The whirlwind first day at the HCC quickly blurred into weeks as each week bled into the next. Gemmei tested out what the prison could offer. Once her life settled into that routine, there came the issue scheduling her work. The HCC wasn’t a slave camp like where she’d come from, which meant compensation (however meager) in exchange for labor. The promise of a little spending money for the first time in years was too tempting not to try.

After submitting the proper forms, she now stood in front of the HCC labor foreman, another inmate albeit one much higher on the totem pole. The admin offices’ yellowed wallpaper and dingy carpets would have looked off putting to a normal person, but Gemmei couldn’t stop herself from staring. Not because the hokey office decor was any good. Rather because of the pleasant memories it stirred of her past trips to similar offices for mission debriefs. It was a comforting, yet at the same time miserable feeling.

Meanwhile the foreman kept glancing up from the paperwork to regard Gemmei. She reviewed the girl’s application with more than a little suspicion.

“You want to be a dredger? We usually have to force people to volunteer for that.” The foreman shrugged and stamped the papers, sliding them back to Gemmei who quickly tucked them away.

“It’s outdoors and far from other people.” Gemmei’s remark also came out as a shrug. “I like seeing the sky and not a bunch of chain smoking convicts playing grab-ass.”

“You can see the sky plenty while you’re knee deep in prison waste.” The foreman chuckled to herself and waved the girl out of her office. “I guess smelling like a toilet is one way to keep people from harassing you in the dining hall. Do your best, little piglet!”

Hearing the nickname again made Gemmei let out short little hiss of disagreement but nothing more came of it as she slipped out of the musty smelling office. As she walked down the carpeted rooms of the main admin building similar calls went up from some of the prisoners lingering around the halls, as by now the dirty details of her past already spread to everyone who cared to know. Not everyone chose to work, and the admin building hosted some of the best air conditioning on the compound, so every visit Gemmei made ended with her accosted by snide comments from the peanut gallery.

“Oy, soldier girl! Got another broken nose? Looks like you put it backwards this morning!”

“Everyone quiet down, the snitch is passing through!”

“Gonna make another run at the wall, lass? Maybe this time you’ll get through! You never know!”

“Better watch yourself kid. Boss Machii’s on the warpath after her last shipment got intercepted.”

By now Gemmei already recognized most voices and didn’t bother turning her head to the prods and pokes of bored inmates. The prison chaff didn’t rouse her at all. Back in the day, maybe it would have. Now it just sounded like...static. However upon hearing one specific voice’s distinct cool, confident tones, she did look up from her paperwork and cast a deliberate glance towards three of the inmates crowded around an air vent on the far side of the lobby. The tall Kokona with her long mane could be picked out from anywhere by sight. The predator-like gaze and assertive posture also made sure Kokona stood out in a crowd. Kokona looked good, Gemmei had to admit; Boss Machii took care of her subordinates and it showed.

“The piglet is lookin’ at us funny again.” Kokona huffed loudly enough to be heard, even though she stood at the other end of the room. “She does it durin’ meals too and it’s creepin’ me out. I think I’ll help myself to one of those eyeballs, if she can’t keep ‘em where they belong.”

That earned a slight chuckle from the other two inmates in the entourage, but they otherwise kept their mouths shut. Gemmei glanced up in the opposite direction, towards a set of cameras. Then she kept walking and acted as if she heard nothing. Not yet. Not yet, but soon.

Weeks later and the ins and outs of lagoon maintenance now came second nature to Gemmei. Her thin arms easily made quick work of hauling wheelbarrows of slop despite their deceptively skeletal appearance. “Guess that old soldier work is doing you some good, huh! Got stamina for days, seems like.” An more mature inmate by the name of Hibino huffed as she offloaded another pitchfork of sludge in front of Gemmei, splashing the girl with some slop as she did so. Hibino claimed to be one of the oldest HCC residents and never failed to try and give unwanted advice to the youngest inmates, buzzing around to find someone to land on like a hungry mosquito. Gemmei, for better or worse, seemed to tolerate the matronly woman’s need for conversation. “So it's true what everyone’s been saying? You were in the operations branch? Get to kill any drug dealers?”

Knee and elbow deep in a retaining pond Gemmei could only respond by grunting back at the overly friendly woman. No sweet smelling grass or comforting breeze blew in this part of the property, but at least the sky above looked more vibrant and alive than the interior fluorescent lighting. “Some. It was a while ago, though.”

“Serves them right!” Hibino wiped her brow as she started gathering her tools. “Oy, watch out around the tall grass there, nasty vipers sometimes lurk around there lookin' for rats. Anyway, I can't imagine being a drug dealer. Poisoning communities with that filth. If I ever caught my kids hanging around those jerks...”

Gemmei uprooted the last of the weeds at her feet and let out a massive exhale, regretting it as the stench again assaulted her senses. “Are you just mad they just took over your market?”

“Bootlegging is a time honored cultural tradition!” Hibino struck her open palm with a fist and scowled. “If an individual can make a product cheaper than those big corporations, then that’s just the free market! The only reason private distilleries are banned is because Big Booze wants to keep all the profits for themselves!”

“And those children who died from the tainted alcohol?”

“Bad parenting.” Hibino shook her head and waved her gloved hand away as if swatting a fly. “Like I taught my kids, always drink in moderation. My argument is airright, I wouldn’t even be here if I had a better lawyer.”

“At least you got a lawyer.”

“Lot of good it did me!” A long, loud horn sounded in the distance, and both inmates looked up at the signal. Nodding, Hibino threw the rest of her tools into the wheelbarrow and began shoving it back towards the compound. “Saw you requested laundry duty again today. How many weeks in a row has it been now? You’re such a saint, volunteering for that thankless job. The bleach they use here always gives me a rash.”

“I like searching pockets for freebies.” Gemmei’s slogged her way out of the large pool of standing water and joined the older Hibino as they walked back. The sun was just beginning to set and already long shadows began to stretch out across the HCC compound.

Before the two separated, Hibino gave Gemmei a pat on the shoulder with her filthy glove. “If you keep taking this long to do laundry, the guards are gonna get suspicious. Just thought you should know.” Hibino gave Gemmei a shove and nearly knocked her off her feet, but it didn’t seem nearly as malicious as most of the physical content Gemmei had been on the receiving end of in the past months. “There’s better places to smoke than in the laundry room. Maybe make a friend sometime instead of being so gloomy!”

“Yeah, gee, thanks.” Gemmei waved off her work partner, and after getting a slip of paper stamped at a checkpoint, began wheeling a basket filled to the brim with large filth-soaked sets of overalls back towards the compound's laundry rooms. Most other inmates she passed barely paid attention to her as the dining hall just opened and any delay might cause them to end up with the soupy dregs of the cafeteria’s selection rather than the choicest bits of sustenance being served that evening.

The big industrial processing room for all the HCC’s jumpsuits, wash rags, and other unmentionables never failed to give Gemmei a runny nose as a blast of steam hit her in the face upon entering. The large tumbling driers and loud whirring of the mechanical washing machines drowned out her thoughts, often for the better. Large piles of unsorted laundry sat abandoned on long steel tables in between the rows of machines. Like most prison chores, laundry simply never ended. There was always more to do. Working with the small load sizes was also incredibly frustrating, but apparently the warden had all the bigger machines replaced after someone learned that the smaller inmates could fit inside them. Wheeling her coworkers’ smelly rags up to an empty, still steaming front loader, Gemmei began idly pulling out each article one by one and inserting it after following all the essential protocols. Getting disciplined again by the cleaning foreman for leaving an ink pen inside a pocket was not an experience Gemmei wanted to repeat.

Hours slipped by in relative silence. The few souls lingering in the laundry room punched out after doing their minimum duty. Without windows it was impossible to tell what time it was, and the constant steam emitted by the machines fogged up the cameras when the temperature outside got too low. The nearest guard was posted far outside the doors leading into the building as well. Given the rattling of the machines it was questionable if he could even hear anything happening inside. Nobody wanted to stay in the room longer than they had to.

Nobody but Gemmei, apparently. By now her late-night washing was well known, but her reputation as a weirdo more or less meant folks just accepted it by now. She moved from her personal laundry pile back towards a large set of detergents laying on the middle table, and started weighing out the proper quantities. Gemmei’s face betrayed nothing but the usual dead-eyed stare common to those most heavily affected by the Houzou Hakkyou. It was said the tattoo’s effect on body chemistry worked inversely proportional to the afflicted- those most prone to emotional outbursts got affected the most by its dampening power. The bigger the peak, the flatter the curve ended up. Maybe that was why she had so much more patience for menial work like this.

Or maybe it helped that she wasn’t getting pissed off every two seconds about trivial nonsense. Like how livestock were bred to just ignore their squalid conditions. Or like how pigs enjoyed being stuck in the muck. What a sickening thought.

“Why’d you stop working? Keep going.”

A cool, level voice snuck past the hum of the machines and pinpricked Gemmei’s ears and broke her from her work trance. Hearing it here for the first time felt like someone running a blisteringly cold rod down her spine. She knew the voice. She knew what it meant.

“I didn’t think you did laundry.” Gemmei didn’t look away from the drier and instead resumed loading in individual items with a deliberate slowness. “Wouldn’t want to dry out that smooth skin, right? Might make Machii angry.”

“I didn’t tell you to talk back, piglet.” How many people did Kokoqna bring with her? It had to be the usual entourage but Gemmei couldn’t hear anyone but Kokona standing behind her. One was probably watching the door, and the other maybe distracting the guard. That didn’t make too much sense, though. Kokona might be taller than Gemmei, but Gemmei knew the woman’s routine didn’t include that much weight lifting. With her military training, Gemmei could easily outfight her-

Without warning the long reach of Kokona’s arm snapped out and slammed the heavy iron door on the industrial dryer shut right as Gemmei’s hands slipped inside it. There was simply no time to react properly, but even so, Gemmei kept her arm still rather than jerking it out to try and prevent an injury. When that door slammed shut there absolutely would be hell to pay- several prisoners lost fingers in the past for being careless when the immensely weighty doors smashed closed at inopportune times. This would just be another unfortunate accident, right?

So it seemed, right up until the last critical few inches separated the door from closing around Gemmei’s hand. Rather than a distressing sound of crunching bones or an agonized yelp from the girl, instead the door bounced, as if repelled by an unseen force field. Gemmei’s thin pale skin lay untouched, and she even started to pull her hand back out now there was so much room left in the gap! A scoff of confusion escaped from Kokona. Was the door faulty somehow?

Gemmei’s attempt to extricate her arm failed as the door stopped its rebound swing, reversed direction, and again tried to slam shut. The will of Kokona would not be so easily dissuaded. She stepped forward and pushed her entire body weight against the metal door and again forced it closed, the whole apparatus groaning as she pushed herself against it.

Now, finally, the woman was close enough for Gemmei to see. She could even make out the ridges along the star of the Houzou Hakkyou under Kokona’s cheek. At this distance even the smell of the floral soap Kokona used, a rare luxury even in the amenity filled HCC, wafted into Gemmei’s nose. Both of them wore scowls. Kokona for the obvious reasons, and Gemmei for the even more obvious ones.

Kokona’s grimace twisted into surprise as even with her added weight, the door again came to stop just before crushing Gemmei’s hand. It hadn’t been a fluke after all! Before Kokona could respond Gemmei slammed her head hard into the woman’s jaw in a vicious headbutt, not even waiting for a reply. The added leverage put just enough force into Kokona to send her stumbling backwards and nearly toppled her, all while Gemmei very calmly removed her hand from the door that refused to close. “You should come down here more often.” Gemmei didn’t need to speak very loudly to be heard, and Kokona’s eyes narrowed with concern at the girl’s apparent nonchalance at the situation. Gemmei held something very mundane in her palm, which she swung around almost playfully. “Everyone puts a couple towels in the hinges to make sure the doors can’t close all the way while you’re working. Being Machii’s puppy has its downsides, doesn’t it? I bet you’ve never worked a washing machine in your life.”

Any residual pleasure from having decked the woman out dried up pretty quickly as Kokona discarded any pretense of a casual accident and simply swung out at Gemmei after a quick dash forward. So simple-minded! Her soldier training let Gemmei easily duck the blow, and it certainly helped that Gemmei could keep a level head and not get too wrapped up in the heat of the moment. A rapid punch to the diaphragm to knock the wind out of her would be more than enough, just like Gemmei had done to her previous targets back in the armed forces. Kokona was nothing but a thug, after all. Even in prison, the superiority of the military couldn’t be challenged!

At least, that plan sounded pretty good in her head. Gemmei’s balled fist, hurled forward with practiced precision, lost nearly all its momentum when Kokona’s slender fingers grabbed it and twisted it away almost as soon as she tried to land the blow. Gemmei let out a confused grunt, then a pained howl as Kokona twisted her arm and flung the lightweight Gemmei straight into the nearest washing machine. A perfect counter! Kokona completely anticipated Gemmei’s strike, almost like she herself had practiced it. Kokona adjusted her grip on Gemmei then pulled the girl back again, this time slamming her into one of the steel tables. As her cheek pressed painfully hard into the metal surface Gemmei tried to sort out how that happened- surely this random prisoner wasn’t some fighting savant?

“Not so high and might now are you, Miss MOED?” Kokona wheezed into Gemmei’s ear as she continued to put pressure on the twisted arm, likely in an attempt to break it. “Went right for the textbook takedown, like a good soldier should. Betcha thought you could just rely on your training to out-punch me, huh?”

Grinding her teeth Gemmei kept herself from responding so she could focus on finding an opening. It proved futile; Kokona’s significant advantages in size and reach couldn’t be offset so easily by the shrimpy Gemmei’s stubby limbs. Had she been in top form, and with her old favorite tools...!

Any further recollection came to an end as Kokona lifted Gemmei up briefly, just to again slam her down into the steel table with even greater force. Something sickening snapped inside Gemmei and she couldn’t help but release a pained croak. Seemingly satisfied Kokona slammed a knee into Gemmei then hurled her aside, letting the gasping girl collapse onto the stone floor near one of the drains.

“We ain’t even close to finished, piglet.” Kokona spat as it was apparent even she was short of breath, having used more energy than anticipated to incapacitate such a small girl. After that breather she pursed her lips and let out a short whistle. Over the grinding and churning of the laundry machines Gemmei couldn’t hear who came in, and since her throbbing head still spun she couldn’t see at that moment either. What she did eventually hear sounded unlike any other voice Gemmei experienced in the months of time she spent in the HCC. The voice itself was one Gemmei had tried very hard to not hear, but in the end, their meeting was inevitable.

“This is the piglet, huh?” The clear superiority in the tone of the speaker rose above that even of Warden Keios. It was a foriegn accent, too- Gemmei could almost place it but the exact origin didn’t seem terribly important at that moment. “You’ve really been having trouble with such a runt, Kokona?”

“Cockroaches can be hard to squash, Boss.”

“Eh.” The voice didn’t betray any of the lethal contempt that Kokona’s held. Its cadence made it seem like this was just another day at the office. Slowly Gemmei’s swimming vision began to clear up, but even so she kept her eyes glued to the floor. Ignoring the violence preceding this encounter, this meeting was still incredibly odd. Gemmei slept in the cell right next to Kokona and her boss. This wasn’t really their first meeting.

It was definitely their first encounter, though. Machii leaned in a bit closer to look at the curled up Gemmei, then flicked a spent cigarette somewhere off to the side. “Get her up so we can talk. I want to see this allegedly fake Hakkyou.”

“Right away, Boss!” Moments later Gemmei found herself propped up in Kokona’s iron grip yet again. Even if Gemmei wanted to try and smack the unconcerned Machii, the woman stood too far away from her to do so. The ‘Boss’ of the HCC took out another cigarette but didn’t light it, instead choosing to dangle it between her nimble fingers. The way she looked at Gemmei conjured up images of how one might regard a strange bug to determine if it was alive or dead.

“Tell me your name. Full name. No aliases.”

“Shinshi Gemmei.” The words rumbled out of Gemmei before she could put them in order in her head. Machii’s voice was very much like the warden’s in how compelling it was, something most other prisoners couldn’t really match. The short, simple orders were also harder to ignore. No wonder she was so dangerous!

“That was a pretty fast response.” Machii looked up to Kokona, who offered no rebuttal. “You’re fixing to lose a bet at this rate. I’m thinking her Hakk is legit.”

“Keep going.” Kokona growled and put more pressure on Gemmei’s immobile limbs. “You’ll see I’m right.”

Machii turned her attention back to the battered Gemmei. Although Machii wore the same jumpsuit as everyone else, it was clear from the high quality of the buttons and the relative stain free fabric that her outfit was a class above what everyone else got. While both her and Kokona sported long hair, only Machii’s seemed to glisten in the dull prison lighting. Her well combed bangs framed a symmetric and wide face as well, likely because she didn’t have to use the coarse soap everyone else did. What struck Gemmei the most was the way the woman moved. As she took a step to the side and lifted her unlit cigarette, Machii’s gesturing gave the impression of someone much more ponderous than what she expected from a prison mob boss. If Kokona was a wolf, then Machii was an elephant. She didn’t need to bare her fangs to be threatening. Just existing and filling space made others aware of the danger she posed.

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Don’t have one.” Gemmei’s immediate snap back seemed to amuse Machii, though Kokona was only growing more agitated.

“How many men did you kill on the outside?”

“I didn’t count.”

“Tell me a MOED secret.”

A series of guttural gargles escaped Gemmei’s lips, but she didn’t seem able to stop her answer. “We don’t respond to protection calls for people we don’t like. A few years ago management let that Hokushi fire go on for hours because they didn’t want to deal with medical care for all the drug addicts.”

Machii’s mouth opened just a bit as if surprised, but then just gave a nod of acknowledgement and a little ‘hmph’. Kokona’s voice jumped out at the chance. “Everyone knows MOED is a bunch of self-serving assholes. Ask her something she absolutely can’t lie about.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Machii shot back, her eyes widening at Kokona’s attempt at an order. Gemmei heard a very quiet exhale come out from Kokona, and her grip tightened considerably. How interesting. The Houzou Hakkyou usually forced compliance, but Machii seemed to shake off its effects almost instantly. “Shinshi Gemmei, tell me this.” Her eyes fell back down. “What memory do you have that brings you the most shame?”

In response, Gemmei kept her mouth shut. Kokona gave her another painful squeeze as if to coax an answer out but nothing came. Machii smirked, then rubbed her chin with one hand. “She’d just lie if her Hakk wasn’t real. I’m not buying that she’s our leaker.”

“I don’t know jack, pal.” Gemmei’s voice came out as a huffed growl, though part of that was Kokona’s arm around her throat. “And even if I did, I ain’t a snitch.”

“Boss,” Kokona’s tone took on a more worrying tone. “Let me ask a question. This’ll prove she’s a dirty liar.”

Machii leaned back and waved the hand holding the cigarette. “Yeah, okay. Go ahead. Let’s see if your plan worked.”

“Hey, piglet.” Kokona pulled Gemmei up by the neck, nearly lifting the girl off her feet. “Three nights ago, what did you hear in your cell after lights out?”

“The same thing I hear every night.” Gemmei was practically spitting now, though not really on purpose. “Nothing. I don’t listen to you dickwads.”

After that response Gemmei felt like she could feel the smile spread across Kokona’s face. Even Machii, who had appeared ready to find something else to do, refocused on the two women with a hum of approval. Not wanting to let the opportunity go to waste Kokona put on even more pressure. “Say it again. Say it loud, clearly. Tell us exactly what you heard.”

“You deaf, or dumb?” Gemmei coughed. “I don’t listen to your dumbass conversations at night. Just because you’re my neighbor doesn’t mean I care about your idiotic pillow talk.”

“You see? You see that!” Kokona laughed and finally dropped Gemmei down low enough that her shoes could touch the ground again. “A total lie. Boss, you fell for it too, didn’t you?”

“Aye.” As Machhi drew closer again Gemmei squinted and tried to squirm out of Kokona’s reach, but the woman’s grip remained too strong. “That sounded like the truth to me, but damn. Her tat is fake then?”

“Hey, hey!” Gemmei got enough air in her lungs to raise her volume, even though she wasn’t capable of getting mad. “I know what I said. I said-”

“-you heard nothing, right? Right?” Now Kokona was raising her voice. “You moron. You complete imbecile. That’s such a transparent lie. There’s no way you didn’t hear us.”

“That’s right.” Machii reached out as if to touch Gemmei’s cheek, but some violent wriggling persuaded her to wait. “Old Kokona and myself were so loud that night the patrol guard came by to tell us to cut it out. Ain’t that right?”

“That’s right, boss!”

“So you just lied to me” Machii gave another smile, but this one looked much more sinister. “Which means, when you said you weren’t a snitch-”

“I don’t listen to you insufferable assholes! Check my pockets!” Gemmei barked and again tried to pry Kokona’s arm loose, and earned a quick slam back down into the table for her efforts. Even so, she kept going. “I make earplugs- I was using my pillow first, but needed better material and started doing laundry so I could collect the lint! I can’t tattle on whatever nonsense you talk about at night, because I don’t hear any of it with my ears plugged up! I don’t give a rat’s ass what happens beyond that wall we share- you can keep your dirty secrets for all I care.”

“That’s another lie-”

“Check her pockets.” Machii’s order was absolute. Even though Kokona resisted, her control over Gemmei relented just enough to dig around in the girl’s belongings. A few seconds later Kokona’s balled fist slammed down on the table and deposited two nasty looking balls of fluff, just the right size for inserting into the ear. Machii narrowed her focus and moved towards the strange objects, while Kokona went back to strangling Gemmei.

“It’s a total bluff.” Kokona huffed. “That’s just random garbage. Even if those were earplugs, she could have made ‘em just to pretend she never heard stuff. This piglet is ex-military, you know they plan for contingencies like that.”

A callous laugh came from, of all places, Gemmei. “You’re ex-military too, aren’t you? I recognize this hold- you blocked my punch because you took the same training as me!”

Machii continued to dissect the strange fluffballs from Gemmei’s clothes as Kokona leaned in harder, now truly threatening to break Gemmei in half. “So what? I went to the academy like you, but dropped out. Cause I ain’t a pig.”

Close. Kokona made a mistake and got too close. Gemmei twisted her head sideways and managed to make eye contact finally with her assaulter, and belted out her own order. “So just admit it then. The person snitching on your boss ain’t me.” Her volume spiked and voice cracked, though the words could still be perfectly heard. “Kokona, you’re the one sharing info with the warden, aren’t you?”

That earned Gemmei another massive slam down into the table, the hardest yet. The rigid material let out a deep resonant thud as Gemmei’s body bounced off it like an insect swatted out of the air. A splatter of blood from broken skin sprayed out, though it didn’t stop Gemmei from continuing. “I’ve watched you for months- every Tuesday, you and your pals eat by the air vent in the dining hall, don’t you?”

“What’s wrong with that!” Kokona moved her hands towards Gemmei’s throat to try and stop her from speaking. “As if a pig like you-”

“Let her talk.” Machii ordered, stopping Kokona dead before she could move further.

“But Boss-”

“That vent-” Gemmei wormed her way out of Kokona’s grasp finally and slid across the table, putting some distance between herself and the two women. A streak of blood from the broken skin across her face smeared across the table as she did so. “That vent is right in front of a camera. I see you by those spots all the time. I know why.”

Kokona turned and nearly lunged at Gemmei, but again Machii’s incredibly compelling voice shuddered out. “Don’t move. I want to hear this.”

“She,” Gemmei half gasped, only now realizing exactly how much damage her body sustained. If not for the table providing support she wouldn’t have even been able to stand. “Has been leaving notes in the air vents. The guards see it on camera and come pick it up. Kokona is your informer.”

A derisive burst of laughter erupted from Kokona, even as sweat poured off her face. “Yeah, sure! Boss Machii’s number two would just throw away her position for no reason! This is a setup, Boss. She’s trying to throw you off-”

As she turned around Kokona came face to face with Machii, who was now close enough to smell. Their eyes locked. “Are you a snitch, Kokona? Have you been telling the guards about our operations?”

There was a small but incredibly damning pause. “Of course I ain’t saying anything, Boss-”

“She isn’t ‘saying’, she’s ‘writing’.” Gemmei wheezed. “She’s only been technically telling the truth. The Hakkyou only compels compliance, not honesty.”

The heavy humid air grew more unbreathable by the moment. For what felt like a far too long stretch of time, Machii stared down Kokona in silence. Gemmei just continued trying to catch her breath, although every additional lungful only brought more pain. Even a slight breeze might knock her over now. If this situation didn’t resolve soon Gemmei might not be around to put the nail in the coffin as planned.

Her voice croaked out again anyway. “Ask her-”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Machii snapped, eyes wide and her voice filled with more rage than Gemmei had seen in well over a year. It was so surprising that even Kokona flinched. It was so easy to get used to the safety blanket the Hakkyou provided by taking emotion out of the equation; seeing that darker side of humanity resurface in Machii shook the foundations of prison life. No wonder she was in charge.

Gemmei continued anyway, though with more wariness in her tone. “There’s a slip of paper wadded up in that ball of lint.” All three pairs of eyes focused simultaneously on Gemmei’s pocket junk, which still lay on the steel table. “I pulled it out yesterday in the dining hall, right where Kokona and her parasites were lingering. If I’m a liar, Kokona won’t have any idea what it says. Ask her about it.”

Before Kokona could even respond Machii’s fingers darted out to grab the makeshift earplugs and crushed them both in her palm. A soft crackling sound revealed the small slip of paper kept within, and keeping it away from Kokona’s prying eyes Machii quickly rolled it open and saw what was written inside.

“Good news, Kokona.” Machii’s words came out thick with tension. It had been so long since Gemmei saw someone truly mad that at first, she didn’t recognize it. “We can solve this whole situation right now.”

“Boss, I-”

“Shut up. Answer my next question.” Machii crushed the paper up and tossed it aside, denying any chance of a mistake. “I gave you the green light to off this little runt because you said it was very likely she was the one leaking our plans. And now we can prove it all. Maybe her Hakk is fake. Maybe that piece of paper is just a bluff. Easy way to find out, right? I know- I know your Hakk is real. So you can’t lie to me.”

“Tell me,” Machii’s words shot out slowly and with a deliberate threatening tone. “Did you write something in the dining hall yesterday?”

“I write a lot of stuff, Boss-”

“Did you put something in the vent, Kokona?”

“Yeah, sure I did. We throw garbage in there all the time. It doesn’t mean anything. I can’t lie to you, that doesn’t mean-”

“What did you write on the paper you put in the vent? Tell me exactly.”

“That- it was a whole day ago, I might remember it wrong-”

“Was it a time and a date?” Machii was close enough now that Gemmei could barely see her behind the larger body of Kokona. “Was it the time and date when our next shipment was supposed to drop? Give me a simple yes or no answer, and I’ll know this nasty little girl here is our culprit. That’s all you have to say, Kokona. It couldn’t be easier.”

The background noise of the laundry room felt as though it grew so loud that any answer the woman gave would be swept away. So much time passed that Gemmei felt herself about to pass out, her pulsing and swelling head injuries threatening to end her even if Machii or Kokona didn’t.

Only some unintelligible, half-mangled words managed to escape from Kokona. Her jaw quivered as she tried to keep it closed and her eyes twitched with agitation at having been put into such a corner. Her teeth began to grind, and instinctively she held out both her arms to try and keep Machii at a distance. No amount of clever wording or half-truths could be used to wiggle out of such a narrow question. “Yes, but-”

Kokona’s face exploded. That was the only word Gemmei could find for it, as Kokona didn’t even get to finish her statement before a splatter of spittle and teeth sprayed out from her mouth. Machii looked threatening but the power she apparently held in her body was just as deceptive as Gemmei’s, as with one blow she completely floored Kokona. The woman stumbled right into a nearby machine and bounced off it before coming to a stop as she tried to remain upright. “Boss-” her muffled words spilled out of a broken mouth. “Boss, I can explain-”

Hacking and trying to blurt out another statement, the only sounds that could come out of Kokona’s throat was more garbled nonsense as Machii landed another ridiculously strong blow. Kokona fell instantly like a sack of meat, only to then meet the heel of Machii’s shoe on her windpipe. Gemmei saw her fair share of prison fights, but the Houzou Hakkyou brand kept them brief and to the point. Usually there was no passion in a struggle, no anger. As Kokona crumbled and Machii delivered even harder strikes into her, Gemmei remembered all too well what it looked like when rage entered the equation.

The way Machii splattered Kokona against the stone floor reminded Gemmei exactly of how she herself used to fight. A part of her, even through her own brutalized body, even felt a bit excited seeing such violence again. Just like the old days, right?

What a horrible way to live.

There was no defense anymore as Kokona simply ceased resisting. Machii’s brutal beating reverberated through the laundry room even louder than the washing machines could, until the parts of Kokona she was striking became so wet and pulpy that there wasn’t much more noise to be made. Finally satisfied Machii spit onto the body and gave it one more kick for good measure. Then, as fast as it started, the expression of twisted anger Machii wore disappeared. It caught Gemmei off guard again, just how fast the woman could switch on and off. Gemmei struggled to stand upright again in case Machii came for her next. Even if this outcome was expected, for Machhi to act so suddenly and with such emotion...was that woman truly bound by the Hakkyou? Experiencing the unpredictability of human emotion again brought a new fear to Gemmei’s heart. Machii was not to be underestimated.

Rather than assault Gemmei, Machii instead casually walked over to the supply table to grab a bottle of bleach. She splashed a bit on her hands to get some blood off, then dumped the rest onto Kokona’s body before dropping the whole thing onto the floor. A deep, satisfied breath escaped Machii’s lips and she cast one wary glance in Gemmei’s direction. Just the look along nearly bowled Gemmei back onto her butt.

“Don’t make trouble, runt.” Machii calmly drew her thumb across her throat. “Keep plugging your ears and keeping gluing your mouth shut. Ain’t nobody in the HCC who can cross my path and make it out in one piece. Even if they send you back to the hole, I got contacts who will make sure you stay quiet permanently. Got it?”

Gemmei didn’t even get to respond. Her rattled skull couldn’t take much more and her vision grew foggy and dark. As she slumped down into the floor, she watched Machii turn and exit through the doors on the opposite side of the room. Several other inmates were waiting just outside- had they been watching the whole thing? So many witnesses and yet...

There would be no doubt who would get the blame for this. Gemmei winced as her last hold on consciousness slipped away. This hadn’t gotten her any closer to freedom. In fact, she had only succeeded in sliding farther away.

What did that old grandma hag of hers, that infernal Mao woman, used to say? To climb a mountain, sometimes it was necessary to go downhill. As the pain from her injuries melted with her awareness, Gemmei tried to tell herself it would work out. Or if it didn’t, at least she could make sure there wouldn’t be enough of herself around left to care. No matter which direction she fell, Gemmei’s goal didn’t change.

Getting out of the prison was the only thing that mattered. And Machii would be her ticket past the unseen walls of the HCC, one way or another.