11 Interrogation II

"A..Ah…B..Boss Tabola! You shouldn't be in this dingy cell with this despicable assassin!" The interrogator bowed his head down respectfully.

"It's okay," Jovia waved his hand signalling for the interrogator to move to the side. He got a look at the naked young man in front of him. "What method of torture did you use?"

The voice from Jovia was cold and empty. When asking about such torture methods, there wasn't an ounce of pity for the captive.

"We did waterboarding for 30 seconds at 5 second intervals. It has been 30 minutes since we began."

Jovia looked at Ash who seemed to not be fazed by such a torture method. His eyebrow raised slightly from curiosity. 'Interesting..'

"30 minutes and he looks to be fine.. This person is pretty impressive." Jet whistled to a familiar tune. Indeed, not many people can pull off what Ash had done.

Ash moved his head and looked at the man dressed in a nice formal suit. His eyes focused in on Jovia Tabola that was in front of him. That was the target he was meant to kill. Yet now, it was all meaningless. If he could, he would like for his life to be over now. A failed attempt essentially meant death for a hitman.

"Whip him. 3 lashes, 30 second interval. until 40." Jovia looked into the fearless eyes of Ash and decided on such method.

"Hmph…Ptuuu!" Ash spat out a ball of saliva at Jovia's clean black leather shoe. He smirked, unperturbed by the method of torture.

"You bastard!" The interrogator rushed up to Ash and was about send a low kick into the young man's face. Yet, Jovia stopped him.

"It's fine," Jovia waved before stepping back, "We shall see whether he would have anymore strength after this."

By the door into the cell, Ling Yi excused herself, "I'll wait for everyone in the Operations Room. I get queasy looking at these type of things."

The interrogator took out his trusty whip as the guards undone the metal chains to turn Ash around. They were setting up Ash's back view for their mafia boss. Before the interrogator even started whipping, everyone present were surprised by the what they saw. There were many clear white lines that span Ash's back. It doesn't take a genius to know that those were whip lines.

Seeing this, Jovia's eyes wavered slightly for the first time.

"I suggest you count the lashes, young man." The interrogator tightened the whip with his hands.

"Fuck off." Ash spat.

"Slice!" The whip was raised and slashed down upon the pale skin on Ash's back. "Slice! Slice!"

There was a significant contrast between the red and the pale skin on his back. The thin skin resulted in bleeding. A new addition to Ash's scarred back.

Throughout the whipping, Ash only made light grunts as if it wasn't much too painful. Was it anything new for the young man? Not really. Back in his teenage years, he had went through countless tests and training that tempered his pain tolerance. He had become an emotionless soldier for the Nexus.

There were three phrases engrained into every hitman's head when they were undergoing trainings. Show no emotions. Have no attachments. Reveal no weaknesses. You are by yourself in this cruel and dark world. You can only count on yourself to get out of trouble. Ash was taught that society was built on fickle minded relationships. Rather, he was basically brainwashed into believing such a mindset.

Only when he was enrolled into National University Z and had met Kaiser Ling, did he realise he had been living in a pond his whole life. There was a vast ocean out there and yet, many youths like himself knew nothing about it. Emotions, attachments, weaknesses were all things that made humans human. The Nexus wanted to take that away from their trainees from a young age. They wanted to create a perfect army that obeys their every command.

Unlike Ash, who was a S ranked hitman, the other hitmans know nothing about this world as all they did was kill. Kill is normally not associated to youths and yet, it is a norm for the hitmans in Nexus. Ash knew that such a discovery was good and bad for him. Good, he finally regained a bit of humanity in the past two years as he lived in civilisation. Bad, he could never reveal this side of him to anyone.

Most definitely, Ash was watched over by people in Nexus. The two years spent in school could be said to be 'vacation'. He was definitely resting, but the sight of him was never left unchecked by the hitman organisation. To them, Ash was putting up a facade. The relationships that he made in school were all fake and nothing was genuine.

To Ash, he was finally living a life with colour. None of the relationships were pretend and to his close friends, he shared everything except for his hitman life. The three basic things that what Nexus had explicitly enforced in the Ash's head had been eroded away.

"Slice! Slice! Slice!" The whip danced along Ash's back continuously. Blood was flowing steadily down the young man's back and yet, there wasn't much of a sound coming from the hitman. His resolve was set in stone, unmoving and steady.

The interrogator did not know what else he could do as he panted heavily. He was exhausted from giving it his all in whipping Ash. He whispered into Kosuke who was frowning deeply too, "Sir, what should we do next? This assassin is not budging one bit."

"I.." Kosuke ground his teeth as he looked to Jovia who stood beside him. The boss wasn't showing any emotions on his face. It was impossible to read what the next course of action was for him.

"Kosuke," Jovia arms were crossed as he spoke out, ending the silence in the cell, "What information did you gain on Ash Vicars?"

It was then, Ash's attention was finally piqued. Cold sweat started to form on his forehead. The chimes of misfortune rang in his ears.