No Way Out - Chapter 3
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. 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: Oh, hello! I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Updates will be more often! :)
Prologue
Chapter 1: No Escape
Chapter 2: No Barrier
Chapter 3: No Loopholes
“Are you actually expecting that Sakurai will help you?”
The man standing in front of the cell was met with silence.
“He looks like someone who can trust a person easily,” the man continued, intently looking at any change of expression. “He’ll trust me soon…”
The man inside the cell looked at him as if he wanted to kill him. He attempted to go nearer, reaching through the bars. “I can’t believe you’ve sunk that low,” he said. “What did they do to you?” He touched the man’s face. “Please, stop this…” he said in a soft voice.
The other man’s eyes widened and he backed away, slapping away the prisoner’s hand. “NO!”
The prisoner looked as surprised. He withdrew his hand and turned his back. “I will destroy this wretched prison,” he said.
“Do you think Sakurai will help you? Do you think he will trust the person who killed his parents? The person who brought this misfortune to him?” There was silence between the two of them that only the sound of water droplets could be heard. The free man made his way out of the dungeon.
“You’ve changed. A lot,” the prisoner muttered sadly.
***
“Ninomiya-san…” Sho said. The leader of the other cell led him to an abandoned store room filled with old chairs and folded tables. He motioned the journalist to sit down on one of the chairs.
“Sit,” Ninomiya said, tilting his chin towards the chair.
“Why did you bring me here?”
“You said you want to get out of here, right?” the prisoner said, cocking an eyebrow. “That’s the reason why I want to talk to you.”
“Hm?”
“I can help you escape if you also help me.”
Sho narrowed his eyes. “What makes you think that I’ll trust you this easily?” He remembered the mysterious note that he found inside his pocket.
Nino removed a blanket over a table and revealed a laptop. “Do you see this?” He held out his wrist to show the bracelet. Sho watched in awe as he easily removed the ugly accessory. “I can deactivate the bracelets if I want to. This prison has no physical barriers because they really rely on these things to keep the prisoners in.” He wore the bracelet again. “Of course, I have to wear it for prop’s sake.”
“Well, why didn’t you do that before?”
“Because if I deactivate the bracelet and get out of here, does that equate to destroying Mori Penitentiary?” Nino replied as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. “I want to bring this hell down, with that Noriko and Mori himself.”
“Mori?”
“Mori Masayuki, the Minister of Defense,” Nino said. “He’s the number one supporter of the law because he operates almost all the private prisons. Apparently,” Nino sat down and folded his arms, “you can pay him to bring your enemy inside…” He looked at Sho with a smirk, “with murder as a bonus.”
“You mean to say… someone paid Mori to frame me up?” Nino’s nod was an agreement to Sho’s idea.
The other prisoner made his way towards the laptop and started his work. “I have CCTV footages, documents, contracts, bank accounts… everything that they stupidly stored online; I can get all of them. But I don’t have the power to actually convince anyone about this place. That’s why I think you are the best person to do the job.”
Sho nodded. He felt more determined. “What’s your plan?”
“Nothing concrete as of now. But I suggest you keep this as a secret. If someone finds out that we’re planning something, it may cause a riot or it may tip the mole.”
“Mole?”
“Of course, it’s normal that there’s a mole in this prison,” Nino said with a shrug. “That’s why you should never trust anyone.”
***
Sho made his way back to his cell, his steps brisk as he did not want to encounter any Ops. However, he instinctively hid when he saw a silhouette making its way to the building from the forest. It was of a small-built man that seemed to be familiar. The journalist observed as the figure ran back to the sleeping quarters.
He made sure that the coast was clear before he sped back to his cell. He sat on his futon and remembered Nino’s warning. He glanced at Jun, who was talking with Toma. He looked at his neighboring futon; Aiba has not returned. He was dying to tell the story to his friend, even though Nino warned him not to inform anyone. As he was observing, he caught sight of an old photo tucked carelessly under Aiba’s beddings. He grabbed the photo and saw two teenagers: the one with the bright smile was obviously Aiba. His arm was on the shoulder of the unfamiliar one.
“Don’t!” Aiba said, pulling the photo away from Sho. He held it close to his chest. That was the first time he heard his new friend sound agitated. After all, it has been only a week since he first met Aiba. It surprised him to see different facets of his friend but he was anxious about his cellmate’s temperamental attitude.
The two were unusually quiet as they heard their cellmates go back to their places and the cell gates lock. Sho knew that Aiba was pissed off with him nosing. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, breaking the silence.
Aiba glared at him. But later on, his expression softened. “This is the only picture I have with my closest friend,” he said, his eyes filled with nostalgia. “We grew up together until my father stopped us from seeing each other.”
“And you followed his orders?” Sho asked curiously.
“I told you. My father is that important for me,” Aiba said, keeping the photo inside his jumpsuit. “Anyway, I’m sorry for being rude. I had a bad day.”
“Hm?”
“They delayed my release once again,” the prisoner said sadly, leaning on the wall. “Maybe… maybe I don’t really deserve to get out of here.”
Sho felt pity towards his cellmate. He already made the guy feel upset earlier. Sho watched uncomfortably as Aiba was looking at the photo, smiling as he touched it. He felt resentful at the unusual attention his cellmate was putting at the photo.
“Aiba-san?”
“Hmm?”
“Can you tell me about your friend?”
The topic seemed to bring a certain glow in Aiba’s eyes. Sho felt relieved; it was a good move. His newfound friend edged nearer and started talking animatedly.
“… He’s very intelligent,” Aiba said. “People always described me as noisy and all that but he was always the silent one. I was the clumsy one but he was so graceful in all his movements. People can’t believe that we’re that close!” He laughed a little. “I think if people look beyond what they see, they will know that he’s the kindest, selfless person I’ve ever met.” Sho noticed that Aiba’s eyes were glossed with tears. “I used to tell him that I’m going to protect him from all those bullies but… I guess I failed.”
“Aiba-san...” Sho started. The light storytelling turned to the wrong way. He tried to change the topic. “Just go and take a rest, Aiba-san,” he said. “You’re just stressed out. You will and you can get out of here,” he assured. It was already in his mind to bring Aiba with him when he escaped. He just had to tell Nino.
“Sho-san?” Aiba said, without turning his back.
“Yes?” Sho sat up again, looking at Aiba’s back.
“Please… remember everything I’ve told you.”
***
“How exactly are you going to destroy the system?” Sho asked Nino as he slurped his packed juice.
Nino smirked. “Technology,” he said matter-of-factly. He stood up and looked at the window with broken glass. “Like what I’ve told you earlier, everything in this prison is connected. We have to disable the cameras in the key areas so that the Black Ops won’t detect irregular movement. We have to disable the time-locks for the cells, and I have to slowly remove each kind of trigger device that was planted in our bracelets.”
“What do you mean?” Sho asked curiously. Nino motioned him to the computer. He saw a model of the ugly bracelet that holds them prisoners.
Nino pointed at each part. “This bracelet contains different trigger points. One: the poison which can be activated by the button that Noriko is always carrying, two: the GPS, which, obviously, tells them where you are, three: the bomb which detonates when you cross the prison border or if you tried to remove the bracelet forcefully. The third one is tricky because no one can actually control it manually.”
“How about this one?” Sho asked, pointing at the fourth trigger point.
“I actually have no idea what that is,” the man said. “The thing is, upon checking my bracelet, the fourth point is deactivated by default, meaning it does not really do anything.” He looked at Sho. “Isn’t that even fishier than the activated points?”
“You’re right,” the journalist replied.
Their interaction was cut off when they heard an alarm, signaling prisoners to go back to their cells for midday checks. Sho got up from his chair to go.
“Remember, Sakurai,” Nino said without looking at his escape partner.
“What?”
“Remember that you are not supposed to trust anyone.”
Sho just nodded and left the room. He remembered the piece of paper that he found in his pocket again and Nino’s words. “He probably was the one who did that,” he thought, looking back at the closed door where they held their meetings.
He was silently walking back to his cell when he saw his cellmate, the one called Toma, running towards him and screaming incoherently. “Wait!” he said, trying to stop the man. He was able to grab his hand. Toma looked at him with a fearful expression in his eyes. Sho heard a faint beeping sound, making him look at his cellmate’s wrist. The bracelet was beeping with matching faint blue light.
“Let go of me!” Toma snapped, running away.