Vol 1 Chapter 41 (1/2)
Durarara!!SH
CHAPTER 4A
The Newcomer
A few years ago Ikebukuro
“You want to know about the Headless Rider?”
A ed as he spoke
Replying, the informant’s ‘client’ asked how much they should pay
“Ah, it’s fine to pay the same amount as for other information What I can say’s h The Headless Rider’s one of my information sources, too”
The infor up at the ceiling, began to talk
“Let’selse The Headless Rider is, literally, a headless rider It’s not a stunt or a costume She’s a complete ‘monster’ Alien, end, UMA… Well, I’m sure different people have different words for it, and I don’t have the breath to debate the fine differences in the definitions of each term”
Seeing that his client had neither flared up nor scoffed at his declaring the Headless Rider unhuman, the informant smiled as he continued
“I see; seems like you’ve encountered the Headless Rider yourself Certainly, if you witness her in real life, there’s no way to think she could be of this world If you’ve seen how that ine, or the shadow she e for someone to think it’s the work of a huy evolves is terribly fast, too Perhaps it’s possible to recreate those things with today’s technology”
Having spoken thus far, the inforression
“Ah, I find the potential of hu, you know? People say those who dream will surely realise those dreaical and virtual reality technologies, maybe the difference between our drea of ‘so, a machine would read yourinto your brain… An era like that ht of laziness and stop evolving, but I’ll embrace even a future like that”
He turned his face fro to his client, and smiled happily as he continued
“Because I love humans”
Then the conversation that had digressed returned without a hitch to its root
“On the other hand, fundas that aren’t human I even find thes of hostility towards the Headless Rider right now”
Grinning, the informant spoke of the ‘Headless Rider’
“Well, right now… That’s just for now; if she tries to alter human society I think I’ll start to dislike her”
The infors about the Headless Rider, he continued
“The Headless Rider is st humans, and has learnt fro to live in human society That ainst the rules Ironically, because of that, she’s gained a personality ht than any punk on the street Honestly, I feel she’s achieved a surprisingly remarkable imitation of e call human”
There the infor into the eyes of his client the corners of his lips twisted further
“But other humans don’t see the Headless Rider as hu if she were a vaap between double teeth; but in the end she’sa head, a part that’s so important to humans”
The client asked what he meant to say, to which the informant replied
“The question is, what do hu unlike them?”
He rose slowly from his chair, and walked up to a shelf with various books
“Will they revere it; will they siateway to the extraordinary, their tool to escape reality; will they try to take advantage of it; will they try to kill it; will they eliht of; or will they run from it theive is fine”
The informant stroked the spines of the books, and declared once more to his client:
“Because I love humans”
And—as if he had suddenly thought of it, he mentioned a man
“Well, there’s even soave the co the Headless Rider romantically That, as well, I respect as one of humanity’s choices”
The infored them as he said:
“People exhibit different behaviours when faced with so different Even if it’s not a monster or some sort of supernatural creature; even with others who are hureat ht i preposterously strong Depending on the people, the era, and the society in question, it’s natural to have a variety of responses”
Shrugging lightly, the informant spoke ironically
“In that sense, when a monster is born in society, it’s not the humans that matter It’s the ‘monster’; that’s what I think”
“…In other words, out of the humans with their full spectrum of reactions, it’s a matter of whose hand they take”
Present time Ikebukuro
“A high school student… who can fight Heiwajima shi+zuo?”
Aoba’s words contained clear doubt, but also honest surprise thinking how impressive it would be if it were true
It was the Ikebukuro don area, at a tiht
Although it was less crowded, there were people such as salary the streets with a presence different from that of the afternoon
After Horada had left, Aoba and his co randomly
He had received a irl called Tatsugami Ai Get the details from Kuon!’ But as Kuon, the one he needed to approach, had not attended the Blue Square gathering, he had yet to do anything about it
—Maybe I’ll ask Mairu-chan or Kururi-chan directly tomorrow…
He was thinking that as he walked when he happened to hear a rumour on the street
—’Heiwajima shi+zuo was really beat up’
—’I heard he nearly lost’
He thought it was ludicrous, but curiosity piqued, he stopped at a nearby corner to check with his smartphone
And across nu services, he found information to that same effect
“Ah, so it’s IkeNEW”
Even as he saw the news on an Ikebukuro infor –
But the moment he saw the video, he went completely silent
—There’s no way… that it’s special effects, right…?
—Heiwaji easy? No, that’s not it either
—But anyway… Those movements…
Dodging shi+zuo’s fists with inhuman footwork, the ‘boy in the Raira unifor bloith shi+zuo
Aoba, shocked that there was sost his schoolht his attention in a part of the video
On top of the fact that the video’s quality was poor, it wasthe zoom function
The face of the person fighting could not be recognised—but the person slowly getting to his feet in the corner of the video certainly could
It was a boy in a Raira uniforreen hair
“Kotonami, huh…”
This ‘boy who fought on par with shi+zuo’, and Aoba’s junior, a member of the Blue Square, were in the same video
As he digested this information, several emotions welled up in Aoba, and he smiled faintly
“That guy, just who… No, just what did he find?”
Somewhere in the city An abandoned factory
“D’you think Heiwaji…”
A voice, tone light, echoed in the factory
This factory had been used as apoint for both the Yellow Scarves and the Blue Square before
Now that the Yellow Scarves were no longer around, and the Blue Square had shi+fted their hideout, it had coroup entirely
Dragon Zombie
It was a seasoned bosozoku gang based in the Ikebukuro area, and before colour gangs had turned up it had been called one of the two large powers, feared alongside Jyan Jyaka Jyan
But bosozoku changed with the currents of tiround, becoon Zombie, since its leader Ei Li-pei had left Ikebukuro for certain reasons, had lost its substance and become no more than a name
The re members had worked as lackeys for an inforoing if barely—but with the disappearance of that infor
But at this point, the gangpoint
The man that led it had returned to the city
“shi+zuo’s a ed after all this tiht?”
Aupwards as he said this
This was, of course, the leader—Ei Li-pei—and as he spoke to his gang he was doing so else entirely at the same time