1931 The Grand Punk Railroad: Local (27 page)
Goose’s knife stabbed deep into his arm.
Jacuzzi didn’t fight it. Instead, he
flopped down
, hard, right where he was.
“Whaaaaat?!”
Goose lost his balance. As he pitched forward, beginning to fall, Jacuzzi sent a mighty upward kick into his stomach.
He pushed the weight of the man’s body, with the added weight of that sixty-pound flamethrower, up with all his might.
Searing pain ran through him, and blood spurted from his wounded thighs. Even so, Jacuzzi didn’t lower his legs. That single moment’s battle felt like a very long time for both men. And then—
Goose’s body did a 180-degree flip in midair and was flung away behind Jacuzzi. The most unfortunate thing for Goose was that the roof of the train ran out at that point.
Immediately after he’d felt an abrupt falling sensation with his entire body, an impact that was beyond comparison with the one before it ran through his back.
Then he was entirely surrounded by red, blinding light.
Jacuzzi had fallen faceup, and a hot wind skimmed over him. When he lifted his head, red flames were climbing brightly through the dim landscape (which looked upside down to him).
Was it over? The sounds of the explosion, the train, and the wind all seemed hollow. In the midst of them, just one voice came to him clearly.
“Jacuzzi! Jacuzzi!”
At Nice’s voice, he sat up. As he did, the pain in his side and thighs returned.
“Oh, Nice, you’re okay… That’s great.”
“I’m fine! Never mind that. We need to stop that bleeding, fast…”
“Huh? Those clay things at your waist… Oh, they’re bombs, aren’t they? Fantastic; we got the treasure, too.”
As Jacuzzi forced a smile, Nice pulled him into a tight hug.
However, he gently pushed her away.
“Jacuzzi?”
“Nice, listen.”
Slowly, with a smile that seemed a bit lonely, he spoke to Nice:
“I think I might have done a little too much crying up until now.”
“Huh?”
“So listen, I’m going to say that those extra tears I cried were yours.”
At that point, Nice realized that Jacuzzi’s eyes were focused on something. There was something up ahead, toward the front of the train.
The morning sun had begun to rise, and the train was traveling straight into it.
The “something” was standing in the center of the sunlight. As a result, Nice couldn’t make it out clearly, but there was one thing she was sure of.
The figure was red from head to toe.
A red shadow with the sun at its back. The shadow had two eyes in the same place a human’s would be. In the shadows cast by the light behind it, the eyes were filled with a deep darkness, a further singularity. Although they seemed like calm, black jewels, they also looked like portals to purgatory that absorbed and trapped all the surrounding light.
The color of those eyes seemed to link this world to the afterlife. A negative light that engulfed everything they saw.
Seeing this, Jacuzzi felt certain that the red shadow was the Rail Tracer. The red meat from earlier must have come together to form a human shape. That was what Jacuzzi had determined.
Looking at Nice, who’d frozen at the sight of the shadow, Jacuzzi quietly continued what he’d been saying:
“So, you see, since I cried enough for you, too, you keep on living, and even if painful stuff happens, don’t cry. The only thing I can’t handle is seeing you cry.”
With that, before Nice could stop him, Jacuzzi broke into a run. At the same time, Nice realized that two of the grenades with the new explosive were missing from her waist.
“Jacuzzi!”
By the time Nice started to run after him, Jacuzzi’s body had already slammed into the red shadow.
Then they both went over the side of the train.
Nice screamed. She screamed Jacuzzi’s name so loudly it nearly shredded her throat.
Just as her scream ended, there was a flash of red light behind the train.
The tremendous explosion roared. A shock so powerful it was hard to believe it came from grenades welled upward, and the wind of the blast sent Nice’s glasses flying. As her glasses fell further up the train with a clatter, she dropped to her knees.
The explosion echoed all through the train, but before long, as though nothing at all had happened, silence returned.
Nice was remembering something from her childhood.
It was the time when she’d badly injured herself with her own explosives. She’d lost her right eye and gained scars all over her body. The shrapnel had wounded her left eye as well, and she’d lost much of her eyesight.
She could only vaguely make out people’s faces. She’d been afraid she’d have to spend her entire life this way, unable to see anyone’s face, and she’d cried and cried, refusing to meet anyone.
One day, Jacuzzi had sneaked into her house and told her something. Half his face was covered with a tattoo so striking she could see it clearly even with blurred vision.
“See? Now you’ll be able to tell which face is mine! Just stick with me all the time and you’ll be fine.”
Jacuzzi had laughed when he’d said it, and on hearing his voice, she’d cried tears of happiness. When he’d seen this, Jacuzzi had thought he’d made her cry; he’d started to feel anxious, and he had burst into tears, too.
Even as she remembered this, Nice kept on crying.
Her glasses had fallen, and her already blurry vision was soggy with tears. Now she’d never be able to tell people apart. At most, she’d be able to make out Donny’s huge body. If she didn’t think about pointless things like that, it felt as if she’d cry even harder. Remembering the last thing Jacuzzi had said, she tried desperately to stop crying, but it really wasn’t possible.
However, she didn’t sob, not even once. She fought to keep the sounds locked inside her throat. Just when she was worried she’d stop being able to breathe…
… a figure stood in front of her.
Was it Nick, or a surviving white suit or black suit? When she looked up, no longer caring what happened—
—she saw a blurred, black pattern over half its face.
“That’s mean. I told you not to cry…”
The blurred tattoo was warping into a weird shape.
“When you cry, Nice, it makes me want to cry. So, look—please don’t cry.”
She gave up trying to stifle her cries and hugged Jacuzzi hard.
… Sobbing his name all the while.
Before long, Nick and Donny also climbed up onto the roof and stood around Jacuzzi and Nice, who were quietly leaning against each other.
By that time, Nice had stopped crying, and Jacuzzi was smiling cheerfully.
“By the way, Jacuzzi. How did you get rid of that red monster? I was sure you’d fallen off the train; how did you survive?”
“Umm, I’ll tell you later. I don’t really understand it myself yet. Only, that red monster is—”
Just then, Jacuzzi finally noticed Nick and Donny, and he greeted them, still smiling.
“H-hey, great timing.”
His voice was trembling slightly.
“Sorry, but D-Donny? Do you think you could carry me to Room Three in the second-class cars? A-apparently, there’s a doctor in there.”
Abruptly delivering information he seemed to have heard from someone else, he began looking more and more as if he was about to cry.
“My side and my arm and my thighs really, really hurt. There’s lots of blood, and I think I’m gonna…cry…”
Immediately after he said this, he looked at his own blood, shrieked, and passed out.
The regular Jacuzzi was back. As they scrambled to carry him away, Nice and the others knew the incident that had occurred on this train had come to an end.
The morning sun gradually rose higher, shining down on the endless rails.
It seemed to be quietly wishing them well as they headed for New York.
Local—The End
December 31, 2:00
PM
New York, Pennsylvania Station
“Man, it’s
late
.”
The three brothers who were the acting bosses of the Gandor Family stood in the lobby. The
Flying Pussyfoot
had been scheduled to arrive at noon, but that had been two hours ago, and it still wasn’t here. The middle brother, Berga Gandor, raised his voice in irritation.
“Calm down, Berga. Long-distance trains arrive a few hours late all the time.”
“…”
Luck, the youngest, reprimanded his older brother, while Keith, the oldest, remained silent.
Right beside them, another group was waiting for their friends. It was the party that was there to meet Isaac and Miria and the fellow alchemist. In specific terms, this was Firo Prochainezo, a Martillo Family executive; his rent-free lodger, Ennis; and Maiza Avaro, the Martillo
contaiuolo
. Of the group, Maiza was an alchemist from two centuries ago, and one of the immortals.
Firo looked over at Keith and the others, asking them a question in a voice that wouldn’t be overheard by the people around them.
“Are you guys sure? Having all three bosses in a place like this… You’re squaring off with the Runoratas, right?”
“We’re able to relax and go out
because
it’s us, Firo.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
Firo was convinced. Like Isaac and Miria, during a certain incident a year ago, they had also become immortal. …Although not even the Bureau of Investigation knew this yet.
“By the way, what sort of person is this alchemist, Maiza?”
The man with glasses and a gentle face answered Luck’s question:
“Let’s see… He’s the type who tries to shoulder everything himself, even though he gets lonely easily.”
“The type who can’t live a long life, then. …If he were an ordinary person, I mean.”
Luck spoke pragmatically. As if picking up the conversation, Berga began talking about the person they were waiting for.
“Claire’s kinda like that, only the other way around. The kid’s ego is way too big. Cheerful personality, so it could be worse, but y’know.”
Ennis, who was watching them, decided to ask about this person she didn’t know.
“Then Miss Claire is a wonderful woman, cheerful and lively, with a self-assured core, isn’t she?”
At that question, Firo and Luck looked at each other.
“Firo, didn’t you tell her? That’s rather important…”
“Actually, I guess I forgot. I mean, we talked about personality and things, but…”
“Hmm?”
As question marks appeared above Ennis’s head, there was an announcement that the train had arrived.
“Okay, let’s go. Ennis, once you two meet, you’ll see.”
Then they started toward the train, which was still exhilarated after its long journey, to meet the people they were waiting for.
“Huh? Something seems kinda off.”
The train that had arrived wasn’t the
Flying Pussyfoot
. It was a perfectly ordinary train, completely different from the luxury train they all knew.
“From what I hear, there was trouble of some sort and they replaced the carriages.”
Satisfied by Maiza’s words, everyone waited for the doors to open.
“Come to think of it… Huey Laforet, wasn’t it? They nabbed him, didn’t they, Maiza?”
At Firo’s words, Maiza’s expression clouded slightly, and he nodded. Seeing this, Keith gazed at Maiza wordlessly.
“Oh, we should tell Keith and the others, too, shouldn’t we?”
Maiza smiled as if to say there was no help for it. Then his expression tensed again, and he began to speak.
“Huey Laforet, the self-styled revolutionary who was arrested a short while ago…”
Everyone listened intently to Maiza’s words.
“… he’s an immortal as well.”
Just then, the doors opened, and the passengers began to pour out. For some reason, there were many whose expressions tended toward extremes, from faces that were flooded with relief to those that seemed strangely fatigued.
Then, after the flood of disembarking passengers’ feet had subsided and a little time had passed, a woman in coveralls appeared. She had a very vigilant air about her, and when Ennis saw her, she thought she might be Claire.
However, the woman passed right by Keith and the others. She seemed to have an injured leg; her left leg had a bandage wound around it, and she dragged it a little as she walked.
Next, a man who looked like a magician appeared. From the look of him, he could have been nothing else: He was entirely enveloped in gray cloth. The Gandors’ eyes opened wide; they thought that this weird guy had to be an alchemist for sure… But Firo’s group was also muttering, “That’s a strange outfit.”
The gray magician was followed by a man who seemed to be his assistant and was carrying his luggage. Behind him, a young man’s pitiful, tearful voice echoed through the area.
Even as he cried from the pain in his legs, inside his head, Jacuzzi kept worrying.
Where had that Ladd Russo guy disappeared to, anyway?
And why had Isaac and Miria turned into that… yo-yo-like thing?
What had happened to Czes? When he’d asked Nice, she’d only said she didn’t know and looked away.
Speaking of Nice, even though they’d detonated all those bombs, the train hadn’t stopped. Why not?
… And most of all, the red monster… No, the
person in red clothes
… Who had that been?
What in the world had happened on that train, in the places they hadn’t seen? He knew worrying wouldn’t solve anything, but he couldn’t help thinking about it. He would have liked to have seen Isaac and Miria, but with his legs this way, he hadn’t been able to go around looking for them.
I’ll ask at one of the local information brokers. They say there’s an information broker in this town that knows absolutely everything.
Oh, but his legs did hurt. If he didn’t let these wounds heal up first, he’d get nowhere…
Jacuzzi took a break from worrying for the time being and began whimpering about the pain again.
“I-i-it hurts, it hurts! Wa, wait a second! Go a little slower!”
A guy with bandages wound all around his body was crying and wailing. He had an impressive tattoo on his face. After him, others descended from the train: a girl who wore glasses over an eye patch, a man with a bandaged face, then a man who might as well not have been there, and finally a brown-skinned giant who was over six feet tall.
“Do you think they’re a circus or something?”
Firo and the others watched the odd group go, then continued waiting for their friends to arrive.
The disembarking figures grew few and far between, and a forlorn atmosphere began to envelop the platform.
Even so, they didn’t have the slightest doubt that the people they were waiting for would arrive.
When the station workers had begun to close the carriage doors. The very last ones to emerge from the train were
To be continued