Celty Sturluson

**Celty Sturluson** also known as **The Black Rider** or **The Headless Rider**, is a fairy called a Dullahan from Ireland who came to Japan looking for her stolen head in the light novel series, *Durarara*, and the *Wonderland* series. Her motorcycle is a familiar called a Cóiste Bodhar in disguise, which she has named Shooter and whose favored alternate guise is a headless horse.

Celty has no head and perceives via unknown sensors located in the shadows she emits from her neck and other parts of her body. The physical strength she possesses is above human, though not quite on par with Shizuo Heiwajima and Simon Brezhnev. She is also capable of producing a shadow-like, durable shadowy substance to form objects ranging from gloves to chariots at her will.

Celty lives with Shinra Kishitani and works as an underground transporter. She wears a helmet when she goes out and communicates via a PDA. She enjoys online chatting, television and DVDs.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

In her early years, it is shown that Celty wore knight's armor as she traveled the country side with her head resting on her lap. When she immigrated to Japan, she updates her attire to match the times. For most of the series, Celty is shown to wear an all black biker jumpsuit with black gloves and shoes. All of her clothing is made from a shadow-like substance that materializes around her at her will. She also wears a yellow and blue helmet that vaguely resembles the shape of a cat's head. As far as physical features go, Celty isn't particularly imposing although she does have above average strength. She is well-endowed, has pale white skin and her head is shown to have brown hair and blue eyes.

### Personality

Celty's personality is, ironically, one of the most normal and down-to-earth compared to most of the other cast. Although she was fairly emotionless in her early life, she has since developed a much more defined personality as she spent more time with humans. She is generally a confident and optimistic individual although she is not without her insecurities. Chief among these are her concerns about how people will react to her monstrous nature. In the start of the series, Celty tends to avoid most people as they usually react negatively upon realizing she has no head. However, she has recently begun opening up more to people as she encounters others who are not only accepting of the paranormal (such as with Shizuo or Anri) but seem to revel in it (such as Mikado or Izaya).

Aside from developing a more human personality, she has also developed a few human interests. She is shown to enjoy watching movies and playing video games but has developed an odd phobia of aliens, something that has been used for comic relief throughout the series.

## Back Story

Celty is a Dullahan, a being from Celtic lore who guides souls to the afterlife. Not much is known about her early life. The earliest point in her history that is known is the day she woke up to find her head was missing. She remembered her name, her abilities, and what she was but not much else. Celty still felt a faint connection to her head and used it to travel across Japan in pursuit of it. Eventually, her search required her to cross the sea to Japan and so she stowed away on a ship bound to the small island nation. She is eventually discovered by a young Shinra Kishitani who promptly brought this to the attention of his father, Shingen.

Celty and Shingen worked out a deal where he would keep Celty's secret while she would allow him to perform a full autopsy. Celty agreed and went through with the procedure but eventually passed out from the pain. Once she arrived in Japan, Celty would continue her search while acting as Shinra's caretaker when Shingen was away. As she continued to spend time around humans, it allowed her to develop more as a person and cause her to develop close bonds with unique citizens of the city.

## Storyline History

### Distorted Wonderland

Shinra examines Celty's phone when the phones aren't working in the city. The dullahan wonders if it has something to do with the dolls. Their conversation is interrupted when Shizuo breaks the doll that was sitting in the bookcase.

### Deep Blue Wonderland

Michiko comes by Shinra and Celty's apartment to talk to them about what's going on in "Shinra". She's freaked out when the doll in their apartment is gone. Michiko then tells them what's going on and asks Celty if she's noticed anything strange happening in the city lately. The dullahan says that she has noticed the bakeneko and hitei-oni. Michiko lets it slip that Shinra has been keeping things from his fiancee, leaving him having to do some explaining. The whole time, Celty glared at the doctor while Michiko thinks about how this happened last time.

Meanwhile the inner circle of the Tandeki Group don't know what to do with Celty or Shizuo just yet.

### Wonderland Chaos

Celty, Shiki, Akabayashi and Kazamoto are coming out from talking about a new job when they notice Akane and a school friend of hers staring up at the sky. The men ask them what they are looking at. The girls describe a sliver and blue dragon with its body covered in eyes. The men can't see it, but Celty can and that tells her how bad things are getting. It later revealed that Celty can neutralize all of the tadpoles when she is near by them. Only when she is far away from, their powers return to normal. Kitano and Etsuko learn about this and decide to use this to their advantage. Meanwhile, Celty pleads with Shinra not to let Nebula end up turning the tadpoles into lab rats like Tandeki did to them. The doctor promises that he won't let that happen.

In "Thursday" Mika Harima and Seiji Yagiri come by the apartment to talk about what's going on. It is Mika who sounds the alarm. Towards the end of the halo, Celty is given a job around five in the morning from an unknown client who won't give her any details. She picks up a bag at a dock with the payment left there, but no directions on where to take it. When Celty gets home, she is greeted by a woman in a blood-soaked kimono holding a still-birth baby with the umbilical cord still attached and wrapped in a bloody blanket. The woman doesn't speak as she gets up and walks away.

In "Akabayashi", Anri comes to the apartment and tells Shinra and Celty about Akabayashi sleeping with a corpse that looks like her mother. Celty believes her and goes to Shiki to help fix the problem. They in turn go to a Buddhist priest.

In "Chiharu", Celty goes out to do another job when she runs into a feminine man with fox ears disemboweling himself in the middle of the crosswalk. He looks up at her and says, "Chaos reigns". In "Exposed", Celty and Mika find Anri at the police station and tell her the truth about Mikado and his tadpole powers.

### Caged Wonderland

Celty appears in the season finale to help Shinra, Shingen, and Michiko with the exorcism of Seiji. She holds him in place while the other three read the chants from their books. She notices that there is an amajoku waiting to kill Mikado once he and his friends make it to the roof. However, Celty do anything because she is holding Seiji in place. She can't speak either because she has no mouth.

### The Month of No Gods

Celty reflects on the events that have happened lately. She finally begins to tell Shinra about the packages that she had been sent out to pick up.

### Devil's Wonderland

Celty finally tells Shinra about the packages. She showed him the first one. Shinra panics and tells her to take the bags with him to go to Yagiri Pharmaceuticals.

### Black Swan Wonderland

After Shinra is brought back from the dead, Celty notices that something isn't right. Reapers keep surrounding their apartment and a ghostly figure lingers over her boyfriend while he sleeps. One day, a reaper shows up and tries to take Shinra's soul. Vanessa, Doctor Victor, and Miiko arrive just in time to stop his soul from escaping. Later, Hokori nearly runs Celty off the road. When they stop, the dullahan confronts the deity. Hokori challenges her to a duel. When Celty gets him, Shingo Kawakita gets in touch with her through a hacked channel to her PDA. He can't fight aside her due to her being able to neutralize his powers. Shingo has a bug placed on her helmet so that he can stay in contact with her for the fight. Celty ends up riding to an abandoned church for the duel . Hokori is already waiting for her there. She lets Celty and Shingo ask questions before they fight. The deity and the dullahan fight. Celty's helmet gets knocked off during the fight, causing Shingo to lose his connect to her. When they are back in connection, Celty flashes a V-sign, indicating she won the duel. Shingo signs off and she rides home.

In the season finale, Celty asks Shinra how he's doing. Shinra's been acting fine lately. Then he suggests that they stay in for the day. Celty agrees to this. However, Shinra said that he had to go and out do something first. He walks out the door, leaving her confused. When Shinra is set back to the same time he's about leave, the doctor changes his mind and decides that it can wait. Celty is confused by this.

### Edge of Wonderland

Chie Sakamoto is living with Celty and Shinra due to her powers. Celty is worried when Shinra claims that there was a man that came to their apartment last night for medical treatment. However, her boyfriend feels vindicated when Alesky Gorecki comes with his wife, Lilith. Celty is there when Aoko Jimbo comes to them for help.

### Mad World

It is revealed that Celty is still alive, but has gone missing. Mikado wishes that he can find her again so that she can kill him.

## Relationships

### Shinra Kishitani

*Main Article: Shinra and Celty*

Shinra and Celty first became acquainted when Shinra was a small child. Having just lost her head, he happened upon her stowing away on a ship he and his father were aboard. The two have been together since, living as roommates, and shortly into the series, his one-sided love is reciprocated by Celty. Shinra's presence and rambling words frequently calm Celty's nerves, and she enjoys cooking for him and buying him gifts. Later on in the series, it's suggested that the two are engaged.

### Shingen Kishitani

*Main Article: Shingen Kishitani*

Celty doesn't have a very favorable opinion of Shinra's father, made worse when Shingen accidentally reveals that he was the one who stole Celty's head. Celty considers Shingen to be nothing more than a creepy old man and doesn't like putting up with him more than necessary. Likewise, Shingen considers Celty to be a monster as well as an idiot, as shown when he objects to her and Shinra's plans to get married and when he taunts her after revealing that he stole her head.

### Emilia Kishitani

*Main Article: Emilia Kishitani*

Celty's relationship with Emilia is a lot more positive than her relationship with Shingen. While she does get slightly annoyed with Emilia at times, she and Emilia do not argue the way she and Shingen do. Emilia also has appreciation for Celty as a person and a monster and refrains from insulting her as Shingen does. There is always a tinge of awkwardness in their conversations, but Celty also enjoys taking jobs from Emilia, mostly due to the fact that she usually pays well.

### Shizuo Heiwajima

*Main Article: Shizuo Heiwajima*

Celty and Shizuo have been shown to get along very well throughout the series. This most likely due to both of them being incredibly abnormal compared to the average person. Shizuo and Celty would often be seen talking to each other in their spare time and would often confide in each other about their problems and give advice. Shizuo dislikes talkative, noisy people, and Celty's inability to ramble during a conversation is one of the things he likes most about her. Shizuo also seems to care about Celty a great deal, as shown when he gets fired up about how Celty was attacked by the slasher. Shinra expresses unfounded jealousy over Celty's closeness with and trust of Shizuo.

### Izaya Orihara

*Main Article: Izaya Orihara*

Celty doesn't appear to like Izaya in general. She prefers not to deal with him more than is necessary, which is a bit of a problem since many of Celty's jobs come from Izaya in the first place. She always suspects him of being involved with many of the major, disruptive events that happen in the city and doesn't trust him at all. Izaya considers Celty to be one of many different pawns at his disposal, but states in the fifth light novel that Celty "always seems to defy [his] expectations for her." When he obtains Celty's head, he develops a theory that dullahans from Celtic mythology are the same as valkyries from Norse Mythology. Since valkyries only appear on battlefields, Izaya wants to start a war in Ikebukuro in an attempt to awaken Celty's powers as a valkyrie and ascend into heaven as her chosen knight, if heaven indeed exists.

### Mikado Ryuugamine

*Main Article: Mikado Ryuugamine*

Celty considers Mikado to be a very close friend. This is mostly due to the fact that, even after he saw her true nature, he didn't treat her any differently than anyone else and met her appearance with wonder instead of fear. She is willing to help Mikado at a moment's notice and will not hesitate to jump in if things get dicey. However, she respects his position as the founder of the Dollars and, if asked, she will refrain from helping if that is what Mikado wishes.

### Anri Sonohara

*Main Article: Anri Sonohara*

Celty considers Anri to be her closest female friend. Anri would frequently ask Celty for advice with Saika as well as what she should do during some of the more tense events during the series, such as the gang war with the Yellow Scarves. In the light novel, after being attacked by Vorona, Celty offers to let Anri stay with her and Shinra until everything calms down; she stays with the couple for a short time in the third light novel as well. In the second light novel, Anri expresses a vague attraction to Celty, much to Mikado's surprise, but never brings it up again, and it is not until the third light novel that Anri is informed by Shinra that Celty is a woman.

## Trivia

* Celty cannot taste or eat due to the lack of a head.
* Her hobbies include gaming, watching the television, and Internet surfing.
* She sang "Rouge no Dengon" in the rapping CD.
* Celty has a shoe size of 16.
* Her first name may be a reference to her Irish background as "Celty" can be associated with "Celtic."
* Her last name may be a reference to a possibly Norse background (since it was mentioned in the series that some regard Dullahan as fallen Valkyries, which are Norse) as "Sturluson" can be associated with "Snorri Sturluson," an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician who authored a narrative of Norse mythology.
* In the full version of the first Durarara!! opening song, 'Uragiri no Yūyake' by Theatre Brook, Celty is referenced twice - once as 'yousei,' which is 'fairy' in Japanese, and again as 'fairy' during the English phrase 'fairy ride' in the second verse.
* The Dullahan coach or carriage is called 'Cóiste Bodhar' (koe-shta-bower) meaning 'deaf or silent coach.' However, in the Durarara!! series, the Cóiste Bodhar is known as the spirit that takes the form of Celty's headless horse as well as, occasionally, a carriage, coach, or cart. She's named it Shooter.
* In the novels, Celty, Shooter, and all the shadows they exude are described as being devoid of light with no reflections whatsoever, appearing as flat, 2-dimensional silhouettes that can easily blend in with their surroundings and create an otherworldly feel just by looking at them. However, in the anime and manga, perhaps due to the difficulty of suggesting their 3-dimensional shapes with plain black silhouettes, they are shown to have shading and highlights.
* Common mistranslations of her name include "Selty" and "Ceruty."
* Celty has appeared twice in the Megami Tensei franchise, appearing in a special event in 2011 for Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE and gives her outfit as a gift to those who do her quests. Then she appears as one of three limited time downloadable demons in Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker.
* Ms. Fortune from the game Skullgirls has a color palette based on Celty's.

## Sources

* Basic Information: http://durarara.wikia.com/wiki/Celty\_Sturluson