Vol 1 Chapter 22 (2/2)
Breathing deeply, Yahiro spoke, once more, to Akane
“Then, I’ll help you find your seniors”
“…eh?”
At this wild offer, Akane’s eyes widened
Not only Akane; Kuon beside hi as she watched the conversation, as though saying, ‘Things just got interesting’
“I want to knohat kind of person the Headless Rider is But if they’re not bad, like you say, I want to prove it too So I want to try asking those seniors who’re big fans of the Headless Rider”
—Ah, I said it
—It’s okay, I didn’t lie
—…I didn’t, right?
To Yahiro, it was a once-in-a-lifetiet closer to both the Headless Rider and Heiwajima shi+zuo’
He orried about the irl called Akane, so it was technically two birds with one stone – but was it not dishonest to hide one more bird?
—No, that’s irrelevant
—And I really do want to know
—If the Headless Rider is really a ‘monster’…
—Is it possible to be a ‘monster’ and not be hated?
—Whatever it is, those seniors who ran away fro
—It’s obvious which is more important
Even as he felt this sudden guilt, in the end Yahiro hid this motive within himself, and chose to honestly help in the search
He felt this was surely the right thing to do socially; but still he had not an ounce of confidence
“…”
At Yahiro’s offer, Akane glanced at Mairu
Her gaze sought an opinion on Yahiro, who she had just met and whose personality she did not know
In response, Mairu gave her a thumbs-up, and said,
“Isn’t that great? Kuru-nee and I’ll help too!”
And just like that, she turned her thumbs-up towards Kuon
“Kuon-kun, you’ll ask Aocchi and the rest, won’t you!”
Kuon himself was the one surprised by this
“Eh, wait, does thatKuronuma-senpai in?”
“I’ you, you know? But hey, but, see? At a time like this, you’re not the kind of person to say, ‘Normal civilians like us shouldn’t act rashly about this Leave it to the police,” or, “Why do I have to go to this kind of trouble,” are you?”
Mairu’s eyes and her words conveyed, implicitly, to Kuon:
—’You should love sticking your nose into into this kind of trouble’
A single stateh one part of Kuon’s true nature
Kuon sirl as his senior both at the dojo and in school
“We’ve onlythat very confidently”
“It was our older brother’s forte~ Maybe it’s in the blood”
Mairu, laughing, said as though to comfort Akane:
“Well, it’s all right They must have left ho; we’ll find them just fine”
“But…”
To Akane, as looking around at their faces worriedly, Mairu rambled on airily
“Ah, if you’re thinking, ‘It ht be a bother…’ to us, worry about that later, later! They and I, all of us are following our own a full e er, so Akane-chan, don’t always rely on what older people are doing!”
As Mairu said this brightly, Kuon interrupted unthinkingly:
“No, I don’t really have an ulterior motive…”
Mairu crooked her lip into a smile, and replied:
“So, you’ll pull out? I can be the one to ask Aocchi”
“…no, I’ll do it I’ve committed already, after all”
Seeing Kuon sigh and sht —
As if she had reached some kind of compromise in her heart, with determination in her eye, she bowed her head
“Thank you soon you”
And, gripping her octagonal staff tightly, she said,
“But… if anything feels dangerous, please stop right away I just want everyone to stay safe…”
Kuon, as if teasing Akane, shrugged
“Oh no oh no, oh no no no, no er here would be Akane-chan, the youngest, wouldn’t it?”
“Kuon-kun, it’s best not to underestiirl just into middle school, but she’s a star of hope of Rakuei’s staff technique, you know?”
“Serious?! I see~, then the one who should be ht be Yahiro-kun, huh”
Speaking lightly, Kuon patted Yahiro’s back
“Y, yeah I’ll take care”
Yahiro nodded, an aard se the topic,
“Um… By the way, er, what’s the name of the one who disappeared?”
Akane took a deep breath, and spoke the name clearly
“It was Tatsugaami Ai-senpai”
“Eh?”
Tatsugami
It was a familiar name
It was a unique surnaht be coion of Ikebukuro, it see:
That there was soami he knew
Apparently Yahiro was not the only one who thought this; Kuon said, slightly puzzled
“Tatsugami… wasn’t there one in our class? Are they related somehow?”
Kuon asked this, but Yahiro had no answer at all
“Yeah… Thatyet”
A girl as a big fan of the Headless Rider had the naami as well
It would be stranger to think there was no link
The ‘warning’ froain in Yahiro’s chest
—’Don’t get too involved with the Headless Rider’
He was being dragged into ‘so’
Yahiro, as more timid than most, felt a premonition close to certainty
But it was too late to stop this
Fighting the uneasiness swirling in his chest, the cowardly boy set onforward
Afterward, after finishi+ng his observation of the training Kuon and the rest had, Yahiro accepted a pamphlet and returned home
Kuon and Akane finished practice and went hoe for her sister to fetch her
“I’ve to tell Kuru-nee as soon as possible too~ That to persons search of the Secret Society of Hot-Blooded Cold-Blooded Ikebukuro Detectives Society Ah, I said Society twice Ah whatever”
Mairu inging her legs on a chair in the lounge, voicing a naroup that she had come up with on her own excited whim, when a voice called out to her from the corridor
“Oi, Mairu”
“Ah, Mikage-shi+handai! Thank you for today!”
(shi+handai – assistant instructor)
Sharaku Mikage
She was the daughter of the director of Rakuei Gynisable by her sporty appearance
She was an acquaintance from when Mairu had first joined, and rather than a teacher-student relationshi+p she was a conversation partner, like a friend with an age gap
This person brought up a question to Mairu:
“Hey, Mairu, were those high school boys with you earlier your friends?”
“Ah, Kuon-kun and Mizuchi-kun? Yeah, they’re my juniors from Raira Apparently they had their entrance ceremony today”
“Fu~n… What did you do?”
“Eh? Kuon-kun’s been a Rakuei student since before, did you know? He says he was attending the Takadanobaba branch What’s that, Mikage-san! Could it be you see soh hopes?! Could he be like Kisa-senpai, on par to becoott?!”
(T/N: I never finished reading Otsuberu to Warau Suiyobi, but the onist is Kisa Yukihiro; they share a surname)
Mairu, who had not personally seen Kuon training, asked Mikage in turn, thrilled
But Mikage shook her head calmly
“Kuon was the green-haired one, right? Well, he was using our style So I could tell he was a student…”
There Mikage stopped, and after soht, said to Mairu
“The one who came to see, he’s Mizuchi-kun?”
“Yeah But… what about hie-san?”
“Ridiculous, it’s not that …That kid, has he trained before?”
“Hm~? I’m not sure I didn’t ask, and I think Kuon-kun would’ve said so if he knew…”
Mairu had not ie would express more interest in Yahiro, who had ain,
“But what about hie-san”
“Did you see his hands, Mairu?”
“His hands? M of which, I didn’t What happened to his hands?”
Mikage thought even h, warned Mairu
“What I’m about to say now – don’t ever say it to his face, or spread it to other people You’ll surely tell Kururi-chan, so only her No one else Can you keep it a secret?”
The assistant instructor spoke with an unusually serious tone, and Mairu stopped swinging her legs, and, still s, nodded
“I got it I promise”
“Thanks I would be sorry to him if rumours started”
Mikage inserted a coin into the vending e, and pressed the button for an amino acid sports drink as she spoke
“He atching very seriously in seiza, so I caught a glance of his hands on his knees…”
Retrieving her drink froe recalled the scene in her head
“His hands were full of scars”
“Scars?”
It was true that if one trained with a training post, wounding their hands would be common
But Mairu did not understand why that would be reason to be so secretive
“But if it was just scars, ?”
“…yeah, maybe”
Mikage nodded at Mairu’s words
“Those were teeth marks, sure But they certainly weren’t a cat’s”
“Eh?”
“I know because I’ve experienced it myself…”
As Mairu saw Mikage’s hand gripping the drink can as she spoke, she noticed
That on her hand there were nu scars
“Those were marks from human teeth”
“…so he was bitten by someone?”
Mairu tilted her head Mikage shook her head
“When you punch someone’s teeth out, sometimes the broken teeth pierce into your fists”
“…”
“If, after they’re broken, you keep punching the person’s face over and over, you’ll get scratched up evenI recommend There are plenty of easier ways to inflict that level of dae”
After saying this, Mikage remembered, clearly, Yahiro’s ‘hands’, and, with cos, spoke an ‘answer’ to Mairu’s question expressionlessly
“The scars on that Mizuchi-kun’s hands… those were definitely scars from broken teeth, from humans”
“…really?”
“That many scars… I wonder just how many people’s teeth he punched out”
Mikage took a sip of her drink, and s faintly, murmured to herself
“I shi+vered, just a little”
Takadanobaba Kuon’s apartment
“I’m home”
The one who said this was Kotona returned home, first headed toward his older sister’s room inside
Beside the door cardboard boxes fro, the opened and unopened separated into stacks
On the part of the floor visible between countless stacks was a cumulation of emptied bowls and plates, with chopsticks placed politely on them
“Oh, Nee-chan, you ate everything today”
Kuon murmured this as he picked up the crockery, but it was not directed towards someone in the room
“Honestly; you use the shower just fine, but you hate coet your criteria”
Gru to himself, he moved the crockery to the sink
Other than the area in front of his sister’s room, the rest of the apartment was tidy; there was not even mould around the sink
After washi+ng the dishes thoroughly, Kuon sat on the sofa in the living room, and opened the notebook computer on the table
And turning on the TV, he slid his thumb over the screen of his smartphone with his free hand
“Now…”
While watching a night news programme on the television, Kuon put the smartphone to his ear
“Thanks for the hard work~”
‘———’
“I know, I have information, so I called”
Kuon grinned at the person on the other side of the call, and spoke of the day’s ‘results’
“Yeah, the entrance ceremony went smoothly I was the wildest one by appearance Looks like Raira Academy has lots of model students”
‘———————’
“So pawns”
Unlike the false smile he had presented to the others in the afternoon, Kuon wore a smile that felt somehow cold
“Can you believe it? Someone came over from Akita just for the Headless Rider!”
‘———————’
“No, it’s true! Yeah? It’s exactly e’ve been looking for, isn’t it? He looks like a nice guy type, the kind you can get anything out of I even thought we should be friends”
‘————’
“It was a joke Do I look friendly to you?”
At what the other party said, Kuon shrugged unconsciously
“He’s called Mizuchi Yahiro… He has quite some potential”
Kuon remembered the face of the ‘pawn’ he had justhis eyes like a snake:
“Just by travelling with hiot plenty of other returns”
Rakuei Gym
After she finished speaking about Yahiro, Mikage, as though she had just re, asked about another student
“By the way, how’s that kid Kuon? He was practising seriously, but… If ht dely old-fashi+oned”
“Yeah~ Though it’s interesting so I’d prefer it to stay green~”
At Mikage’s question, Mairu thought for a while, and answered straightforwardly:
“Well, uy~ The type to use people instead of acting hi this dojo seriously is to learn the very basics of self-defence at least, probably For when it’s necessary …ah, speaking of that made me remember – I feel he’s the same type as Iza-nii”
Rehtly
“…if he’s like your brother, then he’s not a bad guy, he’s a scoundrel”
“He said they were friends, but I think he’s si hih I don’t know yet what exactly he plans to use him for”
“…well, Mairu, you talk very friendlily about that kind of guy yourself”
After, Mairu told Mikage of what they had spoken of today
And hearing of Akane’s issue, Mikage smiled
“Oh? So then you decided to look for Akane-chan’s seniors”
“Yeah, it’d be nice if we could find them safely…”
“But those high school students shouldn’t mess with Akane-chan They probably don’t know about her family”
To Mikage, as disposing of her can into a bin as she said this, Mairu disagreed
“Mizuchi-kun probably doesn’t, but I wonder about Kuon”
“?”
“If he’s with Aocchi, then I’d think he definitely knows about the Awakusu-kai~”
Kuon’s apartment
“Yeah, Awakusu Akane The granddaughter of the head of the Awakusu-kai!”
‘————’
“It’s funny, isn’t it? That the little miss of the Awakusu-kai would have some connection with the Headless Rider”
With an expression he would never have worn before Akane, Kuon spoke cheerfully to the person across the line
“Well, I didn’t knohat to think when Yahiro offered to help with the search, but things turned interesting The naami Ai’…”
‘———, ——————?’
“Yeah, there’s no way they’re unconnected The ami Aya, wasn’t it?”
‘————’
To what the other party said, Kuon nodded
“Yeah, it’d help if you could look into that I don’t have any connections with publishers, after all Also, it ami in my class too She feels a bit unsocial, but she’s a rather cute girl”
‘——————’
“No way, it’s not like that Well, if they’re related it’d be a big one Well, it’s so task, up to ten million… If there’s a competitor, it’s be Kuronu of what I’”
At that point, Kuon instead raised a question to the person across the line
“So, how are you? Did anything interesting happen?”
‘————’
“M? The Dollars? Or the Yellow Scarves? Eh? Blue Square?”
As though a snake that had found its prey, Kuon’s eyes glittered
But that shi+ne in his eyes faded in the next moment
‘————’
“Horada… ex-member of Blue Square and then the Yellow Scarves…?”
‘————’
“I see… So he just came out… That Horada… Horada, Horada…”
Tilting his expressionless face slightly, Kuon asked, blandly, a simple question
“…sorry, who?”
CHAPTER END
Interlude: Rumours on the Internet ②
Ikebukuro Information Site, IkeNEW! Version I・KEBU・KUR・O
Popular article, ‘Announceend’: Looks like the Headless Rider’s the culprit behind the serial disappearances in Ikebukuro!
‘Where did the Headless Rider go?’ – (Extract froital Edition)
Has the darkness of Ikebukuro finally shown its face?
Events that suggest this have shaken Tokyo as of late
From December last year, there have been consecutive disappearances of young people in the vicinity of Ikebukuro, and in the shadow of those disappearances whispered ruun to show up
There is a group with one si persons and runaways
And that si the Headless Rider’s true identity’
The ‘Headless Rider’, a mysterious presence that has shown itself countless times in the past twenty years
A ine, that can transform into a headless horse
A motorist that emits shadow from its body, and controls it with ease
It is a presence that one could only call an urban legend, but up till at least half a year ago, it was a being residents of the city could easily capture in video even with their handphones
Since the sharp drop in sightings, young fanatic ‘believers’ of the ‘Headless Rider’ –
Have each disappeared, right after telling those around theht be able to meet the Headless Rider’
And furtherazine, who had been researching into the Headless Rider, disappeared, leaving only a state to meet a powerful information source’
(Omitted)
Also, there are rumours of the Headless Rider’s connection with the local violence organisations; the police are looking in that direction for potential suspects
(Further content omitted)
-(Click here for the full article)
IkeNEW! Administrator’s Comment
“If you think they’re gone they’ll be vanished-nari
Praying that thepeople are found safe”
Administrator Lila Tailtooth Zaiya
Excerpts of typical tweets fro site Twittia
The Headless Rider had a bounty once, didn’t it Quite sure back then the bounty ithdrawn rightafter Thinking about it that was strange I think there was a secret dealing with the government
Quite sure the police got mad at the person who put out the bounty
It’s cory, so they should have put the bounty out expecting that, right? Taking it down right after is strange
Don’t underestimate Max Sandshi+eld’s randomness
It’s really bad, so too Apparently they’ve been saying they love the Headless Rider since they were a kid It’s really bad Was sort of grossed Maybe it’s better they’re gone Disgusting
Isn’t it iross or disgusting or whatnot?
Huh? It’sWho’re you
Aren’t you the irritating one? It’s s too
If it pisses you off don’t look at it die idio~t Die die die die
You’ve posted before that you went drink driving, haven’t you And cheating on exa this, Raira University First Year-san
I apologise it was all a joke Being a Raira University student was a joke too Contacting the school ht cause trouble for them so please stop
※ (The poster was expelled from Raira University subsequently, and is under probation for other complaints)
Apparently theto meet a powerful information source, but ould be able to provide information on the Headless Rider?
I’ve seen so behind them
There’s a ruround doctor
Heiwajiether a lot
So ?
Seriously?
Wasn’t there was an infor with the Headless Rider now and then?
Informant lol
No, there really was! Don’t be like that
That guy with the black fur jacket, right? Haven’t seen him recently, hm
CHAPTER END
T/N:
Kuon uses polite foroes informal with Yahiro and the person he calls in this chapter
Not very sure if Max Sandshi+eld should really be translated as Max Sandshi+eld; the katakana for ‘Sandshi+eld’ issandosheruto, which estions welcome