Chapter 102: Mind Games and Interrogation Techniques
Human World, Japan, Kuoh.
Not long after the battle ended, Raynare woke from her unconsciousness. Looking around, she could see that all her subordinates, the other three fallen angels and the exorcists, were bound. Some were conscious, but most were still unconscious.
"Oh, it looks like the leader of this rag-tag group is awake." James said from a short distance away.
"Who...?" Raynare asked unhappily. However, when she turned her head and saw who was speaking, she froze in disbelief. "Why are you here?"
"That's rude Miss Fallen Angel~." James said in a sing-song tone. "Why would you ask a resident of the town you're entering illegally why he's here."
"A... Resident...?" Raynare asked in confusion. "The reports never mentioned this."
"Oh, it looks to me that someone was expecting you and all your comrades to die on this little excursion behind enemy lines~." James said while continuing to use that same sing-song tone. "I wonder who it is that hates you so much~?"
Hearing that, Raynare flinched. She knew it was no mistake that James was not mentioned in the report they received about the forces inhabiting the town. On top of that, there was no mention of how strong the subordinates of the Gremory Princess were. After noticing these details, she had no doubt that she was meant as a sacrificial pawn in this plan. Even if she had been able to remove the [Sacred Gear] from the naïve nun like she had planned to, she would have never left this town alive. Then, after coming out of her contemplation, she noticed that James was watching her calmly with a smile on his face.
'Damn. He's really cute.' Raynare thought as she made eye contact with the half-devil in front of her. 'If he were just a human, I wouldn't mind having some fun with him.'
"Anyway, how bout we make a deal?" James said after a few moments maintaining eye contact with Raynare. "Since you didn't cause any trouble in the town that we couldn't handle, if you tell us everything, I'll make sure you make it back to the Grigori alive."
The fact of the matter is that James does not have the authority to make that promise. However, after the battle concluded, James asked Sirzechs and Serafall if he could be the one to interrogate the intruders. Naturally, as they trusted James, they agreed. They even promised to back up his deals if they were not too far overboard.
Hesitating for a moment, Raynare was unsure if she could trust the young man in front of her. The longer she took to answer, the less friendly James' smile became. Eventually, James spoke.
"I would rather not do this the hard way, Miss Fallen Angel." James said with a much more menacing smile on his face by now. "But since we have Asia, the wielder of [Twighlight Healing], nearby I would be able to try out all the torture techniques I've never got the chance to experiment with. I never thought Master Scathach's teachings on the subject would come in handy like this."
As James spoke of torture, more importantly, Scathach's torture techniques, Raynare's face paled. If he learned torture from someone of Scathach's stature, she knew she would sing eventually.
"I'll agree to your deal." Raynare said with her head hanging low.
Hearing that, James smiled brightly. With just a few sentences, James gained quite a bit of information from the leader of this group of fallen angels. First, Raynare did not seem afraid of being returned to Grigori. In fact, based on her micro expressions, she was happy about it. James found this a bit strange at first. However, after remembering that she did not seem to know that he was present in the town of Kuoh, James realized that most, if not all the information Raynare received was false. Before he could consider the information he received from this short conversation any further, the male fallen angel that Issei, sort of, defeated shouted at Raynare.
"How could you betray Grigori!?" Dohnaseek shouted angrily. "Just to save your pitiful life you would..."
*Bang!*
Before Dohnaseek could cause any more of a ruckus, James disappeared from where he was seated in front of Raynare, and kicked Dohnaseek in the side of the head. The kick was hard enough that he would fly off and strike the wall. Yet controlled enough that he would not lose consciousness even after striking the wall at high speed.
Seeing the speed and ferocity James showed with that attack, everyone was shocked. Everyone except Cu Chulainn, that is. Walking up from behind James and placing a hand on his shoulder, Cu Chulainn spoke.
"Master would be so proud." Cu Chulainn said in an emotional tone of voice. "Your strength control was spectacular."
A little creeped out by Cu Chulainn's display, James swept his hand away. Then, he turned around and said while defending his body from Cu Chulainn's hands.
"If you ever talk to me in that tone again, I'm telling Tsubaki you tried to flirt with me." James said while inching away from his best friend. "Then, I'm gonna tell Master you insinuated that she was dead."
Although James' first statement annoyed him, Cu Chulainn did not take it all that seriously. Tsubaki would more than likely believe that James was just joking. The second statement, however, scared Cu Chulainn to his core. Like James, he knew why Scathach trained so many heroes. So, making that insinuation would not be good for his health in the long run.
"James, old buddy, old pal." Cu Chulainn said while smiling. Though, this smile was uglier than most people's crying faces. "You know it was just a joke, there's no need to tell Master about it, right?"
"As long as you never talk to me in that tone again, there will be no need to tell her about it." James said while crossing his arms.
Nodding in response, Cu Chulainn backed away and left James to return to his interrogation. After Cu Chulainn backed away, James turned back to the bound enemy forces. More specifically to Dohnaseek, who was embedded in the wall after taking his kick.
"You know, your reaction to the lady over there agreeing to cooperate is a bit strange." James said with a slight smile on his face. "I know for a fact that Governor-General Azazel was the first to pull out from the Great War back in the day. His reason is also public knowledge and still holds true to the present. The fallen angels have the lowest population of the three factions."
Pausing for a moment, James observed the expressions on the faces of Raynare, Dohnaseek, Kalawarna, and Mittelt. Noticing that the three women were confused as to why he brought that up, James was satisfied at the expected result.
'It looks like those three were pretty much kept in the dark when it comes to this whole plan.' James thought to himself after seeing their expressions. 'This guy is different, though.'
Narrowing his eyes at the angry Dohnaseek, James continued to speak.
"Your attitude makes sense, as a loyal member of the organization." James said while nodding his head. "But if you were so loyal, you would at least consider how to get as many fallen angels as possible back to the Grigori alive."
"What's the point of living if we have to betray to achieve it!?" Dohnaseek questioned angrily.
"That's a good point." James said, nodding in agreement with Dohnaseek's point. "But what if I told you that I have proof that this mission is not sanctioned by the Grigori?"
After hearing the question, Raynare, Kalawarna, and Mittelt were surprised. Dohnaseek, however, grew angrier. Seeing this, James was starting to put two and two together.
"How can that be, we received these orders from..." Raynare said in confusion. However, she was quickly interrupted.
"Shut up you stupid bitch!" Dohnaseek shouted as a dark red glow surrounded him.
Shortly after the red glow surrounded him, the magic binding Dohnaseek was dispelled. Then, at his top speed, he rushed at Raynare with a light spear pointed at her heart. Surprised at the turn of events, not to mention still bound, Raynare was unable to escape the sneak attack.
*Boom!*
"Gah!"
An instant before the light spear would have pierced Raynare's chest, Dohnaseek was sent flying away from the bound fallen angel. When they looked in the direction the pained shout came from, they saw James' pinning Dohnaseek to a wall with Mangetsu no Shita de pierced through Dohnaseek's right chest.
"Now, that was quite dumb, Buddy." James said while he tapped Dohnaseek on the cheek. "I was already close to putting things together, but you just helped me out quite a bit."
"Damn you, devil scum!" Dohnaseek said as blood sprayed from his mouth.
Shaking his head at the overreaction of the fallen angel, James simply turned away and spoke to Akeno.
"Akeno, Sweetheart, could you bind this jackass again?" James said with a wink. "Oh, you might want to use a bit of lightning magic with the bonds, that way he won't be able to move so easily from now on."
Hearing that she could bind and bring pain to someone, Akeno's switch was quickly flipped. Without even responding to James, she got to work doing what she loved.
"Well, now that that annoying guy has been dealt with, let's get back to where we left off." James said with a bright smile on his face. "Who was it that gave you the assignment in Kuoh again?"
Once again hesitating after seeing what became of her comrade, Raynare eventually snapped out of it.
'Why the hell do I still consider him a comrade?' Raynare thought to herself as her hesitant expression turned into one filled with anger. 'He just tried to kill me without hesitating at all.'
"We received our orders from one of the Fallen Angel Cadre, Kokabiel." Raynare said through gritted teeth as she recalled that the intel she received was incomplete.
"Hmm... That name sounds familiar." James said while stroking his chin. "Hey, Ri Ri what do you know about this Kokabiel guy?"
This of course was another one of James' tactics for extracting information. From Raynare's reaction to seeing him when she woke from her unconscious state, James was clear that she knew of his reputation, to a certain extent. However, combining that with the fact that he had been trained by Scathach, James was banking on the fact that if he showed disinterest to the point that he could not be bothered to remember about Kokabiel, she might over think the situation.
"Kokabiel, like she said is one of the Cadre of Grigori." Rias said while crossing her arms. "According to our records, he's a member of the hard-liner faction within Grigori. Whose wish is for the Great War to be restarted."
"Oh yeah, I remember reading that somewhere." James replied nonchalantly. Then, he turned his attention back to Raynare. "Well, are you part of the hard-liner faction of Grigori, too?"
In response to James' question, Raynare shook her head with fervor.
Kalawarna and Mittelt also denied the affiliation when James turned his eyes in their direction. Nodding in satisfaction, James then turned his attention to Dohnaseek. Seeing that he was indisposed, as Akeno had completely fallen into her role as a sadist, James simply turned away.
"Well, if I had to guess, that guy..." James said as he pointed at Dohnaseek who was still pinned to the wall and experiencing a round of lightning torture. "Is more loyal to Kokabiel than he is to the Grigori. Actually, I would go so far as to say that he is no longer loyal to Grigori."
"Wait, seriously?" Raynare asked as she watched Dohnaseek receiving torture. "Why would you say that?"
"Because of how hard he flipped shit when you were first about to reveal Kokabiel's name." James said then shrugged his shoulders. "Besides, he seemed to be the most against returning to the Grigori. Even before I revealed that this little mission of yours wasn't sanctioned by Grigori."
At that, Raynare, Kalawarna, and Mittelt thought back to Dohnaseek's actions from before, and agreeed with James' assessment of the situation. Before they could think about it too deeply, though, James continued to speak.
"So, now that we have established that you were sent here to be sacrificed. Most likely as an excuse to restart the Great War." James said with a smile. "Why don't you tell us what you wanted Asia's [Sacred Gear] for."
Hearing that, Raynare's eyes widened to a comical degree.
"How did you know about that?" Raynare asked with confusion in her eyes.
"Oh, one of my people spied on you for, like, two whole days." James said nonchalantly. "She coincidentally saw when you threw a tantrum because you wouldn't be able to get your greedy little hands on the [Twighlight Healing] in Asia's soul."
When James finished, Ayame appeared behind him and to the right on one knee with her head bowed.
"Once again, good job, Ayame." James said without even looking back.
"I am grateful for your praise, James-Sama." After speaking, Ayame once again vanished from sight.
Seeing that, Raynare exhaled a sigh. To think that her plans had been exposed without her knowing. Seeing that it was pointless at this point, she decided to tell James why she wanted to take Asia's [Sacred Gear].
"Everything I did was to receive Lord Azazel's favor." Raynare said with her head down.
"A yandere, huh?" James muttered absent-mindedly.
As if she did not hear James, Raynare continued.
"I thought if I had the ability to heal, I would be able to help Lord Azazel with his ambitions. At least, that's what..." Raynare then stopped, surprise written all over her face. Then, in a weak tone, she continued. "Kokabiel told me..."
"Damn, you were manipulated by that son of a bitch from the very beginning, huh?" James said nonchalantly. "So, now we know why you wanted her. The next question is, how did you know she had been... No, I guess it would be more appropriate to say when she would be excommunicated."
"We were tipped off by a devil." Raynare said, still downcast, after realizing how thoroughly she had been tricked.
"Like I thought, a bullshit conspiracy." James said exasperatedly. "Whatever, let's get these prisoners to the Underworld, we need to report everything that happened to Lord Lucifer and Lady Leviathan, too."
Hearing the way James referred to Sirzechs and Serafall, all the devils present were surprised. And their expressions made it obvious. Realizing why they ended up like that, James spoke once again.
"Don't look at me like that." James said with a shrug. "Even I know how to act when I'm on the clock."
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