(May 13 2024)—-

It's been a week since we got captured. I've been trying my absolute best to not lose hope, but darkness always finds a way to creep into my head. The girls and I spend most of the time being test subjects for Akechi's sick little games, being physically and emotionally abused by everyone. When I'm not being tortured and psychologically toyed with, I'm stuck in this dark cell. Getting to sleep at night is the hardest, but once I'm asleep, I sometimes get these little breaks. My dreams are the only things keeping me sane. In one of my dreams, I woke up back in my bed at the hospital, only to find Soppo sleeping underneath my right arm. I miss her so much. Those dreams don't make me feel mocked at all. I see them as reasons to keep fighting. If I don't give up, I might get to experience that again. One morning, I was having a dream about one of the meals we would usually have. I was sitting between Narukami and Suomi, Soppo was sitting in my lap. We were eating these amazing muffins Springfield makes sometimes. Sitting across from me was UMP-9, HK416, G11 and... UMP-45. 45 had those sparkles in her eyes that I miss so much. The last time I saw them was before Akechi beat her to death with his crowbar.

"Good morning, you filthy peasants!" Akechi's self-indulgent voice pierced through my dream and snapped me back to the dark prison cell. "I've personally come over here and written up a schedule packed full of fun activities, so be sure to thank me when you see me." A guard came to my cell and opened the door. He took the butt of his gun and hit me in the stomach with it. My wound hasn't healed yet, in fact it's been getting worse. I'm worried that one of these days, it will open up and I'll bleed to death. Suomi's not here to save my life...

"You will respect Lieutenant Akechi, is that understood?" He asked while towering over me. I said nothing, he and I both knew I would never respect that dirty dog, not after what he did to UMP-45. I could see HK, UMP-9 and G11 being lined up outside my cell. That was when they noticed 45's body in the middle of my cell. The guards put it there six days ago and haven't taken it out yet. HK and G11 both tried their best to not look at it, I think I saw tears rolling down their cheeks. 9, on the other hand, just stared at the body. She opened her mouth to say something but was so traumatized to see her dead sister that she couldn't talk. She looked more broken than ever. The guard got me up and forced me into the line. They marched us to the room I was in before with all the pallets. Akechi was standing on the pallets. He started giving some long speech about how we aren't as good as he is and how Chris Chan is the greatest and blah blah blah shut up Akechi! I leaned over to 9 as discreetly as I could.

"9. Don't let them break you." I whispered. "Don't give into them." Suddenly I felt a giant shock on my back. It disoriented me a little bit. Akechi stopped talking.

"What seems to be the trouble here?" Akechi asked as he strutted off the stage.

"The cat was talking, Lieutenant Akechi." One of the simpering guards said, in a slightly shaky voice. Akechi walked over to the guard very slowly. The guard looked more and more nervous with every step Akechi took towards him.

"What did I tell you to do if someone misbehaves?" Akechi asked in a very demeaning tone.

"To p-p-punish them, sir?" The guard stammered.

"No…" Akechi said as he slowly took the shock-stick-thingy away from the guard and threw it on the floor. He then took his crowbar out slowly and stroked the guards face with it. The guard looked scared out of his mind. Akechi then quickly turned and stabbed G11's left leg with it. G11 fell off her chair in agony.

"YOU FLIMSY COAT RACK!" HK yelled at Akechi as she lunged at him. Three guards ran over and pinned her to the floor. While all this was going on I helped G11 up as best I could, but it's hard to help someone up when you both have handcuffs on. Akechi pulled the crowbar out of G11's leg. G11 was whimpering and even shaking a bit.

"You," Akechi pointed at one of the guards who wasn't pinning down HK. "Get the first aid kit and stop her bleeding. She needs to be up and at 'em for our fun day!" As the guard ran over to the first aid kit on the wall, Akechi addressed the guard he was talking to before he stabbed G11. "You don't punish the offender. You punish the offender's friends. That way, you keep everyone in line." Akechi got on one knee and put his face right over HK. "...Because who wants to hurt her friends?" This made HK scowl to intensely her face turned red, but she fell in line for our sakes. "Now bring those three back to their cells while we fix this one up." Akechi ordered as he left the room. Two guards grabbed my arms and dragged me out of the room, two other pairs did the same to HK and 9. As I was dragged out of the room, I could hear G11 sobbing. Narukami… Suomi… where are you?

—-

I sat in my cell for most of the morning, anxious about what Akechi meant by 'activities,' since that's kind of a dirty word now. Yesterday the 'activity' was being strapped to a table and having either ice water or super hot water dumped all over me. Suddenly, I heard gunshots and screaming! It sounded like Narukami and Suomi had come for us! I couldn't wait to see my family again and be out of this horrible place! I watched as guards were firing their guns towards the doorway as they slowly walked backwards. Then Akechi himself did the same. He stopped in front of my cell.

"CEASE FIRE!" Akechi yelled. This was followed by all the guards laughing. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. "Wow, you are all such good actors. You should all try and be on TV!" Akechi said as he was laughing. He had faked me out. After I realized it wasn't real, I felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. It was the worst feeling in the world. Akechi pressed his face on the cell door.

"No one cares enough about you." He whispered. "Your so-called 'friends' abandoned you." He just stood there for a few seconds staring me down. "Well then, let's begin today's activities!" Akechi had two guards come in and grab me by my arms. Every time they did this, it made my wound hurt even more. they were stretching it every time they did that to me, which was pretty much a multiple time per day occurrence. HK and 9 were escorted outside, but G11 was being dragged outside because of what happened earlier. Her wound was still fresh. Anyway, we were all brought outside to the sweltering desert, where there was a truck sitting there. It wasn't running or anything, it was just sitting there.

"Do you all understand 'conduction?'" Akechi asked while slowly pacing around and fondling his crowbar. "You see, metal is a good conductor, because heat can pass through the material very quickly. When you leave metal in the sun for a long time…" He stopped, licked his finger, then pressed it against the metal bench on the back of the truck. I heard a sizzle. "...It multiplies the amount of heat from the sun's rays. The heat builds up to intolerable levels. You all are going to sit on this metal, for as long as you can. There will be consequences for those who give up, and a reward for the one who can sit up here the longest." A smile creeped its way onto Akechi's face. I certainly didn't like what he said next, neither did anyone else. "Now, all of you need to take off your trousers."

"Wh…What?" HK shouted in disbelief. "We aren't doing that!"

"Oh, I don't think you have a choice." Akechi said quietly. "I… own… your… asses."

"Kill me." 9 said through sobbing. The poor girl was so broken. Akechi slowly walked up to her and got in her face.

"...Excuse me?" Akechi whispered. My heart was pounding, I couldn't bear to lose anyone else.

"9!" I yelled without thinking. "You have to stay strong!" I was then pinned down by two guards, who started removing my pants.

"Kill me… please!" 9 said while full on sobbing. "I can't go on. Not without 45! Not without my Sister!" Akechi gripped his crowbar and swung it wildly at 9's head.

"NO! DON'T!" I yelled as loud as I could. Akechi stopped his swing just an inch away from her head. 9 didn't even flinch, she truly wanted to die.

"Do you see a red coat on me? Or a beard?" Akechi asked 9.

"N-no…" 9 answered in a broken voice.

"That's because I'm NOT FREAKING SANTA CLAUSE!" Akechi yelled. Please note, Akechi didn't actually say 'freaking.' "I'm not here to give you what you want! Guards, take off their trousers and get them on the bench!" The guards promptly forced everyone down and took their pants off. There was lots of yelling and it was super humiliating, I won't give you all the details. Soon we were all standing in the bed of the truck.

"HK…" G11 whispered. "I wanna go home."

"We all want to go home," HK whispered back. "We just have to stay strong."

"Alright everyone, on the count of three, sit on the bench and enjoy the heat." Akechi said, flaunting a stopwatch. The same one that was used for me when I was holding up the bar. "Three… two… one… sit!" We all sat down. It was a weird sensation at first. It felt kinda good for the first second, then it was followed by burning, then it felt like something was eating at my rear. My skin felt like it was ripping apart in a desperate attempt to get away from the heat. I could have sit there more, but then a thought hit me; if I gave up right away, I could take the harshest punishment for myself. I pretended to be in overbearing pain as I jumped off the bench. I didn't exactly have to pretend, actually.

"Well, you're just weak, aren't you?" Akechi gloated in my face. He then took his crowbar and hit the back of both my legs super hard. I fell to the ground in serious pain, but I wasn't worried about myself. "Look at how weak your 'S-Kan is!" Akechi stood over me and laughed like a maniac. I looked up and watched helplessly as my friends were sitting on the bench in pain and humiliation. Eventually, G11 tried getting up, but fell back down because of her leg. She rolled herself off the truck and onto the sand.

"Third place drop-out!" Akechi screamed. "Now time for your punishment!" Akechi took his crowbar, lifted G11 up and slashed at her forehead, giving her a pretty big gash. She fell back into the sand. I scooted over to her as she was putting her shorts back on.

"It will be ok." I told her. "Just hang in there, I know the others will come back for us." She rested her head in my lap and cried softly. I wasn't worried about Akechi seeing me, he was too focused on HK and 9 in pain. I looked up at the two of them. HK looked like she was in serious pain, but 9… she just had a blank stare on her face. I could see her face twitching a little bit, but she was mostly just hiding her pain. HK eventually broke and jumped off the bench.

"Well would you look at that?" Akechi said in a showy way. "Little miss tough has given up on entertaining us! Now for her punishment!" Akechi took his crowbar and hit HK on the hip, but not overly hard. "And the winner is… well… the one still on the truck." I looked up at 9, she was in very obvious pain, but she wasn't getting off the truck. It's possible she thought she would die if she sat on the truck long enough.

"Oh goodie!" Akechi yelled. "This one still wants to entertain us! Ladies and Gentlemen! Live from CWCistan, we have… the watery-eyed red-faced little prick!" 9 was in so much needless pain, but she wouldn't come down. I did this without thinking, but I reached up and pulled 9 off the bench. We both landed on the sand.

"Shikikan… please let me die." 9 sobbed. "I can't keep going! I'm nothing without 45!"

"9, we have to get through this." I whispered. Akechi and his men were coming around the truck. I had to think of something to say. Then I got it; "45 wouldn't want you to give up like this! She would want you to stay strong!" As I said that, two of Akechi's men grabbed my arms and started dragging me back into the prison. I looked at 9 and I think what I said actually worked. She was staring at me as I was dragged away, but I saw a faint determination appear in her eyes. I saw Akechi walk up to her, blocking my view.

"Congratulations, you now get the first-place prize…" That was all I could hear, since Akechi was talking in his normal quiet and intimidating voice. HK, G11 and I were all dragged back into the prison.

—-

The sun started going down. I didn't have a window in my cell or anything, but I could tell because everything was getting dark. At night it became pitch black, so all I had in that cell to entertain me were my thoughts. Those thoughts would start getting dark, so I would think about Narukami or Suomi, but then I thought about how much I missed them both. I'm also not fully sure how they were holding up. The thought of the hospital being re-taken by Akechi was a thought I had to avoid. It made me start to feel insane. Like I was coming apart mentally and completely unable to pull myself back together. My train of thought was interrupted by Akechi coming up to my cell. He opened the door and had three guards secure me in the corner. He grabbed 45's body off the floor.

"Sorry, Klonoa, but your roommate will be… relocating." Akechi said with a sickly grin. He and the guards left my cell, then I heard them down the hall.

"Here's your prize… it's your Sister! She's coming home for family dinner!" Akechi taunted. Akechi left 45's body in 9's cell. All I could do was hope 9 could keep it together. I heard the cell door slam, then I heard quiet sobbing, then hyperventilating. I pounded my forehead on the wall… I couldn't help but feel like this was my fault. I must have made some giant mistake that caused Akechi to sneak up on us. Maybe I got too confident with all the successful raids we had done. I wanted to really analyze what I might have done wrong in the past, but I couldn't at that moment. My mind was so cloudy, I couldn't think straight. There were so many thoughts in my head, all of them are like mental weights that I was getting tired of carrying. One of those thoughts was… Will we really get rescued? I told G11 and 9 both that we were going to be rescued eventually, but I was starting to doubt myself. They didn't know where we were, they probably thought we were dead. My thoughts kind of trailed off because I realized 9 wasn't crying anymore. I heard her whisper, "I won't let them break me, Sis. Akechi's going to pay for what he did to you. I'll keep it together... for you, Sis. It's what you would have done." This made me breathe a lot easier. I was worried about 9, I thought she was actually going to go out of her way to get herself killed. Eventually I tried going to sleep, but it wasn't easy in this cell. There was literally nothing in there, not even a rock I could use for a pillow. It was also pretty cold in there and curling up into a ball didn't really help. I hadn't had a good night's sleep since we came to the prison. At the very least, knowing 9 was ok took a mental weight away from me.

(May 14 2024)_—-

The next morning, I was woken up by an airhorn, yet again. Akechi then got on the loudspeakers.

"Good morning you weaklings! I just wanted to give you all a heads up, the Goddess Chris-Chan will be visiting today. What a privilege this is for all of you, that his majesty would want to be close to your worthless selves!" I've wanted an opportunity like this since Narukami broke me out of the first prison I was in. The only problem was I had no means of ending Chris Chan's insanity. I couldn't even make any kind of shiv or anything. Chris Chan probably knew this. I'm not sure if I'll get another opportunity to see Chris-Chan in the flesh but let me tell you this; next time I get a chance like this, I'll have a weapon and I will force his surrender. After a while, I heard a very distant and muffled 'Good morning, Goddess Christian Weston Chandler Sonichu!' Does Chris Chan actually expect people to call him that? I heard a little more chatter from the front room and after a while it started getting louder… and closer. The doors to the cell hall that 404 and I were in opened and Akechi led Chris-Chan to my cell.

"Here he is, Goddess Sonichu, just as I promised you. The troll they call 'Klonoa' is in my custody." Akechi proudly announced.

"Hmmm…" Chris Chan started. "Amazing work, Akechi. Now all of CWCistan can rest easier, knowing that the trollsome mastermind is where he belongs." Akechi pulled his crowbar out of his belt and brandished it a little bit.

"I will execute this troll on your command, Goddess Sonichu." Akechi said with lots of excitement in his voice.

"That won't be necessary, Akechi." When Chris-Chan said that, the excitement on Akechi's face disappeared without a trace… hey that rhymes! I'm a poet, and I didn't know it. Sorry. Anyway, Chris Chan continued, "I'm quite interested in Klonoa... one who was outside of my control… who among which came to this dimension, seemingly by his own will." Chris Chan came very close to the bars. For once, I was glad the bars are there. I could smell him even more the closer he came. "The only problem with him… is he is fighting for the wrong side. He is fighting on the side of the trolls." Chris then pressed up against the bars. "Klonoa… you don't have to be evil. Fight with the good side."

"You make good people powerless, then force them to obey your twisted ways." I outright told Chris-Chan. "I refuse to help you do that. You're just a monster." Chris-Chan just stood there, staring at me with hate in his eyes. He then let out a very loud and forced stress sigh.

"Hmmm, I don't feel like talking to you anymore. I'm now stressed out." Chris Chan said as he removed himself from the bars. At least the smell got better. Akechi lightly patted Chris Chan's quite hunched-over shoulder, then whispered.

"I've also captured some females. Please take your pick if you would like." Chris Chan perked up after Akechi said this. He then instantly turned and started walking down the hall, out of my view. Akechi gave me a glare, then followed Chris-Chan, out of my view.

"Hmmm…" I heard from down the hall. "You're pretty gorgeous. You kind of remind me of Jacklyn."

"No thank you, I'm more into guys who can do at least one proper push up." I heard 9 say. "Piss off." I then heard a taser go off, followed by 9 yelping. I heard Chris-Chan's and Akechi's footsteps get further down the hallway.

"Don't even think about it." I faintly heard HK say. I heard more footsteps.

"Hmmm. This one will be perfect." Chris Chan's voice echoed through the hall.

"What's happening?" G11 drowsily asked. It's amazing how she was able to sleep in here.

"Take her to the love chateau." Chris-Chan commanded.

"IF YOU HURT HER, I WILL CUT YOUR CHEST OPEN AND PULL OUT ALL OF YOUR ORGANS INDIVIDUALLY!" HK yelled. After she yelled that I heard the same tasing noise I heard before, followed by HK passing out. I then heard G11 whimpering nervously, then Akechi walked by my cell, dragging G11 behind him, who was trying to free herself. Chris Chan was walking behind. They walked out of view again, then I heard a door close. I don't know what Chris Chan started doing to G11, but it didn't sound good. I heard G11 screaming and Chris-Chan laughing and… pretending to shoot her? He kept saying he was sending shocks into her. It was kind of hard to hear, but all I could do was hope G11 would be ok. After a while, I heard the door open, I heard a somewhat pleasant exchange between Chris-Chan and Akechi, then I saw Akechi dragging G11 back to her cell. She looked traumatized beyond all belief, her face was bright red, and her bottom lip was also quivering. She didn't look like she had been electrocuted or anything else like that, so I guess that's good. But still… What did Chris Chan do to her?