Vol 2 Chapter 51 (1/2)
Durarara!!SHx2
Chapter 5A
The Messenger
Somewhere in Ikebukuro Storefront of the antiques store Sonohara Hall
The store was on the outskirts of Ikebukuro, and had an unplaceable sense of isolation about it
Being that it was an antiques store, it could be said that the store’s exterior was only fitting and in fact enhanced its charm
Suddenly the door to the shop swung open, and a group of young people clad in ed
Stepping out of the store, a quiet-looking boy—Mizuchi Yahiro—heaved a sigh of relief as he looked at the radio in his hands
Although said offhandedly, the gratitude Yahiro offered was sincere The girl he addressed, Tatsugami Himeka, shook her head
“But thank goodness I could get a cheap one”
The casing itself ooden, with an ascending dragon engraved in the back When Yahiro had first seen the red and black of the ht be mechanical rather than electrical
“You’d think a store recently opened by a Raira graduate would be pretty new, but it turns out to have this ancient vibe, what a shock, huh? And the store owner looks so serious with those glasses, but she’s a real beauty—is she attached, you think?”
The boy with the dyed-green hair recalled the store owner from earlier and continued to speculate:
“Hm… I don’t know, but when the place just started up there were so with the renovations”
Yahiro looked over his shoulder at the store shrinking into the distance behind them
“I suppose there are plenty of private businesses around Different areas have different environht want to tour around to look”
“Wait, this isn’t actually exclusive to Tokyo”
“Ah, sorry I never really left e”
After that half-hearted reply, Kuon looked at Yahiro’s radio
“I think it’ll be fine I already have a smartphone anyway”
“SNS?”
“SNS—short for Social Network Service The blanket term for services that use the internet to support huazine, Nixi, Fine…”
“Like chatrooms?”
Kuon made as to continue, but he trailed off as a car horn honked from behind them
The trio spun around to see a car slowing down behind them
He wore the salance appeared to be their age
“…Kuronuma-sempai”
”are you here? Didn’t I tell you I’h”
The upperclassman Kuon had called Kuronuma had a typical, tame look to him, but the fierce man in the driver’s seat, combined with the fact that the rear ere heavily tinted, lent a shady atmosphere to the situation
“…Hey, Kuon Who are your friends here?”
Yahiro guessed that the wound on his face must have drawn his eye Kuon answered informally,
“I see I’m Kuronuma Aoba, third year Pleasure”
In reply to Aoba’s friendly introduction, Yahiro bowed his head, while Hi
Aoba asked, looking at the bruise on Yahiro’s face
“You fell? Where?”
Having not expected further probing, Yahiro stumbled over his answer
“Yeah!It was at the station! This guy’s not used to the crowd since he came from up north, so he felt sick and toppled over all of a sudden! What a shock!”
Yahiro hurriedly corroborated the lie Kuon had so fluently produced
“It’s a hot spring town in Akita… Uata”
After affirrinned and said to Kuon,
“Souess”
With that he turned back to Yahiro and Himeka
“Wha, you’re awful, Aoba-seood tutor too, you know?”
Ignoring his junior, Aoba waved, s
E the air of an amiable upperclassman, Aoba shut the
“Puhyo~ That was e around Don’t ht? I mean it It’ll be a favour to me, too”
“I don’t think he said anything worth worrying about in the first place”
“Anyway, it’s best if you stay away from him”
In the car
“We approached them too randomly, don’t you think?”
The driver um as he spoke
“Probably Kuon rarely bothers to hang out with anyone besides us, so there’s a huge likelihood”
“If it were up to ed contacts”
Aoba’s teammate Yoshi+kiri asked from the back seat
“But Aoba Even ignoring his build—doesn’t he seeht anyone?”
Even so, Aoba replied after soht,
“Eh? No, I couldn’t see from the ”
Yahiro’s hands, from what Aoba had seen, were littered with unusual scars
Hearing this another passenger in the backseat laughed
“Oi shut up”
“Kuon’s planning souy’s contacts But it would’ve been aard to ask for his email back there”
“Haburagi Village… Ha-bu-ra-gi… There, this one?”
The website for the village office itself only showed up some way into the results, so it was surs
After so, Aoba’s eyes narrowed
The website on the screen was a e
[I heard the h school in Tokyo]
[Serious?]
[The seniors were terrified]
They bantered back and forth, treating the site as e board, but this was sufficient for Aoba to confirm Yahiro’s identity
“Nohat next? I’…”
Yoshi+kiri made this vile proposal, to which Aoba answered,
Then he continued calmly
“Well, he could just be looking for more people to work for him… In the first place, we don’t know the motives of that newcomer, either”
The conversation in the car ended there, and with that they returned to their normal—as it was for them—everyday lives
“Oh, who is it”
After a moment of astonishment, his mouth crooked into a smile as he picked up the call
At Aoba’s cheeriness the Blue Squares in the car exchanged glances His use of polite language indicated the other party was of a higher status, but it had been a long time since Aoba had spoken to someone like that so cheerfully
Ryugamine Mikado had cut all ties to people like themselves, and at most made small talk with Aoba now and then in school
“Sure, if it’s someone I know I can send a photo over”
A hint of surprise flitted over that s face
And as if to check with the person across the line, he repeated the unique name
“Tatsugami Himeka… you said?”
A few days later Raira Academy
Raira Acadeular lessons, and Yahiro was able to participate nor ostracised
Both Himeka and Kuon were astonished by his quick recovery, but injuries were so common for Yahiro, who had suffered random ambushes since childhood, that he found himself aith their reaction
His fight with shi+zuo behind hirateful that he had successfully launched his peaceful high school life—
But in the end this peace was too easily terminated that very afternoon
“Mi~ zu~ chi~ -ku~n! Le~t’s ha~ve so~me fu~n… aha!”
Yahiro was holding his ho where to eat it, when that fe out from the back of the classroom
“Ah… Er… Orihara-sempai?”
The third year, ore glasses and a braid, entered the first year classroom with nary a blink, and hopped onto Yahiro’s desk
“Er, I’m on after-school duty for the Library Committee…”
They had onlyso inconsiderate
“It’s fine I’ll just say sorry to the Pres By the here’s Kuon-kun?”
“Ah, I see Maybe he’s eating with Aobacchi and friends?”
Thus no one was around to rescue Yahiro; there were only his class surreptitiously from a distance
“Ah, that won’t do No rush, no rush”
“…?!”
With a smile that put one at a loss whether to describe as innocent or annoying, the girl left the classroom
“Mizuchi-kun, you know Orihara-sempai?”
“I just met her recently… What is she like?”
“Hm… She’s exactly what she looks like”
“Her older twin sister’s the VP of the student council…”
They supplied all kinds of inforrasp anything about her as a person
–Well, it shouldn’t be anything too serious
That was the outcoined; yet this alhly disproved
After school The library
As Mairu delivered this outburst with shi+ning eyes, Yahiro’s face twitched of its own volition
“Don’t pretend, don’t pretend We knohat happened!”
Yahiro was very obviously avoiding eye contact, but the two had hi at him intently
They were sensitive enough to avoid the crowd of the peak hour, and approach Yahiro around closing hours where most people had left already
Phrased that way it , but Yahiro was in no condition to savour the situation
“You see~, it was videoed, you know~? It was frouy beside you had green hair, you get it?”
“…Are you… sure…?”
He was panicking at this moment because he had not anticipated that others would know about the fight
Having a big fight in the middle of the street was of course problem behaviour
Yet, if that was all, Yahiro was used to police involvement, so it was not an issue But this was not his housa fa trouble for Yahiro, who feared this, had in fact been relieved that the incident had not attracted the police Although he had gotten over his loss to shi+zuo, he was not proud of his longstanding record of frequent violence, and was afraid that the school would expel hiht and send him back to his hometownFor Yahiro, this city was the only place where he could hope to find new self He was thankful to his village He did feel it was his home But the hope he could find there was for peace and stability, and if he remained there, where he was labelled a ive up on changing himself
The Headless Rider, a true ht with his fullest strength against, and yet had been unable to defeat
Yahiro was es in his life
Afraid that the life he had finally achieved could be reduced to nothing
“You don’t have to hide it It’s not like we’re going to scold you for fighting or spread ru”
You just admitted it
“Ah!”
If it were his past self in Akita, he would have grown serious for a time due to his fear, and would not have answered so foolishly Yahiro was shocked at hi it to the culture shock bubbling in his mind
Yahiro looked away for a hed defeatedly; then he confessed
“I knew it!”
“Eh?”
When his violence was exposed, the eyes of the people around hirow fearful, and naturally they would distance therown used to up to now
Yahiro hesitated in replying, but Mairu continued
“Hero?”
“I don’t really want to be…”
–Special treatood, somehow, no matter what kind
“No~? Well, that’s that, and we’ll respect your decision”
“Thank you very much”
“But I think it’s already too late, yeah?”
Yahiro raised his head curiously, and Mairu replied: