The dialogue in the courtroom was moving so fast that the interpereter couldn't keep up with the pace. Wesley could understand some of what was going on, but this was limited to the odd word or so. Giles was obviously displeased as he tried to clean his glasses with his hands restricted by the ungenerous space between the cuffs on his wrists and Spike was asleep throughout the whole proceedings. "So how long did we get?" Wesley asked the interpreter.
"He still have not finished saying how dishonorable your crime was to our country." He replied.
"Justice isn't swift in Asia, how I wish I was back in England at least I could appear by videolink." The watcher was still trying to make out the jumbled mess of continueous translation when Giles was ordered to stand by the Judge.
"You got 4 months" the translator said with little emotion.
"And now he want you to stand Spike" There was a short pause. "Spike?"
The interperter turned around to the faint sound of snoring coming from behind him. He roughly gave him a nudge to which Spike awoke in a drunken like stupor. He was not happy. "Can't a man get any fucking sleep around here? I was up all last night thinking about how much I need a fag. Wouldn't happen to have one on you would you mate?"
He said he didn't have any cigarette for Spike but that he should stand up and pay attention to await his fate. The judge had found him not guilty. Spike was ecstatic "Whoo, hoo i'm outta here, guard let me outta these shackles and pass me a bottle cos i'm going to strip down and dive in the sea."
The celebration was short lived as Ken the interpreter told him to calm down as the judge hadn't finished/ "You are not guilty of being drunk and disorderly, but you are going to prison for 4 months for theft."
"Oh shit." Spike moaned.
Wesley was the last to be judged and he too was found guilty of theft from a magic shop in Kyoto, therefore he would be joining the others for a 4 month stint in Shingisen men's Prison.
The men were bundled out of the courtroom into a waiting prison van. It was dark as they were escorted in single file into their seats. They were bound together with chains as the police officer checked the security of their restraints. The seats were not very comfortable, but Spike still managed to shut his eyes to block out the tears that were shed by Wesley and Giles's sour expression.
When Spike awoke he saw a grey gate leading to an even darker building. A high wall was around the entire perimenter. The guard opened the gate and motioned the van to proceed into the courtyard. It was here that the men were released and roughly thrust through a metallic door. Here they were searched and processed. The vampire however, was less accomodating to the wishes of his jailers. He had decided to be awkward from the very beginning. Firstly he refused to have his picture taken, which resulted in him being restrained by five officers and being dragged in front of the camera. His fingers were forcibly dipped into the ink and placed on the paper and his recent eye brow piercing was removed with pliars. Spike growled with pain as the officer broke through his skin with his torturing pincers and twist the stud out of his face. Then there was the problem of getting the smelly vamp into the shower.
"Righ' take off your cwos." ordered officer Hakashi.
Spike refused to comply.
"I say tae dem off" he said, this order was repeated three times, but still Spike did nothing.
"Okay, Mr Yamamoto you know wha to do" Hakashi stated to the other officer who was observing the action.
Yamamoto and six other guards grabbed Spike and shoved him onto the ground. One held down his legs as the rest dragged his duster from him and threw it into a bag. Hakashi cut and tore his tshirt from his body as two others placed handcuffs back onto his wrists. His jeans were pulled down to his ankles and his boots were forcibly removed. Spike continued to struggle and bit a chunk out of one of the officers arms. The guard's reaction to this was intense and they beat him with their sticks. The job was done when he was naked and chucked into the shower.
Spike would not cleanse himself of the grime and blood that infested his body, so Yamamoto scraped his entire flesh with a coarse scrubbing brush and removed every last bit of dirt, sweat and bodily fluids. Then he left him to freeze under a cold stream of water until a suitable area could be found for him to sleep.
Twenty minutes later, Spike was thrown into a dark, solitary cell which had nothing in it apart from a mat made from small bamboo sticks. His legs were placed in a cross legged position and he was instructed not to move from this spot or assume a different posistion until he was told he could do so. His hands were tied behind his back and he was still without a stitch of clothing. A bowl of rice and blood soup was placed in front of him and he was told to eat it. This would be his meal everyday. They knew who and what he was. This prison was the only one in the country that could accommodate vampires.
Giles and Wesley meanwhile changed into stinky, dust coloured uniforms. Giles's number was 114 which was displayed on a badge on his shirt. Wesley would be known as 115. They were soon to meet 116. The watchers had been assigned work detail in the clothing factory where they would make baseball hats.
