CHAPTER R11: INTERROGATION

(RIDE'S POV)

In an empty building near an abandoned courtyard was a man wearing mobster like clothing and tied onto a chair. He was struggling to free himself but the ropes held him to chair tightly. His mouth gagged with a piece of cloth so the only thing he could do was grumbled pointlessly as he tried to break free of his hold. The swordmaster who captured the man was now doing one last check on the building, to make sure that we were completely isolated from bystanders. Whatever she planned to do, she didn’t want anybody to find out. She even brought us cheap masks to hide our identity.

As I saw the man struggling, I thought to myself. Is this the right thing to do? It feels like we were about to do something really shady here. We were basically about to, according to Effinshia, ‘beat the crap out' of this guy. There was also the fact that we were hiding this from the guards. I kinda went with the flow when Effinshia brought the man to us, but now when I think about it, this is breaking the law isn’t it? She mentioned that there is still a bigger fish out there and that this man will lead us to them. But is it truly okay to take matters into our hands? Something very vigilante-esque like this?

“Coast is clear,” Effinshia said as she finished her checking. She then motioned for us to gather around her, away from the man tied to the chair. 

“Is the mask really necessary?” Kranis asked as we walked over, pointing to the mask that he was wearing over his face. He tried to keep it on, but the cheap mask just kept sliding away slowly.

“Of course it is. Do you want him to expose ya all when he inevitably gets found by the guards? I’m sure you realised by now. We are doing this off the books. Sides, I think it’s cooler to have masks on.” 

Tyle adjusted his mask awkwardly, the glasses he wore made it uncomfortable for him to wear. “Yeah, we noticed.”

“Why are we not bringing him to guards again?” Scorch asked.

Effinshia took a moment to think about it before looking at us. “I might as well be frank with you all, I guess. I want to beat the crap out of whoever the ringleader of this operation is. If we get the guards involved, then I won’t be able to do it. Not without going against the authorities at least. Pfft, I doubt the guards could get anything out of the guy anyways.”

“That’s… quite the straightforward answer…” I said.

“These guys hurt Vidya. I just want to hurt them back. Also, I made a vow to myself to personally stop this entire operation. And there is the matter of the requester, I’m curious to figure out who it is.”

“...”

“Look, I’m not forcing ya all to do this. We can call this off if you want, I’m fine with it. I know this isn’t exactly the right thing to do, but trust me when I say that this guy had it coming,” Effiinshia looked towards the man.

Kranis stretched out his arms before letting out a huge yawn. “We are already here, might as well go through.”

“Yeah,” I said.

Scorch and Tyle nodded as well.

“Anything we can help you with?” Scorch asked

“You guys being here is enough. It’s much more intimidating having several people surround the guy rather than just me—” Effinshia then put her hand under her chin, thinking about something. “Actually, could you all watch the courtyard? In case someone comes near?”

“Oh, alright,” Scorch responded before walking towards the exit. I followed Scorch along with the others.

“Not you Lucky Boy. You stay here.” Effinshia rested her arm over my shoulders before dragging me over to the man.

“Huh?” I asked, dumbfounded.

“I need your help interrogating this man. We are going to do an old-time favourite trick of mine. The good cop and the bad cop. You the good cop, I’m the bad cop.” She explained to me as we made our way to the man. The others just wave me good luck and left the building to stand guard outside.

Dammit, I got ditched.

“I don’t… really know anything about this cop thing. I’m not very good at things like this.“ 

“Oh? Don’t worry about it, really. It’s pretty simple. I will be the bad guy. I'll rough him up and when I go a bit ‘too far’, you come in and stop me. Then you whisper sweet words to his ear. You just need to say that you don’t know what I will do next and that it’s best for him to tell the truth. Done. Simple as that.” Effinshia explained to me the trick behind ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’.

“I’m not sure if I get it. I think Kranis would do better at this don’t you think?” I tried to excuse myself out of this.

“No. I need an honest to earth good guy for this. Don’t worry about it.” Effinshia’s atmosphere changed all of a sudden, to a more serious one- “By the time I’m done with this guy, you’ll be the best cop he’s ever met.” Her voice so cold, it almost gave me shivers.

I was too intimidated by it to talk back.

“I’m not going to mince words here kid. It’s not going to be pretty. You are gonna feel disgusted about this. Just know that it’s all an act. Mostly.” She then looked at me, waiting for a response. Despite the mask hiding her face, I could still feel the weight behind her stare.

“...I understand.” 

Effinshia then moved one step to the man before letting out a sigh.“I understand If you really don’t want to do this you know, we can call this off if you want.” 

“No no! I can do this.”

I think.

“You sure?”

I thought about the event just this morning. Right before we told the guild about the hideout. My feelings when I saw all those people being carried into the building like they were just some junk to be disposed of. Effinshia mentions that it was just a small part of a bigger organisation. If doing this means that they won’t be able to continue operating in the city then maybe this is the right thing to do after all.

“Yeah,” I said to her. Resolution in my voice.

“Alright then. Let’s begin” Effinshia said as she cracked her knuckles.

Or at least I'm hoping it's the right thing to do.

* * * * *

“I’m not going to tell you fools jack shit!” The mobster shouted at us once we removed the cloth in his mouth. “All of you can go to hell! You—”

*PAK

I got a bit startled when Effinshia immediately slapped the man in the face. No words, no warning, just a cold hard slap to the face. I could tell from the sound that it was a hard slap too. Actually, it might actually be a smack rather than a slap.

The mobster reeled from the pain before throwing a mean glare at us, “I—”

*PAK

Effinshia threw another slap to the man before he could even finish talking. This time on the other cheek. She then grabbed the man by his hair and threw him to the sides. He fell to the floor, still stuck to the chair. His head hitting the floor pretty hard as he let out groans of pain. I could see a small trickle of blood coming out from the man’s nose.

Just how hard did she hit him…?

“I’m only going to ask nicely once. Where is the location of the rest of your hideouts? Whos your boss? Where I can find him?” Effinshia asked. Her voice so intimidating that even I involuntarily took a step back away from her.

“Urghhh,” The man didn’t answer as he was still recovering from the pain inflicted on him just now.

*Boosh!

“Oof!”

Effinshia didn’t even wait for the guy to recover. She immediately kicked the man in the stomach. “Speak up, I know you’re tougher than this. Don’t be playing like you can’t take a hit.”

*Boosh!

She gives the man another kick, this time to his face. The man was now bleeding heavily from his nose. It looked sore and broken.

“Um…. Miss Effinshia… aren’t we going a little bit too carried away here?”  I raised my voice towards the Azure Eyed Woman.

“They won’t talk unless we go this far. Don’t worry, he won’t die from that. A few months to heal the broken nose probably.” Effinshia replied as she stared down upon the man. “Speak up. I can do much worse.”

“Urghh… PEH!” The man threw out a spit towards Effinshia, which she dodged with ease.

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*Boosh!

Effinshia threw another kick as a response. 

“Guhak!”

This time the kick was so strong that the man was sent back a few meters alongside the chair. Effinshia then crouched down near the man and grabbed his hands. She held up his pinky finger.

Is she going to do what I think she’s going to do...?

*Crack

“AHHHHHHH!” The man screamed in agony as she broke his pinky finger. His body convulsed as he spun around in place.

It was just a broken finger and yet the man yelled in pain as if it was something else that broke. Effinshia must have done something. Something more than just breaking his finger.

“Pain’s different ain’t it? Names, locations. Now. I got nine more of these.” Effinshia moved to the ring finger.

“.... Wait…” The man begged, his expression full of pain. “AHHHHHHHH.”

Effinshia didn’t wait and snapped his ring finger.  It didn’t just stop there, she continued to break more of his fingers. His screams were never-ending. 

“Eight. *Crack* Seven. *Crack* Six. *Crack*. Running out of time here. You don’t want me to count to zero.” She said once she completely broke all of the fingers the man had on his left hand. The fingers twisted and pointed at different directions.

Effinshia then cut the ropes to free the man before grabbing his arm. In an unnatural display of strength, she brought the man up from the floor by his arm before twisting it. Cracking sounds could be heard from the man's joints.

"ARGHHHHH!"

It was as if the man's arm was noodles. As if nothing but a limp piece of flesh just hanging from the man. He screamed in such a way that I found it hard to describe. I involuntarily touched my right arm, thinking about the times Effinshia had twisted it to see my palms.

I felt nauseous just looking at the scene. An uncomfortable burn in my throat that I cannot swallow. The man only screamed in pain. But Effinshia was cold. Unfazed. She went to grab his other hand.

“Wait! Urghh... I’ll tell you everything, please stop!”

*Crack

“Ahhhhhh!” The man screamed as Effinshia broke the pinky finger of his other hand.

I just stood there, paralyzed at the scene unfolding in front of me. At the rate that this was going the man was going to die. I got to do something. Anything. 

But my legs were heavy. It was hard for me to go up against the woman who I knew could kill me in an instant. It was as if the person in front of me was not the bubbly, carefree and overly relaxed woman that I came to know these past few days. It was as if I’m staring at a doll of sorts. A doll with an emotionless mask.

The same woman that was now staring directly at me. Her hands holding the ring finger of the man. She gave me a quick nod.

Good cop, bad cop…

Was this really all just an act? Forcing myself to swallow the spit in my mouth, I gathered the courage to step forward.

“Wait! I think that’s enough!” I ran up to the man and ‘freed’ his hand from Effinshia. 

Effinshia noticed the cue and backed away from the man. Not before giving a menacing ‘Hmpph’ and folding her arms.

“Look man, just speak up alright. I don’t know what will happen to you if you don’t.”

Is that how it works? I just needed to say that right?

The man slowly moved his working arm to grab me. Shaking, begging. “Please, I’ll tell everything. Just make her stop. It hurts—AAHHHHH!” He suddenly screamed right in front of me causing me to stumble backwards.

“Then talk,” Effinshia said. Her legs on the man’s feet. The feet that were no longer in the right direction.

“There is, there is a hideout!  Near the market district!! An alleyway with the barber! And another one...—”

The man went on and told us everything that he knew about the other hideouts. Effinshia only took out a notebook from her pouch and wrote down the details. Sometimes asking back to the man for more details. Once the man has finally revealed all the places, Effinshia bent the feet of his other leg.

More screams of agony escaped the man.

“That can’t be it. I know there’s more. Who's your boss? What business entity is backing you up? I know you are getting the manpower from somewhere.”

“MORRELLO. That’s the boss’s name! He has a friend that owns a sweatshop. Men for hire. That’s all I know! Really!” The man said.

Effinshia wrote it all down in her notebook. Before putting her leg onto the man’s stomach. “Where is your boss?” She asked.

“I don’t know! Please… Please… Please—ARGHHHH!!” The man screamed again as Effinshia’s leg dig deep into his stomach. It looked as if she was just stepping on him, It didn’t look like it hurt all that much. However, the screams from the man indicate otherwise. I didn’t know what it was that Effinshia did but must have hurt a lot.

“Just talk man,” I said.

“I don’t know! I really don't! Please make it stop! ARGGHHHH!” The man struggled for a while before I sniffed a very pungent odour. 

“Tsk.” Effinshia backed away from the man. I backed away as well when I realised had happened.

“I don’t know… I don’t know… I don’t know…” The man was now just sobbing on the floor. Broken. A shell of the man that we brought into the building earlier.

“Looks like that’s as much as we can pull out from the guy. Sorry you have to see all that kid. I didn’t expect to have to go that far,” Effinshia took off her mask. 

“O...Ohh..”

“Come on, let’s go. We got all that we need.” Effinshia placed her notebook back into her pouch before walking towards the exit. Her face so still it might as well have been carved from stone.

Avoiding the broken man, I followed behind Effinshia while taking off my mask in the process. “Are we? Just going to leave him here?”

“His injuries are not fatal. It will take a while for him to heal up everything though. The guards will probably come by this place soon anyways. No need for us to go out of our way.”

“I see…”

I squeezed my shaking right arm tightly before making a mental note to myself. Never piss her off. Dying would be the least of my worries.

* * * * *

“Are you okay Ride? You look a little bit pale.” Lanarya’s brought her face closer to mine. Her minty breath tickled my nose.

Your face is a little bit too close there.

“Um… Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just a little bit tired. That’s all.” I replied, looking away slightly.

Lanarya backed away to her seat. “Oh alright… You should get some rest if that’s the case.”

“Yeah...I think I will, after this.”

I didn’t realise how shaken I was until later that night when all of us were at the dining table having dinner. Just the party ‘Providence’ and Vidya. Effinshia said that she was going to investigate some of the areas further during the night and told us that we should take a rest seeing as we stayed awake throughout the night.

It struck me as odd that she would say that considering that she too stayed awake throughout the night. Rather does she even sleep at all? She’s been going out every night ever since we met. Maybe she sleeps in between or something? 

“You sure you’re okay dude? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” Kranis asked.

I might as well have to be completely honest.

“Was it because of the interrogation? Did something happen in there with the both of you?” Scorch asked.

“Yeah, what happened in there, dude? I could hear the man screamed all the way from out there.” Kranis asked.

Tyle fixed his glasses before asking me:- “I’m curious as well as to what happened in there.”

“Interrogation? What interrogation?” Lanarya asked, not knowing what we were talking about.

Kranis looked upwards trying to recall the events that happened earlier. “Like remember when we told you about the raid? It was after that when the old hag brought this dude that looked like he came from a high-class gang or something. Then we bought him to like some unknown building. The old hag said she was going to beat him for more information on the slave traders or something. Even brought us masks and stuff."

Lanarya looked a little bit dissatisfied, “What? Muuu, you guys never told me about this! I wanted to help out too.”

“Effinshia said to not involve you two. So we didn’t. Besides, it’s not like we did anything much anyways. All we did is stood outside a door,” Tyle said.

“Muuuu. So? What happened in there Ride?” Lanarya asked me. Her eyes were excited.

Aren't you a little too excited about this? Come to think of it, she was unnaturally into in during that time in the bar as well.

“Well…”

.. ..

.. ..

.. ..

.. ..

“Fuehh?! Sis Effy did what?!” Vidya yelled out. Her calm and compose image broke instantly.

I told everything that happened in that building, minus the scary and disturbing part.

“Yeah. She literally beat the crap out of the guy.”

“She didn’t force you or anything did she?” Vidya asked, her face full of worry.

“No, I’m the one who agreed to it. It’s just that I didn’t expect it to be so…. Brutal. I really didn’t expect Miss Effinshia to be a person who would go that far.”

He may be a bad person, but to beat him up till the point...

“I see… It’s all because of me, isn’t it? She always looks fine and normal around me. I should have known that she would be hurt as well. I guess she's just that good at hiding her true emotions.” Vidya looked downhearted at the revelation.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Nothing! I'm sure that man deserved it!" Lanarya interjected all of a sudden. "Miss Effinshia is not a bad person! She probably has her reasons!"

Lanarya… you are terrible at hiding things. The others seemed to have caught on as well and were listening in with more interest than before.

Vidya let out a silent sigh. "It's ok Lana. I don't mind telling them the truth."

"The truth?" Tyle asked.

"But Viddy!"

"It's alright really. I'm not that upset anymore you know." Vidha gave Lanarya a gentle smile.

"... Alright…" Lanarya backed away. Her shoulders slumped down.

"What's this about? You make it sound like the old hag has another agenda." Kranis asked.

Vidya took a deep breath to calm herself before saying:- "I think Sis Effy is trying to get revenge for my deceased brother. It's best if I explained from the beginning...—"

Vidya told us everything about what had happened to these past few weeks. About how she had a younger brother named Korva. About how Vidya realised he had caught the purple skin. How she couldn't find any Kruu Leaves to cure her brother. 

She said that she found out from a merchant friend that there was a big carriage group that was said to be carrying a shipment of Kruu leaves from Cezza to Luth E'll. They were selling the leaves for an extreme amount which prevented Vidya from obtaining them. But when Vidya finally got the money to buy it, they suddenly refused to sell Vidya the leaves. Having no other real option left to her, Vidya resorted to stealing from the carriage group. She then found out about the true content of the shipment and it turned out to be the slave trader group that we are investigating right now. She was caught and chained immediately after.

She assumed It was around this time that Effinshia arrived and started taking care of Vidya's younger brother. According to Vidya, they formed quite a close bond during that short time. It seemed to match our timeline of the event too. Effinshia’s reason for getting the Kruu Leaves suddenly make sense now. Why she was willing to go as far as to fight two lesser Supremes to get those leaves and why she was in such a hurry to get back to Cezza as soon as she got the leaves. Unfortunately, Effinshia was too late in saving the boy and he perished.

Vidya kind of glossed over the next few events about how she got saved and about a funeral or something? She was clearly hiding something from us, but we didn't pry further. It probably had nothing to do with the current matter anyways. She did mention that she and Effinshia were currently in the city to find 'Closure'. Effinshia somewhat dragging her to Luth E'll against her will.

“I’m afraid she is using me as an excuse to pursue her own revenge. Sis Effy had been so kind and gentle to me. I don’t want her to hurt herself further because of me…”

All of us just kept quiet at the revelation. I think I kinda understand now.

“Let’s follow her tomorrow!” Lanarya proposed to us.

“Huh?”

Lanarya pumps her fist in front of us.“She’s going to find their boss right? We can put an end to this and help out Miss Effinshia at the same time!"

“I don’t think she needs help Lana,” Kranis said.

“She may not need physical help, but she’s going to need emotional help! We should just be there for her! After all that she’s done for us, it’s the least we can do to pay her back!”

“Lana…” Vidya looked to her newly made friend before nodding to herself. “ I want to help out too! Please...”

I looked towards the guys only to see that they agreed somewhat to it. I could only give my own nod towards the two girls. They beamed back bright smiles.

* * * * *

*Pak *Pak *Pak

And unnatural tapping sound was heard as I looked around. Endless white surrounding me.

This place...

*Pak *Pak *Pak

The sound grew louder. I turned around to find the source of the sound. Looking left and right, every direction that I could.

*Pak *Pak *Pak

What appeared in front of me was the image of a young girl with purple hair running furiously towards me.

*Pak *Pak *Pak

I tried to talk but found that I was not able to. She only jumped high into the air.

"You are an embarrassment! Grow some balls, you useless master!" She yelled out at the top of her lungs. Before landing on the top of my face with both her legs.

She did a dropkick on me.

"Uwahh!!" I yelled out in pain before realizing that I am now wide awake on the bed. I turned around to look at the bed only to see an eerie glowing purple sword lying next to me.

What in the world…