Previously:

"Wha… What happened…?"

Charlie asked as she opened her eyes and sat up and looked around, confused to find herself alive and uninjured. For a moment, she thought the whole thing had been a dream, but there were what looked like bullet holes in her dress.

She, of course, wasn't aware of this, but she had actually been shot twice. Her front had been caught by some stray bullets from when Berga was shot while holding her.

And then, her eyes fell on his body strewn on the ground beside her and those of his brothers.

"… the hell?"

She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

The impossible was happening right before her eyes.


Gunfire continued to sound in the Alveare.

"You four over there, split up and watch the exits of the alleyway. You are not to act freely without orders, because this alleyway is their territory..."

Edward had, on receiving a report, arrived on scene with a large number of police officers.

"... What happened?"

On pushing open both doors and entering the shop, he found the shopkeeper standing there dumbly.

"Ah, no... I don't understand it very well myself... I was suddenly dealt a blow by some weird geezer..."

Edward warily moved into the bar. En route he had the sound of machine gun fire, so he kept a grip on the gun in his hands and scrutinized the surroundings inside cautiously.

"... This is terrible."

The shop looked like the aftermath of a hurricane strike.

Broken chairs could be seen everywhere around the entrance, while the damage of a machine gun attack stretched out over every corner of the room.

After having made a survey of the surroundings, Edward seemed a little relieved as he muttered,

"At least for now, there're no dead people around here."

There wasn't a trace of blood to be seen in the room.

"Oooh... You let that brat pass through too... Ennis..."

Szilard slowly turned to face her.

"... 'How disappointing'... is not something I will say. What I really feel is 'it's about time'. I've created ones before you, but they always betrayed me whenever they obtained some unnecessary knowledge... I thought a female would change everything, so I created you... but in the end nothing's changed."

It was the first time Ennis knew about her own 'brothers'. But it no longer mattered any more. She really wanted to just kick Szilard into the ground, but...

"It's useless."

"Ah..."

Szilard just thought of closing his eyes for a moment, and somehow Ennis was sprawled on the ground. It was nothing to be surprised about—it was just like a puppet having its strings cut.

In this instant, Szilard's energy that protected the balance of cells was disrupted, and every part of Ennis's body started to malfunction.

"I won't kill you just yet... Your death must be full of suffering."

A mocking smile appeared on the face of Szilard, only to be disrupted by a projectile lump of pepper.

"Gaah...!!"

An immortal, in possession vast quantities of 'knowledge', who desired to conquer the world. For such a man to actually be scared of the sting of pepper in his eyes was a comical sight.

"Bastard! What'd you do to Ennis!"

"What'd you do!"

The Father and nun threw the pepper in the bag in rapid succession. Although it seemed a little ridiculous, there was a sense of a demon exorcism with holy ash.

"Guh... You!"

At this moment, Firo, who had dashed in, pulled Ennis and Maiza far away from Szilard.

"Mr. Maiza! Are you all right?!"

The holes in his knees were already half-closed. Perhaps because it was the first time they were damaged, the recovery seemed somewhat slower than Dallas and his cohorts.

"I'm... fine... Me aside... That girl..."

Ennis's face had already become quite pale, and her pupils were clouding over. Even so, when she recognized Firo, even as she fought for breath, she slowly formed words.

"... You've... you... although I don't know when... have also obtained immortality... just now... when I saw your wounds heal... I couldn't understand..."

At that, Maiza stared at Firo with astonishment.

"Aah, I also have no clue about when it happened..."

"... Then... I have a request... I... since I'm going to die anyway... please... please 'eat' me... the way... I described just now..."

"Don't say such crazy things, hey!"

"... Can a homunculus like me... go to heaven or hell? I'm just afraid that... I can't even end my life with my own hands... aah... I still... have a lot I want to say to Mr. Isaac and Ms. Miria... so... please... eat me... and pass on my message to them... and... this is the first time... someone has said I am beautiful... Thank you... I'm very happy... I just wanted to tell you this..."

Hearing these words, Firo gripped her hand calmly... and shook his head.

"You don't have to feel obliged to tell me these things... and, I'm an atheist so stop it. There is no heaven or hell after death... if you die... there's nothing."

"... ahaha... you're really unforgiving..."

Ennis gave a somewhat regretful smile. In the meanwhile, her cells were still continually breaking down. At this point, her heart had already stopped beating. The instant Ennis died... Szilard's portion of the constituent parts that made up this woman would return to the original body.

As Firo stood up, he stated clearly,

"Aah... this world is that unforgiving, and there isn't some other world... so don't die, because if you disappear you can't pass on your message! ... Don't worry, if you were to die... I would never forgive that shitty geezer... Unless... you're telling me you want to die...?"

As though thinking something over, Firo drew his knife and headed straight towards Szilard, who was shaking off the pepper.

Szilard glared back at Firo with furious eyes.

"Young man... What do you plan to do...?"

From behind, something was poured onto his head.

"...?"

It was a liquid with a piercing smell. This was liquid fuel for lamps and the like.

Szilard turned back to look, and there stood the executives with Randy at the fore. Although the sections of their clothing that were hit by bullets were tattered, there was not even a drop of bloodstain.

"You... should already have been killed! It can't be... There wasn't less wine... And... Maiza would never let you drink it...!"

Szilard shouted as he looked at Maiza. Maiza had the same expression as Szilard. Clearly, he didn't expect this to happen either.

"What're you babbling about?"

Held in Randy's hand was an empty fuel canister.

"We've burned gloves and a storehouse before, but y'know..."

Thrown by Pecho's hand was a burning match.

"Setting a head on fire is a first for us."

Szilard's entire head was covered by blue-white flames.

"Guh-oooooooooooooooh...!!!"

Because he had no sense of pain, he couldn't feel the searing heat. But the wildly dancing flames had snatched away Szilard's field of vision.

Even so, Szilard could just about make out the youngster called Firo coming at him.

Was that guy an immortal too?

If that was the case…

Fear sprang up in Szilard.

"Uoooooooooooh! I won't let youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

Seeing Firo, who was closing in, he quickly stretched out his right arm.

"Out of the way! You damned right hand!"

Firo unleashed his wild emotions and slashed down with the knife he had drawn from his breast pocket.

The knife travelled along a line between the index and middle finger, splitting Szilard's right hand right down to the wrist. The knife, caught by the bone, was pushed down hard by its owner.

Firo stretched out his own right hand towards Szilard's face, which was wreathed with flames.

It didn't matter if his own hand was roasted.

The youth prayed hard. Hatefully, that the body before his eyes would be completely devoured.

To save the nameless girl, to obtain such 'knowledge'.

"Gah..."

This ending was far too simple for a man who had lived for over 300 years.

And—

All that was left in the world of Szilard Barnes were his burning clothes and shoes.

And even these turned to ashes that, when lifted by a breeze, scattered to some unknown place.

—∞—

Edward pushed open the back door just as Szilard's shoes started to burn.

"... What's the..."

Officers, like Edward, simply had no way of knowing what had happened. Shoes were burning, the Martillo executives were gathered, the Father and nun from just now were present, a car with a battered frame was parked in the alleyway, and there was a stench of fuel hanging in the air.

"What's going on... Explain, Firo Prochainezo!"

Striding over briskly, Edward grabbed the collar of the youth with a weary face.

"It looks like no one has died here... Are you trying to tell me you're planning a gun orchestra?"

"... What's the matter?"

"Drop the innocent act! There've been complaints about the endless gunfire here from ordinary citizens! Do you want me to arrest you for violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law?"

At this moment, the thunder of gunfire rang out around them.

The police officers hurriedly ducked, hands reaching into their breast pockets as they searched for the source of the sound.

On the car were a Father and a nun, brandishing machine guns at the sky. They were the Tommy-guns that belonged to Dallas and his cohorts.

"Fuhahahahaha! We have taken the Martillo family's treasure!"

"Taken it, yup!"

"Farewell, O incompetent policemen! And for your information, the Martillos didn't do anything!"

"Didn't do anything, yup!"

Having sprouted some words off the top of their heads, the two threw down the weapons and ran off. Although they were showing their concern for Firo and the others in their own way, the last line was the equivalent of saying 'the Martillos did do something'.

"... Inspector... um...? Is it all right to shoot?"

"No... They were unarmed just now..."

Why a Father? After a little thought, he realized something when he recalled one of his objectives.

"... The mummy robbers!"

"... Huh?"

"Whatever, just chase after those guys! As long as they don't have guns, don't shoot!"

Seeing the bewildered faces of his underlings, Edward rapidly issued orders.

The police officers started a quick chase after them, leaving Edward the only police-affiliated person on the scene.

"Now... Don't think you can trick me just like that, Firo."

At this moment, two new men appeared from the shop.

"Ah-... Mr. Edward, you're already here..."

"There's something you need to assist us with. Come with us for a moment."

It was Bill and Ronald.

"But..."

"We'll tell you what you want to know."

"... What's going on?"

"Come and find out."

Ronald said tonelessly. Edward was a little baffled, but ended up following them.

After Edward disappeared into the shop, Bill greeted Maiza.

"Ah-... How is Szilard?" Hearing that, Maiza looked closely at the man before him.

When he saw his true form, Maiza gave a point-blank answer.

"Aah... That guy... has already disappeared."

"Eh-... Into your body?"

Maiza gave a somewhat mischievous smile as he answered,

"This is our organization's secret, how can we leak it to those who are affiliated with the police?"

After the police officers had left, Maiza asked Firo a question,

"Firo... I'm at a loss. When did everyone turn immortal...? You have already received Szilard's knowledge. You should understand what I mean?"

"Ah... no..."

Firo bashfully confessed.

"Yesterday, I helped an old man, see."

"Yeah..."

"That time, I secretly switched the wine that old man was holding: I emptied two of the four bottles of wine we bought for containers... then filled them with the stuff in the old man's bottles and gave the remaining two to that geezer..."

Firo was very casual about this. If that old man had given his sincere thanks, he would have returned the wine, but if he refused to fix his bad attitude, he planned to steal it away just like that.

"Stolen goods must be shared. I was just following the Camorra rules..."

"You can't mean... You shared it with everyone during the party?"

"... Now that I think about it... Even if I only gave up one bottle of wine, I could still have switched over his two bottles perfectly..."

This didn't really count as a big problem.

"Firo..."

"No, with Szilard's knowledge at hand, I understand everything, but... Mr. Maiza..."

Firo gave the dazed Maiza a brief, wry smile.

"It seems coincidences really do exist in this world..."

—∞—

The Father and nun kept running. Alleyway after alleyway, towards that fleeting moment of freedom.

The clamor of a crowd's voices were growing louder, proof that they were getting close to the streets.

"Crap!"

"Crap!"

Just as the exit to the alleyways came into view, they noticed the two policemen standing there.

And it seemed they had seen them too, so Isaac and Miria slowed their speed and shouted as loudly as they could,

"Aah! Mr. Officer, please save us!"

"Save us!"

Although it was an impromptu lie, their attire gave them a certain persuasiveness. Because it was so sudden, the police officers were hesitant to restrain the man and woman.

Miria leapt into one officer's bosom, shaking exaggeratedly as she said,

"J-, j-j-j-just now some people holding weapons were chasing after us!"

This wasn't a lie.

Faced with an unfamiliar situation, the two officers' reactions to their words were a little extreme. Reaching to their weapons at their waists, they looked towards the other direction of the alley anxiously.

... But what appeared around the corner was a group of familiar uniforms.

"Wha...!"

By the time the two police officers had looked back, the duo had dashed in and mingled with the crowds.

These two officers mounted the NYPD-exclusive horses they had brought along, intending to give chase. But they were prevented from doing so by the very citizens they were pledged to protect.

"Merry Christmas!"

Isaac shouted as he tossed the rolls of banknotes from his bag into the sky.

"Ahahahahahaha! You're too early, too early! Early by a month!"

As Miria laughed loudly, the streets turned into a coliseum.

The crowd started to fight each other over the thrown paper notes, which flurried down like snow. Men holding 'I want to work' placards, beggars who cried because their legs were broken, ladies who came to buy wine, transportation truck drivers, horse-cart drivers, and even the wealthy with cash in their pockets—when they saw the easy money falling above like manna from heaven, they started scrabbling for it.

To be faster, to have more, to have a stronger desire to grab the money... this was the simple set of rules that accompanied the battle-royale on the streets. Confronted with waves of frenzy and delirium, the horses were simply unable to cope with the fighters' killing intent... and even if they were, they wouldn't be able to break up the crowds.

Leaving behind the panicked and confused policemen, Isaac and Miria continued walking towards the station. Scattering money and running to hide one's traces was among the most basic knowledge for any bank robber. It was because everyone knew about it that this was effective... Isaac fully believed in it, and it did work very well in reality.

If there was any problem, it would be that, at the station, most of their loot (99% from the Genoards' inheritance) was gone.

Then again, they wouldn't be who they were if they cared about these kinds of big problems.

"Now then... Where should we run to, Miria?"

"Anywhere would do!"

"I see-... To make up for our losses, why don't we go gold-mining?"

"The Gold Rush, right?! But then, this means we won't be robbers... Are we washing our hands of dirty business?"

"Ah-... In other words, it is, that. The amount of money we'll earn will be as large as the Earth!"

"Amazing!"

They still continued their usual type of dialogue, but they both regretted one thing.

"... We didn't say our goodbyes to Ennis and the others, did we."

"... That's right."

At the entrance of the train station, the robber-duo once again turned back to look at this city.

Staring at the dizzying city, Isaac murmured softly,

"It was an interesting city."

"Interesting, yup!"

"I want to come again, to meet up with Ennis and the others."

"We definitely will!"

Isaac took out the last roll of bills from the bag and headed inside the station to buy train tickets to California.

"In the end, this is all we have left."

"Mm... But everyone has gained something, so isn't it a good thing? For us too!"

"Really...? I see. The deceased Mr. Genoard must also be very happy, right?"

"And those dead children too!"

"Then, our theft brings happiness to the Genoard children."

"That's right! There's no more fighting over the inheritance, so they must be getting along very well!"

At the very end of the day, these two still continued speaking in the same way. Thus, the couple that were the guests of honor in this baccano were about to disappear from the stage of NY. Baccano: Italian for commotion, loud noise

Just before they boarded the train, the two saw a signboard saying 'Welcome to NY!'.

On that street, Isaac left a footprint on the signboard as remembrance.

This graffiti later became the inspiration for the big bite mark in the Big Apple drawing that symbolized New York.

—∞—

When Dallas Genoard awoke, he found himself in what seemed to be a dark warehouse.

"Have you woken?"

Before him were the trio he had definitely killed.

As for himself, his hands and feet were bound and he was in a drum canister. With his face protruding outside, he looked around fearfully. His two other comrades were also in the same predicament as he.

"Aah, this place is something like a villa for us... Our homes and hideout are all being watched by the police..."

"Wh-Why... Why're you guys alive!?"

At Dallas's cry, Luck answered as the representative of the brothers.

"Who knows? Why indeed...? Just so you know, Miss Charlie, that young woman you mercilessly shot in the back, is also alive. Just now I asked Firo over the phone... I have no reason to tell you, so please curse your longevity with all your might."

They had also attended that party. Since that was the case, the toast meant they had also joined the ranks of immortality. Naturally, Dallas and his cohorts had no way of knowing that this had come to pass.

Before Dallas could speak, Keith came up and dropped something into the drum.

It was a deck of poker cards.

"...?"

"Keith-bro is so kind, huh... While waiting to age to death at the bottom of the ocean, you will have plenty of free time to spare, right? ...That's why…"

When the meaning of those words sunk in, Dallas and his cohorts were assailed by a hopeless terror. The 52 jokers dropped into the drum jeered coldly at Dallas's fate.

"That you can continually drown for 70 years without dying is astounding... Or maybe it's the world that's astounding? I'm very sorry, but there will be no records left of you..."

"We'd love to kill you, but since you won't die from bullets or fists, it can't be helped... Oh yes, if you get bored, how about listening to the radio?"

Berga asked cheerfully.

"Hahaha, the batteries will run out."

"I see... Then, what about chess?"

"The chess pieces will float in water... How do the Conan Doyle novels sound?"

"The paper will get soggy."

"Hahahahaha!"

"Gahahahahaha!"

"...Heh.."

After laughing for a while, the three together turned their eyes on Dallas.

Those incredible gazes were enough reason for tears to fill Dallas's eyes.

"Now... choose. Which do you prefer?"

—∞—

The gathering ground of 'members'. The old men all gathered there at night, but there was no sign of Szilard... instead, five to six police officers were waiting for them. Among them, Edward, Bill, and Ronald could be seen.

"Wh... who're you!"

"Ah-... Police."

Facing the old men who were in an uproar, Edward gave a simple explanation.

"Ah-... There were suspicions that you were secretly producing alcohol, so we came to investigate."

"What... What evidence do you have!"

"Eh-... it's that, there was a fire yesterday and this was left in the wake of the flames."

An ash-covered bottle was taken out. It was an intact bottle Barnes was responsible for managing.

"Hm-... It has nothing to do with you, hm... Then-"

It seemed the bottle was going to be thrown to the floor. The old men let out a collective lamenting wail.

"Ooh? ...Maybe it's best to find someone who understands things better to help."

"You're taking the game too far, Bill."

Ronald continued from him.

"Your organization has been on the Bureau's radar for a long time. Be it Szilard or the wine you wish to produce."

There was commotion among the old men.

"Why... Why does the 'Bureau' know about Master Szilard..."

"Ah-... it's because we've got some long-lived fellows among our superiors... To be frank, our real purpose in coming to New York is concerning their orders... to handle this 'wine' incident."

"Our Bureau's motto is 'cases will never end'. Just as our superior had said, this is the same as the incident that could not be explained by science 200 years ago."

"He- hey! Edward!"

He heard a voice calling for him. It was the superior who topped his 'most loathed' list, Commander Verde. Even the top police officials were Szilard's followers... But at the same time, the reality was that this was the most power Szilard could seize.

"Edward! Stop them somehow! As long as we have this medicine, we can take over the world! We will become superior to normal humans! You want this kind of power too, right? So...!! Hey, Edward! Say something!"

Despite his boiling anger, or perhaps because of it, Edward chose to remain calm.

Even laughter threatened to bubble up. But no, he could only smile.

"Commander... If you had at least said something along the lines of 'the world will suffer from diseases and accidents no more', I might still have considered it... In truth, you have disappointed me greatly."

"E- Edward!"

"Commander... between eternity for myself and my country for all time, I choose an everlasting nation..."

Edward took the bottle from Bill's hand.

"And more than just my duty as a police officer, I cannot tolerate any existence created by violating laws."

Without any hesitation, he hurled the bottle into a corner of the room.

Accompanying the wails of the old men, the bottle shattered into pieces.

Some of the old men seemed to want to lap up the wine pooling on the floor, but, as though he had anticipated this, Ronald lit a match and tossed it onto the floor.

The alcohol rapidly caught fire, beautifully illuminating the despairing faces of the old men for a fleeting moment.

One of the officers dashed the buckets of water he was holding onto the fire. In an instant, both the fire and dreams of immortality were extinguished. From the very beginning, they had been planning to break those bottles before these old men.

"Ah-... And what's left... is for you to work hard, serving the country before old age catches up. And your efforts will determine whether your names will go down in history as one of the cornerstones of this country, don't you agree? Also... ah, incidentally, Mr. Szilard won't be coming again."

After bidding farewell to the old men, who were busy fainting or weeping, Edward and the others departed, leaving the basement behind.

Sitting in the shaky car driven by Ronald, Edward muttered accusingly,

"... So you tricked me."

At first, Edward had absolutely refused to believe anything said about the wine of immortality. But when he discovered that rat at the scene of the fire... Once he saw the rat that was alive even though it was on fire, he was forced to believe, whether he liked it or not.

"Ah-... Sorry..."

"But why did you tell me everything?"

At this question, Ronald gave a simple response.

"Our superior... isn't one of the top guns at the Bureau, but someone with an equivalent position... He likes you for never bending to bribery or violence, and your strong, albeit somewhat skewed, sense of justice."

"... Why me?"

"You aspire to join the Bureau. We investigate much more about candidates than you think."

"..."

"Eh-... We look forward to working with you in the future."

Bill and Ronald gave him wide grins.

Edward shook his head, smiling wryly, and replied to his two future seniors,

"... By then, you better not be hiding anything from me."

Afterwards, Edward became a part of the Bureau... later known as the FBI, as one of the leading investigators. At the time, he hadn't learned that Firo and the others had attained immortality, but once he knew, his pet phrase became 'Sentence them for life, and let them spend the rest of eternity in prison'... Every time he thought of Firo and Maiza, he would repeat the line above with a smile on his face.

—∞—

"... aah..."

After Edward and the others had left, Maiza collapsed to his knees.

"Wha- what's wrong, Mr. Maiza!"

"What in the world... did I do..."

Having heard everything from Firo, Maiza was overwhelmed by guilt. Because of him, all his friends, including Firo, had been sucked into the never-ending cycle.

"Eh? Wait a sec...? What're you saying, Mr. Maiza?!"

"Giving the pain of eternal life... of all things, to you people..."

"What're you saying?! We don't mind at all! Rather, not dying's great—kinda makes me feel like going 'yahoo!'. Right, everyone?"

Firo hastily refuted Maiza's way of thinking and turned to Randy and the others for support.

"Eh? I-I don't really get it, but 'yahoo'!"

"'Yahoo'-! Cheer up, Maiza."

Randy and Pecho leaped forward. They didn't seem to get the business about immortality. The other executives also weren't very clear about it themselves, but when they saw the two dancing around, they started to laugh out loud and cheer.

"Yahoo-! We're all still alive! Let the good times roll!"

Charlie cheered as she rejoined the group. She didn't really get what was going on either, but for now she was just grateful that she and all of her friends had managed to survive.

"Look, if Don and Mr. Yagulma don't say anything, people'll mistake it for 'longevity'!"

But the look of distress did not disappear from Maiza's face.

"Firo... You should understand with Szilard's knowledge, right... Truth be told... I'm tired of living... My brother's grudge, Szilard, is also dead, so now there's no more meaning to my life... that's it, Firo... I..."

Having listened up to this point, Firo replied with a somewhat serious expression.

"No way! ...If you weren't here, which one of us would deal with the accounts?... Mr. Maiza, are you trying to ruin this organization?"

"... Damn, we need a conta è oro ... Ah, wait a moment please, if you 'ate' me, then my accounting knowledge would..."

"No way. I'm stupid, so even if I received the knowledge I'll probably forget it soon enough... Right now, I'm already starting to forget the knowledge I got from Szilard..."

"Why is it always a 'no'...?"

"You know, Mr. Maiza... One of the laws of the Camorra states that, no matter what the reason, if one kills a friend they would be rewarded with death... I don't want to die yet, so please forgive me."

"... How troublesome... Just because you can't find a conta è oro..."

Maiza grinned. Firo grinned back.

"Also... if Mr. Maiza disappeared I would get lonely, so please live on."

And, gradually, the two started laughing.

"By the way, what took you so long to get here, Charlie? Where are Luck and the others?"

"Ah-, well, excuse me for being in a little disorientated to find myself popping back from the dead like Lazarus."

Charlie retorted wryly with a bemused smile.

"But you don't worry about the others, they're all right. They just said they had some 'pest control' to take care of…"

Firo soon understood the meaning of 'pest control' when he noticed that the bodies of Dallas and his cohorts had disappeared from under the car.

"I expect you'll get a call from them later asking for an explanation for all this."

Charlie added, which was something she would very much like to hear for herself.

"Um..."

At another woman's voice, they turned their heads to look, and saw a young woman in a black suit standing there.

"Why... am I..."

After obtaining Szilard's knowledge, the first thing Firo did was to restore new life to Ennis's near-dead cells. In sympathetic response with her immortal cells, the link of life Szilard had severed once again joined together. If Ennis was said to be a part of Szilard... then it wasn't an exaggeration to say she was now part of Firo.

"Ah-! Right, right! Because that Edward fellow suddenly came, so I completely forgot about you... Sorry!"

Ennis just looked bewildered.

"My name is Firo Prochainezo. ... I was looking for you because you're fascinating and attractive. I helped you because I want to ask you something."

"Want to ask something...?"

Looking at the perplexed Ennis, Firo smiled as he said,

"... I want to know your name."

"Eh...?"

After a moment's thought, Ennis answered,

"Is it not... in Szilard's knowledge?"

Firo shook his head hard, smiling embarrassedly.

"Ah-... That's... How to put it? ... I wanted to hear it from you."

Hearing Firo's words, the surrounding people clamored up around the two. 'Wait a sec, you're not confessing, are you?! You're still school children!'...Firo didn't hear any objections of this sort. With Randy and Pecho as the leaders, everyone started cheering 'yahoo yahoo' excitedly. Charlie grinned happily.

Just like the happy ending in a movie... everyone present was laughing.

"That commotion just now was really impressive, wasn't it... Exactly what on earth happened?"

"... Nothing, just that a Father has gone around scattering rolls of banknotes."

Walking along the streets resounding with countless beggars' voices, Ronnie politely replied to the Don.

"Ooh? ... The so-called Fathers just think of it a profession which uses the name of God to curry favors, but this Father on the other hand seems doing quite well, hm... Even God doesn't normally save his own believers..."

Hearing Yagulma's cold, curt thoughts, Molsa opened his mouth and rebuked him,

"Yagulma... Don't underestimate this thing called God. It can hurt you sometimes... There are times when you fall into a depression you cannot pull yourself out of. I just wanted to make this point."

The top executives had returned after completing their business. For some reason many police officers were surrounding their store, so as a precaution they decided to go around the back. And so they saw all the executives stirring up a ruckus.

"What's this? Why's everyone outside?"

Yagulma tilted his head in disbelief.

Ronnie had a somewhat surprised expressed as he looked hard at Charlie, Firo, and the others.

"I had noticed it last night during the toast... but I ended up not stopping it. ...I can't imagine what it'll be like... If we all became long-lived... Well, no matter."

"Hm? What, you're mumbling something."

"Nah... You look happy, don't you?"

"Anyway, youth is a wonderful thing."

The Don spoke as he embraced the mountain of pepper, and the two smiled as they nodded.

The spiral had completely collapsed. What emerged from the rubble...

There, a new spiral started once again.

But what has changed...

Is that this spiral will continue on forever.

Well, that's it.

At least, for now.