“Really? That’s the story you’re going with?”

With a mighty grunt Gemmei dislodged the last of the blockage, causing a torrent of foul liquid to stream forth from the pipe. Gagging a bit she sloshed her way back to shore before answering Hibino’s question. “It’s not a story. It’s a fact. Look me in the eye and ask again, I’ll tell you the same thing.”

Hibino finished off her cigarette before shrugging. “Nobody in the kitchen staff is buying it. Nishioka is going to find you alone by the end of the week and have your ass for sure.”

“For what?” Gemmei used her shovel for stability as she scaled the slippery slopes of the lagoon, then stopped for breath once reaching the top. “Not my fault some equipment malfunctioned. Happens all the time.”

“And that drain piping that happened to be clogged had nothing to do with you?”

“I moved a lot of boxes, I was distracted by a giant monster out for my blood, maybe I nudged it by accident. Who can say otherwise?” Pointing towards a farther section of the lagoon by the prison’s edge, Gemmei started off. “I’m headed over there for a bit.”

“To take a piss?”

“For business.” That cryptic comment put a frustrated scowl on Hibino’s face, who was attempting to go for another cigarette and take the last hours of their work detail nice and easy. Gemmei only got about halfway before Hibino was on her tail again. Upon reaching the far end Gemmei took a hard turn away from the lagoon, and towards an out of place boulder on the otherwise open plot of land. Upon reaching it she gave it a knock with her shovel. “Nice looking rock, isn’t it?”

Letting out a puff of smoke Hibino again gave a passive shrug. “I don’t like looking at that thing, makes me nervous knowing I could get zapped by that killer signal if I go too far past it. You know, someone died right by here when they tried to escape-”

“Yeah, you told me.” With her shovel Gemmei started probing the soft earth around the base of the boulder with deliberate care. “Glad all the inmates are so crazy superstitious. Makes it easier to do stuff like this.” Finding the right spot Gemmei sank her shovel in a little deeper, and then gave it a tug. A rectangular section of dirt no bigger than a shoebox popped off as if she cut it perfectly. The sight made Hibino almost choke on her cigarette.

“What! When the bloody hell did you have time to set that up?”

“Wasn’t spending all my time twiddling my thumbs in the infirmary.” Gemmei stuck the shovel in the earth and then bent down to pop the lid of the unearthed box. “I got a bunch of these in different spots- here, come take a look.”

Warily Hibino edged towards Gemmei, who was busy poking around inside the mystery container. Upon peaking in it didn’t seem to be full of anything but what looked like garbage, and a few noticeable umbrella-shaped growths protruding from the bottom. Now Hibino really did choke on her cigarette. “Are you kidding? You’re growing mushrooms?”

“Cool, right?” Gemmei turned and gave a wicked smile, which was such a rare occurrence that Hibino would have choked on a second cigarette had it been available. “I got this cousin of mine named Junichi, dude gave me some apothecary tips way way back. Never thought they’d be useful but hey,” she shook the box. “I finally got enough here to sell. I know some folks looking to buy, too. It’s easy money.”

“Buyers? Are you nuts?” Hibino shook her head and glanced nervously back towards the main compound. “You can’t sell contraband in here without Machii finding out. She gets a cut of every sale- you’re gonna get your ass busted by Nishioka twice over now. Are you just trying to piss everyone off at once?”

Gemmei rolled her shoulders and gave a dismissive huff before replacing the lid and sliding the box back into place. “I’m fired from the kitchen anyway, so I gotta make my money back somehow. You know that spot behind the gym with the gross ashtray? It’s a perfect place for a quick meetup for a trade after sundown. Machii is too busy to notice something like this and these shrooms are gonna spoil if I don’t move them fast.” Gemmei stood back up and rolled her sleeves back down after grabbing her shovel. “I have to get rid of the stuff anyway before Nishioka pins me down and shakes out some answers, so better now than later, right?”

A stiff ‘tsk’ came from Hibino as a concerned expression ran across her face. “You’re just a magnet for trouble.”

Gemmei knocked the sludge off her shovel on the large rock, then gave a long stare out towards the prison compound’s main campus. At that moment a large plume of steam rose up from one of the buildings, which meant that the kitchens just fired up and were beginning to prepare the meals for dinner that night. “Gotta take risks to get rewards. Besides, after tonight, my hands will be clean and nobody will know a thing.” She wiggled her filthy gloves for emphasis. “Didn’t you tell me to start making friends?”

Finally relenting Hibino went for her last cigarette. She kept her eyes off Gemmei, instead choosing to look out past the rock and into the cornfield just a short distance away. She said nothing at first and just took in the freshly harvested field, with its multitude of brown torn stalks littering the earth. “I don’t think you’re makin’ the right friends, lass. But whatever makes you happy.”

Unlike many sections of the HCC after sundown, the garage remained unlocked and available all day and night by necessity. Located nearest the lonely road leading to the prison, the modestly sized building functioned mostly for storage, with several prisoner transport wagons located inside along with the necessary tools to service them. During emergencies the transport wagons inside were the only way to move inmates without having the radio signal fry their brains, so despite the potential security risk, the locks inside were never engaged. Apart from that there was little of value inside worth locking up anyway, and even less value in hanging around due to the proliferation of cameras in the area. Like the HCC’s invisible barrier of pain, the warden seemed to be under the opinion that the implication of punishment worked better than higher security.

As smoke from her cigarette floated up and hung around the gaseous yellow fluorescent lighting, Machii made it her business to routinely mock that notion right to the warden’s face.

Around her stood a small crowd of other inmates, notably missing one giant member of the crew. Still, even while idling, the assembled gang looked like a bad crowd to cross paths with. Machii checked her watch then made a gesture, and everyone finally moved out from their position along the garage wall and out into the open. The group made no attempt to hide; lockdown wasn’t for another few hours anyway, and in this case, they wanted to be seen. Their footsteps carried them down the paved sidewalk that connected the various buildings, and eventually they slipped behind the maintenance shed in the rear of the gymnasium and disappeared. Machii even looked a bit eager for her meeting that evening. At least, from the little Gemmei saw from her hiding space, Machii certainly looked quite pleased with herself.

Gemmei herself slinked off in the opposite direction. Bless Hibino’s big mouth! Or maybe the woman ratted Gemmei out directly to protect her own ass. Either way, as intended Machii somehow got the info about an illicit sale and now expected Gemmei to be waiting on the other end of the prison that night. That meant the boss lady wouldn’t be anywhere near where Gemmei actually would be. The best part was that Machii couldn’t really retaliate either. What was she going to do, beat Gemmei up for failing to show up where she shouldn’t have been in the first place?

As Gemmei navigated through the shadowy parts of the compound towards her destination she again practiced phrasing inside her head. Machii’s ability to outright deny the Houzou Hakkyou’s power was worrying, but with clever wording Gemmei was starting to probe the tattoo’s weaknesses. It was possible, if she was careful, to give the implication of truth, while actually not outright lying. She had told Hibino she knew there were buyers; a true statement, but Gemmei didn’t actually have anyone buying from her. She told Hibino the gym would be a good place to meetup; factually correct, but utterly irrelevant. Gemmei wasn’t going to meet anyone there that night. The Hakkyou was a curse that cut both ways. Once you believed someone was only telling you the truth, it became easy to infer meaning where there wasn’t any.

Of course, that relied entirely on Gemmei not being asked very specific questions where she couldn’t word her answers in deliberately misleading ways. Emerging from the shade towards a simple metal door she very carefully jostled the doorknob to test if it was loose. Sure enough, the bolt inside moved when she twisted the knob, and relief spread across her haggard face. How long had it been since she last did a stealth job? MOED stopped giving her those types of assignments long before she got herself tossed in prison, since she tended to blow cover quickly and go in loud whenever the opportunity presented itself. At least not all her skills as a career soldier went to waste.

As she pulled open the door she quickly slipped off the strip of clear tape she placed over the bolt she placed to keep it from locking, then successfully locked the door behind her upon entering. That would keep anyone who might be trailing her from following, giving her free reign to do as she pleased. Her eyes quickly scanned the dimly lit area. Naturally the kitchen was already emptied of inmates, the last of the scheduled work having been completed hours ago. Even the few emergency bulbs gave off more than enough of that yellow lighting for Gemmei to navigate.

The shiny countertops in the preparation area still glimmered in that slightly hazy glow. The kitchen’s cleaning staff did good work keeping the area so spotless that even at night, it shined! She could even still smell the lemony scent of sanitizing agents and bleach. What an inspiration, those food service slaves were.

Though some cameras sat on the ceiling in the corners of the kitchen, Gemmei paid them no mind. Instead she crept her way straight towards the back freezers after making a quick pit stop to consult a scheduling clipboard. The freezers themselves weren’t locked, so getting in was as easy as shoving the heavy door aside, although the loud creaking noise it made definitely sent the hairs on her skin on end. Once inside the freezer she took several deep, chilled breaths, and went about her business. She located the opened cardboard box holding her prize, and it all felt so easy Gemmei let out a deep exhale as soon as she found it. She swung a satchel around and emptied everything she came for into her bag, then gave it a few tugs to ensure it was secure. Then her eyes darted around to a few other open and half used crates of supplies scattered around the freezer. She had room to spare. Might as well pick up a bonus! It wasn’t like she was ever going to be allowed back into the kitchen after tonight, anyway.

After making sure everything was properly stowed away on her person, Gemmei moved back towards the freezer door to escape. She pushed it open and stepped out into the kitchen again with her head already turned towards the exit. Everything so far went so smoothly she got careless.

Tunnel vision, a classic mistake.

Rather than swing open fully the door stopped abruptly halfway, then immediately snapped back with terrifying force while Gemmei still stood in the door frame. Without much time to process what happened Gemmei pulled herself back just quickly enough to stop any of her limbs from getting slammed in the door, but not far enough to stop the large metal object from smashing into her with an agonizing amount of force. She bounced back into the bitter cold air of the freezer as the door banged close with a resounding thud. The part of her shoulder that made contact with the slammed door throbbed with pain from the collision, but thankfully that seemed to be the worst of it. No, the real damage came when the door then immediately flung back open before Gemmei even had the chance to stand fully back up.

There, looming like a beast out of a nightmare, stood the monster herself: Nishioka. The weak freezer lightbulbs cast the woman’s face into an indistinct shadow, leaving it up to Gemmei’s imagination what expression she might be wearing. Knowing how Nishioka’s first meeting with her went, Gemmei decided she would rather not dwell on that thought very long.

Nishioka’s voice barreled out in a controlled growl. “Shinshi Gemmei. We have some unfinished business.”

How had that enormous woman managed to hide so well? Gemmei scampered backwards from her fallen position, as if putting more distance between herself and Nishioka would matter. The woman remained in the doorway with a resolute stance. “Have you been waiting here every night since I got fired?” Gemmei’s voice betrayed her own anxiety, as it was hard to stay cool while literally being quite cold and also staring down someone twice her size. “Stalking is a crime, you know. I could report you.”

Even though Gemmei put space between herself and Nishioka, it didn’t seem to matter. Nishioka’s enormous reach meant that no matter where Gemmei moved into the freezer she was never more than a few large strides away from being caught. Nishioka seemed to recognize this and made no attempts to move from the only way in or out. “I know a rat when I smell one. Shinshi Gemmei, I knew you’d be back to stuff your pockets. Was it worth it? Getting caught all for...” Her dark eyes moved from box to box, finally resting on the empty one left upturned in the rear of the room. “...Machii’s favorite food? You’re stealing cookie dough?”

“Lots of people like cookie dough.” Gemmei finally got up on wobbly knees, never taking her eyes of Nishioka. “I didn’t get a chance to take any while I still had the job. Nothing worth assaulting me over, surely.”

“Tell me, Shinshi Gemmei.” Gemmei gave a strained swallowed upon hearing Nishioka’s compelling voice again. Letting her get off a pointed question would definitely be a mistake, no amount of trickery would help if she let Nishioka finish her order. “What do you really intend-”

The previously weak looking legs of Gemmei sprang into action before any further words could tumble out of Nishioka’s mouth. Like a sprinter she broke into a headlong run, right towards the wall of muscle and sinew that blocked her way out. Nishioka almost looked amused by Gemmei’s mad rush. What could the girl do, really? There was no way to push Nishioka out of the way given their size difference. There was no space for her to slip through either. The attempt was comically inept, and the moment Gemmei’s pathetic dash came within range, Nishioka easily snatched the petite girl with one thick arm and put her immediately in a headlock.

Now completely within the woman’s grip Gemmei could hear the massive heartbeats of Nishioka, though having her ears boxed in by the woman’s muscles probably helped there as well. Hearing Nishioka speak at this close a range felt like sticking her ear next to a revving engine with how much each word shook her body. “Shinshi Gemmei, do not struggle. You will answer my questions.”

If it weren’t for the very likely possibility of breaking a tooth, Gemmei would have tried biting her. Instead after a little bit more squirming, she squeaked out a petulant retort. “If you ever had a real job you’d know this, you ape. You shouldn’t be back here without the proper footwear..”

In true child throwing tantrum fashion, Gemmei pulled up her lower body just enough to land a foot on the door frame, which she pushed off of with all her incredibly tiny might. The attempt was all but meaningless, like a baby trying to shove an anvil. Nishioka’s stance and firmly planted feet-

-didn’t matter at all, as the large woman begrudgingly slid sideways. Rather, her firm stance and attempt to brace herself against Gemmei only made it worse, as her forceful nature overcorrected and with a comical bang Nishioka hit her head on the door frame, as she had no time to duck under it like usual. As her head bounced off the steel, her rattled eyes glanced down at her sliding feet. Freezers might be slippery, but the broken open bottle of cooking oil splattered on the tile floor and soaking into her flimsy prison footwear almost certainly wasn’t helping. That brat somehow snuck a workplace hazard right under her nose!

Before the giant could regain her balance Gemmei twisted herself like a screw and pulled out of Nishioka’s headlock. Nishioka herself had to use both arms just to steady herself and prevent a total collapse, which Gemmei used to slip outside and back into the kitchen. The exit was only a few short seconds away!

Then it got even farther away. There wasn’t even the chance to get tunnel vision again. Nishioka spun around and lashed out with her long reaching fist before Gemmei got out of range. It hit her square in the spine and the girl let out a little ‘ack’ of shock as Nishioka’s light tap sent her rocketing forward and into the floor. In her current state Gemmei possessed far worse balance than Nishioka, and as a result she stumbled, flailed, and toppled over face first in between the countertops of the kitchen some distance away from the freezer. Again caught on all fours Gemmei scrambled to get upright and found her back literally to the wall, as the only other way out of the kitchen was through the thick steel shutters that were already locked up for the night. Out of one dead end, and into another.

In the doorway of the freezer Nishioka took her time and regained her composure, casually side stepping the puddle of lubricant at her feet. Gemmei cursed under her breath at having only stolen one bottle of cooking oil. She readjusted her satchel, and kept her eyes firmly on Nishioka as she cautiously scooted herself deeper into the kitchen.

Nishioka followed, traveling parallel to Gemmei and watching her as she moved between the rows of ovens and sinks. Gemmei fidgeted endlessly with her bag, as if she couldn’t decide to ditch it or hold onto it. “Don’t run, Shinshi Gemmei.” On command Gemmei stopped, though she let out a frustrated whine at the same time. She couldn’t take her eyes off Nishioka lest the woman charge, but that meant being vulnerable to her commanding voice as well. “Tell me right now, what are you planning? It will be easier to speak now, rather than after I’m done crushing your windpipe.”

A clear look of mental anguish spread across Gemmei’s bruised face, but she still relented almost immediately. “You said it yourself. It’s Machii’s favorite, right? She always gets a stash brought to her when she’s in a bad mood. I watched her goons make off with boxes of the stuff all the time. I wanted to spoil her fun.”

“So this is just petty revenge? You’re going to piss off the boss of the HCC because you can’t get over how she humiliated you?”

“As if I need any outside help being humiliated.” Gemmei reached into her satchel and pulled out one of the long logs of frozen cookie dough, and shook it at Nishioka as if it were a weapon. “You’re a real dumbass though, you know that? You noticed I wasn’t stealing anything from the freezers, but you never bothered to think about why that was, did you?”

“I assumed,” Nishioka took a few tentative steps forward. Gemmei tried to back up, but hit the steel shutters instead. “You were trying to keep a low profile and not get noticed. I guess it was too much to assume someone like you could think that far ahead.”

Turning her hand around Gemmei gave Nishioka a cookie-dough laden thumbs down. “Bzzt. Wrong. Have you been a criminal so long you can’t even imagine NOT stealing when given the opportunity?”

“Then why don’t you tell me-”

“Because,” Gemmei quickly interrupted, “I actually was taking stuff. I just made sure to replace it afterwards.”

That comment seemed to catch Nishioka off guard, and she stopped her advance. After some thoughtful consideration, she asked another question that forced an answer. “Why would you bother replacing something you stole?”

“I know, right?” Gemmei rubbed her nose and wheezed out a chuckle, before starting to walk towards Nishoka herself. “It's called 'hiding the evidence', dumbass. You know, it’s really easy to tell which boxes get raided first, because the morons who pilfer from the freezers don’t even bother covering their tracks. You can just check which boxes have stuff missing from them, and you know who was putting their hand in the cookie jar. Sometimes literally.”

“I’m tired of hearing your incessant mewling.” Nishioka stood in place as Gemmei approached. There would be no surprises this time. “Why go through all this trouble? Were you just spitting in the food and putting it back? Are you just as childish as you look?”

“Close!” Gemmei slipped the cookie dough back into her satchel but didn’t take her attention away from Nishioka as she continued to move forward. “If anyone got mysteriously sick from eating some food from the freezer, especially someone important, you can bet there'd be an investigation. But since all the food I hauled in is untouched, it can’t be traced back to me. A big lug like you might not care about covering their tracks, but some of us got high standards.”

Gemmei jumped in herself with a mental gut punch before drawing any closer. "I wasn’t growing shrooms to sell. I grew a whole bunch of toxic varieties ideal for poisoning someone. They're just perfect for mixing with cookie dough, you know.” a sincere, evil grin spread across Gemmei’s face, and she shook her bag tauntingly. “Problem is, looks like there were a lot of leftovers. Can't leave any loose ends, can I?”

As expected, the reveal of this information temporarily stunned Nishioka. Gemmei could see the gears spinning rapidly and before long came the expected reply. “That’s disgusting. You poisoned every box just to try and get back at Machii? How many other people would get sick as well just as collateral?”

“Someone's never worked for the military. Collateral damage is just the name of the game. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but...” Gemmei finally broke eye contact with Nishioka to look back down towards the now very distant door. “You’re gonna have to do better than that if you want more answers, Miss Giant.”

In the relatively good lighting of the kitchen it was clear that no slippery oil puddle lay beneath where Gemmei stood. Nishioka took full stock of their surroundings. There was nothing in front of them to get in the way, and Gemmei’s thin fingers were completely empty. In a straight up brawl the diminutive girl would snap like a twig under Nishioka’s strength. “I will grant you this,” Nishioka rose one finger, which was nearly as long as Gemmei’s entire palm. “Coming this close when you're about to have your legs pulled off is very brave. Extremely dumb, but brave.”

“I gotta walk towards you.” Gemmei’s legs fidgeted with nervous energy. “I can’t kick you in the face unless I get this close!”

Nishioka’s face lit up at the challenge and she lunged in one mighty push. Gemmei retreated one step, two, but it was pointless. Not only was the giant strong, she was fast, and it wouldn’t take but two steps before her choking grip once again found itself around Gemmei’s throat.

At least Gemmei wasn’t the only one with tunnel vision.

Gemmei’s twitching leg finally shot outward, but not in a kick or jump. Rather it was more like a slide, sending something small out from under her foot. Nishioka didn’t see it, of course, but anyone who spent half a day working in the kitchen would have recognized it on sight. All that talking gave it plenty of time to melt into a nice, frictionless teardrop as well, which slipped under Nishioka’s mighty footfall like a gnat buzzing into the eye of a pouncing lion.

All that forward momentum suddenly shifted chaotically as Nishioka’s considerable weight all fell atop a very slick and unpredictable chunk of ice. For the second time in the span of a few minutes the mighty form of Machii’s most trusted enforcer began to fall. Nishioka reached out for stability and grabbed the bowl of a large mixer, and for a moment it looked like that might be enough.

Then the nasty, lagoon-stench filled boot of Gemmei plowed right atop her nose like a stepping stone.

Recognizing the little twerp’s plan instantly Nishioka tried to swing out with her other fist to catch Gemmei, but the lightweight girl very easily leapt past the gargantuan Nishioka with a nimble jump. The force knocked Nishioka even more off balance, and she toppled down, pulling the entire industrial mixer out of the wall as she hit the tiled floor.

Gemmei didn’t even slow down as she turned to head towards the exit. Unlike the heavyset Nishioka, her frame was built more for maneuverability than power. She expertly rounded the corner with her own slicked up footwear, then took of at full speed for the door at the end of the kitchen. This had to be enough of a head start to get away!

Yet despite the truly olympian fall from grace Nishioka just experienced, Gemmei felt unnerved by the woman’s relative silence. Usually there’d be a howl of anguish or something, but the implacable Nishioka just seemed to have taken it on the chin and couldn’t be heard moving at all. Frantically Gemmei reorganized the stuff in her satchel as she zipped through the kitchen towards the exit. The home stretch was finally in sight!

Then a truly terrifying noise finally shattered out from behind her. Something incredibly inhuman and monstrous, like the crashing and clanging of a building collapsing in on itself, roared through the whole kitchen. Even though she told herself not to, Gemmei turned around to see what horrors now barreled down the path behind her.

There wasn’t even time to curse. From all the way on the other side of the kitchen stood Nishioka, stoic as ever even with Gemmei’s footprint on her face. She stood too far away to do anything directly to Gemmei. Instead, like an angry god, Nishioka saw fit to hurl divine judgment down at the blasphemous peons instead. Smashing and rolling its way down the kitchen floor was the huge axle wheel of an industrial mixer, the frayed wires where Nishioka pulled it from flapping in the air like a gasping fish. The sheer size of the bowl and motor rolling down the kitchen took up so much space there was absolutely no way to sidestep it.

Suddenly Gemmei felt like a very lonely bowling pin.

The size and speed of the spinning wheel could no doubt inflict horrific damage on whatever it struck and the speed with which Nishioka hurled the thing meant there would be no standing back up if Gemmei got hit. Could she just make an even madder dash for the door? No, no- getting smashed by the charging chunk of metal was too imminent a threat She gave up in an instant, and leapt to the side right as the makeshift projectile whizzed past her and slammed into the steel door with an ear shattering, explosive clang.

Gemmei landed on her stomach with an oof. The metal mixer looked to have embedded itself quite solidly into the door and bent the thing right off its hinges. No matter how hardened Gemmei’s soldier training made her body, that wasn’t the kind of injury one could just shake off. She’d made the right choice to get out of the way. But now all her momentum and speed was gone. But, well, just maybe-

Then a large set of fingers closed entirely over her head. Like one would pluck an apple from a cart, Nishioka hauled Gemmei up by the scalp simply through the grip of her palm, and held the girl out at arm’s length. Gemmie couldn’t see because Nishioka’s bulging fingers now pressed themselves into her eye sockets, but that made the woman’s commands no less compelling as they rolled off her tongue.

“Shinshi Gemmei, your mischief ends tonight. I expect you to tell me everything. Then, I break you for good.”