“Alright, ladies, on the bus! Move it!”
The tinkling of chains filled the air as the line of women moved across the concrete yard to the awaiting bus. All of them were newly sentenced felons on their way to Nerima Women’s Penitentiary. The were all chained with handcuffs and legcuffs and they moved in small, shuffling steps under the watchful eye of several guards.
One of the prisoners let out a tearful sob as she stepped up to the doors of the bus, obviously terrified.
"Enough with the waterworks already!" One of the guards standing by the bus barked. "You can moan and whine all you want, but it’s not gonna change anything!"
The guard's yelling just seemed to make things worse as the young woman broke into even more sobs.
"I said enough!" He roughly garbed the sobbing woman by the collar of her blouse and yanked her out of line. The woman struggled to keep her balance, nearly tripping in her chains by the sudden movement. "I swear if I hear another peep out of you, I'll make sure you regret it! Do you understand?!!"
The young woman stared back with shocked eyes, frightened beyond belief. By now, the line of prisoners had come to a halt as all watched the unfolding scene.
"You're beginning to understand, aren't you bitch?" The guard smirked. "You're not on your way to some spa or country resort. You're going to a maximum security prison and don't think just because you're a woman that you're going to have an easy time in prison. We have many ways to discipline troublesome prisoners like you, understand?"
The frightened woman tried to open her mouth to say something, but she kept stuttering, too afraid to form words.
"Leave her alone!"
The guard turned to see who’d called out. His eyes found another prisoner glaring defiantly at her from the line, a young woman with red hair in a pigtail and bright blue eyes. He shoved the other woman back into the line, his anger now fully directed at the redhead who’d interrupted him.
"You got something you wanna say to me, convict,” the guard menacingly emphasized the final word.
"Just that you shouldn't try to bully those who are too afraid to fight back," Ranko Saotome replied, her eyes remaining locked onto the guards and her voice not wavering at all. "A real man would never stoop so low."
"A real man, huh?" he chuckled, "You want to talk about being a real man, bitch? Fine, I'll leave the poor little mouse alone." His eyes flicked back to the frightened young woman and she visible cringed, averting her eyes. “Though you don't seem to be afraid of me, Red," he turned back to the defiant prisoner.
"Why would I afraid of some overgrown baboon like you?" Ranko smirked back.
The guard's face visibly ticked in annoyance. Where’d this prisoner get off talking to him like she had nothing to fear? "You think you're so tough, bitch?!! Well, let's just see what you think after this!!!"
The guard clenched his right hand into a fist and threw a punch straight at the redhead's face. Ranko just continued to stare at the guard, not even afraid in the slightest. The fist looked like it was about to make contact, but was stopped short as another hand halted his punch. Ranko and the guard turned to see another prison guard had intervened.
"That's enough," the female guard said. "You know the warden won't like it if you injure any of the new prisoners before they arrive."
The male prison guard stared back for several seconds before he reluctantly lowered his fist as Ranko’s smirk widened.
"You think that's funny?” the female guard turned to face her. “Well, you won't be finding anything funny about where you're going. I didn't stop him for your sake." She brought her truncheon out and placed the tip of it under Ranko's chin, tilting her head up so she was staring directly at her. "Prisoners don’t talk back or provoke any members of the prison staff. Normally, you would be punished severely, but since we’ve not even arrived at the prison yet I'll let you off the hook this once. But, next time you’ll be in deep shit. Got it?"
Ranko reluctantly nodded and the guard retracted her truncheon.
“Alright, keep moving, ladies!” the guard shouted to the prisoners, “On the bus, now!”
Shuffling up the bus steps, careful not to trip in her legcuffs, Ranko glanced around for a seat. Her eyes fell on the young woman she’d just helped. Although she was no longer sobbing loudly, tears still dotted her face as she stared out the bus window.
“Mind if I sit here?” Ranko asked as she approached.
The woman turned around suddenly, startled by the unexpected voice. Seeing who it was, her worried expression quickly morphed into relief.
“S-Sure,” she stuttered.
Ranko settled into the seat next to her. “You okay?”
"Not really,” the woman muttered, “But thank you all the same, for what you did."
"Don't mention it. I wasn’t going to let some bastard like that get away with pushing people around.”
The other woman's face seemed to brighten slightly at Ranko's bravado.
By now, all the prisoners had boarded the bus and the guards had joined them. “Alright, ladies, stay seated and keep your traps shut until we reach the prison!”
The bus engines revved to life and the vehicle began to move. Driving out of the courtyard of the Detention Center and heading toward Nerima Women’s Penitentiary.
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(Posted Tue, 21 May 2013 11:12)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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