Unlike the last time I'd been captured like this, taken away in a semi, I wasn't in my suit, so there was no way for me to contact the Sabers or my Motoslave. I inwardly cursed myself for throwing away those earrings. Even if the communicator part was useless thanks to the explosion in the diner, there was probably a tracker. If only I'd thought of that. God damn it.
"Why isn't she waking up?" I demanded. I had no idea how long I'd been sitting in the back of the van, and it seemed like Bruce and Nezumi had been driving around for hours. Surely their hideout wasn't in some place like Kyoto or Nara.
"She'll be fine," Nezumi said, dismissing me. "She's taken harder hits than that."
"People don't get knocked unconscious from a stun gun!"
"They might if you hit them in the back of the neck like Bruce did. She left herself wide open!" He let out a loud cackle. That was really starting to grate on my nerves. I looked at Emi again, seeing if she was going to wake up. But like before, she didn't budge.
A short time later, Bruce pulled up into a garage. He climbed out, as did Nezumi, and a moment later, the back of the van opened up. Bruce hoisted Emi over his shoulder and took her inside, while Nezumi dragged me out, grabbing my hair again as he forced me inside behind Bruce. I tried to take a look behind me to see if I knew where we were, but all I was able to see was that it was nighttime. Pitch black, which meant it was at least nine o'clock. We'd been driving around for almost four hours? Where the hell WERE we?!
Nezumi pushed me to the ground, cracking his knuckles. "We doin' this yet?" he asked Bruce, who set Emi down in a corner by a table and some chairs.
"Let's at least take the time to get acquainted," he said with a grin. He looked down at me. "As you may know, I'm Bruce, and this is my partner in crime, Nezumi. He's a bit more…hands-on than I am. And you already know Emi." He glanced back at her for a moment before returning his focus to me. "Now, what's your name?"
I said nothing.
"Come on, I know you have a name. Of course, we can always give you one if you don't want to say anything. Bitch has a nice ring, don't you think? Yeah…we'll just call you bitch. Now, bitch, do you have a name?"
"Go to hell," I snarled.
Nezumi took a small device out of his jacket pocket and started to fiddle with it. "We're not gonna need that, Nez," Bruce said.
"Sure we are," he retorted, grinning. "I noticed something about the bitch when I whacked 'er. The second time, she didn't scream or do shit."
"So?" I spat. "Maybe you didn't hit me as hard the second time."
He aimed the device, no bigger than a remote for a TV, at me. It started to beep. "I'm just curious is all…"
Nezumi and Bruce looked at the screen on the device for a moment, seeing what would come up. I wondered what the hell it was. Was it scanning me? Nezumi's cackle confirmed it as he looked at me with his squinty eyes again. "Haha! You're only 95 percent organic?! Now that is awesome. No wonder you didn't do anything when I hit ya the second time. You've got a plate in that cheek!" He walked towards me and nudged my sleeve-clad leg with his foot. "Lotsa metal in this leg too."
"How is that interesting?" I flatly asked.
"Means you're a tougher broad than I thought. Now, I'm curious…" He grabbed my leg and pulled down the sleeve. I started to struggle, but he grabbed the leg and held it firm. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" he exclaimed, feeling the scars on my leg. His touch made me cringe. Leathery hands. "Look at this, Bruce!"
"She took a high-caliber bullet to the leg," Bruce surmised. "Not enough to take her leg off, but close. I don't think meeting us is the first time our guest has run into major trouble."
Nezumi caressed my leg briefly before turning his gaze to the rest of me. "I wanna see if she's got more!"
He reached for my shirt, yanking it up. I panicked and screamed, kicking him in the stomach with one leg, then the face with my other as he stumbled backwards and landed on his ass.
"Fuck!" he spat, holding his nose as it bled. "Bitch!"
I laid there and panted, my heart going a mile a minute as my body trembled. He'd tried to touch me! Bruce just smirked. "Now you left YOURSELF wide open, Nez. And you were right. I saw quite a collection of scars on her stomach just before she kicked ya."
Nezumi grabbed a towel and held it to his nose, blood dripping on the concrete floor. "Heh. No matter," he said, glaring at me. "I'll have fun with her later."
"Go clean up," Bruce suggested. "I'm gonna have a chat with her."
While Nezumi went to go straighten out his nose, Bruce got down on his knees and sat me up. I tried to pull back when he grabbed my shoulders, but ultimately could do nothing as he got me up on my knees and adjusted my sleeve.
"I see why you wear that thing," he said, looking at the sleeve. "Don't like the scars?"
"Getting shot hurts," I spat in reply.
"I don't doubt that. I've taken bullets to the back myself. Almost got paralyzed. I bet you put yourself through hell to be able to walk again. A wound like that can't be easy to come back from."
"It's not."
"Mmm." He took my chin in his hands, me trying in vain to pull away. "Very pretty eyes. Red eyes are a rarity. They fit your personality." He got quiet. "Eyes tell people a lot of things. They tell me the person's life story…"
He's lying, I thought. He's just trying to get to me.
"You're very protective of little Emi over there. But despite her stature, she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself."
"Didn't seem that way when I found her."
"I see it in your eyes. You care for her a lot, and judging from earlier, you could care less about your own life when it comes to protecting her." He looked into my eyes again, holding my chin firmly to make sure I couldn't turn away. "Such a harsh gaze. You've seen…a lot of tragedy. You've lost people close to you. Is that why you care for that girl so much?" I frowned in response, but he was unabashed. "That look tells me you have," he said.
"Who hasn't?"
"Who hasn't, indeed," he concurred. "That leg…you don't get a wound like that from fighting with a gang. You've had a run-in with a Boomer before, maybe not recently, but obviously within the last few years."
"Those Boomers outside the diner…" I growled, trying to get him off topic. I didn't like thinking about my leg, let alone how it got this way. "You sent them."
"Oh, that wasn't us," he said. "That was all Genom. The company Nezumi and I work for isn't in the business of Boomer terrorism."
"If your company's part of Genom, you ARE in that business," I snapped.
"We're keeping little Emi safe from them," he declared, though I could hardly believe that. "They want her too. And fortunately you kept her safe. I really must thank you."
"Save your breath. She's staying with me. You're not having her, and neither is Genom. She's just a kid anyway. You're wasting your time."
He grinned. "Oh, but she's NOT just a kid. And your comment about us short-circuiting her only proved that you know she's not, either. I really want to know, how did you know that?"
"I said, it was just a saying. She might be weird, but that doesn't automatically mean she's a Boomer. I've gotten called a Boomer even if the only part of me that's metal is most of my leg and my cheek!"
"I don't think you're telling me the truth," he said, wagging his finger as he stood up. "If you care about your own well-being, you'd best tell us what you know and how you know it. Or you'll be in for some real pain."
"You don't KNOW what pain is!!" I yelled.
"But you will, soon enough. Nezumi!!"
Nezumi came back into the room, wads of tissue in both nostrils. "Yeah?"
"Put her in the closet."
"I hear ya." He left the room and came back a moment later with a black bag and some earplugs.
"What the hell?" I said to myself before I found myself pinned beneath Nezumi, stuffing the plugs in my ears. Instantly, the world went silent; even when I yelled in protest, I couldn't hear myself. And when he pulled the bag over my head, I went blind as well.
I kicked as I felt him pick me up, but it was futile. I felt myself only kicking air as I found myself thrown over his shoulders, his body bobbing beneath me as I realized he was walking. Another moment later and I found myself thrown to the ground again, and when I went to throw myself in his direction, I bounced up against something, my forehead hitting something that was sticking out against that other something. A doorknob. I really was in a closet.
"W-what is this?!" I demanded, but I heard nothing. I felt my voice work, but I couldn't hear it. What was this, anyway? What purpose was this supposed to serve? Cutting off my sight and hearing, what was that supposed to do?
Suddenly, I had a feeling in my chest that I hadn't felt in a long time. Fear. I swallowed hard and curled up into a ball, squeezing my eyes shut, which didn't do anything as it was just as dark when I had them open. Where were the others when I needed them most?
I didn't like this at all. I just wished someone would come and get me out of here.
"Help me…somebody…" I whimpered.
All of a sudden, I felt very alone.
"Why do you suppose you did it?"
My head jerked up, and I stared at the lady in the other seat. The lady Sylia had called and asked to help me. My de-facto therapist. "Did what?" I asked, unsure of the question.
"Why did you start buying hydromorphone in Sacramento? Was it the pain in your leg caused by how rainy it was that night? Was it the pain of knowing you couldn't stop Sara from getting into that accident? The pain of knowing you couldn't bring Michiko back?"
"STOP IT!" I screamed. "It's all pain! What does it matter what kind I had, huh?!"
"What were you feeling when you decided to start taking it again?" she asked again. "I need to know."
"It doesn't matter how I felt. I took it, and I got addicted."
"It matters a lot, Yumeko. I need to know what factors were at work when you let yourself get addicted."
"I didn't let myself!"
"Are you sure?"
"I didn't take it every day! I only took it when I needed to get away for a while!"
"And the more you took it, the more you felt you had to get away, right?" She smiled. "Being high is a pleasant feeling. You're happy, you can forget everything…"
"It helped with my leg!"
"And your mind," she added.
I shook my head and stood up. "You think you know me so well? So TELL me how to feel better!! Tell me how I can do it without going back to that white bottle!"
"I can tell you all I want, but if you don't do it, it's no use." She pointed with her pen. "Now sit down. We're not going to leave until we get to the root of this. I want to purge you of this problem, help you deal with it head-on."
"I can't," I mumbled, clasping my hands together, tears burning in the corners of my eyes. "Please, don't make me deal with it right now. It's too much. I've already let everyone down with what I've done. There's no way to make it up to them now."
"Yes, there is. Get better, with me right here with you."
"Cecilia…"
I had no idea how long I'd been kicking at the door. I couldn't hear it, but I could distinctly make out the feel of the door rattling as I thrust my feet against it. But no matter how hard I kicked or how long, that damn thing wasn't budging an inch. The frame must've been reinforced steel or something.
Damn it, I thought, falling back against the wall, breathing heavily, legs aching. How the hell was I going to get out of here? I knew that with the Sabers unable to track me, it was all up to me to get me and Emi out of here. Now if only Emi would wake up and realize she could beat them to a pulp, we'd be all set. But as far as I knew, she was still out.
I let out a silent cough. I was thirsty now. My lips were dry, but licking them did nothing to help. And my panting was making the air inside the bag on my head really hot and uncomfortable. Stupid bastards, did they think I was afraid of the dark? I wasn't; simply sticking a bag on my head wasn't going to get me to confess anything. Sure, my hands were bound, but that was what my legs were for. But still, the earplugs…what was the point of those?
"Idiot."
"Huh?!" I sputtered, even if I couldn't hear myself; I swore I heard a voice. I looked around, despite there being total darkness around me. "Who…?"
"Idiot," I heard again. Out of the darkness, a figure approached me. A tall, brown-haired man with dark eyes.
"C-Craig…" I smiled. "You came."
"Look what you got yourself into now," he chided, returning my smile with a cold smirk that froze the blood in my veins solid. "You love getting into trouble."
"Yeah, I got myself into this," I said dryly. "C'mon, I wasn't about to let them have Emi."
"Idiot," he spat. "You're selfish. You've always been selfish."
"That's not true! The summit…!"
"Yeah. The summit. You just didn't want to be useless. You didn't do anything to change the situation there. All you did was get yourself hurt. When you and me and Bert were in the other world, you thought of no one but yourself when you gutted yourself. You kept asking me why you thought Ishmael chose you. Well, guess what. I was wondering the same thing."
"No…" I shook my head, tears springing into my eyes. What was he saying?! "You're not making sense. Please…I got help. I'm okay now. I'm better. Just come back to me, save me. Save me and I can show you how I've changed."
"It's too late," he said with a finality that made my heart drop.
"Please, please, don't be like that! We saved each other a lot! I wasn't entirely selfish! I wouldn't let friends die!"
He turned and walked away.
"Craig! Come back! You gotta help me!"
He faded away into the darkness.
"Craig!! CRAIG!"
I bowed my head, the tears that were in my eyes now having broken free and streaked my cheeks. The man I loved…he had just abandoned me, left me to my fate… No. I shook my head. There was no such thing as fate. I still had to get out of here. But if he wasn't going to help me, then how was I supposed to do it?
"I know someone's out there!! Please, get me out of here!!"
I heard a laugh. A feminine laugh. I looked around again. Who was it this time?
"Oh, Yume, Yume," Mom said, appearing in front of me suddenly, like she'd emerged from a fog. She shook her head in disbelief and smirked. "Your imaginary boyfriend there was right."
"What?! He's…he's not imaginary!! I told you about him! I showed you that picture of all of us together!" I protested.
"He's still right. You're selfish. No one who's selfless goes and gets addicted to drugs. Selfless people don't try to kill themselves because they can't stand to get out of bed in the morning anymore, or because life is too hard. Well, guess what?! That's what life is! It's one giant piece of shit that's not gonna stink any less just because you decide you're not gonna breathe through your nose anymore! It's still there, and it's about time you just learned to DEAL with it!"
"Like you would know!!" I snapped.
"There you go! Acting like a damn kid again!" She grabbed me by the hair on the top of my head. "Do you need me to RUB your face in it?! Huh?! Is that what I have to do to you?! What do I have to do to make you deal with this shit?!"
"I've dealt with it!! I've seen lots of shit! You know that! I've had enough! I've had enough of THIS shit!!" I could feel my voice start to give out. "Just go away! I can do it myself! I'll do it my way!!"
Mom pulled on my hair, but instead of pain, I was greeted with a flash of white hitting my eyes. I squeezed them shut and recoiled, then felt something pull on my ears.
"THERE WE GO," a male voice said, making me cry out as the sudden sound assaulting my ears pierced my skull.
"Agh!!" I shouted, kicking in protest, only to feel several pairs of hands holding me down. I opened my eyes, crying out again when the light hit my eyes. I squinted, then opened them slowly. It was blurry, but I could make out the faces of Nezumi and Bruce above me, looking down. "Damn. I'm still here," I said, wincing at the sound of my own voice.
"Yep. You are," Nezumi said with a grin. I winced again; I'd forgotten how grating his voice was.
"I saw…I saw…" I whipped my head around, looking around for Mom and Craig, but there was no one. Just the two men above me. And it was then that I realized…
I'd been hallucinating. They hadn't been there at all.
Bruce laughed. "Now do you see what happens when we take away your two most important senses?! You get driven bat-crazy! You lasted a long time, though. A lot longer than I'd have thought for a kid your age. Now…" He yanked me into a sitting position. "Who is this Craig you were yelling for?"
I was sure my face went white. I'd really been talking out loud. That whole time, I really had been yelling. No wonder my throat hurt. I hadn't been sure if I really had been yelling or not, but Bruce confirmed it. I had no time to think about what I might have yelled, as he yanked me to my feet, Nezumi uncuffing my wrists.
Bruce dragged me out of the closet, my legs not wanting to work, as not only had I been cooped up in that closet for God knew how long, but I'd been kicking at that door for a hell of a long time too. All I could do was stumble alongside him as we reached a spot by the table and chairs. My wrists were cuffed again, this time in front of me. He grabbed my wrists and forced them up, so my arms were above me. I looked up; there was a hook attached to the ceiling, and to that there was a small chain. Bruce took the end of the chain and attached it to the handcuffs, so now my arms were secured above my head.
"Now," he asked again, sitting down in the nearest chair, clasping his hands together as he settled his elbows onto his legs, "who is Craig?"
"N…no one," I stuttered.
"No one? You sure yelled at no one for a long time then!" His voice got squeaky in a poor imitation of me. "Come back! Come back!"
"Shut up," I growled.
"You sure must care for this guy! You…what did you say? You saved each other? How does that work? Are you two superheroes?" he laughed. "Were you two in a gang, watching each others' asses? Hmm?"
"No."
"No? How did you save each other, then?"
"Doesn't matter. I'm alive."
He grinned. "Yes. You are alive. But if Nezumi has a say in any of this, you won't be alive for long. You see, he doesn't like to talk. He likes to get people to talk via another manner. Like, oh, pain. Pain can be a very big motivator to loosen people's lips. Most people don't care for pain too much. Do you?"
"If you're asking if I get off on it, no," I said, fidgeting my legs. Bruce noted that, and grinned.
"Ah. Can't sit still, or stand still as the case may be, huh? Must be hard, especially considering you haven't stood up in quite some time. It can get…uncomfortable."
Standing in one place can't be THAT bad, I thought.
"Especially for someone who's had one leg compromised," he added. "You think you can put up with it?"
I didn't answer.
"Heh. Still don't like to talk? This'll make you open your mouth."
Bruce gestured, and Nezumi walked into the room, a cat-that-ate-the-canary look on his face. He in turn gestured behind him, and in walked Emi, looking no worse for wear. I gasped. "Emi!!" I exclaimed. "You're awake! Hurry, kick their asses! Let's get out of here!!"
The copper-haired girl just smiled and walked up to me. She ran a finger under my chin. "Now, why would I want to do that?" she asked.
I gasped. That wasn't her. This look I was seeing in her eyes, it wasn't her at all. This wasn't Emi at all, not the one I knew.
"You sons of bitches," I cursed. "What did you do to her?!"
"She's herself again," Nezumi replied casually. "We gave back to her what was taken away."
"No…"
They'd given her her memory back, somehow. The Emi I knew was gone. I had hoped that she would never remember who she was before her memory had been wiped. But not only had she gotten it back, it didn't even seem like she remembered who I was.
I really was alone now.
For a while, Bruce, Nezumi, and Emi actually seemed to ignore me. They put the chairs around the table and set up a little meal of chicken and mashed potatoes. The smell gradually wafted over to where I was, and I found myself starting to drool. I had no idea how long it had been since I'd last eaten, and I'd actually forgotten about food until they started eating that chicken, making smacking noises as they did so as if to thumb their noses at me. My stomach growled loudly, and I grunted, trying to ignore the hunger pangs that started throbbing in my stomach.
"Hungry?" Bruce asked, holding out a chicken leg, even though he was at least ten feet from me. "All you gotta do is tell us something we'd like to know, and I might let you have a bite."
I spat on the floor in response.
"Okay. Have it your way. Starve." He ripped off a big piece of chicken skin with his teeth. "Mmmmm…"
I snorted and turned my head, fidgeting my legs. Standing in place was proving a little harder than I thought. My arms had been tied up so long my shoulders were starting to ache in the back. My back, in turn, was tightening up, and no matter how much I tried to shift my weight from one leg to the other, my knees, thighs, and ankles were definitely starting to feel the strain as well. It kinda felt like waking up the morning after a Boomer battle after taking a slight beating; sore all over, but nothing I couldn't handle. Of course, if it was just that, I had the option of taking ibuprofen for the pain. Here, I had no such option. If there was just a way of getting myself free…
I took a look at my surroundings, my first opportunity to really do so. The room I was in was nothing to speak of: it was entirely concrete, the walls, ceiling, and floor colored a drab grey, with one bare light bulb adorning the ceiling. No windows, and three doors; one on my left, one on my right, and one behind me which had been the closet I was locked in. The only furniture was the table and chairs my captors and Emi were sitting in. I noticed there was no clock, no pictures on the wall. Absolutely nothing to distract myself with, and no way of knowing how long I'd been here or would be here. Of course, that could've been a good thing. I could've gone crazy watching the minute hand go by, wishing it'd go by just a little bit faster. On the other hand, it could've helped me; I could've asked myself to last just five or ten more minutes.
But I had no such help here. I either had to bear it, or give up what I knew, which wasn't going to happen. On the contrary, if I was dead, I'd be no help to them that way either, so of course they couldn't do too much to me. But I had to admit, this being-bound-and-standing-in-place thing was really starting to make me sore. But I had a plan.
I looked up at the chain attached to the ceiling, the one my cuffs were attached to. I yanked down slightly, testing how well-anchored it was to the ceiling. It didn't give at all; it was pretty well-attached. I yanked again, harder. Same result, no give at all. I frowned and looked down at my legs. They were starting to tremble from being made to bear the pressure of holding up my body for so long, but I needed them now. I took two small steps forward, then two back, repeating it several times to try to loosen them up.
Here goes nothing!, I thought as I charged as far forward as I could go and did a backwards flip, my feet grabbing onto the chain.
"What the hell?!" I heard Nezumi sputter, followed by the sound of three pairs of feet running over to me.
I pressed my feet against the ceiling and pushed. The chain wasn't giving at all, and I grunted as I pressed as hard as I could, trying to pull the damn thing from the ceiling. The chain pulled on my cuffs, making my wrists hurt mightily, along with my broken pinky, which I subconsciously noticed was a nice shade of purple, and I could feel beads of sweat form on my face from the effort, but I couldn't give up. I was getting out of here, hell or high water.
A yank on my hair and a punch to the back ended my escape attempt all too quickly. I let out a cough and lost my footing, and went tumbling back down to earth, letting out a loud holler of pain when the suddenness of my body falling made my body yank on the chain, sending the resulting pain from my hands and wrists shooting down my arms and through my body.
"So, we have a little acrobat," Bruce sneered. "How weak do you think that chain is, huh? Nobody like you is gonna be able to break that thing so easily."
A punch to the stomach silenced my upcoming protest, and I lurched forward and started coughing, gasping for air. I looked up and saw Emi, fist ready. She was the one who did it.
"How stupid was that?" she chided. "We were right on the other side of the room and you did that anyway!"
"Emi…" I wheezed. "W-wake up. You gotta wake up."
"I did wake up," she stated. "I remembered my mission."
"What IS your mission?"
"Oh, you already know that. But you have to tell my friends here what you know about me." Her expression turned cold. "I don't want to see you get hurt."
I'd seen that expression before. On Boh, a long time ago. It pained me to see that she really was a 33D, no matter how she'd acted before. Now that she had her memory back, she really was just like him.
"Touching, touching," Bruce said. "Y'see, bitch, we'd go ahead and ask her what she learned from you, but we figured it'd be more fun to hear it from the horse's mouth than secondhand."
"You've gotta be kidding me," I spat, giving my head a shake to get my hair out of my face. "You're just admitting you're wasting your time with me!"
"Oh, I don't think we are. We're just killing time before we need to continue on with the next part of the mission. And we haven't gotten to kill time like this in a long time. Nez here was getting a bit frustrated at the lack of something to do."
"Or someone," Nezumi cackled, taking his belt out from the loops on his jeans. "Let's see how you like leather." He walked around so that he was behind me, and before I could prepare myself, I felt something sharp crack against the back of my thighs. I yelped, then let out another one when the next blow hit the back of my knees.
"You obviously never got spanked as a child," Bruce whispered in my ear. "We're gonna make up for that."
Nezumi struck all over my legs. My thighs, my calves, the backs of my knees. He switched between the strap and the buckle, making sure to hit me just hard enough to make me cry out with each blow. My legs trembled and gave out several times, which in turn made me cry out as my sagging body pulled on the chain. I'd regain my footing, only to practically buckle again under another strike from the belt.
My eyes started to tear up from the stinging pain, but I made it a point not to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was causing me pain anymore. I gritted my teeth, and with the next blows only gave out a low grunt. He cackled; that only gave him reason to strike harder, as I promptly cried out again when he landed a hard one across the backs of my thighs.
"Does it hurt?!" he yelled, whipping me across the calves, near my ankles, which were thankfully protected by my socks.
"Ugh! No…doesn't!!" I snapped defiantly, though in reality, my legs were stinging all over. I could feel welts start to rise on the back of them, and when he whipped the already-tender skin, it sent more tears to my eyes. I squeezed them shut, refusing to let the tears break free. I wasn't going to give him that. It doesn't hurt…it doesn't hurt… I kept telling myself.
The room echoed as he whipped his belt against the concrete floor, seemingly in disgust. "Stupid little bitch," Nezumi growled. "That ain't enough for you, huh?"
"Heh…that's nothing," I said, flashing a defiant smirk, though if he'd done it several more times I probably would have been screaming in pain. I could already feel some of the welts bleeding. I almost prayed to be locked up in the closet again. That had to be the end of the worst of it.
But oh, was I wrong.
"Nez," Bruce said, "how's your nose feelin'?"
"Fine," he spat. "Stupid bitch just got lucky. Why?"
"I doubt she'll be able to do anything now. Try your luck with her again."
I felt a shiver shoot up my spine as my heart dropped to my stomach. No...
Nezumi grinned and undid the handcuffs, sending me promptly dropping to the floor, as my wounded legs no longer wanted to do anything requiring effort, and that included standing. I grunted and pushed myself up on my hands and knees, wincing when my broken pinky started to throb. I tried to crawl away, but Nezumi had other plans; he grabbed my wrists out from under me and secured my hands behind my back with another pair of handcuffs. He rolled me over so I was on my back, looking up at him.
He grinned. "Oh yeah. Just how I like them. Vulnerable."
"NO!" I screamed as he dived at me, my heart having jumped from my stomach up into my throat in a panic. He tried to wedge his legs between mine, despite my efforts to keep them closed. But my legs were hurting so much; they were so sore, and despite my valiant efforts to keep them shut, he wedged his legs between mine, prying them apart as he worked on unbuttoning my shorts.
"That Craig guy…he's your boyfriend, right?" he inquired as he backed up, yanking my shorts off my legs, taking my shoes with them, me screaming in protest. "You'll see he's nothing compared to me."
"Son of a bitch! We barely got to second base!" I spat, regretting it immediately. His grin only got wider, more lecherous.
"Oh, really? You're admitting you never fucked him? That's too bad." He grabbed my panties, his knees holding my legs apart to keep me from kicking at him. I couldn't believe this was happening. I shook my head in violent denial; this wasn't about to happen. It couldn't!
In an instant, he had my panties off, tossing them to the side before wedging his knees between my legs again. Despite my panic, I could feel myself flush a deep red; no one had ever seen those parts before. It was supposed to be something special. It wasn't supposed to be like this.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emi turn away.
"EMI!!" I screamed.
"She ain't gonna do nothin'," Nezumi said, flexing his fingers. "Don't even bother."
I felt his fingers on the insides of my thighs, stroking the skin. I felt myself wanting to throw up, but as I hadn't eaten anything lately there would've been nothing to throw up anyway. I struggled, but his knees held my legs apart.
"Stop…stop…" I pleaded.
"Ohhh no. Too late for that."
I felt him push with two fingers, and a moment later, a ripping pain gripped my body, spreading upwards into my ribs. My head fell back, my mouth half-open in shock. This couldn't be happening. He wasn't doing this to me. His fingers were…
He pushed them farther in, making me cry out with renewed pain. It felt like my insides were being ripped apart. It hurt so much.
"S-stop!!"
Nezumi just laughed and started moving them, each movement making my insides throb with pain. I turned my head and looked at Emi, looked for any sign that she was going to intervene, but she did nothing. She just stood there with her back to us, arms crossed over her chest, making not a damn sound. I shook my head and stared up at the ceiling. This wasn't happening. Somebody had to intervene. Emi, even Bruce, somebody…somebody had to step in and help me.
The room was silent except for the sound of Nezumi's cackling and the pounding of my pulse in my ears. All my strength had drained from my body; I was now at his mercy as he continued to use his fingers as his weapon. There was nothing I could do but try to block it out, pretend I wasn't really laying here, exposed, with him…doing this to me.
But finally, he did stop. He removed his fingers and showed them to Bruce. "Look! Haha!!" he laughed loudly. "She bled!"
I felt my body go cold. Bled? Sure enough, I felt a warm sensation between my legs, adding to the throbbing and burning pain there.
"She really is a virgin!" He turned to me and sucked the blood off his fingers. "Oh boy, I've never had one before! This'll really be fun!"
I could only shake my head, dazed as he started to unbutton his jeans. No…I wasn't about to lose it here. Not to this bastard. I was supposed to wait…I'd promised I would wait…
"Next time you see your boyfriend," he said, "you're gonna have to apologize to him. Just say you couldn't wait anymore! Tell him you found a real man!"
"You're not…a real…man," I said, a low growl in the back of my throat. "You're the lowest piece of shit I've ever met."
"Oh, I'm hurt."
I felt something hot press between my legs, and I felt my body go numb. Not here! Not like this!!
"No!!"
I squeezed my eyes shut, heart pounding against my chest, waiting for the inevitable. But it didn't come. Nezumi had frozen where he was. He paused, and as I opened my eyes, he took a look down. His expression was one of puzzlement, then total disgust as his face turned a shade of something between white and green. It took me a moment to realize why: there was another warm feeling between my legs, but this one was of relief.
"Oh FUCK!!" he screamed, jumping back, his parts and his jeans totally soaked. "She pissed on me!! Shit, she fucking pissed on me!!"
Bruce laughed out loud, slapping his knees, while I just laid back and sighed in relief, both at my emptied bladder and that I was no longer under threat of being penetrated by a lowlife like him. Bruce walked over to me, grinning widely.
"Well, that's a first," he admitted. "Never seen anyone literally get the piss scared out of her before. Congrats, you've lost only your dignity today."
I chuckled and let my head fall back again, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes. It hadn't been like that, not entirely; I'd been let known that I'd been holding it when Emi had socked me in the stomach. I needed relief one way or another, and Nezumi's attempt at having my body just sped up that process.
"Clean her up and get her back in the closet," Bruce ordered Emi before leaving to attend to Nezumi. I could hear him still chuckling under his breath as he left.
"Ha…haha…" I was still chuckling when Emi came over to clean me up, a stony look on her face as she wiped my legs and helped get my panties and shorts back on to get me decent again.
"That's not the end of it," Emi warned me, earplugs and bag handy. "I hope you know that you're going to be suffering for that later."
"I know," I replied, still chuckling madly. "But I got him!"
I was starting to go mad. I could feel it. But at the same time, it didn't seem like such a bad thing to do. Things couldn't possibly get worse now. They'd already tried to do the one thing I really feared and fought against greatly. What else could they throw at me?
"Oh, my nemesis the closet…we meet again…"
I curled up on the floor of the closet, my sight and hearing once again cut off from me. Touch, however, was very much still there, as was evident by the dull pain between my legs. I cursed under my breath and fidgeted my legs, wincing when the welts on the back of them stung with the movement. Still, I did have a grin on my face. Oh, the look on that bastard Nezumi's face when he realized I'd peed on him. It was priceless. Unfortunately, that was no longer an option now if he tried anything like that again, and as Emi had said, I was bound to pay for it later. But at the moment, I was by myself again, and even though I was here in the closet again, I knew that at least for now, he couldn't touch me.
Now all I had right now was my thoughts to occupy me.
I reflected on what had happened so far. A pistol-whipping, locked in the closet, forced to stand up, whipped with a belt, almost raped – the third attempt on me, which disgusted me to the core – and now I was back in the closet. Hadn't eaten, hadn't really been able to do much of anything besides my half-assed escape attempt.
"Damn it, somebody…" I cried, the air inside the bag stifling by now, "come help me out. Craig, Bert, get over here and…do something…"
I sniffled and shook my head. I couldn't cry now. That was what they wanted, was for me to lose control. No, I couldn't do that. I'd lasted this long, however long this had been. I had to stay focused. I had to figure out a way to get Emi to come to her senses, remember me, remember her friendship with me. I had sworn that she would have stepped in when Nezumi had pulled my shorts down; that was a thousand times worse than Masahiro putting his hand on my shoulder. And yet she had done nothing. It was almost like she'd seen him do things like that before...like she was used to seeing, to put it lightly, acts of indecency. Hell, as an assassin Boomer she'd probably committed lots of them herself, probably not of a sexual nature, but indecent acts nonetheless.
Dammit, why did they have to give her her memory back?! She was better off as an innocent. Now I wondered what I would have to do now that she was apparently one of the bad guys again. The mission was to recover the OMS or destroy it, no matter what the cost. No…I couldn't kill Emi. I wouldn't be able to bring myself to do it. And in any case, I was probably no match for her in hand-to-hand combat, not without my suit. It was the only way I'd been able to kill Boh. Could I do the same to Emi?
"No…can't…" I swore, noting by the feeling of my throat that my voice was probably hoarse. "Gotta save Emi…gotta get her back…"
"You know the mission!" I heard a voice I recognized as Linna's chastise, her figure appearing in the distance. "Recover the OMS, or destroy it!"
"I know it…" I sighed wearily. "And I'll tell you…that I haven't totally fucked this up. I'm getting her back…I'll…I'll show you."
"Look at you. You want to tell them so badly how you know about her. Go on and do it. They'll probably just have their way with you and kill you afterward anyway."
"No they won't. I can hold out way longer than them."
"You're on the verge of breaking down. They violated you. That's the one thing they had to do to really get to you. It's not going to take much more to get you to start running your mouth. Self-preservation isn't the first rule for just robots, you know. People will always protect themselves first, above everyone and anyone else. You're no exception to that, Yumeko." She bent down and got in my face. "You know they're not going to let you die without you giving them what they want!"
"They think having me go hungry is gonna get to me? It won't," I said firmly. "They think beating me across the legs is gonna do shit? It won't! You have SEEN what I have gone through!! This is NOTHING! I can deal with this just fine!!"
"Are you saying they'll have to shoot at your knees to get you to say anything? Well, it probably won't take long for them to resort to that," she replied curtly.
"Isn't there a little piece of paper called the Geneva Convention?" I asked dryly.
"As if they really are going to care about that."
"Well, I guess it IS a little late for them to not leave any evidence of what's gone on here, huh?"
"Heh." She smirked.
"How do I get Emi back?" I asked. "I know she remembers me somewhere in there."
"Silly girl," she said, laughing. "She's only a Boomer! All she's gonna care about is her mission, and you've got no part of that. You're just gonna have to admit you're not getting the Emi you know back. Boh killed Michiko because she was in his way. The only reason Emi hasn't killed YOU yet is because those two guys want you alive."
"She's not only a Boomer!" I protested, tears coming to my eyes. "She's a friend! And I gotta get her back no matter what!! I don't care what she is or what she's got! It's not her fault she is what she is!"
"That doesn't matter, though," she said. "The Emi you know is gone. I said that. She's not going to be going to the UN willingly. So you know what you have to do."
"I can't…" I said in a shaky voice. "Can't do that…"
She vanished.
"Linna…I can't…"
I blinked back tears. Even if it was the only option left, I couldn't kill Emi. Even if the Linna I'd been talking to was only another hallucination, another figment of my imagination, what she had said still had a fragment of truth to it. If I couldn't get her to remember, couldn't get her back, I'd have to resort to the other option given to me when the Sabers got this mission. But I just couldn't do it. She was still Emi, even if not the one I knew. She was still someone who had been my friend.
But if she turned on me, who knew, then, what I'd do. But I couldn't bring myself to think of that. It was a crazy idea. Just crazy.
"Recover or destroy it…by any means necessary…" I droned to myself. "That's gonna be hard."
I fidgeted again as I tried to get into a semi-comfortable position. I was so tired…I knew I hadn't slept since I got here, and part of me figured that was a part of their plan, to keep me from getting any sort of rest. I could sure try, now that I was in the closet, but the welts on my legs and the soreness in seemingly every muscle on my body were not going to make that easy, or possible. No matter what position I chose, something still hurt.
"Could've done something, Emi," I mumbled tiredly. "You knew that was…the one thing I didn't want to happen. Somebody touching me… Why did you just turn away? You could've helped…"
I cringed to myself again, this time at memories that popped up in my head just as vividly as the hallucinations I'd been having. After the incident with Rob at the party, it wasn't till after I'd gotten home from the other world that I had finally admitted to Mom what happened. I'd been deliberately avoiding telling her, afraid that she'd do something, blame me, or say something along the lines of me ending up just like her. But she hadn't done anything like that. She'd hugged me, and told me she wished I'd told her sooner.
Pity she wasn't so understanding when I told her about my drug use. Funny how stuff like that goes.
But this was worse than what happened then, even if I still didn't like to think about it. If I got out of here, would I, could I tell her? Did it matter? I shook my head; no, it didn't matter, not as long as I got Emi out with me. What I was going through here didn't matter. And if she asked, I'd just deny it. Simple as that. I just had to get Emi out of here, and the rest could fall by the wayside. I'd handle it myself. The fine details weren't important. Just as long as we both got out of here intact, that was all that mattered.
"Doesn't matter…I can take anything…"
"Anything?" a voice asked curtly out of nowhere.
I cringed. "Oh geez…Sylia," I said with a small, nervous chuckle. "So you showed up too. What, did Linna send you?"
"No," she said, appearing in front of me. "She didn't need to."
"Look, I know about the mission, but I can't do it. I'm getting Emi out of here alive."
"I'm not here to discuss her," she said, spitting out the last word like it was a profanity. "I'm here to discuss you. You think you can take this?"
"Hell yeah I can take it. It's just too bad for them I don't have my blackouts anymore. I probably would've had one when he used his fingers to…" I stopped. "I'm not talking about that."
"Why not? You don't want to admit that you've fallen victim just like Priss?"
"Mom had her drink spiked…and I…I wasn't raped! The bastard just tried to! I'm gonna kill the son of a bitch the next time I see him!!"
"With what, your legs?"
"If I have to!"
She laughed. "Yumeko, you're a gymnast, but you're not the best at mixing that in with your fighting tactics. And if you would consider your current situation, you'd realize how impossible your idea is."
"Nothing's impossible. I've figured that out by now…"
"You'll have to prove it then. And unfortunately, I can't help you, because…" She vanished. "I'm not here."
I blinked in shock, then squeezed my eyes shut and let out a silent curse. What help she was. She was the leader! She was supposed to tell me what to do, help me out! What kind of leader would abandon her comrades like this?! Wasn't she worried about me, worried about Emi?
I felt a pair of hands on me, and I felt myself let out a yell of surprise, but then one of the hands tugged on the bag on my head. I pulled away as a flash of light hit my eyes, and then another yell as the plugs were removed from my ears, a rush of air invading the newly clear passages. I shook my head, trying to get aware of what was going on, and after a moment, I was aware of this much: the hands on me weren't leathery.
I opened my eyes. "E…Emi?" I asked. Sure enough, a girl with yellow eyes was staring back at me.
"It's me," she affirmed.
"Let's get out of here. Before they come back…"
"They're in the next room," she said, holding up an open bottle of water. "Here. This is for you."
She held it to my lips, and I gladly chugged it. She tipped it some more, and I eagerly swallowed the fluid, relishing the feel of it slipping down my throat, sore from yelling. Once the bottle was empty, she set it aside. "You were dehydrated," she said matter-of-factly. "Bruce told me to give it to you. He said it's a taste of what's to come."
"What's to come? What is to come? I don't give a shit what's to come."
She uncuffed my wrists, then pulled off my jacket. "Hey…what're you doing?!" I demanded, too sore to put up a real fight as she next yanked off my socks.
"I told you, that was a taste of what's to come. I have to prepare you."
She pinned me down, her knees on my back as she pulled off my shirt, then expertly moved to take off my shorts. In a matter of moments, I was down to my bra and panties. "Emi!!" I yelled as she cuffed me again, this time with my wrists in front of me. "You're not letting him do it to me again! Please!!"
"It's not that," she deadpanned. "You need to listen better."
A taste of what was to come? What kind of hint was that? The water had tasted metallic, but then again so did a lot of water. No, she couldn't have meant it literally. Water…?
"Shit! NO!!" I screamed. "No WAY in hell!! No water!!"
She grinned. "Took you long enough. What's wrong? Do you not like water?"
It wasn't something I had felt was important to bring up, my slight fear of water, and now I was glad I hadn't. Not that it mattered now. My reaction had been enough. I kicked her in the face as she removed my leg sleeve, but was unfazed as she tossed it aside to rest with the rest of my clothes.
"Don't worry," she said. "If this goes well, you won't be suffering for long, and then you can go home. But if you decide to put up a fight, you're in for the long haul."
"I'm already in for the long haul," I snapped. "I'm not leaving without you!!"
"Who said anything about me leaving? And again, don't worry. It's not waterboarding or anything crude like that. It's still plenty effective, however." She grinned again. "Hope you don't mind cold."
Emi dragged me out of the closet and to another room, one that looked pretty similar to the one we were just in, except this one only had two doors, and I was assuming the other one was just another way in, as opposed to being another closet. Also, there were at least half a dozen fans, all placed in a circle, facing the middle of the room, which had nothing. At least, it had nothing until I was tied up again, in the same position as before, forced into a standing position. I looked up, and instead of the chain being attached to a concrete ceiling, what it was attached to was a grate of some sort.
"Do those feel good?" Emi asked, referring to the fans blowing on me.
"They're fine," I replied flatly. "I don't see the point of stripping me down to my bra and underwear though!"
"Oh, you will." She gave me a pat on the shoulder before stepping out, closing the door behind her.
"Emi! Emi, come back!!"
I sighed and fidgeted, my body remembering the pain from standing up earlier all over again. Grimacing, I began the old process of shifting my weight from leg to leg, shivering ever so slightly, as all the fans were apparently on full blast. Was this what she meant by cold? And where was the water?
In a second, I wished I hadn't asked that. Suddenly, water came pouring down from above me, deluging me like I was trapped under a waterfall, pouring over my body, my face, into my eyes, nose, and mouth. I gagged and choked, trying to scream, only to get a mouthful of water. I was drowning! And then, I wasn't. Just as soon as it started, the water stopped. I gasped and coughed, sucking in as much air as my seemingly waterlogged lungs would let me.
And then, I saw the point of the fans. The water had been cold…and with the fans blowing on me hard from all directions, it was even colder.
"H-holy SHIT!!" I screamed, sputtering as my teeth chattered. So this was what she'd meant by cold! The water would've been nice to feel after a hot day, perhaps, but not in a situation like this, and certainly not with fans blowing on me!
"How's that?" a voice blared over an intercom I couldn't see. "Is that too cold for you?"
"Suck it!!" I spat. "After having that prick touch me, a shower's just what I needed!"
"Good!" Bruce declared. "You'll have another one shortly."
Had I been facing a headwind, or some facsimile of that in this situation, I could've tried to concentrate on the fact that at least my back was still warm. But the fans blowing on every part of me prevented that line of thinking, and I quickly found myself shivering and practically tap-dancing to keep my body moving, get it warm. All that did was get the air blowing on places it might otherwise not have, which only served to make me just as cold as I was a minute ago.
Can't let this get to me, I thought. It's just water…it's not like they're holding me underwater. I tried to convince myself it was like a cold shower…a really, really friggin' heavy cold shower. Oh, what was the use? It was like having buckets dumped on my head, something I'd really hated at pool parties, and was part of why I ceased going to them. The one in Sacramento had been the first one I'd let myself go to since I was twelve or so. Water tricks were inevitable at those things, and once it came out that I didn't exactly like water, things would only get worse.
This wasn't waterboarding, but it almost may as well have been.
"Are you in a mood for talking now?" Bruce's voice inquired, though this time it wasn't over the intercom. It was from the door on my right.
"D-depends on what we're gonna talk about," I said, teeth gritted as he walked over, taking care to stay behind the fans as he faced me.
"Heh. You look cold."
"I'm fine."
"Oh, you're fine? Well, if you like, I can invite Nezumi in here. He can change all that."
"Son of a BITCH is NOT coming in here!" I growled, enraged. "He's not coming within a hundred feet of me!!"
"Unfortunately, he's on the other side of that door, controlling the water. But," he said, holding up a finger as if to make a point, "if you tell me something I like, then I can keep him out of here for you."
"You'd…do that? I'm not so sure."
Bruce grinned. "There's something I've learned about you, kid, between seeing you in person and overhearing you talk to yourself in the closet…"
I grimaced. "Like what?"
"You don't like men. And I think I figured out why." He stepped between two of the fans and pressed his finger against my nose. "You said something a while ago about…your mother's drink getting spiked? At the same time you were saying you weren't raped? Would I be right in assuming that your…issues…stem from not having a dad, because your dad is a rapist? That you're a child of rape? Your mom probably can't stand looking at you. A constant reminder of what she had to go through…"
"She loves me!" I retorted. "She kept me on purpose! She said it wasn't my fault!"
"Not your fault? Maybe not, but maybe you have some traits that remind you of him. Like your skin." He pressed his fingers harder against my nose. "Full-blooded Japanese kids don't tan very well in summer. So I can only assume either you're only part-Jap and that's a deep tan, since it's the middle of fuckin' summer, or your skin is naturally like that, which I'm guessing drives her nuts since your dad must have been dark."
"I wouldn't know."
"I'd say your skin's naturally like that, since I don't see any tan lines," he said with a grin, making me blush. "Either that or you tan nude…but given your reaction to being unclothed or having someone try to unclothe you, that that's not the case. But then again, you apparently still have a cherry, so maybe it's a new thing to you. Or your boyfriend couldn't get it up."
"Shut up!! We decided we weren't ready!" Damn, why couldn't I shut myself up now?
"Or he got repulsed when he saw these scars." He removed his finger from my nose and poked my stomach, making me jump.
"He doesn't…c-care about them," I said, shivering anew, and not just from the cold. He wasn't going to try it himself, was he?
He sneered. "Oh, a heart of gold. Then why isn't he out looking for you, huh? I bet he's worried you haven't called him. Or your mom. Oh wait, your mom hates you. She wouldn't care either way, would she? She'd be more than happy to see her little bastard disappear."
"Shut up!!"
"You keep telling me to shut up. Is it because that's true?"
"It's not true at all!" I shouted, knees by now quaking. I was freezing, my body hurt, and him indirectly reminding me of my situation with Mom was only making me really pissed. A part of me wondered how Bert had put up with it when he went through his own torture. He had only very briefly explained it to me, and at the time I thought he was just telling me to stop whining about my own experiences since he'd gone through worse. Another part of me had wondered if he was lying about that whole thing. But still, it had been apparent through our experiences together that he had been through a lot, and he had to have been a hell of a strong-willed guy to put up with something like this. If he could get through it, so could I.
"It doesn't look like you're willing to talk," he concluded, stepping back behind the fans.
"Not about my damn mother, I'm not!" I spat, my words choked off when I was deluged with what seemed like another couple hundred gallons of water coming down on me from the grate above. My body, already cold, practically turned to ice, and the moment my lungs found air, I screamed, jerking against the cuffs. But the cold only seemed to make my wrists, now starting to get rubbed raw from the binds, hurt even more, and the pain of the movement only added to my screams, my frustration.
"Cold now?" Bruce asked.
I didn't reply, only glaring at him as my teeth chattered, as I tried to stay on my feet, which by itself kind of seemed like torture. The ground was concrete as well, and with the water being dumped on it, it too turned cold, and with my cold feet standing on the cold ground…I just couldn't find relief at all.
"Are we going to talk now? Doesn't matter if you don't want to, because we'll just keep doing the water thing until you're ready." He smirked. "Let's start with something easy, okay? What's your name? You never did really introduce yourself as anybody beyond being the one who took care of Emi. I'll ask it again. What's your name?"
"A…Asagi-gi-giri," I said through chattering teeth.
"A last name. We're getting somewhere. Too bad only a million or two people in Tokyo have that same last name! What's your first name?"
"…Emi…"
"Ha! That can't be your first name!" He laughed. "You trying to be funny?"
"No, asshole!" I snapped. "I'm asking about Emi! She's—" I stopped and groaned, wincing when my leg started to throb, and not from the forced standing. This water thing was tricking my leg, making it think it was raining. No wonder it was hurting now. Damn, one more problem I had to deal with. "She's got nothing to do with anything you guys are doing! So what the hell do you want with her?"
Bruce just grinned again, that grin that said he knew something. But at the moment, I was so damn cold I could barely think straight. "You know damn well what we want with her. You were yelling in that closet that you didn't care what she was or what she has. So, tell us, Miss Asagiri, what DOES she have?"
"A good…heart…" I stammered, trying to stay focused. So damn cold!
"I'll ask again, what does she have?" he demanded. "We can always cut her open and find out. Does she have something inside?"
I panicked. "NO!!" I screamed. "You can't do that!"
He stopped and looked at me, amused. "Why not? She IS just a girl, isn't she?"
"You'll…kill her! You can't! You can't take it out!"
"It?" He stepped up to me again. "And what is 'it'?"
I couldn't stop myself now. "You can't take it out. She'll die if you take it out. She'll be no good to you dead!"
"You're right, she won't. But you didn't answer me. What is 'it,' and how do you know it's in her?"
"It's something important…" I gritted my teeth; I had to get a hold of myself! I couldn't crack now! I'd already been through far too much to fall victim to some cold water and fans! "You know what it is, so…why should you have to hear it again?"
"Because I want to. What is it?"
"Her heart." It wasn't entirely a lie; she couldn't live without it, so it may as well have been her beating heart.
"You think you're a poet now? Saying it's her heart? Are you sure you're not going mad thinking you can hear the beating of that hideous heart underneath your feet? It ain't her fucking heart, and I know you know it ain't her fucking heart." He headed for the door again. "I think you need a little more time to think over what you'd like to discuss with me."
"Oh, now who's the poet?" I managed to mumble as he left the room, leaving me alone. I knew he wasn't going to give up that easily, and at the moment, I did feel like that person in that old poem, going mad with this knowledge I had to keep locked in my head somehow. But it was slowly leaking out of me, with every dump of water they poured on me.
Being done in by water? Not on my life.
I'd assumed Bruce would be coming back in after the third dumping on water on me, but he didn't. He'd meant what he said by waiting for me to want to talk. But I wasn't about to give in that easily, or at least that's what I wanted to think. If he'd gone on much longer with his banter I probably would've spilled something I'd have regretted big-time, but now it was just me, the water, the fans, and what was left of my sanity. Water…they HAD to be joking!! Who would've thought water would have been such an effective way of getting people to talk? Then again, I didn't know anybody who liked the thought of drowning. It seemed like a horrible way to go. Having air cut off from you, struggling to get it back…it was a horrible feeling. I didn't have to worry about that here – TOO much, anyway – but the cold, oh, the damn freezing cold. Now I knew what it must have been like whenever I'd see people every New Year's Day on TV making a jump into the Arctic Ocean or whatever to greet the new year. I'd thought it was crazy then. Now that I had an idea of how it felt, I REALLY thought they were crazy! Who the hell would willingly want to go through that shit?!
Part of me really, really wanted to try my acrobatic trick that I'd done earlier, but I literally couldn't. By now, I'd been standing up so long my whole body was crying out in pain, and my body was sore from the efforts to keep itself standing, lest any sag in my body tug on the handcuffs and rub my wrists even more raw. The backs of my legs hurt from the belt-whipping, my face still hurt from the pistol-whipping…hell, there wasn't a spot that didn't hurt.
What wasn't helping matters was the fact I was really starting to get tired, which of course hampered my efforts to keep my body standing. One would think that the constant cold from the fans, or the deluges of water, or the pain would keep me awake, but I felt like I was starting to get numb to it. Or maybe it was frostbite; was it possible to get frostbite this way? I didn't know, but the flash of pain when my legs gave out when I started to nod off would usually jerk me back to a semi-alert state, as well as the aforementioned deluges of water.
I decided not to keep count anymore after the fourth or fifth dumping. There wasn't any sense of timing to it, so it was useless to use that as a barometer for how long I'd been here. They could be one right after the other, or they could be a half-hour apart, not that I knew that exactly; it was a guess. I just knew I'd be standing there shivering for a hell of a long time, half-naked and with my scars turning purple from the cold, before more water would come crashing down over my head and body.
"Not…so…cold," I mumbled to myself, letting tears run down my face; at least they were hot. "This isn't cold. This…isn't…that bad…"
The door to my right creaked open, and in sauntered Bruce, one hand in his pocket and one holding a cup with a lid as he positioned himself in front of me, between two of the fans. For a moment, he said nothing. He just stood there and gazed at me, pensive.
"You look like you want company," he said, taking a sip from the cup, which I noticed had steam wafting from the opening. "Mmm, this is nice and hot. I bet you want some of this, huh?"
I just tucked in my lips, not saying anything.
"How are we feeling?"
"I think y-you know how I feel," I spat. What a stupid question to ask at a time like this.
"Enlighten me."
"Fucking cold."
"You look it. Now, let's just start with something easy again. We'll get to the stuff about our dear Emi, but I like knowing stuff about the people I'm talking to. Let's see…" He stopped to ponder. "Your mom was raped and you were born as a result. You have man issues. Your last name is Asagiri. Hmm, we're getting somewhere. I can guess your age, but make it easy on me. How old are you?"
I sighed. "N…nineteen."
"There, that wasn't so hard. Just had to give me a number, as long as it was the right one. But I'll tell ya, you're the oldest nineteen-year-old I've ever seen, and I'll also admit I've never had to interrogate a teenager. But we're all learning as we go, right?" He grinned and took another sip from his cup. "When did you graduate high school?"
"Last year."
"Last year as in a few months ago, or literally last year, like in '56?"
"'56…"
"Any siblings? I'd think not, unless your mom got raped more than once."
"Shut up. I'm an only kid."
"Grandparents?"
"Died in Second Kanto."
"That figures. What about your Spitdevil? Dealer?"
I furrowed my brows. What was with the sudden subject change? "Well…yeah. How else would I have a gun in Tokyo?"
"Nice gun for a kid your age. Bob was looking at getting one for himself."
"Bob…that guy I shot, right?" I inquired. "Heh, sorry about that. Bet you and the SOB are pissed about that."
He smirked. "Did us a favor. Any guy who can get taken out by a kid deserves nothing less than just that."
"Didn't even stop to help him. That's cold."
"Happens in this line of work," he said nonchalantly. "Ya try not to get too attached to anybody lest something like that happen. But you probably know how that goes, right?"
"I only took in Emi…t-to help her," I said. "I was gonna help her find her family. But you're not my idea of family. You're just…using her. At least I treated her with respect and kindness. I haven't seen any of that from you."
"What would you know? You've been stuck in a closet or strung up the whole time you've been here. You've seen nothing. And she's not going to care how she's treated. All that matters is the mission at hand."
"And she'll just get her memory erased at the end anyway," I mumbled, forgetting that I was actually talking out loud and not just in my head.
"That's right," he affirmed with a wide grin, which was what made me realize I really had said it out loud. He walked up to me and held out his cup. "I like what I'm hearing now. Take a sip."
I was reluctant to do so, but then the steam rising up from the cup hit my face. I sighed; it felt so good, especially given my current predicament. The smell told me it was hot chocolate. After a moment, I just nodded, and he tilted the cup so I could take a sip. I'd barely gotten the sweet liquid in my mouth before he yanked it away. "How do you know she'll get her memory erased again?" he inquired, swirling the cup in his hand like it was a glass of wine.
"You're…using her," I growled. "She'd be dangerous to have if she knew too much. Any Boomer is…"
"And how do you know she's a Boomer?"
"She…did things that made me wonder. She flipped a guy I know who's three times her size over her shoulder. Even I can't do that."
"Oh. Is that all?"
Stop talking, dammit!, a voice in my head screamed. "Yeah."
"Really?"
"I said yeah."
"Ok, you know she's a Boomer. But how do you know what's inside her? DO you know what's inside her? Who are you working for that found out that information?"
"I don't work for anybody but myself," I said through gritted teeth, a new resolve somehow building inside, despite the pain my body was wracked with. By now it felt like I was on one of those medieval stretching machines.
"Don't play smartass with me now, kid," he warned, pointing at the door. "I can bring Nez back in here any time, so you better just tell me what I want to hear."
"You wouldn't," I said, trying not to sound frightened by the prospect, but inside, I was. The face of that rat was the last thing I wanted to see.
"Oh, I would. I've seen how much you treasure that precious cherry of yours, but if you don't start telling me who you work for, I'll have him come in here, and if he's still eager to pop it I will damn well let him have at it."
"You're NOT…gonna DO that," I yelled at him. He had to be kidding!
"Not like this I'm not," he granted. "This would be too easy. Although there is a toy of his that he's eager to use, and I'm not talking about his wang. Emi!!"
Emi entered the room through the same door Bruce had come in from. "Yes?" she asked.
"Get the kid redressed and bring her back out to the main room. Nezumi's got one more trick in store."
She just nodded acknowledgment as he left. Turning to me, she flipped a switch next to the door that made all of the fans turn off, which made me let out a loud gasp as the cold suddenly was extinguished. Well, my body was still cold, but at least I didn't have the fans making it worse. Her reaching up to undo the cuffs was the last straw. I let out a strangled yell as I dropped to my knees, my body screaming in sweet relief. No more standing! No more cold!
"Hmph. It's not over," she chided. "Don't look too happy."
She left the room and came back a second later with a towel, helping me get myself wiped dry. I almost wish she'd rub faster; the friction on my skin would've helped me to warm up again, but she must've sensed that, because she didn't go any faster. In fact, she started patting me dry instead of rubbing. It didn't matter; I just didn't want to be wet anymore, even if there really wasn't a way to dry off my undergarments.
She dragged me out to the main room, where my clothes still were, and in a matter of time I was back in my shirt and shorts, and she even put on my jacket for me. My sleeve, shoes and socks stayed off, however, and before I could even think of doing anything else beyond getting clothed again, I felt her jerk my arms behind me, cuffing my wrists yet again.
"Is this necessary?!" I snapped.
"Yes," she deadpanned before shoving me to the floor. "Water wasn't enough. You being touched wasn't enough. But oh, believe me, THIS will work."
"I don't know what 'this' is, but—"
"Hi again!" a voice rang out, a voice that grated on my ears. I snapped my head in the direction of the voice, and there, alongside Bruce, was the rat. That lousy rotten…
"YOU!!" I screamed. "I'm gonna KILL you!!" Emi ran over and grabbed my shoulders to keep me from lunging at him, not like my legs were in any shape to do any lunging anyway, though I definitely would have. "You son of a bitch!! You think you can do that to me and get away with it?!"
"Someone's touchy," he laughed, then quickly stopped and snarled at me. "Bitch, you're one of the most stubborn people I've met, and I've met my share. I'd love to play around with you, believe me I would, but Bruce here has let me know that we're now under a bit of a time constraint. We have visitors coming, and they would really like us to have something for them when they come over. So guess what?" He whipped out a stun gun and turned it on, a crackling noise emanating from the end as he pointed it at me, the occasional visible spark flying out. Emi stood back as I tried to push myself away from him with my by-now-extremely-sore legs, which didn't work too well. "We're gonna be playing with electricity."
I saw his arm come down, and the next thing I knew, I felt a zap on the side of my leg, which instantly went through my entire body. I screamed and fell back, trembling, as my muscles suddenly refused to obey my orders. What the hell was that?! I couldn't move!
"Haha!" he cackled. "You like that? Have some more!!" He hit me with it again, on my arm, making me scream again as the shock made my entire body jerk again. I felt something else slam into my back – the steel tip of a boot – making me cough and sputter as it made me roll onto my side. "Stupid bitch! You've been too much trouble!"
I heard the stun gun crackle again, and if I was able to cringe, I would have. I wasn't even able to let out a protest as he zapped me again, this time in the back. I screamed again, the tears that had been building up spilling free, streaking my face.
"STOP!" I yelled. "It hurts!!"
"I KNOW it hurts!" he shot back at me. "It's supposed to!" A moment later, another jolt of pain, this time on my calf, and another scream.
"No more…stop…" I pleaded.
"Better say something else besides that!!" He walked around to my front and kicked me several times in the ribs, knocking the wind out of me before shocking me in the shoulder. "Say something useful!!"
I sputtered and let out a strangled yell, spitting out a low curse, sobbing. I never thought something would hurt so much, and this was coming from me, and I thought I'd been through the most painful things known to man. But man, of course, could always come up with something more painful. Getting shot had hurt, but I was just about ready to declare this the mother of all pain. It just wasn't going to stop.
"I should've done this to start with!" he said, kicking me in the legs and back, which only made me holler more.
"Try it a few more times," Bruce suggested. "She'll crack for sure."
"No…" a quiet voice said, belonging to Emi. "Not so much. You'll hurt her!"
"Shut up!" Nezumi snapped. "That's the POINT!" He punctuated the remark with another jolt to my back. This time, the scream was trapped in my throat. My voice was giving out. And so was my resolve. No more…I couldn't take it any more…
"Stop…stop…" I croaked, the pain wracking my paralyzed body. No more! This pain was too much! It was too damn much!
Several more jolts followed, which I could barely make any response to. I was too busy crying. Nezumi was still cackling, like the son of a bitch was having the time of his life, while Bruce just stood by, arms crossed. And Emi…I couldn't see her through my tear-blurred vision. I didn't know where she was.
Until she screamed.
Nezumi stopped in his tracks and froze in position, stun gun still crackling. The tears practically dried up in my eyes as I opened them wide and looked up. She was screaming, her head bowed, her hands and fingers bent inwards like claws. And then, she stopped and looked up, and it was then that I saw it.
The eyes. Red, glowing eyes.
Her face was contorted in a snarl as she lunged at Nezumi, who in his surprise dropped the stun gun. She grabbed him by his head, and a crack filled the air as she gave his head one hard twist. He dropped to his knees, then slumped backwards, limp. Bruce, the one who'd always been so calm, so level-headed, was absolutely stunned. When Emi turned his sights on him, he took a step back, then when she charged at him, he turned and ran out of the room.
I couldn't see all of what happened next, but she did manage to grab him by his shirt just as he was getting through the door. Out of range of my sight, I heard several very loud pounding noises, like she was slamming him against the wall. Three, four…five times I heard the slamming before it stopped.
My jaw just dropped as I laid there, unable to move. Had I just seen that?
The copper-haired girl came back into the room, not even breathing heavily. She looked at me, her eyes normal again, and gasped. "Yumeko!" she said, bending down over me. "Are you ok?"
"E…Emi…" I stammered. "You're…"
"Let me get these off." She took the cuffs off of my wrists, and helped me sit up, me with my face contorted in pain. Holy shit, did my body hurt!! "It's ok. They won't hurt you anymore."
"You're…not the other Emi? You're the one I know?"
"I am the one you know," she replied. "I just have my old memories back as well. Just because I got those back doesn't mean that I forgot about you."
I winced and lifted my head enough to get a look at Nezumi. I saw him laying flat on his back, with his legs tucked underneath him…as well as what looked like the back of his head. I felt myself lurch, wanting to throw up. "Shit…you really messed him up."
"I told him to stop. He wouldn't."
"Wish you'd…done something earlier. Like, a LOT earlier."
"Hold on."
She stood me and up and leaned me against her, putting one of my arms around her shoulders for support. She helped me through the door into the room with the fans, and it was there that I saw what exactly she had done to Bruce. There was a large bloodspattered design on the far wall, with Bruce's body slumped against it, his skull completely crushed and caved in. I could barely open my mouth to say anything before Emi got us through the next door, to another room, this one with a bed and a sink. She laid me down in the bed.
"You need to rest for a while," she said. "And let me explain, before you accuse me of waiting." She grimaced. "Yumeko, I…part of me did forget, for a while. I mean, I recognized you, but all I could think of was my mission, the OMS mission. And the Boomer part of me, the assassin part of me, really enjoyed watching you in pain, but I also knew that you could take it. You'd told me what you went through, so I thought you'd handle it fine. Even when Nezumi was going to rape you, somehow I knew you'd be okay. But when he started using the stun gun…"
She buried her face in her hands as she sat at the foot of the bed. I grimaced. "Emi, don't be like that."
"I'm sorry!" she cried. "I promised that I would protect you! I swore it! And when he started using that stun gun, I remembered that promise. And I just…couldn't…take it! I had to stop him, stop him and Bruce!"
"Oh, you stopped 'em," I grumbled, wincing as I lifted my arm to rub my shoulder. I was starting to get control of my body back. "So what about these visitors?"
"Bruce and Nezumi's bosses are coming shortly," she said quietly. "We're gonna have to leave before they get here."
"Which is…?"
"In an hour. But you need to get muscle control back first. Just rest. You need it."
"Emi…"
"Huh?"
I managed a weak smile. "Thanks."
She looked guilty. "Please don't say that. I'm the one who didn't do anything to help you. I don't deserve your thanks. But I will do everything I can to help you now." She put a hand on my leg. "I won't ever forget my promise again."