Durarara!! Epitome of Eighteen Histories Chapter 3

Hanejima Yūhei & Hijiribe Ruri Episode

This is a story of the future.
A story of a twisted future.

Strange! Bizarre! The darkness of a world woven from illusion and madness, cleaved and purified by a heretic shinobi!

Camilla Saizō is a vampire ninja!
As a child despite being male he lived a peaceful life as the vampire girl ‘Carmilla’ due to family circumstances, but upon the awakening of his ninja master blood he began on his path to fight evil and defend the peace of New Tokyo!

Five years past the first arc, the story’s setting goes abroad!

A formidable foe sudden appears: Dracula Momiji!
Contrary to Carmilla Saizō who was raised as a girl, the Knight Earl Momiji, who was raised as a boy… turns out to be his younger sister…?!

The secret vow between the ninja and the knight from 666 years ago!
And what could be the true identity of Sin Organisation, moving behind the scenes…!

A small hit in Japan! The suspenseful launch of this 4th episode of Super Ninja-ring Action!

—Extracted from Vampire Ninja Carmilla Saizō IV ~ BLOOD REVOLUTION pamphlet

Somewhere in the city. Press Conference.

It was an event hall with an ambience of luxury, usually for weddings and anniversary celebrations.

“Here too please.”

It was an event premiering the latest Vampire Ninja Carmilla Saizō film.

Given this background, Hanejima Yūhei’s acceptance of his role in this supposedly minor series even after he had gone big was another point of interest. Although his managing company Jack O’Lantern attempted to stop him, the director of the firm Max Sandshield welcomed the idea, and so instead the company wound up making its topselling talent star in one low-paying movie after another.
In any case, these elements combined such that Carmilla Saizō produced several movies featuring Hanejima Yūhei, and continued its progress to gain a place amongst the representative works of the generation.

With the closure of the initial photo-taking session, they moved onto the question-and-answer segment.

“It was a good place.”

“The fully ad-libbed fight scene.”

“It’s a private matter, but personally I would like to think we get along well.”

Yūhei was answering these questions evenly when a reporter from LAST WEEK Weekly, a magazine known for third-rate gossip, pitched a completely random question.

“I think that in your case you should stop gambling and clear your debts, Kozaki-san.”

The reporter he addressed by name reddened and sat down awkwardly, while another journalist asked, jokingly,

“If it’s someone who’s interviewed me before.”

Hanejima Yūhei was abnormal.

But they were also aware that it was his unorthodox air that drew the interest of the public.

“Hijiribe Ruri-san was involved this time not only as for SFX makeup but also as a guest star… What are your thoughts on acting in the same film as a couple?”

“I did my best to separate my personal feelings from my work.”
With an expression that, to any outsider, showed no trace of any personal feelings that could have existed in the first place.

Meanwhile. Conference Room, Jack O’Lantern Japan.

“…It’s hard to tell from his expression, but he was embarrassed back there, wasn’t he?”

“Is it fine for you not to attend? Everyone knows Hijiribe Ruri’s one of the major contributors that got Carmilla Saizō where it is today.”

“Sorry, I’m bad at things like press conferences… Besides, I didn’t do anything impressive.”

“The credit goes to Zakuroya-sensei.”
Ruri attributed it to her SFX makeup instructor, but she was not being modest; she honestly felt that her teacher had had played a major part in Carmilla Saizō’s production.

At the same time, Ruri felt once more that fate was a strange thing.

And presently she, who had become an idol, was being interviewed by a journalist, while—

She was currently being interviewed by a freelance writer, Kinomiya Kazane, under the theme ‘Celebrities in Ikebukuro’.

“Kinomiya-san, are you Tsukumoya-san’s apprentice?”

“No no, I don’t think I could call myself his apprentice per se. I’ve never even seen his face, it’s just that I picked up from him things like how to do internet columns, or article-writing skills…”

Ruri herself was not strict about such formalities and in fact had a good impression of the woman, but that did not mean she opened up completely.

But, whether aware of her thoughts or not, the writer Kazane closed her notebook and switched off the voice recorder, saying,

“? Yes?”

“…Ruri-san… Do you have any really huge secret?”

“Um, this might sound weird, but… Anything most people wouldn’t believe… Like, if you’ve been abducted by aliens before or something…”

There, the writer herself wavered, and said, slowly,

“…”

Nevertheless, it would be ludicrous to disclose any of her own secrets; to expose the most delicate parts of her sinful heart.

“…Then, Kinomiya-san… it won’t be a fair trade unless you tell me a huge secret of your own, right?”

But Kazane, after some deliberation, replied just as jokingly,

“Eh…?”

Seeing this reaction, Kazane waved her hands.

But the words that Ruri uttered right after— were beyond Kazane’s expectations.

“Huh?! Um… You know my brother?”

“Maybe… there really is such thing as fate.”

Kazane tilted her head. Ruri looked up slowly, and said,

And so Ruri began to tell.
A tiny episode of the countless, countless times she, a monster, had been saved by a human.

Hijiribe Ruri possessed power unlike any human.

While it was revenge for a family member, those crimes were against the laws of this country, and likely unforgiveable by societal standards.

Even the fate that befell her days after she became the fake lover of Hanejima Yūhei—when she was embroiled in a certain conspiracy and trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building.

She could feel the fire surrounding the debris burn ever-higher.

—Maybe this is my punishment.

It was that perhaps, if she disappeared here, she would no longer be a burden to others.

The face of the man who had told a monster like her that he did not want her to die.

—If I die here, my crimes won’t inconvenience you anymore…

The pressure of the rubble weighing down on her had suddenly eased.

“Kasuka-san…? Why…?”

Something must have happened on his way here; his body was already littered with injuries.

Ruri cried out, close to tears, and the injured Yūhei replied,

With his usual lack of expression, he narrowed his eyes slightly, and continued.

With this even voice, Kasuka gave his reply.

“…Kasuka-san?”

Even as Yūhei tried to remove the rubble with all of his strength, he continued to speak to Ruri, who had been giving up on her life just earlier.

Yūhei heaved the pipe as he said this.

“!”

When Ruri escaped through the gaps in the rubble, and easily deflected it despite it being multiple times her weight.

Even as Ruri faltered as to whether living on was the right thing to do—she had no doubt when it came to walking alongside this man.

So as to escape the surrounding fire, Ruri lifted Yūhei in a princess carry, and began to leap.
Under the bask of moonlight, she simply smiled, quietly, towards him.

“So please… let me dream on a little longer.”

After listening to her story, Kazane was silent for a while—before slowly, she tilted her head and asked,

“…You realised?”

Kazane said, laughing, to which Ruri smiled gently—
And slid the movie pamphlet on the table over, pointing to one section.

‘Script Contributor: Hanejima Yūhei’

“…”

Ruri looked up at Yūhei’s face on the screen, where the press conference was still ongoing, and said, half to herself,

“Um… Do you mean to say, he used a real life conversation as a model for the script?”

To Kazane, the ‘monster’ replied, with a very human smile:
As if the smile on her face were Yūhei’s share as well, inasmuch as he never smiled at others,

“That’s up to you to interpret, Kazane-san.”

(*The reporter Yūhei addresses by name, Kozaki, is from Otsuberu to Warau Suiyōbi. ‘Ko’ is written as ‘fox’.)

****EPISODE END****

Chapter end