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spottoPART EIGHTEEN
It was a moonlit night, partly because no one knew how to turn on the lights in the control room, but regardless the moon illuminated every inch of space throughout the practically empty detention centre. There was nothing but silence within the prison, and only the faint sounds of howling wolves or hooting owls could be heard from the outside. The walls stood extremely high and was very much involved in keeping those in and those out, but unfortunately this time those it had to keep in were no longer there. Now they were out in the world terrorizing the innocent and vulnerable with what malicious intent they have, perhaps revenge, or perhaps just because that was their chosen lifestyle. The moon shone brightly over the institution as many were asleep, but there was one sound still rattling out against the heavy walls of the yard…footsteps.
“Where are we going, Yuuna-san!? What could possibly be so wonderful inside this place!?” Ako called as she was being dragged by her cellmate through the yard towards a large building on the otherside. Her wrist was within the grip of Yuuna, who seemed to be in a great rush heading towards their destination.
“You’ll see, you’ll see!” Yuuna grinned as she quickened her pace, but Ako did not understand why they were even running.
Ako looked up in the sky to see this larger-than-usual moon as she ran with her cellmate towards a tall building. Ako assumed it must’ve been the tallest one in the facility, and Yuuna threw open the door as she ran in. They had encountered some stairs on their way and gladly took them, as fast as they can as if it were some sort of marathon. Finally, they reached the top floor and Yuuna approached a room labelled: Showers.
“Ehhh!? W-w-we’re going in t-t-there!? But Yuuna-san, we just had one this m-m-morning and I’m not d-d-dirty at all!” Ako cried as Yuuna dragged her closer to that door, her face was as red as an ambulance light.
The brunette turned to glance at Ako, smiling, “Don’t be silly Ako!”
She suddenly jumped onto a ladder attached to the wall, and climbed up. Ako was bewildered, but followed as the inmate quickly ascended to the top. She started to turn some sort of knob to an opening, and lifted it up, but it seemed heavy. Yuuna’s strength did its job and Yuuna climbed outside. Her arm retreated back inside though.
“Here, let me lend you a hand, heh!” Yuuna quickly helped her cellmate climb up towards the top, where she emerged onto the roof of one very tall building.
“You wanted to show me the roof!?” Ako exclaimed.
Yuuna chuckled, “Ah, sort of! Here, come with me.” She gave her hand to Ako, who hesitated, but as she looked up she saw the cheery face of her friend, and took her hand. They carefully manoeuvred towards a certain spot on the roof, and Yuuna took her seat. She was about to let go of Ako’s hand.
“AHHH! DON’T LET ME GO!” Ako yelled, almost falling off the roof.
“Ahahaha, if you don’t panic you won’t fall!” Yuuna explained. She pulled Ako towards her who fell onto her behind, also sitting down though not in the way she would have preferred. The inmate rubbed her bottom in a bit of pain.
Yuuna looked down at the ground, which seemed incredibly far away from where they were, “You’re not afraid of heights, are you Ako?”
“Oh no, I only have the unanimous fear of falling splat on the ground is all,” She explained, also looking down, “Of course you inmates probably don’t…”
“Eh?” Yuuna raised an eyebrow, “Why is that?”
Ako looked down at her knees, “Well people are always going about fear as weakness, so I just thought…”
“No, no, no. They only mean fear as in being in here…everybody is afraid of falling to their deaths!” Yuuna laughed, “It’s nooormal!”
Ako sighed, finally relaxing onto the roof now that she didn’t feel that she was slipping. She saw Yuuna lie onto her back, and she motioned for Ako to do so also. Ako slowly put herself into the same position as Yuuna, but much more slowly due to her fear of going splat into the ground. Finally she was lying down next to her cellmate.
“So what was it you wanted to show me?” Ako asked, her hand tightening on Yuuna’s as she was still nervous in being so high up.
Yuuna noticed that her hand was still holding onto Ako’s and the slightest tinge of red marked itself on Yuuna’s face. She finally managed to point up at the sky, “There.”
Up in the sky were millions of stars as far as the eye could see. It was such a huge number of blinking lights that it caused Ako to open her mouth in awe. She had never seen such a view before. Obviously she had seen stars many times, but they were never as spectacular as they were here. Each star twinkled in the night differently, never boring someone who would be watching. The moon looked like it was the guardian of all the stars, shining the brightest in its full glory but not too much that the stars wouldn’t appear like the sun would do.
“Wow…it’s beautiful,” Ako remarked, trying to find some constellations.
Yuuna nodded, “I know, and because all the lights are off there’s even more that can be seen…so even I haven’t seen so much before.”
“Who knew such a sight could be seen at this area?” The light-haired girl continued to watch each star twinkle, and smiled.
Her cellmate started, “Can you see the ground or even the horizon at all, Ako? When you’re looking up?”
“No…I can’t see them at all…it’s like I’m not even in a prison…”
“Exactly,” Yuuna continued, “If we were to escape, we’d have to turn our heads all the time to see behind us so we wouldn’t get recaptured…or worse. We’d be burdened by such a worry constantly, so it wouldn’t really feel like freedom…”
“I see, but here you can imagine yourself atop a hill or on a house’s balcony,” Ako said, understanding.
The brunette nodded, “Yes…that’s what I feel is…true freedom.”
“Amazing…” Ako turned to face her cellmate, “You know Yuuna-san…I never knew you were a deep type of person.”
“Ehhh!? What’s that supposed to mean!?” Yuuna exclaimed, gawking at the girl.
Ako shook her head wildly, “No! I mean you just seem more like a goofy playful girl looking for adventure, not so much someone who could see past just the physical side of life! I’m not saying you’re shallow or anything!”
“So, you’re saying I’m simpleminded?” The brunette was not amused.
“Ahh! No! No! You misunderstand!” Now Ako’s hands were shaking in front of her face wildly.
Yuuna chuckled, “Nah, I get what you saying. Heheh, I guess that’s what I am to most people anyway, some girl who likes having fun.” She bonked Ako on the head for her amusing reaction.
“Well…I suppose that’s who you are on the surface…” Ako started, rubbing her head.
“Eh? What do you mean?” Yuuna’s curiosity was piqued.
Ako chuckled, “I don’t know…you’re a more than that, from what I’ve seen anyway…you’re more complex than just that. I mean, you’re always looking out for me, protecting me and being with me. You may disagree with a lot with Asakura but you seem like close friends with her too and everybody else. You’re really confident and you would do anything for me it seems…it’s kind of hard to believe that you’ve…”
“…killed someone?” Yuuna finished for the girl, her smile no longer there but she didn’t look sad either. She urged for her companion to continue.
Ako nodded, staring deeply at her knees, “Well, I’ve seen you angry before too and…it’s kind of uh…scary…”
Yuuna closed her eyes, smiling, “Yeah, yeah I know. I guess I’ll have to do something about that, heh.”
“And I guess what you did resulted from that, but…even so, you yelled at Makie, which wasn’t nice at all!” Ako reminded the brunette, who turned and pouted.
“Alright, alright! I’ll apologize to Makie…geez, how did your praises for me get to scolding?” She said, but decided to laugh it off anyway.
Ako giggled at Yuuna’s reaction, “Oh, I’m just saying you’re not perfect, like everybody else! I mean, I know such a wonderful person in a place like this. I used to think people like you were completely despicable…”
“A reasonable assumption,” Yuuna interrupted, “I mean if you were out there instead of here, with all us lowlifes crawling around…you can’t just suddenly befriend us! For the sake of your safety that is a valid generalization.”
“Oh, I’m not stupid, Yuuna-san!” Ako said, “I wouldn’t do that!”
Yuuna grinned, “Good, but you know I’m better than them, right? Heheheh, just a little?” She had hoped, staring into Ako’s eyes with her arrogant smirk.
“Yep, just a little though.”
“Good enough!” Yuuna suddenly turned her head, and whipped it back to face Ako, “Or AM I!?”
“EEEEHHH!?” Ako almost jumped off the roof as she saw Yuuna’s sinister face.
Yuuna laughed evilly, “MWAHAHAHAHA! I have tricked you and cornered you on the roof, Ako Izumi! Today is the day you die! HAHAHAHAHA!” She leaned closer to Ako, pinning her on the roof. Ako’s eyes were never wider than before as she cried out for her life. Yuuna raised her arm as if to strike her.
“Your torture is this!” Yuuna yelled and started to tickle the inmate continuously.
“AHAHAHAA! Stop it Yuuna! HAhahaa! This is…this is…no! Don’t! Yuuuuuuna-saaan! Hahahaha!”
Yuuna finally stopped, still smiling, “I was just kidding, Ako! You should have seen the look of your face! Hehehe.”
“That was really mean!” Ako pouted uncharacteristically.
“Oh c’mon, it was just a joke!” Yuuna was still amused by what she had done.
Ako turned to face Yuuna, her eyes were sparkling with tears, “If…if…if w-w-what you s-s-said was t-t-true…I would h-h-have been devastated!” She suddenly lunged at Yuuna, burying her face into the girl’s chest, her arms wrapped around her body.
“Hey, if it hurt you that bad then I’m sorry,” Yuuna said, “Geez, a little too serious aren’t ya?”
The younger girl shook her head, “B-b-but if it w-were true…then…t-then not o-only would…I be s-s-s-shocked…k-knowing that everything y-y-you’ve done for me m-meant nothing would h-have…t-t-t-tore me a-apart!”
“You’d also be dead, but that’s not important right? Only memories with Yuuna the Great would be important, right!? Heheheheh!” Yuuna snickered as she hugged Ako closer to her chest, “Really, I’m sorry about that!”
Ako wiped her tears, “Stupid stupid Yuuna.”
“Stupid Yuuna is right,” Yuuna agreed as she lay on the roof. She turned to look at the stars again, which continued to twinkle on this clear night. Truly, this was freedom. The shade of red on her face started to get more prominent as she hugged her dear friend. Ako had almost fallen asleep on Yuuna’s chest, but suddenly remembered something and took her gaze to Yuuna’s eyes.
“Eh? What is it?” Yuuna noticed how deeply Ako was gazing into her eyes, which only caused the redness to become even more prominent.
Ako started tapping her finger on Yuuna’s forehead, which caused slight annoyance to the darker-haired girl but she ended up not minding anyway, “Why?”
“Wha--? Why what!?”
“You do all these things for me and I never did a thing to you before…why is that?” Ako asked, her eyes were large and round, like a puppy’s eyes. Yuuna gulped as she was faced by the cutest thing she had seen since the baby pictures of her father.
Yuuna started, “W-well…I uh…uhm…”
“Is there a reason?” Ako continued, wondering.
“…do you have a dream, Ako?” Yuuna asked, settling down.
“…a dream?”
The brunette nodded, “Yeah…a dream. See, when I was out there…I didn’t have a dream really. I always worried about the present, and cared about what would happen the next minute. I lived my life day-by-day, and never acknowledged the future. It was almost as if I knew that I had no future…”
Ako blinked, feeling the sincere depth coming from Yuuna once again, “…and that’s what happened, all because I never thought about the future. I went and did something…so vile, and now I am here. It hurts me…hurts me a lot because of that because of what I did. I was only thinking that he wouldn’t be there tomorrow, not so much as the long-term effects…”
Yuuna continued on, “And I had so many regrets too. I wish I spent more them with dad, or at least tried somewhat in school and spent more time with Akira as well! But then I went and did that…my regrets ended there. I mean the act…I regretted, but that damned feeling of hatred lurked within me…so much that I was actually glad that he was dead. I really wanted to feel remorse or something, but there was nothing within me like that, just emptiness.”
“…emptiness…that came because I didn’t have a dream, I did not have a goal to strive for. Now that I’m in here…I can never have a dream because I don’t have the ability to fulfill one anymore. I threw away my chances,” Yuuna looked up to gaze back at Ako’s eyes, “But you…you’re an incredible person, Ako. You could become a doctor, or a rockstar, or even a soccer pro, things many people dream about, but you’re already on the road towards them. You even saved Akira’s life…and for your chance…your dreams to be stripped away like that for no reason…something like that should not happen.”
Ako watched as her friend continued, “I already threw away my chance, so at the very least…at the very least I should try to restore your chance, Ako…because you’re going to grow up to be something great one day…and if I could preserve that…I would know that maybe I redeemed myself for what I did…at least…slightly. I would not have that feeling of emptiness anymore because maybe my own dream is for yours to succeed…”
The inmate was speechless, “Y-Y-Yuuna…”
“I suppose that isn’t the entire reason…” Yuuna started to embrace her cellmate closer, “but that’s all for today, I guess!” She grinned, teasing the girl.
Ako shook her head, “But I want to hear more!”
“Now, now, don’t be like Asakura.”
“What if…what if I DO know the r-rest of your reason?” Ako taunted, her face slowly closing into Yuuna’s.
“Ehh? What do you mean!?” Yuuna gulped once again.
Ako raised an eyebrow, “I did hear your conversation with Asakura the other night, you know…”
“Ohh…well, uh, that conversation is invalid!” Yuuna crossed her arms to make an X, “BEEP! INVALID! BEEP!”
Ako giggled, “I know the reason, right?”
“Uh…uhhh…maybe?” Yuuna turned to stare at something else, not wanting to make eye contact as her face started to get ridiculously red.
“I don’t understand why you’re shying away from the topic,” Ako said, resting her head on Yuuna’s extremely comfortable chest.
The brunette gritted her teeth, “Well, uh…you see…you probably won’t really like me if I were… you know…I’d be…even more despicable than before!”
“Hm, you remind me of that Setsuna girl who’s always with Officer Konoe,” Ako thought for a moment, picturing the two in her head and the girl stuttering.
Yuuna started to shake a bit, “You don’t seem the least bit shocked…Ako…”
“Well, I was when I first found out, and I’m kind of surprised that I even brought that up,” Ako started to turn red herself, “…for some reason I don’t mind, and I don’t know why.”
“Is it because you realize the awesomeness of Yuuna?” The brunette suddenly stated, “Heheheh. Just kidding.”
Ako continued to stare into Yuuna’s eyes, whose pupils drifted into Ako’s ruby orbs as well. They were in that stance for a long time, almost three or four minutes as they slowly started growing closer and closer until their noses touched.
“ESKIMO KISS ARUYO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Yuuna and Ako jumped into each other as they heard a third voice, their eyes as big as dinner plates and their mouths big enough to swallow five watermelons whole. They started to tumble down the roof, but luckily the owner of that third voice stopped them from falling off the roof entirely.
“KUU! WHY THE HELL DIDN’T YOU KNOCK!?” Yuuna was infuriated, “You almost KILLED US!”
Ku Fei looked blank, “Eh? There no door, aru.”
“Er…why didn’t you make sure we knew you were there?” Ako asked, her heart still racing insanely fast.
“I did, aru…by screaming.”
Yuuna twitched, “Why did you SCREAM, Master Kuu!?”
“I always wanted to scream Eskimo kiss, aruka,” Ku Fei explained. She looked at the two blankly, and they were still holding each other, “Did I do bad, aru?”
The brunette sighed, “Never mind, Kuu…so why are you here anyway?”
“Oh! My shift over, aru! Who take over?”
Yuuna looked around, and noticed that the night was still quiet despite their erratic noise, “Eh, I guess I’ll go. Ako, it’s late. You should go to bed.”
Ku Fei’s eyebrows was nudging up and down, “I think I understand why you hugging each other now, aru.” She grinned.
“Oh silly and misunderstood Kuu…” Yuuna started, “I am obviously shielding Ako from the great dangers of your horrible screams and yells! Is that a bad thing?”
“Then why not cover ears?” Ku Fei asked.
“Oh, there you go again being your poor misguided self!” Yuuna said, “Ako can hear from her whole body!”
The blonde scratched her head for a minute, “Why…THAT AMAZING, ARU!”
“Err…Yuuna…” Ako was a little stunned by the brunette’s rather ridiculous lie in which Ku Fei actually believed.
The Chinese girl bowed in honour, with her palms together, “I apologize! To make up for scream, I go take extra shift! You take care of poor Ako, aru!” She leapt off the roof onto the other buildings back towards the tower.
Yuuna sat back down onto the roof, watching the girl jump away, “Huh…I guess we got more time here.” The moon continued to shine like it had been for the entire night, but it strangely enough started to shine just a little more on the two girls sitting on the roof.
Ako yawned, “I’m kind of tired…”
“We could sleep here, you know,” Yuuna winked, her grin was reflecting the moonlight.
“But what if I slip?” Ako asked, a little worried on the roof.
Yuuna pulled Ako into another embrace, “Then I’ll hold you and make sure you don’t slip. Besides, summer is too hot to be sleeping in some tiny room inside…”
Ako felt the unbelievable warmth from Yuuna’s body as she rested on the girl’s chest, her face starting to glow red. Yuuna closed her eyes as well, her face equally giving off a shine of red that rivalled the moon in luminent power. She felt herself drift away in slumber with her arms wrapped around the body of her love. She hoped to dream of something that she could do with Ako that couldn’t happen in reality, such as going to the amusement park with her on a romantic boat ride…
“Put your hands up now!”
Her eyes instantly snapped open, as the glaring shine of a flashlight stung her eyes. Several police officers were coming out of the opening to the top floor of the building and Ako was still asleep, apparently in deep slumber. Yuuna jolted up on her feet, picking up Ako bridal style, which caused the girl to wake up.
“Ehhh? What’s going on Yuuna…”
Yuuna replied, “Shhhh…”
“Put your hands up now! This is an order, or we will shoot!”
“Hey Ako…remember when you said I looked like someone looking for adventure?” Yuuna asked.
“Uh…yeah, but why are you talking about that now?” Ako responded with a question of her own, noticing the cops finally.
Yuuna turned and started running towards the corner of the roof, “Well I’m going on an adventure nooooooow!”
“Fire! Fire now!” A string of bullets started flying in the air towards the two girls, and Yuuna found herself at a dead end. She stared at the distanced ground below.
“Shall we jump, Ako?” Yuuna grinned, looking down.
Ako’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates again, “ARE YOU…”
They leapt off the roof.
“…CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY!?!?!?!”
The two girls started to fall for a rather lengthy period of time. Yuuna held onto Ako tightly as they plummeted head first towards the ground, about to go splat. Ako was especially panicky. They finally landed as they fell into a large garbage bin, which miraculously broke their fall. Yuuna was lying under Ako, who had landed on the girl herself. She poked her head out of the waste and climbed out, helping her cellmate.
“Ewwww, we stink,” Yuuna remarked, staring at herself.
“Why did you do something so unbelievably reckess, Yuuna!?!?! We could have been killed!” Ako started to scold her cellmate.
Yuuna chuckled, “I knew the garbage bin was there so I figured if we landed in it we wouldn’t die and be able to escape! Besides, I broke your fall with my own body!”
“We also stink, so the cops will be able to smell us.”
“…TO THE SHOWERS!” Yuuna pointed.
Ako shook her head, “No! No! Not the showers, that’s too predictable! If you really want to run from them I mean!”
“Then let’s go this way!” Yuuna grabbed Ako’s hand and started dragging her around yet again. She dived behind walls several times as she heard several suspicious sounds. Yuuna was mostly trying to head for the main gate that led back outside but she stopped short when she noticed several police officers standing around the entrance. Yuuna turned and ran towards a different direction, not knowing what to do. They cops had probably come in when Ku Fei was talking to them, which was why they were not informed of incoming cops. She had hoped the others were able to escape as she and Ako continued running as fast as possible.
“Yuuna! Why don’t we just give ourselves uuuuuup!?” Ako asked while running. Yuuna turned her head to beam at the inmate.
“It’s much funner to run and see how long they take to catch us, isn’t it? If they can, that is,” She explained as she quickened her pace, only to screech to a stop as a few cops held up their guns in front of her, “Oh shit!”
Ako gulped as both she and Yuuna stepped backwards from the impending officers, “Put your hands up and get on the ground, now!”
Yuuna turned and saw an opening, and quickly grabbed Ako’s hand to dart through a thin trail on the yard, “Isn’t this just a little dangerous, Yuuna!?” Ako cried out as she ran with the brunette. They heard several gunshots behind them.
“DUCK!” Yuuna called as she pushed Ako’s head down as well as her own. Several bullets flew over their heads as they tumbled onto the ground. Four officers came jumping onto them as they were vulnerable on the ground, and so they both found themselves handcuffed and pinned down.
“We caught two more inmates,” the officer said to his radio, “They’re a bit battered and smell for some reason but are mostly unharmed.”
A voice replied from the radio, “Oh good! I wouldn’t want anybody hurt, even the bad guys! Teehee, take them to the cars, Seruhiko-kun!” It sounded very similar to Officer Konoe.
Yuuna sighed, exhausted, “See? Going down the hard way…much funner.”
Ako smiled, “If you say so, Yuuna, if you say so…but uhm, we almost got our heads blown off.”
“It is that risk that makes this so thrilling, Ako!” Yuuna grinned. They got dragged off the ground by the officers and were taken carefully towards the entrance. Ako saw a few other inmates already caught, which actually pleased Yuuna.
“Hahaha! We were the last ones caught! We win!” Yuuna boasted.
Chisame grumbled, “Oh shut up, who was the one looking out anyway? Wasn’t it supposed to be you!?”
“Oh, it me, aru,” Ku Fei spoke up, “I run back to tower point but it too late, cops flowing in, aruyo! I sorry!”
“It’s alright,” Yuuna grinned. She turned to face Makie, who still looked slightly down, “Hey uh, sorry for yelling at you earlier, Maki-chan…”
Makie shook her head, “Think nothing of it Yuu-chan! I was being my usual stupid self!”
“Well, Makie can be very insightful at times,” Ako said, “so don’t worry too much about it, okay, Makie?”
“Yes ma’am! I would salute but my hands are behind my back!” Makie smiled joyfully, “I would also hug you too, but sadly! In fact, we should all have a GROUP HUG if we could move our arms!”
Chisame rolled her eyes, “There’s no point in bringing it up if we can’t even do it.”
“It too bad we no can go into city for meatbun or ice cream or pancake, aru,” Ku Fei added as her stomach growled.
The inmate Setsuna Sakurazaki walked up towards the ones that had recently been caught, “Ah, it seems you were the ones still hanging around here…”
“I wonder how some cops managed to come back…weren’t they all busy with the escapees outside?” Ako asked.
“Actually, they amazingly managed to capture over ninety percent of the escapees already,” Setsuna explained, “Either that’s some amazing police force or those inmates are dumber than I thought…”
Officer Konoe jumped into the arms of Setsuna, “Secchan! I’m glad you’re safe!”
“No, Ojou-sama, I’m glad you’re safe! Thankfully I managed to protect you from becoming a hostage by those inmates. I do hope Officer Oukouchi recovers well, how unfortunate for her to have sustained such attack…”
Yuuna overheard the conversation, “Oh? Will Akira be okay?”
“Yes, she came out of surgery successfully…for some reason asked me to thank Izumi-san,” Setsuna explained, “Did she do something?”
Ako spoke up a little nervously, “Ah…I thought she was unconscious when I did that…”
“She was, but I bet she heard you,” Yuuna smiled, “Ako here saved Akira’s life! Isn’t she just great!?”
Makie thought for a moment, searching through her memories, “Oh! I remember when I was young and Ako always put bandaids on my scraped knees! By the way, is Papa okay?”
“Er, I believe she is…” Setsuna explained.
“Yay! We’re all happy in the end!” Makie leapt into the air, throwing the officer who was holding her backwards.
Chisame growled, “Oi, we got caught…that isn’t happy at all.”
“No, but we had fun, right!?” Makie widened her very massive smile.
Ako nodded, “Yeah! We did!”
“I had fun too, aru! Eat so much food from lunchroom and play hopscotch with Makie, aruyo!” Ku Fei agreed.
“I suppose seeing the net after such a long time is a good thing,” Chisame reluctantly added.
Yuuna shouted, “Then of course it’s happy! Besides, not all things can go our way!” She turned to face Ako, “…right, Ako?”
“Y-yeah…”
She flashed a soft smile as the sun started to rise in the east. The rays of light shone brighter and brighter as the minute went by, and even though there had been nothing but war up to this point, something felt renewed in Ako’s mind as she looked up at the clouds of the sky…
END OF PART EIGHTEEN
It was a moonlit night, partly because no one knew how to turn on the lights in the control room, but regardless the moon illuminated every inch of space throughout the practically empty detention centre. There was nothing but silence within the prison, and only the faint sounds of howling wolves or hooting owls could be heard from the outside. The walls stood extremely high and was very much involved in keeping those in and those out, but unfortunately this time those it had to keep in were no longer there. Now they were out in the world terrorizing the innocent and vulnerable with what malicious intent they have, perhaps revenge, or perhaps just because that was their chosen lifestyle. The moon shone brightly over the institution as many were asleep, but there was one sound still rattling out against the heavy walls of the yard…footsteps.
“Where are we going, Yuuna-san!? What could possibly be so wonderful inside this place!?” Ako called as she was being dragged by her cellmate through the yard towards a large building on the otherside. Her wrist was within the grip of Yuuna, who seemed to be in a great rush heading towards their destination.
“You’ll see, you’ll see!” Yuuna grinned as she quickened her pace, but Ako did not understand why they were even running.
Ako looked up in the sky to see this larger-than-usual moon as she ran with her cellmate towards a tall building. Ako assumed it must’ve been the tallest one in the facility, and Yuuna threw open the door as she ran in. They had encountered some stairs on their way and gladly took them, as fast as they can as if it were some sort of marathon. Finally, they reached the top floor and Yuuna approached a room labelled: Showers.
“Ehhh!? W-w-we’re going in t-t-there!? But Yuuna-san, we just had one this m-m-morning and I’m not d-d-dirty at all!” Ako cried as Yuuna dragged her closer to that door, her face was as red as an ambulance light.
The brunette turned to glance at Ako, smiling, “Don’t be silly Ako!”
She suddenly jumped onto a ladder attached to the wall, and climbed up. Ako was bewildered, but followed as the inmate quickly ascended to the top. She started to turn some sort of knob to an opening, and lifted it up, but it seemed heavy. Yuuna’s strength did its job and Yuuna climbed outside. Her arm retreated back inside though.
“Here, let me lend you a hand, heh!” Yuuna quickly helped her cellmate climb up towards the top, where she emerged onto the roof of one very tall building.
“You wanted to show me the roof!?” Ako exclaimed.
Yuuna chuckled, “Ah, sort of! Here, come with me.” She gave her hand to Ako, who hesitated, but as she looked up she saw the cheery face of her friend, and took her hand. They carefully manoeuvred towards a certain spot on the roof, and Yuuna took her seat. She was about to let go of Ako’s hand.
“AHHH! DON’T LET ME GO!” Ako yelled, almost falling off the roof.
“Ahahaha, if you don’t panic you won’t fall!” Yuuna explained. She pulled Ako towards her who fell onto her behind, also sitting down though not in the way she would have preferred. The inmate rubbed her bottom in a bit of pain.
Yuuna looked down at the ground, which seemed incredibly far away from where they were, “You’re not afraid of heights, are you Ako?”
“Oh no, I only have the unanimous fear of falling splat on the ground is all,” She explained, also looking down, “Of course you inmates probably don’t…”
“Eh?” Yuuna raised an eyebrow, “Why is that?”
Ako looked down at her knees, “Well people are always going about fear as weakness, so I just thought…”
“No, no, no. They only mean fear as in being in here…everybody is afraid of falling to their deaths!” Yuuna laughed, “It’s nooormal!”
Ako sighed, finally relaxing onto the roof now that she didn’t feel that she was slipping. She saw Yuuna lie onto her back, and she motioned for Ako to do so also. Ako slowly put herself into the same position as Yuuna, but much more slowly due to her fear of going splat into the ground. Finally she was lying down next to her cellmate.
“So what was it you wanted to show me?” Ako asked, her hand tightening on Yuuna’s as she was still nervous in being so high up.
Yuuna noticed that her hand was still holding onto Ako’s and the slightest tinge of red marked itself on Yuuna’s face. She finally managed to point up at the sky, “There.”
Up in the sky were millions of stars as far as the eye could see. It was such a huge number of blinking lights that it caused Ako to open her mouth in awe. She had never seen such a view before. Obviously she had seen stars many times, but they were never as spectacular as they were here. Each star twinkled in the night differently, never boring someone who would be watching. The moon looked like it was the guardian of all the stars, shining the brightest in its full glory but not too much that the stars wouldn’t appear like the sun would do.
“Wow…it’s beautiful,” Ako remarked, trying to find some constellations.
Yuuna nodded, “I know, and because all the lights are off there’s even more that can be seen…so even I haven’t seen so much before.”
“Who knew such a sight could be seen at this area?” The light-haired girl continued to watch each star twinkle, and smiled.
Her cellmate started, “Can you see the ground or even the horizon at all, Ako? When you’re looking up?”
“No…I can’t see them at all…it’s like I’m not even in a prison…”
“Exactly,” Yuuna continued, “If we were to escape, we’d have to turn our heads all the time to see behind us so we wouldn’t get recaptured…or worse. We’d be burdened by such a worry constantly, so it wouldn’t really feel like freedom…”
“I see, but here you can imagine yourself atop a hill or on a house’s balcony,” Ako said, understanding.
The brunette nodded, “Yes…that’s what I feel is…true freedom.”
“Amazing…” Ako turned to face her cellmate, “You know Yuuna-san…I never knew you were a deep type of person.”
“Ehhh!? What’s that supposed to mean!?” Yuuna exclaimed, gawking at the girl.
Ako shook her head wildly, “No! I mean you just seem more like a goofy playful girl looking for adventure, not so much someone who could see past just the physical side of life! I’m not saying you’re shallow or anything!”
“So, you’re saying I’m simpleminded?” The brunette was not amused.
“Ahh! No! No! You misunderstand!” Now Ako’s hands were shaking in front of her face wildly.
Yuuna chuckled, “Nah, I get what you saying. Heheh, I guess that’s what I am to most people anyway, some girl who likes having fun.” She bonked Ako on the head for her amusing reaction.
“Well…I suppose that’s who you are on the surface…” Ako started, rubbing her head.
“Eh? What do you mean?” Yuuna’s curiosity was piqued.
Ako chuckled, “I don’t know…you’re a more than that, from what I’ve seen anyway…you’re more complex than just that. I mean, you’re always looking out for me, protecting me and being with me. You may disagree with a lot with Asakura but you seem like close friends with her too and everybody else. You’re really confident and you would do anything for me it seems…it’s kind of hard to believe that you’ve…”
“…killed someone?” Yuuna finished for the girl, her smile no longer there but she didn’t look sad either. She urged for her companion to continue.
Ako nodded, staring deeply at her knees, “Well, I’ve seen you angry before too and…it’s kind of uh…scary…”
Yuuna closed her eyes, smiling, “Yeah, yeah I know. I guess I’ll have to do something about that, heh.”
“And I guess what you did resulted from that, but…even so, you yelled at Makie, which wasn’t nice at all!” Ako reminded the brunette, who turned and pouted.
“Alright, alright! I’ll apologize to Makie…geez, how did your praises for me get to scolding?” She said, but decided to laugh it off anyway.
Ako giggled at Yuuna’s reaction, “Oh, I’m just saying you’re not perfect, like everybody else! I mean, I know such a wonderful person in a place like this. I used to think people like you were completely despicable…”
“A reasonable assumption,” Yuuna interrupted, “I mean if you were out there instead of here, with all us lowlifes crawling around…you can’t just suddenly befriend us! For the sake of your safety that is a valid generalization.”
“Oh, I’m not stupid, Yuuna-san!” Ako said, “I wouldn’t do that!”
Yuuna grinned, “Good, but you know I’m better than them, right? Heheheh, just a little?” She had hoped, staring into Ako’s eyes with her arrogant smirk.
“Yep, just a little though.”
“Good enough!” Yuuna suddenly turned her head, and whipped it back to face Ako, “Or AM I!?”
“EEEEHHH!?” Ako almost jumped off the roof as she saw Yuuna’s sinister face.
Yuuna laughed evilly, “MWAHAHAHAHA! I have tricked you and cornered you on the roof, Ako Izumi! Today is the day you die! HAHAHAHAHA!” She leaned closer to Ako, pinning her on the roof. Ako’s eyes were never wider than before as she cried out for her life. Yuuna raised her arm as if to strike her.
“Your torture is this!” Yuuna yelled and started to tickle the inmate continuously.
“AHAHAHAA! Stop it Yuuna! HAhahaa! This is…this is…no! Don’t! Yuuuuuuna-saaan! Hahahaha!”
Yuuna finally stopped, still smiling, “I was just kidding, Ako! You should have seen the look of your face! Hehehe.”
“That was really mean!” Ako pouted uncharacteristically.
“Oh c’mon, it was just a joke!” Yuuna was still amused by what she had done.
Ako turned to face Yuuna, her eyes were sparkling with tears, “If…if…if w-w-what you s-s-said was t-t-true…I would h-h-have been devastated!” She suddenly lunged at Yuuna, burying her face into the girl’s chest, her arms wrapped around her body.
“Hey, if it hurt you that bad then I’m sorry,” Yuuna said, “Geez, a little too serious aren’t ya?”
The younger girl shook her head, “B-b-but if it w-were true…then…t-then not o-only would…I be s-s-s-shocked…k-knowing that everything y-y-you’ve done for me m-meant nothing would h-have…t-t-t-tore me a-apart!”
“You’d also be dead, but that’s not important right? Only memories with Yuuna the Great would be important, right!? Heheheheh!” Yuuna snickered as she hugged Ako closer to her chest, “Really, I’m sorry about that!”
Ako wiped her tears, “Stupid stupid Yuuna.”
“Stupid Yuuna is right,” Yuuna agreed as she lay on the roof. She turned to look at the stars again, which continued to twinkle on this clear night. Truly, this was freedom. The shade of red on her face started to get more prominent as she hugged her dear friend. Ako had almost fallen asleep on Yuuna’s chest, but suddenly remembered something and took her gaze to Yuuna’s eyes.
“Eh? What is it?” Yuuna noticed how deeply Ako was gazing into her eyes, which only caused the redness to become even more prominent.
Ako started tapping her finger on Yuuna’s forehead, which caused slight annoyance to the darker-haired girl but she ended up not minding anyway, “Why?”
“Wha--? Why what!?”
“You do all these things for me and I never did a thing to you before…why is that?” Ako asked, her eyes were large and round, like a puppy’s eyes. Yuuna gulped as she was faced by the cutest thing she had seen since the baby pictures of her father.
Yuuna started, “W-well…I uh…uhm…”
“Is there a reason?” Ako continued, wondering.
“…do you have a dream, Ako?” Yuuna asked, settling down.
“…a dream?”
The brunette nodded, “Yeah…a dream. See, when I was out there…I didn’t have a dream really. I always worried about the present, and cared about what would happen the next minute. I lived my life day-by-day, and never acknowledged the future. It was almost as if I knew that I had no future…”
Ako blinked, feeling the sincere depth coming from Yuuna once again, “…and that’s what happened, all because I never thought about the future. I went and did something…so vile, and now I am here. It hurts me…hurts me a lot because of that because of what I did. I was only thinking that he wouldn’t be there tomorrow, not so much as the long-term effects…”
Yuuna continued on, “And I had so many regrets too. I wish I spent more them with dad, or at least tried somewhat in school and spent more time with Akira as well! But then I went and did that…my regrets ended there. I mean the act…I regretted, but that damned feeling of hatred lurked within me…so much that I was actually glad that he was dead. I really wanted to feel remorse or something, but there was nothing within me like that, just emptiness.”
“…emptiness…that came because I didn’t have a dream, I did not have a goal to strive for. Now that I’m in here…I can never have a dream because I don’t have the ability to fulfill one anymore. I threw away my chances,” Yuuna looked up to gaze back at Ako’s eyes, “But you…you’re an incredible person, Ako. You could become a doctor, or a rockstar, or even a soccer pro, things many people dream about, but you’re already on the road towards them. You even saved Akira’s life…and for your chance…your dreams to be stripped away like that for no reason…something like that should not happen.”
Ako watched as her friend continued, “I already threw away my chance, so at the very least…at the very least I should try to restore your chance, Ako…because you’re going to grow up to be something great one day…and if I could preserve that…I would know that maybe I redeemed myself for what I did…at least…slightly. I would not have that feeling of emptiness anymore because maybe my own dream is for yours to succeed…”
The inmate was speechless, “Y-Y-Yuuna…”
“I suppose that isn’t the entire reason…” Yuuna started to embrace her cellmate closer, “but that’s all for today, I guess!” She grinned, teasing the girl.
Ako shook her head, “But I want to hear more!”
“Now, now, don’t be like Asakura.”
“What if…what if I DO know the r-rest of your reason?” Ako taunted, her face slowly closing into Yuuna’s.
“Ehh? What do you mean!?” Yuuna gulped once again.
Ako raised an eyebrow, “I did hear your conversation with Asakura the other night, you know…”
“Ohh…well, uh, that conversation is invalid!” Yuuna crossed her arms to make an X, “BEEP! INVALID! BEEP!”
Ako giggled, “I know the reason, right?”
“Uh…uhhh…maybe?” Yuuna turned to stare at something else, not wanting to make eye contact as her face started to get ridiculously red.
“I don’t understand why you’re shying away from the topic,” Ako said, resting her head on Yuuna’s extremely comfortable chest.
The brunette gritted her teeth, “Well, uh…you see…you probably won’t really like me if I were… you know…I’d be…even more despicable than before!”
“Hm, you remind me of that Setsuna girl who’s always with Officer Konoe,” Ako thought for a moment, picturing the two in her head and the girl stuttering.
Yuuna started to shake a bit, “You don’t seem the least bit shocked…Ako…”
“Well, I was when I first found out, and I’m kind of surprised that I even brought that up,” Ako started to turn red herself, “…for some reason I don’t mind, and I don’t know why.”
“Is it because you realize the awesomeness of Yuuna?” The brunette suddenly stated, “Heheheh. Just kidding.”
Ako continued to stare into Yuuna’s eyes, whose pupils drifted into Ako’s ruby orbs as well. They were in that stance for a long time, almost three or four minutes as they slowly started growing closer and closer until their noses touched.
“ESKIMO KISS ARUYO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Yuuna and Ako jumped into each other as they heard a third voice, their eyes as big as dinner plates and their mouths big enough to swallow five watermelons whole. They started to tumble down the roof, but luckily the owner of that third voice stopped them from falling off the roof entirely.
“KUU! WHY THE HELL DIDN’T YOU KNOCK!?” Yuuna was infuriated, “You almost KILLED US!”
Ku Fei looked blank, “Eh? There no door, aru.”
“Er…why didn’t you make sure we knew you were there?” Ako asked, her heart still racing insanely fast.
“I did, aru…by screaming.”
Yuuna twitched, “Why did you SCREAM, Master Kuu!?”
“I always wanted to scream Eskimo kiss, aruka,” Ku Fei explained. She looked at the two blankly, and they were still holding each other, “Did I do bad, aru?”
The brunette sighed, “Never mind, Kuu…so why are you here anyway?”
“Oh! My shift over, aru! Who take over?”
Yuuna looked around, and noticed that the night was still quiet despite their erratic noise, “Eh, I guess I’ll go. Ako, it’s late. You should go to bed.”
Ku Fei’s eyebrows was nudging up and down, “I think I understand why you hugging each other now, aru.” She grinned.
“Oh silly and misunderstood Kuu…” Yuuna started, “I am obviously shielding Ako from the great dangers of your horrible screams and yells! Is that a bad thing?”
“Then why not cover ears?” Ku Fei asked.
“Oh, there you go again being your poor misguided self!” Yuuna said, “Ako can hear from her whole body!”
The blonde scratched her head for a minute, “Why…THAT AMAZING, ARU!”
“Err…Yuuna…” Ako was a little stunned by the brunette’s rather ridiculous lie in which Ku Fei actually believed.
The Chinese girl bowed in honour, with her palms together, “I apologize! To make up for scream, I go take extra shift! You take care of poor Ako, aru!” She leapt off the roof onto the other buildings back towards the tower.
Yuuna sat back down onto the roof, watching the girl jump away, “Huh…I guess we got more time here.” The moon continued to shine like it had been for the entire night, but it strangely enough started to shine just a little more on the two girls sitting on the roof.
Ako yawned, “I’m kind of tired…”
“We could sleep here, you know,” Yuuna winked, her grin was reflecting the moonlight.
“But what if I slip?” Ako asked, a little worried on the roof.
Yuuna pulled Ako into another embrace, “Then I’ll hold you and make sure you don’t slip. Besides, summer is too hot to be sleeping in some tiny room inside…”
Ako felt the unbelievable warmth from Yuuna’s body as she rested on the girl’s chest, her face starting to glow red. Yuuna closed her eyes as well, her face equally giving off a shine of red that rivalled the moon in luminent power. She felt herself drift away in slumber with her arms wrapped around the body of her love. She hoped to dream of something that she could do with Ako that couldn’t happen in reality, such as going to the amusement park with her on a romantic boat ride…
“Put your hands up now!”
Her eyes instantly snapped open, as the glaring shine of a flashlight stung her eyes. Several police officers were coming out of the opening to the top floor of the building and Ako was still asleep, apparently in deep slumber. Yuuna jolted up on her feet, picking up Ako bridal style, which caused the girl to wake up.
“Ehhh? What’s going on Yuuna…”
Yuuna replied, “Shhhh…”
“Put your hands up now! This is an order, or we will shoot!”
“Hey Ako…remember when you said I looked like someone looking for adventure?” Yuuna asked.
“Uh…yeah, but why are you talking about that now?” Ako responded with a question of her own, noticing the cops finally.
Yuuna turned and started running towards the corner of the roof, “Well I’m going on an adventure nooooooow!”
“Fire! Fire now!” A string of bullets started flying in the air towards the two girls, and Yuuna found herself at a dead end. She stared at the distanced ground below.
“Shall we jump, Ako?” Yuuna grinned, looking down.
Ako’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates again, “ARE YOU…”
They leapt off the roof.
“…CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY!?!?!?!”
The two girls started to fall for a rather lengthy period of time. Yuuna held onto Ako tightly as they plummeted head first towards the ground, about to go splat. Ako was especially panicky. They finally landed as they fell into a large garbage bin, which miraculously broke their fall. Yuuna was lying under Ako, who had landed on the girl herself. She poked her head out of the waste and climbed out, helping her cellmate.
“Ewwww, we stink,” Yuuna remarked, staring at herself.
“Why did you do something so unbelievably reckess, Yuuna!?!?! We could have been killed!” Ako started to scold her cellmate.
Yuuna chuckled, “I knew the garbage bin was there so I figured if we landed in it we wouldn’t die and be able to escape! Besides, I broke your fall with my own body!”
“We also stink, so the cops will be able to smell us.”
“…TO THE SHOWERS!” Yuuna pointed.
Ako shook her head, “No! No! Not the showers, that’s too predictable! If you really want to run from them I mean!”
“Then let’s go this way!” Yuuna grabbed Ako’s hand and started dragging her around yet again. She dived behind walls several times as she heard several suspicious sounds. Yuuna was mostly trying to head for the main gate that led back outside but she stopped short when she noticed several police officers standing around the entrance. Yuuna turned and ran towards a different direction, not knowing what to do. They cops had probably come in when Ku Fei was talking to them, which was why they were not informed of incoming cops. She had hoped the others were able to escape as she and Ako continued running as fast as possible.
“Yuuna! Why don’t we just give ourselves uuuuuup!?” Ako asked while running. Yuuna turned her head to beam at the inmate.
“It’s much funner to run and see how long they take to catch us, isn’t it? If they can, that is,” She explained as she quickened her pace, only to screech to a stop as a few cops held up their guns in front of her, “Oh shit!”
Ako gulped as both she and Yuuna stepped backwards from the impending officers, “Put your hands up and get on the ground, now!”
Yuuna turned and saw an opening, and quickly grabbed Ako’s hand to dart through a thin trail on the yard, “Isn’t this just a little dangerous, Yuuna!?” Ako cried out as she ran with the brunette. They heard several gunshots behind them.
“DUCK!” Yuuna called as she pushed Ako’s head down as well as her own. Several bullets flew over their heads as they tumbled onto the ground. Four officers came jumping onto them as they were vulnerable on the ground, and so they both found themselves handcuffed and pinned down.
“We caught two more inmates,” the officer said to his radio, “They’re a bit battered and smell for some reason but are mostly unharmed.”
A voice replied from the radio, “Oh good! I wouldn’t want anybody hurt, even the bad guys! Teehee, take them to the cars, Seruhiko-kun!” It sounded very similar to Officer Konoe.
Yuuna sighed, exhausted, “See? Going down the hard way…much funner.”
Ako smiled, “If you say so, Yuuna, if you say so…but uhm, we almost got our heads blown off.”
“It is that risk that makes this so thrilling, Ako!” Yuuna grinned. They got dragged off the ground by the officers and were taken carefully towards the entrance. Ako saw a few other inmates already caught, which actually pleased Yuuna.
“Hahaha! We were the last ones caught! We win!” Yuuna boasted.
Chisame grumbled, “Oh shut up, who was the one looking out anyway? Wasn’t it supposed to be you!?”
“Oh, it me, aru,” Ku Fei spoke up, “I run back to tower point but it too late, cops flowing in, aruyo! I sorry!”
“It’s alright,” Yuuna grinned. She turned to face Makie, who still looked slightly down, “Hey uh, sorry for yelling at you earlier, Maki-chan…”
Makie shook her head, “Think nothing of it Yuu-chan! I was being my usual stupid self!”
“Well, Makie can be very insightful at times,” Ako said, “so don’t worry too much about it, okay, Makie?”
“Yes ma’am! I would salute but my hands are behind my back!” Makie smiled joyfully, “I would also hug you too, but sadly! In fact, we should all have a GROUP HUG if we could move our arms!”
Chisame rolled her eyes, “There’s no point in bringing it up if we can’t even do it.”
“It too bad we no can go into city for meatbun or ice cream or pancake, aru,” Ku Fei added as her stomach growled.
The inmate Setsuna Sakurazaki walked up towards the ones that had recently been caught, “Ah, it seems you were the ones still hanging around here…”
“I wonder how some cops managed to come back…weren’t they all busy with the escapees outside?” Ako asked.
“Actually, they amazingly managed to capture over ninety percent of the escapees already,” Setsuna explained, “Either that’s some amazing police force or those inmates are dumber than I thought…”
Officer Konoe jumped into the arms of Setsuna, “Secchan! I’m glad you’re safe!”
“No, Ojou-sama, I’m glad you’re safe! Thankfully I managed to protect you from becoming a hostage by those inmates. I do hope Officer Oukouchi recovers well, how unfortunate for her to have sustained such attack…”
Yuuna overheard the conversation, “Oh? Will Akira be okay?”
“Yes, she came out of surgery successfully…for some reason asked me to thank Izumi-san,” Setsuna explained, “Did she do something?”
Ako spoke up a little nervously, “Ah…I thought she was unconscious when I did that…”
“She was, but I bet she heard you,” Yuuna smiled, “Ako here saved Akira’s life! Isn’t she just great!?”
Makie thought for a moment, searching through her memories, “Oh! I remember when I was young and Ako always put bandaids on my scraped knees! By the way, is Papa okay?”
“Er, I believe she is…” Setsuna explained.
“Yay! We’re all happy in the end!” Makie leapt into the air, throwing the officer who was holding her backwards.
Chisame growled, “Oi, we got caught…that isn’t happy at all.”
“No, but we had fun, right!?” Makie widened her very massive smile.
Ako nodded, “Yeah! We did!”
“I had fun too, aru! Eat so much food from lunchroom and play hopscotch with Makie, aruyo!” Ku Fei agreed.
“I suppose seeing the net after such a long time is a good thing,” Chisame reluctantly added.
Yuuna shouted, “Then of course it’s happy! Besides, not all things can go our way!” She turned to face Ako, “…right, Ako?”
“Y-yeah…”
She flashed a soft smile as the sun started to rise in the east. The rays of light shone brighter and brighter as the minute went by, and even though there had been nothing but war up to this point, something felt renewed in Ako’s mind as she looked up at the clouds of the sky…
END OF PART EIGHTEEN
