Nor Iron Bars a Cage

Nor Iron Bars a Cage

By MoshPit

Rating: PG-13

Distribution: If you like it take it, just tell me first.

Warning: Will be seedy eventually. (Seedy is our word for Character Death, in case you were wondering.)

A choked sob echoed off the unusually bright walls of the prison waiting room. Vacancy issues had prevented Kento from being kept in the Tokyo prison, so the police force had to settle for a small time prison in what could be considered the middle of nowhere.

Sage leaned his head against a wall and sighed. The place was so much like a hospital waiting room it was unnerving. The walls were painted a cheery yellow, and there was even a small canister of suckers on the receptionist's desk.

"I hate hospitals," he hissed under his breath as he watched Ryo try to slam his fist through the wall again. None of them really expected anything like this, not from Kento. Yes, he was a little aggressive at times, but murder? It was a great shock to all of them. Cye went catatonic, and had to be dragged inside. Kento was supposedly talking to him now, but Sage didn't know if Cye was talking back.

Three heads turned to the doorway as a rather frumpy woman in her mid-thirties entered, followed by a disturbing young man who looked no older than sixteen. Rowan flinched inwardly. "Mia's really let herself go," he thought, looking his once attractive friend over. The woman in question had cut her hair short, and had apparently tried to dye it blond. She had heavy bags under her eyes and at least five piercings in one ear. Her eyes were rimmed red, either from crying, drinking, or a combination of the two.

Yulie too looked very…wrong. Just wrong. He had shaved his head and put and earring through just about every available part of his face. His clothes were black, as were most of his teeth. The most disturbing part of his look though, was a swastika drawn over his left eye.

Three pairs of eyes watched what used to be an innocent young boy cross the room and sit in an empty seat and begin to pull the earrings from his eyebrows and ears. The air got a little lighter.

"Sorry about the look," he apologized, "but Mia came and took me out of school in the middle of theatre, so I didn't have time to change." He smiled apologetically as he tried to rub the offending symbol off his eye.

Mia leaned against a wall and ran her tongue over her heavily painted lips.

"Well, this is depressing," she snorted, motioning to the canary yellow walls before fishing into her purse. She pulled out a slim cigarette, lit it, and stared at it before letting her hand dangle loosely at her side. An uneasy silence made the already thick air unbreathable.

A door next to Rowan opened slowly and Cye stumbled out. His breathing was erratic and his lower lip trembled profusely. The former warrior of trust made his way to a corner where he collapsed and threw up. A surly looking guard appeared in the doorway.

"Rowan Hashuba?" he growled and jerked his thumb behind him. Rowan didn't bother to correct the guard as he followed him down the hall.

Kento sat at a table in a room at the end of the corridor. Rowan sat opposite his friend as the guard exited. The two stared at each other in silence until Rowan finally spoke.

"Did you do it?" he asked in a hushed whisper. Kento looked away, and Rowan felt his stomach drop as he banged his head on the table.

"How could you do that to us?" he screamed. "What were you thinking?"

A lone tear made its way down Kento's face.

"I was thinking…" the burly man hesitated as he stared into his hands. "I was thinking I wanted to die." Rowan opened his mouth to retaliate but found himself at a loss of words. He stared dumbly as Kento continued.

"I was reading this book once. Somewhere it said 'Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage'. I think it means that no matter where you are, whether you be in a prison or maybe even trapped at some board meeting, your soul is still free. Not mine.

"I'm feeling suffocated, Rowan. I don't know if you realize this, but I always felt like the fifth wheel. You were the smart one, Ryo was the leader, Cye was the peacekeeper, and Sage was the spiritual one. You all had your places. Where was mine?"

"You had- have a place, Kento."

"Yeah," Kento scoffed, "the lummox. The fool. All brawn and no brain, that's me."

"We never said that--"

"You didn't have to! I could see it in your eyes. Whenever I said I was hungry, or if I botched a seemingly simple task. There goes fat dumb Kento, tripping over his own two feet."

"I still don't understand."

"How could you? You were never anyone's comic relief, the private joke. You know that old rhyme 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me'? Lies. Words hurt, Rowan. More than I think you realize.

"I went through high school hearing people call me fat, klutzy, stupid, and after four years of listening, I began to believe it. I believed it, but I didn't want to live it.

"You heard I tried to go through collage, right? You probably heard that I dropped out. The truth is, I was expelled. Brought a gun on campus. I intended on shooting my self in a bathroom, but I didn't make it that far. I was too cowardly and afraid to do it myself.

"I went to China to see if I could get my life sorted out. Instead, I met this guy Maehashi, and his brother. Gang leaders, you see. I figured, join a gang, die eventually, so I became a part of their group.

"In the beginning, things were fine. Everyone was getting along. But then things between me and Tamakia, that's Maehashi's brother, they began to heat up. A few missed 'appointments' and a few mistaken identities put the two of us on edge. One thing led to another and before I knew it, we were dueling."

"Dueling?"

"Fighting to the death. Needless to say, I won. And now I'm here."

"Is there any chance of court?"

"Why? I confessed. And now I'm on death row."

"Doesn't it scare you? To know that you'll never think another thought, never breath another breath, never see another day?"

"Yes, Rowan, it does scare me. But it's also reassuring because this is what I want."

"Obviously it isn't, or you would have done it yourself."

"Doesn't matter now."

"No, I guess it doesn't." Rowan rubbed his chin. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"What did you say to Cye?"

"Why?"

"When I left he was repainting the walls." Kento paused.

"I asked him if he could cook my last meal." Rowan wrinkled his forehead in disgust.

"You are one sick bastard."

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A/N: This part was a little shorter that last time, but there was a lot of dialog in this one, and that's hard to do. Plus, the Pit has been working double time to keep up with all it's writings and promises and such, so I kinda rushed this chapter. Next part will be longer. I promise.

-MoshPit