Starring:
Date: Feburary 18th, 2010
Summary:
Owatsumi and Tsun interrogate a captured prisoner.
"Kirigakure Team Zero: Questioning the Prisoner"
Elsewhere
The first thing I become aware of is how utterly dark it is. It's the blind, animal fear of waking up unable to assess one's situation, of coming to in the deepest, darkest ocean of space imaginable. So dark it could eat you… could eat me… The moment of insensible terror passes quickly though as I come around… and the pain surges in. Oh god! What is— what is going on?! Oh god it hurts! It
"Uwaa? Ne! Su-chan! Su-chan, look see, he's waking up!"
A- a voice? A child… What…? Bright, childlike peals of laughter… so innocent… "He's talking to himself, Su-chan! He's mumbling all kinds of silly things!"
M- my handsmy— arms… feet? ohgod it hu"Oh no! You shouldn't try to move too much, Konoha-san. You'll tear all the nails out! Here, let me turn up the lights so you can see. I didn't want to disturb you while you slept!"
The lights are glaring at first, a blinding wave of white, and with it come memory. It was Konoha-san that did it. I was captured. The last thing I remember was-
Where in the seven hells am I? My eyes adjust quickly, blinking back the dazzle of the lights, and the space around me begins to resolve. A huge room, I can't even make out the far side, held up by thousands of evenly spaced pillars. Pale white floors, nearly translucent, looks like jade? Almost seems to glow, or pulse… Pillars like living trees, but too uniform, too perfectly circular, and made of darkly stained wood. Nonetheless, they sprout branches as they climb, reaching up to the ceiling… I can't see the ceiling either. Just a forest of columns, extending into forever… What is this place?
"There, that's better isn't it Konoha-san?" That voice again, so pure, so innocent. He steps out from behind me, coming around my right side. Stark white hair and white finery, like some young noble, dressed to match the marble. He looks like a Prince. He smiles at me like an alien. Like there is nothing inside him at all.
"Ne, come see Su-chan!" he calls again, calling past me into the depths of this forest hell.
I understand now, I think. At least… sort of. I- I'm nailed to one of these columns. But where am I? Could this boy have brought me here? He is so young…
"You're LOOOOOOUD!" The pattering of feet would be heard, followed by the appearance of a young girl with the smell of 'Dr. Bubbles Apple Sceneted Bubble Bath'.There would be a small pack in her hand that she comes running in with, clacking coming from inside it, maybe torture tools>! With the still somewhat soggy looking hair and the lack of any make-up of sorts it was quite obvious that Tsun just came out of the bath, from…somewhere nearby. A look of annoyance shot Owatsumi's way for making her show up in front of someone she didn't know without having herself done-up.
he look would quickly shift towards the nailed man, into a look of excitement as the man's eyes start to drift her way. "Ooooo. He /is/ alive!" Tsun bounces a few steps closer to the man, water spilling out of her container and onto the ground, quickly turning into the 'Liquid Ice' form and sliding under her backside, slowly elevating her up into the air so she could get on eye level with him. "Don't need to stress yourself out, I'll make it easier for me to admire my beauty." She winks at him and then gives a gentle tap on the nose.
Tsun then moves closer to him, almost touching nose to nose with him and she begins to squint. "Oh hey, I can see his pupils shrinking!" Good thing for him she just brushed her teeth, talking so close and all! Though Tsun would forget this is 'Liquid' Ice.
Her seat would eventually give out under her weight and she starts to fall to the ground, letting out a little shriek only to be caught by the same water and gently lowered to the ground. "Mmm anyways… you wanna start things off Tsumi-kun?" Tsun would 'ask' only to abruptly turn away from the captured ninja to rummage through that pack she came in with, pulling out make-up supplies. "Hmm…maybe hearts this time. Both cheeks? No… maybe my forehead… not dead center though, that'll look stupid."
Disbelief. It's so hard to think through this pain… I have to get control of myself. These children… my captors? What sort of monsters…
It hurts to breathe, to fill my lungs even the slightest amount, but I need to… try and speak. I feel my lungs raggedly inflating, but the sensation is drowned out by the blinding white agony that stabs through my nerves, and the distant sound that I dimly recognize as my own simpering moan. Wh- what am I
"Hush now, Konoha-san," the boy -Tsumi?- chastises me, scolding me like a child. All that effort, trying to draw breath…
He reaches up, touches my face. His lips are moving but I can't make out the words. Too much pain. Everything is drowned in it. My ears are ringing, shutting out everything else. Through the haze in my vision, I can see them talking. Laughing? My heart is hammering in my chest, I can hear blood pumping in my ears, and I start to slip away into the calming black numbness. Thumpthump… thumpthump…
Cold hits me in the face and jerks me back into reality. I'm coughing and spitting, water running down my skin, and slowly reality resolves once again.
"…ch better, thank you Su-chan. Now, where we? Oh, yes! The questions." My vision refocuses, and the boy is staring right up into my eyes. Those eyes… so pure…
Indescribable pain courses through my entire body, and I hear my own screams echoing through the forest, like some stranger in the dark. Oh god. S-stop! P-please. Oh please oh please god stop. I'll-
"Now, let's start simple, Konoha-san. Your name?"
Name? An… interrogation? No. No, no no no. Don't give in. Give them nothing. Stay strong. Focus. There must be s-something- Pain rises up and drowns out my thoughts once more, and I think I can make out the sound of a nail tearing through my skin, somewhere on my body, being driven powerfully into the tree behind me. And I scream.
"Ahh… right there." Tsun's hands would lower and she'd look over her shoulder once she was hearing less noise from the man, Owatsumi trying to get him to wake up. A small heart design on the left of her forehead, the girl working on a small crack in the upper part of the heart. "Watch out for a sec I'll wake him up." Finishing the design and giving Owatsumi time to get out of the way. She would then raise her right hand. "Wakey….WAKEY!"
Her index and middle finger flick back as a small blast of water shoots off, smacking the man with the blood stained liquid, frigid to the touch and not by accident. Tsun gives a dry, "Hrm, whoops! That must've been too cold. Looks like he's shivering now." A small pout given before she returns to her work, listening to the start of the interrogation. "Mmm Konoha-san. I'd advise you just tell him. We can kill you a thousand times… without killing you. It wont be fun~" Tsun chimes in, hesitating for a moment though she doesn't get much of a response from him.
"I dunno how slow we're supposed to do this but, I don't wanna be here forever." Tsun turns about, still crouched as she was in the middle of applying eye shadow. Stopping for just a moment she reaches out and clenches her fist, a sign of her most abused move 'Poseidon's Grip'. Water flying out and crushing the man's pinky, the thing left a saggy, flabby, and bloody mess. The crushing water lingering a moment to slurp up the blood, smacking the shatter boned pinky around a bit to cause more pain with a simply wag of Tsun's finger. "I think sensei said, one digit at a time usually did well, right?"
I can't believe they can be so cavalier about torture! In Konoha this would never… What kind of place is this? It hurts so much… I wish they would just - my.. my hand! Screaming. Pain. Vaguely aware of laughter nearby. Too much, going to pass out…
Another splash of cold water brings me back and I'm gasping, ignoring the pain in my lungs and fighting for air. Coughing and gagging back the hurt.
"Konoha-san, it's really not polite not to introduce yourself." Don't look. Don't dignify him with a response. "Look, we'll even go first! My name is Owatsumi. Nice to meet you!" Just… just shut it all out. Keep your eyes closed and try not to hear him. "This is my sister Tsun-chan. She can be a little direct sometimes, but don't let it get to you. We just want to know a little about you, Konoha-san. That's all!" Fight. Fight this. Don't give in. "Won't you tell us your name?"
The floor drops out from under me. I open my eyes, dizzy. Things are… different than I remember them. Wasn't… there a forest here a moment ago? It's hard to… my brain, my mind won't… Where am I? It looks like an office… Why do my arms hurt so much? The door opens, two jounin walk in. Konoha forehead protectors. They sit down across from me, one clears his throat, the other shuffles a few files around and clicks her pen. "Your name, and rank?"
My breath comes ragged and hard - was I injured in the field? I can't… something isn't right. I try to make my lips move, but they feel numb. The words sound like a hollow rasp coming from my mouth. "Bukei… Shinmue… Chuunin…"
The instant I say the words, I realize my mistake. A trick! Fucking genjutsu! Tricked by this- this boy! These children! Reality crashes down around me once again, the pain, the trees, the boy with his horrible smile, beaming up at me like I'm a pet who's done a trick.
"Thank you, Shinmue-kun! It's very nice to meet you!" I try to tell him what he can do with his introduction… But it's too hard to form the words. So I spit in his face. A nice wet bloody gob. He yelps. Heh, such a child.
"Su-chan! Did you see that!? Hurt him Su-chan! Take a whole hand! Take it right off!"
With another smile motion of two fingers, water would smack into the man's face. Tsun watching him closely to make sure he doesn't try passing out again, letting Owatsumi go on with introductions. "Huh, direct? He's being dumb I'm usually very delicate with this approach, I'd usually kill him completely to ge him to answer me but… that usually doesn't work." Tsun grumbles, dead things tended not to want to amuse her anymore, it was a harsh way for her to learn to manage her anger though more things have lived since then. "Though you know you can ju-…oh?" The girl would watch the man that looked a little less responsive, well less responsive than his previously not too responsive state.
"Oh, did you snap up Konoha-san in one of those…" 'Bukei Shinmue, Chuunin' "Oh excellent!" The man would break out of the illusion to not only Owatsumi's smile, though Tsun's clapping and laughter in response to the little successful performance he had just mananged. "Ah jeez, I hate genjutsu stuff too sometimes Shinmue-san. I never had one used on me but, I'm pretty sure it toooootally sucks."
A little smirk appears and she turns back around just in time to hear the spit smack into Owatsumi's face. The sound of spit making her feel a bit grossed out and she looks over to Owatsumi's face, her legs wobbling a bit beneath her from watching the bloody mess drool down. "That's…"
Tsun makes a smacking motion, "Nasty!" Water rises up smacking him the face with water. Then she would pull her hand back before reaching forwards and grabbing at the air in the man's direction, the water whipping around to the arm that didn't have the broken finger, quickly it slams down in all directions on that arm, twisting and pulling all at once with the crushing motion, removing the entire forearm completely. "Er…"
Tsun would notice she went for the wrong arm and even took the removal a bit too far and she gives a bit of awkward laughter. "Whoops! Oh well… he wont be needing that I guess. So yeah, what were you doing in the Land of Waves? I really don't want to hurt you anymore-" 'Hah yeah right' "=so if you could spill out all your information, that'd be great, you know like… how many were with you and all that. Even though… I think senpai said they were all dead already."
A disappointed, "Awww… yeah that may be right. Hopefully not, I want so more of you guys to torture… to um… erm… m-make facts straight, that's right!" 'I need to practice focal crushing mostly.'
It was worth it. Whatever they do to me, seeing the look of outrage on that little brat's… are they playing? "Waaaiiii! Su-chan, it's so cold! And now I'm completely soaked! Did you have to use so much!?"
The last thing I remember is the look in the girl's eyes. So much… glee. So sadistic. How could anyone so young have so much capacity to hurt!? I barely have time to register the order before I feel the cold creep up over my fingers and around my wrist. N-no! No please!
I'm floating. It's warm here, and peaceful. Quiet… Then, slowly, things start to pull me back. Distant, muffled sounds, so far away. Cold water on my face, and someone else's pain, throbbing and horrible, but so far away, so detached from… no. No— god, please!
Another curtain of cold water in the face. It's so cold, it stings. So cold it should be frozen. It doesn't make sense that it's not. I sputter and try to make sense of things, but something isn't right. It takes a moment. Then I remember. No, no why oh god why!? My hand - I can just barely turn my head, just make out my hands in the corners of my vision. I can see my bloody wrist… Pulpy red flesh dangling from a stump that was once my hand…
I'm vomiting all over myself. I don't care. I scream. Thrash as much as I can. Struggle. Ignore the pain. Ignore the sounds of my own skin tearing. Have to get free. Have to…
It's like the same bad dream playing over and over again. I wake up, violently torn from the bliss of unconsciousness by water so frigid it burns my skin. These two… demons. They won't let me go. Won't let me…
"..eally does pass out a lot doesn't he? Oh! He's back. There now, Shinmue-san. I'm sorry you had to make us do that. You really didn't need to go so far… All we wanted was to ask you a few questions."
Go to hell you demons. Go back to whatever hell you crawled out of, and just… just let me be… let me die… please…
"…Do you want to know something interesting, Shinmue-san? When Su-chan hurts someone with her water, she absorbs some of the blood she takes into the water, and it grows stronger. Isn't that something? Doesn't that make you feel a little better… Knowing that, no matter what happens, part of you will always be here, with Su-chan and me?"
A hysterical panic has been welling up in my chest while they speak to me. Like I could break down and start sobbing any second. All I can think about is my hand - my… I still feel as if I could move it! But I know… No. No I won't give them the satisfaction. Have to… resist…
"…It doesn't look like he wants to help us, Su-chan. Just like sensei said. We'll have to use more extreme measures." The boy sighs, like he's so distraught by all this, and shakes his head. I wish I could strangle him. I wish he would leave me alone. I wish…
Wh- why is it suddenly so cold? Opening my eyes, I can see my breath curling up around my face. My whole body is screaming out in pain, but the cold is so numbing… Snowflakes? Landing on my head, drifting down from the cloudy grey sky overhead. Dark wood trees sprout up all over, and my blood stains the snow I've fallen in. I must be done for, I reflect… At least I will die with honor, out in the field…
Footsteps crunching in snow. Hurried, sprinting towards me. My eyes aren't focusing well, but I can make out a smallish shape getting closer. Slowly, the details resolve. He's a boy, a genin? Grey hair and ash-grey clothes, and vivid purple eyes… Why do they seem so familiar?
"Shinmue-sensei! Sensei! Get up! They're in trouble, we have to hurry!" Wh-what? Who…? Who does he…? "Sensei, you must've hit your head! We're on a mission! The Land of Waves, remember? We have to hurry, the squad is in trouble!"
He kneels under me and tries to help me up, but it hurts too much. Stop! -sstop…please just… just let me… "Sensei! I… who should I report to?! Who else is in charge on the mission!?" Something… in the back of my mind, screaming at me. It's so far away… I don't… It's so comfortable here.
If I could only just… "Sensei! Who!?" My lips are numb, I can barely feel them move. It takes some concentration to remember her name. Tenjin… Tenjin Rukia.
"Tenjin Rukia? Really?" A cruel smile spreads suddenly across his face. Wh- what? Where am- Oh god. Too late, I finally hear the warning from my subconscious. It was too easy for him, I'm just too weak to defend myself. The world crumbles around me, melting into a frigid slush, and I realize the real reason I'm cold. Her. "Too bad, Tenjin Rukia was already captured and interrogated too, Shinmue-san. I guess we didn't need to try so hard for that bit of intel after all, did we?"
"He's pretty odd, constantly napping while losing limbs." Tsun jokes before stepping forwards and crouching near one of the stakes that was nailed into him, inspecting the wound that he was now causing to spread himself. "I think he's enjoying the pain if he's causing himself so much, maybe that's why he isn't sharing anything with us. This whole thingie, isn't bothering him." Tsun hesitates for a moment, "Maybe he's not a weirdo. Maybe he just wants to help me get stronger so he's sharing with me. Oh that's it!"
Tsun steps away, a look of full on childish amusement, having no issue with this process thanks to the corruption of Shukaku and Kirigakure. Her index finger points and the frigid water shoots forwards, burrowing into his loose stake hole, twisting around inside his leg. Tsun's true intention not to collect blood, though instead to cause him more pain. The blood flowing out of the wound, traveling down the tendril of water as a red cloud and back into the container.
"Poor Shinmue-san~ He just picked a really lame team to be on. If only you came to Kirigakure! You'd be on the winning side of things. You would be doing the torturing! I'm sure you would love it, it's so much fun." Her hand then quickly opens up, all fingers spread out, causing the tendril of water to explode outwards within the wound before pouring out.
"It's not as bad as peo-..eh Oh, he's sleeping again." With another slapping motion, ice water would slap Shinmue across the face. She keeps moving her hand back and forth, not bothering to stop even when he does wake up. "Stay up. Stay up. Stay up."
In the end, I tell them everything. I tell them anything they want. There's no telling how many times they get inside my head. How many times they crush my limbs or nearly drown me under currents of impossibly cold water. I am far beyond keeping count. I try to be strong, for my village and my family and my honor. I try… But in the end, I tell them everything. It's just… it's so good not to hurt anymore. Not to feel the cold, the pain, the confusion… I just want them to let me sleep. If… if I have to answer a few questions to make them let me… It's a small price to pay. To make it stop.
"… .. …on't think there's … …uch left to ask at this point… .. …. … …ou think of anything, Su-chan?" I'm dimly aware of them talking, but the words aren't making any sense anymore. My eyes… I think they've swollen shut. I can't see, anyway. Doesn't matter. Just want to sleep.
I hear him sigh again. "Well, in that case, I guess our time is up, Shinmue-san. Thank you for all your help, I think sensei will definitely rate I highly on this practice interrogation!" Practice… interrogation? Before I can think about it, I feel something crushing me. Pain splintering through my ribs. Are… are they finally ending it? But then it stops, and I hear him step away, and I realize that I've just been hugged. There are no words. "Well, Shinmue-san. Enjoy the afterlife, I suppose! Su-chan, he's all yours." And then the cold creeps in.
"Ah I would perfer to send him back to Konoha with a message on his back that says. 'Thanks for all the info' Or something like that. But, I kinad like him in a pitying way. That'd probably just make his life worse sending him back…" Tsun taps her bottom lip, trying to come up with more questions. "Ah… well, it was nice knowing you Shinmue-san. Wish we could've been friends." The lid of the container slips off as all of it's continents pour out on the ground, spilling around Tsun's feet and slowly flowing underneath Shinmue, leaving him in a cold, red, puddle.
"Deep Sea…" Tsun's hand turns about, palm up into the air, the water slowly rising up and around the man's body, Tsun appearing to drag this out, though it took a lot of concentration to get this done right. "Death." Her hand quickly shuts into a fist, and the water slams into him in all directions, his senses now truly gone as the water goes from a light, misty red to a dark crimson one.
Tsun turns around to follow Owatsumi off, letting someone else clean up the crushed remains. "Imagine how good we'll be at this interrogation stuff once we get a bit more practicing in!" …
