Chapter Text
The main building of Valkyrie Police Academy is bustling as usual.
People chatting, wandering around for coffee, gearing up for patrols, and dealing with paperwork.
Sometimes delinquents in cuffs (while yelling and struggling) are escorted down the hall by grumbling officers as well.
There is one thing in common among everyone.
They all stopped for a second to pay attention to the man striding through the place.
He looks the same in those confiscated photos from paparazzi; tall and built, hair in the color of half-dried blood.
Gray flannel shirt, combat pants in MCB, worn tan boots, a day pack and a rugged analog watch.
And there's a plastic bag containing three cups of tapioca milk tea in one of his hands.
"There you are, Sensei~" Deputy Director Konoka wanders out from the end of the hallway with a wave.
"Konoka." Auburn offers a handshake as he takes off the shades, showing his iconic eyes.
Konoka winds her arms around his and tugs instead.
Unaware of the faintly audible gasps and envious grumbles from the officers nearby.
"Let's go! Director Kanna is inside~"
Auburn can only follow as the Director Kanna too!? and it should've been me~! flies by his ears.
On the east wing of the main building, there are investigation rooms.
They are for, well, investigations for the most criminals.
For the few and maybe the proud if they get out, it's another story.
In their case, it's more of an interrogation than an investigation.
One of the rules of thumb of conducting an interrogation, is to have all the answers to the questions.
From that, one would employ multiple pressuring methods to get the subject to talk, be it physical or psycological.
Investigation is to find out what they know, interrogation is to find out what else they know.
It's usually done by qualified officers, and at times Deputy Director Konoka when she has time or feels like it.
(Much like her supervisor, she keeps a 100% crack rate on interrogations as well.)
And those who are important, or in this case, unlucky enough, will meet Kanna the Feral Hound in all her glory.
No one in the world of underground thugs worth their salt would butt heads against her on the street, let alone in an interrogation chamber.
No one until today, that is.
Kanna enters the neighboring record room to the chamber and with an annoyed exhale.
"Got you worked up, it seems." Sensei greets the Director with a smile.
"!..." Her canine ears visibly perk up in surprise. "Sensei...! You arrived early."
"I got here on time." He offers Konoka beside him a cup of tea he brought. "You worked overtime."
"Sorry about that." She takes a quick peek at the clock on the wall; it's true.
"It's fine. I don't really mind." He fishes out one of the three remaining cups of tea. "How's she holding up?"
"Tight." She stabs the covering film with the straw harder than she should. "Too tight."
Konoka is sifting through the records as she chews on the tapioca. "Oooh~ So she's a hotshot trying to make a name for herself."
"Did pretty well at that, too. Word is, people are supporting her to inherit the legacy of Kurihama Akemi."
An image of a student around his height and even more muscular than him appears.
"Hot damn." He ghostly mumbles.
"But what's the hurry? This gal is behind bars and unless she's just as strong as Akemi, I don't see a probability of busting out."
Konoka and Kanna trade eyes for a millisecond.
"Uhm... Sensei, we..." The former stutters.
The latter finishes the line as she flattens her lungs with a sigh.
"We need to let her loose."
"...Okay? May I ask why?"
The adult blinks at the two senior officers before him.
Kanna closes her eyes, and Konoka averts eye contact as she sips her tapioca tea.
"Without her lead, delinquents' activity is more aggressive and frequent than usual."
"While claiming something like 'we failed to protect our leader once, so not again' and stuff like that."
A brief pause.
Konoka cuts in with concerned eyes. "Big Sis, I can-"
"-No. It has to be me."
Kanna goes on. "Boots on the ground are already giving all they've got, and the best they can do is contain them."
"If it escalates even further..."
She stops to brace herself.
"...The truth is, Sensei, as much as I don't want to admit it, Valkyrie doesn't have that much resources to push back."
"Not for the long term, at least. Now that the chief of Defense Office in GSC is... unavailable."
"So, our current plan is to make use of what, or who we've got."
"We gather as much intel as we can, and collaborate with Rabbit Squad to tear the groups down, one by one."
The Director glances at the one-sided mirror. "That's our first step. And we're having troubles already."
She pinches her eyes. Looks like the recent weeks have been tough for her.
"...Can I just waterboard her?" He shrugs.
"Eh!?" Konoka utters, hearing the sentence he's starting with.
"Preferably not with force. It will be something she brags about when she's out. It will add fuel to the already burning fire."
"Sorry, Sensei... I know it's an unreasonably hard requirement for you."
"But if there's anyone that can do it, it's you."
The Director bows down, her forehead barely touching the desk.
"Please."
The Deputy Director follows suit.
"Pretty please~!"
Doesn't sound as solemn though.
Auburn glances at the mirror and the EVE source behind it; jagged, feisty and aggressive, like a pinball with spikes.
Doesn't really matter what he will do.
"Under one condition," He replies. "Nothing happens in the chamber comes out."
He angles his body forward a little.
"If I find out that it does, I'll find you both and do the exact same thing to you. Understand?"
The two senior officers tense with a sharp inhale.
"...Yes sir." "Y-Yes... Sir."
Oops. He changes his tone a little.
"It's nothing violent or drug-related; no permanent damage. She won't even make a scream."
The line works both as keeping the promise and comforting them.
"Plus, she will have nothing to brag about, because she will remember nothing to brag about."
The confusion quickly takes over their expression.
"I'm... afraid that I don't understand what that means."
"Is it like hypnosis? Like one of those coin-swinging thingy~?"
"Sort of. But unlike what you would see on the streets, mine will actually work."
He fumbles around his backpack to fish out a knife in a kydex sheath, taken directly from his plate carrier.
"Now," And he grabs a cup of tapioca tea.
"I need two pieces of paper, a pen, a ruler, a compass and a round of rubber buckshot."