Read Durarara!!, Vol. 3 (Novel) for Free Online Page B

accessories, and he dutifully wore his school uniform on a campus where that was not required.
    In stark contrast, Masaomi Kida’s hair was dyed an eye-catching brown color, his ears had multiple piercings, and at the end of the sleeve of his own personal jacket glinted a silver bracelet and a ring.
    Between the two boys, the girl seemed closer to Mikado in personality. She was like an even more boring version of him. The glasses gave her the image of a meek librarian or an honor student.
    It didn’t seem like the three shared anything in common, but the smiles on their faces told any observer that they were close friends, and indeed, this was the case.
    “All right! Let’s all go pick up some chicks, so we can compare Anri’s cute sexiness to theirs and prove her superiority!”
    “What kind of nonsense is that?!”
    “Uh…p-pick them up…?”
    “Don’t worry, Anri. Your presence will lure them in: ‘Oh, there’s a girl with them, so this has to be safe!’ You won’t need to do a thing.”
    The trio created a warm friendliness that shielded them from the chilly breeze. The other groups of students milling around were invested in similar conversations, which gave the school a different atmosphere from the rest of the city surrounding it.
    Just as they were about to pass through the school gate, Masaomi came to a sudden stop and turned back wistfully to the building.
    “So, just one week left on the path of our first year of school. It all happened so fast.”
    “Yeah, it sure did.”
    “It was very brief.”
    Mikado and Anri found it surprising that Masaomi would act so sentimental. They joined him in looking back at the school, reflecting in their own way—except that Mikado quickly looked sideways at Anri’s meaningful expression, blushing slightly.
    She looked back toward him suddenly. He hastily snapped his eyes to the school building, but it felt like their gazes had met for an instant. He didn’t feel like making an excuse like, “I was looking at
you
”—that was more up Masaomi’s alley—so he tried to hide the awkwardness by changing the subject instead.
    “S-speaking of which…Mr. Nasujima sure quit school all of a sudden, didn’t he?”
    “…”
    Anri’s face looked pensive for a moment. But Mikado didn’t notice; he continued to chatter on about the relatively unfamiliar teacher. “I wonder why? It’s such a random time to leave. He could have just waited another week and made it a clean break at the end of the year.”
    It was not Anri, but Masaomi, who responded, “Who knows? Maybe he got busted for leaking the finals questions to me. But if so, wouldn’t I have gotten called in and punished, too?”
    “Did I just hear you let slip what I think you did?”
    “It wasn’t a slip at all. I summoned considerable courage in coming clean and admitting my crimes to you. Praise me! The same way you’d praise the honesty of the biographer who admitted the story about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree was a total fabrication!”
    “I don’t give a crap about the honesty of someone who has to twist logic in knots to make his point.”
    As they bickered like usual, Anri’s conflicted expression gradually softened. Mikado noticed her slight grin and shyly switched to a new topic.
    “Speaking of people who vanished…the same goes for the slasher.”
    Anri’s smile vanished as well. Mikado suddenly realized his mistake and hastily bowed his head.
    “S-sorry, Sonohara. I didn’t mean to make you remember…”
    “Huh? No! I’m fine. I’m sorry. It’s nothing, really,” she apologized back for no real reason, startled by his sudden concession.
    Anri had been admitted to the hospital after she was attacked by the slasher on that infamous night a few weeks back. Mikado and Masaomi were more concerned for her sake than anyone. Then again, she didn’t really have any other friends, and without a family, the only other people than these two who visited her in the