Baccano! - Volume 3 - Chapter 6

EPILOGUE

COSTUMED BANDITS

New York Pennsylvania Station

The doors of the train opened, and the passengers were finally released from their long, turbulent journey.

They hadn’t been able to send on the cars that had served as the stage for the incident as they were, and so a different train had taken them to Pennsylvania Station.

Shadows stood on the lively, bustling platform, quietly searching for the people they were waiting for:

Firo and Ennis, waiting for their friends Isaac and Miria.

Maiza, waiting for Czes, his old colleague.

And the three Gandor brothers, who were waiting for a hitman who happened to be a family member—Claire Stanfield.

The people they were waiting for didn’t appear, and the figures exiting the train were growing few and far between.

Finally, a woman in coveralls with an injured leg disembarked.

After her came an individual dressed in gray from head to toe, and a man who seemed to be his assistant. Then a guy with a tattoo on his face, a girl with an eyepatch and glasses, and a big guy who was over six feet tall.

Their eyes were drawn to the odd group, just a little, but Firo and the others kept right on waiting.

Then, the very last ones to emerge from the train were—

—A western gunman in badly torn clothes, and an equally tattered dancing girl.

“Hey! Ennis and Firo and Maiza! It’s been a long time, my good people!”

“Yes, you look well. I’m so glad!”

At Isaac and Miria’s voices, the party felt relieved, but they did get in an apt verbal jab:

“What’s with those clothes?”

“Heh-heh, right now, I’m a western gunman! Call me the Belle Starr of the East!”

“But you just said you were western…”

“Wasn’t Belle Starr a broad?”

Ignoring Firo and Berga’s comebacks, Miria also introduced herself with a random outlaw’s name:

“Okay, then I’m—! I’m the Edgar Watson of the North!”

“Uh, that’s the guy who shot and killed Myra Maybelle Shirley…aka, Belle Starr.”

“Whaaaaaat?! I’m going to kill Isaac?! Oh no, I couldn’t stand that!”

“Nah, it’s all right, Miria! I can die for you!”

Seeing that the pair hadn’t changed a bit, Firo and Ennis smiled, as if relieved.

“Gah-ha-ha! You guys are as dumb as ever.”

At Berga’s jeer, the two flung their arms into the air and protested. The way they waved their arms around made them look like wind-up toys.

“What?! Make fun of me if you want, but I won’t let you make fun of Miria!”

“You can make fun of me, but don’t you dare badmouth Isaac!”

“In other words, we’ve got enough anger for two here!”

“And two people times two is four people!”

“In a majority vote, we’d win!”

“Yes, it’s one against four!”

“Huh? Hold it, wait a sec…”

In response to their absurd, rapid-fire logic, Berga began folding fingers down, muttering under his breath.

“That’s embarrassing, Berga. Stop.”

While this was going on, Isaac cried out as if he’d remembered something:

“Oh, that’s right! We’ve got a present for you, Ennis!”

“A really good one!”

“What, you do?! Thank you very much!”

Ennis thanked them happily. Isaac and Miria turned their backs on her and, for some reason, boarded the train again. Before long, as the group watched, mystified, Isaac came back, accompanied by the “present.”

At his right hand stood a boy who’d changed clothes.

As Firo and the others looked on, wide-eyed, Isaac and Miria introduced him. They seemed truly delighted. Apparently, they’d been concerned about that letter this whole time. The one they’d gotten from Ennis in California.

“This boy is Czes!”

“Take him as your little brother, Ennis! That’ll be perfect!”