DURARARA!! Vol.5 INTERLUDE OR PROLOGUE A
INTERLUDE OR PROLOGUE A:
ROKUJOU CHIKAGE
Night of May 3rd, Itabashi, Tokyo
There was an overpass over National Highway 254, commonly referred to as "Kawagoe Highway".
On that overpass now stood a young man with a medical mask over his one eye, surrounded by a throng of girls and watching the flow of vehicle headlights under the overpass.
"Ne Rocchi, are you not in pain any more?"
"I'm in horrible pain. But as long as I'm with you all I'm fine. The breath of cute girls in my ear is the best analgesic."
Chikage rubbed at his Band Aid with one hand as he said this. One of the girls opened her mouth to say in a serious tone:
"Rocchi."
"What's up?"
"You're sick."
"Wha - ......"
Chikage's head dropped forwards in a dramatic fashion as if her words had been a fatal blow. But in fact he was not disheartened in the slightest as he turned towards the girls and said:
"I need to thank you for showing me around Ikebukuro's streets today, though. It gave me quite some ideas."
"Drop that pretense, Rocchi. We know you've hardly even stepped out of Saitama."
"But you scared me to death with all those injuries when we saw you."
"Yeah. Don't fight if you don't know how to fight, Rocchi."
Chikage smiled hollowly at the chattering throng of girls and said:
"I'm good at it."
"So did you win?"
"......No, I lost."
"I knew it~"
The girls sighed. Chikage sighed back.
"My opponent was too strong. But hell if that's not the fight I enjoyed the most in years. And he was a nicer guy than I'd expected, too."
Chikage said with a gloomy expression on his face. The girls began to shoot back.
"No idea what you're talking about." "Why was he in a fight with you if he was so nice?"
"Guys never grow up......" "Especially Rocchi......."
"The only grown-up part about him is the lower body......" "That's sick." "What kind of guy asks eight girls out on a date at the same time?" "Huh, I thought he actually asked ten more?" "Most of them got mad and went home." "That's just the worst." "Why are we dating such a playboy?" "Because that's one of our sick hobbies?"
Chikage narrowed his eyes and tilted his head sideways as the girls continued to make biting remarks about him.
"You look like you really enjoy talking about me. I'm at least a better guy than that aristocrat with 30+ maid slash lovers they talked about on TV a while back, don't you think?"
"Eh? But didn't you say you were jealous of him?"
"......We'll talk about that later. Anyway, take care on your way home today. Don't walk alone until you're in the Station."
The girls smiled in resignation as Chikage made an obvious attempt to change the topic.
"OK, OK, Rocchi. You sure worry a lot about us."
"See you later."
The girls said their goodbyes and walked off the overpass.
Chikage watched them leave with a smile on his face and kept staring at the night view of the highway.
He kept silent for a while in the nightly breeze -
Then said abruptly in a voice that blended into the noise of the traffic.
"But really, I've never been defeated like that before. Not to mention he even had to take me to the doctor. A weird doctor at that, too."
"We never thought you would make such a careless mistake."
A voice sounded from behind the young man's back.
It was no longer the voice of a young girl; instead, it was the brusque voice of a grown man.
Chikage did not turn. He kept his gaze fixed on the traffic and said:
"Ahhh……that guy's not human. To be honest with you, I don't even want a rematch with him."
"Is he so hard to deal with?"
"But then, I shouldn't have picked on him in the first place since we were actually the ones at fault. I went looking for him because I wanted to."
"That's OK. Heiwajima Shizuo is not whom we're after, anyway."
"That's right."
Chikage chuckled and said to the men around him:
"Yeah, Heiwajima Shizuo is just a side dish. Our main course is the opponent tonight."
Chikage raised his head and turned his gaze away from the highway to focus on the men around him.
A lot of those faces he was already familiar with.
Eyes.
Eyes sharp like wolves' were focused on Rokujou Chikage.
But the animosity in them was not directed at Chikage.
Scores of men in leather jackets, or "tokko-fuku"-s.
They looked like they were not fully adults yet, but their intimidating demeanor seemed to make even the air around them go denser.
Not all of them were standing on the overpass, of course. Apart from a selected few, most of the men stood on the sidewalk under the overpass.
Rokujou Chikage scrutinized one by one the men who stood in silence -
- And slowly opened his mouth to say:
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We have no mercy for those who showed us none…….if they choose to play dirty, then we'll just play even dirtier! The fools among us who went to Ikebukuro to wreak havoc without my permission have been sent to hospital……don't let yourselves become fools like them!"
"They got another three of us yesterday. Did a clean job at that, too."
"……Che! Fools running around without my permission again? Oi!"
Chikage ground his teeth as he heard his subordinates say. Then - he laughed.
"We're not a herd of meek lost sheep……there's no need for us to bother declaring outright war on those filth before we tackle them."
Rokujou Chikage - the man with the mark of the Saitama bousouzoku gang "Toramaru" on him - proceeded to focus his gaze on the men around him, all filled to the brim with killing intent. His voice was calm, but the waves of emotion underneath were clearly being channeled:
"They might have considered it revenge, but what they did was more than what I can put up with……they came to Saitama, attacked our members and even ambushed people who had nothing to do with us. ……Had they avoided involving anyone who was not one of us, I would have put up with it. But now the story is different."
A man who looked like the Vice Captain of the team swallowed and said:
"I don't know how they think about us……but I think Dollars would be a pretty tough opponent."
"I don't care what they are."
Chikage didn't seem to share the Vice Captain's concern.
These delinquents looked completely different than when they wreaked havoc around Ikebukuro - they were now disciplined and had a leader.
"We're gonna show those so-called 'Dollars' who think they're something just who we are!"
All of the men listened to Chikage in silence.
In their hearts, however, a fire had started and illuminated one single goal -
Revenge!
An unknown gang had ruined the peace of their hometown.
What was more, they had lost face.
Their friends, family and other innocent individuals had been involved.
Rokujou Chikage used his most inciting voice to make these angry young men release the full power of their wrath.
"We'll show those Dollars……WHO ARE THE ONES THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE MESSED WITH!"
"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - !!!!!!!"
A deafening roar shook the nightly sky over Ikebukuro -
Soon after, the men disappeared into the dark.
Chikage remained on the overpass and watched them leave.
His smile now was evil and cruel, completely different from the one he wore while fighting Shizuo.
"Ah, right. I don't think you guys need reminding, but…"
Chikage added for the last time:
" - If anyone has the guts to even touch a female member of Dollars……I will kill him with my own hands."
END OF INTERLUDE OR PROLOGUE A