Corie=27

Sasaki=22

"Hello, Miss Masataka. Are you ready to tell me the real story?"

Corie looked at him hardly. "I already told you the real story. I know how it sounds, but I can't help it if you don't believe me. It's the truth."

"I'm sorry to hear you say that. Please, allow me."

He held out his hand for her.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Right now, I'm just trying to get answers."

"I've already given you answers."

"Please, Miss Masataka, let's not make this any harder than it need to be."

Corie sighed and hesitantly took Jiro's hand. As soon as she was in his grasp, he locked his fingers with hers and then rammed his knee into her elbow. The bone inside snapped and forced her arm into an extremely disturbing angle.

Corie screamed in pain and fell to the ground holding her arm.

Jiro looked down at her calmly. "I assure you that injury will pale in comparison to what I will do to you if you do not tell me the truth."

"But I…I did!" she rasped. "I swear!"

"Have it your way. Maybe while we wait for your bone to heal, you will come to your senses."

As he left the room, tears began to stream down Corie's cheeks from the pain. She wished she had seen it coming or maybe she could've made it hurt much less.

Taking several shallow breaths, she hit the protruding bone as hard as she could with her other hand to set it back in place so it could heal faster.

The agony was like nothing she had experienced before.

She tried to force herself to take slower breaths for fear that she would hyperventilate and pass out.

What else was Jiro going to do to her? Would it really be worse? What could she do to make him understand that everything she had done really had been to protect Sasaki?

For the first time since her capture, Corie's situation truly began to sink in.

And now she was terrified.

All Corie could do with her time was wait for Jiro to come back with his next plan as she focused on letting her bone heal. It took much longer than she would've liked, and even after all this time, it was still a little sore.

The door slammed open which made her flinch and two large men came over to her. They yanked her up off the bed before roughly pulling off her scrub-like clothing.

"Stop it!" she pleaded. "What are you doing?!"

After removing her shirt and pants and stripping the bed of all blankets and sheets, the men abruptly departed, leaving her standing in the middle of the room in only her bra and underwear.

She wasn't sure she had ever felt so degraded and humiliated. Were all prisoners in Cochlea treated this way?

The mirror disappeared to reveal who was on the other side.

Jiro smiled at her. "Are you ready to tell me the real reason you came into the CCG, Miss Masataka?"

Corie futilely attempted to cover her exposed chest. "I told you, I wanted to protect Haise Sasaki."

"All right."

The temperature in the room quickly began to decrease. Corie shivered and wrapped her arms around her nearly naked body.

Within minutes, it was around thirty degrees inside the room.

She sank down to the floor, shaking violently. "Wh-why are you d-doing this?"

"I need the truth, Miss Masataka. That's all. You tell me what I want to know, and all of this will stop."

"H-How would you know if it's the t-truth?"

"Oh, I'll know."

Corie wondered if Jiro knew she was telling the truth about protecting Sasaki but said he didn't believe her so that he could put her through all of this for his own enjoyment.

"Tell me what you learned while working here and what you planned to do with that information."

"I d-didn't learn anything. I swear. I chose to w-work in the administrative d-department because everything came through us f-first. I could know what S-Sasaki's missions were so I could be there to h-help him."

"So even now, you're still going to go with that story."

"Please."

He got up and left the temperature in the room below freezing.

Corie fell to the ground, her body continuing to shake in the frigid air. She slowly forced herself to crawl over to the window and put her hand to it.

"P-Please…help me…"

She had no idea if anyone was on the other side to hear her pleas. Even if there was, they probably wouldn't want to help her.

She tucked her arms back around herself and fell over onto her side on the cold, hard floor.

Exhausted from the extensive healing her body had recently done and the constant shaking, she soon could not help falling asleep. She almost hoped she didn't wake up.

Sasaki approached the room and looked inside through the one-way mirror. Despite everything Reina…no, Corie had put him through, he felt a little disconcerted at the sight of her stripped, slightly blue body lying on the floor, unconscious but still shivering.

He found himself hoping she wasn't dead.

He unlocked the door to the room and stepped inside. He quickly put his hands over his arms. Even in his trench coat, this room was freezing. He couldn't imagine how it felt to Corie.

Avoiding looking at her out of respect for her modesty, he gently draped a thick blanket over her to warm her up and left a clean set of clothing on the bed for her to change into once she awoke.

He wasn't sure how he felt about this. This seemed like it was going a bit too far even for interrogation purposes, especially for someone who had been nothing but compliant so far.

Had Corie really not told the truth yet? Why would she go through all of this when it would be so easy to stop it? All she had to do was tell them the real reason she had chosen to infiltrate the CCG.

Was she perhaps trying to prolong her life, knowing that the moment she told the truth, they would kill her?

But this wasn't even really living. Was there some other purpose to her choosing to endure all of this? Or was it even her choice?

He thought about their previous conversation. This woman knew him before. When he was the mystery that was Ken Kaneki. He wondered if they had truly been as close as she'd said or if she was just trying to gain sympathy from him. After learning that she had been lying to him all this time, he didn't know what to believe anymore.

But could it be possible that she really had decided to join the CCG undercover simply to protect him?

Could Ken Kaneki truly have been the kind of person she would do this all for?

Corie stood up from the cot and went over to the mirror when it disappeared to show Sasaki on the other side.

She lightly put her hand to the glass. "Hi," she said softly.

"Why won't you just tell the truth?" he asked. "Then they would stop."

"Truth is relative."

"Why are you putting yourself through all of this? What do you have to gain?"

Corie didn't answer. It felt strange to talk to him like this. Not only as a prisoner, but also as herself. She had never talked to Sasaki as just Corie before. She wasn't sure what she could even say now.

She looked up and gave him a tired smile. "Did you know that your best friend is still alive?"

Sasaki looked at her in confusion. "My best friend?"

"He came to see me a little while ago. He's worried about you. Even if he doesn't show it."

His eyes cleared for a brief moment. "Hide…"

Suddenly, Sasaki gripped his head in pain and sank to the floor.

"Kaneki!" Corie exclaimed kneeling down to his level. "It's okay, I'm here! Focus only on me. Only on my voice. Forget about everything else. Don't focus on anything but my voice."

Sasaki weakly reached up and pushed a button on the console next to him. The mirror reappeared so that Corie could no longer see him.

Corie sighed and leaned back. What good would it be to remind him of who he was if he was only in pain every time he tried to remember? It was even worse now that she wasn't out there to help him should those memories return. She didn't want to think about what the other investigators, particularly Arima and Akira, would do if that happened and she wasn't there to protect him.

She didn't know which was worse: Kaneki not knowing who she was or Kaneki hating her.

Corie had never been aware of how far the CCG would go to interrogate someone, but unfortunately, she learned the answer.

There were no limits.

Her most recent interrogation method had involved her sitting tied to a chair in the middle of the room while Jiro had used various tools to break each one of her toes individually before proceeding to break the entire foot, laughing sadistically the entire time.

Every now and again, someone brought her a tray and set it on the floor before leaving her alone. The food Cochlea served to its prisoners must've had human flesh in it because it was tolerable to eat, but it didn't really taste all that great. She was greatly concerned about the amount of RC suppressant being given to her between staying in the 'special' interrogation room and the food. The suppressant levels inside her were already dangerously high and she worried what might happen to her if she didn't cut it off soon.

Not that it would matter if she never got out of here.

The bones in her foot slowly and painfully healed, and not even a full minute after she felt them return to normal, Jiro stepped back inside.

"Please…" she said tiredly. She wasn't sure she could do another session with him so soon after the last one. "I swear, I told you everything."

"I know you're holding back," he answered. "Just tell me all of the secrets you're hiding from me, and I'll stop."

"I don't have any more secrets."

Jiro picked up one of his tools.

"No, please," she whimpered. "Please, don't!"

He walked behind her and took one of her tied up hands. Then he proceeded to break all of her fingers while she cried out in pain.

"Are you ready to tell me?"

"I already told you!"

"If what you say is true, then why didn't you make contact with Investigator Sasaki as soon as you began working for the CCG?"

"Because he had already made a new life for himself. It wasn't right for me to come in and break down that life just because I missed him. But that didn't mean I couldn't protect him from a distance."

"A ghoul doesn't care about protecting investigators. Tell me what you've learned and you want to do with that information!"

"I wasn't here for information on anything except Sasaki's missions!"

This time, instead of breaking all her toes, he ripped each one clean off. Corie threw her head back and screamed in between wracking sobs.

Sasaki flinched as he watched everything unfold from behind the mirror.

His mind once again took him back to that black-and-white checkered room. But this time, it wasn't just that one menacing white-haired version of himself. It was a version of himself with black hair.

There was someone else in there. Someone very large and cruel.

He could hear his own screams intermingling with Corie's. Was this another memory trying to come back to him?

He put his hand to his head as it started to ache.

"Are you all right?" Arima asked beside him.

Sasaki moved his hand to his chin. "Yes, I'm fine." He looked back into the room. "But, sir, isn't this going too far? Article 13 prohibits causing more pain to a ghoul than necessary."

"The key word there is 'necessary'. Everything Mr. Kimura is doing is perfectly necessary because this is no ordinary ghoul. It's quite a feat that she was able to work at the CCG for so long without being detected. I feel rather sickened that I shared a table with her and thought nothing of her odd behavior."

Something inside Sasaki twinged at the word 'sickened'.

"I suppose in light of the holiday season, I had not looked as clearly as I should've. None of us did except for Investigator Urie. It's inexcusable."

"What would you have done if you knew?" he asked, repeating the question Corie had asked him.

After a long pause, Arima told him, "I'm not sure."

He may not have said the words, but Sasaki knew. He would've killed her.

"Right now, it is important that we know what she's learned while here so we can put a stop to any more possible infiltrations. And we'll have to do whatever it takes until she confesses."

Arima turned on his heel and left while Sasaki remained in front of the glass. Jiro finished up and untied Corie from the chair. She fell forward with another cry of pain that made Sasaki wince.

The older man exited the room, wiping his blood-covered hands on a cloth. "Fascinating, isn't it?" he smirked, an eerie glint in his eyes as he passed by the investigator. "The lengths a ghoul will go to protect their secrets?" He lightly fingered the small tool in his hand he had used to cause Corie so much pain. "I learned all these methods from a guy who used to work here."

"You don't think it's…too much?"

"Ghouls aren't like you and me. This is the only way I can get her to talk. It's unfortunate, I guess, but she's made her choice."

Sasaki looked back inside the room. Corie hadn't moved but he could still hear her whimpering as she sat inside a pool of her own blood.

Why did this feel so familiar to him? Was it another part of Ken Kaneki's life? Just what kind of life had he lived before?

Though he would never admit it to anyone including her, her previous words about the CCG molding him into what they wanted had resounded with him and ate away at his mind.

Could she be right? Had Arima and Akira worked together to make him into what the CCG needed him to be? Did the two people he cared about so dearly even really care about him as a person at all or did they only see him as a weapon to be used against what they considered to be the enemy?

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like Corie spoke the truth. Which utterly terrified him.

The longer she stayed a prisoner, the more the torture began to affect Corie's body and mind. She had lost track of how long she had been inside the Cochlea cell, but it had to have been at least a month by now, and the extreme methods of torture had all varied in intensity to try to get her to confess to why she had joined the CCG.

She had eventually confessed to changing some of the paperwork here and there that had come across her desk in order to keep the investigators off Lightning's track. It was only tiny things, like her hair color or her height, small details that could easily be passed over but would make it harder for people to figure out that Reina and Lightning were the same person.

Her wounds were taking a really long time to heal though she didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Jiro never touched her until everything healed, but then there was more time to worry about what he was going to do to her next.

Sasaki came to see her a few times, but their conversations rarely lasted more than a few minutes. She kept trying to explain to him that it was okay for his memories to come back and that he didn't have to fight it so hard, but he always insisted that he was better off the way he was. The last time he had said that, it had sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her.

Jiro slowly stepped inside the room to see Corie strapped to the chair just as he had requested.

"Are you ready to tell me everything?"

"I already did," she said softly. "I didn't do anything to jeopardize any of the investigators. I only did what I needed to do in order to protect Haise Sasaki."

Jiro circled around the chair, reminding Corie of a hungry vulture. "Miss Masataka, are you familiar with the name Misono Karube?"

"No."

"Well, let me tell you about her. She is a very pretty young woman. She used to work at a café near the station." He smiled fondly. "She had the most beautiful smile. That girl could make anyone's day better just by smiling in their direction." His smile quickly faded. "Unfortunately, I haven't seen my niece smile in years. Do you know why that is?"

"No."

"Because one of your kind ruined her entire life. He gouged out her eyes and ate them, leaving her alone, blind, and in agony."

I think Tsukiyama did something like that a while ago, she thought to herself.

"Ever since that night, she has almost lost the will to live. Somehow, she's managed to go on, but she will never be the same."

He leaned in close to her which made Corie lean back in discomfort and fear. She had never seen him look so angry. This was beyond interrogating her. He was getting revenge on ghoul-kind through her.

"I'm going to do the same thing to you," he said lowly into her ear. "It's unfortunate you'll heal from it, but I am going to make you feel the same pain she did."

"But I didn't hurt her."

"You may as well have. Your kind are all the same."

He grasped her hair in his hand and wrenched her head back.

"No, please," Corie pleaded as she squirmed. "Please don't do this."

Jiro slipped one of his tools behind Corie's eye and yanked it out of her skull. She screamed at the top of her lungs at the unimaginable pain.

He gave her no time to recover as he did the same with the other eye. Corie was completely blind.

She gave ragged breaths and coughs, her throat hoarse from the screams.

Sasaki, having seen all he could take, turned away from behind the glass. "Sir, this is too much," he insisted. "You have to tell him to ease up on her!"

"I told you that any means must be used to get the truth from her, Sasaki," Arima replied calmly. "You may not agree with it, but this is what the CCG does. You better get used to the policy. We warned you that you can't show any compassion towards ghouls or it will be your undoing. Even ones who pretend to be your friend."

Jiro roughly untied Corie from the chair and allowed her to fall to the floor. She put her trembling hands to her empty bleeding eye sockets, still crying out in pain.

She knew the world could be terrifying when left completely in the dark. It was why she trained the Quinx to be able to fight when they couldn't see.

But this was different. She was confined to a small space where fighting was simply not possible even if she could pull out her kagune. She couldn't focus on anything except the darkness and the agonizing pain that had swallowed her whole. There was nothing like this kind of terror.

She heard the door open and jumped.

"It's okay," a soft, soothing voice said. "It's just me."

Corie slowly relaxed. She listened to Sasaki take slow steps towards her. When they stopped, he reached out and lightly touched her shoulder to show her that he was next to her before gently wrapping a bandage around her eyes.

Her fingers traveled up to touch the soft cloth. "…Thank you."

She heard him sigh. "I tried to get them to stop, or at least to take it down some. But…I don't have much authority here."

"It's okay. I appreciate you trying. But…I deserve this."

"What are you talking about? No one deserves to be put through all of this." He awkwardly looked away from her. "Especially not you."

It was a strange feeling to want to cry but being physically unable to do it. "There was a time…when you were taken and brutally tortured by another ghoul. And I wasn't able to get to you in time before he broke you. He didn't break you in the traditional sense. I mean, you were stronger than ever. But a person can only go through everything you did before fragments of their mind completely shatter."

So it was true. He had gone through something similar.

"I've always blamed myself for that. And this is my penance."

"What about your mind?"

"I don't break so easily."

"Look…if Kaneki is anything like you make him out to be, I doubt he blamed you for what happened."

"You're right. You didn't. But it was still my fault."

Sasaki didn't know what he could say to her. He wasn't Kaneki anymore. He almost wished he was. Maybe Kaneki could say something to make her understand that she didn't have to go through this. Maybe Kaneki wouldn't have let her go through this at all. Maybe Kaneki would be able to free her from all of this pain. Maybe Kaneki…was just better.

"Will you…tell me a good memory of you and Kaneki?"

Corie's head lifted in surprise. "What?"

"It just seems like all I know from you is bad things that happened to me in the past. Weren't there any good moments too?"

"Of course there were."

"I want to know those."

Corie paused for a moment. "I'll only tell you if you truly want to know. Don't ask just because you feel sorry for me or because you think you owe it to me."

Sasaki thought about his motives. If she told him about some things from his life as Kaneki, would that cause him to remember everything? What would he do if that ended up happening?

Then he realized he didn't care. As much as he hated it, more and more of his memories were trying to return every day, and so far, only the bad ones kept drifting to the surface of his mind. He wanted something good to think about.

"I want to know."

Corie gave him a small smile. "One of my favorite moments of you was shortly after you'd realized you'd become a half-ghoul. You walked in on me and a friend of mine eating." She let out a small laugh as she recalled the precise moment Kaneki had seen a very different side of her. "I don't think I'll ever forget the look on your face or the very unmanly scream you let out when you fell right over. You knew that we weren't going to hurt you or anything, so it's not like you were scared of us but seeing ghouls' exposed kakugan while they eat human flesh can be a bit frightening, especially for someone who's not used to it."

Sasaki smiled a little. By now, he had conditioned himself against the nastier sides of a ghoul's nature, but he could only imagine his reaction to seeing a ghoul eating for the very first time.

Corie smiled fondly. "And there was this one time…when you tried to teach me how to control my kagune better."

"Wait, I was teaching you?"

"It's a long story. Anyway, we got to talking and I told you that I felt very comfortable around you. And you told me that you feel really safe around me. I think…that was the first time I started seeing you like a younger brother."

Sasaki wasn't sure how to process all of this. Could she really be telling the truth about her desire to protect him? Could they really have been as close as she said? What if this was all a trick just to gain his trust and sympathy so she could betray him again?

"Did you know that the hoodie I wore when I was Lightning used to be yours?"

"It was?"

"Yeah. It was kind of like my tribute to why I was fighting in the first place."

The more Corie told him, the more he knew that the time was coming. He wanted to know just who Ken Kaneki was and what had really happened to him.