Ryu woke up in a dark cell, chained up. He could feel the cold, hard floor, covered in dust and a lot of rat feces. His face scrunched up from the smell. "Urgh..."
He looked around, and he could barely see. It looked underground, the only thing illuminating the whole place were 5 lanterns lined up on the ceiling along the way. He huffed and seemed disappointed. He looked around more carefully, and slowly... He saw a silhouette of a figure, sitting against the wall. It didn't move a single bit.
"Is he dead...?" He wondered.
Well, he ended up assuming that he was dead anyway.
"Rest in peace, random man..." He said, his voice was quite sad.
But then, unexpectedly, the voice of an old man spoke up loudly, "Who's resting in peace now?!" The dark figure moved suddenly.
"Eek!-" Ryu flinched back.
"S-sorry, mister, I thought you were dead..." Ryu sounded quite a bit ashamed.
The old man laughed and slapped his knee, "Kid, don't worry much about it."
Ryu smiled a bit, "Thank you..."
...
There was an awkward silence for a while until the old man spoke up, "So, what are you in for anyway?"
Ryu went silent, his heart felt heavy, remembering the blood on his fists, "I... I killed a man..." His face lost its warmth.
The old man saw Ryu's expression and nodded, his face obscured by the darkness of the place. He responded in a comforting tone, "I see..."
Ryu and the old men were silent for a while until the old man spoke up, "What's your name, kid?"
After hesitating for a moment, Ryu replied, "Ryu... Ryu."
The old man nodded, "Ryu, huh... You don't have a surname?"
Ryu shook his head, "I can't remember if I even have one. The old man replied, "I see."
Ryu asked him, "How about you, mister? Your name?"
The old man was silent. Ryu stuttered, "I-if you don't want to tell me, then that's fi-" His words were cut short when the old man responded, "Eiji... Eiji Yamamoto."
Ryu nodded, "Yamamoto..." He muttered under his breath.
Eiji's face was still obscured by the darkness.
Ryu asked Eiji curiously, "What are you in here for, Yamamoto-san?"
Eiji went silent for a while, his silhouette looked like pondering, and then he responded, "Robbery... Or something like that."
Ryu was even more curious.
"Well, I'm gonna take a nap now, Ryu-kun, so don't disturb me." Eiji requested.
Ryu held in his curiosity out of respect.
Eiji's silhouette lay down on the floor. No one can really see anyone here in this dark place.
Ryu rested his back against the wall, contemplating where it all went wrong.
...
"Zzzzzz... Zzzzzz."
Eiji's snoring was incredibly loud. Though Ryu respected him, he couldn't help but feel annoyed after Eiji's constant snoring. After a while, more loud snoring drowned the whole place. The other prisoners were sleeping as well. Sneezes, coughs, farts, and other noises made the night a bit more unbearable.
"These guys are so loud..." Ryu complained in his mind. Each minute of those noises just scratched off a bit of his sanity. Over time, he couldn't bear the noises and decided to just sleep right then and there, though that obviously did not work. The constant loud noises by the prisoners and the cold, hard, and uncomfortable floor were a great combo for an atrocious sleep experience.
"Is it already nighttime? I really couldn't tell..." Ryu was wondering what the time was, almost forgetting something... or someone.
Wait... Kazoku!" Ryu exclaimed in his mind, remembering that he left Kazoku. Ryu immediately stopped his attempts to sleep and sat up, thinking about Kazoku.
Kazoku was probably hungry already, "Shit, Shit, Shit." He became incredibly worried, maybe something happened to him.
"I was so dumb, I should've just run... I really..." Ryu deeply regretted not leaving right then and there. His sense of law and justice that was deeply drilled into him by Sven to train him years ago might've just been a bit too unnecessary.
He got annoyed and violently scratched his head, "Kazoku, forgive me..."
He felt sad thinking about leaving him behind.
...
...
...
"Wait, how long has it been since I last ate...?" His face became pale. He hasn't eaten in a while. He had been ignoring his hunger for a long time and that had come to bite his ass. His stomach hurt like hell, "Urgh..." He embraced his own belly, trying to ease some pain, though it obviously did not work. His body felt weak, "Hahh... Hahh..." His stomach was definitely not happy.
"I'm just gonna sleep..." He thought.
He lay down on the floor and slept deeply...
...
...
The bar of the cell rattled and the constant yelling of other prisoners overwhelmed the once-quiet underground prison. Ryu rubbed his eyes and groggily woke up. He saw the officer, Ryota, open his cell and put down two bowls with two other smaller ones.
Ryota, in a soft voice, spoke, "Sir-"
Eiji interrupted him, "Don't call me 'sir'..."
Ryota hesitantly nodded and left the cell. The yelling of the other prisoners slowly died down when Ryota's footsteps went quiet. Ryu was confused and asked Eiji, "Sir...?"
Eiji looked at him, his face still covered by the darkness, "Don't think about it, Ryu."
He then pointed at the bowls, "Look, go eat."
Ryu followed his finger and saw the bowls. His eyes lit up and he drooled, "Food..."
He went closer to the bowls, the chains on his ankles dragged across the ground.
He kneeled down in front of the food and saw a bowl of plain rice and fish. It didn't look appetizing at all, but Ryu did not care about the aesthetics and gobbled it all down. He was incredibly ecstatic to finally eat food. He looked at Eiji, "Yamamoto-san, will you not eat your food?" He asked worriedly.
Eiji's silhouette shook his head and replied, "I'll eat later."
Ryu shrugged and continued devouring the food.
...
After a while, his bowl was empty and he chugged the small bowl of water. It was barely enough to satiate his hunger, still almost empty. He burped and lay down on the floor.
He relaxed his whole body, breathing to calm him down. He stared at the ceiling, it was completely dark and the corner had cobwebs. The place was obviously old or was rarely serviced.
He sighed, "How much longer am I gonna stay here...?" He thought to himself. He shrugged and fell to slumber again.
...
...