Now that no one blocked its way, the motorcycle rode along the path of shadow it had created for itself toward the exit of the factory.
The few guards still standing there had no way to stop the speeding bike. The black thing simply turned its back on the helpless youths and vanished, the same way it had entered—without a sound.
The scene was completely silent except for the soft pattering of rain, as if nothing had ever appeared.
Amid the rain, Masaomi had a thought.
It wasn’t just Masaomi. Most of the boys in the gathering reached one solid conclusion from the event they’d witnessed.
Their heads were churning with a deluge of information.
The rumor that the Black Rider was one of the Dollars.
The slasher, who still hadn’t been caught.
The suspicion that the slasher might also be a member of the Dollars.
And the intruder who had been snooping around after them.
An intruder swinging a katana.
And the Black Rider swiftly coming to the intruder’s rescue.
Masaomi didn’t know if his conclusion was correct or not.
He didn’t even know if he should hope that his guess was wrong or be certain that he’d finally nailed down a proper opponent.
But there was one thing he was sure of at last.
No matter what he thought personally, there was no way to maintain complete control of his followers after what they’d just seen.
“Hey,” he said, soaking in the rain.
“Wha…?” responded a young man at his side.
“Do you know what a dullahan is?”
“Uh. Umm…nope.”
The kid still hadn’t recovered from the shock of the experience. It was all he could do to summon that response, his face ghostly.
Masaomi quietly continued, “A dullahan’s a headless knight on a headless horse who visits the homes of those who are about to die. I guess you might call it a Grim Reaper of sorts.”
“Uh, okay…”
In contrast to the serenity of Masaomi’s voice, the youths around him looked more concerned than ever. He ignored their consternation. “That’s just something I heard from Yumasaki when he got all worked up about it a while back.”
He did not elaborate on that thought, retreating within his own mind.
But if that monster is one of those things…does that mean one of us is supposed to die soon?
Shit…that’s not ominous at all.
Several minutes later.
“I wonder why,” Masaomi muttered as he stared up into the rainy sky, the chaos of the earlier scene morphing into solid tension that gripped the group. “Why would I suddenly feel like I wanted to see Saki at a moment like this?”
His thought was swallowed by the rain. No one answered him.
The memories of the girl in the hospital reverberated within Masaomi. He also thought of a pair of other figures, two of his classmates. But they were the people he wanted to see least at this moment in time. The images of Mikado and Anri melted into the rain.
Only the picture of Masaomi’s former lover remained in his heart.
The rain buzzed onward, showing no signs of stopping.
Masaomi strode slowly, eyeing the wall of the ruined factory. His comrades had covered it with their own graffiti and meaningless scribbles. Surrounded by tags and pieces of varied designs was a hastily scribbled message done in yellow spray paint.
THE BLUE SKY IS ALREADY DEAD.
“The sky is dead.”
It was a phrase used as the slogan of the Yellow Scarves Rebellion in real life, the movement that kicked off the beginning of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms epic about ancient Chinese history.
Masaomi hadn’t imagined that any of his rough-and-tumble companions knew that phrase. He recognized it, but only because he’d read a manga about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story.
He looked back up at the sky, sensing that the string of events that had just happened was setting something into motion.
“Well, it’s not blue,” he snorted ironically in an effort to bottle up his honest emotions, his eyes open to the sky despite the falling rain. “But it’s not yellow, either.”
The rain buzzed onward, showing no signs of stopping.
Fshh, fshh, fshh, fshh.
A few minutes later, somewhere in Tokyo
Celty rode the route to Ikebukuro, spattered by the rain.
The girl clinging to her back did not speak, either because she knew Celty was driving or for some other reason. Celty chose not to pry. They maintained their silence as they rode through the rain.
So, what to do now? Celty wondered.
The circumstances were clearly too serious to simply drop her off at her home and leave. Celty might not have anything to do with the situation, but Anri was not a stranger. She was not such a pragmatist or head-in-the-sand pacifist that she would ignore the girl’s plight.
If anything, Celty did not help others out of calculating self-interest—she would extend a helping hand to anyone she saw who needed one, regardless of if she had a reason.
She wasn’t omnipotent, so there were times—as with Shingen—when she had to pick and choose.
I guess I could bring her home with me…and kick Shinra out so she can change.
Should she buy Anri a fresh change of clothes, then? She couldn’t give the girl Shinra’s clothes, and the ones that Shinra bought Celty and asked her to wear were bizarre, creepy things like swimsuits, maid outfits, and single button-up shirts with nothing else.
Fortunately, she did have the twenty thousand yen she’d confiscated from Shingen not long ago. She thought she remembered that there was a Uniqlo nearby and sensed around to get a grasp of the area—when her mind caught a glimpse of white.
Even with the umbrella, there weren’t many people who would venture out into Ikebukuro wearing a white lab coat. As soon as she picked up the white gas mask peeking out around the umbrella, Celty increased the speed of her motorcycle just a bit.
That sly rascal.
She could block his path in an acrobatic manner, but Celty wasn’t agitated enough that she’d forget the presence of Anri behind her. Instead, she killed the engine sound and snuck up on Shingen as he tread on the sidewalk, casting ropes of shadow that tangled up her target’s left foot and the nearby guardrail before he was aware that she was there.
“Wha—?!”
Shingen lurched forward and nearly fell. When he noticed Celty standing in his way, his panic was clear even through the gas mask.
“Ce-Celty!”
Looks like he was slipping away from the apartment to go somewhere else.
Celty cracked the knuckles of both hands, delighting in her good fortune.
She considered beating him to an immobile state, then taking him back to the apartment with Anri. The horsepower of the black bike—an evolution of an actual headless horse—easily surpassed those of regular motorcycles its size. She could fashion a sidecar made of shadow, which would be enough to carry heavy objects like that and was one of the reasons Celty was so suited for courier work.
The sidewalk was empty up ahead, so she stopped the motorcycle there for the moment and showed Anri her PDA.
“Sorry, give me a minute.”
As Anri blinked in surprise, Shingen spat disgustedly. “Damn, you really can do anything with that shadow of yours! Don’t you ever feel a bit guilty or self-conscious about having such a ridiculous trick up your sleeve? And who’s that with you?”
He struggled against her binding shadow, trying to escape, before giving up and questioning the girl still sitting on the rear of Celty’s bike.
“That doesn’t matter. Are you ready for this?”
Celty advanced on Shingen, still cracking her knuckles. Anri watched with curiosity and raised the thin shadowy visor that narrowed her vision to get a better look.
“Oh…?” Shingen murmured, noticing the distinctive round glasses visible through the gap in t
he helmet. “Are you…?”
The next moment, that thought spilled out of his mouth. “Are you the daughter of Sonohara-dou?”
“Huh?”
Sonohara-dou.
That was the name of the place where Anri had lived, the antiques shop that her parents owned and managed. A sudden shock ran through Celty’s body.
Oh no!
Celty knew the truth.
She knew that the Saika that had made its home in Anri was originally owned by Shingen.
Somewhere in what she presumed was her brain, she recalled what Shinra had said.
“He actually owned it until a few years ago, when he sold it to an antiques trader he knows. I believe the trader’s name was Sonohara.”
After that, Celty had contact with Anri on several occasions, learned that the girl’s parents had died in a slashing incident in the past, and assumed that there were complicated circumstances behind that. But she had never asked Anri about it directly.
“Ah, such a shame about your paren— Mwurr!”
“Lucky you.”
Celty deemed it unwise to allow Anri to be any more upset, so she covered the entirety of Shingen’s head in shadow and got onto the bike again.
“Let’s go.”
“Um, Celty, who is this? How does he know me…?”
“He’s a pale-faced monster, an evil boogeyman who reads the hearts of others and pretends to know them to take advantage,” Celty lied to keep things simple. She turned the grip throttle, lamenting how much of a bother this had become.
“I think you should keep your face hidden.” She lowered the visor of Anri’s helmet and removed the shadow enveloping Shingen’s head.
There were no more messages from her after that. The motorcycle rode onward through the rain.
The drops continued to pelt them, cold and wet.
Under the uncertain sky, Celty felt an eerie sense of unease.
All she could do was ride.
For now, she was still nothing but an outsider.
She rode on through the rain, understanding her place in the events.
Silently, so silently.
Chat room
—KANRA HAS ENTERED THE CHAT—
<Gooood evening! Huh? Is it just Tarou tonight?>
{Good evening.}
{Seems that way.}
<Darn.>
{Are you disappointed? lol}
<No, but there’s not much for us to talk about, is there?>
{Hmm…well, actually, there was something I wanted to ask you.}
<Wow, what? What is it? If I can answer it here, I’ll tell you anything you want to know.>
<Private Mode> <And I’ll even waive my usual fee.>
{…}
{Umm, I didn’t see many of the folks in yellow around today.}
<Ahh. What if they were just having a meeting somewhere?>
{Er, well… Have those Yellow Scarves always been in Ikebukuro?}
<Let’s see, they showed up for good around three years ago.>
{Uh-huh.}
<At the start, they were pretty chill, but there was quite a ruckus when they clashed with Blue x Blue…the “Blue Squares.”>
{A gang war, then?}
<Yes, although it didn’t turn into front-page public news. The girlfriend of the Yellow Scarves’ leader was kidnapped and got hurt really bad… It was an ugly situation in many ways.>
{Many ways?}
<Many ways.>
<The Yellow Scarves calmed down after that…but a few years ago, another team started a huge war, and a bunch of people got arrested. After that, the color gangs started to fade out from the scene. Also, the Blue Squares were dealing a lot of drugs…until they disappeared.>
{Because of the police?}
<No, they caught the notice of a man named Shiki from the Awakusu-kai, and they couldn’t keep selling after that.>
{Awakusu-kai?}
<Just one of the associations of, shall we say, “professional gentlemen” in Ikebukuro, of which there are many.>
{…I’m amazed you can just pull up names like that out of a hat.}
<Eek! A girl’s got all kinds of information hidden in her pockets! >
{That does not call for the use of a .}
{So because of that, they had to disappear?}
<And they picked a fight with one of the people you’re never meant to cross.>
{Oh…you mean Shizuo?}
<If you give me some kind of present, I’ll tell you more sometime.>
<Private Mode> <After this point, it’ll cost you.>
<Private Mode> <I’ll make it five thousand yen.>
{…I’ll pass, thanks.}
<Awwww. C’mon, I was hoping to hear you beg for it.>
<You’re no fun!>
—KANRA HAS LEFT THE CHAT—
{Wow, Kanra, how low can you sink?!}
{But, ultimately…}
{The Yellow Scarves stuck around.}
{Is it because the Blue whatevers disappeared?}
—THE KANRA HAS ENTERED THE CHAT—
{“The”? That’s a bold change.}
<Hee-hee, just a change of heart.>
<Now, about the Yellow Scarves…>
<Private Mode> <…Here’s the deal. The Blue Squares didn’t die out.>
<Private Mode> <The Yellow Scarves’ leader got tired of fighting and left the team…>
<Private Mode> <And they joined up with the remaining Yellow Scarves.>
<Private Mode> {Huh?}
<Private Mode> {They had a merger?}
<Private Mode> <The thing is, who’s really going to keep track of which person is in which group, aside from the leaders and important members? If you take off your blue gear, then say you want in with the yellow side, who’s going to care?>
<Private Mode> <Plus, when the Yellow Scarves were weakened after the loss of their leader, they might have welcomed the chance for some fresh blood.>
<Private Mode> {Then, the former leader…?}
<Private Mode> <Probably has no idea.>
<Private Mode> <I bet he’d feel real conflicted.>
<Private Mode> <Knowing the guys who sent his girlfriend to the hospital were working with his old pals.>
<Private Mode> <I bet it would be fascinating to tell him that.>
<Private Mode> {Let’s not. That’s pretty tacky.}
<Private Mode> <Yeah, I won’t. That’s it for story time.>
<To tell the truth, I hardly know a thing about them.>
{Hey, don’t lead me on!}
<Anyway, the Yellow Scarves have changed a lot over the years.>
<And then you’ve got the recent slashings.>
<I’d be careful if I were you.>
{I’ll try to keep my distance.}
<Private Mode> {I’ll send a message around to the Dollars urging them not to instigate anything with the other side.}
<Private Mode> <That’s a good idea. But…>
<Private Mode> {But?}
<Private Mode> <I don’t know if you’re aware of this…>
<Private Mode> <But there are some people playing both sides of the Dollars and Yellow Scarves. Be careful out there.>
<Private Mode> {…}
<Private Mode> {I will. But if we tell the other Dollars that there’s no connection, maybe that will trickle back to the Yellow Scarves through them.}
<Private Mode> <Assuming it really wasn’t the Dollars who did it.>
<Private Mode> <There are no rules in your group, and you’re not keeping tabs on every single member.>
<Private Mode> <Perhaps one of the Dollars is acting as the slasher outside of your sphere of knowledge.>
<Private Mode> <It’s the Dollars’ system. If you’re hoping to stay on “this side”…you ought to be prepared for that kind of rude awakening.>
<Private Mode> {…I’ll keep it in mind.}
{Well, I’ve got to go for now.}
{Thanks for eve
rything.}
—TAROU HAS LEFT THE CHAT—
<Okay. Good night! >
<Maybe I laid the threat on a little heavy. Tee-hee!>
<Well, good night.>
—THE KANRA HAS LEFT THE CHAT—
—THE CHAT ROOM IS CURRENTLY EMPTY—
—THE CHAT ROOM IS CURRENTLY EMPTY—
—THE CHAT ROOM IS CURRENTLY EMPTY—
Chapter 6: Ne Rasstraivaysya.
Class 1-A, Raira Academy
“We had quite a splendid sunset last night, but as you can see, today it is raining. Ahem. I do wonder if you’re aware of this. Ahem. There is a saying, ‘The day after a sunset is bright, but it rains after a morning glow.’ This is a product of a migratory anticyclone, and the saying holds true in the spring and fall, but not for summer or winter. Ahem. So my point is. Ahem. Even in March, our climate is still stuck in winter. Ahem…”
The homeroom teacher, Mr. Kitagoma, who was also the earth sciences teacher, rattled off a list of facts while the pouring rain rattled off the windows. It wasn’t clear if what he was saying was actually useful or not.
The elderly teacher mumbled his speech to a close, then proceeded to briskly take attendance. Everything was going normally, just like any other day. Until…
“Sonohara… Sonohara? Hmm? Strange. No Sonohara today.”
The rest of the class shared looks. It was the last person they’d expect to be absent. Some of them gave knowing glances to Mikado. He was looking around even more than necessary, clearly unnerved by her absence.
“Hmm, perhaps she is sick. Ahem. Take good care of yourselves.” The teacher gave the class a quick once-over. “Tomorrow is the last day of school. Ahem. So I’d like to properly wrap up the entire year with the entire class. Ahem.”
Kitagoma continued taking roll as if nothing had happened, but Mikado’s heart was roiling with an indescribable anxiety.