"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."

~ Vincent Van Gogh

Chapter XIV

(7 years ago)

Year 2047

Yoki frantically turned around, peace of mind shattered. A man with makeup stood behind him. Bright red lipstick on his pursed lips, bright red cheeks accompanied with a red tint—blush. Foundation and eyeliner. . .

It was the man from the bus.

Taking a few steps back, Yoki could see that he was lean but packed with muscle. It was a strange sight to see, especially as he was naked. Yoki tried to avoid showering with anyone else—every day since the second night.

Feeling incredibly uncomfortable, Yoki said, “Do you need something from me?"

"Well, that depends, sweetheart. If you're asking me why I'm here, I'm here to shower. Isn't that obvious why I'm here?"

"Well, I suppose. Why were you standing right behind me?"

"I was observing your derrière. It's adorable."

What the hell was this guy's deal, fucking wacko. How did I not notice his presence at all? Who is this guy?

As if reading Yoki's thoughts, the queer man said, "I'm Fruitcake, sweety. I'm not just here to observe your cute little bum. I wanted to say that you've got quite the sphaeram."

"Sphaeram?" Yoki asked reluctantly, not wanting to talk to this person any longer than he had to.

"Your aura, silly. You still don't even know the basics of Tearings? Tch, what did Doc even talk to you about then."

"I know what a Tearing is," Yoki replied, "but what's your point?"

"Don't worry, sweety; you'll learn sooner than later."

With that, Fruitcake showered. Whatever the hell that name even was, it suited him.

Get his help. You'll need it.

Typically, Yoki would be mad that Painkiller just spoke to him. But Yoki didn't know what to do right now. The thought occurred to him, but part of him was against it. Fruitcake was not the sort of person Yoki wanted to be around, especially with his perverted attitude. Who knew what he'd do behind Yoki's back.

Cogitating what he should do, Yoki washed his clothes in the shower. If he were to take his help, he'd need to set conditions. But he needed something as a condition to get Fruitcake to help him. After contemplating several options, he put into action his plan.

"Fruitcake, I want you to help me."

With a grin plastered onto his face, Fruitcake turned to him and responded, "Anything for you, sweety. What do you have in mind?"

Well, that was easy.

"I need your help getting people together. You mentioned Doc earlier, so I assume you already know him. I plan on having Doc and I recruit people into a gang. I want to start a prison riot as a distraction to break out of Stonegate. I was hoping you could help keep control of the other members as an advisor of mine, with Doc along your side.

"Now, I have two conditions I'd like to set if you are to accept. The first is you have to obey my orders without question or complaint. The second is you cannot touch me in any way. If you accept these and follow them to the fullest, I'll grant you one request later on. What do you say?"

"You are so funny, oh my gosh! I wholeheartedly accept, sweety. This idea sounds like fun."

With that, Yoki raised his arm and extended it, holding his hand out. "Shake on it."

He shook it, grinning an all-teeth smile. Oddly enough, even after showering, his makeup had stayed completely on.

After cleaning up, Yoki headed to the cafeteria in hopes of getting the leftovers from breakfast. Upon arriving, he headed to the food line, praying there was still a tray available. As he expected, there was no food left. Sighing, he went on his way to the infirmary.

As he was about to exit the cafeteria, he heard a familiar voice call him over. "Hey, Yoki! Over here!"

Turning, he saw Doc and a few of his friends sitting together. Doc had a tray raised above his head, along with a friendly smile on his face. "I saved you some cereal because I assumed you were late to breakfast!"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Yoki smiled, relieved that Doc was back to normal. It appeared that last night's occurrence hadn't ruined their relationship.

He continued to Doc's table, greeting Doc when he arrived. "Good morning."

"Good morning to you as well," he said, then lowering his voice, continued, "Sorry about yesterday, I don't know what came over me. I got you something to make up for my poor behavior."

"Oh, and what would that be," Yoki asked, grinning.

"More friends. You told me how you wanted more people you could rely on, and I've got just the people. Meet my colleagues." He pointed to one medium-sized man with red ulotrichous hair, holding a wooden walking stick. Doc acquainted, "This here is my pal Clancy. Clancy here is an expert in Bataireacht."

Bataireacht was an Irish martial art based on stick fighting. Yoki recalled his father teaching him about the self-defense side of it, along with the weapons used in the combat style.

That explains why he has a shillelagh. I can't believe the prison let him have it. Now that I think about it, they turn a blind eye to certain prisoners, for whatever reason.

After being in solitary for three months, Yoki realized he hadn't experienced prison life that much. And Stonegate, honestly, wasn pretty lenient for a prison. It wasn’t all thad bad after all. He was skeptical about it though. This prison had to be darker than it seemed. It wasn't the world's most brutal prison for nothing. It seemed like the contrary—it was bad, but it didn't seem utterly unbearable like he had expected. Also, it seemed to allow contraband and weapons for a select few of inmates. It was awfully strange.

"Nice to meet you, Yoki. I've heard much about you," Clancy said, nodding his head.

Yoki nodded back and replied, "Nice to meet you. Is it alright if I call you Clancy?"

"Sure," he answered, seemingly bored as he started to pick his fingernails.

"These here are the Bolgrith twins. They're good for labor."

These two were on the bus with Yoki. He recognized them as the large ripped men who had looked like the ‘sterotypical criminals.’

One had an earring in his left ear, and one had an earring in his right ear. The former was Jaggular, and the latter was Stache.

"Nice to meet you both."

Yoki received a grunt in acknowledgment.

It seems Doc outdid himself. Classic.

The Painkiller continued to chime into Yoki's head from time to time, but Yoki typically paid him no notice of hearing him. It was annoying when Painkiller suddenly spoke in Yoki's thoughts, but he couldn't do anything about it. Yet.

"Thank you, Doc, for the introductions. I've got something I need to talk to you about, but I suppose it'd be best for all of you to hear."

Yoki shared his plans with the group and received support from everyone. It seemed like this was an ongoing thing everyone thought, but no one ever stepped up to pull it off. Luckily, Yoki was here now, and he was about to pull off something that no one has done before.

He was going to break out of Stonegate, once and for all.

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Yoki and his new comrades strolled down the prison's halls; people clearing out the way upon seeing them. Yoki reached the indoor prison yard, where he did his daily workout. He put the weights on the rack and did some light stretching before starting. Just as he was about to begin, Doc came over from a group he was talking with.

"Yoki, you aren't separated anymore from everyone else. You can choose where to put your weight rack, and you have everyone's support now. We need more people now, so it's time you start meeting more for handiwork."

It turned out to be a long day of work for Yoki. He spent his time talking with new people. He gained their respect, and in return, he showed his gratitude by allowing them to join his gang. Yoki wasn't ready to tell everyone about his plan. He only told his top commanders, and the top commanders told the lower commanders certain aspects of it.

After a week of meeting people and gaining people's trust, he had three top commanders and fifteen lower commanders.

His top three commanders were Doc, Fruitcake, and Clancy. After sparring with Clancy, Yoki learned he was eminent in Bataireacht. Along with that, Clancy was ingenious. He made for a great top commander and helped Yoki devise his plan even more flawlessly.

His lower commanders ranged with importance. The ones who stood out the most were the Bolgrith twins, as they were always with Clancy—Clancy was always with Doc—Doc was always with him. The other lower commanders were all new people Yoki had met recently, but some people he recognized. Fruitcake introduced the twins that happened to be the twins covered in tattoos from the bus. The only other person Yoki knew previously was Maxwell. Yoki was surprised when Maxwell came up to him, asking to be a part of the gang. He said he didn't want to be lumped in with Gavin and Wolf anymore. After appointing him to a lower commander, it was safe to say he was thrilled. He then continued to state, "You can rely on me. I will do my very best, Yoki."

He better.

Along with having met so many people the last week, Doc had pulled strings to move Yoki to a new cell with the top commanders. Yoki was pleased when he heard this but still felt a little unsettled about sharing a cell with Fruitcake.

At least I'm bunked with Clancy, not him.

The days once again started to blend together, each seemingly the same as the last. One day, he saw something unusual happen.

It was a typical day, meeting in secret with people, setting up plans with his commanders. In the middle of a meeting, Santi—one of the tattooed twins—was in the middle of a fierce debate with another lower commander, Pedro. Debates like this were nothing new, so Yoki let his mind drift off and let them argue.

He glanced around the room, looking to see what others were doing. Clancy was swinging his clubbed stick menacingly in the corner, and the Bolgrith twins were staring at the wall, intently, it seemed. Yoki frequently wondered if they were mentally deficient, though, to be fair, he had done the same in Solitary.

Yoki turned once again, now looking at Doc peering at the ceiling. He had a sorrowful expression on his face, one he didn't wear often. Doc seemed to whisper something inaudible. Yoki had to blink twice to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. A plant had sprouted from his hands and was growing rapidly—faster than should be possible. Soon, it bore bright large red strawberries. Doc frowned, and suddenly the plant shriveled up and died. Doc turned back around, and Yoki averted his eyes to avoid eye contact.

Doc’s an Earthworker?!

Without realizing it, he was now looking at Fruitcake, who was smirking at Yoki. His expression showed that he knew Yoki was perplexed, and he knew the answer as to what Doc just did. Looking back on it, Fruitcake and Doc were fundamentally different from everyone else in prison.

Yoki often wondered about how Fruitcake had told him about his sphaeram. Apparently, his sphaeram was his aura. It was the pressure that built inside of Yoki and released when Yoki willed it. He knew there was more to it than that but didn't know much else besides the mysterious word Tearing. What was a a Tearing was someone who used their sphaeram. But, everyone had aura, so everyone had a sphaeram than. Did that mean everyone was a Tearing? No, that can't be, because he knew the four different types of Tearings. His head started to hurt, and he decided to call the meeting. He decided to wait and learn about these things when the time came, but he grew impatient. At the very least, he had something to look forward to.