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

to Japan, she steadily became accustomed to the practice. It had nothing to do with her body, and she never had to deal with sweat and grime, but in the sense of removing any buildup of dust, she couldn’t imagine not having regular showers anymore.
    Maybe this is proof that I’ve developed the same values as humans.
    Celty constantly wondered if her dullahan values were indeed coming to resemble a human being’s. She’d been constantly baffled after her initial arrival to Japan, but now she felt as though the Japanese mind-set had rubbed off on her.
    Recently, she was viewing Shinra acutely as a member of the opposite sex more and more often. At first she was confused—but in time,she recognized that it must be the sensation of love. But Celty was not a girl trapped in the clutches of puberty, and this realization did not affect her daily life.
    But she did notice the little things. It made her happy when they were watching TV and Shinra laughed at the same moments she did.
    I have the same values as a human being. I have the same heart. And my heart can find common ground with a human’s—I think.
    At least, that was what she wanted to believe.



Chapter 4: A Regular Day in Town, Noon
    Raira Academy was a coed private high school in south Ikebukuro.
    Despite its modest size, the campus maximized the utility of its limited space, and therefore, the students did not see it as particularly cramped. Its proximity to Ikebukuro Station made it increasingly popular with people from the suburbs of Tokyo, who could commute to school while still living at home. The school’s ranking and prestige were on a gentle upward climb, so the timing of Mikado’s arrival was actually quite fortunate.
    The elevated location gave the campus an excellent view, but any feeling of superiority instantly evaporated upon the sight of the sixty-floor building looming overhead. On the other side of the school was the expanse of Zoshigaya Cemetery, a lonely place for being in the middle of a giant city.
    The entrance ceremony was anticlimactically short, and Mikado and Masaomi split off to their own classes for a brief homeroom session.
    “My name is Mikado Ryuugamine. It’s nice to meet you.”
    Mikado was worried about being teased about his name, but there was no reaction to his introduction. Apparently the people of his generation were even less interested in others’ names than Mikado expected. Despite this, he listened intently to his classmates’ introductions, eager to learn as much as he could about them.
    Some cracked easy jokes as they introduced themselves, and some said their names and sat down immediately. Some were already fast asleep, but most interesting of all to Mikado was a girl named Anri Sonohara. She was small for a high schooler, and her pale, pretty face was framed with glasses, but there was a distant air of foreboding about her—not intimidating to others, but one that suggested she did not usually reach out voluntarily.
    “My name is Anri Sonohara.”
    Her voice seemed to vanish as soon as it hit the air, but Mikado caught its clear inflection perfectly fine. Anri stood out to Mikado among the class because she seemed to be the most removed from reality. All the other people were just plain high schoolers, without any obvious model students or bad boys.
    The only other thing out of place was that one person in Mikado’s class was absent. Her name was Mika Harima, but he soon reasoned away her absence by assuming it was the flu.
    However, the instant her absence was announced, Anri Sonohara quickly looked over to the empty seat with concern plain on her face.
    After that, homeroom ended uneventfully, and he met up with Masaomi, who was in the class next door.
    Masaomi still had his daring earrings in, but he didn’t particularly stick out from the crowd. In fact, Mikado seemed to be more noticeable, perhaps because the school allowed regular clothes. They were both wearing the school blazer as instructed for the