DURARARA!! Vol.6 CHAPTER 5, PART IX
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Back side of the Warehouse, Raira Academy
"Hey, isn't that Anri-chan?"
A woman in a rider outfit and a girl wielding a katana.
In the vortex of battle no one seemed to have noticed their sudden arrival except for a certain few. Yumasaki, who had just helped the hostages escape through the back entrance, returned to see the figure of a girl he knew and was flummoxed.
It was most fortunate for Anri that she arrived only after Kamichika Rio and her other classmates had left the scene.
"Heh, that's Anri-chan."
Karisawa, who had been watching as Kadota and the others resumed fighting, turned her gaze towards Anri.
A girl fighter with blood-red eyes ablaze and a katana in her hands.
Whether out of coincidence or the synchronicity of their souls, Yumasaki and Karisawa muttered "Shakugan no Shana?!" at the same time in two places despite not being within each other's earshot.
"Is this what they call a predictable twist of fate? Anri-chan turns out to be a Flame Haze..."
Next to Yumasaki who was muttering things that were very obviously wrong, a girl's voice sounded.
"Huh - that's Rio's friend. Is she in the kendo club or something?"
"What - why didn't you run away with the others?"
"'Cause Rocchii is still here ~ "
Non, (one of) Chikage's girlfriend(s), stared at Anri as if she saw something extraordinary. As she looked past Anri, however, her eyes bulged in amazement.
"Wow ~ looks like we have a real lion on the scene now."
Hearing what she said, Yumasaki turned away from the fighting masses to look in the other direction -
"......Uh."
The one who was walking leisurely towards them with a motorbike on his shoulder was no other than the God of Wrath himself.
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Her vision as Sonohara Anri returning to her and her perception of her surroundings back to human, Anri felt a rush of fatigue and numbness permeating her limbs.
Since Saika's battle instinct had taken control of her and set her eyes on fire, she had arrived against her conscious will at the center of the Dollars conflict.
- ...
If somebody I know sees me, I'll be in trouble.
Just as she attempted to shove away such anxiety as mere "happenings on the other side of the picture frame" -
Something kept her from doing that, namely, " - if Mikado, Masaomi or Mika sees me, they'll probably keep their distance from me." That message penetrated the picture frame, making her hesitate in her movements for a fraction of a second -
Vorona was able to sweep her legs under Anri and Anri fell into imbalance.
Not about to miss this opportunity for attack, Vorona thrust her knife forwards -
- Only to have it clash with another metal object: a weapon that looked like a hybrid of a metal nightstick and a short sword.
"......KABUTOWARI......"
Vorona, who had at some point obtained knowledge about this Japanese weapon, glared at the man who had intercepted her attack as she muttered.
"Obstruction, is not appreciated. I, will become bad-tempered."
Her voice signaled imminent danger, yet Chikage, the one who intercepted her attack, just laughed and shook his head.
"Not that I don't enjoy a good cat fight between girls every now and then......but wouldn't it totally defeat the purpose if you hurt each other's beautiful faces and bodies with knifes like this? I'd suggest you go with mud wrestling."
Though he couldn't see Vorona's face through the helmet she was wearing, Chikage had decided what stance to take the moment he saw it was a female.
He had also stopped Anri's arm with his other hand. Within that fraction of a second, he had made sure that neither of the two girls would be hurt by each other's blade.
"..."
- What's with this guy.
- Looks like he's pretty good at this, despite being an amateur......
Vorona slowly looked up at Chikage's face while trying to decide whether he would be a worthwhile "opponent" for her. But -
"......? ..............!?"
She was no longer looking at Chikage. Something she saw right past his shoulder had transfixed her.
Namely, the sight of a man in a bartender suit carrying the motorbike she had been riding on his shoulder and walking towards the center of the battle - a sight that made her seriously begin to doubt her eyes.
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In his usual bartender suit with a motorbike on his shoulder, Shizuo's figure stood out so much that it made the entire fighting mass - who took virtually no notice of Anri and the others when they had arrived on the scene - freeze in their action.
The Toramaru guys who weren't familiar with Shizuo's name issued collectively a "Hah?" while the Dollars members who knew more about Shizuo went into a fit of "Shi, Shizuo's here!" as fear took hold of them.
The never-ending fight between delinquents stopped in a heartbeat at the mere sight of Shizuo.
"Hey, you're the......"
"Shizuo?"
Chikage and Kadota both spoke to Shizuo as he glanced around to make sense of the scene.
"......Heard of this plan to hold women hostage.....how did that turn out?"
Shizuo asked flatly.
The tone in which he said it was so steady that anyone who didn't know better would have taken him for an even-tempered youth.
Inside Anri's body Saika's incessant "cursings" rose in volume and intensity as she turned her attention to her aggressor whose knife was still held immobile by Chikage's kabutowari.
Her aggressor - Vorona - didn't move.
The man whom the delinquents had just called "Shizuo".
Why was he carrying Vorona's motorbike on his shoulder?
Moreover, how did he just carry a 100kg+ motorbike on his shoulder like that as if it were nothing?
Slon and Samia would probably be able to if they tried, but even they would have to use more than one hand. Not to mention Slon and Samia's builds were way too different from this guy's to begin with.
But before she actually thought about any of that, her body had begun to shudder with curious delight since her eyes first fixed themselves on Shizuo. This fact had caught her own attention.
- ...
- What is this.
This was an entirely new feeling for her, one that was perhaps close to the ecstasy Saika felt in Anri whenever she saw Shizuo.
You could call it instinct, or simply the "soul" that had been crystallized and recrystallized to extreme polishedness after years of fighting experience -
Vorona knew it from the moment she set her eyes on Shizuo.
That the very existence of this man standing before her eyes right now was about to blow away her common sense.
Every brain cell she possessed was screaming for a fight with the man before her eyes; yet every muscle in her body yelled "Just run!".
It was impossible for ordinary people to recognize this quickly just how dangerous Shizuo was.
They only learned from the "result" of pissing off Shizuo they saw with their own eyes, in the form of a flying vending machine or flying car, or sometimes their own flying bodies.
But like certain breeds of wild animals who had developed a sharp sense of danger - all the training and experience Vorona had had since a kid made Shizuo's dangerousness immediately evident to her.
It was a similar feeling to having the gun of a tank pointed at your head. Or on an even more massive scale, the same feeling of absurdity as having a continental missile pointed in your direction.
This completely novel feeling had seized her entire being - blood rushed to Vorona's cheeks in waves of unstoppable excitement.
"Ah, thanks to Yumasaki and Karisawa the hostages were safe."
"Oh yeah? That's good. By the way, whose motorbike is this?"
As Shizuo asked this, the rider wearing a full-faced helmet raised her hand timidly.
"My, motorbike."
"Hmm......? Ah, that so. Sorry about that. I thought it was those scums', you know, the ones who took women hostage.....thought I'd throw it at their heads. Well since it's not I'd better not break it."
Shizuo talked as if what he was saying wasn't scary in the slightest as he put the motorbike back onto the ground.
"Speaking of which, who are you? Looks like you wear the same kind of stuff as Celty, you a friend of hers? ......What have you guys been doing anyway?"
Glancing at Chikage who was holding off both girls' blades, Shizuo tilted his head.
"I see. So this is what they call a bloody love triangle."
"Nah, it's nothing like that."
Chikage retorted quickly. Shizuo, however, simply went on to ask the next question.
"So......who exactly were the scums that took women hostage?"
He said this in a perfectly calm manner.
But to those who knew Shizuo it had already left little doubt as to what was about to come.
Their gazes naturally turned to one certain gang leader and thereby answered Shizuo's question.
“Hhhhh......oy, you guys......"
The guy's throat suddenly turned so dry that it felt as it was burning. Half-exasperated -
"......So......so WHAT! HUH?"
He pulled the butterfly knife from his butt pocket and charged at Shizuo.
"DIE!"
It was obvious that he wasn't skilled with the knife at all. Shizuo only had to hit his frantically waving arm leisurely from the side -
A dull crackling sound.
Yet the knife didn't fall to the ground.
The guy, still having no sense what was going on, made for Shizuo's abdomen before he realized that his knife was already gone -
"HUH.....?"
Then he saw it.
His wrist had dislocated and his entire hand was dangling due to gravity.
"Ahhh........AHHHHHHHHHHHH?"
His brain registering the pain at last, the guy screamed at the sight of his own hand -
"......YOU'RE TOO FUCKING LOUD, YOU SCUM!"
Shizuo grabbed the nape of the guy's neck, swung him around and simply threw him as far as he could.
"--------------"
Even the scream had to die in his lungs as the guy followed a trajectory parallel to the ground.
The entire weight of his body pierced through the air more forcefully than any human cannon ball action at any circus - eventually making a hole in the fence more than ten meters away.
The guy passed out with his limbs bent in absurd directions.
Shizuo, after seeing this, turned his glance to the rest of the gang still around him.
"Hhhhh......""T-This is bad - "
Seeing their leader being punched into unconsciousness, every Dollars member except Kadota and his gang were busy running in all directions.
"......Really, they piss me off even when it's the last time I deal with them......"
His fuming anger still not completely subsided, Shizuo stared at the backs of the running men while briefly gritting his teeth.
- About time to make a run for it myself and get back to looking for that flea.
- Whatever I didn't get to do to these scums I'm just gonna do to every one of that bastard's limbs.
With these thoughts on his mind, Shizuo made a move to leave the scene -
As he turned to look, however, the woman in the full-faced helmet stood in his way only a few meters from him.
"? ......You got something to - "
The exact second he asked - something flew towards his chest.
"Ahhh......?"
Namely, the tip of a shiny silver knife.
Though he wasn't aware of this, this was the same Spetznaz ballistic knife attack that had been directed at Anri a moment ago.
"......"
The next second -
The knife, which sunk only 5 millimeters into his chest, fell to the ground.
Time had stopped dead for everyone who saw this scene.
Everyone who knew Shizuo even marginally was envisioning the woman in the rider suit being thrown into the air.
Before anyone could even think of why on earth the woman had had the guts to try to kill Shizuo - the natural result of her action had preoccupied everyone's brain and the sheer terror seemed to have stopped the flow of time.
On the other hand, the woman was the only one still able to move in this place where time itself had frozen over.
Quickly turning her back on Shizuo, she ran towards the main entrance of the Raira Second Ground.
"......."
It took him a moment longer, but Shizuo had now realized what she had done to him.
Seeing the cut in his clothes and the blood forming a stain on his shirt - Shizuo slowly began to speak.
"......I'm not interested in beating up women...nor do I want to do that....."
However, her very act of stabbing him with a knife brought to his mind the face of a certain man he usually referred to as "the flea" - gritting his teeth, Shizuo sprung off the ground.
"BUT I GUESS YOU'RE AT LEAST READY TO HAVE THAT EXPENSIVE-LOOKING HELMET CRUSHED TO A PULP IN THESE HANDS, ARGH?"
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Vorona switched the wireless on in her helmet as angry roars reached her ears from behind. She called out to Slon:
"I'm returning to you 30 seconds from current. Requesting firearm at ready. Presently, presently."
"What? Wait, what happened? Did the Black Motorbike turn up again?"
"I reject. I'm afraid the one who did turn up was human. No, at least I want to think the creature to be human. It is hard to be believed, but I am currently enraptured. I now exist at the middle point between ecstasy and terror."
"What are you talking about…? Anyway, it seems like you're in a bit of trouble. I'll open the rear of the trailer and get the engine to start any moment you're ready, so come right now!"
"Understood."
The moment she nodded, Vorona saw something fly past her at an intimidating speed.
- …
- My, motorbike.
Just like the man who had been thrown onto the fence, her motorbike had been thrown horizontally past her.
The motorbike hit a tree trunk and broke. As soon as she understood what was going on, Vorona kept on running without turning back.
- He probably didn't aim it directly at me.
- What a naive man.
- However…there's no way I can simply dismiss him as an amateur, either!
The pressure on her felt as if a fighter jet were flying behind her, its rotary machine guns aimed at her back.
Beads of cold sweat dried on her back as soon as they crept their way down.
- He's different from the Black Motorbike. He's different from the bespectacled girl, too.
- There's no such eerie incongruity in him as there is in those two.
- This man is, without question…a human being!
In her fear for this "human being", the woman detected a trace of happiness - and kept on running.
Because she wanted to confirm the "vulnerability" of the human being named Shizuo using the weapons in the truck and every single skill she had.
But her unprecedented rapture did impair her judgment.
She did not consider a certain possibility.
An extremely important one at that - that there might be other "opponents" waiting for her near where the truck was parked.
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On the rooftop of a building near Raira's Second Ground
- What's going on?
Celty felt the disturbance in the air around her.
She heard something that sounded like Shizuo bellowing. Before she knew it, the truck's rear door was starting to open, and she heard something crush as if into a wall and break.
- Wh…what's happening!?
Celty hastened to focus on what was going on right in front of her - but what she saw was a female figure in a rider suit fleeing from the entrance of the Second Ground.
- That's the one who attacked me yesterday!
And the one to appear after her -
- Huh?
- Shizuo!?
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Running after the woman, Shizuo saw the rear door of a truck parked outside the Ground begin to move.
Just as he thought it was a mere coincidence, the woman in the rider suit leapt onto the truck through the open rear door.
The truck started at the same time and was about to flee.
"You running away?"
Shizuo made his way to the back of the roofed truck and was about to jump onto the truck himself.
However, the next second, Shizuo was treated to a weird sight.
The woman wearing the helmet was holding a rifle that was only seen in movies.
He saw it in the exact second she held it up and was about to aim it at him.
But what caught his attention was something behind the woman's back: the figure of a little girl, tied up and gagged, near the front of the bed of the truck.
- …Argh?
He happened to have become more familiar with the girl's face and clothes than he would have cared to be.
It was the girl whom he had met in a whispered "Die!" and a sparkling electric shock.
- Akane!?
- Why is she here…
In the second he stiffened with shock and doubt, his opponent had aimed the rifle at him.
- Damn.
- This is gonna give me lead poisoning!
With such completely out of ordinary concerns upon being aimed at by a rifle, Shizuo ran towards the unstaffed parking lot opposite the Second Ground.
Several lead bullets pierced the air where he had been standing only a second ago.
The shots were almost noiseless, presumably thanks to the use of suppressors and subsonic bullets.
"Che…"
- What the hell do these guys want!?
Anger and confusion co-reigning in his heart, Shizuo contemplated this in his own way.
- Why is Akane…
- Why are Akane's kidnappers attacking me?
- What do Akane and I have in common…
At this point, he was reminded of what Akane said this very morning.
- "…Izaya onii-chan."
- …!
- I see…so this is what it's all about.
- That flea…he tried to use Akane to kill me…and when that failed, he even had the guts to hire someone else to silence Akane…
His resulting analysis was half wrong, however -
- He thinks I'm that stupid…
- H E T H I N K S I ' M T H A T S T U P I D T H A T F U C K I N G F L E A B A S T A R D !
As his enemy's face came to his mind, Heiwajima Shizuo's anger level was officially off the charts.
Looking around for something to use -
He found a rusty car parked in a corner of the tiny parking lot, a sheet of notice paper on its windshield.
【We are compelled to treat this car as an abandoned vehicle since it has remained unclaimed in this parking lot for half a year. If you are the owner of this vehicle and wish to file a complaint, please direct it to the following address ----- 】
Upon finding a car with such a notice, Shizuo let an infuriated grin appear on his face as he walked towards it.
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"I hope for momentary stopping of the vehicle, Slon. The first bullets were dodged. His instantaneous power is above my imagination."
"Understood."
Vorona kept her rifle at ready as she watched for anything unusual from the back of the truck.
It was also possible that Shizuo would climb over the fence from the parking lot and come back for her, but whatever he chose to do, the only way to get to her was through this open truck door.
Listening to the slight breathing coming from behind her back, Vorona complained to Slon:
"At least hide her in a bag or under a sheet. Was that impossible?"
- He might have seen it.
- If I let him escape, he may alert the police and get us in trouble.
- …Now I have a reason to kill him.
- …This is making me so happy…
As Vorona was having such thoughts on her mind, Slon at last realized that she had been talking about Awakusu Akane. He began to protest in a tired voice.
"You're asking for too much. I was fleeing from a whole bunch of yakuza in the middle of a metropolis. And I came here because you told me to…"
"Silent. Please fall silent."
"?"
Vorona realized that a strange sound accompanied Slon's talking voice.
- …
- Am I just imagining things?
But the next second -
A huge "something" rolled its way to the middle of the road from the parking lot, making exaggerated metallic noises along the way.
"…Что (What)?"
As soon as she realized what it was, Vorona let out a gasp in Russian.
It was the same sound she made when Anri had pulled a katana out of her body.
Which means what she saw was just as weird - in fact, it was even more surreal.
"Oi…Vorona, the hell is that!?"
"…I hope for the starting of this truck. Immediately!"
"G-Gotcha!"
Slon's voice sounded anxious.
He had probably seen "it" too in the real-view mirror.
In the openings of Western films, you would see tumbleweed rolling.
Like an enormous ball of tumbleweed, a passenger vehicle was rolling down the road -
Passers-by and residents who witnessed the scene from afar would tell stories like this:
"A blond bartender was kicking a scrapped car around like a soccer ball."
But the only ones who believed their stories were those who had lived in Ikebukuro and seen the legendary Heiwajima Shizuo in action.
Vorona was an experienced fighter.
But this was still completely new to her.
Had her father Drakon, Lingerin, a mercenary who had been in many wars or an adventurer been in her position, they might have been able to figure out a proper response synthesized from their past experience - but Vorona was still too young to pull that off.
She had made up for her young age with the intensity of her experience and reading, but still,
【Q: When a car is rolling towards you, what should you do?】
…she had never read a book with an answer to such a question.
Maybe there was one in a video game strategy guide somewhere. But Vorona had never played one single video game.
In a split second, she felt like she saw a figure running between the rolling car and the parking lot.
She hastened to pull the trigger -
But the car flew towards her before she could do so.
- !
Vorona stepped back, and the car fell to the ground just before it was about to hit her.
With a deafening clang the massive object rolled around some more behind their truck.
- That was close…
- Where is he…?
She thought the bartender was right behind the car, but he was nowhere to be found.
- !
- Was the car only meant to divert my attention?
Realizing what her opponent's intent had been, Vorona decided that he must be hiding somewhere and looked around for a figure in a bartender suit -
But she did not notice it.
It was a forced feat of parkour.
Shizuo began to run as soon as he kicked the car. He used the fence and the electric poles to climb to the second floor of the apartment building beside the parking lot. Running on the edges of balconies, he kept up with the truck as it drove along the way.
As Vorona edged closer to the open rear door - Shizuo jumped into the air.
Shizuo literally flew into the truck from a skewed angle.
From Vorona's point of view, it must have seemed like he teleported himself.
Vorona aimed her rifle at him without a single unnecessary move. But Shizuo's instantaneous strength won by a hair's breadth.
Shizuo immediately grabbed the barrel of the rifle and simply squeezed with force.
The barrel of the rifle was effortlessly bent like a straw. Vorona decided that firing the rifle would be risking accidental discharge and let go of the rifle immediately.
She bent her knees swiftly and tried to get her opponent off the bed of the truck with a kick -
But Shizuo put his hand on the truck's inside wall and let her foot fall on him.
- …!
She felt as if she had kicked the truck's wall, or an iron statue that had fused part of itself with the wall.
- …There's no way to…fight him.
She hopped off the ground with her numb feet so that she was further away from Shizuo.
At the same time, she pulled her spare firearm from next to her foot and aimed it at Shizuo -
- But where…!?
The pistol in her hand was one of fairly small caliber. Its bullets did not penetrate very well.
Usually it would be the easier weapon of choice to wound and kill people. But when it came to the man right in front of her eyes, she doubted that its bullets would even go through his impregnable wall of muscles.
The Spetznaz ballistic knife attack had ended up barely scratching his skin.
- …
- His eyeballs…can't possibly be as trained as the rest of his muscles.
Vorona immediately raised the pistol, aiming it at his face.
- If I could have my way, I would have wanted to fight you for longer.
- …Sorry.
The apology could have been to her opponent or the desire inside her doomed to remain unsatisfied. But there was no time for her to deliberate.
Before Shizuo could react, Vorona pulled the trigger -
Pulled the trigger -
Pulled the trigger -
But she couldn't.
- !?
The trigger simply refused to move beyond a certain angle.
As she looked at the pistol in her hand, she saw black shadows coiled around it.
- What!?
- Black Motorbike…!
She turned around in haste - and here it was, the rider in black on the motorbike right behind their truck.
A motorbike with a silent engine.
Vorona had not expected such a superior motorized vehicle for discreet operations to exist.
From the wireless inside her helmet a voice sounded.
"Hold on to something close to you!"
Celty felt relieved as she saw that the pistol in her opponent's hand was indeed unmoving.
Even if it was Shizuo, it was hard to tell what would happen if the pistol had been fired at his face at such close quarters.
- Well, usually people would just die…
- But still…Shooter, you did a good job holding back your neighs.
- I'll just hold the strange woman down with my shadow and…!
Celty raised her right hand at the thought and made new shadows extend from her hand.
But before she could do more -
The truck, which had sped up considerably, suddenly braked hard.
- No…!
Celty slid the motorbike sideways as the back of the truck threatened to bump into her.
But she was a moment too late - Shooter bumped into the back of the truck and they fell over.
Celty quickly released more shadows towards the road, transforming them into a spare tire and forcing the motorbike back into its position.
- What did they think they were doing?!
- Where is Shizuo…!?
She sped up again to follow the truck, trying to see what was happening inside it.
And what she saw was -
Shizuo's fist had penetrated the wall dividing the trailer into two parts immediately when the truck braked.
He had used it as a handle to keep his balance -
But the girl he saw right in front of it caught Shizuo's attention.
- That's Akane. There's no mistaking it.
In that second - Shizuo saw part of the truck's load threatening to slide and fall as the truck was being braked hard.
As these things fell on the table, several unsheathed knives sitting on it were knocked off - and about to land right on Akane.
- !
Before he knew it, Shizuo had pulled his arm back from the wall and jumped off the floor of the truck.
Part of the floor collapsed due to the overly strong impact.
Shizuo's body was propelled towards Akane with the speed of a bullet, shielding her from the several blades that ended up falling onto his back.
Shizuo felt a slight ounce of pain on his back, but he couldn't care less. Instead he looked back at the rear of the truck.
As he did so, he saw Celty, who had resumed her chase on her motorbike.
Shizuo held the tied-up Akane in his arms and stood up quickly. Like a wild beast, he jumped from the floor of the trailer -
- !
Vorona, thinking that he was going to attack her, readied herself -
As if paying no attention to her, however, Shizuo jumped off the trailer.
Had it been several years ago, it would have been hard to imagine Shizuo doing something like this.
No one would have expected that he would be able to place the safety of someone else - a girl he had barely just gotten to know at that - before his own raging anger at its maximum.
However, ever since all the trouble with Saika, Shizuo had come to know how to use his strength. Right now, he decided to jump off the truck because he put Akane's safety first.
Though his act of jumping off a fast-moving truck would only seem like he was exposing the girl to even more danger -
As soon as she saw Shizuo jump, Celty had made a net with her shadow. It kept Shizuo and Akane from falling to the ground.
Shizuo held Akane tightly in his arms as if to protect her. Even if Celty had not made the net in time, Akane would probably have remained unhurt.
But for Celty, the thought was -
- …If a dump truck crashes into them…Shizuo would probably be fine, but Akane-chan would definitely have died…
She felt cold sweat trickle down her heart as she thought about how reckless her friend's actions had been.
On the other hand, the truck merged into the traffic on Meiji Road when Celty was lowering Shizuo and Akane to the ground.
Celty gave up the chase for the same reason as yesterday.
- …Well, as long as Akane-chan is safe.
Thought Celty as she turned to look in Shizuo's direction.
She saw Akane, who had just been untied, grasp onto Shizuo with her shoulders trembling and her eyes looking scared.
- Good…everything's alright now.
Celty felt relieved upon seeing them safe and sound.
But Akane muttered something strange.
"Why…?"
Shizuo tilted his head as he heard Akane's voice and looked back at Akane.
"Why…I…I am trying to kill you, Shizuo onii-chan, why did you save me…?"
"…Did I hear the present continuous tense?"
- Huh?
Shizuo laughed bitterly. Akane looked at him, eyes full of question.
"Because…because…"
"Well, whatever. I don't care…are you hurt?"
"No."
"That's great."
Akane nodded. Instead of the forced smile he had shown her this morning, Shizuo smiled a very Shizuo-ish, powerfully reassuring smile this time and stroked the girl's head.
"If you did get hurt, then killing me would be last thing you should think of doing."
Akane felt confused for a moment as she saw Shizuo smile - but finally she smiled back slightly and nodded with a small "…Yes."
- …
- What happened between these two?
- Eh, um, eh, …seriously, what?
- Speaking of which, Shiki-san and Akane-chan had a conversation that kind of sounded like this before we came here…
Celty did not know the details of what happened between the two. That was why the conversation sounded inexplicably weird to her -
However, satisfied to see the two smiling at each other, she simply sent a text message to Shiki's cell phone.
(TO BE CONTINUED IN PART X)