Vol 1 Chapter 22 (1/2)
Durarara!!SH
CHAPTER 2B
The Gossiper
Night Ikebukuro Rakuei Gym
Rakuei Gym was a martial arts dojo that boasted a scale of top-class level in Ikebukuro
As it was affiliated with the Gerott Geisendorfer, a chaym was knoide
While it was technically an MMA gyht various kinds ofmartial arts centralised around weapons, such as the sword, spear, or staff
(Kendō, sōjutsu, jōjutsu)
People fro the athered here; aside froym, it rapped in a mixed atmosphere characteristic of a city
“Wow~, I didn’t think you’d be attending this gym too, Kuon-kun~! I was surprised”
A scene in the gym
In response to dogi-clad Mairu, Kuon, as visiting in his school uniform, scratched his head
“Well… I was attending the Takadanobaba branch up till I finished ht it ht be fun to drop by”
“I see; when Aocchi introduced you during the spring break I never thought I’d see you in a place like this”
“I’m surprised myself”
The conversation, while not entirely common, was not unnatural either, between fellow students in a new semester
“And then? Who’s this kid?”
“Ah… Sorry, nice to meet you”
Bowing his head quickly was Yahiro, ore the sa around at the surroundings
“I’m Kuon’s classmate, Mizuchi Yahiro”
“Oh~, so thatyou”
“Yes, please take care of me”
Mairu looked over the anxious boy, staring
She earing sports spectacles, and seeotten away from the intense session of spars and matches
“Fuu~nfunfun, no dye, no piercings No s, you’re like a model student, unlike Kuon”
“Eh… um, thank you very much”
Having suddenly been passed judgment on, Yahiro thanked her cluelessly
On the other hand, Kuon frowned as he protested to the girl that was his senior
“No way, I don’t do cigarettes or sniffing…”
“True~, you s if you’re with Aocchi”
“Hey, lay off…”
Kuon, as genuinely agitated; and Mairu, as chuckling
As Yahiro stared curiously at the juxtaposition between the two, Mairu looked toward hiain
“So, are you hoping to sign up?”
“No, I thought to just take a tour today…”
Then Kuon interjected from beside him
“Yeah right, this guy’s a wet blanket~ Mairu-senpa~i…”
Kuon huffed as he dug his elbow into Yahiro
“We were supposed to go looking for the Headless Rider, but Yahiro absolutely refused~”
It was one hour earlier
“We’ll be the ones to find the Headless Rider, yeah?”
Kuon exclaimed, but Yahiro replied, abruptly:
“No, I’ for today”
“Wait, why?! You don’t have anything on, right?”
“Yeah Anything else is fine, but… I think searching for the Headless Rider will have to wait till tomorrow at least For today it’s just the Headless Rider that’s out”
Yahiro calmly asserted this, to which Kuon’s face turned confused
“Why is the no-go limited to today, and to the Headless Rider even?!”
“…”
There Yahiro sunk into thought
—Even if you were to ask…
—I was thinking to wait till toami-san, but…
Would speaking of it be just as i a secret?
It was not as if he had been prohibited fro it; but Yahiro, who felt that it was not an issue appropriate to divulge, replied to Kuon:
“Sorry, it’s a secret I can’t say even if we’re friends”
“Erk, it’s so important?!”
“I’m not sure, is it important…”
Seeing Yahiro honestly begin to worry, Kuon felt a faint sense of culture shock, and said, cold sweat dripping down his cheek:
“You’re weird…”
“Eh?! R, really…?”
—Oh no
—Did I do so?
Yahiro, as currently unable to understand the concept of having a co an aard s in the first place, the result was a stiff s of Ikebukuro
Kuon, seeing this and unsure how to react, sighed
“Well, then let’s leave that for today Imy face at the dojo today too”
“Dojo?”
“Yeah, Rakuei Gy at the dojo at Takadanobaba, but for high school I’ the one in Ikebukuro”
“Dojo as in… for martial arts? What do you do?”
Yahiro was for some reason suddenly interested, and Kuon smiled friendlily as he replied
“Oh, a lot of things, you know? I’s like MMA, karate, boxing, kendo, staff techniques?”
At Kuon’s words Yahiro’s eyes widened slightly, and after soht, he asked:
“Could I hear more?”
After that conversation, they had decided that Yahiro would co them here
“Seriously, I finally l became an Ikebukuran~, but I can’t believe Headless Rider’s so aly passive~ It’s like torture by suspense”
(Actual ter a snake halfway)
To Kuon, as still lingering on the Headless Rider, Mairu asked:
“Hm? You two are interested in the Headless Rider?”
“Yeah, I guess I really was thinking, it’d be nice to see it too~, I guess? Yahiro here’s really diehard, you know? He came all the way from Akita to Tokyo just to see the Headless Rider, you know? Hardcore, ain’t it?”
“Oh~! From Akita just for that?! That’s some willpower! Aren’t you cool”
To Mairu, whose eyes sparkled as she said this, Yahiro averted his eyes as he replied
“Ah, no… It’s not like… the Headless Rider was the only reason…”
“? What’s that? So as the reason? Could it be s to Kuru-nee and Yuhei-san head to toe! It’s reserved! Reserved!”
“I’et…”
Yahiro was perplexed; Kuon whispered into his ear:
“I justit’s fine if you basically ignore everything, all right? In the first place, her older sister would be so down from Akita f…”
“I~ can~ hear~ you~”
Mairu, who had slipped behind hiround her fists into Kuon’s temples
“Agagagaga, wait, isn’t that umeboshi+ like what elementary schoolers do?! On the level of shi+ppe and head-poking? It’s the first tia”
(T/N: U soers, apparently)
“I’ll have you knoon’t be giving any infors like that!”
Information on the Headless Rider
At those words casually inserted into the conversation, Yahiro and Kuon reacted simultaneously
“Eh?”
“Wait, Mairu-senpai, do you know so?”
Faced with the confusion of the two, Mairu snickered and said,
“I do We’ve met a number of ti like a bodyguard, you know?”
“Bodyguard?”
Yahiro frowned unconsciously at the terend
“Yep Apparently our brother was friends with the Headless Rider”
“Friends, with the Headless Rider?”
Next to Yahiro, as getting increasingly bewildered, Kuon stared at Mairu and said
“You’re teasing your juniors with those kinds of jokes, again~”
“Ah, by that look of yours, you don’t believe it? It’s not a joke, and I don’t have a lying streak, hm? You can ask Kuru-nee, even Aocchi if you want”
“Kuronuma-sempai?”
There Kuon frowned slightly
Yahiro glanced between their faces, and tilted his head
“Kuronuma-sempai?”
“Mm… Ah, he’s a senior who’s taken care of me since middle school”
Behind Kuon, as chewing his words, Mairu added, unhesitantly:
“He’s the boss of a scary scary army of delinquents, so you have to be careful, you know?”
“Hey! Read the atmosphere!”
“I read it properly, you know? And on top of that I sinored it so don’t worry!”
“You’re so troublesome!”
After a few seconds of frustration, Kuon elaborated on this ‘Kuronuma-senpai’
“Ah, the part about the delinquents is Mairu’sIt’s just that soet into fights, sort of…”
As if realising he had not quite explained anything, Kuon hurried to change the topic
“Anyway, ht now! Teleteletele! Tele-tele-call-call or no more bet!”
To Kuon, as ym with his palm, Mairu smiled as she replied
“Ahahaha, I can’t do that”
“What! That’s unfair! You can’t just say so and leave it at that!”
At Kuon’s pestering, Mairu, her s –
“But Aniki’s beenfor more than a year,”
said this explosive statement
“…”
“…”
The two in school uniform looked at one another and fell silent
With the two of them unsure what to say, Mairu continued, her tone indifferent:
“Ah, don’t mind, it’s fine, it’s fine He’s disappeared plenty of tier this time”
In response, Yahiro felt just a little relieved
“Ah, I, I see”
But that relief was destroyed by Mairu’s next words
“Anyway, at worst, even if he’s at the bottom of Tokyo Bay, in its oay that end would suit him If you think of it as just what he expected, then it’s not that bad, hm?”
“…”
As opposed to Yahiro, who had gone silent again, now Kuon spoke
“No… isn’t that very worrying…? If he knew the Headless Rider and he disappeared, that’s like the recent…”
Just as he said that, another voice came from beside them
“No, you’re wrong”
“?”
“The Headless Rider wouldn’t do that”
The three of theirl one head shorter than Yahiro, wearing a white cotton vest and hakama
She looked to be in middle school, but there was still some trace of childishness in her face
She held in her hands an octagonal staff carved from japanese red oak, and fro jōjutsu in this gym
(Hakkaku-bō japanese red oak – Akagashi+; one of the standard woods for weaponry, if you search it up)
Seeing the girl’s face, Mairu called out
“Ah Akane-chan Yahoo~”
“Orihara-senpai, thank you for today”
To Akane, who bowed her head courteously, Kuon asked:
“Erm, you are?”
“…Awakusu Akane, from the Rakuei Jōdō Section’s Girls’ Division”
Just as she had with Mairu, she bowed her head, formally, to the two boys
“Ah, I’m, uh, I just came to see; I’m Mizuchi Yahiro”
“Kotonami Kuon; nice to meet you, Ojō-chan”
“Yes, nice to meet you”
After listening to their introductions seriously, Akane spoke, once more, to the two she had just met
“The Headless Rider wouldn’t kidnap anyone”
They did not know just how much of their conversation she had heard
Only, it appeared that she had so what Kuon had said, about a link between the disappearance of Mairu’s brother and the Headless Rider
But Yahiro, who knew nothing of the details, could not join the conversation, and could only listen on to what she said
“Everyone is…the Headless Rider That person isn’t a scary monster like the online rumours say…”
Hearing what Akane said unhappily, Yahiro’s heart hurt, slightly
—Huh?
—What is it… this feeling…
The boy quickly realised what the noise rising in his chest was
The people who had called him a monster when he was in his hometown
There were people who looked on the Headless Rider with that saaze
In other words, was he not hoping he could direct that saaze towards the Headless Rider?
To prove he was norant thing to do?
Thinking this, Yahiro fell into a temporary state of melancholy
—…I…Aren’t I being very rude to the Headless Rider…?
—If it’s like that, then maybe I’m not human, I’m a monster after all…
Having not noticed that the classloomy, Kuon asked Akane,
“Akane-chan, right? Could it be that you know the Headless Rider?”
“…”
Akane could not answer Kuon’s question
Rather, she looked at him warily
It was a natural reaction considering his unique hair colour and his piercings, but it see within her
“Wait, don’t be so scared~ See, it’s like that There’re soht, aren’t there? Like the poison dart frog It’s just like that, just like that”
“It’s lethal, isn’t it”
“It’s called the poison dart frog, too…”
Ignoring thefrom Mairu and Yahiro behind him, Kuon made a friendly approach towards Akane
“And besides, it’s not like we think the Headless Rider is evil or anything That’s ant to knohat kind of person they are”
“Well, you should leave it at that, Kuon”
“Eh?”
“Akane-chan’s in the broadcast co just a while ago”
“…”
“That’s the second ti the ath I’m not the one who minds”
To Kuon, who had broken out in cold sweat, Akane said,
“…It’s true that ht it wouldn’t do to cause trouble for the Headless Rider, so I kept it a secret from her That I knew the Headless Rider”
Akane continued, looking away sadly
“But… she suddenly disappeared… And everyone’s just co up with their own conclusions…”
What cao, of the senior she hadbreak
—’Hey, hey, Awakusu-san I ht finally be able to meet the Headless Rider!’
That senior had been a student president in their elementary school, and her ‘Headless Rider mania’ ell-known in the school
Akane had wanted to introduce theh her ‘fa she had wanted to avoid at all costs
—’If I really get to know the Headless Rider, sometime I’ll introduce them to you too, Awakusu-san!’
A mere few days later
This upperclassman, who had worried about Akane when she had been unhappy for various reasons – who should have become her senior at the same middle school – Akane heard that she had disappeared
Apparently she was being searched for as a runaway, but until now there had been no word
As if the sa had been broadcast to everyone else, in the blink of an eye,
—’The Headless Rider vanished that senior into the shadows,’
this ridiculous, unbelievable ruhout the school
But those who lived in Ikebukuro knew
That the Headless Rider did exist
It had not been seen around for about half a year, but just seeing it once all of the
—It’s not of this world
Ashadow After witnessing that firsthand no one could disossip
Akane, who had in the past been saved by the Headless Rider, could not bear the one-sided send’s name
But no one would believe her if she said she had been helped by the Headless Rider, and furthero into the exact details, she would have to speak of her ‘family matters’
She understood that it was a route that would not result in any happiness for anyone
That hy she had decided to bear it in school and pretend not to hear the rumours, and, instead, clear the mystery of the disappearance herself
Just as she had set her heart on this she happened to hear the conversation of Kuon’s group, and without thinking, spoke to defend the Headless Rider -—
But as a result she attracted more interest than necessary from this unusually-dressed boy by the name of Kuon
“So, what are you planning to do?”
“…I want to search for her, too”
“Search for her… On your own? Really?”
“I can’t just leave it to the police…”
A dark expression, but firmly
“You’re going so far; do you love your senior that much? Or do you just have so much confidence that the Headless Rider isn’t the culprit?”
“That…”
To Kuon, who asked this in htly
“Hey, hey, I won’t do anything bad, so tell us about the Headless Rider! If there’s a ot to clear it And if we know it’s a , we can tell everyone that the Headless Rider’s a good person, too Right?”
“…”
At Akane, as looking at hireen-haired boy smiled spiritedly, but —
“Hey, you can’t go bullying younger girls”
“Agagagagagagaga”
Once round at his temples with her fists from behind; Kuon cried out instinctively
“There are things people don’t want to tell anyone, so read the atmosphere Air-read, air-read”
“Aho… No, but… Isn’t it worrying?”
Froloom, stepped towards Akane
“I got it, if you don’t want to talk about it, on’t ask about the Headless Rider anymore”
“…sorry”
Akane nodded her head, and perhaps she felt Yahiro more trustworthy than Kuon; she spoke just a little more about the Headless Rider
“Anyone who’s spoken to them would know… That person definitely isn’t bad”
“Yeah, I believe you”
“Eh?”
“Nothing says not being human makes you evil”
Even though she felt strange at the so shtly cheered, as she thanked him
“Thank you so much! I think so too! So many people misunderstand… the Headless Rider…”
And then, for just an instant a self-deprecating look crossed her face as well, as she continued
“…about shi+zuo-san, too…”
“Eh?”
“Ah, no, sorry I was talking to myself!”
Hearing Akane, Mairu, who had stayed silent till then, clapped as if she had re
“Ah, right! The Headless Rider’s close with shi+zuo-san, aren’t they!”
Yahiro’s heart raced
—’shi+zuo’?
—’shi+zuo’ as in… it can’t be…
Before the question could exit Yahiro’s mouth in the form of words, Kuon reacted to the name
“Geh—?! Seriously?! You mean shi+zuo as in, that shi+zuo?! Heiwajima shi+zuo!”
“Yeah, what, you know?”
“Of course! I’ve heard the legends fro machine myself just once! Eh?! The Headless Rider knows Heiwajima shi+zuo?! Seriously?”
“Aocchi didn’t say a word to you about that, did he?”
Mairu said this, surprised
Away frolooan to feel exhilarated
—Heiwajima, shi+zuo
—Throwing vending machines
—There’s no mistake!
—It’s him!
When he had looked up Ikebukuro’s urban legends on the internet, the name had turned up countless, countless times
He was a person nickna with the Headless Rider, was called a living legend of Ikebukuro
—To think his name would show up here!
—But why?
—Because they’re fellow urban legends?
Yahiro hesitated, but then, anxiously, shook his head slightly
—No, now’s not the time to think about that