Interlude Two: The Misshaped Soul is Relaxed, and…

Thanks for all your patience – one day I will be efficient and finish things quickly! I promise!

Alcatraz

Special cell, underground

One minute – that was how long it had been since Ladd had struck Sham’s vessels.

Surveying the situation, Firo sighed. A little away, Ladd had his fingers pressed to his temple, as if he was thinking over something –

Suddenly he clapped his hands, and turned to Firo with a wide smile.

“Okay Firo, ya keep on thinkin’ – but right now, I’m gonna send these guys on their last journey.”

“Why do you have to kill them in the first place?”

Seeing Firo’s questioning gaze, Ladd blankly stared at him.

“Why’d I want to? Why, ’cause I can, that’s why!  It’s like magic – even if I don’t have a reason, even if you ask if it’d be better or worse to do it, I’ll just kill ’em anyway! That’s what I just asked myself, and the answer was YES! And notta moment to lose! Other words, my answer’s same it’ll always be…which is YES! Ya get me?”

“And when you’re killing these people, haven’t you ever considered that that’s a bad thing? The situation we’re in doesn’t change your mind at all? If you kill these guys here, you wouldn’t even have to worry about getting your sentence increased – they’d send you straight to the gallows!”

“The gallows, huh…hey, didn’t some executioner before think, “I’m the one killing others, so I definitely can’t be killed”? Or d’ya think he thought, “I might end up like him one day,” and went on livin’ his life in fear? Hey, which d’ya think they were thinkin’? Which one, huh?”

“Why does it matter?”

Ladd’s nonsensical words, the same as those he had said previously, only made Firo’s head hurt. At the same time, he wondered what to do with the eyeball still turning in his hand –

“Oh but no no no, Firo – of course it matters! In fact, it’s a question with a clear connection to me right now. See, right now, I could definitely kill these guys on the ground – but if I just arrogantly kill ’em like that, what kind of thoughts would I have?”

“You’re askin’ me, but who am I supposed to ask about that?!”

“Listen, even if I killed these guys while they were unconscious, it’d hardly count for anything, yeah? But if it makes me think “I’m a person who can’t be killed,” then there’s no way I could live with myself!”

Firo’s coldly indifferent answer did nothing to deter Ladd, who only animation only increased as he continued talking, crazily pacing as he chattered on. In this mood ofabnormal interest, he leveled his next question at Firo:

“Firo, how ’bout you? You ever killed anyone who was unconscious? That ever happen to you, being so completely, absolutely powerful over another guy, way more than “I wanna kill this guy before he kills me first?'”

“I would never –”

However, he found himself unable to finish the sentence.

Because although Firo himself had never had this type of experience –

There was a similar one in his memory.

From the memories of Szilard Quates, came the scene of a ship several hundred years ago.

Although he hardly wanted to recall it, the memory was there, and triggered by Ladd’s words, it suddenly surfaced in his mind.

In the middle of the night, he stood in front of a bed, right hand stretching towards its occupant’s forehead –

What happened next was something Firo definitely didn’t want to remember.

Because in the next moment, the person sucked into his right hand –

That…that’s Maiza’s little brother.

In the moment after he devoured the boy, a series of other memories flashed before his eyes.

Firo felt himself being caught in the rush of memories – but as he recalled Maiza’s brother, Szilard’s memories stopped, and he was brought back to reality by the object clenched in his right hand.

“Oh, shit.”

Remembering what the object in his hand was, Firo nearly let go of it in disgust. But just as he loosened his grip, the eye began squirming to return to its source – the eye socket of Huey, now lying on the ground.

“Hey, woah there – don’t want to pop it now. Hey, that’s right – that reminds me, how do ya plan to get this back? Cause I’m real curious right now how you’re gonna do it – this is the type of prison you couldn’t sneak a hairpin past, so how’re ya gonna sneak this eyeball inside, huh? I mean, whattya gonna do, swallow it? Although…people do say that human eyes are veeery tasty – ya gonna give it a few licks to see if they’re right? Or just gonna crunch it right up up up, savoring it like some sorta delicacy, huh?”

“Quit playing around! God, who would think about eating an eye –”

…although…thinking about it, I’ve already eaten people, haven’t I?

Even as his mind rejected the idea, the memory of sucking up Szilard with right hand arose in his mind, and the memories of that night were more than enough to keep Firo silent.

“Hey, something up? You got real strange there for a moment.”

“…it’s nothing.”

Firo sighed, deliberately avoiding Ladd’s question.

He had come here to devour Huey – and as Ladd had just pointed out, that meant he had come here to kill Huey.

From Firo’s reaction, it was evident that it was possible to kill an immortal.

When it came to the issue of “devouring immortals,” however, Firo had chosen to keep that knowledge from Ladd –

Ladd, who now exclaimed, “alright, got it! Guess I’ll just have to wait ’til you’re hungry enough, then just put your right hand on Huey’s head!”

From the tone of his voice, it was evident he wasn’t just bluffing – Ladd was really ready to do what he had said. And continuing from that – it was quite possible that he had plans to kill all other immortals.

No matter what happened then, this murderous madman couldn’t be allowed to learn of the secret of killings immortals.

That was the  resolution Firo, with thoughts of Ennis, Maiza and the others in mind, made then.

At the moment he made this decision, Ladd – as if suddenly realizing what Firo had decided – stopped all other actions.

“Alright, alright,” he said, kicking at the guards on the ground, “I’ll cut to the chase. You know, I  wasn’t planning to kill anyone, but when it comes to the guy there and people like ’em, immortals like you, I was just curious –”

“…”

“I mean, how’d ya do it? How’d ya kill an immortal?”

Hearing the question he had long expected, Firo gave Ladd a brief smile.

“You think there’s anyone in the world stupid enough to tell a murderer how to kill them?”

At this terse answer, Ladd  broke out in a grin – a wide, murderous expression, his mouth stretched to its limit. Nodding his head, he cried –

“Completely – you said it! I mean, if I was a vampire, I sure as hell wouldn’t tell some stranger, ‘hey, you can kill me by putting a stake through my chest!” Only type of person who’d do something like would be some arrogant guy, completely sure that he can’t be hurt – ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, what a bastard he’d be! A bastard a bastard an abso-abso-abso-fucking-lute bastard!“

“…!”

The change came over Ladd out of nowhere.

Suddenly leaping over, Ladd slammed his fist into the room’s wall –

A fist which, hitting it, seemed to be made of steel.

It was though his shoulders, waist, and all the rest of his body were channeled into propelling this iron fist forward – an action that, in form, seemed no different from an ordinary person’s movement –

But an action from which resulted the loud crack of something breaking apart –

As cracks appeared in the wall, Firo saw this iron fist deeply embedded in the wall.

“…….!”

If a person’s head had been against the wall, then it would have looked worse than a tomato trampled by a bull.

For a moment, Firo forgot that he was immortal, and felt a tremor of fear at extent of this damage.

Its cause, however, was a simple action – a punch.

For an ordinary person, it would be incredibly difficult to imagine what it was like to be shot by bullets or stabbed by daggers. Firo, in the aftermath of being immortal, had been shot multiple times, had his throat slit, and suffered countless otherwise “fatal” injuries. Because of these experiences, he had a good conception of horrific pain.

Right now however, the scene in front of him was far easier to comprehend than any of these scenarios.

If you were beaten like that, you would die – that was an infinitely easy thing to understand. But as to what this said about the mind of the man in front of him…

Sirens in Firo’s mind went loudly off at the thought –

Sirens which, however, were just as suddenly silenced.

This was because Ladd, wrenching his fist from the wall, began to roll on the ground in agony.

“Ah shit – ow ow ow ow ow oooow! Ow, shit shit shit –  that hurt, that really fuckin’ hurt!”

After going around roughly three times, Ladd suddenly leapt up and fixed Firo with a bright smile.

“Damn, that hurt like hell…and aaah damn, my collarbone’s already fractured. Shit, next time I try this, guess I should take some morphine first! Ha hah! Ahahahahahaha!”

“…what are you doing?”

Completely unable to comprehend Ladd’s actions, Firo dully watched him. The shaky lamplight cast a strange light on the men and the two people standing, sending strange chills up Firo’s spine.

No matter how you looked at it, this situation wasn’t normal.

What Firo wanted most was to leave this place as soon as possible, but to his surprise, Ladd turned to him with a sheepishly quiet apology.

“Aha, sorry about that – real sorry, honest! I was just thinkin’ on something – scared ya, huh? Ah, looks like I didn’t…I just got reminded of this guy who irritates me…no, who pisses me off so it drives me crazy – that sonuva bitch, that fuckin’ bastard!

“So you killed him?”

“Nope, actually, couldn’t – fact of the matter, I nearly got killed by him. That’s why I hate him so much, see.”

“….?”

– could this type of person exist?

Although the man in front of him was undoubtedly crazy, his strength was incontestable. Even if Firo had a knife or a gun, it would be difficult to know who would win between the two of them.

For a moment, Firo reflected that the world was truly wide –

“Ahahaha...yeah, that son of a bitch – the next time I see him, I ain’t gonna let him off easy. I’ll make him experience a million pains, regrets, sorrows, and all unnamed suffering – then I’ll break ‘im into pieces!”

“Huh?”

These last words, though simple, reminded Firo of a certain train conductor…

“I know this is weird comin’ from a murderer like me, but this guy was completely nuts! And he had this thing he used to say all the time, something like…’since this world is nothing but a dream of mine, I can’t be killed!'”

“…”

Oh no.

Firo said nothing, but his back had broken out into a cold sweat.

A train conductor.

A man even stronger than Ladd –

“The world is only a dream of mine.

Therefore, I cannot die…”

Just this phrase made Firo certain that it was him.

He nearly yelled at himself, what kind of proof is this? But the flash of memory was so strong, there was no mistaking it – all of his memories, experiences, and instincts told him the identity of this conductor.

“In the end, though, I never got this guy’s name – but that ain’t a big deal, all I gotta do is check the staff on the train we were on. What’d ya think of that, Firo? Oh, the train was called The Flying Pussyfoot.”

“…”

“Hey, any reason ya stopped talking all of a sudden?”

This guy…

Various memories flashed through Firo’s head.

The year 1931.

Isaac and Miria’s arrival by train.

With Czeslaw Meyer, the boy who was like Firo’s little brother, they had arrived in New York.

Only – the train they had left on had already, earlier that day, been erased from existence.

And as for the train’s connection to Ladd –

It had been called The Flying Pussyfoot.

When, towards the end of 1931, disaster had wrecked the train and forced it to be abandoned, many people had already had had a premonition of it.

Isaac had said that monsters, bandits and terrorists had appeared on the train, but as always, Firo had taken his words with a grain of salt, only half-listening to him.

But considering what had happened to the train afterwards and the strange circumstances of its arrival, it looked like some of these events might have actually happened.

He’d already tried asking Czes, but seeing how the boy turned white at thought and looked as if he would cry, Firo hadn’t had the heart to pursue the issue.

After that, he’d tried his best to not bring it up – and after a while, the event had simply passed out of his memory –

Who would have thought, that in this place, I’d meet someone else connected to it.

This coincidence made Firo suspicious, and so he chose his next words with care.

“I don’t know…I know several train conductors, but I don’t go around asking them which trains they conduct.”

“Oh…yeah, guess that’s true.”

Ladd didn’t seem too disappointed at this answer – singing a note, he began humming as he kicked at the rifle on the ground.

“Yeah, what you said was true, so I guess I gotta start filling this gun…”

“Why would you do that?”

“Hey, don’t worry – I thought about it for a while, and I’m wait ’em up ‘fore I kill ’em.”

Eyes wide as he shook his head, Firo strode over to Ladd and grabbed the gun out of his hand. Although he was still wary of Ladd, after talking with him for a while, he had become certain that Ladd bore him no animosity.

Ladd let Firo take the gun without any resistance, but there was a wry smile as he addressed Firo.

“Hey there, what’d ya think you’re doing, taking my weapons? Not real nice, is that…plus, I’ve still got another hand I could beat ’em to death with – and what about you huh, Firo? That thing moving in your hand, it irritates you, don’t it?”

Glancing at the body of Huey beneath Firo, Ladd’s smile widened.

“We might be different types of people, but we’re the same in this, huh?”

Placing the gun on a chair, Firo once again turned to face Ladd.

“Who knows? Damn, talking to you is harder than talking to Isaac…anyways, don’t you care about…um, what was her name…the girl important to you…”

“Lua.”

“Right, Lua. You said she was being held by people right now? Aren’t you worried about her safety?”

Firo’s words, however, only made Ladd’s grin grow wider.

After several moments, however, Ladd’s expression become more serious as he once again addressed Firo.

“Yeah…right then when I was beating those guys up, I was pretty worked up…but if you have to ask, then I’m not worried about Lua’s safety, ’cause of one piece of evidence.”

“And what was it?”

“Well, right then when I asked those guys “is Lua okay?” those bastards told me, “she seems fine,” right?”

“Ah, well…yeah.”

Unable to comprehend where Ladd was going, Firo could only silently wait for him to continue.

“What kinda person, after seeing Lua, would say she’s only “fine?”

“…there’s no use telling me this when I don’t know her either.”

“Well, after I get outta this place, I can introduce ya guys.”

How did things end up like this?

At least now able to think about the future, Firo turned to Ladd, relieved, with another question.

“Speaking of that…looking at the situation we’re in, what are you planning to do?”

“Huh? I told ya, I was put here to kill people, so that’s what I’m gonna start doing.”

…so they were going to die anyways!

Not seeming to notice Firo’s clearly frustrated reaction, Ladd continued surveying the room.

Continuing, he glanced at the twitching bodies of the Shams below him, and took a step towards them – but Firo, catching his movement, slowly shook his head at him.

“I’ve told ya a dozen times already, but don’t do anything stupid! It doesn’t matter how you look at it, these guys are prisoners and guards – they’ll keep you here forever if you kill them.”

“Oh, alright then. Hey, I got it! These people…I’m not gonna kill them first.”

“?”

“That guy whose eye you gouged him – I think I’ll slowly finish ‘im off.”

Saying this, he stepped over the body of the Asian man –

And kicked a foot towards the small body in the corner.

“First, I’m gonna kill…the person most out of place here…”

“!”

The person Ladd referred to was the same one he had brought into this room – and no matter how you looked at it, it was the body of a young girl. Up until now, Firo hadn’t even noticed her –

“Hey, w-wait!”

Unable to help himself, he urgently grabbed Ladd’s shoulder.

Although he didn’t know the girl, from her appearance, she was probably the “fairy” Isaac had spoken about – but nonetheless, she was still only a child. Even if she was immortal or a homunculus, there was no way to tell.

“Huh? Hey, what are ya tryin’ – what, can’t kill a child?”

Firo greatly wanted to scream at Ladd, but he forced himself to be calm. With a great deal of effort, he forced his anger down, and scathingly replied –

“…I don’t know. If some punk try to shoot me, yeah, I’d probably kill them – but no matter how it is, I’m not the type of person who’d kill a helpless kid.”

“Aren’t you part of the mafia? What if your boss told you to do it, huh?”

“First of all, it’s not the mafia, it’s the camorra. Second, even if my Don told me to do it, then I guess I would just have to disobey him.”

“Naive – yeah, that’s it. Oh dear dear dear – naive, naive, naive, just waaay too naive.”

Hearing Firo’s reply, Ladd gave a short laugh – but rather than scorn, his eyes were filled with an odd admiration.

“Your way’s fine, too, I guess. Not killin’ her, even though the kid might kill you – lookin’ at it, it’s the type of thinking that means you’ve thought about dying.”

“…”

“Even if you’re immortal, I like that in a person. That fuckin’ conductor I just mentioned, though, he had some piece of shit about that too! What was it – “even if a kid were to point a gun at me, I would be able to get out of it safely. Because of my strength, even if he were to shoot at him from behind, I’d still be able to escape!'”

Seeing Ladd’s clenched fists and teeth, Firo awkwardly avoided his eyes.

Yeah, that sounds like something he’d say.

Just as Firo thought this, Ladd was hit by a memory of the conductor – a man so overwhelmingly more powerful than him that he had been able to threaten Lua. Although his face had been covered with blood and appeared vaguely in the dawn’s light, his voice, and overall murderous aura had vividly been preserved in Ladd’s mind.

Seeing the snarl emerging on Ladd’s lips, Firo frowned, headache increasing as he furrowed his brow.

Suddenly –

A faint pain went through Firo’s right hand.

Huh?

Closing examining the situation, a guard – Firo had no idea when he had gotten up – was holding, in his right hand, the eye that Firo had taken from Huey.

What?

He’d been clenching the eye tightly, but now the fingers the guard had forcibly opened were immobile, unable to move as though they had been shocked.

“We appreciate your work, but your task is over for now.”

Although his nose was bleeding, the man nonetheless calmly smiled as he dropped Huey’s eye into a jar, produced from out of seemingly nowhere. Once dropped, the eye’s blood vessels began creeping up the walls of the bottle like slugs, trying to escape – but the lid of the jar had already been tightly closed, so that it could not even ooze out through the cracks.

“You bastards…”

Seeing the guard standing up, Ladd took a step forward as if to pummel him once more – only to suddenly stop, glaring fiercely at someplace over Firo’s shoulder.

“?”

Unsure what was going on, Firo turned his head – only to see the muzzle of a gun, pointed by the short Caucasian man at his back.

“Hey…”

Ignoring the protest in Firo’s voice and face, the Caucasian man said nothing as he took a step back.

His gun still firmly pointed at Firo’s back, he turned to Ladd, uttering a statement that could either be seen a taunt or words of praise.

“Oh yes, and you…you’re certainly beyond anything we could have expected.”

On the ground, the African-American man and the Asian man also began to stand up – but unlike before, the only person who spoke now was the guard.

“Oh, and also – it’s been troubling us, but how can we convince you that we really have your fiancé?”

“Well, you can ask Lua what type of flower she likes, and then tell me what she says.”

“That is something we can’t do that right now.”

“…whaddya mean?”

Hearing the shift in Ladd’s tone, the Sham vessel slowly shook his head.

“Due to certain circumstances, we’ve recently lost track of her location. Please do relax – it’s not that she has no way to answer, but rather that we have no way to ask her right now.”

“…”

“Ah, well, it’s like this…when these circumstances pass, we’ll ask her properly. Now, please excuse us, but we’ll be leaving, so we can’t deal with you right now.”

“Ha – talkin’ like that, nose bleedin’ everywhere, like you could just oh so easily do that – ain’t that hilarious? But I just can’t find it in me to laugh – what’s wrong? Whaddya say? It’s clearly funny, but I ain’t laughing, so why’s that?”

Hearing Ladd’s unreasonable words, Sham sighed and smiled bitterly.

Firo watched this interaction anxiously, mind lost in endless confusion.  It would be extremely easy to take the gun from the Caucasian man, but would doing so only lead to a repeat of the previous situation? If that were the case, then it would be best to first plan his actions in advance, stopping Ladd if he did anything rash so that things could advance.

“The way you and Graham is quite similar – no wonder you two work together.”

At the sudden mention of his protégé, Ladd once again gnashed his teeth.

Ignoring Ladd’s expression, the Shams slowly began exiting the door – then warily turned back to Firo and Ladd, bodies as tense as though walking through a mine field.

“We’ll need you to keep what happened here secret.”

[[Right now, I’ll let you know something I’ve already known –]]

[[[We will always have hostages in our hands.]]]

[[[[You’ll cooperate, Ladd, if you and  Firo want to see anything else ever again.]]]]

Saying these inflammatory words, the four now-conscious Shams once again smiled their eerie smile, then left.

Besides the guard standing at the door, the other four Shams were gone. The room almost empty, Firo turned to Ladd with an astonished expression and addressed Ladd.

“Hey…you do remember that I can’t die, right? Why didn’t you just attack then?”

“D’ya wanna get shot?”

“…no?”

“Well then, that’s good. Dislikin’ pain and refusin’ to die – those’re only natural. Though with pain, ya can survive it by enduring it for a while, but ya can’t do that with death.”

So all long – no, wait.

Firo almost found himself agreeing with Ladd’s words, but then, remembering at the disastrous situation they were in, once again began frowning.

“Right now, the people who have Lua – shouldn’t you be rushing to do something?”

“I told ya, I trust Lua. Oh, that doesn’t mean I don’t believe you – it’s just that we just met, that’s all.”

Finishing, Ladd began to chuckle, the fierce expression he had given Sham giving way to cheerfulness. With a playful smile, he turned to Firo with another question.

“Plus…what would you do, if they had your friendsand were threaten’ to kill ’em?”

“…”

Firo found himself unable to answer.

This was an occurrence he had not thought about before but which, upon consideration, was wholly likely.

If they thought it would work once, then his opponents would surely not hesitate to kidnap people again if they thought it would make their target cooperate.

As a member of the criminal world, the chances of being kidnapped were extremely high – many times more so than for a normal person..

If I were in Sham’s position and things were looking badly…no, even as myself, this is what I would do.

Although Firo didn’t like the idea of kidnapping, he knew his own positionmeant he had little grounds to criticize it on. Understanding this, Firo wasn’t too troubled with the morality of such an action.

Firo had, after all, already gouged out the eye of someone he neither disliked or had a grudge against. And if he was willing to do that, if Isaac and his friends in New York were captured, what would be do?

In this prison, the person he had become was hardly recognizable from those of the person he had been before coming here.

However, what Firo currently knew convinced him beyond a doubt that kidnapping was something the entity known as Sham would attempt to do to Ennis and his friends.

In this prison…have I just become a pawn on a chess board?

And do I, by letting myself become a mere pawn, really deserve to be a Camorrista?

Damn it…how am I going to explain this to Maiza and the Don?

Seeing Firo’s confused expression, Ladd turned, eyes falling on Huey’s prone body on the ground.

“Count yourself lucky, Peter Pan – the order of the people I want to kill has changed slightly.”

Ladd laughed, a joyful, cheerful sound that contrasted with his murderous aura.

“Well, looks like Neverland is headin’ towards destruction…”

Ladd’s thoughts were clear – pure, simple intent to kill. As his breathing calmed down, he shrugged as he turned to Firo.

“Anyways, looking at it, these days’ve been kind of shitty, hasn’t it?”

“How so?”

“Well, ’cause even though I wanted to kill these guys, now I gotta look at things and decide before I do anythin’.”

Firo considered answering for a moment, but eventually only sighed.

This guy really is impossible to understand.

Although the two had barely met, Firo had felt he was already familiar with the type of person Ladd Russo was – a person who was not only impossible to understand, but who also should not be understood.

Ladd was the type of person he would have originally never associated, but because of current circumstances, their fates had already become intertwined.

Currently, Isaac was about to be released, but Firo had not even thought about him until now. This wasn’t because Firo didn’t think he could help, but rather because he didn’t want to get Isaac any more involved in this affair.

If anything else, I really don’t want to see Miria cry like that again…

Leaving the only man here willing to help Firo a killer whose thoughts were impossible to understand as he stood there, iron fist tightly clenched as he continued giving out an aura of concentrated killer intent.

“Well, things are gettin’ more and more interestin’, don’t you think so?”

“Not at all.”

Undeterred by Firo’s indifferent words, Ladd continued becoming more and more excited.

“Oh, but things are finally starting to get exciting! And the way the things are, I should go make it even more and more and more and more interesting!”

“Whatever you want.”

“Ha! Of course I’ll do whatever I want! Once I start somethin’, it’s my duty to finish it! Or else it could just be fate, eh? Ha, ha….ahahahahahahahaha!”

In the eerie depths of Alcatraz, Ladd’s laughter resounded around them.

The only one to hear him, however, was Firo. Hearing this crazed laughter, Firo once again was struck by his situation.

The feeling that had only been vague before had now taken on a certain shape – and what was more, now spoke certain dire words.

This was going to be trouble…

Chapter Three, Part 1/2