Strangelove
AI Researcher
- AKA
- hitoshura
Have any of the novels been done yet, then?Torrents?
YES PLEASE watch this show. If you have the time translate the novels for us too.
i need directions to good torrents
Durarara!!
- Thread starter crack
- Start date
i need directions to good torrents
Super Mario
IT'S A ME!
- AKA
- Jesse McCree. I feel like a New Man
Nein, Reptile. Only the first volume's 4-5 chapters. Other than that, we're blind.
Strangelove
AI Researcher
- AKA
- hitoshura
I wouldn't mind trying it then. I liked doing fiction for a change, if I ever get around to reading it
Super Mario
IT'S A ME!
- AKA
- Jesse McCree. I feel like a New Man
You are a god among translators, sir.
crack
Donator
You can get great torrents at http://thelifestream.net/forums/showpost.php?p=228109&postcount=6]here. I'll get around to episodes eighteen and twenty-two soon,Have any of the novels been done yet, then?
i need directions to good torrents
If you don't want to bother downloading them, I can provide RAW links.No, the novels haven't been done yet. But if you translated them you would be a god among us all. Not that you already aren't.
Hopefully the Korean version will extend its volumes, so I'll probably try some translating some stuff myself.
I did.
It was a good episode imo, though in the end I was like WTF?WTF???when Shizuo got shot and I love Shizuo
I love me some Shizuo too, 
I was shocked when he was shot. I wish they had played that scene a bit longer.
I was shocked when he was shot. I wish they had played that scene a bit longer.
Strangelove
AI Researcher
- AKA
- hitoshura
I found one, but it's got Hewbrew subs so I'm hoping you can turn them offYou can get great torrents at http://thelifestream.net/forums/showpost.php?p=228109&postcount=6]here. I'll get around to episodes eighteen and twenty-two soon,
But after this first episode is downloaded, I'll just use those links and not worry about it.Though are the episodes different lengths or something? Because the file sizes on those raw ones seem to be jumping from 550mb to 100mb.
But ffffff raw novels. I only seemed to have volume one, but now I don't have to search for the rest.
I was already having a go at the prologue for volume one just to see what it's like, since it's only about 2 pages of text
crack
Donator
I don't think you can turn off subtitles on torrents?
I think it's the file sizes are different because of the video resolution of the torrents. Some of them are 1280 x 720, others are 1440 x 1080. All of them are in good quality though.
I'm still looking; if I find any more volumes, I'll be sure to post the links,
THAT WOULD BE AMAZING. <3I was already having a go at the prologue for volume one just to see what it's like, since it's only about 2 pages of text
Strangelove
AI Researcher
- AKA
- hitoshura
It better do, I looked specifically for mkv or whatever you calls them just for that
Your efforts sustain me <3I'm still looking; if I find any more volumes, I'll be sure to post the links,
edit; they were hard Hewbrew subs
but the other one downloaded quickly so it doesn't matter. And finished the prologue after all but cba reading it over properly because I want to go to bed now
Might compare it with the other translation. But any criticism is welcome too. Prologue
This is a twisted tale.
"Hey, come on, hey! I know you're there, Seiji! I'm here. Again! But you forgot to open the door! How am I supposed to get in?"
Alarm. Sound the alarm. The house is under attack by a stalker, she's been banging on my door for some time now. What the hell she's playing not once thinking to use the interphone is anyone's guess.
"The door's locked! You're not asleep, are you? Ooohh! I've never walked in on a man while he's asleep before!"
Warning. Issue a warning. A warning to myself last week. I saved some girls who looked like they just came from the countryside from a thug. When I asked them about themselves, they said they were going to be attending the same high school as me starting from tomorrow. And for some unknown reason, this is how it turned out. To think, the other girl who was with her as such a polite little thing.
"You know, I've... actually, I've liked you for so long, Seiji! Don't you remember?! I was sitting next to you during the entrance exam! There was a girl on my right with a really interesting name, Ryuugamine or something, so I got to thinking, what kind of name does the one on the left have? And I looked over, and I fell for you at first sight! So I memorised your name! But I was just too shy, I couldn't say anything... But then you saved me, and I just felt like, wow, this must be fate! It gave me the nerve to do something! So please, Seiji, let me see your face, show me your lovely face, please, please!"
Danger. I'm in danger. This bitch followed me in secret. And since then she's been coming here practically every day. I tell her to go home, but she doesn't listen. All the thing she's shouting now I've heard two thousand times already.
"Wait, you're not sick, are you?! Is that why you can't answer the door?! Oh no! Then you've got open the door right away! You know, I've been looking into you since the exam. About your birthday, your family."
Police. I'll call the police. She finally backed off when I told her this.
Three hours after the attack. Thinking she must have gone home, I decided to go shopping at the store below my apartment building. Even as I stood there with toothpaste and weekly magazines in my hands, that crazy bitch's face flashes in the back on my mind.
On first impressions, she's a pretty good looking girl. There's something a little mature about her, so maybe it'd be better to say she's a good looking woman. But why wouldn't a girl like that have a boyfriend already—I am well aware of the reason for that.
No matter how cute she is, no one's going to want anything to do with someone that insane. Might be different if you were desperate for a girlfriend—but that's nothing to me now. See, I've already got a girlfriend.
But what should I do about the entrance ceremony tomorrow—I absent-mindedly think it over as I walk up the stairs to my floor and down the narrow corridor towards my apartment.
If I had to see that bitch's face every single day, guess I might as well not go. Yeah, that's right, I've got a girlfriend. A gentle, beautiful girlfriend, until that girl. As long as I'm with her, going to high school doesn't really matter. Maybe I can get some part-time work at my sister's company or something, trying working instead.
Right, I remember now. I remember the reason I helped that girl in the first place. When I tried talking to her she was totally different, but she did look a lot like her. Like my girlfriend. That's why I helped her. Thinking about it now, it was a dumb thing to do. Saving something because they look like someone else, then inside they're nothing alike.
With those thoughts in my mind, I put the key in the door of my apartment.
Huh? That's funny.
—It's open.
Alarm bells. Alarm bells. Alarm bells are ringing. Issuing a warning to my whole body.
Alarm whistles. Sound the alarm whistles. I open the door to find a pair of woman's shoes.
"Se-Seiji..."
When I went into the apartment, there was the stalker standing dead still.
Faced with this woman who had broken into my home, I noticed I was pretty calm about the situation. Because I'd noticed the expression on her face.
Then, in a voice so cold it even surprised me, I managed to speak.
“So you saw it?”
"I, it, I just, umm..."
The look on her face was almost completely different to her usual one. A look of anxiety and fear.
...Huh, so you can make a face like this as well, can you.
And then I was sure. She'd seen something she wasn't meant to see.
"I... I, Seiji, I.... umm, I won't tell a soul! This doesn't matter, I still like you, Seiji, and, umm, it's fine. Whatever you're into, I can go along with it, so, err..."
The tables have turned. Now it's my turn to drive her into a corner.
"It's alright."
"Seiji!"
The stalker's voice filled with hope at my words.
"It's alright."
"Seiji...?"
She must have noticed the cold look in my eyes. In an instant, that hope was replaced by worry.
I spoke just once more, to turn her expression to one of utter despair.
"It's alright."
"Seiji!"
When my sister arrived at my apartment with two of her men, I was sitting in the living room eating a cup ramen. The men deftly put the stalker's body into a bag and carried it out of the room. My sister gave the room a glance over, and after looking at the blood-stained walls, wrapped her arms around me tightly.
"It's okay, it's going to be okay."
While feeling the warmth from my sister, I just felt how difficult it was to eat like this.
"Seiji, you've got nothing to worry about. Just let your sister handle all this, yeah?"
"Hey, about her—not that girl, about my girlfriend."
"So it was you who took her then, Seiji... It's okay, you leave her to me too, got it? It's okay, as long as I'm around nothing scary's going to happen to you... I won't let the police lay a finger on you, not at all, so you just relax."
With that, my sister gave a bunch of orders to her men and left.
Guess I'll give the job at her company a miss. She seems to be mixing with some dodgy people without the head office knowing. Like these men she brought, someone's dead and they're working away without saying a word. They've probably been like this all their lives.
I'd hate to have to work with such evil people. I'd end up evil myself.
If that happened and I got caught by the police or something, I know it'd make my girlfriend sad. I have to avoid that.
While I watched the men wipe the blood off the walls with blank looks on their faces, I quietly wolfed down the now soggy ramen.
Man, this is terrible ramen.
This is a twisted, twisted tale.
A tale of a twisted love.
This is a twisted tale.
"Hey, come on, hey! I know you're there, Seiji! I'm here. Again! But you forgot to open the door! How am I supposed to get in?"
Alarm. Sound the alarm. The house is under attack by a stalker, she's been banging on my door for some time now. What the hell she's playing not once thinking to use the interphone is anyone's guess.
"The door's locked! You're not asleep, are you? Ooohh! I've never walked in on a man while he's asleep before!"
Warning. Issue a warning. A warning to myself last week. I saved some girls who looked like they just came from the countryside from a thug. When I asked them about themselves, they said they were going to be attending the same high school as me starting from tomorrow. And for some unknown reason, this is how it turned out. To think, the other girl who was with her as such a polite little thing.
"You know, I've... actually, I've liked you for so long, Seiji! Don't you remember?! I was sitting next to you during the entrance exam! There was a girl on my right with a really interesting name, Ryuugamine or something, so I got to thinking, what kind of name does the one on the left have? And I looked over, and I fell for you at first sight! So I memorised your name! But I was just too shy, I couldn't say anything... But then you saved me, and I just felt like, wow, this must be fate! It gave me the nerve to do something! So please, Seiji, let me see your face, show me your lovely face, please, please!"
Danger. I'm in danger. This bitch followed me in secret. And since then she's been coming here practically every day. I tell her to go home, but she doesn't listen. All the thing she's shouting now I've heard two thousand times already.
"Wait, you're not sick, are you?! Is that why you can't answer the door?! Oh no! Then you've got open the door right away! You know, I've been looking into you since the exam. About your birthday, your family."
Police. I'll call the police. She finally backed off when I told her this.
Three hours after the attack. Thinking she must have gone home, I decided to go shopping at the store below my apartment building. Even as I stood there with toothpaste and weekly magazines in my hands, that crazy bitch's face flashes in the back on my mind.
On first impressions, she's a pretty good looking girl. There's something a little mature about her, so maybe it'd be better to say she's a good looking woman. But why wouldn't a girl like that have a boyfriend already—I am well aware of the reason for that.
No matter how cute she is, no one's going to want anything to do with someone that insane. Might be different if you were desperate for a girlfriend—but that's nothing to me now. See, I've already got a girlfriend.
But what should I do about the entrance ceremony tomorrow—I absent-mindedly think it over as I walk up the stairs to my floor and down the narrow corridor towards my apartment.
If I had to see that bitch's face every single day, guess I might as well not go. Yeah, that's right, I've got a girlfriend. A gentle, beautiful girlfriend, until that girl. As long as I'm with her, going to high school doesn't really matter. Maybe I can get some part-time work at my sister's company or something, trying working instead.
Right, I remember now. I remember the reason I helped that girl in the first place. When I tried talking to her she was totally different, but she did look a lot like her. Like my girlfriend. That's why I helped her. Thinking about it now, it was a dumb thing to do. Saving something because they look like someone else, then inside they're nothing alike.
With those thoughts in my mind, I put the key in the door of my apartment.
Huh? That's funny.
—It's open.
Alarm bells. Alarm bells. Alarm bells are ringing. Issuing a warning to my whole body.
Alarm whistles. Sound the alarm whistles. I open the door to find a pair of woman's shoes.
"Se-Seiji..."
When I went into the apartment, there was the stalker standing dead still.
Faced with this woman who had broken into my home, I noticed I was pretty calm about the situation. Because I'd noticed the expression on her face.
Then, in a voice so cold it even surprised me, I managed to speak.
“So you saw it?”
"I, it, I just, umm..."
The look on her face was almost completely different to her usual one. A look of anxiety and fear.
...Huh, so you can make a face like this as well, can you.
And then I was sure. She'd seen something she wasn't meant to see.
"I... I, Seiji, I.... umm, I won't tell a soul! This doesn't matter, I still like you, Seiji, and, umm, it's fine. Whatever you're into, I can go along with it, so, err..."
The tables have turned. Now it's my turn to drive her into a corner.
"It's alright."
"Seiji!"
The stalker's voice filled with hope at my words.
"It's alright."
"Seiji...?"
She must have noticed the cold look in my eyes. In an instant, that hope was replaced by worry.
I spoke just once more, to turn her expression to one of utter despair.
"It's alright."
"Seiji!"
When my sister arrived at my apartment with two of her men, I was sitting in the living room eating a cup ramen. The men deftly put the stalker's body into a bag and carried it out of the room. My sister gave the room a glance over, and after looking at the blood-stained walls, wrapped her arms around me tightly.
"It's okay, it's going to be okay."
While feeling the warmth from my sister, I just felt how difficult it was to eat like this.
"Seiji, you've got nothing to worry about. Just let your sister handle all this, yeah?"
"Hey, about her—not that girl, about my girlfriend."
"So it was you who took her then, Seiji... It's okay, you leave her to me too, got it? It's okay, as long as I'm around nothing scary's going to happen to you... I won't let the police lay a finger on you, not at all, so you just relax."
With that, my sister gave a bunch of orders to her men and left.
Guess I'll give the job at her company a miss. She seems to be mixing with some dodgy people without the head office knowing. Like these men she brought, someone's dead and they're working away without saying a word. They've probably been like this all their lives.
I'd hate to have to work with such evil people. I'd end up evil myself.
If that happened and I got caught by the police or something, I know it'd make my girlfriend sad. I have to avoid that.
While I watched the men wipe the blood off the walls with blank looks on their faces, I quietly wolfed down the now soggy ramen.
Man, this is terrible ramen.
This is a twisted, twisted tale.
A tale of a twisted love.
Last edited:
Super Mario
IT'S A ME!
- AKA
- Jesse McCree. I feel like a New Man
FUCK YEAH HEIL REPTILE!!!! !!!!!!!!
:jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface:
:jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface::jackface:
Celes Chere
Banned
- AKA
- Noctis
LOL!!!!!
P.S. HITO IS MY NEW HERO!!!
crack
Donator
Holy shit hito, thank you so much. That was a delight to read. <3333
I'm still looking for the volumes, but I'll be sure to tell you when I find them! And hopefully the torrents I gave you didn't bork or anything.
To anyone interested:
THEY ARE ADORABLE I WANT THEM ALSO I LOVE YOU HITO
edit; to anyone interested, there's a PSP game coming out:
Seiji's an interesting character; I like how he talks about his sister in such an evil way, and yet, he committed such an evil crime himself. Durarara!! sure is twisted; reading the light novels just convinces me that the ending will be tragic.
The only criticism I have to offer is that you used, "on first impressions," which seems rather awkward to use. Otherwise, I have no complaints and Seiji's narration really great to read.
I'm guessing because it's a twisted tale of love, many of the characters who haven't received a romantic plot line will be getting one. Like, Shizuo, or maybe even Izaya - but he loves everyone already, so.
The only criticism I have to offer is that you used, "on first impressions," which seems rather awkward to use. Otherwise, I have no complaints and Seiji's narration really great to read.
I'm guessing because it's a twisted tale of love, many of the characters who haven't received a romantic plot line will be getting one. Like, Shizuo, or maybe even Izaya - but he loves everyone already, so.
I'm still looking for the volumes, but I'll be sure to tell you when I find them! And hopefully the torrents I gave you didn't bork or anything.
To anyone interested:
THEY ARE ADORABLE I WANT THEM ALSO I LOVE YOU HITO
edit; to anyone interested, there's a PSP game coming out:
Last edited:
Strangelove
AI Researcher
- AKA
- hitoshura
lolz I watched the first episode and realise now that 'Ryuugamine' isn't a girl.
Also game, I kind of wants it.
And for more Celty to show up in the anime or novel. Either will do.
Also game, I kind of wants it.
And for more Celty to show up in the anime or novel. Either will do.
I had a look at the Baka Tsuki translation, and just changed a few bits here and there. I disagree with some parts and wish I had thought of others. Though I didn't change that much, just fixed some mistakes or reworded thing. Like instead of just having '[Alarm] [alarm]' or such like the original, having the word and then a sentence using that word. I don't remember why I decided to do that, but I kept it because otherwise I'd never stop Don't know if you'd be missing something by changing that. Though you're already missing something by reading it in English (since all those words, 'alarm/warning/police/danger/etc', started with the same character in Japanese but you can't get that across in English because the words are going to be different).
I didn't want to take anything from someone else's work, but I did nick the formatting/paragraph spacing
Don't know if you'd be missing something by changing that. Though you're already missing something by reading it in English (since all those words, 'alarm/warning/police/danger/etc', started with the same character in Japanese but you can't get that across in English because the words are going to be different). I didn't want to take anything from someone else's work, but I did nick the formatting/paragraph spacing
Prologue
This is a twisted tale.
“Hey, come on, hey! I know you're there, Seiji! Here I am. Again! But you forgot to open the door! How am I supposed to get in!”
Alarm. Sound the alarm. The house is under attack by a stalker, she's been banging on my door for some time now. What the hell she's playing at, not once thinking to use the interphone, is anyone's guess.
“The door's locked! You're not asleep, are you? Ooohh! I've never walked in on a men while he's asleep before!”
Warning. Issue a warning. A warning to myself last week. I saved some girls who looked like they just rolled in straight from the sticks from some thug. When I asked them about themselves, they said they were going to be attending the same high school as me starting from tomorrow. And for some unknown reason, this is how it turned out. To think, the other girl who was with her was such a polite little thing.
“You know, I've... actually, I've liked you for so long, Seiji! Don't you remember?! I was sitting next to you during the entrance exam! There was a guy on my right with a real interesting name, Ryuugamine or something, so I got to thinking, what kind of name does the one on the left have? And I looked over, and I fell for you at first sight! So I memorised your name! But I was just too shy, I couldn't say anything... But then you saved me, and I just felt like, wow, this must be fate! It gave me the nerve to do something! So please, Seiji, let me see your face, show me your lovely face, please, Seiji, please!”
Danger. I'm in danger. This bitch followed me home in secret. And since then she's been coming here practically every day. I tell her to go home, but she doesn't listen. All the things she's shouting now I've heard two thousand times already.
“Wait, you're not sick, are you?! Is that why you can't answer the door?! Oh no! Then you've got open the door right away! You know, I've been looking into you since the exam. About your birthday, your family.”
Police. I'll call the police. She finally backed off when I told her this.
Three hours after the attack. Thinking that she must have gone home, I decided to go shopping at the store below my apartment building. Even as I stood there with toothpaste and weekly magazines in my hands, that crazy bitch's face flashes in the back on my mind.
My first impressions were that she's a pretty good-looking girl. There's something slightly mature about her, so maybe it'd be better to say she's a good looking woman. But why wouldn't a girl like that have a boyfriend already—I am well aware of the reason for that.
No matter how cute she is, no one's going to want anything to do with someone that insane. Might be different if you were desperate for a girlfriend—but that's nothing to me now. See, I've already got a girlfriend.
But what should I do about the entrance ceremony tomorrow—I absent-mindedly think it over as I walk up the stairs to my floor and down the narrow corridor towards my apartment.
If I had to see that bitch's face every single day, guess I might as well not go. Yeah, that's right, I've got a girlfriend. A gentle, beautiful girlfriend, unlike that girl. As long as I'm with her, going to high school doesn't really matter. Maybe I can get some part-time work at my sister's company or something, trying working instead.
Right, I remember now. I remember the reason I helped that girl in the first place. When I tried talking to her she was totally different, but she did look a lot like her. Like my girlfriend. That's why I helped her. Thinking about it now, it was a dumb thing to do. Saving someone because they look like someone else, then on the inside they're nothing alike.
With those thoughts going through my mind, I put the key into the door of my apartment.
Huh? That's funny.
—It's open.
Alarm bells. Alarm bells. Alarm bells are ringing. Issuing a emergency warning to my whole body.
Alarm whistles. Sound the alarm whistles. I open the door to find a pair of woman's shoes waiting.
“Se-Seiji...”
When I went into the apartment, there was the stalker standing dead still.
Faced with this woman who had broken into my home, I noticed I was pretty calm about the situation. Because I'd noticed the expression on her face.
Then, in a voice so cold it surprised even me, I wrung out the words.
“So you saw it?”
“I, it... I just, umm...”
The look on her face was almost completely different to her usual one. A look of anxiety and fear.
...Huh, so you can make a face like this as well, can you.
And then I was sure. She'd seen something she wasn't meant to see.
“I... I, Seiji, I.... umm, I won't tell a soul! This doesn't matter, I still like you, Seiji, and, umm, it's fine. Whatever you're into, I can go along with it, so, err...”
The tables have turned. Now it's my turn to drive her into a corner.
“It's alright.”
“Seiji!”
The stalker's voice filled with hope at my response.
“It's alright.”
“Seiji...?”
She must have noticed the cold look in my eyes. In an instant, that hope was replaced by worry.
I spoke just once more, to turn her expression to one of utter despair.
“It's alright.”
“Seiji!”
When my sister arrived at my apartment with two of her men, I was sitting in the living room eating a cup ramen. The men deftly put the stalker's body into a bag and carried it out of the room. My sister gave the room a glance over, and after looking at the blood-stained walls, wrapped her arms around me tightly.
“It's okay, it's going to be okay.”
While feeling the warmth from my sister, I simply thought how difficult it was to eat like this.
“Seiji, you've got nothing to worry about. Just let your sister handle all this, yeah?”
“Hey, about her—not that girl, about my girlfriend.”
“So it was you who took her then, Seiji... It's okay, you leave her to me too, got it? It's okay, as long as I'm around nothing scary's going to happen to you... I won't let the police lay a finger on you, they'll never touch you, so you just relax.”
With that, my sister gave a bunch of orders to her men and left.
Guess I'll give the job at her company a miss. She seems to be mixing with the wrong sort of people, behind the head office's back. Like these men she brought with her. Someone's dead and they're working away without saying a word. They've probably been like that all their lives.
I'd hate having to work with such evil people. I'd end up evil myself.
If that happened and I got caught by the police or something, I know it'd make my girlfriend sad. I have to avoid that.
While I watched the men wipe the blood off the walls with blank looks on their faces, I quietly wolfed down the now soggy ramen.
Man, this is terrible ramen.
This is a twisted, twisted tale.
A tale of a twisted love.
This is a twisted tale.
“Hey, come on, hey! I know you're there, Seiji! Here I am. Again! But you forgot to open the door! How am I supposed to get in!”
Alarm. Sound the alarm. The house is under attack by a stalker, she's been banging on my door for some time now. What the hell she's playing at, not once thinking to use the interphone, is anyone's guess.
“The door's locked! You're not asleep, are you? Ooohh! I've never walked in on a men while he's asleep before!”
Warning. Issue a warning. A warning to myself last week. I saved some girls who looked like they just rolled in straight from the sticks from some thug. When I asked them about themselves, they said they were going to be attending the same high school as me starting from tomorrow. And for some unknown reason, this is how it turned out. To think, the other girl who was with her was such a polite little thing.
“You know, I've... actually, I've liked you for so long, Seiji! Don't you remember?! I was sitting next to you during the entrance exam! There was a guy on my right with a real interesting name, Ryuugamine or something, so I got to thinking, what kind of name does the one on the left have? And I looked over, and I fell for you at first sight! So I memorised your name! But I was just too shy, I couldn't say anything... But then you saved me, and I just felt like, wow, this must be fate! It gave me the nerve to do something! So please, Seiji, let me see your face, show me your lovely face, please, Seiji, please!”
Danger. I'm in danger. This bitch followed me home in secret. And since then she's been coming here practically every day. I tell her to go home, but she doesn't listen. All the things she's shouting now I've heard two thousand times already.
“Wait, you're not sick, are you?! Is that why you can't answer the door?! Oh no! Then you've got open the door right away! You know, I've been looking into you since the exam. About your birthday, your family.”
Police. I'll call the police. She finally backed off when I told her this.
Three hours after the attack. Thinking that she must have gone home, I decided to go shopping at the store below my apartment building. Even as I stood there with toothpaste and weekly magazines in my hands, that crazy bitch's face flashes in the back on my mind.
My first impressions were that she's a pretty good-looking girl. There's something slightly mature about her, so maybe it'd be better to say she's a good looking woman. But why wouldn't a girl like that have a boyfriend already—I am well aware of the reason for that.
No matter how cute she is, no one's going to want anything to do with someone that insane. Might be different if you were desperate for a girlfriend—but that's nothing to me now. See, I've already got a girlfriend.
But what should I do about the entrance ceremony tomorrow—I absent-mindedly think it over as I walk up the stairs to my floor and down the narrow corridor towards my apartment.
If I had to see that bitch's face every single day, guess I might as well not go. Yeah, that's right, I've got a girlfriend. A gentle, beautiful girlfriend, unlike that girl. As long as I'm with her, going to high school doesn't really matter. Maybe I can get some part-time work at my sister's company or something, trying working instead.
Right, I remember now. I remember the reason I helped that girl in the first place. When I tried talking to her she was totally different, but she did look a lot like her. Like my girlfriend. That's why I helped her. Thinking about it now, it was a dumb thing to do. Saving someone because they look like someone else, then on the inside they're nothing alike.
With those thoughts going through my mind, I put the key into the door of my apartment.
Huh? That's funny.
—It's open.
Alarm bells. Alarm bells. Alarm bells are ringing. Issuing a emergency warning to my whole body.
Alarm whistles. Sound the alarm whistles. I open the door to find a pair of woman's shoes waiting.
“Se-Seiji...”
When I went into the apartment, there was the stalker standing dead still.
Faced with this woman who had broken into my home, I noticed I was pretty calm about the situation. Because I'd noticed the expression on her face.
Then, in a voice so cold it surprised even me, I wrung out the words.
“So you saw it?”
“I, it... I just, umm...”
The look on her face was almost completely different to her usual one. A look of anxiety and fear.
...Huh, so you can make a face like this as well, can you.
And then I was sure. She'd seen something she wasn't meant to see.
“I... I, Seiji, I.... umm, I won't tell a soul! This doesn't matter, I still like you, Seiji, and, umm, it's fine. Whatever you're into, I can go along with it, so, err...”
The tables have turned. Now it's my turn to drive her into a corner.
“It's alright.”
“Seiji!”
The stalker's voice filled with hope at my response.
“It's alright.”
“Seiji...?”
She must have noticed the cold look in my eyes. In an instant, that hope was replaced by worry.
I spoke just once more, to turn her expression to one of utter despair.
“It's alright.”
“Seiji!”
When my sister arrived at my apartment with two of her men, I was sitting in the living room eating a cup ramen. The men deftly put the stalker's body into a bag and carried it out of the room. My sister gave the room a glance over, and after looking at the blood-stained walls, wrapped her arms around me tightly.
“It's okay, it's going to be okay.”
While feeling the warmth from my sister, I simply thought how difficult it was to eat like this.
“Seiji, you've got nothing to worry about. Just let your sister handle all this, yeah?”
“Hey, about her—not that girl, about my girlfriend.”
“So it was you who took her then, Seiji... It's okay, you leave her to me too, got it? It's okay, as long as I'm around nothing scary's going to happen to you... I won't let the police lay a finger on you, they'll never touch you, so you just relax.”
With that, my sister gave a bunch of orders to her men and left.
Guess I'll give the job at her company a miss. She seems to be mixing with the wrong sort of people, behind the head office's back. Like these men she brought with her. Someone's dead and they're working away without saying a word. They've probably been like that all their lives.
I'd hate having to work with such evil people. I'd end up evil myself.
If that happened and I got caught by the police or something, I know it'd make my girlfriend sad. I have to avoid that.
While I watched the men wipe the blood off the walls with blank looks on their faces, I quietly wolfed down the now soggy ramen.
Man, this is terrible ramen.
This is a twisted, twisted tale.
A tale of a twisted love.
crack
Donator
I was confused about that part - was that a mistake you made, or did she really think Mikado was a female?
I see a few differences between your first post and this one, but I still loved reading both of them - how far are you into the anime? And do you plan to do anymore translating?
Also, to anyone who wants to pre-order game (it's limited edition, I think), you can bid here, but I'm pretty sure you can buy it for cheaper in a Japanese website. I just can't find any.
Super Mario
IT'S A ME!
- AKA
- Jesse McCree. I feel like a New Man
HEELLL YEAH
Strangelove
AI Researcher
- AKA
- hitoshura
She just called him 'ko' (子
, which just means 'child'. So it's genderless and I just picked the wrong one. Only one episode so far, but I've got 4 more episodes so far.
When I get to the untranslated chapters, I might have a shot at those.
Super Mario
IT'S A ME!
- AKA
- Jesse McCree. I feel like a New Man
Oh god hito I'm going gar for your attempts to give us a look into the DRRR world. YEEHAA
crack
Donator
To anyone interested, here's all of Vol. 8 illustrations - I haven't posted them all, so you oughta check it out; they're all in high quality too:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jrjmjomyziu
I'd post the images myself, but I cba.
http://www.mediafire.com/?jrjmjomyziu
I'd post the images myself, but I cba.
crack
Donator
Episode 23 RAW: http://say-move.org/comeplay.php?comeid=76899
From what I can get, Horada knows that Mikado is the founder of Dollars. Shizuo makes it to Shinra's and vows to kill Kida. Anri, who overhears this, goes after Kida. FUCK YEAH KIDA, he finally gets some action and proceeds to battle the Yellow Scarves (after finding out that Horada was originally part of Blue Squares?) However, Kida gets outnumbered and is eventually almost shot, when Anri comes to the battlefield to help out Kida. The crowbar scene was shorter than I expected, but still fucking awesome. The preview shows Anri and Mikado reuniting, and because next week is the last episode, I'm guessing will come to an end? But there's also talk of two episodes being released on DVD, which gives me higher hopes for a second season.
Celes Chere
Banned
- AKA
- Noctis
KIDA BETTER NOT BE HARMED IN ANY WAY.
crack
Donator
Anni-fiesta just updated with part II of the Dengeki Magazine Omake Story.
EDIT;
Fuck yeah, anni-fiesta has even more updates.
YAGIRI NAMIE
Why do I have to make him dinner as he tells me to......?
......Should I poison him...?
HARIMA MIKA
My cooking skills exist only for Seiji-san's sake!
So, if you find my cooking delicious, don't forget to thank Seiji-san!
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
CELTY STURLUSON
[......] (If it were just crab balls I would have been able to manage......)
SONOHARA ANRI
S - Sorry, could I use a katana to peel this......probably not...right?
EMILIA
The only process remaining is namely to mix the combustibles and have the kindling ceremony. The cooked is warmed from inside and is neck and neck with the microwave oven. Fufu!
KARISAWA ERIKA
I don't know how to make an itasha*, but if it's just itameshi* I'm an expert!
I'll make anime characters with food!
*Itasha: literally "pain car" (or "embarrassing car"), this term is used to refer to a car driven by Japanese otaku with (usually moe) anime characters painted on them. "Itameshi" is a word Erika made up, literally "pain meal".
Here, it explains how Tom and Shizuo met, why Shizuo dyed his hair blonde, some of Erika, Walker, and Kadota, and them all having a hotpot party (Shinra and Celty included). Izaya seems much... more like a human being in the light novels, especially considering how in reality, he seems to be much lonelier than he acts. I almost feel bad for him, if it weren't for the fact that he's a goddamn troll. Still, it's surprising that he can feel lonely.
Anri smiled quietly as these memories came back to her.
Mika wasn't found guilty in that incident since she was attacked first.
Anri told the teachers that the bullies had threatened to strip their clothes and take photos. It was found that several girls have already been taken nude photos of by the same group of bullies.
After that incident, Mika and Anri always moved together.
Now that she thought about it, it was the first time she noticed the "abnormality" in Harima Mika.
But Anri did not grow afraid of Mika. She continued to be Mika's friend - or rather, the girl Mika kept around to make herself look better.
Anri knew why she was OK with that.
Because she was abnormal enough a human being herself even if she didn't have a "voice" that whispered incessantly inside her body.
Right in front of Anri Mika was still teasing Mikado, and Seiji joined her a moment after. Mikado was now in a state of groaning despair and asking around for someone to back him up.
Karisawa and Yumasaki, who had looked on from the beginning, continued to gossip.
"My, my, would doors to new sensations and new fetishes open in front of Mikapuu after being scolded by girls like that - ?"
"He's gonna be alright, 'cause we're all in 2D and he's automatically kept away from any kinky stuff!"
"What on earth are you two talking about?"
Seiji was saying with a shocked expression to Mikado, who was still busy shaking his head:
"I see, Ryuugamine, so you also have a thing for Mika......?"
"It's not like that! Please, rest assured! Why would I ever try to break you up when Harima-san and Yagiri-kun love each other so much! How does that sound?"
"Hey, don't get it wrong. I don't like Mika. I just like her face."
"Ehhhhhhh!?"
"Seiji......I'm so happy to hear that☆"
"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
The confused noise was coming from Mikado, who couldn't fish out a piece of meat from the hotpot for his life.
Two figures were eating silently with gusto and watching this scene from afar.
- Kadota, who was in his usual clothes but without the knit cap, and Heiwajima Shizuo in his everyday attire.
Kadota lowered his chopsticks as the party was increasingly derailed from its original track and said:
"Speaking of which, Shizuo, how's working with Tanaka-san?"
"Hmm......? Ah, you mean Tom-san?"
Kadota and Shizuo were in the same high school class. Not that they didn't talk with each other back then - but it was true that they had more interaction after graduation.
The only two people Shizuo could comfortably talk to at this hotpot party were Shinra and Kadota; now that Shinra was talking nonstop to Celty, it was only natural that he had to make conversation with Kadota instead.
"Well, Tom-san is a nice person. As is our manager...without him I probably wouldn't have been able to continue doing this job. ......There's no way I'd be able to pay the manager back if I quit."
"Huh......so I assume your manager always pays for the damaged sign posts and stuff?"
"Yeah. I'm infinitely grateful that despite all that he still pays me a salary."
"You've known Tanaka-san since long ago, right?"
It was a rare occurrence that Kadota would ask about Shizuo's boss even in such small talk meant to aid digestion. He probably felt something akin to admiration for this Tanaka guy who was able to work with Shizuo for so long.
"Hmm? Ahh. Right."
"Now that you mention it, I actually dyed my hair because Tom-san told me to."
Years ago, Raijin Middle School, Ikebukuro
"I......HATE VIOLENCE!"
The raging figure was Shizuo, still in middle school, but already every bit as violent as the word he claimed to hate.
Wielding a twisted sign post, the first-year hit his upperclassmen one by one.
No one would have guessed that Shizuo, who was sending his upperclassmen flying one after another, was only an elementary school kid one month ago.
The hurricane of violence swirled past, and silence reigned. More than ten upperclassmen lay motionless and crestfallen on the ground.
Shizuo lost track of how many minutes had passed.
Feeling his temper subside at last, he turned on his heels to leave -
When another guy appeared.
"How's it going? Feeling like your head's cooled down at last?"
He was wearing the uniform of Shizuo's middle school.
Judging from the way he looked and behaved, he was probably also a senior.
Thinking that he was simply another upperclassman coming for him, Shizuo raised his sign post again, poised for attack -
"Ah, chill out. I didn't come to fight you."
Shizuo lowered his sign post in confusion as the senior put his hands in the air.
"What? You didn't come to avenge these guys?"
"No, I'm far more comfortable working with my brain."
The bespectacled senior, in a straightforward manner, replied to Shizuo's childish inquiry.
"Also, there's hardly anything to 'avenge' when they picked on you with their nonsense talk in the first place."
"......"
"Well, it's also true that I don't want to get beaten up."
The senior began to inspect the motionless figures on the ground with a bitter smile on his face. Once he had a general idea of which ones were more critically injured, he lifted one of them onto his shoulder and said:
"Sorry, but it looks like I gotta take these guys to the hospital. Think you can help move them?"
"......Why should I?"
There was no note of accusation in the senior's voice; rather, he was simply asking for a favor from Shizuo, who had obviously inflicted some heavier-than-necessary injuries on the upperclassmen.
After some initial confusion, Shizuo eventually had to obey when he heard the guy's next words.
"Please. You do me this favor, and supper's on me."
An hour later, a fast food chain restaurant in Ikebukuro
"Sorry for asking you for such a favor..."
"......You don't have to be."
"Anyway, I don't think these guys will be coming for you again in the near future if they don't want more injuries."
"I can't even bring myself to mind now."
Shizuo said as he stuffed his own stomach with milk and fast food consisting of mackerel and miso soup.
The guy had told him that his name was Tanaka. Having finished his chicken and egg on rice, he was watching Shizuo eat with a dumbstruck expression.
"You sure do drink a lot of milk......although I was more surprised that this restaurant even served bottled milk to begin with."
Eyeing the five milk bottles already lined up on the table, he asked Shizuo:
"Do you hate fights?"
"......How do you know?"
"......You were yelling that you disliked violence."
"Ah, yeah I was......"
Shizuo downed the milk in one gulp as he continued to gobble up the remaining food somewhat furiously.
Then, setting the bottle back on the table, he said in a mildly forlorn tone:
"I...don't want to fight people at all. But I lose all control over myself once I get mad......and by the time I come to my senses, the damage's done. It's always been like that."
"......I see. Since that's the case the only way is to counter violence with violence."
"Huh?"
"Fewer people would come to you for fights if we spread the rumor beforehand about how one just 'don't mess with' you. Of course, some would still come if they're headstrong enough...anyway, guess it won't work if rumors like that make you feel uncomfortable."
Tanaka sipped his own iced drink as he looked at Shizuo's hair and said:
"Or you can consider dyeing your hair. That would make you look more your part so they won't underestimate you as much. Also when we go about spreading the rumors we'd just have to say 'stay away from the blond one at Raijin Middle School'. That way no one would pick on you by mistake, and you'd be able to attend middle school in peace."
"......Dyeing my hair sounds like a hell of trouble. And how can I just change on a whim the hair color my mom and dad gave me?" Shizuo replied as he averted his gaze.
Tanaka smiled hollowly and began to ask about other things:
"......You're far more conservative than you look. So you take this kind of seriously. Well, not that it's a bad thing to cherish the body you got from your parents, so I won't make you dye your hair if you don't want to. So is there anything I should avoid saying in particular? Anything that makes you mad?
"?"
Shizuo frowned not knowing where Tanaka was going with that. Tanaka, on the other hand, explained in an embarrassed tone:
"I have another year before graduation...so I figured it was a good idea to ask you that before I get beaten the crap out of by a kouhai."
After witnessing the sight of the extreme violence he was capable of -
Tanaka still referred the God of Wrath as his "kouhai" in his subdued voice.
"I'm more of the brains type, so I'm not good at taking blows with my body, you know."
"By the way, I won't personally mind if you don't use honorific speech with me, but try to use it more with your elders even if you don't like them. That way you won't get picked on as much."
A month later, rooftop, Raijin Middle School
"You did a good job taming that rabid dog, Tom."
"Huh?"
Shizuo was taking an after-school nap next to the water tanks on the rooftop when the voices of several seniors sounded from the entrance.
Since he heard Tanaka's voice among them, he concentrated on the flow of their conversation.
"Really good job, I say, Tom."
"Except that if I recall correctly......you didn't do anything when we got beaten up by that kid, did you?"
"Anyway. We've decided to forget about that since you've turned that little monster into our subordinate. We can pick on any gang in the neighborhood with him on our side, even the high school ones. We'll award you accordingly if you make sure to bring the Heiwajima kid over to our side."
Shizuo's raging temper was about to explode upon hearing such dialogue between the seniors -
When Tom - Tanaka - sighed and said something that made both Shizuo and the seniors jump in surprise.
"You got something wrong about this whole business, you realize that?"
"Ahhh?"
"That kid's not a dog, and he's not on anyone's side to begin with. You try talking to him and you'll know. He's far more normal than you may think."
"What the hell has that got to do with anything? He only listens to what you say anyway, doesn't he? If you tell him to go beat up the high school folks he'll probably do it."
The guy who looked like the head of the delinquent group was saying. Tom sighed once more before saying in a surprised tone:
"You guys......didn't you hear him say that he hated violence? Plus, it's not like using your kouhai to win a fight would earn you any face to begin with."
Shaking his head as if saying that these guys were impossible to communicate with, Tom turned on his heels to leave.
The delinquents left on the rooftop spit on the ground as they continued to talk about Tom.
"Who does he take himself for? That bastard."
"Exactly. But we still have to kick that Shizuo's ass first don't we? It's hard to make people take us seriously when a first-year can beat us up like that."
"But if we had any chance against him we wouldn't be doing this to begin with....."
"Simple. Just take that pretentious bastard who had just gotten off this rooftop hostage. Since he's the only guy Shizuo's close with, we'll have the chance to attack Shizuo from his back that way."
Mere minutes ago Tom was still talking with these Raijin seniors, and now they were talking about taking him hostage.
At that moment -
They heard a hissing sound from behind the water tanks and felt shudders run down their spines.
As soon as they raised their heads - their fear was confirmed.
"S - S - Shizuo......"
"......WHO'S TALKING ABOUT TAKING WHOM HOSTAGE? WHO'S GONNA ATTACK FROM WHOSE BACK AGAIN......? SEM - PAAAAAAIIIIIIIII - !"
As he began to kick one of the several water tanks around on the rooftop -
- The seniors knew that they were bound for the hospital once again.
Several months later
The incident happened anyway after several months of quietude.
The delinquents who got beaten up by Shizuo targeted Tom instead of Shizuo for their revenge.
Shizuo only knew about the incident after it had happened.
The delinquents had told Tanaka that they would let him off the hook if he lured Shizuo here.
Tanaka had sighed and said OK.
"But he's still my kouhai, you see......had he done anything wrong, I would have apologized. But it was your fault to pick on him in the first place. There's no way I'm selling my kouhai out to you when he's completely innocent."
When all was said and done, he still ended up having to fight.
Shizuo arrived to see some of the delinquents lying on the ground in a haphazard fashion. Tanaka, who looked at him as if to say 'Finally,' was badly injured but still standing.
After taking the remaining delinquents down with violence, Shizuo stared at Tanaka, who was trying to conceal himself in fear of getting embroiled in the fight again, and asked:
"Tanaka-sempai, are you not good at fighting? Then why not just use me like the other sempais have said?"
Tom beamed at Shizuo, whose honorific speech was still a little awkward, before saying:
"I'm just 'not good at' fighting."
Tanaka shrugged at his kouhai, trying to act tough to fit his part as the sempai as he said:
"You said you 'hated' violence though you're good at fighting, didn't you? If that's true, it's better to not fight."
Now, the hotpot party
"After that I dyed my hair like Tom-sempai told me to......and not nearly as many people came to me for fights after they spread the rumors around......it was a peaceful period in my life."
Kadota nodded at Shizuo, who sounded nostalgic as he talked about the old days.
"It's so good to have a nice sempai like him."
"Yeah......but he and I ended up going to different high schools......anyway, after I met that fucking flea, those peaceful days just crumbled to pieces."
Shizuo's face began to show signs of an imminent storm presumably because his enemy's face had surfaced in his mind. Kadota hastened to try to pacify his temper:
"Calm down. He's not invited to this place anyway. Probably sulking somewhere on his own. He's pathetic as he is, so try to leave him alone if you can."
"......If he never appears before my eyes again, I'd consider that."
Shizuo's temper receded as he thought of the almost-crying face of Orihara Izaya, his enemy, all alone in front of a hotpot - and he was able to focus on helping himself to more food again.
"But Kadota, the people you take around with you are strange folks as well......where did you come to know them?"
Shizuo was looking at Yumasaki and Karisawa, who were mixing very well with the high schoolers, and Togusa, who was yelling "Isn't.....isn't this Hijiribe Ruri's autograph!? How did you - !?" while looking at a picture frame hanging in the corner.
"Huh.....you mean those guys......"
Kadota narrowed his eyes as if trying to remember before saying, slowly:
"I met those guys, I think......"
" - Four years ago, in winter. Can't forget even if I tried."
"Kadota Kyohei and Yumasaki Walker were butler trainees.
Young men were trained at this butler subdivision under the postgraduate division at Hakureiryou Academy* to vie for the right to serve the most elegant of masters and mistresses -
Before their eyes stood, in her black dress and surrounded by black roses, the Queen -
Erika Beatrice Karisawa, heiress of the Karisawa Corporation!
Kadota fell in love with her at first sight......that's right, he had became the butler of love who was dying to be a slave of love even before he even earned the right to serve her......!"
"......Hang on."
"But one day, Kadota realized that he was not his real self, and his feelings for the heiress was unadulterated respect rather than love! And then Dotachin came to his senses. He realized that the only source of comfort for him was his one and true rival, Walker......!"
"......Hang on."
"Wait, Karisawa-san, please stop! Why are you fantasizing about Kadota-san and me in a Boys Love relationship!? I've said over and over that people like Karisawa-san are the reason the society has a negative impression of otaku culture in general! I say Kadota-san and I should become heroes in Galgames who win over the hearts of loads and loads of heroines! Actually, we can even do without Kadota-san! I'll be happy as long as I have this bondaged right hand blessed with the power of ancient moe-moe peoples so that every girl who sees my right hand would go 'Woo ~ '......"
"......Hang on."
"Ehhh? But wasn't Yumacchi talking about writing me and Dotachin in a master-slave relationship? How about this - Dotachin somehow becomes a girl when he gets up one morning, and finds himself in a boarding school for females......"
"SHUT - UP - YOU - TWO - AHHHHHHHH!"
Yumasaki and Karisawa had begun to spill out their nonsense fantasy scenarios again as if to keep Kadota from talking about their past.
Kadota grabbed their collars to make them shut their mouths while Togusa was busy asking Celty where they got the autograph.
Shizuo scratched his face as he watched the scene. He went back to looking for meat in the hotpot before saying to himself:
"......Whatever. Looks like they're having fun anyway."
"Oops, what's with this? Everyone's going all nostalgic despite being so young!"
Shinra, who had been watching the people at the hotpot party, said cheerfully in front of them.
"Anyway! Time flies. Years can pass you by in a blink, so it's not a bad thing to be nostalgic. I'm not saying the present is necessarily worse, of course! I have this once-in-a-life-time story about Celty and me. Can I tell them the story about how we confirmed our love for each other in that kidnapping incident ten years ago? Celty? Will you mind?"
[I told you we just got it today and they said it was for Shinra. I have no idea why we got Hijiribe Ruri's autograph either.]
Celty, who apparently didn't hear him, was still explaining to Togusa how they got the autograph.
After she sensed that the room had fallen silent as if expecting a reply from her, she tilted her head and showed Shinra her PDA.
[......Eh? What's up?]
"That kidnapping incident ten years ago which made us realize our love for each other!"
[......What?]
"Ehhh!? That incident! The incident that happened back when they were fighting for the Etsusa Bridge construction contract, the one that involved politicians! Celty and I somehow found ourselves involved, didn't we?"
Celty simply tilted her head once again as Shinra tried desperately to describe the incident.
[Huh, didn't know that happened......]
"That's all you've got to say to this!?"
Shinra dropped his body backwards to stare at the ceiling in shock. Kadota clapped him on the shoulder.
"......Cheer up. I have no idea what actually happened but there is this thing called unrequited love. Especially if we're talking about you."
"B - But it wasn't like that! At that time we really did......right! I'm sure Izaya knows about this! I'll get Izaya to come here right away and you'll see I didn't just make this up ahhhhhhhhhhhh- "
Kadota had to cover Shinra's mouth with his hand and lower his voice.
"......Do you want Shizuo to destroy your place?"
"Uhhhhh......"
Shinra had to shrug and give up at the thought of the God of Wrath in his bartender suit.
Celty, after seeing him act like that, went straight to the balcony by herself.
She lowered her shouldered as if anxious at the infinite expenses of the Tokyo night view.
- He knows so many idioms......but doesn't he realize what "A secret kept is a flower" means?
- It's so embarrassing. Stupid Shinra.
As she raised her head to look at the night sky, memories of that incident rushed to her head -
But that was another story.
An hour later
"So many different people came today......I was kind of shocked. Thank you for the invitation, I really appreciate it."
Anri insisted on helping to peel the apples for the dessert before leaving. Mikado thanked Shinra after he was completely full.
"Well, it's the first time we did something like this, and your friends were here as well. This is gonna be a pleasant memory for you, I hope?"
Shinra was saying something that sounded like advice before his Raira kouhai.
"But there was really nothing all that special......"
"It's good enough to be able to have hotpot together. Don't you think it's important to have friends you can eat with in a harmonious atmosphere like this?"
Shinra, as if thinking of a specific someone, said sarcastically with a grin:
"There are people in this world who would never get invited to such harmonious gatherings and have to do their hotpots alone."
The second Shinra said this -
Someone sneezed loudly in an apartment in Shinjuku.
"......Did I catch a cold?"
The information broker, who lowered his head to reach for a napkin, had yet to know about everything that happened a couple of days before and the hotpot party which everybody got to enjoy in harmony except him.
He got to know about everything only half a day later, though.
"So......what next?"
The murmur sounded like an odd note. Perhaps he felt more lonely today than usual.
He began to hit the keyboard as he realized how weird he was feeling.
The man who didn't get invited to the "party of the trusted" simply kept hitting the keys - alone.
Clank clank Clank clank Clank cla -
THE END
Mika wasn't found guilty in that incident since she was attacked first.
Anri told the teachers that the bullies had threatened to strip their clothes and take photos. It was found that several girls have already been taken nude photos of by the same group of bullies.
After that incident, Mika and Anri always moved together.
Now that she thought about it, it was the first time she noticed the "abnormality" in Harima Mika.
But Anri did not grow afraid of Mika. She continued to be Mika's friend - or rather, the girl Mika kept around to make herself look better.
Anri knew why she was OK with that.
Because she was abnormal enough a human being herself even if she didn't have a "voice" that whispered incessantly inside her body.
Right in front of Anri Mika was still teasing Mikado, and Seiji joined her a moment after. Mikado was now in a state of groaning despair and asking around for someone to back him up.
Karisawa and Yumasaki, who had looked on from the beginning, continued to gossip.
"My, my, would doors to new sensations and new fetishes open in front of Mikapuu after being scolded by girls like that - ?"
"He's gonna be alright, 'cause we're all in 2D and he's automatically kept away from any kinky stuff!"
"What on earth are you two talking about?"
Seiji was saying with a shocked expression to Mikado, who was still busy shaking his head:
"I see, Ryuugamine, so you also have a thing for Mika......?"
"It's not like that! Please, rest assured! Why would I ever try to break you up when Harima-san and Yagiri-kun love each other so much! How does that sound?"
"Hey, don't get it wrong. I don't like Mika. I just like her face."
"Ehhhhhhh!?"
"Seiji......I'm so happy to hear that☆"
"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
The confused noise was coming from Mikado, who couldn't fish out a piece of meat from the hotpot for his life.
Two figures were eating silently with gusto and watching this scene from afar.
- Kadota, who was in his usual clothes but without the knit cap, and Heiwajima Shizuo in his everyday attire.
Kadota lowered his chopsticks as the party was increasingly derailed from its original track and said:
"Speaking of which, Shizuo, how's working with Tanaka-san?"
"Hmm......? Ah, you mean Tom-san?"
Kadota and Shizuo were in the same high school class. Not that they didn't talk with each other back then - but it was true that they had more interaction after graduation.
The only two people Shizuo could comfortably talk to at this hotpot party were Shinra and Kadota; now that Shinra was talking nonstop to Celty, it was only natural that he had to make conversation with Kadota instead.
"Well, Tom-san is a nice person. As is our manager...without him I probably wouldn't have been able to continue doing this job. ......There's no way I'd be able to pay the manager back if I quit."
"Huh......so I assume your manager always pays for the damaged sign posts and stuff?"
"Yeah. I'm infinitely grateful that despite all that he still pays me a salary."
"You've known Tanaka-san since long ago, right?"
It was a rare occurrence that Kadota would ask about Shizuo's boss even in such small talk meant to aid digestion. He probably felt something akin to admiration for this Tanaka guy who was able to work with Shizuo for so long.
"Hmm? Ahh. Right."
"Now that you mention it, I actually dyed my hair because Tom-san told me to."
Years ago, Raijin Middle School, Ikebukuro
"I......HATE VIOLENCE!"
The raging figure was Shizuo, still in middle school, but already every bit as violent as the word he claimed to hate.
Wielding a twisted sign post, the first-year hit his upperclassmen one by one.
No one would have guessed that Shizuo, who was sending his upperclassmen flying one after another, was only an elementary school kid one month ago.
The hurricane of violence swirled past, and silence reigned. More than ten upperclassmen lay motionless and crestfallen on the ground.
Shizuo lost track of how many minutes had passed.
Feeling his temper subside at last, he turned on his heels to leave -
When another guy appeared.
"How's it going? Feeling like your head's cooled down at last?"
He was wearing the uniform of Shizuo's middle school.
Judging from the way he looked and behaved, he was probably also a senior.
Thinking that he was simply another upperclassman coming for him, Shizuo raised his sign post again, poised for attack -
"Ah, chill out. I didn't come to fight you."
Shizuo lowered his sign post in confusion as the senior put his hands in the air.
"What? You didn't come to avenge these guys?"
"No, I'm far more comfortable working with my brain."
The bespectacled senior, in a straightforward manner, replied to Shizuo's childish inquiry.
"Also, there's hardly anything to 'avenge' when they picked on you with their nonsense talk in the first place."
"......"
"Well, it's also true that I don't want to get beaten up."
The senior began to inspect the motionless figures on the ground with a bitter smile on his face. Once he had a general idea of which ones were more critically injured, he lifted one of them onto his shoulder and said:
"Sorry, but it looks like I gotta take these guys to the hospital. Think you can help move them?"
"......Why should I?"
There was no note of accusation in the senior's voice; rather, he was simply asking for a favor from Shizuo, who had obviously inflicted some heavier-than-necessary injuries on the upperclassmen.
After some initial confusion, Shizuo eventually had to obey when he heard the guy's next words.
"Please. You do me this favor, and supper's on me."
An hour later, a fast food chain restaurant in Ikebukuro
"Sorry for asking you for such a favor..."
"......You don't have to be."
"Anyway, I don't think these guys will be coming for you again in the near future if they don't want more injuries."
"I can't even bring myself to mind now."
Shizuo said as he stuffed his own stomach with milk and fast food consisting of mackerel and miso soup.
The guy had told him that his name was Tanaka. Having finished his chicken and egg on rice, he was watching Shizuo eat with a dumbstruck expression.
"You sure do drink a lot of milk......although I was more surprised that this restaurant even served bottled milk to begin with."
Eyeing the five milk bottles already lined up on the table, he asked Shizuo:
"Do you hate fights?"
"......How do you know?"
"......You were yelling that you disliked violence."
"Ah, yeah I was......"
Shizuo downed the milk in one gulp as he continued to gobble up the remaining food somewhat furiously.
Then, setting the bottle back on the table, he said in a mildly forlorn tone:
"I...don't want to fight people at all. But I lose all control over myself once I get mad......and by the time I come to my senses, the damage's done. It's always been like that."
"......I see. Since that's the case the only way is to counter violence with violence."
"Huh?"
"Fewer people would come to you for fights if we spread the rumor beforehand about how one just 'don't mess with' you. Of course, some would still come if they're headstrong enough...anyway, guess it won't work if rumors like that make you feel uncomfortable."
Tanaka sipped his own iced drink as he looked at Shizuo's hair and said:
"Or you can consider dyeing your hair. That would make you look more your part so they won't underestimate you as much. Also when we go about spreading the rumors we'd just have to say 'stay away from the blond one at Raijin Middle School'. That way no one would pick on you by mistake, and you'd be able to attend middle school in peace."
"......Dyeing my hair sounds like a hell of trouble. And how can I just change on a whim the hair color my mom and dad gave me?" Shizuo replied as he averted his gaze.
Tanaka smiled hollowly and began to ask about other things:
"......You're far more conservative than you look. So you take this kind of seriously. Well, not that it's a bad thing to cherish the body you got from your parents, so I won't make you dye your hair if you don't want to. So is there anything I should avoid saying in particular? Anything that makes you mad?
"?"
Shizuo frowned not knowing where Tanaka was going with that. Tanaka, on the other hand, explained in an embarrassed tone:
"I have another year before graduation...so I figured it was a good idea to ask you that before I get beaten the crap out of by a kouhai."
After witnessing the sight of the extreme violence he was capable of -
Tanaka still referred the God of Wrath as his "kouhai" in his subdued voice.
"I'm more of the brains type, so I'm not good at taking blows with my body, you know."
"By the way, I won't personally mind if you don't use honorific speech with me, but try to use it more with your elders even if you don't like them. That way you won't get picked on as much."
A month later, rooftop, Raijin Middle School
"You did a good job taming that rabid dog, Tom."
"Huh?"
Shizuo was taking an after-school nap next to the water tanks on the rooftop when the voices of several seniors sounded from the entrance.
Since he heard Tanaka's voice among them, he concentrated on the flow of their conversation.
"Really good job, I say, Tom."
"Except that if I recall correctly......you didn't do anything when we got beaten up by that kid, did you?"
"Anyway. We've decided to forget about that since you've turned that little monster into our subordinate. We can pick on any gang in the neighborhood with him on our side, even the high school ones. We'll award you accordingly if you make sure to bring the Heiwajima kid over to our side."
Shizuo's raging temper was about to explode upon hearing such dialogue between the seniors -
When Tom - Tanaka - sighed and said something that made both Shizuo and the seniors jump in surprise.
"You got something wrong about this whole business, you realize that?"
"Ahhh?"
"That kid's not a dog, and he's not on anyone's side to begin with. You try talking to him and you'll know. He's far more normal than you may think."
"What the hell has that got to do with anything? He only listens to what you say anyway, doesn't he? If you tell him to go beat up the high school folks he'll probably do it."
The guy who looked like the head of the delinquent group was saying. Tom sighed once more before saying in a surprised tone:
"You guys......didn't you hear him say that he hated violence? Plus, it's not like using your kouhai to win a fight would earn you any face to begin with."
Shaking his head as if saying that these guys were impossible to communicate with, Tom turned on his heels to leave.
The delinquents left on the rooftop spit on the ground as they continued to talk about Tom.
"Who does he take himself for? That bastard."
"Exactly. But we still have to kick that Shizuo's ass first don't we? It's hard to make people take us seriously when a first-year can beat us up like that."
"But if we had any chance against him we wouldn't be doing this to begin with....."
"Simple. Just take that pretentious bastard who had just gotten off this rooftop hostage. Since he's the only guy Shizuo's close with, we'll have the chance to attack Shizuo from his back that way."
Mere minutes ago Tom was still talking with these Raijin seniors, and now they were talking about taking him hostage.
At that moment -
They heard a hissing sound from behind the water tanks and felt shudders run down their spines.
As soon as they raised their heads - their fear was confirmed.
"S - S - Shizuo......"
"......WHO'S TALKING ABOUT TAKING WHOM HOSTAGE? WHO'S GONNA ATTACK FROM WHOSE BACK AGAIN......? SEM - PAAAAAAIIIIIIIII - !"
As he began to kick one of the several water tanks around on the rooftop -
- The seniors knew that they were bound for the hospital once again.
Several months later
The incident happened anyway after several months of quietude.
The delinquents who got beaten up by Shizuo targeted Tom instead of Shizuo for their revenge.
Shizuo only knew about the incident after it had happened.
The delinquents had told Tanaka that they would let him off the hook if he lured Shizuo here.
Tanaka had sighed and said OK.
"But he's still my kouhai, you see......had he done anything wrong, I would have apologized. But it was your fault to pick on him in the first place. There's no way I'm selling my kouhai out to you when he's completely innocent."
When all was said and done, he still ended up having to fight.
Shizuo arrived to see some of the delinquents lying on the ground in a haphazard fashion. Tanaka, who looked at him as if to say 'Finally,' was badly injured but still standing.
After taking the remaining delinquents down with violence, Shizuo stared at Tanaka, who was trying to conceal himself in fear of getting embroiled in the fight again, and asked:
"Tanaka-sempai, are you not good at fighting? Then why not just use me like the other sempais have said?"
Tom beamed at Shizuo, whose honorific speech was still a little awkward, before saying:
"I'm just 'not good at' fighting."
Tanaka shrugged at his kouhai, trying to act tough to fit his part as the sempai as he said:
"You said you 'hated' violence though you're good at fighting, didn't you? If that's true, it's better to not fight."
Now, the hotpot party
"After that I dyed my hair like Tom-sempai told me to......and not nearly as many people came to me for fights after they spread the rumors around......it was a peaceful period in my life."
Kadota nodded at Shizuo, who sounded nostalgic as he talked about the old days.
"It's so good to have a nice sempai like him."
"Yeah......but he and I ended up going to different high schools......anyway, after I met that fucking flea, those peaceful days just crumbled to pieces."
Shizuo's face began to show signs of an imminent storm presumably because his enemy's face had surfaced in his mind. Kadota hastened to try to pacify his temper:
"Calm down. He's not invited to this place anyway. Probably sulking somewhere on his own. He's pathetic as he is, so try to leave him alone if you can."
"......If he never appears before my eyes again, I'd consider that."
Shizuo's temper receded as he thought of the almost-crying face of Orihara Izaya, his enemy, all alone in front of a hotpot - and he was able to focus on helping himself to more food again.
"But Kadota, the people you take around with you are strange folks as well......where did you come to know them?"
Shizuo was looking at Yumasaki and Karisawa, who were mixing very well with the high schoolers, and Togusa, who was yelling "Isn't.....isn't this Hijiribe Ruri's autograph!? How did you - !?" while looking at a picture frame hanging in the corner.
"Huh.....you mean those guys......"
Kadota narrowed his eyes as if trying to remember before saying, slowly:
"I met those guys, I think......"
" - Four years ago, in winter. Can't forget even if I tried."
"Kadota Kyohei and Yumasaki Walker were butler trainees.
Young men were trained at this butler subdivision under the postgraduate division at Hakureiryou Academy* to vie for the right to serve the most elegant of masters and mistresses -
Before their eyes stood, in her black dress and surrounded by black roses, the Queen -
Erika Beatrice Karisawa, heiress of the Karisawa Corporation!
Kadota fell in love with her at first sight......that's right, he had became the butler of love who was dying to be a slave of love even before he even earned the right to serve her......!"
"......Hang on."
"But one day, Kadota realized that he was not his real self, and his feelings for the heiress was unadulterated respect rather than love! And then Dotachin came to his senses. He realized that the only source of comfort for him was his one and true rival, Walker......!"
"......Hang on."
"Wait, Karisawa-san, please stop! Why are you fantasizing about Kadota-san and me in a Boys Love relationship!? I've said over and over that people like Karisawa-san are the reason the society has a negative impression of otaku culture in general! I say Kadota-san and I should become heroes in Galgames who win over the hearts of loads and loads of heroines! Actually, we can even do without Kadota-san! I'll be happy as long as I have this bondaged right hand blessed with the power of ancient moe-moe peoples so that every girl who sees my right hand would go 'Woo ~ '......"
"......Hang on."
"Ehhh? But wasn't Yumacchi talking about writing me and Dotachin in a master-slave relationship? How about this - Dotachin somehow becomes a girl when he gets up one morning, and finds himself in a boarding school for females......"
"SHUT - UP - YOU - TWO - AHHHHHHHH!"
Yumasaki and Karisawa had begun to spill out their nonsense fantasy scenarios again as if to keep Kadota from talking about their past.
Kadota grabbed their collars to make them shut their mouths while Togusa was busy asking Celty where they got the autograph.
Shizuo scratched his face as he watched the scene. He went back to looking for meat in the hotpot before saying to himself:
"......Whatever. Looks like they're having fun anyway."
"Oops, what's with this? Everyone's going all nostalgic despite being so young!"
Shinra, who had been watching the people at the hotpot party, said cheerfully in front of them.
"Anyway! Time flies. Years can pass you by in a blink, so it's not a bad thing to be nostalgic. I'm not saying the present is necessarily worse, of course! I have this once-in-a-life-time story about Celty and me. Can I tell them the story about how we confirmed our love for each other in that kidnapping incident ten years ago? Celty? Will you mind?"
[I told you we just got it today and they said it was for Shinra. I have no idea why we got Hijiribe Ruri's autograph either.]
Celty, who apparently didn't hear him, was still explaining to Togusa how they got the autograph.
After she sensed that the room had fallen silent as if expecting a reply from her, she tilted her head and showed Shinra her PDA.
[......Eh? What's up?]
"That kidnapping incident ten years ago which made us realize our love for each other!"
[......What?]
"Ehhh!? That incident! The incident that happened back when they were fighting for the Etsusa Bridge construction contract, the one that involved politicians! Celty and I somehow found ourselves involved, didn't we?"
Celty simply tilted her head once again as Shinra tried desperately to describe the incident.
[Huh, didn't know that happened......]
"That's all you've got to say to this!?"
Shinra dropped his body backwards to stare at the ceiling in shock. Kadota clapped him on the shoulder.
"......Cheer up. I have no idea what actually happened but there is this thing called unrequited love. Especially if we're talking about you."
"B - But it wasn't like that! At that time we really did......right! I'm sure Izaya knows about this! I'll get Izaya to come here right away and you'll see I didn't just make this up ahhhhhhhhhhhh- "
Kadota had to cover Shinra's mouth with his hand and lower his voice.
"......Do you want Shizuo to destroy your place?"
"Uhhhhh......"
Shinra had to shrug and give up at the thought of the God of Wrath in his bartender suit.
Celty, after seeing him act like that, went straight to the balcony by herself.
She lowered her shouldered as if anxious at the infinite expenses of the Tokyo night view.
- He knows so many idioms......but doesn't he realize what "A secret kept is a flower" means?
- It's so embarrassing. Stupid Shinra.
As she raised her head to look at the night sky, memories of that incident rushed to her head -
But that was another story.
An hour later
"So many different people came today......I was kind of shocked. Thank you for the invitation, I really appreciate it."
Anri insisted on helping to peel the apples for the dessert before leaving. Mikado thanked Shinra after he was completely full.
"Well, it's the first time we did something like this, and your friends were here as well. This is gonna be a pleasant memory for you, I hope?"
Shinra was saying something that sounded like advice before his Raira kouhai.
"But there was really nothing all that special......"
"It's good enough to be able to have hotpot together. Don't you think it's important to have friends you can eat with in a harmonious atmosphere like this?"
Shinra, as if thinking of a specific someone, said sarcastically with a grin:
"There are people in this world who would never get invited to such harmonious gatherings and have to do their hotpots alone."
The second Shinra said this -
Someone sneezed loudly in an apartment in Shinjuku.
"......Did I catch a cold?"
The information broker, who lowered his head to reach for a napkin, had yet to know about everything that happened a couple of days before and the hotpot party which everybody got to enjoy in harmony except him.
He got to know about everything only half a day later, though.
"So......what next?"
The murmur sounded like an odd note. Perhaps he felt more lonely today than usual.
He began to hit the keyboard as he realized how weird he was feeling.
The man who didn't get invited to the "party of the trusted" simply kept hitting the keys - alone.
Clank clank Clank clank Clank cla -
THE END
EDIT;
Fuck yeah, anni-fiesta has even more updates.
YAGIRI NAMIE
Why do I have to make him dinner as he tells me to......?
......Should I poison him...?
HARIMA MIKA
My cooking skills exist only for Seiji-san's sake!
So, if you find my cooking delicious, don't forget to thank Seiji-san!
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
CELTY STURLUSON
[......] (If it were just crab balls I would have been able to manage......)
SONOHARA ANRI
S - Sorry, could I use a katana to peel this......probably not...right?
EMILIA
The only process remaining is namely to mix the combustibles and have the kindling ceremony. The cooked is warmed from inside and is neck and neck with the microwave oven. Fufu!
KARISAWA ERIKA
I don't know how to make an itasha*, but if it's just itameshi* I'm an expert!
I'll make anime characters with food!
*Itasha: literally "pain car" (or "embarrassing car"), this term is used to refer to a car driven by Japanese otaku with (usually moe) anime characters painted on them. "Itameshi" is a word Erika made up, literally "pain meal".
CHAPTER 1
KING TELEVISION SPECIAL REPORT: IKEBUKURO, A HUNDRED DAYS AT THE WAR FRONT
"Ikebukuro, a town that knows not what rest is - "
The heavy-hearted voice on TV was narrating the clip showing the view of the night street being shot from a patrol car.
"Two months ago, 'Ripper Night', which resulted in a series of injuries, had left the entire city in panic. Today, however, the Ikebukuro night is not looking any more reassuring."
It was the kind of special report you see everywhere around the end of the year.
In the peaceful living room, precious clips of cases being solved - obtained by journalists who followed the police's heels to shoot them - were airing on TV.
Their subjects weren't anything of national concern - usually the likes of street fights, drunk or license-less driving, or retrieving stolen cars - in fact, hardly anything that was likely to even make its way into regional newspapers.
But these events, captured raw and live on film, did give the audience the impression that malicious crimes were being committed in front of their eyes and convey its central message - "The city is scary tonight."
Still - this special report on King Television had one key difference from other programs of its kind.
"An unnerving shadow is dancing in the darkness of the night on this highway serving like an artery to this city."
The street view was switched to a famous video clip.
"This motorbike's got neither a number plate nor a headlight - what's more, it's painted completely black. Naturally, it's already risky driving to begin with."
As expected, the view was still of the Ikebukuro night.
Nevertheless, it gave off a different vibe from everything that had been on air till now.
At the center of the view, a black motorbike was soaring after another car.
As the narrator had pointed out, the motorbike was equipped with neither a headlight nor a number plate; if anything, it was more like a black silhouette that had turned into a three-dimensional object.
A gunshot was heard, and the rider on the motorbike bent far backwards to dodge it; for a moment the safety helmet seemed like it was floating away in the air.
However, it returned almost immediately to where it was a second before -
- as if it were connected to the rider's shoulder by black elastic bands. This was creepy enough to make the viewer's hair stand on end, but the real problem was the "fact" that revealed itself for a split second during that process.
In the split second the safety helmet had threatened to float away -
It revealed mere emptiness underneath.
The viewer's eyes had not been deluded. Nor was it deliberate camouflage utilizing dark-colored hair on the rider's part .
Because - between the helmet and the rider's neck, the video camera did capture the view of the car from which the gunshot had been fired.
Simply put, the scene could be summed up in one sentence -
"The rider on the Black Motorbike had nothing above its neck."
That would have sufficed.
Strings of shadow extended themselves from the neck hole and grabbed the bottom of the helmet, dragged it towards the neck, and fixed it firmly in position.
The video clip was already surreal enough to be dismissed as fake. However, in combination with the medium via which it was reported, it felt strangely real.
What was more - the rider had one more terrifying feature.
Namely, the long, non-reflecting weapon the rider had been wielding even before the gunshot - which looked as if it were made of mid-summer shadows.
But it was too weird to even be called a weapon.
It was a pitch-black scythe almost twice as tall as the rider wielding it, had a handle about three meters in length and an equally long blade.
When he first captured that scythe on his film, the cameraman had thought that it was a bousouzoku* waving his gang flag as he soared. That was how huge the scythe handle had looked.
*Japanese motorcycle gangs.
It looked as if it were cut out of the silhouette of a tarot Death God's scythe's shadow as it was projected onto the wall - pure, unadulterated black, black, black.
"We have no idea whether he's doing it for personal enjoyment or as part of some bousouzoku activity. His motives have eluded even the police."
It was obvious that the rider had far surpassed the bousouzoku level, but the reporters had to refrain from using words like "fairy" or "monster" due to professional restrictions.
Nevertheless, it was clear to everyone that he was not even human to begin with, much less the likes of "personal enjoyment criminals" or bousouzoku.
It by no means meant, however, that most people were ready to "acknowledge" this fact even if they understand that the rider was something "far surpassing realm of human knowledge".
- Which was why half of the mass media was trying to assign some sort of "meaning" to that "something".
The other half, meanwhile, began to capitalize on people's ability to "accept what they would not accept".
A strange yet very real existence in this modern city.
People had begun to take action to find out the true identity of the Headless Rider. To some it was part of their strange fascination, revived every few years, with the occult - to others it was the exact opposite: they wanted to prove that such strange things did not exist.
Today, the mass media was still on the pursuit for the Headless Rider.
Some reporters had screamed that they had seen "the real monster".
Anyone who was watching the program would have to admit that the rider did look like it did not have a head.
Even if some tried to prove it false, the figure captured vividly in action was too convincing to be dismissed. Some had even started the rumor -
- that the Headless Rider existed somewhere in-between reality and urban legends because of the plethora of rumors that created him.
In reality, you could witness the "urban legend" occupying a sensitive spot in the metropolitan consciousness just by spending a few days wandering the streets of Ikebukuro.
- Which many people continued to do even today.
However, the essential information remained unrevealed. The identity of the Headless Rider was enshrouded in darkness, its very existence reduced to a representation of "modern myths", and dissolved into the society it was in.
And the "myth" itself -
- was working a temporary job in a little corner of Nerima, Tokyo.
♂♀
Somewhere in Nerima, Tokyo
Blinding light surrounded the white skin.
The light was intense enough to blur the boundary between reality and fantasy. Under its brightness lay a naked female.
Above the sufficiently worked-out abdominals a pair of well-shaped breasts were trembling as fingers, smooth as white fish, slid into their cleavage.
The fingers also belonged to a female; her blond hair shone under the light.
She was dressed like some sort of doctor or researcher, but her distinctively babyish face and golden irises were a strange match with the white lab coat she had on.
What was more, her body, even more sensual than the naked female's lying on the bed beside her, was inadvertently making sultry "moves" in her lab coat.
If the blond's body was the type that provoked carnal desires, the body of the female on the bed could be described as healthily beautiful; the two mesmerizing bodies were especially eye-catching in the intense light they were immersed in.
The fingers slid smoothly from the naked female's breasts to her abdomen and lingered around the navel.
It would have been an erotic view had it not been for one problem - one that ruined the mood in its entirety and transformed the scene into one akin to gory pornography.
- One that, all considered, was a little too obvious to the eye.
You could try to tone it down any way you liked, but the female lying on the bed -
- had nothing above her neck.
The cut was too clean and smooth to have been a "cut"; in fact, it looked as if it had been designed that way from the very beginning.
Swirling shadows hid the oesophagus and the spine, which should have been visible, from view.
But even if one were to overlook that fact, the scene still looked like a coroner at work.
The Caucasian coroner and the the strange female body currently under her examination.
It was amazing how the scene lost all its erotic appeal when all that was missing was a head - but as the female in the white coat retracted her hand from the headless "body", what she said sounded a world apart from the lines in a porno or a coroner's proceedings.
"Done! Finished till the end with all due respect! I thank you that you dabbled in this business with respect!"
Her absurd Japanese was followed by something that was even less in accord with the atmosphere.
The headless female's hand moved just barely and a black substance flowed out.
It hardly looked gaseous; if anything, it looked like liquid that blended itself into the surrounding air.
It reflected even less light than what one would normally consider "black"; there was no appropriate way to describe its color save "shadowy" or "dark".
The "shadow" flooded over the completely naked body and wrapped it up in a way that would make the viewer think it had a will of its own.
The female in the white coat looked on with interest, not looking in the least surprised.
In a matter of seconds, the headless female on the bed went from completely naked to dressed in a pitch-black rider suit.
- But remained without a head.
The female in the black rider suit did not seem bothered by her own headlessness. Instead, she grabbed the PDA lying on the table next to her bed.
After deftly typing in a series of words, the alien-like existence showed the display screen to the female in the white coat.
[I did not 'dabble in' anything, The right way to say it is 'helped you out.']
"Oops, I apologize with respect. This makes me very ashamed with respect."
[......So you can read kanji...does that mean your Japanese is weird because you want it to be? For the sake of your characterization or something?]
"That is from the solidly suspicious fact's point of view non-existent. PINKARARINOPUU."
The Headless Rider felt her shoulders give away as the female in the white coat began to grin innocently. She typed some more:
[I don't know whether to take that for a yes or no...but whatever, Emilia, just give me my salary for the week. And the correct pronunciation is 'TOPPINGPARARINOPUU' *. PINKARARI is the name of a horseback bread-seller."
* Meaning "That's all there is to the story" in Akita dialect.
"Really, mentioning the matters concerning payment, this is really cunning of you with respect. You must work more on raising cuteness level and then can you become the Yamato Nadeshiko* with the best of Eastern and Western romanticism."
* The Japanese "ideal female".
[Yamato Nadeshiko? But I'm from Ireland......]
Emilia lowered her head with a pouting face at the headless woman's retort.
"But you are Ikebukuroan now with respect! Also, if you can call me 'Mother', I'll thank you like lightning with kneeling and kowtow like rain and hurricane with respect! 'Mommy' is permitted too, Mama Mia~"
[I'll just...pass...um...it's true that Shinra and I are contemplating our future, but we have yet to discuss anything as concrete as marriage...also, just think about it, you know how old I am...actually, even Shinra is older than you, Emilia, so it's kind of...um...for me to call you Mother...]
The headless woman was squirming as if embarrassed, but owing to her lack of a face to show the blushing, it was as creepy as looking at a zombie struggling after having its head blown off.
[Please, just let me have my salary already! That's the only reason I put up with these distasteful bodily experiments you've been doing on me after all. And what was the last palpating part supposed to tell you about my body?]
"Ahhh, your skin is impeccable as egg white, and fresh out of the bath too......so beautiful and smooth I just did want to touch it closely and become immersed in heavenliness."*
[......I'm too tired to be mad at you right now...just hand me this week's salary already.]
"Yes yes yes, please calm down with respect. Scared homeless jobless people get paid less than you do, you know?"
Emilia handed her an envelope while saying things sounding as if they were meant to distract her.
【THANK YOU MS. CELTY STURLUSON】
In the envelope with these handwritten words lay a hundred 10,000-yen bills.
The headless alien quickly checked the contents of the envelope with a thousand shadowy fingers. Her spirits rose, and the words she typed onto her PDA became peppered with symbols.
[Everything looks good☆Thanks for the opportunity♪]
Taking with her the salary, which was a little too much for a mere week's work, the headless woman - Celty Sturluson - departed the research facility with light footsteps.
Celty's eyes became fixed on a motorbike in the corner of the parking lot the moment she entered it.
It was a motorbike carefully draped under a rain shield. Curiously, the rain shield was not commonplace silver, but rather dark black - the same color as the substance that covered Celty's body.
The second her hand touched it, the rain shield dissipated into fine drops of black mist and disappeared into the air altogether.
It was a magical view, but Celty appeared more than used to it; she mounted the motorbike that had just revealed itself, and put the helmet hanging off its arm onto her neck.
The Headless Rider soaring the night streets, and her motorbike without a headlight or a number plate.
The most eye-catching combination was apparently oblivious to their status as "mysterious creatures" -
The Rider simply let the engine neigh like a horse before charging into the Ikebukuro night.
♂♀
Celty Sturluson was not human.
She was a dullahan, a Scottish or Irish fairy that knocked on the doors of the dying and warned them of their impending death.
She carried her severed head at her side and rode a carriage pulled by a Coiste-bodhar (a headless horse) to the homes of the dying. If they were thoughtless enough to open the door, she would splash upon them a bucketful of blood - and was therefore regarded as a messenger of doom like banshees in European folklore.
Some believed that dullahans were the form Nordic Valkyries took when they fell onto the Earth. Celty herself had no idea whether it was true or not, however.
Perhaps she did know.
But she certainly does not remember.
She lost the memories as to what she was when her head was stolen in her homeland. That was the reason she followed the scent of its presence all the way to Ikebukuro.
Her headless horse was transformed into a motorbike and her armor into a rider suit; for decades she wandered the streets in this city.
But she ended up getting neither her head nor her memories back.
For Celty, life was good as it was.
She had someone who loved her, and people who accepted her for what she was. She was content to be able to just spend her life the way she was with these people.
Having made up her mind, the headless woman decided to show her resolve to the world through her actions rather than her nonexistent face.
- Such was the being named Celty Sturluson.
♂♀
A national highway in Ikebukuro
Celty considered her future plans as she rode back to central Tokyo in a high spirit.
- Never expected I would be able to earn a million yen within a week.
- I'll probably buy Shinra a new pair of glasses.
Shinra was an underground doctor who lived with her; they were now a loving couple.
He was not only in love with her heart, but also with her headless appearance; as weird as that made he sound, Celty loved the underground doctor too from the bottom of her heart.
She felt even better as she pictured the happily surprised face of her beloved freak, and continued to think of ways she would spend the remaining money.
- And then, buy a new portable lapop......
- Also, it's about time to buy a new helmet.
The salary from the temporary job was like a bonus to her. Therefore, she was able to spend it on whatever without having to worry about leaving some for her savings.
She had her usual income as a courier, but that money went almost entirely into her savings for the future.
The temporary job was made available to her a month ago when she met Emilia, who came to Ikebukuro to reunite with Shinra's father.
Emilia, who was employed by the pharmaceutical branch of a large overseas corporation*, simply knocked on Celty's door and asked for her permission to "play with her body".
*Nebula.
Of course, Celty refused at first - but eventually had to cave in despite her reluctance when Emilia added conditions such as "minimal vivisection and cell sampling" and "palpation by female researchers only".
But the delicious amount of money Emilia offered was also an important reason.
- Really, in the old days I would have to let Shinra keep the money even if I earned this amount.
- But now I can buy almost anything online. Civilization is awesome.
Celty's thoughts went increasingly mundane as they continued down the un-monster-like route.
- It feels so nice to not have to spend money on my motorbike. All I have to get Shooter is a brush for his mane since he's not fond of stickers.
Shooter was probably Celty's pet name for her Coiste-bodhar since she stroked him gently as she referred to him as such.
He was apparently pleased, because the usually silent engine let out a neigh of a horse's that made several passers-by jump.
- Oops. How adorable.
As her horse neighed she went on planning how she would use her million-yen treasure like a kid shopping for snacks for his outing the next day.
- That'll still leave me with 700,000.
- I'll get that DVD recorder set I've had my eyes on for a while. The kind that does videotape-to-DVD conversion.
- That way I'll be able to have everything in DVD format - "Try and Understand"*, "Wonders and Discoveries", "The TV Investigation Squad", "Drama on the Ninth", "Friends" and "How Much Is Your Treasure Worth?"*.
* Try and Understand (Tameshite Gatten): A popular NHK program that teaches its viewer to apply science to everyday tasks.
* How Much Is Your Treasure Worth? (Nandemo Kanteidan): A popular TVTokyo variety show that offers to assess the value of any "personal treasure" the participant brings to the show.
- And...what else...right, I'll treat Shinra to something nice. He said he was craving three-five-eight marinaded* sandfish......but is sandfish even in season?
* Three-five-eight marinading: a kind of Japanese marinading technique that will be explained by Harima Mika near the end of this book.
It was already Mid-April, way past the breeding season for sandfish. But for Celty the greater problem was the cooking part.
She didn't have a tongue since she had nothing above her neck.
The "shadow" that flows out from inside her body worked as a kind of radar - Celty didn't know why, but she could see, hear and even smell with her "shadow".
But she couldn't taste, probably because she did not need to eat. She had no idea if things smelt the same to Shinra as they did to her, either.
Even though she could follow recipes, it was impossible to make sure her dishes tasted good on her own.
Thanks to years of training she was now able to make egg dishes such as crab balls and scrambled eggs palatable to Shinra. But for other kinds of dishes all she could manage was to make them look like they did in the recipes. Since she had no sense of taste, it was impossible to tell whether she mistook sugar for salt until Shinra had tried the dish.
- I need someone good at cooking to give me some formal lessons......
- ......I wonder if Anri and Karisawa are good at cooking.
A few females she knew came to her mind, but none struck her as a possible cooking expert. Since she wanted to cook Japanese, asking Emilia was probably a waste of time. Other females she knew were just as idiosyncratic....
- Seriously, housewives are something.
The monster shrugged at the sky in awe of humans. The sun had already set.
The streets were lit, making the stars hardly visible. The moon boasted its light amongst the vast emptiness.
- But it's still a sort of happiness to be able to think about such things.
- I had no idea things would turn out like this when Emilia knocked on our door last month......
Emilia was staying with them - but since she spent her nights at the research facility all week she hardly ever showed up at their apartment.
The dissection table became part of her routine, but she was able to accept that telling herself that the detrimental effects would be controlled to a minimum and the payment would be great.
The traffic light turned red, she braked, her heart at peace because she was living her life like a human.
- Ahh. Exactly. This is what I want.
To lead an ordinary life with the one I love.
This was immense happiness for her, a monster in others' eyes. The Headless Rider felt her heart melt in the warmth of that thought.
- Maybe it won't be such a bad idea after all to call Emilia "Mother" once in a while.
- I wonder what kind of face Shinra would make.
Patiently, Celty waited for the traffic light to change as she pictured her lover's flustered expression.
But -
Humans didn't care about Celty's everyday life nearly as much as she did.
Instead, they insisted on seeing her as an aberration, and proceeded to push her towards the mouth of Hell.
"Excuse me, could I have a minute of your time?"
- Hmm?
Celty turned her attention towards her surroundings upon hearing the voice; her helmet turned around.
A well-built male was holding what looked like a microphone to her as she waited for the traffic light to change.
- ? He's talking to me? Who is he, anyway? Why is he holding a mike to my helmet on the highway?
The male got closer to Celty, whose motorbike was close to the guardrail, and spoke to her over the guardrail in a serious tone:
"I'm Fukumi from King Television, and I've got a couple of things to ask you."
- No. No way......
Seeing another male holding a TV camera at a distance and some men in casual clothes further away, Celty realized what this Fukumi guy was after.
"We're interviewing you for this special report on Ikebukuro we're doing...your motorbike has neither a headlight nor a number plate, right? Isn't that obviously a violation of traffic rules?"
The reporter looked closely at Celty as he said things that were indisputably right.
What was worse, the traffic light had refused to turn green.
- Shoot, traffic lights in this area are slow.
She had no problem riding a motorbike without a headlight or a number plate - yet she cared for traffic lights.
It was sort of ridiculous, but the reporter simply went on talking, apparently not amused.
"You're the Black Motorbike that has been seen since years ago, right? What is your purpose for riding such a dangerous motorbike on the streets?"
At that instant - the engine let out a roar.
Gururu - the roar chilled the hearts of passers-by as if they had heard a beast.
The reporter froze. Despite his doubts about her engine, which did not usually make sounds, he recovered instantly and continued asking:
"Could you say something? Are you aware that you're breaking the law?"
- Ahhhhh......
- What should I do......even if I keep silent like this, I'll make a negative impression on the society.
- I don't care how they see me, but I can't stand the thought of my friends being treated like a criminal's companions...but there's no way I'll be able to get a number plate, and Shooter hates headlights......
She couldn't think of a way out of this situation even though she tried.
She couldnt' deny that she did transport less-than-legal stuff in her courier career. Her motorbike obviously violated traffic rules as well.
But there was no way she could simply say, "I'm a monster. Let me live."
- ......Or is there?
- Would it really matter if I said it?
- Since it's a live report, they'll probably have to trash the film if I let them see something that obviously "can't be." The viewers will probably think it's a fake.
- It's not like I haven't been filmed before anyway.
Celty, having made up her mind, produced her PDA and began to type in the face of the reporter.
"......? What is this? Um......what's happening?"
The reporter was confused by Celty's first proactive attempt to communicate. His eyes wandered between the PDA's display screen and Celty's helmet.
One could hardly blame him considering the contents of the single line displayed on the screen.
[He's a horse. That's why he has neither a headlight nor a number plate.]
"Come on...if you're trying to kid us you should at least......uwahhh......"
The reporter stiffened in shock as he was just beginning to speak with a frown.
The Black Motorbike had wriggled and transfigured to twice its original volume.
With total disregard of the rules of physics, it had taken on the shape of a living creature - a pitch-black horse, in a matter of seconds.
But there was one thing wrong with the horse.
"Eh...ehhhhhh......."
The reporter was expressing his fear not of the transformation process, but of the shape the horse took after it.
- Which was totally understandable.
The Headless Rider's beloved motorbike, which had been without a headlight in the motorbike form, kept that characteristic perfectly after the transformation.
Which meant -
The horse was "without a head".
- Heheh. I haven't seen him in the horse form since we roamed the forests on the Fuji mountain.
Celty stroked the horse's chopped neck proudly as she faced the reporter. She typed words in to her PDA in a firm manner, not seeming to mind his uncontrollable shaking.
[I believe you see what I mean. Now, if you'll excuse us......]
- Horses are "light vehicles" like bikes if I recall correctly, right?
Celty waited for the traffic light to change as she thought.
If clips of her horse were to be aired, most of the people would probably just think that the TV station had finally lost the ability to tell between news reports and sci-fi specials.
That was probably why the existence of "abnormal" creatures were never properly reported in the first place.
The traffic light situated at the crossing began to flash. Celty, knowing that the light would turn green any moment now, put her PDA back and contemplated the coolest way to leave the scene -
- Until, the next second -
"Oi."
A shudder ran down her spine and heart.
"Stand still, monster."
A too-familiar voice sounded from behind. Celty felt her entire body pulsate like the heart of a vivisected frog despite the complete absence of blood in her system.
You must not turn.
But you must turn.
Her instinct and rational thoughts warned her body in turn.
It was right behind her.
"Something" that she couldn't do anything about was right behind her.
Half of her wanted to at least make sure it was him before thinking of escape, while the other half told her to not waste a single second and just run for it -
She turned her sensors slowly towards her back as she heard unpleasant noises from her spine -
And there he was, the traffic cop with a refreshing grin on a white motorbike.
The human traffic police who had planted seeds of fear in her heart before was asking her in a flat tone as he put his foot on the accelerator with a half-pleased, half-mad expression on his face:
"Are you aware that even light vehicles aren't allowed to go on the road without headlights?"
The traffic light turned green.
At the same moment, Celty's peace was put to an end.
Laced by fear, the game of tag between the monster and humans had begun.
However, by the looks of it -
The monster was to be the chased one for a change.
♂♀
The roar pierced the Ikebukuro night as Shooter's giant hooves rang at the movement of his own body.
Celty, who was holding on to the reins that were originally the motorbike's handles, had forgotten to even transform him back into the motorbike.
Shooter, her horse, was a soul who combined dead horses with damaged carriages to form its body. When she set out for Japan, she let him take the form of an abandoned motorbike they found in a metal object disposal area. This was why he was capable of transforming between three forms now.
The headless horse running on its own.
The headless horse dragging an appropriately shaped carriage.
Or, to suit the needs of the modern society, the motorbike without a headlight.
But there was no time to conjure the carriage.
Celty could only hope that the powerful sound of hooves could save her from her ultimate fear, the white motorbike, whose exhaust pipe roared from behind.
The traffic light turned red again ahead of her.
The traffic began to flow on the road before her - if she were to charge into the traffic like this, she would not be able to avoid an accident.
Bodily injuries weren't a concern for Celty, but she couldn't bring herself to disregard the serious accidents that could happen if the drivers were scared out of their wits by her charging headless horse.
- Ahhh!
After making sure that no one was walking on the sidewalk, Celty pulled at the reins and made her horse turn sharply. She felt the pressure gnaw at her back as she decelerated - but there was no time for her to feel afraid. The Coiste-bodhar pranced on her orders.
The giant black creature easily cleared the guardrail and made straight for the outside wall of a building -
And "landed" on it.
From every hoof strings of shadow extended themselves and merged with the surface of the concrete wall.
It looked as if the horse's feet were stuck to the wall with some kind of magical tape that transcended human imagination. Shooter ran vertically onto the wall with Celty on his back at an amazing speed.
"Che! Don't you figure you can escape!"
The male on the white motorbike wasn't wavered in the least at the supernatural sight in front of him.
He made a U-turn to stop his motorbike and watched Celty's moves in silence.
Celty, who felt his stare tingle on her back, tried desperately to figure out a way to escape.
- God. God God God. This is bad. This is hopeless. Just hopeless. Completely hopeless. I'm screwed.
Celty could hardly make her own thoughts coherent. She made for the rooftop anyway.
She stopped for a while on the rooftop of the building, which was apparently a small apartment complex, and contemplated her means of escape.
- R - Right...how about -
And she came up with a plan.
KING TELEVISION SPECIAL REPORT: IKEBUKURO, A HUNDRED DAYS AT THE WAR FRONT
"Ikebukuro, a town that knows not what rest is - "
The heavy-hearted voice on TV was narrating the clip showing the view of the night street being shot from a patrol car.
"Two months ago, 'Ripper Night', which resulted in a series of injuries, had left the entire city in panic. Today, however, the Ikebukuro night is not looking any more reassuring."
It was the kind of special report you see everywhere around the end of the year.
In the peaceful living room, precious clips of cases being solved - obtained by journalists who followed the police's heels to shoot them - were airing on TV.
Their subjects weren't anything of national concern - usually the likes of street fights, drunk or license-less driving, or retrieving stolen cars - in fact, hardly anything that was likely to even make its way into regional newspapers.
But these events, captured raw and live on film, did give the audience the impression that malicious crimes were being committed in front of their eyes and convey its central message - "The city is scary tonight."
Still - this special report on King Television had one key difference from other programs of its kind.
"An unnerving shadow is dancing in the darkness of the night on this highway serving like an artery to this city."
The street view was switched to a famous video clip.
"This motorbike's got neither a number plate nor a headlight - what's more, it's painted completely black. Naturally, it's already risky driving to begin with."
As expected, the view was still of the Ikebukuro night.
Nevertheless, it gave off a different vibe from everything that had been on air till now.
At the center of the view, a black motorbike was soaring after another car.
As the narrator had pointed out, the motorbike was equipped with neither a headlight nor a number plate; if anything, it was more like a black silhouette that had turned into a three-dimensional object.
A gunshot was heard, and the rider on the motorbike bent far backwards to dodge it; for a moment the safety helmet seemed like it was floating away in the air.
However, it returned almost immediately to where it was a second before -
- as if it were connected to the rider's shoulder by black elastic bands. This was creepy enough to make the viewer's hair stand on end, but the real problem was the "fact" that revealed itself for a split second during that process.
In the split second the safety helmet had threatened to float away -
It revealed mere emptiness underneath.
The viewer's eyes had not been deluded. Nor was it deliberate camouflage utilizing dark-colored hair on the rider's part .
Because - between the helmet and the rider's neck, the video camera did capture the view of the car from which the gunshot had been fired.
Simply put, the scene could be summed up in one sentence -
"The rider on the Black Motorbike had nothing above its neck."
That would have sufficed.
Strings of shadow extended themselves from the neck hole and grabbed the bottom of the helmet, dragged it towards the neck, and fixed it firmly in position.
The video clip was already surreal enough to be dismissed as fake. However, in combination with the medium via which it was reported, it felt strangely real.
What was more - the rider had one more terrifying feature.
Namely, the long, non-reflecting weapon the rider had been wielding even before the gunshot - which looked as if it were made of mid-summer shadows.
But it was too weird to even be called a weapon.
It was a pitch-black scythe almost twice as tall as the rider wielding it, had a handle about three meters in length and an equally long blade.
When he first captured that scythe on his film, the cameraman had thought that it was a bousouzoku* waving his gang flag as he soared. That was how huge the scythe handle had looked.
*Japanese motorcycle gangs.
It looked as if it were cut out of the silhouette of a tarot Death God's scythe's shadow as it was projected onto the wall - pure, unadulterated black, black, black.
"We have no idea whether he's doing it for personal enjoyment or as part of some bousouzoku activity. His motives have eluded even the police."
It was obvious that the rider had far surpassed the bousouzoku level, but the reporters had to refrain from using words like "fairy" or "monster" due to professional restrictions.
Nevertheless, it was clear to everyone that he was not even human to begin with, much less the likes of "personal enjoyment criminals" or bousouzoku.
It by no means meant, however, that most people were ready to "acknowledge" this fact even if they understand that the rider was something "far surpassing realm of human knowledge".
- Which was why half of the mass media was trying to assign some sort of "meaning" to that "something".
The other half, meanwhile, began to capitalize on people's ability to "accept what they would not accept".
A strange yet very real existence in this modern city.
People had begun to take action to find out the true identity of the Headless Rider. To some it was part of their strange fascination, revived every few years, with the occult - to others it was the exact opposite: they wanted to prove that such strange things did not exist.
Today, the mass media was still on the pursuit for the Headless Rider.
Some reporters had screamed that they had seen "the real monster".
Anyone who was watching the program would have to admit that the rider did look like it did not have a head.
Even if some tried to prove it false, the figure captured vividly in action was too convincing to be dismissed. Some had even started the rumor -
- that the Headless Rider existed somewhere in-between reality and urban legends because of the plethora of rumors that created him.
In reality, you could witness the "urban legend" occupying a sensitive spot in the metropolitan consciousness just by spending a few days wandering the streets of Ikebukuro.
- Which many people continued to do even today.
However, the essential information remained unrevealed. The identity of the Headless Rider was enshrouded in darkness, its very existence reduced to a representation of "modern myths", and dissolved into the society it was in.
And the "myth" itself -
- was working a temporary job in a little corner of Nerima, Tokyo.
♂♀
Somewhere in Nerima, Tokyo
Blinding light surrounded the white skin.
The light was intense enough to blur the boundary between reality and fantasy. Under its brightness lay a naked female.
Above the sufficiently worked-out abdominals a pair of well-shaped breasts were trembling as fingers, smooth as white fish, slid into their cleavage.
The fingers also belonged to a female; her blond hair shone under the light.
She was dressed like some sort of doctor or researcher, but her distinctively babyish face and golden irises were a strange match with the white lab coat she had on.
What was more, her body, even more sensual than the naked female's lying on the bed beside her, was inadvertently making sultry "moves" in her lab coat.
If the blond's body was the type that provoked carnal desires, the body of the female on the bed could be described as healthily beautiful; the two mesmerizing bodies were especially eye-catching in the intense light they were immersed in.
The fingers slid smoothly from the naked female's breasts to her abdomen and lingered around the navel.
It would have been an erotic view had it not been for one problem - one that ruined the mood in its entirety and transformed the scene into one akin to gory pornography.
- One that, all considered, was a little too obvious to the eye.
You could try to tone it down any way you liked, but the female lying on the bed -
- had nothing above her neck.
The cut was too clean and smooth to have been a "cut"; in fact, it looked as if it had been designed that way from the very beginning.
Swirling shadows hid the oesophagus and the spine, which should have been visible, from view.
But even if one were to overlook that fact, the scene still looked like a coroner at work.
The Caucasian coroner and the the strange female body currently under her examination.
It was amazing how the scene lost all its erotic appeal when all that was missing was a head - but as the female in the white coat retracted her hand from the headless "body", what she said sounded a world apart from the lines in a porno or a coroner's proceedings.
"Done! Finished till the end with all due respect! I thank you that you dabbled in this business with respect!"
Her absurd Japanese was followed by something that was even less in accord with the atmosphere.
The headless female's hand moved just barely and a black substance flowed out.
It hardly looked gaseous; if anything, it looked like liquid that blended itself into the surrounding air.
It reflected even less light than what one would normally consider "black"; there was no appropriate way to describe its color save "shadowy" or "dark".
The "shadow" flooded over the completely naked body and wrapped it up in a way that would make the viewer think it had a will of its own.
The female in the white coat looked on with interest, not looking in the least surprised.
In a matter of seconds, the headless female on the bed went from completely naked to dressed in a pitch-black rider suit.
- But remained without a head.
The female in the black rider suit did not seem bothered by her own headlessness. Instead, she grabbed the PDA lying on the table next to her bed.
After deftly typing in a series of words, the alien-like existence showed the display screen to the female in the white coat.
[I did not 'dabble in' anything, The right way to say it is 'helped you out.']
"Oops, I apologize with respect. This makes me very ashamed with respect."
[......So you can read kanji...does that mean your Japanese is weird because you want it to be? For the sake of your characterization or something?]
"That is from the solidly suspicious fact's point of view non-existent. PINKARARINOPUU."
The Headless Rider felt her shoulders give away as the female in the white coat began to grin innocently. She typed some more:
[I don't know whether to take that for a yes or no...but whatever, Emilia, just give me my salary for the week. And the correct pronunciation is 'TOPPINGPARARINOPUU' *. PINKARARI is the name of a horseback bread-seller."
* Meaning "That's all there is to the story" in Akita dialect.
"Really, mentioning the matters concerning payment, this is really cunning of you with respect. You must work more on raising cuteness level and then can you become the Yamato Nadeshiko* with the best of Eastern and Western romanticism."
* The Japanese "ideal female".
[Yamato Nadeshiko? But I'm from Ireland......]
Emilia lowered her head with a pouting face at the headless woman's retort.
"But you are Ikebukuroan now with respect! Also, if you can call me 'Mother', I'll thank you like lightning with kneeling and kowtow like rain and hurricane with respect! 'Mommy' is permitted too, Mama Mia~"
[I'll just...pass...um...it's true that Shinra and I are contemplating our future, but we have yet to discuss anything as concrete as marriage...also, just think about it, you know how old I am...actually, even Shinra is older than you, Emilia, so it's kind of...um...for me to call you Mother...]
The headless woman was squirming as if embarrassed, but owing to her lack of a face to show the blushing, it was as creepy as looking at a zombie struggling after having its head blown off.
[Please, just let me have my salary already! That's the only reason I put up with these distasteful bodily experiments you've been doing on me after all. And what was the last palpating part supposed to tell you about my body?]
"Ahhh, your skin is impeccable as egg white, and fresh out of the bath too......so beautiful and smooth I just did want to touch it closely and become immersed in heavenliness."*
[......I'm too tired to be mad at you right now...just hand me this week's salary already.]
"Yes yes yes, please calm down with respect. Scared homeless jobless people get paid less than you do, you know?"
Emilia handed her an envelope while saying things sounding as if they were meant to distract her.
【THANK YOU MS. CELTY STURLUSON】
In the envelope with these handwritten words lay a hundred 10,000-yen bills.
The headless alien quickly checked the contents of the envelope with a thousand shadowy fingers. Her spirits rose, and the words she typed onto her PDA became peppered with symbols.
[Everything looks good☆Thanks for the opportunity♪]
Taking with her the salary, which was a little too much for a mere week's work, the headless woman - Celty Sturluson - departed the research facility with light footsteps.
Celty's eyes became fixed on a motorbike in the corner of the parking lot the moment she entered it.
It was a motorbike carefully draped under a rain shield. Curiously, the rain shield was not commonplace silver, but rather dark black - the same color as the substance that covered Celty's body.
The second her hand touched it, the rain shield dissipated into fine drops of black mist and disappeared into the air altogether.
It was a magical view, but Celty appeared more than used to it; she mounted the motorbike that had just revealed itself, and put the helmet hanging off its arm onto her neck.
The Headless Rider soaring the night streets, and her motorbike without a headlight or a number plate.
The most eye-catching combination was apparently oblivious to their status as "mysterious creatures" -
The Rider simply let the engine neigh like a horse before charging into the Ikebukuro night.
♂♀
Celty Sturluson was not human.
She was a dullahan, a Scottish or Irish fairy that knocked on the doors of the dying and warned them of their impending death.
She carried her severed head at her side and rode a carriage pulled by a Coiste-bodhar (a headless horse) to the homes of the dying. If they were thoughtless enough to open the door, she would splash upon them a bucketful of blood - and was therefore regarded as a messenger of doom like banshees in European folklore.
Some believed that dullahans were the form Nordic Valkyries took when they fell onto the Earth. Celty herself had no idea whether it was true or not, however.
Perhaps she did know.
But she certainly does not remember.
She lost the memories as to what she was when her head was stolen in her homeland. That was the reason she followed the scent of its presence all the way to Ikebukuro.
Her headless horse was transformed into a motorbike and her armor into a rider suit; for decades she wandered the streets in this city.
But she ended up getting neither her head nor her memories back.
For Celty, life was good as it was.
She had someone who loved her, and people who accepted her for what she was. She was content to be able to just spend her life the way she was with these people.
Having made up her mind, the headless woman decided to show her resolve to the world through her actions rather than her nonexistent face.
- Such was the being named Celty Sturluson.
♂♀
A national highway in Ikebukuro
Celty considered her future plans as she rode back to central Tokyo in a high spirit.
- Never expected I would be able to earn a million yen within a week.
- I'll probably buy Shinra a new pair of glasses.
Shinra was an underground doctor who lived with her; they were now a loving couple.
He was not only in love with her heart, but also with her headless appearance; as weird as that made he sound, Celty loved the underground doctor too from the bottom of her heart.
She felt even better as she pictured the happily surprised face of her beloved freak, and continued to think of ways she would spend the remaining money.
- And then, buy a new portable lapop......
- Also, it's about time to buy a new helmet.
The salary from the temporary job was like a bonus to her. Therefore, she was able to spend it on whatever without having to worry about leaving some for her savings.
She had her usual income as a courier, but that money went almost entirely into her savings for the future.
The temporary job was made available to her a month ago when she met Emilia, who came to Ikebukuro to reunite with Shinra's father.
Emilia, who was employed by the pharmaceutical branch of a large overseas corporation*, simply knocked on Celty's door and asked for her permission to "play with her body".
*Nebula.
Of course, Celty refused at first - but eventually had to cave in despite her reluctance when Emilia added conditions such as "minimal vivisection and cell sampling" and "palpation by female researchers only".
But the delicious amount of money Emilia offered was also an important reason.
- Really, in the old days I would have to let Shinra keep the money even if I earned this amount.
- But now I can buy almost anything online. Civilization is awesome.
Celty's thoughts went increasingly mundane as they continued down the un-monster-like route.
- It feels so nice to not have to spend money on my motorbike. All I have to get Shooter is a brush for his mane since he's not fond of stickers.
Shooter was probably Celty's pet name for her Coiste-bodhar since she stroked him gently as she referred to him as such.
He was apparently pleased, because the usually silent engine let out a neigh of a horse's that made several passers-by jump.
- Oops. How adorable.
As her horse neighed she went on planning how she would use her million-yen treasure like a kid shopping for snacks for his outing the next day.
- That'll still leave me with 700,000.
- I'll get that DVD recorder set I've had my eyes on for a while. The kind that does videotape-to-DVD conversion.
- That way I'll be able to have everything in DVD format - "Try and Understand"*, "Wonders and Discoveries", "The TV Investigation Squad", "Drama on the Ninth", "Friends" and "How Much Is Your Treasure Worth?"*.
* Try and Understand (Tameshite Gatten): A popular NHK program that teaches its viewer to apply science to everyday tasks.
* How Much Is Your Treasure Worth? (Nandemo Kanteidan): A popular TVTokyo variety show that offers to assess the value of any "personal treasure" the participant brings to the show.
- And...what else...right, I'll treat Shinra to something nice. He said he was craving three-five-eight marinaded* sandfish......but is sandfish even in season?
* Three-five-eight marinading: a kind of Japanese marinading technique that will be explained by Harima Mika near the end of this book.
It was already Mid-April, way past the breeding season for sandfish. But for Celty the greater problem was the cooking part.
She didn't have a tongue since she had nothing above her neck.
The "shadow" that flows out from inside her body worked as a kind of radar - Celty didn't know why, but she could see, hear and even smell with her "shadow".
But she couldn't taste, probably because she did not need to eat. She had no idea if things smelt the same to Shinra as they did to her, either.
Even though she could follow recipes, it was impossible to make sure her dishes tasted good on her own.
Thanks to years of training she was now able to make egg dishes such as crab balls and scrambled eggs palatable to Shinra. But for other kinds of dishes all she could manage was to make them look like they did in the recipes. Since she had no sense of taste, it was impossible to tell whether she mistook sugar for salt until Shinra had tried the dish.
- I need someone good at cooking to give me some formal lessons......
- ......I wonder if Anri and Karisawa are good at cooking.
A few females she knew came to her mind, but none struck her as a possible cooking expert. Since she wanted to cook Japanese, asking Emilia was probably a waste of time. Other females she knew were just as idiosyncratic....
- Seriously, housewives are something.
The monster shrugged at the sky in awe of humans. The sun had already set.
The streets were lit, making the stars hardly visible. The moon boasted its light amongst the vast emptiness.
- But it's still a sort of happiness to be able to think about such things.
- I had no idea things would turn out like this when Emilia knocked on our door last month......
Emilia was staying with them - but since she spent her nights at the research facility all week she hardly ever showed up at their apartment.
The dissection table became part of her routine, but she was able to accept that telling herself that the detrimental effects would be controlled to a minimum and the payment would be great.
The traffic light turned red, she braked, her heart at peace because she was living her life like a human.
- Ahh. Exactly. This is what I want.
To lead an ordinary life with the one I love.
This was immense happiness for her, a monster in others' eyes. The Headless Rider felt her heart melt in the warmth of that thought.
- Maybe it won't be such a bad idea after all to call Emilia "Mother" once in a while.
- I wonder what kind of face Shinra would make.
Patiently, Celty waited for the traffic light to change as she pictured her lover's flustered expression.
But -
Humans didn't care about Celty's everyday life nearly as much as she did.
Instead, they insisted on seeing her as an aberration, and proceeded to push her towards the mouth of Hell.
"Excuse me, could I have a minute of your time?"
- Hmm?
Celty turned her attention towards her surroundings upon hearing the voice; her helmet turned around.
A well-built male was holding what looked like a microphone to her as she waited for the traffic light to change.
- ? He's talking to me? Who is he, anyway? Why is he holding a mike to my helmet on the highway?
The male got closer to Celty, whose motorbike was close to the guardrail, and spoke to her over the guardrail in a serious tone:
"I'm Fukumi from King Television, and I've got a couple of things to ask you."
- No. No way......
Seeing another male holding a TV camera at a distance and some men in casual clothes further away, Celty realized what this Fukumi guy was after.
"We're interviewing you for this special report on Ikebukuro we're doing...your motorbike has neither a headlight nor a number plate, right? Isn't that obviously a violation of traffic rules?"
The reporter looked closely at Celty as he said things that were indisputably right.
What was worse, the traffic light had refused to turn green.
- Shoot, traffic lights in this area are slow.
She had no problem riding a motorbike without a headlight or a number plate - yet she cared for traffic lights.
It was sort of ridiculous, but the reporter simply went on talking, apparently not amused.
"You're the Black Motorbike that has been seen since years ago, right? What is your purpose for riding such a dangerous motorbike on the streets?"
At that instant - the engine let out a roar.
Gururu - the roar chilled the hearts of passers-by as if they had heard a beast.
The reporter froze. Despite his doubts about her engine, which did not usually make sounds, he recovered instantly and continued asking:
"Could you say something? Are you aware that you're breaking the law?"
- Ahhhhh......
- What should I do......even if I keep silent like this, I'll make a negative impression on the society.
- I don't care how they see me, but I can't stand the thought of my friends being treated like a criminal's companions...but there's no way I'll be able to get a number plate, and Shooter hates headlights......
She couldn't think of a way out of this situation even though she tried.
She couldnt' deny that she did transport less-than-legal stuff in her courier career. Her motorbike obviously violated traffic rules as well.
But there was no way she could simply say, "I'm a monster. Let me live."
- ......Or is there?
- Would it really matter if I said it?
- Since it's a live report, they'll probably have to trash the film if I let them see something that obviously "can't be." The viewers will probably think it's a fake.
- It's not like I haven't been filmed before anyway.
Celty, having made up her mind, produced her PDA and began to type in the face of the reporter.
"......? What is this? Um......what's happening?"
The reporter was confused by Celty's first proactive attempt to communicate. His eyes wandered between the PDA's display screen and Celty's helmet.
One could hardly blame him considering the contents of the single line displayed on the screen.
[He's a horse. That's why he has neither a headlight nor a number plate.]
"Come on...if you're trying to kid us you should at least......uwahhh......"
The reporter stiffened in shock as he was just beginning to speak with a frown.
The Black Motorbike had wriggled and transfigured to twice its original volume.
With total disregard of the rules of physics, it had taken on the shape of a living creature - a pitch-black horse, in a matter of seconds.
But there was one thing wrong with the horse.
"Eh...ehhhhhh......."
The reporter was expressing his fear not of the transformation process, but of the shape the horse took after it.
- Which was totally understandable.
The Headless Rider's beloved motorbike, which had been without a headlight in the motorbike form, kept that characteristic perfectly after the transformation.
Which meant -
The horse was "without a head".
- Heheh. I haven't seen him in the horse form since we roamed the forests on the Fuji mountain.
Celty stroked the horse's chopped neck proudly as she faced the reporter. She typed words in to her PDA in a firm manner, not seeming to mind his uncontrollable shaking.
[I believe you see what I mean. Now, if you'll excuse us......]
- Horses are "light vehicles" like bikes if I recall correctly, right?
Celty waited for the traffic light to change as she thought.
If clips of her horse were to be aired, most of the people would probably just think that the TV station had finally lost the ability to tell between news reports and sci-fi specials.
That was probably why the existence of "abnormal" creatures were never properly reported in the first place.
The traffic light situated at the crossing began to flash. Celty, knowing that the light would turn green any moment now, put her PDA back and contemplated the coolest way to leave the scene -
- Until, the next second -
"Oi."
A shudder ran down her spine and heart.
"Stand still, monster."
A too-familiar voice sounded from behind. Celty felt her entire body pulsate like the heart of a vivisected frog despite the complete absence of blood in her system.
You must not turn.
But you must turn.
Her instinct and rational thoughts warned her body in turn.
It was right behind her.
"Something" that she couldn't do anything about was right behind her.
Half of her wanted to at least make sure it was him before thinking of escape, while the other half told her to not waste a single second and just run for it -
She turned her sensors slowly towards her back as she heard unpleasant noises from her spine -
And there he was, the traffic cop with a refreshing grin on a white motorbike.
The human traffic police who had planted seeds of fear in her heart before was asking her in a flat tone as he put his foot on the accelerator with a half-pleased, half-mad expression on his face:
"Are you aware that even light vehicles aren't allowed to go on the road without headlights?"
The traffic light turned green.
At the same moment, Celty's peace was put to an end.
Laced by fear, the game of tag between the monster and humans had begun.
However, by the looks of it -
The monster was to be the chased one for a change.
♂♀
The roar pierced the Ikebukuro night as Shooter's giant hooves rang at the movement of his own body.
Celty, who was holding on to the reins that were originally the motorbike's handles, had forgotten to even transform him back into the motorbike.
Shooter, her horse, was a soul who combined dead horses with damaged carriages to form its body. When she set out for Japan, she let him take the form of an abandoned motorbike they found in a metal object disposal area. This was why he was capable of transforming between three forms now.
The headless horse running on its own.
The headless horse dragging an appropriately shaped carriage.
Or, to suit the needs of the modern society, the motorbike without a headlight.
But there was no time to conjure the carriage.
Celty could only hope that the powerful sound of hooves could save her from her ultimate fear, the white motorbike, whose exhaust pipe roared from behind.
The traffic light turned red again ahead of her.
The traffic began to flow on the road before her - if she were to charge into the traffic like this, she would not be able to avoid an accident.
Bodily injuries weren't a concern for Celty, but she couldn't bring herself to disregard the serious accidents that could happen if the drivers were scared out of their wits by her charging headless horse.
- Ahhh!
After making sure that no one was walking on the sidewalk, Celty pulled at the reins and made her horse turn sharply. She felt the pressure gnaw at her back as she decelerated - but there was no time for her to feel afraid. The Coiste-bodhar pranced on her orders.
The giant black creature easily cleared the guardrail and made straight for the outside wall of a building -
And "landed" on it.
From every hoof strings of shadow extended themselves and merged with the surface of the concrete wall.
It looked as if the horse's feet were stuck to the wall with some kind of magical tape that transcended human imagination. Shooter ran vertically onto the wall with Celty on his back at an amazing speed.
"Che! Don't you figure you can escape!"
The male on the white motorbike wasn't wavered in the least at the supernatural sight in front of him.
He made a U-turn to stop his motorbike and watched Celty's moves in silence.
Celty, who felt his stare tingle on her back, tried desperately to figure out a way to escape.
- God. God God God. This is bad. This is hopeless. Just hopeless. Completely hopeless. I'm screwed.
Celty could hardly make her own thoughts coherent. She made for the rooftop anyway.
She stopped for a while on the rooftop of the building, which was apparently a small apartment complex, and contemplated her means of escape.
- R - Right...how about -
And she came up with a plan.
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Super Mario
IT'S A ME!
- AKA
- Jesse McCree. I feel like a New Man
Oh my lol, cracky. ilu for the pics. Now I know how Emilia looks like~~~
Super Mario
IT'S A ME!
- AKA
- Jesse McCree. I feel like a New Man
Heads up, Emilia is
Shingen's american wife (Not related to Shinra), she wasn't shown in the animu but she appears in Vol. 3, where the animu supposedly adapts. : ( It would've been fun to include her imo but if they order a season 2 I hope she makes it. She's lulzy and has alot of yuri scenes with Celty... YES! >D