Chapter 2 - Part 2
High-class Apartment, somewhere in Ikebukuro
When Adabashi Kisuke’s phone rang, it was just past 12.00 o’clock at night.
Inside his apartment, Hijiribe Ruri’s voice rang out.
After a few seconds of allowing the timber sound to reverberate in his heart-
Adabashi slowly pondered to himself while pressing down on the ‘receive call’ button.
Suddenly, Ruri’s singing stopped, his lips rose into a greasy smile.
“Hello? Hello?”
“……It’s you.”
On hearing Adabashi’s answer, the man on the other line breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh, good! You finally picked up your phone after half the day then you wouldn’t talk. Can I ask, do you have a reason for that?”
“I was thinking.”
“Huh?”
“Because Ruri’s voice stopped suddenly. Using my hand.”
“Oh.”
Ignoring the phone’s conversation, Adabashi recalled the feelings in his fingers and ears just a moment ago, his face was filled with his distorted pleasure, and passion surged repeatedly in the base of his belly.
“Ruri’s voice, that beautiful soulful voice, was suddenly stopped by my thumb, as if Ruri’s existence was destroyed. I’m just thinking about that, replying will stop it, that’s right.”
The person on the other line responded calmly to this unusual speech.
“Ah, I understand, I understand. Though my love isn’t as deep as yours, but I can understand a bit… definitely worthy of Adabashi. Your father said the same.”
“Don’t.… compare me with that trash of a father.”
As if in loathing, Adabashi anxiously replied.
He slowly narrowed his eyes, and started to mock his own father.
“He doesn’t sleep with Mum or Ruri, but with a completely strange woman - a father that was easily killed by Ruri.”
“No no, I think you know this, Ruri is not an ordinary girl, and as for your father being killed…”
“It’s not like that. Him being killed isn’t a problem, I actually envy that.”
Adabashi remembered the scene when his father was murdered, he sighed dully.
“If there was a problem, it would be why my father would sleep with some strange woman. My mum is good, though my mum isn’t young anymore. But, besides my mum, there’s still Ruri. As long as there’s Ruri, why would he sleep with a strange woman? That’s weird!”
“So that’s how it is! I see. I understand! I understand!”
Adabashi asked his energetic telephone partner:
“Hey, what do you want?”
“Ah, nothing really. Before we agreed that we would sell you the information on Hijiribe Ruri as the priority, but now I hope that you can do us a favour. Today, I’ll ask you to fulfill my desire.”
“…..What is it?”
“Ruri has apparently been in contact with Ikebukuro’s ‘headless rider’. Though it’s not clear what relationship they have together or if they’re doing something… when you confront Ruri, if you seem to find out anything regarding the ‘headless rider’, it’d be good if you tell me. Just tell me, that’s it. If you manage to successfully escape or stir up some trouble for them, I’ll give you a bonus.”
Adabashi knit his brows together from the man’s smooth words.
“So, compared to me, is the headless rider stronger?”
“Yes -- Adabashi-san…… like in a fight for instance ….., Wow, what is it? Who is that great champion, the one they call Dragon, he's truly formidable. Ah, you’ve never seen it before? It’s the headless rider!”
“…….”
Adabashi had seen the headless rider multiple times.
Though he’s only seen her riding on the motorbike, and can’t conclude whether she’s strong or not.
He heard a rumour that she’s not a scary person, and with what the telephone man had just said, he firmly believes it.
“….What’s wrong with the headless rider?”
“Nothing, nothing. It’s just that the headless rider’s actions lately have become very free. Our customers are all asking us “is that true?”
“…….”
“I am doing a business, whenever a crucial situation were to arise, my movements become restricted. So then I have to re-evaluate. Recently, I’ve also encountered a problem for simply trying to protect my own private business.”
Adabashi didn’t know what this guy was talking about.
But he had already resolved in his head, these things held very little importance to him.
Ruri contacted the headless rider.
Though he doesn’t know the situation, there’s only one thing to do according to his logic.
Whatever hindrance there is -
He will only love Ruri.
“Ah, okay. What else…… you have to tell me news about Ruri…..”
“I also want to request….. Jinnai-san..…”
※※※※※
Parking lot, somewhere in Ikebukuro
“Just because Kadota’s working the night shift, you guys slack off.”
Shutting down the car’s engine, Togusa, relaxing in his driver seat, stares through the rear-view mirror and says this to a man and woman in the back seat - Yamasaki and Karisawa.
The man and woman who were staring intently at opened books in their hands started to protest against Togusa.
“That is so rude! Today, I’ve scheduled 7 books that I still want to read!”
“I still have 4 books tonight!”
Togusa wanted to silence the protests, but the two of them started to purse their lips and refute.
“Oh - besides Togusa-san chasing after rent money, your slacking off time right now is a lot better than ours.”
“That’s right.”
“Idiot! What about sister in law’s empty apartment, running around the corridor and room’s is tiring, you know!”
“Didn’t you create that situation for your sister’s benefit?”
Togusa was speechless from Karisawa’s words.
“I heard that you’re working as a manager, brother, now is that legal employment?”
“That, that’s…. I, it’s that, it’s just for emergencies…..”
Togusa was mumbling ambiguously.
At this moment, his phone’s message ring was heard.
The ring tone was a Hijiribe Ruri song - Togusa held onto his phone until the whole song finished, and then answered.
“Really, I have to confirm some information, I’m very busy. Don’t disturb me.”
“Hey-wasn’t Togusa-san the one who disturbed our reading first?”
“Moreover, while saying you’re busy, you still listened to the whole ring tone till the end.”
In answer to Yamasaki’s obvious accusation, Togusa shook his head and stated: “You guys just don’t understand”, then like he was explaining basic knowledge he said.
“Idiot! How could I stop Ruri’s voice midway!”
Saburo Togusa normally always has a relaxed attitude towards Yamasaki’s otaku tendencies -
He only gets defensive when something involves his beloved car or the idol Hijiribe Ruri. There are times when Hijiribe Ruri sings in animation theme songs or something similar, Togusa and Yamasaki will then go shopping together and buy any commodity related to Hijiribe Ruri.
The mail that was sent seemed to involve Ruri, after fixing up his clothes, he opened up the message content.
“Wow… so great… so Ruri likes Scottish cats….”
Apparently it was a mail magazine of fan material, along with a thorough report, his face broke out into a relaxed expression that Yamasaki and Karisawa had never seen before.
“Ah…. I have to buy the photobook….! I have to buy the additional photo’s!”
“……Togusa-san, could it be you’ve decided to buy every single edition?”
Yamasaki asked frightened, Togusa turned towards him with a strange expression and replied.
“? Of course I am. Don’t you guy’s sometimes buy 2 manga books?”
“We do that in order to conserve one.”
“Buying a book every time a new edition comes out, it just can’t compare to anime.”
“Togusa, every time the car’s scratched you blow up in anger, you want to become even more evil!”
Togusa ignored the words that were being said in the back seat, he exited from his mail and opened his phones web, then accessed the Dollars site dedicated to Hijiribe Ruri called ‘Möbius loop’.
After the news of Hijiribe Ruri and Hanejima Yuuhei spread, the site became deserted. The fans who had adored the idol suddenly erupted with phrases like “traitor” “secondhand goods” “give me back the money I invested” as well as complaints against Hanejima Yuuhei, and people who liked to stir up trouble and so on - But, even though Togusa also received such a heavy blow at the news, he still couldn’t give up his fan status. This was simply because he believed wholeheartedly that the idol is still the idol. Though he was also shocked and envious, but “Hanejima Yuuhei…. if it’s that perfect superhuman, he’ll definitely be able to make Ruri happy even more than me, a good match, dammit….!” Saying these words allowed him to overcome all the hate messages written on the web, and continue to contribute to the site like normal.
Togusa had spent a lot of time like that, he was now a senior in the site and the fan club.
As an unwritten rule, Togusa and his fan friends use the mail magazines as an opportunity to exchange opinions -
Until he suddenly noticed someone else join in the messages, his expression darkened.
“This bastard… haven’t you had enough fun?”
“? What’s wrong?”
Yamasaki furrowed his brows and asked the obviously moody driver.
“It’s nothing…. before, I just thought a former colleague came back.”
“Colleague?”
“Ah, today he wrote “Are you interested in Hijiribe Ruri”? It has something to do with secret photos, he’s someone that always writes stuff like this. He calls himself the ‘sacrificial boy’, I don’t understand him.”
Responding to his angry heavy tone, Karisawa teasingly said.
“You say that - but aren’t you actually really interested? Hijiribe Ruri can’t talk about this secret.”
“Oi, call Ruri ‘-chan’ Ruri, Ruri ‘-san’, or Ruri ‘-sama’. How dare you address her like that.”
Both Karisawa’s and Yamasaki’s expressions froze, they could feel the start of a headache coming on from Togusa’s glowering.
“Too far! Generally speaking, did you always add surnames to people when she first debuted?”
“That was when I was still young. I didn’t understand Ruri-chan’s appeal.”
“It looks like we’ve gotten into something really troublesome, what do we do, Yamasaki?”
Yamasaki nodded his head in affirmation to the upset Karisawa and lost himself in thought, after a few moment he replied.
“Occasionally these types of people appear in serious fans. Ah, that’s right, it has the same ‘hook’ appeal as like a >, initially it would be in high demand, but become impossible to obtain.”
“Really? Then we can understand this a lot more.”
“Ah, wait, though I don’t really understand, but how do you place manga on par with Ruri-chan.”
Togusa’s vein popped, but he felt that whatever confrontation he made, everything would simply go through one ear and out the other, so he brought his attention back to the images on his fan mail.
Yamasaki and Karisawa stared at the back of his head, then leaned in close together and started intimately discussing.
“Oh right, regarding Hijiribe Ruri…… chan, have you heard anything about a stalker?”
“There’s also a rumour saying he’s a dollars member.”
“…..Just in my community, everyone’s trying to find the truth in the rumours.”
Though Togusa said this softly, it still leaked into the other’s conversation. He let out a great big sigh, then promptly stated with murderous intent.
“If I ever find out where this guy is, I’ll drive my car straight onto his bed and grind him up……”
Not knowing whether Togusa was really serious or not, Yamasaki and Karisawa said with unusually weak voices: “Then…. if your going to do that, please do it while we’re not in the car.”
Previous | Next
When Adabashi Kisuke’s phone rang, it was just past 12.00 o’clock at night.
Inside his apartment, Hijiribe Ruri’s voice rang out.
After a few seconds of allowing the timber sound to reverberate in his heart-
Adabashi slowly pondered to himself while pressing down on the ‘receive call’ button.
Suddenly, Ruri’s singing stopped, his lips rose into a greasy smile.
“Hello? Hello?”
“……It’s you.”
On hearing Adabashi’s answer, the man on the other line breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh, good! You finally picked up your phone after half the day then you wouldn’t talk. Can I ask, do you have a reason for that?”
“I was thinking.”
“Huh?”
“Because Ruri’s voice stopped suddenly. Using my hand.”
“Oh.”
Ignoring the phone’s conversation, Adabashi recalled the feelings in his fingers and ears just a moment ago, his face was filled with his distorted pleasure, and passion surged repeatedly in the base of his belly.
“Ruri’s voice, that beautiful soulful voice, was suddenly stopped by my thumb, as if Ruri’s existence was destroyed. I’m just thinking about that, replying will stop it, that’s right.”
The person on the other line responded calmly to this unusual speech.
“Ah, I understand, I understand. Though my love isn’t as deep as yours, but I can understand a bit… definitely worthy of Adabashi. Your father said the same.”
“Don’t.… compare me with that trash of a father.”
As if in loathing, Adabashi anxiously replied.
He slowly narrowed his eyes, and started to mock his own father.
“He doesn’t sleep with Mum or Ruri, but with a completely strange woman - a father that was easily killed by Ruri.”
“No no, I think you know this, Ruri is not an ordinary girl, and as for your father being killed…”
“It’s not like that. Him being killed isn’t a problem, I actually envy that.”
Adabashi remembered the scene when his father was murdered, he sighed dully.
“If there was a problem, it would be why my father would sleep with some strange woman. My mum is good, though my mum isn’t young anymore. But, besides my mum, there’s still Ruri. As long as there’s Ruri, why would he sleep with a strange woman? That’s weird!”
“So that’s how it is! I see. I understand! I understand!”
Adabashi asked his energetic telephone partner:
“Hey, what do you want?”
“Ah, nothing really. Before we agreed that we would sell you the information on Hijiribe Ruri as the priority, but now I hope that you can do us a favour. Today, I’ll ask you to fulfill my desire.”
“…..What is it?”
“Ruri has apparently been in contact with Ikebukuro’s ‘headless rider’. Though it’s not clear what relationship they have together or if they’re doing something… when you confront Ruri, if you seem to find out anything regarding the ‘headless rider’, it’d be good if you tell me. Just tell me, that’s it. If you manage to successfully escape or stir up some trouble for them, I’ll give you a bonus.”
Adabashi knit his brows together from the man’s smooth words.
“So, compared to me, is the headless rider stronger?”
“Yes -- Adabashi-san…… like in a fight for instance ….., Wow, what is it? Who is that great champion, the one they call Dragon, he's truly formidable. Ah, you’ve never seen it before? It’s the headless rider!”
“…….”
Adabashi had seen the headless rider multiple times.
Though he’s only seen her riding on the motorbike, and can’t conclude whether she’s strong or not.
He heard a rumour that she’s not a scary person, and with what the telephone man had just said, he firmly believes it.
“….What’s wrong with the headless rider?”
“Nothing, nothing. It’s just that the headless rider’s actions lately have become very free. Our customers are all asking us “is that true?”
“…….”
“I am doing a business, whenever a crucial situation were to arise, my movements become restricted. So then I have to re-evaluate. Recently, I’ve also encountered a problem for simply trying to protect my own private business.”
Adabashi didn’t know what this guy was talking about.
But he had already resolved in his head, these things held very little importance to him.
Ruri contacted the headless rider.
Though he doesn’t know the situation, there’s only one thing to do according to his logic.
Whatever hindrance there is -
He will only love Ruri.
“Ah, okay. What else…… you have to tell me news about Ruri…..”
“I also want to request….. Jinnai-san..…”
※※※※※
Parking lot, somewhere in Ikebukuro
“Just because Kadota’s working the night shift, you guys slack off.”
Shutting down the car’s engine, Togusa, relaxing in his driver seat, stares through the rear-view mirror and says this to a man and woman in the back seat - Yamasaki and Karisawa.
The man and woman who were staring intently at opened books in their hands started to protest against Togusa.
“That is so rude! Today, I’ve scheduled 7 books that I still want to read!”
“I still have 4 books tonight!”
Togusa wanted to silence the protests, but the two of them started to purse their lips and refute.
“Oh - besides Togusa-san chasing after rent money, your slacking off time right now is a lot better than ours.”
“That’s right.”
“Idiot! What about sister in law’s empty apartment, running around the corridor and room’s is tiring, you know!”
“Didn’t you create that situation for your sister’s benefit?”
Togusa was speechless from Karisawa’s words.
“I heard that you’re working as a manager, brother, now is that legal employment?”
“That, that’s…. I, it’s that, it’s just for emergencies…..”
Togusa was mumbling ambiguously.
At this moment, his phone’s message ring was heard.
The ring tone was a Hijiribe Ruri song - Togusa held onto his phone until the whole song finished, and then answered.
“Really, I have to confirm some information, I’m very busy. Don’t disturb me.”
“Hey-wasn’t Togusa-san the one who disturbed our reading first?”
“Moreover, while saying you’re busy, you still listened to the whole ring tone till the end.”
In answer to Yamasaki’s obvious accusation, Togusa shook his head and stated: “You guys just don’t understand”, then like he was explaining basic knowledge he said.
“Idiot! How could I stop Ruri’s voice midway!”
Saburo Togusa normally always has a relaxed attitude towards Yamasaki’s otaku tendencies -
He only gets defensive when something involves his beloved car or the idol Hijiribe Ruri. There are times when Hijiribe Ruri sings in animation theme songs or something similar, Togusa and Yamasaki will then go shopping together and buy any commodity related to Hijiribe Ruri.
The mail that was sent seemed to involve Ruri, after fixing up his clothes, he opened up the message content.
“Wow… so great… so Ruri likes Scottish cats….”
Apparently it was a mail magazine of fan material, along with a thorough report, his face broke out into a relaxed expression that Yamasaki and Karisawa had never seen before.
“Ah…. I have to buy the photobook….! I have to buy the additional photo’s!”
“……Togusa-san, could it be you’ve decided to buy every single edition?”
Yamasaki asked frightened, Togusa turned towards him with a strange expression and replied.
“? Of course I am. Don’t you guy’s sometimes buy 2 manga books?”
“We do that in order to conserve one.”
“Buying a book every time a new edition comes out, it just can’t compare to anime.”
“Togusa, every time the car’s scratched you blow up in anger, you want to become even more evil!”
Togusa ignored the words that were being said in the back seat, he exited from his mail and opened his phones web, then accessed the Dollars site dedicated to Hijiribe Ruri called ‘Möbius loop’.
After the news of Hijiribe Ruri and Hanejima Yuuhei spread, the site became deserted. The fans who had adored the idol suddenly erupted with phrases like “traitor” “secondhand goods” “give me back the money I invested” as well as complaints against Hanejima Yuuhei, and people who liked to stir up trouble and so on - But, even though Togusa also received such a heavy blow at the news, he still couldn’t give up his fan status. This was simply because he believed wholeheartedly that the idol is still the idol. Though he was also shocked and envious, but “Hanejima Yuuhei…. if it’s that perfect superhuman, he’ll definitely be able to make Ruri happy even more than me, a good match, dammit….!” Saying these words allowed him to overcome all the hate messages written on the web, and continue to contribute to the site like normal.
Togusa had spent a lot of time like that, he was now a senior in the site and the fan club.
As an unwritten rule, Togusa and his fan friends use the mail magazines as an opportunity to exchange opinions -
Until he suddenly noticed someone else join in the messages, his expression darkened.
“This bastard… haven’t you had enough fun?”
“? What’s wrong?”
Yamasaki furrowed his brows and asked the obviously moody driver.
“It’s nothing…. before, I just thought a former colleague came back.”
“Colleague?”
“Ah, today he wrote “Are you interested in Hijiribe Ruri”? It has something to do with secret photos, he’s someone that always writes stuff like this. He calls himself the ‘sacrificial boy’, I don’t understand him.”
Responding to his angry heavy tone, Karisawa teasingly said.
“You say that - but aren’t you actually really interested? Hijiribe Ruri can’t talk about this secret.”
“Oi, call Ruri ‘-chan’ Ruri, Ruri ‘-san’, or Ruri ‘-sama’. How dare you address her like that.”
Both Karisawa’s and Yamasaki’s expressions froze, they could feel the start of a headache coming on from Togusa’s glowering.
“Too far! Generally speaking, did you always add surnames to people when she first debuted?”
“That was when I was still young. I didn’t understand Ruri-chan’s appeal.”
“It looks like we’ve gotten into something really troublesome, what do we do, Yamasaki?”
Yamasaki nodded his head in affirmation to the upset Karisawa and lost himself in thought, after a few moment he replied.
“Occasionally these types of people appear in serious fans. Ah, that’s right, it has the same ‘hook’ appeal as like a >, initially it would be in high demand, but become impossible to obtain.”
“Really? Then we can understand this a lot more.”
“Ah, wait, though I don’t really understand, but how do you place manga on par with Ruri-chan.”
Togusa’s vein popped, but he felt that whatever confrontation he made, everything would simply go through one ear and out the other, so he brought his attention back to the images on his fan mail.
Yamasaki and Karisawa stared at the back of his head, then leaned in close together and started intimately discussing.
“Oh right, regarding Hijiribe Ruri…… chan, have you heard anything about a stalker?”
“There’s also a rumour saying he’s a dollars member.”
“…..Just in my community, everyone’s trying to find the truth in the rumours.”
Though Togusa said this softly, it still leaked into the other’s conversation. He let out a great big sigh, then promptly stated with murderous intent.
“If I ever find out where this guy is, I’ll drive my car straight onto his bed and grind him up……”
Not knowing whether Togusa was really serious or not, Yamasaki and Karisawa said with unusually weak voices: “Then…. if your going to do that, please do it while we’re not in the car.”
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