Chapter Fourteen
"Dennis and Serena debate the virtues of life and happiness"
Near Abbottstown, Pennsylvania
Thursday, 31st December 1931
03:30
Ruri stared in shock and bewilderment at the man right next to her, blood dropping from what appeared to be a conductor's uniform. However, his only injury appeared to be a knick in his ear, which clearly wasn't the source of all the blood.
"Oi, pretty lady" the man addressed her "Don't stab knives into the conductor's cab – you nearly took my head off." He gestured at his bleeding ear. "It's just not very nice, you know."
Ruri stare up at him blankly. Serena's face has contorted into an unsettling look of bafflement.
The man's face now turned nasty. "Hey! I'm talking to you! Are you going to apologise or not?"
Ruri pointed up at her throat with his knife and shook her head, hoping the message would get across.
The man looked confused for a second, then bowed his head in what appeared to be a little shame.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise" he apologised.
Putting his hands in his pockets, he strolled right past her and towards Serena.
"Who the hell are you?!" Serena finally found her voice and demanded to him.
The man looked at her. "You can call me the Rail Tracer if you like, pretty girl."
Serena spat in disgust. "Are you serious, you creep?"
The Rail Tracer just shrugged and strolled right past her.
The two women stared after him in wonder as he walked to the edge of the caboose's roof and paused to watch them.
"Oh, don't mind me" he waved their concerns off "Keep going. I'm not going to break up a catfight. Once you two are done I'll just kill the winner."
This apparently set Serena off, as she turned her back on Ruri in favour of this new guy. "The hell are you talking about?! You challenging me, freak?!"
"Oh, no need for that" The Rail Tracer made a placating gesture with his hands "Please, do continue. Just think of me as the talking air."
"Well if you're the air, how about you stop talking!" Serena demanded, lobbing her knife in the Rail Tracer's direction.
The Rail Tracer didn't even bother standing aside. Instead he just caught the knife in mid-air before it could lodge into his head.
As the woman stood in stunned silence again, the Rail Tracer casually brushed his finger down the blade of the knife, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.
"Well, that wasn't very nice either" he warned her.
Serena just roared with rage, charging at him to deliver a punch.
The Rail Tracer could've caught the punch easily, but instead he chose to step to the side, leaning over the edge of the carriage at an angle that appeared to defy gravity. He seemed to lean over backwards to grab the edge of the roof, swung backwards to crouch against the carriage wall, and then powered himself upwards again to land back on the roof behind an increasingly irritated, ans perhaps admittedly a little impressed, Serena.
Serena turned to have at him again, but this time Ruri stepped in. She didn't much care for this Rail Tracer guy, but he hadn't done anything to her yet, whilst Serena had badmouthed her and her boys. She slashed a few times with her knives. Serena, now weaponless, temporarily at least, jumped backwards to stay of the range of the swinging blades until she reached the edge of the caboose's roof and ran out of the room to move without outright fleeing.
"So, if I'm getting what this lady here says straight," the Rail Tracer began to talk to Ruri, causing her to pause in her melee of attacks "Then you were against this whole plan from the beginning, right?"
Ruri nodded.
"And this Shun Kurosaki guy" the Rail Tracer continued "He was against this whole thing too, am I right?"
Ruri nodded vigorously.
"Alright then" the Rail Tracer now stepped forward so he was standing next to Ruri "Then I guess I could offer a little assistance."
Serena was now outraged. "What up with that?! Last I checked you're the guy who's been slaughtering all the guys in black suits and my people! Now you're siding with that coward?!"
"Yes, that's true" the Rail Tracer shrugged "But now I've gotten to know you a bit better, this lady here sure smells like roses compared to you right now."
"You've gotta be kidding me! You're not one of those are you?!" Serena demanded, throwing a punch that the Rail Racer ducked and slid between her legs to avoid "You're one of those bleeding hearts that if you saw a kid coming at you with a gun, you'd let the little bastard live just because you felt sorry for him!" She smirked with pleasure. "To think, for a moment there I was actually afraid of you! But you're just another weakling that can't go through with it!"
"So what if I'd spare him?" the Rail Tracer shrugged.
Serena frowned. "Huh?"
"In my mind, it's the certainty I possess in myself that allows me to have that kind of mercy or compassion" the Rail Tracer told her, slowly walking towards her "There's no wavering on that point. It's fixed like the stars. The fact is, I'm never going to be killed! So remember this!" He got right up in Serena's face, jabbing a finger right under her nose. "Mercy and compassion are traits that only the strong are privileged to possess! And I am strong!"
Serena was frozen on the spot, stunned, as if no one had ever put it to her like that before.
"So you're one of those too" she realised "Someone who honest to god thinks he isn't going to die."
"Of course" the Rail Tracer grinned "After all, the world is mine."
This statement seemed to finally shut Serena up for good, as the only reply the Rail Tracer got was the wail of the wind.
Near Thomasville, Pennsylvania
Thursday, 31st December 1931
03:45
At the front of the train, in first-class, Zarc was relieved that Ray had finally drifted off to sleep, her head on his lap. Stress wasn't good for her or the baby, and whilst she was asleep, she wasn't stressed. He himself couldn't stand the idea of sleeping. He a firm eye on the man in the corner guarding them – Spencer, he thought his name was. Though it was unlikely the man might try to take advantage of his wife with him right there, he wasn't taking his chances with these vermin.
Just as he was truly starting to get sleepy, there came a bang from the curtained window.
Spencer stood up, taking his gun with him, most likely expecting to see the stain of a bird smashing into the window. But when he pulled back the curtains, he saw nothing.
"What the hell" he muttered, sliding open the window to look around.
Before he could get another word in, a pair of boots came flying through the window, knocking him down to the floor unconscious.
Ray bolted upright, startled by the sudden noise.
At that point, one Sora Shuin'in slid through the open window.
"Are you two ok?" he checked "If you are, we need to get moving, now."
Chinatown, New York, New York
Friday 5th February, 1932
12:30
"So you saved the Dragos as well as Reira Akaba?" the president realised "Sounds unusual for a stowaway to get involved."
"Yeah, I know" Sora Shuin'in shrugged "After I saved that kid, I figured, well, it wasn't really fair of me to save him and not help the others."
"The others?" the president raised one eyebrow "Besides the Dragos?"
"Yes, sir" Shuin'in nodded "Once I saw the Dragos make it to second-class, I realised that the delinquents I saw in the dining car had been taken hostage as well."
Near Thomasville, Pennsylvania
Thursday, 31st December 1931
03:45
Shuin'in helped the Dragos to the roof, using a table cloth to help pull them up by their unsteady feet, not used to the force of the wind on top of a train.
"Head for the dining car!" he yelled to them "One you're past there, you should be safe!"
"Past the dining car!" Zarc yelled back to him "Got it!"
The pair took the table cloth and ran towards the back of the train.
Shuin'in, on a gamble, decided to peer down and look through the other lit window in the first-class carriage. Sure enough, in the suite he saw the leader of those black suit guys, watching over two girls tied together in the middle of the room.
Well, he probably only had to wait a little while. Any minute now…
Sure enough, the man he'd knocked out before came running into the room, holding a cloth to his cheek. He whispered something into his leader's ear, probably that the Dragos had escaped, and they went hurrying out of the room.
Shuin'in waited for a moment to make sure they weren't coming back, then opened the window from the outside and slid inside the suite.
For a moment, the girls looked terrified, probably expecting that red monster to come through the window. But now they just looked confused by this sudden arrival of a boy they'd never met.
Gesturing for them to stay quiet, he tiptoed across the room and freed their hands.
"Thanks a lot, man!" the woman with curly ginger hair thanked him "We would've been in serious trouble back there if it wasn't for you!"
"It's nothing" Shuin'in quickly told her "I just-"
Before he could finish, the door opened, and the girl in the purple dress, holding a rifle, stepped inside. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust behind her glasses to the sight in front of her; then she raised her gun.
It was long enough for Shuin'in to think 'Shit, I should've figured she'd be here!'
"What are you doing?!" she yelped, cocking her gun.
Before she could get a shot off though, Shuin'in shoulder-tackled the door so only the barrel of the rifle stuck out, firing harmlessly in the floor.
"GO!" he yelled at the girls, who were already fleeing through the door into the walk-in wardrobe.
Once they were safe, Shuin'in let up pressure on the door and fled for the window.
He thought he'd made it, swinging out and up onto the roof as he heard the woman in purple get off a shot. But when he landed on the roof, his left leg almost gave out and caused him to tumble, bones fragments crunching together beneath the skin of his shin.
Chinatown, New York, New York
Friday 5th February, 1932
12:30
As he finished his little adventure story, Shuin'in looked down at his bandaged leg in thought.
"It seems you had a very busy night" the president remarked "I wonder if you hadn't been injured, had you been able to save more people personally."
Shuin'in tightened his fist on top of his knee, but said nothing.
"I still ask, why?" the president asked "Why save Reira Akaba in the first place? Why risk your life to do so?"
Shuin'in appeared to take a deep breath and looked at the rivetted Shingo and Shiniji before answering.
"My father was a train engineer" he admitted "He loved trains, and he passed his love of them onto me. I guess I didn't want the train to be desecrated with the blood of a scared child. I didn't want anything to happen to them."
Shinji made some sort of adorable noise in the back of his throat, like he was about to tear up, perhaps thinking of his own kids as Shuin'in spoke.
"You love the trains" Shingo nodded along "Which is why you ride without a ticket. That makes sense."
The sharp glare Shuin'in shot him at that indicate he didn't like Shingo's sarcastic tone.
"Shingo, Mr Shuin'in has his own personal reasons for his freeloading" the president told his head editor in a stern tone "I would like you to please treat him with more respect."
Shingo immediately bolted upright in shock at the sudden scolding. "Y-Yes sir! Sorry sir!"
"So, Mr Shuin'in" the president now turned back to their crippled guest "Was this where you chose to slink back to the shadows, and allow the remaining events aboard The Flying Lancer play out accordingly?"
Shuin'in paused, before taking off one his gloves and looking down at his palm in thought.
"Well" he admitted "There was one more thing."
Across his palm was a clearly rubbed-raw rope burn.
Near West York, Pennsylvania
Thursday, 31st December 1931
04:00
Sayaka tried pushing her rifle through the open window to try and take aim at the brat who had escaped through the tiny entrance again, but she couldn't get her entire head and shoulders out of it. So she changed tactics and pointed her rifle at the door to the walk-in wardrobe.
"Alright, you're going to come out before I get to three, or I start blasting!" she yelled through the door "One! Two!-"
Before she made it to three though, she heard something fizzing in the middle of the room.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw where the girls had been sitting previously a small black bomb, with a lit fuse nearing its payload.
From the dining car, the blast sounded like a train derailing, making many passengers scream and clutch each other at what they thought was their inevitable demise.
"That felt like a bomb" Noburu remarked.
"That came from first-class" Michio confirmed, pointing against at the first-class carriage.
Yuya handed Michio the half-empty tommy gun he'd picked off a white suit and picked up an almost full one from a black suit on the floor.
"That must be Yuzu" he declared "I'll go find her. Michio, you're in charge here. Noburu, you better get to the freight car and get ready to unload the package."
"Did we work out which one it was?" Noburu questioned.
"Just toss all of them" Yuya suggested "I'm sure Yuzu would love some fake bombs. If you see anything else notably valuable, then you can grab that too."
"You're going alone?" Michio questioned.
"I made a promise to Yuzu that I'd come back to her" Yuya told him "If she dies now, I won't be able to fulfil that promise. So I'm going to get her back, and end this once and for all."
"Aren't you scared?" Noburu pointed out.
"Oh, I'm so nervous my legs are about to start shaking" Yuya admitted, taking a few steps back towards the door to first-class "But my mind's made up now. I'm not going to cry right now. I don't care if it kills me, I'm ready for it!"
As he pushed through the door ahead of him, Noburu was smiling with pride.
Near Thomasville, Pennsylvania
Thursday, 31st December 1931
03:45
"I am the absolute centre of this world" Dennis told Serena as the wind whipped around them on top of the train "See, neither of you can prove you exist. You certainly tried with this," Dennis looked at Ruri and pointed at his ear. "But in the end, you can't prove it was you. You're all just visions I'm having inside my head for my own amusement."
He shrugged bemusedly.
"You see, that is why I can never die. Because if the world is mine, what will happen to it if I am gone?"
He looked up at the full moon above him.
"I guess I just don't have a very good imagination. But I can only imagine that once I am gone, you will all cease to exist. Everyone else but me would simply vanish. I will be the only person in this world once I am gone."
He smiled down at Serena sinisterly again.
"You are all just part of a dream that I am having. That's why the world is mine. It's all just happening inside my head."
Near Hallam, Pennsylvania
Thursday, 31st December 1931
04:45
As the remaining tranquillity on the train went up in smoke, Reira was huddling on the windowsill of an open window, back in the same third-class viewing room he'd been in when the Rail Tracer had found him. This time he was next to the open window though – if the Rail Tracer thought he could try to torture him again, he'd sooner throw himself out.
There was only a few hours until the train finally reached New York, but Reira couldn't bring himself to care. He wasn't going to miraculously feel better about himself once they reached solid land. Ray and her unborn child were dead because of him. Zarc was probably dead too. His father and Reiji were going to be devasted. The adopted rag they'd picked up off the streets had gone and gotten their daughter and sister killed in a failed gamble.
The Rail Tracer was right – he was a bad boy who deserved to die for his crimes, even if he hadn't wanted too when faced with his fate. How selfish of him.
"Oh! Reira!"
Hearing a voice behind him, Reira startled and tried to turn towards it, but he slipped on the polished window sill and found himself falling out the train window. He grabbed the window frame to prevent himself from being flung to the four winds, but he could already feel his tired arms failing and finger joints turning white against the freezing, battering wind.
So, this was his fate then; escape a serial killer only to die in an accidental fall. Sora had put his life on the line for nothing.
Before he could lose his grip completely though, a head poked out of the window.
"Reira!" Yugo yelled to him "That's not how you play in the snow!"
Reira was so startled he found his fingers letting go of the frame. But instead of impacting with the track like he expected, he felt Yugo's fingers grabbing around his wrist.
Looking up, he saw Yugo holding onto his arm with two hands, trying to brace himself against the window with his knee.
"Don't let go!" he yelled to Reira, then looked back into the carriage "Rin! Help us out here!"
He tried to turn back to Reira, but his knee slid against the window frame and he tumbled out after Reira.
Reira found himself ducking his head with eye squeezed shut. Now his carelessness was going to get Yugo, one of the nicest people he had ever met, killed. After facing more armed gunmen than a militia, he was going to die falling out a window because of Reira. He should've just let him fall alone.
To his amazement, he still didn't feel an impact with the track. Looking up, he discovered Yugo had grabbed Reira's torso and was squeezing him tightly against his body. Rin was leaning out of the carriage, both hands grabbing onto Yugo's boot, her own foot braced against the window frame and trying frantically to pull them both back inside.
It was never going to work. She was never going to be able to pull both of their weights back inside the window with the wind trying so hard to suck them out.
"Don't worry Reira!" Yugo told him "We've got you! We won't let you fall!"
Why?! Why did they care?! If they knew they'd just abandon him to his fate, just like everyone else had! They shouldn't be helping him or THEY WERE GOING TO GET HURT!
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Reira found himself yelling and struggling in Yugo's grip "JUST GO!"
The wiggling must've been too much for Rin to handle, because she came flying out the window after Reira and Yugo. The couple twisted in mid-air until they embarrassed each other, Reira bundled protectively between them.
Near West York, Pennsylvania
Thursday, 31st December 1931
04:00
"So that's how it is huh?" Serena responded to the Rail Tracer's speech with a cocky smirk "I'm surprised a guy like you can keep a straight face while being so goddamn arrogant!"
"Oh it's not just arrogance" the Rail Tracer reassured her while taking a few steps back for good measure "It's vengeance. See, one of your people killed my mentor. A conductor named Chojiro."
Serena paused. One of them killed a conductor. Ah, of course!
"You're the one who killed Doktor" she realised, face splitting into a big grin "Now I think we understand each other!"
She leapt forward and threw several lightning-fast punches at him. But the Rail Tracer dodged every one of them. Then, just showing off, he grabbed her shoulders and performed a handstand on them.
"See, all I need to do is think of something…" the Rail Tracer told her.
Serena twisted on the spot, throwing him off, but before she could launch another strike, she felt a sharp pain in her ear at the same moment a blast almost deafened her. She fell back onto her back on the roof, looking up to see the Rail Tracer holding a smoking handgun in her face.
"…and it happens" he finished his statement.
Serena reached up and touched her ear. She felt a distinct hole in the side of her pinna.
"See, now we match" the Rail Tracer beam radiantly down at her "You see, I could just kill you with this gun, but where's the sport in that? Someone like you is much more fun to kill with my bare hands." His smirk turned into a look of fury. "You will be a sacrifice for Chojiro. For my world which has lost Chojiro!"
Serena had been shooting him a bestial snarl, but it turned into an arrogant smirk once the notion of revenge came up again.
"Alright, great and almighty, powerful ruler of the world" she pretended to give him a mock bow "How exactly is a weakling like you going to kill me?" She got back to her feet again. "Because I think I'm just going to have to show you that the world doesn't work the way you think it does! I'm going to kill you and dance upon your bloody corpse in celebration of you not existing in my world anymore!"
The Rail Tracer considered this, before nodding slowly. "I just have one question before I kill you. The short man in white. Who exactly is he to you? Someone special?"
Serena's face went back to a snarl again. "You listen here, freak! That little bitch exists for the simple reason of me killing him! You don't get to kill him before I do, you hear?!"
"So he is important to you" the Rail Tracer realised "Well then, I know exactly how you're going to die."
"Oh yeah?!" Serena demanded "Exactly how?!"
"Simple" the Rail Tracer shrugged "You're going to throw yourself off this train, voluntarily, without any help from me."
Near York, Pennsylvania
Thursday, 31st December 1931
04:15
Up in first-class the single bomb had turned into many bombs.
Spencer was attempting to lead two Lemures he'd rustled up from out of the aether apparently in shooting through the smoke from the numerous fire bombs bouncing around the first-class corridor. They were all coming from the room which Sayaka had come pouring out of complaining about bombs being thrown in her face by weird burn-scarred ladies, so it didn't exactly take a genius to know who was throwing them.
Spencer scowled. Damn Allen and his treat the ladies like gentlemen policy.
Just as he was thinking this, another fire bomb came flying out of the suite and he was forced take cover.
Yuzu also took cover behind the door, running her hands down her face and shivering in delight at the explosions.
"Hey boss, let's go!" Meiru called to her.
Yuzu, who was already holding up another bomb under a lighter, stopped in her tracks as her face fell in disappointment.
"Aww" she groaned "Already?"
"Yeah, I think you've done enough damage" Meiru gestured to the copious amounts of smoke pouring in through the open door "Let's go meet up with the boys!"
With a sigh of disappointment, Yuzu threw the last bomb into the corridor, slightly cheered up with delight at the resulting explosion.
The two girls ran to the window, and were just about to climb through when, similarly to what happened to Spencer earlier in the carriage across the hall, a pair of feet came flying through said open window and kicked Meiru in the face. She stumbled backwards, knocking Yuzu down with her in the process.
"Well, well, well" Allen Kozuki climbed in through the window, levelling a revolver at the girls on the floor "Who would've thought such a nice dame would be hiding so many firebombs on her person? And here I thought I was being a good person treating you like a gentleman." He narrowed his eyes. "Well not anymore."
Just before he could shoot, the door to the suite banged against the wall as it was kicked open with enough force to dent the wall with it. On the other side was Yuya, still holding his tommy gun.
"Yuzu!" he yelped, firing off several bullets.
Allen reacted a split second earlier though, and managed to make it to the bathroom unscathed, slamming the door behind him and locking it. Not to be outdone, Yuya blasted the lock off and kicked this door open as well. He couldn't see Allen, but there was a large bathtub in the middle of the room. He fired at the bathtub, hearing bullets pass through the porcelain sides and hit the marble on the far wall. Satisfied, and knowing Allen had backup on the way, he retreated back into the main room again.
"Let's go!" Yuya grabbed Yuzu's hand and pulled her out the door, towards the end of the carriage.
"Hey, wait up lover boy!" Meiru yelled after him, hot on his heels.
Unbeknownst to any of them, Allen hadn't hidden in or behind the bathtub. Instead, he poked his head out of the laundry basket once he was sure the coast was clear.
'Interesting' he thought with a smile 'It's like I'm being tested, to make sure I'm worthy of taking Kurosaki's place.' He grinned with delight. 'Well, it's a test I'll pass for sure.'
Whilst Serena pondered his words, the Rail Tracer stepped to the side to show her something that had previously been obscured from her view by his body. Yuri, with one hand on top of the roof and the other in a sling, was attempting to climb up and join them.
"Yuri you moron, what are you doing up here?!" she demanded, eyes full of panic.
"I wasn't about to let you get all the fun!" Yuri just smirked at her "I'm joining in too. Who's this freakshow?"
Before Serena could tell him who her opponent was or to scram before she did something to him, the Rail Tracer proceeded to jump off the roof, swinging round and into one of the freight cars.
After a beat to make sure he wasn't going to pop up again, Serena ran over to the end of the caboose where Yuri was trying to climb up, grabbing him under the arm to pull him up.
"Get up here, you little shit, this guy means business!" she hissed at him.
Before she could succeed in pulling him to his feet though, the Rail Tracer jumped up behind Yuri, ripping him from her grip and yanking him away until they reached the far end of the caboose, one arm tight around his neck.
"What the hell?!" the other Polyma sibling demanding, trying to jab his captor in the side and get free. He may have succeeded under any other circumstance, but with one arm in a sling, he was mostly helpless against a much bigger, much stronger opponent.
"Well, I think this is your stop" the Rail Tracer announced, shrugging a wind of rope off his shoulder he had apparently picked up on his journey below "Time to get off."
Threw one end of the rope and lassoed it around a water tower that was passing them. Then, before Yuri could break free, he looped the rope around his captive's neck as a make-shift noose.
"You bastard!" Serena shrieked at him.
"Well, what are you going to do?" the Rail Tracer let go of Yuri and stepped away from him "I thought you and you alone were going to kill him?"
Yuri glared at the man who had put him in this position, then at Serena, all while frantically trying to untie the knot around his neck with one hand. Even if he tried to run, the noose would just pull him back once the rope went taught.
Ruri, ever the silent observer, simply stood by and watched the executioner pull the lever.
With a snap, the rope became taught.
Serena, shrieking a multitude of profanities in the Rail Tracer's direction, then charged forward, grabbing Yuri around the waist with one arm and grabbing the rope with her other hand, trying to prevent it from becoming taught enough to snap his neck.
The siblings soared into the air for only a second, Serena letting go of the rope when the sound of her shoulder dislocating from the sudden yank started ringing in her ears.
Not a moment later, the noose slipped away harmlessly from Yuri's neck.
The two stared at each other in amazement before it sunk in. It had been a false knot. Had Serena simply stood by, the worst Yuri could've suffered was a severe case of rope burn.
They hung in suspense for moment, the star-filled night surrounding them.
Yuri smirked. "You know, I should kill you right here."
Serena likewise also smirked. "It would be one hell of a night for you to try."
"Well then" Yuri flipped them around so he could cushion her from the inevitable impact with the water tower they were heading towards "I guess I'll just have to make sure you don't die now so I can kill you myself later!"
With a roar of determination, he raised his fist and greeted the water tower with a falcon punch.