At last, Tokyo greeted the morning.
But whether the hour hand passed six o’clock or seven o’clock, the rays of the morning sun did not alight upon Ikebukuro.
Pitch-black shadow hung over the city, far darker than any cloud could make it.
It was as if the night continued onward, striking fear and unease into the citizens and making huge national news.
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By noon, however, the shadow was gone, and the rest of society neatly classified it a “natural phenomenon caused by a special dust storm” so that they could continue on with their day.
But for those individuals who were most deeply connected to that shadow, it was a morning of change.
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Inside a car
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“…”
Through dull wits, Izaya Orihara became aware that his surroundings were shaking.
Apparently, he was sitting in the passenger seat of a car with the seat back tilted down. He looked over and saw a man with a shaved head driving in silence.
“…Is that…Mr. Kine?”
“You’re lucky I happened to be nearby…if you want to call it luck.”
“…”
“I’d say that with the injuries you’ve got, there’s a fifty-fifty chance you’ll make it if I rush you to a hospital,” Kine estimated without a hint of emotion. “Frankly, the blunt impacts all over your body are worse than the knife wound in your gut. I’d guess you’ve got a couple organs failing right now. Can’t believe you were able to battle with Shizuo in that state.”
“…”
Izaya glanced down at his side. There was a detachable knife blade stuck in the flesh there. Only there was shadow stuck in the wound around it, holding his blood loss to a minimum.
“I wouldn’t pull that out. If you start bleeding, your chances of dying go from fifty-fifty to ninety-ten.”
“…”
“Before you die, thank the kid behind you. She helped carry you in here while Shizuo was blinded.”
“…?”
Izaya glanced into the rearview mirror, his face pale, and saw a girl with a cold expression on her face: Manami Mamiya.
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I just wanted to see your end without anyone getting in the way,” she said, staring back at him through the mirror with open hatred and dismissal. “If you end up dying, I’ll say, ‘You got killed by a monster. Serves you right.’ But if that shadow in your wound saves you, I’ll say, ‘Your life got spared by a monster. Serves you right.’”
“…Ha-ha… Both of those are…horrible.”
“I was talking with Shinra Kishitani earlier. He told me the kinds of things you would hate.”
“Damn…him…”
He grimaced, exhaled, then gazed out through empty eyes at the black sky visible through the car window. He was silent for a long while.
“What now?” Kine asked. “I could drop you off at an emergency room nearby. Or would a black market doctor I have pull with be more convenient for you?”
Despite being on the brink of death, Izaya glared at the shadow covering the sky of Ikebukuro and said, “First…take me out of this city…as far as you can manage…”
“…”
“If I’m going to die…I don’t want my last moments watched over…by a monster.”
He put on a brave show of smiling, but his face was getting paler by the minute. Kine said nothing and continued driving, thinking of a route that would slip them past any checkpoints set up by the police.
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Eventually, their car disappeared out of the area.
Izaya vanished from Ikebukuro, taking with him any information on his death or survival.
The very info dealer who would be in possession of that info was now gone.
✦ ✦ ✦
In time, the darkness in the sky began to dissipate, and with it, the shadows that tied down the bikers and the Saika-possessed dispersed.
✦ ✦ ✦
“…Huh?”
When Shuuji Niekawa became aware of his surroundings again, he was on the ground in the middle of Ikebukuro.
“What…am I doing here?”
He glanced around and saw many others looking equally befuddled.
“Let’s see… I…I found Haruna…and what happened after that…?” he wondered. Then his text message alert went off.
It was from his daughter. And it was a very simple message.
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“Don’t worry, Dad. I’m with the one I love right now.”
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A very simple, worrisome message.
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Somewhere in Tokyo
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Hmm…? Where am I…?
When Takashi Nasujima awoke, he was in a dimly lit room.
“…Ah…gaah…!”
He tried to get up, but his body wouldn’t move. Not only that, it was racked with horrible pain.
What…? What happened…?
Despite the agony that washed over his brain like a wave, he slowly began to remember, bit by bit, the events that happened before he lost consciousness.
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Fortunately for him, hiding in Russia Sushi out of fear of Shizuo meant Nasujima had escaped the binding shadows that afflicted everyone outside. From there, he wandered around in search of fresh pawns.
It was at that point that he just so happened to witness Anri Sonohara walking on the sidewalk. Plus, her attention was on someone else who was injured, so she was completely vulnerable.
Nasujima licked his lips and approached, excited to get the best pawn imaginable.
That’s right. That’s where that stupid kid got in the way…
He’d stabbed the boy several times in frustration, Anri Sonohara had screamed, and then she had produced a katana from her body and came slashing at him.
And then…um…I didn’t get cut.
Huh? Why didn’t I get sliced by her?
He felt a deep creaking in his spine and tried to go back deeper into his memories.
✦ ✦ ✦
The moment that Anri’s Saika bore down on Nasujima, Haruna stepped in between the two and used the knife in her hand to block the sword.
“…?! Haruna!”
“No… You can’t, Anri… You might be my friend, but you can’t have Takashi,” she said, a mixture of fury and worship in her voice.
Nasujima felt his skin crawl. “N…Niekawa…? I thought…you were under my control…”
She was silent for a moment before she answered. As her eyes sparkled like those of a girl in love, she twisted her body around and curved her mouth as far as it would go.
“Well…isn’t that what you wanted?”
Either she was just acting, or she’d allowed him to possess her with Saika on purpose.
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t always be who you wanted me to be…but I felt certain that I was about to lose you to that sneaking little cat burglar…”
In any case, it was exactly the opposite of what Nasujima actually wanted. He uttered a pathetic sound somewhere between a yelp and a shriek and turned his back on Anri and Haruna.
“Oh…! Wait, Takashi!”