Durarara!! SH Vol 3 Chapter 2

Durarara!!SH×3

CHAPTER 2
Let’s Live Purely and Righteously

Something is wrong.

I got rid of the trash.
I did a good thing.

So why is Dark Owl still the bad guy?
Why does that trash get to play the victim?

Dusk. Raira General Hospital. Private ward.

Horada awoke feeling aches creaking all over his body.

There were hairline fractures in his cranium, but miraculously his brain was undamaged.

“Ah, ow… Owww… Fuck. Are the painkillers even working?”

The reason was simple: he had the feeling he would have no filter on what he said if he were to be questioned by the police before calming down, and wind up exposing things he should not.

—But, what should I tell the cops?

—I need to find a way to testify such that it can only be interpreted as rightful self-defence…

Without considering that there could be other witnesses, or that a false testimony could hinder the investigation, Horada simply thought of protecting himself.

As he complained to himself, the bones throughout his body creaked as though in reply.

He caught something move in the corner of his vision.

Was it a nurse?

What met his eyes was a man on the guest stool, made distinct by the pair of sunglasses and the burn scar on his face.

The man grinned, and closing the adult magazine in his hands, he got to his feet.

“…!”

“I… I-i-i… Izumii… -san.”

A few years ago the man had been the leader of Blue Square, a gang Horada used to be part of.

“Poor thing. I heard the rumours… so I came to visit.”

Horada replied with a subservient tone automatically.

In the first place he was already the kind of man mad enough to use a hammer to break the leg of a girl he had just abducted, but after being set on fire by a gang member turning on him and going to jail for a time, it felt as if he had lost several more screws.

Horada, shocked by this turn of events, decided to test the waters first.

“Really? I have a shortcut if you wanna lose weight.”

It was miniature hammer, made of hard rubber.

“…!”

Horada’s fear of Izumii and the trauma of seeing the weapon he had been assaulted with mere days ago churned together in his mind. If that hammer had been wrapped in white bandages, he might have started screaming there and then.

Horada continued to smile smarmily. A fixed smile made its way on Izumii’s face as he changed the topic,

“Eh? O, oh, yeah.”

「……」

The rhythmic slap against his hand synchronised with the beating of Horada’s heart.

Horada gulped, and Izumii said,

“Y, yeoah?!”

“Obviously I can’t just let it be, right?”

“Y’know hammers are my specialty, right? My colleagues are whispering that it was me punishing you. Normally I wouldn’t give a fuck what they say, but it’d be bad Aozaki-san or Akabayashi-san from even higher up got to hear rumours like that, hm?”

“Fugagaga”

“If I have people saying I need to wear a costume and stage an ambush just to keep you in line, it makes things inconvenient, yeah? Horada-kun.”

“Take your old lackeys and comb the city. Use everything at your disposal. Root up that fucking Slugger before the police and drag him in front of me. Got it?”

It was a ridiculously impossible order, but he could not fight against the pressure of the man before him.

—Before the police?!

—And I need men…

Suddenly the idea came to it, and Horada asked Izumii tentatively,

“Huh? Do what you like.”

“B, but see, your brother’s with them, what if he gets hurt… bugofufugugugu?!”

“Why do I have to give a fuck about that shitty bastard Aoba? Huh? Do I have to count his calories one by one and check his fucking nutrition intake? Do I need to hand-make well-balanced meals for him? Huh?”

Ran’s anger was completely over the top, but Horada apologised tearily to escape his rage.

Izumii cricked his neck, and stated,
“I don’t care if you break him. …Use him and destroy him in the process if it suits you.”

As though looking forward to his own brother’s destruction.

The next day. Somewhere in Ikebukuro. Bowling alley.

“So we’re looking for the Slugger. Wanna help?”

“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing… I just thought it was a coincidence.”

It was halfway through Golden Week when Aoba had asked Yahiro to meet up.

All of them were in casual clothes, and Yahiro as well wore the clothes he had bought in the city just recently.

According to him, one of their seniors, a man called Horada, had been attacked by the Slugger, and had ordered Aoba to find the criminal for revenge.

Unaware that Yahiro so happened to have been tasked to look for the criminal by someone else already, Aoba explained their situation lightly.

“Yes, I asked around about Blue Square.”

“Your reputation is not very good.”

“Yahiro-kun, that’s too honest.”

Yahiro simply orated his truest intention, but Aoba seemed to have interpreted something different, for he laughed before continuing.

With an expression hard to associate with his model student persona in school, Aoba continued,

“OK.”

“Why?”

“I spoke to Kuon, too, but he said he’s busy with some new business. I thought you would be involved in that.”

“You’re actually telling me?!”

“Aren’t you supposed to keep things like this secret from me?”

“Really.”

He proceeded to try drawing out more information on Kuon, but—

“Ah, that part’s secret.”

“Sorry, it’s not because it’s you, Aoba-sempai, but it seems the details have to be kept private. I think it’s best if you ask Kuon-kun directly, if you really need to know..

There was no dislike whatsoever in his words.

It was as normal as normal was with Yahiro, and Aoba understood this as well.

“Nevermind. I’ll try asking Kuon if I can get in the deal too.”

“So, the Slugger… Horada-sempai’s your benefactor, so you can’t not repay the debt.”

Yahiro said, uncomprehending. Aoba said,

“Yeah.”

“!”

At the time the detail had been insignificant in the chaos, but now it was brought up Aoba had indeed said that he knew their location ‘from a senior’.

“I see… In that case I do need to help.”

“…”

Yahiro mulled over the word.

“But it’s a crime from the moment you kidnap anyone, right?”

During their conversation, Aoba’s turn to bowl arrived.

While Aoba went off to bowl, Yahiro thought.

—I think it’s best not to beat the criminal up.

—I can’t forbid them from doing it…

—Karisawa- and Yumasaki-san said they only want to talk… So Karisawa-san, and once they’re done talking Horada-san, and once it looks like they’re going too far I stop them and send the criminal to the police?

—But I don’t have the right to stop them…

Yahiro’s turn came next, and relieving Aoba he took a ball and walked out.

“I still think you shouldn’t take revenge.”

Unable to answer immediately, Yahiro threw the ball first.

Surfacing in his mind was the scenery of his past.

“If you return every blow you get, after a while… it gets harsh, you know?”

“Ah… strike?”

Yahiro, who had been waiting for the ball to come back fully expecting to go for his second try, widened his eyes; Aoba pat his junior’s shoulder, smiling.

Aoba smiled faintly, and there was a peek of a face different from that Yahiro always saw.

“But you know, Yahiro-kun. …For us, we feel most at home living in that harshness.”

Evening. Ikebukuro West Gate Park.

“And that’s how it is. What do I do?”

Sitting on a metal tube bench, Yahiro asked Himeka, who sat beside him, this question.

Himeka told him this defeatedly, but even so her expression was largely the same.

It turned out she was just passing by Ikebukuro Station, so they decided to meet up at the park.

To his surprise, however, Himeka already knew.

“…So you accepted the job too, Himeka-chan?”

“But I think it’s dangerous for you to get involved…”

“I don’t think you should say that, since you looked for the Headless Rider even when rumours said she was a kidnapper.”

Yahiro accepted her point with a nod, and Himeka gave a small sigh.

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“Anyway, naturally it’s best that the assaults stop. But there are two groups who want to meet the criminal before the police. So, if by luck I suddenly come across the Slugger lying on the ground and get to catch them, who should I go to first?”

“What is it?”

At the question she replied with, Yahiro said,

“…That’s certainly imaginable.”

“Mizuchi-kun. Even if the Slugger suddenly showed up, you can win the fight, right?”

“You’re saying that after beating down bōsōzoku and yakuza, here…”

Unease tinted Yahiro’s eyes as he continued,

“Then make mistakes. It’s easier to remember that way.”

“It’s always a little surreal, the way you say something is ‘scary’.”

“…When you use your strength, you have a reason. So, why do you think the Slugger doing all of this?”

Yahiro had not even considered examining the criminal’s motive.

Nonetheless—though he did not want to think about it since it sounded like excuses—it was true that even he, who had been feared as a monster himself, had his own reasons for using violence.

(*Etsusa Bridge reference?)

“The Slugger… Why. Why is that person hitting people? I’ve been hit from behind with hammers a couple of times, but… Right, those people always said they’d kill me, but what were they planning to do after that…?”

“What most people would think is that the criminal has some condition where the they feel good when they hurt others, or has some delusion that they’ll die unless they hit others… Though it’s also possible that the victims aren’t completely random.”

“In other words, the victims couod have something in common. Even if it looks random to us, there could be a specific criteria only the criminal understands that they’re using to choose their victims. I think in that case, the motive becomes important.”

He had heard the bare bones of the case through the radio and such, but as far as he knew the victims were young and old and of different genders, and the first victims had been a couple.

Yahiro realised that, familiar with neither Horada nor the couple, he could not even answer that question, and he blew a small sigh.

Yahiro asked, and Himeka thought for awhile.

“Delinquents?”

The Slasher.

“The Slasher… Do you know what happened, Himeka-chan?”

(*Probably Harima Mika again; classmate is Anri.)

Yahiro decided to research in this direction to find out if the cases were related. Himeka informed him additionally,
“There was this group called, Dollars…? That people suspected were harbouring the Slasher… But Kuronuma Aoba-sempai should be more clear on those things.”

Somewhere in Ikebukuro.

Ajimura Shōya was a serial assaulter.

However, he had no awareness of it himself.

Though put that way, it was not that he drew fancomics for it.

By pressuring the private community in various ways, he agitated the gathering of fanatics in a united direction.

But occasionally his activities would go too far and cause trouble for others.

They would tell the production team, ‘The current plot development will lower the quality of OPD,’ and then send over ‘the developments we thought of’, attaching a note saying, ‘you can use this for free’.

When they felt the casting of actors unsatisfactory for the live action film, they would harass the artiste company with thousands of anonymous letters saying, ‘Remove these castings and change it like this,’ and post criticisms all over the web.

This persisted over time, and the fansite notorious amongst OPD fans.

He was certain that his site’s critics were either jealous of their influence, or haters pretending to be OPD fans.

Killing the god for the religion.

—’OPD depicts my story.’

—’The world destroyed by zombies is the same as this situation that corners me. Filled with the stink of despair.’

—’No; maybe it was modelled after me.’

Perhaps, under the excuse of fan activities, he had been trying to control the world of OPD.
By controlling the world of the series, he had the misbelief that he could control his own world, the model it had been based off (or so he arbitrarily believed).

And—committing serial assault in a Dark Owl cosplay was part of these fan activities.

It was not him at first.

The rumour that the criminal was wearing a Dark Owl cosplay spread on the internet before the TV or newspapers.

Dark Owl was he himself.

That was why it was wrong.

—’Do these criminal acts from a person who’s lost sight of the line between fiction and reality?’

—No. Nonono.

It belonged to no one else. It was a reality by him and for him.

He could not forgive that person being seen as one with Dark Owl.

Ajimura heard the commentator on the TV utter those words, and screamed.

OPD is my life.

People influenced by me wouldn’t do things like that.

It was not how Dark Owl should be.

Burying his face in his futon, he thought, he thought, he thought.

Owl of the Peeping Dead was being painted as a Bible of evil.

Misinformation about himself was being circulated by the ignorant mass media.

—Yes. I must show them the truth.

He did not know what to do.

Without realising, he was howling.

But Ajimura ignored this, and simply, simply continued to yell.

As a result, when he came across his neighbour when leaving his apartment the next day, he wound up being grabbed by the collar and so warned—

—What’s with this guy.

(*The stereotypical pompadour of Japanese smalltime gangsters.)

Normally he would be nodding fearfully, but now he was at the peak of his anger, he listened on with a different mood from usual.

His threat had not been to use violence; from an objective point of view the man was relatively peaceable—

—That’s right. It’s fine so long as it’s not assault.

He did not know nor care about the profiles of the victims so far.

What he, as the model for Dark Owl, ought to do.

On a moonless street, as he looked at the fallen form of his neighbour, bleeding from the head, Ajimura thought.

What rose in his heart was not fear, but exhilaration.
For he felt that in this moment he had become Dark Owl.

Yet—

If normal fans like Yumasaki and Karisawa knew of this, surely they would yell angrily, ‘You’re not a fan!’ In the first place, Yumasaki and Karisawa already avoided Ajimura’s fansite, their logic being, ‘Those aren’t fans, they might even be worse than haters.’

His own life was OPD, and from now on the series would be corrected to match him. Or at least, this was what he believed.

He had only seen the OPD anime in passing, and had not even bought the DVD or comics.

And, once he had assaulted his neighbour, he lost all logical restraint.

Yet, even though he had only targeted and disposed of the type of person the public would call scum, television continued to introduce him as a ‘serial assaulter’.

“Not yet, it’s not enough yet. No one understands because there hasn’t been enough.”

“That Horada guy was just small fry, huh… There hasn’t been much fuss on the net… Worse. I need to hunt worse trash. I need to hunt every one of those idiots…”

During his break at work, Ajimura searched for information with his smartphone.

Searching with these keywords—one man’s name came up right

It was a name he knew himself.

For that man was dubbed, alongside the Headless Rider, as an urban legend of Ikebukuro.

“Heiwajima… Shizuo, huh…”

Shinra’s apartment.

“You’re looking for the Slugger, Celty?”

Shinra generally did not probe into Celty’s work, but as Celty had been the one to ask him if he had heard anything about the Slugger, he came to know what Celty had been doing the past few days.

“That’s dangerous! This is the Slugger we’re talking about, what if you get hurt!”

“I’ve already accepted that you want to be a courier, but Celty, I’m worried that you’ll be used by this dubious Snake Hands group. Aren’t those kids just treating you as a convenient weapon to protect themselves, like Aoba-kun?”

‘It’s fine. If that happens I’ll just classify it as part of the job and do only as much as I’m paid for. Anyway, I’m not so weak that the Slugger can do anything to me…’

It appeared he had accepted her justification for now.

But it seemed he was particularly concerned about situations like this, where she became involved on the behest of others.

Celty, understanding this, typed additional information to lessen his worry:

“Them? Why?”
Celty proceeded to explain what Kuon had told her to dispel Shinra’s confusion.

“I see… I get what’s going on, but… I never thought the assaults were this serious. I haven’t been seeing the news recently, so I never realised.”

“Of course Celty! Ignoring the annoying lies about you having a boyfriend, you coming back to the city started so many discussions! I feel so proud, it’s like we have a celebrity in the family.”

Being self-aware that she was a courier that drove around without a number plate or headlights, Celty naturally felt bad about being proud of herself for being famous.

“But even so… Somehow, this Slugger reminds me of that time with Anri-chan.”

“Speaking of Anri-chan, how’s Sonohara Hall now?”

‘Business is pretty good, I think. Masaomi-kun and Saki-chan have been stocking things from all over Japan, so there’s a surprisingly wide variety of goods.’

They seldom met in person because, like Mikado, Anri was uninvolved with underworld problems; nevertheless they kept in touch via text, and occasionally they would discuss the unusual goods Anri had procured.

“I see… She seemed the type to have weird things like that. The police never went after her, right?”

“Ah… I hope he’s not obstructing business…”

‘But, right… The serial assaults could be related to a curse, like Saika…’

‘Right, Shinra. Didn’t Kujiragi leave Saika with you? Where did that go?’

‘…That actually sounds like it’s going to stay with you forever, you know…?’

Shinra stood slowly, and opened his cupboard for the medical instruments he used as an underground doctor.

‘You just put it in plain sight?!’
Unwinding the bandages revealed a blade in the form of a scalpel, and when Shinra picked it up, his eyes began to glow red.

Saika.

A personality not unlike that of a human female resided within the blade, strangely and uniquely defined by its love for the whole of humanity.

Should the user not have willpower strong enough they would be overtaken by the will of Saika and become no more than a puppet; a personification of ‘love’ in the form of cutting others.

Shinra had become one of Saika’s ‘children’ post a certain incident. In the end he had not only conquered the curse but come into possession of one of Saika’s parent blades.
And, as if to prove it, Shinra’s eyes started glowing like LEDs.

“See? It’s the real thing.”

“I’m fine. It gets noisy when I hold it, but just seeing your face makes it okay.”

Celty sighed in relief when she saw Shinra’s eyes return to normal.

“It was fine in the end, right? More importantly, take care. If anything happens to you I’ll use this Saika to send all those who hurt you into living hell, fufufufu.”

Celty, felt nervous again, knowing Shinra was more than capable of executing what he said.

In the first place, Shinra numbered amongst the demographic that went out at night; it was hard to say he would be completely safe from the Slugger.

Just then—Shinra’s phone suddenly started to ring.

Seeing the screen, Shinra quickly picked up.

‘Did something happen?’

She could not make out the exact words, but Shizuo sounded panicky.

Sensing that Shinra’s voice was becoming more urgent, Celty inferred it was a serious matter.

She asked Shinra this once the call ended, and he returned the scalpel-form Saika to the cupboard, beginning to take out disinfectant and other materials as he answered.

‘Someone’s hurt?!’
“Yeah. I think you know him, too. It’s Shizuo’s senior Tanaka-san. The guy with dreadlocks and glasses.”

“He said Tanaka-san was attacked by the Slugger, and injured his head…”

****CHAPTER END****

 

Interlude: Rumours on the Internet ③

Ikebukuro Information Site, IkeNEW! Version I・KEBU・KUR・O

New Article, ‘Citizen Group Releases Statement; Seeks Ban of Owl of the Peeping Dead Film and Anime’

‘After opposing OPD for so long PCChibukuro finally makes an official statement. If this goes on not just the manga but even the movie might be censored.’ ‘Wow Chibukuro. You’re trying to say the Headless Rider, Ripper Night, and even the recent fake kidnappings are the effect of anime, live action movies and manga like OPD. But the Headless Rider’s been in Ikebukuro for more than 20 years…’ ‘They finally did it. This group is famous for being kind of ridiculous, but for some reason they have ties to politicians. Hopefully they don’t bring the censorship laws into this.’ ‘This is the group which almost had a yakuza film set in Ikebukuro banned from sale when they said it was “glorifying violence organisations like the Awakusu-kai”, right? I have to say, who’s the one who can’t distinguish fiction and reality, here?’

—(Personal posts taken from Twittia)

An excerpt of the statement:

“(Text omitted)—and so, children are innocent creatures, and they hence lack the ability to select pure books and films for themselves. This is why adults like us, with our knowledge of the world, must protect them from those owls that stink of death. To cleanse the environment of Ikebukuro, to restore the wholesomeness of this district, we seek that bookstores, anime shops in particular, withdraw these titles—(text omitted)—The criminal known as the Headless Rider is an obvious result of the influence of games, just as the Slasher case is clear proof of the effects of violently themed anime and manga, or even films and music—(text omitted)—In the same vein, WWW has contracted itself to the devil. They are the destroyers of Ikebukuro, and in a sense more malicious than even the Slugger traumatising Ikebukuro currently. WWW has created a work depicting Ikebukuro’s streets filled with corpses; we demand the immediate recall of all merchandise. If our demands are not met, these missionaries of evil will be punished at the hands of righteous citizens. We will not wait for heaven’s judgment. We will, with our own hands, defend a clear, pure Ikebukuro for our children —(Text omitted)”

IkeNEW! Administrator’s Comment

“P.C.Chibukuro is at it again-moja. Peoples for the Calm Treatment of IKEBUKURO… It means ‘society for the gentle curing of Ikebukuro’-moja, P.C.T.bukuro for short. People call it P.C.Chibukuro-moja.

The ‘receive judgment by the people’ part at the end might even be considered a threat-moja. And you don’t have to look twice to feel like the entire thing is threatening-moja.

The Slugger is frightening, but gangsters coming together to form groups is scary too-moja.
Touch wood-moja.”

Administrator Lila Tailtooth Zaiya

Excerpts of typical tweets from microblogging site Twittia.

That IkeNEW jerk quoted our tweets without asking again. Well, there’s nothing we can say about it. I don’t even care about being quoted anymore, but being used to help affiliate blogs make cash pisses me off. Well, IkeNEW is one of the better ones, at least? No, the way the admin ends sentences is annoying. Oh look, looks like the geeks are going hysterical in the face of logic. It’s a good chance to check all of the accounts that complained against that resident group and chase them off Twitter, isn’t it? You’re annoying go die. Oho, fast and reliable, the anime-icon user arrives to flame rofl This guy’s annoying. Screencapped a summary of all his previous problematic tweets. Hey, what are you gonna do with that? If you don’t take that down I’ll report you~ lol. Thanks. Huh? Whoa, he really did it. He reported. If you report a Twittia user you get their address and name. Huh? Huh? Huh? You’re living around ●● Prefecture. It’s famous for textiles, right? What’s going on this is a joke right? What is this. Calm down, ●●-kun. I’ll call you later lol Speaking of which, I think I saw the Slugger yesterday. Serious? The news didn’t say anything. Really? Ah, but there was a guy bleeding from the head at the convenience store nearby. Seriously? Yep, and then a bartender guy was holding him up trying to get him to a doctor. Bartender…? Did he have blond hair and sunglasses by any chance? Ah, yeah. I don’t know about the sunglasses but he was blond. The Slugger is dead meat. I wonder why the criminal is doing this. Probably they just want to beat people up? No, I get the feeling the victims are alternating between delinquents and normal folk. Isn’t that just random? I don’t think Ikebukuro’s such a dangerous area you can get delinquents half the time by random selection… The attacks on gangsters must have been a fake Slugger. Speaking of which, Ripper Night was weird too. Fifty victims in one night, right? There’s no way that was just one person, right…? Was it the Dollars after all… Dollars lol. So nostalgic haha If PCChibukuro has the time to try and regulate our manga, they should do something about the remnants of the colour gangs we’re seeing in real life. Dragon Zombie’s been running amuck recently… The traffic police did a good job catching them, though. The Yellow Scarves aren’t around anymore, but… are there still other colour gangs? I think there are still bits of Blue Square around. Colour gangs are seriously outdated, I doubt anything will come of it. The Headless Rider’s back, too. Can’t we just blame all the Slugger business on the Dollars? I wonder what the old Dollars are up to now. It’s embarassing for anyone to admit they’re an ex-member, after all…

****CHAPTER END****

Chapter end