Chapter 1
A Caged Songbird
I adjusted the collar around my neck as I stared at my reflection in the mirror over the tiny sink that was next to the bared doors. My short, brown hair was messy as it covered my face and my eyes had no life in them. From the mirror I glanced at the bag the crazy, cow tit ward gave me. I read the rulebook and to me this place did not seem like an ordinary prison, but I will do whatever I need to survive in this place. I grabbed the piece of candy I threw in the sink as I searched through the bag and unwrapped it. I observed its features, before plopping it in my mouth and chewing on it. At that moment, I choked and gagged on the candy, trying to force it down my throat.
"Fuck, this tastes like shit." I groaned as I turned on the faucet and ducked my head underneath it, drinking the water.
I sprayed my whole head with water, before turning off the faucet and flipping my hair back, staring at my reflection in the mirror again, but to see it wasn't me. It was Chiyoye.
"What the fuck kind of prison makes you wear collars around your neck that circulates poison through your veins after three days of not eating the antidote candy? And the damn candy tastes like cow shit!" She asked me angrily, glaring at me.
I shrugged my shoulders and continued to stare at her.
"And that dog race yesterday. If you participated in that, you probably would have died and that means I would die too."
"I'm glad to know you care about me, Chiyoye." I told her sarcastically.
"Yeah, well, whatever. It was mass homicide out there, not that I didn't enjoy all the bloodshed." She said, licking her lips, grinning.
I rolled my eyes at her.
"What is with this carnival corpse thing they are having you participate in tomorrow?"
"I was forced to watch a video on that, all thanks to Tamaki. It's pretty much just another massacre. I am pitied against another person like me who he calls "Deadman", whatever the fuck that is. We fight each other to the death or until one of us is unable to fight. The winner gets lots of cast points and antidote candy."
"What about the loser?"
"I don't know. He said something about a penalty game."
"In this place? It can't be good. Just keep your guard up." Chiyoye demanded me.
"Yeah I know, unless you'll get hurt."
"Exactly, Rei-chan, now get out of here. It's extremely hot in this jail cell." She complained.
I combed through my wet hair and rolled my eyes at her again, before turning my back to the mirror and walked out to the courtyard.
I immediately rested on the soft green grass and stared at the sky. One of my arms embraced the back of my head and my right leg crossed of my left knee. The position wasn't the right choice for the outfit I was wearing. I'm sure my panties are being flashed right now, but I didn't care. I raised my free hand to the sky and observed it, turning it back and forth.
"How do these powers work?" I asked myself quietly.
I pondered on the thought, thinking back on Itoshi and Rin. At the time, I had cuts all over my body from the abuse Itoshi gave me earlier on that day. Thinking on that, I sat up and grabbed a piece of broken glass that laid on the grass next to me and slit the palm of my left hand. I flinched a bit to the stinging sensation, but I quickly relaxed as I got used to the pain. As the blood spurted from the cut in my hand, I started moving it around, testing it out. The blood turned into a thin like wire. I brought my hand down quickly, making the blood lash out at a nearby tree and slice through its trunk, making it collapse backwards. I widened my eyes and stared at my hand.
"So it works when I cut myself or already cuts on me." I thought out loud.
"I wonder what other abilities my blood can do…" I said quietly as I stood up on to my feet.
I grabbed the glass and slit my right palm, not flinching this time. I stared at the blood oozing from the cut on my right palm. It wasn't making the whip shape my other hand did.
"That's odd." I quietly said to myself, moving my hand around, having the blood trickle down my wrist.
I bit on my bottom lip as I focused on my right hand. A bead of sweat trickled down my face as I tried to force it do something, until the blood in my hands formed into a solid and sharp, triangular shape. I jumped back, surprised and grinned.
"So my left hand turns into a whip and my right hand turns into a knife?"
"Now, how sharp is this knife?" I asked myself again as I walked over to another tree that was on the opposite side of the first tree.
I grazed the trunk of the tree gently with my left hand and used my right hand to thrust the blood knife through the tree. My lip grinned widely when it went all the way through. It was extremely thin, long and sharp. I pulled my hand away from the tree, making the blood drip on the lively green grass. I felt slightly vertiginous that I had to hold my forehead and hold on to the tree for balance.
"I guess I used too much blood."
I leaned my back against the trunk and stared at the sky again, thinking about my new powers. I started humming quietly a lullaby I remember my mother once sung to me as a kid to help me sleep, before she left me Kaito and Itoshi on the day on Tokyo Earthquake ten years ago. I closed my eyes as the light breeze whipped through my hair, making me sing a bit louder, until I heard rustling in the leaves above my head. I quickly jumped back from the tree and glared at the tree.
"Who's there?" I asked in a fierce tone.
Long, white hair, along with red eyes popped down from the bushes of leaves. I cocked my head to the side as I stared at her, confused.
"Who's the albino chick?"
The girl flipped backwards, so that she landed on her two feet in front of me. I took a step back to give the two of us some distance. Her bottom lip pouted as she stared at me with disappointment.
"You're not Ganta."
"No, I'm Kumori Rei." I introduced myself.
"Sorry to disappoint you." I mumbled to myself.
"I'm Shiro!" She said cheerfully.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." I said to her, putting on my best fake smile.
"What were you singing earlier?"
"Oh, it was a lullaby my mother sang to me as a kid. I'm surprised I remembered it."
"Lullaby?" Shiro asked me confused.
"Uhm, yeah, It's a song someone sings to a baby or a kid to make them fall asleep."
"Oh! It sounded lovely!" She complimented me, grinning widely.
I smiled nervously at her, while telling her "Thank you".
"What happened to your hands?" Shiro asked grabbing both of my aching hands, making me flinch to her touch.
"Oh, well, I had an accident."
"Oh, Shiro can take you to the infirmary!" She told me excitedly as she tugged at my arm and dragged me back inside the facility.
I stared at the back of her white head and pondered "how the hell did she get locked up in a place like this?" My thoughts were interrupted when Shiro pushed me into a room. I lost my balance as I tripped on the leg of a chair and fell into the infirmary bed with my eyes closed. I groaned and opened my eyes to see I landed on top of a guy. My face warmed up as I noticed my chest smothered his face. He held his nose and mouth with his hand as he looked away from towards the wall. I quickly sat up and covered my breasts, averting my eyes the other way towards Shiro who was embracing another guy around his neck tightly while burying her face in his brown hair, making his face flush scarlet.
"C-could you get off me?" The guy underneath ask nervously, still covering his nose and mouth with his hand.
I blushed more and quickly jumped off him. I stood over him, still covering my chest. The guy refused to look at me, purposely as he handed me his jacket.
"Put this on and cover yourself up. You can't walk around here wearing tight, mini dresses, exposing your chest."
My lips curved into a mischievous smirk as I crossed my arms against my chest.
"Does my revealing outfit embarrass you? Or…." I paused and smirked more as I sat on top of him again, straddling his waist and making his face flush more red.
"Does it make your body hot?" I asked, teasing him as my finger traced his exposed and ripped chest slowly.
I grinned widely when I saw blood trickling out of the space between his fingers. I ended up laughing and patting his chest, before standing up again. I leaned down and kissed his cheek.
"My name's Rei." I introduced myself to him as I held out my hand.
"S-Senji…" He said holding out his free hand to mine as he tried hard not to stare at my chest. I shook his hand and laughed again, turning back towards Shiro.
"You must be that Ganta person Shiro was confusing me for earlier." I said to the guy Shiro was hugging on earlier.
"Y-yeah, I'm Ganta Igarashi." He told me, his face blushing as well.
"It's a pleasure."
I sat down on the edge of the bed Senji laid in, making him tense up again.
"Rei-chan is hurt! Her hands are cut!" Shiro shouted.
I smiled nervously again as a bead of sweat trickled down my face again.
"It's nothing, really. It barely hurts." I told her, waving both of my back and forth. I noticed the curious look in Ganta's eyes as he stared at both of my hands.
He knelt down in front of me and grabbed both of my hands, wrapping them with white bandages.
"You're a Deadman also?" He asked me.
"A what? Why do and Tamaki keep calling me that?" I asked him getting frustrated with the weird nickname, making Senji chuckle.
I glared down at him and asked him "what?" angrily.
"You don't know anything do you?"
"No, so what?"
He chuckled again, saying "this scene seems familiar", as he stared at Ganta.
"Have you noticed you have an unusual power to manipulate your blood?"
"Yeah….?" I answered him, raising my brow at him.
"Me, Ganta and plenty of others in Deadman Wonderland have that power. It's called Branches of Sin. Those who have that power are called Deadmen."
"Oh, where did it come from?" I asked him.
"From that tragic day ten years ago."
I nodded my head as I took in all the information.
"Which reminds me, you must be Songbird."
"What? Another damn nickname I don't know about?" I asked Senji, getting angry again.
"It's more like your stage name for Carnival Corpse. I'm Crow and Ganta is Woodpecker."
"Why are we named after damn birds?"
Senji shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm not the one you ask that too, but everyone knows about the newcomer Songbird, which is you, who is participating in Carnival Corpse tomorrow."
"Great, I'm the talk of this wretched place?"
Ganta patted my back, trying to comfort me.
"I'll be rooting for you." He told me, smiling warmly at me.
"Me too! Shiro will too!" She shouted herself in the third person.
"Y-yeah, me too, I guess."
I smiled warmly at all three of them.
"Thank you, you guys."
