Sarges

Serges (サージェス Sājesu) is a member of the Lemures. In 1931 he commands the Lemur team in charge of negotiations with Senator Manfred Beriam during the incident of the Flying Pussyfoot. Serges' plans go awry thanks to the unexpected arrival of a certain group of youngsters, and he suffers grievous injuries thanks to the twins Gabriel and Juliano.

Appearance
Serges wears the militaristic uniform of the Lemures. He appears to have light-colored hair, tanned skin, and defined cheekbones.

Personality
Serges has no qualms about 'eliminating' those who are an obstacle to his goals. This attitude extends to children—he threatens Cazze with a knife and is fully prepared to gun down the delinquents with a submachine gun when he is in the boat.

He appears to have a negative opinion about the government, snidely referring to select people as "government hounds."

He seems to have a habit of clicking his tongue.

1931 ~ Winter: The Time of the Oasis
On the evening of December 30, 1931 several Lemures watch a group of delinquent youths puttering about by the riverside. When the hooligans drive away with their boats, some of the men whisper amongst themselves about the group, wondering what they're up to this time of night.

The men turn back towards the depths of the forest, and their leader says they ought to go back to the site. The plan will begin in less than two hours. The men begin walking back, and the leader smiles faintly and says that he hope their negotiations will be successful the first time around. He prefers Comrade Goose not having to obliterate a child's head.

In the forest, the Lemur team has set up a camp near the train tracks. The camp consists of a military truck and several passenger vehicles parked near a tent; all of the license plates and other official components have been falsified. One of the Lemures informs Serges that he is concerned—apparently the negotiators have found a potential obstacle. Serges tells him to wait a moment, since a train is currently traveling over the river bridge nearby. After making sure the train crosses the bridge as normal, Serges turns to his subordinate and asks him what the obstacle is. The man informs him that the group of children they saw in the words are now hanging around the bungalows at Point K.

Serges scowls at that, and asks if the man is certain. He is: the two trucks they'd seen earlier are now parked by the bungalows, and the lights were on in one of the shacks. Serges clicks his tongue, muttering "there, of all places..." The underling points out that their negotiating team will pass through the area on the way back; the kids could become potential witnesses to the dealings. Serges asks if they can contact the negotiators, but the man says they can't (they're too far to use the wireless).

The situation is as follows. While one Lemur detachment directly hijacks the train and takes hostages, Serges and the other detachment are to handle the hostage negotiations. At the moment, there is only a little time left before the hijacking begins. The group of five in charge of direct negotiations is supposed to return to Serges' camp one at a time (according to a fixed schedule), each giving their own progress report. The aforementioned bungalow lies by Point K—a path they'd chosen specifically to throw the police off their trail. Expecting perfection, they had assumed witnesses would not be a problem. However—these youths are.

Serges comments that he's not sure they can eliminate so many of them either (he says eliminate like it's nothing). He orders the man to send two Lemures to watch the group. If they don't look like a threat, don't engage. If they prove a problem, the Lemures should "remove any obstacles"—though they should try to minimize gun use. Serges points at the nearest two Lemures and sends them off in the direction of the bungalows.

As they leave, Serges shrouds himself in the night darkness and mutters "eight hours left" and smiles so slightly that no one else can see the change in his expression. He wonders out loud what kind of man Senator Beriam is, and says "let's see what you've got."

Time passes. It is December 31. At some point, Serges looks at his watch and mutters about how the first member of the negotiating team is late. Equally troubling is that there is no sign of the two he'd sent to check out the bungalow. Serges wonders what could be going on; the delinquents didn't look like much trouble, but of course he can't rule out the possibility that they've joined forces with a third party. After considering the matter, Serges checks his watch again and orders two of the men to remain on standby. The rest will accompany him to Point K.

Moving through the woods, the men hear a gunshot in the distance. One of them says to Serges that the shot came from the bungalows, and Serges orders them to hurry. With growing irritation, he picks up his pace, having completely shifted to high alert. Clicking his tongue again, he is displeased at the thought that his men have been killed. He reminds himself that he can't ignore the possibility that the "government hounds" have arrived either.

Reaching the road, three trucks drive by Serges and the Lemures. Serges and his followers hide in the forest at the sound of the engines, and his men quietly talk amongst themselves. One of them thinks the trucks are the delinquent kids, and points out that they don't really seem like dogs of the government. All of them are aware that seeing the delinquents on the move means that the two Lemures had failed their mission. The delinquents don't seem armed, but if they are the Lemures probably don't have enough people to effectively deal with them. Not to mention, they might be in league with state troops or Beriam's people, so the Lemures cannot afford to be careless.

As someone points out that if they don't send off the signal then Beriam's daughter will die, they notice something odd about the last truck. As the noticeably worn out truck passes by, they see one of the two Lemur men propped up against the truck canopy, seemingly asleep. Serges holds back his comrades, and with an icy tone declares that there is no mistake that these people are their enemies. He orders his men to bring them back. Once they figure out who the delinquents are, they'll eliminate them. The group head back to base and find the delinquents in their camp. Serges separates from his men (about five or six total) and creeps toward one of the trucks. A young boy (Carzelio Runorata) clambers down from the vehicle and Serges seizes him from behind, covering his mouth with a hand. As one of his men sounds off a gunshot, Serges moves his left hand to Cazze's neck and presses a knife to Cazze's throat with the other. The other youths turn to look at him.

He coolly informs the group that "playtime is over," and asks them "who the hell are you." Alarmed, a couple of the children chatter to themselves, and one of the older girls (Melody) explains that they'd just come to check out the river. She says that they aren't up to any trouble and that they didn't mean to get in the way of the men's army training, so could he please let Cazze go?

Serges chuckles and asks her to explain why one of their comrades is unconscious in their truck. Melody claims that the truck isn't theirs; the group had found the men lying on the ground, and thought that they should take the pair to a hospital. Serges asks if she really thought that was a convincing lie, and he threatens to shave off Cazze's nose. The delinquent boys shout in disapproval, and Serges cruelly smiles and asks why they're still playing dumb. What kind of idiot would he be to release a hostage just because they asked him to? Of course, since he never required a hostage in the first place, his men might as well shoot the delinquents on the spot.ll here and now.

First, however, Serges demands an explanation for how they disarmed his comrade, remaining confident that the delinquents are hoodlums. With that said, he wonders how they neutralized the reconnaissance pair and maintains concern regarding the first negotiator's failure to return. He decides in the meantime to "finish off" half of the present nuisances, for the presence of a human surplus inhibits thought.

He is about to order his subordinates to take out half the delinquents when he senses that something is off. His smile grows thin as he uncomfortably notices their pale faces, and that they're looking in another direction. One of the delinquents mutters to him, "The one who got who got your friends? Uh...I think...it was probably that."

Serges turns and sees a huge bear standing on its two hind legs, taller than the truck itself. The bear charges forward and knocks out one of the Lemures, and Serges prepares to shout at his subordinates to shoot. He stops when he hears a groan and another engine sound from the forest that chills his heart. While everyone had been focused on the giant grizzly, a man dressed in a tailcoat and biker goggles had taken out two of the Lemures. The man's twin emerges from the forest on a motorbike, roaring out through the trees. Unbeknownst to Serges, these are Cazze's bodyguards Gabriel and Juliano.

Serges uncomprehendingly stutters at the sight, and in the next moment feels an overwhelming pressure on his right wrist. He loses the knife as he is flipped through the air and slammed onto the ground, pain shooting through his body. Above him, Gabriel looks down at him, playing with Serges' own knife. Behind the man stands the boy Cazze, whom Serges had been threatening only three seconds ago.

The twin politely informs his "young master" that this place is dangerous, and tells him to head down to the river. Cazze exclaims his name, and Gabriel smiles kindly at him while Gabriel's twin on the bike rudely asks what the "hell's goin' on here." Cazze exclaims his name too, and the man (Juliano) gets off his bike and bows. Watching the exchange, Serges realizes that all his men have been taken out by the twins and the bear, and what's more he's just lost his hostage. Serges thinks to himself that it's not possible and he wonders what on earth is going on.

Juliano asks if Serges really thought he would accomplish anything by turning the Runorata Family against him. Serges is momentarily confused at the name Runorata, but he pieces the information information together and comes to a wrong conclusion. He accuses Bartolo Runorata of eating out of Senator Beriam's hand, and assumes that the Don ordered the twins to come finish the Lemures off.

He weakly trails off at the bloodlust emanating from the twins. They grow more and more frigid as they converse amongst themselves, outraged that he would dare insult their master Bartolo. One of them concludes that their first priority is to silence Serges so that they never have to hear him insult their master again. At that point, the two Lemures who were unconscious earlier arrive on the scene and order the twins to freeze, pointing their submachine guns at them.

As the twins whisper about what to do, Lana (who'd arrived with Pamela on the scene) pulls out a white smoke grenade from her belongings. Serges and a few of the downed Lemures stand up, and Serges heaps insults on the twins, calling them "a lap dog's lap dogs." Lana hurls the grenade forward and Serges recognizes it as their highly important smoke flare. Before he can finish his thought, the grenade ignites and white smoke fills the area.

He silently exclaims in horror, "W-wait! That one's for when Senator Beriam accepts our demands...!" but it is too late, and the smoke fills the area. The bear and the twins set to work, beating the Lemures black-and-blue. Serges only barely manages to escape, and clambers into a boat on the riverside with blood pouring from his head. He growls that he will kill the others; his mission assigned to him by Goose Perkins has failed, and now all he can think about is revenge. In the distance, Serges can hear the Flying Pussyfoot approaching as the sky lightens, and he thinks that it's all over. His desire for revenge swells even further, and he picks up his submachine gun and points it towards the figures on the bank and the boats a little ways downstream.

A sudden sense of unease pauses his trigger finger, and he notices that almost all of the individuals (including the bear) have stopped moving and are looking his way. Thinking that they're looking at the train, he turns around and sees Chané Laforet leaping off the train and into the river. Serges shouts her name, remembering that Goose had ordered his men to kill her during the hijacking. Normally he would have immediately shot her with the gun, but he moves too late. She falls into the river unharmed. He pauses for a moment, captivated by her beauty. In the next minute, someone raises a heavy wooden box over Serges' head and bashes his head with it. Serges passes out.

In the aftermath of the incident, the police arrive and arrest the Lemures. The men are taken to a police hospital to recover. It is said that Serges' injuries are so severe that it will take a few months to a few years for full recovery.

(It is possible that the twins inflicted further injuries to Serges after he was knocked out, since it is unknown how injured he was when he initially escaped from them).