Durarara!! Vol. 5

Chapter 2.1

May 3rd, somewhere in Ikebukuro

At the same time the mysterious little girl was trying to electrocute Heiwajima Shizuo -

Celty Sturluson was dealing with her own share of non-daily life.

Though for her, it was part of the job.

 - Idiots who are way too used to peace, huh.

Celty sat on the comfortable sofa and considered the phrase she had heard from her underground doctor roommate the night before.

 - The phrase was hard to associate with either underground doctors or underground couriers, though. The room she was in looked like a clean, beautiful office.

But there was a strange kind of minimalism in the way the room was furnished; even the number of desks was at an absolute minimum. 

She was aware that the simplicity served a purpose: to enable the occupants to desert the office or change its outward appearance as quickly as possible.

She also knew that such needs would come up when the cops began to look for things here.

"We're really sorry for making you come all the way here. Ah, do you need a hand towel or anything?"

[No, but thank you.]

Celty typed onto her PDA as she concentrated her sensors on the man sitting opposite her.

The man's name was Shiki. He looked like he was around 30.

He often brings the underground doctor Shinra jobs to do, and Celty had worked as a courier for him on many occasions.

To the outside world he was the representative of a gallery - but in fact, he occupied an executive position in a large organization. Simply put, he was one of the executives in the yakuza organization "Medei Group Awakusu-kai".

In short, the office was the shell of their sham company. It called itself a gallery, but there was not a single painting in the reception room.

"I do think that I should put at least one or two paintings on the wall even if just for the show. But I haven't been able to find paintings that appeal to my aesthetics."

He might have said the same thing before, but Celty couldn't bring herself to care.

Instead she couldn't help but notice the way the new "employees" stared at her in alarm every time more of them stepped into the office.

[……Um, I feel like everyone's a little tense.]

"Hmm? Ahh, I'm sorry about that. A couple of days ago we had someone dressed like you come over uninvited to the financial branch of our corporation and protest a little bit too violently."

Celty was dressed in a black rider suit and a full-face helmet. 

She couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed as she understood what he had meant, and began to type anew.

[Would you like me to change into something else and come back later?]

 - It's kind of an advantage that they don't have to see my displeased face at times like these.

"You don't have to be so displeased."

 - Is he an esper!?

[Can you read people's hearts?]

"You can too if you read carefully into a person's body language. It's kind of a prerequisite for our occupation to be able to read the opponent's heart even when his or her face is concealed. Ah, by the way, if you do wish to change or take off your helmet, just feel free to."