DURARARA Vol.7 Shinra+Celty+Izaya.

This is an excerpt from "Lovers' Chaka-Poko" in Vol.7, which focuses on Shinra and Celty's (first? real) date.




*

"Ahhh, wait a second Celty! Let me take just one picture!"

Shinra fumbled madly for his cell phone as the shadows around Celty's body began to take on new shapes.

As a new costume was just about to form out of the shadows, parts of Celty's arms and legs were exposed for a fleeting second - just barely enough for Shinra to push his shutter button -

......except that his camera mode was already automatically canceled by an incoming call.

"Arrrrrgh!"

Shinra almost screamed in despair and somewhat angrily answered the phone.

"Who, who is it - !"

"'Who is it'? That sure was the most dynamic 'hello' I've ever heard."

"Huh, so it's Izaya. Bye then."

"Oy, don't hang up on me. I'm bored as hell in the hospital right now. Just got the nurse to let me use the phone."

"Hospital? How did you get in?"

"Didn't you watch King Television this morning? I was stabbed yesterday."

"I see. Bye then."

Shinra ended the call with a decisive finger.

[...Who was that?]

Celty stopped to ask. Shinra replied in a lazy tone.

"Izaya. Looks like he got stabbed or something."

[- Ehh? Is he alright?]

- Was what Celty typed in shock at first -

- However, after a moment of thought she deleted it and typed anew.

[...Well. Wonder what happened, but whatever it was, I bet he deserved it.]

"Naturally."

[If he's well enough to make a phone call, it's probably no big deal.]

"Right. He sounded like he's pretty alive."

Celty, realizing that neither she nor Shinra actually cared, turned her thoughts to Izaya for a while.

- That guy...like Shizuo, is not someone people would worry about even if he's injured. Although it's for very different reasons.

[But even so...weren't you a little too unsympathetic towards him?]

"No problem. Izaya's the kind of masochist who would like people even if they treat him like vermin."

"Like you're the one to call him a masochist...well, however small it was it was still a knife wound, he could have died from infection or blood clotting or something. You better call him and apologize after this. It's not like you've got any friends apart from him and Shizuo..."

"Hmm...right. If Celty says so - "

Shinra's phone rang again before he could finish this sentence.

[Look, speak of the devil. Izaya must still be freaking out since he just got stabbed yesterday.]

"OK, OK......hello?"

Celty smiled approvingly in her heart at Shinra, who was speaking again into the phone -

"Yes, .....yes......um......I mean, yeah, I am a friend of Izaya's......sorry, it's just that I'm on vacation......reason he might be held grudge against? ......There are so many I can think of that it's hard to pin on just one......he's done a lot of shady stuff since high school. And no, I wasn't part of any of them, my conscience is still white......"

The conversation was going in an awkward direction.

So it wasn't Izaya on the other end of the phone.

As she heard the phrase "white conscience", Celty fell into deep thought.

- Now that I think about it, Shinra hasn't used such show-off phrases when he's talking to me today.

- If it's any other day, he'd have deliberately peppered his conversations with them as naturally as he breathed.

- ......So does that mean he's nervous? Or is he having so much fun that he forgot about it altogether?

- Hopefully it's the latter - it would make me so relieved.

Shinra ended the call as she thought.

[Who was that?]

"The police."

[Huh?]

"They asked if I knew anything about Izaya's stabbing.....he probably let them redial my number or something. God, for a moment I thought they found out about my underground medicine practice...! I don't wanna be dragged back to reality on a precious holiday like this one!"

Shinra had barely let out a relieved sigh when his phone beeped again.

As he pressed the phone to his ear, Izaya's voice came through from the other end.

"Hey. Let me guess, you just got a call from the cops, right?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot for that."

"I see. I'm bored as hell too. And to think Shinra is enjoying his holiday on top of all that just really got on my nerves. So I thought it would be interesting to let an underground doctor get a call from the police. How was it? Gave you quite the adrenaline shot, didn't it? Did you and Celty just grow to love each other even more due to the misattribution of arousal*?"

"Ah hah hah. Go die chest-first in a clay ice shaver, Izaya."

At that Shinra hung up and let out a deep sigh of relief.

Then - the phone rang again.

"Oy Izaya! If you don't cut the heck out, I'll start telling people about that thing back in middle school!"

Shinra was uncharacteristically raging - but no reply came from the other end of the phone.

"......?"

Then he saw something he should have been paying attention to.

Right next to him, Celty was holding her cell phone to where her ears would be.

He looked at the screen.

Displayed under the number were the words, "Celty My Honey".

He looked back and forth between Celty and his phone, and realized what she was doing.

"Haha!"

He let out a hearty laugh and began to mutter with a quiet smile on his face.

"Thank you, Celty......for reminding me how much I love you."