Chapter 13: Interrogating Minami

            Minami sat on the couch, a rope tied around her arms, and another bound her hands together. Kanako stood before her, her arms crossed, her amber eye locked on the three-quarters demon, her turquoise eye followed Hisakawa around as she paced behind the couch. Minami watched Kanako’s stoic face with internal fear consuming her, although her own face was blank, showing fear admitted to weakness. Kosuke, Yuzuru, Shingo, Kotone and Asahi all sat around, deep in thought themselves, waiting for Hisakawa to speak.

Finally, she did. “I have a start to a plan.” She declared as she kept pacing. “We have to stick together, no more splitting off in groups, or sneaking off.” She side-eyed Kosuke and Shingo. “I say we handle the north of the city on Mondays, Minohara on Tuesdays and Thursdays to make sure that the demons can’t establish a proper base again, and to take out any stragglers. Wednesdays we patrol the east and Fridays south. We will alternate on whether we take Saturday or Sunday off, but either day, we will be in the west.”

“Sounds good, it’s a lot of ground to cover, but doable.” Yuzuru nodded. He then pointed to Minami. “But what are we doing with her? We don’t have a jail or anything, she can’t keep sleeping in the same room as you, especially if any other humans want to join us.”

“Or at least associate with us.” Shingo huffed as he leaned forward.

“I don’t know.” Hisakawa admitted.

“We shouldn’t be letting her listen to our plans.” Kanako stated, narrowing her eyes.

“I agree.” Yuzuru said. “I know you feel comfortable around her, Hisakawa-sensei, but it isn’t logical to just have her hang around like this. She could turn on us, or if she escapes, she could tell our plans to the demons.”

“We should interrogate her, find out what she knows.” Kanako suggested. Minami shifted. “Aw, are you scared?”

“Kana-kun, be nice.” Kosuke warned.

Kanako’s shoulders slumped. “I haven’t even threatened her yet- I mean I wasn’t going to!”

“Yeah, you were.” Shingo sighed. Kanako then created a gust of wind to blow in his face for a second to show her distaste for his words. “Hey!” Shingo batted at Kanako’s wind.

Hisakawa sat down next Minami, who leaned away. Hisakawa remained calm and kind. “We aren’t going to hurt you. Still, the more you cooperate, the better things will be for you. I will extend this place and make a prison. If we find out you lied, you will be isolated without entertainment. No one will speak to you, you will be given two meals a day, so don’t worry about starving. If you do speak the truth, you will be allowed to eat meals with us, and I’ll give you some books to read while you’re in your cell. Do you understand?” Hisakawa asked after she finished explaining.

Minami stared at her. “That’s it?” She looked away from Hisakawa, staring at her hands. “You can’t win. I should have just let you kill me, I don’t know what I was thinking, I’m a dead woman. I will tell you the truth, but my knowledge is very limited, and you might not like what you hear.”

Hisakawa extended her hand, about to touch Minami’s shoulder, but retracted it as she changed her mind. She fell into a monotone, “I understand. Now, Minami-chan, er, san, do you know if there were any plans if Reganam were to die?”

“For your city, no.” Minami responded with the same lack of emotion. “As for everything else of hers, her position, her estate in Hell, they have all been inherited by my cousin, Rosivrepus, Reganam-san’s first born. I don’t know her very well, so it’s up in the air what she will do.”

“Were there any other Demonic bases in this city, any secret ones?” Hisakawa asked.

“No.” Minami stated, blindly staring past her hands.

“Do you know how the portals work? Are there any limitations on where they can appear?” Hisakawa followed up.

“I somewhat know how they work. Only lords can create them, as far as I know, they can only have fifteen open at a time, or that is the most I know Barminius-sama has created at a time. That’s not to mention what higher ranking demons are capable of.” Minami admitted. “The only way to stop the portals from being created, that I know of, is to kill Barminius-sama. Which is impossible.”

“I see.” Hisakawa acknowledged what Minami had said. She rested her head in her hand as she thought. “We will need more fighters, the seven of us can’t defend this city and attack another.”

“How many would we need on each front?” Kosuke asked Hisakawa.

“Don’t even think about it.” Hisakawa snapped her eyes opened as she sternly warned him. She then thought about the numbers, calculating. “Teams are to be no smaller then six, and there has to be someone older then sixteen among them.” She ordered.

“What?!” Kosuke stood up in a rage. He then sat back down when he realized she had a point. “So, we need five more people.”

“I’m sorry Kosuke-kun, it’s too dangerous.” Hisakawa’s voice became softer as she spoke.

“Apologies for speaking out of turn.” Minami piped up. “But Hisakawa-san is correct. Barminius-sama won’t be happy if finds out she is alive, and that she is the one who killed Reganam-san. If you want to live as long as possible, being cautious is the way to go. If you leave now to another city, this city won’t be here when you get back.”

Hisakawa took her time to breath for a moment. “Yuzuru-kun, can you help me make a basement.” She requested of him as she stood up. Hisakawa peeled back the metallic floor, then Yuzuru removed the earth beneath, they worked efficiently, within a few hours, the base had a whole new floor. Asahi grabbed a mattress, while Kotone picked out some books. Shingo brought down a battery powered lantern as Minami was taken to her cell. “I’ll work on getting proper lights down here in the next few days. I need more supplies to do so, I hope this will do you for now.”

“Thank you, this place is wonderful, it’s much more inviting than prisons in Hell.” Minami said as she turned to face Hisakawa, she gave her a bow. Hisakawa took the restraints off Minami as Kotone placed the books inside the cell.

Everyone left her and went upstairs. Kosuke and Shingo stopped Kanako. “Hey, you need to chill out.” Shingo told her. “You’re acting like how Yuzuru-san was back when we were trainees.”

“If there is any hope of peace between humans and demons. This is the first step.” Kosuke continued. “We must think of the long term. I believe Minami-chan can be a good person, she was just born in the wrong place. You can’t blame someone for being born.”

Kanako was about to rebuke, but then she realised what they were saying. “You guys are right. I’ve been overreacting. It’s just, she is a literal demon. She is a child of Hell, I’ll be nice, but I’m still going to keep my guard up. This could all be a trick, as far as we know, we are humanity’s only hope.”