“Chikage Rokujou is the enemy of the Dollars.”
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Outside Russia Sushi
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“…Looks like something’s happening. They’re taking out phones… So are we assuming that one guy in the ski mask is Mikado? Whatever the case, he seems to be the leader,” Nasujima said to Haruna with a leer. They were watching the scene in front of Tokyu Hands. “If it turns into a brawl, we’re gonna have our people rush them all.”
“Yes…Mother.”
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Inside Russia Sushi
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“Is it just me, or are the motorcycles really loud outside?” Tom wondered, his face gaunt with exhaustion. “Anyway, if we’re desperate enough, I think we can jump from the roof here to the ramen place next door…but I don’t think it gives us a way out of this mess—it only traps us in a different place instead.”
“Oh, if pull no good, try push instead. You get discouraged, make hungry,” Simon advised as he and Denis checked on some kind of equipment.
Tom didn’t ask what it was for, and he was planning to pretend he never saw it, if necessary. But then Denis said to him, “We were unlucky. If Shizuo were here, he coulda flattened all those folks outside by himself.”
“You might be right, but I’m also glad that’s not the case.”
“Oh?”
“If you take Mr. Kine’s word, that’s all just some kind of fancy hypnotism, right? It’s one thing for people to pick a fight with him and earn what’s coming to them, but I can’t let him go around smashing ordinary folks who can’t control themselves.” Tom sighed.
Kine broke his silence to say, “Is that all you want in life? You get a guy like that on your side, you could conquer this city.”
“You’ve got the wrong idea about me. Shizuo’s an underclassman from our middle school days, and now he’s a coworker,” said Tom, stretching. There was a lonely look in his eyes. “Shizuo looks so sad when he’s raging the way he does, but I can’t even join in the carnage with him, much less stop him… It’s not much to be proud of.”
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The rooftop of a mixed-used building
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“Well, let’s see.”
After Mikado asked him what he was going to do, Masaomi was silent for a while, clenching his fists.
“I couldn’t do anything for you. And I guess even talking about doing things to help you is kind of condescending, huh?”
Masaomi took a step closer to the gun. Mikado’s hand twitched. But Masaomi did not stop his forward progress across the rooftop.
“I might not be that smart. I’m a coward. It’s pathetic to admit it, but the only thing I’m good at is fighting, to some extent…”
There were two firm acts of determination in Masaomi’s mind.
One was the determination to risk his life, like he did when he stood up to Horada. Not to throw his life away but to make his friend wake up.
The other was the determination to be his best friend’s enemy—again, in order to wake him up to the truth.
“So the least I can do is fight you,” Masaomi said with a smile, just like he did as a child. “If you wanna go crazy, I won’t stop you. But I can choose to go crazy, too.”
“Masaomi…”
“I’m gonna drag you, kicking and screaming, back into the ordinary life you hate so much.”
There was no hesitation in his eyes anymore.
“I’m gonna punch you, I’m gonna make you cry, and I’m gonna force you to remember.”
Masaomi spoke forcefully, projecting his will, such that even if his friend had truly become something no longer human, he would deny that and will it out of existence.
“You are not an urban legend like the Headless Rider. You’re just a guy named Mikado Ryuugamine…a normal, scrawny human being who tries to do right by everybody!”
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For a moment, Mikado’s expression vanished from shock. Then tears began to pool in his eyes.
“You’re so strong, Masaomi.”
“…”
“I was always jealous of that. It’s why I really wanted to beat you,” he said, summoning up not hatred from the pit of his stomach but envy. “It’s why, no matter what I have to do, no matter what names people call me…”
With a look of respect for his childhood friend, Mikado put his finger against the trigger of the gun.
“…I will deny your words with all my strength.”
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And a few seconds later, the dry pop of a gunshot expanded into the sky over Ikebukuro.
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Outside of Tokyu Hands
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The sound of a gunshot from above reached the street in front of Tokyu Hands.
“What was that?”
Everyone present looked around for the source of the unfamiliar burst, but no one found it. The closest were a few bikers, who muttered that they heard it from up above, subsequently gazing at the expressway, the Amlux building, and the Sunshine building in turn.
That was when they finally realized that the night sky was colored an abnormally dark black.
The top of the soaring Sunshine building, in fact, seemed to be shrouded in some kind of black fog, completely hiding it from view.
“Hey, what’s that…?”
The murmuring among the crowd began to spread, until it all came to an abrupt stop some fifteen seconds later.
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A dark shadow suddenly raced through the group of men.
“?!”
The shadow leaped and bounced off motorcycle and car alike from roof to hood, easily speeding its way through the densely packed crowd of bikers and thugs.
“Hey!” shouted one of the bikers whose motorcycle had been used as a stepping-stone, furiously following the shadow with his eyes. “What the hell? Kill that—”
But before he could finish ordering his friends, his voice caught in his throat.
He’d heard the sound of ugly, unpleasant scraping behind him.
It was so abnormal that the bikers spun around, wondering what it was.
And when they saw what the man back there was dragging around, they lost the ability to speak.
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“Hey, did you hear something?” Chikage demanded, shoulders heaving as he breathed, but no one responded.
He was like a solitary island in the sea of bikers and Blue Squares around him. Even then, he challenged his foes, not backing down from the fight.
“Hah… Ain’t that a mystery. Up against every last one of you, and I don’t feel scared in the least.”
“Don’t try to play tough with us, Rokujou! You’re done for!” yelled one of the senior members of the rival Gozumezu Guns, but Chikage wasn’t bothered by it.
“I’ll be honest,” he taunted. “I felt a lot more presence when I fought this guy who was as tough as a kaiju, about three months ago…”
But he trailed off. The black shadow was racing toward Chikage, rushing over the heads of the other men. It was a man dressed in black.
“…Who’s that?” Chikage wondered, appraising the injured man. That man just grinned at him and surveyed the situation.
“…More people than I expected,” he said. Then he noticed the crowds of red-eyed people and added, “Half of them possessed by Saika. Whatever. That suits me fine.”
And with that little brag out of the way, he looked toward Otowa Street.