Hey, welcome back to another chapter! Just want to say this right away, your characters can and will lose some fights and can win others, but now, onto reviews!
Gold crown dragon: I love it too :D
Guest: Haha, I guess it sort of does in a way.
Oblivious IJ: I mean, yeah it would be possible, any object she touches can be turned into a bomb, but less dress break and more messy giblets on the floor. Also, I really hate Issei so… haha thanks!
Nemris: Thanks, I'm looking forward to it too. I do wish to explore more of each character's criminal history (as well as normal history), but hopefully you'll see sprinkles of it throughout. I don't want to rush and dump everything all at once, so hopefully I'm spacing it out enough.
Supreme Kai of Booty: Yep, that's your giant child. Also, hope you had a wonderful birthday!
FinnyFaloulou: Haha, well here's some more then!
Rhys stood back, ready to get away as soon as it looked like he was about to be dragged into it somehow. The two were still staring each other down, but the atmosphere changed drastically to the point where you could take a knife and physically cut some off for later.
The bruised prisoner stepped back a bit, despite the safe distance he had put between him and the two having a glare off.
It was then that the battle between the two occurred. It all started with a swift punch.
Gousen had moved first, immediately hurling a punch towards Gin, but due to the bolted down table between them, Gin had plenty of room to dodge the attack. That didn't stop Gousen from stomping over the table to get to him though.
The thick wall that was Gousen went for another while Gin simple moved to the side and retaliated with one of his one, though sadly, while the attack connected, it did little to harm the opposing convict.
The bald prisoner simply grinned before he kicked Gin away before charging in with a reared back fist before throwing a powerful punch.
"You claimed you wanted to break my 'bones'..." the greyish skinned prisoner used his slim body to duck under the attack, "...and despite your claims, this is all you have to offer?"
Gin landed an uppercut on the taller and older man, this time managing to force Gousen's vision upwards. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Gin continued his attack, staying on the offensive with a barrage of punches...to little effect as he almost fell to the ground after a sudden leg sweep to his left leg.
"Is that all you got to offer?" Gousen grinned darkly, sending his words back to him. "Seems like your words are just full of shit too!"
"Seems my attacks left little to no effect. His quirk is certainly useful in a fight..."
Despite being one of the brick walls of the prison, Gousen's natural defence was also enhanced by his quirk.
Resistance: This quirk grants Gousen the ability to toughen up his skin, resisting all sorts of attacks including things like bullets and blades to even some elements like fire and electricity! Though, he can't keep it up for long and will become vulnerable again after ten minutes at most and of course, despite the resistance, it doesn't make him immune!
"Heh, then I guess my quirk is a good counter then." Gin's body started to smoulder like cinders as the greyish tone of his skin started to become black as coal with some sparks as his body began to burn, as he burned, a low heat started to emit from him. "Let's see if you resist all these punches."
"Oh?" Gousen clenched his fist. "You're struggling to the point of using your quirk? Don't worry, you won't have to struggle any long—" Gin's fist slammed into his face, causing him to fumble back a little as he rubbed his face.
He actually felt that one.
"Struggling? You think I'm struggling?" With a swift motion of his hand, taunting his opponent, the smouldering man still had that cold and uncaring look plastered on his face. "I just want to end this quickly. I have better things to do than to entertain you. So, let's see if you can take my punches now."
Burn Out: Gin can burn his own body mass (which is infused with high energy-rich tissue) in return for increased physical power to which he can continue burning! The more intense the burning, the more energy is released to increase his physical power, though only for a limited time due to the burning process of his physical form in basic terms!
Rhys who had been watching on the sidelines swiped his brow, thinking, waiting. It was a perfect opportunity in many ways. Should he leave or should he stay?
"Take this on for size." the older man threw jab after jab. While a few thrown punches landed, Gin was definitely using his (slowly increasing) slim build to his advantage to avoid most of the attacks before landing a clean hit against the prisoner called Gousen.
"Tch." Gousen continued his assault, though the two had moved quite a fair bit away from the table at the start of the fight.
Since the start of this fight, Gousen only had one goal in mind.
Destroy this parasite in front of him.
His current opponent definitely wasn't the first and he'd be damned if they'd be the last. He didn't have much time as he chose to tank the oncoming attacks, the guards would be here soon and they always stopped him.
Always.
This was his only chance in the foreseeable future to break these husks, even kill these fellow inmates. Of course, this opponent was one that had proved to be quite resistant to the whole beat down and murder thing, he was just going to break his bones, but the more they fought, something made him crack.
He wanted to squish this bug!
He needed to squish this bug!
Gousen suddenly charged forward before wildly swinging at the younger inmate, who dodged backwards and landed a kick to his chin thanks to the sudden opportunity, though once again, it didn't do too much.
"Seems I need to burn a little brighter." the uncaring tone of Gin scoffed, ready to put a dent into that armour of his as he stumbled back a bit, Gousen had landed a strong hit to his side.
Gousen was strong physically, there was no denying that, but that was it. At this moment, this was it, this was the strength he had built for himself as his quirk didn't increase his own physical strength like Gin's quirk seemed to do.
To Gin, that sole thought was enough.
It was truly a battle of endurance. A firing line of cannons vs the thick wall of a fortress.
As the two fought, blow for blow. Gousen tanked the hits while Gin used his slim body to dodge most of the punches as he landed his own. Gousen had to admit, the fight went on longer than he expected, and the longer it went, the more wild his attacks were. Losing any type of regular fighting strategy and exchanged for a 'if it hits, it hits' type of strategy. Though, it could be argued that it never changed much at all.
When a tide crashes against the side of a cliff, the ocean falls back down before crashing into it again. However, it is possible for the wave to fly high into the sky, higher than the cliff if only just an extra inch, but that of course cuts it off from falling into the ocean again once it lands on the cliff. It had managed to surpass the cliff in that moment, but...
The smouldering man landed a clean and strong punch right into Gousen's abdomen, though it felt tougher than before as when Gin retracted his hand, he had noticed that his left hand, smouldering like cinders like the rest of him, had multiple cracks, lost a pinky finger and of course...laid on the floor, broken in two.
...it lost a part of itself when it did.
"Shit," this thought surprisingly came from Gousen, finding himself more resilient than before, "I used my quirk too much. I need to kill this parasite quickly!"
"Guess I haven't burned enough." Gin reared back his still remaining fist. As his left hand laid on the ground, there was no sign of blood whatsoever and the fact it fell off didn't even faze the smouldering man a bit as the 'cinders' seemed brighter than before. "This next punch will end this."
Before the fight could reach its conclusion, it seemed other people had something else in mind.
"You two need to freeze."
The two found themselves unable to move when a flash of light appeared from nowhere. Both were stuck in place and had trouble moving.
"That's my cue to leave!" Rhys quickly ducked around the corner and ran. "Perhaps next time..."
As Rhys fled the scene, a new figure had walked onto the stage. "To think, I would have to intervene in the male ward."
In walked a female guard, while her outfit was the same as many of the other guards, her outfit was coloured snow white than the green the others had while her black boots seemed to have some extra height with the heels. She lacked a hat as her neck length, smooth white hair had managed to come down and cover her right eye completely, leaving her other blue, lens-like eye to the world. The guard also had a rather pale complexion and wore an extra coat over top of her outfit that seemed to have fake white fur around the collar area and yet the coat stuck on her without falling. She also had some black lipstick applied too.
Yukiko Yukimura, one of the higher up guards of the female ward.
"What's one of the female ward higher up guards doing here?" The one that lost a hand wondered. It wasn't an unusual occurrence, they're had been times when guards from the male ward had entered the female ward and vice versa, especially during brawls and patrol. Some days, it was common, other times, it was rare.
They mostly resided in their assigned wards though, much like the prisoners unless it involved the co-ed ward. It was always a surprise when it was a higher up one that appeared. It raised questions about what might be happening.
"Now come on boys, I don't really have much time to spare with your antics."
After a few seconds, the two soon regained the ability to move freely, until Gousen clenched his teeth together, glaring right at Yukiko.
When he took a single step towards her, Yukiko's eyes gave off a bright flash, freezing them in place once more. Her quirk was definitely one that put a stop to a lot of infighting.
Freeze Frame: Her eyes have a flash similar to that of a camera, those within her sight when the flash occurs are frozen in place for a few seconds, though direct eye contact can have a longer effect in comparison.
Gin had no idea what to make of this really as he then spied the entourage of cloned guards behind her. "Why is she here? Did something happen? Or was she just the closest guard on site?"
The army of clones had surrounded them, though their attention was more on Gousen than him, which was actually very calming. Gousen attacked indiscriminately towards most of the other prisoners and because of that, at times, his victims were left off the hook on most cases when it came to the question of who started the fight.
Which was good for him, seeing as he wouldn't be punished as much for this particular fight.
For now, Gin conceded, not to Gousen but to the guards and their numbers as he looked down to his where his left hand used to be as he then twitched his thumb. It wouldn't take long now, but a fire could do him some good.
One of the clone guards looked down at his wrist and down to the broken, unmoving hand. "You need a furnace?"
"No," was the cold tone of the prisoner. "It'll be fine on its own."
The clone of Bunri shrugged as he began to evaporate before he was no more, while Gin had the pleasure of watching Gousen being escorted out. During this time, he briefly wondered about Rhys, but that wasn't his problem anymore. So he left, leaving the broken remnants of his old left hand behind for the cleaners.
Inyoku leaned against the wall, he had heard some interesting events that had occurred recently from passing guards and inmates.
There was one thing that bothered him about that, and that was the simple fact that he had missed it! Overhearing it got him kind of pumped up, but alas, his luck wasn't that great today as he missed the exciting events.
The rattlesnake was bored.
Inyoku then grinned behind his dark blue, silk scarf as his tail began to wag suddenly as he then started to follow a person, someone who had managed to capture his interest for the time being.
He wore the orange jumpsuit most prisoners wore, but opted not to use the upper half as it was hanging down behind him, showing off his bare, muscular chest. However, he did have a white scarf wrapped around his neck with a single 'tail' flowing in the wind behind him. He also had a pair of black, fingerless gloves and a dark brown, wide-brimmed hat that seemed like it almost belonged in the wild west. It sat quite comfortable on top of his head, managing to head most of his facial features, mainly since he pulled the brim down at the front a bit as he turned to face the rattlesnake.
Upon letting the brim go and looking up a little, a part of his short, whitish grey hair could be seen as his bright yellow eyes locked with Inyoku's own yellow eyes when he finally stopped to turn to face him.
"Hey," the rather friendly tone from Inyoku oozed out. "How about we go a round or two?"
Not a word was said as the two stood outside as a gust of wind drifted past, causing the flowing tail of the man's scarf to wave in the breeze while Inyoku's scarf sat comfortably around his neck.
After a few seconds, with Inyoku ready to go and leap into action, the man raised his hand, ceasing any action from the snake.
"I'm busy."
That ceased Inyoku's tail wagging almost immediately.
Everyone was busy! Well, mostly everyone, there were a few lowlifes in the prison that attacked him, returning challengers, but they were all weak. Couldn't even last that long against him!
It did provide some temporary fun, but nothing lasting.
So why were the interesting people that caught his eye always busy?!
Inyoku then hissed.
He didn't want to wait anymore, but before he could lunge into battle, the man swayed his finger back and forth. "Now, now. Hold on there pardner."
Inyoku-Yui's tail began to rattle and shake in response, making that iconic rattlesnake noise. The opposing man had his hands right near his hips as if he was about to draw a gun on the snake he faced. "If you really want to have a brawl right now, then by all means, be my guest, but I think fighting right now is rather pointless."
"I don't really care." the snake hissed rather cheerfully in response as he seemed to get that fight he had been waiting for for quite some time now.
His opponent sighed. "I understand your need for battle, but aren't challenges like this boring to you?"
The snake's tail ceased its movements. "What do you mean? Of course not, it's the most fun thing here!"
The brimmed hat man sighed. "I see, how—"
He suddenly moved to the side as Inyoku had lunged forward as the shirtless man had to suddenly back off from the snake's tail as that too swung at him after dodging the initial lunge.
He really did want to fight.
"I thought you said you would fight me?" the snake stayed crouched after his lunge, his head turned around just enough to look at the man with the longer scarf who didn't seem to happy with the sudden attack.
"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get." and those words just put a smile on the rattlesnake's face.
"Ah, so you'll fight me now?!"
The man was in the same position as before until he put a hand on his face. "You distracted me."
When he sent a look towards the prison building, Inyoku immediately butted in, trying to distract him once more. "Don't you think about getting the guard's involved! I'm not wasting this opportunity!" He wasn't going to let him get away!
"Tch."
"...what's so important, anyway?" asked the snake with narrowed eyes. It was almost like whiplash due to the constant want for battle earlier.
The man shrugged, never letting his guard down. "Just some...plans, that's all. Not like you care enough to get a proper answer."
"...does it involve something...exciting?"
The man said nothing as he watched Inyoku settle into a more relaxed position. Inyoku, seeing his opponent still on edge stood tall and faced him directly. "Go on and finish your business, but if it's boring or predictable...I'll make sure to make this fight happen, regardless of what circumstances occur."
Inyoku walked past the bare chested man who was still on guard, he only dropped said guard when the prison snake had put some fair distance between them.
"That was a close one." thought the wide-brimmed hat man, though he knew that Inyoku would come back searching for a fight with him, so he had to stay on his toes. "I almost had to waste time with him, but I guess I did end up wasting more time than expected."
It was then that the man had continued on his path.
Reiji messed with the meal on his table, not particularly hungry today. His 'meal' was interrupted as he looked up to see a prisoner, grinning ear to ear.
The prisoner, while not a newbie, had spent some solid time in Styx for a while and seemed to be quite cocky as he had managed to get the few members of the table to listen to him, as if he had formed a clique.
It seemed he was growing pretty quickly within these walls, not enough to land a name for himself around the prison, but he was gaining some notable power judging by the others seated at that table he was at, under his orders.
Reiji's eyes darted over to the back of the prison mess hall, where Fumma and his group had been eating at, though while Fumma wasn't there anymore, some lackeys were.
There was a difference between the two, Fumma and the boastful prisoner at the table surrounded by his own 'lackeys', and that thing was the lasting power.
Sure, the two had respect to some degree from those around them and power that deserved that respect, but Fumma out shined him in that...by a long shot despite how quickly he (the boastful prisoner) had climbed to get a small decent following for someone who wasn't apart of Fumma's group, and with that, the ability to climb higher was present.
Hence why the difference between them was lasting power. Fumma and his group (or just his group) could easily destroy the group so it couldn't reform to what it was now and that's why the slowly rising prisoner didn't have much lasting power.
Fumma could be dethroned or even give up the position, but his lasting power was much greater than the other prisoners, you can still feel threatened by the man and he could get back to his throne if he wanted to, or hell, start a new group while this prisoner could be defeated and thrown off his throne, no one would remember or felt threatened by him. There was no throne to return home to for him.
Just another prisoner at the end of the day.
When it comes to the hierarchy of Styx, the inmate hierarchy, some prisoners cemented themselves into its current history, like Fumma, while others could be toppled, thrown out and disposed off and wouldn't even leave a mark.
Which was why they were easy.
They could lose all the fear and respect they could or did gain.
So that must be why, once that very same prisoner got up and walked with his troupe, that a punch was thrown.
They had a look of shock on their face as they punched another inmate, as if they had no idea what they just did, as they just punched the back of the prisoner's head.
Then it erupted.
He had punched the wrong prisoner, who immediately punched back. This of course caused the prisoner to hit other prisoners who weren't involved, it was getting other groups to fight other groups when the lackeys joined in. Reiji, in all of this, just chose to watch it all unfold.
He watched the prisoner mess up his own attacks, missing and failing to dodge any punches, kicks or quirks sent his way while the observer wiggled and flexed his fingers.
As the male ward mess hall was suddenly thrown into disarray, as many prisoners began to fight one another, they all started to topple over in a matter of seconds.
Some fell to the ground, others were trying their best to stand but...the heat was too much. They were all frying, hell, they could see the heat waves in the air!
All of them, were sweating profusely, even if they didn't collapse on the floor.
Reiji struggled with the heat as he glanced up at the one responsible and paled almost immediately. It was almost enough to freeze him despite the ridiculous amounts of heat that poured in waves over them.
Standing a couple of floors above them, watching them all fight and drop to their knees was none other than Tai Yonamine, also known as the worst possible person to show up to stop prison brawls.
Why?
Cause he didn't hold back in the slightest as he subjugated all of them to his quirk and didn't even release it when he oversaw the suffering. They were dying of heat over there!
"You damn inmates..." he pulled down his cap with his left hand as his right hand sat out comfortable to the side with the palm facing towards the ceiling. "...it really seems you all want to die today!"
Floating or hovering above his right hand was a ball of fire, more accurately it was currently a ball of white light at this very moment! That was the cause of the inmates suffering and sweating from the heat as the ball of brightly burning light seemed to be bigger than that of a regular car tyre.
Miniature Sun: Tai's quirk allows him to basically create a miniature sun! Tai can also control its size and it's temperature!
Tai simply raised his hand, causing many of the aware prisoners to freak out, those who knew of Tai's actions of course. "H-He's going to throw it!"
The guard almost sent the ball of flames right down at the inmates below but he sighed and with a swift and fluid motion, dispersed the flames as he waved his hand away, pulling out a phone from his pocket with the other hand, that seemed to survive the heat.
"Tch," he shot the inmates a dirty look before answering the phone. "Yeah?"
Reiji let his head hit the table. Now that the immediate source of heat was gone, it almost evaporated immediately, though it was definitely still warm and uncomfortable. "He was really going to throw it at us!" a bead of sweat rolled down his face.
The scary part of it was, it wasn't even the first time he did that. Tai had used his quirk on the inmates before, and not just the heat to control them, he actually sent his ball of fire and heat at the inmates before and thankfully, it wasn't anything like the real sun in terms of heat or anything, but it still left people badly hurt. It was technically just an orb of fire he could create and that had to be one of the more brightest Reiji had even seen it!
His quirk was nothing to scoff at and was an assured path that lead to a direct death.
Some people even suffered burns from the quirk in the past. Tai was ruthless when he needed or wanted to be.
Reiji managed to pry himself away from the table. He wanted out of this heat, but he had to wait and wait he will. He had hope.
Alexios walked through the male ward, keeping an eye on each prisoner he had walked past, making sure they were well in line.
He did after all hear about Tai's usual stunt to get the inmates to settle down after a brawl had broken out. Some inmates did in fact go to the infirmary after that little surprise.
The guard stopped as he had a look outside as he saw two convicts that seemed pretty interested in what seemed to be a card game. The problem here was that they were there for a while. "How many hours did they spend there?" he wondered as he began to approach them.
The closer he got, the more things got clearer to him. It looked to be a stalemate. A stalemate that has been going on for hours. Alexios did consider leaving them to their match, but they have been sitting outside for so long when he soon recognised who exactly they were and they had no intention of stopping their match any time soon.
The tall, olive skinned guard scratched the back of his neck, thinking over it.
While the sun had yet to set, it was probably a good idea to stop their match, especially when it seemed to be a standstill for quite some time. So he acted.
"Okay you two, time to close up shop for today." he smiled down at the two prisoners engaged in their card game.
Johnny said nothing but Zuko did as he glanced up at the man, "ah man. We have yet to reach a conclusion..."
Alexios sighed with crossed arms. "As much as I would like to let you two continue, you two would be stuck here until other guards come to take you to your cells."
Johnny then placed his hand face down onto the table. He was right, as much as he wanted to settle this challenge, there was no point continuing it if more hands on guards approached and it seemed Zuko understood that too. "Very well. Perhaps we can finish this at a later date." though, Johnny somewhat doubted they would, but it was possible.
When Johnny left, Zuko just gave a polite smile as he stood up, planning on leaving too. "Weeeeeell, I better get going too then~"
Alexios watched as Zuko headed off in the same direction as Johnny while he picked the cards up from the desk, shuffling them as he did. "Good to see that they're spending their time improving themselves."
One day, these prisoners will one day return to society as reformed and model citizens. Alexios stopped to look at the prison yard, lost in thought for a moment before he too, headed back inside to his usual patrol route.
The new guard of Styx looked around the cafeteria that was currently closed off to prisoners now that the nightly curfew was in effect.
"Uh, what are we doing here?" Hokori asked as Osamu, who was instructed to help the new guy out, guided him around the cafeteria. As far as Hokori knew, he was just a guard and was unsure if he had to cook for the prisoners.
"I know you've been on the tour before, but we also have a duty when it comes to the prisoner's meals. Most of the time, the canteen staff handles the cooking, as well as the more trustworthy prisoners, but at times, we need to lend a hand in meal production, don't worry though, it's not a common thing." Osamu explained as they walked around the kitchen.
"Ah, so we're just extra hands should they need it."
Osamu nodded slowly, "that's right, and it's mostly during the night shift too because of certain prisoners being night owls and..." Osamu stopped as he just stared in front of him.
Hokori was confused for a second until he followed Osamu's gaze as he spied another guard he had met briefly before, Tai if he was correct. His tail froze a little at the aura this man was generating around him before said guard approached them, and Hokori almost forgot how to breathe if it wasn't for Osamu's hand on his shoulder.
It was then something Hokori had never seen was dropped onto the table when he was caught unaware. "W-What is that?" he peered at the contents and honestly, it looked like...a loaf?
"It's called nutraloaf."
"...Tai...you can't serve that to the prisoners..." Osamu sighed, looking at the loaf.
"They deserve to eat this slop, dumbass." Tai growled. "We already gave them enough decent food when it comes to the co-ed ward, hell even allowing them to use plastic utensils in the first place!"
The fennec fox's ears twitched at the mention of the name. "Nutraloaf?" His innocent question had managed to stop the two experienced guards from a quarrel.
"Ah, well—"
Osamu was cut off when Tai gestured to the loaf. "Why don't you take a bite, then you'll see what it is."
Hokori poked at the loaf before he took a piece of it and plopped it into his mouth and began to chew...and chew...and chew…
It was then Hokori realised…
"This isn't food..."
The nutraloaf wasn't bad, it was just…very bland. If Hokori had to compare it to something, it would be similar to of cardboard.
"Uh…" he didn't know what to say about the nutraloaf, but he definitely would prefer anything else other than this punishment of a meal.
"Nutraloaf is a meal blended from previous days' meals, and usually served to prisoners who misbehaved." Osamu sent a glance to Tai who seemed to be taking some of the loaf to a prisoner. "It's very bland and cardboard-like, but it does have all of the vitamins and nutrients that are needed to survive."
The guard then turned to Tai. "It's also unethical."
"Fuck off, they're criminals. It's a punishment for them and it helps reduce the violence the bottom feeders cause."
"That's not the point, not all of them are the worst of the worst! You shouldn't give that to the prisoners." It was then Tai gave him a look.
"You didn't hear? As soon as Gousen was released from his cell, he immediately went and attacked other prisoners, so he is now stuck eating nutraloaf."
"He attacked another prisoner?!" Osamu's jaw dropped all the while Hokori just looked confused.
"Bingo. One prisoner has a broken arm, two prisoners have bruises all over their body and another single prisoner just has a bruise from a punch to the face. There was one more, but no harm was done in the long term."
Osamu watched as Tai pick the nutraloaf up. "I'm going to give that prisoner his well deserved meal now." Once again, that aura had returned, causing Hokori to freeze up. "But I see your point."
"Thank—"
"I should have added rat poison."
"Tai!" It seemed that he didn't see his point after all as he had already left, causing Osamu to sigh. "God damn it, Tai."
After sighing, Osamu glanced down at the small fox. "Sorry, Hokori. Tai can be a bit...extreme when it comes to the inmates."
Deciding that he should get Osamu's mind off the previous conversation, Hokori gestured to the rest of the kitchen. "How about we continue the whole kitchen thing?"
"Right, we should get this done before it's too late. Is there anything else you want to know before we continue?"
Hokori didn't really know what to ask, so he went with a basic one seeing as they were in one of the prison's kitchens after all. "Asides from the nutraloaf, what kind of food do the inmates eat here?"
"A variety of food, really. You can expect to find a lot of international dishes here too, such as kongbap, a staple in Korean prisons with various mixtures of rice, grains, peas, and beans. We do have our own version of mystery meat, porridge and ričet, an European barley, beans, vegetables and pork stew." The less experienced guard's tail wagged a little as he listened to Osamu continue on. "There's also gruel."
"Gruel?"
"It's a food that consist of either cereal oats, wheat, rye flour or rice-boiled in water or milk, it's like a thinner version of porridge that is more often drunk."
"Huh." the fox then thought to himself, "so that kind of thing exists..."
"Inmates can also 'purchase' food from the prison commissary, which can include: chocolate bars, beef jerky, honey, peanut butter, bread, ramen noodles, coffee, and snack cakes." Osamu revealed, but immediately followed that up with, "though, that's a co-ed ward bonus, along with some more proper meals you'd expect."
"How do they pay for it?"
Osamu, without skipping a beat replied, "the same way that got into the co-ed ward, they don't really purchase it, they can acquire them, but there's a daily limit on how much they can take. Sorry if I confused you, purchased just felt better to say."
"It... makes sense."
"Anyways, inmates are provided three meals a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner." Osamu had picked up a menu and handed it towards the new guard. "On that is just some meals they have access to, of course, this does not include the co-ed ward."
"Oh."
As Hokori read the menu, it didn't seem that bad. For example, some meals consisted of chicken, pork, coleslaw and so much more. There was a lot of options for breakfast, lunch and dinner, especially lunch and dinner. The only thing stopping that whole 'lot of options' were the fact that the meals were assigned to days unless it was the weekend.
That was until Osamu handed him the co-ed ward menu which had a lot more freedom as the assigned days for meals wasn't as prominent on it and some meals sounded much better too.
Hokori kinda felt his mouth water as he read some of the descriptions. "That should be the most of it." the older guard said as the fox handed back the menu. "Let's call it a day."
"Right!"
The fox then followed the older guard out as the kitchen lights were turned off for the night.
A woman sat in the female ward, under the sun as she threw a small tennis ball up into the air, catching it with ease every time before throwing it again. Her eyes darted to different prisoners who were also doing outdoor activities for the day while they could before the sun disappeared into the shadows and night took over once more.
She was wearing the black, striped outfit that most prisoners had, but on top of that, she had a mantle that rested on her back that didn't seem to obey gravity and stuck to her back for the most part, it was black in colour and seemed to be made out of feathers.
This woman had a somewhat tanned complexion with short, ear-length, black hair that was swept to the sides at the front, as to not obscure her vision that was granted to her with her pale red eyes surrounded by purple eye-shadow.
She caught the ball one last time before narrowing her eyes on a few prisoners as a smirk overtook her features. She simply raised her left hand and gave them all the finger before that smirk evolved into a grin as the sunset slowly disappeared as darkness crawled over the world.
Sora stared up at the ceiling of her cell, but couldn't for the life of her, get to sleep. She felt...a little agitated and didn't know why.
Her cell had two neighbours. Located to the left of her cell, resided one of Akita's followers and located to the right of her cell, was Koneko of all people and speaking of which, she had met with her right before she had called it quits for the night.
Yet, despite trying, she just could not fall asleep and began thinking, "why?"
When she thought about it, she wouldn't really pinpoint it as being agitated, more so irritated. It didn't help that she didn't know why she was irritated. Before Sora could get more irritated at why she found herself irritated, she had heard some footsteps outside of her cell.
The footsteps were clearly walking by and at first, she thought it was one of the guards on patrol, but it was definitely two sets of footsteps. It wasn't uncommon for guards to join each other on patrol, sometimes that was what happened, but it was the fact they stopped at the cell right next door.
"...huh?"
Sora couldn't see nor hear, she heard no footsteps until they walked down some more before the footsteps had faded away. "I wonder what that was about?" It sounded to be a check up of sorts, at least as far as she knew.
She did remember Koneko saying that there was trouble caused by Chikuha and since she and Nozomi had rushed over to Demelza after the battle, the guards were probably checking up on them, just in case as a safety measure. Then there was also what Ashita told her about a new guard, and that made a lot of sense if he was tagging along with a more experienced guard in the female ward to know the layout of the place.
It was then, she found herself feeling tired and no longer irritated as she yawned while her eyes slowly closed for the night.
Li crossed his arms as he listened to the tale that Touya told him, however he felt that Touya had left out some important details. Then again, it was a rumour after all. "So, what your telling me is...breaking out is possible?"
"Yep, but it's just a tall tale created by others to give you newbies hope." Touya chuckled, over the story. "If you want to find out if it's true, then I suggest you search for yourself, but that would be a waste of time, the guards can be vicious. Just ask some of the prisoners who tried, they all suffered the same fate. Broken."
"Why did you tell me this? Are you messing with me?" Li had no idea if he should trust him, there was a lot that Touya was keeping from him, that had to be it. "Then why tell me something that can never be achieved?"
Touya simply smiled, not saying a word which did nothing to help the new inmate. "So it was to get my hopes up..." how cruel.
"I want in." the voice from a third party interrupted their conversation.
The two immediately tensed, they had been spied on by this new arrival.
Out from behind a corner, Remko had showed himself. "Oh, another new face." Touya acknowledged the newcomer with a rather friendly smile. "And who are you?"
Remko stayed silent for a while, "Remko."
"Ah, I'm Touya and this guy is Li, nice to meet you eavesdropper."
The newest addition to the prison decided to skip any sort of filler or chit-chat, this could give way to a golden opportunity and he didn't want to mess out on that if that was the case.
"You guys are planning on escaping, right?" he asked and didn't even wait for a response. "If so, I want in."
Truth be told, Remko had stumbled across the scene completely on accident when he was scouting out the prison some more and came to the realisation that escape wasn't going to be easy and the reputation this prison had made it all the more harder to achieve.
Though when he overheard these two, even if it wasn't a real plan or just a retelling of a rumour, there was that glint of opportunity... yet at the same time, he didn't want to continue talking with these two, but this was worth a shot.
"You want in?" Li narrowed his eyes at the newcomer. "You just overheard us talking about a rumour and you want in? We never said about escaping either." he scoffed and to be honest, Li wasn't that sure himself. What he had just heard was a rumour too. A cruel one at that. "Not to mention the fact it's told to newbies to either strengthen or break their spirit."
"Now, now, Kagayami," Touya smiled towards the neon yellow inmate. "Let's see what he has to say!"
"If you're worried about my skills, then don't bother. I have experience on my side."
The two shot him two different looks. Touya seemed interested while Li didn't care for it. "Experience?"
Remko actually shot a somewhat confident smirk. "This wouldn't be my first jailbreak."
"Oh! We got an experienced escapee in our prison," Touya grinned at the revelation, "but you should know, new guy, if you're not aware, the guards in Styx can and have the authority to get hands on."
"...what?" Remko was...taken back with that.
"Well, they can get hands on, but these guards can use their quirks, even the guards with quirks that are used to kill should the situation require it." the bright blonde haired inmate said with a smile, as if he was talking about something cheery. "Escape attempts will probably end up being punished in such a way."
The silver armed young man was stuck in thought. That was a problem, a big problem. Not only did Styx have high security, but the guards could take them out with their quirks? Sure, he had been apprehended by guards before in his previous prisons, but Styx proved to be a lot tougher than those by a long shot.
It also brought up another thought. "Are you even considering escaping this prison?" It was a dumb question in most cases, a simple yes or no, but the way he talked about it...it might just cost him his life if he dared to try, so he wanted to know.
Li, who just decided to listen for a while, turned towards Touya, he too had that thought. "Are we?" While they never talked about escaping, the possibility and option was still there.
"Styx is a prison with top notch security, thinking about escaping will result in our defeat, would it not?" Touya walked around the two. "Besides, this was just a rumour after all, a rumour made by other convicts to ease our hearts, to give us hope at freedom. The real rumour here is that the rumour was created by the guards...if that's true, what a cruel rumour they made."
Remko couldn't help but feel that Touya had avoided the question completely, but it did answer his question, at least that's what he thought. Escape was too risky, it was not worth it at all. "Damn it." The brief thoughts of it were piling up in his mind, but it was just a cruel rumour after all.
The rumour that the two were talking about was somewhat lost on Remko as he only appeared during the end of the talk, he was mostly clueless on it. When he asked Touya about it, the more experienced inmate simply smiled.
"It's curfew right now, we need to head back to our cells."
Otherwise, they might be punished by the guards if they were too late in returning.
Remko and Li were left alone with one thought on their mind, seeing as they were new prisoners of Styx. "Did he make that rumour up?"
What a cruel rumour to tell to newbies.
In a dark cell, a figure that could be described as hulkish sat in the middle. If he was outside of this cell, out in the open, under the clear sky, a small bird might of landed on his head.
If it was foolish enough.
Not even mice or rats dared to come near his cell! If there were even mice or rats in this prison of course. Only the pale moonlight peered in through the cell's tiny window, placed up high in the thick walls casting him in the shadows of the old, dusty cell.
The silhouette opened their eyes after quite some time before they grinned, digging their hands slightly into their legs as he sat with his legs crossed. He couldn't help but grin.
Grin, grin, grin.
He was about to burst!
He just couldn't wait, he couldn't wait to burst!
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Once again, as mentioned at the top of the chapter, your characters can and will lose some fights but are able to win others, so keep that in mind. Since we're at the end of the chapter, I'll say this about characters winning and losing fights: not every fight will be interfered with and leave fights as draws or ties as we go deeper into the story/the more the story progresses. So that's gonna be fun!
Quick note about the first arc that we're slowly getting ourselves into: the first arc might be a slow starting one seeing as we're not that far into the story as of yet, but we be moving!
Anyways, thanks for checking out the chapter, I'll see you next time :D