Baccano! - Volume 7 - Chapter Ep

EPILOGUE

Little Italy Alveare

“And then, see, it was terrific! At the end, a Mexican magician split the clouds with a sword!”

“Yes, and the sun was shining!”

Isaac and Miria were talking to the Martillo Family members who’d gathered for lunch, bragging on and on about all the magic tricks they’d seen that morning.

However, most of the members said things like “Liar! Pull the other one!”; “I bet you guys were asleep and dreamed all that”; and “Maybe it was a magic trick that made your brains disappear” and wouldn’t listen to them.

“Good grief… That’s the problem with mugs who don’t understand how awesome magic tricks really are.”

“I bet one of these days a magician will come along and make the Statue of Liberty disappear!”

“Ha-ha-ha, if a guy like that shows up, I’ll swim around Manhattan for ya.”

Thanks to that careless remark, several decades later, Pezzo would see hell—but that’s another story.

On hearing Isaac and Miria’s story about “the katana that split the clouds,” Maiza murmured to Ronny, who was stuffing his face with chicken on toast beside him.

“Ronny…that was you, wasn’t it?”

“Mmf. What do you mean?”

“Before noon, I thought that downpour cleared up in a very odd way, but…”

“…Magic tricks are incredible things.”

On hearing him evade the question in a way that didn’t work as an evasion at all, Maiza heaved a rather large sigh.

“As a rule, clever hawks hide their talons, you know.”

“If they hide them so much they forget how to use them, they’ve lost everything.”

“No demon has ever used his power so liberally, in such self-centered ways. It’s unheard of.”

“Breaking new ground is a good thing.”

As they continued quipping back and forth, Firo and Ennis entered the restaurant together.

“Well, well. If it isn’t Firo, who didn’t waste the least bit of worry on me when we were all caught up in that explosion.”

“Oh, Ronny… S-stop it, sir; I really am sorry about that! B-by the way, how did the business with the kids from Chicago turn out?”

“Ah, that. They won’t pledge their allegiance, but they agreed to make regular payments to us.”

“Huh? Really? But they’re the kind of people who’d take Dallas on as a friend and kidnap you and Ennis, remember?”

At this from Firo, the executives in the restaurant put their heads together and started whispering to each other.

“Hey… Firo still doesn’t know Isaac’s the one who sent that letter?”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

“Well, when he finds out, this oughta be good…”

“?”

The surrounding atmosphere concerned him, but Firo sat at the counter and ordered sandwiches for himself and Ennis.

Then, next to him, Ennis murmured softly, “Um…the Lamia and Nebula incidents… Should we tell Maiza…?”

“Let’s keep it to ourselves for now… Either way, Szilard’s a wall we’ll have to get over on our own.”

“Yes…”

“Still, twelve hundred people… That’s rough.”

The pair had grown a little gloomy, and Isaac and Miria poked their faces in between them.

“What was that about twelve hundred people? Is it the one about how, when men go outside, they have twelve hundred enemies?”

“Or is it that you’ve got twelve hundred subordinates, Firo?”

“Maybe they’re his family.”

“Yes, or maybe that’s how many lovers he has! Eeeek! Firo, you playboy!”

The things the couple said were as screwy as ever. When Firo spoke to them, he sounded a bit awkward.

“Hey…thanks for helping me out yesterday… Also…uh. I’m really sorry about the dominos.”

“Dominos? Did something happen to the dominos?”

“Oh, do you want to play dominos?!”

“Waaaaaagh, they completely forgot.”

Embarrassed about the fact that he’d turned bright red and apologized, he flushed an even deeper red.

“Oh, right. We had a favor to ask you, Firo.”

“What?”

He prompted him to go on, and Isaac spoke, sounding confident.

“Say ‘gyafun’!”

“Yes, gyafun!”

“…What’s a gyafun?”

All he’d done was ask them what the word meant, but Isaac and Miria got so excited at finally making him say uncle in Japanese, you’d have thought they’d killed a giant.

“Hooray! He said it!”

“Yes, what a coup!”

“…After talking with you guys, I can follow most people who flunk at conversations. It’s kind of a problem.”

Remembering Christopher, Firo took a big bite of the sandwich that had been brought out to him.

“By the way, Firo, I heard all about it! When Ennis disappeared, you went tearing around in the pouring rain without an umbrella, right?!”

“Yes, and you were shouting, ‘Ennis, Ennis!’ weren’t you?”

Bwuff.

Firo spat out his half-eaten sandwich as Isaac and Miria kept elbowing him by turns.

When he sneaked a glance to the side, Ennis was looking at him, her expression startled.

This could not be worse.

“Who told you?”

“Oh, no you don’t—we promised Czes we wouldn’t reveal our source!”

“Yes, it’s a promise between men!”

“Czeeeeeeeees!”

As she watched Firo sprint off in search of his roommate, Seina spoke up, sounding mildly disgusted.

“For heaven’s sake. I don’t know why you did it, but…I hear you ran out in all that rain, too, calling for Firo.”

“St-stop it, please…”

“Be honest now. What exactly is Firo to you?”

In response to Seina’s indelicate question…Ennis gave a soft smile and answered sincerely, from the bottom of her heart.

“Firo is my precious…family.”

The mansion

At the time, I felt vague and dreamy.

Sort of like I was floating in space.

Where am I?

Am I in the water again?

Or did I get shoved off something else?

Dammit, all my memories are ugly.

But…I remember this feeling.

I remember it, but I forget where it was from.

…Even though I remember being in that oil drum and the moment I fell off that tall building real vividly.

Especially falling off the building, because that just happened.

That bastard.

That squinty-eyed bastard.

I’ll make him pay for that.

Eve— What’s he gonna do to Eve?!

Dammit, who is it?! Who made Eve cry so much her face got all puffy like this?

Who put those dark circles under her eyes?!

Hey, Eve, who was it? Who made you cry?

I promised, remember? I said I’d protect you for sure.

C’mon, Eve, who was it? Who?

Who’s the loser that’s making you cry—?

“Dallas!”

When I saw Eve clinging to me, I finally realized this was reality.

It’s a real classy bed. How many years has it been since I slept in a bed you could sink into like this?

C’mon, this kind of bed doesn’t suit me.

Look, I can tell you haven’t been sleeping. Push me out of this thing and you sleep here.

“I was terribly—terribly worried!”

Oh… So I’m the one who made her cry, huh?

“I’m so glad… Truly… Dallas…!”

I really am a total bastard.

“Uh…”

It’s okay; my voice works.

“What, Dallas?”

“Sorry, I… I broke that promise and fought again.”

“…”

“But, look, I’ll keep that other promise…the one about protecting you, no matter what.”

Dummy. Don’t cry.

…Don’t cry.

If you cry because of me…

…I’ll have to knock myself flying, see?

So don’t cry.

C’mon, don’t cry.

You’re gonna make me start…

In the darkness

“What did Huey say?”

“He said that all responsibility lies with Tim this time. We get off without a reprimand.”

“Is that right. Well, thank you, Tim.”

“Where’s Adele?”

“They’d be able to trace us at a big hospital, so we’re having her transferred to a little place upstate. It belongs to a mummy-like person who wraps himself in gray cloth from head to toe. It’s the perfect hospital for us.”

“I see… Does it look like she’ll be able to return?”

“She seems to be getting a lot of flashbacks, so… Adele’s staying with Tim this time, too. We’ll just have to leave it to him.”

“I see. Well, we did go through hell in that laboratory, and that’s the truth. What are you going to do now? We already have a request for a side job; do you want to join us again?”

“I’ll— Hmm. I’ll think about it.”

“…Your opponent in the New York incident was too tough. That’s the second time you’ve lost, correct?”

“Right… I think it’s been about forty years since the other one. The fellow who broke all my teeth… What was his name again? It was the name of a river, wasn’t it…?”

“In any case, this wasn’t your first loss. Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right… I’m going to take a little trip and commune with Nature…”

“Ah… What a pretty flower…”

In a lakeside warehouse district, Christopher was quietly gazing at a flower, fascinated.

“I never dreamed it would still be blooming… I assumed it would have withered long ago.”

To think there was a flower still in bloom on that same spot, in the place where they’d done that job the previous week.

“Ha-ha, and the bloodstains are still here.”

Enjoying the situation around him, he crouched down in front of the flower again.

“So pretty…”

Christopher was genuinely charmed by the flower, and even when a shock ran through his back, he wasn’t able to register what had happened to him right away.

“Huh?”

Noticing that his back felt terribly hot, he reached around to touch it—and as he did so, another impact ran through him.

The heat promptly turned into pain, and as he realized that something was wrong, he sprang to his feet, turning around in the same motion.

“Eep!”

There was a familiar face there.

“Oh… It’s the guy who looked good with this flower.”

It was the undercover officer who’d hired Christopher’s group for that earlier job—and had ultimately been betrayed.

“Eee…”

“Did you stumble onto me by accident, while you were running around trying to get away?”

The agent’s knees were quaking. He was holding a bloody knife.

Seeing the color of his own blood as it dripped from its tip, Christopher muttered, sounding cross:

“It’s the same color, and even so…”

“Dieeeaaaaaaaaah!!”

The knife was thrust out vigorously. He caught the man’s wrist, twisted it back—and pushed the tip into the agent’s throat.

“Yee…agh ”

Slashing the man’s throat, he looked at the blood that flowed from it and added one more comment.

“See? The same color. I wonder what the difference is.”

He snatched the knife out of the other guy’s hands, then shoved it into him, near his heart.

When he saw the color that stained the man’s chest, the fanged young guy murmured sadly.

“You know, I don’t think there is any difference. But everybody else says there is. Subjectivity’s a funny thing, isn’t it?

“Even though we’re the same.

“Even though we’re the same.

“Even though we’re the same.”

He stabbed the man’s chest again and again, and before he knew it, he’d broken the tip of the knife.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Maybe we are different.”

Throwing the knife away in the direction of the lake, he spat the words at the man, whose eyes had gone dull long before.

“I’m…not that fragile.”

After he’d walked a little ways, he finally put a hand around behind his back.

“Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow.”

There was a wet, sticky sound, and fresh, flowing blood mixed with the nearly dried blood on his hand.

“Aaah… This seriously hurts. What’ll I do?”

Smiling with embarrassment, Christopher quietly lay down, right where he was.

“Well, damn. He got me. Ha-ha-ha.”

“Ah, what’ll I do…? I don’t wanna die. ‘I got stabbed because I was admiring a flower.’ That’s just… You know?”

“Me and those twelve hundred immortals. I wonder which of us is unnatural.”

The light was gradually fading from Christopher’s red eyes.

“What’s the difference? Even I lived in the usual way—and when I’m dying, I don’t want to die… Somebody tell me… What is it? What’s the difference?”

While he kept thinking about what he lacked, trying to distract himself from his fear of death—

—he saw a lone figure standing beside him.

Christopher looked the figure up and down, then smiled gently and spoke to it.

“Hi. Will you be my friend?”

In the dark

“…‘I’m familiar with your past achievements, and the fault here is mine as well, for leaving the matter to the members of Lamia without informing you of its possibilities. For that reason, for now, any punishment will be deferred’…he says.”

“Sham. Tell Huey there’s something I want to ask him.”

“…‘What is it?’…he says.”

“Huey…did you—Did you kill my Jimmy?”

“…‘What are you talking about?’…he says.”

“The only ones who knew about Jimmy were my father, my brother—and you. Father didn’t have the courage to kill a living thing, and my brother says he didn’t do it…”

“…‘If you believe that, then that is your world. You may do as you like’…he says.”

“I see…”

“…‘You doubt me completely, and yet you still pledge your loyalty to me. I believe you may have grown a lot through this incident. That makes me happy, too’…he says.”

“Remember this, though, Huey Laforet. When I’ve gotten the world I want—you probably won’t be in it.”

“…‘Ha-ha-ha. That’s fine’…he says.”

After the twin had left, Tim quietly began to walk.

I won’t be a butterfly or a spider.

I want no part of a destiny of controlling others, or of being controlled.

Only… The blade that cuts the spider’s threads that have tangled around the butterfly—that isn’t what I want to be.

What I want is a world where that sort of thing definitely exists.

I’ll… In order to get the world I want, I’ll do anything.

No matter what, no matter what—

The Gandor Family

“And so I told her, amigos! I said, ‘I’ve got two katanas, meaning twice as much times two, and that’s four times!”

OooooooooOOOOOOoooh.

“That’s just dumb!” “Wow!” “Even if you thought of it, who’d actually say it?!” “You’re something special, for sure!” “Amigo!” “Amigo!” “Amigo!”

Egged on by the obliging syndicate members, Maria was relating her heroic exploits over the past two days.

She was in a great mood, and she was just about to reenact what she’d done with her katanas at the time, when—

“Maria. Come here, please.”

—Luck beckoned to her, smiling, from the depths of the office.

When she looked, Tick was already waiting in front of the desk.

“Ooh, what is it, Luck, what? Are you going to compliment me, too, amigo?”

When she went right up to his chair, feeling lighthearted, Luck spoke, still smiling.

“Well, it sounds as though you got pulled into all sorts of things over the past two days. That must have been quite tiring.”

“No, amigo, it was nothing, no problem!”

Maria returned Luck’s smile with a smile of her own, but Tick’s smile looked a bit troubled.

“Yes, that was awful. Really.”

“Like I said, amigo, it was nothing big.”

“You’re right: I expect it was nothing big.”

At that point, Maria noticed the vein standing out on Luck’s temple.

“Compared with the job I asked you to do, I am certain it was ‘nothing big.’”

“…Huh?”

“Ronny from the Martillos just called and filled me in on the specifics of the arrangement. He told me directly…”

Ignoring Maria, who was confused, Luck continued stating the facts in a detached fashion. “I had no idea they were friends of Claire’s… Claire also interceded, and it sounds as though they intend to plan their future behavior with a focus on the Martillos. Yes, not only Ronny, but Claire called and told us to treat them well. Long, long before I received a report from you two…”

Maria, who’d finally realized exactly what sort of situation this was, fell silent for a short while. Then, as if she’d been put on the spot, she murmured bashfully:

“Well…”

“Don’t give me that ‘well’! No ‘wells’!”

After that, they were lectured for a solid hour, then told, “If you want your usual salaries, get out there and sell that information to the information broker”—and so the two of them were now headed for the DD newspaper.

“Mariaaa.”

“Whaaat, Tiiick?”

“Right now, I think I almost understand what you’re feeling.”

“I think you probably do, but don’t go saying it out loud, okay? I’ll just feel pointless…”

The rain had let up, and Maria and Tick were trudging down the avenue. Tick had already found his usual smile again, and he was snipping and snicking away with his scissors, but Maria’s expression was gloomy, and she was sighing.

“Phooey. And here I thought things were looking up.”

“There’s no help for it. That really was our fault.”

After they’d walked a little farther, Maria asked Tick a question.

“Are you okay with this, though? You and your brother just went your separate ways. You didn’t even say good-bye properly.”

“Uh-huh. It’s fiiine.”

Tick had seen his brother off far too easily, and he’d learned that his heart was astonishingly dry.

I couldn’t even cry. Even though I’d finally seen him again…

Keeping those thoughts to himself, Tick smiled and looked up ahead.

“But Tock’s really impressive. He’s not like me; it seems like he’s living with his eyes focused on the things you can’t see, the way people should.”

“It looks like that’s made him several enemies, though, amigo. Like that Dallas guy.”

“He’ll be okay. I’m probably the one that man’s after now.”

“If that happens, I’ll protect you, so don’t worry, amigo!”

As she made that firm declaration, the smile finally returned to Maria’s face.

“All I’ve done is destroy the ties between dozens of people, hundreds of people, so I’m used to having them angry at meee. I’ve had folks say they’d curse me more than a hundred times, so I bet I’m already cuuursed. Maybe that means I’ll never be able to have a bond with anybody, not as long as I live.”

“…What are you talking about?”

Maria looked into his face, seeming mystified, and in spite of himself, Tick stopped in his tracks.

As Tick looked bewildered, Maria confessed her feelings to him in her own unique way, without hesitating.

“You and I have been linked up for ages, Tick! Although it’s up to you whether we’re amigos or novios, friends or lovers!”

“Huh…?”

Maria’s eyes abruptly turned serious, and she gazed into the depths of Tick’s squinty ones.

“Or…is that something you can’t believe, since you can’t see it?”

“Well…”

When he didn’t answer Maria’s question, she smiled brightly.

“In that case, we’ll just make it visible!”

“Huh?”

No sooner had she spoken than Maria took Tick’s hand, holding it tightly with one of her own.

Then she broke into a run, headed for their destination.

“Maria, waaait! Fast, you’re faaast.”

“C’mon, c’mon! If you don’t hurry, this hard-earned bond is gonna break, amigo!”

Flushing red, Tick channeled all the strength he had into his legs and broke into a run.

So as to be absolutely sure not to lose this human bond he’d finally obtained…

As if to liven things up, Maria drew a katana with one hand.

This time, it really was coincidence, but…

…beyond the tip of her drawn sword, the autumn sky peeked through a gap in the clouds.

Through the rift in the clouds, the sky

was endlessly blue.

Blue.

Blue…