A/N: Hey everyone! First off, thanks as always for giving this new story a chance. I really wanted to experiment with a different genre this time around since my first 2 stories on this account were humour related. This one is going to be pretty dark and disturbing, so if that's not your thing you should probably leave. It's also slightly AU but nothing too major. The story is rated M because I'll be going into some pretty detailed descriptions of interrogation and blatant torture later on. With that said, enjoy and as always, reviews are welcome.
Loyalty - Prologue: Change of Plans
Tsubaki Yayoi stood nervously outside her superior's door, wondering if there was any way she could possibly avoid having to open it. Captain Hazama seemed rather unstable to her to say the least, and every meeting she had with him usually left her feeling even more hollow and alone than she currently was.
Even if he didn't give her more near-impossible orders, Hazama would give Tsubaki a painful reminder of her current ones – to eliminate two of her three closest friends – orders which the lieutenant had luckily failed to follow so far.
She was secretly very relieved about that, and was still looking for a way out of completing her mission, to no avail.
Of course, this was a major factor concerning Tsubaki's desire to avoid this meeting. Hazama could very well be quite upset with her at the moment, considering she'd already had to go through three progress reports with him, every one of which she was forced to admit that she hadn't really accomplished much.
Sighing heavily, the reluctant girl slowly raised her fist up to the door and knocked twice. After a moment, Hazama's disturbingly cheerful voice echoed from the other side.
"Ah, come in, First Lieutenant."
Taking a moment to straighten up her posture and gather her wits somewhat, Tsubaki entered the office. Her captain was leaning back against the front of his desk – a position she always tended to find him in during these meetings. It ticked her off to no end, considering the fact that even though he had a rather high rank it seemed that he strove to always act unprofessional.
...Or at least he did around her. Like he didn't really care that much what she thought about him. Which is probably true, Tsubaki reasoned.
At the sound of his door opening, Hazama raised his head slightly to regard his subordinate. His unnerving yellow eyes were still hidden beneath his fedora, which the lieutenant was completely fine with.
"You needed me, Captain?"
Hazama crossed his arms, the majority of his face still more or less hidden. "I've got good news and bad news for you, Miss Yayoi. Which do you want first?"
At the sound of good news, a flare of hope rose up in Tsubaki. Could she actually be exempt from killing her friends? Perhaps it had been decided that they were only to stand trial and could possibly avoid execution all together! If that was the case, then she would gladly take any other orders without question. She just needed to know her friends had a chance.
As long as she knew that, she'd be more than willing to take any amount of terrible news this awful man could throw at her.
"The good news first, if that's alright Captain."
Hazama pushed himself off the desk and finally looked straight at her. It took all of Tsubaki's willpower to not look away under his piercing gaze. She was expecting him to be smiling, but instead he looked a tad bit annoyed.
"You've been exempt from your orders...got something else I need you to deal with. Rather urgent."
At his words, Tsubaki's heart soared for the first time in a long while. It felt as if an invisible weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She knew that nothing could possibly be worse than ending the lives of the people she cared about most, and for the first time since meeting him, she actually liked Hazama, if only a little.
Bowing once, Tsubaki allowed herself a small smile. "Thank you very much sir. I...I was having quite a hard time dealing with what I needed to do. I'm truly grateful that you understand-"
"Yeah yeah," Hazama waved her off quickly. He then flashed her the widest grin she'd seen from him yet. "Now onto the bad news!"
Tsubaki's nervousness rekindled at the fact that his tone was even more pleasant now than before. In fact, he almost sounded ecstatic. Reminding herself that anything was still better than killing Jin and Noel, she nodded once, ignoring his utterly baffling excitement.
"Yes, Sir."
Her superior tilted his hat back down a bit to cover his eyes. "Follow me, Miss Yayoi."
With that, Hazama strode out of his office rather abruptly. Tsubaki hurriedly quickened her pace to keep up with him, which proved a tad more difficult than she assumed it would. He seemed to be itching to get to wherever their destination was, which again made her even more uneasy, if that was even possible.
Together, the two descended down various levels of the Kagutsuchi Branch and traversed through many winding halls. They were soon in an area that Tsubaki had only heard of but was all too glad to not be a part of:
The Interrogation Wing.
The lieutenant was suddenly beginning to realize what Hazama wanted from her, although it was still mostly speculation at this point. She wasn't trained in proper and, more importantly, approved interrogation methods, so at least she didn't have to bloody her hands at all...
...right?
So caught up in her thoughts, Tsubaki almost didn't realize that her superior had stopped at a door at the very end of the hall. It looked to be made of an imposing, thick steel that almost seemed immovable. He turned to her, all traces of his smile having surprisingly vanished. "Ready for the bad news?"
"Yes, sir," she replied dutifully.
"Well then," Hazama twisted the door knob and gestured to her as it opened. "Ladies first."
Tsubaki had a bad feeling about this, but entered the room nonetheless. It was completely dark, and if it wasn't for the fact that she heard Hazama enter as well as he shut the door behind her, Tsubaki would have been a bit more cautious. Although to be honest, being here alone with him wasn't much better. Her footsteps echoed loudly throughout the room, the only sound she could hear as she searched for the light switch.
Just then however, she did heard something. That sounded like...a whimper?
"Damn light," Hazama growled as he fumbled around the wall for the switch. "Always forget where it is...ah here we are!"
Immediately after he had said the words, her superior flicked the single, dimly lit light on. And the sight that was presented to Tsubaki immediately made her gape and caused all the colour to leave her face.
Her third best friend, Makoto Nanaya, was chained to a wall, barely clothed in a ragged version of her battle outfit.
The squirrel beastkin's arms were held tightly above her head, wrists locked firmly by a strange looking green chain. Her ankles were locked in a similar fashion, and her tail was drooping rather pathetically behind her, almost grazing the cement floor. There were nasty looking gashes all along her exposed midriff and along her arms and legs, but her face was not visible since her head was hanging and her hair was draping over her face.
Tsubaki could only stare in shock at the sight of her best friend in such a defeated and disturbing position. She could only watch as Hazama walked up to Makoto and grabbed a handful of her hair as he roughly tugged her head up to meet his gaze.
"Wake up, furry," he ordered rather harshly. "You got a visitor."
Slowly, Makoto's auburn orbs became visible as she struggled to open up her eyelids. It was apparent that she hadn't been sleeping, but instead had next to no strength left – not even enough to keep her eyes open.
"Y-you..." she croaked out pitifully. Her voice sounded unbelievably strained, like she had been yelling and screaming for the whole day. "Get away from me."
"Hey now," Hazama looked fake upset. "Don't act like you normally do around your guest. It's impolite! I mean, she is nobility, y'know. Wouldn't want to be regarded even lower than you are already as a beastkin, would you?"
In a sudden burst of energy, Makoto managed to spit in Hazama's face. Tsubaki flinched at the action – the only thing her body would let her do right now – but her captain just laughed and looked completely calm as if this was a regular occurrence every time he interrogated her friend.
Hazama wiped his face slowly, his grin faltering the tiniest bit. "Guess I should have expected that. Oh well, I suppose class is out the window now, eh? Or maybe you never learned manners in the first place...I mean you do hail from a pretty pathetically poor squirrel den."
Tsubaki noticed Makoto's fists clench above her head as she growled at the man mocking her and her family. She appeared to be trying with all her might to break those odd green chains, but they didn't even budge. Hazama let himself chuckle at the scene.
"Careful, furry. You might just wear yourself out before you meet your guest."
He stepped aside then and turned to Tsubaki, allowing the two friends to finally lock eyes. Makoto's eyes widened, but she seemed at a loss for words. She also looked incredibly ashamed, causing a flood of emotions to run rampant through the lieutenant's mind.
Tsubaki didn't know if she should hit Hazama, try to free Makoto, or just leave the room and pretend this wasn't happening. It seemed all three weren't an option as her feet refused to move at all from the spot where she was currently standing.
Noticing the lack of words between the two, Hazama let out a rather mocking cackle. "Well what a reunion this turned out to be! Right First Lieutenant?"
At his words, anger flared up inside Tsubaki. She suddenly wanted to berate the man in front of her for his actions regarding her best friend. Sure, she didn't know what Makoto did exactly to deserve this treatment, but this could not be regulation procedure for interrogation.
"Sir..." she began slowly. "What is this?"
"This," Hazama pointed back towards the helpless girl against the wall, "is a beastkin, Miss Yayoi. A subspecies of a less...elegant nature than us humans. Some, like Nuts-For-Brains here, are actually pretty formidable physically. Most of 'em just take up space though. Valuable space – space that normal humans should be able to use for normal human things."
From behind the captain, Makoto grit her teeth at his obvious racism. "Y-you call this normal?"
Hazama glanced back at her in boredom before returning his gaze towards his subordinate. "They also never know when to shut the hell up."
Trying to shake off his degrading comments towards her best friend, Tsubaki regained her composure somewhat, although she was still actively trying not to look at Makoto. "I meant, why are you doing this to Private Nanaya? What crimes could she have possibly committed to deserve this treatment, Captain?"
Her superior stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, nothing much. Except of course for working behind our backs with Sector Seven and relaying rather...sensitive information to them. Oh, and we also have evidence that she's been in...less than hostile contact with Ragna the Bloodedge and your dearest Noel – who is now a traitor, in case you forgot."
He flashed her that awful grin and those horrid eyes once more. "That good enough for ya, Yayoi?"
Tsubaki was stunned into silence. Makoto too? How could her friends do this to her? It seemed every last person she cared about was turning their backs on not only her friendship, but also the NOL itself – an organization that Tsubaki considered to be her single most important reason for drawing breath. Tears started to well up in her sky blue eyes at the realization of yet another betrayal.
"I...how long?" It was the only thing Tsubaki could manage to ask right now.
Hazama didn't even seem phased by how distraught his subordinate was at the news. "Hm? You mean how long has she been stabbing you and all your fellow soldiers in the back?" He pulled out a small slip of paper from his back pocket and gave it a once-over.
"According to intelligence provided to me by a real intelligence officer, Miss Nanaya here has been with Sector Seven for approximately three to four months. Enough time to wire that bitch Kokonoe pretty much whatever information she would like regarding our many different operations within the NOL. The most important of which being our leads on the location of Rags, Noel and Jin – leads that we no longer have in our database, which basically means we have no idea where the biggest threats to the world are right now."
He lazily flung his hand back towards Makoto. "And it's all thanks to furry over here."
Tsubaki said nothing, but her gloved hands were now clenched into fists. She was staring down at the ground as she practically shook with anger. Hazama took this silence as an opportunity to egg the girl on even further.
"So yeah..." he stated in mock pity. "Not exactly what I'd call bestie material. Little too...treasonous for that, don't ya think?"
Tsubaki didn't move an inch from her previous position. She was inhaling very deeply and slowly, evidently trying to calm herself down enough to come to terms with the situation. It was then that she heard the last voice she wanted to hear at that moment.
"I-it's not what you think, Tsubaki..." Makoto managed to choke out. "I c-can explain-"
Before she knew what she was doing, the redhead had marched her right in front of her former friend's face and slapped her. Makoto gasped at the contact, probably not so much from the force of the hit but more due to who it came from.
"You were my last remaining friend...the only one I had left." It was the only words Tsubaki wanted to say to her right now.
"I s-still am..."
"You're dead to me."
"Actually," Hazama chose this moment to cut in, "she's still alive to you. At least for now she is. See, cause she obviously knows a whole crap-load of information that we would like to have back. And there's only one way to get it."
His eyes fell upon Tsubaki once again as he smirked at her. "That's where you come in, First Lieutenant."
A/N: Alright so that's the prologue to this story. Like I said it's going to be much more dark than most of what I've written before so take that into account if you're interested in reading this. I'd love to hear your first impressions so leave a review and I'll hopefully be back soon with an update!