Chapter 1 (1/2)
DURARARA!! NICONICO SPECIAL EDITION PART 1: NICOCOCO!!
This is a twisted story.
A story about twisted comments.
“We’re going to make a video!”
“We’re aiming for #1 in the daily rankings!” Yumasaki Walker and Karisawa Erika
abruptly proclaimed, as they held a video camera and a laptop in their hands.
For these two, such speech and actions probably weren’t too unusual but——
“……Eh?”
Celty Sturluson, who had just returned home and had no idea what was going on,
stood in front of Walker and Erika and her head tilted in confusion.
To be more accurate, what she tilted was not, in fact, her head, but the helmet resting
on top of her body.
Because, for her——
Nothing exists above her neck.
♂♀
Celty Sturluson is not human.
Commonly called a “Dullahan”, she’s a type of faerie from Scotland and Ireland——it
is said that if their existence revolves around stopping near the houses of mortals, and
warning them of their impending death.
They hold their own head under their arm, and are commonly seen riding a twowheeled
wagon drawn by a headless horse called a cóiste-bodhar, visiting the houses of
those who are soon to die. If someone is foolish enough to open their door, they’ll get a
bucket full of blood tossed in their face——as a messenger of ill-omens, their stories
have been handed down in tradition in Europe, just like that of the banshee.
But that is an old story.
Now, she is living an ordinary life, loving a man named Kis.h.i.+tani s.h.i.+nra, both as a
living urban legend and as a woman.
♂♀
It was on this peaceful day that these two suddenly barged in.
“A video…of what?”
“Nooo~ Nowadays, if you’re talking about videos it’s for Niconico, a nico-video!” As
if to match Erika’s words, Walker gave a huge smile as she talked.
Niconico literally means “smile”
“That’s right! Karisawa-san has been a regular on the site ever since it first went live!”
“Ah, no…I know what Niconico is but…wait, what? Since the original version?
But then, Karisawa how old are you…”
“OK, OK! Let’s save that annoying topic for some time in the future!” Clapping her
hands together forcibly, Erika quickly changed the subject.
“So, Cel-chan, what kind of video do you want to make? Do you want to make some
sort of live reaction Let’s Play of a free game?”
“No, uh, live reaction…There’s no way I could do that.”
“If we use one of those fancy text-to-speech software it should be fine. If it comes
down to it, I can also make a really nice silent video too. Just as long as the contents are
interesting.”
“Wait, wait, first of all, why do you suddenly want to make a video? And why
doesn’t it have to involve me?” At Celty’s rather sensible questions, Erika shook her
head sadly.
“Ah c.r.a.p, you noticed…as I should have expected of Celcchi.”
“I didn’t really notice anything…”
“No it’s just…y’know? Honestly I was just being selfish, I’m sorry, I just thought……”
At Erika’s hesitation, Walker turned to explain to Celty.
“What she means to say is, Karisawa-san has a Niconico rival.”
“Rival?”
“First of all, take a look at this video.”
“Wait, stop that Yamacchi! It’s too embarra.s.sing for me to watch!”
Deaf to Erika’s pleas, Walker opened up his laptop and connected to the wireless
router, before opening up the Niconico homepage. There, in a video t.i.tled “Singing Opera
while [email protected]/* */ de Charmant,” Erika, with the top half of her face hidden by a
mask and in some sort of anime character cosplay, began to sing opera.
“No, stop it–! I don’t want to hear it~~!” Before Erika locked Walker in a full nelson
hold in an effort to make him stop, Celty could hear Erika’s singing voice echoing out of
the computer speakers.
Although she does not have ears, Celty is clad in a ‘shadow,’ more sensitive than
human ears, which allowed her to feel the music. Shaking with deep emotion, she swung
her smartphone screen around to face Erika.
“Karisawa…you…you’re that good at singing!?”
“Right~ Isn’t it amazing~. Among our fellow anime friends, Karisawa-san is a legend
y’know?”
“Aaaaagh no, it’s not like that. Ah I’m so embarra.s.sed…” Erika’s face was bright red
as she shyly glanced away. It was definitely unusual behavior for her.
“Nevertheless…This ‘Eternal de Charmant’, is that your stage name…?”
“Yup, yup! That’s right! It’s so cool isn’t it!” Seeing Erika’s suddenly brightened face
struck a chord of fear into Celty’s heart as she typed out her response.
“Well…It’s nothing to be embarra.s.sed about…” While Celty was lost in her
thoughts about Erika, Walker decided to continue his story from before.
“So there’s this rival of Charmant-san called Blizzard la Blizzadia. Of course, she’s
also very good at singing, and she cosplays too, so one way or another they’re going to
end up being compared…”
“So?”
“Well, one day they got into a nasty t.i.t-for-tat on a Skype chat, and she said “Well I’m
really good friends with the famous Let’s Play gamer ●●-san. You don’t have any
important friends though do you.” So of course Karisawa-san replied with “I have a lot of
super amazing friends!” and then…”
“…And then?” Celty couldn’t quite tie the two things together, so she prompted him
to continue.
“Well, after their nasty t.i.t-for-tat, the two of them decided to get their friends to submit
movie to Niconico, and have a contest to see which one gets the most mylist bookmarks
and likes on their video!”
“I see. Well. That was an extremely stupid story compared to the earlier one
about Karisawa’s opera singing.”
Then, a second later, Celty furiously punched something into her smartphone in large,
capital letters.
“ARE YOU AN IDIOT!”
Then she quickly typed out another message, before shoving it in Erika and Walker’s
faces.
“How on earth did the conversation become a video compet.i.tion!? Are you