Durarara!! SH Vol 1 Chapter 4.1

CHAPTER 4A
The Newcomer

A few years ago. Ikebukuro.

“You want to know about the Headless Rider?”

Replying, the informant’s ‘client’ asked how much they should pay.

The informant on the chair in his own room, and, looking up at the ceiling, began to talk.

Seeing that his client had neither flared up nor scoffed at his declaring the Headless Rider unhuman, the informant smiled as he continued.

Having spoken thus far, the informant made a slight digression.

He turned his face from the ceiling to his client, and smiled happily as he continued.

Then the conversation that had digressed returned without a hitch to its root.

Grinning, the informant spoke of the ‘Headless Rider’.

The informant averted his eyes slightly, and, remembering things about the Headless Rider, he continued.

There the informant paused for a moment, and looking into the eyes of his client the corners of his lips twisted further.

The client asked what he meant to say, to which the informant replied.

He rose slowly from his chair, and walked up to a shelf with various books.

The informant stroked the spines of the books, and declared once more to his client:

And—as if he had suddenly thought of it, he mentioned a man.

The informant took out a number of books, and arranged them as he said:

Shrugging lightly, the informant spoke ironically.
“In that sense, when a monster is born in society, it’s not the humans that matter. It’s the ‘monster’; that’s what I think.”

“…In other words, out of the humans with their full spectrum of reactions, it’s a matter of whose hand they take.”

Present time. Ikebukuro.

“A high school student… who can fight Heiwajima Shizuo?”
Aoba’s words contained clear doubt, but also honest surprise thinking how impressive it would be if it were true.

It was the Ikebukuro downtown area, at a time approaching midnight.

After Horada had left, Aoba and his companions had gone out into the city and were wandering randomly.

—Maybe I’ll ask Mairu-chan or Kururi-chan directly tomorrow…

—’Heiwajima Shizuo was really beat up.’

He thought it was ludicrous, but curiosity piqued, he stopped at a nearby corner to check with his smartphone.

“Ah, so it’s IkeNEW.”

But the moment he saw the video, he went completely silent.

—Heiwajima Shizuo going easy? No, that’s not it either.

Dodging Shizuo’s fists with inhuman footwork, the ‘boy in the Raira uniform’ was clearly trading blows with Shizuo.

On top of the fact that the video’s quality was poor, it was mostly taken from afar using the zoom function.

It was a boy in a Raira uniform as well, with green hair.

This ‘boy who fought on par with Shizuo’, and Aoba’s junior, a member of the Blue Square, were in the same video.
As he digested this information, several emotions welled up in Aoba, and he smiled faintly.

“That guy, just who… No, just what did he find?”

Somewhere in the city. An abandoned factory.

“D’you think Heiwajima Shizuo… wasn’t in top form? Influenza or something…”
A voice, tone light, echoed in the factory.

This factory had been used as a meeting point for both the Yellow Scarves and the Blue Square before.

Dragon Zombie.

But bosozoku changed with the currents of time as well, and the Jyan Jyaka Jyan had gone underground, becoming subordinate to the Awakusu-kai; and Dragon Zombie, since its leader Ei Li-pei had left Ikebukuro for certain reasons, had lost its substance and become no more than a name.

But at this point, the gang met another turning point.
The man that led it had returned to the city.

“Shizuo’s a monster, isn’t he… That hasn’t changed after all this time, right?”

This was, of course, the leader—Ei Li-pei—and as he spoke to his gang he was doing something else entirely at the same time.

At that scene it would be easy to think he was not serious about what he was saying, but none of the gang members were smiling.

The weapons had the image of what many Japanese people called seiryuto, but in actual fact seiryuto were like naginata, with long handles.

Two young girls were sitting on the oil drums to each side of Li-pei.

“We saw it too, by chance.”

Hearing their replies that came one after another, the man, still juggling, smiled happily, happily, as he spoke to his gang members behind him.

In the next moment, the motion of his hand changed, and swinging his arm around, he collected the blades in his hand.
When all of his knives were in his hand he turned swiftly on his heel, and spread his arms dramatically.

“I have to go meet him, surely.”

Somewhere in the city. An alley.

“S, someone fought with Shizuo normally?! Seriously?!”

“Oi, oi, you’re not lying, right?!”

Hearing this, Horada clenched his fists unthinkingly.

“Seriously?”
“That way I can boss those juniors from the Blue Square, and Dragon Zombie’d be nothing! Doesn’t this just mean it’s time for my era in Ikebukuro?!”

In the end, had Horada’s era really arrived?

Because they too recognised that, if such a pawn were to fall into his hands, his position would change completely.

Ikebukuro. A certain rooftop.

As a draft of wind blew over them, Tom chided Shizuo.

And Shizuo frowned as he replied.

“Huh? Oi, there’s no way he could be fine after getting hit by you…”

“…”

And then he noticed.

“Maybe… he was planning to frame me.”

“That green kid’s… the same type of person as that flea.”

Takadanobaba. Kuon’s apartment.

‘Hey, I followed the deal, all right? I leaked that rumour to Heiwajima Shizuo at work today… Ah, to be honest, I thought I’d be killed… You really need to pay me back for this…’

“No, no, I’d say that’d be too nice. If anything, I could tell Shizuo, you know? You, a new employee, spread a rumour about the Headless Rider and provoked him for some small cash… Just like that.”
‘…That, that’s… All right, all right! I won’t talk about money anymore, happy? Happy?’

After hanging up, Kuon called another person.

“Yeah… Sorry, sorry. The guy I hired was getting greedy.”

“Yeah… I was surprised too, today. Even I didn’t expect that.”

“There I was planning to get beaten up by Heiwajima Shizuo and make sure to send him to jail, too.”

“…Well, even the people in the city are sick of Shizuo’s antics. So I thought I’d give them a break. If he makes scenes again after coming back from jail, there’s some freshness to that, isn’t there?”
With these confounding words, he continued, smiling a smile completely unlike that of a boy, full of a joy derived from looking down at others from above.

“A new star’s on the scene. We have to step up the publicity a little, yes?”

“Someone on Shizuo’s level?!” “That means he has no match besides Shizuo, doesn’t it!”

“Ah, I’m not sure.” “Isn’t there a video with higher definition?!”

“Maybe he’s an outsider?” “Find him.” “Find him.” “Find him no matter what!”

In a single night, the news had traversed the whole of Ikebukuro.

He had only fought on par.

There was a man who had fought with Shizuo by using knives or having vehicles run him over.

Most people were of this opinion, and so this event made a giant impact on the city—and drew great interest from the masses.

That was why just fighting with him on equal grounds could become news.

But the person in question—Mizuchi Yahiro—without knowledge of what things had come to, was soundly asleep.

Of himself, living a normal life with many people.

The dream he had was itself his hope for the future.
The contents of that dream might be forgotten afterwards, but even so, the boy would likely hold onto this same hope.

As he remained unknowing that he had become a spreading urban legend.

Soundly, soundly.

****CHAPTER END****

Chapter end