Inside a van
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Togusa’s van featured an anime decal all across one side of it, thanks to Yumasaki. Normally, it had the space for four to relax in relative comfort, front seat and back, but now it had twice that population density.
Togusa was in the driver’s seat, while the injured Kadota sat in the passenger seat.
In the middle row were Namie and Mika, with Seiji seated between them, while the back seat contained Yumasaki, Anri, and Saki. If Karisawa were along as she usually was, they’d be over capacity—but she was not in the vehicle.
She’d been out on the streets searching for Kadota when all communication from her had stopped. The rest of the group decided to head toward the Sunshine area of Ikebukuro to find her, where things tended to be busiest.
“I think you girls should have stayed behind,” Kadota said to the two girls in the back seat, conveniently ignoring that he was still injured and had no business being there. “How about if you lie low for a while? I’ll ask Shinra’s mom if she’ll take you in for a bit.”
But Anri shook her head. She looked more fervent than usual. “No…I will go, too. I have to go.”
Kadota saw her eyes through the rearview mirror and sighed. At first, Anri had been too confused to process the entire situation, but from the moment she learned that Karisawa was in danger, she insisted on coming along.
“Did something happen with you and Karisawa?” he asked.
“She…she helped me in various ways when I was having trouble,” Anri replied, her head drooping just a bit, as she recalled all that had happened in the last few days.
If Karisawa hadn’t been there, then Izaya Orihara’s words alone might have succeeded in destroying Anri’s will. The realization gave her a fresh appreciation for what Karisawa had done for her.
It was why she had made up her mind—to face all the aches related to herself.
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When she looked up again, Kadota wore a pensive expression.
“Huh? What’s up, Kadota…?” Togusa asked as he was reaching to turn on the engine. He followed Kadota’s lead and looked into the rearview mirror at Anri. “H-hey, kid! What happened to your eyes?”
The rest of them all turned to look at her. One thing was immediately apparent.
Anri Sonohara’s eyes were glowing red.
The red light shone through the lenses of her glasses, flickering and floating within the van like will-o’-the-wisps. Kadota and Yumasaki had seen Anri fighting with glowing red eyes in the park before. But they’d never been able to confront her about that and hadn’t planned to ask her in the future.
Anri looked at the rest of them with those powerful red eyes and stated, “I think that the slasher in the neighborhood is related to me.”
She steadied her breathing and suppressed her normal hesitant tone of voice to produce something far harder and stronger than anything they’d heard from her before.
“And that’s why…I need to go.”
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Commercial building—rooftop
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On the spacious roof of a building that contained multiple restaurants and bars within it, Chikage and Masaomi secretly surveyed the city around them to get a better picture of what was happening.
For being the middle of the night, there were just too many people around.
And they were especially clustered in the area they were planning to go next—the block in front of Tokyu Hands. But that spot in particular wasn’t the densest; that honor seemed to go to the block before that, heading to the bowling alley.
“Can’t see that way around the building… Did something happen around Russia Sushi’s area?”
“Something’s fishy about what they’re doing. It’s all mechanical or something, like they’re on a loop… Like a character in the background of a video game level, ya know?” Chikage suggested. But while he seemed nonchalant, Masaomi was unnerved by the sight.
“Shit… What’s going on over there…?”
“Are their eyes red, too?”
“Huh?”
“It’s hard to make out from here… In fact, you can’t really make out the sidewalk from here, because of the highway.”
From their position, the crossing bridge over the Metropolitan Expressway was angled such that it blocked the intersection where Sixtieth Floor Street met Otowa Street.
“If only this building were as tall as the Amlux or Sunshine buildings, we’d have a real clear view of it.” Masaomi groaned, tilting his head sideways to look at the Amlux building across the expressway from Tokyu Hands. But it seemed impossible to sneak onto the roof there, and even if the Sunshine observation decks were open twenty-four hours a day, it would take several times as long to get over to that one.
“Still, it’s an improvement having a better look at Sixtieth Floor Street, ya know?” said Chikage, watching the streets below. But then he spotted something that looked off.
Around the entrance to Tokyu Hands, there was a new group that looked noticeably different from the generic crowds elsewhere. To a person, they wore blue beanies and ski masks, creating a vivid distinction from the rest of the nighttime masses.
When he saw the smaller group of blue, Masaomi clenched the roof’s railing.
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“There they are… It’s the Blue Squares.”
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Outside of Russia Sushi
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“…Some new customers?”
Nasujima noticed the van stopping in front of Tokyu Hands to let out a group of boys wearing eerie shark-pattern ski masks and grinned to himself.
“Don’t mess with them yet. Just control the ones taken over with Saika, got it? I’ll give the command when it’s time. Don’t want to create an opening that the folks in the sushi place will use to escape.”
“…Yes, Mother,” said Haruna, her eyes dull. He rubbed her head and smiled.
“Mikado Ryuugamine, huh? All I remember is that his name stuck out and he was otherwise completely forgettable,” Nasujima said, trying to remember his old student, but because it had been a different class than his own homeroom and Mikado had been a boy, he couldn’t recall the face.
“Anyway. So the boss of the Dollars is a guy without any notable features, eh? Kids these days are crazy.” He chuckled to himself. He looked over the blank-faced Haruna and the terrified Shijima.
“Education’s not what it used to be, is it?” asked the former teacher. Neither Shijima nor Haruna said anything about the irony.
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The rooftop of a mixed-use building
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“So which one’s Mikado Ryuugamine? See, I’d never forget a girl’s face, but…”
Chikage scanned the area. Masaomi focused on one specific point in the crowd.
“Shit…there are a couple of guys with the same build as Mikado wearing ski masks, so I can’t tell which one might be him…”
Even at a distance, Mikado’s innocent, babyish face would stand out among the Blue Squares. And Masaomi had eyesight good enough to just barely pick him out at this range, despite the darkness.
“I see. So they were trying to avoid their leader getting taken out by an ambush right off the top,” Chikage said. “Or maybe he’s still in the car…but I can’t see it because of the damn expressway!”
“They used cars a lot, so I doubt they’re walking or on bicycles.”
“Dammit, can’t see. Stupid expressway… Why does it have to cost so much?” Chikage complained, which was neither here nor there.
But Masaomi had a different concern. “You know, before we came up here…I saw the big road under the expressway, but it seemed like there were way fewer cars than usual…”
There was no way to confirm that from this angle. The only thing visible was the stream of cars whizzing along the raised expressway, unconcerned with the problems below.
“Lots of people but no cars? Even weirder.”
“Something’s wrong with Ikebukuro today…”
“Well, at least the crowds actin’ weird don’t seem to have nothin’ to do with these guys in blue,” suggested Chikage, who turned his back toward Masaomi. “Well, it’s almost time. I’m gonna go down there. You stay here.”
“H-hey, aren’t you gonna need me?”
“You’re the wild card. The main event. I’m gonna tear their masks off, so you watch from up above and come on down when you see your friend. If he’s not among them, then I’ll make them tell me where to find him, and I’ll call you with the answer.”
The expressway blocked their view of the group, leaving them without even a solid head count of enemies. And yet Chikage spoke as though losing wasn’t even a potential outcome; to him, victory was a given.
Abruptly, Masaomi called out, “Mr. Rokujou!”
“What?”
“Um…thank you.”
“You can thank me later. When you do it at this point in the movies, that’s a sign that I’m gonna die after this,” Chikage said, waving him off with a bitter smile and heading down the stairs. “Plus, you don’t know if you’ll want to thank me for the results yet.”
“Huh?” Masaomi frowned.
Chikage shrugged and said, “I might get so carried away that I wallop your buddy along with the rest of ’em.”
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Residential area