The storm and the shield- "the bat and the net" sequel

“lalalà, làlala” Shirase hummed, happily, while rummaging in the boxes. “wow, I’ll for sure be able to buy myself something nice with all this!” there were rings, most of costume jewellery, necklaces, watches and earrings in such quantity to fill completely 6 boxes. But the size of the jewelery… was small. All those objects were for kids. But Shirase apparently didn’t care.
“let’s see… I saw this last week at the market for 2 dollars… the watches for 4… the necklace for 1 or 2 so multiplied for all the ones that are here…” his happy grin widened “oh god, I’ll come home with 400 dollars at least!”
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
A loud gunshot echoed in the room.
Chuuya stood there, eyes a little widened, the hand twitching a little.
“Chuuya…” N murmured. Verlaine, instead, said nothing, and looked surprised at Chuuya.
“well, I really thought you would have done something else” Verlaine sighed, putting his hands in his pockets, unimpress by the bullet stuck in the wall next to his own head.
“You bastard” Chuuya hissed, looking with furious eyes at French player. “how could you even… IMAGINE I would do that?!? I’m—I’m still a human dammit! And if there’s a person that now I despise the most—that would be you, Verlaine! I won’t forget you’re the one who made my teammates and friends leave me! I won’t forget that! Never! Pay for that!” And after saying that, he threw the gun away and ran towards Verlaine.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
“come on, come on, come on” Adam murmured frustrated, while running as fast as he could down the corridor, trying to find the next stairs, so that they could go on the upper floor, where all was happening.
“oi, are you really sure we’d find any stairs?”
“what are you saying?”
“like, we took sure some stairs go get down, but what tells you we’ll find them to go up?”
“what do you mean? It’s not like they can disappear!”
“but they can be walled. That can be possible. Like an automatic garage mechanism.”
“so you’re saying—”
“well, those scientist were for sure careful to not make the kids escape.” Dazai smirked, stopping his run and turned, observing the eternal, dark corridor.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
“ughh where is Chuuya? We need to go back! I can’t carry these for kilometers!” Shirase groaned, pulling a metallic platform with wheels, on which he had put the six boxes, with two on top of four.
“ufff dammit why can’t I go home on my own?? I can’t find anyone here. But Adam is the one with the van keyssss” Shirase groaned again, pulling with laziness. “HELLO! IS ANYONE THERE??” he shouted, frustrated, trying to find anyone. But no one answered “goddamn, I don’t even remember where the exit is in this creepy place. Well, I guess I’ll have to search for a fricking map…” and so he started dragging the boxes with him, the creaking of the old wheels echoing in the silence.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
“oh what do we do?” Adam walked up and forth.
“why are you so anxious?” Dazai sighs, looking up at the stressed man.
“it’s not like we can just sit on the floor like you! We have to find a way out of here!”
“why do you keep thinking that there must be a way out? Like, why would those scientist create a way out of here? All the kids would have escaped otherwise”
“why can’t stay here! We have to go back! We can’t be late for the match!”
“and since when you care so much about that?”
“and since when you shouldn’t?? you’re one of the players!”
Dazai shrugged “well, this is the perfect way out”
“what do you mean??”
“you know, I’ve always wanted to quit volley, since nearly the day I started training in that gym”
“and why did you choose that sport than at the first place?!” Adam couldn’t really stand now to hear a dramatic backstory of an emo teen while trapped in the dark corridors of a building kilometers away from the first town.
“well, I really thought I would have understood more, yk, society and all that stuff by being obliged to work together with them”
“you could have just—you could have just tried a different sport after volley! It’s not like there’s only volley if you have a problem with volley!”
“yeah, but anyone started to rely on me” Dazai sighs “and the coach told me many times about his intents with me. He wants me to become the next coach when I’ll finish high school”
“why can’t you just say no?”
“well… I have my reasons”
“well, we’re stuck here, so if you stop bragging about your dramatic backstory and actually help, that’d be useful”
Dazai sighed.
“like, we could escape from *there*, but I don’t know if you could get stuck in it or not”
“what do you mean???”
“yk, I might be kinda skinny, ok, but you’re nearly 1.90 and built up”
“so??? I couldn’t walk on some stairs because of that?”
“stairs?”
“where do want to escape then?!”
“well, follow me. It’ll take long.”
“what do you mean??”
“on the metallic map on the wall before you took the stairs to get down in the dorms, there was written there was the total of 400 beds, so 200 rooms.”
“and so?” Adam, asked, trying to understand Dazai’s reasonament.
“well, Chuuya was taken out of here, right? Let’s find his cell. I’ll check on the right, you on the left”
Adam listened, getting what the boy’s idea was, but…
“it’ll take an eternity” Adam murmured under his breath, looking at the corridor that didn’t seem to end.
-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.
“Oh, Chuuya, I really didn’t wanna fight with you” Verlaine sighed, fixing his gloves. Chuuya was laying on the ground, panting, black and blue. “you know, I really don’t get why you’re so angry with ME. You should be angry with the ones that actually hated and despised you. We’re like brothers, we grew up living the same hell, so why do you hate me? I am nothing but you.”
“I… am… not you. I will never be.”
“well, no. because we both received the same *treatments*. I know that. That’s why you had a lot of angry and frustrated outburst even after months that you were out of there. I’m sorry I wasn’t with you, Chuuya”
Chuuya’s eyes widened “how—how do you know that?”
“I told you. We both went under the same things. And if you had stayed more in that facility… I really don’t know what would have been of you.”
“what do you mean? Stop being cryptic!” Chuuya spit out, frustrated, groaning still in pain.
“well, how do you think you didn’t feel pain or emotions when you had to do the baseball exercise?” he remembers that. He remembers that now. The hard fabric against his fingers. the speed of the balls around him. The metallic taste of the blood from his nose. The boys wincing in pain on the floor, trying desperately to breath with their ribs broken. And anyone else… not caring.
“you felt nothing back then. You didn’t think too” Verlaine said, as if he was the narrator of Chuuya’s life. “you think that condition could be called human? You really think you are, Chuuya? We’re the survivors of something that has changed us entirely.”
The nursery always smelled of alcohol. The light blue walls locked in the room the shouts of pain and agony. There was a door at the end of it… but it was strictly forbidden to open it. But Chuuya, during one night, while on the wooden “bed” in the nursery, he heard some footsteps of a nurse. The noise of a nurse was really different from the one of a teacher: the soles of their shoes were usually of plastic and their footsteps softer. He heard those footsteps approaching the bed next to his. It was dark, he could barely see anything, even if he had one eye lightly opened, trying not to be caught awake. The nurse replaced the little flask connected to the needle of the boy. In less than a minute, the boy let out a choked a whimper while sleeping. And then nothing else. The silence fell again in the room. The nurse took out the needle from him and took the body of the boy in her arms. She walked up to the door and with a key unlocked it. When she walked out of it, the boy wasn’t with her anymore.
“I’m… I’m still human” Chuuya murmured
“no, we aren’t. we can’t after all we’ve seen and lived” Verlaine sighed, nearly sad. “the moment you’ll accept that, you’ll understand yourself. That’s why you can’t still understand yourself.”
Verlaine stood up, wiping away some dirt from his trousers and jacket. “well, I guess you’ll go with me now”
“n-no…” Chuuya stood up, but in vain.
“come on, don’t be so hard. I’m doing this for your good. Why do you think they keep you around in that team, hm? It’s just because you’re unnaturally strong. They only see you as potential in that team, no matter what they say or do, you’ll always be the arahbaki kid in their eyes.”
“shut up! I have friends! I have a life!”
“how can you still call that a life? You aren’t living like the others. The others’ can live a life, but you… you will just collect experiences. Not actually live”
“sorry dude, but that’s too much!” A voice came from above… with a box falling over Verlaine. “oh shit-“ verlaine murmured before dodging it, running back.
“shirase??” Chuuya looked up at the boy that was on the gallery around the gym, at a higher level.
“come on, Chuuya! Let’s go back! I can’t stand an hour more carrying this stuff! let’s meet in the main gym!”
Chuuya immediately took the chance to run away, leaving the two men in the room. He was running as if for his life, not feeling his legs anymore. He remembered those places by heart. Left corridor. Stairs up. on the right again and then finally at the main gym. Shirase arrived soon after, holding a box. “well, you should thank me, I threw a couple more to that French bastard. Now let’s go!”
“why do you carry that box anyways??” Chuuya asked, while running. It felt so surreal that he wouldn’t have doubted if he woke up in that moment and that was all a nightmare.
“becauseeee I wanna ofc make this experience useful! Soooo a little souvenir never hurts!” Shirase smiled, enthusiastic. Chuuya couldn’t do anything but just scoff, smiling a little.
“and the others?”
“the tall guy and your teammate?”
“yeah”
“ah boh. I didn’t see them”
“what??”
“let’s head to the van, in the meanwhile, maybe they’ll be there”
They ran to the exit, then to the left side of the building, where they had parked the van before. And here there were Dazai and Adam, all dirty of ground on their clothes.
“what are you looking at? Never seen fashion?” Dazai posed exaggeratedly like a model at photoshoot. “look? New collection”
Adam instead in the meanwhile went to the van, opening it and turning it on.
“I’m glad you’re alive, shitty Dazai” Chuuya spit out, but his eyes a little softer.
Dazai stopped his photoshoot session and softly smiled for a second. But then he went back to his usual grin. “Well, instead, I really hoped that baguette would have won over you, so that I could have saved you like a prince does with a mistress in danger!” and does an exaggerated gasp and bow.
“fucking idiot” Chuuya muttered, rolling its eyes. “let’s go adam.” They all climbed in the van and went away from that place.