Nicococo!! Chapter 1

DURARARA!! NICONICO SPECIAL EDITION PART 1: NICOCOCO!!
This is a twisted story.
A story about twisted comments.
“We’re going to make a video!”
“We’re aiming for #1 in the daily rankings!” Yumasaki Walker and Karisawa Erika
abruptly proclaimed, as they held a video camera and a laptop in their hands.
For these two, such speech and actions probably weren’t too unusual but——
“……Eh?”
Celty Sturluson, who had just returned home and had no idea what was going on,
stood in front of Walker and Erika and her head tilted in confusion.
To be more accurate, what she tilted was not, in fact, her head, but the helmet resting
on top of her body.
Because, for her——
Nothing exists above her neck.
 ♂♀
Celty Sturluson is not human.
Commonly called a “Dullahan”, she’s a type of faerie from Scotland and Ireland——it
is said that if their existence revolves around stopping near the houses of mortals, and
warning them of their impending death.
They hold their own head under their arm, and are commonly seen riding a twowheeled
wagon drawn by a headless horse called a cóiste-bodhar, visiting the houses of
those who are soon to die. If someone is foolish enough to open their door, they’ll get a
bucket full of blood tossed in their face——as a messenger of ill-omens, their stories
have been handed down in tradition in Europe, just like that of the banshee.
But that is an old story.
Now, she is living an ordinary life, loving a man named Kis.h.i.+tani s.h.i.+nra, both as a
living urban legend and as a woman.
 ♂♀
It was on this peaceful day that these two suddenly barged in.
“A video…of what?”
“Nooo~ Nowadays, if you’re talking about videos it’s for Niconico, a nico-video!” As
if to match Erika’s words, Walker gave a huge smile as she talked.

 Niconico literally means “smile”
“That’s right! Karisawa-san has been a regular on the site ever since it first went live!”
“Ah, no…I know what Niconico is but…wait, what? Since the original version?
But then, Karisawa how old are you…”
“OK, OK! Let’s save that annoying topic for some time in the future!” Clapping her
hands together forcibly, Erika quickly changed the subject.
“So, Cel-chan, what kind of video do you want to make? Do you want to make some
sort of live reaction Let’s Play of a free game?”
“No, uh, live reaction…There’s no way I could do that.”
“If we use one of those fancy text-to-speech software it should be fine. If it comes
down to it, I can also make a really nice silent video too. Just as long as the contents are
interesting.”
“Wait, wait, first of all, why do you suddenly want to make a video? And why
doesn’t it have to involve me?” At Celty’s rather sensible questions, Erika shook her
head sadly.
“Ah c.r.a.p, you noticed…as I should have expected of Celcchi.”
“I didn’t really notice anything…”
“No it’s just…y’know? Honestly I was just being selfish, I’m sorry, I just thought……”
At Erika’s hesitation, Walker turned to explain to Celty.
“What she means to say is, Karisawa-san has a Niconico rival.”
“Rival?”
“First of all, take a look at this video.”
“Wait, stop that Yamacchi! It’s too embarra.s.sing for me to watch!”
Deaf to Erika’s pleas, Walker opened up his laptop and connected to the wireless
router, before opening up the Niconico homepage. There, in a video t.i.tled “Singing Opera
while [email protected]/* */ de Charmant,” Erika, with the top half of her face hidden by a
mask and in some sort of anime character cosplay, began to sing opera.
“No, stop it–! I don’t want to hear it~~!” Before Erika locked Walker in a full nelson
hold in an effort to make him stop, Celty could hear Erika’s singing voice echoing out of
the computer speakers.
Although she does not have ears, Celty is clad in a ‘shadow,’ more sensitive than
human ears, which allowed her to feel the music. Shaking with deep emotion, she swung
her smartphone screen around to face Erika.
“Karisawa…you…you’re that good at singing!?”
“Right~ Isn’t it amazing~. Among our fellow anime friends, Karisawa-san is a legend
y’know?”
“Aaaaagh no, it’s not like that. Ah I’m so embarra.s.sed…” Erika’s face was bright red
as she shyly glanced away. It was definitely unusual behavior for her.
“Nevertheless…This ‘Eternal de Charmant’, is that your stage name…?”
“Yup, yup! That’s right! It’s so cool isn’t it!” Seeing Erika’s suddenly brightened face
struck a chord of fear into Celty’s heart as she typed out her response.
“Well…It’s nothing to be embarra.s.sed about…” While Celty was lost in her
thoughts about Erika, Walker decided to continue his story from before.
“So there’s this rival of Charmant-san called Blizzard la Blizzadia. Of course, she’s
also very good at singing, and she cosplays too, so one way or another they’re going to
end up being compared…”
“So?”
“Well, one day they got into a nasty t.i.t-for-tat on a Skype chat, and she said “Well I’m
really good friends with the famous Let’s Play gamer ●●-san. You don’t have any
important friends though do you.” So of course Karisawa-san replied with “I have a lot of
super amazing friends!” and then…”
“…And then?” Celty couldn’t quite tie the two things together, so she prompted him
to continue.
“Well, after their nasty t.i.t-for-tat, the two of them decided to get their friends to submit
movie to Niconico, and have a contest to see which one gets the most mylist bookmarks
and likes on their video!”
“I see. Well. That was an extremely stupid story compared to the earlier one
about Karisawa’s opera singing.”
Then, a second later, Celty furiously punched something into her smartphone in large,
capital letters.
“ARE YOU AN IDIOT!”
Then she quickly typed out another message, before shoving it in Erika and Walker’s
faces.
“How on earth did the conversation become a video compet.i.tion!? Are you
some sort of mah-jongg video game NPC? Isn’t that the equivalent of “Oh if that’s
the case let’s settle this with a game of mah-jongg”? Do today’s youth go
rampaging around so recklessly!? Are you going to become one of those people
who illegally uploads DVD bonus footage and the like and then says “Oh well
we were just giving it publicity so we’re innocent” or something like that!?” Her
shoulders shaking with anger, she furiously typed out another message.
“Anyway, you’ve already decided that your followers will pose as her
followers and spread hate, and when their sockpuppet comments are exposed
there will be a firestorm of comments on your video, which it will unfairly drive up
the number and people will be arguing over the chat or via Niconama and then
people who see this will upload their own videos and it will start all over again!
Isn’t that what you’re planning! Niconico is a site that’s meant to make people
smile!”
“Not at all—, we’re all proper adults, we wouldn’t do that sort of thing.”
“If you were proper adults you wouldn’t torture people in the back of your
friend’s van!”
“Now, now, let’s put that aside for a moment…I just thought I could make a cool
video if I could videotape Celtcchi doing something and came to talk to you about it. I
don’t want to cause any trouble.” Karisawa easily dismissed the troubling points Celty
made, but rather than going on, Celty just typed out a new message as she regained her
composure.
“I didn’t want to say it but, the motorcycle police are still hunting me…In the
worst case, they’ll be able to identify where I live by the background or something
from the video and I’ll get arrested, and then the headlines all over the social
networks would be 【Headless Rider Uploads Her Own Video and Gets
Arrested!】. I’d be a laughingstock.”
“Well the motorcycle police looking for you is just a case of you reaping what you
sow, so it should be fine right.”
“That’s right. You have done some illegal things, Celcchi—”
“I, I hate hearing that from you but I can’t say anything against it…” Knowing
they found her weakness, Celty wondered nervously what she should do but then——
“I heard the whole thing.”
The door opened wide, and there stood the owner of the apartment, a back alley doctor
named Kis.h.i.+tani s.h.i.+nra.
“Guess there’s no choice. In order to prove that Celty is a great friend of Karisawa-kun,
I guess I’ll have to help.”
“s.h.i.+nra. Can you even make a movie?”
—Surely he’s not planning on making a movie like “【Surgical Scene】Inside a Back
Alley Doctor’s Medical Treatment”.
As if sensing Celty’s uneasiness, s.h.i.+nra gave a broad grin as he spoke.
“I’ll just release a small part of the videos I’ve sneakily taken and saved of Celty over
the course of ten years! Of course, I naturally have the desire to keep it to myself, but I
can’t keep them all…And with Celty’s charm, you’ll easily be able to break one million
plays!”
Several minutes later—
After throwing s.h.i.+nra down and tying him up with her own ‘shadows,’ Celty tiredly
wrote another message out for Erika and Walker.
“I got it…I’ll cooperate to the best of my abilities, on the condition you forget
everything s.h.i.+nra just said.”
 ♂♀
Several hours later
——Or something like that.
After Erika and Walker had gone home, Celty booted up her own laptop.
——I wonder if I was really able to help out with the making of that movie.
She opened up the Niconico homepage and signed in under the username “Setton.”
After all, at one time in the past she had taken her own video and uploaded it. The video
was called “【This is pretty】12 Selections of Great Scenery from a Rooftop!【Rooftop
Movie】”
She had shot a video of the scenery from her favorite rooftop and edited it.
——It’s been several years since I looked at this…I can’t even laugh at Karisawa’s
username since I used at t.i.tle like that.
——I wonder if there are any flames like “What a boring movie!” on it now.
Filled with anxiety, she carefully opened up the video page and——
『Views: 12 Comments: 0 Mylist: 2』
——Oh…Oooooooooh…
“What are you looking at, Celty?” A voice came from behind her and made her jump
in shock. Looking over her shoulder, s.h.i.+nra peered at the video screen.
“Eeeh, Celty, did you post that video! If you had told me I would have paid 50,000yen
to promote it on Niconico.”

s.h.i.+nra’s eyes shone as he looked at the screen.
“Wow! Look at all the comments!” s.h.i.+nra stared at the large number of comments
scrolling from right to left across the screen, saying things like “Extremely pretty” “What
a divine view” and “Rooftops are the best, aren’t they.” s.h.i.+nra smiled and laughed as he
spoke, while Celty trembled slightly.
“I guess so, well, it’s really not a big deal.”
“But hey, Celty. All these people who commented, why are they all in black letters?”
“I…I wonder.”
“Also, these black lettered comments, they seem a little different from the ones I’m
familiar with.”
“I think it’s just your imagination.” If she were human, Celty would have been covered
in a cold sweat by now. Seeing straight through her, s.h.i.+nra nodded his smiling face
slowly.
“You know, Celty, even if you did use your ‘shadows’ to make text run across the
screen and make me think you had a lot of comments, I’d still love your video anyway.”
s.h.i.+nra comforted her, as Celty took a solid form again.
“Because I think that strangely timid part of you is actually very cute.”
The black letters on the screen crumpled and warped, as Celty thrust her smartphone
out to s.h.i.+nra.
“On the contrary, you’re actually making me sad so stop saying stuff like that–!”
And thus, Celty got caught up in Erika’s video rivalry. The Dollars have vanished, and
now, the curtain quietly rises on the story of an Ikebukuro that’s been repainted a new
color. This is the ordinary story of the Headless Rider leaving her mark on the world
while existing as an urban legend.
To be continued in Nicococo!!x2