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Sometimes, when they’re sitting together in front of the fire, both a little buzzed on the high-quality sake the Higashikatas used some of the Steel Ball Run money to buy, Johnny will slip back into his strange native accent and offer to tell the story of Gyro Zeppeli.
Rina knows it’s not a choice, that she’ll be subjected to the tale whether she invites it to be told or not, but always opts to let it out rather than tell Johnny no.
She longs to someday break it to him that yes, she knows the story. You’ve told it a thousand times, and besides, she was there. She met her father at the end of each stage by train and kept up with the race’s news religiously. Who didn’t know of Gyro’s many controversies in the racing world back then?
But no.
Deep in her heart, Rina Higashikata knows that she will never say that.
She’ill simply nod and coax Johnny into leaning back on her chest because even though he’s told the story many times, only she seems to know that it’ll be a long ride for him, both figuratively and literally.
He never makes it through the end without breaking out into tears.
However, he always does make it to the end. The epic tale of Gyro Zeppeli must be told only in its entirety, of course, and though it so visibly pains Johnny to recall, he’ll continue to tell it anyway.
Rina is unsure whether she should be proud of his persistence or pitiful in the face of his sorrow.
Nevertheless, it always begins with the fire roaring. Rina will be sitting on the floor leaning up against the couch with Johnny laying against her breast. She’ll take off his hat and use her fingers to comb through the neglected hair there, knowing exactly what’s to come.
“It all started that day on the San Diego beach. He made a guy shoot himself and then left me hanging from a roof. But it was for my own good, yeah? And when I ended up next to him at the starting line, the bastard grinned at me! With his stupid gold teeth! Can you believe that?”
Rina can, in fact, believe that, so she nods her assent.
“And then we run and run and he fuckin’ takes that shortcut and somehow we make it out of that alive and he still doesn’t win! It was his fault, though, so I really can’t blame the guy, but he got mad and it was really funny!”
From there, Johnny will become more and more animated, showing this intensity in both his voice and the arm movements he does in the air above him. He recounts countless battles starring many interesting villains. Rina is never sure whether he exaggerates these parts for effect, with all these magic elements that couldn’t possibly have really happened, but there’s a certain look she sees in Slow Dancer’s eyes that suggests maybe they really did occur.
In between these battles were moments that provided important backstory, such as Gyro’s true reason for entering the race or how he explained the mummified arm Johnny found in the iron sand that day.
For each of the fights, he will focus specifically on what Gyro did or what Gyro said. Whenever Johnny’s skill comes into play, he immediately switches to Gyro’s advice or reaction at that point.
Sure, some small details of these encounters will vary, but there are the occasional battles that Rina can almost recount by heart, like the one where Johnny talks about that rectangle. He always traces the same spirals on the wood of the ceiling, telling how Gyro told him no four whole times before showing him how to unlock the true power of the shape.
It’s almost charming how he goes on into the beginning of winter and Gyro’s lack of experience and intrigue with the heavy snow, their pace growing slower as the horses trudged through many inches of it for days on end.
And here it is.
The point where the tears always start to form in Johnny’s eyes.
Every damn time.
It’s that part about how Gyro was about to become part of a tree due to some girl living in it and how they lost everything that day.
Even the mere memory is enough to bring Johnny to tears, and Rina almost doesn’t want to try to imagine just how much he cried during the real event.
The tears nearly subside after he’s done recounting that chapter of their lives, and he continues on with the story.
During the next part, Johnny is a little shaky on what really happened. He mentions that they were separated then and states every action Gyro takes like it’s a hypothetical.
“He was probably looking for me.”
“The steel ball ended that one in a snap, or so he said.”
This adds an unsure air to the story, as Johnny’s voice wavers and he’ll turn to more interpretation as he tries to focus the story on Gyro and not himself. The whole tale carries the theme of Gyro being the real main character of Johnny’s life, and Johnny still never quite got over the novel’s end.
Poor boy.
But then the two are reunited and the story starts making sense again. Johnny mentions them chasing a train and exchanging secrets, and to this day, he has not let the content of the Italian’s secret spill.
There’s an epic fight with the president of the United States of all people, and then Johnny begins to cry again as he recalls how Gyro does the unforgivable: he fails.
“And he says to me ‘Here’s lesson five, Johnny,’ and he just falls. Right off the horse. And he gets sucked up by the ocean and I know he’s dead and he’s just gone and Valentine looks at me all like ‘What you gonna do about it, shithead?’ and I don’t. . . I don’t know.”
Johnny takes a deep breath, trying to speak through the sobs.
“But that kid he wanted to save got amnesty anyway, yeah? And I think about that a lot because that means he didn’t fucking have to enter the race anyway. He didn’t have to run into me and fuck everything in his life up and. . . he didn’t have to die.”
The story always ends there.
Johnny will be curled up against Rina, tears silently soaking into her dress. His labored breathing will only be partially concealed by the sounds of the fire, as by now it’s retreating back into the charred logs as if the tale moved even nature’s elements, somehow.
All Rina can do then is to whisper comforting words into Johnny’s ear and hope that he can be coerced into moving to the bedroom before he falls asleep, as that scarred spot on his spine will ache the next day if he lays on the hardwood floor instead.
Pains like that are obvious, even if he doesn’t say anything.
Rina worries about Johnny.
Not just because of these episodes, but of his constant doubting of himself; of his abilities.
Of the way he still holds on to the past.
He seemed so sure of himself that day on the boat when they first met, but since then the front hasn’t really kept up. This is awfully apparent in that stack of newspaper cutouts from the race that he keeps in the drawer of his nightstand and takes out sometimes to look at the various photos of Gyro.
(The papers themselves were originally Rina’s, but she let Johnny keep the parts about Gyro and the rest went to be framed back in the Higashikata house.)
Though, it does give Rina some pride that Johnny feels comfortable enough to confess these things to her. She has somehow passed his gates and though they hold no glory to revel in, she revels all the same. She loves Johnny, and he has let her in enough to show her at least some of that affection back.
And somewhere, deep in her heart, maybe, just maybe, Rina Higashikata is glad Gyro Zeppeli is dead.
She’ll look at the ring on her finger and sigh to herself.
If that man had lived to see the finish line, she wouldn’t have a chance.