The Rolling Bootlegs

by Ryohgo Narita

  “Or did you ask the demon and manipulate their souls?”

  “…You’ll…probably never understand it…”

  “No, I will. In a moment, after I ‘eat’ you, I’ll understand it as a matter of course.”

  Szilard bent down, slowly stretching his right hand toward Maiza’s head.

  Just then, he heard a deafening roar from outside.

  “What’s that…?”

  He didn’t recall giving Ennis a machine gun. He’d heard three gunshots a moment ago, but he’d assumed the boy or his companions had fired them. Had reinforcements arrived, bearing machine guns?

  For one brief moment, Szilard was distracted by what was happening outside.

  Taking hold of the chance, Maiza grabbed both of Szilard’s ankles and simultaneously jumped to his feet. It had been sudden, and Szilard’s body made a half turn, crashing to the floor.

  Maiza found himself face-to-face with his enemy’s moment of vulnerability, but he calculated he wouldn’t be able to grab Szilard’s head. Instead, using a nearby table as a step stool, he broke a window that was rather high up and leaped through it. At night, when they brought the liquor out, it was closed with a shutter, but during the day, the glass was the only barrier.

  A transparent shattering sound. Maiza escaped from the speakeasy in the midst of a blizzard of glass fragments.

  “You won’t get away!”

  Szilard followed him, leaping out through the window.

  …And was hit by a car.

  “Ha-ha-ha! That was a cinch… Let’s beat it before the dame regenerates.”

  Thinking that the main street would probably be in an uproar over the gunfire, Dallas’s group decided to slip out through the back of the alley.

  “…Nn?”

  When they’d turned the first corner and gone a little ways, they heard a noise from the far end of the alley. It sounded rather like a motor running, and something else, as if a massive object was hitting a wall.

  “What’s that…?”

  The source of the sound appeared around the next corner.

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

  It was a black passenger car, so large that it barely fit into the alley.

  “I-I-I-Isaac! W-w-w-we’re slamming against the waaall!”

  The sound of the car’s side scraping against the bricks set Miria’s eardrums trembling violently.

  “A-a-a-and anyway, Isaac, I didn’t know you could drive cars this big.”

  “D-d-d-d-don’t worry! I watched my old man drive all the time, and the b-b-b-basics seem j-j-j-just like a s-s-s-s-small c-c-c-car!”

  “I-i-i-i-is that right! That’s a relief-f-f!”

  As they chased after Dallas’s group, the two of them had spotted the car that had hit them. It was actually Ennis’s car, but of course they didn’t realize that. Well, and it really was the car that had hit them… But in any case.

  Isaac had fiddled with the auto and gotten the engine started. They’d stolen small cars to use in getaways countless times, and their skills were truly excellent. Taking the Genoard house into consideration, it was apparently safe to say that their thieving techniques—and only their thieving techniques—were top-shelf.

  “We can beat those machine guns if we hit ’em with a car!”

  “We sure can!”

  They felt absolutely no guilt whatsoever about stealing the car that had hit them. The only trouble was that, although they’d gotten in, they’d lost track of Dallas and the others.

  At that point, they’d heard the thunder of machine guns from a nearby alley.

  “Found ’em, found ’em, found ’em!”

  “Yes, that’s them!”

  They sped up, plowing into the three in front of them.

  Panicking, Dallas’s group tried to run, but they were struck the instant they turned their backs. Their momentum sent them tumbling from the hood up over the roof and around the sides, where they fell behind the car.

  “We did it!”

  “Isaac! The road! Watch the road!”

  Maiza had suddenly appeared in their path.

  “Waaaaaugh!”

  Hastily, he slammed on the brakes. Maiza noticed instantly and took to his heels, so they’d somehow managed not to hit him, but…

  …they sent the old man who’d jumped down right after him flying.

  As a result, they accomplished their revenge for the hit-and-run, too.

  Isaac and Miria hastily backed up.

  They ran right up over Dallas and the others, who’d fallen behind the car, and then they were stuck.

  “Uunh…”

  Fully regenerated, Ennis slowly got to her feet.

  “…Ah… Why…? How could this…?”

  They’d been shot by Dallas’s group, and only she had survived…

  Not sure what to think, she gazed at the prone corpses of Firo and the others.

  And then

  When Ennis rounded the corner in pursuit of Dallas’s group, she was confronted with an odd—but, to her, appalling—sight.

  Her own car was stopped farther down the narrow alley. Before it, Szilard had a knife to Isaac’s throat. Slightly closer, Maiza stood stock-still, glaring at Szilard.

  “Ah, Ennis. Excellent timing.”

  “Oh! Ennis!”

  “Enniiis! Save Isaac!”

  The three of them called her name at once.

  “…What? Ennis, what is the meaning of this? Why do these two know your name?”

  This was a problem. Looking disconcerted, Ennis passed by Maiza. He didn’t try to move. He only glowered at her quietly.

  Apparently, Szilard had taken Isaac hostage and was keeping Maiza at bay. …Although she didn’t understand why Isaac and Miria were there.

  “Ennis. I’ll hear your explanation later. …Take over for me here, until I’ve finished ‘eating’ Maiza. …If Maiza tries to resist, kill him.”

  “H-hey…Ennis?”

  “Ennis?”

  The two of them were watching her uneasily. Shoving her agitation into the depths of her heart, Ennis spoke:

  “…You don’t really need to take a hostage, do you…?”

  “Ah, you know how it is. Just in case.”

  “……”

  Wordlessly, Ennis took the knife, then restrained Isaac.

  “Waugh! Ennis, you’re kidding, right?”

  “E-Ennis!”

  Watching Isaac and Miria panic out of the corner of his eye, Szilard approached Maiza, preparing to complete his eagerly anticipated ritual.

  The machine gun had broken when he’d been hit by the car, so he drew a gun from his coat and shot Maiza through both knees.

  “Gagh…”

  With the joints destroyed, Maiza fell to his knees. This put his head at the perfect height to be consumed.

  “Keh-keh… You value the lives of those two? How droll. No, no, I understand emotions like love and friendship myself, and I know humans can die or show strength for their sake.”

  Beaming, he took another step closer.

  “It’s just that, personally, I can’t stand them.”

  As she watched Szilard walk away, Ennis spoke to Isaac and Miria in a whisper.

  “…When that old man touches Maiza, hurry and run from here.”

  “E-Ennis…? Oh, what a relief… I knew you were really Ennis!”

  “Yes, she’s Ennis!”

  The pair responded, also in whispers.

  But they don’t know anything about me… Once again, Ennis’s feelings were bittersweet.

  “Oh… But we can’t… We have to save Maiza…”

  “Have to save him!”

  “…Why…?!”

  “Because…he treated us to dinner yesterday. He’s a good guy, Ennis! I don’t know who that old guy is, but save him, all right?!”

  “Save him! We’ll do our best, too!”

  Ennis wasn’t able to hide her bewilderment, but she asked the two of them anyway, desperately calming herself down:


  “…Did you…come to save that man?”

  “No, we came to save you!”

  “Huh?”

  Her confusion deepened.

  “Well, uh… You know! Those guys you took to the police yesterday broke out of jail and were walking around with machine guns! …So we thought you’d be killed…”

  “But don’t worry! We hit them with the car!”

  And they were currently under it.

  “……”

  An indescribable feeling came over Ennis. Had they known the enemy had machine guns and come anyway, not fearing even death? …Just to save her?

  For the space of a breath, she contemplated. It felt long, but in terms of time, it was only three and a half seconds. She’d never thought so seriously and come to a resolution about anything before, not since she was born.

  “…Isaac. Miria.”

  “…Hmm?”

  “What?”

  Her parting words were brief.

  “I’m sorry… Thank you. I’m really glad I was able to talk to you, at the end. If you’ll let me make one selfish request…”

  Ennis smiled sadly, quietly lowered the knife, and released Isaac.

  “Please don’t forget me.”

  Without giving Isaac and Miria time to respond, Ennis broke into a run, knife in hand.

  …Toward her master and “main body,” Szilard.

  “To continue our earlier conversation… The girl in the suit is the homunculus I created. Well, since she’s the same size as a human, the term homunculus—‘little man’—doesn’t really apply. In addition, creating her from both male and female cells wasn’t quite the proper way to do it, but even so…”

  Szilard stopped, looking down at Maiza, his expression filled with superiority. He had a gun in his left hand, and despair in his right.

  “I don’t know whether it was because I used the failed product to cultivate her or whether the fundamental method was wrong, but Ennis—that girl—was born with no knowledge whatsoever. She’s useless. Once I’ve ‘eaten’ you, I may use the finished product as culture liquid… Or, no, I’ll have your knowledge anyway: I can simply summon the demon and ask him.”

  After he’d conceitedly wrapped up the matter for himself, Szilard’s right hand reached for Maiza’s forehead.

  “Good-bye, Maiza. And…welcome.”

  In the very moment his right hand touched his prey’s forehead…

  “Gakh…?”

  There was a strong impact at his back, and he felt something enter his body. His sense of pain was already gone, so all that came to him was an odd undulation in the neighborhood of his skin.

  When Szilard turned, there was Ennis, quiet, a sorrowful expression on her face.

  The blade of the knife she held was buried deep in Szilard’s spine.

  “…Ennis… What is the meaning of this? …No, never mind. The time for explanations is past.”

  At the same moment, a shout went up from the corner of the alley:

  “Maiza!”

  Firo, who should have been dead, yelled and came running.

  The noise of gunfire was still coming from Alveare.

  “You four, split up and watch the ends of that alley. Don’t go in until you’re ordered to; this is our turf.”

  Having received a report, Edward arrived at the scene with a large squad of policemen in tow.

  “…What happened?”

  When he opened the double doors and entered the shop, the proprietress was standing there in a daze.

  “I, um… I don’t really know… Some strange old man just hit me, out of the blue…”

  Warily, Edward entered the speakeasy. He’d heard something that sounded like machine gun fire on the way here, so he proceeded cautiously, gun at the ready.

  “…What a mess.”

  The place looked as if a storm had blown through and ravaged it.

  Broken chairs were scattered near the entrance, and damage that seemed to have been caused by a machine gun was evident throughout the room.

  After he’d scanned the area, Edward murmured, sounding vaguely relieved:

  “Well, at least there weren’t any fatalities in here.”

  There wasn’t a single bloodstain in the room.

  “Oho… So you let that brat through, too, Ennis…?”

  Slowly, Szilard turned.

  “That’s unfortunate…is something I won’t be saying. I thought it was about time. I made several others before you, but the moment they acquired unnecessary knowledge, they betrayed me. I thought things might be different with a female, so I created you… But as I expected, nothing’s changed.”

  She’d never heard that she’d had brothers before. …But it didn’t matter anymore.

  She tried to nail Szilard with a kick, but…

  “It’s useless.”

  “Ah……”

  Szilard closed his eyes for an instant, and for some reason, Ennis fell to the ground. It was terribly abrupt, as if she were a marionette whose strings had been cut.

  In that moment, the cellular equilibrium that had been maintained by Szilard’s power collapsed, and Ennis’s physical functions began to break down.

  “I won’t kill you instantly. Suffer well before you die.”

  His face, which wore a mocking smile, was hit with a fistful of pepper.

  “Gwah…”

  The immortal man, a man who had obtained immeasurable knowledge and behaved as if he ruled the world, recoiled from a blinding powder of pepper. It was a ridiculous sight.

  “Why, you! What did you do to Ennis?!”

  “What did you do, huh?!”

  The priest and nun threw bags of pepper at him in rapid succession. They looked ridiculous as well, but it also looked a bit as if they were throwing holy ashes at a demon.

  “Gkh… You blasted…!”

  Firo had run up while this was going on, and he began to drag Ennis and Maiza away from Szilard.

  “Maiza! Are you okay?!”

  The holes in his knees were already half healed. It might have been the first time his joints had been destroyed: Compared to Dallas and the others, the regeneration seemed slow.

  “I’m…fine… Never mind me… The girl…”

  Ennis’s face was already pale, and her eyes had begun to go white and cloudy at the centers. Even then, when she recognized Firo, she began to speak slowly, relying on her weak breath.

  “…You’re… You also… I don’t know when it happened, but…you acquired immortality, didn’t you… When I…saw your wounds healing, back there…I knew…”

  At her words, Maiza stared at Firo, startled.

  “Yeah, I’ve got no idea when it happened either, but…”

  “…Then…I have a request. It looks…as if I’m dying… Would you… ‘eat’ me…? I told you…how it was done…earlier…”

  “Hey, what kind of crap are you spouting?”

  “…I don’t know if a homunculus like me…will be able to go to heaven or hell… It frightened me…and I couldn’t even end my own life… Oh… There’s still…so much I want to tell Isaac and Miria… So…please…would you ‘eat’ me…and deliver my message…? Also…no one ever told me…I was pretty before… Thank you… I was happy… …That’s…all I wanted to tell you…”

  At her words, Firo quietly clenched his fists…and shook his head.

  “I don’t have any obligation to deliver a thing like that. …Besides, I’m an atheist, so I can tell you straight out: Even if you die, there’s no heaven or hell. If you die…you just disappear.”

  “…Ah-ha-ha… You’re harsh…”

  Ennis laughed; she seemed a little disappointed. Even as she did so, her cells were breaking, one after another. At this point, her heart was already very near to stopping. The moment Ennis died…Szilard’s share of the elements of which she was composed would probably return to him.

  Straightening up, Firo spoke flatly:

  “Yeah. This world is harsh, and there is no ne
xt one. …So don’t die. Forget disappearing, deliver your message yourself! Don’t worry, I won’t let you die because of that rotten old geezer. …And actually…I’m not gonna let you die at all!”

  Maybe he’d had some sort of idea: Firo drew his knife and turned toward Szilard, who’d finally managed to shake off the pepper.

  Szilard glared back at him with rage-filled eyes.

  “Boy… What are you trying to—?”

  Something was poured over his head from behind.

  “…?”

  A pungent, stinking liquid. It was liquid fuel, the sort that was used in lamps.

  When Szilard turned around, Randy and the other executives were standing there. Their clothes were torn where they’d taken bullets, but there wasn’t a drop of blood on them.

  “You! I killed you! Impossible… All the liquor was there! Besides, Maiza would never have given it to you…!”

  As Szilard shouted, he looked at Maiza, only to discover that Maiza’s expression was very like his own. In other words, he couldn’t fathom what was happening here, either.

  “What kind of hooey was that? Are you nuts?”

  Randy was holding an empty fuel can.

  “We’ve burned gloves and storehouses…”

  A blazing red match flew from Pezzo’s hand.

  “…But we’ve never burned a head before.”

  Szilard’s whole head ignited in pale flames.

  “Gwooooooooooouh…”

  Since he couldn’t feel pain, he didn’t feel the excessive heat, either. However, the violently leaping flames had definitely robbed Szilard of his eyesight.

  Even then, somehow, he saw the brat they’d called Firo running toward him.

  Was he an immortal, too?

  If he was…

  Terror took root inside Szilard.

  “Ooooooooouuugh! I wooon’t alloooooow iiiiiiit!”

  Swiftly, he thrust his right hand out at Firo, who was bearing down on him.

  “Get that damn hand out of my way!”

  Firo had drawn his knife from inside his jacket, and he brought it down in a fit of rage.

  The blade ran between the index and middle fingers of Szilard’s right hand, splitting it open down to the wrist. The knife stopped, biting into the bone, and as he held it there with his left hand…

  …Firo thrust his own right hand into Szilard’s blazing face.