Chapter 22
Ena stood up, standing right in front of her brother.
"We need to talk."
Mikoto and Kazui made eye contact, the former signaling the latter to get out of the siblings' way.
Fuuta completely ignored Ena.
"Mikoto. Explain."
Ena spoke for Mikoto before the latter had a chance to.
"Your friend was explaining what you didn't bother to. Where were you, Fuuta?! What's this prison Akito's in?!"
Fuuta avoided eye contact with her.
"You--"
"I do neee to know, Fuuta. Akito is our brother. He was the only one looking for you when you disappeared, you know?"
Ena said, Fuuta's eyes widened.
"What?"
"Tell me what's going on."
He sighed, looking at the others.
"...Can you all leave."
Kazui nodded.
"Alright. Let's go, everyone."
Mikoto walked along with Kazui, noticing how none of them were following them.
"Let the siblings talk, people! Let's get going!"
He shouted, Ena and Fuuta and their respective friends went separate ways, the two siblings going to a nearby park and sitting on a bench.
They sat in an awkward silence for a while.
"Will Akito be okay?"
Ena asked suddenly, Fuuta abruptly turned his head to look at her.
"I… I don't know, Ena."
"What are these trials your friend talked about? Where is Akito?"
Fuuta sighed.
"He's… In a place called Milgram, like that old experiment from the 60s… It's a prison, to put it simply. There was a weird rabbit, a 15 year old guard--"
Ena interrupted him.
"PAUSE! A 15 year old guard!?"
"Yes."
Ena's phone started ringing, although they completely ignored it.
"I'm guessing the old man you were with was also there."
Fuuta nodded.
"He's in his 40s but yeah. He defended me once."
Ena tilted her head slightly.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Fuuta pointed to his patched eye.
"This. Could've been a lot worse."
"Oh… That… won't happen to Akito, will it?"
Fuuta shrugged.
"You never know. It really, REALLY depends. On at least two things."
He replied, having two fingers up like a peace sign.
"What two things, Fuuta? Is he in danger or not?"
"Depends on, one, if he's innocent or guilty in the trials and two, if another prisoner doesn't go apeshit on him."
Ena sat there in silence.
"... And what if it's neither?"
Fuuta sighed, sitting back on the bench and looking up to the sky.
"Well, they better have a medic or something now, 'cause rest assured there wasn't any when I was there."
"Isn't your friend… Kirisaki, was it? Isn't he a doctor? Assuming that all your friends I've met have been there…"
"Yeah, he was there. Dude's an organ harvester."
"WHAT?"
"What?"
Ena looked at Fuuta.
Fuuta looked at Ena.
"You didn't say that twice, did you?"
He asked, already feeling someone behind them.
"I didn't, no."
"Hi, Ena."
Kanade and Es were standing next to each other, Kanade, who was completely in the dark about the situation, had probably overheard them.
"Kanade! Hiii! This is my older brother Fuuta!!"
Kanade looked a bit pale, Ena prayed it was just because she hadn't gone out in a while.
I thought Akito was your only brother?"
Ena chuckled nervously.
"Nope, we're three! Haha…"
"Huh… So you lied about being a younger brother."
Ena turned to look at Fuuta.
"Not like you needed to know, Es."
Fuuta glared at Es.
"Calm down, I'm just joking. Did my advice help you?"
"Hah! How would "Tell them and run" ever help?"
Fuuta huffed.
"Yet you're here with your sister and talking about Shidou's crime."
"Them too? God why are all your friends murderers? How do they know Kanade anyways?"
Ena asked, Kanade chuckled.
"We met two years ago, when Nightcord was just starting, Ena."
She said, and Es chimed in.
"And I was the guard, not a prisoner, mind you."
Kanade turned to look at them.
"Wait! Is that where Mafuyu and Mizuki are?"
Ena nodded in defeat.
"It's likely, yeah… Look, Kanade… I didn't want you to have to find out this way. You've got this whole thing with your dad already.."
Kanade placed her hand on Ena's right shoulder.
"Ena… Don't worry about me… Yeah, Mafuyu and Mizuki being gone is sad and I've been failing to cook by myself, I'm worried sick about them too, but I'm worried about you too…"
She said, carefully pulling Ena into a hug.
"I want to help you find them, Ena. Let's put Nightcord on hold for a bit until they're found."
Ena buried her face on Kanade's shoulder.
"Okay…"
Es chuckled.
"She doesn't seem like your sister at all."
"Shut up, Es."
Fuuta blurted out.
Es had a faint idea that Milgram had existed for decades, she really did, but she didn't expect for the old records of its prisoners to be so massive.
"You're here again?"
Jackalope asked, getting out of a cardboard box.
"Welcome back."
It really wasn't the first time Es was there, she'd spent a lot of time in that room when she was bored before and between the trials.
But this time she was actually looking for something. Out of curiosity, you could say.
"It's clearly not 2023… 2022…"
She opened the cabinet.
"Shi… Shinonome… No…"
Jackalope walked up to her.
"Isn't that 003?"
"2021…"
She slammed the drawer shut and opened the one next to it.
"Maybe this sibling changed names."
"What are you talking about?"
Es completely ignored him, instead looking at the 2021 prisoners' files before putting them back and once again opening a drawer.
"That's not it… 2020…"
She looked at the names.
001, Haruka Sakurai
002, Yuno Kashiki
003, Fuuta Kajiyama-
"Found it."
Es closed the drawer, leaving the other files behind and just grabbing something from the 2023 drawer.
She went to another room, a room filled with the information of the trials and requests from the prisoners.
2020's 003 looked an awful lot like Akito, especially after the second trial.
She was kinda tempted to bring it up in his second trial, or leave the file on his cell to watch.
But that was highly classified, much to Es' dismay.
"Ah, 003, what a hothead."
Es turned around to look at Jackalope.
"Huh?"
"His interrogations were genuinely funny to watch… Oh and when he got beaten up by 010! Ahh, good times, really.
Well, anyway. Have you decided who's innocent and guilty yet, Es?"
Es shook her head.
"Not yet."
"Well then, no time to waste!"