Chapter 1

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Chapter 1: Home Run

“Nec-chan, you don’t use a tablet?”

The man in black situated in a wheelchair – Izaya Orihara – addressed the woman a little ways from him. Sitting in the pipe chair resigned for family of the wheelchair user while skillfully typing away on the laptop positioned on her knees, the girl – Nec – did not move to face Izaya and answered with just barely enough volume to speak over the cheers that were going on around them.

“I don't really like touching the screen directly since it’ll leave fingerprints. If it's a smart phone, then that's fine.”

She had gothic-lolita punk makeup on her face along with glasses and cross chain ear piercings which dangled from both of her ears. Her clothes were primarily black with red trims, and even the laptop she used had various disturbing stickers depicting skulls and zombies.

“My, you’re surprisingly old fashioned, huh, Nec-chan. Well, even if I say that, to Sozoro-san laptops and tablets must seem like alien tools though.”

At that, the butler-like elderly man – Densuke Sozoro – shrugged his shoulders with his hands remaining behind his back.

“This is an underestimation. A long time ago, I also have used a home computer.”

“A home computer…”

The same time Izaya shook his head in exasperation, there was a large uproar in the stadium. Izaya’s skin trembled from the eruption of joyous voices, as though an electric current ran through him, and he continued to yield himself to the roaring sound with a gentle expression without knowing why. As a result, he came to know the reason for the cheering only several seconds later.

“Well, would you look at that.”

The young man in the wheelchair turned his focus to the person responsible for the applause with a gentle expression as the crowd around him stood up and gave a surprisingly pleasant and boisterous dance. The man running nimbly in his line of sight - Kanshirou Munakata - had just hit the home run. He managed a third consecutive home run continuing on from the previous game, and the man raised his hand in response to the crowd’s cheering for accomplishing a brilliant feat with a humble expression as he made a lap around the diamond.

“Really, I’m so glad I came. Being able to see this many people shower another with a standing ovation is not something you can see often.”

“Is that the case?”

“If I can say my own personal selfish desire, I would like to see both the triumphant batter’s expression and the beaten pitcher’s expression compared on the diamond vision screen.”

“You really do have terrible tastes. A player’s grief is not amusement.”

Sozoro refuted, but Izaya shrugged on top of his wheelchair.

“It is amusing. Think about it. Do you really think the audience would be so crazy about it if this was a sport where both the victor and loser played expressionlessly? The word

kandou means that emotions move. Is wanting to savor the intense emotions of the players really that unnatural?”

“I will not deny that the players’ feelings are part of the seasoning. But I think for you to want that to eat as the main ingredient is a really bad taste. Besides, you do not hold any interest in baseball itself.”

“How rude. Don’t call me out and say that when I was once a healthy boy who played baseball.”

“Do you know which side of the batter’s box a right-handed person would stand in?”

“Eh?”

For a moment Izaya’s smile vanished from his face, and he thought deeply as his hands gripped an invisible, imaginary bat.

“What is this? Are you not left-handed? Or perhaps you do not know how to hold the bat…?”

“...That’s not it. I don’t really know what you’re talking about.”

“For the record, right- or left-handedness is not the only factor to determine if one stands in the right or left side of the batter’s box. With the reason of getting close to first base, there are many players who could choose either side of batter’s box regardless of their dominant hand.”

“…Of course I knew that. I really like how the right-handed batter would correct themselves just to get close to the first base with the obsession of victory in mind.”

His previous smile returned, and Izaya answered as though everything was as expected

.

After he replied with “my apologizes,” Sozoro added, “if I can say more, the right-handed and left-handed batters are facing the pitcher to swing, so the one closer to first base is the left-handed batter.”

“...”

Seeing Izaya’s frozen smile, Sozoro slowly shook his head left and right and let out a sigh.

“Truly. While you brag about being an ‘informant,’ depending on the conversation you can be quite ignorant.”

“I can’t help that. I’m not some quiz king who needs almighty knowledge. I’m just an informant. Being impartial to the knowledge people seek is normal.”

“I cannot fathom that from someone who just made a huge lie saying, ‘of course I knew that,’ so proudly just now.”

After Sozoro mercilessly pointed out his mistake, Izaya looked away from him and began to talk to Nec.

“How is it? Are you having fun Nec-chan? It seems that Haruto-kun and Himari-chan are enjoying themselves.”

A little ways from them in the unreserved seats, a boy around elementary school age had seen Mukata’s home run and jumped around in glee. The young girl around the same age as the boy stood next to him with a cold expression, but she slowly applauded for the Serpent’s Munakata.

“I don’t have any interest in baseball, but since baseball stadiums have a lot of electromagnetic waves flying about I like it. This stadium is especially impressive. It’s almost like it’s the stronghold of electromagnetic waves.”

Nec pulled up a rather shifty software on her laptop and grabbed a small, wireless device from under her seat while typing on her keyboard.

“Really now, how about you watch the game a bit? I brought you all the way here.”

“Says the ‘president’ who only looks at people’s faces rather than the game…right?”

How Izaya Orihara was able to come and watch this game was nothing more than coincidence. He was told by a client in exchange for the price of information, ‘I can obtain stadium passes for a baseball stadium in the area,’ so he thought he could enjoy a day off by immersing himself in a crowd of people.

But as Sozoro and Nec understood from the conversation, this man who called himself an ‘informant’ truthfully had no interest in the game itself. Why he came to enjoy himself in the wheelchair reserved seats of the stadium was for the massive crowd of more than 30,000 people.

In other words, it was because of humans. Similar to how people would take peaceful walks through the woods at a mountain side with few people when they tire from the city, Izaya decided to visit a baseball stadium teeming with people.

He started by asking the elementary kids he used for errands if they wanted to come with him. Although he asked every person who came with him for a certain job in the Kanto region, the only other individuals who tagged along besides Haruto and Himari were his data processor Nec and his bodyguard Sozoro.

“It would’ve been great if Fujiura-san came too.”

“He was just discharged. It was also said that he gets sick in the crowd.”

Izaya Orihara was an informant. However, he was not someone who earned his income by giving intel to the yakuza like one would usually imagine. He was an information gathering agent who provided desired material. However, he frequently collected information through completely different means from so-called detectives.

Depending on the situation he would use Nec to fish for information through illegal tactics, and in other situations he had gained information directly from crimes. And to carry out those operations smoothly, Izaya Orihara had hired people; to broaden the world’s vision wider, to gather stronger information, to grasp and expose truths hidden in deep places.

And so for that he frequently brought former and active criminals into his circle. But whether because there was not much popularity for it, surprisingly enough there was no one who would gather for such events like watching a baseball game or having a hot pot party.

That said, having four people accompanying him can be called rare, so it seemed to be a good number for him this time around.

“I wonder if I should have called Lisa-chan too. Surely if she were to see this crowd, she would want to burn them all. I think that would have been a bit dangerous, but I somewhat want to hear the cries of the people trying to escape and to hear the joyous voices from the people that manage to return alive.”

“If you try that, at that point I will let you hear it: the sound of your tibia snapping.”

“That doesn’t seem like a very pleasant sound.”

In the middle of their conversation, Nec exclaimed in glee.

“Got it. I did it! I’m in! Hee hee.”

“?”

Nec continued while sparing Izaya a glance.

“You can’t look too long. We’ll get caught.”

“What is it?”

“You see, this baseball stadium, I thought I saw a strange wireless server here. When I looked into it, I was surprised. This stadium not only has the normal hidden cameras, but there are wireless hidden cameras moving around too. I found the camera watching these seats as well. If the lens moves we’ll be caught, so I can’t tell you where it is.”

Izaya smiled slightly at the information Nec provided nonchalantly as if he learned some interesting fact.

“Nec-chan, you solved the encryption for the wireless hidden cameras?”

“I thought I would try, but it was a bit much for the laptop I have. But, I found a tablet connected to the personal network, and from there I messed with it a bit and made the encryption meaningless. Hee hee!”

Nec explained with a crooked smile on her beautifully arranged face. Sozoro nodded in understanding expressionlessly from behind them.

“I see. As expected of you Miss Nec.”

“Sozoro-san, you don’t have to overdo it. It’s more cute to behave like an old man and ask in confusion, ‘what foreign language are you speaking in?’ for things like that, you know?”

Izaya said teasingly, recalling the previous conversation.

“However, Miss Nec. You managed to break through the wireless security well. You got the stadium’s hidden cameras…and furthermore, with all due respect, you may have spoils connected with those hidden devices. It is not like you are continuing to use a rudimentary encryption like WPS, correct? If circumstances are met, could there be the possibility of utilizing the independent encryption as consequently as the isolated network?”

“Now, it’s not like I’m cracking down on all the hidden cameras in Japan here for show. If you give me the preparation and time, I can sneak into the hidden cameras of the prime minister’s official residence or the American military bases.”

“…”

Seeing how Sozoro had started a conversation with Nec with complete understanding, Izaya was bewildered for a short time.

“Um, Sozoro-san?”

“What is it?”

“Weren’t you bad with computers?”

“I believe I have said that I have used a home computer before? Well, it is certain that I cannot completely follow new information in recent years, and so it is difficult at this age to learn it.”

Sozoro nodded deeply, and without looking away from him Nec informed Izaya with a smile.

“Isozaka-cchi and I have been teaching him when we have the time, but Sozoro-san is taking it all in really fast. At this rate, Izaya-san, he may pass you in network information.”

“As long as I have the minimum skill and knowledge to observe humans it’s fine by me.”

“That sounds like nothing but excuses.”

Nec’s cackling laughter interrupted him, and then Sozoro began to speak as he stroked his beard.

“Nevertheless. Putting logic aside, Miss Nec, your abilities are to be feared. However, I must advise you that peeking into the abyss may also allow the other party access as well. Even so, please take precaution as to not let them locate your position.”

“Yeah, I’m borrowing the server instead of suspending the computer terminal of various people inside and outside the stadium, but...”

Nec gave an innocent smile to Sozoro as she stated this so smoothly.

“If by chance it does happen, I’d really appreciate it if you help me escape, Sozoro-san. Hee hee!”

♀♂

Around the same time, Ryuusei’s Office

“...”

There was an office room, which can also be called Ryuusei’s personal room, adjacent to the VIP purpose suit room in one area of the baseball stadium. Tamae was in the middle of checking the security cameras when she made a stern face and stopped.

“What’s wrong, Tamae? Was there a strange occurrence?”

After Tamae thought over what to say, she answered her brother’s question with her brow creased in confusion.

“...Just now, someone got in.”

“What?”

“In my tablet…well, more like the baseball team’s inner network connected to it. They may be able to see the hidden camera footage, so I’ll kick them out now.”

“Wait.”

Tamae’s fingers stopped at Ryuusei’s command.

“Could it be the same work as the culprit who replaced the data footage in the underground warehouse?”

“I thought of that, but…wait a minute. More than the anonymity software, there is an abnormal amount of access points so it’s impossible to pin-point, but I can confirm that it’s being accessed from inside the baseball stadium, so the possibility of them being somewhere in the stadium is high.”

“Is that so? If that’s it, then it’s best not to cause anything in the middle of the game. Let’s stop with that. We’ll pretend we never noticed the intruder.”

“My, would it be alright to let them think I’m an easy woman to get through?”

“They’re already tampering with the hidden cameras, right?”

“...Probably.”

After letting out a small sigh, she questioned Ryuusei.

“But, at this rate what’s happening in the basement will be exposed, wouldn’t it?”

“That doesn’t matter. After all whoever it is probably is not thinking of reporting to the police. As long as the code for the vault of

that isn’t leaked it’s no problem.”

♀♂

In the baseball stadium

“So, was there any interesting footage?”

Nec continued to type on her laptop while smiling at Izaya’s question. Izaya wondered if they had already been discovered due to her behavior, but when he looked around them he saw more people than he expected looking at their laptops, tablets, and smartphones. They seemed to be putting their reactions of the current status on the internet and posting their thoughts of the baseball match on SNS while also enjoying the game.

Haha, so having come to see baseball in person is directly correlated to the connection with the internet? This is why humans are so interesting.

While he was pondering those remarks to himself, Nec’s fingers ceased crawling over the keyboard, and her smile disappeared suddenly.

“Eh…”

“? What’s wrong?“

“Well...since it was just at a still screen, I tried to remove it, but…”

On Nec’s screen, he could see several men doing some sort of cleaning in a basement-like place somewhere. Seeing the details of the conduct, Izaya pondered over it for a while before making the widest smile in his entire day.

That was a scene Izaya has seen many times in the past.

The men were applying some sort of spray around the area while a special paper absorbed the spreading red liquid on the ground. Izaya recalled the four elderly women employed by the illegal company, the Awakusu Group, who did the same sort of work when he had been in Ikebukuro. It was an under treatment to erase the luminol reaction by discernment and cover up large amounts of blood stains.

In other words, it showed that there were large volumes of blood stains there. And that it was the kind of blood that would have bad consequences if the police investigated it.

“Izaya-dono? What is it?”

“Hmmm? Ah, well, it’s nothing much.”

“You have a triumphant smile almost as if you yourself have hit a home run.”

“Well, it might as well be a feeling exactly like hitting a home run.”

Izaya smiled excitingly, and as he held back his desire to give an applause he mentioned one conjecture to Sozoro and Nec.

“It seems there was a murder and a power to erase the incident in this stadium.”

Certainly at this moment, Izaya Orihara was ecstatic.

To murder someone meant a human’s emotions have surpassed a line or there was a burst of ‘energy’ that came forth as a result of the moment a person caved in.

It was a twisted way of thinking, but at the very least, Izaya Orihara thought that way.

As a result of that human pushing towards that direction, someone passed over the line, and a person died.

He never considered there would be such an incident this person caused in a baseball stadium. Izaya was grateful in his heart for exchanging the information fee for the baseball tickets from his client. And he expressed his gratitude for the murder to occur as a self fortune.

Yeah, I guess this too is thanks to the days events.

However, as though to ridicule Izaya thinking those thoughts from the bottom of his heart, his fate took a sudden turn in the next moment.

Inscrutable are the ways of heaven.

There is no pleasure without pain.

Fortune and misfortune are intertwined.

As though there needed to be a price for coincidental good fortune, there was one more coincidence that assaulted him.

A foul ball came flying at the smiling Izaya. At this rate, it was on course to hit him right in the head. A part of the crowd that was following the ball’s direction cried out.

However, in the next moment, the ball was caught in Sozoro’s hand beside him.

“Hm, catching it barehanded actually does shake these old bones. The person who invented the glove is most impressive.”

The audience around them raised their voices in praise for Sozoro’s feat. The whereabouts of the foul ball was clearly displayed in the diamond vision screen. Seeing the playback of Sozoro’s fine play on the enormous screen, Izaya leaned his shoulders back and spoke.

“…Yeah, since you’re my bodyguard I thought it was naturally a part of your job, but I will give you my thanks. Thank you, Sozoro-san.”

At Izaya’s honest words of gratitude, Nec acted innocently in surprise and said to him teasingly,

“Have you just noticed the ball was heading towards you? Could it be you peed yourself? Hee hee.”

“I’m not a child. I wouldn’t do that. It’s just…”

“It’s just?”

“I just recalled the times when I was in Ikebukuro and sudden steel garbage cans came flying at me. Compared to those times, I was quite fortunate just now.”

However, Izaya did not realize. It was not that he deserved getting garbage cans thrown at him in Ikebukuro. It was not the misfortune brought upon him by the flying foul ball –

Rather, it was the coincidental chain of events that started the moment Sozoro caught the ball.

♀♂

At a ramen shop somewhere in Kanto

“...”

That was a giant man.

He was roughly more than two meters tall. His face was covered with a black bandage and his blue-dyed hair, and even now looking at the man in the bursting suit, everyone - even including the shopkeeper of the ramen restaurant - imagined if he could be a professional wrestler from somewhere. He had an air to him that was unseen to the respectable person, but it was better to consider ‘there is a pro wrestler I don’t know the name of next to me’ than ‘there is a yakuza member or killer next to me.’

He had glaring eyes and a long scar running across the uncovered part of the bandage. It was ridiculous to see a man with the appearance of a monster from some horror film to be having a meal casually in a ramen shop, and yet the more bizarre presence was the woman beside him.

She had a short build which mad onlookers assume she was a young girl instead of a grown lady. While her features were extraordinarily arranged, the word ‘pretty’ would come to mind first rather than ‘beautiful.’ And such a fairy-like woman was seated at the same table as the monstrous giant.

“Look, Ayumi-chan! It says it’s recommended to order the

kaedama before we should eat the noodles! Let’s take the chance and get some! Should the stiffness be extra firm? Just firm? Normal? Well let’s go with the recommended firm one! Can I have one firm please!”

“…”

“What’s wrong, Ayumi-chan? …Eh? Ahhh, you like yours softer?! I’m sorry! I was careless! Excuse me~! Can you change the firm noodles to soft please!”

“…”

The woman corrected the order, and the giant exhaled in relief when the shop assistant replied in acknowledgement.

It was almost like an older sister taking care of her useless little brother, but the people in the shop around them doubted they were siblings no matter how they looked at them.

There were more people who took an interest in the woman talking equally with the frightening man than that giant’s unfitting, gender confusing name, Ayumi. Yuuki seemed like a beautiful woman, or perhaps a pretty girl, who would get flirted on if she was walking alone after all.

Are they married or are they lovers?

Those ideas were too imbalanced. The man did not seem like a kidnapper who would abduct girls, but the woman’s attitude negated that thought from the beginning.

However, they hardly looked like siblings. The customers considered the possibilities, but in the next moment a shocking word reached their ears.

“Seriously. You need to speak up more. Everyone at home would take care of you even when you’re quiet, but if you leave elsewhere without me, your mother, you wouldn’t be able to do anything! Whenever that happens, your dead father will laugh in his grave!”

Some of the customers around them spit out their ramen or water at that.

Mother!? Just now, did she just call herself mother!? I must have misheard right!?

The customers and the employee carrying the

kaedama were deeply confused, but that large man hung his head to his

mother’s sermons.

His name was Ayumi Usubara. He was a scoundrel running riot as ‘Adamura’s pet whale’ for the Adamura family who formerly controlled the mining town, Bunokura.

And the person sitting in front of him was Yuuki Usubara. She was the second wife of Usubara’s father, making her his step-mother. However, the troubling matter was that she was still twenty-three years old and about five years younger than Ayumi. His father was bedridden from illness when he suddenly introduced his second wife to him, and for reasons Usubara could not comprehend he had to accept her as his step-mother.

And then, his father passed away soon after.

However, no one thought his second wife did anything to him. Because of his father’s medical bills the Usubara family hardly had any money, and the remaining debt was put on her shoulders.

Apparently his mother had been hitchhiking on a trip from Tokyo when she found his father collapsed along the roadside, and in the time she took care of him they had hit it off and got married, but Usubara was not told much of the fine circumstances and details.

She was younger than he was, but Usubara did not consider Yuuki as his own mother as she was completely different from her. However, he could not treat the woman unkind as a mother at times when she was sincere or when she would sternly confront him.

Usubara was an outlaw, and depending on the circumstances he would crush people without hesitation, but he was a shy man to ladies, old or young.

But now he was no longer part of a gang.

A while back in the town he lived in previously, Bunokura, there was a certain incident that occurred which caused the mine to shut down and the group he was employed by to spontaneously disappear. Usubara knew of the one man responsible for those incidents. It could be thought as an animal-like intuition, but in actuality that intuition has never been wrong.

“So? It was Izaya Orihara-kun, right? Do you think that kid is still in this prefecture?”

She should also be younger than Izaya Orihara, but Yuuki talked as though he was her son Ayumi’s friend. They were actually not friends, and to Usubara he was an enemy he could not help but loath. However, he was disconcerted to it when it came to his step-mother.

His step-mother heard from the heavily injured Usubara and others involved of what happened and had said,

‘I got it! So you fought with this kid Izaya Orihara-kun and that kid’s chauffeur! Then you lost and came back...? I won’t forgive this! For others to butt in a children’s fight. If that’s the case, I will go with you and complain to them!’

It had ended up becoming an extremely strange situation of the two leaving to search for Izaya Orihara.

Usubara was not that bright, but his step-mother understood that the network of his brain tissue was a bit haywire. Her family was pretty wealthy, so she had an abundance of money for funding the trip.

And yet, although he wondered if it was really alright to continue this life style, the revenge he swore towards Izaya Orihara boiled up within him.

“...”

He had no intention of giving up. However, it was true that he did not have a guess on how to find Izaya Orihara’s whereabouts. Usubara’s mission was to carry out his revenge to Izaya and that old man so he could end this journey with his extraordinary mother-child.

That was until he saw the men on the ramen shop’s television screen.

“Still he’s pretty amazing, isn’t he? That Munakata-san and this Kanshirou-kun. My aunt Miharu got along with Munakata’s mother really well. I’ve met him too, that Kanshirou-kun!”

“...”

His mother exclaimed, but Usubara continued to watch the television screen.

“That’s right. My aunt Miharu’s kid…meaning my kid cousin, works for a publisher. We should get a lot of information on Orihara-kun, so when you meet my aunt you got to properly greet her, okay?”

“...”

Usubara nodded vaguely while still watching the TV, but the moment a foul ball hit by a certain batter flew towards the audience, a flame ignited in his eyes shown between the openings in his bandage.

“Ori…hara…”

“Huh? What’s wrong, Ayumi-chan?”

Surprised to hear her step-son’s rare voice, Yuuki moved her gaze to the television screen too. When she did she saw the events that just happened on the VTR. In them, an elderly man magnificently caught the foul ball and beside him there was a man in a wheelchair with wide eyes.

It was Izaya Orihara and the elderly man chaperoning him.

His former employer, Adamura, told Usubara before he disappeared, “that is Densuke Sozoro...he is one of the legends. It’s better to not to go up against him.” But he could not be told to let it go in front of the man responsible for his humiliation of defeat back then.

It was even more so for the man responsible for the result of that defeat, Izaya Orihara, who had thrown up a bomb from the sidelines. If there was furthermore to say, it seemed that man Izaya Orihara also wrecked his hometown.

With various emotions mixing together, Usubara screamed out his enemy’s name in deep resentment from that large mouth, just like the imagined whale he was titled as.

“Orihara...Izayaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

The customers and employees mistook the yell full of clear killing intent as their own lives being in danger, and they trembled in fear.

However, in the midst of that, Yuuki puffed her cheeks in exasperation and kicked Usubara’s shin with all her strength.

“Gah…”

Usubara made a small cry from being kicked in his weak point. His step-mother scolded Usubara with her eyebrow raised on her child-like face.

“You can’t make a fuss in the shop! Not! Good!”

And then glancing towards the TV, she recited words that were surely slipped from there.

“That baseball stadium, that’s the Natsugawara’s place.”

“If that’s the case, I think we can get there in a taxi in about an hour.”

Translation Notes:

1. “Kandou” (感動) is a noun which means “being deeply moved

emotionally.” Hence it is written with the characters “feeling” and

“movement.” Which is what Izaya is pretty much breaking down in that one

sentence.

2. Kaedama is an extra serving of noodles you can order when you have

mainly the broth left. This only applies for ramen noodles, not for

udon or soba.

3. Miharu’s step-daughter is Rui Otonobe – also called Otsuberu. Rui is the main female protagonist in one of Narita’s other work, Wednesdays Smiling with Otsuberu (Otsuberu to

Warau Suiyoubi). She is the editor-in-chief for the magazine Last

Week Weekly published under Iibane Publications.

4. Similarly, Kanshirou Munakata is part of the Munakata Group which is as big and influential as the Natsugawara Group. Kanshirou is related to the current head of the Munakata Group Tetsuya Munakata and to an extent the male protagonist, Yukihiro Kisa, though the exact relation is currently unknown.

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Translation: Kaede726

Reposts are prohibited and should be exclusive to Kaede726 on blogger.

Illustrations provided by: Soutenkyuu

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BookWalker.jp and Amazon.jp

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