DURARARA Vol.3 Shingen/Izaya/Namie scene (Part 2)
Shingen took the time to breathe the heat and aroma emanating from Namie's tea into that gas mask before nonchalantly recounting the events that led to this moment.
"- You know how Yagiri Pharmaceuticals was merged into Nebula shortly after dear Miss Namie absconded? That led to Nebula making a fuss to find out the whereabouts of the head - of Miss Namie, sorry. And from a number of local hotels here we got reports about sightings of her heading for your apartment...so I ambushed her at the time I knew she would come, sent her into a cold sweat with this gun and got in here."
"Izaya, shouldn't we be calling the police?"
"Mmm-hmm? Aren't you two gonna be the ones in trouble though? If I tell them to look for the head of a young female in the room and boom, they find it...forget about the people-cutting nutters, this is what's for headline tomorrow. Actually, maybe I myself should go bombard those online boards with pictures of that using a cute female screenname."
Izaya retained his phlegmatic smile and sipped his tea as Shingen continued to provoke him in a loud voice.
"I see. Shinra did get his twisted personality from you after all."
"I'll take that as a compliment and give nothing in return. And it's about time you gave me that head."
"What is with this guy - "
Namie's expression turned into one of sheer disgust. Izaya, on the other hand, looked as if he was used to this sort of stuff.
"If you said 'here, gimme', I would only reply with a "that so?'...and then what would happen? I would very much like to know."
"Your apartment is gonna be stormed by a gang of fifty, that's what's gonna happen - what if I told you that?"
"In that case you shouldn't have come today in the first place. This would be an empty apartment for rent by the time you brought your gangsters here."
Izaya didn't look moved in the slightest as he said that to a man more than twenty years his senior.
"Haha...just kidding. To be frank with you, I'm in no hurry to retrieve the head."
"Hmm?"
"Certy-kun showing up on television took Nebula's bosses by surprise...so they started asking themselves whether studying the body should be a priority before they can even start with the head."
Shingen's casual disclosure of the top secret of his company made Namie wonder if he had indeed suffered a head injury.
Izaya was keeping silent, trying to assess if what Shingen said was the truth and eventually failing.
"So I'm just gonna tell them I still haven't found the head yet, since you appear to be experimenting with it in a different way from ours. You're assuming that the Valkyrie=Dullahan myth is valid, trying to see if throwing the head into the midst of deadly conflict would make her come to life...that's an intriguing, intriguing idea."
"I see I didn't do a clean job debugging the apartment."
"......That was intended as a joke. Are you seriously doing that? ...Based on such a piece of obscure mythology-?"
With that stupid gas mask in place, any effort to read expressions from this chameleonic guy's face proved futile.
Izaya sighed in resignation and simply spilled it all out.
"All right. It's true that I've been trying to do that. If it doesn't work here, guess I'll have to take it somewhere deadlier...anyway, I'd appreciate it if you be cooperative. Sorry that my methodology hadn't been a little more scientific, but I simply don't own the kind of equipment it takes to do such observations."
"Mm-hmm. It's alright, go ahead and try what you like. I could invite you to use our equipment at the company, but that would mean putting you under full surveillance...and to tell you the truth, I am interested in your way of doing it. Nobody I know have ever thought about conducting experiments based on mythology, not even myself."
"You flatter me, sir."
Izaya took one more sip of his tea with a bitter grin and widened it into a bold smile. He continued to share his thoughts on the experiment:
"I think it's almost taking off...to something good. Creating tension among several gangs and throwing them into the arena together. Not to mention their respective leaders are friends who cherish and possibly covet each other..."
"Really?"
"They're going to be embroiled in this fated war with each other, yet at the same time missing each other...moreover, one of them is like Certy - a moderately otherworldly being."
"You can't be talking about...Saika?"
The corner of Shingen's mouth twisted in happiness at Izaya's decription.
"It's not so much an experiment...as it is a show staged for your entertainment, right?"
"I'm not gonna say no."
"Chill. You said 'almost' taking off...which I take to mean that it should have but somehow didn't go swimmingly enough?"
Izaya sighed with feigned lightness before answering.
"I figure you already know anyway, but..."
"- Certy has unnecessary ties with two out of the three of them."
Note: This will be done after one more installment, which will shed some light on Masaomi and Saki. After that hopefully I'll have time to update and translate the timeline. I know this particular scene probably raises more questions than it answers, so if you're in the mood to be spoiled feel free to post a comment.
"- You know how Yagiri Pharmaceuticals was merged into Nebula shortly after dear Miss Namie absconded? That led to Nebula making a fuss to find out the whereabouts of the head - of Miss Namie, sorry. And from a number of local hotels here we got reports about sightings of her heading for your apartment...so I ambushed her at the time I knew she would come, sent her into a cold sweat with this gun and got in here."
"Izaya, shouldn't we be calling the police?"
"Mmm-hmm? Aren't you two gonna be the ones in trouble though? If I tell them to look for the head of a young female in the room and boom, they find it...forget about the people-cutting nutters, this is what's for headline tomorrow. Actually, maybe I myself should go bombard those online boards with pictures of that using a cute female screenname."
Izaya retained his phlegmatic smile and sipped his tea as Shingen continued to provoke him in a loud voice.
"I see. Shinra did get his twisted personality from you after all."
"I'll take that as a compliment and give nothing in return. And it's about time you gave me that head."
"What is with this guy - "
Namie's expression turned into one of sheer disgust. Izaya, on the other hand, looked as if he was used to this sort of stuff.
"If you said 'here, gimme', I would only reply with a "that so?'...and then what would happen? I would very much like to know."
"Your apartment is gonna be stormed by a gang of fifty, that's what's gonna happen - what if I told you that?"
"In that case you shouldn't have come today in the first place. This would be an empty apartment for rent by the time you brought your gangsters here."
Izaya didn't look moved in the slightest as he said that to a man more than twenty years his senior.
"Haha...just kidding. To be frank with you, I'm in no hurry to retrieve the head."
"Hmm?"
"Certy-kun showing up on television took Nebula's bosses by surprise...so they started asking themselves whether studying the body should be a priority before they can even start with the head."
Shingen's casual disclosure of the top secret of his company made Namie wonder if he had indeed suffered a head injury.
Izaya was keeping silent, trying to assess if what Shingen said was the truth and eventually failing.
"So I'm just gonna tell them I still haven't found the head yet, since you appear to be experimenting with it in a different way from ours. You're assuming that the Valkyrie=Dullahan myth is valid, trying to see if throwing the head into the midst of deadly conflict would make her come to life...that's an intriguing, intriguing idea."
"I see I didn't do a clean job debugging the apartment."
"......That was intended as a joke. Are you seriously doing that? ...Based on such a piece of obscure mythology-?"
With that stupid gas mask in place, any effort to read expressions from this chameleonic guy's face proved futile.
Izaya sighed in resignation and simply spilled it all out.
"All right. It's true that I've been trying to do that. If it doesn't work here, guess I'll have to take it somewhere deadlier...anyway, I'd appreciate it if you be cooperative. Sorry that my methodology hadn't been a little more scientific, but I simply don't own the kind of equipment it takes to do such observations."
"Mm-hmm. It's alright, go ahead and try what you like. I could invite you to use our equipment at the company, but that would mean putting you under full surveillance...and to tell you the truth, I am interested in your way of doing it. Nobody I know have ever thought about conducting experiments based on mythology, not even myself."
"You flatter me, sir."
Izaya took one more sip of his tea with a bitter grin and widened it into a bold smile. He continued to share his thoughts on the experiment:
"I think it's almost taking off...to something good. Creating tension among several gangs and throwing them into the arena together. Not to mention their respective leaders are friends who cherish and possibly covet each other..."
"Really?"
"They're going to be embroiled in this fated war with each other, yet at the same time missing each other...moreover, one of them is like Certy - a moderately otherworldly being."
"You can't be talking about...Saika?"
The corner of Shingen's mouth twisted in happiness at Izaya's decription.
"It's not so much an experiment...as it is a show staged for your entertainment, right?"
"I'm not gonna say no."
"Chill. You said 'almost' taking off...which I take to mean that it should have but somehow didn't go swimmingly enough?"
Izaya sighed with feigned lightness before answering.
"I figure you already know anyway, but..."
"- Certy has unnecessary ties with two out of the three of them."
Note: This will be done after one more installment, which will shed some light on Masaomi and Saki. After that hopefully I'll have time to update and translate the timeline. I know this particular scene probably raises more questions than it answers, so if you're in the mood to be spoiled feel free to post a comment.