…
…What a terrible headache…
That was the first thought that occurred to me after I woke up. The pain was almost unbearable. I had to take several deep sighs for it to go away. Only after that did I open my eyes.
And looked around.
I found myself lying on a dirty mattress, right on the floor. Above, just below the ceiling, there was a lightbulb hanging on a tiny wire. The walls of the room were simple and white…
I slowly turned my head to the right and saw a girl there… It was Murakami. She was sitting nearby and playing with her phone. However, soon she noticed me waking up, put it down, and smiled:
"Good morning."
I tried to stand up, winced from the pain, and asked:
"What happened? Where are we?"
"Not much. Remember that white house on the edge?"
"What house… You mean the trailer?"
"Yep, that one."
So we are inside Mishima's headquarters… I sighed and asked:
"Are we the prisoners now?"
That would mean that it is time for an 'Escape ark'.
"Nah. She actually invited us. Said that you can rest here before waking up."
"Invited?.." I frowned, looked out into the dark window, and then, after blinking for some time, asked Murakami about what happened after I lost consciousness.
The girl smiled and started explaining to me the sequence of events.
Turns out, Mishima did not order her gang to tie us up after beating me. Instead of that, after a moment of hesitation, she proclaimed that she was the one to loss the duel. She didn't actually ask her friend to help her cheat - the girl did it on her own. And so, feeling sorry, Mishima even proposed to give me some space to rest before I wake up.
All of it happened half an hour ago.
While Murakami was telling me that stuff, I suddenly remembered my battle against Mishima. The ending of it was… Let's just say that it was very unfair.
However, thinking about it now, it's quite a common trope that the Main Character is forbidden to punch women. No matter what. It annoyed me to no end in my childhood when I was watching one famous old anime… Ha.
By the way, there was one more moment from that battle that I could clearly remember.
When the short girl used the slingshot, Murakami blocked it for me. What's more, I saw her blocking it with her head. Had she been injured? I looked at the girl with worry in my eyes and finally saw a cut just below her right eyes. Murakami saw me looking there, smiled, and said:
"Just a scratch, I'm okay!"
To prove that it wasn't a serious injury, she put her finger on it… And winced.
"Maybe a little bit painful!.."
I saw a drop of red blood appear in the cut. Murakami tried to wipe it, but only managed to smear it all over her white face.
Suddenly, I felt very annoyed.
"Don't move," I said to the girl, sat up, and wiped the blood from her face with the sleeve of my shirt. After that, I looked at her cut to see how deep it was.
Murakami was sitting still while I was doing that. However, her breath became unsteady. Suddenly I noticed, that our faces were very close to each other, there were just a few centimetres between us.
I put my head away and, after a moment of silent awkwardness, changed the subject:
"So, what happened to Shirogane?"
"Oh, he was set free. He's waiting with Yuki-chan outside."
"…Yuki-chan?"
"What a cutie she is!"
"Yeah… Yeah, she is," I nodded to Murakami's smile, stood up, and walked through the door.
The room on the other side was much cleaner. In a way, you could even call it comfortable. There was a couch in the middle of it, and an old, but working TV in front of it.
I looked around, and a few moments later, a girl entered the room from another door. It was Mishima.
She was not wearing her coat anymore, only shorts and black t-shirt. There was a gap between them, and you could see her white belly.
"Woke up already?" asked the girl in a calm, but a little bit tense voice. I nodded. Then, I looked at her face and frowned. Mishima's nose was red and broken…
Mishima saw that I noticed her injury and shifted her gaze at Murakami:
"She did me." said the girl in a calm voice. "Jumped on me like a tigress after I finished you."
"Maybe I did," awkwardly said Murakami, while avoiding my gaze and scratching the back of her head.
"Either way," Mishima sighed and, after clicking her tongue, looked straight into my eyes.
"You won. I didn't ask Ringo to help me, she did on her own and she will be punished for that, got it?"
"Yes… That guy, Shirogane I mean, is also free?"
"That was the promise. You can take him away."
"Thanks… By the way," I wasn't sure why, but I felt that I needed to make it clear:
"Killing can get you in deep troubles, so next time be more lenient with your traitors."
"Killing?" Mishima frowned.
"What are talking about. We don't kill anyone."
"…But you were going to execute him."
"Yes, it's called Pride execution, every gang in the city does that. We were going to shower him with rotten eggs and let him go,'" said the girl as if it was obvious.
…
…What?
…