Victims With Numbers: Chapter 1

"Have you ever heard the story of Heavenly Host Elementary School? They say a lot of awful things happened there. Loads of crimes and sudden deaths. See, it was believed by some that this school was haunted, and all the assaults, break-ins, suicides and the rest were caused by the angry ghosts that were still at the school, and as more and more happened there, the haunting got worse.

They say it all started with this one event, back in the 50's, where a member of staff lost her footing at a flight of stairs and died. On the same day, her daughter mysteriously went missing, and nobody knew what happened. Legend says that the teacher was looking for her missing daughter, and attacking the children at the school because they were her daughter's age and if she couldn't have her own child back, then she would try to fill the void with replacements. None of the replacements were her own daughter, though, so none of them were good enough. After the last killing, where the Principal's own son murdered four children in the basement of the school, the heartbroken principal threw himself from the school's roof, unable to cope with what his precious school had become, and what his precious son had done. The school was closed, and torn down, but they say that plot of land is still haunted by that teacher, and by all those who died within its walls."

The inmates were sat in a circle in Building 13's game room, the lights off around them. The only light came from a torch held in Tsukumo's hand, gracefully lent to him by one of the guards for this exact purpose. The others watched him as he told his story, and from what he could see in the darkness, they didn't look too impressed. It was daytime, but not a lot of light was coming through the windows, because of a storm, for which he was mildly grateful.
"That's awful." Uno said quietly, thinking about the death in Tsukumo's story.
"Yeah, and not at all scary, for a ghost story." Honey agreed, though his 'awful' was more Tsukumo's story telling skills than the contents themselves.
"Now, now, it wasn't that bad." Trois said, reaching for the torch. "It could have done with more details, though. I know a few good gore stories that are really scary."
"I thought that one was scary enough." Uno again, still in a quiet voice. Trois ignored him, commencing his own tale of woe and misery.
"Once, in a quiet, sleepy village just south of-"

He was cut off by the lights turning on, the sudden brightness burning everyone's eyes. "Story time's over," Hajime told them sternly. "Back to your cells." Of course, this led to the standard complaints that rose from the idiots every time they were told playtime was over. They really were just a bunch of bratty kids at the best of times, and he really didn't enjoy trying to silence their complaints peacefully. Of course, if he lashed out or made threats, then he'd have to deal with the resulting headaches that were Kiji, Samon and Kenshirou, which he was never really in the mood for either. Most of the brats were pleading for 'just one more story' or 'just another hour' (aside from the two crybabies who were actually scared of the ghost stories), but there was no way they were getting granted that. Did they even realise how little time there was until dinner, and then it would be lock-up? Probably not.

By the time they'd finally shut up, with only minimal threatening this time, and were heading over to their supervisors, Hajime could feel one hell of a stomach ache coming on. At least they were agreeing to head back to their cells now, he thought as he turned to lead them to the door...

Just in time to see it slam shut. Which was unusual.
"What the hell?" Snapped the monkey, first to go examine the door and try to get it open. It wouldn't budge. Hajime shoved him aside roughly and tried himself, again to no avail. Weird.
"Perhaps there's a lockdown procedure active." Kiji mused from behind them. "But if it were a drill or practice, or a test of the doors, we'd be aware of that, or at the very least, the building supervisor would be."
"No drills, practices or tests are scheduled for today." Hajime muttered.
"And no siren is going off either. It doesn't seem to be a genuine emergency lockdown."
"What's wrong?" Asked Jyugo from behind in a bored tone. "You locked us in? How did you even manage that?"
"I didn't-" The supervisor was cut off when the whole room started to shake. An earthquake?
"Everyone get to cover!" Kiji called out, immediately moving to guide his inmates somewhere safe, the other guards doing the same. Pretty soon, they were huddled down next to or under the furniture around the room, away from the windows, which began to crack. The lights flickered and went out as one of them fell, shattering just inches from the feet of one of Building 5's residents. The rocking seemed to carry on for an age, and in the sudden darkness, the walls around them seemed to warp unstably, until it finally came to a stop and everyone felt like they could breathe again.
"Everyone stay where you are." Commanded a voice as someone moved to stand. Kenshirou. "Be careful, there's broken glass on the floor." The next thing he said was directed into his radio. "Security and Surveillance, do we have any information on that quake? Any damage to the prison? Is anyone injured?" No response. "Is anyone reading this transmission? We cannot get the door to Building 13's game room open, is it possible something was damaged in a mini-quake or pre-tremor?" Nothing. Maybe a little static.

And then, Kenshirou felt like he was falling, like the ground beneath him had just...disappeared. Looking down, he saw nothing but darkness, and the screams from around him told him the others were falling as well.

~*~*~*~

Honey groaned as he came to. He had no idea how long he'd been out for, but it must have been a while. He felt groggy and sore, and his mouth was dry, with that nasty cottony feel he would always get after he'd passed out from drinking too much. Plus, last he remembered, he was in that stupid game room listening to those stupid ghost stories. That room had a carpet. He was lying on something hard, and dusty, and that smelled old and musty and uncleaned. Gross. With a shiver running down his spine, he opened his eyes and pushed himself upright. The movement sent pain shooting through his left ankle, and he grimaced before trying to get a good look at his surroundings.

The room was dark, the lights off, or broken. He could see desks and chairs around him, and the floor looked like hardwood. The walls looked wooden as well. It didn't look like healthy wood, either. He reached for the nearest desk and pulled himself up, thankful it was sturdy enough to support his weight. Now stood, he could see the two doors on either end of the room, the cabinets, the chalk board and smaller notice board, and across the opposite wall to the doors, the windows. It was still dark and still raining outside. It was clearly an education room, like the one in Building 3, but ugly and uncared for. If such a place was within Nanba Prison, it couldn't have been used in years, and couldn't possibly have been in the lovely Building 3. Besides, the chairs looked like they were designed for little kids!

Honey used the desks for support as he hobbled over to the windows. His ankle really hurt. It must have been sprained, or worse, from the fall. That was right, he had fallen! Was this place underground in Building 13? It didn't seem like it would fit there at all...and when he finally got to the window, all he saw beyond the building was rain and...was that a forest? There wasn't a forest around the prison, it was on an island. Sure, there were some trees on the island, but certainly not this many. It was the thickest forest he had ever seen, and it seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see. It was like he wasn't even in prison any more.

Perhaps he wasn't. Perhaps the earthquake had caused so much damage he'd been evacuated while unconscious. But why would they be evacuated to a run down old schoolhouse? That didn't make sense. So where the hell was he? He turned, reaching for the row of desks closest to his injured leg to help him get to the door, and as he made his way across the room, he saw something on the floor beyond the desks. Something big, in a heap by the teacher's podium. It looked like a man. In fact, it looked like-

"Trois!" It was Trois. He was sure of it, though he couldn't see his face. He was unconscious, sprawled unattractively across the grimy, dusty floor. Honey pulled himself up onto the desk, deciding to climb over to reach his cellmate. He halted when the ground beneath him gave an unholy creak. Figuring it wouldn't support his weight long enough for him to climb over, he backed off and instead tried to hurry to the door at the back of the classroom. Trois was at the front, so all he had to do was loop around the hall to the front. Pushing the desks was probably out when he couldn't properly put weight on his foot. As it was, he didn't enjoy having to lean so heavily on the wall to get around once there were no more desks to hang onto.

The hallway itself was in just as much disrepair as the classroom. Parts of the floor had fallen out, and it smelled disgusting. There clearly hadn't been a janitor working here in years. A particularly rancid smell was emanating from a bucket against the opposite wall. It reminded him vaguely of a stairwell near a parking lot in the town where he grew up. Drunks and homeless people would normally piss in the stairwell and it always reeked. At least the lights here seemed to work a bit better. They were dim, but on. Still, the place wasn't much to look at, and all the flyers along the wall were torn and grubby. Everything here was either damaged or coated in filth, it seemed.

When he got to Trois (taking a little bit longer than he would have liked), he carefully got down on his knees beside him and tapped his shoulders. He didn't shake him, just in case the fall had badly injured him, because there was no way he was supporting him or helping him with an injury, which was undoubtedly what Trois would try and guilt him into doing if his actions made any injuries worse. "Trois! Trois, wake up! Can you hear me?"
"Hnn...Honey, please, not so loud..." Good. He was alive, at least. Forgoing his previous gentleness for at least a moment, Honey pulled his cellmate upright.
"Get up. Something's happened, I have no idea where we are."
Trois spared him a look before pausing to take in his surroundings. He quickly arrived at a conclusion. "This doesn't look like it's any part of Nanba Prison." He mused, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. Honey coughed as some of the dust was brushed his way and glared at Trois as he walked to the nearest window and tried to open it. "Hmm. Doesn't budge. Perhaps it's not designed to open, but there has to be at least one working window in the building, as per building code. We need to figure out where we are before anything else. See if we can find a map as well, clues to the exact area around us and see if we can make any contact with anyone outside. It's clear we're not at Nanba any more, which raises the question of how we got here." He walked back and examined the chalk board. It had something written in the top right corner, 'day duty' and a name, but that was it. The notice board had a single yellowed flyer on it. "It's written in kanji." Trois stated, glancing to Honey, who was still sat on the floor. "I can't understand all of it, my understanding of the letters isn't perfect, and I think I'm misreading this bit here."
"Which bit?" Asked Honey, pulling himself to his feet with the aid of a chair.
"This bit." He repeated, jabbing his finger at the flyer's title. "I'm reading it as 'Heavenly Host Elementary School Newsletter to Faculty and Students', but that's the name of the school from Tsukumo's ghost story. He specifically said that school was torn down, if it even existed in the first place."
Honey read over the newsletter himself. "No, you're right, it says Heavenly Host. It's dated back to the 80's though, so it's pretty old." His eyes trailed down the rest of the newsletter. "It's a warning about kidnappings and staying safe. Just, 'due to recent kidnappings, caution is advised. Each victim was taken suddenly and without warning'. You think this is a set up for some kind of joke?"
"Quite a dramatic one if so. I think we ought to head for the exit, but I wouldn't recommend braving the forest quite yet."
"At least not until that storm dies down a little." Honey agreed. Trois nodded, and the two began to set out, only for another earthquake to send Honey stumbling to the ground. It was, thankfully, quite short, but he couldn't help letting a moan of pain escape him. His ankle was in pretty bad shape, by the looks of things.
"Are you okay?" He looked up and saw his cellmate offering him a hand. He took it but needed a bit more support to get up.
"Ankle's sprained." He admitted grudgingly.
"Well then, put your arm around my shoulders. I'll support you. It'll be easier and faster than leaving you here as a dead weight."
Honey gave a hum of agreement, for once not in the mood to argue, and the two set off out of the classroom.

Tail

Glory Boy liked the lights. He enjoyed watching the city pass by below him, as he perched on a high rooftop. Enjoyed seeing the blurring colours and the bustle of life still at night. The people down there would probably be disturbed by the thought of a smiling demon watching them go about their lives, but that was none of his concern. For as much trouble as he'd ever caused them, he'd probably saved their lives just as many times.

It was cold up there, colder than he had been used to at home, but he'd had plenty of time to get used to the colder temperatures during his travels. At least, that's what he told himself as he clasped his hands together, huffing a breath to warm himself up. Despite being cold, despite it being rainy, today had been a good day. One of the rare days that ended with a full belly, promise of a proper place to sleep (once he was done with his sightseeing, that is) and plenty of positive interaction with others. Well, his ex had once told him he was welcome at her place whenever he wished, but that only really stood when he was in the right country, so a lot of the time he just had to make do with what meagre shelter he could find. But here he was, looking forward to a warm bed (though he was happy to just sleep on Zhen's floor) and his first sleepover with his friends and current partner. And he got to watch the neon lights pass below.

Best day ever!

"That's adorable."
The voice startled him. He'd been so relaxed, he'd stopped paying proper attention to his surroundings, stopped being on high alert, and the sudden voice bringing him back to the world had him almost overbalancing off his perch. Once he'd managed to compose himself, he rocked back, sat on his backside properly and glanced back to his lover with a sort of bemused half-smile. "What's adorable?"
"Your tail!"
"What about my-" Oh no. Had Zhen just seen what he thought he just saw? Keeping his eyes on the small, beaming boy, Mudiwa made a conscious effort to keep his tail still.
"Does that mean you're happy?" Zhen asked, half-teasing, half-sincere. After all, what he'd seen was akin to a dog wagging its tail, Mudiwa's devil-point one swishing back and forth like a windshield wiper. Plus, the bigger boy had looked so relaxed and had been smiling, so a wagging tail meant happy, right? Glory Boy curled his tail self-consciously around his waist as he stood.
"Shut up. You didn't see that and you are not to tell anyone. Never mention it again!"
"But it's so sweet!"
"No it isn't!" He walked over, grabbed Zhen's wrist and pulled him along. "Let's go home. But if you mention the tail thing again, I'm leaving and going to Venezuela and you'll have to be alone forever."
"Sure. I'll be alone."

God, that had to be the most embarrassing moment of his life.