A Turnabout Interrogation

A darkness so total that nothing showed through it.

And out of that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠darkness, a flame bloomed.

Kang Howon held up his lit lighter and slowly crouched down in front of me.

Fiery hair burning behind the burning flame.

I stared at the sight, half-hypnotized, then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠furrowed my brow.

"...What exactly is this supposed to be?"

My brain, still struggling to keep up with the situation, was sputtering along. Even that question had been spat out almost on pure instinct.

"There now, the urgent fire's been put out. Teacher, shall we have ourselves a serious little talk?"

When the whiplash of a mood swing is this abrupt, even I get thrown off.

We'd been getting along just fine, and then he suddenly body-slams a person into some random corridor?

But he simply shrugged and replied,

"What you see is what you get. Same with what you heard."

"A serious conversation... Does it really have to happen in an atmosphere like this?"

I swallowed.

My brain wasn't—my brain wasn't working.

Why is the friendly gentleman suddenly like this?!

"Teacher, I don't want to do this either."

"Then don't."

"Ah, no, I can't. Spilled water can't be scooped back up, as they say."

Don't tell me he means to kill me?

Why is he sitting there talking like he's announcing a murder...?

I barely strangled the helpless laugh that tried to bubble out of me and said,

"If all you wanted was a serious conversation, Kang Howon-ssi, I'd have said yes a hundred times over—somewhere near the office, at a café, or even at the kindergarten."

I would've done it if you'd just asked! No need to lock me in some pitch-black basement!

Kang Howon listened quietly to my outburst, then nodded with exaggerated gravity.

Yes! So if we just head out now—

"It seems I chose my words poorly. Hmm... what I wanted from you, Teacher, wasn't so much a 'conversation' as an 'interrogation.'"

I'm sorry, what?

"It hurts my feelings too, you know. It's been a while since I interrogated an ordinary civilian, so it's more awkward than you'd think. That's why I brought a special interrogation method... It's a kind of truth serum currently being sold at BOND."

What is this lunatic saying?

Interrogation? Truth serum?

"I couldn't tell you whose awakening wavelength they harvested to make it, or from where, but this stuff's effect is absolutely killer. No side effects, either."

Get that thumbs-down out of here, you psycho.

"So... you want me to swallow that? Me?"

"Sharp as ever. Yep. You just take it, answer my questions honestly, and afterward I'll teleport you straight home."

And with that, Kang Howon began pitching the truth serum to me like a home-shopping channel host.

"Now, this truth serum—effects kick in the moment it's ingested. It judges whether each word the user speaks is true or false, and only the true ones are allowed to make a sound. Lies get muted. There's simply nothing better for filtering out the ramblings of lying criminals! And most important of all, zero side effects! I guarantee it. As a complimentary service, I'll throw in a safe ride home, and everything that happened today stays a secret forever. So... how about it?"

"No thanks."

Not buying.

A truth serum? Why on earth would I swallow that?

"Aw, come on~ Now that's a great deal."

But whether he'd heard me at all or not, he came closer, thrusting the thing he'd been hawking out with his free hand—the one not holding the lighter.

I said no!

I tried desperately to slip out of that grip, but there was no way a mere ordinary civilian like me could dodge the movements of a seasoned field-team hunter.

By the time I'd blinked, I was sprawled on the floor, face mashed against the concrete.

"...!"

Kang Howon's voice drifted down from above my head with a light sigh.

"Look at all this I'm doing for the team leader. All of it."

A rough hand wrapped around my jaw and pressed the truth serum to my lips.

"...Mmph!"

"Come on, Teacher, easy does it~ Easy~ If it turns out you're innocent later, you can even hit me."

"...Uuurgh!"

"Wow, you're really resisting? Keep that up and your jaw's going to turn. Care—"

Whoa, the serum just touched my tongue!

Chills raced straight up my spine.

Do I really need to fight this hard? The thought flashed through my mind for a second before I discarded it just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as fast.

Of course I did, dammit.

Fine, I'll admit it. I had far too much to be caught on!

Damn it, I should have brought Nabi.

The problem was that I'd left him at the kindergarten because he'd been fighting the Elumis to the death and I couldn't stand the noise. Though, granted, if I had brought him, it would've been a catastrophe in an entirely different sense...!

"Mmph!! Gck!!"

The serum was close enough now to touch my teeth. I clenched my jaw and held out for all I was worth.

The way I saw it, this stunt wouldn't last long.

Howon's going easy on me right now.

He had to be—the pressure on my jaw was growing steadily stronger, enough that I could feel it.

I had no idea what Kang Howon would ask me, but if things went on like this, every secret I'd buried would be dug up, and I might end up groveling in the end.

Not that groveling would get through to a guy like him.

No. Absolutely not.

Look at that drive. A guy who'd try to sweet-talk information out of you is far less frightening.

Men like this were the worst kind.

People with unbending conviction.

The moment their minds are made up, they act without a single backward glance.

...Which meant I was out of options.

I felt the gritty texture of the serum caught between my teeth—then spat it out with everything I had.

And just before the spare serum Kang Howon had prepared in advance was forced into my mouth once more—

YES!!

...I threw open my throat and screamed!

"STOP!!"

In an instant, Kang Howon froze mid-motion. I seized the opening, twisted my body, and drove a kick into his stomach to buy myself some space.

Then, without stopping, I kept shouting, one command after another.

"Get back! Drop everything in your hands and put both of them on your head! Kneel! Stay exactly where you are!!"

"Hah... hah..."

At my commands, Kang Howon carried out each action crisply, like a puppet stripped of its own will.

"......"

By now my eyes had adapted to the darkness, reading the surroundings with perfect clarity.

From a safe distance away, I confirmed... Kang Howon, kneeling with both hands raised.

...I let out a ragged breath.

"Haah... haah..."

My hands wouldn't stop shaking, and a cough tore out of me.

Desperately summoning the status window in the middle of that struggle had been the wise choice.

My legs had gone weak, so I braced a palm against the wall and rose slowly. Kang Howon's panting breaths, sounding utterly bewildered, filled the silent dark.

Still fending off the serum being shoved at me, I roughly wiped my split lip with the back of my hand and said,

"You're actually insane."

The tide had turned.

An answer came back from the darkness.

Along with laughter that seemed a little off-target.

"Whoa... hahahahahak! Wow, you've even got a power like this?"

I had no idea what could possibly be that funny, but I brushed the dust off myself and picked up the items scattered across the floor.

The truth serum, and this... that bastard's lighter.

Then I swept my disheveled hair back out of my face, flipped open the lighter's lid, and struck the wheel hard downward. Fire caught.

Relying on the small flame to read my surroundings, I walked slowly toward Kang Howon and crouched down in front of him.

My knees were going to die.

Sharpened eyes met mine head-on.

"Hey. I'll just give you ten million won."

Honorifics and courtesy went straight out the window. When the words coming at you were filthy, the words going back weren't about to be clean either.

This was separate from the fact that I now had control over him.

"I told you I don't need money."

"Yeah, well, none of these insane stunts were part of the 'conditions' you laid out."

"...That's true."

That's true? You want to agree with me, do you?

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠felt my chest tighten with fury and drew a slow breath. But Kang Howon, apparently determined to keep needling my nerves, didn't stop talking.

"Look at this. You call yourself a tamer, and you're wielding powers like this on top of everything? Way too suspicious... Our team leader might be sloppy, but I'm not."

"......"

"No matter how I thought about it, all that nonsense you spouted in the interview didn't add up, so I dug into you on the sly—and surprise, there wasn't just one or two shady corners."

Oh.

So that was the root of it.

No wonder he let things slide so vaguely.

The only person who'd questioned my account during the circumstantial interview held in front of the entire Field Team Na had been Kang Howon.

Looking back on it, my excuse had been ridiculous.

Honestly, expecting anyone to accept that with a nod had been the stranger part.

I crossed my arms.

Even so...

"Suspicious as I might look, did you really need to go this far?"

Hadn't it said Kang Howon's status condition was Severe Suspicion Disorder?

It lined up perfectly with his behavior.

"...You keep getting tangled up with our team members. That's why."

"Your team's youngest is the guardian of a kid in my kindergarten class. Of course we run into each other."

"Before any of that, it's the way you got tangled up with our team leader that's suspicious."

"If you mean the amusement park dungeon, I explained that during the interview."

"And that explanation was so bad that we're here now, aren't we?"

He wasn't ceding a single inch.

I sighed. I had no intention of keeping up a war of words forever.

They were already treating me like some kind of "high-risk monster."

At this point... I'd have to talk my way out of here the ordinary way. Though something told me I was in for a world of hurt.

"If you're thinking of teleporting out of here, don't bother. You only have a hunch about me, no hard evidence—that's why you're doing this behind closed doors, right? The day someone else finds me sitting here looking like this... it'd make things a lot harder for you, wouldn't it?"

If there had been actual evidence, I'd already be locked in some bona fide interrogation room, being wrung dry by the real deal.

And I'm not a criminal.

If word got out that he'd treated an ordinary civilian like this on nothing but suspicion, Kang Howon wouldn't escape the backlash either.

Whether he'd absorbed my point or not, Kang Howon grinned and answered.

"...Can't say the thought never crossed my mind. By the way, you really are quick on the uptake."

Hah... This guy makes my blood boil.

I sank down right where I stood, stretching my legs out in front of me.

Then, looking at Kang Howon still holding his hands up like a hostage, I spoke through a sigh.

"What could you possibly be so curious about?"