Demons (Mha)

44

Technical difficulties have been
resolved
So I'm backkkkk

"Only me and one other person made it through that room."
Mai finished Aoi's face seemed slightly paler as she pressed her lips together in a smile that seemed more forced than usual.

Mai raised an eyebrow.
"Am I traumatizing by simply telling her about my trauma? We've barely even started."
She thought as the woman cleared her throat.

"And what happened to you and this person afterwards?"
She asked regaining her original smile.

"We were trained for three days before being put in the first ring of the arena."

"What kinda of training? Was it purely physical?"

"Mostly, but there were other aspects. How to best entertain the crowd, human weak spots and strategy all in only three days."

Aoi nodded and glanced down at her cards.
Likely lines or questions given to her beforehand.
"So, you mentioned something about the "first ring" what does that mean?"
She asked.

"Well the arena had two rings."
Mai put two fingers up.
"Ring A and ring B.
Ring A was where everyone started, Everytime you won a fight you would move up in your ring, meaning the matches got harder as you started to fight opponents from higher ranks."
She explained.
"Eventually when you completed Ring A you'd move to ring B and repeat the process."

"And what happens when you get to the top at Ring B?"

"You become the champion, face competitors that are trying to take the champion title."

"So you made it through Ring B and A in five years?"

Mai shook her head.
"I made it in three years and I was the champion for two."

"So you were thirteen?"
She asked for confirmation.
Another strategy to show Mai was clearly a victim was to highlight on her age.
Showing what she was put through at only ten to fifteen years old.

"So you had a match everyday correct? What else did you do?"

"A match everyday and two meals, other than that nothing unless Keiji wanted to meet with me, that only happened a few times though."

"And what was the reason behind him wanting to meet you?"

"The first time it was when I made it to ring A.
The entire reason for that was for him to tell me he previously thought I wouldn't make it that far and was "proud" which I obviously didn't like.

The second was because I tried to get out when I was around twelve, that was so he could personally see my punishments through.

The third was right before my last match, he told me to make it quick... But obviously it didn't turn out like that."

"So the second one, you tried to escape?"
Aoi said asking Mai to go into farther explanation.

"Yeah."
Mai's hand lifted an touched the back of her own neck tracing the scar from where recovery girl removed her chip.
"Everyone under Keiji's control had a chip on the base of their necks, with it he could send intense electric shocks through our bodies.
It could be low enough to just hurt or strong enough to kill, it was to ensure that we wouldn't leave, at least not with our lives.

I broke mine against a door frame before trying to leave through a vent, it was a plan I had been thinking of weeks before hand but I was caught quickly.
Unfortunately out the chip still could be tracked and after I got far enough from my room he was alerted."

"And what kind of punishment did he give you?"
Aoi asked her eyes softening nonverbally saying that they could move on if she needed.

"A hysterectomy."
Mai said simply before sighing, prepared to say her recent revelation.
"I didn't understand it then, but now looking back the signs where clear.
It was a threat.
A threat I didn't understand.
He was threatening to sell me.
To sell my body.

I was twelve."

...................

Amaya Keiji had of course expected some form of retaliation from his little angel.
But definitely not this, and not on this big of a scale either.
She hadn't changed one bit, she was as indifferent and unpredictable as she had been in the arena.
It had been foolish of him to assume her reaction would be anything short of extraordinary.
He smiled at the screen alone in his office.

His angel seemed to have quite a few powerful freinds.
But that didn't matter did it?

He found her once.
He'll find her again.

He broke her once.
And he'll break her again.

It was inevitable really.
She belonged to him, no matter how far she went it didn't matter.

She was his little Angel and that would never change.

...................

"In the video he referred to you as his Angel, is there any significance behind the name?"
Aoi asked deciding to move from the subject of forced prostitution.

"It was a name only he called me, probably taken from my stage name 'fallen angel."
Mai explained.

"So it was like a pet name?"

Mai frowned at the suggestion.
"I suppose so, but I don't really like that phrase."
She said and Aoi almost laughed at the younger girl's peeved expression.
It was the most emotion she'd seen displayed on the girls face.

"So I heard the name you chose for your hero identity was 'Gladiator' given your past it makes sense, but I have to ask why?"
Aoi moved on.
The expression of annoyance left Mai's face as soon as another question was asked, showing it wasn't the interviewer that she was irritated with.

"For five years I fought as a gladiator, I killed both innocent people and cruel monsters that craved blood.
It was a purpose that was forced upon me and a life that I hated.
But it was all I had, I wasn't anything other than that.

Fighting was carved into my very being and no I'm left with no other purpose.
I won't be accepted as anything else, I can't even be a mother.

But now I have the opportunity to use my strength, I can use the abilities I sharpened in that arena to do what's right until the day I die.

My new and only purpose is to repay the world for what I've done.
I need to help as many people as I've hurt.
And save as many people as I've killed.

And I won't die until I've completed this purpose."