The hallway outside of Yuki's door was dark and quiet, but not nearly as deserted as it should've been, because both Jonas and the gangster on her payroll were staring at each other.

"Little bastard, do you know how long I've been waiting, fuck, my fucking feet are killing me. Why do you smell like booze?" Jonas blinked heavily as he was bombarded by the guard's angry whisper.

"Don't look at me like that, you think I can dictate to a woman like her when I should come and go? We both know she could kill the two of us with a snap of her finger," even though the guard agreed with Jonas, he would never tell him. It was sacrilegious for a Hurt's gang member to speak politely or get along with a small-time slave fighter.

"Fucking slave," he grumbled while pointing down the dark hall, "Back to your cage, little asshole."

"Sure," Jonas rolled his eyes and was led back through the dark stone hallways. Seeing that guard on Yuki's payroll made him feel that he should be more skeptical of the other low-level gang members, as they could also be on a payroll, passing information to the top-five fighters and doing their bidding.

Jonas made his way back to the slave room, and he knew that it was still late in the night because the caged slaves were still snoring loudly. He was forced back into his cage by the guard, who quickly left the slave room. Then, Jonas heard Simon’s voice.

“Where the hell were you?”

“Taking a bath,” Jonas whispered, “Now be quiet, or you’ll wake Johnson.”

“Too late,” Johnson yawned, “Where the fuck were you?”

“Taking a bath,” Jonas's whisper became much more stern.

“Nonsense,” said Johnson as he sat upright, “There are no baths.”

“Oh there are,” said Jonas matter-of-factly, “And I used it,” Simon examined him thoroughly, and this was a hard task considering how dark it was in the slave room.

“Hang on, Johnson,” Simon began to say after some deliberation, “I think he might be telling the truth,” his rat-like nose twitched several times as he sniffed the air, “You smell like perfume, is that bubblegum?”

“Cotton candy shampoo,” said Jonas, “And that’s not all, I've got new scrubs.”

“Fuck, did Ahmed let you use his private bathroom?” Simon stared at him with envy plastered on his expression, as did Johnson.

“Do you think a guy like Ahmed uses scented shampoos? Don't be ridiculous."

“Well, I know that the bathrooms belonging to both fighters and gang members don't have tubs, which means you were in a private room,” Simon said, but a sudden ridiculous thought popped into his head, and he almost refused to speak it out loud because of how insane it sounded, "I can only think of one person that would have cotton candy scented shampoo… did you break into Yotama Yuki's bedroom?" He watched Jonas give a tiny grin, and it made his heart pound, "Please tell me you didn't?"

“Of course, I didn’t,” Jonas said with a dismissive wave of his hand, “I was invited.”

“Bullshit!” both Simon and Johnson said at the same time.

“I'm being serious," Jonas lowered his voice to the point that the other two had to lean closer to hear him, “This guard pulled me away a few hours ago and forced me to follow him, and I thought for a second I was about to be jumped by Wolf. However, he told me that his boss, Howard Hurts, wanted to see me. I thought it sounded sketchy, but I wasn't afraid."

“Of course, that sounds sketchy, why would you even think of going? So did you meet Howard Hurts?"

"As I said, I wasn't afraid. It didn't make sense to take me out using such an elaborate plan, there are simpler ways of killing me. Anyway, it ended up not being Howard Hurts' room I was led to, but Yotama Yuki's."

"Fucking unbelievable," Johnson whispered, "All these top-fives revolve around you like moons to a planet. What could she possibly want from a slave fighter with a single win under his belt?"

"Fuck you, Johnson," Jonas laughed, "I'm probably one of the most talented young Sinners to ever step foot in Little Wrath City. A lot of people are going to show interest in me, once my name is out there."

"Okay, Mr. Talent, how could I ever understand such greatness?" Johnson was grinning just as broadly as Jonas.

“Continue with the story,” Simon gave Johnson a dirty look, he was nearly hanging out from the bars of his cage in anticipation and wanted the conversation back on topic.

"My bad," said Jonas, "So there I am in this hotel-like room. There's fancy furniture, dozens of bottles of wine, expensive treats, silk sheets, all the works. Then, she shows up in the fucking flesh."

“I still feel like you’re bullshitting me,” Johnson narrowed his eyes in a show of skepticism, “But I’ve never known you to lie, so I guess if you say you were in Yotama Yuki's private bedroom, you were there.”

“What was she like?” Simon asked, “What did she want?

“Drop-dead gorgeous, half-naked, and extremely dangerous,” Jonas picked the three best descriptions that came to mind, “She had just gotten out of the bath when I arrived in the room.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Stop it,” said Johnson quietly, “No one has that good of luck.”

“Luck?” Jonas sounded offended, “I thought the whole thing was some plot. It felt like she was just waiting for me to make the wrong move and off goes my fucking head.”

“And it wasn’t like that?” Simon scratched his thick greasy hair.

“No,” said Jonas, “Believe it or not, she’s quite nice. I think she's a bit misunderstood, that's all.”

“Oh please,” said Johnson, “No woman capable of murdering her man in his sleep is a bit misunderstood,” he gave Jonas a look full of judgment, “You’re already pussy-whipped.”

“Fuck you, Johnson,” Jonas was growing irritated, “You weren’t there, how would you know shit?”

“I know eighteen-year-old boys,” said Johnson with a wry smile.

“Yeah you fucking do, you pervert,” Jonas quipped back, and just as the two were about to go at it, Simon interrupted them.

“Johnson, shut up,” he said, “Jonas, why did she want to meet you?” and both of the bickering slaves were forced to take deep breaths before the story could be finished.

“Deep shit,” said Jonas as he looked around suspiciously at anyone that might be eavesdropping. Simon and Johnson caught his drift, and they too began eyeing the other slaves down and as they did, those eavesdropping slaves were startled like rabbits as they pretended to be asleep once more.

“Yuki asked me to kill someone,” Jonas whispered.

“What’s this Yuki bullshit?” Johnson asked in disbelief, “I might not be the most culturally sensitive person, but I know that a man only calls a Japanese woman by her first name without honorifics if they are extremely close.”

“Really?” asked Jonas, “She just told me to call her Yuki.”

“Fucking pussy whipped,” but before they could start arguing again, Simon ushered on the next part.

“Who does she want you to kill?” Simon asked so quietly that Jonas had barely heard him.

“Wolf,” Jonas was so quiet that Johnson couldn’t even hear the revelation, and Simon was forced to repeat it to him.

“Why though?”

“Prison break,” Jonas mouthed the words, not daring to say them out loud. For a second Simon simply contemplated the situation, but Jonas knew that his rat-faced friend was much smarter than people gave him credit for, and after a few moments the solution finally dawned on him.

“You’re a talented fighter who has access to Ahmed, Brow, and you have beef with Wolf,” Simon couldn’t believe he hadn't seen it earlier, “If anyone wanted to ever do what you mentioned, you would be instrumental to the plan,” Johnson quickly waved Simon down so that he could hear the newest revelations. When Simon finished whispering it to him, he had goosebumps and his eyes were wide.

“Fucking shit,” he swore quietly, “The bitch is going to sacrifice you,” and Jonas nearly had enough of him being a dick for no good reason.

“Why do you keep bad-mouthing her?” Jonas asked while crossing his arms, “She hasn’t done anything to you, has she?”

“Uh, you mean besides trying to sacrifice my friend in a half-baked escape plan?” but he was quickly hushed by both Jonas and Simon, who nearly tore his head off for saying the E word so loudly.

“Okay, okay,” said Johnson, “My point still stands, if you die on this little suicide mission, nothing bad happens to her because no one would have known about your relationship except for me and Simon.”

“Listen, I’m not saying that I trust her with my fucking life,” Jonas began, “But I mean, you don’t even know her. I think you should at least hear me out first,” and Johnson wanted to roll his eyes in disagreement, but he told himself that he should at least be a bit nicer simply because he was very familiar with the expression, 'don’t bite the hand that feeds you,'.

“Fine,” said Johnson, “Let’s just say that she’s being genuine.”

“The idea behind everything,” said Jonas, “Basically, I kill Wolf and take his place as one of the top-five, right?” and even someone as simple as Johnson could see where this was going.

“That leaves you, Ahmed, and Yotama-san to team up against whom?”

“We suspect,” said Jonas, “Garth would be the biggest immediate threat, but with the three of us we could probably kill him beforehand. Then you've got the two leaders, and you also have to add the low-level gang members," Jonas added, "Oh, and Brow."

“I’m not sure how strong Brow is,” Simon said, “Wouldn’t it be a kick in the ass to find out way too late that he’s as strong as a top-five fighter,” but Jonas knew better.

"I've asked him before, he tried to lie and act tough, but I could see that he's no better than a guy like Pete. In my opinion,” said Jonas, “I considered the plan to be our three, against their four.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Johnson agreed, “What about Xiao Lin?”

“Yuki seems to think that we can trust him,” began Jonas, “Apparently he's in love with her, but I don't know what that means," Johnson and Simon shared a concerned look.

“Are you sure we can count him out? Simon asked.

"Fuck that, there's no way he chooses some chick over betraying Howard," Johnson shook his shaggy head, "That's naive."

“Hell,” began Jonas, “I didn't think about a scenario where he joined their side, that would make three on five much more difficult. We would have to kill them individually.”

“Hold on, hold on,” said Johnson, “What’s the worst-case scenario, numbers-wise?”

“Err,” Jonas mumbled as he seriously considered it.

“The most realistic and worst-case scenario is that Xiao Lin helps their side, which leaves our three: me, Yuki, and Ahmed, against their five: Garth, Howard, Thomas, Brow, and Xiao Lin.”

“That’s also assuming you end up killing Wolf beforehand,” Simon pointed out, much to the dismay of both Jonas, and Johnson.

“Fuck that,” said Johnson, “The true worst-case scenario is six against three when you include Wolf.”

“I doubt we would be dealing with the worst case,” Jonas argued, “That’s just us being careful and spitballing.”

“It’s better to plan for that situation,” said Johnson, “If it does happen, you’re prepared for it, and if it doesn’t, then you’re over-prepared and that’s always a good thing.”

“Okay, you have a point,” Jonas nodded, “But there are a lot of things to consider, and we’ve got the advantage.”

“What fucking advantage?” Johnson looked at him stupidly, “Six highly trained Sinners fighting against two and a half isn’t a fucking advantage, it's suicide!”

“What the fuck, Johnson?” asked Jonas indignantly, “You’re calling me half a Sinner?”

“You’re about half as strong as those top-five fighters, aren’t you?” Jonas would have punched his shit-eating grin if he had been close enough to hit it, “Since you’re half as strong, that means you’re only half a Sinner when compared to them. Ergo, two and a half Sinners versus six.”

“Goddamn it, Johnson, you’re such a prick when you want to be. If we ever actually went through with the plan it would be when I was as strong as a top-five fighter.”

“And how will you know you’re as strong as a top-five fighter?”

“By killing Wolf, you fuck face.”