V1: The Rolling Bootlegs ch 3 pt. 8
EDIT: thanks to saffire_persian, who helped catch some awful grammatical errors :D

Sorry for the delay guys and gals... really, really busy/sleep-deprived this week. Without further delay, we bring you:

"101 things to know about immortals" by Szilard


Day 1- part 8

It was a strange sight.

When Szilard placed his palm on Barnes’ forehead, Barnes immediately dried up.

No, dry wasn’t an accurate description. Rather, the tissues that lost moisture shattered and the shattered pieces of meat were sucked in like by a vacuum… if one had to describe it in a sentence.

“Devoured by the right hand.”

This kind of description was very appropriate.

Starting from his feet, bit by bit, Barnes’ body disappeared from this world.

The last part remaining was the head, and even as it shattered… sucked in like by a vacuum machine, it disappeared into Szilard’s right hand.

The old men around the room turned white as one. Even the crying sounds couldn’t be heard. These men, who would regain prestige and fame once they stepped out of this room, were now reduced to just a cluster of old people by the terror of what had just happened before their eyes.

“Now, everyone.”

The one to break the silence was the very same person who created this terror, Szilard.

“I’ve read Barnes’ memories, and till the very end he still… Yes, even as he was killed by me, he was still revered me, swearing loyalty to me… Truly impressive! I hope everyone will follow Barnes’ example.”

Which would result in the pile of clothing and shoes that had fallen onto the floorboards.

A cold joke at which one couldn’t laugh even if one wanted to- because Szilard said it very seriously, so of course no one laughed.

“And everyone should rejoice. Barnes succeeded in rescuing two bottles of the ‘complete product’ from the scene of the fire.”

After a moment of silence, this group of old people erupted with a celebratory cheer… the room, originally filled with despair and terror, was in an instant brimming with joy.

“But it seems they have been taken.”

The happy expressions on everyone’s faces immediately vanished.

“Well, I know where they were taken and the faces of those who took them. If we are lucky, we can get it back.”

Cheers sounded once again amongst the old men. To them, if they let go of their opportunity, they would truly have to face death. To Szilard, who had already obtained immortality, not being able to recover the completed product was just a matter of of a longer wait, but to these aging men who were facing death it really was a question of life and death.

-

Standing before the excited old men, Szilard pondered other matters.

Even if the ‘complete product’ was finished, he wouldn’t give it to these old men who no longer had any value. If it was someone loyal like Barnes he would consider bestowing it upon them, but unfortunately Barnes was already dead, and killed by his own hands no less.

What I want is not the money or prestige coveted by the common people, but complete loyalty… and knowledge. Only that. With the dawn of the ‘complete product’… these garbage have no other uses. They’re just ingredients which can increase my knowledge, that’s all… Hm. Although it was some useless knowledge, I still like the taste of brain fluid.

When Szilard let this loyal group of ‘tools’ research the ‘complete product’, he himself had engaged in other aspects of research.

That was, research on his own ‘flesh’. In this process, Szilard understood some very important issues… No, it couldn’t be said he fully understood, or at least it hadn’t left the ‘theoretical’ stage yet.

(First, the mystery behind the generation of flesh… After drinking the wine the person is already dead… No, that’s not right if we say they died… Rather, saying that their status of life has changed would be more accurate…)

Through various experiments, Szilard postulated that, in the end, it was possible that his indestructible flesh had become an ‘aggregate community of organisms’. Even if his own flesh was scattered far apart, those scattered pieces of flesh will still regroup to form the original body…

(And on a cellular level, what about… member… no, should be said every atom has been ‘turned into a living organism’.)

In the past he had also burned alchemist who wanted to eat him, but the smoke generated didn’t drift away with the wind; rather, it rolled back to surround the alchemist and disappeared at the same time as the fire and the regeneration. Even smoke had its own regenerative awareness- this was far beyond the scope of physics.

Since the discovery of the electrion by the English researcher, Thomson, in 1897, and the discovery of the nucleus by his disciple Rutherford… mankind began to gain understanding about these sub-atomic particles.

(Following their footsteps, it’s possible that a new type of particle may be discovered three years later… In any case, how far down can this ‘living’ substance be broken down into?... But then again, perhaps in a hundred years’ time, those scientists living in normal society would still be unable to grasp the meaning of ‘immortality’… While I continually experience the laws surpassing today’s science… Though I’ve always been suspicious about whether science could explain the power to summon demons.)

And this kind of wine was not a catalyst for the advancement of science, but rather a way of ‘summoning’ the laws of another world into this one? Although he had eaten some colleagues who were leading researchers in this field and conducted research on his own ‘complete product’, but… seeing this time’s success in producing the ‘complete product’ really made him feel his own theories had hit the bull’s eye.

The other matters he researched were this community-body’s reasons for ‘eating’ and ‘living by one’s true name’. These particles possessing awareness of immortality had between them a strong attractive force. That is to say, also in the case of eating, merging with another sentient being through the right hand. Just like in the world of bees, one hive did not need two queens. Awareness could only exist in one body.

Then the other question about using a false name… ordinary people could casually live under a false name. But immortals, if they wanted to do that, once they sign their false name on a document…

(… Why can’t I use a false name…? Of course the demon said it was a ‘contract of the mind’, but… it seems more like a command coming from every cell in the body. Not from the head, but the feeling of disturbances coming directly from the ‘shocks’ from the body… I’m afraid every atom in every cell exhibits such a strong desire… to merge with others of the same kind… So it definitely would not allow an immortal to hide their real identity…)

But those who drank the ‘incomplete product’ who naively thought they had obtained immortality could live under a false name.

(Perhaps that’s because the particles think that, because they are of a different species from those people, it is not worth merging, that they are just bait… Fu fu fu… this really is a system with a strict hierarchy.)

-

But where did the mass of the people he ate go to? There were still many things he didn’t understand. Szilard felt frustrated that his knowledge was still incomplete.

If he knew how to brew the ‘complete product’, then at least he would be one step closer to his goal of knowledge.

But that guy’s younger brother only knew half of the recipe.

Today, he came to New York precisely for the sake of eating that man who knew the full recipe… But in the end it was to no avail. Ah well, he just needed to get on the ‘complete product’, then he could analyse the composition of the product.

The order didn’t matter. As long as he was able to obtain the ‘complete product’ and the ‘knowledge’.

Sooner or later I will obtain the complete knowledge and, at that time, loyalty and wealth will follow… For this goal, I first need to obtain the ‘complete product’ of the wine of immortality.

All there is to know about the wine of immortality and summoning the demon.

These two types of knowledge… possessing the two types of knowledge I don’t know is that enviable young man…

Where are you hiding?

“And Ennis. There seems to be a man looking for you.”

Ennis was a little puzzled by her master’s words. She didn’t understand what her master was talking about.

“That’s right… I can instill my knowledge into you… I shall tell you now.”

Havin said the above, Szilard placed his left hand on Ennis’ head. The old men watched at everything that was happening with wide eyes, while Ennis silently accepted the transmission from Szilard. After a while, a few faces surfaced in the sea of her mind.

The hoodlum group. Ennis knew these were the four guys who had taken the ‘complete product’. Then the face that emerged, that was the man who was asking for her. Who was it? Although she felt she had met this man somewhere before, Ennis couldn’t recall anything about it.

“… No matter what, first bring those four hoodlums back, then we’ll see how things go.”

“Yes.”

Watching Ennis leave the house again, Szilard felt a little worried.

The guy who was looking for Ennis, could he be a former acquaintance?

No, that wasn’t possible. No one should know about Ennis. All the people who knew Ennis’ real face had already been ‘eaten’ by himself. The alchemists who knew Ennis were no longer here either. And even if someone were to attack Ennis unknowingly, it wasn’t of any loss to him. In the past, someone mistook Ennis for a normal human being, and accidentally got himself ‘eaten’ by Szilard.

… Then it started from that time. He still clearly remembered Ennis’s hesitation at punishing a comrade. Looks like she obtained a little too much knowledge.

Ah, never mind. It didn’t matter. If she got in the way then he would just eat her.

Killing her was much easier than ‘eating’ other people.

Ennis’ figure disappeared through the exit in the ceiling.

Szilard closed his eyes, the corners of his mouth turned up in a faint smile.


<==>


“Yes… I am Inspector Edward Noah.”　

Even when saluting, Edward was more imposing than the bureau chief opposite him.

Standing before Edward were two special agents, both members of the ‘Bureau of Investigation’. Although officially their rank was not higher than the bureau chief, since he was going to start work with the Bureau from next week onwards, needless to say, the two before him were his senior colleagues. Because it was something he had been aware of for a long time, the two people were many times more radiant than the bureau chief.

“Ah--… Thank you for your hard work. Eh--… I’m Bill Sullivan. And this is…”

“Donald Brown.”

The man to the side reported, interrupting the lanky man’s speech. This man was muscular, and just his fist was larger than Edward’s.

He had heard about the situation earlier from his superiors. These two people came here in pursuit of criminals responsible for a string of robberies that occurred across the whole of America. Edward was to cooperate as a local policeman.

“Ah--… Looks like you’ve already heard from your superiors, but I still want to go through it again. Eh---… Please first look at this photo…”

In truth, Edward had only heard his superior say a few words about the ‘serial robber-thief suspects, so the details of the case could only be learned from the mouths of these two special agents.

Edward looked at the photo in his hand. On it were a man and a woman wrapped completely from head to toe in bandages. He could tell it was a woman because she wore a wedding dress outside the bandages. And the other had to be a man, because other than bandages he was wearing nothing. Their entire body except for their eyes were mouths were wrapped tightly by the bandages, so there shouldn’t be any other moral problems.

“……”

Edward was silent for a few seconds.

Was this a special joke of the Bureau?

Seeing Edward’s confused expression, Bill smiled wryly as he explained.

“Eh--… How should I put it? Yes--… We once wondered, are these really the criminals we’re pursuing? But this is definitely material from the precious photo collection of a news reporter. The two seemed very anxious when the photo was taken. Ah--… Right, how to say this…”

Unable to take his colleague’s terrible stutter any longer, Donald continued for him.

“After these guys got photographed they did some robbing business. By the time the police arrived on the scene, the only things left in the alley were their discarded bandages and the wedding dress. Witnesses all said that they only saw ‘bandages’. There’s practically no useful information.”

So that was how things were- Edward finally understood. Putting on a very exaggerated costume when they began their operations, then changing afterwards. This way, the chances of escaping were very high. Naturally, this unusual method of attention-seeking camouflage was highly successful.

“Other that this, they have at times worn a black mask and a cape, a silk hat and a crutch- in short extremely unique appearances. In this manner, they’ve repeatedly committed over eighty cases of robberies and burglaries.”

“About that… why haven’t they been caught up to now?”

Although Edward knew asking this was rude, he couldn’t resist.

“Eh--… how should I put it… Although the victims did suffer losses… but they weren’t worth investigation by the Bureau… Eh--… In the beginning it was just one watch. Other things were like chocolates, candies… it was only the door of the main entrance of a museum they stole that can be said to hold some value.”

Edward couldn’t help but feel disheartened. The Bureau would actually search the whole of America for these eccentric criminals.

“But the case that occurred in New Jersey last month was problematic. The entire inheritance of the local wealth family, the Genoards, has been stolen by then.

This was the first time Edward had heard of this.

“… If that was true, then why didn’t the newspapers report it?”

“Because the Genoards stopped the news from being released. They said it was shameful to the entire family.”

What a bunch of fools. It was because these kinds of people existed that there were so many criminals who escaped from the law. Edward was extremely agitated, but on second thought, not publishing news in the papers wasn’t anything unusual, so he calmed down after a while.

“So, in the past, these incidents didn’t stir up any ruckus, so of course they were dropped.”

“Aah, that’s because of the recent popularity with ‘Scarface’ and Luciano.”

Scarface. Alphonse Capone most famous nickname.

“Ah--… Scarface huh… He arrived at New York at the peak of his career… That was thirty years ago… Although on recalculation it’s been thirty-one years now. When this Brooklyn-born man was still young, he had already become the ‘Public Enemy No. 1’ and the big boss… Yeah well, he can be said to be one of the few people in American history to create miracles.”

“Let’s stop talking about that guy.”

It was true that Capone reached the top of the criminal organisation at a very tender age. In a sense, not only did he possess talent, but he was also hardworking. But Edward refused to acknowledge the abilities and hardwork of criminals.

“Mm--… But then again, our government seems to have never acknowledged the fact that ‘the mafia exist’ in this country… Even Capone is just thought to be ‘simply a hoodlum’… Man, in the end it is us subordinates who have to work our asses off. Ah--… what a pain.”

“Bill… Enough chitchat. If those upper-level people noticed you, your life could easily be ruined.”

On hearing his colleague disparage his own superiors, Donald gave a bitter smile as he chided him.

“Oh--… Scary, scary, compared to Capone our superiors are scarier…”

After a brief smile, Donald’s face became solemn again and he turned to Edward to say,

“Well, that Capone’s enemies isn’t just us. Those New York mafia also can’t wait to get rid of Capone… That guy’s killed too many people.”

That was also truth. The few large mafia in New York were incensed by Capone’s behaviour. They even assassinated Johnny Torrio, the leader of the stabilising force in the criminal society… Capone was a man who fought with America and the mafia at the same time.

Suddenly, Firo’s face appeared in Edward’s mind. The man who decided to become an executive at a tender/young age. Was he the same? Was that guy a man who would thrive in the underworld like Capone?

No, he will definitely not allow this kind of situation to happen. Before it occurs he must definitely throw that guy into prison. The Martillo family must also be destroyed. Yes, he was very young… Precisely for that reason, things can still be changed.

Until then, he would definitely devote all his energy in cooperating with the Bureau.

“------Ah-… It’s best if we continued talking about the robbers…”

Edward was pulled back to reality. His opponent now was neither a big boss like Capone, nor a small organisation like the Martillo. Rather, it was these two strange robbers wrapped from head to toe in bandages.

Edward exhaled, his mood becoming heavier.


<==>

=============

Szilard =_=