Interrogated by a Devil

After looking at Steve's reaction, Kyle himself began to act like someone who was a zombie. To come out on top, Kyle was going to test his acting skills!

Before Kyle completely cleared his mind, he gave one last instruction:

'Start the extraction of the Mystical Devil.'

- 'Beginning Extraction of [Mystical Devil] (3HR).'

...

When entering a trance-like state in which people have heightened focus and concentration, verbal repetition and mental images make others more open to suggestions.

The difference between regular hypnosis and magical hypnosis is that the caster has absolute obedience from the target, making everything Claire asks Steve and Kyle to be the truth.

Of course, she has met people in the past that were not in a relaxed state, making her spells from Satan's Influence nullified. But now that Claire has them in their current state, it is almost guaranteed that anything she asked is answered by them.

There has been no one to escape her hypnosis in this state, and the first sign of it is Steve's blank face!

...

Claire, seeing that her spell was successful, took action and inspected both soldiers.

To make sure the spell was successful, she poked their arms and pretended to poke their eyes while they were dazed. After a few feints and tests, Claire concluded that they were both under her spell.

What Claire doesn't know is that Kyle was using his increased acting skills to pretend to be hypnotized.

Claire sat both Kyle and Steve comfortably on the bed, looked into Steve's eyes, and asked him, "What is your real name?"

In response, Steve said while in his daze, "My name is Steven Grant Rogers."

Kyle took note of the way Steve responded when it was his turn.

After hearing Steve, Kyle noticed Claire turn her head to stare him in the eyes.

Just as quickly, Kyle pretended to zone out like Steve while she asked him, "What about you?"

Kyle was about to answer her but stopped himself. For a second, his dazed state vanished, but just as quickly returned. It was all unnoticeable since Kyle reacted extremely fast.

"I asked, what about you?" Claire repeated to Kyle while glaring at his eyes.

Kyle: "..."

After a long pause of Kyle not answering, Claire looked away, and thought to herself, 'Since he didn't say his name, that means the hypnosis is definitely working...'

In Kyle's mind, he was sighing in relief. Kyle's brain now thinks at a faster pace than before he started extracting Cards from people, so he has learned to notice things, 'When Claire asked Steve what his name was, he answered perfectly...'

'However, Claire asked me, 'what about you,' which insinuates that she would be asking for my name as well... She tried to see if I was really hypnotized since only someone who can think would be able to connect those two questions to have the same meaning. Smart woman, but I'm smarter!'

...

For about two hours, she used a book to record basic answers she received from the two of them. In total, she continued questioning both Kyle and Steve about their battles and experiences.

Claire even started to ask more than surface-level questions about their experience and pain when killing a human, or the fear of death. In the end, she received a basic answer a soldier would report, causing disinterest.

She was mostly just curious about if they went through any life-threatening battles so far.

Taking this chance to ask for more valuable information, Claire looked into Kyle's eyes and questioned him, "Have you heard of Ogor? Also, how much did you know about Red Skull before killing him?"

Kyle was still in a dreary state, but this time chose to respond, "I have never heard of the name Ogor. Red Skull was an enemy of the Allies, so I killed him. He also had a skull that was red..."

Internally smirking, Kyle thought to himself that he should be a comedian someday.

After a long pause after Kyle's answer, Claire was facepalming and wondering how stupid some people are, even under hypnosis.

Kyle saw her facepalming and thought to himself, 'Yare yare. This woman is too serious.'

...

Claire looked back at Steve, asking him, "Was the story that the other soldiers know about Kyle Kell the same as what you witnessed?"

This time, Steve took a second to pause before answering, "No. Kyle found a vial of liquid in a case. It was splashed on him by a frightened soldier, after it went into his eyes and mouth, Kyle's body started burning and becoming stronger."

Claire's eyes didn't leave Steve's, as she waited for him to continue, "Together, we assumed that it was a long-lost vial of a divergent Super Soldier Serum invented by Dr. Abraham Erskine. I found Kyle covered in the liquid at the time he told me what happened."

Hearing Steve say that Claire started to feel frustrated and asked Steve, "Oh, and why would you believe Kyle? Maybe he lied. Maybe he knew what that vial was and splashed himself to not fall behind a real Super Soldier."

Steve was about to open his mouth and answer, but Claire interrupted, "Does this guy next to you make you jealous? Someone who went through grueling experiments and trials, or him, a random accident? Why do you even care about Kyle Kell, since all he does is get all the credit?"

Finally, she stopped, waiting for Steve's answer, which didn't come.

Unbeknownst to Claire, Steve's dazed eyes started to gain some light. This time, Steve looked Claire in the eyes and asked her, "Kyle and I are closer than brothers. He has always looked after me, and I try to look after him too. I know he would never lie about something this important. Do you even know the reason people trust each other?"

This time, Steve started shuffling his body to sit up and flex his finger joints, responding to himself:

"The relationship between us isn't about benefits..."

"It's about looking after each other!"

Jumping up from the bed, Steve punched Claire Voyant across the cheek, causing her to be sent flying across the hotel room.

At the same time, Kyle was picked up by Steve like a potato sack. Steve took this chance to run away.

...

"What happened...?" Kyle asked Steve while blinking in a groggy state.

Steve put Kyle down from his shoulders and looked at Kyle while smirking:

"Kyle, I learned today that your taste in women is terrible. I'm gonna go meet up with Peggy!"

...

Steve left Kyle behind and ran back to the main event, choosing not to tell Kyle about what happened. Not in a way to lie to Kyle, but rather because Steve wanted to solve the problem of Claire Voyant without involving Kyle next time.

Steve knew that he wanted revenge. No one used his brother like that.

He was looking forward with his goal in mind.

To help people and serve his country proudly. Steve was focused on achieving it.

While jogging back to the main dancing area, Steve contemplated, 'I will learn more about what happened, protecting Kyle as best as I can!'