"Gentlemen! Happy New Year!" the Warden shouted, looking down at all the prisoners who were gathered in the giant stadium.
"Something's starting all of a sudden," Jyugo dryly muttered, looking unimpressed.
"A party?" Nico asked.
"The warden is a woman?!" Uno bursted out into a blush.
Rock blushed as well, looking up at her. "She's beautiful."
Akiri's eyes gleamed when her eyes locked onto the blue haired woman, forgetting about wanting to beat up the crowd surrounding her and fighting Hajime who forced her to line up with the others. "Hn. Top dog."
"Let's get down to business. To celebrate New Year's, we will now begin Nanba Prison's traditional event. Our New Year's Tournament will now begin!" she declared, looking cool.
"New Year's Tournament?" Jyugo repeated, confused.
Akiri smirked, a glint in her eyes. "Hn." 'It's finally time... I'll have to meet up with them here now during this tournament in between the games.'
Kenshirou appeared beside the Warden, looking professional. "I will now announce the participants from each building for the New Year's Tournament," he said, holding clipped files in his hand.
"What does he mean by participants?"
"The New Year's Tournament is an annual event where inmates and officers cooperate," Hajime explained.
"A prize is given to the winning building and its guards," Seitarou added.
"In our case, we get a bonus, while each inmate will receive any item they want." Yamato dropped the unexpected bomb, making the four inmates of Cell 13 more interested. Akiri was also interested but didn't show it. She knew that participating and winning this event would be very useful for her mission.
"What?!" the four said in unison before turning to a certain guard. "Hajime! Let us participate!"
"Oh, crap! We shouldn't have told them!" Hajime cursed, a shadow over his face.
Seitarou smiled. "B-But the Warden gets to choose the participants."
"Next, Building 13 will be represented by Cell 13," Kenshirou said, making the guards' quiet, depressing line behind them.
Akiri nodded, crossing her arms. "Hn."
"WHY?!" they cried out in despair.
The Warden smirked, looking down at Hajime. 'I've abused my powers again.'
She didn't even look the tiniest but guilty. Love does things to people, blinding them of their actions.
Akiri sat down next to Hajime and Jyugo sat on her other side, followed by Nico, Uno, and Rock. The raven head was emitting an aura full of anger. She wanted to get out of the crowd and hang out in the halls where it was quiet, but Hajime forced her to stay seated with them, in the crowded stadium. Jyugo gulped as he could feel the coldness coming from her. Her arms were crossed and her black hair was covering her eyes, shadowing her expression. But, it wasn't hard at all to say that she was pissed. The aura seemed to get darker and larger, making some of the inmates who were sitting behind them to scurry away from the ticking time bomb.
"Yo, Hajime," a voice said and they turned over to see who approached them. "To think Cell 13 is representing Building 13..." They saw Samon, who was carrying his staff over his shoulder. "What an unfortunate way to start the new year, huh?" Lighting appeared between the two guards as they glared at each other. "Building 5 will win this year." The lighting sparked more. "After all, Cell 8 is representing us."
"I don't care about winning," Hajime replied, a competitive smirk on his face. "But I won't tolerate losing to you."
"My goodness." another voice joined in. "You two always get into it the moment you see each other. How unsightly," Kiji said, a hand on his cheek. "You're going to sully my Cell 6."
"What did you say? You stink of perfume!" Samon retorted.
Kiki threatened him. "Oh? Would you like me to close up your nose with cement, then?"
"Don't make threatening comments to your opponents, Monkey, Kiji. It's disgraceful," Kenshirou joined in.
"Stop being so conceited, you damn dog!" Samon snapped.
"There's only one inmate in Building 4, Cell 10, right?" Kiji questioned, looking at him. "Are you taking your anger out on us because you can't win?"
Kenshirou's one good eye narrowed. "You two are not my enemies."
"A monkey, a pheasant, and a dog," Rock commented carelessly.
"It's like Momotaro!" Nico exclaimed with a smile.
"They're all just henchmen," Jyugo insulted.
"Who are you calling henchmen?!" Kiji and Samon angrily shouted, glaring at Jyugo who hid behind Akiri. A tick mark appeared on her head as the aura around her worsened.
"...Dotards..." she growled under her breath quietly, but no one seemed to have heard her.
"Happy New Year, you ****s! The New Year's Tournament is about to start, yo! I, Mitsuru, will be the play-by-play commentator, yo! Which building will win the prize by advancing through the five competition events?! Inmates! Guards! Please cooperate with one another today to become the champions, yo!"
Yamato laughed loudly after Mitsuru's extremely loud statement. Hajime covered his ears with both hands and another tick mark appeared on Akiri's head. Her patience was this close to snap. Loud noises, crowds... They were lucky that Akiri had more patience than Kyoya or else she would have snapped and started attacking everyone already.
"Hahaha! Mitsuru-dono is as energetic as ever!" Yamato yelled.
"He's too energetic. He's hurting my ears," Hajime grumbled.
"The first event is kakizome!" Mitsuru announced. "The theme is 'Happy New Year'! The participant with the most beautiful and artistic penmanship is the winner!"
Akiri turned to Hajime. "Hn. I will only participate in the first event. Once I do you will give me permission to roam the halls and not be in the crowd."
Hajime looked at the girl, internally cursing. 'Dammit! She's the only competitant one from these fools that I know won't cause me trouble and can actually make us win!' "You'll participate in the first and last event," Hajime said and Akiri narrowed her eyes. "I'll let you stay out of the crowd until the last event."
"...Deal." They shook hands, both internally smirking before they started to get to work.
Rock, Uno, and Nico shook, sweat rolling down their bodies. "Th-There's no way we can write that!"
"No, wait! We have him!" Uno said, sounding assured.
"That's right!" Nico piped up, relieved.
Rock pumped his fist, a light surrounding him. "He's Japanese, so he should be good!" he replied, sounding confident.
Jyugo opened his closed eye, revealing his green iris. Picking up the brush, he closed his eyes once again as he went to work, ink swirling around. Nico, Uno, and Rock all gasped, looking in awe as Jyugo once again opened his heterochromia eyes, a passionate expression on his face. The wind blew as he positioned his ink covered brush above the paper before swiping against it, making ink strokes.
He then removed his brush from the paper, holding it above his head with his hands in the air as he was on his knees. The three looked at the kanji written against the paper, it was sloppy, uneven, and a complete utter mess.
Jyugo let out a sharp wail as he placed his hands on the ground, dropping the brush as depressing lines appeared above his head. "YOU SUCK!" the three angrily shouted at him.
They surrounded Jyugo as he was still on his hands and knees, sulking. "How could I forget?" Uno sighed. "The only thing Jyugo is good at is breaking out of jail."
"Yeah, it's our fault for expecting more of him," Rock responded.
Nico sadly whimpered. "Sorry for asking too much of you, Jyugo-kun."
"You guys are relentless." Jyugo despairingly cried.
"Hang on!" Uno shouted, his head snapping up. "At this rate, we won't get past the first event!"
"Eh?" Seitarou tilted his head. "Don't worry." They then looked to where he was pointing at.
There, standing next to each other with an arm behind their back while they held up their professionally and artistically, neatly written kakizome, was Hajime, Yamato, and Akiri. They seemed to shine brightly with golden sparkles around them.
"Wow! Once again, Building 13 shows us how it's done!" Mitsuru announced.
"They're damn good!" Jyugo yelled in disbelief.
"What the hell?" Uno breathed out, just as shocked.
"They both have master's teaching licenses in calligraphy," Seitarou explained.
"Seriously?!" Rock screamed as Uno and Jyugo turned towards the blue haired guard. "Then what about Hibari?"
"It must be because she's Japanese right?" Uno theroized.
"But Jyugo-kun is Japanese and he's no good!" Nico dissed and Jyugo felt an arrow pierce through his heart.
"Well Jyugo is no good," Rock replied and another arrow seemed to pierce the already down inmate. "Hibari is strong and we don't know much about her... But could she actually be a smart person?!"
Seitarou shyly scratched his cheek as the three looked at him. He did his best to ignore the still sulking and emotionally ego damaged Jyugo. "A-Ah... Well apparently Hibari-san speaks seven languages..."
"SEVEN LANGUAGES?!"
Uno was going to open his mouth, but Mitsuru interrupted with his loud voice over the mic. "Building 13 wins with the highest score!"
The Warden stared down at the posing Yamato, Akiri, and Hajime, her gaze zooming in on Hajime's kakizome. A pink aura seemed to fill her vision as she fantasized her name, Hyakushiki Momoko, written on the paper. 'Ahh... If only I could have Sugoroku Hajime write my name!' She sighed, shaking her head. 'No, I can't abuse my power more than I already have.'
Akiri, who was observing the warden because she felt her gaze directed at them, lifted a brow. Noticing how the Warden was acting even though she hid it extremely well. It made Akiri question some things about the top dog of this prison. 'That gaze with burning passion... Is she in love with Bald-Dotard?'
If it were anyone else, they would have laughed at the thought of the Warden being in love with Hajime. But, the black haired girl knew better than anyone to trust her gut feeling and a women's institution. Besides, she had once held that burning passion in her own eyes for a certain man and even today, she still does.
"I wonder what the next event is?" Nico wondered aloud.
"Kite flying?"
"The second event is... Mochi Pounding Daruma Drop!" Mitsuru publicized as giant mochi pounding daruma drops fell from the sky.
"Which is?!" Nico and Rock replied.
"It's huge. I guess they intend to enjoy New Year's to the fullest," Uno muttered.
Akiri blinked. '...This stupid un-normalness reminds me of home...'
"How do you even make mochi in those?" Jyugo sweatdropped.
"This event requires power and stamina! If you complete your mochi, you win! But if the daruma collapses, you lose! Just pound the mochi and drop the daruma! The rules are easy! The first stage is Building 5, Cell 8 versus Building 13, Cell 13! Do your best and make the best tasting mochi, you punks! Pound! Pound! Pound!"
"So it'll be cell versus cell from here on out?" Uno asked.
"It's not exactly a tournament system, but yes."
"So, who's teaming up with me?" Yamato asked, carrying two giant wooden hammers.
"You're gonna participate, Yamato-chan?"
"I guess if it requires power, it should either be Hajime or Yamato," Jyugo stated.
"You want to enter, #15-kun?" Yamato asked and handed him the hammer. Jyugo grabbed it and immediately fell backwards. Seitarou and Uno shield
"What the... It's too damn heavy!" he grunted and Yamato laughed. Akiri walked up to Jyugo and took the pounder from his grasp, carrying it with a single hand with ease. He stared at the girl with a conflicting expression. "Geh."
"You need more training!" Yamato continued to laugh, swinging the other pounder in his hand above his head before balancing it on a single finger. "Just look at #0-chan!"
"Are you a monster?!" Jyugo shouted, getting up. Rock walked up to Akiri, his eyes on the hammer. Noticing, the girl handed it over to him without complaint.
He held it over his head with one hand. "It's not that heavy," Rock said and balanced it on his forehead.
"That's Rock for you."
"Alright, #69. You go," Hajime said.
"Eh?! Seriously?!" Rock yelled. "Why not Hibari?!"
Hajime sighed, massaging his forehead with his thumb. "Number 0 decided to only enter the first and last event... Besides..." He looked over at the girl who was about to crack as she stared at the crowd forming in the stadium bleachers. "She's going to kill someone unless she gets out of this crowd right now."
They gulped. 'H-He's right.'
"Number 0, you can go cool off in the halls or in the infirmary."
"Hn." Akiri started to walk away, but then stopped as she was about to pass Rock. Rock looked down at her with curiosity while she looked up at him from the corner of her eye. "Don't lose Food-Dotard."
Rock blushed slightly, beaming. "Right!"
Whilst the event was beginning to start and the competitors were preparing, Akiri walked around the silent and crowdless hallway. She let out a small sigh of relief now that she was no longer in a noisy crowd. If this were back when she was 13 then there would be bloodied bodies everywhere. Walking past the infirmary and into an empty dead-end hallway, she stood in place, waiting for the person she was supposed to meet during this event.
Feeling a familiar presence and seeing the dark indigo colored mist appear around her legs and surround the hallway, Akiri turned around to see that the entrance of the dead end was closed off.
"Hn. It's been a while."
His smirk got bigger when the nineteen year old girl saw him.
"Kufufufu. It's nice to see you Aki~"
Grey eyes clashed with heterochromia blue and red eyes.
"You as well, Mukuro."
A/N : Tournament arc pog. Honestly, the entire tournament in this show was super good and funny.
Also, finally! We finally got a KHR to appear in the story. Mukuro has appeared and we will finally learn about Akiri's mission at Nanba Prison!
Question! If you could choose what type of flame(s) you had flame(s) and why? If we are just sticking to the canon manga and anime, and not the KHR games, then I'd say I would want the cloud and sun flames. The sun because it can heal others and it would be useful to help myself and my clumsy ass friends, and the cloud because it duplicates items which would also extremely useful in my daily life. Mist would also be useful but I feel like I'd abuse it lol. I wouldn't choose sky flames because it seems like it's too much responsibility and I feel that I'm not the right type of person for sky flames.