Watching the Sunset with Orihara Izaya ~ Prologue A Summary

Title: Watching the Sunset with Orihara Izaya
Chapter: Prologue A: Your Neighborhood Informant
Author: Ryohgo Narita

Notes: We’re trying something new and will be giving chapter summaries for the new Izaya light novel, “Watching the Sunset with Orihara Izaya”. The title has previously been translated online as “Orihara Izaya and the Sunset”, but that translation ignores the “を/wo” in “折原臨也と、夕焼けを”.  The “を/wo” indicates an omitted verb, which in this case is most likely “見る” which means “to watch/to look at”. Therefore, we will be using the title “Watching the Sunset with Orihara Izaya” for our chapter summaries for the time being. Now, without futher ado, the first summary.

Rakujitsu – Setting sun

1. The time when the sun sinks below the horizon.
2. Something declines or falls into a worse state [The — of a large company]

Definition excerpt from Digital Daijisen (SHOGAKUKAN Inc. 1995, 1998, 2012)

Prologue A: Your Neighborhood Informant

“Really,  I have the perfect chance to kill him.”

A salaryman in a white shirt is forcefully speaking into his cell phone. He describes how his coworker will be alone in the office today, and security is on vacation. He also has the codes to the safe, and is confident in his plan. The person on the other end of the line, however, seems a little more cautious, questioning if the salaryman is really up to the job. The man forcefully replies that he is. After all, when he and his coworker first started their company, it was under an agreement of mutual leadership. However, the coworker quickly cast him aside, and monopolized the fruits of their research. The person on the phone remarks that everyone has their own circumstances, and that there are other ways besides revenge.

“There are not!” the salaryman counters angrily, raising his voice louder and louder. He thought his coworker was his friend, but they were only using him as a stepping stone and stole everything from him. His coworker knew he has a family and debts to repay, but completely cast him aside, he argues as he tries to convince the person on the phone.

“Your killing intent is justified,” is the response. The person on the other end was just considering the man’s family, but is willing to respect the salaryman’s decision. But what does the salaryman intend to do, in the end?

“None of your business!” He yells. If it goes according to plan, the person on the phone will get half the money, but should also be making plans to disappear. With that, he cuts off the phone.

But the doubt repeats over and over in his head, “Can you really do this?” Frustrated, he slaps his cheeks and firms his resolve. He cheers himself up with the knowledge that he is justified—and then carefully conceals a knife in his breast pocket and steps out in to the night, believing he is one step closer to a new life.

———

Several hours later, the man stands confused, cursing himself and wondering what has happened, after completing his deed. His legs begin to shake and he falls to his knees, his white shirt now drenched in blood and his folding knife covered in fresh blood. He is in a daze, wondering how things turned out this way, when his cell phone rings. Blankly, he pulls it from his pocket and answers.

“Hey, congratulations! Since you’re able to answer the phone, I guess the tables didn’t turn on you and you were able to complete the job without any problems!”

“Without….problems?”

The salaryman’s teeth chatter and his voice shakes as he answers. It was all for nothing—there was no money in the safe. Instead, there was a deed to the company, leaving everything to him. And after he had killed his coworker, he found a resignation letter on the computer. The person on the phone doesn’t seem surprised, and the salaryman gets the feeling he’s being sneered at. The person on the other end cheerfully informs him that his coworker had gotten the company into a lot of illegal activities, but knew the salaryman had a family and debts, and so had left him out of the management to avoid any legal problems for him. What a good friend. Instead, while the coworker paid the price for the illegal activities, the salaryman would get off scot-free, and be left with a company all to himself. The salaryman is in disbelief, but what he read on the computer confirms what he is being told. Still,

“You’re lying!”

“I’m not lying. You saw inside the safe, didn’t you?”

The salaryman is angry now. “You knew?” Why didn’t the person on the phone stop him then!? Ah, the person reminds him that he did in fact try to stop the salaryman earlier, but he was too determined.

“I am an informant,” the person says, which means he only gives only the information needed, not the entire picture. And afterall, he had given the salaryman a special hint, with his words about everyone having their own circumstances. The salaryman knows he has a made a terrible mistake, and is angry at himself, but also his coworker for not saying a single word. The man is getting agitated, and screaming again, but a sneering voice from the phone cuts him off. Because would he really have believed his coworker, who he already bore a grudge against and wanted to kill? It seems the only one who really thought they were friends is the now deceased coworker. The salaryman is aghast, but the person on the phone reminds that he said he would support the salaryman’s decision in the end. After all,

“The path you chose, is so very human, don’t you think?”

♀♂

The same time, somewhere in the Kanto Region

The person on the phone listens to a loud scream, and then the sound a huge crash before the line goes dead. He wonders if the salaryman threw himself in front of a truck, as he calmly tosses the phone into a trashcan. The police will certainly look into the call history of a murderer, so he will need to get a new phone now…and probably also move to a new town. The man speaks quietly to himself as he moves across the room, accompanied by the sound of wheels across the floor—he is in a wheelchair. A multitude of phones sits in front of him, but he turns his gaze out the window and smirks in self derision as he mumbles to himself.

“Rehabilitation is such a pain.”

♀♂

He is an informant.  He makes it his job to collect and hold onto all sorts of information so that he is the one with the power. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have any good friends, but it also doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have any evil pawns.

Help the weak, crush the strong.
Trample the weak, flatter the strong.
Admonish the good, criticize the bad.
Ridicule the loser, rebuke the winner.

This is the way he lived, with one exception: he also did it in reverse.

Help the strong, crush the weak.
Trample the strong, flatter the weak.
Admonish the bad, criticize the good.
Ridicule the winner, rebuke the loser.

To him this is equality, and his desires are directed towards one, endlessly obedient object: “Humans”. Everything that comes with that word, good or bad, is what he loves. But he doesn’t just love them, he wants to break them as well. Because the informant can love all those broken humans equally.

 

-End Prologue A Summary-