Creaaaaaaaaaaaak. The rusty old door to the schoolship's brig section slowly opened.
The two students peeked their heads through the door's opening and looked inside.
It was a rather sparse quarter of the ship, with little in the way of furniture. This was to be expected of course, it was just a brig, though its population was bigger than they had previously been led to believe. Most of the students interned here were, of course, delinquents and troublemakers, a classification of people that had only grown in size with Marie's ascension to the top of BC Freedom.
If there was one thing brimming here, it was the population of guards, found from Escalator and Examinator factions in equal numbers. Wielding stale bread as truncheons, they made for an effective if ridiculous fighting force when it came down to it. The one thing that could be used against them would be their morale, Frite thought to herself, assignments below deck were by no means prestigious or wanted for the girls of BC Freedom, even if it was better to be guard than prisoner, and this showed in the student's gloomy faces. They were just as locked up here as the delinquents were.
Rosas was the first to step into the section, with a confident stride she entered the brig and struck a powerful pose, waiting for someone to notice her and say something. Frite strode in after her, though stayed at a reasonable distance. After a couple moments of wait, Rosas' frustration began to show itself.
"Hey! Anyone in here you ding-dongs? I'm trying to speak to the person in charge!"
Just as she exclaimed her intentions, a rather diminutive girl with white curly hair wearing the security officer's uniform walked up to Rosas. The comical height difference between the two girls punctuating their conversation.
"Who are you looking for…" the small girl flipped through her notepad in a bored fashion "The Bastille is quite a large section."
"Our treatment here is unacceptable!" Rosas began with an angry tone "We were selected personally by Andou herself to ensure the imprisonment of THE Armageddon Angie!"
"Ah." The girl closed her notepad "You're looking for the psychiatric confinement unit."
"Excuse me, Madame" Frite interjected "Are you the warden of the Bastille?"
"Indeed." replied the white-haired girl in an exhausted tone "My name is Soufflé. With the accent. I run this section of the ship at the behest of Ms. Oshida."
"Greetings Madama Soufflé. I am Frite and this is Rosas. Like she mentioned we are here to take over the confinement of Madame Angie. Do you have any advice for us regarding the care of this particular prisoner?"
Soufflé let out a long sigh.
"Well, to be honest, I haven't dealt with a prisoner like this in a long time. Most of the girls we get down here are troublemakers who have something to say about how Marie runs our school. They're rowdy and painful to deal with, sure, but nothing quite like the so-called "Armageddon" Angie. At the best of times, she is polite, studious, and reserved. A model student and a model prisoner. We've personally engaged in long talks on a variety of interesting topics. You'd think her imprisonment here is a mistake with how normal she may seem."
She marked a pause.
"But then there are the episodes, and she becomes the worst prisoner I've ever seen. Banging her head against the bars, paranoid behaviour, a complete and utter disregard for her personal safety or that of others, throwing the things in her cell at the guards… It's unsettling."
There was a moment of silence after she had finished, occasionally broken up with the shouting of guards and prisoners in the background.
"Just try not to set her off. You'll do fine. Psychiatric ward's just past that door over there. Enjoy your tenure with us."
She gestured towards another door in the back of the room with her stale truncheon.
"Thank you, Madama Soufflé." Frite concluded as Rosas began making her way towards the next door.
The two girls entered the Bastille's psychiatric unit. A wing of legend with only a single cell. They were in that cell's antechamber and in front of them lay a heavily reinforced door, guarded at all times by two of the Bastille's best trained girls.
"Let them in!" Soufflé ordered from around the corner.
The two guards dropped their stance and began to unlock the door's many locks. This storied door appeared to have been heavily upgraded over time as the prisoner's containment needs evolved. There were new locks as well as originals, a small sliding door closed off the door's viewport and a single tray receptacle was on the door's bottom half to accommodate the meals and work she received daily.
As the door opened, Frite could not help but stare into the room in front of them. It was an austere cell, with the walls padded for protection. A few amenities were in the room which could easily be taken away in times of crisis. A small bed lay in the corner of the room with a wardrobe, stool, and desk nearby it, the desk itself appeared to have scattered papers and books on top of it. There appeared to be a private nook in the other corner of the cell that housed what was probably a bathroom. And of course, laying in the bed was a girl of average height with messy brown hair and round glasses, "Armageddon" Angie.
The guards quickly ushered Frite and Rosas inside and closed the door behind them. They were well within the belly of the beast now.
"Is she… asleep?" Frite asked Rosas in her quietest tone of voice.
A yawn sounded out throughout the room as the figure in bed began to rise.
"Oh. Visitors. I wasn't expecting visitors today." Angie said as she got up from the bed. "Sorry. I'm still in my pyjamas."
"S-stay back!" Rosas shouted in a fearful tone.
Angie let out a laugh as Rosas shuddered. Maybe to her it was meant to break the tension, but the shry cackle she let out did nothing to put the two girls at ease.
"Aw come on. I'm not going to eat you." she said in a louder than intended tone of voice "It's just been a while since I've had company." She let out a coy smile.
The brown-eyed girl began to stretch in the corner of the room as Frite and Rosas looked at each other with bewildered eyes.
Suddenly, a loud noise erupted from hall behind. One that wasn't entirely muffled by the room's heavy door. Instantly, Angie's posture changed. Like she had just become activated, her body twisted and contorted as her head snapped towards the girls and she began to approach.
"AAAAAAAH" Rosas turned around and began banging on the door with her fists "Let me out! Let me out! Let me out! I don't wanna do this!"
Slowly, Angie made her way forward. Rosas turned back around and began to back up towards the corner of the room with Frite. The two girls held each other tightly as they kneeled in the corner.
Angie put her ear against the door and began speaking again.
"They sure are getting rowdy out there huh? I wonder what that noise was."
Her body language immediately switched back to her mellow hunched over self.
"Ah well. It doesn't matter. Do you girls want some onion soup? I have leftovers from yesterday's dinner tray."
The two girls picked each other back up. As Angie paced away, they cautiously returned to knock on the door.
"Oh, you're leaving already? That's a shame. I guess I'll be seeing you around though. Have a good day!"
Frite and Rosas breathed a sigh of relief as the hefty steel door opened back up and they quickly exited the cell.