The Treadmill
Even though the makeup of our cell had changed so abruptly, we were granted no time for icebreakers or for the new members to settle in among us.
We were simply inmates who had to endure the training that loomed right before our eyes.
Perhaps because it was the newly implemented group training, the tension felt even more intense.
The explanations that had resumed from the moment Seoa arrived gradually piled on more details, filling with content that pressed down on us harder and harder.
"...These treadmills will adjust the rail speed according to your walking or running pace. The faster you run, the faster the rail will spin, and if you walk slowly, it'll match that. The ones who've been here longer already know this sort of thing..."
As he explained, Leviathan stepped up to a treadmill. He laid a hand on the machine's head, which had no buttons of any kind. At once, two strands of cord tipped with rings emerged from the head unit.
The cords showed a dense weave of fine lines; they looked like nylon wire.
"These are wire lines. Strong enough that they won't snap under ordinary strain—and since they're braided from multiple layers, they've got a rubber-like elasticity to them as well."
"..."
At his explanation I glanced toward Jaehee and Yejin. The wire lines seemed just as unfamiliar to them; they stared at the cords with questioning eyes. And so did I.
I had no idea what the wires were, let alone the rings fixed to their ends, so I could only watch with growing unease.
And as always, that unease became reality.
"What's fixed to the ends are piercings. From now on, each of you will step onto a treadmill one at a time, and I'll fit them through your nipples. So... if you happen to fall... you know what happens, right? If you'd rather go to the Recovery Room, just say so."
The true nature of the rings made my mind go blank.
Piercings...
Vicious implements that drove straight through living flesh. If you had to rank SM play tools into hard and soft, these always landed firmly on the hard side. Facing them head-on filled me with dread.
To have those driven through my nipples... and then, if I fell from the treadmill...
Nipples and piercings could never support a body's full weight. They would simply tear. Ruthlessly. Ripping the flesh clean away.
Even in an age when the human body could be fully restored, the thought of having to feel that pain—of being forced into that danger—was not something I could accept lightly.
But I had no choice. Gagged and locked in Special Handcuffs that made even the simplest expression of will impossible, I had no way to refuse.
"Whether you adjust your speed or not, the session ends the moment the four of you together cover a combined fifty kilometers. The baseline time is three hours. Every minute over that adds one Demeanor Penalty Point to every single one of you. Understood?"
"Yes."
"And I'll rank you by contribution. The inmate who contributes the least gets an extra hour of torture today, at the guard's discretion. So don't freeload. If I decide someone is deliberately holding back... I'll throw them to the Male Dogs alive on the spot. Keep that in mind."
"Yes. Understood."
In the end, the order was simply to give everything we had.
Once I understood the rules, I honestly began to think it was doable. Fifty kilometers meant roughly twelve kilometers each. With a three-hour baseline, that worked out to four kilometers an hour—exactly the natural walking speed of a person on two feet. If we could just keep walking without rest for three hours, the number was achievable.
Of course it wasn't going to be easy. We would have to walk for three full hours, and more than that, we would have to do it unsteadily on treadmills with piercings already through our nipples. In my case the harness gag and Special Handcuffs would only make things worse.
Because of the gag I had eaten no breakfast and barely managed any water, drooling constantly; my throat was already dry. On top of that, the Special Handcuffs made keeping my balance far harder. This kind of training was torture in all but name.
Above all, the difference between walking with free arms and walking with both hands locked behind the back was enormous. Could I even manage it properly?
The numbers were possible, yet the sources of anxiety were far from few. Worry only kept growing.
Still, compared to the throat training we had endured before, this felt manageable—a goal that could be reached if we simply accepted a little hardship.
...Or so I thought.
"All right. Everyone put these on and get up on the treadmills."
The final item he handed us made my heart sink. Not only mine—Jaehee's, Yejin's, Seoa's eyes all wavered before the objects thrust in front of us.
"What are you waiting for? Put them on."
What Leviathan held out were high-heeled shoes. Reflecting his tastes, the red heels looked to be a full six inches. They were closed pumps that covered the entire instep, and around each ankle sat a leather strap and buckle finished with a miniature padlock—clearly a cruel device at a glance.
Once on, they could never be removed by the wearer's own power. Yet every one of us had to put them on without exception.
"...Yes. Kyaah...!"
"...?"
A moan rose from beside me. It was Jaehee, the first to obey Leviathan's order to hurry and put the heels on. The moment she slid one foot inside, her face twisted with strain. When she forced the other foot in as well, she clenched her teeth and trembled hard.
Was it the size? Or simply that she was unused to heels this high? I couldn't tell, but Jaehee climbed onto the treadmill with her legs still shaking.
Leviathan positioned her in the center of the machine, then pulled the cords from the head unit to check the distance to her body.
"Chest out."
"...Yes."
Next came the piercing connection. Leviathan worked something on his wrist terminal; the rings at the ends of the wires split in half, one face becoming a sharp needle. He brought that point to the nipple exposed between the parted front of her prison uniform, lined it up, and drove it through in a single merciless thrust.
"Kyaah...!"
The sight of living flesh being pierced, blood welling and dripping, was so brutal that I squeezed my eyes shut before I could stop myself. There was not a shred of mercy in it.
"Haa. Haa. Ugh... uugh."
He twisted the ring back together; the cut faces vanished and a complete circular ring now pierced Jaehee's nipple. Leviathan manipulated his terminal again and gave the piercing a few experimental tugs; the fully restored ring did not budge. It sat in her nipple as if it had always belonged there.
"All right. The other side. Out."
"Yes... Ahk...! Nngh...! Haa. Haa. Nngh..."
He pierced the opposite nipple the same way, then shifted Jaehee until the wires pulled taut. Finally he locked a pair of folding cuffs around her wrists—an integrated design with no chain between the two rings, so the wrists sat flush against each other and movement was even more restricted.
"Stand by."
"...Yes. Nngh."
That finished the preparations for Jaehee. Next, following inmate-number order, came Seoa's turn.
"Ah... kuh...!"
Seoa likewise put on the heels and mounted a treadmill. Just as with Jaehee, the piercings were driven through her nipples, the position adjusted, and the cuffs locked. Her expression was dark, as if she already feared the ordeal ahead.
Come to think of it... had Seoa received no punishment for the stay of execution? Or had she, like Yejin, been given spores in her clitoris? Outwardly she seemed free of any special measures, yet given the nature of this prison it was certain she had been dealt some form of penalty just as Yejin and I had. I worried whether she would be able to endure it.
"Up you go."
"...Yes."
Next was Yejin. She climbed onto her treadmill in the same fashion as Jaehee and Seoa. But Yejin was trembling hard.
She had trained extensively and was even a fitness trainer; today's drill should have been almost tailor-made for her. Her body, sculpted by exercise, looked as though it could run forever. Yet even if Seoa was an unknown quantity...
Jaehee and I were most worried about Yejin. All night she had been tormented by the Stimulation Spores inside her clitoris; even now her thighs quivered as she dreaded the next unpredictable movement of the spores. She was already weak against sexual torture. If the spores struck while she was on the treadmill...
I could already picture the horrific sight of Yejin collapsing in shock from the spores.
"Haaugh... uuh..."
"Next. A713. Lee Nayoon."
"Mmph..."
Leaving the trembling girl as she was, Leviathan came to me and set a pair of high heels at my feet. The towering heels. Because I rarely wore them, they looked especially high. Sliding my feet inside brought an immediate sense of wrongness—and then pain.
"Nngh...! Uuh... mmph!"
The insides were not empty. They were packed with tiny, millet-sized grains. High heels force all the weight onto the front of the foot; with those small, sharp grains concentrated there, every step felt like being stabbed by needles.
But I could not take them off. The moment my feet were inside, Leviathan wrapped the leather straps around my ankles and locked the padlocks, sealing me into the shoes so I could never remove them myself. My hands were already useless, yet he still fixed the heels with that merciless touch, as if confirming my status once and for all.
To walk in these...
Only then did I truly understand that this training could not be taken lightly.
"Hnn..."
In that state I climbed onto the treadmill. I had taken only a few steps and already the balls of my feet burned and my calves trembled. Yet what terrified me more was the piercing.
—Click.
A small sound as the ring split. The moment the sharp cut face gleamed like a needle, Leviathan gripped my breast and drove the piercing through the tip of my nipple.
"They're standing stiff even though I haven't touched them... were you looking forward to this that much? Hmm?"
"Khhnnn!!"
Fierce pain as the needle sank into the nipple—more precisely, into the thick flesh at the border between nipple and breast. The piercing was through in an instant, yet the agony it delivered was searing.
"Hnn... f-... mmph."
I gasped and panted through the torment while Leviathan restored the piercing to a complete ring. Whatever the mechanism, not even a seam remained. Without his terminal, it would stay locked forever. The only way to remove it would be to tear the nipple free.
"All right. The other side."
"F-... mmph! Nngh!"
The opposite nipple was pierced the same way. My body was now fixed to the treadmill by the wire lines. The only ways out were to cover the fifty kilometers together with my cellmates... or to have my nipples torn out.
One or the other.
"Finally—if anyone falls and tears a nipple, I'll send them to the Recovery Room, but they'll still get Demeanor Penalty Points. And that person's distance will be reset to zero. You understand what that means, right?"
"...Yes."
An extra weight of responsibility. In other words: if you don't want to burden your cellmates, force yourself to keep walking no matter what, so your nipples stay intact.
"As long as you don't fall on purpose or suddenly, the treadmill will handle the speed for you, so don't worry too much. Ready? We start now."
Once preparations were finished, Leviathan announced the start at once. I had expected inmates from other cells to arrive once we were ready, but the shift to cell-unit programs apparently meant even training sessions like this were restricted to members of the same cell.
In that case, Seoa's transfer into our cell was a blessing. Without it, our chances of seeing each other would have grown even scarcer.
...Hmm?
"..."
"Mmph..."
I felt a gaze and looked sideways; my eyes met Seoa's. She was watching me with a worried face—melancholy and full of pity.
Ah... was it because of my gag and Special Handcuffs? It had to be. Knowing Seoa as I did, she would be blaming all of this on herself.
I smiled at her as brightly as I could. Even if the gag and cuffs made ordinary expression difficult, she would understand an eye-smile, wouldn't she?
On our first day on Prison Island she had drawn a V with her fingers to ease my burden. Now it was my turn to shape my eyes into the softest possible ^^ and lighten hers.
"...Hah."
Whether the meaning reached her or not, Seoa let out a long breath. At the same time she nodded, as if to say she understood. Not every nuance could be conveyed, but for us it was enough.
All that remained was to overcome the hardship in front of us together.
[A713. Recognition Complete]
At that moment a neon display activated on the head unit of the treadmill in front of me. Leviathan must have pressed the start button; the rail began to turn slowly.
Speed will now adjust to match the inmate's steps.
▶ START
The training began without further explanation. At first I walked slowly, trying to adapt to the heels. But I soon had to revise that plan.
"Ah..."
"Ugh..."
"Huu..."
"Mmph..."
Only a short while after we started, we all realized the same thing.
Nothing was displayed on the treadmill heads. In the end we would have to struggle toward an unknown fifty kilometers without ever knowing our own individual quotas.