Chapter 27

CHAPTER 6 B The Observers Tokyo Going back to half a day earlier—late at night, after Yahiro and Celty met on the street… The blindfold came off Shiki’s eyes, and he was in an unfamiliar room. Based on the tools present, from the stacks of cardboard boxes in the corner, the kerosene containers, and the trowels hung up on the wall, this was probably some kind of storage room at a mansion. There wasn’t a single window, which made it likely to be a basement, too. With that in mind, he looked toward the person who took the blindfold off. Shiki’s hands were tied up with tape behind his back, and his feet were bound the same way. He was helpless to do anything but look and speak, but he didn’t raise a fuss. He focused on the situation, calmly and rationally. Who was the fool with a death wish who abducted them and brought them here? The disguise was sunglasses, a face mask, and a hat—the kind of incognito wear that actually drew attention among the public. He wanted to tell them to stick to wearing ski masks but chose to keep his silence for now. So it wasn’t Shiki who spoke first but another man who was on the ground at his feet. “What the hell do you people want?! You think you’re gonna get away with this?!” It was a man with a shaved head who typically drove the car for Shiki. “Don’t make a fuss,” Shiki warned. His underling flinched and glanced up at Shiki. His limbs were also bound, but he had been tossed onto the floor rather than seated in a chair like his boss. “M…Mr. Shiki! I’m so sorry! It’s my fault… It’s my fault I let this happen to you!” “Stop screaming. And my title is director,” Shiki warned his panicking companion. He reflected on what events had led to this situation. Damn, this is a pain in the ass. What the hell are they after? One hour earlier, he was out in Tokyo, having finished up a meeting with a business partner. Shiki got into his vehicle so that he and his driver could return to the Awakusu-kai office and report the results of that meeting. When he didn’t hear the usual, “Welcome back, sir,” from the driver, Shiki’s brain instantly shifted into emergency mode. Calmly, he looked into the rear mirror like he always did. The man in the driver’s seat was bald, like the driver, but it was clear from a glance that he was not the same man who’d driven him to this parking garage. Shiki was a yakuza, but because their group wasn’t in an all-out war right now, he wasn’t packing any pistols or blades. Under the current law, possession of a single illegal weapon could expose the head of the entire organization to legal peril. The question is, is this a personal vendetta against me, or is it an attack on the Awakusu-kai? That makes a big difference. It could be the Asuki-gumi, who still haven’t made peace with us, or one of the other groups we’re squabbling with… Or maybe it’s someone within our organization… I hate that I can’t rule that out. He checked the side doors, to see if he could still get out, but saw that escaping was a fool’s errand now. Menacing men wearing sunglasses and masks approached both sides of the car and opened the doors. The men addressed him brusquely. “Mr. Shiki?” “You’re coming with us.” Shiki’s eyebrows rose. The instant he saw the way they comported themselves, he felt keenly that something was off. It was something he could only have felt because of his years of experience in the underworld society—but he didn’t want to believe that his instinct was correct in this circumstance. “…You want me?” he asked softly. “I can’t answer that question.” “What happened to my driver?” “If you cooperate with us, we won’t harm either of you,” said the man, his voice muffled by the mask. Shiki’s eyes narrowed, and he examined not the suspicious individuals around him but the inside of the car. These men did not appear to have guns or any weapons of the sort. If they had concealed weapons, they weren’t holding them, which meant they were confident they could handle anything that happened. But when he noticed there were at least a dozen more people outside the windows, all covering their faces, Shiki let out a little sigh. Dammit. Akabayashi or Aozaki would probably be able to handle this many of them. But I’m not the combat-first type. This is what I get for that, I suppose. “Don’t cause trouble, and we won’t kill you. You have my word.” …What the…? Shiki sensed a particular emotion disguised behind the man’s tone of voice. “All right,” he snapped coldly. “Let’s hear you out.” He’d been loaded into a van they had parked nearby, then blindfolded and driven around for about an hour before reaching a destination. Based on the movement of the car, he could tell that they hadn’t tried to confuse him by going on and off the highway or turning in circles to throw off his sense of direction. Given the length of time he’d spent in the moving vehicle and the nature of this storage room, he guessed it was likely to be a mansion on the western edge of the Tokyo metropolitan area, somewhere like Fuchu or Hachioji. No, I shouldn’t make any assumptions, Shiki told himself. To the men in the basement with him, he asked, “So what do you want with me?” “Nothing, apparently.” “What?” “If anything, it’s just to have you stay here for a while, I guess.” Ah. So I won’t get anywhere with these ones. They must be bottom-rung muscle who don’t know any details. Actually, if my guess is right, they’re not on any rung at all… There was an outburst of noise from the entrance, interrupting his thoughts. The door opened, and another group of men piled into the room. In the gaps past them, Shiki could see a staircase leading upward. So it was a basement. Shiki turned his attention to the newcomers. Of the three who had just arrived, two of them had their faces covered with masks, like the others. The last of the three was a boy tied up like Shiki and his driver, and there was no missing the bright green hair on his head. “Stay in here and shut up.” “I’d prefer to be in a room with a pretty lady, if possible,” the boy said. The men ignored him and shoved him forward. As he toppled forward near Shiki’s feet, the boy shouted loud enough for everyone to hear, “I know they’re here! I know Aya and Ai Tatsugami are in this building somewhere!” One of the men slowly and menacingly pressed his foot against the boy’s stomach. “Shut up.” “Ow, ow, ow! I give up! I yield! I’ll be quiet, just stop—please!” The men gave the boy chilling glares and left without even removing his blindfold. There was one of them left as a guard at the door, but he had no intention of talking to any of them. He just leaned against the wall without a word. Judging that it was safe for them to talk, however, Shiki spoke to the boy at his feet. “You all right, kid?” “Oh, thanks. Could you at least get my blindfold off?” “Sorry, I’m not one of them. I’m not blindfolded, but my hands and feet are tied up, just like yours.” “Oh, I gotcha. Sorry about that.” Shiki gave the boy an appraising look, then murmured under his breath, “You’re the one everyone was talking about online this morning.” “Huh? You know me, too, mister?” “It wasn’t a site I usually browse, but I was doing a little research into the Headless Rider, see.” “Aw, geez. So I’m famous now?” The boy laughed awkwardly. “Yeah,” Shiki said. “And I know you’re a liar, too.” “Huh?” “The Headless Rider doesn’t have a favorite food. The Headless Rider doesn’t eat at all. And why would she go out to karaoke? She doesn’t have a head.” “Gee, mister, you actually believe the Headless Rider is some monster without a head?” the boy mocked. Shiki countered with simple facts. “I don’t have to believe. What doesn’t exist doesn’t exist. If you’ve met Celty in person, you should know better than anyone.” “…Calm down, mister. With the way you’re acting and the fact that you know the Headless Rider’s name…are you in the business?” the boy joked. Shiki’s subordinate, who was tied up at his feet, snarled, “Who the fuck do you think you are, talkin’ to the boss like that? Huh?” Shiki sighed at the outburst and ignored his driver to speak to the boy again, but he couldn’t get the words out first. “Director,” said his henchman, “I know this kid. He’s the one the guys at the office were yellin’ about.” His voice was agitated; he had recognized the green hair. “He’s the friend of the kid who was goin’ at it with Shizuo Heiwajima.” Ikebukuro West Gate Park—daytime At the outdoor stage area in West Gate Park, there was an odd combination of figures sitting on a metal tube bench: a man in a bartender’s outfit and a woman in a black riding suit. “So that Yahiro boy really fought evenly against you, Shizuo?” Celty typed, then showed off the screen of the smartphone. The man in the bartender uniform, Shizuo Heiwajima, didn’t bother to evade the question. “Yeah, he was with the green-haired kid, right? Then that’s him, all right.” He looked up at the sky, seeming to reminisce on the event, even though it was only a few days ago. “I had no idea you knew him, Celty. Small world.” “No, I only met him yesterday… So much has happened, I can barely keep track of it.” Upon hearing that Shiki had gone missing, Celty had taken it upon herself to do some independent investigation around the city. Akabayashi warned her that some folks suspected her of being guilty, and she was at a loss for what to do next when Shizuo spotted her and said hi. Celty recalled the conversation between Yahiro and Libei last night and decided to bring it up as a long shot. She was stunned when he actually confirmed it. “I can’t believe it. I might believe if it was Simon, but a normal teenager being able to hang in your presence? It’s stunning.” “Uh, what do you think I am, exactly?” “Sorry. It’s just that I’ve never seen you struggle in a normal fistfight.” In Celty’s head, she was envisioning a certain info dealer, but that was anything but a “normal fistfight,” and she didn’t want to upset Shizuo, so she chose not to mention him. Strangely enough, however, Shizuo brought up the topic all on his own. “You remember Izaya?” “How could I not…? I’m surprised you mentioned his name, actually.” “Well, it’s not like I want to remember that fleabrain… Anyway, I hate to even ask you for this favor, but if you know that Yahiro Mizuchi kid, could you just keep an eye on him for me?” “?” She tilted her helmet to the side to indicate puzzlement. Shizuo made a conflicted face and said, “That guy with the green dyed hair…he’s the same type of person as that Izaya asshole.” “Is that right?” “Just a hunch.” “I see.” Yes, the friendly way he tried to sidle up to me was clearly unnatural, Celty thought, recalling when he had approached her for the photo. She’d seen it show up in the news this morning. The story was embellished with nonsense about castella cake bites and karaoke, but the important thing to Celty was that it had a strong “not the kidnapper” vibe to it, so she was more relieved than angry about it. “But how does that tie in to being concerned about Yahiro? If this guy’s really like Izaya, then he’s going to drag everyone around him into disaster,” Celty typed out. Shizuo thought it over and replied, “I dunno. Fighting with that kid kind of reminded me of my old self.” “Your old self?” “When you’re as strong as him, you find yourself getting dragged into all kinds of crap. I’ve never seen him around the city before. Maybe he got in trouble somewhere else and came here to get away from it,” Shizuo said and thought some more. He clicked his tongue. “Hey, Celty.” “What?” “I’m just spitballing here. What if everything went right for me…and I got along properly with Izaya, like I do with Shinra. What do you think would’ve happened?” “That’s quite a question,” Celty said, not hiding her shock. “But why would you ask me that?” “I dunno…that building that got busted up a year and a half ago—they finally finished it in the last six months…” “Oh, that one.” A year and a half ago, Shizuo had been caught in an incident and had fought a true battle to the death with his nemesis, Izaya Orihara. Izaya had vanished from the city, so nobody knew if he was alive or dead, but the scars of their tremendous battle remained on the town for a while. The explosion at the partially built building was especially bad, but because the culprit who caused it was gone, there hadn’t been any progress in bringing him to justice. They probably suspected that Shizuo had something to do with it, but the fact that he hadn’t even been brought in for questioning meant they were either letting him swim, or there was some kind of special activity going on within the police department. The explosion delayed the building’s construction significantly, but Celty remembered that it was very nearly complete around the time she left on her vacation with Shinra. “I was remembering what happened with that building…and not that I wanted to envision it, but I wondered, if I was actually friends with that fleabrain, would it have saved the city a whole lot of grief…?” I think… She was going to type That’s not true but stopped. Yes, considering that some people were victims of Shizuo and Izaya’s fighting, it was tempting to imagine that everyone could have lived peacefully if not for their rivalry. Celty would have been one of them. “Well, that might be true, but it also could’ve been much worse.” “You think so?” “Yes. It wouldn’t mean that Izaya would be a saint, for one thing. If you were friends, he could have just used you and gotten you to ruin all kinds of things.” “Yeah…that makes sense.” Shizuo exhaled, then said to his friend, “This Yahiro guy, while we were locked in our fight, it was like…I dunno…like he was happy. I feel like every time up until then, he was fighting against his will.” “Are there fights that aren’t against your will?” “Dunno. For me, when I was up against those people controlled by that sword, and I could use my strength for real for the first time in my life…I dunno. It was fun,” Shizuo said simply and looked away. He seemed to be embarrassed by what he had said. “I don’t know—I think maybe he felt the same way I did back then… Like, if he’s that strong, he’s gonna have all kinds of people coming up to him. If that fleabrain was still around, he’d definitely have gotten in touch with him.” “I get that.” “So part of it is that he’s from my old school…but it’s best if nobody else goes through what me and that fleabrain did. But also, I can’t just let him get manipulated by someone who’s just like the fleabrain… Of course, he’s his own person, so I shouldn’t get into his business. If anything happens, could you just tell him not to turn out like me? For his own sake?” “You could tell him yourself,” Celty said, but that just brought a furrow to Shizuo’s brow. “You or Shinra or Tom could talk to him. But if I’m the one reaching out to a normal high schooler, he’s gonna end up having to deal with a bunch of other bullshit.” I don’t know…, Celty thought. In that vein, if Yahiro is getting along with the Headless Rider, then I’m inflicting the same thing on him as Shizuo. Speaking of which…if he’ll talk to me, does that mean he doesn’t mind making me deal with a bunch of other bullshit? She wanted to bring that up and rub his face in it but decided that it wasn’t really fair. He was just trying to be considerate of the kid. He’s really relaxed a lot if he’s having thoughts like this, though. But I guess I understand why he’s not on edge anymore, with Izaya out of the picture. Celty welcomed this change in her friend. She got up from the bench and said, “Sorry for interrupting your break time. I should be going.” “You sure? Seems like you’ve got headaches of your own. Anything I can help you with?” “No, I’m fine.” If he was calmer these days, she couldn’t go dragging him back into trouble. Celty was more concerned with her friend’s future. She’d have to look elsewhere for clues to Shiki’s whereabouts… “Miss Headless Rider!” There was a voice calling for her. Shizuo and Celty turned in the direction of the sound and saw a girl. She was out of breath, having run to catch up, and once she could speak again, she put on a dazzling smile. “Finally… I finally found you!” Huh? Wait a moment… Before she could remember the name of the familiar girl, Shizuo said the answer. “Oh, hey, Akane.” Ah, yes, that’s right. Akane. Akane Awakusu. The granddaughter of Dougen Awakusu, the feared leader of the Awakusu-kai. A few years ago, she had come into close contact with Celty and Shizuo in a string of dangerous events. “Sh-Shizuo! Hello,” she said, flustered, bowing to him. Then she turned back to Celty. “I’m so glad you’ve come back!” “Yes, I know I was away on a vacation for quite a while…” “Vacation?” “Yes. We spent half a year traveling all over, from fireworks festivals in Akita down to the Kerama Islands in Okinawa.” She didn’t have much interaction with Akane outside of the incident in question, so why would she be so enthusiastic and delighted about her return to Ikebukuro? But Celty ignored this question and gave her a straightforward answer. Akane looked utterly relieved. In fact, she nearly had tears in her eyes. “I’m glad…I’m so glad that you weren’t the culprit.” “Oh, about that?” “Yes… As a matter of fact, a girl from my school went missing…and she was a huge fan of yours!” What? Celty froze. Shizuo frowned and muttered, “A…fan of Celty’s?” Once she heard the details, a number of things fell into place for Celty. I see now. Yesterday, Yahiro mentioned that a younger kid he knew was searching for her upperclassman… How surprising that she turned out to be Akane. It was a very strange place for a connection like that to pop up. Celty marveled at the twists and turns of fate or perhaps the fact that the world was a smaller place than she realized. Then she remembered that there were more important things at the moment and thumped her chest to set Akane at ease. “Don’t worry. I’m going to make sure that I find your friend and Mr. Shiki.” But to her surprise, Akane immediately looked worried. “Huh?” “Huh?” “What do you mean…and Mr. Shiki?” Oh, shoot! Apparently, Akane didn’t know yet that Shiki had been missing since last night. Shizuo wasn’t aware of the facts, either, but he could tell that Celty had said something she shouldn’t have. He gave her a very painful glance that said, What are you doing? “No, it’s not like that. I made a typo. I was trying to say, I’ll find your friend with Mr. Shiki. Stupid typo.” “You’re lying, aren’t you?” Her attempt at a quick cover-up was woefully unconvincing. “…I’m sorry. I thought you knew already.” After that, Akane insisted that she wanted to search for the real kidnapper, too, but Celty managed to talk her out of it and learned everything she could offer in terms of information. What really worried her was what she said next. “Miss Tatsugami said…you were like a god to her.” “A god.” “I’m not exaggerating… She said you would change her world…and that if she could be like you, she would be happy to die…” “This girl has some violent ideas.” Then again, there was that other girl who got plastic surgery to look like me, Celty recalled, thinking of the girl who was supposedly now living in America. Mr. Shiki said something about a person who disappeared while searching for me. It feels weird to hear the word fan, but when I hear someone treats me like a god, I just feel sorry for them. I’m not that special. “Anyway,” Celty typed, “leave the rest up to people like me and Mr. Akabayashi. Please don’t do anything dangerous, Akane.” Celty would feel horrible if something bad happened to Akane for associating with her, plus she didn’t know how the Awakusu-kai might react to that. So she made sure to stress that Akane was not to go off looking for the culprit alone. “But that’s what Mr. Shiki said, too…” “It’s all right! Just trust me! I know I was gone for half a year, but I came back, didn’t I?” Celty insisted, trying to force the discussion to a close. Her vehemence won out, and Akane reluctantly accepted her argument. “Just sit tight and wait. I’ll bring back your friend from school and Mr. Shiki too,” Celty typed, making the font larger. Shizuo added, “Hey, I’ll help, too. Is there anything I can do?” “If it turns into something bigger and messier than I can handle, I’ll ask you for help. Until then…you could ask and see if Tom or whoever knows anything about this.” “Sure thing. Call me whenever. I’ll skip work to help out,” Shizuo said with a reassuring chuckle. As she left, Celty thought, If it’s something that I need Shizuo’s help to solve, it’s going to have to be a whole pack of vampires or something… If Shizuo went straight into rage mode, he could wipe out just about any criminal element. But in this case, there were victims to rescue. If he got violent, it could spell danger for the hostages, and freeing them was the top priority here. Celty got onto the black motorcycle she kept parked at the entrance to the park. It was all she could do to pray that the kidnapped people were still alive enough to count as hostages. Just then, she felt an unpleasant sensation on her spine and spun around. She saw Akane and Shizuo looking her way and waving, so in the process of turning, she used her unearthly sense of vision to peer all over the park. What is it? I could swear I sensed someone watching. Something different than the usual curious stare… Then she reached the possibility that it could have been the traffic cop, felt her skin crawl, and decided to leave. The very person who was gazing at the Headless Rider waited for the motorcycle to vanish before murmuring, “Shizuo Heiwajima is fine. But not the girl.” She was in a car parked next to West Gate Park, watching Shizuo and Akane through narrowed eyes. “She’s got to go,” the woman said. Her voice took on an unfathomable longing similar to love. “She’s too involved. The Great One is going to make her disappear.” There was nothing but hatred and pity for Akane Awakusu in her eyes. The smile plastered on her face was like that of a broken puppet whose soul had left its body. “That’s simply her fate.” Basement garage of Shinra’s apartment building—evening “Here we are again, one day later.” Celty Sturluson had raced all over town collecting information and returned to the basement parking lot. When she got off her motorcycle, she was greeted by the young man she’d met for the first time just last night. …?! …Oh, it’s Libei Ying. She was relieved that it was someone she actually knew—if only since last night, when they traded information—but then realized something alarming and whipped out her smartphone. “How did you know I’d be here?! I gave you my e-mail address, not my address-address!” “What can I say? Once a scoundrel, always a scoundrel… You don’t need to worry, though. I’m not going to turn you over to the cops or the media.” Libei grinned innocently. Celty thought his response over and noticed something. “Oh, right… The Dragon Zombies were aligned with Izaya for a while. You must have heard from him back then, right?” “Well, I’ve never met the info broker named Izaya Orihara in person. When I was hospitalized, some of my friends used his services. But how can I thank him for that now, when I don’t know if he’s alive or dead?” “Good question. He’s just proved that he can be a royal pain in the ass to me, alive or dead,” Celty said with a shrug. Libei repeated the gesture. “Heroes and villains are labels created by others. In the last six months, while your life or death could not be ascertained, they turned you into a villain, didn’t they?” “You didn’t come here just to trade barbs with me, did you?” “No, and I thank you for being right to the point. Something happened with the Awakusu-kai, didn’t it?” “What are you talking about?” Celty asked him carefully, considering that he might be bluffing to lure info out of her. “The guys in Jan-Jaka-Jan were bein’ a real pain in the ass about it this morning. Apparently, they suspect us of something?” Jan-Jaka-Jan was a rival gang to Dragon Zombie, and they enjoyed the protection and affiliation of the Awakusu-kai. They had to be, assuming that only a group with considerable power would dare do something as brazen as abducting a lieutenant of the Awakusu-kai. But it was hard to imagine Dragon Zombie going above their rival motorcycle gang to mess with their yakuza backers instead. In that sense, Celty had tentatively removed Libei from her list of suspects. “We don’t want to be under suspicion, you understand. So I’m willing to put my full resources into helping you.” “What? Are you going to tell me who the busiest street gangs are nowadays?” If some kind of criminal enterprise was behind this, and they captured Shiki, knowing that he was a principal member of the Awakusu-kai, that would mean they had the strength to act with hostility toward the yakuza. So Celty asked that question, assuming there could be some other yakuza syndicate involved. But Libei just shook his head. “Just the opposite. There are people—and groups—who completely vanished from Ikebukuro altogether.” Celty considered this skeptically and typed, “You’re not saying…Izaya Orihara is controlling things from the shadows, are you?” “No, no, I’m not saying that. It’s just that you can’t eliminate the possibility. At the very least, I’m talking about a group Izaya Orihara was involved with. Both of them, actually.” “…Both?” “That’s right. There are two of them. I’d guess you already know them, don’t you?” Libei said, twirling around like a tease. He leaned back against a pillar and said, “I’m talking about Amphisbaena, the underground gambling group, and Heaven’s Slave, the drug dealers.” “Oh… That’s right, they’re…” Celty had heard those names before. They were groups that Izaya Orihara destroyed. She only learned the details long after it happened, but when Izaya was eliminating them both together, he had utilized her to run an errand for him. “They didn’t just vanish. They were eliminated.” “But the roots are still alive.” “Is that a fact?” “Yes, it is. The central person in each group is still alive and around. Izaya Orihara was the one holding the reins for them, but now he’s gone, isn’t he? So each group temporarily became active again.” Libei was talking easily and casually, but there was no denying a bit of an edge lurking beneath his voice. Celty took that to mean these groups were hostile to the Dragon Zombies when they were around. “And you’re saying they vanished recently? They weren’t just crushed by the Awakusu-kai?” “In that case, I would at least have heard a whiff of a rumor about it. But they’re simply gone, like smoke evaporating into the air… Like they sank from the underworld of the city to somewhere even lower.” “Do they really have something to do with this?” He was making it sound eerie, but that alone didn’t mean they were involved in the abductions. For one thing, just because Izaya was using her to run errands when he destroyed the groups didn’t mean they should bear some misguided grudge against Celty. Then again, Izaya’s gone, so maybe they think I was his ally, and they have no one else to turn their hatred upon. Still, that’s not enough of a case to pin the label of “true culprit” on them. She typed, “Do you have any more evidence?” “You’re sharp. I can’t hide anything from you,” he teased, shrugging. Then Libei wiped the smile off his face and continued in dead earnest. “About half a year ago, he made contact with us. Wanted us to do a job for him and swore the money had no strings attached. It was a sketchy story and would’ve antagonized the Awakusu-kai for no good reason, so we turned it down…but then he said something.” Libei paused and stared Celty right in the face. “…How much can you really trust the Headless Rider?” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “Just what it sounds like. He was asking if we believed you were some inhuman creature beyond the bounds of human reason. Kept asking, real persistent. I swear it was turning him on or something.” “And who was this guy you’re talking about?” Celty prompted. Libei answered, “The kanji in his name mean ‘four hundred thousand’…but you read them ‘Shijima.’ You know him?” “…Never heard the name,” she typed. But just after she showed him, she had a sudden start and retyped her message. “No, wait. Shijima, Shijima… Yes, that’s him.” The image that came to Celty’s memory was of a young man she observed working as an assistant of sorts to a man named Nasujima a year and a half ago. He’d seemed like a nondescript, frightened boy at the time, but she remembered that he had that strange last name. “A little while after I turned him down, he vanished from the city. From what I understand, he was going around asking about you quite a lot,” Libei said. He smiled again and continued gleefully, “Then someone started a rumor—a rumor that the Headless Rider made him vanish.” “You don’t think…” “Yep. The very first person to disappear and launch the rumor that he was kidnapped by the Headless Rider. But at that point, it was pretty much only a thing among folks like us. Then, a little while later, the people searching around for the Headless Rider started disappearing. First, it was one. Then two within a month. Five in three months, fifteen in half a year… The pace is increasing.” “I see… So it’s worth looking into him.” Celty felt emboldened by this valuable piece of information. She told the unexpected visitor, “Thank you. This might be the breakthrough I need. I’ll let the others know.” “What others, exactly? Like Yahiro Mizuchi?” “Yeah… I mean, I promised I would tell him if I learned anything.” “It’s probably better if you don’t involve him in this,” Libei said, a rare admonishment. Celty typed, “Well, I agree it’s better not to drag children into trouble, but I think it would be a good idea just to reassure him that I’ve got a good clue. If I don’t tell him the actual name, he can’t go searching, right?” “Ahhh, I see. But what I meant was that if you let him know more about this, he’s going to get attached to you.” “Attached…?” “See, we’re trying to get him in with us. Ever since the previous head of the group rose to that position, we’ve been recruiting Japanese people to join the gang, rather than keeping it limited to the Taiwanese.” The effeminate young man smirked. Celty couldn’t tell how serious he was being and recalled what Shizuo said during the day. “Are there different groups trying to recruit him now?” “Oh, sure. It’s been all the talk of Ikebukuro the last few days, along with your return. Though I think very few of the gangs have actually learned Yahiro’s name so far.” “I understand that he’s a powerful fighter…but what specifically do you see in him?” Celty inquired. Libei grinned gleefully and looked away, “Well, he’s a true, authentic monster. I haven’t shivered like that in ages.” “Monster, huh?” snorted Celty. Libei understood exactly what she meant. “Your body might be monstrous. But your heart is more human than human. That’s how we can have a friendly conversation like this. But that boy? He might be much less human than you are.” He felt an unpleasant, sticky sweat break out on his back, recalling their fight the evening before. “I think it’s a normal reaction to get more aggressive because you’re scared,” he said, to cover up his own fear, “but in his case, that reaction has absolutely no hesitation to it whatsoever. He wields that fear like a weapon, the way that others use anger or hatred. You’ve seen that in manga, right? When someone falls into peril, and instantly their true power manifests and blows the enemy away…” “Yes, I’m familiar.” “It’s like he can unlock that part of his brain with just the smallest touch of fear,” Libei said. Wryly, he added, “If I hadn’t actually seen Shizuo Heiwajima or the Headless Rider for myself, I would never think of allying myself with you. I’d want to eliminate you as quickly as possible…you see?” “You’re being too honest for your own good.” “Oops, sorry, sorry. But hey, once he actually met you and Shizuo, maybe he felt relieved. Did you notice that? Last night he was wary of you, but all things considered, he actually seemed pretty happy, didn’t he?” “I bet that where he used to live, without Shizuo or you around, he must’ve had a really hard time.” Outside of Himeka’s house—Ikebukuro The first thing she noticed when she tried to open the door was that it wouldn’t open. Locked doors were normal, perhaps, but Himeka wasn’t carrying a spare key. Or to be more specific, she wasn’t allowed to carry a spare. The lights were on inside, but there was no response when she rang the doorbell. It’s happened again. The interval’s getting shorter, she thought without external signs of concern. Her mother was probably in a state again inside—she’d been going into these spasmodic episodes periodically ever since Himeka was a very young child. It was either some illness of the mind, or an act she’d been carrying on with, or some kind of ritual. She would simply shut out all external stimuli, without warning, and speak directly into the wall. It was like the world she consciously recognized existed only within her shadow on the wall. Anything she had to say to Himeka, or her sisters, or their father, or anyone else who lived in the neighborhood, had to be spoken directly to her own shadow. While she was doing this, she reacted to virtually nothing anyone said to her. And if she did, she would still say her answer to the shadow. You might think she was having some kind of wonderful dream within that shadow, but to listen to the solitary “conversation,” it did not sound all that wonderful. Himeka envisioned her mother pressing her forehead against the wall, gently grating her own skin, having a conversation with some unseen person. She set down her bag. For the second time today, she removed a special metal tool that looked like a hairpin. It was tempting to think of it as a locksmith’s pick, but this was quite different from the professional thing. Of course, there was no way she could come into possession of real lockpicking tools. Most regular people weren’t even allowed to own those lockpicks, unless they were a locksmith with a proper license. Selling them to anyone who didn’t possess that qualification was a crime. She couldn’t have locksmith credentials at her age, which would make this action illegal—but there were exceptions if you had a valid reason. She didn’t know if “opening your own door because you regularly got locked out” counted as a valid reason, but to Himeka, it was. Today, for the very first time, she picked the lock of another person’s door. Including today, she had only used her tools and expertise twice on any lock other than her own. The first time was to save a classmate in middle school who was locked in the school storage room as a prank. If that counted as a crime, so be it. Opening the door today was out of concern for Kuon, thinking the culprit might still be inside. That probably wouldn’t qualify as an excuse, though. When she lied to Kuon’s sister Nozomi, right to her face, then how was she really any different from a burglar? Himeka figured that there wasn’t a meaningful distinction there. In fact, given that she felt absolutely no guilt about doing it, she might be even worse than a burglar. This thought and more ran through her mind as she stuck her lockpicking tool into the front door of her home. On the way home after talking with Kuon’s sister, she assumed that Yahiro was creeped out and disgusted after witnessing her lockpicking in action. She didn’t mind; she’d earned that reaction. If he suspected her of being a regular burglar or started rumors about her, she’d earned that, too. But Yahiro wasn’t creeped out. Instead, he brought up the topic right away in the elevator. “I was amazed at how quickly you opened that door. Who taught you how to do that?” “Someone three years older than me when I was in elementary school. They lived in the neighborhood,” Himeka said, startled at the question, though she had no reason to hide any of it. “I don’t know how they knew how to do it, but they taught me after seeing how often I got locked out of the house.” “Locked out of the house?” “It’s a family thing. We didn’t get to carry spare keys around, but the door was quite often locked when we got home.” “Wow. That sounds tough,” said Yahiro. He went on to explain that his home was a hot springs inn that was open year-round with people coming and going all the time, so someone was always there, and he never really had to think about keys and locks. Maybe he simply accepted her story at face value, thinking that it was common for people who lived in the big city. She said nothing to that, so Yahiro followed with “Thanks for today.” “Huh?” “If you weren’t with me, I wouldn’t have been able to meet Kuon’s sister.” “…” She wasn’t going to say anything to that, either, but decided better of it. She sighed and summed him up in one short statement. “You really are a little strange, Mizuchi.” “I am?” “Normally, when you see someone doing what I did, you’d think they were a burglar, wouldn’t you?” Yahiro admitted, “Oh yeah. The reason I was startled earlier is because I thought it was what a burglar would do.” He sounded very confident in his answer, as though trying to reinforce that he was normal. “Then you must be disgusted with me, right?” “Do you rob houses?” “No.” “Then there’s no reason for me to hate you.” It felt like Kuon would say something like, “What kind of blunt conversation is this?!” if he was present. But Yahiro just reminisced on his past and said, “Oh, and the burglar I know just smashed the lock open with a hammer. When I saw it and yelled at him, he came running to hit me with the hammer next. So that was way more shocking than when I saw you do it.” “I wonder if I was supposed to laugh at that…” She couldn’t tell if he had been serious or joking, but either way, it was clear he had been doing his best to cheer her up. So she felt a bit bad that she’d reacted with her usual flat mask. She cleared the door lock to her home at last. “I’m home,” she said on pure reflex when she saw the figure inside, assuming it was her mother. But… “…? …!” She realized someone else was there. Then she sensed multiple figures just outside, behind the door she’d just passed through. Before she could say a word, she was grabbed and immobilized from behind. “Whoa…whoa, whoa, whoa! What the hell’s goin’ on over there?!” On a lot a short distance away from Himeka’s house, a number of people had snuck into the yard to watch Himeka, and the event currently unfolding left them stunned. Out of nowhere, several men rushed up to the doorway of Himeka’s house, then grabbed her and started to drag her out to a van waiting just outside. “Wh-what should we do, Mr. Horada?” “Do? I mean…what? What’s going on?!” Horada was in a state of utter confusion. He and his followers were on a quest to recruit the kid who could fight against Shizuo, and they were using their younger members to do a little research on the boy. His name was Yahiro Mizuchi, and he was from Akita. Since the first day of school, he’d been hanging out with the green-haired boy, Kuon Kotonami, and he was friends with another student named Himeka Tatsugami. Horada decided to put his plan into motion by starting with the girl. “Did someone else have the same idea as us and kidnap her first?” wondered Horada, who had a mind for wicked ideas. He’d considered taking her hostage and forcing Yahiro to do what he said. But considering that the plan was for a much longer relationship, he decided that rather than using the quickest possible method, he should try to make the boy owe him a favor and pull him in that way. They had followed Himeka back to her house so that they knew where it was and were just discussing what to do next when the event unfolded before their eyes. “What should we do? Save her?” “N-nah, those guys look pretty burly…” “But I thought you said you kidnapped the Yellow Scarves’ leader’s girl once.” “Kidnapping and saving are different things, dumbass!” Horada snapped shamefully. He tried to get his panicked mind to focus. “Dammit, what now? If those guys are Awakusu-kai, we can’t mess with them, definitely not…” “What if we go to the cops and explain that we just happened to see it?” “The cops…? I don’t want the cops.” Horada grunted, remembering the face of the traffic cop who arrested him. The memory sent a chill through his body. “Ahhh, shit! Think, think, think! C’mon!” At last, he decided on a method of prolonging the decision. “Hey, you! Get your motorcycle and follow that car,” he ordered. One of the younger guys helping him trail Himeka came here on a motorcycle, Horada remembered, so he ordered him to go around to the backstreet where it was parked and follow the van. “Huh? I-I’ve never followed a car before!” “If you can follow a person, you can follow a car! Just do it!” “Y-yes, sir!” The younger guy rushed off for his bike, giving Horada a moment to think. There we go. If we follow them and find out that they look weak, then we’ll roll in and take ’em out and save the girl, so he’ll owe me one. And if they’re the Awakusu-kai…then I can pretend I didn’t see anything, he decided smoothly. But just then, he saw a shadow burst out of the doorway of Himeka’s house. “What the—?” Horada squinted at the figure, who was ordering the men around and heading back to the van. “A woman…?”