Chapter 4: Task #1- Surviving a Top Head

Kumo hauled Shiroi Kumo out of the seat and lead him down the hall, pausing only to give a very obvious sinister wink to Kurid. Before the poor lower head could wonder what he had gotten himself into (again, he likes to wonder about this), he was shoved into a very dark room.

It was cold, the floor was cement, and the walls were naked bricks. It looked like a basement of some sort, but they were on the twentieth floor, so how…?

The lone bulb above his head flickered and swung, casting shadows around him until the shadows began to solidify.

Eyes watched them with evil intent shining within their depths. One guy even had a THIRD eye, which was very abnormal and twisted…

“Welcome, to the dark lair…” came a mysteriously familiar voice from behind him. Shiroi Kumo pivoted quickly and knocked his head against something hard.

“OW!” yelped Kumo, cradling his aching chin and taking a step back.

“You didn’t have to whack me.” He whimpered ready to complain and whine until one of the mysterious shadows went up to him, whispered something in his ear, and offered him a mug of …something.

Steam rose from it, telling Shiroi Kumo that the liquid inside was hot. He quaffed the air and almost began to choke.

It was…coffee.

He was never afraid of coffee before, but once he became a lower head for North Star, someone began to make pot after pot of that stuff. First, he liked it, because that someone also changed the flavours of the coffee every week. But soon, there was nothing to drink in the building except for coffee and toilet water. Heck, even the toilet water was banned once someone placed a laser guard over every toilet bowl and urinal stall.

Shiroi Kumo shuddered at the memory of getting blasted in the foot for his attempt to escape the revolting brown liquid.

“And that’s all you have to do.” Said Kumo brightly, putting one hand on Shiroi Kumo’s shoulder, coffee mug in the other.

He was in the same situation … AGAIN! Agh, curse his thoughtfulness (and he didn’t mean the type that would cause you to buy your mother flowers when she’s having a particularly bad day).

“Um… Kumo-san, I think you have to TELL him what he has to do before you can say ‘And that’s all you have to do.’” Said one of the shadows pointedly.

Shiroi Kumo recognized the voice to be Kurid. But if that were true, than the other four shadows were the other top heads?

“Okay, okay,” Kumo mumbled, taking another sip of the scalding hazelnut flavoured brew, “You have to choose one of the top heads, and they’ll assign you to a task. If you pass that task, then… I’ll think of something later.”

Neesa’s face fault was so loud, he could have heard it from ten miles up in the air.

Kumo ignored Neesa’s reaction and cleared his throat, “So, PICK YOUR TOP HEAD!”

Immediately, lights began switching on and each top head was standing in front of a rectangular piece of coloured plaster with their names hanging from the very top of said plaster.

Neesa was standing in front of a grey piece that had a cartoon picture of someone being worked to death.

He waved cheerily.

Shiroi Kumo shuddered and looked at the next one. The name tag said “Floran” in bright glittered letters that threatened to blind him. His piece of plaster was yellow (no surprise) and the cartoon depicted on it was someone…either throwing a very large temper tantrum or someone on a very large sugar high.

Floran rushed to glomp him, but was held back by Neesa.

Shiroi Kumo suppressed the instinctive urge to run away screaming.

The next one had the name tag “Hakushe” at the top. The kanji was written in a dark red…that looked suspiciously like blood. His piece of plaster was pure white and Hakushe himself was…

He gulped and wisely moved his eyes away from the insane camera man who had dropped him into the hole and ruined the poor, defenseless chair…

The next was Inamie, his name written elegantly above him, and the man himself dressed in a very fashionable scarlet red dress. His piece of plaster was black, and the cartoon (outlined in white) seemed to be…dying.

Eep. Next one.

The last but not least, Kurid. His name was written neatly above him, and his piece of plaster was a clean periwinkle blue. The cartoon showed a picture of a doctor smiling kindly and flashing a victory sign.

Yep, there was his winner.

“So, have you chosen?” Kumo asked, his voice decidedly sinister.

“I choose Kurid-sama.” He said, quite confident that he had chosen the right one.

The lights above him flickered cheerfully and the Totoro theme song began to filter into the room as balloons and confetti floated around him. The other top heads clapped (some cheerfully, some demurely) as Kurid stepped away from his rectangle of plaster and came forward to shake Shiroi Kumo’s hand and lead him out a back door.

“You all have fun, you hear?” yelled Kumo happily, waving them away with a hankie and blowing kisses.

“Um… Floran, did you forget—“ Neesa began, only to be interrupted when Floran stole a kiss and grabbed his hand.

“Now we can get back to our honey moon!” he cheered, pulling the baffled business man away from the suddenly game show-like basement and out the back door. (1)

~~

Kurid lead him down a set of stairs, chatting on happily on small unimportant events. Shiroi Kumo listened attentively and smiled. Now he was very sure he had made the right choice, not only was this top head sane, he was normal, cheerful, and easy going. It made him wonder why such a person would be involved in a crime syndicate.

“Where are we going, Kurid-san?” he asked, curious now since they had traveled a good way down the building.

“To my office, no worries Shiroi Kumo-chan!” he said, smiling in that comforting way of his.

~~

Three shadowed figures stood in a darkened room. All around them, TVs gave off a soft blue light, illuminating them with an eerie glow. They watched as the good doctor lead the unsuspecting lower head to his temporary doom.

~~

“Ne, Kurid-san, it’s dark down here.” Shiroi Kumo complained jokingly, groping ahead of him in an attempt to find his superior.

A light flickered a bit further down and he followed it, head tilted slightly in a quizzical fashion.

“Kurid-san?”

How did he work in the dark? Wasn’t it dangerous for a doctor?

“Why is it so dark?” he wondered to himself.

A face, half demented by the angle of light suddenly shoved itself very close to his, while a hand waved a scalpel dangerously close to his nose.

“The better to rip you apart, my dear.” It said as it began cackling madly. The rest, he would not hear, due to the fact that Shiroi Kumo had fallen on to the floor in a dead faint.

~~

From the security room, two men were practically pissing themselves with laughter while the third sipped tea from a porcelain cup, trying his best to ignore them.

On one of the screens, Kurid could be seen standing over the unconscious lower head, holding a rubber knife and giggling.

“Get it?” he asked, gently prodding the prone body with the toe of his sneakers.

Inamie placed his delicate cup down with a sigh and rolled his eyes at Kumo and Hakushe, who were now beginning to perform impressions of the naïve top head and the unconscious lower head.

“Idiots.” He muttered, sipping from his cup once more.

~~

(1) Now you know for sure that my knowledge of the Law of Gravity is zero... That, or Kumo's building is reaaally messed up XD