“You really are an idiot.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Outside of Tokyu Hands
✦ ✦ ✦
“So…should I assume that the festival is over?” Chikage wondered.
Aoba smirked and replied, “I suppose it might be. Never would have counted on an ending like that.”
“…By the way, how come I’m not tied up, but you are?”
Chikage had full, free motion, while Aoba, like the rest of his gang and all the other biker groups, had shadows twirled around his limbs, keeping him bound to the ground.
“Dunno. Never would have counted on finishing up our fight like this.”
In fact, Celty made the decision based on Chikage’s constant proximity to Masaomi, but Chikage and Aoba didn’t know that, so they just assumed Chikage was lucky, and Aoba’s gang wasn’t.
“Finishing up, huh…? To be honest, if I’d had to fight those two big guys and all the other biker gangs, it’d probably be me on the ground right now.” Chikage approached Aoba and pulled the ski mask off him.
“…!”
Aoba glared up at him, humiliated.
“But I ain’t stupid enough to beat the crap out of some kid in this condition and claim I won,” Chikage went on. “I’ve seen your face now. I’ll remember it…I think. So the score between your gang and mine will have to wait until next time to be settled.”
Then he looked around at the red-eyed crowd stuck to the ground and put his hand to his chin.
✦ ✦ ✦
“So…what’s up with these folks…? Their eyes are still red…”
✦ ✦ ✦
Sidewalk
✦ ✦ ✦
Mikado and Masaomi walked along on the sidewalk down on the ground, Mikado offering his shoulder to his friend for support.
They were worried about Shinra after he got hurled into the sky after Celty, but they’d managed to witness him making apparent contact with her. They chose to trust that she’d help save him and went on ahead to get Masaomi to a hospital.
Shizuo returned to the area around Tokyu Hands, claiming to be worried about his newer coworker, and Seiji and Mika ran off toward Sunshine City to “check out how Celty’s doing.”
So Mikado and Saki each offered a shoulder to Masaomi, and they began walking in the direction of Raira General Hospital.
For quite a long time, Mikado found himself unable to speak. Celty was the very cause of his slide into the extraordinary and abnormal, but after she told him their paths crossing was without meaning and that he shouldn’t die on account of her, he was left with no idea what to do next.
“Hey, Mikado,” said Masaomi.
“…”
Mikado flapped his lips without words.
“How are we going to explain the gunshot wound in my leg?”
“Huh…?”
“Think about it. If they identify it as a gunshot, that gets the police involved. What if we told them…that one of those bikers over there just happened to have a gun? Then they won’t know which group it was…,” Masaomi joked, despite the pain that was surely racking his entire body.
“…”
Mikado looked as if he was ready to cry.
“What’s this?” Masaomi continued. “Tears of joy that you got to see Anri? Better tell her you love her before I snatch her away.”
“Oh, Masaomi.” Saki snickered and gave him a light head-butt.
Seeing their teasing and the way Anri watched him with concern from a few steps away, Mikado looked down at the ground and muttered, “Maybe I just wanted someone to hate me. For someone to call me a villain and force me to stop…”
He felt the tears welling up and forcibly pushed his face into a smile. “It would have been nice if it were either Sonohara or Kida.”
“C’mon, call me Masaomi… I don’t want us going back to that awkward formal distance again. Not after everything that’s happened,” Masaomi said, dragging his foot while Mikado put on that forced, fake smile.
Anri felt relief flood through her at seeing them like this and managed a smile of her own, complete with tears.
“The three of us…are together again.”
“Well, four,” Saki pointed out with a grin. She closed her eyes. “Go ahead—I’ll be a statue over here. You three talk among yourselves.”
Anri smiled gratefully and took the lead ahead of the group. “We agreed that when we came together again, we’d talk about our secrets.”
“…We did.”
“What? You had a promise? Hang on—why am I the odd man out?” Masaomi protested. Mikado and Anri shared a look and laughed.
“Let’s see… Who should go first?”
“It’s gotta be Mikado, right?” Masaomi joked to hide the crippling pain. “I’d rather save Anri’s secret for dessert.”
Despite the agony of seeing his friend’s state, Mikado felt the pressure around his mind steadily easing.
The ticket to the abnormal that he’d gained on the night of the Dollars’ first meeting had turned into a one-way express pass after he’d stabbed Aoba Kuronuma through the palm during the Golden Week holidays.
It felt as though the things each of them had lost as the price for their actions were slowly coming back to their rightful place.
I get it now. Sonohara was right all that time ago.
Maybe a totally typical normal life that lasts forever is what’s really abnormal.
Mikado thought back on the past, tears streaming down his cheeks, as he looked at her. And then…
✦ ✦ ✦
He noticed a man approaching her from behind.
“Huh…?”
A man with bloodshot red eyes and a small knife in his hand.
The man sported a fashionable, youthful haircut, but Mikado recognized his face.
Mr. Nasujima…? Why…?
As he watched, confused, Nasujima thrust the knife down toward Anri’s back, a cruel, sickening smile on his face.
✦ ✦ ✦
Unconsciously, Mikado left Masaomi’s side and pushed Anri away.
Before either of them—Masaomi stumbling and Anri jolted to the side—could process what was happening, Mikado stood tall before Nasujima.
His blade dug into Mikado’s stomach.
“Aah…”
A feeble gasp was all he could manage. Heat and pain shot through him from the spot where he was stabbed.
“Shit! Got in my way!” Nasujima spat with a click of his tongue and thrust the knife into Mikado’s side a few more times.
✦ ✦ ✦
There was a scream.
Was it Masaomi? Or possibly Anri?
He never found the answer.
Mikado Ryuugamine’s world was enveloped in shadow without light.