CHAPTER 6:
One Hell of a Ride
Aomine remembered that it was the 23rd of July when he first woke up inside his cell. He remembered being woken up by a fatty prison guard at exactly 6 o'clock in the morning for his first roll-call experience before breakfast. He remembered being on his guard over his cellmate, Imayoshi, for being so sly and cunning. He also remembered meeting the most stunning person he's ever met, who almost made him believe in the existence of angels, Kise. And after a week, he had his first visitor, Momoi, who promised him that she will visit again together with their parents. Following that, he had an encounter with Oshiro that heated things up and now it ended up like this.
They say that when you are about to kick the bucket, things will start replaying inside your mind, it will make you reminisce things you had done in your entire life. And though he has been remembering things now bit by bit, Aomine knew he wasn't going to die yet. Aside from the fact that what he has been reminiscing about were all just his experiences inside Teikou Island Prison for a week and not from the different aspects of his entire existence, Aomine is surprised to even find himself continuously breathing after the entire ordeal. Though his whole body and face has been aching because of the fight he just recently won over, the former police sure knows his body isn't going to break down just from that.
Maybe he was just in this kind of state- slumped down on the floor, staring into nothingness while remembering the things he has gone through- because he just cannot get over the fact that within a week and a half, here, in this prison, he already gained a lot of experiences. And now, he had gained popularity within big guys in this prison as a beast.
Well, it's not like he was afraid of what's going to happen to him from now on; it was just that, he didn't expect things to go in an avalanche like this. It was just surprising that the boring, constricted life he had expected in Teikou turned out to be one hell of a ride.
He huffed out a breath, not because it was meant as a sigh, a sign of him being tired; but because it was meant as a short laugh, a sign of him being amused of the little situation he had himself tangled in. He then tried to stand up on his feet but barely managed to as one of the hands he used to assist himself sent him writhing in pain.
"Shit!" He muttered as he unraveled the blood-soaked cloth wrapped around his hand.
There was a discoloration on the swollen part of his hand and there was also a painful popping sensation he could feel with every little move he made with his finger. It made him grit his teeth as the excruciating pain consumed him. Now, he's definite that he might have broken a finger or two.
"I don't care whatever condition you are in right now; but if ever you need to see a doctor or anything, you better not tell anyone, especially the guards, on whichever mess you and Oshiro got involved in. Make some excuses or something but don't you dare tell the truth unless you want to sleep in a cramped, dark cell for weeks."
Aomine recalled what the red-head told him before he made his way out. Of course, I know that. I'm not stupid, he thought to himself as a product of his pride, not trying to admit that a certain man has taken him to task. He, then, washed his blood-stained hand with a bottle of water he found nearby just to avoid getting suspicions by the prison guards.
While aiding his injured hand with the other to avoid it from making any unnecessary movements, Aomine slowly moved his feet to make his way out of the shower area. Every part of his body was aching and, worse, his hand is possibly fractured. He cannot just let this off to sleep, he needs to go see a doctor now.
"Excuse me…" Aomine approached the first prison officer he saw.
"What?" The officer looked back at him with a disdain in his eyes, as if he was being disturbed even though all he was doing was loitering around. But Aomine didn't make a big deal out of it, as he needed to go to the infirmary first than to set out a fight with the man.
"I need to go see a doctor."
He looked at him from head to toe before he asked, "What for?"
Raising his injured hand a little bit, Aomine answered, "I got a little irritated a while ago and punched a wall hard. Now, I think, I got a finger or two broken."
"Are you sure it was because you punched a wall? You didn't punch a person's face, did you?" It was an expected question. Aomine knew the guard would ask him that, aside from the fact that no one really trusts inmates, the cut on his mouth raises a whole lot of suspicion.
"Ah, if you were talking about the cut on my lip, it was because I bit it when I was in so much pain a while ago. The pain is terrible, you know."
The officer stared at him for a few more seconds before grabbing the handcuffs from his back. "Alright, but I need to handcu—"
"W-whoa, are you serious?" Aomine almost exclaimed, "You'd cuff me even though I had bones in my hand broken? Can't you see? I can't even move it."
"Tsk." The officer, while clicking his tongue, glared at him and put back the handcuffs at its place. Then he pulled out a handheld transceiver from the side of his pocket and spoke, "Sensei, I have a prisoner with an injured hand here. He says, he might have broken a finger or two. Shall I send him to you?"
Why the hell would you even still ask that for?! Of course, I should be sent there immediately, Aomine thought as he started to feel his patience wearing thin.
There was a slight electronic noise before a voice of a man answered back, "Is there an open wound or any part of the bone protruding?"
The officer immediately checked Aomine's hand before saying, "Nope. But there's a big swell and discoloration near his knuckles."
"Alright, send him for a hand X-ray first, then bring him to the infirmary immediately with the result. Make sure you don't let him make unnecessary movements with his hand."
"Copy that, Sensei." He responded and put the transceiver back on his side as he turned to look at Aomine, "You heard it. Now let's go."
Aomine was immediately escorted to the infirmary by the same prison guard who he talked to a while ago. He already had his hand undergo an X-ray and had his results in a brown envelop tucked in between his arm. Now, all he has to do is to get a proper treatment and check up to his injured hand.
"Get inside. I already told Sensei that you are done with your X-ray and so you will be coming here. I will just be outside so you better not be doing anything funny or I'll make sure to send you to solitary confinement." The prison guard said as they both reached the infirmary.
Aomine slowly opened the door and walked inside. This wasn't his first time visiting the infirmary as the medical examinations before entering the Prison are usually held here; however, this sure was his first time meeting the new Prison Doctor since the one who examined him has just recently re-assigned. So he doesn't quite know how the new doctor will treat him but whatever kind of person he is, Aomine thought that the only thing he came here for is to get his hand treated.
"Aomine Daiki-kun, right?" A man's voice with an easy-going aura spoke as he appeared right in front of him.
Aomine immediately faced the said man who had a straight, black hair that parted in the middle and reached below his ears, and a few strands of it falling down over his eyes. He was wearing a white lab coat which made Aomine conclude that he was the new doctor.
"Yes, I am." Aomine replied.
"Alright then follow me." The man smiled as Aomine trudged behind him.
A distinct smell of antiseptic invaded Aomine's nostrils the moment he turned left to follow the said guy. The smell was pungent but crisp and somehow, he felt comfortable with it. Coupled with the scent, a powdery white-colored walls that surrounded the whole area and a shiny white tiled floor that looks almost as sterile as an untouched surface that came into Aomine's view.
Wow, so the prison admin does have the decency to make at least this place clean, he thought.
"Alright. Please have a seat and let me see your X-ray result." The brunet said, offering the chair in front of a neatly arranged desk.
Aomine did as he was told so. He sat on a comfy chair, it had been a more than a week since he sat on one and gave the X-ray result that was sealed inside a brown envelope. The guy immediately opened it as he sat on the other side of the desk and took an X-ray plate from inside. Aomine watched as he began inspecting the black and white image of the inner structure of his hand. Aomine waited then for him to say something about it and the possible treatment he could have right now; however, the man was taking his time staring at the plate. He seemed to rather enjoy his time and looked as if he was strangely making out shapes from the image, so Aomine decided to interfere.
He cleared his throat, "Uh…" He looked for the man's name, his eyes reading the doctor's name plate atop the desk and continued speaking, "… Midorima-sensei."
The brunet quickly glanced with the sudden name call as if surprise with what he was called. "Huh?"
"What do you think of the result? Did I really break a finger or some—"
"Pft!" Aomine was cut off by a very loud laugh. He had no clue why but it prettsy much irritated him as he felt insulted with the disrespecting way he thought a Doctor shouldn't abide by.
"What's so funny?" He scowled.
The man immediately tried to compose himself from laughing too much and spoke in between short chuckles, "Ah, s-sorry … I didn't mean to… laugh… Ha-ha-ha!"
"Alright, cut it out, Takao." A sudden deep voice from behind stopped the brunet from his incongruous laughter. Aomine looked back and found a green-haired bespectacled man walking towards them. He was tall- probably a few inches taller than the former police- and has this reserved expression on his face. He wore white long sleeves with plain moss-green tie that matched his hair color and a black formal pants. A sign that he isn't an inmate nor a prison officer in civilian clothes. However, contrary to his formal looks, he held a strange-looking toy frog in his hands which made him seem quite comedic.
Takao? So he isn't Midorima-sensei, is he? Was it this strange man?
"Ah! Shin-chan, sorry…" The brunet said with an apologetic grin.
"Seriously, you…" The green-haired man sighed. "I just left to buy a canned red bean drink for a few minutes and there you are causing trouble again."
The perky guy didn't say anything but continued to flash a grin to the other.
Aomine couldn't help but feel a little confused at the situation. He couldn't keep up with the conversation of the two and neither could he grasp their hard-to-understand characters.
Is one of them even a doctor? Aomine frowned.
The man with a strange-looking frog resting on his hand noticed the frown on Aomine's face. He knew he's been feeling a bit irritated with what's happening and so he started approaching him with his usual reserved expression, "Aomine Daiki-kun, right?"
"Yes." Aomine answered.
"I am Midorima Shintarou, the Doctor here in the Prison Infirmary." He introduced. "And this guy here is my assistant, Takao Kazunari."
Ah, so he is the doctor. And this guy is just his assistant. No wonder he laughed a while ago… but he's wearing a coat that's why I was mistaken, the former police thought.
"Hello! I'm sorry for my rudeness a while ago. I just couldn't believe you had mistaken me as Shin-chan. Though I just realized that now, it was understandable since you just entered Teikou." Takao said, flashing a beam at him.
"It's okay. Anyway, about my X-ray…" Aomine said, shifting the topic to his injured hand.
"Ah, right! Here it is, Shin-chan." Takao swiftly got up from his seat – which was supposed to be Midorima's – and handed it to the doctor.
Midorima, at once, examined the image at the X-ray plate and then looked at the results from a piece of paper inside the envelope.
Aomine couldn't help but inquire, "So what does it say? Did I break a finger?"
"Without a doubt." Midorima quickly replied. "But instead of a finger it was rather one of your metacarpal bones, particularly the 4th one. Alright, let me see it."
Aomine let Midorima check his injury. The green-haired doctor immediately ordered Takao to get an ice pack as he saw the brutal swelling and discoloration on his hand. Takao did as he was told with a quick movement.
"Make a fist." Midorima instructed.
"Huh?" The blue-haired man uttered in incredulity.
"I said, make a fist."
Aomine almost freaked out with what the doctor directed him to do. He couldn't even move his finger up and down because of the searing pain and now Midorima wants him to ball his hand into a fist. "Are you fucking kidding me? You know how much –"
"I need to see if you have torn ligaments, that's why I'm telling you to make a fist. Every doctor you go to will make you do this, so just do what I say."
Even though it annoyed Aomine with how Midorima was ordering him around, he just did what he instructed as he wanted things to end up rather quickly. So, slowly and carefully, he began to ball his hand into a fist and an intense pain surged through him, overwhelming him with every breath he took.
It only took him seconds to straighten back his hand. "Fuck! Ugh!"
Ignoring Aomine's painful groaning, Midorima started mentioning his observations, "It seems like the injury is not that severe. There's no torn ligaments since you can still barely make a fist and there's no displacement, shortening, rotation, or angulation of the bone so I can say this is a Non-displaced Fracture."
He then took the ice pack from Takao who was waiting by his side and gave it to Aomine. "Here. Use this. It will reduce the pain and the swelling."
"Thank you." Aomine said as he took the ice pack from Midorima's hand and began placing it gently to his injury.
"Later, I will be covering your hand with a splint to immobilize it and prevent further injury from happening. It will probably take two to three weeks for the inflammation to subside so during those times, continue coming in here to use an ice pack for your hand. Now if you are experiencing mild-pains, you may take over-the-counter pain relievers such as Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen that is available at the prison commissary. Do you follow, Aomine-kun?"
"Yeah. And it's a pain in the ass…" Aomine muttered as he sported a frown.
"Well, you just reaped what you sow." Midorima retorted and walked around to sit on the chair Takao occupied a while ago.
Aomine sighed, as if he was already tired of what he was supposed to do to heal his broken hand even though he hasn't even made a single effort of going through with it.
"So, tell me, how did you get that injury?" The green-haired doctor suddenly asked.
"Huh?" A little surprised with the sudden question, Aomine spoke about the petty scene he had crafted to fool the guard. "Oh, well, I'm at my wit's end a while ago and so I punched the wall in my cell. It was a little stupid but—"
"Yeah, it's stupid. Stupid for making up that lie. I don't believe it was a wall you punch."
"What are you saying?" Though he was caught up, Aomine feigned ignorance but clenched his teeth in the end of his sentence, signaling that he was a little troubled.
"Don't worry, I won't tell the guards."
"I thought you were the reserved-type. But I guess I was wrong, seeing that you are pretty nosy now."
Midorima cleared his throat, a little embarrassed with his sudden inquisitiveness. "Just so you know, this is still part of my examination. I need to know the cause of the injury to give you better treatment." He paused. "Anyway, I can tell by the cut in your lip that it was due to a punch. Having yourself punched and having your hand broken because of a punch means you are in a brawl."
"Wow, some amazing deduction skills you got there, huh."
"It's just that I'm not stupid to believe a petty lie like that. So I'm right, no?"
Aomine thought there's actually no point for him lying now that he's actually busted. Not that he trusts the doctor's words that he won't tell the guards about it, it's just that whether he tells the truth or not, sooner or later the prison guards will actually find out the truth especially with the remarkable thing he did with Oshiro's face.
Chuckling because of his rash actions and stupid thinking, Aomine muttered again. "Heh, so I'm sure as hell will be sleeping in the hole starting tonight, huh."
"Like what I've said, I won't be telling the –" Midorima stated but Takao cut his sentence off.
"Well…" Takao interfered with a silly grin on his face, "You don't actually have to worry about it, Aomine-kun."
Both the green-haired man and blue-haired guy shared a look at Takao. Midorima was curious of what his assistant have to say and Aomine entirely surprised of what the perky guy knows.
"What do you mean?" Aomine raised a brow.
"The guards and the warden already know what really happened."
"How do they know?" Midorima asked first.
"I checked Oshiro's face a while ago. It was badly broken and needed to be treated urgently. I figured the infirmary wouldn't be able to take care of it and decided to tell Kagami-san that Oshiro should be sent out as an outpatient. He needed surgery. Doing that means telling the guards and the warden about it."
Midorima almost shouted at the guy, "And why didn't I know about this?! I'm the doctor, I should know about it."
"W-well, they were in a hurry since it was an emergency so… Ahhhh I'm sorry, Shin-chan!"
"Whatever. Nothing more I can do about it now."
Despite Takao's persistent and doting apologies to the green-haired man, Aomine began speaking himself, "And so, why shouldn't I have to worry about that then? The guards know, the warden know. And now I'll be damned starting tonight."
"No." Takao corrected, "Actually, yes, the guards planned to send you to solitary confinement starting tonight but the warden ordered them not to."
"How come?"
"That's… what I don't know. I just heard about it from everyone. They were all intrigued by the fact Kagami-san talked to the warden about it."
"Kagami? Who is that guy? It sounds familiar to me. I think I've been hearing that name everywhere."
"Eh? You don't know who Kagami-san is? And of course, you've heard it. He's the leader of the gang in Block A! And how come you don't know him? I believe you two have met during your fight with Oshiro. I heard he's the one who interfered."
Aomine could hardly believe what he had heard from the brunet's mouth. He's now having a clue who Kagami is and he's afraid it's hard for him- for his pride- to accept the fact that mentioned person is indeed the red-head who had that overwhelming aura surrounding him. The man who Aomine found out; is a predator, who can make anyone his prey. Even Aomine himself. And now what? That man who he had an exchange of heated words with saved his ass? It doesn't make any sense to him.
The former police brushed his uninjured hand over his face and gave a dull, long sigh. "What the fuck is he trying to do? Was he trying to make me owe something to him?"
"Maybe? Maybe not? I don't have a clue why he did that, nor the others. That's why your name has gotten pretty famous right now all over block A."
"Ugh. That's really unnecessary. I don't need people talking behind my back."
"Well, I can't do anything about that. Anyway…" Takao walked towards Aomine and reached for the ice pack he's been holding onto since a while ago. "I think the swelling is not that bad anymore. Shall I prepare the splint and the materials, Shin-chan?"
"Yes, please do." Midorima said as he stood-up from his seat and checked Aomine's hand. "And, also, prepare some antiseptics, the cut in this guy's lip is getting terrible."
"You know, what I don't understand is that, I wrapped my hand with a cloth before I decided to go to the meeting place. I heard it will prevent injury so why is my hand broken even though I did that?" Aomine asked while the green-haired doctor started gently wrapping his 4th and 5th finger together, and the splint towards his arms with a gauze bandage. It made him flinch with the slight pain.
"Ah, so that's why your fracture is not severe. Thanks to that, you avoided getting serious fracture that could've rendered your hand useless forever. But, to answer your question, it was either, you didn't do the hand wrap well or you delivered a very hard blow that not only injured your opponent but also you."
It wasn't like this is his first time interacting with the man.
He has been here in this prison for three straight years and every day- every night- he was always with him. They had talked together, ate together, slept together, and did things together that is beyond the very definition of the word 'interact'. They had more than just a simple interaction.
But what is this feeling that's eating his insides right now? It's making him feel weird and sick. He can sense his stomach turning upside down with every move he makes and every step he takes along this dark and narrow hallway. Was it maybe because of the stench- a mixture of sweat, excrement, and urine- that this place reeks of? Or was it maybe because he didn't eat his lunch a while ago? Or was it due to the anxiety clouding up his mind because of the things he knew he shouldn't have done behind the man's back?
With a trembling hand that he can't seem to stop, Kise swallowed. As if the nervousness will go down together with the bile that is attempting to come out of his throat.
"Are you alright?" A skinny man who called him a while ago noticed the awful state he's trying to get out of.
Forcing a smile, the blond assured, "I'm fine."
Then, they continued walking along the long hallway with silence enveloping the scene. This just caused Kise's rapid thumping inside his chest to become more evident. And though the skinny man wanted to ask once more if he was really alright, he chose not to as a familiar hollow cube of concrete barricaded with cold metal bars started to appear at the end of the hallway.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Kise thought his heart was going to come out of his chest as the cell he couldn't fail to recognize became nearer to them.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
And nearer…
Thump. Thump. Thump.
And nearer…
Thump. Thump. Thu—
"Ryouta."
Gulp.
"Shougo-kun."