Baccano! - Volume 9 - Chapter Ep

CAN’T MISS

New York Millionaires’ Row

As they walked among the palatial residences that bespoke their owners’ success, a man and woman were conversing. Their exchange was truly odd, perplexing to anyone watching.

“So you’re worried about what that jerk with the blindfold is planning, Chané?”

“…”

“I see… I doubt they’d get anything out of messing with Jacuzzi’s gang, though.”

“…”

“Well yeah, that’s true. Besides, even if they don’t do anything, your dad’s henchmen might meddle with ’em somehow.”

“…”

The woman, Chané Laforet, nodded; the man—Vino, aka Felix Walken, aka Claire Stanfield—kept gazing at her face out of the corner of his eye as they walked along.

Chané wasn’t saying a word, and she didn’t appear to be using sign language or writing down what she wanted to say, but Vino was keeping up a conversation so natural it was like he was reading her mind.

From a bystander’s point of view, the man was subjecting a silent woman to a deluded, one-sided monologue, and an odd atmosphere enveloped the whole street.

“I see. So they might have been singled out as test subjects since they got involved once last year?”

“…”

“It’s fine. Your dad will understand. You still love him a lot, even now, right?”

“…”

“Then there’s no problem.”

“…”

“By the way, who do you like better, me or your dad?”

“……!”

“I’m sorry—you didn’t have to put it like that. I was a little curious, that’s all; having you tell me off for it is, well, frankly… It hurts.”

“…”

“Thanks. You’re so kind, Chané.”

Vino kept quietly walking, wearing a smile like a little kid’s.

They were on their way back to the second Genoard residence from Madison Square Park, and Chané’s face was a little tense.

A short while earlier, she’d been surrounded by a group dressed in black, and a former comrade of hers—Spike—had grilled her about what her father was planning.

That was when the former Felix Walken had joined them, and she’d temporarily found herself in a serious predicament— But Vino had arrived, and she’d gotten through it. Afterward, Chané started worrying about the safety of her other friends, and now they were walking briskly through town on their way to check on them.

“Well anyway, just relax. I’ll keep everyone safe, and you can take that to the bank.”

“…”

Before long, the two of them were standing on a stretch of Fifth Avenue known as Millionaires’ Row, in front of a well-kept, comfortably lived-in house. There, the couple shared their thoughts again.

“Yeah, after all, what’s important to you is important to me, too, Chané… Aw, that’s kinda embarrassing, so don’t mention it to the fellas inside, all right?”

“…”

Chané blushed, nodding wordlessly. Vino nodded back, looking satisfied, and flung open the door of the mansion.

“Hey! How’s everybody do—?”

“…”

His jocular greeting broke off, and Chané stiffened beside him, her eyes widening.

It was deserted.

All they saw was a terribly quiet corridor.

In an ordinary house, that sight wouldn’t have been a problem, but this mansion was rather unique, and it was currently serving as a hangout for close to thirty delinquents.

Normally, there were always at least five of them loitering in the entrance hall— But today, inexplicably, no one was there.

“…Did they go out or something?”

“…”

Chané’s expression was rapidly growing anxious. Vino squeezed her shoulders lightly, then ducked outside again and pressed the doorbell beside the front door.

Di-di-di-di-ding, di-di-di-di-di-ding

After a few seconds, two men poked their heads out of the shadows in the hall.

“Huh? Mr. Felix and Chané. What’s the matter?”

“What, you’re done with your date already?”

On seeing Vino and Chané, the Asian man and the Irishman—Fang and Jon—sounded a little surprised.

“Hey, you are here. Where’s Jacuzzi and everybody else?”

Fang and Jon weren’t acting any different than usual. Relieved to see it, Vino asked about the house’s other residents, Jacuzzi Splot and his gang, who had apparently stepped out for a bit. However…

…the next moment, Fang and Jon glanced at each other with complicated expressions.

“Well… It’s a pretty awkward situation. You remember Miss Miria’s fella, Isaac, right? I don’t know whether it was yesterday or today, but they let him out of the pen.”

“We don’t know what’s up, exactly, but after he got out, he didn’t have enough money for the train ticket home.”

“So Miria got a phone call, and she went to Chicago, to take him his wallet.”

Isaac and Miria.

They were a cheerful, slightly loopy couple who often dropped by the mansion.

Vino hadn’t interacted with them much, but when Chané heard that Isaac was out of jail, her eyes widened in surprise. When he saw that, Vino happily interpreted.

“I see. That’s great. Chané’s so glad you’d have thought it was her good news.”

“Ah, right. Chané and Miria have been especially close lately.”

“Yeah… That’s good. It’s good…but…”

He was half-convinced already, but Vino asked Chané’s question, straight-out. Granted, he’d been wondering the same thing anyway.

“Why Jacuzzi, too?”

“…”

Fang and Jon shared a silent look, and Vino muttered with mild chagrin:

“And actually…did everybody go except you guys?”

The next day Chicago Union Station

The mood on the train that had pulled into the station was far tenser than normal.

The serial bombing incidents had occurred in Elleson Hill, which was right next to Chicago. The two hundred simultaneous missing-person cases had involved the city as well.

As the epicenter of these two major incidents, which had shaken the whole country, Chicago’s nerves were stretched as tightly as they had been during its Great Fire, sixty-three years ago.

It wasn’t safe to trust strangers, and even acquaintances couldn’t be trusted completely.

The crimes clearly hadn’t been the work of a lone culprit, and the citizens’ fearful suspicions made them wary of the newcomers to the city as well.

And now…

Completely ignoring all of it, a lone woman energetically clambered down from the train.

“Isaac…!”

Miria shouted as she left the train, but it was no use: Her voice was drowned out by the crowd in the station.

Even though she hadn’t heard a response, she was spinning around and around, searching for her beau.

The next one to step off the train called to her. “Miria, Isaac isn’t here yet. If he’s coming from San Francisco, he won’t arrive until tomorrow, or possibly the day after.” This girl wore a distinctive combination of glasses over an eye patch.

“I know, but…I thought, ‘Just maybe,’ and then I just had to call his name!”

Miria gave a twirl as she spoke, recoloring the ominous mood around her in the blink of an eye.

As if they’d come specifically to watch her, a group of more than twenty noisy, chattering young people got out of the train.

“Yowza… Man, talk about a blast from the past. Seriously, I can’t believe this.”

“Hyah-haw.” “Hyah-haa.”

“Nwah, it been ages. City smells. Takes me back.”

“We’re here, we’re here!” “Whoa, Chicago. I mean it, get a load of this place. Man, it’s a super-metropolis.”

“Gehyaaah.” “Calm down, fellas. Save the noise for after we’re through the ticket gate, a’ight?”

The platform was suddenly very noisy.

As the boys and girls each offered their thoughts, nothing about any of it betrayed any sense of anxiety… Nothing except for one person: a man hiding in the shadow of the train door, his eyes darting wildly.

“Hey, Jacuzzi! What the heck are you doing?!”

When one of the delinquent boys called to him, the young man with the tattooed face flinched, then hastily waved his hands and shouted at his friends in the voice of one on the verge of tears.

“W-wait! D-d-d-don’t! Don’t call my name…! I-if somebody from the Russo Family hears…!”

The group was originally from Chicago, and the frightened Jacuzzi Splot had lammed off to New York after a fight with the Russo Family. His delinquent friends had fled there with him and become residents of that city.

Ordinarily, they wouldn’t have been able to come back here, but immediately after they’d heard the news about the bombings on the radio, they’d gotten that phone call from Isaac saying to meet him in Chicago. Jacuzzi had tried to stop her (“It’s not safe to go to Chicago now! It’s dangerous!”), but Miria’s mind was made up, and it was obvious that she wouldn’t be dissuaded.

On top of that, deep down, Jacuzzi was also worried about Graham, who was currently in Chicago. Then Nice had commented, “I wonder what sort of bombs they used…,” setting off a whole chain: “In that case, me too.” “Me three.” “Besides, I’m worried about Jacuzzi.” “Come to think of it, I left the laundry hanging out at my place in Chicago. I should get that inside.” “I get the feeling I have a sick little sister waiting for me.” “Man, you ain’t got no little sisters!” “Let’s just settle things with the Russo Family. What a pain in the butt.” “Yodel-ay-ee-oooo.”

Terribly confused, Jacuzzi was simply swept up in the current, and the next thing he knew, they’d already left the house and bought their tickets.

After the momentum had carried him onto the train, Jacuzzi realized that he was heading into danger…and ever since then, he’d been shivering nonstop, no matter what they’d said to him.

“I’m tellin’ you, it’s fine. Remember what they said on the radio? I don’t really get it, but I heard the cops are after that old fart Placido. There’s no way he’s got time to bother with you now, Jacuzzi.”

Jacuzzi shook his head forcefully and argued with his friend, his eyes full of tears.

“We don’t know that! Maybe Placido’s so desperate he’ll try to take me down with him…”

“Hunh? I doubt a little guy like you is valuable enough for anybody to want to take you down with them. Don’t get full of yourself.”

“That was mean!!”

“Never mind, just get off the train! Or do you want to ride all the way to the West Coast?”

In response to his friends’ calls (whether they were cold or warm was anyone’s guess), Jacuzzi reluctantly stepped down from the train, but—

Immediately, a man ran up and shoved him out of his way, sending him sprawling spectacularly to the ground.

“M-move it!”

The man spat out the words without apologizing, then dashed in through the door Jacuzzi had just left.

“Eep! I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

Even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, Jacuzzi wasted an apology on him. However, Nice had seen it happen, and her face was tense as she muttered to him:

“Jacuzzi.”

“Wh-what? What’s wrong, Nice?”

“That man… He was a Russo Family executive…”

“…I should be able to rest for a bit now.”

After confirming that he was indeed on the train, Krieck finally managed to draw a deep breath.

Leaning against the corridor that led to the passenger compartments, he reviewed his own situation.

After that mess the night before, he’d seen his own friends eaten by that woman in the lab coat, and he had fled from the Russo mansion.

He’d kept running for more than a day, peering out from the darkness to see whether there was anyone following him.

Then, concluding that he’d managed to lose them somehow, Krieck had bought a ticket for the transcontinental railroad and boarded this train with the intent of skipping town.

“Dammit… What the hell was that? Nobody told me about that…”

Remembering the sight of his friends getting sucked into the woman’s slim arm, Krieck shuddered again. He didn’t know whether the cause was their now-immortal bodies or the woman’s arm, but… Either way, the friends who’d been eaten were probably dead.

That realization weighed on him heavily, and once again, terror grew inside him at the circumstances in which he’d landed.

“Well, I won’t really be able to relax until after the train’s pulled out.”

On that thought, as if he was fleeing from something, Krieck turned toward the car with the passenger compartments—

And saw the palm of a hand.

Between the slender, pale fingers, he caught a glimpse of eyes smiling innocently behind a pair of glasses—

And that was the very last thing Krieck saw.

“H-huh…?”

Jacuzzi had come to investigate and peered into the cars from the train door. He glanced in both directions, but he didn’t see Krieck.

“I wonder where he went…”

As he looked around dubiously, he abruptly made eye contact with a woman in a lab coat standing by the door.

A doctor?

Just as Jacuzzi was wondering Why here? the bespectacled woman gave an exaggerated shriek. “Yeek?! I-I’m sorry, I beg your pardon, please forgive me!”

“Huh?!”

Realizing she must have been startled by his tattoo, Jacuzzi hastily waved his hands and tried to clear up the misunderstanding.

“I-I’m sorry! You’ve got it all wrong! I’m not a robber or anything—oh, although, I did rob a train a long time ago, but, um, that’s not what I’m doing now, at least! U-um, I-I’m looking for a man with a scar on his face who just got onto this train! Except I couldn’t find him anywhere! And so—so, have you seen him? I’m sorry, excuse meeee!”

Tearing up, Jacuzzi practically hemorrhaged personal information, and the woman sounded perplexed as she responded.

“Huh?! Um, he came through, but…he went somewhere else.”

“I-is that right…? I’m sorry, thank you very much!”

Deciding that pursuing the issue further would be a bad idea, Jacuzzi nodded politely to the bespectacled woman, then went back to the platform where his friends were waiting.

Looking uneasy, the boy with the tattoo on his face climbed down from the train again.

As she watched him go, Renee gazed at her right hand and thought.

“Hmm. Really… When the bodies get absorbed into your right hand, where do they go?”

She hadn’t told Jacuzzi a single lie just now.

While she sifted through the memories of the man who had “gone somewhere else” through her right hand, Renee thought about the bodies’ destination.

“…To hell?”

Realizing that the answer she’d come up with was ridiculous, she folded her arms and thought. Was it possible that absorbing the knowledge from that man had actually made her dumber?

For a little while after that, she continued to ponder the question of where the bodies went. However, deciding that she wasn’t likely to find an answer under the present circumstances, she drew a deep breath and stepped onto the station platform.

“Huey might know!” she murmured blithely, although no one heard her. “Aaah. I just can’t wait for his eye to get here…”

Her voice was truly innocent, devoid of even a hint of malice.

With an easygoing tone that belied the creepiness of her words, Renee looked up at the blue sky over Chicago.

The Chicago skyscrapers gleamed golden in the bright sun, shining over everything…

Providing the city and its people with a sky that was just as blue as ever.

Radiantly, brilliantly…

Just then, Miria happened to be looking up at the sky as well, and her innocent voice echoed through the station.

“I hope I see Isaac soon!”

Those words traveled far, far away through the Chicago sky.

As if to sweep away the mood of all the events that had happened in this town.

And as if to signal the beginning of the incident that was about to occur…

Mocking that blue sky, a new explosion echoed through the streets of Chicago.