Trash: Chapter 111 Things You Don't Do At An Interrogation (Patreon)

Chapter 111

Things You Don't Do At An Interrogation

There are times when you are asked seemingly simple questions that become anything but. These are the questions that are often open ended, open for interpretation, and lack any form of true direction. As it turns out, the Royal Order of Watchers employs such tactics in their investigations.

“So, I will ask you, what happened back there,” the Chief ROW officer asked, his stern demeanor highlighting the fact that he is nervous. He is relying on his military training to hide the level of discomfort he now feels sitting across from me in the same interrogation room I was originally shuffled into after entering the school.

On its surface, the question seems fairly straightforward, but if you look at the wording, it is anything but. He is asking a question that seems to imply that there is only one real event that we are talking about, and that I should immediately know what the subject is and what he wants to know. However, this question is layered in its complexity as there are multiple directions I could take in focusing on an answer. That is why I too try to keep my answers short and to the point.

“I heard an explosion, I ran towards the explosion, I healed those I found at the site of the explosion,” I responded, potentially opening myself up for much deeper lines of questioning, but each of these comments is factual on their own.

Even now, I wonder how I made the few hundred-meter sprint from Madame Voyou’s recently cleared classroom to the holding cell in question. A sprint that felt like hours, but only actually took a few seconds to complete. All that running in my free time and apparent automatic use of Life Reinforced Movements* that along with my clearly apparent use of Golden Life Ratio Mana Regeneration* while I used mana, showed how the intense training I had been under for the past week almost was paying off. I was now using new Skills automatically without even having to think about their activation.

“That is it? You are telling me that you heard an explosion and ran towards the danger?” The Chief asked, his tone incredulous.

“Yes,” I respond, again keeping my answers brief with little room for interpretation or ability to be misused or misapplied.

“Then what can you say about your attack on a fellow student?” The Chief began.

“Attack?” I asked, and suddenly my mind goes back to the scene before, where I did in fact plunge a dagger into Johny’s chest, fulfilling many dark fantasies in an altruistic way.

“Yes, where you plunged a dagger into a defenseless and weakened student,” the Chief pressed. I could feel there was an angle to this, as it appeared as though he was now crafting me as a villain in this set of circumstances.

“You were the ones who wanted me to behead him, carve out his heart and burn it in a pit,” I replied, restating Officer Jinx’s words back to them.

“Yes, but as it turns out he was not corrupted, as such any attacks against him are now considered to be an unprovoked assault.”

At this, I realized this moment for what it was, a frame job. A sloppy one, well one that might be able to take advantage of a typical teenager who didn’t have time to think rationally and look beyond this immediate claim. But they weren’t dealing with a typical teenager, for I had lived two lifetimes and had been subjected to many terrible and inept lawsuits filed by people claiming medical malpractice on my or the hospital’s part. Realizing their pushing now was both an overplay of their hand and an attempt at something greater, I shifted tactics. Rather than getting angrier and flying off the handle demanding that I was innocent, I instead did the opposite. I grew colder.

Leaning back, I could feel something shattering in my mind as I felt my resolve settle into place. My mind seeming to be able to focus past the emotional component of these attacks and get at the heart of what is truly driving these two. For where would the Chief be without Jinx, his bad cop apprentice, who always seemed to have the most severe case of resting bitch face ever. In a way this was almost unfair, two adults squaring off against one teenager. Still, I was not as gullible or malleable as others would want, if they had done their homework they could have checked with the DiVoratores and found that out directly, making this approach mute. Still, with that subtle cracking sensation in my mind, I could see the world differently. For now, I could see the subtle influence of a Skill being used.

This wasn’t the typical Skill of power that had an elemental affinity enhancing it, rather this was a mundane social Skill being used. One that felt like it gave the words being used to influence me have more weight and power to them. It seemed to be multiplied by the level of conviction they had behind their words. The sad part was, had this been my first time with these two, this tactic might have worked, but I had already been through this once. While they ultimately had no grounds to hold me on back then, it seems that their level of interest in me had changed. I had expected this, as Madame Bloom warned me about scenarios like this, ones where I might be pressured into signing or admitting to actions that were not true. If that happened, I was to avoid them at all costs. Realizing this was most likely the case, that I was now being framed for a trumped-up charge, one that I would then have to plead out of, likely by signing a contract I paused. Then shook my head as cold rational anger overtook me.

In the span of a single blink, I shifted. My whole body going from leaning forward and aggressive, playing into the effects of the emotion manipulating Skill and I leaned back. Crossing my arms over my chest, in a defiant gesture, my back going ramrod straight, even as I crossed my leg over my lap. The picture of cold indifference. There was a pause as I could see the fragile mask slip off of both the Chief and Jinx’s faces, as they saw the moment I coldly glared back at them. I could see the look of confusion come over the Chief’s face as his lines that he had rehearsed in his mind were suddenly gone as I no longer played by the emotional script that he had dictated for me. Rather than crying out in defense, claiming words like, “that isn’t what happened, and you know it.” Instead, I went off script and cut to the chase of this whole charade.

“Why don’t you tell me where you think this whole dog and pony show will end up, how you will offer me a plea deal to get out of trumped up charges, in exchange for what?” I pause, reading their faces and seeing the shock in their eyes, I realize that I am correct about everything up to this point. That’s when I continue with my next part, “let me guess, you want me to join your Royal Order of Wannabe’s?”

“That’s watchers!” Jinx hisses, her mask slipping as she is now the emotional one. At this point, I see a shadow pour through the open door. Yes, this time the door was left open, hoping that I would incriminate myself and thus have more witnesses that could testify against me.

“Oh, so you do want me to join your organization?” I ask, again I can see the momentary lapses in their minds as they realize I am aware of their whole act. That’s when I give a sly smile and turn to Jinx, “let me guess, you would charge me here, and then say you were willing to overlook this crime of assault for a chance to be with you?”

Again, there was silence, which was why I pushed.

“Would I be able to be your roommate? Sleeping in the same room together, at night?” I make sure to lock gazes with Jinx, making my not-so-subtle threat blatant. “Would we eat meals together, meals that might be poisoned?”

“Are you threatening us?” Jinx declared, calling out my blatant questions for what they were, thinly veiled threats.

“No, I would never, we would be comrades at that point. But I do wonder if others would have thoughts about what might happen and the reasons for my acceptance,” I press.

By now, I could see the look of fear washing over the Chief and Jinx both as they realized I was far more serious than they had expected. It was clear that I had done my part perfectly as coming off as mildly unhinged, and not as servile as they had originally expected. That was also when the looming shadow by the door finally made her way in, the harsh metallic click of metal on stone ringing out as she speed rushed her way past the startled Chief and Jinx who looked back at the newcomer. Only to see that the newcomer was none other than Madame Voyou, who once again took up her mother tiger position, placing her body directly between myself and the two ROW officers, by holding the gap between the wall and the long horizontal table that seemed almost comically large for the small room. Making it so the Chief and Jinx were physically separated by Madame Voyou’s intimidating frame and power suit that screamed of elegance and authority.

“I’m sorry but my client here is not a suspect for these or any crimes, and you know it,” Madame Voyou stated, her words crisp and authoritarian.

“Just who do you think you are!” The Chief exclaimed, rising to his feet as a look of barely constrained rage filled his face as he found a way to once again exert the commanding authority of his social Skill. A Skill that seemed to require a position of power or perceived dominance to work properly, at least that is what I see in the terms of the Skill being used.

“I am this child’s current legal guardian, acting on her behalf by authority granted to me by her foster mother—” Madame Voyou began, but was cut off.

“Foster mother, where is this foster mother, if she has in fact granted you permission to speak on her behalf?” The Chief declared, seeing a potential weak point in her argument and harping on it.

“She is away tending to family business, that said,” Madame Voyou replied as she reached into the lapel of her business jacket and pulled out a signed parchment that seemed to glow with power. “If you insist on seeing documentation, then here is all the documentation you should require.”

Angrily the Chief snatched the glowing golden parchment, seemingly unaware of the glowing golden effect that was packed into the page of that document.

“This, this is a fake—” the Chief muttered, his words seeming to falter at the end as even he seemed to lose conviction in his own pompous declarations.

“You are welcome to challenge them, but know that this child is now under my direct care, and therefore all formal accusations must be presented in writing before me and a local clergy of the court.” Madame Voyou spoke.

As she did, I realized this was likely a case of local politics mixing and combating regional powers trying to exert authority over a smaller area. At least, that is the tone that this conversation seemed to be going. It was clear from the Chief’s perspective that this was going sideways as the fire that had been fueling his anger and keeping him upright seemed to drop as he visibly began to sag. That’s when his subordinate, the bad cop in this whole exchange did possibly the stupidest thing possible.

“Do you think you are enough to stop the two of us?” Jinx replied, her own words filling with power as she was using a different type of social manipulation Skill. Though it was clear that Jinx’s was meant to provoke, while the Chief’s was meant to intimidate, together these two made a formidable team, as I could see them pressing false confessions out of multiple fellow students. Just seeing them in action, for who they were sent a wave of revulsion through me, as I realized this could have gone far worse, had I not been mentally prepared for all of this.

Fortunately, I was mentally strong enough on my own, and better still, I had support. Support in the form of a disabled war veteran who just crossed her own arms across her chest as she stared defiantly at the two. Then smugly spoke her five-word provocative reply.

“I wish you would try.”

For a moment it seemed like that would be everything. Then a larger shadow loomed over the doorway, before the very wall began to break apart.

“What the?” Was the two word reply from the Chief and Jinx who both turned to face the now crumbling wall, then they looked on in horror once they saw the actual cause of the destruction.