MaruMA:SideStory01:Chapter 4
Chapter 4 - East Station
Back then they’d forgotten to take the weather into account.
Regent walks back from the hall angrily. Although they had booked the earliest flight last night, but now they’ve been waiting fruitlessly for four hours.
“I heard they’re aborting the flight.”
“What, just because the weather’s like this?!”
April, who was sitting on the bench and staring at her toes, stands up when she hears the response from the airport management, and at the same time she’s surprised at Regent’s expression of uncharacteristic panic.
Although the sky is full of grey clouds, the weather in Berlin is like that all-year long. If the plane doesn’t fly even on days without rain and thunder, then the days they can actually take off could probably be counted on one hand.
“There was a lady at the boarding counter just now who told me, as the saying goes, ‘spring is like a stepfather’s expression’. Although it’s useless to scold her, but I really wanted to ask if she was purposely making fun of me.”
“Eh~”
DT, putting the one large, one small luggage bags down by his feet, suddenly starts yelling.
“So stepfathers in Germany have a lot of mood swings!”
“…You really are, very carefree, aren’t you.”
Regent picks up his own luggage and extends his hand to April, maybe assuming she needs support to get up. She holds the doctor’s hand lightly, but she doesn’t borrow his strength. She always feels that this degree of injury, and one caused by her own foolishness at that, shouldn’t deserve someone else’s help all the time.
Speaking of which, how could she have done something so idiotic? Just thinking about it makes her feels so embarrassed her face turns red.
“Guess we have no choice, let’s take the train then. Though it will take three times as long, but just wasting about here won’t change the fact that the plane’s not taking off. Besides, we were one step behind the others to start with, so we can’t afford to wait until tomorrow.”
“I thought we can’t get there directly by train?”
“It’s the same if we take the air route, we still have to have the train and a car from Frankfurt. It’d be great if this trip went smoothly, but in any case the worst thing that could happen is we would have to buy a vehicle from a normal family.”
April imagines the image of them riding a horse on the mountain road, feeling like she wants to hold her head and weep. Hoofed animals gave her bad memories once. About five years ago, she was puked on all over by a crazy camel in Egypt…
“…It feels like someone is deliberately blocking us.”
Sitting in the cab, Regent mutters so, and April’s thoughts are suddenly pulled back to the present.
“About that, it’s hardly surprising that I would suspect that. Because the domestic flight to Frankfurt was aborted, but the international flight to Paris went on as usual.”
The only one who knows they’re leaving Berlin should be that Herm ‘Babysitter’ Coruna, but that annoying officer shouldn’t technically know where they’re going. After seeing Regent’s outstanding performance last night, Coruna should assume that he would return to his home country in glory. Because he had desperately bid for a ton of paintings, so much so that even the German auctioneer took a jab at him, saying that he was the destructive collector of the night.
“But every item’s price is really different from it should be, all so ridiculously low.”
Grandmother had taken April to many such events in the past, but she’s never seen such a depressing auction before. Not only did the auctioneer look on foreign bidders, he would even put down the item on auction.
“That really isn’t a smart thing to do. Since they want to earn some extra income, they should praise the items properly to raise the price, it doesn’t matter even if they don’t mean it. But I bid on so many items, from my perspective, it’s only natural that I would want to get home as soon as I can, to receive my reward from my boss.”
“If Coruna knew our true motive, that’d be another matter… Could it be?” April stares at her partner.
“W-what?” The Asian’s straight black hair is billowing up and down.
“DT, you didn’t tell that guy, right?”
“I d-d-d-didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t!”
“But it seemed to me that yesterday you two got along very well.”
“That’s because you forced me!”
“What did I force you to do?”
“You wanted me to be alone with that dangerous man… Mn…”
Sitting in the front passenger seat, Regent chuckles.
“But we hadn’t decided our destination yesterday afternoon, remember!”
“That’s right, April! Don’t simply say things you don’t know!”
“Then why are you so nervous?”
Actually, the truly nervous one is April, because only she knows the answer.
It’s Deuter.
Rikhiart Deuter knows that their real target isn’t any painting, but the seal of great power, ‘the Mirror’s Depth’. Even though he doesn’t know where we’re headed next, he should still know that as long as we haven’t found the Box and taken it with us, we won’t return to our home country.
At that moment she remembers the feeling on her fingertips back then. That wasn’t plaster, metal or rubber, it felt like a special layer of wax on an animal hide.
Why would he want to deceive the SS he belonged to, and steal that ‘arm’?
“You’re thinking about that officer, aren’t you?”
“…Yeah, that’s right, I always found it strange. Why would the guy who stole the ‘arm’ threaten us in Boston? Think about it, no matter who has the Box, it has nothing to do with that guy, right?”
“About that, there are some things I haven’t explained to you yet, I’ll tell you slowly after we get on the train, by then we’ll have lots of time to talk. On the other hand, you finally called him ‘that guy’, I got a glance at him yesterday, and I thought you guys really got along, too! Didn’t think you disliked him that much--”
That’s because Regent only heard what April told him, so he doesn’t know what kind of a guy Deuter is. He’s expressionless, stuck-up, always thinking that’s he’s so special. Although he stubbornly refuses to believe in anyone else besides himself, he still makes the most basic mistakes like forgetting to plan his getaway. He’s at loggerheads with his own colleagues, but has no intention of making up with them. Always acting like a lone wolf, but tied down by such a nonsensical idea like his ‘ancestor’…
“When you put it like that, I just feel like the two of you are very similar.”
“Me?! Me and Richard?!”
“Richard?”
DT takes this chance to jab her properly.
“What’s this, you only know how to suspect others, but the one really getting along with him isn’t me, it’s you—”
“I’m just saying his name in an easier way!”
“Anyway, before we confirm that he’s not an enemy, we still have to keep our guards up. He may have long since guessed where we’re going, but speaking of where we’re going, is the Box really headed for A… really headed for that place? I’m not too sure myself.”
To prevent the taxi driver from understanding their conversation, the three of them continue conversing in English, but they still have to wary around German place names.
“It’s just that those people eager to open the Box… If they can decipher the words on the decorative parts, then they’d naturally lock down on our destination.”
“So what does it say on there?”
“No idea, since I never stayed in BC Babylon. Though perhaps it’s a record made to warn the world, by people who wanted to open the Box and that door, only to suffer the consequences for it.”
Regent glances at his watch, it’s almost departure time for the train headed to Frankfurt.
“But Bapu had long since deciphered part of it, the part that said the ‘Key’ is ‘pure water’.”
“Mn, I guess the rest of it might be some warning like ‘Don’t open the Box’or ‘Danger’, I hope the president’s men will go through that important part properly.”
“Pure water…”
April puts her pointer finger on her chin. What she imagines from those two words are springs, river, or melted snow, or maybe holy water in a silver goblet. Oh, yeah, Regent said this isn’t religious.
“Anyway, as long as you know the Box’s true qualities, there’s no need to specifically go decipher those words.”
Hearing the French doctor’s careless words, April grabs the leather passenger seat and says,
“Do you know?!”
“I do, but that memory is very blurred.”
“Then, you know what ‘pure water’ means, too?”
“Of course… Don’t look so determined to get to the bottom of the mystery like that! Look, your eyes are even shining… Okay, okay! I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!”
Regent held up his hand in surrender, and then said one word.
“Blood.”
“…You said… Blood, whose blood? Since they call it ‘pure water’… Don’t tell me they want babies as live sacrifices? Not only is that really religious, it’s cultish!”
“For now, it’s no one’s blood, because it’s a child that doesn’t yet exist in this world. Please don’t ask me what that means. Hey!”
The taxi stops at a place a distance away from the train station. Since there are too many taxis and people around the station, they can’t get any closer.
Standing on the stone ground in the square in front of the station, are tons of people pushing to get out of Berlin.
After that calm Regent yells loudly at the lady behind the ticket counter several times, he finally gets to buy second-class tickets. According to the news he heard, now not only are all the domestic flights cancelled, even half of the international flights were aborted, so all the passengers who planned on taking the air route have flooded to the train station.
“Is that really the only reason?”
Forget the platform, even the café and bar are stuffed full of people, April looks over there, cocking her head in confusion. It’s hard to imagine that there are still so many people taking out their entire families on a non-holiday. Mothers hold babies in their arms, the older children are holding their little siblings’ hands; fathers carry all the luggage they can on their backs, and their arms are full of huge bags.
“It looks like everyone is going on a long holiday.”
“Although I’m not sure if they’re going on holiday or migrating, this is the first time I’ve seen such a chaotic train station.”
“Everyone just wants to escape from here, or get away from Germany as soon as possible, since there’re no flights for them, then the train will have to do. Even if the international flights from Berlin have been cancelled, maybe they can get onto a plane in Frankfurt.”
“Escape? Why would they want to escape from their own country? Don’t tell me they want to move to a colony?”
The Asian American can’t seem to figure out the reason.
They push aside the adults and children apologetically, moving towards the platform headed to Frankfurt. But maybe it’s the pressure of the crowd’s gaze, but the walk there feels longer than they thought.
“Damn, there’s no more time!”
Regent, who was leading, suddenly stops in his tracks, causing April to put unnecessary force on her foot, shooting a flare of pain from yesterday’s injury.
“Something happened?”
She looks past his shoulder, and sees that near the already chaotic entrance into the platform, there are several soldiers blocking passengers. They even want to check the children’s identities, investigating everybody with utmost caution. But the reason why the passengers haven’t rioted in dissatisfaction, is because those soldiers are all fully-armed.
And those people whose tickets were rejected and were forced backwards, are far more than those who actually successfully got onto the train. Those who had tickets but can’t get onboard, can only return to the line dejectedly.
“Why a customs check now, of all times?!”
“What is this? It looks like most people can’t get on, it can’t be that their passport are missing something…”
Just then, a black shadow flits into the corner of her vision. A tall man walks past the two lines, right up to the soldiers, it’s the SS uniform that she saw sway too much of yesterday, and there’s also the red ‘卐’ armband, and that shiny skull in the middle of the army hat.
He walks towards the soldiers who bowed to him, quick as springs, and then lightly raises the suitcase in his right hand for them to see. In the noisy crowd, his voice rings out crystal clear.
“I want to send this to Colonel Hughes.”
“Please pass, Lieutenant. I apologize for inconveniencing you… May I ask, is that an instrument?”
“Yes, he said he really wanted to play something for the president at the dinner party.”
She remember those shoulders, and the voice is really familiar too, and that suitcase that’s too long for even a trumpet, she knows all too well what’s inside.
Rikhiart Deuter walks past the passengers sitting in a row, headed for the very last cabin. The people watch the SS officer go with hatred and despair in their eyes.
“…April!”
“What is it?”
Regent grabs her upper arm.
“You didn’t hear me? Listen carefully! April, what we’re discussing now is, if the soldiers start picking a fight with us, forcing one of us three to stay behind, then whoever got past first has to get onto the train. The scheduled time for departure is already over, there’s no time to wait for all three of us to get on. As for the ones left behind, they have to catch up immediately, and we’ll meet at Ahrweiler. Understand? I don’t want to waste any more time, even if it’s only one of us, we have to go.”
“You’re right, I know.”
The panicked people start pushing each other around in line, and in no time at all the three of them are separated. Just as they start lining up in order again, the train starts spouting steam. Unsurprising, since departure time was long past.
She holds onto her luggage tightly, holding out her open passport to the soldier. The young man, barely twenty, is evidently flustered by this unfamiliar ID, and tells the man in the next line, probably his superior officer, “This is my first time seeing an American passport.” But maybe because the situation on the other side is a mess too, so he doesn’t even bother to look around.
“Little boy, really, where are your eyes? This is a bona fide passport, you know—If you don’t let me through now, I’ll kick you down, then force my way through, okay--?”
She smiles gracefully, and mumbles in English.
And in the line in front of them, DT has been blocked by an old soldier too. Just as she’s trying to check if Regent has gotten through and turns around, she sees that there’s one more person before his turn. The doctor frowns, ‘tsk’ing his tongue. The train horn blares again, and the train starts moving slowly.
This way, none of them will get to Frankfurt.
Just as she’s moving her painful right foot backwards, and getting ready to kick out the young soldier—
“Let me onboard!”
A panicked middle-aged man pushes aside the customs officer and runs forth.
“Let me onboard! My relatives are waiting for me in Kassel!”
That tragic yell is like a trigger, causing people to start rioting. April is continuously pushed forward, until she nearly falls forth. But then the young soldier instinctively steps aside, causing her to lose her balance, and she falls flat on her face onto the cold floor.
Right now, there’s no one on either side of her, because she has been pushed out of the line.
“What are you kidding? This is a genuine American passport!”
Someone starts yelling in her familiar English, DT grabs an old soldier at precisely the best moment.
“Look closely, this is the signature from one of the bigwigs in our country! If you think this is fake then why don’t you call up our president, he will definitely send a line over to that Little Mustache of yours to show concern!”
He obviously knows that messing around like this won’t help, but he still spouts such nonsense. April resists the pain in her foot and stands back up, then this time Regent starts shouting in French. At first she thought he was scolding someone viciously, then he actually starts reading out the human rights. In between his words he adds a quick line, and her feet rush forward with that signal.
“Go!”
April heads for the moving train steps without even looking back, it’d be good enough if she could just grab that red handrail.
By now the soldiers caught in the riot have started firing, two bullets graze past her left foot. The man behind her who also wants to catch the train instinctively falls backwards, and the woman diagonally behind also falls to her knees, giving up.
I can’t stop, now isn’t the time to put my hands up and surrender.
Although there’s a hot breeze brushing past her face, there’s no time to consider what that was. Several gunshots chase after her, but she keeps on telling herself, ‘It won’t hit.’
April desperately stretches out her right fingers, trying to grab the red handrails, but when she’s just one step away, the train starts spewing steam and gaining speed.
She can’t reach!
In that second when she feels despair and looks down, she suddenly realizes that the red handrail has disappeared from her sight.
Soon the pain will come back, and then she really won’t be able to run.
“Graves!”
She instinctively raises her head, there’s someone yanking open the door to the last cabin.
Than man wearing that familiar black uniform, forcefully pulls off his white gloves, and bends his body out of the cabin.
“Give me your hand!”
“Richard?!”
“I’m not called Richard… Why are we still talking about that now?!”
Maybe it’s because they saw the officer, so the people behind stop shooting.
April grabs Rikhiart Deuter’s hand.
It feels different from that arm.
It’s warm.
| Back to Chapter 3 | Return to MA Series | Forward to Chapter 5 |
