DURARARA!! Vol.9 Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
THE INFORMATION BROKER
Early August, somewhere in Tokyo
"Somehow it feels like a long time since I've last been in this car."
In the back seat of an expensive-looking car Orihara Izaya muttered while sitting next to the window on the right and enjoying the view of the city outside.
The young man was wearing a black T-shirt and a likewise black summer coat. Without looking nervous in the slightest, he turned to the other man in the car.
"It's been so long that the sight of Shiki-san's face makes me feel nostalgic."
"Is that so? To me it feels like yesterday."
The male whose eyes had characteristic long slits at the outer corners replied in an even tone. He looked like he was in his thirties and gave the impression that he was hard to deal with.
It was impossible to tell how Shiki felt about Izaya from his expression as he said in a flat voice:
"I heard that someone tried to scoop your entrails out. Are you alright now?"
"Ah, right…I think that made it into the news or something. Thank God they didn't show any pictures of me."
"Who did that to you?"
"I'm looking for that person as well. Anyway, I would readily confess that there are a lot of people who think ill of me when I only meant to be kind. …But still, it's the first time you requested my presence in a long while. Surely it's not just to ask me that?"
"I'm satisfying my curiosity, but I'm also doing this for my job. If someone tries to assassinate an information broker under our patronage, it is only natural to suspect that they are trying to harm us, isn't it?"
Shiki tilted his head further sideways and asked one more question.
"Speaking of which, Orihara-san, would you happen to know anything about someone named 'Nakura'?"
Though Izaya was obviously younger than he was, Shiki still asked the question in a deferential tone*. There was, however, something sharp and cold in his words that made the air inside the car feel sharper on the skin.
* Shiki uses honorific speech with everyone except his own subordinates. Izaya, when speaking to Shiki, changes his first-person pronoun from the casual "ore" to the more formal "watashi".
Izaya, on the other hand, remained his usual self as he replied:
"Nakura-san? Is that a surname or a given name? There was someone whose given name sounded like that in my middle school, I think…we went to the same university, too. But…"
"Well, that Nakura told our Head's granddaughter to do some weird things…"
"Your Miss? Isn't she still in elementary school? Good God, even if Ikebukuro is one of the safer areas around this place you should never have let bad guys have a chance to approach her. Or was that Nakura a woman?"
Izaya muttered without sounding unsettled in the slightest. Shiki fell silent for a few seconds -
And switched to the "main topic" as if nothing had happened.
"…Anyway. I think this is enough chit-chat for the day. There is something I want you to look into. We can't risk exposing ourselves by making any moves, and hiring ordinary detectives seems not quite enough for so dangerous a situation."
"I am well aware that you wouldn't have contacted me if it were anything less. If worst comes to worst, sacrificing me will always be an easy and painless option for Awakusu-kai."
Ignoring the sarcasm in Izaya's remarks, Shiki mentioned a particular word.
"…'Amphisbaena'. Do you know anything about that name?"
Izaya responded almost immediately to the esoteric word that popped out of nowhere.
"Amphisbaena…it's a legendary lizard believed to make its home in Libya. It's poisonous and it has two heads, one at the front and one rear. Over the centuries its image has 'evolved' in poetry, growing a bat's wings among other things. Gradually it came to be featured on many coats of arms of aristocratic families in the West."
"…Is that so? I've never heard these before. All I knew was that it was some sort of dragon-like creature in Western mythology."
"I think very few people are aware of it. It's one of the lesser-known legendary creatures in Japan. …Speaking of which, does that word have anything to do with what you're going to ask me to look into, Shiki-san?"
Izaya steered the conversation forward with his speculation. Shiki nodded readily and continued to speak.
"There is this organization called Amphisbaena…or should I say this nightclub? Anyway, a group with that name is running an underground casino."
"Oops, I see. I don't recall that name being among the casinos controlled by the Awakusu family."
Izaya said this in a tone that sounded as if he knew every business in the city that had ties with Awakusu-kai. Shiki neither admitted or denied it. In fact, he didn't even look displeased as he continued in an even voice:
"…You know how difficult it is to open that kind of business directly nowadays, Orihara-san. We can make it look legal on the surface, but we still won't get the permit if the name Awakusu comes up even fleetingly in their background investigations. Gambling clubs in apartment buildings are different, though…well, enough about that."
Shiki took a breath and looked into Izaya's eyes in the rear-view mirror before speaking again.
"If it's in our territory but not run by us, our policy is to extract as much protection money as we can by threatening to report them to the police as an illegal casino. However, we're having difficulty locating this particular casino."
"What do you mean?"
"…'Members-only' underground casinos have been said to exist for a long time. But most people who talked about them didn't believe that they actually existed. We didn't, either, until we saw a decline in the number of customers at the casinos we collected protection money from…and even casinos that had direct ties to us."
According to Shiki, Awakusu-kai came to believe in the existence of "Amphisbaena" because a customer who frequented their casinos was careless enough to let it slip.
They immediately got hold of the customer and forced him into taking them to the underground casino - but what they found there was only party space for rent. A party hosted by a dating agency was already going on there by the time they tried to look further into the matter.
They tried to extract more information from that customer, but he was about as clueless as they were. He only went to the party place because he received a text message from the mailing list telling him "where to go for the party". In the text message there was not a single word mentioning gambling.
Usually party space owners would never rent their space to a gambling group - but it seemed that no chips-to-money or money-to-chips conversion ever went on in that space.
"Heh…so they changed the chips into money somewhere else? That sounds like the way you redeem prizes in a game arcade."
Izaya smiled slightly after listening to Shiki's explanation.
Shiki returned that smile with a face devoid of expressions as he continued:
"They do not change the chips into money in the open. It seems like they take care of that with something that resembles an IC card system. To the owner of the party spaces they rent it will look like they're just having a board game night with no money involved."
"That's true."
"If we were the police, we could have tracked the text message back to its sender and put an end to this…but things got complicated when we tried to track it back since it seemed to have involved a proxy server in another country. However, it's not really worth negotiating with an overseas proxy service provider for, either…"
Shiki shrugged slightly, but his words remained relentlessly sharp.
Even though Shiki's tone kept reminding Izaya that he was not a man to be trifled with, Izaya kept his own pace as he said:
"But from what you told me, I feel like the way they run this business is a little too bold…or should I say reckless? This whole chipless electronic casino thing, I mean. If a gambler loses, he can find any excuse to not pay. He can blame it on system error, or anything."
"Exactly. Well, the owners should have expected the same thing and taken the due precautions, I suppose. …We have other issues with the 'Amphisbaena' people as well. The things they do are a real pain to us. They're not only pushing their luck by walking on this tight rope - they've actually already stepped off it and are falling to the ground, but they haven't realized it yet."
"So in a nutshell, you want them beaten flat into the ground. Am I right?"
Izaya looked his happiest since the beginning of this conversation when he said this. Shiki, however, simply ignored him.
"Curiously, the customer who originally gave us the information stopped contacting us afterwards. Since they're already trying to hide themselves from us as if they already knew that we would be looking for them, it's necessary that we change our strategy a little bit."
"Therefore you hired me, a free third-party whom you can sacrifice without blinking an eye."
"It's not just about our territory - otherwise we wouldn't have gotten so wound up over this. Things may turn out ugly if people in the territories of other Medei Group branches besides Awakusu-kai catch wind of such rumors. If nothing else, we will need to know if this group has yakuza backing or not. If we can't do that, branches within Medei Group are simply going to keep suspecting each other."
Exhaling silently, he said to Izaya:
"-Which means we're asking you to find out what those people really are."
♂♀
Several minutes ago, a road in Tokyo
[W-Wait, let's talk.]
These words appeared from the hand of the figure in the black rider suit.
To be exact, they appeared on the screen of the PDA the figure was holding.
The rider was on a motorbike with neither a headlight nor a number plate. The body of the motorbike was as pitch-black as the rider's outfit, seemingly absorbing all light that hit its surface. In fact, even its frame and wheels were the same shade of black; the entire motorbike looked as if it had just sprung to life from its own shadow.
However, the group of people standing in the way of this surreal and fantastic motorbike -
- simply couldn't get any more everyday or real.
"What now? …Are you finally realizing how serious it is? Ready to call your lawyer?"
The man standing at the front of the group of several police officers on white motorbikes grinned triumphantly at the rider. The rider of the Black Motorbike shuddered and began to type on the PDA again.
[I-I did some research. In Tokyo horses don't have to have lights on them even though they're treated as light vehicles. Under the article for the obligation of lighting it says 'Cows and horses are exempt from this requirement'!]
"Che…so you knew."
[What did you mean by 'so you knew'…?! You rogue cop! Tyrant! False accuser! Corrupt to the bone!]
Finally having found a point of attack, the rider kept hurling epithets at Kuzuhara Kinnosuke, the leader of the White Motorbikes group, whose grin only widened as he asked:
"I see. So you're planning on insisting that's a horse till the very end."
[I'm glad you understand.]
Maybe he's going to buy it. The rider felt reassured at the thought. Kuzuhara, on the other hand, tightened his grip on the handle as he went on to ask:
"So you've been riding that light vehicle, which you call a horse, in the car lane as you would a motorbike?"
[Eh?]
"How much do you know about the rules that say which lanes a light vehicle and a two-wheeled vehicle can use on the road?"
[…Um…I…]
The rider seemed to have realized that this was not going to bode well for him. On the PDA "…"-s dominated the screen as if trying to buy some time.
"Anyway, you see the board over there?"
Kuzuhara was pointing to a board displaying the speed limit - 30.
"Not even bikes are allowed to break the speed limit, you know that, right? How fast did you think you were going when you were running away from us just now?"
[…!?]
"I've been demanding that you stop for the past 5 minutes. I have no idea where you got the guts to ignore me for that long…but you're gonna give me your ID right n-…what, you bastard!"
The Black Motorbike had raced forward noiselessly and made a run for it before Kuzuhara could finish.
At the sight of an eerie motorbike that made no engine noise whatsoever, the traffic police still went about their daily mission without a fear in the world.
- Even though they knew that the thing they were dealing with might be a real monster.
♂♀
Celty Sturluson was not human.
She was a dullahan, a Scottish or Irish fairy that knocked on the doors of the dying and warned them of their impending death.
She carried her severed head at her side and rode a carriage pulled by a Coiste-bodhar, a headless horse, to the homes of the dying. If they were thoughtless enough to open the door, she would splash upon them a bucketful of blood, and was therefore regarded as a messenger of doom like banshees in European folklore.
Some believed that dullahans were the form Nordic Valkyries took when they fell onto the Earth. Celty herself had no idea whether it was true or not, however.
Perhaps she did know.
But she certainly did not remember.
She lost the memories as to what she was when her head was stolen in her homeland. That was the reason she followed the scent of its presence all the way to Ikebukuro.
Her headless horse was transformed into a motorbike and her armor into a rider suit; for decades she wandered the streets in this city.
But she ended up getting neither her head nor her memories back.
She already knew who had stolen her head.
She also knew who had been trying to keep her from finding it.
But still, she ended up having no idea where her head was.
For Celty, life was good as it was.
She was spending her life with someone who loved her, and she had people who accepted her for what she was.
If what she was feeling was indeed happiness, then she was ready to carry on with her life the way she was.
Having made up her mind, the headless woman decided to show her resolve to the world through her actions rather than her nonexistent face.
Such was the being named Celty Sturluson.
♂♀
Somewhere in Tokyo, in a luxury car
The Headless Rider, who would be seen as the embodiment of abnormality by any ordinary person, overtook Izaya and Shiki's car.
Izaya's eyes followed the White Motorbikes as they soared past immediately after. Smiling cheerfully, he muttered:
"Our cops are working as hard as ever today. I can now rest assured. Tokyo is still a safe place."
As Izaya said these words no one else would have dreamed of saying to an Awakusu-kai executive, Shiki did not look particularly displeased - though he showed no intention of echoing Izaya's sentiment, either.
"Since that officer on the White Motorbike came, it's gotten harder for us to ask that Courier to do anything."
"Kuzuhara Kinnosuke. The name Kuzuhara rings quite a bell to your people, doesn't it?"
"…"
"The one who works for the anti-yakuza branch is Kuzuhara Yumeji, right? I did hear that he was the one who caused Kine-san's expulsion from Awakusu-kai*…"
*Kine: In the audio commentary of DVD Vol.7 it is revealed that when a big fight broke out between Shizuo and Izaya close to their graduation from Raijin, Kine from Awakusu-kai happened to drive by and stopped them from fighting. This incident became the starting point of Izaya's collaborations with Awakusu-kai.
Izaya's words were cut off by Shiki's voice.
"Excessive curiosity kills even the snake, Informant."
It was the first time he dropped the deferential honorific speech used in front of a business partner, opting instead for the kind of speech one would use to address someone more than 12 years their junior.
There was, however, no irritation on Shiki's face indicating that Izaya had brought up a distasteful subject - instead, there was a small smile. Nevertheless, the smile did nothing to lessen the sharpness and gravity in his words.
Without showing any sign of fear under the pressure, Izaya maintained his usual composure as he quipped:
"Shouldn't it be the cat, Shiki-san?"
"In the West they say cats have nine lives…but snakes are symbols of rejuvenation and immortality, aren't they? …Just like you. You keep shedding your old skin and coming back to life no matter how badly you're beaten up or stabbed with a knife…"
"…You know more about those things than I thought, Shiki-san. Are you into manga or something?"
Shiki ignored the information broker's teasing and continued evenly:
"We don't care what you may or may not know, Informant. All we care is whether you're going to keep your mouth shut like a clam or let it slip off your tongue…that is all."
"I will etch that into my heart."
"Curiosity may only kill a cat nine times. The punishment for 'excessive' curiosity, on the other hand, will be a little longer and a little more difficult to deal with…that's all I'm trying to say here, Informant."
"…"
There was a moment of silence.
"So, should we go back to talking about the job?"
Shiki's face became devoid of expression again. His voice became stiff and mechanical as if none of the words he said in the past minute had ever actually been uttered.
"There's one thing we do know about this whole Amphisbaena business."
"What is it?"
"You know about Akabayashi, right? He's one of us."
As Izaya asked the question, Shiki mentioned the name of one of his fellow executives at Awakusu-kai who was a famous street fighter.
"Yeah. He's the one who's taking care of Jyan Jyan Jyan, isn't he? They say he's a hardcore fighter type, but I heard that he's gotten a lot easier to get along with recently?"
"Who knows? It could be that he's simply hiding his fangs. You're an information broker. Surely you know better than to believe that anyone who's easy to get along with would also be safe to deal with?"
"You have a point. …So, what about this Akabayashi-san?"
Izaya smiled hollowly. With eyes full of "excessive" curiosity, he awaited Shiki's reply.
"During the time you went missing after you were stabbed, Orihara-san, he got into trouble with some young folks. Those college students were selling their homemade drugs, little bastards…Akabayashi was smart about it and dealt them a heavy blow, which is good, but we still haven't found the main culprits."
"Are you suspecting that those people are from 'Amphisbaena'?"
Izaya tried to guess the best he could what Shiki was going to say next. But he was wrong.
"No…there's a possibility that they got into trouble with the Amphisbaena people."
"Heh?"
"We caught one of the lackeys in the group of drug dealers. Seems like his bosses told him to 'look for Amphisbaena'. But we have no idea how much his bosses know about the situation, either."
"I see. So is it part of my job as well to look into that group of drug dealers?"
It was a natural question, or at least sounded like one in every way.
But Shiki shook his head silently and handed Izaya an envelope.
Izaya took it, checked out the several 10,000-yen bills inside and placed it inside his summer coat.
Having made sure that Izaya had taken the money, Shiki began to answer his question.
"We will track down the group of drug dealers by other means, so there's no need for you to look into that matter in particular. However, if they find out that you're looking for 'Amphisbaena', there's a possibility that they will be after you. Please take the due precautions."
Izaya lowered his gaze as he heard these words as if the conversation had already lost all meaning for him - but suddenly, he asked Shiki a question with interest.
"By the way, what did you mean by 'other means'?"
All he got in reply was Shiki's sharp, meaningful smile.
"Informant, excessive curiosity…"
"I know, I know. I won't ask anymore. When I really want to know, I'll just find out without asking."
"…"
"I don't want to be made into snake kabayaki* just yet."
*Kabayaki: a term used to refer to seafood filleted and grilled in sweet soy sauce.
Several minutes later, the car arrived at a certain place in Ikebukuro.
Izaya put his right hand into his coat pocket as he was about to get out of the car parked on the side of the road, his left hand grabbing the door handle.
"Speaking of which, you always dropped me off in the same place you picked me up. But not today, I guess."
Though he was talking to an Awakusu-kai executive, the young man said this without looking afraid in the slightest. Shiki remained expressionless as he told Izaya the reason.
"That? It's quite simple. I'm dropping you off here because it'll only be a minute."
"?"
Trying to guess what Shiki had meant, Izaya opened the door and stepped outside -
A girl was standing there.
"…"
As he saw the girl who looked more than twelve years his junior, Izaya remembered what this place was.
On the signboard he saw the huge words "RAKUEI GYM". Sounds of sandbags being punched were coming from within the building.
As Izaya remained silent, Shiki talked to him from behind.
"It just happened that I was going to pick up our Head's little Miss here, too."
Hearing Shiki's voice, Izaya's gaze focused on the girl in front of him.
The girl, who was carrying a bag for her karate uniform, was a girl Izaya had seen before.
Awakusu Akane.
As part of a conspiracy, Izaya had convinced the girl to try to kill Heiwajima Shizuo.
Shiki's sharp eyes focused in turn on Akane's surprised expression and Izaya's back.
Shiki's subordinate from Awakusu-kai held his breath in the driver's seat and tightened his grip on the handle.
However, Awakusu Akane was simply a girl Izaya had seen before - no more than that.
"Hi, I don't think we've met! You're Awakusu Akane-chan, right?"
Izaya said it in a natural way as if the name of the granddaughter of Awakusu-kai's Head were but common knowledge.
"Eh? Ah, right…yes!"
Initially taken aback, Akane had been looking at Izaya with a guarded expression - but as she saw Shiki in the car parked behind Izaya's back, she replied looking relieved.
Eyes still foused on Izaya and Akane, Shiki asked:
"Miss, have you ever met him before?"
"No, um, my name is Awakusu Akane. Nice to meet you!"
The girl muttered in a nervous voice that didn't sound like she was lying. She was probably just nervous about meeting a person she had never seen before.
Shiki studied Akane's face for a moment before turning to Izaya.
"So, about the job…we're counting on you."
"Yeah. I'll excuse myself, then. Goodbye."
Izaya patted Akane lightly on the head as he walked past her.
Akane tilted her head curiously at face of the man whom she had met for the first time, but soon forgot about it as she climbed into the car.
- Shiki-san sure is sharp.
Izaya muttered to himself in his heart as he watched the car leave.
- It was the right call to not have messed with Akane-chan's mind in person.
As he remembered how he had tricked Akane into trying to kill Shizuo, Izaya grinned to himself with satisfaction.
As he remembered the poor man who had appeared before Akane under the name "Izaya" as he was told by Izaya -
There was suddenly some warmth in Izaya's smile.
He was smiling like a cat-lover imagining kittens frolicking with each other.
CHATROOM
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No one is in the chatroom right now.
No one is in the chatroom right now.
No one is in the chatroom right now.
Pure Water 100%-san has joined the chat.
Pure Water 100%
Just like I thought, there's no one online during the day
Pure Water 100%
Is everyone busy?
Pure Water 100%
It's kind of lonely here…
Pure Water 100%
Speaking of which, I think the original members here are Kanra-san, Setton-san, Tanaka Taro-san, Bakyura-san, Saika-san, Kyo-san and Mai-san?
Pure Water 100%
I wonder what kind of friends they really are.
Pure Water 100%
Do they know each other in real life? Or do they only know each other online? I would be interested to know.
Pure Water 100%
Kyo-san invited me here. I'm friends in real life with Kyo-san and Mai-san. But those two wouldn't tell me who's who in this chatroom. But then, maybe no one in this chatroom knows who's who in real life after all.
Bakyura-san has joined the chat.
Bakyura
I heard you summon me, so I came here
Pure Water 100%
Uwah!? Impressive, have you been lurking all along?
Bakyura
As long as there are girls,
Bakyura
A gangster boy will check any place out!
Pure Water 100%
But how can you be sure that I'm a girl? I could be online genderswapping, you know.
Bakyura
But by the same token,
Bakyura
Shoro-san and Gaki-san could in fact be girls
Pure Water 100%
I see. No one knows who they're talking to.
Pure Water 100%
But if Shoro-san is actually a girl, the online-offline gap would be kind of huge lol
Bakyura
Gap is moe
Pure Water 100%
Ah, Bakyura-san, are you the kind of people who use words like "moe"?
Bakyura
I'd use any word as long as it gets me into a talk with females
Pure Water 100%
But have you really been lurking in this chatroom?
Bakyura
Nah,
Bakyura
I set the program so that it I get notified when someone comes online
Pure Water 100%
Unbelievable! Are you that addicted to this chatroom?
Pure Water 100%
Ah, don't tell me there's someone you like in this chatroom? Ah, but that can't be. Bakyura-san's girlfriend is Saki-san!
Bakyura
I have no idea what you're talking about
Pure Water 100%
Come on! It's so obvious from the way you two talk in the chatroom! Do you really think we can't tell?
Bakyura
I have the right to remain silent
Pure Water 100%
That's true. I won't ask anymore, then.
Pure Water 100%
So do you have friends in real life who are original members of this chatroom?
Bakyura
Nah, nah,
Bakyura
Just give up,
Bakyura
It won't do you any good to seek people out in real life.
Pure Water 100%
You're so serious, Bakyura-san. Aren't you curious too? About the people you talk to on the Internet, I mean.
Bakyura
Who can tell? Maybe I'd regret knowing if I actually knew
Bakyura
If I get along with people here,
Bakyura
It's not really necessary to stalk them in real life
Bakyura
Bye -
Bakyura-san has left the chat.
Pure Water 100%
He left.
Pure Water 100%
But you really do get curious about people at times.
Pure Water 100%
Speaking of which, Tanaka Taro-san hasn't logged on in a while.
Pure Water 100%
Tanaka Taro-san, if you see this message, please come back☆
Pure Water 100%
There are new members here you should say hello to!
Pure Water 100%
I'm logging off now, bye!
Pure Water 100%-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.
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(END OF CHAPTER 1)