1931 The Grand Punk Railroad: Local (7 page)

Then, taking a gun from inside his coat, he wrapped up his story:

“Now then, regarding the all-important method of salvation… ‘Everyone who heard this story died immediately. There wasn’t a single way to be saved’!”

As his story ended, he took aim at the young conductor’s nose and fired.

A gunshot.

The sound traveled along the rails, echoing sharply…

Exhaustively…

Across the entirety of the line…

And so the monster awakened.

The monster named…

…the Rail Tracer.

A short while earlier.

The train had made it to sunset without incident, and people from a variety of passenger compartments were enjoying their dinners in the dining car.

The design motif for the dining car had also been based on the Royal Train, and the calm shades of the woodwork formed an exquisite harmony with the overlay of gold ornamentation.

The dining car was available to anyone, regardless of which compartment they were in, and while passengers from the third-class compartments ate, they too could feel like kings. This was one of the things that made the train popular.

Rows of tables took up half the dining car, while the other half held a kitchen and counter seats. Several cooks bustled around busily in the kitchen, making maximum use of the small space to create rich flavors and fragrances.

All sorts of food—from French dishes and Chinese cuisine to the Creole specialty jambalaya—were lined up on the tables, boldly asserting themselves.

While people were engrossed in the food, there was one group of men who hadn’t gotten involved with the meal.

“Look, I’m telling you, this isn’t the place for this conversation. You understand, Jacuzzi. We got customers here.”

“He’s right, Jacuzzi. I know you get it. And actually: Get it.”

At a counter seat in the dining car, two men were reproaching Jacuzzi. They were behind the counter; one was dressed as a cook, while the other was dressed as a bartender.

The cook was an Asian man, and the bartender was a young Irish guy. Both were Jacuzzi’s friends, and the informants who had turned him on to this freight robbery.

“No, um, I know, I know, I really do know. It’s just like you say, Fang and Jon. But listen, it wasn’t okay when I came by this evening, either, so I was wondering when we’d be able to talk…”

The Asian man was Fang, and the Irishman’s name was Jon. A duo consisting of a Chinese immigrant and an Irish one. According to the common sense of the day, it was an impossible combination.

Both men were rogues who’d caused trouble in their immigrant communities.

Jacuzzi had indiscriminately adopted people like these as companions, and before he knew it, he’d become the central figure of a gang of delinquents. It wasn’t as though he’d wanted to be the boss, but Jon and Fang and his other friends never objected to it. That said, they didn’t show him any particular respect, either.

“Well, there’s no help for it. There are always customers in here. Plus, there are people who keep ordering Chinese, so I can’t get away. If I leave, the kitchen chief’s gonna kill me.”

As he spoke, Fang heaved a sigh. As if in response, Jon gave a big sigh, too.

“I’m the only bartender here, and as long as there’s someone in the counter seats, I can’t leave, either. Show some understanding.”

“Waaah… Does this train ignore Prohibition entirely?”

“Normally, yeah. We’re completely dry today, though. Today’s conductor is really strict about laws.”

“Then there’s no work for a bartender, is there?”

At Jacuzzi’s question, Jon shook his head slightly.

“That couple’s been ordering nothing but honey green tea for a while now. All they order are nonalcoholic drinks with honey. Just give up.”

“Nn.
Those
customers. The ones who’ve been camped here since right after departure, ordering nothing but Chinese food.”

As Fang spoke, he gestured with his jaw toward the end of the counter.

Jacuzzi looked that way. A strange couple was sitting there.

In a word, the man was a Western gunman. He wore an old-fashioned vest and coat, and there were several holsters strapped to his waist and chest. However, not one of them held a gun. He carried a lasso on his back, too, so it was hard to tell whether he was a gunman or a cowboy. On top of that, for some reason, he wore three sheriff’s badges.

As if to match the man’s costume, the woman was also dressed like someone out of a Western: She looked like a saloon dancing girl from a hundred years ago. Her hair was straight, and she wore a red, Spanish-style dancing costume and a bright-red, broad-brimmed hat.

The two of them suited the atmosphere of their location, but they seemed far removed from the atmosphere of the era. The couple was creating their own unique world at the corner of the counter.

“Or do you want to go run them off for us, Jacuzzi?”

“I-I’m kinda scared. What if they’re weird people?!”

“I don’t want to hear that from a guy with a tattooed face.”

Jon delivered a perfectly natural verbal jab.

“Th-that’s so mean…”

As Jacuzzi began showing signs of waterworks, Nice cut into the conversation from behind him.

“Well, don’t worry about it, Jacuzzi. Never mind that; why don’t you try talking to those two? They look interesting.”

“N-Nice, ‘they look interesting’? That isn’t a real reason.”

“They might be movie stars, you know, dressed like that.”

At that, Jacuzzi took another good look at the couple in the corner.

“Now that you mention it…”

“You see? It would be kinda cool to be friends with movie stars, wouldn’t it?”

Hearing this from her made him feel like trying it, and Jacuzzi timidly approached the couple.

Watching him go, Jon muttered to Nice:

“Nice, don’t pick on Jacuzzi too much.”

In response, changing her attitude completely from what it had been with her boss, Nice turned back to Jon and Fang with words that were too courteous.

“It isn’t like that, Master Jon. I merely wish Jacuzzi to become more sociable.”

“Man, you haven’t changed at all, Nice,” Fang said. “That overly polite speech of yours is still the same, too.”

“Then it’s as I suspected: Courtesy does not suit my appearance…?”

As she rubbed her eye patch, which was embellished with gold thread, Nice nodded, looking a little embarrassed.

“Uh… No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Frankly,” Jon cut in, “no, it doesn’t, but that’s also one of your virtues, you know. …To the point where it makes me wonder why you talk so casually to Jacuzzi.”

“It’s because he says he won’t stand for anything but casual speech. He’s quite stubborn about such things.”

With that, Nice smiled happily, then turned her gaze toward the boy in question, who’d engaged the couple.

The pair behind the bar also glanced at Jacuzzi, then muttered critically:

“Stubborn, huh…?”

When they looked, their leader seemed to be begging the couple for something with tear-filled eyes.

“You meant ‘spoiled brat,’ right?”

Taking the seat beside the mystery couple, stiff with tension, Jacuzzi spoke:

“Um, uh, erm, g-g-g-good day. Oh, no, I guess it’s ‘good evening.’ Um, I, er, excuse me, I’m sorry.”

When he didn’t know what to say and it came out incoherent, the man finally seemed to notice him; he stopped the hand he’d been eating with and turned toward the boy.

As he chewed, his mouth working, he stared steadily at Jacuzzi’s face, and as soon as he swallowed, he said:

“Miria, what’ll I do? A guy I don’t know just randomly apologized to me.”

At that, from behind him, a woman’s perky voice spoke up.

“In terms of winning and losing, I guess you won!”

“I see. A win, huh?! Great! I don’t really get it, but that was a good match. Thanks!”

At that, he abruptly took Jacuzzi’s hand and shook it firmly.

What’ll I do? They really
are
weird people.

Jacuzzi begged Nice and Jon for help with tear-filled eyes. However, Nice only gave him an easygoing wave. Hearing the cook’s yell from the kitchen—“Do your jobs, dirtbags!”—Jon and Fang hastily returned to their own tasks.

“Uh, umm…”

“Still, mister, that’s really cool! I’ve never seen anybody with a tattoo on their face before!”

“Yes, talk about culture shock!”

“Could you possibly be a movie star?!”

“That’s
amazing
!”

If things were like this, their positions were the complete opposite of what he’d expected. Anxiety began to erode Jacuzzi’s thought patterns with breathtaking speed.

“Nuh-nuh-no, I, um, I’m not, I’m, uh, I’m not a movie star or anything, I just make and sell liquor… No, that’s not it, I lied, um, erm, it’s a lie, it isn’t true, I’m just a delinquent, or, um, something, and anyway, I’m just a normal person, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

Although there wasn’t a single reason for him to apologize, he teared up and bowed repeatedly.

“Hey, Miria. He apologized to me again.”

“That’s two wins in a row!”

“I see… To think you’d let me win twice. You’re a really good guy!”

“Yeep……huh?”

“You’re a good person!”

“Come, come, don’t cry. When good people cry, it makes
us
cry.”

“Yes, it’s contagious!”

When Jacuzzi raised his head, there were tears in the eyes of the couple in front of him as well.

As they held a handkerchief out to him, he realized that this had gotten rather strange.

“It’s all right, mister. Dry your tears and have some of this Chinese food.”

“It’s all-you-can-eat!”

From the kitchen, he heard Fang’s voice say, “No, it’s not!” When Jacuzzi looked bewildered, they just went ahead and shoved food into his mouth.

“Mgrph…”

Carried away by the current of events, in spite of himself, he swallowed.

The taste of the steamed chicken Fang had made spread through his mouth. Come to think of it, this was the first time he’d eaten anything Fang had cooked.

“…It’s good.”

Before he knew it, he’d stopped crying.

“
And so then I just let him have it. ‘Hang it all,’ I said!”

“Wow, Isaac, amazing, that’s amazing!”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“Ah! Jacuzzi laughed out loud. I haven’t heard that in forever!”

By now, the dining car counter had turned into the site of a miniature banquet.

At some point, Nice had joined the conversation as well, and they were making the atmosphere in the dining car even more cheerful.

Although the night had begun to deepen, the dining car was as crowded as ever. However, there were no members of the black orchestra or the white-suited group to be seen.

“By the way, Mr. Isaac, you haven’t ordered anything except meat for a while now.”

Speaking with startling frankness, Jacuzzi pointed out that his orders were lopsided.

Nice had never seen Jacuzzi be so fearless around people he’d just met. No doubt he’d taken that much of a shine to the strange couple; the fact that he wasn’t afraid showed how much he trusted them.

To think they’d get so far with Jacuzzi in such a short time…

What in the world were these two? Nice felt a little jealous, but more than that, she’d begun to like the couple as well.

“Oh, meat? It’s fine, no worries. After all, this is beef.”

“Domestic beef!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, cows are herbivores, right? That means, if you eat meat from those cows, you’re eating both meat and grass!”

“Wow! Isaac, you’re really smart!”

“Huh… Really…?”

Ignoring Jacuzzi, who seemed puzzled, Isaac and Miria kept whooping it up in their own little world.

“Right, that’s right, if you eat something that ate something, they say you eat that other thing, too. It’s not just food, either: If you pick up something that already had something, it all belongs to you! For example, if somebody picks up a bag that has lots of money in it, that person has both the money and the bag!”

“Whee, they’re rich!”

“Yes, in the Far East, I believe the law is stated this way! Erm, ‘Maybe you did, but—’”

“‘—I ate
you
!’”

“Wow. Is that right… ‘Maybe you did, but I ate
you
,’ huh?”

“That’s great, Jacuzzi. You heard something interesting!”

Having learned a rather mistaken tidbit of Eastern knowledge, Jacuzzi happily stuffed his mouth with beef.

A familiar impact ran through his back.

“
Mghk-ghk-gak!
”

Swallowing a piece of beef he hadn’t managed to chew thoroughly, he hastily washed it down with some water that had been nearby.

Then, from behind him, a voice that was also familiar flew his way: