WEEK 3

[akudamods]

On Saturday, it is relentlessly sunny. Sunday too. Monday will be the same but with a lot of wind. For now, you get a new area: Old Shinsekai, the den of depravity surrounding the police station. Will you venture into the unknown and seedy? Or retreat into the familiar pods, keep bothering your overseers?

Maybe you plan something else altogether.

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Comments

[thefifthchild]

Tt. [His smile widens.] Your bravery is respectable, I suppose. I'm under no delusions about this somehow being the end of this world's twisted little game.

But I do want the truth. All of it. And I want it now. If it helps, consider it one last 'fuck you' to those who have used you as a pawn. Or consider it a way to spare yourself the many horrific ways that I can keep you alive.

For starters, let's go with something basic. What are Zealot and the Physicist's roles in this and what do they entail?

[akudamods]

[Her eyes cross as she takes in the question. Then she answers] Physicist and Zealot are your overseers. That's all I know. My role in all this is simply to provide the terrain for your parole and perform the executions -- executions befitting the demonic Akudama you all are!

[thefifthchild]

[Huh. That actually tells him more than he expected.]

You make it sound like the rest of your job is a smokescreen, Commissioner. Like this is all just pretense.

The disintegration, that's something that was intentionally inflicted onto us, wasn't it?

[akudamods]

Intentionally... inflicted... but how? When so many of you are in body and spirit cursed as the Hydra--

[She spits back angrily at first, then all the strength goes out of her body. Not that there was much in the first place when she's been suspended]

It couldn't be through the--that's impossible...!

[thefifthchild]

[He hums, clicking open a taser on his belt before charging it up to a considerable shock. Enough to hurt her, significantly, but not enough to kill.]

I'm starting to believe your merry band of government drones are just idiots if you actually hadn't figured that part out.

Hydra. Talk. What is it?

[He places the taser against the rope. If she doesn't elaborate, then it's fry time.]

[akudamods]

No, there is no literal hydra. [She's firm in her voice at this distance at least] Vampire, demon, Garlean... You're all so different from humanity and each other -- no science-fiction bioweapon would affect every X-Class Akudama exactly the same!

[So she's silent a little longer, and the taser comes out. Even during this torture -- though she does scream from pain -- she still manages to try to stand her ground to some extent]

I'm not telling something I don't know! Since you're all willing to cross all lines why don't you direct all that towards the targets that do have something to do with all this?!

[thefifthchild]

Do you think you don't? Is it not you who commands the police and enforces the broken will of the conquering empire that rolled over your people? Was it not you who murdered two of our own?

[He sneers down at her.]

If you're offering suggestions, give me names. Give me the name of the one behind the mind controlling broadcast you've used to enslave your people. We've offered the stick, now let's try the carrot. I'll let you back on the roof if you give me something useful. Beyond how incompetent you really are.

[akudamods]

Is the execution of remorseless child murderers not safely behind a line in your supposedly modern world?

[She lets out air through her teeth]

You know who shapes Kansai's interpretations of Kanto's edicts more directly than I do.

[Governor. Loyalist. Populist. Even Technocrat]

But the "one" you seek...? Ha. Never thought I'd be bothered it was so far beyond my reach. To define anyone in Kanto is akin to... asking how to spell the name... of an ascended god.

[With that she falls silent]

[thefifthchild]

[He growls.] Where I'm from, there are trials where people would be able to defend themselves. Here, however, you make a sport out of executing those that you have already deemed guilty.

Not to say most people here don't deserve to die. I know I do. And I know you do. [He yanks the rope up, placing her against the stone of the rooftop with a thud. Only now does she see him, and Goliath looming behind him. She'll notice the sword in his hand, especially when he brings it to her throat, holding the blade against her neck.]

Last question, then. Do you believe that? About Kanto? Or are you just saying that for their sake?

[akudamods]

[There's a lot that she could say about the trials, but being rolled back is distraction enough]

Seeing... what little that I have... is believing.

[An answer that contains neither zeal nor concession, but cool acceptance of authority and methodology--perhaps a genuinely unusual type worth investigating--just like everything else in what he knows of her life]

1/2

[thefifthchild]

I see. [That's interesting. He can't rule out the idea that this Husband and Wife might actually be gods, considering he's met his fair share of the fuckers. He doubts it, though. He's familiar with leaders who raise themselves up to be Gods. Ra's Al-Ghul comes to mind. But still, he looks at her with disdain, with a faint trace of pity.]

Then I hope they're worth dying for, foolish woman. [He removes the sword from her neck.]

2/2

[thefifthchild]

[...before like a flash of lightning he raises it once more and brings it down on her neck, severing her head from her body in an instant. It rolls onto the stone with something between a splat and a thud, and he leans down to grab it.

He sneers down at the now headless body. She wasn't the formidable opponent he hoped for. Just a delusional old fool knowingly acting as a puppet.

He can feel Alfred's eyes burn into his back, but he won't give the hallucination the satisfaction.]