K (karanguni) wrote in 1931, @ 2008-04-19 15:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | translations |
Major translation death: 1932 Volume 4, Chapter 3
After a few days of out of context translations, here comes the whole of volume 4, chapter 3!
I'm very, very afraid that the translations veer off/don't do justice to the original work -- since the far-more-real translators over at LJ will get this chapter done eventually, this post will only be up until the better translators over there get their version done.
Usual disclaimers apply*!
Thank you to everyone who's been following these translations - you guys are awesome like hot chocolate and tasty things. ♥ *collapses into a pile*
Warning: 15,000 words! BIG POST! The text didn't fit into the entry, and so there are follow-ups in the comments!
* usual disclaimers: my Chinese is fail, may not be literal translation in parts, names may be wrong, chapter 2 still hasn't been translated because I'm weird. I owe a great deal of thanks to an RL friend for practically doing all the translation for the many-way fight scene; without him I think I'd have throttled myself.
Translator's note: I've kept the Japanese -san suffixes in some places because, uh. Uh. It sounds fitting? *braindead*
List of potentially unfamiliar cast members:
Roy Maddock: A druggy
Edith: Roy's girlfriend; waitress working at one of the Gandor establishments
Benjamin: Eve's butler-type
Samansa: Eve's woman-in-waiting type
Elean: DD agent
Nicholas: DD agent
Henry: DD agent, slightly crazy. He thinks that information = power, therefore he = god; he tried to act as a puppetmaster earlier in the novel. However, he had an, ah... incident with Claire and is currently, well...
Begg: Head of drug development for the Runorata Family
1932, January the 2nd. Afternoon. Basement of the speakeasy "Alveare"
The Alveare was the Martillo Family business's speakeasy. Many of the Family's members came to eat here during the day; today there were many people around, both the important and regular types. Firo Prochainezo, the manager of the Martillo's underground gambling den, had thought of coming to Alveare to grab a bite to eat, but when he opened the door and walked in he found that the speakeasy was rather... different that day.
The big round table that should have been in the centre of the speakeasy had been moved to the side, leaving a huge, empty space in the room.
'... what on earth is this?'
A man and a woman, dressed in formal wear, were busy arranging things on the floor.
'Oi! Everybody keep quiet – it's about to topple!'
'Topple! It's about to topple!'
'?'
The floor of the speakeasy was lined with a multitude of small rectangular objects; they looked almost like mah-jong tiles. Upon closer inspection, though, it seemed as though they were those things that had been bought at the convenience store – the stuff that Ennis had brought back in her car.
'Are those domino tiles? What are you putting them on the floor for?'
More or less completely ignoring the clueless Firo, Isaac and Miria continued to carefully arrange the tiles. The two were friends of Firo's, both of them only recently arrived in New York.
'Think we should topple them?'
'Let's topple them!'
'What?' Firo really didn't get what they were doing. 'If you're just going to topple them, then why are you wasting all that effort arranging them? '
'That's a hard question – but... I guess it's because they are domino tiles!'
'Do-min-os! Dominos!'
'You're not making any sense! Maiza-san, what are they doing?'
The man sitting at the bar answered Firo's question: 'It's a very popular game amongst children. Those who don't know how to actually play with dominos do things like these.'
'Oh. But whatever – you're getting in the way of people eating!' Firo – who really only wanted to grab a bite and go – didn't find any of this very amusing, but all the seats at the bar were already full, so he had no choice but to go into the speakeasy proper. But –
'What? Even the inside's full of tiles!' And there were people everywhere.
'Pezzo-san, Lando-san? Why are you guys also here?'
'Oh! We're waiting for them to finally topple the things. It's very fun!'
'I played with these when I was young myself!'
Two other women were also diligently stacking tiles behind the two men.
'Even Lia and Ennis --!'
'It's ... very fun, these dominos.'
'Hey Firo, why don't you play too?'
There were dominos all over the place now; they were making up some sort of picture.
'I just want to eat something!'
'Firo, you're getting in the way!'
'If you're not going to help, move!'
Looking to the side, even those two guys who were higher ranked than him had joined in the fun. 'Mister Ronnie... Mister (untranslatable name – I have no idea who this is, sorry!)....'
'Heh, I often did this with chess pieces as a child. It helps one focus, why don't you try it!'
'Like hell! If any of the other families saw me I'd be made a laughing stock!'
Firo watched as Ronnie swiftly arranged some tiles. 'No problem. I'll just kill them, if it comes to that.'
'Don't say such macabre things so seriously!'
Not knowing if he should acknowledge the comment or if he should be delighted by this peaceful scene, Firo waited for a seat to free up at the bar, nursing a slight headache at the same time. 'Now you mention it though, who designed such a strange arrangement? It couldn't have been Isaac, could it?'
All eyes in the bar turned to one man.
'... ... I love times like these.'
'Maiza!'
-------------------
Meanwhile...
'Are you jerking me around?' Gustavo was not amused by his subordinate's report.
'I'm sure of it. It was definitely that folder from the other day. Even the identifying mark was in the same place.'
'Oh really?' Gustavo leant back in his chair, and sighed deeply.
When he'd discovered Roy's movements the night before, Gustavo'd taken precautions and sent one of his men to check up on the house that Roy was observing. An Asian and a Caucasian had been seen entering the building with a black folio in their hands. Soon afterwards a large Negro woman exited – accompanied by the two men from before – the black folio in her hands. What was most suspicious, though was where they were headed: the information agency, the Daily Days. The three went in, and weren't seen to leave.
'What the hell?'
Ah, so the place that Roy was watching was Eve Genoard's villa. He'd also come into contact with Eve Genoard herself. It didn't seem to be a coincidence – so observations had to continue. Roy was after the Genoard girl, probably because if that girl knew about the Genoard's underground activities, she could use that knowledge to negotiate with the Runoratas. But Roy shouldn't know about the Genoard's business! He was only a pathetic druggy, how would he know about stuff like that? The situation should have concluded there, but upon reflection everything seemed too interconnected.
That black woman from the Genoard family had taken the black portfolio from the DD place. Eve and Roy were now heading to the Gandor offices.
--- wait, it wasn't that simple, was it? Not at all.
Gustavo took up another ashtray and broke it in half. Holding the broken shards of the tray, he said, 'The Gandors, the DD, Roy and the Genoards.' Gustavo stood, angrily. 'They shouldn't have anything to do with each other!'
--------
(Later)
'Have you found them? The professional assassins I asked you to look out for.'
'Yes, yes, they are waiting in the hotel room.' Gustavo's underling replied. Clearly today Gustavo was changed man from yesterday. The man had recovered his brutality, as if he were afraid that he was being watched.
‘They’d better not end up as nothing more than freeloaders…'
'They look confident and capable, even though they don't talk much. Our men are ready as well.'
'Oh yeah?'
Gustavo went into the hotel room.
'Are you the boss here, friend?' As soon as the door opened, a confident female voice floated out. At the table in the hotel room was a smirking woman. She had a naturally innocent smile, and looked around twenty or under. This woman was wearing Mexican clothes, and should have been Mexican herself. She had two Japanese blades at her waist. Next to her was a man holding a bottle of whisky. He was sitting there drinking straight from the bottle; he seemed the complete opposite of the girl. He had a scrunched up face, and looked above fifty. Opposite that old drunk was a young man who stood with his arms crossed. He was wearing an unusually long coat, and from beneath his thick brows shone a pair of sharp eyes. The rest of the occupants of the room were Gustavo's own men.
Gustavo was not impressed. He grabbed one of his nearby underlings. Using only one hand, he pressed the man up against the wall by his neck. The poor man thrashed violently as he began to choke. 'I told you to find me some professionals, not this bunch of streetside hooligans!'
'The-they are t-the kind of kill…killers that you're looking for!' his underling gasped.
'I don't want to hear your excuses!'
'Ah! B-b-boss!'
Just then, the girl at the table burst into action – so quickly, in fact, that she seemed to disappear for a split second. In the time that Gustavo had used to roughhouse his men, a glint of silver was seen, and then the Mexican girl re-emerged, holding her katana to Gustavo's throat. The man didn't even have a chance to prepare for the sudden attack.
'Don't make a big deal out of this, okay, friend? I'm just demonstrating my skill, friend.”
Gustavo stared at the girl, then forcefully dropped his underling to the floor.
'Ah,' the girl said, 'I must say, Murasame practically moved on its own. Very impolite, this sword.' “Murasame” was the name of that katana. The girl retracted the blade and sheathed it.
(ed: The name "murasame" is a guess; the Chinese characters sounded like that, but I've no way of checking this.)
'Looks like you're pretty strong after all!' Gustavo said. 'Impressive.'
'Are you praising me? Thank you, friend!'
'I have no intention of being friends with you, so don't call me "friend", girl.'
The others in the room hadn't even reacted to the girl's actions.
'Haha! How many there are now may actually make a difference!*” (ed: not sure about this line!)
'S-sorry, but there still is one person who hasn't come.' That pathetic underling finally opened his mouth!
'Who? Is he good? I'm not interested in hiring any rabble-type half-wits! '
Just as the underling was about to give Gustavo the name of the latecomer, the door to the room swung open.
A man wearing thick glasses stood in the doorway. Even though he had a youthful face, he wore a moustache that made it difficult to determine his true age. This man ignored the tension in the room, and said, blandly, 'You've invited me here so many times; I'm honoured by your persistence!' He nodded at Gustavo's underling, the one who'd made the calls. I'm afraid I can't accept any assassination jobs right now, though. I have prior engagements. '
'W-wait a second! Mister Felix!'
Felix.
The atmosphere of the room seemed to change entirely at that. The assassins all widened their eyes; Gustavo's underlings stirred; the old man who'd been drinking stopped and capped his bottle.
Gustavo furrowed his brow. Felix? Was it that same man who was as renowned as "Vino", the Felix that they called "Benriya"? Rumour had it that he lived somewhere in Manhattan - had they actually found him?
(ed: The name "Benriya" is a placeholder; I have no idea how to translate the Chinese version (便利屋) - that one actually means something like "convenience store", which is, uh, probably not the case)
'I don't take killing jobs without finishing the one I'm currently engaged in. Other than that, though, everything else is fair game - whether it's moving houses, kidnapping or other such things.' That said, Felix turned to leave.
Gustavo'd seen enough; Felix seemed like a pretty strong guy. 'Hang on, you!' Gustavo called out before Felix could go. 'Don't you want to go up against Vino? Compare your strengths? If you can kill him, then there'll be no one else able to match your power! You'd be the most feared assassin around.'
'I've no interest in killing people for any sort of title,' Felix said. 'I'm not some sort of child at play. I'm not going to do a job or any favours for the sake of my reputation.'
'So you're saying you don't want to test yourself against him?'
'Other than my targets, I only kill those who want to kill me. That's about it. Goodbye!'
It looked like nothing would convince this Felix, but reflecting upon what the assassin had just said, Gustavo was struck by something else. 'Wait, didn't you say that kidnapping was all right with you? If that's the case, I want to hire you to help me bring a guy here - is that possible?'
The man thought about it for a moment, then turned back and said, 'Absolutely!'
'You can name your price for this job. I don't want you to let any of the other mafia families see you doing it-- I want two people from the rich-man's district brought over, a guy and a girl. It's on another family's territory, so we can't get to them ourselves.'
This "Benriya" guy didn't ask for any further details. He just said, very directly: 'Fine. Then let's talk about my payment.'
-------------
After "Benriya" left, Gustavo started assigning jobs to the remaining assassins in the room.
'Right, now we have 20 people. You assassins, don't move for now -- wait for "Vino" to appear before doing anything. Even if he doesn't turn up in the ambush we've prepared today, we only need to grab those Gandor assholes and we'll figure out where he is. If he's run away, then you can all say that the great Vino ran from you like a coward. You could say that his running away might not be so bad! We'll give you your dues when the job is done, because I can't say for sure that some of you may join hands and backstab us before that.' Gustavo clearly didn't trust any of these professional killers yet.
Following that, Gustavo gave orders to his own underlings. 'We've always been treated like fools by other people! But this is going to change! Today we're going to clean out those bastards. Let's have those goddamned DD journalists who ratted on us to the Gandors write about this bloody sacrifice! Let them print tomorrow's paper with their own blood, and may the broadsheets be filled with glorious redness! No one will be left alive!'
'Ah? Gustavo - where are you - planning - to – go – with this?' Begg looked at Gustavo enquiringly.
Gustavo laughed, half-childishly and half-hatefully. 'Why don't you try to stop me and see!'
Seeing Begg's furrowed brow, Gustavo felt, for the first time, that he was superior to the other man. But that was completely insignificant now!
----------------
'Ah, yes, I understand. Yes. Very well, we'll move immediately.'
Luck was on the phone with someone.
'? A girl around fifteen years old? No, she hasn't come by.'
After Luck hung up, he turned to Keith and Berga with a troubled expression on his face. 'Looks like our friends at the DD are going to be waylaid a day earlier than we expected.'
'Ha! Isn't that a good thing? Then those assholes will have a day less to live!'
'... ....'
'Let them come! Let them come quickly! If everything goes right, and tomorrow goes off without a hitch---!'
A smile spread over Luck's previously tired face, and he laughed. 'Ah, let's put aside the business with the drugs for now. After what happened with the horse racing, bookies, speakeasies, and even the loss of our men- let's show them our true strength.'
The three brothers armed themselves before pulling on their coats. When they were done, Luck picked up the phone again, made a few calls - saying only, "start the health examination at two" before hanging up.
'Tic-san, we'll leave this place under your protection. If Claire comes back, tell him that "the party at the Daily Days has already begun".'
'Yes, understood! Be careful!'
After shaking the slightly concerned Tic's hand, the three of them headed upstairs.
'Where on earth is that Claire?'
'It can't be helped. Even though we told him that the job's tomorrow and gave him time to prepare for it, it's not like he'll actually have the patience to wait that long.'
'......'
'Forget it! If he doesn't turn up... then we can only depend on everyone's teamwork and friendship.'
------------------------
——there was an uneasy feeling in the air.
At Keith's home, Eve finished cleaning up after dinner and sat next to Roy.
'What do we do now, Eve?'
Hearing Roy, Eve just shook her head with an expression that said, "I don't know."
'I've thought about it all night, there's no point in you hiding here, so why don't you go back? Since I brought you here and you now know the place, you can come and Katie anytime you like, so just go back for now!'
-- perhaps you're right. After seeing Katie, I feel that Keith-san isn't as bad as we make him out to be. Maybe the DD guys got it wrong. Dallas-nii-san may still be alive. In that case, I shouldn't trouble you any further, so perhaps I should go back to Benjamin and Samansa.
'You're must be saying that I brought you here by force, but I want to run away anyway, so what's a kidnapping charge on top of all of that!'
'It's not like that!'
-- ah, there's no point talking anymore, I should just go back now! Go back to Benjamin's place, and then see Katie again at a later date, let her take me to find Keith.
-- and after that, find my brother Dallas, and have a family reunion!
Then the doors to the house suddenly burst open, and someone they didn't recognise entered.
'Hey! Are you Miss Eve and Mr Roy?' The man who'd just entered walked over. 'Please come with me.'
Roy started. 'Wait, who are you? Katie - what about Miss Katie?'
The man ignored Roy's words completely, instead striding over and punching Roy solidly in the chest.
'Sorry, but I'm short on time - hurry up, please!'
'Arghhghh---'
'Roy-san!' Eve darted to Roy's side.
The man -- "Benriya" -- laughed and said, 'You didn't run. That's a good girl!' He nudged Roy's with the butt of his gun, making sure that the man had really passed out. 'I don't hurt hostages. And you don't need to worry - Miss Katie is perfectly fine, she's just out buying things right now.'
That said, the man grabbed Eve, picked up Roy and walked boldly out of the door. 'We're heading to the Daily Days' office, so we'd best step on it.'
At the Daily Days office, those with power were about to fight a battle to the death.
Today, there was none of the usual noise of the newsroom; everyone present was working quietly.
In the Director's office, the highly ranked members of the DD were gathered together, as well as Benjamin (who'd spent the night there), Edith (who'd just come back from looking for Eve) and the Director, who was pouring over some documents. This time the pieces of the puzzle were all beginning to fall together.
After he'd heard the whole story, Benjamin'd lunged forward and started to beat Henry up. Yaosi and Fengma had to come up to hold him back as Samansa went over and kicked Henry about.
After that small episode, there was report regarding a small complication. 'Our sources say that Gustavo is planning to ambush us here today at 2pm.'
'Shouldn't we prepare to fight back?' Nicholas said happily to their troubled Director.
'This time? This time around we'll let the Gandor Family handle it.'
Nicholas looked a bit disappointed at the Director's decision to outsource.
'This comes as a request from Keith Gandor. While being neutral means that we should really handle our own problems, this time we've been implicated too deeply. We need the Gandors to come out to help us handle things.'
Looking to take the edge off of Nicholas's disappointment, the Director raised his voice and continued. 'Being an implicated party, we'll no doubt look at things very subjectively. At this point in time, shouldn't we be careful about our operations instead? Of course, this is my own opinion.' The Director then made his point clear. 'Let's chase Gustavo and the rest of those bastards out of this city. How does everyone feel about that?'
No one present objected, and Benjamin, uncharacteristically enough, cheered.
'It's almost exactly like the case of the immortality elixir from last year -- only that this time, we ourselves are the cause of the situation. Everything has fallen into place- it's because he's made preparations that Gustavo dares to even try this! All our intelligence has been put together, following this all we need to do is wait for the pack of cards to collapse on itself. Until then – we'll do what we can.'
Finishing his speech, the Director took up the phone and made the call to the Gandor Family.
----------------
'I want everyone,' he said afterwards, 'during this period to head to the underground sewers to hide. They lead straight to the police bureau, so should anything happen, flee there.'
The Director gave separate instructions to Nicholas and Elean.
'Get everyone equipped and then have them disperse. The Daily Days has never once in its history stopped operations, and today will be no exception.'
------------------------
'It's done!'
'It's finally done!'
It was just after noon, and in the middle of the Alveara, people were putting the finishing touches on the geometric domino display. When Isaac put the final tile into place, everyone in the shop started cheering.
'Oi! Wait!'
'Everybody wait!'
Isaac and Mairia put their fingers on their lips, asking everyone to quieten down.
'The most moving thing you have ever seen...'
'... is about to begin...'
The shop was dead silent as Isaac and Miria carefully put their hands together and -- gently -- slowly -- pushed the first domino down.
------------------------
If they just used guns, the police would be on them in an instant. He'd first send in a few people to restrain anyone who was meant to "greet them" and to take that Nicholas as a hostage. They'd take control of the hall, then push their way through with the rest of the attack. Gustavo'd planned his attack like that.
But this plan failed right from the outset. The agency door was locked; there was no way they could just walk in.
'GET OUT OF THE WAY!'
Gustavo shoved aside his clueless underling and stood in front of the door. He gave it a violent kick, sending the hinges flying and the heavy door frame crashing to the ground.
According to their sources, the people here – whether they were journalists or newsroom workers – all carried guns. Gustavo immediately ducked to the side of the door, but there was only silence in the wake of the door crashing down.
A few underlings, guns held out in front of them, did a cursory sweep of the inside of the room, but there was absolutely no one to be found.
It was silent in the newsroom. The tables were all strewn with materials, but there were no people present.
'There's no one here? What?'
Gustavo called forward one of his agents who'd been tasked with watching the agency, tugging him in close by the lapels of his shirt. 'How the hell did this happen?'
'I, I don't know! I was always watching the front entrance, but nobody ever left! Even the back doors were being watched – absolutely no one left!'
'No one at all?' Gustavo dropped the underling, and thought about it all very carefully. 'You said that none of the journalists left this place at all?'
This goes against all logic. The main entrance was locked, as if they'd been prepared for our coming – as if they knew we were coming. So, had everyone run off?
'... Get the second and third floors checked out. If there's absolutely no one here, we'll burn the place down and go after the Gandor family assholes.' Gustavo lit up a cigarette and dealt out instructions.
-- looks like they might really have run for it. He'd heard that the agency was full of people who wouldn't stand down in a fight, but it turned out that may have all just been a set up. He couldn't underestimate these people.
'Whatever. They won't be able to run forever; we'll net them when the time comes.'
Gustavo cracked his knuckles and headed upstairs.
------------------------
At the same time, there were a few men stationed at the front and back entrances of the DD. The guy at the back entrance was aimlessly gazing around when the longcoat assassin with him started to speak.
'Your boss is not quite balanced, is he?'
The Mexican girl and the drunkard had gone to talk to Gustavo, and only the longcoat guy had remained outside. 'Even though we're at the very backend of Chinatown, are you guys really thinking of starting a gunfight in broad daylight?'
'Our boss, he's that kind of a guy. Why don't you go inside?'
'If we get caught by the police, then it'd be pointless if all of us got hit in the sweep.' (ed: this one's fuzzy too)
That said, he opened his longcoat a little ways. What the guard saw in that short glimpse of the inside of the assassin's coat stunned him. Inside the longcoat, from what he could see, were at least ten handguns and knives.
'It all adds up to about 30kg, the stuff in this coat. Today I'm here to chase after Vino – if he turns up. And, standing out here, I only need 3 minutes to run if the police turn up instead.' (ed's note: very, very fuzzy)
'You don't look too sane yourself, buddy.'
'I'm a killer – all of us just want to be as good as Vino is. Sanity's got nothing to do with it.'
At the same time, a few figures approached. 'I'm back,' "Benriya" said quietly, using a handgun to propel Roy and Eve forward towards the door.
'What do you think, Mr Felix?' The longcoat killer asked the newly arrived assassin. 'We killers have never been balanced from the very beginning, right? I don't know how or why, but our heads have always been filled with these crazy thoughts, that's why we're in this job, no?'
In response, "Benriya" said casually, 'Balanced or unbalanced, you'd best not say anything.'
'What, don't you feel that's being a bit cold?'
Shrugging, Felix just headed into the agency, completely ignoring the killer with the longcoat. Said longcoat glared at him, angry at being ignored, and made to go after the other assassin.
'Huh?' said the guard. 'You are going in after all?'
'To be honest, I don't have a very good marksmanship rate. Most of the time, I rely on just pumping people full of as many bullets as possible instead.' Saying that, the assassin withdrew a gun, his expression dark and laughed in a way that would've scared any normal person. 'So if there's going to be a shootout here today, I'm going to use all of my bullets to blow the crap out of everyone here. Hahahaha!' (ed's note: don't ask me why he went off tangent; I don't know either!)
The guard just watched in silence as the crazed killer with the longcoat headed into the agency proper. When the door slammed shut behind them, he shrugged and said, 'Sane or insane – who cares as long as you're not an idiot!'
------------------
After disseminating the orders to evacuate via the sewers, Elean had taken up position in the building opposite the DD agency and was monitoring the situation with a pair of binoculars. He saw something that made his eyes widen. 'Oh, this isn't good!'
Wiping off some cold sweat, he turned to update Benjamin and the others. 'Miss Eve and an unidentified man have been brought to the agency.'
Eve's caretakers snapped to attention. Samansa grabbed the binoculars to see for herself. 'Is it true!? Miss Eve?! Who's the man?'
'Give me those binoculars for a moment.' Edith looked through the them and saw a very familiar figure inside the agency. 'Roy!'
Before they could stop her, Edith was already away and running for the stairs.
------------------------
'Wow! That's amazing!' Ennis couldn't help but exclaim as she watched the dominos fall one after another. As they fell, the dominos revealed their alternately coloured sides, and the colours simply kept changing as the collapse went on. It was very pretty sight.
'These dominos change colour – and they change so quickly! Wow!' (ed: translating amazement is not my strong suit. *___*)
------------------------
There was no one on the second floor of the information agency. On the third level, Gustavo waited for people to enter the room he was in. The placed looked like a storage room, with a just couple of chairs and tables haphazardly strewn all over the place.
'What the fuck! Did we lose them? Have they escaped?' Gustavo mumbled angrily to himself.
Just then, the sound of a door being close came from behind Gustavo. Everyone turned to see a sharp-eyed man standing in the doorway. The man raised a hand in greeting and said, 'You've put a lot of effort into getting this far, I see.'
Several of Gustavo's underlings started when they recognised who the man really was.
'Who is this guy?' Gustavo growled.
Upon hearing that, the man at the door expressed some surprise. 'Really, really! You don't even know what your opponent for today looks like? Seems as though we're facing some pretty useless men here. How disappointing.'
'What?'
They were so transfixed by the man that no one in the room managed to react enough to feel insulted. Gustavo looked with askance at his stunned underlings. 'Who is this guy?'
'It it can't be!' one of them stammered, 'h-he should be dead! He – he definitely—that time at the bookstore—his head, his head was – his head was--'
'Cut off. Yes, indeed. But that's not very important; today we're here to negotiate. All three of us have come down in person specially for this. We look forward to asking you a very important question, Mr Gustavo.'
After the man finished speaking, two others emerged from behind the curtains and tables of the room. It looked like they'd been hiding there all along.
'You're not – are you three the Gandor brothers?' While everyone else was still dumbfounded, Gustavo had taken out his gun. 'You're here to negotiate? Negotiate what?”
'Something very simple, Mister Gustavo. In fact, you don't really matter much in this negotiation.' Luck chose to disregard Gustavo, turning and speaking loudly to the ten or so Runorata underlings behind the large man: 'Cutting to the chase- do any of you want to join us?'
There was a stunned silence following that preposterously bold question. Luck smiled.
'You really only need to say yes or no. Easy enough, isn't it?'
Everyone slowly began to react, muttering amongst themselves.
'Are you crazy!' Gustavo laughed. 'These thin—'
What Luck said next stopped Gustavo in his tracks: 'We have already discussed this with Mister Baltoro Runorata.'
Everyone stared at the youngest Gandor.
'What, what did you say?'
'Mister Gustavo, it seems that you've done no small number of things behind your boss's back...'
'... ...'
'However, most of those things are just small and petty compared to your real transgressions. You sold drugs on our territory, tried to act as middleman for various dealings, and apparently even collected protection fees from places that don't fall under Mr Baltoro's jurisdiction. Am I not correct?'
Every time Gustavo sold drugs to his own trusted customers, he charged them less than the amount he reported to Baltoro, but afterwards those drugs didn't immediately make their way into the hands of the consumers. They were actually passed down to various drug-dealing subordinates, and this process continued several times until the drugs prices'd become massively inflation. In this way, Gustavo was practically embezzling money behind Baltoro's back.'
Gustavo and the others who were involved in the scheme were not happy to hear it brought to light. The Runorata men around them were starting to get agitated. 'SHUT UP!' Gustavo roared. 'You have no proof of anything! You're only trying to provoke us!'
'Oh, proof? I have proof. It's currently being... held in custody.'
'What?'
'We were just waiting for all of you to be gathered here first before informing you of it. At this point in time, our people have already seized all your drug dealerships. Yes, you could say that we are... suppressing them.'
The commotion in the room got louder. There had been rumours floating about that; it turned out that the Gandors had been the ones spreading them for a few days prior in preparation for this meet.
Driving the point home, Luck continued: 'Right now those who will follow us will be granted liberty. We welcome those who want to join us, and Mister Baltoro will not reject those who want to rejoin the true Runorata organisation. However, if you make enemies of us now--' Luck paused and narrowed his eyes. Then he laughed, lightly. '- If you continue to make enemies of us, we'll hand you over to Vino.'
The clamouring chaos immediately dropped into complete silence. Gustavo's underlings seemed stricken by the threat; they looked like they were considering.... Gustavo caught hold of the guy nearest to him. 'What do you think you're going to do?'
'Uh...' the man hesitated.
Gustavo used a single hand to grab hold of the person's head before slamming it towards the floor. There was a miserable, sickening sound, and then they could all see the man's broken skull.
The Gandors commented on that. 'Looks like you're either trying to silence your people or just kill them off entirely. That was rather cruel of you; your subordinates may not have appreciated that.”
Gustavo glared hatefully at his cowering underlings before turning to the Gandors. 'I'll just kill you three first,' he said, closing in on Luck and his brothers.
'We were really only here to negotiate. We didn't even bring guns.'
'And if you use guns, the police will come down hard. It's not to either of our benefits.'
'Rightly said.'
'You could say that the first person to pull out a gun loses.'
'That's not a bad way of deciding things -'
Haha!
Gustavo laughed and said, 'Fine - then I lose!'
There was a gunshot. The sound reverberated through the room as Gustavo saw a fine mist of blood spray in front of his eyes.
Luck's head had been blown apart by the shot; his body lost balance and hit the wall.
'The rest of you are next! Arm yourselves - I won't hesitate!' Gustavo snarled, waving his gun at Keith.
Berga - without so much as blinking - walked towards Luck's side. He looked down at the remains of his brother's head as if he were waiting for something.
'Ahhahaha!' Gustavo cackled. 'Take your time to say your goodbyes to your brother!' He continued to advance towards Keith.
Then he heard something tremble.
'M-mister G-G-Gustavo! Wa-wait – look out!' a subordinate of his stammered.
'What is it, are you all trying to get me killed?'
'No-no! That--that!!'
Gustavo turned back to look at his frightened underlings. He was shocked by what he ended up seeing before him.
It was a very strange sight. It felt surreal, as if they were watching the landing of the man on the moon on TV. Soundlessly, what was left of Luck's head slowly gathered back together. Red bits of flesh, white pieces of bone, even the pinkish bits of brain matter were drawn together as if hoarded by ants. Gradually it reconstituted into meat and skeletal bone, teeth and eyes slowly emerging from within the mess.
'Wh-what the hell is this?' Gustavo felt his throat constrict. He swallowed thickly.
'Oh, he's up!' Seeing Luck regenerated, Berga used his hand to gently knock his brother on the head.
'Un.' As if he'd just woken up from a deep sleep, Luck got up and stretched. Keith and Berga looked at him without any surprise written on their faces. Luck smiled. 'I've become a tad slow witted, considering I couldn't even duck that shot.'
Nonchalantly, Luck brushed himself off and resumed his address of the stunned-silent occupants of the room. 'Well, now. Either join us, or die.'
Faced with the sort of monstrosity that they thought only possible in movies, the underlings couldn't respond. Their morale had totally crumbled; they had no will to continue fighting.
Suddenly, out of the crowd came a figure dashing towards Luck. An arc of silver was seen to fly towards his hand.
Wu ……
Luck's sliced coat sleeve fell to the ground, and a spurt of red flowed forth. He grabbed his severed hand before it could fall to the floor. The limb reattached itself.
Seeing the blood flood stop almost immediately, the attacker – the Mexican girl - whistled. 'What an interesting body you've got there, friend.'
Luck'd narrowed his eyes at the unexpected ambush, yet he was still calm when he said, 'If you want to be regarded as a friend, shouldn't you be fighting on our side, Miss?'
Hearing Luck's words, the girl shook her head childishly. 'That would be pointless, friend. If I did that, I wouldn't be able to see Vino, yes? However, if I stay here and kill you people, then I'll surely get to meet him.'
Aah, so that was what it was about. Luck got it.
Even though he knew she was probably a professional assassin, he'd never have thought that there were killers of this calibre outside of Claire. Looking more closely, there was also a decidedly composed man holding a bottle of whiskey in the crowd, and though he looked drunk it seemed rather suspicious.
Adding to the series of interruptions, a man suddenly came in through the door. 'I'm sorry for interrupting!'
It was the man with the glasses, and he'd brought a man and a woman along with him. Luck and Keith both didn't recognise either of the two. The woman could've been called a girl, though she looked more like what you'd call a young lady; the other was an unhealthy looking young man. Following them, a guy wearing a long coat also entered the room, and he was glaring at the man with the glasses.
The man with the glasses said, 'Here are Eve Genoard and Roy Maddock.'
Gustavo, confident that the appearance of Felix would work in his favour, calmed down. 'You've done me a huge favour, Felix!'
'I'll take my leave, then!'
'Wait! I still have something to request of you……not killing, no. I just want you to keep these people here. That should still be within your job scope!'
Felix shrugged. 'It's doable.'
Gustavo laughed in delight – Felix was his trump card. Though for some reason, the Gandor brothers were still just looking blandly at that guy.
'Thank you, Mister Felix Morgan. As for your payment, name your price!'
'30,000,000 dollars.'
'What? ' Gustavo had never even heard of a unit of money that large before.
'For these three? I'll need that sort of a payment. Haha!' Felix said as he sent Roy and Eve out into the corridor, instructing them both to hide.
'What are you doing?!' Gustavo roared.
'I only agreed to bring those two over, nothing more, nothing less.'
Berga - who hadn't said anything up till now - interrupted Felix in a deadpan: 'Hey you - why the fuck are you dressed up like that?'
'?!!?'
In the wake of Gustavo's confusion, the Mexican girl swung her knife at Luck again, yelling: 'Tell me where Vino is, friend!'
The man with the glasses raised his hand. 'Are you looking for me?'
The entire room froze.
"Felix" took off his glasses and removed his false moustache, revealing a very young looking man.
He extended his hand and greeted the rest of the room.
'How is everyone? I am Felix Morgan – also known as "Vino", or you can call me the "RAIL TRACER".'
As he said this, his attitude and tone changed completely – something violent came over Vino. Gustavo began to realise exactly how much trouble he was in, and went red with fear and anger.
'Bu- wait, wait, damn it, Gandors! Did you people set this up from the start!?'
Luck looked at the explosive Gustavo impassively, and asked the newly-revealed Claire: 'Claire, who is this "Felix"?'
'I already said that Claire is dead. I am called Felix Morgan now. Or, more accurately, I've bought that name from the previous Felix.'
'I don't get you!' Berga couldn't hide his confusion in the face of this guy who said he was Claire but said he was Vino but said he was Felix –
'Didn't Luck tell me this a few days earlier? A dead man can't marry! I thought that was pretty important.'
No one else in the room really got why Vino was saying any of this.
'So, yesterday, I acquired two pieces of information. One was about the girl whom I am looking for, and the other was concerning a guy who wanted to put his past behind him. So had a little chat with him, and we struck up a deal. He's a good guy, that original Felix. After all of that, these people came around looking for assassins to hit Keith – I wanted to see exactly how strong these rivals of mine would be, so...' As he was speaking, Vino's hand suddenly blurred. One moment they saw a gun appear in his hand, the next they hear two loud gunshots.
BANG--
Just as the shots sounded, there was a noise of a whiskey bottle hitting the floor. The old drunkard fell to the ground, a gun still smoking in his hand. There was a bullethole in the wall right behind Claire; he'd just missed the young man by an inch.
Maybe this Vino was as much of a monster as Luck and his brothers. Or maybe he was worse.
Gustavo's underlings too frightened to react. Vino, like a true actor performing for an audience, grinned and said:
'You ain't heard nothing yet!'
--------
There was a woman yelling to be let into the agency. The guard at the door was trying to stop her: 'Let me through!'
'Shut UP, woman!' The guard took out a gun and threatened Edith, but suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder.
'What now! Who are y--? Be- Begg-san!'
Begg looked strangely at Edith, and said hoarsely, 'You are - Roy's - friend - yes?'
Edith stared at Begg, but she could discern nothing from his eyes.
Begg commanded the guard: 'Don't - let - her - in!'
-------------
The katana-wielding Mexican girl broke the silence. 'Hahaha! How interesting, friend! So you're both Vino and Felix? Then if I kill you, it'll be as good as putting down the two best assassins in the world, wouldn't it!'
'Ah, more or less!' Vino shook his head whimsically, and turned to ask Luck, who was by his side: 'Hey. Who should I kill first?'
Everything felt like a scene out of a movie.
No one in the room really seemed inclined to start a fight. Only Gustavo was holding a gun and staring at Vino, hesitating as if he was wondering how to respond. But any small movement would no doubt leave him open to Vino's attacks - and a wrong move would mean certain death. Gustavo knew this - 'I think the police are coming, so maybe we should resolve this some other time---'
-didn't I say this before? (ed: not sure why this line is here.)
------------
'How troublesome,' Claire said. 'These two people whom I've just brought in –I don't know who they are, but I think they're Katie's guests.'
'Ah?' Luck said.
'I thought it'd be best to keep them safe.'
Hearing this, Luck rushed over to the corridor. He threw a look back at Claire and said, 'Why didn't you say so earlier!'
Keith shot them both a look after hearing Katie's name mentioned. He furrowed his brow.
Seeing Luck leave the room, Gustavo immediately dashed towards the other exit.
'Hey! Stop!'
"Vino" raised his handgun in preparation to shoot, but suddenly had it struck to the ground.
Taking the chance, Gustavo ran out the door.
The Mexican girl, whistled at Vino. 'Your reflexes aren't bad, friend. I actually was aiming to cut your hand.'
'Oh, hello, friend. You want to play too?' Claire replied.
'Sorry. The katana practically moved on its own.' With that excuse, the Mexican girl sliced forward again!
Claire sighed. 'If you could bear to, surrender? I don't want to end up killing you, friend.'
'Ah——! Don't patronise me just because I'm a woman, friend. I'll get angry.' As the Mexican girl spoke, her knife descended in a graceful arc towards Vino.
(ed: these two are the champions of awkward conversation. They keep referring to each other as "peng you", which I suppose translates as "friend", though you might not want to take it too literally...)
KAAAA!
The Mexican girl's katana stopped just in front of Vino with a screech of metal against metal.
'How strange.' At the Gandor family offices, Tic shook his head in confusion. 'I'm missing a few of my new scissors!'
-- what? Why had her katana stopped?
Looking at the wide eyed girl, Vino's eyes slowly hardened. 'I don't look down on you because you're a girl. There are very skilled women out there whom I respect greatly.'
And as he sneered at the girl, the scissors in his hand locked tighter around the katana blade, blocking its movement entirely. 'I look down on you because you are weak!'
The girl's katana was gripped between the scissors. That wasn't possible! That just wasn't possible! She felt slightly frantic, but refused to doubt her own ability. She let go of her right hand, holding onto her disabled katana with only her left, and drew her second blade, bringing it straight toward Vino's chest.
KKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAA!
A second pair of scissors appeared in Vino's left hand, deftly blocking the movements of the new blade. 'Ahh... so there was nothing special about that sword of yours after all!'
As steel met steel for a fourth time, or more accurately, a 6th time, another shadow entered the fray.
The assassin in the longcoat drew two handguns, taking aim at Vino. At that moment, the Mexican danced into the path of the guns, but the assassin took no notice, slamming down on the trigger for all his worth.
In that instant, a giant silhouette threw itself forward from the side of the room, crushing the assassin's hands and slamming the guns to the floor.
The room resounded with the echoes of gunshots, holes appearing in the concrete floor as the bullets found their way into the two men's feet.
'Ah! Ah! Ah!' The longcoated assassin screamed in pain as he thrashed on the ground. Berga, pinning the handguns to the floor, bit his lip and stood steadfastly.
'WHY DON'T YOU FEEL ANY PAIN!? YOU ABOMINATION!' Berga's silence contrasted sharply with the longcoat assassin's moaning. 'Ah-ah-ah-ah! What the hell are you, aaaaaaargh!'
The man on the ground reached into his coat, drawing still more firearms and pumping Berga full of bullets. Berga's body was riddled with holes, his blood flowing everywhere. The blood that dripped onto the floor, however, immediately rose into the air, returning to Berga's body. The long coat assassin, not noticing this at all, continued to reach into his coat to draw a new gun each time he emptied his cartridges.
Despite this, Berga refused to fall, meeting the gunfire with his bare fists.
'Stop - ahahahahaha!'
Bullets buried themselves in Berga's hand in time to the sadistic laughter, exposing bone. Despite this, his fist never slowed. With all his strength, Berga slammed his fist into the longcoated assassin's face.
It ends here.
That was the last conscious thought the assassin had before he passed out.
----------------------
'Ha! Those are mere scissors!'
Amidst the deadly music of the clashing steel, the victor was already clear. In a flash, the blades met, and were once again locked tight with one another. As the girl attempted to distance herself from Vino by throwing her centre of gravity backward, Vino's foot slammed into the girl's hand.
'Guh!'
The katana dropped uselessly to the ground. Vino calmly kicked it way. To be honest, Claire didn't use much strength to disarm the girl, but due to the extended fighting, her hands no longer had enough strength to even hold onto the blade for much longer.
'That's enough.'
'Ah…'
As if checkmating a game, Vino placed his scissors against the girl's neck. When he'd confirmed that the Mexican girl no longer had the intention to fight, Claire turned his head toward the motionless underlings of Gustavo's.
'Hey, what do you guys think?'
Upon hearing this, several people in the group stood up, hurriedly yelling to Keith. 'We concede. We'll be leaving now!'
'What?' In response to that sudden statement, Vino produced a rare confused exclamation. Keith only nodded wordlessly, upon which the men left the room. Among them were a few of the people who'd been most affected when Luck'd pointed out Gustavo's betrayal of the Runorata Family.
Watching the men leave the room, both Vino and the Mxican girl could only stare in confusion.
'What the hell's going on?'
Keith remained silent, ignoring Vino's question.
Having seen the whole incident, Berga impatiently explained: 'Didn't I tell you? Roughly half of them were plants that we and Baltoro put in.'
'We didn't have to let them ALL go!'
'They're just a bunch of lowlifes!'
'Is that so? Then....!'
Vino suddenly ended his sentence, forcefully leaping aside and flinging aside the scissors he held in his hand. At the sight of the scissors flying directly at her, the Mexican girl froze in fear.
At this moment, gunshots once again rang out in the room. The bullets came from opposite the room from where Vino was facing the girl, passing through the girl's hair, cutting through where he had just been standing. The scissors, flying parallel to the floorboards, buried themselves in the longcoat assassin's arm, revealing another man who was using the unconscious killer as a shield.
It was the old drunkard who had been knocked down earlier. Hiding his dwarf-like body behind the longcoat, he stood there with the scent of gunpowder in the air.
'Haha!' Vino laughed lightly, throwing a pair of scissors to impede his opponent's movements while rolling to grab the handgun that had fallen to the floor. As he came out of his roll, the room was once again filled with incessant gunfire. The bullets flew between the two men.
Vino ducked deftly to avoid the oncoming bullets, his own bullets hitting the longcoated man. As a result of the sheer number of handguns concealed in his coat, the unconscious killer was never hurt - his coat served as an excellent form of armour.
When both Vino and the old man had spent their ammo, Vino joyously shouted: 'Just as I expected! Your reaction had been so blasé that it was just too suspicious, gramps! When we met at the hotel, I knew you were the strongest of the three.'
In response to Vino's words, the drunkard responded laughingly: 'Heh, you do live up to your reputation. I can rest easy now. If I kill you, I'll definitely become famous.'
'Ah! You wait a moment, old man! Gramps, your employer's already dead. And he's been kicked out of his organization to boot. There's no longer any reward waiting for you, so do you still want to fight?'
'I'm just taking a personal interest in having your head!'
'Oh! Really?' Vino shook his head, drawing yet another pair of scissors from his shirt pocket. 'Then you have no intention to backstab your employer, whom we can henceforth assume to be non-existent?' The old man's actions left Vino both curious and confused. 'Why? Isn't running away or just giving up so much easier? You're nowhere as strong as I am. Your skills are too weak, nothing you do will work. Isn't that obvious?'
'Don't you understand, kid, that to be a killer, you need pride an--'
Upon hearing the old man's reply, Vino burst out laughing. 'Hahahahahahahaha! That's bizarre! You're one intriguing old gramps, you know that?'
'What are you finding so funny?' The old man's face darkened as he produced a knife from his shirt pocket.
Vino continued to laugh racuously. 'What pride? What respect!? Killers like you and me, talking about such things? That's hilarious, I tell you!' Vino glanced at the old man and the Mexican girl, snorting in derision. The Mexican girl tried to get out of his line of sight.
Vino's eyes were burning with an manic light, as if he were on the brink of starting a war. His bright glare seemed capable of drawing not only the darkness, but even the souls of men into it, as if he were some malevolent demonic entity.
'From the moment you took on murder as your occupation, you forsook pride! Wake up, you fool! Do you believe that society will fear you just because you kill one man? Do you believe that killing will earn you an award? I am the strongest amongst us. So you believe that killing "Vino" will raise your reputation, don't you? But it's more than just that, isn't it! You even think betraying an employer will tarnish that reputation! Wake up! This sort of thing never existed in the first place. A killer is a killer. A killer who believes in pride and respect does not deserve to exist.'
On hearing from the mouth of the strongest assassin words that denied the whole idea of what an assassin should be, the old man and the Mexican girl were too stunned to reply.
'If you think that what I've just said is rubbish and you don't want to believe it -- that's fine with me. Then from this point on, we're enemies. If you think I'm wrong, prove it with your strength. Prove your "pride". A loser is a loser after all! Think about it!'
The battle came to an sudden, abrupt end.
Pointed directly at Vino's skull was a black handgun. Feeling the barrel resting against his skull, Vino calmly acknowledged its wielder: 'Keith.'
From behind him came some brotherly advice: 'Don't taunt the living.'
In response to Keith's words, the world's most fearsome killer merely closed his eyes and sighed. 'Completely unlike you, trash like us...'
'...never ever change.' Keith chose his words carefully, not giving Vino an opportunity to retort. 'We are all the same -- evil men.'
Vino, uncaring of the gun pointed at him, shook his head and turned around. His eyes, as he looked at Keith, no longer held the fearsome, violent quality they had before. 'I know, I'm sorry. I'm just as ensnared by respect and pride, aren't I?'
And whether it was within Vino's -- Claire's --- heart, or in the tone he used, there was never a single moment where he took those words lightly.
Just then, a murderous light flared in Keith's eyes. He pushed past Claire.
Vino turned just as the sound of someone hitting the ground resounded in the room. He didn't look very surprised.
The old man had taken advantage of Claire's momentary distraction to aim his gun at Vino's head - he'd been kicked to the ground by Keith. Keith now had his foot slammed down against the old man's throat, suffocating him. Unable to even cry out, the old man moaned weakly.
'Shouldn't you take pity on the elderly?'
Keith glanced backwards at the bemused Claire. Without batting an eyelid, he replied: '.... Enemies are enemies!'
Hearing Keith's answer, Claire smiled with satisfaction. 'Perhaps you're a real mafia man after all!'
-------------------------------
'By the way, what do you intend to do, miss?' Berga questioned the Mexican girl as he watched the scene unfold.
'....too cool!'
'Huh?'
Ignoring the confused Berga, the Mexican girl focused all her attention on Keith. 'Hey friend! Can I take that fox-eyed guy up on his offer to join you guys?'