He was going to poke his nose into this incident but only in the way that a proper man on the underside of society would do.
✦ ✦ ✦
Along Kawagoe Highway
✦ ✦ ✦
“…This is the apartment building.”
“And is this person really going to be that helpful?” Saki asked, not to cast doubt on Anri’s offer but just to get some reassurance.
“Yes, she’s a very helpful…person…”
The hesitation around the word person was not simply an unconscious hitch of the tongue. Anri looked up at the building. It was a place she’d been a number of times. It was the home of a mutual acquaintance—and savior—of both Anri Sonohara and Mikado Ryuugamine: Celty Sturluson.
The troubles that surrounded Mikado and Masaomi seemed like too much for Anri herself to solve. And for one thing, she had no idea where the two of them even were at this moment.
So she didn’t want to make things worse for anyone, but she also really wanted someone to speak to. The first person who popped into her head was Celty.
But it was already late into the night. Society did not approve of two young women walking around on the streets at this hour, but Anri, at least, wasn’t worried about prowlers or delinquents bothering them. She harbored a weapon inside of her that no half-hearted attacker could ever overcome.
Just because the girls were able to go around in search of a solution at this hour didn’t mean that Celty would be available at the drop of a hat, however. Anri felt that a sudden visit at the door in the middle of the night would be in poor taste, so she had at least tried calling on the way. But despite multiple attempts, she got no response from Celty, who was usually very prompt in responding, even in the middle of the night.
“Maybe she’s asleep already.”
“I suppose so… Oh!” Anri had a sudden epiphany and pulled out her phone again. “Maybe she’ll be in the chat room.”
“Chat room?”
“Yes…there’s one I use online. I actually interact with her more often there than by text messages.”
“I see. Then I’ll try contacting Masaomi. He didn’t answer yesterday, but maybe since it’s a new day, he’ll be in the mood to talk,” Saki suggested, opening her bag so she could get out her cell phone.
Most likely, Masaomi was avoiding talking to her in order to keep her at a safe distance from all the trouble, Anri thought, but there was still a greater-than-zero chance that he might pick up, so she let the other girl go ahead and glanced down at her own phone.
“Huh…?”
Her expression tightened.
“What’s the matter?” Saki asked. It was clear that something abnormal had happened. She paused, her thumb hovering over the buttons of her phone.
“Oh no…”
A woman calling herself Namie Yagiri was raging in the chat, throwing around Mikado’s and Anri’s names. For the moment, Anri’s mind went blank; she was unable to process what was happening.
Then Saki peered over her arm at the screen and said, “Hang on. Is the chat room you were talking about…the one that Kanra runs?”
“Huh?” Anri was startled to hear the name of the chat room’s moderator from Saki’s mouth. “Miss Mikajima, you’re familiar with this chat?!”
“Yeah. I go by the username Saki. And on that topic, Bacura is Masaomi.”
“…!”
It was all so sudden. Anri froze all over.
And though it was without malice of any kind, Saki made it worse by continuing, “Also, Kanra is Izaya Orihara… Did you know that before you joined?”
“…I…? …?! …Huh?”
Anri’s mouth opened and shut without anything to show for it. She couldn’t process this.
Not only was she unable to keep up with the string of revelations, the murmuring of Saika inside her was getting stronger and stronger.
Then, right as the dizziness was getting so bad that she might faint, Anri heard a familiar voice.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Anri…?”
✦ ✦ ✦
It was a voice she’d heard the other day, but at this moment, it felt old and nostalgic and comforting.
The voice of the girl who had always come to Anri’s aid when the bullies were picking on her in middle school. The friend who had accepted her on her side of the picture frame—and acknowledged the metaphor of the frame altogether. The bright and shining host whom she’d lived off when she thought of herself as a parasite.
Anri looked up, suspecting that she was just hearing things, and stared into a familiar face.
“Mika…Harima…?”
Normally, she would never expect to see this person at this hour, at this place.
Mika Harima rushed over to her old friend. “What’s the matter? What are you doing out so late…?” she asked, her voice loud and clear.
Anri stammered, “I…I wanted to talk to Celty about something… But what about you…?”
Mika Harima had been to this apartment before, too, to teach the group how to cook sagohachi-style pickled sandfish and other tricky dishes. They’d hunched around a hot pot together, so Anri knew that Mika was familiar with Celty and Shinra, but it was still abnormal to run across her in the middle of the night like this.
“Uh…some stuff happened, y’know? In fact, there’s stuff happening right at this moment, too…”
“?”
Anri gave Mika a quizzical look; it wasn’t a particularly helpful explanation. Just then, a group of people came into view over Mika’s shoulder.
“What the—? Is that Anri?”
“…Hey, it’s the Sonohara girl…”
“Don’t push it, Kadota!”
It was the van gang but without Karisawa present. That seemed ominous to Anri, but more worrisome than that was the paleness of Kadota’s face and the obvious pain with which he was walking.
Behind them, she could also see Seiji Yagiri, his arm over the shoulder of an older woman. He was unsteady on his feet, too, but unlike Kadota, he didn’t look pale or weak.
“…Oh, Sonohara. What’s up wi…ung…”
“Seiji! Don’t hurt yourself; the anesthetic hasn’t worn off yet! Forget about that girl possessed by the cursed blade!”
“Cursed…? What are you talking about, Sister…?”
Huh?
Yet again, Anri found confusion taking over. And to make things worse, the sickly-looking Kadota did his best to put on a brave face and told her, “You should get out of the area for a while.”
“Huh?”
“Remember that slasher who attacked you a while back? The one with the bloodshot eyes…”
“…!”
A nasty chill crawled over Anri’s skin. Not one of Saika’s murmurs but a feeling of fear from Anri herself.
Was it Haruna Niekawa, or Kasane Kujiragi, or the third party that Kujiragi said she would “sell” Saika to? Whoever it was, Anri was certain now that another slasher had appeared under Saika’s influence. She clutched her trembling fists.
And then Kadota added the devastating clincher:
✦ ✦ ✦
“There’s some people around with their eyes all red like that slasher…but there’s tons of ’em.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Ikebukuro—shopping district
✦ ✦ ✦
“…What is this?”
Erika Karisawa hid in the darkness from the lights of the city, clutching her phone.
She was peering out at a major road from a narrow alley between two large buildings. And she was looking at a crowd of people.
It wasn’t as many as one would expect in the middle of the day, but it was still far too many for this hour of the night.
She’d seen this once before: a year and a half ago, when the Dollars held their first meetup. But the aura surrounding the people occupying the streets was not at all like that gathering.
They were all just loitering around, not going anywhere, standing still like automatons waiting for some order to fulfill.
And most alien of all—their eyes were a deep crimson, to the very last man.
Karisawa recalled the same event that Kadota did. The incident with the street slasher, half a year ago.
It was exactly how the slasher had looked, up until they’d hit him with Togusa’s van. It hadn’t been the end of it all, given that the Night of the Ripper had happened a few days later, when dozens of people were attacked at once. But even then, she hadn’t expected to see a return of that phenomenon out of nowhere.