Interrogation [solo]

Interrogation

Mission Details:

Yosei got out of bed and stretched, feeling refreshed. There was some noisy chirping at the glass door leading to the balcony. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he tied his hair back with a green ribbon left on his nightstand and stumbled over to the "kitchen" section of his small studio apartment to retrieve a packet of birdseed from the cabinet. Stepping out onto the balcony, a small flock of pigeons scattered out of his way as he sleepily filled the bird-feeder. It was around seven in the morning, the sky darkened by rain clouds and the air muggy with fog. It was the kind of morning that made him want to sit cross-legged in front of the balcony door with it open and meditate to the slow patter of coming rainfall. Alas, today's agenda didn't allow for something so indulgent. 
He got dressed in front of a body length mirror, inspect his pale skin for blemishes as he draped himself in his preferred kimono. He picked up his fans and secured them in the back of his belt as he tied it around his waist, then set about strapping his weapons pouch around his left trouser leg. The birds fluttered and squawked outside, fighting over the bird seed. He watched them with amusement before going to the fruit bowl and selecting a tangerine as his meal for the day and dropping it into his pocket. 
When he opened the front door he was met with a small parcel, wrapped in light pink paper and tied with a white bow. He picked it up, confused, and neatly undid the packaging without tearing any of it. Inside was a small music box, hand-carved, that played a familiar melody from childhood. Inspecting the note that came with it, he recognized it as his mother's hand-writing, also signed by his father, and was surprised to learn that today was his birthday. He checked the calendar on his fridge - August 11th. Of course, how silly of him to forget. In the note, his mother hoped he could meet her for lunch today. It was a pity, but the mission he agreed to complete today was important for his career. 
Some other time, mom. He put the music box on the dresser next to his bed and left his apartment. 
Yosei dashed through the streets to make up for the delay caused by finding the gift. It was especially important that he made a good impression today, if he didn't want to end up as a rank and file chuunin one day on a dead end career path. He would prove to his family that he didn't leave their line of work; he would become a respected and useful shinobi in his village. 
He reached the agreed upon destination with one minute to spare, feeling uncomfortable with that as usually he liked to be extra punctual to anything. His commanding officer, a Jounin from the Mist's Torture and Interrogation Corps, was awaiting him.
"Try getting here earlier next time," The older man said in a gruff voice. "A few seconds more and I would have been really pissed with you."
"Yes sir!" Yosei replied with false enthusiasm. As important as respecting one's superiors was in his chosen line of work, he often found it a challenge. 
"So you were briefed last night, right? Picked up this vagrant on a border island over seemingly minor infractions of trespassing and unlicensed trade. The official stance is that we have reason to believe he was selling dangerous contraband."
"I see. The unofficial stance?"
Yosei's superior sneered. 
"The unofficial stance isn't something you need to know, really, but since you're curious let's use this as a learning opportunity. It's best to use excessive measures even in minor cases like this. The more we press suspicious individuals, the more likely we are to find something meaningful. Make no mistake, this is about protecting your village and country, so treat it as such."
Yosei nodded and decided not to ask any more questions. The Jounin lead him inside the small building they had met at, located on the outskirts of town. It was a small jail that Yosei had never visited before, used to hold prisoners as they awaited trial or sentencing. But it wasn't the larger, multi-purpose institution located in central Kirigakure, and it seemed extremely light on bureacuracy. There wasn't a front desk or anyone to monitor or record anything, none of the standard paper trail to be expected in situations like this usually. It was somewhat chilling that places like this existed, to store minor criminals without any official record. Likely, once the poor soul Yosei was here to interrogate was charged, he would be moved to a prison without any record or reflection of the time he spent here. 
The Jounin entered a room and pulled a key with a wooden tag marked "11" off of a hook, then led Yosei down a narrow hallway. On the left side were locked doors numbered one to twenty, each with a narrow slot in them at eye level. The Jounin stopped at the eleventh door and handed Yosei the key. 
"We detained him over night and our duty officers gave him standard questioning and debriefing." He said, handing Yosei a clipboard. "It's all in there, go over it and then head in, but you don't need to take it too seriously. Just make sure that you squeeze out anything your predecessors didn't. Oh and we've already shown him some Kiri hospitality, so make sure you keep up those high standards. Alright I have some actually important work to do, I'll be back in an hour. Log your findings and lock the door after you. That's it."
The man strode back down the hallway, pulling out a book and a cigarette just before he turned the corner. 
Important work, Yosei thought, smiling to himself. Before entering, he pulled the mask he had brought with him today off of his belt, the shrine-maiden mask, and pulled it down over his face. 
A sorry sight awaited him inside the room. A man about Yosei's height but with a much heavier build was asleep on the desk he was handcuffed too. Lines of dry, cracked blood reached from his nostrils down over a busted lip and into his patchy bear. His left eye was purple and swollen. 
That must be the Kiri Hospitality, Yosei thought. How loathsome.
No stranger to brutality or sadism, Yosei still found himself disgusted with how this man had been treated. It was crude and unbecoming to extract information this way, the sign of bored, classless fools looking for entertainment.
Yosei picked up a small paper cup next to the man's head and left the room to return a few moments later with it filled with water, locking the door behind him when he left. He put the cup down next to the man just loud enough to wake him, and he jolted upright. 
"What's this? Is that mask supposed to intimidate me, huh? I can tell you're just a kid you know."
Yosei tilted his head quizzically and remained silent. 
"They really sent a punk like you to question me? You think I'm gonna be scared of someone who won't even show their face?"
"You should drink." Yosei said. "You're probably hungry, too. I could share my tangerine with you."
"Oh, I guess you're the good cop. Pathetic, don't try to play me."
He picked up the cup, swallowed the whole thing and spat it out onto the ground. The puddle he made was dark as tar, his mouth obviously full of blood. 
"Strange." Yosei said. "I thought you might be thirsty. No matter though, the poison will work after having just been in your mouth for a moment."
The prisoner did a double take. 
"Is that supposed to be a threat? I don't fall for tricks like that."
"It's no trick, it's just the most expedient path towards the best outcome for both of us. The poison has no effect at all at first. The first symptom is hallucinations, then blindness. Then your palms will become clammy right before your entire body is covered in a cold sweat. There is a brief moment of lucidity during which my questioning will begin. At this point, your anxiety will be so great and your senses so disoriented that you will tell me everything you know without even realizing it. Following that, there is death. I will administer the antidote before you die of a brain hemmorhage, provided you share with me the required information in time. I would advise cooperating sooner rather than later and saving yourself from enduring the effects.  It would also lessen the risk of me failing to act in time, as some are affected quicker than others."
The prisoner swallowed hard, and for a moment his facade of strength faded. Then the defiant look in his eye flared up again. 
"Nice speech. You practice that in the mirror, kid?"
Yosei lifted the clipboard and read from it. 
"Ah I see. You weren't just selling goods without a license and disturbing the peace; it seems they have reason to believe that among the contraband was valuable DNA and even eyeballs from doujutsu users. You're in the bloodline black market, is that it?"
He smirked in response to the accusation. 
"Yeah. I sold to a whole bunch of criminals and missing-nin. Do what you want to me, I already got my revenge. The people I sold that stuff to are going to wreak havoc on your little world."
"And yet," Yosei continued. "Why were you running and hiding, scurrying from vacant to vacant? Why were you seen involved in multiple armed altercations in residential areas?"
At that, the man went quiet. It was time to push him a little further. Yosei crossed his legs and clasped his hands together under his oversized sleeves and used them for cover as he formed hand signs for the Butterfly Effect genjutsu, a favourite of his. 
They started small at first. A little butterfly with emeral green wings and long, spiralling purple tails alighted on Yosei's shoulder from seemingly out of nowhere. Yosei acted as if it wasn't there, but the prisoner's eyes grew wide when he saw it. At first he tried to act like it wasn't happening as well, but then more appeared. Jewel-coloured creatures of varying size flitted about on wings that looked like stained-glass windows, darting in and out of the man's field of vision. Yosei remained perfectly still. 
"W-what's happening?" The man stuttered. 
"What do you - ah. It's starting, I take it? Well don't mind the hallucinations, whatever it is that you're seeing. Let's get on with the business. You were the fence, I take it. You aren't a shinobi, so I don't see how you could be procuring valuable items like the ones described here. Who are your accomplices? The suppliers, the distributors?"
The poor man tried to focus on the questions, but he was susceptible to the genjutsu and couldn't help but become transfixed by the butterflies. Yosei waved a hand in front of his face and he didn't react at all. Perfect, it was time then. 
He wove the more complex hand signs for the Bringer of Darkness genjutsu without the man noticing at all. Although Yosei did not intend to take any pleasure in terrifying someone who was so powerless, the look on the captive's face as his world turned black and all colour drained from his face was darkly satisfying. 
"My eyes - Everything - Everything went dark! I can't see anything but myself!"
"Isn't it an interesting toxin? I'm not entirely sure how it works, not being a medical ninja myself."
"Please - Please make it stop -"
Yosei took a bite of his tangerine.
"Now where did I put that antidote? I'm certain I had it here somewhere..."
"Please! This isn't funny you... You sicko!"
Yosei took a casual bite of his tangerine as he watched the man across from him. He pulled at his handcuffs, chafing his wrists and kept darting his head around as if that would help him. The rest of the symptoms Yosei had described took care of themselves. The anxiety, the clammy hands, the cold sweat, in the man's poor condition he generated them all himself. 
"Look, I can't give you anyone, there isn't a supplier! I'm a fraud, it's all counterfeit! I'm nothing but a grave robber, the eyes were pulled from fresh corpses, the DNA was fake!"
Yosei looked at him. He didn't seem to be lying. He didn't seem to be capable of it in this state. In fact, it was a certainty; this man was confessing the complete truth. 
"That's why I was hiding, some people I sold them to found out after they paid for surgeries to have the body parts grafted on and came to me looking for payback. Please believe me, I didn't tell anyone because I thought you wouldn't kill me if - if -"
"If you had valuable information." Yosei finished, as he dropped both of his genjutsu. 
The prisoner blinked as he looked around. 
"The poison wore off? But how. Do you have the antidote?"
"There isn't one, you're fine. It looks like you fell for my pathetic trick after all."
The man blinked in confusion, then looked ashamed. 
"Listen, I can still help you - the men who were trying to buy my products, they're still potentially dangerous right? I can give you their names, their descriptions."
Yosei looked down at the clipboard, at the section he was supposed to fill in with his appraisal. This was bad, he had just wasted an entire mission talking to an absolute nobody. He slid the clipboard across the desk and told the man to write on one of the blank pages everything he knew about past customers. 
Of course, there was another option. He could hide what he had learned from his superiors and tell them he had discerned that this man was truly selling what they thought. Then, the mission to locate the criminals could potentially be graded as an S-Rank, and Yosei could take point on it. It would be easy to hunt down petty outlaws with no particular powers, but he would gain the prestige and rank equivalent to a far greater feat. 
The only problem was the prisoner in question. As it was, he could be lucky enough to get a minor slap on the wrist and maybe serve some time, or do community service. If Yosei chose to maintain the lie, his life would effectively - if not literally - be over. 
Yosei put the tangerine with a single bite taken out of it down on the desk.
"Eat this. You'll need your strength."
With that, the genin left the room, locked it behind him, and placed the key back on it's hook. Sitting down in the break room that the keys were in, Yosei filled out the form. 

When the Jounin returned, he checked in on the prisoner and then came back to briefly skim Yosei's report. 
"This is all true?" He asked. 
Yosei nodded soberly. 
"Huh. You interrogated him without laying a hand on him? Are you sure it's accurate?"
"Yes." Yosei replied. "Any further investigation into the individuals he named will reveal such."
"Huh." The Jounin said again. "Hey kid. You want to be in the intel corps one day?"
"Yes." Yosei said before wondering if that was true. "I think so, at least."
"You might have a future in it. But you know, no one likes to read a report like this."
Yosei stood up, suddenly incredibly weary of the whole thing. 
"You said it earlier, sir. This work is about protecting my village and my country. Nothing else. Only accurate information does that."
The Jounin gave a dry laugh. He was partly scoffing at his subordinates naivete and partly laughing at his nerve.
"So," He said with his back turned to Yosei, who was halfway out the door. "The guy was a nobody and the whole thing was a waste of time huh? We didn't even learn anything valuable."
Yosei paused for a moment. 
"I don't know sir. I feel as though I learned something very valuable today."
The door shut behind him, and Yosei placed the mask back over his face, having taken it off to speak with his commanding officer. The clouds overheard had gotten darker during the interrogation and the rainfall was so heavy that Yosei could hardly even make out the village in front of him. He ran forward, through that opaque wet curtain and towards the shadowy outline of his home.

[Exit.]
[WC: 2783]
[TWC: 2783]
[CLAIMS:
2000 Ryo for mission + 100 for genin x 2 = 4200 Ryo
2783 Word Count x2 = 5566
5 AP x 2 = 10
+ 30 Vigor
+ 25 Chakra
2500 words towards Mind's Eye of the Kagura
2500 words towards Temple of Nirvana
500 words towards Mist Servant Technique]

Approved (don't forget the AP you get from doing a mission)

ahh thanks, fixed it!