No Way Out - Chapter 7/10
Title: No Way Out
Pairing: (if I tell you, you'd know everything) a little bit of Sakuraiba, Ohba and Ohmiya friendship
Genre: action, friendship, slight angstSummary: Sakurai Sho is an investigative journalist who is working against the the new Law No. 102883. As he stayed longer inside the Mori Penitentiary, more and more secrets would be uncovered, particularly about the person who killed his parents, the enigmatic Oni. What other secrets does this prison contain?
A/N: Told ya, I am running out of "No nanchara" titles so this chapter's title really sucked! Furthermore, I'm currently in the process of writing a new story... I want that one to be as light as possible. Oh, and I promised at the first part of the story that I will reveal the inspiration to clear stuff up. I might do that at the epilogue. For now, please enjoy the new chapter. Does this chapter answer your question? Please air your grievances to the comments section. Nurufufufufu~
Prologue
Chapter 1: No Escape
Chapter 2: No Barrier
Chapter 3: No Loopholes
Chapter 4: No Lies
Chapter 5: No Sanity
Chapter 6: No Truth
Chapter 7: No Family
“Father,” Noriko bowed deeply as her boss arrived.
“I assume things are going well?” he asked as they both started to walk in the hallway.
“About that…” she started, hesitating. She opened the door for him to enter. “I think we should stop sending him out,” she said. “He will be useless if this continues. Let’s… let’s use another prisoner.”
“Noriko, I’ll talk to him,” the old man said.
The woman stopped walking. “But Father, he’s not in a good state! We should have stopped him from seeing that prisoner. The brainwashing is not working anymore!”
“Noriko, have you softened?” he asked. The woman looked down guiltily in response. “I’ll talk to him. Alone,” he pressed, opening the door himself. He entered a room filled with clean, white walls. He saw his son sitting at the edge of the bed, looking around, his eyes unfocused. The only colored thing in the room was the blood-stained handkerchief that he was playing with.
“Where is he?” he asked Mori like an innocent child. “Is Satoshi safe?”
Mori nodded. “He has been very obedient. Thanks to you. I am very proud of you, Masaki.” Mori touched his son’s shoulder. Aiba looked at the hand momentarily and then grabbed it, twisting it painfully. “I’m going to kill you! Where did you take Satoshi?”
“Father!” Noriko said, running inside the room. “Masaki, let him go, please! No, don’t!” she shouted as doctors overtook her, injecting a syringe to Aiba’s neck, making him release his father and fall on the bed. Some doctors were about to strap him on the bed but Noriko stopped them, holding his hand protectively.
“Masaki, Masaki, are you listening to me?” he said.
Aiba, due to the effect of the drug, looked at his father with glazed eyes. “Father?”
“You know why you are sent here, right?” he reminded in a gentle voice.
“I’m going to be your mole,” Aiba said, facing his father in his office.
Mori looked up from his desk. “It will be difficult for you.”
“I… I have realized that I have done a lot of trouble to you,” he said, his eyes closed. It was a lie. He wanted to get to the penitentiary to find his friend and save him. He hoped that his father, his manipulative father, would not see through his plan. “This is all that I can do.”
“Brilliant,” he just replied, no delight in his voice. “I’ll make sure that you’re safe inside the prison. Your sister will take care of you while you’re in there.”
***
“Satoshi!” Aiba said, running towards his best friend, embracing him.
Ohno looked at him and blinked a few times. He then placed his arm around Aiba. “Is this real? Is that really you, Masaki?”
Aiba smiled at him. “I’m going to save you,” he said. “I’m going to get you out of here.” He let their foreheads touch. He was tempted to cry but he did his best not to. “I can’t let you suffer anymore.”
“This place is not safe for you,” Ohno replied. “You should not be here…”
“I made a promise, right? I promised you that I will protect you,” he flashed a smile that was unlike him. It was dangerous; it was not the same smile that Ohno’s friend gave to him.
“What did you do?” Ohno asked, confused. “What are you going to do?” he looked at his friend’s eyes with fear. He knew that Aiba could do anything, would do anything.
“I’m doing this to save Satoshi,” he said in a monotonous voice. His father gave a smile and a pat.
“Yes,” Mori said. “You made a promise to him, right? You need to create a world that will accept Satoshi and you. That’s the greatest thing that you will ever do.”
***
“Fuck you,” Nino said.
Ohno looked up at his friend. “What did I do?” he asked calmly.
“Aiba Masaki is the mole, isn’t he?” the geek shouted. “And you did nothing! All those failed plans to escape, he was the one chirping to the Black Ops and you did not even tell me to be careful of him!”
“Nino…”
“Is he the one? Is he the guy you actually want to save?” he asked “This is very ridiculous!”
Ohno stood up and approached the bars so that he could see Nino clearly. “I actually expected you to know sooner,” he said.
“There you are again, acting like some know-it-all! Are you also manipulating me?” he asked.
“No.” Ohno shook his head slowly. “I want you to trust me even though this world we live in now is as fickle.”
“So, tell me what exactly are you doing here in this wretched prison? Why did you say that you’re here to save that traitor?”
“Don’t hurt him!” Ohno said as he watched the Black Ops electrocute his friend. “Noooo!”
The two were caught escaping and before they could cross the line, the Black Ops were able to follow them and capture them. Ohno looked helplessly as he was being held back by the other guards. He could hear Aiba’s screams.
Ohno saw the door open and saw Mori enter, followed by his assistant. He was shocked: it was Noriko, his friend’s sister. “Mori-san! Mori-san!” he said, using his remaining strength to cling on to the politician’s leg. “Please, save your son!” He looked at the woman, her eyes closed. It was as if she was trying to block away the sounds of torture. “Noriko-san, please stop this!” he pleaded.
“A bastard son and a traitor… how useless is that?” Mori just said coldly. He then kicked Ohno aside. “My son is ready to sacrifice everything for a lowlife like you. What does he see in you?”
Ohno knelt on the floor and lowered his head. “Please! I’ll do anything!” he repeatedly said. “I’ll do anything. Please just save Masaki! He didn’t do anything bad! He cannot… he cannot survive this kind of treatment!”
Mori looked at him. “Well then. You have to do everything that I say. If not, it will be the end of Masaki’s life. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Masaki is not really in a good mental condition,” Ohno explained. “I blindly followed his father’s orders but I did not… I did not realize that he was not really safe. He is still here and worse, he is being manipulated by his own father.”
“Ohno-san…”
“I have to save Masaki,” he said in a determined voice. “But in order to do that, I have to destroy Mori and this prison.” He turned around. “Nino, did you do everything that I told you?” he asked.
“Of course,” Nino said smugly.
“Do you have any regrets that I sent you here?” Ohno asked.
“It was actually fun being the head of a clique,” Nino replied with a disinterested shrug.
The sound of chains falling on concrete echoed throughout the dungeon. “Then it’s time.”
***
“Sho-san, I think… I think you have to come with me to my counselling session,” Aiba said, looking fearful like a child. Sho noticed that he kept on stealing glances all around, fidgeting and pacing.
He smiled a little. “I think you should stop going to the sessions,” he responded kindly. He did not want to shock Aiba with all the revelations he had heard. If it’s true that his friend was not in a good mental condition, he would be very vulnerable.
Aiba shook his head. “I promised Satoshi that I’m going to get better. I want… I want a better world with him,” he said with a bright smile.
Sho noticed two things. First, he noticed that Aiba was more cheerful than usual. Second, “Satoshi?”
“He’s the closest friend… no… my most precious person in the world,” he announced. He dreamily looked at the open area filled with trees. “I promised him that I will save him against people who will hurt him.”
“So… he’s that important,” Sho nodded in understanding. He felt a little dismayed that there was someone Aiba considered very precious but in a way, it felt like Sho was actually knowing who this man was.
“How about you, Sho-san,” Aiba probed. “Do you have a very precious person in your life?”
Sho just looked at the ground and smiled. “I was supposed to say that it would be my parents but, well, you know what happened to them…”
His friend smiled. “I hope you will meet someone worth protecting, Sho-san,” Aiba said.
“I don’t know. I hope I can…”
“Tell me: can you do it? Can you kill for the most important person in your life?”
“What... do you mean?” Sho voiced out, confused. The two stopped walking. He looked around and saw that they were in a big hall with some tables and a psychiatrist’s couch with a chair at the far end. It was not really the best place to hold counselling.
“To save my most precious person, I killed all of them…” Aiba said in a dark voice, making Sho look at him, baffled.