Durarara!! SH Vol 1 Chapter 4.2

CHAPTER 4B
The Returnees

Excerpt from Tsukumoya Shinichi’s ‘Closed Blog’.

‘Yo, it’s been a while since the last post.

Furthermore the Dollars are gone, and the Headless Rider has been missing for the past half year.

I wonder if the visitors to this page are looking for information on the recent rumours about missing persons?

Yes, the protagonist.

But in the case where people have complex entanglements with one another—in the case where one views the situation objectively as an ‘incident’, there comes a time where a protagonist will be chosen amongst various persons.

This case is no exception.

But my own feeling is that the ‘Headless Rider’ is the protagonist.

This might be considered strange… It’d be making them, who was absent in Ikebukuro at the time, the central figure in this case, wouldn’t it?

Honestly, if we see the Headless Rider as the protagonist of this case, that’s one fool of a protagonist.

After all, they don’t seem to have notice the disaster upon them, even as things have reached a point of no return.’

Late at night. Kawagoe Highway. In front of a convenience store.

It was late at night, past two in the morning.

It was, literally, unquestionably, a ‘Shadow’.
A black full-body rider suit with no accessories or emblems; this black ensemble was further immersed in deep black ink. The overwhelming black seemed to absorb the light from the convenience store, making it stand out even in the night.

…But the ‘Shadow’ wore a flamboyant Aloha shirt, and a necklace of flowers.

The strangest thing was above its neck. There was a helmet with a strange design. With everything below it dyed pitch-black, the helmet’s shape and appearance lent a sense of artistry.
The face cover was as black as the mirror glass windows of a luxurious car, reflecting light from the convenience store magnificently; the contents of the helmet were completely unseeable.

…But on that helmet were stickers of mascots from regions all across Japan.

“…”

When the man came out of the convenience store, seeing the shadow, his face filled with happiness and love.

‘Not at all, it’s only been 3 minutes. More importantly, the milk and eggs?’

The man held out the bag from the convenience store, and Celty, the odd woman wearing the Aloha shirt over her black rider suit, replied.

‘We emptied out the fridge before we left. Is that enough?’

‘That’d be a waste. Apologise to those chefs.’

The man nodded, eyes bright, and Celty’s shoulders heaved up and down.

Her gesture was evidently a sigh, but there was no breathing involved.

‘Ah, all the space is filled with baggage. It’ll be troublesome if the eggs break.’

‘There.’
Celty slid the face cover back and typed this, and the man—Kishitani Shinra—smiled warmly as he nodded.

“Yeah, you’ve completely come to terms with not having a head, Celty.”

Celty Sturluson was no human.

With her own severed head under her arm, riding a two-wheeled carriage drawn by a headless horse – known as the cóiste bodhar – she would visit the homes of those nearing death. If one were to carelessly open their door, they would be drenched with a full basin of blood – similar to the banshee, as a harbinger of misfortune, the dullahan was a subject of European folklore passed down the generations.

But that was in the past.

This was ‘Ikebukuro’s Headless Rider’—Celty Sturluson.

Kawagoe Highway.

In the nighttime, a strange motorcycle sped through the city..

It was Celty’s beloved headless horse—Shooter—that had, adapting to modern society, transformed into a two-wheeled vehicle.

As she could easily control masses of shadow, attaching a black sidecar to her horse was a piece of cake.

—We’d be able to carry more if we used a horse carriage…

As the face of a certain traffic police officer appeared in her mind, and she set aside her own problems.

Feeling the pulse of Shinra, who was embracing her tightly from behind, the headless woman smiled in her heart.
—Riding like this isn’t that bad.

Celty and Shinra earned livelihoods as a ‘courier’ and ‘underground doctor’ in Ikebukuro.

A year after her long search for her ‘Head’ had reached a conclusion—Celty had decided that she wanted to learn more about the country she would be living in permanently from then on, and so the two of them had decided to tour the entire country.

—Anyway, it was really fun.

—No, maybe I could’ve been more relaxed on my own?

After thinking that, she recalled what had happened on the trip.

—Going to Shimane Prefecture in October was good, too. And the Izumo Grand Shrine was amazing.

If she had a head on her shoulders, she would certainly be making a self-satisfied expression right about now.
Celty embraced the feeling of loneliness at the end of her vacation alongside the sense of security at returning to a familiar scenery, and continued to travel along Kawagoe Highway.

Then Celty detoured into numerous alleys so as not to be seen, and entered an apartment complex along Kawagoe Highway from its back entrance.
To the home sanctuary to her and Shinra’s souls, that had been empty for half a year.

Shinra’s apartment. Underground carpark.

The motorcycle was parked in the underground carpark, Celty and Shinra alighted from it slowly.

As she spoke, Celty stroked the back of Shooter, which had reverted to horse form. Shinra replied with an energy level that betrayed no weariness from their journey at all.

‘Don’t smoke your way into getting a hug!’

“Ah~… Sorry for interrupting your romantic moment.”

There, standing in the shadows of the underground carpark, was someone they were both acquainted with.

He was an officer of the Awakusu-kai, a man who made deals with both the ‘courier’ and ‘underground doctor’.

‘So that’s how it is. Thank you for making your way down.’

“Why, I was sure you were using a PDA before…”

“…That’s impressive.”

“But…”

The sidecar, which was now detached from the headless horse, was filled with random souvenirs from all over the country, looking very much like the luggage of the a mindless trend-chasing tourist.

‘?’

Seeing how both Celty and Shinra were confused, Shiki heaved a small sigh.

“No? I finally got to go on a trip with just Celty, so I forgot all those material things and just let loose.”

Shiki nodded as he acknowledged their answers..

‘?’

Then Shiki shrugged his shoulders, and turned his back on the both of them.

After delivering the warning to Shinra, who had apparently been rejecting all work-related calls, he left the underground carpark
Watching Shiki’s back as he left, the two of them tilted their head and body respectively in confusion.

And 30 minutes later—

‘Uwaaaaahh, we’re done for~, done for~!’

“Celty calm down! It’s all right, it’ll go fine, it’ll go just fine!”

“If I’m with Celty, I can brave fire and water and even blackholes!”

Even as she retorted, Celty rolled around, both hands quashed on the sides of her helmet.

News along the lines of, ‘The Headless Rider’s behind the kidnappings?!’ had been written on Ikebukuro news sites, only to be picked up by other news sites beyond Ikebukuro, going national.

—‘The Headless Rider’s a trash kidnapper’

With participants both anonymous and using their real names, such threads had sprung up on various message boards and social media sites; and on a well-known Q&A site,

and other similar questions had been submitted, receiving floods of responses.

“Well… I think we should be more worried about how you’ve actually worked for the Awakusu-kai before instead of the rumours, as our address hasn’t even been leaked?”

“Celty you don’t even go to school, do you?! It’s the first time I’ve seen you so agitated!”

“You’re really a netizen, Celty.”

“Ah, but the thread in this Ikebukuro community about ‘Calling out the Headless Rider’s traffic offences’ is all truth, so we can’t complain there.”

Celty averted her gaze from Shinra as she typed.

“It’s all right, Celty, believe in me!”

“Celty, even if you were a kidnapper, no, a serial killer, I’ll still love you!”

‘Stop me before you get to love me like that! N, no, I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it! Believe me, Shinra!’

Shinra replied calmly even as he was shaken, and Celty started.

“Well… Even if an alibi could prove your innocence, where would you publish it? That’s the problem.”

“If you put it online, it’d probably make things worse. The Headless Rider’s online appearance? A fake? Self-promotion? Even if they believed it was really you, they’d only attack you further and say, ‘There’s no way I’d believe someone who breaks traffic laws’.”

“B, but why am I being treated as a criminal from the start… Do the people on this site have something against me?”

‘Oh… Then, will the articles disappear once people know they’re not true?’

Shinra was looking at the notebook computer Celty had open.

‘IkeNEW!’ was a news site specialising in Ikebukuro’s news.

Although it was said that most myths in Ikebukuro originated from this site, occasionally it would expose the truth before mass media, so its standing on the internet was complicated.

“Yep. There are also rumours that it collaborates with other sites to maximise profits. Well, it’s one of the most criticised Ikebukuro news sites around. But people who believe it believe everything. There are also people who’ve believed sites that said this site’s nothing but lies, and spread that, too.”

“…Well, in your case, Celty, it’s true that you’ve broke traffic laws and been chased by the traffic police, so a lot of people seem to believe you would kidnap people.”

Placing a hand on her shoulder, Shinra proposed a solution.

‘? What exactly should I do?’

‘I, I see.’
Celty seemed to have finally regained her composure. Shinra smiled at her reassuringly, and continued.

“And if they say it’s the Headless Rider who caught the criminal… that would be the most ideal.”

Takadanobaba. An apartment building.

“I see~, so~, the Headless Rider’s back…?”

He held a smartphone in his hand, and on its screen was an IkeNEW! article titled, ‘First sighting of the Headless Rider in six months! A development in the missing persons case?!’

Only to start snickering, snickering, without restraint.

The focus of his gaze was the Sunshine Building.

“But really… with so many interesting situations in place, it’s a wonder how most of these people haven’t noticed a thing.”

“Tedious, the lot of them. Most of the people in the city don’t produce a response I haven’t predicted. It’ll take just a bit more till they give something unexpected.”

“Let’s hope the Headless Rider… isn’t another tedious one.”

In the comments section of the news site people were all exclaiming over the Headless Rider’s return, cheering or arguing over it.

Sighing softly, Kuon’s eyes filled with cold repulsion, and he spat out into the night:

With a cold expression he would never show in school, he added, quietly,

“I can’t believe there would be an informant of all people claiming to love humans.”

****CHAPTER END****

Chapter end