Durarara!! SH Vol 1 Chapter 3.1

CHAPTER 3A
The Destroyer

There was a demon in Ikebukuro.

Anyone who had stayed in the city for a fair amount of time would be familiar with this rumour.

Guard rails ripped from the pavement.

Broken road signs.

These disconcerting parts and pieces, when sighted, could only be the result of a single human being.

Heiwajima Shizuo.

He worked a job of collecting overdue debts from the customers of telekura, online dating sites, cabaret clubs and the like, and was commonly seen in Ikebukuro’s commercial district, especially around Sunshine Street and 60-Storey Street.

If one were to cite the rumours surrounding Heiwajima Shizuo, there would be too many to count:

They said he swung a vending machine around with one hand.

They said he sawed through a car using a road sign.

They said he had lifted a refrigerator when he was in elementary school.

They said he liked vanilla milkshakes.

They said a knife could not stab further than one millimeter into him.

They said he liked cream anmitsu.

They said he chased some bosozoku away swinging a streetlight around.

They said only a ballpoint pen from Nebula could pierce his muscle.

They said he gripped a lump of coal so tight the pressure turned it into diamond.

They said apparently the prominent actor Hanejima Yuuhei was his younger brother.

They said he liked pancakes with a lot of syrup.
They said he just liked sweet things.

There was no way to tell which of these rumours were true and which were exaggerated, but they were legends anyone who knew of Shizuo could imagine to be true.

There were videos of him actually throwing vending machines and waving streetlights around on the internet, but most who had not seen it in real life would simply comment that those were well-done graphics.

But even amongst rumours like these, as of late something had caught particular interest and was surfacing in gossip.

They said Heiwajima Shizuo was a friend of the Headless Rider.

This was not a baseless rumour tying the two together simply due to their common status as urban legends.

Like seeing a famous football player and a famous baseball player laughing together on the street, to those who knew the stories surrounding each of them, these fellow legends’ bond was a shocking image carved into memory.

And now that the Headless Rider had vanished from the city –
A turning point made its way to this other ‘living legend’.

Evening. A certain parlour in Ikebukuro.

It was a fruit parlour in a department store in Ikebukuro.

Amongst them were two who did not appear to be salarymen.

“So, you said you wanted a qualification?”

Following, the man in the bartender uniform – Heiwajima Shizuo – continued on the topic.

“Ahhh… I have… First would be the estate agent cert, and then, well, I only got up to the 2nd grade for both, but there’s the Kanji and English proficiency tests. And then there’s the one for land surveying, journalism, and I’ve the 3rd grade for the clerical skills test…”

“Wow… That’s amazing.”

Normally they would return to the office to report and then go on their separate ways, but Shizuo had said he had something to discuss, and seeing as they were peckish they had ended up in this store.

“Are there any useful ones I might be able to get?”

As Shizuo had never before said anything about this, Tom asked out of confusion.

“…”

His superior Tom knew this as well as anyone else.

Because he knew there was no way Shizuo himself would have any liking for such a violent strength.

There Tom began to run through some ideas in his head.

Tom took out his smartphone and began to browse for information on the internet.

“I’m not very familiar with world heritage…”

Tom asked this frankly, and Shizuo thought for a moment before he replied.

“Then let’s not talk about the present; how about when you were a kid?”

“At a time like this it’s important to go back to your roots too, you know. Surely when you were a kid you had one or two dreams for the future.”

–A dream – my dream?

After thinking for a few more seconds, Shizuo remembered what he had written for his elementary school graduation anthology.

“Did you remember?”

“I think I wanted to be a detective.”

“…I see.”

Whether it suited Shizuo was complicated to think of.

That it was a dream from elementary school suggested that Shizuo’s aspiration had not been the investigation of extramarital affairs and such real life detectives did, but rather the job of detectives in movies and comics.

Those who used logical reasoning to track down murderers or other criminals – the brainy type.

There were also hybrid types like Sherlock Holmes; no matter that he had brought up detectives – there was no singular image things could be narrowed down to.

–It would be interesting if he had a brainy-type companion…

Tom ran through all of the people he knew who seemed smart.

–…No way, that’s the one guy that just can’t do.

–They’re not at a level where they can be foils to each other like in a movie; more like one where just seeing each other’s face has them trying to kill one another…

While Tom was thinking such things, Shizuo, as if having come to terms with things on his own, began to nod.

“Eh?”

Searching for people who had disappeared while holding onto a debt, occasionally battling with debtors who turned on them and attacked.

“I don’t need to be reminded again of just how hazardous this job is…”

30 minutes later. Ikebukuro West Gate Park.

As the two were on their way back to report at the office, Tom spoke up again.

Shizuo, with an expression quieter than usual, replied.

“Huh?”

“Yeah, there were a lot of them in uniform today.”

Of course, there were very few in uniform here at this time of day, but there were plenty of young people gathered in the park.

Shizuo gazed at this scene himself, and said, emotionally:

“Yeah. Those twins are still as noisy as always, though.”

Just as they said this, they spotted one half of the twins they were speaking of.

Tom said this, and looked towards the girl in question, Orihara Kururi –

A group of delinquents were gathered in front of her and looked liked they were up to no good; rather than flirting, it looked more like they were trying to force her to follow them.

Ignoring Tom, who said this wearily, Shizuo was already walking towards them.
“Ah, wait, Shizuo…”

“That’s why I’m saying, come couple up with all of us.”

“You look exactly like our senpai’s type.”

Kururi heaved a small sigh, and although her voice was soft, she expressed herself firmly.

“…no…”

“We could force you into a car and hurt you or we could enjoy ourselves together – you know the better deal for you, right? Right?”

He was probably their ‘senpai’ who had just got out of jail.

“Oi, stop it.”

They glared with plain disgust at the man in the bartender suit who had suddenly appeared.

The delinquents, whose threatening glares had failed them, acted rashly in their anger.

One of them doused the man in the bartender suit with the plastic bottle in his hand.

Because if they were anyone staying in Ikebukuro, they would have known just how dangerous an act that had been.

At the sight of this, Kururi quietly shrunk back, and the man with dreadlocks who had been watching from a distance, after frowning, put his hands together with pity in his eyes.

“Horada-san! Horada-san! We can deal this shitty bastard one, can’t we!”
And then, the man named Horada stood slowly, and spoke.

“Ah, it can’t be helped, I don’t wanna go back in right after coming out. Just break his arms and legs, don’t do anything fatal…”

At the same time, time stopped for him completely.

“? Horada-san?”

Right after the delinquents called out to him –

“Hey… Did you know?”

At the sudden restriction and pain, the delinquent flailed his limbs about.

To the delinquents, who still failed to understand what was happening, the man in the bartender suit said:

“Gah… Gogah…”

The other delinquents began to tug at the man, but as though he was a giant tree with roots dug into the ground, he was immoveable.

“Th, this guy, what’s he saying…”

His legs were shaking, and trembling violently, he tried to escape.

Behind him rang out the roar of the man in the bartender suit, Heiwajima Shizuo.

Then the delinquent whose face was in his hand was thrown hard, and sent flying into Horada’s back.

“Gohii?!”

“Well, if it were him from the past, he would’ve beaten them up the moment Kururi was involved…”

“Maybe he’s grown, just a little.”

***CHAPTER END***

Chapter end