BEHOLD!

[spotto]

....time for the next part, folks!

This one is shorter than usual but still long compared to my chapter lengths of like...every other story I have ever wrote. C'est La Vie! 

 

PART ELEVEN

 “FOUR SCORES AND SEVEN BEARS AGO…no, that’s not it. Uh, four doors and seven fares ago!? ARGH! WRONG!”

Ako was pleasantly woken up by some sort of rambling from the next door. She yawned and noticed the relatively empty room. She remembered again that she wasn’t sleeping in her regular cell, but was in fact in the infirmary, healing from a broken jaw. Something inflicted by the person sleeping above her. Sitting up, she realized that she had been in the infirmary for some time now. Was it a week, perhaps? Keeping up with the days was rather difficult in a pentitentary, but Ako knew that keeping track was pretty pointless. She stood up and saw the light come into the cell, temporarily blinding her from the sudden addition of light. She heard the shufflings of a redhead on the top bunk.

THUNK!

A loud bang came from the other neighbour, triggering quite a fright in Ako. She wondered what kind of people was housed here, but suddenly felt very fortunate that despite her fear of the gang leader, that she was her cellmate and not the others. There was no clock around, so Ako couldn’t tell exactly what time it was. The sunlight beaming into her cell meant that it certainly wasn’t night, though.

 “You awake?”

Ako was startled from Asakura’s sudden speaking. She turned around, after jumping a few centimetres off the ground, “Uh…h-hi?”

 “…mornin’,” Asakura yawned and swung her legs around so they hung from the top bunk, “It’s around five right now.”

 “How do you know?” Ako asked, raising an eyebrow.

The redhead scratched neck, stretching a little, “I dunno. I kind of got a hang of time after staring at a clock endlessly for two hours…”

 “Ah…” Ako looked back the door, still hearing the wailings or senseless mumblings of people in the area.

 “The crackpots are as loud as ever today,” Asakura said, crossing her arms, “Something interesting must be going on.”

Ako tilted her head in an ever-cute manner, “Crackpots?”

 “Infirmary’s pretty much the same place as the psychiatry ward,” Asakura explained, “Pretty idiotic.”

A familiar voice came from next door, where the bang had occurred, startling Ako once again. She started missing her old cell, and don’t even talk about how much she misses her own house, but unfortunately that was not a reachable destination at the moment, “Papa? I hear you! Are you theeeere!?”

 “Don’t call me Papa…” Asakura said, “What the hell do you want?”

 “What is someone like you doing here!? Papas don’t land in sickbeds! That means they’re weak! Teehee!”

 “Uh huh,” Asakura seemed to not care.

Ako’s heart started thumping faster than ever. Was this person really her? The girl she may actually feel comfortable around? Was she really next door, only a few feet away from her? This, she had to know, “…uh, excuse me?”

 “Oooh! You sound like someone I know! Are you with Papa over there!?”

 “What did I say about calling me Papa?”

Ako nodded, but then realized she couldn’t be seen, “Uh, yeah. I’m with her.”

 “Oh cool! Papa’s sometimes scary, I hope you’re A-OK!”

Ako knew all too well that this person was talking about. She smiled and decided to pop the question, “Uh, are you Makie?”

 “Woah! How did you know my name!?”

 “It’s m-me! Ako! You know, scared of blood, the nurse!”

 

Makie thought for a moment, staring at odd places trying to bring her memory back up, “Are you suuuure? Last time I saw Ako-chan, she wasn’t in jail! Ako-chan is not bad…in fact, she’s the opposite!”

 “Uh yeah, about that…”

 “Kid thinks she’s innocent,” Asakura interrupted.

Makie perked up, “Yuu-chan does!?”

 “Oh yeah.” Asakura started to massage her left shoulder, “Jumps to conclusions too much, she does…”

Ako scratched the back of her head, feeling somewhat nervous to finally be talking to a friend she had missed so much, “So Makie…what are you doing here…?”

 “Before I tell you ANYTHING, I want to know if you’re reeeeeeeally Ako-chan! So, I want you to answer a question only my dear friend Ako could know!” Makie perked up, “Hmmm, what might that question be! OH! OF COURSE! What do you find at the end of a rainbow!?”

Ako was blank, not exactly remembering what that had to do with her or Makie, but she ended up guessing just to test her luck, “Uh, little green people?”

 “OH EMM EFF GEE! YOU ARE AKO-CHAN!!!! Hey, hey, hey, remember when we blew up my brother’s little toy car!?”

 “Yeah…I fainted. Also, that wasn’t very nice.”

Makie laughed, “Aw c’mon, I know you liked it. Besides he got a new car the other day, and never played with that one. The explosion was pretty, and you knew it Ako-chan!”

 “I guess it was nice…”

They both heard footsteps outside, approaching slowly to their cell. Ako tried to peek out of the window but didn’t dare want to walk towards the door. She could make out quite a few people hanging around outside and prayed that it wasn’t another interrogation. Asakura on the other hand boldly stepped up to the door glaring at the people outside.

She crossed her arms, “What do you want?”

 “We’re taking you back to general population. We think you’ve been hanging around here long enough. You’re all healed up better now, ain’t ya?” One of them said, fiddling with the handcuffs on his belt.

Ako reluctantly asked, “Uhm…when’s…w-when’s…lockdown over…?”

 “When we convict the people responsible of course,” They eyed them closely, with cold and shrill looks, signalling that they had locked them on as those responsible. Ako sighed, knowing that she wouldn’t be out in the sun for a while.

Captain Tatsumiya, who had since joined the other officers, said, “Which we have, so lockdown should be over in a day or two.”

 “Eh…? What?”

 “Turns out you were framed,” She said, checking the folders she was holding, “It was Iincho who issued the order to arrest you actually. She has a bias against you, it seems.”

The officer looked at Asakura with a frown, “And you are still going to be charged for assault on inmate Izumi there.”

 “Whatever. Can we skip court?” The gang leader replied, without much concern. Ako was slightly surprised from such statement.

 “Now why would we skip court?”

The redhead explained, “It’ll save you money and time. I can plead guilty right here right now, but if court happens, I’m going to plead not guilty for fun just to waste your time.” She grinned, noticing the annoyed looks of the officers. Captain Tatsumiya nodded.

One of the officers started signalling to the tower to open the door, “You’re still going to the hole.”

 “Am I?” Asakura smirked, her eyebrow raised just slightly, but Ako noticed a nervous look in the officer’s eye, “Uh…I mean you’re going back to general population.”

Ako widened her eyes. She did not expect the gang leader to even intimidate an officer. She knew, from the rambles of Chisame, Yuuna, and the girl named ‘Paru’, that being a leader was tough. The reputation of the entire gang leans on the leader, and if the leader did not do the job properly, she’d be overthrown, or worse, the entire gang killed for hanging onto an incompetent leader. It certainly was a dangerous role to be in, and it also made sense that recently leaders had been biting the dust. She put her hand onto her jaw, feeling some sort of symbolic hold growing onto her. The door latch opened, and quickly about five or six officers took a hold on Asakura. The gang leader was handled with extreme security.

 “Turn around Izumi, now.”

She faced her back to the officers, staring out the window has she heard struggles behind her. There were grunts and growls, but eventually the shuffling died down.

 “You don’t have to grab my head,” Asakura was heard.

Another officer approached Ako and cuffed her from the back. She slowly took the inmate from the cell, “You alright?”

 “Officer Oukouchi?” Ako turned her head to see the humble officer.

 “Yeah. I was a little worried when I found out you were in the same cell with Asakura.”

Ako looked on as the six officers tried to stop the redhead from shuffling, “…I can understand that.”

Finally, the officers managed to get the redhead onto the floor, and cuffed her hands and put leg irons on her ankles. She was dragged off the ground rather roughly, and pulled out the cell. Ako could see a glimpse of pink in the neighbour’s door and smiled. That door also slowly slid open as some officers escorted the inmate out. Ako could already feel her eyes dampening when she saw Makie stepping out of the cell.

 “M-Makie…”

 “Ako!” Makie yelled, with a grin spreading across her face. Ako suddenly felt a click behind her, and noticed her arms weren’t locked in the handcuffed position. She immediately hugged her childhood friend.

Ako was stuttering, crying, and just incredibly relieved, “I-I missed you so m-much…I’m s-so glad…that t-there’s someone in h-here I k-know…”

Makie smiled gracefully, “I’m glad you’re okay. Papa’s kind of mean.”

They heard a cough from the redhead who was standing behind them, “Hey, I did nothing to her while in there.”

 “I heard you broke her jaw. That was mean, Papa!”

 “It’s justified.”

 “It was not justified! You don’t break people’s jaws for no reason!”

 “No, there was a reason.”

 “Must’ve been a big fat silly reason then! You should be punished, Papa!”

 “By who? The cops you wish were dead?”

 “I don’t want them all to be dead, just the mean ones!”

 “They technically are punishing me. I’ll probably get a year for that.”

 “But you don’t care about that!”

 “Yeah, I don’t.”

 “Then it isn’t punishment!”

As they were escorted out the infirmary and towards the regular cells westward from there, Ako continued to listen to her friend and the gang leader trade words with each other. She was amazed that Makie did not seem one bit afraid of Asakura, while Asakura wasn’t doing anything harmful back. She stayed quiet along the way, watching the building she was walking towards get bigger and bigger. The entire area looked depressing from the grey clouds and the light rain. She looked down at the ground instead.

Asakura eventually broke it up, noticing the quiet inmate, “Hey, you.”

 “…uh…huh?” Ako looked up, not looking forward to whatever the redhead had to say.

 “Your jaw okay?”

Ako moved her mouth around, “It’s fine.”

 “What about the teeth I knocked out?” She cracked a smile.

 “It’s fine. They weren’t important teeth.”

Asakura breathed in deeply, turning her head back to stare straight ahead, “This isn’t an apology, but I wasn’t very comfortable with knocking your jaw around.”

 “Oh…”

 “I could do that with someone else, but for some reason, not you. There’s something about you, like your eyes of an untainted child, that actually make me think about the things I do,” Asakura explained, “You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?”

Ako looked back up, staring at the girl beside her in surprise, “Uh…n-no…I’m not uhm…scared of y-you or anything…”

 “I know you’re afraid of me. Every time you speak to me it’s lingering in your voice, your tone,” Asakura continued, “Look, I may smack people around at times, but believe me I will never go as far as smacking them lifeless. That’s just not me.”

The inmate was then intrigued, “W-…what do you mean?

 “I’m usually not concerned with what people think of me, but you’re different. Yuuna’s insanely protective of you…I’m just saying if you feel like you’re going to die around here, it won’t be by my hands,” Asakura said, “Of course, I do in fact believe in natural selection.”

Ako raised an eyebrow, her mind flashing back to tenth year Science class, “N-natural selection…like in animals adapting?”

 “Yeah, particularly humans.”

 “Wait…what do you…?”

Asakura chuckled, “That some people don’t deserve to live. I’m just not stupid enough to choose who does. Those who do, well…I have no respect for them. What I do instead is make someone’s life a living hell, and if they can’t take it, then they don’t deserve to live, but instead of ending their misery, I let them rot into nothing. In a way I guess it’s eviller, but if people can’t take care of themselves then they’re just a burden to society.”

Ako’s eyes widened as she gulped. There was a reason why such a person was in prison after all, and not all of them would be as nice as Yuuna or Makie, though the thought that Makie wanted some people dead didn’t fare well for Ako either, but she brushed it pass anyway. Even she didn’t really want an officer like Officer Iincho around, though she wouldn’t rid of her in such an extreme method.

 “And if you were a little older Ako, you’d be in the category of ‘people who don’t deserve to live’. That’s why I’ve decided to let you try out for the gang, that way I have an excuse not to punch you, and the people around you will help you take care of yourself. What do you say?” Asakura asked, which surprised Ako even more.

Ako paused, wondering how to answer. She knew of the benefits of joining a gang, but something inside her told her not to jump to conclusions so fast, “I’m not sure…”

 “Well, I’ll give you a few days to decide then.”

 Makie perked up, “What about Yuuna, Papa?”

 “What about the Kiddo?”

 “When you said you had no respect for people like that…like Yuuna…So you don’t like her?” Makie turned her head slightly, expecting quite an answer.

Asakura shrugged, “Eh, Yuuna’s different. She did what she did in anger, not because she was planning to do it for the purpose of natural selection…”

 “Wait…what are you talking about?” Ako asked.

Officer Oukouchi suddenly broke into the conversation, “Didn’t Yuuna tell you why she’s in here?”

 “…yeah, she shot someone…ten years, right?”

 

There was a silence, and they all stopped walking. Ako, wondering why, looked around. Their faces were hard to distinguish of what expression they had, but Ako felt that she might’ve said the wrong thing. She turned her head, and looking at Makie, Asakura, and Officer Oukouchi. Ako didn’t know why they had stopped, and they were almost in front of the door to the other building too.

 “What…was it something I said?” Ako asked.

Officer Oukouchi sighed, “…Yuuna didn’t tell you the truth…at least, not the complete truth. I guess it’s understandable, but…”

 “…wait, what? What did she not tell me?”

As an officer unlocked the cage gate into the building, Asakura frowned, “I guess you’ll have to find that out yourself. No wonder you were so attached to her.”

Makie grinned, trying to sway the topic, “Ahh! It’s so nice to be back here and not back there! I can’t believe I hurt my ankle in the scary hole!”

 “What did you do? Smack your leg against the wall repeatedly?” Asakura asked, half-smiling.

Makie shook her head, “Of course not! That would be silly and stupid and silly! And I know I’m a little bit dumb, but I wouldn’t do something like that! Hehe. I was trying to do gymnastics.”

 “Doing that was stupid as well.”

 “Well I missed doing it outside, but I wasn’t allowed outside except for the one hour inside those sad cages. Even those are too small to do it in, so…” She frowned.

They entered the building and walked for a while in a silence once again. Finally, they reached block 3-A, and Ako saw Makie being escorted to the cell across from her’s. After everybody else entered their cells, Ako finally did herself. She did not see a very happy Yuuna inside.

Yuuna clenched her fists, “I heard what happened.”

 “Er…uh…I’m okay now Yuuna…there’s nothing to be worried about,” Ako said, stepping back slightly.

 “No, you’re not okay. No one can be okay after that,” She growled a bit, “If you need comforting I’m right here. I’ll make sure she pays for what she did.”

Ako shook her head, feeling uncomfortable around Yuuna, which was rare, “No, it’s okay. Everything is fine…You don’t need to start a feud or anything…”

 “OF COURSE I DO!” Yuuna snapped, “Don’t you reassure me for something you’re obviously still in pain from! What she did was unforgivable! Unimaginable even, and that is something I must solve with my own two hands!”

Ako frowned, “Yuuna…please. I’m really alright…”

 “You think you can be alright after what that sick son of a bitch did to you? YOU THINK YOU CAN BE ALRIGHT AFTER BEING TREATED LIKE THAT!?” Yuuna was breathing heavily now, frightening her poor cellmate.

 “S-sick…? But all she did was…”

Yuuna finished for her, “All she did was violate you! And that’s a MAJOR thing Ako! I can’t believe you’re not crying down to tears for this! She did things that I cannot even speak of! She did such indescribable things that…that…”

 “What…? What are you talking about…!?”

 “I will make sure I get Asakura’s HEAD for raping you, Ako!”

 

A huge burst of laughter came from the neighbour cell. Chisame was heard falling from a chair and cackling like there was no tomorrow. There was pounding that was heard from that cell as well, most likely Chisame smashing the ground in uncontrollable laughter. Yuuna whipped her head towards the laughter’s direction, confused yet still upset.

 “Oh my GOD! HAHAHAHAHAHA! I can’t believe you fell for it you stupid gullible girl! HAHAHAHAAHHAHAA! Oh god, someone please stop me from laughing!”

POW!

 “Ow! Why the fuck did you do that, Asakura!?” Chisame suddenly said, as her laughing had ceased.

Asakura replied, “Well you asked someone to stop you, didn’t you?”

Yuuna sighed, “Oh, so she didn’t do that…well…damn…sorry for accusing you, Asakura…”

 “Oh, you shouldn’t apologize. I didn’t leave her untouched either,” the redhead said, feeling somewhat amused from this incident.

Yuuna jumped up, banging the wall that separated the two cells, “WHAT!? WHAT DID YOU DO TO AKO!? WHAT HAPPENED TO PROTECTING HER!?”

Asakura explained, “I said I’d ‘protect’ her until you came back from the hole, which you did, so I was free to do what I wanted to her. Besides, it wasn’t that much, even Ako seems to have forgiven me, haven’t you?”

 “Uhm…you didn’t apologize though…”

 “Pfft, who apologizes in this hellhole?” Asakura scoffed, “But you don’t seem to be too bothered by it.”

Yuuna growled, while shaking her fist, “I’m not trusting you with her again. I thought I knew you…”

 “No, you went ahead and assumed I was an awesome person because you admired me,” Asakura said, “Don’t be an idiot like that. I’m not a ‘good’ person, you know.”

Yuuna narrowed her eyes, “Yeah, you’re not exactly an angel…more like…a double agent…”

Ako rubbed her chin, “It’s all healed now anyway…can you drop it?”

 “She hurt your mouth?” Yuuna asked.

 “She uh…broke my jaw.”

Yuuna widened her eyes in surprise, “WHAT!?”

She turned around to face the wall and pounded it like an idiot who locked themselves out of the house, “YOU DID WHAT TO AKO YOU STUPID LITTLE…”

 “Yuuna! Calm down!”

 “Oh c’mon, she got a free surgery and some wicked cool metal plates in her jaw now. It’s better than ever,” Asakura said.

Yuuna shook her head, “But you gave her pain, and made her bleed…”

 “A small sacrifice.”

 “A small sacrifice!? ARE YOU INSANE!?”

 “I recall you being taken to the psychiatry ward recently, not me.”

 

The arguing continued, and Ako sighed. She headed towards the top bunk and felt like napping. She then turned her head back to her cellmate and remembered something. Curiously, she decided to break the argument, “Uhm, Yuuna?”

 “No! The axis of the rifle core is turned to the left! THE LEFT! Oh, what is it Ako?”

Ako rubbed her shoulder, trying to find a way for words, “Uh…when you told me why you were in here…were you telling…the truth?”

 “Well…I don’t like talking about it much. I don’t think I really told you much about it, after all.”

Ako breathed in, “That doesn’t really answer the question, Yuuna…”

 “I don’t have to answer the question…” Yuuna replied quietly, turning her head.

The door of the cell started to slide open and there stood a few shadows of what the inmates supposed were the cops. Yuuna took a deep breath as she saw the authority the hands contained just edging into her cell. She narrowed her eyes and swayed to the left, squeezing by the officer and walking steadfastly towards the yard.

The officer quickly yelled, “Hey! We’re supposed to escort you! Get back here!”

 “Doesn’t really matter, the other guys will get her out there without trouble. C’mon you,” the other one said, pulling Ako out from the cell slowly, “Finally back t’the yard!”

Ako looked on towards the direction that Yuuna disappeared into. She sighed, easily sensing the urgency that Yuuna had in her voice when she ran off. It certainly felt like Yuuna was avoiding her right now. What could that girl possibly be so secretive about that she’d even had to run from a harmless girl like her? Ako felt that what it was, it certainly seemed bleak… 

END OF PART ELEVEN
Indeed.