Disclaimer: This story is a fan-fiction based on 'Durarara!' by Narita Ryogo.
Chapter 21. Saika
Early March
Ikebukuro
The neighborhood began to bustle when March started.
The school exams were wrapping up, putting expressions of joy and mourning on the students' faces.
The office workers looked frazzled from the pressure of the fiscal year's approaching end.
The young adults without jobs or school loitered around the same way they always did.
People of every kind filled the city as the chill of winter started to wear off.
But the bustling of Ikebukuro these days was not due to the season.
Everyone who breathed in the air of the city could feel the abnormality hanging in the atmosphere.
Izumi's apartment
9 PM
I was glad that the exams had finished. Now I could finally resume my investigation regarding the slasher incident.
So basically, the first incident happened more than a year ago. A tough guy walking the streets at night was attacked, but it did not make the news under the assumption that it was just a fight of some kind. The victim claimed he was attacked with a katana, but he eventually gave up on that, and it was classified as a street squabble.
Two months after that, an average salary-man with no history of violence got hit, which drew the media's attention and served as fuel for the daytime variety shows.
More time passed, and on Christmas night, a couple was attacked. Authorities announced it to be likely the work of the same attacker. The fuel for the variety shows went from a wooden log to a tank of gasoline.
The fact that the victims never saw the face of their attacker, combined with the location of Ikebukuro - smack in the middle of the capital - added a touch of mystery to the incidents. It posed a riddle to the world but did not quite capture all of society, because as luck would have it, there were no fatalities.
But at this point, it was far more than gasoline.
The slasher was nitro fuel, blasting through the variety shows, prime-time news, and the front page of weekly tabloids and national newspapers alike.
After all the number of victims only rose after the New Year, and by the end of February, the pitch rose to a victim every day.
And now here I was, sitting in front of my laptop trying to find more information.
"Ikebukuro tsujigiri incident? Sounds like it is related to the slasher..." I mumbled to myself.
Shortly, five years ago, people actually died during the tsujigiri incident. And in the last incident, the killer barged into a house and cut down two people. The other victim got away with minor injuries. But the authorities never caught whoever was responsible.
"Hmm... Now let us try to find the information about the katana."
But unfortunately, nothing came up.
"I guess, there is only one way to find out."
I ran through the contact list in my smartphone and called someone.
"... Hello? Orihara-san, I would like to ask you about the slasher."
Shinjuku
An hour later
"Hey... I am delighted you decided to come visit me."
"I just met you last month for the job you had me do."
"Oh, what is the harm? We did not get to chat last time. So how are things? It has been a year now since the Yagiri Pharmaceuticals incident. Have you found your head yet?"
Orihara Izaya offered Celty Sturluson a cup of tea with a sardonic smile. His nasty personality had not changed over time - he knew full well he was offering tea to someone without a mouth to drink it.
"My issues are not important... I will be direct. Any suspicions as to the slasher?"
"It will cost you three bills," he stated.
Celty pulled a wallet made of solid shadow from her riding suit of the same material. The bills inside were real, of course. She removed three ten thousand-yen bills and handed them to Izaya.
"So not only is your scythe made of shadow, so are your wallet and clothes. If I shined a bright enough light on you, would the shadow dissipate and show me your naked body?
"You want to see?"
Izaya responded to Celty's challenge by squirming backwards and smirking.
"Not really. I am not a pervert like that student or that unlicensed doctor. I do not get all hot and heavy over a severed head or its headless body."
The moment he tossed that insult back to her, a black scythe entwined its way around Izaya's neck.
The end of the scythe was curled up like a spring, forming a twisted circle around Izaya's neck, with the tip at the center. She had thrust the weapon up against his neck and morphed it into that bizarre shape in the blink of an eye.
Izaya's smile faded just the tiniest bit, and he raised his hands in a sign of surrender.
"Insulting me is one thing. But if you slander Shinra again, you will pay dearly. Let us say... with injuries that will take three days to recover from."
"Thanks for the detail. You are calm enough to tell me this is not a bluff."
"Yes, Shinra might be abnormal. But if he is weird, then he is only weird to me and no one else. You have no right to judge him."
"You sound like quite the couple," Izaya noted coolly. Celty retracted her scythe in resignation.
Unsatisfied with just being released, the informant had more sarcasm for the headless woman.
"But what if your biggest fan just happens to have a thing for headless woman? What if another dullahan comes along and seduces him? He might just fall over heels for her instead."
"Somehow I doubt that... I would not mind. All I would do-"
"Is kill Shinra and commit suicide?"
"No, I would just make certain that no other headless women get near him. It is not just that he loves me. Now I love him too..."
Izaya's smile vanished, only to be replaced by a great guffaw.
"... Kah-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I did not expect this! Since that last incident, you are more human than ever! But be careful. The closer you get to being human, the larger the gap might be when you finally do get your head and memories back!"
"I can worry about that once I have my head. Actually, to be honest, I am starting to think I do not really need my head after all... But enough about that. Give me the information on the slasher. You are not going to take my money and tell me nothing, are you?"
"Do not worry, I have got some juicy intel I have not sold to the police or media or put on the internet. I have told someone who is interested in this though. Maybe you will meet this person later on. Anyway, I would not lie - I was waiting for you to come to me."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean this case is a lot like you - it is straight out of the world of ghosts and goblins," he teased. When he spoke next, it was in the hushed tones of one beginning a scary story.
"... Have you ever heard the sword called Saika?"
"Huh?"
"You might not believe me, but once, here in Shinjuku, there was a demon blade. This demon blade, Saika, has a mind of its own that could possess other people.
"When under Saika's influence, a person's eyes will glow red, with a crazed, wide-eyed look.
"If you combine the victims' testimony, they all remembered seeing red eyes before they passed out during the attacks.
"And each day Saika appeared online, a new slasing victim appeared later that night..."
Izumi's apartment
Thirty minutes later
"Hmm?" I saw an activity in the chatroom as I scrolled through the past logs.
- There is currently no one in the chatroom -
- Saika has entered the chatroom -
Saika: I cut one person today. But one is enough. It is not good to be greedy.
Saika: But I will cut again tomorrow. The more lovers, the better.
Saika: My strength has reached its peak.
Saika: I am looking for a person.
Saika: Heiwajima Shizuo.
Saika: The man I must love.
Saika: Tomorrow night, I will cut again.
Saika: I know where Shizuo is. But there are too many people to be safe.
Saika: Does he live alone?
Saika: Is it in Ikebukuro, too?
Saika: I want to know more about Shizuo.
Saika: About the strongest man in this town...
Saika: I want to love him, I want to know him.
Saika: I will cut someone again tomorrow. Every day, until I meet Shizuo.
Saika: I want to see Shizuo, soon, soon, soon...
- Saika has left the chatroom -
- There is currently no one in the chatroom -
- There is currently no one in the chatroom -
- There is currently no one in the chatroom -
"One is not enough. The more lovers the better. Saika possesses people. Is it possible that Saika can possess people by cutting them? I think I need evidence..."
- Kanra has entered the chatroom -
"Oh? Orihara-san was online."
Kanra: ... Well it seems like this person is only posting here now.
Kanra: I was trying to figure out why.
Kanra: When the name Shizuo popped up here earlier, Taro clearly reacted to it.
Kanra: So it seems like they think this Shizuo person might be reading this messages.
"Eh, that is possible."
Kanra: Now, I am only guessing, but...
Kanra: This is advance warning for the crime, right? If something happens tomorrow night, should we report it?
Kanra: As the moderator, I will need to do something as soon as possible.
Kanra: Well, so long.
- Kanra has left the chatroom -
- There is currently no one in the chatroom -
"I suppose it is time to go out..."
Author's Note:
1. This chapter was based on Chapter 4 "The Ikebukuro Calamity" from the second volume of Durarara!
2. I feel a bit unmotivated to write these days hahaha...