"You understand that you have no rights here, correct?" He asked the short-haired girl, who just nodded silently at him. "Good, now then, you also realize that any failure to answer these questions will lead to an automatic assumption of guilt and expulsion from the Bureau." She nodded silently, almost whimpering, "and I don't think I need to remind you that even though your parents and your sister are all in the Bureau and fairly high ranking, you do not have the same sort of allies they do."
Subaru nodded at him. "Y, yes."
"Good. Now, I'm not here to be your friend, pretend to be your friend or even attempt to be nice, I'm just here for the truth." A screen appeared in front of Subaru, showing the events of the train again. "Now, when your partner, someone you've known for at least three years now, was injured, how come you did not come to her aid? Instead you stood there and let a deserter take the Lost Logia and escape."
"I was in shock," Subaru managed to stutter out, "I never thought I'd see her again. And she shows up and..."
"A likely story." He snorted at her, "if anything, you were sending her data on the mission."
"No!" Subaru had a frightened expression on her face. "I would never..."
"Lost Logia sell for a lot of money, it wouldn't be hard to feign incompetence, allow a Lost Logia to get stolen from under everyone's noses and let the person sell it off for a large profit. Even if it was split five ways, a small Lost Logia could set a person up for years." He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes. "Really, considering that your mother's a top investigator, your father's a major and your sister is a Sergeant, you would resort to such tactics just to get money."
"I would never!"
He snorted at her outburst. "You say that, but I'm almost certain that you're the one who sent her information. Or maybe it was your friend?"
"Tea would never do that!" Subaru protested and the man snorted at her.
"Right now, your so-called friend is telling my partner everything." He narrowed his eyes at her. "You might as well come clean and admit to what you did."
"What did I do?" Subaru asked and gulped as he walked around the table to stand directly above her.
"You know what you did, you gave that deserter information and she used that to not only appear at the train, but injure two of your superior officers!" Subaru tried to shake her head and he grabbed her chair and leaned in, shaking it. "You think I can't see it? Greed's a powerful emotion, but I wonder how you and your family would feel if you were forced to spend a few decades in prison for treason?"
Subaru just whimpered and shook her head.
"Then tell me about this Sein, it might save you, it might not, but just remember, you're no one important."
Subaru just gulped and nodded. "Uh huh..."
*Flash*
"Your mom and sister are really pretty and nice." Teana smiled at Subaru. "I can see why you look up to them."
Subaru rubbed the back of her head and giggled nervously. "Mom and Gin-nee taught me Shooting and Strike Arts to be strong, but I really want to be more like Yuuno-san." Subaru smiled softly. "He was so cool, put out that fire so easily, so maybe one day, I can be helpful to him."
Teana rolled her eyes and looked at Sein, who was walking a little bit behind them and smiling softly. "What about you, Sein? We met your sisters, what about your parents?"
Sein sighed softly. "You probably won't meet the man who raised me, he's always busy... But... I don't know my mom." Both Teana and Subaru blinked at her, this was rather unusual. "One day, I'll find her again, even if she's dead, I just want to find her one day, to see her and let her know how I'm doing." Sein then pointed at Subaru. "But, until then, I'll say that I'm jealous of Nakajima for having her mother still, but at least I have more sisters than she does!"
Subaru nodded and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll help you find her one day."
*End Flash...*
"So, in the end, you did promise to help her, huh?"
"But if she was looking for her mother, isn't that something a Bureau member should do?" Subaru gulped as he snorted at her.
"Your only mission is to do whatever your superior tells you to do. You don't have the power, rank nor leverage to get away with such ideology. Now, we're going to continue this interview and we won't stop until I'm satisfied."
Subaru just whimpered.
Hours later, Subaru left the room on shaky legs and unshed tears in her eyes. Each step had her shaking hard.
"Subaru," she turned to see her mother standing there. The two stood there for exactly ten seconds before Quint walked up to Subaru and pulled her into a hug. It was no surprise to Quint that Subaru hugged her back, started whining and broke down crying fully. "It'll be okay, Su-chan..." Quint said softly as she rocked her daughter softly. "You did nothing wrong, I promise that you'll be just fine."
After a few moments of crying, Subaru pulled back and wiped her eyes. "Thanks, mama."
Quint smiled and gently punched Subaru in the shoulder. "Go get washed up, I'll take you and Teana out for some ice cream, okay?" At least that got a smile out of Subaru. "I'll get Ginga, your father and the twins to join us, okay?"
"Sure." Subaru turned and left to go get cleaned up.
After she left, the smile left Quint's face and she turned, stopping the Internal Affairs officer as he was leaving the meeting room. "You didn't need to be so hard on a private."
"Ma'am, with all due..."
"Shut the hell up." Quint interrupted him. "Accusing someone of being a traitor is serious, and doing so without any real evidence..." She squeezed her hands into fists. "And I'm not saying that as a mother, but as a Bureau member." Turning away, the purple-haired woman started to walk out of the area. "Just so you know, you should be thankful that I'm here and not my eldest daughter, she's... More protective than I am of our family."
He snorted. "Ma'am, you don't scare me. You're barely half my height, and..."
The next thing he knew, he was back in the interrogation room, laying on his shoulders as he wondered what happened.
Quint just smirked as she lowered her leg to the floor. "And this little woman just laid you out, I'd shut up if I was you."
See other episodes by Philip Weigel
(Posted Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:40)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.