r 7: Yagiri Pharmaceuticals—Subordinate’s Subordinate’s Subordinate 

It was just past noon in Ikebukuro. A van was parked on a road a little way from the city. The rear windows of the van were one-way, and it wasn’t possible to see if anyone was inside.

 In this mysterious new space which had just suddenly appeared, sounds of something getting hit resounded, together with the cries of a young man.

“I told you I don’t know! Please stop…I beg of you!”

A swollen-faced hoodlum pleaded, in as respectful a tone as he could.

He was the hoodlum who had, roughly twenty four hours ago, sent Celty flying by ramming a car into her, and was also the one who had faced the wrath of Celty’s scythe. And when he woke up, he’d found himself lying in the back of an unfamiliar van. He’d been trussed up and he could hardly move. The back of the van didn’t have any seats, and the floor was covered in grey carpet. And the man in front of him, had been questioning him repeatedly ever since he’d come around.

“Hurry up. Just~ who’s~ your superior? Hm~?”

If he didn’t answer in three seconds, he’d get his face pounded in, and even if he said he didn’t know, he’d still get his face pounded in.

And after the pummeling, everything would repeat in the next moment. This had gone on for three hours.

As he was being beaten up, the hoodlum calmly contemplated the situation that was before him.

—Although I didn’t know who this guy was, at least the ‘shadow’ isn’t here.  But then again, now I won’t be able to know if that ‘shadow’s’ with these people or not.

In the van, there was only the man before him, and some guy wearing a hat in the driver’s seat was chewing breathmints. Mid-volume classical music was playing in the car, so that even if he screamed, it wouldn’t be able to arouse the suspicion of passers-by.

—I’m finished if that ‘shadow’s’ here. I might have just blabbed about everything. From the looks of it, this guy’s just a normal person. At least I can’t sense that weird thing from yesterday. And being around these guys is still much better than getting taken care of by the ‘higher ups’. And I’m lucky ‘cos the cops didn’t haul me in. Although I don’t know who the hell this guy is, I’m fine as long as I don’t tell him who I’m working for. It’ll be fine. I just need to keep taking his blows, and he’ll think I really don’t know anything. Besides, they probably won’t be rash enough to kill me here—

As the hoodlum contemplated this, the man before him sighed.　　

“You’d better spit it out now. I mean, I’m just like you. Just following orders from the ‘higher ups’. I don’t need to explain, ‘cos you understand right? The higher ups wanna know stuff, so they got me to ask you. The ‘higher ups’ said, you didn’t contact them, and just stirred up trouble by yourself.”

—It looks like this guy’s got some underground contacts huh. Hell, if he wants to work on someone else’s territory, he should at least say hi to the bigshots first!

“But, since you’ve been beat up pretty badly, and you still don’t wanna say anything, it probably means you’re not some mobster. If you are, you should have contacted your peeps them and started some negotiations—we’d then have left this to our superiors to take care of. But since you didn’t do that, it means you’re not backed by people like us huh?”

The man grabbed the hoodlum by the chin, like he was disciplining some brat who’d been misbehaving. If this hoodlum had some kind of underworld backing or protection, then he’d have to deal with him carefully. But, since he wouldn’t say if he was, this probably meant that if he wasn’t afraid that the higher ups might hold him responsible—then it would be because he didn’t have the protection of some underworld organizations or triad.

“Oi, this is for your own good! Spit it out! Listen good, I won’t hurt you. You’d better hurry up—”

The man hadn’t finished what he was saying when the door was abruptly slid open.

“Hyaya, it’s really hot today!”

“I’ve kept~ you~ waiting~! So how’s the situation, Shimada? Has he said anything?”

The boy and a girl hadn’t even greeted properly, but had already scrambled into the rear of the van. The girl was garbed in designer wear from head to toe, and the boy was similarly dressed, only strangely, he was carrying a camping pack.

After seeing who it was, the man called Shimada pulled a long face and sighed.

“Time’s up, the consolation prize is here. Although I feel pretty sorry for him, this one’s all yours Yumasaki.”

Shimada eyed the hoodlum sympathetically, and left the van.

The boy and girl left on the van shut the door behind Shimada, and faced the hoodlum, apparently rather happy.

“Hey~ hey~ Why did you do something so stupid? Of all people to kidnap, you had to kidnap Kaztano.”

The girl shook her head and patted the hoodlum’s shoulder.

—Kaztano? Who’s that? I think I’ve heard this name before…

After thinking for a little while, the hoodlum finally remembered. The middle-aged illegal immigrant that he’d kidnapped was called Kaztano.

—I see. So these people are that guy’s friends huh…hey wait, but aren’t they Japanese? How? How are they related to him? Don’t tell me they met over tea or something?

As the hoodlum’s mind was in a state of confusion, the sharp-eyed boy put down his backpack in front of him and pulled the zipper open.

“Hyaya, since you haven’t spoken, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to torture you a little.” As the boy said this, he pulled out a few Bunko books:

“Hyaya, it’s Dengeki Bunko’s eleventh anniversary, so Dengeki to you! So basically, just pick a book and we’ll mentally torture you according to the contents of the book you pick. Usually we always let people pick from some Superman comics, but since we bought a stack of Dengeki Bunko books today…hahaha.”

“Eh?”

Perhaps it might have been the boy’s intention, but the hoodlum had no idea what he was talking about and was dumbfounded.

Books were placed before him, and they were light novels with beautiful illustrations on the covers. This hoodlum only read mangas before, so when he first saw the light novels, he actually mistook them for mangas.

—What the hell is he on about? Mental torture? Don’t make me laugh. He even asked me to pick a book. What the hell does he want me to do? Damn it, this isn’t some elementary school field trip where you get to go on amusement park rides!

“Hyayaya, if you don’t pick one, you’ll die.”

Chapter 7: Yagiri Pharmaceuticals—Subordinate’s Subordinate’s Subordinate PART 2

There was mirth in the boy’s eyes, yet he was dead serious. And somehow or another, the boy had somehow acquired a silver hammer and was holding it in his hand, as if to prove his point.

When the hoodlum realised he was serious, the hoodlum frantically started looking for the book that seemed the least dangerous.—Fuck! Why did I have to run into a situation like this! I wonder what Ga-san would do? Damn it, all I have to do is pick a book…definitely not ‘Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan’. Although there’s a girl on the cover, I can guess from the title what they’re gonna do to me...this one ‘Double Brid’…V?...What kind of novel is this? Wait, no, that kid has a bandage on his head. Ah am I gonna get killed?! Shit, which one should I pick…

“My personal recommendation—‘Inukami!’!”

The girl exclaimed this loudly, and the boy went on to agree with her.

“Oh~ not bad! You wanna use dai-jaen1 or shukichi2?”

“It’s more fun if we use shukichi in the day. Ah~ Dokuro-chan’s not bad either.”

“No no no, it’s too troublesome to prepare Excalibolg3…”

—??? What? Is that the name of some contingent?!

The hoodlum was absolutely nonplussed, and felt that the two of them had been using nothing but some kind of strange, unintelligible language since the start. But he wasn’t the only one. The guy up front who had eyes as keen as an assassin, too, was chewing breathmints with a pained expression across his face. But—

“Oi, Yumasaki and Karisawa. You’d better listen up. I’m not smart and I don’t read books. So I don’t understand a word you guys are saying. But, I wanna remind you about something…”

The man in the driver’s seat suddenly raised his voice and spoke, as if he had suddenly thought of something, and broke the silence:

“Do whatever you want, I don’t care, just don’t use gasoline in the car like last time.”

“Eh~ Togusa’s such a party pooper!”

After what Togusa said, the boy in the back seat reluctantly took back a few books.

—Ga-gasoline?!

When the hoodlum realized he’d been thinking too small, he also saw that it was now even harder to pick a book. Looking at the few remaining books, he was totally unable to determine which book would allow him to be subjected the least painful method of mental torture. After thinking it over thoroughly, he concluded that regardless of the book’s contents, the two people before him would surely find some insane way to twist it.

“Can…can I ask a question?”

“Huh? What is it? We won’t tell you what’s gonna happen in the mental torture! That’s classified information.”

“If…if there was a book about Cinderella here, and I picked it, what would you do?”

After listening to the question, the boy thought for a while, slammed his clenched fist on his other palm and answered.

“That? I’d most likely find a chisel, and chisel your feet until it fits into a glass slipper.”

—Ah I’m doomed no matter what I choose! Fuck!

Frustrated, the hoodlum closed his eyes and randomly grabbed a book. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the book had an English title, and there was a Japanese subtitle added at the side. The illustration on the cover was rather detailed.

“OK, it’s been decided~!”

“Hyayaya, you sure have guts, to have chosen this one!”

Then, the two of them began to show an unorthodox dexterity. The girl retrieved a hand mirror from her purse, and handed it to the boy who broke it with his hammer. Then he placed a shard of the broken mirror in his palm.

 “Hyayaya, I wonder how many pieces we have to stick in before we can see stuff we usually can’t see… experiment START.”

Then, the girl grabbed the stunned hoodlum’s head and forced open his left eyelid. At this point, the hoodlum could roughly guess what was going to happen to him.

“Hold it! Wait, wait wait! This…isn’t funny! Oi! Hold on! Stop aaaaaaaahhh!”

“Don’t try this at home kids~ But…no one would do this anyway.”

Yumasaki’s expression steadily became more serious, and Karisawa breezily asked him, “Then, what about those people who say they committed murder because they were influenced by manga and anime?”

“No no no, you have to say this clearly and properly, so Mr Hoodlum here won’t misunderstand. There’s nothing wrong with manga and light novels~ It’s because manga and light novels can’t speak up for themselves, so all the blame is shifted to the silent party. It’s like when there’s a theft in a temple, you can just blame the statues of the deities.”

As the two engaged in this pointless conversation, the hoodlum was still absorbed in crying ‘Please stop!’, ‘spare me please!’ and things like that. But the boy was completely ignoring his pleas and slowly and surely brought the shard he’d taken from the broken mirror closer to the hoodlum’s eyeball.

“Everything we do has nothing much to do with manga or light novels or movies or anime or parents or school. To put it bluntly, it’s because we’re not normal. If there weren’t any mangas or light novels, we could also use some period drama, or maybe even Natsume Soseki4’sbooks or those prestigious educational materials authorities are promoting~ Then, I wonder what kind of reaction the government’ll have!”

“Stop it uuughaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!”

“And besides, someone who could blame manga’s influence for what they did, can never be called a manga fan.”

And just when the glass shard was right about to penetrate the eyeball, the hoodlum’s hopes suddenly soared. 

“Oi. Cut it out.”

The van’s back lifting door was suddenly opened, and the low baritone of a male sounded.

“Dotachin!”

“Ka-Kadota.”

Their expressions humbled and they straightened themselves up. From the looks of it, the newcomer was superior to those two in terms of position. The man called Kadota glared at the hoodlum, and then turned to the boy and girl.

He said, “Is that what you call mental torture? And when the blood spurts out, it’ll dirty the books, idiots.”

“So…sorry.”

After talking, Kadota grabbed the hoodlum’s collar and pulled him up. The hoodlum started hyperventilating again and tears, mucous and saliva from his eyes, nose and mouth had mixed together and were dripping incessantly from his face. When the hoodlum finally managed to calm down, Kadota added:

“Your pals…‘fessed up.”

“Huh…eh…ah?!”

At first, the hoodlum could hardly comprehend what he had heard; and as he was trying to make out its meaning, his expression momentarily changed.

—A traitor?! Who?! Ga-san? No, it can’t be. Then who else is there? Shit, this is bad. I’m a goner. What the hell’s happening now?!

“Only half of them talked, but we’ll be able to get more results in a bit. So, you’re not needed any more.”

—Not needed anymore, so I’ll be freed? Please do that! Since I’ll be blacklisted by the ‘company personnel’ to be taken care of, I might as well run away to some other place.

Kadota’s earlier words were like a sliver of hope to the frantic hoodlum, but his next words sent him reeling into the depths of hell.

Chapter 7: Yagiri Pharmaceuticals—Subordinate’s Subordinate’s Subordinate PART 3

“So, in that case, you can rest in peace.”

In that moment, the hoodlum just snapped:

“Wait! No, please wait! I’ll…I’ll talk! I’ll tell you anything. I’ll tell you whatever they didn’t say! So please, please please don’t kill me!”

“I see. So although you guys dress like this, but you’re still considered part of the working class right?”

The hoodlum admitted that they were employed in a tiny manpower dispatch company. When the company got some job requests, they’d send them to do them, and could be labeled as handymen. But, to put it accurately, this was all on the surface and if further investigations were carried out, it would be found that this manpower dispatch company had signed a contract with a certain other company.

And this company—was a family-run business and had a research facility near Ikebukuro and was a pharmaceutical company which was starting to go bust.

After listening to the hoodlum’s willing recount, Kadota smiled.

“So a failing business is kidnapping people so they can conduct experiments on them? What kind of foreign story is that?

Although he said this, but in fact, Kadota didn’t really doubt the hoodlum’s words at all. After all, someone who was on the brink of death probably wouldn’t lie. And there were quite a few weird rumours surrounding Yagiri Pharmaceuticals of late.

After instructing the others to find a suitable place to leave the hoodlum at, Kadota made to leave the van.

Then he heard the feeble voice of the hoodlum.

“You you…you guys, just what…are you people…”

Kadota stopped in his tracks and didn’t even turn his head to answer him.

“…Dollars. Ring a bell?”

After Kadota had gotten down from the van, Shimada who was already out asked him something.

“Hey, Kadota, do you think the stuff the others said…was a lie?”

“They got busted huh?”

Shimada first made a face at Kadota, and then smiled as if he finally understood everything.

“OK then, this is much better than letting Yumasaki handle everything. I like Dengeki Bunko a lot, so when I see them muck around like that with their books, it’s pretty heartbreaking.”

“Ah…which reminds me, this is the first time we’ve done something like this since joining the Dollars right? Although we did it for Kaztano. But without the Dollars, we’d never have gotten to know Kaztano…”

Kadota and Shimada, and Yumasaki and Karisawa had always been pretty tight.

At the start, it was just a get-together of a group of good friends, but somehow or another, dangerous people like Yumasaki and the others started joining too. Although they never knew what exactly had gone wrong in the middle of it all, but since they were already here, then they would have to keep thinking up methods to keep them in line—

This was what Kadota had originally thought, but in the end, it became natural that he should even help them find a job and settle down. In this group, besides him, all of them were working.　

Kadota himself in fact knew a few people from the underworld, but he wasn’t bound by any organization, and thus he never did anything particularly earth-shattering. But then one day, someone who wanted to recruit this group, sent an email to the leader, Kadota. The contents of the email were very simple, merely asking them if they wanted to join the Dollars.

There were no restrictions or rules, and they just needed to say that they were part of the Dollars—the conditions were just that strange. There was no foreseeable benefit to both parties, but the Dollars were a rather famous group around Ikebukuro, and if they could call themselves a part of it, it would be a very interesting thing indeed. Kadota himself wasn’t really interested, but after being swept up by the enthusiasm of the others, he finally accepted the invitation to join.

—The problem is that I’m too soft. Dammit, even Heiwajima Shizuo got a proper job.

Kadota had originally thought it was just someone who knew his email playing a prank on him—he totally didn’t expect that just one day after accepting the invitation, he’d see his handle up there on the Dollars website.

“So what did the Dollars head have say about this?”

“Dunno.”

“Eh?”

“Well, to be honest, I’ve never met the leader of this group. There are multiple smaller organisations within the main one, but the person at the absolute top has never revealed himself before.”

Just who would create an organisation like this? Kadota was rather curious about this. Although it was rather unsettling to be led by someone he didn’t know how to address nor knew what they looked like; but if there was no one at the top, then there wouldn’t be a feeling of ‘being placed under anyone’.

If you wanted to know who’d do this kind of thing, then there could only be—Orihara Izaya.

—While I was in Ikebukuro, we bumped into each other a few times. He was a rude bastard and gave me a stupid nickname like Dotachin. Now even Karisawa’s calling me that.

As Kadota’s thoughts suddenly strayed to that name, he realized that since thinking about the seemingly non-existent ‘higher up’ wasn’t going to do any good, he should stop thinking about it.

So the strongest people over here still had to be the gangs and triads, as well as the police. Even the rumoured Dollars couldn’t match up to them.

No matter how what kinds of stuff we do, the sheer number and power of this group people will still be meaningless. We’re just a fleeting apparition in this ever-changing city.

And it’s exactly because of this, that we want even more to prove the existence of this ‘apparition’.

Even Kadota understood something like this…

Whether this illusion was the Dollars or not, was something no one could be sure of prior to its disappearance—

Translation notes:

1. Dai-jaen: literally ‘great evil flame’, and is one of the main abilities of the main female protagonist Yoko of the Dengeki Bunko light novel series Inukami!

2. Shukichi: literally ‘transportation’, and is another one of Yoko’s abilities in Inukami!

3. Excalibolg: Mitsukai Dokuro’s main weapon, a gigantic spiked club she uses to severely maim and kill people with in the Dengeki Bunko light novel series Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan

4. Natsume Soseki: a renowned Japanese novelist in the Meiji era (1868-1912). You can read more about him on Wikipedia.