed and looked up the next debt-collecting location.
Shizuo was actually a quiet person when he was not mad. However, now his mood was somewhere in-between.
Chances were that his rage at all that robber melodrama a moment ago hadn't properly subsided yet.
They were looking for a place to have some quick lunch before setting out for the next debt-collecting location when -
"SHI-ZU-O-san!"
A bouncy voice rang from behind as a girl flung herself onto Shizuo's back.
"......"
With an ambiguous expression that could have been either a troubled face or a wry smile -
Shizuo reached behind his back and grabbed the nape of her neck as you would a cat.
"Ayayayah! You'll stretch it, you'll stretch it! You'll stretch my clothes, Shizuo-san!"
"Mairu...what're you doing here so late in the night..."
Without putting the girl in question down to the ground, Shizuo saw that it was indeed the little sister of the guy he hated the most.
"I came to see Shizuo-san!"
"You're still after Kasuka anyway..."
"Yeah! But I also really like Shizuo-san! 'Cause you're strong!"
"...Well. You know I have no say over Kasuka's schedule. Seems like he's terribly popular these days."
Shizuo sighed in some sort of resignation and put Mairu down.
Now that he looked, Kururi could also be seen at a distance, her head tilted towards his direction.
"...For a moment I was freaked out thinking you were gonna lose it...really."
Shizuo scratched the back of his head as he turned to an awkwardly smiling Tom.
"Oh, that...I don't get mad as much when people are straightforward with me."
What Heiwajima Shizuo hated was the type of people who play with others' emotions by trapping them in an intricate maze of words.
Orihara Izaya was certainly top of that list. Although his sisters turned out little wackos like he was, they were much less complicated so Shizuo got mad at them only rarely.
Which was not to say never - but the twins adored him all the same, so there was no way Shizuo could actually hate them.
Except for when the girls reminded him of their older brother - which was still bound to infuriate him to a certain degree.
"Well, off the top of my head...if your brother would throw himself in front of a dump truck laughing, we can talk about introducing my brother to you. Speaking of which, I'm still kinda mad today, guess I should just go beat that Izaya bastard to death myself."
"If it's just Iza-nii, no problem no problem!"
Shizuo sighed again at Mairu's instant decision that her brother's life was a small price to pay.
Tom had half a mind to comment "I don't recall that you liked to sigh so much...?" but chose to remain silent in fear of waking the sleeping dog.
"Ah, right right, I'd love to talk to Shizuo-san some more but we have something to ask you!"
"Hum?"
"This! I think Iza-nii has taken us there before, but is there a Russian sushi bar somewhere on this street? I forgot how you get there!"
"Huh, you mean Simon's place? And don't call that louse Iza-nii, he's a louse."
The inquiry itself was a bit weird, but Shizuo still gave her the directions very carefully (though it only involved turning around one street corner anyway).
Meanwhile Tom looked at the other girl who was acting all timid and thought to himself, "Shizuo and an easily-scared high school girl...um, mismatch is the new match...? I don't know..."
As he saw the envelope in her hand, however, his eyes popped to the size of saucers.
From the half-opened envelope he could make out its contents - around a hundred 10,000-yen bandnotes.
Tom made sure nobody was in the vicinity as he approached her and lowered his voice.
"Hey, did you just walk here with that envelope in your hand?"
"......"
The girl hastened to close the envelope again, but Tom had already handed her the shopping bag he got from buying a clock at the discount store.
"It's at least better than nothing. Be careful not to drop it."
"Thank (Thank you)...plenty (very much)."
"No problem. I would've just thrown it away anyway."
By then Mairu was done hearing the directions and was coming to fetch Kururi's hand and afterwards went straight down the street.
"Thank you Shizuo-san! Good-bye!"
"Again (See you around).... Greet (Say hello)...Yuu (to Yuuhei-san)..."
Tom sighed heavily as he watched the two leave.
- What are they, first- or second-years at Raira? ...Walking around with that kind of money...
- What unspeakable things did they have to do to earn that ridiculous amount...?
After contemplating this for a while, he spoke to Shizuo.
"Kids these days are so open about that kind of stuff...well, I guess the power of money really is scary..."
"?"
"Not that we debt collectors for dating websites are the ones to talk...but still..."
Not realizing that he got something fundamentally wrong about these girls, Tom nodded softly in sympathy.
Seeing his boss like this made Shizuo think back on the encounter with Mairu, which somehow brought his own brother to his mind.
- Now that I remember, he did say he would be in Ikebukuro today.
- We live in the same town after all...a call once in a while shouldn't be a bad idea.
CHATROOM
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
Kyo
We're going somewhere special as well tonight. Do you know Russian Sushi? I heard it's an interesting place.
Mai
The sushi's good.
Tanaka Taro
Ah! I know Russian Sushi. It's where Simon-san works, right?
Bakyura
People running that restaurant are scary.
Kyo
Alas, now this is a coincidence...maybe we've already seen each other on the streets, close to Russian Sushi.
Mai
Passed each other by.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, I go to the bowling place next to that restaurant a lot.
Bakyura
I go to that Taiwanese place on the third floor quite often. Also that game center on the second floor.
Saika
Everyone seems to know a lot
Tanaka Taro
Hmm, but Kanra-san still knows the most, I think.
Kanra-san has joined the chat.
Kanra
Yahoo~good evening~
Kanra
Speaking of which, we have new members!
Tanaka Taro
Good evening~
Kyo
Ahh, long time no see, Kanra-san. I never expected that we would see you again in the online world before we see you in the real one! The Internet - it's a tool to distance people from others, and at the same time bring them closer......a tool of the future, I say.
Mai
Long time no see.
Bakyura
Evening~
Kanra
Um......a moment please.
[Private mode] Kanra
Kururi, Mairu, it's you two, isn't it
[Private mode] Kanra
How did you find this link?
[Private mode] Kyo
Namie-san gave us this link because she's warm and considerate like that, Izaya onii-sama.
[Private mode] Kanra
......So she's already been in contact with you......
[Private mode] Kanra
Anyway. You have to leave now for the day.
[Private mode] Kanra
I have a lot to teach you later, I see.
[Private mode] Kyo
I see, onii-sama. I look forward to hearing your voice in the real world.
Mai
Yes, we'll leave.
Tanaka Taro
?
[Private mode] Kanra
Use the private mode! No, actually...enough, just leave!
Kyo
Kanra-san doesn't like us, so we're leaving.
Kanra
Oi...wait a moment, maybe I overdid it but I was just kidding☆
Kyo
I hope Kanra-san feels better the next time we meet.
Saika
Quarreling is not good
Mai
Sorry.
Kanra
Ahhh! I said I was kidding! Don't get all wound up!
Kyo
Anyway, I wish everyone good luck.
Mai
Bye-bee.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, good night~
Kyo-san has left the chat.
Mai-san has left the chat.
Bakyura
Good night~but why did Mai-san use "Bye-bee"? w
Saika
Good night
Kanra
OK - ! Let's start again in refreshed spirits!
Tanaka Taro
Um, so who were those two people?
Kanra
If you think too much about them, you'll die!
Tanaka Taro
Die......?
Kanra
Anyway, don't mind them! Um...so......"
Kanra
Good evening everyone~this is Kanra~!
Tanaka Taro
Good evening.
Bakyura
Hi.
Saika
Good evening Nice to see you again
Kanra
Awesome awesome~☆is everyone getting used to the new chatroom?
Tanaka Taro
Yeah, the color codes made it easy to tell who said what.
Bakyura
That's true,
Bakyura
now we can gang up on Kanra-san in more vibrant colors
Kanra
Vibrant!? Oh no, what is everyone going to do to me!?
Bakyura
Gang up on you and then abandon you and repeat for eternity.
The next day, noon, somewhere in Ikebukuro
Students in Raira uniforms were seen everywhere in the city on this sunny afternoon.
But as of now, only first-year students who got off their classes earlier than upper-class students were on their way home.
Among these uniformed students - Kururi and Mairu were walking on the street next to Sunshine City.
Apparently they had a destination in mind, but for some reason Mairu's feet were dragging.
"......Live (Cheer up)......"
"Hic....I'm sorry, I'm sorry~but Kuru-nee...I'm really devastated......"
Mairu was holding the entertainment section of today's paper in her hand.
The entire front page was devoted to "Hanejima Yuuhei & Hijiribe Ruri, Midnight Date of Passion......" in which was written how Mairu's favorite idol, Hanejima Yuuhei, was dating another top idol, Hijiribe Ruri, in private.
"Yuuhei-san......Yuuhei-san just became somebody else's......ahhh, had the name up there been 'Kururi' instead of 'Ruri' I would have been able to put up with it. Actually, I would be happy to see it! Why oh why! My heart is going to burst from the pain! My sadness is on the order of magnitude of Graham's number!"
By the way, Graham's number is the largest natural number that actually had any meaning on the Guinness Record. For anyone without the proper prerequisite knowledge it was a staggering number to even begin to understand.
It was impossible to tell whether her sister knew about Graham's number or not, but she seemed to understand just how shocked Mairu was.
Kururi stopped in her tracks at the middle of the sidewalk. Turning around, she covered her sister's lips forcefully with her own.
"Mmm......!"
Mairu's eyes popped wide like Aoba's did yesterday at the sudden turn of events.
......
Though taken aback by her sister's actions, Mairu began to embrace her older sister back with a tranced look on her face.
As if taking it for some sort of cue, Kururi broke the kiss and smiled at her younger sister and said:
"Alive (Are you all right now)?"
"Yeah! Never felt better! There's nothing better than the soft lips of a girl! Not to mention they were Kuru-nee's dreamy ones! Am I allowed to yell 'Yahoo~' now? Yahoo - ! Awesome - let's do it again! Again!"
The older sister's face fell immediately as her younger sister shook with joy and threatened to lose her balance.
"Shock (How disgusting.)"
"Ehhhhh......that's mean! That's just mean, Kuru-nee! Haven't we only just confirmed our love for each other? And why are you telling me I'm disgusting when you were the one who kissed a girl - who happened to be your own younger sister - in the first place? What was all that? Seductive seme!? Seducing me and then topping me!? What was all that? Let me think...for example! Kuru-nee is like Lode Runner and I'm like Wily Coyote!?"
Kururi sighed in confusion as her younger sister began to draw incomprehensible comparisons. She lowered her head and smiled again.
Right at that moment -
"Goodness~you two, did you have to put on that show for us in this broad daylight~?"
"Isn't it too aggressive? Two girls making out in the day?"
"AggresSIVE? * How disgusting."
* The "SIVE" part sounds the same as the Japanese word for "bitter".
"It turns me on just to watch, but how about you let us join too?"
"Why are two girls making out? Is it because you have no boyfriends?"
"How about we be your boyfriends?"
"But in exchange you'll have to tell us where the Black Motorbike is~"
The men who were walking towards Kururi and Mairu - and probably had noticed them since they saw them kissing from afar -
Looked like bousouzoku people in their striped tokko-fukus.
Right afterwards -
The twins were embroiled in the holiday happenings in the city called Ikebukuro.
END OF CHAPTER 3
♂♀
After school, stairway
A couple of hours had passed since the aforementioned incident.
"Tomorrow, after school...ah, something to look forward to."
Aoba was just finished with his club activities for the day when he received a message from Mikado telling him the time and place to meet for tomorrow's afternoon tour of Ikebukuro.
Anyway, better be going home now. As Aoba was walking towards the stairway however -
"Oy, you!"
A not-too-well-meaning voice sounded from behind.
Aoba turned to find several girls standing in front of him.
At the center was Tsukiyama, who was in his class and had just been to the teacher's office.
"Something wrong?"
Tsukiyama frowned at the boy who leaned his head sideways as he asked.
"You know very well what's wrong. What do you think you were doing, anyway?"
"What is this, a confession? How sweet but I'd be very troubled. There's no way I can go out with all of you at once..."
The other girls couldn't remain silent any longer at Aoba's airy joke.
"Are you dumb or what? What exactly were you thinking? Would a normal person just turn people in like that? You think it's fun to pretend you're on the side of justice or something?"
"If I were trying to be on the side of justice, I would have stopped you when you were at it. You guys aren't making sense."
"Then why did you turn us in all of a sudden?!"
"Well, it's not like you guys bothered to tape my mouth, is it? Frankly speaking, if I had to choose between your side and Miss Orihara's...not that I know either of you all that well, but, look, you write stuff on people's desks, while she's mature and wears a gym suit and has nice breasts and feels pretty mysterious...you know what I mean?"
"- Shut up! You - "
Just as the girls advanced towards Aoba -
Tsukiyama sensed something strange.
Her olfactory system was sending urgent alarms through her brain.
Something was burning.
"Ehh?"
- A fire?
The girl looked around frantically for the source of that strong burning smell.
But Aoba, standing opposite her, was the first to find it.
"Hey, your..."
"Ehh? ......Arrgh!"
Shocked to see that fumes were coming from the schoolbag on her shoulder, Tsukiyama screamed as she threw it away as far as possible.
Halfway the schoolbag burst into flames, and a fair amount of smoke was released from the hole where the schoolbag had just been burnt through -
The shrill sound of fire alarm on the ceiling began to echo throughout the school.
Later, all students at the scene of fire including Aoba were summoned to Student Affairs and talked to separately.
Aoba simply told everything as he saw it. However, his own schoolbag ended up going through inspection.
He had asked why inspection had been necessary - the teacher, who was hesitant at first, disclosed the reason and told him not to discuss it with anyone else.
Why the fire had suddenly erupted from Tsukiyama's schoolbag remained a mystery. But an inspection of the contents of the bag brought to attention several nutrient beverage bottles that apparently contained paint thinner.
What was more - similar bottles of paint thinner were found in the backpacks of the other girls who had been there talking to Aoba. Though the girls didn't admit it, the whole thing happened right after they had been called to the teacher's office.
"Honestly...first thing in high school they start trying out drugs? ...Well, guess it's not really a surprise if they're also a bunch of bullies. What a royal headache. They were picking on you for turning them in during homeroom, weren't they?"
"It definitely felt like they were."
"Well, I won't be surprised if they get suspended for a while. You never know how they're gonna get back at you...if they try anything, let me know right away."
Aoba ended up being the only one allowed to go home. He was just about to leave school when -
He saw two girls standing in front of the stairway, where some of the remains of the schoolbag could still be seen.
One of them was Kururi, still in that gymnastic suit, her schoolbag on her shoulder. The other was dressed in a way that contrasted with her - but other than the glasses, the girl looked exactly the same as Kururi.
"Yahoo! Good day to you! Or should I say good evening? Anyway, I've never met you before! I'm Orihara Mairu! Kuru-nee* is my older twin sister! Nice to meet you!"
Unlike her sister, the girl was rather chitty-chatty.
"Um, ni - nice to meet you too."
- These are some weird twins.
Aoba thought to himself as he replied. Kururi, who had been standing behind Mairu's back as if trying to hide, raised her face and said to Aoba,
"Thank (Thank you)."
"Hum?...Ah, you mean the thing during the homeroom? That was nothing. You don't need to thank me. I should have stopped them in the first place."
"Know (I knew that)."
"Eh?"
Mairu chirped in merrily as Aoba was taken aback.
"Oh that - actually, Kuru-nee was watching them from the hallway when they were at it! And, when you were talking to those girls a moment ago, Kuru-nee and I were also watching!"
"Huuuhhh?"
Aoba calmed down and tried to continue the conversation despite the fact that these girls had just declared themselves random stalkers.
"Well, in that case there's even less reason to thank me - "
"Kuru-nee was so happy when you said she was cuter than that girl called Tsukiyama! Look, Kuru-nee is the quiet liberal arts type but has to wear a gym suit all the time - people usually just find it weird, right? So Kuru-nee is actually really happy to hear that boys think she's cute!"
"Silent (Shut up)."
Kururi shushed her sister and took a step towards Aoba, her eyes still fixed on the ground.
She said only two words to the boy who was about the same height as she was.
"Indebted (For you)."
Raising her face and closing the distance, she covered Aoba's lips with her own.
- Hhhh?
Aoba's mind turned blank at the incomprehensible situation -
And could do nothing but look as Kururi, cheeks flushed, pulled herself away.
But the situation was just about to get even more incomprehensible -
As Kururi retreated back behind, Mairu stepped forward as if to take her sister's place and suddenly pulled Aoba into a powerful embrace followed by a deep kiss.
- !? - !? !? !?
The female and male roles looked decidedly reversed - an impression not helped at all by Aoba's rather childlike facial features.
Aoba's mind was again reduced to a state of blankness; as he stared at Mairu, however, the latter had already resumed her chirping without even blushing.
"Yay I did it! Indirect kiss with Kuru-nee! Heehee!"
She let go of Aoba and continued in a tone as if nothing had happened.
"Sorry! It's a little surprising to be treated like this by girls who aren't even your girlfriend, isn't it! But don't be fooled by Kuru-nee's looks, she's actually even more aggressive than I am!"
"Negative (That is not true)."
The younger of the twins pretended not to hear her sister, and instead began to whisper in Aoba's ear.
"Ah, forgot to say, if you fall for Kuru-nee sometime in the future, I won't let you have all of her! Because part of Kuru-nee is still mine! Also, for males, I will only go out with Hanejima Yuuhei-san! Ah, Kuru-nee is also a huge fan of Yuuhei-san, so I won't be surprised either if you aren't gonna get anything more than that kiss! Ahaha!"
"Hanejima Yuuhei...that idol?"
"Correct! Anything wrong with that?"
"No, not at all...I...um, what exactly am I supposed to do?"
In Gal-game jargon they would have called it a multi-flagging event. But Aoba's head was way too messed up to think of any of that - he tried to regain his composure anyway, and wondered aloud something completely unrelated to those kisses a moment ago.
"Um...right. It can't possibly have been...that those two...put um...certain stuff in Tsukiyama and the other girls' schoolbags...can it?"
He had asked the most important question of all. The girl - who just kissed a boy she had barely even known for three days, let alone gone out with - replied in a disappearing voice,
"Private (It's a secret)."
With a faint smile forming around her last syllables.
After the twins were gone, Aoba remained leaning onto the shoeboxes at the stairway entrance -
Until he hastened to dial a number of someone he knew on his cell phone as if something urgent had come to his mind.
"Ah, hello? It's me......"
"It looks like I'm now sort of the main character in some horribly made porn."
"Look...if I told you two girls, who were twins, had each kissed me once separately just now, would you believe that?"
"Eh? Yeah, they were cute. Kinda weird, but they looked really...um...cute."
"Why would you wanna kill me? Also I was gonna ask if I should feel led on or turned off...what would you suggest as an unpopular guy? ......Sorry, that was my bad...don't scrape the glass with your cell phone - uwahhhhhhh! S - T - O - P - !!"
♂♀
Night of the same day, Ikebukuro
"That's weird, Kuru-nee, I was sure that glider was headed this way! Ahhh, I hate it! I WANNA SEE I WANNA SEE I - WANNA - SEE - IT - !"
Mairu, who had just kissed that evening a boy she had only just met, was already talking in a loud voice as if she had forgotten about it. They were wearing somewhat strangely designed casual clothes which gave different impressions from their usual attire in the day.
"......"
Kururi, on the other hand, remained silent and looked around calmly.
They had been out on the streets after having watched the live report about the Black Motorbike when they got home from school.
The streets were crowded as ever, but once they wandered off the main road they found themselves in quiet and empty alleyways since it was not a holiday. Mairu was asking her sister with a puzzled look on her face:
"Why are we here? Shouldn't we be looking for the glider on the main street?"
Kururi ignored her sister and continued to observe her surroundings - until her gaze fell on a certain car parked on the roadside and she made straight for it.
"Here (It's here.)......"
Before she even finished talking, Kururi had bent over and reached for something under the car.
"Wahh, what are you doing, Kuru-nee?! Is that a ten-yen coin? Yipee! I get treated to a Umai-bou, don't I? I want the mentaiko flavor!"
She giggled as she continued to tease her sister -
But her sister had risen again holding something that had been dropped under the car.
"......? What is that?"
Mairu asked, surprised. Her sister had at last stopped ignoring her:
"Ago (Some time ago)...TV (on television)...monster (the Black Motorbike)...fell (dropped it)......"
"Ehh? You kidding me? Did he really drop this? I didn't notice at all!"
Mairu said in astonishment as she looked at the item in her sister's hand.
And what she saw was -
"What is this envelope?"
On the light-brown envelope was written "THANK YOU MS. CELTY STURLUSON" in Japanese.
It was surprisingly heavy, and from the touch of it they could only guess that a pile of paper was inside it.
Kururi had already had a hunch as to what it might be when she opened the envelope -
Her eyes popped and looked around wildly after she had seen the contents.
"What's wrong, Kuru-nee?"
As her younger sister was about to peek into the envelope as well -
Something had made its way into their peripheral vision. She turned sharply to face it -
It was standing in the Ikebukuro night.
A monster was standing there as if it were about to kidnap the sisters who had wandered into the godforsaken darkness by mistake.
The monster was tall, thin and very pale.
It hobbled and stumbled as it walked apparently without a destination in mind.
But it face was completely distorted with its nose being the most telltale part; scarlet blood trickled down from its eyes, ears, mouth and nose as it stumbled towards them like a zombie.
"Who (What is that?)......"
"Kuru-nee, get behind me."
Mairu had probably guessed that the monster was not an ordinary person.
She had got between the monster and her sister, shielding her sister with her body.
And - just as the monster was only several feet away from the reach of her back-kick -
The male fell forward on his bloody face, murmuring something.
"......What's with this guy? Should we call an ambulance?"
As he heard this -
The male raised his head and began to talk in trembling Japanese:
"Hospital...is...a little...bad for me...Miss...is there...cough..."
"Healthy (Are you all right?)"
The male coughed some blood before he rolled onto his back and continued in a disappearing voice:
"Sorry...I may not...be able to make it...before I die...there's something...I wanna ask you......"
"What what? This is a rare experience! Tell us what it is!"
"Do you know if...there's a Russian...sushi restaurant...nearby...somewhere......?"
♂♀
Ikebukuro, Sunshine 60 Street
Having bought a new attache case at a discount store, Shizuo walked along the street in a dignified manner.
"Still...wonder what was wrong with those robbers, Tom-san."
"There's no way I would know though..."
Shizuo's boss replied in a lazy tone as he reflected back on what happened earlier.
"Anyhow. Should we go check on them later? That white guy looked like he could die if we just leave him there."
"That filth robbed us, meaning he wanted us to starve to death. He was asking to be killed so he should have been ready to be dead."
"...You sure do speak pretty aggressively at times..."
Tom decided that saying anything more would very likely make himself a target. Wiping the cold sweat off his face, he sighed and looked up the next debt-collecting location.
Shizuo was actually a quiet person when he was not mad. However, now his mood was somewhere in-between.
Chances were that his rage at all that robber melodrama a moment ago hadn't properly subsided yet.
They were looking for a place to have some quick lunch before setting out for the next debt-collecting location when -
"SHI-ZU-O-san!"
A bouncy voice rang from behind as a girl flung herself onto Shizuo's back.
"......"
With an ambiguous expression that could have been either a troubled face or a wry smile -
Shizuo reached behind his back and grabbed the nape of her neck as you would a cat.
"Ayayayah! You'll stretch it, you'll stretch it! You'll stretch my clothes, Shizuo-san!"
"Mairu...what're you doing here so late in the night..."
Without putting the girl in question down to the ground, Shizuo saw that it was indeed the little sister of the guy he hated the most.
"I came to see Shizuo-san!"
"You're still after Kasuka anyway..."
"Yeah! But I also really like Shizuo-san! 'Cause you're strong!"
"...Well. You know I have no say over Kasuka's schedule. Seems like he's terribly popular these days."
Shizuo sighed in some sort of resignation and put Mairu down.
Now that he looked, Kururi could also be seen at a distance, her head tilted towards his direction.
"...For a moment I was freaked out thinking you were gonna lose it...really."
Shizuo scratched the back of his head as he turned to an awkwardly smiling Tom.
"Oh, that...I don't get mad as much when people are straightforward with me."
What Heiwajima Shizuo hated was the type of people who play with others' emotions by trapping them in an intricate maze of words.
Orihara Izaya was certainly top of that list. Although his sisters turned out little wackos like he was, they were much less complicated so Shizuo got mad at them only rarely.
Which was not to say never - but the twins adored him all the same, so there was no way Shizuo could actually hate them.
Except for when the girls reminded him of their older brother - which was still bound to infuriate him to a certain degree.
"Well, off the top of my head...if your brother would throw himself in front of a dump truck laughing, we can talk about introducing my brother to you. Speaking of which, I'm still kinda mad today, guess I should just go beat that Izaya bastard to death myself."
"If it's just Iza-nii, no problem no problem!"
Shizuo sighed again at Mairu's instant decision that her brother's life was a small price to pay.
Tom had half a mind to comment "I don't recall that you liked to sigh so much...?" but chose to remain silent in fear of waking the sleeping dog.
"Ah, right right, I'd love to talk to Shizuo-san some more but we have something to ask you!"
"Hum?"
"This! I think Iza-nii has taken us there before, but is there a Russian sushi bar somewhere on this street? I forgot how you get there!"
"Huh, you mean Simon's place? And don't call that louse Iza-nii, he's a louse."
The inquiry itself was a bit weird, but Shizuo still gave her the directions very carefully (though it only involved turning around one street corner anyway).
Meanwhile Tom looked at the other girl who was acting all timid and thought to himself, "Shizuo and an easily-scared high school girl...um, mismatch is the new match...? I don't know..."
As he saw the envelope in her hand, however, his eyes popped to the size of saucers.
From the half-opened envelope he could make out its contents - around a hundred 10,000-yen bandnotes.
Tom made sure nobody was in the vicinity as he approached her and lowered his voice.
"Hey, did you just walk here with that envelope in your hand?"
"......"
The girl hastened to close the envelope again, but Tom had already handed her the shopping bag he got from buying a clock at the discount store.
"It's at least better than nothing. Be careful not to drop it."
"Thank (Thank you)...plenty (very much)."
"No problem. I would've just thrown it away anyway."
By then Mairu was done hearing the directions and was coming to fetch Kururi's hand and afterwards went straight down the street.
"Thank you Shizuo-san! Good-bye!"
"Again (See you around).... Greet (Say hello)...Yuu (to Yuuhei-san)..."
Tom sighed heavily as he watched the two leave.
- What are they, first- or second-years at Raira? ...Walking around with that kind of money...
- What unspeakable things did they have to do to earn that ridiculous amount...?
After contemplating this for a while, he spoke to Shizuo.
"Kids these days are so open about that kind of stuff...well, I guess the power of money really is scary..."
"?"
"Not that we debt collectors for dating websites are the ones to talk...but still..."
Not realizing that he got something fundamentally wrong about these girls, Tom nodded softly in sympathy.
Seeing his boss like this made Shizuo think back on the encounter with Mairu, which somehow brought his own brother to his mind.
- Now that I remember, he did say he would be in Ikebukuro today.
- We live in the same town after all...a call once in a while shouldn't be a bad idea.
CHATROOM
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
Kyo
We're going somewhere special as well tonight. Do you know Russian Sushi? I heard it's an interesting place.
Mai
The sushi's good.
Tanaka Taro
Ah! I know Russian Sushi. It's where Simon-san works, right?
Bakyura
People running that restaurant are scary.
Kyo
Alas, now this is a coincidence...maybe we've already seen each other on the streets, close to Russian Sushi.
Mai
Passed each other by.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, I go to the bowling place next to that restaurant a lot.
Bakyura
I go to that Taiwanese place on the third floor quite often. Also that game center on the second floor.
Saika
Everyone seems to know a lot
Tanaka Taro
Hmm, but Kanra-san still knows the most, I think.
Kanra-san has joined the chat.
Kanra
Yahoo~good evening~
Kanra
Speaking of which, we have new members!
Tanaka Taro
Good evening~
Kyo
Ahh, long time no see, Kanra-san. I never expected that we would see you again in the online world before we see you in the real one! The Internet - it's a tool to distance people from others, and at the same time bring them closer......a tool of the future, I say.
Mai
Long time no see.
Bakyura
Evening~
Kanra
Um......a moment please.
[Private mode] Kanra
Kururi, Mairu, it's you two, isn't it
[Private mode] Kanra
How did you find this link?
[Private mode] Kyo
Namie-san gave us this link because she's warm and considerate like that, Izaya onii-sama.
[Private mode] Kanra
......So she's already been in contact with you......
[Private mode] Kanra
Anyway. You have to leave now for the day.
[Private mode] Kanra
I have a lot to teach you later, I see.
[Private mode] Kyo
I see, onii-sama. I look forward to hearing your voice in the real world.
Mai
Yes, we'll leave.
Tanaka Taro
?
[Private mode] Kanra
Use the private mode! No, actually...enough, just leave!
Kyo
Kanra-san doesn't like us, so we're leaving.
Kanra
Oi...wait a moment, maybe I overdid it but I was just kidding☆
Kyo
I hope Kanra-san feels better the next time we meet.
Saika
Quarreling is not good
Mai
Sorry.
Kanra
Ahhh! I said I was kidding! Don't get all wound up!
Kyo
Anyway, I wish everyone good luck.
Mai
Bye-bee.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, good night~
Kyo-san has left the chat.
Mai-san has left the chat.
Bakyura
Good night~but why did Mai-san use "Bye-bee"? w
Saika
Good night
Kanra
OK - ! Let's start again in refreshed spirits!
Tanaka Taro
Um, so who were those two people?
Kanra
If you think too much about them, you'll die!
Tanaka Taro
Die......?
Kanra
Anyway, don't mind them! Um...so......"
Kanra
Good evening everyone~this is Kanra~!
Tanaka Taro
Good evening.
Bakyura
Hi.
Saika
Good evening Nice to see you again
Kanra
Awesome awesome~☆is everyone getting used to the new chatroom?
Tanaka Taro
Yeah, the color codes made it easy to tell who said what.
Bakyura
That's true,
Bakyura
now we can gang up on Kanra-san in more vibrant colors
Kanra
Vibrant!? Oh no, what is everyone going to do to me!?
Bakyura
Gang up on you and then abandon you and repeat for eternity.
The next day, noon, somewhere in Ikebukuro
Students in Raira uniforms were seen everywhere in the city on this sunny afternoon.
But as of now, only first-year students who got off their classes earlier than upper-class students were on their way home.
Among these uniformed students - Kururi and Mairu were walking on the street next to Sunshine City.
Apparently they had a destination in mind, but for some reason Mairu's feet were dragging.
"......Live (Cheer up)......"
"Hic....I'm sorry, I'm sorry~but Kuru-nee...I'm really devastated......"
Mairu was holding the entertainment section of today's paper in her hand.
The entire front page was devoted to "Hanejima Yuuhei & Hijiribe Ruri, Midnight Date of Passion......" in which was written how Mairu's favorite idol, Hanejima Yuuhei, was dating another top idol, Hijiribe Ruri, in private.
"Yuuhei-san......Yuuhei-san just became somebody else's......ahhh, had the name up there been 'Kururi' instead of 'Ruri' I would have been able to put up with it. Actually, I would be happy to see it! Why oh why! My heart is going to burst from the pain! My sadness is on the order of magnitude of Graham's number!"
By the way, Graham's number is the largest natural number that actually had any meaning on the Guinness Record. For anyone without the proper prerequisite knowledge it was a staggering number to even begin to understand.
It was impossible to tell whether her sister knew about Graham's number or not, but she seemed to understand just how shocked Mairu was.
Kururi stopped in her tracks at the middle of the sidewalk. Turning around, she covered her sister's lips forcefully with her own.
"Mmm......!"
Mairu's eyes popped wide like Aoba's did yesterday at the sudden turn of events.
......
Though taken aback by her sister's actions, Mairu began to embrace her older sister back with a tranced look on her face.
As if taking it for some sort of cue, Kururi broke the kiss and smiled at her younger sister and said:
"Alive (Are you all right now)?"
"Yeah! Never felt better! There's nothing better than the soft lips of a girl! Not to mention they were Kuru-nee's dreamy ones! Am I allowed to yell 'Yahoo~' now? Yahoo - ! Awesome - let's do it again! Again!"
The older sister's face fell immediately as her younger sister shook with joy and threatened to lose her balance.
"Shock (How disgusting.)"
"Ehhhhh......that's mean! That's just mean, Kuru-nee! Haven't we only just confirmed our love for each other? And why are you telling me I'm disgusting when you were the one who kissed a girl - who happened to be your own younger sister - in the first place? What was all that? Seductive seme!? Seducing me and then topping me!? What was all that? Let me think...for example! Kuru-nee is like Lode Runner and I'm like Wily Coyote!?"
Kururi sighed in confusion as her younger sister began to draw incomprehensible comparisons. She lowered her head and smiled again.
Right at that moment -
"Goodness~you two, did you have to put on that show for us in this broad daylight~?"
"Isn't it too aggressive? Two girls making out in the day?"
"AggresSIVE? * How disgusting."
* The "SIVE" part sounds the same as the Japanese word for "bitter".
"It turns me on just to watch, but how about you let us join too?"
"Why are two girls making out? Is it because you have no boyfriends?"
"How about we be your boyfriends?"
"But in exchange you'll have to tell us where the Black Motorbike is~"
The men who were walking towards Kururi and Mairu - and probably had noticed them since they saw them kissing from afar -
Looked like bousouzoku people in their striped tokko-fukus.
Right afterwards -
The twins were embroiled in the holiday happenings in the city called Ikebukuro.
END OF CHAPTER 3