DURARARA!! Vol.5 CHAPTER 2, PART II
♂♀
An upscale apartment building on Kawagoe Highway
Sitting on the living room sofa, Shizuo drank tea from a stainless steel cup and tilted his head as he wondered aloud:
"Speaking of which, Shinra, do you always wear that white coat even when at home?"
Shinra, upon hearing that only-to-be-expected inquiry, straightened up proudly for some reason and replied:
"Ahh, that's because Celty always wears her black rider suit. If I'm dressed in the contrasting color, we'll be like light and shadow, won't we? On the surface light and shadow are polar opposites, yet like a pair of love birds they never appear without each other! In manga and movies they always go the Dark Side this and the Dark Side that, but that's just the Dark Side being royally tsundere. You can say that being tsundere is another form of being possessive but I won't mind at all if Celty wants to possess me bofuu!"
"Shut up."
All Shizuo did was flick his finger at the Shinra's forehead, yet the underground doctor felt like he had been hit by a bamboo katana.
"And you had the guts to say that you were the light? Next to Celty you're more like a Dark Side guy inside and out."
"If you know what a verbal comeback is, could you avoid using a physical one? Personally I find that better for the sake of world peace."
Tom, who had never met Shinra before, muttered to himself as he listened to the conversation:
"I see. He does sound like a freak……"
"What……what's with that confirming tone? Shizuo, what were you telling your colleagues about me!? ……Well whatever. If expressing my love for Celty makes me a freak, than a freak I shall be. Freakiness too will transform into love."
Shinra covered his swollen red forehead with his hand and repaced his breath -
"So, should we hear now what you have to say about the situation?"
His gaze fell on the little girl crouched up in a corner of the room.
"I had to let you bring her in since you said you'd explain once we were inside, but I don't think I can watch any longer with indifference. See how scared she is?"
Shinra exhaled deeply and scrutinized Shizuo with dead serious eyes:
"Why did you kidnap her?"
"We didn't."
Tom was the one to reply almost immediately.
He must have kept track of Shizuo's mood and was therefore trying to stabilize him by quickly answering the question for him. It worked: protruding veins were already visible on Shizuo's face but they were going back to normal.
The man named Tom continued to give Shizuo looks meant to forestall his anger as he proceeded to tell Shinra - who was just beginning to realize how close he was to being killed - exactly what had happened.
♂♀
30 minutes ago, Sunshine 60 Street
"Die!"
- Argh?
Shizuo, being tall, was not able to catch what the little girl had said while flying straight towards him.
Tom did, however, as he followed Shizuo out of the restaurant; his expression immediately changed to one of disbelief as he began to question his own hearing.
Unfortunately, there was nothing wrong with Tom's ears. The little girl kept smiling while pressing something she had been holding tightly in her hands to Shizuo's waist.
And then Tom saw it.
White-blue sparks splattered from Shizuo's waist accompanied by a fierce sizzling, crackling noise.
"Ouch, 'hat hurts!"
Shizuo groaned slightly and pushed the girl's hand away from his abdomen.
"Ahhh!"
A rectangular piece of instrument that looked like a transceiver rolled off the girl's hands.
Shizuo had not the least idea what had just happened; therefore he did not "get mad" right away.
He picked up the "thing" the little girl had just dropped onto the ground and looked at it closely.
The black rectangular item looked like some sort of walkie-talkie or emergency light.
"……That hurt a lot…..what the hell? What's this?"
Shizuo saw something that looked like a switch and tried pushing it -
A sizzling, crackling noise filled the air as white-blue sparks splattered from the metal part located at the front of the instrument.
"What's this? A stun gun?"
But even then it was still hard for Shizuo to associate stun guns with elementary school girls. He stood there a few minutes longer and pondered this over -
"Oi, Shizuo……"
- Until Tom's voice dragged him back to reality from behind.
He looked around and noticed something: passers-by had stopped in their tracks and watched him in silence from afar.
He had a stun gun in his hand.
And a little girl crouching down at his feet.
His brain finally began to register what kind of situation he was in when one of the onlookers started to run towards the police officer standing close to the the game arcade.
"God, we're in trouble. It's the same cop who came to arrest the shoplifter."
Tom was able to analyze the situation in a second and grasp Shizuo's shoulder with force.
"Just run for now. We won't have the time to explain."
With that, Tom began running at a godly speed he had came to acquire in his time working with Shizuo.
"……Eh, ehhh - ?"
Having completely missed his chance of "getting mad", Shizuo muttered blankly and instead began to run after Tom without the slightest idea what he was doing.
Things should have ended with the mysterious little girl finding herself under the protection of the police while Tom and Shizuo fled the scene -
But Shizuo, still running, suddenly felt some additional weight on his back.
He kept running and turned around - and saw strands of hair flying in the wind in his lower peripheral vision.
Shizuo's absurd power made it take more time for the realization come to him than it would an average human -
The little girl had at some point grabbed onto Shizuo's back and belt. He had effectively been taking her with him on his back all the while when he had been running.
"You can't……run away……die……die……!"
The little girl hung on to Shizuo as if her life depended on it and muttered ferociously.
It was simply impossible for Shizuo to understand what she was saying.
He just couldn't get why such a little girl would want to kill him.
He had been shot on one occasion before; back then he had missed his chance to "get mad" since it didn't occur to him in time that the shot had been "unfriendly fire". Now the same thing was happening again.
"Tom-sempai, what should we do about this kid?"
Shizuo asked as he kept running. Tom glanced at the girl on Shizuo's back and couldn't help yelping "Uwahh, we're in real trouble now!". He calmed down immediately, however, and asked Shizuo:
"Anyway, are there any friends of yours living nearby!? We'll be find out in no time on the streets!"
"What about the office building?"
"We can't afford involving our company in this! Ah right, how about your brother's home?"
"There are always reporters for magazines and the like waiting outside his home."
Another face came to Shizuo's mind as he said this.
"……If it's just an underground doctor, then we probably can afford involving him, right?"
♂♀
"I see. Anyway……I have only one thing to say to you."
After he had heard Tom tell the entire story, Shinra stared at Shizuo with a serious face and inquired solemnly:
"Why did you kidnap her!"
Crack.
There was a weird noise. As Shinra blinked and looked at Shizuo again, he found Shizuo's fist tightly closed.
Nonsensical as it would sound, the steel cup he had been holding was nowhere to be found.
Except that it was found a a moment later.
As Shizuo showed his palm again, there was a ball sitting on it made of what looked like aluminum foil, which had only seconds ago been a cup.
"Sorry, I'll pay for the repair."
"……That's alright. I was meaning to buy new ones anyway."
"No, I don't want to trash the work of the maker of this cup."
"Hmm. It would be nice if you saved this modesty for the guardrails and street lamps you trash on a regular basis. But I need to apologize with all my heart to you. Sorry. Nah, how would you ever bother to kidnap anyone? With your power it would be much faster to go to a bank and tear down the door of its vault if you wanted the money. Kidnapping would be way too slow for you."
Cold sweat seeped out of Shinra's back as he darted his gaze towards the corner of the room, where the little girl was shaking harder than ever.
"So you ended up not getting any useful information from this kid?"
"She began to shudder and stuff. Even if she used this toy on me it would have been too much to start interrogating her."
Shinra took the stun gun from Shizuo's hand and muttered as if relieved:
"Good. Good to hear that you still have a human heart after all. If you began using violence on even such a little kid there would have been no chance left for your soul."
Shinra walked towards the girl and slowly bent his knees to crouch down and meet her gaze.
"Are you alright? You can feel safe now. Must have been hard for you, getting dragged around by such scary big guys. I assure you I'm a lover of peace unlike that humanoid weapon over there."
"Calm down, we have a kid here, remember? Remember?" - Shinra heard Tom's voice warning Shizuo coming from behind. He smiled to the little girl -
"…………"
The little girl didn't say anything but stare at Shinra's face with unwinking eyes.
She appeared decidedly tough, but her body was shaking harder and harder.
She had no intention to run; yet, despite the fact that she kept telling Shizuo to "Die", she did attack either.
"…………"
From her attitude Shinra sensed that something about her was not right. He pressed his palm to her forehead and felt her temperature.
The underground doctor's face immediately changed; with a serious expression he began to give orders out to the duo.
"There are guest towels in the drawers in the innermost room. Get them for me!"
"?"
"This kid has a terrible fever! Boil some water, now!"
The air in the apartment went tense at Shinra's words.
The little girl also seemed to be sensing something from Shinra's attitude - her highly wound-up nerves finally relaxed, her body allowed itself to give away, and her consciousness was gone.
♂♀
30 minutes later
Shinra made sure that the girl was safe and sound in the bed in the innermost room before finally exhaling in relief.
Nothing had suggested that she was ill; her heat was probably a result of her extreme pressure. But he still had to be careful.
Shinra stood in front of the hidden cabinet in his home and examined the prohibited drugs inside as he looked for a solution - until his attention was drawn to the weight in his pocket again and he took the item out.
It was the stun gun Shizuo had thrown into his hands earlier -
As soon as Shinra tried switching it on, white-blue sparks splattered from the stun gun and a crackling sound filled the room as currents shot through the air.
The stun gun had apparently been modified. Shinra watched its sparks intently and thought back on what Tom had told him.
"……This has obviously been modified to produce more intense currents."
"……And all he felt was 'Ouch, 'hat hurts' when she used this on him……? I feel like it won't be too long before he becomes a real monster."
♂♀
Night of May 3rd, a street in Ikebukuro
- This is bad.
Celty Sturluson sighed as she considered her future plans.
- I got a pretty troublesome job to do this time.
Apparently, the job Shiki had just given Celty was enough to make her entire aura seem darker than usual.
The motorbike without a headlight neighed from its engine as she stopped in front of a red light.
- Thank you, Shooter.
Celty stroked her partner's handle and broke into a smile in her heart.
- ……Speaking of which, this job may keep me away from home for a few days to come.
- Should I try to contact Shinra right now?
- Or should I go back home and explain everything first……
She saw the traffic light turn red at the crossing in front of her as these thoughts raced on her mind.
So Celty simply waited for the light to turn green for her on the left side of the two-lane road and was about to let Shooter charge forwards when -
In the exact second before the traffic light turned green, she sensed another motorbike stopping right behind her.
Celty couldn't help but shudder thinking it was the White Motorbike, which was always on her tail - but as she turned around she saw a pretty ordinary motorbike instead of a white one.
The rider was wearing a full-face helmet and dressed in a black rider suit just like Celty was.
It looked like he or she was no more than a typical motorbike rider and not someone that warranted extra caution on Celty's part -
But in Celty's sense of vision, there was a strange flicker.
- ?
Before she could realize what that flicker was, Celty's spinal reflex had reacted to the green light and started the engine.
"Good evening, Knight Halloween."
In that second - the rider behind her muttered.
In a voice only Celty's sense of hearing would have been able to catch.
It was probably a whisper for the rider's own ears and not really meant to be heard.
Celty had no idea what the sentence had meant. She kept accelerating on her motorbike -
"For kid's play, time is over. Pity, pity."
As the rider kept whispering as if to no one else -
Celty felt a sudden rush of impact on her upper body -
Before she could realize what had happened, her body was already crashing onto the asphalt.
- "The job for you this time is to be a bodyguard."
What Shiki had said in the day came back to Celty's mind before the dull pain could register.
- "Though we have no idea where to look……"
- "But I hope you can help us find this person, and protect her without letting her know it."
It sounded ominous to her from the start that Shiki had to entrust a bodyguard job with her.
But there was no way she could turn it down, either.
- "……There's a possibility that someone will try to murder her. But we can't tell you the details regarding that……"
- "The person we want you to bodyguard is the one in this photo."
Shiki had produced a photo for her to see.
It was the photo of a girl about ten years old.
Though her expression was somewhat cloudy, she still looked pretty happy on the photo.
- "Her name is Awakusu Akane."
- "The granddaughter of our 'Manager'."
- "She has run away from home apparently because she didn't like the business we actually were running."
- I can't really say I like it either.
Celty groaned as she felt the pain from all over her body. Her worst premonition had turned out to be true.
She still had no idea what was going on.
But she knew that she had been attacked. And that was enough.
Because she had confirmed two important facts.
The first was that her helmet had been sent flying into the air upon that impact.
The other was that she was already knee deep in something highly perilous.
And with that, Celty, the most surreal being of them all -
Was embroiled, against her will, in the reality humans had created.
Night of May 3rd, CHATROOM
Tanaka Taro-san has joined the chat.
Tanaka Taro
Good evening.
Tanaka Taro
Looks like no one's online - . Is everyone out having fun?
Tanaka Taro
I thought I got here pretty late today. But no one's online, not even Setton-san……
Kyo-san has joined the chat.
Mai-san has joined the chat.
Mai
Good evening.
Kyo
I bid you good day, Taro-sama. The fact that you're spending your first day of the Golden Week in the chatroom makes me feel a little sympathy for your solitude. But then, in the cyberspace there is no distinction between holidays and workdays, day and night. No one is going to punish you for this. If you do wish to be punished, however, I would be more than willing to do it with words. Behold, this will be the moment you either prove yourself a true sadist or a true masochist!
Tanaka Taro
Ah, good evening.
Tanaka Taro
I see you haven't changed.
Kyo
This will be the moment!
Tanaka Taro
Why did you have to say it twice!?
Mai
Sorry.
Tanaka Taro
Mai-san, you have nothing to apologize to me for.
Saika-san has joined the chat.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, good evening~
Mai
Good evening.
Kyo
Alas, yet another holiday wanderer without a home for the heart? Shutting yourself in during holidays can be lethal. It's a common superstition that rabbits die from loneliness, but you realize that humans can die from loneliness, right?
Saika
I'm sorry
Tanaka Taro
Why are you apologizing, Saika-san? lol
Kyo
……I don't know how to react when you apologize so sincerely.
Tanaka Taro
Sincerely? But there was nothing to apologize for in the first place.
Saika
I'm sorry
Tanaka Taro
Why are you apologizing again!?
Tanaka Taro
Speaking of which, what about Kyo-san?
Tanaka Taro
Aren't you chatting here as well?
Kyo
Don't you worry about me. Mai and I were enjoying the times of our lives on the Ikebukuro streets the entire day today. We ate every kind of dumplings they had to offer at the Dumplings Stadium in Namja Town and shopped like crazy at World Import Mart and Alpa. Then we witnessed a kickass scene on 60-Story Street where a handsome young man took down a shoplifter. It was an awesome day.
Mai
The dumplings were delicious.
Tanaka Taro
A shoplifter? Was there a commotion?
Tanaka Taro
……You said 60-Story Street, right? Was it a black man who works as a hawker for a sushi restaurant or a man in a bartender suit?
Kyo
Alas.
Mai
Shizuo-san.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, you know Shizuo-san?
Kyo
How rude of me to have written such a short reply. But really, Tanaka Taro-san, I had imagined you to be a meek human being who wouldn't even kill a mosquito from the way you talked in the chatroom. To think that you know Shizuo-san! You must be a terribly social person. Is it even possible that in reality you're a huge guy with tattoos, scars and steely muscles all over your body? Or someone who sells dangerous drugs for a living?
Saika
Is it Heiwajima-san
Tanaka Taro
Sorry, I can't type fast enough to point out all that's wrong with what you said.
Tanaka Taro
Eh, even Saika-san knows him?
Saika
Just a little
Saika
I'm sorry
Tanaka Taro
Why are you apologizing lol
Kyo
Too bad the man I saw today wasn't Shizuo-san. It was a playboy-ish man with an eye mask and bandages over his face. He wasn't the feminine sort of pretty boy - he's a handsome man with just the right amount of muscles.
Mai
And a throng of girls at his heel.
Mai
So jealous.
Tanaka Taro
That certainly would make one jealous. But he must have been something if he could take down the shoplifter like a cop.
Kyo
Speaking of cops, we saw something interesting on the nightly street just now.
Tanaka Taro
What was it?
Kyo
A lot of people were having a gathering near the overpass. It was crowded. There were at least several scores of men. There wasn't enough space on the overpass so some had to gather under it as if it were some sort of pushing game.
Mai
It was so crowded I could cry.
Tanaka Taro
Really?
Kyo
I figured it was a bousouzoku gathering or something of that sort……speaking of which, does everyone here know about Dollars? It's said that it's an evil dark organization insidiously taking over Ikebukuro. Apparently its members are all fearsome characters making it worthy of being called the Flower Bed of Evil.
Mai
Dollars.
Tanaka Taro
Well, I've heard of it.
Saika
I don't really know a lot about it
Kyo
The name Dollars, some say, is short for "dishonored lovers". Others say it stands for "people who are only worth one dollar", "the organization of folks who would kill for one dollar", "gang of Daidarabotchis*", and many more. In short, it's a mysterious team! I heard it's like a Color Gang, except that it doesn't have a color. It's a gang of lunatics who blend themselves into the city before anyone can take notice!
* Daidarabotchi: a gigantic demon in Japanese mythology.
Mai
It's awesome.
Tanaka Taro
How is it a gang of lunatics?
Kyo
There's no other way to call it. It doesn't even look like it has a purpose. Had it been a typical Color Gang, people would have assumed it was a gang meant to channel destructive energy on the streets. Even if they were mere goons for money under violence organizations people would have been more sure of their identity and presence. But Dollars is none of these.
Mai
What is it?
Tanaka Taro
You're thinking too much into it.
Kyo
Dollars has no actual structure. They don't even know who the other Dollars are. A student on the street or a housewife you happen to pass by may be one of them. Even your schoolmate talking to you casually on the street could turn out to be a Dollars member……honestly, no one knows how many members it has.
Tanaka Taro
You're right about that.
Tanaka Taro
But it could also be as innocent as an extracurricular club, right? I feel like it's just a group of people calling themselves members because they wanted some sort of identity. It's like calling yourself a Saitaman or city folk.
Kyo
That's kind of overstretching the concept. You're a Dollars member from the moment you identify yourself as such. Even if it's online only, they do have an Internet-based community to exchange information. Their network is loose, but they are tied to each other with the common identity as Dollars members. Doesn't that sound scary to you at all?
Mai
That's scary.
Tanaka Taro
Why is that scary?
Kyo
It's like - say - having surveillance cameras in the form of human eyes everywhere on the streets. The only difference is that these surveillance cameras are capable of thinking. The ones under such surveillance have no way to know whether they are being "shot" or not. If you happened to have done something indecent on the street, it would be like exposing your weakness to Dollars itself through its members' eyes.
Mai
It's scary.
Tanaka Taro
You're thinking too much into it. I don't think it's like that.
Kyo
……Why is Tanaka Taro-san defending Dollars, a mere Color Gang, as if your life depended on it? I won't dig deeper into that now, but can you really say for sure that Dollars won't try to take advantage of others' weaknesses? It's a Color Gang after all. Those gangs are antisocial to begin with.
Mai
Gangs are horrible.
Tanaka Taro
That's true, but…
Mai
That hurts.
Mai
I was pinched.
Tanaka Taro
But I hear that even though they are a Color Gang, they're just a group of people who gathered because they were intrigued by the idea floating on the Internet, right? They do have offline meetings and stuff, but I don't think they're capable of much havoc.
Kyo
Then I'll ask you again.
Kyo
Can you say for sure that things are the way you think they are?
Kyo
If you were a Dollars member, you'd probably not be so sure that others would not do such things just because you wouldn't. There are so many of them in Dollars, and if what I heard is true, they have hardly even met each other in real life. ……If all these are true, it's hardly going to surprise anyone if it turns out that some people have already committed crimes in the name of Dollars, right?
Tanaka Taro
That's true.
Saika
Um
Saika
Please do not fight
Tanaka Taro
Ah, no, we're not fighting, Saika-san lol
Kyo
I don't think I'm fighting either. Personally I don't harbor any grudge or animosity towards the individual called Tanaka Taro. On the contrary, I'm pretty fond of you as a chartroom pal. I want to kiss you. CHU!
Mai
Sick.
Mai
That hurts.
Mai
I was pinched again.
Saika
I'm sorry
Tanaka Taro
That's why I asked why you were apologizing, Saika-san lol
Tanaka Taro
Anyway, anyway. I'm not saying that I think such things are impossible. But it's also true that there has been no news about Dollars members taking part in gang violence or other horrible stuff in Ikebukuro. The worst they do is probably the kind of individual fighting you see everywhere on the streets.
Kyo
That's not necessarily the truth. Their vortex of lunacy is going to keep rotating on the Ikebukuro streets. Centrifugal forces are bound to push the lighter ones of inferior quality to the outer layer of the vortex, aren't they?
Mai
Clunk clunk pop~
Kyo
It looks like some Dollars members have been picking fights outside of Tokyo. In fact, it was more like they were just beating people up. They punched their opponent's heads - as if they were hard-selling violence - and kept swinging fists at them regardless of whether they tried to fight back or not until they could no longer move. To think how horrible that must have looked.
Tanaka Taro
Eh?
Mai
I heard too.
Mai
There are people in Saitama
Mai
Who were attacked by Dollars members.
Tanaka Taro
Did you really?
Tanaka Taro
Where did you get this information from?
Kyo
Are you aware of the existence of Pacry*, the social networking system?
* Just like the Dollars website and chatrooms, a real-life version of Pacry has been created by fans at http://pacry.sns-park.com/
Tanaka Taro
I'm actually kind of already a member.
Kyo
How lucky for you! Unlike mixi, it has an open policy allowing you to apply for membership on your own. Even if you don't have friends who will send you an invitation, you can still register there. Oops, I'm sorry. I did not mean to imply that Tanaka Taro-san strikes me as someone who doesn't have many friends. That's a judgment I will have to postpone till I've observed you long enough. Speaking of which, I'm not allowed to register at mixi yet because I'm not old enough.
Tanaka Taro
Sorry, where on Pacry did you find…?
Kyo
Ahh! I'm so sorry! I get carried away every time I begin to talk!
Kyo
You can start from searching for communities on "Saitama bousouzoku problem" in Pacry.
Tanaka Taro
I'll do that.
Kyo
There should be a thread titled "About Dollars" in that board. That's where I got my information from. If they turn out to be baseless rumors I would have been giving Taro-san unnecessary trouble.
Kyo
If that's indeed the case, I will without hesitation apologize and ask for your forgiveness. To make up for my sins I will give you my body and heart……my body is but second-rate, so I don't know how satisfactory a compensation you'll find that to be. But I'll be immensely honored and pleased to be able to offer you even a tiny bit of consolation.
Mai
Dirty.
Tanaka Taro
I'll go check that out.
Kyo
Am I being ignored? I sense these thoughts of solitude wrapping themselves around my body. Please be sure to take up the responsibility.
Mai
Dirty.
Kyo
Self-proclaimed Dollars members were picking on the bousouzoku in Saitama. If this was part of somebody's master plan, I think it's adequate to say that it shows the downside of not having a gang color. Anyone can shift the blame on Dollars as long as he or she claims to be a member.
Saika
Scary
Tanaka Taro
Sorry, I checked out that thread.
Tanaka Taro
I have some stuff to do tonight, so I'll excuse myself if you don't mind.
Kyo
Ah, then we'll call it a day as well.
Saika
Good night
Tanaka Taro
Thank you so much.
Tanaka Taro
Also I'm really sorry, Kyo-san. I might have said things that offended you.
Kyo
Not at all, not at all. Please don't mind.
Tanaka Taro
Thank you.
Tanaka Taro
I'm leaving then.
Tanaka Taro
That was a good chat -
Tanaka Taro-san has left the chat.
Kyo
So, everyone, since it's only the beginning of the Golden Week, watch out for yourselves and try to have as much fun as you can……speaking of which, Setton-san, Kanra-san and Bakyura-san are all absent today.
Mai
Goodbye to you.
Kyo-san has left the chat.
Mai-san has left the chat.
Saika
Good night
Saika
Sorry
Saika
Looks like I missed them
Saika-san has left the chat.
No one is in the chatroom right now.
No one is in the chatroom right now.
No one is in the chatroom right now.
.
.
.
.
.
END OF CHAPTER 2
An upscale apartment building on Kawagoe Highway
Sitting on the living room sofa, Shizuo drank tea from a stainless steel cup and tilted his head as he wondered aloud:
"Speaking of which, Shinra, do you always wear that white coat even when at home?"
Shinra, upon hearing that only-to-be-expected inquiry, straightened up proudly for some reason and replied:
"Ahh, that's because Celty always wears her black rider suit. If I'm dressed in the contrasting color, we'll be like light and shadow, won't we? On the surface light and shadow are polar opposites, yet like a pair of love birds they never appear without each other! In manga and movies they always go the Dark Side this and the Dark Side that, but that's just the Dark Side being royally tsundere. You can say that being tsundere is another form of being possessive but I won't mind at all if Celty wants to possess me bofuu!"
"Shut up."
All Shizuo did was flick his finger at the Shinra's forehead, yet the underground doctor felt like he had been hit by a bamboo katana.
"And you had the guts to say that you were the light? Next to Celty you're more like a Dark Side guy inside and out."
"If you know what a verbal comeback is, could you avoid using a physical one? Personally I find that better for the sake of world peace."
Tom, who had never met Shinra before, muttered to himself as he listened to the conversation:
"I see. He does sound like a freak……"
"What……what's with that confirming tone? Shizuo, what were you telling your colleagues about me!? ……Well whatever. If expressing my love for Celty makes me a freak, than a freak I shall be. Freakiness too will transform into love."
Shinra covered his swollen red forehead with his hand and repaced his breath -
"So, should we hear now what you have to say about the situation?"
His gaze fell on the little girl crouched up in a corner of the room.
"I had to let you bring her in since you said you'd explain once we were inside, but I don't think I can watch any longer with indifference. See how scared she is?"
Shinra exhaled deeply and scrutinized Shizuo with dead serious eyes:
"Why did you kidnap her?"
"We didn't."
Tom was the one to reply almost immediately.
He must have kept track of Shizuo's mood and was therefore trying to stabilize him by quickly answering the question for him. It worked: protruding veins were already visible on Shizuo's face but they were going back to normal.
The man named Tom continued to give Shizuo looks meant to forestall his anger as he proceeded to tell Shinra - who was just beginning to realize how close he was to being killed - exactly what had happened.
♂♀
30 minutes ago, Sunshine 60 Street
"Die!"
- Argh?
Shizuo, being tall, was not able to catch what the little girl had said while flying straight towards him.
Tom did, however, as he followed Shizuo out of the restaurant; his expression immediately changed to one of disbelief as he began to question his own hearing.
Unfortunately, there was nothing wrong with Tom's ears. The little girl kept smiling while pressing something she had been holding tightly in her hands to Shizuo's waist.
And then Tom saw it.
White-blue sparks splattered from Shizuo's waist accompanied by a fierce sizzling, crackling noise.
"Ouch, 'hat hurts!"
Shizuo groaned slightly and pushed the girl's hand away from his abdomen.
"Ahhh!"
A rectangular piece of instrument that looked like a transceiver rolled off the girl's hands.
Shizuo had not the least idea what had just happened; therefore he did not "get mad" right away.
He picked up the "thing" the little girl had just dropped onto the ground and looked at it closely.
The black rectangular item looked like some sort of walkie-talkie or emergency light.
"……That hurt a lot…..what the hell? What's this?"
Shizuo saw something that looked like a switch and tried pushing it -
A sizzling, crackling noise filled the air as white-blue sparks splattered from the metal part located at the front of the instrument.
"What's this? A stun gun?"
But even then it was still hard for Shizuo to associate stun guns with elementary school girls. He stood there a few minutes longer and pondered this over -
"Oi, Shizuo……"
- Until Tom's voice dragged him back to reality from behind.
He looked around and noticed something: passers-by had stopped in their tracks and watched him in silence from afar.
He had a stun gun in his hand.
And a little girl crouching down at his feet.
His brain finally began to register what kind of situation he was in when one of the onlookers started to run towards the police officer standing close to the the game arcade.
"God, we're in trouble. It's the same cop who came to arrest the shoplifter."
Tom was able to analyze the situation in a second and grasp Shizuo's shoulder with force.
"Just run for now. We won't have the time to explain."
With that, Tom began running at a godly speed he had came to acquire in his time working with Shizuo.
"……Eh, ehhh - ?"
Having completely missed his chance of "getting mad", Shizuo muttered blankly and instead began to run after Tom without the slightest idea what he was doing.
Things should have ended with the mysterious little girl finding herself under the protection of the police while Tom and Shizuo fled the scene -
But Shizuo, still running, suddenly felt some additional weight on his back.
He kept running and turned around - and saw strands of hair flying in the wind in his lower peripheral vision.
Shizuo's absurd power made it take more time for the realization come to him than it would an average human -
The little girl had at some point grabbed onto Shizuo's back and belt. He had effectively been taking her with him on his back all the while when he had been running.
"You can't……run away……die……die……!"
The little girl hung on to Shizuo as if her life depended on it and muttered ferociously.
It was simply impossible for Shizuo to understand what she was saying.
He just couldn't get why such a little girl would want to kill him.
He had been shot on one occasion before; back then he had missed his chance to "get mad" since it didn't occur to him in time that the shot had been "unfriendly fire". Now the same thing was happening again.
"Tom-sempai, what should we do about this kid?"
Shizuo asked as he kept running. Tom glanced at the girl on Shizuo's back and couldn't help yelping "Uwahh, we're in real trouble now!". He calmed down immediately, however, and asked Shizuo:
"Anyway, are there any friends of yours living nearby!? We'll be find out in no time on the streets!"
"What about the office building?"
"We can't afford involving our company in this! Ah right, how about your brother's home?"
"There are always reporters for magazines and the like waiting outside his home."
Another face came to Shizuo's mind as he said this.
"……If it's just an underground doctor, then we probably can afford involving him, right?"
♂♀
"I see. Anyway……I have only one thing to say to you."
After he had heard Tom tell the entire story, Shinra stared at Shizuo with a serious face and inquired solemnly:
"Why did you kidnap her!"
Crack.
There was a weird noise. As Shinra blinked and looked at Shizuo again, he found Shizuo's fist tightly closed.
Nonsensical as it would sound, the steel cup he had been holding was nowhere to be found.
Except that it was found a a moment later.
As Shizuo showed his palm again, there was a ball sitting on it made of what looked like aluminum foil, which had only seconds ago been a cup.
"Sorry, I'll pay for the repair."
"……That's alright. I was meaning to buy new ones anyway."
"No, I don't want to trash the work of the maker of this cup."
"Hmm. It would be nice if you saved this modesty for the guardrails and street lamps you trash on a regular basis. But I need to apologize with all my heart to you. Sorry. Nah, how would you ever bother to kidnap anyone? With your power it would be much faster to go to a bank and tear down the door of its vault if you wanted the money. Kidnapping would be way too slow for you."
Cold sweat seeped out of Shinra's back as he darted his gaze towards the corner of the room, where the little girl was shaking harder than ever.
"So you ended up not getting any useful information from this kid?"
"She began to shudder and stuff. Even if she used this toy on me it would have been too much to start interrogating her."
Shinra took the stun gun from Shizuo's hand and muttered as if relieved:
"Good. Good to hear that you still have a human heart after all. If you began using violence on even such a little kid there would have been no chance left for your soul."
Shinra walked towards the girl and slowly bent his knees to crouch down and meet her gaze.
"Are you alright? You can feel safe now. Must have been hard for you, getting dragged around by such scary big guys. I assure you I'm a lover of peace unlike that humanoid weapon over there."
"Calm down, we have a kid here, remember? Remember?" - Shinra heard Tom's voice warning Shizuo coming from behind. He smiled to the little girl -
"…………"
The little girl didn't say anything but stare at Shinra's face with unwinking eyes.
She appeared decidedly tough, but her body was shaking harder and harder.
She had no intention to run; yet, despite the fact that she kept telling Shizuo to "Die", she did attack either.
"…………"
From her attitude Shinra sensed that something about her was not right. He pressed his palm to her forehead and felt her temperature.
The underground doctor's face immediately changed; with a serious expression he began to give orders out to the duo.
"There are guest towels in the drawers in the innermost room. Get them for me!"
"?"
"This kid has a terrible fever! Boil some water, now!"
The air in the apartment went tense at Shinra's words.
The little girl also seemed to be sensing something from Shinra's attitude - her highly wound-up nerves finally relaxed, her body allowed itself to give away, and her consciousness was gone.
♂♀
30 minutes later
Shinra made sure that the girl was safe and sound in the bed in the innermost room before finally exhaling in relief.
Nothing had suggested that she was ill; her heat was probably a result of her extreme pressure. But he still had to be careful.
Shinra stood in front of the hidden cabinet in his home and examined the prohibited drugs inside as he looked for a solution - until his attention was drawn to the weight in his pocket again and he took the item out.
It was the stun gun Shizuo had thrown into his hands earlier -
As soon as Shinra tried switching it on, white-blue sparks splattered from the stun gun and a crackling sound filled the room as currents shot through the air.
The stun gun had apparently been modified. Shinra watched its sparks intently and thought back on what Tom had told him.
"……This has obviously been modified to produce more intense currents."
"……And all he felt was 'Ouch, 'hat hurts' when she used this on him……? I feel like it won't be too long before he becomes a real monster."
♂♀
Night of May 3rd, a street in Ikebukuro
- This is bad.
Celty Sturluson sighed as she considered her future plans.
- I got a pretty troublesome job to do this time.
Apparently, the job Shiki had just given Celty was enough to make her entire aura seem darker than usual.
The motorbike without a headlight neighed from its engine as she stopped in front of a red light.
- Thank you, Shooter.
Celty stroked her partner's handle and broke into a smile in her heart.
- ……Speaking of which, this job may keep me away from home for a few days to come.
- Should I try to contact Shinra right now?
- Or should I go back home and explain everything first……
She saw the traffic light turn red at the crossing in front of her as these thoughts raced on her mind.
So Celty simply waited for the light to turn green for her on the left side of the two-lane road and was about to let Shooter charge forwards when -
In the exact second before the traffic light turned green, she sensed another motorbike stopping right behind her.
Celty couldn't help but shudder thinking it was the White Motorbike, which was always on her tail - but as she turned around she saw a pretty ordinary motorbike instead of a white one.
The rider was wearing a full-face helmet and dressed in a black rider suit just like Celty was.
It looked like he or she was no more than a typical motorbike rider and not someone that warranted extra caution on Celty's part -
But in Celty's sense of vision, there was a strange flicker.
- ?
Before she could realize what that flicker was, Celty's spinal reflex had reacted to the green light and started the engine.
"Good evening, Knight Halloween."
In that second - the rider behind her muttered.
In a voice only Celty's sense of hearing would have been able to catch.
It was probably a whisper for the rider's own ears and not really meant to be heard.
Celty had no idea what the sentence had meant. She kept accelerating on her motorbike -
"For kid's play, time is over. Pity, pity."
As the rider kept whispering as if to no one else -
Celty felt a sudden rush of impact on her upper body -
Before she could realize what had happened, her body was already crashing onto the asphalt.
- "The job for you this time is to be a bodyguard."
What Shiki had said in the day came back to Celty's mind before the dull pain could register.
- "Though we have no idea where to look……"
- "But I hope you can help us find this person, and protect her without letting her know it."
It sounded ominous to her from the start that Shiki had to entrust a bodyguard job with her.
But there was no way she could turn it down, either.
- "……There's a possibility that someone will try to murder her. But we can't tell you the details regarding that……"
- "The person we want you to bodyguard is the one in this photo."
Shiki had produced a photo for her to see.
It was the photo of a girl about ten years old.
Though her expression was somewhat cloudy, she still looked pretty happy on the photo.
- "Her name is Awakusu Akane."
- "The granddaughter of our 'Manager'."
- "She has run away from home apparently because she didn't like the business we actually were running."
- I can't really say I like it either.
Celty groaned as she felt the pain from all over her body. Her worst premonition had turned out to be true.
She still had no idea what was going on.
But she knew that she had been attacked. And that was enough.
Because she had confirmed two important facts.
The first was that her helmet had been sent flying into the air upon that impact.
The other was that she was already knee deep in something highly perilous.
And with that, Celty, the most surreal being of them all -
Was embroiled, against her will, in the reality humans had created.
Night of May 3rd, CHATROOM
Tanaka Taro-san has joined the chat.
Tanaka Taro
Good evening.
Tanaka Taro
Looks like no one's online - . Is everyone out having fun?
Tanaka Taro
I thought I got here pretty late today. But no one's online, not even Setton-san……
Kyo-san has joined the chat.
Mai-san has joined the chat.
Mai
Good evening.
Kyo
I bid you good day, Taro-sama. The fact that you're spending your first day of the Golden Week in the chatroom makes me feel a little sympathy for your solitude. But then, in the cyberspace there is no distinction between holidays and workdays, day and night. No one is going to punish you for this. If you do wish to be punished, however, I would be more than willing to do it with words. Behold, this will be the moment you either prove yourself a true sadist or a true masochist!
Tanaka Taro
Ah, good evening.
Tanaka Taro
I see you haven't changed.
Kyo
This will be the moment!
Tanaka Taro
Why did you have to say it twice!?
Mai
Sorry.
Tanaka Taro
Mai-san, you have nothing to apologize to me for.
Saika-san has joined the chat.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, good evening~
Mai
Good evening.
Kyo
Alas, yet another holiday wanderer without a home for the heart? Shutting yourself in during holidays can be lethal. It's a common superstition that rabbits die from loneliness, but you realize that humans can die from loneliness, right?
Saika
I'm sorry
Tanaka Taro
Why are you apologizing, Saika-san? lol
Kyo
……I don't know how to react when you apologize so sincerely.
Tanaka Taro
Sincerely? But there was nothing to apologize for in the first place.
Saika
I'm sorry
Tanaka Taro
Why are you apologizing again!?
Tanaka Taro
Speaking of which, what about Kyo-san?
Tanaka Taro
Aren't you chatting here as well?
Kyo
Don't you worry about me. Mai and I were enjoying the times of our lives on the Ikebukuro streets the entire day today. We ate every kind of dumplings they had to offer at the Dumplings Stadium in Namja Town and shopped like crazy at World Import Mart and Alpa. Then we witnessed a kickass scene on 60-Story Street where a handsome young man took down a shoplifter. It was an awesome day.
Mai
The dumplings were delicious.
Tanaka Taro
A shoplifter? Was there a commotion?
Tanaka Taro
……You said 60-Story Street, right? Was it a black man who works as a hawker for a sushi restaurant or a man in a bartender suit?
Kyo
Alas.
Mai
Shizuo-san.
Tanaka Taro
Ah, you know Shizuo-san?
Kyo
How rude of me to have written such a short reply. But really, Tanaka Taro-san, I had imagined you to be a meek human being who wouldn't even kill a mosquito from the way you talked in the chatroom. To think that you know Shizuo-san! You must be a terribly social person. Is it even possible that in reality you're a huge guy with tattoos, scars and steely muscles all over your body? Or someone who sells dangerous drugs for a living?
Saika
Is it Heiwajima-san
Tanaka Taro
Sorry, I can't type fast enough to point out all that's wrong with what you said.
Tanaka Taro
Eh, even Saika-san knows him?
Saika
Just a little
Saika
I'm sorry
Tanaka Taro
Why are you apologizing lol
Kyo
Too bad the man I saw today wasn't Shizuo-san. It was a playboy-ish man with an eye mask and bandages over his face. He wasn't the feminine sort of pretty boy - he's a handsome man with just the right amount of muscles.
Mai
And a throng of girls at his heel.
Mai
So jealous.
Tanaka Taro
That certainly would make one jealous. But he must have been something if he could take down the shoplifter like a cop.
Kyo
Speaking of cops, we saw something interesting on the nightly street just now.
Tanaka Taro
What was it?
Kyo
A lot of people were having a gathering near the overpass. It was crowded. There were at least several scores of men. There wasn't enough space on the overpass so some had to gather under it as if it were some sort of pushing game.
Mai
It was so crowded I could cry.
Tanaka Taro
Really?
Kyo
I figured it was a bousouzoku gathering or something of that sort……speaking of which, does everyone here know about Dollars? It's said that it's an evil dark organization insidiously taking over Ikebukuro. Apparently its members are all fearsome characters making it worthy of being called the Flower Bed of Evil.
Mai
Dollars.
Tanaka Taro
Well, I've heard of it.
Saika
I don't really know a lot about it
Kyo
The name Dollars, some say, is short for "dishonored lovers". Others say it stands for "people who are only worth one dollar", "the organization of folks who would kill for one dollar", "gang of Daidarabotchis*", and many more. In short, it's a mysterious team! I heard it's like a Color Gang, except that it doesn't have a color. It's a gang of lunatics who blend themselves into the city before anyone can take notice!
* Daidarabotchi: a gigantic demon in Japanese mythology.
Mai
It's awesome.
Tanaka Taro
How is it a gang of lunatics?
Kyo
There's no other way to call it. It doesn't even look like it has a purpose. Had it been a typical Color Gang, people would have assumed it was a gang meant to channel destructive energy on the streets. Even if they were mere goons for money under violence organizations people would have been more sure of their identity and presence. But Dollars is none of these.
Mai
What is it?
Tanaka Taro
You're thinking too much into it.
Kyo
Dollars has no actual structure. They don't even know who the other Dollars are. A student on the street or a housewife you happen to pass by may be one of them. Even your schoolmate talking to you casually on the street could turn out to be a Dollars member……honestly, no one knows how many members it has.
Tanaka Taro
You're right about that.
Tanaka Taro
But it could also be as innocent as an extracurricular club, right? I feel like it's just a group of people calling themselves members because they wanted some sort of identity. It's like calling yourself a Saitaman or city folk.
Kyo
That's kind of overstretching the concept. You're a Dollars member from the moment you identify yourself as such. Even if it's online only, they do have an Internet-based community to exchange information. Their network is loose, but they are tied to each other with the common identity as Dollars members. Doesn't that sound scary to you at all?
Mai
That's scary.
Tanaka Taro
Why is that scary?
Kyo
It's like - say - having surveillance cameras in the form of human eyes everywhere on the streets. The only difference is that these surveillance cameras are capable of thinking. The ones under such surveillance have no way to know whether they are being "shot" or not. If you happened to have done something indecent on the street, it would be like exposing your weakness to Dollars itself through its members' eyes.
Mai
It's scary.
Tanaka Taro
You're thinking too much into it. I don't think it's like that.
Kyo
……Why is Tanaka Taro-san defending Dollars, a mere Color Gang, as if your life depended on it? I won't dig deeper into that now, but can you really say for sure that Dollars won't try to take advantage of others' weaknesses? It's a Color Gang after all. Those gangs are antisocial to begin with.
Mai
Gangs are horrible.
Tanaka Taro
That's true, but…
Mai
That hurts.
Mai
I was pinched.
Tanaka Taro
But I hear that even though they are a Color Gang, they're just a group of people who gathered because they were intrigued by the idea floating on the Internet, right? They do have offline meetings and stuff, but I don't think they're capable of much havoc.
Kyo
Then I'll ask you again.
Kyo
Can you say for sure that things are the way you think they are?
Kyo
If you were a Dollars member, you'd probably not be so sure that others would not do such things just because you wouldn't. There are so many of them in Dollars, and if what I heard is true, they have hardly even met each other in real life. ……If all these are true, it's hardly going to surprise anyone if it turns out that some people have already committed crimes in the name of Dollars, right?
Tanaka Taro
That's true.
Saika
Um
Saika
Please do not fight
Tanaka Taro
Ah, no, we're not fighting, Saika-san lol
Kyo
I don't think I'm fighting either. Personally I don't harbor any grudge or animosity towards the individual called Tanaka Taro. On the contrary, I'm pretty fond of you as a chartroom pal. I want to kiss you. CHU!
Mai
Sick.
Mai
That hurts.
Mai
I was pinched again.
Saika
I'm sorry
Tanaka Taro
That's why I asked why you were apologizing, Saika-san lol
Tanaka Taro
Anyway, anyway. I'm not saying that I think such things are impossible. But it's also true that there has been no news about Dollars members taking part in gang violence or other horrible stuff in Ikebukuro. The worst they do is probably the kind of individual fighting you see everywhere on the streets.
Kyo
That's not necessarily the truth. Their vortex of lunacy is going to keep rotating on the Ikebukuro streets. Centrifugal forces are bound to push the lighter ones of inferior quality to the outer layer of the vortex, aren't they?
Mai
Clunk clunk pop~
Kyo
It looks like some Dollars members have been picking fights outside of Tokyo. In fact, it was more like they were just beating people up. They punched their opponent's heads - as if they were hard-selling violence - and kept swinging fists at them regardless of whether they tried to fight back or not until they could no longer move. To think how horrible that must have looked.
Tanaka Taro
Eh?
Mai
I heard too.
Mai
There are people in Saitama
Mai
Who were attacked by Dollars members.
Tanaka Taro
Did you really?
Tanaka Taro
Where did you get this information from?
Kyo
Are you aware of the existence of Pacry*, the social networking system?
* Just like the Dollars website and chatrooms, a real-life version of Pacry has been created by fans at http://pacry.sns-park.com/
Tanaka Taro
I'm actually kind of already a member.
Kyo
How lucky for you! Unlike mixi, it has an open policy allowing you to apply for membership on your own. Even if you don't have friends who will send you an invitation, you can still register there. Oops, I'm sorry. I did not mean to imply that Tanaka Taro-san strikes me as someone who doesn't have many friends. That's a judgment I will have to postpone till I've observed you long enough. Speaking of which, I'm not allowed to register at mixi yet because I'm not old enough.
Tanaka Taro
Sorry, where on Pacry did you find…?
Kyo
Ahh! I'm so sorry! I get carried away every time I begin to talk!
Kyo
You can start from searching for communities on "Saitama bousouzoku problem" in Pacry.
Tanaka Taro
I'll do that.
Kyo
There should be a thread titled "About Dollars" in that board. That's where I got my information from. If they turn out to be baseless rumors I would have been giving Taro-san unnecessary trouble.
Kyo
If that's indeed the case, I will without hesitation apologize and ask for your forgiveness. To make up for my sins I will give you my body and heart……my body is but second-rate, so I don't know how satisfactory a compensation you'll find that to be. But I'll be immensely honored and pleased to be able to offer you even a tiny bit of consolation.
Mai
Dirty.
Tanaka Taro
I'll go check that out.
Kyo
Am I being ignored? I sense these thoughts of solitude wrapping themselves around my body. Please be sure to take up the responsibility.
Mai
Dirty.
Kyo
Self-proclaimed Dollars members were picking on the bousouzoku in Saitama. If this was part of somebody's master plan, I think it's adequate to say that it shows the downside of not having a gang color. Anyone can shift the blame on Dollars as long as he or she claims to be a member.
Saika
Scary
Tanaka Taro
Sorry, I checked out that thread.
Tanaka Taro
I have some stuff to do tonight, so I'll excuse myself if you don't mind.
Kyo
Ah, then we'll call it a day as well.
Saika
Good night
Tanaka Taro
Thank you so much.
Tanaka Taro
Also I'm really sorry, Kyo-san. I might have said things that offended you.
Kyo
Not at all, not at all. Please don't mind.
Tanaka Taro
Thank you.
Tanaka Taro
I'm leaving then.
Tanaka Taro
That was a good chat -
Tanaka Taro-san has left the chat.
Kyo
So, everyone, since it's only the beginning of the Golden Week, watch out for yourselves and try to have as much fun as you can……speaking of which, Setton-san, Kanra-san and Bakyura-san are all absent today.
Mai
Goodbye to you.
Kyo-san has left the chat.
Mai-san has left the chat.
Saika
Good night
Saika
Sorry
Saika
Looks like I missed them
Saika-san has left the chat.
No one is in the chatroom right now.
No one is in the chatroom right now.
No one is in the chatroom right now.
.
.
.
.
.
END OF CHAPTER 2