Baccano! 1931 The Grand Punk Railroad volume 2

'Baccano! 1931 The Grand Punk Railroad vol. 2' is the second volume of the 2006 Baccano! manga adaptation, written by Ryohgo Narita and illustrated by Shijin Ginyū. It collects the latter eight chapters (referred to as chapters two through eight plus the final chapter) and was published on April 26, 2008 by MediaWorks. It has 224 pages.

It follows the beginning of the chaos on the Flying Pussyfoot and then presents an alternate series of events in which Jacques-Rosé Boronial does not board the train (which is closer to the rest of the canon).

Synopsis
Following John's indication that the young conductor knows how to stop the Rail Tracer, Jacuzzi bolts out of the dining car towards the caboose, past Donny, Jack, and Nick. Nice follows after him and sends Nick back into the dining car. Meanwhile, Ladd Russo bemoans his bad luck: Vicky, not he, won the lot to start the assault on the dining car. However, he cheers up when Lua suggests that he can go watch what Vicky does to the dining car. He leaves their cabin to do so, recognizing Jacuzzi when the boy slams into him. In first class, Goose announces the Lemures' intention to sacrifice the train to save Huey. Vicky eyes the passengers in the dining car, wondering whom he should attack first. He is sorely tempted by Mary Beriam. He, Nick, and a handful of Lemures draw weapons on the dining car.

As the passengers in the dining car panic, Nick realizes that his knife is outclassed by Vicky's handgun and the Lemures' machine guns and withdraws. Jacques-Rosé gets between Vicky and the black suits, asking if they're the ones making the train smell like blood and offering to be their opponent. His noble speech is cut short when the Lemures start shooting and Vicky uses him as a shield. He falls to the floor and Vicky mocks him, saying that Vicky might have managed to live a good life if he'd met a hero like Jacques-Rosé earlier. Ladd rushes in just in time to see a second team of Lemures kill Vicky.

Not particularly troubled, Ladd then proceeds to brutally kill the Lemures in the dining car. He informs Natalie Beriam that he'll come back for her and her daughter once he's taken care of all the men in black suits and then heads out. With all the killers gone, the passengers in the dining car begin to openly panic. Among them, first class passenger Turner spews racist insults at John and Fan. Isaac and Miria stand up for John and Fan, and Turner is ejected into the second class cars. Meanwhile, Jacuzzi makes it to the caboose, only to discover that a bloodbath has occurred there. He concludes that the Rail Tracer has already reached the train.

As the white suits decide that they get to kill a few black suits each, Goose decides to regard the presence of other hijackers on the train as a sort of trial. Elsewhere, a team of Lemures captures Jack, Nick, Lua, and Who. Natalie sends Mary off to hide with Czes, though Czes is hoping to use Ladd to his own advantage. Isaac and Miria also leave the dining car in the hope of finding and rescuing Jacuzzi and Nice. Just after they leave, Jacques-Rosé sits up; the turtle figurine Rosetta gave him stopped the bullet from reaching his heart! He, too, leaves the dining car, determined to vanquish the evil aboard the train. Just after he leaves the car, Goose enters and addresses Natalie.

Czes hides Mary in a closet and keeps exploring the train, but Natalie tells Goose that the white suits took Mary away. After learning that a woman in fatigues escaped the dining car when the shooting began, Goose brings Natalie to their first class car. Ladd encounters the man dressed all in gray and after a brief conversation allows him to hide in the white suits' second-class cabin; the man's willingness to die puts Ladd off. Meanwhile, the Rail Tracer begins picking off the black suits, including the ones watching over their hostages in a baggage car.

Hearing that someone is hunting the black suits, Chane leaves the Lemures' first-class car, and Goose encourages Spike to let her be; she won't live past tomorrow anyway. Nice and Donny catch up to Jacuzzi in the caboose and summarize what's happening on the train, to Jacuzzi's alarm. Meanwhile, Ladd appears in the baggage car where Nick, Jack, Lua, and Who are still tied up despite the black suits who were watching them having been killed. Ladd frees Lua and Who but leaves Nick tied and punches Jack in order to test his theory that all people named Jack are good boxers. Elsewhere, Isaac and Miria are very scared as they wander through the train, and when someone approaches them, they think it's the Rail Tracer--but instead it's Jacques-Rosé, who shows off how the turtle figurine stopped the bullet and saved his life. He offers to go ahead and recon the train. On the way, he passes by Czes, who is alarmed to see him alive.

As the Rail Tracer continues to terrorize the train, killing off more black suits and encountering Rachel, Jacuzzi resolves to kill the Rail Tracer and the black suits to save the train. Mary, on the other hand, is found by a white suit, only for Chane to kill the white suit and take Mary hostage. Jacques-Rosé comes across the Rail Tracer committing one of his brutal murders. The Rail Tracer takes no interest in Jacques-Rosé, but when Jacques-Rosé realizes the possibility that Isaac and Miria might come this way, he hurries back to warn them of the danger. On the way, he encounters Czes; but though he is relieved to find Czes alive, Czes stabs him and accuses him of being an Immortal.

As Jacques-Rosé falls to the floor, baffled by Czes's attack, he hears someone calling his name, only to wake up and fall out of bed with Rosetta leaning over him. While he tries to explain what just happened, Rosetta throws his coat at him and tells him to hurry up or he'll miss the Flying Pussyfoot. Confused, he lets her drive him to the station, but balks when he sees the people from his "dream" boarding the train. He elects not to board, deciding to leave the train in the hands of the Rail Tracer. As the two of them turn to leave, though, they become embroiled in a conflict between Neider Schasschule and some members of the Russo Family. Jacques-Rosé leaps in to defend Neider, and Rosetta is forced to teleport the gun out of a Russo goon's hands to save his life. Failing to notice that, Jacques-Rosé continues to fight, in the process reminding Neider of a childhood promise he made to become a hero. Neider shoots a Russo goon to defend Jacques-Rosé and the conflict ends. Jacques-Rosé and Rosetta decide to head over to Dolce, and the train departs.

Trivia

 * According to a bonus comic at the end of the second volume, Jacques-Rosé's name was originally supposed to be Jack-Rosé (ジャックローゼ). However, because the character Jack also appears in this manga, Ginyū resisted this idea and elected to make his name Jacques-Rosé instead.
 * Jacques-Rosé's conversation with Rosetta about his decision not to board the Flying Pussyfoot also appears in 1931: Another Junk Railroad - Special Express Episode. However, while the conversation overheard there fulfills the same narrative role as the conversation in the manga, the actual content of the lines do not match.