HOME | DD

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

Part 3

Kazuo: You'll be relatively excited to hear that there's no shortage of news from the front. Colonel Izaya's forces have managed to ditch the Chinese army at Ibaraku...General Xiang himself is there at the moment, chasing his tail and following dead-end clues in pursuit of you.

Rin: (grinning) Nice to know that I'm popular...But you said "relatively" excited. Is there some kind of issue?

(Kazuo momentarily stops walking and goes silent, continuing on in a soft, grave voice.)

Kazuo: (in Japanese) ...I believe I discussed the possibility of an informant within the resistance on my last visit, correct?

(Rin's face falls.)

Rin: (in Japanese) ...Who was attacked?

Kazuo: (in Japanese) A group near Himura. A scouting patrol encountered Chinese forces advancing on the camp and quickly returned with the warning, but it was too late. There were only a handful of survivors, bearing horror stories of interrogation, torture...And execution.

(Several days earlier. Inside a small hut guarded by armoured soldiers, an enormous, muscular man delivers a crushing blow to the abdomen of an exhausted man tied to a chair, causing the captive to spit up blood.)

Interrogator: (angrily) TALK!!! Talk, damn you!! So help me God, I will crush the life-breath from your lungs if you refuse even once more!

(A sick cracking is heard as the interrogator smashes his fist into the prisoner's jaw.)

Prisoner: (weakly, but defiantly) Kff...You can push hooks through...Through my feet...String me up, and cut my heart out right in front of me...

(The prisoner spits in the interrogator's face.)

Prisoner: I still won't...Won't tell you a goddamn...thing..!

(The interrogator wipes crimson-flecked saliva from his face and grins maliciously, gripping his captive's jaw tightly.)

Interrogator: I got all day, tough guy...Let's see how long you can play defiant.

(The interrogator winds up for another hit before the door creaks open, restraining himself and soluting as a third man in ornate military garb steps into the room.)

Gen. Xiang: (sternly) At ease, Sergeant. You're dismissed. I would like an opportunity to speak with this man alone.

(The interrogator grumbles and exits the hut as the General silently examines the prisoner, pacing the room in a lazy circle.)

Gen. Xiang: ...What is your name?

Prisoner: Sh..Shota...

Gen. Xiang: Good, good...Is there anything you would like? Water, perhaps?

Shota: (perplexed) ...Water would be very good, thank you.

(General Xiang opens the door to the hut and barks orders in Mandarin, accepting a glass of water and a small wooden box from one of his men. The general walks back over to a confused Shota and sets the box down beside him, lifting the glass to the latter's lips and setting it aside once it is empty.)

Gen. Xiang: Well, Shota, allow me to set something straight before we begin our conversation...I have no interest in torturing you, unlike that gigantic lug who threatened to crush the life from your body only moments ago. Now, there are a number of reasons I don't like torture--the questionable ethics, the fact that I was once tortured myself--but the most prevalent reason, in my opinion, would be that it is an enormous waste of time. Wouldn't you agree?

Shota: I...I suppose...

Gen. Xiang: Being in the military makes you a very impatient person, Shota. Out on the battlefield, a single second can mean the difference between life and death. A second can deliver crucial information that saves dozens, if not hundreds, of lives, or it can see an entire battalion wiped out in minutes. My superiors view every passing second after I am given a task with disdain, but also because of my own personal experiences...I have become a very, very impatient man.

(Geneal Xiang kneels down next to Shota, at eye-level with his prisoner.)

Gen. Xiang: Now that you know that I am rather in a hurry, I'll tell you what I'm going to do instead of torturing you for the location of Commander Nishizawa...I'm going to ask you three questions. Nothing difficult, just a few small, basic questions. And then I'm going to offer you a deal. How you respond to these questions and my deal will determine whether or not you will live to see another day. Sound good?

(Shota nods silently, his eyes growing wide with fear.)

Gen. Xiang: First question...Do you want to live?

Shota: (nodding) ...Yes.

Gen. Xiang: (chuckling) I thought as much. Second question...Will you ever betray your comrades in the resistance?

(Shota defiantly shakes his head.)

Gen. Xiang: Two for two. Third question...Would you betray the resistance if it meant you could live another day?

(Shota begins to respond, but stops himself.)

Gen. Xiang: Heh...That's a bit of a tough one, eh?

(General Xiang picks up the box and places it in a corner of the hut, flipping it to reveal several dozen hornets buzzing angrily behind the glass bottom.)

Shota: (horrified) Oh my God!

Gen. Xiang: Yes, they're rather sinister-looking, aren't they? Asian killer hornets...The scourge of your country.

(General Xiang gently pats the top of the box.)

Gen. Xiang: Now, I was beginning to think that these little suckers had no use whatsoever, aside from killing anything that comes into their path...But then I thought, "What a neat little critter to use as a bargaining chip!" Which brings me to the aforementioned deal. Do you know, Shota, how long it takes for a single Asian killer hornet sting to kill a man?

Shota: N-no...

Gen. Xiang: A single sting will kill an adult human male in about...Fifteen minutes. And there's about three dozen of them in this little box here, raring for a scrape. If these here hornets were to be released for any reason...You'd be dead before you knew what was happening.

(General Xiang's voice transforms into a harsh menacing growl, and from a holster on his belt he pulls a flintlock pistol, drawing back the hammer and aiming for the glass.)

Gen. Xiang: (gruffly, coldly) Tell me the location of either Rin Nishizawa or the headquarters of this little resistance...Or I will allow these tiny menaces to send you to kingdom come. You have five seconds to decide.

(General Xiang strides calmly towards the door as he counts, his pistol still trained on the box.)

Gen. Xiang: Five...Four...Three...Two...One...

Shota: Wait! Wait, wait, I...

Gen. Xiang: Time's up.

(The General fires, the bullet piercing the glass and releasing a swarm of buzzing hornets, and steps out the door as Shota's screams fill the air. The interrogator joins him, keeping in stride as Shota's cries cease and a bottle topped with a flaming rag is thrown onto the hut.)

Gen. Xiang: It would appear that we are in need of a new interrogation hut...

(The maniacal laughter of General Xiang and the interrogator echoes as the picture resolves to Rin and Kazuo walking side-by-side, both frowning gravely.)

Rin: (in Japanese) ...Shit.

Kazuo: (in Japanese) Shit is right. The men are already beginning to talk... (in English) What are you going to do?

(Rin glances down, considering his options, then strides purposefully past Kazuo.)

Rin: I'm proceeding on schedule. We march for Tokyo in a month and a half.

(Kazuo stands in stunned silence for a moment before jogging to catch up with Rin.)

Kazuo: I tell you this as your friend, Rin...That is a horrible idea if I've ever heard one.

Rin: (angrily) Yeah, well, what the hell do you know?

Kazuo: This may be your movement, but I've seen firsthand the effects of fear. Xiang's terror tactics have your men quaking in their boots, and asking them to march on the most heavily fortified of all the Chinese-occupied cities is setting yourself up for failure! It's asking for a mutiny, or desertions by the dozen!

Rin: These men are revolutionaries, idealists...

Kazuo: No, they're conscripted footsoldiers. You're the idealist. Push comes to shove, I'm sure they'd much rather abandon you and live than follow you and die...

(Rin shoves Kazuo against a wall in explosive anger and plants a single pointing finger in his chest.)

Rin: I will personally slice the throat of the first man who tries, and any who follow him.

(Kazuo pushes Rin away.)

Kazuo: For God's sake, Rin, look at yourself! You're losing it, and for what?! To prove you're still as much of a man as you were during your glory days in the military? You're putting everyone you love at risk, all for the sake of your honor!!

(Rin seethes in silent fury, then relents.)

Rin: Without honor...We are all nothing. We are bastard sons of gutter-trash whores. I would sooner die than roll over and give in to Xiang and his Chinese handlers. Ayaka knows this, and she is just as prepared to make sacrifices as I in the name of a better tomorrow.

Kazuo: Rin, I've supported you and your movement fully from day one, but this...This is lunacy. Is this the kind of man you are?

Rin: I am a man who will risk anything and everything for the good of the cause or the people he holds dear. And what kind of man are you?

(Kazuo searches for an answer, then storms off. Rin angrily watches him go, then disappears into the complex.)