Durarara!!, Vol. 2 (novel) (23 page)

Meanwhile, Haruna’s face had gone stone-still. Her expression vanished entirely, her red eyes narrowed, and her grip on the knife tightened.

“Oh…? I see.”

Something charged was in the air now, but Anri did not take her eyes off of Haruna. Just moments ago, she was intimidated by the other girl, but now there was no hesitation in her actions.

But that didn’t matter to Haruna. All she felt was a desire to kill the girl who stood in her way and insulted her beloved Takashi Nasujima.

“Die, then,” she mumbled and thrust out the knife for Anri’s throat.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

It was nearly after midnight. Who would be ringing her doorbell at this time of night? Haruna set her own issues aside for a moment to marvel at this odd occurrence.

“Is it one of your little friends?” she wondered.

Anri had no idea. Could Celty have come back?

“Well, whatever. I’ll start by stabbing your friend before your eyes—and then take my time finishing you off afterward.”

The smile was back on Haruna’s face as she crossed the room to the door and pulled it open.

Time stopped as Haruna and the visitor came face-to-face.

“Nie…kawa?”

“Takashi!”

Anri looked out the door from across the room and saw with surprise that it was Nasujima.

What is he doing here?

In a way, his appearance was even more shocking than Haruna’s, but that didn’t matter at this point. Anri decided to stand back and watch what unfolded.

“Ohhh…ahh! Takashi…Takashi, Takashi, Takashi!” Haruna chanted, her features overcome with emotion and tears.

Nasujima’s reaction meanwhile…

“Aheaaaa!”

He let out a garbled shriek, turned ninety degrees, and raced down the hallway of the apartment building. He had run away at the first sight of Haruna’s face.

Huh?

Anri was certainly confused about his appearance at her apartment and didn’t want to consider what he had planned, but this sight filled her with a different question.

Why did he run away? Weren’t they supposed to be a couple?
She thought that Mr. Nasujima had forced the girl into it, but now it didn’t seem that way…
So why did he run away?

“Wait, Takashi!”

Haruna started to rush out the door after Nasujima, but she immediately changed her mind and held back for a moment to warn Anri, “I was hoping to take care of you on my own…but it seems I don’t have time to deal with you anymore. So I’ll have everyone else kill you instead.”

“Everyone?” Anri repeated, unsure of what Haruna meant. A moment later, that clarity came to her in full.

“Actually, Saika wanted to get everyone involved to help love Shizuo…but I’m glad I convinced her to let me bring a few here.”

Anri realized that several men were now milling around outside the door. They all carried their own blades—X-Acto knives, kitchen knives, cleavers.

All of their eyes were red.

“These are Saika’s children,” Haruna announced, then raced off into the night after Nasujima.

All that was left in the now-silent room was Anri and a number of slashers with weapons held at the ready.

She backed away into the room as the men advanced, blades held high, ready to begin the slaughter.

South Ikebukuro Park

In the back of Celty’s brain—wherever that brain physically existed—the words that Shinra uttered after seeing the chat log for himself played back.

“…If you want me to analyze this situation, there’s one thing I can speculate.

“Lots of human beings desire signs and symbols of love when they’re in a romance. The so-called fruits of love.

“Once two people love each other, they desire something they both love together. The classic example of that would be children.

“That’s right… Saika’s giving birth. She’s leaving a child in the souls of the humans she slices.

“Saika really does love people, it’s true.

“She seeks a perfect fusion with man…with humanity.”

There was no way for it to be true, but this case had involved a succession of no ways happening one after the other. In a way, her own existence was another thing too bizarre to be true, so she had no right to complain.

Celty focused on her surroundings. She’d arrived at South Ikebukuro Park with Shizuo in tow. Once the bike was parked in the middle of the park, she looked around—and muttered to herself.

No way.

She’d thought the park was empty at first. Normally there was at least
someone
out there, even in the middle of the night, but there was no one to be seen at the moment.

Yet the instant that Celty and Shizuo entered the park, silhouettes began to gather in the corners of the area, seemingly out of nowhere.

Like germs, as the overall number rose, so did the rate of their multiplication. This pyramid scheme continued for about thirty seconds. Celty and Shizuo were completely surrounded by humans.

This is way more than fifty people,
she noticed.

There was quite a variety to the crowd surrounding them: salarymen, street punks, young children, housewives, college students…

There were a number equipped with yellow bandannas, as well as several who looked like Dollars members.

Given the uneven collection of people, Celty and Shizuo immediately thought of the impromptu meeting of the Dollars that happened one year earlier. There were two key differences here.

For one, the Dollars probably had greater numbers.

The other difference was that all of these people had their own blades and their eyes were as red as blood, without exception.

The blades they held were as varied as the people: knives, scissors, extendable branch pruners, even chain saws.

They had to be the victims of the string of slashing attacks.

No wonder they’d never caught the slasher. Some of the people even had hospital gowns, as though they’d just escaped in the middle of the night.

All the victims were possessed by Saika and falsified their testimony…

As Celty pondered what to do next, one of the hundred or so people surrounding them, a teenage girl wearing a Raira Academy uniform, walked up to act as spokesperson.

“I’ve been hoping to meet you, Shizuo Heiwajima.”

Though Celty and Shizuo wouldn’t have known this, she was one of Anri’s bullies, the one who was attacked before the girl’s eyes. Her statement passed straight through Celty to Shizuo, who was still sitting on the back of the motorcycle.

“You’re so wonderful… I was watching from a distance when you beat my sister…”

Watching from where?
Celty wondered. Then again, with this many of them, it wouldn’t have been that strange for
one
to have witnessed the attack. But did that mean they didn’t actually share consciousness among all of them?

“So I told my other sisters and
Mother
about your incredible strength… The Internet’s so convenient, isn’t it? In the past, it was so hard for us Saikas to share our minds. But now, all you need is a single e-mail,” the teenage slasher explained, revealing their nature. It was a revelation that she likely made freely, knowing that Celty and Shizuo would be powerless to do anything about it.

“At first, it was very difficult for our consciousness to understand words…but now we each have a will just as strong as Mother’s.”

With each word, the circle of people closed in. They were close enough now that they could all leap in at once and engulf the two, if they wanted.

“Shizuo, we want to know more and more about your strength. We want to see more of it. This time, in front of the group. Then, I’m sure we can love you even more than we do now…”

The enraptured girl—no, it was Saika possessing the mind of a girl—inched closer to Shizuo, waving around her butterfly knife.

Celty finally felt like she had a good understanding of the enemy.

I see… When the victim gets slashed, a new Saika is born within her that takes over her body. Then, she grabs whatever blade is on hand, and that blade becomes the means by which a new body is born.

The reason nothing happened to Shinra when he touched the knife was that the knife itself wasn’t cursed. Perhaps Saika wasn’t a monster or spirit at all, but a kind of hypnotism. By cutting another person, that fear became a medium through which to plant itself into another person’s heart. The seed then took root, just as it did in the attacker, multiplying endlessly. Perhaps that was how it worked.

So did that make Saika a life-form?

The question passed through Celty’s mind, but she didn’t have the time to spend considering that thought. She was too busy producing the black scythe from her hands and wondering how to incapacitate Saika’s victims without killing any of them.

The girl with the butterfly knife professed her love for Shizuo, mouth twisted. “Now! Shall we make love? We’ll keep loving you, no matter where, no matter how, even when you’re too tired to move! We’ll love you without end! And except for that monster over there, no one is allowed to interfere. Our sisters are making more and more sisters so we can keep loving the people of this city! The police will be too busy to stop us!”

The other Saikas followed the girl’s lead in cackling with delighted laughter.

Celty was plenty creeped out, but she was also honestly concerned for Shizuo’s safety now as well.

Yet the man behind her was not particularly angry or afraid in any way. He got off the bike and stood before the throng, his face a mask.

“Can I ask you one thing?”

“What is it?”

“Why exactly…do you people like me?”

Celty nearly fell off the motorcycle with the shock of his out-of-place question.

Get a hint! Are you seriously asking that now?!

But she had no time for arguing at the moment. Meanwhile, the Saika spokeswoman at the front felt confident enough to indulge his question.

“Because you’re strong.”

“…”

“That preposterous strength…not derived from power or money, but the absolute extreme of human possibility, the most instinctual and violent strength possible. That’s what we want. Plus…what human being wouldn’t want to fall in love with a wild man like you? You’re scary. But we think we’re enough to love you.”

She broke out of her pose and started to explain their philosophy to Shizuo.

“We love all of humanity. But just loving isn’t enough for us anymore. Just creating more children with humanity isn’t enough for us anymore. If loving and loving and loving isn’t enough, we want to rule all of humanity. And to do that, we need excellent offspring. Powerful specimens like you, for example. Don’t humans try to leave behind the best possible genes for the future?”

She sounds like a certain dictator,
Celty marveled. She checked on Shizuo, figuring that such a selfish and nonsensical speech would have him exploding with rage.

“Ha-ha…”

He’s laughing?!

“Ha-ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.”

It wasn’t the laughter of someone trying to hide his anger. It was simply pleasant, delighted laughter.

“Settle down, Shizuo. If it starts to look bad, I’ll do my best to make sure you escape.”

Was the fact that they were surrounded by a hundred assailants making him loopy? She waited for him to react. Eventually he stopped laughing and gave his response to the Saikas’ confession of love.

“Nah, Celty… To be honest, I’m actually happy.”

“Huh…?” This reaction was not what Saika expected, either. The people in the crowd gave one another confused looks.

“I’ve always despised this strength I was given. I thought no one would ever accept me for what I am,” Shizuo stated. There was a variety of emotions in his voice as he spoke of his past.

“The thing is…now I don’t have to worry anymore. Look at how many people love me. One, two…well, let’s just say ‘a lot.’ So…it’s
all fine
now,” he said, grinding his teeth with pleasure.

“I mean, I can accept who I am now, right?” he said, clenching his fists with enjoyment.

“I can like myself for what I am, right?” he said, his eyes wide with bliss as he tucked his sunglasses into his pocket.

“This power I’ve tried and tried and tried to get rid of, because I hated it so, so, so much… But now it’s okay for me to accept it, right? It’s okay for me to use it, right?

“I can—I can finally use my full power, right?”

And in the next instant, for the first time in his life, Shizuo Heiwajima willingly used all of his power. Not in the grips of rage, like always…

But out of joy that
something
loved his power.

What he said next plunged the Saikas into despair.

“Oh, just for the record…people like y’all are not, at all, even the slightest, my type of partner.

“The one thing I can say for you…is that I only hate you second most after Izaya.”