--Thursday, July 9, 2172
"How did you manage to build this place in secret...?"
Under Kai’s guidance, Nemuri and Keiko entered Kai’s underground facilities, a place that left Nemuri asking in amazent. Kai, walking with Nemuri and Keiko clinging to his arms, explained calmly.
"Well, with every construction project I did on the house, I simply bought extra materials and ’stole’ them little by little at night. Since Sage helped misplace invoices, it wasn’t very obvious, and anyone who noticed anything assud it was contractor corruption. Then I secretly built machinery for Sage to operate and helped with the digging myself. Although it took a couple of years to finish all this."
"..."
Nemuri fell into a contemplative silence as she looked at the place, which was far from looking improvised. anwhile, Keiko looked at Kai with a hint of pride and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
After a while, the group arrived at a door at the end of a long, well-lit hallway, which opened automatically, revealing on the other side a spacious room with so sofas, desks, and computers. But what was most striking was a huge window on one of the walls, showing on the other side a dark, empty room with only a table and two chairs, sowhat similar to an interrogation room from a movie.
"This interrogation room looks quite ’official’... Is the window one-way glass?" Keiko asked while looking at the room curiously. Kai, who had separated from his girlfriends and started typing on one of the computers, nodded calmly and explained.
"Yes, it helps set the mood for the interrogation. Although I haven’t had much chance to experint, only four people, those I interrogated here, talked more easily than the others."
"I see."
Keiko remarked calmly as she walked to a wall, where several identical masks could be seen. The masks were black kitsune masks with red details, sowhat similar to the helt Kai used the second ti he went to the spider island. With a sowhat nostalgic expression, Keiko reached out to take one of the masks, only to bump hands with Nemuri, who was trying to do the sa.
The pair of beautiful won turned to look at each other, seeing on the other’s face the sa expression, nostalgia mixed with a bit of pain. After all, both could rember a very similar mask from a few years ago. Just before Alisa and Jiro’s wake, Kai asked to buy a mask from a street vendor, which turned out to be a kitsune mask, and he attended the wake wearing it.
Although at the ti they assud Kai’s desire for the mask was simply a childish thing, now they could see that Kai wanted that mask to hide his tears. After all, from that day on, they never saw Kai cry again; even in the face of death on that cursed island, Kai didn’t cry; he laughed.
From that mont, that mask seed to have been deeply etched into Kai’s subconscious, to the point that whenever he used sothing to cover his face, it ended up with that design. That was the case with the suit he wore on the spider island. Even the helt of the armor he used in the fight with AFO, although more subtle, if you looked closely, also had features of a kitsune mask.
In a way, it was as if Kai refused to forget that mont, as if it were an essential part of his being. As if that uncontrollable crying from that ti, which had scared them so much, held deep aning for him. Perhaps Kai refused to forget that mont when he showed his weakness, or perhaps, he refused to let go of his last connection to his parents.
...
After looking at each other, the pair of beautiful won turned to look at the focused Kai and walked over to him before hugging him tightly. Confused, Kai hugged Keiko’s and Nemuri’s waists, then asked, sowhat bewildered.
"Is sothing wrong? If it’s too much, I can take you back upstairs; you don’t have to force yourselves."
"No, it’s not that..." Keiko said in a lancholic voice a mont before Nemuri comnted in a sad voice, looking directly into Kai’s eyes.
"If you ever want to cry, don’t hold back... Your Nemuri will always be here to hug you and cry with you..."
"Cry? What do you an?" Genuinely confused, Kai wondered while looking at the sad Nemuri. Keiko quickly took Kai’s face in her hands and spoke in a soft, lancholic voice.
"We just want to tell you that with us, you don’t have to act strong... We will always be here for you and support you no matter what."
"..."
Though confused, Kai quickly suppressed the mocking smile that wanted to form on his face. Cry in front of a woman? He wasn’t foolish enough to do that; he had already made that mistake in his life as Daniel and suffered the consequences, so he had no intention of repeating it. Human instinct guides one to value strength and success; showing weakness only invited disaster, even with loved ones. No words or feelings could change that reality.
"... Why are you saying all this now?"
While gently stroking the backs of his lancholic girlfriends, Kai asked in a soft, calm voice, without revealing a hint of his true thoughts. After all, he was fully aware that there are truths that, no matter how much they are spoken, people would be unable to understand them until they experienced them for themselves. Therefore, he preferred to avoid a pointless confrontation.
""...""
Upon hearing the question, Keiko and Nemuri fell silent and looked at each other with complex expressions. No matter how good Kai was at hiding his emotions, they had watched him grow up since he was a baby. Therefore, although extrely subtle, both could still notice the faint hint of disdain in their beloved’s expression.
"... It’s nothing... It’s just that those masks brought back so mories." After a heavy sigh, Nemuri hugged Kai and said in a complex voice. Curious, Kai turned to look at the masks on the wall, imdiately realizing what they were referring to.
"Ah, that’s why. But don’t worry, there’s nothing special about it; I just like the design. It reminds of a certain character that inspired at the ti."
"I see, but still, don’t forget, we’re here for you. But for now, let’s focus on what’s important..."
Keiko shook her head and said in a serious tone before looking at Nemuri seriously. Nemuri, who imdiately understood the ssage—they needed to pay attention to that ntality—soon looked at Kai and said seriously.
"Are we going to the adjoining room?"
"No, you two will wait here. I haven’t updated your Accomplices yet, so you don’t have my latest escape and defense thods, so it’s better to avoid risks." Kai shook his head and explained, to which the pair of won nodded. But at that mont, Nemuri looked at Kai and said seriously.
"Kai, lately, thanks to the [Vital Reactor] and the Accomplice, I can do many things with my sleep scent, including helping with interrogations. I can control my scent to lower the ntal defenses of targets and give them simple orders when I put them to sleep."
"Then we’ll use it later; first, I want to do it my way. I want to see what they say under ordinary interrogation. We might get so things from the differences." Kai said with a calm smile, to which Nemuri and Keiko nodded before stepping back a few paces.
After separating from Nemuri and Keiko, Kai took one of the masks and a black robe, which hid almost all of his physical features except for his height. Then, Kai took so small tal boxes from one of the desk drawers and walked to the adjoining room, where he communicated with his reliable assistant through their ntal connection.
[Sage, release one of the captives, but let’s leave the ti-control guy for last.]
[Imdiately, master.]
Sage imdiately responded, and a ghostly, old-fashioned prison cell appeared in the room, soon disappearing. In its place was a kneeling man with a vacant stare, who had a human appearance, tanned skin, and short hair, and was dressed in tactical gear. After placing the dazed man in the chair, Kai ordered calmly.
[Sage, wake him up.]
With Kai’s order, the man slowly began to regain the light in his eyes, a mont when he started looking around visibly confused. Soon, the man looked at his arms and legs, which were chained to the tal chair he was sitting in. At that instant, Kai erged from the shadows of the dark room and asked in a flat tone with a distorted, eerie voice in English.
"What is your na?"
"..."
Upon seeing Kai with the mask, the man opened his eyes in surprise but remained silent. Without bothering to say anything else, Kai walked over to the man and placed his gloved hand on his head. At that instant, the man let out a scream of pain and soon began convulsing, which lasted several seconds, a mont when Kai asked again.
"What is your na?"
"..."
The man remained silent again, so Kai repeated the therapy, sothing that was repeated several tis until the man started banging his head against the table, seeking death. But with calm movents, Kai took the man’s head and healed any damage, causing the man to turn and look at him with evident horror in his eyes. He had understood there was no escape.
"What is your na?" Once more, Kai asked in the sa flat tone and eerie voice, which finally made the man slowly open his mouth.
"...George... George Harris..." The man responded in a heavy, almost guttural voice, a mont when Kai asked while reaching his hand toward his head.
"Who do you work for?"
"F-for the Cerberus Group, I’m just a rcenary!"
(Yeah, right. Since when do rcenaries try to kill themselves before talking?)
The man replied sowhat panicked while trying to move his head away from Kai’s hand. Hearing the response, Kai withdrew his hand, though under his mask, a mocking smile ford on his face. Even so, Kai refrained from comnting and asked again in a flat tone.
"What was your mission?"
"..." The man hesitated for a few seconds, but upon seeing Kai raise his hand again, he trembled slightly and quickly spoke.
"The mission was to escort a big shot to a cruise ship in our area of operations."
[Master, Mrs. Yoshiko sent a small report and explained that these guys ’died’ several tis and were ’revived’ by the ti-control guy. Also, they never showed surprise or disorientation.] Sage quickly added through the ntal connection in a calm tone. Kai asked again in a calm voice.
"Had you worked with that ’big shot’ before?"
"...Y-yes, on a couple of occasions in the past." The man hesitated for an instant before replying fearfully, so Kai continued asking questions.
...
In the adjoining room, Keiko and Nemuri watched the entire process through the glass with solemn expressions, seeing how three n were subjected to the sa torture until they broke and talked. Then, Kai opened one of the tal boxes he had brought, from which he took out a syringe and a strange dication, which he injected into the fourth man before starting to ask questions.
"I still have a hard ti believing that’s my Kai..." Nemuri comnted in a complex voice while watching Kai interrogate the man, to which Keiko replied seriously.
"Certainly, hearing about it and seeing it are two totally different things, but let tell you sothing, Nemuri. Kai is opening his heart to us and letting us see his most private parts, so I hope you are up to it. He does all this to protect us; he himself is strong enough and has many ans to survive."
"I know... But I also won’t allow my Kai to get lost in this darkness; there are other ways to do this, and little by little, I will guide him toward them." Nemuri replied in a serious and resolute tone. But that statent caused a mocking smile to form on Keiko’s face, who replied with evident disdain.
"What ways? Hand these guys over to the authorities for questioning? Please, don’t expect my Kai to be that naive. Politics and the police have already failed us, or have you forgotten? A bastard captured by Jiro was released, and they even helped him attack Alisa and Kai.
"Besides, who would we hand them over to? The Japanese police? They’re foreign rcenaries; the only thing we’d achieve is revealing Kai’s abilities and getting him into trouble while these guys walk free in a couple of days."
"..." Nemuri couldn’t help but fall silent, a mont when Keiko comnted in a cold tone.
"The people after my Kai are dangerous and well-connected; using official ans against them is, at the very least, stupid. Don’t forget that a damn sniper attacked Kai in broad daylight on the street. To this day, neither the police nor the governnt has done anything apart from trying to give us a pathetic escort to keep us under surveillance. Kai is doing the right thing; in this, we can only rely on ourselves."
***
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