Chapter Eight
"Yuya Sakaki cries a lot and musters valiant courage"
Southside Chicago, Illinois
Tuesday 29th August 1931
23:00
In a lonely back alley in a desolate part of the city, three gangsters had cornered a teenager in an alley.
The teenager, identifiable by the large tattoo down the side of his face, was at a clear disadvantage, as he was unarmed when the men surrounding him, who he was fairly certain were from one of the leading gangs in the city – Morans? Capones? Fusers? Did it make a difference? – were all armed with handguns.
"Ok, hold on" the teenager held up his hands and backed up against the wall of the alley, trying to look at unthreatening as possible "How should I put this? I have an idea! One where nobody gets hurt! That's a great idea! We could just settle this thing peacefully! Right?"
He received three unimpressed stares in return.
"Damn it! Ok! Put the guns down! You don't need them!" the teenager now tried "Ok guys, you've scared me enough! Besides, I don't even have a penny to my name right now! So sorry about that!" Tears started streaking down his face. "I just-just!" He now burst into sobs. "Oh my god I sound so pathetic!"
One of the gangsters looked at his backup. "Hey, are you sure this punk is the one we're looking for?"
The second gangster pulled out a wanted poster – clearly the guy in the drawing was this kid.
"I had my doubts too, but how many people have a tattoo right down the side of their face?" the gangster pointed out.
"Well his crying's really spoiling all my fun" the third gangster complained "I don't kill crying kids."
"Hey kid" the first gangster got their target's attention.
"Yes sir?" the teenager whimpered out.
"Your crying bothers us" the gangster informed him.
"It's a nervous condition!" the teenager insisted, attempting to dry his eyes "It's not crying!"
"Crying like a girl" the second gangster turned his nose up in disgust.
"I said it's not crying, you dumb jerks!" the teenager insisted.
The first gangster sighed in aggravation, grabbing the teenager by the collar and placing the barrel of his gun right again the kid's temple. "Alright, we're gonna talk, or else you're in a hurry to get your head blown clean off. Now, tell me what your name is."
The teenager just stuttered, random syllables escaping him in unintelligible burst.
"Just settle down there" the gangster told him "And take it nice and slow."
"Y-Y-Y-YUYA!" the teenager finally spluttered out "YUYA SAKAKI, OK!"
All three instantly recognised the name
"I never would've guessed it" the third gangster commented "First you go and get half the Kurosaki gang locked up, now you're causing trouble for the Fusers? You've got a death wish kid."
"I'm actually kinda disappointed by this" the first gangster remarked "Two leading Chicago gangs being ruffled up by this? It's pathetic." He cracked his gun over the top of Yuya's head, causing the teenager to crumple to the floor. "You've been running all over our town like the goddamn mayor, so I was expecting a little more fight than this."
He lashed out and kicked Yuya in the stomach.
"That's not fair" he protested "You guys are in a completely different weight class."
This got him a second kick to the stomach, which caused him to curl up on his side on the ground.
"You guys are all just the same!" Yuya was back to sobbing "All we did was start selling some liquor, and you kill eight of our people!"
A third kick was now dispensed.
"The Kurosakis got what they were asking for" Yuya coughed up some blood from his throat "And when the Fusers went and tried to do the same thing, we thought they could do with a little less money, that's all."
"You just don't know when you quit, do ya?!" the gangster yelled, a fourth kick now making contact as a train whistled past behind him.
"Stop!" Yuya insisted "You guys gotta put your guns away quick! They won't take mercy on you if you don't! I'm trying my best to make sure you don't get killed."
"You mean to make sure you don't get killed, right?" the gangster just smirked.
"No! No I really don't wanna kill you!" Yuya insisted "Hear that, Noburu? Just wait a little bit longer, that's all! Any second now they're gonna put down their guns, I swear!"
Before anyone could react, a massive hand reached around the first gangster and grabbed both his hand and the gun. With a tight squeeze and wail of pain, both the gun and hand were bent beyond repair. As Yuya covered his ear and shut his eyes, the other two gangsters turned to leave, only to come face-to-face with the wall of bulging muscles that was Noburu Gongenzaka, as well as a small army of street rats and delinquents.
"What's going on here?!" one of the gangsters demanded.
"What are you waiting for, an invitation?!" the first gangster wailed, having not seen the small legion of death glares behind him "Shoot him! Shoot him now!"
The two gangsters then fell backwards, two knives buried in their foreheads.
"M-Meiru!" Yuya yelped "Not you too! Guys, stop it! Everything's fine! There's no need for that!"
"So" Yuzu Hiiragi then pushed to the front of the group, the gleam in her remaining blue eye particularly menacing in the light of the lit bomb attached to a knife she was holding "You feel like a big man now, huh?"
Before the gangster could comment, Yuzu handed the bomb to Meiru, who lobbed the knife like an expert into the centre of the man's forehead, his body falling close to Yuya.
Yuya quickly scrambled to his feet, grabbing Yuzu's arm and dragging her behind him as he ran for his life. "RUN!"
The group scattered in different directions as Yuzu whined:
"Come on! I just wanna see what happens next!"
The alley then burst into a beautiful array of fireworks.
"I told them they should've gotten out of there!" Yuya insisted, mostly to himself "I told them!"
Near Bruceton Mills, West Virginia
Wednesday 30th December 1931
20:30
"Yuya!" Yuzu pushed open the door to the conductors' cab "Did you find him?"
Instead of getting an answer, Noburu had to stop Yuzu was swaying right off her feet with shock upon seeing the carnage inside the caboose. Standing right in the middle of the bloody mess was Yuya.
"Yuya are you ok?" Noburu left Yuzu against the wall as he rushed to his other friend to make sure he was ok.
"You're both ok!" Yuya let out a sigh of relief as he took in the pair of them "Oh thank goodness! It didn't get you!"
"What didn't get us?" Yuzu finally stepped inside, holding her nerve enough to reach the boys' side "Yuya, who did this?"
"Don't you see?!" Yuya insisted "It was the Rail Tracer! It starts at the back of the train and kills everybody!"
"Rail Tracer?" Noburu frowned "What is this? I've never heard of it before."
"Just a ghost story some couple told us earlier" Yuzu told him "Yuya, there is no Rail Tracer. It's a story."
"Then what did THIS?!" Yuya pointed at the bodies in the caboose, voice rising to an incredible pitch and volume.
Yuzu opened her mouth to give a logical explanation, but found she couldn't. "Ok, maybe there isn't a mythical creature called a Rail Tracer. But a messed up guy who decided to act out the story, that's possible."
"You think there's a killer on board this train?" Noburu frowned.
"I don't want to think so" Yuzu admitted "But something did this. Something human, obviously."
"But now the conductor is dead!" Yuya stressed "So now nobody knows how to stop it!"
"It's a human, Yuya" Yuzu strictly told him "Just a regular human killer-"
At that moment the sound of gunshots – handgun followed by machine gun fire – echoed throughout the train.
"Are those…guns?" Noburu questioned.
"Sure sounds like it" Yuzu agreed.
"People are firing guns on this train?!" Yuya's eyes got impossibly wider "Who shoots guns on a train?! They're not hunting! That means, someone's killing people on this train! PEOPLE!"
"And perhaps not the same person to who did this" Noburu commented, looking at the bodies "I mean, this poor chap could've taken a bullet to the head, but this guy," he waved his arm at the man missing part of his left side and face "That's no gun. Looks more like some kind of saw."
"That must be the Rail Tracer!" Yuya insisted.
"And then he picked up a gun and started shooting people?" Noburu scratched his head in confusion "That doesn't make any sense at all."
"I don't think it's one man" Yuzu realised "Those were two different types of gun, one after another. Listen."
She pointed towards the front of the train as another spray of machine gun fire rang out.
"That's a tommy gun, no mistake" Yuzu commented "But the first shots we heard were a handgun, like that guy." She pointed at the conductor missing the top part of his head. "That's a close range revolver shot. Two different types of guns – two people shooting at each other."
"There are two killers on this train?!" Yuya shrieked.
"Yeah, your Rail Tracer and some guy with a machine gun" Yuzu nodded slowly "The Rail Tracer starts here, just like in the story. Kills these guys, and starts moving back. But somebody's seen him and started shooting. Someone with a tommy gun."
"But how would they get a machine gun?" Noburu pointed out "A handgun or knife is easy to conceal, but a large machine gun – someone at the platform would see it and never allow it on board. And they surely wouldn't transport loaded machine guns on the same train as a bomb."
"Ok, so they were smuggled on board" Yuzu acknowledged his argument "In the freight hold maybe. That makes sense, if the Rail Tracer starts moving back along the train like in the story, he would reach the freight car next. Somebody grabs a tommy gun back there to defend themselves."
"How would they know there was a tommy gun?" Noburu kept going, the pair used to bouncing ideas between them until they came up with a faultless plan.
"They put it there" Yuzu suggested "It was the smuggler himself that started shooting back. But why would they be in the freight hold…?" Suddenly her eye widened. "Weren't some of those orchestra people riding in the freight hold?"
"Yes, on the platform!" Yuya recalled "They said they had permission to ride there!"
"The instrument cases!" Noburu realised "The perfect way to smuggle weapons! I bet they're not even a real orchestra!"
"They're weapon smugglers!" All the piece started coming together in Yuzu's head "Sitting with their goods, when the Rail Tracer disrupts them! They scare them off – a handgun against who knows how many guys with machine guns is a pretty stupid idea – and run back to first-class to tell the rest of their group! But the Rail Tracer catches up with one of them up there and BHAM! Gunfight!"
"So they're fighting in first-class?" Noburu shuddered "Thank god we're not heading up there then."
"Not exactly a lot of room to fight in there" Yuzu pointed out "In the dining car maybe?" Her eye went wide with horror. "Oh shit! I sent Meiru back up there!"
"She's up there alone with the Rail Tracer and the guys in the fake orchestra?!" Yuya went back to panicking "They'll kill her! She's only got a knife!"
"Yuya, it's okay" Yuzu hurriedly reassured her "We'll get her back, then we can take cover. Maybe there's more tommys in the freight car – we just have to wait it out until we get to Pennsylvania."
"But not just Meiru" Yuya realised "Michio as well. And Yugo and Rin and Zarc and Ray and little Reira! They'll all be killed! We have to rescue them! They're relying on us!"
"Yuya…" Yuzu's voice went quiet. She knew, despite the cry-baby façade people rarely saw past, Yuya was an incredibly selfless person. But sticking his neck out again weapon smugglers and spree killers for some people he barely knew? It surprised even Yuzu.
"There's only one thing for it!" Yuya declared "We have to drive the black suits and the Rail Tracer off the train!"
Well, if Yuzu and Noburu weren't flawed before, they were now. But they could roll with it.
"Ok" Yuzu agreed "We'll find Meiru and as many as the others as well can and hide them in the freight hold with the package. Then we can think about all these guys with guns, ok?"
"We should probably check the package is still there" Noburu pointed out "It may have been moved in all the chaos back here.
Yuya and Yuzu's eyes went wide with horror.
"Yeah, we'll check that first" Yuya agreed "Then we have a rescue mission to complete!"
"Boss!" Meiru was not ashamed to admit she was wailing as she raced down the corridor of the last third-class carriage towards the caboose and the freight hold "Boss something really weird is happening on this train! It-"
Before she could finish her sentence, an arm clothed in black reached out of a door and grabbed her by the hair, a hand clamping over her mouth and pulling her back into the suite out of sight.
Near Hazelton, West Virginia
Wednesday 30th December 1931
20:45
With the black and white suits having left the dining car, everyone was in a state of panic. Some were trying to run, but not sure whether it was safer to follow the white suits down the train or the black suits up it. Others were hiding under tables, praying, crying or doing all three at the same time.
The only ones not panicking were a certain dynamic duo.
"Alright!" Yugo declared, jumping up off the floor and swinging a table knife down in an arc to try and bury it in the table. It merely bounced off the varnish, but it didn't curb his enthusiasm. "We need to find the rest of our posse!"
"Posse?" Rin wondered "Oh, you mean Yuya and Yuzu? That's a good idea – they probably have no idea what's going on. The last thing we want is them running into those goons and getting shot for their trouble."
"Yeah, we're a search party!" Yugo declared "To the rescue!" He began to walk down the carriage toward second-class. "I don't know what's up with all these white suits and black suits and the nice girl with the knife, but I've got guns and I'm not afraid to use them!"
"That's the spirit" Rin nodded, pleased. Then she paused. "Wait. Since when do you have guns?"
Before anyone could hear the answer to that, the door slammed behind them.
Back at the bar, a screaming argument was going on.
"No! I won't do it!" Ray insisted "Not a chance in hell!"
"And when those goons get back, the first thing they're going to do is go after you!" Zarc insisted "You and Reira go hide. When they come back, they'll find me and only me. I can hold out long enough. By now the conductors have probably contacted central command about the train robbery, so by now your father and my boss would've heard about it. In a few hours, they'll have this thing all sorted out."
"I'm not leaving you here!" Ray insisted "They'll kill you!"
"Not while they're looking for you they won't" Zarc pointed out "So you stay alive, and I'll stay alive."
"You don't know that for sure!" Ray protested, tears now streaking down her face.
"Ray" Zarc gently placed both his hands on her face "You told me before that I was being a terrible husband. Well, now I'm being the best one I can be. If they want the package, they can have it. But I am not putting my wife, brother-in-law and child in danger. Now you and Reira go hide."
Ray just seemed to collapse on top of him, grabbing onto him in a death grip as she sobbed. It was finally Reira tugging on her dress that got her to recover again.
"There are some empty suites in second-class" the little boy suggested.
"Excellent" Zarc agreed "You go hide in one of those. And if things get really bad, try and make it to the conductors' cab – they may be able to help you. Go on."
He finally succeeded in pushing both of them out of the door to the dining car back towards second-class and slammed it closed before they could think about coming back in again. Annoyingly he couldn't lock it – the carriages were designed to lock from the outside, not within.
With a sigh, he wiped his brow with his sleeve. "Well this is a mess."
Not a second later, the door from first-class burst open again, and three new guys in black with machine guns arrived. They all instantly locked eyes with Zarc at the far end of the carriage.
"Good evening, sir" the smallest man in the group greeted him "You are Senator Akaba's son-in-law, I presume."
Zarc said nothing, just stared back icily.
"You can call me Allen if you like" the man, Allen, told him "We have a sensitive matter we would like your father-in-law's help with, if it isn't too much trouble. Would you please come with us?"
"Promise me you won't do anything to harm the other passengers" Zarc responded "This is between you and me and the senator. They all just happened to get on the same train as us."
"Well, that really depends upon your father-in-law and the government at this point" Allen admitted "Though I believe we're missing one from this little discussion. Where's your wife?"
Zarc appeared to get teary eyed, his hands shaking, mind quickly running a thousand calculations about what a stupid idea this was.
"What's wrong?" Allen frowned. Surely nothing terrible had happened to their best bargaining chip.
"Those men in white suits" Zarc finally breathed out "They took her."
Allen shared a look with the rest of his group, eyes now flashing in anger. "Who are they?"
"I don't know" Zarc shook his head, then putting it in his hands in fake grief "At first I thought they were looking for both of us, but they only took her."
Allen let a breath of anger whittle between his teeth before he responded calmly again. "My sympathies, we'll try and do something about that. But for now that doesn't change anything. You'll have to come-" Allen paused, then began walking down the carriage towards Zarc. "Wait a minute."
A bead of sweat ran down Zarc's brow. Surely he couldn't have been found out so soon?
But before Allen reached Zarc though, he turned into an empty booth with the window fully open and no one sat there.
"On a cold winter's night? I don't think so" Allen muttered, levelling his tommy gun at the man sitting in the next booth "You! Who opened the window?"
"I don't know!" the man yelped "Some boy wearing fatigues! He just jumped out when the shooting started!"
"Jumped out?" Allen seemed disbelieving. He hadn't felt the train slow down enough for a safe dismount yet.
He stuck his head out of the window in to the cold, peering left and right. If someone tried to jump off at this speed, they'd be torn to pieces. Either the man was dead or a trained acrobat, really. And Allen had a feeling which one he'd put his money on.
Ruri was walking down the first-class corridor, eyes sharp and alert as always. For a second, she stopped as she swore she saw something scuttle across the window near her.
She threw it open and looked up at the down the outside of the carriage, then towards the roof.
Nothing.
Reasoning that it must have been a bird, she shut the window again and continued on her way.
The boy in coveralls waited for a second to make sure she was gone, then scurried out from under the carriage to the roof and began making his way towards the back of the train.
Back in the freight car, Devon of the Lemores had caught up with the two men in black in the freight hold.
"You guys seen anything weird down here?" he asked.
"No" one of the guys shrugged "Just our guy in the caboose dealing with the conductor. Why?"
Devon frowned. One guy had the radio turned on static held so close to his ear he probably wouldn't hear a stampede if it was passing. The other was blatantly passed out asleep.
"Some guys in white suits attacked our people in the dining car" Devon told them "Allen wants us all back in first-class."
"And leave the guns here?" the man with the radio, who was named Noro, frowned "Seems a bit weird."
At that moment, the radio crackled to life and a voice rang through, waking up the sleeping guy.
"I want everyone to be on the lookout for a boy or young man in fatigues" Allen's voice instructed them.
"What, is he kidding us?" the formerly sleeping man frowned.
"I thought it was guys in white that were giving you trouble?" Noro pointed out.
"They were" Devon admitted "Something new must of happened. Anything else and I'm calling this whole thing an unmitigated disaster." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose "I'm going to go and take a look around. You keep an eye on things here."
The formerly sleeping man also got up to follow him.
Noro sighed and sat back against the wall of the car, retrieving a juice box from his guitar case where his tommy was hidden. He reached for the straw to pierce it, but the straw was missing.
He sighed.
Practical jokes again.
Just great.
He jumped to his feet and headed out in the corridor. They couldn't have gotten far.
"Hey! Duke!" he called out "Where's my-"
He paused as he saw Devon stopped in the hallway, staring out the open window.
"Hey! Don't leave that open!" Noro protested, slamming the window shut again "Where did Duke go? He-" He paused as he saw the look of absolute horror on Devon's face. "What's wrong?"
"It-It took him" Devon finally stuttered out "I turned around, the window was open, and it just disappeared!"
Noro look at him in disbelief, until he saw something pass by the window.
That was impossible, right? They were going so fast. Nothing could be out there.
Before he could voice this idea, the window burst open again and an arm reached into the carriage, grabbing Devon by the neck and pulling him out before he even had time to scream.
Noro just stood there in horror, staring at where Devon use to be standing, before letting out an absolute scream of blood-chilling fear.