Shinra’s apartment
✦ ✦ ✦
“Man, this ain’t funny, Kadota!”
“Let’s hurry. At this rate, Kadota’s death flag is going to get triggered.”
“I have no idea what that means, but you better not mention the word death again, dammit!”
Togusa and Yumasaki were rushing to leave the apartment and look for Kadota after getting the update from Karisawa on the phone. When they were at the entryway, the intercom buzzer went off.
“Dammit, not now!”
It was probably Shingen Kishitani or Egor. Emilia was still here, so they could open the door and switch places with the visitor, Togusa decided. He promptly turned the handle—and in the next moment, opened his eyes wider than they’d ever been in his life.
Even Yumasaki’s eyes, which were famously tiny, were agape such that the white could be seen entirely around his irises.
“…Yo,” said the grinning visitor, sweat damp on his face. “I thought I was coming to Kishitani’s house… What are you guys doing here?”
“Ka… K-K-Ka— Ka…”
Togusa’s blood pressure rose at the suddenness of it all, and he found himself unable to speak properly. Instead, it was Yumasaki who shouted a greeting to their unannounced visitor.
“K…Kadota! You’re all right?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“…So that’s what happened, huh?” Kadota said, sitting on the sofa, after his full update from Togusa and Yumasaki. Emilia had examined him and prescribed him a painkiller cocktail. He had at least changed from his hospital gown to the set of his own clothes that had been left in his hospital room, but his father hadn’t brought the signature beanie with them, so he seemed different from usual.
With all of that out of the way, Togusa asked, “But why are you here?”
“…Oh, I just figured I’d be able to get some pretty strong drugs here. My hunch was dead-on.”
“Stay in the hospital, man! Why did you slip out in the first place?!”
It was a perfectly reasonable question, and Kadota looked guilty answering it. “Well…I’ll admit, I did the hospital wrong. I’ll go back to apologize properly later.”
“I wasn’t asking for you to show off! I’m saying they weren’t sure if you’d even be able to walk properly or not!” Togusa pointed out.
Even Yumasaki joined in with a rare rebuke of Kadota. “That’s right! Me and Karisawa are one thing, but what would Azusa think if she heard that?! I know you’re aware of how she feels about you! You’ve got a 3-D route open to you, and you’re just going to break that flag?!”
“…Sorry. I just couldn’t lie in bed any longer.”
“Well, you’re supposed to! You were rushing off to settle things with whoever hit you and ran, right?! Don’t be crazy! Lean on us once in a while! Just tell me what they look like, and I’ll tie ’em up in chains and drag ’em behind the van!”
“That’s, uh…concerning. Besides, that’s not the situation now. Where’s Karisawa?”
“She’s out looking for you right now! We’d better call her, or…”
“Tell her to come to this apartment right away. Either that or to go straight home and stay there. And…could you text the same thing to Azusa, too?” asked Kadota. His dad had his phone at the moment, so he had no means of contacting them himself.
Yumasaki started to get in touch with Karisawa, driven by the panicked look on Kadota’s face.
“Damn, man, what’s going on, then?” Togusa muttered.
The look on Kadota’s face grew even darker. “The other reason I came here…is because there’s something I need to talk to Celty about.”
“The Headless Rider?”
“Yeah… The thing is, I’m pretty sure I know who’s calling the shots for the guys who ran me over.” Kadota grunted, gripping the bridge of his nose. “I saw a couple of ’em, just from taking a taxi…”
“…You saw what?” Togusa asked, but Kadota bypassed the question.
✦ ✦ ✦
“The whole damn neighborhood…is in a real bad state right now.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Russia Sushi, interior, late night
✦ ✦ ✦
“Shizuo’s one thing, but Vorona skipping her shift without permission, too? Sure was a lonely round today,” griped Shizuo and Vorona’s direct superior at work, Tom Tanaka, as he sipped hot green tea at a marble counter.
The restaurant was about to close, and the only customers left were Tom and a man with no hair sitting farther down the counter.
“Thanks to that attack, the cop cars are flyin’ left and right down the streets. It’s a dangerous world out there these days.” He grunted. He didn’t know yet that Shizuo had already been released from police custody. Normally, Tom would be the second person he’d contact after his brother, but with the confusion over Vorona, he apparently hadn’t reached out yet.
So Tom, who still believed Shizuo was in jail, sat all alone at the counter of Russia Sushi, nursing a late dinner. When Denis, the head chef, learned that Vorona had skipped work without warning, he bowed to Tom. “Sorry about her. We’ll give her a good scolding the next time she shows her face in here.”
“No, it’s fine. This is our company’s issue anyway. Plus, I bet Vorona’s shocked about what happened with Shizuo, too.”
Simon returned from cleaning up the private booths now that the restaurant had cleared out. He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Oh, Shizuo, he good guy. He get vindication. What means vindication? Same as vacation? Or vegetation? You want vegetable roll? Today you can pay in Japanese yendication.”
“Wait, are there days you don’t accept yen? And I appreciate the offer, but I can’t spend any more money…”
“You don’t worry about it! I put it on tab! You need desperate measures in time of desperation!”
“I swear, you’re a whole lot better at Japanese than you let on…”
✦ ✦ ✦
At the end of this rather typical chat, Tom paid his bill and got up to leave. When he opened the door, he looked outside first.
“…Hmm?” He stopped in his tracks.
It wasn’t that anything had crossed his field of view. But when he scanned the scenery of the city, he received an overwhelming impression of something being off.
Huh? The hell? Something’s…weird.
He slowly examined the area but couldn’t identify the source of the feeling. It seemed less like the scenery itself, though, and more like the people in it.
Huh? Then he picked up on it. Is it just me, or is it…crowded? Huh? I mean, this place is closing up for the night, so…
He pulled out his phone and checked the time. It was already after midnight. But there was an unsettling amount of foot traffic for this hour. Even during summer vacation, when young adults were sure to be out for the nightlife, why would it be so bustling, especially when the cops were racing around?
It almost felt like a nine o’clock crowd to Tom. Then he noticed that one distant man was watching him.
“Hmm?”
He didn’t recognize the man. And yet, there was something about him. It was one man in a group of men and women standing at the corner of a parking garage behind the locksmith.
Tom readjusted his glasses and took a few steps for a closer look.
Oh…I know I’ve seen him before. Probably from one of our debt-collection headshots… But I don’t think he had that hotshot host-club haircut before…
Suddenly, there was a different man within his view. A pedestrian dressed like a salaryman who had noticed Tom and was approaching with a smile.
“Huh?”
At first he thought the man was heading for the restaurant right behind him, but it was past last call, and they’d taken down the welcoming curtain over the doorway. And the salaryman wasn’t looking at the building; he was looking directly at Tom.
What’s up? Is this guy drunk? he wondered, staring closely at the man.
His face was indeed a red color. But it wasn’t actually his skin that was red.
It was the whites of his eyes, bloodshot to an extreme shade of red.
“?!”
Something was wrong. Tom took a step back, wanting to return inside.
But the salaryman began to run now, sprinting at him. He wasn’t carrying anything. But there was something dangerous and aggressive in his movements—and then his hand darted out to reveal nails sharpened to sawtooth points, either bitten or clipped into shape, that hunted for Tom’s soft skin.
“Whoa!!” Tom yelped. But the man’s body stopped short just before the nails would have made contact.
“…?”
Simon’s large hand had closed around the man’s arm.
“Oh, sir, you no fight here. Eat sushi is better, but we closed now. You come back tomorrow, have good time. We make market price special just for you,” Simon said. He let go and pushed the man’s chest.
The salaryman lost his balance and stumbled backward several steps. Then Simon grabbed Tom’s arm instead and pulled him back into the building.
“Huh? Wait!”
The door closed, and Simon turned the lock.