Iacta Alea Est

[carduinal-cyn]

((Sho Tsukioka continued from fall for you.))

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

The gunshot. The stench of vomit. Blood everywhere. Everyone was screaming.

A man lay dead at the Kiriyama Family's feet. Hiroshi had fired — knew it again, Sho thought with disdain — and all 180 centimeters of poor old Yoshio "Debu" Akamatsu collapsed in a pool of red. A terrible shame. Sho knew his friends were a rambunctious lot, prone to singling Akamatsu out for innocent little things like playing video games, being too quiet and unmanly. They were like hungry sharks, drawn to weakness. Sho kept his barbs light around Akamatsu, for there was only so much damage a man's pride could take in one day. They used to say all that bullying would be the end of Akamatsu someday. Sho's heart ached as he realized those people were right beyond their wildest of fears.

He stayed out of sight, listening to the argument as it meandered along. Ryuhei and Hiroshi deserved the tongue-lashing they got, that's for certain. They'd killed an innocent man. Small wonder Kazuo had left this circus behind.

The idea of a secure location, at least, seemed smart. Sho would have concurred with the plan, were he not in hiding. He had already considered Shuya Nanahara as a force of stability to rein in Ryuhei and Hiroshi's impulses: calm, dependable, with a passionate and rebellious spirit that blazed beneath the surface. Cute, too. Nanahara had that boy-next-door charm. Just ask, well, pretty much any girl at Shiroiwa, and they'd probably agree with Sho on that. Now, if only someone could recruit Nanahara to the cause, he thought.

Just a little more listening. And then that someone will have to be me.

[Fiori]

Ryuhei turned to Hiroshi, tilting his head as he furrowed his brow. "Oh yeah, sure, I'll spend the rest of the Program with my head tilted up, that's not gonna be fuckin' inconvenient at all!" he'd joke, coming close to letting out a snort of laughter before stopping himself at the last second.

Of course, it helped that Hiroshi then brought the subject back to Akamatsu, Ryuhei wiping fresh blood from his face as he looked back at his body with a shrug in response to Hiroshi's suggestion. Personally, he wanted to get as far away from Akamatsu's stiff as he could, not really giving a damn about what nature had in store for the guy. But if they were going to insist on doing something about it, setting him alight at least sounded like it would be a lot less work than the alternatives.

For the moment though, he was more concerned about getting his schnoz fixed up, making his way over towards the barn doors to open them up and have a look inside. What he saw was... Well, if they were gonna start a farmstead they would be in heaven about now, but it wasn't exactly ideal for performing armature ad hoc surgery. But unless they wandered around looking for a house, they didn't exactly have much choice at the moment.

"Alright..." he'd sigh. "Let's get this shit over with" he'd say, marching on in with his head held high.

The next half hour or so was... Unpleasant, to say the least. The conditions were about as bad as they could really get, especially since the only available lighting were a couple floodlights they managed to find amongst all the equipment. Instead of a hospital bed he found himself laying across a hard wooden box, using his bag as a makeshift pillow. Instead of anaesthetic, he had to chew down on a trowel's handle, just man up and take it as Hiroshi and Mitsuru got to work. Still, even if they had the best equipment in the world he was still stuck with a pair of hapless goons instead of trained professionals, Mitsuru in particular being far rougher than any nurse he'd ever had the pleasure of seeing to him.

But after what felt like an eternity of thrashing, groaning and crying out every profanity in the book, they were done. Or at least, they'd done about as good a job as a bunch of untrained teenagers could be expected to do. Ryuhei's nose was red and swollen, covered in a small piece of white fabric tied back with a large plaster. It wasn't as stylish as the cool band-aid's you saw punks sporting in cartoons, but it was better than nothing, and though he didn't say a word of thanks he was silently grateful for his friends doing their best to help a brother out.

Which of course left them with the Akamatsu question, a hesitant look in his eyes as he glanced back out at the body laying on the ground outside. Was burning him really gonna be that easy? Like, do they just cover him in straw and start a fire, and hope that did the trick? Surely there had to be more to it than that, but more to the point did he really wanna spend that long figuring something else out? And what about Yoshio's collar, wouldn't a fire just set it...

At that point, a brief flash of inspiration caused him to stop in his tracks. 

"YOOOooooo, wait... Wait, I just thought of something" he'd say, quickly turning around to his brothers in arms. "We're gonna try and beat this thing, right? That means we're gonna have to figure out a way to pop these bad boys off without making our heads go kablooie, right?" he'd continue, gesturing towards his collar.

"Well, maybe this is an opportunity! We go out, find some poindexter motherfucker, bring him back here and WHABAM!" he'd exclaim, turning and pointing to Akamatsu's body. "We have ourselves a test subject! Gotta be better than tinkering with one that's already around our necks, right?" he'd say, looking ever so proud of himself. There were a lot of things he'd failed to consider, of course, but in that moment he felt like the smartest son of a bitch in the world.

[Sh4dE]

Maybe they would need some wood as well for Akamatsu's funeral. They could light furniture on fire. Everything burnt in camp fires, right?

Hiroshi began to carry some hay with his recently bloodied hands when Ryuhei suggested something.

That...was a surprisingly smart suggestion coming from Ryuhei of all people. Hiroshi was impressed. He smiled at the boy with the patch he had co-performed "surgery" on.

"That sounds like a plan. We can get like Shinji, Yukie, Motobuchi, Satomi or some other science nerd. We have to make sure that they won't be able to attack us, though."

They already had weapons for intimidation purposes but he didn't want to shoot anybody again in case they decide to resist. Hiroshi dropped the hay and went around looking for some kind of rope.

[ItzToxie]

Fuck… What have I done?

Mitsuru tried to keep these dopes out of trouble, he tried to get them to just fucking get the gravity of this shit. Instead they’ve gone from starting fights to talking about kidnapping people to experimenting on Akamatsu.

The worst part was they started agreeing with each other, and Mitsuru knew anything he said would go on deaf ears. He wished the boss was here right now, he’d shut that shit down right away.

Mitsuru pinched his brow.

“Alright… you all go find whatever you need, I’m gonna wait outside and scout…” Take a breather and try to warn people to stay away, there’s a bunch a psychotic chimps chilling in the barn.

[Fiori]

Ryuhei spread his arms out and made a face that said "What?" in response to Mitsuru, watching as he made his way outside and left him and Hiroshi alone in the barn. Just as he thought they were all finally getting on the same page, Mitsuru was still treating them like a pair of idiots, the dismayed look on the guy's face saying all that needed to be said. The hell was wrong with his suggestion? Hiroshi got it, they had to make use of what they had on hand, make the most of the clusterfuck that had happened and spin it into something positive. 

He'd spit on the ground and give the door the finger, turning back and following Hiroshi deeper into the barn to start rummaging through the various bits of equipment on hand. Mostly just your usual assortment of farming tools, nothing too useful from the look of things. Bastards probably took all the good shit when they cleared out the island, but who knows, maybe the farmer had a hidden beer stash or something they missed. Still, with Mitsuru outside it did give him an opportunity to talk to Hiroshi one-to-one...

"Can you believe this guy?" he'd say, uncharacteristically quiet to make sure Mitsuru didn't overhear them. "Still judging us, like we're a coupla clowns? Jackass..."

He'd pick up a plastic bottle of something, have a quick read of the label and give it a shake, before tossing it over his head. Truth be told he wasn't really paying attention to what he was looking at, or even looking for anything specific to begin with.

"Like, has he forgotten who we are? We're the Kiriyama Family! We should be kicking ass and taking names! The Boss wouldn't have fuckin' chewed us out for what happened to mantits out there, he'd of known that we did what we had to do to!" 

He would stop for a moment to open up a cupboard, giving a halfhearted glance at it's contents. Sure enough, there were some things that one could maybe constitute for weapons: Shovels, rakes, that sort of thing. Nothing that really seemed worth lugging around with them though, Ryuhei quickly returning his attention back to his comrade.

"We gotta prove to people that we mean business! That if you screw with one of us, you screw with all of us!" he'd continue, sitting back against a box with his hands in his pockets, glancing idly at the door again before looking back at Hiroshi. "You're with me on this, right? Like, if someone disrespects you, treats you like some nobody you gotta fuckin' put them in their place, right?"

[carduinal-cyn]

This was getting too much to bear. An escape attempt would likely prove fatal, but that at least might save everyone if the Kiriyama Family could actually pull it off. Now they were insulting Akamatsu again. They'd shot him dead, and they were still calling him man-tits. Sho felt bitter disgust rumbling to the surface. Enough hiding. He was going to set the record straight.

"That doesn't mean putting them in a body bag, Ryuhei," Sho retorted, cutting the silence. He stepped out into the open, displeased. His nose was wrinkled like a pug's, and he kept one hand on the jitte protruding from his pants pocket. "Mitsuru's right to be a little upset, don't you think?" His face softened, but only a little. That was all the reprimanding they needed. Any more and the Family might splinter further, the way things were going. Kazuo was long-gone, and Mitsuru and Sho each had a bone to pick with Ryuhei and Hiroshi. Who knew the looming threat of death was the only way to understand who your true friends were?

"Your other ideas were better. The collars, the secure area." A little smug, but really, it was the last of the anger Sho could muster. He was more disappointed than anything else. He felt a bit like a father watching his children misbehave. "But violence doesn't solve everything, you know. Not even for the Kiriyama Family. It doesn't hurt to keep a few allies at arm's length... not unless they're dying to get closer."

"What do you say to a little... recruitment, hmm?"

[Sh4dE]

Hiroshi listened to Ryuhei rant. Sometimes it helped just to listen and say nothing when he did it. Of course Hiroshi agreed with Ryuhei. Not to say Mitsuru was soft, but in comparison to hardcore Kiriyama's cold commands, Mitsuru's emotion-filled drills made him look like a pussy. Though to be fair, everybody looked like a pussy if compared to Kiriyama. Kiriyama would've handled Akamatsu's death better for sure. Mitsuru's emotionality was a good thing usually, but a little more calm rationale would be more fitting for this situation. Sometimes it feels like Kiriyama's presence and calmness was spreading to them as well and that they could use the Boss as like a fountain of focus. Not always - he still was scary most of the time, but since meeting Kazuo Hiroshi learned how to control himself better. Same as Kiriyama's coolness, Mitsuru's emotionality seemed to be contagious. Ryuhei was acting upset already and Hiroshi also could sense himself feeling more anxious and nervous, though he still tried to hide his own emotions.

While Hiroshi also wished Kiriyama would be leading this situation instead of Mitsuru, that was no reason for Hiroshi to shittalk Mitsuru like Ryuhei did. He had to show respect to Mitsuru. He still was their boss until Kiriyama returned and you had to know the hierarchy. Speaking of hierarchy, out of the shadows the bottom appeared, late and smug. Siding with Mitsuru, believing that everyone would be willing to coorporate with them for an escape attempt. Sho already forgot how selfish and arrogant some of their classmates acted back in school, like that frog-looking dude. And Motobuchi wasn't unselfish either, but they needed his brain if they wanted this to work.

"Have you seen mantits, Sho? He went nuts. And he won't be the only one. Ryuhei's right, if someone disrespects us we gotta show them their place. That doesn't mean putting them in a body bag, that won't help us. We gotta beat the crap out of the violent ones until they become peaceful. Heck, if Ryuhei had managed to beat doofus to a pulp, he'd still be alive!"

Akamatsu didn't know his place. He tried being a bigger man than he was and look where that lead to. Hiroshi showed a piece of rope he found in the barn to the others.

"I trust you guys, but I don't trust any of them others. Recruitment won't help. They'll most likely be backstabbing us when we least expect it and try win this program alone."

[ItzToxie]

Mitsuru took his time to get his head screwed back on while Sho materialized inside the barn. Recruiting, testing the collars. It was smart, and they had a ‘risk free’ opportunity with Akamatsu now. Made Mitsuru sick, but they needed to do this, if they could get these damn collars off, it would be worth it. It wouldn’t be in vain, right?

“Grrr- FUCK!”

Mitsuru stood up, kicked the dirt. Okay. He stepped back inside the barn. Time to take charge until the Boss returns. “Alright, we make ourselves a base, then we find someone to help us out of this shit.”

He stared daggers at Ryuhei.

“But we don’t act stupid about it. No rushing off on your own, no starting risky shit you can’t get yourself out of without us. We can’t change this shit right here.” He waved his arm at Akamatsu. “But we can make sure it don’t happen again, especially when it don’t need to. Y’all want a real fight?”

Mitsuru did a light tug on his own collar for emphasis.

“You got them right here. These are our enemies, not some damned geeks who couldn’t fight their own sticky fucking body pillows.”

[Fiori]

Ryuhei leapt right the fuck out of his skin, his hand instinctively fumbling for the gun handle tucked into his belt as he turned to see it was an all-too familiar face. "Gah! Jesus fuckin' shit Sho, could you knock next time or something?!?"

He was looking particularly flustered on account of the fact that he hadn't intended any of what he said to be heard by anyone other than himself and Hiroshi, trying to keep quiet and waiting until Mitsuru was well out of earshot. Course, knowing what Sho was like, he really should have known better than assume that conversation was a private one. He always prowling at the side-lines just out of view, combing his hair or something whilst waiting to make his grand entrance, somehow always showing up at either the best or worst possible time. The fact that he came in repeating the same rhetoric as Mitsuru didn't help, talking down to him like he was an idiot, that smug fucking expression making him hesitate to move his hand back away from his gun as the corner of his lip curled into a snarl.

Thankfully, it seemed he was right about him and Hiroshi being on the same page, calming down significantly as his fellow gang member backed him up. He always knew he could rely on Hiro, after all the two were much closer than anyone else in the gang, in part because they both more or less fulfilled the same niche: Kiriyama was the boss, Mitsuru the second in command, Sho the eccentric wildcard and the two of them were the muscle. Sure, they were arguably at the bottom of the pack, but at the end of the day they were the ones who got shit done. And out of all the gang, he trusted Hiroshi more than anyone else to have his back.

Only question was how far he was willing to take that trust further down the line, but that was a thought for another time, away from prying eyes and curious ears. Right now, he needed to play it cool, get his head back into the game.

"Exactly, that's what I'm on about!" he'd reply, sighing as he took his hands out his pockets and raised them up. "Look, I just... I'm just blowing off some steam, alright? I just watched man.. Watched fucking 'matsu get shot right in the back, right before he was gonna try and do me in himself, so forgive me if I'm a little antsy right now!" he'd say, a slight stutter as he replayed that scene over in his head, gritting his teeth as he tried to blot it out.

Fortunately, Mitsuru returned to distract him from thinking about the dead body outside, staring rusty daggers right on back as his glare bore right into the other boy's soul. He'd let him say his piece without further complaint, simply taking a deep breath before getting up from where he'd been leaning back. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get our shit together, bury or burn or whatever the fuck we're doing with him, and get the hell out of here."

He'd turn to Hiroshi briefly, giving him a knowing look. There were other things he wanted to say to him, but they could wait until they had a bit more privacy.

[carduinal-cyn]

The Kiriyama Family was splintering.

Sho could see it in Ryuhei's eyes: that spark of defiance. No respect, though he'd never say it to Mitsuru's face. He was already rationalizing the mess he'd gotten everyone into, and Hiroshi agreed with him. This could only mean danger going forward, Sho knew. Cooler heads prevailed, and none of them were. (Kazuo was long gone, after all.)

There were few candidates smart enough to help the gang out of their little predicament. Sure, Sho could search for Kazuo Kiriyama — as he likely should — but the more he thought about it, the deeper his distrust grew. It was clear to Sho that Kazuo Kiriyama was like a fragile glue holding the rest of the Family together. He was strong, smart, multitalented, charismatic, and above all, dangerous. Not a man to be crossed. Certainly not a man to ask for favors, not from a supposedly loyal subordinate.

Sho needed to play his cards right if he wanted to survive those two bumblers. Mitsuru was giving them his patented death-glare. They never noticed him slipping away into the darkness.

((Sho Tsukioka continued in Six White Horses.))

[Ohm]

His fingers danced on the handle of his automatic, his currently heightened sense of awareness let him know of the cramps that encompassed them. Not the hand with the rope though, that one was fine. That one hadn't taken a life yet.

Hiroshi stayed quiet for now. He had nothing to add while the two were having a staring contest like a pair of animals sizing each other up. He could remember seeing something like this before, but that was with knives and bats, not with some automatics in play.

Whatever. Deal with that later. Akamatsu was... dead. Now they had a body to burn, hopefully, he'd burn nice and good. Covered with hay and whatever else they'd find.

"Let's just get this over with." He started walking towards the body to set hay over him. See the blood that pooled out of hi- it. The look it had. He could not look at it for long and quickly moved his eyes over to Ryuhei, who was not a pretty sight either, but at least he wasn't dead.

He noticed the look Ryuhei gave him and returned in kind with a nod. The lowest rung on the ladder had to stick together and so far, Ryuhei was the one he could trust without Kiriyama here. They had a plan, the rope in his hand represented that plan and it was the closest to one they had without the boss here. Mitsuru could yap all he want, but that talk didn't matter.

Actions did.

And the sooner they could leave this body burning and the barn behind them, the better. Something to get rid of that reminder.

[[Hiroshi Kuronaga continued elsewhere...]]

[ItzToxie]

He glanced back down at Akamatsu- poor bastard- then back at Hiroshi and Ryuhei. This wasn't the end, Mitsuru wasn't bright, but he wasn't stupid. He had half a mind to put Ryuhei in his place once more for looking at him like that, but he had his doubts that he wouldn't draw his own gun into him, or Hiroshi for that matter. Fucking hell, Shifty Sho was more trustworthy at this point. He hoped The Boss would return soon, he hoped he had something in mind.

"Yeah, let's light him up then, better than leaving him to rot."

It's morbid dragging a body outside to burn it. Even if it was someone he didn't know, or hell, really like, this wasn't the way things were supposed to be. First was that he'd never understand the reason why our Benevolent Greater East Asia would do something like this to their own people, there was no reason. Delinquent problem, send them to military school or some shit. No, let's just skip to making them kill each other, for what? The grand prize of 'living?' They'd 'allow' you your own life. Benevolent... Mitsuru spit into the dirt next to him. His deadbeat dad wanted him to join the Navy. Yeah right, he'd hop off the boat, swim for it if he was forced into that shit, summary execution be damned. He'd do better in the Yakuza. Wasn't like someone like him to take shit from fuckers who didn't rate it. Yelled at by his parents because they were older, yelled at by teachers because they were older, yelled at by Petty Officers because they were older. He wasn't one for taking orders from people who wouldn't do the same, that's why he respected Kazuo. He earned respect.

Mitsuru watched Yoshio burn. Even with all of this happening, THIS situation should've never happened. He shouldn't be sitting here contemplating this, that he'd gotten through to someone, that they could've had an ally fight back against these bastards, that he promised he wouldn't fuck with him after that, that fucking Ryuhei's stupid ass turned him to a liar, that Akamatsu was dead because of the impulsive shit, that he had the audacity to argue and try to shift the blame, to avoid responsibility.

He sighed. It was supposed to be them against the game, he's supposed to trust them with his lives, and vice versa, he'd give it if he had to, but now he wasn't sure. He hated the idea he'd have to sleep with one eye open, in case Ryuhei decided to take command the only way his dumb ass knew how, and worse that Hiroshi would follow him. Sho was gone doing something, and the Boss? Boss had a plan, he'd grab them when he needed them. But when? He knew Kazuo knew what he was doing, but Mitsuru was anxious.

Would they make it that long for him to come back?


Mitsuru decided he'd sleep with his helmet on tonight, visor opened just a crack.


((Mitsuru Numai continued elsewhere.))

[Fiori]

Despite his earlier protests, Ryuhei would do his part in helping with Akamatsu's funeral, even if that part was mostly gathering hay together in tight bundles and passing them over to be placed on the body.

Whilst a part of him still wanted to make use of the opportunity to tamper with a collar without risking any of their own necks (literally), even he couldn't deny after taking another passing glance at Akamatsu's body that actually acting upon that idea was... Like, if he could barely look at the guy for five seconds without wanting to throw up, what the hell chance did any of the dorks they could rope into doing it for them have? No, better to just be done with it and move on. Out of sight, out of mind.

Truth be told, the longer he had to acknowledge that body even existed, the harder it was for him to keep the act up. To pretend that he couldn't still see the look on Yoshio's face right before he was shot in the back, that frightened expression seared into his memory like a tattoo on his soul. To ignore the part of him that wanted to fall to his knees and...

Burn the bastard. Son of a bitch had it coming, don't you ever forget it! Don't you fucking dare feel sorry him!

Unlike Mitsuru, he wouldn't watch Akamatsu burn. The smell alone was off-putting enough as it was, though not in the way that he expected it to be. He always assumed burning flesh would disgust him to his very core, instead all it did was remind him about how he could really do with some BBQ pork ribs right about now.

He would however look back at Hiroshi and return that nod, reassuring him that if push came to shove, he could always rely on him to have his back. Someone had to keep the spirit of the Kiriyama Family alive, and if Mitsuru was too soft to do what had to be done... Well, hopefully it wouldn't come to that once Kiriyama reunited with them, put the record straight and kick their asses into gear. The Family just didn't feel right without him there to call the shots.

Until then, all he could do was settle in somewhere quiet with one eye similarly open, hoping none of the others would see him curled up in a fetal position.

Don't forget who you are. Don't you ever fucking forget who you are, you pathetic son of a bitch. You are Ryuhei fucking Sasagawa, not some punkass loser who can't even look a dead man in the face! And you are going to make it off this island alive...

One way, or another.

((Ryuhei Sasagawa continued in Fast Times at Fort Kiriyama))