"IZANAGI!" Chief Warden Makina called into the dank, fouling smelling chamber. This particular odor reminded her of rotting meat, spoiled for weeks. Evidently, the forty or so guards could, too, smell whatever it was that lays inside, as many of their noses wrinkled in disgust.

"And you other two freaks. I...umm..." This was one of the times that Makina truly wished she could walk up to Tamaki's office and spear the Director in the chest. Why was she the one who he resorted to use for something so ridiculous? Didn't he have legions of workers that could cater to whoever these people were?

"Your..." She facepalmed at the stupidity of the situation. Everybody called Tamaki a boy in a man's body, why couldn't he do it? Surely he had plenty of people who qualified for the task.

"Candy is here."

A loud, horrific grating sounds brought her back to the world. It sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard(assuming that chalkboard was a concrete floor.)

Then, though she had to strain her ears, she heard voices coming from inside.

"Brother, do you hear that? Our candy is here!"

"I really hope they didn't wrap it this time, the wrappers are always sticking to my feet..."

What sounded like wet, mushy tissue paper being stepped on.

" Hehe! Isn't it funny?"

"Yeah, they better toss it in here quick, I'm really hungry. And all the candy we have is spoiled now."

"Don't be a brat now, Iza. The grown up who give us our candy won't give us any more if we're bad boys."

"NOBODY TAKES MY CANDY FROM ME!"

A large steak knife penetrating the carcass of a recently butchered cow, followed by a brief smacking sound.

"What did brother just say? You're being bad, so we won't let you have any candy today. You can wait till tomorrow, Iza."

"Huffffff...ok, Katsy. I'll wait."

"Good job. Now let me go get our candy for us."

The words filled Makina with a mix of fear and inquisitiveness. The sounds had told her enough about what these people were, but who? Every Deadman in Wonderland was at least under her watch, if not control. So what had Tamaki been hiding down here? And why were they so special that they didn't go in the regular birdcage?

"Shields up and advance three," she commanded the guards to either side of her, and reluctantly they obeyed.

Out of the shaft of all consuming darkness she and the guards were facing, stepped a boy who looked about seventeen. Two yellow orbs inspected the assemblage before him, amusement and almost...hunger reflected in them. A curling brand of old burnt flesh covered one side of his face, though the eye was unharmed. His hair was short and feathery, and had a golden shine to it. His skin, lips, and face were all stained red. He wore a short, sand colored shirt, with blue bands around the cuffs.

"Warden Makina," he said, the voice like oil, smooth, tasteless, and foul.

Trying to instill to the men under her command that the situation was not as sour as it was, she spoke in a firm, reprimanding voice. "We brought the...nourishment the Director instructed us to, Katsuro."

A small smirk came over the boy's face, showing off disconcertingly white teeth. When he spoke again, the oily sound had become almost like boiling water. "I trust you had them, him, her, it, seasoned? The butter sauce always livens things up."

"Ugh...bring up the Osprey!"

Two guards brought up a kicking, screaming man drenched in some strange yellow sludge. He was tied by the arms and legs to a cart, and the two guards handling him dropped him unceremoniously to the ground in front of Katsuro. They then rolled that cart away and whispered to each other as they walked. Katsuro, as the party would soon find out, had an entirely different plan.

With strength that would seem odd when added to his lithe body, the Deadman picked up the osprey by the hair and stood him up straight on his feet. He studied the poor man with that same look of cruel amusement in his eyes, only the hunger that one might also see in them was rapidly taking over. His eyes grew wider, and all vestiges of intelligence thought vanished from them.

Without warning or pause, Katsuro turned the Osprey around, wrapped his pale hands around his biceps, and sank his teeth into the poor man's neck. They latched onto something and omitting even the slightest stop he pulled. Free came a large piece of flesh from Osprey's throat. Free came Katsuro's hands, and free came a grievous amount of blood pouring from the wound. The poor sop hadn't even had time to scream before he started to choke. Instead of deathly howls, there came only pained, wet gurgles, as he was slowly dragged by his still bound feet into the dark black column of the door way.

Katsuro looked up at Makina with his bloodstained face, still with a small slice of flesh dangling from his lips, and smiled. It chilled her to the core. Soon after, both of them disappeared into the dark. But as Makina was preparing to dismiss the guards around her to return to their normal duties, a fierce, bloodcurdling scream echoed like thunder from the chamber, but was quickly silenced by crunching sounds and slurping.

She shivered and quickened her pace a bit.

Tamaki Tsunenaga twirled about in his desk, spinning in his chair and laughing like a madman. The Carnival Corpse he had just watched had entertained him so greatly he had been forced to pause the program and proceeded to descend into a fit of cackling. It had continued up until a savage pounding startled the Director, and a displeased, "Come in," signaled Chief Warden Makina to stomp through the doorway and practically crush the rim of his desk in her iron grip.

"What the fuck was that?! We're a goddamn prison, not an insane asylum! Why the hell are you keeping a bunch of fucking cannibalistic kids locked up in here? Was people murdering each other with their own blood not sadistic enou-"

"Yes yes yes," Tamaki yawned. "I get it. 'Oh, its my prison, why isn't it my prison? Well I'm sorry, little guard dog, but I'm the one working the puppetry. Last I recall, my daddy dearest didn't leave his most precious birdcage to you, did he?"

Makina was about to speak more but Tamaki held up a finger and she fell silent.

"Oooohoo, but I think you, Chief Warden, are going to love this!"

Tamaki's console came up with what Makina saw to be a cartoon image divided down the middle. On the right was a black, characateurized bird in a pair of jeans, with two grey blades emerging from the outside of his forearms. The other bird was gold, and the feathers on the outside of its forearms were a bright, blood red.

"Its tomorrow's Carnival Corpse. Senji Kiyomasa vs. Katsuro Chishio. The Crow vs the Vulture!"