Durarara!! X Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens

After the two bounty hunters handed over Shinta Kasaoka, Wilson then gave them the bag with fake bills in it. All of it was in according to his superior, John Wayne"s orders. He put Kasaoka into the trunk of the vehicle and headed back to the company right away before the two noticed the money was fake.

Kasaoka seemed to be completely emaciated. It could not be helped. In these past few days he had been cashed down by complete strangers relentlessly. Without any time to relax he could not take a rest. He certainly seemed John Wayne"s plan to torment the traitor psychologically had succeeded.

Once he arrived at the Wild Bunch company Wilson and his subordinates carried Kasaoka to the multipurpose room.

There, a large wooden cross was set up. This must also be John"s doing. What influence did he get from some movie now? Though curious Wilson fastened Kasaoka to the cross, similar to how Christ was put on one.

John was ecstatic.

"I wanted to see you, Kasaokaa."

The gulping sound from Kasaoka could be heard when he was given a vicious smile from John. The color of fear antic.i.p.ating what he planned to do with him shone in his eyes.

John was pleased to see that expression on Kasaoka"s face.

"Don"t worry; I won"t kill you right away."

He gave a dry laugh.

"I have a mountain load of things I need you to tell me after all."

John said before ordering to his subordinate, "bring him in."

The person who appeared shortly after was a foreigner with a large build. He had tan skin and tattoos on both of his burly arms. From his facial features he was probably a native from Central or South America. The skin-head man"s aggressive look made it clear he was not a man of an honest disposition but a person from the underground.

"He is a professional torturer."

After John easily introduced him to the man, he gave a slight bow to the foreigner.

"Now then, sir. If you may."

José Martinez was a Dominican. And he had many secrets about him. The first being that his s.e.xuality was h.o.m.os.e.xuality. And other being that his occupation was as a torturer.

Martinez belonged to the gra.s.s-lot baseball team, the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, as their one of a kind powerful slugger and their fourth batter in running. Naturally he also had come to partic.i.p.ate in the Tokyo away series.

He hardly had any opportunities to go to Tokyo when working in f.u.kuoka. He frequently considered going to Shinjuku in the past. He wanted to go drink at the gay bar Ni-Chome there and enjoy a whole evening with others who have the same s.e.xuality as him.

And so Martinez headed to the capitol a few days before the practice match. But even though he was excited to fully enjoy sightseeing he had received an e-mail from a long-term client in his work.

"There is an acquaintance of mine in Tokyo who is looking for a torturer, so do you mind going?"

What a coincidence. But what poor timing.

Even though I had plans to enjoy the night fever at the foremost gay town in Tokyo. Martinez clasped a hand to his head.

But since it was a request from a close client of his he could not decline. I guess I can do the job and save up for traveling expenses next time. Martinez decided to take it head on.

The client met him at the Shinjuku Station. Their destination was in Ikebukuro.

After weaving through alleyways they finally arrived at their destination. It was a three-story office building, and Martinez was shown to one of the rooms on the bas.e.m.e.nt floor.

The target of torture was a man named Kasaoka, and he was already there. For some reason there was a cross set up in the center of the room.

"Now then, sir. If you may."

" – I finished."

The torturer informed Wilson waiting outside of the room. He appeared to be a natural-born foreigner, but he was fluent in j.a.panese.

The torture session did not even take an hour.

Kasaoka, having been driven to the breaking point psychologically, probably gave up trying to endure against the intense pain inflicted upon him. He may have told all the details indiscreetly, shaken up by the intimidating appearance of the torturer. He did appear to have been knocked around though as his whole body was b.l.o.o.d.y. Right now he was limp and still hanging on the cross in the center of the multipurpose room. He was barely breathing.

"Thank you for your work."

Wilson poured tea for him and brought it to the multipurpose room. "Here you go," he handed it over to the torturer.

However he did not place it to his lips.

"And how did it go?"

When Wilson asked for the course of events,

"Did you not kill the Awakusu executive candidate?"

The torturer asked back in return.

Wilson fell silent at the question.

"Well, that"s fine. I don"t want to poke my nose where it doesn"t belong. My well-being is important to me after all." The torturer smiled at him. He did not appear to want to press into the matter.

They actually did not kill the Awakusu executive candidate. In that duel John purposefully made his shot avoiding any vitals.

– Why?

The reason was simple. If they killed him they would have had to spend money to dispose of the body. However if they let him live money could be made from people. So they decided against killing him, and instead sent the man overseas through the underground route.

It was human trafficking so to speak. John had lied to his client and took the reward deceivingly. This was just one of this man"s makeshift means.

" – At any rate."

Torturer returned to the main topic. He first stated that he did not know the full scenario before pressing on.

"This guy said he leaked information that the Wild Bunch company kidnapped that executive candidate to Murder Inc. And how he may have been killed. ……Ahh, what did he say? A dual? Well it was something like that that he reported in detail about John playing with the guy"s life."

Wilson felt irritated again recalling the farce that occurred here a week before the last one.

"Murder Inc. has close ties with the Medeii Group. And the subordinate candidate under the Awakusu group that is affiliated with them has been missing since the week before last. And they have been desperate to get their hands on that information on him. And this guy tipped us off to them. The employees who work here with all the information on them. It seems like the details of the case with the executive candidate has already reached the Awakusu group through Murder Inc. Even for a company like them they probably wanted to have their patron in their debt."

Naturally the Awakusu group could not just stay silent over this.

"……And the Awakusu"s course of action?" Wilson inquired.

"They want to capture all the persons involved with the murder of the executive candidate and have them talk. But they also don"t have the time for that. Seems they"re in a bit of disarray at the moment." The torturer carried on. "So the Awakusu group handed that over to the NPB."

Wilson pondered over the mention of the NPB. He knew of them.

"I don"t know the details on them, but I guess they"re a bounty hunting organization."

"Yes, more or less." He agreed ambiguously.

"The Awakusu group went through with them and put bounties on all of your guys" heads."

Wilson felt dizzy.

The torture of the man Kasaoka was so simple it was a let-down. He just hurt him a little and he got 50,000 yen for it. It was relatively well paid work.

The client was a suspicious company called the Wild Bunch Group, but they gave proper payment for his work.

"We"ll pay 10,000 yen more for you not to talk about it elsewhere." So he was told, but Martinez refused, "don"t need it." Receiving excessive money is the basis of trouble.

The job finished quickly, so he still had time to go out drinking. Martinez decided to head back to Shinjuku.

As he was about to though,

" – Ah?"

He came to a stop just as he left the Wild Bunch company"s office.

"……Where am I?"

There was no issue coming here by car, but now that he had to go back by himself he was unsure of which road to take.

"This sucks."

Martinez grimaced while wiping a hand past his cleanly shaved head.

Where am I right now?

He could look up his current location using a map app, but he was bad using it. He did not know how to use those features.

"……That"s right."

A thought suddenly struck him; he had a friend who specializes in that.

The image of the mushroom head man with upturned eyes appearing in his mind, Martinez immediately made the call.

Commonly known as just Ni-Chome, it is well known as a “gay quarter” in east Shinjuku. It’s a very iconic area with lots of night clubs and bars for heteros.e.xuals and h.o.m.os.e.xuals alike, but it’s especially received as the hub for the gay subculture in the Tokyo area.

Ill.u.s.tration provided by Soutenkyuu on Tumblr.