Starring:
Date: April 26, 2017
Summary:
Tsiro brings Akane andYuriko to an interrogation. Yuriko attempts to gain the information from the subject, while Akane follows orders to a fault. Akane then challenges Tsiro and the ANBU interrogation program once they are alone. (The growth is subtle but Yuriko begins to learn about interrogation and Akane shows she and Tsiro are more comrades than Kage and subordinate) This is a mission to go toward Tsiro's monthly logs.
"Masked Interrogations"
A secret facility beneath the medical center in Kirigakure.
So this was Tsiro's idea of a compromise. Akane wanted to sit in on a torture session. Yuriko needed training in the ANBU ways. So both sides were given a mask, uniform, and instructions to the secret facility beneath the hospital. There Tsiro had arranged for a live prisoner to be strapped to a table. If you were facing him, you find a cart of diabolical tools on the right side. On the left side would be a table with a file folder. The file would contain the contents of what the village knew on the man and the information the man was believed to have. Tsiro would wait for each to arrive.
Yuriko drops from the trees and lands smoothly, rising enough to straighten before her weight carries her to the facility, without pause. The smooth, white cat mask glances carefully back and forth at the entrance, looking to see if there were any traps, or in the unlikelihood that she was followed, before disappearing altogether. Her speed allows her to enter relatively unnoticed.
Akane was already in the facility when the package with the uniform and mask was delivered. She excused herself for the day and then headed down into the basement of the medical center. She was greeting the ANBU guard as Yuriko appeared in the Cat Mask (though of course, neither knew the other).Akane's bird mask nodded to the cat and then proceeded along, following the ANBU who led them to where Tsiro was.
Akane made little move to check the man strapped to the table. She had known what was happening before this so it was no huge shock. But the mask hid her eyes well enough.
Tsiro looks as both people arrive. "For this exercise, the two of you shall be known by the animal of your mask. The cat will be the one interrogating this man. His name is Shinjuko. He has a family. Two young children and a wife. He makes his living trafficking children from the neutral zone to places elsewhere. We need to know elsewhere. Over here is a table with information on him if you need more." Tsiro points to the table. He then points to the cart. "There are your tools of engagement. You have poisons and other painful toxins. If that, not your style then you may use the blunt or sharp objects. Do not kill him. You may wake him when you are ready."
Tsiro then turns towards the bird. "The bird is here to oversee the torture technique. Right now this is training so bear that in mind. She may give some advice based on medical knowledge. An example would be how to cause more pain without knocking the patient out." He then points to the chair where the bird may sit.
"I will be sitting off in the corner. Try to keep me entertained." Tsiro states as he moves off to a chair in the corner.
Leaning against the closest wall with her arms loosely crossed, Cat faintly lifts a brow behind the mask. Considering the news that she would be the one to interrogate the target. Suddenly thrown into the deep end, from the looks of things. Glancing to the table and cart full of tools, she considers them before looking to the one called 'Bird'. Female, according to Tsiro. And also another tool to assist with the process of interrogation. Intriguing.
Leaning up, Cat draws closer to the target and casually picks up the file with gloved fingers, quickly reading through it. It's a longer moment before the folder is dropped onto the table again. Reaching for a surgical knife, her free hand reaches up to squeeze Shinjuko's face together, "Time to wake up… Shinjuko."
Akane folded her arms as Tsiro spoke, telling of the man's family, of which none of it mattered, of his profession. Akane would relish watching a trafficker of children find a new meaning for pain if the truth was told. She smirked behind the mask but as Tsiro dictated that she would only watch and that the work was on Yuriko She lifted a hand to step up to the man. A single touch was all she required, pulsing chakra through the sleeping man's body before backing away again. It would not wake him, but it gave her an idea of how strong his heart was and any injuries he had already.
She would nod to Tsiro then move to the chair and sit, waiting for the cat to entertain her as well. The cat picking up a sharp knife and trying to wake up the subject by pinching his face was interesting but the woman simply crossed her arms and legs and sat back to watch the show.
Shinjuko would take a few moments before he started to wake up. He was obviously a bit on the groggy side. "Where am I?… he asks. He then glances to the sides of him before he begins to freak out. Now his legs begin to kick and his arms going. He had no way out here. Within seconds he seems to realize this. "What is it you want?" he asks in a shaky voice with sweat dripping down his face.
When he does wake, Cat exhales a long sigh behind the mask. The surgical knife held up for him to plainly see. "I've been informed…" she starts off slowly. "That you specialize in child trafficking. Now, I'm sure you're going to scream and plead, say you don't know what I'm talking about. Or maybe you're going to put up a front, saying that I can just kill you now and be done with it. Either one is possible. But honestly, I don't care. Not. At. All. " Cat murmurs. "I want to know… where exactly you're shipments are going. Where you're storing your shipments. And lastly, who you've kept in your employ to keep you… fully stocked."
The mask leans in closer, the surgical blade held up just in front of his open eye. "Want to hear something fascinating? There is a muscle behind the eye, called the trigeminal nerve, that can cause the most excruciating pain you will ever feel in your life. And I promise you… it will feel like an eternity." A smile can almost be heard in her voice. "If I go on long enough, you can go blind. And if you struggle, I could accidentally lobotomize your brain. We can't have that, now could we."
Akane tilted her head, a quirked eyebrow behind the mask. An interesting if dangerous way to start an interrogation. But this was Cat's show. And Akane could replace an eye easily so she did not interfere. Merely sat there silent and watching, unmoving.
Shinjuko glances around the world for a few moments as the Cat talks. Then she shows him the blade. "I think you have the wrong idea about me. Trafficking? Must be someone else. I am a school teacher." he says pretty plainly. He's trying to play stupid. "Please do not take my eye." He seems to be showing no real sign of fear yet. Maybe he does not believe her.
"Oh, you've mistaken. I apologize, perhaps I should clarify." Cat says a little too sweetly. "I'm not going into your eye. I'm going above it. Right, in, there." The tip of the blade circles in a vague gesture towards his eye socket. "I'm just going to poke at it, nothing too… long-term. I assure you." Again Cat seems to smile behind her mask. "And by the way… your wife and children. If you don't tell us what we want to know, we'll kill them after we've killed you." her voice sudden becomes cold. "We will hunt them down one by one. And then we will kill the rest of your family, and every employee, accomplice, hell, even next door neighbor. But one step at a time. Now… this." And just like she said, Cat pushes the tip of the blade above his eye, into the socket itself. Isn't even a moment and she hits that nerve. He'll find that she's deathly serious about this.
A school teacher. Well, that made him even less on Akane's scale of empathetic subjects. She again did not move or speak as Cat spoke to the man, threatening him with words and then a hint of pain.
As she speaks Shujiko just stares at her. He begins to speak but she pushes the blade into the space between his eye and the socket. He screams and his body attempts to lurch forward. Despite the restraints, his head manages to move just slightly. Enough to push the blade slightly further causing some more damage. Within seconds the man passes out from the pain and the screaming stops. He's out cold.
Passed out from the pain, Cat quickly withdraws the blade and exhales a small sigh to herself. "Fragile…" she mutters, placing the blade on the nearest table only to pick up a vial. Smelling salts. Giving the bound Shujiko a speculative look and a pause, once it's evident that he wasn't going to wake up on his own, she hovers the vial beneath his nose and waits.
Akane tilted her head as the man screamed and she mentally counted down aaaand out cold. Traffickers were nothing but pathetic whiney babies most of the time. This one was no different it seemed.
Tsiro sat in the corner. The cat had made a large threat and then when she went to act on it, she knocked him out. It was not the direction he would have went. Still, this was her interrogation and he wanted to see where she would take it. His eyes scan from her towards the bird. He did not need to hear her voice to know what she was thinking. It was kind of her purpose here. That way they could standardize the torture program.
Shujiko starts to sniff the salts. Eventually, the non-messed with eye opens. "You were right. That hurt." In a sense, she was looking that his lurching did not cause the needle to go deeper. It more or less looked like it just cost him use of one eye. "Kill my family. It's going to happen anyway." His eye looks down as he tries to make peace with what's about to happen.
Cat exhales another audible sigh as she closes and sets down the vial. "And I also told you that if you moved, it could possibly lobotomize you. Do you really want to die?" she asks. "That's not why we're here, you and me. I'm not here to kill you, Shujiko. I just want to know about your operations, that's it. As soon as you tell me what I want to know, all of this will end." Cat leans in close again. "Until you tell me, I will draw out the pain as much as possible, for as long as possible. Always keeping you at the edge of death. But you're the one that decides just how long the pain will last. Do you understand? Shujiko."
Akane rolled her eyes behind the mask at the man's reaction. Kill his family, kill the kids, sell them as slaves…. All the same with these people. She shook her head slightly but otherwise did not move. As an observer delegated to making sure he didn't die… Not much to do with such a scene. She wondered if the man honestly understood shinobi torture anyway. Akane certainly did. Many forms of it. And how to resist it.
Shujiko began to laugh a little. "You must think I'm an idiot. I'm being tortured in a dark room. I know the options. Among them is not the go home and kiss my kids, then tuck them in. If you do not kill them. My employer kills them. They may have already killed them. I certainly am not leaving this room alive." he states in defiance. "That's what I understand."
"I'll think you're an idiot if you put yourself in unnecessary pain. I already said that I would stop when you tell me what I want to know." Cat makes a mental note to herself as she picks up another blade, one that's clean. And the other hand takes up a pair of pliers. Shujiko had let it slip that he has an employer. That meant that they possibly had other people in their employ. Selling children might just be the tip of the iceberg. "The next thing I'm going to do… is cut off your pinkie finger," Cat announces. "Unless you tell me what I want to know. And you know I'll do it. I already proved it to you."
And here it was. As imbecilic and immoral the guy was he was a pragmatist. He knew they wouldn't let him out. He knew how this would end and he had no faith in the safety of his family even if he cared about them. Which, Akane wasn't certain he did. Yuriko's next threat made the medic turn to peer at Tsiro for a moment before returning to her motionless position.
Already his voice was getting on her nerves. If it wasn't because she needed information out of him, she might have already slashed at his vocal cords. This time Cat holds back the sigh she felt, instead of using the pliers to grip the end of the finger. "A little pain might be a good thing, but then there's you. Stupidly accepting it for no reason whatsoever." Cat murmurs, the pliers tightening their grip on him. "One last chance, before you lose it."
Akane saw Tsiro's nod and sighed quietly. Even her roughest session had been more planned and finessed than this. Jumping straight to amputation? Internally, mentally, Akane shrugged to herself. The bastard deserved whatever he got. And she had nothing to do with this. Unless the 'point' to her being here was to merely humor her request to Tsiro or to see if she could stomach watching as someone is tortured…. Akane saw little need for her presence.
Tsiro stands up. He moves towards the man. "One moment Cat." is all he says before reaching out for a vial on the table. "In the training book, you should have read about this substance. This substance enters the blood stream. It causes an intense burning throughout the body as it travels the stream. Once it enters the lungs, it will cause them great inflammation. The pain lasts for about four hours. There is a bit of permanent damage but it will not kill him. It will leave him paralyzed. When he said he would not leave this room alive, he was wrong. He will leave this room on a gurney and be brought to the hospital where he will wither away to a husk of nothingness. He will be fed with a tube and defecate into a tube. He may live for twenty years or twenty days. Its not really an exact science yet." With that, Tsiro hands the vial gently to the girl training. "Be very careful with that. You would not want that entering your blood stream." He then turns and walks back to his seat.
"Go ahead and… what are you doing?" Shujiko asks as Tsiro steps up. He listens to the description of the vial that the man handed the masked woman. "Your kidding right?" he says as his eyes start to grow wide. It was clear that his attention was now more on being serious. A bit of sweat seems to pour down the man's face. He began to struggle as if thinking he might be able to get free.
The blade is halted just in time, hovering right above his hand as Tsiro interjects. The cat mask tilts up at him as she listens in silence, straightening when he starts to go into detail about the damage the toxin in the vial would do to Shujiko. Essentially, he would be stuck in his own body, a vegetable for who knows how long. "Hm. That does sound like an excellent alternative." Cat agrees, the pliers letting go of his finger as it and the blade are set aside once more. "I wonder what would happen if we did a little at a time… it'll probably be even slower. No way to calculate if it'll even happen at all." The vial is placed in her hand, and Cat nods to Tsiro just before he takes a seat. Then, her full attention turns towards Shujiko, studying him for a dramatic pause before she pulls away, just long enough to reach for a syringe. "Where are your shipments going?" Cat repeats her questions. "Who employs you? Where are you storing your shipments? And who works for you?"
Akane watched Tsiro interject to stop amputation with something that would render the subject just as useless as cutting his throat. She shook her head slowly and sighed. Yet again, it did not matter and she had nothing to add.
Shujiko gives thrashing a few more moments before he realizes its a pointless effort. "Fine," he states with a sigh. His shoulders slump and he starts thinking. "The shipments go to the Yakuza. They have people in all five nations. Most run gambling houses. Some run ramen shops. No one works for me. I'm a pawn of the Yakuza. The kids arent stored. They are ordered before being selected. You don't want people asking questions if they see kids being put in a shed. Can I die now?" he finally asks.
Shujiko… spins the beans rather quickly. Cat lifts a brow behind her mask and glances over her shoulder, gauging Tsiro for a short pause. "That isn't for me to decide." she murmurs firmly to the strapped man, only to turn her focus on Tsiro instead. "Is there anything else you would like to know?" Cat asks, curious as her gaze falls on Shujiko again. "He seems to be telling the truth at least… what do you think?"
Akane simply waited for Tsiro to cast judgment on the man and his truth. A coward through and through, dealt with coarsely by novices. She stayed silent and immobile and waited as she had since she had been directed to sit and do nothing.
Tsiro looks at the prisoner for a moment. "Keep him alive for the moment. We need to verify this is the truth. Cat, you are free to go. Bird, I require that you stay here for a few moments to speak." Tsiro then stands up from the chair and moves towards the prisoner. He wasn't sure if Cat realized it or not but the vial actually contained something different. It was a vial of water. It was learning experience for the young girl. Over all, she gave it a shot and might have gotten him to talk in the end. It likely would have been seven fingers later but that was the point of this exercise.
The vial in question is set down with the syringe, before Cat steps away and bends in a low bow. "As you command." she murmurs. Not even straightening as the flickering of her after-image soon fades into nothing. Disappearing altogether.
Akane lifted an eyebrow behind her mask but simply waited for Cat to exit, not even acknowledging the 'bird' in the room even then, and for Tsiro to speak.
"Currently the training program is a book that trainees get and then decide to go their own way with. This is not the first time something like this has been rather rough when there was no need for it. You asked to witness and give commentary. The reason I accepted your proposal is that I want to have this program reworked." Tsiro states as he walks towards the bound man. He grabs a different vial and takes the syringe. He fills it then stabs the victim in the neck. He then whispers, "Sleepy time." Tsiro then turns back towards Akane. "Yes, I could have simply asked you to interrogate the man. That would not have gotten my point across. I am looking to standardize this. So that any hunter-nin could do this. What do you think?" he asks.
Akane waited in silence as Tsiro spoke and injected the man with something to put him out. For a long moment, she simply sat there, silent and immobile as a statue. Finally, she stood and removed her mask. Her displeasure was obvious. "I think your prized student has a very long way to go if she would ever hope to break and extract information from anyone but a coward such as this." She indicated the man on the table.
"I have experienced interrogations that made this look like a child at play. If this is what Kirigakure has to offer when Ishino is not personally involved… We have no chance of extracting actually needed information from subjects." For a moment she paused wondering if she was some kind of psychotic connoisseur of torture. Her hand skimmed the tools and she shook her head again.
"Going directly for the pain points is amateurish. What idiot wrote this so called manual?"
Tsiro's head tilted a moment. "I think you are under the wrong impression Akane. I brought in a student. She has no background in torture. None of them do. They get a wrinkled manual that says there are three types of interrogation. The rest is usually left to them. Yes, she made a move that was a bit harsh, but she gave an effort. I am asking you to make a routine to follow. Maybe an actual manual. As for the extraction of information. I have always been more than capable of doing so. I nor Ishino will be around forever. It would be nice to ensure the future has their tools. Now calm yourself."
"You seem to misunderstand, Tsiro. I am fully calm. I am merely disgusted. Had I remained as a spy for Konoha I might have been brought down here myself. But if this is what the current 'manual' dictates, even for novices…" She shook her head and turned to the man on the slab. She sighed and reached out, one hand hovering over his face as she healed his eye with or without permission. He would be worth more to the actual interrogators whole. And might be more willing to speak given such a turn of events.
"You want me to write a new protocol? Then the ANBU will have to work with me. Your interrogators need practice and against someone with fortitude. Not a wretch like this. What was your intention here, Tsiro? Testing to see if I'll crack watching as someone is harmed? I asked to learn from those more skilled than myself and instead you ask me to teach? Enlighten me."
"You called her my prized student. That implies one of two things. That either I believe she is advanced in this ability or that I somehow have feelings for her. We are going to assume you meant that she was adept in this ability which I have informed you is incorrect." Tsiro stated coldly. "I have trained two in the ways of the hunter-nin. Both are extremely capable of interrogation. During their first, I gauge what they believe torture is. Very few are actually good at it to begin with. I do not train them on someone who has information we actually need. I already know what he knows. We had people track the deliveries. So yes, if I am to deal with the daily mizukage affairs, I will need someone to ensure this is no longer a tribal training program."
Akane sighed and ran a hand over her eyes for a moment. She seemed to collect herself and then turned back to take in the Mizukage standing before her. She had pushed him, nearly if not insulting him and she had noted the cold tone in his voice. Good.
Lifting her chin she faced him head on, her eyes shining in the dim light a strange deep green. She turned away and looked at the table again, the tools there and shook her head. Her voice was a purr when she spoke again. "These tools are nothing compared to what could have been done or used." She looked back at Tsiro and a hint of a smile crossed her lips, a dark satisfaction or enjoyment. "I had nearly lost all hope in you Mizukage when you offered her the so-called drug. I did not think you to be so stupid. At least I was right about that. But these?" She looked at the table again. "These are nothing."
She took a breath and forced it out, turning back toward Tsiro. "So what, then? I write a book? Do I train live students? I must admit, as much as I would have enjoyed seeing and hearing a skilled interrogator on this bastard, I'm a little confused what you really want me to do."
"Lets start with a book and then go from there." Tsiro states. "One day we you may get your wish to watch a student become a skilled interrogator."
So this was Tsiro's idea of a compromise. Akane wanted to sit in on a torture session. Yuriko needed training in the ANBU ways. So both sides were given a mask, uniform, and instructions to the secret facility beneath the hospital. There Tsiro had arranged for a live prisoner to be strapped to a table. If you were facing him, you find a cart of diabolical tools on the right side. On the left side would be a table with a file folder. The file would contain the contents of what the village knew on the man and the information the man was believed to have. Tsiro would wait for each to arrive.
Yuriko drops from the trees and lands smoothly, rising enough to straighten before her weight carries her to the facility, without pause. The smooth, white cat mask glances carefully back and forth at the entrance, looking to see if there were any traps, or in the unlikelihood that she was followed, before disappearing altogether. Her speed allows her to enter relatively unnoticed.
Akane was already in the facility when the package with the uniform and mask was delivered. She excused herself for the day and then headed down into the basement of the medical center. She was greeting the ANBU guard as Yuriko appeared in the Cat Mask (though of course, neither knew the other).Akane's bird mask nodded to the cat and then proceeded along, following the ANBU who led them to where Tsiro was.
Akane made little move to check the man strapped to the table. She had known what was happening before this so it was no huge shock. But the mask hid her eyes well enough.
Tsiro looks as both people arrive. "For this exercise, the two of you shall be known by the animal of your mask. The cat will be the one interrogating this man. His name is Shinjuko. He has a family. Two young children and a wife. He makes his living trafficking children from the neutral zone to places elsewhere. We need to know elsewhere. Over here is a table with information on him if you need more." Tsiro points to the table. He then points to the cart. "There are your tools of engagement. You have poisons and other painful toxins. If that, not your style then you may use the blunt or sharp objects. Do not kill him. You may wake him when you are ready."
Tsiro then turns towards the bird. "The bird is here to oversee the torture technique. Right now this is training so bear that in mind. She may give some advice based on medical knowledge. An example would be how to cause more pain without knocking the patient out." He then points to the chair where the bird may sit.
"I will be sitting off in the corner. Try to keep me entertained." Tsiro states as he moves off to a chair in the corner.
Leaning against the closest wall with her arms loosely crossed, Cat faintly lifts a brow behind the mask. Considering the news that she would be the one to interrogate the target. Suddenly thrown into the deep end, from the looks of things. Glancing to the table and cart full of tools, she considers them before looking to the one called 'Bird'. Female, according to Tsiro. And also another tool to assist with the process of interrogation. Intriguing.
Leaning up, Cat draws closer to the target and casually picks up the file with gloved fingers, quickly reading through it. It's a longer moment before the folder is dropped onto the table again. Reaching for a surgical knife, her free hand reaches up to squeeze Shinjuko's face together, "Time to wake up… Shinjuko."
Akane folded her arms as Tsiro spoke, telling of the man's family, of which none of it mattered, of his profession. Akane would relish watching a trafficker of children find a new meaning for pain if the truth was told. She smirked behind the mask but as Tsiro dictated that she would only watch and that the work was on Yuriko She lifted a hand to step up to the man. A single touch was all she required, pulsing chakra through the sleeping man's body before backing away again. It would not wake him, but it gave her an idea of how strong his heart was and any injuries he had already.
She would nod to Tsiro then move to the chair and sit, waiting for the cat to entertain her as well. The cat picking up a sharp knife and trying to wake up the subject by pinching his face was interesting but the woman simply crossed her arms and legs and sat back to watch the show.
Shinjuko would take a few moments before he started to wake up. He was obviously a bit on the groggy side. "Where am I?… he asks. He then glances to the sides of him before he begins to freak out. Now his legs begin to kick and his arms going. He had no way out here. Within seconds he seems to realize this. "What is it you want?" he asks in a shaky voice with sweat dripping down his face.
When he does wake, Cat exhales a long sigh behind the mask. The surgical knife held up for him to plainly see. "I've been informed…" she starts off slowly. "That you specialize in child trafficking. Now, I'm sure you're going to scream and plead, say you don't know what I'm talking about. Or maybe you're going to put up a front, saying that I can just kill you now and be done with it. Either one is possible. But honestly, I don't care. Not. At. All. " Cat murmurs. "I want to know… where exactly you're shipments are going. Where you're storing your shipments. And lastly, who you've kept in your employ to keep you… fully stocked."
The mask leans in closer, the surgical blade held up just in front of his open eye. "Want to hear something fascinating? There is a muscle behind the eye, called the trigeminal nerve, that can cause the most excruciating pain you will ever feel in your life. And I promise you… it will feel like an eternity." A smile can almost be heard in her voice. "If I go on long enough, you can go blind. And if you struggle, I could accidentally lobotomize your brain. We can't have that, now could we."
Akane tilted her head, a quirked eyebrow behind the mask. An interesting if dangerous way to start an interrogation. But this was Cat's show. And Akane could replace an eye easily so she did not interfere. Merely sat there silent and watching, unmoving.
Shinjuko glances around the world for a few moments as the Cat talks. Then she shows him the blade. "I think you have the wrong idea about me. Trafficking? Must be someone else. I am a school teacher." he says pretty plainly. He's trying to play stupid. "Please do not take my eye." He seems to be showing no real sign of fear yet. Maybe he does not believe her.
"Oh, you've mistaken. I apologize, perhaps I should clarify." Cat says a little too sweetly. "I'm not going into your eye. I'm going above it. Right, in, there." The tip of the blade circles in a vague gesture towards his eye socket. "I'm just going to poke at it, nothing too… long-term. I assure you." Again Cat seems to smile behind her mask. "And by the way… your wife and children. If you don't tell us what we want to know, we'll kill them after we've killed you." her voice sudden becomes cold. "We will hunt them down one by one. And then we will kill the rest of your family, and every employee, accomplice, ****, even next door neighbor. But one step at a time. Now… this." And just like she said, Cat pushes the tip of the blade above his eye, into the socket itself. Isn't even a moment and she hits that nerve. He'll find that she's deathly serious about this.
A school teacher. Well, that made him even less on Akane's scale of empathetic subjects. She again did not move or speak as Cat spoke to the man, threatening him with words and then a hint of pain.
As she speaks Shujiko just stares at her. He begins to speak but she pushes the blade into the space between his eye and the socket. He screams and his body attempts to lurch forward. Despite the restraints, his head manages to move just slightly. Enough to push the blade slightly further causing some more damage. Within seconds the man passes out from the pain and the screaming stops. He's out cold.
Passed out from the pain, Cat quickly withdraws the blade and exhales a small sigh to herself. "Fragile…" she mutters, placing the blade on the nearest table only to pick up a vial. Smelling salts. Giving the bound Shujiko a speculative look and a pause, once it's evident that he wasn't going to wake up on his own, she hovers the vial beneath his nose and waits.
Akane tilted her head as the man screamed and she mentally counted down aaaand out cold. Traffickers were nothing but pathetic whiney babies most of the time. This one was no different it seemed.
Tsiro sat in the corner. The cat had made a large threat and then when she went to act on it, she knocked him out. It was not the direction he would have went. Still, this was her interrogation and he wanted to see where she would take it. His eyes scan from her towards the bird. He did not need to hear her voice to know what she was thinking. It was kind of her purpose here. That way they could standardize the torture program.
Shujiko starts to sniff the salts. Eventually, the non-messed with eye opens. "You were right. That hurt." In a sense, she was looking that his lurching did not cause the needle to go deeper. It more or less looked like it just cost him use of one eye. "Kill my family. It's going to happen anyway." His eye looks down as he tries to make peace with what's about to happen.
Cat exhales another audible sigh as she closes and sets down the vial. "And I also told you that if you moved, it could possibly lobotomize you. Do you really want to die?" she asks. "That's not why we're here, you and me. I'm not here to kill you, Shujiko. I just want to know about your operations, that's it. As soon as you tell me what I want to know, all of this will end." Cat leans in close again. "Until you tell me, I will draw out the pain as much as possible, for as long as possible. Always keeping you at the edge of death. But you're the one that decides just how long the pain will last. Do you understand? Shujiko."
Akane rolled her eyes behind the mask at the man's reaction. Kill his family, kill the kids, sell them as slaves…. All the same with these people. She shook her head slightly but otherwise did not move. As an observer delegated to making sure he didn't die… Not much to do with such a scene. She wondered if the man honestly understood shinobi torture anyway. Akane certainly did. Many forms of it. And how to resist it.
Shujiko began to laugh a little. "You must think I'm an idiot. I'm being tortured in a dark room. I know the options. Among them is not the go home and kiss my kids, then tuck them in. If you do not kill them. My employer kills them. They may have already killed them. I certainly am not leaving this room alive." he states in defiance. "That's what I understand."
"I'll think you're an idiot if you put yourself in unnecessary pain. I already said that I would stop when you tell me what I want to know." Cat makes a mental note to herself as she picks up another blade, one that's clean. And the other hand takes up a pair of pliers. Shujiko had let it slip that he has an employer. That meant that they possibly had other people in their employ. Selling children might just be the tip of the iceberg. "The next thing I'm going to do… is cut off your pinkie finger," Cat announces. "Unless you tell me what I want to know. And you know I'll do it. I already proved it to you."
And here it was. As imbecilic and immoral the guy was he was a pragmatist. He knew they wouldn't let him out. He knew how this would end and he had no faith in the safety of his family even if he cared about them. Which, Akane wasn't certain he did. Yuriko's next threat made the medic turn to peer at Tsiro for a moment before returning to her motionless position.
Already his voice was getting on her nerves. If it wasn't because she needed information out of him, she might have already slashed at his vocal cords. This time Cat holds back the sigh she felt, instead of using the pliers to grip the end of the finger. "A little pain might be a good thing, but then there's you. Stupidly accepting it for no reason whatsoever." Cat murmurs, the pliers tightening their grip on him. "One last chance, before you lose it."
Akane saw Tsiro's nod and sighed quietly. Even her roughest session had been more planned and finessed than this. Jumping straight to amputation? Internally, mentally, Akane shrugged to herself. The **** deserved whatever he got. And she had nothing to do with this. Unless the 'point' to her being here was to merely humor her request to Tsiro or to see if she could stomach watching as someone is tortured…. Akane saw little need for her presence.
Tsiro stands up. He moves towards the man. "One moment Cat." is all he says before reaching out for a vial on the table. "In the training book, you should have read about this substance. This substance enters the blood stream. It causes an intense burning throughout the body as it travels the stream. Once it enters the lungs, it will cause them great inflammation. The pain lasts for about four hours. There is a bit of permanent damage but it will not kill him. It will leave him paralyzed. When he said he would not leave this room alive, he was wrong. He will leave this room on a gurney and be brought to the hospital where he will wither away to a husk of nothingness. He will be fed with a tube and defecate into a tube. He may live for twenty years or twenty days. Its not really an exact science yet." With that, Tsiro hands the vial gently to the girl training. "Be very careful with that. You would not want that entering your blood stream." He then turns and walks back to his seat.
"Go ahead and… what are you doing?" Shujiko asks as Tsiro steps up. He listens to the description of the vial that the man handed the masked woman. "Your kidding right?" he says as his eyes start to grow wide. It was clear that his attention was now more on being serious. A bit of sweat seems to pour down the man's face. He began to struggle as if thinking he might be able to get free.
The blade is halted just in time, hovering right above his hand as Tsiro interjects. The cat mask tilts up at him as she listens in silence, straightening when he starts to go into detail about the damage the toxin in the vial would do to Shujiko. Essentially, he would be stuck in his own body, a vegetable for who knows how long. "Hm. That does sound like an excellent alternative." Cat agrees, the pliers letting go of his finger as it and the blade are set aside once more. "I wonder what would happen if we did a little at a time… it'll probably be even slower. No way to calculate if it'll even happen at all." The vial is placed in her hand, and Cat nods to Tsiro just before he takes a seat. Then, her full attention turns towards Shujiko, studying him for a dramatic pause before she pulls away, just long enough to reach for a syringe. "Where are your shipments going?" Cat repeats her questions. "Who employs you? Where are you storing your shipments? And who works for you?"
Akane watched Tsiro interject to stop amputation with something that would render the subject just as useless as cutting his throat. She shook her head slowly and sighed. Yet again, it did not matter and she had nothing to add.
Shujiko gives thrashing a few more moments before he realizes its a pointless effort. "Fine," he states with a sigh. His shoulders slump and he starts thinking. "The shipments go to the Yakuza. They have people in all five nations. Most run gambling houses. Some run ramen shops. No one works for me. I'm a pawn of the Yakuza. The kids arent stored. They are ordered before being selected. You don't want people asking questions if they see kids being put in a shed. Can I die now?" he finally asks.
Shujiko… spins the beans rather quickly. Cat lifts a brow behind her mask and glances over her shoulder, gauging Tsiro for a short pause. "That isn't for me to decide." she murmurs firmly to the strapped man, only to turn her focus on Tsiro instead. "Is there anything else you would like to know?" Cat asks, curious as her gaze falls on Shujiko again. "He seems to be telling the truth at least… what do you think?"
Akane simply waited for Tsiro to cast judgment on the man and his truth. A coward through and through, dealt with coarsely by novices. She stayed silent and immobile and waited as she had since she had been directed to sit and do nothing.
Tsiro looks at the prisoner for a moment. "Keep him alive for the moment. We need to verify this is the truth. Cat, you are free to go. Bird, I require that you stay here for a few moments to speak." Tsiro then stands up from the chair and moves towards the prisoner. He wasn't sure if Cat realized it or not but the vial actually contained something different. It was a vial of water. It was learning experience for the young girl. Over all, she gave it a shot and might have gotten him to talk in the end. It likely would have been seven fingers later but that was the point of this exercise.
The vial in question is set down with the syringe, before Cat steps away and bends in a low bow. "As you command." she murmurs. Not even straightening as the flickering of her after-image soon fades into nothing. Disappearing altogether.
Akane lifted an eyebrow behind her mask but simply waited for Cat to exit, not even acknowledging the 'bird' in the room even then, and for Tsiro to speak.
"Currently the training program is a book that trainees get and then decide to go their own way with. This is not the first time something like this has been rather rough when there was no need for it. You asked to witness and give commentary. The reason I accepted your proposal is that I want to have this program reworked." Tsiro states as he walks towards the bound man. He grabs a different vial and takes the syringe. He fills it then stabs the victim in the neck. He then whispers, "Sleepy time." Tsiro then turns back towards Akane. "Yes, I could have simply asked you to interrogate the man. That would not have gotten my point across. I am looking to standardize this. So that any hunter-nin could do this. What do you think?" he asks.
Akane waited in silence as Tsiro spoke and injected the man with something to put him out. For a long moment, she simply sat there, silent and immobile as a statue. Finally, she stood and removed her mask. Her displeasure was obvious. "I think your prized student has a very long way to go if she would ever hope to break and extract information from anyone but a coward such as this." She indicated the man on the table.
"I have experienced interrogations that made this look like a child at play. If this is what Kirigakure has to offer when Ishino is not personally involved… We have no chance of extracting actually needed information from subjects." For a moment she paused wondering if she was some kind of psychotic connoisseur of torture. Her hand skimmed the tools and she shook her head again.
"Going directly for the pain points is amateurish. What idiot wrote this so called manual?"
Tsiro's head tilted a moment. "I think you are under the wrong impression Akane. I brought in a student. She has no background in torture. None of them do. They get a wrinkled manual that says there are three types of interrogation. The rest is usually left to them. Yes, she made a move that was a bit harsh, but she gave an effort. I am asking you to make a routine to follow. Maybe an actual manual. As for the extraction of information. I have always been more than capable of doing so. I nor Ishino will be around forever. It would be nice to ensure the future has their tools. Now calm yourself."
"You seem to misunderstand, Tsiro. I am fully calm. I am merely disgusted. Had I remained as a spy for Konoha I might have been brought down here myself. But if this is what the current 'manual' dictates, even for novices…" She shook her head and turned to the man on the slab. She sighed and reached out, one hand hovering over his face as she healed his eye with or without permission. He would be worth more to the actual interrogators whole. And might be more willing to speak given such a turn of events.
"You want me to write a new protocol? Then the ANBU will have to work with me. Your interrogators need practice and against someone with fortitude. Not a wretch like this. What was your intention here, Tsiro? Testing to see if I'll crack watching as someone is harmed? I asked to learn from those more skilled than myself and instead you ask me to teach? Enlighten me."
"You called her my prized student. That implies one of two things. That either I believe she is advanced in this ability or that I somehow have feelings for her. We are going to assume you meant that she was adept in this ability which I have informed you is incorrect." Tsiro stated coldly. "I have trained two in the ways of the hunter-nin. Both are extremely capable of interrogation. During their first, I gauge what they believe torture is. Very few are actually good at it to begin with. I do not train them on someone who has information we actually need. I already know what he knows. We had people track the deliveries. So yes, if I am to deal with the daily mizukage affairs, I will need someone to ensure this is no longer a tribal training program."
Akane sighed and ran a hand over her eyes for a moment. She seemed to collect herself and then turned back to take in the Mizukage standing before her. She had pushed him, nearly if not insulting him and she had noted the cold tone in his voice. Good.
Lifting her chin she faced him head on, her eyes shining in the dim light a strange deep green. She turned away and looked at the table again, the tools there and shook her head. Her voice was a purr when she spoke again. "These tools are nothing compared to what could have been done or used." She looked back at Tsiro and a hint of a smile crossed her lips, a dark satisfaction or enjoyment. "I had nearly lost all hope in you Mizukage when you offered her the so-called drug. I did not think you to be so stupid. At least I was right about that. But these?" She looked at the table again. "These are nothing."
She took a breath and forced it out, turning back toward Tsiro. "So what, then? I write a book? Do I train live students? I must admit, as much as I would have enjoyed seeing and hearing a skilled interrogator on this ****, I'm a little confused what you really want me to do."
"Lets start with a book and then go from there." Tsiro states. "One day we you may get your wish to watch a student become a skilled interrogator."
