Interrogation Tactics:

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The cold bite of a downpour was plaguing Oak Town this day. A nasty storm was brewing, and Celica could feel it in her bones. Minor though it was, she managed to get around to washing her dirty, bloodstained clothes at the guild hall last night. She hadn't felt this well-kept in multiple weeks, and she begrudgingly admitted to herself that a life of comfort was nice from time to time. The primary reason it was a begrudging admittance was due to the potential that comfort could easily breed weakness and laziness.

Guess the only thing for it is to get to work., she thought, tightening her mask to ensure no droplets would fall inside the patterns and into her eyes.

Her steps stained the streets as she walked. Her boots would spread puddles of water carelessly around, reshaping them into more puddles to litter the road. Celica's resolve had to be steeled for the job she had accepted on behalf of her empty home today - an interrogation mission. She knew nothing of the personal conflict at hand or the names thrown about in the paper, nor did it matter in the end. It was money, and a job was always worth doing for the right price.

Leaning against a wall outside of a nearby butcher shop, eventually a well-dressed man came by and escorted her inside. With a brief wave to the butcher behind the counter, Celica followed after the suited man down a flight of stairs into a dark, dingy basement. Before opening the door at the bottom, Celica was handed a balaclava to obscure her facial features.

"Mask isn't enough, hm?", she responded in a breath, and the man shook his head in rejection as a response.

"Very well.", she retorted, and took off her own mask and pocketed it in order to replace it with the black balaclava.

"I'm ready. Go ahead."

As the hinges of the door creaked open and wind could be felt pulsing as it opened, they stepped into the basement. Inside was a single dangling light on the ceiling with a string waving back and forth to signify exactly how one would turn it off and on.

"This is where my part begins. Leave us, and allow me some time.", she spoke coldly before even being instructed further.

The man in the suit complied, leaving the basement and closing the door behind him. Underneath the protective properties of the balaclava, Celica would appear faceless. There was little in the way of facial identification, exactly how she was accustomed. This time though, it wasn't for passion - it was out of simple greed. She bit her tongue at the thought that even she would succumb to such base desires, but nevertheless puffed up her chest and shoulders to appear intimidating as she approached the captive man in the center of the room.

He glared angrily at Celica while tied to a chair, spitting at the floor a foot away from her. Once she stood right before him, she gazed downwards at him without lowering her head. The power of her question would come entirely from her eyes and voice alone.

"Where is the cash transport?", she began with nothing but a cold raspy voice.

The man merely smirked in response and turned his head to the side.

"Fuck off.", he'd respond.

"Not good enough."

Celica delivered a fist to his face that bobbed his head around, rebounding like a speed bag. She followed up with an additional left hook and a right elbow, bloodying him up significantly. A single tooth could be seen flying away from the light and further into the shadows of the basement.

"Did that perhaps knock some sense into your thick-yet-thinning skull, worm?", she spoke in an uninterested tone. Hateful as she was to admit it, she was getting into this role a little. She'd even go so far as to say she was having fun with this.

The Tessio man straightened himself up, breathing heavier, and shook his head.

"I ain't sayin' shit! If I do they'll do a lot worse than this. They'll come for me, and they'll-"

Smack

"I'm sure they will come for you one day. Mayhap once they find your skeletal system strewn about and crafted into furniture with your dried and preserved hair as toilet paper they'll finally know you were here. You, though? You won't see the light of day again. Ever again.", she spoke commandingly, interrupting his own delusions that he would ever be saved without giving up the information.

Celica kicked the man over onto the basement floor, still bound, and began putting pressure on his throat with her forearm. With her knightly physique pushing down on his throat from one end, and the other end tight against the stone cold floor of the butcher's basement, he was quickly running short on air.

"Talk. Talk, and you live. Otherwise this is going to get a lot worse from here on out.", she breathed into the man's ear, biting it just enough to draw a pool of blood that would trickle warmly into the canal.

"I-I can't, I'll be-"

"You'll be killed here if you don't talk. Do you believe yourself to be the only henchman we could acquire? There are many of you out there right now, unsuspecting and weak like you."

Celica pressed further onto the Tessio gangster's throat, and as his pupils began dilating, he choked out a single utterance with all of the effort he had left.

"Wait..."

Celica released the pressure and delivered a swift kick to the man's jaw while he recovered from asphyxiation, scattering teeth like a bag of marbles onto the floor. As white and crimson painted the basement, she propped him back upright on his chair and crossed her arms expectantly.

"Talk. Now."

"The transport'll be next week... we'll be taking a secret route through Oak Town that only a few of the boys know. I can give you the details, just don't kill me. Please..."

Smirking underneath her balaclava, Celica took notes on the route details and shuffled them into her pocket.

"Thank you. Now you'll get a reward. Some peace and quiet while we decide your fate."

Celica tugged at the string attached to the ceiling light, turning it off. The man's panicked breathing was the last thing she could hear, other than the begging, before she slammed the door on him and made her way back upstairs. Taking off the balaclava with a sigh of relief, she replaced it once more with her butterfly mask.

Celica exchanged the information with the Martello gangster who hired her, and made her way out of the shop back into the cold with a pouch of money in hand. Other than the money, she also felt a renewed vigor. Torturing somebody felt like a breath of fresh air - a way of letting out her pent-up aggression, perhaps? She rather liked it. Her bright smile underneath the mask was contrasted by the otherwise gloomy attire she wore and the darkening clouds showing no sign of a retreating rain today.

That will do for today. Would another bath hurt? Maybe. I'll ponder it on the way back.

Thus, she began her climb back towards the guild hall for some well-earned relaxation.

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[1000/1000]

[Exit]