Durarara!! SH Vol 1 Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1A

The Seeker

Excerpt of a report by Tatsugami Aya, novice reporter at Tokyo Warrior.

Ikebukuro has an urban legend of a headless rider. However, when it comes to urban legends, the idea of a headless rider itself was not born in Ikebukuro.

The story had at first spread with a strong spiritual theme, revolving around the vengeance of a motorcyclist who had been decapitated by a wire strung across the road.

If one were to say how, it would be that the legend could be described to be more like an Unidentified Mysterious Animal (UMA) like the Loch Nesse or Yeti.

It was captured clearly on cameras and broadcast on TV, resulting in the entire country coming to know of it.

Moreover this Headless Rider has apparently been showing up around Ikebukuro for more than 20 years, and only with the increasing popularity of camera-equipped mobile phones came to be captured on camera.

Even so, except for those in Ikebukuro who have witnessed it, whether there actually is a headless being driving around the city is probably only half-believed at the moment.

It was footage from on-scene filming with the police, but it was not unthinkable that the on-scene filming itself could have been a faked performance.
That was what I thought; I felt it was no different from forged photographs that go viral on the internet.

In fact, that was what I thought all until meeting ‘it’ in the city of Ikebukuro.

The being that rode it wore a helmet, so I did not know if its head was truly missing, but that was the least of my concerns.

To make things stranger, the Headless Rider, who appeared to be being chased by a white motorcycle, with a black substance from its own body – that could only be described as ‘shadow’ – created a black road before it.
Honestly, after seeing a scene as unbelievable as a motorcyclist travelling on a road of their own making, whether or not the Headless Rider was indeed headless became no more than a petty detail.

From that point on, I have sought the Headless Rider.

When a King Television reporter interviewed it on the road, I understood that the Headless Rider communicated its will through a handheld electronic device.

A dullahan is a type of fae from Ireland, a being that informs those soon to die of their imminent demise.

Or perhaps it has, but at least it was not when I witnessed it, and after thoroughly searching on video sites where videos of the Headless Rider are common, there were none depicting it carrying its head.

Apparently the horse the dullahan rides is known as a coiste bodhar, and ‘Shooter’ could be a spin on that.

Honestly, naturally, I felt it was ridiculous.

But the important thing is the fact that rumours were spreading at all from something as ridiculous as this.

It is possible for the Headless Rider to be the being known as the dullahan, but even if it were that fact would have been buried under the dubious nature of the rumours, and ended up ambiguous.

Another piece of information that caught even more of my interest was its connection with a violence organisation, the ‘Awakusu-kai’, whose office is based in Ikebukuro, and the gang known as the Dollars. Also curious is the man in the bartender suit that has often accompanied it.

When I heard that the Headless Rider was involved in even that, I could not contain myself.

One and a half years ago – was the unexplainable incident involving the Dollars, and an incident where the sky of Ikebukuro was covered in a mysterious shadow.

I get the feeling that all of these individual incidents have the Headless Rider at their centre.

From now on as well, I plan to investigate deeper into what I’ve found.

Some years ago there was even an incident during the land speculation uproar where a landshark impostered the Headless Rider and wrecked havoc all over the city.

Simply put, they intended to manipulate prices by painting the Headless Rider as a dangerous figure, and even collaborated with politicians to obtain redevelopment rights.

There are probably people who are friendly towards it and those who despise it.

It is an unidentified monster, but it is a definite existence in this world. If its identity were to be exposed, would the world undergo a change?

No – it may not necessarily be a misconcept.

That is no longer the priority. I simply, for the sake of sating my own curiosity, want to expose the identity of the Headless Rider.

Memo

※   In the Dollars’ incident a gun was shot at the Awakusu-kai and the police station. ↑ Related?!

And leaving behind this incomplete report, the novice reporter Tatsugami Aya vanished.

Her notebook computer open on her desk in the editorial department, the text file open.

She was unreachable by email or mobile; not even her family could contact her.

Colleagues and the heads of the editorial department tried to find out, to no avail.

And she had disappeared with her mobile on her; save for the police there was no one who could even check her call history.

Eventually a rumour spread about the novice reporter who had gone missing in pursuit of the Headless Rider: She had come to know of the Headless Rider’s true identity.

Had she been swallowed into the shadows of the Headless Rider, or abducted by the Awakusu-kai?

A myth, in somewhat bad taste, quietly began to squirm across the internet –

‘Although it’s searched for its head for so long, the Headless Rider’s already strangled the real thing.’

‘Those who know too much about it will get a message from the Headless Rider on their phones.’

‘And the moment you look up from the screen of your phone you’ll be decapitated, and dragged into the shadows.’ Rumours last no more than 75 days.

In the end, how long would the rumours of the supernatural continue?

In all this, only one number was certain.

It had been 15 days since the disappearance of Tatsugami Aya.
Her survival was still unconfirmed.

****CHAPTER END****

Chapter end