Watching the Sunset with Orihara Izaya ~ Chapter 1 Summary Part A

Title: Watching the Sunset with Orihara Izaya
Chapter: Chapter 1: The Man Who Came to Town (Part A)
Author: Ryohgo Narita

Notes: Due to the length of chapters, we’ve decided to split anything that’s not a prologue or an interlude into several parts just to make summarizing faster and easier.

Also, lemoninagin over on tumblr has taken the job of translating the full novels. Please check their translation for more details and actual wording, not just our summaries.

 

Chapter 1: The Man Who Came to Town

 

“Certain Day and Month – Extract from the Local Newspaper

 

The newspaper talks about the strange death that just occurred in Bunokura. The body of Adamura Ryuuichi (28) was found after he went missing three days earlier. The police are investigating.”

 

 

A man in a mountain hut is reading the paper, far removed from the events. HE smiles as he looks at the article, before casting the paper into a fire. Then he turns his gaze to the board on his table; it is a mixture of chess, shogi, and mah-jongg pieces, as well as some trump cards and other things people play with. He chucks that into the fire as well. As the black haired man watches it all burn, the cell phone he left in the wheelchair next to his rocking chair begins to ring. That’s when the real fun begins.

 

The caller has completed the tasks they had talked about before. The person on the other end of the phone speaks politely, but the tone of his voice does not convey the respect of his language. It was more like he was talking down to a child. The man in the rocking chair smiles as he confirms the preparations for him to go to the town are complete.

 

“It’s been a while…I’ve missed my humans.”

 

After hanging up, the man in the rocking chair ponders quietly to himself. Who should he bring with him? Namie is in America, Kine-san and Mikage-san won’t leave Ikebukuro, Ran-kun is part of the Awakusu-kai, Mamiya-san is a pain in the ass, Fujiura-san is in prison, Neguro-san is lost somewhere in Germany, Lisa-chan is back in Japan but…probably best not to be showy right now. He lists off names one by one, smirking and laughing to himself. Finally, he decides.

 

“Yes, Sozoro-san and…those two should be good.”

 

Anticipating what is going to come, he watches the fire burn, then sighs a bit in regret.

 

“…It was kind of a waste to burn the trump card, wasn’t it?”

 

♀♂

 

Several Days Later – Bunokura City

 

It was raining today as well. A four-story building stands quietly alone like a gravestone, its walls darkened by the rain. A man outside the entrance suddenly gets splashed with muddy water by a passing car—he clicks his tongue in annoyance. His name is Koshino, and he’s an underling in the local crime syndicate. Glaring at the car, he turns and heads into the building.

 

Located in the red light district, the first three stories of the building are sex establishments, but the fourth story is black market lending store. The store is backed by the Futsuku-kai, the local yakuza Koshino belongs to. The black market lending “entrepreneur” is a man around the same age as Koshino, and he’s not very happy about the terrible accounting figures before him. Koshino defends himself, saying the current state of affairs makes anything else impossible. The owner tells him to be more serious. With this small amount of money, it will be easier for “sensei” to take over the town.

 

Just then, the door opens and a single man enters. His name is Sasazaki. He comments lightly to Koshino about the Futsuku-kai also being hit by the recession at the same time he makes a strange sign with his hand. The store owner immediately pulls out a thick envelope and hands it to Sasazaki. It is stuffed full of 10,000 yen bills. Sasazaki casually asks Koshino what he thinks the police are going to do about that incident. Koshino feigns ignorance about what incident that would be – after all, Sasazaki is a police detective. Everybody knows he’s corrupt though.

 

Of course they’re talking about the murder of Adamura Ryuuichi. But they’re not calling it a murder; after all, it could still be ruled a “suicide”, couldn’t it? After all, the knife was found in Ryuuichi’s own hand. Sasazaki questions this. Could a man who commits suicide really stuff his mouth full of pamphlets, then gouge out both his eyes and cut off his own nose and ears? Perhaps there were drugs involved, Koshino speculates.

 

Sasazaki asks if Koshino is suggest the detectives aren’t doing their jobs. Koshino denies this, rather saying that they just need it to look that way for outward appearances. The news has already gotten a hold of the story, so they need to make it look good. The new chief of police has only been there six months and is a career bureaucrat, so it should be easy since he wants an easy promotion and won’t go against either “Sensei” or the “Feudal Lord”. So basically, the detectives need to just follow their chief and putter around uselessly until the media attention dies down.

 

—

 

Bunokura can be called a fairly big town, considering it is near the Sea of Japan and is a suburban city.

 

Still, most people won’t willing move to this town. They prefer to go to the tourist city of Hagane or other sister cities nearby, which has caused a recession in Bunokura. It doesn’t help that the Adamura’s are monopolizing the town’s mining industry. There have been revitalization movements recently, and the politicians have started buying land. This has caused friction with the Adamura family, and among the politicians themselves, so the leadership is in great disarray. This has caused the town to be known as a corrupt place, with the mine chiefs and the politicians constantly at each other’s throats. The corruption trickles down, to people like Sasazaki.

 

The town is already ready to blow, it’s just a matter of where the first match is struck. The risk is too great for the police to actually do anything, even if it was a murder. Which is why Sasazaki is saving up money to get out before that happens by taking bribes under the table. He warns Koshino to make sure his group doesn’t do anything stupid; he can’t protect them if they do. Koshino states that they won’t, but suggests that Sasazaki has to start looking for a new customers. Because no one will come to this town knowing what awaits them.

 

—

 

Several minutes later

Koshino watches Sasazaki walk away from the building through the blind. He complains about Sasazaki’s way of earning pocket money, and the owner asks what Koshino is planning to do about it. Koshino says that Sasazaki still has his uses if things continue as they are now, but if he plans to betray the group, then things will change. Suddenly, he notices something strange. Sasazaki has stopped, and is talking to two kids standing in front of him.

 

“…It’s not a holiday, is it?” The children standing in from of Sasazaki look no older than middle school age. Koshino can’t see their expressions, but he know they’re young. They hold themselves in such a way it gives the impression of some rich, well-brought up children, which only makes it stranger that they are hanging out in the red light district in the middle of the day. Especially since Sasazaki is unmarried and has no kids. He watches as the kids take Sasazaki’s hands and begin to lead him away.

 

“What the hell…?” Confused, Koshino watches them, but ultimately comes to the decision that whatever is going on with the kids isn’t important and therefore doesn’t concern him. He’s lived in this town for almost 30 years. He knows better than to poke his head into things.

 

♀♂

-To Be Continued-

 

Note: We chose to call this chapter “The Man Who Came To Town” although a more direct translation is “the man who appeared” or “the man who came around”. We felt it makes more sense in English the way we have chose to phrase it.