The Language I Spoke Yesterday

Tell me

Captain Speckle sat with his chin resting on the back of the tall wooden chair, Katie's heart beating in one hand. I leaned against the wall behind him, arms crossed. He didn't let me bring a hammer, even though I promised to only smash her up a little bit.

Katie's narrow purple eyes darted between me and Law suspiciously. Her hands were bound behind her to the spines of the chair, and her feet were bound to its legs. She worked a muscle in her jaw as the silence stretched on. When she finally opened her mouth to speak, Law interrupted her.

"Katie-ya, I have a very important question for you." He spoke with lazy arrogance, a consequence of his position. "It's for some research I'm doing. You're the test subject, you see."

"Oh good." she snarled. "Just what I always dreamed of. Just kill me."

"Boring." I rolled my eyes. "After what you did to our friends, you think we're just gonna kill you?"

Law hardly moved. "Andromeda-ya has a point. Not to mention you did try to sell her on the slave market."

I blinked as a line of ice slid down my spine. She tried to sell me? That explained the pictures. I hated pictures for a multitude of reasons, and Katie and Shachi were both on that list. All I could do at this point was grumble. "Rude."

Captain's energy shifted momentarily to amusement with an 'I knew it' vibe. "Your buyers are very disappointed in you, by the way."

She rolled her eyes and huffed.

"Now, back to my question..." I could practically hear the sadistic grin. "On a scale of one to ten, how badly would you say this hurts?"

Katie grasped and trembled, screaming as Law squeezed her heart. It bulged and shuddered, just trying to keep pumping. Ever so slowly he released the pressure. Katie fell forward. She was sweating and panting already. Whatever information Law wanted, he would probably get it soon.

I knew that the whole thing should have made me nauseous, and a part of me was. But this was the person who had hurt Penguin and Shachi, and had tortured Ikkaku. I couldn't force myself to feel any pity for her.

"Well?" He examined her heart. "Are you doing to answer the question?"

When he didn't get an immediate response, he clenched his fist again. The chair rocked as Katie spasmed, and nearly tipped completely over before she was able to relax again. "Teh... heh.. Teh..." she sobbed, still gasping for air.

"What was that?"

The room filled with tormented screams for a third time.

When it was quiet again, Law stood with a shrug. "That's too bad. I'll have to try again tomorrow."

"Awww." I pouted. "I wanted to smash her fingers..."

"And I wanted to ask her a favor." he replied smoothly. "But it seems she doesn't want to talk to us today."

Katie gulped lungfuls of air, pausing between words. "What- do you-want!?"

"Oh, nothing important." He paused next to me. "I'm sure you couldn't help anyway."

"I can!" she gasped, straining against her bonds. "I can help. I can help!"

With a thoughtful hum, the devious Captain Speckle returned to his seat. Katie wasn't quite able to lift her head to meet his gaze, but she was obviously listening. "What do you know of a man called Joker?"

She shook her head. "I don't deal with Joker. I go directly to interested parties."

"That wasn't the question..." He turned her heart in the light, watching its rapid pulses with interest.