Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem Fates!
So ends the really long chapters! This chapter is much shorter, although it is still wordier than I wanted it to be. Kudos to anyone that can guess what chapter 'K' stands for!
Judgement
n. the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions ; an opinion or conclusion.
Flannel, while horrible with directions, was a great judge of character. He knew this, and he loved surprising people with his accurate assessments. It was an innate talent, given that just by looking at someone, he could tell what kind of person they were.
Take Nishiki, for example. He was just as kind, caring, and energetic as he seemed, but Flannel knew more about his cunning side, and was aware of the ferocity and bloodlust that he kept hidden, just underneath the surface of his skin. Despite this, Flannel knew that Nishiki was a good guy all around, and more importantly, he was his best friend.
The same could be said of Kamui. Flannel had not forgiven them in the slightest, but he could not deny that they were still a good person. He sensed Kamui's unmatched kindness and honesty when they first met. As naive, forceful, and oblivious as Kamui was, there was no denying that their heart was in the right place, no matter how much Flannel wanted to go against it.
His analysis of others included Orochi, as well. She was his least favorite person at the moment, barely trailing behind Kamui for the number one spot. She was dishonest, petty, and mischievous, never going above tricking others for her own amusement. Even if she was a good listener or surprisingly empathetic, those kind qualities did not measure up to the more distasteful ones in Flannel's eyes. Yet somehow, Nishiki was getting closer and closer to her. How could such a shrewd, fatalistic human get so close to him in the first place? What spell did she cast on him that made him so amiable towards her, out of everyone else in the army?
Yet, as much as Orochi is known to belittle others, he knew that she would not stoop so low as to manipulate Nishiki with her magic. She would occasionally cast harmless little spells on Tsukuyomi or Asama, but her intentions never worsened beyond having a little fun. He wished it were not so, because if she were capable of hexing Nishiki in order to get closer to him, then Flannel would have had the perfect excuse to hate her.
But, sadly, she was above that. Orochi had used her natural thoughtfulness and enthusiasm to worm her way in, which is exactly what Flannel had feared. Because of that, his hate for her was all but unfair and unjustified, seeing as she had done nothing to wrong him personally.
The only fault that Orochi had was the innocuous way in which she fell further and further in love with Nishiki. And Flannel thought it was sickeningly unfair, especially since he had his eyes on Nishiki first.
...
"Flannel," Kamui said quietly, "we need to talk."
"No, we actually don't."
The noble sighed. "Please, I know you're still mad at me, but you can't just ignore me."
"I can, 'specially if you're just gonna feed me more sob stories about how sorry you are."
"I'm not," Kamui said. "I was just going to tell you that I'm specifically assigning you to prison duty today."
"Prison duty?" The wolf perked up, excited by the prospect. The jail was full of dust and spiders and other things that he considered to be treasures. He loved it in there, but was never assigned to work the guard shift due to his habit of scaring the prisoners and beating them within an inch of their lives. It was Kamui themselves who had banned him from going there in the first place.
So, what had made them change their mind? Surely it could not have been Flannel's good behavior as of late. The garou was suspicious of their sudden change of heart, and his excitement faltered as a result.
"Why me?" Flannel imposed. "Why now?"
"Because there's a job in there that I think only you can do," Kamui answered. "I thought it over, and I realized that out of everyone else in the army, no one could do the job better than you."
"Do what? All I have to do is guard the prisoners!"
"Today is different." The noble said. They started walking in the direction of the jail. Flannel had no choice but to follow afterward, purposely making sure that there was enough distance between him and Kamui to show that he was still offended by them.
They were silent for a few moments, before they came across the prison, its grey coloration making it look lonely and imposing.
Kamui resumed where they had left off. "Today, we have a certain group of prisoners. Usually Marx or Ryouma take care of them, but they were at odds at how to deal with these guys in particular. These prisoners are either going to be stuck in jail for a while, or they're going to be executed. It's a decision to see whether they live and die, and today that decision will fall to you."
...
Flannel was unsure what to make of all of it. On one hand, he loved prison duty more than anything, and even if it meant dealing with the worst humans in the world, he would look forward to collecting all the dust and bugs the place had to offer. On the other hand, he did not like the idea of having those humans' lives on his shoulders, even if he usually relished in their untimely deaths.
It was not because he suddenly thought that killing humans was wrong, (especially the traitorous kind), but he did not want his image in camp to be destroyed by whatever cruel judgement he dealt out. He did not want people like Elise or Sakura to think worse of him for his decisions. Flannel did not want everyone else to share the opinion that Kamui had of him, to think that he was some sort of monster with no control.
But most importantly, he did not want Nishiki to think that he had no remorse for humans, even if that was partly the truth.
As a result, he was not as compliant to the order as he should have been.
"You just want to pin the blame on me," Flannel insisted. "You thought it would be easy, to deflect the weight of those humans' lives on a garou's shoulder."
"Not at all!" Kamui denied. "No, that's not why I want you do it."
"Then why? What other reason could you have for asking me to do it, out of everyone? Harold and Suzukaze are pretty loyal, why not them? Or Zero or Joker, who don't give a damn about their reputation? Why me?" he echoed his earlier inquiry, as he was still not any more enlightened about Kamui's choice than before.
The dragon noticed this, and shook their head in disapproval. "Any of them would have been fine, I admit, but I wanted you to do it for a reason. That reason is your judge of character. Harold and Suzukaze are impartial enough, and Joker and Zero would have done the job without a second thought, but you just have this amazing ability to tell people apart from one another, without even knowing them. You can easily enough decide the fates of these prisoners, simply because your intuition is better than theirs."
"And you trust that?" Flannel hissed. "You trust my intuition?"
"I do," Kamui said. "I do, and I think you believe in it more than you care to admit."
"What does it even matter to you? You're the one that called me a monster."
"Not in those words, but if you're talking about the incident between us that happened some time ago, please know I've reconsidered my actions since then. And besides," they smirked, "I don't think a monster would have been would have been fighting with Nishiki to protect Cyrkensia, a human city, until the very end. When we first met, I thought that the city had meant so much to you, or that you must have had friends you were protecting since you were injured and in the heat of battle." Kamui's smirk softened, and their eyes were full of reminisce on the far gone memory.
"...But you didn't know anyone in that city, you didn't even know Nishiki, at that point. I realized that you're the type of person who doesn't just run into things blindly, or trust things because you can. You consider them, you judge them. And your judgement is good, and unbelievably accurate. That's why, above everyone else, I think you're the right person for the job. And no one will think badly of you for doing it, not when you'll make the right decision in the end."
And, just like that, Flannel's bitterness was cut through cleanly. He was rendered wordless, stubbornly looking for a rebuttal in his head but not finding any. He was in utter denial, but could not voice any of his concerns. He did not expect such a lengthy explanation in favor of his so called talent, especially not from the one person he distrusted the most.
Thankfully, Kamui did not press the matter further, and kindly said nothing as they walked away, leaving Flannel alone in front of the prison by himself.
He took a good look at that building, and thought of the scum he would meet in there. Are such humans worthy of redemption, when the reason for their imprisonment was due to their irredeemable crimes? Would his opinion even matter, or would his actions be cast off as results of instinctive hate towards humans? The wolf sighed, and supposed he could only find his answer if he went inside.
Well, he thought, time to see if you're right about everything you've said, Kamui.
...
Flannel was not alone in the prison. The prisoners were there, but he noticed that Pieri and Nishiki were also there, idly chatting off to the side until he arrived. When they noticed the garou, the two of them walked over to him, obviously pleased by his presence. there.
"Hey, Flannel!"
"Nishiki, Pieri." He nodded to the both of them. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Kamui assigned Pieri to prison duty." the cavalier said. "They said that we're gonna help you sort out which prisoners die and which ones get saved!"
"Plus, prison duty's actually really boring if you do it alone. So I figured you might want some company!" Nishiki chirped.
The garou was silent for a moment, pondering all of the reasons why Kamui would want those two in specific to be there. As far as he was concerned, if it were left up to Pieri to make the decision, she would have just killed all of the prisoners herself, regardless if they deserved it or not. As for Nishiki, while the fox was the more benevolent of the two beaststone users, he was no better at rationalizing humans and their strange motives than Flannel was. The only thing that set the wolf apart from their ferocity was the fact that he had a sixth sense for assessing someone's character.
Maybe that's why they're here, he thought. Maybe I'm supposed to show them how it's done.
His smile returned to his face, and with new found excitement, lead his two charges into the battle of judgement.
"What are you waiting for? Let's get this show on the road!"
...
The process went as Flannel had expected. Both the prisoners' names and grievances were listed on a paper, as well as a report of their criminal activity. Together with an interrogation sequence, Flannel was supposed to come up with a punishment suiting each captive. As he thumbed through the papers, he was not surprised to find that most of the captives had done a wide variety of wrongs, not just those that pertained to Kamui's army.
The first prisoner they dealt with was a Hoshidan spear fighter, a man who was responsible for the mass murder of several small villages, as well as the attempted assassination of Kamui themselves. Obviously, he failed in the second regard, seeing as Flannel had spoken to Kamui only moments ago. And while Flannel should have been disgusted by such acts of horror, he found himself disappointed with the prisoner instead, unimpressed with their inevitable capture and amateur methods.
Humans are pretty fragile, huh? What a waste.
The spear fighter was brought before him, and right away Flannel could sense that he was anxious. Perhaps he would have been more comfortable with a human interrogator. The fact that the garou's mere presence (together with a youko, an a woman renowned for her inhumane violence) alone inspired fear made him all the more happier, and he did his best to stop the smile that wanted to appear on his face.
"So," he began, "looks like you've got some damage, human. Not to mention the mess you caused. It was pretty stupid of you, though. I mean, you let yourself get cornered, accordin' to this report. Were you even trying?"
The man's eyes widened in horror. His heart beat escalated quickly, and the sound was picked up like a frantic drum beat in Flannel's sensitive ears. They twitched, and right away Flannel could tell that there was something wrong. Things were not as simple as the report said, and there was some lurking factor that he was missing.
"That's..." the prisoner croaked out, voice shaking with fear and dread. "That's...terrible of you to say. You make it sound like the bad part isn't how I killed all those people, but it was how I got caught."
"That's exactly what I'm sayin'. You got caught, like you wanted us to get you. It's disappointin', how easily you gave up. It makes me think that you never wanted to kill those people in the first place."
Pieri tilted her head. "What do you mean? He obviously wanted to kill them all! Otherwise he would have never done it! Pieri can tell that he's killed a lot of people, too!" She leaned in and pressed her hands against the interrogation table. Her scarlet eye was staring him down, and the man reclined in his seat as a result, trying to distance himself as much as he could. "He smells like blood. Sweet, sweet, blood. He's killed a ton of people before, just like Pieri! We could even be friends if he wasn't such a baby."
"That's probably true," Flannel commented, crossing his arms. "But for some reason, humans tend to do things they don't want to. And it's written all over your face. Let me guess, some other human used you, right? Threatened to kill your family or something if you didn't do what they said."
From the man's expression, the wolf guessed that his assumptions were correct. The way the prisoner's lips quivered, his eyes cast down with obvious guilt and discontent, said it all. Coupled with his nervous hand movements and his deafening heartbeat, Flannel knew he was right.
He just needed the guy to admit it himself.
"I...I..."
"Listen," Flannel suddenly slammed his hand on the desk, demanding attention. "Tell us who's the real mastermind here. Don't let them get away with what they did. Tell us, while you've still got a chance."
"But, the things I did, and all those innocent people I've killed, I don't think I..."
"The only other choice is death. If you're too much of a coward to even fend for yourself, then maybe you deserve to die. You'll have no regrets about it, right? It's not like you have family or friends waiting for you. I mean, if you did, you'd obviously do everything you could to get back to them. But if you really don't wanna even try, then I'll just have someone come and bring you to the guillotine and we can stop wastin' each other's time."
"No!" the spear fighter yelled, sobbing into his hands. "Oh, Gods, no. I-I have a family, and plenty of friends. I'll tell you everything, it's all like you said. But please, please, please don't kill me. Please."
Nishiki and Pieri were utterly shocked, not expecting that they could get a confession so soon into the interrogation. The way the soldier was grovelling, Flannel could had had him dance out of the palm of his hand if he really wanted.
But he did not do that. Instead, Flannel smiled, and slapped the spear fighter on the back. "That's what I like t' hear! Now, let's start hearing some names. Revenge is useless if you don't have anyone to use it on, right?"
"R-Right..."
In that moment, Nishiki realized that Flannel, for all his talk of monstrosity, was surprisingly more humane than he even realized. His sense of judgement was as impeccable as he said it was, and his morality was not nearly as misguided as his sense of direction was.
He was much better than the youko, who imagined that if it was him deciding their fate instead of Flannel, then he would not have been able to reach the spear fighter's conscience, and would have ultimately sent him away to die. And Pieri was out of the question entirely, as she failed to see any other outcome than death for the prisoners. But the two of them, for all their clueless natures, were starting to realize something that came out of Flannel's way of doing things.
They realized that Flannel was heroically compassionate in a way, and that if he applied that quality in battle, he might be able to save as many people as he killed.
...
The rest of the day continued on like that. In total, there were about twelve or so prisoners with unsure destinies, but when placed in front of Flannel, his judgement cleared up any ambiguity. There were a few prisoners that Nishiki opted to spare, but Flannel was insistent that they die.
"But that one guy, the outlaw, had such a bad past! His family died and he had to steal to keep himself alive. Some bad guys tried to kill him, so he had to kill them back! And when he trained that wyvern and started taking care of it...!"
"Nishiki, do you hear yourself?" Flannel admonished lightly, giving a soft knock to the other's head. "That guy's story was a load of a garbage, and not the good kind. Also, his movements were all wrong, and he was way too calm. I'm sure he can think his life choices over, in Hell."
"Keehee. Pieri agrees, although she wishes you killed everyone and spared no one. They all smell of blood so they're all killers! Might as well kill them back, y'know?"
Flannel sighed. "That's not how it works, Pieri. 'Sides, Kamui would probably hate it if I just killed everyone. Not to mention that if they wanted to just slaughter them all, they would have put you in charge."
She pouted. "Whatever. Pieri thinks you're no fun."
"Well, think what you want, but we have one guy left, so let's just get it over with and we can call it a day."
"Fair enough." Nishiki muttered. "Pieri, it's your turn to go get him!"
"Pieri's on it!"
She walked out of the interrogation room, and skipped off to the prison cells. Most of them were full, thanks to Flannel's judgement, and the wolf was impressed with his efforts that day.
Surprisingly, Nishiki felt the same.
"I told you I was more judgemental," Nishiki laughed. "Every guy that walked in said his story and I kinda wanted to believe all of it. Now that you mention it, they all seem too sad to be true. I mean, some humans are terrible, but most of them are just petty and fragile."
"And like I said, you're just nice. You wanted to save them all, even if they did awful things. I mean, I don't really understand that, but I guess it's how you see things." Flannel muttered, scratching his cheek. "But...thanks. For being here with me, I mean. With you and Pieri helping me out, I didn't feel as weird as I would have if I did this all by myself."
"No problem!" the fox cheered, beaming at the other. "We all did our best, but you did the most work. It's because I was here. My beauty is inspiring, isn't it?"
"Ha," the other joked, "sure it is. Although I don't think it's your beauty that motivated me today."
"Oh?" Nishiki asked, almost sounding offended. "What did inspire you today, Flannel?"
He stared at the other, mulling over his mind for an answer. Flannel's thoughts, embarrassingly enough, consisted mostly of Nishiki. What inspired me? Maybe it's your kindness, or your smile. Or your face when I say something surprising, or the way your ears move like an excited pup. And also your beauty, but it's all of you, really.
It's all of you.
"I don't know," he lied. "Must be the nice weather we're havin'."
"It's snowing outside."
Flannel blushed, and turned his face away from the other. "S-Shut up..."
Nishiki burst into giggles and laughed at Flannel's expense. It made the wolf relieved in some weird way, and he sighed out a breath he did not realize he was holding. Just as he was about to come up with something sarcastic to reply with, Pieri returned. Her smile was as bright and unknowing as always, and she practically sang. "Pieri's back with the last prisoner!"
"Good," Flannel said. "Let's get this over with-"
He stopped short, voice trailing off in sheer terror at what he saw. His arms fell down lifelessly to his side, mouth and throat failing him as no noise came out. Pieri and Nishiki were both concerned with his sudden mood change, and looked between each other for the answer.
Finally, Nishiki spoke out his concerns, asking Flannel: "What's wrong...?"
Then, the youko saw exactly what Flannel was afraid of. Trailing behind Pieri was the last prisoner on the list, and as he entered the room filled with an instant aura of darkness and dread. The length of the skirt, combined with sheer fabric and dark symbols, made up the familiar image of a dark mage.
But it was not just any dark mage. No, it was a certain dark mage that both Nishiki and Flannel had encountered before. He had distinctly deep set eyes and a crooked grin. His smile was triumphant and smug, as if he was the interrogator instead.
Somehow, it was the same dark mage that they met some time ago, the one that sic'ed the Nosferatu on them like dogs. The same Nohrian that wanted their furs for the black market, that caused Nishiki so much pain and grief that Flannel was sure he paid for it.
I killed him. Flannel worried frantically. I killed him already! How is he here? How is this possible?
The atmosphere was utterly silent. It felt like hours before the prisoner finally spoke, and broke the awkwardness with his voice, which was terribly calm and in control. "Well," he said, "this is a predicament."