Part 119: Following the Trail

The last time we were in Cannes, there was a pair of kids on the beach. Let's go talk to them.

You think? If you train hard every day, you can get this big someday too.



Huh? Somebody even bigger than Joachim, huh. Wow.

Gura: Yup. He was lying on the beach. Me and Guri found him.



Gura: Hey! It's rude to call somebody you never even met before a "bad guy"!

Guri: Yeah, but he's got spikes coming out of his shoulders. Of course he's a bad guy.


Lenny!



Gura: Eeek! He's still alive! Let's take him home. Here, give me a hand!

Guri: Huh? But Mom told us not to bring any more weird things home...

Gura: Don't be dumb! Saving a life is more important than that. C'mon, help me!



A bad guy bigger than Joachim, with spikes coming out of his shoulders...
That's got to be Lenny. No doubt about it.
So he's alive!
So is this bad guy still at your house?

Guri: Nope. He left after he got better. He said he was going north.



North, huh...?

Well, north could be a lot of places, but he probably tried to go back to Rasputin, so let's check out Petrograd.


There's an old lady hanging out by the bridge.

Hey! Don't point your finger at me!



Was this guy up to no good?

Tanarope: Up to no good? Of course not! That man rescued me!


Us? Is he referring to himself and his tapeworm?





Hey! What are you doing to that nice old lady?

Borscht: What, you wanna get yourself hurt too?





Borscht: Yikes! We're sorry, Mister. We didn't mean no harm!


And there he goes.



Tanarope: Thank you, son. You saved me.

I didn't do much. This town is pretty dangerous, eh?

Tanarope: Yes, what with the war and tyranny... And then that thing with Rasputin lately. What will become of Russia...?

I wonder... But about that Rasputin... Do you know what happened to him?

Tanarope: I don't know the whole story, but I hear Princess Anastasia and her attendants defeated him.

Oh, yeah...? I guess that means I'm the last one left...



Do you know where he went after that?

Tanarope: I don't really remember, but I think he said something about going to visit an old acquaintance in France.

France...? Okay, thanks, Granny!


There's a lot of places in France to check, but we want this odd-looking guy in Champs Élysées, Paris.

Nupach: I bet you're here sightseeing? Isn't that nice!

...You're a Steel Claw, aren't you?



Nupach: Whaaat?! How did you know...?

How could we miss it? All we had to do was look at you.
We're not interested in who you really are. What we want to know is whether you've seen Lenny around here lately.

Nupach: Lenny? He left town already... Oops! Never mind. I was just kidding! I haven't seen hide nor hair of Lenny!

Yup. He's a Steel Claw all right, with that kind of brainpower.

Oh, look who's talking.

Look, it slipped out already. No use trying to hide it now.

Nupach: Yeah, yeah. All right. Lenny was... heading for Cannes.

What, back there again? Well, I guess that means we're through here.





Don't know yet.



Nupach: Lenny himself isn't a bad guy. He even saved my life once.









You had a mother back home, didn't you?

Nupach: Yes, sir. She's getting up there in years, so I'm trying to make a little money and help her out.

Yeah? In that case, I've got a special mission for you. Go make a situational report to the Master. Tell him they got away, but that Lenny here is gonna take care of 'em, so not to worry.

Nupach: B-but would it really be right for me to be the only one running away...?





Nupach: Gee, Lenny...



Nupach: Lenny isn't a bad guy! So, please... don't hurt him, okay?

...Yeah, yeah. I got it already.


Back at Cannes, there's a guy on the stairs that wasn't there before.

Yeah. You know where he is?

Cesare: I do, but I'm not going to tell you just like that. If you want to know about Lenny, you've got to have a little arithmetic contest with me first!



Cesare: Okay, here's how it'll go. I'll give you a problem, and you pick from the multiple-choice answers. If you get ten problems right in a row, you win. Ready?


This math quiz works just like the trivia quizzes. It's all simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, so I won't bother listing all the problems.



Now keep up your end of the bargain. Where's Lenny?

Cesare: He headed off to St. Marguerite a little while ago. Said he was going back to the place he got beat at.

The place he got beat at...? I know where he means!

Cesare: Well, I'm sure you'll catch up with him. Why don't you take a minute to listen to an old story of mine? I met Lenny for the first time five years ago...

Wait, let me guess. He rescued a bunch of drowning kittens? Saved some kids in a burning orphanage? Oh, I got it! He rescued a burning kitten and gave it to an orphan!

Cesare: Just shut up and listen to the story, mac.



...What are you doing stealing things, anyway? There ought to be plenty of jobs for a guy your age...

Cesare: My family's poor, and I couldn't go to school. I can't read. I don't know how to do anything but steal!

Last time I checked, "early-20th-century-laborer" didn't require actually being able to read.



School, eh...? Hey, why don't I teach you some arithmetic, then?

Cesare: Arithmetic?

Yeah. There are lots of trades you ought to be able to do with a little math.

Cesare: ...Really? You can really teach me?


S-sure you are, Lenny. Sure you are...



Well, what do you know...? I just can't imagine Lenny teaching anybody math...

Cesare: Lenny used to say that people who were good at math were good people.


Now that we've followed Lenny's trail, we can find him hanging around in Roger's cell at St. Marguerite.





...How ya been?






Yuri walks over to the hole Lenny smashed in the wall.





That's where you're wrong. On the way here, a lot of people said some pretty nice things about you.
Gak! They did?! Big mouths..! ...Still. He he. ...Really? Nice things? About me?
What are you, embarrassed?
Shaddup! ...But, you know, I must've survived for a reason. Maybe I better think about it a little more...
He he. You know, I'm glad I got the chance to see you again.
You leaving, eh?
Yeah.



You got Bike Jacket

Huh? A jacket?
Yeah. I used to wear it back when I was a kid. ...You know, 'cause I caused you a lot of trouble and stuff.
You're giving me your hand-me-down?






And we now have Yuri's Ultimate Armor.


And so Lenny sat in the tower for a while. Then he decided that he wasn't happy without someone to boss him around, so he went and became a butler for those two kids that pulled him out of the ocean. And they all lived happily ever after. _{Or not. I'm a little fuzzy on the details.}