Baccano! - Volume 14 - Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

MY WORLD

The abandoned factory

Night had fallen completely, shrouding the abandoned factory by the river, which Graham’s gang was using as their hideout. The cold of winter and the dark of night heightened the atmosphere of decay, turning it into something even eerier.

In the center of that factory were a sizable number of suspicious shadows that were a good match for the gloomy atmosphere.

However, those figures surrounded a lovely girl in a white dress who didn’t seem to belong in this place at all.

…This was true only as far as looks went, of course.

The large room was littered with machine components.

They’d made Chané sit in a corner on a rough chair cobbled together from pipes.

In front of her, a large heap of scrap wood was burning in an oil drum, and the bright, flickering flames redly illuminated the surrounding darkness.

The light revealed a man in coveralls, who seemed weirdly worked up for a guy with such dark eyes, and delinquents who seemed to be his companions.

“Poor doll. It looks like she’s so scared she can’t even talk. Heh-heh.”

Even after that remark from the thug who’d been driving, Chané stayed silent.

She wasn’t actually afraid, of course; she didn’t allow herself to speak.

In order to keep the various secrets her father had taught her, Chané had voluntarily discarded her voice. She’d chosen not to learn sign language, and she communicated only what she absolutely had to in writing.

If she’d had a voice or known sign language, she might have confessed easily under torture or the influence of drugs, so first, she’d gotten rid of her words. In addition, by discarding conversation, she’d solidified the walls between herself and others.

She almost never communicated, even in writing. She used it only when there was something she wanted to say very badly.

At present, Chané was disgusted, and she had no intention of telling these people the truth.

She’d initially suspected they might have some connection to her father, and she’d pretended to let herself be kidnapped without a fuss in order to determine their objective—but when she listened carefully to their conversation, it turned out to be nothing at all. Apparently, they’d merely mistaken her for a girl named Eve.

“Sorry, little lady. Still, in a way, not being able to talk is lucky. When people talk, whether they’re expressing sadness or joy or anger, they expend some intense energy. With fear or pain, it’s even worse.”

The man was messing with an industrial tool, flipping it around. From the behavior of others around, Chané assumed he was the center of this group.

“In that sense, being so scared your words up and vanish on you is… Well, in a way, could you call it human instincts at work, a self-defense mechanism, there to conserve energy in extreme situations? Whoops. I said something kinda clever. Okay, fellas, bring on the praise.”

At his signal, the delinquents applauded, expressionless.

Clapping with total disillusionment, Shaft muttered indifferently.

“That last half killed the whole line. Not that it wasn’t a birdbrained comment to begin with.”

“You really do have serious balls now, huh, fella. Good to hear. I guess that means that sticking a wrench in your gut was worth it. You’re gonna pay for that later, though.”

Thinking that the delinquents’ conversation was ridiculous, Chané decided it would be pointless to stay here any longer, and she slowly got up from her chair. They must have thought she was a sheltered, powerless girl: They hadn’t tied her up, and they hadn’t patted her down.

“Hmm? Hey, who said you could get up…?”

Still, they didn’t even notice the weapons on my back… How amateurish are these men?

By now, she was certain they held no connection to her father. With that thought, Chané whipped out one of the knives she’d been wearing on her back.

“Waugh?!”

At the sudden flash of silver, a nearby delinquent screamed.

Meanwhile, the man in coveralls was startled, too— But from his expression, it seemed more as if he was enjoying an accident he hadn’t seen coming.

“Oho… I thought you were just a rich young doll, but that’s real interesting. Is that for self-defense…? It’s a little big. Not that I mind. You startled me a little, but that’s a good thing. Surprise constantly reminds people that the future lies in impenetrable darkness—”

Without letting the man finish talking, Chané launched herself into a run, keeping her body low to the ground.

Closing the distance between them in the space of a breath, Chané’s thin arm snapped out as if it was spring-loaded, and her knife streaked toward the man’s arm.

What the man had done to Jacuzzi’s friends a minute ago had been really slick. He’d used that enormous wrench to trap all their legs and dropped them soundlessly to the ground. They hadn’t seemed to take any significant damage, but that was only because he hadn’t launched a follow-up attack.

His foundation is his skill with a wrench.

That was the conclusion Chané had reached.

She’d decided that taking his arm out would be enough to let her get away, but—

Seconds before her blade reached him, there was a fierce metallic clank, and the knife stopped moving.

—!

“Surprise number two… Are you maybe not actually Eve Genoard? I mean, what you just did, that ain’t how amateurs move. Uh, you really startled me, actually. Also, I’d appreciate it you’d listen to people until they’re done talking.”

Chané’s sharp kinetic vision instantly understood what had happened.

His right hand had shifted the wrench so that it guarded the area from his heart to his neck, and in his left hand—although there was no telling when he’d taken them out—he held a pair of industrial pliers. The pliers were shut tight, firmly trapping Chané’s knife.

She’d been holding back so that she wouldn’t kill him, but she was surprised that he’d managed to stop her knife.

Even then, her expression hardly changed at all. As he watched her face, the man in coveralls began to cackle.

“You’re a funny one. You’re so okay you’re too okay. Man, this ain’t good; I’m getting all worked up. Okay, I made up my mind: Nothing will faze me now, even if somebody tells me you’re a Martian. C’mon, hurry up and grow eight arms, wouldja? If you ain’t human—that means you’re worth breaking.”

I knew it. This guy… He’s like that man in the white suit.

From the things he says, to the way he plans to kill me!

Having decided that her opponent was dangerous, Chané began to take this seriously, even if it meant she had to take his life.

She launched herself off the ground, kicking the man’s thigh. She’d meant to use the recoil to tear her knife free from the pliers—but the guy in coveralls seemed to have read her intentions.

He flicked the huge wrench over to the spot where she’d aimed her kick, trapping her leg in its grip.

There was no pain. But she could feel her momentum being redirected—and the next thing she knew, her body was rotating in midair.

The knife had been torn from her hand, and it bounced and rolled on the ground with a dry metallic clang.

I messed up.

The hyperactive way he spoke and acted.

The malice that reminded her of that man in the white suit.

And the enormous weapon he held.

Working from those conditions, Chané had unconsciously tried to fight him in the same way she’d fought Ladd. In practice, though, Ladd was the type who bulled his way through by brute force—while this man fought by diverting his opponent’s strength.

Even though she’d made that call herself just a moment ago, since she’d been thinking of him as Ladd Russo, she’d taken the wrong approach.

Feeling irritated at her own carelessness, Chané rapidly put some distance between them.

I still have one knife on my back.

If she managed to capitalize on a vulnerability, this would work out. The problem was, how should she go about creating that vulnerability?

Even as Chané thought, the man in coveralls calmly walked toward her.

“This is getting kinda fun. Really, really, really fun. Why don’t we join forces here to tell a fun story? Specifically, well, you know what I mean—you losing.”

What he said sounded crazy, but the way the man moved wasn’t giving her any openings.

In the moment her psyched-up opponent raised that huge wrench, Chané decided that now was her chance and tried to launch herself at him, but—

—their tension was shattered by the entrance of a guy who didn’t exactly belong here.

“Pl-please stop!”

A near-scream echoed in the factory and brought them to a halt.

Naturally, it hadn’t come from Chané. It had sounded from a short distance away, near the center of the factory—and it belonged to a spineless delinquent.

“U-um… I brought the money, so please let that girl go, right now!”

Even as he shivered, determination blazed in his eyes, and Jacuzzi Splot slowly walked toward Graham’s group. That said, both his legs needed an assist from the crutches he was using, and each step seemed to take a lot of effort.

I never thought he’d actually come.

The thought crossed Chané’s mind, but come to think of it, this was the guy who’d come after her in spite of his injuries when she’d gone to retake her father. It wasn’t strange for him to show up now.

But what could he do?

Frankly, Chané still had doubts.

Suspicious that his group knew about her father, she had approached them in order to use them.

It was true that after she’d stayed with them for a while, her suspicions had faded, but they hadn’t vanished entirely. It was the last rift between Chané and Jacuzzi.

Over the next few minutes, that doubt would completely disappear.

“Ho-ho. That was fast. Okay, let’s switch from a surprising story to a story that’s happy for me. Well, that’s great. Money’s great. At least, everyone says it is… And watching people dance for joy over that money and be destroyed is the best thing ever.”

Without losing any momentum, Graham turned toward Jacuzzi, wearing a refreshing smile that didn’t suit his eyes. However, half of his attention stayed focused on Chané, and he didn’t give her any easy openings.

“Hold it. You said you brought money, but…your hands are completely empty.”

“Uh, well, I don’t have cash, but…I did bring something that will work as a substitute.”

“?”

Graham’s group turned suspicious eyes on him, and Jacuzzi, still frightened, went on.

“I—I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but…I’m…”

At that point, he broke off for a moment. He drew a deep breath, and the resolve building in his gut finally burst out.

“There’s this mafia outfit in Chicago—the Russo Family. They have a bounty on me.”

“?!”

“If you hand me over to them…they should give you lots of money.”

Silence.

Nobody had been expecting that remark.

They’d simply assumed that he’d come to retake Chané by force because he was broke. The wimpiness of the boy who’d turned up had been a shock all by itself, and now that boy was putting his life on the line.

Graham’s gang’s second objective had been Jacuzzi all along. They’d practically conducted the kidnapping in order to get ahold of him—but they’d never imagined that he’d bring the matter up himself before they could confront him with it.

Naturally, Chané hadn’t been expecting Jacuzzi to say that, either. She knew he was wanted in Chicago; she’d heard that much from his friends. But she’d never dreamed that he’d use himself as a bargaining tool.

Why? To save…me?

If he was using her and her father for his own self-interest, then he wouldn’t throw his life away on this deal, plain and simple.

For my sake? Why…? It hasn’t even been that long since we met. I’m not his family or anything like it, so why…?

For a moment, a thought rose inside her.

She saw the smiles of Jacuzzi and his friends, and she felt an emotion she couldn’t allow herself to have.

That she wouldn’t regret being used, as long as they were the ones who did it.

“Ha-ha! …Sheesh. Mr. Graham, this guy’s a total idiot! He doesn’t even know what we’re actually after, and he— Gblagh!”

Before his underling could laugh at Jacuzzi’s ridiculous proposal, Graham jabbed his wrench into the man’s gut and opened his dull eyes wide. He was stunned.

“You’re a real piece of work.”

As everyone around them watched, Graham flung his wrench high in the air.

He snatched the iron tool out of midair as it came back down, sending a pleasant smack echoing through the factory.

“Dammit… You’ve impressed me. Interesting. You’re fun. And you’re sad, Jacuzzi Splot. But I’m impressed. They say fun and sadness are always two sides of the same coin, but…you! Right now! This very instant! My heart is trapped inside a stupid coin because of you!”

Yelling like a lunatic poet, Graham smacked the wrench again.

“Fine. Since you impressed me, I’ll let this doll walk… She ain’t Eve Genoard anyway, right? Besides, even if we let her go, with a limp like yours, I’m betting you won’t be able to make a break for it. Frankly, I’m surprised you managed to walk this far. You’re a tough guy.”

“No, I-I’m not… It hurts, and I’m scared, and I think I’m gonna cry.”

“You’re tough and pathetic… Damn, fella, are you trying to trap me inside a coin again?”

Acting cheerfully irritated, Graham turned to face Chané.

“Go on, get outta here. You’d better thank that guy.”

In response, the hostage…made no attempt to move.

Instead, she was watching everything Graham did, and her eyes were even sharper than they had been before.

“…Hmm? What’s up? …Are you telling me we’re not done fighting?”

Chané’s resolve to kill him hadn’t so much as flickered. Smiling wryly, Graham leveled his adjustable wrench again.

“Y’know, I was half hoping you’d stick around.”

“Ch-Chané…!”

As she listened to Jacuzzi’s voice, Chané had quietly made up her mind.

She didn’t understand what was making her want to do this.

But if she took this man down here, Jacuzzi would live. That was all she knew.

Chané quietly focused her mind.

The boundary line that separated life and death.

That line turned into a warped membrane that enveloped Chané and Graham, compressing the thick atmosphere inside it.

Once again, the situation in the factory was growing tense, but—

—the next instant, although it had been stretched to the breaking point, the feeling of tension abruptly dissipated.

A small-scale explosion had punched through the factory wall.

Red light welled up at the edge of Jacuzzi’s vision, and part of the factory wall promptly flew to pieces with a loud crash.

“Eep?!”

Naturally, Jacuzzi hadn’t been the only one startled; almost everyone in the place turned to look at the source of the roar. Graham and Chané both took this as a good opportunity, but because they’d both thought it, neither gave the other any openings, and their fight stayed deadlocked.

The flames disappeared almost instantly, and into the space where black-and-white smoke mingled came—

“Chané! Are you okay?!”

“Uh… Nice, the door was open. Why blow it up?”

“C’mon, Donny, you already know the answer to that one. Miz Nice just wanted to blow it up. Obviously.”

“…If anyone reports that explosion, the police will be here soon! You should run!”

“What, you were actually thinking this through?!”

“Sounds like an afterthought to me.”

“Besides, if you were planning to call the cops, reporting it normally would have been a better move…”

“Aren’t you the first one they’d grab, Miz Nice?”

“It’s all right. According to my calculations, it will be another 623 seconds before the police get here, at the very least.”

“Hey, Melody, how’d you get those numbers?”

“I just know.”

“Oh, you do, huh?!” “If you’re so sure, then why’d you say ‘at the very least’?!”

“Apologize!” “Why?” “Melody has a duty to apologize to me! The world should apologize to me.” “What makes you so sure?” “I just know.” “This again?!” “Man, instinct makes for a handy excuse!” “Instinct takes all the blame, doesn’t it?!” “Yeah, you should apologize to it!” “I’m sorry.” “Wait, you actually did it…?!”

“Hya-haah!”

“Hya-haw!”

Jacuzzi’s friends stepped into the factory, bringing an incomprehensible din along with them.

The several dozen delinquents who’d made such a raucous entrance threw the thugs in the factory into clear confusion.

Graham kept his cool, but he turned to a mystified Jacuzzi.

“…Huh? Didn’t I write for you to come alone in that letter?”

“H-he’s right, you guys! Why are you here?! I told you over and over not to…!”

Jacuzzi also protested, but Nice was perfectly unbothered as she answered.

“Yes, as it said in the letter, you went alone, Jacuzzi, and so—

“I also came here alone.”

“I walked here by myself.”

“Me too.”

“Me three.”

“Get this: Me too!”

“Uh, I came myself. From Mexico to America.”

“I’m on my own, too.”

“In life, you’re always alone. Don’t expect help!”

“Ultimately, everybody’s alone, you know.”

“I also came on my own.”

“Sorry, I actually came with my little sister… I could’ve sworn I did!”

“Look, I told you, you ain’t got a little sister.”

“So I guess his delusions walked here all by themselves.”

“Chaini, you close your mouth and stick to saying hya-haah!”

“Hya-haah!” “Hya-haw.”

“Anyway, I came alone, too.”

“Me too.” “And me.” “Me as well.” “As did I.”

They all gave the same answer, and Graham thought back over what he’d written—

“Hey, there’s no contradiction there. You people… You must be pretty smart.”

“You’re just too dumb, boss! Wh-wh-what’re we gonna do about this?!” Shaft urged, now that he’d recovered from the pain of that jab to his stomach.

Graham didn’t turn a hair, and as he went on, his expression was filled with confidence.

“Relax. Did you forget we have a hostage?”

“She doesn’t even count as a hostage anymore!”

Graham looked at Chané, who was standing frozen, knife in hand. He fell to thinking, and then—

“Do you think they’d stop if we took you hostage instead, Shaft?”

“What the hell makes you think they would?!”

Blatantly ignoring his scream of protest, Graham mused, laid-back.

“Well, with numbers like this, I doubt we’ll have any trouble. If the other guys were all cars or something, I’d enjoy breaking them, but frankly, I’m not fond of destroying human joints…”

As he was muttering with perfect composure, a stir was running through Jacuzzi’s companions.

“…Hey. When all of you were talking just now…I heard a voice I didn’t recognize.”

“Oh, you thought so, too?”

“Hya-haw.”

“Uh, actually, he’s over there by the wall…”

“That redheaded fella… Who’s he?”

The delinquents’ gazes finally converged on one place, throwing the lone man who stood by the wall into sharp relief.

Jacuzzi and Nice also knew something was very different about this red-haired guy—

And Chané was already in motion.

“Ghk?! Dammit!”

Graham hadn’t been expecting Chané’s charge, and he’d involuntarily given her an opening.

I’ve gotta do something, or she’ll get me.

Instantly, he twisted away, trying to avoid a lethal injury—

—but Chané ignored him and charged toward the redheaded man like a bullet.

As the lovely cannonball’s blade was about to plunge into the guy’s throat—

—Chané’s knife stopped.

The man hadn’t done a thing.

The confusion that had welled up inside her had halted the blade.

Why did I stop?!

Why did I hesitate to kill this man?!

I knew the moment I saw his eyes: He’s the one from back then!

And yet my blade stopped. Why?!

It’s strange. I’m not myself today.

A moment ago…when I tried to save Jacuzzi— That made no sense, either.

This man… He’ll get in Father’s way. That’s what I’d decided…

No… Today, when he sent me clothes, I knew.

I’m trying to kill this man—because of my own ego.

I’m scared—afraid to let a new person into the world where Father and I live, the place for only the two of us.

I’m terrified that the past I believed in is going to break.

The red-haired man ignored Chané’s confusion. He didn’t try in the slightest to take or evade the knife she held at his neck. Instead, he spoke with flushed cheeks.

“…We haven’t seen each other in a while, but I wanted to say this anyway…”

That voice unmistakably belonged to the Rail Tracer.

“It’s fine. If you’re planning on killing me, I don’t mind. I just figured I should tell you how I felt about you, at least once.”

What does he mean?

Don’t confuse me any more than this. Don’t send my heart off course.

“Up on that train, all the stuff I said was based on logic. I didn’t tell you how I felt.”

Stop it. Don’t say it.

“I’m gonna lay it out there… I’ve got a problem. It looks like I love you from the bottom of my heart, Chané… Sorry. I lied. This isn’t a problem for me at all. I do love you, though… Argh, I knew it, I’m no good with fancy words. Basically—I love you! Marry me!”

It was a pragmatic confession of love, totally lacking in romance.

Neither Jacuzzi, nor Nice, nor even Graham knew how they should react to this sudden intruder. However, from the fact that the man’s cheeks were a little flushed, they understood that even though the confession seemed like it had to be some kind of joke, he was serious.

Chané also understood the man was being honest.

Back when she’d been with the Lemures, there had been many men who’d casually tossed the word love at her, but she’d always known they didn’t mean it. After they’d learned more about who she was, none of them had spoken to her again.

This man is different, though.

I didn’t sense the slightest lie in the world he showed me on top of the train.

Oh, I’m scared.

At the same time, Chané was unable to sort out the emotions that churned inside her.

I’m terrified.

It was an issue more basic than deciding whether or not to fall in love with someone else.

I never knew…how terrifying it could be.

Regardless of the results, the act of sincerely accepting words that were colored by someone’s love was completely unknown territory for her.

I never knew someone besides Father could frighten me so.

“Are you scared?” Claire asked slowly, looking into Chané’s eyes.

Even though Jacuzzi and the others were around them, listening in, he spoke loudly and clearly, as though they were witnesses to his vow.

“It’ll be all right, I promise. I won’t break the world you’ve always believed in. No matter what. If you believe in me—you’re believing in my world. And I would never, ever break my own world.”

As if he’d read Chané’s mind, Claire made a declaration full of confidence.

“A world isn’t that flimsy. It won’t break just because somebody stepped inside.”

It was like he was speaking to his own world to make sure he was understood.

“It just—gets a little bigger. That’s all.”

The young man checked in with his world, verifying that it was prepared to accept the world of this girl, Chané.

“If your world looks like it’s going to break—I’ll protect it.”

He assured her again and again.

“Normally, you probably can’t trust guys who make these kinds of promises, but…”

He assured her of his love, which could only reach those in his world.

“…as you know—I’m not normal.”

Chané stared at the young man and his bashful smile, and the next thing she knew, she’d lowered her knife.

This man…and Jacuzzi’s group…

To think the world she had avoided looking at until now, the world she’d never tried to see, had held such terrifying beings.

They punched right through the shell she’d desperately built up. They smiled and asked to shake her hand. What terrible creatures.

Yet, at this point, Chané strangely felt the same sort of emotion for these outsiders as she did for her father.

She didn’t want to lose those who had stepped inside her shell.

Was that really love in the end? Even she didn’t know.

After all, in her world, her father had never told her he loved her. Not even once.

A roar.

A shrill metallic noise echoed in the factory, yanking everyone back to their present circumstances.

Jacuzzi’s group had no idea what had happened, but when they turned toward the noise—there was Graham, perplexed.

“Uh, let me tell you an incomprehensible story. When it comes to incomprehensibility in the affairs of mankind— What is that? …I’m lost. Well, whatever. Thinking about all this is pointless. And so, despite my confusion: Can we pick this thing back up where we left off?”

Graham had been completely abandoned, and he was seething.

“Sure. I’ll give you permission.”

The first one to respond was the one responsible for breaking up the tension in the first place: the man with the red hair.

“All right, well, I haven’t gotten an answer from Chané yet, but…if you’re fighting my beloved and her friends, I’ll take you on. So if you’re going to make a break for it, now’s your chance.”

The intruder’s words couldn’t have been more arrogant, and for a moment, Graham was taken aback, but before long, he heaved a big sigh.

“Before we do any fighting, my biggest and possibly truly pointless yet personal curiosity begs the question—who are you?”

“Me? My name is… I’m not telling you fellas my real name, but for now, I’ll introduce myself as Felix Walken.”

The moment the young man gave that name, Graham’s underlings’ expressions changed drastically.

“Huh?”

“Felix… Ain’t that…the name of that legendary hitman…?”

“That’s just a rumor…right?”

Ignoring his confused pals, Graham spoke calmly, wrench dangling. “Don’t panic. If this guy’s a legendary hitman, well, we know a legendary murderer, remember? You’ve watched my brother Ladd all this time, so it’s way too late to get jumpy over a name, ain’t that right?”

“Ladd the murderer?”

When he heard what Graham said, the redheaded man seemed to remember something.

“That’s the guy who fell off the train the other day, right?”

The air turned icy.

Graham’s friends all felt their mouths go dry.

They knew what the drop in temperature meant, and they backed up on instinct, putting more distance between themselves and Graham.

“…How come you know that? That story ain’t exactly a rumor walking around. Not outside his inner circle.”

It was a heavy, dark, sharp voice, the sort that would weaken the soul of anyone who heard it.

But the red-haired guy answered casually.

“Well, I mean… I’m the one who dropped him.”

The next moment, a silver baton flew at the Rail Tracer, spinning unbelievably fast.

Everybody who saw it thought the same thing: Oh. That redhead is dead.

Yet, the young guy caught the massive wrench easily—then put an even greater spin on it and threw it back even faster.

The force made everybody think, Oh. That guy in coveralls is dead, but Graham also caught it as if it was nothing. He spun it the other way to kill its momentum, and turned his own body one hundred and eighty degrees.

He turned his back? Jacuzzi’s group wondered, but only for a moment.

Graham went through another half rotation, adding an extra three hundred and sixty degrees of force to the wrench, and hurled it back.

It was spinning even faster.

By now, the wrench resembled a silver disc.

The redheaded guy didn’t catch it that time. He dodged it by a hair—

—but immediately afterward, a blue figure was right in his face.

When Graham threw the wrench, he’d leaped after it.

He held a small wrench and pair of pliers in his hands in an almost comical two-handed fighting style as he bore down on his redheaded foe.

“Oho!” The Rail Tracer leaped back, mildly impressed.

A moment later, there was an explosion, but not from dynamite.

It was the sound of that enormous wrench destroying the oil drum that had been behind the redhead.

The empty steel container buckled, torn nearly in half at the point where the attack had hit.

If that had been a human, their upper and lower bodies might have been forced to part company.

As Jacuzzi imagined it, his vision dimmed. That didn’t stop the battle in front of him from intensifying, and he was too frazzled to pass out.

“Wow, that startled me. You’re better than I thought, fella,” the redhead commented. Even though he’d been dodging death in physical form constantly for the past couple of minutes, he was as carefree as ever. “You might actually be tougher than that guy Ladd.”

“You think so? That’s real nice to hear, but unfortunately, my heart’s too tough to fall for flattery!” Graham responded as he paid out random attacks with his tools.

His manner of speaking completely ignored the rhythm of his attacks. It was as if his mouth and his body were working separately. As a matter of fact, his barrage of attacks was based in the motions that his demolition work had physically ingrained in him. He was effectively balancing multiple tasks separately.

As the redhead dodged a barrage of unpredictable attacks with no clear trajectory, he smiled.

“Well, taunting always seemed to get his dander up, so I’d say you’re stronger mentally.”

“Applesauce. My brother Ladd always rises to provocation; it’s a natural law. That natural law also says he’s too strong a fighter, so he crushes all his opponents once he decides to get into the ring! There’s no contradiction there! In other words, he’s constantly saddled with the handicap of being easy to bait! He’s a terrifying guy, my brother Ladd…! And I finally realized that what you just said was more of a taunt than flattery, but it’s too late to get mad about it now. Am I all washed up or what?!”

“Don’t ask me. Y’know, the way you talk is funny, too,” he said with a laugh.

They sounded like two good buddies slinging banter at each other, but if you actually watched the two of them move, you could tell their relationship was nothing of the sort.

Graham took a step back from his opponent, picking up the huge wrench that had been lying on the ground—then shifted straight into taking a full-force, ground-scraping swing with it.

A metallic noise rang out, and something flew at the redhead’s face.

It was the knife that Graham had ripped out of Chané’s hand a moment ago.

The wrench had dexterously scooped up and sent the silver blade streaking toward the redhead, but he caught it as if it was nothing, flipped it around, and held it out hilt-first to Chané, who was standing behind him.

“Here. This is yours, right?”

“…”

The act was completely out of place in the middle of a fight, and Chané’s eyes swam in confusion, but she took the knife.

In the next instant, the redhead seemed to vanish.

Graham had come in from the side and swung his wrench in a heavy downward strike, but his opponent dodged it just before it got there. Then, when the tool slammed into the floor, the young man used it as a stepping stool to reach Graham’s shoulder.

He twisted around, grabbed a hook that was hanging from the ceiling, kicked off a nearby pillar, and used the chain to maneuver as if he was swimming through midair.

“You still wanna go?”

As he locked eyes with the foe above him, Graham shot him with more illogical statements.

“Hey, ginger. You’re not afraid of my wrench at all, are you? You’re not scared. You’re not frightened. You’re not spooked! How rude can you get?! I don’t expect you to apologize to me, but my wrench and the laws of physics are very offended!”

“True, I’m not scared, but bullets will kill you, and I’m used to slashing attacks after all my fights with Cookie.”

“Who’s Cookie?!”

“My pal. You’ve never heard of him?”

The red-haired man’s response was even less rational, and Graham lightly kicked a nearby oil drum into the air—

“Like hell I do! Introduce me later! I bet any pal that can fight with you is a monster, right?!”

He hit the oil drum he’d lofted with the wrench, sending it into the air like a baseball.

The redheaded man let go of the hook, landed neatly on top of that oil drum—and then touched down on the ground, warped iron barrel and all.

“Well, he was ten feet tall, easy.”

“So he is a monster!”

The redheaded young guy, who was standing on the oil drum as if it was a balancing ball, looked a little disappointed. Since it was warped, the oil drum made a weird kee-clonk, kee-clonk noise under him.

“I see. I’m not very famous, but he sure was. I don’t mind introducing you, but he hates the smell of iron, so he’d probably eat you.”

“Eat me?”

The conversation made no sense.

The two sides of their dialogue weren’t meshing at all, but the rhythm of their fight synchronized so well it was a thing of beauty.

The way they moved was so abnormal that Jacuzzi and the other spectators began to doubt reality, wondering whether this might be a dream.

After their exchange had gone on for a few minutes, Graham abruptly realized something.

His opponent still hadn’t launched a single decent counterattack.

…

I’m pushing him, so it’s all he can do to dodge, and he can’t counterattack.

…No, this guy’s too good for that.

“So you dropped my brother Ladd off the train, huh…?”

They’d both taken some distance, and as they caught their breath, he gradually began to rein in his urge to destroy.

“That…looks like it wasn’t a lie.”

Lightly thumping the ground with his wrench, Graham quietly stared downward—

—and then he murmured, without letting anyone see his expression:

“…We’re going home.”

And that was all.

“Wha…? Huh? ’Scuse me?”

His delinquent friends were baffled, but Graham delivered a loud monologue to the factory, keeping his back turned on the redhead.

“Ahh… Let me tell you a sad, sad story.”

Slinging his adjustable wrench over one shoulder, Graham sounded thoroughly despondent.

“An enemy I hate with a passion is right in front of me, and yet I can’t even mess with him.”

“You just spent the past several minutes mess— Bwugh!”

Lightly jabbing his smaller wrench into Shaft’s stomach, Graham continued his speech.

“I mean, how could I? …After all, someday…Ladd’s gonna slaughter that guy himself. If I mess with him, I’ll probably die a horrific, savage, atrocious death at Ladd’s hands.”

At that line, the redhead’s face grew rather serious, and he spoke, casually respecting his opponent.

“…Thanks for the warning, buddy.”

“It ain’t a warning. It’s a death sentence.”

Spitting out that final remark, Graham walked right past Jacuzzi’s group, heading for the door. Still perplexed, the other delinquents trailed after him.

As he passed Jacuzzi, Graham muttered to him in a low voice, “I like your style… Go ahead and use this warehouse whenever you want. It’s mine.”

“Huh…?”

“See ya. Let’s meet again. Sometime when that damn ginger’s not around.”

As he watched Graham leave with a defeated smirk, Jacuzzi realized he couldn’t make heads or tails of what had just happened.

“So…was he a good person? Or a bad one?”

“I don’t think it matters either way. In the end, everyone’s safe.”

Jacuzzi had been talking to himself, but Nice answered him nonetheless.

Maybe he’d been relieved by how normal that was: Jacuzzi sank down to sit on the ground.

“I’m still confused, but…are we…safe now?”

“That’s right, Jacuzzi… Still…that man… What is he?”

Nice was watching the guy who’d appeared like a sudden storm. He was facing Chané, and they were gazing into each other’s eyes and talking about something.

That said, the red-haired man was doing all the talking.

Jacuzzi got the feeling he’d seen him somewhere before, but for now, he decided to end the conversation without pursuing the matter.

“I don’t really get it…but maybe I don’t need to. Let him be.”

Looking at his friend, he gave a smile that seemed rather relieved.

“Besides…Chané seems happy. Just a little.”

“I’ll tell you, and only you, my real name, Chané. I’ll let you keep it for me. It’s the name of my soul. That—is my vow.”

As he gazed at Chané with an earnest expression, the redheaded man sounded almost as if he was making a joke.

“It’s Claire… Claire Stanfield.”

He seemed a little embarrassed by his own formal introduction, but he asked her one more question.

“If you don’t mind—we can start as friends. Would you…fall in love with me?”

Wordlessly, Chané averted her eyes. However, her cheeks flushed very faintly crimson.

And that—was her answer.