Mika Harima Arc

ARC undefined The Dollars/Mika Harima Arc is the first arc of the Durarara!! series. It focuses on Mikado Ryuugamine's first days in Ikebukuro, Mika Harima's disappearance and the Dollars.

Plot
The arc starts out with Mikado Ryuugamine's arrival in Ikebukuro after accepting an invitation from his childhood friend Masaomi Kida to attend high school at Raira Academy. After reuniting, the two wander around the city, with Masaomi eager to show his friend popular sites and warn him of people to never cross.

While walking, Mikado bumps into a cardboard cut out of an anime character. Mikado then sees Walker Yumasaki and Erika Karisawa walking out from behind it. Masaomi says hi to them and they say hi back. Behind them Kyouhei Kadota says hi to Masaomi while leaning against Saburo Togusa's car. Mikado then says his name to them after learning all of their names. Walker and Erika after hearing Mikado's name they think it's cool. Masaomi sees Walker's bag and asks him what he has in his bag.

Walker says it's 40 manga books. Mikado was surprised, but Erika said some of it is for Walker, some of it is for her, and some of it`s for other reasons. Then Mikado,and Masaomi keep walking. While walking Simon Brezhnev asks Mikado if he wanted any sushi from Russia Sushi. Masaomi says hi to him, and they kept walking since they didn't have the money for sushi at the moment. Masaomi then tells Mikado the dangerous people in town. He says that Simon is good but don't piss him off.

Masaomi says that if you see Shizuo Heiwajima you should run, and Masaomi says there was a guy you should never make contact with, Izaya Orihara. Then they both hear a sound like a horse neighing. So they run to the sound and it was the Black Rider driving on their motorcycle.

Elsewhere in a chatroom the man named Taro Tanaka says that he was moving to Ikebukuro. Setton says congratulations to him, and Kanra logs on saying that there's a urban legend in Ikebukuro. It`s the Black Rider. Elsewhere, some kidnappers were waiting for their boss to get to them in a parking garage. One kidnapper asks what was taking one of their guys so long to get back. The guy he was wondering about was then thrown down the ramp.

The kidnappers see the Black Rider right there. So one of them walks up to it, and asks it to back off. The Black Rider throws him down to the ground. Three others ran, but were taken down too. The only guy was scared. The Black Rider then open the trunk to the car and sees two kidnapped people. The final kidnapper whacks it's helmet off so it won't bring him to jail. Back at the chatroom, Kanra was talking about the legend of the Black Rider. It was said to be in Ikebukuro for twenty years.

It rides in a black motorcycle that neighs like a horse, and it doesn't have a headlight. Then before Kanra left the chatroom he said that the Black Rider has no head and could still move without it. Back at the parking lot, the Black Rider got up and took down the guy who knocked off it's helmet.

The Black Rider drives somewhere which was revealed to be her home. She is greeted by Shinra Kishitani. Shinra asks her about her job, and then says the Izaya Orihara's information was useful. The next day Mikado Ryuugamine is at his school's welcome ceremony. The school is named Raira Academy. Mikado was tired from chatting last night and looked to see Masaomi Kida tired too.

Later, in Mikado's class everyone was saying their names to everyone. Then Mikado worries about people laughing about his weird name. When Mikado does tell his name no one laughs. Mikado sits down thinking how lame Masaomi's greeting would be in the other class. Then a girl named Anri Sonohara greets herself and Mikado thinks she is a strange girl. Then Mikado notices that Anri was looking at him. But it turns out she was looking at the desk behind him. The teacher asks if Mika Harima was here but she wasn't.

The next day Raira Academy, Anri and Mikado volunteer to be the Class Representatives. Mikado talks to Anri after class, but their conversation is cut short when Anri sees a teacher coming toward her. Masaomi Kida arrives, telling Mikado that he and Anri are very cute together, along with some hints on how to make her love him. As Masaomi tries to pick up older women, Mikado hears a rumor that the Dollars have been behind slashing attacks recently. The friends then run into Kyouhei Kadota, Erika Karisawa, and Walker Yumasaki. They tell Mikado to stay away from the Dollars, then Erika and Walker try to decide whether the Dollars are at war with Flame Haze, and whether Kyouhei is an older brother character or the father character.

Tom Tanaka and Shizuo Heiwajima are walking down the street when they see Celty Sturluson. Tom remarks that it's too early for scary things. Seiji Yagiri and Anri separately look for Mika Harima, and Anri finds a girl who looks like Mika, but realizes it is not her. Anri then meets a trio of female bullies, who tell her that she should stop acting cool when Mika's not around anymore. The bullies warn her that their boyfriend Hiroshi is in the Dollars.

Mikado sees the bulling and wants to help, but just when he decides to help, Izaya Orihara arrives and pushes Mikado in front of the bullies. Izaya then says that although he doesn't want to fight girls, he takes one girl's cell phone and smashes it, then shaves the "Dollars" boyfriend's head with his switchblade. On a park bench, Izaya tells Masaomi "it's been a while." Masaomi then introduces Mikado to Izaya, and Mikado recognizes Izaya's name as the person he is absolutely not supposed to piss off. Masaomi asks Izaya what he is doing in Ikebukuro, and Izaya responds that he came to see someone, and that someone is Mikado.

Suddenly, a large trash can comes flying and hits Izaya. A man in a bartender uniform tells Izaya that he told him never to set foot in Ikebukuro again, to which Izaya replies that even though he framed "Shizu-chan" for something he didn't do, he shouldn't get so mad about it. The man tells Izaya not to call him that, as his name is Shizuo Heiwajima. As Izaya readies his knife, a group of gangsters led by Hiroshi come to attack Izaya. However, when they see Shizuo, one of them looses control and attacks Shizuo. Shizuo proceeds to attack all the gangsters, and in the chaos, Izaya begins to get away. Shizuo throws a vending machine at him, but Simon jumps from where he was delivering sushi on the top floor and stops the machine.

Mikado grabs Anri's hand and the two run from the scene to a park. Anri then leaves, and Mikado watches as Celty drives by. Elsewhere, Seiji finds the girl with the scar on her neck. Shizuo talks with Celty, wondering why Izaya was in Ikebukuro. Izaya reads a message on his cell phone. Simon is still advertising sushi fliers, although he was fairly beat up by Shizuo.

Later Shinra decides to tell the story of the Black Rider from a different point of view on tape. At first he talked about him being a underground doctor for people who don't want the police to find out about their wounds. Then he told the story of Celty. She is a Dullahan. The Dullahan myth was full of death and despair.

20 years earlier in Ireland, Celty woke up in the graveyard, and she didn't have her head. She kept looking and looking for her head because it had all of her Dullahan memories. Then she noticed that her head was on a boat to Japan. So then she had her horse turn into a motorcycle,and they got on the boat. When she changed her clothes into modern clothes four year old Shinra saw her.

Shinra then told his dad he walked in the room Celty was in, and apologized for his son's actions. They also made a deal if Shinra's dad could dissect her they'll get her a home in Japan. When they were dissecting her Shinra's dad had Shinra dissect Celty even though he was four years old. He did dissect her anyway.

In the chatroom, there was talk about the Dollars. Setton wondered if they exist and reasoned to TarouTanaka that "...even if they were real, I highly doubt that normal people would run into them." and Kanra appeared and insisted that they do exist. TarouTanaka then praised Kanra's knowledge and finally asked who Dotachin was.

Elsewhere, in a van, Saburo Togusa was beating a man into telling who he works for after the kidnapping of Kaztano and subsequent rescue by Celty, the Black Rider. The man claimed not know and just then Walker and Erika interrupted saying that they have gathered all the things they need. Saburo left saying "Time's up" and casually lamenting the man's fate.

Walker then pulled out some manga: Darker Than Black, A Certain Magical Index, Oreimo: My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute, Shikabane Hime, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Doubt, Astro Fighter Sunred, Shakugan no Shana, Iscariot, Accel World, Black Butler, and Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan among them. They said whatever book the man chose was going to be his method of torture. The man asked if this was some kind of children's penalty game, Walker then threatened to kill the man if he didn't choose.

The man panicked and began to consider his options, immediately ruling out Doubt and Bludgeoning Angel, after which Erika recommended Darker Than Black. Walker agreed and they discussed whether they had the materials needed to imitate Harvest's Matter Disintegration ability including sulfuric acid and something round. Walker finally pulls out a replica of Hei 's signature knife and a taser intending to reenact his Electricity/Molecular Manipulation ability instead by poking through the nape of his neck "direct access without the neuro linker." Saburo then asked for them not to use any gasoline in the car (as they have apparently done before) to which a disappointed Walker bemoans the "no-go" on Innocentius and Erika calls Saburo a "party pooper." The man, now highly uncomfortable, hastily chose Black Butler and the duo praised him for his guts.

Walker then pulled out a solder (which he explained as "Why, young master, this is a solder, not Handa Ryu from 'Oinari-Sama' of course,") and Erika held the man down. Walker next attempted to "seal the contract" by soldering an backward pentacle on his eye (much like the one the character, Ciel Phantomhive, has). The man, chagrined, was led on monologue (see quotes) by the sadistic duo and as the solder was about to come down Kyouhei Kadota interferes saying that their way of torture was just not right. He told the man that almost all his buddies talked and unless he could tell them something they haven't already told the gang, he'll leave Walker and Erika to finish up their dirty work. Asanuma caved and revealed his job as a businessman under the guise of a handyman for a small dispatching company owned by Yagiri Pharmaceuticals which has been kidnapping people for use in testing. Satisfied with the information, Kyouhei set Asanuma loose and as the gang turned away, the man questioned who they were, to which they replied, "Dollars."

After all of that they released the guy. Celty had a dream that night which revealed her head, and she told Shinra the next mourning about the news.

Namie Yagiri believes everything is fake, including love. She thinks people only take in relationships but never give, with the exception of her love for Seiji. Later, Seiji is on the phone with his sister in the park to thank her for the money. He gets a drink for the redheaded girl he is with, but while he is gone, she throws his cellphone in the fountain. When Seiji returns, she runs up and hugs him. In her office, Namie complains to her men that Seiji still hasn't been found. He escaped the men following him and can't be contacted by cell phone. Namie insists he cannot be found by the police. She thinks about the past, when she thought showing him 'it' would be harmless.

She goes to Izaya Orihara's apartment where tells her quite a bit about herself, such as her name and that she is the chief of the 6th lab at Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, despite this being their first meeting. He hopes the list of illegal aliens he gave Namie was helpful, but she interrupts him demanding that he help her find Seiji. Rather than assist, Izaya informs her of more pressing matters, like the talk of Nebula buying out the Pharmaceuticals. He reveals he knew her uncle lost the company after taking some dangerous risks, and Namie entered the company on the bottom level and worked her way up, then tells her not to meddle with Seiji.

She insists she is trying to help him, only to have Izaya say the stalker always thinks they're helping the stalker. Namie is furious at being compare to a stalker. He decides to help, but only in the way he sees fit. Upon seeing a mix of chess, shogi and othello pieces with a go board on Izaya's table, she asks what he's playing, but he ignores her and asks if she's jealous of the scarred girl. She denies this. In the past, Namie's uncle used to send her dolls, which she didn't like. She wondered if he sent her the ones he liked without any regard for her, but she gave the dolls to Seiji anyway. The house was always big and often Seiji and Namie were the only ones in it. She often went into the study where she found a beautiful head in a jar and thought it was complete as just a head. Her uncle would talk to it, completely in love, but it was never more than a doll to Namie, who didn't think twice about letting Seiji into the study one day. However, Seiji snuck into the study to stare, transfixed, at the head. To keep him from it, Namie relocated it to the Pharmaceuticals for research purposes and thought that would be the end. Then her security card was stolen and the head was gone.

A little while later, Seiji called his sister and thought he might have killed someone. Namie was overjoyed that Seiji needed help and called her. When she arrived at his apartment, Seiji was eating ramen on the floor with some girl's bloodied feet next to him. Namie saw the head on his desk and knew he must have taken it, but said she would take care of everything. She did not know Seiji was stalked by Mika Harima, who had come to his house and accidentally saw the head. Izaya easily finds where Seiji is - in possession of the police. When she receives a call and leaves his apartment, Izaya moves a shogi piece on his game-board. Elsewhere, the redheaded girl receives a text from Nakura that she is still being pursued and needs to leave. She tries to drag Seiji away from the park, but he wants to know where they are going.

Shizuo Heiwajima and Celty Sturluson watch this "lover's quarrel" as the girl runs past them. Celty recognizes her head and grabs the girl, who screams. Shizuo tries to calm her down, but Seiji stabs his legs with pens, demanding they let his girlfriend go. Shizuo tells Celty to go on ahead and leave it to him (a phrase he always wanted to say), so she begins the chase on her bike. The redheaded girl bumps into Mikado Ryūgamine. Seiji chases after Celty only to have Shizuo grab him and ask why she's acting like this. Seiji begins a story of how they are in love and were reunited by fate and he doesn't know why she's so worked up, so Shizuo says he's a lame boyfriend and throws him across the street.

Shizuo asks how fate brought them together, but Seiji states he doesn't know and demands Shizuo let him go. Mikado and the girl evade Celty in the subway. In an attempt to get away, Seiji stabs Shizuo's hand with a pen. Shizuo, unharmed, assures Seiji he likes him a lot better than Izaya and will let him get away with just a punch. At Celty and Shinra Kishitani's apartment, he recaps her story in disbelief. She had been at the park on Izaya's orders when she had met Shizuo; then, the infobroker called and said he didn't need her to do the job anymore.

She wanted to talk to Shinra about why her head was walking around attached to some other body. Namie narrates that 'the experiment' was all for Seiji's sake and assures him everything would turn out all right. Even after 'she' escaped, she still loved her brother. Celty angrily decides she must recover her head and demands why it ran away. Shinra informs her he couldn't say for sure, but maybe it wouldn't want to come back to it's body.

After all, she did shriek upon seeing Celty. This infuriates Celty, refusing to believe all she has been looking for during the past 20 years was all a waste of time, but Shinra assures her it wasn't a waste. Namie asks Seiji why he didn't answer his cellphone, but he doesn't know. He keeps repeating "I must find her" while Namie tells him she would take care of everything. She thinks dolls should stay put and not interfere with her love for Seiji. At her office, she orders that her men must find the redheaded girl, dead or alive, and bring her to Namie. At Mikado's apartment he makes tea for the girl, who receives a text from Nakura that she's still not safe.

He asks if she has amnesia because she can't remember anything, but she shakes her head. Mikado again offers to talk to the police, but she violently shakes her head, accidentally spilling tea. Izaya twirls in his chair, thrilled that there are so many plots in Ikebukuro that even he knows nothing about. He states how much he loves humans and that they should all love him back. He excitedly moves a shogi pawn to be surrounded by Othello pieces.

While shopping, Mikado Ryuugamine recalls when he saw the black rider chasing a girl with a scar on her neck. The girl frantically asked Mikado to save her, and so he took her hand. When the black rider tried to cut them off from the street, Mikado dragged the girl into the subway, where the black rider was stalled by 'fans.' As Masaomi Kida at recaps the story just told to him by Mikado, he asks if his friend seriously expects him to believe that and gives him tips on how to enhance the story to involve princesses. Mikado says the girl can't remember anything, so he doesn't know anything beyond that.

Mikado remembers how much he wanted his life to be different, and that may be the reason why he is allowing the girl to stay at his house. However, he acknowledges he may be in danger because the headless rider knows his face. The next day, At Raira Academy, Mikado never told Masaomi about the girl's scar. Masaomi attracts attention to his friend by yelling he has a chic staying at his place, but their classmates shrug it off as Mikado exaggerating. Anri Sonohara meets Mikado's eyes and smiles.

Masaomi asks how Mikado's 'sleeping beauty' is doing, then shows his friend the "Dollars poll." Students vote for who they think is in the Dollars. Masaomi voted for Ryo Takiguchi and is on his way to find out for sure, despite his vote having been placed solely on a hunch. Mikado and Masaomi climb to the roof where they half expect Takiguchi to be smoking, and are surprised when that appears to be his actual activity. However, they realize he holds a pencil and is writing music.

Masaomi jumps right to the question, much to Mikado's shock. Even more to Mikado's surprise, Takiguchi admits to being a member of the Dollars! Masaomi quickly introduces Mikado and Takiguchi, when Mikado learns his name is famous. The friends then ask the Dollars member why he chose to join. About 6 months ago, he received an anonymous email inviting him to the gang with no rules or restrictions. At first Ryo was skeptical, but decided it might be cool and joined. Masaomi asks what the Dollars are like, and is answered with "transparent, as in no color". They don't get involved with turf wars, either, like the Blue Squares. Masaomi turns pensive at this name, but Mikado inquires about Dollars meetings. Takiguchi says members usually meet only by accident, and that most would admit to membership right away.

Mikado and Masaomi swore to keep Takiguchi's membership a secret. Mikado and Anri Sonohara discuss the disappearance of Mika Harima when Takiguchi arrives with a message from Masaomi to go home without him. Masaomi yells from the window for Mikado to say hi to the girl and to introduce him, causing Mikado to have to frantically cover up to Anri. Anri tells him on the first day of school, she saw his name next to hers. Mikado thinks it's similar to Mika's stalking of Seiji Yagiri and wonders if it's ok for Anri to stalk him if she's cute. However, he pictures Anri stabbing him with a knife, setting his apartment on fire, or taking his parents hostage. He tries to decide if it would be ok to be stalked by a good person, but realizes a stalker can't be a good person. Anri asks if he is alright, and Mikado stutters an apology. She admits to just teasing him.

A girl with her boyfriend see Mikado and rush over to him. Mikado tells Anri to leave and she complies as the girl accuses Mikado's friend of smashing her cell phone. He realizes she was talking about Izaya Orihara, saying he wasn't really a friend of Mikado's. However, Izaya arrives with Celty Sturluson, who punches the guy so Izaya can jump on him. The girl runs away, furious. Izaya informs Mikado he was hoping to run into him but met the black rider here, too. Mikado knows she is after the girl he took home and quickly begins walking home, only to be followed by Celty and the infobroker.

They stop in a tunnel when Mikado wonders why they are following him. Izaya's phone rings, so Mikado ends up talking with Celty about the girl. After determining she is a terrible liar, Mikado asks to see the inside of her helmet. Celty asks what he knows about her, which is only the legend. She asks if he believes she has no head, then warns him not to scream. Witnessing the shadows within Celty's helmet, Mikado feels neither scared nor excited, just thinking he knew the legend was true. He told her everything about the girl, including that she couldn't remember anything. Celty requests to see the girl.

Elsewhere, Kyouhei Kadota and Saburo Togusa lean against their van when a cleaning van drives past and chips the side door. Saburo gets in the car and begins chasing them, ignoring speed limits and red lights. Mikado offers to go in first to clear things up with the redheaded girl so she doesn't think he betrayed her, but when he arrives in his room, the girl is gone. Two men grab Mikado and hold him to the floor. Izaya remarks to Celty that it was the first time he heard her name while throwing rocks at her motorcycle. She doesn't believe him and tells him off for throwing rocks at her horse, again to Izaya's interest. He notices a cleaning van in a run down place like Mikado's and wonders what's taking him so long. In Mikado's room, the men ask where the girl is despite Mikado's confusion. They decide to kill him since he knows who they are now, but are forced to leave by the arrival of someone else.

Izaya and Celty arrive in his room just as the 'cleaning' men exit the window. Celty starts to go after them, but Izaya stops her, claiming they were from Yagiri Pharmaceuticals. Mikado realizes who the Pharmaceuticals were and rushes to his laptop, open to the Dollars homepage. When Celty asks what he is doing, he responds that he never wanted to be normal. Izaya watches, having only half believed the rumors. Mikado decides all his cards are in order as Izaya laughs, saying he hit the jackpot.

Later that night, Seiji Yagiri decides he must retrieve 'her' without his sister's help. Namie Yagiri demands of her subordinates why they did not bring the girl back, which was due to the arrival of Mikado Ryuugamine's friends. Namie suggests they bring him and his friends and receives a call from Mikado asking to make a trade.

In central Ikebukuro, Celty Sturluson is on a roof with many people below checking their watches. Shizuo Heiwajima discusses the time a yakuza asked him the meaning of life with Simon Brezhnev, who is not listening, so Shizuo throws a motorcycle at him. Celty recalls her conversation with Shinra Kishitani about whether her life has been meaningless and his marriage proposal.

Namie steps out of her car and sees Mikado, alone. She has placed her men in black throughout the crowd as she inquires about the nature of this trade. Mikado offers her the location of the redheaded girl in exchange for the truth behind Seiji's actions toward Mika Harima. In short, he asks Yagiri Pharmaceuticals to turn themselves in. Namie tells him never to impede her brother's actions, which Mikado deems twisted logic. At Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, Seiji corners one of Namie's men and demands to know the location of his girl.

Mikado knows Namie is after him now, but Namie says schoolboys who get involved with the underworld should know better than to use cliches. She informs him life is not a scripted play, although Mikado prefers cliches and happy endings. He frantically wonders if everything will work and assures himself of his belief in 'them'. As he dramatically pulls out his phone, Namie signals her men in black.

The leader of the Dollars reveals himself by sending a mass email to all his members. The phones of everyone surrounding them begin to ring - including those of Kyouhei Kadota, Saburo Togusa, Walker Yumasaki, Erika Karisawa, Isaac Dian, Miria Harvent, and Celty. Namie watches this unfold in terror.

In the past, Mikado recalls how large the sky seemed, despite that there was nothing in it. He wanted his life to change. When he bought a computer, there were tons of new worlds to explore where he could email Masaomi Kida in Tokyo and chat with new friends. They decided to create a gang, like the online gangs except make everyone think it was real, and randomly leaked the password to the website. However, the Dollars began appearing in the world with growing numbers despite that the creators had stopped the password long ago. At first his friends were glad, but Mikado knew something was wrong.

Eventually, all the original Dollars creators left, leaving only Mikado. He realized that although some members were bad, there were many more good people in his gang. Posting on the Dollars website, he asked them to negate the bad impressions left by other gangs, but was labeled a child and a dreamer. However, it seemed some members shared his ideals: overnight, much of the graffiti in the city was erased. Mikado was overjoyed at what could only be the acts of the Dollars. In present-day Ikebukuro, Mikado spoke with many people about the Dollars, and discovered that they were still colorless, but that the members really loved being a part of it.

At the Dollars meeting, Izaya Orihara finds everything fun. The members (including Izaya) have received a text saying 'everyone who is not looking at their phone is an enemy. Do not attack'. Namie watches the scene unfold in fright. Earlier, Kyouhei's gang ran a red light and almost hit the redheaded girl. They talked with her, but she said nothing. Walker posted on the Dollars website that they had found a girl with a scar on her neck and received a request from the admin (Mikado) asking for details.

On the roof, Celty asks the redheaded girl her name. She replies with "Celty." The headless Celty runs back to her bike and screams "screw it", then rides down the side of the building. She speaks directly into the minds of the people below, saying that she is a headless monster, real and here. Namie's men attempt to attack her but are stopped by Celty's scythe, with the exception of one man who knocks off her helmet. The Dollars are shocked except Izaya, who smirks. As everyone rushes to take pictures of the headless rider, Celty screams that is her time to be born.

Then, Seiji finds Mikado in the street and pulls out a knife. As he lunges toward Mikado, he demands the boy return Celty. Seiji runs at Mikado Ryuugamine with a knife in an attempt to stab him, but Celty Sturluson steps between them and is hit instead. Seiji demands that he get Celty back, since he had loved her from childhood and no one could stop their love. The headless Celty and Seiji begin to fight, but Seiji says he cannot feel pain since there will be no pain in his life with Celty. The black rider moves her scythe to cut Seiji, but a voice suddenly screams for her to stop. It is the redheaded girl, who Celty recognizes as her head but Mikado recognizes as Mika Harima.

Upon hearing that his lover is actually Mika, Seiji stares in disbelief while Mika apologizes. In the past, Mika arrived at Seiji's house but he did not answer the door. While picking the lock, Mika talked about how she fell in love with him on the first day of school (after looking at Mikado first) and proceeded to research about him. When she entered the room, she noticed a head in a jar on Seiji's table. Seiji walked in and observed that Mika had seen the head. Mika promised she wouldn't tell, but Seiji told her "it's ok" before smashing her head into the wall. In the present, she apologizes to Seiji for not dying that day.

Mika tells Seiji that Namie Yagiri told her how to make him fall in love with her. Mika received plastic surgery to make her look like the head from a doctor who told her her name would be Celty. However, this wasn't enough for Namie, who wanted Mika to start taking drugs to erase her memories. Celty is still pondering Mika's confession of a doctor who knows her name - Shinra Kishitani - and drives off to find him.

Seiji is furious to find Mika is not the head of Celty. Izaya Orihara laughs and remarks that he couldn't even tell the difference, so their love must not have been very strong. Mikado realizes Seiji and Mika both took a lot of risks for each other, and that Mika isn't a bad stalker, and that they are a perfect match.

At Celty and Shinra's apartment, Celty grabs Shinra by the collar and prepares to question him. However, Shinra begins the conversation saying exactly what Celty would have said: Why he did it, that he had known all along, that his dad had been the one who took her head, and that although she may be a monster, Shinra was worse. He responds that he does not know whether his dad took her head, that Mika volunteered for the surgery, and that he is in fact reading Celty's mind. This is because he loves her, which is also the reason he hid her head. He thought Celty's head might not love him as her body does. It is Celty's lack of a head allowing her to act so much like a human, and Shinra fears reuniting with her head may cause her to disappear.

Celty asks Shinra if he would believe what she is about to say. Because of his love for her, Shinra says he would believe anything she said, and she is the only one he would believe. Celty reveals her fear of dying to her lover. She worries if someone were to destroy her head, she would be destroyed, too, regardless of her wishes. Although no one can kill her in her current state, she could be staring death in the face and not even realize it. Shinra finds it amusing they are both getting worked up over hypothetical situations and accepts Celty's request to punch him. In response, he knocks off her helmet so he can see her face. However, he considers that punch a kiss to celebrate their marriage, earning him another jab from Celty. She falls on top of him and Shinra asks if she is crying. Celty responds that he is an idiot.

Izaya observes the chaos from the Dollars meeting and invites Kyouhei Kadota, whom he calls Dotachin over. Although Kyouhei gets mad at the use of his nickname, he accepts Izaya's question regarding the origin of the Dollars' name. He thought it stemmed from "give me all your dollars", but the real root is "dara dara," meaning to do nothing. Walker Yumasaki and Erika Karisawa arrive and wonder if they hallucinated the whole meeting.

Izaya then speaks with Mikado. The infobroker was surprised at the turn out at the Dollars meeting. He reveals his knowledge of the reasoning behind Mikado's move to Tokyo, but informs the student all this commotion will seem normal in a few months. Mikado would have to move to more underground activities to stay interested, but would soon get bored of that, too. "The only way to truly escape the mundane is to always be evolving." Izaya decides not to charge Mikado for Namie's private cell number and won't tell on him being the leader of the Dollars. He then hides behind Mikado as a large object comes flying toward him, courtesy of Shizuo Heiwajima. Izaya wishes Mikado a good day, calling him Taro Tanaka and revealing his status as one of Mikado's chat-mates.

In the end, everything returns to normal. At Raira Academy, Masaomi Kida explains to Mikado an outsider's view of last night's events - everyone is in the Dollars and met at their first ever meeting; and the black rider is not only real, it's in the Dollars and is headless. Seiji tells Mika at the park that although he does not feel any love toward her, he is reminded of Celty every time he sees her, and so will continue their relationship. As she is driving, Celty comes across Izaya. He remarks that since people tend to be scared of things that lurk in the shadows, people won't be scared of her anymore. He advises her to call him if she needs help with Namie, but Celty doesn't want to find Namie - she just wants to be herself.

At Raira, Mikado ponders his conversation with Izaya and wonders if everything will eventually become just a part of the mundane. Seiji and Mika thank Mikado for all he did for them, then sit in adjacent classroom chairs. Anri realizes she won't spend much time with Mika anymore, and that people can't understand their own heart. Mikado prepares to ask Anri out, only to discover Masaomi hitting on her, but they end up having lunch together, wondering how long it will take him to ask her out.

At his apartment, Izaya comments how Namie threw away everything for her brother's love. He provokes her by reminding that Nebula is planning to merge with Yagiri Pharmaceuticals, which would prove problematic should they receive wind of the Mika incident. It is revealed that he was the one texting and calling Mika, advising her on how to stay with Seiji. He moves several pieces on his mixed game-board and regrets the inability of the kings to directly fight one another. He believes himself to be similar to Namie's uncle, in that they both are skeptical but greatly desire the after life.

Izaya notes that Dullahans are always female, and asks Namie what she knows of Dullahans. According to Izaya, they are Valkyries fallen to earth. Celty's head is asleep but alive because she is waiting to wake up during a war to guide her warrior to Valhalla - and Izaya plans to be that warrior. He will start a war only he can win, because although he doesn't care whether he goes to heaven or hell so long as he exists, he would prefer heaven. He then holds Celty's head in his hands and muses that Celty will never expect to look for her head within her gang - the Dollars. Later in the chatroom, Taro Tanaka states that he is tired and wonders to Setton if Kanra will come on tonight. Setton has to go almost immediately, however, and the chatroom is left empty.

Anime and Manga Differences

 * In the manga, Shizuo is introduced in a faceless cameo. In the anime, it is through an object he threw.