SKINS – GEN 4 – SERIES 8 – 8.01: KEN
Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in a while guys! I've been a bit all over the place, I went away for a week then I went back to school straight away and I put this off in place of other things, but I thought I'd left this way too long for you guys so I thought I'd do this now and once again I'd just like to thank you for all your kind reviews, they mean so much to me and I'm very thankful! Here is chapter 6!
Ken sat in a long and elegant wooden hallway. Every sound that happened in here seemed to be completely held within the room. The low mumbles of the court could be heard through the double doors and outside on the streets a lot of yelling could be heard from the doorsteps of the courthouse.
A rugged security guard stood opposite Ken. He wore a blank face that stared at the wall, but one then looked violent as if it could crack. He was too intimidating to look at it.
Further down the hall was a man in an overcoat with thinning hair. He looked a bit worn out and as if he had nothing to do. Some sort of intriguing character who just wandered the hallways.
Ken paid no attention and stared at his feet, hoping they might provide some source of entertainment.
"Don't be afraid," said a voice near Ken. He looked up quickly at the security guard, but he was frozen in place. The voice had come from the wandering man, now standing opposite Ken.
"I'm not afraid." Said Ken, "I've… well I've sort of done this…"
"To show emotion." Said the man.
Ken frowned and lost his train of thought, "Sorry, what?"
"Don't be afraid to show emotion." Said the man nodding. "Many people think it's reasonably good to remain calm and just be smart about the whole thing and not show your true colours, but their wrong."
"And you know this how?" asked Ken.
The man ignored Ken's questions, "A blank face with good evidence, doesn't connect with the audience."
"The audience? This isn't a fucking stage show." Said Ken.
"Isn't it?" suggested the man. "Who gives mercy to a merciless man, no one. Listen to the crowds out there, none of them know who you are or you're story, guilty or innocent, they don't care. What they've been told is that you represent what they are angry at and hell they'd pelt rocks at their own kids if they were told it was bad. They're blind fools, they don't want facts and figures, they just want to let it out someone, the media has an audience to satisfy and so they've amplified the first case they can find, which in your incredible bad luck has happened to be you. Now guilty or innocent, I don't care and quite frankly it doesn't matter, regardless, you can still get out of this, but that's all this thing is, one great big show and it's audience are stupid and long for emotion they can connect to. You need to do that or you're just gonna fall prey to the mob kid…"
"Who the hell are you?" asked Ken shaking his head, "What's with the pep talk."
"Doesn't matter," he said, "I'm just someone who would sooner join those on the plane then the mob out there."
Ken frowned in disbelief as the man walked off and there was knock on the double doors. "Right kid" said the security guard, "It's show time."
A lot of rambling and insults came from the audience as Ken was walked in, even the jury was muttering amongst themselves as Ken sat at his desk.
The judge banged his mallet against the desk and rose to speak. "Ladies and Gentlemen, need I remind you we are in the courthouse, this is not the place for opinions, emotions or desires, this is the place for facts, cases and justice, no amount of bickering shall change that. Mr. Kenneth Yuuto Matsumoto you are here by charged in the federal court of England for acts of arson within the streets of Bristol, assault of a police officer, and being involved in the terrorist attack in London on the date of August 2nd, 2013. These crimes could face a penalty of a minimum 20 years in jail with no parole, and a maximum life sentence in a high security prison, how do you plead?"
Ken stood to his feet in a heartbeat, "Innocent!"
"Alright, Mr. Matsumoto, please refrain from doing any rash movements, there will be time for you to plead your case. I'd like to open the floor to Mr. Jim Petrucci to open the Plaintiff's case."
Ken frowned and looked across the room. A Man in a slick, polished suit stood up and straightened his tie; his hair was slicked back and his skin oozed like a slug covered in gold. Never before had Ken seen someone that perfectly fitted the stereotype.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Your honour, allow me to dismiss some confusion. You are probably wondering who I represent, who could a plaintiff be in this case. The plaintiff… is you, the people of Britain." Ken recoiled his chair. "I am a representative of the government of Great Britain, and a firmly established lawyer and I will not stand down to see our country soiled by those who wish to bring harm to it. My heart grieved when I heard about the attacks on London, I shed a tear for every British citizen that experienced loss on that day. I vowed that every man involved in that attack no matter how insignificant, shall go unpunished and more to that our streets are still in danger. These attacks of fire, violent assaults against good British police officers, explosions within our streets, our homes, they are caused by the likes of him!" said Jim shooting a finger across at Ken. "Do you really want to let him roam the streets, a man who puts innocent British lives and their children endanger. Guilty or innocent, we all know that these streets aren't safe while his kind still roams the streets. I Beg you please, hear me out, to make Britain a safer nation, I urge you to see my way. Thank you."
"Hang on a minute," said Ken frowning, "His kind? That's a blatant racial insult, you dick! Everything you said was a sugarcoated lie!"
"Mr. Matsumoto!" yelled the judge, "Would you care to plead your case."
Ken stood up and struggled to find words, he bunched his fists with sweat dripping down his face as he realized. He was alone, no one in this court was for him, there was no one he knew.
"I'm innocent," said Ken plainly, "I've never dealt with explosives or arson before, or terrorist groups, I'm completely against that, it infuriated me, my Aunt was on that plane, people I knew were on that plane. I can't believe I'm being accused of this."
"Is that how you are opening your case?" asked the judge.
Ken swallowed and looked around at the hundreds of eyes upon him, "Yes," he said.
"Alright," said the judge, "Return to your seat."
"The plaintiff will be represented by Mr. Jim Petrucci, any statements against this shall be put forward now or withheld." The judge banged his hammer against the board. "Right, The defendant will be represented by himself, any statements against this shall be put forward now or withheld."
"Um…" said Ken furrowing his brow, "What?"
The judge sighed, "Mr. Matsumoto, what is your occupation?"
Ken paused, "I'm a student… at Roundview College. I've got ID, I can show you." He got out his wallet and passed his student card to the guard to take it to the judge.
"The Court contacted Roundview College earlier this morning," said Petrucci from across the room, "We spoke to Mr. David Blood, head of the college and he said Ken Matsumoto is not a student at Roundview College." Ken's head snapped to look over at Petrucci in disbelief, "In fact Ken Matsumoto's name does not appear anywhere on the College's records, while I'm sure that Identity card looks very convincing, I am convinced that it is a fake. Probably produced by some high class identity fraud associates of his."
Ken growled while staring at the slime ball called Petrucci.
"Right," said the Judge, "Mr. Matsumoto, you gave us your address of residence, and your families contact details, but after numerous attempts at phoning numerous numbers, we were not able to get in contact with any of the members of the Matsumoto family, and the landlord of the apartment block where you stated you reside was contacted and he stated that there was no Matsumoto family present within the building."
Ken sat there in disbelief. Had this court case been rigged? Or had his safety nets deserted him when he needed them.
"Mr. Matsumoto, do you have any other references that we could contact before this court case begins."
Ken sat in his chair and hesitated before saying clearly, "No."
"Very well," said the Judge as he began shuffling through the files.
Ken sat anxiously waiting for the judge, he had already fallen miles down the pit, he had no lawyer, no defense and no one to help him, and there was no one on his side.
"Dirty Asian liar" came a voice behind him. Ken frowned and turned around to look at the audience, "I'm sorry?" he said.
"You heard me," said a scruffy old bearded man in the audience, "You're nothing but a dirty Asian lying scumbag. How dare you attack our country, you chink."
"Shut you're fat ass mouth!" shouted Ken standing to his feet.
"Come at me you piece of shit!" he said as he got to his feet. Then other people from the audience began to rise, hurling insults at Ken and the man a like.
"Order, ORDER!" said the judge banging his mallet. But the audience would not calm down, a shoe hit Ken square in the forehead and sent him stumbling back against the desk.
"Right! That's it!" said the judge, "This case is temporarily withheld! Officer Bailey, please escort Mr. Matsumoto out of the court and into his cell."
The large officer that had led Ken in came and grabbed him, shielding him off from the audience; he took him out of the court and along the corridor. Ken felt his arm being squeezed so tight he was sure it would fall off.
Ken was placed in his cell as the officer came and locked it, "The court apologizes for the current situation; you will be informed of when the court is resumed." He said clearly before marching off leaving Ken alone once again in his cell.
…More on this breaking news report. Local 17-year-old Ken Matsumoto has been charged with arson and use of explosives, as well as the assault of a police officer. These photographs show the local butchers shop on Wendell's street that was center of the blast. Above it contained a room that seemed to contain highly valuable items that belonged to the owners, but now are too charred and damaged to be of any worth. Luckily no one was in the vicinity at the time of the explosion. The court has charged Matsumoto with the following crimes as well as accusing him of being involved in the recent terrorist attack on London, while there has been no evidence yet of Matsumoto being involved with the attack, the court is highly suspicious and has traces they plan to follow. Matsumoto stated within the court that he had a family and attended the local Roundview College, but when questioned neither the family was traceable nor did Matsumoto's names appear anywhere on the college records.
"BULLSHIT!" yelled Drew. The whole group sat around the TV at Gemma's house watching the news report. "I can't believe this. How is this happening? What do we do?"
"Well maybe the court just has to decide." Said Kelly, "We wait for results."
"But we know he didn't do it," said Drew, "We know he is innocent, they're just using him, to make it look like the government doing something about this attack."
"It's a huge case Drew," said Paulie, "What do you want us to do?"
"We know he's innocent!" said Gemma, "We can't fucking let this happen."
"Nobodies gonna listen to us, we're just a bunch of teenagers. If anything we'll get taken in too." Said Hayley.
"That's not true," said Claire, "We can write in, make protests, get on the news, there must be someway we can get on the news."
"This is our friend here!" said Drew, "He's all on his own, his school and his family have disowned him and he has done nothing wrong. We can't just write in a letter."
"Than what do you propose we do!" Shouted Kelly.
"Fuck the news!" said Gemma giving the TV the finger, "Fuck all of it! Fuck the court!"
"That's not gonna do anything!" yelled Claire. All at once the voices piled in over the top of each other. Sam and Dean sat at the back relatively quiet.
Dean walked up to the front and stood up on Gemma's kitchen bench, "Shut up the lot of you!" he said, "How many people do we know, who support us and support Ken? Huh? Everyone at that college knows he is innocent, but no one persons gonna step forward. This is our friend here and he is in serious trouble! Everyone has left him, everyone has fucked off! But we aren't gonna do that, because we're better than that! And so… We take the fight to them. If the government and the court is gonna try and fuck with us and use us for what they want, then we're gonna fuck with them! Contact everyone you can, get absolutely everyone you can to help and tell them to get everyone they can. I know we can pull in a crowd big enough, we need as much help as we can get!"
"Dean…" said Kelly, "What the hell are you even suggesting?"
Dean smirked, "I suggest we go to the town courthouse and start a motherfucking riot to save our friend."
Gasp! Where could this be going? Sorry if that court scene was inaccurate, I am not that knowledgeable on how the court system works, but I hope it was sufficient enough for you. Chapter 7 up soon.