The One and Only
The sound of stone being smashed in by a hammer and nail reverberates through a translucent memory
Then slowly, that echo of the past is replaced by the sound of bone being smashed in by fist and knuckles.
That horrible noise bounces off the four walls in this small white enclosed room. This white room, with only chairs and a one-way mirror in it, was at times so clean that it could have been mistaken for a sacred-space meant for a holy man to practice his teachings in peaceful prayer. Yet peace was far gone from this room and the four people in it were far from being holy-men. The source of the noise was at the center of the room. Under a single bright light-bulb, were three individuals taking part in man-kind's greatest past time; violence.
It was a scene you could find in a crime drama on Television; a woman playing with her nails while her male cohort beat the stuffing out of an older man only the floor. Yet these were no evil-doers as first impressions would give, these were Iwagakure's finest; taking a thorough hands-on approach with a perpetrator who wasn't being too inclined to talk. The one delivering a consistent pounding of blows, was a handsome dark-haired man in a fashionable suit that gave the impression that he was the host of a nightclub. His face was so slender that one would wonder if he was a snake. However it was his curled lips and mocking eyes that made one immediately think that they shouldn't accept any night-time offer from this one.
"Hey come on, what's the tough act for? Who are you trying to impress huh? This woman next to me? I'll have you know she's crisped the balls of the last guy that cheated on her. Atleast with me, you can expect your balls to be made into a fine dish! Crispy on the edges,... tender in the middle...just how my dogs like 'em.. "
After his threats didn't seem to reach it's target, the woman in reference playfully made a gagging sound. Her short blonde hair reached just to her earlobes. Everything about her, to her eyes to the air around her was 'sharp'. If the partner next was like a curled 'sickle', then she was a pair of 'scissors' that could cut you to ribbons in a heartbeat. She had an alluring devilish charm about her, one that was similar to a witch inviting you for supper,...only to realize that the supper was you.
"Look at you, can't you tell that Ash back there is about to fall asleep from boredom? There's an art to this sort of thing. If you want to tortur-- I mean, interrogate someone, you have to do it right! He's a drug dealer, these guys are all about their pride. So you have to break them down mentally. Whether, it's striping them naked, pissing on them, sleep deprivation, threatening their family etc, etc."
Bearing both physical and verbal beatings was a scruffy man in his thirties. The perpetrator at the center of their attention. His brown hair was short and in a mess like someone had just rubbed their hand through his hair as if her were a dog. As expected of his current situation, his expression was a grimly serious one in contrast to the two officers toying with him. He was a drug dealer, but in the state he was in, you would think he was an addict on his last legs. Blood soaked his beaten and bruised face to the point that it made him look like a rotten tomato. Even so, there was that glimmer of resistance and life between those bruised black eyes.
This sorry fool was caught selling Angel Text. It was the absolute priority of these officers to figure out how he had come into possession of it. However even through their barrage of violence, he hadn't given up the goods just yet.
"Wouldn't kidnapping his dog work just fine?"
"You do that every time! And then you always keep them for yourself without asking either of us if we want to keep it!"
"Enough!"
It was as if a lightning bolt had cut through the noise and air between them. That hard as stone tone of voice commanded the room and echoed like a god from the heavens speaking to the ones below. The perpetrator managed to pathetically lift his creaking neck to gather a glance at the true source of the voice. In the darkness next to the door, a figure, who hadn't spoke not once through the interrogation, tilted its head slightly. His face and appearance was a shadow that had been blanketed in the darkness of the room, unable to be seen or recognized by the perpetrator. He once again graced the air with his words,
"Hiei, Kanzaki, if you two can't take this seriously then I'll take it from here,"
His tone was not lively mocking like the other two's had been. It was barren from compassion of it's fellow man. For a moment, the perpetrator had wondered it was a machine talking.
"Archieboy~, you sadistic psycho! I knew you wouldn't be able to resist in the fun! All yours pal!"
"Thank goodness, I really didn't want blood and piss on my boots again. Always a darling in your weird own way, Ash."
'Ash', 'Archieboy', the perpetrator felt that such friendly names were unbecoming for the solemn presence that was just beyond the light. They had been something like petnames, shorted for another name entirely. Something ever so slightly scratched at the back of the perpetrator's brain with the answer for that name. The answer wouldn't come to the surface, but sweat started to flee down his spin.
The other two officers, Hiei and Kanzaki, walked out of the light underneath the lightbulb. Almost to exit the stage for the main event. There, the shadowy figure moved towards the light where the perpetrator was. His light steps matched the rhythem of the perpetrator's beating heart. As if the moment he stopped walking, so too would his heart. The moment his visage fully came through the curtain of light, something happened. Before he even spoke, that man's shoe collided with the perpetrator's jaw.
Teeth and blood painted the white floor. The perpetrator's dazed vision danced around, unable to comprehend the world and the delayed pain before him.
"Tenzou Takibare, why are you giving us such a hard time?"
The perpetrator, Tenzou Takibare, had been called out, but he was unable to recognize the person speaking to him, as his eyes were still unfocused from the blow. The officer had spoken as if he hadn't just struck the person he was speaking to. It was barbarity as casual as kicking a soccerball. Tenzou groaning and spat out blood on the floor that had already been dirtied with enough of it. Swinging his aching body around as carefully as he could, he once again tried to take in the sight before him. When Tenzou did, his eyelids widened so far that they were threatening to tear off his own face. The answer to that name, flowed from his mind and out his throat with a torrent of horror,
"T-The Ashen Archangel?!"
Tenzou had not wanted to speak his moniker. As if to speak it would solidify it into reality. Still, there before him was Saito Fujiguro, a being in human flesh that felt more machine than man. It was in the way that he looked, talked, and strode about. Yet Tenzou could feel the pressure of an emotion constantly emanating from this person. It was hostility that threatened to tear through anything that displeased it. Too cold to be man, yet too hostile to be machine? No, Tenzou was reminded of a being that fit this description. An Archangel, come down to to earth with the wrath of the heavens in his hands smite down the wretched many before him!
To this Saito's eye's narrowed and assessed Tenzou. His disgust, like always, was on his face for the one's he viewed to assure them of their own shame and futility. Tenzou did not even need to speak for Saito to recognize the plead for mercy smeared across his face in sweat. Saito did not have no interest in mercy, because he knew well that evil feeds and survives off mercy. So he instead he decided continue speaking, arms folded.
"That moniker, hm? I don't care for it myself. However, tell me, monkey, do you know how I got the name; 'Ashen Archangel'?"
He continued to rattle on without giving Tenzou to speak. Not that it would have mattered.
"Then I'll inform you. Make sure your baboon brain is at full concentration. There was this band of bandits that would move between villages and falsify their citizenship. They sneak into villages for months, eat their fill, had their fun and once they were done, commence a block-sized attack on the village they were in. Nasty little rats they were. The leader, both out of love, paranoia and arrogance, would even bring his family along with him. They were like a traveling circus....... Then they came to our village. Then were here for awhile too. Taking our food, taking our women and then the time to unleash their attack was neigh. However, I had read up on their little games beforehand from their excursions from other lands. It didn't take long for me to find them. Yet there were 53 of them, and they had taken up shelter in an entire city block. Not to mention there were hostages in just about all the houses... So do you know what I did?"
Silence enclosed the room. Not a breath tarnished this moment. Saito knew this himself, which is why only he was allowed to seize it.
"I kidnapped the leader's family... told him he could find them in a cave in the woods and fight me there. He brought his entire entourage with him, as I expected. He did not find me in that cave but he did find his family. Yes, his wife and daughter tied up covered in gasoline from head to toe. You see, they weren't citizens of the Village or the Land of the Earth, so it didn't matter too much what I did to them. Especially if they were criminals. I'd just get some disciplinary action taken against me for not going through proper procedures. I trapped the leader and his bandits in the cave. The only gap in it was one the leader used to grab me in his desperate struggle! I set the cave on fire and let them burn alive! In the end, His gang was ash! His friends were ash! His family was ash! And everything that was left of him, was on my hand to my wrist-!"
A grin in the shape of a crescent moon tore itself across Saito's lips.
"-ASH!"
