Chapter One
It's been several months now since Deadman Wonderland has been in operation.
They hadn't gotten wind of me until today.
Until I had someone betray me.
Ever since I got through that event with my new gifts, I"d been trying to help people with it.
Being able to heal others with my now freakish blood was pretty amazing.
I wanted to give back to the people who had helped me survive.
My brother died so that I could live.
Sometimes I think I can still feel the rebar pricking me as it stabbed through him.
His body had become my shield.
He was so badly wounded, but somewhere in him, he had found the strength to lift the concrete on him enough for me to get free.
His eyes started to go dull, but he had looked at me and said: this is what brothers are for, protecting their little sisters.
When he died and collapsed, I sat there holding his hand, crying, until the older couple from next door found me.
They helped me bury him properly, and then brought me into their secret community after the disaster.
I was still young then.
Now I'm twenty four and they are dead.
But when my power first started surfacing, they hadn't feared me.
I guess because it seemed like it wasn't a dangerous power.
Mira had said it was as if my brother had sunk into my blood and was going to protect me for life.
Maybe she was right.
I had survived some horrible things since then in the name of helping others.
I've broken bones, lost pieces of my body, even died a couple times now.
Depending on the severity of the damage, it took either a short or long time to heal up.
Longest was when a gang had chopped me up alive, wondering how many pieces they could take from me before I died.
Then they buried me.
It took almost a month to reform myself bit by bit. I ended up having to regrow my left arm after finding it eaten by insects.
Honestly, the wounds and dying aren't so bad. It hurts, but that I can live with. No pun intended.
The worst is the sensation of being ever present. I'm not having any out of body experiences when I die. I feel it as my blood pulls my body back together.
I can sleep it off I suppose, depending how long it takes to heal.
Oh well, back to the matter at hand.
Becoming a Deadman.
Now that Hachi betrayed me, they brought me in.
He apparently didn't tell them what I could do.
I suppose that is alright then.
I stood still as the doctor measured me and poked and prodded me.
She seemed like a bitch.
She finally waved at the guards and a collar was fitted on.
Keeping my blank facade was probably a good thing.
She said something about me fitting right in.
With murderers?
No thanks.
I felt a slight prick in my neck and my blood jammed it to seal.
The guards must have noticed whatever the collar was not doing because they stopped me from continuing on.
"What does your blood do?" They asked.
"Nothing useful to this place." I said.
"Why isn't the collar working?"
I shrugged.
"It should be piercing your skin to keep readings of your bios." The smaller, seemingly smarter one said.
"Ah." I nodded. I reached up and went to take it off.
They stepped back.
I felt it try to stab me again as a timer began counting down.
I gritted my teeth as a liquid poured into my neck as I managed to unclip the collar.
"You just committed suicide."
I tilted my head, feeling the burning rush in my veins as whatever poison was in the collar was eaten by my blood.
It always burned as I healed.
I held out the collar again to them.
"My body won't allow you to inject anything into me. My blood prevents it." I said.
"Then stop it."
I shook my head.
"Not how my power works. I'm not sure what you guys are used to dealing with in G Block, but I can't just turn off my ability. It's a lifetime effect." I shrugged.
"To heal yourself?" The bigger man asked.
I nodded.
"Show us."
He held out a knife, obviously trusting enough that I was being serious.
I took it and sliced through my arm.
It stung, but my blood didn't pour. It was thick and sealed the cut and mended the skin as if nothing happened.
"I'll send a report to the boss and the doctor." The smaller said.
I shrugged.
"We're supposed to get a collar on her and take her to her new room."
"And she handed the collar back after getting max dose." The smaller man gave him a questioning look.
"I'm all for just going to my room. Not like I can get far with guards everywhere." I said.
They both nodded and I listened the the smaller tap on his pad as we walked down halls.
When we came to the main hall of G Block, I looked at the people coming out of their rooms to see me.
The new freak.
Little did they know how freakish I was.
xXx
It was a good several hours later that I got a knock on my door.
I got up to open it and saw the guard from down the hall.
He held out what looked like a tracking bracelet and a bag of supplies.
"Standard issue supplies and the bracelet is to keep track of you."
I reached to take the bag and he put the bracelet on my left wrist.
"If you try to go anywhere we don't approve of, we will hunt you down and secure you. While we've been given permission for violence, I, as your immediate guard, would rather not use violence if necessary."
"Guess you're more odd than the rest."
He nodded. "Rather. Mostly because I consider myself a bit on the disadvantaged side. They give us tools to help restrain you Deadmen, but as a fan of the Carnival I believe you should all be at your best in those games."
I frowned.
Carnival?
"At any rate, if you want to train with your powers, the gym is always available. Crow usually spends a fair amount of time in there, but I wouldn't worry about him. He's rough and violent, but bat your eyes at him, and as pretty as you are, he'll probably just roll over. Some of the other girls get him to at least pause, but most of them are nuts. He's more on the mature women scale. Like myself. Once you talk to him, he's not so bad. In fact, several of the people in here aren't so bad. Some wrong hands from life's deck and maybe a bad choice or two, but nothing serious."
I waited for him to stop talking.
He seemed kind of sweet.
On the taller side, but not much taller than my brother had been. Dark brown hair that was just long enough to get into his face in a cute sort of way. Built like a damn fighter for such a pacifist personality. His green eyes were a bit friendly, but just distant enough to not think he was like this with everyone.
Allover, he seemed really just kind of nice until you got on his shit list.
"Huh, guess I got a wrong hand too." I sighed.
"The two who brought you in said you have a healing Branch of Sin?"
Is that what they called this curse? It fit. Sorta.
"Yeah." I deftly took the knife from his hip and cut into my own hand.
It healed up as he was taking a step back from my quick action.
I held the knife back out, blade between my fingers.
He took it as I showed him the perfect healing.
"Kind of wish I could do that some days." He sighed as he held up his own hand.
He had it wrapped. "Cut myself cooking last night. Doc is too much of a bitch to do much even for us guards."
I held out my hands and he seemed apprehensive but gave me his hand.
I unwrapped the bandage and saw the fresh cut.
I reached for the knife he was just holstering again and cut open my thumb.
My blood held the wound open as I forced myself to gather blood on my fingers.
He flinched as I smeared blood on his hand until he could only gape at the flawless skin of his palm again. My blood absorbed back into me and my own wound healed up.
He flexed his hand as he pulled away.
"How did you...am I infected with a Branch too?"
"No, I can't infect anyone. No one I've ever healed has gotten any abilities. But basically, I use my blood as a catalyst and it changes my typeless blood to yours and activates a rapid healing stored within it. So it's like filling in the missing links between your body with my own blood."
"Well, that is pretty cool. You could make a fine healer around here." He said. He held out his hand in a handshake. "Izzy Michaels."
I took his hand.
"Fenix Lazuli."
"I'll see you around here." He turned to walk away.
I watched him round the corner before heading back into my room.
I sat on my bed and started to go through the bag.
A change of clothes, basic necessities, and a note.
I unfolded it and read it.
Nothing special. A welcome to Deadman Wonderland kind of greeting followed by a 'since you're immune to our typical containment procedures you have to follow special rules' with the rules being listed. Wear the tracker, avoid becoming friends with the guards, don't fight outside of the Carnival.
Pretty simple.
Still didn't explain what that was.
Nor did I get any other instructions on what I was supposed to do here.
xXx
I waited until after dinnertime to look around at all.
Given that I didn't have an offensive type 'Branch of Sin' I just kind of figured it might be best to get over with the looking around while people might be sedated by food.
At least, that had been my hope.
I managed to make it almost all the way to the gym, using the sound of someone inside lifting weights as a guide.
I could feel the presence of somebody behind me and turned.
The man was huge.
And I'm not talking just tall.
He must have weighed close to five hundred pounds, and I debated how much was muscle.
"Food." He said.
His mouth was partially sewn shut as I noticed the gashes making it bigger.
What was his ability?
I found out fairly quickly as he stuffed the metal meal tray in his hands into his mouth.
He looked down at me like I was next.
I tried to stand firm, I'd never been eaten before. At least, not alive.
I'd surely come back from it, if anything of me was left.
If nothing else, he'd take a bite out of me and drop me to chew on that and I could get away long enough to get help.
I felt terrified as he reached for me until a blade of blood arched from over my shoulder to stop just before his hand.
"Go find something else fatso." A deep, almost soothing voice.
He stood behind me and apparently whatever he looked like, it was enough to make the big guy hesitate and then turn away.
The blade retracted and I realized it was blood.
Another Deadman had saved me.
What had Izzy said? That not everyone was bad in here? Some just had a bad hand in life?
Was this one of them?
I realized the sound of weights was gone and turned to keep heading for the gym.
My savior stood there.
Taller than me by nearly a foot and quite well muscled.
His black hair was short and messy, like he never combed it except with his fingers.
Honestly it was kind of sexy on him.
His eyes were grayish with hints of green to them.
Rather nice to me.
He had a tan and I had to wonder if it was natural.
And, as I briefly scanned him, whether it was complete coverage.
Hell, if I had to be locked up in a place with crazy people, no one said I couldn't hook up with one of the crazies.
"You alright?" He asked.
I noticed the cut on his arm.
"Yeah. Thank you."
He shrugged and turned to head for the gym.
I followed. "Are you...Crow?" I asked.
"Looking for a fight?" He walked in and headed for a bench that was already rigged for heavy weights.
Like the three hundred pounds kind of weights.
Some serious lifting for not having a spotter.
"I...no. I don't fight. I can't really fight."
"Looks like you're in the wrong place then." He laid back to press.
I watched for a moment, taking in his built body displayed by his lack of a shirt.
His pants hung lower than I'd expect, but maybe he just knew he was hot and didn't care if he made poor innocent women spontaneously combust.
He reached for the bar and glanced at me.
"What do you want?" He asked.
I felt my cheeks flush slightly at realizing he knew I'd been staring at him.
"Nothing...I'm just a bit new here and was looking around."
He moved to sit back up.
"New? Right. Guess you're not a new guard with that getup. So what are you in for?" He asked.
I stepped close enough to sit on a nearby bench that had no weights on its bar.
"Well...they say I killed someone, but I never did. I can't." I said.
"Ah, another one of the 'I did nothing' crowd." He huffed in disbelief.
"What about you?" I asked.
"Murder." He said.
I sighed inside.
No, not one of the bad hands.
"At least, that's what they're pegging on me. I'm not saying I didn't kill, but I'm not calling it murder either. I did what was right. Killing off every single person in that gang was a mercy to the rest of the world."
I frowned. "Which gang?"
"A shitty one run by someone who would have ended up in here too." He said.
I nodded, not really understanding which gang specifically.
"What did you do before this?" I asked.
"Well, believe it or not, before all this shit, I was a cop. Not one of the nice ones mind you, but I did what was right for the people I was supposed to protect." He frowned. "You?"
I looked at the floor. "A nurse of sorts."
"Of sorts? What's that mean?"
I glanced at his arm.
On both thumbs, he had rings with blades.
I reached for his left arm and cut my thumb on the blade on his hand.
"Chill out, these are sharp you know." He said.
I'd never healed someone else with gifts before.
I brushed my thumb along his cut and he winced before pulling away.
I forwent recollecting my blood.
"Trying to poison me?" He asked.
He brushed away my blood on his pants and I motioned at his arm.
He looked at me after staring at his arm.
"Of sorts I guess." He laughed. "And that's all you can do?"
"Yeah." I nodded. "Heal myself and others."
"I suppose you won't exactly fare long in this hell. Not with a Carnival coming up."
I frowned. Did everyone but me know what that was?
"What is a Carnival?" I asked.
He gave me a blank look before rubbing his face. "Right, new."
He got up and I made to follow him as he went to a television on the wall.
He flicked it on.
"I normally watch, but I hate him, so I've avoided all his fights. He's a jackass."
The screen was horrifying.
A man was using his blood as a weapon to potentially kill another man.
"Looks like I should have watched. He might actually lose this time. Good. Fucking cheater." He turned as I moved to sit again while covering my mouth hoping not to throw up.
I'd seen some nasty wounds and such in my time in the community, but nothing like that. That was a fight to the death...for entertainment.
I looked up at him. "That's a Carnival?" I felt weak and my voice broke.
"You really aren't going to survive in this place." He frowned as he knelt in front of me.
I huffed a half assed laugh.
"Unfortunately, surviving is my specialty." I said.
"Not if you get killed." He sat on the floor.
I shook my head. "I've died seven times already and my blood brings me back."
He leaned back in shock.
"I've been vivisected to the point of death, chopped up and buried, burned alive when I got pinned by a collapse, shot in the head, decapitated, poisoned, and drowned." I recounted my deaths.
He looked stunned.
"So you're...immortal?" He asked.
"More or less. I might die of old age." I gave a half smile.
He sighed.
"Basically, you're the perfect subject for that doctor." He scoffed. "If anyone finds out anyway."
I hadn't even questioned whether he was trustworthy.
I guess I figured I'd die in here sometimes anyway.
He stood up again.
"Look, you're nice, pretty even," He tinted slightly at that. "I'd hate to see you get killed for nothing in here, even if you might survive. I'll...I'll protect you when you need me to." He said.
I looked up at him.
"Since, well, you can't fight anyway. I'll fight for you I guess." He held out his hand to me.
I took it and he paused as he felt my soft skin.
"I'm Senji Kiyomasa." He said.
"Fenix Lazuli."
He let go of me and went back to the bench he'd been on to undo the weights on it.
"Do you know anything about fighting?" He asked.
I shook my head. "Nothing more than watching my brother as a kid."
"So you have family out there?"
I shook my head as I watched him put the weights away. "My brother died protecting me in the quake."
He actually looked sad for a moment.
"Sorry to hear. I lost my family too. Both of them."
"Were you married?" I asked.
He blushed and it was adorable.
"Hell no. I've never even gotten a real steady relationship." He turned to face me again. "Girls don't exactly come running to me."
I tilted my head with a smile.
"Why not? You seem pretty fine to me."
He flushed slightly again.
"That's beside the point. You're off topic." He snapped. "Do you want to learn some self defense or not?"
I stepped forward.
I nodded as he motioned towards the mat on the other side of the room.
"I'll expect you to show up every day to work on this until I'm satisfied you can defend yourself." He said.
I nodded.
He looked me over.
"And next time, wear some better clothes for this." He said. "I'm glad you're properly dressed unlike some people in here, but you should get some good workout clothes."
"I...I don't really know what 'good' would be." I admitted.
He sighed.
"Alright, tomorrow morning, meet me here. We'll head down to the shop and see what they have to get."
I nodded. "Nine?"
He shrugged.
I guess Senji was in here anyway.
He had me kick off my shoes and started to go over some basics in self defense with me.