Night Raid 4

Alphonse knew he was in trouble. Sure behind the eyes of his captor he couldn't see a cold blooded killer. However, search as he may, he couldn't find a single trace of mercy either.

He desperately tried to free himself from his bonds, but finding that he was unable to, panic started to set it.

"I wont sell out my brothers you asshole!" He yelled defiantly "As I said before, you're just going to have to kill me!"

Saivas, having completely snapped, chuckled lowly.

"Well of course I'm going to have to kill you" He said, donning a smile of non-repressed insanity "After all, you've seen my face, heard my voice, known my name"

"If you behave yourself, I will let you die quickly. It's surely a mercy compared to the slow, gnawing starvation my family would have had to endure thanks to your actions"

Creating a knife fashioned from earth magic, Saivas cut off Alphonse's left pinky.

The latter stifled a scream, yet somehow, a few seconds later, he was back to being perfectly calm.

A bit confused by this, Saivas took his other pinky. Only this time, Alphonse remained unperturbed.

"I told you brat! I won't be giving away my brothers!" He smiled defiantly

"You're wasting your time with torture! Like they great nation of Noscrand would allow their troops to be susceptible to torture? Beat me down, stab me, dismember me, it doesn't matter! I wont talk!"

With a flash of insanity across his face, Saivas giggled "Oh yeah?! Let's find out!"

Diving into a frenzy of stabs, chops, punches, dismemberment, and other attacks of varying kinds, Saivas looked like a madman. Yet, as promised, not only did these attacks not seem to phase Alphonse, they were all met with maniacal laughter!

'Saivas stop!' Jason inwardly screamed

"Why should I? This asshole has been oppressing us all this time? Why should he get off the hook?!" He snapped back out loud, silencing Alphonse's chorus of laughter for the first time.

'Idiot! If you keep damaging him like that, he's going to bleed out! Can't you see it's not affecting him?' Jason reasoned

Seeing that Jason was right, Saivas slowly stopped his onslaught.

"If that's the case, what do we do now?" Saivas asked angrily

'"We" aren't going to do anything! You've gone off the rails. Heck you're even speaking out loud! Take over the anti sound barrier and restraints. I will handle the interrogation' Jason reproached

"NO! THIS IS MY LIFE, YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE, YOU STAY WHERE YOU BELONG" Saivas screamed

'This kid is fucking nuts!' Alphonse paled 'First he loses his mind and starts attacking me relentlessly, now he's arguing with himself?'

This had to be a demon, a demon who had possessed a little boy. There was no way such a young child could be so broken so soon. Coming to that conclusion, he knew there was no way he was escaping here alive.

Sighing, Alphonse finally spoke "You know, I'm still here. As I said, torturing me is pointless, you wont get a thing out of me continuing on like this. If you're going to kill me, just do it. Otherwise I'm going to take a nap"

With that Alphonse, bloody and dismembered, fell asleep.

"H-How?" Saivas was finally calming down a bit

'Like I was trying to tell you, he clearly knows some kind of technique we don't! More than likely it has something to do with turning off pain receptors. Take the back seat on this one and calm down. I'll get the information we need' Jason said

Finally relenting, Saivas grumbled

"Fine, but this better work"

With that he handed over control.

The first thing Jason did upon being put in charge was stretch out his arms and legs.

"Ah, it feels so good to be mobile again!" Jumping up and down like a boxer, Jason felt refreshed.

"Anyways, as for you..." Looking at the sleeping man before him, Jason summoned some cold water and threw it on his face, waking him.

"Fuck..." Alphonse coughed "Can't a man sleep in peace? As I said, you wont gain anything from torturing me you asshole!"

Looking back at his captor, he expected to see the raving lunatic he had left behind before escaping to dreamland.

The reality in front of him nearly knocked him out from shock.

Stepping into the moonlight coming through from the window, he finally got a full view of his attacker.

The insanity on his face was now completely gone, replaced by a cold calculating smirk filled with arrogance. He wasn't very tall, but right now, he stood confidently as if he was towering over Alphonse.

His dark black hair was messy, but neatly cut. Unlike before where his eyes were a dull hazel, his eyes now shone a bright blue. He lacked the same childlike innocence of before, filled now only with smugness and intelligence.

On the small baby body holding up such a visage, the sight was incredibly unnerving.

"W-what happened to you?" He stammered

"As mentioned before, we will be the one asking the questions." he stated as a matter of fact

"Though I suppose it's only fair for me to introduce myself. Hello! My name is Jason, and I will be the one torturing you toady!" He smiled as if he was a doctor greeting a patient.

"Saivas? Jason? It doesn't matter you fucking lunatic! As I said earlier, you're wasting your time with torture!" Alphonse retorted, deeply unsettled by the view in front of him.

"Oh and it's quite a neat trick you came up with! Turning off the part of your brain that processes pain truly was a cunning move! Tell me, how did you do it?" Jason leaned in with an inquisitive smile

Alphonse said silent, not only had Jason identified the army's anti torture technique, he had done it without knowing how to do it!

'Just what the fuck is this kid?!'

"Not keen on talking? No matter, we'll fix that soon enough! Tell me though, what do you know of anatomy?" Jason continued

"A-Anatomy? What the fuck is that? You can't make up words to scare me! It wont work!" Alphonse yelled

"Oh, that's interesting. This country has created such a precise spell without knowing something so simple!" Jason tapped his chin thoughtlfully

"Well, no matter, allow me to give you a little lesson involving the anatomy of the brain." Jason smiled

"You see dear Al, our brain is composed of three main sections. The cerebrum, the cerebral cortex, and the Cerebellum. For our lesson today, we can mostly rule out the Cerebellum, as that basically involves things we do passively, you might even call it our "Muscle memory" center" Jason tapped his head

"More important to our situation here, is the cerebral cortex. Now the cerebral cortex is divided into 4 major sections called "Lobes" There's the Frontal Lobe, the Temporal Lobe, the Parietal Lobe, and the Occipital Lobe."

Jason was pacing back and forth like a professor giving a lecture at this point.

"In this case, the part you've messed with is the Parietal Lobe, or more precisely, the Somatosensory Cortex. "

"This is a very effective means of preventing physical torture, however, it appears you have done nothing to inhibit the Precuneus, which affects consciousness, the Superior Parietal Lobe which involves reflexes, nor the Inferior Parietal Lobe which involves speech and listening."

"I'm of course dumbing it down for you since this is just a "Brain anatomy 101" but that's the basics."

'That's the basics?!' Alphonse inwardly cried, he already had trouble keeping up with what was just said to him.

"Most importantly though, it appears you have done nothing to inhibit the Cerebrum. Now the Cerebrum is responsible for a lot of functions. Thinking, moving, problem solving, learning, etc. but you know what I'm most happy about Al?"

Alphonse felt a cold sweat run down his back

"The Cerebrum is also responsible for emotions, including, but of course not limited to: Fear." Jason concluded.

"Al, I say all that to say this. You may have turned off your ability to experience pain, but for my purposes, that's no inhibitor at all! In fact, you're not even in the right part of the brain!" Jason laughed

Alphonse was crying at this point.

'Monster! This kid is a monster!'

He struggled in his bindings as hard as he could. There was screaming, wiggling, scraping, anything in an attempt to leave the situation he was currently in. He had basically removed most of his skin in an attempt to escape his captor.

If he could have found a way to kill himself, he would have gladly taken it.

However, all he accomplished was a tightening of his bindings.

Jason, satisfied with the stillness of his subject, shoved a nearby sock into Alphonse's mouth.

Immediately after, he broke into a laugh

"Don't worry! I'm not going to hurt you! Don't you remember?! I can't!"

Even still, contrary to his words, a sinister smile came over his face.

"But, my dear Al, allow me to educate you on just how little fear has to do with pain"

Conjuring a ball of water, Jason got to work.