Baccano! - Volume 14 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

THE RECOUNTED WORLD 1

1934 In a train on the transcontinental railroad

“Oooooh, Vice President! A rainbow! It’s a rainbow!”

A child’s shrill voice echoed in a rather small space.

The girl’s fingertips traversed the window frame rhythmically, in time with the train’s vibration.

She probably wasn’t fifteen yet, and her small body was full of that youthful energy. Around her neck was something one normally wouldn’t expect to see on someone so young—a professional camera like the ones journalists might use—that highlighted her adolescence even further.

It certainly wasn’t a toy. Its black-and-silver Leica body created a sense of solemnity about her—a solemnity that the girl herself ignored as she grinned artlessly at the rainbow.

Despite her enthusiasm, though, there was only one other person there to see it.

Her only companion inside the first-class compartment of a train speeding over the transcontinental railroad bound for the West Coast was a grown man who sat across the table from her, a newspaper open in front of his face.

Even with only two occupants, though, the room felt a little cramped.

The window frame was beautifully carved, but the curtain was cheap fabric with an overly ornate pattern printed on it, and although the compartment had chairs, a bed, and a table, it didn’t seem all that spacious. As a matter of fact, the no-frills interiors of the second-class compartments made them feel larger than that of the first class.

This was probably the sort of train that prioritized transporting people rather than providing a high-class, enjoyable trip. In fact, the fare for a first-class compartment was about half of what it was on other trains.

Even so, as far as ordinary people were concerned, the cost was quite extravagant enough.

“Heh-heh. A rainbow… A rainbow is indeed a wonderful thing, Carol. Its mere existence is enough to soften a heart…”

The man still had the newspaper open in front of his face, and he almost seemed to be talking to himself.

“An enormous yet simple work of art, drawn in the sky like the work of a child. What is it about them that captivates the human heart so?”

“Mm-hmm! You’re so right!”

As the girl innocently bounced in her seat, the man slowly folded the newspaper. Then he went on, lowering his voice.

“However… Hmm. Carol, from the time we are children, we think of that rainbow as something beautiful, without a doubt in our minds. Why is that?”

“Huh?! Why…?”

Carol turned to stare curiously at the man.

The figure that had emerged from behind the newspaper belonged to an individual in his prime, with keen eyes.

At first glance, he seemed young, but his hair was sprinkled with gray, and it was hard to get an accurate picture of his age. His eyes gleamed as sharply as a hawk’s, and he wore a monocle over the left one. The slant of the light made it gleam like a mirror, and in the convex lens was a warped, upside-down reflection of the girl’s face.

His clothes were dapper, and the umbrella beside his chair created an additional sense of class. In combination with his brand-name clothes, he seemed like the central figure of a wealthy financial group. This made the sharp, villainous glint in his eyes feel all the more out of place. Anyone who saw him would not soon forget him.

Tossing the newspaper onto the table, the man moved his naked right eye, gazing at the colors outside the train.

“After all, something colossal appeared in the sky. To people who aren’t familiar with the concept of the refraction of light, it must at times seem to herald a catastrophe. As a matter of fact, in some parts of the world, rainbows are taken to be precisely that. Perhaps that rainbow is a path for ill omens, or the vegetation at the foot of that arc may have burned away. It wouldn’t be at all unnatural to imagine these things… Why are we capable of seeing fairy tales in this strip of seven colors? Have you never thought about that?”

“Nope.”

“……”

“I can think about it all I want, but I’d never come up with an answer. Besides, our job isn’t to think. It’s to tell people what really happens! Isn’t that right, Vice President?”

The girl’s remark was rather precocious in the face of such a complicated discussion. Her smug smile was evidence that she was proud of her answer, but it only emphasized her childlike demeanor.

The vice president smiled quietly at her, then shook his head.

“Hmm… That merits 319 points, at best.”

“Huh?! …Out of how many?!”

The unfair statement bewildered the girl, and the vice president went on soothingly.

“True, our job is to convey the truth to people. However, whether it is truth or a fabrication…we must not stop thinking the moment we obtain information. We cannot determine whether it is true or false and then let that be the end of it. That is the responsibility of those who deliver information to others.”

It was a grand statement, but Carol wasn’t convinced, and she lined up arguments as soon as she thought of them.

“But what are we supposed to think about? Thinking won’t change the truth.”

She was probably annoyed that the comment she’d been so confident about hadn’t received full marks. The man parried the girl’s contrariness with a gentle smile that didn’t match those sharp eyes.

“Ah, but it does change it. This isn’t strictly about the mind-set regarding rainbows that I mentioned earlier, but… Depending on how you think about them, past truths can transform in any number of ways, and it even becomes possible to change truths that have not yet occurred.”

As the vice president spoke, his hands were folding the newspaper in a series of odd moves, almost as if he was creating a large origami object.

Carol had no idea what he was making, and besides, she seemed too absorbed in the conversation to give much thought to the newspaper.

Across from the girl, the vice president’s hands and mouth continued to carry out their separate tasks, as if they didn’t belong to the same man.

“For example… Let’s see. If you know the events leading up to a fact, or the causes directly before a result, you can change that result as much as you like. You discover the value of information only after you’ve obtained it, when you think about it with your own mind…and your own heart.”

Even as his hands fiddled with the newspaper, his speech was completely smooth.

The girl tried to argue back against that clever statement—but before she had a chance, something unexpected happened.

“In other words—”

As the vice president spoke, the pair started to sense something odd in the corridor.

Just as Carol began to hear some sort of scuffle outside, the door next to her flew open—

—and from behind it appeared several men with scarves wrapped around their lower faces.

They were dressed like typical bank robbers, the sort that appeared in the talkies, and they instantly changed the elegant atmosphere of the first-class compartment into something barbaric.

“Eeek!”

The intruders had appeared far too suddenly, and Carol shrank back in spite of herself. She didn’t know who they were or anything about them, but in response to the abrupt change in the atmosphere, her body had stiffened up in a noticeable way.

In contrast, as if he were a clockwork machine, the vice president raised his right arm above his head in a fluid motion.

He was holding the newspaper, which had been folded into a strange shape.

Before the intruders even noticed the movement of the vice president’s arm, they tried to announce themselves: “Okay, folks, don’t try anything funny—”

With the speed of a spring-loaded device, the vice president’s right arm snapped down.

Air became a burst of sound.

A dry, loud bang echoed in the compartment as if a firecracker had gone off.

The sound thundered violently in their eardrums, and Carol and the men flinched, tensing sharply.

“Whoa… Wha…?”

All the men had knives in their hands, but they’d forgotten why they were there, and their gazes wandered around the room. They were searching for the source of the roar in the narrow compartment, but they didn’t see any likely firecrackers or guns.

As he searched for what had caused the noise, the one member of the intruders’ group who’d actually stepped inside blinked twice, and in that moment—no sooner had he felt the pressure on the backs of his knees than he tipped wildly off-balance.

“Huh…?”

The ceiling came into view, then immediately receded.

Just as he caught sight of his friends’ upside-down faces, something struck the back of his head, and pain and darkness enveloped his mind.

The last thing he saw was a black shadow that rose from his chair in a leisurely way, threw a wad of newspaper right at his friends’ faces, then violently struck at their chins from above it.

“H-huh?”

Carol had curled up into a ball at the sudden noise and watched the whole sequence through her fingers, and she wouldn’t forget it for some time to come. Even though her mind had been relatively clear, she still didn’t understand what had happened.

“Wh-what…did you just do?”

She had simply been watching.

Immediately after that loud sound rang out, the vice president had grabbed the tip of the umbrella that had been leaning against his chair and hooked its curved handle around the ankles of the man who’d entered the compartment.

The robber had neatly tumbled over while the vice president had risen to his feet, thrown a wad of newspaper at one of the two men in the corridor, and then immediately landed a strangely executed uppercut on that man’s chin with his full body weight behind it.

The man had risen into the air for a moment, and though the third man was distracted by the sight, he’d tried to turn the revolver in his hand on the vice president. But before he could pull the trigger, the vice president’s hand had covered the magazine and squeezed the body of the gun as hard as he could.

Since the cylinder couldn’t turn, no bullets were fired. The vice president plucked the gun from the man’s hand easily before slamming a rough kick into the region between his legs.

The man crumpled instantly, eyes rolling back in his head, and as simple as that, the vice president had subdued the three intruders.

In the end, Carol hadn’t been able to do a thing. Before she even had time to scream, silence had returned to the compartment, as if nothing had happened. The attack was over before it began.

“Um, a-are you okay, Vice President?” Carol timidly called to her companion.

The man nonchalantly slipped the handgun he’d taken into his own jacket. Then, although his eyes were still sharp, he smiled at the frightened girl.

“My apologies. I turned the newspaper into an origami popgun and blinder before you had a chance to read it… However, unless that shock ripped it apart, it should still be legible.”

“Uh, uh-huh…”

“Yes, and so, to return to what I was saying… In short, I used the information I had obtained to predict that this situation would occur; therefore, I was able to be fully physically and mentally prepared during the crisis.”

The vice president had spoken casually, and for a little while, Carol thought about what to comment on first. Then, with a heavy sigh, she glared up at the vice president with chagrin.

“Meaning, um, you’re saying you knew beforehand that there might be robbers?”

“No. I did not know it as fact. It was merely a deduction of which I was very nearly certain.”

“Then shouldn’t we have decided not to get on the train?!”

“What are you saying? By the time I made my deduction, I had already purchased nonrefundable tickets and had given the receipt to the president. Or are you suggesting I steal rides by creeping under the train, like Rachel?”

Carol was about to shout that this wasn’t the same thing, but once again, she was interrupted by a third party.

“…What…are you?”

“Eeep?!”

The abrupt question made Carol freeze up yet again.

The voice had a hard-boiled edge to it, and it had come from outside the door. Although the door was open, there was no one in sight. The speaker was probably standing with his back against the corridor wall, but the girl couldn’t bring herself to stick her head out and check.

The owner of the voice didn’t seem concerned about the three unconscious robbers. Instead, he was glaring at the vice president with cold malice.

However, the vice president only took a sip from the cup of black tea on the table. Then, as if that had moistened his throat, he spoke smoothly to the individual in the corridor.

“…Hmm? You are inquiring about my identity? If my name alone will suffice, I need merely introduce myself as Gustav St. Germain. Ah, and St. Germain is not my real name. It is a sobriquet I borrowed from the count of St. Germain, that famed time-traveling alchemist and information merchant without parallel in all of history. Yet, that is apparently not what you are asking about… In other words, esteemed customer, are you inquiring about my profession? In that case, allow me to introduce myself as the vice president of the Daily Days newspaper company, whose headquarters are located in New York. In terms of gossip articles alone, we pride ourselves on being one of the leading purveyors in that city, so I would be honored if you would consider becoming a regular subscriber, should the opportunity arise. Additionally, as a side business, I deal in information.”

A courteous stream of words.

A compressed mass of information.

His reply was nothing like the way he’d spoken to the girl. He spoke in a way that suited those sharp eyes of his, like a schemer with his sights set on a mark.

It had been a long monologue, but his speech was so fluent that neither Carol nor the figure in the corridor felt like interrupting him.

Regardless, even after the vice president stopped speaking, the malice outside the door didn’t waver.

“Strange… Let me tell you a strange story.”

“By all means.”

“We were gonna rob the fat cats on this train with zero warning to broadcast our big comeback to Chicago, see… But then this happened. How’d you find out about us? …Or to put it like you did, how did you ‘deduce our actions’? Did somebody squeal? If so, this will stop being a strange story and start being a sad one—but I believe in my guys, so that ain’t even possible. It’s a strange story, after all…”

His voice went cold.

The words were filled with such malice that even Carol, who wasn’t dealing with him directly, feared for her life.

As she gripped her camera, on the verge of bursting into tears, the next thing she heard was the vice president laughing with perfect composure.

“Heh-heh… Heh-heh-heh-ha-ha-ha-ha. An excellent question… How did I come to possess the information I used to deduce your plan? Could I persuade you to accept that it is entirely because I am an information broker? Whether you believe it or not, it will not change the results, so you may take it any way you wish. After all, searching for meaning in results that have already occurred will not allow you to change the past.”

Although his words seemed to respect the other man, Gustav St. Germain had a haughty attitude—claiming he held an absolute advantage.

“…Did you think I’d be satisfied with that? Because it might come in handy during my next robbery, that’s why. However, now that I know that little girl is on this train, too, I’m not as comfortable knocking it over. I mean, in a depression like this one, I figured anyone riding first-class would be ducking taxes, but if there’s a little girl on board, that’s just awkward! Still, my irritation at the roundabout way you bloviate is a completely different kettle of fish, so let me suggest that you answer that question ASAP, for your own good. Okay?”

The young ringleader of the robbers spoke in an odd way.

When his malice seemed to have reached its peak, Gustav narrowed his already narrow eyes and addressed the man in the corridor.

“I believe I introduced myself as an information broker a moment ago. I am not a private individual. I am a merchant who sees everything, from stock trends to my own damnable memories, as pure data. That is what my profession is. That is the face I am wearing now in this interaction with you.”

“…You’re telling me to buy? In a situation like this?”

“The negotiations are already under way, sir.”

There was power in his words. The three men lying in front of him were a barometer that showed that power. Regardless, the figure in the corridor didn’t seem at all flustered. The spite in his words merely softened a little.

“…I was gonna take apart all your joints, and the little girl’s joints, but I’ll refrain this time. For you.”

“Eeep!”

On realizing that she was also a target, Carol gave a little shriek. From what the man was saying, it seemed as though they might be spared, but she couldn’t just be happy about that.

“Oho… So you’re putting a price on humans. Is that what you’re saying, sir?”

“It’s like putting a price on information, yeah?”

At that ironic comment from the corridor, Gustav chuckled and took another sip of tea.

“Well, well. Understood. I’ll sell to you at that price… In that case, let me recount for you one of the incidents I know. This is a good opportunity, Carol, so you’d do well to listen, too.”

“Huh?”

Finding herself abruptly pulled into the conversation, Carol’s eyes searched the room as if she didn’t understand what was happening.

“If you dwell in this world, it will do you no harm to know about it: The tale of the man named Claire Stanfield—and of the mysterious persons around him… Although the central figure in this story isn’t the man himself but the young lady who is his life partner.”

“Claire…Stanfield…is a guy…?”

“Long ago, Claire was used as a masculine name as well, you see. His father seems to have been an old-fashioned individual…that aside.”

As he poured fresh tea into his own cup, the vice president prepared an additional serving with his right hand.

“I imagine it’s cold out there. Would you care to come in and join me for a cup of tea?”

Ignoring Carol’s tension, Gustav invited the man inside. He seemed hesitant about entering, but the vice president paid no heed to that. He poured tea into the new cup, then began to speak cheerfully of a certain incident.

It was almost as if he was enjoying being the one to tell the tale.

“Now, then… Where should I begin?”

“Let’s see… I’ll start with the story of that young woman. Her name is—”