Chapter 17 – Backstabber
Day 184 - 408 students remaining.
After leaving the hideout, Shuji heads alone towards the prison. From a distance, he notices the rather large complex.
‘The city prison. From what I know, Kenro locks up everybody who opposes his control over the city. Earlier in the year, after the wall was constructed, a rebel group fought against the downers. They lost and are now housed in the prison complex. I’m sure if killing wasn’t forbidden, he would have just killed them all.’
Shuji arrives at the gates of the prison. When he approaches the gates, he is stopped by one of the downers.
“What do you think you’re doing here?”
Shuji is swift to respond.
“I need to speak with Jiro.”
The guard laughs.
“You think that you can just waltz into our prison?”
Shuji exhales deeply before continuing to speak.
“Considering that I had a deal with Kenro to complete my investigation, I would hope so.”
The guard instantly gets serious.
“Hang on for a moment.”
The guard then moves away from Shuji and speaks to somebody on the radio. Shuji is unable to hear what they say. The guard then returns and the gate opens behind him.
“Jiro’s office is on the top floor.”
Shuji heads into the prison. As he walks in, he notices a sizeable number of downers present in the prison today. He walks through the lobby area and heads to the staircase. As he walks through the building, the guards are keeping an eye on him. Shuji glazes briefly at the prisoners who have clearly been treated poorly. Shuji instantly recognises the freshness of the bruises on some of them. After arriving at Jiro’s office, Shuji knocks on the door.
“Enter.”
Shuji walks into the office. Shuji immediately notices that behind where Jiro is sitting, there are a bunch of CCTV screens. Jiro rotates his chair to face Shuji.
“I knew it was only a matter of time before you came knocking.”
Shuji gets straight down to business.
“Listen, Jiro. I don’t want any trouble.”
Jiro finds this amusing.
“Oh, but you clearly do. I heard about how you messed up my operation.”
Shuji intervenes.
“I just want to know where Ichika is. Give her to me and I’ll leave.”
Jiro tries to contain his laughter but fails.
“Hahahahahaha. Do you realise where you are right now?”
Shuji looks around as the tension in the room grows. Jiro continues to speak.
“You’re in the city prison. There isn’t a way in or out for anybody unless I allow it. Do you think you can make demands here?”
Shuji falls back on his tactic of using Kenro’s reputation to his advantage.
“You mustn’t be too bright. You should know that when Kenro finds out about your little hustle, he won’t be so happy.”
Jiro starts banging his fist against the desk as he bursts out in laughter. Shuji gets annoyed at this.
“What? Is this a game to you?”
Jiro looks at Shuji with a menacing smile.
“You think that I’m some kind of backstabber, huh? You’re wrong.”
The room is silent as Shuji dreads the very words that Jiro will say next.
“Kenro allowed this.”
Shuji then realises that this situation is very bad. Jiro continues to speak.
“In fact, Kenro knew you would come here. Why do you think this chase led you to our prison? You’re our prisoner now.”
Shuji can hear people marching up the stairs and quickly jumps to the door and locks it.
“You bastard!”
Jiro smiles as he picks up a bat from under his desk and goes to attack Shuji. Jiro swings the bat violently but Shuji dodges his swings. Shuji then grabs the bat with one hand and punches Jiro with the other. He manages to then pin Jiro to the ground but there is now a banging on the door. Jiro smiles.
“Give it up, Shuji. You know that there’s no way out.”
Shuji turns around and immediately focuses on the console with all of the CCTV screens attached. He begins to think to himself.
‘That’s it! That’s my ticket out of here!’
Shuji releases Jiro and heads over to the console. Jiro notices what Shuji is doing.
“No! Stop that!”
Shuji opens a flap and hits a button on the console. An alarm begins to sound. The downers outside of the room begin to get confused. Suddenly, all of the cell doors in the prison open.
“We’re free!”
The escaped prisoners begin to start attacking the guards at the prison. The downers who were standing outside of Jiro’s office quickly head back downstairs as they realise the situation.
Shuji turns to face Jiro who has stood back up again. Jiro wipes the blood from his mouth.
“I still got some fight in me.”
Jiro charges towards Shuji and smacks him with the bat. Shuji then punches Jiro and knocks him to the ground. He then gets on top of Jiro and grabs his collar.
“Tell me where Ichika is or taking you to the inmates downstairs.”
Jiro chuckles before his response.
“It doesn’t matter. I had four downers take her to the junkyard. I told them that they can do whatever they want with her. You’re too late.”
Shuji gets filled with rage and strikes Jiro, knocking him out.
Shuji unlocks the door and begins to use the commotion to get out of the prison. Whenever the guards are nearby, he waits for the inmates to strike.
‘Good. I need to avoid confrontation.’
Shuji begins to run through the hallways. However, as he turns a corner near the exit, his vision goes black and a loud thump is heard. Shuji falls backwards onto the ground as he realises what has just happened. He was hit with a bat. Shuji knows that he can’t give up yet and opens his eyes to look at the culprit. Shuji is paralysed by his emotions as he looks up at the culprit. He believes that he must be hallucinating. Standing before him with a bat in her hand and wearing a downers leather jacket.
“It can’t be. Kanna…”
Shuji gets up off of the ground and takes a step back.
“What’re you doing?”
Kanna bears an almost emotionless expression with a hint of sadness.
“Shuji. You don’t need to worry about me anymore. Out of respect, I’ll let you leave. The front gate is open.”
Shuji is incredibly confused about the whole situation.
“I don’t understand.”
Kanna gives Shuji a cold expression.
“You don’t need to understand. Hurry. You only have a few minutes left.”
Shuji looks at Kanna with sadness.
“Whatever happened, I’ll fix it. I promise you.”
Shuji continues to run out of the prison. After leaving, he starts to run towards the junkyard, still haunted by the vision of Kanna wearing a downers jacket.
At the junkyard, the four downers have arrived with Ichika.
“What should we do to her first?”
One of the downers smiles creepily.
“Hehehe. I know what I want to do.”
The downers begin to grab Ichika. However, they are interrupted by a voice.
“Excuse me, what are you doing to that young lady.”
The downers look angrily at the man.
“Back off pal or you’ll have to deal with us.”
The mysterious man laughs.
“Oh, no! I’m so scared. Whatever will I do.”
The downers begin to get angry.
“Are you mocking us? You’re asking for a beatdown.”
The four downers members go to attack the mysterious man.
A few minutes later, Shuji arrives at the junkyard. He sees Kanna on the floor and the mysterious man standing above her.
“You bastard! Get away from her!”
The mysterious man smiles as Shuji begins to charge towards him.
“I think you should calm down. There is clearly a misunderstanding.”
Shuji continues to run at the calm man. Shuji grabs the mysterious man’s left shoulder with his right arm. However, before he could punch with his other arm, the mysterious man grabs Shuji’s right elbow with his left hand from below. Shuji begins to think.
‘What? Is this a police hold?’
The mysterious man then twists Shuji’s arm and turns outwards, bending Shuji over and putting him in a hold. The mysterious man then knees Shuji in the face. Shuji is blacked out by this.
When Shuji reawakens, he looks around and notices that he is in a shack. The mysterious man stands nearby, making a cup of tea.
“You’re finally awake. I hope you don’t try to attack me like last time.”
Shuji begins to ask questions.
“Who are you? Where’s Ichika?”
The mysterious man begins to speak.
“My name is Jun. I saved your friend from a horrible fate. She’s just over there.”
Shuji looks to see Ichika crying in the corner of the room.
“Ichika!”
Shuji rushes over to comfort her.
“Are you ok?”
Ichika begins to speak.
“I deserved it. I shouldn’t be free.”
Shuji is confused.
“What are you talking about?”
Ichika continues to speak through the tears.
“You’ve seen how awful this place is, haven’t you?”
Shuji is still confused as Ichika explains further.
“Those maps we made. Mikuni used them to discover what areas were useful and what wasn’t. That’s how he separated the eastern side of the city from the rest of it. This is all my fault.”
Ichika continues to cry as Shuji comforts her.
“No. I gave Mikuni the maps, not you. If anything, you should blame me.”
Ichika continues.
“I just need some time alone please. I’m going to go for a walk.”
Shuji nods his head as Ichika leaves the shack. Shuji then turns his attention to the mysterious Jun.
“So, you live in the junkyard?”
Jun finishes making his tea.
“Despite its poor location, the junkyard is rather peaceful. Nobody wants to live here, so I have this huge area all to myself.”
Shuji thinks back to his confrontation with Jun and how Jun beat him so quickly.
“Earlier, that hold you used on me. Where did you learn that? Isn’t it a police hold?”
Jun drinks a sip of his tea before talking.
“Very observant, but wrong. Though it is a style that was used by the Shanghai Municipal Police, it’s not a police throw.”
Shuji begins to get very curious.
“Then what was it?”
Jun smiles and responds.
“It’s a style known as Defendu. It was actually used in World War 2.”
Shuji continues to remain silent as he learns from Jun about the fighting style.
“Defendu isn’t an art like boxing or karate. Defendu is known as ‘Gutter Fighting’. This means it’s been developed to win combat situations at all costs, even if you need to fight dirty. There are no rules except kill or be killed.”
Jun puts his drink down.
“You and Ichika can stay at my place for tonight. She needs time to heal. Who knows what the downers did to her.”
