Summary: AU: After the events transpired at the end of Elfen Lied, a new set of problems arise. Kouta is suddenly accused of a crime he didn't commit, and is sentenced to death. His punishment, he is sent to Deadman Wonderland. The question is, will he escape this nightmare alive, or will he die? Read on to find out! Reviews appreciated.

*Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or contents from Deadman Wonderland, or Elfen Lied, they belong to their respective creators.*

Kouta in Wonderland

… … …

Chapter 4: The Truth of Deadman Wonderland!

Takami Yoh had never felt anything like this before. Here, he stands with a brand new injury thanks to that overbearing bully, Kozuji. It seemed that whenever bad things happen, he's always the one that gets injured from it. Sigh, there's no helping it, he thought. Yoh cracked open his one visible eye at the one man whom he despised among all others, Tamaki Tsunenaga. The way the man stared at him, like that of a fox, was never good news. Ever since he had been placed in this dreaded prison, in search of his younger sisters, of course, he'd been following orders from the higher-ups, like said man.

"Did you want something from me, sir?" Yoh asked as neutrally as possible.

"Why, yes, Yoh-kun." Tamaki said in that weird, but creepy voice. "You have met our newest prisoner, have you not?"

"Yeah, Kouta-kun?" Yoh asked.

"Oh, so you're that acquainted with him, then?" Tamaki raised a mischievous eyebrow.

"Yeah, I suppose so."

"Well, this makes things all the more interesting." Tamaki smirked.

"What things, sir?"

"Simple. I want you keep a vigilant eye on our newest pet."

"Wait. So you want me to look after him?"

"It should be easy to do that, my boy. Since you're already acquainted with him, you would also be doing us all a favor." Tamaki said, and pulled a candy out from inside his jacket pocket. "Is that alright?"

By accepting it, Yoh instinctively knew that he was going to have to sacrifice a lot of things for the sake of this assignment. A few sweat drops glistened on his face, and dripped down as he took the candy from Tamaki's offertory hand. He was going to be in for one hell of a ride.

… … …

Inside his cell, Kouta rested his head on his arms, thinking about the situation between him and Shiro. He couldn't tell whether they're great friends, or even if he could trust her. She just seemed out of whack to him. Kouta closed his eyes to try and think, and for some reason whenever he did that, a blurry image of a little girl in white appeared in that vision. Whenever he reopened his eyes, he instantly forgets what she looks like. This happened once before, but it was with Lucy. Maybe his conscience was trying to tell him something that he knows subconsciously.

On the same subject, he thought back to yesterday's dog race and how badly that went for him. He just remembered that once neither of them won the race, he wouldn't be rewarded with Cast Points, or 'Candies'. Kouta looked down at his collar and watched the timer tick down to his doom. He had about four hours before the timer runs out and he dies of poison. Perhaps this is his sentence for the death penalty. For some reason, every time he thought of dying there, he thought of things like hanging, or being shot in the head. Death row in Deadman Wonderland was so confusing at times. Of course, he'd never expect to understand the place entirely.

Just then, the door to his cell opened and his eyes snapped open to find the figure of his only other friend, Takami Yoh. His eyes trailed down to the cast on his arm, which reminded him that the young man was injured two days in a row. Yoh moved closer until he sat on the bed across from his.

"I see that you're my new cell mate, huh?" Yoh said.

"Huh?"

"Didn't you get the memo?" Yoh grinned. "This is also my cell, and this means we're cell mates!"

"Oh, that's cool!" Kouta agreed. "It's good to know a friendly face is sharing a cell with me."

"Yeah, well don't get too comfortable." Yoh said, seriously.

"What?"

Yoh pulled the candy from out of his pocket and a Cast Point card and presented it to Kouta. Kouta's eyes widened at the offering, and stared back at the person in question.

"What's this?" Kouta asked.

"You're Cast Points and the Candy for you to live." Yoh said.

"But, I thought that you win the Dog Race to get these?"

"Well, there's always other ways of getting these things." Yoh explained.

Kouta continued to stare at the items, and was broken out of his reverie when Yoh cleared his throat.

"You should eat the candy before you…you know." Yoh said, insisting that Kouta take the items.

Kouta debated on it, and shrugged before taking the Candy and the Cast Point card. Kouta stared at the strange wrapping. He'd been picturing the candy like a secret code, or some other thing besides a normal candy. Kouta looked once more at Yoh and earned a nod in affirmation.

"Okay, here goes nothing." Kouta opened the candy wrapper to examine a dark green, almost black, jaw breaker and popped the 'candy' into his mouth. Upon tasting the candy, Kouta's face immediately turned a pale shade of green as he shifted the horrid tasting 'candy'. "What the hell?!"

"Yeah, it's a little bitter, isn't it?" Yoh affirmed him. "Eat the whole thing. It's supposed to keep you alive for three more days."

Just as he said that, Kouta swallowed the last of the bitter candy, and took a swig from the water bottle that Yoh kept just in case. Kouta looked down at his collar as he heard the timer reset and count down from 72 hours again.

"It tastes like tree bark and sap, or something…" Kouta gagged before composing himself.

"Well, antidotes have never been known to be good tasting, you know." Yoh said.

"I guess I needed that." Kouta laughed, and Yoh joined in after.

"Say, are you hungry? We can start using those Cast Points and get you some real food." Yoh grinned. "After all, you haven't eaten all that much, except for yesterday after the Dog Race when that one girl gave you a bit of her sandwich."

"You know about that?"

"Let's just say I was around at the time." Yoh shrugged.

"Okay. Her name was Midou Azami, I think." Kouta said, recalling that a girl with noticeably pink hair and yellow eyes approached him and talked to him and offered him a sandwich afterwards. "That was awfully kind of her."

"Yeah, it's rare to find any kindness or friendship around these parts." Yoh said, leaning his chin on his remaining, uninjured hand. "But, you should be careful on who you trust, though. People here may be nice on the outside, but once you give them your whole trust, they have you in the palm of their hands."

"Well, does that mean that you're untrustworthy?" Kouta asked.

"I'm just saying, you should take precaution from now on. People here go insane after being trapped for ages, and now look at them." Yoh said, closing his eye like it means nothing. "It's just basic survival."

… … …

Kouta and Yoh are in the courtyard now, resuming their prison duties. Kouta was busy shoveling some dirt out so the other guys could place the wood in place to make more room for future prisoners. The thing about the prison, they keep expanding it so they could hold more prisoners. Upon thinking about it, how many criminals do they keep in the prison? And, what is the age range of the prisoners? So far, he's seen several people ranging from as young as eight years old, to as old as seventy years. What have these people done to get them landed in prison? It is absurd to even place children among adult prisoners, right?

"Say, why are there children in this prison?" Kouta asked Yoh, who was shoveling with one arm, next to him.

"Well, that I don't know." Yoh thought after some time. "But, whatever they did, it must have been pretty heinous enough to do this to them."

"You mean, eight year olds could have committed murders or something?" Kouta asked.

"It's not really all that far-fetched." Yoh said, placing a finger to his jaw. "People here are all guilty for something."

"You don't have to answer, but…what did you do to get yourself in prison?" Kouta asked.

"It's personal." Yoh said solemly.

"Ah, I understand." Kouta said. "What are the chances for prisoners escaping, or perhaps being let out?"

"We're here until we die." Yoh said, his back semi-turned toward Kouta. "The place has only been open for twelve years, and yet many people die for something just about every month. So, there's really no hope of escape."

"I see." Kouta said quietly, sadly thinking back to his friends back in Kamakura.

"Look, you're innocent, and a few of us believe that." Yoh said, placing his hand on Kouta's shoulder. "But the sad fact is that not everyone here or out there believes you're innocent. Right now, they don't give a fuck about whether or not you're guilty of a crime. As sad as it is many people like you are killed everyday because they're innocent."

"So…I should just give up, and die?" Kouta asked glumly.

"There maybe a sliver of hope out there somewhere, but the bottom line is, make the best of it however you can. Because nothing you do will ever change anything." Yoh said.

"Well, you guys are great friends, and I'm glad that there's a few people here willing to befriend me." Kouta smiled a little at that.

"Great!"

They resumed their work on the dirt afterward. In general, Kouta thought of himself as a pretty optimistic guy, most of the time. There were times when he did question the situation at hand, like Lucy when she first appeared into his life. But, for the most part, he always saw a good light even when there was darkness all around. He was far from being a saint, but he always ended up forgiving those who wronged him in the end. This time, it was different, and he had no idea how to handle it. At times, he felt like curling up into a ball and crying himself to sleep, like a baby, and others, he'd like to beat the crap out of something and make it feel pain, but what would be the use of that?

Both of them, however, never noticed a slender figure clad in a torn red outfit, standing at the top of the bell tower, overlooking the courtyard. The only thing visible to them was the noticeable smirk on the figure's exposed mouth.

"Kishi!"

The wind around them started blowing ominously after having a calm breeze. Suddenly, a chill ran up and down Kouta's spine as he felt an ominous aura. Both Yoh and Kouta looked up behind them and saw the red figure staring down at them. Kouta's eyes widened significantly, both of them felt fear, but Kouta felt a small sliver of anger. Kouta recovered himself, and glared hatefully at the 'Red Man', as he so liked to call the red-clad figure.

"It's the Red Man!" Kouta shouted.

"Red Man?"

"Yeah, the one I've been talking about this whole time!" Kouta exclaimed. "He's the one who killed all those students…and framed me…and got me the death sentence!"

"Uh…I know this is serious and all that…but that guy's coming…" Yoh deadpanned, disrupting Kouta's rant.

Kouta's focus was brought back to reality after images of the massacre flooded his mind. His steely glare returned and stood his ground defiantly at the figure descending upon them. He was terrified for sure, but his hatred ran deeper than that. The wind started whipping dangerously around them, and few sharp rocks grazed him, especially on his palm.

Kouta paid no attention to his bleeding palm, but instead just focused on the Red Man. In an instant, a rapidly growing pain flooded his chest where his heart was, and he clutched at it as an overwhelming amount of energy swirled around him. He was sure he felt like this before, but had forgotten about this painful, yet extremely powerful force. The blood in his body rushed forward, and he felt like it was all going to explode out in all directions.

He gripped his right wrist when he felt the rush of blood and energy throb and leave him numb. The wind grew into a hurricane, and a bunch of objects, like the stone and metal were cut and severed like butter as the waves of energy leaked and thrashed like a hundred whiplashes. For Kouta, the pain was more noticeable than the surrounding area.

Instinctively, Kouta pointed his hand toward the descending Red Man. Kouta winced a little when he felt blinding red pain coarse through his veins, as if they were on fire. All he could think about, however, was how much he despised the Red Man for ruining his life. A dozen past images flooded his mind also, and came to fruition at the present.

"You have ruined my life…you ruined my relationship to my family…everyone calls me a liar…a murderer…someone who deserves to die…but you know what, Red Man? You're gonna wish you'd never pissed me OFF!"

Kouta let all his pent up frustration out, and what came next was a pattern of blue hexagons surrounding his forearm, like before and a huge surge of energy mixed with blood that came spiraling out toward the Red Man.

In an instant, the whole center courtyard was obliterated, and the Red Man was no longer there. The aftermath left many at the scene in utter shock, and some even fainted at the sheer amount of damage. Many have never seen something like this before, and it was certainly the first time Yoh has ever seen this display of power. With all of Kouta's energy spent, he collapsed forward in exhaustion, and passed out.

"Kouta, what the hell are you?"

… … …

By the time Kouta woke up, he came upon the concerned face, and startled face, of Yoh and Shiro. Shiro was so startled that she let the partially eaten chocolate bar and milk she'd been previously holding go flying up.

"Oh, Kouta!" Shiro exclaimed. "You're awake!"

"You're here, Shiro." Kouta said. "How've you been doing?"

"Fine! Ever since I woke up, I've been looking for you, and when I did, I find that you'd fallen unconscious again! I was gonna share half my chocolate bar with you, but you wouldn't wake up! Jeez!" Shiro ranted and pouted cutely at the end.

Kouta chuckled and patted Shiro on the head innocently. She meant well, and he had to admit that the albino girl was cute in her own strange ways.

"Anyway." Yoh cleared his throat to subtly interrupt them. "What you did back there, what was that?"

Kouta thought for a moment before the memory of the Red Man and the insane surge of power that flooded after that. What Yoh was referring to, made it seem like he had been the one who caused all that.

"You mean, I did all that?" Kouta asked.

"Yup. We saw it all."

"But…didn't you see the Red Man?" Kouta asked.

"Yeah, we did." Yoh said.

"Do you know where he went?" Kouta asked frantically.

"Relax. I did some researching, and I found out that the 'Red Man' is hidden away somewhere in the place they call the 'G-block'."

"G-block?"

"Yeah."

"So, where is the G-block?"

"No one knows."

"What do you mean no one knows?" Kouta gasped incredulously.

"I mean, that no one here knows exactly where the G-block is." Yoh sighed.

A little while later, Yoh led the two of them to the legend, where all the locations of the 'blocks' are.

"Here's another thing for you guys to remember. The prison is divided into five blocks." Yoh explained, indicating the five sectors that connect to form the shape of a pentagon. "They are marked from the A, B, C, D, and F-blocks. Right now, we're in the C-block. That means, if they have a place for the Red Man, there's a high possibility that an unmarked block is where he's at. They supposedly keep the really notorious criminals in, and that's probably where the G-block is."

Kouta's determination returned, and so he turned back to look at the legend. There was a chance to find the Red Man and get redemption.

"Then, we'll just have to find this mystery G-block." He said with a smirk.

"But, wait, if we did that, it could be dangerous, and we could be killed!" Yoh reasoned.

"It doesn't matter. We'll die in this prison anyway." Kouta said, turning back emotionlessly at Yoh, a dead look in his eyes, one that scared Yoh and served to confuse Shiro. "I'd rather get my revenge now, and die for it then live for another second in this fraud."

"Fine. But you're not going to find it on your own like that." Yoh said.

"I thought you said that no one knew where the G-block was?"

"Oh! Oh! Shiro knows where it is!" Shiro bounced up and down like a sugar high child, waving frantically in the air.

"Really? You do?"

"Shiro's home is next to it, and if you know just which vents to go through, there's no one but Shiro who knows how to get there!" she affirmed.

"Okay, it's settled." Kouta said, seriously. "We head for the G-block tonight!"

… … …

A/N: Hello, readers! My story at this point isn't very popular and not very many people are reviewing it, but I'd like for people to give me feedback on how this story is going for them! It's a lot to ask, but it would graciously help me to make this story more interesting! I could even insert an omake here or there, starring Shiro and Lucy! Wouldn't that be cool? So, please if you have the time, review this story, and give it a rating! Thank you!

Next time: G-block and the Branch of Sin