Chapter 34

EPILOGUE B Or the Next Prologue: The Avenger “Did you catch Shijima’s trail?” Shiki asked his subordinate. Five days had passed since the end of the incident. But just like on the previous days, the answer to that question was not a positive one. “No, nothing…” The Awakusu-kai had confirmed that Shijima was the one who set up the Church of the Headless Rider. They’d learned as much from the testimony of the true believers who had been hospitalized and had come back to their senses. “And it doesn’t sound like he sensed us coming and ran off, either.” Not everyone they found at that mansion was deeply devoted to the Headless Rider, taking drugs to escape reality. Some of them were Shijima’s old friends, lured with money and drugs to serve as temporary bodyguards. The basement guard who Shiki had attacked was one of them. But none of those people knew where Shijima had gone. So it was true that Shijima started the group, but it seemed the believers had taken over and built it up from there. After a while, he no longer had any contact with them. The only thing that passed from him to them was money and Heaven’s Slave. The Awakusu-kai tried to threaten his grandfather, the head of the Shijima Group, and his executive father, but they said their son had been missing for over a year. What could that petty criminal be plotting now? It was slightly eerie. “Good grief… I thought I’d have less to worry about with that info broker out of the picture,” Shiki muttered as he stared out the window of the agency. “I suppose it’s just the nature of this job that every time one problem disappears, another appears to take its place…” Tokyo—office interior A small rental office was located inside a larger office building. On the floor above was a group conducting phone scams. Anyone listening could hear all kinds of strange conversations coming through the ceiling. In this space, however, there was just a single chair upon which a man sat. Bandages were wrapped around the upper half of his head, leaving only a small crack through which his eyes stared at nothing in particular. A woman’s willowy hand clung to his shoulders. There were many, many scars on her fingers, which traced his neck seductively. “So Izaya Orihara…did not involve himself in this case,” she said. “That’s true.” “What do you think? Is he really dead?” “I don’t care either way. As long as I can avenge myself, that’s all that matters. Izaya Orihara is secondary.” The woman seemed surprised by this. “Oh…? I thought that you were looking for revenge against Izaya Orihara. I guess I was wrong.” “What about you, Earthworm?” asked Shijima, his voice cold. The woman he called Earthworm put a finger to her lips and hummed. “Hmm… I don’t know. But I did hate him, so I suppose if I have the chance to kill him, I’ll consider myself lucky.” She giggled to herself, but it was difficult to tell whether she was actually joking about that. She laid her cheek against Shijima’s head and asked, “If you don’t care about Izaya Orihara, who do you want revenge against? The Headless Rider? Shizuo Heiwajima? Akabayashi from the Awakusu-kai?” Shijima’s voice was flat. “The city.” There was a quiet madness in his eyes. Anyone who knew him in years past would have asked the same question: Is this really Shijima? The changed man fixed his gaze on empty space, envisioning the sight beyond it, declaring his intentions. “I’ve decided to get revenge on the city of Ikebukuro.” “Well, that’s quite the task. And what do you plan to do?” “Nothing.” There was no emotion on Shijima’s face. He merely spoke into nothingness, paying no attention to Earthworm and her voluptuous body. “The seeds of atrocity litter the ground throughout the city. But most of them die out before they ever sprout.” “I’m simply going to give them a little bit of water…and fertilizer to help them grow.” As he said, even now, after the winds of the Dollars and Izaya Orihara had passed, the seeds brought in had remained in the city. Would they bloom into good or evil? No one could say the answer at this point. And thus, with the madness of this disgruntled avenger contained within it, the city began to weave a new story. As it ever would, so long as people existed there.