Youshikibi Asylum

Chapter One

Welcome! You have now entered Youshikibi Asylum. Please, I implore you to bid farewell to your friends and family, you won't be seeing them again. This is a place where time stand still. No one leaves and no one will.

But also I must advise you to take caution entering this place. The walls leak lies and deception, while the air has a nasty habit of taking secrets to and from every cell to every office. Beware, I tell you. For once you enter this place, you will never be the same. Say sayonara to your sanity. And now I say to you, Welcome Home.

"Kamijo…."

I didn't answer.

"Kamijo…. What time is it?"

"Eleven fifteen at night, Jasmine." I had grown accustomed to using the moon's position to tell the hour of day. There was only one window in the subterranean vault where my cell, along with the other three cells, are. I share this crypt with two of my kind. What kind, you ask? The insane kind.

Shall I introduce you to Jasmine You? Despite his name, he is a male. If we were allowed the daily hygienic procedures most prisoners were allowed, you would be able to see that his features do give him a feminine appeal. But because these employees seldom give us the time of day to bathe, we are all sentenced to stay this way, dirty and foul.

Also, there is Kaya. Once again, if we had the chance to bathe correctly, you'd see that he looks more feminine than Jasmine. He speaks in a soft, ladylike tone, for one of the more insane of this place. We've learned to rely on eachother.

We are the untouchables of Youshikibi Asylum, the lost souls that no one wastes their hopes and their
"get well soon" cards on anymore. Also, we are the most insane of this wretched place.

Youshikibi Asylum, ironically enough, means "Absolute beauty in form Asylum" which is just what they want you to think it is. A place of healing, a place of kindness and love. Love! I've yet to experience such from a place like this! If only, if only! If only the employees gave us our medicine, if only they cared, if only there was someone else besides Yuki the warden ruling this place. Then, and only then would I feel some sort of closure.

Our last roommate…disappeared. But don't think I don't know what happened. He challenged Yuki's authority, so now, he's gone.

The moon was high, and I almost felt calm enough to enjoy the silence. Until Jasmine began to speak to me again, that is.

"Kamijo...just how long do you think it has been since Juka disappeared?" he asked me slowly.

"It's hard to say…maybe a month."

"Such a shame…" I heard Kaya's voice rise from his cell, along with a small chuckle that passed from his soft lips, "He was actually rather nice to have around… such a strong, young thing, though."

"That's what happens when you stand up to Yuki like that. No one ever stays around long after that…" Jasmine added. I remembered the day Juka disappeared so vividly.

"Hey!! You bastard, I'm talking to you!!" Juka spat, screaming at the man who gave us our excuse for a breakfast, which was supposed to come with our necessary medicine, but it didn't, "Where's the medicine? You bastards are supposed to give us our medication!"

None of us advised him to stop. It was how we learned lessons.

The man left, only to return later at night, where we could hear the sounds of Juka taking a beating at his hands. That next morning, he had bruises and a black eye. But the injuries didn't stop him.

"You people are despicable! This is illegal! You have to give us our medicine! Bastards! Cowards!" he shouted. This time, only a few minutes later, Yuki was the one to walk down the stairs.

In a freshly pressed suit, and his dark hair perfectly resting over his pale face, Yuki visited us here for the first time in months. With that same old scoff of every bad emotion you could think of on his face, he spared a glance to all of us. And we all were silent. All, except Juka.

"Are you the bastard that runs this place!? You're supposed to give us our damn medicine!"

Yuki walked up to his cell, glaring at him without a word.

"Well!? You can't do this, you criminal!" Juka yelled.

When Yuki only gave him that same rotten sneer, Juka did the only thing you should never do to the warden.

"Bastard!" Juka snarled, and spat right on Yuki's face.

Yuki merely wiped it away, and on his face a sneer of satisfaction grew. As he departed up the stairs, we only heard him say, "What a waste of my time burning your records will be."

That next day, we all woke to find Juka gone.

Yuki was the scum of the earth. A lying snake. But he wasn't one of those casual criminals who hid behind their authority. Yuki wasn't a coward. If anything, he was even more mad than most of us here.

Losing Juka was a shame…

But there is much more than shame here at Youshikibi Asylum. We lose patients everyday; some because of suicide, others because they aren't given their medicine, and others like Juka, who just… disappear.

If walls could talk, they'd scream.

Locked in this cage, we all live nightmares. But my dream, will soon become a reality. That, I assure you.

So, while you are here in Youshikibi Asylum, relax, enjoy your stay. You won't be leaving, not now, not ever. So sleep, my friend.

And pray that you wake with your sanity.

Say sayonara to your sanity,

And now I say to you,

Welcome Home.