Blazepanzer here, just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to check out, fav, and or follow my fanfic. Not much else to say except enjoy!
Note: the Blazepanzer does now own girls und panzer!
A bright light caused the brunet to shudder, as she opened her eyes, gasping as she saw herself in a small room. Scrunching up, she had to fight the tears threatening to flow down her cheeks as she remembered. Ah...right, we're in prison now...
Glancing over to her side, she noticed that Risa was gazing out of the window, already awake. "Early riser?" Taeko guessed.
Risa nodded. "Always got up around four to six in the morning," she shrugged. "You doing alright this morning Taeko? You seem nervous..." she added gently, her blue eyes gazing at her in concern.
Taeko let out a tense nod. "I just feel vulnerable is all," she confessed.
"Same, but I'm trying to suppress that. Something tells me that if we seem scared that some of the other prisoners, and even guards, may try to take advantage of us," Risa shrugged.
"Alright all prisoners, hands on the wall opposite from your partner while facing each other. It's time to take you to breakfast," the guard noted.
Taeko placed her hands on the wall, watching as two of the guards came in, one approaching Taeko and gently grasping her wrist, sliding them into a pair of handcuffs while locking them on the little loop on her uniform. Grasping her arm gently, Taeko felt herself being dragged over to the cafeteria where she was decuffed and got into line.
She retrieved her tray, and made her way over to the familiar duo of cousins who were waving for her to come over.
"First night's the roughest," Hanoashi encouraged.
"Guess so, never thought that I'd be in prison though," Taeko shrugged.
"No one does really," Rikona noted gently, picking at her breakfast bento.
Taeko ate at a respectable pace, before a thought occurred to her. "What kind of jobs does the prison have?" she asked.
"Janitorial work, computer refurbishing, corporate packaging, woodworking, shewing, cooking and teaching," Hanoashi shrugged. "Though the teaching is for the juvenile system and it's only for long term prisoners who have well proven themselves."
Rikona nodded. "Hanoashi and I would like to get there, but for the time we're stuck in computer repair and janitorial work respectively."
"Oh...never thought that I'd go into any of those careers," Taeko paused briefly. "Well I did consider becoming a school coach if my dreams of going pro in volleyball didn't turn out."
"That's a good way to look at it Taeko," Hanoashi nodded.
"You wanted to be teachers growing up?" Taeko asked.
"I always wanted to be an English teacher and Rikona wanted to go into nursing," Hanaoshi shrugged. "I like building computers though so I'm happy with that, though if I could get accredited with teaching it'd be good."
"We'd be permanent teachers for the juvenile system or the GED schools though," Rikona admitted. "Since they don't allow ex prisoners into the regular school systems and all," she added.
"Ah...right," Taeko realized.
"Are you and Risa getting along well?" Rikona asked.
Taeko nodded. "I think that we're going to be good friends, she and I. Speaking of which, are you and Akibe getting along, Rikona?"
To her surprise Rikona shook her head. "She won't talk to me yet. Kept waking up and crying too."
"I'm sorry," Taeko whispered.
"I don't blame her," Rikona reassured her with a quiet smile. "It was hard enough for me not to cry when I first went in."
"I did cry on and off for the first few days," Hanoashi admitted. "Then I realized that it's not as bad as I thought persay. Not as enjoyable as my life before, but still."
"Doesn't it annoy you though?" Taeko dared to ask. "Akibe being upset I mean..."
"A little, but she'll adjust to the situation. They always do," Rikona reassured her with a quiet smile.
"How do you kno...oh...right..." Taeko blushed, momentarily forgetting that they had been in prison for a while now.
"Well, that, and we have a cousin who worked as a prison guard. One of the few who escaped justice considering how good she was at her job," Rikona smiled.
"Alright them, it's time for morning classes. Those girls recently brought in from Ooarai and Gloriana, you'll be receiving your work assignments."
Taeko nodded, as she was handcuffed and lead into another classroom, one where a few somewhat familiar faces resided.
"This is Lyn Canvunery of Gloriana, and Taeko Kondou, Ayumi Yamagou, and Asuza Sawa from Ooarai Girls academy," the guard noted.
"Right young ladies, please take your seat, we'll be going over job orientation shortly," a guard smiled at her.
Taeko sat next to Lyn, noticing how the girl had ginger hair and blue eyes, and seemed fairly frightened.
"I am Satoshi Kuromenia, and I am your computer refurbisher instructor, yep, you heard right, you ladies are going into the computer refurbishing career," their teacher smiled.
That means that Hanoashi and I will be doing the same job! And I have some of the Ooarai girls with me as well! Taeko thought excitedly.
"Now, there's a few things to note," their teacher continued. "You'll be assigned a mentor to help you during your first week, but after that you'll be required to work in silence," she continued. "And our first lesson is going to be the basics, Remember that there is no talking in class, and we'll be putting you on the Pentium II line to begin the work later this evening," she noted.
Isn't that an old system? Taeko asked.
"The Pentium II's are for our retro store system, and unlike the mainline system they used a windows 98 architecture," she explained, before going into a small in-depth drivel about how to refurbished the computers, which Takeo barely understood.
Sighing as her handcuffs were undone again, Taeko rubbed her wrist, surprised to see Hanoashi walking up to Ayumi. "I'll be your mentor for this week, let's get along, alright?"
"Y...yes..."
Taeko's heart sank when another girl came up, her amber eyes gazing at her in sympathy. "Name's Aacob," she noted. "I'll be your mentor, young Taeko," she added.
"Oh...um..." Taeko had a hard time believing this Aacob character was actually older than her, but she nodded. "I'll do my best Aacob," she promised.
"Noriko said that you were always a hard worker, we'll see about that," Aacob noted, before walking to a table, motioning for her to join her.
"For the record, Hanoashi would have chose you, but mentors are randomized for this," Aacob added as Taeko placed her hands on the table. "You ever built a computer before?"
Taeko shook her head. "All I've ever done is look things up on the little notebook my father got me," she confessed.
"Ah...I see," Aacob shrugged.
"Where's Asuza?" Taeko asked as she gazed around, surprised that she couldn't see the M3 lee team commander.
"She's in the operating system installation room, learning the ropes about that process. everyone gets a month or so doing that now and then," Aacob shrugged.
"I guess it's a dedicated job?" Taeko guessed.
"Meh, it's something you'd normally have to do if you go into the actual computer refurbishing career anyways, so might as well learn it while we are here," Aacob shrugged.
"I see...everything seems so complicated," Taeko shuddered.
It can be, for sure," Aacob sympathized. "But it's not all that bad once you learn it," she added.
Taeko gazed at the parts in front of her, a frown forming across her face. How am I going to get all of this down? She thought, her worry growing at the very thought.
"First, you place this sheet of paper down and place the motherboard on top of the paper, marking there the IO ports and holes are," Aacob noted, sliding her a motherboard and sheet of paper.
Lining it up, Taeko let out a nod. "What's this for?" she asked.
"Measuring the holes," Aacob noted. "Now you take that IO shield and place it into the case, but not before making sure that it fits on the motherboard first. You do that by trying to slot it against the motherboard and if it does work then you've got a matching IO shield. You'll be able to tell if it doesn't fit right away," Aacob encouraged.
Taeko compared the IO shield next to the motherboard, and nodding as it slid into the slots with no bumps. "Now what?" she asked.
"Now we placed the paper into the motherboard, lining up the Io shield notch with the IO shield on the computer. You can't miss it," Aacob noted.
Placing the paper in the io shield, she gasped as Aacob handed her a set of small screw like things. Now you poke these through the dots in the holes, that will place your stand off shrews," Aacob guided. "You can hand screw these in by the way."
Nodding, Taeko winched as the fine movements caused her dress to notch ever so slightly against her delicate breast.
"Ah...that...yeah the lack of a bra can make this kind of work a tad annoying," Aacob confessed. "Being fairly flat chested gives me a bit of a benefit in these manners, not that I was the lovey dovey kind," she shrugged, her tone caring an ever so slight edge of amusement to it. "So being flat chested never bothered me too much. Mind you that I still pretend to care though for the heck of it."
"Okay, now what?" Taeko asked as she screwed in the last of the stand off screws.
"Now you place the IO shield, followed by the motherboard and power supply unit," Aacob noted.
"And the power supply unit is..." Taeko asked.
"This one," Aacob nodded. "The power supply units all have certain markings on them to detail which ones are compatible with with computers," she added.
"Oh, I see now," Taeko nodded, placing the IO shield in, followed by the motherboard and power supply.
"Now we screw these on," Aacob nodded, showing her how with the first screws. "It's good form to begin at a diagonal, then continue in that manner," she added.
"Right, I think I've got it," Taeko nodded, smiling a bit, but noticing that she's getting a bit sweaty.
"Lean back and wipe your sweat off," Aacob urged. "There's a drinking fountain over there, if you're thirty use that and make sure not to get any water on you."
Taeko nodded and took the opportunity to get herself a good drink, before heading back and wiping her mouth along with the sweat off.
"Now, you can begin plunging things in," Aacob noted. "We'll begin the the Processor card slot, this is a Pentium two machine so you needn't worry about thermal paste or anything of the like.
"So I just slide it in?" Taeko asked.
"Pretty much," Aacob nodded. "And now we'll be putting in this Geforce 256 graphics card, as well as the port and sound cards," she added.
"So complicated," Taeko breathed.
"In some ways, newer systems don't need so many cards, but you have to apply thermal paste and a cooler to the processors, plus those are delicate, so yeah," Aacob shrugged.
"Won't this one get hot thought?" Taeko gasped.
Aacob shook her head. "No, see the Pentium two systems were built at a time when you could have a viable computer processor which won't get too hot with just passive cooling. That means no fans," Aacob added as Taeko gave her a quizzical glance.
"We also have the ram sticks to put in, and then the hard drive bay," Aacob nodded, handing her two sticks of ram.
Taeko glanced at the 32 mb on each stick of ram. "Is this a lot?" she asked.
Aacob shook her head. "It was average at the time, but again this is somewhat of a retro 90's build machine, so 64 megabytes is more than enough."
"I see..." Taeko nodded.
"Actually, if anything the graphics card might be a bit much, but again this is build as a budget retro option so to speak and we use what we have."
"So um, how much do we make from this?" Taeko asked.
"Well...prisoners receive 2,340 yen per day, which is just a bit more than three hours worth of minimum wage. However, you're only allowed to receive 300 of that on your charge card per work day, and 500 of the remainder is reserved for your release fund, with the rest going toward your room and board," Aacob shrugged. "So if you stayed for say a year, you'd have a grand total of 130,000 yen upon your release, plus whatever is left from your commissary account," Aacob explained.
"So how many computers do I repair per day?"
"The average is usually between three to eight computers per day, depending on how many parts we have. They try to dull them out so that we all have at least a few during the workdays." Aacob shrugged. If all your computers work perfectly for each season then you get a bonus 4,000 yen, though that is also split between upkeep, release savings, and commissary fund," she added.
"Anyways, do I just slid the ram sticks in?" Taeko asked gently.
"Yes, but make sure that you press down evenly on the sides at the same time," Aacob cautioned. "The inspectors throw a fit when you break one of the ram legs as it's called."
"Right, now what?" Taeko asked.
"Now for the complicated part," Aacob muttered. "Figuring out these things," she noted, pointing to a mess of small cables sticking out of the case. "Thankfully the sorters already figured that bunch out, but it's still a pain in the butt," she added.
"Sorters?" Taeko asked.
"We have three levels of work, installer, sorter, and refurbisher People tend to alternate about every two months, keeps us busy and such," Aacob shrugged. "The installers are the easy part, that is if you count a lot of sitting around easy. Sorters have to figure out which part is which, and make things as equal as possible, which is not always easy," Aacob explained. "Then there's us, the refurbisher gals" she added.
"Oh...okay, so then do I just line these wires up to this diagram then?" Taeko asked.
"Yes, but take it slow, a miss aligned wire can cost you that bonus, and having an extra 900 yen in your commissary fund as well as a 1,500 yen in your release fund is a major deal," Aacob cautioned.
"Guess so," Taeko nodded.
The work went on for a few hours under Aacob's careful guidance, and before long Taeko found herself in the prison library. "One book each, the librarian noted," the librarian, really a guard, noted.
Taeko glanced around at the library, frowning as she realized how sparse the library was compared to what she was used to. Granted, it was larger than any private book collections she had seen at any friend's or relative's house, but it was still much smaller than she expected.
The room itself was not much larger than a sizable living room, and each wall contained twelve selves. Furthermore, each book seemed to have two books each, further shrinking the books in the collection. Even more so, they had ten selves for fiction, Eight selves for historical books, Five selves for science books, four selves for sports, and the renaming nine was for manga, all being slice of life stuff stuff.
Her eyes widened as she saw an old favorite book of hers. 'The history of Volleyball'...sure...I'll read it again, she smiled to herself.
Glancing over at Risa, she watched the girl pick up a book in the Sensado section. 'History of the Great Schism?' Taeko wondered. What's that? Did some kind of Schism happened in Sensado?
Mentally shaking her head, Taeko headed on up and checked her book out, before being guarded by an officer to place it in her cell. Setting the book down in her library book slot, the place on her shelf where library books were meant to be held, she found her way into the commissary.
Frowning, she saw that there were really only a handful of items she could buy. Three types of vending machines held food stock, one kind holding candy, another kind holding dried fruit and vegetables, and the third kind held potato chips. They were small portions of course, and the cost of 120 yen apiece respectively, and they seemed to be five of each vending machine.
They also had two types of drink vending machine, one holding various sodas and the other holding various fruit and vegetable drinks. There were twelve of these vending machines. All plastic bottles, regular size. Also 120 yen a piece.
The final vending machines held several small comfort items. You had a portable TV, a portable radio, and what appeared to be one of six game consoles, each containing between forty and one hundred games. One held Atari 2600 games, one held Television games, one held Famicom games, one held Namco arcade games, one held Game boy games, and the final one seemed to be specifically made for girls. All of these were about 54,000 yen each. Yikes that is expensive! Considering the fact that we only earn about 300 yen a day at least.
There also was a note that said only two electronic devices per prisoner was allowed, and that all electronics must be returned upon release day. I guess that they don't want you to have too much junk huh? Taeko mused. We have the major religious books, the basic school textbooks, one picture binder, access to one library book, and finally up to two electronic devices.
Glancing down, Taeko found it hard not to sob at how worse her life had become overnight. Man...the freedom we had... she was about to let out a sob until she saw Hanoashi walk up and tap her card on the electronic section, and the Famicom device came out. She's a gamer? Taeko asked herself, surprised and momentarily forgetting her sorrows.
"Always wanted to get into video-games, Aunt Shelia would only let us play racing games and chess, so this is going to be fun," Hanoashi explained upon seeing her inquisitive look.
"Speak for yourself cuz," Rikona snorted, picking out a mini-TV. "Really missing my TV shows," she added.
"You must have really saved up for some time, I'm guessing," Taeko mused.
"Of course! But it's worth it. Now we can get all the extras we want, or one or two a day," Hanoashi smirked.
"Speak for yourself...again..." Rikona sighed. "Anyways, I'm really missing chocolate, so now that I have my TV I can have all the sweets that I can eat."
"What about you Hanoashi?" Taeko asked.
"Not a big fan of sweets," Hanoashi shrugged. "Anyways, Rikona and I are going to take these to our cells and then head on out to the exercise yard."
"Oh, of course," Taeko noted. She took a glance around and sigh, gazing at her card before returning it to the guard and exiting to the exercise yard. I need to think before I spend anything... she noted to herself.
Shielding her eyes from the sun, she couldn't help but let out a small quiet smile at the feeling of the warm sun on her skin. I've really missed this...she realized, lowering her wrist after her eyes had adjusted, her heart sinking as she saw herself surrounded by a massive wall of concrete, and the floor seemed to be made out of some sort of rubbery plastic, similar to some types used on field tracks.
Gazing at the wall she quickly realized something. It's covered in this same gunk as well. Probably a thick layer of concrete on the side, as well. Wait...her heart sank with another thought. Is this all done to reduce the impact of someone being shoved into the wall or ground?
"Take off your dress."
"Wha?" Taeko whipped around, surprised to see a rather tall girl glaring at her.
"I said take it off!" the girl shouted, before punching her in the face. Taeko let out a scream as she felt her face burn with pain, and she felt herself being dragged. Closing her eyes, she expected to be killed right then and there. I'm going to die here...she thought numbly.
"Are you alright miss?"
Opening her eyes, she found herself leaning against one of the guards.
"You've got a black eye at least, if you can walk I can escort you to the infirmary to be checked out.
"I...I can walk..." Taeko noted shakily, gently rising and gazing around, her jaw doping as the tall woman had knocked off three guards and was about to charge at her again when Aacob knocked her out.
"I should put you in solitaire for that, but...well thanks," one of the guards grunted as she rose up, her feet limping. "Come on Taeko, let's get our injuries checked out."
"Oh...uh...coming..." Taeko noted, half expecting to be handcuffed, but to her surprise the guard shook her head. "Too much trouble at the moment...do not get used to it," she grunted.
Even so, Taeko kept her wrist in front of her, taking great care to avoid looking hostile. I've never got into a fight like that before! She shuddered, before frowning. Guess being in prison means that most of my friends don't have to see me with this black eye. I wonder how bad it is? I mean I can see out of it just fine, but...
"You got lucky Taeko, some folks lose their vision if they take a punch to the eye like that," the guard noted as she limped alongside her.
"What's going to happen to that girl?" Taeko asked.
"Donna Ju?" The guard shook her head. "Most likely Fuchu or worse, personally I think that she'll need to be in max after this. Judge gave the asshole way too many chances for some reason. Kinda feel sorry for you Ooarai and Gloriana lot, might make your life harder given that she'll be less likely to give you leniency after this incident."
"Oh..." Taeko let out a small sigh.
"It's rough, isn't it?" the guard asked.
"Maybe...but I don't really have a choice," Taeko admitted quietly.
"You seem like a good kid, don't let this experience change you for the worse, okay?" the guard requested.
"I'll try," Taeko promised tensely as they entered the infirmary.
"Sargent Renta, Taeko Kondou, command said that you were coming," two nurses walked up to them and guided them into different sections of the medical bay.
"First, I'll apply some antiseptic to the area, and then some Arnica ointment," the nurse noted. "Are you feeling woozy or tired?" the nurse asked as she poured some hydrogen peroxide on a towel and begin dabbing the area around Taeko's eye.
"No ma'am," Taeko admitted. "Very concerned and a bit shaken up, but other then a pain around the eye, nothing seems to be off."
"I see..." the doctor noted, as she stopped dabbing and let the liquid soak in a bit, before dabbing a clean cloth around the eye and applying the Arnica ointment. "I'll be applying this every morning before breakfast and every evening until the swelling and discoloration is gone. A guard will come by and pick you up, alright?"
"Alright...thank you," Taeko nodded.
"You and the other girls are trying to serve your time and make amends so that you may reintegrate into society. You shouldn't have to worry about untreated physical injuries and sickness on top of that."
"Taeko, I'll be guiding you back to your cell," a second guard came in, producing a pair of handcuffs.
"A...alright," Taeko nodded, presenting her wrist, trying to ignore the sight and felling of the metallic rings binding her wrist together.
The walk down the hall was quiet, and she let out a quiet sigh of relief as she felt the handcuffs release from her wrist, and entered the cell, walking over to the paper mirror that was in the wall, and let out a small sigh. It'll only last a week or so...Taeko, she tried to calm herself.
Her memory went back to the previous year and her middle school volleyball club mates and all the times they had injuries. Sprained legs and wrist were always a risk, one got a black eye during a competition, thankfully she recovered, but she remembered how she looked, and it was awful. I'm going to look that awful ain't I? She sighed, remembering how hard it was for them to see her in that state.
The cell door opening, and she turned to see Hanoashi enter the cell. "They allowed me to sit with you until time to return to the cells," she noted, sitting down next to her. "You alright? Looks like you took a serious blow."
"Yeah, that I did," Taeko shuddered. "This Donna character is..."
"Donna Ju, asked you to take your shirt off?" Hanoashi guessed. "Tried to do the same to me, a guard stopped her. Tried the same with Rikona and got knocked out big time."
"Did Rikona get into trouble?" Taeko gasped.
"Just a warning and a few days in solitary...Usually they increase your sentence if you get involved in a fight, but sometimes they understand that you were just defending yourself or someone else, and in those cases they might give you leniency. Might being a key word," Hanoashi shrugged. "So, you were interested in volleyball?" she asked.
"Yep! Always wanted to become a star volleyball player...or school coach..." Taeko felt her heart sink. Neither are possible now though...
"You told me earlier, remember?" Hanoashi smiled. "But that's a pretty good dream. As for me, I just wanted to become a stay at home mother, but the Matsumino, Maus no I had to get into some sort of career," she noted, becoming a bit ranty at the end.
"What kind of ring would you want? I mean...if a guy proposed..."
"None. See, the sight or feeling of anything stuck on my hands and fingers drives me batty, so I'd rather not wear one, even to denote marriage," Hanoashi shrugged.
"Ah...I see. I'm actually kinda scare to wear most jewelry myself, my grandfather got his ring finger de-skinned when he was working with some rope, so the sight of that kind of turned me off to the idea of wearing most jewelry. And with how active I am..."
"Snagging, yep...I know what you mean," Hanoashi shrugged. "I love wearing leather watches, but I cannot stand them when working on a computer...so..." The Irish girl let out a small sigh. "Kind of miss it, typing on a computer and such."
"I can sympathize. I mean I miss begin able to go on jogs and playing volleyball with the girls and such...and I've only been in for ...what maybe a day?" Taeko suddenly looked down. "I'm sorry," she apologized.
"It's fine. But listen, you stay close to Rikona and I when were on the yard, alright? Most of the prisoners are intimidated by her height, so it should offer you some protection," Hanoashi offered.
"Alright then...but why are you so nice to me?" Taeko asked.
"I could lie and say that I simply like you as a person, but my brother Nova used to mention you in his letters and..."
"Oh, right," Taeko nearly head-palmed herself. "He used to mention you all the time back when I was in America. Do you know how he is?" she asked.
"He really misses you. If you want I can tell him that your here," Hanoashi offered.
"Please do," Taeko whispered. I really miss being with him and..."Wait...you mean by phone call or..."
"He moved back to Japan last month," Hanoashi smiled. "Been visiting me every week, though I'd really like to see you two together again. From what he said you're perfect for him and I can see that clearly."
"But would he really want to be with a criminal like myself?" Taeko fretted.
"Don't forget that his sister is a criminal, he'd understand. Especially since it was a Sesnado accident and you didn't have proper training," Hanoashi reassured her.
"Can't wait to see him again," Taeko whispered. "It...It's been so long..."
"It might take a few weeks, but I'll let him know," Hanoashi promised.
"Might take up the stay at home spouse role as well," Taeko smiled. "If he wants to get back together with me that is."
"Are you romantically inclined as well?" Hanoashi asked.
"No...not really. Nova is the only boy who's really convinced me that it'd be forth giving up my sport-star dreams for. Everyone else..." Taeko let out a small shudder.
"Not good experiences?" Hanoashi guessed.
"Not really," Taeko sighed. "Some of the boys were nice to me, but most just wanted be for my looks...and assets..." she added with a frown.
"Welp, it's been fun Taeko, but it's time for me to return to my cell," Hanoashi nodded, before rising up as the cell door opened. "You have a fantastic cell mate Rise, treasure her alright?" Hanoashi whispered as the Irish girl was handcuffed and guided back into the foreigner section of the prison.
"Are you alright? What happened to your eye!?" Risa gasped.
"Some idiot asked me to take off my shirt and then punched me when I refused," Taeko grimaced. "Hanoashi's been sitting with me until time for you to return."
"She's really nice, it would seem. I wonder why?"
"Part of me thinks that it's her nature," Taeko shrugged. "That, and I once dated her boyfriend so I think that she wants to take care of me because of that."
"Once? You do know that means that your his ex boyfriend..."
"We only separated because he lived in America and had to move back to Japan," Taeko shrugged. "But now that he's back in Japan..."
"Does his parents approve?" Risa asked.
Taeko shrugged. "He's practically an adult, turns eighteen in about seven months and already graduated high school to boot. And since I'll be sixteen by then, it fits within the pre-eighteen dating exception range," she added.
"Oh, I see," Risa noted. "Kinda of nice for them to give us an exception range," she added.
"Yep. Everyone got tired of people accusing people of pedophilia in cases where the elder seventeen year old didn't want to break off their relationship with a younger seventeen year old when the elder turned eighteen," Taeko huffed. "As serious as that accusation is, the law was never meant for internet trolls to abuse it for drama like that."
"Everyone want's to be a Maus damn Chris Hanson," Risa spat. "And often those who do tend to be idiots," she added sharply.
"Or predators themselves," Taeko added. "One video creator I used to watch ended up like that. Anyways, since I'll turn eighteen before Nova turns twenty, we should be fine," she added as she remembered how the exception law came to be.
Back around four years ago, there was a massive scandal where several judges charged seven eighteen year olds, a mix of boys and girls, of soliciting a minor and sentencing to prison. It was all over the media, and resulted in the boys being killed and the girls constantly molested in prison.
However, a fairly powerful yet somewhat quiet family came out and exposed the truth, that only two of the accused were actually dating with the rest just being good friends. Furthermore, the ones who were dating were only months apart, with the shorter range being just fifty-nine days.
Additionally the pretentious family exposed the corruption in the courts and the media, showcasing how witness testimony was suppressed that would have proven the seven defendants innocent. As a consequence, the state governors in America met to refine the age of consent laws and come to a convinces.
They determined that the age of consent for sex would remain eighteen, but as long as the younger partner would turn eighteen before the elder partner turned twenty, you could date. It also put a mandatory sixty day pause on reporting of sexual crimes for the media, and stricter oversight on such cases.
As for the judge, he was sentences for seven counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of perversion of justice, twelve counts of accessory to sexual assault and four counts of murder. Those who brought up the frivolous charges were finned for defamation, as were the news studios.
"Anyways, you're not hurting, are you?" Risa asked, interrupting her memories. "I mean, not to sound rude but your eye doesn't look too good."
"It's actually mild for a black eye," Taeko shrugged. "As for the pain, it's just a slight sting. I certainly feel it, but it's not as bad as the time I got a sprained hand. Or foot, I've had those three times before."
"Ouch..." Risa muttered. "My first time praining anything, let alone my foot,was in the tank. I was convinced that the commander was going to kick me off the team since I scrambled up the tank so carelessly. Thankfully she was kind and simply gave me a lot of stuff to study while I recovered. Oh, and a through test of the materials."
"Sounds like a good commander," Taeko smiled.
"She was," Risa smiled, before sighing. "Well, I guess I'd better start chiping off on my book, it's a rather thick one and I've only got a week to read it before I have to give it up for a month," she added.
"Right, what exactly is the Great Schism anyways?" Taeko asked.
"No idea, but I'd like to read as much about Sensado as I can. I might never get back into participating the sport itself, but I'm still a big fan," Risa smiled as she grabbed the book and settled down to read it.
Taeko took out her own book and began to read, bittersweet memories of reading it as a child flooding her mind as she devoured the book.