Durarara!! Volume 7

The only people who spoke about becoming friends on a first meeting were
either the blindingly innocent or the devious. The boy named Aoba Kuronuma
was undoubtedly the latter.

The red color seeping into the bandage on his hand only made Celty feel
more nervous. What if that “normal schedule” did not return to their lives after
all?

Aoba mocked her anxiety, waving the bloodied hand in the wind.
It waved and wavered, blown by the clammy breeze…

Quietly matching the anxiety and uncertainty saturating the city.
Wave, wave, waver, wave.



A holiday does not exist to rest the body.
It is not for resting the mind.
It’s not the body or the mind that relaxes…but the entire “state” of everyday

repetition.
That is what I wrote at the beginning.

But there is something you must not forget.
On the morning that you tell yourself to drink deeply of the extraordinary on
your holiday, so that you might return to the ordinary in a refreshed state—do
not forget that the usual repetition may not return.
What did I tell you? The city does not distinguish between ordinary and
extraordinary, work and rest.
It always comes down to people to see and judge these things.
Human beings.
So there’s no guarantee that the new day the city provides for you after a
holiday will be the same as what you had before.
There is always change and evolution within the typical day—but I do not
speak of such small matters.
This would be akin to eating healthy every day, then enjoying the occasional
steak on the weekend. Except that rather than returning to healthy food, you are
suddenly served a full-course poison mushroom meal.
If you do not receive the ordinary life you expected and instead must swallow
a bizarre set of circumstances you never wanted…
I suggest you pray.

And trust that your stomachs are at least as strong as the city’s.

—Excerpt from the afterword of Shinichi Tsukumoya, author of Media
Wax’s Ikebukuro travel guide, Ikebukuro Strikes Back 3





AFTERWORD

Hello, I’m Ryohgo Narita. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Or if you’re new,
welcome. I hope you stick around!

Anyway, as those of you who bought this book around its release date
probably already know…

THE DURARARA!! TV ANIME SERIES HAS BEGUN AIRING!

As of this writing, I’ve seen a few episodes already—and I can barely contain
my excitement at their quality. In fact, I’m so excited I’ve got a fever of 101
degrees. Okay, that was a lie. I’m just sick. But I’m also so happy that I could get
up and dance to express my delight!

But enough about me being silly. I’d like to provide a little afterword to each
of the stories in this book.

RENDEZVOUS BOLERO

Namie and Mika are both top-class “broken” characters among the female cast
of Durarara!!, but I feel like their relative lack of profile in the story allowed
them to be passed off as normal for too long. Actually, I was considering a
backstory where Namie took on a girl who was approaching her brother and
seduced her to pull her away from Seiji…but it would have pushed the page
limit, and I had moral concerns, so I didn’t write it in. If you’re a fan of the yuri
women-who-love-women romances, please employ your imagination.

OUTCAST CONCERTO

This is a story of Akabayashi, my personal favorite. But as a matter of fact, I
named most of the Awakusu-kai figures after editors at the Dengeki Bunko
office, so my personal editor often says things like “I have a hard time imagining
this guy being the hero of the story, because I always see Takabayashi’s face on
him.” It’s not fair! Anyway, there’s also the mother of a character whom I won’t

reveal for fear of spoilers. It’s a bit different from the usual Durarara!!

COLLECTION RHAPSODY

On the other hand, this one was very appropriate, in my opinion. Shizuo thinks
of his ideal woman as an older lady, but in order to find out more about that,
you’ll have to wait for an original anime story in the near future (major
announcement!). After this, I think Akane and Vorona will remain as regular cast
members orbiting around Shizuo. The cast tends not to grow much in
Durarara!!, so the introduction of new members is a valuable occurrence.

LOVEY-DOVEY CHAKA-POKO

In this story, the sound chaka-poko is used to represent the clopping of horse
hooves, but I got the term itself from the famous novel Dogra Magra. That
aside, I really wanted to put Celty into a school uniform. I considered adding a
cheerleader outfit and elaborate kimono, but I doubted that anyone really cared
that much aside from me and Shinra.

HOSPITALIZATION POLKA

At first, I planned for Izaya to have an extremely boring Golden Week with no
visitors. But a certain character in the manga edition (I won’t say whom) was
drawn so incredibly cute that I had to put her back into the story… That led to
quite an interesting development with Izaya. I wonder what will happen? Even
the author doesn’t know.

Speaking of the manga, the comic edition of Durarara!!, drawn by Akiyo
Satorigi, is running monthly and just had its first volume released!

I’m very much enjoying Durarara!! in these new forms, drawn and animated
from different points of view. I really hope that all of you out there enjoy this
multimedia blitz as much as I do, if not more!

By the way, the first DVD of the anime series is already slated for release in
February. Not only will I be writing a short story for it, but there will be other
bonus goodies as well, so if you’ve got some money burning a hole in your
pocket, I highly suggest checking it out!

On top of that, the Baccano! artbook by Katsumi Enami will also be coming

out, so give that a peep, too! My days are overflowing with excitement and pride
knowing that so many things are coming out related to my works. Thank you for
all your support!

*The following is the usual list of acknowledgments.
To my editor, who has to put up with my constant nonsense at all times, Mr.
Papio. To managing editor Suzuki and the rest of the editorial office.
To the proofreaders, whom I give a hard time by being so late with
submissions. To all the designers involved with the production of the book. To
all the people at Media Works involved in marketing, publishing, and sales.
To my family who do so much for me in so many ways, my friends, fellow
authors, and illustrators.
To Director Omori and the rest of the anime staff, and Akiyo Satorigi and
Editor Kuma for the manga adaptation.
To the anime writers, starting with the series writer Mr. Takagi, Ms. Ohta and
her idea for Kaztano’s background, Mr. Nemoto who depicted a part of Shizuo’s
backstory, and Mr. Murai and Ms. Yoshinaga whose ideas served to influence
even my writing process.
To Suzuhito Yasuda, who took time out of his busy schedule to provide the
thrilling and enticing front cover and interior illustrations, as well as some
design work for the anime.
And to all the readers who checked out this book.
To all the above, the greatest of appreciation!

“Celebrating his temperature sinking under one hundred during the writing of
this afterword”
Ryohgo Narita

Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.

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