The Deadman

Chapter Four: You Again

Ah! That hurt." I yell.

The nurse smiles at me and says,"You're young so that's in our favor. You should heal up quite quickly."

"Thank you for patching me up. It really means a lot." I say.

The nurse gives off another smile and turns around in her chair to face her computer and says,"Now my records show that you are a death row inmate. Is that correct, Ganta Igarashi?"

I look down in embarrassment and reply with a low tone saying yes. She lets out a hmph and begins talking again.

"I assume you have been eating your candy then." She says.

"My what?" I reply.

She continues,"The first piece should have been provided to you in your bag. You did find it didn't you? You should have been given a survival kit upon admission. It was a duffle bag which held all your things such as the rule book which I hope you've read by now."

"Oh um I don't think it had any candy in it though." I say.

"Well you might wanna look again if I were you. Granted it tastes pretty fowl but you learn to choke it down." She says.

Then out of nowhere I hear another voice from behind. It says,"Yo! Bet it fell out... I did bash into you pretty solid by that cart.

I look behind me to see the same guy from earlier who had got sliced open.

I say,"Hey you again."

He says,"Sorry man about earlier. If you feel like breaking my nose I'll totally understand."

"Aw it's alright,"I say," I dont have much of a sweet tooth. Anyway, I'm more worried about you."

He says,"I'll live! All she did was give me a flesh wound."

I walk over to him and begin scratching the back of my head. I say,"Still, she really unloaded on you."

He turns his head and says,"It's just how things are but you do adjust to it after awhile. You may hate 'em and they sure as hell don't make any sense but following the rules is how you get by."

"Apparently." I reply.

There's a period of silence until I hear another thing from behind me. It says for me to come play with them. I turn around and look up to see her again... Shiro. She was just hanging there from the ventilation shaft/vent. Me and the boy scream in surprise but mostly him from fear.

"Hi there,"Shiro says,"I'm Ganta's very best buddy!"

The boy says in a shaky voice,"Oh... I'm sorry I've just never seen you before."

I add in saying,"Yeah I told her the same thing earlier."

Shiro drops down from the vent and walks over to us and says,"Know what? We should enter the race as a team! They've got big toys out all over and it's so awesome!"

I look back at the boy hoping for an answer to what she was talking about. He leans up in strain and says,"Ah I'm reading yuh. I think she means the dog race."

"The what race?" I reply back in even more confusion.

"It's one of the attraction that they run to pick up tourist scraps. They pay out their asses to see it."He says.

I say back,"Oh I get it or at least I think..."

He continues,"The dog race is like a marathon obstacle course. The prize is like a 100,000 cast points."

"Holy... wait what the hell's a cast point?" I say.

He smiles and says,"Hold on seriously? You've read the rule book right?"

"No not yet." I reply.

He begins,"Ok pay attention cast points are basically Deadman Wonderland's form of currency. You following still?"

"Mhm, yeah I guess." I say back.

He continues talking,"Trust me when I say this though ok. You can't take 'em for granted for there are no free lunches in this joint. Flip side is virtually nothing is contraband if you've got the cast points. Cigarettes to booze you name it and if you rattle up enough points then you could even buy time off your sentence.

"Aw?" Shiro says confusingly.

"Are you kidding,"He says,"You must be new here to. But hey it's not too late for you both to enter the race if you want."

I say,"Yeah maybe but I'm not that much of an athlete and-"

My stomach starts to growl from how hungry I am. I grab it in embarrassment and start to become red. I could really use some food and if I wanted to survive this hell I'd need cast points but I don't think I'd win. So hungry though...

He smiles once more and says,"You get a red bean bun for participating."

I exclaim,"Then I'll do it!"