Baccano! - Volume 7 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

RED EYES AND RED HAIR

“I bought umbrellaaas.”

Tick and Maria had been sheltering from the rain in an abandoned building, but it didn’t look like the rain would be stopping anytime soon, so Tick had run to the station and purchased umbrellas.

Even though it had been just a few minutes away, the rain had soaked Tick all the way through to his underwear.

“…Thanks, amigo.”

Murmuring, Maria gave a weak smile.

The fact that she’d blamed Tick a minute ago still weighed on her heart, but he was acting as though it hadn’t even happened. Although this relieved her, it was also a shackle that made Maria feel incredibly guilty.

That said, Tick might have genuinely forgotten.

“Hmm, what should we do? It wouldn’t be great to just head back home now… We don’t know where Ronny from the Martillos went, eiiither.”

Tick worried about what to do next for a little while, but before long, he gave a small nod, then took Maria’s hands and pulled her to her feet.

“Let’s try going back to Jacuzzi and his friends’ house, one more time.”

“Huh…?”

For just a moment, Maria hesitated.

The place where she’d fought the spear woman in mortal combat.

The place where she’d suffered abject defeat.

“Somebody might’ve gone baaack there.”

“R-right. You’re right.”

What if that spear woman had gone back?

Imagining it, Maria instantly felt her heart freeze over.

Am I scared? Me?

“Are you okay?”

“Ah-ha-ha! I’m fine! It’s like you just said, Tick: That wasn’t a loss! Right? Besides, next time I do that, I’m absolutely going to win! Believe me, amigo!”

It was something she didn’t want to admit, so Maria put on her very best show of bravado for Tick.

The truth was, even she understood.

She knew that, no matter what Tick had said, in the end, unless she was convinced personally, it didn’t mean a thing.

She also knew that, once she was convinced, in order to truly get over it…she’d have to beat that woman.

There might be another way.

The thought had crossed Maria’s mind, but she was positive this method was the only one she had now.

The way she’d lived up till now couldn’t be changed easily.

For that very reason, she’d thought, she had to settle things in accordance with that way of life.

But can I win? she asked herself.

Can I beat that woman—no, that spear?

That spear wasn’t just any spear, and on top of that, its owner had been quite used to combat.

Before Maria could close the distance to the range her Japanese swords needed, the space commanded by that spear, which was nearly twice as long, barred her way with a density that was overwhelming. Using both her blades, she’d tried to punch through the gaps in that density, but its range was so wide that it extended off to the sides, and the blades of that cross had knocked the tips of her swords away every time.

If I at least had the same range as that spear—

When her thoughts had taken her that far, Maria shook her head fiercely.

Up until now, hadn’t she beaten opponents armed with guns, weapons whose ranges were several times—or dozens of times—greater than that spear? Thinking she’d lost because of a difference in range was the same as admitting that her katanas had lost.

However, it was true there was an actual difference in fighting distance.

When she fought guns, she compensated for that by slipping through the line of fire and getting right up close to her opponent: in other words, by using her own techniques as a katana user.

Could she do the same thing with that spear?

Not only that, but could she manage it against an opponent she’d just lost to, before she accumulated any new training?

It wasn’t as if she knew everything her opponent had up her sleeve, and there were many elements that made her nervous.

Most of all—she was frightened she might lose to that spear.

She wasn’t afraid of dying. What scared her was having everything about the life she’d lived up until now negated, of having Japanese swords, and Murasámia, denied.

Realizing her fingers were trembling, Maria squeezed her hands into tight fists to hide it.

Whether he’d noticed this or not, Tick peered into Maria’s face, smiled for no good reason, and encouraged her.

“It’s okaaay. I’ll believe this time for sure. All right? You won’t lose to anybody, Maria.”

The young man’s eyes were as innocent and direct as a child’s, and in the gap between his slightly closed eyelids, those eyes reflected Maria’s face like a mirror.

Growing embarrassed about not being able to shake her unease, Maria nodded firmly, trying even harder to hide her hesitation.

Returning that absolutely baseless smile, Maria looked Tick full in the face for the first time.

It might have been because she was, quite simply, jealous of his smile.

“Right. Thanks… Really, thank you, amigo.”

Taking an umbrella from Tick, who looked a bit mystified, she headed outside on her own two feet.

Holding unease and determination simultaneously, she stepped out into a city of rain that seemed liable to wash everything away.

Stepped out, as if to hide her racing pulse in the sound of the downpour…

An abandoned factory by the Hudson River

“…Like I said, those guys were planning to get rid of you fellas from the very beginning.”

In the center of the factory, under naked lightbulbs that sporadically snapped and crackled, Jacuzzi’s friends surrounded Dallas, who was speaking with great self-importance.

As soon as Dallas had arrived at the abandoned factory Jacuzzi and the others were using as a hideout, he’d started to act arrogant, as if he were a very important guest.

All of Jacuzzi’s friends were disgusted by the attitude, but since Dallas was a valuable source of information, they couldn’t treat him too badly.

They could have tortured him and gotten the information that way, but it was painfully obvious Jacuzzi would be against it, so even the people who thought of it didn’t attempt to suggest it.

Even without that, though, Dallas began to spill information about Larva and immortal bodies with startling frankness.

Rather than “spilling” the knowledge, he spoke with an energy that seemed to say, I’m doing you a favor by telling you this stuff, so you better be grateful, and he actually did say “You better be grateful” over and over again.

“You better be grateful. If I wasn’t telling you this stuff, they woulda made you their throwaway pawns, and you’d have been on your way to the afterlife before you even knew what hit you.”

“Huh…”

Jacuzzi and his friends listened to Dallas’s story as if it were a fairy tale from some far distant land.

Dallas started his narrative back when he’d become immortal. Needless to say, as he related it, he generously embroidered the parts that had been inconvenient for him, but even without that, to Jacuzzi and the others, the story sounded far too outlandish.

Jacuzzi had once encountered the Rail Tracer, a paranormal thing, and so he was able to accept the story to a certain extent. Although, if he hadn’t actually seen Dallas’s “constitution,” the business about the liquor of immortality and the underground society of influential people in all sorts of fields would probably have been impossible to believe.

They hadn’t swallowed his story wholesale, but since the “immortal” known as Dallas actually did exist, they had to believe it.

That said, in the process, Jacuzzi’s group ran up against another question:

“Um… So the doll at the mansion, Ennis… She was a crony of that bad guy, Szilard?”

“Yeah, she don’t look like it, but she’s a monster who’s killed lots of people.”

Dallas had no idea what Ennis’s career as a murderer was like, but in order to make his story bigger, he created a suitable past for her. That said, Ennis actually had killed several people, so it wasn’t a total lie.

“But…it looked like she knew Isaac and Miria…”

“Isaac? Oh… Nobody cares about that dim-watt couple.”

I see—so that sap’s name is Isaac, huh? Maybe I’ll remember it for when I kill him.

As a matter of fact, Isaac and Miria were on Dallas’s “to kill” list, but mentioning this to Jacuzzi’s group seemed like a bad move, so he decided to keep quiet about it.

“Um… Also, Dallas…is it true you’re related to the owner of that mansion…to the Genoards?”

“That again? I told you that a million times already.”

Dallas spat the words out, annoyed, just as a voice spoke up in a different direction from Jacuzzi.

“That’s the most unbelievable thing here.”

Jacuzzi had been planning on just backing down, but Jon, who was wearing his bartender uniform, broke into the conversation. He looked unconvinced.

“So…you’re seriously Miss Eve’s big brother?”

“Hunh?”

A man had come out of nowhere and said his little sister’s name, and in spite of himself, Dallas’s eyes narrowed.

“How come you know Eve, pal?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? She’s the one who loaned that house to us: Miss Eve, the current head of the Genoard family.”

“?!”

The news had been abruptly shoved in his face, and this time it was Dallas’s turn to doubt his ears.

Eve’s the head?! …What’s that supposed to mean?! What happened to my old man and my brother?! Did they bite the big one? Did they check out for good?!

Dallas was a little shaken, but then he drew a deep breath and thought.

If they actually croaked…I couldn’t get any luckier!

After all, if that was true and he proved he was alive, all the family assets would be his. This greedy man didn’t mourn his family’s deaths in the slightest; he just got his hopes up over the money he might get.

Because Dallas didn’t know about the Genoard family’s decline, he simply assumed that fortune was finally smiling on him.

“Eh? What’s the matter?” Jon was looking at him suspiciously.

Dallas cleared his throat, covering for himself, then continued with what he’d been saying. “Uh… Yeah, well, Eve’s my little sister. I’m back now, though, so that makes me the head of the family. Don’t you forget it.”

“Not like I care, but…Miss Eve was incredibly worried about you. It made me wonder what kind of bastard you were… But even then, I didn’t think you’d be this rude.”

Jon’s words were loaded with sarcasm. Ordinarily, the development would have set veins popping out on Dallas’s face, but now, he showed no particular reaction to it.

He’d just visualized his little sister very clearly.

Dallas had been called “lowlife” and “scum” by all sorts of people, and he’d actually lived up to that bad reputation. The one thing that tied his heart to society, even though he was the type to consider his own father’s death a stroke of good luck, was his little sister, Eve Genoard.

She was his Achilles’ heel (although Dallas wasn’t as strong as Achilles to begin with) and the one being he showed kindness to.

“…She’s got nothing to do with this. I’m me.”

He responded to Jon’s sarcasm indifferently, then avoided even looking at the guy.

Maybe because they’d picked up on the change in his expression, neither Jacuzzi nor Jon pressed him for anything else about Eve, and for his part, Dallas didn’t say another word about his little sister.

Dallas’s sister was his weak point. In fact, even now, he was trying to kill Tim and Adele to protect her.

Yet, he never told Jacuzzi and the others that Eve was being treated like a hostage.

This was partly because it had nothing to do with his using them. More than that, though, he was afraid of having strangers find out about his weakness.

Even now, Dallas was worried about his sister.

Right before he’d headed for the restaurant where Firo Prochainezo was, he’d made one phone call, but for some reason, no one had picked up.

He’d thought they might already have been attacked, but there was no way anyone could have gotten from Manhattan to New Jersey in the time between his escape from the mansion and his phone call.

Even as Dallas’s unease spurred him on, now that he couldn’t make sure Eve got away, he had to make that other thing happen.

In other words: He had to get rid of Tim, Adele, and the other Larva members.

And in order to do that, he needed to figure out how to stir up this group of young punks. How could he get them to see Tim and Adele as Jacuzzi’s enemies?

Dallas hadn’t heard everything about Larva’s objective, either. However, he did remember them saying they needed pawns to storm some location somewhere.

To that end, Dallas filled them in on the organization known as Larva, with half of the explanation consisting of guesses and things he’d made up.

At this stage, it was likely they didn’t actually have that liquor, the method for becoming immortal.

In other words, it was probably safe to assume the liquor was being kept at the place they were planning to attack.

“Yeah, they said they were gonna have you people attack the place where it’s stored, and while you did that, they’d get the liquor.”

Dallas didn’t know whether the liquor they were after was the “failed” sort he’d gotten or the “complete” version. Either way, though, he could imagine what would happen after that.

“Once they’ve got it, they’ll either get rid of you, or… No, they might let you drink some of it. As a reward, see. But who knows what they’re gonna do after that? One of ’em might be a complete immortal; maybe they’re planning to feed you to them.”

Tim had only called Jacuzzi and the others “sacrificial pawns,” and he hadn’t actually said a thing about what would happen afterward, but Dallas kept talking as though they planned to ultimately kill their group.

Again and again.

“That said… You people saw me, a real live example of immortality, one of the biggest secrets there is. Whether or not you cooperate with Tim-the-bastard and company, they’re probably planning to rub you out at the end.”

“No…”

It seemed to be gradually taking effect: Jacuzzi looked down, his expression uneasy.

“I guess we picked up some ugly customers.”

“What do we do?”

“They’re selling us short.”

“Hya-haah.”

Jacuzzi’s punk friends were beginning to speak up, egging him on. However, Nice, Jon and a few others were still listening to Dallas with expressions that seemed to say they weren’t yet sure where they stood.

“Wait just a moment, please. It’s still too early to say for sure.”

“I’m not actually saying this guy’s a liar, but he does have some guesses mixed in there.”

They were wary of Tim’s group as well, but they’d probably never lost sight of the possibility that Dallas might be lying.

Tch… You’re just scum, so act like it, wouldja?

Even as Dallas inwardly clicked his tongue in frustration, he spoke as if he still had plenty of leeway.

“That’s fine. You don’t have to believe me… I mean, whatever happens to you, it’s no skin off my nose.”

Jacuzzi brooded for a little while at the jab. Then, in an attempt to get the basic information organized, he asked Dallas a fundamental question.

“Um… You said you didn’t know what sort of organization these Larva people were, but…is it okay to assume Tim is their leader? Isn’t there someone in a higher position, or some other syndicate that’s backing them?”

“You think they’d fill me in on something like th…?”

Dallas started to answer, then remembered something and stopped.

Come to think of it, he said something the first time I saw him.

“We’re a band of psychotic weirdos.”

No, before that.

“We serve Mr. ______—and we’re a band of psychotic weirdos.”

Yeah, that’s right. It was—

“Huey Laforet…”

As he retraced his memories, he’d murmured the word casually.

Even he was impressed he’d remembered it.

He’d seen the name before, in the papers or something, so it might have made a particularly vivid impression on him.

“That’s right… They said their boss was Huey Laforet…”

He’d muttered almost as if he were talking to himself, but it had an astonishing effect on his surroundings.

The people who’d been noisy up until then went quiet all at once, and they all looked at a girl who stood a little ways from the rest of the group.

“?”

Not understanding what their reaction meant, Dallas looked at the girl, too.

She had golden eyes and black hair, and the atmosphere that hung around her clearly set her apart from the punks around her.

The woman’s eyes had gone wide, and she was watching Dallas with a stunned expression.

“Wh-what, huh?”

Dallas spoke, sounding creeped out, but the woman didn’t respond. Instead, Jacuzzi asked a question.

“Um…are you sure?”

“…What? What about it? Did that Huey fella do something?”

“No, it’s just…he’s sort of connected to us. I’ve never met him, but…”

Huey Laforet.

In general terms, he was famous as a terrorist who’d plotted a rebellion against the federal government, but he had another, special significance for Jacuzzi’s group.

About two years ago, Jacuzzi and his friends had planned a train robbery, and in the process, they’d encountered terrorists who were attempting to hijack that same train.

That terrorist group had been the Lemures, and their goal had been to secure the release of their leader, Huey Laforet, who was in police custody.

In their large-scale operation, the entire train had been taken hostage, but a variety of other motives—Jacuzzi, another group plotting to hijack the train, and a monster known as the Rail Tracer—had come into play, and ultimately, the Lemures had been destroyed.

One of the group’s few survivors was currently working with Jacuzzi’s group.

That girl was the one at the center of all those gazes. Her name was Chané Laforet…and she was Huey Laforet’s biological daughter.

Jacuzzi and every one of his friends knew this.

Nevertheless, without reservation, they had accepted Chané as their companion.

After that, they’d all lived uneventful lives in New York, and no one had really commented on her origins.

…Not until just now, when Dallas had said Huey’s name.

“What…? What’s going on?”

Dallas didn’t understand the situation, and the abrupt change in mood confused him.

But there was one individual who was several times more confused: Chané Laforet herself.

Why?

Why would my father’s name come up here?

When she found herself abruptly confronted with that fact, a sharp shock had run through Chané’s entire body.

If her father was the one behind the people who’d called themselves Larva, everything made sense.

The fact that they’d known about the immortals, and their attempt to create new ones: If this was all part of one of her father’s “experiments,” then it was entirely understandable.

Had they known about her, though? Chané had her doubts, and she’d realized it was impossible to determine whether they had from their actions.

Her father was the sort of person who could view even his own daughter as a guinea pig. To the best of her knowledge, there was only one person he treated as human, besides himself.

Father doesn’t get unassociated people involved and kill them. He’d confessed, to Chané alone, that this was “because it would make Elmer sad.” She hadn’t had the opportunity to meet Elmer in person, but she knew he was her father’s friend.

The only time her father showed genuine emotion was when he spoke about Elmer. Conversely, whenever he talked about anyone else, he always seemed slightly detached.

Her father wouldn’t kill those not involved. At the same time, when it came to people who were relevant—the individuals and groups her father had designated as “guinea pigs”—he could do incredibly cruel things without turning a hair.

For that very reason, Chané was worried.

If…if Father sees Jacuzzi and the rest as guinea pigs…

If he does, I’ll probably be counted as a guinea pig as well.

I don’t mind that. If it’s for my father’s sake, he can have me.

But…Jacuzzi…Nice…Donny…Jon…Fang…Jack…Nick…

The names of the friends who currently surrounded her surfaced and vanished, one by one.

They knew her past, and they’d still accepted her without comment.

They were companions in the truest sense of the word, completely different from what she’d had with the Lemures.

If her father told her to sacrifice them, what would she do?

She’d probably prioritize her father’s words.

But Jacuzzi and the others were also important to her, second only to—or no, by now, just as important as—her father.

The more she thought about it, the more frightened she grew.

Fear.

That emotion hadn’t existed for her until she met Jacuzzi and the others.

When she’d come to this city, for the first time, she’d gained people she could lose.

She wouldn’t have regretted losing her own life, but now, the idea of losing her companions terrified her more than anything.

Just as Maria feared the loss of her own pride, right now, Chané was on the brink of being swallowed up by violent, quaking emotion.

“…What? What about that doll?”

“No… It’s, um…”

Dallas’s question had been directed at Jacuzzi, but Jacuzzi’s response was noncommittal, not really an answer at all.

However—just then, they sensed that something was wrong.

The air around them seemed colder than it had been a moment ago.

As if something that hadn’t been there before had entered the factory while their attention was elsewhere…

Dallas looked for the source of the feeling, which was no more than an intuitive hunch, and spotted its physical form right away.

The golden-eyed girl everyone was watching.

Behind her… Although there was no telling when it had arrived, a new figure stood there.

Dallas, Jacuzzi, and every other person present had been looking in Chané’s direction.

Yet, not one of them knew the exact moment that figure had appeared, except for the figure itself.

“Oh…”

Realizing who it was, Jacuzzi made an involuntary noise.

Chané didn’t seem to have noticed the presence behind her yet. She was still struggling with the doubts welling up inside her.

Just as the emotion in the eyes of the woman in the black dress became a shiver that began to spread to her upper arms—

—the figure moved soundlessly, softly hugging Chané’s slim shoulders.

An abrupt embrace from behind.

For a moment, Chané froze up, but the instant she realized who the person behind her was, she looked relieved.

That said, the change in her facial muscles was very slight, and to anyone who wasn’t used to her, she probably would have looked as expressionless as before.

“It’s okay.”

When he sensed that Chané’s tension had relaxed slightly, the figure murmured, trying to set her mind at ease.

“It’s okay. Don’t you worry about a thing. I’m here.”

The incredibly arrogant voice told her, without knowing what she was worried about, to rest easy about everything simply because he existed.

But Chané knew.

The words seemed irresponsible, but they held a steady, ultimate “strength.”

A man who could imbue plain words with power, just by speaking them. At the very least, Chané and Jacuzzi, and everybody else except for Dallas, understood that being.

Dallas, the only one who didn’t know about the other guy, felt his own body temperature falling in response to the mood of the thugs around him.

“What…the…?”

When Dallas squeezed the air out of the depths of his lungs, the man who was gently hugging Chané looked his way, just for a moment.

Then, as if to say he’d sized Dallas up in the space of that moment, he ignored him completely and circled around to stand in front of Chané.

Dallas felt as if he’d been disrespected.

However, Dallas’s heart wasn’t taken over by anger and the urge to slaughter the offender, as it normally would have been. He just gulped and kept watching the guy’s every move.

If I take my eyes off him, he might kill me. The guy who’d suddenly showed up in front of him radiated pure, painfully straightforward intimidation.

Under the light of the naked bulbs, his red hair seemed like the warning coloration of a poisonous animal.

Not good.

Internally, Dallas felt his ego frankly admit defeat.

This guy…is bad news.

Although he didn’t know it, the pressure he was feeling now was very similar to what Jacuzzi and the others had felt from Ronny Schiatto.

When Ronny had appeared, Dallas had been caught between two choices—black out or get killed—so he hadn’t noticed. However, if you’d asked someone who knew these two directly, the first common trait they’d give was that neither was a person you wanted to go anywhere near.

Jacuzzi’s group had seen two men who’d managed to tame that sort of aura and wear it around, one after the other. Even so, they weren’t as tense now as they’d been with Ronny, probably because they understood that this man wasn’t an enemy.

“Mr.…Claire.”

Jacuzzi spoke, breaking out in a cold sweat. The figure he’d called “Claire” responded without turning around.

“Felix.”

“Oh… S-sorry, Mr. Felix.”

“Claire is the name of my soul. The only one who’s allowed to use it is Chané. I told you that several times already, remember?”

It sounded as if he was teasing, but the man’s air of intimidation hadn’t softened.

A name only Chané, who couldn’t speak, was allowed to use. It sounded absurd, but nobody argued.

The man who’d been called Claire, and had called himself Felix, gazed at Chané for a while. Before long, he smiled gently and stroked the cheek of hers that had a faint scratch on it.

“…No big injuries anywhere else?”

His words were kind, but they were also firm. Chané quietly shook her head.

The next moment, Felix gave a small sigh—and the ominous pressure that had filled the factory dispersed.

“I see… Well, you know. You look good; that’s great.”

When she heard that, Chané gazed back at Felix as if she wanted to say something.

“Hmm? Oh. You were worried about something like that? Seriously, it’s fine. You’re more important to me than work… Ah, if it’s about Jacuzzi and company, don’t worry. I’ll talk Luck around, and I’ll do something about that Ronny fella, too… Yeah, I won’t let ’em lay a finger on your friends.”

He was speaking as if Chané had said something to him. Yet, not only had she not said anything, she hadn’t even opened her mouth.

Even so, the redhead went on cheerfully.

“Huh? Oh, that’s all right. I’ll do something about your old man, too. After all, he’s my future father-in-law.”

In a clear, resonant voice, Felix kept speaking to Chané, who was silent.

“Only— Whoever scratched your face. They’re gonna pay for that… No, well, it’s less for you than because I personally can’t forgive them.”

If you focused on just him, it looked as if he was having a conversation, and getting mad, all by himself.

To a bystander, he probably looked like a nutcase.

But if that person paid attention to Chané’s reactions, they’d see that she was nodding or shaking her head in response to what he said and occasionally giving something like a faint smile… She really did seem to be talking with him.

“Um.”

Finally unable to take it, Jacuzzi spoke up, addressing the sweethearts who almost looked as if they were conversing cheerfully.

“…You can tell what Chané wants to say?”

“Of course I can.”

The man nodded, brimming with confidence. Jacuzzi looked at him, then shifted his gaze to Chané.

Picking up on Jacuzzi’s unspoken question, Chané promptly nodded.

In other words, the conversation really was going both ways. Chané had confirmed it.

“But how? She’s not using sign language or anything.”

Nice shook her head in amazement, and Felix responded, looking mystified.

“Just look in her eyes. It’s all there.”

“That’s insane.”

“Well, see, I love Chané from the bottom of my heart. That’s why.”

Felix said the words without a blush. He probably meant every bit of them.

Deciding that arguing anymore was pointless, Jacuzzi clammed up, still looking boggled.

Chané also looked mildly appalled as she watched the man in front of her, but her cheeks seemed to have a bit more color in them than usual.

Apparently, she was embarrassed.

Beside Chané, who wasn’t very expressive, the man waved his hands in an exaggerated manner, trying to move the conversation forward.

“Okay, so, what do you need me to do?”

Sounding unconcerned, Vino, aka Felix Walken, scanned the factory’s interior. Then, locking eyes with Dallas—who looked as if he had no idea what was going on—he stopped dead and spread his arms in a gesture that was even more theatrical.

“Any player who wants to use a pawn like me…had better be careful not to get hurt when he picks that piece up. You feel me?”

Those last words had clearly been directed at Dallas.

“Wha…?”

The situation had left Dallas in the dust until that point, but now he’d been abruptly pulled up onto Felix’s stage.

“Wha… What the hell are y—?”

“Yeah, never mind, it’s fine. I heard your story.”

Since he didn’t know when the guy had entered the factory, he didn’t know how much of the story he’d heard.

Dallas didn’t feel like arguing, though. As Felix watched him, his gaze held a powerful will that permitted no argument whatsoever.

If Dallas defied him, he might get killed.

Caught by that illusion, Dallas gave a small, reluctant nod.

“So, getting right to the point, we both know what this is. You’re trying to turn Jacuzzi and these guys into your pawns and use them to take out that Larva group. Is this one of those things? A personal grudge?”

“Wha…?!”

He’d hit the nail on the head, but Jacuzzi and the others were startled, too.

The easygoing members who were cackling and being noisy were one thing, but Jacuzzi, Nice, and Jon had caught on to Dallas quite a while back.

Even so, they hadn’t called him out on it. They’d just kept an eye on the situation. And now that Felix, who’d shown up later, had pointed it out so bluntly, they were at a loss for words.

“That’s just crazy… What are you talki—?”

“Yeah, forget that, don’t bother.”

Felix waved his hands, cutting Dallas off.

“I hate troublesome stuff. Let’s just be direct here.”

With no hesitation, Felix walked right up to Dallas’s chair, put his hands on his shoulders, and stuck his face right up close to the other guy’s.

He was smiling, but there was a power in his voice that brooked no argument.

“That’s fine. No matter what you’re planning, now that I’m here, there won’t be any problems.”

He went on in a voice Jacuzzi and the others could hear as well, speaking so arrogantly that he made Dallas’s earlier attitude seem commendable.

“No matter what a small-timer like you is planning—it doesn’t bother me. No matter what a snot-nosed kid like you tries to hide from me, I seriously doubt it could damage my life. Jacuzzi and his pals aren’t dumb, either. So—if you want to use me, or us, you just go right ahead.”

The indifferent words held a clear threat to them.

In exchange, you’ll use me right back, huh?

This was probably what people called “wordless pressure.” True, right now, it was working like magic on him.

“Because I’m gonna use you right back.”

What, you’re actually saying it?!

The exchange had been brief, but he’d seen far too clearly that this was no ordinary guy.

This man wasn’t the type to use trickery tailored to the psychology of his opponents. He simply put his ideas into action, with zero hesitation.

…And those actions held a confidence with a rock-solid foundation.

This guy… He’s got everything I don’t have, all the power. Yeah, all of it. Absolutely everything, every sort of thing you could call strength!

When he registered that fact, the emotion that welled up in his heart wasn’t envy. It was fear.

Is it okay for a bastard like this to exist?

He hadn’t actually seen what Felix could do, but he was able to participate in this sort of exchange, in a place like this, without any hesitation at all. That alone was enough to give him a good idea of the guy’s power.

Dallas was completely spooked by this unknown entity, this “Felix,” but he couldn’t cut and run.

Even as he broke out in a cold sweat, on the surface, he chose his words carefully, attempting to cover for himself.

However, before he could get the words out, Felix cocked his head to one side and spoke.

“Say, are you hiding something else?”

“…!”

“Yeah, you are. I can tell! Well, it doesn’t matter.”

Hiding something? He was hiding so many things he didn’t know which one the guy meant.

The abrupt question confused Dallas. To make matters worse, he accidentally blurted out a stupid response:

“—How do you know about that?”

Dallas didn’t know what he was supposed to be hiding, but for the moment, he’d decided to admit that it was fact.

He had no idea what sort of answer the other guy was going to give. He just waited for him to say it, sweating in apprehension.

“Hmm? Instinct, maybe, or maybe I can see it in your eyes… Huh. When I actually have to put it into words, I can’t find any cool ones. Well, let’s see. Long story short—”

After he’d spent a while choosing his words, in the end, he said a line that could have belonged to a magician in a children’s story.

“—I can do anything.”

Millionaires’ Row

Night had nearly fallen, and in the darkness, only the sound of the rain echoed loudly over the broad avenue.

The light that filtered through the many mansions’ wide windows illuminated the ornamental plantings in their front gardens, and the water droplets struck each individual leaf rhythmically, reflecting the light.

The high-class neighborhood seemed rather desolate, and in it, a man and a woman were walking quietly through the sound of the rain, under umbrellas.

“Hmm… I’ll need to do proper maintenance on my scissors when we get hooome, or they’re going to rust.”

“You’re right. It’s about time I gave Murasámia a good sharpening, too…”

Looking at their weapons, which were exposed to the spray the rain had kicked up, Tick and Maria murmured to each other, smiling wryly.

“Weeee don’t treat our blades very well, do we?”

“That’s not true. I take care of mine every day!”

“They say the thing that hurts blades most, after not taking care of them, is cutting living things.”

“Ah-ha-ha, that’s gotta be a lie, amigo. I heard the more you cut, the stronger they get.”

As they continued their dangerous conversation, the torturer and the hired killer arrived in front of the residence that was their destination.

Due to the scale of the earlier ruckus, it seemed a little ragged around the edges, but there was no conspicuous external damage, and naturally, the smokescreen that had filled it was gone without a trace.

“Huh…? The lights are on.”

Noticing that soft light was streaming from the ground-floor windows, Tick and Maria exchanged looks. They’d been discussing how, after that uproar, it was possible that no one had come back, or that, even if they had returned, they might pretend they weren’t home.

“Do you think somebody’s there?”

“It could be the cops, amigo.”

True, if the neighbors had seen that smokescreen and heard all the noise, the police might have been sent in. In a poor district, things might have been different, but this was Millionaires’ Row, home to many wealthy and powerful people. Any kind of to-do would stand out here, so that was a definite possibility.

“What should we dooo?”

“For now, let’s watch and see how things look.”

They were wearing scissors and Japanese swords at their waists. If the police spoke to them, and they tried to fudge things by telling them they were a barber and an opera actress, they suspected they wouldn’t buy it.

The pair watched the place for a little while. Then, since there didn’t seem to be a police presence in the area, they decided to keep their guards up and ring the doorbell.

Ding Di-ding

A subdued sound echoed.

It didn’t ring loudly outside; the noise of the rain almost drowned it out.

Worrying that it might not really have rung inside, Tick moved to try again, and just then—

“Yes…?”

The door opened feebly, and the current mistress of the house peeked out.

“Hmm? Who might you be, miss?”

Tick went and asked the question they, the visitors, should have received instead.

You couldn’t really blame him: Tick and Maria had expected the punks to appear, and instead, here was a pretty girl in her midteens.

There had been a few young girls among Jacuzzi’s friends as well, but there wasn’t a hint of their dark atmosphere about this girl.

She seemed to be entirely unconnected to the underworld, the type of girl who would be described nicely by the terms young mistress or sheltered young lady. Tick and Maria, who were deeply involved in underworld society, were more than a little disconcerted.

“Pardon? Um, I’m Eve Genoard.”

The girl answered her visitor’s question conscientiously.

For a little while, she gazed uneasily at the pair. Then a thought seemed to occur to her, and she spoke abruptly.

“U-um… Could you be Fang’s friends?”

“Huh?”

Maria and Tick exchanged looks again, thinking.

Who was Fang?

Of the thugs who’d been here, the only name they’d known was Jacuzzi, the leader.

Did this guy belong to their group, or was he someone completely unrelated?

He could have been a repairman who was fixing damage to the interior caused by the ruckus, or he might be with the police.

However, if they told her they weren’t his friends, how could they explain themselves?

“Um…”

“That’s right, amiga!”

Beside Tick, who’d cocked his head to the side and was thinking hard, Maria responded with a bright smile.

(“Maria?”)

(“It’s fine, it’s fine.”)

Ignoring the two, who were whispering together quietly, Eve smiled as if relieved. “Oh, I see! I’m so glad… I’ll go call him now!”

“Gee, thanks, amiga.”

“?”

She probably hadn’t understood what the word amiga meant. For a moment, Eve looked blank, her eyes round; then she promptly regained her smile and walked away, into the depths of the house.

“Fang, Faaang.”

At the sound of the girl’s voice, a man poked his head out of a parlor a short distance away from the entrance hall.

He was Asian, with distinctive narrow eyes, and he wore a cloth tied around his head.

“Hey, what happened while I was out shoppi…?”

He must have assumed they were members of his group. He spoke without checking to see who it was, then stopped partway through, realizing something felt off.

“…Who’re you?”

“Huh?”

Fang’s expression had hardened, and Eve was the first one to react to it.

Hastily, she turned around—but Maria had already launched herself off the entryway floor.

The girl gasped in surprise, and in the space of that small breath…

When the moment had passed, the situation had been settled, and the air in the mansion had frozen completely.

“Don’t move, my cute little chica.”

Maria had drawn Murasámia and, before anyone knew what was happening, had circled around behind Eve with a light leap. She was now holding the sword to the base of the girl’s white throat.

She pulled Eve backward, keeping the wall of the hallway behind them, and faced Fang, who was farther inside.

“Aaaaah!! Miss Eve?!”

The moment he understood the situation, Fang yelled, but there was nothing he could do, and he stiffened up right where he stood.

“Waaaaaah, Maria, what are you dooooing?”

Tick protested lackadaisically, but Maria gave a little wink as if to say No worries, then turned back to Fang, still looking aggressive.

“Ah-ha-ha! I don’t really have to explain this situation, do I? I’ll just ask my questions.”

With the blade at her throat, even as her fear threw her into confusion, Eve tried to struggle free of Maria’s arm. Maria was stronger than she looked, though, and she wouldn’t let Eve put up the slightest resistance.

Maria spent her days brandishing a heavy Japanese sword in each hand, and the muscles in her arms were toned because they really had to be. For her, restraining a girl with one arm probably wasn’t any trouble at all.

“Your name’s Fang, right? Listen… Are you a friend of Jacuzzi’s, amigo?”

“…”

When Fang hesitated, Maria went on with a smile like a mischievous little boy’s.

“You don’t actually have to say, amigo! If you’re in this house, you obviously are! …Besides, even if you don’t know him, this girl might.”

As she murmured that, Maria pointedly stuck out her tongue.

Tick tilted his head in bewilderment, troubled by his companion’s forceful methods, but he wasn’t trying very hard to stop her. He probably knew she wasn’t actually planning to cut anybody.

“Rrgh…”

“Sorry ’bout this, amigo… Hmm?”

As Maria looked at Eve, who’d cried out and was continuing to struggle, she seemed to remember something.

“Have I met you somewhere?”

At those words, Eve momentarily stopped fighting, turned her head, and looked at Maria’s face.

At first she didn’t know what she was talking about, but at the sight of the woman’s unique appearance, something gradually started to tug at her heart.

Then, when she began fumbling through her few memories in New York, an idea occurred to Eve.

“Were you…at the newspaper office with Mr. Luck, last year…?”

“…? Ah. I remember, amiga. You’re the kid Vino brought in, right?”

They hadn’t spoken directly, and they hadn’t been introduced.

A year ago, when Eve had been pulled into a certain incident, she’d been taken to the offices of a newspaper publisher, and they’d seen each other there for just a moment. That was all.

Ordinarily, they would probably have forgotten it immediately, but Eve remembered Maria’s flashy outfit, while Maria didn’t normally have any contact with girls who seemed to be from good families. This one had apparently made a deep impression on her.

“Why…? Are you Mr. Luck’s friend? Why would you do this…?”

“You know my boss?”

That’s a problem.

She’d taken a hostage on impulse; she hadn’t even dreamed she might be one of Luck’s acquaintances.

She couldn’t back out now, though. Pulling herself together, she spoke to Fang.

“Okay… Where’s this Jacuzzi guy? If you don’t take us to him—I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Giving a troubled smile, she said exactly what she was thinking:

“Because, see, right now, I seriously have no idea what to do.”

“Dallas, huh? That sounds like the name of a town.”

In an abandoned building they’d found on the south side of Grand Central Station, Christopher had listened cheerfully to Firo’s story.

The building had been one of the meeting places for Szilard’s organization, and although the two men had no way of knowing this, Tick and Maria had used it to shelter from the rain up until a moment ago.

“So your only clue in your search for your special person is this fella Dallas, right? …Still, it’s odd he left a threatening letter but didn’t make any demands.”

“That’s the sort of guy that thug is. I’ve only seen him once or twice, but that twisted bastard loves watching people suffer.”

“What a nasty way to put it.”

Christopher spoke as if this were somebody else’s problem, but despite his rising irritation, Firo continued to fill the guy in on the situation.

I picked up a weirdo.

This actually was “somebody else’s problem” to Christopher, but as it turned out, they were going to help him look for Ennis. Firo hadn’t intended to pull a brand-new acquaintance into this, but Christopher had been pushy, and he hadn’t managed to turn him down.

It was also true that, right now, no matter what sort of people they were, he wanted as much help as possible in his search for Ennis.

He’d considered going back to Alveare temporarily and getting his friends, but he didn’t have any clues. On top of that, only a limited number of people knew Dallas’s face, so going around as a crowd hadn’t seemed like a good move.

Besides…I left that threatening note at the restaurant, so Maiza and the others should know that Ennis and Ronny got snatched.

Ennis was Firo’s rent-free roommate, but Ronny was one of the syndicate’s high-level executives. Unless it was terribly inconvenient for some reason, even if Firo didn’t ask, they’d probably have the whole family out looking for him.

Come to think of it…

After he’d finished giving Christopher a rundown of the situation, something abruptly occurred to Firo, and he started turning it over in his mind.

When Ronny left to look for Isaac and Miria, he said he was headed out for a job and that the other thing was “on his way.” If I remember right, he said he was going to settle things with that group of kids from Chicago or something…

Could that group be connected to Dallas?

In an attempt to get any hint he possibly could, Firo decided to find out more about them. Either way, he’d just dashed out at the time, so it would probably be a good idea to contact Maiza at this point.

“I’m going to run to the station and make a phone call. Wait here,” he told Christopher and Chi, then tried to break into a run, but—

“Hold it.”

—Christopher caught his arm and held him back.

“What?”

When Firo turned around, there was a black umbrella right in front of his face.

“You should take this.”

The red-eyed guy smiled quietly and handed his umbrella to Firo.

“…Thanks.”

Thanking him briefly, Firo put up the umbrella and ran off into the rainy night.

The rain was as brutal as it had been before, and he was grateful for the umbrella as he went.

His face sure doesn’t look like it, but he might actually be a pretty nice guy.

“Hey. Are you actually planning to help find those people?” Once Chi was sure Firo had gone, he spoke up, the disgust obvious from his tone.

“It’s the grand first step in my ‘hundred friends plan.’”

“We have to help Tim’s group out tomorrow.”

“When the time comes, then, we’ll prioritize that.”

“Don’t say that like it’s nothing.”

Chi looked cranky. As Christopher responded, his expression seemed to say he couldn’t understand what he was unhappy about.

“Besides, if he insists on not letting us do what we want—”

Showing his fangs in a gentle smile, Christopher spoke simply.

“—we can just get rid of him.”

“…You’d rub out your ‘friends’ that easily?”

Chi’s gaze was cold. Christopher thought for a little while.

“…The death of a good friend. In life, that sorrow is a wall everyone must overcome someday. You can’t stay sad forever.”

“The state of your brain makes me sadder than anything.” Chi heaved a sigh, then posed a question to him, his face still expressionless: “Christopher. What am I to you?”

“A good friend. What about it?”

Christopher answered immediately, with a perfectly frank smile.

“Just how many decades do you think we’ve spent working together? No matter how many friends I make after this, I seriously doubt I could make a better friend than you, Chi. Oh, and I mentioned this before, but I don’t swing that way, so don’t worry about it.”

The answer didn’t soften Chi’s expression. He went on calmly, “Then, if I disobeyed Master Huey, would you kill me?”

He’d asked the question without any hesitation, and the red-eyed youth didn’t hesitate to answer it.

“Of course I would! What about it?”

His expression said, Why would you ask me something so obvious? The man’s emotions were endlessly pure, and Chi heaved another sigh.

“In a way, Master Huey deserves respect for having raised you to be this twisted.”

The Empire State Building A certain office

“That Firo. Compared with how he feels about Ennis, he doesn’t seem worried about me at all,” Ronny muttered with a wry smile; he had a hand on his cheek and was tapping his temple with his index finger.

“Well, never mind.”

Ignoring Isaac and Miria, who were messing around with the office’s imports behind him, Ronny continued gazing impassively at the cityscape visible through the window.

“However…I am concerned about that lot he’s met up with…”

Firo wasn’t here, but Ronny understood his situation so well it was as if he’d actually seen it.

He moved to tap his temple one more time, then abruptly paused his finger midmotion.

“Well, never mind. Any more than this, and I’ll have nothing to look forward to…”

Ronny gave a shady-looking smile, and from beside him, Ennis spoke, sounding bewildered.

“Did you just say something? Something about Firo…?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Yes, sir… But what are we going to do now?”

Quietly, Ronny answered Ennis’s uneasy question.

“Tomorrow, I need to go speak to that Jacuzzi fellow one more time. Do you want to come along?”

“Huh?”

“You’re curious about that group, aren’t you?”

Speaking softly, Ronny turned his hawkish eyes on the town that spread out below them.

As if he could see everything that was about to happen…

The abandoned building

“Still…that’s strange.”

“What is?”

Chi, who’d been silent up until then, spoke as if he’d realized something.

Christopher looked puzzled by his partner’s dubious murmur.

“You mean the fact that there’s an abandoned building like this one right by Grand Central Station? There’s nothing wrong with that. We were looking for a place to get out of the rain, and it’s the greatest blessing we could have asked for. We should be grateful to the bank panics for creating abandoned buildings.”

“Not that.” Flatly negating Christopher’s comment, Chi muttered, his brow creasing. “Why hasn’t Leeza put a stop to this?”

Bringing up the name of their invisible companion, Chi put a hand to his forehead, clearly concerned.

“Put a stop to what?”

“To this whim of yours. Ordinarily, she’d be starting to make fun of you right about now— Or if he’s really in the way, she’d be getting rid of that Firo guy.”

“What’s the problem, then? I bet Leeza approves of my hundred-friends plan, too.”

In response to Christopher’s optimistic answer, Chi heaved a deep, deep sigh.

“Leeza’s ten times more loyal to Master Huey than you are. On our side jobs, she always goes along with your whims, but she wouldn’t let you get in the way of Master Huey’s work.”

“Wow, do I look that short on loyalty? I’m a hundred times more loyal than Leeza!”

“…For that contradiction to be valid, you’d both have to have zero loyalty, but I really couldn’t care less. Or maybe Leeza’s run into some sort of trouble—”

“I haven’t.”

The words seemed to echo all through the interior of the abandoned building.

Christopher’s and Chi’s ears picked up a sultry female voice. However, as always, she was nowhere to be seen. Only her voice showed her presence, enveloping Christopher and Chi.

“…You were here?”

“My, is that a problem? It isn’t as if I’ve been peeping, so what does it matter?”

Ignoring the voice’s teasing, Chi calmly repeated his earlier question.

“You were listening to us, correct? Why aren’t you stopping Christopher?”

“Goodness, I don’t feel like getting in Chris’s way right now. Remember what he said before? We aren’t helping Tim and the others with their work until tomorrow.”

Leeza giggled as she responded. Chi narrowed his sharp eyes even further and went on with his questioning.

“Is that all? Or… Does that Firo guy’s story have something to do with this job, or with Master Huey?”

“My, my… Chi, that’s too great a leap. Are you saying that everything I don’t complain about has something to do with Master Huey? You really are paranoid, aren’t you? Why don’t you become a notorious detective who’s prone to delusions?”

The voice laughed mockingly, but in the next moment, the laugh stopped dead.

“Well, you are right, though,” she murmured.

“!”

“What does that mean?”

Chi’s eyes widened, and Christopher stared into empty space curiously. Since he was focused on someone who couldn’t be seen, there was no help for it, but to a bystander, it would have been an incredibly creepy sight.

“I can’t say yet, and in any case, I think it would be better if I didn’t. Most of all, I only heard from the twins that it ‘might be related’ a moment ago, so either way, I don’t know the details.”

“…And why did you need to make fun of me?”

“Life is quite dull, isn’t it?” The voice muttered as if it were talking to itself, then went on speaking as if nothing had happened. “There’s a message from the twins for Chris, too.”

“What is it?”

“Adele is wandering around town looking for you. It’ll be awful if she catches a cold in all this rain.”

In response to the teasing tone, Christopher muttered a soft “Hmm,” then stretched as if bored.

It was a lithe, feline stretch, and it made it seem as though his body were made of sponge or rubber.

“Okay then, Leeza. Tell Adele we’re here.”

“! Hmm. Did you decide to get to work?”

Chi’s eyes had gone round, as if this was an unexpected development. Christopher quietly shook his head.

“What are you talking about, Chi?”

“?”

“Obviously, if we’re looking for somebody, the more people we have, the better.”

Christopher delivered his declaration with an artless smile, and Chi let his steel-clad arms hang limply.

“…I just understood something quite clearly: Apparently, I don’t think of you as a close friend.”

“D-don’t tell me you thought of me as a lover?!”

Christopher backed away, turning pale.

“You’re a ‘friend’ I can’t manage to shake. It’s been, what, thirty-eight years…?”

A young guy who seemed to be only around twenty, no matter how you looked at him, had spoken those words to another young man who was probably about the same age.

If someone else had heard it, they’d likely have taken it as a joke, but Christopher accepted it with a troubled smile.

He seemed to be brooding about something, and he also seemed as if he wasn’t thinking at all.

An awkward silence had nearly enveloped the two. Only Leeza’s untraceable laughter twined around them.

Cheerfully, ever so cheerfully…

She giggled…

And giggled…

And giggled…

“Is it really this way?”

In the midst of a downpour so heavy that they could see only a few steps in front of them, an odd group was headed west, down an avenue in Manhattan.

“…Yeah.”

As he responded, the Asian guy who led the procession looked sour.

A young woman dressed like a dancer and a blond girl walked behind him, leaning close to each other under a single umbrella, like sisters.

Beside them, a young man with several pairs of scissors stuck into his belt followed the Asian guy who walked in front of them. He seemed to be thinking hard about something.

When they left the broad, deserted avenue and turned onto a slightly narrower road that led to the Hudson River, Fang spoke from the front of the group.

“Listen, that’s enough, isn’t it? Why not let Miss Eve go and hold me at sword-point instead?”

“No can do, amigo. It’s easier for you to stay honest this way, isn’t it?”

To all appearances, Eve and Maria were walking companionably close to each other. However, Maria stood behind her, and her slim fingers were on the hilt of the sword at her waist, ready to draw at any moment.

She wasn’t being held directly at sword-point, but if she drew and slashed at her in the same motion, it would come to the same thing.

As a matter of fact, the probability of a lethal wound was much higher than it would have been if she’d just put pressure on a blade she was holding against her.

“Fang, don’t mind—”

“Don’t mind about you? I can’t do that. If I tried something like that, Jon would deck me, Miz Nice would kill me, and Jacuzzi would cry at me.”

Sighing and speaking as if he’d half given up, Fang led Tick and the others to their designated emergency meeting place: an abandoned factory by the Hudson.

When he’d heard they were messengers from the Gandors, he’d known in a general way what they were there for. The pair didn’t look much like negotiators. What on earth was the Gandor Family planning?

As Fang’s worries about the future grew, he began searching for ways to let Eve get away unharmed.

When Fang had returned from shopping, he’d found a deserted mansion and—hesitating in front of the house, not sure how to enter—the mansion’s owner and her retinue.

Apparently, she’d decided to stay here for a while to search for her brother. Fang had thought it was odd that nobody was inside, and when he’d found countless cuts and scratches at the back door and in the entrance hall, he’d decided that something must have happened.

“Oh, great Jehoshaphat! Even the vase has been smashed…!”

It was the butler, Benjamin, who’d spoken: He’d seen the fragments of the vase farther down the corridor.

No, Jacuzzi did that… Well, never mind.

Eventually, it had been decided that Benjamin and Samantha would go to the police, and Fang had stayed behind to watch the house with Eve, but…

After Benjamin and Samantha had driven away, these unreasonable visitors had arrived.

He didn’t know what had happened, but from their conversation, it seemed clear this couple had had something to do with all those scars in the entrance hall.

Fang had decided not to put up any useless resistance and to show these two to the abandoned factory.

Isaac and Miria were probably with them. I hope they’re okay.

While Fang was thinking things like this, different ideas were quietly operating behind him.

Tick was gazing into Maria’s face, looking worried. His characteristic smile had faded a bit.

“Hmm…”

“What’s the matter? Is there something on my face?”

Maria spoke with a smile, but her attention hadn’t entirely left Eve.

She’d had Eve hold the umbrella and had continued to give off an insincere air of subdued menace, telling herself that all she had to do was stay on the alert so that the girl wouldn’t try to run.

Maria wasn’t seriously planning to cut the girl, but if she didn’t exude an aura that threatened murder, her hostage wouldn’t be effective.

Tick probably understood this as well, of course. He didn’t seem all that worried about Eve’s physical safety. That said, neither of them was giving much thought to Eve’s spirit.

The spray from the rain wet Maria’s cheeks and hair, making her look rather bewitching.

Tick gazed steadily into her elegant face, lowered his voice just a little, and murmured:

“Listen, let’s not take a hostage, okaaay?”

“…What are you saying all of a sudden, amigo? We’re a torturer and a hired killer. It’s a little late to worry about the impression we’re making on people, you know?”

Her comment didn’t hold a shred of consideration for the Gandor Family’s reputation, but Tick didn’t point this out. Instead, he just told her what was in his heart.

“You’re pushing yourself, Maria.”

“—Huh?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I said you hadn’t lost yet… But, Maria, you’re anxious. You’re really, really flustered.”

“Wha…?”

Her attention shifted.

Maria’s awareness wavered from Tick to Eve and back like a seesaw.

Eve seemed to have registered the change in the woman behind her, and although she hadn’t been listening to their conversation, she began to pay attention to it.

The fierce rain made their surroundings noisy, but Tick’s voice became a low pulse that shook Maria’s heart.

“Maria, the truth is, deep down, you think you did lose, don’t you? That’s why you’re trying to cover it up, to forget. You’re trying to finish this job up with a bang and boost your confidence.”

Sssssssst.

Cold electricity ran down Maria’s back.

It felt as if someone had gouged an old wound open—or rather, as if someone had wrenched open the top of a wound that had been forcibly closed with tape.

Everything Tick had said was accurate, and his words had pierced right through the heart of Maria’s philosophy of action.

Feeling herself start to sweat all over, she desperately searched for words to deny what he’d pointed out.

However, none of them even qualified as excuses, and she wasn’t able to refine them to the point where she could speak them aloud.

“H… How…do you know that?”

“Hmm… Well, I torture all sorts of people, you know? That means, although I don’t get ‘feelings,’ I do kinda understand ‘emotions.’ So I could tell you were really impatient, but you were trying really hard to hide it… You had the same eyes as the people who keep pretending to be tough for a while after I’ve cut them with my scissors.”

Even as he brought out that unpleasant comparison, Tick kept speaking slowly, thinking as he went.

“And— Maybe it’s because I’ve been thinking, all this time.”

“…About what?”

“You told me I couldn’t understand your feelings, so I’ve been thinking and thinking, trying to do it. I’ve been thinking about you all this time, trying to figure out what you feel. Um, and so, I watched your expression and the look in your eyes and things—and I figured that might be it, so I said it.”

Tick answered bashfully, then sent Maria a smile with no thought behind it.

It was his usual innocent smile, and there wasn’t anything precocious about it.

“Sooo, was I right?”

“Tick…”

The guy was tilting his head to one side with an expression like a bunny’s, and Maria shook her head as if she didn’t know what to do with him.

“See, things like that… Even if you know, amigo, you shouldn’t say it.”

As she murmured the words, Maria sounded pretty disgusted, but she was also smiling faintly.

It really was very faint, but it wasn’t empty bravado. With her normal ingenuous expression—

—Maria had definitely smiled.

Eve felt it very clearly.

Now, in this moment, she’d be able to escape from the woman with the katana easily.

Although she made no attempt to do so.

When she’d looked back for a moment, she’d seen the smile of the woman who’d taken her hostage.

She just hadn’t been able to think of that smile as belonging to somebody bad.

I wonder if Dallas is able to smile like that…

Regretting having used her own brother for comparison, Eve promptly drove the idea from her mind.

Still, I wonder who took him away.

I wonder if I’ll really be able to see him again…

Manhattan SoHo

“That’s a shock.”

Tim exclaimed in honest amazement at the sight in front of him.

Sitting astride a chair he’d turned backward, he surveyed the inside of their temporary hideout.

Several young people, brought here by Dallas, were standing there in a row. They were Jacuzzi Splot, Nice, Jon, Donny, and Nick: the punks from Chicago.

Only the main members were inside. Outside the window, he saw others hanging around, scattered sparsely enough that they wouldn’t be suspected of anything.

After taking another look at the faces assembled in the not-so-spacious parlor, he spoke to Dallas, sounding impressed.

“Not bad. After going through that, I figured you’d abandoned your sister and made tracks.”

“…Eve had better be safe.”

Tim was smiling sardonically, while Dallas glared at him with naked hostility.

Taking that murderous intent calmly, Tim told him the facts without hiding a thing.

“Adele was about to go kill her, but I made her hold off. You’d better be grateful.”

“…!”

Dallas’s deadly rage flared up instantly, but realizing that his sister was still safe, he curbed his anger at the last moment.

Observing Dallas’s expression as if it had nothing to do with him personally, Tim then turned his gaze to the young tattooed fellow.

“So. I hear you’ve decided to help us with our job.”

“Yes… Only, you meant that promise, didn’t you?”

“Right, right. Once the job is done—we’ll give you bodies like Dallas’s.”

Tim treated the miracle of immortality as if it were a ration of bread. Quietly rising from his chair, he looked the others up and down, as if gauging their intentions.

“Still…even if you did see a live demonstration, you believed in it real easily. Didn’t you ever think I might be tricking you?”

“We don’t have time. We don’t know when the mafia in this town might come after us… Right now, we’ll cling to any power that will keep us alive.”

The tattooed guy looked down as he spoke. Tim smiled, looking satisfied.

“Ha-ha, I know. We know a bit about your situation. When we found out the Gandors and Martillos had you in their sights, we weren’t sure what was going to happen—but it actually sped things up for us. That was helpful.”

He broke off for a moment then, sending Jacuzzi a sharp look from behind his glasses.

“By the way, where’s the broad in the black dress who took a slash at me?”

“We left her behind. You feel safer that way, too, don’t you?”

“…Well, I’m more concerned about why she attacked me…”

At that extremely natural question, Jacuzzi’s gaze swam, bewildered. “Um, well… She was probably annoyed.”

“Man, there’s a great reason for ya.”

He was clearly trying to hide something with that answer, and Tim looked unconvinced—but in a move to gloss things over further, Jacuzzi broached the main topic:

“Um… So what is it you want us to do?”

“Huh? Ah, sorry, my bad. Things were confused this afternoon, and I didn’t get to tell you the most important stuff.”

Tim lowered himself into the chair again, tapped the table beside him with a finger, and spoke.

“…Long story short, in order to make you immortal, we need a certain ‘liquor.’”

“Liquor?”

“Right. Well, if you want to call it something flashy, it’s the ‘liquor of immortality.’ That said, it really is the cheap stuff, to the point that it picked up the moniker ‘failed.’”

Jacuzzi and Nice exchanged looks, but without telling them specifically what about it had “failed,” Tim continued his explanation, unconcerned.

“A long time ago, a certain alchemist mass-produced this ‘failed’ stuff. The alchemist got eat—uh, went missing—and for a while after that, we lost track of the liquor, but…we found out a certain corporation had stolen it and was stockpiling it.”

At that point, Tim stopped speaking for a moment, gave a devil-may-care smile, and then went on.

“And so, we’re just taking the liquor from the hands of that big old robber, Nebula, and returning it to its rightful place.”

Nebula.

At the sound of the name the guy had dropped so abruptly, Jacuzzi gulped a bit.

Nebula was one of the biggest conglomerates in the country, or rather, in the whole world. If assets were power, the large corporation would have been on equal terms with a small country.

Take it from that huge corporation and return it to its rightful place, Tim had said.

Since he’d gone to a group like theirs about it, of course, the method wouldn’t be legal.

Picking up on this, Jacuzzi narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, “In other words, you want us to help you steal?”

“Close, but no cigar. It’s not stealing.”

Tim smiled, shaking his head, then revealed the contents of the job to Jacuzzi in one brief phrase.

“—It’s armed robbery.”

Just as he’d finished going over the basic outline, the phone rang, and one of the Larva members picked up the receiver.

After he’d spoken for a short while, he called Tim, gave a brief report, and handed him the receiver.

“It’s from Adele. She says the twins told her where Christopher is, so she’s heading over there now.”

“The twins are as creepy as ever. Where are they watching from?”

Feeling spooked by the go-betweens who worked directly under Huey, Tim put the receiver to his ear.

“Adele, huh? …Everything went great over here. —Yeah, Dallas came back, too… For now, you stay with Christopher. Don’t worry about anything today, but tomorrow, get them to the site on time—”

Ignoring Tim, who’d started on his phone call, Jacuzzi and the others conversed in whispers.

“…I-is this gonna be okay? It sounds like it’s a much bigger deal than we thought it would be…”

“We’ve already come this far, Jacuzzi, so we’ll just have to do it.”

Beside Nice, who was encouraging him, Jon was frowning.

“What’s the matter, Jon?”

“Nothing… Something’s bothering me a bit, that’s all.”

“Wh-what?”

At Jacuzzi’s unease, Jon’s forehead creased. He explained what had occurred to him just a moment ago:

“Fang went to do some shopping, and we forgot all about him…”

By the Hudson River The abandoned factory

“…Were you pulling our legs, amigo?”

“No, wait! I’m the one who wants to know why they aren’t here!”

In an abandoned factory, which echoed with the sound of the rain drumming on the roof, a pathetic yell with a Chinese accent reverberated.

In the center of the cluttered room, Maria had her katana pointed at Fang.

When they’d stepped into the abandoned factory where they’d expected to find Jacuzzi, it had been magnificently empty.

Maria had pressed Fang hard, thinking she’d been tricked, but from his confusion, he apparently hadn’t been lying.

“Whoa, Maria, calm dooown.”

Once again, Tick’s restraint of his partner, who was holding a drawn sword, was laid-back.

Beside him, Eve—no longer a hostage—was helplessly watching the situation unfold.

If Maria took one step closer to Fang, Eve was planning to stop her, even if she had to jump on the woman’s back—but then she felt a gust of wind fly past her.

The moment the girl realized that that wind had gleamed silver—

—a sharp, metallic clang echoed in the abandoned factory.

“…Who’s that?”

It was Maria who’d hissed it.

The look in her eyes had changed dramatically from what it had been a moment before, and she wore a smile that was a complicated mix of wariness, anger, and curiosity.

In a flash, she’d shifted the katana she’d been pointing at Fang down to her side, knocking the silver thing that had flown at her to the floor.

The sticklike silver object at her feet was a small knife, specifically designed to be thrown.

Everyone in the factory slowly turned to look in the direction the knife had come from—

—and there stood a young woman in a black dress.

She held large knives like the sort soldiers used, one in each hand, and her golden eyes glared sharply at Maria.

“Chané!”

Fang looked upon his knife-adept companion as if he’d just been rescued.

Meanwhile, having seen the other woman, Maria smiled fearlessly and drew her second sword.

“I see. I hadn’t settled things with you yet, had I, amiga?”

Why was she here, all by herself? The question never crossed Maria’s mind. All she felt was that she’d found an opponent she could use to fully resolve the mess of feelings in her mind.

“…”

For her part, Chané was radiating wordless anger at the woman who was holding her friend at sword-point.

The sharp looks that flew between the two women scattered sparks.

Tick watched them, looking troubled, but…

Abruptly, he realized there was another presence in the room.

“Hmm?”

A man was standing behind Chané, hidden in the shadows of the industrial machinery, in a place where the light of the electric bulbs didn’t reach him.

Tick couldn’t tell who he was at first, but then he saw hair as red as blood surface in the darkness, and he realized he knew this guy.

Maybe he’d registered the fact that Tick had noticed him. Slowly, the figure emerged, coming to stand in the light. “…What, it’s you, Tick? So you’re the Gandor messenger?”

On seeing Claire/Felix appear from the darkness, Tick spoke up, sounding glad to see him. “Wooow, Vino, it’s been forever.”

“Vi…Vino!” In contrast to Tick, who seemed happy, Maria froze in astonishment. “What’s Vino doing here?!”

“That’s my line.” Responding brusquely, Claire turned to Tick and offered aloofly, “Why is the amigo-woman with you? And actually, you’re their torture expert; why did they send you to negotiate?”

“Um, Mr. Luck saaaid the Martillos already had control of these talks, but we had to at least show uuup. They picked me because I was freeee.”

“…Nobody told me that, amigo.”

Maria looked at Tick with round eyes, but she wasn’t particularly angry.

As long as she got to cut things, that was enough for her, and that desire was completely unrelated to Luck’s intentions. Since that was how she thought about it, she was apparently just appalled by Tick’s carelessness.

“…Oh, for crying out loud. I’m just not into this anymore.”

Maria lowered her swords and called to Chané.

“If you’re still up for it, though, I’ll play with you. What’ll it be, amiga?”

For a moment, Chané blinked as if she wasn’t sure. Then, still paying close attention to Maria, she looked at Vino, who’d come up beside her.

Immediately picking up on his beloved fiancée’s intent, Vino spoke to her, trying to set her at ease.

“It’s all right, Chané. Tick’s my friend, and this amigo-woman is weak, so I can fix her any way I want.”

“…”

Claire’s taunt sent a full-body shiver through Maria.

Registering that momentary oddity, Claire thought for a little bit, then asked, “Hmm? That was a pretty big overreaction to the word weak. Did you…maybe lose to somebody other than me lately?”

“…!”

There was no provocation or pity in the question; it came from simple doubt and curiosity, and Maria broke out in a cold sweat. She couldn’t answer it any other way.

The wound in her heart was gradually recovering, but Vino had his finger on it.

“Bull’s-eye?”

“It’s none of your business, amigo.”

Up until that afternoon, Maria’s emotions would have exploded by now, but at this point, since time and Tick’s words had healed her spirit little by little, she managed to keep her cool somehow.

“Well, it’s not like it matters. As long as you’re alive, you can make a comeback. Besides, you know, if I say you’re weak, don’t let it get to you. I mean, compared with me, 99.99999 percent of the world is weak.”

“…Someday I’m going to cut you down, too, amigo.”

“The fact that you didn’t say ‘right now’ proves you’re still weak.”

Vino didn’t pursue the matter further. Instead, he walked back to Tick and the others, as if he was tired.

“Yeesh. Chané and I were getting in some quality alone time, and then you show up and wreck it…”

Ignoring the fact that, behind him, Chané was blushing, Vino looked at the girl beside Tick.

“Hmm? …Wait, you’re a friend of Keith’s wife and Luck, aren’t you?”

“Huh?”

Eve stared back at him, eyes round: He’d spoken to her abruptly, and on top of that, what he’d said had been accurate.

Even so, she couldn’t find the slightest trace of Vino in her memories.

Seeing that the girl looked bewildered, the redheaded guy put a hand to his head, as if he’d just realized something.

“Ah! Right, that’s right, I was wearing a fake beard and glasses that time.”

Nearly two years ago, Vino and Eve had met during a certain incident, but Eve didn’t seem to recognize him, and she grew even more perplexed.

“So what brings you here?”

In response to the question, Fang, who had been standing dumbfounded up to that point, spoke up hastily.

“Felix, she’s, you know, the young lady who’s loaning us that house.”

At Fang’s answer, Vino whistled, and Chané, who’d seemed disinterested up until then, looked a little startled and glanced at Eve.

“What? What about the kid?” Maria asked, mystified, as if asking Eve’s question for her.

“No, I was just surprised. That’s incredible. You can be proud of that. I’m almost never surprised.”

“?”

“Who’d have thought that Dallas fella’s little sister would be such a cute young lady?”

“ !”

Vino’s words sent a jolt of electricity through Eve.

“Dallas… Do you know my brother, Dallas?!”

“What gives? Why is that such a shock?”

“P-please tell me! Where is he— Where is my brother now?”

She sounded desperate, and with no hesitation, Vino told her the truth.

“He’s on an infiltration job with Jacuzzi and the other guys. You’ll probably see him tomorrow.”

Just then, they heard someone run into the abandoned factory.

Maria and the others were wary, but as if he’d known who it was from the sound of the footsteps, Vino called the intruder’s name, sounding unconcerned.

“Jack, huh? How was it?”

Panting, the man reported his results. “It’s fine… Barely any doubt on their end. It sounds like they’ll be attacking a building with that Dallas jerk tomorrow.”

“Which building, where?”

The man spent a few moments catching his breath, but then, gulping, he gave the name of the place where all misfortune was converging.

“They call it Mist Wall—that big white building Nebula’s got!”

“So tomorrow, we’re attacking the Nebula building, Mist Wall? Think we can see it from here? No? That’s too bad.”

Inside the abandoned building, which echoed with the sound of rain, Christopher was spinning around and around, as hyper as ever.

Firo wasn’t back yet, but as if to take his place, a woman had joined them.

“U-um… And so, uh…Tim says to at least go scope it out…”

“I see. Yes, looking things over beforehand is important, Adele. Tim’s absolutely correct… But I don’t wanna.”

“Wh-what?”

Adele sounded distressed, and Christopher waved his hands, as if he were pacifying an angry person.

“I mean, if we go look in advance, the thrill will be gone, see? Besides, I promised I’d help look for some people today.”

“B-but…”

“So you help, too, Adele. Come look with us.”

Moving the conversation along in a tone that allowed no argument, he began describing the substance of the task in detail without waiting for the woman to respond.

“See, we’re looking for three people: one apparent kidnapper and two kidnappees. Their names are—”

“Dammit… Nobody cares. Even the boss and Yaguruma say ‘Ronny’s there, so it’s fine’… If it were fine, they wouldn’t have gotten kidnapped in the first place, right?”

When, muttering, Firo returned to the abandoned building, he saw that an unfamiliar woman had joined Christopher and Chi.

“…? Who’s this?”

“Ah, I’ll introduce you. This girl is Adele! She’s an old friend of mine.”

On being introduced in an energetic voice, the timid-looking woman turned to Firo and ducked her head.

“Uh, sure. Nice to meet you.”

How’d she find them when there’s no phone here?

The doubt did cross his mind, but he decided to continue the conversation without mentioning it.

“Sorry; it doesn’t sound like my friends are going to be any help, but…two of the people I’m looking for went to see a guy named Jacuzzi Splot—”

“Yeah, that’s fine. We know.”

Christopher cut him off, smiling breezily.

Except, to an outside observer, the air surrounding him seemed liable to transport onlookers to a place that was the polar opposite of “breezy,” thanks to his unusual eyes and teeth.

“Huh? What do you mean, ‘you know’?”

“See, Adele says she knows where that Dallas person is.”

“…? …! F-for real?!”

The moment he understood what the other guy had said, Firo closed in on Adele in spite of himself.

“Why…? What does he mean?!”

“U-um, I…”

Adele was flustered, and Christopher, who was standing beside her, spoke up instead.

“Well, the thing is, Adele apparently saw the Jacuzzi guy today.”

“She saw Jacuzzi…?”

“And there was a woman in a black suit named Ennis there.”

“! Th-that’s her for sure!”

At the time, there were almost no women who wore black suits in New York. Deciding that that meant it had to be Ennis, Firo excitedly urged him to go on.

“So where is she now?!”

“See, there was a bit of a rumble at Jacuzzi’s place, and everybody lammed off every which way. She says she doesn’t know where she went after that.”

“I—I see…”

“There’s no need to let it get you down, though.”

Hiding several key facts, Christopher said something designed to pique Firo’s interest.

“What was his name? Dallas…? Right now, it sounds like he’s going around with Jacuzzi and his group of punks.”

“! …Seriously?”

I get it. It all makes sense. That bastard Dallas and the punks with Chicago accents were in cahoots… So Ronny went to that Jacuzzi fella’s place on a job, they went after him, and then Dallas pulled in Ennis, who’d tagged along… Is that how it went?

While Firo arbitrarily convinced himself of things, his anxiety kept growing.

“And so, tomorrow, there’s a place where Dallas is definitely going to show up, but—”

“Hold it.”

Calming down at the very last minute, he organized the questions that had piled up in his mind.

Why do you know this stuff? Who are you people—?

“Um…” Interrupting Firo’s thoughts, Adele added quietly, “Um… At Jacuzzi’s…house…there was a person named Ronny, too…”

“Ronny? Yeah, he probably was.”

“That man…um… I mean… What on earth is he?”

“Huh…?”

The abrupt question left Firo at a loss for words.

Ronny was one of his bosses and his knife-fighting teacher. He was also an immortal, like Firo.

At least, that was what Firo knew him as.

“What do you mean, ‘what’…?”

He knew he couldn’t talk about the immortals, so he wasn’t sure how to answer, but then—

“It doesn’t matter what that Ronny person is, does it? It’s nothing to do with us.”

—Christopher threw him a rope, smiling his usual smile at Firo.

“And,” he went on, “when it comes to saving your special person, it doesn’t matter what we are. Isn’t that right?”

It was as if he’d read Firo’s mind.

The odd sense of wrongness that Firo had been feeling since they’d met once more stealthily reinforced his wariness of the man before him. “…Yeah, that’s right.”

Even as he muttered the words, he was filled with the determination to figure out who these people really were, no matter what. He thought they might even be the ones who were in league with Dallas.

Firo’s guess was half-right, but on one key point, he was off the mark.

His instincts were still being clouded by one thing: the idea that Dallas had snatched Ennis. In his mind, he believed this blindly.

As Firo and Christopher continued the conversation on their own, Adele looked down, unable to say anything more.

“What’s the matter? Did something happen with that Ronny fellow?”

Chi had been silent up until then, but when he spoke, Adele whispered in a voice only he could hear, almost as if she were talking to herself.

“…He was…alien… More than anyone I’ve ever met… I mean…um… Even more than Master Huey…”

“…That’s ridiculous.”

Chi snorted, but Adele had a firm belief in her own words and actions.

“That man, Ronny… He…probably…”

Remembering the atmosphere that had filled the mansion the moment that man arrived, she shivered quietly, in both body and soul.

“…isn’t…human…”

The Empire State Building 

“This is a strange trend.”

As he gazed out the window, Ronny was tapping his temple with his index finger again.

With each tap, the expression of the upper-level Martillo Family executive changed.

“Now then…how far should I involve myself in this?”

“?”

Ennis tilted her head, puzzled; she didn’t understand what Ronny was saying.

“Um…Ronny? What are we going to do now?”

“What is there to do? If you don’t want to go along with Isaac and Miria’s plan, I’d suggest hurrying home and reassuring Firo.”

“Oh, but…”

Ennis looked at the guests’ sofa behind her.

Isaac and Miria had worn themselves out dancing and were sitting there, leaning against each other, snoozing peacefully.

She’d gone to bring them back, but they were keeping her away instead. On the one hand, Ennis wanted to help Isaac and Miria, but on the other, she was starting to feel very guilty toward Firo.

However… More than that, she was caught by the premonition that, if she went back to Firo now, something important would slip away from her.

“I don’t know what I should do… Too much has happened today…”

“It’s bothering you, isn’t it? What that woman said this afternoon. You’re confused by the fact that Szilard’s name came up—is that it?”

“…”

He’d accurately stated what was in her heart. Ennis looked down slightly.

“…Yes.”

“Szilard’s curses remain all over this country—no, all over the world. It would probably be faster to acquire the strength to confront them than it would be to get away from them completely.”

“…?”

Ronny spoke as if he understood everything, and it bewildered Ennis even more.

Why does Ronny know about Master Szilard? Did Maiza tell him?

Even as she thought, she realized that, mentally, she was still adding “Master” to Szilard’s name, and she felt more and more conflicted.

Ignoring Ennis’s thoughts, Ronny spoke as if he’d seen right through her.

“…It would be easy for me to tell you who the spear woman and the others are. However, if you’d like to get a satisfactory answer on your own—go to Mist Wall tomorrow.”

“Mist Wall… You mean the white building near us?”

“That’s right. Something will happen there tomorrow, and I expect the spear woman’s group will make an appearance.”

Ronny sounded like a prophet, and Ennis finally couldn’t help but ask.

“Um…Ronny? What on earth…are you?”

Ronny was silent for a moment. Then he spoke, with a smile that seemed to be testing her. “How do you want me to answer that?”

“Huh?”

“Do you want me to say I am some omnipotent being who is not human? Or do you want me to tell you I’m merely human? Or would you rather I said I was something else or told you ‘I am me,’ or would you prefer I didn’t answer at all? No matter what I tell you, whether that answer satisfies you is up to you. In that case, there’s no meaning in my giving an answer at this point.”

Although his words seemed to have some sort of deep meaning, in reality, he was clearly just trying to confuse her.

Ennis wasn’t able to pursue the matter any further.

She felt as if, in learning the truth, she would break something important.

Without waiting for Ennis to answer, Ronny continued gazing quietly at the rain that fell through the darkness.

“…Don’t worry. I keep myself from knowing the future. After all, that would make life boring. And so—right now, I’m looking forward to this.”

Saying, however roundabout, that he could know the future if he chose to, he smiled as if he was enjoying the situation that surrounded them.

“Who will be the one to cut this tangled web of threads, in the end? Or will they be entangled and trapped by either Huey or Nebula? …I’m a bit curious about that.”

In front of Ronny, who wore a small, intimidating smile, the rain continued to pour down indifferently.

The sound of the fierce rain slashed through the night, raging and blustering in the dark.

It was as if it were trying to sink the whole of Manhattan, which was bound by a variety of things, to the bottom of a deep ocean…