Baccano! - Volume 17 - Chapter Ep

EPILOGUE

C’MON AND SMILE

Several months later Somewhere on the American East Coast

And so a demon was summoned onto the ship.

And the tragedy that followed left many scars, particularly on Maiza and Sylvie.

But despite their grief and mourning, the ship sailed on, until at last they reached the eastern coast of the North American continent.

They intended to plant the seeds of the knowledge they already possessed and to gain new wisdom.

However, no shouts of joy went up. After all, they had lost many comrades along the way here.

A significant number of the alchemists were paranoid and suspicious of everyone else, and about half the survivors made themselves scarce without even saying good-bye to Maiza and the other passengers, let alone sharing their plans.

Fermet watched them, laughing inwardly, but then something occurred to him.

Come to think of it, Huey and Elmer don’t know yet. No one has told them that their bombs may very well have killed Niki.

If he didn’t tell them himself, they might never know. Thus, Fermet decided to correct this problem.

How is Niki to rest in peace if the people who killed her don’t know about their crime? I really must tell them both.

Completely disregarding his own involvement, Fermet stepped forward.

I want to see how they will react.

He had no other goal or ulterior motive. That really was his only reason.

The port The wharf

On the eastern coast of North America, which was home to several colonies, Queen Anne’s War was reaching its end.

The port town was small, and the war hardly seemed to have affected it at all.

The sudden arrival of the Advena Avis had caused a bit of a stir, but apparently this was only because the ship was a new model the locals weren’t used to seeing. Before more than a few days had passed, the Advena Avis was just another part of the scenery as far as they were concerned.

In view of the ship, two men sat on the wooden wharf, fishing lines dangling off the side.

They were Huey Laforet and Elmer C. Albatross.

Now that most of the alchemists had left the ship, there weren’t many people here.

After Szilard Quates had begun “eating” the others on the ship, many of them were afraid he might emerge from the ocean, and they’d headed inland. Conversely, Maiza spent his days gazing out over that ocean, as if he were lying in wait for him.

However, Huey and Elmer didn’t seem particularly concerned with any of it as they got used to the new area.

A man quietly came to stand behind them.

“Are you catching anything?” Fermet asked, as most people do when they speak to a fisherman. He slowly crouched down without waiting for a response.

“Nothing. I thought we might manage to land…I dunno, maybe an alligator or something.”

“It’s rare to see you without Czeslaw.”

Elmer had given an easygoing answer, while Huey had responded with an implied question of his own.

Fermet smiled a little, then answered Huey. “He’s playing with Begg today.”

Now then, how should I tell them?

Fermet considered how he could guide a casual conversation to the fact that Niki had been in the Mask Makers’ hideout that day.

Quickly creating a plan, he was about to broach a new topic and steer the conversation in the direction he wanted—

—but Huey spoke first. “Scheming again, Fermet?”

“…Whatever do you mean?”

Fermet laughed, wearing a cordial smile, but Huey went on without emotion.

“Did you kill Niki this time, the way you killed Monica?”

“…I’m not sure I understand the joke, Huey. Monica? Who is that?”

Fermet’s expression stayed firmly in place, but—

“Oh, your smile is fake now,” Elmer commented with a breezy grin of his own.

Fermet’s face went blank, and he was quiet for a while.

No one spoke.

Fermet gazed at Huey’s and Elmer’s backs appraisingly—and then broke into a smile that was completely different from the earlier one.

“Ha-ha!”

A laugh escaped him.

“Ha-ha… Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Aaah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

And then it spilled over.

“Heh-heh-heh-heh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

He held his sides, laughing, cackling, howling as if he’d gone mad.

It stopped as suddenly as it had started. With a sigh as he dropped the facade, he murmured, “You got me. When did you catch on?”

“Even if I hadn’t…a year is enough time to investigate.”

“I see! Of course you did. Given how quickly you ingratiated yourself to Lucrezia, I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Oh yes, that’s right. I haven’t greeted you properly again after all this time, have I, Fermet?” Wearing his usual faint smile, Huey slowly turned around. “I’d completely forgotten there was a child about my age traveling with that band of witch hunters.”

The band of witch hunters was an abominable group that had taken the life of Huey’s mother, and yet his thin smile didn’t change.

“Well, well, what a shock. You’re the first person who’s ever looked that far into my past, Huey.”

Fermet sounded like a different person now, but Huey’s expression stayed just as it was.

“So what are you going to do?” Fermet asked. “Will you reveal my identity to Maiza and the other passengers? Or are you going to try to avenge Monica here and now? Either is fine with me, you know. Oh, but I will ask you not to tell Czes and Begg. I really couldn’t take it if Czes came to hate me over something so petty. I might eat him in spite of myself.” Fermet was trying to provoke him, letting his right hand dangle in a careless way.

Elmer gazed at him and Huey with a smile, then murmured absently:

“Well, why don’t you two start by making up?”

When he heard that—for the first time, Fermet’s face went blank. “…What? What are you talking about?”

“You killed Moni-Moni, right, Fermet? So say you’re sorry, and then come fish with us. Somebody caught a whopper here yesterday.”

Elmer was talking as if fishing was the main topic.

Fermet studied his face, but he couldn’t find a hint of any irony or sarcasm.

The suggestion had been genuine, spoken with utter sincerity.

A chill ran down Fermet’s spine, unlike anything he’d ever experienced before in his life.

That chill turned into anger.

“At the very least, I don’t think you and I will ever get along, Elmer C. Albatross,” he answered icily.

“Really? You were a Dormentaire spy, too, weren’t you, Fermet? That makes two of us. We should be friends.”

“I have to decline. You killed my beloved Niki. I could never be friends with you,” Fermet said utterly shamelessly.

Elmer was startled. “Huh? I killed Niki? What do you mean?”

Fermet’s expression returned, and he gave a mocking grin.

He was preparing to let that hypocrite Elmer know what he really was. He was planning to tell him volubly and vigorously, to regale to him like an epic storyteller, exactly how he’d destroyed Niki, and what end he’d driven her to.

What is this?

Why am I so upset?

The question kept welling up while he spoke—but he couldn’t stop the surging waves of words.

For the first time in his life, he’d met a man who gave him chills. The only way to stop it was to control Elmer C. Albatross’s emotions personally. He was obsessed at this point.

“…By now, Niki’s either rotting under the rubble of that abandoned building, or the townspeople have killed her themselves. She’s a corpse now. Maybe she believed in me until the bitter end, or maybe she realized my betrayal and died cursing my name… Or maybe Huey’s. Maybe even yours.”

Over the course of half an hour, Fermet had given a full account of his relationship with Niki.

Then he waited for Elmer’s reaction. Would he fly into a rage and grab him, or would he grieve that his own suggestion to destroy the evidence had killed his friend? It didn’t matter. At this point, the most important thing to Fermet was simply whether or not he could affect this man’s emotions at all.

However—

“I see… So Niki might be dead. I hope she managed to die smiling, but…”

For just a moment, Elmer lowered his eyes sadly. Then:

“Well, that aside—make up with Huey, all right? And don’t worry; we won’t tell Czes and the others! So c’mon, smile more! That great big laugh a minute ago was so honest! I loved it!”

As if he’d forgotten Niki in just a few seconds, he gave a bright, genuine smile.

Fermet heard his own spine creak. “What in…? What the hell are you?”

Taking a step back, Fermet was absolutely certain: He had never met anyone like this in his entire life, and he never would again.

But right now, the goosebumps that were breaking out all over his body were telling him something.

This man, Elmer, was his mortal enemy. Or perhaps a better term would be his natural enemy.

It’s not true.

It can’t be. It can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be it can’t be.

Nothing in this world could possibly be this much of a threat to him.

Perhaps because he didn’t want to acknowledge the being in front of him, Fermet shook his head violently.

Reaching out with his trembling right hand, he grabbed Elmer’s head.

How’s that?

Be afraid.

This wasn’t like him at all, he knew, but he couldn’t control himself. He was convinced he had to erase this man from the earth, here and now.

And yet the moment he put his hand on his head, the impulse that surfaced in his mind was not I want to eat, but—

—overwhelming rejection.

Eat…this man?

Incorporate his knowledge, his experience, his personality…into myself…?

No way in hell.

No way in hell!

Turning pale, Fermet tore his hand off Elmer’s head. He backed away, as if he was seeing a ghost. “You are pure evil. Your existence is a blight on the world,” he said, completely ignoring his own existence. With a hiss of fury, he withdrew and half staggered away.

Before the day was out, he’d taken Czes and Begg and left town as fast as he could, without even telling Maiza good-bye.

Unaware that Fermet would vanish from the town a few hours later, Elmer was utterly mystified as he watched his unsteady departure.

“What do you suppose is wrong with Fermet? Did the seasickness finally catch up with him?”

“You really are an idiot, although I’ll acknowledge you are worthy of respect.”

“You think so? You’re making me blush.”

As Elmer chuckled and rubbed his head self-consciously, Huey murmured to him, his face serious.

“To be honest, when I heard what he’d done to Niki, I started feeling angry. I thought I’d discarded emotions like that entirely; I suppose it isn’t so easy.”

“Niki could be alive, though. I’ll watch for a chance to go back to Lotto Valentino and see.”

“Of course you would.”

As he listened to Elmer talk indifferently about life and death, Huey closed his eyes with some relief.

“…Do you remember what I asked you to do when we met that first time, a few days before we left port?”

“I remember. Uh, board the Advena Avis with you, and…”

“I’d like to ask you for that second favor again.” Watching his fishing line dangling into the water, Huey spoke quietly. “I believe I will change more and more after this. I’ll try anything I have to so I can keep my promise to Monica. But…if I see her again, and there’s nothing left of who I used to be…nothing left of who she loved…all of it will have been for nothing.”

“I doubt Monica would mind.” Elmer wasn’t joking; he’d seriously meant that.

Huey agreed, but then he shook his head slightly. “She might not mind, but I would. Ultimately, this is a selfish personal request.”

Then he turned to face Elmer and made his request, as a friend.

“So no matter how much I change…Elmer, please stay just the way you are. I know it’s a cruel, absurd thing to ask of you, but…if you remain the same, I think I can rely on you to find my way back to who I was back then. When she and I loved each other.”

Elmer gave him a simple answer. “You had better keep that promise you made me last year.”

“I will.”

“When you see Monica again…both of you come and show me the greatest smiles I’ve ever seen.”

Huey gave a wry smile. “The price is getting steeper.”

“But it’s fair, don’t you think? After all, about seventy years of life just turned into eternity. Trying to stay the same forever is going to be incredibly tough.”

“If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

Looking at Huey’s smile, Elmer nodded with satisfaction.

After that, the two of them continued to fish in silence for a while. Then, slowly, Huey got to his feet and spoke to Elmer without much emotion.

“All right. It’s time I was on my way.”

“See you later, then.”

Elmer’s response was just as casual.

This was good-bye.

Neither knew where the other was going, or how many months, years, or decades it would be before they next met. With someone like Szilard out there, they might never meet again.

Even so, as good-byes went, that was enough for them.

Huey knew that Elmer didn’t like teary good-byes, and he believed they’d meet again someday.

In the midst of eternity, there wasn’t much difference between one day and a hundred years.

Huey gave his only close friend a casual wave, then turned away and began his journey.

His eyes were on his goal, and he felt a solid connection to Elmer, behind him, and to Monica, who existed in the past.

That was the moment Huey Laforet’s long, long journey began.

Believing the threads that connected them would be wound close again someday in the distant future…he took a firm first step.