One Bright Day in the Middle of the Night

Chapter 37: Of Love and Torture

Kenshin turned away from the man slumped unconscious in his bonds in the chair now behind him. Coolly, he took the towel offered and wiped blood off the dagger in his hand and handed it back to the vassal he had borrowed it from, before using the towel to wipe splattered blood from his hands and arms. The room was silent, the grim faces of the half dozen people in the room riveted to Kenshin.

Shingen leaned up against the wall, his face carefully blank. He, Yukimura and Sasuke had joined Kenshin for the questioning of the prisoner, along with a couple of Kenshin's vassals acting as guards and enforcers. Interrogation was going slowly, and Kenshin had been starting to get impatient. Only when two of the man's fingers were broken, did he even speak of who his targets were.

Shingen recalled the myriad of emotion that flew across Kenshin's face as the man said he was sent not only to kill Kenshin, but Alexis as well. A smile Shingen and the others had never seen before grew across Kenshin's face, calm and horrific in its intensity, and it had even made Shingen himself pause. He had never before seen Kenshin in such a pure rage, the barely leashed violence cloaking him like a second skin. Slowly, he had stood from his seat where he had been calmly watching the interrogation and approached the chair where the man was bound, waving away his vassals.

"Give me a blade." Kenshin's words fell from his lips, and whatever it was that was in his eyes made every man there instantly draw a dagger and offer it to their Lord. Kenshin took the blade from the man nearest him, his fist closing on the hilt tight enough his knuckles turned white.

"You will tell me who sent you to harm her. Now." Kenshin's voice was low, the tone cold as the depths of winter, deadly malice written across his face as he commanded the man bound before him. The only response was a thinning of the man's lips, his eyes holding resignation as he steeled himself.

"Very well."

The screaming began, pulled forth from terror and pain, as Kenshin slowly began cutting into the assassin's arm. Yukimura left the room not long after Kenshin had begun, and Shingen didn't blame him for it. He and Sasuke shared a look, before turning back to the spectacle in front of them. Sasuke even looked a little green, his jaw clenched tightly, but it was obvious that knowing who was plotting against his sister was more important than his own unease.

Kenshin paused for just a moment, leaning forward to speak quietly into the man's ear. The tortured prisoner's eyes went wide, terror unable to be concealed, as Kenshin's hand moved to the man's arm. Shingen watched as Kenshin dug his fingers into the wound he had made on the man's upper bicep, and began to pull the skin. Ragged, agonized screams began again, and quite some time later the assassin succumbed to unconsciousness, but not before he had told Kenshin what province he had come from, and the name of the man who had employed him.

"Sasuke." Almost before Kenshin was done speaking his name, Sasuke was down on one knee before the Warlord, head bowed.

"Command me, my Lord."

"Take a scouting group to Etchu province and confirm this man's story. If Imasan Sassa sent him here, I will destroy everything he holds dear, and take his head myself. Go."

"As you wish, my Lord." Sasuke stood and left the room, moving quickly to do Kenshin's bidding.

Shingen spoke up as he walked over to Kenshin's side.

"I had heard that Narimasa Sassa had died and his son, Imasan had taken over, but I didn't think he was quite this foolish." Shingen's face held a considering look, his eyes hard. "The Sassa clan has been loyal to the Oda for quite some time. They must be in dire straits to turn a hand against one of Nobunaga's vassals, even if it coincides with attacking an enemy of the Oda at the same time."