Durarara!! SH - Volume 4 - Chapter 2.5

INTERMISSION

Dirty Private Business (2)

Saitama Prefecture, night

A lot’s happened in one day, but I’ve still got a job to do, Celty thought.

She never managed to see Anri face-to-face during the day.

After the high schoolers had left, Akabayashi was going to visit the shop next, and Celty figured it would be uncomfortable if she were there, too, and thus decided to try again another day.

For now, she just sent a text message: “I heard about what happened—please tell me if there’s anything I can do to help,” and after considering the cursed hammer Kujiragi mentioned, she added, “By the way, I heard from Shinra’s dad that the shop once held a strange hammer. Would you still have that?”

She knew that mentioning Kujiragi had slipped it into the storehouse without permission would only lead to confusion and chaos, so she decided that Shingen would work as a reasonable source.

What am I doing, covering for Kujiragi…? she wondered self-deprecatingly. Celty stopped Shooter at the side of the road and set foot into a bar where young people liked to gather.

“Welco… Huh…?”

The mouth of the employee near the entrance dropped open when he saw Celty.

“Pardon me—I’m just looking for someone. I won’t be here long…”

She pulled a wallet made of shadow out of somewhere, then extracted a few thousand-yen bills and put them in the employee’s hand.

“If entrance is only allowed to paying customers, use this to buy a few drinks for the folks at the counter.”

“Huh? Uh, but…”

She walked past the baffled man and into the back part of the bar. Just as Akabayashi’s recent message claimed, this place was clearly the hangout spot for local delinquents—and this was the neighborhood where the Natsugawara family lived.

The kids in the bar fell silent at once, noticing Celty’s pitch-black appearance, which only made her stand out. After a moment’s pause, there was an uncomfortable murmur of unease and mockery.

A couple of the bolder youths decided to surround her.

“Hey, since when was the circus in town?”

“What’s with the getup? Is this a joke? Do I get to hit you if it’s not very funny?”

“Ororororo? Porororo?”

What the hell does ‘orororo porororo’ mean? What is it about tough guys like these that they love to make up their own words…?

Celty decided to narrow down her reply to the first person to speak.

“First of all, that’s rude to people who work at circuses. And I’m only here in search of someone.”

She started to pull the photo out, but the young man snarled with irritation. “Why should I care about that? And like, for real, when you talk to someone, you should look them in the eyes. Isn’t that just polite manners?” he said, smacking Celty’s helmet.

It fell off her neck and clattered on the ground.

“…”

“…”

“…?”

The silence was far heavier than before. Time stood still within the bar.

Only Celty was unaffected by the moment. She scooped the helmet up off the floor.

Naturally, there had been no head underneath.

Right on cue as she popped the helmet back on her neck, the air began to circulate through the room again—and a wave of restrained emotion burst free.

“H…Headless—Headless Rider…”

“Not cosplay! It’s the real thing!”

“I remember! The TV station said they’ll pay big-time if you can drag her in!”

When did that happen? she wondered but didn’t spend any effort trying to deny it.

“Get herrrr!”

And even though she hadn’t done a thing to any of them, the thugs made to attack her all at once.

Good grief.

She was used to brawls like this after years of being here, and she’d found that there was one way to get people like them to hear her out, and quickly.

You had to strike fear into them and break their spirit.

Ten minutes later, Celty had strung up the punks with her shadow, trapping them in a shadowy spider’s web. She had left the ordinary customers and workers out of the attack, and the only thing she left behind was a message for the man who seemed to be in charge: “They’re fine—nothing’s broken. The black stuff will undo itself and go away after I’ve left.”

Ugh… If I keep doing things like this, I’m only going to be seen as less and less like everyone else…

I’m dirty. I run a dirty private business. I honestly have no right to criticize Shinra for his black market medical work…

The whole point of restarting her job was to eliminate any possible disconnect from society, so she knew that this was running counter to her aims. Celty refocused on her goal, determined to fulfill the job requirements.

I got more information than I expected, though.

There were a few broad conclusions she learned.

Yukihiko Natsugawara was no longer visiting this bar anymore.

Just before he stopped showing up, some drug dealers were attempting to make contact with him.

And after he disappeared, there were other people looking for him, not the same as the usual delinquents.

Investigators hired by the Natsugawara family perhaps? she wondered about the last point. She asked more about the second point—and learned that the drug dealers were distributing a dangerous drug by the name of Heaven’s Slave.

She knew exactly what kind of effects that drug had, due to the recent incident with the Headless Rider worshippers.

Go figure that this would tie back to what Mr. Akabayashi said.

Hiroto Shijima…

What are you thinking, making enemies of everyone around?