DURARARA!! Vol.5 CONNECTING CHAPTER
CONNECTING CHAPTER
Morning of May 4th, an apartment building in Shinjuku
"......"
Heiwajima Shizuo stood before one certain door, clenching his fists in fury.
Blood was dripping from his tight fists. One could only guess the magnitude of the force with which he clenched them.
"......Stupid flea......! Going around wasting my time......!"
Veins protruded from his face as the muttering came from the depths of his lungs.
If anyone happened to have been next to him and heard him say it, they'd probably think his lungs were directly fueled by the fires of Hell.
What aggravated him was a sheet of paper pasted to the door.
[We've Moved! Find us at ------------- ]
No human presence could be felt at the place where Izaya had both worked and dwelled.
Seeing as how the notice was still on the door, this place probably had yet to attract new tenants. While Shizuo had every impulse to just kick down the door and destroy everything he could find inside, he fought desperately to swallow the thought since that would only hurt the actual owner of this apartment.
"......He wasted my time twice......I'M GONNA KILL HIM OVER AND OVER......!"
As Shizuo, whose veins were still visible on his face, thought of the face of his mortal enemy, he turned his back to the apartment door and began to walk back.
Less than a minute later -
A woman tore off the sheet of paper at the same time Shizuo stormed out of the apartment building.
"......How protozoic does that Shizuo's brain have to be for such a crude trick to work so well on him?"
The woman - Yagiri Namie - was looking down from the open corridor.
Her gaze fell on the figure of the man in the bartender suit who was walking in huge strides away from the scene.
"Why does he have to use such roundabout means when he can easily get to that guy?"
Namie watched Shizuo leave without much concern and muttered coldly.
"If knives don't do the trick, he could have just poisoned him."
♂♀
Why did Heiwajima Shizuo come to Izaya's apartment looking for him?
It all went back to the morning of May 4th.
"Ah, she's awake!"
It was about 6 a.m. in Shinra's apartment.
The one who made that sound wasn't Shinra, Tom or Shizuo - but a high school girl wearing glasses.
Shizuo and Tom were there when Celty had brought her in and said "She's been attacked by some violent guys, let her stay for the night.”
Though Shinra had told her she didn't have to do anything, Anri had replied that she couldn't stand doing nothing and took it upon herself to take care of the little girl anyway.
Shinra rose from his computer desk upon hearing Anri's call.
"I'll be there right away."
He washed his hands under running water and made for the bedroom with a sterile medical scope and other equipment in his hands.
"Speaking of which......I forgot to tell Celty about this kid."
- Whatever. She looked dead busy anyway so I guess that could wait till later.....
The half-asleep underground doctor dimly entertained such thoughts in his head as he went into the bedroom where the girl had been sleeping.
As the door opened before him, however, it turned out what he saw was a little different from what he had expected.
The girl, who should have been sound asleep just a minute ago, had moved from her bed to the corner of the room and was shaking all over.
It didn't look like she was trembling from her fever, though.
The girl's eyes were fixed on Shizuo, who had entered the room before Shinra did.
Shizuo, as he looked at the girl who was obviously afraid of him for some reason, just stood there in a confused but nonetheless intimidating manner.
"......Is it better for me not to say anything?"
"Anything you say would just give her unnecessary shock, so yeah, it's better if you kept quiet."
Shinra said as he offered the little girl his hand.
"Are you alright? You're looking better, but let's take your temperature anyway."
However, the girl continued to stare at Shizuo with mortified eyes as she asked -
"Am I...going to be killed, too?"
"......'Too'? What does that 'too' mean?"
Shinra shook his head as Shizuo asked with a frown.
"So I was right, you really did kill someone pretty important to this kid without knowing it......"
"......How about I make you the first kill on my record?"
Veins began to protrude from Shizuo's face again; Tom was trying desperately to pacify him by saying "Hold that back, we have a kid here.”
Shinra tested the girl's temperature with his hand and muttered, "Good, the fever’s going down," as his expression became relaxed. Of course, he had much more accurate clinical thermometers on him, but to avoid scaring the girl further Shinra simply touched her forehead with his hand.
If any of Shinra's acquaintances saw him like this, they would have taken him for another person altogether.
If Celty had been there to see him act like this, she would probably have screamed "Even I haven't seen you smile like an ordinary nice guy like this......wahhhh, Shinra, you lolicon!" and stormed out of the apartment. That was how calm and honest his smile looked at this moment.
"......Onii-chan, who are you? Heiwajima Shizuo's friend?"
"Nah, he's just a bad acquaintance that I'm stuck with. Don't worry, I won't let him lay his hands on you. But for me to do that you have to tell me something first."
Shizuo felt goose-bumps on his back as he listened to Shinra talking ever-so-softly like a gentle doctor of the town.
But if anybody had a shot at coaxing the girl into telling the truth, it would be Shinra.
So he fought down the urge to throw up and kept listening from a distance to what the girl proceeded to say.
Shinra squatted down until his gaze was at the same height as the girl's, and talked to her as if she were his own child.
"Could you tell me your name?"
"......Akane."
"So it's Akane-chan. And your family name?"
"......"
Akane fell silent as soon as she was asked her surname.
Shinra, deciding that she probably did not want to talk about that particular detail, did not press her and instead asked the next question.
"Are you feeling uncomfortable? Does your throat hurt? Does your belly ache? Feeling alright?"
Akane nodded.
"Really......that's good. So do you want to tell me about yesterday then?"
The girl seemed to be pondering this for a moment, but ended up neither nodding nor shaking her head.
Her fearful eyes turned towards Shizuo. Once Shizuo's gaze met hers from behind those sunglasses, she began to tremble again.
"It's alright, he won't do anything to you. He might be a little violent but he's really a good guy. If he really wants to hurt you, you would have been beaten up by now, wouldn't you?"
"......"
"Or had he already done something to you? Is that why you wanted to attack him?"
"......No..."
The girl shook her head as she muttered.
Shinra tilted his head and asked the central question.
"Then why did you want that onii-chan in sunglasses dead?"
"......"
There was a moment of silence after this. Shinra kept smiling, and at last - the girl moved her lips.
"......Because he's an assassin."
"Eh?"
"Someone told me this assassin named Shizuo was going to kill my dad and grandpa......but I couldn't get back to where my dad and grandpa were, so I really didn't know what to do......"
He had a bad feeling about this.
Why didn't you go back home? - Before he could ask that question, Shinra found himself shaking all over with that bad feeling.
The man in the bartender suit who stood behind him must have felt the same.
A noise sounding suspiciously like bones being ground against each other was coming from Shizuo's direction, to which Shinra dared not turn.
"I was told that, if I had this, I'd be able to attack him......and I got this."
"Who told you that?"
"The person who taught me a lot of things when I ran away from home."
Shinra's premonition was beginning to take the definite shape of the face of a certain human being.
"So that person told you Shizuo was an assassin, and gave you that stun gun?"
The girl nodded. Shinra, feeling his nerves on the edge of cracking, asked the most important question.
"......What's that person's name?"
The girl hesitated for a moment before she answered the decisive question. Then, as if she had decided that Shinra was to be trusted, she said the name timidly.
"......Izaya onii-chan."
A chill ran down Shinra's spine.
For a moment he could feel that right behind his back the new Apocalypse had just been born in the form of a man - trying to wipe away the cold sweat, he turned in that general direction.
And there -
Shizuo was smiling a very soft smile.
- Ehhhhh!?
Shinra found himself drowning in even deeper despair at the sight of the never-seen-before smile on Shizuo's face.
- Sorry Celty, but it may turn out that I have to die before you. Here. Now.
As such thoughts occupied his mind, a still smiling Shizuo spoke to Akane.
"Hahah. That was a misunderstanding, Akane-chan."
"Eh......"
"Izaya-kun must have gotten something wrong about me. I'm not an assassin."
"......Really?"
"Of course! Izaya-kun and I are friends. We just had a little fight."
Shizuo shook his head slowly and turned his back on Shinra and the girl.
"You just wait here, I'll be off to make up with him right away."
Winking harmlessly at Akane, Shizuo whistled lightly as he exited the room.
Shinra, realizing that he was already covered in torrents of cold sweat, kept his muttering to himself in order to not scare Akane further.
- Izaya......have you decided that you're fed up with your life......or what?
As he was closing the door behind him, Tom spoke to Shizuo after they were both out of the doorway.
"......Very well played. I think you deserve a People's Honor Award for that."
"......Thank you, Tom-san."
Shizuo did not turn to face his superior when he said this.
"If it's OK, I have one favor to ask."
"What is it?"
"If I get arrested for murder today, tell Mr. Manager to just go about things as if I were fired yesterday."
"......"
Though he had a thousand things to say, Tom simply watched Shizuo descend the stairs without a word.
Then Tom, after producing his cigarettes from his pocket, turned his gaze to the view from the open corridor of the apartment building.
Inhaling deeply the scent of his favorite cigarettes, Tom said to himself as he watched the smoke rise.
"I'll have to tell the manager Shizuo's taking a day off today......"
♂♀
Morning of May 4th, a gallery in Ikebukuro
Framed paintings filled the beautifully papered walls in this meticulously arranged space.
A voice that was on some level furthest from art was saying:
"……Consider this. You'll just have to pay as much as you do for your everyday coffee, but you're going to own this famous painting - or even your life's happiness. To me that sounds like the first step to winning at life."
The young man with bandages over his face grinned as he heard the female clerk say with a professional smile on her face. He replied:
"Hmm~but I don't know what my girlfriend's gonna say if I spend so much money on this."
"If she sees the painting hanging in your room, your girlfriend's going be head over heels exclaiming how great it looks! A rendezvous with the painting is actually exactly like a rendezvous with your girl! Even if it's just a lithograph, it's very rare that you'd find Karnard Straussburg's* paintings on the market at all!"
* Karnard Straussburg: a fictional painter from Vamp!, another of Narita Ryohgo's series.
It looked like she had spent the past hour facing the frame now sitting next to the table and trying to sell a painting to the young man, a potential buyer.
But instead of scrutinizing the painting, the young man's gaze had been focused instead on the female clerk's face.
"To me, though, you're more charming than the painting, my lady."
"Oops~I think I would find any man who can buy me this painting extremely attractive."
"Really?"
"Of course! It takes a man with a lot of character to be able to pay real money for his dreams!"
It was true that the painting was by a famous painter - but it was silkscreen-printed. In other words, it was a cheap printed copy.
But she insisted that it was a "lithograph", a rare painting with a serial number.
It was in fact worth no more than 30,000 yen, but the female clerk was asking for 1,280,000.
With that kind of money one could have bought a real lithograph by Karnard Straussburg instead of a cheap silkscreen-printed copy. The clerk, however, insisted that the printed copy is the real thing.
- Looks like we almost have him.
The adult male who looked like the manager of the place watched the pair from afar and felt like the young man was about to buy the painting.
If he tried to back out, they'd threaten him into buying it anyway saying "You've already wasted us hours so you have to take on the responsibility and sign." In fact, that had always been the way things worked in this tourist trap of a gallery.
But the young man's reactions were so peculiar that they couldn't even follow their manual of hard-selling.
The bandaged young man saw the manager and beckoned him over.
The manager saw the smile on the young man's face and thought he was finally going to pay for the painting. He kept bowing as he walked over to the young man and said:
"Anything I can help you with, Sir?"
"Well, I don't have that kind of money on me, but this lady here looks like she'll be very upset if I don't buy this painting. So I came up with this way to make her happy."
"Ah, sure, thank you for your business!"
The manager, thinking that the young man was planning to pay for the painting in installments, smiled instantly. The young man, too, smiled from underneath his eye mask and said:
"So, give me."
"Eh?"
The young man showed the manager his palm as if asking for something. The manager froze.
The ballpoint pen had been prepared for him on the table.
What else did he need?
Just as the manager thought that maybe he needed to see a business card - the young man said something even more astounding.
"She said 1,280,000. If you don't have cash, I think a credit card is fine too."
"……Ah?"
The young man continued in a nonchalant voice as the manager seemed unable to comprehend.
"That's how it is. The lady says she'll be upset, but I don't have money on me. We're both men, so there's no way we're allowed to just watch when women are going to be upset, is there? That's why the job is on you to make her happy since you look like you've got the money. You're the owner of this gallery, right? If these are the paintings you bought, you must be pretty rich."
"U - Um……"
"Money is meant to be spent for women. If you are a man, buy it for this lady here. If you give me that 1,280,000 I'll take care of the rest."
"Please stop kidding, Sir."
The manager's face fell instantly - and had to stiffen the very next second.
"……Argh? ……Kidding?"
The young man stared up at him in such a sharp and cold way that the general impression of cruelty was almost thrown in his face.
The manager realized instantly upon seeing how fierce the young man's features had turned now that he was no longer talking to the woman -
- This is bad. This guy is not normal.
"Since when have I been kidding? Since when have I tried to make you laugh? Argh?"
The young man stood up slowly and put his face close to the tip of the manager's nose.
The female clerk had at last realized there was something wrong with this situation and said to the young man with a pale face:
"S - Sorry, Sir?"
The young man broke once more into a kind smile upon hearing her voice and raised his thumbs at her:
"No problem, my lady. He's gonna buy it for you. Just like you said, my lady, any man with money would buy it if this painting brings them so much happiness and make them popular with the ladies!"
The man who looked like the manager of the place stared at the woman as if to say "Why did you bring him in?".
The female clerk looked as if she was about to cry. She wanted to respond with a look that said "I didn't! He began to talk to me and followed me inside!", but there unfortunately was only so much meaning a mere look could convey.
But the manager was not the only person who saw her almost-crying face.
Of course, the other person who saw it was the young man with the eye mask.
"Oi, old man."
"Y - Yes!?"
"You……just stared at her, didn't you?"
The young man was practically fuming; the manager, who was usually the one in charge of scaring potential clients into buying, had to step back a few paces in fear.
"Ah……what……?"
"I don't give a damn if you're her boss or anything. The lady works so hard to do her job even when she's facing a rude dude like me. Yet you gave her that look - what did you think you were doing?"
"W - Wait……this, this is completely within our own company, you have nothing to do with it, Sir……"
"Since I have nothing to do with it, it should be my freedom to beat you up or do anything I like about it, right?"
The young man flexed his neck audibly and stepped forward.
"W - Wait a second, I'm calling the police - "
As he said this, the manager couldn't help but think "Eh? Or am I gonna die before the police could come?"
He had always considered himself a hardened player when it came to dealing with weird guests. But this young man was weird on a totally different level from any guest he had had to deal with before.
Just as the young man bent down as if about to do something -
His cell phone rang from his chest pocket.
"……"
The young man had to stop whatever he was doing, take his cell phone out of his pocket and press it against his ear:
"It's me. ……I see. Where is he now? Ah? ……No kidding. That's like right in front of this building. No, tell everyone to come in. There's this bastard here who needs to be taught how to be good to a woman……arch? ……Che……I see. I'll be there in a minute."
After hanging up the phone the young man with bandages and an eye mask over his face stared once more at the manager and added:
"I'm going to come back and make sure you've bought the painting for her. You watch yourself……"
♂♀
In front of a gallery building in Ikebukuro
"You were saying you found a Dollars member?"
Rokujou Chikage - the young man who had just walked out of the gallery - asked one of his fellow "Toramaru" members.
The man in the leather jacket mumbled affirmatively and told Chikage what he had heard.
"Looks like it was a pretty famous Dollars member, a guy with some foreign blood called Yumasaki Walker."
"That's a weird name indeed. Where is he now?"
"Um……"
The man in the leather jacket paused hesitatingly and raised his chain slightly to point towards the gallery right in front of them.
"Before you came out, Chikage-san, he was talked into going in by some woman."
♂♀
Inside the gallery
- That was so close……
The manager sighed in relief as he saw the young man walk out of the gallery. At the same time, however, another voice reached his ears.
It did not sound like the usual kind of conversation for this gallery; in fact, it too sounded like an argument.
- What now?
A young man's voice rang full of enthusiasm in front of a painting by the famous illustrator Suzie Yasuda.
"But this is just a silkscreen printed copy. Judging by the size the total cost shouldn't exceed 24,000 even if you have it framed, right? I have a lot of respect for this illustrator, and I wouldn't have even minded if I had to pay her a million for a painting! But you'll have to show me the proof that at least 80% of that money is going straight into the hands of the illustrator!"
"Ah, eh, um……"
"Speaking of which, the original of this painting is not even meant for silkscreen printing to begin with! Yet you're giving a serial number to it, which makes it sound like it had been meant for printing. That actually detracts from the true value of the painting! Did Suzie-sensei really give you permission to do this? This kind of thing? Also the way you explained her paintings was simply butchering her art! You didn't even manage to bring out 1% of Suzie-sensei's unique charm! Completely broke Suzie-sensei's trance and fantasy! What kind of Level 0 are you? Listen, Suzie-sensei's art originated……"
"M - Manager~!"
The manager rushed over immediately as the clerk gave him a look of plea.
He cupped his head with his hands the moment he saw the young man with slanting eyes who looked like he was of mixed japanese and western parentage, and yelled:
"Sir, not YOU again! Please leave!"
After they had coaxed the young man into leaving the gallery, the manager began to warn the female clerk in charge of touting in a serious tone:
"You're new here so you probably don't know, but never try to talk to that mixed-blood guy again, he's high on our blacklist! I know he looks like he's easy to fool, but watch out!"
"Y - Yes."
The manager of this fishy gallery couldn't help but mutter to himself looking exhausted after the string of troublesome incidents:
"Guess it's better to just……close this business down altogether……"
"This guy in a bartender suit basically destroyed the gallery back when I've only just opened it……and then those Awakusu-kai people came and asked me to just give them the originals for free……"
♂♀
Just as the manager was submerged in his woes, Rokujou Chikage began tailing Yumasaki, who had just walked out of the building.
"……Him? He doesn't look like it."
"That's just how Dollars is. You can't judge them by their looks……I heard he was always with this guy named Kadota, who was the one who licked several of our members when they came to Ikebukuro to ask for trouble last month. That Kadota sounded like a fairly big figure in Dollars."
"Hoh……"
Chikage said as he observed the man closely.
That was when a woman in black began to talk to the Yumasaki guy.
Another man with sharp features was in a knit cap and talking to Yumasaki like close friends as well.
"Ah, that's him! That's Kadota in that knit cap."
"……They're with a woman. Don't move now, just keep your watch on them."
"Yes."
The trio who looked like they were Dollars members walked along Sunshine Street for a while - until Kadota said something to Yumasaki and the woman when they reached Tokyu Hands and parted ways with them. He kept walking on his own.
Yumasaki and the woman turned in the direction of Sunshine City after they walked past the crossing while Kadota kept walking south on the main street under the Metropolitan Expressway.
"I can do it on my own. You go meet the others."
"But - "
"It's gonna be fine. Go."
"Yes."
Chikage stayed on Kadota's tail after he told his fellow members to leave.
But he was distracted soon enough by the sight of a certain building on the side of the road.
At that moment, Chikage had stopped in his tracks and forgotten completely that he was supposed to be following Kadota.
"……Why……why is there a girls' school in the center of Ikebukuro……!?"
It was the school building of a girls' academy next to Raira. The Captain of Toramaru stood rooted to the spot for a good minute.
It was the Golden Week so he couldn't seem to find any high school girls around or in it.
- Still, that got my hopes up……
- But hey, it's not the time for this.
Just as he seemed to come to himself and turned his gaze back forwards -
"……Are you looking for us for anything in particular?"
A flat voice sounded from behind his back.
"……"
Chikage turned and found no other than the very man in the knit cap, whom he was supposed to be tailing, standing there in front of his eyes.
"Hmm, so you noticed that I was following you?"
"Yeah……thought my intuition's gone blunt when I saw you stop in front of the girls' school."
Kadota flexed his neck and looked at Chikage, half-sighing as he asked:
"So you are? I don't think we've met before, but I was relieved that you weren't the sort of scum who would attack people when they are with women."
"My name is Rokujou Chikage……I have a feeling that we would hit it off."
The corners of Chikage's lips curled into a grin before he shook his head somewhat forlornly:
"But……you're in Dollars, aren't you?"
"……Yeah, that's about right."
"Too bad. I just heard Heiwajima Shizuo is also in Dollars. Is that true?"
Kadota gave a straightforward answer anyway to the confirmative question.
"……In name, yes. But he's not a gang animal to begin with."
"Ahh, nope, he's not that type indeed……I see. So I take it that you're not a monolithic kind of organization."
"?"
"……But either way we won't care."
Kadota's cell phone rang at this exact moment as if everything had been calculated.
"Go ahead and pick it up. I'll wait for you."
"It's a text message."
Kadota said and looked at the message displayed on his cell phone while keeping an eye on Chikage.
Judging by the ringtone it was a text message from Dollars. Kadota had clicked it open instantly thinking that it could have something to do with the man right in front of him.
"……"
Kadota frowned as he read it and gave Chikage a fierce stare.
"What's up?"
"……You bastard."
The message on his cell phone -
It was an emergency notice telling him that Dollars members were being attacked all throughout Ikebukuro.
"No……you bastards, what have you come here for?"
Kadota looked both alarmed and angry as he fixed the man in front of him with a sharp look.
Chikage took in his stare unapologetically, shrugging as he muttered as if to himself:
"Nothing. Just thought we should pay you back for the fights you hard-sold us."
"I don't need your change. Just take whatever I give you!"
♂♀
Same time, inside the abandoned factory
Mikado was about to search his brain for information on Blue Square after he heard Aoba's shocking confession -
But his cell phone, too, rang as a new text message was sent to it.
At almost the exact same time, every cell phone around him began to rang and vibrate as well.
- !
The ringtone from his own cell phone had been the one he had set for Dollars text messages. Something had just been confirmed for Mikado.
- Just like they said……
- These guys are in Dollars as well……
A group of people gathered in a place. Cell phones ringing at the same time.
The size of the meeting was completely different, but it still added to the disturbance in Mikado's heart as it reminded him of a similar scene one year ago.
Yet, as if trying to send him into even deeper despair -
The shocking contents of the text message informed him of the attacks on Dollars members.
"Looks like it's started."
Aoba checked the same text message on his own cell phone and said with a smile as refreshing as ever.
"Started……? What is……?"
"The Saitama folks……Toramaru are having their revenge."
Mikado felt everything his vision twist and blur as Aoba told him nonchalantly.
- This……is the reality?
This boy in front of his eyes, was he the same boy who smiled that innocent smile at him at school?
But Aoba was smiling just as innocently now.
Yet his words were impossible to associate with the "reality" Mikado had always known.
"Why……why did you attack those people in Saitama……why did you do it……"
"They ruined my Ikebukuro trip with Mikado-sempai and Anri-sempai. I was just venting my anger……or is that not good enough an explanation?"
"……"
Mikado was rendered wordless. He could simply swallow.
There was probably no way the other person was going to tell him the truth about that.
Mikado, after making that judgment, kept the fingers of his left hand clasped tight around his cell phone and tried to continue "talking" to Aoba.
"Blue Square……I've heard of it……I think it was some……Color Gang in this area……that got partially absorbed into the Yellow Turbans after they clashed with them……that's what I heard."
Several boys around them whistled in surprise after Mikado had finished. Even Aoba's eyes widened as he looked somewhat shocked:
"……You know even more than I thought you did. You're something indeed, sempai!"
"Why are you telling me……someone like me……things like these?"
"Because I trust you, sempai. Or is that not good enough an explanation for you?"
"It's not an explanation to begin with……what do you want me to do?"
Mikado was even more confused now. He couldn't figure out what the other person was after.
"Yeah. I think it would be better to postpone that explanation till after you've known more about us……but first of all, I have a favor to ask you, sempai."
Aoba looked up at Mikado silently from the steel skeletons he was sitting on, his eyes gleaming as he said in a low voice:
"Leader……"
"Eh……?"
"I won't ask you to become the leader of Dollars. That would be against the very principles Dollars was founded upon."
Heheheheh. They laughed.
Heheheheh. They snickered.
Mikado had no idea what they found so funny, but every boy around them began to laugh after they had heard Aoba. Their laughter ricocheted throughout the factory with a certain rhythm.
As if savoring a poem to that rhythm on his lips, Aoba continued in a voice that blended in perfectly with the atmosphere in the factory and kept pounding at Mikado's heart.
"…….Which is why I'm hoping that you can become the leader of us Blue Square."
"Eh……"
"We'll basically just obey your orders."
That was way too out of the blue.
That was all Mikado was able to feel.
It was as if someone had all of a sudden asked him to become the King of Saudi Arabia. Yumasaki and Karisawa would probably ask him what manga he was in if they were to hear about it.
That was how out of the blue Aoba's suggestion had sounded to Mikado.
"Why……are you asking me……"
"Yeah, there are a lot of reasons. But most importantly it's because sempai occupies a special position in Dollars."
"Special position……?"
Mikado parroted in confusion. Aoba immediately gave a curt answer.
"In short, it's because sempai is the founder of Dollars."
"……!!"
"Are you surprised? We have a pretty decent information network too."
Aoba didn't show the slightest sign of fear or contempt in front of the wordless founder. He simply voiced his thoughts in a casual tone:
"You can use us in any way you want, sempai. ……If you decide to end this conflict right away, have us kneel down in front of Toramaru and let them beat us up……then so be it. We'll do as we're told. And after we get out of the hospital, you'll be our leader. ……If, however, you're to tell us to "Protect our fellow Dollars members and go crush those Toramaru scums', then we're going to crush them no matter what that takes."
"I - I'll never……I'll never tell you to do either of those things!"
Mikado shook his head violently and said to Aoba in an emotionally-charged tone:
"What made you think I would accept it……? If you want to avoid conflict, just don't say you're in Dollars and you'll be fine! That's the type of person I am. I'm not the type who can stand above you!"
It was from the bottom of his heart.
At least that was what Mikado had meant for it to come from.
But Aoba, after hearing what Mikado had yelled - got up slowly and put his face close to Mikado's.
And then he whispered, in a tone only Mikado could hear:
"……That is a lie."
He sounded happy, very happy -
"Because, sempai……"
"Eh……?"
"Mikado-sempai, aren't you……
------------------------------ smiling?"
♂♀
Same time, the grounds outside the abandoned factory
It was a talk in a confined space between only parties directly involved.
Whatever the choice Mikado was about to make, it was not meant to be known to anyone else.
But - they were already overheard real-time by a third party.
Although she did count as a "party involved" in the broader sense of the word.
- Hmmm.
Celty Sturluson thought silently as she hid herself in the shadow next to the window outside the abandoned factory.
- ……What's with this situation?
Celty's hearing was good enough to catch everything that was being said inside the factory.
At first it sounded like a typical aggressive conversation between delinquents; but the the center of the conversation was the boy she knew.
- Did I just witness an important crossing point in Mikado-kun's life?
She had, in fact, not followed Mikado and the others here.
Celty had returned to Shinra's upscale apartment last night, but only for a few minutes.
She was surprised to find Shizuo and his boss there, but she explained the necessity for Anri to stay at theirs over the night and turned on her heels to leave as soon as possible.
The reason was simple.
She had to find the girl in the photo - the granddaughter of the head of Awakusu-kai.
According to Shiki, the girl seemed to be spending her days at 24-hour manga cafes and family restaurants.
How could a girl stay at a family restaurant so late in the night and not get reported to the police? Celty had wondered about this, but concluded that she must be aware of ways to live in a family restaurant that Celty wasn't.
She had wondered too where the girl took her showers and changed her clothes, but after checking out the interior of an actual manga cafe (her full-face helmet did draw weird looks from other customers), she was surprised to find that they had a shower and other utilities.
She had also heard that the girl would sometimes stay at her schoolmates' or her online friends' for the nights, so it was hard even for Shiki and his intelligence network to track her down.
Shiki had told her that they would contact her once they found the girl, but it only got her more anxious now that she knew those folks with their horrid weapons were out and about in Ikebukuro even though she had never even met the girl in person.
So she looked all night for her on the Ikebukuro streets.
Not knowing that the girl was in fact in Celty's very own apartment.
She ended up not finding the girl after she hovered around the family restaurants in the neighborhood till the next morning. So she decided to try to track down the assailants first and followed her black thread to this abandoned factory.
- Speaking of which……I didn't know my shadow could extend for so many miles without breaking……
Celty was honestly surprised at the capability of her own shadow when she found that the black thread had not broken off at all. The thin, slithering shadow acted just like real shadow once it fell to the ground; it never wrapped itself around anything nor tripped anyone.
In addition, since it was capable of moving in the form of a liquid or a gas at Celty's will, she could summon it back into her hands within mere seconds even if she had made it go 100 loops around the base of a building.
- I feel like that robotic cat from the future*. Whatever, I'll think about that later.
* Robotic cat: Celty's referring to Doraemon, the titular character from Fujiko F. Fujio's vastly popular manga series Doraemon.
She stopped thinking about her shadows with their almost-cheating level of usefulness and focused instead on what was going on in front of her eyes.
- Speaking of which, this abandoned factory seems to have a weird way of coming back into my life.
Celty considered this vaguely as she tried to think of what to do next.
She was curious about what Mikado would decide to do; but was it really OK for her to stay here and eavesdrop?
A strong sense of guilt pounded in her heart, but Celty couldn't bring herself to leave. She kept listening.
But she, too, was being watched by someone else.
♂♀
Same time, inside Russian Sushi
"So, what is it?"
"Just thought I should let you know that I found evidence that the duo's been to Ikebukuro."
It was a conversation in Russian.
The face of the Chief Chef of the sushi restaurant stiffened as he heard the guest - Igor, an old acquaintance of his:
"……I think you said we didn't know them."
"I did."
"It's true that we don't know that guy called Slon. But that Vorona, isn't she Sir Drakon's Little Miss?"
"I wasn't wrong when I said you didn't know them……she's no longer the little girl you know, Denis-san."
Simon was already out touting customers. Only Igor and the Chief Chef were in the restaurant, which had just began its day's business.
"No matter how she changes, the Little Miss is the Little Miss. Colonel Lingerin would have said the same thing."
"Well, sure……if you go by Lingerin-san's personality and standards……"
Igor said half-sighing as he noticed the Chief Chef's lack of concern.
"Did you hear anything last night?"
"……From afar, I heard a shot that sounded like it was from an anti-material rifle."
"Me too. It was probably Vorona and Slon. And it was not something that 'sounded like' it. That was an actual anti-material rifle they took from our company."
"……"
Igor stroked the bandages on his own face as he voiced one conclusion to the Chief Chef, who was now sharpening his cleaver without a word.
"If we don't try to stop her soon, it's not going to do good to anybody. Not to Vorona, not to Drakon-san, not to the city Tokyo itself. Of course……not to you, who loves this city from the bottom of your heart, either."
♂♀
Same time, rooftop of a tall building close to the abandoned factory
"Abandoned factory no one uses. This information, is an error. That place, a gathering spot for delinquents."
"Looks like that Black Motorbike's hiding himself from the kids……should we snipe at him?"
Vorona shook her head silently as Slon asked, focusing on Celty through the telescope on his rifle.
"Survived yesterday's sniping. Bona fide monster. Ill-advised sniping will reveal our whereabouts. Fatal."
Vorona and Slon were waiting for their chance on the rooftop situated a distance from the factory.
They chose a spot from which they could see most of the factory's grounds and kept their watch on Celty, who had found this place with her black thread.
If they just wanted to find the other person, they could have traced the black thread back to its origin - but since they were at war with the Black Rider, it would have been very unwise to risk running into him when they were looking for him using the black thread.
So they had decided to park the motorbike in the middle of the abandoned factory and lure the mysterious rider here -
But right after the rider appeared, a gang of strange boys arrived at the factory as well and the Black Motorbike had to hide himself outside the window so that the boys couldn't see him.
From where Vorona and Slon were, though, the hiding spot was clearly visible.
Vorona inhaled deeply after she had observed him for a while and said in a low voice with a face devoid of expression:
"I will follow the monster. The target little kid, may exist right there."
Slon sighed after he had heard Vorona.
"You look like you're enjoying it, Vorona."
"I affirm. This is starting to be enjoyable."
There was an almost unnoticeable change on Vorona's expressionless face - which took after her father's - as she uttered her twisted words of love:
"Ikebukuro, I like. Half disappointment, half jealousy. A shred of hope. That, is precisely love."
"I decided on loving Ikebukuro. I affirm."
♂♀
Same time, an office building in Ikebukuro
"That bastard......I told him not to come to Ikebukuro again......!"
Climbing the stairs of an office building far away from the crowded streets, Shizuo spat.
"Making his nest here as if he heard nothing I had said......!"
Arriving at the third floor, he stared at the office door in front of him.
This had to be Izaya's new office according to the address on that sheet of paper. Though there wasn't a sign over the door or anything, there wasn't anything else of the sort installed anywhere in this office building either.
- Anyway. I'll just knock on the door pretending to be a client and see how that goes.
And he knocked.
"......"
There was no answer.
He saw a doorbell on the side; he rang it, but still, no reply.
Maybe Izaya was away? But as he listened more intently, he ears caught the sound of a radio or TV coming from within.
- H e ' s p r e t e n d i n g t o b e a w a y t h i n k i n g I w o n ' t n o t i c e t h a t l i t t l e s c u m .
Shizuo let his fury take over and grabbed the doorknob fiercely to break in -
- Huh?
The door wasn't locked - it opened readily without the slightest resistance.
- What the hell, it was open all along.
Shizuo let go of the doorknob, which had by now taken a new shape from the pressure of his palm - and stormed into the office.
He had entered what looked like a multi-part office complex; the walls of the first room were lined with shelves, on which a staggering amount of files seemed to be on display.
- ......So this is what the office of an information broker is like?
Though he still had a tinge of doubt, Shizuo proceeded to look for his enemy as he walked into the next room.
And what he saw there turned out to be -
"......"
".................."
"...............................Argh?"
He lost track of how many seconds had lapsed since "those" came into his sight.
At first Shizuo had not the faintest idea what the scene right in front of his eyes meant.
Not that it was in any way hard to make sense of; in fact, anyone except him would have understood instantly what it meant as soon as they lay their eyes upon it -
But for him - the party actually concerned - it was simply beyond comprehension.
What just appeared in front of him appeared to be three piles of human flesh dressed in suits.
One of them lay in front of the TV, which had been left on.
One looked as if it were leaning into the chair.
One sunk into the thin walls that separated the rooms from each other.
The sight of whichever one of them would have been enough to make one realize that they were "finished".
The one in front of the TV set had a half-mashed face.
The one leaning into the chair had his neck twisted 180 degrees.
The one in the wall had his spine and torso bent in naturally implausible directions.
But they had one thing in common.
It seemed like they were killed by bare hands - or something that could mimic the effect.
"......"
It had been a long time since he last saw dead bodies.
Shizuo had yet to kill anyone, but due to the various troubles he had been embroiled in since high school he had on more than one occasion seen dead bodies.
If Shizuo hadn't been through those, he would probably have thrown up at the sight - hat was how gruesome the killing scene looked like.
He was not aware of how long he had remained in the middle of this killing scene.
- What the hell. Quit messing around with me, will you?
- Why are there dead bodies in Izaya's office?
The disbelief had turned into an urge of inquiry inside Shizuo's mind. And questions led to more questions.
- Speaking of which......is this really Izaya's office to begin with......?
His thoughts were interrupted by an angry shout coming from behind his back.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE BREAKING IN......EH......?"
Shizuo turned around to find a young skinhead standing there.
He looked reasonably intimidating himself, but as soon as he set his eyes on Shizuo - whom he probably had some prior knowledge of - fear infiltrated his expression.
The skinhead looked from Shizuo to the dead bodies littering the place -
Eyes popping wide, his jaw dropped like a goldfish gasping for breath.
"Y - y - you - you ba - bas - bastar...d....you bastard......!"
Fumbling around for the wall behind him, he ran back into the room closer to the entrance.
Shizuo didn't have the time to say anything.
He merely put his hand to his chin and pondered things over for a second -
And concluded that he had been indeed entrapped by a trick so simple and straightforward that even he had to appreciate the irony.
More than ten seconds later - the skinhead returned with a pistol in his hand, looking around for Shizuo with eyes full of fear.
But Shizuo was no longer anywhere to be found; the only sound in the office was from the wind blowing into the third-story window.
Another couple of seconds later -
The skinhead began yelling into the phone in the room:
"Shizuo……Heiwajima Shizuo! There's no mistaking it! Contact Sir Shiki right away!"
"That bastard……killed three of our people in the office……!"
And with that, Heiwajima Shizuo's "daily life", along with his "hope" for a peaceful life -
Were put to an end today, in this very second.
♂♀
Noon of May 4th, East Gate of Ikebukuro Station, in front of the stone owl
"There's no need to be scared. The people who are coming to meet us are very nice people."
Akane looked up at Anri and nodded as she told her in a soft voice.
Her fever was already completely gone. Nobody knew where Shizuo went, so the source of her mental pressure seemed removed as well.
Shinra had declared her "pretty much OK to go", and Anri had brought her outside for a walk thinking that would cheer her up.
She had worried that the girl would run away, but the girl had said "……Um, when that man called Shizuo comes back, I will talk to him." so Anri had decided to believe her.
In addition - the mention of the name Orihara Izaya had made Anri very concerned about this whole thing.
Anri had faced Izaya off once. Or rather - Izaya was without doubt an enemy for "Saika".
On top of that, she had been attacked yesterday, and what the girl had said about her father and grandfather's lives being after also concerned Anri.
"Hmm - won't it still be kind of dangerous outside?" - Shinra had wondered, but Anri had convinced herself that those people wouldn't attack them in broad daylight and Ikebukuro's crowded streets.
Shinra had said after Anri had told him that she was meeting Mikado and Aoba today -
"OK, I'll call Celty afterwards. As long as her time opens up I'll tell her to go meet you. If Shizuo were still here I would have asked him to be your bodyguard, haha."
He said half-jokingly as he agreed to let them leave the apartment.
But now that she thought about it, it was still too reckless a decision to have come here.
If the rascals from yesterday would not be afraid to attack her again even in broad daylight, she would risk getting Akane hurt in this as well.
Anri waited and waited with such worries on her mind.
Waited for Mikado and Aoba, who would at least bring her some assurance of the dailiness of her life, to come to this place.
She still didn't know.
The daily life in Ikebukuro - especially the part she and the people she knew were familiar with - had already collapsed.
What was more, they were now about to step into the collapsed city as well -
Sonohara Anri had still yet to notice.
♂♀
Somewhere dark in Ikebukuro
Orihara Izaya, too, got the text message informing him of the attacks on Dollars members.
But he got more than that.
The multiple "information sources" he nurtured in the city had also sent him messages with the same content. Some came in reports on completely irrelevant matters.
Izaya paid equal attention to everything as he checked the messages and muttered to himself in the dark:
"The little rascals in Blue Square, are they after the same thing as I am till the middle of our respective plans?"
Izaya looked half expectant and half upset as he thought of the face of a certain boy.
"That's fine. Now that I think about it, Kuronuma Aoba is also one of my lovely Raira kouhais. This challenge……I'll accept it."
He pressed the keys on his cell phone as he kept on talking, to the darkness around him - or to himself.
"From now on it's going to be a real open game, in which foxes outwit one another and players move in for mutual kill."
After he had sent text messages to multiple recipients, Izaya pressed his hand on the doorknob in the dark.
"Well. Since we're both black sheep in the sea called Dollars……"
As soon as the door was opened, the blinding sunlight at noon shone down on his eyelids.
He looked up at the sky grudgingly as if the excessive brightness offended him -
"Why not dine together in peace?"
Orihara Izaya was smiling.
No one could know just how much he knew about Kuronuma Aoba and his gang.
Did he have a way to crush them, or did he secretly wish to be defeated at their hands?
Izaya's smile was pure human. But that only made him look unnatural as a human being.
With his laughter -
Another twisted story was about to commence.
END OF THE CONNECTING CHAPTER AND VOLUME 5