Blue Lock Prison Blues

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/47628259.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: M/M
Fandom: Blue Lock (Manga), Blue Lock (Anime)
Relationship: Isagi Yoichi/Itoshi Rin, Bachira Meguru/Isagi Yoichi, Isagi
Yoichi/Michael Kaiser, Isagi Yoichi/Nagi Seishirou, Isagi
Yoichi/Everyone, Barou Shouei/Isagi Yoichi, Isagi Yoichi/Itoshi Sae,
Chigiri Hyouma/Isagi Yoichi
Character: Isagi Yoichi, Bachira Meguru, Itoshi Rin, Chigiri Hyouma, Kunigami
Rensuke, Barou Shouei, Nagi Seishirou, Shidou Ryuusei, Itoshi Sae,
Michael Kaiser, Alexis Ness, Ego Jinpachi, Oliver Aiku, Noel Noa,
Mikage Reo, Look the gang's all here and i don't have all day to tag
every single one of them, Hiori You
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Prison, Isagi Yoichi Has a Harem, Jealousy,
Possessive Behavior, Unrequited Love, Humor, Depends on what you
find funny ig, More tags to be added, Alternate Universe - No Blue
Lock, Essentially it's blue lock minus the soccer so it's just bad times in
an enclosed place, Gaslighting, Manipulation, typical harem tropes to
be expected, Not quite a love triangle more like a love polygon with
isagi crying in the middle, Isagi slut-era awakened, Choking, but not in
the way you're expecting, Hand Jobs, Dubious Morality, Unreliable
Narrator, Light Angst, Isagi Yoichi is a Little Shit, Panic Attacks, Sexual
Content, depictions of unhealthy relationships
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-06-03 Updated: 2023-08-21 Words: 70,387 Chapters:
12/?

Blue Lock Prison Blues

by kaspbro

Summary

Isagi Yoichi is an innocent man. This is a fact he will stand by.

But, as an innocent man locked away in the world's most high tech prison facility, where
the quality of one's life is strictly dictated by a mysterious ranking system, Yoichi finds
himself in a dire situation with no plausible way out.

Only armed with his wits and a fortunate helping hand from his even more mysterious
lawyer, Yoichi has no chance but to try to claw his way up the food chain. A task much
easier said than done, given how the rest of Blue Lock's inmates do not seem to want to
leave him alone.

(Some of the earlier chapters have already been edited)

Notes

The blue lock fandom is drying out, and I am left starving. So I guess I'm going to have to
feed myself.

I'm not promising you a fun time, or a good time, but it will certainly be... a time.
Hi, I don't speak English as my native language. I also have dyslexia. Maybe not the best
combo to be writing fanfiction with but I digress.

See the end of the work for more notes

 Welcome to cell-block Z - you'll hate it here!
Chapter Notes

EDITED 14.8.2023

the blue lock fandom is drying out, I'm starving, so i'mma pull myself together and not
only feed myself, but feed YOU as well.
I don't promise that the food is good, tho

Disclaimer: i don't speak english as my native language and I have a pretty severe case
of dyslexia. It's the match made in heaven, apologies in advance.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

I - Welcome to cell-block Z - you’ll hate it here!

For the record, and this should be taken into account for the duration of the rest of the proceedings,
Yoichi Isagi is completely innocent, in every conceivable way, and he will stand by that fact until
the very end.

Now whether or not that statement is a bit of a stretch is up for debate, however you would need to
know, not only the whole context of the situation at hand, but everything leading up to it, going
back by a few years. When asked about this, Yoichi always refuses to answer.

Sitting on an uncomfortable metal bench, dressed up in an unnecessarily scratchy blue jumpsuit,

which was way too tight and form-fitting for a prison, thank you very much, with the number 274-
Z written on the sleeve, waiting for the guards to come and escort him to his new home for the
next eleven years (a little uncalled for, if Yoichi is allowed to express his opinion), Yoichi
contemplates his entire life and how in the hell he ended up here .

When he was younger, Yoichi dreamed of a career as a soccer player. That's what he swore to
himself, and to anyone who would lend an ear for a minute or two, for most of his adolescence and
teenage years. He dreamed of being the very best of the best, scoring goal after a goal and making
a name for himself in the world of professional soccer. But after a few too many losses at the
national level tournaments as a mere high school student, the grip he had on the dream faltered
until he let go completely. After high school, when the time came for Yoichi to make the decision
that would affect the rest of his life, Yoichi found himself studying law of all things, ironically
enough.

(Yoichi wondered how many law students found themselves locked away in prison, and how many
of them practised after getting out.)

It had honestly been downhill from there. But again, Yoichi will swear until the bitter end that he
alone is not to blame for this.

The heavy sliding door opened to reveal a guard, who looked like if Yoichi was going to make a
run for it, he wouldn’t care enough to stop him. Yoichi however has come to the conclusion that
running away at this point is going to do absolutely nothing to prove his innocence (to be honest,
Yoichi had done everything in his power to prove his innocence, and look where that got him).

“Well?” the guard sighed, his voice dull and tired. “I don’t have all day for this, let’s get going.”

Tentatively, Yoichi got up from the metal bench. Moving around wasn’t too easy currently - not
only was the blue prison jumpsuit way too tight and not at all forgiving, hence making it difficult to
move around in, his feet were cuffed, with only a short chain giving him space to move his legs
with. The situation with his handcuffs was nowhere near as fortunate - the cuffs that were tying his
hand in front of him were way too tight and pressing into his skin hard enough to leave a mark.
Yoichi was sure his circulation was going to cut off any second now.

The guard waited by the door as Yoichi stepped out, before closing the door and staying behind the
new prisoner. The guard was absentmindedly playing and swinging around his baton, every once in
a while letting out an annoyed sigh when he felt like Yoichi was moving at a too slow pace. Yoichi
wondered if all of the guards in Blue Lock acted like this: like doing the job they got paid for was
way too much effort. Yoichi would gladly switch places with him.

Blue Lock was a nearly brand new high tech, high security prison facility - it had only been in
operation for maybe a year, if even that. According to the government and the eccentric prison
warden, the facility was completely impossible to ever escape from. Not only that, but the prison
had a fucking hierarchy system - those at the bottom lived like dirt while those at the top had it
better than most regular civilians just living their life outside. According to the prison warden, this
was the optimal way of ensuring good behavior in the facility.

Yet for some reason, Yoichi felt like the hierarchy wasn’t based on the good behavior of the
prisoners, but on something else entirely. It was hardly plausible that the most well-behaved
inmate would get to sit at the top of the food pyramid, in a place crawling with dangerous and
violent criminals.

“We are currently in building five of Blue Lock,” the guard explained - his voice was so monotone
and lifeless, like he had given this explanation a hundred times before and couldn’t wait for his
retirement. “You have been assigned to cell-block Z - that’s where all newcomers start at. Your
meals and living standards are based on your rank. If you want to improve your rank and get the
luxuries provided to the prisoner’s at the top of the pyramid, well then you have to work for it.”

“Somehow I doubt that by being well-behaved I could improve my situation,” Yoichi admitted
with a weak, hoarse voice. He hadn’t spoken in days actually - the only sound he’d let out after the
trial had been sobs at best.

“I never said that your rank is based on good behavior.”

“Then what is it based on? What is exactly required of us to improve our ranking?” Yoichi asked.
He turned his head a little to look at the guard, who wasn’t exactly smiling, but a look of
amusement did cross his face.

“You’ll figure it out, don’t worry.”

They stopped by a big door with the letter Z on it. The guard swiped a key-card by the wall,
causing the doors to slide open, before pushing Yoichi through them none too gently. “You’ll have
your meals in the main area with the other sections. Every day there is an hour and a half period,
during which you are let outside to the courtyard, along with the rest of the sections. Every day,
between 10 am and 7 pm these doors are generally open and you are allowed to use the main area.
What you are not allowed to do however, is to go to any of the other areas - the only places you are
welcome in for now are section Z, the main area, the courtyard, and the communal washrooms.
Understood?”

Yoichi just nodded. Along the hallway they were walking through, there were multiple unmarked
doors lining up the walls - they didn’t stop by any of them however. Instead, the guard led him all
the way to the very end of the hallway. There must’ve been a motion sensor of some sort, as the
doors slid open just as they stopped in front of them.

The sight that awaits him almost makes Yoichi cry - the cramped room was nearly completely
bare. Besides the ten other prisoners, who were all staring at Yoichi like he was an exhibition at a
museum, there were only eleven flimsy looking foldable mattresses, pillows and blankets. No
chairs, no benches, no nothing.

Now here’s the thing - Yoichi comes from a middle class family. He was an only child, his father
was an engineer and his mother a secretary at some tech-company. They had good money. After
graduating high school, Yoichi didn’t have to worry about affording university. At twenty-three
years old, he’d say he’s had a comfortable life, he’s never had to want for anything.
So looking at his new sleeping and living arrangements, well… You can’t really blame Yoichi for
contemplating his chances of getting out if he’d just make a run for it now.

There’s no point really - even if Yoichi managed to get through the guard, who was barely taller
than him but clearly in a better shape, and even if he managed to get through the electronic sliding
doors, there were monitors and motion sensors everywhere .

“This is Isagi Yoichi, say hi everyone,” the guard introduced them, pushing Yoichi further into the
room, nearly making him trip and fall with the cuffs still on his feet. Luckily the guard fished out a
key and knelt down to take both them and the handcuffs off. “He’s your new cellmate from here on
out - ranked 274, as you can probably guess. Play nice everyone.”

After the guard had removed the cuffs from Yoichi’s hands and feet, he turned around without
another word, leaving Yoichi alone with ten criminals.

Well, with ten other criminals. Not really. Since, going by the actual definition of a criminal
(criminal, noun: one who has committed a crime), Yoichi is in fact not a criminal. He’s just
convicted as one.

There’s a big difference there, you see.

For a while, nobody moved. It was still early in the morning, so Yoichi supposed that his new
roommates had just woken up. All ten of them stared at Yoichi, like they’d never seen a human
being before, and Yoichi returned the gaze, probably looking just as dumb.

Yoichi felt like he was going to spontaneously combust any minute now. This was by far the worst
day of his life, and not just because he was in prison, but because he was going to have to share a
cramped space with ten other people, and all he could do was stare at them dumbly while they
stared back. At the very least, the space didn't look dirty, in fact the floors and the walls actually
seemed cleaner than most hospitals under the fluorescent lights, but that hardly made Yoichi feel
any better.

The worst part was how it was just so fucking awkward. Nothing has ever been more cringe than
this. Yoichi wondered how easy it would be to somehow off himself right now, just to save himself
from this uncomfortable situation..
Just as Yoichi thought that he should be polite, you know to a bunch of criminals , a group of
which he is decidedly not a part of, one of the other men jumped up into the air, cheering joyously.

“Oh, fun! New meat!” The boy all but trampled over the other people inhabiting the room, rushing
to get to Yoichi, pretty much crowding him up against the wall, while excitedly shaking his hand
and leaning in way too close. “It was getting so boring in here, what with all these sourpusses, am I
right!”

Yoichi was taken aback, to put it mildly - Yoichi was usually very sociable and got along good
with anybody. Hell, during high school, he'd gotten an award for having the best social skills in
their grade. But this weird little guy, who had missed the trend-train when it came to that tacky
yellow die on the underside of his hair, left him completely speechless, desperately trying to grasp
onto a lifeline, from any other filthy criminal in the room. No surprise that they all averted their
eyes when Yoichi tried to make eye contact.

Maybe it was Yoichi's fault to expect any kindness or even common courtesy from criminals. As
soon as the most sociable of the lot had gone and attacked Yoichi, they decided he wasn't
interesting enough to pay attention to anymore, going back to minding their own business, not
talking to or even acknowledging each other. All of them just... hung around, some of them having
a book or a magazine in their hands, but it was clear that they weren't really paying any attention to
them.

“Anyways, I’m Bachira Meguru!” The weird guy, Bachira apparently, greeted, bringing Yoichi’s
attention back to him. With a quick glance, Yoichi checked the guy's rank, and nearly keeled over
in shock. 265, which meant that this hyperactive, almost childlike gremlin of a guy was the highest
ranked inmate in the cell currently.

Maybe that’s why the rest of them were acting so cold just now - they were bitter . This guy was
closer than any of them to making it out of this shitho- oh no.

Of course that’s how things are going to play out, Yoichi should have seen this sooner. With Blue
Lock’s system, it was nearly impossible to form connections to other people. They are your
competition. In order to better your own quality of life, you have to make sure others have it worse.
So if somebody is ranked higher than you, of course you would want to knock them down and take
their place.

Which leaves the prisoners isolated and lonely for the entire duration of their sentence. Probably
making them more vulnerable to possible manipulation from the guards, or the warden, or hell,
even the legal system as a whole.
“Y-yeah, nice to meet you I guess,” Yoichi stammered out his response, and before he could even
blink Bachira was already pulling him further into the room.

“It’s so great to finally get a new person into team Z! It’s been so long since the last guy upgraded
his placement, since somebody had served their entire time already. Well, it’s not like any of us
have been in here for longer than three months, but anyway. It was about time somebody new
joined us.” Bachira was talking loud and fast and Isagi could barely keep up (he could barely care
to keep up). Yoichi could've snorted at the way he called this group of law-breaking criminals
a team, while the rest of them glared at his back.

All he could think was that eleven new inmates in a matter of three months? That both seemed like
a lot and also… not.

Yoichi was getting a headache from all of this.

“So anyways, that’s Chigiri, he never talks to anyone and just side-eyes everyone with his perfect
pretty eyes and his perfect pretty hair,” Bachira pointed out an unfairly attractive guy sitting at the
corner, side-eyeing them. Ranked 267 . “Case in point, he’s side-eyeing us right now. And that’s
Kunigami, he never talks to anyone, but he always breaks up any fights that may start.”

Bachira was now pointing at a buff orange haired guy, who was hardly paying them any mind.
Ranked 266 . “Oh, talking about fights, those are Raichi and Gagamaru, they never talk to
anyone…”

Yoichi pretty much tuned him out - all Yoichi got from this introduction was that nobody ever
talked to anyone in cell-block Z.

Wonderful , Yoichi thought sourly.

“And last but definitely least, we have Igaguri! He’s always talking to somebody, even if and when
it’s unwanted. He’s unbearable!” Bachira pointed out to a short bald boy, whose face was turned
into a scowl at the way he was introduced. He was pouting at the corner like a child, with arms
crossed over his chest, and- hold up. This guy was ranked 275.

“How come he’s ranked below me?” Yoichi asked. If Yoichi was the newcomer, shouldn’t he be
at the bottom of the barrel? How come this guy is ranked even below him, then?
“Oh, Igaguri is always the lowest ranked! He could bomb the entire cell-block V and he’d still be
ranked the lowest,” Bachira laughed, before leaning in closer to Isagi. “The guy’s a monk you
know. A disciple of god, and he still ended up in prison. Must’ve been quite blasphemous
activities, don’t you think?”

“You have to stop with that!” Igaguri cried out. "I haven't done anything bad, you never let me
explai-"

“I don’t know how many times we have to tell you this, but nobody cares Igaguri, now shut up ,”
the side-eye-guy, Chigiri, snapped. “God, every time you open your mouth, I get a horrible
migraine.”

“Ah, as you can see, we’re like a big happy family here in block Z!” Bachira smiled and pulled
Yoichi to sit on his ratty little mattress with him. Bachira kept swaying a little from side to side
now that he was sitting with his legs crossed, a happy smile on his face. “So anyways, Isagi,”
Bachira stopped swaying and leaned closer to Isagi, face way too close for someone whom Yoichi
had just met. Yoichi hoped that this guy wasn't going to make a habit out of invading his personal
space. “So what’d you do?”

The question seemed to pique the interest of his other roommates as well, as all of them lifted their
heads just a little bit, tilting them a little as if to listen to a very much not private conversation.

“Huh? When?” Isagi asked, because you know, he’s smart .

Bachira laughed like Isagi had told the best joke in all of history. “You’re so funny, Isagi!” Bachira
giggled, pushing Isagi in a teasing way, much like someone you’ve been friends with for ages
would.

Yoichi felt his entire body grow ridgid at the act of friendliness. Bachira was clearly naturally very
cheerful and friendly and desperate to get along with people, but at a place like prison? it was more
than out of place, and not at all welcome, at least not in Yoichi's eyes. He wasn't there to get close
to these people, he had zero intention of being friends with them. Since his trial, all Yoichi had
experienced had been forms of hostility and on a good day neutrality - having a potentially violent
criminal act so buddy-buddy with him right at the get go made him feel a tad... uncomfortable?
Maybe ven overwhelmed?

But on the other hand, Yoichi couldn't also help but feel relieved, to know that not everybody
inside this prison was an antisocial, grumpy pariah. It had been so long since he was treated with
kindness, since such a happy, warm smile was thrown his way and Yoichi just could help but feel
warm and fluffy inside, while the deceptive anxiety creeped in from the bottom of his spine to the
back of his head, because the last time, the last person who treated him with this much kindness
and joy was-

Okay, let’s not go there, not now. Let’s all remember that Yoichi is not a criminal and he doesn’t
fraternize with criminals , and just because this guy is sweet and kind to him now, doesn’t mean he
couldn’t be a vicious murderer.

“I mean what did you do before you got convicted?” Bachira asked.

Isagi blinked. “Well, I took a sip of water, which was a bad call since the verdict came right then
and I ended up spitting it all out in front of a whole courtroom-”

“I meant, what did you do to get convicted in the first place?”

That was a little personal question, now wasn't it? Especially to ask a person who'd only just got
there. Yoichi was fairly sure that there had to be some sort of prison-code against that, that there
must be an adjustment period before bringing it up.

And besides, Yoichi wasn’t ready to open that can of worms. Not now. Not ever. Yoichi was going
to spend the rest of his life avoiding that question.

“Oh, uhm, w-well what did you do?”

Bachira just laughed in response, the sound way too cheery and way too happy for a guy who was
just asked about the literal crime he had committed. “Oh, well you see I used to work as a barista at
a coffee shop, and this one time a very rude customer was super mean and made me upset,”
Bachira said with a mock-baby voice and a playful pout.

Yoichi blinked. “That doesn’t sound like a good enough reason to-”

“So I beat him up.” Right. That explains it. “It was pretty brutal actually. I heard he had to have
some serious surgery done on his face after that. Anyways, turns out the guy was like super duper
rich and ended up suing me. I ended up getting fined more than I could ever hope to be able to
pay.”
 He just got fined for it? That still doesn’t explain why he’s in prison though.

“So I set his car on fire,” Bachira said then, the expression on his face morphing into a comically
serious one.

Ah. Of course, an arsonist.

“And two others as well while I was at it.”

There was no doubt that Yoichi was most likely going to go insane sooner or later during his time
in Blue Lock. Bachira was still swaying from one side to another, like he'd only just told a funny
little story about his fine day at work, not about the time he set three cars on fire after beating
someone up. With company like this, there was no way to keep his sanity intact. Yoichi stole
another once over around the cell - nobody else seemed too faced by the story. Either they weren't
listening, or they'd heard it a million times before, or all of them had committed such heinous
crimes that Bachira's was child's play compared to it.

Yoichi wondered if there was the option to be locked away in solitary confinement. Sure, he'd go
insane there as well, but he was sure more of his brain cells would remain intact.

Suddenly a loud ringing noise caught everyone’s attention, and the bright smile on Bachira’s face
got impossibly wider. “Oh yeah! Breakfast time! Hope you’re hungry, Isagi!” he cheered, pulling
Yoichi to his feet and starting to drag him out of the room.

Just the thought of having to interact with the rest of the Blue Lock prisoners, made even the
slightest resemblance of an appetite Yoichi might have had disappear completely.

Chapter End Notes

leave a critique
 How many speeding tickets you need before the government puts you on time
out
Chapter Notes

me: *writes 5000+ words*

me: this is ass
me: deletes 5000+ words

Very big and warm thank you to all the lovely people taking the time of their day to
write such nice comments <3 I'm sorry I didn't reply to them all, I was too busy
giggling and blushing and swinging my legs back and forth like a teenage girl.
Here's chapter two with my cringe-fail attempts at being funny, let's go

See the end of the chapter for more notes

II - How many speeding tickets you need before the government puts you on time out

There was a good possibility that at some point in his life, Yoichi had gone mad and was either
hallucinating or living in some sort of delusion.

The problem wasn’t that the food he was served was quite literally just a plain bowl of rice, a small
portion of miso soup and a tiny container of natto, or even the fact that the Blue Lock facility was
so clean and sterile that Yoichi could feel the chemicals used for cleaning burning his nose and
causing a migraine.

It wasn’t even the fact that he - an innocent man, free of all sins and crimes - was stuck in a prison
with a bunch of dangerous criminals who were probably going to stab him to death with a steak
knife in his sleep (when Yoichi figures out how to access internet in this hell hole, he’s
immediately googling how long a person can survive with no sleep, because there is a fat chance in
hell that he’s getting a wink of sleep here).

Not even the lack of guards and other personnel really shocked him. Okay, maybe it did shock him
a little bit at first, but after thinking through it, it made sense in a way.

There were guards and other personnel, but they weren’t really present in the life of the inmates
much. After all, Blue Lock was a facility with the highest form of modern technology available.
The monitoring of the inmates was done almost completely by surveillance cameras and AI. The
cleaning and food preparations and distribution was completely automated. The guards only
existed just in case of a power-outage (unlikely, with the one hundred backup generators Blue Lock
apparently had) or if another issue with the technology occurred.

Yoichi was briefed on all of this way before he ever came to Blue Lock, so none of this was news
to him. That didn’t stop Bachira from acting as his personal exposition machine.

And that’s how we get to the root of the issue - Yoichi was sure he either was either actively going
insane as we speak, or the thread between sanity and madness in his brain snapped a long time ago.
Because while Bachira was otherwise very joyful, welcoming and overall nice, he was also
apparently a serial arsonist, who was trying to force feed his food to Yoichi.

On top of the over-friendly behavior with somebody whom he’d only met about thirty-minutes
prior, Bachira was also causing Yoichi’s entire world to collapse with the things that were coming
out of his mouth.

“What do you mean you don’t know?!” Yoichi demanded, while mastering his very ninja-like
movements, trying to avoid Bachira, who was poking him with his chopsticks full of food.

“I mean just that! I have no clue how to improve my ranking!” Bachira was laughing like he was
having the time of his life - whether he was laughing at Yoichi or himself, Yoichi had no clue.
“I’ve just been here a little longer than all of these chumps so I rank the highest by default!”

Yoichi grit his teeth so hard he was sure he’d need a dentist appointment soon - if there even was a
thing like a prison dentist. He was doing his best to figure out this ranking system, but was coming
up empty. Yoichi had been in Blue Lock for less than an hour and he already felt like he was losing
precious time - he was going to lose most of his body weight if he had to live like this for too long.
Eating natto everyday was no way for a growing boy like himself - a 23 year old - to be living.

However, Yoichi couldn’t help but contemplate the ups and downs of ranking high or low.

Obviously the main issue with being ranked so low was the poor sleeping situation and pathetic
food - however, logically thinking, the lowest ranking inmates probably were the ones to go most
unnoticed. If Yoichi wanted to improve his ranking, the last thing on his mind would be to try to
pick on Igaguri - it’s a whole ‘punching up versus punching down’ situation. It’s only logical that
the rest of the inmates had come to the same conclusion, if they had half a brain cell that is.

Please, they’re criminals who in their right mind would commit a crime in the first place, that
should be the first sign that intelligent life didn’t exist within Blue Lock’s confinements.

(Yoichi’s moral superiority continued to ignore the fact that he himself is locked within Blue
Lock’s confinement, and as such, by default he is included in that statement.)

So by Yoichi’s logic. The only way to improve was to take down the strongest guy.

But then there was the problem with being ranked high - you had all the perks you could ever wish
for, but you weren’t the only one who wanted them. Yoichi can only imagine the target that was
painted on the back of Blue Lock’s highest ranking inmate.

But perhaps that was a dilemma Yoichi was going to solve after he figured out how to even get to
that point.

“So nobody in block Z has figured out how to improve their living situation?” God, Yoichi was so
close to just slapping those chopsticks away from his face. He would’ve done it a long time ago,
but he really didn’t want to waste good food, and provoking a guy who had beat up a rude customer
and set his fucking car on fire didn’t sound like a smart move.

“Not that I know of, no,” Bachira hummed happily, finally, finally giving up on sharing his food
with Yoichi, and bringing the already very cooled down food to his own mouth. “But it’s not like
they talk to me anyways, which kind of sucks and is so mean! I feel like I talk, and talk, and talk
and talk, and nobody pays any mind to me-”

Yoichi really couldn’t figure out how the rest of block Z was managing to ignore Bachira.

Yoichi looked around the canteen they were currently eating in - there was nobody there except for
block Z. Apparently the other blocks are allowed to go eat earlier and so take the chance to eat
before the filthy low ranks come in .

As though they hadn’t ranked low at any point.

Yoichi took notice of how most other block Z inmates avoided sitting with each other - in fact most
of them sat in entirely separate tables. The only ones sharing a table were Kunigami and Chigiri,
and even they weren't even sitting close by or participating in a conversation together.
Turning back around to look at Bachira turned out to be a mistake, because the moment Yoichi was
fully facing his new "friend", he found himself with a pair of chopsticks in his mouth, along with
way too much food.

"Aha! Bullseye, score!" Bachira cheered, as he finally accomplished his long awaited goal of
feeding Isagi.

Yoichi begrudgingly chewed the food forced into his mouth. It wasn't even bad, actually it was
quite delicious, but truth be told, Yoichi had pretty much negative appetite at the moment. "Great,
thanks Bachira," Yoichi said after he swallowed (because he wasn't an animal like some people
here).

Bachira let out an over-exaggerated gasp. "That was the first time you referred to me by my name!"
He noted, and now if ever Yoichi was sure he was experiencing hallucinations, because Bachira
for sure had tears in his eyes.

"Yes, it must've been excruciating having to wait all of forty-five minutes for that experience,"
Yoichi rolled his eyes.

"It's about damn time!"

Yoichi decided to not comment on the blatant Lizzo reference.

○○○

Yoichi spent the rest of his first day in prison wandering around the facility, in the desperate hope
that he would get used to his new environment and lack of freedom.

There's no point in kidding yourself, you are in prison, with hundreds of criminals there's no
getting used to that.

And Bachira was also there. No matter what Yoichi did, or how many turns he took in the never-
ending maze, Bachira wasn't far behind. In fact, he really wasn't far behind, staying all but glued
on Yoichi's back like a particularly annoying tick that you couldn't rip off of your skin.
Now, before Yoichi faces any judgment for being annoyed at such a clearly sweet and cheerful
young man, Yoichi would like to remind everyone that this man admitted to not only being a serial
arsonist, but also to beating a guy so hard that he was unrecognizable. So let’s not blame Yoichi for
not being exactly happy that this violent criminal was being particularly tactile with him.

To be honest, walking around the Blue Lock facility turned out to be a useless quest, at least with
Yoichi’s current rank - he couldn’t even access most of the spaces anyway.

It didn’t stop him from shutting down all of Bachira’s offers of engaging in some fun activities , as
Bachira called them. Yoichi was fairly sure those activities included a knife and a lighter. So
instead he opted to just hang around and listen to Bachira babble on about whatever came to his
mind, until it was socially acceptable to pretend to go to sleep.

Now to be fair, it wasn’t as though the night was any better - the only upside was that at least there
wasn’t a hyperactive bee buzzing into his ear all the time. Instead, the bee was glued to his side,
having pushed his own thin mattress right next to Yoichi’s, but was still mostly laying on Yoichi’s
side, his limbs spread out everywhere, making it impossible for Yoichi to fall asleep even if he
wanted to. Bachira was acting as though they had known each other for years and not just a day.

To be fair, Bachira wasn’t the only criminal who was a menace even in their sleep - Igaguri was
nearly as close to Yoichi as Bachira was, and his mattress was a good meter or two away from
Yoichi - the guy had rolled around in his sleep so much, that his drool was making a pool right
next to Yoichi ear. Yoichi couldn’t even move out of the line of fire - Bachira was pretty much
holding him hostage in his spot.

On top of that, both Igaguri and Gagamaru were snoring like their life depended on it. Whether
they were trying to out-snore each other or they were having a concert, Yoichi wasn’t sure - all he
knew was that if he had to live like this for the next eleven years, he was going to stuff his head
into one of the automatic food dispensers in the canteen, and wait for the automated hatch to close
on his neck.

Yoichi was going to figure out the ranking system first thing in the morning, and beat the system in
a record time, he decided as Igaguri let out a snore loud enough to rupture his eardrums.

○○○

Alright, admittedly, Yoichi did give himself one more day of respite. This time he let Bachira drag
him around the prison, showing him all of his favorite things and places and activities (there
weren’t a lot, if we’re being real).

But on his third day of prison, Yoichi decided that he was going to take Blue Lock by the balls. He
was for sure going to show all of these low-life criminals that just because he was a law-abiding,
innocent person, he wasn’t one to be pushed around and messed with.

At least that was the plan. The plan was pretty much thrown into the dumpster, as an absolute
mountain, a complete unit of a man all but poked him once, sending Yoichi flying on his ass while
he, Bachira and the rest of block Z were mindlessly wasting time in the main area where everyone
was allowed.

“Get out of my way peasant,” a gruff, ‘I smoke eight packs of cigarettes a day’ -kind of voice told
him, the person hardly even sparing Yoichi a glance. There were about ten other men, all smaller
in size and even more pathetic in demeanor, running behind the man, following him like lost
puppies just begging to be adopted.

Yoichi watched with a dumb look on his face, as the other men cleaned and disinfected the seat the
large man sat himself in, lounging on the large armchair like a king would on a throne. After the
little followers had swiped the man’s surroundings of all possible dirt, they remained standing
beside him, in a neat little line-up as though waiting for the next instructions.

“259, go get me a glass of water,” the giant said, his tone annoyed and almost tired, like he
couldn’t believe that the other guy hadn’t brought him a drink without asking. And the other guy,
who apparently had no self respect what-so-ever, ran to go get that drink like there was a timer on
him.

Yoichi craned his head a little to see how this guy was ranked - he had to be high, right? Like top
ten at least , with how he had all those other guys running around like headless chickens-

250.

250.

This guy was ranked 250 ?!

Sure it was 24 places above Isagi, but that was still incredibly low if Yoichi was completely honest
with himself. And the man had the guts to act like he owned the place.

Yoichi was about to comment on it to Bachira, when the man’s gaze suddenly found Isagi. The red
eyes seemed to stare deep into Isagi’s soul as he glared without really putting any effort into it.
Yoichi felt frozen where he was standing, having just been helped up by Bachira. There was also
deep annoyance stirring in Yoichi’s gut - the man had literally just pushed him down and now he
was acting like he only noticed Yoichi for the first time?

“You,” the man pointed a lazy finger at Yoichi, while resting his head on his hand which was
leaning on the armrests of the chair. “Sprout-head.”

Yoichi blinked and turned to look behind himself. There was no way sprout-head was directed at
him . But there was nobody behind him. In fact, it seemed like most everyone had made
themselves scarce.

“I’m talking to you,” there was a default tone of annoyance in the man’s voice, Yoichi figured, and
it seemed to be increasing by the second. His followers, his disciples if you will, all looked
between him and Yoichi nervously, looking like they were moments away from a panic attack.

Yoichi cleared his throat, trying to steady his voice. “I have a name you know,” he said, almost
immediately regretting his words. Based strictly on stereotypes, this guy was most likely extremely
violent and dangerous. He was without a doubt a murderer, and now Yoichi had gone and talked
back at him with attitude .

Do inmates get proper burials when they’re killed in prison? Or do they just cremate the bodies
and send condolences to the families.

If there’s even a body left after that hulk is done.

“I didn’t ask,” the man sighed, tapping his foot impatiently. “Come here.” He even had the nerve
to beckon him with his finger.

“I’d rather not.”

An audible gasp was heard from the row of followers at the man’s side. Yoichi heard the sound of
breaking glass behind him, and he guessed that the guy who was tasked with retrieving the glass of
water just died of shock.

Good, he and Yoichi could be buried together, considering that a look of anger crossed the man’s
face. He got up from his seat and took slow, deliberate steps towards Yoichi, clearly doing his best
to intimidate him.

Well, job well done, considering that Yoichi wasn’t only intimidated, he was downright terrified as
the guy stopped right in front of Yoichi, looking down on him as one might look down on an insect
before stepping on it. Even Bachira had moved slightly away from Yoichi, still close by, but
seemingly unsure how to tread during this situation.

“I don’t like having to tell twice,” the man said.

“I don’t like being told what to do.” Okay, see, Yoichi had already dug his own grave. He wasn’t
going to go out begging for his life, he might as well try to die with some dignity intact.

Death with dignity, in prison. Fucking mint.

“You might be new here, peasant, but hopefully you’re not stupid enough to not know how things
work around here,” the man said, his teeth gritted, veins slowly popping out in his neck. It seemed
like this guy had a really short fuse. “You, peasant , are the lowest of the low. And those at the
bottom, obey those above them.”

“Those are some mighty big words from a guy ranked 250 . I’d be inclined to take your words
more seriously if you were within the top ten, but I hate to tell you this wannabe-king, but you’re
still within the bottom caste here.”

Yoichi regrets that he never told his parents what he wanted engraved on his gravestone, because
now he’s gone and done it and sealed his fate. Not only were the veins popping out in the large
man’s neck, but also on his forehead. Yoichi saw the arm move, saw the hand balled into a fist but
didn’t have good enough reflexes to stop the oncoming assault.

Luckily, he didn’t have to. His savior came in the form of orange hair, muscular build and tall
enough height to look the offending man straight in the eye.
Kunigami’s hand was holding onto the other man’s arm, stopping it from getting any closer to
Yoichi. His eyes were narrowed and jaw clenched as he pushed the slightly larger man aside.
“Don’t make me remind you of the anti-riot shock, Barou ,” Kunigami said. “Fighting is a no-no.”

The man, Barou, narrowed his eyes at Kunigami. “I see you still haven’t risen through the ranks
Kunigami,” he sneered, straightening his back. There weren’t many people present in the common
area, but every single pair of eyes there were directed at the unfolding scene.

“Neither have you - it would seem that your overnight rise was just a fluke, King Barou ,”
Kunigami shot back.

“I can tell you another overnight rise that isn’t a fluke, am I right, up-top!” Bachira suddenly
“whispered” to Yoichi, putting his hand up, ready to receive a very-not earned high five (whispered
is in quotations, because Bachira’s whispering was loud enough to be heard all the way to the
washrooms).

Yoichi turned his head for a second to look at Bachira with an incredulous look. For one, in his
terror he had forgotten his entire presence (Yoichi can’t be blamed for it, for no matter how much
Bachira wants to act like a friend, he did absolutely jack-shit to save Yoichi from the giant monster
in front of them), and for second, what?

Was that supposed to be a boner joke?

“I don’t get it,” Yoichi whispered back to Bachira, looking back to Kunigami and Barou, who were
having the most intense staring contest Yoichi had ever witnessed.

“I was joking about a bo-”

"Bachira, shut up," Kunigami said without taking his eyes off of Barou, and to Yoichi's surprise
Bachira listened. "The doors to the courtyard are about to open - I think it's best if we switched
locations."

That was all the warning Yoichi and Bachira were given, before Kunigami took a hold of them
from the back of their necks, and began to steer them away from the common area. Yoichi glanced
back to see Barou remain standing in his spot, giving them the meanest death glare Yoichi had ever
seen.
While Bachira was being pulled along on his right side, Yoichi noticed Chigiri catch up to them
from his left. Considering that in the few days he'd been at Blue Lock, Chigiri had barely spared
him a glance, Yoichi was fairly surprised to see the red-head follow them outside.

"I think they're able to walk by themselves now Kunigami," Chigiri noted, giving the hand that was
holding onto Yoichi a small slap. Kunigami immediately let go of both of them, and stopped by the
still closed doors, before turning around to face Yoichi.

"It would do you well in the future, to remember that provoking Barou isn't a great idea,"
Kunigami said with a stern look, crossing his arms on his chest. "He's not actually a violent guy,
but he's got a short fuse and really dislikes it when people don't treat him with the respect he thinks
he deserves."

"Nothing to respect in that guy," Yoichi shrugged. "You seemed awfully familiar with the guy -
you know him?"

Kunigami shook his head. "Not any better than anyone else here," he said. "We came in on the
same day. He was kind of pissed off that despite arriving at the same time, I was given the higher
rank. Didn't matter in the end, though - the next day his rank rose to 250 and he was moved to cell-
block X. I haven't actually since."

Yoichi's eyes widened. That gorilla of a man actually managed to rise in the ranks overnight? How
in the hell did he manage that?

Before Yoichi could voice his bewilderment, Chigiri scoffed. "Before you ask us how he did it, we
don't actually know. Pretty sure he himself is clueless as to how he did it, considering that he's still
stuck in the same rank after nearly three months."

"Now he calls himself King Barou and has his minions do all the work for him!" Bachira, who
apparently could not bear being silent for longer than five minutes, chimed in.

"He always called himself the king," Kunigami rolled his eyes.

Yoichi frowned. Based on just one short interaction, Yoichi could assume that Barou was the type
of person who wouldn't settle for such a low rank. The guy was probably trying for the top spot -
so it probably wasn't that far off from the truth that Barou just didn't know how he'd done it the
first time around.
That was just fantastic, wasn't it? Not that it would be of any use to Yoichi either way - even if
Barou knew the secret behind his overnight success, there was a fat chance that he'd be willing to
share his secret with anybody, much less Yoichi.

There was an even slimmer chance of Yoichi even stooping so low as to ask him in the first place.

The stern look on Kunigami's face melted into a much gentler one suddenly, and he gave Yoichi a
warm smile. "On the brighter side, that was the first time I've seen anyone ever give Barou an
attitude - not that I've seen the guy much anyways. But I can't imagine that a lot of people have, so
good job."

Yoichi blinked. He tried not to let his mind be filled with thoughts of wow, for convicted criminals
who are in prison, these guys are pretty nice . Or orange hair isn't really my go-to type in a person,
but god damn.

Yeah, it was probably for the best to ignore those thoughts. It was probably best to also ignore the
warm, fuzzy feeling he could feel growing inside him, at the bottom of his belly, and inside his
lungs, the feeling he'd grown accustomed to and hadn't felt since-

Okay, better not open that can of worms. In fact, let's take that can of worms, superglue the lid shut
and throw it away, like it never even existed.

That seemed like a better plan actually.

“So, do you want to check out the courtyard?” Kunigami offered, as 10 am struck and the doors to
the courtyard slid open automatically.

○○○

It was another two days before Yoichi’s new bleak and uninteresting reality got a glimpse of light
in it. Sure, the past two days had been slightly better, with the addition of Kunigami and Chigiri as
his company during meals, even if the latter rarely said anything. Although to be fair, neither did
Kunigami - Bachira seemed to have switched up the gear now that he had three people to talk to
instead of just one, and was rambling their ears off.
No, the actual ray of sunlight came in the form of the same guard who had escorted him to his cell
block a few days ago. For a millisecond Yoichi thought that finally, they realized that a mistake
had been made and he was going to be set free. Then rationality set in again.

The guard stopped him when he was coming out of the bathroom, a rare moment during which he
was alone (Bachira had once tried to join him in the bathroom stall - that was when Yoichi decided
that he had to have a long talk about boundaries with him).

“Isagi Yoichi,” the guard addressed him, with his signature bored voice. “Visitor hours - there’s
somebody here for you.”

Yoichi was honestly shocked - first of all, he wasn’t informed about visitor hours. Second of all,
his parents hadn’t been able to look him in the eye at all during the court case, so Yoichi was quite
doubtful that they were ready to talk to him.

And with his parents out of the count, there was only one person Yoichi could imagine coming to
visit him. And it was the last person he wanted to see.

Despite the nervousness brewing at the bottom of his belly, Yoichi followed the guard to a private
room. Just like any room in Blue Lock, the doors were automatic sliding doors, which revealed a
large room which was cut in half by a large glass window and a table. The walls were dark blue
steel, like anything in the facility really, and on the other side of the glass…

Was not the person Yoichi was dreading to see.

“Noa?” Yoichi blinked once, twice, thrice just to make sure this wasn’t another hallucination.

But there the man was, in the flesh, sitting on the other side of the glass. He was dressed sharply in
a dark gray suit, much like the one he was wearing when Yoichi had last seen him.

By impulse, Yoichi took a few quick steps further into the room, taking a seat in the metal chair on
his side. Unlike in other prisons, there was no phone to talk through with the visitors, instead in this
private room, there were only a few small holes in the glass.

“You have thirty minutes,” the guard yawned. “You’ll be more or less in privacy, but there are
security monitors here as well. But you know how those are.”
Yoichi wasn’t sure what the guard meant by that last statement, never taking his eyes off of his
lawyer, only knowing the guard had left when he heard the sliding doors close again.

“What are you doing here?” Yoichi asked the most obvious first question that came to mind.

Noa’s face, like usual, didn’t reveal anything. During the time Yoichi had known the man, he had
not once seen the stoic mask fall from the man’s face. Yoichi was unsure if it was a trained habit or
if he really was just that emotionless. Yoichi somehow doubted the latter.

“Your parents weren’t too eager to come see you,” Noa’s voice had always been even and calming
to Yoichi - at least that hadn’t changed, even if the environment he was hearing it had. “I wanted to
see how you’re holding up - that you’re adjusting well to prison life.”

Yoichi didn’t know how to answer that - yes, he was miserable, he was in prison for fuck’s sake.
But considering that he’d never been to prison before, he couldn’t say for sure if Blue Lock was
better or worse than a regular prison.

Yoichi shrugged. “How well do you think you’d adjust to life behind locked doors with a bunch of
law-breaking criminals? I’m getting by.”

Yoichi almost thought he saw a hint of a smile on Noa’s face, but categorized that as another one
of his hallucinations.

“Blue Lock isn’t exactly your typical prison - the adjustment period might be longer than if you
were sent to a normal prison. Speaking of which - have you figured out the ranking system yet? I
can’t imagine you’d want to spend the next eleven years at the bottom of the barrel.”

Yoichi groaned. Day four, and he was no closer to figuring out anything. Although to be fair, the
people in block Z had been here for months with no progress. But Yoichi will also be the first to
admit that the people in block Z weren’t exactly the brightest of the bunch.

“It’s complete bullshit! Nobody here knows anything! I’ve met exactly one guy who’s managed to
better his rank, and apparently even he did it as a fluke!” Yoichi threw his head back in frustration
and covered his face in his hands. It felt good to be able to vent to somebody he trusted - his
irritation had been simmering beneath his skin this whole time, with no outlet to release it to. “You
know what I think? I think that whoever came up with this place, doesn’t actually have any clue
how the ranking system works! The guy is probably just pulling stuff out of his ass as he pleases
and sadistically enjoys watching people try to replicate their past successes, only to realize that
they themselves don’t know what works. Because there is actually no model to this shit! Like,
there is just some omnipotent god, who came up with this idea, but doesn’t have a concrete idea on
how to execute it!”

Okay, that was a lot of shit off his chest. Yoichi had vented a lot to Noa during his trial, but this is
starting to border on embarrassing.

“As amusing as that sounds, I don’t think it’s the case,” Noa hummed, his expression never once
changing during Yoichi’s little monologue. “I’m actually a hundred percent sure that’s not the
case. But a good deduction anyways. I’m sure if Blue Lock was anyone else’s idea it would be the
most plausible scenario.”

“What do you mean by anyone else? Do you know the guy who runs this?”

“I don’t have the entire thirty minutes to use right now,” Noa ignored Yoichi’s question. Instead he
reached into the case he carried with him, taking out a small black bag the size of his hand. There
was a small hatch on the glass, which could only be opened from the visitor’s side - Noa opened
the hatch and placed the pouch on the table in front of Yoichi.

“What’s this? Aren’t they going to confiscate it the second they come in?” Yoichi asked,
examining the bag, but not daring to open it just yet.

This time Noa actually seemed amused. “I wouldn’t count on it,” he said, getting up from his seat
and dusting off all the imaginary dust from his sharp suit. “I’ll signal the guard to come get you.
I’ll try to visit again in a week or two. In the meantime, try to make use of what I gave you - I don’t
want to see you still be ranked second to last the next time we meet, okay?”

In a very Noa-like way, the man bid his farewells without actually saying goodbye. Yoichi had
grown accustomed to it. Just like Noa said, the guard was there to pick him up just a few minutes
after the lawyer had left, and did not ask about the small bag Yoichi was hiding very poorly.

When they arrived back at cell-block Z, Yoichi didn’t want to walk through the doors just yet. If
Bachira or any of the others saw him walking in with a mystery bag, they most likely would
demand to see what was in it. Yoichi wanted to check the contents himself before sharing with
others, so he told the guard to leave him by the bathroom.
The guard didn’t care either way, just waved him off to find his own way to the toilets, before
turning around and somehow managing to both strut away lazily, while seeming to be in a rush.

The moment Yoichi was inside the safety and privacy of the toilet stall, he opened the bag. He
was… kind of confused, but not really. He knew what prison contraband was - he just never
imagined that Noa, his lawyer, would be the one supplying him with it. Yet here he was, looking at
a lighter, a cell phone , a small ziplock bag filled with some sort of powder ( please, God, Noa did
not bring me drugs to prison, please God, Noa absolutely does not know any criminal drug dealers,
please, please, please) , and a…

A hair comb. Huh. That was quite an unusual form of prison contraband. Sure, Yoichi hadn’t seen
any hair brushes or combs anywhere in Blue Lock, but how would Noa know that?

Yoichi decided to leave that question until the next time Noa comes to visit. Although, the man did
have a habit of not answering Yoichi’s most burning questions.

○○○

Yoichi was hiding the black bag under his pillow when the rest of block Z returned to their little
“cell”. Yoichi was struck by some miraculous luck when he returned to their room, only to find it
empty.

The moment Bachira noticed Yoichi had returned, he let out a loud cheering noise, immediately
running up to Yoichi and throwing his arms around his neck, like they were lifelong friends who
hadn’t seen each other in years.

Even Kunigami and Chigiri greeted him, even though they lacked the same enthusiasm as Bachira.

“God, you have no idea how boring it was to have dinner without you!” Bachira complained, while
Kunigami just snorted a quiet “rude”, but didn’t otherwise comment on it.

Yoichi hummed in reply. “Oh? How so?”

“Chigiri was complaining how he hasn’t had the chance to brush his pretty long hair in months and
how annoying it is to have to try to just comb it with fingers in the shower,” Bachira groaned, like
he couldn’t imagine a duller subject to be talking about.
Chigiri huffed. “You have no idea how long it takes to make your hair this good. The people
running this place should be locked up themselves, it’s criminal to not take care of your hair when
it looks like mine does.”

Chigiri wasn’t lying - Yoichi had never seen as shiny and pretty long hair as Chigiri’s. It was also
funny - how Yoichi had just been given a hair comb by his lawyer, and now Chigiri was
complaining about not having one.

Yoichi looked around the small room, making sure that the only people paying attention were
Kunigami, Bachira and Chigiri. Luckily the rest of block Z were assuming their typical stance of
ignoring everyone else.

Yoichi beckoned Chigiri closer, putting his other hand underneath his pillow, trying to subtly fish
out the hair comb, without letting the other three see the other contents. Chigiri looked at him with
confusion and weariness, but came a bit closer anyways.

Chigiri’s face was almost comical when Yoichi presented him with the hair comb - at no point in
his life had he seen another person to be so amazed to see a hair comb.

“How the hell did you get this?” Chigiri asked, snatching the comb from Yoichi’s hand in seconds,
starting to run it through his hair. An almost peaceful look appeared on his face, like he’d been
waiting for ages to be able to do it again.

“Yeah, and who the hell smuggles a hairbrush into prison? Most people try to bring in drugs, but a
hair comb?” Kunigami snorted, an amused smile on his face. “Was your visitor your usual hair
comb dealer?”

“Haha, very funny, not telling,” Yoichi stuck out his tongue at Kunigami.

A beat of silence went by. Then Chigiri opened his mouth again. “You know Yoichi, you never did
answer when Bachira asked you what you did to get in Blue Lock.”

“No I didn’t.”
Another beat of silence - Yoichi wasn’t willing to give an answer. The three of them waited for
another minute, expectant looks on their faces, like they thought they could peer pressure Yoichi
into answering

Not happening.

“Well, how about I go first,” Chigiri sighed, putting down the hair brush, underneath his own
pillow . Not that Yoichi had any use for it, but still. “I-”

“He got too many speeding tickets and the government put him on time out,” Bachira said before
Chigiri could continue.

Chigiri’s eye twitched.

“How the hell do you go to prison for speeding?” Yoichi asked.

“Chigiri really went like Sonic and said ‘gotta go fast’,” Bachira nodded. “Then he didn’t pay the
tickets, and the police came to his door and escorted him to Blue Lock.”

“I don’t know how you came up with this narrative, but that didn’t happen you dumbass,” Chigiri
flicked Bachira on the forehead, making the latter let out an exaggerated cry in pain. “You’re really
just pulling shit out of your ass as you please, aren’t you?”

“It’s fine Chigiri, you don’t have to tell me. I won’t tell you either way,” Yoichi tried to give
Chigiri a pleasant smile. He didn’t add the I don’t care what you did, a criminal is a criminal no
matter the crime part. After all, these people still thought that he was like them, actually guilty of
something.

○○○

The next morning, Yoichi woke up way before the other inmates in block Z - it had been the first
night he had slept fairly well. Not perfectly, but he felt rested enough. Enough if fact that he
doubted his ability to go back to sleep.
 Instead, Yoichi dragged his ass to the washrooms. He ran his fingers through his messy hair, trying
to soothe it down a bit, before picking up his toothbrush. Yoichi stared at the dark circles under his
eyes and noticed that they had gone down since yesterday.

There was something else different from yesterday as well. Yoichi blinked once, twice, trying to
get the sleep off from his eyes. But this time he wasn’t hallucinating or seeing things thanks to just
waking up.

Because Yoichi’s ranking had gone up. 265 . He had stolen Bachira’s place. Which was great. And
also not. Because Yoichi, much like Barou before him, had no idea what he had done to earn it.

Yeah, no, Yoichi had been right, he had to have been. There’s no way there’s any patterns to this
shit, the main guy up there is just pulling shit out of his ass, he has to be.

Chapter End Notes

I'm going to try this thing where I'll hopefully update once a week, probably on
Thursday's at the earliest. If I know beforehand that I won't be able to crap out a
chapter in a week, i'll do my best to be nice and inform it in the notes of the latest
chapter, okay byeee
 101 Innovative Cleaning Tips for Your Prison Cell - Try Them Out Today!
Chapter Notes

I was totally going to write something really funny here, but I'm like half asleep rn, so
I have no idea what the joke was.

This chapter legit is not the best, because I had like twenty-five plot points I wanted to
squeeze in here, so I ended up rushing most things, but the chapter ended up kind of
long anyway so I had to cut it half. Or in thirds. We'll see.

Also, I'm kind of busy next week, so the next update might be delayed, depends on
how my inspiration flows after the weekend.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

III - 101 Innovative Cleaning Tips for Your Prison Cell - Try Them Out Today!

“So all you need to do to improve your ranking is give me a hairbrush?” Chigiri pursed his lips in
annoyance as he watched Yoichi have better food on his plate, yet still leave it relatively
untouched.

Yoichi, who was still not completely sure that the food they served in Blue Lock wasn’t poisoned,
just moved his food around his plate with his chopsticks. He had the same food he’d seen Bachira
eat before, while Bachira had fallen back to eating Kunigami’s meals. Funnily enough, he didn’t
seem too put off by the change, still happily munching away and offering some to Yoichi at every
possible chance.

Yoichi also noticed that the inmate who had fallen back to his old rank was giving him particularly
nasty looks - too bad the only people Yoichi could name from block Z were currently Bachira,
Kunigami and Chigiri.

“I’m just as confused as you are,” Yoichi said. He wasn’t really all too excited by the progress,
since the only difference the rank 274 and 265 seemed to have was the food he was eating. And
Yoichi had yet to discover his appetite in Blue Lock. “Hey Kunigami, do you remember what
Barou did on the day his ranking went up?”

Kunigami seemed taken aback by the question, before a contemplative look appeared on his face.
“Uh, not much of anything special. I mean, he seemed completely unfazed by his circumstance, so
I made the assumption that this wasn’t his first time in prison. But beside that, he acted just the
way you saw him the other day. He looked at a group of guys from the higher blocks, told them to
get him a drink and to make sure the seating was clean or he’d sit on one of them. The other
inmates were so thrown off that they obeyed instantly.”

That piece of information was the least helpful thing Kunigami could’ve given him. Yoichi was
well aware that the same tricks would not work for every inmate, but how was lending a person a
hair comb in any way comparable to making a bunch of other inmates your personal servants.

To be fair they’re not supposed to be, Barou rose over twenty places in his rank overnight - it’s not
comparable to a measly eleven.

“That’s hardly helpful,” Yoichi muttered.

“Another thing that’s weird to me is how you ,” Chigiri pointed to Bachira, who as usual was all
smiles and cheeks stuffed with food. “Are so okay with being knocked down. I for sure am a little
pissed off.”

“I don’t mind it if it’s Isagi!” Bachira announced, not bothering to swallow before eating his
mouth, because he was actually raised in a barn and had no manners. “Isagi deserves to be ranked
the highest of them all because he’s my very first friend ever!”

Yoichi wasn’t too shocked over the revelation that Bachira didn’t have any friends, but he was of
the opinion that categorizing the two of them as friends was going a little too far. Their relationship
mostly consisted of Bachira being overly clingy, like a child might be with a stuffed toy, while
Yoichi put up with it, because he didn’t know how Bachira would react if he didn’t. Although, if
Bachira didn’t have any prior experience, then it was understandable that he was a little confused
about how friendships weren’t supposed to be so one-sided.

Maybe Yoichi should cut the poor guy some slack and start to warm up to him a little - after all, it
wasn’t like Yoichi necessarily disliked Bachira. If they had met anywhere else, Yoichi would be
glad to be Bachira’s best friend.

But the harsh reality was that Bachira, and all the other people here, were criminals. Some of them
even violent criminals (a caste in which Bachira belonged in, unfortunately). Yoichi couldn’t just
overlook that fact, even if he wanted to. It didn’t matter how fun it could’ve been around Bachira,
or how nice Kunigami was or how pretty and funny Chigiri was. Yoichi couldn’t get over the
whole being criminals part.
Chigiri didn’t seem too happy with Bachira’s answer. “What, so if it had been me taking over your
place, you wouldn’t be so happy and chill about it?” he asked.

“No, I would be livid,” for the first time ever, Yoichi saw the smile drop from Bachira’s face as he
looked at Chigiri with an almost comical amount of seriousness. It was almost harder to take
seriously than Bachira usually was.

“Well Chigiri, tell me - would you rather have a hair comb or me still be ranked lower than you?”
Yoichi asked.

Chigiri pursed his lips and didn’t answer for a minute. He then turned his gaze back to his food.
“I’d rather have the hair comb.”

“Thought so,” Yoichi shrugged. “Besides, we don’t know if the hair comb even was the reason
why my rank got better. I mean, sure it was pretty much the only thing I did differently to any other
day, but who knows?”

Yoichi was sure that the hair comb was somehow connected to it, but since it didn’t make any
logical sense to him, he decided it was best to think through other possibilities as well.

○○○

When Yoichi can be sure nobody is around, he takes a minute to examine the ziplock bag filled
with white powder. He’s not naive, he knows how common it is for prisoners to smuggle drugs
into prison. He just hopes that of all people, Noa, the man who fought for his innocence during the
long and grueling trial, did not bring him drugs to prison.

Yoichi doesn’t open the bag, he just examines the insides through the plastic. It’s not crystalline
enough to be sugar or salt - although Yoichi can’t imagine why Noa would bring either of those to
prison for him. The food isn’t exactly flavorless here, so there’s no need to add any more salt.
Besides, if the food was unseasoned, he would hope that Noa would bring some other spices, not
just salt. And sugar seems even less likely, since Yoichi doesn’t have much of a sweet-tooth, and
even if he did, he wouldn’t resort to eating straight up sugar out of a bag to satisfy his craving.

The powder is too white to be flour. Even through the material of the plastic ziplock, Yoichi can
tell that the texture isn’t any kind of starch. He isn’t sure what he would need either of those for in
prison.
The options are starting to seem limited. Yoichi doesn’t see a world in which the powder is
anything other than cocaine. He wants to die, this is horrible. He had so much respect for Noa, and
now even he was a criminal.

Maybe Yoichi really does deserve to be locked in Blue Lock - he’s clearly surrounded himself with
horrible people, both outside and now in Blue Lock.

Yoichi takes a deep breath and opens the bag. There’s one way to be sure, even if Yoichi doesn’t
know what cocaine tastes like. And besides - cocaine is taken through the nose, right? So if put just
a tiny bit on his tongue, to make sure it is in fact something else, nothing will happen, right?

(He is incredibly ill-educated when it comes to drugs.)

Yoichi takes a deep breath, before putting his pinkie finger into the bag. He gathers just a few
specs on his finger before taking it back out and bringing the finger to his mouth. His heart is
racing a mile a minute, and he already feels lightheaded and like he’s about to pass out. If the bag
really is filled with drugs, Yoichi is now sealing his soul away, and voluntarily joining the ranks of
the other inmates he’s stuck with. He’ll admit that he deserves the eleven years he got, and will no
longer complain about anything.

Yoichi puts his finger into his mouth.

It’s baking soda.

○○○

While Yoichi is relieved to have confirmation that his own personal hero isn't actually a drug
dealer, Yoichi still curses Noa in his head, because now he's spent another two days wondering
what function baking soda would have in prison.

Yoichi agonizes over it so much that even Bachira seems to lose his sparkle as Yoichi fails to have
any response to his teasing.

Maybe Noa thinks that the way to improve one's ranking is to bake a cake for the other inmates.
Although that would take other ingredients as well. And an oven. And the willingness to do nice
things for these people.

He's so stuck in his head over this that he almost doesn't notice the fight breaking out.

To be fair, it is about time that Yoichi witnesses a proper prison fight. He's been here what, a few
days, and most people he's interacted with or taken notice of, act very cordially with each other.
Yoichi was warned before coming to Blue Lock that the place could be described as one of the
cruelest and most sadistic prisons in the world, yet Yoichi doesn't see any difference between Blue
Lock and an extremely strict, religious boarding school.

(Yoichi doesn't notice that his sense of time seems to be slipping away, he's been at Blue Lock for
well over a week.)

But maybe that's just the lowest level - Yoichi can't imagine what life is like when you get nearer
to the top.

The fight is between Raichi, the angry guy from cell-block Z and two other guys from a higher
block. Maybe cell-block X? Yoichi couldn't be sure, but the two men look like twins. And creepy
ones at that.

To be fair, Raichi is holding up surprisingly well against two large men. Yoichi doesn't know who
instigated the fight, but knowing Raichi (which Yoichi doesn't, but he's judging based on
appearance cause he's a bigot), Yoichi wouldn't put it past him. Although, the two other guys, who
are also dirty little criminals , don't exactly look like the kind of guys who got convicted over
something minor, like tax evasion.

No, they definitely killed somebody.

Yoichi, along with his three new companions who seem to have glued themselves on his ass , is
sitting far enough away in the common area to not get caught in the crossfire, but he can see the
blood starting to spill. One of the guys seemed to have a knife of some kind, not very big, but sharp
enough to cut a deep cut on to Raichi's face, right under his eye, causing him to whelp in pain and
cover his face.

There's a sound of disgust coming from Yoichi's left side - it's King Barou , because of course it is,
once again sitting on the only good chair in building five, with his legs resting on one of the other
prisoners, who has situated himself on his hands and knees in front of the giant guy.

Barou didn't seem bothered by the fight - no, he was looking at the spilling blood, staining the
floors, with a look of utter disgust.

Right. He's a clean freak. Maybe he's so disgusted by the sight of blood that he won't show himself
in the common area until the automatic cleaners have fixed the issue.

It's then, as Raichi is covering his face in pain that the twins finally get the upper hand on him.
From then on the fight is just unfair, as if it wasn't before. The twins are instantly on him, kicking
him onto the ground and continuing the beating by foot. Yoichi is pretty sure Raichi is now not
only bleeding from the knife wound but from other places as well, as each kick is more brutal than
the next. Barou lets out another disgusted sound

There are no guards in sight.

Yoichi notices Kunigami getting up on his feet and rushing in - Yoichi absentmindedly remembers
Bachira mentioning his tendency to break up fights.

Kunigami manages to push both of the twins back. Yoichi tries not to look too hard at the way his
muscles can be seen flexing under his jumpsuit.

“I think you’ve done enough,” Kunigami says with that stern tone of voice of his - Yoichi thinks
that Kunigami would have made a great high school teacher if he wasn’t a criminal. There’s just
something about that tone of voice that commands respect, even more than Barou’s does. Maybe
it’s the way Kunigami sound just so inherently patient, no matter the situation.

The twins try to move forward towards Raichi, who is out cold on the floor, again but Kunigami
holds them back. “Come on, let me kill him!” the other one, with a manic smile and crazy eyes,
complains. His assumed brother, who looks like him except he actually looks angry, just lets out a
string of incoherent noises. “My brother thinks he hasn’t learned his lesson yet!”

“There’s no lesson to be learned when the student is unconscious,” Kunigami responds, pushing
them back once again.

It is only then that two guards arrive with two medics in tow. They don’t seem too invested in
whatever is going on, just take a hold of the twins, putting them in handcuffs and escorting them
away while the medics lift Raichi onto a stretcher and carry him away. Nobody does anything
about the blood stains on the ground and the wall. Nobody even looks at them twice.

All except Barou. From that point on, Yoichi does see Barou in the common area, but he always
stays within distance from the stain of blood, while looking at it in discontempt. Yoichi sees a vein
pop in the King’s face multiple times, as he glares at the dried out puddle of red as if it had
personally offended him.

A day or two go by again and the blood isn’t cleaned away and now Yoichi too is concerned.

“Hey Bachira,” Yoichi decides to ask, as Bachira is shuffling a deck of cards. Yoichi had agreed to
play a game against Bachira, and was immediately regretting his choice as he noticed Bachira was
counting cards. “Why is the blood still there? Don't the cleaners wipe everything away every day?”
Yoichi knew for a fact that the automated cleaning machines had been there sometime not long
ago, because the smell of chemicals was once again burning his nose.

“I think somebody said that the AI that is used for the cleaners doesn’t clean away human DNA,”
Bachira shrugged. “I’m not sure if it’s programmed that way on purpose or not.”

Yoichi doesn’t think that there’s anything in Blue Lock that isn’t done on purpose.

"Okay, so if I win, you give me a kiss, and if you win, I give you a kiss, okay?" Bachira grinned
while not even trying to hide him rigging the game.

"If I win, you're quiet for the rest of the day. And I'll shuffle the deck."

○○○

Not that it matters, or that it’s anyone’s concern, Yoichi got knocked down back to the rank 266.
It’s still better than 274, and still doesn’t affect the overall quality of Yoichi’s life, but now that
Kunigami is the highest ranking in cell-block Z, they are both trying to brainstorm how the system
works.

“I know that the three of you aren’t exactly bothered by this development,” Chigiri, who along
with Bachira had involved themselves into the theorizing because of course they did, complained
pointing at them with his chopsticks. “But I’m going to be honest with you, my food is getting a
downgrade every day.”

“Maybe you should do something about your ranking then,” Yoichi shrugged.

They had more or less come to three conclusions:

1. Barou’s rapid rise in rank was obviously caused by his behavior towards the other inmates.
2. Kunigami’s rise in rank was connected to him stopping the terror twins from downright
murdering Raichi (there is no solid proof yet that Raichi isn’t dead, since he wasn’t back
from the infirmary yet).
3. Yoichi rose in ranks thanks to… a hair comb.

To put it simply, they just had some facts but no way to connect them to each other, since they
seemed so on opposite ends of a very silly spectrum.

“The theory that Kunigami’s rank got better thanks to him breaking up a fight is wrong,” Bachira
noted, while trying to steal food from Yoichi’s plate. It was refreshing to have Bachira change his
tactics every now and then, since Yoichi was sure that he was going to lose it completely if
Bachira tried to feed him one more time. “Kunigami breaks up fights in block Z all the time, yet
his placing hasn’t budged.”

“The man’s got a point,” Kunigami sighed.

“Well, was it the first time you did it outside block Z? Maybe that had some effect,” Yoichi asked,
despite not really thinking it made any difference.

This had been the first time Yoichi had actually witnessed Kunigami break up a fight, so he
assumed that those didn’t actually happen all that often in the lower levels. But considering that it
had happened at least a few times before, Yoichi would like to think that block Z would view
Kunigami in higher regard than most others - and now that inmates from other blocks had
witnessed it, maybe they held more respect towards Kunigami as well.

At least Yoichi did. In fact, Kunigami was on fast track in becoming Yoichi’s favorite person in
Blue Lock - he could almost forgive him for being a criminal and getting locked up. Besides,
Kunigami was such a nice guy, he must not have done anything that bad to end up behind bars,
right? Maybe he was like Yoichi, and had been wrongfully convicted.
That must’ve been it. Because there’s no way Yoichi could view someone who was a criminal in
such a high regard-

Wait.

Wait.

“You okay there Isagi?” Chigiri asked him, waving his hand in front of his face. “Your eyes went
all wide and your mouth opened up like a little fish.”

Yoichi blinked, snapping out of whatever revelation he just had. There was no way his theory was
right, considering that it would really make sense, but it was the best hypothesis he had at the
moment.

Yoichi turned to look at Chigiri. “Hey Chigiri, what did you think of me when I came to Blue
Lock?” he asked.

Chigiri looked taken aback by the question, before he grimaced. “Not sure you want to hear this,
but,” Chigiri sighed, looking away from Yoichi. “I thought you were kind of pathetic to be honest.
You were all pale and looked like you were about to burst into tears at any given moment. At times
you still look like that, no offense.”

“None taken,” Yoichi said, despite a lot of it being taken. Yoichi ignored Bachira, who was
shaking and bouncing in his seat next to him. Instead he looked at Kunigami. “And you?”

“Um, pretty much the same sentiments, I guess? Well, not really, I mean I sort of felt bad for you, I
guess. You really looked like it would take one poke to make you cry.”

Yoichi wasn’t too surprised by the revelation. He had sort of wished that it wasn’t so outwardly
obvious that he was constantly on the verge of tears, but unfortunately, Blue Lock didn’t have a
time machine to take you back to your first day, just so you could fake a tough guy act.

“Oh, me next, me next, me next!” Bachira yelled over-excitedly, causing most of the canteen to
turn to give them annoyed looks. Yoichi didn’t really need to hear Bachira’s honest opinion of him,
because he already knew- “I knew immediately that Isagi was going to be my best friend forever!
He was so nice, and kind, and gentle, and he immediately accepted me-”
None of those things were true, actually. Yoichi was becoming increasingly more concerned about
Bachira’s mental health, because he was fairly sure that whatever this was, it had to be some type
of delusion.

“-and he’s so handsome, and nice , and pretty, and he lets me cuddle him at night-”

“Whoa there!” Yoichi slapped his hand on Bachira’s mouth to shut him up. “When have I ever
given you permission to cuddle with me? This has never happened!”

Bachira gave him a confused look from behind Yoichi’s hand. “Is Isagi asleep when we cuddle at
night?” he asked, his voice still muffled.

“There is no ‘us cuddling’! This is the first I’ve ever heard about this! What is the matter with-
Ew, gross, did you just lick my hand?” Yoichi immediately moved his hand and wiped on
Bachira’s own jumpsuit, as the other one just laughed.

“Your hand is very sweaty, it tastes salty!”

Yoichi was about to blow up again at that uncalled for comment, before Chigiri interrupted them.
“As fun as this is, and it really isn’t, why do you want to know?” He asked.

“Oh, um, no reason. I guess I just wanted to compare how you saw me on my first day versus how
you see me now,” Yoichi shrugged. “Although, I guess it hasn’t been that long. I’ve been here,
what a week? Or a few days over. A few days short of a week? It doesn’t really matter.”

“I mean, my opinion of you pretty much skyrocketed when you didn’t let Barou walk all over you.
I mean, you didn’t really defend yourself against him, but like I said, people rarely say anything
against him. Before that, I was certain that prison life would eat you alive. But then I thought that
maybe if you kept that attitude and maybe even strengthened it, then you’d be fine and make it
far,” Kunigami admitted, looking a bit awkward as he avoided looking Yoichi in the eye.

"I can't really dislike someone who gives me a hair comb," Chigiri shrugged, also facing away
from Yoichi. "Although, next time you could try to get me some proper conditioner."
Yoichi almost could've laughed at that.

"I'm in love with Isagi!" Bachira chimed in with his two cents, which Isagi didn't really ask for and
didn't need to know.

"Sure you are Bachira," Yoichi nodded, figuring that maybe it was better to humor Bachira.

"Is there any specific reason why you want to know Isagi?" Kunigami asked him, eyeing him in a
weird way.

Yoichi paused to think about it. Did he want to share his new theory with these people? If it turned
out to be true, wouldn't they just take advantage of it? And that wouldn't necessarily fare well for
Yoichi - it really wasn't the point of Blue Lock, was it? If Kunigami, Chigiri and Bachira suddenly
start rising in the ranks, that could mean that they're taking up a spot that could potentially be
Yoichi's.

But on the other hand, they had been nice to Yoichi. He didn't feel like crying most of the time
anymore, now that he had company. In fact, it was becoming fun to be around them. It had been a
while since he'd had proper friends-

Hold on now.

What was this, kindergarten? Was Yoichi having lunch at a high school cafeteria with some fellow
students? No, he wasn't. He was in prison, these were actual, convicted criminals. And Yoichi was
just a law-abiding, innocent civilian who just happened to get unlucky. These people weren't his
friends . He might've even read about them in the news before. He did say that he doesn't care to
know why they were convicted in the first place, but Yoichi just didn't want confirmation that most
of these people were probably violent offenders.

Yoichi had gotten too comfortable here. Blue Lock had turned out to be nothing like what Yoichi
would expect from a prison and that had made him lower his guard. He should probably try to put
more distance between himself and these criminals .

Although, if Yoichi's theory turned out to be correct, distancing himself from the others would
probably be counterintuitive. He really needed to come up with a tactic.

"No reason, really," Yoichi smiled. "Just wanted a confidence boost."

○○○

Yoichi didn’t plan for it to happen - he swears he doesn’t just walk around with the bag of baking
soda on his person, he really doesn’t. Why would he? He has no use for it.

But the one time he had taken it with him for god knows what reason, he struck a gold mine,
completely unintentionally at that. It all came down to luck in the end.

It was the first time in what must’ve been days that he had a moment alone from his usual
company - Bachira’s mom was visiting him, Chigiri had to go to the med-bay once a month since
he had a bad knee, and Yoichi had refused Kunigami’s offer to go outside with him. So he sat alone
with a book in the common area, not really paying attention to the words on the pages, just
absentmindedly browsing through it. The common area wasn’t quite packed with people, but
Yoichi had never seen so many people in there at once - there were even some faces that Yoichi
had never seen before, namely from blocks Y and V.

There was also Barou.

Yoichi had taken the only available single seat, which just happened to be close to the blood still
staining the floor. Barou was on his usual king seat - with one of his subjects rubbing his
shoulders, while other one rubbed his feet, like actual freaks with no self respect. Yoichi noticed
one of the three men from block V cover his mouth and snicker at the display, but King Barou
barely cared.

He was only staring at the blood stains right next to Yoichi. His eye was twitching and a vein was
once again popping out of his forehead.

Who the hell gets that worked up over a stain of blood?

“You know, King Barou, if the blood stains bother you that much, maybe you should just lick the
floor clean,” Yoichi said, after he’d had enough of Barou’s quiet simmering rage over some dried
up bodily fluids.
Barou’s wild eyes moved from the blood to Yoichi, the red pair narrowing as Barou stared Yoichi
down. “The fuck you said to me you insect?” Barou yelled . He really did go from a hundred to a
thousand real fast. Barou shrugged, more like pushed , his underlings off of him and making his
way over to Yoichi in long strides.

The way Barou put his hand on the wall next to Yoichi’s head and leaned down to look him in the
eye where he was sitting, probably should have made him feel intimidated. Okay, it did make him
feel intimidated. But in a room full of people watching their interaction go down, Yoichi really
couldn’t afford to cover away in fear now.

“I mean, human saliva has enzymes that can dissolve and clean off blood stains,” Yoichi shrugged,
schooling his facial expression to remain neutral. “And since you’re so worked up over a few
specks of blood, I figured you might want to be the one to clean it off.

Barou’s eye twitched again. “I’ve got a better idea,” he all but growled . “Why don’t you lick it
clean for me, to demonstrate how it works.”

“Hey I’m not the one bothered by it, so that was just a suggestion,” Yoichi said.

He was acutely aware how everybody in the common area had stopped what they were doing, and
were looking at them with varying amounts of interest. Barou’s subordinates were hyperventilating
again, while the other no-names were watching the interaction as though they were in a movie
theater, experiencing a thriller on an opening night. Only the three guys from block V weren’t
really paying attention. One of them looked like he was asleep.

A grand idea came into Yoichi’s mind, his eyes brightening and he straightened his back
immediately, before closing the book in his lap. Yoichi turned his eyes back to Barou.

“You want to know what else will get rid of blood stains?”

This time Barou seemed more annoyed than angry. “Indulge me,” he rolled his eyes, straightening
his back so he wasn’t hunched over Yoichi, and instead towered over him instead like a fucking
wall.

“Baking soda,” Yoichi answered simply.

 Barou gave him a blank look in return. “Baking soda,” Barou repeated, and Yoichi just nodded his
head. “Well in that case, I sure am lucky to be stocked up with baking soda.”

“Well, I mean, you’re not,” Yoichi said, and put his, thankfully not shaking, hand into the small
pocket in his jumpsuit and pulled out the bag of baking soda. “But I am.”

Barou’s eyes moved to look at the bag. This time even the block Y guys, including the guy who
was just sleeping, were also staring at them.

Barou blinked a few times. “How’d you-”

“Two parts baking powder, one part lukewarm water, apply it to the blood and let it sit there for a
while, and bam! No more blood stains causing King Barou any headaches.”

Barou’s confused look switched back to an angry one. This time he actually let out a growl, and
Yoichi resisted the urge to comment on him acting like a rabid dog. Maybe later.

“Well go on then,” Barou nodded his head over to the stains. “Serve your King, insect.”

Yoichi snorted, and put the bag back in his pocket and got up from his seat, but kept his eye
contact with Barou. “Once again: I don’t mind the blood stains.” A lie. “If you want them gone,
you’re going to have to clean them yourself, King. And if you want the tools to do it, I'm sure
you’ll look good begging on your knees for it.”

Yoichi nearly sprinted out of the common area, but barely resisted the temptation. Instead, he took
steady breaths, and calmly walked back to cell-block Z, with all the eyes still on his back.

He wasn’t sure if he fucked up or won something big.

Chapter End Notes

Ugh, I love Barou so much, especially when he was laying on that field during the
second selection being traumatized by Isagi, can't wait for him to grovel a bit more
he's so cute.

Also Barou >> ur fav

Like and subscribe

 Five Minute Crafts: DIY Footrest from spare human body parts!
Chapter Notes

imma be honest with you babe, this ones a bit rushed.

I was going to have nagi, reo and zantetsu make their grand appearance here, and not
just a one sentence cameo. My funny little chapter title was a joke that's only funny
once they've appeared properly. But I've had a busy week, and I wrote half of this
chapter in one sitting tonight, and I really wanted this chapter out before monday, so
you're going to have to wait until next week, so sorry.

but all in all, i like this one, so yay for me! (pray for me, it's almost midnight and i
have to wake up early tomorrow)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

IV - Five Minute Crafts: DIY Footrest from spare human body parts!

Yoichi wakes up suddenly, as though someone had given him an electric shock. He feels sweaty
and gross and his breathing is heavy and irregular. The dream he'd just had weighs heavy on his
chest, despite the details escaping him. He knows it's the same dream he has every so often - the
only memories the dreams leave behind are vague moments and details, and a hollow feeling.
Every time Yoichi tries to recall what exactly happened during the dream, it was like trying to
remember a movie he'd only watched once when he was a child, and never again after.

It's still in the middle of the night - he knows this because the room or cell or whatever the space
he's locked in is called, is still dark and filled with calm breathing and heavy snoring. Yoichi is
laying on his back, but there's a weight on his chest and side - by tilting his head a little he notices
Bachira, half on top of him, head tucked into the crook of Yoichi's neck and hugging his arm like it
was his most loved teddy bear.

Right. Bachira cuddles him in his sleep. Maybe he shouldn't have just brushed that aside when he
heard about it.

Yoichi tried to gently pull himself out of Bachira's grip, but the more he moved, the tighter
Bachira's grip turned. Yoichi pursed his lips. He wasn't sure if Bachira was awake and being a
dick, or if he was doing it subconsciously. Yoichi decided to drop trying to be gentle about it, and
with a fast tug, he ripped himself from Bachira’s grip and sat up on his knees. Bachira luckily
didn’t seem to wake up, instead automatically moving to occupy the space Yoichi was just laying
on, with his arm trying to reach out for something.
“Nooo, come back,” a small whine left from Bachira, and for a second Yoichi’s heart skipped a
beat, when he thought he had managed to wake him up. Luckily though, Bachira’s breathing was
still steady, and he started to make the gentle snoring noises he often did when he was in deep
sleep.

Yoichi sighed, and got up to his feet. The guard had told him on his first day that the cell door
would be locked at night, but Yoichi knew he wasn’t going to fall back asleep, and having to stay
in block Z felt suffocating somehow.

Yoichi walked over to the sliding doors of block Z, but much to nobody’s surprise, the doors did
not budge. He kicked the metal doors, once, twice, before letting out a frustrated sigh and giving
up.

Yoichi rested his still sticky forehead against the door, when he heard a sleepy voice behind him.

“Isagi? Why are you up?” Turning around, Yoichi saw it was Chigiri, who was rubbing his sleepy
eyes with his hand.

Yoichi shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep. Do you know what time it is?” Yoichi asked, moving back to
his mattress, only to find it completely taken over by Bachira, who had taken to hugging Yoichi’s
pillow in his sleep, as he was lacking the real thing.

Chigiri looked at him like he was an idiot. “No? There aren’t any clock’s in Blue Lock. Or
calendars. I thought you’d notice that already.”

“How’s anybody supposed to keep track of time then?”

“We aren’t. Don’t do that,” Chigiri warned him just as Yoichi was about to kick Bachira off of his
mattress. Chigiri pursed his lips, before looking away from him. “Just let him sleep, it’s easier for
all of us. You can come here and share my mattress for the night.”

Yoichi grimaced - it was probably the nicest gesture Chigiri, or anyone in Blue Lock really, had
done for him during his time there. It didn’t mean that it was a good thing, however.
Yoichi was starting to view Kunigami, Chigiri and Bachira in a way too friendly light, for his
liking. It really wouldn’t do well to humanize them too much in his mind - he had to remind
himself constantly that he couldn’t compare those three to the people he knew outside of Blue
Lock - that they really didn’t deserve to be viewed as friends, or even acquaintances. But as much
as Yoichi wanted to treat them like the first they were, he couldn’t find it in him to hate, or even
dislike them.

Yoichi just hoped that the higher ranking criminals acted more like… actual criminals compared to
the people he’d met so far. Although, Yoichi didn’t really want to meet another Barou.

“Thanks, but I doubt I’m going to get any more sleep tonight,” Yoichi replied.

“Then we can just talk for a bit - I’m up anyways, and I’m not feeling particularly tired anymore
anyways,” Chigiri shrugged, scooting over on his pathetic little mattress and gesturing to Yoichi to
take a seat next to him.

With a sigh, Yoichi carefully makes his way over. He almost steps on Igaguri, but avoids barely -
he didn't particularly care about not waking up Igaguri (the bastard snored so loud, he deserved to
have his sleep cut short) but Yoichi didn't particularly want to touch Igaguri, not even with his foot.

Yoichi slumped on Chigiri's mattress, which didn't feel nearly as comfortable as his did. Maybe the
mattresses in block Z really were such bad quality that they got worn out in just a few months.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Yoichi asked.

Chigiri shrugged. "Nothing particular. Never heard of friendly chatting before? Might do good for
you to participate in it every once in a while."

Friendly. Right. Because the most vital thing one needs in prison is friends .

Well. Not really too far from the truth. Maybe friends wasn't the best word to describe it.

"Says the guy who hardly spoke anything until like a week ago," Yoichi rolled his eyes.
"Come on, you've been here longer than that."

Yoichi frowned. He was sure he'd been there exactly a week. "No, I really haven't," he insisted.
"I'm sure I've counted seven days." Although, Yoichi might have insisted the same to Kunigami
three days ago.

Or was it two days ago?

"And I'm telling you you're wrong," Chigiri replied, but he was frowning as well, like he wasn't
sure either. "Although… Fuck, whatever, I'm not sure. Like I just said, there aren't any clocks or
calendars here, so we can't ever be completely sure."

A sudden feeling of unease started to rise from the bottom of Yoichi’s stomach. “Then how are we
supposed to know what time it is?” he asked.

“Well, the doors only open at certain times - so I guess we don’t really have any other choice than
to trust that,” Chigiri shrugged.

Right - Yoichi wasn’t so sure about that. They were clearly experiencing the time they spent in
Blue Lock differently. Yoichi wouldn’t be surprised if the doors opened and closed at different
hours each day, just to fuck with their heads and perception of time.

“Hold on,” an idea popped into Yoichi’s head, and he quickly got up and rushed over to his
mattress as fast as he could without stepping on anyone.

Trying to be careful not to wake up Bachira, Yoichi reached out under the mattress and pulled out
the black bag, before rushing back over to Chigiri. The redhead had a confused look on his face as
he eyed the bag Yoichi was holding. “Where did that come from?” he demanded.

“Doesn’t matter,” Yoichi shook his head, before fishing out the cell phone. Chigiri’s eyes widened
comically - he was about to let out a loud yell, but Yoichi reacted quick enough to put his hand on
his mouth. “Shhh! You’ll wake everyone up - and don’t even think about doing a Bachira and
licking my hand.”

As Chigiri rolled his eyes, Yoichi moved his hand and moved his attention back to the black
smartphone. It was by no means the most updated model on the market, if Yoichi recalled
correctly, it was about five or six years old. But that hardly mattered - what mattered was that a
smartphone was sure to have a clock and a calendar installed.

Yoichi pressed the start button. For a second Yoichi thought that it had run out of battery, but
miraculously it was only on 50 % (the next time he sees Noa, he demands a charger). But the
battery and a lack of a charger wasn’t the issue.

No, the phone didn’t have a clock or a calendar in it.

“What the fuck!” this time it was Yoichi being loud and Chigiri shushing him. They both were
struck by disappointment, after letting the anticipation fill them.

“How do you uninstall the clock and the calendar from a smartphone?” Chigiri scoffed, laying
back down on the mattress and putting his arm over his eyes as he groaned in disappointment.
“And most importantly, how do you have a cell phone in the first place?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Yoichi muttered, deep in thought.

It was starting to seem suspicious. The way Noa seemed to know what the people around Yoichi
needed, and how he seemed to be aware of Blue Lock’s lack of clocks and calendars, but refusing
to offer a helping hand on that front. When he had visited Yoichi, he even sounded like he knew
the person behind this, even if only for a single second.

Yoichi was probably just reading into things - prison contraband wasn’t uncommon, and Noa
probably had just gotten Yoichi the most common things people smuggle into prison (and a hair
comb). Maybe he even had thought Yoichi was dumb enough to think that the baking soda was
cocaine (he was stupid enough to think that).

Chigiri moved his arm from his eyes, and stared at Yoichi for a minute. “You sure don’t want to
tell too many things about yourself,” he noted, before looking up at the ceiling again.

“What do you mean by that?” It was Yoichi’s turn to look at Chigiri.

Chigiri just hummed. “Well, when people ask you what you did, you avoid the question. When I
ask you where you got all this stuff, you avoid the question. When I ask you how’d you figure out
the ranking system, which I know you have, don't deny it, you avoid the question,” Chigiri replied,
before chuckling a little. “You even avoid the question when Bachira tries to get something like
your favorite color out of you.”

Yoichi slightly grit his teeth, and didn’t answer for a second. He turned to look away from Chigiri,
hugging his knees close to his chest, trying to think of a way to not come across as rude. “I just
don’t see the point in trying to… become too close with people here. I don't really think that prison
is the place to make deep meaningful connections with."

"Well, yeah, I get that, but also this is the only place where people are literally on the same boat as
you."

Yoichi chose not to respond to that. “Is it true that you got locked up due to too many speeding
tickets?” Yoichi asked. It wasn’t necessarily a change of topic - Chigiri was likely to demand to
know his supposed crime as well.

“Not… exactly,” Chigiri snorted. “I mean kinda. I was a student when I got them, so I couldn’t
really afford to pay them, so they just piled up. Then I ended up, um, accidentally destroying some
private property, while speeding, and that was apparently way too much.”

Yoichi could have laughed at that. “What kind of private property did you destroy, exactly?”

“I was trying to pass someone who was driving way too slowly, and ended up knocking down a
signpost that was right next to someone’s car on their driveway - the signpost fell down on the car,
and surprise, surprise, the guy was super mega rich, as they always are.”

The people in Blue Lock really just seemed like people who got really fucked over by a bunch of
rich people - at least two of them were.

It’s kind of funny, though. Sounds kind of what happened to-

That can of worms has already been thrown far, far away.

“Have you ever considered, you know, going the speed limit ? There’s a reason they’re in place,
you know. One of those reasons being, so that you won’t destroy private property.”

It might’ve been the first time Yoichi ever heard Chigiri laugh out loudly. He was almost sure
they’d end up waking up the others - luckily, Chigiri stifled his laughter in time. It was almost a
shame really - Chigiri had a nice laugh.

“Come on, like you haven’t ever gotten a speeding ticket,” Chigiri laughed, and gave Yoichi a light
hearted slap on his chest.

“I haven’t actually,” Yoichi hummed.

“Liar!”

Yoichi shook his head. “Nope, never,” he said, before frowning. “I don’t have a driver’s license.”

Chigiri gave him an odd look, before lifting himself up on his elbows. “How come? Everybody I
know has a driver’s license.”

“Never got around to getting it,” Yoichi shrugged.

“Well, then you go and get one when you get out,” Chigiri said with a smile.

Highly unlikely .

They sat in silence for a while. It would’ve been comfortable, if not for Yoichi’s tense shoulders.
Chigiri didn’t seem to notice however, and if he did, he didn’t bring it up. Yoichi was grateful for it
- this really wasn’t the time or the place to be unraveling his fear of driving. Chigiri wasn’t his
personal therapist, and Yoichi really didn’t want to let someone get that close to know about that
part.

“So? Are you finally going to let me in on your little secret?” Chigiri nudged him. “What did Isagi
do to end up in Blue Lock.”

Yoichi bit his lip. “Nothing,” he shrugged. “Nothing at all.”

“Sure,” Chigiri snorted but didn’t push the issue. They sat in silence until the cell doors opened,
and the other’s started to wake up.

○○○

Yoichi was getting swarmed by other inmates recently. All of them demanded to know if he really
did have any contraband, and if he did, what kind and where he got it from. Then they started to
make requests - anything from bubble gum to porno magazines. There were so many that Yoichi
could hardly keep up, or even keep to himself. Every time someone spotted him alone, they would
ambush him and give him an order for the nex time his supplier comes over.

Which Yoichi was torn up about - should he make a list and give it to Noa the next time he visits,
if he ever does again, and tell him to bring the stuff over to him so he could hypothetically improve
his rank, despite not being a hundred percent sure how the system even works. Yoichi was sure
that Noa would never approve.

Although, he did want to see an improvement in rank the next time he comes over.

There had been a lot of requests for typical prison contraband, and there had been a lot of requests
for very atypical prison contraband. But there was one that took the cake, above all else.

It was done by the first person who, besides Igaguri, was shorter than Yoichi (that Yoichi had
seen). The inmate, at first, seemed quiet and timid as he observed Yoichi from the other side of the
common area. It was a nice day outside, the sun was shining for the first time in what felt like
forever, so most other inmates were outside, enjoying the warm weather. Yoichi would have joined
as well, but he wanted to enjoy this rare moment of peace.

So now it was just him, and the quiet guy, who’s bushy hair had bangs big enough to cover his
eyes. Yoichi could feel him staring way before the guy moved over to him, but tried to ignore him.
Ignoring the guy didn’t do him much good, because in no time, he had moved over to where
Yoichi was sitting (on Barou’s signature chair, that’s right).

For a moment, the short guy didn’t say anything. He just stood next to him, staring at Yoichi,
while Yoichi stared back.

“Did… did you need something?” Yoichi asked, after he’d had enough of the incessant staring.
The guy didn’t answer at first. Yoichi took a peek at his rank - 255. So about ten places above him.
“Just wondering if I’m supposed to bow down or act as your foot rest now,” the guy answered, his
tone of voice almost naturally bored.

Yoichi nearly choked on his own spit. “Sorry, what?”

“Well, since you’re sitting on King Barou’s throne, I was wondering if you were expecting the
same kind of treatment,” the guy shrugged.

“Now that you mention it, a massage would be nice,” Yoichi noted.

255 snorted. “Funny. Too bad you’re going to have to rise a little bit more in rank before expecting
a massage from me,” he drawled back, and they were back to the awkward silence.

“Seriously, can I help you?” Yoichi wasn’t particularly quick to anger, but he was quick to
annoyance . He hadn’t noticed that particular trait about himself before Blue Lock - or maybe the
people in Blue Lock just had a more natural knack for annoying him.

“You’re the new contraband guy, right? Can you get me a CPU?” 255 asked.

“A CP-who?”

Yoichi couldn’t see them, but he could imagine that 255 was rolling his eyes under his overgrown
bangs. “A central processing unit. And if possible, a motherboard while you’re at it.”

Yoichi was beyond confused. He had zero idea what those things were - okay, maybe not zero
idea, but he had no idea where 255 would be needing them for.

“Um… why? What for, exactly?” Yoichi asked.

“That shouldn’t really concern you, now does it? All you need to do is get me what I ask for, and
you might even see a rise in rank if you do a good enough job.” That sounded almost like a threat.
Yoichi decided that he didn’t like this guy too much.
And he seemed to be aware of how the ranking system worked - at least he understood it better
than Yoichi did, or Barou for that matter. Wonder why he hadn’t risen in rank more, then.

“Yeah, sorry buddy, but with an attitude like that, no deal,” Yoichi leaned back in his chair.

255 stared at him for a while again, before letting out an annoyed sigh. “I’m trying to discreetly
build a computer of sorts. Maybe then I can hack the Blue Lock system, and put myself at the top
of the pyramid. Or hell, I could even mess with the AI, and open the doors to the outside - then we
could all run free.”

Ah. So mister bangs was a hacker. Wonder if that’s how he got himself arrested.

“Those items don’t sound exactly discreet,” Yoichi noted, and got in return, what he assumed to be
a glare, but alas, he did not see the guy’s eyes. “Well, I’ll see what I can do. Who should I make the
order to?”

“Niko Ikki - and try to be fast with it, kay?”

○○○

The blood stain is still there, obviously. The only person who cares, however, is still Barou.

But Yoichi has become invested as well, he’ll admit that much. It’s almost amusing to watch Barou
grit his teeth, the vein on his forehead ever present, like it never really left. He’s clenching his fists,
and Yoichi feels bad for the poor guy who’s got the Barou-foot-rest shift today. Every once in a
while, as though he had a tic of some sort, Barou raises his leg, before jamming it right back to
where it just rested - the poor foot-rest lets out a yelp every time, louder each time.

But in the end it doesn’t take that long for Barou to cave in. Yoichi has decided against carrying the
baking soda with him, just in case Barou decides to get violent and robs Yoichi off of his dear
baking soda, without giving Yoichi what he wants in return.

It’s one after-noon, as Yoichi once again agreed to play cards with Bachira (Yoichi has been
avoiding it for a while, after Bachira once requested that if he wins the next round, they’ll go play
seven minutes in heaven in one of the supply rooms, with a broken door (Yoichi thinks Bachira is
mentally stuck in eight-grade)). Barou’s loud stomping can be heard from the hallway leading up
to the common room, so Yoichi was prepared when Barou made his way over to him, with his
hand stretched out.

“Hand it over,” Barou growled, his voice rough and frustrated. Yoichi still couldn’t believe that the
poor King thought he could intimidate Yoichi to give in.

“Hand what over?” Yoichi asked, not sparing Barou a glance, as he continued playing with Bachira
(who was looking between Barou and Yoichi with a very curious look on his face).

This time Barou let out an actual growl, like a dog or a wild animal would. “You know what I’m
talking about.”

“A very nice and solid impression of a rabid dog you got there King,” Yoichi hummed, finally
tilting his head just the tiniest bit to give Barou a small smirk. “But I still need you to clarify what
it is exactly that you need.”

Barou’s eye was twitching again. The hand that wasn’t stretched out towards Yoichi was clenching
and unclenching, the veins not only popping on his forehead, but on his neck and arm as well.

People were gathering in the common area again - it had been relatively empty, but once the word
got out (quite quickly in fact) that Barou and Yoichi were at it again, other inmates started piling
in, desperate to find out how their altercation would pan out this time. Yoichi noticed the three guys
from block V there as well, staring at them with interest, like one might a particularly interesting
TV-show.

Good. The more audience he had, the better outcome this would have in case Yoichi actually
succeeded.

“The fucking baking soda, you dimwit,” Barou said through gritted teeth.

“Oh, right that,” Yoichi pretended to only now recall what they were talking about, before
slamming his last card down onto the pile, winning the card game. Bachira didn’t even seem to
notice his loss, as he was too busy being confused about what Yoichi and Barou were going on
about. “You could’ve been clearer from the start.”

“Where’d you get baking soda, Isagi~? Are you sure it’s not cocaine? I can test it out for you, in
case it is cocaine,” Bachira leaned over the table, getting all up in Yoichi’s face. Yoichi quickly
pushed him back - he couldn’t have Bachira ruin this right now.

“Hand. It. Over.” The vein in Barou’s forehead was going to burst in five seconds, Yoichi was
betting all his money on it. “Unless you really do want to lick the blood stains off the floor
yourself.”

Yoichi shook his head, giving Barou a condescending smile - he was surprisingly good at playing
the role of an asshole. Well, he did learn from the best after all. “Hey, come on now King. Didn’t I
tell you last time - if you want the baking soda that bad, you’re going to have to beg for it. So go on
then - on your knees King.”

The room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop - Yoichi was sure nobody was even
breathing. It took everything in Yoichi to keep his entire composure intact and not start panicking
over angering someone like Barou.

Yoichi glanced at Bachira, who also was uncharacteristically quiet. The look on his face was
unlike anything Yoichi had seen on him yet - there was no smile, no humor, no mirth, no teasing in
his eyes. Instead, his mouth was slightly parted, his eyes wide and shining as though he’d seen
something for the first time - Yoichi wasn’t sure what he thought about the look. He almost asked
Bachira what his deal was - until a loud stomp went off next to him.

Yoichi whipped his head around to look at Barou with wide eyes - because the poor thing really
had gone down on both of his knees and was glaring at Yoichi in a way that guaranteed that he was
going to be murdered any day now. But Yoichi couldn’t care about that particular anxiety right
now. The sheer exhilaration of watching someone as intimidating and scary as Barou kneeling in
front of him, not really groveling at his feet, but close to it, was unlike any feeling he had
experienced. Yoichi’s heart was beating out of his chest, but not from panic, not anymore.

“Well?” Barou asked, thinking that just kneeling was good enough for Yoichi.

“I don’t hear any begging,” Yoichi tilted his head, and hoped his voice didn’t sound as breathy to
the rest of the room as it did to his own ears. He couldn’t really explain his own reaction - his
breathing felt heavy, his mouth was filled with saliva, and he was sure he could feel every liter of
blood coursing through his veins, from his head to his toes. Yoichi blinked a few times, just to
make sure this wasn’t another one of his hallucinations.

Barou gritted his teeth. “Please,” he growled, reluctantly, but Yoichi could let it go for now.
“Please what?”

“Please, can I have the baking soda?” Barou seemed to be having an internal battle with himself - a
battle which he was losing at a rapid pace. It was fine though - Yoichi could teach him all about
losing.

Yoichi bit his lips to stop the self-satisfied smile from forming on his lips - and this time the smile
would have been one-hundred percent genuine. “Okay, that’s good enough,” Yoichi nodded. “But
there is one more thing I want you to do.”

Barou gave him an expectant look and gestured for him to continue.

“Put your hands down too, and look down,” Yoichi instructed. Barou of course was slow to catch
up and even slower to obey, but he did it anyway - then he was in front of Yoichi, in the same
position his designated foot-rests often were in front of him. Yoichi couldn’t help himself - he put
both of his legs on top of his back, slowly and purposefully, making sure that his heels dug deep
into his back.

“I get why you do this - it is very comfortable.”

That’s all it took for Barou to swat Yoichi’s legs down and get up from his position. The glares he
was sending Yoichi promised nothing but pain, but Yoichi was still too high on his euphoria to
care. Barou could make him pay with interest, whatever. Yoichi still had never felt satisfaction like
this.

Barou extended his hand out again. “Well? Hand it over, you swine.”

Yoichi blinked. He had nearly forgotten that this whole ordeal was over a bag of baking soda - as
stupid as that sounded. “Oh, I don’t have it on me right now,” Yoichi admitted.

Barou’s reaction was akin to that of an erupting volcano - it was a miracle Yoichi didn’t get
burned. Or hit, for that matter.

○○○
It was visitor day again - and Noa had finally come back to see him.

The procedure was the same as before - the stoic guard came to get him and lead him to the same
room as last time, where Noa was already waiting for him with his briefcase and his neat suit.

Yoichi sat down as Noa observed him. “I was hoping for a better progress,” his lawyer admitted.

“I’m working on it,” Yoichi sighed, trying not to roll his eyes. Noa was making it sound like it was
easy. “On an off note - what day is it? How long have I been here?

“You haven’t bothered to keep count?” Noa’s tone was almost accusatory. Whenever Yoichi heard
it, he felt like hiding away and spending the next ten years trying to better himself, to fix every
mistake he’s ever made, just so Noa didn’t look and sound so disappointed and accusing.

“I’ve had a lot on my mind, okay? And I thought that there would be clocks and calendars here.
Which speaking of, can you get me one? The phone you gave me didn’t have either one of them.”

Noa’s expression remained unchanging. “Clocks and calendars are prohibited in Blue Lock.
There’s a lot I can smuggle you here, but both of those are off limits,” Noa explained.

“You sure know a lot about Blue Lock,” Yoichi muttered, more to himself than Noa, and the
lawyer didn’t bother to answer him. “So what, are we supposed to just lose all track of time and
become disoriented? They could wake us up at five a.m and tell us it’s seven o’clock, and we have
no choice but to believe and trust them? That’s insane, and I’m sure it’s illegal, and it has to be a
torture method- oh.”

“I’m sure Blue Lock hasn’t been as bad as you feared yet. But the longer you stay, the more you
find out. Don’t be surprised if reality becomes disoriented, in more ways than one.”

Yoichi frowned. “Sure, whatever. The phone you gave me didn’t come with a charger,” he said,
crossing his arms over his chest like a pouting child.

Noa reached out to his signature briefcase, and pulled out another black bag, handing it over
through the same hatch as before. The bag was bigger this time, a bit lumpier. Yoichi couldn’t wait
to see what was inside.

“On a more personal note, has anybody else come to visit you?” Noa asked.

Yoichi bit his lips, before shaking his head. “Nope. You seem to be the only one interested in
seeing me.”

Noa stared at him for a while, and Yoichi desperately wanted to have the ability to know what the
older man was thinking. He looked like wanted to say something, to continue on this topic, like
there was something burning his tongue and the only way to relieve it was to tell Yoichi. The man
clearly decided against it.

“Well then, is there anything else that you need, to make your stay here more comfortable?” Noa
asked, the same stoic look on his face almost innocent, as though the both of them didn’t know that
none of the contraband went to Yoichi himself.

Yoichi smiled, pulling out a list from his pocket.

○○○

The next day threw a curveball at Yoichi. He had slept pretty well, as well as he could with
Bachira clinging to him. Now that he knew the other man was doing it, Yoichi had a very hard time
not noticing it. Or maybe Bachira just made it better known now. Before, Yoichi woke up, and
Bachira was just sleeping next to him - close, but never touching. Recently, however, Yoichi woke
up every morning with Bachira still clinging on to him, tight and desperate. This morning,
Bachira’s face wasn’t just buried in the crook of his neck, but his lips were very clearly pressed
against his skin.

Yoichi clenched his jaw. It was probably better to cut it off, before Bachira actually got the wrong
idea.

Ever since the whole scene with Barou the other day, Bachira had been acting different. He wasn’t
joking around or teasing him as much anymore - he was still smiling and clinging onto him, but
something about him was off. Every once in a while, Yoichi caught Bachira looking at him with
the same expression he had when Barou was kneeling in front of him.
 Yoichi desperately wanted to ask, but didn’t know how to bring it up.

But that wasn’t the curveball in question. No, Yoichi’s whole world shook and lost all shape, when
his familiar guard came in that morning.

Most of block Z were still waking up, stretching their limbs and trying to rub the sleep from their
eyes. Yoichi, Chigiri and Kunigami seemed to be the only ones properly awake. Bachira was half
trying to go back to sleep, half clinging onto Yoichi’s arm.

The guard looked around the room, his eyes tired and demeanor bored - nothing new there. He took
off the signature hat all the guards were wearing for a second, running his hand through his red
hair, as his eyes found Yoichi. He put the hat back on, before gesturing to Yoichi with his finger.
“Well, come along then,” he said, yawning slightly as he did.

“What?” Yoichi asked dumbly. The rest of block Z were staring dumbly too - all eyes were wide,
most of all those of Chigiri, Kunigami and Bachira. The grip Bachira had on Yoichi’s arm
tightened suddenly, to the point of pain. Yoichi could feel his nails sinking into his bicep, and
suddenly all of Bachira’s weight was hanging off of his arm. “Ouch, Bachira that hurts,” Yoichi
complained, but got no reaction from him.

The guard rolled his eyes. “You’ve been promoted - time to move cell blocks, Isagi.”

Chapter End Notes

but at least we have niko

 Reo, Interrupted
Chapter Notes

this became much longer than i anticipated, mostly because i really wanted to give
some set up to how block V differs from the rest of the blocks and I also wanted to
give Reo and Nagi the time they deserved. I kind of wanted the block V to have some
privileges above the rest in building five, but I ended up giving them way too much
fun little things, and then realized that if I want to be stricter when they get to the
higher stages, it won't make sense anymore. So if there's some inconsistencies it's
because I changes some things at the last minute and might've missed something. I'll
try to get to editing the chapters soon, but I just want to write new ones xDD

See the end of the chapter for more notes

V - Reo, interrupted

The moment those words left the guards mouth, three things happened.

1. The entire block Z started going on about how this wasn't fair and how Yoichi couldn't
possibly have earned the right to move out from block Z
2. Bachira let out a loud wail, loud enough for Yoichi's eardrums to burst, as he released his
grip from Yoichi's arm, and instead jumped up his back, clinging to him like a baby koala
would to its mother.
3. Yoichi's brain short-circuited.

Well, it was about time anyways. Yoichi thought that the whole ordeal with Barou should have
gained him enough notoriety and perhaps even respect among the other inmates to get him out of
block-Z. How far the stunt took him, he was still unsure.

But at least now Yoichi knew what the ranking-system was based on and what that meant for him.

Of course Yoichi's had his suspicions for a while now, but this was more than enough
confirmation for him: the ranking was more dependent on the inmates' impressions of each other
than anything else. That's why the same tricks don't work for everybody.

Barou rose in rank, because he managed to intimidate the ones ranked higher than him - he gained
their respect by making them fear him. The only problem with that was, he clearly wasn't
intimidating enough. Yoichi guessed that the ones ranked higher than him might not take him half
as seriously as he would like.
And now Yoichi managed to get himself out of block Z by essentially humiliating Barou. It was
clear that if other inmates held you in a high regard, your ranking would correlate. Or at the very
least, the other inmates had to view you in a higher regard than they viewed themselves, in order
for you to rank above them.

How that was measured, Yoichi didn't know. Yoichi also wasn't sure how the ones behind the
whole Blue Lock operation managed to read their thoughts.

Maybe there were some weird sensors in their body suits. Or maybe the head of Blue Lock was just
an expert in reading people.

Maybe Yoichi was crazy, who knows?

"But you can't go! Nobody else will cuddle with me at night!" Bachira was crying, wiping his wet
eyes and snotty nose right on Yoichi's jumpsuit as he kept clinging to his back. It was the first time
Yoichi didn't feel annoyed by Bachira's antics - all he really felt was bad for him.

"You can ask Chigiri or Kunigami to cuddle with you," Yoichi suggested, eyeing the two, who
were shaking their heads so hard Yoichi feared they might fall off.

"But I don't want to cuddle with them!" Bachira complained, hugging Yoichi even tighter.

The guard sighed in clear annoyance, before properly stepping into the room. Yoichi had never
actually seen him enter cell-block Z, always staying just outside the door, as though he was afraid
he might catch something if he came any closer. But now he did - he walked up to where Bachira
was clinging onto Yoichi, and raised his leg, before giving Bachira a kick hard enough to knock
him down, almost taking Yoichi down with him.

Bachira let out a yelp of pain, as Yoichi tried to regain his balance. Kunigami and Chigiri were the
only ones to rush to Bachira's aid - not that Bachira seemed to mind the pain of falling down as
much as he minded not acting as Yoichi's makeshift backpack.

"What was that for?" Yoichi demanded, suddenly annoyed. "There was no need to hurt him!"
The guard raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, so now you decide that you like him, after spending all
your time being annoyed with him?" He asked, with a condescending tone. "No need to pretend to
like them now, you've already risen above them. Might as well treat them like the dirt they are."

“That’s not true,” Yoichi defended himself, despite knowing very well that there might’ve been
some truth to the guard’s words.

Said guard just rolled his eyes. “Get your stuff so we can go,” he said, looking around the cell with
disdain clear on his face. “I’ve had enough of the stuffy air in here.”

Yoichi hesitated, looking down at his mattress. The bag Noa had given him yesterday, along with
the first one, was hidden inside his pillowcase. He hadn’t had the chance to look inside it yet, and
even smuggling it inside block Z had required an awful lot of effort. Yoichi stole a glance at the
guard, who was giving him a meaningful look. Out of all the people in the cell currently, they were
the two only ones who knew about the bag.

Yoichi had wanted to ask the guard why he just didn’t confiscate the items Noa gave him.
Considering that the guard must be aware of how the ranking system worked, Yoichi was sure he
was already well aware that Yoichi had been giving the stuff Noa gave him away - even if he
didn’t know about the rankings, there were still the security monitors, if the guards even cared
enough to pay attention to them.

But, the most likely case was probably that the guard just didn’t care enough.

What a joke - the most highly secured prison facility in the world, where prisoners can roam
around free and beat each other up, and the guards don’t give a rat’s ass if you smuggle some
baking soda and hair combs in, as long as you share your toys with the rest of the class. Even the
pentagon pales in comparison to the great Blue Lock.

It really was a joke, wasn’t it.

“You can take your pillow if it offers you some sort of emotional support,” the guard said
helpfully, with an almost mocking voice. “I’m sure that the great cell-block V is going to be
terrifying and you’ll need your trusty pillow to hug.”

Yoichi glared at the guard - now he was almost tempted to leave it behind. Yet, Yoichi still
reached down and took the pillow into his arms.
“Great, finally some progress,” the guard sighed, before turning around and gesturing to Yoichi to
follow.

Suddenly, Yoichi hesitated. He looked down to the ground, where Bachira was hugging his knees
to his chest and pouting up at him like a child who didn’t get a lollipop at a carnival. Chigiri and
Kunigami were standing next to him, not pouting per say, but they didn’t seem too happy about the
situation either.

Yoichi felt ridiculous. The whole point of Blue Lock was to try and rise in the ranks, and Yoichi
himself has been repeatedly telling himself that there was no point emotionally getting invested in
these criminals .

“I’ll… see you soon, okay?” Yoichi said, before rushing after the guard. Because in reality, Yoichi
was still allowed to use the same common area and canteen, right? So the only thing that would
change were the sleeping arrangements. And that was a good thing - no more Igaguri’s snoring, or
Bachira clinging to him in his sleep, no matter how hot the room temperature was.

The guard’s steps weren’t as lazy as they usually were - Yoichi actually had to make an effort to
keep up with his strides. The guard overall seemed different today than he usually did - Yoichi
hadn’t witnessed him display this much emotion or talk as much as he had ever before.

Maybe the guard was having a good day. Or a particularly bad one.

It took a while to reach cell-block V. If Yoichi understood the layout of building five correctly, the
canteen and the common room were located in the very middle of it. The cell-block V through Z
were all surrounding it, in a sort of pentagon shape ( Ah, pentagon. Get it, like the famous prison ).

The door that led to the courtyard was located on the corridor that led to block Z - it was also the
corridor that had the bathing rooms and toilets for inmates in block Z, X, Y and W. Because
apparently, one of the perks of block V, was not having to share the same bathrooms with the rest
of building five.

Well that was a relief - Yoichi wasn’t sure how many times he’d had to tell Bachira that he was
perfectly capable of washing his own hair, and didn’t require any help from the other.

Yoichi was struck by a sudden bang in his chest - but there was no way he was missing his
eccentric ex-cellmate, right?

Cell-block V was located on the other side of the building, and the corridor leading up to it
revealed miracles other than just the private bathrooms.

Because there was an elevator . And on the elevator, it said To Building Four .

The guard answered Yoichi’s question, before he could ask. “Don’t get too excited - you’ll get to
go on it once you’ve risen in ranks enough to leave building five,” the guard said.

“And how am I supposed to do that, considering that we have no contact with the other buildings -
or floors from the looks of it?” Yoichi asked, glaring at the guard’s back.

He didn’t get a response.

Now that he thought about it, that did raise a question. If Yoichi's theory about the ranking system
was correct, a certain level of interaction was needed between the inmates - how was anybody
supposed to ever leave building five, if they couldn't interact with the other buildings?

Blue Lock hadn't been in operation for that long, if Yoichi recalled correctly. It was put together
after a number of prison breaks around the globe had taken place, all within a few years of each
other. Yoichi had been young when those had happened, but apparently the director of Blue Lock
had convinced the whole world that he'd created a prison facility that prisoners couldn't break out
of.

Yoichi was starting to get a headache again.

The guard stopped before the doors leading to the cell-block V, and Yoichi almost walked straight
into him. "Your new ranking is 224-V. Cell-block V has their own private toilets and washing
areas, which you are able to use at any time of the day, even at night, unlike in the lower blocks.
The doors to block V also open earlier and close later than the ones to other blocks, so you’ll be
able to use the common areas for longer periods of time. Try to use your increased freedom
wisely.”

That… explained somewhat why the other blocks never saw the inmates from block V. Why
would they use the common areas, when they were packed with lower ranked inmates, when they
could use them when the other inmates weren’t taking up the space.

Yoichi still wasn't sure how they managed to hold their high status, however.

The doors to cell-block V opened, and once again there were ten inmates waiting for him, looking
at him with various degrees of interest. Some of them seemed genuinely curious, others… almost
pissed off?

Right. Because they were now ranked lower than they probably had in a while.

"This is Isagi Yoichi everyone," the guard once again introduced him to his new… roommates .
"You might've become familiar with him a few days ago, so I'm sure introductions are pointless."

Somebody snorted further in the room - Yoichi stole a glance at them, and noticed the same purple
haired guy he'd seen before, laying on the biggest mattress he'd seen in Blue Lock so far, looking at
them with a mixture of amusement and boredom. If that was even possible.

"This probably goes without saying, but I do hope this stands as a reminder for you all - lower
ranked inmates are vying for your spots here in block-V. Most of you have gotten used to the tactic
of not engaging with the lower ranks, and now one of them has usurped your place and knocked
one of you down to a lower block. None of you are safe, so I suggest you start working harder to
get out of building five," the guard said with a dry smirk, before turning to give Yoichi a mean
smile. "Have fun. Try not to eat them alive - or let them do the same to you."

And so Yoichi was left alone with brand new people, hugging his pillowcase to his chest, while ten
pairs of eyes were studying him.

Yoichi took a moment to observe block V - it was for sure bigger than block Z. At least in the
sense that the inmates had actual proper space for themselves, and didn't have to sleep right next to
each other like sardines in a can. The mattresses were also bigger and looked a whole lot softer and
less worn out than those in block Z.

There were also three, enormous mattresses, right at the other end of the cell. Yoichi guessed that
the three inmates laying on them, the same ones Yoichi had seen in the common room a few times
now, were the top ranked in block V.
"Hey, it's baking soda boy," one of the three said with a tired and bored tone of voice. He was the
one with blond hair, who seemed to be half asleep when Yoichi had first noticed him in the
common room.

Well, it wasn't like the situation was any different now. He was laying on his back on the huge
mattress, with his head hanging off the side so he was looking at Yoichi upside down. His eyes
were half lidded, like it took all of his strength to keep them open.

"I have a name, and it's definitely not baking soda boy," Yoichi narrowed his eyes at the white
haired guy, who in return barely blinked his eyes and just kept staring at Yoichi. Yoichi quickly
took a peek at his ranking. 221-V .

Fucking damn it. The highest ranked inmate in building five was the guy who Yoichi had yet to
see properly awake.

"What's up with the pillow? You know there's plenty to go around here," the guy sitting directly
next to the white haired one, the one with purple hair, raised his eyebrow at Yoichi and gestured
over to the huge pile of big fluffy pillows at the corner of the room. "You can have as many as you
want, no need to bring your own."

Yoichi decided not to answer them, instead making his way over to the only available mattress,
which was located near the three highest ranked ones. Sure enough, they had written 224 on the
wall next to the mattress - in fact all of the sleeping stations in block V were numbered after the
inmates' ranking. 221-223 were the three biggest ones at the end of the room, while Yoichi's was
right next to them, stationed against the wall. It seemed like block V was much more particular
about their own personal spaces and things - that was fine by Yoichi.

"Maybe it's his emotional effort pillow," 223 suggested, pushing his glasses up his nose. Yoichi
took a proper look at him - he hadn't really paid attention to him the last two times he'd noticed
them around, but he was tall and lean with dark hair and his glasses…

Didn't actually have lenses in them.

"You mean emotional support pillow, Zantetsu you dickhead," 221 said, before rolling over to his
stomach and letting out a loud groan as though the slightest bit of movement required way too
much effort. As soon as he had settled comfortably on his stomach, he continued to stare at Yoichi
with unblinking eyes.
The purple haired one, 222, who looked awfully familiar now that Yoichi was properly paying
attention to him , noticed the staring and coughed uncomfortably.

"Anyways, so…" 222 turned to look at Yoichi properly. "You should know that things in block V
don't exactly operate the same way as they do in the lower blocks."

"Okay, whatever, don't care, do I know you from somewhere?" Yoichi brushed the remark aside,
studying the purple haired guy's face in a very similar manner that 221 seemed to be studying
Yoichi's.

222's face turned red in an instant, and he grimaced. "No, no, probably not," he denied, shaking his
head.

"No, I'm sure I've seen your face somewhere," Yoichi hummed. He was certain that he'd seen this
guy - Yoichi guessed that they probably weren't from the same area, but maybe he'd walked past
him somewhere, or maybe he'd seen his face on tv-

Aha. That's it.

Yoichi snapped his fingers and pointed at the guy. "You're that mega rich guy's son, now I
remember," Yoichi said, as 222 let out a loud groan. "It was a huge scandal when you got arrested,
I remember it now, it wasn't that long ago."

Yoichi desperately tried to find a name for the guy from his brain, but found himself coming up
empty.

"What was it that you said about slipping under everyone’s radar, Reo?” 221 snorted.

Right - Reo Mikage. He was the heir to the most successful company in Japan - if Yoichi recalled
correctly, his father was the richest man in the country. For a good chunk of his teenage years, and
for the first quarter or so of his university life, Yoichi followed Reo on Instagram. Reo did a lot of
brand deals with some sports drinks, and Yoichi fell victim to it every time.

But Yoichi was still confused - what was the son of Japan’s richest man doing in Blue Lock? How
bad of a crime did he have to commit that even money couldn’t save him from conviction?
Thinking of it, Reo did sort of disappear from the limelight about six months ago. The media
seemed to be running stories about him leaving for a long vacation at a remote island to escape the
crazy life of being a heir to an insanely rich company. That was most likely a cover story set up by
his father’s company, seeing as Reo was in prison now.

Not that Yoichi really followed news regarding Reo anymore - he wasn’t sure why he ever did to
begin with. Maybe it was because it was fun to see a guy he was so close in age with, live this
crazy life in the spotlight. Yoichi had pretty much stopped it, however, when it started to raise
jealousy and accusations from-

Right, From the can of worms which got super glued and thrown away on Yoichi’s first day.

“Shut up Nagi,” Reo glared at the white haired guy - Nagi apparently - and elbowed him into his
stomach. Nagi let out a quiet, drawn out wail at that.

The rest of the inmates in cell-block V didn’t seem to be paying any mind to them anymore. Not
that Yoichi was particularly hungry, but he wondered when they usually went to eat, since Yoichi
never saw them in the canteen at the same time. Not that it mattered - he could just try and adjust
his schedule in a way that would allow him to eat with Bachira, Chigiri and Kunigami-

But was that such a good idea? Was hanging out with the lower ranked inmates going to affect the
way the other inmates saw him? Would involving himself with block Z make him drop back down
in rank?

But the guard just said that a certain level of interaction was needed in order to stay higher in the
rankings - well, maybe not interaction per say. But more like, serve the lower ranked inmates a fair
reminder every once in a while.

“Anyways, as I was saying, we do things a little different in block V, so if you don’t mind-”

“What does a super-mega-hyper rich guy like you have to do to wind up in prison?” Yoichi
interrupted Reo again, and while Reo tried to hide his irritation behind his diplomatic smile,
Yoichi noticed him clenching his jaw. “Is there really a crime out there that daddy’s money can’t
make go away?”

Yoichi wouldn’t say he’s bitter . But he was a bit bitter.

Reo pursed his lips. “That’s not somethi-”

“What’s in the pillowcase?” This time it was the Nagi guy interrupting Reo, who in return seemed
appalled that the white haired guy even dared to do something as outrageous as that.

Yoichi almost took out the phone to take a picture of Reo’s face - in every single public appearance
Reo had made he was always calm and composed, never losing his polite smile and diplomatic
answers, no matter how incredulous questions he was asked.

“Nagi, do you mind-”

“A pillow,” Yoichi answered Nagi’s question. Reo mumbled something along the lines of fucking
fuck's sake , and seemed to finally give up on his quest to tell Yoichi about cell-block V’s inner
operations. Good. Yoichi didn’t really have any desire to answer to any of Reo’s, or Nagi’s, or that
dumbass Zantetsu’s whims, if that’s what Reo was on about.

“It’s lumpy from the other side,” Nagi noted, lifting his hand slightly to point at the pillow. And
the lifting of the hand really was slight and lazy - Nagi only lifted his forearm, and even then his
entire arm and wrist seemed limp as he just barely held up his pointer finger. “What’s in there?”

“More baking soda,” Yoichi replied.

Even if he knew what the bag held in it, there was a fat chance in hell he was going to share with
the class. And speaking of, Yoichi really needed some time to himself, so that he could check it
out.

There was a beat of silence, before Zantetsu broke it. “Is the soda in cans or bottles?”

“Zantetsu, you idiot!” Reo screamed into his pillow (which was twice the size Yoichi had brought
with him from block Z), before throwing it at Zantetsu’s head, successfully knocking the tall boy
down from his mattress.

“He’s such a dickhead,” Nagi groaned, before letting his head hang off of the side of the mattress
again (apparently keeping his head upright was way too taxing for him).
The rest of the inmates in block V seemed to have stopped paying attention to them - most of them
were entertaining themselves with either books, magazines or card games, which Yoichi assumed
they had brought with them from the common room. Only one or two inmates had left the safety of
cell-block V.

Yoichi really wasn’t feeling hungry, but he also didn’t want to just hang out in block V. Mostly
because he thought that the top three were pretty weird. But he also didn’t want to leave the
pillowcase unguarded, especially now that Nagi had expressed interest in the contents.

Yoichi stole a glance at the white haired boy, who seemed like he had fallen asleep within the
blink of an eye. Reo, right next to him, was giving him an unprompted foot massage (all that
money, and he’d rather spend his time in prison rubbing a guy’s feet?), while Zantetsu was still
confused over the baking soda, mumbling to himself about cans and bottles.

At the very least, it didn’t seem like they were waiting for Yoichi to leave so they could go through
his stuff. Still, to be safe, Yoichi took one of the bigger pillows, and stuffed his old one inside its
pillowcase, while the three weren’t looking. Then he got up, wondering how likely it was that
Bachira, Kunigami and Chigiri had also already left for breakfast.

“Um, where are you going?” Reo stopped him dead in his tracks, but didn’t stop rubbing Nagi’s
feet (it was progressively getting weirder and weirder).

Yoichi raised an eyebrow. “To get breakfast?” he said, wondering how that wasn’t abundantly
clear just by taking into account the time of the day.

“Oh great, can you bring me and Nagi ours when you get back? Thanks!” It wasn’t a question or a
request or even a demand really. Reo said it in a tone that indicated that it was something mundane
to ask another person to do. Like he was asking Yoichi for a pencil or to bring him a chocolate bar
from the store on his way home. It was spoken with the tone of voice of a person who had lived his
entire life being pampered and never really being told no.

Seems like Reo was expecting the same treatment in prison as he no doubt got in the outside world.
And if Yoichi had to guess, the rest of block V probably always obeyed his requests, like good
little lap dogs.

Yoichi just stared at Reo, who had gone back to giving Nagi’s feet all of his undivided attention. It
took several beats for Reo to realize that Yoichi had not moved an inch from where he was
standing, and was giving him a not very nice look.

“Oh, right, stupid me,” Reo laughed, hitting himself on his forehead, before gripping the numbered
patch on his sleeve and ripping it off and doing the same to Nagi’s sleeve and offering them to
Yoichi. “You’ll need these to get them from the automat.”

“Um, no? If you’re hungry, you can go get your food yourself,” Yoichi shook his head. “What, do
you think you’re King Barou or something? I’m not your servant.”

Reo blinked, confusion filling his face. Zantetsu had stopped his mumbling, instead focusing on
the scene unfolding in front of him, and even Nagi had seen enough effort to open up one eye to see
what was happening.

“See, I tried to tell you - in block V, we do things a little differently. All I need you to do, is just get
me and Nagi what we ask you to, and you get to live your comfortable little life in block V, instead
of rotting away in those cramped little cells with communal bathrooms and shitty mattresses,” Reo
explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Right. Because even in a place like Blue Lock, where nothing really had any monetary value and
your status before imprisonment shouldn’t have really affected your rank, a person as rich as Reo
Mikage had still managed to weaponize his wealth and influence over the other prisoners. Because
there was no way that Reo could have managed to form a hierarchy like this in block V if his
wealth had nothing to do with it.

But based on that theory, Reo should’ve been the highest ranked prisoner in building five, not
Nagi.

“Oh, and if I decide to not answer to your whims and requests, you’ll what, make sure I’ll fall back
down in rank?”

Reo shrugged. “I mean, pretty much-”

“How do you intend to do that? Are you going to call daddy and tell him that another inmate was
being a big meanie and didn’t bring you your breakfast to bed? Are you going to tell on me?”
Yoichi asked, making a mocking baby voice. Some of the remaining inmates were paying attention
to them, but nowhere near the same level of horror as Barou’s little subjects had.
It would seem like block V wasn’t ruled by fear then.

“You really need to stop interrupting me when I speak,” Reo growled, with his eyes narrowed and
fists clenched. “I’m saying this just to be helpful - your time here will be a whole lot more
comfortable, if you just listen to what I say. It’s not like I’m asking you much - there are six other
people here who you’ll be sharing the workload with.”

“You have to be aware of how incredulous you sound,” Yoichi deadpanned. He felt at loss for
words, while wanting to scream out at Reo for his outrageousness. “I- I’m going to go now. You
put those back,” he gestured to the pads Reo had ripped from their sleeves. “And go get your own
food. You’re an adult, you can handle yourself. Good luck.”

As Yoichi turned around to walk away, Reo didn’t try to retort anything back at him, or try to
threaten him. Yoichi supposed there were enough people in block V, more than happy to cater to
Reo’s every wish. Although Yoichi was curious about how Reo intended to go about getting
Yoichi to fall back in rank - whether or not it was just empty promises.

As Yoichi walked out of the room, he heard Nagi mutter to Reo “So he isn’t going to get me food?
Are you going to do it then, there’s nobody left here.”

○○○

When Yoichi made it to the canteen, he was nearly bulldozed by a flying Bachira.

It took all the strength in his entire body to not fall from the impact of Bachira hurling himself at
him, wrapping his arms around his shoulders and legs around his waist, so that Yoichi had to hold
up both his and Bachira’s body weights.

“Isagi~! I missed you so much!” Bachira cried out desperately, burying his head into Yoichi’s
neck, while Yoichi was doing his best trying to untangle the little menace of his body.

“Yes, yes, agonizing half an hour, I’m sure,” Yoichi rolled his eyes. “Can you get off?”

“Doubtful,” another voice came from the direction where Bachira had run from - Yoichi turned his
head to see Kunigami and Chigiri walking towards them at a much more leisurely pace. “He
couldn’t stop crying before we assured him that he’d see you at the canteen,” Kunigami sighed,
much in a way that a parent would, after explaining their child’s daily tantrums.

Which was an accurate metaphor, since Bachira acted very akin to a child at times.

“And thank god you were here, I fear the hell we would have faced otherwise,” Chigiri said.

The three of them wasted no time asking him about what block V was like - well at least Kunigami
and Chigiri didn’t. Bachira, for once, was quietly picking at his food, before giving up on it
completely and opting to instead stare at Yoichi again with that unreadable expression. Yoichi did
his best to ignore it.

“Kind of reminds me of King Barou and his reign of terror in block X,” Yoichi explained. “Except
not - Mikage Reo, the guy who’s ranked number two in the entire building five, just kind of
assumes that people do anything he asks of them, and they do. They don’t even complain about it,
apparently. I haven’t witnessed it myself yet, but he tried to order me around already.”

“Mikage Reo, where have I heard that name?” Chigiri wondered out loud.

“Oh you know, he’s just the son of the guy who owns Mikage Corporations,” Yoichi rolled his
eyes.

Chigiri’s eyes widened in recognition. “Oh, the guy who did a lot of those sports drink brand deals
a few years ago?”

“Yeah, that one.”

Chigiri snorted. “What does a rich nepo-baby like Reo Mikage have to do to get locked up behind
bars? Something horrendously bad, I’d imagine.” Chigiri seemed to have the exact same thoughts
as Yoichi did after finding out Reo was in Blue Lock.

Yoichi shrugged and turned back to his untouched food. It was probably a waste to get food when
he wasn’t particularly hungry. There was still some excess excitement and adrenaline coursing
through him from earlier in the morning. He hadn’t really noticed it back then, being so deep in
thought that he’d completely ignored his nerves.
“He even threatened-” Yoichi never got the chance to finish his sentence, as the words died on his
tongue when the person in question walked into the canteen for the first time as far as Yoichi was
concerned. That wasn’t what paused Yoichi’s train of thought however.

Reo walked in with Nagi and Zantetsu - that much was expected. What was unexpected was the
way Reo was quite literally giving Nagi a piggyback ride, as the clearly several centimeters taller
boy was dozing comfortably against his back. Zantetsu, in all his stupidity, seemed to be the only
one present at the moment, who thought that the situation was normal.

All the eyes in the canteen turned to look at the top three of building five who’d just walked in.
And Yoichi was going to bet his left ass cheek that the reason for the staring wasn’t because they
were ranked the highest or because Reo was somewhat of a celebrity - Yoichi had witnessed it
himself that most of the inmates didn’t recognize him. But Yoichi had also come to the conclusion
during his youth that only a select few people knew Reo’s face, not just his name.

But that was beside the point - the people in the canteen were no doubt taking in the absurd
scenario of Reo carrying Nagi into the canteen, as the mop-headed guy was just too damn lazy to
walk by himself.

As the trio walked past where Yoichi was sitting, Reo served him a delicious plate full of stink-
eye, as Zantetsu just walked past them, seemingly not recognizing Yoichi. Yoichi guessed that the
poor guy just didn’t have that good of a short term memory, or long term memory, and probably
didn’t have enough brain cells to commit Yoichi’s face to memory so quickly.

Nagi, however, opened his eyes the moment they walked past Yoichi’s table. It was almost creepy
in a way - how Nagi’s big and almost hollow looking brown eyes lazily opened up to gaze at
Yoichi, as though he had sensed or smelled where he was. There was no particular emotion behind
Nagi’s stare - no anger or intrigue, as far as Yoichi was concerned, there was nothing going on
behind his eyes. Maybe Nagi was like Zantetsu, just a head without a functioning brain, solely
dependent on Reo for survival.

The moment was over as quickly as it had started. The three of them made it to the food automats,
and the rest of the inmates in the canteen continued on with their regularly scheduled
programming. Nagi’s eyes left Yoichi, and Reo was focusing on getting his and Nagi’s food, and
balancing two trays in his hands with Nagi on his back.

“That’s them then?” Kunigami questioned, despite all of them knowing the answer.

Yoichi nodded. “Mhm,” he hummed. “Must be exhausting, having to get your food by yourselves.”
He made sure to say it loud enough for Reo to hear.

Judging by the way Reo’s grip on the two trays tightened momentarily, as he tried to carry them
over to the table farthest away from Yoichi’s, his words were heard loud and clear.

Yoichi noticed Bachira staring in Reo’s direction, once again with a very strange look on his face.
It wasn’t the same he’d stared at Yoichi with, but at the same time, it wasn’t dissimilar . It was
unnerving, especially since Yoichi couldn’t for the life of him read the meaning behind the look.

“You okay, Bachira?” Yoichi asked.

Bachira for once didn’t turn to look back at Yoichi. “I don’t like him,” he just replied, his eyes
narrowing into a glare, before he finally turned to face Yoichi again, his stare softening.

“Who, Reo? I mean, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s a bit of a prick, but it’s kind of
disappointing, cause he’s ho-”

“Not him,” Bachira interrupted him ( the day was full of interruptions it would seem ) with a frown.
“I meant the white haired, lazy one.”

That seemed a bit uncalled for. Nagi had not done anything, only stared at them blankly. Maybe
Bachira didn’t like Nagi’s laziness, but that would be a bit hypocritical, considering how Bachira
would often drape his own body against Yoichi’s back when they made their way to breakfast, so
that Yoichi had to half carry Bachira to the canteen.

Yoichi looked over to where Reo had found them an empty place to sit at, and much to his
surprise, Nagi was again staring at them. Or rather at Yoichi, considering the way his eyes seemed
to drill right into Yoichi’s own now that they were both looking at each other.

Even in the canteen, Nagi didn’t bother to try and sit straight. He was slumped against the table,
using one of his arms as a sort of makeshift pillow below his head, while his other hand was lazily
holding his empty chopsticks. His eyes were half lidded, as they almost unblinkingly stared at
Yoichi, much like a sleepy student stares at a black board.

“That’s Nagi,” Yoichi explained, ripping his eyes away from the guy in question, and pressing his
finger against Bachira’s cheek, in an effort to make him smile again. “He’s lazy and pretty
harmless - pretty sure he’d be molding at the bottom of his mattress if Reo didn’t carry him
everywhere.”

Bachira blinked at Yoichi with wide surprised eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but
seemingly decided against it, and closed it again. “Don’t call Reo hot,” Bachira just said, and
Yoichi nearly rolled his eyes.

Just as Yoichi was about to move his finger away from Bachira’s face, Bachira turned his head
slightly and took Yoichi’s finger in his mouth. All things considered, Yoichi should have expected
it.

Didn’t make it any less gross though.

“Yew, dude,” Yoichi groaned, quickly pulling his finger away, just as he was beginning to feel
teeth digging into it, and wiping the spit onto Bachira’s own jumpsuit. “Gross, don’t do that.”

Bachira just smiled at him brightly, and Yoichi couldn’t help but feel relieved.

○○○

Only after Yoichi felt sure and secure that the rest of the inmates in block V were fast asleep, he
took his pillowcase and sneaked out of the cell. He hadn’t had the time to check out the contents of
the bag Noa had given him yet, and so Yoichi thanked whatever god was out there that the inmates
of block V had their very own bathroom, one which they were able to access even during the night.

Yoichi grabbed the pillowcase and sneaked out of the room with as little noise as he possibly
could, and quickly made his way into the bathroom. Then he made his biggest mistake yet.

With all the other inmates fast asleep, Yoichi didn’t see the need to hide in the bathroom stalls.
Instead, he took a seat on the bathroom counter, next to one of the sinks and fished out the bag Noa
had given him. Before he could see inside however, he was, as the trend seemed to have been
lately, interrupted .

“Do you have porn in there or something? Is that why you sneaked out in the middle of the night,
to jerk off?” Yoichi had not yet heard much of that tired voice, but he recognized it anyway.
Yoichi quickly jerked his head to look at Nagi, who was leaning against the bathroom doorway.
For such a big guy ( seriously, the guy was what, fucking two meters tall? Well, probably not two
meters, but close) he had been remarkably quiet, and judging by his lazy posture and how much
the guy was yawning, Yoichi would have expected him to make much more noise as he followed
Yoichi to the bathroom.

“Weren’t you asleep like a second ago?” Yoichi demanded, ignoring the question about the porn,
because honestly, Yoichi wouldn’t have been surprised if the case was filled with it.

Nagi shrugged. “I woke up and saw you leaving with the pillow. Wanna know what’s inside,” the
sentence was topped off with a stretched out yawn.

“Yes, you seem very interested, downright pumping with impatience to know,” Yoichi scoffed,
hugging the pillow close to his chest, even though he knew that Nagi probably lacked the
motivation to try and steal it from him.

“Yeah, precisely.”

"Look, it's just some medication my parents brought me," Yoichi lied, hoping to be convincing
enough for Nagi to buy it. "They wouldn't let me bring it to Blue Lock, and I really need it, so my
parents smuggle it in for me, please don't tell anyone-"

"You're a pretty good liar," Nagi said, interrupting Yoichi because that was a thing now apparently
. "But that doesn't explain the baking soda. Or that I heard you gave a hair comb to someone. Or
how I heard you talking to some guy a few days ago and he asked for a CPU because he wanted to
build a computer."

Okay, but Niko and Yoichi were alone back then, how did Nagi hear that?

"Um," Yoichi tried to come up with an excuse.

"Could you get me a computer too? Like a laptop?" Nagi asked, stepping properly into the
bathroom, not taking his eyes off of Yoichi for even a second.
Yoichi was taken aback by the request. He was sure Reo could get him anything he wanted. "What
for?" Seriously, if this guy was a hacker as well, Yoichi was going to ask Noa for a brick and throw
it at Nagi. But Yoichi doubted it - he didn't know much about hacking, but he was sure it required
a lot of tenacity that a guy as lazy as Nagi just didn't have.

"So I can play," Nagi replied.

"Play… what?"

"Minecraft."

The blank look on Nagi’s face never changed. In a way he reminded Yoichi of Noa, but there was
a certain difference there. With Noa, the blank look felt like a mask. Noa’s expressions never
changed, but Yoichi knew when he was being serious ( 99.9 % of the time ) and when he wasn’t.
Noa’s blank expression was intentional.

With Nagi, however, Yoichi was sure it wasn’t. He couldn’t figure out whether or not Nagi was
just joking. It almost seemed like emoting was too taxing to Nagi, and so the look on his face (or
the lack thereof) wasn’t intentional and practiced like with Noa.

“Are you… twelve?” Yoichi asked, as he really couldn’t figure out any better response.

“I’m bored ,” Nagi complained, leaning against the bathroom counter right next to Yoichi. “The
first mildly entertaining thing that has happened here was you using King Barou as a footrest.”

“Yeah? Can’t you just ask Reo to get you a laptop or something?” Yoichi asked. Yoichi actually
thought that getting a laptop into Blue Lock was impossible, but hey, Reo was rich so maybe he
could pull it off.

“I already tried, but he said he can’t do that,” Nagi complained.

Yoichi raised an eyebrow. “Somehow I find that hard to believe,” he scoffed. Yoichi took a
moment to observe Nagi. It was now clear why Nagi was the top ranked inmate in building five
instead of Reo.
In reality, Reo probably was the highest ranked. Not probably, he was ranked highest. If Yoichi’s
assessment of the ranking system was correct, Reo by all accounts should be at the top of the food
chain. Most other inmates most likely by default viewed Reo as better than them, and Reo seemed
like the type of guy to take full advantage of that. But there was no way Reo was ranked as high as
he was by just being rich, and there was no way that was enough to get to the very top of Blue
Lock.

But if Yoichi was right that the ranks were based purely on the inmates’ perceptions of each other,
the other inmates didn’t have to have the same perception of Nagi as they had of Reo. Nagi was the
highest ranked by default, because Reo had put Nagi on that pedestal in his mind.

That was probably why Yoichi became the highest ranked in block Z so fast - not necessarily
because he earned it, but because the people who were ranked higher than him, perceived him as
better than they perceived themselves, for whatever reason.

( If Yoichi’s analysis was correct, he desperately needed to figure out what Zantetsu did to make it
so far, there was no way that the guy had figured the system out .)

Yoichi dug into the pillowcase and found the first bag Noa had given him, the smaller one. He still
had the lighter and the phone with him. He really didn’t want to give away the phone, because it
was the one thing he could actually find a good use for, but Yoichi decided to view this as
investing in his future.

“Say Nagi, Reo really pampers you a lot, doesn’t he,” Yoichi tilted his head to look at Nagi
properly.

Nagi blinked owlishly at him. “I suppose.”

“And what does Reo get out of it?” Yoichi asked, but Nagi didn’t seem to understand where he was
going with his inquiries. “What do you do for Reo in return?”

“Am I supposed to do something in return?” Nagi asked.

Figures.

“I mean it is a decent thing to do, at least in my opinion.”

 “Are you going somewhere with this? Cause if not, I want to see what’s in there,” Nagi nodded his
head towards the pillowcase.

Yoichi bit his lip and tried to think of the best way to go about the next part. “I was just curious I
guess, no particular reason behind it,” Yoichi shrugged and took his hand out of the pillow case,
the phone clutched tightly in his hand. Yoichi saw Nagi’s eyes zero in on the device, and it was the
first time something akin to an emotion appeared on Nagi’s face. His eyes widened slightly as his
pupils dilated. His gaze was solely fixed on the mobile phone as Yoichi turned it around a few
times in his hands. “Just thought it was kind of weird, how much Reo does for you, and you do
basically nothing in return. I mean, usually when I ask for a favor, I make sure it’s repaid equally.”

Yoichi let out an intentionally drawn out sigh, and dropped the phone back into the pillowcase,
watching as Nagi’s eyes followed the movement like a hawk. “I’m going back to sleep now. Good
night.” Checking the rest of the contents in the bag could wait.

Yoichi heard Nagi call out to him as he quickly walked away from the bathroom. For the first time,
Yoichi noticed Nagi put on a proper posture, as he tried to run after him, but Yoichi made sure to
slam the bathroom door closed behind him.

He should probably hide the cell, just in case.

Chapter End Notes

Reo had a rough day, he's about to have it much worse <3
 Error Code 404 Yoichi.exe has stopped working
Chapter Notes

I love reading your comments for real. Every time somebody comes up with a theory
about something I go crazy.

Anyways

Feeding time, kay?

See the end of the chapter for more notes

VI - Error Code 404 Yoichi.exe has stopped working

When Yoichi got back into the cell, he immediately hid the pillow underneath his mattress, before
getting under the covers and pretended to sleep. Nagi wasn’t that far behind him, rushing into the
room just as Yoichi’s head hit the pillow. Luckily, Nagi decided to not bother Yoichi for the rest of
the night, his laziness most likely catching up to him, and slept quietly until morning.

Yoichi however, could not sleep.

He really wanted to check out the contents of the bag, but given how dark it was in the room, it was
probably pointless trying to go through them here. Not to mention, he would risk waking up the
rest of block V's inmates.

All things considered, Yoichi should have slept better in block V than he did in block Z. Nobody in
block V were snoring, he had a bigger pillow and a better mattress and there was no Bachira
clinging to him in his sleep. Maybe it was still the nerves and excitement, even the anxiety of being
once again in a new environment. He was going to have to adapt his strategy to fit his new
situation and figure out how to progress on to building four.

All these thoughts kept him awake well into the morning.

He was surprised that he didn’t manage to wake anyone up with his incessant tossing and turning.
When the first inmates of block V started to stretch their limbs and roll out of their covers, Yoichi
didn’t feel particularly tired. He knew that the sleepless night was going to come back to bite him
in the ass at some point or another, but he couldn’t care less at present time.
Yoichi had decided to keep the cellphone on his person, just in case Nagi had any kleptomaniac
tendencies. The cellular device was the only ace up his sleeve when it came to surviving in block V
and making it into building four.

Yoichi sat up on his knees and stretched his arms high in the air. He noticed Reo had also woken
up and was now, overly gently trying to wake up the still sleeping Nagi, who seemed to be extra
exhausted.

He also could not have followed Yoichi to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but hindsight is
20-20.

Yoichi stood up properly from his mattress and began to make his leave, and suddenly, as if
electrocuted, Nagi suddenly sprang up and quickly followed Yoichi.

“N-Nagi!” Yoichi heard Reo call after him, but doubted Nagi actually reacted to Reo’s call. Yoichi
didn’t turn around to look at Nagi, but he could hear and feel his breath and footsteps right behind
him. If Nagi picked up his pace even the slightest bit, he would’ve been pressed right against
Yoichi’s back, but fortunately, he kept the small amount of distance between them.

By the time the two of them had made it to the canteen, Yoichi hadn’t spared Nagi a glance or a
word, but Nagi hadn’t really said anything either. Yoichi decided that the best course of action was
most likely just ignore the tall white-haired boy and see if he makes the first move.

Yoichi showed the foot automat his number, and the machine gave him his tray. Before Yoichi
could pick it up, however, Nagi had taken the tray into his own hands, balancing both his and
Yoichi’s trays in his hands with much more ease than Reo had the previous day.

For a while they just stared at each other, without saying a word. There weren’t that many inmates
in the canteen so early, given how only block V had their doors open at this time, but those who
were present were looking at them in confusion.

“What, are you keeping my food hostage, or something?” Yoichi asked.

“Where do you want to sit?” Nagi answered with another question.

Yoichi raised an eyebrow. It seemed that Nagi wanted to play friends then. “Anywhere’s fine with
me,” Yoichi shrugged. “Your call.”

Nagi ended up picking the table, which was the furthest away from the door. It was slightly behind
a corner and a pillar, so that most inmates wouldn’t notice them sitting there, unless they were
specifically looking for them. Yoichi had an inkling that Nagi picked the spot on purpose. He was
for sure right, as he saw Reo and Zantetsu coming into the cafeteria, Reo whipping his head back
and forth, trying to locate where Nagi had gone.

“What, didn’t want your keeper finding you so quickly?” Yoichi questioned. Nagi hadn’t taken the
seat across from Yoichi like one would expect, but instead had decided to seat himself right next to
him, pulling his chair as close as possible to the one Yoichi was sitting on, so that eating was
impossible without brushing against each other. Nagi also was sitting up straight and his eyes were
wide open, a huge contrast to how he was yesterday, slumped over and barely awake.

“It’s not him I’m worried about,” Nagi replied, digging into his food with his chopsticks. “Do you
want some?” Nagi brought the chopsticks, now holding a piece of particularly juicy looking meat
in them. It was easily the best looking food Yoichi had seen in Blue Lock.

“No thank you,” Yoichi replied curtly, before shoveling some of his own food into his mouth,
while looking over the rest of the canteen. Nagi really had chosen a good spot - you could see the
whole canteen, but the whole canteen couldn’t see you.

Reo and Zantetsu had sat down closer to the doors, Reo still looking around and trying to locate
Nagi. Yoichi furrowed his brow. The relationship between the two seemed… odd. “Why didn’t
you wave at your boyfriend so he could find his way here, if he’s not the one you’re worried
about? Yoichi also wanted to know what it was that Nagi wanted to avoid so much, if not Reo.
Yoichi very much doubted that Nagi had even interacted with any other inmates than Reo and
Zantetsu.

“ Not my boyfriend,” Nagi scowled.

“No? So he’s your perfectly platonic friend, who carries you everywhere, feeds you and rubs your
feet, unprompted? I’ve certainly never had a friendship like that.”

Nagi apparently decided not to answer that question. “So what do I have to do for you to give me
that cellphone?” he asked instead.
“What cell phone?” Yoichi asked, just as his attention was stolen by Chigiri, Kunigami and
Bachira walking into the canteen. Bachira was acting very similarly to Reo, looking around the
canteen frantically with a desperate look on his face. Unlike Nagi, Yoichi decided to end the poor
guy’s suffering - besides, maybe it wouldn’t be so awkward to sit with Nagi, if Bachira, Kunigami
and Chigiri joined them.

Yoichi lifted his hand up to a wave, but as soon as his hand was up, Nagi swooped in to force his
arm back down, quite brutally.

“Ow,” Yoichi complained, giving Nagi a nasty look, and ripping his arm from Nagi’s grip. “What
was that for?”

Nagi didn’t reply, only looked with narrowed eyes as the three inmates in question made their way
to their table. It seemed like Chigiri had noticed them, as he was pointing the table out to Bachira,
who rushed over as soon as possible.

“Isagi!” Bachira greeted way too loudly and way too cheerfully, jumping in to wrap his arms
around Yoichi’s neck. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Nagi narrow his eyes at Bachira, and
the grip Bachira had on him tightened to the point where Yoichi couldn’t breathe.

Yoichi tapped Bachira on his arm, but he didn’t get the memo - Bachira only responded by
nuzzling his face against Yoichi’s hair.

Bachira hardly ever did Yoichi any favors when it came to trying to better his image in Blue Lock.
Maybe that had been his plan all along.

“Bachira, you’re choking him,” Kunigami said as he and Chigiri caught up with their eccentric
friend. They had gone and gotten their food before coming over, unlike Bachira.

“Go get your food Bachira,” Chigiri said sternly, pursing his lips at the display in front of him.

Bachira shook his head. “I’ll just share Isagi’s food. He never really finishes his meals anyways,”
Bachira smiled, finally letting go of Yoichi and stealing some food from his plate with bare hands .

“Do not eat with bare hands!” Yoichi snapped, tapping Bachira on his forehead.
“But I don’t have any chopsticks! Guess you’ll have to feed me!” Bachira grinned, opening his
mouth wide, expecting Yoichi to put food in it. “Aaaa!”

Yoichi decided to humor Bachira this time and fed him some of his food wordlessly.

“Yummy, it’s much better than my food,” Bachira grinned, with his mouth still filled with food.

“Yeah, I think that’s the whole point,” Chigiri frowned. “And stop speaking with your mouth full!”

Yoichi was starting to feel quite suffocated. On his right side, there was Nagi pressed up against
him, leaving him barely any extra room to move. And now on his right side, there was Bachira,
who was hitching his own chair closer and closer to Yoichi’s, until he was half sitting on his own
seat, and half sitting in Yoichi’s lap.

The worst part was that Yoichi wasn’t the only person to notice this. Chigiri and Kunigami were
both eyeing the situation not too happily, clearly weirded out by the behavior. Even some of the
other inmates who were close enough to see them, were glancing at them strangely.

Yoichi is also not blind to the strange looks Bachira and Nagi keep giving each other, although he
wasn’t sure the meaning behind them. Based on what Bachira had said the previous day, he didn’t
like Nagi, even though he’d never interacted with him before now. If giving Nagi a look that could
only be described as a smug glare could be called interaction, as he put his arms back around
Yoichi’s neck, although not as tightly as before.

“Dude, could you give me like a millimeter of breathing space, please?” Yoichi groaned, trying to
swat Bachira’s hands off of him, much to no success.

On the other side, Nagi’s eyes were also narrowed in a somewhat glare as he watched Bachira
hanging off Yoichi’s other side. Yoichi was just about to snap at the both of them, when he felt a
hand on his right thigh.

“It’s okay Isagi, you can give this guy your food and we can share mine,” Nagi said, and Yoichi
felt an uncomfortable squeeze on his leg, confirming that it was indeed Nagi’s hand.
Yoichi slapped the hand off, and abruptly got up from his seat, successfully knocking both Nagi
and Bachira off of him. “I have a better idea: you eat your food, Bachira eats my food, Chigiri and
Kunigami eat their own foods, and I leave,” Yoichi said, feeling closer and closer to losing his
temper with these people.

Yoichi quickly started to walk towards the exit of the canteen - he counted ten seconds, before two
loud clanks were heard, and two pairs of hurried footsteps were running after him, Bachira’s voice
calling him to wait.

Yoichi ignored him, walking past a very confused Reo, who took one glance to the direction
Yoichi was coming from, and very loudly yelled:

“What the fuck Nagi?!”

○○○

Yoichi didn’t like spending too much in the courtyard of Blue Lock when the doors opened every
day. Normally, Yoichi would like the outdoors, he liked going on long walks in nature and just be
immersed in his own thoughts with no distractions.

That was two things Blue Lock was lacking.

One - the huge concrete fences surrounding the Blue Lock facility were so tall and thick that the
inmates couldn’t see anything past them. The only view they had was the fence and the sky above.
The courtyard didn’t have any plants or trees or any kind of vegetation either. The ground was
made of concrete, except for the one patch of land that was made of fake grass for some reason.
Yoichi suspected that it was so that the inmates couldn’t figure out the current season.

There was some gym equipment, more specifically weight-lifting equipment, placed in the
courtyard, but needless to say, Yoichi never touched them. The equipment was always occupied
anyways, by guys who looked an awful lot like king Barou. There were also a few chess tables, but
those were never used by anyone.

The second thing - Yoichi hadn’t known peace since coming to Blue Lock, and he certainly didn’t
know it today.
He had come outside because he needed some fucking air . He was being suffocated from both
sides - Nagi on his right and Bachira on his left, each of them trying to pull him in their direction.
Nagi was clearly trying to win some favors with Yoichi so he could demand the ownership of the
cell phone, and Bachira was… being Bachira.

Except the air outside seemed just as dusty, if not even more so, as inside. Yoichi laid on the fake
grass, looking at the blank blue sky, devoid of any clouds or beams of sunlight, contemplating his
life choices, yet again. For the first time that day, both Bachira and Nagi had decided to be quiet (
thankfully ), but that didn’t mean they left him alone.

Bachira had sat himself down, so that he could place Yoichi’s head in his lap and play with his
hair. All things considered, Bachira had recently mellowed out considerably, acting strange at
times, but his overall attitude towards Yoichi hadn’t changed - he was still as touchy as ever,
taking each and every possible chance to have his hands on Yoichi.

Yoichi was convinced that Bachira was onto him - that the strange looks he’d received from the
usually cheery and hyperactive boy were a sign that Bachira had also figured out the Blue Lock
system, and was now actively trying to sabotage Yoichi, by making him look weak and pathetic.

Yoichi needed to bring a stop to it.

Nagi on the other hand, was sitting on the other side of Yoichi, having some sort of one-sided
staring competition with Bachira, who was pretending to concentrate on playing with Yoichi’s hair.

“Would it kill you two,” Yoichi sighed, the irritation that had been slowly building up for the
entire day, starting to boil over. “To leave me alone, for a fucking minute or two?”

Although, Yoichi had brought this onto himself. High risk, high reward and all of that - Yoichi was
sure this irritation was going to be worth it once he’d managed to use building five’s highest ranked
inmate to his advantage.

“That’s what I’ve been thinking about also,” a fourth voice, familiar and nasally, complained.
Yoichi immediately sat up to see the hacker guy - Niko, was it? - with his arms crossed, tapping his
foot impatiently. “I’ve been trying to catch you alone, but your two dogs don’t seem to want to
leave your side.”

Yoichi felt Bachira’s arms sneak their way around his neck again. “What do you want with Isagi?”
he asked, his voice sounding like it came from a completely different person.

Yoichi swatted the arms off of him quickly.

Niko didn’t even glance at Bachira ( although, Yoichi could never be sure where the guy’s eyes
were looking at, given that his bangs were so long ). “Can you ask them to leave?” Niko once again
only addressed Yoichi.

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do?” Yoichi scoffed. “They’re kind of like ticks, they won’t
come off.”

Nagi yawned. “It’s not nice to talk about people like they’re not present,” he said, leaning his face
onto his hand.

“Exactly, very rude,” Bachira agreed, blowing a raspberry at Nike ( because, once again, Bachira
was a child it seemed ).

The last thing Yoichi needed was Bachira and Nagi starting to agree on things and potentially
ganging up on him.

This time Niko actually did tilt his head to look at Nagi. “Aren’t you missing a limb?” he asked
snidely.

“Huh?” Nagi blinked dumbly. Yoichi almost rolled his eyes at that - there was no way Nagi was
actually that oblivious to the way he and Reo acted.

“The purple colored extra limb that hangs off of your ass day in and day out,” Niko clarified. “You
almost look lost without it. So did he finally come to his senses and realize you’re just dead-weight
on his back? Or are you just trying to climb on the Isagi-train while it’s still at the station?”

Yoichi furrowed his eyebrows at the confusing metaphor - as far as he was considered, there was
no train and if there was, it wouldn’t be taking in any passengers, whatever that meant.

Nagi didn’t seem to appreciate the implications either, judging by the way the look in Nagi’s eyes
darkened significantly at Niko’s accusations. Yoichi wasn’t sure which Nagi was more offended
by, the comments about his relationship with Reo, or the comments about Yoichi - whichever it
may be, Yoichi was sure that if Nagi was even a little bit less lazy, he might’ve actually gotten up
and punched Niko in the face.

“Did you actually need something?” Yoichi decided that it was time to change the subject, as it
was uncomfortable for everyone present.

Niko pursed his lips, before sighing and caving in. “Do you have the CPU or not?” he demanded.

Right. Yoichi had forgotten that most of the building five inmates had started viewing Yoichi as
their own personal vending machine, where you could order your own personal favorite items free
of charge. Yoichi really needed to get to the bag Noa gave him, and soon. There was always the
chance that his rank would take a downward spiral if the other inmates started to have negative
opinions on Yoichi.

But there was the other option as well.

“I’m still kind of confused what you need it for, to be honest,” Yoichi sighed, leaning back on his
hands, so that he was half sitting, half laying down on Bachira. Bachira seemed confused by the
act for all of three seconds, given that Yoichi rarely ever initiates contact between the two, before
fully embracing the moment.

Yoichi could imagine Niko’s eye twitching. “I already explained it to you, you moron. I’m going to
build a-”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re going to build a computer which you can use to hack the Blue Lock system,
we all get it by now,” Yoichi faked a yawn, putting even more of his weight onto Bachira. “But the
whole plan just doesn’t make sense, if you think about it. You want me to smuggle some computer
parts into the prison, which is supposed to be super secure and heavily monitored. You’re just
going to hide in a bathroom stall, where you’ll build a computer from scratch and then use your
super hacker abilities to put yourself on top of the food chain, and you seriously believe the guards
won’t interfere?”

“Blue Lock is a laughable excuse for a prison, the guards only come in to break up fights when
they fear it’s going to get lethal - that’s all they do. The security system is a joke and you know it,”
Niko argued back through gritted teeth.
“Yeah okay, so you’ve got that plot hole covered, sure. But there is one thing missing from this
equation,” Yoichi pointed out. “What do I get out of it?”

All of them were silent after Yoichi’s question. Nagi’s gaze was lazily moving between Yoichi and
Niko, no doubt thinking about how much this exact situation happened to him the night before.
Bachira - who had looped his arms around Yoichi’s middle - tightened his hold after hearing the
words leave his mouth, and Yoichi could once again envision that strange look on his face, despite
having his back turned against him.

Niko clenched his jaw. “I already told you, it’s beneficial for your ranking-”

“Except, I rank higher than you now. When you asked the first time, there was something for me to
gain, but now it just sounds like you expect me to do something out of the goodness of my heart,
and I think we all know that’s not the way to succeed here, so I’ll ask again: what do I get out of
it?” Yoichi tried again.

Niko didn’t have an answer, so Yoichi got up from the ground, Bachira quickly following suit.

“Ask again when you know how you can be of use to me first.” Yoichi wiped off the imaginary
dust from his jumpsuit, and started to walk back into the prison building. Bachira was quickly
running after him, clearly not fond of the idea of being left behind, while Nagi chose to follow at a
much more leisurely pace.

The air outside felt even stuffier now.

○○○

It happened that very same evening that Yoichi started to feel like he was losing again.

The losing battle began as they were in the canteen again, Nagi having inserted himself in their
company again as they were having dinner. Yoichi supposed that Chigiri and Kunigami didn’t
mind too much, given that Nagi was mostly silent the whole time, sticking to lazily eating at his
food, while ever so often glancing at Yoichi with a contemplative look. Bachira still seemed to
have some sort of unexplained vendetta against Nagi, given how much more tactile he became
every time Nagi’s eyes turned to look at Yoichi again.
It almost seemed at times like the two were even communicating with each other, all of their words
spoken through pointed glares. Yoichi did his best to ignore it, just like he tried to ignore Nagi’s
hand which had once again found its way onto his thigh and Bachira’s arm, which had been thrown
over his shoulder.

Kunigami, god bless his soul, had taken it upon himself to try and lighten the mood with some
lighthearted conversation topics, although his efforts seemed to be in vain, considering how the
rest of his company seemed to be sulking in one way or another. Even Chigiri’s mood seemed sour,
well more so than usual, given how the redhead wasn’t really the cheeriest guy to be around, as he
glared at the scene in front of him, taking in every moment of Nagi’s and Bachira’s silent
competition, which in Yoichi’s eyes did not have a concrete end.

Where things started to go really downhill was when Reo found them in the canteen, seemingly out
of breath as though he’d just ran a marathon.

“Nagi, I’ve been looking everywhere for you the whole day, where the hell have you been?” Reo
demanded to know, sitting down on the spare seat next to Kunigami, who eyed Reo with a careful
look.

Nagi shrugged. “With Isagi.”

Yoichi almost hit Nagi as Reo’s murderous gaze turned towards him. Yoichi had his suspicions
before, but Reo’s reaction really confirmed it for him - there had to be something more going on
between them. Some sort of relationship that went beyond just being friends in a prison cell. Given
Nagi’s apathy towards the situation, and Reo’s clear anger at Nagi spending his time with someone
else, Yoichi guessed there must’ve been some sort of miscommunication issue between the two -
Reo wanted more than Nagi was willing to give.

That… could turn out to be a problem. But not a problem Yoichi wouldn’t be able to take care of.

“Nagi, can we talk?” Reo asked pointedly, already getting up from the seat, expecting Nagi to
follow him.

Here’s where Yoichi needed to think fast - would it be better or worse for him, if Reo and Nagi
suddenly had a rift in their relationship. Nagi groaned at the suggestion of getting up, but Yoichi
noticed that he was actually willing to hear Reo out.
But Yoichi needed to prove something first, both to himself, to Reo, and hopefully to everybody
else as well.

Just as Nagi was getting up from his seat, Yoichi hooked his leg around Nagi’s, effectively
stopping him from getting up. Nagi looked at him confusedly, and Yoichi tapped his fingers
against the table.

“Can you get me a glass of water first?”

The entire table looked at him like he had suddenly grown a second head. A few inmates from the
tables near them even lifted their gazes, as Nagi grunted a silent affirmative, and walked right up to
the water automat.

Yoichi had to bite his cheek to stop himself from smiling, as Reo gave him a death glare which
could’ve given even Barou a run for his money.

It didn’t take too long for Nagi to come back with the glass of cold water - for once Nagi’s step
seemed hurried and intentional rather than sluggish. “Anything else?” Nagi asked, his eyes
suddenly wide again.

Yoichi shook his head, causing Reo to quickly take a hold of Nagi and pull him out of the canteen
before Yoichi had time to change his mind and decide that he wanted a few new napkins.

Chigiri and Kunigami were still giving Yoichi a confused look, while Bachira was… once again
looking at him with the same strange face, although this time he almost looked a bit… sad.

“Isagi…” Chigiri narrowed his eyes at Yoichi, before pointing at the full glass of water Yoichi
already had on his tray. “You already had water.”

Yoichi just shrugged. “Wanted another one,” he said, taking a small sip from the glass Nagi had
given him.

When they got up to leave the canteen, Yoichi felt Bachira grip his arm tightly, his sharp nails
digging into his skin.
“Bachira, dude, that seriously hurts,” Yoichi complained, trying to pry the offending hand off of
him, unsuccessfully. “I’m being so deadass right now Bachira. Let. Go.”

Bachira just shook his head and started to pull him in the opposite direction of where Chigiri and
Kunigami were going. Bachira didn’t listen to any of Yoichi’s confused protests, as he pulled
Yoichi into the - fortunately empty - communal bathroom, which the other blocks used.

“Fucking hell, this is starting to become a habit,” Yoichi mumbled mostly to himself, as he recalled
being ambushed by Nagi in the bathroom just the night prior.

Yoichi was about to demand Bachira for answers for dragging him in there, but suddenly found
himself pushed against the wall, with Bachira’s hands on his shoulders, gripping them for dear life.

“You know what the secret to improving your ranking is,” Bachira accused. “But you didn’t tell
me.”

Yoichi clenched his jaw and frowned. He probably should have expected this.

In his defence, Yoichi had contemplated telling Bachira, Chigiri and Kunigami. He was going to
tell them once he was sure - but he was already being escorted to a new block once that had
happened.

Besides, Yoichi was still unsure whether or not he should feed Bachira’s incessant need to be his
best friend or whatever.

“Look, I really was going to tell you,” Yoichi pursed his lips. “But I wasn’t sure at the time-”

Bachira’s grip on his shoulders tightened and Yoichi felt the nails digging into his skin again. He
was ready to complain about it again, before he noticed the look on his face - Bachira wasn’t angry
with him like he’d assumed, he was just… sad . At least based on the childish pout and nearly teary
eyed expression he wore.

Yoichi let his eyes soften as he looked at Bachira, placing his hands on his wrists. “Now that I’m
sure, I can help you as well - we’ll figure out the way to get to building four together, alright?”
Big words for a guy who really hadn’t given much thought to anything other than his own
survival. Based on Blue Lock’s philosophy, he shouldn’t have time to worry about anybody other
than himself. But all things considered, it could always prove to be beneficial to have someone in
your corner unconditionally.

Bachira’s pout seemed to let up a bit, before he remembered something else. “I don’t like Nagi,”
Bachira then complained, and now Yoichi couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes.

“I don’t really know what you want me to do about that,” Yoichi sighed. “I didn’t ask for him to
follow me around.”

Yeah, maybe not asked . But he definitely baited him in a way that made it inevitable.

“I could’ve gotten you that glass of water,” Bachira insisted. “There’s no need for him.”

Well there kind of is. Or at least there will be.

Yoichi moved his other hand from Bachira’s wrist, and moved it to the back of his head. Yoichi
wrapped some of the longer pieces of hair there around his fingers, and watched as the look on
Bachira’s face calmed down visibly.

Old tricks work even in prison it seemed.

“You know it wasn’t about the glass of water Bachira,” Yoichi murmured. “And it wouldn’t hurt
to have the top ranked guy here at your beck and call. Nagi will be yesterday’s news once we move
up the ranks, right?”

Yoichi tightened the grip he had on Bachira’s hair slightly, and moved his head in a nodding
motion.

“See? There’s no issue here,” Yoichi gave Bachira the brightest smile he could muster ( the one
he’d always reserved for someone else, and had been left unused for quite some time now ) and
started to move his hand away from Bachira’s head.
Yoichi was sure that Bachira was going to let go of him now and they could go on about their day
like usual. But Bachira, always full of surprises, did the exact opposite. Where Yoichi assumed
he’d be getting more breathing room, he instead found himself being pushed even harder against
the wall, with Bachira’s lips on his own.

Ah. Okay, so Yoichi totally can see where Bachira might’ve gotten this impression from .

Yoichi's brain was actively short circuiting for a hot second there - a 404 error code was ringing
through his head as he struggled to grasp whatever thoughts should’ve been running through his
head.

It took a while - little by little Yoichi’s brain started to gather information about his surroundings
again. Number one - he was still very much pressed against the wall. Number two - he was most
definitely being kissed by Bachira, who either didn’t notice or didn’t care about Yoichi’s lack of
participation, and kept moving his lips like a starved man. Number three - Yoichi wasn’t sure what
to think about it.

Now, see here, Bachira wasn’t a bad kisser. Very enthusiastic, Yoichi would say, and maybe not
the most skilled, when compared to the other people Yoichi had kissed ( there weren’t many to be
clear, three in fact, and two of them landed him in some hot water ). Yoichi was going to go out on
a limb and assume that Bachira was probably not the most experienced kisser there was.

Whether or not it was a good kiss wasn’t the issue.

The issue was that Yoichi had never gotten anything other than friendly vibes from Bachira.
Yoichi had just assumed that the cheerful guy who was clinging to him like a leech was just lonely
and desperate for human connection. But then again, that’s the vibe Yoichi had also gotten from-

Can of worms, already thrown out, no need to open, stop it stop it stop it-

There was also the chance of Bachira trying to throw Yoichi off and make him lower his guard and
sabotage him.

Okay, Yoichi was naturally a very suspicious guy. Especially after the trial. But Yoichi could for a
fact say that out of all the people in building five, probably out of Blue Lock in general, Bachira
was the least likely to do something like that.
There was two ways Yoichi could go about this:

1. Push Bachira away, and remind him of the healthy boundaries again. Except, this time it was
unlikely that Bachira could just be told ‘no’ and they could go back to acting like nothing
had happened. Pushing Bachira away now would risk Bachira never speaking to him again -
and Yoichi had already come to the conclusion that having someone in his corner
unconditionally, someone who was ready to go whatever lengths needed, would be more
than beneficial. Reo and Nagi were the perfect proof of that.
2. He could indulge Bachira’s whims, and let him do as he wished. If keeping Bachira happy
and on his side required him to get his lips bitten raw… Well, there were worse ways to
persuade someone to be on your side.

While Yoichi was stuck in his head, going over the pros and cons of the situation, Bachira had
moved his hands from his shoulders and down to his waist, where he was incessantly pulling at
Yoichi’s jumpsuit, as if he could realistically make it come off by simply pulling.

Yoichi nearly snorted. Figures .

“Easy there,” he whispered, not pulling away from Bachira, instead choosing to breathe the words
against Bachira’s lips.

Bachira let out a particularly bratty whine at that, but got back to his previous activities
immediately.

Yeah, there were definitely worse ways to go about this .

○○○

Convincing Bachira to let him go back to block V to sleep turned out to be a challenge. In the end,
all it took was the sound of the other inmates coming to use the bathroom for Bachira to
begrudgingly get off of Yoichi and bid him a good night.

Yoichi ran a hand through his hair, which Bachira had messed up quite well. There was also an
embarrassingly large hickey on his neck, which Yoichi had luckily convinced Bachira to place
underneath the collar of his jumpsuit.
Because hickies didn’t exactly do good for your street cred, okay?

When Yoichi got back to block V, Nagi and Reo were sitting in a way that implied they’d been
waiting for him. Or rather, Nagi had been waiting for him, Reo just by default seemed to be doing
whatever Nagi was doing.

Reo took one look at the state Yoichi was in and scoffed - it seemed like he was immediately aware
of what had transpired in the communal bathroom, but hey, Reo was probably an expert in a little
bathroom rendezvous, so he couldn’t really afford to judge.

Not that Yoichi was ever going to say that aloud .

“Where were you?” Nagi demanded as soon as Yoichi made it to his own mattress.

“Getting his ass fucked, isn’t it obvious,” Reo rolled his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest,
a look of clear disapproval on his face.

Yeah, fuck this . “Well, you’re the expert, you would know,” Yoichi hummed back, which caused
the look on Reo’s face change from distaste to disbelief so fast that Yoichi nearly laughed.

Nagi just narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, observing Yoichi, but didn’t say anything.

After that Yoichi decided to wait until everyone else was asleep. He needed to check the contents
of the bag as soon as possible - okay, it’s not like there was a bomb about to go off, but Yoichi was
impatient and this problem wouldn’t have presented itself if he was still in block Z.

See, while Yoichi waited for the other inmates to fall asleep, so did Nagi. Because he might’ve
been lazy and kind of aloof, but he clearly wasn’t stupid .

Which was infuriating.

But it was a bridge Yoichi was going to have to eventually cross, so rather sooner than later. He
waited a good thirty minutes after the last inmate had laid their head on their pillow, before taking
his own old pillow and walking out of the room, Nagi following suit.
 Once they were in the bathroom again, Yoichi sat himself onto the counter and gave Nagi a
pointed look.

“So which do you want more: to know what’s inside the pillow or the cell phone?” Yoichi asked.

Nagi leaned against the doorframe again. “Both?” he tried, but Yoichi shook his head.

“No both, one or the other, or it’s going to be neither soon.”

Nagi didn’t answer for a while, contemplating his options. “Did you and Bachira actually fuck?”
he asked instead.

Yoichi rolled his eyes. “Inconsequential. Come on now, pick one or the other.”

Nagi was once again quiet. He slowly walked further into the bathroom, while giving Yoichi a
contemplative look. “Do you want me to do something for them?” Nagi asked. “You seem to
require a lot of favors from the people around you.”

“I doubt there’s much you could actually give me in return - didn’t you say Reo does you favors
for free? So you probably have nothing that’s of any value to me,” Yoichi gave Nagi a sardonic
smile.

Nagi took a few more steps, stopping right in front of Yoichi. “I guess it depends on what you
count as payment,” Nagi said, his dark eyes hooded and Yoichi felt like they were looking right
into his soul.

Yoichi didn’t have time to question Nagi about what he meant by that - because once again, he was
crowded against, this time there were hands on the backs of his thighs and another pair of lips (
much more chapped this time ) against his own.

Yeah, Yoichi might’ve been winning a moment ago, but now he was for sure losing.

Chapter End Notes

Yoichi: oh no, people want to make out with me. Oh well, I guess I'll allow it, for the
sake of my own progression.

On another note, I'd like an opinion on something: it's going to take at least a few more
chapters, but obviously Kaiser is going to get introduced at some point and my fingers
are just itching to write that fucker in. I have two possible visions for his character, so
I'd like an input which ya'll would prefer:

1) Kaiser is obviously an inmate. I'm still on the fence how I'd go about introducing
the NEL-characters in a way that makes sense, considering there would be a language
barrier (unless I'll incorporate those fucking translators in idk) and like, how do these
european prisoners end up in a japanese prison? Those are issues that are pretty easily
solved, ngl, and to be real, Kaiser really fits in well as an inmate, with Ness being his
little lackey once again. And Kaiser is also a person who'd I have no problem coming
up with a fitting crime.

2) Kaiser comes in as a guard. It would definitely be a change in dynamic for Isagi,

and could be interesting. There's also some really good options and plot points that I
have in mind, if Kaiser is a guard.

So which would you prefer to see?

 Yoichi Isagi's bathroom brothel: Open for business!
Chapter Notes

god this took forever. Sorry that the ending is a bit rushed, but tbh, it's the ending I
was going to have for last chapter, but then it would've been even more rushed. And
the reason why I wanted to rush it was because I've been living Rin-less for too long,
and we all deserve to just fucking progress already.

Anyways. Whatever you were expecting. Idk, maybe this is it, who knows.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

VII - Yoichi Isagi’s bathroom brothel: Open for Business!

The situation at hand was a fucking problem.

Yoichi felt Nagi pressing onto him without detaching their lips - Yoichi felt the weight pressing
him down, and Yoichi’s back quickly hit the mirror behind his back, while Nagi’s fingerprints
pressed into his thighs hard enough to hurt.

Unlike Bachira, Nagi was clearly getting frustrated at Yoichi’s lack of response. And unlike
Bachira, this was very clearly not Nagi’s first kiss.

But no matter how good of a kisser Nagi may be, Isagi Yoichi - despite the popular belief - was no
whore.

Yoichi pressed his hands on Nagi’s shoulders, and once again, unlike Bachira, Nagi moved back
relatively easily when pushed hard enough. The space between them still wasn’t optimal, Yoichi
could still feel Nagi’s hot breath against his face, but at least he wasn’t getting his face eaten off.

“Look, I don’t know how you get Reo to give you the things you want,” Yoichi remarked. “But the
same trick won’t work on me, okay?”

Nagi dug his fingers harder into Yoichi’s thighs, causing Yoichi to nearly let out a slight whelp. “I
never really have to ask Reo for things either,” Nagi grumbled.
Yoichi raised an eyebrow. “Oh? So what, you’ll fuck him and next day you can have a shiny new
thing? That sounds like sex-work, Nagi.” The corners of Yoichi’s mouth quirked up slightly when
Nagi didn’t respond, only glared at Yoichi. “So you’re basically a whore.”

“Says you,” Nagi responded, moving his hands further up on Yoichi’s thighs, clearly not given up
on the battle yet.

“Hey, I haven’t fucked anybody here.”

Nagi’s hand moved from Yoichi’s thigh to the collar of his jumpsuit. Pulling it down slightly, Nagi
revealed the hickey Bachira had left on him just a few hours prior. “Then what’s this?” he asked,
looking Yoichi straight into his eyes.

“Collateral damage,” Yoichi slapped Nagi’s hand off from the mark. How Nagi had managed to
spot it was beyond him. Or maybe he just intuitively deduced that it would be there.

Nagi finally moved away, and pursed his lips slightly, before he scoffed. “So what, you expect to
be able to blackmail and manipulate me like you did with Niko. In case you forgot, I saw how the
whole thing went down.”

Very stupid conclusion - Yoichi wasn’t going to blackmail and manipulate Nagi the same way he
did with Niko. He’d blackmail and manipulate him differently .

“Hey I just offered you an option, I never asked for you to do anything for me in return,” Yoichi
shrugged. “You can still pick, you know. But I’m not going to give you the phone permanently,
though.”

Nagi’s expression didn’t change but he did seem slightly surprised. Of course he had assumed from
Yoichi’s words from the previous night that he’d have to do favors for Yoichi in exchange. But the
thing is, there were only so many things someone like Nagi could do for Yoichi, despite being the
top ranked inmate. Nagi’s mind instantly went to intimacy, because that’s what he did for Reo.

“The phone,” Nagi extended his arm, impatiently waiting for Yoichi to hand over the coveted
item.

Yoichi did as Nagi asked and fetched the phone from the pocket on his jumpsuit. “Go wait outside
and give it back to me when I’m done.” Yoichi wasn’t stupid - he knew that there was a fat chance
in hell that Nagi was going to willingly hand the phone back over to him.

But the phone also only had about 15 percent of battery left.

Nagi left without another word once he’d gotten what he wanted and Yoichi was finally free to
check the items in the bag. His hands were nearly shaking from the anticipation as he opened up
the black bag and started to go over the items.

There were some pretty basic things - a few packages of gum and candy and… nicotine pouches?
Yoichi had never seen them before, but he doubted that the small pouches in a circular container
were small tea bags.

Pretty smart of Noa to give nicotine pouches instead of straight up tobacco. There were smoke
detectors everywhere in Blue Lock, so if anybody with a particularly nasty nicotine addiction had
to get their fix, cigarettes weren’t an option. Not even outside, considering that the fence was
apparently littered with smoke detectors.

There was also a charger for the phone, thank god. The phone would be a one time trick for him if
he couldn’t get it charged soon.

There was also a polaroid camera. “These are so out of style already,” Yoichi, ever the fashion-
expert, muttered to himself, but he was sure he could find some use to it at some point.

The next items were stranger this time. There were three tabloid magazines and a folder full of
paper.

“What the fuck,” Yoichi wondered out loud, as he put the folder down for the moment, taking a
proper look at the tabloids, before he nearly burst out laughing.

On the cover of one of the tabloids, there was a blurry photo of Reo, alongside a faceless white-
haired man, whose face was turned away from the camera. Yoichi assumed that the person must be
Nagi. On the cover of the tabloid, a great big headline:

BILLIONAIRE HEIR ALONG WITH FRIEND CAUGHT IN A DRUG SCANDAL

Oh, that was just too good. All three tabloids went into detail about Reo’s house getting raided for
drugs, and how he and Nagi both were tested positive in the drug tests they’d made. Not only did
they get caught with them, but the drugs had apparently also been found being made in a small lab
owned by the Mikage corporation - the true scoop there was that the lab had no certifications and
no permits to manufacture medicine. The reason behind Reo taking the brunt of the scandal was
because the lab had been started under his name and not his fathers.

Yoichi couldn’t believe he’d missed something like this. Sure it had been a while since he’d
actively kept up with Reo’s life, but something of this magnitude felt like it should have been
covered much more heavily on the news, and not just on some cheap tabloids.

Although in one of the tabloids, the journalist swore up and down that the Mikage Corporation had
paid off just about every news outlet they could find, to make sure the situation was swept under
the rug. The trial had been done quietly and in private and in order to avoid as much backlash as
possible, the court had settled on a prison sentence for the richest under thirty year old in Japan.

Yoichi whistled. That was almost too good to be true. How Noa had known to get his hands on this
information, he wasn’t sure. But then again, he was a lawyer.

Yoichi put the tabloids down for now and picked the folder back up. Upon turning the folder,
Yoichi’s eyes widened to the size of saucers as he read the singular word written on a red ink.

CLASSIFIED

Yoichi opened up the folder, and the very first document he saw had his own face and information
on it. Everything from his birthday, to his weight, to the supposed crime he had ( not ) committed.
What confused him the most, was the text written at the bottom of the document,

During the trial, the defendant acted hysterical and confused. The defendant lashed out in anger
approximately three times during the course of a three week trial, but never acted violent or
dangerous. Approximately five times during the course of a three week trial, the defendant
pretended to hyperventilate. The defendant claimed innocence until the very end of the trial.

Yoichi pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at the text, before putting the rest of the documents
down and fishing out the lighter from the smaller bag. Burning his own document was risky, with
all the smoke detectors on the walls, but leaving it with the rest, where it could be discovered by
anybody who felt curious enough, was even riskier.
The problem was that the bathroom did not have a particularly good airflow - in fact the entirety of
building five had an uncomfortably stale air. But Yoichi had to make do with what he had. Opening
the door to one of the bathroom stalls, he stepped in, before taking the piece of paper properly in
his hands and ripping it into tinier pieces. One by one he slowly burned the tiny paper pieces,
letting the ashes fall into the toilet, while trying to fan out the smoke with his hand. By the time he
was done, none of the smoke detectors had gone off, but the smell of burning paper lingered in the
room.

Oh well. It'll probably clear out by morning. Maybe.

Yoichi returned to his old spot on the counter and took the rest of the documents in his hands. Like
he suspected, there were documents for each and every last one of the inmates in Blue Lock. Most
of the names he came across he’d never even seen - they must be inmates from the other buildings.
All the documents held the exact same information Yoichi’s did - Yoichi’s hands started trembling
again, as the information could turn out valuable.

The very next document in the folder was none other than Bachira’s. there was nothing in it that
Yoichi didn’t already know, except-

The date when Bachira was sentenced to Blue Lock. Yoichi had been under the assumption that
he’d been here for six months when Yoichi had arrived. At least that’s what Bachira himself
implied, and while he might seem like something of an airhead, he wasn’t that stupid. But the date
on the paper just didn’t align. Bachira had gotten sentenced on the 24th of January, of the same
year Yoichi had - but Yoichi got sentenced at the beginning of April, just a few days after his
birthday.

So that would mean only a little bit over three months before Yoichi arrived. And three months
was still quite a lot shorter than six months. Yoichi decided to check Kunigami’s document as well
- he and Barou had arrived at the same time, only about a month after Bachira-

Except they hadn’t. They had arrived a week and a half after Bachira. Chigiri had apparently
arrived only two weeks after that.

That revelation brought the question: how long had Yoichi been in Blue Lock? He was aware that
he had lost some sense of time, but thinking literal months had passed when it had only been weeks
. Yoichi was fearing for his sanity.
Just as he was spiraling in his thoughts, the door to the bathroom opened up again with a loud bang,
causing Yoichi to nearly get a heart attack. He quickly closed the folder and hid it underneath the
black bag as he turned to look at Nagi.

“The battery ran out, do you have a charger?” Nagi whined, before furrowing his eyebrows the
tiniest amount. "Do you smoke? It smells like something is burning in here."

Yoichi gave Nagi as sweet of a smile as he could muster. "It's probably just your brain
overworking itself. Try not to use it too much or it might just implode," Yoichi replied.

○○○

When morning came and Nagi wasn’t even close to waking up, Yoichi made the conscious
decision to go to breakfast without him. Not that even considering waiting for the nuisance was an
option. Reo, who had woken up around the same time as Yoichi, gave him a look that was
something in between smug and relieved, when he realized that Yoichi was going to straight up
leave Nagi behind.

Yoichi needed time to be left alone and to figure out a battle plan - if Yoichi knew Bachira, and he
could say that he did know the guy pretty well at this point, there was no way Bachira was going to
leave last night as a one time thing. Hell, he wouldn’t be shocked if Bachira had come to the
conclusion that they were dating now.

Which they weren’t. He just needed some leverage here, that’s all it was.

And then there was Nagi. Despite being pushed off, Yoichi was fairly sure that the guy absolutely
had it in him to go and rub it in Bachira’s face that he wasn’t the only one to get a kiss the night
before. And while that might’ve worked in Yoichi’s favor in other circumstances, Yoichi didn’t
think that it would make him look good in anyone’s eyes if they heard he’d been sucking face with
two different guys, all within a few hours of each other.

Yoichi was going over his options as he, for the first time since coming here, was sitting alone in
the cafeteria, enjoying his breakfast in peace.

Or he would’ve enjoyed his breakfast in peace, but unfortunately, Blue Lock had a whole lot more
nuisances to offer other than a white haired mop-head who was fucking two meters tall, and an
overenergetic arsonist. Because out of nowhere, Yoichi found himself being lifted off of the back
of his jumpsuit, like one might lift up a cat from the scruff of their neck.

A strong grip found itself onto his hair, and Yoichi’s head was forcibly tilted backwards to look at
an unnecessarily pissed off Barou.

“Oh, how’s it going footrest?” Yoichi asked, forcing a grin on his face. “Been good? Licking any
floors clean recently?”

Yoichi might’ve been playing with his life, but he’d also come to the conclusion that Barou was
very much akin to a playground bully. A whole lot’a barking, but little to no biting.

“Listen up, runt,” Barou growled, because of course he did, he was fucking Barou and he probably
smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. “You’re going to tell me how you managed to fling your
scrawny little self all the way to block V, or else-”

“Or else what? You’ll kneel on the floor again and lick my shoes clean this time? It’s very hard to
take a guy who just a few days ago was kneeling on the floor begging for some baking soda,”
Yoichi snickered, before kicking back and hitting Barou on his knees. “Dude, fuck let me down
before you tear off all my hair.”

“Good. Go bald, fucker.” Just for the hell of it, Barou gripped Yoichi’s hair even harder, and this
time, Yoichi was sure he felt some of his precious strands get ripped off.

Time to use some desperate measures.

“What if I told you that hair pulling is my kink?” Yoichi was dropped down immediately. In fact,
he was dropped down so fast that he had barely any time to react, and landed straight down to his
ass.

Barou grabbed his ankle firmly, before starting to forcibly drag Yoichi out of the canteen. Yoichi
watched as several of the other inmates were staring at them, as they always were, like they were
just background filling and not actual human beings.

“This is very undignified actually,” Yoichi hummed conversationally. It really was undignified -
every inmate they passed by, stopped to stare as Barou dragged Yoichi like a particularly heavy
bag of potatoes. Thankfully, at a somewhat young age, Yoichi had come to the conclusion that you
can only be humiliated if you allow yourself to be. Yoichi took to waving at the people who stared
at them like they were crazy, while handing out bright smiles. “Although, nowhere near as
humiliating as being used as a footrest by a guy who’s about a quarter your size. How are your
knees, by the way? Not too banged and bruised I hope?”

Barou didn’t appreciate Yoichi’s chatting, if the way he all but threw Yoichi into the very last of
the tiny bathroom stalls, and closed the door behind them.

It’s been less than twenty-four hours, and he’s been stuck in a bathroom alone with another guy
three times now. Should he be expecting Barou to spontaneously start making out with him now?

Yoichi got up from the ground and sat on top of the toilet, while Barou barricaded the exit with his
gigantic body. “So do you want to make out or something?” Yoichi asked, and almost immediately
he could smell the steam that was coming out of Barou’s nostrils.

All credit where credit was due - Barou didn’t immediately explode on him, so some character
growth must have taken place recently. “Excuse me?” Barou asked slowly and dangerously, the
glare in his eyes tightening by the second.

“Just been a bit of a trend recently, had to make sure. I haven’t washed my teeth yet, so I imagine it
wouldn’t be too pleasant,” Yoichi muttered with a shrug.

“Why the hell haven’t you washed your teeth, you slime?” Barou demanded, considerably closer to
explosion now.

“That’s so beside the point, buddy. Why are we here?” Yoichi asked. He couldn’t help but glance
at Barou’s sleeve, where his rank was placed. Yoichi imagined that Barou must’ve been extremely
pissed off due to being pushed down a rank or two, so no doubt he was in for a beating-

Except that Barou was suddenly ten places higher than the last time Yoichi saw him. He was now
in block W. “Huh?” Yoichi couldn’t help but voice his confusion. There was no way that was
possible - Yoichi had all but humiliated him, Barou should have at best stayed where he was, not
suddenly spring up higher.

“Yes exactly, ‘huh?’,” Barou growled. “This happened around the same time your lousy ass got
escorted into block V - I’m not stupid enough to assume that you don’t know how this system
works, so start singing before you start screaming.”
Yoichi raised his eyebrow at the wording, but decided not to flirt with death like that. “What makes
you so sure I know anything more than you do? You’ve been here longer, I assumed you knew
how to play this game better than I did.”

“Do you idiot seriously think I’d still be stuck in this shithole, if I knew how to get higher?” Barou
growled. “Considering how you’ve been acting for the past few days you must be planning
something.”

“Have you been stalking me, King Creepy?”

Barou only glared as a response, and Yoichi sighed. “Okay fine. Although, a word of advice from
your superiors, you shouldn’t call the people you’re begging for help from words like ‘idiot’ or
‘slime’.”

Suddenly there was a hand around Yoichi’s throat. Barou’s grip wasn’t tight, in fact it was barely
there, just poised as a threat. “The only thing you’re my superior at is talking shit,” Barou said.

Barou’s hand on his throat confirmed Yoichi’s suspicions that Barou really was all bark and no bite
- he was large and muscular in size, and his voice was that of a gangster from an old movie, one
which was meant to evoke fear in other people. But that’s all Barou was - a guy who seemed
intimidating, but was never going to deliver on his promise of violence. He’ll put his hand on your
throat, but he won’t squeeze. He’ll draw out his fists but they never touch another person.

Yoichi imagines that Barou has gone his entire life, surviving by just intimidating the people
around him. He’s never had to resort to violence, because his size is enough, the threat is enough
for most people to back down. Yoichi is sure that should push come to shove, Barou was never
actually going to deliver.

Too bad violence was the only thing he had on Yoichi.

“Hey if you’re going to choke me, choke me properly,” Yoichi pushed. He was confident enough
in his theory to try it out, to push and push and push, just to see where the line went.

Barou glared at him, but the pressure on his throat never intensified.
“Do you want me to help you?” Yoichi asked and put his hand on top of Barou’s on his throat.
Barou’s narrowed eyes widened as Yoichi started to squeeze slowly, giving Barou time to back off.
It was clear that Barou didn’t want to lose whatever competition they had going on, but by the time
he heard Yoichi’s breath hitch the slightest bit, Barou ripped his hand off like he had been burned.

They both stared at each other in silence for a moment as Yoichi catched what little breath he had
lost. “Well… you’re a bit of a pussy, aren’t you?” Yoichi laughed.

“Whatever damn game you’re playing at, I suggest you knock it off immediately,” Barou growled
through gritted teeth, causing Yoichi to scoff.

“Yeah, yeah, or the big bad Barou will hit me,” Yoichi rolled his eyes and stood up from the toilet
seat. “I don’t know about you, but I know I had a great time. We should do it again sometimes.”
Yoichi tapped Barou’s shoulder lightly, and Barou actually caved in and moved enough to let
Yoichi through.

Yoichi opened the bathroom stall and walked out, before stopping for a moment and turning
slightly. “Oh, and by the way King Barou,” he called over his shoulder, smiling again as he
watched Barou snarl at him. “Trying to scare people off is a shitty tactic to try and gain respect. It
might help you out in the beginning, but it’s not really effective when playing the long game.
Maybe switch up your strategy a bit.”

It might serve as a mistake to give Barou hints, but Yoichi did feel sorry for the poor guy.

○○○

“Why did you go and have breakfast without me, Isagi~” Bachira complained, clinging on to
Yoichi’s arm like a leech, while rubbing his face all over Yoichi’s neck like he was a dog trying to
spread his scent all over his things. Yoichi was sure that both of those sentiments applied to
Bachira to some extent.

Yoichi had accepted that he was going to have to get used to this from now on, as the pros
outweigh the cons. One of said cons being that most of the other inmates in the common area were
giving them looks again (seriously, what was the point of these people? They were just NPC’s
laying around without a purpose). Another one of the cons was that now Bachira felt comfortable
enough to spontaneously start licking Yoichi’s neck like it was a popsicle.
“Dude,” Yoichi chastised, slightly pushing Bachira’s face off of his neck. “Lay it off a little,
okay?”

Yoichi had never been big on PDA - it had made him uncomfortable outside Blue Lock, and even
if Blue Lock forced him out of his comfort zone more often than not, Yoichi felt like this was an
example of a situation where he wasn’t going to pudge.

Bachira finally lifted his head from the crook of Yoichi’s neck and looked him dead in the eyes.
“Okay, can we go to the bathrooms again then?” Bachira asked.

Yoichi pursed his lips. Considering that he’d had three incidents in the bathrooms within the span
of twenty-four hours, Yoichi decided that maybe it would be for the best to try and minimize his
time there.

“There’s probably other people there,” Yoichi sighed, and Bachira immediately latched onto his
neck again, despite Yoichi poking him in the ribs a few times.

Miraculously, they had managed to avoid Nagi for the entire morning. Well, not that Yoichi
intentionally was trying to avoid Nagi, but it seemed like Bachira was. Yoichi bet all his money
that Reo was keeping the lazy mop-head hostage in block V.

“Am I tripping balls right now?” A dry voice came from behind them, and Yoichi turned around as
much as he could to see who it was. Chigiri and Kunigami were standing there, Chigiri with his
arms crossed on top of his chest and lips pursed. “What the hell is he doing?” Chigiri gestured to
Bachira, who hadn’t so much as acknowledged their presence.

“Using me as a chew toy, I don’t know what to tell you man,” Yoichi shrugged, this time pressing
his elbow into Bachira’s ribs, successfully getting him to back off for the moment. The cool air hit
Yoichi’s disgustingly wet neck, causing him to cringe.

“Not fair,” Bachira whined, dropping his arms from where he was hugging Yoichi’s, to holding his
hand with both of his.

Kunigami chuckled weakly as he sat on Yoichi’s other side on the couch they were on, leaving a
much more respectable distance between them compared to Bachira. “A… new development, I
take it?” he asked a little awkwardly.
And it really was awkward. Last night had been very easy for Yoichi, because it was just him and
Bachira. But the moment outsiders were added into the mix, Yoichi felt like he couldn’t properly
function. He really needed to get rid of that, because otherwise his plan wasn’t going to work in the
way he intended.

“I suppose.”

“Lost your other shadow already then? That didn’t take long,” Chigiri snorted, before giving
Bachira a light shove. “Move over dude, stop hogging all the space.”

Yoichi was about to protest, because he knew where this was going to go. As soon as Chigiri
shoved Bachira and squeezed his ass onto the couch next to him, Bachira decided to crawl over
onto Yoichi’s lap.

Because of course that was the most logical course of action.

While Chigiri and Kunigami both offered them quite dubious glances, Yoichi decided to let the
situation be and tried to get comfortable. It turned out a little difficult, considering Bachira was
surprisingly heavy although he looked very small. The weight wasn’t overwhelming, but with it
being mainly situated on his thighs, Yoichi knew he was going to get uncomfortable soon again.

The peace that had taken over the common room was short lived, as a hurricane in the form of Reo
Mikage made its way over, fury in his steps and fire in his eyes, while Nagi dragged his feet
behind him, seemingly very uninterested as always. As soon as Reo’s eyes found Yoichi, he
stormed over, and this time Yoichi was actually afraid that he was going to get hit.

Reo took in the situation at hand - Chigiri and Kunigami on either side of him and Bachira in his
lap. It seemed like he re-evaluated slapping Yoichi, instead he just pointed a shaky finger at his
face.

“You… you are a slut Yoichi Isagi,” Reo angrily declared, causing not only Yoichi’s eyes, but
Bachira, Chigiri and Kunigami’s as well, to widen to comically large size. “You are a slut. You’re
a slut, a whore if you will.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Yoichi asked dumbly.

Not his most dignified moment, that’s for sure. Yoichi knew for a fact what Reo was getting at -
Nagi must’ve spilled the beans about the, very one sided mind you, kiss and obviously Yoichi was
the bad guy in the situation.

“You think you can just waltz in here and fuck whoever you want,” Reo said. “Does your
boyfriend know about this? What about these two, do you go around fucking them in your spare
time as well, I’m sure you do. Using King Barou as a footrest was some sort of kink play wasn’t it?
That’s your plan, huh? Fuck your way to the top?”

There was a long drawn out silence as everyone stared at Yoichi. Both Chigiri and Kunigami were
looking at him like he’d lost his mind while Yoichi was sure that this time Bachira was just
seconds away from bursting into tears.

The thing is, Yoichi wasn’t against pitting Bachira and Nagi against each other in this regard. In
fact, that plan worked greatly in his favor. But Reo letting the cat out of the bag immediately,
without a warning and in a way that made sure that the entirety of building five knew…

Well no matter what Yoichi said now, he was going to be known as the whore of building five,
wasn’t he?

“You really need to refresh my memory here Reo, who’d I fuck?” Yoichi asked calmly, poking
Bachira again to get him to move out of his lap so that he could get up. This time Bachira moved
immediately like he’d been given an electric shock, and Yoichi was able to walk up to Reo to look
him in the eye. He might’ve come across a whole lot more intimidating, if Reo didn’t have a whole
10 centimeters of height on him. “As far as I can tell, I’ve had a bit of a dry season since coming
here, so do tell me, who told you I’d fucked them?”

Reo rolled his eyes. “Don’t act stupid - Nagi, obviously.”

“No I didn’t,” Nagi protested from behind Reo, taking a few steps closer, still looking as bored as
he did when he came in. Yoichi had almost forgotten he was present at all, with Reo’s yelling
taking all of his attention.

“You didn’t deny it either!”

Yoichi tilted his head at Nagi and pouted. “Why’s he getting so upset, Nagi? You told me that the
two of you aren’t dating.”
Yoichi was sure that he could physically hear something snapping in Reo after the words left his
mouth. For about five seconds Reo’s absolutely dumbfounded face was almost laughable, until he
all but launched himself at Yoichi.

Or at least he tried to. Because for the first time maybe ever, there was a guard, taking a hold of
Reo before he had the chance to so much as graze Yoichi. In fact there were two guards, the one
who always escorted Yoichi from one place to another, and a larger guard, who was now holding
Reo down with his foot.

“Wonderful show again kiddos, well done,” the red haired one, which Yoichi had secretly started
to address as his guard because what else was he at this point, clapped his hands together. “It’s
over now though, so let’s go about our own business like nothing happened, okay?”

Most inmates, in fact just about all, turned away from the scene and did their best to concentrate on
something else. Yoichi waited and expected the big guard to drag Reo away, like they did to the
guys who attacked Raichi (Yoichi hadn’t seen them in a while - he wondered if they were still
alive), but he didn’t. Instead, he lifted up his foot and let Reo go.

As Reo got up quickly and straightened up his jumpsuit, he shot Yoichi a nasty glare, before
storming away again, seemingly humiliated.

The big guard raised his eyebrow at Yoichi when he noticed that he wasn’t moving from his spot.
“As you were,” he gestured at Yoichi, before walking in the opposite direction.

Then the most confusing thing happened - the guards didn’t leave. They positioned themselves on
both sides of the common room, backs against the wall and stayed there, unmoving, eyes sharp as
blades.

○○○

The guards didn’t leave - in fact even more of them appeared. The two guards were poised at the
common room, one was stationed at the canteen and two more at the courtyard. Five guards, and
when it came time for the inmates to move into their blocks again, each of the guards apparently
had been assigned to guard one block.

Obviously the dull red haired one was assigned to block V.

It wouldn’t have been a problem for Yoichi - in fact it might’ve given him some piece of mind
now that Reo was out for his blood - but he was now met with a new problem: Yoichi really
wanted to go over the other inmates’ files. He really, really wanted to read them. But while he was
still allowed to use block V’s private bathroom at night, it now came with a price - the guard
followed him there.

“Just making sure you won’t start a fire like last night,” the guard shrugged when Yoichi gave him
a questioning look. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to take advantage of your recent habit of whoring
out in the bathroom.”

That was definitely not what he was worried about. But he was glad that even his guard now
thought of him as a whore. His own fault, maybe he shouldn’t have made Barou choke him in the
bathroom.

“Unless you want to.”

“Thanks, I’ll pass,” Yoichi rolled his eyes, before locking himself into one of the stalls. He felt
awkward and uncomfortable going through the documents, which he had hidden inside his
jumpsuit to avoid detection (he was also 90 % sure that the guard knew he had them). He really
couldn’t take his sweet time going over them, with the guard less than six feet away from him,
waiting to escort him back to sleep.

Yoichi barely had enough time to rethink his plans, when the guard was already knocking on the
door. “Are you going to stay there for the whole night?”

Yoichi mourned for the times when he was fearing for his life without the guards present.

The next crucial difference came the next morning, which was something Yoichi had not
anticipated and probably would not have realized either. It came in the form of the plates on the
sleeve of their jumpsuits, which displayed the inmates’ rankings. The plates were electronic, which
allowed the rankings to automatically change when the inmate had earned it. Yoichi had gotten
used to the numbers being displayed in a light blue color, which could be detected even in the dark.

Except now the numbers were gray, as if in an old digital clock, where the battery had run out.
Yoichi wouldn’t have noticed it if Chigiri hadn’t pointed it out during breakfast.

“Seems like I’m not the only one with technical issues,” Yoichi referred to all the other inmates,
Chigiri included, who had the same phenomenon on their arm.

They hadn’t brought up the incident from yesterday, and Yoichi preferred it that way. Chigiri and
Kunigami seemed to have made the conclusion that Reo was having some sort of mental
breakdown and was blaming Yoichi for his breakup. Bachira however, was trying harder than ever
to get Yoichi’s attention, and was clinging onto him like he was an extra limb.

“That is weird,” Kunigami hummed, eyeing the guard who was stationed at the entrance of the
canteen. “Any idea what that is about? Any idea why they decided to amp up the security now of
all times?”

“Probably to stop Yoichi’s bathroom brothel,” Chigiri shrugged, causing both Kunigami and
Yoichi to choke on the water they had been drinking.

“Excuse me, what?” Yoichi asked in between his coughs.

“Come on, I’m sure most people have figured it out by now, where else would you have gotten it
on with anyone?”

Yoichi frowned. “Too bad I haven’t - not anywhere, not with anyone,” he said. After the words left
his mouth, Yoichi felt Bachira’s hand grip his thigh, nails digging into his flesh like they did into
his shoulders just a few nights before.

“Bachira, that actually hurts this time,” Yoichi chastised Bachira, who had a stern look on his face.

“Can we talk? Alone?” Bachira pleaded, his nails digging deep into Yoichi’s thigh, hard enough
that Yoichi was sure he could feel blood starting to pour. Feeling like he was at a loss for
reasonable solutions, Yoichi nodded, and allowed Bachira to drag him out of the canteen.

Just as Bachira had pulled him into the hallway, they ran right into the person Yoichi wasn’t
avoiding, but wasn’t not avoiding either. As soon as Bachira realized that Nagi was blocking the
way they were going into, he seemed like he was actually going to start going feral. It was almost
ridiculous and comical how Bachira stomped his leg into the ground and demanded Nagi to let
them go through, in a manner once again very akin to a spoiled child.

“But I need to speak to Isagi,” Nagi protested lazily, scratching the back of his neck. “I’ve been
looking for him, but he keeps trying to avoid him.”

“Maybe you should focus on your own boyfriend, considering how upset he was yesterday,”
Bachira sniffed, moving his hand from where he was gripping Yoichi’s hand, up to his wrist.

Nagi scoffed quietly. “Look, for the last time: I don’t have a boyfriend. And neither do you, as far
as I’m concerned,” Nagi frowned.

Yoichi felt like a separate spectator, like he was watching a scene in a play happen, and he was just
an audience member. The two of them were talking about him, but not with him, and Yoichi was
very rightfully feeling annoyed by it.

But before he could get any words out of his mouth, Nagi and Bachira were arguing again.

“I saw Isagi first! You already have Reo, and besides, Isagi doesn’t need you for anything when he
has me! Stop bothering him.”

“I’m not bothering him, but you’re bothering me . Piss off already, I need to talk to Isagi.”

Again, before any escalation could happen, they were interrupted by loud clapping. All three of
them turned to view a guard behind them - for a prison guard, he looked… awful lot like a criminal
himself.

He appeared to have heterochromia, his left eye being bright green, while his right eye was purple -
in fact, they matched his dual colored hair to the point where Yoichi was sure his hair was dyed.
He had slight stubble for a beard and in terms of size he was as tall as Nagi and as muscular as
Barou.

Yoichi instantly recognized him as the guard who tackled Reo.

“Now, now, children, you’re all loved and appreciated here,” the guard spoke in amusement. “Let
us not fight, I’m sure Isagi’s mattress is big enough for all of us.”

Yoichi actually very much did not like the sound or the implications of those words.
 “We weren’t even fighting,” Nagi muttered.

The guard snorted. “Sure weren’t, not that I’d give a rat’s ass if you were,” he laughed, playing
with a toothpick in between his teeth. “That’s not what I’m here for. You, little bumble bee, I need
you to follow me.” He pointed at Bachira.

Bachira was visibly shocked. “Huh? Why?”

“You’ll find out, just come along now. We don’t have all day for this.”

Bachira’s grip tightened on Yoichi’s wrist and he started to move forward towards the guard,
trying to pull Yoichi with him.

“Nuh uh, lover boy stays here,” the guard stopped Bachira dead in his tracks. Despite Bachira’s
protests, the guard began to escort him to god knows where.

Bachira turned around to give Yoichi a miserable look - Yoichi gave him a confused wave as a
goodbye.

Chapter End Notes

I decided to embrace Isagi's inner whore, because at heart that's all he is

 And I would've gotten away with it as well if it wasn't for you meddling
guards!
Chapter Notes

*Enter a typical ao3 author's note about the update being late due to my husband
cheating on me, getting hit by a truck, being in a full body cast and getting
indoctrinated into a cult.*
Hey guys, sorry for the late update!
No but for real, I had a bit of a hectic week, so this is a day late so sorry. But I will
grind extra hard to make sure that the next will be done by the weekend. This was also
supposed to be short, but god knows that I cannot write a short chapter to save my life
and i need to put in unnecessary text everywhere, and still nothing ever happens.

People in the comments of the last chapter: the guard is sendou!

Me, who forgot that sendou is a closet ginger: :o

Also the humor in this is shit, I need to get my jokes on

See the end of the chapter for more notes

VIII - And I would've gotten away with it as well if it wasn't for you meddling guards!

Yoichi was left confused, watching as Bachira was nearly dragged over to god knows where,
leaving him alone with Nagi, who didn’t seem too bothered by the development.

“Well now that that’s out of the way,” Nagi yawned. “I was looking for you.”

Yoichi rolled his eyes, rubbing his numb wrist. “Yeah, I got that,” he responded dryly, before
beginning to make his way back to block V, with Nagi following after him lazily.

“So where’d you lose Reo this time?” Yoichi asked conversationally.

“You know, you’re always awfully interested in Reo’s whereabouts and feelings - it’s almost like
you like him more than I do,” Nagi pointed out.

Yoichi doubted that - over the past few days Yoichi had learned that Reo was nowhere near as cool
and nice as he liked to let people think publicly. Maybe he was naive to think that a person who’d
grown up with a silver spoon up their ass was anything other than a complete dickhead, but it was
a disappointment nonetheless.

“The only thing I’m concerned about is whether or not your boyfriend is going to attack and call
me a whore again,” Yoichi rolled his eyes, stopping for a second to wait for the door to block V to
open again. “And by the way, thanks for that.”

“Not my boyfriend,” Nagi mumbled from behind him.

Yoichi didn’t want to entertain the conversation any longer, so he plopped down onto his mattress
face down. Block V had a rare quiet moment where most of the other inmates were off to god
knows where. Besides Yoichi and Nagi, only one inmate remained, and even he scrambled off
quickly.

Yoichi wished Nagi did the same - he wanted to go through the documents Noa had given him.
Yoichi was about to tell the other guy to piss off already, when Nagi in all of his 190 centimeter
glory, decided to join Yoichi on his mattress.

Right on top of Yoichi that is.

As the impact of Nagi’s weight hit Yoichi’s back, his breath was instantly let out of his lungs and
Yoichi couldn’t help but let out a wheeze. Yoichi tried kicking back his legs to make Nagi fall off
of him, but the weight on his back was too heavy and the angle of his kicks was off.

“Get off of me!” Yoichi yelled, his voice coming out muffled against the pillow. He turned his
head to the side and instantly gulped in back the air that had left his lungs.

Nagi nuzzled his face between Yoichi’s shoulderblades as he wrapped his arms around Yoichi’s
middle. “Don’t wanna, too comfortable,” Nagi yawned. “Might fall asleep here.”

“Oh no you won’t!” Yoichi protested, attempting to flail his entire body around to make Nagi as
uncomfortable as possible. “Didn’t you have something you wanted to talk to me about? That’s
why you were looking for me, right?”

Nagi groaned. “I wanted to ask if you’d charged the phone yet,” Nagi let out a big yawn as he
spoke. “But this is fine as well if you haven’t.”
Very presumptuous of Nagi to just assume that Yoichi was going to give the phone to him a second
time with no questions asked. No, he was going to have to work for it this time.

“You can play on it tonight if you behave and you’re nice,” Yoichi rolled his eyes as he felt Nagi
stirring above him, his interest clearly piqued now. “First of all do me a favor and let me at least
turn around.”

Nagi let up enough for Yoichi to roll onto his back to face him, before Nagi slumped his entire
bodyweight back onto Yoichi. Despite being prepared this time, Yoichi still felt the breath being
punched out of his lungs.

But that was only a minor problem - for now Yoichi and Nagi were just looking into each others’
eyes, while Yoichi did his best to figure out the optimal way to approach the next subject. Nagi
was resting his chin on Yoichi’s chest, blinking boredly at him, like he was waiting for Yoichi to
say his peace before using him as a human body pillow.

“So Nagi… Care to share what your deal with Reo actually is?” Yoichi asked tentatively,
interrupting Nagi immediately before he had time to misinterpret his words. “I get that you’re not
dating, but there’s no way your platonic dude-bro friend calls me a whore for no reason.”

Nagi groaned in exasperation, but after a few seconds of silence answered anyway. “We were best
friends throughout high school, and then in Uni one time we got high and I got horny. Pretty
straight forward from there.”

Yoichi pursed his lips. “So you’re friends with benefits?” Nagi nodded. “And Reo knows this as
well?”

After a minute of silence Nagi shrugged before nodding again.

Okay, so there’s most definitely some miscommunication going on there.

Yoichi was willing to bet that what had happened with their relationship was that Reo had assumed
that they were dating now, and Nagi never cared enough to correct him, just like what had
happened yesterday. Looking at Nagi, Yoichi was willing to bet none of it was done due to any
malicious intentions from nagi’s part, he was just a very bad communicator and didn’t want to
waste energy stressing over things like that.
So pretty much a dickhead.

“And has Reo spoiled you like a new born baby ever since high school or only after you started to
sleep together?” Yoichi asked.

Nagi wrinkled his nose. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just trying to figure out the dynamic between you two, that’s all.”

“He’s always been pretty generous, I guess,” Nagi sighed. “But I suppose he started to be even
more generous after that. I don’t see what that has to do with anything, though? Can we make out
now? I know you did with Bachira.”

Yoichi rolled his eyes. “Not now,” he said. “So Reo was so generous that he even got generous
with sharing his criminal activity?”

For the first time it seemed like Nagi was finally paying Yoichi his full attention. Nagi’s eyes
widened before his brows furrowed - he didn’t look confused, only calculative, like he was trying
to decipher how much Yoichi knew.

“What do you mean by that?” Nagi asked as carefully as he could. Yoichi assumed that since the
Mikage family had gone so beyond their way to limit the news coverage of the story that Reo
wished for things to be kept hush hush even in prison.

“I know about the drugs and the lab, Nagi.”

Nagi’s eyes widened and he clenched his jaw, but he didn’t get up from his position on top of
Yoichi. His hands fisted the blanket that laid beneath Yoichi tight enough for his knuckles to turn
white.

Neither of them dared to break eye contact or say anything - the only sounds that could be heard
were their breaths coming out nearly synchronized and the slight buzzing from the led lights.
Nagi licked his lips, comprehending his next words carefully - Yoichi knew that he wanted to deny
the allegations, but Yoichi also guessed that nobody had ever before even brought it up,
considering how tightly the case had been kept under wraps. Yoichi wasn’t supposed to know
about it, yet even the slightest reaction on Nagi’s face gave everything away.

“What lab and drugs?” Nagi tried, his lie hardly the most convincing Yoichi had ever heard.

Yoichi tutted. “A billionaire heir and friend caught doing experimental drugs? Ring a bell?” Yoichi
couldn’t help the slightest of smirks on his face. “The Mikage Corporation did a great job covering
the story up, but a few corner store tabloids were missed in the bribery, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t-”

“-know what I’m talking about? You’re a shit liar, Nagi.” Nagi shut his mouth immediately after
the words left Yoichi’s mouth. “What do you think is going to happen to you Nagi when Reo
decides that you’re not worth the effort anymore?”

Nagi furrowed his eyebrows slightly. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Plenty in my opinion,” Yoichi shrugged, moving his hands from where they were laying next to
his head, up Nagi’s arms until they rested comfortably on his unfairly broad shoulders. “I mean,
it’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that Reo is the actual number one here - the only reason
why you’re highest ranked in building five is because Reo has placed you in such a high regard
that the others can’t help but do it too. What do you think is going to happen once Reo realizes that
all of his efforts are wasted on you? Do you think you’d live comfortably on block Z’s rock hard
mattresses?”

“I mean, you have to realize how it looks from my perspective, you know? First Reo gets you
involved in something criminal, gets you sentenced for it, and now your success in a funny little
prison game is literally depending on him. Kind of doesn’t feel fair to me,” Yoichi hummed while
playing with the fabric of Nagi’s prison jumpsuit. They still did not break eye contact, but Nagi did
blink his eyes before leaning in closer.

“Yeah, and what would you suggest I do?” Nagi asked, their faces now only inches apart.

“Come on now Nagi, you’ve got to come up with your own battle plan if you intend to survive,”
Yoichi laughed a bit. “At the very least, try to let go of your parasitic relationship with Reo and
show him that you can stay in the game with or without him.”

The ideal scenario of course involved Nagi severing the parasitic relationship he had with Reo and
switching it to something more of a symbiotic relationship with Yoichi - but Yoichi could make do
with whatever, as long as the two highest ranking inmates of building five weren’t so close
anymore - if Reo really kept reacting as pathetically as he just had to Nagi not being glued to his
ass 24 / 7, Yoichi couldn’t imagine that doing very good for his overall ranking in the long run.

Yoichi swallowed slightly as Nagi leaned in even closer, successfully erasing the remaining
distance between them. This time Yoichi would not have been as opposed to the development, but
just as he felt Nagi’s soft lips graze his, the sliding doors to block V opened, and the voice of
Yoichi’s biggest headache rang through the space.

“Visitor hours, Isagi Yoichi,” the red headed guard announced, causing Yoichi to push Nagi off of
him - and this time Nagi moved with no complaint. The guard raised an eyebrow at the display.
“Switching up territories from the bathrooms, are we?”

Yoichi didn’t even question how he could already have visiting hours, only days after the last time
- all he could think about was how his newfound status as the building five resident whore was
going to bite him in the ass sooner rather than later.

○○○

This time Noa wasn’t waiting for him, when Yoichi got to the room they always met in. As Yoichi
sat down to wait for the lawyer, he noticed something different about Noa’s side of the room.

There was a calendar and a digital clock on the wall.

Yoichi almost got excited, except the date and time did not make any sense.

On the calendar, dates that had passed had been crossed out, implying that the current date was
October 8th, which coincidentally was circled with a bright red colour. But Yoichi refused to
believe he’d been at Blue Lock for nearly six months already. There just was no way. He was
aware that keeping track of time was just about impossible, but Yoichi refused to believe he was so
out of the loop that six months had passed without him realizing it.
But that wasn’t the weirdest part - no, the weirdest part was the clock. The clock kept blinking, but
the time never changed. Yoichi counted the seconds, and even though he was sure he’d sat the
whole five minutes staring at the clock, the time never moved. 9:12 kept blinking on the clock,
over and over again.

By the time Noa arrived, Yoichi had counted ten minutes staring at the clock.

“Apologies for my tardiness,” Noa said as he sat down and smoothed out his suit. “How are you-”

“Noa what month is it?” Yoichi didn’t bother to let the man finish his sentence, causing his lawyer
to give him a disapproving frown. Yoichi had established early on a deep respect for the older
man, and never before had he dared to interrupt him when he was talking.

“You know I can’t answer that,” Noa sighed.

“Okay, can you answer me this: is it October 8th?”

While Noa’s facial expression did not change, as it usually didn’t, Yoichi could tell that the man
was taken aback by the question. “What makes you think it’s October 8th?” Noa asked. Yoichi
nodded his head towards the back wall, where the calendar and clock were situated, and Noa
turned around to look.

This time, Yoichi did detect the smallest reaction in Noa’s demeanor. The man froze in his seat for
a second, his eyes widening just the slightest amount, before he scoffed and walked over to the
calendar, taking it off the wall and checking the first page of it.

“So dramatic,” Noa muttered, clearly only to himself and not meaning for Yoichi to hear or react to
it. Noa then put the calendar back in its place and returned to his seat. “It’s a calendar from ten
years ago, it’s not up to date, so don’t worry about it.”

Yoichi raised an eyebrow. “Why would there be a ten year old calendar on the wall? And why is
the clock stuck on 9:12? And why is it dramatic?” Yoichi inquired, but Noa just shook his head.

“It’s nothing of importance to you - we’re here to discuss how you are doing and whether or not
you need anything.”
Yoichi clenched his jaw, but didn’t push it. He’d learned ages ago that Noa only shared the
information he thought useful to the other person - during his trial there were plenty of instances
that Noa had kept Yoichi out of the loop on purpose because he thought that it would make no
difference if Yoichi knew certain things or not.

He was probably right, but Yoichi would still very much like to be included in these things. And
besides, something about the calendar and clock being placed in the very room he would be
meeting with Noa seemed very intentional.

But for now Yoichi was going to let it go.

“How’d you acquire those documents?” Yoichi wasn’t sure whether or not the guards were still
listening in on their meetings now that they were busy actually doing their job and guarding the
prisoners. But he was also very sure that the guards already knew he had the documents.

He also wanted to know what game they were playing exactly.

“I have my ways, no need for you to stress about it,” Noa replied easily.

“Is there everyone?”

“Everyone you need to worry about.”

Yoichi hummed as a reply, wondering how Noa had determined the inmates he needed to ‘worry’
about.

“Since you seem to know how Blue Lock operates better than I do, can you explain this,” Yoichi
showed Noa his sleeve, where his rank used to be displayed. Now it was only a blank screen, not
even the gray numbers remaining. “And how the guards just suddenly decided to start doing their
jobs properly and actually start guarding us.”

Noa didn’t reply for a minute. “Blue Lock hasn’t been in operation for that long - I’d say that the
longest anyone’s actually been incarcerated here is around a year. Of course they started to run
media coverage much earlier, but the first inmates arrived maybe a year ago. It’s safe to say that
while Blue Lock may not be in exactly its beta-stage anymore, but it's definitely experimental still.
You’ve noticed how most of the inmates are around the same age, no? Just the perfect age to be
used as guinea pigs. The warden of Blue Lock has assured that Blue Lock is inescapable, but they
are still only trying to prove it, rather than stating it as a 100 % truth. Well, the warden is stating it
as a 100 % truth to the media, but this facility is more than its warden, at the end of the day.”

“And what does that have to do with the guards and the ranks?” Yoichi asked, still confused about
what Noa was exactly meaning with this information.

“You should be prepared for some changes to come soon - and make sure you thrive when the
change comes, don’t let yourself be buried so easily.”

Yoichi wasn’t sure what that meant either.

○○○

Yoichi was officially freaking the fuck out.

He hoped to god that it wasn’t obvious on his face, but he was. Freaking out that is.

He hadn’t seen Bachira since he’d been escorted away by the large guard. And that had been two
days ago . Chigiri and Kunigami were confused as well, as they had told him that Bachira never
returned to block Z after that morning. Yoichi desperately tried to ask around, but with the ranking
plates not working anymore, Yoichi wasn’t sure who belonged to each block. Besides, even if
Bachira had spontaneously moved up in blocks, Yoichi knew that there was no way he wouldn’t
seek Yoichi out immediately afterwards. He seemed to be that desperate for Yoichi’s attention and
affection.

And now nobody had seen him for two whole days.

“Maybe they killed him,” Nagi suggested unhelpfully, as Yoichi walked around the facility for the
tenth time that morning, in his desperate quest to find the biggest annoyance in his life.

Except now that the annoyance was gone and nowhere to be found, Yoichi felt… empty. There was
space on his right side, his personal space wasn’t being invaded (okay, it was, but Nagi invaded his
space in a very different manner than Bachira did), and Yoichi felt like he had way too much space
and freedom to move around. When Bachira was glued to his side, Yoichi couldn’t take a step in
any direction without the additional weight following him. Now he was free of that weight, he
finally had more than enough air to breathe in, and he was going crazy .

“Shut up Nagi,” Yoichi snapped, before slumping down on the fake grass in the courtyard. He’d
spent the last twenty minutes going around the entire space, even if it was in vain. There was
nowhere to hide in the courtyard, yet Yoichi still tried to look for a person who very clearly was
not there.

Yoichi was going to start hyperventilating soon.

“I don’t understand why you’re so pressed about it,” Nagi groaned, laying down next to Yoichi on
the grass, taking a hold of Yoichi’s sleeve and playing with it. “You were always so annoyed when
he was around anyways, now we don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

Yoichi ignored the use of the word we .

“Have you seen Reo around recently? I haven’t seen him either.” If Reo had disappeared too, then
Yoichi was going to say for sure that people were being killed off.

“You told me to cut him out of my life.”

Yoichi nearly rolled his eyes. “I said no such things, stop putting words into my mouth. I just gave
you a suggestion to be your own person for change.” Or Nagi could be Yoichi’s person for change
that would work too .

“I saw him at breakfast with Zantetsu. He said something to me, but you were too busy running
around like a crazed maniac that I didn’t catch it,” Nagi yawned, pulling on Yoichi’s sleeve, trying
to make him come closer.

Yoichi looked around the courtyard - there were a few inmates using the outdoor gym equipment
and a guard present. None of them seemed to be paying them any mind. “Nobody told you to
follow Nagi,” Yoichi replied, almost letting himself be drawn closer, when he noticed Chigiri and
Kunigami walking over to them.

Yoichi sat up properly, preparing himself for good news, only to be disappointed again.
“Did you find him yet?” Chigiri asked, causing Yoichi to slump back down again in defeat.

“No,” Yoichi complained. “I was sort of wishing you had.”

Chigiri huffed. “No way around it then - they killed him,” he shrugged.

“No they didn’t!”

“Told you so.”

Yoichi and Nagi spoke at the same time, and Yoichi turned to give Nagi a mean glare and a
smack.

Fortunately, Kunigami was the voice of reason, as he usually was. “Okay, I know we’re all worried
for our friend, but-”

Yoichi tuned out the rest of what Kunigami was saying, because that one word struck him hard
once again.

He’d gone over this same dilemma ages ago - he’d told himself it was just all part of his plan.
Nobody in Blue Lock, not Kunigami, not Chigiri, not Nagi and most definitely, not Bachira , was
his friend. He had no intention of considering these criminals as his friends. He acted friendly with
them, hell he even gave Bachira whatever affection he wanted, but in no way were these people
actually his friends.

Because thinking of them as his friends meant that he was willing to excuse whatever crimes they
had committed. If Yoichi was going to start excusing criminal activity, he might as well commit a
crime himself.

And Yoichi had never and will never, commit a crime.

Being friends with criminals meant that he felt sympathetic towards them, being friends with them
meant that he cared and worried for them. And he didn’t.

So there was no point in stressing about Bachira’s whereabouts. If the guards killed him, then they
killed him, no way around it. It had no effect on Yoichi, in fact, it would be for the best if Bachira
was killed, at least for Yoichi.

Except Yoichi still had way too much air to breath and too much space to move, and his other side
felt constantly way too cold, and the space around him was too quiet without a familiar voice and a
familiar laugh. Tufts of hair weren’t tickling the side of his neck and the circulation in his arm was
way too undisturbed.

Yoichi really didn’t care what had happened to Bachira.

“Bachira’s not my friend,” Nagi said, after Yoichi assumed Kunigami had finished whatever he’d
been saying. Not that Yoichi was paying that much attention to Nagi either, as he was still busy
trying to figure out at which point he had gotten so used to Bachira’s overly loud and energetic
presence that his absence left a hole behind.

Somebody snapped their fingers in front of Yoichi's face, causing whatever train of thought he was
going on to stop. Yoichi blinked and turned to look at Chigiri, who was giving him a weird look.

“You okay dude?” Chigiri asked.

Yoichi nodded. “Just peachy.” Yoichi’s throat was dry and his voice was hoarse, causing Yoichi to
cough a few times to try and clear his throat out. “Sorry, I have to go get some water.”

Yoichi quickly ran off, hoping that for once no one was going to follow or bother him.

When Yoichi made it to the, thankfully, empty canteen, he quickly filled up a glass of water from
the dispenser and chugged it down as quickly as he could, before repeating the action. His heart
was beating a mile a minute, and for some reason Yoichi felt oddly hot in his clothes.

Slamming the glass down, Yoichi gasped in a big gulp of air, feeling like he’d ran a marathon, even
though at best he’d speed-walked to the canteen, a distance which was at best a hundred meters.
Thinking rationally, he knew what had triggered this reaction. But by god he did not want to admit
it, not aloud, much less to himself.

But also thinking rationally, Yoichi was aware that even if the beat of his heart and the heat in his
veins felt familiar, way too familiar and for that reason uncomfortable and unwanted , it most
definitely wasn’t that .

Coming to Blue Lock, Yoichi had felt incredibly alone in his circumstance and more or less
hopeless. Having Bachira clinging onto him like a second skin didn’t exactly make him forget
about all the bad emotions and awful things that had been going on in his head since the trial, but it
sure had distracted him enough for Yoichi to forget to think about them. Bachira was to Yoichi
what an emotional support dog or a stuffed animal is to a suffering child - something to get
attached to without explicitly noticing it, and when the support is absent, the feeling of emptiness is
that much more prevalent.

Maybe comparing Bachira to a dog wasn’t the most appropriate or accurate metaphor, but it
slightly dehumanizing him made Yoichi feel better about his beating heart, Yoichi was sure
Bachira would be okay with it.

When Yoichi felt like he’d cleared his head and his emotions, he walked out of the canteen and
right into the large guard that had escorted Bachira away a few days ago.

“Wow, I knew your reputation but not that you were so eager to jump on another man,” the guard
whistled as he helped Yoichi regain his balance after colliding with him.

Yoichi pushed the guard’s hands away from him and gave him a glare. “Where did you take
Bachira?” he demanded, causing the guard to snort and grin at him.

“Let’s just say that he’s moved onto a better place, yes?” the guard laughed.

Yoichi narrowed his eyes even more, taking in the guard properly. The way his eyes were different
colors caused the green one to seem larger and more unsettling than the darker eye - the almost
manic look in that one eye was almost manic, causing Yoichi’s skin crawl and shudder.Yoichi was
sure that with that one eye the guard was able to look right through him and into his brain, reading
his every thought.

That wasn’t the only thing Yoichi noticed about the guard however - taking a closer look at the
man, Yoichi noticed a band on his sleeve, with the letter C on it. The same C appeared to be on the
cap he wore as well.

“Better place, how? Can I see him? Talk to him?” Yoichi tried again.

The guard seemed to be having a field day with all of Yoichi’s questions. “What’s this, building
five’s resident escort getting emotionally attached? That’s not a good look, I must admit.” The
guard said. “Look, even I cannot reach him any longer. He’s passed onto the other side.”

“Oh my god, you’ve actually killed him,” Yoichi said, mortified.

The guard chuckled. “Try not to worry your pretty little head over the little guy. There’s plenty of
other fish in the sea, right? Besides, if you act nice, maybe your time will come soon as well.”

Hopefully not, because despite the popular belief, Yoichi quite enjoyed life, even if he played with
it a little too frequently.

“Okay, what does the ‘C’ stand for then?” Yoichi nodded over to the band on the guard’s arm,
making the man in question to glance at what Yoichi was pointing at.

The guard looked at Yoichi again, a curious look on his face. “That’s one way to change the
subject, I suppose,” the guard snorted. “But since you’re so interested - it stands for ‘captain’.
Didn’t think I’d have to spell it out to people. But I suppose one does need to be quite stupid to
commit crimes, right criminal.” With a final burst of laughter the guard ruffled Yoichi’s hair and
started to walk away.

“Let’s meet up again soon, okay Isagi? Maybe in the bathrooms?”

Yoichi huffed as he stared at the guard’s retreating back. Figures that a jackass guy like him would
be the captain of the guards.

○○○

It happened the very next day, as Yoichi was just waking up and ready to head on to breakfast. For
some odd reason Nagi was already up by the time Yoichi woke up, waiting for him impatiently.

For the record, Nagi waiting for Yoichi wasn’t weird to him. What was weird however, was how
Nagi was crouching over him, causing a close-up of his face to be the first thing Yoichi saw when
he woke up.

“Jesus fuck!” Yoichi cursed, getting justifiably spooked out, and accidentally knocked his head
against Nagi’s.

“Ouch, why’d you headbutt me?” Nagi asked, as though the whole ordeal was Yoichi’s fault.

Yoichi looked at him incredulously. “Dude, you were the one watching me sleep no less than two
centimeters off my face!”

Whatever Nagi was going to reply was left a mystery, because a clearing off someone’s throat
interrupted them. And as a surprise to absolutely no one, Nagi and Yoichi found Reo standing right
next to them, a more than unhappy look on his face as we watched the two of them interact.

Yoichi wondered if he should shield his face, considering that their guard was positioned outside
the cell and Yoichi still didn’t trust Reo not to try and attack him physically again.

“Did you need something?” Yoichi asked, but Reo just turned away from him in response,
directing his attention purely to Nagi instead.

“Nagi, I think we should start eating breakfast here again,” Reo suggested, the tone of his voice
sounding very much like that of someone who was doing their absolute most to not let their voice
break.

To be true, Yoichi really did feel bad for Reo, at least he did now that he wasn’t sure where
Bachira had disappeared to. Reo was most likely grown used to Nagi just being there . Nagi didn’t
really need to say or do anything, he just had to be present. And when he wasn’t, Yoichi imagined
Reo felt like Yoichi did when Bachira disappeared, but even more so given that Reo and Nagi had
a longer history together.

But no matter how bad he felt for reo, Yoichi was still going to be looking out for himself first and
foremost.
“But I don’t mind going to the canteen,” Nagi protested, causing Reo’s hands to form fists.

“How about I go get your food and bring it over, and you don’t have to move a muscle. You can
stay here and sleep, and I’ll even feed you. That sounds alright?” Reo suggested, a clearly forced
sweet smile on his face.

Nagi frowned, getting up from the ground where he was still holding his head. “No, I think Isagi
and I are going to go get our own food,” Nagi replied.

There he goes again, dragging Yoichi into his relationship drama. This could’ve gone smoothly
and nicely, but Nagi decided that Yoichi deserved Reo’s fist in his face.

Maybe he should’ve made out with Nagi when he had the chance and he might’ve been spared
from his wrath.

Yoichi noticed a very Barou-like vein popping out from Reo’s forehead as he struggled to keep his
breathing even. But even if Reo was trying to calm himself down, Yoichi knew that even one more
off-handed remark from Nagi and it was over.

But once again God, or rather his guard , was on Yoichi’s side, as the red-headed guard silently
crept over to them.

“Not fighting again, I hope?” he asked with that tone of voice of his which made it very clear to
Yoichi that he didn’t actually care if they were fighting or not.

“Of course not, officer,” Yoichi grinned at the guard, who raised an eyebrow at him.

“How wonderful,” the guard drawled before yawning. “Well, up you get Isagi. I don’t have all day
to wait around for you, contrary to what you may believe.”

“Um. Do I have visiting hours again ?” Yoichi asked, his confusion evident on his face, as was
with Nagi and Reo as well.
The guard just shook his head. “Just come along. Bring your emotional support pillow with you,”
he said.

Yoichi hesitated for a second, before carefully getting up from his mattress. As commanded,
Yoichi took the old block Z pillow into his arms and hugged it to his chest, no doubt looking like a
preschooler.

Most of block V seemed to have paused their morning routines to gawk at whatever was going on.
It very much reminded Yoichi of his first day in block V, which wasn’t that long ago.

The guard nodded as Yoichi indicated that he was ready to go. The guard turned around, ready to
lead him away, before he paused again and looked at Nagi. “What about you mop-head? Want to
stay here with your not-boyfriend or join Isagi?”

The room seemed to pause. Yoichi was sure that nobody was even breathing. He couldn’t help
himself from glancing at the look on Reo’s face, which was one of pure shock and mortification.
Reo quickly gripped Nagi’s wrist, in a manner which reminded Yoichi of Bachira - Yoichi was
sure he even saw Reo’s nails digging into Nagi’s wrist, Bachira style, but Nagi didn’t seem to
acknowledge it at all.

Nagi took a step forward, and was stopped by Reo’s hand - it was only then that Nagi seemed to
even remember and notice that Reo was still very much present.

“Nagi, don’t be stupid,” Reo laughed nervously. “What if they’re taking him to, I don’t know,
solitary confinement? It’s a safer bet to stay here with me.”

“Sorry Reo, but I think I’ll take that chance,” Nagi said, carefully taking a hold of reo’s hand with
his free one and gently making Reo let go of him. It was almost ridiculous, seeing Nagi be
physically gentle for the first time ever, while being emotionally so brutal. “It’s not like we’ll
never see each other again.”

Yoichi wasn’t so sure about that, but Nagi's voice held a level of certainty, which probably did
nothing to reassure Reo. It didn’t matter in the end however, as the guard gestured for the two of
them to follow him out of the block V cell.

Yoichi didn’t really have much of a clue on where they were going, but all his expectations were
thrown out the window, when the guard led them straight to the elevator which was leading up to
building four. The guard stopped as soon as they reached the elevator door, and swiped a card on
the reader next to the doors, causing them to slide open. The guard ushered them inside the
elevator, and pressing the button up.

“We’re going to building four?” Yoichi asked curiously, wondering how the hell had that happened
- given that they didn’t have their ranks visible anymore, Yoichi had assumed that the rankings
were halted entirely.

The guard looked at him with a blank look. “No, what made you think that?” he asked.

“Dude, we’re literally in the building four elevator right now,” Nagi noted, helpful as he was.

Yoichi stepped on Nagi’s foot. Nagi did the same to him.

“Why are we going to building four now? Our ranks aren’t even showing, what exactly is going
on?” Despite Noa giving him an incredibly convoluted explanation, Yoichi was still confused as
hell, and doubted that the guard was going to give him any better explanation.

The elevator came to a halt, the doors opening to a hallway, with similar dark walls and bright
lights to building five. “Let’s just say there’s some vacancy here in building four, and the
qualification process goes through us, the guards.”

The guard led them through the hallway. They walked for what felt like actual kilometers, before
stopping by a door. The funny thing was, that for the first time since coming to Blue Lock, the door
looked like it was a door to an actual, proper cell.

Again, the guard swiped his card against the reader on the side of the door, causing the cell door to
slide open. The guard gestured for Nagi to step in, but as Yoichi attempted to follow, the guard
held him back by his arm.

"You know Isagi Yoichi, you've gotten a lot of privileges during your stay here in Blue Lock," the
guard hummed. "You're all given the same equal starting point, but from the very get go, you've
gotten away with much more than the other prisoners. You should do well to remember who's
made that possible - dear old captain hasn’t been very happy with me for it. A little thank you
every once in a while wouldn't hurt - I mean, wasn't it you who told Nagi that you like to repay
favors in equal?"
 Yoichi froze. Looking into the guard's teal coloured eyes, he tried to decipher the meaning behind
those words, but came up empty.

Yoichi swallowed despite his mouth feeling way too dry. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he
asked.

The guard shrugged. “Nothing as of yet, but it’s just something I suggest you keep in mind. Now
enjoy your new home.”

Chapter End Notes

I wanted to have rin here, but i would've had to speed through even more than I already
did. But next time my own personal favorite Itoshi (fuck sae fr fr) will make an
appearance and if he doesn't well... i don't know actually.

Also, so sorry for all the reonagi shippers out there, just know that I am not, was not
and will not be your friend.
 Cum stains? I had cum stains once.
Chapter Notes

Umm... so.
The thing is, originally, I planned to have this be a non-rated fic. Well, that's history
now ig.

There's a somewhat explicit scene, like in pretty much the beginning. It's like not the
worst thing ever, but I also wouldn't read it with your mother. In case you want to skip
it, and I suggest you do because I am actually actual shit when it comes to writing
smut and it's so bad i cringed so hard while writing it it's not even funny oh my go,
anyways it starts with at the line “That guard is a fucking cockblock,” and ends at
"Yoichi leaned away".

Anygays,
I've answered some comments, mostly those that have some questions or confusions.
Sorry if somethings seem confusing and complicated I'm probably not the best at
explaining shit lmao. Glad that we managed to put an end to those sendo-allegations,
though. I'mma be real with you chief, I forgot that mf existed when I started writing
Sae's character and then I started to see the sendo-allegations in the comments and
started to bang my head into a wall.

edit: for your culture, this is what I'm referencing later in the chapter:

See the end of the chapter for more notes

IX - Cum stains? I had cum stains once.

Yoichi was in prison, in case that wasn't clear by now.

But it should be abundantly obvious at this point, because the room he was led to - by his guard
who made a suspiciously suggestive comment just now to him - was very much a prison cell, more
so than the space he'd spent the last however long in.

Well…

It was a significantly nicer prison cell than the ones Yoichi had seen in movies and documentaries.
The door was a proper sliding door, as the tended to be in Blue Lock, instead of just bars, giving
the inmates at least the illusion of privacy ( Yoichi very much noticed the security monitor in the
corner of the room ). Overall, there wasn’t much of anything in the room, aside from four beds and
nightstands.

“Look Isagi, we’re in an actual prison cell,” Nagi said while looking around the space.

“It’s a hotel room you’re in,” the guard scoffed while rolling his eyes. “If it was up to me you’d be
living in pig dens.”

“Why are there four beds?” Yoichi asked, while Nagi slumped his entire body onto the one farthest
away from the door.

The guard leaned against the doorframe. “You should expect new roomies at some point. Depends
on our mood, I guess,” the guard shrugged.

Yoichi was both confused and taken aback by the statement, as well as the one he’d made just
before letting Yoichi into the room. That it was up to the guards to decide who qualified for the
fourth building (or as it would seem, it was an upper floor rather than a building). But still - in what
world was it fair that the guards got to decide who progresses and who doesn’t?

“That seems kind of dumb and unfair,” Nagi muttered from his bed, laying on his side and
propping his head on his hand.

“Yes well, so is life and you’re in prison, so suffer,” the guard said, causing Nagi to snort out a
small laugh.
“That’s a lazy explanation to a lazy situation.”

Yoichi rolled his eyes. “I don’t think you’re in the position to speak about laziness, Nagi,” Yoichi
noted.

“Be as it may, I need to brief you on your new living situation, captain’s orders and all that,” The
guard sighed, taking out a small piece of paper from his pocket and reading straight from it. “There
are communal bathrooms down the hall, I can’t be assed to show you where, figure it out
yourselves, as well as the canteen at the other end of the floor. You’re welcome to use the common
area as well to get to know your new fellow inmates, although I must warn you, building four is a
bit short staffed at the moment.”

“What? Why aren’t there more inmates here?” Yoichi voiced his confusion.

“Like I told you - vacancy.”

Nagi let out a big yawn. “Five yen says that there were never inmates here to begin with.”

The guard didn’t reply anything to Nagi’s statement, but the corners of his mouth quirked up
slightly, before he stood up straight and began to make his leave. “Have fun, enjoy your time
here,” he said, before glancing at Yoichi again. “And remember what I’ve told you.”

The sliding door closed itself on the guard’s way out.

Yoichi stayed staring at the door - the guard didn’t say anything on whether or not the door opened
at night. Yoichi prayed it did, because how else was he going to read those documents-

Except he had his own privacy now. With Nagi. But Nagi could be easily distracted.

“Do you want to go check out the canteen?” Yoichi asked, turning around to put the pillow onto the
bed next to Nagi, before sitting on it. He was going to have to hide the items into the nightstand
drawers ( who needs drawers in a prison cell? They really were just enabling prisoners to smuggle
in contraband, weren’t they? ) and ask Noa for a lock of some kind. “We haven’t had breakfast
yet.”
Nagi seemed to think about it for a while, before shaking his head. “No, not yet,” Nagi said, but
getting up from his bed anyway. “There’s still something I haven’t gotten to do.”

“And what’s that?” Yoichi asked, right before a strong hand gave him a firm shove and his back hit
the - very comfortable - mattress.

“That guard is a fucking cockblock,” Nagi said, suddenly on top of him.

For a while they just stared at each other. Getting comfortable under Nagi’s beady eyes was easier
said than done, but Yoichi managed and he was damned if he ever let Nagi witness any discomfort
within him.

Yoichi licked his lips, watching Nagi’s eyes follow the motion. Out of the corner of his eye Yoichi
noticed one of Nagi’s hands grasp the blanket under Yoichi tightly, while the other moved to
Yoichi’s jaw. Yoichi gripped Nagi’s wrist just as he felt a knee sledge its way between his legs and
Nagi’s breath hit his lips.

“Everything okay?” Nagi muttered, his lips brushing against Yoichi’s with each word. Nagi looked
Yoichi in the eyes again, his gaze so dark that Yoichi couldn’t tell where his pupils ended and
irises started.

Yoichi thought back to the night in the bathroom - ironically to the moment when he was with
Bachira, not with Nagi. He remembered rationalizing the situation to himself as just giving Bachira
what he wanted, in an effort to make sure Bachira stays on his side. At the time it had felt like he
was just letting another person do things to him, rather than actively participating in it himself.
Kissing back was just something he did to appease the other person.

It was quite funny how he had a habit of doing that with people .

Yoichi felt like Nagi was probably quite easy to appease.

Yoichi moved his hand from Nagi’s wrist to the back of his neck. “Just peachy,” he replied, before
closing the distance.
Nagi’s kiss was similar yet different to the one in the bathroom. Nagi’s first kiss had felt lazy and
impulsive, the movements of his lips feeling frustrated. Maybe this time was different because
Yoichi was actually kissing back.

Reflexively, Yoichi parted his lips when he felt Nagi’s tongue lick at them. Yoichi had never
particularly enjoyed the use of tongue while kissing, finding it sloppy and unnecessarily wet. But
he never protested, always letting it happen if his partner wanted it.

Yoichi let his tongue slide together with Nagi’s, before letting his teeth graze against Nagi’s
bottom lip, sucking on the flesh until Nagi let out an embarrassing moan, causing Yoichi to
chuckle against his mouth.

“Shut up,” Nagi complained, moving his lips from Yoichi’s lips to his neck, focusing his attention
on universally sensitive spots, mimicking the actions Yoichi performed on his lip just seconds ago.

“Don’t be a sour-puss, it was hot, okay,” Yoichi hummed, still chuckling slightly while playing
with the hair on the back of Nagi’s neck. He moved his other hand to Nagi’s shoulder, while trying
to come up with the most effortless way to take care of the hardness pumping into his inner thigh.

Yoichi must not be the only one going through a sexual-recession if all it takes for Nagi to get an
erection was to bite his lip.

“You should moan too for a change,” Nagi commented right into Yoichi’s ear before sinking his
teeth into it gently. “Reo always does so easily.”

Yoichi wrapped the hair at the back of Nagi’s head around his fingers tightly, before yanking at
them. “Talking about other people while you’re dry humping someone else’s leg like a pre-teen
searching for their first orgasm sure is one way to do dirty talk,” Yoichi commented, moving his
lips to Nagi’s jaw, wondering how funny or beneficial it would be to leave a hickey there.

To be fair, letting Nagi do his business in his pants rather than the bed Yoichi was supposed to
sleep in was possibly the best way to go about the current situation.

Nagi moved his hand from the sheets to Yoichi’s waist, before sliding it past Yoichi’s ass to his
thigh. Nagi took a firm hold of the back of Yoichi’s leg, pulling it above his shoulder, causing
Yoichi to let out a quiet hiss, because Yoichi might’ve been very bendy but the action was also
very abrupt and not at all gentle. Before Yoichi could chastise Nagi for very poor bedroom
stretching etiquette, Nagi rolled their hips together and brought his mouth in to meet Yoichi’s
again, letting out his moan into the kiss.

“Never seen you put so much effort into something before,” Yoichi couldn’t help but comment,
while Nagi repeated the movements. Yoichi grasped the fabric of Nagi’s prison uniform in his
hand while Nagi’s own hand moved from Yoichi’s jaw to his other thigh, where he just gripped it
tight, letting Yoichi feel his blunt nails digging into his skin.

“You’re way too chatty,” Nagi replied, all but panting against Yoichi’s lips. “Besides, it’s not like
you’re doing much anything to help.”

“Pillow princess,” Yoichi hummed, letting Nagi lick his way back into his mouth.

But Nagi was right, he wasn’t doing much anything and this was taking far too long. Yoichi
slipped his leg down from Nagi’s shoulder, wrapping it around his waist before using the leverage
to roll Nagi onto his back and switch their positions.

Yoichi pulled himself back from Nagi’s lips, and just listened to his heavy breathing for a while.
He’d never seen someone get so worked up over a few minutes of grinding, but to be fair, Yoichi’s
experience was very limited.

Yoichi placed his thigh on Nagi’s crotch, applying pressure and moved his hand to the zipper of
Nagi’s jumpsuit, sliding it down a little before stopping. “Yes?” Yoichi asked, and Nagi just
nodded his head, albeit enthusiastically. “I want a verbal confirmation, Nagi.”

“Just get on with it already.”

Yoichi rolled his eyes, moving slightly away and easing off the pressure from Nagi’s crotch. “I
asked yes or no,” he asked again, patiently while Nagi’s eagerness just seemed to increase.

“Yes okay, I’m not trying to die off of blue balls,” Nagi groaned, moving his hand back to Yoichi’s
waist, trying to get Yoichi to move back closer.

Yoichi in turn dragged the zipper down Nagi’s waist, before throwing a glance at the security
monitor, wondering what were the chances that a guard was watching and getting a free show.
While he didn’t particularly care, as it wasn’t he who was getting undressed, and Nagi clearly had
already done something like this in Blue Lock and clearly did not care about privacy, Yoichi still
moved his other knee to hide the view from the monitor.

It was still pretty obvious what he was doing, but for the pretense of privacy.

Nagi let out another long breathy moan when Yoichi wrapped his fingers around his length,
flattening his thumb over the slit. Yoichi couldn’t help but pray that the walls of the cell were thick
enough to seal off any noise from coming or going through, as it would be embarrassing as hell to
introduce himself as the new next door neighbor by giving a free moaning-concert within the first
five minutes of moving in.

With the help of the pre-cum he’d gathered on his thumb, Yoichi stroked down Nagi’s shaft, while
Nagi’s breathing accelerated even more. Nagi thrusted his hips up in the same rhythm of Yoichi’s
strokes, while reaching to the back of Yoichi’s head and pulling him in for a desperate kiss.

In the end, it was almost embarrassing how quickly Nagi came undone. Maybe Reo hadn’t been
putting out lately or they’d had a wrinkle in love even before Yoichi came in to the picture, but
nearly as soon as Yoichi pulled away from the kiss to let Nagi breathe in a heavy breath of air,
Nagi all but gasped while his entire body shuddered, leaving Yoichi with a sticky and a wet hand.

Yoichi leaned away, sitting back up on his knees and taking his hand out from Nagi’s jumpsuit.
Nagi was still breathing heavily, while staring at the ceiling.

Yoichi glanced at his soiled hand before looking back at Nagi. “That was quick,” he noted.
“Must’ve been pent up.”

Yoichi wiped his hand on the front of Nagi’s jumpsuit, before getting up from the bed. Whatever
trance Nagi was under seemed to vanish, as he quickly sat up to see Yoichi walking over to the
door.

“I’m hungry,” Yoichi said, turning back to look at Nagi. “Do you want to come get breakfast with
me or would you rather… go clean yourself up?”

“But what about you?” Nagi asked, his eyes roaming all over Yoichi, trying to find any form of…
frustration on him. Of which there was none. If somebody were to walk in the room right now, by
only looking at Yoichi they’d have no idea what had happened.
“Do you think they have better breakfast here than they do in building five?” Yoichi asked. “I’m
craving an omelet for some reason.”

○○○

When Yoichi had asked Nagi if he’d like to go clean himself up, he didn’t mean it as a suggestion,
but rather as a command. While it was 100 % his own fault that Nagi was now walking around the
very public canteen area with actual jizz on his chest, Yoichi still would have liked Nagi to go and
make himself look more presentable. Yoichi promised himself that he’d find a guard and request a
new jumpsuit for Nagi, or at least that they wash the old one, because Yoichi’s impulsive decision
to wipe his hand on Nagi’s clothes now left him dealing with the worst second-hand
embarrassment of his life.

Luckily there was fucking nobody in the canteen .

Again, Yoichi didn’t know what time it was. But he would swear that he and Nagi had not been in
building four for even an hour yet. So by the best logic, there absolutely should have been people
in the canteen.

“Guess there weren’t any omelets,” Nagi noted as he sat right next to Yoichi, like a freak. Any
normal person would have sat opposite of him.

Yoichi moved the food around his plate - it wasn’t an omelet, but it still looked much better than
anything he’d eaten in building five.

Should he still call it building five, if it was just a different floor in the same building?

“I was lying about craving an omelet,” Yoichi said, even though he very much was craving an
omelet. Yoichi eyed the stain on Nagi’s jumpsuit, while Nagi ate his food, unbothered. “You really
couldn’t go wash yourself up.”

Nagi paused while he was bringing more food to his mouth and looked down on the stain. “You’re
the one who wiped it on me,” Nagi said, with food still in his mouth. Yoichi cringed at the sight,
but didn’t comment on it.

“You’re the one who made a mess.”

Nagi shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll benefit me in the long run,” Nagi hummed.

Yoichi eyed Nagi suspiciously. That off-handed remark sounded awfully like Nagi actually
intended to cash in on whatever status he expected to receive from walking around with a cum stain
on his clothes.

“You know it just looks like you’ve jacked off and wiped yourself on your own clothes, right?”
Yoichi asked him. “Can’t see how that reputation would benefit anyone.”

Nagi hummed. “Depends on who’s asking,” he said, before continuing his meal.

Yoichi narrowed his eyes but decided to drop the topic.

After a few beats of sitting in silence, the doors to the canteen opened again. Yoichi and Nagi
moved their heads to look in the direction of the newcomers simultaneously, completely in sync.

Yoichi heard them before seeing them - a familiar, overly excited and friendly voice babbling on
and on about something completely pointless. Yoichi’s ears perked and eyes widened without
thinking, as the dual colored hair and wide smile appeared in his line of vision.

“Ah,” Nagi muttered next to him, but Yoichi didn’t pay him any mind, too distracted by Bachira
and the two people he was accompanied by. “Perfect.”

Yoichi didn’t have enough time to lift his hand up in a greeting, before Bachira’s eyes found his,
the already bright shade of yellow seeming to light ablaze in joy when they finally made eye
contact.

“Isagi!” Bachira cheered as he rushed his way over to where Yoichi and Nagi were seated,
throwing himself at Yoichi with his full weight.

With Bachira’s arms wrapped around his neck tight and his entire body weight resting on his lap,
Yoichi expected to feel the same annoyance he had grown accustomed to whenever Bachira clung
on to him. But this time he couldn’t find it in himself to feel anything other than relief and the
soothing feeling of familiarity. Because Bachira might’ve been an annoying tick clinging on to him
for dear life, but he was also the only constant Yoichi’d had during his time in Blue Lock.

Glancing over Bachira’s shoulder,Yoichi noticed the two other inmates Bachira had come in with
follow him over to their table. Yoichi gave Bachira a light nudge, causing him to give Yoichi some
breathing space without really letting go of Yoichi.

“Is this the one you never cease talking about?” the other inmate, with hair long and shiny enough
to not only rival Chigiri but to also absolutely shame him, asked Bachira. His voice was deep and
the way he spoke reminded Yoichi of some upper-class socialite who wouldn’t be caught dead
using slang words. Another noteworthy feature of his was his height - he was noticeably even taller
than Nagi, who’d up until this point been the tallest person Yoichi's seen in Blue Lock.

Bachira grinned even wider and nodded his head. “Yes! This is Isagi, he’s the best person in the
world!” Bachira declared with the excitement of a child speaking about their favorite flavor of ice
cream.

“Oh, that’s… nice,” the second inmate said, his voice much quieter and more nervous than the
other one’s. He was slightly hiding behind the taller inmate, despite being significantly broader
and clearly more well-musceled. “What- what about him?” the inmate nodded his head towards
Nagi, but was clearly still talking to Bachira.

“Insignificant!” Bachira smiled.

“I’m Nagi,” Nagi was still chewing food while answering the inmates question, and was eyeing the
two new inmates with a look that seemed both bored yet filled with disdain.

“Oh- oh, cool,” the inmate nodded his head and swallowed.

Yoichi raised his eyebrow. The guy seemed to give being nervous a new meaning completely. He
was clutching the back of the taller guy’s jumpsuit similarly to how Bachira used to do to Yoichi,
but rather than being an annoying tick, he seemed to try to use the taller inmate as a sort of human
shield.

How this guy had managed to survive in Blue Lock, or even have enough courage to commit an
actual crime, Yoichi didn’t know.
“Wha- what’s that on your jumpsuit?” the guy asked then, pointing at the stain on Nagi’s chest.

Yoichi pursed his lips and looked away while all the other eyes moved on over to the stain in
question.

“A stain,” Nagi replied, taking another bite of his food.

Yoichi felt Bachira move around where he was still seated in his lap. Yoichi immediately knew
where this was going and cursed himself for ever making such a flawed calculation in his actions.

“Oh what kind of stain is it Nagi?” Bachira asked innocently, and while Nagi didn’t exactly smile,
Yoichi swore he saw the corners of his lips twitch slightly.

Ah. So that was his plan. What a dick.

“It’s a cum stain.”

Yoichi wondered if he was actually in a soap-opera rather than prison. The timid inmate started to
stutter nervously, like some sort of virgin who couldn’t even fathom the idea of a sexual release,
while the taller one with the long hair let out a scandalous gasp. Bachira’s smile never dropped
from his face, but Yoichi noticed it became more and more hostile and fake, while the arms looped
around Yoichi’s neck tightened again.

Yoichi in turn gave Nagi a quick warning look, which of course was ignored.

“You ejaculated onto your clothing?” the tall inmate exclaimed accompanied by the dramatic
effect of placing his hand over his mouth in the pretense of a scandalous expression.

Yoichi was willing to bet Nagi’s balls that this guy was a theater kid.

“No, into a hand, like a normal person,” Nagi replied, his expression and tone of voice never
changing, while the nervous guy looked like he was going to have an aneurysm if they kept talking
about this subject.
Yoichi could relate in a way because he was going to shoot himself if they kept talking about this.

“So you ejaculated into your own hand and then wiped your semen onto your clothing?” the tall
one asked, now even more shocked.

“Well no, not on my own hand.”

Bachira’s arms tightened even more. “Who’s hand was it then, Nagi?”

“Isagi’s.”

Suddenly Bachira’s arms dropped from Yoichi’s neck and he quickly moved from his lap into the
chair next to him, as if he’d been burned. Without Bachira’s bodyheat right on top of him, Yoichi
felt colder again and he felt like strangling Nagi.

Because there really was no need to tell Bachira that.

Nagi still kept his neutral expression intact, but there was a self-satisfied glint in his eyes as he took
a sip from his glass of water.

“I think that’s enough of this conversation!” It was better to put a stop to this topic, before Bachira
decided to get violent, Yoichi decided. He’d never actually seen Bachira act violently towards
anybody, but based on his criminal record, Yoichi would rather not take any chances. “Where is
everyone else? Nagi and I literally just arrived, but we haven’t seen anybody else here.”

“There isn’t anyone in ‘building four’, if you can even call it that,” the tall one said, finally taking a
seat on the chair opposite of Yoichi and immediately starting to play with his long-ass hair.
“Tokimitsu and I have been here for almost a week now, and as far as we know, the four of us are
the only ones here.”

Yoichi furrowed his brows. “The four of you?” Math was never his strong suit, but Yoichi
could’ve sworn he only counted three people on top of him and Nagi.
“Rinnie never comes to eat with us,” Bachira pouted, crossing his arms on top of the table and
hiding his face in them. “He always wants us to leave him alone. His attitude is even worse than
Barou’s!”

“Rinnie..?”

“Ye- yes! Itoshi R-Rin!” the nervous one, apparently named Tokimitsu, who was still using the tall
one as a human shield, piped in. “He’s rooming with us! He was here before A-Aryu and I,
although I doubt he was here that much longer… He tried to kick us out when we arrived.”

That definitely sounded like something Barou would do if he was forced to room with some
random ass people.

But that didn’t really matter. What really mattered, was how these two had just appeared out of
nowhere to building four, when Yoichi had never seen them in building five to begin with.

Yoichi was also pretty sure that this Rin person had completely skipped out on building five.

“So… where’d you come from? Like which building were you in before you got here?” Yoichi
asked, and in return, Aryu looked at him like he was stupid.

“From building five, of course. What kind of preposterous question is that? Can you not count?”

This guy definitely talked more than he needed to, just so he could use some fancy ass words.

“No, but… Nagi and I just came from building five. And I never saw either of you there,” Yoichi
pointed out. “Okay, what were your ranks before you got here?”

“Oh, I was 250,” Aryu replied, still playing with his hair while inspecting his nails on his other
hand. “Very unglamorous number, I know. It’s an even number, and divisible by five so it’s pretty
to look at, but very unflattering when you think about it. I think 245 for example just has that
certain… je ne sais quoi. It’s much more glamorous and timeless, you know.”
Yoichi did not know. In fact, nobody seemed to know, considering that all of them were now
looking at Aryu like he was insane. Yoichi was actually sure that he was.

“Umm… Well I was ranked 254. Aryu and I were in the same block when we got taken here,”
Tokimitsu said after a drawn out period of silence.

Yoichi didn’t know what to think anymore. How could these two be from building five, when he,
Nagi and Bachira were from building five. And Yoichi was sure that he would have noticed these
two if they were in the same building as him, considering that in size they were actual giants and
their personalities just demanded a lot of attention, even if Tokimitsu seemed to try and appear as
unthreatening as possible.

And if there really were only six inmates in building four right now, and there were supposed to be
at least 275 inmates overall…

Still, Yoichi might not have been the best at math… but the math just wasn’t mathing here.

After that Yoichi was stuck in his own little world, his mind racing a mile a minute, trying to come
up with plausible solutions to the situation at hand. Bachira, Tokimitsu and Aryu finally moved to
go get their meals, and while they returned to eat with Nagi and Isagi, all of them ate in silence.
This time not even Bachira seemed to want to make small talk.

Yoichi’s meal sat untouched in front of him a several minutes later when the canteen door opened
again. Yoichi glanced up to see the person coming in, but the glance quickly turned into a full on
stare.

Yoichi was going to assume that the person walking in was the Rin-guy they were just talking
about, considering that he was wearing the prison jumpsuit, he looked like somebody pissed in his
cereal and on his way to the food automatons he didn’t spare the five of them a single glance.

Yoichi was also in love with him.

Well, maybe not in love with him. But most definitely something along those lines. Love at first
sight didn’t exist, Yoichi was sure of that, but whatever this was would have to be very close to it.

Yoichi only saw the profile of the guy, but even the side of his face was prettier than any of the
other inmates Yoichi had encountered. His short hair was dark green in color, he was tall and built
like a model, and when he ran his fingers through his hair completely unnecessarily, Yoichi was
sure that the guy actually was a model.

Yoichi was sure he was drooling as he watched the guy, Rin Itoshi , take his food from the
automaton and start to walk over to a table as far away from the table Yoichi and his company
were seated in as possible.

Too bad that he had to pass by the table, and Bachira was a menace.

“Hey Rin!” Bachira waved at him, his grin wide but missing the trademark sparkle. “Are you
going to eat with us today?”

“Piss off bob-cut,” Rin frowned at Bachira, before moving his eyes to Yoichi and Nagi, seemingly
only now noticing the two newcomers.

When their eyes met, Yoichi simultaneously felt his breath being taken away and very… confused.
Because Yoichi had seen those eyes somewhere. In fact, now that he was looking at him properly,
Yoichi was sure he’d seen that face somewhere.

His eyes were a brilliant shade of teal, with his lower lashes being significantly more noticeable
than his upper lashes ( you know, like a whore ). His face was well proportioned, his skin clear and
looked like it would be soft as silk. Even the way he was frowning was pretty.

Yoichi swore he’d seen this guy somewhere.

“The hell are you looking at?” Rin asked when Yoichi had stared at him longer than it was socially
acceptable to. He didn’t stick around to hear Yoichi’s answer, however.

While Yoichi watched him go with hearts in his eyes, he noticed both Nagi and Bachira suddenly
turn their eyes to look at him with similar, yet unfamiliar looks in their eyes.

But Yoichi didn’t have time to worry about that, because he needed to know everything he possibly
could about Rin Itoshi as soon as possible.
 ○○○

Yoichi didn’t find Rin anywhere for the rest of the day, although searching for him was very
difficult with both Nagi and Bachira following him around like baby chicks follow their mother
hen.

Yoichi didn’t know what he would’ve done or said to Rin if he found him, anyway. “Hey, your
pretty face looks familiar, are you some model I used to have a very parasocial relationship with?”
or “Hey, I know this is our first time meeting, but I am very much in love with you, and although it
is physically impossible, I’m not opposed to and in fact would be very enthusiastic to have your
baby.”

So when the time came for the inmates - all six of them - to return to their cells for the night,
Yoichi decided to snoop through the documents to find out every possible detail about Rin Itoshi.

But he was going to have to get rid of Nagi’s attention first.

“Hey Nagi,” Yoichi said as soon as Nagi had gotten comfortable on his bed. Nagi turned his head
to look at Yoichi. “Catch!”

Nagi almost didn’t have time to react to the phone being thrown in his direction, but luckily Nagi
caught it in time. Yoichi would have had his head on a stake if he’d dropped and broken it.

“I thought you didn’t want any sexual favors in return?” Nagi asked in confusion, but didn’t seem
to be too disappointed over getting the phone.

“I don’t. Besides, what sexual favors did I get from you exactly? You’re the one who came, as
we’ve discussed today, in length,” Yoichi smiled dryly. “I just need you to not pay attention to me
for a while.”

Nagi frowned. “Are you going to jack off now ? Because I could-”

“No! I just don’t want you bothering me for a second.” Also, the last thing Yoichi wanted right
now was Nagi’s hands anywhere near his dick, when he had just fallen in love with someone else.
 Nagi just shrugged and began playing some game on the phone, while Yoichi hid behind the bed in
a way that ensured that neither Nagi or the security monitor didn’t see him and fished out the
classified folder.

It didn’t take long for Yoichi to find Rin’s folder ( Yoichi thanked the god that was Noel Noa for
providing him with this item, for being so right about Rin being somebody to worry about ).

Rin was 22 years old, making him a year younger than Yoichi ( Yoichi could handle being a
cougar, it was fine ). He was born on the 9th of September ( Yoichi didn’t know much about
horoscopes, he didn’t believe in them in fact, but Aries’ and Virgo’s were soulmates, right? ). He
was 186 centimeters tall ( So Yoichi could climb him like a tree ). Then, Yoichi got to the meat of
the file: the reason behind Rin’s conviction.

Yoichi felt his face pale: he wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Maybe something mild like Chigiri
with his accidental destroyment of private property and speeding tickets, or something like Nagi
and Reo’s drug escapades. But definitely not-

First-degree murder.

Chapter End Notes

I'm not sure if I'll be able to update next week, cause I have my cousins wedding next
weekend and it's a whole ass hassle.
If even after that there is no update... well then feel free to spam my mother with "I
told you so" -emails, as she does not believe I am dying (I have no symptoms
associated with death, just a hunch and an itch on my ass).

Also, seriously your comments give me joy and energy, they're so fun to read
 Pov: I'm coming out to you as a serial killer, haha just kidding, unless?
Chapter Notes

the weather reports in my area for the past four days: THERE WILL BE THE
WORST STORM IN HUMAN HISTORY, YOU WILL LOSE YOUR HOME, YOUR
INHERITANCE, YOUR WILL TO LIVE, STAY INSIDE AND TRY NOT TO DIE
the weather report yesterday: teehee storm cancelled
the weather report two hours later: STORM NOT CANCELLED, YOU HAVE NO
HOPE OF SURVIVAL
me, looking out the window to a sunny backyard, trying to finish this fucking chapter:
so... power down or no?

This update was supposed to be up yesterday but then it was nearly midnight and I was
only like 3/4 done, so whoopsie daisie.

Anyways, loved your comments again guys, keeping me motivated through my busy
summer (summer vacations aren't made for chilling, we're grinding we're hustling)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

X - Pov: I’m coming out as a serial killer to you, haha just kidding, unless?

Now, see here.

Yoichi has always been an extremely liberal, open-minded person, okay? He would never judge
another person based on race, gender, sexual identity or, and especially, their criminal history.

As one might have already noticed.

See, in some cases murder is justified, Yoichi is sure. And besides, sure the murder was first-
degree and reading the report on Rin's behavior during the trial ( The defendant acted cold and
uncaring during the trial, showcasing zero remorse for his actions. The defendant admitted to the
crime, implying that he hadn't bothered to cover his tracks, claiming that if he wanted to not get
caught he wouldn't have. His lawyer gave up halfway through the two month trial. ), it was clear to
even the daftest of people that it was premeditated.

But Yoichi was sure that there was a completely reasonable explanation to this! There were no
records about who Rin killed and how, but Yoichi was sure it was a very bad person and in a very
quick and painless way.
Sure, maybe the document implied otherwise, but that was up to interpretation. Maybe the victim
was… maybe they had…

They most certainly deserved death, and Rin was well-within his right to act as the judge, the jury
and the executioner!

"Isagi? Are you okay?" Nagi asked, looking over to see Yoichi banging his head against the wall.
"What the hell are you doing?"

"Have you ever found out that your soulmate is a murderer?"

Nagi didn't reply for a while. "I don't believe in soulmates," he then said, and continued to play
whatever game he was playing on Yoichi's phone.

“What about love at first sight?” Yoichi asked, before ramming his head against the wall again.

The sounds coming from Nagi’s game stopped again, and Nagi slumped his body onto Yoichi’s
bed, looking down to where Yoichi was crouching next to the wall, still slamming his head against
the wall.

“Well that’s a little undignified,” Nagi muttered, resting his head on top of his arms where he laid
down on his stomach. “What about love at first sight?”

“Do you believe in it?” Yoichi asked, finally deciding to spare himself from the incoming
concussion and falling down to lay on his back on the floor.

Yoichi figured that he was going to have to work on his game a bit more before actually trying to
have a conversation ( which would then kick-start the romance of the century ) with Rin. He’d
already embarrassed himself enough by staring at the guy like a brain-dead worm, drool dripping
down his chin and all.

Realistically, Yoichi himself knows that love at first sight is bullshit. He’s been in love before, at
least he thinks he has. He knows what it’s like when even the thought of someone makes you
lightheaded, almost not being able to think or stand straight, how your heart beats faster than a race
car, almost like it was doing its best to crawl out of your chest. How you’re unable to eat and sleep,
your thoughts always preoccupied by the person you’re in love with. How you don’t feel like
yourself when you’re without that person.

It hadn’t been long since Yoichi was in love for the first and the only time ever. And he wasn’t
stupid enough to think that he was now only after seeing Rin once .

But that was the only way Yoichi could describe this feeling - the same lightheadedness, racing
heart, feeling hot and uncomfortable in his skin as he couldn’t look away from Rin.

Nagi seemed to think about Yoichi’s question for a minute. “No, not really,” Nagi then sighed,
before narrowing his eyes. “Why?”

Yoichi shrugged. “No reason,” he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the ceiling on top of him.

Yoichi heard shuffling from the bed, and soon his vision of the ceiling was blocked by Nagi’s dull
gaze. Unlike most other times, Yoichi wasn’t crushed by Nagi’s body weight - their gazes met in
the middle, while their bodies were directed towards the opposite ends of the cell. If Yoichi were to
now abruptly lift his head up, his forehead would slam straight into Nagi’s chin.

They were quiet for a minute, before Nagi let out a small scoff. “So that’s how it’s going to be
now?” he asked, licking his lips and not breaking the eye-contact.

“I don’t follow.”

Nagi frowned at him. “Don’t act stupid. You weren’t even trying to hide your staring earlier today
- even Bachira noticed it.”

Sometimes Yoichi forgot that Nagi was way too observant for his own good - it was easy to forget
considering that his observations often went unshared with other people.

“So what of it?”

“So you’re just going to jump on to the next one? First Bachira, then me and now Rin?” Nagi
asked, causing Yoichi to almost laugh. Because there was a clear distinction between all of them.

First of all, both Nagi and Bachira came to Yoichi first. Second of all, if what Bachira said about
Rin was true, Yoichi was going to have to make the first move if he wanted to live out his Disney
Princess fantasy with Rin.

Third of all, Yoichi never even promised neither Nagi nor Bachira anything.

“That really depends on if Rin is as easy as the two of you,” Yoichi noted, this time actually
laughing out loud upon seeing the darkened look in Nagi’s eyes. “Doesn’t feel so good now, does
it? Now imagine how Reo feels.”

Yoichi was going to have to let this Reo-thing go at some point. But what would you do, if you
were suddenly locked in the same prison facility with your celebrity crush from your teenage
years?

“Stop talking about Reo already,” Nagi complained, before bringing his hands onto Yoichi’s
cheeks and leaning down to kiss him.

It was unbelievably awkward and uncomfortable, considering that from Yoichi’s perspective Nagi
was upside down and vice versa, so Yoichi felt Nagi’s bangs tickle the skin of his throat. The kiss
was also much slower and more controlled than in the morning, like Nagi had a sudden need to be
romantic or something else cringe like that.

It didn’t last long before Nagi moved his lips onto Yoichi’s cheek, after which Yoichi pushed him
back and moved to sit up.

“I think…” Yoichi said before Nagi could even think about opening his mouth. “I’m going to go
take a shower.”

○○○

Yoichi was thankful that Nagi was too lazy to join him on his trip to the washrooms. Yoichi almost
scoffed when Nagi said that he was too tired to come with him - he was too tired to wash himself,
but not too tired to make out or play games.
Well that’s Nagi for you.

The showers in building four weren’t much better than the ones block V had downstairs - maybe a
little more spacious, but overall very similar. There were around twenty shower stalls back to back
on both sides of the washroom, with a wide tiled bench placed in the middle. The washrooms were
connected to the dressing room, where the lockers seemed to be assigned to each prisoner based on
rank.

Only that building four only had six inmates as of right now, and none of them seemed to have any
proper ranking right now.

Yoichi threw his clothes into the first open locker he saw, certain that the chances of any of the
four other inmates coming in at such a late hour were low to none, before grabbing a clean towel
from the racks and stepping into the washroom.

Yoichi hadn’t even noticed how tense his muscles had been for the past few weeks until the warm
water hit his skin. Showering in building five had always been such a miserable experience - for
one, Yoichi really didn’t want to linger there longer than necessary, the showers nearly always
being occupied by some giant scary looking inmate or another. Yoichi had been told enough
stories about ‘dropping the soap’ that he wasn’t going to take any chances with these people.
Second of all, the water in building five was always cold as shit, and Yoichi enjoyed his long warm
showers.

So now, after a long wait, when Yoichi finally could have his long warm shower, he was going to
enjoy it to the best of his ability and pray to god that Bachira doesn’t burst in unannounced.

It had been a surprisingly eventful first day in building four, even if it opened a lot more questions
than answered. Nagi sure had come up with a way to… break in their little cell room as soon as
they were left alone, and Yoichi wasn’t sure if he dreaded or not for the days to come. Or maybe
they were getting a new cellmate soon - Yoichi wasn’t sure what he thought about sharing the
room with two other people, when even Nagi was exhausting enough at times.

But having Nagi close by at all times was a good thing - he’d be easier to control and keep on a
tighter leash when they were literally sleeping right next to each other every night. Sure, the
benefit of Nagi being the highest ranked inmate in building five was now gone up in smoke, but
given how Nagi was quietly very observant and surprisingly smart, not to mention easily coerced,
Yoichi could still use him.
Bachira’s two other cellmates as well sure were… characters, for the lack of a better word.
Interesting to say the least. Yoichi was intrigued about them as well, but he’d have time to figure
them out later, considering that they were hardly the most interesting parts of building four as of
yet.

Yoichi found himself lost in his own head, as he often did while showering. For a second he
allowed himself to shut his eyes, and lean his head against the tiled shower wall, exhaustion taking
over his body seemingly out of nowhere.

He was so engrossed in his own world that he didn’t even hear another person come in - he didn’t
even hear the purposeful stomps that were making a beeline towards him, not until the newcomer
was right behind him, causing Yoichi to spin around with his fist ready to hit whoever it was.

His gaze was met by a broad, smooth, delicious looking chest. Yoichi raised his gaze to look into
emotionless, yet bright, beautiful, but dull teal eyes that were glaring at him in annoyance. A
calloused hand ran through green hair as the culprit frowned at him, as though Yoichi’s very
existence was offensive to him.

Yoichi needed to tread carefully here, because glancing down even a little too much would grace
Yoichi's eyes with the sight he was most eager to see.

There was also the case of Rin violating his personal space, and despite his past experiences in the
Blue Lock bathrooms, based on Rin’s expression and general aura of unfriendliness, he wasn’t
here for that .

“Can I help you?” Yoichi asked uncertainly, taking a step back, causing the shower handle to dig
into his back, as Rin inspected him with an unimpressed glare.

“Did you put your shit into my locker?” Rin asked after a good while of just downright rude
staring.

( Yoichi would not have been this offended if the staring had been, you know, more appreciative. )

“Um,” Yoichi blinked in confusion, having not really paid attention to which locker he chose. “I
didn’t know there were assigned lockers? I just kind of threw my things into the first one, you
know.”

“The numbers are quite literally on the locker doors, or are you blind as well as an idiot?”

Yoichi was expecting Rin to be rude, but not quite this rude. Somehow it worked for him.

“We’re not currently ranked, though. Or at least we don’t know what our ranks are,” Yoichi
pointed out, the shower handle now digging into his back very uncomfortably as Yoichi squirmed
under Rin’s cold glare.

“And what makes you think I wouldn’t be ranked number one?” Rin asked, and in all honesty, just
based on this short interaction, Yoichi had no doubts that Rin was the highest ranked inmate.

For all of Rin’s attractiveness, it also really started to piss Yoichi off.

“What makes you think that you are?” Yoichi asked, and in return Rin glared at him even meaner
than before. “Okay, well whatever - I wasn’t really paying attention, and I won’t do it again, we’ll
go with that okay? Or are your clothes going to get contaminated now that you had to put them in
the locker of some lesser inmate?”

Rin wasn’t amused, if the look on his face was anything to go by. He leaned against the side of the
shower stall Yoichi was in, effectively blocking Yoichi’s only means of escape.

Rin raised an expectant eyebrow at Yoichi, as though he was waiting for Yoichi to do something.
Given that Rin was blocking his exit, Yoichi’s options are limited.

“If you’re waiting for me to suck your dick, I’m going to have to decline,” Yoichi said, feeling
increasingly more and more awkward to just… stand there naked, while another naked man stared
him down. “I usually like to get to know the guy first, you know. I’d also like to hear a please
before I get down to it.”

The look on Rin’s face didn’t budge as he spoke. “You’re foul ,” Rin said, because he liked to
flatter Yoichi.
“Look I don’t know what else you want me to do, you’re kind of in my way.”

Rin didn’t reply - instead he just stood unflinching, waiting for Yoichi to make a move. Yoichi was
80 % certain that he was planning to kill him. It was kind of hot, in a homicidal way.

By now Yoichi was beginning to be convinced that he had lost his mind.

“Okay, I’ll move my things, but can I please just finish rinsing my hair? You know I would’ve
been done a long time ago if you weren’t distracting me,” Yoichi felt exasperated. It was like Rin
was expecting Yoichi to be able to read his mind without giving him any clues.

Rin again did not respond, but Yoichi decided to take it as a more or less a “go ahead” and turned
around once again to rinse the remaining shampoo from his hair. Or at least he tried to - it was
incredibly awkward and uncomfortable to face away from Rin, while feeling his eyes drilling into
his back.

“Do you mind… I don’t know, giving me some privacy? It’s incredibly uncomfortable with you
standing there,” Yoichi tried asking.

“Yes,” Rin just replied, but when Yoichi took a peak over his shoulder, Rin had not moved an inch
from where he was still leaning against the shower stall’s wall.

“Um, okay so could you-”

“Yes, I do mind,” Rin rolled his eyes, and Yoichi could almost feel it himself as his patience wore
thinner and thinner the longer this conversation continued. “Now get on with it.”

After that Yoichi broke the world record in rinsing out his shampoo and quickly turning around to
get the fuck out of there. Except Rin still did not move from his post. It seemed that he genuinely
expected Yoichi to just… squeeze right past him.

After a few moments of hesitation and even meaner glares from Rin, Yoichi quickly swooped past
Rin, carefully avoiding touching him in case Rin had some weird boundary, where he’d murder
anyone who touched him.
Not sure why someone like that would then watch somebody else shower, but there was always a
risk, and Yoichi wasn’t going to take it.

Yoichi quickly took his towel and ran out from the showers, before emptying the locker and
dressing up, once again in a record breaking time.

○○○

Come next morning, and Yoichi was still not doubting his unrelenting love for Rin Itoshi.

Because the guy might be scary, he might be big and he might be mean, but Rin clearly knew how
to operate the Blue Lock system. Sure, there were no rankings right now, but there was no doubt in
Yoichi’s mind that Rin was the number one.

He was everything Yoichi wanted to be, except he was a murderer. He was almost everything
Yoichi wanted to be.

The next morning had another surprise lined up as well - upon walking into the canteen, for once
without Nagi up his ass, as the lazy-ass had succumbed to the temptation which was his bed,
Yoichi found out that building four had started to properly fill up their vacancy.

Yoichi counted six new faces; four of them sitting together, and two separately at the opposite
sides of the canteen. Yoichi didn’t pay them much attention, not at first anyways, but quickly
realized one of them looked oddly familiar. It didn’t take too long for Yoichi to put together that
this unfairly attractive guy with round glasses and extremely soft looking curled hair was an
Instagram model he followed not too long ago.

( A good percentage of the people Yoichi used to follow on Instagram had shown up in Blue Lock -
Yoichi was beginning to notice a worrying trend. )

He was sitting with three other people, but none of them really seemed that interesting to Yoichi -
one of them did resemble a crow as much as a human could resemble poultry and another one had
the tackiest haircut Yoichi had ever seen, having white hair with a single green highlight at the
front. The last guy sitting at their table looked even more out of place than Yoichi felt in Blue Lock
- in fact the guy’s face and expression, the entire way he presented himself just screamed
innocence to Yoichi, from his baby blue hair to his pretty features.
Yoichi didn’t have too much time to stop and stare at them, as someone’s full bodyweight was
thrown on him in the blink of an eye. Yoichi nearly fell down on his face, but caught himself just
in time to hear Bachira’s laughter fill his ears.

“Bachira, dude, normal people just say hi as a greeting,” Yoichi complained, yet still found himself
giving Bachira a piggy-back ride to the food automatons.

“Normal people also aren’t in prison,” Bachira hummed, getting down from Yoichi’s back after
Yoichi had gotten him his food ( because apparently Yoichi was his maid now ).

Yoichi took his own tray of food and started to walk towards a table as far away from the
newcomers as possible. Yoichi had a feeling that now that he and Bachira were more or less alone
for the first time in a few days, he wanted as much privacy as he could get.

“Touche,” Yoichi muttered after he sat down.

“I also needed to get Isagi’s attention, since you’ve been ignoring me,” Bachira said as he sat down
next to Yoichi, his voice sounding cheerful despite having an unsettling undertone to it. “I wanted
to talk to you.”

“I haven’t been ignoring you,” Yoichi responded, quickly taking a look at the new inmates, to
make sure that they weren’t paying them too much mind.

In fact they weren’t minding Yoichi and Bachira at all.

“Yes you have,” Bachira said matter-of-factly, but didn’t give time for Yoichi to defend his honor.
“But never mind that for now. What I really wanted to talk to you about was why Nagi is still
here.”

The pleasant smile on Bachira’s face didn’t match the sudden change of tone his voice took. While
Bachira usually sounded like he had swallowed sunshine and daisies, now his voice had a tone to it
which was almost unrecognizable. Well, Yoichi did recognize the tone - just not coming from
Bachira.

Yoichi turned to look at Bachira again, pursing his lips as he rested his head on his hand. “What
does Nagi’s presence have anything to do with anything?”
“You said you’d - that we would only use him to get to building four. So why’s he still hanging off
of you?”

“You’re acting like this situation is somehow my fault,” Yoichi said, playing with the food on his
plate.

“Huh?” Bachira’s tone quickly turned to confusion. “Are you implying that it’s my fault?”

Yoichi shrugged. “I mean… We were planning on moving up to building four together and you
kind of jumped the queue, so to say. Like you just went ahead, fully knowing that there was a
chance that I wouldn’t be able to follow,” Yoichi noted with a heavy sigh. “I mean, how is it my
fault for sticking to the plan even without you?”

To be fair, Yoichi hadn’t had time to come up with a concrete plan before he got moved up. But
Bachira didn’t have to know that.

"Well, I guess, but that doesn't change the fact that he's still here, even though-"

"I guess I just don't see how it's fair that you get to move up without me, but still I'm the bad guy?"
Yoichi continued. "Besides, it's not my fault that Nagi is in the same cell as me."

It was the first time Yoichi saw Bachira frowning properly. "You make it sound like I chose to
come here alone," he complained.

"Well Nagi was given an option to leave or stay - I'm sure that if you'd just said that you don't want
to go, you could've stayed," Yoichi hummed, although he doubted that if Bachira had put up a
fight, he wouldn't be allowed back in building four. "But I guess I'm not that important to you, so
it's fine, whatever."

"What! No, nothing is more important than Isagi!" Bachira's demeanor quickly swapped back to
his usual one.

At times Yoichi found himself marveling at how quickly Bachira had become so attached to him.
Despite his own emotional rollercoaster regarding it, Yoichi hoped to god that Bachira didn't have
as strong abandonment issues as he seemed to have attachment issues. That could potentially be
very unfortunate for Yoichi in the future.

Sure Yoichi might have his own issues as well, so who was he to judge - hell, most people in Blue
Lock were sure to have issues, otherwise they wouldn't be in prison to begin with.

"If you say so," Yoichi sighed, and finally started to dig into his food, only to get interrupted again.

"But what about you sleeping with Nagi?" Bachira then demanded to know, now sounding more
pathetic than disturbing.

Seemed like he was having an emotional rollercoaster this morning as well.

Yoichi gave Bachira a confused look. "Yeah, he's my cell mate, we sleep in the same space. What
do you expect me to do about it?"

"No, what I mean is that you slept with him."

Yoichi really hoped that Bachira would learn to use the word sex and not sound like a fourteen year
old just finding out about intercourse from an online forum.

"When did I ever give that impression? Yoichi asked, taking a bite out of his breakfast, because he
was hungry damn it and Bachira had been keeping him from his breakfast for too long.

"Yesterday! When we were eating breakfast!"

"I don't recall ever implying anything of the sort."

Bachira groaned, throwing his head back in frustration. "Not you, but Nagi!"

"Did Nagi tell you we slept together?" Yoichi asked.

"Well- no, not exactly, but-"

"Then why are you accusing me of it?" Yoichi asked, putting his chopsticks down, his appetite
completely gone now. "How would it make you feel if I accused you of sleeping with… I don't
know, Rin while we were apart?"

Bachira's shoulders slumped as he looked down to his tray of untouched food with a somber
expression. "I'm sorry," Bachira sniffed after a moment of silence.

Yoichi didn't answer - instead he looked over just in time to see Nagi rush into the canteen. Well,
as much as Nagi was able to rush . He was still moving slow as a snail, feet dragging and his hands
buried in his pockets, but he was moving with much more purpose than before.

Yoichi also noticed a few of the new-comers spare Nagi a quick glance - he tried not to feel too
offended that they bothered to glance at Nagi and not him, as if Nagi by himself was capable of
being a threat.

"You didn't wake me up," Nagi said when he reached the table Bachira and Yoichi were sitting at.
He didn't seem upset, but Yoichi felt like Nagi might be lacking in the emotional department, so it
didn't surprise him.

Bachira stuck his tongue out at Nagi - Nagi stuck his tongue out at Bachira in return. Yoichi was
surrounded by children.

"You seemed to be happy in your new relationship with your bed. I didn't want to come between
you two," Yoichi replied. "Can you get me a glass of water while you go get your food?"

"They have juice here as well," Nagi said - both of them once again ignored the full glass of water
sitting on Yoichi's tray.

"Then bring me juice."

Nagi nodded and walked over to the food automatons - immediately after he was gone, Bachira
clung onto Yoichi's arm.
"I told you that you could just ask me to get you what you want," Bachira whined. "He's pointless
now that we're here!"

Yoichi moved his hand to the back of Bachira's neck, and tangled his fingers into the longer hair
there, much like the last time they'd had this conversation. "I just don't want you over-exerting
yourself pointlessly," Yoichi hummed, before looking over at Nagi, who was already rushing over.

Nagi slammed the glass full of what looked like some sort of berry-flavored juice onto his tray,
nearly spilling the liquid all over.

"God sorry Nagi, I was so dumb," Yoichi gave himself a smack on the forehead before switching
the glass from his tray to Bachira's. "I already had a full glass of water! Oh well, silly me!"

Nagi frowned but didn’t comment on it, opting to just dig into his food with minor complaints. For
a moment it was peaceful - Bachira seemed to have gotten enough affirmation that he was not
being replaced ( Yoichi wasn’t entirely sure what Bachira though his role in Yoichi’s life was, but
it seemed like he was very anxious about losing it to Nagi ), and was happily munching on his
probably cold food, and Yoichi felt like he finally could breathe again.

It was a bit ironic, that when Bachira was missing, Yoichi felt like the excess air was too much -
now he couldn’t really find a way to be too angry that taking a deep breath was a luxury he could
afford every once in a while again.

But the zen feeling inside Yoichi turned aflame again when the canteen doors slid open and Rin
stepped into the canteen, his steps filled with purpose and silent confidence. This time the
newcomers actually stopped what they were doing for a hot minute, stopping even in the middle of
the sentence, to see Rin striding to the food dispensers, acting like he owned the place without even
putting an effort.

There just had to be something wrong with him. Other than being a murderer that is.

Yoichi found himself swallowing excess spit that had formed in his mouth while he was staring at
Rin. Because if he was honest with himself, Rin wasn’t really his type, yet for some reason Yoichi
found him to be the single most attractive person he’d ever had the pleasure to encounter in real
life.

Well, to be fair, his first proper encounter with Rin hadn’t exactly been pleasant . But it sure was
an experience like no other.

After blatantly stalking Rin through his process of getting food, Yoichi turned to look at Nagi and
Bachira again, who both had decidedly ignored Yoichi’s obvious gawking.

“Do you think murder is ever justified?” Yoichi asked suddenly, for some reason wanting and
needing some sort of affirmation and encouragement from two of the most unreasonable people he
knew.

“Huh?” Nagi gave Yoichi a confused look, while Bachira blinked owlishly at him.

“Like, if someone you knew had committed a murder, but you don’t know what kind, do you think
there is a situation where, I don’t know, you would think they might not be at fault?” Again, Rin’s
file made it very much seem like whatever murder he committed was one he most definitely did not
regret and would do again, given the chance. There were also the implications about said murder
being premeditated, but… Yoichi was sure there were cases where even that could be overlooked.

“Are you coming out as a serial killer?” Bachira asked.

“ No ,” Yoichi replied, very pointedly because for the love of god, he was not a criminal . “Let’s
put it this way okay; if like… like someone breaks into your home and like in self-defense you kill
them, would you think that it’s justified?”

“I mean yes… but like isn’t that also a… law thing? Like killing in self-defense, you don’t get as
severe of a punishment, if any at all?” Nagi asked. “I don’t know the law.”

Unfortunately, Nagi made a good point, for once. “Okay, how about… Somebody walks home
alone at night, and they decide to take a short-cut through an alley. On the wall next to the
alleyway, there is a sign that says caution: you will get mugged and killed if you walk here and the
person still decides to go through it and ends up mugged and killed. Like, not to victim-blame or
anything, but they kind of knew what they were signing up for, you know? Like almost as if they
were asking for it?”

That had to be the worst example Yoichi had ever given on any singular topic. And it seemed like
Bachira and Nagi thought so too, because they were giving him very strange looks.
“Just to be clear, I haven’t mugged or killed anyone, ever,” Yoichi pointed out, before he could be
accused of anything he did not do.

Yoichi felt like his mental health was deteriorating. Or at least some vital part of his brain was
slowly rotting away. Because why else would he be entertaining these kinds of thoughts.

“Do you mean like, if someone is drunk driving at night, on a road that’s usually empty, but then
there’s a pedestrian, who knows that people tend to speed through that road, but still decides to jay-
walk across the road and the car fucking hits that person and sends that person flying in millions
and millions of gorey pieces?” Bachira asked, in a ridiculously innocent tone, given the subject
matter.

Yoichi pursed his lips. That example seemed a little bit too specific for him, even though the
details were a little, or a lot, exaggerated.

“Yeah sure. Let’s go with that example,” Yoichi sighed.

“No, I don’t think it’s justified then.”

Kind of a hypocritical thing for a criminal to say - much less a violent criminal, who had beat
somebody up , but it was whatever.

Yoichi should have known better than to ask Bachira and Nagi anyways.

○○○

The rest of Yoichi’s second day in building four was uneventful. He was slowly getting used to
both Bachira and Nagi hovering around him, but at least he’d managed to get Bachira to calm
down again. Bachira had even put up only minimal fight when faced with the fact that Yoichi was
going to retire back to his shared cell with Nagi, instead of crashing whatever party Bachira had
going on with Aryu, Tokimitsu and Rin.

As far as Yoichi was concerned, it wasn’t too late in the evening, when he felt his eyelids growing
heavy, but couldn’t afford to go to sleep yet since Nagi was playing on his phone and Yoichi
wasn’t going to risk Nagi stealing it.
Yoichi was laying on his back, star-fish style, staring at the ceiling with an expression more suited
to a brain dead person, when he was zapped wide awake by the cell door sliding open.

Yoichi sprung up to a sitting position as if he’d been electrocuted and quickly slapped the phone
from Nagi’s hand, causing it to drop down onto the floor and just enough under the bed for the
guard to hopefully not notice it when he walked in.

In fact, it wasn’t just any guard - it was his guard again.

“Well then you filthy criminals,” the guard said, with his usual bored tone, sighing a little as he
looked at Yoichi and Nagi lazing around in their cell. “Say hello to your new roomie.”

Yoichi wasn’t sure what he was expecting, if he was expecting anything at all. But when Barou
stepped into the cell, his eyes immediately finding Yoichi’s, both Yoichi and Barou found some
sort of hidden mental link between their brains, as they simultaneously yelled out:

“Absolutely not!”

“You’re not exactly in the position to protest,” the guard said. “Of course, if you’re unhappy with
this new development, you can always request to be moved back to block Z or to solitary
confinement. But I must warn you - you won’t like solitary confinement.”

Barou didn’t say anything - instead he just glared at Yoichi, who in turn noticed the popping vein
having moved from Barou’s forehead to his neck. He wasn’t sure if that counted as character
development or not.

“Well, that’s all from me. I’m sure the two of you, given how you’re such sweethearts and model
prisoners, can show Barou around his new home and… I don’t know, include him in your
activities?” Yoichi’s jaw dropped at the guard’s words, and as he turned to leave, Yoichi quickly
got up from his bed and ran after him.

The thing is, the guard had quite the brisk pace in his steps, and even though he only had maybe a
few meter advantage at best, it took Yoichi a few running steps to catch up with him.
 “Wait, wait, wait,” Yoichi nearly begged, gripping the guard’s sleeve, causing him to turn back
around with an annoyed expression. “You can’t leave me in the same cell as Barou! He’s going to
suffocate me in my sleep with his pillow!”

The guard raised an eyebrow at him, but the annoyed expression did not drop. “Which one was
Barou again?” he asked.

Yoichi couldn’t believe this guy was allowed to be a guard in a fucking prison.

“The guy you just brought in!”

“Oh. If it had been the other guy, I would’ve just assumed that it’d be some sort of kink to you
guys,” the guard shrugged, ripping his arm from Yoichi’s grip. “But then again, maybe it’s for
Barou as well. Actually I don’t know - you did teach him how to properly choke you, maybe he
actually took a few pointers and will do that instead.”

That just went above and beyond the limits of outrageousness. Yoichi was almost sure he misheard
him at first - there really were times when Yoichi just either forgot or subconsciously chose to
ignore the security monitors and that the guards could see what he was up to 24 / 7, even while in
the bathroom.

Yoichi really had made himself believe he had some level of privacy in Blue Lock, when in
actuality there was none.

The guard patted him on the cheeks condescendingly. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll like it
anyways. Hey, in a way, aren’t you kind of asking for it ?” Something close to a smile, yet so oddly
far away from it, crossed the guards face before he turned around to leave again.

This time Yoichi was going to let him, his mind still trying to process just the absolute disrespect.
The guard was stopped once again, not by Yoichi however, but by a voice coming from behind
him.

“Sae?”

Chapter End Notes

Okay, so I need an honest reaction here people: in the scene where Bachira and Isagi
are talking alone in the cafeteria, I purposefully left out details about how isagi was
feeling and what he was thinking at the topic and at the moment. So just out of
curiosity, how did Isagi come across to you? Because my friend said that in the scene
he feels like... just not a nice person xDDD so, honest feedback on that thanks!

I'll hopefully get the next chapter up during the weekend, so the wait won't be as long,
hopefully
 Chew me like you chew your meat, Daddy
Chapter Notes

Thanks everyone who commented on Isagi being a shithead last chapter! I was trying
to make him come across kind of gaslight-y and manipulative but wasn't sure if I
pulled it off realistically xD

When writing the first half of this chapter, I was cackling like fucking Ursula okay, i
was so pleased with myself, I felt like a Disney villain. Then the vision I had for the
second half of the chapter kind of let me down and felt short and kind of meh, so enjoy
a conversation which involves necrophilia (the reason why necrophilia is mentioned is
not what you think, trust).

The end is kind of clumsy because I wasn't sure if I wanted to end the chapter there of
write another scene, but it was getting long so I just took my scissors and cut it off lol

See the end of the chapter for more notes

XI - Chew me like you chew your meat, Daddy

Yoichi turned his head to see Rin standing a few meters behind them with a strange look on his
face. He wasn’t sparing Yoichi even the slightest glance, his eyes glued to the guard, Yoichi’s
guard , who wasn’t giving him even the courtesy of turning around to face him. But the guard
didn’t walk away either - he stayed put, back facing Rin and Yoichi, stuffing his hands into the
pockets of his uniform, his entire posture stiff.

Yoichi gave Rin another look as he took a few steps towards them, the strange look in his teal eyes
appearing to be a mixture of confusion and anger, now that Yoichi could see them closer.

Wait. Teal eyes .

In quite the cartoonish manner, Yoichi whipped his hair to look at the guard again, even though he
still wasn’t facing them. Because Yoichi had already thought that Rin, in all his beautiful glory,
looked familiar. He had a face, he had eyes that Yoichi had seen somewhere before.

Maybe it was because Yoichi’s opinion on the guards in general was very lousy, but he’d never
really thought about his guard as particularly good looking. Which now seemed absurd, because
his face was the exact same as Rin’s.
Which could only mean-

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Rin demanded through gritted teeth, spitting his words out
like venom, lazed with the purest hatred Yoichi had ever heard. Rin took another step forward, his
hands balled into fists, and Yoichi was sure that Rin was shaking in rage as he glared daggers at
Yoichi’s guard .

His guard, Sae , finally turned around, the same familiar teal eyes staring back at Rin, devoid of all
emotion - the contrast between the two was so drastic that Yoichi was sure he was going to have
whiplash. "Oh hi Rin, didn't see you there," his guard, Sae , said.

" Why. Are. You. Here? "

Yoichi took a step back, his back hitting the corridor wall as Rin yet again took more menacing
steps towards Yoichi's guard, Sae, who, if Yoichi was correct, was his brother .

Sae wasn't nearly as intimidated by Rin as Yoichi was - he remained unflinching, looking like this
interaction was the most boring he'd ever had, as Rin got up in his face and poked a finger to his
chest. Sae slapped Rin's finger right off, and wiped his uniform, like Rin touching it would leave it
infested with germs.

Sae then gestured to his uniform. "The fuck does it look like, asswipe. I'm working ," he replied
snidely, which had to be the most pointed Yoichi had ever heard his voice sound. "You know,
that's the thing most of society has to do to make a living. Not all of us get to just lounge around in
a government funded facility, eating away with tax-payer money."

Yoichi felt like maybe he should leave. Whatever drama or issues or whatever these two needed to
sort out with each other, had nothing to do with him. He felt like he was intruding, this was a
confrontation That needed privacy, not an audience consisting of a singular person who does not
know either of these people well enough to justify his presence.

The problem was, with how Yoichi had pressed himself up against the wall, and the show
happening right in front of him, there wasn't much room for him to squeeze out unnoticed. Not that
the two of them were paying any attention to him, he might as well be just a fly on the wall for
these two. But even the slightest possibility of Rin pulling out a metaphorical fly-swatter and
killing him, leaving only a wet splotch as a proof, was enough to make Yoichi freeze where he
stood and wait for the opportune moment to get out of there.
"Since when do you have a degree in… guarding dangerous criminals?" Rin scoffed, regaining his
composure in record time after stuttering his words. Yoichi could relate to him - he didn't know if
one needed a degree in guarding prisoners either.

God, they would make such a good couple .

Sae grabbed Yoichi by the back of his prison jumpsuit, holding him in front of Rin like some
misbehaving animal. This was not how Yoichi wanted to be acknowledged in this conversation - in
fact, he wanted to be left out of the conversation.

"Look at this. Does this look like a dangerous criminal mastermind to you?" He asked Rin, shaking
Yoichi a little, as if to accentuate his point. Yoichi really didn't like the murderous glare Rin was
giving him, as if only now realizing his presence. Yoichi tried to not let it wound his feelings. "The
worst this pathetic little thing is capable of is gaslighting and manipulating his little boyfriends. Do
you think I need a degree to make sure he doesn't act out?"

To be fair, Sae has let Yoichi act out plenty.

"What are you talking about, gaslighting and manipulating? I've never gaslighted anyone, you're
crazy-"

Sae shook Yoichi again a little, causing him to shut his mouth. "Hush now Isagi," Sae said, finally
putting Yoichi down.

It was miraculous how much strength a guy Sae's size had to have in a single arm to be able to hold
Yoichi up from just a grip on his jumpsuit.

"What's he doing here?" Rin asked, gesturing to Yoichi but asking Sae. That one actually did sting
a little, being treated like he wasn't sentient.

"I was just dropping a new playmate to my favorite prisoner's cell," Sae said, patting Yoichi's
cheek condescendingly, while keeping his eyes on Rin. "They get up to all kinds of freaky
activities, it's crazy, the security monitor footage is wild , you wouldn't even believe. Try not to get
caught up in it, I really don't need or particularly want to see that."

With that, and a final, humiliatingly condescending for the lack of a better word, ruffling of
Yoichi's hair his guard, Sae turned back around and walked away like he'd been itching for since
he stepped foot into building four.

That left Yoichi and Rin standing face to face, this time clothed. Rin narrowed his eyes and gave
Yoichi a nasty scowl that fit his face like a glove, making him look even more attractive to Yoichi.

"Don't talk to Sae again," Rin spat at him and turned back to return to where he came from, his
steps as brisk as Sae's had been.

○○○

Getting back to his cell didn’t offer Yoichi any respite from ridiculousness or tomfoolery. Opening
up the cell door, prepared to just fall onto his bed to go over the strange day he’s had, only to be
greeted by the sight of Barou, holding Nagi upside down in the air by his ankles. What made it
extra strange was that Nagi was slightly taller than Barou, so Barou had to extend his arms all the
way up, and Nagi’s hands still were able to touch the ground.

“God, what the fuck is it now?” Yoichi groaned, just wanting to crawl under his blankets and sleep
.

“King dickhead is bullying me,” Nagi said.

“This lazy shit needs to be thrown into a trash bin,” Barou commented.

Yoichi didn’t know how to react to this. Barou still didn’t put Nagi down, instead shook his legs a
little, causing his entire body to sway.

“Can you put him down, his face is red,” Yoichi said, nodding to where Nagi’s face was getting
redder by the minute, the poor guy starting to resemble Peppa Pig an alarming amount.

Barou didn’t put Nagi down. In fact, he lifted him even higher, as far as his arms could stretch out
upwards.

“Seriously, all the blood will pack on into his head and he’ll die!” Yoichi wasn’t a medical
professional, so he wasn’t sure if that was actually possible. Maybe not really all that quickly, but
he also had no idea for how long Barou had been torturing Nagi.

“That’s the idea,” Barou said.

Nagi whined, like a toddler at a playground would to his mother. “Isagii~ He’s bothering me!” The
pout on Nagi’s face could’ve almost been adorable, if it wasn’t on the face of a nearly two meter
tall giant overgrown toddler.

“You were bothering me first, dickhead!”

“How exactly? I was literally just minding my own business, doing nothing!”

“You were breathing, jackass,” Barou growled, because that was his trademark sound.

( Yoichi wondered if he collected a fee from anyone else in Blue Lock, whenever they used the
growl ™. )

Yoichi didn’t know what to do - he was tired, and quite frankly, sick of this shit by now. The
solitary confinement didn’t sound too bad right now, if it offered Yoichi the chance to have a full
night’s rest, without having to bear witness to whatever this clownery was.

“Did you convince the guard to get him out of our cell? Or shoot him in the head?” Nagi asked,
wriggling in his… position . Barou kicked Nagi in the head as a response, causing Nagi to let out a
yelp.

“No, but I was just about to suggest that the two of you move to finish whatever this shit is outside,
and sleep there, so I can rest,” Yoichi replied, hiding a wide yawn behind his hand, before moving
over to fall down onto his bed, face first into the pillow. Yoichi turned his head to look at his
cellmates. “So what is this actually about?”

“This dickless dimwit refuses to switch beds,” Barou complained. “I sleep by the wall, I physically
cannot sleep if the wall isn’t on my right side.”
“It’s a bed, and it's mine jackass, die mad about it,” Nagi retorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It’s a bed and you can fucking switch it!”

Yoichi’s eye twitched - it could’ve been funny actually. In any other situation, Yoichi would
probably be laughing. But he was fucking tired right now, and was absolutely not up for this shit.

“Hey Barou, you see that stain on Nagi’s chest,” Yoichi said, his voice slightly distorted, with how
half of his face was covered by his pillow.

Barou moved Nagi slightly, so that he could see the stain better. A disgusted look crossed Barou’s
face - Barou was clearly not as slow as the other inhabitants of building four, because Barou clearly
recognized the stain for what it was. “The fuck, that’s fucking disgusting, what’s wrong with you?”

“Yeah exactly, so you can just imagine where else he’s gotten his fluids into. You really want to
share sheets with him?”

That was all it took for Barou to drop Nagi onto his head, and move on over to the bed furthest
away from them, leaving one empty bed between Yoichi and Barou.

Nagi groaned from the floor, but did not get up.

“You’re welcome asshole,” Yoichi muttered, before turning his head back into his pillow. To be
fair, if anybody’s sheets were dirtied by Nagi’s fluids, it was his .

Yoichi was going to have to find out the laundry situation, and soon.

○○○

Sometimes, not very often, Yoichi has a nightmare.

They became more frequent during the trial - in fact, Yoichi was fairly sure that he could count
with one hand the amount of nightmares he’d had before the trial, and during it, back then it almost
seemed like he’d have one at least every other night.

The same few nightmares seem to rotate anytime he has one. In one of the nightmares, he wakes up
in a hospital to the sound of his parents crying. When he opens his eyes and tries to ask what’s
wrong, his mother’s cries just turn louder and louder, until it fades into pure ringing in his ears.
Somewhere in the background, his father is screaming and yelling, his face red from the lack of
oxygen. His words are unintelligible, and while the cries of his mother get louder and louder, the
screams from his father seem to get further and further until he’s no longer in his hospital room.
The worst part about the nightmare is that he’s left confused every time - he tries to ask what’s
wrong, what has happened, but they won’t answer. They just scream and cry.

What hurts most in this nightmare is how even still a year ago, his parents were on his side in
everything . No matter what Yoichi did, no matter how wrong he was in a situation, his parents
always tried to look at it from his point of view and support him through it. The nightmare is a
constant reminder of his parents’ abandonment of him, how they refused to listen to him, how they
left him at that hospital bed.

In the second nightmare he’s driving a car. Or at least trying to. Yoichi has never driven a car, he
doesn’t know how to operate one. He feels the leather of the wheel beneath his hands, but it seems
weird, it’s off somehow. It’s almost like the wheel is moving on its own, like it’s slithering in his
hands and Yoichi’s fairly sure that when he squeezes it hard enough, it hisses at him, like a snake
that has decided to replace the car’s actual wheel. Yoichi doesn’t have to turn the wheel either - the
wheel, or rather the snake , knows where he wants the car to go. Well, to be clear, Yoichi doesn’t
want the car to go anywhere. He wants the car to stop , he wants to hit the brakes, but the snake is
in charge and decides where they’re going.

Looking down at his feet, Yoichi sees the car’s pedals. He knows them, there’s one for gas and one
for the brakes. Then there’s a third one, a clutch he remembers his father once telling him when he
was fixing their old shitty car when Yoichi was a child. The extent of Yoichi’s knowledge on cars
doesn’t go any further than what his father told him on that one significant day when he was six.
One of his feet is pressing on a pedal, and Yoichi is fairly sure that’s the gas, because the car is
still going. No matter how much Yoichi tries to lift his foot from the pedal, he can’t move it - in
fact the more he tries to move his foot from the gas, the more it seems to press down on it, and the
car accelerates . Yoichi feels his breathing come out in panicked breaths, glancing over to the road
ahead but he can’t see anything there either. The only thing he sees from the window is pitch black
darkness.

When Yoichi looks down at his feet again, there are no longer only three pedals. Yoichi counts
seven or eight, before trying to lift his foot from the gas again. This time it works, but now that
there are so many pedals, he isn’t sure which one is the brake anymore.

His next issue is the gear shift - Yoichi doesn’t know how gear shifts even work. How many gears
does a car usually have? From the looks of it, this car has as many gears as it does pedals, so it
reads eight excluding the one used to reverse, but Yoichi is fairly sure that can’t be right. From the
positioning of the gears shift, it looks to be stuck on the second gear, before independently, once
again free of Yoichi’s will, the gear shift forces itself into the third gear. The dream goes on and
on, and Yoichi feels like he’s been stuck in this moving vehicle for an eternity.

In the third nightmare, which is the worst in Yoichi’s opinion, he doesn’t actually see anything, he
just feels and hears. He hears a familiar voice, the voice that fills his insides with warmth before
dozing them with ice cold water, causing his heart to let out hot steam, like water being thrown
onto hot rocks in the sauna. The voice causes Yoichi’s heartbeat to accelerate, to try and crawl out
of his chest, longing to be as close as possible to that voice and the person behind it. The voice is
familiar, but the words are slurred and Yoichi can’t make out what they are saying. It’s right next
to his ear, like trying to whisper sweet nothings into it, but slurring and stumbling on them. There’s
an arm around his shoulders, squeezing comfortably, until the grip turns almost painful.

Then the voice laughs. Yoichi usually loves that laugh - it makes him feel lightheaded, it makes
his insides fuzzy and filled with what Yoichi compared to butterflies. Now the laugh just makes
him want to throw up and cry. Then there’s a hand on his leg, sliding up, up, up and Yoichi almost
rolls his eyes; usually Yoichi entertains this behavior, allows it and encourages it to an extent. Now
it feels wrong. Yoichi hears himself say something to the person behind the voice, but cannot
make out his own words either. They feel like protests, like he’s scolding the voice. The voice
turns to sounds of whining and scoffing, before the hands are off of him. He feels the warmth
disappear from his side, he hears steps walking away from him, and he follows them. He follows
the steps, because of course he does. He always has and always will.

The next thing Yoichi feels is something rough and sharp, not only digging into his back, but
sliding down it , cutting through his skin. It takes a moment to realize that he is being dragged by
another person, by his legs, down a dirt road. Yoichi feels blood pouring out from the wounds the
rough ground has cut into his back. The voice is cursing, letting out a ‘fuck’ almost as frequently as
it inhales a heavy breath of air. He smells smoke and ash, but he still doesn’t see anything.

He never screams in these nightmares and he never wakes up screaming. He regains consciousness
much like one would from a regular dream - at first slowly, little by little, as the sounds of the real
world integrate themselves into his subconsciousness. By the time Yoichi is awake, his heartbeat
isn’t high, there’s no sweat on his forehead, he’s not out of breath and everything feels normal. But
there is a feeling in his chest. He cannot place it or name it, but the feeling is wrong and it’s
uncomfortable , and it won’t go away for the rest of the day.

When Yoichi wakes from the nightmare, the cell is still dark and both Nagi and Barou are still
asleep. Yoichi had to stifle his laughter when he saw Barou’s sleeping position - he was laying on
his back, with his arms stretched out straight on his sides, looking very akin to a dead body on a
table at the morgue.
Yoichi stayed awake for the remainder of the night. He tried to leave the cell, but the doors seemed
to have a timed lock, just like in building five, so he couldn’t leave the cell before it was ‘morning’.
So Yoichi opted to just lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, until the motion sensor lights blinked
on as Barou got up from his bed, stretching his arms above his head while letting out a singular
yawn.

“Heading off to breakfast?” Yoichi asked him, turning to lay on his side to look at Barou making
his bed, making sure there were no creases on his sheets.

Barou didn’t spare him the same courtesy, keeping his back turned to Yoichi. “Fuck off,” Barou
muttered, before leaving the cell.

“He’s such a sourpuss,” Nagi muttered from behind Yoichi, his voice still drowsy with sleep,
before letting out a yawn much louder and more undignified than Barou’s.

Yoichi hummed in agreement and started to get up from his bed as well.

“I don’t want to get up yet,” Nagi whined, hugging his pillow closer.

“Then don’t get up,” Yoichi rolled his eyes, before making his own sheets, not nearly as neatly as
Barou did, but they were presentable enough.

When Yoichi started to make his way out of the cell, Nagi groaned loudly from the bed, but Yoichi
still heard him getting up, although reluctantly, and following him out. Yoichi heard Nagi’s blanket
fall from the bed to the floor, but Nagi didn’t bother to stay and lift it back to its place.

“So what did you and the guard do last night? You were away for quite a long time,” Nagi asked,
trying to sound indifferent, but the slight edge to his voice betrayed him.

Yoichi contemplated not answering him. “We had hot steamy sex in the corridor, until his brother
Rin interrupted us,” Yoichi replied.

“Huh? His brother? Rin is his brother?” Nagi asked, loudly , much louder than he usually would,
just as they arrived at the canteen, where every single building four inmate was currently eating
breakfast. They of course turned their gazes to look at Nagi and Yoichi, with confusion painted on
their faces.
Yoichi gave the room a once over - there didn’t appear to be any new inmates present, besides
Barou, who had miraculously found his way over to the canteen with no directions. Eventually
Yoichi found what he was looking for - Rin, who was glaring at him with the heat of a thousand
suns, one of his eyes twitching, chopsticks stopped mid-air. By the looks of his grip, Yoichi was
sure the chopsticks were going to snap any minute now.

Yoichi gave Rin a pleasant smile and a wave. Unfortunately, Bachira had welcomed himself to sit
with Rin in the same table, along with Aryu and Tokimitsu, and had assumed that the wave and
smile were for him, and was now waving back with two hands and an overexcited smile.

“Should we go find you a megaphone, since you want to announce it to everyone so carelessly,”
Yoichi muttered to Nagi through gritted teeth, as they walked over to the food automatons. “I’m
not actually sure if they’re siblings - but they’re definitely related, and they bickered like brothers,
so I’m going to take the liberty to assume.”

Yoichi took his tray of food and started to contemplate where to sit. He was half tempted to go join
Barou where he was sitting alone, enjoying his meal, just to annoy him and make sure he doesn’t
enjoy his meal. It also might’ve been funny to watch Nagi and Barou bicker with each other, if
Yoichi wasn’t directly in the crosshairs of it, and would have to suffer the consequences when they
returned to their cell.

Then there was Bachira, who was still waving with both hands, trying to gesture to Yoichi to come
sit next to him. Even Aryu and Tokimitsu were giving him pleasant smiles, so it could’ve been
quite pleasant.

Except Rin was still glaring at him, chewing his food with vigor, no doubt planning on how to kill
Yoichi in the most excruciating way possible.

“ God , I wanna be chewed like that,” Yoichi whispered under his breath as he watched Rin take
another bite of the meat on his plate, once again chewing it like his life depended on it.

“Huh?” Nagi asked, appearing next to him, as he always did, the fucker.

“Nothing.”

Yoichi was already opting to go choose an empty table and just deal with Nagi by himself and later
listen to Bachira’s moaning, when the most unexpected thing happened.

“Hey,” one of the newer inmates, the one Yoichi used to follow on Instagram, waved at them,
gesturing them to sit at the table, where he was seated with three of the other new inmates. “Would
you like to join us?”

Yoichi was thrown in for a loop, because this was the first time he’d ever heard an inmate at the
Blue Lock to be fucking polite . Yoichi decided to take it as a good sign and walked over to the
table.

He was accompanied by the same inmates as yesterday, the two other new inmates once again
choosing to sit by themselves. As nobody seemed to have too big an objection to Yoichi and Nagi
joining them, Yoichi decided to sit down next to the one who’d invited them over, while Nagi sat
opposite of him, next to the dude with the tacky green highlight.

“I noticed you yesterday at breakfast, you were having quite the scene,” the Instagram model
smiled at him. “I’m Yukimiya, and these are Karasu, Otoya and Hiori, it’s a pleasure to meet you.
Have you been here for long?”

Yoichi wasn’t sure if he meant building four or Blue Lock. It was actually really refreshing to have
somebody who actually spoke to him like a normal civilized human being.

“Yeah I know, I followed you on Instagram,” Yoichi blurted out like an idiot, immediately
slapping a hand over his mouth in humiliation, while Yukimiya in turn gave an embarrassed laugh.

“Oh wow, that’s kind of embarrassing. Well, it’s always nice to meet a fan.”

“Yeah, it’s embarrassing to me,” Yoichi groaned, trying to ignore the slight snickering from the
other people at the table. “And no, me and Nagi over there have only been here for a few days. I’m
Isagi.”

“Oh fuck off, we were sort of counting you you knowing what the deal is with this place,” Karasu,
the one who resembled a crow, groaned with his cheeks filled with food. The pretty one, with baby
blue hair and eyelashes to rival Chigiri’s, Hiori, scolded him by pinching his arm.

“Hm, what’s that supposed to mean?” Yoichi asked.

Yukimiya laughed nervously. “We’re just a little confused is all,” he admitted. “Only Karasu and
Hiori know each other from their previous blocks, but we’re all insisting that we’re from building
five, despite never seeing each other before.”

“Yeah and then there’s the issue with the ranks being missing,” Otoya, the one with the fucking
tacky money piece, which Yoichi was so close to ripping out of his hair, muttered. “Like the whole
point of Blue Lock, whoosh, gone.”

Nagi yawned, having slouched himself over the table once again, having come to the conclusion
that he’d sat straight for too many days and it was getting exhausting. He seemed to not even have
the energy to properly lift his hand to bring the food over to his mouth, instead just dragging it
across his plate with his chopsticks. “That’s so dumb, Isagi and I were in building five,” Nagi
muttered.

“Yeah, it’s kind of weird, because those guys over there insist that they’re from building five too,”
Yoichi nodded over to the table where Bachira was pouting, resembling a toddler throwing a
tantrum. “And the guard who brought us here just explained that there’s some vacancy here, but
from what I’ve gathered, there’s nobody here except us.”

The situation was all around curious. The more it seems like he finds out, the more confused he
gets. Yoichi prayed to whatever god may exist that he’d get visiting hours soon again - Noa was
great at acting as his own personal exposition machine, even if it was very confusing and weird
that he knew so much about Blue Lock, that it was well within his expectations that things in
building five were starting to change, before it even happened.

While Noa did calm some of Yoichi’s anxieties and cleared his confusions, Yoichi was getting
more and more suspicious of him by the day. Not even the way he seemed to know the inner
workings of Blue Lock, but the situation with the calendar and clock as well. Noa never let his
composure drop - he rarely blinked and the look on his face didn’t fall. But at that moment, even
for a millisecond, Noa had faltered.

Yoichi was going to bet Nagi’s balls that Noa knew what was going on in Blue Lock.

“I don’t think building four had anyone before Rin,” Yoichi said, nodding over to Rin’s table. “At
least that’s the impression I got.”

“Is Rin the guy giving you the stink eye?” Otoya asked, causing Yoichi to grimace.
“Yeah, you were yelling something about his brother when you came in,” Hioro chimed in, a
curious look in his eye.

“How do you know he has a brother?” Karasu asked.

“Have you met the brother?” Otoya asked in turn.

“Ooh, I know, you’re the brother,” Karasu pointed his finger at Yoichi.

Nagi snorted, while Yoichi buried his face in his hands and contemplated ending his own life with
the knife on his tray. Fortunately, Yukimiya seemed to be the voice of reason, and decided to put
an end to whatever direction the conversation had derailed.

“Okay, I think that’s enough guys,” Yukimiya laughed pleasantly. “It’s hardly productive to
theorize about the brother of a random inmate. We’re getting vastly off topic here.”

“ We’re getting vastly off topic ,” Otoya mimicked Yukimiya. “I’ll show you what’s vast, my balls
.”

“They’re actually not, they’re very small, I’ve seen them up close,” Karasu whispered over to
Yoichi and Nagi, with his hands implying the size of a grape. “Besides, I want to know more about
this brother.” Karasu then said, after Otoya hit him in the rib cage with his elbow.

After just a few moments of the worst conversation of Yoichi’s life, he had a pretty good grasp on
this group’s dynamic - Otya and Karasu were, quite frankly put, idiots , Yukimiya was fine as hell
as well as the only moderately reasonable person in Blue Lock, and for that reason surely got shit
on a lot by the two clowns, and Hiori was just an unfortunate witness to it all.

“Rin’s brother is a guard here apparently,” Nagi sighed, because besides being a fucker and a
prick, he loved disclosing other people’s personal information to complete strangers.

All four of them let out soap opera-esque, over-exaggerated gasps. Yoichi thought they were really
just doing too much and over-reacting. Maybe he was hallucinating again. Maybe he should ask
Noa for some medication for a potential mental illness, or the loss of brain cells he was
experiencing.

Because Yukimiya was right - they had gone off topic. The red thread of whatever plot there
might’ve been within the conversation had gotten lost somewhere. And Yoichi would have really
preferred to talk about the mess that Blue Lock seemed to be, not about Rin’s brother issues.

“That is so sick and twisted! It’s unfair! Completely unfair,” Otoya said in disbelief, shaking his
head in disapprovement. “That’s literally the definition of… of… what the fuck is that word? Aha,
necrophilia! That’s literally necrophilia!”

Yoichi would have preferred if Otya hadn’t said it so loud, because now even Barou was giving
them a strange, disgusted look.

“Idiot!” Karasu slapped Otoya to the back of his head, a loud audible smack echoing in the canteen
as a result. “It’s necromancy, you absolute dimwit!”

See, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But nobody else in the canteen, which was about half the size of
the large canteen in building five, was making a noise. So the loud conversation could easily be
eavesdropped, even involuntarily, with how much noise they were making.

“You mean nepotism ?” Hiori sighed, rubbing his temples. His gaze met Yoichi’s - an instant
mental link was established. They both contemplated committing suicide right then and there.

“Do I look like a dictionary?” Otoya scoffed as a response.

“Weren’t we talking about how we all came from building five? Can we go back to that?” Yoichi
sighed, his food getting cold on his plate, any kind of appetite lost after hearing the two idiots talk
for too long.

“It was probably a bad idea to try and have a productive conversation with these two present. My
apologies,” Yukimiya said to Yoichi.

“Apology accepted.”
 Yoichi turned his head over to see Rin get up from the table, clearly right after Bachira tried to tell
him a joke, and storm over to drop his dishes off, before storming out of the canteen. Yoichi
frowned. It almost seemed like Bachira had dropped whatever pouting act he’d had going on and
was actively trying to talk to Rin, make him laugh even. Yoichi doubted Rin had the ability to
laugh.

That was the many things he loved about him.

Yoichi’s eyes followed Rin leaving the canteen, and after Rin had disappeared behind the sliding
doors, he turned to look at Nagi again, who’s half lidded eyes were already staring at him,
betraying nothing about the inner workings of his mind. The dark beady eyes just blinked at him,
neutral yet accusing in an unexplainable way.

Yoichi smiled at Nagi, before reaching over to fix his messy bed head hair. Nagi’s pupils seemed
to dilate at the action. “Hey Nagi, could you go get me a glass of juice?” Yoichi asked, despite
Nagi being slumped over the table, despite there being a perfectly filled glass of juice on his tray.

Nagi got up anyways.

Chapter End Notes

Nagi, the blue lock official juice-errand boy i guess

I wrote like 1 700 words of an inner monologue from the perspective of another
character before taking it out. I still have it saved, but I'm kind of on the fence whether
or not to add it in. I've kind of liked having Isagi be this sort of unreliable narrator,
how you can't really take anything he says at face value, but then again while writing
from the other perspective, I came to the conclusion that you can't really trust that one
either, because nobody here has a healthy or unbiased grasp on reality, lmao
 Marriage for tax benefits
Chapter Notes

sorry if it's a little late, I had a writer's block and then ended up just adding the Nagi
POV I wrote for a later chapter to the beginning to make the machine work lmao
I've read the constructive criticism considering the tags, and I'll update them better. So
far I've only added tags as I go, considering that at times I've added themes to this fic
as I write, so the tags might have changed to once that the reader didn't sign up for, so
I apologize for that. Feel free to drop this fic at any time if it doesn't suit your tastes
anymore. I don't intend to include extremely heavy or dark themes in this fic, but
considering that gaslighting and manipulation have been tagged for quite a while, so
I'd say it would be fair to say this fic isn't as light hearted as it seems at first. I mean it
does center around criminals in prison, so I suppose it's as light-hearted as it gets.
But from now on I'll make sure to mention in the beginning of the chapter, in case
something that might be upsetting some readers. Regarding the sexual content aspect,
I think it's clear that it's not heavily prominent in this story and I'll only write it if I feel
like it'll add something to the story and if it can be utilized in the plot. I will continue
to warn before hand where it starts and where it stops, and I won't write anything
awfully graphic.

Anyways, in case you find it upsetting, this chapter contains a TW for a panic attack
and depictions of a potentially unhealthy relationship.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

XII - Marriage for tax benefits

Isagi isn't as smart as he thinks he is.

Or maybe he is, and his thought process and master plan is so convoluted that he has everyone
second guessing themselves.

But as far as Seishiro is concerned, Isagi can be understood, at least to an extent, if you just pay
enough attention.

People think Seishiro is oblivious and doesn't notice the world around him, just because more often
than not he doesn't bother to react. But that's the thing - there's no point in uselessly reacting to
things that don't affect you in the long run. But Seishiro does pay attention to Isagi, to an unhealthy
point at times, so far as to claim that he has him figured out.
More or less. Isagi has, whether intentionally or unintentionally, surrounded himself in mystery,
piquing not only Seishiro's interest, but nearly everyone around him. He can see it, because he pays
attention. He watches. He sees it in Barou, the desire to just go ahead and ask Isagi what his deal is,
but Barou's pride gets in the way, he doesn't want to come across as too interested.

Seishiro thinks that he will ask. At some point. When he has come to his own final conclusion first.

Maybe it's this attitude, the air of indifference and obliviousness, that gives Isagi the audacity to act
the way he does. Because he's so sure no one is on to him.

At times Seishiro feels bad for Bachira. Because he just lets Isagi be like that, to speak like that to
him, and never say anything back. Seishiro does it too, but at least he is sure that he knows that
Isagi isn't genuine, not always at least. He's not so sure with Bachira. Because either Bachira is
wearing rose-colored glasses, or he's aware of it too, but being treated the way Isagi treats him is
better than being ignored.

If Seishiro was any smarter, or if he'd chosen his major in uni differently, he'd psycho-analyze the
shit out of Isagi. Because there is no way Isagi is the way he is for no good reason. He'd get to the
root of the issue, find out if it's trauma, or a personality disorder, anything to justify why he can be
nice in one breath and just the worst person in the next. If Reo was here, if he felt like he could
still talk to Reo like he used to, Seishiro would ask him. Because Reo, unlike other prisoners in
Blue Lock, was in tune with his emotions. He knew what he felt, he owned up to it, he acted
accordingly. He was better than most in that sense. Reo could take a good look at Isagi and he'd
just know what the issue was.

Maybe Seishiro had his own rose-colored glasses on, because he wanted to believe that Isagi wasn't
that horrible of a person. He was just trying to do what anybody in Blue Lock did - he tried to
survive and succeed and he clearly had a vision of how to go about it. He knew that Blue Lock
wasn't the place to get attached to people, he'd internalized it, and he did what he felt needed to be
done.

But even Isagi slipped. Because he would smile, and he would smile often. Mostly at Bachira,
because he was sure Bachira would catch on. The smile could almost pass for genuine, but there
was a strain at the corner of his lips, a stiffness to his bottom lip, a wrinkle or the lack thereof in
the corner of his eyes that told Seishiro that it wasn't real. He would give that smile one moment
and frown the next. He'd stare off into space with a faraway look, his eyes almost seeming sad
when he found himself too lost in his own head. He'd give Seishiro a pointed, almost seductive
look, which fit his face perfectly enough to tell him that it was designed, calmly calculated, a sort
of mask to hide what was inside his mind.

Isagi would act like a manipulative criminal mastermind whose each and every action had been
preordained long beforehand, right before he'd drop the act and start behaving like an awkward
teenager on his first day of high school. Like there were two versions of Yoichi Isagi, and Seishiro
didn't know which one was real.

Seishiro watched as Bachira and Isagi sat together in the common area, like they usually did. Isagi
had a book in his lap, which he was pretending to pay attention to, while Bachira did his best to
distract him. It was interactions like these which confused Seishiro the most. Because as Bachira
leaned close, blowing hot air into Isagi's ear, Isagi didn't lean away - instead his body would tense,
as if subconsciously. Like he just took whatever people would give him, to what end, Seishiro
didn't know. Because he was sure that if Isagi told Bachira off, the annoying little pest would
believe him. Seishiro had seen Isagi hold his own, he made his annoyance clear when he was
actually bothered by something.

But when it came to things like Bachira leaning his body weight on him, blowing air on his ear,
occasionally licking him like he was just a cat trying to display his affection to a merciful owner,
Isagi just seemed to… accept it . Like putting up a fight and making a big deal out of it was worse
than letting the other person know when he was just not that into it .

Seishiro had properly taken note of it and came to a definitive conclusion when they arrived in
building four. Because while Seishiro had made the initiative, Isagi had been the one to push them
over the edge. Well not them . Because no matter Isagi's flirty words, no matter the half lidded look
Isagi would give him, Seishiro knew that Isagi wasn't into it. He went along with it. He even went
as far to ask Seishiro for verbal consent, making it clear that he'd leave him high and dry without it,
like he knew, like he'd experienced it himself, what it was like when the lines were blurred, when
there wasn't enough transparency with the person you were intimate with. Maybe it had been just
his way of making Seishiro believe that this was a two way street instead of just a plain one-sided
situation.

It probably made Seishiro the same level of bad person Isagi was, when he thought that maybe he
didn't particularly care if Isagi wasn't as into it as he was. That he wasn't as into him , as he was to
Isagi . Because it was clear that Isagi was ready to pretend, as long as he didn't get too greedy, as
long as he'd share.

Isagi wraps his arm around Bachira, flicking his forehead as revenge for the hot air blown onto his
face, causing Bachira to laugh as Seishiro narrows his eyes. He could spend all day trying to figure
out Isagi only for his conclusion to end up being wrong anyways. Because Seishiro was sure even
Isagi didn't know himself, what he felt. Maybe he just lived his life, stuck in a body that made self-
contradictory decisions. Isagi had seemed so genuinely distressed over Bachira being gone for two
days , and Seishiro was sure that the utter, none-stopping, look of panic in Isagi's eyes was
something not even Isagi could fake.

Isagi might give out his half-assed, half-genuine gestures of affection for free if asked on the
condition that you were willing to share them. But Isagi was a little too interesting, a little too
curious of a creature to just let hand out his love for everyone who asks for it. Nagi was just a little
too used to getting things he liked and wanted by implying his desire for them. Seishiro was sure
that if he understood Isagi enough, if he was useful enough, if he played Isagi's game well enough,
maybe he could convince Isagi. Maybe he could make Isagi's affections genuine.

○○○

Rin disappears off of the face of the earth after breakfast. According to Bachira, this is a normal
recurrence.

None of Rin’s cellmates, much less Yoichi and the other new inmates, know where he goes.
Apparently he just arrives at the canteen at the right time, showers at the same time every night
(and during that time, he doesn’t want anybody else in the showers with him. How Rin keeps the
track of time to take his showers without a clock, Yoichi isn’t sure), and then appears again in their
cell to sleep. The same cycle repeats each and every day.

Yoichi chalks it up to Rin having some sort of social anxiety. He’s just a little antisocial and shy,
maybe he doesn’t know how to act around other people, hence why he’s taken to glaring at other
people so much. Yoichi thinks it’s pretty cute, and doesn’t mind one bit.

He is half tempted to get up to look for Rin - he has to be somewhere that’s accessible to every
inmate, and the rest of them just haven’t found his secret hiding place yet. But Yoichi thinks that
ambushing Rin in a place that he’s clearly made his safe haven most likely isn’t the best way to
romance somebody, especially when Bachira and Nagi are sure to follow suit.

So Yoichi settles for just hanging out in the common area, with a book in his hands, pretending to
read. Bachira is unpredictably claiming Yoichi’s personal space as their shared personal space,
choosing to waste his time by trying to pull Yoichi’s attention to him. For the most part it’s
working, and if he’s being fair, Bachira does deserve some attention now that Yoichi has been so
preoccupied with entertaining Nagi.

Who, funnily enough, is not trying to melt himself into Yoichi to create one monstrous being, for
fucking once. Instead, he’s sitting a little further away from where Yoichi and Bachira are, but he’s
still staring at Yoichi. It’s a little creepy, the way he doesn’t blink - Otoya is right next to him,
going on and on about who knows what, but Yoichi is sure that Nagi has no idea that Otoya is
there.

Yoichi decides to just ignore him.

“So, um,” Yukimiya starts, also holding a book in his lap, but it seems like he actually tried
reading it. The common room in building four is significantly larger than the one in building five,
and in the common room there are multiples of comfortable armchairs and sofas - Yukimiya for
some reason chose the one chair close to where Yoichi and Bachira were sitting. “Are you two…
in a relationship of some sort?”

Yoichi swallows, and licks his lips as Bachira stares at Yoichi with wide eyes. He wants to know
the answer to that question as well. Yoichi steals a quick sideways glance at Nagi, who by the
looks of it also heard the question, and didn’t particularly like it.

“I don’t think Blue Lock is the optimal place for a proper relationship, you know,” Yoichi laughs
nervously, scratching the back of his head. Pretty much all of the new inmates have gathered in the
common area, including the two who never speak anything, and for some reason all of them seem
invested in Yoichi’s answer. “I mean, the whole point of this place is that we’re supposed to crush
each other to get ahead, right? I don’t know if that’s the kind of environment where healthy
relationships bloom.”

There’s a somewhat agreeable murmuring from the other people present, and Yoichi lets out a
small sigh of relief. Answering honestly ( No, of course not. I’m just entertaining Bachira’s
attachment issues and puppy love, because his unyielding devotion could come in handy, and also,
I might have formed a slight attachment myself, but it’s not something I’d consider to be a healthy
relationship ) would result in a potential disaster, as would just straight up lying ( Of course we
are, there’s no one else here, or in the whole wide world, whom I’d rather choose as my partner in
crime and in life ).

The only people seemingly not in agreement with him are Nagi and Hiori for some reason. Nagi is
understandable, but Yoichi cannot for the life of him figure out the meaning behind the look Hiori
is giving him. It’s not malicious, per say, but there is a certain… distrust there that Yoichi doesn’t
think he’s deserved.

“Kind of difficult to get ahead when we’re not even ranked right now,” Karasu mutters from where
he’s lounging - taking up an entire settee just for himself and his long limbs, playing around with a
stress ball of some sort, throwing it up and down in his hands, before aiming it at Otoya’s head,
and hitting bullseye right on Otoya’s forehead, causing the other boy to let out a loud ‘Omph’ .

“Do you have any ideas on what’s going on?” Yukimiya asks Yoichi, probably hoping that Yoichi
had come up with a plausible theory after their conversation in the morning got cut short by
absolute nonsense.
And it’s not like Yoichi hadn’t spent time thinking about it. He still remembers what Noa said
about Blue Lock being a Beta-version at best that they’re still testing the system out, seeing how it
works out. Yoichi hasn’t yet made up his mind about being used as a guinea pig for this
experiment, but his own personal feelings hardly matter at this point.

Then there’s everything his guard Sae has told him. It hasn’t been a lot, but Yoichi can’t help but
feel that Sae, Rin’s brother, has been dropping subtle hints for him. Vacancy in building four which
is completely empty , the guards deciding who qualifies and who doesn’t , how it depends on their
mood whether or not they’d get new cellmates … It smelled fishy.

And while Yoichi wanted a second opinion, he’d also very much like to keep all of his information
to himself. If he figures it out before anybody else, it gives him an advantage over them.

“Maybe it’s a glitch,” Yoichi shrugs. “Other than that, I’m running on empty.”

Yukimiya takes that as an acceptable answer - Hiori keeps staring at Yoichi.

○○○

There is a way to get privacy in building four, Yoichi figures out later that day. It’s not Rin’s
hiding place, but it is a space which no one uses, at least not during the day.

The toilets that most of building four’s inmates use are right next to the common room - but at the
washroom, connected to the locker room, there are a second set of toilets, which no one uses unless
they’re taking a shower. Yoichi is half sure the other inmates don’t even know about its existence.

When Yoichi miraculously loses Bachira and Nagi, he takes the folder with the inmate documents,
and hides in one of the stalls. He just needs to know more about these people, just to know what to
expect from them.

Jyubei Aryu, 24 years old; convicted of using harmful and dangerous chemicals in his skin care
line, which caused his customers to suffer chemical burns. At the trial, Aryu burst into tears after
hearing his sentence, claiming to be too pretty for prison.

Kenyu Yukimiya, 24 years old; convicted of using illicit substances in some celebrity party.
Yukimiya reportedly was extremely calm and collected during his trial and sentencing.
Aoshi Tokimitsu, 24 years old; convicted of stealing anxiety medication from the hospital he
worked at. Tokimitsu had an extreme mental breakdown at his trial, which is why it got delayed for
over two months.

Tabito Karasu, 24 years old; convicted of an attempted armed robbery. At his trial, Karasu told
the judge and the jury that ‘It’s not that serious’ and ‘Take a chill pill your honor, everybody’s
thought about it at least once, come on now’.

Yoichi had to take a break after reading the first four he could find. These people were incredibly
boring, or just plain stupid. Yoichi had to rub his temples to ward off an oncoming migraine,
before he picked up the next file from the folder

Eita Otoya, 24 years old; convicted for marrying six different women, under six different identities.
After learning about each other, the women found out that Otoya was unemployed and using them
for money and tax benefits. The court ruled the reason behind his conviction to be a tax fraud, and
claimed Otoya only married the women in order to cash in on the alimony, as there were no
prenups in his marriages.

Yoichi had to take another break to deal with the ridiculousness of what he just read. There’s no
way that a 24 year old would just be married to six women at the same time.

Yoichi looked through the files again; he still hadn’t found Hiori’s file, nor the two other inmates
whose names he didn’t know yet. There was also another inmate, whom Yoichi hadn’t taken into
account yet, not even once.

Barou.

Yoichi quickly went through all of the files, only landing on Barou’s at the very end.

Shoei Barou, 24 years old; convicted of beating a man to death, after said man had broken into his
sister’s apartment in the night. His sister claimed that the man had been stalking her for weeks, but
no police report had been made before this incident and eye witness reports were conflicting with
the story Barou and his sister were telling.

Yoichi pursed his lips after reading Barou’s file. It seems he’d grossly miscalculated Barou’s
character as someone who only threatened with violence, but never actually followed through with
his actions.

Or maybe Yoichi was partly correct in his analysis, but Barou just had to be pushed a little too far,
maybe the situation had to be a little more personal for his bite to be as hard as his bark.

Yoichi hummed to himself as we looked over Barou’s file over and over again. This was
something that Yoichi could potentially exploit, should he get enough ammo against Barou. Too
bad that Barou was nowhere near emotionally vulnerable and clingy as Bachira, nor as
unashamedly horny and lazy as Nagi. Yoichi needed something else.

Yoichi decided to collect his thoughts on Barou later, and would go over the rest of the files while
he had the chance. Luckily, Hiori’s file was right on top of Barou’s.

Yo Hiori, 23 years old; convicted of-

Yoichi’s eyes widened and he suddenly felt nauseous. It felt like his stomach was filled with
bubbling acid and he desperately needed to hurl. His hands started to shake, the file flapping in his
hands, the letter getting blurrier and blurrier. The nightmare from the previous night is still fresh in
his mind, despite doing his absolute best to ignore it, to forget about it like he usually does.

Hit and run.

○○○

Yoichi didn’t sleep the following night. He let Barou call him an idiot asshole donkey shitface, and
didn’t react when Nagi tried to kiss him after Barou had fallen asleep.

Yoichi had read through Hiori’s file twenty times, before the sounds of Karasu and Otoya coming
into the locker room snapped him out of whatever fit he was going through.

Hiori had apparently killed someone in a hit and run. And not just any someone - it had reportedly
been his own mother. The court had ruled it to be accidental, although there had been no alcohol in
Hiori’s system, it was in the middle of the day and happened in the suburbs in which Hiori’s
mother lived, and there was no traffic.
Yoichi couldn’t get it out of his head. When Barou got up in the morning, Yoichi was half tempted
to stay in bed and just lay there all day, but decided against it, sitting up on his bed just as Barou
exited the cell. Yoichi turned to look at Nagi, who had barely moved a muscle, still sleeping
soundly. Yoichi contemplated on letting him sleep, just so there would be one less annoyance.

But still, Yoichi got up and ran his hand through Nagi’s hair, causing him to stir, blinking his
beady eyes open to look at Yoichi tiredly. “I don’ wanna get up,” Nagi whined, hugging his pillow
closer.

“Then stay here, but I’m going to go have breakfast now,” Yoichi said, and turned around to leave.
He heard Nagi get up behind him, his blanket falling down onto the floor with a thump again.

The first thing Yoichi took in at the canteen was that Rin was there again, this time eating alone
and not glaring at Yoichi. Yoichi half wished that Rin would glare at him again - negative attention
was better than no attention after all.

“Do you have any siblings Nagi?” Yoichi asked after they had sat down, Yoichi leaving his food
more or less untouched, while Nagi attempted to summon the energy to lift his fork to his mouth.
Yoichi decided to have mercy on him, and fed him a few pieces of his breakfast.

“Hmm, no,” Nagi said, his mouth filled with food.

“How about your parents? Do you have a good relationship with them?”

Nagi gave Yoichi a curious look before shrugging his shoulders. “Okay I guess, we don’t talk
much. I don’t bother them uselessly and they don’t bother me,” Nagi replied, before asking,
“Why?”

Yoichi shrugged. “Just wondering,” he said, before forcing himself to take a few bites of his food.
It tasted like acid in his mouth. Ever since his nightmare he’d been filled with wistful and aching
longing - mostly for his parents, with whom he hadn’t had a proper conversation for ages. There
was an unease brewing in the back of his head, in the bottom of his stomach, in each and every
limb, and he couldn't place the reason behind it.

Yoichi and Nagi sat in silence then, and Yoichi was half sure that Nagi had fallen back asleep,
while Yoichi was picking at his food. When Yoichi lifted his gaze to look around the canteen after
a while, he noticed that Hiori had silently appeared, sitting alone in a table a little far off from
them. Staring at Yoichi, again with that curious, suspicious look. Yoichi stared back despite feeling
nauseous again.

○○○

Call it the lack of sleep, or an actually oncoming migraine, but Yoichi was having his worst day in
Blue Lock yet. The nightmare he’d had just the other night, and now a sleepless night on top of it,
had triggered something inside Yoichi that made his brain fuzzy, his eyes blurry and his hands
shaky. He felt like he was going to burst into tears, but couldn’t figure out a proper reason why.

Bachira was chatting his ears off at his right side, but Yoichi couldn’t make out a single word.
Nagi, was on his left side, half awake and half asleep, every once in a while lazily muttering out a
mean comment to Bachira, which caused a mini argument between them, which Yoichi put an end
to by simply snapping his fingers in front of their faces, despite not having the slightest clue on
what they were talking about. On the other side of the common area, Aryu was sitting in a lounge
chair, having somehow convinced Tokimitsu to give him a foot massage, while Yukimiya was
braiding his hair for some reason. Yoichi didn’t have the energy to comment on the lack of self
respect those two had.

While Yoichi was staring into space, trying to keep his breathing even, he subconsciously
acknowledged Hiori a little off right to him, once again staring at him quietly, while Karasu was
chatting to him, furiously gesturing at his thighs, before sighing dramatically. In a way, Yoichi felt
like whatever was happening around him wasn’t actual reality. Maybe this was a dream as well, or
maybe Yoichi was floating above his own body, watching whatever was happening as an outsider
unable to interact. Like his surroundings were straight out of a tv-show or even a painting - he
could only observe, but not react, and even then he couldn’t internalize anything that was
happening.

Yoichi turned his head, and noticed Rin walking by the common area, straight past it, not even
glancing at his fellow inmates. He was walking off to the direction of his cell, and if Yoichi was in
the right headspace, he might even follow Rin, to ask where he disappears every day.

“... You know Yoichi, I think we should hang out just the two of us again.” The first words
Yoichi’s brain actually recognized came from Bachira on his right side. After hearing the words,
Yoichi’s heart skipped a beat and he whipped his head to look at Bachira.

Except the person on his right wasn’t Bachira anymore - it was the face of the person Yoichi
would recognize anywhere, anytime, even if it was dark, even if Yoichi went blind. His eyes
weren’t vibrant yellow like Bachira’s, but a few shades darker, a shade of amber Yoichi hadn’t
seen anywhere else, the one he’d only affiliate with one person and one person alone. His hair was
curlier and slightly shorter than Bachira’s as well, shades lighter, almost as light as Nagi’s. His
features were fairer as well, prettier than anyone else Yoichi had ever seen, and he smiled at
Yoichi in a way that didn’t only make his heart skip a beat, but made it stop completely.

Yoichi felt his breathing accelerate and his vision got blurrier and blurrier as the hand that used to
be Bachira’s slid it’s way from his forearm to his shoulders, where it had made its home a long
ago.

“I just liked it better when it used to be just the two of us, you know,” he said, smiling at Yoichi
like he always used to, like he wasn’t a can of worms being opened after such a long time. “I
mean… I guess I’d prefer it if you didn’t talk to other people, at least when I’m not there. I don’t
really like the way they look at you. Makes my skin crawl.”

“What?” Yoichi asked dumbly, blinking his eyes furiously, trying to make the person disappear
and for Bachira to come back.

“You know - they look at you like I look at you. And I know how I look at you, why would I want
anybody else to do it as well? Doesn’t it make sense? It would just make me feel better if I could be
present when you talk to other people. Other people can’t and shouldn’t be trusted.”

The pleasant smile didn’t drop from the person’s face, even when the grip on his shoulder
tightened. Yoichi felt his breathing quicken even more, and even though he gasped for air over and
over again, no air ever entered his lungs.

“I…” Yoichi began, but couldn’t get the words out of his mouth, as he blinked his eyes again,
trying to make the person disappear. Distantly, he felt someone grasp his hand from the other side,
Nagi probably, but Yoichi quickly pulled his hand away. “I have to, I have to go… I have to go.”

Yoichi quickly got up from his seat, the hand on his shoulder falling away as Yoichi ran off. He
didn’t know where he was going - Yoichi wasn’t even sure where he was anymore. One moment
he was sitting down with Bachira and Nagi, and the next the can of worms he’d been trying to lock
away in the back of his mind had appeared out of nowhere.

Yoichi knew he was running, or at least trying to. He held the wall for support, and after a while he
realized that he was in the locker rooms leading to the washroom. Yoichi pushed the door to the
toilets open, and hid away in one of the cubicles, crouching over the toilet seat. He felt nauseous,
like everything he’s ever eaten was trying to crawl their way back up his digestive system, but no
matter how hard he tried to make himself vomit, he was unable to.
After what felt like hours of dry heaving, heavy breathing and gut-wrenching sobs, Yoichi felt a
gentle hand touch his back. Yoichi felt his heart miss another beat, as he flinched and quickly
turned around to see who had followed him.

Before Yoichi could so much as react, the person placed one of their hands on his mouth, and the
other pinched his nose. Yoichi felt himself trash in panic, trying to make the person attempting to
suffocate him to let go, but they wouldn’t budge. A slight shushing sound caused Yoichi to move
his eyes to look at the person, and to his surprise, it was Hiori of all people.

“Shh, calm down, I’m not trying to hurt you,” Hiori said, taking deep breaths himself, still not
letting go.

Rich words for someone trying to smother me , Yoichi wanted to say, but alas, there was a hand on
his mouth.

After a few more moments, Hiori removed his hands, causing Yoichi to suck in a huge gasp of
hair. To his shock however, he wasn’t feeling as disoriented anymore. He still didn’t feel good - his
thoughts were still all over the place, but air was entering and exiting his lungs at a normal rate
again, the shake of his limbs had subsided, and his heartbeat was closing in on normal again.

“What the fuck?” Yoichi breathed out, looking at Hiori, who was observing him with an uncertain
look on his face.

“Take in deep breaths. You were having a panic attack,” Hiori explained. “Or at least it seemed
like it. Sometimes when I get them, I smother my face into my pillow to stop airflow. It usually
helps. Too bad I didn’t have a pillow with me.”

Yoichi wanted to comment how pressing a pillow onto his face would most likely have caused him
to panic even more, but decided that that wasn’t the best way to show gratitude towards somebody.
“Right. God that’s embarrassing,” Yoichi said, covering his face in his hands.

“Not really, it’s completely normal. If anything, at least Nagi and Bachira seemed concerned. Aryu
just commented how it wasn’t the most stylish exit, but at least you caused a scene and drew
attention to yourself, so it’s the best he can expect from the rest of us. Whatever that means,” Hiori
explained. “Is there something that could have triggered it?”

Yoichi kept his face in his hands, desperately wanting to keep his thoughts away from his
nightmare, from the hospital, the looks on his parents faces, the familiar voice and face and the all
too familiar touch of hand on his shoulder, from Bachira’s words that were coming out of
somebody else’s mouth, and not just any somebody else.

Yoichi also really didn’t want to think about Hiori killing his own mother in a hit and run . But he
still couldn’t take his mind away from it.

“You don’t have to tell me, we can talk about something else too,” Hiori said after a while, just as
Yoichi dropped his hands from his face and looked back at Hiori, who was now sitting down in
front of him.

“It’s fine,” Yoichi croaked out, his voice hoarse. “Bachira just said something, and I realized that
I’d heard the same thing before. Don’t know why I reacted like this though.”

"And that pushed you over the edge?"

Yoichi shrugged. The hit and run was at the forefront of his mind, right behind Barou beating
someone to death, which was followed by Rin being a murderer. "That and… I don't know, I guess
I just finally realized how many inmates here have actually… killed somebody, I guess," Yoichi
tried to catch Hiori flinching, he tried to find any reaction to his words. There was none.

"Well what about you, what did you do to get convicted?" Hiori asked, as casually as one might ask
about the weather.

"Nothing," Yoichi replied.

Hiori looked at him, unbelieving. "Nothing?" He repeated. "You're convicted for nothing?"

Yoichi thought about a woman laying on the ground, blood pouring from her head, bones broken,
skin littered with bruises. Yoichi imagines it's Hiori's mother. "Nothing," Yoichi repeated, pulling
his knees to his chest and hugging them close, like a child trying to shield themselves.

"Well I suppose it must be quite jarring," Hiori nodded. "Being the only innocent man in a building
filled with criminals."
See you get it , Yoichi almost said, although Hiori's words sounded disbelieving. It was
accompanied by the usual way he looked at Yoichi - like he knew he was lying and didn't trust
him, but was trying to figure him out regardless.

"I don't really mean to bring this up when you're at your most vulnerable, but this is as good a time
as any, considering that you're constantly being surrounded by people," Hiori continued then,
reaching behind him to the stall door and closing it, leaving him and Yoichi to enjoy the illusion of
privacy, while knowing perfectly well that they were being monitored. "But I know that you don't
really know what's going on here, but you know something , and you're just not willing to share it
with others. I understand why you wouldn't, but figuring it out would be easier with help, don't you
think?"

"And what makes you think I know anything? I don't," Yoichi seriously doubted that whatever
tidbits his guard Sae might have let drop, qualified as actual proper information or even hints. "And
even if I did, don't you think sharing with the entire class wouldn't be the smartest idea?"

Hiori rolled his eyes, before giving him a small smile. "I'm not asking you to tell them . You've
already noticed that Otoya is an idiot, Karasu is smart enough but enables Otoya's idiocy and…
well Yukimiya is nice I guess, and quite bright, but I don't think he's trustworthy. You have your
own conclusions about Nagi and Bachira, since you're the one who knows them the best," Hiori
said. "I'm asking you to tell me . Because whatever information you have to offer, I'll trade it for
my own. It would benefit the both of us to have an ally of some sort you know. And not the kind
that you've been collecting."

Yoichi tried to not let his surprise be shown so evidently on his face, but he supposed he failed
magnificently. Hiori didn't strike him as someone who'd make a good ally, or who'd even have that
much inside information to give. But maybe it made sense - maybe he was trying to battle Blue
Lock by quietly observing from the side lines.

"You first then," Yoichi said. He supposed that it would be good to first hear if whatever Hiori
knew was even any use to him in the first place.

"It's not much, but when the guard appeared in our building, my block was being guarded by this
really annoying guy," Hiori started, and while Yoichi really wanted him to just get into it and not
explain the whole backstory behind it, he didn't really have the energy to complain. "His hair was
an obnoxious shade of red, like a kind of salmon pink but darker, and he was always going on about
how he had better things to do than guarding shit shovelers like us. And one time, he'd let it slip
that we were idiots for falling for this 'building five bullshit'. And now, after coming here and
everybody insisting on being from building five, I'm guessing that most of the inmates are just
stuck in building five, but there's probably multiples of it."
Yoichi had sort of already come to that conclusion, even without the added context of Hiori's
annoying guard. But he supposed that having confirmation of it was relieving. "Yeah, kind of
figured it out already. Considering that Rin had apparently been here alone for a while, the other
'buildings' are most likely empty," Yoichi sighed.

"Mhm, exactly. And another thing about the guard, was that if you listened to him long enough,
he'd let other things slip as well. Like how the warden was an actual insane person who should be
locked away himself, and how he has some incriminating stuff on the captain of the guards," Hiori
continued. "I'm pretty certain that if he comes around, we'd be able to draw more from him."

Hiori's guard did sound much more loose lipped that Yoichi's guard Sae , whom he's still not over
by the way, but most of Hiori's details about him left room for speculation and miscalculations.
They'd need something much more concrete to make accurate assumptions.

"Well, I told you mine, now you tell me yours."

Yoichi rolled his eyes, but sat up straighter anyways. "I don't have anything that concrete. My
guard Sae, who's Rin's brother like you heard, just told me that there's a vacancy in building four,
which was probably just his dick way of saying the place is completely empty. But he did say that
the guards have a say in who gets in and who doesn't, and how it depends on their mood ."

"Correlates with us not being ranked. If we're being sorted out just based on whether or not the
guards like us. Or if the guards get to analyze who'd make it and who wouldn't."

"Maybe it's like hunger games and they're deciding based on who's the most entertaining," Yoichi
snorted, causing Hiori to laugh.

"Yeah, maybe they're just trying to make a good show," Hiori laughed.

Wouldn't make it to daytime television if that was the case , Yoichi almost remarked, but maybe it
was best to not make that joke - he really didn't need another person viewing him as some sort of
whore.

Yoichi wondered if he should tell Hiori about Noa - Noa had acted as his own personal exposition
machine, filling out gaps that he himself couldn't, but still leaving crucial information out. Yoichi
also wanted to mention the folder.
 I know what you did.

But that would risk Hiori wanting the same information from him. And Yoichi had already shared
it.

So maybe later.

Chapter End Notes

I was originally going to write a Bachira POV instead of a Nagi one, but I feel like
Nagi is a character much more difficult to read so I think getting a look inside his head
would be fun. On top of that, I think Nagi is also smarter and more observant than he
lets on, so it was fun to write his interpretation of isagi idk.

This chapter was going to contain another scene, because I feel like we're getting
nowhere, but I'll pump up the engine from the next chapter and speed through so we'll
get to the juicy bits, aka the german fucking menace

End Notes

I love constructive criticism. I also love destructive criticism. Murder me bitch, tell me how
much I suck ass.

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