“Prisoner 007, Hikaru Suzuki. I’m here to collect you for your projection.”
Ei isn’t pleased with the way the structure of this place has entirely fallen apart - there’s no good logic to calling on Hikaru before anyone else, but that’s the way things seem to have fallen. Perhaps with the atmosphere as tense as it is now, it seems a little wiser to start with a restrained prisoner, who is more capable of being kept under control should things go wrong.
Hikaru, for all his pessimism, hadn’t expected that he’d be chosen first. “What-? Wait, now? Isn’t there…” If he’d had even a moment or two’s notice, he would definitely have had a generous swig of vodka before heading in. But as Ei gives an impatient ‘tsk’, he swallows down any more protests and nods in resignation.
“Is there anything you’d like us to know before the projection?” Ei asks, entirely out of habit. Getting a useful answer from this man was the last thing he expected.
And he’s right to, as Hikaru stays silent, staring at the floor as they walk. He can hear people enter as he’s strapped into what remains of the chair, and he can’t bring himself to look up to find out who’s going to see whatever part of his soul he’s been trying to stop being laid bare. More than that, he can hear the voices still goading him. Is this the life you live?
“…Wait. One thing,” Hikaru says, just before the projection machine comes out, and he raises his head to give the wardens a cold glare.
“Don’t get it wrong. I chose this. …That’s all.”
-
Regardless of motives, a few of you make the trek yourselves today, finding the hallway only marginally less lonely with your company. The walls still seem stifling, the unnatural murmurs pressing in on you tighter. Sometimes you swear you glimpse a face or beckoning arm in the wall. Just tricks of the light.
But the courtroom is wide open, if barren, and there’s not much else to be uncomfortable about until the prisoner of the day is secured in place. A strange…—machine? Somehow enough of it remains in shadow to obscure any useful details—emerges from the wall to hover around the prisoner’s head, then everything but you and the wardens is swallowed by utter darkness. There’s a low murmur somewhere behind you.
It only lasts a moment, though. Once the shadow subsides, you find yourself seemingly somewhere else…
