Shizuo entered the building and began to slowly climb the stairs.
His phone received an incoming call signal. Without taking his eyes off the stairs ahead, Shizuo accepted the call and put the phone to his ear.
“Hey, Shizu.”
It was the voice of the man who had just tried to kill him—and Vorona.
“So that didn’t kill you, huh? You really are quite a spectacular monster. But the concept of you protecting a human being is nothing short of farcical.”
“…”
“Maybe I brought this up before. Do you think saving people is going to make them like you? Oh, but maybe you feel something special for that Vorona girl, perhaps? I had you pegged for the pedo type, the way you were looking at the Awakusu-kai mistress. But I guess a literal monster being a figurative monster is just a bridge too far, eh?”
“…”
“By the way, are you sure you ought to be abandoning Celty? Do I need to point out what an absolutely evil person that Kujiragi woman you let escape is?” he mocked, both insult and warning in one, as he so often did.
Shizuo said nothing. He just kept climbing the stairs. Only when he was about halfway up the building did he finally speak.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
“Izaya.” His voice was calm, betraying not a shred of anger.
“…What is it?” Izaya replied.
Shizuo’s voice was still calm.
✦ ✦ ✦
“…So long.”
✦ ✦ ✦
It was the last remaining shred of Shizuo’s sense of reason.
“…”
Once Izaya had confirmed that there would be no follow-up, he gave his own parting words before hanging up.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yeah, good-bye.”
✦ ✦ ✦
His voice, too, was calmer than it had ever been before.
One wouldn’t suspect that they were about to engage in a brutal fight to the death.
✦ ✦ ✦
A bit later, Vorona and Kujiragi ventured into the building.
“Do you really intend to follow him?”
“…I deliberated the necessity to see it through. Stopping me is meaningless.”
“You might suffer directly.”
“Your assistance is not required,” said Vorona, who wobbled toward the stairs despite the wounds all over her body.
Kujiragi, who was unharmed, just shook her head. “I suspect that attack was the work of Izaya Orihara. He is the savior who gave me my freedom but is also a clear and dangerous enemy. I will need to ascertain the outcome.”
“…” Vorona continued in silence.
Kujiragi followed behind her. Inside this building, she could still maintain her link to Saika. If Izaya and Shizuo were to take each other out, she could then collect the dullahan’s body and safely perform the final transaction.
But while this calculation was for the benefit of her business, the truth was that she also wanted to see the conclusion of Shizuo and Izaya’s clash.
Surprised that she had this looky-loo sentiment within herself, Kujiragi walked steadily behind Vorona. But right when they were about to reach the stairs, a voice stopped them.
“All right, ladies, that’s far enough.”
They turned back to see a young woman. She looked like a fighter of some kind, based on the toughness and litheness of her physique.
“Sorry. But Izaya told me not to let anyone else inside,” she said with a shrug.
“When we announce a refusal, what is the state of the outcome?” Verona asked.
“…You must be Slon’s partner, huh?”
“!”
Vorona’s eyes widened at the mention of her partner’s name.
“And you must know about Slon, too,” the woman said to Kujiragi, but she gave no reaction, either affirmative or negative.
✦ ✦ ✦
Mikage Sharaku twisted and waved her body left and right.
“It’s no fun fighting against someone injured…but if you really insist, I can play with you for a while,” she said, sounding bored about it. She glanced at the ceiling. “What’s happening up there is probably the world’s stupidest and most meaningless fight to the death.”
She shook out her limbs and put on a rare smile.
✦ ✦ ✦
“But for whatever reason, I just don’t feel like letting anyone interrupt it.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Alleyway
✦ ✦ ✦
“Th-the head… Must at least recover the head,” Seitarou muttered to himself, writhing along the ground like an insect. He made his way through the mess of steel beams and rebar, fighting against the pain in his back.
But just when he was one pace away from reaching the bag Vorona had left on the ground in the alley, a pale shadow swooped in out of nowhere and snatched it up.
“!”
When Seitarou looked up, he was aghast.
Standing there in a white gas mask was the Nebula scientist Shingen Kishitani.
“Shingen…!”
“Fwa-ha-ha-ha, look at you now, Seitarou. It reminds me of when you would beg me on hands and knees as students.”
“Shut your lying mouth! I never begged you for anything! Why are you here?!”
“Hmph. I thought it would be a good opportunity to falsify some old tales of school, but it seems to have failed right out of the gate,” Shingen said, his shoulders drooping theatrically. He took a few steps away from Seitarou and made a show of opening the bag. “I’ve been watching this all from the shadows. I have to say, that Shizuo really is something. I nearly unleashed my bladder when he struck that forklift. Did your drawers stay as dry as mine, I wonder?”
“Answer my question!”
“I heard that Miss Kasane had kidnapped my son. I figured that following you would lead me to the right place, and sure enough…”
“Your son…? What do you mean?” wondered Seitarou, who knew nothing about Shinra’s abduction. When Shingen pulled the head out of the bag, Seitarou’s voice went ragged. “Oh! Ohhh…what a sight for sore eyes… Such beauty! That belongs to me! Give it here!”
“But of course. I am a gentleman. When I find something that belongs to someone else, I turn it in to the police…or to the owner directly.”
Owner. The choice of words caused the breath to catch in Seitarou’s throat.
“You… You don’t mean…”
“Well, how fortunate that the owner happens to be so close by! A sure sign of my own good virtue!” Shingen exclaimed. He looked up—at where the cloud of shadow was still held prisoner by Saika’s wire cage.
“W-wait, Shingen! Your son is the one I’m thinking of, right? He’s in love with the dullahan’s body, yes?!”
“I will not deny it. Oh, my son and his troublesome interests. How can he consort with a woman who won’t even call me Papa or Father?” Shingen joked.
“Wait!” Seitarou shouted. “Don’t give her back the head! According to Kujiragi, it might completely erase all of her memory of life in Ikebukuro!”
He wasn’t worried for Shinra’s sake, of course. It was just more likely that if the dullahan was restored to normal, Shingen would snatch away everything he’d been working toward—and his warning was an attempt to prevent that.
Shingen just laughed and shrugged. “I suppose that is quite possible. As a researcher for Nebula, if I were on the clock, my first priority would have to be bringing back the head…but while on vacation, I cannot help but want to run an experiment to see if putting the head back on the body will really erase its memories or not!”
“You would ruin your own son’s life?!”
“Oh, he’ll be fine. Shinra’s a tough kid. If Celty loses all her memories, he’ll just start the whole twenty years over again!”
“You… You knave!” Seitarou roared.
Shingen ignored him and grandiosely announced, “Life is an endless process of trial and error! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! And away we go!”
With that, he hurled the head straight upward.