Tale of the Dead Town by Hideyuki Kikuchi Read Free Book Online Page A

pissed off at the time.”
    “That’s not exactly new territory for you, though.”
    “Yeah, you could say that,” Pluto VIII confessed easily. It was frightening how quickly
     his mood could change. “Oh, well, not much I can do now. Anyway—did you have business
     with me?”
    “I want to ask you something.”
    “Is that a fact? Well, let’s not stand around here jawing. There’s a bar around the
     corner. What do you say to having a drink while we talk?” Laughing, he added, “Don’t
     think they serve human blood, though.” Knowing exactly who he was saying this to,
     his joke might’ve had deadly repercussions, but D didn’t seem to mind. He followed
     Pluto VIII.
    -
    The bar was packed. Work in town must’ve been done in shifts. As the two of them entered,
     all chatter in the watering hole stopped dead. The eyes of the bartender and the men
     around the various tables focused on the pair.
    “Excuse me! Coming through! Pardon me!” Pluto VIII called out amiably as they slipped
     between the crowded tables, finally seating themselves at an empty one in the back.
     In a terribly gruff voice he shouted, “Hey, I’d like a bitter beer. That, and a—”
     Turning to D, he asked in a completely baffled manner, “What’ll you have?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Dope, you can’t just walk into a bar and order nothing—you’re a nuisance.” Yelling,
     “He’ll have the same,” to the bartender, Pluto VIII turned to D again. “So, what’s
     this business you have with me?”
    “I went into a certain house earlier,” D said. “There was someone strange inside.
     Wasn’t you, was it?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I don’t think anyone from town would be rooting through the house at this late date.
     And the only ones here from somewhere else are you and me.”
    Pluto VIII leaned back and laughed heartily. Those seated around them flinched and
     gave him startled looks. “Hate to disappoint you, but it wasn’t me. Hell, even if
     it was me, you think I’d just come right out and say so?”
    “Why are you here? Seems someone like you would be better off leaving town.”
    “I’d tend to agree with you,” Pluto VIII conceded easily. “But it ain’t that simple.
     Why, compared to the world down there, this place is like heaven. If you got money
     to spend, you can buy just about anything, and you can get by without messing around
     with any of the Nobility’s deadly little pals. I tell you, I plan to stick around
     until they toss me out on my ear.”
    “You couldn’t buy flowers,” D reminded him.
    “Yeah, but that don’t change much.” But, just as his confident smile spread across
     his gruff face, a number of people piled in through the bar door. A gray-haired crone
     was at the fore, and behind her three powerful-looking young men. All four were pale
     with anger.
    D’s eyes dropped to the bouquet on the table, and he said, “You stole those, didn’t
     you?”
    “No, I’m renting them, you big dope. I just didn’t leave a deposit for them.”
    The whole bar started to buzz with chatter, and a bunch of people gathered around
     D and Pluto VIII’s table. “There he is. There’s the no-good flower thief. I’m sure
     of it,” the crone shrieked, her bony finger aimed at Pluto VIII’s face.
    “Now that ain’t a very nice thing to say,” Pluto VIII said, knitting his brow. “I’m
     just borrowing these to take ’em to a sick friend, okay? What could make a flower
     happier than that?”
    “The hell you say!” The crone’s hairline and the corners of her eyes rose with her
     tone. “Do you have any idea how much back-breaking toil it takes to grow a single
     flower in this town? Of course you don’t! You’re a dirty, rotten thief!”
    “He sure is,” another person surrounding the table chimed in. “And thieves gotta pay
     a price. Let’s step outside.”
    “Nothing doing,” Pluto VIII laughed mockingly. “What’ll you do if I don’t go?”
    “Then we’ll