“How could you make me like you more after you rejected me?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Togusa’s van
✦ ✦ ✦
“I thought I heard it coming from the building on the left…but if the sound’s bouncing off the expressway, then there’s no telling where it came from…”
Togusa peered through the windshield up at the buildings looming over them.
The biker gangs were gathered just a few dozen yards ahead and had practically taken over the road. No cars were moving, of course, so all the drivers, noticing the gathering ahead, were desperately trying to trickle off onto side streets.
“And you’re saying the guy with the fancy hair was definitely out in front of Russia Sushi, Karisawa?”
“Yep, no question. He was with Haruna.”
“…”
Anri placed her hands on her thighs, clutching the hem of her clothing.
Mikado Ryuugamine and Masaomi Kida—Izaya Orihara had likened their relationship to “balancing atop a rope on fire.” With the threat of Nasujima added to the mix, Anri was fighting a powerful anxiety over a situation whose full scope she could not ascertain.
“Do you think it would be faster to get out and run?” Seiji wondered.
“Yeah, but…if there really are as many people as there were at the first Dollars meeting…,” Karisawa replied.
Meanwhile, Togusa noticed a person walking down the center of the road, weaving between the cars caught in traffic. The figure’s movement was awkward and halting, as though they were hurt.
What’s that?
Huh? Where have I seen him before…?
As Togusa squinted ahead, the figure suddenly raised a hammer and brought it down on the van’s front windshield with abnormal force.
“Wha…?!”
It smashed against the glass, sending spiderweb fractures all across the surface and turning the driver’s vision through it white. There was a second impact, then a third, and big chunks of the glass fell loose.
“Y-you son of a bitch!” Togusa screamed at the man. He stomped on the gas, making to run over the attacker.
“Stop, Togusa!” Kadota shouted from the passenger seat, which was just enough to keep Togusa in his rational mind.
The attacker, meanwhile, leered at them and examined the group in the van.
“Oh-ho… Very nice… Real tasty bunch ya got in here, huh? Hey…what the hell are you doin’ here, Namie Yagiri?”
“Izumii…,” Namie said with undisguised loathing. A nervous silence ran through the vehicle.
“Huh? Izumii? Did he change up his look…?” Karisawa wondered.
Kadota grimaced. “Hah…you really slimmed down during your time on the inside. What happened to that regal pompadour you were so proud of?”
The air around Izumii seemed to chill several degrees. “Kaaadoootaaa,” he hissed with fury, staring daggers at the young man through his sunglasses. “I heard you got hit by a car, but you seem just fine to me… So I guess I oughta finish the job, huh?”
Those two statements didn’t add up at all, but Kadota reached for the seat belt to undo it anyway.
“Whoa, now. Who said you could move?” Izumii pointed the hammer right at him, a vicious smile smeared across his face. “I’m puttin’ on a car-dismantling show. And you’ve got the best seat in the house, so don’t get up.”
At that point, about ten more thugs appeared from other vehicles to surround Togusa’s van. They all carried metal pipes, bats, shovels, and picks—implements that would indeed be useful in dismantling a vehicle.
“Hey, we’ve got women and children in here. At least let them out.” Kadota glared without a shred of fear.
Izumii cackled and shook his head. “C’mon, dumb-ass. You know the entire reason you betrayed me is because I don’t make those kinds of concessions. Right?”
“You son of a bitch…,” Kadota growled, his brow creasing. The other man glanced at the back seat of the van.
“Okay, Yumasaki, you’re in for it, too… Wait. Yumasaki ain’t here…,” he said curiously. Then he recognized one of the two girls back there. “Wha…?”
He opened his wide mouth into a malicious cackle. “Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You…you’re Masaomi Kida’s girl, huh? Okay, okay, I see. So Kadota saved your skin, and now you’ve been palling around with them ever since!”
“…”
Saki maintained her silence, only staring back at Izumii. As a matter of fact, they’d only just met again yesterday, but admitting so wouldn’t make any difference, so she didn’t bring it up.
“Hey, what if I tossed a Molotov cocktail into the van, like you folks did to me? Huh?” Izumii laughed. “I wondered what was up with the summons right after we split apart, but now it just means I get to see y’all again! I feel fate at work! Gotta thank Mikado for that!”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…?”
Aside from Mika and Namie, the entire group within the van froze.
“What…did you just say? Thank who?” Kadota grunted.
“Oops. I guess you didn’t know that yet?” Izumii said, shrugging theatrically. The action caused the sternum that Chikage had injured to creak, and he scowled in pain. But it lasted only a brief moment and did not dull his enjoyment of the situation.
“I’m not the leader of the Blue Squares anymore,” he said.
“What?”