Jacuzzi Splot

"It's natural to cry. But I think the times when people want to cry are the times when they need to work the hardest. So I decided that I’d cry all the time while things were normal, that I’d never try to pretend I was tough. I’d take all those tears from when I really wanted to cry, and I’d cry them out now. That way, when I really need to work hard, all my tears will be dried up and gone."

- Jacuzzi to Nice Holystone

Jacuzzi Splot (ジャグジー・スプロット, Jyagujī Supurotto) is the young leader of a delinquent gang based in Chicago. He and his girlfriend Nice Holystone, along with their friends, pull off a successful heist aboard the Flying Pussyfoot' in December 1931.'''

Upon arriving in New York, Jacuzzi and his gang reestablish their bootlegging operations only to come into conflict with the Martillo Family, the Gandor Family, and two of Huey Laforet's groups, the Larvae and the Lamia in 1933. In 1934, Jacuzzi and his gang briefly return to Chicago and find it in chaos.

In February 1935, Jacuzzi and his gang attend the Runorata Family's casino party at Ra's Lance, per Molsa Martillo's request that they assist Firo Prochainezo in gambling while there.

Appearance
Jacuzzi has short brown hair and brown eyes, and in late 1931 wears a brown checkered vest over a white shirt and black pants. He infamously has a large black tattoo of a sword on the left side of his face: its right cross-guard is situated under his left eye, and its blade curves over his eyebrow and onto his forehead.

Personality
Jacuzzi is a young man who cries constantly, worries constantly, and apologizes constantly. He is easily terrified and easily startled, and has fainted from shock on at least one occasion.

He is also extraordinarily caring, and extraordinarily brave.

Most who come across Jacuzzi for the first time are quick to wonder how a 'crybaby' like him could possibly be the leader of a delinquent gang in the first place. While it is true that he does not necessarily command total respect from his friends and followers, he does inspire strong loyalty amongst those who flock around him. The care and attention he pays to his friends is acknowledged and returned in kind. Not all leaders make the effort to familiarize themselves with all members of their gang - Jacuzzi is able to discern a stranger's voice amongst those of his gang in 1932; not all leaders could do the same.

Despite appearances, there is a method behind Jacuzzi's tears. When he was fourteen, he decided that he would cry all the time and not bother with 'acting tough' - so when confronted with something serious, he'd be able to stand strong and be ready for any kind of pain, having no more tears to shed. This is exactly what happens aboard the Flying Pussyfoot: even when enduring agonizing wounds during his fight with Goose Perkins Jacuzzi does not cry, filled with resolve to defeat the Lemures and return to Nice alive.

Jacuzzi experiences real terror in the face of danger, and he manages to rise to the occasion and protect his friends in spite of it every time. He is terrified when he confronts the Lemures, and he is terrified when he offers up himself to Graham Specter in exchange for Chané Laforet, and it is this bravery and love that endears him to so many people. Often people join his group with a desire to protect him, won over by how genuinely nice he is.

Though Jacuzzi is always if not overly considerate of other people's feelings, he is not above going against basic etiquette when desperate times call for desperate measures. When Eve Genoard gifts the gang wine in 1935, he seriously considers selling her gift for money that the gang desperately needs, and stands his ground when his friends protest. When push comes to shove, Jacuzzi is not a pushover despite what one might think. When Ladd Russo intimidates him aboard the Flying Pussyfoot, Jacuzzi balls his fists and refuses to cower in front of him.

One of his most distinguishing features is the large black sword tattoo he has on the left side of his face. He received the tattoo after his close friend and girlfriend, Nice Holystone, lost her right eye and ended up severely scarred after an explosives accident. He commissioned the tattoo so that Nice would always be able to recognize him despite her damaged eyesight.

In the anime, he instead obtains the tattoo so that she would not be embarrassed by her scars in public.

Pre-1931
Jacuzzi is born and raised in Chicago, befriending his neighbor Nice Holystone at a young age. In 1926, he is horrified when Nice is severely scarred in an explosives incident and hides away in her room during her recovery. Realizing that her vision is now very limited, Jacuzzi has an artist tattoo a large sword upon his face, so that Nice will always be able to recognize him no matter what. He refuses to cry despite the pain, and resolves to cry all the time so that he won't cry when it really matters.

During his teenage years, Jacuzzi comes to hate the liquor ban and hate the mafia for abusing the ban for profit and murder. He decides to brew cheap and palatable alcohol on his own, though Nice and other local delinquents quickly join his cause. When his nascent gang sells their first batch of alcohol, the local and powerful Russo Family mafia take umbrage and kill eight members of Jacuzzi's gang in response.

Jacuzzi and his friends decide to fight the Russo Family tooth and nail for the sake of their fallen brethren, through both their bootlegging business and highway robbery. Jacuzzi ends up gunning down and robbing eighteen Russo speakeasies in one day, crying all the while. The Russos issue a bounty upon Jacuzzi's head.

1931
(Will be expanded upon)

In the dead of night on December 29, 1931, Russo capo Sedley and four colleagues sniff out Jacuzzi's hideout and confront him in an alleyway. They are extremely dubious that he's the gang's leader, given how unabashedly Jacuzzi is blubbering. The rest of Jacuzzi's gang shows up and murder the capos.

The next day, Jacuzzi, Nice, Donny, Nick, and Jack head to Chicago's Union station, where they plan on boarding the transcontinental express Flying Pussyfoot with the intention of hijacking it on route to New York. The target of their (very first) train robbery is a batch of contraband explosives someone has smuggled aboard the train: they intend to find the cargo and dump it into a river, where a retrieval team will be on standby. Jacuzzi hopes to sell the bombs for profit and thus protect New York from whatever the explosives were originally purposed for.

Jacuzzi and his friends claim a third class compartment, and the Flying Pussyfoot sets off on the evening of December 30. Eventually Jacuzzi and Nice leave the others and head for the dining car to meet up with fellow gang members Jon and Fang, who are working as staff aboard the train (and were the ones to suggest the robbery in the first place). They order dinner at the bar, and Jacuzzi is dismayed when Jon refuses to discuss the robbery on that the passengers might overhear...and that he doubts he'll be able to talk with Jacuzzi in private anytime soon.

Jacuzzi and Nice soon fall into talking with fellow passengers Natalie Beriam, Mary Beriam, Czeslaw Meyer, Isaac Dian, and Miria Harvent. Isaac regales the group with a story of the legendary Rail Tracer, which scares Jacuzzi witless. There's only one way to survive the Rail Tracer's wrath, but Isaac can't remember it - much to Jacuzzi's horror. Jon comments that the Young Conductor should know the ending of the story and Jacuzzi bolts out of the dining car, intending to seek out the Young Conductor in the caboose.

He bumps into into Donny, Nick, and Jack just as they're about to enter the dining car, but does not bother to stop and explain his distress. Upon reaching the conductor's compartment, the three are met with the grisly sight of two brutally mutilated corpses, both of whom are wearing conductor's uniforms. Jacuzzi assumes that the Young Conductor is dead, and that the Rail Tracer murdered him and his colleague.

Nice and Donny join him a minute or two later, and Nice informs Jacuzzi that the 'Black Suits' (the Lemures) capture Nick and Jack along with a couple White Suits. Jacuzzi warns her that the Rail Tracer is here, and that they'd better save Nick and Jack and make a run for it. Machine gun fire sounds off in the distance, and although Jacuzzi's first instinct is to run away, he swallows his fear and determines to do everything he can to force the Lemures and the Rail Tracer off the train.

The three of them head to the freight hold where Nick and Jack are being kept captive. Upon entering, they find Nick tied up and Jack sporting an extremely bloodied face. Nick explains that a White Suit (Ladd Russo) had come in earlier to rescue the two White Suits that had also been captured, and then proceeded to assault Jack before leaving.

Jacuzzi clenches his fists, angry and upset over his friend's injuries. One his way out of the freight hold, he notices that the freight hold's width is too narrow to match the car's length, and that the color of the back wall is slightly different from the floor and ceiling. He realizes that the smuggled explosives must be hidden in the freight hold but decides to keep the realization to himself. In his mind, defeating the Lemures and the Rail Tracer) takes priority.

In the corridor, Nick spots Ladd dancing in front of one of the other freight holds. Jacuzzi advances towards him, intending to ask Ladd why he hurt Jack, but Ladd beats him to the punch and identifies Jacuzzi by name. Jacuzzi's confusion is quickly dispelled when Ladd introduces himself as Ladd Russo, and Ladd announces that his White Suits plan on taking over the train and killing half the passengers. Jacuzzi notices blood oozing out from the freight hold entrance, and Ladd invites Jacuzzi to take a look inside. Jacuzzi ignores Ladd's provocations and declares that he'll make the White Suits pay for what they've done later.

Ladd and his companions are startled when Jacuzzi accuses them of murdering both the conductors, and decide to investigate the conductor's compartment themselves. As the White Suits exit the car, Ladd yells that they weren't responsible for the mess in the freight hold.

Jacuzzi enters the freight hold, the interior of which is drenched in blood. In the middle of the room lies the upper half of a Lemure's corpse - his entire lower body is missing. Nice realizes that there's blood on the ceiling, and tears roll down Jacuzzi's face. There are bloody footprints leading to the the half-open sliding door on the other side of the hold.

Nick spots something strange on the coupling, and Jacuzzi and the others look over to see a red thing scuttling around the train's exterior. The gang steps out onto the coupling, find it gone, and guess that the thing might have crawled up onto the roof. Jacuzzi, Nice, and Nick clamber up onto the roof of the train, leaving Donny to carry Jack through the cars.

The gang reunites at the coupling of the next cars, and once Jacuzzi climbs down he reports to Donny that the roof was totally clear. The group moves back to the front of the train, stopping just short of entering the dining car. Nice peers inside and reports that two armed men are on guard, and that there's no sign of the others she and Jacuzzi had dined with at the bar, including Isaac and Miria.

Over Donny's shoulder, Jack groans that he and and Donny ran into Isaac and Miria earlier - the couple were headed for the conductor's compartment in order to save their friends from the Rail Tracer. Jacuzzi pales at the thought that Isaac and Miria are endangering themselves to save him, and he orders Nice and Nick to climb up onto the roof and crawl to the other end of the dining car. In the meantime, he and Donny will take put Jack somewhere safe before searching for Isaac and Miria. He kisses Nice on the mouth (the first time they have kissed in their ten years of being a couple), and heads for the rear cars with Donny in tow. They drop Jack off in one of the empty Second Class cabins along the way.

Jacuzzi and Donny have a happy reunion with Isaac and Miria in the conductor's compartment, and the four of them move to a freight hold to chat. There, Jacuzzi briefs Isaac and Miria on the situation and his plan to defeat the Lemures and the Rail Tracer. Isaac and Miria are thrilled at the idea of Jacuzzi acting the hero and give him an invigorated pep talk after he declares that he is not a 'good person.'

Eventually Isaac and Miria make to leave, intending to find the Rail Tracer and ask it to go home. They assure Jacuzzi that they'll run away if things go South, and insist that he rescue Natalie Beriam while they distract the Rail Tracer. Both parties promise each other that they all have to come back alive, and Isaac and Miria depart for the conductor's apartment. Jacuzzi and Donny exit in the other direction, and Jacuzzi vows to become the "biggest bad guy" on the train in order to see his plans through. Donny notes that this is the first time he's ever seen Jacuzzi look like he's enjoying himself.

Donny and Jacuzzi head back to the dining car, and on the way capture and and interrogate a rogue Lemure. Once they reach the dining car, Donny promptly knocks out two White Suits at the door while Jacuzzi brandishes a Tommy Gun and hollers that the dining car is now under their control. Soon after, an explosion sounds off a couple cars away. Jacuzzi asks Jon and Fang to take care of the dining car and act according the plan they'd originally worked out in the first place, so that Jacuzzi can go off and search for Nice. Jon notes that Jacuzzi is no longer crying, and asks if he isn't scared. Jacuzzi replies that he's absolutely terrified, but he made a promise to come out of this alive, for one thing, and he has to make sure that Nice survives too.

Jacuzzi takes off, and bursts into a First Class Cabin to find Goose Perkins aiming a gun at Nick's head. Jacuzzi immediately opens fire on Goose while Nick and Nice escape out into the hallway, and joins them a minute later. When they reach the door to the dining car, Jacuzzi orders Nice and Nick to go join Donny in unloading the explosives in the freight hold. Nice gives Jacuzzi her last cherry bomb, and Jacuzzi climbs onto the roof of the dining car.

Goose follows Jacuzzi onto the roof, and Jacuzzi is shocked to see that the other man is wielding a flamethrower. He sprints across the the rooftops and attempts to open fire on Goose at a safe distance away, only to realize that he's run out of ammo and toss the gun aside. Jacuzzi resumes his flight, only to finally stop on the second to last car and turn to face Goose. Just as he realizes that he has nothing to light his cherry bomb with, Isaac, Miria, and Czes soar up and over the roof of the train, clinging onto the end of a long rope. Both Goose and Jacuzzi jump to avoid the rope, and Goose lands on his back.

Goose immediately realizes that the fall damaged the flamethrower when he attempts to shoot flames at Jacuzzi. Seizing his chance, Jacuzzi charges forward and headbutts Goose's face over and over - only for Goose to shoot him with his hand-firing mechanism three times. One shot grazes Jacuzzi's side, and the other two lodge themselves in his thigh. Jacuzzi refuses to cry, and headbutts Goose again.

Goose prepares to fire up the flamethrower once more, and Jacuzzi prepares to use his cherry bomb and sacrifice himself in the process. Both he and Goose are distracted when a mass of red meat swirls past their feet; disgusted, Goose attempts to repel the mass with his flamethrower. Jacuzzi assumes that the red mass is the Rail Tracer, and he flings the cherry bomb over to the spurts of fire that Goose is firing. The explosion sends Goose flying, and he lands in a head at the end of the car. Jacuzzi blocks his way; Goose stabs a knife into Jacuzzi's arm, but Jacuzzi kicks him in the stomach and sends him tumbling off the rooftop.

Jacuzzi collapses at the ensuing explosion, and he is soon joined on the roof by Nice. The two embrace, but Jacuzzi pulls away upon spying a red silhouette toward the front of the train. He assumes that this is the Rail Tracer in human form, and is determined to take it out at the cost of his own life. Quietly, Jacuzzi asks that Nice to never cry no matter how 'painful things might be', snags two of her new grenades, and dashes toward the Rail Tracer. He collides with the figure, and the two roll off the side of the train.

The Rail Tracer - who is actually the conductor Claire Stanfield - flings the grenades away, saving Jacuzzi's life and his own. He returns Jacuzzi to the rooftops, where Jacuzzi tearfully reunites with Nice, Nick and Donny and asks Donny to take him to Doctor Fred in Second Class. It is at this point that Jacuzzi finally notices his own blood, screams, and faints.

Donny and the others take him to Fred's cabin #3, where Fred dresses Jacuzzi's wounds. The Flying Pussyfoot eventually limps into New York's Pennsylvania Station on December 31 at 2:00 PM, two hours late. Jacuzzi and Jack are taken to Fred's Clinic for proper treatment.

1932
A few days after arriving in New York, Jacuzzi makes his way to the Daily Days office in January, using his crutch as support. There, he divulges information on the robbery of the Flying Pussyfoot to Henry.

(To be expanded on)

1933
Jon Panel and Fang Lin-Shan, having been employed by Eve Genoard  as a bartender and cook respectively, ask for her permission to allow a few friends to stay in the Genoard mansion on Millionaire Row while she is away, on the condition that they help maintain the house while she is gone. Eve does not hesitate in saying yes. However, they neglect to say that by a 'few friends' they mean a few dozen.

About twenty members of Jacuzzi's gang move into the Genoard manor, operating in-between the Gandor Family and Martillo Family's turf. Jacuzzi is constantly frightened that the mafia will come find them eventually

One day in September 1933, Jacuzzi breaks a vase while cleaning and bursts into tears. Around him, his gang members scold him for bawling and only Donny and Nice comfort him. The doorbell rings and Jacuzzi hides under the table, whimpering. Nice answers it, and in step a strangely dressed Isaac and Miria. Nice calls her boyfriend out from his hiding place to meet some old friends. Isaac and Miria talk incessantly about how they want revenge on someone called Firo Prochainezo.

The door bell rings for a second time that day, and Jacuzzi is greeted by Tim, Adele, Dallas Genoard and other members of the Larvae, a group formed by Huey Laforet. Like the visitors before them, they are bizarrely dressed and came with an even more bizarre objective. Tim offers Jacuzzi and his gang the chance to become immortals. The Larvae wants Jacuzzi's gang to join them, as they are looking for groups of people not affiliated with the mafia.

Adele uses her spear to stab Dallas' throat as a demonstration. The amateur bootleggers are shocked by the murder that has just happened before their eyes, but even moreso by the sight of Dallas' scattered blood moving on its own accord. Jacuzzi faints at the sight.

Several minutes later, Jacuzzi awakens at Nice's prodding and finds that more people have arrived -- Maria Barcelito, Tick Jefferson, Ronny Schiatto and Ennis, plus Chané from somewhere in the house. Surprised by the increase in numbers, Jacuzzi looks to Nice for an explanation. Ronny asks Jacuzzi whether his people are the enemies of the Martillos or if they will join them. Before Jacuzzi can answer, events unfold and Dallas suffers multiple injuries from Maria after he threatens Tick.

Tim orders Adele to stop Maria and the two battle. Jacuzzi and the gang watch as Maria becomes more injured during the battle despite the fact that she is more skilled and faster than her opponent. As the women fight, Ronny repeats his question to Jacuzzi, who answers that the Martillos and his gang aren't enemies...but that doesn't mean they plan to join the Martillos.

At this, Ronny stops the battle between the two women, teleporting their weapons into his hand in a second. Everyone looks at each other in confusion; Jacuzzi sends Nice a panicked glance as Ronny advances towards them once more. With her Zippo lighter, Nice lights a smoke bomb and throws it into the air. The bomb explodes, and smoke fills the room. Jacuzzi apologizes to Ronny, and says that he will answer him next time when things aren't so scary.

He and his gang scatter into the depths of the large mansion. All the other factions flee from the mansion.

(Rest of 1933 to be added)

1934-1935
(To be added)

Relationships
Nice Holystone - Girlfriend of ten years; he didn't think twice about getting a tattoo so that she could recognize him even with her damaged eyesight.

Isaac and Miria - After meeting the two on the Flying Pussyfoot, they encourage him into taking over the train to prevent the passengers from being killed. In the following years they would stay in contact with him and even visit him in person.

Trivia

 * In one of the NDS game's false endings, it is 'revealed' that Jacuzzi has a brother called Bress Splot, who leads a secret elite organization called Money Dragon in 1931. This is not considered canon, and is generally regarded as an amusing 'twist' if you end up playing your way to that ending in the game.
 * Jacuzzi's age fluctuates in the light novels. In the second light novel, 1931: Local Chapter The Grand Punk Railroad, he is nineteen years old (Nice recalls an incident five years prior, when he was fourteen). However, in the dramatis personae section of the eighth light novel (1934: Prison Episode Alice in Jails) it is written that he is "almost twenty" - which would place him around sixteen to seventeen years of age when he robbed the Flying Pussyfoot.
 * It is unknown whether this was a deliberate retcon on Ryohgo Narita's part, or whether he simply forgot.