DURARARA!! Vol.8 Prologue (Part 2)
WHEW. This chapter nearly never got the chance to be posted. It's hard enough translating, but throw in names and cryptic references to shadowy organisations and incidents that happened in the past, and it gets ten times harder. Thank you so much to luckyinnocence for offering to help me find a beta, and even more to her friend for looking over my translation! It's not perfect, but it's been great fun reading about Shingen and Yagiri Seitarou! I hope you guys like it.
As usual, constructive critisism is very much welcome.
Ikebukuro prefectural highway
“Looks like this incident has given you a lot of grief, President.”
In the backseat of a high class sedan, a strange-looking man wearing a gas mask said with a note of pity in his voice.
“Well, it's not quite up to the level of grief, but it is true that the situation is far from agreeable.”
Sitting next to him, with the space of another man between them, a man answered back.
He was around sixty years old.
The man had hair streaked through with silver and slicked back impeccably with wax. He looked steadily at the man wearing the gas mask--Kishitani Shingen, and spoke with sarcasm in his voice.
“The reason I'm so unlucky, isn't it due to your Nebula?”
“Ah, it seems you have yet to realize that, President Yagiri.”
“Cut out the posturing, just hearing it is enough to disgust me.”
Shingen slowly shook his head, his expression wry under the gas mask he wore.
“Even if you're sitting in the president's place right now, starting from the moment the entire company became a part of Nebula, Yagiri Seitarou will become Nebula's mannequin, this is a fact I hope you don't forget.”
Met with Shingen's teasing tone, the white-haired gentleman answered back with a face devoid of expression.
“To humans, sometimes “the ones who are truly scary are humans”, that is a belief I've held on to ever since I was small.”
“There's nothing truly scary in this world, just like how any incident has the possibility to cause some type of cancer, or how any organism has the possibility to bring about the extinction of other organisms. Back to the topic, I didn't invite you out for a spin today just to be sarcastic at you.”
“Well then, what do you have to say? I don't think Nebula should be this concerned about the 'head'.”
Faced with Yagiri Seitarou who had casually tossed out the word 'head', Shingen merely replied to his statement calmly, still wearing the gas mask.
“Don't be like that. To be honest, I only wanted to chat with you as an old friend and not as a member of Nebula. Or rather, 'warn' would be more suitable.”
“To warn me?”
Seitarou looked at Shingen with an expression of utter confusion. Staring at his own hands, his fingers crossed and laid out across his knees, Shingen uttered a single name without turning his head.
“Yadogiri Jinnai.”
“......!”
In the split second that he heard this name, Seitarou's face clouded over, and he twisted his head to turn and look at the moving scenery outside his car window.
The skyscrapers on both sides of the highway passed them in a blur, occasionally becoming reflected in the mirrors of the car. From time to time Shingen's face, too, was reflected in flashes. The next sound came from Shingen who continued to speak.
“Judging by your reaction, it seems like the rumours about you and that man's relationship are real.”
“......”
“I'm just saying, this man Yadogiri is dangerous, if you want to protect yourself you better not go near him. If you want to manipulate him, one slip up and you'll be the one being manipulated. What he is doing is trite, but his ability to step on others' shoulders to achieve his goal is really first-class...I say his doings are trite, but I do feel sorry for his victims.”
Shingen finished ambiguously, and Seitarou smiled ruefully as he shook his head.
“I'm surprised. Are you saying that you who are known for being an unscrupulous weirdo even in Nebula...How could Yadogiri Jinnai be worthy of so much caution from you?”
“I'm the one on guard in Nebula, seeing that all the food in the company have things to do with faeries' heads, vampires' blood, and other things which make me ashamed to talk about. In the end, if I were really unscrupulous, then I wouldn't have had to play all those tricks about buying and selling when you got Celty's head. I could have just stolen it from your house.”
“You sure have guts to admit that.”
“I think you're the unscrupulous one here. That 'head' should have been handed over to Nebula twenty years ago, instead you threatened my son's life and got away with it. You have not forgotten, have you?”
Confronted with Shingen's statement, Seitarou continued looking out of his window as he replied.
“People's memories get worse after they become 50. I tried to recall it in my head, and didn't you sell 'it' to me quite willingly?”
“Hmph, when I was telling my superiors, “My son's life might be in danger, would it be okay if I sold the 'head' to another company?”, I truly did not expect him to answer “Well, if your son is in danger then I suppose there's no other choice, since we really can't call the police.” Because our department understood that this matter couldn't be exposed, we had to choose to put aside our important relationships.”
“.....Your company sure is interesting. When I think about how a world-renowned company like this is about to snatch away my own company, I just feel disgusted.”
“Don't you have a bad memory? This is a good chance to forget all the unhappy things.”
His tone did not sound like he was being sarcastic. Due to Shingen's face being fully covered by his gas mask, it was hard to discern the expression on his face, to the point where Seitarou started to suspect if this was him telling the truth--he leaned his head of black hair with white streaked through it on the back of the neck rest, and as if he was completely ignorant of the other's motives, closed his eyes and spoke.
“How could I forget someone like him. The past year has been the most unluckiest year of my life, not only has Yagiri Pharmaceuticals been taken over by Nebula, even the 'head' has been taken away by Namie to goodness knows where.”
“With your capabilities, surely you can find out the whereabouts of your niece? Then, you just have to disguise yourself as a robber, and snatch the head back.”
“....There is no need of that. We've already done the most thorough research on the 'head'. The conclusion we have reached for now is that modern technology has no effect on it whatsoever. I'm starting to feel that I should look into the supernatural side....However, the reason Namie continues her fruitless research is because she whole-heartedly wishes to tear Seiji away from his infatuation with the 'head'.”
Seitarou sighed rather exasperatedly. Seeing this, Shingen asked with a hint of teasing in his voice.
“You understand this clearly, and yet you let her carry on with whatever she wanted to do, so it seems like you treat her pretty well then.”
“That was because she was exceptionally talented, and my brother....her father was mediocre, so I think that if we want to go anywhere with the research ultimately we'd have to depend on Namie.”
“Hmm...nonetheless, at the start you had no intention to treat the 'head' as a specimen, did you? The reason your nephew conceived his warped notions of love, was only after he saw the 'head' at your house, right?”
“You are still the same, poking your nose into everybody else's business.”
Seitarou sighed defeatedly, but Shingen only smiled crookedly as he replied to him.
“There's no such matter. Aren't you just the same as your nephew? Falling in love with that 'head' at your age! You're single even now, and out of your love for that 'head', you don't even think twice about threatening me.”
“Your hypothesis only gets 50 marks.”
The car got caught in a traffic jam, and slowly reduced its speed.
“Of course, I admit the 'head' is very beautiful, and acknowledge its beauty from the artistic side, even treating it as a member of the opposite sex. What you said is not wrong, I once put aside my age and developed feelings of love and lust for it, but I am old now, and do not deserve to talk of romance. Even if I am really exasperated by Seiji, at times I really do envy him.”
Seitarou seemed to be reliving his past memories as he raised his head to look at the car's ceiling, almost seeming as if he were talking to himself.
“If you take this sort of envy and understand it as love, then I might well be in love, in love with the possiblity that is capable of releasing my soul from this dreary world like a faery.
“Now that is a youth's fancy...however, ever since I knew of the possibility of something in this world that goes beyond logic and reason, it's perfectly forgivable that I become fascinated with it.”
Next to his old friend, Shingen quietly shook his head, and breathing in deeply through the gas mask, he sighed heavily.
“Let me give you another piece of advice: don't continue to get involved with that Yadogiri Jinnai.”
“Then let me ask you again, that person who's good for nothing but bootlicking, is he really that dangerous?”
“If he was good for nothing but kissing up to powerful people, then he wouldn't have become enemies with the Awakusu-Kai, wouldn't he?”
Shingen said the name of a certain infamous group, and stared at the ground under his feet.
“You're always so arrogant, I'm afraid you were planning to use him until you've squeezed the last drop of blood out of him, and throw him away when the time comes....but you cannot treat him as if you would a lizard's tail, that's too dangerous. Maybe he is a tail, but in times of need a tail can also abandon the body of its own volition.”
“Your metaphor is still too abstract, but I will remember it in my heart.”
Seitarou nodded slightly, his face closed off, and it was unclear if he had even been listening to the other's warning.
Ten minutes later.
Seitarou got down from the car. Shingen directed a question at the driver.
“Oh, right, how much do you know of Yadogiri?”
Hearing this, the Russian sitting in the driver seat--Igor, shook his head and replied.
“I'm not sure. Apart from the incidents which you've just mentioned, I have no knowledge of him, and I am not interested.”
“I see...that's right, you've already been helping Nebula....no, helping me for over three months, so I take it you don't have to go back to Russia?”
“The vice manager ordered me to keep a watch on Miss Vorona's every move, and while I don't think there's anything to be worried about....there is still the 'exchange' with Awakusu-kai, so I have decided to stay in Japan for now.”
“There aren't any problems with your documents? If you get held up by the police, I don't have a driver's license, so you won't be able to return.”
“Relax. As soon as I get my work visa by the fact that I've “been in the jewellery business since I was fifteen”, I can stay in Japan for long-term. Although Dennis and Simon already decided to go for a permanent residence permit. But I can't say that I really like this country. Ah, of course, I don't hate it either.”
Igor paused, and asked his employer sitting behind him.
“....That man called Yadogiri, is he really that dangerous?”
“You and him, Vorona, and the guys from Awakusu-kai are completely different types of people. If I had to describe you as a sharp blade, then that guy is like poison...or like a radioactive substance. If you are not properly equipped with the knowledge to face him, your body will slowly be corroded without you even knowing it...by the time you noticed something was wrong, it'd have been too late.”
Shingen gradually stressed his words, raising a comparison that Igor would understand easily.
“...Igor, do you still remember the killing monster “Hollywood” case I assigned to you in early spring?”
“Because of that case, I even had to get slight plastic surgery. I remember that the guy “Hollywood” wanted to kill was actually Yadogiri, right?”
“Correct. That killing monster “Hollywood”--Hijiribe Ruri, wanted to kill Yadogiri right from the beginning, but in the end he still escaped. From that moment onwards, his “abnormality” had been exposed.”
“I see. But that man is conspiring together with the manager of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, exactly what are they up to?”
* To a killer with no sense of timing means death, and he asked this with a fascination that didn't not line up with his career of choice.
Shingen did not attempt to conceal anything, spitting out the truth.
“That guy is a mediator, hiding in the world of entertainment.”
“....So, that way, he is in the business of human trafficking?”
“That, too....but he sells much more than just humans.”
“Now that I think back, twenty years ago the person who sold me the information about the demon blade “Saika” and the headless rider, was none other than Yadogiri.”
When he heard the word “Saika”--the driver's body trembled slightly for a spilt second.
However, Shingen did not ignore his lapse of reaction, and spoke out.
“Igor, I've wanted to ask you from the start.”
“What is it?”
“You have been slashed by 'Saika' before, am I right?”
Met with Shingen's frank questioning, Igor answered with a bitter smile.
“.....You can think whatever you want to think.”
Meeting Igor's eyes in the rearview mirror, eyes which were starting to fill with blood and turn red, he only shrugged slightly, continuing in a tone that seemed to say that nothing had changed.
“Well then, let me presume that you are a 'Saika' child, and have become a non-human organism....if that is so, I want to give you a word of advice.”
“What advice?”
“Stay away from Yadogiri Jinnai.”
“Because there is no knowing to how far he will sell you to.”
* I had no idea at all what this line meant, and the Chinese translations made no sense to me whatsoever, sorry. If anyone knows the correct translation, please tell me so I can fix it!
As usual, constructive critisism is very much welcome.
Ikebukuro prefectural highway
“Looks like this incident has given you a lot of grief, President.”
In the backseat of a high class sedan, a strange-looking man wearing a gas mask said with a note of pity in his voice.
“Well, it's not quite up to the level of grief, but it is true that the situation is far from agreeable.”
Sitting next to him, with the space of another man between them, a man answered back.
He was around sixty years old.
The man had hair streaked through with silver and slicked back impeccably with wax. He looked steadily at the man wearing the gas mask--Kishitani Shingen, and spoke with sarcasm in his voice.
“The reason I'm so unlucky, isn't it due to your Nebula?”
“Ah, it seems you have yet to realize that, President Yagiri.”
“Cut out the posturing, just hearing it is enough to disgust me.”
Shingen slowly shook his head, his expression wry under the gas mask he wore.
“Even if you're sitting in the president's place right now, starting from the moment the entire company became a part of Nebula, Yagiri Seitarou will become Nebula's mannequin, this is a fact I hope you don't forget.”
Met with Shingen's teasing tone, the white-haired gentleman answered back with a face devoid of expression.
“To humans, sometimes “the ones who are truly scary are humans”, that is a belief I've held on to ever since I was small.”
“There's nothing truly scary in this world, just like how any incident has the possibility to cause some type of cancer, or how any organism has the possibility to bring about the extinction of other organisms. Back to the topic, I didn't invite you out for a spin today just to be sarcastic at you.”
“Well then, what do you have to say? I don't think Nebula should be this concerned about the 'head'.”
Faced with Yagiri Seitarou who had casually tossed out the word 'head', Shingen merely replied to his statement calmly, still wearing the gas mask.
“Don't be like that. To be honest, I only wanted to chat with you as an old friend and not as a member of Nebula. Or rather, 'warn' would be more suitable.”
“To warn me?”
Seitarou looked at Shingen with an expression of utter confusion. Staring at his own hands, his fingers crossed and laid out across his knees, Shingen uttered a single name without turning his head.
“Yadogiri Jinnai.”
“......!”
In the split second that he heard this name, Seitarou's face clouded over, and he twisted his head to turn and look at the moving scenery outside his car window.
The skyscrapers on both sides of the highway passed them in a blur, occasionally becoming reflected in the mirrors of the car. From time to time Shingen's face, too, was reflected in flashes. The next sound came from Shingen who continued to speak.
“Judging by your reaction, it seems like the rumours about you and that man's relationship are real.”
“......”
“I'm just saying, this man Yadogiri is dangerous, if you want to protect yourself you better not go near him. If you want to manipulate him, one slip up and you'll be the one being manipulated. What he is doing is trite, but his ability to step on others' shoulders to achieve his goal is really first-class...I say his doings are trite, but I do feel sorry for his victims.”
Shingen finished ambiguously, and Seitarou smiled ruefully as he shook his head.
“I'm surprised. Are you saying that you who are known for being an unscrupulous weirdo even in Nebula...How could Yadogiri Jinnai be worthy of so much caution from you?”
“I'm the one on guard in Nebula, seeing that all the food in the company have things to do with faeries' heads, vampires' blood, and other things which make me ashamed to talk about. In the end, if I were really unscrupulous, then I wouldn't have had to play all those tricks about buying and selling when you got Celty's head. I could have just stolen it from your house.”
“You sure have guts to admit that.”
“I think you're the unscrupulous one here. That 'head' should have been handed over to Nebula twenty years ago, instead you threatened my son's life and got away with it. You have not forgotten, have you?”
Confronted with Shingen's statement, Seitarou continued looking out of his window as he replied.
“People's memories get worse after they become 50. I tried to recall it in my head, and didn't you sell 'it' to me quite willingly?”
“Hmph, when I was telling my superiors, “My son's life might be in danger, would it be okay if I sold the 'head' to another company?”, I truly did not expect him to answer “Well, if your son is in danger then I suppose there's no other choice, since we really can't call the police.” Because our department understood that this matter couldn't be exposed, we had to choose to put aside our important relationships.”
“.....Your company sure is interesting. When I think about how a world-renowned company like this is about to snatch away my own company, I just feel disgusted.”
“Don't you have a bad memory? This is a good chance to forget all the unhappy things.”
His tone did not sound like he was being sarcastic. Due to Shingen's face being fully covered by his gas mask, it was hard to discern the expression on his face, to the point where Seitarou started to suspect if this was him telling the truth--he leaned his head of black hair with white streaked through it on the back of the neck rest, and as if he was completely ignorant of the other's motives, closed his eyes and spoke.
“How could I forget someone like him. The past year has been the most unluckiest year of my life, not only has Yagiri Pharmaceuticals been taken over by Nebula, even the 'head' has been taken away by Namie to goodness knows where.”
“With your capabilities, surely you can find out the whereabouts of your niece? Then, you just have to disguise yourself as a robber, and snatch the head back.”
“....There is no need of that. We've already done the most thorough research on the 'head'. The conclusion we have reached for now is that modern technology has no effect on it whatsoever. I'm starting to feel that I should look into the supernatural side....However, the reason Namie continues her fruitless research is because she whole-heartedly wishes to tear Seiji away from his infatuation with the 'head'.”
Seitarou sighed rather exasperatedly. Seeing this, Shingen asked with a hint of teasing in his voice.
“You understand this clearly, and yet you let her carry on with whatever she wanted to do, so it seems like you treat her pretty well then.”
“That was because she was exceptionally talented, and my brother....her father was mediocre, so I think that if we want to go anywhere with the research ultimately we'd have to depend on Namie.”
“Hmm...nonetheless, at the start you had no intention to treat the 'head' as a specimen, did you? The reason your nephew conceived his warped notions of love, was only after he saw the 'head' at your house, right?”
“You are still the same, poking your nose into everybody else's business.”
Seitarou sighed defeatedly, but Shingen only smiled crookedly as he replied to him.
“There's no such matter. Aren't you just the same as your nephew? Falling in love with that 'head' at your age! You're single even now, and out of your love for that 'head', you don't even think twice about threatening me.”
“Your hypothesis only gets 50 marks.”
The car got caught in a traffic jam, and slowly reduced its speed.
“Of course, I admit the 'head' is very beautiful, and acknowledge its beauty from the artistic side, even treating it as a member of the opposite sex. What you said is not wrong, I once put aside my age and developed feelings of love and lust for it, but I am old now, and do not deserve to talk of romance. Even if I am really exasperated by Seiji, at times I really do envy him.”
Seitarou seemed to be reliving his past memories as he raised his head to look at the car's ceiling, almost seeming as if he were talking to himself.
“If you take this sort of envy and understand it as love, then I might well be in love, in love with the possiblity that is capable of releasing my soul from this dreary world like a faery.
“Now that is a youth's fancy...however, ever since I knew of the possibility of something in this world that goes beyond logic and reason, it's perfectly forgivable that I become fascinated with it.”
Next to his old friend, Shingen quietly shook his head, and breathing in deeply through the gas mask, he sighed heavily.
“Let me give you another piece of advice: don't continue to get involved with that Yadogiri Jinnai.”
“Then let me ask you again, that person who's good for nothing but bootlicking, is he really that dangerous?”
“If he was good for nothing but kissing up to powerful people, then he wouldn't have become enemies with the Awakusu-Kai, wouldn't he?”
Shingen said the name of a certain infamous group, and stared at the ground under his feet.
“You're always so arrogant, I'm afraid you were planning to use him until you've squeezed the last drop of blood out of him, and throw him away when the time comes....but you cannot treat him as if you would a lizard's tail, that's too dangerous. Maybe he is a tail, but in times of need a tail can also abandon the body of its own volition.”
“Your metaphor is still too abstract, but I will remember it in my heart.”
Seitarou nodded slightly, his face closed off, and it was unclear if he had even been listening to the other's warning.
Ten minutes later.
Seitarou got down from the car. Shingen directed a question at the driver.
“Oh, right, how much do you know of Yadogiri?”
Hearing this, the Russian sitting in the driver seat--Igor, shook his head and replied.
“I'm not sure. Apart from the incidents which you've just mentioned, I have no knowledge of him, and I am not interested.”
“I see...that's right, you've already been helping Nebula....no, helping me for over three months, so I take it you don't have to go back to Russia?”
“The vice manager ordered me to keep a watch on Miss Vorona's every move, and while I don't think there's anything to be worried about....there is still the 'exchange' with Awakusu-kai, so I have decided to stay in Japan for now.”
“There aren't any problems with your documents? If you get held up by the police, I don't have a driver's license, so you won't be able to return.”
“Relax. As soon as I get my work visa by the fact that I've “been in the jewellery business since I was fifteen”, I can stay in Japan for long-term. Although Dennis and Simon already decided to go for a permanent residence permit. But I can't say that I really like this country. Ah, of course, I don't hate it either.”
Igor paused, and asked his employer sitting behind him.
“....That man called Yadogiri, is he really that dangerous?”
“You and him, Vorona, and the guys from Awakusu-kai are completely different types of people. If I had to describe you as a sharp blade, then that guy is like poison...or like a radioactive substance. If you are not properly equipped with the knowledge to face him, your body will slowly be corroded without you even knowing it...by the time you noticed something was wrong, it'd have been too late.”
Shingen gradually stressed his words, raising a comparison that Igor would understand easily.
“...Igor, do you still remember the killing monster “Hollywood” case I assigned to you in early spring?”
“Because of that case, I even had to get slight plastic surgery. I remember that the guy “Hollywood” wanted to kill was actually Yadogiri, right?”
“Correct. That killing monster “Hollywood”--Hijiribe Ruri, wanted to kill Yadogiri right from the beginning, but in the end he still escaped. From that moment onwards, his “abnormality” had been exposed.”
“I see. But that man is conspiring together with the manager of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, exactly what are they up to?”
* To a killer with no sense of timing means death, and he asked this with a fascination that didn't not line up with his career of choice.
Shingen did not attempt to conceal anything, spitting out the truth.
“That guy is a mediator, hiding in the world of entertainment.”
“....So, that way, he is in the business of human trafficking?”
“That, too....but he sells much more than just humans.”
“Now that I think back, twenty years ago the person who sold me the information about the demon blade “Saika” and the headless rider, was none other than Yadogiri.”
When he heard the word “Saika”--the driver's body trembled slightly for a spilt second.
However, Shingen did not ignore his lapse of reaction, and spoke out.
“Igor, I've wanted to ask you from the start.”
“What is it?”
“You have been slashed by 'Saika' before, am I right?”
Met with Shingen's frank questioning, Igor answered with a bitter smile.
“.....You can think whatever you want to think.”
Meeting Igor's eyes in the rearview mirror, eyes which were starting to fill with blood and turn red, he only shrugged slightly, continuing in a tone that seemed to say that nothing had changed.
“Well then, let me presume that you are a 'Saika' child, and have become a non-human organism....if that is so, I want to give you a word of advice.”
“What advice?”
“Stay away from Yadogiri Jinnai.”
“Because there is no knowing to how far he will sell you to.”
* I had no idea at all what this line meant, and the Chinese translations made no sense to me whatsoever, sorry. If anyone knows the correct translation, please tell me so I can fix it!