And here we are again. I'm really not getting that much views on this fic, huh? ^_^;
Well after this chapter, there's only one more storyline to introduce. And another OC is making a debut this chapter, so let's see how well he goes.
And just so you know; yes. The chapters are only going to get longer and longer from here on out.
Durarararararara ? ! ? !
Chapter V: Durararara
He was always a strange kid even at birth. Born with white hair and ruby red eyes, he was considered a rare breed of human: An albino Japanese. While all his other classmates sported shades of raven and auburn, he was the only one that would ever be pure white. Of course he got stared at often - he was even bullied for most of second grade - but it never really bothered him. In fact, he was proud of his white hair. It meant he was different. Unique.
It meant something was supposed to happen.
Every time he tuned on to an anime on TV, he'd see amazing worlds of adventure and excitement. It was every kid's dream to be able to walk in and become a part of those worlds and he was no exception. No, he wanted to live in a world filled of his very own adventures.
He was always so confident that he would be the one to star in a big adventure of his own. After all, the main characters of anime usually had a physical quirk that made them stand out. White hair and red eyes? He was already set!
His parents chuckled at his fantasies and brushed it off as nothing more than childish dreams he would learn to forget as time went on. It took until they witnessed their son nearly die as he tried to see if he could fly for them to take action.
All it took was one long and heated lecture from his parents for all his dreams to be shattered.
Nothing would happen.
Nothing ever will.
He was only in the third grade and he had already fallen into a deep depression. Was this really all life offered? Birth, school, graduation, a job, and death? Was there really nothing more?
His inner melancholy often led him to do idiotic things that would normally get someone killed. Maybe he was unconsciously trying to end his life. Maybe all the times he sat at the very edge of buildings, pulled out power chords as if he were in a tug-of-war contest, and casually walked through a busy street were all on purpose. He didn't care anymore. Everything in the world was ordinary and even his death would be ordinary.
But his whole world changed just yesterday.
In the course of a minute, his dreary attitude towards life flipped over to open joy and hope.
He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but he'd witnessed something magical.
And he was determined to be able to see that magic again.
A young fourth grade boy sprinted out of the confines of his school and into the vast city streets in just seconds. He had a plan set out and ready to execute. If he was lucky, he'd be able to get what he wanted all while being able to return to school before recess ended.
"And it was, like, completely black. I mean, I didn't see a shadow or anything! And it was riding on a motorcycle and had this yellow helmet, and, and-"
"So you're trying to find the Black Rider, eh, kid?"
"That's right!" He beamed. "It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen! I'm not gonna rest until I see it again!"
"Well that's fine and dandy, but you really should be in school, shouldn't you?"
"Nuh-uh," he shook his head. "It's recess break. I've got fifteen minutes before the teachers'll notice I'm gone."
"Really?" The old man chuckled. "I don't know. With a head of hair like yours, I think they might know you're gone pretty quickly."
"Nah, I'm usually pretty quiet. They won't notice a thing."
"What do you mean he just ran out of the school? ! And no one bothered chasing after him? !"
"Well," the old man chuckled again. "The Black Rider drives past here sometimes, but I haven't seen him come by today."
"Alright," the boy bowed before running off. "Thanks, mister!"
Tom shook his head. He wasn't sure whether to be impressed or in disbelief. In less than a week, the stone brick fortress that Shizuo had completely destroyed found itself towering the neighborhood mockingly yet again. In fact, every single detail that the structure had before its decimation was still styled and placed in the exact same way. It was as if Shizuo hadn't been there in the first place.
"How the heck did the old man fix it all up so quickly?" He mumbled to himself.
"Why do you keep bothering to collect money from this guy?" Shizuo asked. "It's obvious he's not interested in paying a yen on anything."
"Trust me, if I wanted to, I would've given up on him a long time ago, but a job's a job." He turned towards Shizuo. "Now how about we get Vorona to handle it this time? Save us the trouble of property damage?"
Shizuo gritted his teeth. "Damn old man was downright mocking me last time. I'm not letting him off the hook that easily."
"Shizuo, he's an old man who can't even speak basic Japanese. What good would killing him lead to?"
"Why not? I doubt anyone would miss the scumbag."
Tom shrugged in indifference. "Alright. Go ahead inside. Just try to get him to pay before you mess him up."
"With pleasure," Shizuo responded menacingly.
A normal person would find them selves spending hours on end trying to pick each lock and break each code that laid on the small metallic door. Luckily, Shizuo wasn't normal. All it took was one punch and he was in.
It was pretty eerie actually. Within the stone walls laid a small house that fell into the large shadows that the fortress created. The house was also constructed completely of stone bricks and had a nice string of barbed wire acting as a fence. If it were anyone else looking at the structure, they'd assume it was an old abandoned asylum rather than somewhere someone actually lived in.
Shizuo casually knocked on the door and watched as the door just creaked open. He stared into the house. Everything was pitch black. He could vaguely make out silhouettes of basic furniture for living.
Stepping in, he shouted for the old man to come out. If he wasn't home, he'd be forced to endure another day with the man's stupidity.
click.
Shizuo's ears perked. Someone was definitely here.
BANG!
…
"Nice try, old man," Shizuo chuckled. "Now cough up your due or let me pay you back for last time by bashing your skull."
BANG!
Stubborn, wasn't he?
Shizuo's eye twitched. Things could never be easy, could they?
And with another gun shot that failed to deal any damage to him, Shizuo located the man's silhouette and lunged the nearest furniture at him. After hearing a small muffle from the man, Shizuo's eyes pained a bit at the sudden burst of lights. The man had stopped trying to shoot the bodyguard and had instead begun to throw an array of decorative furniture. Seriously, is this guy nuts? He's really that willing to ruin a perfectly good home in a sense of nationalistic pride?
The battle raged on throughout the house with the two dashing in and out of rooms every minute. Neither had managed to weaken each other in any way. The two were fighting it off in the kitchen by the time Shizuo really started to lose his patience.
"Dammit!" He snarled as he grabbed a hold of the man to throw. "Why can't you just give up? !"
And with that, the old man slammed right at the cabinets. The force of the impact caused the items that were in the top shelf to fall directly on him.
Including a butcher knife.
The butcher knife sunk deep into the man's scalp as blood oozed out of his head like a stream being interrupted by a small string of rocks. A small puddle of blood formed on the ground and spread through the small slits and cracks in between the floor tiles. The old man chuckled like a maniac before silence completely loomed the building.
…
…
…Oh shit. I think I actually killed him. This is bad!
… !
Right in front of his eyes, Shizuo witnessed the small droplets of blood halt in their spreading and turn back. The process soon sped up as they trickled closer to the old man to the point that they floated through the air and back into the area of the knife wound as if they were being sucked in. As each drop of blood was recollected into the man's head, the areas of the gash slowly reverted back to pure flesh and removed any traces of a fatal head wound having ever occupied the spots. The whole process met its end as the butcher knife fell off his head and clunked to the ground.
…
The man resumed his fit of giggles.
Things were never easy, were they?
The morning began with a sudden request from Izaya to pick up some package for him. She didn't bother to ask what was in it and simply collected her payment without a word. They've been doing business with each other for years and she never once questioned anything he'd done. It was pretty logical that the two would be acquainted with each other. The Headless Rider and the shady informant. Both were well known in Ikebukuro's underground world, but it was obvious which one of the two should never be trusted.
Shinra had booked another job for her later that day. To pass the time, she found herself doing nothing but the usual drive through. No matter how many times she passed through the same streets day after day, Celty always found her time alone and on the road as a soothing and almost sacred moment. It was the one part of her day that she could let her mind completely run blank with little worry.
Unless the cops find her that is.
Don't worry, we're not getting another nonsensical chase scene this time around, folks.
Nearby, a young boy continued running around the streets and asking about the whereabouts of his discovery. Was it here? Did you see it? Do you know where it is now? He'd long lost track of time and didn't even notice that recess time was over. He should've been back at school twenty minutes ago.
"Well if you see it, can you tell me?" He asked earnestly to the old lady running the candy store.
"Certainly," she smiled.
Before he left, the old lady offered him some free candy which he took willingly. As he exited the store, unwrapping some of his apricot candy, the old woman called out to him to hurry on back to school.
He stopped in his tracks. Come to think of it, these were some long fifteen minutes, huh?
…
Oops.
He shrugged after popping his candy into his mouth one after another. Oh well. They probably didn't notice he left.
"It's one kid. How come you can't find just one kid? !"
Come to think of it, his plan was flawed from the start. Sure he knew exactly what he was looking for and sure it'd be easy to pin point it out of a crowd. But he had all of Ikebukuro to look through. Not only that; it could've been all the way in Nakano for all he knew.
No, he wasn't going to give up! The most extraordinary thing ever had popped into his life and he wasn't going to let it go.
Who knows? Maybe it'll pass right through right now.
Vroooooooooooooo…
He jumped. In the roads right in front of him, a black blur dashed right past while accompanied by the sound of a wild horse. His eyes widened. He found it. He really found it!
Dropping what was left of his free candy, he sped through the crowded streets in record time. Before he knew it, he was already neck and neck with the Headless Rider.
"Hey, stop!" He waved.
There was no response.
"I said stop!"
It was no use. The rider was too absorbed in the road to care and his words were lost in the wind. Fatigue was even eating up his bountiful energy.
This was his only chance.
His eyes fired up, with all that was left of his energy, he sprang up from the ground and latched right on to on of the bike's handle bars.
!
Celty was startled. She lost control of her horse as the motorbike skidded all over the place.
C'mon boy. Calm down, calm down…
It took a bit of consoling, but she eventually regained control of her ride and after that, immediately stopped in her tracks.
The boy jumped off the bike, his eyes wide and sparkling. "That was amazing! It sounds more like a horse up front! Is this bike magic?"
Celty grabbed out her phone and typed rapid fire in annoyance.
-You don't just jump on to a moving bike like that! You could've died!
"But I didn't," he said with a toothy grin.
…
She began typing again.
-You really should be in school, kid.
"But school's so boring. Besides, they probably don't even realize I'm gone."
"You didn't even call the police yet? What's wrong with you? !"
"I heard, like, the coolest things about you," he continued. "Like, that you can make these shadowy things come out of your body and that you can't die.
"They even said you've got no head!"
-I see.
"Well? Do you?"
…
Celty wanted to sigh. It didn't seem like he'd leave if she didn't.
-If I show you, promise me you'll go back to school alright?
"Mm-hm!"
…
It wasn't like she hadn't done it before, but it always felt awkward to reveal herself out in the public eye.
Slowly, she lifted up her helmet just enough to show the tip of her neck. Instead of a head, her neck was connected to streams of black shadows that actively swirled around in the closed space.
The boy was speechless and completely in awe at the sight. Even long after Celty had left, his face didn't move a muscle.
He was determined to see the dullahan again.
He wasn't sure how long he'd been running away, but it was long past noon and Mikado was still ducking from alley to alley in escape from the thugs his "friend" managed to lash on to him.
"You can't hide forever!" One of the ruffians shouted as him and his gang slowly walked past another alley.
…
…
… Are they gone?
Mikado ducked his head outside and breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't suspect a thing.
He hesitated a bit before deciding against escaping the alleyway. They weren't too far away from him at this point and they could come back at any minute. Better safe than sorry.
"Got yourself in some trouble, huh?" A soft-spoken voice nonchalantly asked.
At first, the sudden unfamiliar voice startled the boy, but as he saw that the man meant no harm, he gave a small sigh of relief. "Yeah. My 'friend' got into some trouble and it somehow ended up involving me."
"I see."
…
Y'know, this voice sounded kind of familiar.
Mikado turned his head over and…
Holy crap.
Y-Yuhei Hanejima?
Yuhei looked towards Mikado with his usual blank expression. "What's with the face?"
"U-um, you're Yuhei Hanejima, right?"
"Yeah," he replied.
Mikado stopped and thought it over a bit. Was this really Yuhei? He usually acted a lot more cheerful. In fact, on the day he pulled him and Anri over for that interview, his cheerfulness was almost irritating.
Yuhei glanced back at Mikado. "What?"
"N-nothing," he stammered. "You're just a lot less…lively than I remember."
"Am I?"
"Well, yeah…"
Awkward silence.
Yuhei had then begun to pull out a lighter and cigarette from one of his coat pockets. After lighting it, he attempted to smoke, but ended up being caught in a violent fit of coughs instead.
"Are you okay?"
"Not really," he gagged.
"I guess it's your first time smoking then?"
"Yeah. Thought it'd calm down some nerves. Then again, my brother smokes all the time and he's always pretty pissed." Yuhei sighed before throwing the cigarette aside in a droning manner.
Another awkward silence.
"So…what are you doing in Ikebukuro?"
"Getting away from the paparazzi. All I had to do was go to my brother's place and they all ran like the world was ending. He wasn't home though, so I guess I'm just laying low for the time being."
"Really? I'd think you'd be used to things like this."
"I am. It's what they're asking me right now that's bothering me. Talking about my love life and stuff. As if I'm not getting enough flak everywhere else." He reached in his pocket for another cigarette, but rather than lighting it, stared blankly at the stick before carelessly tossing it aside.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. I'm getting death threats from my girlfriend's fans. Tons of them." He sighed and stared at the sky. "I can't even escape them either. Everywhere I go, there's someone that's going to call me out on taking away their idol or something. It's annoying."
"And how's your girlfriend?"
"Getting death threats from my fans. I think she's hiding off somewhere right now. Not sure."
"So it's a mutual thing."
"Yeah."
…
Mikado knew he should help, but really, this was the celebrity's own problem.
"Well," the boy said nervously as he picked himself up. "I think those thugs are gone now, so I should probably get going."
"Alright," Yuhei replied indifferently.
Mikado blinked at his lack of emotions. To think that this man was able to hide behind a mask so easily in front of a camera was beyond him. But it didn't really concern him. Not now anyway. As far as he knew, as long as the thugs were still searching for him, he wouldn't be safe lurking around town for a while. Maybe loitering at a public place would ensure his safety. Or better yet, a quick trip to Shibuya or Shinjuku. Or maybe he should just hide out at Aoba's place? Hell no. That rotten bastard got him into this mess in the first place. It was Aoba that deserved to be chased around like this, not him.
"Well what do we have here?"
!
Their faces full of anger and confidence, the third-year ruffians grinned menacingly at the second-year's surprised expression.
"Don't think hiding out in an alley is going to fool us."
Actually, I thought it would…
"Well you're in for an enjoyable afternoon," one of the gang members smirked while cracking his knuckles. Mikado couldn't help but feel the pain that hadn't even inflicted him yet. "And you better feel honored too. You're being done in by genuine Dollars members!"
Mikado sighed in his head. He really should figure out a way how to make the group idiot-proof.
His eyes widened. Right then, a fist came flying towards his face and inched closer each second. There wasn't much time to react, but with any spare moments he did have, he made an attempt to fall back and avoid the punch. Unfortunately, his reaction was much too late. There was no way to avoid it now. He shut his eyes and braced for the impact…
…
…
…
…that never came.
?
Mikado slowly opened his eyes and stared in shock at the scene that lied before him. With each of the gang members stunned in a similar manner, the hand that was only inches away from his face before him was being blocked.
By Yuhei Hanejima of all people.
"What's with this Dollars crap?" Yuhei sighed in his usual monotone fashion. "You're one of those people that say you're a part of something just to make yourself more threatening, aren't you?
"I…uh… Ack!" Yuhei had just strengthened his grip of the boy's fist.
"Well let me tell you this; it's insulting when some idiot uses anything like that. It doesn't make you look tough. It just makes you pathetic. Pathetic enough to have to rely on someone else to make yourself look better."
The boy's eyes twitched. "I-I'll have you know, I really am a part of the Dollars!"
"Oh yeah? Then maybe it's scum like you that make the Dollars look bad. They don't like that, you know. You're not wanted."
His grip tightened again.
"And it's not like I'm too far off the mark. You're still just using their name for your own gain. Pathetic. Just pathetic."
"Shut the hell up!" The boy suddenly broke free of Yuhei's grasp and prepared to lay a punch right at the actor's face. "You're just some no talent actor! Who cares what you think!"
Yuhei stopped the attack again, this time, grabbing on to the guy's arm.
"The Dollars would care, wouldn't they? And I'm pretty sure they'd listen too. After all…"
Just then, Yuhei flipped the boy over, causing him to collide with the rest of his gang. They all moaned in pain as they felt their wounds on the hard concrete ground. Yuhei slowly walked towards them, his hands knelt casually in his coat pockets, and glared his unfeeling eyes at their direction. His shadow towered over them and only now were they able to fully see the trouble they were in.
"… I'm in the Dollars."
The indifferent viewer had nothing better to do with his life and decided to switch on the TV set despite the fact that the only thing on during day time hours are low budget soap operas and Dora the Explorer. As the screen flips on and the viewer is treated to a brief explosion of colors and noise, the viewer groans as he realizes that DRx7 Omake is on again.
An enthusiastic pair of youth jumps into the screen, shouting the program's name. One is a boy and the other a girl.
"Well that was a pretty exciting chapter, huh Masaomi?"
"I suppose," Masaomi sighed dramatically. "If only I were in it."
"I'm sure you'll get to be in the story soon."
"Only if you will too, Saki."
The viewer suddenly finds himself twitching his eye.
"First off," Masaomi started. "For those of you who haven't figured it out, that crazy old man happens to be a homunculus. Kind of like the ones in that one anime. That, um…it's the show that keeps on appearing on the building projectors in the Durarara anime. That, uh…"
"Come to think of it," Saki pondered. "What is that show?"
"Dunno. Something about trains, I guess."
The viewer suddenly finds himself tempted to hurl something at the screen.
"Whatever," Masaomi brushed off. "If nobody knows about it, then it probably wasn't worth watching anyway."
The viewer suddenly feels very pissed.
"And can you believe Yuhei Hanejima is a part of the Dollars?" Saki squealed. "That's so badass!"
"What? Are you a fan or something?"
"Hm? Not really," Saki giggled lightheartedly. "He's a good actor, but most of the movies I've seen him in kind of sucked."
"Yeah, he gets into a lot of crappy movies, doesn't he?" Masaomi replied. "Oh, and there was that really weird kid this chapter too, right?"
"Oh, the kid with white hair?"
"Yeah, the foreigner."
"Masaomi," she sighed. "He was albino. There's a difference you know."
"He might say he's albino, but I can tell it in his eyes that he's actually a foreigner!"
As the couple got into a heated argument, the viewer rested his head on the palms of his hands. He tried to watch more, but just couldn't. After shutting the TV off, he began to wonder why he even subscribes to this channel.
Y'know, when I first started this fic, it just began with Kanaka's Mary Sue story. When I was trying to come up with random plotlines to fit into Durarararararara ? ! ? !, one of the first things that popped into my mind was having Kasuka be a member of the Dollars. Whether the story would be good or not, IT HAD TO HAPPEN.
And yes; the old man is a homunculus ala Baccano!
No; I will never go into detail on how that even happened.
Yes; I'm not bothering to name him either.
And a quick word of advice. Meshing Mikado's anime and light novel personalities together in a tasteful way is HARD, man!