"D-Danako-chan..?"
"Miu-chan, I can explain!"
"W-What....I..but that one time..when...we..how could you be so selfish, Danako-chan?!"
"Miu-chan! Wait!"
Before I knew it, I yelped and sat up in bed. My heart was pounding hard, my nostrils flared open as my breathing quickened, and my eyes were wide open. It was as if I had relived a shocking moment, but thankfully...it was only a dream...
"Oi, did you have a plot-relevant dream just now?"
"Huh?"
I looked to my left, and noticed Akio-san to my left. He was only standing a few feet away from where I slept, with his hands set against his hips and his lifeless gaze pouring down on me.
"Oh, good morning, Akio-san," I yawned as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, "I see you wake up early too."
"Too?" he spat, "idiot, everyone's already out of bed and ready for breakfast, while you're still bundled up in your kiddie blanket. Honestly, how did you always make it to school on time with that kind of sleeping habit? I bet you skipped class all the time, that's the only explanation. Tch. And here I thought you were an obedient well-mannered kid."
Again with the over-stretched insults. I guess it was his way of undermining people; instead of fighting with extreme language, long difficult-to-grasp-on-the-spot phrases was his thing. Then again, what he was saying was important.
"What are you saying? What time is it?"
"It's six in the morning."
"But that's when I usually wake up for school."
"Is it now?" he asked sarcastically, "well, we need to kick that habit out of you and shape you up to get up even earlier. Unless you want to starve to death during morning labor, you ought to wake up as soon as breakfast starts, or there won't even be anything for you to eat."
I swallowed. The mentioning of 'morning labor' was devastating enough. I'm not that strong physically to begin with, and now I have to do labor? Man, what a drag.
"Oi! Stop wasting time and get out of bed."
"Ah!" I exclaimed, "right." Without a second doubt, I threw the blanket and got to my slippers in an instant. I don't want to start my day on an empty stomach, especially with labor being the talk of the-
"Huh? Akio-san, you don't have a blanket."
Once I stood up, I had noticed that Akio-san didn't even have a blanket on his bed. It was odd how mine did.
"Oh, that? I knitted it out of some spare clothes I had. I did the same for Naoki and Hachirou too. You'll notice if you go over to their cell and have a closer look. You were shivering last night in your sleep. Dumbass guards forgot to hand you your extra clothes.
"Akio-san..." I guess I was right; I might eventually be okay. Akio-san was very generous to me, and...
"Don't dawdle! Let's go"
"Y-Yes sir!"
I walked over to the door. I noticed that it wasn't closed, but left slightly opened. Did the guards unlock it a few moments ago? Nevertheless, I opened the door, and both Akio-san and I walked outside. Kichirou-san and Alibaba-san were no where to be found in the opposite cell.
"Don't worry," Akio-san reassured me, "Naoki needs to go to his doctor and lawyer to check on his mental instability and unconfirmed jail sentence. Hachirou is fast, so he should have booked us seats and plates by now."
"Woah! You guys really are organized, aren't you?"
"We've been here for quite some time now. Now let's go!"
Before I knew it, Akio-san dashed straight out of the corridor. I had no choice but to follow as hard as my little feet could carry me. Once outside, there was a long spiral staircase in a circular room, which I assumed was one of the stairways that connected the cell rooms to one another. Akio-san ran downwards, while I caught up.
After several flights of stairs, we managed to make it to the bottom. Thanks to soccer practice, I managed to climb down without feeling too tired. Once on the ground floor, we made our way through the doorway and into the prison grounds. It was all dirt, with not even a sight of grass or greenery anywhere. I looked back at the cell block, and it was merely a big fat block of gray with small cylinders embedded in between, which were the stairways. Before me was the cafeteria block, which was just another block although slightly smaller and without the cylinders. There was nothing else aside from those two save for tall stone walls with wires set on top around the place. It’s depressing how everything here has the same color, except for the dirt maybe.
We rushed through the cafeteria building, which was composed of several small kitchens serving traffics of hungry prisoners. Those at the front in line were waiting impatiently to be served, while those at the back were fighting over positions and those who already got their plates were being assaulted by many others. The sight itself was terrifying.
“Crap!” sword Akio-san, “it’s crowded everywhere. At this rate, we might have to deal with Cafeteria number 13.”
“Why? What’s wrong with it?”
“They serve beans up till number 13. Anything above gets-" and before he could finish, Akio-san nearly vomited inside his mouth. "it's best you don't find out."
I'll be honest, I'm not fond of beans, but it's better than whatever could possibly force someone as bold as Akio-san to the point of hurling over. Sadly, our luck ratted out on us; all the cafeterias were full and we were forced to take a seat at cafeteria 18.
"God damnit!" I swore. I could smell the pungent stench of the mysterious concoction Akio-san had warned me about filling the room. It smelled like burnt rice...with expired milk mixed in with....the smell of recently-used toilets? Whatever it was, it was strong enough to make my stomach shrink back in fear.
"Where's Alibaba-san, Akio-san?"
"I believe Hachirou should be sitting at the far end of the cafeteria, behind one of the pillars."
We walked around, sleeves over our noses to somehow try to filter the scent, and found Alibaba-san at a large table for four with four trays on them. "Oi!" he called to us while waving his hand, a wide smile across his face.
"Take a good look!" he said as he gestured with his hands over the plates of brown beans, "you're welcome. I guess I'm too awesome, huh?"
"Nice work, Hichirou," Akio-san praised him with a slight streak across his face.
It was odd. This was Alibaba-san, but he felt...different.
"Alibaba-san, you seem different today," I asked.
"Oh, you're that new kid," he muttered, "well, I suppose you didn't get to see the real me. I was too tired yesterday since I had to do overtime for attempting to pull down the jailor's panties again."
"Panties?! You pull down panties?"
"For a living too. I sell them online. I go for all the ladies, no matter how old or young. Force of habit I guess."
I...didn't need to know that. Did Alibaba-san get jailed for...being a pervert? I don't know. He seemed pretty calm yesterday, but now he seems eccentric and off-the-rocker crazy about girls. Still, I can't blame him; I guess we're somewhat alike in a sense.
"Alright, boys. Let's chow d-"
He was interrupted by a blow to the face, knocking him off his feet. In a flash, four figures grabbed the plates and munched down on our portions of bean.
"Hey!" I yelled, "c-cut it out, you p-p-punks!" my voice wasn't coarse; I'm not used to shouting out like that, no matter how annoyed I was.
"Get lost, you shits!" shouted the shortest of the four. His voice was pretty high pitched too, to the extent where he sounded like a kid. Hell, he even looked like one and had frizzy blond hair. One of the others had a square build and was as bald as a monk. The other two were identical twins, whom had long faces with pointy noses, bowl cuts and large middle incisors, the same kind rabbits have.
"Hey, you...you...you.."
Before I could say anymore, Akio-san blocked me with a hand and shook his head. It's a good thing too; I was close to tears. "There's no need to cry over spilled milk, Mondo. Let's just leave."
Before I could do anything else, he turned and left the cafeteria. Alibaba-san got back to his feet in that instant. "Hey, are you really going to let them get away with that?!"
The reply did not come from Akio-san, but from the pint-sized punk whom hogged our breakfast. "Thanks for the food, Alibaka!" he roared with laughter.
"It's not, Alibaka; it's Alibaba!" he shouted, and threw a punch that was immediately blocked by the square-headed dude whom tossed Alibaba-san backwards.
After helping Alibaba-san up, we decided to follow Akio-san, where we sat on the dirt against the outer wall of the cafeteria building, away from the toxic fumes of whatever was cooking in there.
"Damnit!" cussed Alibaba-san, "and we were so close too."
Suddenly, Alibaba burst with laughter.
"Huh? What's the matter?" I asked.
"I knew that they'd jump us today, so I was prepared: I spiked their beans with laxative."
"W-What?" I wasn't sure if I was hearing right. How did he know about this? And where'd he get laxative in the first place? It was too late before I realized that I had worded my thoughts without conscious.
"They came to us yesterday," said Akio-san as he flashed a grin, "and nearly grabbed our grub before we finished on time. We knew they'd try and do it again today, so we were ready. All this was just us acting up. I managed to steal the laxative from the infirmary office"
"But Alibaba-san got hit!"
"I'm much stronger than that," he answered, "you need to be strong if you're out hunting girls." He flashed a biceps by rolling up his sleeve and tensing his muscles. I touched it and just as he said: it was tough, in contrast to my own body.
"Well, what about Kichirou-san?"
"Well, Kichirou did go to see the doctor, that doesn't change, buuuuut..."
I was expecting him to go on, only that I noticed a shadow hover over me. When I looked up, it was Kichirou-san. He was carrying a bag of some sort in his arms.
"Sorry I'm late. They gave me some bread and cheese since I missed out on breakfast. You guys hungry? I've got leftovers."
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Slow chapter this time. I'm taking this slow before the story speeds up. Be patient if some things are unexplained; I'll work on those later.
Mondo Danako: danna45
Yoshio Akio: Al-Bhed
Naoki Kichirou: Kimo Force (Me)
Hachiro Yasu (Alibaba): Alibaba
