Durarara!!, Vol. 1 (novel) by Ryohgo Narita

letters next to it, and was adorned by a delicate illustration.
    “And the choice is made!”
    “Wow, you’ve got some stones, pal. Quite a gutsy choice!”
    The man and woman showed an unnerving ease with their preparations. She took a hand mirror out of her bag and handed it to him. He immediately cracked the mirror with the hammer and placed a few of the shards in his palm.
    “I wonder how many pieces of mirror we need to be able to see things that should be invisible? Time to test it out!”
    Meanwhile, the woman held the thug’s head still and forced his left eyelid open. Suddenly he understood exactly what was going to happen to him.
    “W-w-wait! You’re kidding! You can’t do this to me! Stop…stop!”
    “Kids, don’t try this at home. But who would ever try this anyway?” Yumasaki warned, his face growing more serious by the moment.
    Karisawa cheerily injected, “Is this one of those moral panic things about people killing because of the influence of manga?”
    “No, no, no. Let’s make this clear for the benefit of our delinquent friend here—there’s nothing wrong with manga or novels. They cannot speak for themselves, and the blame for a crime always falls upon the silent, you know?”
    The thug begged and pleaded for mercy with tears in his eyes as the two prattled on with their inane references. The man ignored the cries and slowly but surely brought the pointed shard of mirror glass closer to the thug’s exposed eyeball.
    “Manga and novels and movies and video games and our parentsand our school have nothing to do with this. If there’s any reason we do this, it’s because we’re just plain crazy. If there were no manga or novels, we’d base this on a historical play, and if not for that, we’d use some classic old Natsume Soseki novel or something else approved by the Ministry of Education. And what would the politicians say about us then?”
    “Nnnooooo-aaaaahhh!”
    “Besides, anyone who says they did it because of the influence of manga wasn’t a true fan to begin with.”
    Just as the pointed tip of the shard was about to sink into his eyeball, the thug’s spirit of salvation appeared.
    “Knock it off.”
    The rear door of the van suddenly opened and a heavy, brusque voice filled the interior.
    “Dotachin!”
    “K-Kadota!”
    The man and woman both straightened up, their eyes wide. This new person was clearly a superior rank. The man named Kadota glared at the thug up and down, then looked at the would-be torturers.
    “That’s not how you torture someone. Also, don’t get blood on the books, you clown.”
    “S-sorry.”
    Kadota grabbed the thug’s collar in one hand and lifted him up. The thug’s breathing was an irregular mix of heaves and sobs, his eyes, nose, and mouth glistening with a mix of tears, snot, and drool as he desperately attempted to calm himself down and regain control.
    Kadota simply said, “Your pal talked.”
    “Uh…wha…whuh?!”
    At first, he didn’t understand what Kadota meant, but as it gradually sank in, the thug’s face cycled rapidly through a stream of emotions.
    I’ve been sold out?! Who did it?! Gassan? No—but who—damn—what’s going on—we’re completely ruined! What’s happening out there?!
    “We’ve only got part of the story so far, but in time, we’ll know the entire truth. Which means we don’t actually need you anymore.”
    If they didn’t need him, they might let him walk. That was perfect. If he was just going to be erased by the people from his
own company
, at least this way he had the option of disappearing on his own and layinglow. Despite the confusion, the thug finally began to feel a faint hint of hope. Then, Kadota put that hope to rest for good.



“So now you can die with a clean conscience.”
    Everything inside of him crumbled into ruin.
    “Wait a sec! I mean, w-wait please! I’ll talk…I’ll tell you everything! Whatever you want to know! I’ll tell you whatever they didn’t say yet! Just