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It was only by pure chance that Jyugo had found out about a very important day in one of his precious people’s lives. He’d been wandering around again as per usual, and just prior to being detained by Hajime once again, he happened to overhear a conversation between the Supervisor and his younger brother. Hitoshi was pouting and complaining quite vehemently about Genrou-san forbidding him from doing a celebration for Musashi’s birthday, which was coming up, in exactly one week from now.
Jyugo himself had never celebrated his birthday before, and he couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal. He was abruptly broken from his thoughts when Hajime roughly shoved him back into the cell, causing him to crash to the floor harshly.
“Ouch! Dammit Hajime, you stupid gorilla! That really hurt!”
“What did you say?! Damn punk, you’re really trying my patience!” Hajime turned back to give him the most intense death glare and Jyugo gulped nervously. “Now, stay in your goddamn cell!” The door slammed shut with a loud bang and the escape artist flinched violently.
“Whoa! You seriously ticked him off this time,” Uno chuckled, flinging an arm around Jyugo’s shoulders.
“Yeah man, what did you do, Jyugo?” Rock asked him concerned.
Nico simply continued gushing about a new manga he was reading. “That move is so cool!”
“I didn’t do anything!” Jyugo protested.
“Besides break out you mean,” Uno gave him a shit-eating grin.
Jyugo scowled at him. “I just happened to overhear a conversation between Hajime and his brother, that’s all.”
“Oh really. Do tell,” the gambler was looking at him intently. Rock also leaned in to listen.
“They mentioned Musashi’s birthday. It’s one week from today.”
“I wonder if they’re planning to do something,” Rock pondered.
“Why would they do that for a prisoner?” Uno looked at Rock strangely.
“Well, it is Hitoshi.”
“Is it really that big of a deal?” Jyugo asked giving them both a blank look.
The two stared back at him in complete shock. “What?!!”
“Of course it’s a big deal you idiot! How can a birthday not mean something to you?!” Uno said incredulous.
“Since I’ve been stuck in prisons my whole damn life!” Jyugo yelled back.
“Why are you guys fighting?!” Nico had stopped reading due to the commotion and was looking at them with the expression of a kicked puppy.
“Sorry Nico,” the three inmates chorused, giving him an apologetic look.
“Look Jyugo, when you celebrate a person’s birthday, you celebrate the day they were born into this world. In essence, you’re celebrating their life and what it means to you,” Uno explained, patting the younger inmate on the shoulder.
“Oh.” Jyugo considered this for a few moments, before he responded. “Then, do you think we can do something to celebrate Musashi’s birthday?” he asked, giving Uno a searching look.
“That’s the spirit!” Uno said with a grin and proceeded to give Jyugo a noogie.
“Hey! Stop it!” the escape artist tried to swat him away.
“Alright, so here’s what we’re going to do.” The other three gathered around and Uno proceeded to tell them his plan.
The first phase of the plan was dependant on Shiro. Fortunately, Rock was able to discreetly speak to him and confirm what they needed. The next phase of the plan was a little trickier, requesting permission for Musashi to attend the recreation room and specifying that they wanted to do it on that particular day.
Hajime was on high alert, because it was quite evident that those four troublemakers were up to something. There had been an awful lot of whispering going on recently and other suspicious looking behaviour. Damn brats, what could they be up to? After observing No. 69’s interaction with Shiro, and then receiving the request for No. 634 to attend the recreation room at a specific time, Hajime’s patience was officially worn out.
“What the hell are you brats up to?!” Hajime demanded.
All four of the inmates froze, with a deer in the headlight’s expression plastered on their faces. They recovered quite quickly and responded adamantly with, “Nothing!”
“Che, as if I would believe a bunch of punks. You will tell me what’s going on, right now!” the building 13 Supervisor levelled each of them with a menacing glare.
“Fine!” Jyugo finally responded annoyed. “We’re planning a surprise birthday party for Musashi.”
“Jyugo! Don’t tell him that!” Uno and Rock both kicked the escape artist, sending him crashing into the wall.
“Ouch! You damn jerks!” the younger inmate picked himself up daintily, wincing at the aches and pains he now sported. “What the hell was that for?!”
“Why are you telling him about the party, you idiot!” Uno yelled.
“Um, excuse me. Did someone mention a party?”
The unexpected voice had everyone snapping around quickly, to be met with a pastel Lolita in a guard uniform.
“What the hell are you doing here, Hitoshi?!” Hajime growled.
“You’re so mean big brother,” Hitoshi said with a pout.
“Hi Hitoshi,” the cell 13 inmates greeted.
“We’re planning a surprise birthday party for Musashi,” Uno replied with a grin.
“I still think we should have an anime marathon,” Nico said thoughtfully.
“Nico, no!” the other three inmates denied.
“A surprise birthday party?! For Musashi-kun?!” Hitoshi was getting way too excited about the prospect. “We’ll need decorations, and a cake, oh and…”
Hearing his brother get caught up in the inmates’ pace aggravated Hajime to no end. “That’s enough! There will be no party!” he snapped at all of them.
“But, big brother why?!” Hitoshi started flailing and hitting his older brother. “You’re so mean!”
The inmates seemed to adopt identical expressions of a kicked puppy, and No. 15 even went so far as to adopt an expression which reminded Hajime of a sad kitten. Goddammit!
“Alright, you can have the party. On one condition.”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Uno replied perking up.
Hajime broke into a very wide and evil looking grin, causing everyone to shiver. Even Hitoshi.
“You just had to ask,” Jyugo griped, half an hour later, when they were all dying of exhaustion in the exercise yard.
“Shut up!” Uno snapped back. “I’m all sweaty and gross now!”
“Would you guys knock it off!” Rock was getting irritated, he was certainly faring much better than the others, but listening to their constant whining was getting on his nerves.
“If I keep exercising like this, maybe then Master will finally agree to train me,” Nico said with passion.
Given that Nico could barely move a muscle right now, along with the rest of them, the others all felt that was highly unlikely. Especially given Upa’s sassy and somewhat condescending attitude towards them.
“Quit your whining and get on with it!” Hajime growled at them. He was met with a chorus of groans and complaints, and was taking great delight in their suffering.
For Hajime to agree to the party idea, they had to promise to exercise, every day. Uno had grumbled about him being a sadistic jerk, but they ultimately had no choice but to agree to his terms. And in return Hajime agreed to speak with the Building 4 Supervisor about the plan and receive permission for Musashi to attend.
Somehow, within a week, it seemed that every guard had caught wind of what was happening. Hajime had a suspicion that Mitsuru was the culprit for that. Hitoshi was quite happily preparing the decorations and had enlisted Seitarou’s help on that front. Shiro had of course been tasked with preparing the food and a birthday cake. And Yamato was helping set up the recreation room with Uno instructing him where to place things.
“Hey Hajime! Why the hell are you allowing the inmates to throw a party?!”
Oh great, the biggest nuisance had arrived. “It wasn’t my idea monkey! Why the hell are you here anyway?!” Hajime really wasn’t in the mood to deal with this.
“Kiii! Don’t call me a monkey! You stupid bald-headed gorilla!” Samon leapt at Hajime and attempted to swipe at him using his staff, but was smashed into the wall for his trouble.
“Are you two fighting again?! Behave yourselves you brutes!”
Oh great the damn pheasant was here too. “Why are you here?!”
“That is most impolite, Hajime Sugoroku. You should be more respectful to others.”
The dog as well. “Well, I can understand why you’re here at least. But why the hell are you two here?!” he glared harshly at Samon and Kiji.
“Haah?! Your stupid inmates, invited my inmates here you know!” Samon glared right back at the Building 13 Supervisor.
“That’s true of mine as well, I’m afraid,” Kiji replied in a bored tone.
Behind them stood their very disgruntled looking inmates. While Qi looked quite relaxed, the others looked rather put out about being forced to attend. Inori and Houzuki were standing next to the Building 5 inmates.
“Hey, glad you guys made it,” Uno approached them cheerfully.
“Well, it would have been rude to decline such an invitation,” Upa replied haughtily.
“Yes, thank you for inviting us,” Liang said politely. Qi had already wandered off to nap somewhere.
“Why did you invite us here?!” Honey came stalking up to Uno. “Are you trying to show off you bastard?!”
“Calm down Honey!” Trois was instantly there, trying to break up the ensuing spat between Honey and Uno.
“Stop that! You will behave yourselves!” Kiji told them firmly.
“Yessir!”
Those damn brats! They were so dead once this was all over. “Che, whatever, I need a cigarette.” Hajime quickly split from those idiots and made his way to the break room.
While Hajime was having a breather, they put up a Happy Birthday banner and streamers, and also decorated using balloons and glitter. Jyugo protested that they were going overboard since Musashi was blind, but Hitoshi simply said it was the thought that counts.
There were also party hats and whistles for everyone, as well as birthday themed plates, cutlery and napkins. A table with a birthday themed table cloth was set up and Rock, and Shiro, laid out all the food. They left an open space for placement of the birthday cake, which would be delivered later. Mitsuru set up a DJ station and stated that he would take care of the music. A space had also been made for a dance floor, with some temporary disco balls and smoke machines placed around.
“Wow! This looks amazing!” Jyugo exclaimed in surprise.
Uno flung an arm around his shoulders. “Yep, it sure does,” he said grinning. “Thanks for your help Hitoshi.”
“You’re very welcome! This is going to be so much fun!” Hitoshi said excited. “I’m going to get Musashi-kun now.”
“Okay, we’ll be ready for you,” the gambler replied with a grin.
“So cool!” Nico said with sparkling eyes.
Rock was already drooling over the food and Jyugo gave him a disapproving look. “You’re not allowed to have any yet Rock.”
“But I’m hungry!”
Hajime returned shortly after and everyone got into their positions to wait for Musashi. Seitarou came in to give them a heads up when Hitoshi and Musashi were on their way back, since he’d left briefly to keep watch on the monitors. The door opened a few moments later and as soon as Musashi stepped in everyone yelled together, “SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUSASHI!”
Musashi was caught completely off guard by the sudden loud cheer and stumbled back slightly into Hitoshi. “What the hell?!” he exclaimed.
Jyugo approached him slowly. “Um, we wanted to surprise you, since it’s your birthday today,” he said rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “So, happy birthday.”
“You did this for me?” Musashi was stunned.
“Yeah, it was Jyugo’s idea originally,” Uno said grinning and flinging his arm around the smaller inmate’s shoulders. “Hitoshi helped out a lot too.”
“Happy birthday Musashi-kun,” Hitoshi chirped from beside him.
“I see,” Musashi replied breaking into a grin. “Thank you for this,” he ruffled Jyugo’s hair gently, and received a shy but sincere smile in return.
“Alright, now let’s party everyone!” Uno yelled out ecstatically.
Mitsuru took that as his cue and cranked up the music. “Oh yeah! Let’s do this party people!”
It was utter chaos. Rock was instantly in pursuit of the food, while Nico tried to imitate his favourite anime character, and Tsukumo was doing strange poses, which Yamato attempted to copy. Jyugo wasn’t even sure when the hell Tsukumo actually got there, and was trying desperately to stop Rock from eating all the food. Hajime ended up getting annoyed with their antics and whacked all four of them over the head, and then he whacked Jyugo as well.
“Ow! Dammit Hajime you jerk! I wasn’t even doing anything, so why did you hit me?!”
“Because this entire fiasco was your idea!” Hajime replied glaring at him.
Well, he couldn’t exactly argue with that, damn. Jyugo ended up sitting quietly on the lounge, next to Musashi, who was chatting with Hitoshi, Seitarou and Houzuki. Kenshirou was keeping watch from close by. Qi was still napping somewhere, Inori was doing god knows what, and Upa had opted to go and meditate in the corner.
After failing to get at the food, Rock had struck up a conversation with Liang about training, which had quickly devolved into a sparring match, and they ended up leaving a huge crack in the wall. Nico started pestering Upa about becoming his Master, and in the end the Qigong Master got so ticked off that he fired a qi blast, which ended up striking Qi instead of Nico, and sent him flying into Samon. Needless to say, the Building 5 Supervisor was pretty pissed and the four troublemakers received a hard whack over the head. Qi and Inori also received a harsh punishment, since Qi’s impromptu flying lesson revealed that they had smuggled in dirty magazines.
Honey and Uno managed to get into another spat, which turned into a dance contest of all things. Admittedly they were both pretty good, so it was quite entertaining to watch. At least until Honey got pissed and started using his wires, Trois stepped in to try and stop him, but ended up being tangled up along with Uno, who started being a diva and had a melt down about Honey ruining his hair. Kiji got fed up with their behaviour and gave them both a harsh slap across the face, which echoed through the room.
Hitoshi managed to convince both Jyugo and Musashi to get up and dance with him, but Seitarou and Houzuki declined. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun, until Jyugo tripped over his own feet and was sent sprawling to the floor, taking Musashi down with him. “Ouch! That hurt!” Jyugo sat up slowly with a grimace. “Are you okay Musashi?”
“I’m fine, but man are you clumsy Jyugo,” the older male said, trying to regain his bearings.
“Sorry,” Jyugo said turning bright red.
Musashi simply chuckled. “You’re fine Jyugo. I haven’t had this much fun in a long time,” he said with a wide grin.
“Is that so. I’m glad then.”
“Are you two alright?” Hitoshi asked concerned, and helped them both to their feet.
“We’re fine, Hitoshi,” Musashi replied.
Things calmed down a lot after that, as everyone snacked on the yummy party food, and conversed quietly in different groups. It was soon time for the gift giving and Musashi received two brand new books, written in Braille. The first book was Asian Languages and the second book was Cultures of the World. Musashi was instantly taken with both of them and thanked everybody profusely.
Shiro delivered the birthday cake, which was modelled in the shape of a phoenix, with red and golden flames flaring out. It was incredible and Hitoshi went into great detail when he described it to Musashi. Once the sparklers were lit, they sang ‘Happy Birthday.’ It was a terrible rendition and everyone sang completely out of tune, but it was hilarious and Musashi loved it all the same.
The cake was a Vanilla sponge cake and it was absolutely delicious. Nico ended up having a major sugar rush from all the rich food and the cake, and Houzuki had to use his power to restrict the otaku, because he was quite literally bouncing off the walls. He was going to crash hard once it wore off.
It was soon time for everyone to return to their respective buildings. Kiji was the first to leave with his inmates. Honey was still a bit ticked off and Uno was still salty about his hair, so it was best to separate the two. “Good bye everyone, it’s been a splendid afternoon but we really must return.”
“Thank you for inviting us,” Trois said politely, following after Kiji and the still-fuming Honey.
Samon was the next to leave, before he got into another fight with Hajime. “Let’s hurry up and return to building 5. I don’t want you guys spending any more time around these troublemakers,” he growled. Houzuki walked beside him calmly and Qi trudged after him lazily.
“Wait up Supervisor,” Inori said moving to follow him.
“Yes, we’re coming Samon,” Upa said in a vexed tone.
Liang bowed to everyone. “Thank you for having us,” he said sincerely before moving after the others.
Kenshirou was the last to leave. “Well, we best be off too, good day to you Hajime. Let’s go Number 634.”
“I’m going to stay for a bit and help clean up Kenshirou-chan,” Hitoshi said cheerfully.
Musashi turned to the others and bowed. “Thank you very much for doing this. I had fun,” he said sincerely. “Alright, let’s go Inu-chan.”
“Wait, Musashi!” Jyugo called out. “We have one last gift for you. It was a bit hard to get, so we hope you like it,” he said softly. “Please hold out your hand.”
The fire user looked surprised, but did as he was told and held out his hand. Jyugo placed something small and delicate inside. “What is this?” Musashi asked confused.
“It’s a gold pendant, in the shape of a phoenix. The eyes are Garnet stones and its surrounded by flames,” Jyugo said quietly.
Musashi gently traced his fingers over the pendant and felt awestruck, he could tell it was beautiful. “Thank you, I love it.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you had a good time,” Jyugo said awkwardly.
The older inmate sighed in slight exasperation. “Come here you idiot,” he said pulling Jyugo into a gentle hug and ruffling his hair.
“We’re really glad you enjoyed yourself Musashi,” Uno said with a grin. Apparently, he’d finally finished being a diva.
“Yeah, I did,” Musashi said smiling. “I’ll see you later, Jyugo.”
Jyugo pulled away from the hug. “Bye Musashi,” he called after him, watching as the older inmate followed after the Building 4 Supervisor.
“Well, I guess it’s time for us to go home too,” Rock said, while still stuffing his face with the last of the food.
“Not so fast you brats!” Hajime blocked them from leaving. “You aren’t going anywhere, until you clean up this mess!”
“What?!!” all four cell 13 inmates screeched. Well, Nico didn’t exactly say anything other than incomprehensible nonsense, since he’d finally crashed from all the sugar.
“You heard me you punks! Don’t make me repeat myself!” Hajime said cracking his knuckles in warning.
“DAMN YOU, HAJIME!!” could be heard echoing throughout NANBA Prison.