‘Today should be the day,’ Yuki thought. It was his third day in prison.
He was inside a room that looked more like a bedroom than it did a prison cell. There was a fluffy white mattress on top of a metal bed frame that was bolted to the ground. The walls were of a glossy snow color. It was also where Yuki knew a number of sensors were embedded, monitoring everything they could from his heart rate, body temperature, and movements. The floor was made out of imitation wood that was a nice tan color.
‘My, don’t they treat their elf prisoners so well.’
There was a brief knock on the door and a tray was pushed through a slot that appeared. Once the tray was all the way through the door, resting on a flat metal sheet attached to the door, the slot disappeared.
‘Looks like my food is here.’
If Yuki tried to think about something to complain about, the only thing besides the fact that he was in prison was the food. It was mainly a mixture that seemed similar to oatmeal. It had barely any flavor and was just a thick gray substance sitting in a bowl. However, it contained a large amount of vitamins that were necessary for a person to survive.
‘It’s not like I’m going to have to live on this forever. I wonder when they’re going to start.’
Yuki started to force down the pseudo food as he waited for someone to come by. He glanced at the clock that was attached to the front wall of the prison periodically, tracking the time as it went by. Then as he was scraping off the last of the gray substance from the bowl, another knock came from the prison cell’s entrance. This time, the entire door opened.
“Hello,” Yuki said to the man that had just walked in. “How are you this fine day? Not that I can see the day.”
“Come here,” the man ordered.
“Not in the mood for a chat, I see.” Yuki got up from his seat on his bed and walked leisurely toward the man. “So, what are we going to do today?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” the man replied. “I’m going to sedate you know.”
“I appreciate your candidness.”
The man didn’t say anything and pressed the palm of his hand onto Yuki’s neck. When he pulled back, Yuki touched the spot and felt a sticker.
‘Sedative patch,’ he thought as he felt his consciousness start to fade.
A few moments later, the darkness washed over him and the last thing he felt was the man catching him as he fell.
Like the shutter of a camera, Yuki’s eyes flickered open. It was dark. Even as his eyes started to adjust, he still couldn’t see a single silhouette of anything around him. He wasn’t even sure if he was inside a room.
‘Where am I?’
He looked down and realised that he no longer had any restraints on. The ones around his wrists and ankles had disappeared. Looking around some more, Yuki concluded that he was in fact not in a physical room.
‘My consciousness is inside a mental room.’
Then just as he came to that conclusion, the world flashed brightly, blinding him momentarily. When the spots faded from his eyes, Yuki found himself standing in a very familiar place. A place that should no longer exist. A place that was burnt down to the ground on Earth.
‘I’m back home. And everything is still attached. Is this a memory or a reconstruction?’
The sounds of whispering caught Yuki’s ears and he turned to face the direction the sound was coming from. His eyes locked onto the kneeling figure of a young woman, slender and tall. Her voice was bright and calm, but her tone was betrayed by the panicked eyes she wore. The one she was whispering to, a small child, maybe five or six, was staring at her with confusion written over their face.
‘Ah. That day.’
Yuki watched as the events that he knew so well unfolded again before his very eyes. His mother carrying him out of bed and hastily getting him dressed. Then the boy being dragged along by his mother as she looked back and around every now and then, muttering to herself. Yuki followed them as they entered the forest, the boy being told to hide inside a hidden clearing.
“Stay here, okay?” Yuki said quietly to himself, his words synching with that of his mother. “Mama will be right back. Don’t move, and I’ll be right back, alright?”
He watched as the boy was convinced, his mother lying to him that they would be playing a prank on his father. Then the mother ran back towards the house, leaving the small child behind as he stared at a necklace that was just given to him.
‘This boy. So young. So naive,’ Yuki thought. He crouched next to the young child as he played with the necklace. ‘You’re not playing a prank on your father. Life is about to play a prank on you.’
An explosion rang out and the forest shuddered. The boy looked toward the direction of the house, concern flickering in his eyes for the first time. Then the boy stood and started to run to his home. Yuki followed him until the boy stopped. He started at the burnt remains of his house. The burnt remains of his shelter.
Yuki walked past the boy. He walked right to the charred pieces of timber and the smoke that leaked out from them. When he looked down, he found his parents. Two broken people, killed by cold steel and left behind inside a burning tomb. Yuki knelt down and stared at their faces, his face stiff and his expression unchanging.
His mother stared back at him. There was some life still clinging on in her eyes. Her heart was still beating, small thumps that pushed whatever blood it could. Then her mouth cracked open.
“Don’t you wish you could have done something?” she asked. “Done something to save us?”
“Of course I do,” Yuki replied. His voice was quiet but unshaking. “I would be lying if I said no. But captain, what is a five year old supposed to do? Revive their dead father? Somehow restore blood into the dying body of their mother?”
“Captain? Who are you talking to, Yuki?” the body of his mother asked.
“Captain. You’re going to have to do a lot more than that if you want my mental barriers to collapse. You can’t even call me by what my mother usually calls me.”
Yuki stood back up and raised a hand.
“Why don’t we have a chat, one on one?”
He slashed his hand down and the memories around him was ripped apart. The scene disappeared and a new one took its place. It was a wide open grassy field. Right before Yuki was a simple wooden table with two chairs. A tea set layed on top of it. And right on the opposite side of Yuki was the captain.
“Wha, how? Where am I?” the captain asked. His eyes darted around until they locked onto Yuki. “How did you do this?”
“You made a terrible mistake, captain,” Yuki said, pulling out a chair. He gestured to the other one. “You should sit. It’ll be more comfortable for you.”
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“What mistake?” the captain said as he sat down.
“Well, you decided to come inside my mind. My consciousness,” Yuki explained. He poured out two cups of tea from the teapot. “The place where I have complete reign.”
“This has never happened. Why can’t I get out?”
“Of this place? Or my mind? Well, it doesn’t matter. The answer is the same. Simply put, I’m not letting you out. Not yet.”
“What do you want?”
“A simple conversation,” Yuki said, pushing a teacup toward the captain. “Between two people. You can ask questions first if you would like but it’s not a guarantee that I’ll answer them. After all, I’m not in an interrogation right now.”
“How were you not affected at all?” the captain asked. He shook his head as if he was trying to get something out of his mind. “It was as if the death of your parents couldn’t move you.”
“That’s where you first failed. You should have already been able to tell from our first conversation that I’m not normal. So why do you keep assuming that I am?”
“Because there was only a suspicion but not a definite conclusion.”
“Well, I guess there is now. Your question at the end was also, to put it mildly, bad. Asking me if I wished I could have done something? My mind operates on a logical basis, captain. You should have already known that as well. My emotions are not something that are easily found. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you to decide.”
“But how did you do all this? Trapping me here?”
“You used mana to get in. You’ll need to use mana to get out, is that not the case?” Yuki asked in return. He sipped his cup before continuing. “I just prevented that mana from pulling you out. This is my mind and my body.”
“You planned this, didn’t you?” the captain groaned. “That’s why you were so uncooperative during the interrogation.”
“I know how the process works here,” Yuki shrugged. “First comes interrogation. If not enough information is found, then a request is sent in for a different type of test. An EMI. An emotional manipulation inquiry.”
“What do you want?” the captain asked again with a sigh. “Freedom I assume?”
“No, not freedom.” Yuki shook his head. “I’m sure that I’ll be getting that soon. I just want to talk. But really, I just want to tell if that’s alright?”
“Not much of a conversation then.”
“Mmm, that’s true but it is my choice.”
“Then get on with it. What is it you want to tell me?”
“Just a few things. You know who were the ones that killed my parents, don’t you?” Yuki asked. The captain said nothing. “The Shikaku. That’s who. So when you asked before what they did to me, you now know. But it’s not like you didn’t know before, now did you?”
“Where are you going with this?”
“Interesting places, trust me. So you did know, seeing that you haven’t denied it. You knew that they killed them. Yet you tried to act as if you didn’t. Now let’s move on to something else. The LIA. Your employer.”
“What about them?”
“Oh, just a few small things really,” Yuki said, waving his hand. “Just a few cases of false imprisonment of about a couple dozen demons. Working with a private corporation to carry out those imprisonments. And do you know who controls that private corporation, captain? The Shikaku do.”
“You say that, but how do you know?” the captain asked. “You’ve told Yuna the same. So where’s the evidence?”
“The evidence? Just a few emails here and there from Mason Inc. chairmen with known members of the Shikaku. A couple testimonies of Shikaku members. Nataru, Ludwig, Shindol. A few others as well.”
“So you are the one that killed those three, aren’t you?” the captain said, his eyes narrowing. “Those Academy employees.”
“They’re Shikaku members as well. I’m sure I just said that. I even have all of their emblems in a drawer in a desk somewhere. But you knew that, didn’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Yuki said. “Your information network is so vast and touches almost everything. I’m sure you have records on those three. And you even have their contact information, no?”
“What does that have to do with them being Shikaku members? Or about me?”
“Well, I’m sure with that contact information you could communicate with them at any time. You could have asked them questions about various things. Maybe a few questions about a certain young lady and her activities in the forest.”
The captain’s gaze hardened.
“Maybe you could get angry at this person that you’re calling. Let’s say Shindol, just grabbing a name from that list. Then you could threaten them and warn them to not do anything. Because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right? You’re an officer and by telling those people that they should only do things when you instruct them to, you’re protecting the public. Isn’t that so?”
“Where did you hear that?” the captain asked, his voice low. “I’m quite curious as to your sources.”
“Directly from you, captain. My source is you,” Yuki replied. He drained his cup and gazed at the man sitting across from him. “And let’s say Shindol as well because he was quite cooperative before he died. I’m sure you know that as well, right captain?”
The captain stared right back at Yuki, their eyes locking onto each other.
“Or maybe, should I say Firestorm?”