Durarara!!, Vol. 3 (Novel) (9 page)

Run.

Run, run, run.

Just run.

Not to a specific destination, but to escape from the chasing shadows.

Spurring legs onward in danger of cramps—forward, ever forward.

She only wanted to know.

The truth.

The truth of a matter that involved her.

The cost of that truth was the scampering of a mouse on the run from a cat.

In the cramped factory lot, there were only so many places to hide.

She slid into the shadow of a pile of scrap material, shrank to lower her profile.

The escapee judged that hiding would be a more effective option than running like mad.

She couldn’t feel anything.

The only sensation was the mental shock of what she had just seen.

She spoke, only for the purpose of calming her frayed nerves.

“Why…?”

She knew that no one could answer her.

“Why…why was Kida…in a place like that…?”

The girl in glasses asked the void.

The sky visible between the piles of junk was covered in dark clouds, silently dispersing her query to nothingness.

By way of answer, a cold droplet hit her cheek.

As she watched, rain began to fall around her.

A curtain of water and sound, covering everything beneath it.

Fshh, fshh, fshh, fshh.

Anri Sonohara’s heart calmed itself into that wave of radio static.

Fshh, fshh, fshh, fshh.

Apartment building, near Kawagoe Highway, Ikebukuro

It had been one very tumultuous day since Shingen Kishitani came to stay in Shinra’s apartment.

There was no chance to speak with him on the previous night, as Shingen had immediately collapsed onto the sofa and began snoring tremendously.

When Shinra came back from the convenience store, he found Celty silently absorbed in her online chat and his father sprawled out on the sofa, gas mask still in place.

He sighed in a rare indication of lament at the bizarre, otherworldly sight.

When his exceedingly self-absorbed father finally woke twenty hours later, he nimbly zipped into the bathroom with an agility that showed no sign of headache after oversleeping for so long. One hour after that…

“Ahh, I feel much better after that shower. Gotta love new apartment buildings. The water temperature adjustments are very smooth and pleasant,” Shingen mumbled to himself as he emerged from the bathroom, white gas mask still in place.

He took a look around the apartment, then finally noticed the figures of Celty and Shinra at the dining table, wirelessly playing handheld games.

“By the way, thanks for coming to pick me up yesterday, Celty. Just put the cost for ferrying me on Shinra’s
tab
over there. Hmm? Oh, Shinra, you’re here. Hi. Also, I’m here.”

Shingen was wearing his white coat over his underwear like a bathrobe. Celty flopped over the table, unable to even summon the energy to poke fun at his outfit. Shinra took his father to task in her place.

“I see you haven’t changed a bit, Dad. If you want to feel fully refreshed, you should probably take the mask off.”

“Isn’t it normal to make sure that nothing filthy enters the body? This is the Tokyo Desert, an accumulation of malice like a sandstorm. A gritty mass of teeming humanity. Get it, because sand is grit—”

“If you have to explain the wordplay, it’s not a very good joke.”

“Plus, I don’t think complaining about sand is very smart, Dad. Desert sands that get carried elsewhere can actually bring nutrients to the soil.”

Shingen shook his head, unperturbed by Celty and Shinra’s cold responses. “You don’t understand… The world is full of unclean ruffians of the sort we saw yesterday. Didn’t they just say there was an armed robbery recently? Assuming all people are like them, this lowers the risk of them being able to identify my face. Long live the gas mask! I figured you would appreciate my consideration in painting the mask white so that you could identify me at a distance.”

“Who else even wears a gas mask? Does this look like a chemical weapons war zone to you? In fact…isn’t it because of that stupid outfit that you got singled out for harassment?”

“You may be right… But who were they, anyway? They wore yellow bandannas… Mimics of some American street gangs, perhaps?” Shingen muttered, rubbing his side as he recalled the boys who had harassed him the previous night.

Shinra sipped his coffee and answered, “Oh, the Yellow Scarves? They started up just around the time you left for the United States. They don’t mess around with thieving or stickups or anything like that, though. They got into a tussle with another team a while back and supposedly settled down, but it seems they’re on the rise again, for some reason or another.”

“I see. Well, it’s normal for gangs in America to kill one another over territory squabbles. In that sense, at least Japan is peaceful—not that it changes the fact that I was mercilessly and unfairly attacked. Let them squabble with another gang, and the twain can fall to ruin and melt into the sewers together!” Shingen ranted grandiosely.

“That’s absolutely insane,”
Celty typed in disgust—then fell into a gloomy mood when she remembered what had come up in chat yesterday.

The Yellow Scarves and Dollars were already in a hostile mood, and this had most certainly turned the Yellow Scarves into an enemy. The problem was that this incident had nothing to do with either the Dollars or the slasher. They were the ones who had cast the first stone, so they couldn’t make such a big deal about the affair, Celty thought. But the anxiety was still there.

As one of the few people who knew the identity of the slasher, Celty felt she had some responsibility to mediate and clear up the misunderstanding—but it was difficult to turn that thought into action, knowing Anri’s state of mind. On top of that, it was a story that beggared belief, so even if she was able to get through to them, it wasn’t likely to satisfy the Yellow Scarves and Dollars entirely.

Both the Dollars and the slasher were important to her. She wanted to do something to help, but if anyone was going to shoulder the most pain, it would end up being the Yellow Scarves, to whom she had no connection, and such a self-serving outcome would only leave her with a bad aftertaste. She had no good ideas.

As she sat there, idly tapping the table with her fingers, Shingen asked curiously, “Ah, Celty. You seem to be irritated about something. Empty stomach? That’s no good. A courier needs to be broad and welcoming in spirit at all times. I noticed you furiously smacking away at that cheap PDA yesterday… Trouble with the pocketbook?”

Celty considered what sort of withering retort he deserved, but fortunately, a narrow-eyed Shinra spoke for her.

“If that’s your conclusion, maybe you should pay up what you owe her for the trip.”

“I told you, that goes on your tab…”

“Whatever Celty makes goes right into our family fund. It’s like you’re spending with one hand to pay the other. Just ante up.”

“Hmm. In that case, I’ll have to wriggle out of it like usual.”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than a blade tangled around Shingen’s neck. It took less than a second for the wave of black particles extending from Celty’s hand to reach him. The pointed shadow was stopped less than an inch from piercing his carotid artery, freezing him entirely. As he waited, she typed into her PDA and showed him the message.

“Oh? Wriggle out of what?”

“…I see your skill has grown since I saw you before. You can do this with your shadow now? This was all just a test, you see. I’m afraid you’ve fallen just short of a passing grade, but if you release me this instant, I might see fit to bump your score to— Ow-ow-ow-ow, you’re stabbing me, you’re stabbing me! The tip of your shadow is stabbing me, Celty! Curses! How dare you destroy my skin membrane, you creature of unidentified matter! Oh, I’d study you so hard if you weren’t outside my field of experti— Ow, ow, ow-ow-ow-ow!”

Shingen’s expression was hidden behind the mask, but his desperation was clear from the way his limbs flopped around, trying to pry the shadow away from his neck. Once he realized that this would get him nowhere, he abandoned all pride and begged his son for help.

“Shinra, your flesh and blood is in mortal peril. You see, I am testing you and thus acting out my own so-called peril…but if I might be perfectly honest, I am in all actuality truly in danger! Gosh, I don’t know how to say this… You’re my son. You understand, don’t you?”

“Of course I get it,” Shinra said flatly. He strode over to Shingen, then pulled the wallet out of his helpless father’s coat and tossed it to Celty.

“Wha—!” Shingen yelped, stunned. Celty pulled a pair of ten thousand–yen bills out and chucked the wallet back at Shingen. The shadowy restraints vanished, the black thorns dispersing cleanly into the apartment air.

“Thanks for your business.”

“…Ripped off to the tune of twenty thousand yen, how about that? And on top of that, I finally see my son’s true nature. Well, you’re not getting any inheritance.”

“I don’t want any, and if I don’t mind saying so myself, this seems to be a quite fitting action for your own son to commit, don’t you think?” Shinra quipped.

His father grumbled through the gas mask. “Rrrgh… Taken to the cleaners by a monster…”

“If Celty took me to the cleaners and stole my soul, I’d be a happy man,” Shinra retorted.

Celty sat back down shyly and unpaused the video game. But Shingen interrupted by sidling closer to her and noting, “Nicely done, Celty. I can’t believe how thoroughly you’ve tamed my son.”

“It’s kind of gross to talk about ‘taming’ your own son like he’s a dog.”

“Oops! And you’re positively brimming with morals and all that. It seems that you’ve lost your fangs and settled into Japanese customs. But I believe that, if you’re going to display proper respect, you ought to start by respecting the father of your landlord,” Shingen blathered on.

“It’s not an issue of morals,”
Celty typed irritatedly.
“I’m saying you shouldn’t look down on Shinra.”

“Oh?” Shingen exclaimed as he read both the message on the PDA and the body language she exhibited. “Why, Celty, are you saying…you’ve fallen in love with my Shinra? I knew that my son was odd, what with his unhealthy fetish for you. Does that mean the feeling is mutual?”

Celty held back on typing further for the moment, unsure of how to respond to that extremely personal question. After a long silence, she looked at Shinra’s face and typed two simple words.

“That’s right.”

The man’s son reacted immediately. “Celty! I can’t believe you’re being so open and honest about our relationship! I’m so, so, so, so, so, so happy! A one-sided pining as lonely as the abalone in the cove has developed into a loving bond, rock hard and unshakable, worthy of being shouted from the rooftops to the ears of unconcerned strangers! I am leaping with exultation at your admission, my dear!”

“Huh? Strangers? But I’m your father…”

Shinra stood up and squirmed with joy, ignoring the grumbling from the gas mask. Celty felt rising embarrassment at her partner’s emotional display and extended a blanket of shadow that forced Shinra down into his seat.

“Whaa—?! I think you’re beautiful even when you’re using your shadow more nimbly than your own limbs, Celty.”

“Just shut up. Don’t shout that embarrassing nonsense at the top of your lungs! Also, that simile you used earlier was terrible and made no sense.”

“Why, that just shows you the confusion that ensued at my utter joy to learn of the trueness of your love! And amidst that chaos and confusion, the only certain thing is my devotion to…
mrrgh
…
mrff!
”

He squirmed as she covered his mouth to stop him from talking. Meanwhile, Shingen sat at the table and imperiously inserted himself into the conversation.

“Hmm… Just a moment. Do you really think I’ll allow this kind of relationship?”

“Excuse me?”

“I hate to bring this up, but in human society, you are an unwanted guest—a monster, if you will. Are you aware of that?” he asked, his voice dripping with irony.

Celty did not hesitate in responding,
“Of course.”

Shingen’s eyes went wide behind the gas mask at the forthright confidence of her answer.

“Of…of course?”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“Well…damn. My plan to take the advantage by bringing up your antisociality has failed. I suppose I only have myself to blame after turning my son into an unlicensed doctor.”

“I don’t want to hear a single word from you about antisociality,”
she shot back.

Shingen’s gas mask turned away from Celty in a huff. He tried a different vector of attack. “Er, okay, well… Is that any way to speak to your lover’s father? What happened to respect for your elders?”

“I have been alive for at least a century. And that’s only what I remember.”

She still had memory that suggested she had been living for much, much longer than that, but since losing her head, she could only clearly remember the last 120 years. Then again, it was possible that even if she recovered her head, those older memories would remain hazy.

“Grrmm… Very well, I accept your relationship. And in return, you may now refer to me as ‘Father.’ At all times. Knowing your difficulties with your memory, allow me to repeat myself: You will now call me Father.”

“Silence,”
she retorted briefly, then gave Shingen a fresh glare. Of course, without any eyeballs to indicate such, Shingen might not even realize she was glaring at him.

Now that I think about it, he might have stolen my head himself. In which case, it would be his fault my memory is poor to begin with.

She just needed some kind of proof. Then she could put him through the wringer. Meanwhile, she decided that she ought to be calm in this situation.

“At any rate, Shinra is not a child.”

“That’s right, Dad. We’re serious about this. I’ve been reborn since Celty came here. I feel permeated with a deep feeling of contentment that never existed before,” argued Shinra, who had finally been freed from the shadow, but his father discarded his opinion.

“But you were just a boy when Celty got here.”

“Age means nothing to true love.”

“Good grief, she really has done a number on you,” Shingen sighed, exasperated at his son’s logic. He rearranged the fit of his gas mask and muttered, “Done a number, huh? Celty, tell me, are you aware of the fairy known as a leanan sídhe?”

“Of course. They’re fairies who travel in search of their destined lover. The man a leanan sídhe ends up with has a shorter life span but receives all kinds of special abilities in return.”

“Aha. Very good,” Shingen said approvingly.

Celty puffed out her chest with pride and boasted,
“Heh, I always get one on my party in my favorite video game series.”

“Can’t you at least say it’s because they’re fellow fairies? Hell, those are even from Ireland, same as you,” Shinra prodded her, exasperated.

Celty swiveled her PDA screen to show him.
“My home is Ikebukuro. After all…it’s where my family is.”

“Ohh! That’s the sweetest thing! They say there’s no cure for lovesickness, but your smile can fix all ailments! C’mon, let’s mate like fish—
gwufg!
”

Celty nailed Shinra’s rapidly approaching throat and gave Shingen’s previous question a more considerate answer.
“Back on topic, I do remember meeting a few different fairies back there.”