31_days | [September 16] [Durarara!!] Villain or Hero?

Title: Villain or Hero?
Day/Theme: September 16; irony in the fire
Series:Durarara
Character/Pairing: Walker Yumasaki and Erika Karisawa
Rating: PG
Spoilers through the yellow scarves arc

“Do you miss it?”

Walker looked up from his light novel and glanced at Erika. They were killing time in front of one of the most expensive apartment buildings in Ikebukuro. They’d walked down to meet up with Kyohei after he got off and head to Russia Sushi. But Kyohei wasn’t done with work yet and Walker and Erika couldn’t get into the building. So Walker had pulled out the latest edition of one of the many light novel series he followed and Erika some ridiculous BL dojinshi he couldn’t believe she was willing to be seen reading in public. They’d been reading in silence when Erika had suddenly asked her question.

“Miss what?”

She wasn’t looking him. Her gaze already back down on her book, “The screams.”

It hadn’t been about the screams really, not for Walker and he suspected not for her either- but he knew exactly what she meant. He glanced back down at her book and gave her question serious thought. Did he miss it? Now that they’d been saved by Kyohei they’d hadn’t given up their old work entirely but they got a lot fewer opportunities to torture people. They were the good guys now and could only use it on deserving people.

“Sometimes,” he admitted. “You?” he asked Erika’s hat since she still wasn’t looking at him.

“Same.”

And that was all that needed to be said. Kyohei had saved them and he was grateful but yeah, sometimes he missed it. Walker had a whole speech prepared (and always gave it before he began) about how it wasn’t the fault of books and shows because he hated it when people wrongly made them the scapegoat but the truth is they did play a large role in it for him. It was a way to bring the 2D world to life, to act out the impossible aspects of these stories: things such as branding a guy’s eye or ripping wings out of someone’s back.

There were already incredible things in his world. Characters like Shizuo Heiwajima, Izaya Ohirara and the headless rider (whatever it really was) seemed like they were straight out of the 2D world. In contrast Walker knew he was just some ordinary half Japanese guy. But doing this made him different, made him special. By doing these kinds of things Walker made himself more like a 2D character. In the 3D world most people would be horrified and couldn’t bring themselves to do these types of things. But didn’t bother characters as much. It was much more common in the 2D world. Some days Ikeburkuro seemed almost unreal. Sometimes Walker wondered if he didn’t already live in a 2D series just not the genre he wanted. Torturing people didn’t bring him to the level of Shizuo Heiwajima or the headless rider but it did add something to his character. It made him more of a main or at least supporting character rather then one of “those two guys” always on the outside of the action.

But as he watched Kyouhei’s beanie clad head emerge from the building Walker decided it was okay he gave it up. He didn’t really want to be a villain (most had nasty ends) and Kyohei was enough, hanging around with him made it worth it.

Several months later Walker stands in a parking garage. Behind him he can hear the screams from the van he’d thrown his Molotov into. His hood protects him from the sprinklers and he holds Saki Mikajima’s unconscious body. It’s a big damned hero scene right out of one his books. It's worth it Walker thinks to himself: being a hero is so much better.

AN: The wikia entry for Walker and Erika suggests that they may have worked for a gang or criminal organization torturing people before being rescued by Kadota.

“Those two guys” and “big damned heroes” are tropes listed on TV tropes. Walker and Erika are actually considered by the site to be a subversion of the “those two guys” trope. Big damned heroes is more western as the name comes from Firefly but I’m sure there is a Japanese equivalent Walker would be familiar with.