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spottoHoi.
PART SIXTEEN
Kanto Regional Penitentiary is a prison made for the truly dangerous. Only those with a violent history would be here, and here they would stay. There is little effort in this institution to rehabilitate, but instead to solely punish. It is a unique prison, with one side filled with males, and the other side filled with females. The people that worked in such a dangerous place are endangered everyday with their few numbers. It is such an understaffed job that if one side of the prison rioted, the entire staff would rush towards that area to cease the violence, but that left half of the population free to run rampant. This glaring weakness is known by the inmates as well, and that’s how the riot began.
The idea was conjured up by one of the more notorious inmates of the prison. She is quite the individual: intelligent, powerful, influential, and a leader. It is even rumoured around the prison that she had once caused a revolution all from her very own hands. She is locked up in such a depressing and sinister place with her long list of crimes. Indeed, this terrorist would not see the light of freedom again, but some say she already enjoyed freedom even inside the prison. That is how powerful she is…
Ako awoke with a vivid memory still swimming around in her mind. Both Yuuna and Officer Oukouchi had detailed her about the most powerful and well-respected inmate in the entire prison, at least on their side. Even the officers respected her, as she had such a charming personality, but everyone knew how threatening her existence was. No one ever questioned this girl’s actions, and some even wondered how she never bothered to escape. Everyone knew she had the potential to break herself out if she wanted to, but she never did. Perhaps because she had a plan to break everyone out. The strange thing was that both of them did not mention her name. Ako yawned as she got up from her bed, which she created with several pillows and two futons on top of one another. It was as comfortable as Ako could make it, since there wasn’t much to use inside a prison.
The inmate headed towards the yard, where she heard quite the commotion. She opened the door freely and enjoyed some free will, but she knew that what was happening at the moment was not going to give her free will forever. Maybe something good would come out of this, Ako did not know.
She walked outside onto the yard and saw a massacre.
“Ako!” Yuuna started to run towards her. She looked unscathed.
“What happened here?” Ako asked, rather curious.
Yuuna wiped some sweat off her forehead, “Oh, everyone’s tired and asleep.”
“…what?”
“Yeah I know it looks like a massacre. They’re practicing. If them cops bust in here to retake the prison we have a backup plan of looking dead. Then we catch ‘em off guard and swoosh! More hostages!” Yuuna flung her arms to illustrate her ‘swoosh’.
Ako frowned, “That’s a good thing?”
“Well…we wouldn’t be recaptured. I think not being recaptured is a good thing.”
“I don’t know. I just feel a little…scared, I guess. What if they rush in here with guns and shoot us all?” Ako started to twiddle her fingers in anxiety, “I don’t think they really care about us that much anyway.”
Yuuna assured her cellmate, “Don’t worry, that’s what the hostages are for. They ain’t going to come in here so recklessly if we have lives they do care about.”
“I’m not so big on the hostages thing either…”
“You got to live with it Ako. If we release them all they’re going to shoot us all up, which you don’t want, do you?” Yuuna said, “Akira’s going to kill me for sure…I just feel guilty about not letting her free earlier, but…”
Ako shook her head, “I know that, but I wish all of this just didn’t happen…”
“So, we should let the cops run all over us for the rest of our lives?”
“No, but I wish there was another way…” Ako sighed, “I’m just…I don’t like this…that’s all. I don’t like being…the bad guy…”
Yuuna crossed her arms, “I think they’re the ones who are the bad guys. Sure, we got a lot on our record that makes us bad guys in the past, but what we’re doing now is trying to get a little leeway back we had before ‘cause throwing us in a makeshift arena and forcing us to kill each other is not what I call something a good guy should be doing.”
“Yeah, but taking hostages isn’t what a good guy should be doing either.” Ako turned around and started to walk back inside, feeling some sort of uncertainty trekking around in her stomach. She stopped as she heard the cops outside start to yell.
“PLEASE RELEASE THE HOSTAGES AND STAND DOWN THIS INSTANT!”
She saw one inmate standing on the roof of a tower, holding a megaphone, “Do you fine gentlemen wish to negotiate, ne?”
There was a pause, and finally a reply, “Yes we do. It is of your best interest to release those hostages unharmed and to peacefully surrender to us. We have the entire prison surrounded by the police force, the S.W.A.T., and even a few troops from the army.”
“I do hope you remember that we hold the cards here,” the inmate started, “If you try to pull something risky we are not going to hesitate to eliminate those innocent people we’re holding in here. Now, are you willing to listen to what I have to say, ne?”
“…yes.”
The inmate smiled, “I thought you would cooperate. First of all this is a prison-wide rebellion. It’s not just me or a few of us ‘crazy’ convicts as you like to call us, but all of us. So I do hope you realize how dire this situation is.”
“I believe we do. What are your demands?”
“Now then, I just want to ask if you have ever read any of the complaints we filed towards some of the treatment we’re enduring. Have you bothered to read them at all, ne?”
The officer replied, “We have read some.”
“I see no action.”
“Investigations take quite a long time and there are many other things that require our detectives’ time as well.”
The inmate clenched her fist, “You have plenty of detectives to investigate many things. Even minor petty disturbances, yet you can’t seem to realize the severity of our situation. We refuse to stand down until we’re completely sure you will look into this and do something about it.”
“Then we will do just that. Now please surrender peacefully.”
“We’re not going to cease our takeover just because of your words. You’ll have to convince us with something bolder. In the mean time, I will bring up one of the hostages to show you how serious we are,” she stated. Ako saw her hand snap, and someone she had never seen before was dragged up towards the roof. It was a girl maybe a few months older than Ako herself, who was struggling to escape the grasp of the inmates in vain.
Ako stepped backwards, wanting to be as far away as possible from what carnage that could occur. Before she could turn around and run off, she was grabbed from behind by Makie.
“AKOOO!!! There you are! Hey! Let’s go have some fun!” Makie said, grinning.
Ako frowned, “Isn’t it kind of a bad time?”
“No. What are you talking about!?” Makie asked.
Ako pointed at the inmate standing on the roof yelling at the cops, while taunting a hostage with a knife. She then pointed at the other shackled hostages, about four in total. All of this only resulted in a blink and a chuckle from Makie.
“…what’s your point?”
Makie grabbed Ako’s hand and dragged her inside. She led her towards a tower inside one of the cell housing units, and swung open the door. The tower was a place that the officers would be in to close and open cell doors, to watch inmates through the cameras, and many other duties an officer situated inside such a tower would have. Makie jumped onto the chair and started to play with all the buttons and switches, which resulted in several sounds. The alarm went off, the doors started to close and open, the sprinklers turned on, and fun laughter echoed from the tower.
Another door swung open and Yuuna stood there, “Why is it so loud in here—DAAAAAAAH!!!”
Makie had flicked off a switch causing the door to slam close right behind Yuuna. Unfortunately she was not completely inside the cell block, and so the door smashed into her back. She flew for a few metres before landing roughly onto the cement floor while being soaked by the sprinklers.
“Yuuna, don’t just lie there! You’ll catch a cold!” Makie giggled.
The soggy inmate climbed up the stairs towards the top of the tower where Makie and Ako were. She opened the door and had a slightly annoyed look on her face, growling. Although Ako felt a bit of fear radiating from her cellmate, she could not help cracking a smile at the inmate. In contrast, Makie showed no fear, just laughing and even falling off the chair. It seemed that Yuuna noticed the smile on Ako though, and to the surprise of the young girl, turned her frown upside-down.
“Are you okay?” Ako asked.
Yuuna rubbed her left shoulder, “Yeah…I should be fine. Are you okay?”
“Yuuna! That’s a dumb question. Ako wasn’t hit in the back by a door and drenched in water! Of course she’s okay!” Makie answered.
“Well, people who hang out with you tend to get a little damaged, if you know what I mean,” she replied, sticking her tongue out.
Ako nodded, “I know what you mean.”
“Name one thing I did that ended up with someone hurt,” Makie challenged, staring deep into Yuuna’s eyes.
“…Asakura has a reason for her bandages, and it ain’t for show!” Yuuna said.
Makie chuckled, “Oh yeah! Now I remember! That was fun.”
“They aren’t for show?” Ako asked.
Yuuna had her hand behind her head, laughing nervously, “Y’see, last year a few of the lunchroom benches were destroyed after a nasty fight…”
Several inmates were standing around inside a room that resembled the inside of a handyman’s garage. There were tools all around the room and several blocks of wood in the center. Officer Iincho and Officer Konoe were situated at the front of the room.
“Since you idiots broke some tables, we’re going to make you fix them!” Officer Iincho ordered, holding up one of the table’s legs, “If you can’t, then you can all just eat on the floor!”
“Ewww…” Makie commented, “The floor is so gross!”
The blonde replied, “Then obviously you better fix them.”
The inmates all got to work using their ultra-super teamwork skills. A few grabbed hammers and started to nail in some of the white boards while others started to measure a few two-by-fours. After they were measured, some others started to mark spots on the pieces of wood as to where each piece and part went. The work looked very organized and the officers were quite impressed by such smooth uninterrupted handiwork. These inmates would have made good construction workers someday.
Makie was using a table saw on one of the boards. She also wasn’t using the automatic saw on a table as it should have been on, and was just holding it up in the air freely. Yuuna was on her left hammering in a few nails into newly formed legs of what the table would be supported on. The officers walked around, watching the work.
“Iincho, is it really a good idea to let them be using hammers and saws?” Officer Konoe asked, a little worried.
“Of course! They surely realize the dirtiness of the floor, so they would work quite hard to avoid such a horrible fate upon their lunches! NOW WORK FASTER!” The other officer said, taking her baton out.
They soon realized their error unfortunately, “MAKIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT SAW!? THERE’S SOMEONE MEASURING THAT TABLE UNDER IT!”
Makie was greeted by a flow of red liquid, which had stained her saw, “Oops?”
The officers dragged out an inmate who had been working on the would-be table under it. Luckily, only a small cut remained on the inmate’s stomach. They sighed in relief, and Makie chuckled at her almost-chaotic error. She put her hand on the back of her head in an apologetic pose, but unluckily for the person beside her, she had whipped her hands into that gesture with the saw still on and still in her hands. The motion flowed through a sharp curve and was basically a slash to anyone nearby…
“…holy shit.”
Makie turned to see Asakura staring at her redder-than-normal chest, “Eep! Papa! You’re all red!”
“MAKIE! Give me that saw before you chop someone’s head off!” Officer Iincho yelled, and Makie gladly complied.
“Makie, don’t face the blade at me while giving it to me!”
“Oh, maybe I should just put it on the floor!”
“Makie! Not on its blade!”
The spinning table saw attempted to slice the hard cement floor, which it could not, and so the metal-to-metal connection caused sparks to fly all over the place. The horrifying chance of a fire to start in a room filled with half-finished wooden tables caused the inmates to run around flailing their arms in panic. Suddenly a spark landed on the table Makie had been sawing on and burst into flames. The gastly inferno trapped the inmates at one corner of the room, and finally an inmate came inside with a fire extinguisher to spray away the fire. Officer Konoe jumped into the arms of her saviour, Setsuna, while Officer Iincho turned off the saw. She glared at all the inmates, but particularly at Makie.
“Ahahaha…oops again?”
Officer Konoe added, “See? I told yoooou.” She stuck her tongue out at the blonde.
Yuuna turned to see Asakura still standing even though her wound clearly looked serious, “Wow! I can’t believe you’re still conscious!”
“I believe my desires to not get burned probably did that,” She collapsed right after.
“…and Makie got sent to the hole, while Asakura decided not to idiotically stand around people like Makie anymore,” Yuuna finished, “T’was a nice change from the usual routine all the time!”
Ako remembered the birds that flew into the razor wire, “How…pleasant.”
The sprinklers finally ceased and the alarm decided to go silent. The doors no longer opened and shut, and everything seemed to return to normal in technological terms. All three of the girls situated inside the tower noticed the many televisions sitting inside that basically showed every security camera in the entire institution. They all watched in awe at the ridiculous amount of cameras there were. There was even one in the women’s washroom, and it was not one permitted for inmates. They imagined a pervert sitting on the chair where Makie sat, just watching officers walk in and out of the washroom. Even the people of authority did not have privacy, and it seemed rather appalling.
“Oh well,” Yuuna shrugged, “Hey, who’s that?” She pointed at an apparent inmate coming in from the outside of the concrete walls.
Ako raised an eyebrow, “That’s odd…nobody could have left this place without getting caught by the police…”
“Yeah and why would they even come back?” Yuuna said.
Makie scratched her head, “Maybe they forgot something!”
“…right, no. This person is very suspicious!” Yuuna declared, “Let’s go find them and see what’s up!”
Ako clenched up in nervousness, “What if they’re dangerous!?”
“I’ll obviously protect you silly,” Yuuna grinned and swung her arm around Ako’s neck, shuffling her hair, “You gotta remember that!”
Makie giggled as she followed the two, “You look awfully close to each other after such a short time!”
Both of them quickly let go of each other after that rather awkward comment, and laughed it off while blushing. Ako looked up at her cellmate as they both smiled at each other. She did not notice Makie behind her with a grin that looked slightly evil and slightly less idiotic. They turned a corner after stepping out of the stairs and headed towards the north end of the institution only to bump into Asakura who had a bundle of things in her arms. She was about to go outside and had a variety of different items to take with her.
“Papa! How are you doing this fine riot?” Makie greeted.
Asakura pushed open the door, “I’m about to take a smoke, ‘just busted open the safe that held all our stuff they confiscated.”
“OOOH! LET’S GO GET OUR TV BACK!” Yuuna purposed, while Makie dragged the redhead back inside much to the dismay of the gang leader.
The redhead tapped her foot impatiently, “What do you want, airhead?”
“Smoking is bad for you and you know it!” The pink-haired jolly girl grabbed the pack of cigarettes out of the leader’s arms.
Asakura sighed, “I only smoke a pack a week. Give me a break.”
“A pack too many!” The gang leader was oddly enough being lectured by one of her own members, “You never used to smoke when Floaty was still around! Why now!?”
“Floaty?” Ako exclaimed, bewildered.
“Sayo.” Yuuna replied.
“I have my own reasons. Why don’t you run along and play with the sprinklers again,” Asakura said, grabbing her pack of cancer sticks back.
Makie stole them once again, “No! Not until you tell us why you’re killing yourself with these evil sticks!”
“You should be grateful I’m not killing you with second-hand smoke,” replied the redhead, who snatched a single cigarette back and was about to light it right there.
Her response was a strong whisp of wind that lit out the cigarette which came from Makie’s own breath, “Papa is bad! Don’t smoke inside!”
“Make me,” Asakura said as she tried to light the cigarette again.
The smoking war was interrupted as Ako noticed one of the things in Asakura’s arms, “Hey, is that a camera?”
“Maybe,” she replied, still trying to light her drug.
“Why would you find a camera in the safe?” Ako asked.
The redhead looked up at Ako, interested at her question. She stopped attempting to get a whiff of tobacco and replied, “I sneaked it in a year ago. It has a few pictures on it I’d like to take a gander at again. Why do you ask? You want me to take a photo of you?”
“Ah, no I was just wondering and—” Ako was interrupted as Makie yanked the cigarette from Asakura’s hand.
“Of course Ako wants a photo!” Makie said, trying to divert the conversation to one of photography rather than tobacco, “Just smile for the camera Ako! In fact, Yuuna should join you! You two would look perfect together! Come on Papa! TAKE IT!”
Ako shook her hands in front of her, “N-no, I was just curious. I don’t need a photo really and—”
Yuuna grabbed Ako by swinging her arm around her delicate neck once again, and smiled for the camera. She flashed a ‘peace’ sign, which was extremely ironic as Asakura prepared to take the photo, “Say: ‘Makie blows’!”
“Makie blows!” Yuuna gladly shouted, and there was a familiar click sound that came from the camera, alongside a flash.
Makie crossed her arms, “H-e-e-e-e-e-y! That’s not nice!” She pouted a little before giving up as everyone was more interested in how the photo turned out. Asakura navigated through the photos on the memory card and Ako managed a glimpse of one person who she did not recognize in those photos the redhead passed. She knew it was Sayo, who looked very meek and actually rather beautiful. The mysterious girl who passed away in this very area looked quite tragic in Ako’s eyes.
“Ah, here we go,” Asakura said.
The photo was rather simplistic, but it did its job. The lighting of the building actually gave a satisfying effect on the photo strangely enough. Yuuna was grinning with her pearl-white teeth showing while Ako still had a diminutive surprised look plastered on her face, but they were both staring at the camera with their eyes open, and not closed. It looked perfect.
“This would be a nice souvenir to take with you when you get out, Ako!” Yuuna said, staring at the picture, “After all, we may never see each other again when you leave.”
Ako’s eyes widened, “What do you mean never see each other again!? I don’t want to never see each other again!” She suddenly realized what she said and faintly blushed, “Err…it’d be a shame to never see a friend again…”
“Considering my record I’ll probably never be allowed visits ever again, that’s all,” Yuuna smiled sadly.
“Yeah, but when you get out, we’ll see each other again, right?” Ako hoped for the best answer. She did not know why she seemed so eager for Yuuna, so much that she couldn’t control what she was saying.
Yuuna chuckled, “I don’t know. I have a life sentence, after all…”
“But not without parole, right!? You’ll get out someday!”
“Even so, it’d be a long time away. I got twenty-five years without any possibility after all…” Yuuna sighed.
Ako suddenly slammed her foot into the ground, causing a loud SMACK and scaring the other three inmates around her, “Why are you so discouraged!? You’re the one who encouraged me so much and yet you’re not acting like yourself here!”
“Ako, I don’t even know if I’ll even survive in this place for more than twenty-five years, let alone getting out,” she explained.
“NO!”
Yuuna jumped back at her cellmate’s sudden outburst, “Whoa, chill…”
“You must promise me we’ll see each other again,” Ako grabbed Yuuna’s hand, “Promise!”
Yuuna was undecided, “I don’t like making promises I might not be able to keep—”
“PROMISE!”
“…alright, alright! I promise.”
Yuuna found her sides being conquered by Ako’s arms, which was certainly surprising. The shorter girl buried her head into Yuuna’s chest. A few seconds later and Ako suddenly leapt backwards with insanely red cheeks. She stepped back a few steps, trying to get a gist of what she just did, “Oh…I’m s-sorry Yuuna, I didn’t mean to go so f-far and…”
“Nonsense,” Yuuna quickly returned her cellmate’s head back onto her chest, “I don’t mind at all. In fact, I think I like it,” she winked.
Makie grinned, “Aren’t they cuuuuuuuuuuute?”
“Right. I’m going to go smoke a cig, you can stay here and watch some sappy moments,” Asakura grabbed her pack of cigarettes and was about to march off towards the great outdoors when an inmate started to walk towards them. Yuuna recognized the inmate as the same one they saw in the security camera. She quickly stood in front of both Makie and Ako, extremely cautious. Asakura dropped everything she was holding outside and leaned against the door to observe what the newcomer would do. The inmate continued to walk closer, causing greater tension among the others.
The redhead started to approrach the inmate slowly, “You! Get o’er here!”
“Does she know what she’s doing?” Ako whispered, peeking out from behind Yuuna’s shoulders.
“Papa may be bad, but she’s smart. She will get rid of mean ol’ intruder!” Makie replied, attempting to whisper, but it came out louder than she had hoped.
Asakura narrowed her eyes at the inmate’s figure. He was a male, and had quite a built-up body. Whoever this person was he was strong, but she had never seen him before. Granted, the female side of the prison was mostly cut-off from the male side, but she at least knew the faces of those that were supposed to be here. This man was not one of them. He complied with Asakura’s order, walking slowly towards her.
“We’ve never seen your face around here before…who might you be?” The redhead asked. She showed no fear in her speech, but the inmate remained cautious.
The man replied, “I just got here yesterday on some robbery charges.”
“Really? What did you steal?”
“I managed to snag around a hundred thousand dollars from one of the royal banks down fourth street,” He replied, “Unfortunately I got caught in a car chase down the highway nearby.”
Ako continued to stare at the strange man’s face, “He seems legitimate, Yuuna…”
“We can’t be careless at a time like this, so we gotta make sure,” her cellmate replied, whispering back.
Asakura raised an eyebrow, “Hm? What gun did you use?”
“.44 magnum revolver,” replied the man.
The redhead nodded, but did not take her eyes off the inmate in front of her, “So what are you doing in the female side of the prison? If you’re thinking of overrunning the entire facility, your thoughts will not come true.”
“There’s been a disruption on the other side. I came to inform you that the stability over there is starting to crack,” he replied.
The gang leader crossed her arms, “And why do you care?”
“It would be nice to maintain this riot, wouldn’t it?”
Asakura finally broke her stern face, grinning, “That’s not your intention. You want to stop it.”
“What do you mean? I came to help make sure everything is fine,” he said.
“I think you’re full of shit, sir. I advise you to head back out there back to your friends in the squad cars,” Asakura growled, stepping backwards slowly. She continued, “Get out of here.”
Yuuna realized that the last sentence was meant for them. She backed off gradually, trying to move Ako and Makie backwards until they were out of danger, but the other two did not understand the underlying message from the gang leader. One because of inexperience, the other because of a relatively short attention span.
“She just told you to get out of here, so get!” Yuuna was brash in her whisper, still eyeing the ‘inmate’ that stood just in front of Asakura.
Ako was completely baffled, “Wait, what’s going on!?”
Before Yuuna could even respond, they heard a gunshot and whipped their heads to see the redhead dropping onto the ground faster than they heard the gunshot. Yuuna quickly bolted off towards the intruder. Makie, finally understanding for once, quickly took Ako’s hand and pulled her towards the exit.
“But! Wait! Makie, Yuuna’s back there! We can’t just—” Ako reasoned but Makie did not reply. The usually slow-minded pink girl was quick to her feet at the moment, and rushed outside towards some inmates playing handball against the wall.
One of them turned to see the two, a bit concerned, “What’s happening?”
“Papa’s been shot!” Makie announced. One of the inmates quickly ran towards the staircase, heading up to inform the rioting leader. All of it happened in a flash to Ako and she saw the leader on the roof speak once more.
“It seems one of ours is down,” she started, staring at all the cops standing outside of the prison, “Logically that means so is one of yours.”
Ako watched in horror as another hostage was dragged up the stairs towards the roof. This hostage was covered in a hood, which leaked even more gasps of dismay inside Ako’s heart. The leader produced a knife from the inside of her shirt and grappled the hostage by the neck.
“Here’s your first casualty…tell me your name dear one,” the leader asked, holding up her knife.
There was only silence. The hostage was not an obedient one.
“I said…TELL ME YOUR NAME!” The leader yelled.
“…Akira…Akira Oukouchi…”
The inmate in front of her smiled, “Nice name. Now choose a number between one and ten.”
“…”
“CHOOSE IT!”
“…four.”
The leader smirked, “Four, hm? Did you know four in Chinese sounds the same as death, ne? Well, lucky for you, for you’ve just chosen to be speared in the stomach!”
With that, the blade plunged into the officer’s abdomen. Ako widened her eyes, heart racing, adrenaline rushing, and fear she never felt in such a way before started to overcome her. It was such a powerful sensation that it far surpassed her need to faint, instead causing her to stay conscious. Asakura was shot, Yuuna was likely too, and the only officer she believed wasn’t corrupted was ironically the one being executed. There looked to be no end to violence inside Kanto Regional Penitentiary and the worst was yet to come…
END OF PART SIXTEEN
PART SIXTEEN
Kanto Regional Penitentiary is a prison made for the truly dangerous. Only those with a violent history would be here, and here they would stay. There is little effort in this institution to rehabilitate, but instead to solely punish. It is a unique prison, with one side filled with males, and the other side filled with females. The people that worked in such a dangerous place are endangered everyday with their few numbers. It is such an understaffed job that if one side of the prison rioted, the entire staff would rush towards that area to cease the violence, but that left half of the population free to run rampant. This glaring weakness is known by the inmates as well, and that’s how the riot began.
The idea was conjured up by one of the more notorious inmates of the prison. She is quite the individual: intelligent, powerful, influential, and a leader. It is even rumoured around the prison that she had once caused a revolution all from her very own hands. She is locked up in such a depressing and sinister place with her long list of crimes. Indeed, this terrorist would not see the light of freedom again, but some say she already enjoyed freedom even inside the prison. That is how powerful she is…
Ako awoke with a vivid memory still swimming around in her mind. Both Yuuna and Officer Oukouchi had detailed her about the most powerful and well-respected inmate in the entire prison, at least on their side. Even the officers respected her, as she had such a charming personality, but everyone knew how threatening her existence was. No one ever questioned this girl’s actions, and some even wondered how she never bothered to escape. Everyone knew she had the potential to break herself out if she wanted to, but she never did. Perhaps because she had a plan to break everyone out. The strange thing was that both of them did not mention her name. Ako yawned as she got up from her bed, which she created with several pillows and two futons on top of one another. It was as comfortable as Ako could make it, since there wasn’t much to use inside a prison.
The inmate headed towards the yard, where she heard quite the commotion. She opened the door freely and enjoyed some free will, but she knew that what was happening at the moment was not going to give her free will forever. Maybe something good would come out of this, Ako did not know.
She walked outside onto the yard and saw a massacre.
“Ako!” Yuuna started to run towards her. She looked unscathed.
“What happened here?” Ako asked, rather curious.
Yuuna wiped some sweat off her forehead, “Oh, everyone’s tired and asleep.”
“…what?”
“Yeah I know it looks like a massacre. They’re practicing. If them cops bust in here to retake the prison we have a backup plan of looking dead. Then we catch ‘em off guard and swoosh! More hostages!” Yuuna flung her arms to illustrate her ‘swoosh’.
Ako frowned, “That’s a good thing?”
“Well…we wouldn’t be recaptured. I think not being recaptured is a good thing.”
“I don’t know. I just feel a little…scared, I guess. What if they rush in here with guns and shoot us all?” Ako started to twiddle her fingers in anxiety, “I don’t think they really care about us that much anyway.”
Yuuna assured her cellmate, “Don’t worry, that’s what the hostages are for. They ain’t going to come in here so recklessly if we have lives they do care about.”
“I’m not so big on the hostages thing either…”
“You got to live with it Ako. If we release them all they’re going to shoot us all up, which you don’t want, do you?” Yuuna said, “Akira’s going to kill me for sure…I just feel guilty about not letting her free earlier, but…”
Ako shook her head, “I know that, but I wish all of this just didn’t happen…”
“So, we should let the cops run all over us for the rest of our lives?”
“No, but I wish there was another way…” Ako sighed, “I’m just…I don’t like this…that’s all. I don’t like being…the bad guy…”
Yuuna crossed her arms, “I think they’re the ones who are the bad guys. Sure, we got a lot on our record that makes us bad guys in the past, but what we’re doing now is trying to get a little leeway back we had before ‘cause throwing us in a makeshift arena and forcing us to kill each other is not what I call something a good guy should be doing.”
“Yeah, but taking hostages isn’t what a good guy should be doing either.” Ako turned around and started to walk back inside, feeling some sort of uncertainty trekking around in her stomach. She stopped as she heard the cops outside start to yell.
“PLEASE RELEASE THE HOSTAGES AND STAND DOWN THIS INSTANT!”
She saw one inmate standing on the roof of a tower, holding a megaphone, “Do you fine gentlemen wish to negotiate, ne?”
There was a pause, and finally a reply, “Yes we do. It is of your best interest to release those hostages unharmed and to peacefully surrender to us. We have the entire prison surrounded by the police force, the S.W.A.T., and even a few troops from the army.”
“I do hope you remember that we hold the cards here,” the inmate started, “If you try to pull something risky we are not going to hesitate to eliminate those innocent people we’re holding in here. Now, are you willing to listen to what I have to say, ne?”
“…yes.”
The inmate smiled, “I thought you would cooperate. First of all this is a prison-wide rebellion. It’s not just me or a few of us ‘crazy’ convicts as you like to call us, but all of us. So I do hope you realize how dire this situation is.”
“I believe we do. What are your demands?”
“Now then, I just want to ask if you have ever read any of the complaints we filed towards some of the treatment we’re enduring. Have you bothered to read them at all, ne?”
The officer replied, “We have read some.”
“I see no action.”
“Investigations take quite a long time and there are many other things that require our detectives’ time as well.”
The inmate clenched her fist, “You have plenty of detectives to investigate many things. Even minor petty disturbances, yet you can’t seem to realize the severity of our situation. We refuse to stand down until we’re completely sure you will look into this and do something about it.”
“Then we will do just that. Now please surrender peacefully.”
“We’re not going to cease our takeover just because of your words. You’ll have to convince us with something bolder. In the mean time, I will bring up one of the hostages to show you how serious we are,” she stated. Ako saw her hand snap, and someone she had never seen before was dragged up towards the roof. It was a girl maybe a few months older than Ako herself, who was struggling to escape the grasp of the inmates in vain.
Ako stepped backwards, wanting to be as far away as possible from what carnage that could occur. Before she could turn around and run off, she was grabbed from behind by Makie.
“AKOOO!!! There you are! Hey! Let’s go have some fun!” Makie said, grinning.
Ako frowned, “Isn’t it kind of a bad time?”
“No. What are you talking about!?” Makie asked.
Ako pointed at the inmate standing on the roof yelling at the cops, while taunting a hostage with a knife. She then pointed at the other shackled hostages, about four in total. All of this only resulted in a blink and a chuckle from Makie.
“…what’s your point?”
Makie grabbed Ako’s hand and dragged her inside. She led her towards a tower inside one of the cell housing units, and swung open the door. The tower was a place that the officers would be in to close and open cell doors, to watch inmates through the cameras, and many other duties an officer situated inside such a tower would have. Makie jumped onto the chair and started to play with all the buttons and switches, which resulted in several sounds. The alarm went off, the doors started to close and open, the sprinklers turned on, and fun laughter echoed from the tower.
Another door swung open and Yuuna stood there, “Why is it so loud in here—DAAAAAAAH!!!”
Makie had flicked off a switch causing the door to slam close right behind Yuuna. Unfortunately she was not completely inside the cell block, and so the door smashed into her back. She flew for a few metres before landing roughly onto the cement floor while being soaked by the sprinklers.
“Yuuna, don’t just lie there! You’ll catch a cold!” Makie giggled.
The soggy inmate climbed up the stairs towards the top of the tower where Makie and Ako were. She opened the door and had a slightly annoyed look on her face, growling. Although Ako felt a bit of fear radiating from her cellmate, she could not help cracking a smile at the inmate. In contrast, Makie showed no fear, just laughing and even falling off the chair. It seemed that Yuuna noticed the smile on Ako though, and to the surprise of the young girl, turned her frown upside-down.
“Are you okay?” Ako asked.
Yuuna rubbed her left shoulder, “Yeah…I should be fine. Are you okay?”
“Yuuna! That’s a dumb question. Ako wasn’t hit in the back by a door and drenched in water! Of course she’s okay!” Makie answered.
“Well, people who hang out with you tend to get a little damaged, if you know what I mean,” she replied, sticking her tongue out.
Ako nodded, “I know what you mean.”
“Name one thing I did that ended up with someone hurt,” Makie challenged, staring deep into Yuuna’s eyes.
“…Asakura has a reason for her bandages, and it ain’t for show!” Yuuna said.
Makie chuckled, “Oh yeah! Now I remember! That was fun.”
“They aren’t for show?” Ako asked.
Yuuna had her hand behind her head, laughing nervously, “Y’see, last year a few of the lunchroom benches were destroyed after a nasty fight…”
Several inmates were standing around inside a room that resembled the inside of a handyman’s garage. There were tools all around the room and several blocks of wood in the center. Officer Iincho and Officer Konoe were situated at the front of the room.
“Since you idiots broke some tables, we’re going to make you fix them!” Officer Iincho ordered, holding up one of the table’s legs, “If you can’t, then you can all just eat on the floor!”
“Ewww…” Makie commented, “The floor is so gross!”
The blonde replied, “Then obviously you better fix them.”
The inmates all got to work using their ultra-super teamwork skills. A few grabbed hammers and started to nail in some of the white boards while others started to measure a few two-by-fours. After they were measured, some others started to mark spots on the pieces of wood as to where each piece and part went. The work looked very organized and the officers were quite impressed by such smooth uninterrupted handiwork. These inmates would have made good construction workers someday.
Makie was using a table saw on one of the boards. She also wasn’t using the automatic saw on a table as it should have been on, and was just holding it up in the air freely. Yuuna was on her left hammering in a few nails into newly formed legs of what the table would be supported on. The officers walked around, watching the work.
“Iincho, is it really a good idea to let them be using hammers and saws?” Officer Konoe asked, a little worried.
“Of course! They surely realize the dirtiness of the floor, so they would work quite hard to avoid such a horrible fate upon their lunches! NOW WORK FASTER!” The other officer said, taking her baton out.
They soon realized their error unfortunately, “MAKIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT SAW!? THERE’S SOMEONE MEASURING THAT TABLE UNDER IT!”
Makie was greeted by a flow of red liquid, which had stained her saw, “Oops?”
The officers dragged out an inmate who had been working on the would-be table under it. Luckily, only a small cut remained on the inmate’s stomach. They sighed in relief, and Makie chuckled at her almost-chaotic error. She put her hand on the back of her head in an apologetic pose, but unluckily for the person beside her, she had whipped her hands into that gesture with the saw still on and still in her hands. The motion flowed through a sharp curve and was basically a slash to anyone nearby…
“…holy shit.”
Makie turned to see Asakura staring at her redder-than-normal chest, “Eep! Papa! You’re all red!”
“MAKIE! Give me that saw before you chop someone’s head off!” Officer Iincho yelled, and Makie gladly complied.
“Makie, don’t face the blade at me while giving it to me!”
“Oh, maybe I should just put it on the floor!”
“Makie! Not on its blade!”
The spinning table saw attempted to slice the hard cement floor, which it could not, and so the metal-to-metal connection caused sparks to fly all over the place. The horrifying chance of a fire to start in a room filled with half-finished wooden tables caused the inmates to run around flailing their arms in panic. Suddenly a spark landed on the table Makie had been sawing on and burst into flames. The gastly inferno trapped the inmates at one corner of the room, and finally an inmate came inside with a fire extinguisher to spray away the fire. Officer Konoe jumped into the arms of her saviour, Setsuna, while Officer Iincho turned off the saw. She glared at all the inmates, but particularly at Makie.
“Ahahaha…oops again?”
Officer Konoe added, “See? I told yoooou.” She stuck her tongue out at the blonde.
Yuuna turned to see Asakura still standing even though her wound clearly looked serious, “Wow! I can’t believe you’re still conscious!”
“I believe my desires to not get burned probably did that,” She collapsed right after.
“…and Makie got sent to the hole, while Asakura decided not to idiotically stand around people like Makie anymore,” Yuuna finished, “T’was a nice change from the usual routine all the time!”
Ako remembered the birds that flew into the razor wire, “How…pleasant.”
The sprinklers finally ceased and the alarm decided to go silent. The doors no longer opened and shut, and everything seemed to return to normal in technological terms. All three of the girls situated inside the tower noticed the many televisions sitting inside that basically showed every security camera in the entire institution. They all watched in awe at the ridiculous amount of cameras there were. There was even one in the women’s washroom, and it was not one permitted for inmates. They imagined a pervert sitting on the chair where Makie sat, just watching officers walk in and out of the washroom. Even the people of authority did not have privacy, and it seemed rather appalling.
“Oh well,” Yuuna shrugged, “Hey, who’s that?” She pointed at an apparent inmate coming in from the outside of the concrete walls.
Ako raised an eyebrow, “That’s odd…nobody could have left this place without getting caught by the police…”
“Yeah and why would they even come back?” Yuuna said.
Makie scratched her head, “Maybe they forgot something!”
“…right, no. This person is very suspicious!” Yuuna declared, “Let’s go find them and see what’s up!”
Ako clenched up in nervousness, “What if they’re dangerous!?”
“I’ll obviously protect you silly,” Yuuna grinned and swung her arm around Ako’s neck, shuffling her hair, “You gotta remember that!”
Makie giggled as she followed the two, “You look awfully close to each other after such a short time!”
Both of them quickly let go of each other after that rather awkward comment, and laughed it off while blushing. Ako looked up at her cellmate as they both smiled at each other. She did not notice Makie behind her with a grin that looked slightly evil and slightly less idiotic. They turned a corner after stepping out of the stairs and headed towards the north end of the institution only to bump into Asakura who had a bundle of things in her arms. She was about to go outside and had a variety of different items to take with her.
“Papa! How are you doing this fine riot?” Makie greeted.
Asakura pushed open the door, “I’m about to take a smoke, ‘just busted open the safe that held all our stuff they confiscated.”
“OOOH! LET’S GO GET OUR TV BACK!” Yuuna purposed, while Makie dragged the redhead back inside much to the dismay of the gang leader.
The redhead tapped her foot impatiently, “What do you want, airhead?”
“Smoking is bad for you and you know it!” The pink-haired jolly girl grabbed the pack of cigarettes out of the leader’s arms.
Asakura sighed, “I only smoke a pack a week. Give me a break.”
“A pack too many!” The gang leader was oddly enough being lectured by one of her own members, “You never used to smoke when Floaty was still around! Why now!?”
“Floaty?” Ako exclaimed, bewildered.
“Sayo.” Yuuna replied.
“I have my own reasons. Why don’t you run along and play with the sprinklers again,” Asakura said, grabbing her pack of cancer sticks back.
Makie stole them once again, “No! Not until you tell us why you’re killing yourself with these evil sticks!”
“You should be grateful I’m not killing you with second-hand smoke,” replied the redhead, who snatched a single cigarette back and was about to light it right there.
Her response was a strong whisp of wind that lit out the cigarette which came from Makie’s own breath, “Papa is bad! Don’t smoke inside!”
“Make me,” Asakura said as she tried to light the cigarette again.
The smoking war was interrupted as Ako noticed one of the things in Asakura’s arms, “Hey, is that a camera?”
“Maybe,” she replied, still trying to light her drug.
“Why would you find a camera in the safe?” Ako asked.
The redhead looked up at Ako, interested at her question. She stopped attempting to get a whiff of tobacco and replied, “I sneaked it in a year ago. It has a few pictures on it I’d like to take a gander at again. Why do you ask? You want me to take a photo of you?”
“Ah, no I was just wondering and—” Ako was interrupted as Makie yanked the cigarette from Asakura’s hand.
“Of course Ako wants a photo!” Makie said, trying to divert the conversation to one of photography rather than tobacco, “Just smile for the camera Ako! In fact, Yuuna should join you! You two would look perfect together! Come on Papa! TAKE IT!”
Ako shook her hands in front of her, “N-no, I was just curious. I don’t need a photo really and—”
Yuuna grabbed Ako by swinging her arm around her delicate neck once again, and smiled for the camera. She flashed a ‘peace’ sign, which was extremely ironic as Asakura prepared to take the photo, “Say: ‘Makie blows’!”
“Makie blows!” Yuuna gladly shouted, and there was a familiar click sound that came from the camera, alongside a flash.
Makie crossed her arms, “H-e-e-e-e-e-y! That’s not nice!” She pouted a little before giving up as everyone was more interested in how the photo turned out. Asakura navigated through the photos on the memory card and Ako managed a glimpse of one person who she did not recognize in those photos the redhead passed. She knew it was Sayo, who looked very meek and actually rather beautiful. The mysterious girl who passed away in this very area looked quite tragic in Ako’s eyes.
“Ah, here we go,” Asakura said.
The photo was rather simplistic, but it did its job. The lighting of the building actually gave a satisfying effect on the photo strangely enough. Yuuna was grinning with her pearl-white teeth showing while Ako still had a diminutive surprised look plastered on her face, but they were both staring at the camera with their eyes open, and not closed. It looked perfect.
“This would be a nice souvenir to take with you when you get out, Ako!” Yuuna said, staring at the picture, “After all, we may never see each other again when you leave.”
Ako’s eyes widened, “What do you mean never see each other again!? I don’t want to never see each other again!” She suddenly realized what she said and faintly blushed, “Err…it’d be a shame to never see a friend again…”
“Considering my record I’ll probably never be allowed visits ever again, that’s all,” Yuuna smiled sadly.
“Yeah, but when you get out, we’ll see each other again, right?” Ako hoped for the best answer. She did not know why she seemed so eager for Yuuna, so much that she couldn’t control what she was saying.
Yuuna chuckled, “I don’t know. I have a life sentence, after all…”
“But not without parole, right!? You’ll get out someday!”
“Even so, it’d be a long time away. I got twenty-five years without any possibility after all…” Yuuna sighed.
Ako suddenly slammed her foot into the ground, causing a loud SMACK and scaring the other three inmates around her, “Why are you so discouraged!? You’re the one who encouraged me so much and yet you’re not acting like yourself here!”
“Ako, I don’t even know if I’ll even survive in this place for more than twenty-five years, let alone getting out,” she explained.
“NO!”
Yuuna jumped back at her cellmate’s sudden outburst, “Whoa, chill…”
“You must promise me we’ll see each other again,” Ako grabbed Yuuna’s hand, “Promise!”
Yuuna was undecided, “I don’t like making promises I might not be able to keep—”
“PROMISE!”
“…alright, alright! I promise.”
Yuuna found her sides being conquered by Ako’s arms, which was certainly surprising. The shorter girl buried her head into Yuuna’s chest. A few seconds later and Ako suddenly leapt backwards with insanely red cheeks. She stepped back a few steps, trying to get a gist of what she just did, “Oh…I’m s-sorry Yuuna, I didn’t mean to go so f-far and…”
“Nonsense,” Yuuna quickly returned her cellmate’s head back onto her chest, “I don’t mind at all. In fact, I think I like it,” she winked.
Makie grinned, “Aren’t they cuuuuuuuuuuute?”
“Right. I’m going to go smoke a cig, you can stay here and watch some sappy moments,” Asakura grabbed her pack of cigarettes and was about to march off towards the great outdoors when an inmate started to walk towards them. Yuuna recognized the inmate as the same one they saw in the security camera. She quickly stood in front of both Makie and Ako, extremely cautious. Asakura dropped everything she was holding outside and leaned against the door to observe what the newcomer would do. The inmate continued to walk closer, causing greater tension among the others.
The redhead started to approrach the inmate slowly, “You! Get o’er here!”
“Does she know what she’s doing?” Ako whispered, peeking out from behind Yuuna’s shoulders.
“Papa may be bad, but she’s smart. She will get rid of mean ol’ intruder!” Makie replied, attempting to whisper, but it came out louder than she had hoped.
Asakura narrowed her eyes at the inmate’s figure. He was a male, and had quite a built-up body. Whoever this person was he was strong, but she had never seen him before. Granted, the female side of the prison was mostly cut-off from the male side, but she at least knew the faces of those that were supposed to be here. This man was not one of them. He complied with Asakura’s order, walking slowly towards her.
“We’ve never seen your face around here before…who might you be?” The redhead asked. She showed no fear in her speech, but the inmate remained cautious.
The man replied, “I just got here yesterday on some robbery charges.”
“Really? What did you steal?”
“I managed to snag around a hundred thousand dollars from one of the royal banks down fourth street,” He replied, “Unfortunately I got caught in a car chase down the highway nearby.”
Ako continued to stare at the strange man’s face, “He seems legitimate, Yuuna…”
“We can’t be careless at a time like this, so we gotta make sure,” her cellmate replied, whispering back.
Asakura raised an eyebrow, “Hm? What gun did you use?”
“.44 magnum revolver,” replied the man.
The redhead nodded, but did not take her eyes off the inmate in front of her, “So what are you doing in the female side of the prison? If you’re thinking of overrunning the entire facility, your thoughts will not come true.”
“There’s been a disruption on the other side. I came to inform you that the stability over there is starting to crack,” he replied.
The gang leader crossed her arms, “And why do you care?”
“It would be nice to maintain this riot, wouldn’t it?”
Asakura finally broke her stern face, grinning, “That’s not your intention. You want to stop it.”
“What do you mean? I came to help make sure everything is fine,” he said.
“I think you’re full of shit, sir. I advise you to head back out there back to your friends in the squad cars,” Asakura growled, stepping backwards slowly. She continued, “Get out of here.”
Yuuna realized that the last sentence was meant for them. She backed off gradually, trying to move Ako and Makie backwards until they were out of danger, but the other two did not understand the underlying message from the gang leader. One because of inexperience, the other because of a relatively short attention span.
“She just told you to get out of here, so get!” Yuuna was brash in her whisper, still eyeing the ‘inmate’ that stood just in front of Asakura.
Ako was completely baffled, “Wait, what’s going on!?”
Before Yuuna could even respond, they heard a gunshot and whipped their heads to see the redhead dropping onto the ground faster than they heard the gunshot. Yuuna quickly bolted off towards the intruder. Makie, finally understanding for once, quickly took Ako’s hand and pulled her towards the exit.
“But! Wait! Makie, Yuuna’s back there! We can’t just—” Ako reasoned but Makie did not reply. The usually slow-minded pink girl was quick to her feet at the moment, and rushed outside towards some inmates playing handball against the wall.
One of them turned to see the two, a bit concerned, “What’s happening?”
“Papa’s been shot!” Makie announced. One of the inmates quickly ran towards the staircase, heading up to inform the rioting leader. All of it happened in a flash to Ako and she saw the leader on the roof speak once more.
“It seems one of ours is down,” she started, staring at all the cops standing outside of the prison, “Logically that means so is one of yours.”
Ako watched in horror as another hostage was dragged up the stairs towards the roof. This hostage was covered in a hood, which leaked even more gasps of dismay inside Ako’s heart. The leader produced a knife from the inside of her shirt and grappled the hostage by the neck.
“Here’s your first casualty…tell me your name dear one,” the leader asked, holding up her knife.
There was only silence. The hostage was not an obedient one.
“I said…TELL ME YOUR NAME!” The leader yelled.
“…Akira…Akira Oukouchi…”
The inmate in front of her smiled, “Nice name. Now choose a number between one and ten.”
“…”
“CHOOSE IT!”
“…four.”
The leader smirked, “Four, hm? Did you know four in Chinese sounds the same as death, ne? Well, lucky for you, for you’ve just chosen to be speared in the stomach!”
With that, the blade plunged into the officer’s abdomen. Ako widened her eyes, heart racing, adrenaline rushing, and fear she never felt in such a way before started to overcome her. It was such a powerful sensation that it far surpassed her need to faint, instead causing her to stay conscious. Asakura was shot, Yuuna was likely too, and the only officer she believed wasn’t corrupted was ironically the one being executed. There looked to be no end to violence inside Kanto Regional Penitentiary and the worst was yet to come…
END OF PART SIXTEEN
