Chapter Text
“Just like that, now lean in…”
She did as told and adjusted the grip on her rifle. The steel was too heavy for her small arms and her form was clumsy. There was a slight shake to her hands born from immaturity and grey weather.
In her lessons, she was taught that you never shoot from a long-range because it makes too much noise and you’d be found quickly; it’s best to smother someone with a pillow and then shove your gun into it before pulling the trigger.
That’s too much knowledge for a thirteen-year-old pulled right out of the orphanage a few days ago to know. She feels badly for leaving her friend to take care of the younger kids, it was always hard to do by herself on days where the other was sick- she can’t imagine taking care of that many children.
BANG
Slightly off the mark- then again, it doesn’t matter if you don’t shoot in the direct center of the head. So long as the bullet doesn’t graze the skull and spare them.
“Good job, Tojo.”
///
Some of these people were in fact looking for a maid coincidentally. Kirumi thought it would be smart to disguise herself as a family maid for these important people; she would sooner be blamed for thievery rather than murder. She would have a relatively normal cover job, and the skills she learned from the orphanage helped.
Staying in one place for a long time made her less sad, winning the favorability for whoever she worked with by performing domestic tasks granted her extra pleasures (these people were rich, after all).
The thing she found uncomfortable were the kids. The moms were often as busy as the dads, and children tend to latch onto the first woman who can cook, clean, and take care of them as their parental figure. Kirumi felt guilty; these children didn’t know what their parents hired her for. Here she is in a strange juxtaposition, acting as a mom yet being a killer.
She scolds herself- better to not dwell, and tells the children not to call her mom from now on out of respect for their real mother.
They nod their heads and eat their food.
///
Japan was pleasantly surprised that their newly elected Prime Minister had a teenage daughter. She never appeared until the scarce end of the election period; everyone assumed that he had kept her from the press so she could live a normal life for as long as possible before she’d be pulled into a life of press surveillance and private schools.
The truth is: she was his own secret service. She’d been an assassin for years at this point, being tossed around to increasingly important figures until she was now second in command. She felt she had been taking care of millions of tiny people more than the Prime Minister was. She always thought he was incompetent, though part of her orders was to act as his daughter in public and be his maid in private.
///
Kirumi had been given the most exquisite gender-confirming surgery in America years ago from a wealthier family. She was thankful for it, but she now had to layer up to cover her chest when in disguise. Her heavy rifle (she had been used to a close-ranged pistol)- in addition to the bulky outfit- made her stance clumsy. The wet summer heat gave her hands a slow drawl to them and melted her makeup. Her reflexes had softened while she was performing her maidly duties and helping the Prime Minister with campaigning for months.
She had been in a large field to kill a press woman who had been looking too deep into her ‘father’. When she saw the woman exit her truck, she aimed.
BANG
The bullet grazed her head. She had been too clumsy. She was chased, questioned, and found guilty by police days later. It wouldn’t have been too troubling had she not been crowded by cameras the weeks before and had her makeup not melted. But it was too late:
She was a dead ringer for the Prime Minister’s teenage daughter.
\\\
While in custody she was at least permitted to see where she would be going: a place for important, talented people. Her cover work as a maid who fulfilled any request was enough to make her qualify. She wondered if the Prime Minister leased her punishment to save face. She figured she’d never see him again after this. She ached that the organization might not take her back after being in the face of the public.
This was supposed to be her last stop, at the second-highest.
She flipped through the pages.
Gifted Inmates Academy, only a few selected people who just happened to make a ‘little’ mistake were admitted. Their talents were often considered to be too valuable to put in a regular state facilitated prison. Kirumi wondered if she was even talented, or if she had mistaken herself. She knows how many strings were pulled for her.
She looked at the list of fellow inmates- a group of thirteen other convicts- and two particularly talented prodigies serving the law. One was in an internship as a law enforcement agent: Shuichi Saihara.
The other was Ryoma Hoshi, an ex-convict serving parole by helping misguided souls. She thinks she recognizes his name from T.V.
Kirumi flips the page and sees the name Maki Harukawa. She remembers a girl from the orphanage who had the same first name, the one who she left behind when she was “adopted”.
Maki is a common Japanese first name, so she doesn’t think too hard about it. A guard calls for her to wrap up her downtime.
Kirumi sits in the back of a van with a few other people, all going to different prisons.
She’s given a sedative and blindfolded so that she doesn’t know where she’s going. She curses herself; her training allowed her to accurately guess the number of miles traveled and keep track of right turns and left turns. She knew what cities neighbored what and people to go to if she ever escaped. Kirumi doesn’t have the privilege now, she supposes, she made the mistake of being too careless. She falls asleep a few minutes after and her dreams swirl in and out...in and out...in and out.
She sees only colors in her dreams. Muffled noises from outside her head cause them to glow brighter. There are long periods where she just dreams of the dark. Her conscious bleeds in and out, though she cannot bring herself to wake up.
She prays this ride won’t be too long.
///
She’s in an empty classroom. Her body feels older, somehow. Her bones creak after her long sleep and she wets her dry lips with her tongue, blinking her eyes open.
The classroom is ill-kept. Vines and foliage grow on the cracked walls. There are leaky ceilings and puddles on the floor that have moss growing in them. Maybe if she cleans up the place she’ll get more privileges, she thinks, before she hears metal scraping from the lockers.
She looks down to see if she has her weapon Hollister and notices her maid uniform. Weird. She wouldn’t lie and say she didn’t feel a little violated if someone asks her. Regardless, she does not have any tools to protect her, so she readies her stance and prepares for the worst as a locker’s door dents from someone banging their body against it.
“Aaaa… AAAAAAAHHHH….” a clunk of metal with a pubescent voice falls out of the locker.
“Owww….. Owww…. Oh, my clothes are scratched now….”
Kirumi decides that the voice is more robotic than pubescent. ‘Probably looking at a robot’, she finally accepts, feeling a bit dumb.
“Do you need any help?” she asked, lowering her guard.
“OHHH…. Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to cause a scene. I was just spooked by the cramped space, I tried opening the door but there’s no handle from the inside. Sorry, again...” His aluminum eyelids shut and the light on his collar shows buffering symbols.
“...”
“OH! My apologies,” His eyes light up, “I forgot to introduce myself. My name is K-1-B-0, though my dad just calls me Kiibo, you can call me that too if you wish!!! If you need my robotic assistance ever just let me know!” He bows with his hands to his side.
Kirumi thinks it would be appropriate to hold out her hand for a handshake, but she wonders if this robot even knows how to do that. She nods her head and bows at the knees before she speaks,
“Kirumi Tojo. There is a leak in this ceiling, and if you are wired, we might want to move you away from this room.”
Kiibo’s head rotates and whirs to look at a nearby puddle, “Oh yes! That sounds like a good idea, thank you for your consideration Miss Tojo.” He holds up his hand to his chin as if in thought. “We should also see if there are other people!”
“I was just about to suggest the same thing. Are you here to serve a sentence as well?”
“Uhhh… I’m not sure what you mean. This looks like a classroom. I don’t think this is a prison.”
Kirumi wonders if the robot knows it’s a convict. She did see his more simple name on the convict list she was given.
“Were you at any point made aware that you would be here?”
“No, I don’t think so. The last thing I remember was operating surgery on a stranger and then I think dad turned my power off.”
‘Faulty medical practice…’, Kirumi thinks.
“Well, I don’t think that’s important right now. When you get a chance to phone your father maybe ask him about his liability to you as your creator.”
Kirumi dusts her skirt and holds the door open for Kiibo before exiting to an equally wet and worn hallway. Kiibo seems to know to avoid wet spots- she’ll make sure to mop for his sake later. To the left of the hallway she sees a group of three in conversation:
A monstrously tall man with tangled green hair, ‘no shoes’ she notes, a short girl with red hair wearing a witch hat, and a tall skinny person wearing a facemask and medical bandages. The skinny one makes eye contact with her while still facing the rest. Their posture is weirdly snake-like. Kirumi makes sure to keep her posture confident, head level, and appear capable as she walks towards them.
“Gonta doesn’t understand, why would we need to think to defend ourselves. We should have the best faith in people.”
“Nmmmm… well Gonta should still think to be self-preserving. I guess you don’t have to think to defend yourself since you have such big muscles… maybe people are too scared to fight you.”
“No one should be scared of Gonta, Gonta nice person! Are you scared of Gonta? Please say no…”
“Ehhh you remind me of a bear… a big teddy bear… I’m not scared of you! My magic makes up for my small body.”
“It’s likely that monster still lurks nearby… this hardship gnaws at me, but it does seem we have visitors, Yumeno and Gokuhara… Why don’t we let them in on our dilemma?”
Gokuhara and Yumeno look to where Korekiyo is facing, and Kirumi stops herself at a comfortable distance, Kiibo hiding behind her.
“Ehh? Oh those guys, I saw the lady sleeping in the room earlier while peeking through windows.”
“And you did not bother to wake her, how rude Yumeno… If you’ll forgive our dear friend’s inconsideracy-”
“Hey…”
“... If you’ll forgive our dear friend’s inconsideracy and let us let you in on our dilemma- my name is Korekiyo Shinguji by the way, that is Gonta Gokuhara, and that is Himiko Yumeno. I see a beautifully odd person behind yourself as well. Anyways…”
Kirumi raises her brow, Korekiyo worries theirs.
“My apologies... I seem to be all over the place, and you are so...delightfully intimidating… it beseeches myself to soak in your presence.” Kirumi notes the flattery and chooses to ignore it.
“...May you please tell me what your problem is so I can help you, I overheard you mention a monster lurking nearby.”
“Yes! A giant, mechanical animal chased us. Gokuhara made footprints out of the water towards the gym and crept back over here to confuse it on our whereabouts; he’s actually quite clever despite his manner of speech… I find it intriguing… but, regardless, we fear to turn the corner lest it hears us, and we fear of potential prison guards becoming hostile, since we are roaming free from where we awoke.”
“I don’t fear prison guards... I don’t even know why I’m locked up, to be honest, it’s pretty stupid and petty and unfair.” pouts Himiko.
“Your name was on the list of residents I was given underneath a tab of convicts, so you are here for a reason, Yumeno.” Everyone looks at her.
“Mneh….”
“I think a solution to your dilemma would be to find more people. There are a total of sixteen people who are staying here, and right now we have five. We might be able to disarm what you saw with more gifted people.”
“Yes that sounds lovely, now if we-”
Tap Tap Tap
They all look towards a loudspeaker they hadn’t noticed.
A lilted, cutesy voice sounds from the speakers. “Goodness, is this thing on? Can you all hear meeee? Testing testing! Here goes… All CRIMINALS…..ahem. Please make your way towards the gymnasium, I have an important announcement for you all!”
“Surely that trap… Monster went into gym moments ago.” Gonta adjusts his glasses and Himiko coughs.
“It might be worth going anyways, I think the abilities my dad gave me might be able to disarm the monster in time if we need.” Kiibo shuffles away from Kirumi and stands proudly.
They all agree to enter the gym carefully with a nod, sure enough, four of the large mechanical animals are in the gym, however, they all seem to be disarmed.
Eleven more colorful people turn their attention to the noise of a door opening.
A plush bear perks up over a podium,
“That seems to be everyone! Now then… same old dance and song…”