No Way Out - Chapter 1
Title: No Way Out
Pairing: (if I tell you, you'd know everything) a little bit of Sakuraiba, Ohba and Ohmiya friendship
Summary: Sakurai Sho is an investigative journalist who is working against the the new Law No. 102883. One day, he finds his whole family dead. He was knocked unconscious and when he woke up, he would experience firsthand the cruelty of the new law.
A/N: Here's the second chapter. Hope you all have a nice weekend!
Prologue
Chapter 1: No Escape
Sho’s eyes widened. “Mori Penitentiary?” his head turned sideways, trying to grasp the situation. He understood.
“Are you alright?” the man asked.
“What am I doing here? What did I do wrong? I didn’t kill my parents! If they just… if they just investigate about it…”
“Calm down…” Aiba tried to coax him.
“I CAN’T CALM DOWN!”
At that exact moment, the doors opened. A woman, probably in her 30s, entered the room, followed by Black Ops. The men behind her rushed towards Sho to restrain him.
She started reading from her file. “Sakurai Sho. I am Higarashi Noriko. Welcome to Mori Penitentiary. One of the seven penitentiaries in Japan for Level A criminal rehabilitation.”
“Level A… criminal?” Sho repeated in disbelief. “I am not a criminal!”
“That’s interesting. Apparently,” she scanned through her file. “You murdered your parents to inherit their money. Nothing beats a kid killing his own family.” She closed the folder and looked at the new prisoner with a smile that did not reach her eyes. “Sakurai-san, you are here to be rehabilitated. If you’re able to meet the requirements to be an acceptable individual in the society once again, you will be back. I hope soon.”
“I’m going to get out of here! You won’t stop me! I’m going to reveal this to the world!” Sho threatened.
Her smile momentarily disappeared. She took out something from her pocket, something that looked like a switch. She held it out.
“Oh really?” she replied with a smirk. “This might.” She cocked her head forward. “Take a look at your wrist. We have a bracelet, activated by this and by the Mori system. If you do not do as we say, you don’t want that activated, do you?”
She turned her back from Sho, who tried to break away from the Black Ops to attack the woman. He did not care whoever it was.
“Aiba-san,” she said, turning again as she remembered to acknowledge the other prisoner.
“Yes?” he replied attentively.
“Please make sure that Sakurai-san will feel at home. You are to be his guide until he becomes comfortable in this facility.”
“I understand.”
She turned to the flabbergasted journalist once again. “Take this man as an example. He’ll be out of this facility in no time.” Her heels echoed the room as she left, the Ops releasing Sho and following her. The door was closed.
“If you’re feeling better, I’m going to take you to your house,” the guide said.
Sho just nodded absentmindedly. He felt hopeless. Even though the woman told him that there’s a possibility of release, how?
“Is it true?”
“Eh?”
“Is it true that you’re going to get out of this prison?”
Aiba shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope.”
With Sho already in his uniform, a gray, simple jumpsuit, the two walked the silent hallways. Sho observed the other prisoners, tending the garden, sweeping, chatting with each other. It seemed like a peaceful life.
“How about escaping?” he asked.
Aiba showed him his own bracelet. “If we cross the border of this forest, the bracelet will automatically activate. I don’t really know what will happen but some say you will explode, some say the bracelet will release a poison that will give you a slow and painful death. Either way, you’re going to die.”
Sho looked at his own ugly bracelet. He did not want to die. Not yet. He would have to prove his innocence first and reveal this ugly truth next.
“We’re here.”
The journalist looked up and saw a cell enough for 6 people to fit in. Aiba opened the gate and let Sho enter first. He felt that all the eyes in the cell were looking at him. He saw vacant spot at the far end of the cell but before he could even walk towards that spot, a young man with pale skin stopped him. Sho blinked. That kind of man would be too young to stay in this kind of penitentiary.
“That’s not your place,” he said. He cocked his head to the other side. The newcomer blinked a few times, wondering what kind of suffering this young man had that he acted like that.
“Hmm, giving orders, are we, Chinen?” another voice interrupted. A tall man approached them from the shadows of the right side of the cell.
Sho observed him. He had an aura of elegance and his facial features were really good. “What a waste. He shouldn’t be rotting in
here.”
“You’re not the boss here,” Chinen snapped.
The man just ignored the kid. “So… who is the newcomer?”
“His name is Sakurai Sho,” Aiba said with a small smile.
The man nodded. He looked at Sho from head to foot, making the journalist feel uneasy. “What exactly did you do?”
“He…”
“I didn’t do anything!” Sho yelled at Aiba, making him shut up. This made the ring leader look at him with mild interest.
“Well, what did you do for a living?”
“I’m an investigative journalist…”
“Go to hell,” the man said, walking back to his corner where a tattered red couch was located. He sat down and crossed his legs.
Aiba pulled Sho to the assigned corner. “Who is that?” Sho asked, feeling a bit guilty that he shouted at his so-called “guide” earlier.
“That guy. He’s J.”
“J?” Sho repeated. Aiba pressed a finger on his lips to shut the newcomer up.
“Shhh! J, as in Matsumoto Jun.”
“Hey… I think…” Sho found his name familiar. “Isn’t he that guy who was accused of stalking and raping that actress?”
Aiba nodded. He cautiously looked towards Jun’s way and sighed when he found that he was not focusing on them. “Yes.”
“That was a media fanfare,” Sho said sadly. “Before he could even defend himself, they were all defaming him like vultures.” He
understood Jun’s coldness towards him. “But I’m not like them.”
Aiba just blinked innocently.
“Why are you here?” Sho asked. He might as well be civil with the guy that’s supposed to help him survive this hell hole.
Aiba silently fixed his stuff on the floor space that was his. “Stupidity,” he said. “But I swear, I didn’t do anything!” he added. “I was just the last person who got into a fight with him so they were able to place the blame easily on me.”
Sho placed his hand on Aiba’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. If you help me escape, I’ll reveal this prison and help everyone.”
“You will?” Aiba said hopefully, meeting the journalist’s eyes.
Sho nodded.
Aiba looked at the empty spot, the one that Chinen blocked, and then Sho noticed that all the hope in his eyes were gone.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t even know if it’s possible for you to escape, Sakurai-san…” He pulled Sho up and led him to a clearing out of earshot. It looked like ruins of another old building. He looked around. “To tell you the truth, there was one man who attempted to escape.”
“Who?”
“Oni.”
Sho blinked a few times. “What do you mean?”
“He was the so-called leader of the cell you are now in,” Aiba explained. “They said… they said he attempted to escape. No one has seen him ever since.”
“He probably was able to escape…”
“… or his corpse is probably rotting at the edge of this prison,” the man replied, holding out his bracelet as a reminder of their doom.
The two silently walked back to their cell but the silence of the hallways was suddenly broken by the sounds of riot. “Let’s not get into trouble!” Aiba said, pulling Sho to the sides. True enough, the area was suddenly filled with different prisoners carrying bats, logs, or anything that could actually hurt anyone.
“Let’s go back to our cell!” Aiba hissed. “They’re going to punish everyone who will be caught,” he added. Sho nodded in agreement. The two did their best to slip through the mob. However, he caught sight of someone familiar.
“Isn’t that Matsumoto?” he told Aiba. The two saw their de-facto leader having a fight with another prisoner. He watched in horror as Jun was almost knocked down by a bat.
They heard a loud, deafening alarm and saw Noriko with her Black Ops, already beating up every prisoner they could find. What’s more horrifying was that she was carrying her iPad, probably to use the bracelets if the need ensues.
“We have to get Matsumoto as well!” Sho said. He dived towards the mob and tried to grab Jun, who was almost ran over by the mob that was trying to escape, by the arm. After dragging the man up to the stairs, Aiba helped him carry Jun back to the cell in a hurry. The alarms were blasting all over the place.
“Hurry, Sakurai! They’re going to lock the cell in order to catch members of the riot!” Aiba said with difficulty.
They were able to reach the door of their cell, slowly closing in to the beat of the alarm. They first threw Jun in. Aiba followed suit. The door was almost closing when Sho was entering but a hand suddenly stopped the door.
“Get in!” the man said. Sho slipped in the space and the man released the door, causing it to close with a loud, deafening sound.
“Thanks,” Sho said, still panting as he sat on the floor. “Who are you?”
“Toma,” he replied, taking Sho’s hand. “Thanks for saving J.” Toma picked up the man and helped him sit on his couch. Sho watched as Jun stirred in pain.
“That was a close call,” Aiba said. “If Noriko catches me outside, my chance of getting out of here will be gone.”
Sho looked at his acquaintance. They both went to their designated spaces and watched as some Black Ops peeked through the bars. Sho, by reflex, placed his hand inside his pocket. His eyes widened when he felt something.
He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and read the note.
“Never trust anyone.”