Disclaimer: No I do not own Gunslinger Girl. Raphael and his other aliases yes but the rest of them no.
In a shady area of Rome a group of black clad men look at a number of crates.
"You sure about these things?"
"They are not Franco & Franca grade bombs but I feel we can trust them."
"The Padania can't be compromised any further we must make sure."
"I am sure ok, tonight these bombs will go of at the ball and our enemies will get our statement."
"Who did you say supplied these bombs?"
"There is a new terrorist cell led by a former spy leader who got backstabbed by his agency; I heard his name was Mr. Bennet or something like that."
"Just because he claims that he was a successful man does not mean we need to endorse his weaponry."
"The man has a lot, Cristiano has decided to buy weapons from him at wholesale already. I think we can trust him."
"Very well." Suddenly 2 more black clad men enter the room.
"My friends I hear footsteps quick hide the merchandise." Said one.
"I'll go check who it is." Said another as he grabbed his firearm and left.
"Come on it's just a little girl dribbling a ball."
"Little girl get out of here! This is not a playground."
"Wait what's that, hey put that down-"
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Chapter 9 Ricordisi Di
Remember
Well that was… easy. The element of surprise definitely did the job. As soon as Henrietta gave the signal all the girls advanced into the building and soon everybody surrendered. Now it's the grueling process of interrogating these people.
"What were you planning to do!" I yelled as I forced one of the men into the wall.
"What else? Bomb stuff of course!" replied the terrorist as he spat on my face.
"Whom are you working for?" I shouted back as I punched him in the stomach.
"People who won't want you to know." He said.
I drew my gun and pointed it at his face. I glared at him menacingly but all he did was smile and reply:
"That's right lock the secret away by blowing my brains out!"
Damn this guy is unfazed, he is not afraid to die. What will I do now! Huh? Someone is taping my shoulder. It's Raphael.
"You could put the gun down Hillshire, I'll handle this."
So I stepped back to see what he would do. He grabbed the man's leg and yanked hard. It sent the man spinning to the floor and falling flat on his face. He then grappled with the leg and proceeded to bend the leg and his back backwards as if like a bow. The man started screaming in pain as he flayed to get himself free.
"You were being asked nicely a while ago. Who does not want us to know that they are involved in this operation?" asked Raphael.
But the man continued to just scream.
"I can make this more excruciating for you and I will not hesitate, it will not kill you but it will hurt more." Said Raphael as he threatened to intensify the bend.
"Padania! Padania!" the man screamed as he continued flailing.
"Now were getting something. Did the Padania send the bombs?" continued Raphael.
"NO!" said the man, "Then who?" asked Raphael.
"I don't know… let me go! that's all I know!" Screamed the man.
"You know when a towel is wet and it will not give the water up, it needs to be twisted so that something will come out!" with that he straddled both his legs on the leg being held and used his arms to pull on his neck.
"I don't know! I swear to god I don't know! … Just kill me!" but Raphael did not grant the screaming terrorist's wishes he just held on and waited to hear what he wanted when suddenly.
"I know who they are, it's me you want let him go!" yelled another terrorist.
Raphael loosened the lock on the man he was holding and got up. He walked towards the man who claimed he knew and said:
"Well then tell me."
"Not until you make sure we are pardoned by the government." Demanded the man.
"I am the one making demands here, if you don't want to be a good towel and just leak then I'd have to twist you like your friend over there."
With that he grabs the man's arm, he twisted it and grapples it in such a way that aside from twisting the arm he also threatened to open the man's rib cage.
"Stop! Stop! I'll talk! Please make him stop!" the man yelled as he pleaded to me. I did not want to make a move, Raphael had a demonic look in his eyes, he wasn't being his friendly/cheerful self.
Raphael let go of him as the man fell on the ground to catch his breath.
"I still have several other ways to deal pain and I am not afraid to try them out, so if you want to keep your voice from growing hoers from all the yelling just tell me what you know." He said.
"There is this knew terrorist cell, they sold us the guns and bombs, I don't know what they are called though, I swear I don't know!" he shouted as he saw Raphael walking towards him again.
"Terrorist cells are like cockroaches; they thrive on the dirt and propagate on an exponential rate you'll need to be more detailed if you really value your limbs."
"I know one thing, the leader was called Mr. B—Mr. B--, his name starts with a 'b' that's all I know."
"We can't have a manhunt over a guy named Mr. B, you'll need to be more precise, do I need to refresh your memory?" Raphael said as he made a move to grab his leg.
"Wait! Wait! It's Bennet I think it's Mr. Bennet!" the man yelped as Raphael dove at him.
"Very well. Hillshire he's all yours."
With that Raphael turned around and left. We rounded up all the men there and as they were being walked into the van they seemed to have intentionally avoided Raphael who was standing with the girls by the door. In the car Raphael sat at the window seat and stared blankly into the mountains.
"That was really violent of you." I told Raphael.
"Violent but efficient." Raphael replied in a cheerful tone.
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"What do you have there?"
Raphael was walking towards his room with a guitar case on hand.
"Is it a new rifle?"
"Rico, just because it's an instrument case doesn't mean it has a gun inside, I bought an actual guitar."
"You play?" I asked him with enthusiasm.
"I use too, actually I think I use too." He said as he starts scratching his head.
"I'd love to see you play." Anyway Jean told me I could take a break and everybody else is busy doing their own things I guess I could hang out with Raphael for a while. Raphael looked at me and smiled:
"That would be nice."
So there we were sitting at the steps of one of the buildings in the agency. Raphael tried some simple tunes first but later on started playing more complex ones and finally played a song.
I had no idea what song he played but it was nice. He played a number of songs most I don't know what they were called. One of them though sounded pretty familiar. It was the same song that Henrietta plays in her violin if I am right.
"Hey that's where Rico is, she's with Raphael." Claes, Triela and Henrietta were walking towards us.
"Raph, what do you have there?" asked Triela as she approached us.
"Raphael is that a guitar?" asked Henrietta when she got close.
"You play?" Claes asked.
After all questions were answered we all sat around Raphael as he played on his instrument. Claes was familiar with some of the songs and was able to sing along, Henrietta and I just listened.
"Can I try?" Triela suddenly asked.
"You know?"
"You made it look easy so I want a shot of it."
"Okay then."
So Raphael passed the guitar to Triela and she tried playing it. It wasn't bad in the manner that we needed to cover our ears but it was pretty different from the way Raphael played. Triela definitely had no idea what she was doing.
"Yup, it only looked easy." Triela said as she handed the guitar back.
However, Raphael did not take it; instead he wrapped his arms around her and guided her hands back to the guitar.
"See you pluck the guitar like this. " Raphael explained.
And with that Triela was actually playing a song. It sounded very nice. Raphael and Triela being together were also pretty nice to look at. Triela was leaning her head on Raphael's shoulder as Raphael constantly looked at her and smiled. They both looked happy.
Like the way Claes describes them in her romance novels.
A short distance away
"So he learned to interrogate people today, and now he is playing the guitar? What do you think Jean?"
"It looks like he is remembering a lot. It's making me suspicious Hilshire"
"I wonder if he's getting some memory of his past now."
"Let's hope that he doesn't".
"Why is that?"
"We have here a kid who seems to have been born an assassin. The least we want to happen now is that he remembers his past and realizes how he came to be."
"You think that he was also an agent in his past life?"
"Is there another explanation? We need to keep an eye on him. He might start remembering too much."