Jiro didn’t want to leave me, but I forced him to. It wasn’t safe for him to linger. He was just as much a prisoner as I was, and we both needed to be careful.
As soon as he slipped out of the Nikubeya, I crossed to the wall I shared with Haru. I knew he’d been listening. How much he’d caught, I wasn’t sure.
“I know you’re awake,” I said.
“You don’t trust anyone, do you?” he murmured. “I was just having trouble sleeping. Who can sleep under these conditions? What did your boyfriend tell you? What’s he doing for you?”
“You act as if your ears weren’t straining to catch every word.”
“And you act as if I’m not entitled to know what he told you.”
“No. Everyone here should know what he said.”
I drew in a breath, then shouted. “WAKE UP!” My voice echoed off the stone as I yelled again until I heard the rustle of bodies stirring in the dark.
“Wait—what are you doing?” Haru growled. “Are you mad?”
“What I have to say is for everyone’s ears, not just yours, Haru.”
“What’s going on?” Kai asked, groggy, as he shuffled to the front of his cell.
“I have an announcement,” I said.
“This better be good,” Daiki muttered. “I was in the middle of a threesome.”
“Yoshi, are you up?” I shouted.
“Yes, I’m up. Let’s hear the bad news. It’s gotta be bad if it can’t wait until morning.”
“I know what they have planned. There’s no right way to say it, so I’ll just come out with it. We’re all competing in a challenge called Soemono. We each have to fight one-on-one with the person who brought us here.”
“Tell me you mean like a boxing match,” Yoshi said quickly. “Something with rules, a ref, maybe some gloves?”
“I don’t think that’s what they have in mind,” I said.
“What is this, Mad Max Thunderdome?” Kai asked.
“Two men enter, one man leaves,” Daiki said with dramatic flair.
“You must know more!” Haru shouted, pressing against the bars. “He was just here, whispering in your ear. Tell us everything!”
“Don’t lie to us, Akiko! I can’t… I can’t die down here!” Yoshi screamed.
“Why would I withhold anything from you?” I shot back. “I’m in just as much trouble as the rest of you.”
“So you’re fighting, too, right?” Kai asked.
“I am. And I’m also competing in the Blade challenges, which the rest of you are being spared. I’ll be happy to trade places with anyone—Haru?”
Silence. Except for Yoshi’s quiet sobbing, the cellblock went still. Haru, who always had something to say, was tongue tied. I couldn’t even hear him breathing.
“Survive Soemono and you live,” Daiki quipped. “Sounds simple enough, right?”
“I don’t know when the fights will start, or if we’ll be thrown in together, or whether there are rules or weapons. That’s everything I know.”
The silence stretched. No one offered comfort; no one offered plans. Just the sound of Yoshi’s muffled sobs and the creak of someone’s platform. No one even asked about my Blade challenge. So much for watching each other’s backs.
I thought about rallying them, pushing for a group brainstorm on how to survive, but one by one they had already retreated into the darkness.
