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The room was dark and damp. A light flickered overhead at dissonant intervals, impossible to predict and ignore. Yugamu wished he could hold his hand out to protect his eye, but there was one tiny problem.
His arms were tied above him to a bar on a wooden rack, as were his feet to another rack. Not a truly foreign sensation, though it was hard to appreciate it within the context of three invaders looking at him like he was the most interesting patient at the dental office. Which was fitting, given that they'd already extracted quite a few of his molars.
That was where the similarities ended. No, this was closer to how Yugamu would imagine a torture dungeon.
And not the fun kind either. Though to Yugamu, it was exhilarating to see what kind of torture this civilization used. While he wouldn't obviously put himself in harms way, getting captured was new and exciting. It certainly wouldn't have been appreciated had anyone else at the academy been taken.
So far, the extent of "torture" other than tooth extraction had been dying his hair the same color and painting over his facial tattoo, as well as forcing him to take bites of "unholy" substances which Yugamu could deduce was meat of an unknown animal.
Yugamu could tell the invaders were trying their best to cause distress, but none of these acts were particularly harmful. Annoying, perhaps, but there must have been some sort of cultural element that did not cross over between the invaders and humans.
After a few hours of giving up no information, he found himself strapped to this device.
The main commander was unhappy with the lack of progress, coming down to face Yugamu herself after catching wind of their incompetence.
"What do you mean he hasn't said anything yet?" snapped V'ehxness.
Quenzelle, as Yugamu had come to learn, groaned in annoyance.
"I've been trying, but I think the rack is broken!" he stammered out.
The rack was fine. V'exhness was a late addition to this little torture party.
"Must I do everything myself?" V'ehxness said through gritted teeth.
"Quenzelle is right. We've been increasing the tension and it doesn't seem to be doing anything," said Addamaque, the other invader involved in the torture.
Somehow through her mask, Yugamu could tell that V'ehxness was rolling her eyes at her subordinates.
"I'll stretch him until he breaks," V'ehxness cackled menacingly. "His puny invader body will surely snap under the tensile strength."
Invader?
V'ehxness grabbed the crank, and in one swooping motion, began to turn it.
Like many forms of torture, Yugamu was a little familiar with the rack, or at least the human version of one. Victims of the rack were bound at their hands and feet, while their assailant would turn a wheel causing the top bar to move upwards. This, in turn, would start to separate the joints, typically causing excruciating pain for the victim.
Yugamu was far from typical.
The bar began to rise.
"Feel that? We're barely getting started. How many of you are there at your base?" asked V'exhness.
"Sixty nine."
Addamaque and Quenzelle began to write down this very serious and important information on their clipboards.
"Who do you report to?"
"I think he's like… a white egg? Or a marshmallow?"
"A marsh… mallow…" muttered Quenzelle as he scribbled.
"How are you communicating with the satellite—"
"Aah! It burns! It hurts!! I'm dying!" Yugamu yelled out. His face went blank. "Haha. Just kidding. Could you imagine, though?"
V'ehxness turned the wheel even quicker to stretch him further. As the bar moved upwards, his arms did too. Yet instead of breaking, they began to stretch. At first it looked like an optical illusion caused by dislocation, though on closer inspection his arms retained their shape but had simply elongated.
"Oh, this is so embarrassing." Yugamu blushed and turned his head to the side. "Try not to stare, m'kay?"
"You should not dare make demands of me, puny invader." V'ehxness was unimpressed.
"Ahh, that tickles, cut it out!" Yugamu couldn't help the laughter that spilled out of his mouth. This was so exciting. He could feel the absolute malice radiating off the commanders as they tried to break him. It felt almost special. It was so intimate, and yet so exposed at the same time. He only wished it caused more discomfort, that way he could truly be vulnerable.
V'ehxness grabbed the crank in disgust, and spun it over and over again, stretching his arms even further.
"Tell me, what is so important that your army is protecting?"
Yugamu paused his giggling. As an actual information extraction method, torture was highly inefficient. Oftentimes, captured prisoners wouldn't even have access to the information the captors would try to obtain. It could even lead to fake answers uttered just to let the torture stop.
Unfortunately for Yugamu, he did know what Last Defense Academy was protecting. If he didn't deflect soon enough, he could accidentally give away some information.
"Nothing, I'm pretty sure our base is just a decoy," said Yugamu, feigning ignorance. There were some hints of truth in his statement; he never specified which base.
"Bullshit," said Addamaque.
"Nah, I'm telling the truth. But please, feel free to keep going. I mean, don't… Aha… I get kind of shy," said Yugamu bashfully. "I don't just let anyone see my arms."
As much as the torture was new and exciting for him, it did leave Yugamu feeling a bit embarrassed. He didn't like to flaunt his arms, but the alternative would be letting every bone from his wrist to his shoulder slowly dislocate. He'd settle for putting on a little show for them.
"Let's just kill this guy. He's seriously freaking me out," whined Addamaque.
"Silence! I will decide what we do with this wretched invader," snarled V'ehxness. She grabbed Yugamu by the jaw and squished his cheeks together. He stuck his tongue out at her.
"His lack of fear clearly stems from naïvety. Do you understand the gravity of the situation?" asked V'exhness.
"Yep. Gravity is not strong enough to do any real damage by hoisting me at my wrists, that's why my feet are bound. Though this doesn't seem to be doing much of anything either. May I suggest a scalpel? I always find incisions to be fascinating, both psychologically and physically. I wonder, would you cut with beauty and care, or would you let your emotions run wild?"
Yugamu tried not to get too excited at the idea of the invaders performing surgery on him. As much as he would like to cut one of them open and see what was inside, the same information could be discerned by their audible confusion once they noticed anomalies inside his abdominal cavity.
"Why would he want us to cut into him? Maybe he has a bomb?" suggested Quenzelle.
"That's stupid. It would have gone off by now," said Addamaque with a sigh.
Yugamu winked at them. It most likely came off as a blink.
"I actually do have a bomb inside. Or maybe I don't! There's actually no way to tell, unless…" Yugamu looked down at his chest and then over at the commanders. "Better check and see!"
V'ehxness was quiet. Yugamu felt his heart pounding in his ears. He wanted to keep the bomb a secret for longer so he could gather more information, almost like a role reversal. The commanders weren't as careful about their words when they assumed he'd die in their clutches. Now with the threat of the bomb, the tides had changed.
"He's right. I do sense a powerful explosive within him," growled V'ehxness. She pressed her hand onto Yugamu's chest. "One wrong move, and it could probably take out the basement and the room above us."
It wasn't that powerful. But they didn't need to know that.
"I think I could blow the whole building if I tried hard enough," bluffed Yugamu. "Oh, and knock it down, too."
V'ehxness let out an annoyed growl. She slammed her hand down on the table.
"Get rid of him. He's seriously pissing me off. I don't care where you dump him, but do it far away from here."
The air around Last Defense Academy was somber. Worried students sat together in the Bio Lab in remembrance of their captured comrade. It was the place he felt most at home.
"Poor Yugamu. I can't imagine all the terrible things they're doing to him," Moko said with a quiver in her voice.
"I can. It's seriously freaking me out!" whimpered Gaku. He grabbed his hat and tried to pull it down over his eyes.
"It's all my fault," Takumi said, clutching his chest. "I should have saved him. If I had just been quicker…"
Kako brought her hands to her forehead and closed her eyes. She grimaced as an image appeared in her mind.
"How bad is it, Kako?" asked Takemaru. "Don't spare us any details."
Kako's eyes popped wide open.
"It's bad! I just know it's going to be bad! I don't know if a petulant grub like me can say this, but I miss him so much!" Shouma sobbed.
"Um…"
Kako was really dragging this out, wasn't she… Everyone was on the edge of their seats in anticipation for the bad news.
Perhaps they had killed him instantly after taking him prisoner. Or perhaps he was suffering somewhere all alone. What was the delay? Everyone wanted to know, but at the same time, maybe not knowing was better.
Kako cleared her throat. She spoke again.
"I think he's enjoying himself?"